I was recently invited to participate in a Cozy Entrepreneurship series along with other cozy business owners, and I thought my video contribution to this would be fun to share here, too! It’s a good intro to who I am and my perspective (and background) on anti hustle productivity culture and cozy entrepreneurship. If you’ve ever wondered about what is a cozy entrepreneur, what are the philosophies of a cozy business owner, and can you REALLY be successful with cozy entrepreneurship, then you’ll enjoy this blog post.
The term “cozy business owner” is pretty new to me, but the concept goes back a long way. In fact, being a cozy entrepreneur (or being a “soft business owner,” as some people refer to it), is essentially the same as my concept of being an anti-hustle business owner. Cozy entrepreneurship is really just another term for being anti-hustle!
Show Notes:
- 0:00 About my cozy business (or, as I like to call it, anti hustle business!)
- 0:35 What is a cozy entrepreneur? My philosophies regarding cozy entrepreneurship and anti hustle culture
- 2:52 Why I became a cozy business owner
- 4:48 How I became a cozy business coach
- 6:35 My success and the results I’ve experienced as a cozy entrepreneur…
- 7:54 Learn more about cozy entrepreneurship, being a soft business owner, and anti hustle productivity
About my cozy business (or, as I like to call it, anti hustle business!)
I’m a Personal Fulfillment Coach and anti hustle Productivity Strategist who specializes in working with solopreneurs. I started my business back in 2010 as a freelance writer (yep, I’ve been in the online business world for a while!).
The more that I shared about my freelance life on my blog, to my email subscribers, and on social media, the more questions I received about how I was able to be productive while working from home — which is why and how I started to teach other solo entrepreneurs about how to work from home productively (and how to have home-based business owner time freedom) back in 2017.
Remember, this was pre-pandemic! In 2017, the concept of working from home was something many people were intrigued by but had no idea how to do effectively. People told me all the time that they “didn’t have the discipline” to work from home productively, but they loved the idea of being able to do it… so it was beautiful to be able to show them that ANYONE can work from home productively, even if they feel like they “aren’t disciplined enough.” It’s all about strategy and anti hustle methods 😉
A couple years after that, I began moving away from freelancing and started focusing primarily on teaching and coaching about anti-hustle, personality-based productivity for solopreneurs (in other words, I’m a cozy business coach) — as well as doing personal fulfillment coaching for anyone (not just business owners!). That’s what I still do to this day.
What is a cozy entrepreneur? My philosophies regarding cozy entrepreneurship and anti hustle culture
Being a cozy entrepreneur is really about having a lifestyle first business model. In order to do that, you need to build a strong relationship with yourself. You need to know how your brain works, what your personal values are, what you want from life, all of those types of things.
…and once you KNOW those things, then it’s about prioritizing them, and designing a business that fully supports your values, your personal life, your personal goals, your lifestyle, and your personality.
As a cozy business coach, that is also why I specialize in personal fulfillment, starting with what you truly want in life and what truly makes your heart happy. That is the foundation of cozy entrepreneurship! It's about being highly intentional with the actions that you take.
This also goes into another pillar that I teach, which is to make your own rules — not for the sake of being a contrarian, but rather to ensure that everything is customized to you: You are unique. Your goals are unique, your values are unique, how your brain works and your personality, they are all unique. Your business should reflect that!
- Are you using strategies and tactics that feel good for you?
- Are you truly satisfied and fulfilled with every aspect of your life and your business?
- Does it truly light you up?
In the work that I do with clients, I focus on customizing everything for you and your unique situation, and that includes how your brain works, your goals in life, your values, the productivity methods you use, all of those types of things. We start with you and build your business around that.
I don't believe that anyone is an unproductive person. If you feel like you are not productive, then you just might not be using the strategy that's right for you. You might be using some productivity hack that everyone else talks about, but it's not actually the right fit for your unique brain and how your brain works…
Or, maybe the goals that you've chosen aren't really a good fit for where you’re at — or they are the goals that other people want for you, but you don't actually want for yourself.
If you are having productivity issues, we always want to identify the root reasons for it, deal with those root issues, and ensure that we are customizing everything to meet your needs. That's all it really comes down to!
Let me reiterate: If you feel like you are not a productive person, there are typically other things at play. It's not *you* that’s the problem. It's about the strategies that you are using, or the goals that you've chosen, those types of things — and all of those can be adjusted.
Why I became a cozy business owner…
I have had chronic anxiety, chronic insomnia, and chronic nightmare disorder my entire life, so it’s not like I naturally have a ton of energy. My energy resources are pretty low. Being able to manage my energy effectively and learn ways to increase my energy — even when I have insomnia or nightmare disorder or anxiety crops up — has been really important.
Realistically, I can only work about 20 - 25 hours/week to maximize efficiency… But I'm also ambitious! And I really pride myself on producing the highest quality of work for my clients, plus I have a lot of multi passionate interests.
