The
Creativepreneur Volume 1, Issue 4
February 2013
The Crossroads of Business, Art, Life and Soul
Copyright Š 2013 by Blue Sun Studio, Inc.
The Creativepreneur Studio Volume 1, Issue 4 February, 2013 The Creativepreneur is published on the first Friday of every month. Send submissions or contact us at: info@bluesunstudio-inc.com
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Blue Sun Studio, Inc. 4695 Marnell Dr. Las Vegas, NV 89121 Find us on the Web at: http://bluesunstudio-inc.com Copyright Š 2013 by Blue Sun Studio, Inc.
Click Here Order your Copy Today! The Creativepreneur, February 2013
In This Issue: From the Editors.......................................................................................... 4 Inspired Life: The Road Not Taken.................................................................................... 6 Inspired Business: Marketing Lifestyle: Peter Wuebker............................................................ 8 Creative Clarity: Do You Have a Problem? Good!...................................... 10 Designer’s Corner: Using Pinterest For Your Non-Graphic Business.......... 12 Inspired Artist: Featured Artist: Anastasia Pergakis........................................................... 14 Writer’s Corner: Improvisation and the Art of Writing............................. 16 Inspired Soul: Soulful Quotes........................................................................................... 18 Soulful Spotlight: Joy Resor....................................................................... 20 Little Inspirations: Is Forgiveness Selfish?.................................................. 22
8 Peter Wuebker: Our Journey to Passive Income and Location Independence
14 Anastasia Pergakis: The Hard, The Bad and the Oh So Great
20 Joy Resor: Inspiration Wherever We Look Fusion
From the Editors
H
ello everyone! We hope you had as much of a refreshing winter break as we did. Ours was filled with so much inspiration we’re well stocked with brand new ideas and projects for 2013. In this month’s edition of The Creativepreneur you’ll notice we have a new tag line and some new sections. Over the break, we took the opportunity to step back and do our yearly assessment of where the business was going. Like many entrepreneurs with a TON of ideas, we realized we were in need of some cohesion. What was our underlying message? What was it that brought together everything we do? And then it hit us, “The crossroads of business, art, life and soul”. Ev-
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erything we do, and do for our clients, is a fusion of these four areas. It’s more than a way to sell services or products, it’s a lifestyle, something that permeates every aspect of our daily lives. Some of you may remember The Inspired Artist, our first digital magazine. Producing a digital magazine takes a lot of time and effort and we found we just couldn’t fit two of them into our schedules anymore. But... we didn’t want to let go of The Inspired Artist either. The solution? Add it to The Creativepreneur! In this and future issues you’ll find our Writer’s Corner, Featured Artist, Poetry Corner and more. With that said, go grab a cup of your favorite hot beverage and settle in for your monthly dose of inspiration. Blessings and abundance!
Wendi & Deb
Meet the Team Wendi Kelly
Wendi Kelly is the International business coach behind Creative Clarity Coaching, a division of Blue Sun Studio. Wendi is devoted to coaching creative entrepreneurs who are ready to take the leap into clarity, happiness and success in business and life.
Deb Dorchak
Deborah Dorchak has been a graphic designer for more than 28 years and an artist since she could hold a crayon. Deb got her start in Illustration, and her passion for telling stories through images hasn’t wavered yet. She is the designing force behind Blue Sun’s graphics department.
Be A Part of The Creativepreneur! Give us your feedback AND your submissions for next month’s issue! If you like it (and we know you will!) be sure to share this magazine with anyone you know would enjoy it. See our submission guidelines here: Magazine Submission Guidelines. The deadline for the next issue is February 22nd.
Fusion 5
Inspired Life Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay
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In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I marked the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. —Robert Frost; The Road Taken
Wendi Kelly
The Road Not Taken
T
hirty six years and nine months ago, I stood at a fork in a road, much like the traveler in Mr. Frost’s poem. I was fifteen years old and had a choice to make. There I stood at the fork in the road of the remainder of my teenage years or immanent motherhood.
