I have a baby! I stopped selling my main product! Listen in to learn why!  After publishing an episode every single week for 6 years, the pandemic and life really threw me for a loop and it's been four months since a regular weekly podcast.  Well, I have good news - the podcast is back to it's normal weekly schedule! This week we're going to talk about the big changes in my life in my business, why I made the big changes that I did, and what lessons you can learn from my process. Find the full transcript here: http://taraswiger.com/podcast309

Explore Your Enthusiasm, with Tara Swiger | Craft | Art | Business

309: Big Changes!

It's time to share my favorite books of March - June. I read 25 books and so many were so good! FInd the full shownotes at TaraSwiger.com/podcast308.  Today's episode is brought to you by Hank Green and his upcoming book A Brilliantly Foolish Endeavor. Find more at HankGreen.com  The books I loved: Home Before Dark by Riley Sager Support indies Buy from Amazon   The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix I talked more about this book in this reading vlog Buy it here. From Amazon:   The City We Became by NK Jemisin  Support indies Buy from Amazon We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry Support indies Buy from Amazon Queenie by Cadace Carty-Williams Support indies Buy from Amazon   The HIlarious World of Depression by John Moe Support indies Buy from Amazon Courtroom Thrillers I loved:  Miracle Creek by Angie Kim A Good Marriage by Kimberley McCreight 

308: Favorite books of Spring 2020

As I was thinking about if I wanted to record and what, if anything, I wanted to share, I realized that what YOU come here for is help with your business and encouragement in building it. And the best way I can serve you right now is to tell you other awesome business podcasts to listen to, while I continue my podcast hiatus, specifically podcasts by black women.  Because here’s the thing - we all have implicit (meaning unconscious) biases. These biases affect what we listen to, who we pay attention to, who we trust.  One of the ways we defeat these biases is to notice them and then work at changing them. And one of the best ways is to pay attention and then purposefully change your feeds.  Changing your feeds isn’t the ONLY step, you also need to be educating yourself and interrogating your beliefs!   Book Recommendations for educating yourself on how to be anti-racist: So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad (only $2.99 on Kindle!) How to be an AntiRacist by Ibram X Kendi But changing your feed is an important step because, now more than ever, your reality and your beliefs are SHAPED by your feeds. Google and Facebook show you search results and NEWS based on your feeds and activity.  Your world is being created by the voices you actively choose to listen to.  Your life is created by your actions, your actions are caused by your thoughts and your thoughts are being shaped by what you see online, especially in spaces YOU and the algorithms have curated. So let’s get your feeds full of brilliant black business women.  Side Hustle Pro by Nicaila Mathews Okome Nicaila interviews black women entrepreneurs who have scaled their side hustles into full-time entrepreneurship. Lately she’s been doing a “rewind” episodes where she shares the steps in her own business journey. I think y’all will like  episode 199 where she shares how to start a side hustle and her own journey and episode  195, where she talks to a jewelry designer who hustled for 10 years before turning it into a full-time business.    Pimp your brilliance with Monique Malcom Lessons on finances, business, creating a plan to turn your creative passion into a business. Monique is real about her struggles and the feel of the show is more casual, like this one. I think you’ll like episode 83: 5 ways to find focus while social distancing and episode 78: 6 systems for your creative business.   Support is sexy with Elayne Fluker Elayne does interviews with a variety of women entrepreneurs, including Etsy sellers, authors  and psychologists and doctors. There is a great episode from May 1 on dealing with stress during coronavirus, where Elayne speaks with a therapist. I think listeners of this podcast will really want to tune in to episode 725 on how to build a million dollar Etsy business.    Journey to Launch with Jamila Soufrant This is a financial focused podcast that has interviews with many entrepreneurs and regular folks who have paid off their debt. I think you’ll like episode 129 on quitting your dayjob to follow your creative passion.   Be School withTaylor Elyse Taylor is an embodiment coach and the focus of her show is on mindset and confidence and flow. Be School is a combination of interviews and mini-lessons, similar to the ones I teach here. Her episodes always encourage me. She posts new episodes TWICE a week, so if you’re desperate for new episodes, list in! I think you’ll love episode 304: Imposter Syndrome. Now, these are just the business shows I like, and I don’t even really listen to business podcasts! Lemme know your fave podcasts by black women  over on Instagram I’m @TaraSwiger  I’m extending my unplanned podcast break into a full summer sabbatical. I will go back to weekly episodes of Explore Your Enthusiasm the first week of August! Until then, you can find new bookish videos on YouTube. Find the shownotes and more episodes at http://taraswiger.com/podcast307 

307: Business and Mindset Podcasts by Black Women

What if you are just not getting things done? What if you just can NOT get things done? Before you start beating yourself up, ask yourself: is this just a season of my life? I recorded this episode over a year ago, when I was a brand-new mom, but it's so appropriate for what we're ALL going through right now - a completely new season in our life and business.    Find the shownotes with the full transcript here: http://taraswiger.com/podcast306

