This series isn’t really about business, it’s about the inner process of bringing a dream to life.? It just so happens that my current dream is to bring more of my creative genius into how I promote and grow my business.? So the first part of this post has more business stuff that may bore you if you’re not into business – just skip ahead to the last part, that is still relevant for any kind of dream-growing.

Once I’d finished exploring the last step, Find The Places Of Clarity, the next step was: Now You Can See The Path.

I sat with that and realised – well, yes I did see the path.? Things feel clear now.? Finally! My Treasure Map Provided me with a list of practical THINGS TO DO.

Before I share the list I just want to say that it’s not about the list!? It’s about the process that brought me to the list… which is what makes the list so magic and right for me.? The beautiful part of Creative Dreaming is that each of us has to create our own unique path, at times this is also the frustrating and complicated part.

I’m working with my Create A Map That Leads To Your Dream kit to make the map and using the CrazySmart Wisdom Council in the Creative Dream Circle to get the map to talk to me.? So far I’ve followed the Treasure Map from:

1. Be Present
2. You Have To Trust The Path Before The Path Will Appear
3. Deal With Major Freakouts (Fears, Doubts, Inner Critics, etc)
4. Find The Places of Clarity
5. Now You Can See The Path

And here it is, the very simple plan:

1. Blog more.? Aim for 3 times a week.? But put quality over quantity.? Pay attention to what you are doing that gets the most attention from people and write in more detail about that.
2. Be more consistent about posting inspiring things on Facebook.
3. Create a new free program.? Some kind of Dream Journal thing on the blog.? And do some free calls.
4. Accept that being introverted, even online, means you need recovery time built into your outreach program.? You just can’t do as much as you want to do.

Obviously, the first advice I received about this still stands: Be in the magic and enchantment of your work and share the amazing-ness of it all: openly, brightly and honestly.? This is your work now.? That is the foundation I stand on in this work.

It’s kind of funny how simple and obvious all of this is.? But that usually is the way with Creative Dreaming, but once you start doing those simple and obvious things it all turns into magic.

Blog more.? Pay attention to what you are doing that gets the most attention from people and write in more detail about that.

This one comes with a small caveat: don’t pay attention to what everyone is saying? Pay attention to:

1. The kind of people you want to work with
2. The kind of people who are already buying your stuff

It can take a while to get a sense of who your Right People are, and who they aren’t.

Talking to your Wrong People will only wear you out.? And if you’re writing to your Wrong People you’re going to draw in more Wrong People (I have been guilty of this).

For the past year or so, my blog has been “my journal”.? I turned comments off (because who allows commenting on their JOURNAL?) and just wrote about me and my process of living with my creative dreams.? I needed the outlet to write things out.? And I didn’t have energy for writing blog posts, I was giving all of my creativity to my programs.

Now I’ll be directing more of my creativity to writing inspiring + helpful blog posts.? And by paying attention to what is getting the most attention, I write more about what you’re interested in right now – which will (hopefully!) make my blog posts are even more inspiring + helpful.

Be more consistent about posting inspiring things on Facebook.

I don’t like Twitter (though try to visit regularly), I don’t understand Google + and LinkedIn seems like a foreign country.? But I like Facebook, so I am going to concentrate on Facebook for social media.

There have been times when I would schedule a week’s worth of posts in advance.? This meant I was always consistent but I didn’t like doing it – entering all those posts in felt like a job.? Hiring someone to do it feels obnoxious.? Having things go out that don’t match my mood feels weird.? And the Treasure Map told me to only work with ideas from the I LIKE THIS pile, so weekly scheduling is not going to work.

I also don’t like feeling like I’m supposed to be sharing something, and not knowing what to share, so some kind of plan is needed.? Looking just at the I LIKE THIS pile, my plan is to share something from my morning creativespiritual practice time where mega-inspiring things always happen.

Then, afterwards schedule a few other things just for that day… look inside my heart for what ideas I’d like to put out into the world that day.? I can make this a part of my morning practice fairly easy.? Though I’ll probably miss some days, that’s ok.

