Have you ever found yourself responding to client messages at midnight or saying yes to a project that your gut is screaming no to, or maybe you're feeling really stretched thin, trying to show up on every single platform. Here is what you need to focus on. The stronger your boundaries, the stronger your business.
And so in today's episode, I'm breaking down exactly how to set. Boundaries for your creative business that will protect your energy without pushing away opportunities. And you are going to learn how to decide what's actually necessary, communicate your limits clearly, and yes, even say no without burning bridges, which is something I love.
I have struggled with in the past. Not burning the bridges but worrying that I'm going to. So if you're ready to start 2025 with more energy and less overwhelm, this episode is for you.
Let's talk about why boundaries matter in the first place.
So if you resonated with what I just said in the introduction, then you need boundaries, because not having them leads to things like Working when you don't want to, working on things you don't want to do, getting burnt out because you are just doing all of the things in ways that are not sustainable, and many other things.
So if you have found yourself like in any of those situations, Those are signs that you need stronger boundaries. If people are pushing back against you, yeah, you're doing actual projects that you don't want to do. [00:02:00] If you're feeling yourself burning out because you're doing too many things all of the time, these are signs that you need stronger boundaries.
And this is something that you can do. I am currently working on. So these are things that I have learned or that I've been focusing on that might also hopefully help you.
Types of Boundaries for Creative Businesses
So there are four main types of brand boundaries that I think there are probably a lot more, but these are the ones that I think that we can and probably should be focusing on when it comes to our brands and creative businesses.
So number one, we have schedule boundaries. So these are things like work hours, response times, when you take calls, all of those types of things fit into things around your schedule. Then we have sharing boundaries. So this is about what you share, what you don't share, how you share. All of those types of things that create a sense of like security and safety for [00:03:00] you when you have them.
Then we have service boundaries. So these are things to do with your actual products, your work, your services. This is what you will and won't offer, what you will do, what you won't do, all of those types of things. Then we have space boundaries. This is where and how you show up on social media with clients, events, like all of those types of things that give you the space and put you in the right spaces when you have them put into place.
So those are the four types of things that you can focus on when it comes to setting boundaries.
Setting Effective Boundaries
How do we set boundaries that serve you and your creative business? Number one, you want to identify like non negotiables. Things like, I will not take calls on a Monday and Friday. That is something I have in place.
Sometimes flex that boundary for things that are really important, or things that are not like client or customer facing. But that sort of thing. So what [00:04:00] are non negotiables for you? I will not take calls in this way or time or place. I will not do this type of work, or I will only do this type of work.
Those are the kinds of questions you can be asking. To figure out what your non-negotiables are. Then you wanna create like policies, contracts, communication, all of those kind of things that protect and support those boundaries. So it might be like having booking policies on your calendar so people can only book Tuesday to Thursday if that's your rule.
So putting into place policies and processes that protect and support those boundaries. And then you want to communicate your boundaries clearly. So whether it's to your collaborators, your clients, your customers, your community, your audience, your friends, your family, like any of those people, any of [00:05:00] those types of people.
Relationships that need these boundaries in place. We want to communicate those boundaries really clearly or as clearly as possible. And then you want to manage exceptions gracefully. So like I just said, sometimes I make exceptions for my bookings because I have a coaching call that I really want to do on a Friday, or there are calls and things that land outside of my.
Times, but I want to accept them and I want to do them because it makes it make certain things possible or available for me. Or maybe someone is asking you to make an exception and you want to figure out like, what do I do in those situations? If someone is asking for a call outside of my call times or my call days, and I don't want to do that, how do I.
Gracefully tell them about that. So those are four things that you can do to actually set your boundaries and put [00:06:00] them in place is to identify what they are, create policies and processes that protect and support those boundaries, communicate those boundaries, and then have plans in place for how and when you're going to manage those exceptions.
Managing Social Media Boundaries
Some common boundaries that creatives might come across are handling social media demands. So there are a lot of things that creep into our life and our day and our businesses to do with social media and marketing. It might be things like posting, responding all the time, researching things, scrolling through to figure out what you want to achieve, planning, that sort of thing.
