People often depict being a creative entrepreneur and running your own business as all rainbows and butterflies. We know the reality is far from a walk in the park — and just how easy it is to get caught up in unrealistic expectations. This hustle mentality pulls you away from the reason you started doing what you do. So what is your why? It’s time to take back your power by grounding into the reason you started this journey in the first place.
In this episode of The Pollen Podcast, Diana talks about the power of returning to your why as a creative entrepreneur. Here, she shares the ups and downs and realizations she had in handling the 7th round of Camp Clarity. When you feel lost in your journey, it's important to work on getting back in touch with your why. Realigning with your why will give you the direction you need to take back your power and move forward with clarity. ✨
Listen to this episode to learn more about how going back to your why helps you take back your power!
Create your own creative entrepreneurship story of clarity, professional confidence, and profit. Join Diana’s 90-day group course Camp Clarity and learn everything you wish you already knew, like how to land dream clients, harness the power of social media, and make the money you deserve. Learn more here.
🔥Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:
Find out why creative entrepreneurship is a spiritual journey.
Learn the mindset that will help you take back your power and break out of the hustle mentality.
Discover the powerful results of returning to your WHY as a creative entrepreneur and how Diana did this through creating Camp Clarity!
📘Resources
Start with Why by Simon Sinek
Achieve the life, career, and clients you’ve always wanted (and fully deserve!). Join the waitlist for Camp Clarity!
Want your creative business to go even further? Sign up for Diana’s ASCEND four-month, immersive mastermind experience for elevated entrepreneurs who are ready to scale their next mountain. Join the waitlist here.
Want to have one-on-one coaching support from Diana? Check out the brand new Voxer Coaching Container.
Attract your dream clients with Diana’s free masterclass!
Access other courses from the Diana Davis Creative
🎧Episode Highlights
[01:54] Launching a Group Program
All creatives do a launch of some kind in their journey.
You don’t have to be a coach to have a group program.
[03:31] Camp Clarity Launch
Diana is currently upstate in Newburgh, NYC.
She just finished the launch of the 7th round of Camp Clarity on October 27.
Diana was dealing with a lot of life when launched Camp Clarity. She admitted that each launch of the program has been challenging.
[05:21] Entrepreneurship as a Spiritual Journey
[05:22] Diana Davis: “Entrepreneurship is such a spiritual journey, like one of the most spiritual journeys you can go on truly because it dredges up all of your stuff. And if you're not working on your personal growth, your entrepreneurship career is going to suffer.” - Click Here To Tweet This
Launching is the Ayahuasca of personal growth and entrepreneurship.
Ayahuasca brings up all the good and bad stuff. It helps us see how to overcome bad stuff instead of being stuck with it.
Going through the process of launching brings up all the bad stuff and activates you in ways you’ve never imagined.
Not reaching certain expectations you’ve had in your launch brings up a lot of ego and shadow stuff.
[07:13] Handling the 7th Round of Camp Clarity
The round only had four people a week before the launch. The program usually fills up to a group of 12 to 18 people.
The main thing about group courses is having deadlines for people to follow.
At some point, Diana realized she would be unavailable to push the launch hard. She wanted people to come into the program with ease.
While her team worked diligently with the planning, she had to follow through by showing up.
Moving apartments after months of being a nomad on top of the launch resulted in a breakdown for Diana.
[09:43] How the Hustle Mentality Creeps in
Diana felt everything was all on her, and it would all fall apart if she stopped rowing the boat.
The hustle mentality can creep in if you’re not paying attention.
She returned to the hustle mentality that she avidly advocates leaving.
She went through a few days of letting herself be anxious. Then, she decided she was not available to be upset while living an exquisite, effervescent life.
[11:01] Diana Davis: “I just decided I am not available to be this stressed about all the things that are happening around me. It's happening no matter what, and I can either choose to play, or I can choose to freak out—-so let's fucking play.” - Click Here To Tweet This
[11:15] Going Back to the Whys of Your Business
Camp Clarity is all about the whys of your business.
Simon Sinek talks about starting with your why in entrepreneurship instead of the how or the money.
For the launch, Diana decided to do what she needed to do for her body to feel better and less anxious and go back to her why.
Diana’s why is to empower creative entrepreneurs to show up in their lives and business, knowing their gifts are worth it.
