entrepreneurship

guilty desires unite

I think that the better part of mortal coil is snarled in reckoning with how we desire to feel, and what we can't bear to feel. Knowing how you want to feel is half the journey to liberation. But a funny thing often happens on the way to clarity. We get clear on how we want to feel, and then we muck it all up with self judgment. A story...

I was jamming with a client whom I adore. She's kind-hearted, she's willing to look at her shit and her gloriousness, and she's excellent at what she does. And, as it tends to happen, I slid in one of my favourite backwards burning questions:

"So in terms of 'success' how do you want to feel like?" I asked.

"I...I want to feel important," she admitted. And then it came, the back-paddle, squashing of desire: "But is it wrong to want to feel that way? Shouldn't I want to feel something else?"

Freeze frame. Is it wrong to want to feel a certain way? Why would it be wrong? Who says? What would happen if you let yourself feel a certain way? How about starting with being okay with wanting to feel a certain way and seeing where that leads you? Back to the convo:

"Is it wrong to want to feel important?" I echoed back to her. "Well maybe some therapists would think so. Could be your wounded inner child 'n all that, but let's work from here and now. In terms of your business, what would make you feel important?"

"Celebrity X would be photographed in my product. And the editor at that big magazine would decide to put me on the cover for the next issue. I'd be front and center at the gala. And my cheap clients would stop pestering me for cheaper product, and I would be working with the people who really value what I do." She was on a roll. Her voice was clear. I imagined she was sitting up straight.

"Uh huh. Well, that sounds like a rocking business to me. So, what do you need to do to help ensure that you feel important?" And with that, a very concise to-do list rolled off her tongue and the future looked brrrilliant.

"You know, just talking about what I'm going to do to make myself feel important makes me feel...important," she concluded. That's what happens when we take control of our desires. Moving toward gratitude helps you feels grateful. Aiming for power gets your power circuits firing. Planning for love makes you feel warm and fuzzy. And so it goes.

I used to have intense guilt for craving creative freedom - and then life forced me to go solo and I learned in one fell swoop that my guilty craving was a very divine calling - with all the rewards I was hankering for.

Enough with feeling guilty for wanting to feel the way you want to feel. Follow your desired emotion. Don't analyze it too deeply. Just let it roll and rumble a bit. It may be there to humble you, expand you, heal, surprise or reinvent you. Anywhere it leads, it's there for a divine reason.

. . . . . . . .

Calling paper lovers and cool communicators!: my new note card line rocks.

 

burning questions with ingrid vandervelt (insert vroom vroom sounds)

Ingrid makes me feel like I need to be more EXTREME...and productive. I thought I was cool for walking on hot coals and having a natural home birth, but IV jumps out of airplanes on a regular basis, races a Ducati and hosts her own show: On The Road With iV. She's written business plans and lined up the VC backing. And, if that's not sexy enough, she's a deep believer in the power of the Feminine..and one of the sweetest entrepreneurs I've jammed with. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

1. What do you know to be true, unquestionably beyond doubt, certain with every cell of your being, completely, passionately, righteously certain?
When I REALLY listen, and I hear ... the Universal voice that guides me every day.

2. When do you feel like a total superstar? (more...)

 

new york + vancouver, let’s get all fiery

I've just locked in dates for Vancouver + New York Group Fire Starter Sessions! I'll also be doing a cocktail evening talk in NYC - details on that forthcoming.

: Saturday September 26: New York, 10:00am to 1:00pm
: Saturday, October 17: Vancouver, 10:00am to 1:00pm

For details, check out my new GIGS + EVENTS page.
NYC will book up quickly and my Van gig is half sold. So, if you feel the love, click quick. Contact me directly to reserve your space: [email protected]

Lovelove,
Danielle

←   read all current inspiration articles

 

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...)

 

vancouver group fire starter date set

I'm offering Group Fire Starter Session in my favourite city in the world: Vancouver!

WHEN: Saturday, October 17 @10:00 to 1:00pm
WHERE: TBD (likely Gastown)
COST: $200

Got the mojo, but need the game plan? Have the strategy but need the emotional clarity? From start-ups to 9 to 5'rs who want to break out, this is a special opportunity to get strategically inspired and practically informed. It's a jam session-meets-lecture-meets tribal pow wow. We cover lot's of ground, from guerrilla marketing to life purpose. It's the business of life, really. Take notes.

3 hours. First come, first served. About 20 people per session. Happily, there's already a line up, so if you're game, I suggest booking in soon.

