Alrighty, after a busy couple weeks, we are back with some gold on here. It’s a long weekend here in Canada, and between family time and snuggling with my babies, I am quite happy to be plugged into my laptop uninterrupted to work. On my own stuff (hiii we have an in-person event coming up in just under a month), on client work, and building the structure that houses this iteration of brand and business for me. And shamelessly, it’s my happy place, after nature, water, and just being in my own peace.
So let’s get right into it… this episode will hit home especially for my creative entrepreneurs and service pros. If you’re ready to nourish and pour back into your own creative wellspring (as I always call it), this one’s for you.
I have spent years, genuinely, years, pouring the level of care, creativity, and strategic capacity into everyone else’s brand.
While my own God-given platform sat quiet. While my Substack went months without any writing, or writing in pockets of time. While my email list sat empty. Or my IG pretty much was non existent.
And I am someone who loves creating, writing, pouring my heart onto paper and through various art forms and mediums.
Even if I always showed up on Instagram, I would show up to share everyone else’s work. Spotlighting collaborators, celebrating clients, championing the people in my world. And there is nothing wrong with that. I deeply advocate for community building, collaboration, and celebrating others, it’s something I’ll never stop doing.
However, I stopped doing it for myself. I wasn’t sure where or when it started, but it started to feel easier to hide rather than take up space, share everything else rather that what was burning in my throat… and this cycle continued for almost 8 years of business… it’s only over the last year and half that I started to boldly take up space, let myself be seen and heard without giving a damn about what anyone thinks. The anyone in this case? Family, friends. Clients.
You might be able to relate to this…I told myself I was too busy, drained energetically and physically, swamped with client delivery. Too much of everything to show up for my own brand. To share my own message. To take up my own space. THAT, quite honestly was me living in delayed obedience, delaying the very destiny and calling God placed on my life.
And then—as all contracts do—those client contracts would end. Because such is life and business. It’s the natural evolution and business too is cyclical. Much like us, much like nature and how the Lord intended for it to be.
And I would look at my pipeline. And panic.
Where are my next clients? Where is the next yes coming from? Why is it suddenly so quiet?
As if I hadn’t created that exact condition myself. Send me a DM if you can relate.
OPERATION #UNKINKYOURHOSE
Now that I’ve shared that with you, let’s get super tangible and Imma be real candid here.
You might think you have a pipeline problem, when really you have a kinked garden hose. Bear with my analogy here.
No matter how much you open up your tap for the water to flow through the hose, if there’s a kink in it somewhere, flow gets blocked. Take this analogy to life, creativity, relationships, business, and especially money, sales, brand building.
When you have spent so much time pouring everything into everyone else’s brand, to the point where you’ve stifled your own creative flow, you’ve unintentionally tied your own brand into a million and one knots. There is no creativity flowing. There is no expression flowing. There is no message getting through. Even though you have so much to express. So much wisdom and brilliance inside of you.
And then you look up and you think—I don’t even know where to start. Because one day turns into one week turns into one month, one quarter and so on. Or you’re trying to express yourself on platforms that don’t naturally fit your expression style. If you love threads x podcasting x writing longform: YT, Substack, Threads and Pods it is! If you love IG, linkedin and have the bandwidth to create prolifically, go for it! But you gotta identify your expression style and medium. And lead with that.
As founders, the very first bullet is aimed at marketing… we think that’s a kink in our hose… it is and it’s not. We have to go deeper than that to understand why we keep repeating this cycle. Open today, closed tomorrow. It’s a dance I am very familiar with because I used to do that for so long.
FEAST AND FAMINE: THE TWO LAYERS OF THE OPEN TODAY//CLOSED TOMORROW TANGO
The feast and famine cycle most service providers, creatives, and artists go through is not a marketing failure. It’s two things at once:
The first layer is capacity.
When you are operating at 80, 90, or 100% delivery for client brands, your own brand has no breathing room to grow. And a brand that cannot breathe, dies. You don’t have a business, if there is no founder behind it, breathing into the company, creating and innovating. The essence is and always will be you. If you are the company, if you are the brand, and you don’t have time to show up for it, cultivate relationships, communicate with your people, plant seeds for what’s next… well friend, it’s why you keep repeating this loop.
The second layer is structure.
If you have not set yourself up for success, structurally, to keep receiving clients and cash flow while you are in delivery, you have a systems problem.
Brand building always has multiple layers to it, the main ones, in my opinion being capacity and structure. And this can be easily fixed, but you have to decide clearly, deliberately, with no apology on how much of you each client gets. How much of you your own brand gets. And do an inventory of whether or not you’ve built the support and systems to make all of that sustainable.
