creativity

part 1: lifeblazing interview

This is Part 1 of a 3-part interview that life coach Erika Harris, did with me. It's fabulous...not because of moi-moi-moi, but because Erika asks thoughtful questions. The result: some really useful (and hopefully inspiring) material for both business and life. I felt like I'd just cozied up with Charlie Rose. But better.

PART 1

This segment is particularly useful if you're interested in publishing - online or traditional. I give a zip-zap run down of what I think is up in the industry right now. I also talk about generosity + entrepreneurship, and the power of telling your own story.

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THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS ebook is open for pre-orders, don'tchya know!

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FIND Erika Harris
Erika Harris is an empathic coach specializing in the needs and gifts of Introverts, Empaths and Highly Sensitive People (HSPs.) She works with individuals and pioneering companies to brainstorm the ways that skillful sensitivity can be mastered and monetized.

site: Joyful-Work-For-Sensitive-People

 

my dominatrix of decisions rides a hedgehog

How do you know when to say yes or no to a project or a client? Which Big Ideas get the green light or the kibosh? What exactly does "right time, right place" mean for you?

Only your Dominatrix of Decisions knows, and she has your best interests at heart. She will love you to the edge of your greatness, and snap her whip when you waffle. She wants you to stay on purpose, on target, and on fire. She wants you to say no to soul-draining gigs and time suckahs. She wants you to keep it pointed to where you want it to go, dammit.

This is how I employ her (remember, your Dominatrix actually works for you.) When a new idea or opportunity comes into view, I picture her in a kimono, with smokey eyes and platforms (yes, she is my altar/alter ego.) She leans over, surveying my potential choices, and whispers one word to me: Hedgehog. And snap! I know just what to do. Every time.

Let me back it up. Jim Collins wrote the mega seller, Good To Great. Good to Great features the Hedgehog Principle. The Hedgehog Principle is one mighty power tool for clarity and purpose-driving. It is deceptively simple. If you don't have a hog, you lose.

Hedgehogs for personalities or service-providers may seem different than that of product makers. But it's the same science. Here's a comparison of My HH vs. that of yoga wear business phenomenon, lululemon athletica's - as told to me by founder Chip Wilson a few years ago. BTW, lululemon is religious about the hog -- it's one of the many things I love about them.

ME vs. lululemon...an illustration of Hedgehogs at work

1. A) I am deeply passionate about: Liberating truth
Freeing the truth and truth that frees. My purpose is to inspire authenticity - freeing talent, ideas, voice, opinions, consciousness. I journey to freedom. It's a cellular-level commitment, and when I've diverged from that path in the past, the cost has been dear. When I stay the course of my truth, and support others in doing the same, I prosper in every possible way.

1. B) lululemon is deeply passionate about: helping people to be better athletes.
It's that simple and grand. Every single thing they produce - from innovative fabric that wicks away sweat, to thumb-hook sleeves - is a means to that end. Period.

2. A) I can be best in the world at: Sharing my journey
Telling my story and inviting other people to relate. I racked my noggin' on this one. But eureka! It came to me...no one can tell my story or share my acumen like I can. My experience is what I sell and the more I show up, the better.

note: the most important word in this Hedgehog sentence is can. It's not what are you the best in the world at (maybe it's not on purpose,) or what do you want to be the best in the world at (could be unrealistic.) Maybe you can only be the best in the world at making widgets that fit widget machines in Scandinavia, or advising females under thirty on investing in ethical funds in North America, or wedding planning in the tri-state area for under $20,000. Or maybe it just one thing you sell, such as...

2. B) lululemon can be best in the world at: women's black yoga pants.

Not very glamorous or all-encompassing, but a undeniably fundamental.

3. A) My economic engine is driven by: Multimedia.

I make money by packaging my wisdom in as many forms as possible, and most of those forms become passive income (ie. books.)

3. B) lululemon's economic engine is driven by vertical markets.

I do not bust a move, say yes, or make new stuff unless it's in sync with my Hedgehog Principle. It's pure, it's powerful and it works good and hard. Snap! Now be a good boy or girl and go get yourself a hog of your own.

