3 Things September Taught Me (And 1 Failure)
Hey friends! I’m back with a catch-up post for my monthly update series, but this month I’m changing it up, and looking at the three things September taught me – and one ‘failure’ too!
So, grab a cuppa, and let’s take a look at how September worked out for me!
Disclaimer: This is a personal blog entry and you will not learn anything from reading this other than my thoughts and feelings, which will help you to know me better! 🙂
1. Comparisonitis Is Real
I have for the longest time struggled with confidence in what I do. Not because I don’t have the skills – I do, and I am really good at what I do – but because I compared myself for too long to others, and that ‘imposter’ aspect came into play hard within my business over the last couple of years.
I would lose hours checking out my ‘competitors’ in the name of ‘market research’ only to then become frozen into inaction through comparing me and my work to others. Every product idea that I had, and ‘researched’ the market for, would have the same result: me frozen and putting it on the back burner.
It’s quite ironic that on my arty YouTube channel I always cheerlead others and tell them not to compare themselves to others, to ‘stay in their lane’ and compare their current work to previous work to see how they are improving. It’s medicine that I only really took on board this summer, and the impact it had on me throughout September was epic.
It meant that I had zero fear around talking about the products I have, how they will have a positive impact on those who buy them… I really leaned into speaking honestly about how I can help, without any concern about others being better than me!
2. I Love Teaching
I always knew I enjoyed sharing knowledge with others, but I didn’t really understand how much I love it until I started creating my online sewing course, Learn to Sew.
Working up the course structure, recording the lessons, thinking about the projects that work well for sewing beginners, and how each of them naturally leans into learning and practicing a selection of sewing skills. I’m just so happy to be creating this course for those who need it.
It’s a very different experience to when I first created a sewing course – back in 2016, which I called ‘Snazzy Sewing’ – which left me questioning everything I was doing in my business.
And when I recently met with some women in the town I live, there was a lot of encouragement to create an in-person series of classes too… I’ll report back on that!
3. Done Is Better Than Perfect
I am someone who leans heavy on things being ‘perfect’. It stops me from completing projects, because each aspect of a project should be ‘prefect’ before the next step can take place – which also comes back to point 1 about comparisonitis! – but the reality is that it’s often a procrastination tool as well.
Obviously, it is important to do a good job, but pushing for absolute perfection in a world that is not at all perfect… it’s really quite silly isn’t it?
In September I embraced that ‘done’ was better than ‘perfect’ in the following ways:
Video Lessons
Having lost all the original video content for the course in my external hard drive failure, I spent September re-recording lessons for each week’s module in my Learn to Sew course even when the light wasn’t quite right, or my mic wasn’t working.
I also transcribed and captioned all the lessons to date, so that students have options, and there will undoubtedly be errors in those captions, but at least I did my best.
Online Shop
I moved my online shop from one platform to another in one day without tracking down and changing all the old links. While I was very proud of getting that work done – it’s the best experience possible now for anyone who purchases a product from me – it meant that I did have quite a few customer service emails and FB messages from people who’d followed a link from a YouTube video or from an existing blog post and ended up with an error page.
Safe to say that at the end of the month I did track down all the links I could find and swapped them out, and I can see that orders have increased again as a result of this work.
Product Branding
One other thing I did was update my branding for my shop website and products. It’s not perfect – especially the homepage – but I feel like the base is in place, and now I can tweak as I go.
And for my sewing patterns, the design has been overhauled for new products, my Rowan Tool Roll has been updated to match and I’ll do the others as time allows throughout October. Done, after all, is better than perfect!
And The ‘Failure’…
I struggled hard with managing my time in September. I know that I work well with a deadline, but when other factors impact on my time, the pressure of a deadline makes me feel ill with stress. One aspect of this is having a partner working mostly from home, who is used to an open-door office environment. I do not do well with others around as it is distracting, from the creaking floorboards when pacing is happening to the frequent interruptions about cups of tea, food and even unscheduled deliveries.
Throw in back injuries and illness, and it felt like September was a battle to get things completed.
Some of the things I wanted to finish up in September?
- Two patterns that are so close to being available.
- The free pattern making course – the content is ready I just need to film it.
- A new YouTube video with my autumn sewing plans has not been edited and now it’s too late.
For October, I want to go into the month with a more focused way of working so that I’m not crashing from one task to another and losing time in making lists, and I think a weekly schedule will be the way to go. I will also try to avoid working across both weekend days which we do fall into the habit of doing when the weather outside is atrocious…
Mondays
9am: Review current Pattern Design. Check what is outstanding, and what can be done in the time available that day.
930am: Work on the current Pattern Design (in sewing room if machine is needed or Forum if not).
1-2pm: Lunch break
5pm: Prep Learn to Sew materials for this week’s module when at home
6pm: Reply to YT comments on TCC and EDD channels. Create and schedule pins for Pinterest.
Tuesdays
8-10am: Prep LTS (if not done on Monday).
Morning up until lunch: Start recording the week’s video lessons.
1-2pm: Lunch break
2-5pm: Continue with video lessons as needed.
5pm: Transfer all video clips to laptop. Organize them into their respective folders. Note on the Spreadsheet anything important.
6pm: Reply to YT comments on TCC and EDD channels. Create and schedule pins for Pinterest.
Wednesdays
8-9am: Record and edit an EDD video for YT.
9-noon: Continue with LTS and pattern making video lessons as needed, based on the spreadsheets.
12-1pm: Write up all LTS lesson overviews, additional resources and homework notes into one word doc.
1pm: Upload & schedule EDD video then lunch.
2-5pm: Write a new blog post for the website, make a list of any photos needed, and plan into Thursday schedule.
5pm: Reply to YT comments on TCC and EDD channels. Create and schedule pins for Pinterest.
Thursdays
8-5pm: Edit, transcribe and caption all LTS videos for that week’s module/s. This is a mammoth task with each video taking an hour per 10 minutes of finished video content. It can be done at Forum.
6pm: Reply to YT comments on TCC and EDD channels. Create and schedule pins for Pinterest.
Fridays
8am-2pm: Upload all LTS lessons to the course platform. Add the lesson overviews, additional resources and homework notes from the main file. Can be done at Forum.
3pm: Publish all LTS lessons for that week, write and send email to students that lessons are live.
4pm: Write and publish a second shorter blog post for TCC or update one if short on time.
6pm: Reply to YT comments on TCC and EDD channels. Create and schedule pins for Pinterest.
Weekends
I do have a habit of working on the weekends, but I do want to try and cut back on this so that there is a line between my working week and my down time. If the week’s work is not complete, I will spend time on the Saturday morning finishing it off. This is usually the weekly ‘For the Weekend’ email and a blog post.
I think this is a schedule that will work for October. It will be trickier to manage when I am in the UK for a week, but I will do my best to front load the video creation at the beginning of the month, so that the video lessons needed in the latter part can be edited and uploaded while away.
Personal Update
I normally share a personal update in the monthly recap posts, but I have noticed that this makes them rather long, so I’ll post a more personal update separately. Stay tuned for that!
Thanks so much for being here. Let me know if you have any recommendations, suggestions or thoughts on anything above, would love to read them in the comments!
Big hugs to you for making it this far!
Eve
