When you run your business online, you must become a master at change.

I love thinking about the process of change and reinvention as a transformation. Much like the transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly.

I’ve been running my online business(es) for several decades and holy chihuahuas… how the landscape has changed!

The Email Gold Rush

Before social media existed, growing your email list and subscribership gave you a super focused and attentive audience. Not many people were sharing content online and even less were doing it well. That meant that those of us who were sending great, content-filled emails thrived.

People LOVED receiving emails. If you were consistent and persistent about communicating with growing and communicating with your email list, you had an audience for your business that were looking forward to your emails.

Now, no one wants much email. If you decide to send emails, make sure your content is really, really good and valuable to your reader.

I’ve had successful email lists in the Andalusian horse, Classical Dressage education and training, Law of Attraction, handmade bath & beauty products, product creation and online marketing niches.

Now, everyone and their dog has an email list of subscribers and few actually WANT email.

Online business has CHANGED a ton, even in the last few years.

Spread of Social Media

Social media has diffused people’s attention spans.YouTube was available by 2005, Facebook and Twitter by 2006 and Instagram in 2010. It’s a great tool AND it can also leave you feeling like crap, deep in “comparisonitis” and like you’re not doing enough.  It’s also created a great way to pay to get in front of your ideal customers which we use and love.

When these social media channels began, it was easy to get attention. Now there’s so much noise, it’s hard to feel seen.

All of this has contributed to an incredible amount of online noise. It all contributes to less clarity on what YOU want.

One Size Does Not Fit All

One of my biggest pet peeves about the online world is seeing the online courses or coaching programs that show you a “Simple X Step System/ Blueprint” to grow your business.

It’s not that simple.

These are what I call “Big Box courses” that while they may have some good content, are almost worthless because they don’t take into account the individual.  It doesn’t address the actual lifestyle you want and how you want to deliver your value. I’m very clear that I do not want to sell “big box courses” or have to manage FB groups.

In fact, I recommend my coaching clients to “put blinders on” while they work with me. I recommend they get off social media,  other than having things posted on their channels. This is so they can be as productive as possible AND also so they don’t get derailed by comparisonitis or shiny object syndrome.

How to Figure Out Your Path

AKA: What I’m doing AGAIN now to grow into the next iteration of my business!

Go Inside.

The very first thing to do is to go inside and gain clarity on your own.

After that, find a coach or mentor to help you turn that into reality. You won’t find individual help in a “big box course”.

With the incredible amount of noise, online and in the “real world” it’s super important to make quiet time to ask yourself important questions about what YOU want your business to be.

Questions are THE access language to your most powerful universal mind.

You already have the answers inside of you. 

Find some QUIET so you can actually HEAR your own answers.

What most people do is:

• design your business based on what you think other people’s businesses look like from the outside looking in.
• jump on the latest fad or trend in online business.
• listen to the advice of other people and putting it before listening to your  Self .

Heartwork Journaling

I’ve been wrestling with where Heartwork Journaling is going as a part of my online business.

So the other night, I got quiet and started asking questions while painting.

I painted this woman with Monarch butterfly wings that evening.

The PERFECT answers EMERGED while painting her.

Here’s a video of the Monarch Woman painting.

When I paint these women, I’m asking myself questions to access my universal mind.

When she was completed, I had all the answers I needed with specifics.

I REALLY love the look in her eyes.

Her message is as much for me as it is for you:

You already know what to do.

Don’t follow the crowd – Build it your way.

Keep it simple and stay focused.