So some ways that you can set boundaries around there can be setting time limits within apps. So like Instagram, Facebook TikTok all have inbuilt systems to let you set time limits and to remind you, Hey, you've been on this for a really long time, or you want to have quiet time at this time. [00:07:00] So maybe consider shutting it down.
Those will help you to stick to those boundaries. You can also set time limits on your actual devices. This is really helpful. So there are certain apps, I'll see if I can leave a link in the show notes for an app that I've used in the past that puts limits on your apps and on your devices so that you can't access certain apps at certain times or outside of certain times.
You can also remove apps from your phone, so if you're finding that you're spending a lot of time on Instagram, or you're replying to emails from work, when you shouldn't be, you can remove those apps from your phone, or those logins from your phone, so that you cannot access them. That puts in a boundary that, hey, I only check social media on my computer at this time, this many times a day, etc.
And removes the impulse. Sometimes, it can be difficult, but I can try to help you remove the impulse to [00:08:00] just be on there all the time. You can also calendar block time for social media. So maybe it's okay, every morning I'm going to spend And? Half an hour, 15 minutes posting and replying to comments.
And then once a week, I'm going to spend some time on social media, like researching sounds to use inspiration, like all that sort of thing, trends to follow you can set aside time that will make sure, okay, I'm only going to do this at this time, or I'm going to try to only be on social media for work in these certain times.
You can also turn off read receipts on pretty much every platform. So the pressure to reply quickly isn't there. So if you're feeling like, Oh, I need to be on there all the time so that I can reply to DMS, I can reply to comments. I can reply to messages. Then you can turn off the ability for people to see when you have seen their message [00:09:00] and when you are online as well.
You can turn off your like online indicator. So then people won't see that you have seen their message and expect you to reply super quickly. Hopefully they won't anyway, but if you feel that pressure, that's a good option for relieving some of that.
Handling Client Expectations and Scope Creep
Okay, another common boundary challenge is to do with Scope creep when it comes to clients or client and customer expectations.
So a few things that we can put in place for this is when it comes to scope creep, that's when clients or projects go far beyond what was agreed, maybe in like delivery or timeline or anything like that. And even if you don't have. Service based clients, like one on one, this could be like commissions, this could be related to wholesale clients it could be like speaking engagements or brand partnerships, all those types of things can also result [00:10:00] in like scope creep.
You want to have a contract in place that clearly explains what is included and what isn't so that okay, once we've gone past this, or you're asking for more things than what's in the agreement, we've gone past that and I need to reinforce and re explain the boundary and make sure that we come up with a plan for how to solve your problem.
But outside of this, so that might be mean actually not doing it or charging for it or whatever it might be as a solution to that situation. Related to that and just around general client expectations, if they have extreme expectations or expectations that don't align with what you had in mind. And again, this could be.
Any of those people I mentioned before could even be customers asking for things that you don't offer or that you can't achieve like shipping deadlines and like all that sort of thing. You want to be able to manage those expectations. So that can mean having statements on your [00:11:00] website about expectations.
You could have onboarding material that clearly explains the expectations and also include those in your contract. So that can be, again, things like if you're onboarding, A client, or you have a packet that you send to wholesale clients that explains like this is how it's going to work and how I operate or same with like brand partnerships or collaborations or anything like that.
You can have set up templates, which we're going to talk about in a minute that explains these are the expectations. This is how I operate. This is how I work. And that's how it is. My online business manager slash VA has a list of norms and her contract that then we adapted and added to mine because I was like, Oh my God, those are so good.
I need those in my life. And they explain and get clients to agree to the norms of your business. Basically you're the expectations. It includes things like when I [00:12:00] work. Like, when I will reply to things, how I will communicate and how they need to communicate with me. When I will have time off and what will happen then.
