How are you? The sunlight is streaming into my office by the sea and I feel paper thin (in some ways) but so purposeful too. Do you have days when many opposites are true?
I’m in deep recovery from over extension. Yet still I write.
At times, I’m afraid of being seen (or witnessed I’m not sure) yet teaching and holding space online is a JOY.
💬 I’m inviting you in for a chat in the comments below.
I’d love to hear from you on the mindset shifts that have been possible because you write and found a home for words here on Substack.
Let me guide you in with some places to start…
abundance mindset says - there is and continues to be more than enough eyes, subscribers, paying subscribers, I am safe to create and be paid.
scarcity mindset (here and beyond) says - I don’t know how to be enough here, be paid for my work, I’m not ‘good enough’/ ‘like her’/ ‘good with money’, ‘business savvy enough…’
Again both things can be true on/ inside of the same day… working on our mindset is the biggest flex we have…
Can you relate?
The moon continues to shine in all of it’s phases despite what the sun does.
You are safe to be in any phase of your creative practise and show up or not…
You get to choose, you get to own it, you get to live it month after month, year after year.
Do you want to chat about your current mindset in the comments?
I’ve never enjoyed photoshoots but I enjoyed this one…
“You are the moon who cannot see her own beauty. Let me be the Ocean and show you your own beautiful reflection.” Arijeet Das
it was from a place of understanding the incredible power of mentoring. I had ABSOLUTELY no idea if it would work online the way I’d seen it work in person.
I’d never been part of anything like Sparkle. I managed pop-up festivals and events, time sensitive projects.
The idea poured (fully formed) out of my soul and onto the blank white pages of this publication. All of the old posts are still there for you to see.
I didn’t have a business plan. I had a soul plan.
I trusted the rest of it would work out but there was no one to reverse engineer the steps with.
Trust
Trust
Trust
Trust
I was right on that choice to trust and it’s spun me into some wild directions.
Yes, I’ve mastered more business strategy, more ways to hold people at different stages of their journey.
There are abundant ways to awaken your innate creativity and quiet the noise of imposter syndrome. How about we also do it whilst cutting through complex and noisy noise of humans and tech like a hot knife through fridge cold butter.
There are 1001 ways to encourage our readers to pay attention inside of our publications.
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Back then….
I wasn’t worried about what other’s were saying, doing feeling about this platform. (That came later).
I wasn’t worried about how much to charge or how many readers I needed to ‘make it work’. I’d not had a pay rise in 20 years1 so it was actually easier to take risks.
Sparkle on Substack was a project and an experiment. One I committed to for a year.2 💫
This publication and the relationships I’ve formed because of it have changed my life.
And yet; there is more.
Even though I don’t need more… there is more.
“The Moon Casts a different face everyday. Yet the moon is always the moon. It is always whole. Always reflective.” T Lloyd Qualls.
I teach folks here how to embody the wobbly yet rewarding path of joyful, sustainable growth. It’s beautiful, it has deep roots and it means absolutely everything you dream of is more than possible. You don’t have to wait to be chosen or give your power away in any way. You get to choose yourself and build something you are proud of brick by brick.
Turns out the black and white of how to earn money through your words on Substack is as confronting as it is exciting.
The invitation to your paid subscribers is hard. Making the money make sense as your build is hard.
Yet it’s also all totally possible…
On the journey there, lots happens. There is healing, many mindset shifts, community, friendship and SO much to be proud of. The journey of any goal is arguably way more rewarding than achieving the goal itself?
With every post, every connect you are calling in the ones who pay attention to your words, who sit next to you and feel calmed by your wonder, who are ready to sit in circle with you and yes in part pay for that privilege with the attention or their pennies.
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On Trust
You can trust yourself to complete your vision the same way you can trust the moon to shine in the sky on clear nights… It catches me out some months and rises centrally glowing yellow or sometimes silvery through our studio window.
There will be familiar phases on the way towards completion.
From my kitchen window, I read a blackboard everyday that reads; trust yourself.
The writing is messy but I observe that thought. I remember I wrote it with my daughter at my feet asking for things out of reach.
It’s a moment, a reminder that all I actually have to do is trust myself and commit to a practise to learn to trust myself more.
Maybe you need that reminder too…
💗
The Mess - Sharing the beautiful blend of personal and professional
I didn’t start writing here to be like another writer I admire.
I started writing her to hone my writing and space holding craft, better understand my calling.
I also consciously took up space to heal the shards that still get stuck inside of my innate creative voice. I want to deeply understand them and why my daughter who is just four years old owns hers more than I perhaps ever will.
What next step do you need to start working towards today to help you complete the unique vision that already belongs to you?
How can your writing life now celebrate the things you want to be true in your future?
I’d love to hear from you below. Your responses fill up my cup and inspire me so deeply for my own journey and offers back to the world.
will be joining me for a pre-recorded mindset session around self worth and scarcity mindset towards the end of the month.
This is a COMPLEX topic but one I’m passionate about.
I have many healed wounds from understanding the practise of abundance. It’s a lifetime practise and one I’m committed to… especially as I nurture and grow my business with Substack as the main engine. I talk (and write) about this more over on my BTS business newsletter Creatively Conscious by Claire Venus
I’d love to share more on how scarcity relates to the work, our worth and what we are doing here on Substack long term.
It’s all relative but as the main earner in our home, I’d never earn a freelance wage over £43k a year. The work I did was charged by the day and in twenty years there was never a way to get a pay-rise for this. You were always expected to over deliver. Once I started my own business in 2017, everything changed. I saw a future where it held me rather than me being a slave to a crumbling industry built on ego. In 2025, I spilled over into owning a 6figure business. There was much emotion.
A bestselling publication owner gets to display a checkmark next to their name. White for 101. orange for 1001 and purple for 10s of thousands of subscribers.
Oh goodness, I feel all of this lovely. Many things can be true at once indeed. I am similarly over-extended just now and have paid for it with three days of being barely able to get dressed. But I also have a heart full of joy, bursting from the people I’ve met and the experiences we’ve shared over this last week and a half, and feel alive with potential and gratitude. Thank you for these words, for this work, and for being you. You make all of us sparkle every day 🩷✨xx
I found this post so inspiring Claire. I can feel how your vision and business came to you and poured out of your soul. It’s beautiful and so, so inspiring. You give me so much hope for my future and my business, and I’m so grateful for that! I know it’s possible, I just need to get out of my own way. It’s a mindset thing for sure. Thank you for holding space for these feelings 🥰
Oh goodness, I feel all of this lovely. Many things can be true at once indeed. I am similarly over-extended just now and have paid for it with three days of being barely able to get dressed. But I also have a heart full of joy, bursting from the people I’ve met and the experiences we’ve shared over this last week and a half, and feel alive with potential and gratitude. Thank you for these words, for this work, and for being you. You make all of us sparkle every day 🩷✨xx
I found this post so inspiring Claire. I can feel how your vision and business came to you and poured out of your soul. It’s beautiful and so, so inspiring. You give me so much hope for my future and my business, and I’m so grateful for that! I know it’s possible, I just need to get out of my own way. It’s a mindset thing for sure. Thank you for holding space for these feelings 🥰