Grey Cat Working from home by SchmetzPetz. Click for more info.

At the beginning of a business, a great deal of our time is spent working on our business as we get it set up.

We have a dream, a plan… a lofty goal.

We start our blogs and websites, launch a mailing list. We research and put all of our prices, policies, and procedures in place.

We get started with marketing and social media. We hustle.

Then we get busy.

We get stuck in the treadmill of making and shipping.

Of responding to our clients and customers.

Of just trying to keep everything working smoothly – and not just our business, but our lives, too.

In other words, all of the REALLY IMPORTANT daily tasks that actually mean we HAVE a business.

However, somewhere along the line – unless we’re careful and we plan for it – we stop working ON the business at all.

We get so caught up in the day-to-day that we don’t take that step back to critically examine our business.

Is this selling venue really the best one for me? Are my photos really up-to-scratch? Am I spending my marketing and money wisely? Am I growing the business in the right direction? Do I need help?

There are SO many interconnected aspects of our business, and even when things are going well, there is ALWAYS something that could be grown, changed, or improved.

I always find that when I take the time to work on my business – even if it’s just an hour to reflect on the next 6 months and what I’d like to achieve – it leaves me energised and re-motivated to tackle projects head-on.

Conversely, when I don’t take the time to look at the big picture, or to tweak aspects of my business, I find I get worn down by the day-to-day tasks, and sometimes forget my purpose and mission.

So, I challenge you to take a step back today and spend just 30 minutes working ON your business instead of in it.

What will YOU focus on in this time?

Play Day Today print by thepairabirds - click for info

If you’re an independent artist or entrepreneur, you may have been told that you have a good work ethic. You must have pulled your share of all-nighters, worked through weekends while your friends went to the beach, or gone above and beyond in some way to please a client. In these modern times, a strong work ethic is lauded as a key to success and a sign of character.

I’m not going to make the point that we should work less. I’m sure we’re all here because we’ve made the commitment to do what we love, so working less isn’t an issue. Instead, I would like to argue for cultivating a strong play ethic to complement your work ethic.

Developing a strong play ethic not only increases our level of personal happiness, it also stretches our creativity muscles, allowing us to form a creativity habit that’s hard to break.

So, what does it mean to have a strong play ethic? It means taking the same high standards you would apply to your work and applying them to your “leisure” activities. In the same way that you would nail the details of a work project, you aim to nail the details of a surprise party you’re throwing for a friend. And just like you would exceed your client’s expectations, you exceed your partner’s expectations when planning a romantic picnic. Or you can apply the same level of perseverance you would use to overcome a professional obstacle to meeting the logistical challenges of organizing a family reunion.

Play is a skill that can be honed just like any other.

You can go as far as creating a “play practice,” intentionally incorporating play into your daily work and life routines until a habit is formed. Consider these elements of a play practice:

Game-ify everything. This strategy is often recommended in order to make everyday mundane things like housecleaning, exercising, or driving to work more tolerable. While that’s a pleasant side effect, there are other benefits, like engaging your brain in creative problem-solving. The next time you run into a problem, consider how applying game mechanics (strategy, rules, arbitrarily limited resources) might help you discover a solution. A friend of mine who edits a popular blog sometimes finds it challenging to pick photos to accompany blog entries about non-visual topics. When this happens she invites her friends to play a fast-paced free association word game in order to spark ideas.

Let’s pretend (or: purposeful repurposing). Kids know that a piece of cardboard can be used as a pirate ship’s plank, or that an empty box can serve double duty as a rocketship. We grown-ups can exercise our imaginations by repurposing just about anything – whether it’s an everyday item, a familiar tool, or a standard practice. A colleague of mine has been borrowing ideas from a common software development process to help plan her wedding. Now that’s useful repurposing!

Bring a level of “playful seriousness” to something that, upon first blush, doesn’t seem to warrant it. Another friend was recently put in charge of acquiring snacks for a short staff retreat, a task that seemed relatively simple and required nothing more than a trip to the grocery store. But she decided to treat it as “a real project,” crafting a survey full of silly questions like, “True or false – melon-based fruit salad is the biggest racket in the food industry.” She illustrated the survey results in a five-page full-color report, complete with infographics. It wasn’t necessary, but her co-workers appreciated the attention to detail and it helped set a positive tone for the retreat.

When you start incorporating the play strategies above into all aspects of your life (both work and leisure), you’ll find that you increase your brain’s flexibility, learning, and problem-solving. Play has even been linked to optimism, resilience, and happiness. Not bad for something that’s typically relegated to childhood, right?

