How I Create: Astrid Bracke, small business mentor
Business mentor Astrid Bracke on setting boundaries, how her creative process has developed hand in hand with her self-trust, and building a business away from social media.
Astrid Bracke, small business mentor
When Astrid Bracke first started her business, she found herself defaulting to the working patterns and structures she had experienced in academia, and through the 9-5 routine. Over time she’s forged her own path, finding a way of working that is more in tune with her energy and needs, while also learning how to set boundaries that protect her focus and availability.
Through her work as a mentor, she now supports small business owners to question the ‘shoulds’ that they are working with, and uncover a slower, gentler and more profitable way of doing things.
In this interview, Astrid shares how her creative process has developed as she’s learned to trust herself and her business more, why she has stepped away from social media, and what running a slow, gentle and profitable business means for her.
Can you tell us a bit about your background and story so far. How did you get started as a small business mentor?
My background is in academia and higher education: I have a PhD in English literature, and have worked in higher education for 17 years. As I was becoming less and less interested in pursuing a typical academic career a few years ago, I got the idea of becoming a mentor. I’d always enjoyed mentoring students of all ages and backgrounds, and I knew I had skills and experience that others could benefit from. Building my business alongside my part-time job in higher education definitely took a while, but it’s also allowed me to get clear on my focus, which in my case is supporting small business owners to create a slow, gentle and profitable business.
How has the way you work and create changed since you first started your business? What does your creative process look like today?
When I first started my business I was still very much influenced by the productivity and work culture that I’d experienced in academia — even though I also wanted to get away from it. I’m a naturally very disciplined person, which can be a benefit, but it can also be my kryptonite.
Over the past couple of years I’ve radically changed how I approach work and creativity. I’ve become much more attuned with my body (through learning about menstrual cycle awareness and FAM and working with a great yoga teacher), and I’m now much more able to recognise my needs.
I’ve also become more confident about what I do when: I used to worry that if I didn’t stick to my to-do list, I wouldn’t get work done, but following my energy and inspiration has meant allowing myself to really go deep when I feel like writing, or when I feel like creating workbooks or workshops. I trust myself and my business much more because I follow my own creative process and that’s been great.
When I first started my business I was still very much influenced by the productivity and work culture that I’d experienced in academia — even though I also wanted to get away from it. I’m a naturally very disciplined person, which can be a benefit, but it can also be my kryptonite.
Artwork, books and plants in Astrid’s workspace
Can you share a bit about your relationship with social media in particular — how has this evolved and where are you at with it now?
Let’s say that relationship is complicated. When I started my business I already had an Instagram account, but mainly lurked. I’d deleted my Facebook account years before. But when I started my business, I heard and read everywhere that I needed to be on Instagram if I wanted to grow my business. I soon learned that posting five times a week on Instagram brought great engagement — but not a ton of clients. More importantly, it led me to feel overwhelmed and burnt-out, like I was suddenly required to take on this whole other job. I experimented with Instagram for years: I’d have specific days devoted to specific posts (like a “Monday mantra” I did for a while), decreased how often I posted, tried to make a reel (I made two), did a live or two.
While I got to know quite a few really lovely people over Instagram, it wasn’t serving my business. I sold some business guides through it, but didn’t book a single client through the platform. It made me feel frazzled and overwhelmed, and like I was spending my time in a place I didn’t want to be in at all. In early 2021 I started to radically deprioritise the time and energy I spent on Instagram. Instead, I put more energy into my newsletter (which I love writing) and set up a Pinterest strategy that works for me.
Now, at the end of October 2022, I’ve been off Instagram for a year. It feels great. I’m spending time and energy on the things I enjoy doing and connect with my audience and potential clients in ways that fit in with who I am, and the slow and gentle business I want to run.
Astrid in her workspace, surrounded by plants and books
You support clients to build a slow, gentle and profitable business. What does this approach to business mean to you?
A slow, gentle and profitable business is a business that doesn’t require me to be “on” all the time. It’s not about hacks, or the hustle. It means silencing all of the outside voices, and running a business from a place that makes it fit in with me and my life.
There is so much business advice out there that tells you how you should run a business, that for many of us it’s become nearly impossible to envision creating a business that first asks what would feel good to us.
A slow, gentle and profitable business for me also means that I set boundaries very clearly, for instance around when I’m available and when I reply to emails. Being able to schedule Pinterest pins, newsletters and blog posts is huge for me in this sense.
And finally, it has meant getting really clear on my numbers and knowing what I need to earn. Earlier this year I increased my prices to reflect how much I wanted and could realistically work: I didn’t want to cram my days full of client calls and have no time left for marketing, writing, or being a human. Now, my prices reflect all the time that I spend on my business, not just the time I spend working with clients or doing workshops.