Going back to your why allows you to take back your power, be yourself, tap into your intuition, and innovate.
[13:55] Innovating and Shifting the Energy to Take Back Your Power
Diana’s first step was inviting her one-on-one clients, Ascend Mastermind clients, and a friend who has never been her client to take Camp Clarity live for free.
Her one-on-one clients and Ascend Mastermind originally only got the Camp Clarity modules without going through the live program.
Going back to her why allowed Diana to realize that she'll still be doing what she was doing if money didn't matter.
She got endorphins instead of living out of scarcity and rigid expectations of the launch.
The realization allowed Diana to re-embrace the mindset that she's the CEO of her business and life.
[16:39] Breaking the Rules and Getting Creative
Even the high-level Ascend Mastermind needs to return to their foundations, which Camp Clarity offers.
Camp Clarity's 7th round went from having four people to seventeen people.
The momentum of Diana showing up and aligning with her mission resulted in 5 more people paying in full to join the program. Now, they have 21 people.
Diana also offered Camp Clarity for free to everyone joining Ascend in January.
You have to get creative about your creative business. You’re not here to follow a blueprint. Take back your power for yourself; you can break rules if it feels aligned.
[21:04] Go Back to Your Why
Go back to your why. Then, see if everything you're doing, down to where you buy your coffee, is aligned with that.
Check-in with yourself, your business, and your life. Make sure everything aligns with the lens of your mission, vision, and values.
[22:25] Diana Davis: “People will notice that you're always on brand because you're living on brand. You're making choices so easily because you're putting everything through that lens.” - Click Here To Tweet This
Know the rules, and break them like art.
Diana’s why is not to make money off the podcast but to empower and inspire people.
Enjoyed this Podcast on Going Back to Your Why?
Unlike the final product, the behind-the-scenes of launches as a creative are not always rainbows and butterflies. When you find yourself struggling, it's essential to go back to your why. Why are you doing what you do? What's the mission and vision that keeps you going? Once you find clarity, you can take back your power and live a life aligned with your why.
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Thanks for listening! Stay tuned to my website for more episode updates and other exciting programs and resources.
Transcript
Diana Davis: Why am I doing what I'm doing? Why am I launching the seventh round of Camp Clarity? Not just for money, not just to have a business, not just because I can, but my why is to empower creative entrepreneurs to be able to show up in their lives and their business and know their gifts are fucking worth it, and they can have a lucrative career just by being a painter, just by being a photographer, just by being a graphic designer. It is possible.
Welcome to Pollen, the podcast for creative entrepreneurs. I'm your host, Diana Davis, multi-passionate creative, business coach, Gemini, manifesting generator, macha drinker and travel junkie. I'm also the founder of Diana Davis Creative, where I went from a six figure photography business to coaching creative entrepreneurs like you. If you want to have a career and a life you love, you're in the right place.
On this show, I'll be coaching on all things creative entrepreneurship, and you'll hear stories from fellow creative entrepreneurs that will show you it is possible to do life the way you want to. They'll share the nitty gritty of their journeys, like the real shit, and how they are doing it differently. I'm stoked to have you along on this journey. Let's go. Welcome to another episode of Pollen. I am your host, Diana Davis of Diana Davis Creative.
If we haven't met yet, hello. I highly recommend you binge any past episodes to just get caught up on the story of everything going on in my life and all the entrepreneurs that I have interviewed, as well as what we have going on in our business here at Diana Davis Creative. What I want to talk about today is really pulling back the curtain of the launch that I just had for Camp Clarity, and not everyone is going to have a launch in this format, right?
Most of you are not coaches that are listening to this podcast. You are creatives. You are photographers, designers, ceramicists, sewers, map makers, voice coaches, singers, all sorts of things. I coached so many different types of people, and that's one of my favorite things about my job, but you are all going to have some sort of launch at some point in time. Even if you're a photographer, just looking for new clients, that is going to be a launch.
You might put it out there on social media or in your email newsletter or just word of mouth that, hey, I'm actually looking for clients right now to fill a certain timeframe, to fill certain spots, to fill my mini shoots, whatever that looks like, or if you're a designer, looking for new projects, or whatever it may be. You're looking for new clients. That's technically a launch, so I just want to debunk that really quick.
