Episode 03. Unkink Your Hose

Alrighty, after a busy couple weeks, we are back with some gold on here. It’s a long weekend here in Canada, and between family time and snuggling with my babies, I am quite happy to be plugged into my laptop uninterrupted to work. On my own stuff (hiii we have an in-person event coming up in just under a month), on client work, and building the structure that houses this iteration of brand and business for me. And shamelessly, it’s my happy place, after nature, water, and just being in my own peace. So let’s get right into it… this episode will hit home especially for my creative entrepreneurs and service pros. If you’re ready to nourish and pour back into your own creative wellspring (as I always call it), this one’s for you. I have spent years, genuinely, years, pouring the level of care, creativity, and strategic capacity into everyone else’s brand. While my own God-given platform sat quiet. While my Substack went months without any writing, or writing in pockets of time. While my email list sat empty. Or my IG pretty much was non existent. And I am someone who loves creating, writing, pouring my heart onto paper and through various art forms and mediums. Even if I always showed up on Instagram, I would show up to share everyone else’s work. Spotlighting collaborators, celebrating clients, championing the people in my world. And there is nothing wrong with that. I deeply advocate for community building, collaboration, and celebrating others, it’s something I’ll never stop doing. However, I stopped doing it for myself. I wasn’t sure where or when it started, but it started to feel easier to hide rather than take up space, share everything else rather that what was burning in my throat… and this cycle continued for almost 8 years of business… it’s only over the last year and half that I started to boldly take up space, let myself be seen and heard without giving a damn about what anyone thinks. The anyone in this case? Family, friends. Clients. You might be able to relate to this…I told myself I was too busy, drained energetically and physically, swamped with client delivery. Too much of everything to show up for my own brand. To share my own message. To take up my own space. THAT, quite honestly was me living in delayed obedience, delaying the very destiny and calling God placed on my life. And then—as all contracts do—those client contracts would end. Because such is life and business. It’s the natural evolution and business too is cyclical. Much like us, much like nature and how the Lord intended for it to be. And I would look at my pipeline. And panic. Where are my next clients? Where is the next yes coming from? Why is it suddenly so quiet? As if I hadn’t created that exact condition myself. Send me a DM if you can relate. OPERATION #UNKINKYOURHOSE Now that I’ve shared that with you, let’s get super tangible and Imma be real candid here. You might think you have a pipeline problem, when really you have a kinked garden hose. Bear with my analogy here. No matter how much you open up your tap for the water to flow through the hose, if there’s a kink in it somewhere, flow gets blocked. Take this analogy to life, creativity, relationships, business, and especially money, sales, brand building. When you have spent so much time pouring everything into everyone else’s brand, to the point where you’ve stifled your own creative flow, you’ve unintentionally tied your own brand into a million and one knots. There is no creativity flowing. There is no expression flowing. There is no message getting through. Even though you have so much to express. So much wisdom and brilliance inside of you. And then you look up and you think—I don’t even know where to start. Because one day turns into one week turns into one month, one quarter and so on. Or you’re trying to express yourself on platforms that don’t naturally fit your expression style. If you love threads x podcasting x writing longform: YT, Substack, Threads and Pods it is! If you love IG, linkedin and have the bandwidth to create prolifically, go for it! But you gotta identify your expression style and medium. And lead with that. As founders, the very first bullet is aimed at marketing… we think that’s a kink in our hose… it is and it’s not. We have to go deeper than that to understand why we keep repeating this cycle. Open today, closed tomorrow. It’s a dance I am very familiar with because I used to do that for so long. FEAST AND FAMINE: THE TWO LAYERS OF THE OPEN TODAY//CLOSED TOMORROW TANGO The feast and famine cycle most service providers, creatives, and artists go through is not a marketing failure. It’s two things at once: The first layer is capacity. When you are operating at 80, 90, or 100% delivery for client brands, your own brand has no breathing room to grow. And a brand that cannot breathe, dies. You don’t have a business, if there is no founder behind it, breathing into the company, creating and innovating. The essence is and always will be you. If you are the company, if you are the brand, and you don’t have time to show up for it, cultivate relationships, communicate with your people, plant seeds for what’s next… well friend, it’s why you keep repeating this loop. The second layer is structure. If you have not set yourself up for success, structurally, to keep receiving clients and cash flow while you are in delivery, you have a systems problem. Brand building always has multiple layers to it, the main ones, in my opinion being capacity and structure. And this can be easily fixed, but you have to decide clearly, deliberately, with no apology on how much of you each client gets. How much of you your own brand gets. And do an inventory of whether or not you’ve built the support and systems to make all of that sustainable. THE TRAP OF WORKING IN THE BUSINESS Okay, for real, here’s where my loops kept repeating until I decided to end the cycle, and maybe this will be insightful for you. I would be so bogged down with client delivery—doing the graphics, writing the copy, building the strategy, holding the vision, executing the campaigns, leading my team of contractors, and still having my hands IN the business. By the time I was done each day, each week, I had absolutely nothing left to pour into my own company. I was always working in the business. I was never working on the business. This cycle continued for almost 8 years. And I want to say something here that I deeply believe: we are all founders. We are all CEOs of our respective companies and brands, especially as small businesses. It does not matter if you are a graphic designer, a photographer, a copywriter, a lawyer, a hairstylist, a coach, a fractional executive. If you are a small business owner, you are the company. You are the brand. You have to be able to market yourself. You have to be able to articulate your value and communicate your message with clarity and conviction. You have to be able to lead your own brand. And this is especially hard for creative directors, artists, and service providers. Because we are gifted at building structures for others. We are gifted at building entire visions from start to finish, for someone else. It is almost easier to do that for someone else because we’re not too close to it. Their brand doesn’t carry our story. Our wounds and healing, our wisdom, our voice, our experiences. But my friend, your own brand requires you to stand behind it. To say: this is mine. This is who I am. This is what I’m here to do. And that requires a different kind of courage. And often times, taking that next step will ruffle feathers, especially of those who’ve benefitted from you not putting yourself first. THE 40% RULE I LEARNED INSIDE A WORKSHOP I attended a workshop with the incredible Emily MacDonald (@founderemily on Instagram), and one of the biggest aha moments I had in that room was what I lovingly call the 40% rule. In her workshop, Emily was doing a real-time case study with each of our businesses, and I shared with her my c… Get full access to UNMUZZLED by Tania Jane at taniajanemoraes.substack.com/subscribe