What strategies do you employ to cultivate your play ethic?

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If Hannah could go back to college, she’d major in Theme Parties and Scavenger Hunts with a minor in Board Games, since those are the things she likes best. Hannah has 12 years of theme party and scavenger hunt planning experience, and plays a mean game of Bananagrams. She is the winner of the 2010 Pietopia: Life in a Pie essay and recipe contest, has released a record of songs about running away, and can solve a standard Rubik’s Cube in under two minutes. Most importantly, she is a Space Camp graduate. Hannah blogs at Everybody’s Invited!, tweets @evrybdysinvited, and is Facebook-able at Facebook.com/everybodyshere.

Today is Memorial Day here in the States, and many of us have an extra day off – a third day added to that always-goes-by-too-fast weekend. I hope you are spending it with family and friends, getting out of the house, and recharging for the week to come.

But when you go back to work tomorrow, or if you are already back to work today, think about what you really hope to achieve with your work week. Are you trying to keep up with your orders and just stay above water? Or are you hoping that this is the week that you’ll land that big wholesale order or get featured on the blog you would just about die to be on?

If all you are hoping to get out of the week is more of the same, then by all means, keep doing exactly what you are doing. Pretty simple.

If you are dreaming about stepping off the plateau and soaring to the next level, you are going to have to do things a little differently.

So where should you be spending your time?

It is time to explore the bigger picture and plan accordingly.

Decide what you want and go for it. Start your day by  writing an email pitch to that blog you dream of being featured on, not writing yet another post for your own blog. Don’t forget to press the send button on that pitch, too, by the way.

Or spend your morning making a list of brick and mortar shops that would be the absolute best fit for your work. If they aren’t going to come to you, you need to go to them! And make sure you start sending out inquiries to those retailers once you’ve made your list too.

Bottom line: YOU need to make it happen because…

Dreams don’t work unless you do.

This week, you need to make your business work for you, so that you are not just working for your business.

What you will do this week to make your business work for you? Pledge it in the comments below.

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image c/o Promo Pocket (found via Going Home to Roost)

Well hello, all!

I wish I could fully express how ecstatic I am to be sharing my words with all of you amazing souls! I’ve been a fan of Scoutie Girl for quite some time now, and the fact that my words are going to be read, by you, kind of astounds me.

To start, here’s a little snippet about me: I constantly have all these thoughts bouncing around, and all this energy for life that I just want to share with others. I want people to realize the amazingness that is this life by being their raw authentic selves, owning it, and working from there. So how do I plan to tackle all of this?

Currently, I’m in school, on my way to becoming a social worker, which I hope to use to combine my love for travel, writing, and empowering others. If there is one thing that people know about me, it’s that I’m always planning and plotting new ways to touch and inspire as many lives as possible. Because to me- that’s what this life thing is all about.

Before I get to the book I’m reviewing, I should probably explain a little about why I read this book in the first place. I’m a big fan of self help books, which always seems to get me a lot of laughs, or perplexed faces. It’s not that I have several issues (although, trust me, I have some!), but that I consider it more like self-empowerment.

There is so much to gain in reading and exploring different ideas about who we are, and how to get the most out of this life we have.

So that leads me to Meeting Your Half-Orange: An Utterly Upbeat Guide to Using Dating Optimism to Find Your Perfect Match by Amy Spencer.

Now, if you’re in a relationship, or married, don’t stop reading just yet. I think this book could be helpful for you as well, as using the power of positive optimism in our relationships is something I think we could all learn from.

I don’t recall where I first heard about this book, but once I’d heard about it I was set on finding it. So much, that I skipped an afternoon class, hopped the bus, and went on a mission to find it. Once at the bookstore, I quickly scanned the shelves, and found the book in all its brightness. However, it took me quite awhile to muster up the courage to go up and buy the book. All I could think was that here I was, in my early 20s buying a book on dating optimism. Seriously? Is this what my life had come to? As I tried to muster up courage, I stood between bookshelves, opened up the  book, and began reading…

“This book is all about being picky. You’re allowed to want what you want, and you deserve to get it! And if you agree with that premise, you will do just fine.”
~Amy Spencer

And that’s what sold me. I brushed off my uneasiness and realized that buying this book wasn’t an act of desperation, but an act of hope.  And hope is something I can hang with.

Spencer spends the book working to explain how to reframe things, and take them as they are. As I began reading this book I started to realize that there was no way I was going to find what I was looking for if I couldn’t even admit to myself what I was looking for.