Obviously, a group program launch, and you don't have to be a coach to have a group program, you could be a designer teaching the Adobe product suite in a group program. There's so many things you could do. You could be a metalsmith teaching people how to be metalsmiths. So a group program launch is going to be and look a little bit different.
But I want to just really pull back the curtain to the launch that I just had for Camp Clarity, because first of all, I am an open book about my business, and I want to be an expander for you and always just be the person that you can look to to see what not to do and what maybe could work for you that I am doing as well. So let's talk about this really quick. I was in New York City.
I am now coming at you from a weekend upstate in Newburgh, New York, right across the river from Beacon, New York, which Beacon is way cuter, by the way. If you go check that out, you can always just take the metro north and pop in there for a day. It's a super cute little town, but I'm staying in this really cool Airbnb, which may or may not be echoey right now. Here we are on the road again, just dealing and rolling with the punches.
But this is where I'm at, and I just finished my Camp Clarity launch for round seven on Thursday, so this last Thursday. It is October 29, right now. We just had our first call on October 27. So when I started launching this, I am dealing with a lot of life and being a nomad and dating new people and juggling all the things moving around, living out of a suitcase, booking plane tickets and Airbnb, responding to getting called for jury duty in Colorado, which I'm not even going to be in Colorado for the foreseeable future, all the things so juggling all the things.
Each launch is a mindfuck. I just want to say that right now. I believe entrepreneurship is such a spiritual journey, like one of the most spiritual journeys you can go on truly, because it dredges up all of your stuff. If you're not working on your personal growth, your entrepreneurship career is going to suffer. I just can almost say that for a fact. But what I always say is launching is like the Ayahuasca of personal growth and entrepreneurship.
I personally have never done Ayahuasca. I have done other plant journeys, which are so powerful, and I highly invite you to explore. I maybe will be called to do Ayahuasca at some point. If you don't know about it, go ahead and check it out, look it up. But basically, I have many, many people in my life who have done Ayahuasca, and I just know that it brings up all the stuff. It brings up all the stuff, whether it's good stuff, or bad stuff.
Kind of the point is to bring it up, so you can actually shine a light on it and see how you can move through it, instead of just staying stuck with it. But I really believe that launching is similar in analogy to Ayahuasca because it just brings up all your bullshit. It's going to activate you in ways that you've never even imagined you want it to be activated in. It's a situation where you might have certain expectations.
You might want to be making a certain amount of money. You may want a certain amount of people in your programs. You may want certain clients. If they're not coming through the door and it's not happening exactly as you expect, that's really hard, and it's going to bring up a lot of ego stuff and shadow stuff. So this version of Camp Clarity round seven in this launch, I had four people in the door, which was beautiful, the first week or so a couple of weeks of launch, but I had one week of launch left.
So Camp Clarity, the thing about group courses is really, there's a deadline. It starts on a certain day, so it's like I can't just be like, well, when I get a client, I'll get a client. No, this starts on a certain day, so we have to have the number of people that we want in by like October 27. If you're not familiar with Camp Clarity, it's my 90 day group course for creative entrepreneurs to really build the foundations or rebuild the foundations of their business.
So we have four people in. I usually have a group of at least 12, if not around 18, and we have a week left in launch. I have a romantic guest coming from Paris to visit me in New York City, which is super exciting. I talk so much about being able to live your life and run your business, but I just knew that I was going to be unavailable to really push this, launch really hard.
I wanted people to just come in with ease, and for me not to have to be on social media 24/7 or send 50,000 emails reminding people, hey, Camp Clarity starts on Thursday, right? So that's where I was, and there's obviously ways to be prepared for this and to plan ahead, and we do; my team, Alexandra and I, worked diligently to have all of this planned out, the email marketing, etc.
So there's the planning, but there's also just the showing up, getting on a call if needed with someone if they have questions, all of that. So there's perfect storm, and then I moved apartments, which for the first time in my nomad journey since June, I think, probably because it was in New York, and I was moving into a tiny apartment and carrying my massive 60 pound suitcase up four flights of stairs.
I had bought new clothes and I'm not going to be able to fit them in what I have to bring on the plane and all of these things, plus the launch activation. I just kind of had like a little bit of a breakdown. I had a little nervous system freakout, where I realized, oh my god, I am the one rowing this boat. I am the one living out of a suitcase. It's all me. I'm the one launching this. I'm the one running this business.