Create a new free program.? Some kind of Dream Journal thing on the blog.? And do some free calls.

I’ve already got the Creative Dream Starter Kit as a free thing that introduces people to my ideas and gives them a ton of ideas, inspiration + fuel for walking along their Creative Dream Path.? What I want to create is something new that happens on my blog that draws new people in and gets them engaged.

I want it to be FUN + HELPFUL.? I? want the people who play along to get immediate benefits.? I want them to be having so much fun with it that they tell their friends and write about it on their blogs.? I want me to have fun with it too!? I did something like this when I first started blogging (a year of Creating Dreams Come True posts) and I loved doing it and I loved the community that gathered around it.

And I want to do free calls once in a while.? I have done this in the past and it’s super fun.? The calls can be tied into this new thing, or they can be separate, I’m not sure that matters.? I’ve also been thinking about including a Livestream element to the calls.

Since creating products is in the I LIKE THIS pile I am really looking forward to working on this.

Accept that being introverted, even online, means you need recovery time built into your outreach program.? You just can’t do as much as you want to do.

This one is more important than it sounds!? That voice that keeps saying “OMG What have you even accomplished this week?” SUCKS ENERGY.

Permission to work at a healthy pace CONSERVES ENERGY.

It actually makes it possible to get MORE work done.

This list feels simple, do-able and complete – for now.

At this time, my Creative Outreach Strategy does NOT include anything to do with SALES.

How sales work for me is that people decide for themselves when they want to COME PLAY WITH ME.? I have done a lot of work around creating clear offerings and creating a nicely-lit path that leads my Right People to them (while deflecting my Wrong People so they can go off to find their Right Thing).

My sales are steady, and enough to comfortably support myself.? I trust that more people coming in is going to equal more sales… eventually.

Creative Dreaming is vulnerable work.? Some people come to my website and immediately feel called to work with me.? Others read my stuff for years before signing up for anything.? The timing has to feel right for them, I have no control over that.

How Will I Know If My Strategy Is A Success?

If I’m not counting on seeing an increase in sales right away, what am I going to measure to know if this is working?

The honest answer is that I want to feel inspired + alive in what I am doing with my Creative Outreach Program.? So I’ll know by how I feel.

If you don’t have enough money coming in, it’s likely that if you follow this process your intuition is going to lead you to start with that piece.? Again, I highly recommend this and also have a Creative Business Incubator in my Creative Dream Circle if you want to learn more about my approach to business.

So this is not my End All Be All Final Plan, just a framework to get me started bringing my Creative Genius into how I promote + grow my business, and to wrap my head around what it means for me to be focusing my time and energy on promoting my work instead of creating new programs.

I’m sure my plan will change as I start working with it.? I’ll keep having meetings with the Treasure Map to make sure I stay on the right path.

The Important part is NOT the plan.

The important part is what lead to the creation of the plan: dealing with inner stucks, listening to my inner creative genius, following my intuition and building my path based on all of that.

This works because there is ALWAYS a way to get to where you want to be.? It’s just that that way is usually not the way you think it will be.? So you’re looking at how you think it’s supposed to be, and all you see are obstacles, so you decide there is no way.

Always always always.? Always!

There is ALWAYS a way IF you put the inner work FIRST.

PS: Since I’m going to be blogging more I am looking for blog topics!? If there’s something you’d like me to blog about, leave a comment below and let me know!

This post is inspired by seeing so many crazy-talented creatives struggle to fill online classes or sell their work, and by where I’m currently at in my business.

April, May + June of this year I was in a self-imposed creative cocoon. I was re-visioning and re-creating my Creative Dream Circle.? I cut back on blogging and social media to give more energy and attention to the Circle.

It’s July and I am coming out of that cocoon.? The new Circle is done, and it’s even more amazing than I’d hoped.

Normally this is where I?d take a week or two off to let my creative juices marinate and then dive back in and create my next thing.? I?m not doing that this time.

Instead, I’m going to spend the next 3 months using my creative energy to market + promote my work as my main Creative Project.

But not in the way you think.

