Secrets to Creative Success

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There are a few things that people think about as they head into a new year. Usually health and fitness, their life path and career success. Let’s talk about what it is to be a success. Does it mean money, prestige, a corner office or to be be successful requires us to do more and be more of ourselves in order to bring success into our lives? What are the secrets to success? 

On www.myemma.com I came across an article on the “10 Secrets to Success” from the worlds top marketers. Bringing the reader quotes and ideas from people at the top of their field. My Emma is a plethora of resources for marketing and learning to bring your skills to your audience. 

What does this have to do with creativity? a creative person, our marketing is in our work. The same rules apply on another level and by bringing in these skills we can create personal and possibly professional success to our creative paths. Creatives often focus so much on their creative work they can forget the marketing aspect of their careers. A creative persons work deserves to be seen and recognized by an audience, even if it is an audience of ten or a thousand. 

The first rule: Be human. Remember we are all human.

“Marketing is all about creativity, humanity, and authenticity.”

Jay Baer Convince & Convert

We all have basic needs and desires that drive us. Try to be reachable, accessible and understandable. That doesn’t mean changing your work, it means be you in what you are doing and no one else. Bring all of who you are, and your humanity into the creative work that you bring into the world and you will find the right audience for your work. You need to be authentic in your creative work. 

Another piece of advice: Narrow your audience, don’t expand it. You will never appeal to everyone and the great news…YOU DON’T HAVE TO!


“GO NARROW, NOT BROAD: WE HAVE A TENDENCY TO THINK ‘IF I GO BROAD, I’LL CAPTURE MORE PEOPLE.’ BUT THE MORE TIGHTLY YOU DEFINE YOURSELF, THE EASIER IT IS FOR YOUR PEOPLE TO FIND YOU.”

TAMSEN WEBSTER

Those who relate to your work will find you and become your biggest fans. Look at Amanda Palmer as a great example of success and unusual expression. Her fan base found her and our some of the most loyal fans I have witnessed. Her success is based on her style. She marketed to the people that would love her work the way that it was. She did not try to reach everyone. You don’t either. Create what you want to create with all your heart and your people will find you. Those are two big secrets of success. 

If you want the other Eight secrets, head over to My Emma and check out this eye opening article and their other resources as well that can help you on your way to becoming a marketing success with your own creative works. So often, creatives overlook this aspect of their work and wonder why they aren’t selling and why they aren’t getting their fans. You have to consider the marketing aspect of the creative side of work, the business side to really get yourself out there into the world. You success is in finding your people and creating a loyal fan base. Money, prestige and even the corner office can be nice, but if it isn’t what you are aiming for, then it isn’t real success. 

Thursday Prompts: Journal Prompts

Thursday Prompts: Journal Prompts

I’m back after my bit of a break. I may not post as often as I had been as homeschooling uses a lot more time than I had intentioned and it has to be a priority. However, I still want to bring you some Thursday Prompts and other creative goodies. Today is prompts day and it’s time for some journal prompts.

  1. When was the last time you were really happy about something, someone or just because? Describe the feeling of happiness or joy that you felt and what you did with it.
  2. Are you prepared for the Holidays? What do you have left to do? If you are someone who prepares early, try to understand why and if you are a procrastinator, also explore the why.
  3. What is the one thing that scares you about the upcoming holidays that you are afraid to say to anyone? That someone won’t like the gift you’ve chosen or the meal you prepared? That there will be a family fight or disagreement? Or maybe it’s is something else, like driving in the snowy weather or having to visit family and friends…obligations to others?
  4. What would do if you had just 48 hours for yourself? No one to interrupt you or a budget to get in the way. Just 48 hours of you time. Where would you go? Would you go anywhere at all or hide out at home?
  5. Its that time of year, fall where people start thinking about gratitude.  Create a list of at least fifty things that you can be grateful for. Anything big or small works.
  6. As the year comes to an end, what is one thing you would like to accomplish before they year is over? What is something that you wished you could have accomplished but are okay letting go of until maybe next year? What will you continue working on even though it may not be finished by the end of the year?
  7. How do you take care of your mental health over the stress that often comes from holiday pressure? What will you do to take care of yourself? Taking care of ourselves allows us to be there for our friends and families in a more present way.
  8. If you had to make one apology for something that happened this year that you still feel is bothering you, what would it be? Who would you say it to? Why do you regret it so much? How do you let go and move forward so that you don’t take the incident into the new year with you.
  9. What are you secretly wishing for for the holidays? What is your deepest wish? Have you told anybody? Would you? Why or why not?
  10. What is one event or activity that you participated in this year that you are really glad that you did? Why is it special? What did you do at the event? Who was with you? Where was it? Do you enjoy replaying the memories from that event? Do they make you happy when you do?

