Archive for 2009

I get around: november report

I was inspired by my friend, the Communicatrix's "What's up" list and thought I'd let you know, well, what's been up.

TELEVISION
I'm the "Career Fire Starter" contributor on Connect with Mark Kelly (CBC TV National). Canadians can tune in at 7 to 9pm East Coast time on Wednesdays for my bit (the show is daily and it's great.) Everyone else, you can watch the segments online!

Click on these links to watch my recent segments (about 4 minutes each):
: Do you hate your job?
: Busting out of 9 to 5

INTERVIEWS
: The muse of Polaroids, Susannah Conway did a great "My Creative Life" interview with me.
: Kelley Diels from Cleavage asked me and a bunch of blogging bookphiles how to get a book deal for Write To Done, where I bitch repetitively about how Jurassic the publishing industry is.
: Life coach Tanya Geilser asked me to tell her some truth and lies. I left out the lies.
: My CBC TV bio lists 11 Things To Know About Me, like...#4. I've never had a cup of coffee. Not even a sip - for no particular reason. and #5. I have a phobia of anesthesia.
: And in case you missed it, I did an audio interview for the Red Lipstick Report.

OTHER PEOPLE'S COOL WORKSHOPS
: I took a two day Transformational Speaking Workshop with the master herself, Gail Larsen. I'll definitely be writing more about what I learned, and felt (because my learning was to feel more, think less...) but do check out her new book in the meantime. She's a teacher's teacher and I'm indebted to her insight and love.
: Gwen Bell, voted one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in Social Media" came to Vancouver to do her Mind Body Tech workshop, and over lunch we got an extra heaping of her social web expertise.

PHILANTHROPY
: Everyone should have a 100 Friends Project, like this one started by my friends Yasmina Zaidman and Marlowe Greenberg. 100 friends. $100 bucks each = $10,000 for 1 charity. This round, we're giving to Women for Afghan Women.

FIRE STARTER SESSIONS
I'm booking into mid January for Fire Starter one-on-ones. Email me directly if you want to do a session.

MORE GLAMOR FOR THE ROAD
The talented Anastasia helped me get all Zen and broody in this photo shoot. Meow.

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Hip holiday cards are possible! Click here.

 

What was your best trip in 2009?

I did Fire Starter Groups in about sixteen cities last year, so that's a blessed blur of airports, hugs and smokin' hot entrepreneurs.

Best Trip of 09 was my 40th birthday in Santa Fe. The monastery. 10,000 Waves. Howling to the coyotes from the hot tub. New cowboy boots. Stars dangling low from the sky.

 

seeking stories of unqualified successes

Billionaire and Virgin Airlines founder, Richard Branson, was a high-school drop out. Steve Jobs took a Calligraphy class in college...and then dropped out. Jimi Hendrix couldn't read music. Rachel Ray never went to cooking school. Yours truly ran a Washington-DC think tank and without so much as a diploma. (more...)

 

in praise of women: magnificent, spacious, fiery witnesses

Michelle at Wicked Whimsy inspired me to go a bit deeper with a comment that I made in a recent interview:

I often hear “women are our own worst enemies” in terms of our culture. I’m tired of that argument. I think everyone is their own worst enemy, and I don’t think it’s about something women have specifically against each other.

The uh, broadness, of my experience with the women throughout my life leaves me humble, optimistic, proud, and grateful. I've been screwed over by females in business and love, and I've planted a few landmines myself. But those enemy-making times were the results of bumbling, struggling humanness, not ovaries or hormones. We could argue the bio-instincts to procreate, protect and feed that spurs some nasty behavior from chicks, or about Queen Bees and Wanna-Bees -- all very real social dynamics, but I'm here to give witness to the force of pure Goddess positivity that is the hallmark of my life. Word.

MY LIVED EXPERIENCE IS THAT WOMEN SIMPLY ADORE WOMEN:

: Women shake their cosmic pom poms. Go sister go! How many times has a girlfriend told you, that you got it going on, before your head out the door or the dressing room? That even though your new haircut makes you look like a mushroom, your ass looks grrreat. They'll be looking at your ass all night, not your hair. Really, you're hot. Just keep your hat on and don't sit down. Go get 'em.

: A woman makes a cup of her heart. She carries your concerns and fears with you, for you. When your eyes fill up with teary news, so do hers. It happens with women you've known for years, with women you just met at the grocery store, in the ladies room, in a prayer circle. She carries your story with her. She mixes honey with it and re-tells it to you and helps you notice how great you're doing, in spite of everything, because of everything.

: Women bear their fangs for you. Like when Tammy threatened to butt her cigarette out between buddy's eyebrows if he didn't leave us alone. He walked, we rocked.

: Women feed each other - literally and figuratively. Think of all the meetings or retreats you've been to. Who brings the cocoa and sparkling water? Who remembers that you're lactose intolerant? Who asks you if you have everything you need?

: A woman will sacrifice without calling it a sacrifice. Leila was three months pregnant. I was moving cross-country (again.) Road trip anyone? We U-hauled our way from Seattle to Santa Fe with Leila coughing her cookies at every truck stop. I made it to my desert home and she flew back to the coast. And named her little girl Phoebe Danielle.

