Creative Entrepreneur

Asking bigger questions + giving those questions more space

I am using a year-long tracker (from the Dream Plan Kit) to track when I work on my year-long Resistance Project.

There are a LOT of days not marked off.

We’re only a little over 2 months into the new year and already I’m showing up so much less…

Is what I thought was happening until I looked deeper.

What’s actually happening is I am asking much BIGGER questions.

And then taking time to be in the space of having questions without answers.

THIS DOES NEED TIME.

Rushing to FIND ANSWERS does not move you forward in the way that GIVING THE QUESTIONS MORE TIME does.

GIVING THE QUESTIONS MORE TIME moves you deeper into it, where whole new possibilities exist.

And I know it can be hard to see the difference between FINDING ANSWERS and GIVING THE QUESTIONS MORE TIME… but give it more time, you’ll see.

 

The new Moon Intention Setting + Alchemy Meditation Call is TODAY!!!!  Dream Book members - get the call details here. The replay will be on that page a few hours after we're done the call.

If you're not in Dream Book, you can get the New Moon Intention Setting Guided Journal here! This is the same process that we do on the calls, in a workbook format!

Come dream with us

 

Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

Asking bigger questions + giving those questions more space Read More »

If you have a problem to solve or a change to make

If you have a problem to solve or a change to make: are you spending time with it every day?

Why or why not?

As a part of my year-long project of exploring my resistance this year, this is what I’ve been wondering.

There IS a thing I want to change.

And I keep thinking “Oh! I want to change this!”

But am I showing up and being in the process of change every day?

No.

Why?

So many reasons spring to mind but they’re all actually just excuses…

And then I found a new question:

Am I in resistance here, or do I just have a really critical inner voice that I am (rightfully!) avoiding?

My “YOU SHOULD HAVE ALREADY FIGURED THIS OUT” voice is very loud. And it makes me so uncomfortable, it’s throwing this sticky shame all over me.

So, yeah, that’s not really resistance that’s self preservation.

Because CONSCIOUSLY I wasn’t really aware of how much damage this voice was causing.

But sitting with questions-without-answers and staying with the uncomfortable feelings can shift perspective and I am starting to see it.

So now I can focus on this, as a way in to exploring the thing I want to explore.

 

The new Moon Intention Setting + Alchemy Meditation Call is tomorrow! This is open to all Dream Book members - get the call details here.

If you're not in Dream Book, you can get the New Moon Intention Setting Guided Journal here! This is the same process that we do on the calls, in a workbook format!

Come dream with us

 

Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

If you have a problem to solve or a change to make Read More »

New Moon Intention Setting

New Moon is this Sunday, March 10!

The new Moon Intention Setting + Alchemy Meditation Call is this Thursday, March 7. This is open to all Dream Book members - get the call details here.

If you're not in Dream Book, you can get the New Moon Intention Setting Guided Journal here! This is the same process that we do on the calls, in a workbook format!

Our last New Moon call was intense for me.

A new intention came out of that meditation: to go DEEP into inner CREATIVITY + EXPLORATION, not quite inner WORK. Of course it’s connected to inner work, it felt like bringing the joy of exploration and expression deeper into my inner landscape.

And, when this came to me, I had an idea of what it would look like - the kind of art I would make.

I was super wrong.

I haven’t made much art, but I have brought a new level of curiosity and non-judgement into how I engage with my inner world. Which has been so difficult AND rewarding.

Some months I know EXACTLY what intention I want to set.

Some months I have no clue.

But showing up and setting an intention every month, doing the meditation to really LISTEN to myself, always brings me something good. It keeps me moving along the path and not staying stagnant anywhere.

 

Again - the new Moon Intention Setting + Alchemy Meditation Call is this Thursday, March 7. This is open to all Dream Book members - get the call details here.

If you're not in Dream Book, you can get the New Moon Intention Setting Guided Journal here! This is the same process that we do on the calls, in a workbook format!

Come dream with us

 

Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

New Moon Intention Setting Read More »

A universal gathering of faith + miracles

Today my creative dream practice is too boring to write about. YAY! I did some journaling, have a list of things I want to do today, and am just... doing them!

So instead of sharing anything about that, I wanted to share a story from earlier in the month.

