When Life Gets Crazy
Time for a little "real life" snapshot. I've been frustrated with myself for not blogging regularly and taking sporadic breaks from posting on social media because these last few weeks have been a little on the crazy side.
When I was looking at my September calendar back in August, it was already slightly stress-inducing, and it crossed my mind that I should maybe take a scheduled break from posting as I dealt with the day-to-day. That would have been the smart thing to do, and to my credit, it did cross my mind. But then I did what I always do and instead decided instead that it would be a good “challenge” and I could totally handle it. I'm used to hustling and consider myself a pro multi-tasker, so really, how hard could it be? And since blogging and creating are what drives and inspires me, I didn't want to give that up. Silly girl. At the end of the day, when life gets particularly insane, something’s gotta give.
Whenever I talk to people about blogging and social media, one of the pieces of advice I always stress is that consistency is key. Whether you're posting five times a week or once a week, set a standard and keep to it. Needless to say, I have not been abiding by my own rules.
The problem is, life gets busy, and when there are projects and clients with deadlines, those tend to take priority. The reality is, as it stands now the Bicyclette blog is essentially just a creative outlet for me, and since that doesn’t necessarily pay the bills, I also have a number of clients that I work with doing brand development and design, and that tends to be what takes up most of my time.
Post-boutique, Bicyclette has really turned into a passion project, and for the past while (well, since I closed the shop, really), I’ve been in this transitional phase with the brand, trying to figure out that big “what’s next” question, and what exactly this next iteration of the brand looks like. That is not a question to which the answer can be forced or rushed, and unfortunately it kept falling to the wayside, and I just didn’t have the time to dive deep and spend the time on it that it deserves.
And so, I decided to ask for help. I started looking into creative coaches, knowing that what I really needed was someone that would understand the personal aspect to the Bicyclette brand, get to know my story and how I got to where I am today, and help me rediscover the magic of the brand and how to share that with my community. I needed to reassess my vision and build a new business model.
A few weeks in to working with the team at Braid Creative on creative brand and business visioning (more on this later, I promise!), and it’s so clear to me that I made the right decision. It’s an intense process, and it’s forced me to answer a lot of tough questions about myself - and by extension, Bicyclette - head on, which is exactly what I needed.
So that’s a little snapshot into what I’ve been up to and why things have maybe seemed a little quieter recently. I’ve been taking a step back and focusing a little more on the big picture of the Bicyclette brand. It’s been a long time coming, and though I’m feeling particularly overwhelmed and sleep deprived at the moment (I’m also in the midst of wrapping up a few big client projects and getting ready to move across the city) I couldn’t be more excited about starting this new chapter.