Join me in the wild as I record spontaneous voice notes from the wilderness sharing my journey ‘Rewilding my Business’. Recorded organically and raw so expect some gusts of wind and nature sounds and occasional ermmmms!

This first one was recorded this morning on a gentle river walk where I decided to record this spontaneous voice note from a tree.

After being hit badly with long covid a year and a half ago and having to completely stop work for a couple of months it became clear I couldn’t go back to running my business how I used to. 

In this voice note I share: 

• What happened: from not being able to walk more than 20 minutes and stare at a screen at all to where I am now.
• Why I could no longer work in the way I used to
• How I have to listen to my energy and body more than ever
• What I’m doing to gently rewild and re-imagine to work with my recovery

Dealing with Chronic Illness & Being Self-Employed

Sometimes in business, life can just throw you a massive curveball. It might be illness, it might be a life event, and you just really don’t know how you’re going to carry on, if you can even run your business anymore, how you are going to cope, and you just feel massively overwhelmed.

Long Covid & Small Business Challenges

That’s what happened to me about a year and a half ago when I was hit really badly with long COVID and I was suddenly unable to walk for more than 20 minutes. My brain just switched off and I was just in a permanent fog with endless fatigue. A zoom call would wipe me out for days and my creativity just absolutely was drained I couldn’t come up with logos I couldn’t come up with brand ideas I had zero energy and I was told by the doctor that I had to actually take a good two months off work so I could just rest and recover and that’s what I did. The recovery has taken a lot longer than I expected. It’s been It’s been very hard for someone who loves being outside, being active, going away in my camper van!

How I found meaning in the Long Covid ChallEnges

It felt like everything that I loved doing had been stripped away. But as ever, I always try and find a deeper meaning when we’re thrown challenges. Part of what I was struggling with with business, got illuminated when I got long COVID. And maybe the things that were slightly stressing me became unimaginable stress that I just couldn’t keep going with. I’ve really had to think about how I’m going to shift my business. At first I just thought I’d have to completely stop and that was quite devastating because I’ve put so much heart and soul into running my business. that the thought of completely giving it all up and all the beautiful connections I’ve made online and sharing kind of how I weave nature into my brand. I didn’t want to let that all go.

Taking a break from Business to Heal

So it took a very long time. I’d say a good few months and good chats with amazing friends who are also business owners to work out how could I shift it and still do it in a way that honors my energy. I realised I love branding. I’ve got so much experience in it, but I couldn’t at the moment take on the big custom brand strategy projects. They just take up so much energy. And some days I have to rest a lot more than it would allow me. I couldn’t jump on Zoom calls all the time.

I didn’t want to take on projects knowing that I’m not at my full energy. So I just started gently creating a few illustrations and selling them on my shop. And a few people bought them. ‘d already created a website template. So I created another one.

Working out how to shift my business with semi-custom options

When I was getting a camper van converted I just loved the idea of having something formed that you slightly customise, but you already know what you’re getting. So many, many walks, gentle walks, I decided I wanted to come up with something that was like signature brand kits so that people who haven’t got the full budget to invest and also when my energy isn’t there, I’ve created these beautifully formed brands in my creative wilderness style. that then can be customised with colours, with little illustrations that you can choose from, with fonts. So you can choose the kind of one that fits your overall brand style.

 A peek of ‘Organica’ one of my signature brand kits that can be customised to match your business.

Weaving my Branding Experience into a Asynchronous signature Branding kit service

With a signature brand kit you get this beautiful brand that would cost you normally upwards of £5,000 for a much more affordable cost. I started shifting my business to offer this service

Long COVID almost put a magnifying glass on what was causing my pressure and showed me ways that weren’t quite working. And it’s happened in life as well. I definitely was a people pleaser a lot and said yes to things, but also pushed myself all the time and didn’t listen to my body when I was tired. You know, I’d be doing a mountain and… maybe the next day doing a mountain again when maybe I should have just been chilling out orgoing on a van trip instead of just resting and relaxing in my van for a day I’d be like going to the next spot.

Realising I’m a sensitive, neurodivergent business owner who has to work differently

I’ve really learned to rest a lot more and same with business to stop keep pushing and I’ve just got to honor that I am different to most business owners now. I’m sensitive and I don’t know how people post reels every day and share on LinkedIn all the time! I just feel like I can’t keep up. I’m exploring, recrafting and rewilding my business to see if it works.

It is quite scary walking away from branding projects because they do they bring in most of my income to be honest and it was really good income from from those. I’ve spent so long doing that and getting experience in it so I’m hoping it’s a little like sidestep and I’m really really passionate about producing them and I feel really proud of the first brand kits that I’ve produced.

Dealing with Long Covid Crashes & Pacing My Business

I’ll be sharing a little bit more around how I’ve had to completely shift my business here. As an example at the start I was working half an hour a day and then I’d build it up each week a little bit more so I’m currently at two to three hours a day but then after that I am absolutely wiped and some days I have to completely like rest because my brain’s done. It’s small things like socializing or if I’ve walked a little bit faster than normal or gone for a swim, stayed in the sauna too long. So it’s still very hard to completely go all in again. So I’m just having to be patient, which I’m not very good at!

You are not alone if you are struggling too with long covid or chronic illness as a business-owner

I wanted to share my journey because I’m sure there are so many of you out there who are struggling with the pace of the business you can’t keep up or you’re stuck doing something that you know causing you lots of overwhelm and stress.

It’s looking at creative ways to shift it and for me it’s very much a work in progress and trusting and having faith. I just wanted to follow my gut with it and see what comes out and experiment with creating something that’s quite different to how people would normally approach branding for people and seeing how much freedom and ease it can bring. I’ll be back again with another voice note from the wilderness.

Links I mention:

Semi Custom Brand Kits

Website Templates

My Design & Illustration Shop

Hear more ‘Voice notes from the Wilderness’ over on my substack