I am profoundly grateful that I chose the road less traveled, the road named love. I turned my back on that other road. The road of anger, the road of blaming others for perceived injustices, the road of numbing my pain with drugs, and the road of fear. I chose love instead. And it took me down
“I am profoundly grateful that I chose the road less traveled, the road named love.”
And now, today, here I am, telling this with a grateful sigh, ages and ages hence, happy to say, I took the road less traveled and it has made all the difference. Now… I’m not saying that choice would be right for everyone. I know for a fact that it is not. The road I chose is a dirt road with pot holes and is not paved with gold. There were many twists and turns along the way, and the street lamps are often burnt out and you have to feel your way around in the dark. It takes courage, faith, commitment and I dare say a fair amount of sleepless nights. But for me, thirty- six years ago, my life was turned around by a tiny bundle of love that is celebrating her birthday today, and each year on this day I am reminded how much this anniversary of her birth changed the path of my life forever.
the path of becoming a mother, not only to this one, but of three more, and to a handful of others that call me mom, and two wonderful grandchildren. Of all the successes and victories I have had along the way, being a mom is the one I hold closest to my heart. Bringing four wonderful human beings into this world that I am so dang proud of, is the number one thing that I will claim as my victory as I leave this world for heaven someday. And it all began with the road taken. The road to love. But…The One Thing That Robert Frost Didn’t Tell Us The road taken isn’t a straight highway. It intersects here and there, with other roads. Road continued on page 24 Fusion 7
Inspired Business Marketing Lifestyle
Our Journey to Passive Inco Peter Wuebker
S
everal years ago, while I was still employed, I stumbled upon a company, Zazzle, which would promote and sell on your behalf bumper stickers that you designed. Just for fun, I made one with a political message, and was surprised when someone bought it. Then it happened again. And again. I started to pay more attention with each sale, and began to think this might be a modest way to supplement our family income. My wife and I had already concluded that it was going to be necessary for us to work during traditional retirement years. She was toiling away in her retail business, and I was Director of Marketing for a small non-profit. At the same time, we wanted more independence in our lives so that we
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could travel and enjoy life. These aspects of reality appeared to be in competition with each other, and, to be honest, we felt kind of trapped in our circumstances. We decided to start a blog, PassingThru, in anticipation of an upcoming dream vacation to Alaska. She would write about our travels, and it would feature my photography. Upon our return, I put some of my images from the trip on Zazzle products as well: cards, stamps, coffee mugs, etc. And they started to sell. Then my wife coauthored an e-book, The Narcissist: A User’s Guide. This is a subject she is passionate about, and it was downloaded over 1000 times for free. We thought maybe we should start charging a small amount for it. We did and it started to sell. My wife sold her retail business and kept writing, doing consulting work and adding
ome and Location Independence to our blog. I kept on making products for our Zazzle store. We were seeing significant monthly deposits in our PayPal account. We began to think maybe there was something to this whole passive income idea when products I’d created earlier sold for the first time and my wife’s book sales resulted in regular income. We began to strategize. What if we could create even more diversification in income, much in the same vein as financial advisors talk about diversifying your investments to avoid risk? Could this be our ticket to more freedom? Would we be able to share what we knew to help others in similar situations with similar values achieve similar results? I’ve worked in traditional marketing all my life, for my own agency and for others, specializing in direct mail and membership acquisition. This online marketing concept was a bit different. The USP (unique selling
proposition) required people to make a leap of faith away from a traditional career path, going into business on their own and relying upon themselves. It was risky, but at the same time, it could be done part-time with a traditional employment safety net such as we had. I had reached the point where it was almost comfortable, so I took the leap myself and quit my job. Folks were thinking a) I was crazy or b) I’d retired. We explained over and over again what we were doing, and most people didn’t really get it. They were very locked in to traditional career paths, even though there was a significant recession that derailed things for several folks we are close to. But slowly, it started to dawn on people that we were seriously making things work. We thought we could share how people could begin with their own online store, so I wrote an e-book, How to Get Started on Zazzle. People bought it. Then I wrote a follow-up Journey continued on page 24 Fusion 9
