(Semi-)Wordless Wednesday — Mother’s Day
The view from my parent’s grave. Impromptu visit to Mom with my sister.
One of about 12 chicks born on Mother’s Day, just after hatching.
Gratitude challenge week 19
“Being grateful for all I have brings more abundance into my life.” —Che Garman
I am a grateful woman.
I am grateful for the life in the garden. Bean plants of all kinds reaching for the sky, sending tendrils out to wrap around anything that will help them stand upright.
I am grateful for dancing last night for a whole hour without feeling sapped and depleted. Woohoo!
I am also grateful that my legs didn’t hurt when I danced. Or after.
I am grateful for my sister and our shared love and neuroses.
I am grateful that I had my first Journey healing process today. Powerful.
I am grateful for my nutrition coach urging me more and more to health.
I am grateful for the wealth that allows me to take care of myself this well.
I am grateful that my daughter calls me on the phone. Even if it’s just to ask mama techno-geek how to take a screen grab. (Works for me.)
I am grateful for this unbelievable weather. I like this sunshine and mild temps. Just gorgeous.
I am grateful for the first peaches and nectarines sitting on my counter with some apricots and cherries. My favorite season for fruit has begun.
I am grateful that my body is healing.
I am grateful for working technology.
I am grateful for a working car!
I am grateful for a plan. Managing my energy with time over this next two weeks is critical for me.
I am grateful for my web developer partner, Dustin Laine, who is a coding god and a very good friend.
I am grateful for everyone who has commented on my blog. Welcome all to the conversation!
I am grateful for gratitude practice; it brings me peace.
From this week’s Gratitude Challengers:
Amanda: a husband who gets up in the middle of the night to warm milk for our baby – it was his idea, no urging necessary.
Sonia: Yelp IPhone application for helping me find the best restaurants.
Mary Jane: I’m so grateful that my body is getting better and my T3 and T4 numbers are almost normal. Good job bod!
Barbara: today I am grateful for the moon, the moon, the moon [this during the last Full Scorpio Moon, did you see it?]
Another from Sonia: The ability to see, the ability to hear, the ability to touch, the ability to taste
Theresa: Having the mother that I do to celebrate on Mother’s Day
Belinda: I love the phrase “Take a Deep Breath, Sweetheart. We’ll get through this together. We’re going to be OK.” This is a good one for me. I use it.
Love and light, y’all.
Entering the third trimester of birthing my heart-centered business…
Yes, it’s being a long pregnancy.
Conception: I began this journey of rethinking, redoing, revamping, repurposing, my business in October of last year. The doldrums (clients completing their work, lack of new clients to take their place) had set in and my efforts of marketing and sales in the same way I always had were falling flat.
I had been hearing and reading about Mark Silver and his work in Heart of Business for a couple of years. What I read about his offerings like Opening the Moneyflow resonated in me; I started subscribing to his newsletters in 2009. In my usual slow-to-move way, it took me a lot of months to go from lurking into action.
Once I decided to get some help, I thought, at the time, that it would take maybe a few months to transform my business from the doldrums into a successful heart-centered, niche-marketed operation. Three months, maybe. (Every time I reread this an involuntary and slightly painful snorting noise escapes my nose.)
I hadn’t worked with a coach in a couple of years. I had been soldiering on on my own. When I made the decision to get some support, I felt immediate relief, mixed with some fear. But then, every action I had been taking was tinged with fear. The relief, though, was delicious. Deciding to invest in myself and my business development in a way I had never done before was huge for me!
My initial strategy: start with the Spiritual Marketing Quest and get support around having a niche. Then take the Heart of Business Momentum course, and learn about heart-centered marketing.
I had operated my business as an intentional generalist for years. I refused to declare a niche; I like variety, I’d say. What I was realizing is that my determination to work for every possible client (remember Anybodys in West Side Story?) came from fear, the fear that there would never be enough, that I had to be a Yes to all clients and projects.
These two courses helped me let go of that old structure and envision and define and declare my niche. Then I gave myself the gift of a True Spirit of My Business session with Isabel Parlett, the Soundbite Shaman. I ended up with my top-secret, powerful, foundational mission statement, which doesn’t — and won’t — appear in my marketing materials in this form, but which I’ll share with you now just because it’s so juicy and audacious.
The True Spirit of my Work is
to stand at the sacred fire ushering seasoned women into the spaciousness of recognizing their own value,
inviting them to walk in the world as queens, head up and tits out,
as they audaciously take on the difficult acts of living,
and, in doing so, to be inspired to dance into their highest good,
and do their part to contribute to a community
that can care for itself and the planet.
First trimester (January to March): I realized with astonishing and appalling clarity that I was only just beginning. Yes the surface was now scratched, yes now I had the beginnings of a roadmap of the steps I wanted and needed to take. Next: action steps! So many action steps!
I needed/wanted to completely redo (as in massively rewriting and restructuring) my website, my offers and my… oh, just everything—descriptions on all social media, content of autoresponders, taglines, and probably a few million other things that haven’t yet occurred to me!
I decided to get more support and after some deliberation (do I take another group Heart of Business course or do I work with a coach?) I hired Yollana to support me through this process.
The foundational work of the first three months was liberating and agonizing all at once. Like learning a new language. Heart-centered marketing syntax means I shift from Here’s what I do, please hire me to Hi, gorgeous! Is this you? Does any of this resonate with you? If so, we should talk. Or maybe you know someone who…
In short, simply changing my offering, my stand, from being about me (I do this well, yo, hire me!) to being about you, my gorgeous woman client/student who yearns for support in bringing the juicy back in her life and the audacious into her brand.
All about the writing.
Second trimester (April to June): Putting all these changes into place. The first big huge one: My website now has a way for people to pay me. Until a couple of months ago, the income flow looked like: talk to prospect, negotiate with prospect, get hired (hopefully, finally) by prospect, then bill prospect and wait for checks to arrive. Now? I have offers with payment buttons that can be clicked on and payment made without my intervention (!) and money will flow into my account!
Next: Having actual defined offers. In addition to the option of hiring me month-to-month ongoing for coaching, or hiring me for your unique design and branding needs, I developed the first of what will be a series of packages one can buy to get support for living your most juicy life; or for assessing and assuring that your actions match your values; or to develop your business’s brand, review it, refresh it, and make it shine and sing and reflect the gorgeous audacious totality of your offering.
[An aside that will show you just how challenging this phase can be: Yes I would have put links to the appropriate pages in the above paragraph, if in fact those pages existed! I'm in that painful almost stage, and it's driving me a bit nuts! I just made a note in the spreadsheet that rules my life to come back here and add the links as soon as possible! And remove this embarrassing confessional note!]
All of these changes to tone and text affect every page of my website, and I will be launching an interim version of the new stuff by Memorial Day weekend. And then all that will be left to do is to refine it, expand it, make it consistent and do the zillion ancillary bits. Which will take me to the end of June. And probably beyond, if I’m being honest.
I’m not completely certain about how July, August and September will look—my crystal ball’s a little cloudy—but my actions in this trimester will include the visual and technical refresh of my website (yes the blog has got to look like the rest of the site and have the same navigation, I know!). This refresh will allow me to do content management on the fly, instead of being so dependent on my developer partner.
And there’s some video that wants to happen. A welcome video on my home page, and one on each of the new Live Juicy! and Brand Audacious! landing pages. Gulp!
And a teleclass is coming, hopefully for the end of the year. Something sacred and juicy and audacious and fun!
Oh and one more thing! The month of October looks like it will be a retreat month, a pilgrimage to someplace that feeds my heart and soul that is not seen on my laptop screen or my iPad, but seen with my eyes, touched with my hands, walked upon and honored.
Thank you for your patience as my business goes through its reconception, labor and rebirth. And for your compassion as my website goes through its changes. It may get a bit bumpy for a while, and I’m sure the end result will make it all worthwhile.
Have you gone through transformation in your own business? Share in the comments, any tips you might have on staying sane, and balanced, and patient, as you move through… Thanks!
Love and blessings,
Sue
Gratitude to share Sunday 5/7—Gratitude Challenge week 18
“If the only prayer you ever uttered was, ‘Thank you,’ that would suffice.” —Meister Eckhart
I am grateful today for the state of the garden. I keep telling myself this is the last bunch of kale I’m gonna have to buy. Maybe a couple of more weeks of this…the seedlings are lookin’ good!
I am grateful for apricots and cherries at the farmers market! Early summer in da house!
I am grateful for my sister, her love, her smarts, her humor, her compassion.
I am grateful for Rabbit and Rowan in my life. Sisters by choice.
I am grateful for neighbors that are so wonderful to know, to work alongside in the garden.
I am grateful for delicious eggs from our hens.
I am grateful for a morning of weeding. Another nickname to add to my collection: Purslane Patrol. Add that to Kombucha Fairy.
I am grateful for ritual last night under the big fat juicy Scorpio Moon. We are the Mothers of the New TIme, yo.
I am grateful for entertainment. Avengers tonight!
I am grateful for good rest, comfortable clothes, fitness, ease, and fine health.
I am grateful for walks in the sunshine.
I am grateful for good water to drink.
I am grateful for my gratitude community. And their words this week:
Amanda: “doing good, but also causing no harm in the work that we do”
Kim: “I am grateful to be alive.”
Sonia: “A full day in Waikiki.” (Me: Wow!)
Mary Jane: “I’m grateful I can take a big cleansing breath right now. Aaaaaaahh.”
Blessed be!
Gratitude challenge week 17
(this time the quote’s from me! teehee…)
“Expressing gratitude causes a fundamental change for the better in my thoughts and words and actions. And because I know from experience that today’s gratitude won’t help me tomorrow, I have embraced a nearly daily practice of writing my gratitudes and sharing them with others.” — Sue Kearney, personal/business coach and graphic designer
Hello, my gratitude peeps!
Keeping it simple on this gorgeous Saturday. I want to be outside!!
I am grateful that I live in California where I get to have gorgeous sunshine so much of the year.
I am grateful—privileged—that I am a priestess in such a sweet juicy and powerful tribe of women. Last night’s Oshun ritual was, I think, the most powerful ritual I have ever experienced. I got to drum and play with three amazing guest priestess drummers. Wow! Powerful.
I am grateful that the ritual, the dancing, the singing, the devotion, were so amazing. It’s rare—for me—to be so fully in my heart and body (and not in my critical monkey mind) for nearly the entire time at ritual. Wowowowow!
I am grateful for the dancing and enactments of Kris Freewoman. If you can do a workshop with her, give yourself that gift. Or buy one of her amazing offerings. You will be glad you did!
I am grateful for the smiles and hugs of my sisters in my tribe.
I am grateful for getting to play a set of bells like you see here for the first time. I love this way of making joyful noise, the way I can syncopate and add to the rhythms. I want one! High on my list for a gift for myself.
I am grateful for waking up to lovenotes on Twitter. Yay.
I am grateful for my three-week cleanse being almost over (ends tomorrow).
I am grateful that I am going to continue eating this way, adding back just a few things (strawberries for one, sweet potatoes for another).
I am grateful for the state of my garden. Little seedlings everywhere!
I am grateful for two new women joining the gratitude challenge group this week. How lucky am I to be immersed in so much gratitude!
I am grateful for a call from my daughter, and for loving her through her changing circumstances.
I am grateful for empathy and compassion, and how I can express it and feel it land like a soft loving cloak on the person receiving it.
I am grateful that I got to have articles posted (as a guest author) on Mark Silver’s Heart of Business blog and on Jenny Bones’ Up Your Impact Factor blog. This is a big deal, yo.
I am grateful that I can offer coaching with me on a pay-what-you-can open contribution basis. What a beautiful way to share from my heart to yours. Ooh a little self-promotion is creeping in. Time for me to stop!! 
From the Gratitude Challenge group this week:
Lana (welcome!): I’m grateful for people who remind me to be grateful.
Andrea (welcome to you too!): I am grateful that my daughter is one more day clean and heroin free (from Sue: I feel this in my heart, I’ve been there — both sides — and I send you lots of love and compassion)
Sonia: Feel good now, depression lifted from this morning
Amanda: A wonderful day with my baby girl and friends
Theresa: Getting to Skype with my boyfriend in Afghanistan today and that’s he safe and unharmed
Helen: I am grateful that I have a home. I am grateful that I have a job.
I found this beautiful Oshun image on the Sistah Goddess website
Is being true to your heart and soul selfish? Does it matter?
This morning I rolled out of bed before 7, before the alarm, and I put on my flipflops and went into the garden. Dragged the heavy hose its full length and started watering the seedbeds. The whole garden looks like more dirt than plants, as you can see, and I spent my time (15, 20 minutes) watering every bed, and the paths in between, bending down and saying hello to each little tiny seedling I could see.
This time spent in the chilly morning sunshine was most definitely not on my calendar. I have so much more important stuff to do! Tax-related stuff, business development stuff. I have blogs to read and comments to write! I have #FFs to send, and RTs.
And yes, I also have sunshine to soak up, and invisible seeds to water and love, and seedlings to greet.
Yes it’s selfish. And yes it matters. In a good way.
I tell my clients this all the time: Make room for every part of your most sacred self in your schedule. Want some unstructured hammock-lying time? Schedule it! On first glance this might look and sound counterintuitive to you.
Take a moment with this. Close your eyes and picture your calendar—using the week view. And picture a lovely two, two-and-a-half–hour chunk labeled Sacred time: Laze in a hammock and look at the clouds. This chunk is in a color you don’t use for anything but Sacred Time. Using a different color is a very important part of the magic of this, try it and see! And then picture yourself getting to that day, that afternoon, that chunk of time. And shutting your computer, leaving your phone behind, slapping on some sunscreen, and going out to do nothing. In the very best way.
Or feeling like you don’t have enough time for your art? Schedule it. I just recently found myself feeling deprived of time to make, to create, to play with Jenny, my art buddy. So I scheduled an every-two-week afternoon labeled Sacred Art Time.
I know how difficult this stuff can be. I confess it’s much easier for me to coach and remind my clients to do this stuff for themselves than it is to do it for myself. It can be so challenging to allow this spacious, juicy, well rounded, fully expressed me to do everything she loves.
There’s a price we pay when we ignore and deny these powerful cravings to feed all the juicy wonderful parts of ourselves
We are so committed to our business, to our work, to our outreach, to our clients and prospects, to our success, that we can end up pretty single-minded. And that single-minded devotion to work has a big fat negative impact on our balance, on our expression, on our satisfaction, on our happiness.
Do this daring thing. Today. Before you close up shop for the day (or night, if you’re like me!)
Close your eyes. Go inside. Breathe. Feel into your heart. Think of that thing you really wanted to do recently, and didn’t, in favor of work. That midday yoga class. The invitation from your friend to take an afternoon walk by the shore. Those gorgeous veggie starts you wanted to buy and put in the dirt. Okay. Now. Go to your calendar. Look at the upcoming week. And move enough stuff around so that you have the spaciousness to stick that very thing on there. In its own color!
Let me help support you in this. Send me this powerful intentional audacious schedule entry you just made. Comment here, or email me, or send me a tweet. Let me support your audacious love affair with yourself and your soul’s true expression.
Go for it, gorgeous! I’ve got your back.
Balance
This is a guest post by Jenny Bones, proud owner, operator and resident sex goddess of Up Your Impact Factor, where Jenny helps you uncover how to use your words to change our world.
