50: Listener Q&A - Morning Rituals, Hiring Help, & Breaking Through Saturated Markets

And so will you work hard? Yes. Will it be difficult? Yes. Will it be 100% worth it? Yes. Is it possible? Absolutely. 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 Mountain mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. But 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 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. Hello, and welcome to episode number 50 of the Professional Creative Podcast. 50 episodes. Six months ago, I couldn't imagine being at 50 episodes. And here we are. Thank you so much for tuning in. And in just celebration of our 50th episode, I thought it would be fun to answer some questions from you all. I surveyed those of you who are on my email list a couple of months ago and said if there was one question that you would have me answer, what would it be? And so I have randomly chosen five of those to answer. Today we're going to talk a little bit about business, a little bit about life, and it's of kind to be so fun to cover some of this with you. So question number one comes from Karen. Karen says, how do you break through a saturated market of creatives? Okay, Karen, love this question. We really talk about this quite a lot because I think it's something that is in the back of everyone's minds. Is that true for you? Have you ever felt like you're trying to break into a saturated market? I see you nodding your head. Not, not really, but I am imagining it. But I have a bit of a different perspective on this. I think that there are actually very few saturated markets. I think that this is something that we fear and we almost convince ourselves that it's true, but it truly is just not. I can't think of a single market that is truly saturated. Think about even things like logo design and photographers, which everyone knows, people in their real life who do photography for a living or who are graphic designers and do logos for a living. And yet there are still people every day deciding to become photographers and logo and graphic designers. Right? And so many of us are in a much more niche market like surface pattern design or fine art or something really unique like ceramics or something like that. And there is just really no way that the market is saturated. However, it can feel that way. And I want you to think about this concept called informational planets. Okay? This is actually helpful in a lot of different arenas. But we, each and every one of us live in a different informational planet because of what we consume online, social media, all of the algorithms know what, what kind of content we like. And so they serve it up to us more and more and more and more. And so oftentimes it feels like, well, everyone is doing this thing, everyone is doing this thing and there's no room for me. It feels saturated. But if we kind of pluck ourselves of our informational planet and we go visit some other planets and just walk down the street and start talking to other people, you'll very quickly realize that not a lot of people are trying to do what you are doing. I don't want to get off topic here, but this, this concept of informational planets is also really helpful when you meet someone who you don't agree with, who have arrived at a different conclusion than you have on just about any, anything in life. Diet and food choices, politics, business advice, all of those things. When you meet someone and you've arrived at a different conclusion and yet you still think the other person is well researched and, you know, meaningful in their decision making skills. Right? Well, this is really helpful to realize that we all live on different informational planets and their informational planet has supported them arriving at the exact decision that they have to, just like your informational planet has supported you in arriving at the same exact decision that you have. And it's really important that we kind of visit each other's planets sometimes so that we understand how people can disagree, how people can come up with different ideas and different conclusions. And that's okay. Okay. So that was the side trail back to saturated markets. So even though I don't really believe that there are any saturated markets or that they're very rare, I want to talk to you about. Even if they are, even if you are entering a saturated market, there's always room at the top. All you do is just wiggle your way in and say, hey there, I've arrived. Okay, there's always room at the top. And so will you work hard? Yes. Yes. Will it be difficult? Yes. Will it be 100% worth it? Yes. Is it possible? Absolutely. So don't let this concept of the saturated market hold you back. I think it's honestly an excuse that we use a lot of times to play small and not try. And there's always room for more. I truly believe that there is room for you in whatever market you're trying to enter. Okay, our next question is from Shelly. Shelly says, at what point did you realize that you needed to hire someone? And Shelly, this is a great question because I'll be talking more and more about this. In fact, the next two episodes are all about delegation and Shelley. I spent way too long doing everything myself. So I started my business in 2009. I made my first hire in 2019, late 2018. So I almost spent 10 years as a one woman show. And while I think I was kind of proud of that, I think that it's not something that I should have been proud of. I think if there's one thing that I would have