You guys! This week we’re joined by the legendary Marianne Cantwell of Free Range Humans. We’re talking all about using your uniqueness and we cannot wait to share her wisdom with you!
Meet Marianne
Marianne’s been running Free Range Humans for more than a decade. It’s about figuring out what it is you want to do with your life, growing a business that really fits your personality and the life you want.
She works with people right from having an idea through to growing an established creative business, and the themes that run throughout her work are alignment, freedom and ease.
She quit her last ever job in the last financial crash (2008/9ish) before online businesses were really mainstream. At the time, having “a business” was from a traditional entrepreneur perspective. But she felt something was missing – a way to earn a living without leaving your personality at the door.
Marianne is not a believer in a standard blueprint for success that will work for everyone (and man, we were relieved to hear this – it’s a refreshing take!).
What we talk about
Carla’s first discovery of Marianne and feeling for the first time like she wasn’t alone in wanting to escape the traditional working world and do something different and joyful with her life.
Finding the right direction, and finding the things which work for you – not the things which have worked for everyone else.
Growing a business in a way which fits with your own superpowers, because then it’s not painful!
People start out trying to do the same things and then they evolve and they create their own unique way of doing things. There is space for all of us with all of our different ways of doing things. And there is so much conflicting information out there that really, the only way to move forward is to identify your own sweet spot and do that.
Her sneaky wonderful way of writing in a way that makes you suspect she’s inside your brain!
Layering stuff onto ourselves to be enough with what we’re doing – and then removing and peeling away those layers to be left with our superpowers. Finding what unique flavour you bring to the thing you do, and doing that.
Making your business fit you, and some of the ways you can get more in tune with yourself to discover these. (We are both doing the current Free Range Secret Superpowers course and loving it!)
Noticing patterns, trying out actual projects instead of theoretical plans, getting evidence for your patterns.
And personality profiles! While neither Marianne nor we endorse putting yourself in a labelled box, having some external input when you’re looking to get to know yourself better can be really helpful.
Being able to collect information from different places, piece it together to see what feels right, and build up more evidence about your fit and superpowers so you can use your uniqueness.
Together, all these things mean you’re constantly realigning what you do with who you are. (We LOVE this!)
The idea of using your superpowers as a guiding star, and that your relationship with your business, your values and your strengths will shift and change over time.
Favourite working styles – and being online before online was a universally accepted thing! It is very soothing that we no longer have to explain that “having an online business” does not equal “scam”.
Living in a nature sanctuary and working with clients across the world – and how technology has improved in the last ten years!
Tools and tech
Being your own IT team! We rather like Marianne’s approach, which is more around what technology you need for the task you want to complete.
It’s not about drowning in a million software subscriptions, but neither is it struggling with automation before you need to. Keeping it simple is the way forward.
Letting other people test out new stuff before you invest in the system – we approve of this!
We live in this amazing time in history where it’s never been easier to run your own thing, pivot, change and adapt, and for relatively small amounts of money. What had to be hacked together even five years ago is now available for free or low cost.
Listen in for favourites – but we all agree on our ultimate favourite tool.
VAs and outsourcing and systems, oh my!
Outsourcing! Being able (financially but also emotionally) to let go of the stuff you don’t do well, and give it to someone who does it brilliantly, so you can shine in the way you do best.
The best advice in this whole section of this episode is that you can take someone on for just a couple of hours a month – this does not have to be financially massive to start with.
Getting together a freelance team who are all in their flow doing their thing can only do good things for your business.
There is no good time for a proper system (Sarah is bringing Dubsado into her business and the set-up is rather on the epic side) – you only have the time to set it up before you properly get going with your business, but at that stage, you don’t know what functionality you want, or need.
It’s that damn balance again!
Finding your jam
We can’t distil the goodness of this bit into words on a page, we’d be here all day – but can we just point out the absolute wonder and truth of this little gem?
If you don’t like creating content, why are you creating it? If it’s because someone’s told you that’s what you need to do to have clients, that’s wrong. (Wow, isn’t that a relief?)
Ways of finding your clients and showing your expertise and doing your thing range from chatting to humans to writing or videos online, to showing up as an expert in other conversations on the topic, and on endlessly – there are so, so many ways to build your business in a way which suits you.
Knowing what you want out of a certain project – are you making money, or are you improving a skill or expanding your presence? Or something else entirely? Knowing what you want to achieve means you won’t be pulled in a direction you don’t want by well-meaning suggestions.
There is SO much good stuff in this episode – listen in for the full experience 😉
Get more Marianne in your life
On Instagram @freerangemarianne
At free-range-humans.com (or google Free Range Humans Marianne)
The Friday love letter is definitely something you want in your inbox!
The Secret Superpowers course is now live and you can enrol 🙂
And of course there’s the book (which Carla features in!)
Links we love
Gretchen Ruben’s Four Tendencies
16 Personalities – the closest to Myers Briggs that’s free