Hey everyone,

I’m coming to you with a little solo episode today – some updates on my business plans (book writing, letting go of my smartphone and running Patreon programs!) as well as an invitation to join the Embodied Business Community. I am sharing what you can expect, why I love it so much, what a year of membership costs and why I am offering a live round in September.

Here is more info about the Embodied Business Community: httpss://pinkwellstudio.com/diy-business-school/

This is the Dream writing program I mentioned: httpss://www.yarrowmagdalena.com/dream-program/

Sign up for my newsletter & the zine I mentioned here: httpss://pinkwellstudio.com/free-workshops/

Thank you for listening <3

Listen to the Embodied Business Podcast

on Apple Podcast // Stitcher // Spotify

⋒ Hi, my name is Yarrow and I am your host.

My Embodied Business podcast explores what it means to build a livelihood with integrity, joy and anti capitalist values. I offer practical guidance on tech, strategy, ethical marketing, creativity and money and interview other small business owners who do things their own way. 

You can learn more about my work, listen to other episodes or join my community at PinkWellStudio.com

You can also sign up for my newsletter - I share free workshop invitations, resources, ideas & new episodes about once per month! ⋒

Transcript

Hey, everyone, my name is Yarrow and you’re listening to the DIY small business podcast. Thank you so much for joining me, this will be a relatively short solo episode, in which I want to update you on a few things that I’m currently offering. And also kind of look into the future of the podcast a little bit. Before I start a few updates for me, I am kind of in the afterglow of having taken a week off last week. And I really felt like it was quite hard to relax during a pandemic, which maybe sounds silly, but just this feeling of like, restlessness and checking the news a lot is definitely still there. And I actually find that a lot of days, I’m really deeply grateful for my work and how it gives me a bit of structure and a bit of interaction with other people and a bit of creativity. So yeah, it was cool to take the week off, I did some more reading. We went on some longer hikes. And yeah, that was gorgeous. But I’m also really happy to be back at work. And with that, I just kind of feel a really deep sense of gratitude for feeling that way for it being Monday morning now and for sitting in bed. And you know, having had slow breakfast and feeling like Yeah, actually, I want to do that. Because this spins so many times in my life, I really just dreaded Monday morning and really couldn’t get out of bed and really never felt particularly excited about what I was doing. So yeah, thank you for coming along on that journey. Other updates are I’m, I’m still kind of, you know, like, arriving at the fact that I’ve written the book and feel different waves of excitement and too much vulnerability with that. two episodes bag, you will hear me talk about why I wrote this book and how it’s become part of my other business Daedra walls, which also has a podcast under the same name. And it’s interesting. So I definitely sold more copies than I expected. So that feels good. There are definitely things in the book, Dad feel just very personal. And it’s a big shift to share that with the world. I’ve been sharing a lot for years now. I have often and long been very active on Facebook, and sorry, Instagram. And obviously I’ve this podcast and then my other one. But still having something out there in writing that people have a hard copy of feels different. And I’m getting used to it. And I’m trying to be gentle with myself about those typos and about the pads of the book that I feel could have been better. But I’m also excited to write my second book. And I think that’s kind of the thing, when I do feel a bit awkward or shy about it that that really helps me to think like, Okay, this was my first book, I’m going to write another one and each one I write will hopefully be a little bit better than the last one. So the next book that I’m writing is going to be an extension of design. Our bodies as anticapitalist, business mentors, which you can get for free. If you sign up for my newsletter, add your digital.com. And yeah, I’m excited. I’m really excited for that. I think it won’t be a massive big, super extensive book, but it will be a deep dive into what I’ve learned in the past five and a half years, what feels good, and what I would share with my younger self, starting out with a business basically,
