Thanks for taking the time to read and comment Jane! Really appreciate it 🙏🏼 always scary to join a new platform from scratch, but Substack feels very encouraging and I’m thrilled of how the algorithms are proposing great content so far - such as the interview you made! Thoughtful and well put questions to fuel the conversation and get the good bits out.... great work!
I just had my second baby and feel this deeply. I want to keep creating but won’t be able to in the same capacity prior to her birth. But I’m refocusing to what I can do each day, each hour, each moment 🫶
Oh how I understand you ❣️🙏🏼 my second one is almost 10 months and she’s still only ok with about 3min alone with her daddy... so I resorted to writing while breastfeeding and decided to not feel guilty about it and it has made incredible improvements already to my creative well being 🥰 you’ve got this mama ❣️
Thank you for highlight something so essential in goal setting, perspective and attitude:
Freeing ourselves from normality, "being average" and realism.
Although you wonderfully outlined how you do not feel like having to try "more", you also hit the nail on the head on some of the largest misconceptions around setting goals (these two obviously are not necessarily the same!).
SMART goals often do not work, because they detail too much, and are often, simply way to casual. This can lead to lots of funny situation where people somehow get less done with smart goals then without (plenty of even full on academic and industry based studies/reports, e.g. GM, how people were making smart goals after they have done them to make themselves feel better).
Unrealistic, utopian, crazy high, unachievable, innovative, completely wack, or anything like that. Those are good "big ass hairy audacious goals".
Michael Lewis in his book "The New New Thing" highlighted that fantastically with a large focus on Jim Clark in his success in the early times of the Silicon Valley boom.
What a beautiful and inspiring post. One saying I repeat to myself while staying consistent with my writing is "Don't think, just do." It helps me not overthink my writing or when I'm preparing for an acting role.
Thank you Reid! I love the "don't think, just do". It's such a proactive outlook and one you kind of need to adopt if you want to get anywhere. Good job!! xx
So enjoyed this. Motherhood taught me to run from perfection, especially when it comes to creativity. Love the optimism in your share. It's refreshing and expansive - and the sort of vibe I'm here for x
Thanks so much Kat, I couldn’t agree with you more. Motherhood is the greatest self-development journey there is in terms of what it means to exist and be a creative as well as good person in general.. 🙏🏼 grateful to have connected with you, can’t wait to see what we can grow together as we seem to have many points in common. Xx
I love Pinterest because it functions as a search engine rather than a post-and-die like Instagram. On Pinterest your posts keep on circulating forever. It was mainly my husband in charge of sharing content on there and one point we were posting 5 times/day. Have hardly posted for 3 years and it still keeps turning, bringing in emails and customers. Anything that functions like a search engine, where your content can live "forever" is worth investing in I think! Do you have experience with Pinterest?
@elin Would you be open to possibly running a workshop for my community here next year? I write for the mother makers and next year am introducing monthly workshops. The creatives dancing between motherhood and their craft or intuitive business. Let me know how is best to contact you if you're open x
Oh that's so smart!! Yes, I've been using Pinterest on and off for years, but haven't ever figured out how to level it up into something that directs traffic to my newsletter, for example. Does that traffic direction largely have to do with the type of content you post? I totally agree, I LOVE this idea of setting it up as a search engine and then letting it do its work. Are there content or pin description tactics or anythign like that that you use to make that strategy work better?
Yes I think it is definitely related to the type of content as it's very visual and to a large extent videos of working on our artworks. You can search for Charles and Elin on Pinterest to see how it looks visually. I don't have experience yet in driving that traffic to a newsletter as I'm starting out on scratch on here as a creative challenge to see if I can build something up from zero, but I'm definitely keen to see how that could work and currently considering if I should start a new channel for it. I know many who've succeeded in driving traffic to articles from Pinterest and I imagine it would work similar with newsletters. To get attention from people it's the visual, and then the text needs to be clear as to what they get when they click the image. We've had a lot of conversion as we provide a lead magnet for free as a thanks for signing up, I don't know if that's possible with Substack yet...
Thank you so much Christine! I’m so glad it resonated, I find as creatives we tend to be so harsh on ourselves, when truly we just need to focus on getting it done and put our perfectionism aside 🥰🙏🏼
Last week I had a student who was really struggling with his topic for his argument paper (which is due tonight!!!) and he was hyper fixating on finding the perfect topic. I finally just told him to stop making perfect the enemy of good. What mattered was doing the thing so that he doesn't fail my class. Note: he's also a better than average writer so if he could just find a stinking topic, he was going to be fine.