Here you have it! Ten journal prompts to get you through the week until we meet again on Thursday with more prompts of another kind. Do you like the mix of prompts? Are there some  you prefer over others? What would you like to see more of? Let me know in the comments below.

Seven Steps to a Daily Creative Practice

Seven Steps to a Daily Creative Practice

I talk a lot about creative activities and things that you can do to improve your creative self but I want to talk to you about creating a daily creative practice. I advocate a lot that your creative time spent does not need to be more than ten minutes in a day. But how does one create a daily practice? Here are the steps to developing a ten minute daily creative practice.

  1. Set a specific time that you can be creative each day. It works best if it can be at the same time every day, however, I know life comes up so make an effort to put the time in your calendar each day so that you know for those ten minutes you are occupied with being creative. Think of being creative as part of the work of your soul. Your being needs creativity to thrive. Otherwise, unused it festers into something else. Making time for it is of the first importance.
  2. Make room for it. When I began making pendants all I had was a tv tray in the living room where I would work on creative stuff while everyone around me was watching television or playing games. I didn’t have space to myself but I had a space that was mine. If you are lucky enough, and your kids are back in school or all grown up, then you get to have some space to yourself. But create some room for being creative. This is the second most important part because if you don’t have somewhere to be creative, you won’t do it.
  3. If you don’t know where to start, start anywhere. Unsure if you want to paint or write or uncertain what you like creatively? Look at what you are drawn to. If there are several things, try one thing at a time. Maybe one day your journal for ten minutes, then you try a poem the next day but the day after you watercolor paint or play with clay. Eventually you will find what it is that calls you. If you don’t like it, then you have only spent ten minutes and you can try again the next day. Think of it a a sort of spiritual playtime to connect with your creative self.
  4. Begin. Make a commitment to start your practice on a certain day and commit to say seven days in a row. Then commit to two weeks in a row and so on. The new research shows that it takes an average of sixty-six days to form a new habit. Build it a couple of weeks at a time and by the time three months have gone by, you have created your new daily practice.
  5. Continue committing and recommitting. I have learned this through my new exercise routines as life comes up and trips and other events get in the way. Don’t beat yourself up over it, just recommit to starting over and keep going. It isn’t the end of the world. Life isn’t going to always stop for us plus we need vacations and outings with friends or have family dinners. Do the best you can to make the time sacred and commit to it but allow yourself to be flexible and not rigid. There have been times where I skipped my creative practice for meeting with a friend and was more inspired through that meeting that I came home and did creative work anyways.
  6. Try new things. The problem some people have is that they get bored doing the same thing every day…some people thrive on the routine. Don’t change the commitment. Change the activity. Scour Pinterest for new ideas. Read craft blogs or DIY blogs or writing blogs for other ideas. Even here I list prompts every Thursday as well as ten minute projects on Tuesdays. You don’t have to do the same thing every day.
  7. Just do it! That’s it. Show up every day and be creative. Allow  yourself at least ten minutes. You might find yourself expanding to fifteen or thirty over time depending on what you are working on. Ten minutes to just to open that window and let some light in on the creative soul. It doesn’t mean you have to stay there. Grow from it. It will feel great to move into your creative self more often. Your soul needs it.

There you have seven steps to creating a daily creative practice. Do you already have a daily practice? What does it look like? If you don’t, what would you like it to look like? Feel free to answer in the comments or on the Facebook page. Happy creating!

Creativity in a Busy World

Creativity in a Busy World

In a world that often moves too fast and is too busy, it is easy to lose sight of our creativity. Our lives get overloaded. Kids, maybe parents, jobs, housework can swarm around us and take up most of our waking moments until we fall, exhausted into our beds. It is easy to see how creative expression can be sidelined. However, I want to tell you that the act of creativity does not have to happen in huge, planned out moments of time. It is possible to dedicate just five or ten minutes to a creative project or exercise. Everything from coloring pages to drawing mandalas, from painting to making jewelry or even five minutes of journal time, all count towards your creative spirit’s health.

