Before we go any further, I know you’re dying to find out the answer to yesterday’s cliff-hanger question: What body part is this?

As it turns out, it’s Marvelous Mama Unbelievable Underwear from ASSETS, so everyone was right – it’s a pregnant belly! Am I an idiot that, on first glance, I thought it was padding to give yourself a big ole butt? Tara, Megan & I were hysterical, and I was thisclose to asking the ASSETS woman in the booth about it until I realized what it was called. Regardless, it’s totally funny. That butt is huge.

So, day two! I skipped breakfast that day as well as the keynote because a lady needs her beauty sleep (especially ’cause I was out the door on Day One earlier than my usual wake-up time & I had a bachelorette party to attend the night of Day Two), and went right to the first Break-out Session I thought would be best for me (there are 7 offered simulataneously and none are repeated, so the pressure’s on!): Networking With a Purpose Via Social Media. Because of the Session Fiasco of 2010 that occurred the day before, I didn’t have high hopes – and wow was I proven wrong! The panel was made up of Laurie, Ana, Carmen & Heather & they rocked it so hard that I took 5 pages of notes (comparitevly, I only had 3 for the whole day on Day One!). If you click here you’ll get the transcript of the whole session so I won’t regurgitate it for you, but I had to say my big a-ha! moment that came out of this was the gem, “Recruiters need applicants as much as applicants need recruiters.” This was a lesson I learned as an actor – that the casting director is desperate for you to be the right person when you walk into the room! I didn’t think of this being directly applied to career changes but, well, duh! What a fantabulous perspective.

After lunch, which I spent on-site gabbing with Nicole Indelicato, a to-be life coach studying with Martha Beck & working on her branding designs with Jess Swift! Obviously she’s a smartie pants, so we ended up not only spending the entire lunch being anti-social together (wait, can you be anti-social with someone else?), but went to the rest of the afternoon seminars together, too. (more…)

Ok guys, it’s totally time for my BlogHer post! And I know why I’ve been puttin’ it off/avoidin’ it since it ended, um, 11 days ago (oy!) – it’s a beast! So much to share, make fun of, & give props to.

I’m gonna start at the very beginning, which Julie Andrews tell me is a very good place to start. Early Friday morning I had a 10a appointment to be interviewed in the PepsiCo booth as part of their Women: The 5G Network series. I wasn’t sure how they got my info or what they were gonna ask me, but that didn’t stop me from saying, “Duh!” So, right after the Newbie Breakfast (which I only caught the tail-end of, because I went to the non-newbie breakfast without realizing it because, um, I was a newbie. But thanks to Anna and Lori for saving me a seat anyways!) I tried to counteract my extremely poor sense of direction & find my way to the Expo Hall that the PepsiCo booth was in. When I finally found it (after, um, 25 minutes – and it was 10 feet from where I was for breakfast!), I was shocked to find not just a stage, not just lighting equipment, not just two cameras, not just a “set”, not just a super sweet Access Hollywood-like interviewer, but a make-up person, too! I mean, for serious, people. I loved the heck out of this, and here’s the finished product to prove it!:

So fun, right? My headband had a cute feather on it that was actually on the side of my head facing away from the camera, but you live and learn, right?

I can go on and on about Day 1, but Tara did a great job of describing my sentiments exactly in her recap called, approporiately, blogher10 – it was, um, weird. Here are the highlights in picture form:

Top left: Me with the actual Jimmy Dean Sun guy from the actual Jimmy Dean Sun commercials. He asked me my name and I said “Michelle.” I asked him his and he said “The sun”. Ah, to be an actor again. Top right: Me and Mrs. Potato Head (credit Tara). This is when it struck me as odd that this constitutes going to work. Bottom left: One of the three Marmadukes from the movie. To take pictures with. What?! Bottom right: The funnest part of my day! We skipped out on the Lean Cuisine lunch or whatever they were serving at BlogHer and I went to Johnny Utah’s with (from l-r) Tara, Megan, Rebecca (who tweeted this about me: “Musical theatre kid turned career coach. Great vintage style. Carrie Bradshaw’s smarter little sister.” She’s so my new bestie) & Ashley. (more…)

Layout by Khristian. I totally stole it right from her site, but I have a feeling it’s cool.

