Oct 25, 20222 min read

Choosing Our Business Growth on Our Own Terms

I recently started releasing two essays a day on Medium. For those of you unfamiliar with Medium, it is an online platform that allows authors to share their articles. Once you reach 100 followers, you are eligible to apply for their paid partner program. The paid partner program pays authors for the time Medium subscriptions readers spend reading an author’s articles.

I didn’t join for the money. I joined because I wanted to reach a wider audience. While I didn’t grow an audience right away, it came with time. Unexpectedly, autistics began to find my essays there and my audience grew.

Me. Wanting to do it my way at my pace. This is a picture from almost ten years ago with a painting I made in high school. It captures the energy I want in my life.

When I recently started releasing two essays a day, my audience doubled in size. It was REALLY exciting to see the numbers increase. It was fun to read the responses and hear the things that resonated with people. Medium has become my primary way of reaching autistic people, so it was also exciting to know that more potential autistic clients might find me.

After a week of releasing two essays a day, I realized the pace wasn’t sustainable. While I naturally write two essays a day, it takes additional time to edit them, add links, add graphics, and prepare them to be published. This level of effort was eating into my creativity and the amount of mental space I had for writing and creating new things.

I knew what I needed to do. I needed to stop publishing so much. And yet, I knew that meant my numbers would drop. All of the excitement of growth would be gone. Was I willing to let the numbers go for the sake of my energy and personal daily happiness and creativity? Was I able to trust that I could still grow and get new clients, just maybe not as fast?

These kinds of questions are some of the hardest to face as business owners. We’re always taught to do more and more and more. More profit. More clients. More growth.

Where are all of the lessons on more balance? On sustainability? On honoring our needs?

These are the lessons we have to teach ourselves.

Thank you for reading. If you’d like to read more, sign up for my FUNletter. If you’d like support as you create a private practice that honors your needs, you can learn about my business consultation services here.