Hello, how are you?

The joys, and sheer hard work of business growth!

Hello everyone! Long time no see I know, but it is for good reason as opportunities have come in and I’ve had to really knuckle down!

This is the joy of a one-man band who is trying to do everything they can to grow their business, with no huge investment, and a lot of time and effort.

Full disclosure – it’s been scrappy, it’s been hectic, it takes up a lot of time and headspace, BUT I also wouldn’t have it any other way, because I genuinely LOVE what I do, and it suits my slightly bonkers brain – I don’t get bored that’s for sure!

The downside to this brain, is that I want to do everything, right now! It’s taken a lot of self-growth and leadership, to try and embed some strategy, direction, and structure into what I do, and I am not a perfect package by any means, but what you will get from me is passion, sheer graft and resilience by the bucket loads.

So as things have changed significantly in the last 18ish months, I just thought I’d give you a brief run down of what I’ve been doing, what my business is all about, and what I’m focussing on next.

I’ve always followed creative extraordinaire John Hegarty’s advice – Follow the opportunity, not the money, and for me that has made it a much more enriching experience and has freed me up to be fully flexible, to be able to adapt and spot opportunities and then dare myself to do them!

I guess this significant growth in my business started with receiving Developing Your Creative Practice funding from Art Council England in the Summer of 2023, that allowed me to further develop my book project – Creative by Nature. This was a huge confidence boost for me, that made me feel like I was on the right track with this subject.

Now, spoiler alert, it’s not fully written yet, but it has come along way and a couple of weeks ago I delivered a workshop to Alnwick Story Fest about it, and read an excerpt from the book, which feels like a pivotal moment, especially as afterwards people kept asking me about when it was out?

Cue big kick up the backside to get it finished! So that is one element that I have been focussing on more.

WOW Team

Next has been WOW Team growth, since it’s humble beginnings over 5 and a half years ago, we now deliver three meeting groups, one in Kirkburton at Joys Coffee House where it all started, one online for those who can’t make it in person, and our latest one at Unity Yard, Holmfirth (pictured above) which began in April 2023 and is doing really well.

In October 2023 we also started delivering WOW Retreats, available to our members and the public, to give a flavour of the wellbeing support we offer, and focus on life, not just business support.

We’ve run sessions outside at the wonderful Eden Forest and most recently at Society Holmfirth (Co-working space) in the winter, and we always come away from these days feeling fully rejuvenated!

WOW Team continues to grow as new members arrive and bring different skills and experience to the group which I love as this keeps it fresh for all our members and offers different connections  and new support for everyone involved.

Life After Cancer Coaching

I’ve now been a coach for Life After Cancer coming up to 3 years, which feels crazy but time flies when you’re doing such important work.

Since receiving Lottery Funding, Steph the founder is offering more support in new ways to keep it useful and relevant, so the team have been working together to deliver all kinds of support, such as peer groups, expert sessions, video and online information, walking groups, and the new annual fundraising hike! In April, a group of 30 of us will be heading to Ullswater for this year’s walk which I’m looking forward to, it’s such a beautiful place to walk.

Workshops

I’ve continued to run workshops with 3^rd parties such as for HDNine Wellness, Give a few words, Huddersfield Literature Festival, Alnwick Story Fest, and Ella Dawson Foundation, and also my own workshops.

Lunar Journalling continues to draw people in, people curious to understand our connection to the moon and earlier this year I worked in partnership with Sam from SoulFull to deliver a unique lunar event that covered both journalling and working with crystals, setting new intentions for the new year, which went down well.

Delivering workshops is so much fun, witnessing the lightbulbs going on as my participants delve into the tasks, and see firsthand any stress go out of the window! This is what its all about for me, seeing the wellbeing benefits of taking part in creative practice right in front of my eyes.

I’ll continue to think of new ways to inspire creative participation as I learn more about the wellbeing benefits of creative practice, through my connection with the Creative Health Hub via Huddersfield University, and this is also relevant to the research I’m doing for the book too.