Classic: Seasons of Business

How do you find joy and enthusiasm for anything when everything is turned upside down? That’s what I’ve been thinking about this past week.  As you know if you’ve been listening for a while, my fundamental business belief, what shapes everything I do and how I work with makers and designers, is that your business will thrive and YOU will feel best about it when you follow your enthusiasm. What do I mean by enthusiasm? I like the definition:  intense or eager enjoyment or interest. You can follow your enthusiasm IN your business, by working on projects you love, letting go of expectations about what you “should” do, working with the kind of clients that you prefer. You can follow your enthusiasm outside of your business by allowing yourself to work on non-business projects and filling up your enthusiasm well with things that seem completely unrelated (for me lately it’s reading, and making bookish videos, which you can find on YouTube. Other times it’s been quilting or knitting).  But with everything uncertain and stressful and all the change...how do we find any enthusiasm?  I don’t know about your coronovirus situation, but mine is full of...obligation and responsibility. Basically, we’re all having to do a lot of things we don’t want to do, or that we’re not prepared to do, or that are just hard.  On top of that, you have your business - maybe it is doing just fine, maybe it has lost some of it’s sales channels, maybe you’ve lost all your working hours, when you would work on it.  So does the idea of enthusiasm and joy really have a place in our current situation? In my experience, yes.  Not because things aren’t hard or we’re going to pretend everything is great. But because now, more than ever, you need to take care of your best business resource, and your family’s most important resource - your wellbeing. A key ingredient to your mental and emotional wellbeing is doing things that are just fun. That you get excited about, that brings you joy, or just interests you.    But how do you tap into that enthusiasm? Fine all of the suggestions here: http://taraswiger.com/podcast305 We will bounce back.       

HOW TO FIND ENTHUSIASM IN UNCERTAINTY

Welcome to April and the beginning of a new quarter! This is the time where we usually make plans for the coming three months and review the progress we’ve made so far this year but...everything is weird. How do we do that now? In the Starship this week, we’re Map Making - making a plan for the quarter. You can learn more about the Starship here and/or start making your own map with my book, Map Your Business.  I know, nothing is normal right now.  You are staying home, no one in your home is ever leaving it, you may not be able to get the supplies you usually do, you may not be selling where you usually do, people are buying less because some people are losing their jobs.  And yet.  Now is the perfect time to plan the new quarter.    I’ve actually talked about planning during uncertainty already - back in episode 254, I gave suggestions for how you can plan when YOUR life is uncertain. Add back in episode 291, I shared how I was planning the New Year while my life is so uncertain (as a foster parent).    Well, guess what? Now you’re joining me in everything being up in the air and nothing being normal! It’s really uncomfortable isn’t it?  One of the things I find myself wanting to do is just wait….wait for it to feel normal. Wait for things to be ok. Wait for everything to be how it was.  Well, that’s not going to happen.  We may very well need to limit social contact for quite a long while until this is completely past.  But beyond that, life WILL be different.  Some of the people who lost jobs, won’t get the same ones back.  Some businesses won’t open back up.    I don’t say any of this to scare you, but so that you can be honest with yourself - things have changed and we don’t when or if what we consider normal is coming back.    What we can do is move forward with what we do know  What we can do is embrace today for being today. We can accept our current reality and find ways to live within that.  And look, I know, it’s scary. Change is really really hard. And never before have we all been going through change at the SAME TIME. It’s so disorienting!    Waiting until everything is normal isn’t going to work.  Accepting where you are right now is the only way forward. Now it may take days or weeks or even a month to really feel ready to accept it. To even understand what the new reality is. It’s certainly taken me a week or two to get used to having two girls home from school every day and feeling out what our schedules are.    But once you’re accepting it and through the fog a bit, it’s time to plan.    So how can we plan when we don’t know what’s coming?    Look at your goals and dreams again. Get reoriented in where you want to go. Ask yourself which you still care about. Which still matters Forget the old way of getting there and look for new ways. Maybe you were going to do a craft show - what about finally starting that shopify shop? Maybe you were going to grow your email list at a craft show, what about creating a PDF download to drive subscribers?  Focus on systems, not outcomes. If you find yourself stressed that people aren’t shopping as much now (although I’m not sure this is true? Surely online shopping is surging) - stop focusing on the outcomes of your goals,and focus instead on setting up the systems of your goals. What technology do you need? How consistent will you be? What do you have to do in order to stay consistent?  Be Realistic Yes, work on your goals, make a plan, but also really practice accepting the time and energy you have. I know I have about an hour a day, as long as my girls aren’t in school. I wish I could do more in my business, but that’s the extent of the time and energy I have. So I’m making a plan for the quarter - I’m looking at the systems and products I want to create, knowing I'll be doing it in about 5 hours a week. I will consider it a success if I use those 5 hours well, to create and publish this podcast, hold the weekly Starship chat and go live in my Facebook group. That’s it. Be gentle on yourself. Along with being realistic, give yourself a break. I HAVE more hours than just naptime - I could get up early or work after bedtime...but I need that rest and recovery. I don’t know about you, but I find myself more on edge, more exhausted, more short-tempered than usual. So don’t make your business and your goals another thing to stress yourself out, another thing you should be doing.    We are going to get through this. Things may not look the same afterwards...but what if that was a good thing? What if you set a goal for the quarter and reached it despite all the chaos? How awesome and grateful would you feel?  One way or the other time will pass, the virus will pass and there will be shopping and craft shows and retail locations making orders again - will your business be ready for it?  Find the shownotes here: http://taraswiger.com/podcast304  

