My friend and fellow Lady Launcher, Cami Walker, was visiting from L.A. this weekend and recently asked me to lead a Right-Brain Business Plan workshop so she could make one for her new creative venture. We gathered seven other participants for a fun afternoon of visioning and planning. I wrote a bit about the workshop here.
I originally planned to launch this workshop in the fall. What I love, though, about having creative cohorts is that they are there to help spur things along! If I were just plodding along by myself, I would’ve sat on this idea for a few more months. I might have worked on the concept here and there and eventually set a date later this year.
But with a simple nudge and within just a few weeks, I’ve gained tons of momentum. By putting myself out there (perhaps earlier that I had originally planned), I now have new insights on how to improve the workshop and also confirmation of some other ideas I was tossing around. This weekend was a great reminder that creating is an iterative process. A process that starts with putting something out there! It sure helps to have a friendly catalyst nearby who can help propel you forward.
Today I celebrate year two of living my passions full-time! On June 23, 2006, I left Gap corporate headquarters and haven’t looked back since. I was talking with someone today about how so much shifted for me when I stopped living my dreams on the side and gave myself permission to dive fully into entrepreneurship.
Last year around this time, I threw myself a One-Year of Freedom Party. My guests and I wrote down what we wanted our life to look like in one year. I dug up the cards this weekend. It was cool to reflect on my vision and acknowledge what has already manifested and what’s in the works. A few highlights include… launching a product (my Right-Brain Business Plan e-Book), becoming a Quest Circle Coach for CTI (not quite a front of the room leader, but closer on the path!), developing my first art visioning kit and enjoying life.
What do you want your life to look like one year from now? What would shift for you if you focused full-time on your passions? What milestones will you celebrate?
Last weekend I was in Toronto as a Circle Coach for Quest, The Coaches Training Institute’s latest leadership program. In three days, it’s amazing to see the transformations that occur and the quests that participants have embarked on!
The concept of a quest is rooted in Joseph Campbell’s model The Hero’s Journey. In his research of ancient myths, Campbell articulated the shared path of ordinary people being called forth to do extraordinary things. Below is a great video that uses one of my favorite movies, The Matrix, to illustrate the steps of the hero’s journey.
Quests can be as grand as saving the planet or as close-to-home as creating shared community in your neighborhood. What’s most important is that the quest comes from your essence and that it’s making a positive impact on others. In your life you’ve probably had and will have many quests. Don’t get trapped into feeling like you must search for the one perfect quest that defines your life purpose.
A key to living “on quest” is to stay engaged and in action around your quest (even when you’re up against challenges, rejection and doubt). One of my quests is to create an Expressive Arts Coaching community. So, earlier this year Jamie and I submitted a proposal to present our perspectives on this emerging field. We were disappointed that we didn’t get selected AND it didn’t stop me from submitting another proposal for a new opportunity to speak next month. Living “on quest” means staying in it, course correcting, asking for help and celebrating your steps along the way.
One of the things that helps me stay “on quest” is to connect with other questers. I get energized witnessing others making a positive impact and showing up so fully in their essence. One of those inspiring questers is Doug Somers who is spearheading The Hero’s Journey Project, a collaborative initiative to create musical accompaniment for the hero’s journey. Take a listen! These magical songs will no doubt move you in your quest! And this week I heard from another amazing quester who just signed a book deal to write about creative women entrepreneurs. Exciting stuff is happening!! I can’t wait to see how the Toronto questers’ quests unfold!
What quest(s) are you being called to do? What will keep you living “on quest?”
One of my business goals for this year is to increase my media exposure, which I find exciting and scary! So, when someone from eWomen Network recently contacted me to see if I was interested in being on the eWomen Network Radio Show, I said “Yes!” with sweaty palms and a racing heart. In my interview with Sandra Yancey, Founder and CEO of eWomen Network, I talk about my art visioning approach and share a couple of tips to bring more creativity into your life right now.
The show aired this past Sunday, but for the next couple of weeks you can listen to a recording online. Every week, Sandra showcases several women entrepreneurs and their businesses. It’s one of the great benefits of being an eWomen Network member.