Inspired Business Creative Clarity
Wendi Kelly
I
magine this: You have been sitting in paradise now for forty days and forty nights. The weather has been perfect, the food divine, in just the right amounts and your weight has miraculously snapped into its perfect number, leaving you fit, lean and healthy. Money is not an issue. It is flowing abundantly just yonder in that river of gold. You have no need to strive toward goals, because the moment you have a thought, wish or desire, it is instantly manifested. Soak it all in for a second. Really take in what life would be like if it
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stretched on and on like this, endless days and nights with instant satisfaction, instant success, instant desires met at every turn. No finger-lifting required. Bored out of your skull yet? I want you to be really honest. How many of you would have found some arbitrary thing to worry about from the past, just for the heck of it, picked a fight with your loved one, or wandered off to shake off that bothersome feeling of unrest that was making your skin crawl? The truth is that creative people weren’t created to sit in paradise and sip an endless amount of fruity umbrella drinks while time stretched out to eternity. A week or two‌maybe. Forty days and
forty nights? Get the straight-jacket because we’re heading for the loony bin. We were born to create from the well of wonder and brilliance. And in the absence of doing that, we will create something else. Usually trouble. We can obsess in the negative pit of mental hell, manifesting worry, stress, clutter- in it’s many forms- thinking up all sorts of ways to sidetrack ourselves from our purpose here. Life is a series of problem solving and creation. Let’s face it. Everything is a problem
ally easier for you to handle. Let’s go back to that paradise for a moment, shall we? Remember the scenario in paradise, I said that everything we desired would be instantly there. Which would have meant there would have been nothing standing in our way to keep us from creating exactly what our hearts desired to create. The lack of paint, pens, supplies, time, and distractions—like worries over money, or re-
“The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.” looking for a solution. That book you are writing? It is filled with land mines, twists and turns that need to be solved and worked out. But because your ego is taking that problem personally, its easier to go obsess over some other problem. That glorious artwork you are worried won’t turn out just quite right? Easier to shove in a drawer and bicker with a mate over a perceived grievance. Your creative enterprise, the one you want to so badly to be successful? The one you are procrastinating on doing the few things that would make all the difference in the world? ( Deep down, you know what they are…) Those are the good problems to have. But instead, you are spending your time on somebody else’s problem. Because that one is emotion-
~Theodore Isaac Rubin
lationships or any of the other excuses we tell ourselves would have been an illusion. Exactly like they are now. They are illusions we are using to deflect us from the problems we need to be focusing on. The creative problems we are uniquely designed to solve in the first place. So the next time you find yourself stirring up trouble, worry, anxiety, feelings of loss, frustration or blame… Ask yourself this: What problem am I supposed to be solving right now? What creative purpose and problem was I designed to work on and solve? Go do that. Leave that other stuff to some other troublemaker. You have God-given work to do.
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Inspired Business Designer’s Corner
Deb Dorchak
I
was very excited when Pinterest hit the scene. Being a visually oriented person, I loved the idea of having a place for saving all the great images I ran across on the internet. Everyone else did, too. Pinterest grew fast in popularity. People started using it in a variety of creative ways. The Foodies love it for pinning recipes, Fashionistas enjoy creating boards filled with their dream fashions. Wendi and I like using it for color palettes, vision boards and our all time favorite, our Bonds of Blood & Spirit Dream Cast, where we pin all the actors and models we envision in our novels when the movies are made. Pinterest goes beyond playtime
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and dreaming. This social network seems tailor made for photographers, designers, painters and other visual artists. But what if your business isn’t graphically oriented? Then you have to get creative. One commonly used blogging strategy is to include images in your post. People like pictures. Images enhance the articles, help capture attention, and illustrate your point. There’s an easy way to take the pretty picture a step further, and improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). All it takes is a little Photoshop, or similar program, if you know how to use it—or asking your designer to do it for you. You may have noticed that we’ve changed our blog post format. The images accompanying the blogs aren’t just pretty pictures anymore. They serve a purpose.
