Yes, I’m breaking my long silence to bring you a near random absurdity:  The Squid of Second Guessing.

How’d we end up here? What’s it all mean?

What is it, exactly, that the Squid is second-guessing?

And what are you supposed to do with this?

Good questions.

I’m wondering that myself.

Unfortunately, I have to dash off for a memorial service today, followed by a 91st birthday dinner, so I’m a bit too flustered and see-saw-ish to make sense of it all.

But know what I’d love to come back to, tomorrow? A bunch of squidish speculations in the comment section! In fact, if you’d like to answer those questions yourself, name the squid, or make up your own mini Tales of the Squid, that’d be awesome!

Or you can download the squid, print it out, and color/paint/bead/sequin it to your heart’s content.  And I’d love love love it if you’d link to that in the comments, too! Squid of Second Guessing: The Printable Version

But whatever you decide to do, or not do?

No second guesses allowed!

Squidly said so.

UPDATE: Some folks reported problems downloading the larger image, so here it is again:
Squid of Second Guessing: The Printable Version

(and Squidly still says so!)

Related posts:

1. Nicole’s Launch Party Is Over, But The Book Is Still Rockin! (Swag, Prizes & More Swag!)
2. Nicole’s Launch Party Is Over, But The Book Is Still Rockin! (Swag, Prizes & More Swag!)

UPDATE! The party is over (boo!) but there’s good news, too — we’ve still got until March 9th to get in on the pre-order incentives (yay!) including a chance at original art from yours truly! (whoo-hoo!!) So go order the book, let Nicole know, and get yer swag!

Fluffy is still missing, but the show must go on… Nicole Fende is hosting a real & virtual cocktail party TONIGHT! And Nicole knows how to party almost as well as Emmit does

( I think they used to hang out at some of the same bars in college, but shh… she’s a finance wiz professional, and he’s a… well… you know. Maybe we should just move on. )

Wanna skip Tori’s ramblings and just go to the party?
Ok.  Go to The Finance Rock Star Launch Party.

Here’s the rest of the deets:

If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard the buzz from your fellow Quirkipreneurs, Nicole Fende (The Numbers Whisperer™) has just written, completed, proofed, printed and is about to officially launch her new book, How To Be A Finance Rockstar – the small business owner’s guide to multi-platinum profits.  And to tell you just how big this is? The brilliant Carol Roth wrote the intro. This is a big deal. Got the picture?

Now, I know, some of you are muttering to yourselves “I hate finance, and I’m hiring a bookkeeper. I don’t need this…”

Think again!! Because this book was written for YOU.

I’ve seen a draft of the content, and not only will it make sense to both right & left brained people (and those who are too quirky to be categorized) but it’s about a lot more than what you may think of as “finance.”

This book is about making your business a real business, and helping you turn a profit all without having to put on a suit and tie.  You can do this while wearing your artist’s smock, clown hat or pajamas.  A lot of the things I’ve been trying to explain to people in consults? It’s in this book, and expressed much more clearly than I’ve managed to do.  Quite seriously? It’s going on the top of my list of recommended reading for both new and experienced Quirkipreneurs.

You can still pre-order the book and get some nifty incentives for another few days.  Also, if you pre-order the book and win the giveaway? She’ll provide an hour of free coaching instead! Whoo Hoo!

So, go do the order thing now, ok?  Then come back and read about the party.

Ok, got it all ordered? Great. Don’t forget to send your receipt to Nicole for the pre-order incentives.  Now, read on!

What’s happening tonight, Feb 23rd?

It’s a cocktail party! It’s both a real live cocktail party (for the lucky few who live close enough!) and a virtual cocktail party (for the rest of us poor slobs), and the Really Truly Official™ book launch celebration, with prizes and awesome networking opportunities and even a mini-workshop on those mysterious QR code thingamabobs.

And did I mention prizes? Yeah… swag! And lots of it. Here’s the party as planned (times are given in Central US time, so please adjust for where you are).

Schedule of Events

• 4:30 to 5:30 – Networking
• 5:30 to 6:00 – Learn how QR Codes can grow your bottom line
• 6:00 to 6:30 – Discover the secret to unlocking your business’ profit potential
• 6:30 to 7:00 – I’ll answer your questions live!
• 7:00 to 7:30 – Drawings held and contest winners announced

So drop in for any or all of the party…  and if you know Nicole (and her infectious laugh) you also know it’ll be a lot more fun than that schedule may sound like.   Besides, I think Emmit may turn up.  But we’ll have to keep him away from the bar.

Ready to go? Here’s the link: http://viewer.dacast.com/broadcaster/6492/finance-rock-star-launch-party.

I’ll try to embed the party itself both here and in the beta community, but no promises – my blog has a habit of eating embeds. Let’s see if it’s working:

Now, I’m sure I’ve forgotten some crucial detail, but if I don’t get this posted you’ll never have time to get gussied up for the party. So I’m hitting the publish button, and will see you there!

P.S. Did I mention you could win stuff? SWAG, baby, SWAG!

Related posts:

1. Oh NOEZ!! Fluffy The Finance Feline Is Still Missing!
2. Emmit’s Play and Plan: A Party For Quirkipreneurs & Their Business Plans
3. How To get Heard, Even During Holiday Launch Overload

One of our favorite Quirkipreneurs, Nicole Fende, is ready to start her rockstar-big book launch tour, but her mascot and chief roadie, Fluffy, has gone missing!! (Oh NOEZ!)