Like, all of those types of things that are norms that I want to make sure every client is agreeing that this is how we're going to work together and this is the expectations they can have of me and I can have of them. So those are a few ways that you can help with client expectations, client relationships, things like contracts, templates with onboarding material, lists of like norms, those sorts of things.
Saying No to Opportunities
Then when it comes to saying no to opportunities, this is one that I mentioned in the intro. I struggle with this. I have been working on it with my coach, Alexis, to say no to things and to turn things down and to cut things out of my business. So the top tip I have for you here is to use a template.
So right at [00:13:00] once. Never write it again or don't write it like from scratch ever again. So I recently started saying no to some things. My coach helped me like write an email that said no, thank you. Thank you so much for reaching out or thank you so much for whatever interaction we had. I really appreciate it.
Basically I'm giving you a summary of what it says. I really appreciate it. I can't accept it at this time or I can't work with you at this time. Here's why but not in too much detail. And then how, yeah, maybe here's some other options of how I can support you or how I can point you in the direction of somebody who can.
I then took that and turned it into an outline that I can use anytime I need to in that same situation. So I can, plug in the different things I need to say, like for the certain client and the experience that we had together or whoever it is. And what I want to say about how I can help them going forward or not.
And then I can [00:14:00] use that again. So next time I go to say, no, it is not like this big hurdle for me to figure out how on earth am I going to say that I can just say. Here's the template. I know how to say no, I've done it before. Here's how I can do that. And I'll also leave another link in the show notes to an article that I read that helped me with this, where someone had set up ways to say no, and like templates for that, for everything in their business.
So every time someone reached out for a coffee day and they didn't want to accept it, they had a template for that anytime somebody asked them to review some of their work or like their book or their article or whatever. This is how they say no. And they had a template for every single thing. So I will leave a link to that in the show notes too, because I found it really helpful.
So those are a few examples of boundaries that can be really helpful or struggles you might be having with your boundaries and some tips for how you could implement that and put boundaries in place, and hopefully those will [00:15:00] inspire how you can set up boundaries for other. Things in your business or other things in your life.
Support Systems for Maintaining Boundaries
Some other tips or systems that are going to support your boundaries. Let's talk about those. Number one, I mentioned briefly just earlier is like creating templates and policies. So you can create swipe files for messages and emails like I just mentioned. So like an outline or a template for different types of conversations.
You can set up contracts. That really have really clear boundaries of this is what's included. This is how much you're going to pay me, all of that sort of stuff that really makes it clear, this is what is included and what's not. Then you can also have templates for those expectations, norms, or boundaries, like I mentioned earlier.
So I use the same ones over and over again. So like my clients all get that same norms section in their contract. And then I also have an [00:16:00] onboarding. Template that shows for my illustration clients, for example, this is what you get. This is how you submit things. This is what I'm expecting of you.
And this is what you can expect of me. And so it's all laid out really clearly. And then I have another one for podcast guests, that's this is what you can expect from the podcast experience, and this is how it's gonna work, and here's how you can contact me if you have questions. And all of this stuff is, hopefully, laid out really clearly.
And I just use the same document, and everybody gets the same one. You can also automate boundary enforcement. So there are things that you can set up that will help you do this automatically. So you don't have to feel the pressure of enforcing your boundaries all the time. Number one can be like auto responders.
So whether that's on social media, on your emails, in Slack, like whatever you need, wherever you need it, you can set up autoresponders. I have seen [00:17:00] so many people do this in their socials and emails, where if you send them a message, it will say, thank you so much for reaching out. I'll get back to you within 48 hours.
And that's setting the expectation that high. I'm not going to reply to you within an hour, or I might, but you can't get angry at me if I don't because I've clearly communicated to you this is my timeline, this is my procedure or process for getting back to people. So you can do that via your email, via socials, via any platform.
You can also send automated reminders that help people to know the expectations and to work within your boundaries. So for example, I have automated reminders that come from my invoicing tool that say, Hi, you agreed that you would pay me within 14 days. That's coming up or you've missed that. So it doesn't come from me, but it comes from a tool that's automatically reminding [00:18:00] them, Hey, this is what we agreed on.