They’re like little covers for each post. We’ve enhanced the image with the blog post title, made it larger and centered it over the text. Then we make sure each image has the same Title and Alt Text (the text that shows up when you mouse over the image). This is what will help you in the search engines. The best part? Each little cover image is PINNABLE! Yes! Now you, or anyone else can pin your post cover image to their boards on Pinterest, right along with an automatic link right back to your site! How cool is that? And you don’t have to be a graphics or gallery website to enjoy the benefits! Go ahead and try it. Get creative with your images, have fun with them. “But Deb,” I hear you say, “I can’t do this myself, I don’t have Photoshop, I’m not an artist, and I have no clue how to make one.” That’s okay, that’s what Blue Sun is here for. Give us a call, let’s talk solutions.
Tips for Better Pinning Create Boards Pins add up fast, and there’s no reason to lump them all into one single board. Make a category for everything you can think of.
Add a Pin Button to Your Browser You never know when inspiration will hit and you want to save that cute cat image or lovely landscape for future reference. Go to Pinterest Goodies and get a “Pin It” button for your browser, or an app for your mobile device.
Pin From The Source Every image links back to the source where it was first found. When possible, link from the post or site you found the image on, not from the thumbnails in a Google image search.
About Blue Sun Studio, Inc.
Check Out Other Boards
Want more design tips? Need help with your latest design project? Blue Sun Studio, Inc. is a Coaching and Design Studio that specializes in assisting creative entrepreneurs to create the business they have been dreaming of. Find Blue Sun Design Studio on the web at http://bluesunstudio-inc.com.
Go exploring, don’t wait for inspiration to land in your Pinterest updates. Wander around in the various categories, you never know what you’ll find.
Comment! Pinterest is social, so...Socialize! Like and comment on other images you see. Fusion 13
Inspired Artist Featured Artist
Anastasia V. Pergakis
2
012 was a hard year for me, both personally and in business. I realized that while it was hard, it wasn’t bad. In fact, I had a great year. The difficult thing for me, and I’m sure other people too, is to remember that ‘hard’ doesn’t automatically mean ‘bad.’ So, with that in mind, here is a list of things I learned (sometimes the hard way). 1: Just because it works for “Them”, doesn’t mean it’ll work for you. I had to learn this lesson the hard way and the sequel to my book suffered as a result. As an author - or
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a business owner – you have to find what works best for YOU, for YOUR business. Yes, try what the ‘experts’ say, try what your friends say, listen to other business owners in the same field as you. The key is figuring out when to quit putting energy into something that obviously isn’t working! I burned myself out with marketing after I published my first book, doing what the experts said to do, doing what the “best sellers” said to do. In the end (after months of heartache and struggling to make it work) I realized the harsh truth: I had to do what was best for me, my time, and my book.
