Weekly-ish notes on navigating big change

An Adventurous Life

What’s unclear?

I'm deep in BOOK-mode, pouring all my focus into making sure I answer your questions.
I'm going back through my email folder of questions I've received (and answered!) over the past 3 years, to make sure the BOOK answers as many of those as makes sense.

But what else?

When you think of selling your thing, when you think of sharing it with others, when you look at your craftybiz and where you want it to go…what's still unclear?

Ask your question in the comments or privately through this form and I'll answer you right now AND in the BOOK

And nope, it doesn't matter if your business is real or a dream. It doesn't matter if it's brand-new or 10 years old.
What do you need to know to take you where you want to go?

 

Thanks for helping me make the BOOK exactly what the community needs!

 

Right Action

You might remember that last week I asked you for your questions (I answered them and recorded it for you here!).

I love doing this because it helps me see what it is you're thinking about your business and how you're feeling about the mass quantities of business-y advice out there.
And it always sparks at least a zillion blog posts, so that's a bonus.

Today I want to talk about a question I didn't get to answer on the call, because I got it after the call was over.

The asker asks:

What are some actionable steps I can take to reach new customers?I have a really great base of regular customers; they like me, they like my product, they come back for more. This is awesome. But I need more people like that, b/c the few great regulars I have aren't enough business on their own. How do I find more regulars?
I just don't know for sure what I can do, and I'm tired of reading stuff about infusing my business with my personality or using my blog properly, etc. I want actual steps I can take to find and get new customers, you know? I'm just not sure how else to get my product in front of the people who will buy it and love it and come back for more.

Emphasis mine

I love this because, as you know, I'm always talking about infusing your stuff with your you-ness and I can totally understand the frustration when that doesn't feel like action.

After getting this email (and responding to her with actual action steps!), I went back to my notes for the Right People class…
And I threw it all out.
I went to my BOOK draft and I found everything that is actionable…and that's going to be tomorrow's class.

I'm going to say very little about infusing your you-ness into everything you do because although that is the foundation  of everything, this is Right People 2.0.
This is for those of you who know what you make, you know a few of your Right People but you are ready to dig deeper, to get more, to stretch out and fill your capacity.

If you're ready for it, register here. The class is tomorrow, but if you can't make it, you'll get a recording if you register in time.

Radio, success, and hanging out with you

Right now (as you read this, not as I write it), I'm on a plane somewhere over the middle of the country.
Instead of waiting until I can come up with something clever or helpful to say, I'm going to share a bunch of randomness at once (much of which will be useful, I hope!)

 

 

  •  Wednesday I wrote for Handmade Success about Defining Your Own Success. This is a huge part of making a map – knowing what YOU really want and giving yourself permission to work towards that (no matter how it might compare to other businesses).  Read it here.

 

  •  I'll be in San Fransisco (for CCE! yay!) Thursday – Sunday and in Portland Monday – Thursday.  If you're in either town, I would LOVE to meet up and get to know you better (yes, you)!
    Like I said in my interview, every time I meet one of you (readers, crafters, business-builders) I get inspired and creative and have SO MUCH fun. I'd like to do MORE of this, so please, email me (taraATtaraswigerDOTcom) and we'll grab a cup of coffee together.

 

  •  Because I'll be out of town and hanging out with you, I won't be answering my emails, tweets, facebook messages in anything close to a timely manner. Thanks for your patience!

Declare Your Independence

I quit my dayjob.
2 years ago today.

I consider this, July 1st, to be my personal Independence Day and I wanted to celebrate with you a free gift.

YOU

You have been the best part of the last 2 years.
Getting to know you on Twitter, meeting you for a coffee, exploring your craftybiz world with you…it's by FAR the highlight of the whole experience.

And because YOU are my favorite thing, I don't just want to reflect on MY independence, I want to help you claim your own independence.

(note: independence has nothing to do with self-employment and everything to do with choosing what you want)

As I've been reflecting on what this Independence has meant in my own business, I recognize that it is not just about the fun stuff. There have been some low lows.

This last year, Independence has also  been marked by a movement towards greater honesty.
Instead of only sharing the highs (I'm in books! I'm in magazines! I have fun!), I've made a conscious effort to share the lows…because that's the only way I know to be independent: to be completely honest that this isn't all fun + ease.

We (you + I) don't just focus on how to be successful, we get real about the hard bits, the challenging times and the downright overwhelming moments in running a crafty business.