Jenny’s insights and advice can help you be more impactful in your business and in every other part of your life. Don’t forget to leave a comment and let us know your thoughts and experiences with this topic. Enjoy!
“Just a Moment…”
I’ve been meaning to write a post about balance and I’m feeling particularly out of balance right now so, because of my love for irony, it seems like the perfect time to write this.
One of the hardest things to maintain as a freelance copywriter (or human, for that matter) is balance. Work pours in and work dries up. Self discipline is at a peak and then hits a valley. Creativity ebbs and flows.
Our lives resemble an EKG chart more than a balance sheet. The best we can hope to do is to not get stuck in any one position for too long.
Balance is one of those elements in life, like money and time, that seem to run farther from our grasp the harder we chase it.
I think this is because we are not meant to chase these things. If we try we fail. And yet we keep trying.
One of the single most annoying phrases I’ve ever heard is “trying is lying.” It rattles around my brain like an unwanted pinball every time I say I’m “trying” to do anything. It has seeped into my consciousness, an unwelcome truth.
Words are my business. I am a writers. I am a wordsmith. So how can they turn on me so easily, become my enemies without even noticing they were there?
If balance cannot be found for me in words, perhaps it can through music.
I’ve been listening to Beethoven’s 9th symphony as I write this. I’m not a strong believer in coincidence.
I discovered the symphony as a young teen the first time I watched A Clockwork Orange (which has, by the way, made it all these years on my “Top Ten + Infinity Best Movies Evar” list).
I fell in love with the piece immediately, as everyone does. But years later my Dad and I went to see the Philadelphia Orchestra perform it live in its new Kimmel Center. Nothing can prepare you for this experience. Nothing.
I remember that night as clear as I can recall any night of my life. I don’t have good recall, for the record, to which many who know me will attest. I remember very clearly the nights my two children and one grandchild were born. I remember the night I saw that symphony with my Dad. I have a tough time remembering the details of what I did or said last night. Enough said.
Beethoven’s 9th is an attempt to make sense of and bring balance to a turbulent life that has been lived and is almost extinguished. It is the surrender, through regret transformed by joy, to the chaotic nature of human life.
It is the surrender to the moment. To this moment. Because in reality this is all we have. There is no yesterday or tomorrow. There is no was and will be. There is only now.
And in this moment now, as I listen to this beautiful symphony and try to put words together that will make at least some sense to you, in which I rediscover balance.
So join me now in this moment of infinite possibility. Reach out and hold my hand. Let us create a virtual bridge across the reality of humanity and share this magical and eternal moment together.
Sorrow and Poverty, come forth
And rejoice with the Joyful ones.
Anger and revenge be forgotten,
Our deadly enemy be forgiven,
Not one tear shall he shed anymore,
No feeling of remorse shall pain him.—Friedrich Schiller “Ode to Joy
Jenny B is on a mission to teach people how to change their world with their words. She is proud owner and resident witch of Up Your Impact Factor. Devouring everything to do with entrepreneurship and/or chocolate, she is currently hosting the first annual S’mores Summer Camp for Solopreneurs. When was the last time you roasted marshmallows by the campfire?
Gratitude Challenge week 16: What am I grateful for today?
Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.” —Kahlil Gibran
Wow that’s a beautiful quote, isn’t it? I am calling this one my favorite so far, of the 16 we’ve seen.
I love Gibran. Quite a few of my life’s ah-ha moments have been delivered through his work. Those of you who are parents may find this one landing with a plop in your heart. Of course, I first related to it when I was rebelling against my parents’ authority. Hooboy I wanted them to wise up. Let’s start with this:
I am grateful I’m not that teenager any more.
I am grateful that I have learned some lessons in life.
I am grateful for the healing that is working in every cell of my body.
I am grateful for the replacement compressor in my car. I now have chilly and satisfying A/C! And it’s over 80º today.
I am grateful that I could find the $1,070 to pay for this repair.