Through a six month long experiment, I realized what social media sites were working for me and which ones weren’t. I have saved SO much time focusing on the ones that actually work for me, rather than throwing away my energy into sites that don’t. I also discovered what marketing tactics (advertising, blogging, etc) worked for me and which ones didn’t. I’ve found a way to market without it being a total heartache! Is it still hard? Yes. But it’s become so much easier to handle since I took the time to figure out what is best for me and my book. Find what works for you that not only makes the business and marketing process easier but doesn’t keep you from doing what you love. (I mean, you do love your business right?) 2: A change in direction or plans, does not mean you failed. This relates to my first point in some ways, as you have to discover what works for your business – and your personal life too. When I first started my business, I had a plan in mind for what products I was going to offer and who my market would be. Through the course of year however, the powers that be decided my plans won’t work. Sure, I could have buckled down and kept my business exactly the way it was and maybe I could have had success with it. But I learned (again after struggling for months) that while my plans were good, I was barely touching the surface in what I can do. This is where having a business plan – written down – can really help. I had to get to the nitty gritty basic of my business to find out
what I actually wanted to do. In the end, it had nothing to do with a specific product or market – I simply wanted to help people. As a result, my business has grown in ways I never expected. I offer services and products now that I never thought I would at the beginning, but they’ve become my biggest sellers. I’ve met amazing people I never would have if I didn’t allow my business to grow as IT wanted to, not as I wanted it to. My business doesn’t look anything like it did when I first started it but does that mean my original plans failed? Absolutely not. Be open minded! Your plans are good, but consider what else is out there, what else you can learn, do, see, that will take your business beyond your wildest imaginings. Step outside of your comfort zone! You just might find it’s your comfort zone after all! 3: A bad situation just might be the catalyst you need to step toward a great situation. As the saying goes, life happens. In both your personal life and in business, things are going to happen that are beyond your control. You might even feel like the world is against you! I know I have felt this way on numerous occasions. But here’s a tip for you: Who says that a bad situation can’t actually be good? Okay, so you might not see it at that moment, or even a week later, but the good does show Hard, Bad & Great continued on page 24
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Inspired Artist The Writer’s Corner
Deb Dorchak
W
hen it comes to writing the Bonds of Blood & Spirit series, the collaboration Wendi and I share is one part planning and one part improvisation. This isn’t saying we totally “pants” every book we write. Our improv occurs inside the actual writing. Wendi and I don’t work like most collaborators do. We rarely write alone. We won’t assign whole chapters to each other and wait for one person to finish before the next
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person jumps in. Nope, we always write together, in real time. Even the conversations between characters are done on the spot between us. We do this by writing all our drafts in a Google Document and sharing it between us. This is improvisation. We’re in character, reacting as our characters, and never knowing what each other’s character is going to say next. What I find so refreshing about improv is the way it challenges creativity. Often, thinking of responses on the spot makes
the story so much more fresh and exciting. The structural boundaries you set out for yourself with your plot and scenes gets your brain thinking around these self-imposed obstacles.
Improv Tips and Tricks: • No Second Guessing. Forget about the perfect line or paragraph. Many writers spend far too much time sweating over perfection, constantly over thinking and dreading the thought of committing those words to paper. You know what? So what if the words don’t come out right the first time. That’s what “delete” is for. When you play with improv, the idea is don’t think. Just do. Go with that first response, see where it leads. If it doesn’t work when you read it later, go back and fix it. • Flip That Script. Stuck? Try removing one element of your story and replace it with something else. Flip it around, turn it on its ear. Explore a new perspective. • I Am Joe’s Big Toe. Want to really get into a character’s head? Try writing one in the first person. This worked out well for us in Uncivil Wars. We knew we wanted to do some background on Diego, so I started writing him in first person one day while I sat outside with a notebook at the coffee shop. I had never fleshed out his life before, and once I started writing whatever came to mind in his
voice, the rest fell into place. It worked and we used it. • No Is Not An Option. In acting, “no” is not allowed. Someone asks you a question, you have to say “Yes” and add something more to it. This keeps the improv session going. Say no, and where do you go with it? Nowhere. The same applies in improv writing. Don’t say no to any idea. Follow it, add to it and see where it goes. • Raise the Stakes. Conflict stokes the fires of any story. Throw in a new curve and then throw in another. This is especially fun for Wendi and I since we never know how we’ll react to any given conversation between characters. In Loyalties, we interrupted a conversation with a particular phone call that changed the course of the story. Have you ever tried creative writing improv? Any of these exercises are doable if you’re writing solo, but they’re so much more fun when you do them with someone else. Go ahead, grab a partner, open a G-doc and have at it. Start with a simple premise and take turns writing paragraphs. Then come back here and tell us how you did!
