Blog | Willo O'Brien | Inspiring Creative Sustainability in Life & Business

Hello, October: A review of 2011 thus far

It’s October. ALREADY. Crazy. Looking back, it’s been a pretty amazing year.

January
I was in a deep creative recovery in January; writing, painting, sewing and reconnecting with my yoga practice. I also attended Alt Summit for the first time, and met a ton of amazing women!

February
In February, I launched head first into producing WilloToons Connect, having meetings with my awesome team (videographer & editor), and filming my first few conversations. February also marked when I stopped drinking coffee and started eating 90% Vegan.

March
I had the pleasure of working with a few awesome clients in the Spring, including two custom illustration jobs (Polly.IM & CoSupport). I went to SXSW, which marked my 6th time there, but this time spoke to a room of 500 people and led a Craft/Makers Meetup [see related post about both events]. Oh ya, and rocked my face off for 10 days straight in full force rockstar/SF Embassy fashion!

April, May and into June (as you’ll see, time started speeding up)
Back from SXSW I was heads down for a solid two months, managing a team of designers and developers, and magically wrapped up three huge client projects just in time for me to hop a plane to Europe at the end of May (my first time in 13 years!). There I healed/moved forward my friendship with my ex-bf (from 7 years ago) and wandered through the beautiful cobblestone streets of Prague [photoset, blog post & tweets]. Writing my heart out on the train to Berlin [photoset], I made new friends, watched the sun rise at 4am and rode bikes around a city full of art, angst and revolution. Two weeks later, refeshed and inspired, I returned home and within a week, put the finishing touches on redesigning and launching my site, and the trailer for my new video series, WilloToons Connect!

The very next weekend I celebrated my 36th birthday (on June 20th) with 7 other close friends at our 350+ person Double Trouble birthday bash, held in an old bank downtown, complete with rockin’ food & drink sponsors, photobooths and kick ass DJs that had us dancing the night away till the wee hours. Continuing the next day with a delicious brunch with my BFF, and being surrounded by friends in Dolores Park on a gorgeous summer Sunday. Then on my actual birthday (June 20), dear friends took me to Gracias Madre, and tons of great friends joined me for my solo birthday party at LAC. What a weekend! (See my Birthday weekend photoset.)

That week I launched the teaser trailer and first full-length episode, with Helen Jane, and couldn’t have asked for a better launch – great success! Big thanks to my interns & rockstar collaborators; what a great feeling to be supported by such a great team!

After three weeks of jammin’ non-stop, our LIDL retreat in Russian River was just what the doctor ordered. Then, the very next weekend, I hopped off to Colorado to celebrate my Mom’s 60th birthday! It was great to be back in beautiful Steamboat in the summertime [view photoset].

July/August
After getting back from Colorado, July and August was full of refining WilloToons Connect, dating cute boys, decluttering and cleaning up my home, riding my bike, hiking around SF, and spending time with dear friends and my sweet Santa Cruz family. I also decided to take a sabbatical from Bamboozled, the organization where I’ve worked teen writers in the Sunset every single Wednesday for the last 10 years.

I launched two more episodes, one with artist/illustrator, Mati Rose, and the third with yogi/human-rights lawyer, Marianne Elliott. If you haven’t watched an episode yet, please take 10 minutes to dive into one now… you’ll be glad you did, I promise! :)

I also spoke at two conferences in August: the Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs (CCEWest) and WordcampSF.

September
After meeting Stitch Labs at CCEWest, I started contracting with them in September, doing Marketing and Social Strategy. I’m totally loving it, and along with my other amazing clients – feistyelle and CoSupport, to name a few – I’ve been feeling like I’m totally in my element and on top of my game. Such a great feeling!

Unfortunately, due to being so busy, WilloToons Connect didn’t get the attention it deserved. I realized a few weeks in that I wasn’t moving forward on filming episodes, due to feeling afraid I didn’t have an editor on board… and in general just having to schedule it all, on top of everything else I’ve been juggling, felt like a little more than I could take on. (I miss my interns!) But all in due time, right?

UPDATE: I’ve since made a *choice* to shelve it for a few months… it’ll move again when the time is right.