It's all me, and not that I don't have a team, but this is just what I was going through in my head. I felt like if I stopped rowing this boat, it's all going to fall apart. I have to keep rowing no matter how tired I am, or no matter how much I want to break, etc, back to that hustle mentality that I'm so avid about getting out of. Yeah, it creeps in. It's going to creep in sometimes, right?
So I went through a few days, 48 hours or so of just kind of freaking out and letting myself be super anxious in my body, and then I decided, you know what, I'm not available for this. I'm not available to be upset while I'm doing amazing things, while I'm living this exquisite, effervescent life. Those are my two new words. Not that I just learned them, but that I'm holding on to, kind of my mantra, exquisite and effervescent.
I just decided I am not available to be this stressed about all the things that are happening around me. It's happening no matter what, and I can either choose to play, or I can choose to freak out, so let's fucking play. I want to talk about going back to our why in our business here, because that's what Camp Clarity, part of Camp Clarity is all about. Why are you doing what you're doing?
If you've read Start With Why by Simon Sinek or just go watch his YouTube video, he has like a little TED Talk situation. There's even like a five minute version that is just so worth it. That we should start with our why versus starting with the how or the money or any of that stuff, really going back to our why. So in this launch, I took a minute, I decided I'm not going to freak out. I'm going to just keep rolling with things.
I'm going to do what I need to do for my body to feel better and less anxious, go for a walk, dance in my living room, take The Class, which if you don't know about “The Class”, it is the best thing ever for your body and your soul. I love it, and I take it live in New York City. It's the class by Taryn Toomey. They also have a virtual platform just so you know, check it out.
But I was doing all those things, meditating for the first time with my friend, Nicole Wild on her platform, The Collective Kula doing a lot of things that I hadn't done for myself just to alleviate that anxiety in general, and then choosing not to freak out, and then going back to my why. Why am I doing what I'm doing? Why am I launching the seventh round of Camp Clarity?
Not just for money, not just to have a business, not just because I can, but my why is to empower creative entrepreneurs to be able to show up in their lives and their business and know their gifts are fucking worth it, and they can have a lucrative career just by being a painter, just by being a photographer, just by being a graphic designer. It is possible. My why is to debunk the starving artist.
My why is to let creatives know that you don't have to be in finance or a doctor or a lawyer to do what you love and live an exquisite life. My why is to bring people together, so entrepreneurship isn't so damn lonely. My why is to create that community and have a fucking party around it and celebrate our gifts and celebrate our lives and celebrate ourselves.
So when I went back through that lens, and I looked at, okay, we have four amazing women in Camp Clarity, this could be great. It could be a super intimate group, or we can take some action, tap into our intuition and make some changes. So what I decided to do, my first step was inviting my one-on-one clients, my current one-on-one clients to take Camp Clarity for free live.
My one-on-one clients and my ASCEND Mastermind, they get the Camp Clarity modules. They get my entire vault, however, they don't go through the program live, which is just different. Self-paced courses aren't my favorite. I don't know if I'll ever release one because I just really think there's so much activation in a live course, and that's what I'm about. That's my why, right?
I want to go back to the community, go back to the empowerment, go back to the accountability. So they have that Camp Clarity modules, those Camp Clarity modules, and they don't take it live. So I invited them. Hey, do you want to take this round live with me for free? Just because you're my one-on-one client and you're maybe innocent so I invited my one on one clients. Then I invited my ASCEND Mastermind.
Then I invited a friend who has never been my client, but I know wants to work with me, and I know is just going through a lot in her life. This could be really good for her. I invited her for free, and you know what happened? She voice messaged me back on Instagram, crying, so grateful. I'm not saying that because I'm some sort of savior. I'm saying that because I went back to the basics of why I do what I do.
If money didn't matter, would I still be doing this? Hell fucking yes, because I get to fulfill my mission of empowering creatives and helping those people with their gifts, putting them out into the world and ditching the potholes in the road that I have so badly, just like sunken into my own career. I have hit the potholes so that you don't have to, that's my new slogan.
So it was just really cool to be able to get back these endorphins, instead of living out of scarcity and expectation of this launch has to be this certain thing, and I don't have enough people, and oh my god, the money, how am I going to live this nomad life with no more income, etc. I just went back to my why and realize that I'm the CEO of my business and the CEO of my life, and I can fricking invite whoever I want to invite.
