Some *weird* stuff on the path of creative entrepreneurship.

There’s a lot of 1/2 truths about entrepreneurship. Lots of people showing you what you can do if you make more, grow more, ARE more. But there’s also a caveat – more comes with a lot of responsibility, stress, and pressure. And many people don’t want those things (especially if you’re a creative and really prioritizing your freedom).

I’ve always been a fan of finding the loophole. The weird ways of being that let me hack the system and have the “dream” without as much of the stress (hint: You can still be living the dream before being close to making 6-figures). When real estate in Nashville started going crazy, I found an old historic house in a small town an hour outside of town. Everyone thought I was crazy for moving to a town I knew nothing about and with all my friends in the bigger city. HOAs, rising rent prices, tourists, and cost of living spikes were not things I was trying to compete with. It felt like choosing my own peace over being trendy.

My mortgage was $700/mo (until last year when we moved). It let us travel, do fun/nice things, build my business the way I wanted to, see friends, only work 2 days a week, single parent for the years before I met Andrew. It was a choice I made to prioritize my health over everything else. Most people didn’t understand it but that was my quality of life move.

When I see new business owners struggling to keep up, I want to encourage everyone to look for the weird ways of living. It’s very hard to build a business when you’re struggling to pay your basic bills (which is a lot of us right?), and it’s not fair how inflated everything has gotten, but there are ways (if you’re willing to be the weird one) that can make life lighter and easier while you’re growing.

Other weird things I’ve done in the past and/or now:
-rented out the basement apartment in our house
-swapped houses while traveling abroad
-pitched projects that covered my travel
-moved
-downsized
-pitched sponsors for creative projects to cover portions of the expenses
-downsized a car

You can build your own opportunities. Make it weird and make it fun and don’t be afraid to be different.