Bebri made rainbow-coloured glitter.
Understand: I do not mean that she made glitter in every colour of the rainbow. I mean that the glitter she made ran giggling through the spectrum of light, every single tiny flake eye-catching and mesmerising. Each fleck was a red-hot button wired to the inner three-year-old in every soul; an awe-machine the size of a grain of sand.
Bebri took her darkest shirt and pants and shoes and gloves and woollen cap and dipped them all into her glitter. Attired like the Aurora Borealis on disco night, she walked out into the world to sell her glitter.
Her first sale closed even before she left her driveway. Her entire stock was cleaned out within thirty minutes. Pleased and rich, she returned home to make more glitter for tomorrow.
Multi-faceted light-prisming glitter is not easy to create, and she could never make enough to keep up with demand. Every single grain she made was delivered to her buyers, who flocked to her stall every time they saw her glimmering self arrive.
But her attire glimmered a little less every day. Some glitter fell off, and some was slyly picked off her clothes when she wasn’t paying attention. Soon she wasn’t a supernova of light, but a shimmer. And far too quickly, all her glitter had worn off and she was dressed in drab black.
The stall lost its lustre – literally. Business evaporated. And Bebri said, “Oh! If I give all my glitter to others to illuminate themselves, then there is none left for me. And when there is none for me, then no-one can know what I have to offer. By giving all of my work to others, I impoverish myself. Shitballs!”
A new container was created in Bebri’s workshop, labelled Me. And this container was always the first to be refilled, so that Bebri could shine brightly at all times.
All the rest is glittering technicolour history.
The moral of the story
It’s far too easy to give all your best and juiciest inspiration to your clients until your work for yourself starves to death. (And then, more literally, so do you.) There are plenty of web designers with outdated sites, VAs with every client’s work 100% complete but three stacks of their own paperwork to go through, and marketers who never promote their own work because they’re too busy putting all their inspiration into their clients.
Congratulations, you now have a new client: it’s called Your Business.
Your Business is your most important client and should be treated accordingly. Your Business is on retainer and requires at least as much time as any of your other clients; book time in your calendar every week – maybe every day – to thoughtfully consider Your Business’s needs and implement amazing work for Your Business on a consistent basis.
Do NOT use the time in your calendar for any other client. You wouldn’t treat any of your other clients so shabbily, because they would leave you. Your Business deserves respect, focus and as much of the zingy amazing best work you deliver to your other clients.
This new addition to your workload may require you to let another client go. Long-term, this is the best solution: Your Business will, if neglected, take the whole client list down in a fit of spite. Treat Your Business well and it will stay with you for many years to come, rewarding you more handsomely than any other client could.
Shine on, my lovelies.
P.S. Are you ready to strap the fuck in and commit to only doing your best work? Because if you are, you need to be signed up to the Mo’Cash Mo’Joy newsletter. It’s here to help!
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