The worst (and best) thing about being a creative business owner

Want to know the worst thing about being a creative business owner?

Having to be put in a box.

In business, potential customers respond best when you are very specific about who you are, what you do, and the niche you serve. What specific thing do you make for people? How specifically can you help them? What tools do you use to get results? How are you different from other people who do the same thing?

But creativity is limitless. Yes, perhaps creative training can be specific, but I have no doubt that a sculptor, when trained how to use a paint brush, could create incredible paintings. The tools are secondary to the inner creative spark that drives us all. And sometimes, being put in a box can feel limiting, when your creativity is begging to come out in some new, different, unforeseen way.

And if you offer too many different things as a creative business owner (I’m a wedding stationery designer but also here’s a tarot deck!) people get confused, and your message seems muddied.

Want to know the best thing about being a creative business owner?

Having to be put in a box.

Creativity, for some people, thrives within boundaries. When I was in art school, the parameters of the assignments we were given didn’t always align with my own personal interests or curiosity. But within those parameters, I was able to stretch and grown because I had to be creative about how I would fulfill the assignment. 

I come across this in my own work today too. When a couple comes to me with a specific vision for their celebration, that maybe doesn’t align with any of the work I’ve done in the past (aside from the fact that it’s still an assignment to create wedding stationery) I get so excited to push myself and try things I haven’t done before. My creativity thrives on new information, new challenges, and new ways of looking at the world, all confined to the box of invitations and day-of stationery materials.

When I set out to create my tarot deck, the only thing that seemed aligned with the work I had already been doing was the fact that it was, in essence, a paper product. I am a stationery designer, and I was designing a stationery piece. But outside of that, it felt so disconnected to everything else I was doing. Tarot didn’t feel like it had anything to do with weddings. And I grappled with that for a while - do I start a new company? Does this even make sense to sell through my wedding stationery website?

But now, as I’ve spent the past few years straddling both the wedding and tarot worlds, I am more confident than ever that they are in the same plane of existence.

I create tools for intention, from your everyday to your most important day. 

For some, this looks like a couple wanting to plant the seed of the intentions they have for the celebration of their love, by sending their guests a meaningful message inviting them to be a part of this day with them.

For others, it looks like opening themselves up to their inner knowing with the aid of a tarot deck, or following the phases of the moon to stay present to the energies happening throughout the month.

And both of these things feel, to me, so aligned with my own values and my own inner truth. If I can spend the rest of my days creating beautiful things that help people feel more intentionally connected to their own lives, I will feel that my work was a success. And that is a box I am happily, cozily settling into.

{Are you newly engaged, or do you know someone who is? I am co-hosting a mini afternoon retreat to help couples become more aligned with the intentions they want for their celebration, to give them a solid foundation to plan from. We’ll be gathering in Oakland on 2/9. Check out more info here!}

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