Today's the Day - Launch!

You are officially invited to the launch of the new online home of Jamie Ridler Studios.

I hope you'll come over and play!

Circe's Circle - starting January 13

A couple of times a year I lead Circe's Circle, a telecircle that helps Creative Bloggers move towards their dreams. Participants bring a creative project they want to breathe life into and with the support of the group and myself, they begin to make it happen. It's truly amazing the magic that stirs when a group of people get together to support each other in making their dreams come true.

With a new group starting in January, I thought I'd share the answers to some of the questions I've received about participating in the group.

Questions about Circe's Circle

Do I have to be in Toronto?

• You can participate from anywhere in the world. Circe's Circle happens on a telephone conference line. We're just a phone call away from one another. (By the way, this is true of personal coaching too, only you call me direct)

Can you really bond with each other over the phone?

• Absolutely. It's amazing the intimacy and sacred space that can be created by connecting with each other at a regular time each week and sharing.
• The group is also limited to 6 participants so that everyone gets a chance to share and there is enough time to get to know one another.

What kinds of creative projects do people bring to Circe's Circle?

• A creative project can be anything that you want to bring to life in this world. Maybe you're ready to start your novel or your business or your first blog. Maybe you want to start painting or a performance piece or home renovations. Maybe you want to commit to a 12-week focus on your creativity or self-care or loving your body or clearing your clutter. There is flexibility around the nature of the project. The key is that it's something you want to move forward on over the 12 weeks of working together.
• If you have a project idea but are not sure if it's appropriate, the answer is yes, it is.
• If you're still not sure, please, email me to discuss the project.

What if I know I want to do something but I don't know what it is?

• "Discover my creative project" can be what you bring to the group. With great questions and lots of encouragement, the weekly sessions can help you find your focus.

What if I change my mind about what I want to accomplish?

• Great! Things became clearer, and that's amazing. At any point in the 12-week process, you can start where you are and move forward.

What can I expect during a call?

• Each week, we will take time to create the space. Everyone will have a chance to share how they're doing, what they've accomplished on their project and what challenges have shown up. There will be time to ask for help, to receive encouragement and suggestions if you want them. You will set yourself tasks for the following week that feel good and that will move you forward.
• Depending on the size of the group, we may spend time each week exploring topics that have come up during the calls. In the past these topics have included such things as confidence, money, and self-care.
• We will also have a private blog to share any thoughts or developments that occur during the week.

It is my joy and honour to lead Circe's Circle. Creative bloggers are such generous, loving, interesting people with big dreams and big hearts. When we come together, there is no end to the magic that we can create. Here's what one participant said about Circe's Circle:

• "I began Circe’s Circle just as I was starting to take the first steps in realizing my dream of becoming a full-time artist. Circe’s Circle has been a tremendous jumpstart in turning my artistic dreams into a reality." Jessie (For Jessie's full comment, click here)

I just know the right group of magical people are going to come together in January and change each other's lives. I look forward to sharing the circle with you.

To sign up or to ask more questions, please don't hesitate to email me or to leave a comment.

For more details, including schedule and rates, please visit my website.

An Interview with me at The Creative Career

I'm so excited to share with you my recent interview with Allie Osmar at the Creative Career. Allie invited me to share any advice I might have for people transitioning from student life to their creative career, and I couldn't wait to dive in. You know how I get about encouraging people to pursue their dreams!

I hope you'll come by and listen to the interview here and that the tips on dreaming big and connecting with others help you on your journey too!

business, creativity & synchronicity - part 2

Last Wednesday I wrote about business, creativity and synchronicity. I shared that I was going to explore an exercise by Laura Howard West in which you decide on 3 feelings/emotions that you'd most like to experience while you develop your project/business/month. Then start collecting synchronicities, taking note when these qualities show up for you.

I promised to share my results and here they are:

(Note: I broke the rules and chose 5. Next time I'll stick with 3. I think it would allow greater awareness and experience of each. It's just, seriously, look at this list - I love it all!)

Sacredness

• Visiting with Sacred Suzie, we experienced something very special at the Beach. I'll leave it to her to share, if she'd like.
• Syncronicities have been showing up like crazy, in particular bringing the lovely Tara and I together. Two different people from entirely different worlds who had know idea that we knew each other suggested that Tara and I connect!
• I attended an event at a location that I had been considering doing some work out of but just didn't feel a connection to. When I left, I found a yellow dot sticker on my pants. In the context of workshop the yellow dot had symbolized "Caution." Now I know that space isn't right for me.
• There is a growing energy around the book blogging group for Soul Coaching that feels powerful and sacred. I can't wait to start.

