And with that, my time here at Wicked Whimsy is done, at least for the moment. I might come back and use this website or domain name for something else eventually – I definitely want to keep ownership of it – but I’m starting a new chapter of things and with that comes the new website. I am keeping the archives up for posterity, of course, and out of sheer fondness for this website – it’s taken me a long way!

So if you wanna keep getting updated, head on over to Let’s Radiate and put it in your RSS reader/bookmarks/sign up for the email list.

That’s all, folks!

The one thing, though, that I know for sure is that big changes are coming – exciting, nervous making (but mostly exciting) changes. For one thing, Wicked Whimsy will no longer be my online home. I want to keep the site up for posterity, but the new home of my musings and business will be at Let’s Radiate, as of June 20th. Just a heads up in case you want to jump over there and check things out for a taste of what’s to come.

And with all of these big-picture changes, I’ve got a few other things to change too. Namely: Take Back Your Creativity won’t be for sale any longer once things switch over to the new site. I’m still very proud of TBYC and stand behind it 100%, but one of the things I’ve been craving this year is cohesion, and that means looking at the big picture and seeing what doesn’t fit. (As Danielle said at WDS, innovation means ruthlessly letting go.)

So – if you’ve been meaning to pick up a copy, now’s the time. As of midnight PST on the 17th, Take Back Your Creativity goes back into the vault and won’t be available for purchase any more. Like, ever. If you’re a working mom, a stressed out cubicle worker, or just someone trying to create a sustainable creative practice for yourself, you should definitely go give it a look see.

Testimonials:

From Goddess Belinda:

Michelle OMG where do I start! This is amazing and full of so much amazing hints, tips and suggestions for taking back your creativity.

I love the variety of ways you have approached this. The interviews are amazing. I really enjoyed them as being a mum to a 2 and 3 year old I’m really busy, however I was able to listen to them while cooking tea. It was amazing listening to so many different inspirational women. Their journeys and tips and suggestions were of great benefit.

The e-book really hit home for me. It showed me ways that I do waste time when l could be creating instead. I am now creating more!!! YAY!!!

WOW Creative Block. What a huge insight. Once reading and thinking about it, it made so much sense. Now when it arises I seem to be able to work though it so much quicker and easier. Cannot thank-you enough!!!

What Do You Do? WOW this is me. I completely relate to this. This has actually been life changing. Because it has made me realise when asked this question I don’t give the kind of answer that I truly want to be projecting. I fumbled and said my passion last. Now it’s changed and I stand tall when answering this question and talk openly about my passion first!!! Thank-you so much for opening me up to this, it’s allowing me to open up and be proud.

I loved the workbook. Seeing something written in black and white is just what I needed in order to get more creative things happening. Also it’s a workbook that can be used over and over which is a huge plus for me!! Will help keep things in perspective and on track.

You have done such an awesome job on this, it’s so amazing. It is hugely resourceful. There is so many ways people can take back their creativity in this e-book and that’s what I love about it. You’re not saying there is one way to do it and that’s it. There are so many!! I knew I wasted a bit of time but not that much. Now I have gained so much more extra time and can do what I love ~ being creative!!!

If this is your first e-book I can’t wait to see what else you bring out!!!

From Natasha:

Thank you, thank you, thank you!  At last a practical approach to creating space for and nurturing creativity! The modules are perfectly focused and full of useful information and advice.  I especially appreciated the advice for re-arranging things to maximize creative time; it’s so easy for me to get sidetracked with chores (especially when I’m avoiding something) and this helped me to schedule my time effectively.

The workbook is a fantastic resource and I will use it over and over again to help me keep on top of priorities and to stay focused on projects.

I especially appreciated that everything had multiple formats so I could print stuff out or read it on my Kindle.  I especially enjoyed listening to the interviews while I was driving — so refreshing and inspiring — and then catching the details later in the transcripts.