: Women hold on. It's like Audrey Hepburn said, "Never throw anyone out." It's like my soul sister Donna says, "We're all bozos on the same bus so just go with it." Meep meep.

: Women bypass history. A good sister listens to you bitch about the same jerk for years, she helps you pack when you're smart enough to leave, and she stands by you when you repeat the same lesson with the next emotionally lame lover. She loves you enough to let you do it your way - again, and again, like it was the first time. No drama is too big for big women.

: A woman howls to help you remember what matters the most. She loves you enough to intervene. She will drag you out of your comfort zone and into the moonlight to say "What the fuck are you doing? You may have temporarily forgotten who you are, but I haven't and I'm hear to remind you." Like when Karen told me over green tea, "D, maybe it's all about the divine feminine for you, maybe that's the question to live. It's time to move on from playing small." Arooooo!

: Women touch you. Michelle and I went to visit a friend in the hospital recovering from surgery. Miche brought lavender lotion and massaged Friend's feet while she lay achy and groggy. I'll never forget that stunning moment of loving service.

: Women push. Push babies out, push babies into the world. Baby ideas. Baby thought forms. Baby parts of you. "But Danielle, it's just a thought-form that you 'can't take more,'" Navjit told me. "Don't constrict. Expand." Boundaries, pushed.

: Women know how to navigate the layers because they love the layers. Folds of skin, the sediments of time, the stories that build into the present. Like how Candis not only remembers what I love but knows why I love it. She is reverent, keen, actively interested in the why of me - and that is what it means to be witnessed by a woman. Word.

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"The serpent was the best thing to ever happen to Eve." Get this and other pro-cool chick note cards for your favourite sisters.

 

holiday cards: when you care enough to be hip

Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza...I opt for "Happy New Year." That covers just about everyone with a sprinkle of inspiration. And that was the inspiration behind my "Ponder the beauty of possibility" note card.

In the festive spirit, you can now buy a 10 pack of the Possibility note cards for your holiday card list ($34.) The back is left blank for your message. The card stock is high-quality heavy weight luscious. The sentiment works for your freakiest friends and your faithful granny.

Click here to place your orders.

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Want to become an affiliate e-seller or store front retailer of these bold, lovely hot-sellers? Hot damn! Interested in bulk purchases for fund-raising items? Good thinking! Email me directly for details: [email protected]

 

 

lady gaga and your dreams come true

{if reading by email, click title to view video}

About four years after Stefani Germanotta was performing unplugged at NYU, she picked up a Grammy and started a sold out world concert tour, as Lady Gaga. A lot can happen in a short time.

What does Lady Gaga have to do with your life intention? She’s the poster chicka for swift success. Not overnight success (she started playing piano at age four, she opened up for New Kids on the Block, she got dropped by her first record label.) But swift success. Swift, like momentum and velocity. Swift, like one US presidential term, the time until your baby starts pre-school, the time it takes for you to go through two cell-phones.

For anyone who is dreaming, striving, believing, aiming, add this to your arsenal of faith n' sweat: you need to believe in speed.

When you believe that things can happen quickly for you, you’re adding another level of creative input into your life script.

This is a creative exercise (as in creating your reality,) suspend these notions: you’ve got to pay your dues, it’s all in the timing, one step at a time, don’t get ahead of yourself, good things come to those who wait.

Now, believe in speed. Imagine that within about four years you could have what you’re striving for, and much much more. Think about everything amazing that could be happening for you just one year from today ... then quadruple the amazingness. Think bigger. Imagine huge. Ponder colossal. Feel the zoom in your cells. Meditate on the feeling of arriving.

What happens when certain, big, success feels nearer to you? Your projected amazing future begins to rub off on you. You exhibit successful tendencies, you make more confident choices, you stick your chin out, and you keep your stamina up. You get in front of time. You start thinking like a star. Rising. Faster.

THE EVOLUTION OF GAGA

 

hot song: one day, matisyahu

Some Sunday Monday any day Hasidic reggae gospel fer us all. xoxo

For more Matisyahu, go to Matisyahu World

 

burning questions with the communicatrix: from the hip, to the heart

Without exaggeration I can report that some of the Communicatrix's writing has made me laugh so hard that I snortled - in front of people. Her poetry, which she publishes every Thursday, has made me cry multiple times. And she does these Full Monty Makeover ass-kicking assessments for websites, to which I'd like to send 77% of the world wide web - so many could use her high-sensibility whippin's.

Colleen Wainwright's approach to creativity and marketing is like Buddhist-meets-Ninja-meets-BareNaked Ladies, with a lil' Joni Mitchell thrown in. Just when you're all charmed by her sass, she'll throw out some cosmic truth that makes you go "yeah, true dat!" So lean in and listen up. The Communicatrix never fails to say precisely what she means and make you love her for it.

1. What's the dumbest thing that you used to believe?

You will laugh long and hard—and I will join you in this long, hard belly laugh, O Sister of Lessons Hard-Won—but I used to believe that if I was just a good girl and worked hard, everything would be fine.

I cannot tell you how many stupid, sorry years I wasted, not to mention how many opportunities I probably let slip through my fingers, by not Going For It and/or believing in the Limo Shortcut to Success. (more...)

 

 

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