Here I sit, racing to get ready for the day at the studio when I noted that Magic City New has picked up an article I wrote for them. Hope you will check it out.
http://www.magic-city-news.com/Features_98/Ask_Better_Questions_by_Susan_Sherayko18912.shtml
The Joy of a 3 Day Weekend
I really needed this fabulous weekend. The past couple weeks have been stressful as we strive to create great shows, while facing the challenge to bring the season in “on time and on budget.” So, it has felt great to kick back, curled up to finish a novel I’ve been slowly reading. I had planned to do things around the house and to promote Rainbows Over Ruins.
If you haven’t read my book yet, the story focuses on my growing awareness that there is a creative thought process that makes it possible to identify what you truly desire, choose actions that support it and get the results you want. Since my entire career has centered on producing, facilitating, and supporting the unfettered creative spirit, coaching this process in order to achieve our creative potential is a natural outgrowth. The book has been a first step in that direction.
Anyway, a funny thing happened on the way to making progress on my To-Do list. One of those items was to focus on the needs and desires of my target audience. Because the book is about our recovery after a landslide destroyed our home, I was looking for people who have to change for any number of reasons or survive difficult situations as I have done. They will have to prepare to transition to new opportunities, develop their outer game by setting goals and taking positive actions as they rethink, redefine and reignite their purpose. If they are developing businesses (and a significant number are), they will engage in strategic planning, team building, and deal with conflict resolution. It will be easier if they ask for help.
As I meandered through the Internet doing a Google search, the keyword I liked most was the word “creativity.” When you are in recovery mode, you benefit from the ability to access your creative potential. This involves the inner game, connected to limitless possibilities. As new creative techniques are learned and applied to common life and workplace challenges, an entirely different energy emerges. It yields a positive outlook and forward looking capacity, even in the face of adversity. It energizes the creative spirit and makes all things possible. If you learn how to flip your thinking, pop paradigms, ask better questions and use power habits, you find your creative self and reap the full benefit of the creative process for personal development and business projects.
With thoughts about creativity tumbling around my mind, I felt a call to look over the draft of my business plan. If you’ve read the book, you know that I have a dream to create a center where people can learn these skills, as well as writing an additional book about the creative workplace. Turning again to the draft proposal, I was reminded of one of my Dad’s stories. It was a bit of a horror story, really, about the tragic ends to doctoral students who could not answer one key question when they went before the panel for their doctoral review: What is the benefit of this work for individuals and businesses? What is the value? In the case of the business plan, the questions would be: Why do we need a Center? Why do we need to improve our creativity?
So my last day off is being spent answering those questions. It has been very helpful to turn to the work of Bruce Nussbaum, author of Creative Intelligence. (I had picked up a copy of his book several months ago in one of those serendipitous moments – a Godwink – when an entire table at Barnes and Noble was dedicated to books on creativity.)
It feels good to hear my own words validated on his pages. We are all creative, even when we are just doing our jobs, even if we don’t think of ourselves that way. But Nussbaum also makes two points that address the question if this work has value to others. Of course, he believes it does.
From a needs perspective, everyone feels the effects of a rapidly changing world. We live in what the military calls VUCA, a time that is “volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.” Nussbaum observes his students coping with this by an awareness that they need to create their own opportunities “in order to survive, and they [want] to learn how.” (Creative Intelligence, p. 16). Of course, it isn’t just the students who face this. All of us do. “We need to prepare ourselves for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, to solve problems that we haven’t recognized” (CI, p. 33).
This affects anyone in transition or any form of life crisis. Just as the rug is pulled out from under them, they face the need to redefine and recreate themselves in a new world they barely understand. They need a way to raise their awareness that there are creative skills they can learn so that they have the means to face these issues in a proactive way.
But the joy of this work – and I’m all about joy and well-being – does not center on the needs aspect. Bruce Nussbaum also mentions Sonia Manchanda, of IDIOM (India), who asks: “Why not focus on aspirations – dreams that we may not believe are even possible?” (CI, p. 29)
Remember, within each crisis is opportunity. Each of us has the chance to learn to focus our ideas into creations that have value and bring us joy, a sense of accomplishment, and the chance to help others. Great potential comes from strong aspirations coupled with the willingness to flip one’s counterproductive thoughts, develop power habits and direct them toward successful results.
I may not have a center yet, however, thanks to a strange meandering 3 day weekend, I am centered on its value. May you find similar times to discover your aspirations and begin to see them unfold.
To Your Success,
Susan
PREPARING TO LAUNCH
With the arrival of the first books, all my energies have shifted. For so long my focus has been on writing, nurturing my relationship with the subconscious mind that is allied to creative consciousness. I have allowed my Inner Game to dominate my thinking on weekends which is when I make time to do so.
