I’ve had a revelation.
It’s about tech, feminine/masculine energies and female founders in online business…
Earlier this year, I had a spiritual reading and one of the opening lines was:
Annie, you are too much in the masculine. You need to bring in the feminine.
I paused.
I think you’ve got it wrong, I said, I’m very feminine.
I was thinking: just look at my coral lipstick, floaty linen dress and long blonde hair.
But as we talked about what the feminine actually is:
Collaboration over solo work.
Community.
Reciprocity.
Accepting support.
Fierce protectiveness.
Nurturing.
Intuition.
Longer cycles over short-term ‘wins’.
Creativity.
… I realised she was right.
For nine years, as a female founder and freelancer earning a living while raising young children, I have been in my masculine.
Working mostly alone from home, employing marketing tactics created by men with a very masculine energy (fast-growth, risk-taking, individual over collective) and often following ‘rules’ of business over my intuition.
It didn’t work for me.
What worked best were the brief periods where I did follow my intuition and ignored the ‘rules’.
But I didn’t know to do this long-term. I couldn’t see anyone up ahead, offering ideas for a more feminine approach to running a business that still led to success.
At my best
In a coaching session I had last year, I was asked when I felt most at peace in my life; most in my ventral vagal state.
I said: it was when I was working full-time on my online course business, sales were booming and I felt free, light, breezy and ‘successful’.
This remains a truth. But what I hadn’t taken into account was that back then, I had my husband, Rich, working with me on the business.
I felt supported, there was a lot of collaboration and I was ‘receiving’ in the sense that Rich brought a lot to the business (ideas, filming for our courses, marketing knowledge).
I never felt lonely.
That was the one period of my self-employment, since having children, where I felt truly at ease. As both a founder/CEO and a mother.
And guess what? The money flowed in.
But then we had a pandemic, and it was a bit much with a five-year-old, three-year-old and six-month-old at home, trying to home-school - and working together.
Eventually, Rich returned to his building and renovation work, as well as making films.
And I went back to being a ‘solopreneur’. In a slow cycle of burnout.
The revelation
I have spent some months researching feminine and masculine energies, as well as looking at what my community need.
I work almost solely online, and I love it.
I love the flexibility; I love that I can work from anywhere; I love that right now, I’m sat in a cemetery near the holiday home my family are in, writing this piece.
It suits me, as an intuitive and impulsive creative.
(Intuitive is the feminine; impulsive, the masculine. A combination is both is what we’re looking for.)
But I have been sensing that the tide is shifting on online courses.
During the pandemic, the lucky ones amongst us had savings to invest in business and self-development courses online.
We weren’t going on holiday, we weren’t eating out, people didn’t have their cleaners coming every week.
All of the luxuries were gone.
And many of us invested that money in learning, developing and doing personal growth courses, programmes and coaching.
Now, though, we’re tightening the purse strings - and being more selective about how we spend our money.
So I have been saying to Rich, who is no longer my official business partner but is still a brilliant person to talk business with:
Something is coming. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not online courses. It’s a new way of doing things.
And then this morning, it dawned on me that the new thing is Substack.
I love this platform. I love that it really feels like there is a growing community on here, and that it’s all based on words and ideas.
I love that it’s ‘free’ to have a mailing list (they take a commission of you earn), unlike on Mailchimp or similar where you have to pay monthly, whether or not you are making any money from your business.
And I love that it makes it easy for people to read your work: they sign up, and your words are delivered to the inbox. They don’t have to sign in anywhere. Especially if you have the (free) app.
This suits busy people, like me, who are still hungry to learn, online, but want it made easy.
What I’m doing
I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of ‘focus’ since writing my last book, Raise your SQ.
Especially since interviewing Dr Louise Lagendijk and hearing her say:
Having ‘focus’ is a highly underestimated element of health.
It feels so important that I decided to create an online course on it, to launch in September (with that ‘back-to-school’ feeling).
I’d charge £99, as usual (when there’s no feedback/one-to-one) and you’d get access to one module a week.
Only, I found that I was holding back from promoting it.
I didn’t want to talk about it. Something didn’t feel right.
I mentioned it once, in my last Substack post, but hid it in brackets and a short sentence.
This morning, I realised that I want this course to be available to a lot more people at a much lower price point.
And I want it to be easier to access.
I realised that this course, Focus, needs to be delivered in four emails, one per week.
As you may know, I have this Substack which is for personal essays, thought pieces and self-development.
And then I have a new one - raiseyoursq.substack.com - just for coaching (personal development, mindset shifts, coaching exercises).
Over there, I will be giving the course on ‘focus’ to all paid subscribers (£7/month).
One module a week, through September.
It lands in your inbox, you don’t need to login anywhere, it’s really easy and accessible and a lot cheaper.
The Raise your SQ Substack is £7 a month, rather than £3.50 a month like this one, because it’s a way to get coaching each week, via email.
You can file it as a business expense.
I’m so grateful to everyone who pays to support my writing here (thank you) and over there, I am too.
And I’m excited for those who join me over there to start doing some exciting self-development work and quickly seeing changes across both work and home-life.
If you’re interested in the Focus course, there’s more info below.
But first, you know what else I realised?
Running online courses from your own website is a masculine approach:
Risk-taking (there are costs involved, whether or not you make money).
Working on your own.
Supporting yourself.
Often using masculine marketing tactics and approaches that don’t feel good.
While Substack brings in the feminine…
You feel supported by this platform.
There’s collaboration (the recommendations and sharing).
Only ‘pay’ Substack if you earn (they take a percentage),
No overheads.
Community.
Designed for intuitive work (you can create a post like this easily, from anywhere).
Made easier as they come up with new features that make things easier for you.
Substack allows us to bring the feminine into our businesses.
It’s brilliant.
And it’s all in one place: simple for the creator; simple for the reader.
It feels like true freedom and liberation for me - and others - as a female founder wanting things to feel easeful, in terms of the tech, so that we can do our best work.
I love it.
What do you think about tech, the feminine/masculine and female founders in online business?
Annie x
Ps. These are the modules of the Focus course, that will be delivered from here, by email, one per week:
Module one: Everyday focus (what you should be doing with your time).
Module two: The One Big Dream (that amazing thing you dream of making happen).
Module three: Manifesting it (four manifestation techniques to help with focus and self-belief).
Module four: Raise your SQ (five SQ rituals that will bring in the magic and fill you with hope).
I’d love to have you join me over there, too. Ax