NOT by screaming “buy! buy! buy!” to anyone with ears, NOT by putting ads everywhere and NOT by using any of the sales techniques I’ve learned in the last 3 years of taking business classes.

I’m going to do something totally different.

If you know anything about what I teach, then you know that you have to get to know the Heart and Soul of your Dream before you can even begin to understand how to bring it to life, and how the path to your dream is almost never what you think it will be.

You have to let go of ego-logic-thinky stuff and embrace the creative-intuitive-spiritual-feely stuff.

So it should come as no surprise that when I was sorting out what to do next with my business, I spoke to:

• the Heart + Soul of the Creative Dream Circle
• the Heart + Soul of my Business
• the?Heart + Soul of my Dream for What Happens Next In My Business

… and they all say the same thing.? Be in the magic and enchantment of your work and share the amazing-ness of it all: openly, brightly and honestly.? This is your work now.

In the last three years, I’ve been taking a LOT of online business classes.? I know all of the tips and strategies.? But whenever I move towards that kind of approach I step out of the magic and the enchantment.? And it stops feeling right.

The Internet Marketing People Are Right About Some Things Though:

1. People are not paying attention when they’re surfing online. So you need to put your offer out there CLEARLY and OFTEN.? Much more OFTEN than us sensitive creative types find comfortable.? So you have to learn how to stretch your comfort zone around promoting yourself (more on that soon).
2. Most people in your audience, even people who really super totally love you and your work, are NOT going to buy from you.? This is not about you, this is just how the internet is.? Think about how many people you know online that you like – do you buy stuff from ALL of them?? A low conversion rate is not a sign of failure.? It means to go back to #1 and put it out there CLEARLY and MORE OFTEN.

Really – most of us sensitive creative types put our work out with kind of a whisper (I know it FEELS like you’re screaming it from the rooftops because self-promotion is so heart-breakingly uncomfortable, but trust me – you’re whispering) and then feel like failures when that doesn’t work.

This is painful and it’s no wonder marketing, promotions and sales get a bad rap in the creative community.? But really – marketing, promotions and sales are not the problem, it’s just the approach that is the problem.

The #1 Thing That Internet Marketing People Are Wrong About:

You don’t need to push so much – pushing the pain buttons to trigger a sale, pushing your people into high pressure situations, testing which colour pushes people to hit that BUY NOW button… yes these things can generate MORE sales, FASTER.? And for almost everyone – building a solid foundation, step-by-step is worth more in the long run than making as many sales as possible, right now.

There is always a way to make some cash without being a sleazeball.? <click to tweet!>

Pushing gets quick sales but it’s short-sighted.? Do you want a classroom full of people who were coerced into being there, or people who are excited to be there?? Or a bunch of clients who aren’t in it 110%?? Or customers who don’t appreciate or understand the beauty and magic of what you have to offer?

I remember, years ago, sitting in a coffee shop with a friend “I don’t want to be a sleazeball!” I said, almost in tears.? He laughed and said I’m not a sleazeball so why would I worry about it?

I had been leading creativity workshops, healing + meditation circles and doing spiritual counseling/coaching part-time for 3 years.? I was just starting out online.? I was 100% committed to growing my business and turning it into a full-time thing.

I thought to make that happen I had to get better at marketing and do these sleazeball things that seem to work for other people.

And this is the #1 thing that no one talks about when it comes to creatives and business:

Because you’re creative – you actually have an advantage over any and all sleazeball tactics.

You can promote yourself and your work in ways that are as elegant and inspiring as your art is.

When you bring your creative genius into how you approach your promotion, sales and marketing – magic happens.

And I mean bring as much of your creative genius into your promotion, sales and marketing as you bring into the creation of your work.

All that love and attention you give to every detail of your work – give it to every detail of how you promote your work.

All that TIME you give to your work – give equal time to promoting and selling it.? Or maybe even MORE – because you’ve probably got a lot of time to make up for.

THAT is when you’ll see results.

If you have no clue what to, like, DO to market, promote and sell – read some business books, take some business classes.? Start with this one.? You’ll thank me later.

