Original Impulse Blog

Celebrating My Amazing Clients

holiday card by Jamie Austad, 2009

I hope you’re feeling creatively inspired as 2009 winds down. I’m developing some fun things for next year but I must take my own advice about celebrating and pause to acknowledge some special people. My clients have made remarkable strides this year on their creative projects and I have to share the joy!

Please join me in celebrating the creative leaps of my clients.

This year Barbara Techel of Joyful Paws launched another book in her series Frankie the Walk 'N Roll Therapy Dog. Barb took advantage of my consulting services and used the Writer's Success Group to stay on track with her many projects. This year she published Frankie the Walk 'N Roll Therapy Dog Visits Libby's House.

Check out her books and other inspiring writing. Roll on, Barb!

Also working with the beloved dog species is Jamie Austad, who loves and shows Spinone dogs. Jamie was a coaching client and is a gifted multi-media artist and is now bringing her two passions together: greeting cards with lovely photos of the dogs.

Jamie also offers photography and videography for dog lovers. I love the way Jamie’s warmth, whimsy and vision show in her cards!

Carolyn Gibson wanted to develop a writing practice that fit into her schedule and allowed her a creative outlet that was more true to her passion for Paris. She began working with me this summer as a one-one coaching client and then joined the Writer’s Success Group to stay connected with her writing and a community of committed writers. An idea for a book was hovering, waiting to be noticed.

Once she made time for writing, her book idea materialized. I can’t reveal details but Carolyn’s book will delight women like me who love Paris. Carolyn is putting the finishing touches on the book proposal and sending it out. Stay tuned to her blog for news about her book!

Alyson Stanfield’s book I'd Rather Be in the Studio is a must-have for artists worldwide. This book is near and dear to my heart since Alyson hired me to help her focus on finishing the book while she ran her already successful business.

Since the book came out in 2008, Alyson has sold thousands of copies, is in her third print run, and is already working on an update for IRBITS. Alyson reported to me that IRBITS sales account for as much as 33% of her monthly income – incredible news!

Lisa DeYoung left her job last year and has been building her book making business, Rivertown Press.  Lisa makes beautiful blank books, adorned with her breathtaking calligraphy.

She sent me this notebook the other day and I can’t wait to fill it with my doodles and dreams! I’m excited to see Lisa develop her art into a business and to see how our coaching work and her time in the Free Write Fling has opened up paths for her.

I’ve been coaching Pam Porter to help her write her children’s book for several years, weathering the ups and downs of bringing a book into form. This December finds her manuscript 99% complete.

This book began as a series of free writes, and Pam has molded it into something remarkable.

The next step for January: Pam will be seeking an agent to represent her book, which I know will be a big hit! 

Cheri Ruskus and I have been coaching colleagues for almost a decade. In 2006, after a stint of coaching with me, Cheri launched Victory Circles, a mastermind forum for women entrepreneurs.

Since then, she’s added a radio show, a magazine, and is now initiating a facilitator training course so licensed Victory Circle leaders can start groups around the world. If you’re interested in connecting with women entrepreneurs, check out Cheri’s Victory Circles. I love seeing how Cheri has brought her business savvy and community building together in this powerful way.

Other clients are on the verge of launching new initiatives while others are enjoying the location independent life in Spain, Jamaica and Beijing!

In 2009, 60 people committed to write daily for a month in the Free Write Fling. Articles, novels, essays and most important, enjoyable writing practices have been sparked by the Free Write Fling.

I am celebrang many other client victories in addition to these. Seeing what others do inspires me to take my own creative leaps, and I hope this letter has sparked your creative impulses.

What’s waiting to be born from your creative efforts? If you are ready to take the daily steps necessary to birth your business, blog or writing practice, I can help. I excel at helping bring the creative impulse into form.

You might consider one of my groups or coaching. Accountability and support make the creative journey easier.

I’m accepting people in my morning and evening Creative Leap Club (Early registration ends December 31st!). You can also get an early joiner discount for the Best Writing Year teleclass on January 13th.  Again, these two offers have discounts that expire on Thursday December 31st.

There are two spaces available in my Writer's Success Group. Call or email me to inquire about joining.

Not a groupie? You’ll want to get full-on support with my year-long coaching package which saves you up to $1,300 on a year’s worth of coaching.

 It’s an honor to share the creative journey with my clients. I’d love to help you if you’re ready to bring your ideas to light.

Contact me by replying to this email or calling me at 303.442.0664 to ensure your place in my calendar for 2010.

To your creative success,

Cynthia

12 notebooks of 2009: I thank you

To the dozen notebooks that held my hopes, dreams, stories, sketches, travelogues, color, and life in 2009, I thank you.