304: How to plan for business during uncertainty

How  do you decide what to do next? How do you make a decision? My family has a simple question that we ask to make complex decisions and I’m sharing it with you today.   I want to talk about how you decide ANYthing in your business (or life) and a quick question I use to make better decisions. I’m not even going to make you wait, here is the question to ask yourself: Hard now or hard later?  Over the years of making decisions together, from do we want to get pizza delivered or make dinner, to should we buy a new or used car, to should we rent or buy...my husband and I have realized that making decisions is it’s own skill set. To make decisions together, we need to be on the same page about what matters, what our values are, and where we’re going as a family.  And there are a lot of ways to make bad decisions! If you just look at the short-term effect of the decision, if you look at what’s gratifying RIGHT NOW, if you make a decision based on a value that’s not really your own...you end up with a not-great result. Sometimes it doesn’t really matter (should we have ordered that pizza), but sometimes your whole future can turn on a few decisions.  But this is not a marriage advice podcast (maybe I’ll start that next?) this is a handmade business podcast! You make decisions every single day in your business, and I know it is so easy to get stuck wondering “what is the right decision? Does this even matter?” Here’s what you can do to cut through all the stuckness and get right to what matters: Hard now or hard later?  What this means is: Is there a way to make this decision that may be hard now, but will make life easier later? Or if I choose the easier path now, will it make more difficult later?   As an example, let’s look at a decision a lot of us made in our 20s - If I’ve got no money, but I want a pizza or to go out with my friends...should I just get it on a credit card or should I not go out and eat what I have at home? Most of us know that the easier decision is to order a pizza, but we could be paying interest charges on that one pizza for months - it will make the future harder. Or we could make the less fun decision now and have an easier future (with no debt!)   A lot of people are raised to (and parts of our culture encourages us to) make the easy decision now and let your future self deal with it. There’s even a  stand up comedian who jokes about making life harder for your Future Self. Screw that guy, let him deal with it!  So this question - do I want to do the hard thing now or suffer the worse consequences later?    Another way to ask the question is: fun now or fun later?  Do I want to have short-term fun now, and pay for it later? Or make a hard decision now to make it more fun later?  Now, this may not be the question you need. When I was talking about this on a Live in my Facebook group, my friend and life coach Joeli made the point that a lot of people in our community have this misunderstanding that life is “supposed” to be hard. That work is “supposed to be” hard. So they make things hard that don’t have to be hard. I totally know what she means because I see it all the time, this mistrust that things can be easy, work can be filled with ease.  So if that’s you, if you think everything has to be hard, let me flip this question around for you. Next time you make a decision ask yourself: What can I do now to set my Future Self up for success? And how can I make it full of ease and fun?    I used a financial decision as an example, but this can apply to so many thing in your business: Do I want to take the time to schedule my social media for the next two weeks or do I want to have to deal with it every day? Do I want to figure out my numbers and profitability now, or suffer the consequences of selling items at a price that doesn’t actually make sense? Do I want to take the time to identify my market and shape my marketing message or keep trying to do it on the fly and getting more frustrated and disappointed when marketing doesn’t work?  Do I want to confront this problem now (with a supplier, a customer, a friend) or do I want to leave it alone and have a bigger blow-up later?  And if you, like me, are still practicing social distancing or quarantine right now, we’re not out of the decision-making loop. Do I want to give my kids another hour of TV and deal with them bouncing off the walls later? Do I want to mindlessly scroll Twitter now and feel unproductive and stressed later?  Remember, sometimes you need to choose the easy thing. Sometimes you need the rest, sometimes you need to zone out. But the key to building a sustainable business is to give yourself what you need, while still honoring and taking care of your Future Self. 

How to make decisions: Ask yourself this question

Why do you feel stuck? Why isn’t your business growing? It could be one of these mistakes that are common in creative businesses. I want to help you avoid these mistakes, so let’s dive right in.  I’ve been working with product makers - yarn dyers, bag sewers, jewelry makers - and designers and shop owners for the last decade! I’ve been getting up close and personal with them, in my community, the Starship, since 2011. So I have seen a lot of what holds us back in our business, and what to do in order to move forward with confidence and profit.  Today I wanna talk about three of the mistakes I see makers and designers make, in their thinking, that holds them back. If you want to avoid the three mistakes most creatives make in running their business, check out my free workshop on the 4 Foundation Method to a Thriving Business, where I explain the mistakes AND teach you how to avoid them (or fix them if you’ve already made them!). You’ll find that at Taraswiger.com/foundaitons.  Real quick before we get into it. This is not about shaming you. If you recognize yourself in the mistakes I’m about to share, that’s ok. Realizing you’re making a mistake is the first step to fixing it! So there’s no shame about making mistakes, there’s only learning and changing going forward. Ok? Ok!    FInd all three mistakes in the shownotes: http://taraswiger.com/podcast301 This episode covered 3 mistakes you may be making in the way you’re THINKING of your business. The next step is to look at the mistakes you’re making in RUNNING your business. To learn how to avoid (or fix) those mistakes, head over to TaraSwiger.com/foundations and join my free workshop  

3 mistakes to avoid in your handmade business

It's the 300th episode of the podcast! OMG! Celebrate with me in this episode as my husband  asks me YOUR questions. We discuss the very twisty journey that brought me here in my business, how I plan my weeks, and how I order my coffee.  You can SEE us answer these questions right here: http://taraswiger.com/podcast300   Help me celebrate by:  Leaving a review on your podcast app!  Joining the free Facebook group where I'll be going LIVE this week with a celebration!  

300: Celebrations! How I got here, how I manage my week, and more of your questions answered