And this too shall pass. Someday you'll get your weekend mornings to yourself while your partner and teenage daughter sleeps in and your almost teenage boy goes straight to the playroom to play video games. Last year, when I decided to compile a book of essays around the blog posts I had written over the years, I was struck by how much I had written while our kids were little. But I was writing in what little time I had and I just hit publish. The book was a chance to rethink and revise what I had written before I ever believed I could write a book. (And a chance for me to lean into my perfectionist nature.)
Of course, you have a much successful IG account than me, so you probably know all of this already 😂
Haha the "find the stinking topic and he'd be fine" is so straight to the point. It's crazy how easy it is to stare oneself blind on e little detail that blocks the entire process. I hope he managed to hand in his paper on time!!
Yes definitely, I think a lot about life in seasons - especially since becoming a mom - you can have it all, just not at the same time. And often-times we don't even give ourselves credit for all the great things we do accomplish while in the small kids season simply because we dont even have the time to reflect... It sounds like such a great project!!
Thanks so much for your time to read and comment, I really appreciate it!
I like this advice but struggle with finding topics that I have strong enough opinions about to churn out long form content on consistently. But I think I underestimate the amount of research people put into their think pieces which I'd prefer to write vs excavating my life for content. There's more happening in the larger world than my personal one.
I'm not a mother and honestly, I have quite a bit of free time on my hands thanks to being a student but I still resonate with the whole "just do it" approach. I've talked myself out of sharing my creative work more times than I can count because I didn't know how to make it "perfect" enough to be comfortable with sharing. However, I recently started my Substack with the approach of kind of using it as a creative diary where I share stuff that's on my mind without hesitating too much - guess we'll see where that takes me :)
I really needed this today. Thank you so much for your wise words!
Thank you Sri for being here and for taking the time to read! I’m so pleased that it resonated with you 🙏🏼
So beautifully written. I resonate so much❤️
Thank you so much! Glad it resonated- always a comforting feeling to know we’re not alone 🥰
Thanks for the lovely shout out, Elin! And yes to following our guts!
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment Jane! Really appreciate it 🙏🏼 always scary to join a new platform from scratch, but Substack feels very encouraging and I’m thrilled of how the algorithms are proposing great content so far - such as the interview you made! Thoughtful and well put questions to fuel the conversation and get the good bits out.... great work!
I just had my second baby and feel this deeply. I want to keep creating but won’t be able to in the same capacity prior to her birth. But I’m refocusing to what I can do each day, each hour, each moment 🫶
Oh how I understand you ❣️🙏🏼 my second one is almost 10 months and she’s still only ok with about 3min alone with her daddy... so I resorted to writing while breastfeeding and decided to not feel guilty about it and it has made incredible improvements already to my creative well being 🥰 you’ve got this mama ❣️
Thank you for highlight something so essential in goal setting, perspective and attitude:
Freeing ourselves from normality, "being average" and realism.
Although you wonderfully outlined how you do not feel like having to try "more", you also hit the nail on the head on some of the largest misconceptions around setting goals (these two obviously are not necessarily the same!).
SMART goals often do not work, because they detail too much, and are often, simply way to casual. This can lead to lots of funny situation where people somehow get less done with smart goals then without (plenty of even full on academic and industry based studies/reports, e.g. GM, how people were making smart goals after they have done them to make themselves feel better).
Unrealistic, utopian, crazy high, unachievable, innovative, completely wack, or anything like that. Those are good "big ass hairy audacious goals".
Michael Lewis in his book "The New New Thing" highlighted that fantastically with a large focus on Jim Clark in his success in the early times of the Silicon Valley boom.
What a beautiful and inspiring post. One saying I repeat to myself while staying consistent with my writing is "Don't think, just do." It helps me not overthink my writing or when I'm preparing for an acting role.
Thank you Reid! I love the "don't think, just do". It's such a proactive outlook and one you kind of need to adopt if you want to get anywhere. Good job!! xx
What a great motivational post to keep sharing our knowledge without fussing too much over perfection.
Thanks a lot Sekar for your feedback! I aim to motivate 🥰🙏🏼
So enjoyed this. Motherhood taught me to run from perfection, especially when it comes to creativity. Love the optimism in your share. It's refreshing and expansive - and the sort of vibe I'm here for x
Thanks so much Kat, I couldn’t agree with you more. Motherhood is the greatest self-development journey there is in terms of what it means to exist and be a creative as well as good person in general.. 🙏🏼 grateful to have connected with you, can’t wait to see what we can grow together as we seem to have many points in common. Xx
Yes it’s always so nice to find someone else here who sees the world through a similar lens! 🥰🥰🥰 excited to read your work mama x
🙏🏼😍👏🥰🎉
This is so great and so comforting! Just do it.
I would love to know your thoughts behind Pinterest and how you built that up?
