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Designing a Morning Routine

March 13, 2023 by delta Leave a Comment

Owning a small business is a lot of work. It can be very easy for us as entrepreneurs to become overwhelmed with the never-ending to-do lists and completely forget about taking time for ourselves. Even if your work is fulfilling your creative and social needs, it may not be satisfying everything your “higher self” needs. Making self-care rituals like yoga and meditation a non-negotiable part of your day can be beneficial to not only your own life but also your business.

Feeling run-down, tired, and even burnt out is completely normal in our current society, but we can begin to play with these feelings by adding self-care into our daily routines. By allowing space for our mind and body needs with self-care rituals, we create more space in our lives overall, and that’s space we can use to enrich other parts of our own lives, whether those parts are professional or personal. 

Incorporating yoga and meditation into my daily morning routine allows me to start my day with a clear mind and a centered, grounded body. I do my best work when I honor my self-care rituals. I find that when I’m working with my clients, we also benefit from taking some time to look at their morning schedules and adjusting to make self-care a priority.

As a former workaholic perfectionist, I’ve experienced running a business from both sides. It took me about a year of running my business with the same habits and routines I’d developed as a corporate employee before I realized that I could (and should) start to do things differently. Working from home, I needed to put boundaries into place in order to keep from working 24/7. I was neglecting all the things that were important to me outside of work, and I was exhausted, and unhealthy.

I started transforming my mornings with one simple change— putting a 9a.m. workday start rule into place. It gave me room to play with my routines—some days I allow myself to sleep in, other days I wake up early and have a few hours to ease into my day. My routines and rituals change with the seasons and with what’s going on in my life. I’ve found it’s best not to hold myself to rigid expectations if I want my mornings to nurture my creativity! 

For example, slowing down over the winter months allows me to create more and to evolve as a business owner, which allows me to better serve my clients during the busier summer months. Self-care done well often means that the balances shift in alignment with the seasons—both in the world, and in your own life. There will be times with heavy workloads, and times when you can rest and rejuvenate.

“Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximizing scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.”

-Katherine May: Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

When designing your morning routine, you might start by asking yourself some questions:

  • Does your morning routine support your happiness and peace?
  • Does your morning routine help you to meet the needs of yourself and your family as they start the day? 

Here are some simple ways to incorporate self-care into your routine and help your business thrive: 

  1. Make Exercise a Priority

Stoke the creative fire in yourself and your business by awakening your body with exercise throughout the day. Studies show that exercise improves your brain function, battles stress and fatigue, and it can help improve your general well-being. Add a short exercise regimen to your daily routine to ignite your passions and get in touch with your inner creativity to bolster you throughout the workday. 

  1. Utilize Yoga as a Form of Self-Care

Yoga is about moving your body, but it’s also about truly getting in tune with yourself. If you can better connect with yourself, you can connect with your clients more authentically. Yoga combines exercise with mindfulness and allows business owners to get out of the mindset of constantly being in control and feeling stressed. 

In my daily yoga practice, I also learn valuable lessons that can be applied to my entrepreneurial journey. Accepting where my body is each day on the mat taught me that I can accept where I am each day in the learning process of running a business. Things that seem difficult now will be second nature once I develop the necessary skills. 

Yoga can also simply get you ready for a stressful day by quieting the mind before work or allow you to destress after a long day of never-ending to-do lists. 

  1. Meditation Can Make You a Better Business Owner

Meditation not only makes you a better business owner, but it can also make you a better leader. Taking the time to meditate allows you to better connect with your core values and grants you the space to decide what you need when you need it. Meditation can help you be a better leader by granting you the confidence to take up the space you deserve and bolster your creativity.
Next time you find yourself overwhelmed with a tricky problem or a too-full schedule, try stepping away for 5 minutes, and simply concentrating on your breath.