This is a very useful course for anyone who is feeling stuck and needs some help getting back on track.  I cannot recommend this highly enough!

Take Back Your Creativity is $47 and, again, is only available until the 17th. So, if you want it, then go ahead and…

As always, thanks for reading, and I’ll hopefully see you on the flip side! (And soon, very soon!)

Me & Dagmar at the afterparty photobooth

I just spent the last weekend in Portland, OR, surrounded by beautiful weather (weather like we haven’t seen here in Austin since April or so!) and 500 wonderfully creative, inspiring, kind, all-around amazing people, soaking up the energy like a sponge. It was a totally amazing event, my first conference gone to as an official badge-holder, and I’m already looking forward to next year. Whether you made it or not, here’s some of my favorite things from the inaugural World Domination Summit…

(A note: some of the talks were much more hands-on than note taking, so I won’t be quoting them here! I effing loved Pam’s talk and her greeting to all of us, and I unfortunately missed Karen’s talk and the Mondo Beyondo talk, which sound as if they were amazing. I think my word would have been tenacity.)

From the luminous Danielle:

“May as well use it” is the kiss of death.

Innovation ruthlessly lets go.

You need to know the rules to break the rules, otherwise you’re just a flake. What rules are you following that you’re not conscious of?

Claim the decision to act on someone elses’ wisdom as your own. They may have given you the advice, but you need to claim your decision. Owning your choices is about leadership.

“I think we have a responsibility to stop being polite to corporate America.”

(Said to, of course, thunderous applause.)

“It’s about the spirit you bring to it, no matter what container you’re in.”

(In response to a question about leaving a day job – but it applies to so many more things.)

On sleazy sales letters: How do you want your customers and clients to feel? Know how much & when you will deliver. When you are truly selling, you are truly being yourself. Articulate the problem you will solve, well. Come from a place of encouragement, sympathy, empathy. And always assume your audience is intelligent.

From the hilarious + death-defying John Unger:

“Don’t rollerskate down an alp. Bad idea.”

“In a way I’m still doing poetry, just in steel.”

“I wasn’t brave, I was desperate. All I wanted to do was make art.”

His workshop – Business Infrastructure and Creativity – was a great one. Takeaways:

If you’re really good at what you do, you want to work with people who are really good at what they do.

What you’re good at + what you care about = your work. Give the rest of the work to someone else.

Find other people to take care of the details or find solutions that take care of themselves.

Ideas are nothing without execution. Execution is nothing without infrastructure.

From creativity strategist Jonathan Fields:

You can’t have forward movement without feedback, even though we fear it.

The zillion sum game:

Will this benefit me?
Will this benefit them?
Will this help people who may never know about this?

Create a zillion-sum environment, not a zero-sum one.

The brain is capable of focusing for 45-90 minutes at a time – after that, our work quality goes downhill. Take breaks. Willpower is a depletable resource. We need to step away. Explore working in bursts.

We might not be able to change the circumstances, but we can change our story.

From the roundtable:

Anxiety is an anticipatory emotion – if you’re living in the present, you can’t feel anxious. – JF

Everyone in this room is a power broker. Whose “yes” can you be? – DL

My own personal WDS breakthrough

Yup, there was one. It didn’t have a damn thing to do with business or creativity or world domination, though, it had to do with grief. Others have summarized the conference at large better than I could have anyways, so I’ll let you read those instead.

Several times during the weekend, I would mention in passing having moved to Austin two years ago, or people would ask where I was from and I’d say, “Oh, Joplin, Missouri.” Oftentimes I’d say it forgetting that people from all over the country have a reason to know that name now. Every time it came up the other person would immediately ask if my family and loved ones were all right, which just goes to show what a lovely, compassionate group of people there was at WDS.

“You cannot punish yourself for feeling pain.”

