Wow – Costron + Co. is celebrating it’s first anniversary! 

Our first year – full of collaboration and heart centered work supporting entrepreneurs. It is crazy when we consider all that has happened during our first year – in the world and in our small business.  There were important lessons, disappointments, moments of gratitude, and wonderful successes – just what should be anticipated in the journey of developing a business. 

In a previous journal I discussed that we are all leaders. Whether we have a job title that denotes leadership or not – we are leaders. We lead in our career, our businesses, and our relationships. Every time we engage with another human, we are in a moment of deciding how we will lead -how we will show up in that conversation.

In this journal I want to take a closer look at natural leadership styles by touching on the 4 leadership domains. Being aware of the leadership choices that you make - What you choose to do in your leadership roles - is heavily influenced by past experience with positive and negative leaders, and your personal experience to this point.

Summer calls many of us to slow down, rest, and receive the gifts that this warm season provides. The phrase “work hard, play hard” comes to mind as I hear folks speak about how hard they’ve been working, how many hours they’ve put in, and that they haven’t been able to do anything else other than expel time and energy in work.

The personal development industry has frequently used these feelings of overwork with words that make us consider the ways that we are taking care of ourselves and work life balance. I have been reflecting and considering two of these words - “boundaries” and “self care” that seem to be prolific in our cultural framework.

I’m struggling with this journal entry. I usually come to the keyboard with a theme and framework and, with relative ease and editing from Katherine, (check out her website at www.katherineburrowscreative.com ) the journal entry unfolds in an authentic way.

This isn’t happening today. I am sitting in my privileged life, working remotely in a campground at the southern end of Bruce Peninsula. I was intending to write about leadership and dig deeper into the leadership domains, but Canada Day is just a couple of days away and I am struggling with focus.

Do you hear that voice inside of you calling you? The call to shift you and move toward your zone of genius. With every breath you take, you feel the pull to weave light into the world. Each step you’ve taken, in the pain and joy of your journey has had a purpose that brought you to this moment. All of these experiences define your unique perspective and beautiful lens which will be your zone of genius in being of loving service to the community.

Some of us are leaders by title. All of us are leaders in life.

Whether we have a job title that denotes leadership or not – we are all leaders. We lead in our career, our business, and our relationships. Every time we engage with another human, we are in a moment of deciding how we will lead -how we will show up in that conversation.

As business owners, it’s common to feel the weight of having to know everything and do it all well. Though we feel called to start our business from our passion and purpose, we may not immediately have the capital to invest in staffing, employees, or subcontractors. Instead, we feel like we have no choice but to do it all. However, when entrepreneurs wear too many hats, we become stretched thin, frustrated, annoyed, and overwhelmed. If we don’t take steps to relieve the pressure, we can quickly become burned out.

The best news is that we don’t always need financial capital to be able to find economical ways to delegate duties within our business. There are creative business and compensation models that can support your heart as the business owner, create work opportunities with someone else’s areas of strength, and in turn increase community reach and profit of your business.

Spring

The season of new beginnings

The time for new possibilities.

Jacquie Coston

April showers bring May flowers – which will be nice, but let’s get real! We are all hoping that it also brings some calm to our current pandemic. Hands up if you have had enough?

I will look back at the past month - April 2021 - with two vastly different perspectives. Being based in Ontario, the 3rd lock-down is very heavy on the heart. I pray for all those that are essential or front-line workers and for the parents who are managing the combination of school and their jobs/careers. These are extremely difficult times.

The stories we are taught to believe are endless: don’t cry or you'll appear weak, don’t show emotion or people won’t take you seriously, don’t let your clients know you are struggling or they won’t think you are professional. Your vulnerability shows how fragile you are. Your stories of pain, fear, and conflict confirm that you’re not enough. 

In a society that systematically praises strength, fearlessness, and power, we are conditioned to lean away from the wholeness of being human. The dark parts of self are not to be seen by our community and even ourselves. And they must especially not be shown in our business. We push, dismiss, resist, numb, and/or avoid our fear because it’s not “supposed” to be here.

There is extensive discussion on emotional intelligence, and the impact that it has on our self-awareness, self-agency, and self-acceptance. We also know that gaining this wisdom and journeying through discovery would serve us well in business and in life.

How does this fit into the world of entrepreneurship.

Running your own business comes with a lot of pressure: pressure on your time and energy, pressure to perform a certain way, pressure to keep up the appearance of success.

As the Owner & Founder of your company you have many hats and responsibilities: accounting, finance management, networking, marketing and advertising endeavours, social media and website management, maybe management of your team members. With all this endless pressure, it’s easy to lose track of your why.

Why did you start your business in the first place?

Why do you want to do this everyday?

Why are you passionate about helping people in just this way?

Can you even recall what life was like before social media? How did you build your business? Network? Stay in touch with clients?

If you are like me, you have a push and pull relationship with social media. Some days you like it and some days you hate it.

Social media is a great way to say in touch with family and friends that are near and far. It provides you with a platform to be informed of current events (well – unless you are in Australia). If you are small business owner, it provides you with a platform to reach millions at a relatively low cost.

These are all great things, but, as we are all aware, social media often has a downside.

As I write this blog, we are in our second winter of the pandemic and closing in on the 1-year mark of when COVID-19 started to impact our lives.

I remember the week leading up to the announcement of restrictions on travel, and our daily habits. I was actually visiting Kingston, part family trip but for the most part a work trip. The work part involved connecting with the wonderful Kingston-based team members that support Find Your Voice Music Therapy’s clients. Little did I know that this would be the end of my quarterly trips to Ontario until… well we still don’t know.

I am curious by nature. I am not curious in the let's dig into the research kind of way. I actually don’t like data that much. My curiosity sits in the conceptual. I am curious about how things work in more of an intuitive way.

I recently completed training to become a Lumina Spark Practitioner. I have had Lumina Spark in my life for many years but recently I was drawn to becoming certified – to take a deeper dive into the work and then to dig into the connection between Lumina Spark and the heart centered work that I do with the Desire Map program.

As I am writing this I am not sure what the answers are. In past journal entries I’ve written about caring for self with loving kindness… I thought I had it figured out. I thought I was finding my way. I thought I had finally arrived.

But once again, life feels messy and frustrating. Despite my best efforts to move forward consistently and intentionally, I am now in a place where it feels like two steps forward, one step back on one day and then, one step forward and two steps back on the next.

Confession Time: I may have journaled about how to plan during a pandemic – but full-disclosure I am currently experiencing ‘planning-block’. I can not get myself into the ‘zone’ to dream for next year.  So this week planning is on pause.

The holidays often bring a series of emotions. This year may be even more intense as we navigate the transitions and adaptations involved with the pandemic. Feelings of joy, gratitude, calm, excitement, peace, sadness, grief, loss, loneliness, fear. Or any combination of these.

Regardless of whether the holidays naturally nurture your preferred state of being, or not, I invite you to think about how you would like to feel this holiday season.

Having a robust and consistent strategy to building a virtual business network has another significant upside – you will be supporting your mental health and the mental health of those you engage with. As entrepreneurs, we will continue to adapt and find creative ways to thrive, regardless of the challenges ahead.

We all have them. Those days when we don’t feel “on.” Difficulty functioning, not feeling well-rested in the mornings, going through our own journeys with mental health, feeling overwhelmed with the demands of our business and life responsibilities.

Having a robust and consistent strategy to building a virtual business network has another significant upside – you will be supporting your mental health and the mental health of those you engage with. As entrepreneurs, we will continue to adapt and find creative ways to thrive, regardless of the challenges ahead.