Summer is here and with it comes pool parties, barbeques, outdoor celebrations and camp (of course!). Those of us with creative businesses often find the summer to be a bit slower and a great time to catch up on all those pesky tasks that we can’t seem to find the time for during the busy seasons, but are also super busy with our personal lives.
Earlier this month, I submitted some Camp OMHG Merit Badges (you can, too until July 31st – they’re so much fun!) and I thought it would be fun to incorporate them into your summer plans, in case you haven’t gotten your biz off the ground yet, or are maybe still in the planning stages.
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TEAMWORK TROOPER
Teamwork is important part of your creative biz, but there are some fun things to do at home that will also hone this skill and get you more accustomed to working & playing with others!
Why not have a potluck party? You can create a menu and ask folks to create their favourite recipe and bring it with them! This not only helps you out, but includes others and gives them an important task while sharing something of value to the whole.
You can download these Party Invitations which indicates what type of dish you’d like for them to bring. For added fun, as well as helping you deal with delegating and giving a little bit of control away (a VERY important skill to have with your own biz!), include these Recipe Cards and ask your guests to write down their dish on them and bring it along to the party… you can even do a recipe swap and share once everyone’s gathered to further the exercise!
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SELFLESS SHARER
We all work really hard in our creative businesses and are often reluctant to share more than we need to for fear of giving away our edge, but I have found that sharing just because you want to or can often brings great (and usually unexpected) rewards. Are they always financial or a direct and apparent gain to your biz? Often not, but they are rewarding in their own way.
A great (and risk-free) way of sharing with absolutely no expectation of any reciprocal gain is to give social media shout-outs to other creatives, whether it’s a product or service you’re liking or something they’ve pinned or announced on Facebook. Try not to simply retweet something, but add a helpful or encouraging note! Go and make a blogger’s day by commenting or share a particular post that you like. You don’t have to go overboard; but try to get out there and give kudos to your fellow creatives, suppliers or assistants; trust me – it feels great!
If you’re not quite ready to get out there and try to share selflessly in your biz just yet, why not try this simple exercise at home and see if it opens anything up:
Bake your favourite cupcake recipe (you know how we LOVE cupcakes here!), add these fun Toppers or Flags and GIVE THEM AWAY to someone who makes your life easier or consistently makes you smile on a daily basis; your local post-office clerk, librarian, grocery store cashier, bank teller, children’s teacher, fellow creative… you get the point.
Try making it someone outside of your friends and family and for no other reason than to be generous and make their day! Add a little handwritten personal note for extra points…
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BARRIER BUSTER
We all have barriers that we’d just love to bust through, whether they are self-imposed, placed in front of us by meanies or outside forces or are a life-lesson just waiting to be learned.
When we do bust through, it’s important to acknowledge & celebrate that achievement, then simply incorporate into our daily lives and move on!
Sometimes we don’t really know how to acknowledge it in a productive and healthy way, but here’s a fun option:
Try to bust through a barrier or hurdle each week, whether in your creative business or in your personal life and mark the occasion on the calendar with these fun Barrier Buster Stickers! I’ve laid them out to work perfectly on these blank labels from Paper Source, but you can also simply print out the entire sheet onto a label sheet and punch them out individually (a 1-1/4″ round punch works great!)
It’s not a contest, but the more stickers you earn, the more confident you will become in taking on those challenges – remember when you were a kid and got a sticker for each chore you completed? Same premise – you’re simply bustin’ through adult chores!
I hope you have as much fun with these exercises as I have had creating the bling for them and that by doing them in your personal life, it helps you to some day incorporate them into your creative business.
You can download all of the files by either clicking on the individual images, on the links above or here:
- Camp OMHG Party Invitations
- Camp OMHG Recipe Cards
- Camp OMHG Cupcake Toppers + Flags
- Camp OMHG Barrier Buster Stickers
We’d love to hear and see what you do with this party pack + ways to help us be better teamwork troopers, selfless sharers and barrier busters-share your ideas in the comments!