However, taking the publication to others involves developing a strategy, an Outer Game of goals, plans and actions designed to yield my desired results. Of course, I’ve been thinking about it, but here is the moment of truth when actions speak louder than words, literally. There are questions to ask myself. Where do I go from here? What do I hope to accomplish? What will my activities look like once I have manifested my vision?
Although I used to think of strategic planning in finite, tangible terms, I have come to realize that it involves both inner and outer aspects. What we create is as much what we visualize in our minds as it is the outer manifestation. So what do we need to imagine? What mind movies need to stream across the screen of the conscious mind?
When I took strategic planning in graduate school, six areas stood out: products and services, clients or customers, personnel, operations, finances, marketing and the surrounding environment. As we answer questions, we define and affect all the other components of our results.
S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). – What is the environment in which we find ourselves? Is there a great deal of competition? What is our U.S.P., Unique Selling Proposition? What value do we bring to our prospects?
Products and Services. My mentors were quick to ask me: what happens after your book is published? And they weren’t referring only to book tours and book signings. Did I want to keep writing? Was I building a legacy as a thought leader? Or as a media coach? Was I building a business with products and services?
Personnel. Who needs to be part of the team? Do I want people to be in an office full-time or would I be better served by hiring services from outside vendors or virtual assistants (VAs). Do I have someone to handle the accounting? Do I need legal services?
Operations. How will we make our products? How will we deliver products and services? Will we find fulfillment companies or do it ourselves? What systems will we have in place for payment? Will we ever meet those who purchase in person or will we connect primarily via phone and Internet? Will we interact one-on-one or in larger groups? Will our office be “brick and mortar” or “click?” Will we work from home or obtain space for offices and production?
For the moment, my office will be virtual – my website – which will serve to dispense information on products and services, a taste of my teaching, core information and a point of sale. In earlier websites, I forgot the point of sale part, but if a website is to provide the means to build a business, it needs to help generate income.
I’ve spent the past few weeks writing content for the site, as well as working with Kim Barbieri, a visual marketer who has helped Peter and me with our books and websites for several years now. Kim helped me choose the look of the site by suggesting I browse through several sites I knew and pick out the ones I liked. That would serve as a jumping off point. It reminded me of how Steve Lenchner (Lenchner Glass) works with his clients, suggesting that they bring in samples to provide a feel for their likes. (Note: Both Kim and Steve have radio interviews talking about their businesses archived on my BlogTalkRadio show “Susan Sherayko Online” at BlogTalkRadio.com.)
Anyway, Kim had me visit the Template Monster. From there, it was all about choosing the architecture that would give me visual results I desired. My preliminary design utilizes a photo changer for visual interest until I feel more proficient working with audio and video on the site. The website – www.susansherayko.com – is live, however, I will continue to test and tweak it.
Marketing. How will I make people aware of my products and services in order to share them with others? Although we enjoy creating products, if we are to continue to do so, we will need financial resources. Whether we are selling or raising such resources, we will have to communicate with others in a way that inspires them to engage with us.
Writers have a variety of options based on whether they self-publish or are being handled by a publishing house, but they still have to choose how actively they participate in order to achieve the best results.
I will kick off my marketing campaign with a book launch. It’s a big party to celebrate publishing a book. Now, I have always enjoyed a fun theme party. For years, Peter and I held an annual beast feast in January to wrap up the holiday season. Not knowing exactly what one does at a launch party, I’ve been doing a little research. I think it can be lots of fun, especially when you consider that launches can incorporate both live and virtual attendees. You can invite everyone you have ever wanted to “have over” and they can join the festivities no matter where they are.
Additionally, you can invite “book bloggers” to participate when an area of your party space is set up with computers where people can interact, post comments and pictures and truly celebrate! I’ll keep you posted on how this goes as this is a new kind of party for me.
Finances. All of these answers that we design into our project, simple or complex, have to be fueled. They help us determine our budget, the means of financing and how it will be controlled.
Add one more category: Lifestyle. When all is said and done, what will your lifestyle look like? Look at the day to day way you’ll live, as well as the leisure possibilities when you are successful. Now is the time to edit your decisions before they are in place and more costly to shift. Of course, you can always make changes along the way. My plans have clarified over the months of going through the publishing process, working with my mentor and growing awareness of options.
Questions keep coming. How do you work with a V.A.? What is the most effective marketing plan for my lifestyle? How do you launch in cyberspace?
I’ve learned to ask better questions to help me attain the results I desire. Here’s hoping you do too.
To Your Success,
Susan