September was chock full socially, too. Starting with a fun weekend in Monte Rio, where my friends & I rented a house and celebrated the union of our dear friends Cam & April [view photos]. Sadly I was also really sick that weekend… my first time being ill in over a year! No fun. Thankfully, I got well pretty fast, and just in time for yet another trip up to the Russian River for Mighty Summit! A weekend of pampering and meeting amazing new girlfriends… I am a lucky girl. Creating my Mighty Life List was pretty amazing, too, and has had me thinking about goals a lot. What will I explore, discover and accomplish in the last 3 months of the year?

And here we are…
Suffice to say, I think the first 9 months of 2011 have been pretty amazing! Thanks for reading, if you made it this far. :) Happy, October, everyone.

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My weekend at the mighty Mighty Summit!

For the last few years, I’ve been hearing about the amazing women invited to Mighty Summit. Started by my friend, Maggie Mason, and the first few co-produced by my girlfriends Aubrey and Helen Jane; many of my other girlfriends had gone in years past, and all had raved at what an amazing time they’d had. The photos looked divine, as spending time in wine country, connecting with other driven, creative and talented women is pretty much my idea of a dream getaway. Lucky for me, this year I received an invitation of my own!

I really had no idea what to expect, but I knew anything Maggie was behind would be nothing short of incredible. (No surprise, but it actually exceeded my expectations!) I was looking forward to meeting all the women whose names and faces I didn’t recognize, and was overjoyed to spend time with the few girlfriends I already knew.

I was happy to see that Rachel Cole — who I had met through Twitter and in person at Teahouse Studio — had also been invited, as we had been meaning to schedule some one-on-one time. Therefore, carpooling up together was perfect! She is such a neat woman, and we had no shortage of things to talk about. I absolutely LOVE the work she’s doing, and I hope we get the opportunity to do something together at some point.

Arriving at Boon Hotel & Spa, we were greeted by the happiest and sweetest dogs, Boon and Paris… so cute! Saying hello to Maggie, Rachel & I found out we were also assigned to room together, too — perfect! Oh, and our welcome packet was a cool MixedBag black & gray laptop sleeve, with a folder that contained a print out of all the girl’s life lists. The first of many gifts to come!

Friday night we had margaritas and all-you-can-eat off of our very own taco truck, pulled right up on the lot. ¡Arriba! The big surprise though was when we all were given the most amazing gift bags [photo] I’ve ever seen in my life! The “gift bag” themselves being beautiful Epiphanie bags, which are gorgeous leather purses made to fit & protect SLR cameras! The designer and founder, Maile Wilson, was with us all weekend, too, and I really enjoyed talking to her about her business.

Within our gorgeous new bags, we had even more luxurious goodies:

Tieks: Super stylish fold up flats that are so comfortable! They had gotten our shoe sizes beforehand, too, so we could all slip them on right away. Amazing. Mine are ‘merlot‘ (perfect for wine country), and they’re so comfortable; I can’t wait to buy myself a second pair in a different color. They also included a personalized note, all about who I am and wishing me well for my life list goals [see photo]. It felt like they knew me!
Photojojo iPhone lenses: 1 wide angle/macro & 1 fisheye — I’d been wanting these!
Tattly tattoos: a whole little pack of awesome ones… I’d been wanting some of these, too!
Typekit not only gave us free subscriptions, but they’d gone to the trouble to find real-life letters representing one of our initials. You can see my brass ‘O’ for O’Brien in the photo below.

Coming back into our rooms every night we discovered more surprises:

Gretchen Rubin’s bestseller, The Happiness Project. Gretchen herself was there with us for the weekend, too… double treat! I can’t wait to read it.
feistyelle bamboo dahlia necklace – gorgeous! feistyelle (Leslie Yang) has been a long time friend of mine, is now a client and has long since been one of my favorite jewelry designers (I have 3 pairs of her earrings I wear all time time! See my post about her here.). Needless to say, I was delighted to hear she was contributing and that I may receive another one of her beautiful, eco-friendly pieces. She wrapped all the boxes in meaningful quotes [photo], and it was such a delight to see the ladies donning their new feistyelle necklaces the rest of the weekend. Helen Jane was even wearing a different one that she received at last year’s Summit!
A free pass to Andrea Scher’s Superhero Photo Course
Rachel Cole’s Wisdom book

Visit feistyelle.com & see her beautiful felt earrings, too!