 

hatched joy: happy birthday to white hot truth

A divine science preface:
1. The part of a flame that burns the hottest is actually white. At that stage of intensity, fire becomes hot enough to liquefy metal. That's alchemy.
2. A healed broken bone is stronger than before it broke.
3. Legend has it that the Phoenix becomes more majestic with each reincarnation.

White Hot Truth turned one year old last week! Holy smokes! Before we light the candles, let's savour the darkness, where beautiful, messy things happen.

Last January I was tending the funeral pyre of my last business and it's ensuing very messy divorce.

Illusion-nuking-initiation-heat. Phoenix fire licking my soul. Cleansed to naked. Clothed by loved ones.

While an old dream turned ashen, I began to hatch. I'd write posts and map out the new year/me, while listening to Details in The Fabric over and over. (Kisses to Jason Mraz for writing that just for me.) I brought my ipod to my Mr. Buddhist Shrink and played that song for him because I could barely speak the truth of what was going down. I was going down. In flames.

... If it's a broken part, replace it
If it's a broken arm then brace it
If it's a broken heart then face it

And hold your own
Know your name
And go your own way
And everything will be fine...

"So everything's finally falling apart." Mr. Buddhist Shrink said to me, very, very softly. I nodded, just one nod.

That was then. Post hatch. Pre-flight.

This is now. The view is so different from this altitude. It's macro and micro. I can see farther and closer up. My in-box is full of opportunity. We sing in the kitchen more, where every morning there is granola, and Spiderman slippers, and a Fireman who says, "Big day today, babe?"

"Big one, babe. Big." I say. I say that on glam-packed strategy days, and on the mascara-free days when I wear my floppy knit hat, and commune with my Mac to do one thing and one thing only: MAKE STUFF.

Freedom is always big. Wingspan, big, fanning flames. Birthing the day.

So today I'm getting out one virtual birthday candle for every lie I told myself about who I was and what I wasn't; for every time I let crazy pass for "sane"; for every time I kept my mouth shut, for all the birth days I missed, when I could have been making stuff that made me smile. So many candles to be impeccably grateful for.

Oh how very far we humans come, after breakups and break-throughs and broken wings. Just look at us! Banged up and so beautiful. Wiser for the wear and tear. Capacities expanded.

Trace your steps and celebrate.

"Sometimes," David Whyte writes, "everything / has to be / enscribed across / the heavens / so you can find / the one line / already written / inside you."

My one line: White Hot Truth.

And that's the best birthday song I ever done sung. Thank you for coming to the party.

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Tune in for my next post which will be devoid of abstract poetic nuances and packed with a highly practical tips from my year's lessons in the blogging business.

Please join the Haiti Blog Challenge.

Heads up: My Fire Starter Sessions are increasing to $500 as of March 1. Supply, demand, and writing desires. It's time. I still have one or two spots left for February.

xo
Danielle

 

what’s on your stop doing list?

I'm starting to map out my creativity intentions for 2010. (I prefer not to use the word "plan" - seems so flat. "Intentions" feels fused with both direction and moxy.) Much is swirling in my DNA. Three new books...maybe five. Concepts with roots. Roots growing concepts. Streams of coin, streams of giving... And white space. Mostly white space - can never seem to get enough of it.

If I'm to realize my intentions, what I stop doing is just as important as what I start and continue to do. Stopping = the white space. Stopping = room to run free and create from the deepest place of being without restraint or compromise. Stopping = more time for what matters most.

I know how to go, go, go. Stopping, I've learned is the stuff of mastery.

Master Jim Collins sums it up brilliantly in this USA Today article. He brings forward three profoundly simple questions from Darwin Smith CEO Kimberly-Clark, which became the foundation of the Hedgehog Concept:

1) What are you deeply passionate about?
2) What are you are genetically encoded for — what activities do you feel just "made to do"?
3) What makes economic sense — what can you make a living at?

If your answers to what you're doing come up no, no, and no to these questions - then stop doing it. Shut 'er down. Take it off your plate. Let it die. Cease. And exhale a sigh of relief. You can move with more velocity toward your dreams.

