Follow Your Gut & Start here
The Who, What, Why & How
Hi there, I’m Elin.
I’m a full-time artist, writer, entrepreneur and mum from Sweden, now living in Belgium with my two young daughters and French husband.
I write this letter with the intention to pin it to the top of my profile on Substack so that anyone who is new to my publication (welcome!) will have a better idea of what they sign up for.
Before diving deeper, I want to save time for those whom this publication is NOT for:
You who think everyone should follow what they’re being told without deeper reflection as to what that means or feels like for yourself
You who like to hold grudges or judge those who may think differently than you (or the society where you live)
That’s it, I think.
The rest of you will most likely find value to some extent or another, especially if you’re drawn to a life “outside of the box” and love to read and reflect about:
Life at large with a touch of motherhood
Creativity with all its wonders and magic
Creative business (specifically written by someone who has financially lived off her art and creativity for the past 7 years… Hint: that’s me!)
In all transparency,
I joined Substack 25th of November 2023. Despite already having done the work of building a massive online audience within the arts (500k+), I decided to start from scratch on Substack.
It’s both a personal creative challenge and community service as my other audiences didn’t sign up for my writing. If you do happen to follow my other work and enjoy my writing too, that’s a wonderful coincidence (welcome to you too!).
My Mission:
Follow Your Gut aims to provide reflective writing from lived experiences and observations from a soon decade long independent artist career, with the aim to give you inspiration, food-for-thought and guts to reconnect with your intuition and intention.
What are some of those lived experiences and how is that relevant for you?
I admit in an early essay “How I plan to stay consistent on Substack; even when I shouldn’t be able to”, that I am a perfectionist only so far as to being the best person I can be to myself and others.
But when it comes to writing, I’m guided by intuition and don’t delve on content too much before I hit publish (or else it would never be published at all!).
This is not to say that I don’t experience the 50 shades of writing. I simply made an active choice that to post imperfectly is better than to not post at all (in fact, to just post increases your chances of success by 100%).
Thanks to the same approach I’ve been able to grow an online audience to 500,000+ across Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube for my first art business in modern hand embroidery.
I’ve taught modern embroidery to tens of thousands of creatives across the world, first through physical workshops in Paris and later via the Charles and Elin Academy (35+ online courses).
Partnered with luxury brands, hosted art exhibitions and published 100+ patterns and 2 books (one traditionally published 2020 and one self-published 2019/2024).
When Will You Get a Real Job? (2019/2024) (self-published)
Mindful Embroidery (2020) (traditionally published)
I also ran a podcast for a couple of years (2018-2020), which was another fun and enriching experience. Especially as an attempt to cultivate comradeship above competition within the arts, which you can read about in When Will You Get a Real Job. I’m currently in the process of going through old episodes that are still relevant today so that I can add them as audiofiles to the Bookshop… stay tuned for that!
Apart from professional and artistic achievement, I’ve lived in 7 countries through the past 9 years. 4 with children and 3 without. All but one with my forever love Charles.
I speak three languages daily, which in and of itself is a feat and even more so while raising children. It’s a blessing in more ways than one but a constant exercise for the brain… Pheeew.
What to expect?
When I lived in South Africa 2014/2015, my first landlord answered the above question: “Expect the unexpected”, after he smiled a crooked smile that I still can’t fully place.
As much as the saying has served me well through the years of life outside of the box, it does not apply to this publication.
My mantra is to keep it simple and follow your gut.
To make that more fun to remember, I think of it as the KISS strategy (Keep It Stupid Simple).
As creatives it’s very easy to entangle and overwhelm ourselves in whatever we set out to do. When all that is needed is just to set one foot in front of the other, or write one letter next to the previous one.
A concrete example of what I’ve done to simplify my writing life:
I’m my own ideal reader avatar, which in essence means that I use my own preference as guidance for how to build it out. The potential success of this strategy is based on the assumption that I am not that unique in the great scheme of things. If I like something, there’s a big chance that many of you will like it too.