Prosperity

• I met my financial target for this month.
• I was witness to many people effortlessly receiving new business.
• A new client signed up with me while I was sleeping.
• Having the "most talked about article" on Biznik last week for my article about networking.
• A friend sharing and celebrating with me that my article had been featured before I even knew it!
• Laura Howard West generously sharing my blog post with her readers.

Creativity

• Suzie and I spent time with inks, paint, collage, magazines and altered books
• We visited a scrapbooking store and I saw some books that really inspired me.
• Sharing Nia this week I was struck by the way it makes room for people to express themselves.
• I continue to love and be inspired by creating a collage card daily. Recently I have started turning these into thank you cards.
• Working on my website architecture with Suzie, we discovered some categories to my work that made my heart sing.

Beauty

• The wonder and beauty of fall is fully upon us. I've taken a million pictures of gorgeous leaves that have fallen on a variety of surfaces
• I saw a chandelier that knocked my socks off
• I was aware of the beauty in people's rough edges
• Spending time collaging, I noticed how much beauty I find in the glossy pages of magazines
• Doing some clean up and moving around in the garden, I was reminded of the beauty of each and every plant that now grows there.
• I experienced the beauty of family.

Confidence

• A lot of the above has given me confidence. Positive responses to my article, sensing the flow of energy, the building of momentum, and reaching my financial targets all give me confidence that I'm heading in the right direction. Being aware of synchronicities gives me confidence that the Universe and I are in conversation and I'm able to hear her call.
• I was invited to be a leader for an upcoming online community. (More about that when it's official)
• I recognized a different side of confidence. I unexpectedly had to go have some dental work done this week and I noticed that my confidence in my dentist made it easier for me to cope.

This was truly a beautiful exercise and I encourage you to give it a try. Go out this week and look for magic or joy or abundance or grace or fun or vitality or adventure and see what you discover. If you do (and I know some of you said last week that you were going to), I'd love to hear about it.

business, creativity & synchronicity

This may come as a bit of a shock, but building a business is a creative act.

I grew up thinking "business" meant serious, corporate, life-numbing overwork. It meant MBAs, resumes, suits and cubicles. Blech. But now I'm running my own business I see that it can be... well, it can be whatever I can envision it to be. And it can be a lot of fun.

What's the creative part? So much of it, really. What's your business about? What's its name, its personality, its colours? Imagine where you'll be in 10 years. Imagine your ideal client. Create a webpage, a business card, a logo, an article. Get an idea and ask yourself 'How?' You play, you plan and then you take a risk and see what happens You start with nothing and based on your own vision and efforts something comes to life - creativity!

There's a real movement towards authenticity and fulfillment in all aspects of our lives, including work and business. Tara Joyce has written about the new phenomenon of the innerpreneur, someone who has "realized their purpose/life work and has started a business to pursue it." Jenn has created the Right-Brain Business Plan. People like Molly Gordon talk about authentically developing and promoting your work. New models of how to do business are showing up everywhere.

I'm currently working through The Joyful Business Guide by Laura Howard West. I'm going to share with you an exercise I'm doing this week that you might find fun and interesting too. It doesn't just apply to business. You can do this for any project or for time period.

Exercise:

Decide on 3 feelings/emotions that you'd most like to experience while you develop your project/business/month. Then start collecting synchronicities, taking note of anything that crosses your path that reflects these "infusion qualities" as Laura calls them.

Of course, I had to break the rules and come up with 5. These are the 5 energies that I would like to experience as I develop my business:

1. Sacredness
2. Creativity
3. Beauty
4. Confidence
5. Prosperity

My childhood "MBA" view of business sure didn't involve sacredness. But my Jamie Ridler Studios vision of business sure does!

I'll be collecting signs of these and share them with you next week. If you decide to try this too, let me know. I'd love to hear what you experience.

Speaking about Blogging at IIDEX

This past week, I had the great pleasure of speaking about blogging with Romana Mirza at IIDEX/NeoCon, "Canada's largest exposition and conference for the design, construction and management of the built environment."

