Canva-crastination and chronic illness with Kate Browning

As many of us in the UK struggle to work through another heatwave, I'm thrilled to share this chat with Kate Browning (she/her) of Cherry Blossom Management about incorporating self care into your business so your business supports you, whether you have a chronic illness like she does or you just want a happier work life.

Kate is the founder and owner Cherry Blossom Management. She genuinely loves to support people, to see them grow, to empower them and witness that transformation that comes with outsourcing and delegating. She believes in doing business your way and incorporating self care into your daily routine.

Using Canva for small business, Kate's guest post: https://socialmediaforhumans.club/using-canva-for-small-businesses/

The Duck Pond Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theduckpondcommunity

Kate's links.
Website: https://cherryblossommanagement.co.uk/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cherryblossommanagement/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cherryblossommangement
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katebrowningcbm/

Alexis' links.
I hang out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexisbushnell/​
Find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaForHumans
Join the club to learn more about ethical and effective social media marketing: https://socialmediaforhumans.club/

Voice over by Hawke Wood: https://www.spotlight.com/3490-9081-8844

Support the show

Buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AlexisB

Alexis' links.
Me on Toot Wales: https://toot.wales/@alexisbushnell
Or on Calckey Social: https://calckey.social/@AlexisBushnell
I hang out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexisbushnell/​
Me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bushnellcs/
Find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaForHumans
Join the club to learn more about ethical and effective social media marketing: https://socialmediaforhumans.club/

Voice over by Hawke Wood: https://www.spotlight.com/3490-9081-8844

Transcript

Hawke: 0:00

Hello and welcome to Social Media for Humans, the podcast that empowers you to do social  differently. Your host, Alexis Bushnell, and her guests discuss their experience of social media as  business owners, users, and ultimately humans, with insights and advice to help you find an effective  and ethical strategy that works for you. Grab yourself a drink and join the conversation.

Alexis: 0:24

Hello, hello I am here with wonderful Kate, do introduce yourself, tell us who you are and what you do.

Kate: 0:32

Hi, thank you for having me. So I am Kate Browning, I am the founder of Cherry Blossom Management  and we are a virtual assistant support company. We are also Canva experts and I am a Canva trainer,  andI I am a mentor to new online businesses. Alexis: Very exciting, I'm gonna start with Canva because  Canva is. People have opinions one way or the. Canva is the Marmite of apps,  social media tech, that kind of thing. I'm a Canva fan, you are obviously a Canva fan, can you tell me why you love Canva? Kate: Canva is my favorite piece of software that I use by far  because I think even if you're not using the paid version which I obviously do because the in depth  and the way I use it, but even the free version, the value it gives you, they give so much away for free. It's one of the most user-friendly pieces of design software where you can use it to market  your business and share your voice and your own quirky personality and your uniqueness,  and Canva is so user-friendly and easy to use, I've used lots of other design softwares and by far  Canva is the easiest to use because I'm all about if you want to do it yourself I'll give you the  tools to be able to teach you to do it yourself, or if you want to delegate it and outsource it  then I can do that too.

Alexis: 2:06

Yeah I do agree it is it is one of those things that is really really easy  to use which is partly why I love it and partly why I recommend it to people as well, because it  is one of those things that it can be really difficult to create like interesting images  and get your personality across and make things look how you want with things like  Photoshop or things like that, like there is a massive learning curve on those tools,  it is not easy and, especially if you are a freelancer or you are a one person business,  like you don't have the time, unless you already have the skills because you're doing it for your  actual job, you can't spend all that time trying to figure out this new, very expensive, software,  it's not feasible. I will say the big problem that I know a lot of people have with Canva  is losing so much time trying to find the perfect photo in their selection, do you  have any sort of suggestions to kind of avoid that Canva as procrastination?  

Kate: 3:17

Canva is, so it's very easy to lose yourself in a hole of social media, you  know this, it's the same with Canva, if you are a creative person that enjoys to use it you can lose  hours and hours on Canva, I know I did at the beginning and I'm now very controlled  with how I spend my time. One of the things I love with Canva that tends to save a lot  of time is you have access to photos and you have access to  elements and different things, like little hearts or stars or something that's relevant to your  branding and if you are really good at using folders within Canva and so when you're  creating some graphics and you see four or five different images that you think "they're great I'd  love to use them," rather than having to scroll through if you use your folders you can save  all of your favorite elements and all of your favorite photos in those folders so that when  you come to create next time they're already there, rather than you spending hours scrolling  through trying to find the perfect one. So I am obsessively organised when it comes to the folders,  I think they've renamed it projects now, exactly the same thing, they changed it about a month ago  didn't they, but if you are smart from the start with putting stuff into these folders it saves  you masses of time.

