The Business of Creativity with Aura McKay | RR250

Janice Porter: 00:00:00

Go Hello everyone, and welcome to

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relationships rule, a podcast where I interview amazing

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people. And we talk about relationships and the power of

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relationships. And also, I love to find out lots about my guests

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and their take on what they do. My guest today is aura McKay.

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And aura actually lives in the same area that I do in

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Vancouver, Canada, which is very unusual that I have someone

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local here. So welcome to the show. Aura. Thank you. You're

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welcome. All right, is the founder of Business of

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creativity and award winning professional photographer and an

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inspiring business coach. And in the little bit that I've gotten

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to know her, I can see how inspiring she is just the way

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you talk, the way you approach things, you have such energy

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about you that I can see how that would be inspiring. So I'm

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going to stop there because one question that I think I asked

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you this when we first met, but it intrigues me. And I want to

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ask again, because I forgotten the answer is how you got your

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name, or I said was I asked you, I think was it? Is it your real

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name? Or was it like a Numerology thing, something

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because it's unusual, and it is unusual.

Aura McKay: 00:01:17

And I learned, I got my name from my parents. It was,

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I'm a product of the 60s generation. So I was born in

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1970. Those of you doing the math? Yes, I am almost 54. So

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it's happening. But it was at a time when my mom and dad whose

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names are Sue and Bob, which, you know what I mean? Like,

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they're completely different, they really wanted to lean into

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empowering me with the idea that I could be anything and that

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there were no limits, and that I didn't have to live within the

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constraints of normal society, even like that there was a lot

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of freedom to be had. And that actually shaped my life

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considerably moving forward in terms of how how the kind of

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burdens I carry, and also the kind of opportunities that I get

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to see. And an interesting thing about my name, though, Janice is

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that when I was about six years old, I was so frustrated because

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I was trying to make relationships, I was trying to

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make new friends in school. And I was trying to figure out,

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like, you know, where's my place in school, and I was often the

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new kid and I had a weird name. And my parents were hippies. So

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I didn't have the right thing in my my lunchbox, and I didn't

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have the right clothes. And all of these sort of outside

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accoutrements are what allow us to belong to belong in a group

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or belong in, in a place or to connect and make relationships

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with other people. And so I changed my name. And I actually

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called myself Kathy, love it nine years.

Janice Porter: 00:03:08

I get it, I get it. Because I was a school

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teacher in my first life. And I taught elementary school. And

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names were really relevant to how a kid was in school. And so

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I've always felt curious about names and and remember, kids

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that had struggled with certain things and they usually had

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unusual names and your name to me is beautiful. And, and it's

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very, of course, spiritual, and all of that good stuff. And yes,

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I, I was gonna say Your parents must have been hippies and, and

Janice Porter: 00:03:40

I get it. And it's just, I don't know, I mean, it does shape you

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for sure. And I remember my daughter, my second daughter had

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a little girl in her grade one class who changed her name to

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from Jessica to not Kathy but something really simple like,

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and then now is back to her. Her true name as well. But yeah,

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it's so important what you name children because it's, it does.

Janice Porter: 00:04:13

Well,

Aura McKay: 00:04:15

like even thinking about being adults, and being

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entrepreneurs and running our own business, you can, like even

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a business name can help you feel more trusting or give you

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insight into who you might be working with. And so names in

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terms of building relationships can be really integral to that

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part of that building block and, and also like how we feel about

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it can really make a difference. So now

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do you think Well, I'm sure We're your

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parents, creatives as well?

Aura McKay: 00:04:53

Yeah. So my mom is still very creative. She is 81

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and she is an actor and She is in some of the things that you

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see on Netflix and local, like family law and things like that.

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And so she, her name is Su Spurlin. Okay, so she is still a

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creative and growing up, she was a mental soprano opera singer. I

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mean, she didn't, she worked as a secretary, but she did all of

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this creative stuff. My dad is absolutely still creative. He

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and his wife live on Saltspring Island, he is a woodturner and

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an artist and he works with his hands, and she is a painter, and

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so very much creativity and you know, growing up with that as an

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as a, as a kind of a grounding or as like this is the this is

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how we live is we live with the possibility and anything is

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possible, it actually created what I call the burden of

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extraordinary.

Janice Porter: 00:05:54

Yes, okay. Yes,

Aura McKay: 00:05:55

I was told you can do anything, you can be

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anything, you're so talented, you're so creative, you're so

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smart, you're so intelligent, you could do anything like

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you're an extraordinary human being go go. And I was like, Oh,

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that means that anything I choose to do, I have to be

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extraordinary. Or I have to choose something in life, that's

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going to be extraordinary. So I think that there's a lot of sort

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of external pressure and expectation that we kind of

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carry with us throughout our lives and can really impact how

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we move forward in terms of when we are meeting people, or we're

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trying to move into a new marketplace or create new

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relationships. So let's, that

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makes me think to sort of switch to the other

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side, in a sense, so you and bear with me for a second. So

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you have been a photographer for professional photographer for 20

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years, you may have been that route. Now you coach creatives,

Janice Porter: 00:07:03

photographers, designers, artists, I'm guessing musician

Aura McKay: 00:07:07

so much artists not so much. So thank you for that

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distinction. I like to work with visual creative freelancers,

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people who are using their creative talents in service of

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others not so much as to create artwork that's a self expression

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and then finding a market for it but creating using our creative

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talents and skills in service to others. So Visual creative

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freelancers. Yeah.

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So visual, creative freelancers, like

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photographers,

Aura McKay: 00:07:37

videographers, graphic designers, illustrators,

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those are popping up.

Janice Porter: 00:07:42

Okay, because what I was going to say, and I'm

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just curious to get your take on this because your upbringing

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made you see or allowed you to see the possibilities and no top

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on that possibility for the creative. Profession

Janice Porter: 00:08:01

professions. Yeah, but we I remember hearing all the time

Janice Porter: 00:08:05

that there was everyone in that was a starving artist. Yeah.

Aura McKay: 00:08:13

This is why I have a job like this is part of my

Aura McKay: 00:08:16

business exists, Janice is that partly to dispel that mindset

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that creative people are starving artists and you'll

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never make money. And if you follow your heart or follow your

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passion, you know, you'll live a happy life, but you'll live a

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poor life. Or the other one that I grew up with was, oh, just do

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what you love. The money will follow. Oh, just you build it,

Aura McKay: 00:08:39

they will come Yes. Both of those are not really very

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supportive worldviews if you are a multi passionate, creative

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person who's looking to bring your voice to the marketplace

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and contribute your ideas and creativity and innovation. So

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that's really one reason why I built a business of creativity

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was because I wanted to challenge that mindset. I wanted

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to challenge that belief system. And I wanted to challenge that

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reality in the marketplace because it was based on mostly

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creative people not being given the training or the skills they

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need to be successful. It wasn't that it's not that creative.

Aura McKay: 00:09:21

People are incapable. It's just that

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they don't have the background. They don't have

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the training and traditional

Aura McKay: 00:09:28

business models. So one of the things that you kind

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of left out of the biography there is before I became a

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photographer, I was an accountant.

Janice Porter: 00:09:36

Oh, that's right. And I had that in my notes here

Janice Porter: 00:09:39

actually. Yeah,

Aura McKay: 00:09:40

so that allowed me to get really clear about what

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are some traditional business models how to how to traditional

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businesses go about setting out plans and revenue goals and

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finding clients and marketing and doing all of those businessy

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things. And then I looked at myself as a as a freelancer and

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went That's not gonna work. Yeah, that's not gonna work,

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like no wonder people fail. So how can I support myself and

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also support others in finding ways to do business and be

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successful in this gig economy as a creative? So

Janice Porter: 00:10:17

you are, you're the anomaly really, though, to

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have the left brain, right brain thing to, you know, good at the

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numbers and so on. So when you're working with the

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creatives that you're coaching, and they're yawning, when you're

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talking about numbers, or they're like pulling their hair

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out, because they're so right brained, that they can't handle

Janice Porter: 00:10:35

it at all. I'm guessing you don't do it for them, but you

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probably encourage them to have, you know, to have other people

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do that for them, but then they can't afford it. So how do they

Janice Porter: 00:10:45

deal with it? Well,

Aura McKay: 00:10:46

that's a really good point you're making Janice is

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that most of my clients are solopreneurs. So they're not in

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a position of creating team or going into leadership or wanting

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to even create an agency or expand into an enterprise model.

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They really like the solopreneur business model. And so then how

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do they take care of all those things that do make them pull

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their hair out, or like yawn and fall asleep instantly. And that

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is the challenge, because there are things that we need to know

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about business that are about business, like we keep score

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with numbers, money is how we keep. So we have to know the

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numbers and be able to keep score. So part of how I support

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them is I have created a magic unicorn spreadsheet that has

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color codes, and you only have to fill in the yellow things.

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And then you look at the blue one and the pink one and the

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green line. And that helps you figure out your minimum price

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for profitability, it helps you figure out what your monthly

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income needs to be, it helps you figure out what your sales goals

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are. And I do it in a way that has a lot of repetition. Because

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there are some people that learn this way. And some people that

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learn this way. And a lot of my clients have neuro divergence in

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their in their makeup. And so I need to as the instructor and

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the coach and the supporter, or rather, I choose to I actually

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love finding multiple different ways of have helping people

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access the information, they need to be successful in

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business in a way that actually works for them and for their

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brain. So that's the challenge for me is how do I stay relevant

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to everybody? That's really,

Janice Porter: 00:12:38

really, that's the mind of a teacher, to my

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mind, that is the mind of a teacher, because we know as

Janice Porter: 00:12:44

teachers that, you know, children learn in different ways

Janice Porter: 00:12:47

adults learn in different ways as well, they, and you need to

Janice Porter: 00:12:53

find the way that's going to work for them. So that's a bonus

Janice Porter: 00:12:56

again, in what you're doing. And so being an I love that, I

Janice Porter: 00:13:00

identify and love the idea of the color coding, because when

Janice Porter: 00:13:03

it comes to the numbers and all of that I can only do what I've

Janice Porter: 00:13:06

been taught to do to keep my business on track. Otherwise, I

Janice Porter: 00:13:09

get a headache. And it's not that I'm a completely right

Janice Porter: 00:13:11

brain person. But I don't know, I just have a lecture from my

Janice Porter: 00:13:14

husband about numbers. So yeah.

Aura McKay: 00:13:17

So you're feeling the pain, right? And, and that's

Aura McKay: 00:13:21

it like a lot of the work as you said, it starts with that

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mindset of, oh, I'm a creative, I'm never going to be

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successful. And it goes and we look, you know, oh, what other

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kind of beliefs do you have about who you are in the world?

Aura McKay: 00:13:36

Well, I'm never going to be good at numbers, they're always going

Aura McKay: 00:13:39

to give me a headache. And it's like, you say you're right

Janice Porter: 00:13:43

back. But yeah,

Aura McKay: 00:13:44

my, one of my main rather than leaning into the

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weaknesses, or the perceived weaknesses, or the perceived

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lack, I like to lean into what are you awesome at already? What

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in your business is already working for you? Where are your

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clients already coming from? How can you get more of those,

Aura McKay: 00:14:08

rather than, Oh, you should be on Instagram, you should be on

Aura McKay: 00:14:13

LinkedIn, you should be using like I don't like to should on

Aura McKay: 00:14:16

anybody, you know. So it's really interesting. There was a

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book called the Clifton Strengths Finder that I used

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when I was working in corporate. Because I did work in corporate

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I was an accountant and working in corporate work and marketing

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did all of that kind of stuff before I became a freelancer.

Aura McKay: 00:14:35

And the Clifton Strengths Finder is really interesting because it

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really does lean into what are your strengths and how can you

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use your strengths to tackle some of the challenges? So how

Aura McKay: 00:14:47

can you use your brilliant brain when it comes to relationships

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and building relationships and understanding human beings? How

Aura McKay: 00:14:54

could that possibly work for you when it comes to numbers? Yeah.

Aura McKay: 00:15:01

Like, how could that line be drawn? And exploring that and

Aura McKay: 00:15:04

getting curious about? How can we make it work for the

Aura McKay: 00:15:07

individual?

Janice Porter: 00:15:09

So do you find that? I mean, I know everybody's

Janice Porter: 00:15:13

different people are unique and different, but are there like,

Janice Porter: 00:15:18

two or three specific things that often or most often come up

Janice Porter: 00:15:22

when you're when you're working with creatives then is one of

Janice Porter: 00:15:26

them numbers, for example, their lack of

Aura McKay: 00:15:27

them is absolutely numbers, for sure. There's five,

Aura McKay: 00:15:31

because you know, we're creative. So we have lots of

Aura McKay: 00:15:33

different things. Yeah. But one of them is about like, clarity,

Aura McKay: 00:15:37

and focus and direction. And like, I have all of these ideas

Aura McKay: 00:15:42

and all these things that I want to do, and all these things I

Aura McKay: 00:15:44

could do. And all these, like different marketing is so

Aura McKay: 00:15:49

overwhelming, as you know, yeah. Which is why it's so brilliant

Aura McKay: 00:15:54

that you have focused and simplified this is the this is

Aura McKay: 00:15:57

the tool that I'm going to use this is the tool that I know

Aura McKay: 00:16:00

works for me is relationships. So for them, the first thing is

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getting helping them just get clarity and focus and direction.

Aura McKay: 00:16:08

And then the next one, interestingly enough, is self

Aura McKay: 00:16:12

management. It's time management, boundary management.

Aura McKay: 00:16:16

So it's things like overwhelm, and burnout, and impostor

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syndrome and self doubt and confidence in running a

Aura McKay: 00:16:24

business. So those two kind of foundational things is where we

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usually start, and then we get into numbers, we get into

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pricing and numbers and understanding the numbers that

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are important, and how to interact with numbers in a

Aura McKay: 00:16:39

different way and change your relationship with numbers. And

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then we get specifically into clients and really understanding

Aura McKay: 00:16:46

looking at clients. I don't know if you've found this generous,

Aura McKay: 00:16:51

but one of the things that I find a lot with solopreneurs, or

Aura McKay: 00:16:56

people who are using their own skills as their service is that

Aura McKay: 00:17:02

they tend to look at their business only from their

Aura McKay: 00:17:05

perspective. And in order to be successful at relationships and

Aura McKay: 00:17:11

marketing, we have to really put ourselves in somebody else's

Aura McKay: 00:17:14

shoes. Yeah, we have. I

Janice Porter: 00:17:17

know, for me on LinkedIn, it's like creating the

Janice Porter: 00:17:20

profile. Optimum, in an optimum way. I'm trying to say a word

Janice Porter: 00:17:26

that I can't say optimally. optimally. optimally. Thank you.

Janice Porter: 00:17:34

You have to have a client facing if you're an entrepreneurs,

Janice Porter: 00:17:38

solopreneur or business owner, not the about you. And that's a

Janice Porter: 00:17:41

misnomer that a lot of people do on LinkedIn. So yeah, so you

Janice Porter: 00:17:45

have to see it from other people's perspective. For

Aura McKay: 00:17:47

sure. Yeah. So that's really the fourth thing

Aura McKay: 00:17:51

that we look at is really understanding your clients. And

Aura McKay: 00:17:54

then once we have all of that, then we can go into marketing

Aura McKay: 00:17:58

and sales. Yeah, we can go into marketing clarity, what is your

Aura McKay: 00:18:01

marketing message? What is your brand voice going to be like?

Aura McKay: 00:18:05

And then what is the sales model that's going to work best for

Aura McKay: 00:18:09

you to connect to your clients and get successful sales? Yeah,

Aura McKay: 00:18:16

earn more money, stress, less, grow with confidence, just do

Aura McKay: 00:18:19

it.

Janice Porter: 00:18:20

Exactly. But and I can see the passion you have

Janice Porter: 00:18:23

for what you do. So. So talking about that word, I couldn't say

Janice Porter: 00:18:27

I saw that you love big words. I do. Okay, so talk to me about

Janice Porter: 00:18:31

that. Are you a Scrabble player? Or do you do CrossFit

Aura McKay: 00:18:34

not? I have my love of big words. I, one of my core

Aura McKay: 00:18:40

values is communication. And one of my worldviews is that

Aura McKay: 00:18:46

circumstances or circumstances, and it is the stories we tell

Aura McKay: 00:18:50

ourselves about those circumstances, that creates our

Aura McKay: 00:18:54

experience of life. So if we say it's raining, and it's terrible,

Aura McKay: 00:19:00

and it's cold, and oh, that's awful. And that's a story that

Aura McKay: 00:19:05

we can tell ourselves about something that we have no

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control over. And through our language, we can change the

Aura McKay: 00:19:13

story that we tell ourselves. And so we can start telling

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ourselves like, oh, man, what a perfect day to stay inside and

Aura McKay: 00:19:21

what a great excuse to cuddle up in front of the fire. And, oh,

Aura McKay: 00:19:25

I'm so grateful for the heater in my house. And we can we can

Aura McKay: 00:19:29

change our focus through our language. So that's where my

Aura McKay: 00:19:33

love of language started. And then I started to learn really

Aura McKay: 00:19:37

cool words like anthropomorphic size and consilience and

Aura McKay: 00:19:42

reification. And, and I got excited about that. There's

Aura McKay: 00:19:47

words and language that we don't use on a regular basis that are

Aura McKay: 00:19:51

so rich and descriptive and wonderful. And it's actually now

Aura McKay: 00:19:57

my Achilles heel when it comes to marketing And because I want

Aura McKay: 00:20:01

to communicate using words and language that are important to

Aura McKay: 00:20:05

me, me facing. And what I need to do to be successful is use

Aura McKay: 00:20:11

words and language that my clients care about and resonate

Aura McKay: 00:20:15

with. So the hard lesson in communication is that it's not

Aura McKay: 00:20:19

about me, it's about the listener. Yes,

Janice Porter: 00:20:22

but I'm loving and talking business right now.

Janice Porter: 00:20:24

I'm just like, I love words. And I love the etymology of words.

Janice Porter: 00:20:28

But I don't know. Like, do you read the dictionary word? All

Aura McKay: 00:20:32

these words come from where do these words come

Aura McKay: 00:20:33

from? Conversations? No, come

Janice Porter: 00:20:36

on. No, no, no, no, because 100% words that you

Janice Porter: 00:20:39

just mentioned, never heard of them. So. So yeah. I'm talking

Janice Porter: 00:20:45

to the wrong people, obviously. Right. And

Aura McKay: 00:20:48

I think that that's, that's really the thing about

Aura McKay: 00:20:51

are you talking to the right people? In your relationships?

Aura McKay: 00:20:55

Like, are you having the conversations that light you up

Aura McKay: 00:20:58

that give you new vocabulary, or new perspectives and new

Aura McKay: 00:21:01

possibilities? And, and really well, and then the other piece

Aura McKay: 00:21:06

about where I learn new words, is, I run a book club for

Aura McKay: 00:21:10

freelancers. So this is a free book club. anybody listening is

Aura McKay: 00:21:13

absolutely welcome to join this book club. We meet twice a

Aura McKay: 00:21:17

month, we usually take a full month to read one book, and

Aura McKay: 00:21:20

they're all business or communications books

Janice Porter: 00:21:22

fun. Okay, so I

Aura McKay: 00:21:25

make them and how this started is I had a short

Aura McKay: 00:21:28

shelf of shame. I had a shelf of books that I was like, oh, I

Aura McKay: 00:21:32

should read that. I should read that. And they were starting to

Aura McKay: 00:21:35

like, kind of weigh on me. Yes. And so I started this book club

Aura McKay: 00:21:39

as a way of doing the reading that I wanted to do, but doing

Aura McKay: 00:21:43

it in support and in relationship with my community.

Aura McKay: 00:21:46

And so now I get all of these new words. And then I share the

Aura McKay: 00:21:51

books with other people. And then we get to have

Aura McKay: 00:21:53

conversations where we get introduced to new language.

Aura McKay: 00:21:57

Yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:21:57

to talk about that offline. So I've had a

Janice Porter: 00:22:01

different challenge. Like, I find that I'm listening to

Janice Porter: 00:22:04

podcasts. I do. I admit, I do watch television. If it's not a

Janice Porter: 00:22:11

basketball game, though, or a tennis match, it's, you know,

Janice Porter: 00:22:16

something on Netflix, or I'm a movie buff, I love really

Janice Porter: 00:22:20

interesting films, not necessarily movies, but Maestro

Janice Porter: 00:22:25

that just came out. Some people loved it. And some people hated

Janice Porter: 00:22:27

it. Because it's an art film. It's not for everybody. But

Janice Porter: 00:22:31

anyway, so I love that kind of thing. But I have in the last

Janice Porter: 00:22:36

few years, the only books that I've been reading really are

Janice Porter: 00:22:40

books of people that are on my podcast, or books, business

Janice Porter: 00:22:43

books, and I can't get myself back to reading a novel. So I

Janice Porter: 00:22:48

bought this book six months ago, because I heard or I saw on CBS

Janice Porter: 00:22:54

Sunday Morning, the author was being interviewed. And it looks

Janice Porter: 00:22:57

really interesting. And she's done amazing with this book.

Janice Porter: 00:23:00

It's called Lessons in chemistry. Which in Yes, I've

Janice Porter: 00:23:03

heard of it. Yeah. So it sat on my bedside table. Every night, I

Janice Porter: 00:23:07

would pick up my iPad, or I'd pick up my Crossword Book, or my

Janice Porter: 00:23:11

People Magazine, and I would never open the book. Now the

Janice Porter: 00:23:14

show lessons in chemistry, it's been made into a limited series

Janice Porter: 00:23:18

on Apple TV, and I see it occasionally they're gonna go

Janice Porter: 00:23:22

nope, I'm not gonna watch it until I've read the book. Right.

Janice Porter: 00:23:26

So I finally started the Book Three nights ago. I'm going to

Janice Porter: 00:23:29

Chapter Three now. So I'm going to try and make it through this

Janice Porter: 00:23:34

book. But I lose attention span. That's the problem. I'm so busy

Janice Porter: 00:23:37

with thinking, I've got to write this newsletter, or I've got to

Janice Porter: 00:23:40

listen to this podcast, or I've got to check this person's book

Janice Porter: 00:23:43

out that I never get back to novels anymore. And I love

Aura McKay: 00:23:48

this is interesting, because the first books we read

Aura McKay: 00:23:50

were things like finding focus and an age of distraction, and

Aura McKay: 00:23:55

atomic habits. And now habit. And so those tools help me to do

Aura McKay: 00:24:02

the things that I want to do. Also a really interesting thing

Aura McKay: 00:24:05

about procrastination that I learned and that I see as

Aura McKay: 00:24:12

helpful for the people that I work with it really, I mean, for

Aura McKay: 00:24:16

myself, let's be honest, is the idea that procrastination is not

Aura McKay: 00:24:21

a problem. It's a symptom.

Janice Porter: 00:24:25

Okay, probably, you

Aura McKay: 00:24:27

find yourself procrastinating. It's a symptom

Aura McKay: 00:24:31

of something else happening. Because procrastination is

Aura McKay: 00:24:35

different from avoidance. avoidance is like I'm avoiding

Aura McKay: 00:24:39

doing the dishes. I don't want to do the dishes, and I'm just

Aura McKay: 00:24:41

gonna avoid it. Procrastination is like having your foot on the

Aura McKay: 00:24:44

gas for something you really want to do, but having your foot

Aura McKay: 00:24:48

on the brake at the same time. Have you know, I want to read

Aura McKay: 00:24:52

this book because I hear it's great, but I'm not reading it.

Aura McKay: 00:24:55

So what's that about? And usually procrastinate emotion is

Aura McKay: 00:25:00

coming from a place of fear. I'm afraid I'm not gonna like it.

Aura McKay: 00:25:05

I'm afraid I'll start it and get distracted. I'm afraid it's

Aura McKay: 00:25:08

going to be a waste of my time. I'm afraid whatever it like

Aura McKay: 00:25:11

there can be an it can be really subtle in terms of what it is

Aura McKay: 00:25:17

that that's causing us to stop it. So I think for me, like once

Aura McKay: 00:25:22

I realized that procrastination wasn't a problem, and it wasn't

Aura McKay: 00:25:25

a flaw, and it wasn't something wrong with me and I wasn't bad.