THE TRAP OF WORKING IN THE BUSINESS
Okay, for real, here’s where my loops kept repeating until I decided to end the cycle, and maybe this will be insightful for you.
I would be so bogged down with client delivery—doing the graphics, writing the copy, building the strategy, holding the vision, executing the campaigns, leading my team of contractors, and still having my hands IN the business. By the time I was done each day, each week, I had absolutely nothing left to pour into my own company.
I was always working in the business. I was never working on the business. This cycle continued for almost 8 years.
And I want to say something here that I deeply believe: we are all founders. We are all CEOs of our respective companies and brands, especially as small businesses.
It does not matter if you are a graphic designer, a photographer, a copywriter, a lawyer, a hairstylist, a coach, a fractional executive. If you are a small business owner, you are the company. You are the brand. You have to be able to market yourself. You have to be able to articulate your value and communicate your message with clarity and conviction. You have to be able to lead your own brand.
And this is especially hard for creative directors, artists, and service providers. Because we are gifted at building structures for others. We are gifted at building entire visions from start to finish, for someone else. It is almost easier to do that for someone else because we’re not too close to it. Their brand doesn’t carry our story. Our wounds and healing, our wisdom, our voice, our experiences.
But my friend, your own brand requires you to stand behind it. To say: this is mine. This is who I am. This is what I’m here to do. And that requires a different kind of courage. And often times, taking that next step will ruffle feathers, especially of those who’ve benefitted from you not putting yourself first.
THE 40% RULE I LEARNED INSIDE A WORKSHOP
I attended a workshop with the incredible Emily MacDonald (@founderemily on Instagram), and one of the biggest aha moments I had in that room was what I lovingly call the 40% rule.
In her workshop, Emily was doing a real-time case study with each of our businesses, and I shared with her my client delivery time (which was like 80-100% in Q1 of this year). And she said to me (and the other attendees),
“No more than 40% of your time should be spent in delivery. The other 50–60%? That is for your brand. Your content. Your writing. Your podcast. Your offers. Your structures. Your relationships. Your visibility. Your build.”
So let me ask you this:
If you say you want 10 clients, 20 clients, 30 clients, 1000 students in your classes etc (whatever your business model is): Do you have the infrastructure to hold these clients right now? In a tangible way without compromising client experience, quality of work, and creative excellence?
Is your website set up to hold them?
Do you have the backend processes to onboard them?
What happens when someone clicks the link to buy your offer? Do they get a welcome email? An automation? Or does it sit in an inbox you check every three days?
What’s automated and what’s still being done manually?
Do you have someone dedicated to client care and communications daily, or do you intentionally show up to connect with them?
This is the part of the conversation most creatives don’t like to have, because the online coaching space has popularized the idea that you don’t need a website or that you can make millions without any tangible structure to your programs and containers, and everyone is just flowing.
But here is what I want to say plainly: the Lord loves structure.
He took seven days to create the whole wide world. He had a plan for every day, including a plan for rest. Every person in the Bible called to build something significant—to shepherd, to lead, to do something big with their God-given mission—was given a plan, a blueprint and structure, and they obeyed it.
If God Himself works with order, intention, and rhythm—who are we to think we can build sustainably without it?
The moment I took time over the last year to truly rebuild the structure, given that my entire brand and business evolved, it has felt effortless to show up, sell, share my message, connect. I knew I couldn’t do it on my own, so I have a tiny but mighty crew that helps me bring my videos to life. I realized I didn’t need help with anything else but more so the creative production for my own business so that I don’t get in my way, and so I hired it out on a project basis. And the relief and excitement I’ve felt is insane!
#TRUTHBOMB: YOUR BRAND IS NOT YOUR MARKETING
You might be listening to this episode or reading this lovenote thinking okay, I need to create more content. I need to make more graphics. I need to post more. I need to (insert whatever you think you need to do)….
And Imma tell you right now, Stop in the name of all things holy! lol
That is not your brand. That is marketing.
Your brand is your infrastructure.
Your brand is the foundation, the actual scaffolding and rooms of the house you are called to build. It’s the vision, systems, standards, client experience, team experience, and the integrity of what you offer to the world.
Your brand infrastructure does not get built in the scraps of time left over after everyone else is served. It does not get built in breadcrumbs at the end of an exhausting day. It does not get built in the Sunday evening hours when you are too tired to think clearly.
I made myself a promise this sprint and I am holding myself to it: my brand gets first priority.