Visit Behind the Words Want more articles like this one? Go to: http://behindthewords-bluesun.com
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Inspired Soul
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury,pardon;
Soulful Quotes
where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive;it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.�
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—Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi
“Nobody else knows your reason for being. You do. Your bliss guides you to it. When you follow your bliss, when you follow your path to joy, your conversation is of joy, your feelings are of joy -- you’re right on the path of that which you intended when you came forth into this physical body.” —Esther Hicks “A desire is anything but frivolous. It is the interface between you and that which is greater than you. No desire is meaningless or inconsequential. If it pulls you, even a little bit, it will take everyone higher. Desire is where the Divine lives, inside the inspiration of your desire. Every desire is of profound importance with huge consequences, and deserves your attention.” —Mama Gena “Set a goal, and in small, consistent steps, work to reach it. Get support from your peers when you start flagging. Repeat. You will change.” —Seth Godin Fusion 19
Wherever We Look
Inspired Soul Soulful Spotlight
Joy Resor
A
re you like me? Do you love reading a line in a book that resonates? Viewing a piece of art that makes your heart race? Or reading a poem three times, because the message in it just makes you smile from here to the corner? Inspiration. It surrounds us, motivates us, and encourages us. We are the beneficiaries of all the artists and lovers of life that went before us who share their gifts with the world. What treasures we receive! How we benefit!
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We are touched by all those before us who stepped into their potential. In my life, a quote of Mariann Williamson’s became a touchstone for introverted, low self-confident me,for me hiding in the corner not believing in myself. Each time I read her quote, I took it personally, knowing there was a light in me that needed to heal. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of
God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Lo and behold, there came a time in my life when I was lead to heal the wounds in me covering my light. Hallelujah. I was finally able to honor that “voice within that howls for expression, the shadow longing to merge with the Light. It is an act of faith to respond to this voice, to give it our time; and in return we are blessed with work that has light and life of its own….Jan Phillips, No Ordinary Time Honoring that voice knocking on my soul, I birthed radiant creations, handmade treasures of Batik beauty with inspirational mes-
sages on them. Off I went to my first business conference with Joy on Your Shoulders TM radiant creations flowing from hangers, where the positive response wowed me. I learned that birthing this creation was an act of faith that’s rewarded over and over, as these creations offer customers inspiration and joy. Very cool. And more than that, this first creation I was able to birth has lead me deeper into my work in the world, to inspire all the peace and joy I can in a variety of ways. My website offers articles of healing and inspiration, I see clients in my home and serve them on the phone as a spiritual/joyful mentor, I create a weekly on-line newsletter called Go In Joy!, and I offer Circles of Joy to celebrate and expand joy through journaling. All these aspects of my work feel joyful and inspired, fed through my daily spiritual practices. I’m in joy inspiring joy. Ahh….
Find Joy On The Web: Could you use a reminder here and there to lighten up? Do you find yourself feeling bogged down with life sometimes? Would you enjoy a few more reasons to smile? Joy on Your Shoulders™ hopes to inspire a little bit or A LOT OF JOY IN YOUR LIFE and the lives of everyone you touch. Visit Joy On Your ShouldersTM today and learn more about Joy and join The Joy Movement on Facebook.
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Inspired Soul Little Inspirations
Wendi Kelly
T
here are very few things that can separate us from happiness and success as quickly and effectively as resentment and anger. And yet, despite our most glorious dreams, goals and desires, we hold on to our battle scars and wounded hearts, pointing almost deliriously to those who cause us pain as the excuse for all of our discomfort. We tell our worn and repeated stories to anyone who will sit through them. We wear the shield of injury like a badge of courage against change and growth. We hold it up
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against the light as an explanation as to why our lives couldn’t ever be different, ever grow… why we alone are the ones who couldn’t hold the golden ring within our grasp. It’s all HER fault. HIS too. And we are saved from taking responsibility for the life we were brought here to travel. We have a champion we can hate enough to bear the banner. The only banner we must carry is the one labeled VICTIM. And then someone casually mentions that there is a way out. We could forgive. We could let go. We
could hold them in the light of love, wish them well with God’s blessing and walk away. But the first thought that flashes through our angry minds is, “No way in hell am I giving them the satisfaction of forgiving them. They don’t deserve it.” Let me share a radical concept with you. Forgiveness has nothing to do with them. It has nothing to do with what they do or do not deserve, or understand or even have asked for. It has to do with you, your heart, your healing and your well-being. It has to do with your relationship with God, Spirit, The Universe… whatever name you meet your creator by. It has to do with your hopes, your dreams and your ability to step into your own personal power and future. It is for you and only you. It is a selfish, self-fulfilling, self-fixing cure. Your monster may never even be aware of your forgiveness because they may never bother to tap into the Well of Spiritual Connectivity where we
all reside with God. If they don’t, your secret will be safely kept. And if they do….they won’t be your monster anymore anyhow. They will have already been profoundly changed by that miracle of forgiveness into someone that would be easy for you to forgive. Don’t do it for them. Do it for your own selfhealing. Marianne Williamson, in The Law of Divine Compensation puts it profoundly like this: We forgive, then, out of self-interest. I forgive you because I want out of my pain. I forgive you so that I can be free of what you did. I see beyond your mistake to the love in you so that I can see beyond the mistake to the love in me- because only then can I have a miracle. Aren’t you worth being set free? Don’t you deserve it? Haven’t you had enough pain? There is a way to set yourself free and heal the separation. Open your heart and forgive.
To read more from Wendi or contact her for your own personal creative coaching, visit us today at Creative Clarity Coaching.
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Road continued from page 7: It’s easy to get lost. It’s important to keep a map close at hand, so you can keep your destination in front of you. If you’re not looking at that map frequently, you may very quickly end up on some side road that you don’t want to be on. It’s a life-long and often daily journey to eradicate fear, blame, perceived injustice, and numbing ourselves with substitutes for living wide awake. You have to keep your eye on the road. And those roads can be tricky too. I gave up drugs and turned to food. Gave up binge eating and discovered the internet, got
Hard, Bad, Great continued from page 15: up. Sometimes it’s not even obvious, but trust me it’s there. As an example for you, I used to use an online payment portal to handle all the money for my business. I won’t say which one as I don’t want to scare anyone who might be using the same thing. This is just my experience and doesn’t mean it will happen to you. In short, this online payment portal completely froze my business. I couldn’t accept payments, move the money to my bank account, spend money, nothing. So, I began looking for other ways to run my business. This took over a month to finally figure out, researching the many different options. I cried, on more than one occasion, thinking my business had just died because of this. How24 The Creativepreneur, February 2013
that under control and oh my…wasn’t there something else waiting in the wings. It took a commitment to living on purpose to finally get off that road and believe me…I don’t take it for granted that I won’t get lost next time. I choose the road of love. But that doesn’t mean it’s a choice I made thirty-six years ago and forgot about it. It’s a choice I have to make, over…and over…. and over… And over again. Otherwise, I might find myself on that road more often taken after all. By the way, Happy Birthday, Tania, I love you.