Saturday morning we enjoyed pajama breakfast by the pool, and then got ourselves together for a day of wine tasting. First stop: Moshin Winery, where we got to tour their biodynamic, gravity flow winemaking facility and learn about the process. We even got to taste some grapes right out of the settling tanks (photo)!

photo courtesy of maile, epiphanie bags

Then came the wine, and I fell in love with their Sauvignon Blanc, and bought myself a bottle before we left. After that we went for another tasting at Arista Winery, where we were served a delicious lunch from Big Bottom Market (same owners as Boon Winery, Hotel & Spa), and sat at picnic tables in the sun, looking out over vineyards for miles.

Me, Sarah & Victoria at Arista

Our last stop wine tasting was Hop Kiln, where Helen Jane guided us through a cheese-tasting, ala Cheesewizzes. I’m 90% Vegan these days, but I had a teeny nibble. That girl knows her cheese!

By this time we were all tipsy, happy and tired. Going back to Boon, we got some down time, which for many of us meant more wine and playing in the pool… this is the life! Then, Saturday evening was pizza, salad, and roasting s’mores [photo] around the fire, replete with Bailey’s — my favorite!

photo courtesy of maile, epiphanie bags

Sunday morning we took a wonderful hike through the Redwoods, and I really enjoyed getting to know some of the ladies more. Women are so incredibly wise and resilient; I have mad respect.

Lunch on Sunday started with a wine tasting (of course) at Thomas George Vineyards, after which we drove up to a sweet lunch spot under a canopy of trees, where we finally broke out our Mighty Life Lists; the denouement!

Technically Mighty Life Lists are to be 100 things you want to do before you go, but I think mine is only around 50 or so, so far. However, no matter how many you had, at lunch we were asked to choose 5 things from our lists we wanted to accomplish in the next year. Eep! Looking at my big list, could I commit to doing 5 of them in the next year? And what would that look like? I would have to start planning now! It was an interesting exercise, and I was grateful for the push to have to get clear (it wasn’t easy).

Here’s my 5 to do in the next year:

Fall in love again
Have an inspiring office/art studio outside of my home, shared with creative, fun, nurturing, inspiring friends
Do editorial illustrations for a magazine
Write & publish my book (ok, well at least get it started and have the proposal done and off to some editors)
Finish & launch my e-course series: Set Goals, Get Organized & Take Action (sign up to be notified when it launches!)

Listening to everyone else’s top 5 was fantastic, too. Such fierce, fabulous women!!

That afternoon we did more playing in the pool and lounging around, some diving into helping others with something from their top 5. I had a lovely time chatting with Gretchen about family, traveling and the gift in moving our bodies. Then it was time for dinner!

another great photo, courtesy of maile wilson, epiphanie

We all dressed up for this one, and were treated to a 5-star pre-fix dinner at Applewood Inn. All 24 of us, laughing and joyous around a long table; relaxed, happy and amongst new friends, it was the perfect end to a weekend of luxury and pampering. I was happy to sit next to Pamela Ribon, an accomplished author from LA, who wins Funniest Lady at the Summit — she’s awesome.

That night at dinner we had one last sweet surprise… we were all given quintet gold necklaces from Lemonade Handmade, in honor of our 5 things we plan to do the next year. Aww, Maggie… what a brilliant finishing touch!

I was completely amazed and in awe of the level of detail and care put into every part of our weekend, while simultaneously feeling like it was rather unstructured and relaxing.

I was truly honored and delighted to be a part of this amazing weekend, and loved all the new girlfriends I made around the country! Thank you so much, Maggie, Laura, Susan and Libby for taking such good care of us all weekend. A huge thank you to the amazing sponsors, Intel, Lands End, and to all of the designers/makers/brands that contributed their creations (wine, jewelry, shoes, books, etc) to make us feel so pampered all weekend long! I loved every minute and I want to go back. Who’s in? :)

Group photo at Arista, courtesy of Maile Wilson, Epiphanie

Again, here’s a link to where you can find bios, photos and links detailing out the venerable women I was surrounded by for 3 glorious days. A few of them have even posted their own accounts of the weekend, many of which are way more well written than mine:

Can you tell we’re all bloggers? :) The only ladies I couldn’t find posts from are Gretchen Rubin, Victoria Grand (love this photo of us), Isabel Kallman, Kirsten Grove, and the organizers/photographers (Laura, Susan, Libby, Maile). It was an absolute treat meeting and getting to know all of you mighty ladies!