Alexis: 4:33

That is that is a good tip. I will say I'm not amazing at the folders, I tend to  just have folders for like different clients and that's it. I am gonna try that.  

Kate: 4:43

Even my photos, so I have one for my branded headshots, I have one for my own photos I've  taken on my phone, they all have their own folders so I can be really quick when I want something.  

Alexis: 4:54

That is a top tip! Okay I challenge everyone go, while you're listening to the rest  of this podcast, go on to your Canva and start organising everything into folders. Fabulous! One of the other things that you are very big on is like self-care. 

Kate: 5:13

Massive yeah. Alexis: And I am going to make the argument that Canva kind of ties into that because if it's quick and it's easy  that counts as self-care for me that's like make it easy. Why are you passionate about self care? I think self-care is so, so important and the further I've got into my business the more  passionate I am and the more I try and almost drum it into people because I have a chronic illness,  so I have fibromyalgia so if I don't listen to my body and I don't incorporate self-care my  body will punish me for that, so I've been almost forced into incorporating self-care, but then as  part of including it in my daily routine and my weekly routine I've seen an  increase in my productivity, I've seen an increase in the amount of work I get done, I get more done  in a short space of time, my attention to detail is much higher, and my general well-being and  happiness is just better, it's at a higher level by incorporating the self-care, and when I work  with clients on this I've seen a change in their business. So I've worked with clients and they've  managed to drop a day a week but they're still doing the same amount of work, they're still  earning the same money, but they're working less because they're prioritising themselves.  

Alexis: 6:37

Yeah yeah, I think it's one of those weird things that we all, when we do it we all go oh this really does make a difference, if I take care of myself I'm just so much more productive,  so much more focused, I feel so much better, I also have time to like  do stuff that I actually love that isn't just work on my business, and yet we then still  get caught up in this, I think especially when something like there's a big project on or  with we have some kind of external stressor, the immediate thought process is like  well I have to stop doing the self-care because I have to spend the time doing this  even though we know that doing the self-care will help to do the other stuff. Have you sort of found anything that helped maybe readjust your own mindset, or has helped with  clients to sort of shift that and and help them go no, I am going to stick to the self-care anyway?  

Kate: 7:37

Yeah so it's as you said, it's so easy to fall in, especially if you're really busy  or you're doing something you love doing, it's very easy to just get hyper focused and forget yourself. One of the best ways that I manage to still incorporate my self-care is I  am hot on boundaries, like I am on it, if you ask any of my clients they're like yeah,  all my associates within my team, they're like "you're super strict on your boundaries."  The boundaries for me not only protect me but they manage my clients expectations. I'm  all about clarity and being completely open and transparent whether it's in communication, pricing,  whatever, I believe in complete transparency, so for me even when I'm getting super busy I  will always have my boundaries. For example I don't work Fridays anymore, I decided to give up Fridays  about six months ago and even if I'm super busy I won't work that Friday to make it up because  that's part of my boundaries, part of protecting me. I always take a break away from my computer  every day and that's one of the hardest things to make myself do, I actually love being outdoors, I'm  an outdoor person, but to peel yourself away from a computer can be really challenging,  but even that 30 minute break away from your computer will refresh your brain, it'll re-energise you. Go to have something to eat, go and stick your head out the window and get  some fresh air, go and have a cuddle with your dog or your cat, just something to just refresh you. So  although some of the other self-care aspects when I get super busy may not be as strong, I'm  always super on it with my boundaries and they help protect that aspect of self-care.

Alexis: 9:25

Yeah, boundaries is definitely a big one and again I think that's something that small businesses  really struggle with and I think a lot of it is kind of the attitude of like oh but if  if my client went with a big corporation then they would get immediate responses  because they would have a team replying to their problems and dealing with their stuff,  but they chose not to go with a corporation, you know, if they wanted that, if that was top of their  list of priorities they wouldn't have gone with you would they? Like they don't need  you to reply to their email within three seconds, they probably don't think that's that important.