Danielle said that in her talk on Saturday. She talked about how we push ourselves through grief, we push ourselves through pain, and we punish ourselves for feeling these things. And as I sat and listened it occurred to me that I had been doing that very same thing. For several reasons, all of them a little bizarre, I’d been trying to convince myself that I had no reason to be as grief-stricken about Joplin as I was/am. I later thanked Danielle for saying that because I needed to hear it and got a little choked up in the process (which she was very kind about – one of the most present, full of grace women I have ever met).

Later, the subject came up with Colleen at the after party, and I mentioned how much I appreciated what Danielle said since I had been struggling with it, feeling almost like a hypocrite for being so grief-stricken since I was in such a hurry to get out of there and have snarked on the town many many times, and so on. And she said (forgive me Colleen, this is probably not an exact quote!):

No, it’s totally understandable. The place you’re from, it’s ingrained on you on a cellular level somehow, it’s a part of you. It’s like your family – there are members that you don’t like and don’t get along with, but they’re still your family.

And that was a total lightbulb moment for me, because it articulated so well exactly what I had been feeling without being able to express it, and erased all feelings of hypocracy in one go.

There’s my serious WDS story – and now I have a funnier one to share:

On Friday, I managed to get to the registration line pretty early (partially because I thought registration opened at 6 – not 6:30!). After I got my badge, I wandered back on down the line, found Tessa, and we started talking. While we were talking, another man walked up & started talking to some of Tessa’s companions. I wasn’t listening or paying attention to their conversation (being rather engaged in my own!) until the man suddenly turned to me and said, “Hey. Let me see your name tag.”

I shrugged and showed it to him. He looked from the name tag, to me, to the rest of the line, and then walked off without saying anything else. I turned to the people he’d been talking to and said, “What was that all about?”

Apparently, the guy had walked up and asked them what was going on. They said, “The World Domination Summit”, and he replied with, “Don’t fuck with me.” After listening to them insist that that was really going on, he had asked to see my name tag. And then he walked off without another word, apparently rather perturbed by the whole incident.

So anyways – thank you Colleen, thank you Danielle for your insight & kindness, and thank you to Chris, all of the speakers, and the volunteer team for putting on such an awesome time!

Other WDS recap posts:

Creativity for Self-Reliance

Highlights of the World Domination Summit

Sketchnotes from the World Domination Summit

World Domination Summit? Or World Connection Summit?

Symptoms of Life-Changing Choices

The World Domination Summit: A Field of Dreams

Thank You (My Love Letter to #WDS)

(if I missed your recap post, please link to it in the comments below!)

500 WDS’ers doing their best to be taught Bollywood dance. Check me out in the lower left corner! (Yes, I’m really that short.) There’s also this video, which we can all watch & be reassured by the fact that not everyone is good at everything

PS: that new thing I’m working on? It has a site now. Go check it out!

Text “JOPLIN” to 864833 to donate $10 to tornado relief via Heart of Missouri United Way.

Current donation needs for Redcross:

Large bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body wash; hairbrushes; razors; deodorant; laundry soap; chapstick; flashlights and batteries; cell phone chargers and pre-paid cellphones; baby powder; lotion; plasticware; D-batteries; napkins; pullups; cleaning supplies.

Please no more bottled water. (So I was wrong on that!)

Here’s a flickr set of photos a friend took.

An article written by a former teacher of mine.

DailyMail article with before & after photos (don’t read the comments, apparently some people don’t know what an F5 tornado is & think it’s the residents’ fault that the buildings were devastated.)

An article on how you can help at the Huffington Post – and here’s a link to the Heart of Missouri United Way.

A post from Jeanie, including video and contact information for local hospitals. (And a place where you can ship donations remotely!)

So here’s the deal, y’all:

There is this course. And it is run by this awesome woman who makes amazing things. And as I was watching the launch activity for the course, my head was spinning with thoughts of “This is exactly what I need right now! This will help me take my business to the next level and rock it hard!”

But I was also tempering these thoughts with “I shouldn’t get my hopes up. We have to move next month, and that will be expensive. And we still need to book our flight to Portland for WDS.”

