live from your heart, uploaded by Deb Did It, found via kind over matter

March 29, 2010

Dear Michelle,

It’s your first day as a full-time entrepreneur! Well, technically it’s your 6th day, but since last week was Soul Week this is your first “official” day. Doesn’t it feel warm? Doesn’t it feel special? Doesn’t it feel peaceful & right? Can’t you get a glimpse of what your life will be like from now on (hint: you call the shots & plan your day around your values & intentions!)? You’re already off to a great start, having showered, gotten dressed, enjoyed a cup of coffee & a bowl of cereal & some time with your Google Reader. Heck, you even returned some emails & crossed some stuff off your To Do List – but you eased into it slowly. And here it is, only 9:30a & you’re already honoring the Me Time you want to have in each work day. (more…)

This week has been a roller coaster, but once I thought I was at the bottom I was shot back up to the top again. In that instant, I made this video.

Spoiler alert: I don’t cry, but I almost cry. Through the whole damn thing. So it almost adds up to a real cry. Please don’t ask for a refund.

How to Really, Truly, Deeply, Honestly, Thoroughly, Trust (& Become an Optimist) from WhenIGrowUpCoach on Vimeo.

no time for crappy thoughts by Betty Turbo

It’s been a while since we heard from guest blogger & 2009 When I Grow Up Scholarship recipient Sarah Ivie, but that’s because there’s stuff going down in Chinatown! (Um, that means that she halted one business idea & launched another!) Sarah’s journey started by comparing change to laundry, went to jumping with a safety net, & rested on decent-steak-dinner dreams & pretty-good-beer wishes. Sarah lands right here, with the question of “What would I do if I won the lottery?” She doesn’t wait for the winning ticket to make the answer a reality.

About six years ago I stumbled across the perfect job for me. I was invited to work with two other women to start a community center in rural West Virginia. We were combining community resources, educational and arts programs. We were starting from scratch, even revamping a great building in the heart of a tiny downtown area. We built our own desks, painted the walls, and laid the floor for a dance studio. We rallied recruited volunteers and held fundraising events. We developed plans for clubs and workshops. While waiting for our big grant to come through we worked for about six months for free. I drove over an hour each way, got help from my parents in paying the rent, and worked an additional part time job to help with my living expenses. I was so busy, but so happy and excited about getting up every morning!

Black Sheep by dreamel. Love how the black sheep is dancing with a hat & cane! If he had fingers, he’d so have jazz hands right now.

Lindsay Christensen is a rockin’ interior designer who I “met” through Blogging Your Way, the awesome blogging e-course that Holly Becker of decor8 led earlier this year. It turned out that I was the lone life coach in a sea of designers & crafters, & I loved every minute of it. Lindsay & I have been reading each other’s blogs & tweeting ever since, & I was thrilled when she offered to contribute as a guest blogger! Like some of my other guest bloggers these past two weeks, Lindsay wrote about the  “scenic, sometimes rocky road” that was her journey to finding her passionate, creative career. Isn’t it amazing how we have so many similar stories, yet they’re all so different? Get the tissues ready!

Coming from a small town, I always just assumed I would do something ‘practical’ or science related. I wasn’t interested in business or English, but I was a good science student. So I had a foolproof plan; go to college, major in something science related (psychology, exercise science, marine biology?) and get a steady and secure job after you graduate in 4 years. Right? I thought I’d figure it out along the way. I didn’t know what I wanted to do right out of high school, so when I enrolled at UC Santa Barbara, I was “undeclared in Biological Sciences.” Chemistry, organic chemistry, calculus, psychology, social psychology, French, art history…all the fun (and not so fun) lower division requirements, blah blah blah. I did really love my art history class, but I didn’t even consider it as a major at the time. Come on, you can’t major in art! You can’t be successful that way! Right? After two years I was burnt out and still confused as ever, so I decided to take a break. A break that turned into a five year break. But I wasn’t doing diddly-squat during my break – I was out there in the world, living back in my home town, taking a class or two here or there, working, researching, trying to find my niche, and I also started dating my future husband and we got married…and that leads me here…

In August 2006 I had a great job. Well, it was great for someone without a Bachelor’s Degree, which I did not have at the time (but was still a goal of mine that I was not going to give up). Great for someone my age (25) who had no children, which I did not have at the time. Great pay for where I lived, meaning that my husband and I could live comfortably with my half of our salary, we had better-than-decent benefits, and it was going to go nowhere but up. I had a great boss and great co-workers. My employer even helped pay for my classes. See, I worked at the local county Public Health Department back then. But that was the month that I quit to go to Interior Design school. I started working there three years earlier in 2003 as the “Office Specialist” (aka receptionist), and after working there for two years, I was promoted to a better job within the department. I could have stayed but it was always a personal goal of mine to finish school with at least a Bachelor’s Degree, so I knew I wasn’t going to be there forever. It wasn’t enough for me, and so I wasn’t happy there. That is something that I figured out while out in the real world; that is not my personality and I won’t stay where I’m not happy. (more…)

Self Portrait by flapperdoodle. Isn’t she just the epitome of a creative entrepreneur?

You’ve already met Tara Lutman Agacayak back in my second installment of Grown-Up Gigs. She describes it below, so I’m not gonna, but seriously, click on the link & read it if you haven’t already. As you can probably guess, I was thrilled to get Tara’s submission as a guest blogger, & I think her 10 Ways are dead on. They absolutely confirmed for me that I’m a creative entrepreneur. What about you?