Are you using Instagram Stories? Is it connecting with your customers and helping you reach your goals? Or are you confused about what to do to make it effective? Today I’m going to answer your questions about WHY you should be using Instagram Stories and HOW to make them work for you! Today we’re diving into the tool Instagram Stories and how you can use them to connect with your right customers, build trust and make sales. Head over the to the VIDEO version of this episode to see a walk-through of everything I talk about: http://taraswiger.com/podcast299 What is Instagram Stories? Instagram Stories is an extra feature on Instagram, where you can post images or 15 second videos from your day. They expire after 24 hours. You can shoot them “live” from inside the app, or you can use the photos in your photo library on your phone. You can also share your regular Instagram posts (if viewers click on them they’ll be taken to your post where they can like and comment) and you can share other people’s Instagram posts, which means you can share your customers photos of your work! Why do Stories? What is the best way to build trust with potential customers? It’s in-person events. Customers get to talk to you, touch the product, then buy directly from you. The second-best option is live video, it is the most similar to being in-person. The potential customer gets to see how you really talk, see what you’re working on. This builds relationships and it builds trust. And more trust = more sales. Stories allow you to show way more than you can in your Instagram grid. Are you packing orders, getting supplies, making products everyday? In Stories, you can show that! What do you have in common with your customers? You can share that in Stories. For example: reading, relationships, personality type, preferences, etc. Remember: You get to decide what to share. How do you use Stories effectively? What kind of Stories build relationships? Personal Unedited Use Engagement tools Polls, Questions, Sliders Use DMs Use Stories to tell your Marketing Message, and then save it to “Highlights” You may be thinking – uh, what is my marketing message? What do I talk about? I outline what goes into your effective marketing message in my free workshop “4 Foundations” and we can work together on your Marketing Message inside the Starship Program. To watch the free workshop and learn more about how we can work together go to TaraSwiger.com/foundations I’d love to hear how you are using Instagram Stories in your business! Come tell me on Instagram. I’m @taraswiger. I’m going to give you homework right now to put this into practice: Take a screenshot of your podcast app as you’re listening, then open Instagram Stories, share this photo and tag me @taraswiger and add the hashtag #exploreyourenthusiasm. This is such a low-stress way to get started, you don’t have to talk to the camera or anything. While you’re on IG, send a DM and tell me what you learned from this episode! Don't forget to watch the video with tutorials for Instagram Stories here: http://taraswiger.com/podcast299

299: Why Instagram Stories?

Is Instagram worth it? How do you make sales with Instagram? I know! This is one of the ongoing questions my students have about any tool, and Instagram in particular. Today I’m going to explain EXACTLY how you can increase your sales by using Instagram. Before we dive into Instagram, we are coming right up on episode 300, and I am including YOU in this episode! To participate, head over to my free FB group: fb.com/groups/taraswiger and the info on how to be involved is right there, pinned to the top! Today’s question comes directly from the FB group: Does Instagram actually make sales for anyone? It seems to be just a waste of time, a bunch of content going into the void. First of all: yeah, it can DEFINITELY feel like a waste of your time! The good news is: YOU are in charge of whether it's a waste of time or not. It’s true! You don’t have to wait for Instagram to send you people, or for your right buyer to just stumble upon you. Instead, make Instagram effective for your business by creating a plan and using it to find, connect with, and build trust with your ideal buyers. You will make sales with Instagram when you talk to, connect with and build trust with your Ideal Buyers. So how do you connect and build trust on Instagram?  Identify your Right People. Talk to your Right People on YOUR profile Find and connect with your Right People on their profile. Now let’s get into it deeper. Identify Your Right People Who buys your item? Who wants what you sell? These are your Right People. This is who ALL your marketing should be for. This will impact what photos you use, what captions you write, what hashtags you utilize, everything about all of your marketing. This is a deeper process than just answering a few questions and it is what I do with Captains inside the Starship. So if you want to know more about your people, check out the free workshop at TaraSwiger.com/Foundations and we can work together to identify your Right People. On Your Profile If you’re taking the time to post photos on your Instagram, then take the extra time to make it effective at making a connection with your Right Buyer. How? Captions. A photo might grab someone’s attention, but captions are how your customers get to know YOU, get to know your brand and what you stand for, and feel connected to you. Yes, you could just write three words and be done, but if you’re taking the time to post, shouldn’t you take the time to make it worthwhile? Writing a longer post (over 65 words, which is the average), it will take longer, but it will also be more valuable. The data shows that posts with longer captions generally have higher engagement than those with a shorter caption. Engagement is when your followers interact with your post (comment, like, save or share it). And more engagement leads to more people seeing your post. Ok, so what do you write? This is where you come back to your RIght Buyer - what is she interested in? What does she need to know about your product or your company? We answer all these questions in the Starship, so you create effective posts. On Her Profile How does your customer find you? Well, she may be searching, she may click on hashtags, but the most direct way for your customer to find you is… you find her. Stop waiting for your Right Buyer to find your photos, or to find your shop - find her! How?  This goes back to the work you did to identify your RIght Buyer - once you have a very clear idea of who she is, you can look at who she follows, what sites she reads, what she’s into. One of the easiest ways is to look at your Actual Customers. See what they’re posting, who they’re following, what hashtags they use. And… connect with her! Follow your customer on Instagram, comment on her posts, when she asks for a recommendation, give it! You’re not going to be SELLING to her, but you will be CONNECTING with her. Look at who else they follow and who follows them. If that person seems like your Right Buyer, follow them! And connect. Does this work? Doesn’t it take a lot of time? Oh, I know, I hear you moaning now - but Tara! Doesn’t this take a lot of time? Does this work?  And the answer is yes and yes. It does take time. But you are already scrolling on Instagram. Right? You are already spending time on social media that is not building your business. I’m not asking you to spend MORE time, I’m asking you to spend your time EFFECTIVELY. As in, doing stuff that will make a change. As for it working, listen. I don’t recommend you do only this. This is one strategy in what should be a full plan for marketing, that includes clear messaging, email marketing, in-person marketing, along with Instagram. This is not linear. You don’t get a 1:1 result. Or even a 10:1 result. Some posts will connect with people and get 5 new followers. Some will have a strong call to action and hit someone at just the right time and generate 2 or 10 sales. And some will just build a relationship and build trust, so that when you post your newest product, your followers are ready to click over and buy. How does this actually work? Well, here’s the thing: I’ve actually said all of this backwards to how your customer will experience it. How it’s going to work is that you are going to go out and connect with your Ideal Buyers on her profile. Leave comments, make recommendations, answer questions. Then, she will move from her profile to yours. You will be building a profile (full of photos and captions) that connect with her so she’ll stick around, maybe click through to your products, maybe follow you. Keep posting, with calls to action that lead her to click, and she’ll click through to your website and buy when she’s ready. As I was sharing this in the Facebook group, I had someone ask “What about commenting on a post that already has tons of comments? Won’t I just get lost?” Yes, yes you will. For marketing purposes, don’t bother with accounts that are super big, with dozens of comments. Your comment will mean so much more to someone who doesn’t get very many. What I’ve noticed is that people have so much resistance to this idea. They don't want to do it because they don’t see immediate results. They don’t want to comment on other people’s posts, but they want people to comment on theirs. Why? You show people how to interact with you. If you are never in comments, no one else will be. If you never follow anyone or interact, you can’t expect anyone to interact with you. Yes, you will do work - captions, comments, stories, that won’t get a response. So what? You’re learning, you’re creating a library of content. You are trial-and-error-ing it. You are getting better at your marketing messaging. And guess what? This podcast is built on the very principles you’ll apply to your Instagram. I create content that will delight you. It takes me a LOT of time and energy to create each episode I give it to you for free. I connect with you on social media, you may listen for a month or two years, all the while feeling more trust and connection with me, until you feel ready to join the Starship and work with me. Are all those episodes I create where you didn’t buy a waste of time and energy? No, they were building a relationship. But don’t forget - your posts aren’t building that relationship with ONE person, they are building it with many people who are seeing today, and people who will scroll back and read it a year from now. If you’ve been listening for a while, and you are curious about learning more to work together, check out how we can work together in my free masterclass - 4 Foundations to a Thriving Handmade Business. You can find it at taraswiger.com/foundations   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast298