Aura McKay: 00:25:29

It was like a symptom. It was like a headache or like, oh,

Aura McKay: 00:25:32

there's a rock in my shoe, I need to look at it. It gave me

Aura McKay: 00:25:35

way different access to being able to get curious about my

Aura McKay: 00:25:41

behavior and what was behind the behavior. Okay, so

Janice Porter: 00:25:45

going on that theory? I certainly am. Now I've

Janice Porter: 00:25:50

opened that door of that challenge to read the book. If I

Janice Porter: 00:25:53

don't like the book, I won't continue it, because, but I'm

Janice Porter: 00:25:57

liking it. So far. I'm liking the way that she's writing it.

Janice Porter: 00:26:00

And I think, for me, if it was anything, why I procrastinate is

Janice Porter: 00:26:04

because I feel so short of time for all the amazing things that

Janice Porter: 00:26:08

are out there that is this the thing I should focus on? Yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:26:13

much better to focus on People Magazine. Yeah.

Aura McKay: 00:26:17

This is the thing though, Janet. No, I don't

Aura McKay: 00:26:21

remember that. The second thing that I really help people with

Aura McKay: 00:26:24

is sort of that self management time management mindset

Aura McKay: 00:26:27

management thing. One of the biggest access points to

Aura McKay: 00:26:31

understanding your relationship with time is to start looking at

Aura McKay: 00:26:37

your time not on a day to day basis, not in a 24 hour chunk.

Aura McKay: 00:26:41

But to look at it in terms of a week, you have 168 hours in a

Aura McKay: 00:26:47

week, and start to do start to do a breakdown. Okay, I want to

Aura McKay: 00:26:52

I usually I want to sleep eight hours, but it's usually six, or

Aura McKay: 00:26:56

how long am I in bed, and just start to look at it. And some of

Aura McKay: 00:27:00

my people who are the most overwhelmed and burnt out, are

Aura McKay: 00:27:03

trying to do 175 hours worth of stuff in 168. Some of my people

Aura McKay: 00:27:10

who are most afflicted by procrastination, find that they

Aura McKay: 00:27:15

only actually are filling 150 hours with intention. And that

Aura McKay: 00:27:20

there are all of these ghost hours that just seem to

Aura McKay: 00:27:24

disappear. And once they're aware of it, they can make more

Aura McKay: 00:27:28

intentional choices.

Janice Porter: 00:27:30

That's really a great lesson. So here you are

Janice Porter: 00:27:31

coaching me and thank you for that. I find that very

Janice Porter: 00:27:37

interesting. I might do

Aura McKay: 00:27:38

FYI, when I when I binge watch, because I totally

Aura McKay: 00:27:41

binge watch my schedule. I have I booked time for it, because I

Aura McKay: 00:27:45

know I'm gonna do it anyways. I binge watch Home Improvement

Aura McKay: 00:27:49

shows. Oh, I love those two. Yeah. And what I really like

Aura McKay: 00:27:53

about it when I'm watching them is it's not completely zoned

Aura McKay: 00:27:56

out, because what I watch about them is I pay attention to

Aura McKay: 00:28:01

there's the home rental person. And then there's the client. And

Aura McKay: 00:28:06

the questions that the home rental person asks the client is

Aura McKay: 00:28:11

like doing a creative brief. And it's it's really doing a needs

Aura McKay: 00:28:16

discovery. It's like a sales call. And then when I noticed

Aura McKay: 00:28:19

throughout the show is that keep coming back to Oh, you want this

Aura McKay: 00:28:23

outcome. So you know, yeah, we're going to fix all the

Aura McKay: 00:28:27

plumbing. And we're going to do all of this so that you can have

Aura McKay: 00:28:30

your spa bathroom. And finally so it really focuses on outcome

Aura McKay: 00:28:35

based conversations, outcome based cars, like promised

Aura McKay: 00:28:39

watching the twins. I've been watching all of them. I think

Aura McKay: 00:28:45

I'm on repeats for everybody.

Janice Porter: 00:28:49

That's the one they all have. So it's

Aura McKay: 00:28:50

it's really interesting to me to be even

Aura McKay: 00:28:55

just observing, where can I learn about how relationships

Aura McKay: 00:29:00

work in a service based industry? How can I pay

Aura McKay: 00:29:04

attention to what can I take away from what somebody else is

Aura McKay: 00:29:08

doing? I mean, one of the beautiful things I was going to

Aura McKay: 00:29:11

grab it off my my corkboard because it was usually over

Aura McKay: 00:29:15

here, but I moved it. After our first conversation, Janice, you

Aura McKay: 00:29:21

sent me a thank you card. And you personalized the Thank You

Aura McKay: 00:29:26

card. And you created something that I thought like it really

Aura McKay: 00:29:30

made an impact on me. I remembered it I have it saved

Aura McKay: 00:29:33

for me. And it's like that kind of when you can make that kind

Aura McKay: 00:29:38

of connection with someone and then have it have some longevity

Aura McKay: 00:29:43

is super powerful.

