I've been over here promoting that you show up as yourself and that your values are your magnet, but what happens if your values are unpopular? Talking about your beliefs in a crowd of believers is one thing, but sharing your opinions in the public arena is a whole other beast. Fear of (even light) conflict is a really common reason entrepreneurs stay inside their comfort zones. Fear of reprisal (or trolls) keeps us...

Recently I was telling you about defining your values and why that's important, but there's a MASSIVE piece to this that I didn't go into. If you aren't acting on your values, they aren't values: they're just empty words. There. I said it. But what happens when your values don't align with what the rest of your industry says you're supposed to do? Sometimes the tactics and techniques that are being shared as quick success...

  If you've been around for more than a hot minute, you know that I spend a lot of time talking about aligning your work with your values. That's because the first part of my entire business development methodology is Defining Your Values. When you know WHY you show up the way you do, WHY you do the work, what you truly believe in, then you start creating a business foundation that is unwavering. A...

Happy New Year! With all this talk about resolutions and "New Year, New Me", I needed to tell you a little story. Last year, I had a marketing company do a little customer research for me. They also included peer reviews in their process. All this information would theoretically provide me with words and concepts of how I'm already perceived by my clients and peers. Good, right? Yes - except here's the lesson:When you're soliciting...

I'm on deep holidays this week and I'm sneaking away from my commitment to my couch to write to you (always breaking rules, even my own). You see, I've been thinking about the power of rest. This is something we speak about a lot in the Love & Badassery Motorcycle Club: creating margin in your life for renewal. What margin looks like is very personal but the premise is the same. When you give yourself...

  9 years ago this morning, I became a parent for the first (and only) time. The last near decade as this little human's caregiver, guide, and support staff has simultaneously been one of the best things I've ever done and easily the most challenging. If you've been around here for a hot minute, you know that I draw business metaphors from all aspects of my life and where I learn the most about my...

Last week I posted a reel on Instagram that stirred up a lot of conversation in my DMs so I thought I would write to you in case you also had questions. Here's the part that prompted the conversation: What does a strong foundation strategy look like? ️⭐ A clear methodology ⭐ A strong ideal client ️⭐ Offers that serve you and your clients ⭐ Copy that matches who you are with what your clients...

  I was a website copywriter, brand voice strategist, and business partner to incredible designers for nearly a decade. If I learned anything during that time, it's that one of the things we business owners want is a business that looks amazing. We want our businesses to be sexy. We want people to want them. That's us being really typically human. Humans like beautiful things. And - when I asked you if your business is...

Have you ever been in the position where you want to do renovations on your house or apartment and you start planning it out but then realize that there are cracks in that load-bearing wall...or the corner isn't square...or if you attempt to do the thing you want to, you'd be opening a Pandora's Box of renovations until you die?  I hate to break it to you, but your business is like that too. As...

  Last week I sat down for a date with my monthly calendar to pencil in changes, client scheduling, and to generally take a peek at my capacity for this month. We talk about planning quite a bit in the Motorcycle Club and the nuances of figuring out a system that works for you and your brain. This is what works for me: Plan the big goals for the quarter then every month. Go through...

  We love Halloween in this house. Since moving to the country, the way we do Halloween has changed. We put up decorations and we carve a pumpkin but since we don't receive trick-or-treaters, we get our costumes on and drive up to our closest town. Yesterday, we were zombies. We let our kid stay up late, eat a bunch of candy, then get up in time this morning for school. In telling you this,...

  Up here in the northern hemisphere, the days are getting darker and colder. Of course, on the farm we experience this in many ways: we've harvested the remains of the garden before they get nipped by frost, the chickens are laying fewer eggs, dog walks are a bit faster and brisker, we're spending less time on outside projects and more time inside. These are seasonal ebbs and flows. We can lament the coming winter....

  You don't need to stay the same. You don't need to keep doing what is no longer serving you simply because that's what people expect. You don't need to be what you've always been. You don't need to hide yourself in costumes that aren't yours. You don't need to mask (or unmask) simply because people have made assumptions about you. You are allowed to grow. You are allowed to change. You are allowed to...

  One of the things I love about being an entrepreneur is that I'm able to bring my big ideas to life. I've always been an ideas person. I think you can probably relate. In fact, I was saying just over the weekend that there are kids who have a tendency to ask "What's that?", there are kids who have a tendency to ask "Why?", and there are also kids who have a tendency to...

  Let's face it. Running a business can be hard on the heart. Especially if you're neurodiverse, HSP, emotional, or empathic. It can seem so easy for others to shrug off a failed launch, a challenging client experience, or a mean social media comment. So often, we see other entrepreneurs sharing a Behind The Scenes story that's supposed to be honest and vulnerable but it really comes off more as "but look at me now"...

  A little while back I threw on some gumboots and slunked my way out the backdoor. It was already 3pm and I felt like I had doomscrolled my day away. Perhaps you've felt like this too. It was Monday. I had PLANS! But instead, I found myself at the end of a day feeling like the most I could account for was the break I took with my kid to learn about turtles in...

  "Don't you dare get a tougher skin!"That's what my partner, Michael, said to me yesterday when I was worrying over a project that went sideways on me. Okay, it was expected. I'd had red flags right from the start and even 10 years into this gig, I still sometimes ignore those red flags.Yesterday, I was feeling all the feelings: angry at myself for not trusting my intuition, angry at the client for being human,...

    A long time ago, I was walking through the forest at this hippie festival in Eastern Ontario. It was night and the forest was quiet. I could hear the offbeat coalescing of different bands from stages set around the forest. I felt safe and happy...and for the sake of your understanding of the story, quite sober.A woman I didn't know walked past me and smiled. She said, "hi Pisces". WHAT?!Everything stopped in that moment. How...

    In a recent podcast interview, I was speaking about authenticity, coming back to who you are, and building trust to make waves in your business. I said something in this interview that has become the very foundation of all my work:In a word where the status quo expects you to toe the line, the most badass, rebellious, awesome thing you can do in the world is be you.  You have always been you. It's your...

    Before I got into the office this morning, I saw a Gloria Steinem quote on my IG feed: "To have a democracy, you have to want one".  She was saying, if you want a change in leadership, you must vote. Of course this applies to so many things in life.If you want the laundry done, you need to put your clothes in the washing machine. If you want an email written, you need to open your inbox. If...