Furthermore, I’m more likely to never run out of things to say if I feel truly passionate about it. I write as a way to bring clarity to my thoughts and in doing so I aim to bring some clarity for you too.
My popular essay: “You’re not the main character, the reader is”, goes into more depth on this process and you may enjoy to read it next so save it to your reading list.
What not to expect:
In the spirit of simplicity, I will not host livestreams, zoomcalls or trainings as an inherent part of this newsletter. If one day I choose to create something additional it will come in the form of external add:ons.
I don’t expect to access author’s trainings when I buy their books or other writing, so I don’t want you to expect that of me.
That said,
To fully embody Follow Your Gut as my writer home, I’ve set up my bookshop stand right here (you can find it under “books” in the top menu bar of the home page).
As a paying member of the Follow Your Gut publication you have instant access to ALL digital books behind the paywall on the Bookshop-page (in addition to unlimited access to all the newsletters I send every month of course).
The Bookshop is sparkling new and include one title so far (When Will You Get a Real Job). But as with everything involved in self-publishing, it’s a beautifully authentic breathable thing, which means that it will continuously grow and expand as more work is being added.
I warmly invite you to unsubscribe if…
You’re someone who prefers to only receive one piece of writing per week. Then you may feel frustrated because I can guarantee that I will send more than that 99% of the time.
The more I write the better it will get as a natural bi-product, which means that whenever you sign up, you’ll get the same benefit as that of an ageing wine: It will just get better. That may seem like a bold statement to make, but it’s simply based on logic reasoning. It would be a nightmare if you get worse at something you spend a lot of time doing, wouldn’t it?
How can I be so certain in my convictions?
It’s primarily a result of necessity from being home full time with two children 4 years and under. I write in the naps and gaps of motherhood and have to keep it simple.
It’s also based on experience of running an online art membership (one of which have been going for 77+ months). I’ve tried and tested endless marketing campaigns to sell both unique courses and memberships online. No matter how genius I find the marketing or idea to be, how much irresistible value I stacked into it, the answer was always the same: Just keep it simple.
Or as I claim in another read-worthy essay: “Write what matters for those who care”. The rest is not your business.
Last but not least…
Putting together this overview I ventured down the pile of saved testimonials for a grey day. If you’re new to the entrepreneurial side of creative life, I highly recommend you save any testimonials you get. It will serve you well when the grey day comes, and it will. It’s simply an inherent part of the process and means you’re doing something right.
Here’s a transcription of an email I got in 2019 in response to my self published book “When Will You Get a Real Job” that I felt was especially relevant for this publication too:
Hi Elin,
Just a quick note to let you know I sat down and read your book in one sitting. I LOVED IT! You write from the heart and it shows, it rings true of how you felt embarking on a different course in life than others do. I think we are all programmed to just stay the course, go to school, then go to work, never thinking there is another more creative course to pursue.
As creatives we still believe that we have to do as everyone else but then we feel as if we are in a jail of our own making. The best part of the book for me is you wrote it in real time while you were going through the emotions of setting out on your own path. Your book is making me think about the next phase of my life after years of working in corporate America. It's a great book!
Cheers to you!
Deb
Ps. In case you’re reading this Debra, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Cheerleaders like you are what keep small creative businesses like mine running for years. Even though we’ve never met in person, your continuous support from afar has had a tremendous impact for our whole family.
Index by category:
Substack journey
7 things I intentionally did in my hero post and why writers should pat attention
The honeymoon phase is over; honest reflections 2 months into Substack
Creative life (and life in general)
What makes success unbearable is your mistaken belief that there’s only one way to get it
You’ll be judged no matter what you do, so you might as well be judged for being you
Stop worrying about tomorrow, for tomorrow has its own worries
Love this! My kids are grown but I am enjoying finding my voice on Substack. I love the idea that I write what I want to say and the people that want to hear that will read it. I can let the rest go. Beautiful. Looking forward to checking out your posts!
Hey Elin! Really enjoying your writing. Also, we have the same publisher! My watercolor workbook came out from Page Street in 2021. :)