298: How Instagram creates sales

What is the best book you’ve read lately? In today’s episode, I’m sharing my favorite books of this winter - from December - February. Every quarter I round-up my most-favorite books and share them here. If you are subscribed to my YouTube channel, you may recognize some of these books, as they were part of my Best Books of 2019. If you like learning about great books and you are NOT subscribed over on YouTube, you are missing out! I share reading vlogs, monthly round-ups, and all kinds of fun bookish stuff in my Monday videos at TaraSwiger.com/YouTube. You can scroll down and see my whole Reading playlist or click on Videos to see my most recent videos. StatsI have read 16 books so far, and I will likely finish another 3 before the end of the month. 4 mysteries, 2 giant YA space operas over 600 pages, 3 personal memoir essay-ish things. All three of the memoirs were great, so I’m going to just quickly tell you, you should read them: Enough, by Shauna Ahern, who you may know as Gluten-Free Girl. I read her blog years ago, and so I picked this up when I saw it on the New Book shelf at the library. It is totally different and so good. Shauna tells the story of how she began to feel as if she is enough, after a lifetime of living by the girl code (criticizing your body, trying to be smaller), a traumatic childhood and trying to make money on the internet. I think anyone who is a woman or works online should read it. How We Fight for our Lives by Saeed Jones, is the memoir of a young black gay man growing up in Texas. There is violence, there is sexual content, and there is a really beautiful story of finding himself and figuring out his relationship with his mother. Thick and Other Essays, by Tressie McMillan Cottom, is a series of essays about her experiences being a black woman academic living in the world. It’s about thickness, of body and of thought, and explores beauty and twitter and class mobility. Read it if you like Roxanne Gay or Lindy West’s Shrill. Now, the fiction books: Such a Fun Age by Kelly Reid might be my favorite book of the year, ALREADY. A young black woman is babysitting for a white family and has a very racially charged experience in a grocery store. The story unfolds from that tense beginning, but the book itself manages to be fun and compelling and build a momentum that had me up until 3am finishing it. It’s really about white privilege and how “good” white people try to do the right thing while completely ignoring the black person’s agency and selfhood. This book is complex and real and although it sounds like it could be heavy, it’s actually just great fun. Illuminae, by Amy Kaufman is so weird I can’t believe it’s so good. It’s a kind of YA space opera with horror. I only think it’s YA because the protagonist is a teenage girl, who is saving absolutely everyone. But it’s a little dark and splattery for like, 12 year old Tara. It is really about survival and sacrifice and telling your own story. I’ve read the second book in the trilogy, Gemina, and I liked it almost as much. I’ve got the last book, Obsidio, on my shelf. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo has been on my shelf forever, but I had been avoiding it because it’s written in prose. It took me a minute to sink into it, but when I did, man! It beautifully tells the story from the perspective of a young Dominican girl living in Harlem who is figuring out adolescence and her conservative family, while starting to write slam poetry. It is just the most gorgeous and most true book I’ve read about what it means to be a girl when you start to get unwanted male attention… but it’s not even really about that. Ok, so a few more books I read and loved but am not going to go into detail about: Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead A Blade So Black by LL McKinney The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn.  These were a few really good reading months! I think I got to some deeper books, like the memoirs, because we didn’t have kids for a few of the months (in case you don’t understand how we only sometimes have kids - we’re foster parents). When you purchase the book using my links, I earn a tiny percentage, which frankly, goes to buying diapers. I get most of my books at my local library, so check yours out because libraries are amazing. Lots  of my faves came from the Book of the Month Club (referral link). In a few weeks I have my 300th episode - to learn how you can participate in my celebration, be sure you’ve joined the Facebook group - facebook.com/groups/taraswiger Thanks for listening and have a book-filled enthusiastic week!   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast297

