7 Things I Would Do Differently If I Was Growing My Intuitive Business From Scratch
Here's a crazy thing — my business child, Holisticism, will be three years old in June.
It's been a long, fun, thrilling, sometimes stressful, three years. I thought that when I was working in tech that I was learning at an accelerated rate. And then I started my own company and realized that leading your own business is the best way to expedite both personal development and professional skillz — if you survive.
Kidding! Kind of.
In all seriousness, Holisticism is more often a joy than an oy to me. But a lot has changed since I decided to embark on this endeavor from my studio apartment in Koreatown.
Even though I only kinda knew what I was doing, I think I did a lot of things right. I'd had enough experience working at startups and consulting burgeoning businesses that I had a sense of what was important in the first year:
Define your vision, mission, and value proposition.
Make content of quality, consistently.
Email is queen. Bow down.
Listen to your intuition and make things that YOU want to consume.
However, if I could hop in the Way-Back Machine and visit my 27-year-old self, I would tell her to SERIOUSLY start wearing suncreen every day, and I'd give her a printed, laminated list of the 7 following tips.
This is a master list of what I WISH I'd known when I started Holisticism, and how I'd spend my time and energy if I was starting another company from scratch.
Whether you're just thinking of starting a business (yay!) or you're old hat, I hope these points help you, too.
7 Things I Would Do Differently If I Was Growing My Business From Scratch
Focus on growing my email list.
OK, so I would say that I did a pretty good job focusing on my email list when I started Holisticism, because we began as ... an email newsletter. (Wait, you know we have a kickass email newsletter slash digital magazine, right? Sign up here.)
But early on, I took every subscriber SO SERIOUSLY. And when people unsubscribed, I felt personally attacked. OMG, chill, Pellizzon.
Sending a consistent weekly email for the past 3 years has helped to grow our list as people organically shared Holisticism with their friends. (Seriously, thank you for doing that. It means the world to me.) But I also found that our list exploded when we started offering virtual workshops and free resources on the site.
Here's the harsh truth: People don't really want to sign up for another newsletter. Your real email is a valuable thing, and your inbox is precious territory. Visitors are more likely to give you their email in exchange for something valuable — a class, a worksheet, a meditation. So, start offering something useful as a pop-up on your site and start building your list.
Get clear on what I want to offer people to help them from the get-go
When I started Holisticism, I knew I wanted to make wellness more accessible. That was pretty much it. At first, I thought "accessible" meant through language and writing that was easier to read and understand — using humor and tone to connect to people.
But after a lot of shadow work, I realized that accessibility meant a lot more than just my email tone.
I wish that I had committed to drilling down on what was important to me earlier in the process. You want your message to be like a reduction — simmer it down by adding heat until only the essential, powerful ingredients are left in the pan.
You don't need to be complicated or tricked out in the beginning.
My biggest regret: Hiring a lawyer to help me complete my LLC and trademark process.
I lost so. much. money. Use Legalzoom. For something as simple and basic as filing an LLC or C-Corp or trademark, Legalzoom will work just fine.
You don't need to get fancy or complicated in the beginning. Upgrade when (if!) you outgrow what you've already been working with. Most of us will be absolutely fine with a Squarespace website. With Flodesk as an email service provider. With Quickbooks or Bench as our accounting services. Save your pennies for other things.
Be unapologetic on social media and go live once a week
Social media is still hard for me, tbh. I don't love it. I share a lot on my personal Instagram, and sometimes I'm at a loss as to what to say on Holisticism's account. I didn't even create an account until we'd been at this for over a year! But going live and showing up to answer questions once a week has changed the way I feel about Instagram.
It feels so much more exciting, valuable, and connected when YOU show up for the people who follow you consistently. I wish I had gotten over my own shyness and just jumped onto the social bandwagon sooner.
Map out my vision for each quarter of my year with a ceremony
I'm not immune to overwhelm. In fact, I dealt with it a LOT around this time last year. I felt like I was failing at everything — I wasn't doing enough in anything I tried. Quitting Holisticism forever and getting a job somewhere else felt like a really good option.
The shame spiral stopped when I stopped trying to do everything. I read the book Essentialism and realized I'd been spinning my wheels doing "all the things."
So, I started giving myself gates for what to focus on per quarter. I'd come up with three targets — maybe they had to do with growing our email list, or coming up with new branding, or focusing more on astrology in the content we were making. And then I'd focus mostly on those things for the next three months, highlighting in my calendar what I'd work on each week.
Taking the time to prioritize what my business needed, and more importantly, what I needed, helped me find so much clarity in not just my day-to-day but also my long term vision.
I also turned this process into a ceremony. Usually, I use the New Moon to plan and open my Akashic Records to ask clarifying questions.
I also found that adding an "Impact" goal to each quarter helped me stay inspired. You can read more about the four pillars I use each quarter to plan my goals here.
Prioritize my spirituality
The inspiration for Holisticism came to me while I was practicing a kundalini kriya, so I thought that spirituality would also be an important aspect of my workflow.
It is, but there have been times where I felt pressure to get up and get working rather than spend a few minutes (or hours) meditating, pulling cards, or opening my Akashic Records.
Personally, my work is 100% more aligned when I have an active spiritual life. I am more interested and interesting, I am more in-tune with myself, and I'm able to relate to others with more compassion.
Also, my business is just BETTER when I use spirituality. When I line up a launch with positive astrology aspects? Boom, success. To me, that's a no-brainer.
Batch content from the get-go
Before Holisticism, I worked as a writer and marketing strategist in tech. I got really used to batching my days — I'd have meetings planned on some days, and then "heads down" workdays on others. It was the only way I could put out the amount of content I was delivering.
I know that I don't do my best writing when I'm distracted.
I know that when I'm busy doing admin and running a business, content creation usually gets pushed to the end of the day, or in between meetings.
I know that I'm never going to create something meaningful if I'm doing it at the end of the day when I'm tired, and half of my brain is already thinking about what I'm going to make for dinner.
Batching content changed the game for me. I set aside one or two days a month where I mark my calendar as Out Of Office, so I can't schedule meetings or other appointments.
Then, I break my day into 3- or 4-hour chunks. During those chunks, I give myself tasks to complete. For example, I'm batching this piece! I've already written another post (which is likely already published!), and after this, I'll write another post which will probably go up next week. I'll take a break, and then get into writing some email sequences.
I know when I do this that I do better work. I'm not rushing to put up articles at the last minute, or scrambling to fix typos. It's just better. And better quality content keeps people coming back.
Conclusion
So that's it! What I wish I'd known when I'd started my business, but also exactly what I'd focus on if I had to start a new business tomorrow. I hope it's helpful to you — let me know in the comments below what resonates the most with where you're at in your intuitive entrepreneurial journey!
