I think we worry too much about things that haven't happened yet

How I operate my business to maximise results and minimise headache..

Jun 10, 2024

Welcome to Follow Your Gut, a newsletter about the artist life and business from a mother of two. After soon a decade as an independent artist and writer, the question is not only how to do it, but how to continue to follow your gut in a world that tries its best to stuff it with fluff.

85% of new letters are free to read for 3 days, whereafter they go behind a paywall. If this is our first date, I warmly invite you to check out the free archive first. I’m Swedish after all, don’t want to be too pushy (just a loving nudge ❤️).

Hi there!

How are you doing?

I’ve been a buzzing bee behind the scenes lately with loads of changes, interviews and what not going on, so today I want to invite you in behind the curtains. More specifically how I operate the machinery by concentrating on what I can do today as opposed to what I may never get to do tomorrow (unless I do the thing today first…). This is a juicy one, so hang on!

Ps. One of the recent engagements was an enriching panel recording for the Content Spark Summit that will be live the 27th June and to which YOU’RE INVITED to view it for free for the first 24hrs. I’m on a brilliant panel with

Russell Nohelty

and

Kelly Flanagan

chatting about community over audience, a must-listen.

Here’s the direct link to register for updates on how to view the summit

Me right before coming on the call for the panel recording… Warm after a full day outside, sat in my mother-law’s appartment in Paris while the rest of the family got sent to the playground for a 6pm play-date?! Yep… that happened.

Now back to the show…

A couple of weeks ago I announced the need to pivot… And the pivots came crashing the day after like a lightning bolt. Literally.

I announced the growing urge and BOOOM I received an enlightning path to move forward (that got more visual than intended, but truly, I was even surprised myself as to how quick things have moved the past couple of weeks…)

Surely, I must have had it all planned out with pivots and all?

Not quite… but also a bit?

Contrary to what’s advertised to entrepreneurial mothers (or anyone really), I DO NOT plan too far ahead, batch create or schedule dedicated time for various tasks at this point.

In fact, I do the very opposite: I try to schedule nothing and to leave my days completely open to go with the flow. As a result I get absolute flexibility to design my days according to:

The daily status of my children and myself (they’re both home with me full-time)
Complete autonomy to adjust my work depending on influx of opportunities, current needs for the family and EXCITING PIVOTS

Let me just make a quick note on the second part… I have become quite good at saying no to most things that fly my way unless it a) sparks joy or b) is a good fit and just makes sense (ideally a combination of a+b).

This is a result of getting clear on following my gut and seeing what our family needs at various times.

All opportunities are not good opportunities.

In fact, a lot of energy and time-draining tasks are masked as opportunities.

So this is where your gut feeling will truly become a compass as to whether the task at hand sparks joy and excitement or whether you consider it purely because you rationally think that it’s an opportunity that may advance you in your career goals.

There is no right or wrong, just AWARENESS so that you do things for the right reasons (and definitely not becuase someone else told you to haha).

If you want a recipe for failure in your passion-driven art business it is to follow what someone else tells you to do. There’s nothing more depleting for the free flying artist soul than to follow rigid instructions.

At least that’s my perspective… In fact, I wrote about it in the catchy essay “Nothing kills my flow like an editorial calendar”, and this essay is very much in line with that.

So how do I do it then? How do I operate a freer and more intuitive led business?

I’ve realized that there are truly 3 main components in place:

I have high work ethics and discipline as a result of having worked independently my entire adult life AND being motivated to hopefully not ever have to take another job

When you start out in solo-preneurship regardless of whether it’s within the arts or not, you’ll have to be prepared to put your own reminders.

If you want to reach your goals it means that you’ll eventually have to get the work done. And when I say work, I don’t mean the never-ending to do list done. I principally mean the bits that move the needle forward and that put food on the table. Each month will buy you another month to keep going.

In general: I think we spend too much time worrying about things that haven’t happened yet

There’s nothing more time consuming than to think about what you should do before you’ve even started.

I’ve realised after years of experience in the field (and this somehow got enhanced with motherhood), that it’s MUCH QUICKER to make something, fail and then do again as opposed to try and figure out the one and only way to do something to supposedly save yourself time.

There are some things that you just have to go through and learn the hard-way to finally break through the ceiling, and I don’t say that in a pessimistic tone. I’m genuinely excited about this aspect, because it takes off SO MUCH pressure to get things right.

If you operate from a perspective of “let’s try this out and then re-iterate” rather than “I need to get this right, RIGHT NOW”, your mental health will be much better off, trust me!

I maintain a weekly to do list rather than a daily one, making everything I achieve in a day a win as opposed to focusing on what I didn’t do.
Little is better than nothing. I don’t have to finish the entire article at once if I don’t have time or capacity for it. But to make an opening sentence is better than nothing.

My hand-embroidery art is an excellent example of the concept of “little is better than nothing”. Considering embroidery as a very slow art medium, I have stopped to focus on the end result and rather keep my work in progress around the house so that I can add a stitch here and there throughout the day. Miraculously I’ve been able to produce a minimum of one unique embroidery pattern for 77 months in a row.

Chris Best

, co-founder and CEO of Substack, shared a brilliant excerpt from an interview he did on Notes where he said:

Little happens in a year, but a lot happens in a decade.

And it perfectly reflects this sentiment.

My day-to-day is a slow life, but my years are explosions

Despite having slow mornings and fluctuating routines, from the outside it looks like I do a lot of things and I genuinly think it’s a result of focusing on very few stuff.

Like, a narrow focus with maximum effect?!

Instead of a lot of noise, I try to get to the core and just create. Because really, if you’re an artist too, or let’s say a writer, what will move the needle forward is YOU MAKING MORE OF YOUR ART AND SHARING IT WITH THE WORLD.

It’s not you trying to optimise every little aspect of every day, which by itself will take enormous time, only for you to realise that you’ll have to change all the optimisations anyway because there are now new strategies out there, which you think you have to get right RIGHT AWAY or else you’re doomed for failure…

PHEEEEEEEW, wow that was the longest sentence I’ve ever written.

Hopefully it transfers the message and frustation I often feel when people say “I don’t have time”. It’s probably because your do too many unneccessary things (like over-thinking about things that haven’t happened) which clutter the way forward.

Before rounding off with a re-cap of what I’ve been up to, I’ll leave you with this: If something fails (which it will), I tell myself;

Girlfriend, that sucks. But now you know. You may do a version of the same mistake again, but that’s ok, you’ll learn from that too. Success is progress, but failure is greater progress; You just don’t know it yet.

Thank you for reading!

I’d love to hear you reflections in the comments ❤️

Ps. What I’ve been up to:

I launched the Petronella.Art Magazine!

There are already 4 articles live that you’re warmly invited to check out (currently a launch campaign going on that ends 13th June…):

I’ve posted TWO short essays (or technically the first one is more of a preface) to my new paid column: Mother-artist;

Thank you for being here!

Elin, xx

And don’t forget to share your reflections and experience around the prompt of “Worrying too much about things that haven’t happened yet”, I can’t wait to read it!

Follow Your Gut