Not what’s left over. Not the leftover scraps of energy. Not the breadcrumbs of attention after every client need has been met. I had that aha moment two months ago, and realized THAT was the leak that was an insidious habit and it was holding my growth and success back from where it could be.
Because sure, life happens, things will happen and sometimes, your own brand etc and business will take a backseat when you are in survival and trying to provide for your family etc. I completely get that. However, THIS is how the enemy likes to keep you stuck and distracted from your mission. And sometimes, you cannot keep praying to God to give you the vision, the mission, and the blueprint, when you are unwilling to obey it, and step one of that is to actually take care of the house you’re building (aka YOU, your business, your life, your family) before being of any service to the world. This means you get freaking Michelin star service for yourself too!
Why am I sharing this with you? Because if I had poured even 20% of the creative energy I have given to client brands over the last decade into my own, I would be operating at an entirely different level right now. And while these may have been my lessons to learn, I also know that the Lord’s timing is his timing.
That said, I don’t share any of this with regret or resentment. Far from it actually.
I say it with reverence. With clarity. With the deepest respect for the craft I have been given. And the mission I am here to build and steward.
YOUR DREAM WEEK, YOUR DREAM DAY
Here’s the exercise I want you to do today.
Map out your dream week.
If you could design your perfect week, what would it look like? How much of it is client delivery? How much is your own brand development? How much is putting structures in place? How much is creating content, ideating, building your body of work, nurturing relationships?
Chart that out by percentage. Or color block it, I love colors to give me perspective, also I’m a visual learner haha.
Then map out your dream day.
Do you have on days and off days? A days and B days? Client days versus build days? Do you batch your content or create in the moment? Do you alternate? What rhythm actually works for the way you operate, for your health and vitality, for your family, for the life you’re trying to build?
Most founders I work with have never actually done this exercise. They are reacting to their calendar instead of designing it.
You cannot build a sustainable brand inside a reactive schedule. You have to build with intention, vision, purpose, and spaciousness. And that requires ruthless focus and clarity of your priorities, your standards, your boundaries.
FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY, STOP HIDING
I want to say this one with all the love I have:
Stop hiding behind the portfolio. that does not make or break you. The Lord provides.
Stop hiding behind referrals only. that is not the source of your prosperity. The Lord is.
Stop hiding behind your clients and their logos and their wins. that is not your mantle. The Lord is.
It is time to come out. Take up space. Let yourself be seen. He will give you the language, the blueprint, the destiny and assignment helpers, the right people, the right rooms, the right opportunities. But you gotta obey, and get out of your own way.
And on the other side of that visibility, build your structures. Because the more you let yourself be seen, the more people will want to work with you. And when they do, I know they will, those website clicks, newsletter signups, event registrations, booked out programs / retainers / masterclass, whatever it is—that is their first taste of your brand. Of your infrastructure. Of your creativity. Of your art.
That is their entry into your Michelin star restaurant. They get to taste the work. Whether that’s a one-time offer, a retainer, an intensive, a course, an event, whatever your business model is.
Don’t betray yourself. Don’t betray your brand. Don’t hide behind the curtains.
Show up. For your God-given mission. For the work. For the version of you that has been waiting to be unmuzzled while you were too busy serving everyone else’s vision.
IF YOU LOVED THIS EPISODE, JOURNEY WITH ME
If you felt seen, heard, and are like Gosh I need more of this, come on into my world! This is the work I do. This is what I help founders, creative directors, and service providers build—brands that are designed to breathe, to evolve, to hold the founder’s full capacity without depleting it.
Creative services and private mentorship: elixseermedia.co
One Degree Shift—90-day sprint launching for Q3 (community space, daily activating prompts, and a structured revival for your own brand) — stay tuned, launching in the next week or two cause I believe in beginning early and getting your momentum going. Join the email list to get first dibs and access.
The Founder’s Essence, June 12 (in-person in Oakville, ON, CAN) JOIN US
Wherever you are in this season, whatever your version of this is, I want to celebrate you. I know you are doing all the things.
I also want you to pray on it. Lean on prayer. Know that what’s on the other side of this is more of what you want for yourself, and more of what God wants for you.
It is time to lead yourself, unmuzzled.
It is time to stop bread crumbing yourself while you serve the whole wide world.
Bring it back to the foundations. Bring it back to God. Bring it back to you.
NEXT WEEK ON UNMUZZLED
I’m going deeper on creative direction and what it actually means to build a brand that breathes and evolves with you. Not just for who you are now, but one that reflects and honors who you are becoming. Every part of you.
See you there.
If this episode moved something in you, share it with a biz bestie and on your socials. Tag me. Drop a note on Substack. Let it reach the founder who needs to hear it most.
