Boundaries for Business During the Holidays

Ah, the holidays. It’s the most wonderful time of the year… and the most stressful. You’re getting pulled in all sorts of directions from family, friends, clients, employees, and contractors that you barely have an hour to yourself in December. Sound familiar?

This is the time of year to set boundaries, if you haven’t already. You need to set boundaries with clients and people in your personal life. It’s challenging enough to balance everything that’s asked of you this time of year. Let’s make sure you're set up to be a ray of sunshine this holiday season.

What Does it Mean to Set Boundaries?

Boundaries allow you to set expectations with people in your life. You should always set boundaries so you can maintain a healthy work-life balance, and not be put in uncomfortable or frustrating situations.

The word ‘boundary’ can come off a little harsh, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can set boundaries in a respectful, kind, and subtle way. In other words, you don’t have to say, “You’re breaking my boundaries!” Calmly let someone know how their actions make you feel. (We’ll get into the “how” of this more in a minute.)

Why it’s Important to Set Boundaries

Work boundaries are especially important during the holidays. Your time is stretched by more people, activities, and things to do… It can get stressful if you don’t have boundaries set in place!

In business, setting boundaries will allow you to show up as your best self. You won’t come to work run ragged or angry or frustrated or sleep-deprived. It’s up to you to take care of yourself so you can perform your best work. When you set boundaries (and stick to them), you and your clients will benefit. 

The question is: what boundaries do you need to put in place to help you do that? 

It’s much harder to set boundaries in your personal life. Saying no to mom or dad is different than saying no to a client. But it’s how you show up as your best self. You have to do what’s best for you, even if it means disappointing people you care about. 

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t be respectful and explain why you’re making the choices with your boundaries. Your loved ones care about you and want the best for you. If that means you have to set a boundary with them, they’ll learn to work within it or around it. 

3 Steps to Set Boundaries in Your Business

So we know we need boundaries, but how do we establish them? Let me let you in on a little secret: it’s not actually that complicated. Notice I didn’t say “easy” - it can be hard to maintain boundaries, especially for small businesses, during the holidays. 

That being said, these 3 simple steps will make a world of difference! 

1. Inform Clients of Time Off

It’s okay to take time off, especially during the holidays! A lot of people are taking time off, and no one will blame you for doing the same. It’s a much-needed break that we encourage you to take!

But, be clear about when you will be unavailable. Give your clients time to accommodate your absence. You don’t want to leave them high and dry, so give them plenty of notice about your time off and what you can do for them before taking vacation time. 

Setting an out-of-office reminder is also a must-do. Just because you inform your clients of your time off doesn’t mean they’ll remember. They have enough on their plate (which is probably why they hired you). They don’t have time to remember your schedule. Set an automated out-of-office email as a gentle reminder that you’re not available. Don’t forget to mention when you’ll be back online and include a way to contact you if it’s an emergency.

2. How to Communicate with you

How do you prefer to communicate with your clients? Personally, I don’t mind texting and phone calls, but some people don’t like that. With so many means of communicating nowadays, you need to make it clear what you prefer. 

When you tell clients your preferences up front, you won’t be stuck in an awkward situation of a client messaging you on Facebook Messenger (and missing the message entirely) when you prefer email or texting. It sets a clear boundary between your work and personal life.

3. Say No

Everyone understands that the holidays are ultra-busy. If you say no to a project or extra meeting because you don’t have the time or energy to do it, it’s okay! Let your client know, respectfully, that you would prefer to push it back to the new year because you don’t have the capacity to take on anything more. If they need something done quickly, they may have to find someone else to complete the project. That’s okay, too!

I learned this lesson the hard way, and in fact still sometimes have the urge to take on more than I can really accomplish. I said yes to too many clients at once, because I wanted to grow my business and income faster. But as soon as I turned to examine what was actually on my plate, it immediately became overwhelming. I was working all the time, feeling the constant presence of burnout. It honestly sucked. So when I was able to finally say “no” to a stressful client that wasn’t a good fit for my business, it felt like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders. It’s hard, but saying no is a good thing.

