On Monday my first Get Your Sh*t Together email subscription goes out. I'm ecstatic. I feel like I'm prepping for a cozy coffee break with a whole bunch of pretty, creative ladies (and some dudes). Six weeks of coffee breaks when we'll be diving deep into some crazy awesome get-shit-doneness.
When I started planning this series, I thought about doing six separate topics for life and biz. Then, as the content was forming and the ideas were flowing I decided to give it more of a flow. The content morphed into much more of a structure for a creative day, from morning routine to organizing for productivity and how to let it all go and enjoy life.
If you haven't signed up yet, there's still time. The first email goes out on Monday, and one will go out each Monday for 6 consecutive weeks, giving you a look inside my own creative life and biz, with tasks, to-dos, printables, and chit chat to make you productive. Well, to help you get your shit together.
If you haven't yet, enroll now in the subscription and get on the list. For $39 you get awesome exclusive content that I'll never share anyone else for 6 straight weeks. It's like the get-shit-done fairy has brought Christmas a little early. Subscribe now >>
Get Your Sh*t Together is a one-week mini blog series all about – you guessed it – getting your shit together. We'll be exploring tactics and resources, talking to some creative biz experts, and have some downloadable worksheets, all to help you get your shit together too.
Oh, money.
We all have a bit of a turbulent relationship with money, yes? Especially creatives. Value, worth, and quality. Energy, expertise, and general love of doing what we do. How do we put a price on doing that?
And then, what do you do with it once you start making it? I've heard of "starving" artists stockpiling their income because they don't feel like it's their money, but the money of their business, and therefore shouldn't be used to pay for personal things groceries or rent.
It's all very complex, and something I've played around with to see what works for me for years.
How I Manage My Money
Setting Monthly Financial Goals
At the beginning of every year I take stock of my previous year's income and set monthly goals for the rest of the year based on how I did per month the previous year. I do this on paper (of course; I like to be able to spread everything out in front of me) and keep it in a goal notebook near my desk so that at the end of every month I can easily update and keep track.
Download a printable Monthly Income Goal Tracker >>
Tracking Income
Though I do the usual Quickbooks bookkeeping, I still have to track income on paper. It doesn't feel real to me unless I can hold it in my hands. Every time a payment comes through my email or snail mail I take out my binder-clipped income tracking sheets and record it in pen. At the end of each sheet I tally up the income for that section and move on. At the end of the month I add up all the dollars and log it in the yearly goal tracker above.
Download a printable Income Tracker >>
Business Reserves
I get uncomfortable once my business account falls below $1,500, and full blown stressed out when my business account falls below $1,000. The below $1,000 has only happened once or twice in the past two or three years, but you can bet that those were sleepless nights.
I believe it's good to know what your threshold is, and even to allow yourself to stress out about it. My threshold is as low as I can go and still pay my clients' hosting fees, with a little cushion for a "last meal" grocery trip. It's not pretty, but it keeps me safe.
Paying Myself
I've never been one of those who had a problem paying myself. However, I do struggle with paying myself on a regular schedule. My ongoing goal is to pay myself twice a month: 1st and 15th. But, lo and behold, some nonsense always happens, or that semi-annual bill the we always forget about comes up. This is something we're actively attempting to regulate.
Budgeting and Spending
David and I like to spend money. I'm of the school of thinking that I am going to enjoy the fruits of my labor, not stockpile it away. We do save some, but we also eat really well (our monthly grocery budget is insane, but we have no intentions of making it lower; eating well is important to us) and we travel whenever possible. We're enjoying our live now.
But we do also budget. We use mint.com daily to track things, we have grocery budgets, and travel budgets. We're not going all willy-nilly, but we do plan for the fun things that give us the quality of life that we work hard for.