Online Writing Club

My online writing club is now in it’s fourth year! This is where I give my participants journaling prompts to get their creative juices flowing that then leads into the main task. The stories created out of these sessions are so varied and fantastic, it never ceases to amaze me how peoples’ imaginations can take off from just a nugget of a theme or an idea. I feel very privileged, inspired and often moved listening to these incredible stories and again get to see their creative confidence grow over the months of sessions.

This is definitely something I want to grow further, open up a second group, and perhaps link to my Substack paid offering…

So that leads nicely to Substack, which is something I’ve been slowly growing over the last 18 months too. Substack is a new-ish blogging platform that is a lovely supportive writing environment that if you are a writer, you should have a look at. It’s been really great to use this as my own creative outlet, to write on all kinds of things that are not necessarily business related but are important to me and a useful way to activate one of my guiding words this year – Expression.

The Huddersfield Health Innovation Partnership (HHIP) & Thrive Kirklees mentoring

Last year I was at a women’s networking event and heard all about the HHIP from the programme manager Nikki, including their mentor recruitment initiative to support start-ups whose focus was on health and wellbeing. So I signed up and have loved working on the programme with 3 very different mentees, all with incredible passion for what they want to do.

This work will hopefully continue later in the year as it gains it’s second round of funding, but what is being created and built (literally 7 university buildings) is incredible so far.

Due to West Yorkshire being in the top 5 regions for poorest health in the country, this is exactly what we need in our home-town of Huddersfield that is in a central position in the West Yorkshire corridor to have a positive impact on the following areas around us: Kirklees, Leeds, Halifax, Bradford and Wakefield.

I’m looking forward to this area growing, and being involved in the programme, which will benefit us all in the future. If you are interested in finding out more, you can do so here.

Art Sales

So with all this extra work going on, I’ve had to pull back on the art selling at markets etc, but still sell in two local shops; Joys Coffee House and Unity Yard. Something had to give and so I’ve brought it back to being more for me, my own creative practice to continue to experiment with and enjoy trying new things. Following a busy start to the year, I’m looking forward to getting back to Shelley Art Club and just playing with new techniques.

I’ve dabbled with creating a mosaic, wire flowers and dry point printing over the last few months and have enjoyed getting totally lost in the process, inspired as always by my daily walks in nature with the dog.

And so what am I focussing on next?

Well as well as my regular WOW Team, Life After Cancer work and creative wokshops, I’m creating a new group coaching programme for those who have an idea but are not sure how to develop it further and make it a real, living, breathing, thing.

I’m working out the finer details, always helped by a little blue-sky thinking on my walks, and then will share on my website when it’s ready but I’m keen to make this great value and accessible to those who don’t have the budget for 121 coaching sessions.

If you are curious to find out more and get on the waiting list then get in touch, via the contact page and let’s talk. This group will be small – just 6 in each cohort, so that you get a truly valuable  experience that is useful, purposeful and driven by passion, action and accountability.

And then of course there is the book – I keep plugging away, and I will get it published one day, I just know in my heart of hearts that it will happen, so I just keep adding the words to the pages, and it is growing, slowly but surely I’m nurturing it and polishing it like a precious diamond!

So watch this space, 2025 despite all that’s going on in the world, feels exciting as I continue to grow and learn, a forever, ongoing process that makes me more passionate than ever about what I do.

As I’ve just passed 51, and now have 4 years in remission under my belt, there is so much left that I still want to do in this world, and we need to have hope and focus on the good that we can do, not what we can’t, as my good friend Allyson always said (she was so wise).

If you need support to live a more creative and enriching life too, then get in touch and together we can create a more magical way of living, or as the legendary Elizabeth Gilbert calls it – a more enchanted life – who wouldn’t want that?

Do you dare to dream? I know I do.

With love and light

Juliet x