Contact me directly to reserve your space: [email protected]

"In addition to providing a joyous ass-kicker of an evening, you, yourself, are an excellence magnet of the highest order. Thank you. I expect to be reverberating with juicy goodness somewhere in your orbit for years to come."
- Colleen Wainwright, The Communicatrix, Los Angeles

"An excited, thankful update: my blog readership went up 60% last month. THANK YOU, THANK YOU a million times over for all of your practical inspiration. I really feel blessed."
- Lindsey Lewis, Yoga teacher, and Writer, Vancouver

“Your work is like a blazing path into my highest good with my business. I can't thank you enough for your authenticity, humor, and straightforward honesty. Your Fire Starter sessions are something I would do over and over again.”
- Lauren Harkness, Jewelry designer, Seattle

 

burning questions with Dyana Valentine

Rare beauty, busy-ddiction, and not holding it back

I'm so jazzed to launch my Burning Questions interview series with some wit and wisdom from the one, the only, (put your hands together for...) Dyana Valentine. Lady Dy came to one of my Fire Starter groups in LA this spring. It was a magical night in part to her shimmer and substance. Dyana is part Aphrodite and part Clarissa Pinkola Estes, with a heaping dose of the Grandmaster of Funk, George Clinton. And as my creativity coach, she's helping me tear the roof off the mutha f*cker (aka my next book.) Her claim: "Helping self-starters self-finish, one project at a time."

1. What are you trying to discover?
Ways we can connect and collaborate to make electrifying changes in the way business is conducted and life is lived.

2. What do you believe that you didn’t believe before? What changed your mind?
I never believed that relaxing into something would get you anywhere; that and that being calm could be productive. Oh, shit--where do I start? Every time I stop this autobahn-style schedule; rest for a day or so; take a day of silence--magic (and yes, I mean MAGIC) happens. Clients roll in; I have a productively inspiring dream; a new workshop springs out of a well-crafted, slow dinner at home. The evidence is there for the powerful productivity of peaceful energy--and so is the devotion to my busy-ddiction.

I still schedule myself within an inch of my truth, but on those remarkable days when I shut up and sit down--the beauty is there. Maybe I need to reexamine my belief that beauty is rare, huh?

3. What do you know the most about?
Photography, cooking, parsing large concepts into easy-lingo, connecting seemingly disparate ideas and making sense of patterns.

4. What book(s) are you always telling people to read?
Dan Roam: The Back of the Napkin
Malcolm Gladwell: Blink
Alice Waters: Chez Panisse Vegetables
Allan and Bargara Pease: The Definitive Book of Body Language

5. Inspiration flashback: When is the last time you thought, “Yes! That person has so got it going on!”?
Seriously: in June at the Fire Starter about YOU (mischievous sage, laser-lens witness). Melanie Orndorff (wicked smart idea mine); Jeni Herberger (stunner, visionary, ass kicker), Steve Gordon, Jr. (design a go-go, psychiatric nurse calming presence)

6. I’m going to give you a word. Tell me what the first thing that comes to mind when you read it... Ready? The word is: fecund.
Pregnancy, potential, creating conditions for miracles to happen; world-wide distribution; name in lights; striding across a stage with a cheek-mic rocking some prada-meets-patagonia superfly duds and TELLING IT.

7. What question are you currently living?
Knowing what I know about myself, my values and my goals: how dare I hold back?

Dyana, darling, You? Even more unleashed? I dare you.

find Dyana:
http://dyanavalentine.com/
on Facebook
on Twitter: @DyanaValentine

Next week's Burning Questions Interview: Chris Guillebeau, world traveler and founder of The Art of Non Conformity

 

the ‘as in the beginning’ buddha rule

There is a Buddhist saying:

As in the beginning, so in the middle, so in the end.

...and it's one of my life compasses. It never fails me and it's nearly always proven true.

Things often continue how they start. The click, the comfort, the clarity ... or the lack thereof, is there at the get-go and whatever the dynamic is, it’ll just keep going to greater or lesser degrees.

IGNORE EARLY SIGNS AT YOUR OWN PERIL

I was looking to hire an important player for one of my businesses and got set up with Start Up Guy. Start Up Guy blew off our first scheduled meeting entirely. He stood me up and didn't call for two days to reschedule (I'm not sure he even apologized to my assistant.) But he was so seemingly qualified and connected that I chose to ignore the As-In-The-Beginning-Rule, and hired him anyway. Do I need to tell you how that middle and end went? Yep. In one way or another he continued to stand me up, until it all came down.

I met another person who, in our first meeting expressed how nervous she was about our differences and my acumen. I just smiled to be kind. We worked together for quite a while. She kept being nervous. I kept being polite. Until anxiety got the better of her, and my silence brought out the worst in me...and it all came down.

EASY DOES IT, AND DOES IT GOOD

When I’m tempted to take short cuts or ignore early flags, I remind myself that the most fab, wonderful, sustaining experiences and relationships in my life all began incredibly easily. Spark! Yes! And Go!

Each one of my soul sisters was love and bad laughs at first site. I first met my husband at a birthday party and he talked to me about DH Lawrence and life. It was a slow burn of intrigue and candor and chemistry with just the right amount of awkward. Ten years later: same hot dynamic with varying degrees of awkward. My best clients began with amazing conversations in bars and at conferences. My worst clients began with sales pitches and grilling about how to save money. My best writing always begins with the first paragraph pouring out like electricity.