ever, the time and stress was worth it. In the end, I have a much better payment portal for my clients. I have an actual business account now, rather than using some online payment site and I took a giant step forward by getting my business license so I can operate under my business name rather than my real name. A stressful month in exchange for a better business and better interaction with my clients? I’ll take that! 4: Experience is the key to long term success. Since I am an artist of a sort, in both of my businesses, there is always something to be learned with each project I do. Even if it’s one of my own personal projects. Each client I interact with, each new project presents Hard, Bad, Great continued on page 26:
Journey continued from page 9: e-book, More Products, Less Time – A How-To Zazzle E-book, which shared techniques I used to scale our store to over 40,000 products in four years. People bought that one, too. My wife coauthored another book, The Narcissist at Work, and people bought it. Here we are now: Our Zazzle store has over 50,000 products, and we have just opened an additional retail site, Not the Post Office. We get monthly payments from sales of our products and books. We continue to share our philosophy for self-help, simplicity and independence in work and life as well as our products in every channel we can: PassingThru – where we evangelize travel, location independence and simplicity in work and life via posts and email. Facebook pages • PassingThru • How to Make Money on Zazzle • The Narcissist: A User’s Guide • The Narcissist at Work And our biggest news is we are making good on our advocacy of location independence, to which all these activities have contributed: we are pulling up stakes in Minnesota and moving to Hawaii in February. All we need is an Internet connection to do our work, so why not? Living this dream didn’t come about overnight. We’ve worked hard over the course of several years to make it a reality. We have a
strategy with goals and objectives for continued diversity of income. This will continue on as we approach the age of traditional retirement. The big message is this: You can do it! The dream of location independence and passive income through online work is achievable with commitment and dedication. All you need to do is make a start and keep working. Aloha!
About Peter Wuebker Peter Wuebker and his wife, Betsy, are entrepreneurs who believe the keys to happiness are travel, simplicity and freedom. Instead of living to work, let’s work to live! Visit them at PassingThru.com Fusion 25
Hard, Bad, Great continued from page 25: something a new challenge for me. Instead of getting upset or stressed that a client throws something at me that is difficult or even something I don’t know how to do, I embrace it! It’s an opportunity to grow, to be better than I was. The skills I learn from that situation always help the next time around. For those like me who are indie authors, remember your first book that you released? If you were like me, you probably made a lot of mistakes along the way. But instead of feeling guilty about your mistakes, consider how much easier the next book will be. And even if it isn’t “easier”, think of the experience you can apply to make it “better”! In your business you might discover that you need to raise your prices – or even lower them. Perhaps you found new products or
service to offer as a result of the experience you gained. Maybe you’ve realized you need help (hiring an employee) or that you should downsize. Experience is key to long term success! Roll with the punches and apply what you’ve learned to the next big thing your imagination is going to cook up! 5: Time outs aren’t always for when you do something bad! This is talked about over and over again, in different situations and in different ways. But it’s no less true. On top of our business, many of us have family, kids, other jobs, and our own fun projects to do! Then of course there are things like cleaning the house, doing the laundry, and oh yea, sleeping! There are different types of time outs depending on when or what you need. Sometimes it’s just getting away from the computer
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to spend some time with the kids. Maybe it’s getting a baby sitter and having a date night with the spouse or even just saying home with a new movie after the kids are in bed. But, it’s all about balance. Too many time outs affect your business but too much work can affect it too. That saying “all work and no play makes me a dull girl” is absolutely true. Find the balance! Don’t forget to find time for your self – outside of being a spouse/parent/business owner/cleaning service – you need to have a few quiet moments to just be you. Sometimes all you can fit into your schedule is those quiet moments just before bed or first thing in the
morning before everyone else wakes up. Don’t get so caught up in work that you forget to enjoy your work or the rest of your life. You’re business will run much more smoothly if you “take time to smell the roses”. There are so many things I learned this year, but these are at the top of my list. I wish you all much success in the new year. Remember to laugh as often as possible, cry when you need to, and hug someone you love everyday! Embrace the challenges of life with open arms, view the world with open eyes, and keep your heart open to all the good things waiting to happen. It’s your year, so go make it happen!
About Anastasia Indie-author and designer, Anastasia Pergakis, strives to help people discover their own magic, in publishing or business. Her book “Cleanse Fire: The Kinir Elite Chronicles”, a military fantasy novel, was published in 2011 and is available at all major online retailers in multiple formats. The sequel, “Blood Trade” is slated for release in 2013 from Drachen Geist Publishing. Anastasia Creatives provides website and book design to “starving artists”. Offering a range of services, Anastasia Creatives has the tools to help artists make their mark on the world. Contact Anastasia at: Author Website Series Website Design Website You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Fusion 27
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