Next month, I head back to Dallas for my second eWomen Network conference. This time, I’m participating in their publishing track to help give me a kick in the pants around the book I’m working on.
Anyway, if you get a chance to listen to the interview, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
While I’m out here in Toronto (or just outside of Toronto to be more accurate), I just HAD to meet my friend and kindred creative spirit Jamie. What a treat to finally meet this amazing woman in person!!! Jamie is such a wise, intuitive soul who dances vibrantly with life. That’s us above finishing up our dinner. (I’m hoping she got a better picture!)
Jamie and I “met” early last year through an online coaching community for creative artists. One of my paintings was posted on the home page and Jamie reached out in her magical way to connect. From there we started to exchange e-mails back and forth, each time finding more things we have in common and are passionate about. Since then, we’ve been supporting each other in building our businesses, living creative lives and making a positive impact in the world. We’ve even started to collaborate together on ways to be pioneers in the emerging field of Expressive Arts Coaching.
I love that we both do things even if they scare us (see collaboration point above for just one example). I love knowing that I can drop her a line when I’m frustrated or stuck because I know she’ll understand AND she’ll call me forth. I love knowing I can always look to her for inspiration and insight. I love knowing that we’re there to celebrate successes with each other. I love that all of this grew out of a simple, spontaneous e-mail hello.
Who are you wanting to meet? What magic might unfold by simply saying hello to someone you don’t know? What new connection can you create today?
I’m thrilled to announce the launch of my new Right-Brain Business Plan e-Book and guided visualization! This is one of my creative projects that has been in the works for a bit, so it feels great to get it out here (you can bet some beads went into the bowl!). I hope you’ll be inspired to create your own Right-Brain Business Plan after listening to the meditation and reading the book.
One of my cool take-aways from this project is the power of collaboration. I partnered with my friend and talented designer, illustrator and artist, Kate Prentiss, to develop this product. Instead of going it alone and feeling stuck or frustrated, I had a creative cohort to bounce ideas off of, to help keep me accountable, and, best of all, to have fun with. Our collaboration made the process that much more fulfilling and exciting and it helped to move things along a lot faster than if I had worked in isolation.
What creative partnerships do you lean into in your work? What have you been able to co-create together? I’d love to hear!
And, here’s a bit more detail about what’s included in the Right-Brain Business Plan e-Book:
9-page illustrated, colored and hand-written e-book
10-minute guided visualization to get you in touch with the big vision of your business
a link to a simple, “right-brain” template for getting started on the “left-brain” numbers
Price: $19.95
Buy yours today!
P.S. - I’m off to Toronto for the weekend to help facilitate a circle at QUEST! I look forward to sharing my experience with you!
The fabulous Mindy has created the deliciously delightful and inspiring wishstudio blogzine. I’m thrilled to be a part of the community as a regular contributor with my monthly Musepreneur column. In it I’ll be exploring the heart and soul of business and sharing right-brain ideas, tips and resources for creative entrepreneurs. Check out my introductory article and find out if you’re a musepreneur! I’d also love to hear what you’d be interested in seeing or learning about, so please let me know.
Come join your creative cohorts! In addition to our talented hostess Mindy, there are so many amazing women on the wishstudio blogzine including my friend Jamie of Starshyne Productions (who I get to meet in person later on this week in Toronto!!) and Kimberly Wilson of Hip Tranquil Chick.
A few months ago, the amazingly talent artist Jessie had blogged about her Buddha Bowl. Rather than getting crazed by a long to-do list, Jessie used her bowl as a sacred container for intentions. In yet another stroke of synchronicity, it was just around that same time that I started to use a bowl for a similar ritual.
I had been feeling totally overwhelmed with the many creative ideas swimming around in my head and feeling really frustrated that none of them where as far along as I had wanted them to be. My coach Marcy reminded me that, indeed, I have been making progress little by little and I would benefit from having a way to honor my incremental steps. She suggested the simple structure of a bowl and beautiful beads.
