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entrepreneurship

Wishes, Not Goals

  Click here to listen.     © Jane Pollak 2025(illustrated with pieces of my art process along the way) Since my eldest child gave birth in 2011, I’ve kept an ongoing Notes section labeled Grandma Activities. Whenever newspaper articles or ads for family fun...

NOvember in December

  Click here to listen.   I’m very suggestible. When a fiber arts colleague on Instagram shared her wisdom about material storage, I accepted and felt compelled to honor her methodology. “At what point do you throw out leftover pieces of wool?” I asked,...

Born to Make Headlines… and Then What?

 Click here to listen.     Talk about ink in one’s veins! This birth announcement, created by my dad, is prominently displayed in my baby book from 1948. My mother, too, had a way of making things newsworthy just by naming them. When a neighbor in the Midwest...

An Unplanned Fall

 Click here to listen. I took a hard stumble in mid-September, broke my shoulder and have had to pivot my well-organized life to accommodate what is. Still, I’m able to create exciting new digital mock-ups of wall installations. My fantasy:  I would announce to you...

Prospecting: From Carrier Pigeons to DMs (Almost)

 Click here to listen.  Do you remember the staggering number of catalogs that used to weigh down our mailboxes day after day, particularly in the fall? LL Bean came weekly, if not more often, in various iterations: Women’s, Outdoors, Holiday, etc. But there were a...

A Mysterious Transfer

Click here to listen. This post tells the story of an exception to the rule of thumb: Never meet your heroes. In the early ’70s, when my art students from Westhill High School competed in the state’s Scholastic Art Awards annual competition, we were upstaged and...

How to Fill Your Well

As a fan of the Rule of Three, I mulled over what would complete my list for this month’s newsletter inspiration. It all started, serendipitously, while I was in Iceland on vacation last month and received an email from one of my collectors. She wanted me to see...

Magic, Luck or Persistence? Yes!

As a kid in the 50’s, I played a game called 7-Up. All you needed was a Spalding ball and a wall. Our garage was the perfect arena for mastering the seven different challenges of throwing the pink sphere against a flat surface: allowing it to bounce, catch it...

What Inspiration Looks Like

Driving down William Street toward our house in Connecticut, a full moon lit up the winter-black sky. “Ach!” I exclaimed to my family of passengers, the ‘ah’ catching in my throat from the emotion behind my pleasure. Henceforth, that monthly spectacle was labeled...

Have You Tried Reframing?

  Each time I visit my grandsons in NJ, I bring a surprise. It could be folding a dollar bill into an origami shirt, sharing a fun painting technique (making roses using a plastic bag), or introducing silly riddles or word games. I listen for cues to...

The Place of Not Knowing. Do You Know It?

An actress/playwright I knew in the 90’s described a pop-up tent she’d erected in herbackyard in rural Connecticut. What intrigued me most was the handmade sign she’d hung atits entrance. She labeled it The Place of Not Knowing. She explained that she would sit in...

The Cost of Holding On

  Lilli Weisz, organizer extraordinaire, worked with me last month to carve out a larger and more streamlined area for my textile work. She started our session examining the contents of each desk drawer and inquiring about every item within. She pointed to a...

Why Isn’t This Woman Smiling?

Brilliant entrepreneur that she is, Louise Albin had the good sense to let her new hire pastry chef get creative. Lesley, the pastry chef, did just that and came up with a line of desserts served in jars. Not only are they delicious and attractive, they're also...

Ralph Lauren is Scared Every Day

He said so, as quoted in the New York Times, when recently interviewed by Oprah at a benefit event held at Lincoln Center last week. Why do I love reading those words? It makes me feel connected to greatness. It makes me feel normal for having the same feelings. It...

Want To See What Joy Looks Like?

It doesn't get any better than this for a client or her coach. Attending Patti Tower's View From the Tower Open House on Saturday was like watching a vision unfold. She had several dozen guests and clients visit and purchase items from her new collection of...