These are the boundaries. If you're not going to work within that, you're going to get charged more or whatever it might be. And you can do that with a lot of things too. You can automate, maybe if people are asking you about your shipping times or they're getting back to you and, messaging you all the time, you can have automated reminders that say, Again, hi, I'll get back to you within this amount of time, or I, my shipping times are this, and this is how it works.
So that can help too. You can also have automated onboarding. So as I mentioned before, like I have those. Documents and that communication that really explains to people, this is how we are going to communicate going forward. And this is what our experience is going to look like. And you can automate all of that.
So as soon as you get like an inquiry or you book a client or you book a commission or you get wholesale client, like anything like that, [00:19:00] you can send automated emails, you can send them to an automated website. Document, like I mentioned, that's okay, great. I'm excited to work with you. Here's what we're here's what it's going to look like.
And these are the expectations that I'm sitting. You can also have support structures around you to help you implement those boundaries and keep them in place. So that could be people like mentors, coaches, or a community or like your friends and family that can help you to keep those boundaries. And maintain those boundaries.
So for example, as I just told you, I've been working with my coach. She helped me stick to my boundaries to put them in place, to write emails, to set up processes, like those kinds of things that I can figure out. This is what I need. And she can make sure and check in with me on how they're going.
And then my OBM, my online business manager slash VA helps me to actually put boundaries into action through systems. [00:20:00] So setting up those automations that we talked about, putting in the norms and my contract, all of those things I'm supported in because Savannah helps me do that. And then just like community around me, like my partner any other Like other creatives that I talk to, we all talk about those boundaries and how we can put them in place and how they can support me and I can support them in their boundaries as well.
So those are just a few tips for systems that will support you and your boundaries. Again, as I mentioned, some things that you can think about or work on are having scripts for difficult conversations. You can think about how you're going to handle that boundary pushback if anybody comes back to you and isn't happy, or doesn't want to fit with those boundaries, or wants to go outside of them.
Think about how you're going to handle that. And then also have a bit of a plan in place for adjusting boundaries as needed. So maybe it's every [00:21:00] month or every week or every quarter or every year, you're going to review all of your boundaries and adjust them as needed based on how things have gone.
Practical Tips for Balancing Work and Creativity
Now I want to quickly answer a question from a member of the Brand Your Passion Collective. So Krista asked me, I would love some practical tips on how to switch between working on my business and my creative projects and setting stronger boundaries around my creative time. This year I want to set better boundaries to carve out more time and energy to write and paint and not just teach and sell.
So this is what I mentioned earlier about that one Section of brand boundaries. So these are around your schedule. How do you set boundaries around your schedule so that you can work on writing and painting and not just teaching and selling or whatever it is that you want to work on and spend more time on or less time on.
So a few tips that I have for you here. Number one is calendar blocking. So again, [00:22:00] I worked with my coach to help put this into place for me. And I've been really finding it helpful. This is where you set aside time for specific things, and then you only work on those specific things during that time, and that helps you to set boundaries and not just fill all of your time with the thing you don't want to do.
There is a. Law, like that, basically, whatever time you give something will, that thing will expand to fill that time. So if you say, okay, I can work on this thing anytime, all the time, then you are going to work on it anytime, all the time, whereas if you say, okay, I'm only going to work on teaching and selling within the first hour of every day.
I'm going to spend an hour each morning selling or working on selling my offers, my products, my services. And then the rest of the time, I'm going to work on [00:23:00] this other thing or these other things. That can be really helpful. So I've done the same with okay, I'm only going to work on this particular client as certain times during my week so that then I know, okay, all the rest of the time can be on this particular client.
The collective on marketing on the podcast, whatever it is that I need time to work on. So calendar blocking can be really helpful. It doesn't mean that you can't work outside of those times or you can't be flexible, but it's a really helpful mental shift, or it has been for me to say, okay. My calendar was set to work on this until one o'clock it's now it's hit one o'clock.
