A continuation from my Summit of Awesomeness, Part 1 of 2.
This was originally written in my journal on the plane ride home from Portland, Saturday, June 19th, 2010.

Hey Summit of Awesome peeps!

Did anyone else come back more inspired & feeling more creative than ever? I sure did! It was absolutely awesome to meet so many other creatives – literally to be surrounded every day with other crafty, creative, earth/consumer conscious, business minded people – pretty much a dream come true, right? :)

Sometimes I just wish I could give you all money, just for being awesome. haha. But then I think, how can I do something instead to help promote you – so that not only are you just getting money – and believe you me I wish I had the funds to give you all some anonymous grant to fund all of your fabulous creative minds – but even BETTER is to share your work with my friends and family, so that they can become customers. So you not only make $ off of the sales, but you get a new happy customer, and they get to enjoy your crafty creation – which is what the business side of craft IS ALL ABOUT!

I think about this a lot… the beauty in the business side of crafting and creativity. That flow & exchange. For example, when I was buying from all the awesome vendors (literally, at the Show of Awesome), I was SO delighted to circulate money – flow – to light up & charge (fuel) all those awesome creative engines.

I heard my mind get worried about spending money – and instead was like, are you kidding me? My spending $x on this purchase, I have not only brightened the life of the artist behind the work, but then goes on to touch so. many. other. lives! If I give it as a gift, my friend’s life is brightened up (as am I from the joy of giving), AND all the people that may see that art in the future who get to enjoy it through me or my friend. I mean, listen to all of that love & light! So exciting. And since I returned, many of the items I purchased for myself and for friends have already done this ten-fold. People are inspired by art & creativity! It fuels ideas and gets people talking. And that flow, and exchange of money (aka energy) is such a beautiful way to look at how it all works.

So ya, I really truly loved it all. Getting to exchange ideas & share in our processes; truly supporting each other; helping us remember that we’re not alone; validating our creative processes, that listening and acting on our creative visions is not only rewarding to ourselves, but can be a path towards actually making a living off of what we want to do… which is the ultimate dream, right?! It is for me anyway. :)

I also filled my journal/sketchbook with TONS of new ideas. One of them being a strong call to lead my own workshop.

To back up a little about that, I will preface by saying I’ve been really looking at what comes naturally to me, and what I love doing, and I really *love* speaking and sharing ideas with people. There are so many things to learn in running a business, both personally/psychologically and practically, and I’d love to share all that I’ve learned – aka help save others some of the mistakes I made!

Here’s my on-the-plane initial workshop outline… I’d love to hear what you think!

• When “DIY” (Doing It ALL Yourself) isn’t the way to go; collaboration & cultivating a team is the key!
• Recognizing what your strengths are, and accepting your weaknesses
  • (There’s so much I have to say in this realm! I could write a whole ‘nuther post about it. Ok, adding that to my to-do list now.)
• Visualizing having support – who do you need to help you in your business, so you can concentrate on what your passion is (what you’re best at & enjoy doing)?
• Visualizing and getting clear on what it would take to grow your business to the next level. What would it look like if it made you $50,000/year? Or—the often highly regarded, and yet sometimes elusive *six figures*—$100,000+/year?
• Marketing (might be a day 2)
  • Social Media, including Facebook & Twitter (which I always feel like I could do a whole 3 hour workshop on alone!)
  • Advertising
  • Press
  • If this isn’t your strong suit, consider finding an intern or hiring someone to help!
• Crafting your Community
• Craft shows vs Tradeshows
• Time Management
  • Getting organized
  • Holding yourself accountable w/o negative self talk
  • Giving to yourself first, taking care of your Self
  • Working in relationship with your Self

What do you think? Who knows if it will ever come to life, but I figured I could see about offering a 1-day, and just see how it goes. Get the feedback & go from there. Thoughts? Please leave a comment below, or contact me directly.

Thanks again to all who came to our talks. Thanks to all of you – speakers and attendees – who shared your process, your vision, your tips and feedback, and overall gave me SO much food for thought. I am a better person, and crafter/artist from all of our exchanges. Not to mention I feel really fortunate to have gained some amazing new friends, whom I hope to keep in touch with for years to come!

The photo above is one I snapped [of a greeting card] at Red Bird Studios, an inspiring little shop we visited on the Albert Arts District tour, where nearly everything sold is designed and created by the owners Paul Evans and Melissa Rau. Love it!

Oh, and if you didn’t catch it in my Part 1 of 2, here’s the photoset from the Summit of Awesome 2010 on Flickr, and be sure to check out the SoA10 Flickr Photo Pool, too.