We had this "winter heat wave" in early February and I took the long way to the coffee shop - a 45 minute walk instead of 30. It felt magical to have such a warm morning walk.

This longer way also takes me down a much busier street. At one point, this man parked his car in the parking lot of a grocery store as I was walking past and RAN out of it down the sidewalk. I was watching him closely, wondering...

Is that grocery store open so early? I don't think so!

Is he watching for ice?! There are so many ice patches on the sidewalks, I hope he doesn't fall! (I'm walking so slow and careful)

Then, he ran right past the grocery store, now I'm wondering... Where is he going in such a rush?

I giggle to myself thinking maybe he is RUNNING SO FAST to get to the new cat cafe. He really needs to pet a cat. But no, the cat cafe doesn't open until later and he runs right past it.

I decide he must be going to the little cheque cashing/cash advance place on the corner. Maybe he needs quick cash and he's late for work.

He runs right past the cheque cashing place and now I am really invested. Like, how far is he going to run?

He goes into a building I thought was vacant and I when I get to it I see a sheet of paper taped to the door that says something like:

Universal Gathering of Faith and Miracles. Tuesday mornings.

I still had 15 minutes of my walk to think about this.

I was so invested in his journey, why?

Was it to show me - I should always RUN to get to a miracle?

Was it to remind me that the miracles are gathering?

I think they are.

Come dream with us

 

Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

A universal gathering of faith + miracles Read More »

Which part of you feels too small for your dream?

The February Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice call is today! Dream Book members - get the call details here. Everyone else - join us here!

These are the journal prompts I got in this week’s Journaling + Alchemy kit (from Dream Book):

What part of you feels too small for your dream?

What does this part of you need?

AHHHHH yes these are the questions I need right now.

In a practical sense, “my dream” is the dream I shared of getting a camper van or RV and traveling with Bear but that would mean a bunch of things sorted out in my life to make this happen including money.

(Dream Book members see the call: Having A Stable Relationship With Money While The World Is Unstable

And, right now, my dreams include BEING IN the transformative healing vortex that is getting a divorce.

So… it’s all of this that I am thinking about as I ask this question. Which parts feel ready? Which parts don't? Why don't they?

We almost always have parts of us that feel too small for our dreams.

This is because our dreams are here to GROW us. Like an elm seed isn’t meant to stay an elm seed forever, it’s meant to become a seedling and then a tree.

But of course growth feels scary for so many reasons. So parts of us will resist growth even when we know for sure it’s leading to what we want!

For most people, all of this is unconscious.

For people who are deeply engaging with their dreams, it’s more conscious.

And it’s hard to engage with this fear because… fear is scary!

But. Sitting with it is SO GOOD because there ARE ways to take care of the parts of you that feel too small for your dream, and doing that will open up new possibilities for what you can do.

AND, more often than not, if you really sit with this part of you you'll find that they DO want what you want, they're just afraid of some part of it. And once you have all parts of you on board, it's so much easier to move forward.

Come dream with us

 

Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

Which part of you feels too small for your dream? Read More »

Being so stuck while needing to get to work.

I first did a Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice call as an experiment in November 2022.

Now it's a call we do every month in Dream Book!

Since we have a call tomorrow, I'm trying to write a post about this and I can't.

So, in the spirit of Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice, I will write (creative practice) about my truth (spiritual practice):

I'm super stuck today.

This is not the whole truth of who I am and where I am but it's where I am right in this moment.

I am excited about the work I have to do today!

But my heart is in KNOTS and I can't do the things I want to do.

Our practice HAVE TO include these days, too.

Triangle Dream Compass

Remember the compass of Creative Dream Alchemy.

If you can't do Outer Work, you can do Dream Work or Inner Work.

And I feel too tangled up for Dream Work, I know Inner Work is what is needed.

So I am taking my knotted up heart into the Un-Sticking Station practice:

Oh, it's so sad. A floating, disembodied heart that's crying.

I notice we're in a room with a fireplace, so I light a fire and make my heart a cup of tea and sit it down on a soft couch.

I wrap a blanket around it. I want to offer it ALL the nurturing.

"Do you want a cookie?"

I would LOVE a cookie.

I bring my heart a cookie.

"So tell me what's going on"

Oh! (Heart starts crying again) It's all too much!

"Oh you are so right! It's ALL too much." And I get the sense that we shouldn't write about all the things in the world that are TOO MUCH we should just take a minute a FEEL it.

We take a few deep breaths together.

The knots slip out of my heart.

We can't solve anything. We can show up as best we can to create the world we want to see, but we, alone, cannot solve anything. But taking a minute to have a cookie, breath deep, and acknowledge how terrifying the world is to be in right now does help.

"OK so, now that I have given you space to un-knot, the day I had planned feels inappropriate for the space you are in"

Oh yeah for sure. I mean - I don't want to sabotage your goals and plans! AND I am where I am.

This has been a BIG topic on our group calls lately.

How to find a balance between all the inner work we need to do in order to be able to do the outer work we want to do.

And how it can feel like if we gave our inner worlds all the care and attention they need, then we literally wouldn't have the time or energy left to take care of anything in the outer world.

And how our inner worlds really do need us to have some stability and order in our outer worlds!

And this has always been true in a sense. It takes A LOT of inner work grow beyond where you, to grow towards where you want to be. But the impact of the current state of the world, on top of that, has really shifted the balance.

So. Back to me and my heart.

I want to do what you want to do. I am 100% on board.

"That is a relief to know you are on board with my plan. But I sense a but..."

But right now, today, I need the gentlest possible day. Can we remember that we ARE in a peri-menopausal situation where we should be getting our period but instead we are getting anxiety attacks?

"I want to just "deep breath" the anxiety away."

And if you could do that, it would be gone by now. This is not in your head. This is not a small problem. You know damn well peri-menopase is the time when women are the most likely to commit suicide and this is largely driven by how fucking un-supportive the whole world is about what we go through at this time. So it is IMPERATIVE that you be ultra-supportive of yourself.

(Not that I am having suicidal thoughts, my heart is just driving home a point, that this isn't some small inconvenience)

"OK I am hearing that you don't want to do what I had planned to do today. What, exactly, do you want to do today?"

Mediate + maybe nap if you fall asleep. Journal.

Oh wow that reminds me that I put into my journal from this week's journaling kit: What part of you feels too small for your dream? What does this part of you need?

I will work on those prompts. I will LIGHTLY hold onto what I wanted to do today while honouring the actual state of my heart. Take care of myself first, and then see what feels possible.

[Update: YES! After a long meditation thinking about what I want to accomplish with this project, I did start VERY gently and without any pressure did get a bunch of things done]

Our next Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice call is tomorrow.

Dream Book members - get the call details here. Everyone else - join us here!

Topic: Drawing out a "dream map" of how you would love marketing to work in your business (continued from our last call where we first made a map)

Come dream with us

 

Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

Being so stuck while needing to get to work. Read More »

Today I am celebrating my 13th anniversary with the Creative Dream Incubator. 

My biggest dream was always to be creatively self employed in a way that felt TRUE, in alignment with my values and my soul. The Creative Dream Incubator has been that dream come true for the last thirteen years and I’m grateful for it every day.

I’ve been reflecting on the last 13 years and a lot of my reflections become rants about how the industry has changed.

But actually it’s me that’s changed.

Our dreams are sacred. They come from the part of us who wants to help us heal and grow.

So, following your dreams will heal you and grow you. Which will change you.

And I have changed.

It's fascinating to me how we always think we know how we'll change as we heal and grow - but then we surprise ourselves. So I am surprising myself.

I keep writing, deleting and re-writing this post.

There are so many different things I could say about this and I have no clue which of those things I want to say.

I think back to myself 13 years ago making this choice and feel so much gratitude for my younger self. All of her determination, courage and hard work have made my life so much better. I do cry thinking about it.

✨Thirteen years in, I believe this more than ever: Our dreams are our most sacred selves showing us the way✨

There is a mystery to creative dreaming. And as I grow with this work, I become more open to that mystery.

And I am thrilled to keep doing this work this year.

If you're not in Dream Book - join us here.

Come dream with us

 

Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

Today I am celebrating my 13th anniversary with the Creative Dream Incubator.  Read More »

When where you are is not where you want to be [which is what all creative dreaming is]

Last week's Dream Status Report brought me the following focus: BE where you ARE while appreciating the new possibilities that are opening up"

Two things about that:

  1. This is what ALL creative dreaming is! Staying present in your current life WHILE building the path to what's next. Sometimes this is easier, sometimes this is harder.
  2. When doing meditation + journaling, especially in a dedicated Creative Dream Practice, it becomes easier to find the answers you need. Knowing the answer and ACTING ON IT are two really different things.

So here I am figuring out how to do this thing.

On top of the things I have shared about what's happening in my life, another big thing happened which I do not want to share. I'll just say it adds a layer of stress and complication to a stressful and complicated situation.

OF COURSE the more turbulent your life is, the harder it is to stay present in it, especially at the depth of emotional presence needed to do creative dreaming. And OF COURSE this means that this stuff is wayyyy easier for some people that others. The more intersections of privilege you have, the easier it is.

I am where I am. How do I want to do this this week?

Starting with meditation: Sitting With Uncomfortable Feelings (using that technique from the 1 hour class we did)

And then whoa...

I don't need to figure out how to focus on what I want, because those feelings are there too. Underneath the feelings I don't don't want to feel - which means I can't access them if I am avoiding my feelings - are my dreams and desires.

The big dreams are still there but there is a new more immediate dream:

Healing Fall and Healing Winter.

Two seasons of focusing inward, creativity, healing, space, rest, quiet. Acclimating to my new life.

Collecting ideas for things I want to do when spring comes.

Every book I have read about divorce says it's at least 1-2 years to "feel normal" again (NOT that "feeling normal" is a goal for me, lol) and I accept that this will be a long process. So I don't mean I'll be HEALED by spring, and of course when spring comes I may decide I want healing spring and healing summer too as far as that goes.

Just that right now I want to focus on these next two seasons as healing time, which just makes me thing/feel different about this time.

And it leads to one important thing:

MORE CREATIVE PROJECTS. Art journaling but also embroidery, painting, just... MAKE STUFF. Would be good to brainstorm some projects, and get materials. Like I know I want to do embroidery but, what? Get patterns and colours picked, get all the threads I need, so I am ready to go.

I am really inspired by this sweatshirt pattern which includes instructions for appliquéing whatever you want on the sweatshirt - like instead of sports teams that are usually there. How fun would it be to put affirmations or qualities you are working on on a sweatshirt? Slow the fuck down! Powerful, Creative, Magnetic.

I want that ALIVENESS and HEALING of really being in my creative flow. I have so many work projects I want to do, and I want SO MANY personal projects also ready to go.

OK so now I how HOW to "be where I am and appreciate the new possibilities that are opening up". Make more space for creative projects including having plans + materials ready to go.

Come dream with us
Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.

When where you are is not where you want to be [which is what all creative dreaming is] Read More »

Creative Dreaming while your world is falling apart

I woke up thinking about Creative Dreaming While Your World Is Falling Apart. This is the title of a guided journal I am imagining writing, and maybe I will one day.

Because I've been sharing my daily posts and maybe it seems like I am going on like nothing has happened, but I'm definitely not doing that.

Separation is emotionally volatile and I want to FEEL my feelings and process them and move THROUGH all of this, and not be stuck in it. AND I don't want my whole life to be this.

So - I focus on what I want to focus on when I am at my best. Mornings are my best time, I am SUCH a morning person. So I wake up, meditate, journal, get exercise, do my Dream Work, do my work work, work on creative projects.

Some days all of that inspires and energizes me and I stay pretty upbeat all day. BUT I am more tired than usual, my body is achy, I get overwhelmed more easily - there are all the signs of grief.

Some days I wear out my energy for the day early on.

So - after focusing on what I want to focus on first thing, then I focus on self care. What do I need? More water, nutrient dense foods, time with friends, time alone, journaling, feeling my feelings, hot epsom salt baths, lots of reading of things that feel helpful, stretching, re-arranging the Dream Loft - it does feel good to spread out.

It feels like a way of creating bubbles in my life that hold space for things. Holding space for my dreams and needs and creative projects while also holding space for grief and the process of separation. Of course the bubbles collide sometimes, but most of the time, this feels good - there is space for everything and over time, my new life will grow out of the separation process. This is easier to trust when I am showing up consistently for the dream work.

Come dream with us
Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.

Creative Dreaming while your world is falling apart Read More »

Meeting with the soul of my business

Today in my practice I am meeting with the soul of my business. I'm doing this as my daily practice right now as I get into "fall vibes" and am getting more focused on finishing the guided journal project, which also leads to a ton of other projects. And yes I need more money because of the divorce but I feel really calm and trusting about that part.

I am doing this as a daily practice to get more aligned with the soul of the Creative Dream Incubator to help me make the right decision because there are So Many Decisions to make about this project.

In my last post, the soul of my business asked me to make pro and con lists about a big decision, and those lists ended up being SO easy and SO helpful.

I decided: DO THE EASY THING RIGHT NOW.

I remembered: no one step is written in stone! I can do it the easy (I mean not easy but easiest) thing now and switch up to the other thing at any time.

So today what I want is: good vibes, for lack of a better term. I am doing creative work on the project (editing, which means editing artwork mostly, and sometimes re-drawing the journaling prompts if I can see a way to do it better). I want to be in the flow, loving what I am doing, and getting things done.

In the meeting with the soul of my business:

OMG so good!

The soul of my business appears with the boxes as it has been, but now it's a female figure and has wings and she steps out of the boxes and is just huge. She says "We are going to have some fun!"

My body starts to sway, I am really feeling this energy of being in the flow. I ask my questions about how to approach this project today and see the soul of the project: a campfire, but magic. It offers WARMTH for your creative dream process and WARMTH can be sometime different each time.

I stayed in the meditation a while, it all just felt so good.

And now I know what to do today.

 

Come dream with us
Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.

Meeting with the soul of my business Read More »

Meeting with the soul of my business

Today in my practice I am meeting with the soul of my business.

Last week this was so good and it felt like a thing I need to do more regularly. I LOVE this recording, the first part of the meditation is soooo healing. I remember doing it that way because of all the stuff that gets sparked in working with our businesses, and it feels soooo good to use it.

It's similar to last week, a bunch of boxes piled together that are alive - like a box robot.

But it's bigger. The boxes are less chaotic.

It doesn't take a genius to see the boxes are representing the actual boxes in my home with my husband's things packed in them. And he's been picking up a car load every day after work and the pile is becoming less chaotic and I have more and more space. (By the time I post this the boxes will be gone and his furniture moved and I'll be in the process of making it "feel like mine" again)

The soul of my business - I am focusing on the head at the top of the boxes - is warm and loving and welcoming. It's happy to see me.

You are giving me space to grow, with regular visits like this.

Good! This is what I want. Not growth for growth's sake, but right-sizing.

I'm actually deeper and more expansive than you think. The growth I am speaking of is not just in one direction. Like it's not just about more followers or more money.

OK that's reassuring. It felt a little off to think you are focused on growing, because that is so toxic to have growth as the only goal. It's why the air has been smoky here for weeks and my lungs and throat hurt.

Right, so it's more "I am becoming more alive". Your visits nurture me in good ways.

These visits nurture me in good ways too. I have been experimenting creatively and exploring SO MUCH these last few years. My struggles with peri-menopause, looking at ancestral trauma and the ways capitalist culture impacts my "work ethic" and distorts my relationship with my own needs and really - who do I want to be while the world falls apart? This has been such important work for me. I appreciate the space you gave me to do all of this - actually I feel NURTURED by my business not just financially but in all ways. The ways I show up for Dream Book HELPS ME FIRST. I am so grateful to have this.

I've been growing in that time too. My potential has been expanding and deepening. And everything is getting more creative and free.

Creative and free. I love it. So my questions, about this journal, you know what I am thinking, right? Should "creative and free" be the qualities we follow to answer the questions? Because one option feels this way and one does not. BUT the one that does not - is it easier? Would it make more money? Do these things matter?

Now the robot has hands too, not just a head on a stack of boxes. It, though it feels like a she now, she raises her hands to shrug like "I don't know"

Is this a case where it's like - it doesn't matter which way I go?

It's not that it doesn't matter. It's just that it impacts YOU more than ME.

OK that's weird, isn't it though? Because I thought it would impact you - like I am building a path to a new future here, aren't I?

Yup, that happens either way. None of these decisions are FOREVER babe!!!!

So I can do what is easiest right now. OR I can do what feels most creative and free right now.

Yup! This is one for YOU to journal about. Make a pro and con list of each of them. In your imagination, really put yourself into each situation and see which way feels best. This is still a very early step in this new path, there's LOADS of time to re-configure as we go. It's more important that we DO SOMETHING than that we DO THE RIGHT THING. (Which you know, you tell this to people all the time)

OK will do!

Come dream with us
Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.

Meeting with the soul of my business Read More »

Meeting with the soul of my business

Today in my practice I am meeting with the soul of my business.

It’s fall! I’ve had so much going on in my life the last few weeks. Today I want to get back in there and get organized and…

I am not sure what to focus on.

So I want a meeting with the soul of my business to check in with everything and see what comes from that - hopefully a clear sense of where I should focus for the fall.

I wasn’t going to use the recording I was just going to wing it. I am so glad I DID use the recording!

I laid down on the floor and got into it and it felt really powerful.

The soul of my business is.. box like. Lots of boxes. Stacked. Unfolding. Opening. But glowing. Alive.

I want to say, a robot made of boxes?

I sit with it, stop trying to understand it and just be with it, and it’s like “I am unpacking and unfolding and stretching out to be my actual size”

The qualities of it are: power, magic, trust, divine creativity, growth, right-sizing

I feel comforted in it’s presence, like I can trust it. I feel honoured that it works with me, I also feel totally competent to partner with it. And like it understand my humanness and how business is not always my focus and of course that’s how it is. It’s the soul of my business’ job to be always focused on the business.

So, I guess I was feeling guilty, like I have been working IN the business but not connecting with it in this way, not looking at bigger picture stuff. But that feels ok now.

Onto the meeting:

As you know, I want to get focused! I have some ideas of how to do this, I think you know what they are? Can you read my mind?

Yes, you want to finish the Creative Dream Playbook and then look at the visioning kit and maybe new year kit, get those done before December.

Yeah, hearing it back from you it feels boring somehow. But I wanted to make some real progress on this guided journal thing, there are so many journals I want to make!

It’s not boring, these journals are good for the purpose of the business too - loads of people will never take a class with you but would use journals, we can help them in this way. But I get how it feels boring coming from me because this is not my work, it’s your work. Your work is sometimes kind of mundane, doing the physical stuff. My work is all energy.

Ummmm are we working together well? I just realized, maybe we’re not? I mean all the planets are in retrograde this is time to review relationships, right?

We could be working better together. You have had a lot of other things on your mind and also you’ve slipped a bit into that “I have to do this all by myself” thing and when you’re in that thing, I can only do what I can do. The way you felt in the meditation, that’s partnering with me. More of that would be good.

So if I was partnering with you, what would that look like?

A daily meeting to acclimate our energies - mostly to acclimate you to me, so that your actions (you are the only one who can do the physical work!) are coming more from my energy.

OK whoa.

I mean yes that’s what I teach with Dream Book and the Dream Lab but WHOA I just heard it in a new way.

 

Come dream with us
Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.

Meeting with the soul of my business Read More »

I have what I wanted

Last November I did a Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice call as an experiment, to share some ideas. It went so well we've been doing it as a monthly call ever since. (These calls are in the Dream Book membership)

What I wanted from marketing at that time was to FEEL a certain way about how I am putting myself out there.

But I could not articulate how, exactly, I wanted to feel - just that I wanted it all to feel different and this vague sense of how I wanted it to be. It's so awkward to know you want to feel different about a thing but not be able to put your finger on how you want to feel!

But, indoing the calls every month... Practicing in between calls. Experimenting. Processing. Exploring. Staying with it even when there are no answers in sight....

I feel like I have it now.

It feels sustainable and open and COHESIVE. Like I am offering work inside and outside of Dream Book and it's all a cohesive whole.

The thing that's changed this is, of course, the Monday Co-Dreaming calls. They feel like the right way for me to invite people into the world of the Creative Dream Incubator.

And I am SO grateful for the people who are showing up because it’s not the same without them! It feels MAGICAL and I do want to keep doing them.

It feels like such a beautiful way to open the door for anyone who is interested in my work. Or to include people who can’t afford the money or the time commitment for the full program, so they can still have some ongoing support for navigating the path.

The only part that feels annoying sometimes is promoting the calls.

So guess what - when it feels annoying I just don’t do it!!!!

I am releasing that idea that feels like it got hammered into my head from the online business classes I took that we need to “do all the things” to “make the most” of everything.

Sometimes it’s felt fun to create promotional content and put it out there, and in those times I did it.