Despite the rumors swirling around Twitter, Emmit swears he did not lure the number-crunching kitty away with promises of catnip, nor are the Circus elephants  hiding him in their trunks. (I double-checked, just in case.)

But luckily for Nicole, some of our helper mice are currently on vacation, and guess who just photo-bombed one of their tourist snapshots?  FLUFFY HIMSELF! Just LOOK what that cat’s been up to:

What’s he going to be spotted doing next, planking with a pizza?
Sheesh. Silly cat!

The only problem is, well… my mice aren’t the best record keepers, and they can’t remember where that photo was taken.  So if you recognize it, would you please turn in a report? Not only will you be helping out our friend Nicole, but there are prizes to be had, people! PRIZES!! (And who among my readers doesn’t want & need her book on small business profits? Trust me. You want it!)

Here are the official deets, plus some hints:

Don’t miss your chance to win a copy of Nicole Fende’s new book How to be a Finance Rock Star! All you have to do is help Nicole find Fluffy the Finance Feline, who is currently MIA, gallivanting around the globe.  Check out the hints below and submit your answer for Fluffy’ s current whereabouts before today’s midnight deadline -

Hint #1:
Located in Italy

Hint #2:
Closed to the public in 1990 due to fears that busloads
of tourists would collapse this leaning structure

Go to http://financerockstar.com/ to submit your guess on Fluffy’ s location in this picture for a chance to win a copy of How to be a Finance Rock Star and a VIP Pass to the virtual book launch cocktail party on February 23rd . To be eligible, your entries for this #FluffySighting must be submitted no later than midnight February 21st Central Standard Time.

No Purchase Required. Void Where Prohibited. Read Official Rules Here.

Just in case you haven’t figured it out… here’s a non-leaning
copy of the photo. HINT, HINT.

Got it? Good! Now go report that #FluffySighting, and help spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, Google, Pinterest… anywhere else you think Fluffy might turn up!  Nicole thanks you. I thank you.  Fluffy will thank you, too, once he’s back home safe and sound.

Once you’ve made your report, you might want to read the backstory of Fluffy’s disappearing act because it’s pretty amusing.  Also? Feel free to post your suspicions about Emmit’s involvement in all of this.  He’s still not above suspicion –  he is a creepy clown, after all.

Emmit Sez:

—-> Report Your Fluffy Sighting Here! <—

Related posts:

1. Nicole’s Launch Party Is Over, But The Book Is Still Rockin! (Swag, Prizes & More Swag!)

But you’ve got no clue how to make this work for your business.

Don’t worry!
I’m here to inspire you.
Or maybe confuse you.

But either way,  I’m here!
And I have a plan! Granted, it’s a mostly untested plan, because like almost everyone else I’m pretty new to Pinterest. But I have ideas, IDEAS I say!

Step one in the plan?

DON’T approach Pinterest as a “marketing tool”. Forget about the traffic you’ve been promised from Pinterest, and start a personal account. Use it as a tool for inspiration, for both work and personal projects. Use it for relationship building. Use it for research. Use it as the creative porn visual crack eye-candy curation tool it was meant to be.

Browse the site, and re-pin anything that appeals to you. Fiddle around with your own original boards, with silly names. Follow people who have intriguing boards. Poke around  Comment on other people’s pins… and I mean stranger’s boards, not just people you already know and feel safe with!.  You can “Like” pins that you, well, like, but don’t feel like repinning yourself, or create a “misc. hodgepodge that I don’t know what else to do with” board.

As you wander on the web, create your own original pins. Smile absurdly when people repin things from your board (It’s human. No matter how “different” we like to think we are, we also like knowing that other people share our taste)

Please Click To Embiggen

Don’t worry about being “on brand”, for now.

This exploration? It’s about you. As long as your pins aren’t potentially offensive to your customer base (do be careful with sex, expletives, religion and politics) you’ll be fine.  So go for it!  Pin those Dr.Who plushies, that recipe for death-by-chocolate, that $5000 headboard you’d never buy but are in lust over.  Pin the book you’re reading, the movie you just watched, the video that made you laugh, snort.

Browse other people’s boards… browse them a LOT.  Get to know their sense of taste and style.  Notice if they’re pinning for themselves, or a brand. Notice if your taste is in line with theirs.

Spend at least a week doing this – preferably a month. You’ll get a good sense of how people actually use the service, what is acceptable in that culture, what gets attention, and what doesn’t.

And if you really need to know how this helps your business, right now? Here you go:

The Immediate Benefits:

As you network with peers (and potential customers) in your niche, (and outside of it) you’ll start to see where your taste and interest overlaps, and where it diverges.  That’s potentially important marketing info – info that can either be analyzed, or just intuitively incorporated into your product development and marketing plan.

By pinning and repinning items, you’ll naturally build boards that tell an intuitive story about who you are, and what you do, how you do it, and what you’re interested in.  Other people will be able to visually read that story, and instinctively know how well they are likely to relate to you, and therefore, to your offerings.

Your Pinterest boards let people window shop through your eyes… getting a glimpse of how you see things, what interests you, what attracts you. Window shopping is a time-honored bonding exercise, (especially with women) and sharing this part of your world may just help your online contacts and customers feel a little closer to you.

Pinning recipes, parenting tips and DIY home & garden projects? Again, these are popular and natural bonding exercises. The same goes for pinning book, music, and movie collections.  Pinterest allows those social activities to happen online, in what seems (to me at least) a more natural way than many other social-sharing sites.