So when I saw the scholarship announcement, I was positively ecstatic. I created a video to submit:

The winners were announced today, and I wasn’t one of them. Which I totally do not have sour grapes about – all of the entries were really fabulous and I knew that choosing would be nigh-impossible. And the ladies who won are all people that I admire and love and would give a big congratulations hug to if I could!

But I am still bound and determined to get into the studio.

So here’s where it involves you and you getting awesome things for great prices.

I am so confident that Action Studio will help me produce an amazing new service that, if you buy Take Back Your Creativity today before Sunday the 8th at midnight CST, I will include a session of that awesome new service for free, to be scheduled in June.

(That session will most likely normally be valued between $200 and $300, by the way.)

If you can’t use it, go ahead and buy a copy to send to a friend. I’m sure you know someone who could use it – busy mom? stressed out office-drone-by-day, artist-by-night? Then, email me with your receipt and notes – I’ll send a copy to the lucky recipient, and put you down as one of the people to get the service when it launches.

I have waffled quite a bit on how much to promote Take Back Your Creativity because I don’t want to be a concussion grenade launcher, but I have heard some seriously great feedback from readers and I know that this is a damn good product. Here’s the latest feedback, from just a few days ago:

Michelle OMG where do I start! This is amazing and full of so much amazing hints, tips and suggestions for taking back your creativity.

I love the variety of ways you have approached this. The interviews are amazing. I really enjoyed them as being a mum to a 2 and 3 year old I’m really busy, however I was able to listen to them while cooking tea. It was amazing listening to so many different inspirational women. Their journeys and tips and suggestions were of great benefit.

The e-book really hit home for me. It showed me ways that I do waste time when l could be creating instead. I am now creating more!!! YAY!!!

WOW Creative Block. What a huge insight. Once reading and thinking about it, it made so much sense. Now when it arises I seem to be able to work though it so much quicker and easier. Cannot thank-you enough!!!

What Do You Do? WOW this is me. I completely relate to this. This has actually been life changing. Because it has made me realise when asked this question I don’t give the kind of answer that I truly want to be projecting. I fumbled and said my passion last. Now it’s changed and I stand tall when answering this question and talk openly about my passion first!!! Thank-you so much for opening me up to this, it’s allowing me to open up and be proud.

I loved the workbook. Seeing something written in black and white is just what I needed in order to get more creative things happening. Also it’s a workbook that can be used over and over which is a huge plus for me!! Will help keep things in perspective and on track.

You have done such an awesome job on this, it’s so amazing. It is hugely resourceful. There is so many ways people can take back their creativity in this e-book and that’s what I love about it. You’re not saying there is one way to do it and that’s it. There are so many!! I knew I wasted a bit of time but not that much. Now I have gained so much more extra time and can do what I love ~ being creative!!!

If this is your first e-book I can’t wait to see what else you bring out!!!

Yeah. It’s that good, people. Really.

Now, I’m not 100% for sure what the service I create will look like – I have several ideas right now and want to shine and polish them and get feedback and create something truly beautiful and unique. (Something the Studio will help me with.) But, if when the service is created, it’s not up your alley, that’s cool – we can still talk on Skype for an hour about the progress you’ve made with Take Back Your Creativity, and how you can make more progress with creating a creative practice and making time for that practice.

That’s my offer. Let me know what you think. Stay tuned for more updates, as even aside from the services, I’m working on a new project that I think will rock your socks off.

As always, thanks for reading & thanks for your time!

How the Scarcity Mindset Hurts Your Creativity – at FeelGooder

The Fun of Failure – at Yes & Yes

Valuing Your Creativity – at Scoutie Girl

And! I’ve been interviewed by some awesome people this week, too. Melissa Dinwiddie of Living a Creative Life interviewed me for 365 Days of Genius, which you can listen to here if you so fancy the idea. Plus, Sandi, the amazing deva coach, featured me and my answers to some questions on her blog as well.

