Looking Back : March & April in Review

Is it just me or have the last two months flew by? 

I can't believe it is already May...where is this year going? Things have been pretty busy on the Holy Noley front so I thought I would take this post to look back at what has been happening! 

Finding The Balance Between Being a Business Owner and a Blogger

I am not a blogger. 

There, I said it. I have tried numerous times but as you can tell  my frequent absences and "I'm back!" posts, there is just something about it that I find so difficult to keep up with. No matter how many times I try to create a content calendar, or scribble down post ideas or read blogs and articles about creating content and blog management, I just can't seem to get my act together. 

But something has happened. I think I've been approaching this all wrong and two things that I have been doing recently have kind of opened my eyes to this. 

The first is a podcast I have been listening to, called Elise Gets Crafty. In it, Elise discusses different aspects of being a creative entrepreneur. In one episode, she talks about blogging as a business owner and says something to the effect of "I am not a blogger, I am a business owner that blogs. There is a difference." This seemed to strike a chord with me, up until hearing that felt like I needed to be both. It was almost freeing to let myself off the hook for not "being a blogger".  

The second thing that has happened is that I have been participating in a class over at Studio Calico called Marketing For Creatives. I'm finding it to be super inspirational and informational, but an important message that keeps being brought up is to do one thing at a time. It is really eye opening to allow myself to only work on one thing at a time. Sometimes I get stuck in a mindset of having to do it all because I see other creative entrepreneurs who seem to do it all. What I need to remember is that I am still just starting out...Holy Noley is not even a year old yet! I should not expect to be doing it all, because that is setting myself up for failure. But now that I have that in my mind, it is allowing me to approach blogging in a different way. 

I'm thinking that for a little while at least, I am just going to try and treat this blog a little less like a serious component of Holy Noley and just post when I can. This way I am not obsessing over imaginary deadlines and making myself crazy. Maybe one day I will figure it all out, but until then, this is what I have to do. 

So how do you juggle it all? Do you have a secret to making it all happen that you can share? 

New Year, New Blog

Hello blog land! Happy New Year!

So it seems I put myself on hiatus after my last post. Maybe I started this blog too soon, without thinking first about what I truly wanted to make it into. And I know I don't have to settle for being in one particular category of blog forever, but I definitely started this without setting any sort of intention for it. 

I'll make a confession right now and say that one of my biggest weaknesses in life is getting caught up in the details. Anytime I get a BIG idea and become inspired by something, it is not long before I become overwhelmed and disheartened because I am hung up on some kind of detail. 

For example, I've been wanting to open an online shop to sell the things that I make in my craft frenzies for years. But I got it in my head that I wanted to have my own website because I didn't want to have to pay the (minimal) fees that Etsy charges. This wouldnt be a big deal, except that I don't know anything about website design or anything like that so I would quickly become discouraged and abandon the idea. In this scenario "online craft shop" is interchangeable with most of my passionate aspirations. Can you see why I never get anything accomplished? 

So for 2015, I will be setting a few intentions and goals...much more manageable than resolutions in my opinion. A big one will be to just let go. Let go of the minor details and just work towards the bigger picture and try not to get caught up in some small detail. I want to actively pursue some dreams of mine and the only way to do it will be to let go. 

As for this blog, well I am going to just keep working on it! I may not yet have a clear focus but as far as I know, there isn't a blog by-law that says that all blogs must start out clear and focused. I have all the time I need to figure out where I want to take this and tons and tons of inspiration from all the blogs  that I read. 

So what are some of your intentions for the new year?