Building Your Business the Right-Brain Way

Have you ever felt torn between your creativity and the practical demands of running a business? In Building Your Business the Right-Brain Way, author Jennifer Lee—a business coach and creator of The Right-Brain Business Plan—offers a colorful, intuitive, and empowering roadmap for creative entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses without sacrificing their authenticity, joy, or sanity. She argues that sustainable success doesn’t require abandoning your creative instincts—it comes from blending right-brain passion and intuition with left-brain systems and structure.

Lee contends that your business is a creative work of art, constantly evolving through experimentation, play, and reflection. But to sustain that creativity—and earn consistent income—you must also tend your operations, build supportive systems, and structure your efforts so you can continue doing what you love. Through metaphors like the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (a flower that symbolizes the life and growth of your business), Smooth Sailing Systems, and Moola-Making Maps, she teaches you to nurture every aspect of your venture—from creative vision to financial health—in a way that feels authentic, not forced.

Creativity Meets Practicality: The Right-Brain Philosophy

At its core, this book is about bringing ease, intuition, and imagination into the often intimidating world of business. Rather than following a rigid, linear plan (the typical left-brain route), creative entrepreneurs are encouraged to work cyclically—experimenting, learning, and refining as they go. Lee reminds readers that business growth is more like painting an evolving canvas than printing out a final image. It’s messy, surprising, and guided by curiosity. Yet she balances this with firm advice about foundational left-brain essentials like operations, team-building, and financial tracking—those necessary tools that give creative freedom a stable base.

The overall message is that intuition and structure must dance together. As Lee explains, “Your left brain loves details; your right brain loves discovery. Bring them both to the table.” The book shows that when you align your creative process with repeatable systems—such as creating templates, documenting procedures, and batching tasks—you free up energy for innovation and play.

The Journey from Vision to Sustainability

Lee organizes the entrepreneurial journey into four parts. Part I lays the groundwork: you envision your ideal business as a living, growing ecosystem rooted in your core message and values. Part II helps you define your tribe—your “right peeps”—and learn how to connect with them authentically through communication and empathy. Part III turns passion into profit, guiding you to craft meaningful offers, launch them into the world, and make more money through multiple income streams. Finally, Part IV focuses on sustainability: hiring help, creating efficient systems, and embracing ease to ensure your business doesn’t burn you out.

Why This Approach Matters

For creative entrepreneurs—artists, coaches, designers, healers, makers—the traditional business playbook often feels alienating. Lee’s approach validates their creative process while giving them concrete tools to thrive. By turning spreadsheets into colorful “play sheets,” checklists into creative prompts, and marketing into heart-centered conversation, she makes entrepreneurship feel like a natural extension of artistic expression.

The book also acknowledges the emotional side of running a business: the stress, perfectionism, and self-doubt that can accompany creative work. Through “Right-Brain Boosters” and “Left-Brain Chill Pills,” Lee offers mindset shifts to help artists and visionaries stay grounded and inspired. Her ultimate goal is to help you transform chaos into clarity—so your creative work doesn’t just survive, it blooms.

By the end of this book, you understand that building your business isn’t about trying to fit into corporate molds—it’s about designing a unique ecosystem where your creativity, community, and cash flow can coexist. Whether you’re launching your first offer, hiring your first assistant, or simply seeking harmony between your art and your income, Lee’s “right-brain way” teaches that sustainability grows not from hustle, but from intention and heart-centered strategy.

Jennifer Lee begins by asking you to redefine what business means. Instead of rigid spreadsheets and corporate jargon, think of your enterprise as a creative masterpiece in progress. Just like an artist approaches a blank canvas, a creative entrepreneur builds something from intuition, color, and imagination. Your business, she says, is living art—a fluid process rather than a fixed destination.

The Nonlinear Creative Process

Lee argues that creative business growth is inherently nonlinear. You don’t move from point A to B in straight, predictable steps. Instead, success happens through experimentation, feedback, and refinement—a process much like painting layer upon layer until the final image emerges. She compares it to “intuitive painting,” where you start without a clear plan, following your instincts instead of blueprints.

For example, she shares her own journey: sitting at her kitchen table in 2007, she used markers and collage to create her first colorful “Right-Brain Business Plan.” That spontaneous act of creativity later evolved into books, programs, and a global community. The point? Progress often begins with play, not perfection.