“It’s not your job to figure out how you’re going to get what you want. It’s your job to want it. Simply want it badly enough, focus on it with the most positive feelings you can muster, and the energy you create within and around you will bring it straight to you.”
~Amy Spencer

I’m one of those people that is perfectly capable of finding contentment from within, and being happy doing my own thing, but I’ve learned that there is a big difference between want and need. And although I may not need someone, I very much want to find someone, and that is something I need to own. So I own it, okay! I own it!

“The point is, it’s time to start looking at what kind of relationship you want instead of what kind of man you want. Because thinking about the relationship you want is something you can attach feelings to, and it’s the feelings that are important.”
~Amy Spencer

Spencer encourages readers to make a big love list of all the things the kind of relationship they’re looking for would consist of. After reading this book the first time, I started my own big love list, which now stands at six sloppy handwritten pages. So I read it quite often to remind myself of what it is I’m looking for, and every so often I add something I may have missed before.

What I love about this book is that it’s not something you can read just once, but a book that you find yourself going back to and skimming,  or reading over entirely. Because the truth is, being optimistic isn’t always easy and can take a lot of practice.

Be kind with yourself. This is a process, much like anything else.

The great thing about this  book is that it gets you to change the way that you look at things, gives you perspective, and opens your eyes to what has been there all along. Throughout the book I kept laughing to myself because the things Spencer was saying seemed so obvious, but were things I hadn’t really thought of before. I think sometimes reading things on paper helps us to realize that we’re not the only people that go through these things, and that navigating relationships is something that has no right answer, and is a lifelong learning process.

So I encourage you to make your big love list, to put down in words what your ideal relationship looks like.

I’d love to hear what you come up with!

If you’re anything like me, you probably have jewelry everywhere in an unorganized mess. Or, maybe you’re nothing like me and have everything organized…. If that’s the case, just indulge me.

I have been thinking about making a simple jewelry organizer forever and finally got around to it last week. I was in need of an extra stand to display my earrings at my latest show, so I decided it was the perfect time to get my DIY jewelry organizer made.

There are various DIY jewelry displays all over the blogosphere, some easier than others. This one I created falls squarely in the “easy” category. All you need is a wooden board {I bought mine at Home Depot}, nails, and paint and/or stencils to decorate the board. So simple and inexpensive. This whole project cost me about $12.

Step One:

Paint your wooden board any color you want. You can also use stencils to create a design on the bare wood. I taped a wide piece of lace trim to the bottom of the board and then spray painted over it in gray.

On the top part of the board, I decided to do a whitewash paint. I did this by mixing together two parts white paint with one part water. Then I painted a small section of the board and wiped away the paint with a damp cloth. I continued to go over the area, painting and wiping, until I got my desired whiteness.

Step Two:

Determine where you want your nails to go and mark with a pencil. I used a ruler and made a small mark every two inches on the top two rows. On the bottom rows, I staggered the nails so that various pieces of jewelry would easily fit.

Step Three:

Hammer the nails half way in at each pencil marking and you’re done! You can either hang this on a wall or prop it up on a bookshelf or table {like I did in my booth at the art fair} using small stands {like these}.

notecard by encouragecreations - click image for more info

We spend a lot of time waiting for opportunities to fall into our laps.

We wait & wait – watching others take advantage of lucky chances, wishing that was us. Art isn’t about waiting though, it’s about stretching yourself, making stuff happen.

Your obligation as an artist is to create opportunities for others.

Sound crazy? Think about it. A traditional artist creates a product that others engage visually. It creates an opportunity to change, to challenge, or to inspire. If art is about new perspectives, new perspectives are about opportunity.

If you’re a less traditional artist like me, your art may create opportunities by connecting people, by informing, or by questioning. The opportunities may be direct – artist to patron – or indirect – patron to patron.

Artist, how will you create an opportunity for someone else today?

image by pepperink - click for more info

I was recently asked to describe what I do on a form. I could have easily written career coach. Or small busines coach. But the inside of my head kept repeating, “I’m a biz illuminatrix.”

That feels accurate. The words feel good around my work. But would people think I was nuts? Or even know what I mean?

I had a short fantasy about what all the people reading it would think.

“Oh, ok. She doesn’t really know what her businss is about. Who would hire her? That’s not even a word!”

Yes, I was bullied by imaginary people over my word choice on a standardized form.

But you know, what? I AM a biz illuminatrix. It’s in the feedback I get from clients, where I lead from, and what I strive to do. As a description, it’s not conventional and it’s not convenient. It’s evocative. It’s rebellious. It’s what you get when you get me.

So I went with it. Say hello the world’s first (?) Biz Illuminatrix.