Because that (honesty, clear eyes, full hearts) is how you claim your independence.

Because Independence isn't a one-time deal.

You don't just claim it and then possess it.
You have to daily declare it.
You have to build a life that supports it.
You have to own it, in every situation.

 

Independence = Commitment + Permission + Hope

I talked about commitment in last year's Independence Day video, so today I want to share Permission + Hope.

Permission

It's already yours. You are independent. You can be independent. You don't have to earn it, you don't have to try to deserve it.

You already do.

Hope

The most inspiring, hope-filled resource I have is my support network. My friends, mentors, Starship-ers, and encouragers.

They give me daily hope + giggles, so I turned to them for YOU.
I asked them to share their own Declarations of Independence in the hope that it would inspire you to stake your claim.

You can download the collection of  Declarations of Independence right here.

(nope, no need to sign up for anything!)

Feel free to share it wherever you like, however you want.

Wishing you Independence and community in the coming year!

 

Everything is Everything

Let's start with some tunes (hit play while you read!)

This has been a weird month.

Launching the Starship.
Turning 29.
Getting knocked out for a whole work week by the flu.
Going out of town for a week (family stuff!), with only my phone for internet access.

And instead of jumping into my work (my love!) every chance I get, I find myself reading, writing, painting.
I keep burying myself in painting books, rock autobiographies and artist blogs.
I'm taking an online painting class.
I'm listening to podcasts (This American Life, Creative Living).

What I'm not doing is writing about business or planning a class or making endless yards of yarn.
For the first time in….2 years?!

It's not just part of the creative cycle (because I'm doing lots of creative work, it's just not my usual)…it's a total shift in focus.

Yesterday, it really freaked me out.

What's going on? Did I lose the CraftyBiz love?
But I still sat down with a painterly book and just decided to trust myself.
If what I'm craving is paint + words, it must be what I need.

And sure enough, at 1am last night (this morning?) I wasn't sleeping, I was up planning a big Thank You gift (for you!) and my next craftybiz project. I was overflowing with ideas. I was back in the saddle.

As I pondered the shift this morning (as I poured over my new favorite artist's site), I realized: Everything is Everything.

Painting, writing, crafting businesses, making yarn: it's all the same. It's all creativity. Everything needs space and time (and health!) and patience and well-refilling.

Or as Havi says, There is no biggification without destuckification.

I can't build my own business (or help you with yours!) unless I work though my stuff. Whether that's family stuff, writing stuff, getting inspired stuff or just painting my little heart out….everything is everything.
It all comes back to build a stronger business, to create more inspired help for your biz.

What do you need right now?
What's asking for your attention (even if it's not what you're “supposed” to do?) Is it possible that indulging might be just what your business needs?

I fell overboard..

I built a beautiful Starship.
I was in love with it and excited and could not wait to tell everyone about it.

I had grand plans for a fabulous online-birthday party for myself. I was going to announce a really great gift (for you!) and then spend all the next week writing about what the Starship is like on the inside.

And then I fell off the edge of my world.

I took 2 days off for my birthday (fun! yay!) and then I got ridiculously sick.
Flu-sick. Fever-sick. Can't-get-out-of-bed sick.

For over a week.

And the worst part was: I had no energy. No will.
I had NO desire to write, to help, to celebrate the Starship.
No desire to do anything.

And I'm still not back yet.

I'm still stuffy and fluffy-headed.
Still sleepy and foggy.

I still don't have my excitement back.
I know it's part of the cycle.
I remember that.
The Starship help me remembers that.

But I miss it.
I miss being excited about the Starship.
I miss feeling like myself.

I just wanted to crawl out of my nest of blankets and tell you that if you fell overboard, or if you're tired, or if you're just not excited right now: It's ok.

Give yourself a break.
Rest, drink water, take your time.

It will come back.
And when it does, I'll see you here.

 

 

PS. I am feeling well enough (and the stirrings of excitement) about our FIRST call in the Starship, Wednesday at 3pm EST.
In case you missed the excitements over the Starship, you may want to beam up before the call.

Why I’m giving it all away

The Starship has taken longer to come together than anything I've ever done.

I did it intentionally (got the idea in April, but waited to make it public until June) because I wanted to give it space to grow and see what it would become.

(take the name for example…it was originally a Bounce House. Which is fun, but a Starship is SO MUCH better!)

The side effect of all this extra time is that I got all kinds of feedback on it. Slowly, from people I trusted.

Most everybody said something like

This is a splendid offer, Tara. Starship! And I love the way you express the goodness on this page. Yummy-yum, my friend.

or

OMG. I love the idea of a Starship.

Insanely fabulous.

And well, that was pretty awesome.

But a few people (even my students!) said something like

Whoa! That's a lot of stuff! Are you sure you want to give access to EVERYTHING you're going to create this year?

WHY?

I never for a minute wavered (the Starship just felt SO GOOD)..but I did wonder: why am I doing this?

I've spent the last few weeks writing and thinking and talking about it: why in the world did I built a Starship?

Intense, yet fleeting

A live class is deliciously intense, focused burst of attention on your business. It's a moment of alignment between intention and action.
Everything comes together. BAM!

And I love being a part of that.

But I am not a one night stand.

I'm in it, here with you, for the long haul.

I needed our interaction, our relationship to take place in a way that reflected that.

Your passion for your craft isn't a one night stand either.

Those moments of clarity are sublime.
But your business is more than a few moments.

It's every day.
It's choosing to align your intention with your actions every day.
It's choosing movement.
It's choosing life.
It's choosing to go on an adventure…a continuing mission…a trek.

That trek, that commitment, needs the appropriate space and an every once-in-a-while class isn't the right space.

A starship is just the right size for a trek.

You have time to move in, space to stretch your legs, a holodeck to relax in (yes, we do have a holodeck), continuing missions and new flight logs to keep you focused and on track.

So that's it, that's the reason: I've putting everything I've made in the last year, every thing I WILL make in Starship because I want you to fall in love with your craftybiz and spend the rest of your life with it.
I want some of your last thoughts about your biz to be, “I have been and always will be, your friend”

 

(Ok, I just threw that last sentence in there because I am ALWAYS looking for an excuse to say that. Best movie line ever! I cry every time! )

In which sparkly shoes and a handknit invisibility cloak make taxes funner

Last week I had to do something really unpleasant (it had to do with taxes).

Even though I knew the worst-case-scenario was not actually all that bad, I still couldn't get over the really overwhelming sense of doomdoomdoom.
And it was manifesting in a crazy case of shaky hands and shaky voice.

I did not want to do this thing with my Minnie Mouse voice. I did not want to burst into tears.
This thing totally did not deserve tears (really, it wasn't that big a deal).

I wanted to feel calm and centered and relaxed.

So I sat in the car, outside the office with my journal and asked (and answered) some questions. Sort of like Havi's stone-skipping questions, but quick and shallow.

These questions could be applied to anything unpleasant and maybe make it slightly more fun.

Can I learn something more about what to expect, so I feel better prepared?
Can I make this any quicker?
Can I make this more fun?
Can I make this more silly?
What can I notice, right now?

My answers, for this specific unpleasantness:

Can I learn more?

Yes, I had all my paperwork ready and knew what to expect…but I still felt shaky.

Can I make this quicker?

Actually, no. I have to wait until they call my name

Can I make this more fun?

Grumpy Tara says…no.

Can I make this silly?

Only in my imagination.
What if my sparkly shoes were blindingly sparkly? What if they lit up the whole room?
What if my favorite Polymath Designs earrings were actually deflector shiels? None shall pass!
What if my handknit shawl was really an inivisiblity cloak? And the people who are stressing me out can't see my shakiness through it's stunning beauty?

My @spiralshannon earrings (which secretly double as negativity shields)
My suddenly-magical outfit.

What can I notice?

The cherry blossoms out the window. I'll take a picture of them when I'm done.

 

I'd love to know how you could use the questions (or your own!). If you're going through some unpleasantness, share your own answers in the comments.

Experiment: stop explaining

spring road

In case you didn't notice, I talk about experimentation a lot.

My entire CraftyBiz philosophy can be summed as:

“Experiment to find what works for you and your biz and then do it.”

But yesterday Kate asked me about the natural extension of doing your own thing:

When what works for me is very much not what ‘everyone else' thinks should work for me.

I started to reply about ways to convince the person.
Ways to show them “yeah, that's right, I'm a rebel and I'm ROCKING it.

But then I remembered:

I've yet to convince anyone else that this was a good idea (whatever “this” might be: self-employment, working weird hours, gluten-free baking) if they weren't already willing to trust me.

An example.

M and I are great friends.

But sometimes she doesn't get me or my work. And when I tell her I'm now doing x (taking a sabbatical from selling, dyeing my hair blue, etc) and she starts listing all the reasons I should NOT DO IT OR ELSE I WILL DIIIIEEEE…I get defensive.

