People frequently ask me how my business is going these days. It’s a funny question to answer because, um, well I have no paying clients yet. And I feel like I have to answer with an apology, an explanation that it takes time to build up a brand, a name, to allow people to trust you with their big day…
But can I let you in on a little secret? I am so proud of myself. So proud.
From the outside it may not seem like much, but this is me roughly a thousand miles outside my comfort zone. I’m emailing vendors, calling potential clients, putting my baby business on facebook and getting excited about every new person who signs up to my mailing list.
I am proud and oh so thankful that I get to do this. That I have the space to try, for the supportive man who will brainstorm marketing strategies with me and repeatedly tell me you can do this.
And when I’m working? It feels so GOOD.
I’m thankful for a Sunday afternoon spent sitting on my sofa with the wonderful couple getting married in six short weeks. We talked timetables and speeches and first dances and I felt like I was in my element. And then when the groom writes me a linked in recommendation on Monday morning before I’ve even coordinated their wedding day? Pure joy.
I’m thankful for the afternoon cappuccino with a wedding photographer and the many exciting ideas and possible collaborations that came out of it. I’m thankful for the seeds of ideas weeks ago that are growing and coming to life at just the right moment.
I’m thankful, after a few years of feeling like I didn’t FIT in my job, for finding something that I LOVE to do. Driving Rasmus home from the airport last week, I was telling him about a planning meeting for an autumn retreat I’m coordinating – “Do you know I’m actually really good at this?!”
It feels good. Good in an overflowing, I-want-everyone-to-feel-this-way, do-a-little-dance-on-the-spot, way.
I’m thankful for getting to be part of people’s celebrations and gatherings. For the consultations over cups of coffee, the hours spent researching, creating excel sheets, brainstorming creative solutions. For the vendors I’m meeting who are so willing to help my baby business get off the ground.
Mostly I’m thankful for the courage to do this. It comes from deep within, but I needed to be reminded it was there. It is easy to let my insecurities define the way I live. But the one who created me made me brave. In the words of that great philosopher Lady Gaga, I was born to be brave. And I feel the courage welling up inside more and more each time I choose to trust that I was created to do this.
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I’m linking up with Micha Boyett who writes over at Mama Monk, and who has just opened up her regular Thankful Tuesday post to anyone else who wants to join in…