Trust Yourself, and Madam Universe
Every time my business account has fallen below that scary line, the universe has sent a job my way soon after. I use my project trackers to know where I need to put my energy to get that next project, and everything always works out alright. Always.
keeping my sh*t together
Once I quit my 9-to-5 day job and started working for myself I've found myself thinking about money A LOT. It can be a roller coaster ride to be in charge of your own paycheck – from overwhelming to exciting to get-me-off-this-f*cking-roller-coaster. I wrote about thinking of money as energy (as seen here in our Letters to Creative Entrepreneurs) to find worthiness around getting paid, and I recently shared our secret to manifesting money over at the Braid blog. I encourage you to read those. Because eff the starving artist mentality.
But today I want to share how I really keep my shit together when it comes to managing my money – both personally and professionally. My deep dark secret to being rich on a modest 5-figure salary is that I live in Oklahoma City. The cost of living here is dirt cheap. I bought my super cute 1920s 1,500 sq. ft. historical bungalow for $110,000. But you can buy a super modern abode or an old historical mansion for a mortgage that is equivalent to rent on a Manhattan or San Francisco studio. The trade off is that Oklahoma City is not NYC or SF. We don't have quite the culture or resources those big cities have but what we thrive in is the space to create. The creative community here is tight-knit – and because it's not crazy expensive to live here we can all own our homes, afford to eat at our friends' farm-to-table restaurants, launch new businesses and not feel the desperation of working 80 hours a week just to keep the lights on.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
On a more practical level here are three really simple things you can do to get your shit together when it comes to money:
• Know how much you make and track how much you spend. It seems like a no-brainer but this simple math of money going in and money going out can be surprisingly complicated for entrepreneurs to track. Mint.com and Freshbooks.com are great personal and professional money-tracking / accounting user-friendly apps.
• Hire an accountant – they'll inform you on how to set up your business, what to write-off as expenses, and will keep you from getting audited by the IRS.
• Pay yourself – I've found that a lot of the creatives I consult and coach don't pay themselves. What the what!? The act of moving money from your business account to your personal account is empowering and will make you feel legit.
Kathleen Shannon blogs about her life and work on andkathleen.com, and is a brand wonder woman with her sister at Braid Creative. Her posts about creatives and money are some of my favorite in the world. The Braid ECourse on Dream Customer Catching (you know, those people who pay you) is open now for registration.
LOVING THIS SERIES? SHARE IT!
Click to tweet: Loving this #GYSTblogseries by @EmilyM_Thompson Lots of resources and printables for creative entrepreneurs! http://bit.ly/19E3DTP
Get Your Sh*t Together Blog Series
GYST: Daily
GYST: Nourishing
GYST: Goals and Projects
GYST: Money
Get Your Sh*t Together is a one-week mini blog series all about – you guessed it – getting your shit together. We'll be exploring tactics and resources, talking to some creative biz experts, and have some downloadable worksheets, all to help you get your shit together too.
I think it's pretty obvious thus far that I'm a bit of an obsessive list maker. I list what I need to do, where I need to go, what I'm going to eat and buy. But, for me, this organization and obsessive list making is definitely what helps me get my shit together.
Today's list-making and organizing mania comes in the form of goal-making and planning projects. Specifically, I'll be sharing my goal-making and project-planning resources for business.
Setting & Tracking Goals
Setting Project Goals
To make my desired income (which pays the bills and feeds us) I know how many projects I need to take on in any given quarter. I also set goals for personal projects, like launching premade templates, launching that [damn] eCourse (which I totally started re-planning yesterday, get your shit together indeed!), and even taking time off. I keep this tracker in my goals binder as well.
Download a printable Monthly Project Planner >>
Tracking Quarterly Goals
My quarterly goals are tracked on my blackboard, Braid Creative style. I implemented this specific system at the beginning of this quarter and I don't see myself ever going back. It's so wonderful to be able to spin around in my desk chair and see where I need to be putting my focus to get those lines filled.
At the end of each quarter I'll record it all, and – you guessed it – stick it in that mighty goal binder.
Planning Projects
I have three big project groups going on in my studio at all times: blogging, newsletter (sign up for Indie Tactics to get in on the fun), and – of course – my client design projects. Sometimes I'll throw in other things like personal projects or Indie Spaces projects, but those three are the ones that are constant.