Sustainable Success and Self-Definition

A key theme in this chapter is sustainable success—building a business that lasts without exhausting your energy or authenticity. Lee urges you to reject cookie-cutter success definitions. Instead, ask, “What does success look and feel like to me?” For some, it’s financial stability; for others, it’s creative freedom or social impact. This personal vision becomes your compass for decision-making.

She also introduces playful tools like the “Sustainable Success Survey,” inviting you to assess the balance between passion and pragmatism in your work. Lee argues that sustainable business owners are like resilient ecosystems: they adapt, cycle through growth and rest, and evolve with intention rather than burnout.

Principles for the Right-Brain Entrepreneur

• Be uniquely you: Avoid cookie-cutter systems. Customize your business so it reflects your creative fingerprint.
• Dream big but start small: Use broad strokes—what Lee calls Mr. Sketch style—to focus on what matters rather than obsessing over minutiae.
• Take action and tweak as you go: Progress comes from real-world feedback, not endless planning.
• Repeat what works: Once you find clarity or success, replicate it until it no longer serves.

This vision of entrepreneurship reframes your creative path as a holistic process of art-making. Running a business becomes less about control and more about composition. As Lee puts it—“Make it your own, make it beautiful, and make it sustainable.”

Imagine your business as a garden. To thrive, it needs sunlight, water, roots, and pollinators. In what she calls the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem model, Lee encourages you to draw your business as a flower—an exercise that turns abstract analysis into visual art. Each part of the flower symbolizes a vital aspect of your business, helping you see growth and imbalance at a glance.

The Flower Framework

• The Core: Your core message—what you stand for—is the nectar that attracts “honeybees,” your ideal clients.
• The Petals: These represent your inspired actions—the daily, strategic tasks that move you toward your big vision.
• The Stem: Your moola goal (total desired income), which must be supported by realistic offers—the “leaves” on the stem.
• The Leaves: Your products and services—each one tied to revenue and values.
• The Roots: Your core values that keep the business grounded in integrity.
• The Sun and Watering Can: These represent support networks and emotional sustainability—your mentors, friends, and community who nourish growth.

Balancing Growth and Health

Lee uses this metaphor to show that a flourishing business is holistic. For instance, consulting designer Mary Maru realized she’d been focusing on small projects that drained her without covering her financial goals. Once she visualized her flower, she saw she needed to nurture larger client relationships instead of spreading her energy thin.

Artists, solopreneurs, and coaches can use this tool to reflect: Do your daily petals align with your income stem? Is your soil—the knowledge and confidence that support you—rich enough? Are you getting enough sunshine—mentorship and accountability—from others? This drawing becomes an ever-changing snapshot of your entrepreneurial health, one that blends intuition with analysis beautifully.

As Lee writes, your business, like any ecosystem, will experience seasons of growth, pruning, and renewal. Tending to it with both artistry and awareness ensures it continues to bloom year after year.

Your business doesn’t exist in isolation—it thrives through relationships. In Lee’s words, your “right peeps” are not just customers but kindred spirits drawn to your message and energy. The goal isn’t to chase everyone; it’s to attract and engage your tribe through sincerity, service, and shared values.

From Connection to Community

Lee outlines a natural progression: connection → community → customer. Each step builds trust. She advises against hard selling or spamming people’s inboxes. Instead, build relationships by showing genuine curiosity, generosity, and consistency. For example, life coach Kerri Richardson grew her client base by simply showing up authentically—swearing, joking, and being spiritual at once. Her honesty resonated with people tired of polished guru personas.

Creating Meaningful Communication

Lee suggests writing newsletters as if chatting with your favorite client over a cup of tea. Don’t blast messages—start conversations. Her term “love letters” reframes marketing from selling to serving. Each message should educate, inspire, or delight. She also walks readers through setting up mailing lists, sharing story-driven content, and offering free gifts (“taste tests”) to attract subscribers.

Supporting examples show this in action: artist Nicole Piar (known as Ghostkitten) designed whimsical digital freebies to thank subscribers, while Ho’omalamalama Brown built community partnerships with nonprofits by tuning into their needs, not pushing products. The right-brain approach to marketing views connection as collaboration—every relationship helps your garden pollinate and grow.