Yes, there are lots of sites out there devoted to social sharing of books, movies, recipes, crafts, etc… but Pinterest lets you share ALL of them, without immersing yourself in domestic-girly-goddess land.  Your boards present a more balanced presentation of who you are, and that helps your customers and clients to relate to you better.  A pin may become a topic of discussion for you and a potential customer.  They may feel like they can give back to you, by repinning or liking your products, or by sharing pins that you might like.

And now, the “Without Being A Dweeb” part.

Whenever a site starts getting attention from the Internet Marketing & Social Media Guru crowd, the Dweeb Factor comes into play.

You know the type…. the folks who only promote their own stuff, without adding any benefit to the community, the ones that treat social media like their personal free billboards. Then there are the ones who sign up and immediately stir the pot with controversy, by being intentionally aggravating and inappropriate.

I had some examples queued up for you: a woman who was pinning nothing but her company logo over and over again. A man who was pinning nothing but lingerie shots of hot women.  I can’t find either account, now – so either they’ve been blocked by Pinterest, or have just moved so far down on the visibility list that they might as well have been blocked.

That’s the thing about Pinterest…  mindless spamming or pot stirring just won’t work. No one will follow those boards, no one will pin or repin their stuff, no one will click through to their site. The worst those folks can do is

Another more insidious dweeb-tactic?
Resetting the URL to lead to an unrelated site, usually a product catalog or link farm. I haven’t heard of any malicious sites being linked this way, and it would take a lot of work to get significant traffic off of an account created for that purpose, but that, too, could happen.

Some members are putting their own affiliate links directly into Pinterest – like from Amazon, for instance.  That’s not directly prohibited by Pinterest (yet)  but I suspect it will be, especially since the business model is designed to insert the companies own affiliate links where applicable.  And although not as annoying as the other dweeb-pinning-behaviors, it’s a pretty icky exploitation of the site, and likely to get you in trouble, when the terms of service *do* change.

Summary:

• Before you dive in and start using Pinterest for promotion of your brand or business? Learn to use it on a personal level.
• Before you decide to use Pinterest in a new and different way, learn how it’s meant to be used, how people are already using it.
• Pin stuff. Repin stuff.  Follow new people.  Be yourself.  Reveal your odd hobbies and interests. Play. Have fun. Connect to people you know, and people you don’t know. Network.

Soon? I’m going to be starting a brand new shiny Pinterest account, a Quirkipreneurs one that I can use for research, and as a product directory of sorts, as well as a promotional tool.  By the time I’ve got it set you, you should be nice and familiar with Pinterest, and then we’ll discuss the whole branding and traffic thing.

Ok?

Cool.

Now excuse me as I wander back to my hermit cave.

I have silence to ponder, and stuff to pin!

P.S.  What’s the most inventive use of Pinterest you’ve seen, so far? What’s the most offensive, outrageous, or spammy behavior you’ve seen there?

Related posts:

1. My Part In The Great Pinterest Pile-On

Over the past a week or two, every Social Media guru, tech site and small business blog exploded with articles about using visual bookmarking site Pinterest to drive web traffic, each of them screaming “If your brand isn’t on Pinterest, you’re leaving money on the table, Baby! ”

And though I haven’t seen any stats, I’m pretty sure that there were more blog posts written about Pinterest than there are actual Pinterest users. Seriously. I can make up the statistics if you’d like…

Ok, fine. Since you asked:

(click to embiggen)

So,  if I think all of this blogging about yet-another-social-media-site is over-the-top, why am I adding to the pile of blog posts about Pinterest? And why in-the-glorified-name-of-P.T.Barnum did I hold an actual Tweetchat on the subject last week?

Because unlike the tech & marketing blogs that have piled onto the topic, my audience (motley crew that you are) and their right people are the exact demographic that Pinterest is attracting: creative, visual (ie, right-brained), dIYer types, who are overwhelmingly 25-50 year old women, with some college education, and a moderate (25-75k) income.

I don’t have official stats for the Quirkipreneur demographic, but if I did, I imagine a Venn diagram of it would look something like this:

But no matter how perfect a fit
I think Pinterest is for you…

I am NOT going to pressure you to join the site. And I’m not going to tell you how you MUST use it for business purposes, OMG, RIGHT NOW! And I’m not going to tell you that if you don’t use Pinterest, your business is going to fail, your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will starve, or that you’ll find yourself in a special hell of the Pin-less, doomed to forever be picked last for 4th period PhysEd dodge-ball teams. (Not that I’d know anything about THAT. Ahem. Moving on.)

You don’t have to get a Pinterest account.

Really.  No matter how enthused I sound about it, no matter how enthused others sound about it? The world will not end if you never pin a single thing on Pinterest.

I promise.

But you might find that
Pinterest is an intriguing tool.

And you might find it useful, both personally, and creatively.  You might discover that it inspires new ideas, new approaches, new ways of thinking. You might find that it gives you a better sense of the marketplace, and a deeper look at exactly who your right people might be. It could open up new areas and niches to develop, help you spot hot trends, or recognize things that are already done-to-death.

For a few of you?  Pinterest just might turn out to be a significant source of web traffic, a way to attract new customers, to connect to peers and potential partners, or to support & deepen the sense of connection with existing customers, bringing them further into your sphere of influence and back to your site.