In one of her Grown-up Gig posts, Michelle introduced me as “Creative Entrepreneurial  Endeavor Developer”.  Though that’s a mouthful, I still haven’t decided on the appropriate title for myself.  But I do know that I enjoy seeing other people develop viable creative businesses.  For this post I thought I’d put together a list of things that I think describe what a creative entrepreneur is since the term can be a bit vague (but creatives are good with vague, aren’t we?).  So, without further ado …

You know you are a creative entrepreneur if: (more…)

A Change Might Be Just Around The Corner by wordboner

Jeremie Miller is a fellow International Coach Academy student who I met via the message boards. I forget the thread that sparked our introduction, but I should tip my hat to it because Jeremie’s awesome. He writes a kick-ass blog called Sunday Night Success & is, in my opinion, a Goal Guru – he knows how to set ‘em & accomplish ‘em & get the support/structure you need all the while. Currently, Jeremie is a life coach for Dads, but he’s been on a long journey to get there. Read below about his path, & how he consistently ditched safety for the pursuit of happiness.

Career changes have never really frightened me.

That is not to say that, when I decide to make a change, I am not plagued by the small voices telling me I am crazy, that it will all fall apart, and that I am making a huge mistake. (more…)

I met Aidan Donnelley Rowley at her (amazing, beautiful, drool-enducing) home in the Upper West Side as the host of the NYC Fire Starter Session run by Danielle LaPorte. Aidan is one of those people whose warmth, authenticity & niceness overshadows the insecurities that one (i.e. me) can feel  when meeting a beautiful, successful, put-together, seems-to-have-it-all woman (i.e. Aidan). I’m now hooked on her blog, Ivy League Insecurities, & can not wait for the release of her book, Life After Yes, next year. Aiden posted this on October 6th, and I was thrilled when she agreed that I could share it with all of you. I think this will resonate with anyone that has left – or is thinking of leaving – a “sure thing” to “chase a persistent dream” (Charlotte, are you reading this? And yes, I posted this back to back with yours on purpose. Aidan used to be a lawyer!), as it describes what goes through your mind when you’re thisclose to reaching your goal.

Listen to your dreams2 by wordboner

As I type these words, my fingers are tingling and my palms are sweating. I’ve had these symptoms before. A lot recently.

Why the sweaty tingles? Good question. And you, my friends, deserve an answer. So do I. Truth be told, I’ve had this tingly/sweaty thing on and off for a while now. And it’s finally occurring to me that it’s not the copious amounts of Pike Place Roast that I pump through my veins at all hours of the day. No. (more…)

I want to start off my Guest Blogger Time with a post from my client, Charlotte Dauphin. A lawyer by trade & an artist by passion, Charlotte decided to quit her lawyering in September & focus on a career that would make her happy. While she’s still finding her way, she writes a beautiful blog, has an incredible portfolio, & just opened her very own Etsy shop! Charlotte published this post on Fri Oct 2nd, & I asked her immediately if I could share it with all of you.

the brave pig is still undecided on loungerie’s flickrstream

As you may (or may not!) already know, I quit my job. My last day of employment is officially October 9, 2009–that’s one week! People keep asking me why I would quit a “perfectly good job” in an economic environment like this one, where people everywhere are clinging hopelessly to ANY job they can get.

And my answer is simply that I am not fulfilled in this job. Yes, I make money. Yes, I have health insurance. Yes, I have my very own office. But when it comes right down to it, I can get those things in many places and many different positions–what I am looking for right now is a JOB or a CAREER that leaves me excited to get up in the morning, where I feel like my energy is making a positive contribution to society and the world.

There is a Buddhist philosophy that thinks that every person born into this world is equally capable of good or evil, and which part is expressed depends on the society and circumstances into which the child is born. If a child is born into a group of people who are unhappy and not contributing positively, then he is less likely to manifest the good and happy in his potential, and so forth. By that theory, every unhappy person in this world makes the world a worse place. So I am trying to change my circumstances so that I may be a more fulfilled and productive individual. (more…)

money by newbeautiful

This article originally appeared in my 9th newsletter, “mailed” on 9/3. If you didn’t get it, you’re missing out on total awesomeness. Sign up here & let the awesomeness in.

As a struggling actress, I knew that in order to feed/clothe myself & keep a roof over my head, I had to take as many day jobs as I had limbs. These day jobs equaled money, and comfort, and a Girls Night Out or two. Even though I was auditioning every spare second I had, and taking almost every acting job that was offered to me, those gigs never (I repeat: NEVER) paid the rent. When I think back on the 5 years post-collage that I focusing on acting, there are only two jobs that I can recollect that actually paid my bills. One was 8 months on a cruise ship, where the $500 or so I was getting paid a week seemed like $1,000,000, while the other was 3 months in Key West (although I did work as a waitress for a whole day – I left because I had to deliver food to the nudist bar in town & they didn’t even tip!). I didn’t have to supplement those jobs with any other jobs. I could live on them & them alone.

For the other gigs – the ones that didn’t pay the rent -I got paid in reviews. Or MetroCards. Or checks that came out to $100/wk (if I was lucky). Or in kind words. Or in the hope of a new connection. Or in fun & friends. I also got paid in blood, sweat, tears & embarrassment more than once (or twice or ten times). Probably the most financially rewarding gigs were the ones I did as an AFTRA extra, but those were unreliable. So, what did I rely on while I was pounding the pavement? Cashiering at Barnes & Noble, dressing up in big-headed costumes for events (I even appeared on Good Morning America as a life-size 1-800-FLOWERS gift box), being a hostess, an office manager, a casting assistant, a data entry person, a movie premiere usher/willcaller/greeter, another hostess, a waitress, a temp secretary, a temporary tattoo artist, an apartment show-er, a Carmen Miranda appearance person, a real estate agent…I think that’s it. If there are others, I must have blocked them out. (more…)