I invite you to join me in defying the forms.

What identity will you delcare for yourself? Serve it up in the comments, raw and real.

Gathering light,

Tenacity by Gwyn Michael

If you haven’t noticed, I am a Seth Godin fan, and again I will refer to him. Seth writes a lot about failure and why it’s good because it means we are trying things, we are “poking the box.” I agree, but it is easier to get behind when you are not in the final stages of what could be a big fail.

Seth has this to say about failure:

The math is magical: you can pile up lots of failures and still keep rolling, but you only need one juicy success to build a career.

The killer is the category called ‘neither’. If you spend your days avoiding failure by doing not much worth criticizing, you’ll never have a shot at success. Avoiding the thing that’s easy to survive keeps you from encountering the very thing you’re after.

And yet we market and work and connect and create as if just one failure might be the end of us.

Aha! I have been doing exactly that, looking at this project as if this one failure could be the end of me. Truth is I already have two new project ideas, most likely better ones.

I have never been much of a sports fan but I am gaining a new respect for athletes. Even with a big paycheck coming it has to be hard to get back out there for the last inning, quarter, whatever when you are losing badly. But they do it, again and again.

It ain’t over ’til it’s over. ~ Yogi Berra

Never have I understood that better. We work hard as entrepreneurs, often alone.

On Friday after a bit of a meltdown I got back in the game and made some changes, one of them being to back away from the work. I was running myself ragged trying and getting nowhere. After a good break I came back and gave the project a makeover. I gave myself time to look at what may not be working and change it. I came up with some new strategies to reach people. I reached out and got some great advice from friends.

Too little too late? We shall see, but I am in til the end whatever the outcome and it kind of sucks, but I can’t say I regret it and I can’t say I won’t try again.

I choose to be.

This week I am not giving much to link to or respond to but I’d like you to answer this:

When the chips are down, what gets you back in the game?

What gives you the tenacity to find the crack in the concrete and grow?

What makes you choose to be?

Photo via Jay Mug. Click on the image for details.

I just watched a movie. Maybe you’ve heard of it? Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium.

Mind: blown.

Let’s take this little bit o’ script referring to a wooden cube Mr. Magorium gifted Mahoney, the young, “stuck” manager of his wonder emporium.

Mr. Magorium: That’s why I gave you the Congreve Cube.

Molly Mahoney: But it just sits there.

Mr. Magorium: What have you done with it?

Molly Mahoney: I don’t know what to do with it. It’s a block of wood.

Mr. Magorium: Can you think of nothing?

Molly Mahoney: Well, I’m sure I could think of a million things to do with it.

Mr. Magorium: There are a million things one might do with a block of wood, but, Mahoney, what do you think might happen if someone just once…believed in it?

Maybe it is just a block of wood. But it doesn't have to be.

Did you feel that? That was some spark inside of me re-igniting. Maybe you also found some hidden sparkle inside yourself just now, but I’m going to go ahead and focus on me. See, for the last several months I’ve turned into what Molly Mahoney calls a “just guy.”

I’m just a girl…I just have a sewing machine…it is just another day.

But Sunday, I got myself a Congreve cube – metaphorically speaking – because I don’t want to have any more just another days. I don’t even want to have just a business.

I want to have an adventure. An unlikely adventure, even.

And “unlikely adventures call for unlikely tools.” No, it doesn’t make any sense for a garter designer/advocate for female fabulousness to keep a block of wood about. But it does make sense for said garter designer/advocate to believe in something. I believe I needed a reminder.

I am a girl! with a passion! and a sewing machine! Together we make magic because I BELIEVE we can make magic, me and my passion and my machine. And today is another day! for magic to happen!

Within your comfort zone, a wooden cube is just a block of wood; a blog feature about tools is an unusual place to talk about woo woo magic stuff; a girl like me has very little use for a cube-shaped piece of wood. But what if, for a second, we pick up something for which we have very little use and ask, “What would happen if, just once, I believed in this thing?”

Now, go look in the mirror. And ask the person you see there, “What would happen if, just once, I believed in this thing?”

Do you know what you have? You just scored yourself one hell of an important tool.

Now, go make magic.

Click the image to get your free download of Tara's invocation.

I believe that you have what you need.

I believe that you grow as you learn.

I believe that you learn as you act.
I believe that you are enough.

Our ideas are not empty vessels to pour ourselves into.

Our ideas are full + overflowing, ready to satisfy us.

Let us be liberated from assumption, the choices of others, and our perceived liabilities.

Click here to get your free download of Tara’s invocation.