The Online Business Playground
Status Report:
It’s the Friday of my second week of full-time entrepreneurship
It’s very gloomy out now and it hasn’t stopped raining. There’s a storm here now in our part of the country, which means:
The internet’s been on the fritz (look at me writing! hah.)
I haven’t left home for a week
I look like I haven’t left home for a week
I’m writing this from the back of a car on my way to the grocery because my son’s on a 6-day weekend (care of aforementioned storm) and it’s the first quiet time I’ve had all week
Published: a blog entry on how do I position myself as an expert if I’m not one?
Live: Instant download Convertkit Templates at the shop. You can get them as is, or ask me to customize them for you so they’re truly yours!
Transitioning to full-time entrepreneur
I’m in full-blown adjustment period, stress pimple on my chin included. It’s been a mess, or rather, I’ve been a mess.
I’m still trying to find my rhythm. The only me-time I get is when my son is in school from 12pm to 4pm, but my body’s like Mikkkklllliiiiii this is naaaaap tiiiiiiime. I’m definitely not a morning person either, so won't be squeezing in the work hours then. I’ve taken to a) working late at night and b) finding coffices to work in during the day instead. I was able to work in a coffee house during my body's siesta time (and productively so!) — but just for 3 days because that’s how long my money lasted, too.
It’s been tough, and I was especially crabby and snappy last week (sorry child sorry family sorry everyone). But I’m so grateful that this is what I’m stressing over now: worrying about how I can juggle all this work — meaning, I have all this work to juggle.
The Online Business Playground
… is a phrase that’s been stuck in my head for the longest time.
I was watching The Magic School Bus with my son, and in that show Miss Frizzle always goes:
“Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!”
My online business journey has been pretty much one experiment after another. Experimenting itself is what has driven me forward the most and the fastest.
(Instead of, hah, overthinking, doubting, researching for forever, overthinking again, reading even more, asking 9238948291402 people for recommendations, overthinking, opening enough browser tabs to crash my computer, overthinking, I mean, lol, who did that, ha ha, oh wow, I don’t know her #me).
Taking chances, making mistakes, and getting messy has taught me:
There is no way to know everything that could possibly happen when I put something out into the world. Whether that’s a tech snag, or what people will think, or, haha, whether or not I like my own idea. The only way to know for sure what will happen when I put something out there is to…. put it out there.
How to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. I’m still nervous, I’m still scared, I still have microscopic self-esteem. I do and create things that don’t work. But I’m slowly not letting that stop me.
Figuring things out is not so much composed of eureka moments, but of being stubborn enough to keep trying until I find a way. Also that it's a skill that gets better with more practice, instead of more reading. Also that I panic much less when something goes wrong when I know I can find a way to make it right.
That business is fun! It is. Or it should be. For the longest time I was stuck with the “okay, this is all or nothing, this has to work, I’ve only got one shot” — and it paralyzed me! But when I tried looking at it from the point of view of playing and experimenting, not only did I feel a whole lot better, but I learned and accomplished a whole lot more.
Your girl is a fan of beta testing everything now, s’what I’m saying.
I want to turn this into something. Perhaps a community? And under that, the Online Business Sandbox: a combination course, challenge, and mastermind where we all experiment on something (I mean, each of us our own thing) together as a community!
P.S. That’s another thing I realized. Information is out there, if you’ve got the time and energy (and no money, hah). But the most valuable courses I’ve invested in are the ones that come with a community: accountability, feedback (working in a vacuum is hard!), access to the host, and a group of people going through the same thing together and supporting each other. And those are the only courses that I’ve seen any real forward movement from, from myself!
It's not exactly a: hey, you want a successful business, here’s steps 1, 2, and 3. I don’t believe in universal "this is what works" proclamations, because each one of us has our own business goals and life goals, and also we're totally completely different people!
I’m envisioning more of a: hey, here’s a lil framework and some prompts for coming up with an idea, testing it, learning from it, and doing it again, even better. It’s all about tiny trials, learning how to learn, and building our own set of critical thinking skills. Hopefully you leave the course/challenge/mastermind with the tools you need to carry on. And if you’d like to come back and do it again with a community, then of course, with an alumni discount, too, since you already have all the information and prompts.
^ Actually, that’s pretty much it. I am what I’m saying: info is out there! Even my own! I’m really focusing on and excited about designing the community experience, because that’s what it really really is about.
It’s only in outline form, and I’m too scared to get it out there because what if I can’t? What if it’s too big of an undertaking for me? I’ve never ever done this before. I’ve only really ever taught things to my son, what makes me think I can facilitate a whole group of people? Which I know is my old doubtful self-talk coming back to bite me so I’m going to take my own advice before I chicken out.
I’m getting together a group of 5-7 people to beta test the program, as my own experiment. So far, I’ve been reaching out to people I know in real life who have been saying things like, “I want to do what you do, start something online but I’m not sure what, or like, how?” Part of me wants to say, hey, if you’re interested, send me a message! The other part is like, hold on, wait, I’m too shy to do this with strangers HAHA. Make of that what you will!
Closing remarks
So. That was fun!
The object of this separate journal is to have a low pressure avenue to write and document my journey, share updates on what I'm doing, talk about things I'm learning and brainstorming (like those! ^), without worrying about word counts, or traffic, or SEO, or pinnable images, or cornerstone content, or any of that! Just me, in all my real and not-so-glory.
And in all honesty, these are the kinds of things I love to read, too!
Hearing about how people make six figures in one night is pretty amazing. But I also feel like, oh wow, yeah, no, that’s… too far away from my life, that’s way out of my league, is that even possible, this person is sooo different from me and is totally at a different place in her life and business, no matter how much she says “If I can do it, so can you.”
It was hearing real stories from real people — with real struggles included — that made me feel, oh hey. Now they’re kind of like me. Starting, tinkering, figuring things out. Your small victories make my goals feel real and attainable. Reading about things you had a hard time with makes me feel, oh, okay, my own trip-ups are totally normal and just part of it. It doesn’t preclude success because, hey, look at you going again! So:
If you’re doing something similar, please link it below!
If this is something you’d like to begin yourself, then yes please, the more the many-er!
And if you were to hypothetically share your stories with #OnlineBizPlayground (I can’t think of a shorter hashtag!) … I’ll totally stalk, please and thank you!
Okay, I’m done.
Good night from this side of the world!