Think of how long it took you to perfect your art, how hard you worked, and how much you sucked when you started.? Know that getting good at selling your art is a similar journey.

You need to learn about the basics and then PLAY with them.? CREATE with them.?? Explore and discover how to do them YOUR way (yes this part gets mighty awkward at times).

You need to not give up just because it’s hard.? Of course it’s hard.? Everything is hard when you’re still learning your way with it.

I know this is the last thing you want to do.? I know you hate marketing and self-promotion makes you itchy.

You’re going to have to get over that if you want to succeed.

It will be easier to get over it if you turn it into a Creative Project – something you can PLAY with.? Make it fun and interesting for you and your right people will feel your vibe and be happy to come play with you.

Yes. Make marketing + promotion a facet of your creative work.

I think of it as CREATIVE OUTREACH.

So, here I am, taking my own advice.

I’m really very good at putting transformational programs together.? I love doing it, I’m confident, I’m in my groove.? In fact, for the last three years I have been constantly creating new programs.? I want to keep doing that.

Instead, I’m taking ALL of my Creative Genius and I’m applying it to marketing and promotion.? I’m committed to spending the next three months doing this, and finding ways to enjoy it.

(Honestly – I’ve already found a lot of ways to enjoy it, it’s really not anywhere near as miserable as it seems.)

This is the work of supporting your work, your vision, your creativity and your purpose.? This is also the work of supporting yourself, and your family.? This is the work of inviting in more flow and ease to all parts of your life.

This is important work.

Bring your best stuff to it (your Creative Genius).

And give it the time, attention and energy it deserves.

If you focus all your time, energy and Creative Genius on making your thing, and none of it on marketing, promoting and selling – you’re selling yourself, and your work, short.

Other people, people with crazy big audiences who sell crazy tons of stuff – got there because they worked, hard, at this part.

There is a fantasy in the creative community that someone will come along and do it for you.? That you’ll be discovered.? That if you get good enough at your art – it will sell itself.

While I clung pretty tightly to that fantasy in my years as a starving artist, I have NEVER heard of that actually happening for anyone.? Counting on it happening for you is the same as KILLING your DREAM.

There is a space between full-on sleazy pushy sales and full-in hiding in your studio and painting all day.

It’s actually a big, beautiful, supportive, expansive, wide open space.? There is room to play.? There is room for you to be YOU.? There is support for you to take charge.? There is possibility and abundance and flow.

Stepping into this space is EMPOWERING.

How I’m Doing It

Monday I wrote about how a session with my Creative Journal transformed my Plans into a Treasure Map.

Now I’m working on the Treasure Map:

 

I’m using my Create A Map That Leads To Your Dream kit to make the map.

And I’ll build the path as I go, as a part of my morning creative/meditation practice.

Today the map told me that I have to trust the path before I can see it.

Well, ahhh, yes, of course.?? I’m sitting with that today.? Letting trust kind of spill all over everything and see what it does… it’s probably easier to turn trust-stained Plans into a Treasure Map than not-trust-stained Plans.

Tomorrow I’ll come back to the map and explore what the next step on the path looks like.

I feel really vulnerable sharing this.

I don’t know where this is going, which is why it feels so vulnerable.?? But I’m also feeling really clear that sharing this process publicly as I work through it is important.

Want to help?

If you enjoyed reading this and want to help me with my mission, I would totally appreciate if you would:

1. Use the buttons below to share on Facebook, Google +, Pinterest and/or Twitter (If you’re reading this in your email, click here to do that)
2. Follow my process over the next three months in whatever way works for you:? Facebook | Twitter | RSS. (This is different from my email list, if you join my email list you get my free Creative Dream Starter Kit and a regular weekly video for several months.)
3. If you know someone who may be interested, or who is learning more about selling their art, please email them this post!

 

And I’d love to hear your thoughts on marketing, selling and promoting your work. Where do you slip up?? Where are you thriving?

Creating ways to successfully share your gifts with the world is an epic, epic journey, I think this is the most important work we do.