All of this is to say → I want to be able to get a lot done really efficiently, really high quality, in the shortest amount of time possible, so that I still have extra time to be able to prioritize rest or to prioritize my hobbies. I don't want to get stressed out or burned out.
Before I took my business full time (about a decade ago), I was running my business as a side hustle while I was working at a nonprofit job that was very intense. There was a lot going on, and I had to wear a lot of different hats at that company — but I was limited to being able to do it only within 35 hours/week, and I was doing basically multiple jobs on 35 hours/week at that small nonprofit. I had to learn how to be highly productive, highly intentional, and highly strategic with how I was using my time so that I could maximize it.
My spouse also used to work two weeks in a different province, and then he would come home for a week, and that was his schedule year-round. I wanted to make sure that my business was structured to be able to accommodate for that and to take time off when he was taking time off.
I built my entire business so that I could work for two weeks and then take a week off based on his three-week cycle, year-round. And that was wonderful to be able to do that as a cozy business owner, because I have had such incredible results with anti hustle methods and personality based productivity! I would not have been able to successfully do that without having anti hustle methods and embodying cozy entrepreneurship at a very deep level.
How I became a cozy business coach
I was so passionate about anti hustle methods and personality-based productivity — and I got such great results with it for literally YEARS — that I finally began teaching other people how to do it (essentially, how to be a cozy entrepreneur) back in 2019… and I've been doing this work ever since.
It's been really beautiful to be able to show other solo entrepreneurs that you can be multi-passionate, you can be dedicated to your work, and you can be a high achiever WITHOUT sacrificing your personal life or your values.
In addition to teaching solo entrepreneurs about anti hustle productivity, and in addition to the 1:1 personal fulfillment coaching that I do with clients, I am also a romantic comedy novelist. I have written and published eight rom com novels so far, and I'm working on more. I am also a burlesque dancer; I perform on stage doing solo dances as well as group acts every few months or so.
Being a cozy entrepreneur allows me to prioritize those things. I also have a hobby podcast that I do with my sister where we discuss movie franchises. I love movies and TV shows, so being able to write romantic comedy novels, watch a ton of movie and TV shows, and then get into the lore of them and do podcast episodes around them, and also choreograph burlesque dances with putting together whole concepts and then perform them on stage, being able to do all of these things — without dropping the ball in my business — has been pretty incredible.
Find out more about my fun hobbies and how to embrace your own weird niche hobbies in this blog post.
I also live in Kamloops, but I'm originally from Winnipeg. I spend a lot of time going back and forth between Winnipeg or visiting with people and doing some travelling. It's been lovely to still be able to prioritize that and be able to spend time with people there while I'm building my life in a new city.
That’s cozy business ownership in action!
My success and the results I’ve experienced as a cozy entrepreneur…
There are a ton of lifestyle aspects that I just love about being a cozy entrepreneur, as I shared above… and there's also the aspect that I am incredibly personally fulfilled in the work that I am doing with my clients.
Every single day, I get to help people live their best lives and become more personally fulfilled themselves, and save 10 hours a week every single week in their businesses.
It means the world to me that I get to help my clients improve their productivity to whole new levels, based on their personality — and all of that is rooted in being a cozy entrepreneur. All of that is rooted in my own anti hustle methods.
It's because of the way that my business is set up — as a cozy business owner, as someone who not only teaches anti hustle but also embodies it in all aspects of life and business — that I'm able to do all these things and truly enjoy it.
The three pillars that I teach in my signature Productivity Powerhouse e-course are Make Your Heart Happy, Make Your Own Rules, and Make Your Business Fun. I apply that framework and those pillars to absolutely everything I do, personally and professionally.
In my experience of almost 15 years as a business owner, there are always more tweaks that you can make to make your business more aligned to your values, to customize things even further to what's right for you, and to have even more fun with your business and with your life. Cozy entrepreneurship and anti hustle methods are for anyone and everyone — and there’s no “limit” or end point to it. Your business can always be cozier!
Learn more about cozy entrepreneurship, being a soft business owner, and anti hustle productivity
The best place to connect with me is via email: I send the Solopreneur Diary Entries newsletter to your inbox every Saturday, and it features behind the scenes insights and stories about anti hustle methods, personality-based productivity, and cozy entrepreneurship, plus specific, tangible steps that you can take to apply those lessons every single week to your own life and business.
I also have 2 free trainings:
- How to Activate Your Intuition masterclass (perfect for ANYONE who wants to tap into their intuition and experience more personal fulfillment — whether you’re a business owner or not!).
- Advanced Anti Hustle Productivity for Solopreneurs (specifically designed for solo entrepreneurs).
Subscribe to the email list and/or watch the on-demand trainings now:
Lastly, I hang out on Instagram and Twitter fairly often where I share a lot more about these topics! My handle is at @Saganlives on both of those platforms 🙂
I'm really looking forward to connecting with you and chatting about all things personal fulfillment, anti hustle methods, personality-based productivity, and cozy business.
