What are you creating?

“April showers bring May flowers,” proving that May is a time of new creation and new beginnings. From Mother’s Day to graduation ceremonies, May represents a whole host of new life stages. In business, it’s a great time to reflect on generativity: What does it mean to create in spaces where traditions and thought patterns are so long-held? 

When I first started my business almost two years ago, I felt bound by what was expected of me: to go to a ton of networking events, even if none of them promised me business; to join entrepreneurs’ groups that may or may not be helpful to my line of work; to hold webinars in a year in which everyone and their mother was holding webinars, and they were all so boring, I wanted to punch myself in the face. 

I tried all of these things and always felt that I was failing, a feeling I wasn’t accustomed to as a champion overachiever. What was I missing? 

The me was missing.

I’ve always done things my own way, not in a rebellious sense, but in common sense: if I see that someone is not getting the result I’d like to get from a certain action, I consciously chose a different action. It’s worked great for me in all areas of my life: my career, marriage, financial choices, the gamut.

But I wasn’t sure how to integrate this “me-ness” in business because there is so much prescribing of how a business should be run and none of it felt authentic to me.  

So, I sought out the information I needed to do things more authentically. I worked with coaches who supported me in shifting my mindset and overcoming fear, which was ultimately what was holding me back anyway. How would people perceive me—a Black woman—if I went around saying that they were completely sufficient in an industry that tells people they are not enough and may never be? Is there room for creativity in an industry known for being so rigid? 

Over time, with coaching (and therapy, frankly), I’ve found ways to be more creative. I started a monthly newsletter to express myself in writing, which I’d felt a block from doing before because of those questions I kept asking myself. I started the Emerging Manager RoundTable to create a community of emerging & diverse managers and industry allies to prove to folks that they have everything they need, they just need to get ready. I recently took on a professional writing project that I may not have considered doing before, recognizing how important it is for me to bring my divinely-imparted talent to an industry that needs it. 

For me, creativity is not a buzzword—it’s at the core of who I am. 

I’ve been a writer since I was 12 years old. It started with a 7th grade Tuesday creative writing assignment that has never ended. Generating new ways of doing things is authentic to me, one of the ways in which I feel most myself. I grew exhausted of hiding myself in an industry that needs someone to stand up and say, “The way things have been working isn’t working anymore and never really was.”

I tell my clients and RoundTable participants, “There is no ‘should.’” 

Your success story will not look like anyone else’s, nor should it. 

What can you do differently in your business today that breaks away from the “should” and is more honest and true to you?