Have you thanked your notebooks of the year?

How to Import a Blog to a Facebook Fan Page

I spent way too many hours trying to figure out how to import a blog to a Facebook Fan Page. (Different than a Facebook Profile page.)

I thought I was going crazy. All the tutorials I found included screen shots showing things that didn’t exist when I went to look at the page. Crazy-making, right?

I gave up. A friend assured me it was possible. I tried again. I gave up. 

Then, because I’ve spent fifteen years developing myself as a writer, I nudged myself to persist beyond what I thought was possible.  

And voila! I figured it out. I wasn’t crazy: the route I took was completely different than the other tutorials I’d found.  So, while my work isn’t to make technology easier to navigate, I’d be remiss if I didn’t share this with you.    

1. From your Facebook Fan Page, go to the bottom and click Applications.  
2. Click Ads and Pages, in the middle of the list of Apps.   You come to a page with a graph and info about making ads.  
3. Near top of page, click Pages.   This brings you to a page listing any Pages you have created.  
4. Find the Page you want to import a blog to.  
5. Click Edit Page.  
6. Find notes, about mid-way down.
7. Click Edit.  
8. Next page, near center to the right, is the box to import a blog.
9. Voi-frickin-la.

Spread the word and stop Facebook-induced insanity!

Have a Facebook Fan Page? Drop a link in a comment below and let me know. Join the Original Impulse Fan Page!

Pen Juju

If you’ve been with me since the beginning of Journey Juju, you may recall the sad day I lost my special pen in Sintra, Portugual. The pen had been gifted to me by a group of my clients and I cherished it. Until I lost it mere days after I set out on my year-long journey in Europe.

But I do believe that most events like that that seem distressing aren’t really so bad. I mean, no one died.

Still, I wanted that pen back. The Retro 1951 brand makes an incredible and perfect pen called the Tornado. I’ve been gifted many fancy pens in my life, and this is the first one that actually worked well. The ink flows fast, the barrel of the pen is smooth and of a perfect heft, and the design of a pastiche of postage stamps was very pleasing to my travel Muse.

This spring, I priced the Tornado in fancy pen shops in Paris and London, but since the pen is already expensive, I held off on paying the extra cost of paying in euros or pounds.

When I returned to Denver, I set out to replace my pen. I couldn’t find the cool stamp design online. I happened to be at Meininger’s during their pen sale month (May). They didn’t have the stamp design either, so I bought a beautiful blue-barreled pen. Ah, the feel of it! The flow of the ink!


I vowed never to take it out of the house, to use it only in the office or studio. I was happy with my pen juju until I got an email in August that made me even happier.

Turns out that somewhere along the way on my online quest, I had filled out a form to be in the Retro 1951 focus group. They were letting me know that they’d be sending me some items later for me to test.

It sounded great, but I forgot about it until I got a package from them. Now the real joy and pen juju kicked in.

In the package was a new Tornado pen, called the Dreamcatcher. The design is of a woman in a starry landscape with a star catcher in her hand. It’s delightful and whimsical and best yet, it glows in the dark.

And writes just as well as the other Tornado pens. Also in the package were some other stuff, a leather pen case, a deck of cards, the kind of thing you liked to get as a kid. 

I love my new Dreamcatcher pen and use it to capture all my dreams in my Moleskine notebooks. I even used it in the cover of my new e-book, The Graceful Return.

To fulfill my duties in the focus group, I answered a questionnaire. I mentioned that sometimes the flow catches on certain paper, and Jill, my Retro 1951 contact, sent me a new ink cartridge to try. It works great.

Needless to say, I’m a huge fan of the Retro 1951 Tornado pens. I recommend them as a gift for any writer.

And I am happy to say that my pen juju has definitely made a turn for the better since I lost my first one in Sintra.

2009 in Review: Relishing The Year (and the Decade!)

France, Christmas 2008

Successful people share at least one trait: they take time to plan the future and to reflect on the past. Taking time to acknowledge where you have been is the key to going forward, as I mentioned earlier this month in my article about celebrating.

I give this form out every year and fill it in myself. I hope you take some time this month to reflect on your year for the sake of culling insights or ideas for next year.

And it's even the end of a decade! Reflect on the last ten years and be amazed at how far you've come. (And if you've been a schlub all decade, now's your chance to start afresh!)

Let this exercise be easy. You may wish to light a candle, put on some soothing music, or do whatever you do to make this a special time of reflection for yourself. Read over this list and add your own questions.

Generate More Success by Celebrating Your Creative Achievements

Celebrating Dutch (and Belgian!) Style

I'm not a fan of the 'holiday season' with its enforced (consumer-driven) celebrations. But that doesn't mean I don't believe in celebrating. In fact, honoring life's achievements big and small contributes to generating more success.