Kate: 10:00

And it's one thing as well I think, a lot of it as well is about perspective, because our business is our baby, most of the business owners I know genuinely love and care,  you know, give a shiz about their business, so when you feel like you're not doing something as  good as you should you think the world's gonna end, the business is gonna, the world is gonna end, your  business is gonna crumble and fall apart, but it's about having that perspective, you know. If you  take 24 hours to respond to an email I guarantee your client's world is not going to fall apart,  I guarantee that's not going to happen, it's just sometimes about bringing that perspective back in.  

Alexis: 10:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely and I think we also forget because we're so passionate about  what we're doing and also about our clients it's so easy to think that the client is sat there,  like they've sent this email and now they are just sat waiting for us to reply to it, and in reality  they probably have a very long to do list of 50 other things that they are now working on  and they have forgotten that they are waiting for your email until they get around the next  day and they're like "oh I wonder if I had a reply to that," you know, and I think it's  very easy to forget that like other people, the people we're working with in any capacity,  like they are just as busy with other stuff as we are and they're probably not just hanging on  our email, or our phone call, or whatever it is. Kate: Yeah, again it's that perspective aspect isn't it,  your business is your world so it's very easy to kind of make everything center of that, but it's  just about trying to keep the perspective and protecting yourself, because if you do protect  yourself. So by me setting these boundaries it protects me, it encourages me to incorporate  self-care, but it manages my clients expectations so they know if they email me at six  o'clock on a Thursday they won't get a response til Monday because there's nothing I can do in  those days which is going to make a significant difference anyway, and it's the same for my clients,  so if they have working hours or boundaries, all these things that work better for them,  then I work within their boundaries as well and it protects them, and I found that by having such  strong boundaries, because I think a lot of people are afraid they'll scare people away  by having certain boundaries, but by me having these and enforcing them and sticking to them not  only does it encourage my associates to take care of themselves, because that's really important to  me, but also you start seeing my clients thinking that's a great idea, I'm gonna do that, and they  start making these positive changes for their business as well which, I love seeing that.  Yeah, yeah it is so true, there are sort of a very small percentage of people,  I think, in the world who are people who are happy to make those changes and do the thing  without seeing it represented anywhere, but most of us need to see it, we need to see somebody  else doing it to go "oh that's okay, their business did not fall apart when they decided to  stop working Fridays, maybe it doable," you know? And so I do think it is really  really powerful to lead by example basically. I kind of want to ask you because i think one  thing that can be a stumbling block initially when people are thinking about boundaries and self-care  is where do I put the boundary? What are my boundaries? How do I figure out  what, like do I actually want to stop working Fridays or do I want to finish earlier or do I  want to you know start later? How do you kind of recommend or, what, I guess how did you  figure out where your boundaries were? Kate: So for me it was looking at my why. Why did I start my business?  It was what drives me and, for me, one of the drivers for setting up my business was to  empower other people to be able to make positive changes in their life, and it was about being  able to focus more on self-care and have more time away from a working environment because,  before I went self-employed I worked 70-80 hours a week, and then when I went self-employed I worked  70 to 80 hours a week when I started, so it was like I was trying to escape one thing and went  straight into the exact same thing, and one of my main drivers was because of my fibromyalgia  I have limitations to what my body will let me do and what my mind will let me do because  when the brain fog kicks in there's no point trying because it's not going to happen,  and for me, I've learned to be able to listen to my body, my body tells me when it needs a rest  and a lot of people it's exactly the same, your body will tell you when you need to rest  but it's whether you choose to listen to it or whether you choose to push through. I used to  be one of the people that pushed through and then I'd suffer for it later because I've done that, so for me it was going back to my why, and my why was I didn't want to work myself to the bone, I  didn't want to be exhausted all the time, I wanted time to do the fun stuff that I like doing that's  not within my business, my business is fun but the stuff outside of it I love doing like going  for walks and being in nature and stuff like that. So it was going back to my original why and that then helped me work out where I needed to set my boundaries. So for me my biggest protections  in my business are how I spend my time and how I spend my energy and who I spend those two things  with. I am super super protective of those two things, they are the things I value most and I  think when you start to value your time and energy you start to think very carefully about how you  spend it and who you spend it with, so that helped me kind of align and set the boundaries.  Yeah yeah, I think that's and you're right, people's bodies do tell them I think and so  often we feel tired, we feel like the brain is fuzzy, we can't really focus the same,  we're not feeling as motivated, and instead of going okay I'm gonna have a slow morning, I'm gonna  have a nice coffee and sit and read or listen to the birds or whatever  we go no, I have this long to-do list, I'm going to put on a motivational podcast that's going to like  yell at me and tell me to just, you know, mind over matter, get on with it, hustle hard, and then I'm  going to just do the thing and generally yeah sure, you might actually do the thing  but long term I feel like that's a bad solution, like that's probably not doing you a lot  of good physically or mentally to actively try to ignore your body signals  instead of going okay, right what do you need right now? Do we need to sit down? Do we need to take a day off? Do we need to phone a friend? Do we need to see a doctor? Do we, you know,  what do we actually need? And I do think that is something that people struggle with and I think  when people go freelance as well it kind of gets worse, like you say when you first went freelance,  that you were still working all those hours and I think because we  feel that pressure of if I don't do the thing then my business is not a business it's just nothing,  and it can be really really hard I think to sort of switch out of that and go okay, I can take a day  off and my business still exists, you know, I can  take a slow morning and it will still be okay.  

