One of my favorite parts of being an online entrepreneur is meeting other kickass women who are doing the same thing – courageously putting themselves out there, creating content, and making the world better by sharing their wisdom through the power of the Internet.
One of the women I most admire who is doing this is my friend Jillian Johnsrud.
I met Jillian at the EconoMe Conference in 2020, where we were both speakers.
(If you’re wondering, Jillian is the one on the far right in the yellow dress with the gorgeous Disney Princess-esque hair.)
Jillian wowed me with her story… Growing up in a low-income home, she went on to educate herself about money and become financially independent in her 30’s – while working in a modest-income profession and raising 6 kids, to boot!
I admired Jillian for her personal story, but as I’ve gotten to know her, I admire her even more for how she shows up as a female entrepreneur.
She’s built a business based on courage, authenticity, and boundaries. She writes and speaks from the heart, but she doesn’t let others – and their finicky opinions – affect her work.
Simply put – she does her. And she doesn’t care if other people don’t like it.
As a recovering people pleaser, I’m awed.
But lucky for me – and you – she’s actually written a book about how to do this. It’s called Fire the Haters: Finding the Courage to Create Online in a Critical World. If you’re a creative person who’s ever considered putting yourself out there on the interwebs through a blog or podcast or YouTube channel, I highly recommend you read it.
Two of my biggest takeaways from the book were…
Set boundaries
Like I said, I’m a recovering people pleaser, which means I tend to suck at boundaries. I want to give, give, give… which means those takers just keep on taking. One of Jillian’s chapters starts with this spot-on quote from Rachel Wolchin: “Givers need to set limits, because takers never do.” This is true with everyone from your online followers to your family members. It’s something that I’m working on… and getting better at.
Let your work be a grownup
We creatives often talk about our work as “our baby” but Jillian cleverly dismantles this metaphor by saying, “If your work is a baby, when you send it out into the world, it’s no longer a child; it’s grown.”
She encourages us to let our work work, meaning we need to stop helicopter parenting our blog posts and social media posts and just let them be grown adults out in the world, doing their work. As someone who definitely tends to hover over her blog posts, wondering if people will like them, I cannot tell you how helpful this reframing has been to me!
There’s a lot more goodness in her book, so I recommend you check it out here.
And if you want more good book recommendations from me…
I recently compiled a list of the The 5 Best Books on Minimalism and Simplicity for Working Moms for a new book site called Shepherd. If you’re a busy working mom who wants to live a simpler, decluttered life, check out my recommended reading list here.
To reading… and boundaries… and bravely putting ourselves out there…