Look back on this year and get very clear about what sucked. What didn't work, got mired with resentment, felt onerous, weighed you deadly down? A note on resentment: you can't continue to do things you fully resent and think they're going to transform into enjoyable activities over time. It just doesn't work that way. Think of resentment as a blaring, mega-watt STOP sign. And stop.

WHAT'S YOUR STOP DOING LIST? Here's mine for 2010:

1. No red eyes flights. Ever. Never worth it.
2. I will not leave Twitter, Facebook and Gmail open while I write. I need blocks of two to three hours to think clearly and craft that clarity into something useful. Writing is a "yes!" to all three of the questions.
3. No schlepping my old book to speaking gigs to sell. Forget it. I pay for extra luggage, I cuss at my suitcase as I'm heaving it up escalators. And besides, since I left my last company, I don't make a cent off of the book (because I signed the copyright over to the incorporation.) See questions 2 and 3: I'm not passionate about it. I can't make a living at it.
4. I will continue to lovingly decline requests for on-going coaching. I'm a Strategist. Capital S on that. I do my very best work around creativity and entrepreneurship, facing forward, thinking big while being ruthlessly pragmatic. I'm not great at untangling things that happened yesterday. See question 2. I'm just not made for it.
5. I will not pursue a conventional publishing deal for my next project. I will fly higher, faster, on my own for the next round. Innovate or die.
6. I'll stop answering business-related email on weekends. I've thought of putting "I don't work weekends" in my e-signature, but that'd be just obnoxious.

All of the above activities only serve to make me busier, or put me out of the zone of my true strengths. (And you know how I feel about busy-ness.) Stopping what's distracting, draining, or aggravating you doesn't require any heavy lifting or stamina. Just love and self respect.

So seriously, consider this a poll. WHAT WILL YOU STOP DOING FOR 2010? What ACTIVITIES are coming OFF your to-do list? What will create more space when you get it off your plate? This will be the topic for my CBC TV segment this week and I'm trolling for your chutzpah and boundary-championing.

xo
Danielle

 

hot song: one day, matisyahu

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

For more Matisyahu, go to Matisyahu World

 

what your repulsions have to say about you

What repels you? Nosy neighbors. Organized religion? Bohemia? Modern design or gold-gilded embellishments?

Knowing what does not work for you is a powerful tool for creating more of what does work for you. Measuring positive feelings against negative feelings is one of the constructive ways to use comparison, and it’s a great way to tune into our deeper truth.

Write down 10 things that creep you out, turn you off, or drive you nuts. Then ask yourself why it bugs you? Is it a past association, an unexamined story that you’ve been telling yourself, an indicator of your truest values?

(My list goes something like: people who walk in without knocking, lack of gratitude, airy fairy types, wood paneling, relentless sarcasm as a barrier to intimacy, red & black as a clothing colour combo, when people call and say, "Can you call me back?" without leaving more of an explanation. Long winded explanations.

When I look at the first cut of my peeve list it has a lot to do with standards of respect and privacy. My values. And wood paneling reminds me of a childhood home that I swear was haunted.)

Is there anything on your list that’s taking up too much space in your life, or...could be re-assessed and maybe even embraced by you?

Contrast is an excellent teacher.

 

anticipate the grind and rock on

 

online manifestos + guides

Chris Guillebeau's Unconventional Guides are USEFUL. He's breaking the convention of light-weight e-books that aren't worth printing out, with a series of guides packed with substance, great interviews, current links and real inspiration. Most editions come with MP3 bonus audios and email updates. Very fine stuff.

The Unconventional Guide to the Social Web, by Chris Guillebeau + Gwen Bell
When you begin to use an active social media strategy to bring your message to people who care, everything changes. Traffic goes up. Sales go up. Whatever-you're-doing goes up. And that's what this project is all about. You, your message, and the rest of the world. From "basic" to rock star"packages, $58 to $129.

The rockstar package includes an audio interview with Gwen Bell + me, waxing philosophical about authentic branding and social media.

Click here to view more details (more...)

 

what’s the ‘big real’ of what you’re doing?