I do this often. I recently created a prayer flag mobile for someone who just had a baby. Over all, it was quite the process from painting the fabric to stamping the designs, and then because it was for an infant, I laminated the flags so no paint was exposed. I attached it to a small wreath that I also decorated with ivy and flowers. I broke the tasks into small ten to fifteen minute increments that I could work on between other projects, kids, etc. The project took about a week to finish but it got done. I could have easily said, “Nope,. It’s just too much work,” but in doing it in small pieces, I had the creative satisfaction of completing a project that was important to me and fulfilled my creativity needs.
Your creativity needs to be taken care of in the same way you would attend to your mental or physical health. It is part of your part of your health. Creativity helps physical, mental and spiritual aspects of our selves. It is why it is such an important practice to attempt daily, just as you might meditation, or jogging. In fact, these practices done together, help one another. The act of being creative brings our mind to life.
I am encouraging you to seek out small daily acts of creativity. Sneak the time in during soccer practice with a journal in your bag. Or maybe give yourself ten minutes before you go to bed to draw or write or begin a painting. No one says it has to be a completed project, just take the time to invest your creative self.
There have been a few days where I have come to the end of the day and I feel like I am missing something and it is because I have not done any creative work. I make an effort, sometimes just making simple artist trading style cards or I journal. Some days, I paint or draw mandalas. I want to encourage to find a practice that suits your desires and needs. Are you a needle pointer, a knitter, maybe a wood-burning person ( like my friend). If you need to, try scheduling it into your day, the same way you would schedule your workout or plan a menu.
If you aren’t sure what you want to do creatively, start with something small, like picking up some pens and colored pencils with a coloring book or a small palette of water color paints and paper. Pick up a journal and write for five to ten minutes. Play with play dough. The point is to start doing something to be creative.

If you are stuck creatively, maybe you need a little guidance or coaching along the way. Maybe you just need a boost through out your week that you need to be creative. I offer two coaching packages that are just for these occasions.

The first package is the Encouraging E-mail Coach. This is a subscription designed to prompt you during the week to reach your creative goals and hold you accountable to them. It is a simple coaching program designed to jump start your creative endeavors. Three encouraging e-mails will go out over a 7 day period to cheerlead you on your creative project. At the end of seven days, send me an e-mail and tell me how you did and where you left off, and we will keep going from there.

The second package, The Creative Play E-mail Coaching, is a more intense email package. It is more interactive with us working together toward your creative goals that include homework assignments to get you there. There will be up to five e-mails a week from me, and you can feel free to e-mail me anytime with questions and epiphanies. This package can be done in 30, 60, or 90 day increments, depending on what you want to accomplish.

My goal here at The Creating Room is to feed and encourage the creative soul. I believe that we all have within us the ability to be creative and that it arrives in us in different ways. Sometimes we might not have yet discovered what that is. That’s okay. I am inviting to come along on this journey to discover your creative self…to seek out the creative soul within you.

Ten Tips to Undo Creative Blocks

Ten Tips to Undo Creative Blocks

Creative blocks. They can happen to anybody. They are frustrating. Discouraging. Even maddening. Blocks can happen when we are stressed, when we feel disconnected, or even simply unmotivated to be creative. However, creative blocks also hit us out of the blue. We just wake up, sit down to create and realize that there isn’t anything there in our heads to create. This sometimes happens when we have been working and working without a break.  Creative blocks can be a wake up call that something in our creative life needs to change or be shaken up a bit. What are the keys to getting unblocked? I have compiled a list of ten ways that you can use to move through the block and back into your creative groove.