Kate: 17:40

Yeah and I guarantee that say, I don't know, say the thing you needed to do was to publish a newsletter,  and I guarantee if you push through when you are tired and exhausted and not in the right  frame of mind and you push yourself and you force yourself to do that newsletter and you get it out  that's great, but if you were to step away, take a break and do that newsletter tomorrow when  you're relaxed, you've had a good night's sleep, you've got the energy, you're motivated,  I guarantee the content and the quality of what you're sending out is going to be so much better  if you step back and listen and do it when you're in the right mindset.

Alexis: 18:18

Yeah yeah and I say this all the time about social media content because  obviously a lot of the advice about social media is like you need more content, you just need to do more content, you just need to do more content, and  so when I say to people like "you could just do like less content," the resistance is so massive and  just like "oh but but but," and I'm like yeah, but if you do one post a week but actually  you care about it, you've thought about it, you've put some of you into it because you've been able  to, because you've had the time instead of thinking oh I've got to smash out seven posts or whatever,  the response is always better. Like without fail clients say to me like  "yeah yeah, the posts that I've like put some thought into and that I've really put a bit of myself  into, that came from the heart, those are the ones that do the best," and I'm like uh, yeah, yeah, that's because there's humans on the other side of that post going oh wow, this is  written by a real human not an algorithm, fabulous! Kate: Yeah absolutely, I totally agree with you,  I'm all about quality over quantity any day and I think one of the things that really helps with  self care regards to protecting your mindset and your wellness and your mental health is, well one I'm very against is perfectionism, I think perfectionism is procrastination's best mate.  Done is better than perfect, stop being a perfectionist, stop procrastinating. But the other  thing for me that I found popping up time and time again, especially with my clients, is comparison.   I had this conversation last week with someone and she was comparing herself to another business  owner that I know and I know that both of them compare themselves to each other, but they both  put each on a pedestal thinking they're both amazing and they want to strive to be as  good as the other person, they're both amazing people, amazing business owners, super talented,  but because we've always got it in our head to try and compare yourself to someone else because  I don't know, they earn a certain income, they have a certain amount of followers, or they have  a certain amount of clients, and I just think no, no, no, balls to that! Don't compare yourself. I stopped  comparing myself about a year into my business and I've been going over two and a half years now and  the difference it made to, my business has grown, it's flourished, I'm different from others in my  industry, we all have our own unique selling point and it's the human aspect of the business  isn't it, and once you stop comparing yourself the the difference it will make in your mental health,  I think that's part of a self-care routine is actively stop comparing yourself to people.  Yeah no I do, I agree and I think you are so right about perfectionism, that is one of the  big things I see in clients so much. So I actually have a thread in my Facebook group  that goes up every now and again that's like "perfectionism busting thread; just do something,"  I don't care what it is, just do it! Because it really is something that people struggle  with and people use, and I think the other that's like the flip side of that that kind  of fuels it is very much this idea that people care about what they're doing, they want  to produce the best work and there is this kind of infuriating brain gremlin that's like "ah but  if you abandon perfectionism then you won't create your best work," and like spoilers, not true!   If you care about what you're doing you will create your best work whether you are trying to  make it perfect or not. Bbut the comparison like it's definitely a big thing  with social media especially, because it is so easy to look at what everybody else is doing  and make up your own story about why they're successful, or how successful they are and stuff  like that, and two things I have found that help me and also other people is one, don't  follow those people, you know, you don't need to follow them, it's fine. And two, ask to  collaborate with them, because it can be genuinely stunning when you message someone who you think  is this massive, super amazing person and you're like wow they are incredible, I will never be as  famous, or as successful, or as popular, or as whatever as them and you message them like  could you write me a guest post, could you be on my podcast, could we do a live together, and  they freak out and they're like "oh thank you so much for asking, that's so exciting," and you're like  "you don't even know who I am," but they're like "yeah, I follow you, you're amazing, I love your content!"  That can be such a weird experience but it can help to kind of shift your brain because you  you see this person who's like wow, you are so successful, and actually they do know who you  are, or they're really excited because they don't see themselves the way you see them, and it  can really help just to kind of rejig your brain so that when you look at other people  you're not just looking at them and going wow you are just way up there on this pedestal where I  will never reach.

Kate: 23:39

Yeah yeah and I think when you reach out and you collaborate, I've done exactly  that, there was a business owner I followed and there were certain services we did that  overlapped and I looked and thought wow, she's amazing, I'm never going to be as good as her.  Reached out to her, she's now a client of mine, we're accountability buddies, and  we go out for lunch socially once a month because we've ended up turning into like  best mates because she was doing the same thing with me, and we collaborate on certain projects  and do training on camera and all sorts of stuff now, but you don't know until you try.  The likelihood of someone turning around going "no, bugger off," is, I mean it's never happened yet,  it might do at some point, you never know, but I'm a big believer in take a jump, take a leap and see  what happens because you don't know. I hate the question "what if," so give it a go, see what happens.  

Alexis: 24:30

Yeah yeah, that's true and it can be hard, it's definitely hard, and it is  one of those things that, irritatingly, like the more you do it the easier it gets, because  you start to learn that actually, you know, other people aren't seeing you the way you see you, and  maybe aren't as quote successful, or whatever, as you're seeing them as, and that maybe that  their driving force is different, or they've got a different business set up and that's what's  making them quote better, or whatever, which is another reason I think why collaboration is so  so helpful for, especially, small businesses but just generally, is to see more of the reality  of the business owners and like what  they're going through.  

Kate: 25:15

And you see that they are in fact human the same as you are, they're not this magical, they are a magical  being, but not in the elusive sense that you may be looking at them.

Alexis: 25:27

Yes definitely definitely. You now work with sort of other VAs, you have a little team situation,  I'm interested as to was that your long-term goal always, was that sort of your plan from the start?  Or did that kind of happen organically? Like how did that happen?

Kate: 25:52

It was a bit of both. So it was always a plan when I started my business that I wanted to have a team, I wasn't sure if I wanted  associates or whether I wanted employees, I didn't know what route I wanted to go down, I just know  I wanted a team and I wanted to be able to give others in the industry an opportunity to learn and  for me to be able to support them and give them that learning opportunity, because I do a lot of  training with my associates as well as bringing on skilled ones, I also train them in new skills so  that they can go on and flourish and offer these services themselves. So my business actually  grew really fast, unexpectedly fast, when I first launched, so within six months I needed to  take on my first team member because I was working seven days a week which is not sustainable, and then COVID hit and I lost 70% of my client base in about two weeks, so I then didn't need,   I was literally drawing up the contracts as COVID hit, so my business got really quiet but I used that  time to, I rebranded my business, I had a new website built, I changed my marketing strategy,   I worked on my onboarding processes, I really worked on my business so that when I got busy again  I had all my ducks in a row, because before I'd grown so quickly I hadn't had time to put those  processes in place, so it was kind of scrambling and doing it as I go which is a rubbish way to  do things, don't do it that way, don't, I learnt the hard way, don't do it that way! Whereas  now I have a team of three associates and I'm about to start recruiting for a fourth associate  and part of that is because, as I said, I wanted to give others an opportunity to learn and to grow,  but also part of it was my self-care because I knew that I wanted to grow my business and doing  the services that I do if it was only me, I was only going to be able to get to a certain point  and my goal was to always be able to go down to part-time hours because sometimes my body  just can't cope, but most of the time I'm okay and I can re-jig and I can do things, but like for  example if I have, my last migraine lasted two weeks and put me in A&E, and that's part of  my fibro, the last two migraines I've had have put me in hospital because they're that bad,  so if I have a team around me to support me because I genuinely care, I know my clients  are looked after and I'm not sat there when I'm poorly and I can't do anything worrying about  what's going to happen, because that's going to make my migraine worse, it's going to make my body  flare up, it's going to make everything worse if I'm stressed, so part of it was to give them the  opportunity but part of it it helps me focus on my self-care because I know my clients are  still taken care of and my business, if I need two weeks out, which is very rare, but if I do  I can take that time out and my business is still going to function, it's still going to tick along  because I've spent the time building a really good team around me that share the same values as me.  