Because Pinterest? Yeah. It’s driving a LOT of traffic… and not just maybe-interested traffic like the search engines, but truly-interested, targeted hungry traffic.  Here’s how it works, illustrated with one of Lisa Firke’s Rabbit, Rabbit prints:

Cool, huh?  But what’s extra awesome-possum cool about it is that the people clicking through from the pins are actively looking for more information about that image. That holds true if it’s an illustration, (like Lisa’s) a recipe, a DIY craft project, fashion item, celebrity photo, infographic, etc etc.  And once they find that information, they’re likely to hang out and see what else you have to offer.  So it’s not just driving traffic, it’s driving relevant, interested, *hungry* traffic that is looking for exactly what you have to offer.

That makes Pinterest worth exploring.

It also makes Pinterest-For-Quirkipreneurs a topic worth writing about.

So we’re going to do that over the next week or two, because, you know, why not?   Pinterest is, after all, pretty much a visual 3-ring circus of the quirky and delicious.

P.S.  I almost forgot…  let’s experiment —  pin one or two of the graphics I created here, will ya?

The Comment Tent:

If you’re not on Pinterest, and need an invite, leave a note in the comment and use a valid email in the form (it stays private!) and I’ll send you one.

If you are on Pinterest, please leave a comment below, telling the rest of us how to find you!

And if you really really hate Pinterest? Just avoid the Internet over the next month or so.  ‘Cause it’s going to get worse before it gets better!

Related posts:

1. Using Pinterest For Fun & Profit (Without Being A Dweeb)

Those of you who follow me on Twitter already know I’m a shameless fan of Jenny Lawson, @TheBloggess.  What you don’t know is that it’s not just her absurd humor, Texas-sized heart, or habit of adopting stray taxidermied animals that makes me feel so connected to her.

It’s things like this tweet:

And my twin brother:

You’ll need a bit of backstory to see the connection, so bear with me, k?

In 2010, Jenny decided she’d had enough with denying herself things on the grounds that they weren’t “practical”.  So she procured a completely inappropriate, unjustifiable, fabulous red ball gown that she had no shoes to go with it, and no reason to wear.

And Then She Wore It.
Barefoot.

Why? Because it made her feel beautiful, treasured, special and most of all, “worth it”.

And since she was worth it, Jenny set up a photoshoot (in a graveyard, of course, and still barefoot, because she’s just  that kind of inappropriate), and then let the dress go, sending it on a trek across the country in care of UPS*. The goal? To share the dress with other women, so they too could experience that sense of indulgent, beautiful worthiness.

Before long, The Traveling Red Dress became a Big THING (and a Twitter #hashtag). Recently, it gathered momentum all over again, (getting featured on Forbes and Washington Post) and oodles of women around the world started sending scandalous fancy red dresses to other women, and pro photographers started offering glamorous red-dress photo-shoots, all with the goal of reminding women that they are beautiful, and they are worth it.

So that tweet I showed you a few paragraphs ago?

It’s about the tenth (the tenth!) red dress that Jenny is personally sending out on the road.  It’s going to a little girl named Alice** – a little girl with pediatric bi-polar disorder.

Here’s the video from the tweet above:

I know. I’ll give you a minute to collect yourself.

Now, I know a little about
Pediatric Bi-polar Disorder.

My twin brother recognizably suffered with bi-polar disorder from about age 7, although he wouldn’t be diagnosed until he was in his twenties.  My mother tells stories of taking  him to the doctor, trying to find reasons for his childhood mood swings, impatience and temper fits, but in the 70’s? Mental illness in children was largely unrecognized, and then only in the most severe of cases.

Recognized or not, our shared childhood was ruled by his mental roller coasters, Candyland boards being thrown across the room mid-game, and other temper fits that people said he’d “grow out of”.

But he didn’t grow out of it.

The older we got, the more severe his illness became, with long cycles of depression that lasted for a year, and manic episodes that led to him howling from the roof of his college dormitory, while wearing crime scene tape as a headband and scarf. (It’s ok to laugh, it was pretty damn funny to see my mom’s face when the dorm mother called her) The medical community,  his school counselors, the public health people he had to rely on? Yeah.  Not so helpful at the time  - his clear intelligence masked his symptoms, and oddly, kept people from having much sympathy.  Many in our family didn’t understand, either, and they still insisted he should just “grow out of it”, which left him to mostly have to cope on his own.  And he never got much of a chance to cope;  his adult life was shortened by an accident that could have happened to anyone, with or without mental illness, so that isn’t part of this story.

But what is part of this story?
Alice’s eyes.

Because when I look at Alice’s pictures,  I see my twin brother in her eyes.

I see the same depth, and brilliance, the same hope and  frustration, the charm, the intelligence, and the promise.

And in the pictures of what I assume are her sisters, I see myself at that age: caring, loving, adoring, not understanding, often confused, sometimes hurt, and sometimes forgotten in the drama – the drama that I now know wasn’t a brother who refused to behave, but mental illness that couldn’t behave, couldn’t let him behave.

And I see something else bright in Alice’s future, something that my brother never had, because of the times we grew up in…  Alice has the support not just of a mother & a family doing their best, but of a larger community willing to help her, a community willing to fight to give her a chance at a stable, functional life — a life that allows her to howl at the moon if she wants to, but doesn’t force her to howl because of a quirk of mental chemistry.

And then…  I look at Jenny.
Her pictures, her writing, her projects.

Jenny, of the Traveling Red Dress.  Jenny, keeper of Beyoncé (the Giant Metal Chicken)  James Garfield (the Sainted Warthog) and Copernicus (the Homicidal Hugging Monkey).  Jenny, who raised $2000 on Zazzle to help a devastated neighbor’s family. Jenny, who astoundingly inspired total strangers to arrange among themselves to provide over $40,000 in Christmas gifts to needy families.