changed and done differently, I would have hired help earlier. And so for the first so from 2018 to present day, 2023, I've built a team to now there's eight of us, and it's been slow and I've almost hired everyone a little bit too late, meaning we were like really feeling stretched and should have probably hired that key hire six to 12 months before we did until just recently. I have felt in the past year that we've gotten ahead. And so this question is a great one, like, how do you realize that you need to hire someone? And there is this transition. I think the very beginning is the most difficult part when you're really used to doing everything yourself and you're really good at doing everything yourself. And then there's this pivotal mindset shift that has to happen around, well, what is my highest level work? What is my greatest contribution to the work that I'm doing? And what can I outsource? What can I offload my plate so that I can do more of the highest contribution? And the highest contribution is also typically the thing that makes you more money. And so it's almost essential in order. You know, a lot of times we don't hire because we're afraid of that financial commitment and someone else relying on our creative business to provide for them, you know. And so I feel like we hold back from hiring when in actuality, we really need to make some key hires at the beginning so that we can create more income more quickly because you are going to be so much more successful when you stop Doing all of the, all of the tasks that don't necessarily have to be done by you. A great example of this is something like if you sell products, you are processing the order, printing the shipping label, packaging the order, taping it up and driving it to the post office. Like that's a great example of something that could be immediately given to someone else so that you can spend more time creating new and engaging products or marketing the products in the first place. So it's this whole thing to wrap your mind around. You have to really look at what you're doing and what could you potentially outsource or, or make a hire or a contractor hire to help you. But truly what point, like what are the signs of needing to help someone? I think that we're all here because we love what we do, we love our creative businesses, we love growing them. And for the, for many of us that means that it's not very clear the difference between life and business. It's all kind of just jumbled together because we love what we do. So we're doing it all the time. And there's this shift where like you really can't stop. Maybe you're working in the evenings or into the night, you're working on the weekends, and maybe you're working on vacation or you can't seem to unplug and take a trip or, or take time to rejuvenate. That is a sure tell sign that you need to hire someone. In fact, it would be my hope for every one of you that eventually you get to a place where you could step away from your business from for 30 days and nothing would suffer. Your sales wouldn't suffer, your products wouldn't suffer, your all of the business would continue to grow and be supported without you there. Which means that you're truly only doing the things that only you can do. So Shelly, tune into the next few episodes. That will be number 51 and 52 on some of the first things that I suggest you delegate. And then also all of the lessons I've learned on how to delegate. So I think those will be really helpful. Okay, picture this. Have you ever spent hours scouring through your video or maybe your podcast content trying to find that one place that you said that one thing. Or if you've forgotten or never found it and you had to re record everything. I've been there and it's so frustrating and honestly a huge waste of time. But it hasn't happened to me ever since I started using Searchie. Searchie is the software that I use for all of my videos and all of my podcast content, because it not only transcribes it, but it makes it searchable by keyword. And so for you to see this in action, I have an example set up for you over on BonnieCristine.com resources. Again, that's BonnieCristine.com resources and you can actually play with Searchie and see how it looks on one of our videos, because once you understand what it does, it's a game changer. I also host all of my workshop and my class, my membership and course material through Searchie as well. So students can search for any question that they have and go to the exact time and place where I talked about that one. And just imagine this. If I ever do a Q and A and they want to know if I answered their question, all they have to do is search for their name and see if I did or not. It's literally like having your very own personal search engine for your content. So no more wasting time scrubbing through your video or audio to find that one golden nugget. With Searchie, you can easily find what you're looking for in seconds. Just type in a keyword or phrase and Searchie will pull up all the relevant content. It's a game changer for anyone who creates audio or video content. But honestly, that's not all. Searchie's new AI powered transcription and captioning tool makes it easy to create accessible content that everyone can get access to. And with their customizable player, you can embed your videos and your podcasts on your website or social media channels in a way that looks and feels so professional. So if you are ready to take your video or your podcast content to the next