I’m also offering a writing programme starting in October on October 6, and that’s available to all patrons. It’s called dream. And it’s a six week container in which you will receive daily, sorry, weekly daily is way too much weekly emails with journaling prompts and your pep talks to me. And then every Saturday we’ll meet for 45 minutes to do writing practice together. And so there’s not going to be a lot of content. I don’t want to overwhelm people I think we are already have a lot of on our plate, but it’s an invitation to practice or deepen our practice of meditation and writing together. So under calls on Saturdays, we’ll will mainly be quiet, meditative few days of cut off, my timings off. We’ll meditate a few minutes together. And then we’ll write together and then we’ll close in a little ritual. And that’s pretty much it. And it’s my attempt to offer something that can maybe help us begin processing a little bit of what’s happened this year and feel that we’re going into winter, but more of a sense of self and community care and connection to the practices that feel nurturing to us. So yeah, if you want to join that you can pledge any amount that you like on my Patreon. I’ll link to that in the show notes and yet pay what you can offer. So just have a think about what feels Good and red for you to pay for this. Petrol is still a big part of my business. And if you scroll all the way back, you will find an episode in which I’m talking about why that’s so meaningful to me, why I’m offering pay what you can programmes in this way, and how it kind of builds the stability of income in my business. In other news, and getting rid of my smartphone this week, so it’s the full moon on Wednesday. And that, to me always feels like a day or a time that invites me to think about what I’m letting go as the moon begins to wane. And, I mean, I’m not telling you anything new. When I’m telling you that I’m overwhelmed. I think we all are in some ways, and I find it really hard at the moment to not be Doom scrolling all the time to pick up my phone and just see what happened. And to just go really down deep down this, this bag hole of all the tableau things and I really do want to stay present with them. And I want to, really every day, ask myself what I can do, what my contribution is, how I can stay present, how I can support my friends, my communities.
And what I can do as a whole, but I am really sure that me being on Instagram on my phone, all the time is not actually effective in any way. And when I think about effectiveness, in that sense, I don’t want to comment at it from a productivity culture angle that’s so deeply ingrained in capitalism, I want to remember that being effective isn’t exclusive to capitalism, and that, I just want to be discerning with how I spend my time and energy and being on my phone is just not where it’s at. for me. And I’m also noticing again, and I’ve talked about this before, it is another episode about me. So leaving social media for six months last year that you can check out but just noticing again, that my attention spans becoming really short, that I’m not sleeping that well, especially if I’m on my phone before I go to bed. And it’s just a lot of time that goes into that. And I do want to stay in touch, I do want to hear from my friends, I want to you know, see what’s happening the world, I want to look at nice pictures. But there has to be a better way, a way that’s more sustainable. If you’re interested in this, I can really recommend the book called How to break up with your phone, I forgot the author’s name, but I’m gonna again, link that to the show notes as well. It’s a great book, it really opened my eyes and was kind of the catalyst for me leaving social media last year. And I’m happy to report back that my business really didn’t crumble at all, I wrote a lot of scenes in that time, I made a lot of really beautiful connections. And mainly I just rested my brain, which I really needed. And I came back this spring because so was so much was happening, I wanted to have another way of connecting with my friends, I wanted to visually see what everyone is doing. And that felt right, but it’s just getting too much. And I think there’s also a lot of pressure for small business owners to always have something meaningful to say. And that’s just not the case. You know, like everyone else, I feel burned out sometimes and overwhelmed and just don’t really have anything to say and don’t want to squeeze something out of myself, just to stay in the conversation or be visible. That’s not actually important right now, I think that’s also part of the thing that we’re learning is why people in particular, we don’t have to be visible all the time and take up space and be heard. We can also step back and quietly support things from from the background, basically. So long story short, I am getting a very simple Nokia feature phone, which has Google Maps because I’m very clumsy and I get lost all the time.
