Today’s talking point:

I'm joined by Busy to Boss Academy student Hollie Mcmanus. We chat about her art business, the importance of flexible planning and the benefits she's found in joining a business community.

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Hollie has been self-employed for 11 years, she is an artist creating positive, colourful illustrations inspired by nature and animals. Hollie shares with us how she finds and maintains inspiration, as well as planning her business around her multi-passionate, creative mind.

This is one for you whether you’re a product-based or service-based business, there are lots you will relate to.

What we talked about:

Every Busy to Boss interview starts by talking about why we do what we do. For Hollie, it’s simply because she couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

As a child, Hollie always wanted to be an artist, even if she didn’t know exactly what that meant at the time.

We talk about defining art, finding inspiration in the small places and what makes Hollie entirely unique.

Joining the academy

Hollie joined the Busy to Boss Academy back in 2022 when she was feeling stuck in her business.

“I had and I still have some amazingly freelance clients that I do design work for. But the side of my business where it's like my own designs, it just hadn't gone anywhere. For ages. I hadn't done anything, and just felt really lost.”

Hollie was experiencing slow progress trying to figure it all out by herself and felt alone in her business.

When she discovered the academy she described it as “mindblowing” having someone that could help her.

On the academy, Hollie loves the community element:

“It's just lovely. There's, there's so many product based in there now, which I think is lovely that you've all got things in common”

finding inspiration

The amazing thing about Hollie’s art is her real personal touch and the feature of animals in her work.

Hollie draws what she loves and for her that is animals, which are a huge part of her life. Hollie describes animals as her “safe space”. She started to draw animals as a way of expressing herself.

For Hollie, she finds animals everywhere:

“They appear to me! The amount of wild birds that come into the house. The other week, there was a fox in the kitchen.”

As an artist, Hollie is inspired by nature and all types of animals, but especially birds. She loves how they each have unique, different characters.

If she is out on a walk and finds something that inspires her art, she will note it down quickly or take lots of pictures so she can sketch it. Later this often evolves into something different.

Planning in a creative business

A lot of people in the academy struggle with being multi passionate and sometimes when you have so many ideas as a creative person, it can be difficult to plan.

Since joining the academy, Hollie has become a much stronger planner:

“It's made such a difference. I actually plan now. I'm not the best. I'm not the perfect planner. And it doesn't always stick to the plan. Figuring out and just checking in with yourself as well, that's really powerful at what you have the space to achieve”

For Hollie, she has turned to bullet journalling to plan as she loves that you can be creative and messy with it because it’s just for you. It’s a great reminder that plans don’t need to be perfect.

Celebrating the wins

A big win for Hollie is that she has dedicated time to work on her business and has “brought it back to life”, making her feel far more in control.

Her biggest win though has to be her confidence, which she says has grown massively in business and in herself.

speaking to your past self

If Hollie could speak to her past self at the time she joined the academy:

“You're doing the right thing. And you've got everything you need to make this a success. You just need the Academy to help you find it. I think it was for me, I was I've never questioning whether to join. I just was like, Yeah, I definitely need that. So it's definitely the right decision”

Make sure you follow Hollie and her journey on Instagram.