level, head on over to BonnieCristine.com resources and just give Searchie a try. It's incredible. I think you're going to love it and I can't wait to see how it revolutionizes the way you create content. Okay, Mafi has our next question. Have you ever been indecisive about what you should focus on in your career, for instance, educator, artist, or something else? Oh my goodness, absolutely. I think that this is just part of it. Now I want to mention episode number six is where I talk about this concept of creative or educator and the choice between the two. And if you have to choose even in the first place. And so I think that you'll probably really enjoy that episode. Again, it's number six, I would say the biggest time in my career where I was indecisive was really about education. I set out to be a artist, a fabric designer, a surface pattern designer, and I am that, and I love doing it so much. And then this opportunity to teach kind of fell in my lap, and I did it. I loved it. But I kind of came home and got right back to being an artist. And over the next few years, I just felt like I was getting green lights every time education were to come up. This concept I'm actually referencing is the book Green lights by Matthew McConaughey. And it talks about red lights and green lights, and where are you getting green lights? And I just kept getting green lights around education. It was requested of me so many times. So many of the questions I got were things around teaching other people. And so I very much struggled with this decision. What am I going to do? And can I do both? And I decided that I could do both and more. So we're going to talk about this in the next question. That it was really my calling to help develop other creatives. And so it did just take. I was indecisive about it. It took a little while to decide, but once I did decide, I went all in. And so I think that that is the key. Sometimes being indecisive can just slow our progress and halt where we are in our business and make things just feel unclear. And so clarity on our vision and where we want to go and how we want to get there is such a pivotal part. Ingredient of success. And so I would just encourage you to be more decisive. You know, part of being an entrepreneur is being able to quickly make decisions, whether they're the right or the wrong decision, you know, is like that we made a decision, and we've committed to see the follow through, knowing that if we did make the wrong decision, we can always pivot. But hanging out in that indecisiveness is a tough spot. It's not comfortable. It's. It takes a lot of energy and mental bandwidth because you're always kind of weighing both sides of it. And so I have gotten much better at being decisive and being confident in the decisions that I make and move forward knowing that I can always change and pivot if I need to. So that brings me to question number four. We've got five today, and this one is from Pamela. Pamela says, what is your why? What motivates you to keep working at your business and day in and day out? What a great question, Pamela. My why has changed many times over the years, and I think that it likely will be for you as well. I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to know our why and always keep it at the forefront of what we do. And I do think that that's important. But I also know that it can be multiple things. We can have lots of different whys to what we do, and then it can also change. So at the very beginning, my why was I wanted to do something creative. All of my whys at the beginning were a little bit selfish. I very selfishly wanted time freedom and location freedom. I wanted financial freedom. I knew I was a ways off from that at the beginning, but I very much wanted to answer only to myself on what I did every day. I didn't want to have to ask for time off or, you know, think about when I could do different things. I wanted complete freedom to do whatever I wanted to do in the moment. And, you know, that's, you know, it still means that you work. Say I put 40 hours in a week, but I get to choose when they are. And maybe I work on a Saturday, but I take a Tuesday or Wednesday off. Or it means that I can go to the gym when I want to go to the gym, or take a day to do something with my family or work on a trip or all of those things. I just very much wanted control over my days and what I did with them. And I did hold several, like regular nine to five jobs, especially at the beginning. And I always felt so stifled. It was so difficult because I had to answer to someone else in regards to my schedule and I didn't like it. So that was my why at the beginning. It moved into more of a financial why. I wanted to contribute to our income. And so that was an important why. My why today has shifted a little bit. And because I have accomplished those things, I accomplished time freedom. I accomplished my goal of being an art and creating beauty in the world. And that's still part of my why always is to make the world a more beautiful place. And then a couple of things that have added to that right are what I just said in the last question is developing other creatives is a huge part of my why. It's you, it's everyone listening, it's all of my students and members and people who come to us in order to learn. Developing creatives for me means teaching people, other people, how to use their creative skills to create that time, location and financial freedom for themselves. Because I've. I know how, how amazing