Often, when I ask a client how she will celebrate a win (a completed draft, a publication, a blogging coup) she goes silent. Then she confesses that she hadn’t even considered celebrating.

You may not be inclined to celebrate either. If you’re like most of us, once you’ve netted a coup, you’re on to the next thing. We barely pause to acknowledge that we’ve done something remarkable. At most we’ll go to a restaurant for a nice meal. While I’m all for feasting as a way to celebrate, I think we can do better.

Celebrating is an essential and overlooked part of creative success. Here’s why:

Blog Update & What's Where

My 2008 Design File

I’ve enjoyed plenty of travel this year (two five-week trips in Europe, phew!). I’m happy to store my suitcase and buckle down on my winter projects. I have a backlog (would that be a back-blog?) of posts about my recent trip that I’ll be posting soon.

Stay tuned to the Journey Juju blog for reports on shopping in Europe, the variety of European markets, best places to eat in Venice and the best overall food award…it’s probably not what you think!

And watch for news of my 2010 European creativity excursions. I'm developing the curriculum now!

My posts about how to make writing and creating easier are on the Original Impulse blog. Travel-related posts will be on the Journey Juju blog.

Be sure to subscribe to both blogs for tips and inspiration on how to be most creative at work, home, in the studio and on the road.

Where It's At

If you're wondering where I'm posting these days, it's over at the Journey Juju blog. My summer project is a restructuring of my web site and blogs, so watch for the new, the exciting, the vibrant.

My upcoming blog subjects include:

• The Graceful Return: Coming Home and Harvesting Your Creative Inspiration
• 29 Gleanings from My Leap (continued from January 09)
• Travel
• Art
• Practice
• Denver Sketch Crawls News

Read more at Journey Juju.

FAQ: How to Stay Focused?

Question:

I don't seem to have a great attention span - I don't get lost in my work. Is that because I'm not confident in it, or not passionate about it, or just ADD? I would love some advice on how I might coax myself to be more prolific.

My Answer:

Who knows if you have ADD, but I know that we are living in very distractable times. I get distracted all the time. I bounce from one thing to the next. Like improv. I am currently working on an illustrated book that allows me to use collage, drawing, painting, calligraphy, writing…so I can play with many media.

Perhaps Nothing Is Wrong with You

I say quit thinking something is wrong with you. This is why I hate the idea that there is one way to create, and if you’re not doing it that way, or experiencing what others do, you’re wrong. That kind of thinking is gremlin fodder.

This is why I am so committed to helping creative people find, acknowledge and embrace their own process. What works for them. Shedding expectations and doubts. Playing in the creative zone freely.

Live Wrong-Free for a Week

Do what works for you. Give yourself a week to live in the land of ‘nothing wrong with me or what I’m doing.’ I can say this because I know you are unlikely to kill or steal or hurt anyone and say, ‘Cynthia said I could do no wrong!’.

Try it. Try a wrong-free week.

Find Your Creative Edge

Another thought. I still am not saying you have to be completely engrossed in your work for it to be legitimate. But if you are bored, that’s another thing. It could be that you need to challenge yourself more. Find your creative edge.

Look at one technical element to your work where you could buff up your skill level. For instance, I love doing calligraphy and I am CRAP at spacing. So I’ve been practicing spacing, playing with different ways to make sure the letters are evenly distributed on the page. No glaring white margin at the end.

This is a way to take a weakness and use it to be more fully engaged in my work.

So look to your own art. What’s an edge for you? What’s the next element of your work to be developed. Focus on that and see how engaged you become.

What do you think, reader? Does one have to be engrossed, in the flow, to experience satisfaction and progress? Or can we operate differently?

Where are you stuck creatively? Send me an email with your question, with Creativity FAQ in the subject line, and I'll post my answer on the blog.

Get the Daily Writing Habit This Year

If you're looking for a cheap and fun way to get writing into your life on a daily basis, you'll want to join the Free Write Fling.

Here's what one writer got out of the last Fling:

• My voice became more confident—ah, whatever! Just say it. If they don’t like it, who cares!
• I began to feel like a writer.
• Writing got easier.
• The just-do-it factor kicked in—other writing tasks became less daunting.
• I hesitate less when writing, less second-guessing.
• I even call myself a writer now.
• Yum. Thanks!

The Free Write Fling starts on February 1st and your only commitment is to write for at least 15 minutes for 28 days straight. The prize: a writing habit that sticks and that you enjoy.

Head on over and register before January 19th, when the early registration discount ends!

Oh, and if you write for all 28 days, you're eligible for two free coaching sessions with me to further your writing life. Sign up here.