So, after I do anything for any of my projects, I place a bead into the bowl. Do a bit of writing, place a bead into the bowl. Get feedback from friends on my ideas, place a bead into the bowl. Research different raw materials, place a bead into the bowl. The repetition can be meditative. And it’s way more aesthetically pleasing than tracking the status of tasks in a complicated project plan! With my fresh start this past week, I’ve found myself placing a few more beads into the bowl (it had been awhile), so that acknowledgment of moving forward again felt fantastic.
If you’re like me, your mind probably quickly jumps to the next thing before you’ve even recognized what you just accomplished. This bowl and bead ritual is an easy way to celebrate each step along your path and to remind yourself that every little action makes a difference. Before you know it your bowl will runneth over!
What small steps will you acknowledge today? What’s a simple and beautiful way you can honor your progress?
At the end of April I took a short trip to London to visit with four of my dear friends from my leadership tribe. It had been about three and a half years since we were all together, so we were thrilled to have a mini-reunion.
The four bellas - a radiantly pregnant Tina, Lisa, me and Fiona - were happy to be together. We have been connecting off and on on the phone over the past several years and it’s always like a breath of fresh air when we’re all together. Fiona, being the fabulous idea generator that she is came up with a “development day” concept where each of us got time to share what was going on in our lives and get support, coaching, insights and feedback. Pretty awesome considering we’re all trained coaches who care deeply about each other!
Beks‘ son Callum and Fiona’s son Pierre meet for the first time. Too cute!
A gorgeous view from Richmond Park where we spent a warm, sunny afternoon with the boys.
All five of us together before heading out to dinner at a delicious Turkish restaurant.
We dined on yummy sweet potato and ginger soup in the lovely Petersham Nurseries greenhouse. Just heavenly!
A view of the Thames from the Petersham Hotel where we enjoyed high tea complete with finger sandwiches sans crusts and scones with clotted cream. A table near us had a group of gray-haired well-dressed women and we joked that that would be us forty years from now at one of our future reunions! I love to think of us continuing to make time to connect like that. These women are such an important part of my life and we have seen each other through lots of growth and transition. I am so glad I said yes to this spontaneous trip to spend time with dear friends.
I’ve been so behind with posting about my 29-day giving challenge. There’s been lots of stuff going on - mostly good and some bad/frustrating. I noticed that after getting in my car accident on lucky number Day 13 (see below), I was feeling a little stuck with the giving. I think that I’m in a better place now and I believe being committed to keep on giving even in the smallest of ways that has helped me move on.
Here’s a recap of the past week:
Day 13: Gave emotional support to a woman I got in a fender bender with in the city. I got rear ended and she was sandwiched between me and the third car that hit her. No one was injured, so that was good. Her car was totaled, though, and she was very distraught. We’ve exchanged a few e-mails since then and she was very grateful for the concern and help I provided her. We’ve since found out the the driver who caused the accident (and the car’s owner are both not insured, so it’s been a bit frustrating dealing with the extra hassle). I’ve had to also practice not going into blame mode and instead to try to forgive and show compassion. This “crash course” in giving has definitely been one of the more powerful gives so far!
Day 14: Gave resources/book recommendations to a wedding photographer friend of Brian’s who just moved to the area.
Day 15: A client from the city came over for an in-person Right-Brain Business Plan session and since she doesn’t own a car, I picked her up and took her back to the BART station.
Day 16: Brian’s neck was bothering him so I heated up my neck wrap and lent it to him.
Day 17: Walked with Sonja, Sandy and the crew of dogs. She thanked me for the cookies from last week and said she very much enjoyed them.
Day 18: Invited my friend Anne to join me as a guest at our Oakland Ladies Who Launch member meeting and drove her to and from.
Day 19: Called my cousin Karen to wish her happy birthday, had a wonderful conversation with my friend Katie and brainstormed ideas for a possible business concept she has (very exciting!) and donated several bags of stuff to Goodwill.
Day 20: Wrote thank you cards to Laura for lending her Creative Action Center space for our Ladies Who Launch meeting and to Reese for being our fantastic guest speaker on Thursday.
Day 21: Spent half the day with the SF Coaches Board visioning what we want our organization to be this year and beyond. Was fun to dream up big ideas for the impact we want to make on the profession and in the world at large! I also brought my iPod and some speakers so we could have some lively and inspiring music on our breaks. That’s us below!