A few more related links you won’t want to miss:

Fear Around Setting Goals — recent post by yours truly
My photoset on Flickr
Maggie Mason’s photoset on Flickr
Maile Wilson’s photoset on Flickr
20 Questions That Could Change Your Life by Martha Beck

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Facebook Like Button: z-index issue

Have you installed a Facebook Like button on your site, but are having a problem with the comment box showing up underneath other content on the page? Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

I couldn’t figure out how to fix it for the life of me. I tried changing the z-index on everything around it, but despite searching Google and asking smarty front-end developers, nobody could figure it out.

The good news: I finally figured it out!! The solution was ridiculously simple.

At first I thought I needed to give my div [the one that has my sharing buttons in it] a style of position:absolute;

For example, my Twitter, Facebook and Google+ buttons in <div class=”sharing-links”>, so that style is set as:

.sharing-links { margin:10px 0;position:absolute;}

This worked, but then I realized having position:absolute was messing up some other places on the site where that code was showing up… so I did some more digging and FINALLY saw this helpful FAQ line at the bottom of the FB Like button page:

When I click the Like button, the popup window (or “flyout”) doesn’t show. Why?
If the Like button is placed near the edge of an HTML element with the overflow property set to hidden, the flyout may be clipped or completely hidden when the button is clicked. This can be remedied by setting setting the overflow property to a value other than hidden, such as visible, scroll, or auto.

Then I realized I did have my sharing-links div within another div that had an (unnecessary) overflow:hidden set on it. Huzzah!

So, hilariously, I feel really smart and really dumb all at the same time. Regardless, because I searched so much trying to find an answer, I hope this helps someone else out there having the same frustrating problem! :)

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The internet is made up of real people, just like you

My friend Corey Denis and I have been coworking at cafes a lot lately, and if you don’t know who Corey is, she’s (as I call her) the Queen of Social Media, in the Music industry specifically. I’m quite the Social Media butterfly myself, so we’re birds of a feather, and now that I have more Marketing and Social Strategy clients than ever before, Corey and I have been meeting more often to share information, inspiration, tips, tricks, and support each other in our respective consulting businesses.

Today I was relaying a story to her about how I had reached out to someone I had discovered online; someone who does similar work as myself, helping crafters and small business owners. After researching this woman online, and becoming impressed with her service offerings and the community she’s amassed, I reached out and said hello to her on Twitter. A very genuine, friendly hello and praise – the internet form of the high-five or pat on the back with a warm smile. However, when this person replied a few days later, all I got was her retweeting my tweet, and a “Thx”.

Now I’m not saying I was necessarily *expecting* so much more than that, but I will say that it felt a little flat to me. Which inspired this tweet:

Now I want to be clear, I’m not trying to be up on some high horse, saying that I have always done this 100% myself. Obviously we all get busy, and it can be challenging at times to even keep up with our social networks, let alone genuinely interact and utilize them to their fullest potential. However, I can confidently say that I interact as genuinely as possible, and I believe that is why I have had such success utilizing this medium, both personally and professionally. I truly value recognizing every person as an individual, and absolutely LOVE the opportunity and gift the internet given us for connecting with people (customers, clients, new friends, lovers, etc.) around the world.

This also isn’t to say that the woman I reached out to is “doing it wrong” or that I’m calling her out, by any means. Not at all. For all I know she did take the time to genuinely learn a bit more about the work I’m doing, but just didn’t have the space to share that with me. No big deal, and that’s truly not what this post is about. I’m simply using this interaction as an example and segue into a larger conversation around how we’re interacting with each other online.

Talking this out with Corey, she relayed a story about a friend of hers who works at a startup, and how recently – thanks to *one* negative/complaining tweet from someone out there, who happens to have a fairly significant following – she had a day that was completely turned upside down, 10x more difficult and emotionally exhausting. Think any of those hundreds of people involved in that conversation are taking that reality into consideration? Just something to think about next time you spew negativity. Try humble, honest, respectful communication first.

We’re in an interesting time right now. All of this is still SO new, and as a result we’ve taken to witness the range of implications sprouting from our interconnectivity. Everything from the happy stories (soul-mates/love/marriage, keeping in touch with your friends and family, etc.) to the amazing opportunities (entrepreneurial, charitable, socioeconomically, etc.) to the unfortunate and horrific abuse (trolls, flamewars, riots, death-threats, etc.). So much joy, and so much pain; one thing’s for sure, we’re learning.

So let this just be a reminder (specifically, this video… thanks, Derek Sivers!): When you’re interacting online, remember that there are real people behind these usernames and brands. Sure, not all of them are operating from a genuinely honest or transparent place, but it’s already very clear that the more REAL you are, the better. People will call you on it otherwise! Transparency is key. Communication is key. Being compassionate and really taking the time to respond from an authentic place, as much as possible, is key.

Go forth and be awesome.

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Fear around setting goals

Between developing my Set Goals, Get Organized and Take Action e-course and publishing my Mighty Life List, I have been thinking about goals a lot lately. Specifically, how it can be really scary to set goals. Which is weird, when I think about it, because really they’re just goals. What’s so scary about writing down a bunch of things you want? But it can be!

Then I thought, am I only one that feels scared about setting goals sometimes? Is this a thing? Thanks to Google, I found “fear around setting goals” is VERY common. I mean, I could have guessed that, but if the internet is good for anything, it reaffirms I’m not alone in silly feelings like this. :)

Reading through some of the posts and watching a few videos, I was reminded of this:

When we listen to what we want and set goals for ourselves, no matter how big or small, we prepare ourselves for the next step.

Now you probably already have an inkling of what you want, and hopefully you’re even getting better at listening to those faint whispers and if-onlys. Now the next step is to write them down and create some measurable goals with those desires in mind. However, sometimes this easy-breezy act gets cut short by our inner-critic/ego voice piping in with questions like:

‘What if it never happens?’
‘What if I fail?’
‘I don’t know how to do (insert goal thing here)… how can I set a goal for something I don’t even know how to do?!’ Oh, yes… thanks logical mind. ;)
‘Who am I to ask for this?’ or ‘Who do I think I am that I could get that!?’

What other fears come up for you?

Listening and dissecting our fears is the key to dissolving them. That said, the more work you do recognizing where your inner critic might be sabotaging you, under the guise of protection, you can simply storm right past those fears, throw caution at the wind and start scribbling down your fabulous dreams and goals like a mad-man/woman!

And this is what it’s all about: What have you got to lose? Seriously, you’re not going to die. Nobody is going to laugh at you. You don’t even have to show anyone. And furthermore they’re not set in stone forever. The goals you make now may be irrelevant in the next few months, and that’s OK, too! These are *your* goals. This is *your* life, and therefore it’s a living, breathing list that you can add to or change at any time! So dream BIG! In fact, make it an experiment (my favorite tactic for tackling scary things). Dive into it with the perspective that you’re new to this whole goal-writing thing, and therefore you might need practice; just like learning to swim or ride a bike.

Why set goals?
To quote the talented Helen Jane, who was my first guest on WilloToons Connect,

“If you do not spend the time figuring out what you want, you will not get what you want.”

Do you like where you are in your life right now? I like where I am pretty well, but as I grow older I am starting to get this sneaking suspicion that I have more control over my experience in this lifetime than I originally thought. :)

When you start to realize and take responsibility for the fact that YOU have had a hand in every single part of your experience in this life, you start to realize that you can have a hand in the experiences yet to come.

Realizing you can create your life can be daunting, but it’s also exciting. In the beginning, writing down your goals might be scary or difficult, but be patient and kind with yourself. It’s ok, little one… it’s going to get easier. You’re going to get better and better at this, and pretty soon you’re going to be REALLY good at setting goals. Or heck, maybe not… maybe it’ll always be challenging and make you face your fears. That’s ok in my book, too! ;)

No matter where you’re at in your life, or your business, it is helpful and necessary to make time to set goals. If you don’t know where to start, or simply want to work with someone in guiding you through the process so that it happens (instead of another week/month/year going by without getting clear), then I invite you to join me for my upcoming Goals e-course. I’m still putting the finishing touches on it now, but if you sign up on that page, you’ll be the first to hear about when it goes live.

Do you have any tips around setting goals? Do you always set goals or are you someone who never does? What’s the process like for you? I’d love to hear in the comments.

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Summit of Awesome 2011, here I come!

Great news! I’m heading to Baltimore, MD next month (Oct. 20-22) to speak at this year’s Summit of Awesome! This will be my 3rd year in a row, and I’m so excited to reunite with all of my crafty business pals and meet new friends, too.

Here are the talks I’ll be contributing:

Making the Not-So-Fun Stuff Easier So You Can Save Time and Sell More ~ Willo O’Brien
Social Media 101 ~ with Lish Dorset and Willo O’Brien
Leveling Up Your Site with Video ~ Willo O’Brien
How and When to Hire Help ~ Jon Wye, Rhonda + Elijah, Willo O’Brien

This is a great photo from last year’s Summit, in Portland (I’m in the middle, back row, wearing red… can you spot me?). I made so many great new friends there that I’m still in touch with! Conferences are the best.

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WilloToons Connect: Finding Your Way Back to Self-Care, with Marianne Elliott

It’s here, it’s here! My *third* full-length WilloToons Connect episode just went live!

In this one, I had the incredible pleasure of sitting down with the lovely and amazing Marianne Elliott – a woman whom I have such respect and adoration for that I am absolutely over the moon to have her as a guest.

Originally we had recorded a Skype conversation (which you can see trace bits of in the WilloToons Connect trailer), but shortly after she booked a trip to the states – all the way from New Zealand – and I was thrilled when she agreed to re-shoot our conversation in person… so much better!

In addition to having her here in the Bay Area, and getting to experience Marianne in person (what a treat!), this episode marks the first time I had an additional camera on set, and it made for such a better video! That’s a little geek talk, but for those of you who watched the first and second episodes, I think you’ll agree it’s an improvement; I’m so fortunate to have such an awesome team!

Marianne was an absolute joy to chat with, too. It’s hard for me to put into words, but she’s someone who really makes me think about the work I’m doing in my life, and how I’m expressing my intention. She’s so aware and wise, I often find myself feeling completely befuddled and in awe talking to her; I want to be her when I grow up!

Our conversation hits home on so many levels, and I feel SO many people can relate to it. She’s someone who is not only staying true to her passion and vision for what she wants to create in her life and business, but she’s a true changemaker and beacon, serving the world with her gifts.

Alright, enough gushing… check out our conversation (and please share it with a friend)!

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Acting on the whisper

Hello, dear blog readers! I haven’t been writing as much these last few weeks, because I’ve had my head down working on some awesome client projects. I doubt many of you noticed, but one thing’s for sure: I’ve missed it.

Writing for me is so cathartic, and this year there’s something within me absolutely *yearning* to write, write, write. That said, like many things I want to do and know are good for me, it can often be that days or weeks go by where I haven’t been making the space for it. Thing is, every single one of those days, I still hear a small little voice every day gently suggesting, “maybe you could write a little today?”

This voice, sometimes only a faint whisper, is something I’ve been really trying to listen to more lately. I’ve written about this a lot – the “if only’s” and how incredibly key it is to LISTEN to your dreams and desires – but ‘dreams and desires’ can feel so big. What about the small little whispers we hear our hearts call out to us? These little baby suggestions that some part of us knows will improve or heal us in some way, but we continue to cruise through life not listening. Or rather, not ACTING on them. I don’t know about you, but I will often hear them, and sometimes even spend time thinking about them for awhile; fully turning the idea on all sides and maybe even creating some mini-plan in my mind for how I might integrate it later…. but then it doesn’t get done. Again.

This has been happening a lot lately with my yoga practice. I hear it come up every. single. day. and day-after-day, I haven’t done yoga. Sure, I go on hikes, and walks, and have occasionally done a cat/cow pose stretch before getting out of bed… but the voice within me has been longing for a full 45 minutes to an hour. So why haven’t I acted on it?

When we ACT on our desires – even the small voices within us, yearning to give ourselves the gift of just 20-40 minutes of self-care or creative-exploration in some way – it is powerful. It reminds us that we can create the life that we want (hint: that’s what those small voices are trying to tell you… listen to them)!

Putting our ideas and thoughts into action are what shape our reality and give us the opportunity to grow and change.

