Weekly Review #9: making art, making mistakes, but moving forward

So how am I doing in my quest to re-invent my life, follow my evolving Blisses and create the life I really, really want?

Moving toward balance

Overwhelm continues to be my theme song, and I’ll admit I’m working long, intense hours. BUT, at the same time I’m happy to say I’m feeling more balanced in my work life than I have in maybe forever.

What made the difference?

Making art!

First of all, ever since my first life coaching session with Susan, I’ve been making art every day.

This is huge, people!

Sometimes it’s only for 20 minutes (which does leave me frustrated). Sometimes, because of an urgent client phone call or other unscheduled event, it’s not the first thing I do after feeding the kitty-monsters (which now makes me cranky — making art first-thing has already become a habit that I’m starting to feel very protective about!)

But no matter. The point is, after spending most of my time in the past several years not making new art, I’ve been making new art (for me, not just for a client) every day.

I know I’m repeating myself, but I cannot begin to impress on you how significant this is.

Why is this so important?

1. It makes me feel like I’m living in accordance with my true self
2. I’m building a body of work (instead of just thinking about it)! (See new Irresistible Yogini below)
3. Because I AM doing my art, instead of feeling badly about myself for not doing my art and resenting the time I spend doing the stuff I have to do, I’m actually able to kind of  enjoy doing the stuff I have to do.

How would that feel in your life? It feels amazing in mine!

Moving ahead on exciting new projects!

This week marked the official start of my new Thriving Artists Project (the working title, which may change prior to launch). I’ve moved from just thinking about this project, to actually starting to make it happen!

Not only have I scheduled my first artist interview, but I’ve emailed several other potential interviewees, and (big thing) this morning I signed up for and tested my conference call recording system.

(I don’t know why, but that left me totally drained. Something about technology + nervousness about it working + pressure to get this thing right = total exhaustion.)

I even scheduled an interview with my friend Fawn, a professional writer, who has agreed to be my first interviewee guinea pig.

Am I scared about this project? Hell yeah! There’s a voice inside my head screaming “Postpone! Postpone! You’re not ready! Do it in a couple of months!” But I know that’s just fear talking. If I were to postpone, it would be two months later and I’d be just as scared.

So onward we go!

And some new tools…

Goody goody! New tools! I love new tools!

In fact, the decision to buy new tools is fraught with huge money-crunch fraughtness right now, but I bit the bullet and got some new stuff that I’m pretty darn excited about:

1. Scribe SEO
   This amazing tool, which can be used as a WordPress plugin or as standalone web-based software, is exactly what it says it is: SEO copywriting made simple. Depending on which subscription level you go for ($17-$97 monthly), you can do anywhere from  15-300 evaluations of website content per month. No more guessing!

   AND, if you sign up before June 4 (which is what I just did), you can get the Advanced, $97 subscription for only $27/month by using the code PROMO27 (or – shhh! here’s a secret! – pay for a full year for only $259!)

   Sorry if I sound a little hype-y about this product. I’m just really excited about how easy it suddenly is to do SEO copywriting!

2. The Third Tribe
   Okay, I’ll admit it, although I’ve been thinking about subscribing to the Third Tribe for a few weeks, I did in fact finally make the jump because the prices are about to go up. At $47/month (only through the end of May, then it will become $97/month), this is not an insignificant ongoing expense.

   However, I’m looking at it as an investment. Plus I can cancel anytime during the first month and get my money back.

   But I doubt I will cancel. There’s so much info on this site, plus a user forum with bloggers of all levels – from beginner to top-shelf pro – that I expect I’ll get much more than my money’s worth.

   The Third Tribe was founded by blog superstars Brian Clark, Sonia Simone, Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse, and now includes other biggies (John Jantsch, Leo Babauta, Pam Slim, Johnny Truant, Chris Garrett, Dave Navarro, Jonathan Fields, Hugh MacLeod, Laura Roeder, Mark McGuinness, Aaron Wall, and many more), and little guys like me, all interacting and helping each other.

   Now tell me that isn’t cool?

I’ll write more extensive reviews of both of these purchases after I’ve had more time to use them, but if you want to get in on the deals you might check them out now before the prices go up.

(And yes, those are affiliate links, which means that I’ll make some money on the sale if you click through and buy, and of course you’ll have my eternal gratitude. But don’t feel compelled to use my links; I’ll never know the difference! From my brief experience with these purchases so far, I think they’re pretty awesome, but don’t just take my word for it. Check them out for yourself.)

Learning from mistakes

This was a big week for mistakes, starting with a post that didn’t express what I really wanted to express, and hurt some people as a result. Ugh. They felt bad, I felt terrible. Big mistake.

Lessons learned:

1. Regardless of how urgent you feel about getting a post published, when a little niggling voice says “um, why don’t you sleep on this and read it again in the morning before publishing?” PAY ATTENTION!
2. Everything boils down to relationships. On the internet, as in personal and work relationships, if there’s an issue, bring it up directly, don’t just complain about it to someone else.
3. Think carefully about what you want to say, and make sure your writing says that, and not something else instead.
4. Excellent customer service can turn a disappointed customer into a raving fan for life.

Still a long way to go…

My list of things to do has only gotten longer, and with a trip to Vegas this coming week for a marketing seminar for independent music artists, the time to get it all done in is dramatically shorter.

Plus with the sudden revelation that I can market my web installation, design and copywriting services to my fellow musicians (doh!), I’ve got even more things to do before I leave. Like flyers, and a sales page on the website. Yikes!

But the upshot is, things are going well, and moving forward. What more can you really ask for?

And now, only 8 hours after I initially  planned to go, I’m headed out for a walk by the SF Bay to visit “my” goslings.

Happy Weekend!