I love Pinterest because it functions as a search engine rather than a post-and-die like Instagram. On Pinterest your posts keep on circulating forever. It was mainly my husband in charge of sharing content on there and one point we were posting 5 times/day. Have hardly posted for 3 years and it still keeps turning, bringing in emails and customers. Anything that functions like a search engine, where your content can live "forever" is worth investing in I think! Do you have experience with Pinterest?
@elin Would you be open to possibly running a workshop for my community here next year? I write for the mother makers and next year am introducing monthly workshops. The creatives dancing between motherhood and their craft or intuitive business. Let me know how is best to contact you if you're open x
Can’t seem to change the autocorrect in the previous comment.... clearly meant to write Kat - so sorry ❤️🙏🏼
Hey Kay! Thanks a lot for your request, exciting! Can't wait to hear more about it. Please send an email to elin(at)charlesandelin.com
x
Oh that's so smart!! Yes, I've been using Pinterest on and off for years, but haven't ever figured out how to level it up into something that directs traffic to my newsletter, for example. Does that traffic direction largely have to do with the type of content you post? I totally agree, I LOVE this idea of setting it up as a search engine and then letting it do its work. Are there content or pin description tactics or anythign like that that you use to make that strategy work better?
Yes I think it is definitely related to the type of content as it's very visual and to a large extent videos of working on our artworks. You can search for Charles and Elin on Pinterest to see how it looks visually. I don't have experience yet in driving that traffic to a newsletter as I'm starting out on scratch on here as a creative challenge to see if I can build something up from zero, but I'm definitely keen to see how that could work and currently considering if I should start a new channel for it. I know many who've succeeded in driving traffic to articles from Pinterest and I imagine it would work similar with newsletters. To get attention from people it's the visual, and then the text needs to be clear as to what they get when they click the image. We've had a lot of conversion as we provide a lead magnet for free as a thanks for signing up, I don't know if that's possible with Substack yet...
This hits home so much to me Elin. I appreciate the permission to be imperfect and still be a creative, leader, writer, etc. 💜
Thank you so much Christine! I’m so glad it resonated, I find as creatives we tend to be so harsh on ourselves, when truly we just need to focus on getting it done and put our perfectionism aside 🥰🙏🏼
So good.
Last week I had a student who was really struggling with his topic for his argument paper (which is due tonight!!!) and he was hyper fixating on finding the perfect topic. I finally just told him to stop making perfect the enemy of good. What mattered was doing the thing so that he doesn't fail my class. Note: he's also a better than average writer so if he could just find a stinking topic, he was going to be fine.
And this too shall pass. Someday you'll get your weekend mornings to yourself while your partner and teenage daughter sleeps in and your almost teenage boy goes straight to the playroom to play video games. Last year, when I decided to compile a book of essays around the blog posts I had written over the years, I was struck by how much I had written while our kids were little. But I was writing in what little time I had and I just hit publish. The book was a chance to rethink and revise what I had written before I ever believed I could write a book. (And a chance for me to lean into my perfectionist nature.)
Of course, you have a much successful IG account than me, so you probably know all of this already 😂
Haha the "find the stinking topic and he'd be fine" is so straight to the point. It's crazy how easy it is to stare oneself blind on e little detail that blocks the entire process. I hope he managed to hand in his paper on time!!
Yes definitely, I think a lot about life in seasons - especially since becoming a mom - you can have it all, just not at the same time. And often-times we don't even give ourselves credit for all the great things we do accomplish while in the small kids season simply because we dont even have the time to reflect... It sounds like such a great project!!
Thanks so much for your time to read and comment, I really appreciate it!
And he's a good kid who is on the spectrum so the hyperfixation for him is real. He just needed to pick a stinking topic!
It's the easiest way to support fellow writers and moms ♥️
You're so right about that!! We're in this together ❤️ xx
So motivating! I definitely need to 'follow my gut' more often.
I like this advice but struggle with finding topics that I have strong enough opinions about to churn out long form content on consistently. But I think I underestimate the amount of research people put into their think pieces which I'd prefer to write vs excavating my life for content. There's more happening in the larger world than my personal one.
Well Jane Ratcliffe. You just shored up my sanity. 10,000 thanks 🙏🏼
Related... beautiful words ❤️
I'm not a mother and honestly, I have quite a bit of free time on my hands thanks to being a student but I still resonate with the whole "just do it" approach. I've talked myself out of sharing my creative work more times than I can count because I didn't know how to make it "perfect" enough to be comfortable with sharing. However, I recently started my Substack with the approach of kind of using it as a creative diary where I share stuff that's on my mind without hesitating too much - guess we'll see where that takes me :)