Ultimately, the secret to finding your people isn’t algorithms; it’s authenticity. Speak from your core message, listen deeply, and nurture trust over time. Like bees to blooming flowers, your perfect customers will find you because you radiate what they’re seeking.

Turning creativity into profit begins with packaging your work as a gift. Lee reframes selling as sharing your gifts with love. She argues that artists and solopreneurs shouldn’t dread sales—they should see them as opportunities to help others through meaningful value. Selling then becomes serving.

The Anatomy of a Compelling Offer

An effective offer, says Lee, has several essential parts: your passion and purpose, your perfect customer, the benefits and features, price, and “left-brain details” like payment and delivery. Each offer is “a beautifully wrapped present” designed for someone specific. When crafting, ask what problem you’re solving or what joy you’re bringing. If you were giving a gift to a friend, you’d think of what she truly needs—not just what you want to sell.

A real-world example is parenting coach Sheila Pai, whose “Coaching Circles” offer uses empathy-driven messaging. Her love letter begins, “Parenting is hard, hard, HARD work”—a compassionate opening that acknowledges her audience’s pain before presenting her program as relief. Each detail reflects care and alignment between message and market.

Creating Information Products

For service-based entrepreneurs, Lee suggests building information products—courses, e-books, or kits—that multiply income without more hours. She shares her process of prototyping, from her Unfolding Your Life Vision kit to intuitive e-books like Playtime with Your Inner Muse. Each started as a handmade prototype before scaling into digital products. The lesson: don’t wait for perfection; test small, refine, and expand.

By documenting each process, you can transform your creative know-how into “moola-making methods.” These replicated offers form the backbone of sustainable income and leave space for innovative new ideas.

Lee’s message: when you shift from thinking “I’m selling something” to “I’m helping someone,” your creativity becomes commerce with soul. Every offer, like every brushstroke, tells your story.

Launching a product or service often intimidates creatives, but Lee turns it into an act of celebration. A launch, she says, isn’t about hype or manipulation—it’s about intentionally sharing your art with the world. The process follows the same intuitive pattern of creation: awareness, engagement, and reflection.

Phases of a Launch

• Tease and build awareness: Offer “behind-the-scenes” glimpses or early insights to engage curiosity.
• Invite participation: Share the official offer with clarity and enthusiasm. Use love letters, visuals, or live events.
• Follow up and nurture: Continue conversation, answer questions, and remind your community before the close date.

She illustrates this with examples from her own programs and those of her students. Designer Caitlin Colling mapped out her launch visually on a wall calendar; coach Tiffany Han embraced Lee’s “launch, then create” philosophy to overcome procrastination—selling her course before it was finished, which pushed her to deliver and learn.

Planning around Seasons and Energy

Right-brain entrepreneurs are cyclical beings; launches, too, should align with natural rhythms. Lee uses color-coded calendars to visualize “moola-making seasons,” balancing busy launch months with quiet creation time. She urges you to plan no more than one major launch per quarter to avoid burnout.

When you treat launching as an artistic, seasonal ritual rather than a frenzied marketing event, it becomes energizing. Each release not only earns revenue but reaffirms your purpose—offering gifts of value while practicing joyful self-expression.

Money, Lee reminds creatives, is not a dirty word—it’s energy, exchange, and empowerment. In the chapter “Making More Moola,” she breaks down financial success into manageable, meaningful components. You don’t need to chase seven figures overnight; you need clarity about what earns money with ease.

Three Paths to More Moola

• Get more customers: Reach new audiences through strategic exposure—guest interviews, collaborations, or events.
• Increase average sale: Raise prices confidently when demand or quality increases. Offer VIP options.
• Encourage repeat purchases: Serve current customers repeatedly with upgrades, loyalty discounts, and complementary products.

Leveraging Multiple Income Streams

She introduces the Multiple Moola-Making Methods Map—a visual of income tiers ranging from hands-on (e.g., one-to-one sessions) to leveraged (group work) to passive (digital products). The higher you climb, the more scalable and sustainable your earnings become. For example, yoga studio owner Sharon Tessandori expanded from teaching classes to hosting retreats and online courses, creating layers of recurring revenue without extra burnout.

