On the gram’ I announced something pretty life changing. After 5 amazing years, I resigned at Nearpod and Flocabulary. I wasn’t looking to leave, but I was recruited and accepted the Head of Marketing position for Clayful – announcement post here! I’ve learned so much in just three short weeks. There are some of my learnings in the form of for solo business tips for teachers.
In a small start up, we’re moving quickly and doing a lot – which is exactly how you’re functioning in your solorpreneur life. Here are the three things I’ve learned in three weeks as the Head of Marketing, and how you can apply it in your business life.
#1 Solo Business Tips for Teachers: Be okay with a V1
As a solopreneur, you’re starting tons of projects from scratch and that can feel super intimidating. Reminder: you just need to get something down (a V1) so that you can reiterate off of that version to create something even better. You can’t make it better without something to work off of.
As former teachers, we feel the need to give 150%, but keep in mind that your 50% is someone else’s 100%. Creating something from a blank canvas is tough. If you just get something down, you’ve done the hardest part.
So, how do you do that when you’re not feeling very motivated?
In the book, The Subtle Art of not giving a F**K , the author mentions the ‘Do Something Principal’, which states that even if you do something, even the smallest of actions, it’ll give you the inspiration and motivation to do something else.
We typically think motivation works something like this:
Emotional Inspiration → Motivation → Desirable Action
However, your actions create further emotional reactions and inspirations and move on to motivate your future actions. Taking advantage of this knowledge, we can actually re-orient our mindset in the following way:
Action → Inspiration → Motivation
Read more about the do something principal here.
#2 Never forget what keeps you creative and happy
Tunnel vision can happen when working on your own business while balancing all the other responsibilities you have going on in your life. It’s important to remember and block off personal time. That’s why when I plan out my week or my day, I make sure to schedule in personal time. I also try and schedule at a minimum, one social event with friends during the week. This forces me to see a life during the week other than work and remind me that I work to live and not live to work.
What does self care look like for you? As you know from the gram‘, Orange theory helps me with my mental capacity and relieve stress. It’s my personal form of meditation. Self care can also look like reading, journaling, or even being at home with your phone on airplane mode.
If you’re a reader, I’ve got a list of my favorite thriller books here.
#3 Growth doesn’t come from easy
As I round out this last solo business tips for teachers, I’m hitting ya with the big one. If we want big growth to take place, we need to be comfortable in the uncomfortable. It’s time to recondition our baseline. If you ask for [insert big idea here], don’t be upset when a series of actions happen as a result of the [big action you wanted]. Think of all the big wins that you’re most proud of. I’m guessing majority of them were not simply handed to you, you had to put in the work.
You’ve got this! Keep crushing your goals, and don’t give up. I’m sincerely rooting for you!
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