297: Favorite books of Winter 2020

Now that you’ve worked on your fear, what about your other beliefs that are holding you back? What do you need to believe in order to move towards your goals? Over the last few weeks we’ve been talking about what’s holding you back. We’ve talked about how a lot of you say what’s holding you back is… YOU. Fear is at the heart of a lot of it. Another aspect of what’s holding you back is what you believe - about yourself, your business, and how the world works. This is your mindset, the set of beliefs that form your frame that you look at the world through. Now, before you think, “yeah, yeah, I gotta have the right mindset. But what I really need is 5 steps to grow my Instagram!”...let’s take a minute, just like 10 minutes, to go deeper on this. If your mindset and your beliefs are holding you back, it won’t matter how many tactics and tricks you learn for Instagram or Etsy or craft shows. It won’t matter because YOU will keep holding YOU back. Mindset We’re going to talk about a few different ways your beliefs can hold you back. The first one is your mindset - what you believe you are capable of and how the world works. Over the years you’ve heard me talk about the research in the book Mindset, by Carol Dweck. As a researcher she looked across areas - school, business, sports - and found that people think of themselves and their challenges in one of two ways - with a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. Fixed mindset = believing that you are the way you are and you’re not going to change. Growth mindset = believing that you can grow and improve and learn to reach your challenges. You’ve probably heard this before. And you’ve probably decided, I wanna have a growth mindset. But this is actually WAY harder than a one time decision and it comes up again and again. Here’s what I’ve noticed in the last few years of thinking about this and talking with makers about it: You probably have different mindsets in different areas. You might have a very growth mindset when it comes to your relationship (We can figure it out!) but a very fixed mindset when it comes to your finances (we’ll never figure it out!) Time and experiences can change your mindset. I’ve found that the more you become experienced in an area, the easier it is to become fixed in the belief that you’ve learned everything and figured it out. This is when you start to say “That won’t work for me.” “I tried that, it never works.” Those are actually the two phrases that are red alarms when I’m talking to a business owner. I know that they’re coming at it from a fixed mindset and there’s not much I can help them with unless they shift their mindset from “I already know what I know” to “I can learn and keep trying” But I’m guilty of this too! I started out my business with a growth mindset - I knew there was so much I didn’t know and I knew I could learn it. Over time, I learned more, and my mindset became more fixed. I think I know what works, what doesn’t and what is worth my time. My challenge, all the time, is to try new things with the mindset of: I can learn how this works for me. I do this through trying new tools (TikTok!), trying new strategies (webinars) and even trying new business models. So when we’re talking about how you’re in your way - the question is: Do you believe you can grow or change? What areas feel really “fixed” or stuck? What areas do you feel really open to learning? To learn more:  Failure as fuel: https://taraswiger.com/podcast263/ Mindset: The key to success: https://taraswiger.com/podcast49/ Expectation Another aspect of your belief that affects your business is your expectations and flexibility - what do you expect will happen? In what timeline? Or else...what? I am so surprised when people tell me that they’re quitting their business because it didn’t reach a really outsize goal in a short time frame. It makes me wonder: did you really want a business (which is doing the work every day forever) or did you just want that goal (probably money)? I’m going to say this really clearly - having a business is doing the work day in and day out, whether you reach one particular goal or not. It is learning, changing, experimenting and being flexible. If you don’t want to do that, you don’t want a business. And hey - that’s ok! If you want a for-sure amount of money for your amount of work, you’re going to need to get a job where you are paid a specific amount of money for a specific amount of work. Owning a business is not like a job. AT ALL. So what are your expectations of your business? As you know if you’ve been listening for a while, I don’t believe in lowering your expectations - I believe in setting big goals and working hard towards them. But I believe in expecting your business to behave as a business - to need tending and changing and flexibility. And to adjust your expectations as you learn more about what your business is. Having the wrong expectations of your business can hold you back from appreciating it for what it is and for putting in the work you’ll need to, to reach your goals. Belief in yourself So this last point is a little bit about growth mindset, but it’s also about confidence. The most important belief you hold in your business is your belief about yourself. The number one indicator of what your business will do is what you think is possible. Yes, YOUR belief in what you think YOU can do is going to shape how far or fast your business goes. Why? Because if you don’t think you can do it, you won’t. If you don’t think it’s possible, you won’t do the work. Wait, what about realistic expectations? Yeah, you need to expect your business to act like a business. But how big you dream and what you think YOU are capable of is going to determine how hard you work at making it happen. So EXPECT that your business is going to have ups and downs, that it will take work and growth and challenge you. But BELIEVE that you can do it. You are capable. You can learn. Here’s what I can tell you for sure: if you believe that you aren’t capable enough to make this happen, it won’t. NOT because you aren’t capable, but because you won’t do the work. You won’t put in the time to learn and grow. This isn’t some “believe it and it will happen” stuff… this is the hard fact that if you don’t believe it, it won’t happen. And listen, maintaining that belief is NOT easy. I shifted how my business works about six months ago and I believe it is absolutely the right thing and that it is absolutely going to allow my business to grow more than it would have… but it’s taking some time to see that change, as dollar bills. It is taking me learning and growing in a bunch of ways. If that belief wavers, I’m going to stop moving forward. I’m going to stop midway and try something else, which will kill my momentum and confuse customers and cost me money and sales. But if I maintain the belief and keep moving forward (while being flexible), I’m going to see results because I believe in what I have to share is valuable, it transforms businesses and I want it to help as many people as possible. Maintaining belief in yourself and your business direction is not going to be easy. But giving up or stopping halfway isn’t a better option. It may be easier to stop or to try something else, but when you do that too often, you start to feel scattered and confused and unfocused. And hey, that’s where a LOT of makers are today. They have tried so many different directions, so many different marketing strategies, that they’re all turned around and confused. If that’s you, I’ve got a workshop that will help focus you. You can find it at TaraSwiger.com/foundations. I hope this series about what’s standing in your own way and how to move past these blocks have helped you reach your goals! Next week I’m sharing my quarterly round-up of favorite books and in 4 weeks we’ll have the 300th episode SPECTACULAR. It’s going to involve YOU and YOUR questions, so be sure you’ve joined our private FB group to get all the details and be involved, at FB.com/groups/taraswiger Have a confident, enthusiastic week.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast296

