• 1.415.860.5463
BOOK MELISSA

LCN 131: Your Highest Value Offering

LCN 131: Your Highest Value Offering
The Creative Sandbox Way™
LCN 131: Your Highest Value Offering
Loading
/

LCN 131: Your Highest Value OfferingExactly one month ago today I had just come home from my 5th annual Create & Incubate Retreat. (Possibly my favorite week of the entire year.)

The other day, at a networking lunch, a potential business partner asked me what people get out of my retreats. I loved this question, because it made me realize that what the sales page for the retreat had been saying, and what the retreat actually does for people, are two really different things.

Not that the sales page was wrong. It said “Spend 5 Days Living Inside a Hug,” and “Incubate Your Next Creative Project Distraction-Free.”

It talked about how at home, despite the best of intentions, the little slings and arrows of daily life just always seem to get in your way.

And how it can be so damn lonely doing your creating all alone all the time.

All this is true. [Read more…]

LCN 127: Don’t Worry About the Feelings

LCN 127: Don't Worry About the Feelings
The Creative Sandbox Way™
LCN 127: Don't Worry About the Feelings
Loading
/

LCN 127: Don't Worry About the FeelingsAfter an endless year of waiting, the 5th annual Create & Incubate Retreat came and went — it wrapped up on Sunday.

I swear, those five days are the most wonderful five days of my year, and they just keep getting better each year.

And they seem to go faster each year, too.

I wait forever for the retreat to come, and then it’s finally here, and I’m immersed in magical creative energy, and laughter, and generosity, and warm-heartedness… [Read more…]

LCN 113: Punched In the Stomach

LCN 113: Punched in the Stomach
The Creative Sandbox Way™
LCN 113: Punched In the Stomach
Loading
/

LCN 113: Punched in the StomachFive years ago I did something really risky.

Even though it made my stomach lurch, I put money down on a deposit at a retreat center a half hour away from my house to host a creativity retreat.

Three days and two nights, full room and board. I was hoping to get ten people — well, nine people plus me — but I was on the hook to pay for eight.

Seven people people signed up, so I just got my eight. Barely. We made it happen.

Now here’s the thing: I really wanted it to be five days and four nights, but I knew there was no way I could get people to commit to that my first year out of the gate, because retreats are expensive. Even when you’re not going all five-star, premium, white glove.

So I gritted my teeth and I did what I knew people would be willing to spring for.

And guess what everybody said at the end of the retreat?

“It was too short! I wish it were longer!”

So the next year, 2014, I made it three nights. And I got seven people. Eight altogether with me.

And it was wonderful. And at the end, guess what everybody said? [Read more…]

LCN 071: The Good, the Bad, and the Hysterical from the Retreat

LCN 071: The Good, the Bad, and the Hysterical from the Retreat
The Creative Sandbox Way™
LCN 071: The Good, the Bad, and the Hysterical from the Retreat
Loading
/

LCN 071: The Good, the Bad, and the Hysterical from the RetreatComing home from a retreat is always a bit of a shock to the system.

I just spent five days immersed in creative play at my 4th annual Create & Incubate Retreat, wrapped in the most loving, supportive community of creatives a person could ask for.

How does one even start trying to describe something like this?

Here’s what I’d like to share about it.

You know how I say if you do something enough it becomes normal? Well, the first time I ran my retreat, I carried an undercurrent of tension and anxiety the whole time.

How would it go? Would people like it? I was super anxious about making sure everyone was happy.

It was my first time leading a group in what I call “catalyzing sessions,” but what are essentially improv games, and I was anxious about that. Would they participate? Would they roll their eyes?

The whole thing was a big experiment. I wanted to create the retreat that I wanted for myself — creativity, community, courage, compassion (which, btw, are the official theme words of Life is a Verb Camp, which you should totally come to in November! I’ll be speaking this year, and it’s happening over my 50th birthday, so I’m treating it in my own mind as a big birthday and life celebration!)

Anyway, I wanted to create the retreat I wanted, because I knew it would be wonderful… but would other people feel the same way?

Would people even come to something that wasn’t a structured workshop or conference? Would they even get how valuable it is?

I understood, because I’d been going to creative retreats for years. I knew how special it is to gather with other creators simply to create.

I knew how energizing it is to be in a room together, each working on our own thing.

I knew how inspiring it is to see what everyone else is up to.

How amazing it feels simply to be in the company of other people who get you, and who will encourage, support, and champion you.
[Read more…]

Retreat Report: Winged Ukuleles, Gremlin Photobombs, and Other Amazingness

Detail shot of mixed media painting done at Create & Incubate Retreat 2014

I’m dying to tell you all about this weekend’s Create & Incubate Retreat (the Second Annual!), but where to start?

When an experience is so rich, it’s like poetry or music or art: there’s more going on than can be expressed in regular words.

We had a conversation about just that at the retreat, in fact, when someone was expressing self-consciousness about her painting. She has never thought of herself as an artist, was exploring with paint for the first time (at the “Creative Sandbox” table I set up, with bottles of acrylics, brushes, and paper from my studio), and she had a hard time seeing what she painted as “art.”

The rest of us could see it, though. [Read more…]

Spend 5 Days Creating with Me, and Walk Away Transformed - Come to Creative Sandbox Retreat

Don’t show this message again.

Would You Like Some Cookies?

We use cookies to customize your experience, to improve the content we deliver to you, and sometimes to show you relevant advertising on social networking sites like Facebook or Instagram. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you give your consent to our cookie use. (Click the X in the upper right corner to close this notice.)

Read our Privacy Policy