Lee also stresses knowing your numbers. Tracking cash flow through simple tools like QuickBooks or GoDaddy Bookkeeping transforms anxiety into empowerment. She quotes fellow entrepreneur Elle Roberts, who faced a $50,000 budget for a conference by posting sticky notes of the number everywhere until it felt normal. That reframing turned fear into focus and led to a successful event.

Ultimately, making money the right-brain way is about alignment—earning through joy, service, and smart systems rather than through relentless hustle.

Even creative superheroes need a team. Lee encourages entrepreneurs to move beyond the “solo act” mentality and build In Good Company—a supportive network of helpers, specialists, and collaborators. Whether it’s outsourcing finances or partnering with peers, support magnifies your impact.

Knowing What to Outsource

Lee invites you to identify tasks that drain your energy versus those that spark joy or profit. Handle the work that plays to your strengths—delegate the rest. She shares her own evolution: first hiring an accountant to clean up QuickBooks, then a virtual assistant for tech and emails, and later creative partners for design and facilitation. Each hire freed her to focus on vision and coaching.

Collaboration and Creativity

Beyond employees, collaboration fuels innovation. Examples include Tiffany Han’s “Love Letters Project,” a collective of artists delivering monthly art and coaching experiences, and Brighid O’Shaughnessy’s nonprofit theater collective tackling mental health awareness. These stories demonstrate that when you form partnerships grounded in trust and shared purpose, your creative vision expands exponentially.

Lee’s takeaway: building a team isn’t a luxury—it’s an act of leadership that allows your art, and your energy, to scale sustainably.

In the chapter “Smooth Sailing Systems,” Lee addresses the side of entrepreneurship creatives often avoid—operations and organization. Her message: systems don’t stifle creativity; they protect and amplify it. When your tools, workflows, and roles are clear, daily tasks run like ocean currents—steady, predictable, and freeing.

Documenting Your Flow

Start by writing “honey-do” lists for yourself and your team—step-by-step outlines of repeatable tasks, from processing payments to posting newsletters. These templates save time, prevent errors, and make delegation smoother. Mari Pfeiffer, a web designer spotlighted in the book, uses mind maps to document client processes visually, showing that systemization itself can be an art form.

Choosing the Right Tools

Lee warns against “tool temptation”—spending endless hours searching for the perfect app. Start simple: a Google Doc, shared calendar, or spreadsheet often suffices early on. As you grow, integrate larger systems only when necessary. The key is clarity, not complexity.

Reflecting and Iterating

Regular review keeps systems alive. Lee schedules quarterly team check-ins using visual sticky-note planning sessions to assess what’s working and what needs a tweak. She stresses that reflection is a creative act—one that ensures operations evolve with your artistry.

Ultimately, a well-documented, right-brain-friendly system is less about control and more about liberation. It’s what allows spontaneous inspiration to flow without chaos—true smooth sailing toward growth and freedom.

In her final chapter, Lee shifts from strategy to serenity. Embracing ease is both a mindset and a business practice. She argues that creative success cannot exist without self-care, simplicity, and space. Burnout, she warns, is the artist’s silent business killer.

Simplicity and Spaciousness

Start by asking: “What’s the easiest thing to do?” Complexity isn’t a prerequisite for success. Lee shares how choosing to create a short, illustrated e-book instead of a massive kit helped her reignite momentum—and that small win birthed her larger business. She encourages entrepreneurs to prune commitments and create “white space” on their calendars for rest and creative breathing room.

The Power of Self-Care

Lee’s concept of “Self-Care Fridays” reminds you to invest time for renewal. Every creative needs personal rituals: meditation, walks, naps, or massages. In one playful exercise, she invites readers to craft a “Self-Care Catalog” or jar filled with simple pleasures to draw from when depleted. As right-brain organizer Beth DeZiel notes, valuing yourself is the ultimate productivity hack.

Grace, Reflection, and Joy

Lee concludes by showing that ease isn’t idleness—it’s clarity. With systems, support, and inner calm, your creativity expands sustainably. Her reflection exercises and “Left-Brain Checklists” encourage periodic pauses to celebrate progress and course-correct gently.

By embracing ease, you stop surviving your business and start thriving within it. As Lee writes, “Taking care of yourself is taking care of your business.” In that gentle equation lies the true artistry of sustainable entrepreneurship.