By nature, I’m an inpatient being. I don’t like having to wait for anything and this applies in all aspects of my life. From eating raw pasta from the saucepan mid-boil to recording everything I watch because I absolutely cannot sit and wait through the ads. Not to mention smudging virtually every card I write because I can’t wait long enough for it to dry before putting it in the envelope.
I especially don’t like having to wait when it comes to the business- I expect to work hard and get results. But of course, it just doesn’t work like that. I do firmly believe that in life, everything is possible and can be accomplished with a reasonable amount of will and a good strategy. Things don’t just happen by chance, or by luck and they certainly don’t just fall into people’s laps. If it looks like someone has landed their dream job or landed a book deal by being handed it on a plate, well, yes this could be true, but you can sure as hell guarantee they’re going to have to work hard to keep it.
Image source: MiaFleur. I took this when I was traveling in New Zealand
But that said, no matter how hard you work, sometimes things just take time, it’s a natural process for a brand to have to build its reputation and customer base and that simply won’t happen overnight. That is the bit I’m struggling with at the moment. I have so many ideas for things that I’d like to do; I’d love to expand the blog and be posting every day, I’d like to contribute to other blogs, I’d love us to start expanding our styling and photography as a business in its own right and I would really love to be able to offer courses and workshops. That of course, is an edited list of ‘Things Hollie Wants’.
I actually get annoyed at myself because we’re not achieving all of those things. But of course, the reality is that some of that just isn’t possible right now. I absolutely believe that one has to dream big in order to make it big and I will keep dreaming big, but for now I am having to try and take a step back and remind myself that the reason we are not doing all of the above just yet is because we’re still working on the first bit (building a successful website and brand in itself), not to mention still working part time at our other jobs.
For now, I’m going to console myself by looking back at our newsletters to remind me of just how FAR we’ve come. This is one of our first newsletters from launch day back in October 2012:
You can see the full newsletter in it’s hideous glory here.
And this is a recent newsletter. BIG difference, huh?! Of course it helps that Amelia has since taken over the designing, why we thought it’d be a good idea for me to do that I don’t know!
So, I think the lesson here is to take one step at a time, don’t as they say… run before you can walk. Take solace in the smaller achievements along the way and when things seem like they’re not progressing as quickly as you’d like it to, keep reminding yourself of how far you’ve come from where the journey began.
Have a lovely Easter break all.
Hollie x
Running Before You Can Walk by Hollie Brooks