Blogging
I try to keep an ongoing blog editorial calendar. I'll be the very first person to say that I take it more of a suggested guide more than I should, but it's nice to plan out that on the first of each month I'll be posting about 3 in 30 dates, and when I can take aside a Monday to announce a project launch.
I keep all these sheets in a binder separate from the goal binder, but I pair up the blogging sheets with the following newsletter performance reports.
Download a printable Weekly Blog Editorial Calendar >>
Newsletters
Newsletter sign ups and performance is one of my success metrics, so, obviously I have to track this, or else how do I know if I'm being successful?! First, I track quarterly signups on my chalkboard, and then I track the performance of each
This allows me to do A-B testing (how does the email subject effect opens, how does template effect click-throughs, etc), and also allows me to just generally compare effectiveness. It also makes it clear what kind of content my subscribers like most, as opposed to topics I should just leave by the wayside.
Download a printable Email Newsletter Performance Tracker >>
Design
Last, but certainly not least, are my design projects. I track my project calendar with iCal. Simple and always nearby. I put big bars that cover the entirety of a project, and then events on days where milestones are scheduled.
For each individual client I keep a manilla folder, complete with as much info as I can. I start with printing off their initial contact email, their interview sheet, then contracts, project sheets, all notes, and finally maintenance sheets after a site is launched. These folders can get intense, but it's so easy for me to be able to pull out a whole client project all at once.
The most important of these (besides the contract, of course) is the project sheets, which, by the end of a project, are wrote all over, with paper clipped sketches and notes and doodles. These are the heart of every project I do. Thinking of my life without these makes me shiver.
Download a printable Project Sheet >>
Sometimes I'm a little overwhelmed by how much I track regarding my business, but it gives me an overview of the things that are important to me that I have to have in order to see when things are successful, where I should put my energy, and to prove to myself that I'm growing. Goals and project planning. It's why I'm here.
LOVING THIS SERIES? SHARE IT!
Click to tweet: Loving this #GYSTblogseries by @EmilyM_Thompson Lots of resources and printables for creative entrepreneurs! http://bit.ly/19E3DTP
Get Your Sh*t Together Blog Series
GYST: Daily
GYST: Nourishing
GYST: Goals and Projects
GYST: Money
Get Your Sh*t Together is a one-week mini blog series all about – you guessed it – getting your shit together. We'll be exploring tactics and resources, talking to some creative biz experts, and have some downloadable worksheets, all to help you get your shit together too.
As I'm sitting here drinking and enjoying my peach oatmeal smoothie (recipe will be posted next week) it's easy for me to think about how easy it is to stay nourished and healthy.
But, that's just the peaches talking. I already feel the frantic-ness brought on by a very hectic evening we have planned, and how I'm going to get everyone fed. Keeping my shit together when it comes to food, meals, and nourishing myself and my family is the hardest part of being a busy creative.
My one secret: plan. Everything.
I use planning my meals and activity as a sure-fire way to maintain some control over my very busy life. For years I've been an avid meal planner and slightly OCD grocery shopper.
And just to give you a little spill of how we eat around our house, we cook almost every meal, eat out occasionally, and never ever have fast food. (Ok, once a month we may spring for a chicken biscuit, but we haven't had McDonald's in years and only visit the others when we're traveling and have little other option.)
So, since most of the meals we eat are made by me, I have to do a lot of planning to fit it into my schedule. I can't be running to the grocery store everyday to pick up forgotten ingredients, and I have to have already made up my mind. None of this "I dunno, what do you wanna eat?" nonsense going on around here.
We also eat as much local produce as possible, try to be mostly vegetarian and gluten-free, and almost never eat really processed food. (Though I'll be honest, I made Kraft mac and cheese the other night for the first time in years, because I was craving it, and – guilt aside – it was so good.) Making sure Cute Kid is healthy is very important to me. And I'll plan all day if it will help me accomplish that.