Jenny, who makes us laugh until we can’t breathe.  Jenny, who suffers from debilitating bouts of depression.  Jenny, who accepts invitations to conventions and then live tweets from a bathroom because her anxiety won’t let her come out.  Jenny, who struggles with Rheumatoid Arthritis and painkillers and sometimes self-harms to try and cope with it all.  Jenny, who quietly, humbly lets her readers know about her battles, while penning a soon-to-be-bestselling book, raising a daughter, loving a husband, building a huge, rabid fan base, and inspiring us to be utterly, inappropriately, furiously happy. ***

Jenny, who isn’t defined by her illness or her struggles, but by her brilliant, incredible je-ne-sais-Jenny. Jenny, who (at least sometimes) knows she is worth it. Jenny, who reminds the Alices, the Toris, and the-twin-brothers-with-bi-polar-disorder that we, too, are worth it.

Jenny, who makes me cry, because I am so freakin’ proud of her.

It’s presumptuous of me to say so, because I don’t know her, and because she’s a gazillion times more successful than I am, but I don’t care.  I’m going to say it again.

I am PROUD of you, Jenny.

So feather-pluckin’ proud.****

And you are so very, very worth it.

*I don’t actually know if she sent the dress out via UPS. It could have been mailed. Or she might have used carrier pigeons. Taxidermied ones, with mechanical wings.  It could happen. This IS Jenny we’re talking about here.

**When I first published this post, I somehow got Alice’s name wrong.   Somehow, I was just sure her name was Amy, when of course, it’s not, it’s Alice – which is a much cooler name, by far. So my apologies, Alice!

***Jenny, whose name I’ve now typed so many times it just looks and sounds wrong in a really annoying way, which accounts for the curious title above.

**** No actual feathers were plucked in this post. Back off, PETA.

****Also, here is a link to her book, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, so you can pre-order it, because it is totally going to rock.

For anyone wondering how this is on topic for Circus Serene?  My core message here (and everywhere) is  “Don’t just embrace your quirks –exploit them.” I can’t think of a better example of  exploiting your quirks than Jenny Lawson, @TheBloggess.

She’s worth taking a closer look at.

And so are you.

(and now you know why I’m a fan)

The Comment Tent: Tread gently, share kindly, know that this isn’t about me, and if you ask for a date with my brother, I’ll look at you really weird and know you didn’t read very carefully

No related posts.

“I don’t see a big tent… do YOU see a big tent, Ollie?”

“No, Stanley, but I do see Tori standing there under a striped umbrella, looking a bit like a wannabe tightrope walker expecting a thunderstorm…”

“Don’t look now… butted in a Marx Brother from outside the frame, “But she’s trying to shoot an elephant in my pajamas!”

Thus endeth today’s absurd exercise in I-didn’t-know-how-to-start-this-post. No, there’s not a point to it, so you can stop looking.

But there IS a point
to this Big Tent stuff.

The last few posts here have offered an early glimpse of  the Circus Serene metaphor/brand, and where I thought the brand was going.  Many detours and a year later,  some of those ideas have become reality, a few were ‘red-lighted’, and others are still in rehearsal.  But one thing *not* included in those posts, or the early metaphor?

The Big Tent.

It’s not included in the metaphor, because actually a separate concept – one I came up after the metaphor.  While building things here at the Circus, I went on a search for business advice, tips and tools that had a non-traditional, creative feel to them, approaches that wouldn’t force me so far into logic-systems-and-spreadsheet-ville that the feeling of the Circus would be lost.

It was danged hard to find those tools!

But somehow, I stumbled onto a few of those tools, joined an e-course or three, and quickly I realized I was part of an underserved demographic hungry for not only creative business tools, but for creative peers and mentors and generalized support.  The relief some of us in those courses  felt at having others to talk to, others who “got” us and our goals?  It was overwhelming, and we didn’t want to let it go.

Most interesting to me was that the *only* thing many of us had in common was our desire for a creative business community where we could be ourselves, and the tools that would support us.

Creatives Have
Special Business Needs.

We’re often smart, savvy people; we can connect the dots to envision truly ground breaking products, services and markets.

But like all entrepreneurs, we need support.  We need outside eyes to help evaluate our ideas. We need help with financing, with the nuts and bolts of doing business.  We need plans and project management, websites, copy, marketing and emotional support. All small business people need that, but we need those things from people who understand our different approach, the unique quirks of our markets, and our creative needs and (sometimes wacky) processes.

That’s where many of the traditional business communities fall short.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a HUGE amount of value in those traditional circles, but talk to them about a business plan in circus lights, and they’ll just nod, smile, and quickly turn away to avoid the awkwardness of telling you how hopeless they think you are.

I recognized that those of us who approach business “differently”  needed a supportive space.

Back To
The Metaphors!

Since my business metaphor (as well as this website’s theme) is  a circus? When I picture it, right now? That supportive, creative space looks pretty much like a sorta muddy empty lot, where people, machines and elephants are working to transform it into a  large circus or carnival ground.

It’s much bigger than Circus Serene.

There is a midway being built, where games are played and things are sold… in more practical terms, that’ll be a directory of products and services of interest to creative business types.  (A sideshow cabinet of curiosities and oddities, perhaps?

There are lots of picnic tables and shade trees, and a large-ish pavilion that houses the menagerie and museum of oddities — a place where people can gather to discuss their quirky plans and visions, while staring at (and being inspired by) the oddities and freakshows.

