5 Badass Ways to Advocate for Yourself in Your Business
October 22, 2021You can always hire or enlist people to guide you toward your goals but, in the end, you are your best advocate.
If you feel stuck or something seems off, it’s up to you to figure out what (or who) you need to move forward or get out of the rut.
When you become passive or aren’t clear on what you truly want out of your day-to-day life, you experience frustration, bitterness, and burnout. You wind up not getting paid well, not having fun, and not enjoying your business.
Sound familiar? It’s time for you to take charge and love the life you’re creating. Let’s talk about 5 badass ways you can start today.
1. Charge your Holy Fuck Pricing
You’ve probably heard me talk about the HFP movement. It’s my way to raise the industry standards for all creatives and rid the “starving artist stereotype.”
Charging your Holy Fuck Pricing for every damn project means:
Doing what you love and getting paid appropriately for it
Valuing yourself enough to charge for your skills and time
Valuing the project for what it’s actually worth to the client
Raising (and setting) the industry standards as a community
Empowering you to feel good about your pricing and not undersell your services and what you bring to the table
When you do this, you show others your expertise, knowledge, and skills deserves to be valued. Because YOU value it. This allows you to live the life you deserve.
2. Set boundaries
Another way to live the life you want is to create and stick to a set of guidelines that protect your time and energy.
These guidelines are called boundaries — simply put, these are expectations you set with yourself. This can be related to:
Interactions with your clients
When and how much time off you take off a month
What projects you take on and the services you offer
Need an example of a healthy business boundary? Contracts! They are a great example of how to advocate for your needs and set expectations — since the goal is to protect yourself while making sure you and your client are on the same page.
3. Take a step back to observe
But what happens when you’re NOT on the same page? With your client OR yourself?
It’s time to check in with yourself. It’s impossible to stand up for what you want when you don’t sit with yourself long enough to find out what that is.
Are you doing what lights you up? Still enjoying how your website or social media looks? Living out the dream you thought your business would be? Asking for support where you need it?
Remember that this is about you. Let your intuition guide you to ask the right questions and allow what’s coming up to surface. And if you still feel stuck, it might be time to accept some help.
4. Become okay with receiving support
In a recent blog, I talked about asking for support as a way to heal from burnout. Now it’s time to discuss how to feel good about receiving it.
It takes a village to run a business. And you shouldn’t have to do it alone.
For some, that means outsourcing to a virtual assistant or copywriter to free up your time. For others, it means turning to a community of your peers for advice. It can even include hiring a coach or investing in a course to learn more and get to where you want to be.
The best way to figure out if you have the right support so your business thrives is to do that check in. Then know when it’s time to let go of doing it all alone. Where are the areas you don’t excel in that you can defer to other people who are experts in that field?
Sometimes the best way to advocate for yourself is to ask for help when you need it. Just remember that part of the process to receive is to surrender. If you have trouble with this, take a look at your patterns around control. If you feel like you have to do it all alone, you probably need the most support.
5. Share shamelessly
The last badass way you can start speaking up for yourself today is to put yourself out there.
Share your services with the world.Promote yourself.Communicate your boundaries.
What I’m NOT recommending? Posting 5 times a week on Instagram, writing 4 newsletters a month, creating 3 reels a week, showing up on Stories 10 times a day….
HOW EXHAUSTING!
The biggest question to ask when it comes to advocating for yourself in your business is this: Are you putting yourself out there enough so people can find you?
You are your best cheerleader. Put yourself out there and don’t settle for less than you deserve. Because when you do, you find ease, fulfillment, and fun in your business because you are doing what’s best for you.
Trust that you know what you need, but understand that being your own advocate takes practice (so be patient with yourself!). If you want help along the way, I’m here to guide you.
Sharing to Pinterest? Here’s a few images:
