#29: How to Refine, Restart or Scale Your Creative Business.

In this episode of 'The Jeweler's View,' host Courtney Gray, an experienced metalsmith and business strategist, shares invaluable insights from her 25-year journey in the jewelry industry. Courtney discusses the importance of refining your creative business with ease and intention, emphasizing that it's not always about starting fresh but starting over with the wisdom and experience gained. She shares her personal story of selling her established business and rebuilding it with strategy, balance, and trust. Key takeaways include reusing what's working well, releasing what no longer fits, recommitting with intention, and understanding the value of patience in business growth. Courtney invites listeners to explore her six-week course, 'Transform,' designed for creative entrepreneurs ready to build a business that aligns with their current values and aspirations. The episode ends with an empowering message that wherever you are, you're not starting from scratch; you're building from wisdom.

Transcript

 Welcome back to the Jeweler's View. Today we're gonna talk about  how to refine your creative business with more ease and intention. There's a lot of pressure in the creative world specifically to constantly reinvent, to pivot fast, keep showing up, stay visible, and somehow always know the next best step. But here's what I've learned, especially in the past few years.

You don't always need to start fresh. Sometimes you just need to start again. With more intention, patience, and with the wisdom from what you've already lived. After selling the business I built over 15 years, I found myself without access to the very tools I had spent over a decade refining

the mailing list I'd grown from five people to 10,000 people gone.  The website I designed and redesigned with so much care gone, even the logo, something I once felt super proud of to see on my business card or on Instagram was no longer mine.

The brand I had built and protected and poured myself into was being reshaped in ways that didn't feel like me anymore and that I just didn't have any control over. This was hard,  but even in that moment. I knew I wasn't back at square one. I was starting again, but this time with experience, this time around, I'm rebuilding with strategy, with structure, with more balance.

I use my calendar as a tool now, not just for appointments, but for focus. If it's not scheduled, you know, it doesn't get done. I block time to batch things, emails, content, podcast production planning. Make time, bench time, right? And yes, downtime I create standard operating procedures or SOPs for every repeatable task.

So I don't waste brain space figuring things out twice or thrice. Is that even a word? I guess it is. Now, when a new client comes in, I have a system. When I prep a podcast like this, there's a checklist. There's a protocol. That structure lets me focus on the work itself. I'm telling you, this was a game changer, my friend, but the biggest shift, I trust myself more. I don't set a guess. Every move I pause, I check in, and I move forward based on what I know is aligned. I. I trust others differently too. I delegate earlier. I ask for support sooner, and I partner with people I trust and want to support.

Truly. In return. I don't try to control every single outcome, and that doesn't mean I'm careless or aloof. It means I'm building something that's longer term that feels sustainable, that doesn't consume my every moment. If you're listening right now and feeling like you're in a pivot or a restart or even just questioning your pace, here's what I want you to know.

You're not starting from scratch. You're building from wisdom, and that's the foundation worth working with inside my course transform. This is where we begin. This is the roots. Module one, we start with an exercise called Reframe and Rise, where we pause and look honestly at what's actually supporting you and what's quietly maybe holding you back.

We don't start with content strategies. We start with the core of your business and the story that brought you here. Because real growth, it doesn't begin with an expensive rebrand. It doesn't have to. It begins with honest reflection and choosing on purpose what to carry forward and what may not serve you anymore.

Let me offer you just a few takeaways I use with my students and in my own business. One, reuse what's already working well, low hanging fruit, right? A repeat question that you hear from clients. A product that people always come back to. A phrase that you love saying about your work. Bring these with you as you move forward.  Create a simple system for these repeatable things. Two, release what no longer fits.

This could be a price point, a money mindset that's holding you back from seeing your true value, a habit or work that drains you. Maybe it doesn't light you up like it used to. Letting go creates space and space is where better decisions happen. Think of the times that you're cleaning your work area or your bench, or heck, even the kitchen.

What's happening in your brain during that space? This is often the time in between the work that the ideas and solutions flow more easily. For me, it's like my downtime. Literally watching Netflix on my patio and my recliner or sitting by the river. I start writing here. Solutions just pop in. Stories pop in that I need to share out of nowhere.

Making space will help you create solutions.

Number three, recommit with intention. What's actually aligned with the kind of work that you wanna do now? . Not five years ago. Now start there. What lights you up? Currently this changes from time to time, so taking the time to reassess is a business strategy, not a distraction. Not a timeout. Number four, don't push too hard. You don't have to scale fast to prove anything. Social constructs aside.

Patience is a big part of building something new. Let it take the time that it needs to grow to breathe. That's not weakness, its wisdom. Slow and steady. Now, if this episode resonated with you or if you're in the middle of a big shift or rebuilding something on your own terms. I'd love to invite you to take the next step.

Visit my website, Courtney gray arts.com and explore, transform. There's tons of info there. This is my six week course for jewelry makers and creative entrepreneurs at any level or season who are ready to build a business that fits them. Now, you'll also find a signup link to join my email list if you're not already, so you can stay in the loop when enrollment happens Again.

. I want you to hear this. Wherever you are, you are not back at the beginning. You're building what's next with everything that you've learned and all the wisdom that comes with that. And this time you get to do it differently, your way with more care, more conscious effort, more decision making  📍 that fits you now.

  📍 Thanks for listening to The Jeweler's View. If today's episode gave you something to think about, consider sending it to a friend or share it on social and tag me at Courtney Gray Arts. You'll find tools, coaching resources, and the transform course@courtneygrayarts.com. And if no one's told you this lately, remember you're not behind.

You're becoming exactly the kind of maker your business needs and that kind of depth. It takes time. I'll be back next week, same time, same tough love, onward and upward. I.