This week I ran the penultimate session of the first ever Creative Growth Strategy Sprint. It’s been so cool to kick off the year with eight inspiring, creative solo business owners who are committed to growing their practices and businesses thoughtfully and creatively 🫶.
On a personal level, it’s the first time that I’ve worked with clients in a group capacity like this and the stretchy, exhilarating, sometimes nerve-wracking feeling that comes from doing something new has been so goooood. It’s one of the best things I’ve done so far work wise and there are already future sprints sprints in the works 👀 You can sign up here if you want to be kept in the loop.
If you run a one person businesses you’ve inherited growth blueprints designed for large businesses to maximise financial growth at all costs. Emphasis on the all costs.
For a while, social media and digital tools gave small businesses free access to tactics that worked for big brands. Social platforms are essentially pay to play now, and you can’t compete on budget with the big dogs.
But these ideas of successful growth and how we get there run deep. Capitalism will be like that.
Un petit Sunday morning reminder, if you are running a one person business YOU ARE JUST ONE PERSON. You bring all of your skills, taste, energy, experiences to every area of your work, which is what makes you unique and valuable within your market.
But using growth playbooks c+p’ed from businesses you’ve worked at or strategies that worked for big brands won’t translate here.
This week in the sprint we focused on building out growth ecosystems from a place of understanding how you actually enjoy connecting with other humans rather than from a place of “I know I should” (I know I should post on TikTok, I know I should host an IRL event...) because the shoulds often aren’t even true.
Think back to you as a kid. How did you enjoy connecting with other people then? Has that changed much since?! When you start from the vantage point of knowing how you actually enjoy connecting with others, the tools that can facilitate you growing your business in the most you ways come into focus.
If you love deep 1-1 chats, building regular coffees or voice note exchanges might be more effective “growth tools” than going to a big event. If you think best in writing, a newsletter is a better play for you than talking to camera videos. If you love teaching, workshops make sense. If you love hosting, maybe it’s dinners, salons, or small hangs. You get the drift.
Think of your one person business at the centre of an ecosystem. Around you are all the other people, brands, collaborators, competitors etc etc that make up your market (seen below as swirly swirls 🌀).
The inner ring of your ecosystem is made up of people you could text. Past clients, collaborators, work friends, ex-colleagues, friends of friends. Relationships that need nurturing in a normal keeping in touch kinda way.
The outer ring is made up of people who don’t know you yet but would love what you do. Future clients and collaborators. Reaching them effectively requires sharing your point of view, your experiences, your thinking in public in some format. It’s the scarier space to play for most people, but also the most exciting one, filled with opportunity.
Many of the external systems we’re operating within are burning. It’s not the time to default to playbooks that were never designed for your kind of life or business to thrive. From how you design your offerings to how you connect and collaborate with other people, realising the extent to which you have creative control here unlocks the possibility for growth to be dare I say… fun.
Either IRL with sticky notes on the wall or on Miro/ similar.
Draw a horizontal scale. One left end of the scale is Drains Me. The other end is Energises Me.
Place different ways of connecting with people along the scale. (Coffees, runs, phone calls, a pint, workshops, voice notes, hosting, NOT HOSTING, interviewing, teaching, curating others ideas, moderating, small group hangs, crafting etc. etc. etc.)
Look at the right hand side of your scale. The energising end. How can you use this info about yourself to shape how you connect with people in your inner and outer rings? How can you utilise the IRL and URL tools available to you to connect in these ways?
I’m tired of freelancers and solopreneurs feeling a constant sense of guilt for what they are not doing to grow! ! ! Can we collectively say goodbye to this capitalist guilt?
What we can do for sure is get clear on what works for us, see digital platforms for the tools they are, and ditch what’s not needed. If you try the exercise, let me know where you land. I would love to hear :).
Chat soon
Matilda
📨 Broken Growth is an almost weekly newsletter exploring how to grow creative businesses today, written by strategist Matilda Lucy. If you enjoyed reading, I’d love for you to share with a friend who might also find it useful 😎.
Ways to work with Matilda
🧠 1-1 strategy call for freelancers and solo business owners who want clarity on their next phase of growth
🌀 Join the waitlist for the spring Creative Growth Strategy Sprint
🧢 Limited availability in March and April for workshops, audits, and strategy for larger brands. Plz email me hey@matildalucy.com
such a wonderful read and i love your site (it's soo playful). i love the perspective about reflecting on our childhood as i've always felt our childhood has clues and patterns that are worthy of imitation in our adult life.
Matilda,
I want to thank you. Seriously, this means a lot to me. I was feeling a little crazy trying to find my place, to fit in a mold not meant for me. This post is such a wonderful read and reminds me to visit the little me who had no restrictions on his creativity and freedom of expression. I took a big step and started a blog to document the whimsies of my neurospicy brain and find out what makes me feel elated.
Thank you so much.