Sick of boring businesses? Let's start making business FUN!

I absolutely love bringing fun into my business and into the workplace and also helping clients do the same. Today I want to talk about why some business owners don't do this, the judgment around it, but also the benefits and impact of bringing fun into a business because there are so many.

I want to first share why it's really important to me to bring fun into my business. I think this is a bit of a hangover from the corporate world where fun isn't seen as professional and I spent many many years toeing the corporate ladder, turning up looking professional. I think anyone out there that's worked in the corporate world will completely understand and relate to what I'm saying here, when you show up in the corporate world working for an organization they want you to virtually conform and show up in a way that they think is professional in whatever way that looks like, such as wearing your corporate uniform, your blazer, your tube dress, not being too loud fitting and not causing too much trouble, not looking like you’re having too much of a good time in the workplace, in case you get knocked for not taking your job seriously.

I genuinely think that a lot of people hide the fun side of business at the risk of coming across as unprofessional. For me, it kind of really hit home because I don't take myself too seriously. I take my business super seriously from a successful position and I work incredibly hard and am very focused on it. But I don't take life too seriously and I don't take myself too seriously. The real changing point for me is when I started coaching, I was still in the world of corporate. As part of a programme that I was in, I had to get feedback from our peers, or a line manager, someone that had previously worked with me.

One of the questions that the feedback related to was “what is the best thing about Kirsty that you don't know unless you really get to know it, that she hides from the rest of the world”? The thing that came back was my personality and sense of humor. That hit really hard because I knew I was intentionally not being myself going into the corporate world. I genuinely felt like when I walked through those glass doors, I had professional Kirsty on and the mask did not slip. I was incredibly professional, but those really close to me got to know my personality. Despite that, I felt that it was really sad that the rest of the people that I had made relationships with in the corporate world didn't get to see that side of me but equally the impact of that on me not being myself was much worse.

When I started my business, it was really important for me to be myself, which is quite fun, quite jokey, and someone who doesn't take things too seriously. That behaviour encourages those around you to do the same, to be themselves, and I think it shows that it's okay to be like that, to be professional and still be able to run a successful business. I still show up in my business in a way my clients expect.

I work really hard to give my clients a great experience. Part of that is me being me and I attract people that align with who I am. I just want to be really clear here, I don't mean I go around dressed up as a clown joking around and rolling around. I mean, identifying what's fun to you and bringing a little bit of that into your business.

I was recently inspired by a conversation I had with Louise Shanahan on her podcast, the 15 Minute freelancer, which is an incredible podcast by the way, definitely check it out. We talked about bringing fun into the business and it was only then that I realized how I do this and how much it means to me to do it. Being fun is really personal to different people and what fun looks like for me might not be what fun looks like for you and it might not be what often looks like fun to the next person. It doesn't have to be huge gestures. It's about just sprinkling that fun energy through your business, and intentionally doing it.

What Are The Benefits of Bringing Fun Into Your Business?

Why bring fun into your business? Why not leave that at home? I think a sense of fun helps create a positive mindset and in turn, I think that feeds a higher level of well-being, happiness, and joy. When we operate from that positive mindset, we look at life differently. We see opportunities, we have a very open mind and I think when we show up like that it naturally drives productivity. We have joy and fulfillment every day in our business. I think that is the element of fun that I'm talking about. That happiness, joyfulness, and light-heartedness.

Fun feeds energy, it is infectious and it's nice to be around. Naturally, it attracts the same kind of people. Likewise, you will be attracted to people that you find joyful and nice to be around and who you align with and that will include their personality and their sense of humour. Equally, it will include how they run their business, the things that they do in their business, their little quirks, all the kind of things that makes everything a little bit lighter. The big question I think is why do we not do this more? I think when you're showing up in another way for another organization, you virtually feel like you have no choice and I think there's a lot of judgment if you don't behave the way you are expected to.

What’s the Harm In A Little Fun?

If you seem to be having fun and too much of a good time, the common misconception is that you're not working hard, you're not taking it seriously and you're messing around. I think there's a lot of judgment from the outside around this and its perception. I just want to invite you to think of the impact of building a boring business where we don't incorporate fun into it and we don't bring ourselves to it. The end result is, that we're going to feel unfulfilled. We're not going to have joy and we're not going to feel like we can be ourselves.

What I would really like you to do is think about what fun means to you and how you can bring that into your business. It could be working out, it could be going to the gym it could be going for a walk, or attending an art class. It might be how you decorate the office, the color of pens you write with, or just the little things that make you smile and bring a little bit of brightness and colour to your day.

When it comes to me, I make sure that I bring my personality and sense of humor to conversations when appropriate, it's the people I surround myself with. I think it's being around people whose energy I feed off and in turn, they feed off mine. In the end, we have a very like-minded outlook on life.

There are silly things like the gifts I send my clients. I genuinely don't know if I'll ever outsource this activity. It's a simple activity that most VAs probably do but mine doesn't and it's because I feel that it’s a part of my business that I genuinely enjoy. It brings me joy to sit down and think about what gift I am going to send to a client, thinking about what they will enjoy and how it will make them feel.

Back in March, things got a little bit boring and I put this post out on social media declaring fun for March and whatever that looks like. I invited everybody to get involved and ended up getting invited onto podcasts and webinars. I did a cookery class and there were all kinds of invites for things that I would never have been invited along to had I not written that post.

I ended up having lots of coffee chats and meeting people that I wouldn't ever have reached out to otherwise and it was really really good fun. But that's because that's what fun looks like to me. Fun to me is interacting with people and getting to know more about them about their business. Doing webinars and podcasts and things like that. All that is fun for me because I like adventure and I love spontaneity. I love the unknown.

I try to tune into that energy all the time and over the summer during my summer business camp. Summer is always a really difficult time in business where everyone goes on holiday and slows down which is great, but I still hate the feeling of coming out of summer thinking I'm starting again and I've completely lost track of the goals that I'm working on. Therefore I wanted to create this really fun time and move forward with my business and I created this group of really cool people that came along and it was really, really good. I've had amazing feedback from it and the energy was really high. Everyone was interactive, and everyone moved forward with their business but most importantly, it was just good fun.

Creating things you enjoyed and building them into your product ladder and into the customer journey is really important and I think sometimes we feel like we virtually need permission to do that. We tend to feel like we have to suffer for the art. The guilt of doing something you love and your business is virtually like you have to suffer for that. But the journey has to be fun, right? It's not just about the destination. So, if you're sitting there waiting for permission, permission is granted! I am giving you permission right now to create fun in your business.

Think about what your version of fun is. What do you enjoy doing? It might be meeting for coffee with your friend during the working day, it might be creating that flexibility between your work and life. No one's here to tell you what you have to do. This is your business. This is your gig and you get to decide and give yourself that permission. Give yourself that freedom to create a business that feels good because the consequence of doing so needs to be sustainable for the long term.

You don't want to be stuck in a boring business where you're really serious all the time. Create something that's enjoyable and get other people involved if that's what you want to do.

I hope I've inspired you to sprinkle some of that fun magic into your business. please do reach out and let me know what that looks like for you because you might inspire me to get involved in something else. I’m always open to opportunities for enjoyment and fun!

Come and hang out with me on LinkedIn, please say Hi! I would love to hear from you!