Get your mind outta the gutter – Confessions of a First Timer is a new (clean!) e-book from surface designer / photographer / new awesome friend, Khristian A. Howell! I met Khristian blocks from my home in Brooklyn, as she & Jess Swift came together from Atlanta to exhibit at Surtex, and then came together to Brooklyn to go to the Flea meet me! Khristian patiently put up with the hugging and squealing Jess & I did on the street when we (finally!) met in real life, but if I knew about Khristian’s awesomeness then like I know about it now, I would have hugged and squealed with her, too! By the time Surtex was over, the 3 of us had our own Sex & the City-like girl club (minus Miranda, I think) & cried that we would be separated ’til next year. I’m still crying. (more…)

“I thought about how easily we are all brainwashed by our society and culture to stop thinking and just assume by default that more money equals more success and more happiness, when ultimately happiness is really just about enjoying life.” -Tony Hsieh, Delivering Happiness

Yay hooray – it’s a new Rousing Review! This month I’m reviewing Delivering Happiness, the new book by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. I know it’s a bit of a deviation from my usual creative career books, but I was interested in it because (a) I’ve always been intrigued by the stories I heard about Zappos, from offering their trainees $2000 to quit to sending a client flowers when they heard that her mother passed away(b) I was sent an advance copy of the book with the promise that I’d review it on my blog. But, the former is what lead to the latter, & I’m so glad to have gotten my hands on a kick-ass book that might’ve taken me some time to pick up otherwise.

Delivering Happiness is, essentially, Tony Hsieh’s autobiography, despite his young age. I’ll admit, it was tough to get through the first half of the book without really wanting to hate the guy, who sold his first business, LinkExchange, to Microsoft for $265 million before his late 20s. But I liked him in spite of myself, as he’s a self-made guy who has built his success around creating a life he loves. He walks the walk, talks the talk & even ate $40 million, which Microsoft offered him to stick around for a year as an advisor. At first, he took it (he ain’t no idiot), but when it led to multiple weeks of waking up late, heading to the office, checking/sending emails, & going home, he walked. Tony writes:

“I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do, but I knew what I wasn’t going to do. I wasn’t going to sit around letting my life and the world pass me by. People thought I was crazy for giving up all that money. And yes, that decision was scary, but in a good way…I had decided to stop chasing the money, and start chasing the passion.” (more…)

“Venturing out of your comfort zone may be dangerous, yet you do it anyway because our ability to grow is directly proportional to an ability to entertain the uncomfortable.” -Twyla Tharp

When I decided to read The Creative Habit right after The War of Art, I have to admit I gave myself a great big pat on the back. The War of Art was great in helping artists recognize & identify where & why Resistance (that pesky Vampire!) stops you from doing That Creative Thing You Do, but the phrase “A Practical Guide” at the bottom of the cover of The Creative Habit made me think that it would address the “how.” Sure, The War of Art really hit home with that beloved phrase, “Just do it (Every day. No matter what),” & while that’s simplistic & powerful in so many ways, the artist & life coach in me wanted more. I was hoping The Creative Habit would deliver it, and it did – to a point.

The Creative Habit is divided into chapters that formulate a foundation for Tharp (Spine, Memory, Accidents, etc). She delves into personal anecdotes & advice, always followed by a suggestion of different exercises to further you along in your discovery & personal interpretation of that idea. For example, Twyla speaks often of “scratching”, or the process of “digging through everything to find something” – an idea, an image, anything that’ll turn into a tangible idea that’ll spark your creative endeavor. One of the most memorable exercises comes at the end of the chapter, where she encourages the reader to take a handful of coins in any number & denomination & toss them onto a table to see how they fall, & then rearrange them into a pattern again & again & again, like “a musical chord resolving.” I can see how it helps her, a world-renowed choreographer, come up with new configurations for her dancers. I can see, also, how it helps me, a creative person looking for a new perspective, to see infinite possibilities in something that I usually wouldn’t look twice at.

Tharp also offers great stake-wielding stuff to slay the Vampires that hunt all of us Creatives. She lays it out on the table (i.e. “Somebody’s done this before!”) & then knocks it down (i.e. “Honey, it’s all been done before. Get over yourself”). She also speaks of the joy of planning (not overplanning!) & imperfection, how to determine if you’re in a rut, how to keep your groove going & how to deal with failure. Her advice is comforting & inspiring, all the while giving me new perspective & allowing me to feel that I wasn’t alone. It’s no mistake that rarely do 2 pages flip by that aren’t marked by my highlighter. (more…)

“Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are & become it.” – Steven Pressfield

It’s the first in my monthly Rousing Reviews series! OK, it’s technically the second (I reviewed The Renaissance Soul in June of ‘09, so that totally counts, right?), but it’s the first on a consistent basis. Let’s face it, our lives sometimes get in the way, & it’s tough to sit down with a book that you know will do ya a world of good, both for yourself & your fans/readers/followers/clients. So yes, this series is absolutely a structure I set-up for myself to make me accountable to read the books that I’ve been tagging along the way. See, I life coach myself sometimes! And duh – obviously I do this for you kids, too (say it with me: “Awwwwww!”).