I am speechlessly grateful that Custom Paper sent me $130 to defray the cost of my printer replacement. The seed-impregnated paper I got from them killed my inkjet printer. Still shaking my head in amazement.
I am grateful for the bucolic weather and for anticipating the afternoon in the garden tomorrow.
I am grateful for the seeds shared by Max, who has a beautiful garden and chickens nearby, and who gives away much of his bounty.
I am grateful for friends.
I am grateful for repairing my beloved cleaver. I don’t have to replace it! Here’s a tip: If your cleaver gets old, and the blade starts to wiggle in the handle (bad!), jam some toothpicks dipped in wood glue into the excess space and then break the toothpicks off flush with the blade. Worked a treat! Yay!
I am grateful for this gratitude practice. Writing these words and finding these images, and sharing them with you—powerful stuff.
And I am so glad for the Gratitude Challenge Community. From this week’s mailbag, from the mundane to the profound, and all stops along the way:
From Helen:
• I am grateful for a safe journey back to my house
• I am grateful that there wasn’t much traffic on the road
• I am grateful that my box set of Almodovar films arrived in time so I could watch some this weekend
Sonia is grateful that “I’m healthy and strong”
Barbara:
• That I was able to be there for A and for C this week when they both broke down by just holding them and letting them cry;
• That the lightening and thunderstorm on Thursday night was the best storm I have seen in 32 years (and there has only been one other that even was in the running);
• That I was able to take in the joy of that storm while I understood that it was from being in a nice warm house that allowed me to love it, and that we’re I homeless my experience of that storm would have been different
Theresa:
• Completing a triathlon this morning and for the beautiful weather. They predicted storms, but the weather was perfect!
• Feeling strong during the tri and motivated to continue
• Getting to cuddle up, relax, and watch a movie this afternoon with nothing that needs to get done
Mary Jane:
• I’m grateful I feel things so deeply. Sometimes the pain seen almost unbearable, but the wonder and joy also live in the unfathomed space.
• I’m grateful for the compassion I feel for anyone whose heart is hurting, for whatever reason.
• I’m grateful for you Sue, Dear One, who I have never met. But we reach out to each other in gratitude – what a holy encounter. You are so cool. Thank you for doing this.
Amanda:
• that my husband is the driver so I can nap (or write my gratitudes)
• for lovely lunch in a sunny garden
Belinda:
• I am grateful for the wonderful letter of gratitude I received from Nancy.
• I am grateful for the combination of good weather, fairly healthy body and being able to follow through on my intention – to do a little gardening. Some by me, some by the kid up the street – and I’m grateful that he was available!
Gratitude Thursday 4/19
Gratitudes at night, right before bed.
I am grateful that I am healthy.
I am grateful that the people in my life who know about my gratitude practice remind me of it when I’m complaining, and that I am willing and able to stop complaining and shift to gratitude. On a dime, frequently (not always!).
I am grateful that last night when I broke a jar flooding my kitchen with a gallon of kombucha my reaction, while ridiculous, wasn’t dangerous. I didn’t get loaded, yo. I spent an hour trying on workout pants at Target (an ego-killing exercise if I ever saw one), bought nothing, not even a mop which would have been a good purchase (sticky floor). Came home and remembered, a couple of hours later, that forgiveness and love are available, even here. Only took about four hours to remember.
I am grateful that I have the $1,070 needed to repair the A/C in my car. Luxury problem.
I am grateful that the garden is coming alive.
I am grateful for a little more ease every day in my belly.
I am grateful for this cleanse. More than halfway done.
I am grateful for rice and quinoa back in my diet. Soothing.
I am grateful that even though I am very annoyed at these font problems, I am calm(ish).
I am grateful I can laugh at myself.
I am grateful I can see through my new lenses, which are an improvement over the old ones.
I am grateful that I have friends in my life.
I am grateful that I am committed to wellness.
I am grateful for the women I serve.
I am very grateful for Erika Watson, and for her generosity.
I am blessed.