And of course, there’s
the Big Tent itself.

It’s a Big Tent, because brings it all together: the tribe, the community, the movement being powered by business-minded creatives that I call Quirkipreneurs.

Quirkiprenuers is a “Big Tent” in the political sense of the word, too – we’re a widely varied bunch with widely varied businesses, views, beliefs and approaches.   We’re artists, writers, and musicians, and we’re the people who support them, either as fans or service providers.  We’re coaches, and consultants, designers and developers, finance specialists and copywriters. Our ranks include mentors and apprentices, community leaders and tribe members, spotlight-seekers and those who prefer to  stay in the shadows and work behind the scenes.

Some of us play in the big leagues, with big goals of six figures or higher, others have more minimalist goals of supplementing their income by a few hundred dollars.

The one thing that we agree on? We want and need creative, visionary support for our endeavors – a safe place to work out our ideas and get feedback, innovative approaches to marketing.

Many of us also want and need a means of developing and reaching out to the people in the movement itself, as a developing and potentially powerful market — for many of our businesses, quirkipreneurs are some of our most ideal customers.

Quirkipreneurs, we’re also some of the most ideal customers for existing big businesses – they just haven’t had a way to reach us (and many of them don’t even know we exist).  There are plenty of products out there well suited to our needs, they just need to be tweaked, tutorialized and explained to us in ways we  understand; we need a bit of targeted help to grok their applications to our work.

So big business, too, can have a place at the picnic tables (but no worries, they’ll have to adapt to *our* culture, not vice versa!)

Quirkipreneurs is truly a Big Tent, spotlighting multiple narrow-niches. (I’ll explain more about that idea in another post, since I’ve already rambled on too long here.)

Where Does This
Leave Circus Serene?

The Circus *won’t* be going away, thought some of the businessy stuff will find it’s home on the soon-to-be launched Quirkipreneurs site.

Among other things, the Quirkipreneurs site will be showcase for member’s products, tools, ideas and offerings, a sort of umbrella.

One of the things stopping the Circus from growing is that growth means appealing to an ever wider audience – and that goes against the grain of the branding, here. Don’t get me wrong – it may eventually find a wide audience, but I don’t want to dilute the feeling here in an attempt to try and appeal to that audience.

So the Circus will continue to be my personal site & brand, and the place where I share a broader range of ideas, showcase my own tricks, tips, mental processes, artwork, etc.  My hope is that by putting the businessy stuff up elsewhere, this can be a more creative and less professional space for me.

So, That’s What’s Up With
This Big Tent Brand Stuff.

Quirkipreneurs is a Big Tent brand, that encompasses an entire community, it’s products and the vendors that serve it.  It has evolved from Circus Serene, and grown into something bigger.

Circus Serene is a personal brand for …. well… any of the oddities that I may decide to produce, and any of the wacky that I decide to share.

Clear as mud? I thought so!

That’s why Circus Serene is a personal brand. Because I need it to be a place that it’s ok for me to be as clear as mud, and issue random absurdities in 1500 words (or more, if I need ‘em). I need it to be ok to sell things,  but more importantly, to *not* sell things.  And that “clear as mud/absurdity” bit?  That’s great for a personal brand, but it’s *not* ok for a brand that I’m asking others to actively identify themselves with.

Today’s Comment Encouragement:

Is your brand personal, or part of something bigger? Do you have a brand? Are you still kind of foggy on what a brand is? Would you rather say screw it, and go get a cup of coffee from Starbucks? Me too! Place your order below for some caffeinated conversation!

Related posts:

1. Origins Of a Big Tent Brand (part 1)
2. Origins Of a Big Tent Brand (part 1)
3. Origins of a Big Tent Brand (part 2)

The other day, I told you about Havi’s Pirate Queen expeditions, how she lets a mouse provide metaphors for her business,  and then I announced that I wanted a metaphor of my very own.

A metaphor to help me better get a handle on this business stuff. A metaphor that  made it fun. A metaphor that made it not scary-and-over-whelming and HUGE.

And (as I’m sure you’ve already figured out) I found that  metaphor: A Circus!   Not JUST a circus, mind you…  but a full-fledged old-fashioned three-ring circus and traveling carnie show, complete with believe-it-or-not sideshows, animal acts, a midway, tons of prizes, games and all the cotton candy you’ll never eat.
How did I find this glorious, stupendous circus of circuses, you ask? Well, I did it a little differently than laid out in Havi’s methods for metaphors.   She usually starts by “unpacking” (analyzing, to the rest of us) whatever it is she wants to metaphorize.  I didn’t want to bother with all of that, because I’m lazy.   That seemed too uncomfortable.  Instead, I decided to unpack her Pirate Queen metaphor, and look at why it was so appealing to me.

Here’s what turned up:

• The pirate queen directs the ship
• There’s a pirate crew, people who help.
• There’s a pirate log, treasure maps, telescopes. Fun TOOLS!
• Rudders and ships wheels and navigation stuff… direction!
• Sails and oars for energy and motion
• Pirates are unconventional, they live by their own rules, do their own thing in their own time.
• Strong defenses: Cannons, guns, swords and other sharp pokey things.
• The pirate idea of success is …  self-determined. Or something.
• Although pirates  interact with the land-lubbing world through their contact with ports, they don’t LIVE there.
• Pirates steal things, so I could stop feeling guilty about borrowing good  ideas from other people and places.
• Pirates are free spirited.
• They travel.
• The idea of keeping a captains log, treasure maps, and swabbing the deck makes maintenance seem so much more appealing.
• The sea is sort of meditative.
• There’s fun. Costumes. Jewels.  Hats!