3 Ways to Set Boundaries in Your Personal Life

Setting boundaries with family and friends is one of the hardest things to do. Especially around the holidays, your time and attention are requested more than usual. You might be seeing family you only see once a year. Maybe friends are flying in for the holidays and want to hang out. It’s generally just a hectic time of year. 

During this hectic time, your boundaries will be your besties. Here are a few ways you can set boundaries with people in your personal life.

1. Say No

Yes, I’m saying it again! It’s okay to say no to things you don’t want to do or simply don’t have the time to do. It does you more harm than good to squeeze in another lunch date with a friend or spend five hours shopping for the perfect gift at the mall with your aunt. You get to decide what’s most important to you. 

2. Explain Your Boundary

Establishing new boundaries isn’t easy. People may not understand why you suddenly stop doing something you used to do. While you don’t owe anyone an explanation, it’s a good idea to let people know the basics of why you’re making the change. 

You can say something like, “I’m going to stop doing XYZ because it makes me uncomfortable.” Or, “I’m going to start doing XYZ so I can have better balance in my life.” Inform people of your boundary and kindly remind them if they accidentally break them. Eventually, your boundaries will become a habit for them, too.

3. Don’t Accept Less

How often do we accept someone being 10 minutes late, breaking something they borrowed from you, bailing on plans, or not following up on a promise? I’ve been burned many times, and it stings each time. I know things happen, but it feels like “things happen” with certain people. Every. Single. Time. 

Eventually enough has to be enough. It’s okay to make less time for people who flake out on you at the last minute every time you get together, and it’s okay to express disappointment when someone breaks a promise. That doesn’t mean you have to cut them out of your life (unless that’s the boundary you want to draw), but it should make you evaluate what you want and expect from the relationship. 

Start to set boundaries with those around you. It’s okay to let people know your expectations. PsychCentral suggests, “If you’re dealing with someone who is perpetually late, communicate this to them ahead of time — let them know you will be leaving after a certain amount of time has passed. Still, try not to sound accusatory. Consider acknowledging that you two have different personalities. You’re not trying to change them, but you need to set time boundaries for yourself because you can’t afford or don’t want to wait any longer.” 

If  there’s a main takeaway here (or if you’ve scrolled to the bottom - hi, friend!), know that it’s good to set boundaries for yourself. You need them to have a happy, healthy, and balanced life. No one will set them for you. It’s up to you to decide what boundaries to set, who to set them with, and how to enforce them. You’ve got this! 

Wishing you and your loved ones a happy holiday!

6 Steps for Growing Your Business Using LinkedIn

I’ll be the first one to say: I’m not super into social media. 

I definitely like seeing friends and family updates, and I like being able to share things with more than one person at a time (particularly with photos), but most times I find social media overwhelming...even for business. 

And look - there are a lot of ways to have a successful business, I’m sure without social media. But using the tools almost everyone is using online is, well, kind of important. Even though I sometimes find myself anxiety-ridden after spending too much time scrolling, social media can be fabulous for business both for networking and finding clients.

My *favorite* social media, if you can even call it that - in fact, let’s just say the least overwhelming social media (and one I don’t click on ads to buy random junk that’s adorable but I definitely don’t need) - is LinkedIn. 

You might be surprised that more than 75% of Capturing Your Confidence clients come from LinkedIn! So when I say it’s helpful, I mean you can make connections AND money, which is kind of the ideal for business, right?

What is LinkedIn & How Does it Work?

LinkedIn is a social media platform meant for business and professional networking. Similar to Facebook, the posts are text-driven, although there are also interactive ways to connect with your audience, like polls. 

As a user, you create a profile and posts. In your Home feed, you can see posts from people you follow and posts the people you’re connected to have interacted with. For instance, if you connect with a co-worker or friend, you can see posts they’ve liked, shared, or commented on even if you aren’t connected to the original poster. It’s a great way to meet new people and see posts from companies and professionals you admire.