Presenting "Blogging in Design Cyberspace" was a great opportunity to share our experience in areas that both Romana and I feel passionately about - blogging, passion and authenticity. It was really fun to participate. We received great feedback and are looking forward to sharing this presentation in other venues.

The conference was in the beautiful Direct Energy Centre.

As well as speaking, it was a joy to walk around and experience forward-thinking design and great beauty. One of the things I loved was attention to detail, like in this display by Erth Coverings. When you walk in this direction, you are met with this gorgeous cool colour palette.

And in the other direction...

Fabulous! And for some reason, I was absolutely entranced by space dividers. With beautiful examples like the ones below, how could you not be? (The first one is so Jamie Ridler Studios. This helped me envision what my space will be like when that day comes)

And there was also a materials display by Material Connexion that blew me away. Not only were there 52 samples of amazing new materials but you could touch them all! This was my favourite:

It was awesome to see that there was also a space for design students to participate. While we were there, there were many students building and planning. It was exciting to watch their process.

Everywhere you turned, there was something interesting to look at. I thoroughly enjoyed this poster contest geared towards saving Toronto's architectural heritage, something which I would truly love to see.

And there was a really cool display called Unbuilt Toronto which highlighted plans that had been created through the years that never saw fruition. This photo is of a series of models that were proposed for Toronto's City Hall in the '50s.

IIDEX NeoCon was an amazing, energizing, inspiring experience. I hope for many more opportunities to share in environments like this!

Nia's 25th Anniversary

Nia has been a great gift in my life. I still remember the moment I first encountered Nia. Along with some other coaches I had rented a booth at the Yoga Show. Someone came to tell me that they thought I would like the demo that was going on and should check it out. I snuck a peak and instantly felt tears spring to my eyes. I knew this was for me. I was in class the next week and in my White Belt training the next month.

This summer marks the 1-year anniversary of my beginning to teach Nia. I was inspired to teach one day while volunteering at a Nia demo. While the demonstration was going on, I was handing out flyers. I watched as women stopped in their tracks and were mesmerized. The yearning in the room was palpable. I watched as a woman in a wheelchair started to dance along with the entire upper part of her body, grinning ear to ear. I knew that there had to be more opportunities for people to experience this, and I began teaching right away.

There are many words to describe Nia: joy, pleasure, health, movement, magic... I hope that the video will help you imagine what it would be like to be in a Nia class. When I watch this particular video from India, I recognize my own experience in class. This feels like home to me.

• If you're in Canada, you can find a class near you by visiting NIAC.
• For all other locations (and Canada too), you can go to Nia HQ. They also have great resources ranging from a terrific newsletter to monthly teleclasses.
• If you don't have a class near you, Nia now has a DVD workout called Unplugged.

Thank you, Nia, Debbie & Carlos for sharing 25 years of pleasure and joy with the world.

What I've learned about networking

It may sound odd coming from someone who loves people, but I am rather shy. Networking just throws me for a loop. That's why it's a surprise to share with you that one of the highlights of last week was attending Romana Mirza and Studio Pinpoint's networking party to celebrate the accomplishments of women. Romana's unique approach made this a welcoming and friendly event.

I had a wonderful time and realized that over the past year, I have actually come up with an approach to networking that feels joyful and authentic to me. If you want to expand your circle, try these out.

1. Don't network. Meet interesting, wonderful people (or whatever adjectives you prefer)

About a year ago I decided that I simply wasn't going to network but that I wanted to meet interesting, wonderful people. If I came across someone online, in a class (anywhere really) and they seemed interesting to me, I'd reach out and send them an email or invite them for coffee. That decision has changed my life. I have met so many beautiful, good, fabulous people that I adore, people that have expanded my life and my heart in so many ways.

2. Some people are your tribe. Others are not. And that's perfectly okay.

At the party, I immediately hit it off with some people. We talked easily. We were sincerely curious about each other. Awesome. And then sometimes I'd meet someone and rather quickly we'd both notice, "Oh, we're not each other's people." In fact, I met one group of women that looked at me rather like I was an alien, none of us quite knowing what to say next. And guess what? It was absolutely fine. For the first time in my life I didn't hold a judgment about myself or about them. I didn't rethink what I was wearing or replay in my mind what I had said. I didn't think, "Snobs!" about them. I just noticed, "Wow, we don't relate to each other. Fascinating!" and moved on. How liberating!

3. I bring my welcome mat wherever I go.

This last revelation came to me just as I was arriving at the party. One of the things I notice about my shyness is that it mostly disappears when I am welcoming someone into my space. If it's my Nia class or my house or my project, I confidently invite people in. When I'm entering someone else's space, I'm far more tentative.

And then it hit me. Every time I encounter someone I have an opportunity to set a boundary or to put out the welcome mat. It doesn't matter where I actually am; I am always carrying around my own space. And so at the party if I made eye contact or saw someone looking a bit tentative, I reached out my hand, shared a big smile and simply said, "Hi, I'm Jamie" (subtext, "You're welcome here).

Who are you going to welcome into your life?

Hon. Elinor Caplan, Romana Mirza and Me.
It was fun to share with the esteemed Elinor Caplan that years ago, while she was campaigning, she shook my hand at a bus stop.

Flowing with the Go

A little while ago, I wrote about how I can obsess about solving problems and coming up with solutions and that instead I decided to let go and let the Universe offer some guidance. Well, did she ever. I thoroughly believe that we are consistently getting messages from the Universe. We just have to find our own way of listening.

One of the things I had been struggling with was what to focus on in terms of my business right now. As a woman with more ideas than I know what to do with, I was looking for some guiding light to set priorities by, something that both stirred my soul and would clearly serve and speak to my clients and my tribe.

So, I went to the bookstore to look for some magazines for my June Dreamboard. I wandered around looking at all sorts of different magazines, and there it was on the cover of Psychology Today: "Dare to Be Yourself," living an authentic life. Aha, eureka and all that jazz. In that moment I was reminded of how I always say the only reason we're here is to be ourselves. I realized that the people who are doing professional and personal work that I admire are all about authenticity. Heck, I have a picture by my desk that literally says, "Dare to be yourself"!

Clearly, this wasn't discovering something new. It was seeing something that was so core to my self, my work and my purpose that I wasn't actually conscious of it. Thank you, Universe, for the eye-opener!

In addition to this powerful aha, since I decided to stop pushing and decided to be more open to what was around me, a world of opportunity has opened up. I've had a new client show up out of the blue, made new and interesting connections and had several offers to collaborate on really exciting projects. There was lots of go to flow with!

And beneath it all, the personal call to me, the one that whispers gently and confidently in my ear, "Dare," is the clear and undeniable fact that I am deeply connected to the Universe and the work I do is soul work. Woo-woo or not, that's me, that's my worldview, and that's the way I'm living my life when I am the most joyful, the most powerful and the most myself.

Where to?

I can be a bit obsessive. When my mind hooks into a particular question or problem, I will work it like there's no tomorrow. I'll read books, search the web, take classes, make lists, journal, collage, ask questions, talk about it with friends and family. I'll ask for help, for inspiration, for information and for insight. And generally, I'll make myself and everyone around me rather tired.

And so, right now, I'm opening up to a different approach. I'm sitting with the question and letting the Universe know I'd really like some guidance on the matter, and I'm waiting and watching. I'm turning the intensity dial down a notch, taking a deep breath and turning up my receivers.

The question on my mind has been "what's next?" specifically in terms of my business. I've got a million ideas and as many hopes and dreams and have felt powerfully lately that a stronger sense of focus would allow what I do to shine more brightly in the world and make a meaningful connection with people that I can really help.

Here are some of the messages I've collected over the past week (I knew they were messages because of the zing of energy that coursed through my body when I encountered them):

• "Creativity is one of the easiest ways to hear the messages of our soul" Denise Linn
• "Perhaps within each of us there is a daring spirit that whispers to be heard" Sue Bender
• We all know how easy it is to be anesthetized to our surroundings and our own feelings and intuitions." Shaun McNiff.
• The moment of possibility - "Maybe I could..."
• Magic (from Sunny)
• For 4 years, I didn't see a single robin in our neighbourhood. Now there's one that frequents our backyard.

I'm feeling more and more that the main focus of my work is helping people awaken and connect to their true spirit. So often we feel locked in, numbed out, squished down. We're too busy to hear our soul's whispers or maybe we've forgotten how. Funny, that I've had to slow down and ease up myself in order to realize how central this is to my own work. I'm confident that in this receptive place, my spirit and the Universe will continue to speak to me and guide me in my discovery of what's next.