Somehow, a key seemed to be that  I wanted an excuse to be unconventional, self-determined, living within a code, but outside of the widely accepted codes of society.   I started to think  about  jobs and careers and things that are LIKE pirates, but weren’t pirates.

Characters that live outside of the norms of society.

Cattle rustler? Train robber?  No, I don’t want the focus to be on the stealing.( I don’t REALLY steal, I just feel guilty when I feel inspired by someone else’s ideas. I’m weird that way. )

Hermit? No, too lonely. Hermit Crab?  No, no.  Too crustacean-ish. Mountain Top Sage or Yogi? Monk?  Beatnick?   Street beggar?  Gypsy/Tinker/Traveler?  No, No, No…

Then Metaphor Mouse shot himself out of a cannon and through a flaming hoop.

“Ohhhh!!” I said.  That looked interesting… and circusy!

So I wrote to Metaphor Mouse, for further clarification.

March 17, 2010
Dearest, Darling Metaphor Mouse…

What do you think about running away to join the circus/carnival?
Huh Huh Huh?

No, not YOU.. me! That could be SERIOUSLY fun.  Especially if it wasn’t just any old circus, but one of the old timey carnie type deals, with traveling side shows and freaks and stuff.

Instead of being a Pirate Queen, I’m could learn to be a Ring Master ! With a whip! And a top hat! And then, instead of having a business or a blog, I’ll run a three ring circus.  And those off beat projects I sometimes get caught up in? Side-Shows. I mean, seriously.  What could be better?

• The circus is quirky, sparkly, weird, fascinating, and just a little bit scary.  Just how I like things.
• Circus folk move within normal society, but outside of it’s ordinary standards.  Which is the way I like it, too.
• The circus/carnival has a lot of different roles to play and hats to wear: the ring master, the sideshow barker, the freaks and the geeks, the pretty girl with the ponies and poodles. There are animal trainers and animal helpers, jugglers, magicians, fortune tellers, meditating yogis, and clowns!
• There’s even a funhouse I can use to shake up people’s perceptions. How perfect is THAT for me?

I can set up the show, tear it down, light up the midway, go for rides, walktight ropes, avoid run ins with the law.  We can have Big Finale numbers, and intermissions.  There are different caravan cars, cages and boxcars for each act, making it seem somehow organized.  It fits with my existing plate-spinning metaphor.  There’s jumping through hoops!  Walking tight ropes!  Popcorn, cracker jacks and cotton candy!   Souvenir shops instead of webstores.  I can produce some seriously cool posters, there are countless costumes, and… best of all?

PARADES!  We get to have PARADES!

Yay for Parades! With Elephants!
It’s all so wonderfully over the top, isn’t it?
Really, what do you think?

Love and Carnival Kisses,
Tori

I haven’t heard back from the Mouse yet, so I’ll just assume all is well. The Circus (especially the old fashioned, carnival kind) really is a bit of perfection, isn’t it? Perpetual childhood, organized chaos and tricksters, all wrapped up in sequins.  How could anything be better?

Oh, yes, I know.  Even circuses and carnie shows have to do some form of record keeping and scheduling.  But maybe its more like an elephant counting peanuts.  Or maybe I’ll play at being some narrow minded accountant who love-love-loves numbers, and is freaked out by all the weirdness of the circus.

Or wait!!!   I can be Numbero! Numbero, the idiot-savant who can’t remember his own name, but crunches numbers  for breakfast! Just add milk and extra exclamation points.

Really, there is so much potential in this for me it’s too much to write about.  There’s good-hearted sleight of hand, well-intentioned trickery and illusion, a whole lot of hoopla, ballyhoo and just flat sensationalism.  My mind is still reeling with ideas.

But maybe best of all, for right now? I can do this slowly.  One act, one booth, one elephant at a time.

So that’s it.

I’m going to run away to join the circus.  But don’t worry, I’ll send you postcards (or at least blog posts).

I’ll keep you updated as I learn the role of Ring Master, gather my cast of characters and put together my very own show of shows.

Anyone know where I can get a Big Top, cheap?

Next, you’ll actually get some new writing (yay) as I update the metaphor, examine what has and hasn’t worked, explain the Big Tent that is Quirkipreneurs, and talk about the future. Oh. And if you haven’t voted for me as Tastiest Brand yet, what are you waiting for?  Go! Vote! (would it help if I bribed you with virtual popcorn?)

Related posts:

1. Origins Of a Big Tent Brand (part 1)
2. So, What’s With All This Big Tent Brand Stuff?
3. The Good & Bad of (business) Metaphors

I’m Running Off To Join The Circus!

(Pretty much as published on MindTweaks, with a few minor… erm… tweaks)

Yes, yes…  I know it’s St. Patty’s Day, not April Fools day.  And no, I didn’t get totally confused by the switch to Daylight Savings Time last weekend.   My run-away plans will all make more sense by the time I’m done explaining…  at least, I think they will.

But meanwhile?  I’m running off to join the circus.

This whole business is related to the renovations going on in the background of the site,  and it fits with my “Places, Everything!” theme for the year, too.  But mostly, it’s about the Metaphor Mouse stuff that Havi Brooks has been writing so much about over the past few weeks.   You can ignore the mouse part for now, if you like, and just focus on understanding the metaphor business.  After all, the mouse is…  just a metaphor.

