143: Embracing Growth: Overcome Imposter Syndrome as a Creative

Hello there. Happy Tuesday. I have just a short episode for you today, but one that I think will get you thinking. This generated from a question that someone asked me in my coaching program. So I think you know I offer a coaching program called the Professional Creative Business Coaching Program. It's PCBC for short. If you're ever interested in learning more about that, you can at any time DM me the word coach over on Instagram and I'll get you all the information. But anyways, someone asked me what advice I would give myself if I could go back to when I was starting.

I'm Bonnie Christine and this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life.

When I first set out to become

an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today. I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast.

I really had to think about it for a minute. I would do anything to go back and talk to this version of myself. I can easily get emotional about just how wide eyed I was, how hopeful I was, what a big dream and goal I had on my heart, and how afraid I was as well, but willing to do whatever I had to do. So I have four things. Number one is that it's not going to be easy, but it will be worth it. I think when you're just starting out, you know it's not easy. And you know it's not going to be easy. You know that you didn't sign up for easy, but you're not sure if it's going to pay off. You're not sure if it will be worth it. And I think there's a level of fear. I mean they're right. There always is, right? Like a fear of failure. There even is sometimes a fear of success if we really dig in there. But I think there's a fear of what if all of my sacrifice and all of my hard work and all of my time and attention and sweat and tears go without it being worth it? And that in some way will hold you back. It will make you play small, it will make you hesitate. It will make you not go all in. And so I would love to tell myself many years ago that it's not going to be easy, but it will be worth it. And when I think about what worth it means, Right. Worth it to me means that I still just absolutely adore the work that I get to do. I love what I do, and to me, that makes it so worth it. I love my life. I love that I get to work, you know, moving around and to my own schedule and with my family alongside of me. It will be worth it based on the impact that you have, based on the lives that you touch, based on the people that you can employ. What a gift. So it will be hard. It'll be the hardest thing you've ever done. You. You will want to quit, you will want to give up. You will question everything you're doing. But, my dear one, it will be worth it. The next one, I would love to tell myself, is that feedback makes you stronger. I think feedback is something, again, that we're afraid of, especially if you are in a position like an artist or a surface pattern designer or anyone who's presenting work and asking for feedback publicly, or from an art director or from a company or from some key decision maker, pouring your soul into the work that you do is so incredibly vulnerable. And then to show it to the world and be like, what do you think of this? Is difficult. I've received difficult feedback from tons of people from. From people from peers, from students. But the most difficult feedback I've received has been from art directors and people that I really admire who I would love to work with. And so for as much success as I've had and great feedback and yeses, you better believe there's also been a lot of no's and difficult feedback I've had. Hmm. I think really horrible things said to me, like, my work looks like everyone else's and there's nothing unique about me, and that, you know, that I'm not the right fit for their company and all sorts of things like that. And it's painful. But eventually I learned how impactful feedback can be. As long as you know how to receive it and so you can take it, you can work with it, you can know and do better based on feedback. But I also think that you've got to remember that feedback tells you more about the person giving you the feedback than it does about you. Meaning, let's say you make Something, you make something, a beautiful piece of artwork and someone says, I hate that artwork. Nobody's gonna say that, but let's say that they don't like it and they tell you why. Well, rather than like really internalize that, you can say that tells me that you don't like artwork like this. Rather than saying like, I make artwork that people don't like. There's a huge difference. So remembering that no matter what you're getting feedback on, if it's a piece of work or if it's a podcast episode or if it's something that you've put out in the world, the feedback that you get tells you more about the person who's giving it than it does you. You never know where someone's coming from, what reality they're coming from. And there is a lot of feedback out in the world to be had and to be heard. And really setting up some protection around yourself and boundaries is absolutely possible because this is also worth it. Getting difficult feedback is worth it because getting your work out there and your voice out there is going to be worth it. It's just maybe not going to easy.

Picture this. Your creative business thriving beyond your wildest dreams. More than just a business, a entire legacy. It's not just possible, but I want you to feel how close it is to within your reach. I want to unfold the map of success together with you.