296: Fix your mindset

Are you getting in the way of your handmade business moving forward? Yeah, it’s time to get out of your own way. Lately we’ve been doing a series on how to make your 2020 goals come true. In episodes 292 and 293, I gave you lots of applicable, step-by-step advice on how to increase sales, so be sure to head over to TaraSwiger.com/launch if you missed that. But as I said in those episodes, only a small percentage of people will follow through with the action plan. Why? Well, for some listeners, what I shared just isn’t applicable. Maybe you don’t have a business. Maybe you are just starting and you don’t have any products yet. For some listeners, growth isn’t their primary goal in 2020. Maybe you have more demand than you can supply. Or perhaps your work day has gone wonky, and what you want to work on this year is working LESS or taking more time off or stopping work at a certain time. We’re not always in a place of growth. Or maybe you’re like I was in 2019, where your life has been upended and your main goal is to just HOLD ON and try to figure out a new way to move forward (or even stay in the same place) with totally new circumstances. Last year my own focus wasn’t the growth of my business, it was the growth of my family. Wherever you are is perfect. But what about those listeners who DO have products, who have a way to sell them, and who have the goal to increase their sales in 2020? Why don’t they follow through? We hit on some of the reasons last week (in episode 294) - you may feel unfocused, feel like you don’t have enough time, or feel overwhelmed and stuck in self-doubt. In other words, you’re not moving forward because YOU are holding yourself back. Last week I gave you some homework - to write down HOW you were holding yourself back and WHY you might have done that. (If you skipped the homework you can hit pause now and write it down, or even record it as a voice memo to yourself!) Why are you doing this? Well, without hearing your answers, I can make a guess, because this is what stops me: Fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear that I won’t be safe. Fear that everyone will realize I have no idea what I’m doing and they (you) will think it’s all a scam and everyone will hate me (and I’ll be broke and alone). Fear that I’ll get it wrong, that people will see me get it wrong and then will all leave and my business will fall apart (and I’ll be broke and alone). That’s kind of intense, right?  But that’s why this fear is so good at holding us back - we never look directly at it, so it just bubbles up underneath the surface and we feel a kind of uneasiness or nervousness or self-doubt. We don’t feel “quite right” so we don’t step forward. What do you do about it?  Good news: We’ve already done the first step! The first step is to bring it to conscious awareness so we can SEE the fear, so it stops running the show from the background. Then, we need to acknowledge it for what it is. It isn’t that WE suck. It isn’t that we need to do more or learn more or get more confident. Fear holding you back is a NATURAL part of growth and exploration. Your fear is your sweet little brain trying to keep you safe. That’s it’s whole job! It’s saying “Hey there, I don’t know about that, I need to keep you alive so BACK AWAY FROM THE UNKNOWN.” If you’ve experienced trauma (whether it was one-time acute trauma or ongoing trauma like an unsafe childhood), your brain is a SPECIALIST in spotting danger (maybe where there isn’t any!) and keeping you safe. This may be why you experience something that SEEMS simple  (like talking to strangers in your craft booth, or posting a personal post on Instagram) as terrifying and flight-fight-freeze inducing. Understanding and accepting this about yourself and your sweet little (confused) brain is vital to you moving forward. It shifts your focus from “pushing forward” to “gently finding a way forward.” Because when you push? Your fear pushes back. When you gently find a way to feel safe while doing the thing?” Your fear settles down. Your fear just wants to be noticed and heard. So we’ve identified it, we’ve recognized that it’s trying to keep us safe, but how do we hear it without letting it run the show? Let it have it’s say - let your fear tell you what’s the worst that can happen. Tim Ferris calls this “fear-setting”, it’s like the opposite of goal-setting, but is important if you’re going to move forward with a goal. Marie Forleo has a version of this exercise in her book Everything is Figureoutable. In other words, this works. So try it. Pull out a piece of paper and answer: What am I afraid of actually happening? What is the absolute worst case scenario if that fear comes true? And then what else horrible will happen? And now that you’ve listened to your Fear, you’ve let it really unspool its dark fantasy,  it’s time to apply some reality to your fear. If that happened, the absolute worst case scenario… what would you do? How could you come back from it? What skills, abilities and experiences do you have that you could use? When I’ve done this with Starship Captains, we always take a deep breath and feel a little shaken and a little relieved. It is SCARY to think of all that can go wrong! But I bet you noticed that your worst case scenario is actually kinda… figureoutable? There’s very little you’re going to do in your business that’s going to shake the core of what you value. Your Etsy shop isn’t going to kill your loved ones. Your email newsletter isn’t going to push your friends away. Unless you’re becoming a skydiving instructor, your business is unlikely to cause you bodily harm. So, how do you feel? Deep breath! Do you feel a little more able to move forward? (If not, did you do this in your head, or in writing? When you just think it, your brain often distracts you with other stuff and you don’t really go all the way. Write it down.) Now, listen. This is not a one-time thing. If it were, I would be fearless and unwavering since the first time I did this back in 2006! Instead, this allows us to take the NEXT STEP. Which is all we need for now. But it is very likely the fear is going to jump back up when we come to the next unknown thing. Elizabeth Gilbert says (in her book Big Magic, which is great) that we may not ever be able to get Fear out of the car, on our journey. But we CAN stop Fear from driving the car or grabbing the steering wheel or pumping the breaks. We can ride with Fear next us. We can acknowledge the work it’s trying to do (keep us safe), appreciate that, and still choose to not let it run the show. (This is a lot like driving with a screaming toddler in the backseat.) Sooo, bad news! You’re going to have to do this a lot. I need to acknowledge and listen to my Fear every time I set a new goal. Every time I start a new project. Sometimes I have to do it before a speaking gig, when my nerves get bad! I had to do it when I became a foster mom! Every time I level up or my business levels up, I have to do it again. But here’s what I hope you take from this podcast episode - YOU are holding yourself back, because your brain is trying to keep you ALIVE. YOU are a smart, capable, adorable human who is capable of so much more than you think, if you find  a way to gently move past your stuck places. You don’t need to feel (or be) fearless to take the next step. You will build confidence through ACTION. I am wishing you so much peace and courage this week.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast295

