In Episode 27 of the podcast, Ayngelina Brogan and I have a conversation that revolves around how mindset and business are interconnected and why what you call yourself really matters.

When Ayngelina decided to stop calling herself a blogger and instead refer to herself as a publisher, it gave her the mindset she needed to take the next big growth leap in her business. When I got up the courage to finally call myself an artist and maker it opened up doors I thought were closed to me.

How you refer to yourself, the titles you give yourself within your business and the mental roles you let yourself take on can both spur you on to growth or keep you trapped somewhere you don't want to be.

Think about it - in your daily life you have many different titles and roles: mom, daughter, sister, spouse, friend, colleague…

But what are you in your business? Think about all the words that you can use to describe yourself in your business: maker, artisan, painter, jewellery designer, floral designer, photographer, metalsmith, woodworker. But you’re also a CEO. You might also be an employer, a teacher, a mentor, a content creator, an event planner… the list is long when you run your own business.

But today, we want to help you change your mindset in this episode to spur you on to growth - both as a creator and a business owner! We want you to walk away from this episode asking yourself if there is a different lens you can look at your business through that could change your entire mindset and push you forward in a way you hadn’t thought possible!

Listen To the Episode

Here’s a direct link to Episode 27 - or you can listen via the players below:

he jumping off point for this episode actually came out of a conversation Ayngelina and I had when we first met back around 2015. I was in conversations with her to bring her on board as a speaker at our annual Food Bloggers of Canada conference and, as was the norm for this conference, a lot of the speakers were bloggers.

As a long time blogger myself, the word blogger was starting to grate on my nerves. I didn’t like some of the negative connotations that were being associated with bloggers and I didn’t feel like the hard work that goes into maintaining a successful blog was at all reflected in the way bloggers were being treated in the press or by the general public. There were implications that bloggers would sell their soul for money or they were just in it for free “stuff”, that it wasn’t a real job, it didn’t require any skill, that questionable ethics might be involved… the list went on.

But when I met Ayngelina at Merchant’s of Green coffee shop on Toronto’s east side, she informed me that she considered herself a publisher, not a blogger.

It was a light bulb moment. Mind blown.

From Blogger to Publisher

By calling herself a publisher, Ayngelina was encapsulating everything that bloggers do: they’re the editor in chief, the art director, the photographer, the content creator, the videographer, the social media manager, the marketing director, the human resources manager… in short they are overseeing every aspect of creating a digital magazine, which is what a modern blog is: a magazine that is published on-line. It is a publication. And publications have publishers. The publisher is the person who manages the publication from top to bottom.

By thinking of herself as a publisher (and also making me have that same mindset shift), it completely changed how we both wound up managing our businesses - in a good way.

Calling herself a publisher sent a message to the world that her website, Bacon is Magic was not a hobby. It elevated it - and not just to a job she held - but to her business. She was making it clear to anyone who inquired that she was a business owner.

Reframing Who You Are Allows For Growth

Not only did calling herself a publisher show the world she was in business, it also gave Ayngelina the mental space she needed to grow the business. She no longer felt like she had to do it all herself. She could hire a graphic designer or a videographer and even additional writers. She could have a team. And having a team of creators meant she could explore new growth opportunities.

The term publisher also helped separate her from the rest of the pack when it came to other digital content platforms wanting to work with brands. And it removes some of the stigma of running ads or creating sponsored content. Nobody thinks twice when they flip through a magzaine or newspaper and see ads or advertorial content.

In my case, as a graphic designer, going from thinking of one of my businesses as a digital content business to a publication freed me up in the way I started creating images and the design and layout I wanted our desktop site to have - long before modular websites were common.

Remove “Just” From Your Vocabulary

not just anything.jpg — Remove the word “just” from your vocabulary

A lot of female business owners have a very bad habit of using the word “just” to describe themselves. I’m guilty of this. For a long time I referred to myself as “just a doodler”. I’m just a doodler. I just scribble thoughts down. I just splash paint on a canvas. I just like to take photos. I just have a little Etsy shop. I just do the odd Christmas market

The word “just” is a word women subconsciously use all the time to downplay our actions, make them less important than they are or soften our approach so we’re not labeled as bitchy or pushy. It’s a word that signals a lack of confidence and it diminishes who you are and the work you do.. I’m just emailing you a quick note to remind you… (aka you forgot to do something important but I don’t want to come off as harsh). I’m just checking in to see if… (aka did you get this thing done that I asked you for?)

Remove the “just”. I am an illustrator. I write poetry. I’m a watercolour artist. I’m an architectural photographer. I run an online store. I sell my work at artisan markets.

Own who you are. Show the world you’re confident in what you do and the business you run and that you expect people to take you seriously.

Going From Personal to Strategic

By no longer calling herself a blogger and moving to the roll of publisher, Ayngelina was also able to take a lot of the emotion out of some of her decision making. Now the decisions were less about her and more about the business. This is a big step in the evolution of any business.

