Today's guest is one of my dear friends, Heather Helms of Heather Helms Consulting. I've known Heather for over nine years - Heather was Olivia's first gymnastics coach - we're a bit like family. A couple of years ago, Heather decided to start Heather Helms Consulting specializing in social media and productivity. I thought Heather would be the perfect guest to finish out in 2019, so we can face 2020 and make it our most creative and productive year yet!

As creatives, we live in a world where we share so much of our art and lives, and sometimes that can be scary and overwhelming. Heather is here to share her tips on using social media and organizing our day in order to do what we love without feeling overwhelmed.

Welcome, Heather, I'm so happy to have you as my guest. Can you give us an overview of Heather Helms Consulting and what you love most about your business?

Thank you for this opportunity! What I love most about my business is the fact that I get to work alongside passionate and driven female business owners on a daily basis. Assisting them in the improvement and growth of their businesses has fed a hunger inside me. I didn't even know I was missing. The ability to take an existing idea, building upon it, and allowing it to flourish into something that can support their families and enable their dreams to come to fruition has been so rewarding and is my absolute favorite thing in the world to do!

2. Many of my readers are artists, designers, and creative business owners who often struggle to find time in their day to sit down and do what they love. Do you have any tips that may help them organize their days to be more productive and creative?

We make time for what is most important to us. It really starts with taking a hard look at your priorities and often times rating them. It is one thing to list our current priorities; it is a whole other to sit down and rank them in order of importance. By being honest with yourself and living your full truth, you're then able to work toward a plan to best utilize your time and energy. The understanding that there are areas in life that are obligations and areas that are priorities. We would all love to fill out day to day workings with tasks that bring us joy 100% of the time, which is simply not realistic.

We have obligations (school pick up, paying our bills, filling the car with gas), and we have priorities (content creation, journaling, traveling) the important...and necessary part is finding that perfect blend of both. What I encourage my clients to do is to designate a day for all similar tasks. This will help with productivity and assist in reducing burn out. Example: Tuesday's + Thursday's = Creative days (content creation, blog writing, sketching, course creation, painting, etc…) Monday's + Wednesday's = Administrative days (bill paying, emailing, invoicing, customer outreach, etc.)

3. In one of your Instagram Stories, you discussed overwhelm and how it can be stressful and unproductive. I know that I'm not alone when I say that I struggle with trying to balance work, life, and personal creativity. Do you have any suggestions that may help us to manage overwhelm?

First and foremost I always like to discuss the expectations we put on ourselves; and are they realistic, are they attainable? This can be a difficult question to answer as it requires a lot of self-reflection and an in-depth look into the expectations we set on ourselves as artists, designers, or business owners. Typically I find that we set the bar too high - which isn't a bad thing in other areas, but with goal setting, it can be detrimental. As artists, designers, and business owners, we want to meet and/or exceed our own expectations, when this doesn't happen, that is when we begin to experience burnout and overwhelm. My advice when it comes to combating overwhelm is simple...Be Honest with Yourself. Honesty, paired with the permission to take breaks when necessary, is truly life-changing and can prevent so many negative feelings we can harbor towards our business.

4. Many of us love Instagram and enjoy sharing our creativity and life on this social media platform. You have given me great advice on the best way to use Instagram for my artwork and business. Would you like to give everyone a few "insider tips" which they can start using today?

Instagram is the perfect platform to showcase your work and to build that community feel in an effort to convert your loyal followers to paying clients. Social media is easy, we're the ones who make it hard, so let's talk.

• Be Consistent - Post regularly, and by regularly, I mean daily. This can be posted to your feed, or stories, or to IG TV. Whichever it is just do it

• Perfect = Boring - Your content does not (I repeat DOES NOT) have to be perfect. As artists, designers, and entrepreneurs, many of us suffer from the perfectionist bug, time to stomp that out. It is important to post quality beautiful images, but don't let the last of perfection stop you from posting that day.

• Show your Face and your Personality - People want to see and hear YOU. Although we love to see your beautiful work, we want to get to know the person behind all of it. We want to hear your story told by your words. Social media's initial goal was to build connections - don't lose sight of that.

I hope you enjoyed my interview with Heather, she has helped me prioritize my day, so I have time with my family, time for me, and time to create without distractions. It clicked for me when she talked about the difference between “priorities and obligations” give it a try and see if it gives you more time to do what you love to do.

Now, if I’m totally honest, I’m still working on posting daily on social media and making it one of my priorities for 2020. Maybe since I’m putting it in writing I will actually do it!

xo

Renee

You can find free tips on Heather’s Instagram page: @heather.hhc

website: https://www.heatherhelmsconsulting.com/