This past was part 1 in a series as I was treasure-mapping my way to growing my business, and sharing the honest actual story, AS IT HAPPENS, as I fumble along this path with creativity, heart and soul.

If you want to follow the rest of the adventure:
1. What no one tells you about marketing + creative business

2. Be open to the adventure of being where you are

3. The Path to creative business success.

4.? A plan emerges from the treasure map

5. Why I?ve been stuck, plus exploring EASE and JOY

6. How Ease is the ticket and what that means

7. The End of the Treasure Map

This is an open call to ask me anything you want to ask about turning your Creative Dream into your business and explore the process of how to bring your business dream to life.

Creative Business Q+A Call

March 26 at 11am Central.

Click here to find out what time this is in your time zone.

Registration is $23, includes access to the live call plus the recording.? If you can’t be there live, you can send me your questions and I’ll answer them on the call.

Of course, I am not a business expert!

But I am happily 100% self employed with my own creative spiritual business and have learned a lot along the way.

When I first started doing my creativity workshops seven years ago, I’d sometimes put workshops on (I did all of my workshops/courses/healing circles/coaching in person back then) that had ZERO attendees(!)

I’d set everything up, and sit there and wait and nothing would happen.? I thought I’d have to keep my day job forever.

Happily, I was wrong.? These days, I support myself doing the things I love most and that day job is a distant memory.

And I would love to help you do the same.

[I do have an entire Creative Business Incubator in the Creative Dream Circle, with hours and hours of videos about every aspect of growing a creative spiritual business. This call cannot replace all of that – it’s just a simple Q+A.? If there is anything you want to ask me about making money doing what you love – this is your chance.]

Registration is closed.? To get the recording, and a TON of other amazingly helpful dream-growing stuff, join the Creative Dream Circle.

 

[AKA Calling Bullshit On Our Relationship With Money, Part 2] (Part 1 is here)

“Feeling good about myself/my work/my art/my actions is more important than money.”

If I hear this from one more well-meaning creative dreamer I! Am! Going! To! Scream!

That kind of thinking creates a split in your relationship with money.? It creates an unnatural hierarchy in your inner world – this is more important than that.

It puts money at the bottom.

It makes money somehow dirty, bad, or wrong – which is not exactly a welcoming environment.

It sets you up to think you’re some kind of asshole for having the audacity to want to make money doing the things you love to do.

And meanwhile – what, exactly, are you going to live on if money isn’t important?

It’s extremely self-sabotaging.

This makes me mad because it reminds me of me!

It reminds me of when I was adamant that art was more important than money.

And it reminds me of how hard everything was for me back then.

And of how wrong I was!

Because actually I make MUCH better art when I’ve got money.? Money SUPPORTS Art.

When I’ve got the art supplies and gorgeously lit studio I need. With crystals hanging in the gigantoid windows, throwing rainbows all over everything.

When my energy isn’t tied up in worrying about paying the bills.

I don’t do my best work in a pressure cooker.

A pressure cooker is exactly what you’re creating in your life when you say that money isn’t important.

Money is important.

It’s not that it’s more or less important than your art or your soul.

It’s all important.

When you tear down that hierarchy then you make it possible for everything to work together.?

Because you inner world was never meant to have a hierarchy!? It’s not about structure and rank.? It’s about all the parts working together for the benefit of the whole.? No one thing being more or less important, everything being cherished and loved for what it is.

That’s when everything in your world can work in harmony to create your life as a gorgeous work of art.

When money isn’t “more important” or “less important” than other things, then it can do what it does best: SUPPORT YOU.

It can help you do more of your meaningful creative work.

It can help you live a life that is true to who you are.

It can help you give your family what they need to thrive.

We have so much work to do in this area!

We being the creative dreamers of the world.

Can you imagine how the whole world would change if more of us were more financially empowered in our lives?? The impact we could have if we were all living our biggest dreams?

It really has to start with a shift in your thinking about money – which then sparks a shift in your relationship with money.

And this is why I’m doing the Creative With Money Online Playdate on Friday.

Because shifting your relationship with money is a difficult complicated thing to do.