Recent Ahas

So much has been going on lately. My business is growing, and so am I. Every day it becomes clearer how much building a business is a creative act. Perhaps you start with an inspiration or something that grabs your attention and you follow the energy. Before you know it, you're building something, spontaneously responding to challenges and insights. Maybe you start developing a vision, a dream of where you'd like this venture to take you. Before you know it, the work is both an expression of you and takes on a life of its own.

Last night I attended a monthly meeting of a group I'm in that supports each other in moving forward towards our dreams. Generally we set our vision for the month and also for each week and our accountability helps move us forward. I really encourage you to get together a group of friends or colleagues and create a structure that supports you all. If you want more information about how we've structured our group, just email me and I'd be happy to share. If you'd like a more formal structure or to connect to other creative bloggers, consider signing up for my June Circe's Circle. There was huge growth, learning and connection for the last group, and I know there would be for you too.

One of the great things about a group like this is that it creates a space and time to acknowledg all that you've achieved and also to lock in the learning and growing that you've done. This month has been full of ahas for me, so I thought I would share them in case they would be helpful on your journey too.

Jamie's Recent Ahas

• As I've come to know that what I do has deep value for my right client, I do not take it personally at all when someone isn't interested. I simply know they aren't my right client.


• I so deeply love working with my right client that I don't have space in my practice for people that aren't a good fit. I hope they find the absolute right coach or Nia teacher or tarot reader for them and I make way for the people whom my skills are truly meant to serve.


• When I dress like my best me, it amps up my confidence and supports me in rocking it out.


• I love rocking it out.


• A lot of business goals like defining what you do or writing promotional material are much easier for me when they have a purpose as opposed to being an exercise. I recently updated my profiles on LinkedIn and BizNik and was suddenly motivated to write well about what I do.


• How you represent yourself and your company will evolve and take time to perfect. Unfortunately they don't grow as strong or as quickly in the privacy of your own office/basement/journal as they do when you put them out there.


• Sometimes you only have to have a general idea of what you want. The Universe can fill in the details (maybe even better than you could have on your own!)


• If you absolutely loved a particular craft fair, a particular client, a particular way something was presented, ask yourself what it is about it that you loved - and voila, you've learned something about what's important to you. Through this process I realized my ideal clients are smart, creative and stuck.


• You can tweak an opportunity to suit you.


• My new money mantra: As I invest my money in my life, even more money flows back to me.

Shaken and Stirred

On Friday night Shannon and I went to an Expressive Arts event in honour of Stephen Levine, the founder of ISIS. In going I hoped to connect with Paolo Knill, the provost of the European Graduate School about their program in Expressive Arts Coaching and Consulting. I'm really curious about the distinctions between the therapy program and the coaching program, and I wanted to ask about that.

I want to celebrate that I found the courage to walk up and introduce myself to Professor Knill. That was a real accomplishment for me because I am shy when it comes to those situations. So yay!

And I'm still sorting out what happened next. As we were chatting about the program, he asked me about my experience and suddenly said, "You should go into our doctoral program." He then explained that the doctoral candidates are taught exclusively by the founders of expressive arts therapy, that after one year I'd be qualified to teach MAs and that this would be professionally one of the highest credentials available in my field. He whisked me off to Stephen Levine to make sure we connected and that he knew who I was. Stephen was also incredible encouraging and shared his contact information saying he'd be more than willing to answer any questions and chat with me.

I'm still in a daze. A doctorate in expressive arts therapy? I walked away from my doctoral studies and here they are again, raising multiple heads like the hydra - one enticing, one terrifying, one intriguing, one distracting. I have no idea whatsoever whether I will persue this. But the entire evening helped me to expand my vision of my future and myself. Here are some of the things I learned:

• I was absolutely thrilled to be welcomed and encouraged
• The experience made me think bigger about what I'm capable of
• I started to imagine my work with a more international scope
• I envisioned myself travelling
• It reminded me that I would like to do work around non-violence
• It reminded me to keep art in my life on a regular basis

And in watching Stephen being celebrated as he comes up to his 70th birthday, I had a vision of how I would like to celebrate mine. He was in the studio of the school he and his wife founded, surrounded by people who have been touched by his work. There was a sharing of ideas and art and everyone created something together. I hope one day to celebrate my birthday surrounded by my tribe and sharing our talents and our loves. That's one vision for the future I'm holding onto.

