Your internal world
What’s it saying?
When this topic came to me, I wasn’t sure what angle to start with. The internal world of a person is such a big topic. I can speak about it from many different lenses (as a fan of nuanced perspectives, it’s where I have my most fun), but this isn’t one of those essays. Or at least, I didn’t want it to become one of those essays, so I did what I usually do to figure out what it could be. I sat down and journaled the most long-winded version ever before I got specific.
It triggered the part of me that wants to get straight to the point already, but rushing isn’t where my best work lives, so I made room for patience. Patience with this helped me focus and realize that this topic of internal worlds is about how it affects navigating different parts of entrepreneurship. Firstly, your internal world navigates your way of being. When I mention focusing on it, it doesn’t mean self-criticism and it’s definitely not about pointing the finger at what’s going wrong. Secondly, it’s to remain curious enough to understand what yours include through the creative entrepreneur lens.
TL;DR — Your internal world navigates your way of being. To understand what yours include, as a creative entrepreneur, get curious about it.
In this season, I’ve been learning how to navigate mine differently. For example, I know my internal world craves stability and grounding in the same way it inevitably wants to shake shit up. They even exist in tandem sometimes, like you wouldn’t believe. I’ve had to stick to my word with more effort because I know what happens when the latter rears its head. It challenges the very things I said I was going to stick to, and then I can loosen the grip on them a little too much. The thing about this part of me, the part that challenges, is that it needs free rein with some boundaries. That includes space to let loose in life and business, but anchoring into discernment. If awareness isn’t available for me, I become the rebellious teenage version of myself (to myself at that) that doesn’t want to be told what to do, but then pouts about everything when nothing’s working out as expected.
That’s why internal worlds are so important to understand by going even a layer deeper.
Your internal world is the part that’s mostly on autopilot with your nervous system in tow. It’s the part that acts first, then thinks later in the same way, with the same tools. It’s the part that gets expressed, and others point out, but it still surprises you every time. Not because you live unaware, but because you can’t notice you do that through your skills. It’s the patterns that happen when you’re excited, stressed, overwhelmed, locked the fuck in, or insert any other adjective you can think of when in relationship with life. It’s inevitably how you move as a creative entrepreneur.
Like I mentioned in the beginning, this can turn into the most nuanced essay ever written, but it’s not one of those essays. To zero in on this topic even further, I’ve noticed three common areas your internal world navigates as an entrepreneur no matter the niche, style, focus, or skill.
Internal world navigating energy levels. They’re not always the same and ignoring them over time is where creative entrepreneurs exhaust themselves. Every day, week, month, and year is going to ask something different from you — not solely from output but of the presence you can actually be in. The main thing about energy levels, you’re a human after all, is that it can’t be optimized no matter how hard you try. So what’s your internal world like when you’re under pressure? When your energy is low, but expectations are high. Do you ruminate over what you can’t do and stop everything for the day? Do you push through, but regret it down the line? Whatever the pattern is, it’s exposing what depletes your energy and nudges you towards how to sustain it when you pay attention.
For me → I’m aware of the time of day I’m most energized, what time of the month I need to slow down, how it starts to feel when I may crash out, and when moving my body supports everything else I have going on. When my responsibilities are stacked high is when I need to find pockets of rest the most. This may not be what we’ve collectively understood throughout the years, but we’re learning more and more how much of it is part of the process. For me, this for sure didn’t happen overnight. It’s been a long road to understand my patterns, as a creative entrepreneur at that, but now I no longer fight with what I notice. I can’t fight what I notice. Even on the hardest days, but especially on the hardest days, I don’t negotiate with what I truly need.
Internal world navigating what social platforms you show up in. This isn’t to be confused with how often you post. That can become a vanity metric. This is about your natural communication style and which social media platforms align with it. Some platforms are all about one form of medium, others are a mix and match, then there’s how the algorithm influences all of that, but the real question is which one(s) do you feel like you can show up for (metrics aside). Your internal world navigates that. Not because every entrepreneur is doing the same, but because of what’s available to truly embody your communication. If depth is your thing, where can those topics be shared with the space that’s needed? If quick fixes are what you offer, where can that be shared best? If you want to share different communication styles, does it have to be in one place? Your answers to these questions can wiggle out a lot of the platforms you’ve been trying to convince yourself to be on, or help you realize your natural communication style hasn’t even scratched the surface for the places you do want to show up in.
For me → My natural communication style as a creative entrepreneur is approaching topics with depth. And depth is directly attached to my long-form writing. It’s always something I’ve done well, as a writer too, but with social media, I didn’t realize how much of my internal world needed me to lead with it. That’s why this year I created a two-part content ecosystem to support this. The first part a posting hierarchy based on the platforms I show up for. The second part a posting strategy based on energy levels. With these two parts, I know each month I will at least show up for two platforms, and when energy’s high, I add the two others. If I don’t get to the latter, nothing’s lost. It becomes a boundary I honor to preserve the depth my style so desperately needs to then be able to explore other forms.
Internal world navigating what kind of offers you create. This is about what you can actually give through an offer. It’s before identifying who it’s for, the rate you set, and its logistics. It’s what’s rooted in your belief systems, the deeper why for your business, and your internal world’s capacity to hold what you aim to do through an offer. If the way you set them up, from the length of time to how your client gets support from you, doesn’t align with how you show up best, the gap widens significantly, increasing feelings of tension. Are you creating with timeframes you’ll eventually feel resentment for? Is your communication misaligned with how you naturally support others? Is the format considering the time, energy, and focus needed? An offer is a direct line to your skills for others, choosing ones that support you and your client is where the sweet spot lives.
For me → I went into this year knowing I can only hold so much, so I made myself a promise. I’m creating through simplicity and not overcomplicating the process of creating offers. I can only show up with what I can show up for, and if that means having a lean offer ecosystem, then that’s what it’ll be. My internal world wants me to not only feel good about offers, but it wants me to feel grounded when I’m in them too. Something I was struggling with all last year. Sticking to my promise made me conclude that I had to offer something of high value but simple. That’s where my strategy call Anchor Session came from. Right now, it’s the only offer in my suite after getting rid of the others. Too many existed, and I truly loved most of them, but I quickly realized I couldn’t continue carrying them forward anymore. They didn’t honor what I could actually hold. They only honored what I wish I could hold. And a wish isn’t something that’s sustainable if honesty doesn’t play a part in it too.
Can internal worlds be changed? With focus, devotion, and desire to change it absolutely can. I’m consistently realizing the moments I need it to match what I want out of life in any given season. If there’s one thing I’ve learned along the way is that they’re adaptable with focus, but most importantly, it’s always cuing you on what to focus on when you notice the patterns.
If you’re unsure about what yours is alluding to, but want support to find the answer, Anchor Session is where you can find it. This intimate session is for the creative who’s done feeling stuck and wants a lean strategy that’s sustainable for this season.
I’m Ylani Estwick, a creative leadership mentor who supports entrepreneurs step into their leadership and voice. In my world, we understand what’s underneath the strategy before creating it, because your experience is what informs it best. If you find yourself subscribed to The Cornerstone, thank you so much for your support!
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