Alexis: 28:48

Yeah yeah and I think that's actually a really good way to look at stuff  because so many people are like "self-care is selfish, self-care is selfish," but actually  self-care can, depending on what it is, self-care can give you the opportunity to help other people,  and that might look like hiring someone else, or working with a team and building things like that,  and so I think that is a really important point to realise that, I mean even if it's not helping  other people directly self-care isn't selfish, but also it can give you the opportunity to help out other people.

Kate: 29:23

Yep it can absolutely give you the opportunity, and the VA's that come work  for me, they all run their own businesses but it may be their business is quiet so they need  some extra work, but when I work with associates and bring them into the team I ask them to commit  on a longer term basis because I want them to build that relationship with the clients. So  my business is slightly different from other. Many virtual assistants that take on associates won't  introduce their associates to their customers, so the main founder will be the point of contact and  they will manage, but for me that's just creating more work for me, that's just I'm playing piggy in  the middle, like communicate no, Chinese Whispers and all that, so I introduce my associates, I trust  them wholeheartedly and I introduce them to the clients directly and I am there in the middle if  they need me but they communicate directly and therefore they get that experience of building  a client relationship, as well as the work they're doing as well, and I think it's part  of my mentoring, because I do the mentoring and I mentor my associates at the same time. I love  being able to support other people and giving them opportunities, I'm in the wrong industry  if I don't, let's face it, but yeah, it gives me an opportunity to be able to provide those  opportunities to other associates because everyone knows when you first start your business  bringing your first set of clients, unless you're really well networked in that industry,  is really it can be really tough, and knowing where to start it can be super tough, so if you then do  associate work, because I did associate work when I started, if you do it for someone else it gives  you the opportunity to build up your experience, it builds up your confidence and your knowledge, and  I love being able to do that, and it protects my self-care, I mean win-win!  

Alexis: 31:09

It really is, it really is. Yeah, yeah, and I think it's also a really good way for people earlier on in their business to start  understanding the importance of collaboration. Because I do think it can be really easy  when you first start, whether you go freelance or you're trying to build a business yourself,  it's so easy to fall into that trap of like I have to do everything, everybody else is my competition,  and that kind of really unhelpful and not especially healthy way of thinking,  so to immediately sort of reach out and be like "hey, I'd like to work with you,  can you mentor me? Can you do whatever?" That can be a really really good way to kind of  hit the ground running from that way and gain the experience in working with other business  owners as well.

Kate: 32:01

Yeah I think being able to build that supportive community around you is super  important, like that's one of the biggest things I wish I'd learned quicker when I set  up my business, was having that massive community and support network around you, it makes such a  massive difference to your business having people you can go to to ask for advice and questions and  support, and people that have been there, done it, got the t-shirt. I always  learn the hard way, so you know if you come to me and you ask me a question I've made that mistake  myself so I can definitely give you advice from experience on what to do and what not to do.  

Alexis: 32:40

Yeah yeah and I think as well another mistake people make when it comes to sort of that  community aspect is thinking well you know, I have friends, I have family, I have maybe ex-colleagues, you know like I can ask those people, you know, but it is so so different if they have never  run a business or they don't work in your industry. Like I know if I speak to my  friends who don't work in social media about you know algorithms, about creating content,  about just running a business on social media, their eyes glaze over and they're just like,   "I don't okay, I don't, you're gonna have to explain that to me, can you, like why is that a big deal?"  Whereas if I go to like a community of social media managers and I'm like "oh this  happened," and they're like "yeah, okay, we get it, we get it, been there," and that in itself makes it so much easier because you can just, you can offload, you can get advice and support  from people who actually know what's going on, who've been there like you say, and that is so invaluable in a business.

Kate: 33:43

It's the aspect of knowing you're not alone, because when you set up  a business it can be a really lonely place. I know I've got lonely in business because I'm a social  person, I like to be around people and now I work in my home office so one of the ways I try and  combat that is I go to a co-working space once a week just to see other humans. But I think  when you first set out it can feel really lonely and when something goes wrong, which it always will  because you're human, stuff happens and it's okay to make mistakes, it's okay, we think it's not okay  because it's that perfectionism side but when we make these mistakes we feel like oh we're the only  one in the world that this has happened to and it's absolute rubbish, it's happened to thousands,  tens of thousands of business owners have gone through this and experienced it, but if you don't  have that community around you you're gonna feel so alone. So yeah building that community is super  super important.