I’m not talking about making more money or spending less money or investing better: though those things can be outcomes of an improved relationship with money.

I’m talking about feeling good about money and how it functions in your world.

Imagine right now that you did feel good about money and how it functions in your world.

Can you feel that sense of opening and possibility and magic?? And how money doesn’t have to be stressful?

That’s what I’m talking about.

And that’s what we’re going to do on Friday.? Click here to join us.

PS: I’m getting a lot of questions from people who want to know when/if I am doing this again and if I’ll do it on a different day because Friday doesn’t work for them.

The last time I did this people who were not there on the calls reported that they felt like they were every bit as much a part of the group as those who did attend live.?

It’s usually about 1/2 the group who is there live and 1/2 using the recordings – it’s not like you’ll be the only one who isn’t there live. So I can assure you that you don’t miss out by not being there live on the calls.?

And to answer the question: I don’t know if I am doing this again.

If you’re interested in participating, join now.

If you have any other questions about it, feel free to leave a comment below or email me using the contact form on this page.

On top of my file cabinet in my office at Creative Magic Headquarters.

This week, instead of a new episode of Creative Dream TV, I am sharing this:

I did an hour-long interview with the Love and Money Revolution for their Holistic Business Radio.

Love! And Money!

I had so much fun doing this interview.

We talked about how we can use creativity to make things work magically better in our lives. We also talk about how to transform our (often sticky and hard) relationships with money into something that is way better.

It’s a great show!

>>> Click here to listen now.

(And use those facebook and twitter share buttons at the bottom of the interview! Share the magic!)

PS: The Creative With Money Online Playdate is happening SUPER SOON!

Past participants have called this ?A smashing success?, ?Life-changing? and ?So full of magic I?m still seeing stars and glitter!?

We’re playdating on OCTOBER 26. That’s next Friday.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE FUN.

I’ve been happily working away on my Amazing New Thing.? And I am shifting and re-arranging other parts of my business to give it the space it needs, and deserves.

And I am getting to the hard part… the part where I have to let go of what-is to make room for what-is-coming-in before it’s arrived.

We always want to wait until we have the new thing before we let go of the old thing.

And it just can’t work that way.

The whole point of letting go is to let. go. The point isn’t to hold. on. until the letting go becomes somehow easier.

It doesn’t just somehow get easier.? Things change when you change them.

You’ve got to activate courage and trust-in-your-inner-knowing.

So I’ve been standing at the edge of this pool for some time, working on that part.

A lot of my time spent standing at the edge of the pool I didn’t even realise I was standing at the edge of the pool!? But now that I realise it, it’s getting harder and harder to not do something about it.

Even though: OMG! Scary!

So here’s the deal: I want this Amazing New Thing I am doing to become the main part of my business.

This thing isn’t just amazing, it’s my Best Work Ever and It’s The Way That I Can Help Dreamers Grow Their Dreams, The Most.

But it’s different, really vastly different, from the work I do now (mostly one-on-one coaching, with classes sometimes).

It also, happily, costs way less than one-on-one coaching, so I can help more dreamers grow more dreams.

But that’s also the scary part, right now.

I have to let go of one-on-one coaching (eekk!) in order to create space to grow this new thing.

Coaching is where most of my income comes from, it’s how I support myself.

Letting go of the thing that supports me financially?? As a single girl with a brand new dream loft condo to pay for? Fucking terrifying!

But here’s the thing: my intuition does not lead me wrong.

So I know that this is the right thing to do.

But you know how I talk about baby steps and finding the safest way to do things?? Stopping coaching immediately is not a baby step and it’s not safe!

And I have commitments with my long-term clients that I absolutely want to keep! Not to mention: I love working with them!

I’m going to put the brakes on, and ease out of it and ease into the new thing.

Deep breath, deep breath, deep breath.

So: Last call for coaching.

If you want my help turning inner critics into allies or showing you how you can stop letting that thing stop you, or if want to pick my brain about anything to do with creative dreams, creative business, glitter eyeshadow – whatever.? Now’s your chance.

You can go directly to my coaching page and book a session, or a three month creative dream package.