The primary difference between LinkedIn and other social networking sites is the professional aspect. People typically use LinkedIn to:

• Find jobs

• Hire and/or recruit for their company

• Grow their professional network

• Meet people doing what they want to do
  Contribute their expertise

• Learn from others 

The atmosphere is different from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok (and any others I may have missed). People are generally positive, share employment and education milestones, and ask for help to get jobs or clients or whatever professional advice they need. There are personal stories, but on the whole, they’re framed within the work and business environment - not for drama’s sake. 

Why LinkedIn Works for Business

LinkedIn is a good place to grow professionally, but it’s also a pretty nifty business tool! For business owners, consultants, and freelancers, LinkedIn can help you find clients and grow your business without some of the busywork it takes on other forms of social media. 

For starters, LinkedIn is more professional. There will always be people who want to interact with their professional network in unprofessional ways, but in general, people on LinkedIn are there to do business.

They expect to connect with people, potentially do some job recruiting, and learn about business topics like marketing and copywriting from their network. The goals and audience expectations are different from Facebook, even for businesses using Facebook for business. 

Knowing the intention is to connect with people for business purposes, it feels less weird to connect with people you don’t know - especially when they’re doing something really cool you might also like to do. For instance, I love connecting with other writers and creative business owners because they offer a lot of interesting and creative ideas!

LinkedIn is a great place to learn what’s possible because there are others doing almost anything you can imagine. And, as long as you’re not connecting to someone and immediately selling to them in their DMs (don’t do this on ANY platform - it’s irritating!), people are usually happy to connect, which means it’s pretty simple to grow your network. 

Probably the best thing about LinkedIn for business is that you can get your name and business in front of A LOT of people fairly easily because of how the connection network works. You have people you know and are “connected with” - like Facebook or Instagram “friends.” Easy peasy. Search for them, connect with them, and once they accept, they’re in your network! 

The cool thing is that the more people you connect with, the more posts you see from outside of these connections. How it works is that your connection, say your work best friend, likes a post from someone she follows and/or is networked with. Because of your connection with your friend, you can see the posts she likes (or comments on). Because you can see the posts, you can interact with them as well, even if you’re not connected with the original poster. 

This is a fantastic way to meet smart people you want to connect with! You get a preview of their content, and when you interact with it, they can also come and see your profile and content, depending on how you set up your privacy settings. It’s a low stakes, organic way to grow your network of professional contacts - with the added bonus that there’s not usually an expectation of “follow for follow” like there is on other sites, especially Facebook groups. 

People on LinkedIn will connect with you and you can connect with them, but it’s not one of those things where you’ll see a ton of posts about “let’s all follow each other!” 

6 Steps for Growing Your Business with LinkedIn

If you’re sold on LinkedIn (heck yeah!) as a less stressful way to grow your business, especially for you creatives, I’ve got good news for you: It’s not hard. 

In fact, there’s really only 6 steps you need to take to start growing your LinkedIn presence (and therefore your business):

1. Make sure your profile is filled out all the way. Take the time to write a good headline, add a nice photo of yourself (NOT the bathroom selfie you took yesterday), and write an engaging bio. Remember, if you’re using LinkedIn for your business, you need to be clear about what it is you do and what you’re good at. 

2. Make sure your work history is up to date. Fill in your recent job history to the best of your ability and showcase the skills you want people to know about. You don’t need to include every job you’ve ever had, or old jobs that aren’t relevant to what you’re doing or want to be doing. For instance, jobs you had in high school probably aren’t doing you any professional favors.

3. Make sure you have a business page for your business. This is important, although can be easily forgotten! Create a business page for your business and then in your Work History section, make sure that your “job” is tied to the business page. This will help you gain credibility - and show your future network and clients exactly what you offer. 

4. Participate & comment thoughtfully. Think about what would happen if you walked into an interview and just sat there and said nothing. Or showed up at a work event and stood in the corner on your phone the whole time instead of interacting with others. It’s kind of a waste of time, right? That’s because you need to interact with people for networking to work. On LinkedIn that means commenting thoughtful and participating with your network. Get into real discussions and engage with people! Spend some time thinking about what your connections are posting - you never know who you might meet, or what clients might come of these kinds of interactions. (You’d be surprised by how often this actually happens!)