Alexis: 34:37

Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. I'm interested then, are there any like, which  communities have you found online, or in person but I guess online would be easier for wherever people  are listening, are there any communities that you've found that have been especially supportive  for you that you found maybe early on and were like "oh yeah, these people really helped me."  

Kate: 35:00

I think for me I spent a lot of time networking, I still do now, networking is super important  for my business because people buy people, so how else are they going to get to know you? And I tend  to focus, I don't tend to go to the ones that where you sit there and you pitch yourself for 60 seconds  and you listen to 30 people and you glaze over because it's 6:30 in the morning and I can't  cope at that time of day, I'm not a morning person at all, don't talk to me before 9 30, I'm just not a functioning human being! I tend to go to the ones where you go in and it's a similar group of people  that already share your values and share, you know, your type of business culture, and you go in and  you have one-to-ones or perhaps in a breakout room with just two or three people where you  can have a one-on-one conversation and actually get to know the person properly, because I'm all  about when I work with clients it's not just about they come to me for a skill set, personality match  is equally as important as skill set for me, I genuinely, this may sound naive but it works for me,  if I like you, I want to work with you, and if I like you, I want to go above and beyond to help  you succeed and help your business grow and you achieve your dreams, if I don't like you it's just  not going to happen for me, it's just it's not, and if you're a nice person I genuinely like you but  it's the networking side is super important, and then also for me because my business is a  purpose-led business, it's a heart-led business, I'm an empathetic person so I don't just want to make  a profit, I want to make a positive difference and  a positive change in this world, so there's lots of  little things we do to reduce our carbon footprint and to, you know help, charities and mentor new  businesses, there's so much, this is cheesy and I'm not a cheesy person but I want to make  a difference, it matters to me, if i'm not i'm not satisfied in what I'm doing. I was in the charity  sector before I set my business up, it's ingrained in me to want to do it, so to find a community of  people like how I met you through, you know, Little Green Duck and The Duck Pond and all of the  people that are in that community of purpose led genuinely want to make a difference and genuinely care about not just profits in their business but about their impact on the world and the people.  Finding that community for me made such a massive difference because I felt so alone  when I didn't know these businesses and these people, I was like I want to make a difference, surely  others want to too, but finding those people with the same values made such a difference.  

Alexis: 37:37

Yeah yeah and I think especially when it comes to like ethical business, and trying to  be greener in your business, and more sort of aware of social issues and whatever it is, because so  much of the generic advice about business is not like that, and a lot of the very big support  groups around businesses and entrepreneurs is so not about that, it can be really really hard when  you're first starting out to find information, just simple information on like what if I need to print  stuff, what is the most eco-friendly way to print stuff? Just really small things like that that are  important to you and that you want to build into your business, and if you don't have somewhere  to go and ask. A lot of people like "well you know, you can Google," it's just not the same is it, like  it's not the same as being able to open a discussion and go has anybody got really  great review recommendations for an eco-friendly printer, I need to print this amount of things  in this way, what would you recommend> And just sharing information like that because I think  as well that's another way to support other small business owners, because in those groups  a lot of the recommendations you'll get will be people who are not ranking on major search engines  because they're local businesses, they're very small businesses, and isn't it great to  support those people! Kate: Yeah yeah absolutely, so yeah it's about finding your community and it's finding your tribe isn't it, it makes such a difference. Yeah it really really does it really does. This has been such a fabulous chat, it's been lovely, thank you. If people would like to join your  tribe, where can they find you on the internet? Kate: So my favorite platform is Instagram by far  because I am a visual and creative person so shiny things, pretty things, I love Instagram and I  absolutely and utterly adore my website as well so they can find me at CherryBlossomManagement.co.uk Very good I will put all of the links in the show notes  of course. I will also pop a fabulous blog post which Kate wrote for the Social Media  for Humans blog in the show notes as well so you can check that out all about Canva.  Thank you very much for being here it's been an absolute pleasure.  

Kate: 40:02

Thank you for having me.

Hawke: 40:04

If you want more regular reminders to find your own way to use social media follow Alexis on your  social platform of choice, all the links will be in the show notes. Until next time, be a human.