2023 is the Year to Level Up

Greetings, Friends! I hope everyone's 2023 is off to a great start. After "retiring" from teaching at the end of the 2022 school year, and the fall acquiring a new property for the studio, I decided that 2023 was the year to level up. This means there has been a ton of behind the scenes work going on, as I have had to step out of my rainbow tie-dye art teacher self and stop running the studio like a passion project and put on my big boss pants and start running it like a business- especially since I don't want to have to live in a box under a bridge eating canned beans.

This has been a bit of a struggle for me because I do not have any big boss pants, nor am I intrinsically gifted in the areas in which I need to level up so that the studio can run at optimum efficiency. Since these skills do not come naturally to me, I joined a book club with other moms running small businesses. We have been working our way through Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth Revisited, and applying it step by step to our own businesses. I've been taking a deep dive into creating systems, procedures, and policies, as well as organizing and updating all our important documents and financial information. This has all been a very difficult and stressful process for me. As the saying goes, the struggle is real. But under excessive heat and pressure, graphite is transformed into diamonds, and I am hoping that after this rigorous and mentally exhausting “opportunity for growth” I will be able to shine bright like one. Fingers crossed. They also say, “it takes a village”, and I am so grateful for all of you who have been there to encourage and support Sunshine Sunflower Studio.

Leveling up is hard work, no matter what area of your life you are trying to improve. I am sure it is just as difficult for a Type-A, left-brained individual to feel comfortable letting go and creating art as it is for little old Type-B ADHD right-brained me to sit at the computer all day combing through spreadsheets of numbers. Overcoming our own ingrained beliefs about our abilities is never easy. I always said, “I can’t math”, but here I am mathing away (thanks to a calculator, but nonetheless). I said, “I’m not a business person”, but here I am wrangling my free-spirited artsy-fartsy skills into being an entrepreneur operating a successful business. It’s incredibly challenging, but I love the challenge! So let go of your fourth grade teacher who wouldn’t hang your artwork on the bulletin board or the random kid who said your painting was dumb – or whatever script plays in your brain every time you try to do something you want to do, but aren’t sure how to do. The point is, what you believe, you can achieve. If I can level up, so can you. In whichever way you feel like you need to. We all have room to bloom.

In this series of blog posts, let’s explore ways that we can level up together.