  1. Change the Scenery: If you work at home or studio, go someplace else. Work from a coffee shop or at the park for a little while. Pack up the minimum amount of supplies you will need and just go. I have, on a few occasions, packed up scissors, glue, papers, and cards and gone to Starbucks around the corner. I sat with my coffee, people watched and made cards. I have even taken my laptop and knocked out two to three blog posts at a time sitting at a coffee shop. For some reason, I can sometimes tune in easier there than I can at home.
  2. Do Something Different: If you are a card maker that uses stamps, try your hand at some watercolor paints or clay. If you are a writer, it might mean your mind needs a words break, so color or draw. I find that I keep a few projects on hand that aren’t on time schedules that I can pick up and do when I am stuck on writing or card-making. It breaks up the monotony of the same thing. Even when you love it, sometimes the brain needs a break.
  3. Come out of Isolation: I have noticed many creatives get busy and into a project and they isolate themselves to get their work done. They are in “the zone”. This is great but if you suddenly find yourself stuck instead of creating, one of the things you can do is socialize. It can be with your family or friends. Go out to lunch with someone you haven’t seen for a while. Sit down with the kids and see what is going on in their world. It is so easy to become intensely focused when we are zoned in on a project that we forget we need the company of other people sometimes.
  4. Read Inspiring Blogs/Posts: Even if you read it before. I have gone back and read a post more than once because I found it inspirational. I also make sure there are bloggers that I can go to for some inspiration when I need it. Some great ones are: Jamie Riddler, Tery Lynn, Lamisha Serf- Walls, Leonie Dawson, and Chris Guillebeau. I am sure there are more. I discover them all the time using Pinterest. It is also a great place to go for some inspiration and ideas when you have creative blocks.
  5. Practice Mindfulness and Affirmations: This is an easy one to forget to do when we start or end our day. It is so easy just to jump into our work or to crash into bed that we often forget the importance of being mindful and practicing affirmations. I put these together because I use them as a practice at the same time. When I write my affirmations down, I am practicing being mindful of my goals and dreams. I create an awareness of them in conscious mind so that they stay with me through out the course of the day. Done right, I use them to reinforce choices/decisions that need to be made for the interest of myself, my family or my dreams. Mindfulness can also be just breathing for five minutes in silence. Allowing yourself to simply be in the moment before you jump into work or fall into sleep. Affirmations, ones that are believable to ourselves, have been shown to be a positive force in following our path and reinforcing a positive outlook on ourselves and our lives.
  6. Read: Pick up a book. It doesn’t really matter what kind it is so long as it is fun and enjoyable to you. Let the book inspire you in one way or another. I remember I was so inspired by Eat Pray Love, I bought copies for my co-workers and friends. Over the years, I have found inspiration in many types of books. I love Brene’ Brown, Chris Guillebeau, SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy), and just finished You are a Badass! (which I LOVED and was totally inspired by). On the other hand I am currently reading Simon Sinek’s, “Start with Why”, which is inspiring in a totally different way. I also find inspiration in poetry such as Billy Collins and Mary Oliver. Reading can be a great source of inspiration and bring a resurgence of creative energy.
  7. Get Physical: Move. Go for a walk. Put on some music and dance. Go for a bike ride. Visit the gym. Just move your body. The movement of our bodies does great things for our brains, producing all kinds of happy chemicals that help our brain work. When I was in college, I worked with an instructor who would give us breaks during long working periods. She would guide us through movement and simple dance exercises to help us refocus our brains and wake us up after sitting for so long. If your creative work is something like dance or theater where you are already physical, try some other type of movement. Do something you normally would not do to break up the routine.
  8. Nourish Yourself: Have you eaten anything? Did it nourish you or was it a quick sugar rush and now you are crashing? It is so easy to get into a zone of concentration and forget to properly take care of our body. It needs fuel. Our brain needs fuel. It is easy to grab the sugary treat at the coffee shop or just drink a cup of coffee at home and start working but our bodies need more than that. They need nutrients for sustained energy. That way we don’t crash. I am not innocent in this. There have been plenty of times I have skipped breakfast or had a sugary muffin or slice of pumpkin bread. However, I have been on a new path, food wise, and have begun to learn the importance of balanced eating, especially not skipping breakfast and including more protein. I didn’t realize it but for years I have been protein deprived. I added some more vegetarian substitutes and protein shakes to my diet and it has made a huge difference. If you are feeling blocked because you are crashing, check what you are eating.
  9. Make Connections: Connect with other writers, artists, card-makers, dancers, or have a mixed group of creative minds. But connect with people who know what it is like to get into the creative zone. Other people who understand creative blocks and failures. Connect with them in person or through social media but connect. It is awful to feel alone and as though no one understands the creative quandary you may be in. Hang around like minded creative people who you can bounce off ideas and may offer constructive criticism. Get Connected.
  10. Know this will Pass: Creative blocks, like many things in life, will pass. They happen, we work through it, instead of fighting it, and then we move forward. Just keep reminding yourself that this is only temporary. The creative block will pass and you will keep going.

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