That about sums it all up. As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Make Small Moves

I like to call these microactions. At the beginning of each week, sit down and make a list of things that you can do to progress your creative work – in fifteen minutes or less. An example would be writing for fifteen minutes, picking a color scheme for a new painting, doing a quick thumbnail of a new design, choosing the fabric or yarn for your next project, or researching possible settings for your story. Any time you’ve got a few minutes to yourself, whip out your list and do something, anything!

Making small moves every day adds up quite a bit in the long run. Carol Shields, a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and a mother of five, didn’t start writing until her thirties. She managed to find the time to write one or two pages a day, and had a first draft in nine months. Anyone can find the time to do a few microactions a day.

Resource: A great example of microactions put to use: One Page Per Day, for aspiring novelists. It’s a simple web typewriter that presents you with one page a day to be filled and saves them all, to help you knock out your writing one bit at a time.

And now, you can download the microactions worksheet & put it to use.

If you want to be notified the minute Take Back Your Creativity goes live (and get a VIP discount!), sign up for the mailing list below, or if you want to learn more, go check out the website.

• it means only the best links will get posted – when I go through the list at the end of the month, any links that I don’t remember or have to re-read are likely not good enough to get passed on
• it gives me enough links to work with that I can sort them into areas & topics, so that (for example) if you only want to read business-y things you can do that without skimming the whole list

So now that you know what’s up, here’s the first monthly missive, for the month of February!

Link Love

First off, two enterprises that deserve your attention:

Alex Franzen is raising money for New Zealand & giving copies of the Self Promotional Toolbox to everyone who donates & sends her a receipt. She’s inspired me; next month when Take Back Your Creativity launches I’ll be donating a portion of the proceeds to New Zealand as well. Go take a peek.

And! Laura at BrainyFeet is not only running a business course soon, intended for the whole entrepreneurial family, she’s doing sponsored enrollments for it, + a grant given to one person at the end of the course. Check it out!

Now, on to the rest of the goodies:

Business & Entrepreneurship

so 7 chicks get into a hot tub…why personal development is profitable

Sometimes, Money DOES Equal Happiness. Sometimes, Livin’ On a Prayer Gets OLD.

9 Things Roller Derby Has Taught Me About Entrepreneurship

Work It.

We’re not so different, you and I

Unleashing the Domino Project – by the way, today is the last day to preorder the Kindle version of Poke the Box for a dollar!

Lifestyle Creation & Personal Development

Found this old guest post by Ash A & it is great: The Smart-Ass Guide to Dealing With Dream Zappers

D.O.D. – Declaration of Doneness

on bright faith & why falling in love is totally uncool

Tara put something in to words that I had known but hadn’t consciously noticed: Stress, Happiness, & Our Social Structure

Why Every Scanner Should Start A Blog

& found via the comments of that post: Renaissance Person 2.0: What It Is, How to Be One, & Why

planned obsolescence: not in this lifetime, or the how the digital & analog worlds are merely reflections of the same image

Sometimes Revolution Just Means Being About Six Years Old

Find Inspiration: Idealism

Creativity

How I Practice (a mini manifesto)

Play More Games

The Courage to Create: A Love Letter to Creatives

Why Jealousy is an Important Tool for your Creative Dreamer Toolkit

Etc.

Dear Ev Bogue (I have mostly bit my tongue on this, but I have to say I loved Bridget’s post.)

You Can Turn Off the Internet, But You Can’t Turn Off Dissent

Food you like is food that feels good.