Reconnecting

I've been a bit absent lately. Since Bascha's passing, my energy has been a bit low and my schedule has been really demanding. I'm slowly but surely starting to plug back in to the things that are important to me and that includes blogging.

I'm being very motivated by a book called The Power of Full Engagement. It's about focusing on managing your energy instead of your time. It focuses on 4 different aspects of your life: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. Interestingly, the authors define spiritual as living in line with your values.

I've recently been doing a fair amount of values work. I've written about values before. Getting clear on your values can provide a powerful guidance system for creating a life you love. I've seen the impact for my clients, in Circe's Circle and also personally. By values, I literally mean the things that you value in life, the things that are important to you.

In The Power of Full Engagement, they suggest turning your values into virtues by getting into action on them. They suggest that for every value, you start looking at what you can actually do to honour them. I've started this process and was amazed at how certain actions honoured many of my values and had lots of bang for the buck. For example, a self-care activity like going to the spa honours my values of life, love, beauty and pleasure. That's a whole lot of value! Cleaning actually honours my values of home and of beauty. In some ways it can also honour my value of love, celebration and magic.

I've got a lot more work to do but thought I'd share the start I've made in looking at actions I can take towards honouring my #1 value. I start off with some general ideas but am working on getting more and more specific.

I can honour my value of LIFE (enjoying it, living the sacredness of it, connecting to it, being sensitive to its rhythms) by:

• self-care
• healthcare
• fitness
• cultivating self-awareness
• honouring my relationship with the Universe
• experiencing life
• respecting and valuing others
• eating nourishing food
• getting enough sleep
• expressing gratitude
• getting outside
• celebrating the turns of the season and holidays
• celebrating birthdays
• not wasting energy on things that don't matter
• recycling
• gardening
• following the energy
• taking care of my cat, Jinx
• participating in activities that bring me joy
• photographing life
• chatting with the Universe
• throwing parties
• dancing

What are your values and how might you honour them?

Why do we yearn for our art to be wanted?

I'm doing a lot of thinking this week - inspired by the naturopath, my upcoming Studio performance for Expressive Arts Therapy and my mentor, Sunny.


This week, Sunny encouraged me to consider expanding my thinking about something I'm developing into a piece that involved creating for others. At first I couldn't understand why she was suggesting it. Why would someone want that? And then this little creative spirit inside of me starting dancing and clapping and saying, "Really? Oh, yes, please. I'd love to do that for someone." And in that instant some block and lots of hurts seem to dissolve away.


As I travel the blogosphere it's clear how many people are aching for someone to see their work, their art, their creations and say, "That's magnificent. You are a such an artist. Could I buy that from you? I would so love to have that."


In my heart I think that some of it is the very human longing to be seen. Our creations are so intimately connected with ourselves that when they are witnessed and loved, we feel witnessed and loved.


What do you think motivates this yearning? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Create a Connection Interview

This is Shannon, Jana and me.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting the friendly & feisty Jana at the Creative Bazaar in Hyannis. Not only was it a treat to get to know her, but she invited me to participate in Interview Tuesday at Create a Connection. The interview is up. I hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed chatting with Jana.

You can read the interview here.

Interviews with me!

As some of you know, I was a doctoral candidate in theatre at the University of Toronto and decided to leave academia in pursuit of work that would truly make me happy. It was quite a journey and recently I was able to share my tale with the wonderful, the magnificent Sabine Hikel. She has a series of podcasts called Leaving Academia and she interviewed my about my decision and what followed. It was a really great experience on so many levels. Sabine's questions led me to finding new insights into this time of my life. Sabine and I had such a great time that our friendship was inevitable. And now that the podcast is published I've already received feedback that it will be useful to students who are facing similar challenges. I sincerely hope that it does.

You can listen to the Leaving Academia interview here.

Also, the lovely Jana has asked me to be an interviewee for Create a Connection next week! We'll be discussing Expressive Arts Therapy, so be sure to check it out!

The Lessons that Show Up

You'll go a lot further if you show up and make mistakes

than you will if you try to get things right before you start.

Molly Gordon

Ah. Yes. Anyone else out there need to hear that? I sure did.