of a life it is. And so that's a huge part of my why. And then the other really Huge part of my why today is impact. What impact can I make on my community in my town, in my country, in my state, and also around the world. So giving back and donating to charities and really being able to, you know, affect the causes that I feel most passionate about are a huge part of my why today. And so I think just permission to let your why grow with you. I think it's okay if your whys are selfish at the beginning. I mean, we all have needs and things that we want to take care of and a life that we want for ourselves. You know, I absolutely wanted to get my family financially stable. I wanted to pay off her house, which we did back in 2019, I think, and, you know, really set ourselves up for success in the future and have savings and all of that. And then once you kind of accomplish that, that your why becomes bigger and you get to grow with it and you get to have fun with it and think about the impact that you want to make. And so it will grow as you grow. And I do think it's really important that you keep it at the forefront of what you do. And our last question, number five actually didn't have a name with this submission, but I loved the question so we're going to talk about it. It says, do you have a morning practice or ritual that helps set your day up for success? Yes, I do. Oh my goodness. I am a creature of habit. And so I do almost the same exact thing every single day as long as I'm at home. And I even, I even eat the same thing up until like a certain point in the day. Like up until about 4 or 5 o'. Clock. I typically eat the same thing as well. And then dinner is where I really have fun. But I'm just a creature of habit. I like to figure things out and then just not have to think about it anymore. So every morning looks the same for me. I wake up at 6:30 and I do kind of this morning ritual, if you will. I spend time, I spend about 20 minutes on a PEMF mat, which is like electromagnetic mat with a red light therapy on. And so this is fairly new. I've been doing it since the beginning of this year. And I will link to all of that in the show notes for today's episode. You can get those@PropriationalCreative.com but it's, it's very much a health thing to do. I lay on the mat and I put my red light therapy on. And this is when I do like my devotion in the morning. So I'll spend about 20 minutes either listening to a devotion or reading in the Bible and praying. And it just really sets my day up for success and I really love it because it's kind of multitasking. I can prioritize my health and my well being while I'm also reading and prioritizing my spiritual health. And so I really enjoy it. And if I skip that I do, I just feel off and rushed and, and all of that. So by seven I'm getting the kids ready for school so they have to be out the door by 7:45. So we're all up and getting ready. I have breakfast. It's the same thing every day. It's oat milk made with organic Eden soy milk and a teaspoon of agave on top with an oat milk latte. That's what I have. We have a latte machine at the house and it's just one of my favorite parts of the day. My oatmeal and my latte and then I'm off to workout. So I do what you call functional Fitness. It's basically CrossFit and I do that at 8:30 every morning. That puts me in really a good head shape. Actually think that this type of workout, this kind of CrossFit functional fitness workout, been doing it for six or seven years. And it's so interesting because is it's pushing myself and my mind in a completely different way than I typically do in a business or creative setting. And I very much think that it makes me stronger, it makes my mental fortitude stronger when I am applying all of my business and creative work as well. And so it's also the only place I just kind of walk in the door and I forget about everything else. I'm not thinking about business. I'm just showing up for myself and I do it for myself to feel better. I love how it makes me feel. And then David, my husband gets to come to the same class with me. So we get to work out together and then talk about it afterwards as well. And it's a great, just like connection with him that we have together. That puts me at my studio around 10 o'. Clock. I usually have a little bit of time to get ready. I need to kind of of clean off and change clothes and if I have a live video that day I'm doing hair and makeup and I'll use that time to catch up on Slack or Telegram is where my mastermind is. So kind of be listening to messages while I'm getting ready and then I'M at my desk by around 10:30, and so my work day is typically from 10:30 to 4. My kids get home from from 4, and if I can't fit it in there, I try to move it to a different day. So that is my morning routine. It looks the same every day. I'm actually on a trip right now. I'm in Charleston for a mastermind and I just stuck to it. I got up, went to a gym here, did all of my same nutrition stuff and came back. I've got a couple of hours back before we have our event. So it is something that I do. It makes me feel great and it sets my day up for success. Thank you so much for listening. This is 50 episodes. I'm excited for the next 50 as well. So we'll be hitting a hundred episodes right around the year mark, which is going to be so exciting. And I loved these questions. Thank you for listening. Thank you for asking them. Create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world and remember, there's room for you.