Other times I just didn’t have the energy, so I didn’t do it.

No rules here!

I don’t want to do any UGH. This feels revolutionary.

And it’s not like I ever wrote my emails and marketing content FEELING UGH.

I would feel UGH and remind myself of the WHY and then work through my feelings to get to a place of feeling like - yeah that is worth doing - and then do it.

But now instead of all that I’m just - not.

THIS FEELS SO MUCH MORE SUSTAINABLE because I am doing it at my own human pace instead of doing everything at the pace of “how the online business people said it should be done”.

I do want to say though:

It DOES take a lot of promoting even to get people to participate in a free thing online.

There is so much out there now, it's hard to get people's attention, even if they're already following you. So - when I do feel inspired to create content around promoting these calls, I do it!

On Friday I was thinking about how much fun I am having with these calls, and ended up making a bunch of artwork for them, so now I have that all made and can post it whenever I want to share something, instead of having to figure out in the moment what to share.

The other thing I changed is I am now sharing my daily posts on my blog which felt ALL KINDS OF AWKWARD.

I mean each layer of "awkward feelings" that I worked through opened up a new layer of "awkward feelings" and it felt like it would go on like that forever but I think I found the bottom - now it all feels good.

I don’t really promote the blog posts either - I don’t send them to my email list or even post on Facebook most of the time. When there’s a really interesting post that I FEEL like I want to share, I share that.

Sometimes I read the post on video and post it on Instagram. I am enjoying that.

But most often - I just put it on my blog for the people who choose to go and read it. Not putting all that effort into putting it in front of people like I used to.

This feels like - if someone feels called to explore my work, it’s all there for them to see. Not locked away but  also not shining every spotlight on it that I can.

IT FEELS SO GOOD.

I am consistent about putting things out there into my tiny ecosystem. I’m not consistent about how I put it put it into the larger social media/email/internet ecosystems and that’s ok!

WILL THIS MAKE AS MUCH MONEY AS THE OLD WAYS?

I don’t know!

I do know the “old” internet marketing ways I learned in 2009 onward don’t really apply to the way the internet works now. I could keep doing them but they don’t make the money they used to, they don’t get attention like they used to.

And the “new ways” I see people doing - no fucking way am I going there. And also - it feels like these are starting to crumble too. Every week on Facebook a new "big name" is being talked about for unethical and illegal behaviour.

I don't want to be a part of any of that. I just want to do my work.

So I am trusting this because it feels right. This feels like ENOUGH so I am trusting that.

And I’d have to keep doing this until the end of the year at least to get a sense of how it “works” in terms of money.

BUT 

All these months of Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice have really shifted my perspective on how I define if a thing “works”.

DOES IT FEEL GOOD FOR ME

DOES IT RESONATE WITH THE PEOPLE THAT THE WORK IS FOR

These two things feel so much more important than:

HOW MUCH MONEY DOES IT MAKE

Because money is NOT the only factor.

I mean, money was NEVER the only factor for me with my work, but it did feel like the way to define if marketing activities, specifically, "worked".

Though I recognize that we need to make money too! 

This business IS my only livelihood.

But/And I do have lots of long-term members of Dream Book and ongoing one-on-one clients and when I need more money - things tend to happen. I used to do more joint ventures to bring in more money, though that doesn’t feel right anymore. Mostly I trust myself to figure it out.

Underneath that is the thought that actually -  I am taking the energy I would have used on marketing and using it to create hand-drawn guided journals and maybe that will make me more money in the end?

For marketing - I want to feel like I am shining the light of the Creative Dream Incubator, I am creating welcoming spaces for people to come and see what we’re doing and then leaving it to people to decide if they want to join.

I’m not doing any of the persuasive marketing + sales tactics that the internet is full of now so having income goals be attached to marketing feels off. 

Also - I started this business as a single person with no plans to ever be married. I have since gotten married and my husband moved into my condo so we split the bills now. This does make all of this easier. 

Also, I did own a home before I started this business and that helps too for financial stability! I sold it and bought the loft condo which is more expensive to maintain but still I’m leaning on all of the equity I already had in my home. And I sold my car and got a bike 9 years ago - I did this because having a car felt wrong, having a bike feels AMAZING (as does taking lots of long walks in winter when I don’t ride - though if my city ever starts clearing bike paths safely I will!) I didn’t do this for financial reasons but it IS a lot cheaper to maintain a bike than a car!

