Barbara Winter is on Twitter at JoblessMuse. If you’re on Twitter, follow her and you’ll like Twitter much more. If you’re not on Twitter, it’s worth signing up to get Barbara’s twirps.
Like this one. She pointed us to a poem about clutter. Clutter resonates with me, because I am constantly behind the curve clearing it out. And, like the poet, I believe there’s a lot of meaning under all that clutter.
Check out “What Lies Beneath”.
Another theme I’m focusing on as I prepare for the three-call series on amplifying vision, defining goals, and breaking them into steps is the point of the third call: Do what you can.
Ken Robert, who is sharing his own creative journey with all its stops and starts, detours, and distractions, is a fantastic inspiration for anyone trying to take charge of his or her life. If you’re stuck on the question What should I do first?, read When You’re Short On Big Ideas, Think Small.
Lately I have been pulling together information and ideas for a series of three calls I will offer along with Lisa Tarrant for people in the Outside the Job Box Career Design Consultant program offered by Valerie Young at ChangingCourse.com. In Valerie’s program people learn the approach she has used for years as a creative career and small business design consultant.
The purpose of the calls will be to help the self-study participants get very clear about their vision for the future, specifically what they want their work to look like as a creative career consultant. Then we’re going to talk about how to define specific goals to reach the vision, and break the goals into achievable steps. I want the participants to stay focused on their plans so they can establish and grow their businesses.
Since I’m gathering resources to offer the consultants in training, I was thrilled, but not surprised, to see a recent post by Jobless Muse Barbara Winter titled Building a Hothouse for Your Dreams. Barbara is gifted at nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit. She knows the key to growing small businesses is to grow small business owners. Here she offers eight keys entrepreneurs can use for lifelong growth.
How does serendipity work again? Am I thinking about something, and that resonates unconsciously with someone else, who is drawn to say or do something related to it? Or is that other person pondering and doing, and I unconsciously pick that up and start wondering?
Seth Godin writes a lot of blog posts, and often I read and think, “That makes sense and I see who the target audience is… but it’s not me.” But once in a while I read a post of his and think, “How did he know?”
I have conversations with people transitioning to self-employment, trying to design a small business or grow one from a tiny seed to a productive tree. Lately the questions and concerns have focused on risk. People want to know, What are the real risks of starting a small business and pursuing self-employment? That’s a great question, but the equally important question is, What are the risks of not doing it?”
Seth amplifies the difference in Apparent risk and actual risk.
Traveling with Barbara Winter seems to be a lot more positive experience than traveling with me. I am known by a couple of people for the surprising number of clowns driving around in old minivans – full makeup and costume – I seem to attract, as well as odd people overly eager to tell their strange tales. Barbara seems to be able to attract wonderful encounters with interesting, caring people, even while flying. Read a couple of happy travel experiences here.
I bet I’m not the only person who has procrastinated and come closing to missing out on Barbara Winter’s very special offer of free shipping on orders for the revised and updated edition of her book Making A Living Without A Job. I just recently place my order for a couple of copies, and I plan to buy one the next time I visit the Barnes & Noble library.
Order directly from Barbara by October 1st and shipping is free. Buy an extra copy or two because you’re going to want to give one as a gift, and then you’ll loan one out and forget who has it and need another copy.
Ken Robert just returned from a vacation and he has a unique way of sharing pictures from his travels. The post is worth reading just to get to savor the poetic wit of the phrase he coins in the opening paragraph.
Apparently, being up in the mountains, he had one or a few of those mountaintop experiences and returned to the valley a little lost. I know it’s a common occurrence, but I have to say I’m grateful that I’m hearing other people talk about it lately, because it seems like I have a homestead in the “lost forest.” Read how Ken got his groove back, a straightforward model for all of us who want to move from rut to groove.
And as enjoyable as it is to read Ken’s Mildly Creative site, I was thrilled to read that he is going to post poems and sketches and other creative endeavors on his Ken and Paper blog once again. Mildly Creative was actually born there, as he developed and applied and learned about the value of doing something creative daily. Now he realizes there will be some creative overflow that doesn’t fit the focus of Mildly Creative.
Announcing the revival, he wrote, “Besides, I think everyone needs some place to go where they have no agenda, somewhere they can play and explore and simply be. This is my place.” Sounds like a play lab to me! Read his latest poem here and let him know what you think.
When I consult with people on steps to transition to self-employment and grow a small business, inevitably we hit some roadblocks when we discuss marketing. Even though I start with a simple, basic overview and the easiest, least expensive things to do, a lot of people get overwhelmed by all they have to consider and learn. I feel like the Grinch, stealing their Christmas. But after reading Seth Godin’s “overview” of questions to ask about your website, I can see that he’s the real Grinch! I’ve been a puppy dog Santa compared to him. But he’s successful because he knows the right questions, like Things to ask before you redo your website.
Sometimes the only thing to move more slowly than a corporation is a non-profit corporation. “When was the last time you had an interaction with a non-profit (there’s that word again) that blew you away? …if you don’t have a ton of volunteers happy to help you, then you’re not working on something important enough.” Seth challenges that head-on in The problem with non.
New media opened the doors for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs to get in the conversation with lots of prospects for a very low cost. Seth Godin sees this is part of a paradigm shift where marketers will build their own platforms instead of using those of the entertainment media.
The platform vs. the eyballs
This is an experimental style of post for me. While I was planning and writing an article with a focused topic for my Burger Bites series about coaching, lots of “extra” ideas were spilling over. I was sure they didn’t fit in that article because they were tangential and even random. What better place is there for me to be tangential and random than this blog? It’s my playground and laboratory, my “play lab,” where I can mess around with concepts like psychological gravity and psychic density.
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I have been explaining to people for months now, maybe even years, that using one or a half-dozen marketing tactics is not a marketing plan. Tactics are the means of implementing a strategy. Without strategy, which states the clear outcome desired with defined steps, there is no plan.
Seth Godin explains it succinctly, and of course with a lot more authority, in a recent blog post. You can read what the guru says here: