Last weekend, I spent two full days planting. Twenty planter boxes. A raised garden bed. Six tomato plants, each tucked safely inside their water towers, ready for Colorado’s unpredictable spring weather.
Putting my hands in the dirt is one of my favorite things to do. It soothes my soul, quiets my mind, and connects me to something deeper. By the end of the weekend, my muscles were definitely feeling the work, but there is a particular kind of satisfaction that comes from creating something with your hands and knowing you’re investing in what will come later.
Even in this first week, I can already see signs of fresh growth. Tiny sprouts are emerging. Leaves are beginning to stretch toward the sun. Every day there is something new to notice.
As I stood in the garden this week, I found myself thinking about how much gardening reminds me of business. We plant seeds. We prepare the soil. We water, nurture, and tend to what matters. Then we trust the process.
The garden doesn’t grow because we stand over it demanding results. It grows because the conditions are right. The soil has been prepared. The seeds have been planted. Water, sunlight, and time do their work.
I’ve found business often unfolds the same way. Relationships are nurtured over time. Conversations open unexpected doors. Visibility creates opportunities. One connection leads to another. Then, often when you least expect it, something begins to blossom. A new client arrives. A speaking opportunity appears. A partnership forms. An idea that once lived only in your imagination starts becoming real.
I’ve always loved paying attention to the seasons in both life and business. Winter invites reflection and contemplation. It offers space to listen, evaluate, and reconnect with what matters most. I love the quieter energy of winter because it gives us permission to dream, envision, and build foundations.
Spring feels different. Spring is where ideas begin to emerge from beneath the surface. It’s the season where possibilities start taking shape. What was once simply a vision begins to become tangible.
I’ve been feeling that spring energy strongly in my own business lately. This past week, I spent time shaping the early vision for this year’s Extraordinary Women Ignite Conference. It is one of my favorite creative processes. I love exploring themes, imagining the conversations that need to happen, and beginning to select speakers who will add wisdom, inspiration, and a little magic to the room. It’s like painting a picture to me.
At the same time, I’ve been creating new teachings for my Movement Maker Mastermind. While the projects are different, they draw from the same source of creative energy. Each started as a spark of an idea and has required trust, curiosity, and imagination to bring it to life. They remind me that creativity is one of the most important forces in a thriving business.
Too often, entrepreneurs become consumed by tasks, checklists, and the endless demands of running a business. Yet creativity is what keeps a business alive. Creativity is what allows us to innovate, solve problems, develop new offers, deepen our message, and create meaningful experiences for the people we serve.
When we make space for creativity, we reconnect with possibility. We remember why we started. We open ourselves to ideas and opportunities that cannot emerge when we’re simply moving from one task to the next.
As we move toward summer, I think there is an invitation here for all of us. Summer is the season of harvest. It’s the season when we begin to see the fruits of what we’ve been cultivating. But harvest doesn’t begin in summer. It begins months earlier when we plant the seeds and commit to nurturing them.
If you’d like to invite more spring energy into your business right now, consider sitting with these questions:
- What is bringing me the most joy in my business right now, and what is calling for more attention, energy, and expansion?
- What feels heavy, draining, or out of alignment, and what might be ready to be released, simplified, or reimagined?
- What seeds have I planted through relationships, conversations, visibility, and creative ideas that are beginning to show signs of growth?
- Where am I being invited to trust the process rather than force the outcome?
Before rushing toward the next milestone, take a moment to honor what is already growing. Celebrate the conversations that are opening doors. Acknowledge the relationships that are deepening. Notice the ideas that are beginning to take shape.
Growth is happening, even when it isn’t fully visible yet.
Just as we nurture what is thriving and prune what no longer serves the health of the garden, our businesses flourish when we have the courage to cultivate more of what brings us alive and release what has become too heavy to carry.
As summer approaches and the season of harvest draws near, trust the seeds you’ve planted, continue tending what matters most, and allow yourself to enjoy watching it all unfold.