This technique is called Square Breathing:
Breathe in deeply for 4 seconds, while imagining drawing a straight vertical downward line in your mind. Hold your breath for 4 seconds, as you make a 90-degree corner with your line and draw the bottom of your box. Breathe out slowly for 4 seconds as you make a second 90-degree turn and draw the second wall of your box. Finally, hold your breath for four seconds as you draw a line to connect the top of your box. Repeat until 5 minutes are over. Check in with how you feel. You just might be able to get back to work with a clear mind!

It takes time to see the benefits of adding self-care rituals like exercise, yoga, and meditation into your daily routine, but they are so worth carving out your time as a business owner. Focus on finding your creativity, your space, and your peace of mind, and the rest will follow. It’s also okay to experiment with this—you don’t have to decide on a routine and stick with it exactly as you planned if it doesn’t serve you well.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: featured

Time Blocking

May 16, 2022 by delta Leave a Comment

It’s a crazy busy week here at JLUX Designs, and I’m sure it is in your world too! 

For me, I’m attending a fancy event in Grand Rapids on Thursday, and will be working in Grand Rapids, Fennville, and South Haven Michigan all weekend. (We’ll make time for play too, don’t worry!)  
There are always a thousand things going on when you’re running a service-based business. It can feel like an insurmountable task to get everything done if we don’t break things down. If you always feel like you have no time to communicate with your audience, you might wonder how I get things done. 

So here’s a look at my typical week:

MONDAY
Planning and Batch Content Day
I have an accountability partner and we set our goals for the week on Monday morning. Then, I spend the day creating all the content for my business—as much as I can get done and get scheduled in one session!

My client, Shannon, and I during a work session at her office.

TUESDAY
Client Work and Network/Board Tasks
On Tuesdays I spend the day working in two Time-Blocks: one for my clients and one for my networking/non-profit board tasks. 

WEDNESDAY
Intrepid Collective & Clients Day
The mornings on Wednesday are set aside for The Intrepid Collective, and I do another client work block on Wednesday afternoons.

THURSDAY
Coaching/Planning Organizating Day
I meet with my coaches and plan my business operations, assign tasks to my team, set goals etc. on Thursdays and make sure I’m organized for the coming week!

Friday vibes.

FRIDAY
Finances and Wrap-Up Day
I do a weekly Wrap Up with an accountability group, check in with my financial planning, and wrap up any unfinished tasks on Fridays. The great thing about this day is I let myself quit as soon as I’m done with these tasks and start the weekend!

I’ve got retreat updates and more coming soon.

In the meantime, let me know—do you also use time-blocking? What are YOUR best time management tips and tricks?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: ceo skills, featured, planning, schedule, time blocking

How Intrepid Collective Came to Be…

March 21, 2022 by delta Leave a Comment

Hello my beautiful souls,

I know I have been teasing you all month with bits and pieces about Intrepid Collective over on social media, but I really wanted to take the time to dive a bit deeper and explain in depth what Intrepid Collective is and the value it holds for you.

To start, I think it’s incredibly important to share the backstory of how Intrepid Collective came to be. I know some of you may have heard this already, but truly, without this experience of mine, Intrepid Collective would’ve never been birthed into the world.

It all started a couple months into quarantine when I went way out of my comfort zone and took a hike in a really rocky mountain area in Kentucky. I was in the first stages of planning to launch Intrepid Collective for the first time and realized that my mountain adventure was very similar to the journey my clients are on – everything was about concentration as I attempted navigating rocky and unfamiliar terrain. This path I took required new ways of balancing, required me to slow down and approach every step with intention in order to move forward – no hustle culture here, friends! But like my hike, when you accomplish the slow-build challenging things, you feel powerful, brave, INTREPID!

That’s why I created Intrepid Collective! At its core, it is an online group mastermind for service-minded creative entrepreneurs that supports you in creating deep, lasting connection with your clients – even when you can only communicate digitally.

So how do you know if Intrepid Collective is right for you? If you consider yourself a creative entrepreneur who has big dreams you’re ready to bring forth into the world, but you’re feeling stuck …

Invisible.

Alone.

Overwhelmed.

Intrepid Collective is here to give you a sense of true community. We are an intimate collective of creatives (only four spots in total are available each year) who lift each other up, gather our resources, and help each other to climb to new heights!