Here Are My Planning Tips
Grocery List in the Kitchen
I shared yesterday how I use AnyList as my go-to shopping list in the kitchen. My phone is always near by (shhh, yours is too) so grabbing it to record that I need pepper or honey or spinach is easy to do.
Plan Your Meals
I sit down once a week with David and Cute Kid, usually after a meal, and ask them what they want to eat for the week. I plan out 4-7 days of meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), keeping in mind how ingredients can cross over from meal to meal (cilantro for one day's curried lentils will be great with breakfast tacos the next morning), what we have going on on any given day, and how likely it is that any meal with leftovers will make for an easy lunch.
Download my printable weekly meal planner >>
Try New Things
I'm a bit of a cookbook junkie. I have tons. Every couple of weeks I'll pull out a handful and bookmark ones I want to try. I'll add them to my meal plans. And I use Pinterest a ton, as well. I recently pulled this recipe up in the middle of the grocery store when I decided I didn't want something I had planned, and we fell in love. If I tried to make David the same Peanut Garbonzo Soup and Green Smoothie every day, he would revolt. We try new things so that we're continually refining Cute Kid's palate, and so that David doesn't go stashing Subway sandwiches under the bed.
Make a Shopping List
I then take the on-the-fly list I've been curating in my AnyList app and transfer it to paper, adding all the things that I need to make the planned meals. When I go to the grocery store I have to have paper in my hand. I cannot function in a grocery store with an iPhone in my hand scrolling up and down like I have ADD. It's not pretty.
Download my printable grocery shopping list >>
Never Go Shopping Hungry
I know this is a no-brainer, but I'm plugging it anyway. We tend to save grocery shopping for Saturdays just after breakfast, for three reasons. First, we just ate. Second, the grocery store is hectic, so we have no desire to linger around the aisles being tempted by double-stuffed Oreos. We're in and out. Done. And third, we can precede the grocery store with a trip to the farmer's market, to get as many things on my list fresh and local as I can.
Keeping My Sh*t Together
with Claire Ragozzino
As a startup entrepreneur, I don’t always feel like I have my shit together! But my job is to help others get their shit together with holistic nutrition and personal wellness. So when it comes to nourishing and nurturing my own body/mind, this is a practice I take pretty seriously. Here’s a quick look at how I stay grounded and healthy each day.
Holistic Body Care
My mornings always start with some tried-and-true Ayurvedic practices, including tongue scraping and oil pulling with sesame oil to keep my mouth clean, using a neti pot to open up my sinuses, and dry skin brushing to stimulate circulation in the lymphathic system before I shower. Afterwards, I lather up in coconut oil and sip some hot water with aloe vera and lime juice to get my digestion going. I swear by all these practices!
Meditation & Yoga
Some mornings it’s 5 minutes of stillness before I rush out the door, other mornings I can linger over a long sweaty 2-hour practice. Whatever length of time it is, no matter what, I’m learning I have to do some kind of practice to keep me grounded.
Get Green
My day isn’t complete without a big green juice and/or smoothie. By big, I mean 32oz of alkaline deliciousness packed-to-the-brim with superfoods, fresh fruits and lots of greens. It keeps my energy sustained through lunchtime and nourishes my body with easily digestible, bioavailable nutrients.
Plan Ahead
Planning meals, keeping my pantry stocked, and prepping ahead of time truly helps me keep a consistently clean diet. I order my supplements, superfoods, and herbs from organic bulk wholesale sites, making it easy and affordable to keep my kitchen stocked. I also like to take 1 day a week to prep some of the major items I frequently use, like homemade almond milk, steamed quinoa and millet, and my favorite salad dressings. This way I have these homemade staples ready when I need them.
Rest!
Digestion is a process that takes place at a relaxed and resting state, so no matter what you eat your optimal digestion and overall health needs good solid rest. Don’t underestimate it.
Claire is the holistic nutritionist behind the gorgeous business/blog Vidya Cleanse, where she also offers cleanse coaching and workshops. Her guided juice cleanse is on my fall to-do list.