My most fruitful yeses were immediate.

Examine your first encounters and kick-offs. They may be a micro of the macro. You have oodles of critical information in the beginning if you’re paying very close attention.

And if you don't buy it from Buddha or me, then take it from Maya Angelou who says, "The first time someone shows themselves to you, believe them."

You know it, babe.

. . . . . . . . .

RELATED

stifled sensations

when does the idea fairy like to visit you?

. . . . . . . . .

What's better then a day in Golden Gate Park or a hangover in Las Vegas? A Group Fire Starter with me, y'all!
Click here for Berkeley + Vegas details...I'm there this August.

 

i’m loving: chris guillebeau, patti digh, david robinson

I've been on a learning binge lately - itchin' for some expansion, some deepening, just a few sparks. I surfaced some beautiful notions and change agents last week:

Chris Guillebeau, whose wildly popular site, The Art of Non Conformity tracks his enviable, audacious, and soon-to-be met goal to travel to every country in the world. Chris and I are in a blogging network together and he's as sweet and helpful as he seems. I downloaded and PRINTED out his 79 page free e-book, A Brief Guide To World Domination: How To Live a Remarkable Life in A Conventional World (and other important goals) and it burned away any mistiness I had about my own motivation to spread the get-off-your-ass-and-do-something-with-your-life message. Chris is upfront about his intention to inspire engaged living, and I find his work lovable and fresh.

Patty Digh, author of Life Is A Verb, + David David Robinson = Quality. Substance. Devotion. I participated in their free seminar last week on "Playing with your blocks." They didn't waste anytime getting to the sage stuff. Patti's opening question melted my heart and echoed the question I am living: "If you could imagine that your art could provide everything you needed in your life, how would you approach your art?" If I'd paid $500 bucks for that phone call, I would have got my money's worth in the first five minutes. I tweaked that question to suit my affirmative head space, printed it out and taped to the cover of my kraft Moleskin:

Feeling that my art provides everything I need in my life, I approach my art...

The conversation went on to explore false oppositions, split intentions, and other juicy inquiries like, "What's below the surface of what you want to achieve?" You can download the call free here.

Patti + David's Tele-Coaching series, Live Your Wild and Precious Life, starts this July 7.

And very honourable mention goes to:
Milana Leshinksy's The Bliss Factor is a good reminder about great priorities. It's not stylin' and it has a sales tone that I usually steer clear of, but I after I got over the packaging, I really appreciated, her e-book: Unlock Your Business Growth: Break Free from the "Time-for-Money" Lifestyle, and Create Massive Cash flow in Any Economy. The takeaways: being "booked solid" is no way to freedom, and "whatever it takes" is yours to define. You can download the free e-book from the home page.

Live to learn,
xo
Danielle

 

ignore everybody, by hugh macleod

Every pithy page brought from my new very favorite book by Hugh MacLeod brought on a yes!. McLeod is a foul-mouthed, illuminated advertising pro, who writes about marketing, meaningful living, and in his own way ... love. He is pulled forward by his thrill of "creative sovereignty." And he's one pragmatic, sweet curmudgeon. I'm in love.

Each one of his 39 Keys to Creativity is a sutra of street-wise insight. Here are my favorite gems:

: Question how much freedom your path affords you. Be utterly ruthless about it. It's your freedom that will get you where you want to go.

: So now corporations are awash with nonautonomous thinkers.
"I don't know. What do you think?"
"I don't know. What do you think?"
"I don't know. What do you think?"
"I don't know. What do you think?"

And so on.
Creating an economically viable entity where lack of original thought is handsomely rewarded creates a rich, fertile environment for parasites to breed. (more...)

 

4 questions to shine light on your vocation

Here are a few sparks of The Burning Questions that I ask my Fire Starter clients:

1. What do people thank you for most often? What do they come to you for, or say about you most frequently {"positive" or "negative"}?

Gratitude leads you back to your strengths. The greatest leverage you have for a return on investment is by investing in your natural talents and using them generously.

2. When do you feel powerful, on fire, free, incredibly useful? What do you get excited by?

True and sustainable success is fueled by pure inspiration. Always.

3. When someone at a party asks you what you do, what do you say? {And how do you feel when you say it?}

With truth comes grace and healthy pride ... and every entrepreneur needs a slam dunk cocktail line.

4. What do you think your form of genius is, what are you amazing at {work or life related?}

Everybody is amazing at something -- whether it's being a loyal friend, crunching numbers, motivating people or throwing great parties. {And your genius is a cousin to your joy.}

. . . . . . . .

UPCOMING GROUP FIRE STARTERS: LA, WHISTLER, PORTLAND, TORONTO... CLICK FOR MORE CITIES + INFO.