It felt so good in my body, the energy totally changed, and everyone was a hell yes. Everyone was so excited to take this live, and guess what, even my ASCEND Mastermind who's technically a high level container, they need to go back to Camp Clarity. They need to go back to their foundations and just take a flashlight to them and see if there's any cracks and rebuild it.
So just because they're at this high level doesn't mean we don't need to go back to boundaries and time management and ideal client and niche and taxes and money mindset and pricing and client workflow, which is all in Camp Clarity. Not only do they get to put a flashlight on these foundations, they get access to a whole other group and a whole other network by being in this new group of Camp Clarity, and getting new guest coaches that are coming in every single week, and getting coaching and support for free from me.
So that felt really good. So then we had 17 people in Camp Clarity. We went from 4 to 17, are a lot of those people technically not paying. I'm not gaining extra income from them. Sure. But I am fulfilling my why and it is no skin off my back to have them in this group course, and it's gonna be a fucking party. It already is. Guess what? The momentum from me just showing up truly excited and aligned with my mission made so many people come out of the woodworks.
So we had five more people pay in full to join Camp Clarity just because of the momentum and the excitement and the party atmosphere we created by inviting current clients into the ring. Then we decided, well, I decided, we as in DDC, what if some of these people are wanting to go into ASCEND which starts in January by the way. There's only a few spots left if you are interested in the ASCEND Mastermind get on the waitlist in the show notes.
Some people were interested in the ASCEND Mastermind, and I said, you know what, I want to do is offer you Camp Clarity for free this round if you commit to ASCEND in January. So not only do my current ASCEND women and my one-on-one clients get Camp Clarity for free, and that's going to actually help me coach them better in the future because they are going back to those foundations.
Anyone who is in ASCEND in January is currently taking Camp Clarity for free, which is so cool. What a bonus. I get to give them and also it helps me, again, coach them better because they are going to thoroughly go through these foundations. I guarantee you out of the 21 people in this room, remember we went from 4 to 21 in a week, these people are going to find new business partners within this group.
These people are going to find new clients within this group, new intros, new ideas. They're going to totally expand their thinking, their community, their network, and their business. So I say all of this, because I want you to know what it actually looks like behind the scenes, that it's not all just sunshine and rainbows as we say, and that we have to get creative about our creative business.
We are not here to follow a blueprint. I am not a coach who is here to just tell you, this is how I did it, do it just like me, multilevel marketing style, right? I am here to say, wow, there are people around you who are going to expand and inspire you because they're doing something different, and maybe you can riff off of that. Also, we're creative, so let's get fucking creative. Let's do something that's never been done before.
Let's do something that feels really aligned. Let's know the rules, so we can break the rules. That's the kind of coach I want to be. That's the kind of coach I hopefully am. Those who have coached with me, you can let me know. That's where I'm at. So I just invite you to go back to your why, and see if everything you are doing is actually aligned with that, down to where you buy your coffee.
I love this analogy of just, if I was doing a photoshoot back in the day, and I had an assistant, and I sent them to get coffee for everyone in the room. I wouldn't have them go to Starbucks. I would have them go to a little mom and pop shop. We'd probably grab matchas instead of coffees, and that would be aligned with my mission, better yet it's women owned. That's aligned with my mission that's going down to the core, every little thing through that lens of our mission and vision and values.
So I invite you to check on yours. Are you still aligned with your original core values, your mission? Did you even have one? Check in with yourself, check in with your business and audit your business and your life and make sure that everything is going through that lens, because that's alignment, and people will notice. People will notice that you're always on brand, because you're living on brand.
You're making choices so easily because you're putting everything through that lens. So permission to break the rules. Know the rules first, right? Then break them just like art. Let me know if this resonated with you. Please share on social media and tag me in your stories. I would love to see it. I love when you all post. If you love this podcast, share it with your people. Again, my why is not to make money off of this podcast, is not to convert you.
It's to empower you and hopefully inspire you, especially with the guests we have on to expand you. So my mission is that and what helps with that is spreading the word so we can make more impact and empower more people to show up with their gifts confidently and unapologetically. So go share it, rate it, review it, it helps get things popped to the top of people's feeds. We so appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed this episode.
