12 Mindset Shifts for the Creative Woman Struggling to Share Her Voice

Women are, by nature, change-makers. We’re innovators, creators, experimenters, problem-solvers. 😍

But we also hear those tired old voices: “Be more professional.” “Don’t risk having too hot a take.” “Maybe you’re not qualified yet.” “Who are you to build that, anyway?”

This is for the rebels, the wantrepreneurs, the multipassionate humans who struggle to organize their creations into one platform.

The ones who want to sell their ideas without selling their souls. The ones who think climbing a mountain is easier than pitching their creative work to a business. The ones who have 37 Notes app lists but no published platform (yet). 😉

The ones who know, deep down, that they have something great to share with the world… but crave the confidence, accountability, and outlet to do so. (Or, as I fondly think of these people, the “feral women.”)

You can see my Creative Consulting for Feral Women services here. 💡 I offer an 8-week Idea Incubator, a 3-month Creative Strategy partnership, and, what I’m most excited to announce, a Winter Creative Lab where a small group of feral women will meet to co-ideate with intention, build a strategy, launch a prototype, and collect feedback to reiterate on a wild idea you have. (Interest list here!)

To celebrate myself finally naming and claiming all this, I’m sharing some shifts I’ve used myself, and with clients, to help them more boldly share their ideas and launch a movement into the world…

📢 12 Mindset Shifts for the Creative Woman Struggling to Share Her Voice (Part 1/2)

1 | “I have to stay in my lane/niche.” → “I make my own damn lane and change it up when I want to.” 🌈

Too many women fall prey to the “niche” concept and end up forcing themselves into a box, one that keeps them from feeling free to experiment and network and reiterate and take beautiful risks. Feral women know that there is no box, and they feel free to work in new ways, with new people, when inspiration strikes.

2 | “I just need to write X words/day, send Y pitches/day, and work Z days/week.” → “My energy is cyclical and my workflows are, too.” 🔁

You can’t out-systematize your natural energy. There will be days when no matter how hard you force it, the words won’t come out. There will be others where you change your plans since the inspiration is like HELLLLOOOO and you can’t help but sit and let it spill out of you. Trust your body’s natural flow.

3 | “I need to figure out how to convince people to buy from me.” → “I don’t need to participate in exploitative capitalism in order to participate in commerce and make money.” 💰

You don’t need the fake countdown timers or to lie about only 3 spots left. You don’t need to round your $500 offer down to $497. You don’t need to desperately point out “pain points” to make people feel bad about themselves so they’ll work with you. What you do need is to so deeply believe in your own voice and perspectives so that others who share your values want to work with you, even pay you money, because you’re you.

4 | “If I can just get a viral post on Instagram then finally I’ll be visible.” → “I don’t care about visibility as much as resonance with a community I love.” 👀

There are IG accounts with 97 followers who have a Reel with 2M views. There are TikTok accounts with 10k followers and posts that don’t get more than 200 views. AND NONE OF THIS MATTERS. Vanity metrics mean nothing when you can, instead, measure the outcomes of what your messaging actually does. What if an IG Reel got 89 views, but one long-term client?

5 | “I don’t need a website since I’m not a legit business yet.” → “I have a digital home that shines light on my ideas and how people can join in on them.” 💻

At least 2x a month, I end up shaking a woman by her (virtual) shoulders to tell her, “But there’s no way for people to reach out to work with you!!!” Feral women who want to build a movement need a digital storefront. I don’t care if you have a LLC or a side hustle or a blog or nothing even completely finished. Let’s get you a digital home that acts as, at minimal, a portfolio of who you are and where you shine. Even a one-page website is a huge help.

6 | “I’ll be totally unbiased in my content and messaging so I don’t ruffle feathers.” → “Playing it safe isn’t what helps me stand out and incite change.” 🎤

Last year, I was working with a journalist who was struggling to take off her unbiased “journalist hat” even when working on her personal podcast. She censored her personal stories due to a fear of saying something that would make people question her professionalism. Yet, once she started to share her own stories without the urge to remove all bias, that’s when her show took off. Y’all – we should all be ruffling some feathers. Those are the conversations we need to move society forward. (Here are 5 ways you might be censoring yourself, plus why the world needs to hear your voice.)

7 | “I have a million and a half ideas; clearly I don’t have a throughline.” → “My countless ideas have way more in common than they did at first glance.” 💡

People often groan when I say this, but… your messaging will get clearer and more connected the more you simply practice sharing it aloud. Even a year ago, I stumbled hard when people asked what my business was, since I had a zillion projects that at first look seemed unrelated. But as I started to share more openly about my work, I realized that everything — from my storytelling nights to my menstrual equity work to my small biz support work — comes down to this: Facilitating spaces for people to talk about the hard stuff and express themselves vulnerably to create change in communities. And I bet all your ideas have a powerful throughline, too — if you practice sharing them.

8 | “I’ll avoid the discomfort and wait to feel totally safe.” → “I took bold action and proved to my nervous system that I can be ambitious.” 💪

The anticipation and waffling around making a scary decision tends to be much more painful than just doing the damn thing. One of my favorite mini-transformations when working with women is to see the ripple effect that happens once they do that first major scary step that they put off for months (or sometimes years). Great opportunities start popping up all around your life! My theory is that when you prove to your mind-body connection that you can put yourself out there vulnerably and come out safe and strong, your body looks for more chances to do so.

9 | “I’ll just find someone else who I can team up with to not have to do it alone.” → “I don’t need to wait for and lean on somebody else, since I have what I need to try it myself.” ✨

Do you know how many times I hoped that some wiser, braver, more experienced woman would magically pop up and ask me to collaborate with her on leading something cool? So many of us procrastinate or hold ourselves back from launching an idea into the world, since we tell ourselves that if someone would just co-lead it with us, we’ll feel safer. But this is just another sneaky form of self-censorship. You don’t need someone to come save you if you learn to trust your own Blood, Sweat, and Fear.

10 | “I’ll just ask ChatGPT to come up with the ideas.” → “AI can assist with outlining and editing, but my best ideas start in my brain.” ✏️

Lean too hard on AI and watch your creative muscles atrophy. Watch your audience lose trust in your messaging. Watch yourself doubt yourself in ways you never did before. But let your own brain organically lead the way, and watch yourself find new connections in your work that you didn’t notice before. Watch yourself embrace cyclical creative energy where you don’t have to force the process. Watch yourself unearth stories and messages inside you that feel so true to you that no LLM could say it any better.

11 | “I’ll just launch the thing without beta testing.” → “The feedback from this prototype will make it so much more valuable.” 🧪

To be the bearer of bad news… No, the digital course that you painstakingly film videos of yourself talking about the materials that cover 6 modules with a downloadable workbook and bundle for $497 plus bonuses is probably not going to make you $5,000 in passive income a month (or ever). I’ve seen too many people pour countless hours into creating a course that, sure, compiles a shit ton of knowledge, but doesn’t take into account any testing or feedback from real-life community members who truly vibe with you. (It’s not just courses, it could be any knowledge-turned-product. I’m just haunted by the Amy Porterfield shit that still somehow pops up everywhere.)

12 | “The business books told me to do it this way.” → “I make my own rules and experiments.” 🙌

Creative entrepreneurship, for me, has become a cycle of release and relearn. Get rid of what doesn’t work, and try it differently. Stop trying to force the conventional wisdom, and instead make moves that nobody’s ever done before, and see what happens. I’m not saying that business books can’t be helpful. But when The Rules keep you in a box, feel ethically meh, or make you feel like you can’t do X until you Y first… perhaps it’s time to ditch the books and just go for it however it feels best for right now.