A slow, gentle and profitable business is a business that doesn’t require me to be “on” all the time. It’s not about hacks, or the hustle. It means silencing all of the outside voices, and running a business from a place that makes it fit in with me and my life.
How do you organise your time between the different aspects of your business, work and life? What does a typical day or week look like for you?
Since I started following my energy and inspiration more, I don’t really have a typical week anymore, because it really depends on what project I’m working on alongside working with clients. But there are a few fixed things in my weeks.
The first is that after breakfast, I always spend half an hour reading, usually a novel. I used to save this for the end of the day as a kind of reward, but I love reading and it’s important to me, so that’s how I now start my day. Actual work doesn’t start until 10 at the earliest.
I leave email for moments when I can pay attention to it — on Tuesdays and Thursdays that means business email, which I look at after lunch. I try to consciously take breaks: I set a timer for 30 minutes after which I get up and check in with myself. I block out time for lunch, and in the afternoon will on most days do yoga. Then there’s more reading, spending time in the garden if I feel like it, and doing a jigsaw puzzle or watching a show with my partner.
Astrid’s notebook
I work part-time in higher education as a teacher trainer for current and future teachers of English, and Wednesday is always a teaching day. Tuesdays and Thursdays are generally business days, and then Mondays and Fridays are filled with anything that needs my attention or that I feel drawn to.
My client work happens mostly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I often do some teaching prep and meetings on Mondays and Fridays. The rest of the time is filled by what I need and want to do, generally: so writing (newsletter or blog), creating new things for my business, or resting.
What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned about your creative process so far?
The most valuable lesson for me is that inspiration will come back. I was afraid that once I’d let go of my to-do list more, I wouldn’t do certain things because I didn’t feel like them. Now I’ve learned that the energy and inspiration will come back, and that it often comes in cycles. So some weeks I’ll really feel like writing a lot, and I will, whereas other weeks I like the repetition of pinning on Pinterest.
Thankfully, doing workshops and working with clients is something I pretty much always feel inspired to do.
There is so much business advice out there that tells you how you should run a business, that for many of us it’s become nearly impossible to envision creating a business that first asks what would feel good to us.
In your work, you talk about business boundaries that feel good — could you share an example or two of boundaries that have helped your own work or process?
A big one for me for being radical about when I check my email. For years now, I’ve not checked my (business) email “in between”. I have an out-of-office reply that tells people when I’ll be checking my email, and I stick to that. This allows me to be really intentional about my emails, to really take time for them, and to let them be outside of that time.
Another boundary for me is around availability. I love scheduling software (I currently use the Fantastical calendar app) as it allows me to be really clear on when I’m available, and my clients to schedule in time when it fits them.
What are your top tips for someone who wants to start their own small business, particularly alongside a part-time or full-time job?
Don’t compare yourself to other people who do this full time. Find other small business owners to talk to so you learn that what you see online is just the outside (my favourite place for connecting is the Aligned Community).
Focus on your joy in the doing, especially since it takes a lot of time before a business starts to make money.
And take breaks. Rest. Allow yourself to have slow periods, there is no need to be working on your business all the time.
What books or other resources have you found most helpful in setting up and running your business?
Although I love reading, I don’t read many business books. A few books, however, have been important over the past years in helping me reframe productivity:
In that same category, Anne Helen Petersen’s Substack Culture Study continues to teach me about reframing work and productivity, amongst many things.
What does this coming season and year ahead look like for you and your business?
I’m very excited about moving my newsletter list to Substack in early November of this year! I love Substack for many reasons and am excited about growing my newsletter further, allowing comments and creating even more of a community around my business here. You can sign up to my Substack here — I’d love to have you!
I’ll be focusing quite a bit of my energy on the transition to Substack and adding paid subscriptions over the next couple of months, but I’ll also continue to work 1:1 with small business owners. I’ve got plans for workshops, both in online communities and societies as well as recorded ones that I’ll host myself. And I’m planning a programme on slow, gentle and profitable marketing that will happen around the Summer.
And finally, where can we find out more about you and your work?
You can find out more about me and my work on my website. While you’re there, I’d love it if you sign up for my newsletter, or read my blog with posts on slow, gentle and profitable business, including marketing, money and interviews with other small business owners.
I loved this, especially that small shift of Astrid moving her reading time to the morning instead of the afternoon, as she shouldn't need to earn what she enjoys! I've also subscribed to the Culture Study substack, thank you!