Do I want to keep going or do I actually want to stop and work on something else? And then, or knowing, okay, I only have two hours to work on this thing. Let's be productive. Use that, those two hours, fill the two hours with all of the productive goodies and then move on. And it helps you [00:24:00] to really put your head in specific areas.
Spaces too, rather than having like your head in 12 million different places. Another one that you can do is allowing people to book time with you around in certain times or to have calls in certain times. I mentioned this earlier. I try to only have calls on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays between a certain time, ideally like 10 until five o'clock, but because I'm in New Zealand, I'm a bit flexible with that because I know the time zones are a bit tricky, but for you, you can do the same.
You could say, I'm going to do all of my teaching on Wednesdays. I've done that too. All of the calls, hopefully, or mostly, within the collective right now are on a Wednesday, New Zealand time. So that I know, my head's in the zone, and I'm doing that on a Wednesday. So you can do the same. I'm only going to take calls, I'm only going to do teaching on these certain days, and then, outside of that, I can work on all the other good things I want to do.
And [00:25:00] the last tip or technique that I have used for kind of setting boundaries or being productive is using the Pomodoro technique. So if you haven't heard of this, it's a way of using a timer to give you productive focus, like sprints. To work on a certain thing. So it gives you the the original, I think is like 20 minute blocks with five minutes in between.
And then at the end of three of those cycles, you get a longer break. So that could be 15 minutes, half an hour, whatever you need it to be. I do this a lot. I use the Pomodoro technique within those calendar blocks to be like, Okay, I am working on this branding client for the whole afternoon, but I'm gonna do it in 20 minute sprints, where I'll work for 20 minutes, take a 5 minute break, look at my phone, or go for a walk, or get some water, or whatever.
And then after I've done like an [00:26:00] hour of that, then I'll work, I'll have another break for half an hour. I'll go and eat lunch or I'll go for a walk outside or I will just lie on the couch, whatever it is that you need to do. You can do that within those breaks. And then that helps me again to set boundaries like, okay, this is not going to take forever.
This is not going to expand outside of this time. I'm just going to work in these 20 minute blocks. And it helps with the boundaries of life. Other things too. If you're feeling like I'm getting distracted by like the washing in my house or social media scrolling or checking my emails or anything like that, you can set boundaries by saying, I'm only going to do those things in those five or 30 minute breaks.
So I don't need to check my phone right now because I'm just going to keep working for 10 more minutes. And then I can check my phone in the five minute break, or I'm not going to. Go and put the washing on the line right now. I'm going to wait until my 30 minute break and I'll do it then. [00:27:00] So that can be really helpful for setting those boundaries.
Putting things in place to be more productive within those boundaries so that it's easier to maintain the boundaries that you have and that you want. Thank you, Krista, for asking that question. If you want to ask questions for the next episodes, you can join us in the collective and you can ask me questions in there and I will answer them in the episodes.
I hope this has been really helpful.
I want to let you know that if you want to go through this process and you want to figure out some boundaries for your creative business and how you can put them in place, you can go to bit. ly forward slash brand boundaries or one word. This will be linked in the show notes as well.
And I've put together a bit of a resource pack, a bit of a worksheet where you can figure out. What are my boundaries, where can I communicate them? How can I put them in place? I'm going to give you some of those scripts that I talked about that you can put into place or use as well [00:28:00] and give you a lot of tools for maintaining and setting your boundaries.
So if you want to check that, Out. You can go to bit. ly forward slash brand boundaries. And I've just mentioned the collective in terms of the questions, but if you want support and maintaining your boundaries, you want to talk to your fellow creatives about how they do it, how they're putting it into place and get kind of accountability and support doing it.
Then come and join us in the brand, your passion collective. You can head to brand, your passion. co or the link in the show notes to join us. And we will help you. Put your boundaries in place, figure out what they are, set them up and stay accountable to them while still building successful brands. Okay. I hope this episode has been really helpful.