In fact, I want to invite you

to join me on a journey unlike any other with my brand new professional creative business coaching program. If you're currently making in between 50 and $200,000 a year in your business, it's time to think bigger. Imagine expanding your team, honing your leadership and overcoming the challenges most businesses face. You know, what got you to where you are today isn't going to be the same thing that gets you to where you're going. If you're nodding along, I made this program for you. We'll have weekly live coaching calls, accountability pods to keep you on track, and a vault of resources and BON along with a community of fellow creative big thinkers. Because growing together is where all the magic happens. We've got the Time management lab, my $5 million launch debrief, and a creative profits training which you'll have as a launch pad for all your revenue streams. But if you're unsure if this is your next step, I would love to chat with you. So in order to do that, I need you to send me a DM on Instagram or fill out our short interest form over@bonniecristine.com so that I can personally follow up with you and just ask you a few questions, because I want to make sure that this is the perfect fit for you and your journey right now. You have my word. If I don't think I can truly move the needle for you, I'll tell you. So if you're ready to elevate your creative business and step into your power and into a room of some really big thinkers, join me by filling out the interest form@bonniecristine.com coach or just DM me over on Instagram the word coach. And I'll respond with my first few questions for you. Together, let's make your passion your legacy.

The next one. Number three is that I wish someone had told me to make sure that I was growing as a person in my emotional intelligence and my personal development and. And my spiritual walk, make sure that I was growing at the same rate as my professional development, meaning as fast as my business. So this was all fine and dandy until things got difficult. Things got difficult in 2020, and I realized that my business had outgrown me. It had outgrown my own personal development, meaning I didn't have the leadership skills that I needed. I didn't have the emotional intelligence that needed in order to bear the weight of the business. And it almost broke me. I've shared vulnerably sometimes what that really looked like, but I ended up in the ER twice in 2020 thinking I was having a heart attack when it was panic. And so we can do an episode on this sometime if you want, but it was something I had never experienced before, didn't even know was on the table for an option. And I have so much empathy for this now. And so I know it's hard to hear about it, especially if you're going through it. So that's all I'll say, is that I see you, you can do this. You're really, really strong, and there's a lot of help to be had. So I got myself into therapy, into counseling, and to leadership development, into personal development. And it was a long road. I mean, it was a year of intensity. And now I think, now that I know it's a lifelong journey, right? But I think that actually, speaking of coaching, coaching is one of those things that could have helped me get out in front of it, but I didn't have anybody really super pouring into me from that perspective. At that time, I was still really functioning almost alone in the. In the stage that I was in business. And so I think surrounding Yourself, with mentors, with coaches, with someone who can make sure that you are growing at the same rate as all the other things in your life are. Growing is so important. And I wish that I could go back and tell myself that. And it's a message that I'm passionate about telling people. Now, finally, I would say, Bonnie, my dear one, there is room for you. Now, I did have someone tell me this pretty early on in my career, but I questioned it for a long time. I felt like, who was I to even think that I deserved a place, right? With my artwork in the world, with my voice in the world, with my education in the world, with my perspective in the world. And this still is something I have to tell myself today. I think this very podcast is a great example of this. By the way, we're celebrating 1 million downloads. What. What is life? Thank you. That's because of you. I love you so much. But even with this very podcast, like, the opposite of there's room for you is imposter syndrome. And I felt it. I felt like there's no room for me in the podcast world. I should have started this 10 years ago. I have missed such a huge opportunity. It's super saturated. I could not find a name that wasn't taken already. It was like everyone. Everyone had either a podcast currently or had had one in the past. And so I had to really fight through this. Know there's room for you. And so I just put my blinders on and went into it. Anyways, we're now in the top charts for the art and design category, which is just incredible. And I'm so glad that I decided that there was room for me. And that's why I tell you every single day that you listen to this podcast, there's room for you. So go out there and create the beauty, whatever it is, in whatever form that you want to see, come alive in the world.