295: Get out of your own way

What’s holding you back? What is keeping you from achieving a profitable, sustainable business that you feel confident in? What is keeping you from working towards your goals every week? We’ve been working on reaching your sales goal, all month. To hear episodes about increasing and sustaining your sales, tune in to episodes 292 & 293. After those episodes, I debated over what to cover next and then I realized: what’s keeping you from your goal is different for everyone. You have your own roadblock, so let’s talk about and work through it! One of the questions I ask everyone when they join my free FB group (are you a member yet?) is, “When it comes to your business being profitable AND doable, what do you think is standing in your way?” So today that’s what we’re going to talk about: the things that are standing in your way. And next week, we’ll talk more about how to get out of your own way. It’s my hope that hearing what’s holding others back will help you recognize what’s holding you back, what is standing in your way. So what is holding MOST handmade business back? The answers I get most often: Focus - I just can’t seem to work on what matters, I keep getting distracted! Time - I don’t have enough time or I’m not using my time effectively (focus!) Self-doubt or confidence - I doubt myself and so don’t act. If I were more confident I would act Fear - most people who write this answer don’t give any more details… so I have to guess - are you afraid of failure? Afraid of poverty? Afraid of embarrassment? Many people answer: ME, I am holding myself back. This feels like the REAL answer to all of these other answers - YOU feel self-doubt or fear. YOU want more confidence. I think this answer is the most truthful answer. As you read those different answers, which one resonates the most? Which sounds like your internal dialogue? And here’s the more important question: what are you doing about it? Most people tell me they are working on marketing - social media, email list, or something systematic. But… that’s not what’s standing in your way. Not a single person has told me KNOWLEDGE or INFORMATION was standing in their way. If you know that something else is standing in your way, why aren’t you working on that? I think the reason it’s that it’s much easier to learn something than it is to change ourselves; it’s easier to listen to another episode than to inquire within. So what is holding YOU back? Hit pause, ask yourself this and write down your answer. Write as long as our takes for you to process it. Now, how are you feeling? You may be feeling AMAZING because you got some clarity and you’re ready to change. But you may be feeling pretty bad, because OMG, WHY CAN’T I JUST GET OVER IT.  I know! But I have really really good news. None of this is holding you back. Bear with me. I know it FEELS like you need less fear, more confidence, more time, more focus to move forward but what if I told you you’re only going to feel less fear and more confidence and you’re going to find the time only AFTER you do the thing? What if the way to move past what’s holding you back is to let go of it? To let go of the idea that you need to fix it or fix yourself? What if you were perfectly suited to build your business, as you were? What if you were ready to move forward on the next project or with the next client, exactly as you are? I know, I know, you want ACTION ITEMS. You want to DO something. So I’m going to give you episodes and resources for each of these issues, so you can get some actionable steps. But. I can tell you, after working with hundreds of makers, designers and artists, you are going to move beyond what’s holding you back only after you believe you will. Now, belief isn’t the ONLY thing that’s going to build your business. But without it, you won’t actually take any of the actions that will make a difference. So, if you’re ready to start believing you CAN move past the fear and time and focus, I’ve got some recommendations for episodes that address each of these in detail. Focus: The best way to get focused is to be CLEAR on what you need to focus on. This is why we set goals and then create plans. So you can wake up each day, knowing what you need to do to move forward. My best resource for this is Map Your Business, which you can find at TaraSwiger.com/map If distraction is your problem, I’ve got a whole kit of resources for you at TaraSwiger.com/distraction - it’ll help you crush marketing distractions and internet distractions! Time: Over the years I have written and shared a lot about how to manage your time, get more done and create a productive workday. My absolute best strategies are all in the class Get More Done. I created it at the CreativeLive studio, so it is 5+ hours of professional-quality video lessons, with dozens of worksheets, all at the most affordable price (last time I checked it was $29). Get it here.  Self-doubt or confidence: I have a LOT of episodes about this, as well. I also created a BizConfidence free course that I’ll be sharing again later this year. In the meantime, check out these episodes: Episode 93 - the difference between arrogance and confidence Episode 131 - taking action before you feel confident And Ep 233 on Imposter Syndrome Fear: What are you afraid of? Failure? How to handle Failure, episode 127 Failure as Fuel, episode 263 Fear of Success, episode 268 Fear of Disapproval, episode  271 Ok, now the last thing: YOU. If you were thinking, oh man, I am what is holding me back, I have a little homework for you. Next week we’re going to go more into how you can stop holding yourself back, and in the meantime, I want you to journal a bit. It doesn’t have to be a special notebook or anything official, just get any scrap of paper and set a timer for 10 minutes and answer the question: What am I doing to stand in my own way? Why?  Now, no matter what you wrote on the paper, I want you to practice holding it in kindness and gentleness. Look at it (and you) the way I would, with a lot of love and acceptance, and I’d say “Hey, it’s ok. You’re doing the best you can. It is soooo good that you’re acknowledging whatever this is. Let’s work on it a bit next week.” I’d love to hear what you think is holding YOU back! Come tell me in our free group - FB.com/groups/taraswiger I’m wishing you a week full of forward momentum and enthusiasm.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast294

294: What's holding you back?

How do you craft a successful, sustainable handmade business? Explore your goals, your profit, your marketing and your mission in this podcast with Tara Swiger - maker, author and Starship Captain. Learn how to craft a business you'll love, meet your fellow explorers and get inspired to keep going.

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