We are the rule breakers.

Change makers.

Find your voice within our collective so you can go forth in life, being unapologetically you.

Authentic.

Beautiful.

Powerful.

The world is ready for your fire.

Please keep an eye on your inbox, as my next email I’ll be sharing what the Intrepid Collective structure looks like and the events you have to look forward to, should you decide to join us this year!

Filed Under: Blog, News Tagged With: featured, Intrepid Collective, News

Revisioning

July 21, 2021 by delta Leave a Comment

The Redesign of JLUX Designs

A new logo for a new vision.

When I started JLUX Designs, LLC in 2017, I was excited to FINALLY go independent. I was so ready to flex my creative voice. I’d been working in corporate for a decade, so everything I created was defined by a well-established brand standard, designs were constrained by need to adapt for 21 languages, and my team worked FAST—we didn’t have much time to envision new creative concepts. Working in that environment began to feel gray and lifeless from my viewpoint.

I was stifled in that world, so stepping out on my own felt like taking a deep breath in and letting out a scream of joy. My brain was overflowing with ideas, potential, and hope.

As I look back now, I see that the choices I made for my branding were direct expressions of those feelings of finally being uncaged. I went for a full-on rainbow of color! I love that I was able to create that brand, and I still love the color scheme and the logo I’ve used for the last 4 years…

With this perspective, I see what I created as a reaction to my past as opposed to working well as defining my future—who I serve, what I do, and what I’m all about.

My original logo.

Over the last couple of months, I took this into account as I evaluated the plan for 2021-22. It was time to evolve the brand to reflect the possibilities to come. I put myself through my own brand strategy sessions that I run for my clients to learn what I really wanted to communicate.

Here’s my vision board:

My passion, defined in imagery, color, and fonts!

Authentic connections are my cornerstone

It all started with my clients. My vision for working with entrepreneurs is founded in developing authentic relationships. I work to create a collaboration that feels like going out to coffee with your best friends—only a coffee date that ends with beautiful communications for your brand.

I’ve used this photo several times in my social media and newsletters over the last year, and I kept coming back to it because it really captures that feeling. So this became the image that I began the vision board with.

Stoke the Creative Fire

The mission of JLUX Designs is to give voice to your vision, and to hold space for that vision as we create the perfect communications that turn your audience into clients. It’s an alchemy of sorts, and to me holding that vision is like tending the fire. It’s my sacred calling, and it uses all my innate skills, as well as the skillset I’ve developed over my 20 year career.

Embody joy, creativity, wisdom, & intuition

I used gemstones as visual representations of the qualities I want JLUX Designs to embody.
Citrine = manifesting dreams, activating your imagination and will, envisioning what you want, and having the persistence to see it through.

Amethyst, Labradorite & Blue Sapphire = Intuition, Discernment, Discovering Truth, and Wisdom

Rainbow Moonstone = Joy and Positivity

Take up space

I get my best ideas when in nature. I chose to represent this with the Northern Lights and the beach because they included all of my favorite nature colors: blue, purple, green, and pink.

I also chose these expansive images as a way to represent the concept of “taking up space”. I firmly believe that as entrepreneurs, we must be comfortable with visibility, and with taking up space in the world. I help my clients to get comfortable with showing up.

There are no rules…

Finally, a bit of magic!

One particularly bad day long ago, a friend left me a tiny unicorn on my office door with an encouraging message, and thus began a tradition of people who work with me bringing me unicorn things.

I love this, and I’m not sure how it became such a thing, but it makes me feel like people see the special magic I try to create for them! Unicorns represent infinite possibilities, and one of my creative mantras is: “There are no rules.” That’s really all a creative person could ask for…so it’s now part of my brand!

And there you have it! The new brand gives me so much life! I am so proud of it, full of joy, and excited to share all the new things that come with it: like this monthly blog, the VIP level of Intrepid Collective, retreat experiences, and new social media resources. I can’t wait for you to experience it all!

Filed Under: Blog, News Tagged With: anniversary, brand, featured, strategy, vision

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