I wanted to start off the series with The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield because it’s really a hell of a title. What artist wouldn’t want to go into battle, break through their creative roadblocks, & emerge victorious with the Writer’s Block Vampire’s head on a stick? And while I’d like to say that that’s what this book does, I can’t. Not to say it won’t help slay that Vampire, but it’s more about discovering all the ways the Vampire’s likely to attack you & instilling yourself with the mojo to make it not only not bite you, but to get it to leave you the hell alone, at least until tomorrow.

Let me explain. The War of Art is split into three books: Resistance (Defining the Enemy) Combating Resistance (Turning Pro) & Beyond Resistance (Higher Realm). As you can tell, Resistance is the Vampire here. The long & short of it is that every single thing that causes a creative person to shelve their creativity – whether it’s perfectionism, addiction, procrastination, or the million other excuses a creative person gives themselves to not do – is a direct weapon of Resistance.  For me, Book One was eye-opening, powerful, & worth the price of the book a few times over. When I flipped the page to Book Two, I may or may not have clutched it to my chest & said to myself, “You will be beaten & dog-eared when I’m through with you.” And then I may or may not have kissed it. I couldn’t help it – hearing about all the different Vampires that get in the way of making Art, why, it was a wonder that any Art exists at all! The whole reason Resistance exists is to “shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work” & “the more call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel towards pursuing it.” How evil is that? It’s so evil that the more we discover something that’s authentically us, that’s calling us to do it, the more it attempts to stop us! That is so, so evil that I not only wanted it’s head on a stick, I wanted to chop it up into pieces & then stomp it to double death! Seriously, it pissed me off. (more…)

This review originally appeared in my 2nd newsletter, released on June 2nd. If you haven’t seen this before, sign up here & be part of the cool crowd that doesn’t read book reviews a month after they’re written. Because nobody cool reads old book reviews. Y’think Prom Queens read old book reviews? Hell no.

Are you a Renaissance Soul? To find out, answer the following questions with a “Yes” or a “No”:

1. Do you find a lot of different things interesting/worthwhile?
2. When you really understand how something works, where it fits, &/or how to do it, do you lose interest?
3. Do you hate that there’s an expectation for just one answer to the question, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”
4. Do you find it almost impossible to describe what you’re going to be doing in 5 years in singular?
5. Do you have a tough time choosing?
6. After a year or two at working in one place, do you get the itch to move on?

Answered “Yes” to at least 4 of these questions? Then you’re a Renaissance Soul – just like me & a ton of other Creatives! (more…)

All the cool kids have the BYW Friends badge. You can maybe get your own later by keeping your eye on this site.

Today marks the very last day of the month-long amazingly awesome blogging e-course class I’ve been taking, given by the insurmountable, unsurpassable, super-fantastical Holly Becker of decor8. I’ve only been reading Holly’s blog for a few months, but I was sucked in quickly by her pretty pictures, beautiful decor & design finds, wonderful writing, and…well…I can best describe it as “inspiration”. She’s inspiring both on the page (the screen?) & off, and the fact that she lives (& blogs!) her passion is, um, inspirational!

When she announced that she was going to offer a blogging e-course to a limited amount of students, and offered a sign-up form to get notified right away, I had only one thought:

“Duh.” (more…)

As my avid readers (hi, Mom!) know, I’ve been getting organizationally coached by Julie Bestry of Best Results Organizing (and yes, there is a larger post on that to come as soon as I can collect all my thoughts). Because she is awesome, she provided me with a copy of her eBook, Tickle Yourself Organized.

I’ve heard about Tickler Files before, but all that I took away from my reading was that “The Tickler” was a great name for a supervillain. Doesn’t that sound like Batman’s nemesis? A friend of The Joker?

OK, so I did pick up a bit more about The Tickler in my cursory reading of Getting Things Done as well as the productivity blogs I devour, but I didn’t honestly think it would be conducive to my life. What do I need to be reminded about, besides paying bills? I set that up to get an email notification when one was due, so that was that. No Tickler necessary.

Well, it wasn’t until I read Tickle Yourself Organized that the lightbulb appeared over my head (& it was on a crowded subway, so everyone could see it): (more…)