Do you know the story about the two stone cutters? When asked what he's doing, the first man replies, "I'm cutting this stone into bricks." When the second laborer is asked what he's doing, he replies, "I'm building a temple."

How much do we do in a day with our nose to the grindstone? Myopic, focused, making a list and checking it twice. Done. Done. And done.

But what have we done? Really?

There is a Big Real behind everything we do. Sometimes it's a negative Big Real. Sometimes it's a positive Big Real.

I'm not posting to my blog. I'm evoking the truth.
I'm not working on my book proposal to have it to my agent by Sept 1. I'm writing a book that could spark people into true action, and it's burning inside me, and people want it and they want it bad.
I'm not cleaning my house, I'm making it a Zen temple in which I can hear myself think and we can cozy up. (Okay, I'm just jokin' with that one. Vacuuming is vacuuming and it sucks hard. Pun. I know, I just caught it.) But you get my point.

What's became rote or banal for you that is really part of a great dream or vision or bad plot that you really don't want to be participating in?
Working overtime? How about: making sure you're getting to Miami for your next holiday to flame your mojo?
Hauling your ass out of bed for a run? How about: connecting with the power of your body and tapping into your creative thinking?
Cutting people's hair? How about: your salon is a place where people heal and are heard and have their beauty nurtured.
Waiting on tables: How about: you're learning and teaching loving kindness.
Filing papers for your boss? Maybe the Big Real there is that you're helping a do-no-good company make no-good money while your own genius wilts on the vine?

Look up. Zoom back from the tasks and see the holy weaving of your time and love and action. Make it matter. Because it does.

 

are you positively addicted?

So here’s my new favourite concept: positive addiction. I just love the sound of it. It’s righteous and honest ... a great combo. “I’m hooked, but it’s all good. No, really. I’m addicted, but it is positively healthy.” Like it.

I was talking to a friend today (okay, it was my shrink,) about my almost, no my definitely insatiable need for the entrepreneurial rush. “It’s a total high for me.” I explained. “Going from zero to sixty. I mean, the very definition of velocity makes me horny {distance over time.} I love having an idea when I’m walking the dog late at night and then in about six weeks actually making money from that late night glimmering, or seeing it on paper. And Christ, when I can help other people get a rush on it...it's pure juicy juice. I need that juice. Want...more...juice.”

“So what’s the problem?” my Jew-Bu shrink asks.

“Well...I’m not sure that kind of boldness is meaningful. Truly meaningful. Like, love and closeness and friendship.” I looked out the window, looking for the answer. Looked at him, ‘cause I’m paying him for answers.

“Positive addiction,” he diagnosed. “It’s a healthy high, it makes you stronger. As long as the craving for it doesn’t take you over, then it’s cool.”

Dr. William Glasser wrote a book about it (in like, 1976), aptly named, Positive Addiction. “A positive addict uses his extra strength to gain more love and more worth, more pleasure, more meaning, more zest from life in general.” Sounds about right to me.

He gives positive addiction these six criteria:

1. It is something noncompetitive that you choose to do and you can devote an hour (approximately) a day to it. {how about forty hours a week, minimum?}
2. It is possible for you to do it easily and it doesn't take a great deal of mental effort to do it well.
3. You can do it alone or rarely with others but it does not depend upon others to do it. {That rules out sex addiction if any of you were thinking that, but it clearly does not rule out masturbation, just in case you were thinking of that.}
4. You believe that it has some value (physical, mental, or spiritual) for you. {you betchya...me and the world, baby, the world!}
5. You believe that if you persist at it you will improve, but this is completely subjective - you need to be the only one who measures that improvement. {Like Churchill said, "Never, never, never give up."}
6. The activity must have the quality that you can do it without criticizing yourself. {That rules out consuming chocolate, because I still tend to criticize myself for mass consumption of Skor bars.}

Whether my drive for strategic creativity is a positive addiction or not, the very notion of re-framing it is incredibly liberating. I want what I want because it feels good. And it's taken me a good part of my adult life to fine tune my circuitry of sensation to be clear about those life-affirming desires - the good, the bad and the positively addictive.

What's your positive addiction? Fess up and be proud.