Janice Porter: 00:29:44

Thank you. Yes, I agree. I think especially if

Janice Porter: 00:29:48

it's something tactile. Yeah. Because it takes people from

Janice Porter: 00:29:52

their head to their heart. And that's the hope anyway. Okay, so

Janice Porter: 00:29:57

this has been delightful and did I know I was getting Get

Janice Porter: 00:30:00

coaching here. No, I did not. But I

Aura McKay: 00:30:02

did ask permission. I did not, but I hope it's okay.

Aura McKay: 00:30:05

I'm

Janice Porter: 00:30:05

open to it and I love it. So um, I know that you

Janice Porter: 00:30:11

what was I gonna say you have a podcast to your podcast you do

Janice Porter: 00:30:15

solo episodes Correct? Or do you do interviews as well? I'm not

Janice Porter: 00:30:18

sure.

Aura McKay: 00:30:19

I'm only doing solo episodes right now I'm looking

Aura McKay: 00:30:22

at. One of the things that I really love is evidence of

Aura McKay: 00:30:25

awesome and celebrating wins and progress and process and really

Aura McKay: 00:30:30

encouraging ourselves like even when we do something that feels

Aura McKay: 00:30:34

really minor, like, oh, I sent that email. Yeah, I know. Like,

Aura McKay: 00:30:39

I'm really all about that. So I'm looking at possibly in the

Aura McKay: 00:30:43

future, expanding my podcast to include opportunities to feature

Aura McKay: 00:30:46

some of my clients embrace them. At the moment, it's more of kind

Aura McKay: 00:30:51

of like edutainment, I pick specific topics. And I usually

Aura McKay: 00:30:56

give about eight to 10 minutes worth of Bite Size little

Janice Porter: 00:30:59

I saw that I listened to, to one or two and

Janice Porter: 00:31:03

yeah, very useful for your for your target audience for sure.

Janice Porter: 00:31:07

Okay, last question. No second last question. You may or may

Janice Porter: 00:31:13

not have seen on the sheet that I sent you. i And you know this

Janice Porter: 00:31:17

about me already, that I'm a curious person. So I always like

Janice Porter: 00:31:20

to get people's take on curiosity. So it's a two part

Janice Porter: 00:31:23

question. Do you believe that curiosity is innate? Or learned?

Janice Porter: 00:31:28

And part two is what are you most curious about these days?

Aura McKay: 00:31:32

Hmm. So do I believe that curiosity is innate? Or

Aura McKay: 00:31:36

learned? My answer is yes, both. So I feel like all human beings

Aura McKay: 00:31:46

have some curiosity, especially when we're born, because that's

Aura McKay: 00:31:51

how we learn. We get curious about things and we learn. I

Aura McKay: 00:31:56

think that the practice of applying curiosity with

Aura McKay: 00:32:04

intention does take some training. And I think especially

Aura McKay: 00:32:08

for adults, playing with what if rather than having to know, I

Aura McKay: 00:32:15

think adults are really uncomfortable with uncertainty.

Aura McKay: 00:32:19

And I think curiosity lives in uncertainty and getting. So

Aura McKay: 00:32:24

getting comfortable with being uncertain. So you can be

Aura McKay: 00:32:32

practicing curiosity, that I think is the difficult thing for

Aura McKay: 00:32:37

my clients is that uncertainty feels like anxiety. And I don't

Aura McKay: 00:32:42

know, and it kind of stops them and they get really fixed in the

Aura McKay: 00:32:49

uncertainty and don't can't really access curiosity without

Aura McKay: 00:32:53

maybe help. And I think that that's the really key piece is

Aura McKay: 00:32:56

that as solopreneurs or when you're by yourself, it's hard to

Aura McKay: 00:33:00

ask those curiosity questions and get new answers. Also,

Janice Porter: 00:33:06

though, having a comfortable array, a strong

Janice Porter: 00:33:10

sense of curiosity helps you with what you talked about

Janice Porter: 00:33:14

earlier, right in, in finding out from your client, what they

Janice Porter: 00:33:17

really want, and also what they need, because sometimes those

Janice Porter: 00:33:21

are different, and being able to pull that out of them. So yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:33:25

fair enough. And

Aura McKay: 00:33:26

what do you think that there's a lot of blocks to

Aura McKay: 00:33:28

curiosity, like, Oh, I'm not here to get curious, I can't ask

Aura McKay: 00:33:32

questions about my client, because it's gonna make me look

Aura McKay: 00:33:34

stupid, or like, I don't know what I'm talking about. So I

Aura McKay: 00:33:37

think that there's, I think the practice of curiosity as an

Aura McKay: 00:33:41

adult, and the practice of curiosity, in sales and in

Aura McKay: 00:33:44

business, is something that isn't innate, that how to do it

Aura McKay: 00:33:49

in a way that you feel comfortable with that, that

Aura McKay: 00:33:52

comes across as professional and that gets you the kind of

Aura McKay: 00:33:55

information that you need to move forward is something that

Aura McKay: 00:33:58

needs to be trained. And that's definitely part of how I focus.

Aura McKay: 00:34:01

So yes, it may and entering and then then that the last question

Aura McKay: 00:34:06

you asked, which is what am I currently curious about?

Aura McKay: 00:34:16

long I'm gonna share what's really on my mind, and what's

Aura McKay: 00:34:19

what's really personal, it's not about my business right now. I

Aura McKay: 00:34:23

have external forces that are happening and things that are

Aura McKay: 00:34:26

out of my control. My family member, one of my family members

Aura McKay: 00:34:29

is quite ill and got quite ill quite suddenly and will likely

Aura McKay: 00:34:33

pass in the next three to four days. And so my curiosity is a

Aura McKay: 00:34:38

place where I can lean into as a safe place to swim right now is

Aura McKay: 00:34:47

to okay, I can be curious about what is this process going to

Aura McKay: 00:34:51

look like and where what kind of resources can I get to and who

Aura McKay: 00:34:55

can I turn to support and How do other people are in this. So I

Aura McKay: 00:35:03

think that what I'm curious about is less important than

Aura McKay: 00:35:10

having curiosity as a tool to lean into.

Janice Porter: 00:35:14

Wow, that's huge. Thank you for sharing that. I

Janice Porter: 00:35:16

appreciate that. Because that that's a big message there. All

Janice Porter: 00:35:20

right, let's take the last question as knowing how

Janice Porter: 00:35:25

passionate you are about your work, and I see that I can tell

Janice Porter: 00:35:30

that your clients are probably really loyal clients, and lean

Janice Porter: 00:35:37

on everything that you tell them, I can just feel the

Janice Porter: 00:35:40

connection, the relationship that you have with them is

Janice Porter: 00:35:42

important. What would be one piece of advice you could share

Janice Porter: 00:35:47

with my audience before we wrap up about this?

Aura McKay: 00:35:51

Okay. So I'm going to share my core message for

Aura McKay: 00:35:58

success, which no matter what industry you're in, or where

Aura McKay: 00:36:01

you're at, and whatever phase of life you're in, or whatever

Aura McKay: 00:36:04

you're doing is what are the three core beliefs that are

Aura McKay: 00:36:07

going to help you be successful. And the first core belief is

Aura McKay: 00:36:12

around hope and possibility that you have to believe that success

Aura McKay: 00:36:16

is possible. And I think that this is what we were speaking

Aura McKay: 00:36:19

around earlier about the core messages that are like, Oh,

Aura McKay: 00:36:22

starving artists. And if you're creative, you'll never word and

Aura McKay: 00:36:25

all of this, this stuff. So changing that mindset, and being

Aura McKay: 00:36:30

able to believe that it is possible. And then the second

Aura McKay: 00:36:33

piece is that it's possible for you. There's all this like, oh,

Aura McKay: 00:36:37

other people can do it, oh, other people have more better,

Aura McKay: 00:36:41

different, whatever it is, but I can't because I have lack and

Aura McKay: 00:36:45

insufficiency and whatever. So really believing that success is

Aura McKay: 00:36:49

possible that it's possible for you. And then the final one,

Aura McKay: 00:36:54

which is the one that speaks to your relationship with numbers,

Aura McKay: 00:36:59

is that success is worth it, that it's worth it, to look at

Aura McKay: 00:37:04

the numbers and do the number part and be uncomfortable and be

Aura McKay: 00:37:07

in a place that's not your zone of genius, and really getting

Aura McKay: 00:37:11

connected to why it's worth it. Wow,

Janice Porter: 00:37:14

those are amazing. I appreciate that. So

Janice Porter: 00:37:17

good. And I thank you for being here and for, for sharing all of

Janice Porter: 00:37:22

your I love having conversations with new people that I've only

Janice Porter: 00:37:25

met briefly because so much more comes out. And I want to hear so

Janice Porter: 00:37:29

much more from you next time I talk to you kind of thing. So

Janice Porter: 00:37:34

thank you again, or for being on the show. I have the information

Janice Porter: 00:37:38

of where people can reach you, your website, business of

Janice Porter: 00:37:42

creativity.ca We'll put all of that and you have a YouTube

Janice Porter: 00:37:46

channel. You're on LinkedIn and you have a podcast. We'll put

Janice Porter: 00:37:48

all that in the show notes. Right and thank you to my

Janice Porter: 00:37:51

audience for being here for being loyal to me and for

Janice Porter: 00:37:56

listening. Please let us know that you enjoyed the episode by

Janice Porter: 00:37:59

leaving a positive review. We appreciate that and remember to

Janice Porter: 00:38:04

stay connected and be remembered