5. Post meaningful stuff & testimonials. When you make posts on LinkedIn, consider what’s relevant to your business and what people might want to know about your areas of expertise. For instance, tips and strategies for things that you’re really good at that other people aren’t. And when you do get awesome clients, share what they’re saying about you! There’s nothing more effective for drumming up business than a solid review or testimonial from someone who worked with you. 

6. Tag people, even if you don’t really “know” them. When you start tagging people in your network, it can feel awkward. It can sometimes feel like “I don’t really know them, so will they really care?” Tagging people is a great way to interact with your network and meet new people, though. And honestly? If you’re tagging someone in a post that’s relevant to what they do, they’re likely to respond in some way or another. It’s a thoughtful interaction - not that you want to be picking 5 random people who won’t get value from what you’re saying - and often leads to good conversations. 

My challenge to you is to get on LinkedIn (if you’re not already) & start using it for your business! 

Are you on LinkedIn? How have you used LinkedIn for business? (If you want to connect, find me here). I’d love to hear about your experiences! Find me on social media or drop a comment below.

Let’s chat because you, my friend, are on your way to great writing - and business.

The Key to Creating Next-Level Writing Habits

I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions, but I love goals and learning to take small steps toward consistent new habits. After all, small steps lead to big results, right? At least that's what they say.

What better time to start learning than a fresh new year? 

Writing habits can prove a little tricky, though! In our busy lives, time for creative work often feels like a luxury or some unattainable “perfect world” situation. Writing gets pushed aside for other more pressing concerns because we feel like there’s always tomorrow. 

Hopefully there are many tomorrows in which to write or be the coveted “writer” you’ve always dreamed of being, but having a solid writing habit will make your life better today. 

Why Writing Habits Matter

The bottom line for writing habits is: your dreams matter. 

What you want to do and who you want to be is important! It might seem to get lost in the humdrum of daily life as a spouse/caregiver/hardworking employee - and whatever the other roles are in your life - but your creativity is a part of who you are. Because you know this part of you, it’s worth creating a writing habit. 

There are 3 main ways writing habits benefit you in everyday life:

1. Create Consistency Like other aspects of your life, developing a habit will create consistency for your writing and creativity. This means showing up to your writing regularly, even when it might not feel “inspired.” What happens when there’s consistency? Growth! Progress! Pride in your hard work! All the good things you want for your writing. 

2. Facilitate Progress So you want to publish a book? Start a writing business? Simply enjoy your life more? Developing a writing habit can help you do all of these things. When you show up, there’s no way to not see progress. (i.e. no more moping on Facebook for an hour every night about the fact that you “should have been” writing because you’ve done it already!)

3. Boost Confidence There’s nothing in the world quite like finishing a particularly exciting scene or storyline. It’s one of those things writers crave: to see their words on the page and know they did it! Creating a writing habit and showing up to your writing regularly will give you confidence in your skills and abilities, even if it starts out by the sheer fact that you’re practicing them on a daily/weekly basis. Long-term, your confidence about being able to start and complete new projects will grow. You’ll know you can do it because you have done it - and because you’re a badass unstoppable dream-getter. 

What is a Writing Habit? 

So, writing habits sound awesome, right? You’re kind of a big deal, and the stories you have to share with the world are, too. 

But what exactly is a writing habit? After all, many of us are incredibly busy. Does a writing habit mean we have to write every day? 

A writing habit is simply a routine you create for your writing. A way to establish a practice that helps you write. You don’t necessarily have to write every day - I don’t write creatively every day - but you should write frequently. 

Writing habits and routines include aspects like:

• Environment - where you sit, what’s around you, smells, sounds, temperature of the room, etc.

• Physical self - how you prepare your body to write, sitting, laying, clothing you’re wearing, etc.

• Headspace - how you prepare your mind and emotions to write, music, open-mindedness, excitement, etc. 

