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Coaching

What It Takes to Get Press

I’m gobsmacked, tickled, stunned by the Where Women Create feature article on my business. It’s in the Spring 2023 edition now available online and at bookstores nationwide. I shouldn’t be so surprised. After all, I sent in an application, submitted writing and...

You Have to Be There!

“I need people’s energy,” said Michelle Obama during her recent interview on Conan O’Brien’s podcast. I sat up straighter when I heard that declaration. “Me too!” I nodded. Her words exemplified what stood out for me in 2022. My most memorable experiences were in...

Spending and Restoring Creative Energy

If I asked you to use a word or a phrase to describe my aesthetic, I have no doubt that an adjective like ‘intricate’ or an expression such as ‘detail-oriented’ would pop up. Once interviewed for a TV segment, I was asked by the host if I knew the Latin phrase...

We Creatives ALL Wear Two Hats

This past month has been devoted to BTS efforts as I prepare to approach the media with my rebranding. BTS - an acronym for Behind the Scenes - reveal what’s beneath the surface, like icebergs, or inside the perfect-looking toe shoes of the Bolshoi ballerinas. In...

My Dyeing Days & Others on Whidbey Island

It all started in April with a Facebook message from a friend, Patti King, whom I hadn’t seen in 30 years. I’ve known Patti since our kids were in elementary school together in Connecticut. She wove rag rugs the same way I decorated eggs – at a museum quality...

Your Reinvention Refresh

The long-anticipated highlight of the past month was a trip to Atlanta for the Design Influencers Conference. Heeding warnings about flight delays and cancellations, I left a day early and spent an extra night at my destination. To fill the time, I contacted two...

Welcome to My Newly Branded Blog!

As I've re-designed my business to feature my art as well as my entrepreneurship and writing, I want to share with you monthly what I'm working on and what's inspiring me. A quick re-cap of July to set the stage for August: I was in full recovery mode after hip...

My 8th and Final Website (she says…)

My first website ever, created with my good friend Kathy Leeds, was done in 1999. She insisted I needed a web presence (what's a web?) and coded the entire thing herself. As websites took over our lives, I've hired a variety of pros to update and re-design me. I...

This Is Not Goodbye

I'm not going away, entrepreneurially speaking, but I am shifting where my energy is being directed these days. If you've been following me, and I know what an amazingly loyal readership I've been privileged to address since 2008, you've read about my baby...

My Most Difficult Client

Let me describe her to you. She would like my constant attention and feedback. She needs more reassurance and affirmation than our thrice monthly commitment allows. Even though I preach otherwise, she regularly compares herself to the competition and comes up...

An Unfavorite Activity Made Easier by Hawmi Guillebeaux

I used to be so afraid of rejection that I'd rather let go of a goal or vision than hear the word, "no". On closer examination, most of my requests have been granted, but asking still doesn't come easily. Consider the acronym for fear, which is at the root of my...

Need to Learn Clubhouse? Meet Tollisha Joseph!

I had the extraordinary privilege of connecting with Tollisha Joseph not once, but twice yesterday. There aren't many Saturdays (the rain helps) where I'm moved to blog, but after an infusion of The Official Glue, Tollisha's alias, I had to share! I'd attended a...

Fluke or Traction?

Do you ever have trouble discerning whether you've just received a lucky break or that all of your hard work is amounting to this stroke of kismet? A friend of mine used the expression, "The harder I work, the luckier I get," which answers that question for me....

Gentle Coaching Circles

As this Year of Everything Different comes up to its first anniversary, I am offering a different coaching program. "No one is looking for a boot camp these days," one of my advisory board members reminded me. "We're all looking for something gentle, supportive and...

Stop Waiting for Permission!

I gave a talk early this morning to a group of business owners. The feedback I got was so uplifting and motivating that I decided I need to bring my message to a larger audience. "I should post videos of me sharing my experience, strength and hope to the masses -...