Being Queer in the Blogosphere

You might have good intentions, but you still sound like spam

People in Pain: My Trip to the ER

Spirit Sunday: The Isle of Aphrodite

Me Around the Blogosphere (aka guest posts)

The Clash & What They Can Teach You About Life (y’all know I love me some Clash)

Customer Love: Not One Size Fits All

How to Build Your Gumption Muscle

What’s Rockin’ My Socks

If you follow me on Twitter, you might recall the phone saga that took place at the beginning of February. We ordered new phones & because of the bad weather, it took them an extra four days to get here. Frustrating, but it was all right because:

• we ordered through Amazon Wireless & got a Droid X + a Droid 2 for $20 total (no, I did not misplace a decimal point)
• my phone is amazing. I got the Droid X, Matt wanted the Droid 2 because it has a keypad. It’s about the same size or a bit bigger than an iPhone, & might be an issue if I was putting it in pockets – but it’s always in my purse so that’s not an issue. and I love it. LOVE. IT. I like the Android OS & interface much more than the iPhone’s, and this is the first really cool phone I’ve ever had, and just. yeah. It’s pretty awesome.

One of the things that’s making my Droid X experience so awesome is Springpad. It’s similar to Evernote, but I’ve found it much more usable and with a few cool extra features. It’s become my go to tool for remembering things, organizing things, and making to do/shopping lists.

A week or two ago I was having a really shitty day. Over two hours spent at the doctor’s office, so that one person could see me for 10 minutes, sort of day. I had been intending to go to Zhi Tea, and almost blew it off because I was in such a bad mood. I went anyways. It. Was. PHENOMENAL. The tea is amazing. (And put together in the back room. And fair trade. And organic.) The people are so nice and helpful and sweet. They let you sample anything so you can try before you buy. I shopped for a bit, got a cup of tea & a pastry (also locally made) and chilled out while eating/sipping, then shopped a bit more and left with several samplers. When I walked out the door, I was totally transformed. If you’re in Austin, and you love tea, you owe it to yourself to go. If you’re not in Austin and you love tea, have a look at their website.

On Saturday, I was on Skype for an hour with Sandi. She blew my mind. Go check her out. (Video post coming, probably next week, with details on one of the epiphanies that resulted.) She commented on the fact that I’d linked to her in the manifesto, which I did because I’d seen her around and I had this gut feeling that we were kindred spirits. Which turned out to be 100% correct and I’m so glad I did put her in there!

Last but not least (well, sort of least), I wanted to say a bit about Headway. As you might recall me mentioning on the relaunch post, I’m now using it. The theme itself is fantastic. There is a bit of a learning curve, but I’m not a designer or a coder and I figured most functions out after a few hours of playing around with it. However, support is sorely lacking. The documentation on the website isn’t much good past the basics, unless you want to post a question on the forum. And the actual customer service/tech support – I was not impressed. After I got a bit snippy (which I hate doing), I was handed off to someone who seemed to actually want to help me, but before that, I hadn’t had a single response that was within the advertised (all over everything, even the back end of the theme) 24 hour. Then the ticket was closed by the representative, without asking me if the issue was resolved. (Hence, no affiliate link.)

It’s still a good product – hell, it’s a great product – but I wouldn’t buy it if you know you’ll need help, unless you have someone of your own to walk you through it & help you out.

Mission Updates

I don’t have any updates, as of yet. The missions, excited as I am to start working on them, will probably wait until after the wackiness that will be March before I start on them in earnest.

Currently…

I’m putting the final touches on Take Back Your Creativity this week, getting ready to release it into the world. (March 20!) I’m a little nervous, but mostly really excited. Also, Finding Yourself 101, which was previously mailing-list only, is now available on the website. I’m working on something newer and better and amazinger for the awesome people on the list, stay tuned for details.

That’s pretty much me, right now. I’m gearing up for SXSW, which I’m super excited about, since I’ll actually be here for all of it this year, and I’m working my tail off. Hustling – it’s hard work, but fun!

How was your February? What’s rockin’ your socks this month?

Anyways – the long & short of it is that I’ll been seeing y’all in a bit! Stay warm & safe!

In the meantime – my apologies, again. Hope we can get this fixed soon!