This week’s guest is Laylee Emadi of Laylee Emadi Photography. Laylee is an educator, podcast host, and photographer with a heart for serving clients and fellow creatives. She believes in serving the creative industry with heartfelt encouragement, honest advice, and a shared pursuit of the ever-elusive “balance.” Laylee is passionate about her goal to help you feel confident in your ability to make a difference, create impact, and to build a life doing what you love. Be sure to check out her Creative Educator Academy if you’re looking to start your own programs, sign up for one of her extremely popular Retreats, and be sure to subscribe to her podcast, So Here’s The Thing! 

This episode is filled with so many knowledge bombs! Here are some of the highlights.

ON HOW TO CONTROL YOUR TIME AND FIND THAT BALANCE IN BUSINESS AND LIFE:

Find a routine that works for you. The routine thing may scare a lot of creative entrepreneurs because you may feel like you’re putting yourself in a box or setting yourself up for that 9 to 5 that you might have been so desperate to leave at some point. But finding a routine that’s custom-tailored to what works for you sets you up for efficiency, productivity, and ways to find freedom and have actual time off as opposed to letting your free-wheeling heart work whenever you want. Because that’s a recipe for the opposite of balance- it sets yourself up for workaholism  and crazy hours. Focus on growing a routine that works for you, sticking it out, and giving it time to adjust. 

ON HOW TO GROW REAL RELATIONSHIPS IN YOUR INDUSTRY AND MOVING PAST SEEING OTHERS AS COMPETITION:

Recognize that you’ll never be able to completely solve the problem of comparison or competitive feelings. It’s easy to slap a bandaid on it and say “community over competition” and not quite as easy to live out and actually implement into your life. Recognize that It’s a normal feeling and normal struggle, everybody goes through it, and you can’t just turn it on and off. Develop friendships and relationships with those in your industry so that you can cheer on those others without it bringing up those darker feelings in yourself. The minute you find yourself cheering for other people’s success and not letting their success become something you are lusting after and wanting for yourself, you’ll realize that you can celebrate this person and cheer on their win without being “I need to have that exact same win for myself.” A win for you should look different than a win for your friends in the industry. As soon as you start to realize that, it becomes a lot easier to become a cheerleader for other people, to develop those real relationships with people in the industry and just feel better about the work you’re doing. 

ON BECOMING A CREATIVE EDUCATOR:

First thing to do is sit down and figure out WHY you want to educate and be 100% honest with yourself. Recognize your motivation for wanting to become an educator. If you don’t know why you want to do something in the first place or you’re lying to yourself about it, it’s going to take you 10 times longer to get to the place you want to be. 

From there, think about what kind of education you want to offer and why. Constantly asking yourself “and why”.You want to host a workshop? Why? You want to speak at a conference? Why? From there, you’re better able to tackle an action plan to get there. 

ON FOCUSING YOUR EFFORTS WHEN STARTING YOUR EDUCATION BIZ:

Jumping around from thing to thing doesn’t help you in the long run. You really want one thing that you’re known for so you can then create more impact and become more effective at sharing your gifts well, as opposed to “let me just dip my hands in a million things and see what sticks”. The more we can focus on bettering ourselves and improving ourselves in the one thing that we feel strongly about, the more impact that we can eventually put out into the world.  

ON RUNNING YOUR OWN BUSINESS, STARTING YOUR OWN BUSINESS OR IF YOU’RE FEELING STUCK RIGHT NOW:

Mary Marantz says it best: slow growth = strong roots. That’s a lesson that nobody wants to hear. Sometimes we feel stuck because we can’t see that we’re actually moving forward in a slow and steady way. Recognize that pace might not be what we want, but it might be what we need to develop really strong foundations for our businesses and our lives. At the end of the day our businesses are supposed to have the longevity of our lives. We own our businesses, so we’re not supposed to burn out of them in 2 years, 5 years, 10 years. We’re supposed to be able to run this business until we retire, whenever you decide that is for yourself. If you’re going to hurdle yourself down the hill, you won’t be able to stop, you won’t be able to enjoy it, you won’t be able to see the growth. Cut yourself some slack. Understand that If you’re feeling stuck, you may be moving forward at a slower pace than what you want. We all want immediate results but we can’t all get immediate results. Things take time. 

A big thank you to Laylee for joining me this week and dropping these bits of motivational gold for me and my listeners. Be sure to check out her Creative Educator Academy if you’re looking to start your own educational programs, sign up for one of her extremely popular retreats, and subscribe to her podcast, So Here’s The Thing! Links below!

Where you can find Laylee:

Instagram: @laylee_emadi

Website: layleeemadi.com

Academy: thecreativeeducatoracademy.com

Podcasts: So Here’s The Thing

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