And it has WhatsApp and I’m not actually a big fan of WhatsApp. But the reality is that there are a lot of people that I connect with that way and I wanted to be able to send receive voice messages. My grandparents have learned how to use WhatsApp, I’ve really missed them. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to see them again. And so that stuff had important so it’s not a super basic phone, but it’s a feature phone. And it has a tiny screen if you remember, you know, it looks like a classic old Nokia phone. And there’s really no joy in looking at that on that screen and being on the internet basically, and it can’t You can’t instal WhatsApp, you can’t instal Instagram or Pinterest or any of that stuff that takes up so much space. So I’m really excited how that’s gonna go. I’ll let you know. And I really hope that it will also give me more space to write this book that I mentioned in the beginning, and I’m excited to share that with you. Gosh, that was an almost 10 minute update. I didn’t know that. I had Not much to say. But thank you so much for listening, I now want to talk a little bit about the embroidery business community. So you might have heard me talk about this before, you might not have heard me talk about it before. I started as a bit over two years ago, basically, because I was remembering how in the beginning, I was really seeking community. And I still am, of course. But when I was starting out, I paid a lot of money for a big, very well known business programme that taught me a lot. And it was good to be part of that community. But I also found it to be really overpriced and not actually very interactive. So it had a Facebook group that was very active, but it was so big, that I often just didn’t feel like I could connect with people that and then also, it was a self study programme. So that was fun. But I never, you know, there was just not a lot of contact with other people or good coaching or life events that were helpful. So I wanted to create something more dry and more affordable. And at the core of the embody business community is our network on mighty networks. So you can look there anytime and ask questions. There’s always some conversation going on. We have Monday, accountability posed, everyone has a profile with pictures, you can connect with people through that interest, or geographically, there’s different groups, we have a reading a book club, for example. There’s a book club for doulas, there’s a group for people who want to trade stuff. So that’s a different things happening. And then another key piece is the 10 module online quiz, which really covers so many different aspects of business building it’s from, it starts with kind of figuring out what you want to offer who you want to offer it to pricing, accessibility, ethical marketing, social media, newsletter building, software integration, getting organised. So lots of really nuts and bolts kind of stuff. And you can work at that in your own time. But we’re also doing a live round, starting the second half of September. So if you know, you’re someone who benefits from having structure and group accountability, join us now. And then you can take the course with us from the second half of September. And I think that will be really fun. So every other week, we’ll have a live call. And we’ll go through two modules, answer any questions go a little bit deeper, and just support each other. And then another aspect that I really like about the community is our co working spaces. So once or twice a month, we meet for two hours, and we just quietly work together on zoom. And in the beginning, we each set an intention, we witness that, and then we get to work. And that feels really fun. And we also have live group coaching calls every month. And that’s a space where you can just literally bring any question and talk it through. And there’s always lovely people who are experiencing something similar and maybe have something to share. We also have themed workshops. So with the life round, which is going to run from September to November, we’ll focus on that and the course but also the rest of the year. Each month, we have one or two live workshops where we’re covering stuff like money mindset work, or launching something or building a Patreon. And this is wish base. So you can always come forward and wish for a particular topic. And I’ll cover that.
Yeah, so those are all the things I and it’s a it’s a year long programme. So it really gives you a lot of time to build very solid foundation and receive a lot of support. And if you join, you also get a one on one session with me with which you can use in the first three months. And that’s a great way to ask more individual questions, get deeper feedback, and really map out kind of your journey through the programme, in whatever way works best for you. The Price Is $300, or three payments of $100. And I offer three spots at 50% off for marginalised people who can’t afford the full price. Two of them are taken, but there’s one left. So if you want to know if that’s for you, just reach out to me, let me know. And I’ll send you the code for that. But yeah, I’ll link to all of that in the show notes. And if you have any questions, please let me know. I want to touch briefly also, on the perspective for the podcast. I’ve really really enjoyed recording solo episodes on specific topics for use. If you have questions, there’s anything that you want me to go deeper in on or expand on or maybe update an older episode, let me know I’m really happy to hear that. And I’m also looking forward to talking to more people about what it means to build a business and these times with feminist anti capitalist values. So if that’s you, you want to talk about your business journey, please reach out as well. And again, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review. That really means a tonne to me and I would so appreciate it. Thank you so much