Get Your Sh*t Together Blog Series
GYST: Daily
GYST: Nourishing
GYST: Goals and Projects
GYST: Money
Get Your Sh*t Together is a one-week mini blog series all about – you guessed it – getting your shit together. We'll be exploring tactics and resources, talking to some creative biz experts, and have some downloadable worksheets, all to help you get your shit together too.
Every day I'm at battle with keeping my ducks in a row. A daily duck battle. I prioritize and plan, do and do some more. It takes constant work, some solid tools, and some hard core vigilance.
But there are things you can do to make it all so much easier. With the right resources, the right tools, and with the I'm-ready-to-do-this attitude, you can get your daily ducks in a row, too.
I've tried several tools over the past few years, and have found that my most productive mix is one comprised of tech and old-school pen and paper, both made by others and some I've crafted myself.
Here Are Some Ways I Tackle My Daily Ducks
Teux Deux
I track all my daily tasks with teuxdeux.com. I cannot imagine my life without it. The mobility and the daily rollover feature of this to-do list tracker makes my life easy peasy. I track my business to-dos, Corey's to-dos, email to-dos, and life to-dos. All in one place. It makes for happy, in-row ducks.
Awesome Note
Fantastic ideas can come at any moment. Any moment. I keep up with my any-moment idea havings with Awesome Note, an iPhone app that let's you create little notebooks and jot down ideas whenever they come to you. I have one for blog post ideas, or project ideas, but also for tracking my business mileage.
Any List
Any List is my shopping app. While I'm in the kitchen shaking out the last of my curry powder I can pick up my phone and add it to my list. No need to let the food burn while I search for my paper list and a pen.
Weekly Planner
Even though most of my daily planning and big helpers are electronic, I seriously couldn't keep it all together without some good old-fashined paper. I have to be able to hold planning in my hands, cross-reference, and double-check.
Download your own printable weekly planner >>
Daily Planner
When I know I'm going to have a seriously crazy day, I get out a daily planner. One where, at a glance, I can see and manage everything I have to do in one day. It's actually my goal to use these as little as possible, because when I use them too often it means I have too much on my plate, but I do occasionally, and they help me crack down.
Download your own printable daily planner >>
(2-page download, so you can print front and back, with space for hole-punching.)
Keeping My Sh*t Together
from Evy Jacob
I live by my list rituals and routines. They help me get to my goals. It's also a good thing to just know what I'm going to do and when. This keeps my life organized and really just simpler.
I shop for groceries/household stuff once a week. Really. Every Saturday morning. I start with a list that I've been keeping all week long as I think of things we're running low on and things I'd like to make. I try to choose healthy homemade unprocessed and if I have the pantry and fridge stocked up it's really easy to do this.
I try to run pretty much every day -- it's good for my body and my head to get outside for an hour and just run. And not think. I really believe it keeps me sane and strong. And I think it makes my days more productive. And definitely calmer. I like to drink lots of water so I always have a glass or my travel mug on my desk filled with cool water and lemon.
Monday morning I make The List for the week in my planner in the far left column. Digital is great but I do a lot better if I write things down. My list has sections -- usually 3. The orders that we will be shipping that week. Maybe new designs and products I want to explore. Administrative tasks that need to be taken care of. Personal/family things that need to be taken care of.
Every morning I take a look at what's on the list and this is how I decide what we will be focusing on in the studio that day. So each day I make a to do list in my planner based on the Monday morning big list and anything new that has come up. When the team shows up for work the first thing I do is share with them what the goals for the day and we make a plan on how we will achieve them. At the end of the day they let me know what they've accomplished, what they need to keep being productive and what they will be doing next.
I never get it all done. Mostly because I want to do so many things. But I do always keep moving forward and have lots of fun getting things done with love. Cause that's what really matters.
Evy Jacob is a stationery designer for her shop at evyjacob.com. As a pro at daily tasking and to-do, her coil-bounded planners are a personal favorite of mine.
Get Your Sh*t Together Blog Series
GYST: Daily
GYST: Nourishing
GYST: Goals and Projects
GYST: Money