Recently I had a huge a-ha thanks to my wonderful mentor, Sunny. We were chatting and I was sharing how comfortable I am with the preparation stage, you know, being a perpetual student. I'm a lifelong learner. I'm always ready to read more, research more, take another class. And sometimes I've been stuck there. Sound familiar? (I know I'm not alone here)

But in talking to Sunny, I realized that I am also very comfortable with the doing stage. I love coaching my clients, sharing Nia, being in a studio, leading a group. I love it. I feel 100% at home there. Once I'm there, in the moment, I love it.

So what's the part I'm not so fond of? That bridge from learning to doing. You know, that rickety, scary bridge that goes over that never-ending precipice? Ever been there? Hate it!

But what has changed is that now I know that the bridge is just that - a link between 2 places I love (learning and doing). And in this rickety, scary place I will make mistakes and say the wrong thing and, yes, sometimes suck, and I will do that in front of others (bleh). But I won't be there forever and with each step I will get closer to that wonderful doing, sharing place. Knowing that makes all the difference.

Today Molly Gordon's wonderful quote above showed up for me as a reminder to venture out onto that bridge. Or maybe to turn it into something more appealing. When I was in coaching training the tag name that my colleagues gave me, the one they chose in order to encourage me to become all that I am, was Trapeze Artist. I think it's time to fly.

A note about Molly Gordon

Over the past year I have done a lot of reading and research about starting a business, finding your niche, defining your target market, etc. And I found myself deeply resistant to much of what I read. I am suspicious of anything that says, "This is the way it must be done." Recently I signed up for a practice-building mentorship program. I lasted a month. It just wasn't a good fit for my independent, rebellious nature. Molly Gordon, whom I quote above, is the first person to talk about things like marketing in a language that I can relate to, perhaps the clue is in what she calls her approach - authentic promotion.

Ahhh.... thank you.

I know a lot of you reading are independent, creative women who want to make a positive contribution to the world. And I know first hand that it's a challenge to find your own way, make your own mark and feel like it's possible to be a success on your own terms - not by fitting your beautiful round-peg self into a painful square hole. I hope we can share lots of success stories about how we've done it and that we can encourage others to do the same.

Making It Work

Recently I've been intensely focused on my work. By that I mean what I want to contribute in this world. And I'm starting to understand that at its heart, that's what your work is. It's your contribution. It's you sharing your gifts and abilities with others. Imagine that. It's sharing. Suddenly, it's delicious.

One of my very favourite things about being my own boss is that I get to make it up. Yep, I get to create a business just like I would create anything else in my life: a party, dinner, a show. And that's a good thing because all sorts of standard business ideas just rankle me!

For example, I recently shifted my perspective on the concept of "networking." It always seemed so phony to me. Even the name seemed like a disguise for what was really "sales." And I'm not a fan of sales either. But here's the rub: how am I going to be a successful entrepreneur if I hate sales and networking?

I've replaced them with connecting and sharing.

Suddenly, yummy! This change has injected so much energy and joy into my work. Instead of strategizing about the best networking possibility (bleh), I just focus on connecting. I don't call up people that I think are good prospects in my target market. In fact, I'm not really focusing on getting clients at all. What I'm doing is creating an opportunity for discovery, magic and joy by being open to and inviting connection with others, with people that I know and love, with people that interest me, with people whose company I enjoy, with people that challenge me, people that inspire me. It's joyous and alive and full of mystery, and I love it.

And the other piece is being willing to share my gifts. This is a real shift from sales thinking. For me, sales has meant convincing someone to buy something. As a coach, I have no interest in convincing someone to work with me. If someone doesn't truly want to be coached or doesn't feel a great sense of connection with me as a coach, it doesn't make sense to work together. It is a recipe for failure. And it's for sure not going to be any fun.

But if someone's desperately wanting to be heard and aching to be who they are in the world and feeling the call to stretch out into something they really hope is possible and they want support while they take that step, I am all over that! I will show up with passionate commitment and bring every skill and tool I've got and learn new ones because nothing is more important to me than people feeling in love with themselves and their lives. I don't want to sell to someone that's not interested. And I don't want to be invisible to those people out there looking for support. I want to shine that light and say, "Over here! If you're looking for support and encouragement just come over here."

And those are 2 of the ways that I'm creating my work. How are you creating yours? I'd love to be learn from you.

Note: A part of my work is supporting people's wishes.

Wednesday is Wishcasting day, so come on over and make a wish: www.wishcasting.blogspot.com.