I try to explain.
I have thought this through, thoroughly!
I'm a responsible adult!
I have my reasons!
And soon I find myself thinking “You HAVE to understand“.

But, wait. Does she?

Really?

Will it change what I do (or what works for me) if she doesn't understand?

What do I need from her?

Support? Flexibility? Encouragement?

I decide what I need (internally!) and then ask her for it.

“Hey, M, I've decided to start work at 3pm from here on out. I need you to not call me from 3-10 because I'll be at work, like if I was working in an office, ok? Thanks!”

When it comes to you, you get to decide.

It's as simple as that.

The people in your life don't have to understand the why or the how.
Trying to convince them with your well-reasoned argument (I LOVE a well-reasoned argument) usually won't help things.

And I mean the things that really are YOURS to decide (examples: what time you start work or the way you do your work or if you wear pjs and a tiara all day).

But for all the you-stuff (which is most everything IN your business), it's yours to decide.

Without explanation.
Without apologies.
With piles of fun and experimentation and an open heart.

Really.

This single fact has changed so many conversations. And has released me from so much responsibility (I have to explain!) and so many arguments (Why won't you understand?!).

Try it. Experiment.

Let me know how it goes.

Safety, self-reliance and other lies

picplz_upload
(my “guard” dog)

Safety.
It's a funny thing.

There are all kinds of things that make us feel safe, that don't really provide long-term safety.
There are all kinds of meanings and definitions and feelings that accompany safety: rest, peace, relaxation, freedom, want.

Safety's my theme this year, so I've been paying attention to it.
Noticing when I (or others) use the word.
Noticing when I feel safe.
When I feel unsafe.
How I react and what I assume without thinking.

After three months, here's what I got so far (I promise it relates to business, eventually):

Safety = the ability to create my own escape?

After the break-ins (all three happened when we weren't at home), I used to lay in bed and run through escape scenarios. What would I do if someone broke in the back door? The front door? Would I have time to snap the dog's leash on him or should I just haul him out the window and let him run away? Would I go out the window or the door? Who's house could I run to? Is my cell phone charged? Should I just hid inside and call 911?

I came to think of safety as self-reliance.
If only I was smart enough and strong enough and worked hard enough, I would be ok.

But the self-reliance was getting in the way of my best work. When I thought, “I have to do this“, I get cramped and tight and unable to see big and clear (which is one of my gifts, the engine that runs this business).

In this self-reliant, tight space, I trusted that I could sell enough to pay our bills (my husband was tragiclaly underemployed for most of the last year). I knew that I was smart enough and strong enough, if I just worked hard enough.

And that's gave me some peace…as long as I kept pushing.

But all that cramped pushing covered up my true strength, my true safety: connections + creating.

I can't do it alone.
I need people. I need clients and students and friends and encouragement and mentors.

My best work (and thus, my place of safety) occurs when I tune into my connections (to my clients, to my friends) and I create what they need.

When I make the yarn you ask for.
When I create the classes that answer your questions.
When I create clarity for a confused IdeaStormer.

I thought my ability to work hard enough, to create enough to sell enough was keeping me safe, but it's not.
Not  in a vacuum.
Not when it's alone with my stress and my fear.

The safety I felt  was there, it was just a layer deeper: it was knowing that I was creating and that I was in relationship with my people, my world, your needs.

Even though I was in connection and in creation, I didn't realize it. I thought it was the self-reliance, the ability to do the thing I needed to do. So I built systems that made it easier. Systems for creating, selling, connecting.

These systems are useful (and most of the businesses need a few more systems)…but I eventually turned the system into the point of it all.

Completely missing the point.
Good systems can help you connect with your people and create a space for your creativity.

But I was using them to disconnect. To keep working harderharderharder.

Letting go

Now that I know that's not where my safety (and sustainability) come from, I've decided to take a step back from those systems.
To create (or not) as it comes to me.
To connect (or not) as I have the energy for.

This sabbatical will give me time to find the truly supportive systems and to work with the inner taskmaster who is convinced that we will die destitute if I don't keep working harderharderharder.  It's an experiment: will I become desitute (unlikely)? Will my businesses collapse?

I don't have any answers.

I wish I could sum this up with some answer.
Some sure thing.

But isn't that point?
There's not a sure thing.

There's just me and there's you and there's what we create for each other, to help each other or to delight each other.

 

 

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