Calling yourself a graphic designer is different from saying you own a boutique design firm. The first is telling people a skill you possess. The second is telling people that you are a business owner.

So many of us, understandably, tie up our personal emotions with our business and that can result in dwelling on hurt feelings when you’re rejected. It can lead to burn out when we believe we are the only one who can do all the work and do it “right”. It can lead to making poor decisions in order to massage our own ego.

But once you embrace that decisions are about the business and not you, you can get very strategic in how you plan and grow your business. That’s not to say you can’t be emotional about your business. Small business owners are very emotionally invested in their businesses. But by looking at your business as a separate entity from yourself you can give it its own personality and you can build a framework around that personality.

That framework guides all your business decisions. You know what they say… “it’s not personal, it’s business”. That framework helps you say no when a no needs to be said - even if it might me hurting somebody’s feelings. That framework informs when you should hire - or fire - an employee. It informs who you hire. Yes, it would be great to hire your best friend but, is she the best person for your business right now? An opportunity lands in your inbox that sounds so fun… but is it what your business needs at the moment? Not you… your business.

Having a framework also pushes you to set up systems in your business. And that allows you to hire people to help you and give them the tools to be successful as your employee - whether you hire a virtual assistant or content writer. It also paves the way to being able to sell your business when you’re ready to move on or retire. You’re selling a business - with systems and a framework… and not yourself. It’s hard to sell a personal brand.

Give yourself permission to make money - as much as you want

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had issues with allowing yourself to admit that you want to make a lot of money. Even when we don’t want to fall into the starving artist myth, a lot of us find ourselves doing just that and it’s all mindset.

I am a designer, an illustrator, an artist and maker, a podcaster and a writer. I identify with all of those. I also identify with being a business owner, an entrepreneur, a teacher, and a coach. And yes, all of those things - as the tag line of this podcast says - can go together.

I want to make money. I need to make money. That’s how we function in North America - on a capitalist economic system. We exchange money for our every day basic needs and our wants. It’s ok to make money! It’s ok to be creative and make money! It doesn’t make you less of an artist. It just makes you an artist who can pay rent and save money for retirement and maybe buy a nice little boat one day and give yourself some mental freedom to create without worrying about your credit card bill.

Once you identify with roll that encourages making money you make this easier. If you’re a business owner… well… businesses are there to earn money and make a profit.

By calling herself a publisher, Ayngelina was opening the door to creating a business plan and strategizing how she was going to make money. And most importantly, be profitable. Her business has permission to make money. It’s helped her come up with her pricing strategy, it’s helped her determine when she can take on a passion project and when she needs to take on a job to pay the bills.

Finding New Opportunities With a New Mindset

When you think of other ways to describe what you do, it can open up the things you think your business can do. For Ayngelina, it meant instead of looking at other blogs, she started looking at print magazines and as well as more traditional food, drink and travel websites. She looked at how they were designed, how they positioned their advertising opportunities and how they were growing their platforms through video or podcasting or events. Then she moved on to other publications outside of her niche: lifestyle, tech, etc. How could she take their ideas and adapt them to her niche? And, it’s allowed her to come up with product ideas that she might not have created or made if she had stayed in that blogger mindset.

One of the things I noticed with my other business is that by identifying as a publisher and an event producer (we execute an annual multi-day event event) was that by viewing our business through two different lenses, we were able to see so many different cross-over opportunities between the two arms that weren’t as obvious to us when we were simply a website that does an event every year.

In terms of your business, think of different words you can use to describe what you do that could open up new doors. What if you think of yourself as a teacher? Would that allow you to create an on-line course or teach local paid workshops that show people how to make a pair of earrings or a batch of soap or some pretty candles?

What if you called yourself a videographer? Would that let you start a YouTube channel and become the next Bob Ross or Martha Stewart? If you were a podcaster, what would you talk about? If you were a coach, what would you coach? If you were an event planner, would you start an artisanal market in your city? Could you be a shop owner and open an on-line or even bricks and mortar store where you sell your work to a wider audience?

Don’t Fear The Sellout

As creatives and artists a lot of us fear the idea of selling out. But selling out doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In a lot of cases it simply means that you’ve found a way to earn a well deserved living from your work. And in other cases, calling somebody a sell out might just come from a small place of jealousy bubbling somewhere down deep inside you.

As Ayngelina noted in the interview, if you’re looking at somebody and thinking they’ve sold out, perhaps what you should do is take a good, hard look at what that person is doing. There’s a good likelihood that they’re being a savvy business owner who is still adhering to their ethics and values. But if their ethics and values don’t match yours, take a look at what they’ve done and see if you can adapt it so that you can do something similar but still feel good about it. Maybe they’re selling prints of their work but they’re having them manufactured off shore and that bothers you. Perhaps you could make prints and have it done locally or even do it yourself. Take inspiration from the idea and the re-engineer how you would execute it to fit with your brand ethos.