See, Havi’s brain seems to get stuck on things, a whole lot like mine does. We both trip over random ickiness associated with various words – words like coach, and marketing, and — well, you get the idea. Her way around it is to find metaphors, and substitute other words … words that (at least to her) mean the same thing, but reframe the idea in a less icky way. For instance, instead of marketing her business and products, she “biggifies” them.

Think that’s wacky? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

This past summer, Havi declared that she doesn’t even run a  business; she runs a pirate ship.

Yepp.  Metaphor Mouse helped her discover that she’s secretly a pirate queen.

The people who work with/for her? They aren’t personal assistants, bookkeepers,  or web masters,  but First Mates, Navigators, and  she even has a Ship’s Monkey.  Rather than doing business plans and accounting, she charts courses, keeps a Captain’s Log, and makes treasure maps. Oh, and no more boring team meetings – Her crew has drunken pirate councils instead.

How cool is that? Who wouldn’t want to be a pirate queen, collecting treasures and wearing cool hats while coursing bravely (and drunkenly!) through uncharted waters? It was just about the most awesome metaphor I’d ever heard of, and I wanted to steal her metaphor SO badly!

After a night or two of fussing, I realized that I didn’t need to feel guilty about stealing it, because stealing is what pirates do.  So I brazenly told Havi (in her blog comments) that I was going to pirate her concept.  ARRRGH!!

There was just one problem.

I didn’t have a pirate ship.

So although the pirate metaphor is the most awesome (or is that aarrrgh-some?) thing I could imagine…  I couldn’t see it working for me, not in the long run.

Oh, sure, I tried dressing up as a pirate queen…  but it felt like wearing someone else’s clothes, mostly  because I was wearing someone else’s clothes.

Someone else’s metaphor, anyway.

Now, I don’t really like wearing other people’s stuff.  It doesn’t fit right and I’m always worried about spilling mustard on it.

So I set out to see if I could coax Havi’s Metaphor Mouse into finding me a metaphor of my very own.

Want to know what happened, and how I’ve ended up joining the circus?

Check out part two, coming soon! (Yes, you have to wait.  I know. I’m evil, aren’t I?)

And yes I’m still just as evil as I was when this post was written… because you’ll have to wait to see the actual metaphoring, and how my creative whim is turning into a Big Tent brand.

While you wait for part 2, you can go amuse yourself by voting in the Tasty Brand contest, and wandering around the rest of Tea’s site to see how she’s incorporated  metaphors into her own brand.

Mmm. Tasty.

Related posts:

1. Origins of a Big Tent Brand (part 2)
2. So, What’s With All This Big Tent Brand Stuff?
3. Guess Whose Site Is Up For Finalist In The Tasty Brand Awards?

Hint: Her brand is flavored with popcorn and cotton candy,
with just a wiff of  wild animals, calmed by meditation…
<cue the trumpet flourishes>

That’s right, it’s Tori Deaux & Circus Serene!

And guess who gets to vote for the finalists?
You do! (YAY!)

Here’s what to do:

Just hop over to Tea Sylvester’s site, The WordChef.com and vote for your favorite – which, of course, would be me.

Unless it’s not, which is totally ok, too…  it’s just…

Well…  if you vote for someone else? There’s always a chance that Emmit may somewhat threateningly visit your dreams with seltzer bottles and shaving cream pies.

I know I should be in better control of my business plan than that, but I’m not really seeing the point in reining him in this time, you know?  But if you have any problems, just send me the dry cleaning bill for your bed linens and proof of your *corrected* vote, and it’s all good!

While you’re over at The Word Chef, make sure you check out the rest of the site.  It belongs to Tea Sylvestre, who is rapidly moving to the top of my recommended reading list for quirkipreneurs.  And, honestly? I’m glad she’s hosting the contest, rather than competing, because her own brand is pretty darn yummy.

Even her name is yummy, Tea… Tea. I always picture her as a pomegranate green tea, with just a touch of honey, served in a silver tea set…  Of course her last name isn’t Silver, but Sylvestre, and her first name isn’t pronounced Tea, but Tay-yah… wait.. maybe it’s Ti-ah? Oh bother, I’ve mucked it up again, haven’t I’?  Anyway, Tea is a branding/marketing experty type, and very good at explaining things in unique, creative ways that let you master the concepts without shifting out of your quirky-right-side-thought processes.

That’s an approach that we’re a big fan of around here, you know.

Since I’m on the topic of branding, it’s time to review the brand thing around here, so expect a few posts (and reposts) next week about the origins and future of the Circus Serene, and how it will differ from the new Quirkipreneurs site.

Now, back to our scheduled programming…. after you go vote, of course! Here’s that link again, so you can’t claim you lost it:

The WordChef.com: Let The Voting Begin!

P.S. As usual, I’m a little slow out of the starting gate (um… voting started like 2 weeks ago) so we have to play a little catchup here, and there’s some stiff competition… (Yes, I’m looking at YOU, Ms Catherine Caine!) so your vote for the circus is really, really needed.

P.P.S. A vote for the Circus Serene is like a vote for everyone’s happy place! Except, of course, for people who are afraid of clowns, who probably have a clown free happy place.

P.P.P.S. Please tell Tea I sent you, because she totally rocks and I am totally sucking up.

Related posts:

1. Origins Of a Big Tent Brand (part 1)
2. Origins Of a Big Tent Brand (part 1)
3. Origins Of a Big Tent Brand (part 1)