We do have to consider the facts of our financial situation, which is why I shared that here. I don’t think Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual practice is about bypassing reality. It’s about being where we are and working with what we have - which includes our tremendous gifts AND our actual life circumstances.

Our next Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice call is happening August 9 - tomorrow.

But we do these calls every month, and there is a library of calls to work through when you join, if you'd like to explore with us in Dream Book.

Come dream with us
Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab which is what I am using for my dream meeting drawings.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.

Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.

I have what I wanted Read More »

Vulnerability: Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice

Our next Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice call will be June 8 and the theme will be vulnerability. (These calls happen every month inside Dream Book)

When I first announced this theme, one person asked something like “But can’t we just show up and say hi? Do we really have to get vulnerable in our marketing?” And I realised I needed more of an explanation.

NO you absolutely do not have to “get vulnerable” in your marketing!

But for a lot of us, ANY kind of marketing, ANY kind of visibility FEELS vulnerable. And that discomfort with feeling that vulnerable can keep us from wanting our work to be more visible in the world.

So how do we handle it?

There are actually a lot of things you can do - from the practical to the esoteric, which we will explore on the call on June 8.

Approaching marketing as a creative and spiritual practices gives you space to really explore this, understand your own feelings and needs and get creative about what to do with it all.

I’ve been doing Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice call every month since November. This has helped me shift my inner relationship with marketing.

I’m 2010 when I decided to turn this work, which I had been doing evenings and weekends while working a “real job” lol, into my livelihood, I did take a lot of business classes to help me figure out how to do this.

Most of these were through a spiritual and/or creative lens. So - learning conventional marketing and sales tactics but through a lens of “how do we do this in a way that in in alignment with our values and feels creatively alive?”

But still - starting with a conventional approach to marketing and sales and then making adjustments to make it fit better.

And I won’t pretend like that didn’t help me, of course it did. And I still have my class available - the Creative Business Incubator - where I share how I set up my business in the first year.

But now I’m wondering - what if don’t need to start with that conventional approach to marketing and sales?

What if we start from a place of trusting our gifts? And trusting ourselves with our gifts? And trusting our own creative instincts about how to share those gifts?

That stirs up a lot of stuff. It definitely feels VULNERABLE AF.

Starting from conventional sales and marketing tactics can feel like a bit of a safety net. “Well this works for people so it should work for me”

Except we all know things that used to work don’t work as more anymore.

The market has changed. The economy has changed. The world has changed.

And I don’t believe we should be taking huge risks with our livelihoods. But I also believe that we need to make space to explore this. While things are changing so much - what else could change?

I believe you are a trustworthy steward of your gifts and that a part of HAVING those gifts is HAVING the ability to offer them in a way that they can be received.

AND I believe that this is a skill that takes time to develop. You took time to develop other aspects of your gifts, this one needs time too.

Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual practice asks you to sit with all of this. To listen to your own values about how you put your work out there. To get creative about how to share all of magic that you have to offer.

I’m having such a great time on these calls. I hope to see you at the next one.

(If you join now, you can still get the replays from past calls! I suggest watching at least the first one before attending this class)

Vulnerability: Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice Read More »

Your voice deserves to be heard

I started blogging and sharing my work online around 2008. I turned that into a full time business in 2010.

It was easier then. There is no question about that.

There were enough people blogging and being on social media that there were opportunities for online business… but not so many people that it was hard to be seen in the crowd.

And the algorithms were just babies then. Not the full grown monsters they are today. I could go on and on about that so I’ll just say that I feel pretty UGH about social media a lot of the time… 

But this is a place where people connect. This is a place where ideas are shared and your ideas deserve to be a part of the conversation.

Your voice deserves to be heard. Your ideas matter. Your work is important. 

If you just stop sharing them in these places… that’s no good. It means these places become even more filled with even more of the inane nonsense that the algorithm likes to uplift.

+++++

I am offering Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual practice as a monthly call for this for all of 2023. Together, we are practicing listening to our deepest inspiration about how to put ourselves out there in a way that serves the soul of our work.

This is available to all members of Dream Book. Join us here. 

Your voice deserves to be heard Read More »