The great thing is that your writing habit is unique to you! While it’s helpful to read about other writers’ habits and maybe even try them out, there’s no set in stone way that you have to build your habit so that it works. You know you best, which means you can design a habit that helps you better than anyone else could.

8 Simple Steps to Creating Next-Level Writing Habits

1. Have a writing session. Before you make any changes to what you do now, you need to figure out what exactly you do. Take some time to have a writing session in the way you know works best for you right now. For instance, when I have a writing session for my novel, I go into my office (with no dogs in tow) and I light a little tea light on my desk. I open up my Google doc and read through a couple of scenes to get into the flow of the story before I try to write anything new. Sometimes I lightly edit the scenes I read, or fix typos, but my main focus is to feel the characters and live with them for a little while so I can create more of their world.

2. Analyze what made your writing session successful. When you’ve done your session (I hope it’s awesome!), you need to figure out what worked. What made you feel good? What made you get excited to write? What really got your creative juices flowing? 

   1. Consider Environment: the physical space around you, the sounds, the smells, the lighting, your posture, distractions you felt, feelings in your body, your clothes - anything that you notice that affected your writing session from a physical perspective

   2. Consider Mindset: what were your initial thoughts, why did the distractions come up, any stresses, any excitement, your mental space, your emotional space, your feeling when session was complete - anything you notice that affected your writing session from a mindset perspective

   3. Consider What Went Wrong: Sometimes writing sessions just don’t go as planned. If this happened to you, think about what went wrong using the same points as what went right, that way you can mitigate them when you write again

3. Set a small writing goal. Once you’ve thoroughly analyzed your last writing session, set a small goal for the next session. Don’t set any goals that are outlandish, like that you want to write the next 50 pages (unless that’s how much you already do in a typical writing session). Think about things like: “I want to finish this chapter” or “I want to rewrite the ending of this scene so it’s more convincing.” Remember, small progress is progress. The more small goals you set and achieve, the better you’ll feel about your bigger goals.  I like to set my small goals about finishing particular sections of my novel - sometimes that’s 2 pages, and sometimes it’s 10. I rarely write more than one section at a time. 

4. Schedule time to write. Once you’ve got your goal, set a time to work on it! I would encourage you to pick a time within the next week.

5. Have another writing session. Remember when you analyzed your last session? Take as many of those pieces as you can and recreate the session. If your session didn’t go as planned last time, consider what went wrong and do your best to change or eliminate those things from this session. 

6. Compare the two sessions. Now that you’ve done two writing sessions, one “normal” and one with a small writing goal, consider: 

   1. What’s the same? 

   2. What’s different? 

   3. What could make the next session even better?

7. Schedule another time to write. This is the “habit” part of your new writing habit - showing up regularly!

8. Follow through on your schedule and reflect each time. Don’t let your writing sessions become the thing you keep putting off. Remember, your creativity and writing dreams are important! You don’t push other important stuff off from week to week, do you? When you show up and reflect on what’s working, and what’s not, you’ll be able to consistently plan effective writing sessions for yourself and create a next-level writing habit that’s tailored to you. 

Next Steps

So that’s it! There’s nothing overtly complicated about creating a writing habit that works for you. 

What you need to do now is:

1. Do those first writing sessions & reflect. Don’t skip the reflection! That’s key to being able to create your new habit.

2. Show up to your new habit. Be intentional about making time to write, even if it's at the crack of dawn before everyone’s awake or at night when everyone’s asleep.

3. Get help and accountability. If you need help figuring out what might work for you, or you just want some accountability (because we know that’s helpful!) click here to read how I work with writers just like you! I love love love helping writers get set up with new habits, and I know we can work together to find what works best for you. 
   

I challenge you to do a writing session within the next 7 days and stick to it. 

Have you developed a writing habit before? How did it go? Do you have specific steps that help you write? I’d love to hear about your experiences and recommendations! Find me on social media or drop a comment below.

Let’s chat because you, my friend, are on your way to great writing.