This morning, after days (ok, I admit it, WEEKS) of hearing my small voice asking for me to set aside a full hour for yoga, I finally made it happen… and it was GLORIOUS! Every single time I think, “Aaaahhh (as in: yay, this feels so good), why don’t I do this every day?” But that phrasing has a slight tinge of hand-slapping, so instead I will simply say: today was a lovely reminder to listen and ACT on my small whispers.

In addition, after my lovely hour doing yoga, I wrote this post, which fed the part of me that wants to write, write, write. A damn fine Saturday morning. :)

What’s been whispering to you lately? How can you take a small step to act on it?

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My Mighty Life List

I am completely thrilled and honored to report that I will be joining a handful of other amazing ladies for this year’s Mighty Summit! It’s next weekend up in Guerneville, CA (my 3rd time up there this summer – lucky me!) and I’m SO incredibly excited about all the fun things we’ll be doing, and all the fabulous ladies I’ll be meeting!

If any of you know the word *Mighty* like I do, it basically sums up the fabulous Maggie Mason, aka Mighty Girl and the creator of Mighty Events, Mighty Goods, Mighty Junior and Mighty Haus, just to name a few. She’s also pioneered a huge movement around creating a Mighty Life List: 100 things you want to do before you die.

I’ve had a list rolling around in my head for years, but only got serious about writing them down this year. With Mighty Summit, it’s essentially required, so that really got my butt in gear! :) It’s nowhere near the full 100 things yet, but here it is:

My Mighty Life List: Things I want to do before I go
Last updated 10/23/13

be debt free & flourishing
get a new car (not brand new, but only 1-3 yrs old, vs. 10)
get a completely new bed (mattress/frame) and all new linens
fall in love again
get married to my love & have a fabulous wedding,
celebrating with & being surrounded by everyone we love!
write and publish a book (non-fiction)
write & illustrate a children’s book
do editorial illustrations for a magazine
– technically I’ve done editorial illustrations for websites & blogs
– not exactly any of the above, BUT my illustration was published in a cool coloring book!
hold a creative retreat (update: 2013 – this is in the works!)
speak to audience of 500+ (again) and rock it
speak at TED
be featured on the cover of a magazine (about me, my work, creativity, my message)
be featured in 7×7 (celebrating awesomeness, see points above)
~~have an inspiring office/art studio outside of my house, shared with creative, fun, nurturing, inspiring friends~~ – moved in January, 2013!
take the ~~Hendrick’s Foundation Seminar, Conscious Living 5-Day Advanced Training~~ – happened in February, 2013!
go through the Hendrick’s Leadership and Transformation Program
create/illustrate an iphone/ipad app
get really good at making fresh salsa
go to Yosemite
go to Vancouver
go to the Grand Canyon
go to Greece
go to Brazil
go to Tokyo
go to Thailand
go on a Safari in Africa
see an aurora borealis
have a romantic weekend in Paris
go on a shopping spree in New York City
dive Turks & Caicos
dive the Great Barrier Reef
go skydiving
go on a yoga retreat
~~take a painting class~~ – took an acrylics painting class from Mati! Now I want to do a watercolor class.
~~take a writing class~~ – started taking Wild Writing in Nov. 2012!
take a pottery class & have my illustrations on pottery
take singing lessons
grow wheatgrass
own a really nice DLSLR camera
have my own gallery show
~~catch up on all the wedding gifts I’ve yet to give~~ – finally did this in 2012!
stomp grapes
fly first class
put together my own baby book/photo album (I never had one of me)
go horseback riding on the beach
take my mom on a european vacation
go visit my grandma in Colorado Springs
have a different home and/or live somewhere else for a portion of the year
own a home
have a big living room with a big, comfy sectional couch
have a large walk-in closet
have a dual or triple head shower
make 500K+/year
get massages on a monthly basis for a year
shop at Rainbow Grocery or Whole Food Grocery without looking at the prices

I will update this as more come to mind, which – after reading, meeting and dreaming big with all the other ladies at the Summit – no doubt I’ll have a few to add!

Doing this was so fun. I’m sure there are things on my list you have already done, right? As I was going through other lists, I also couldn’t help but revel in some of the awesome things I’ve already done. Too many to name, obviously, but some big ones are: learn to play the drums, swim with dolphins, bungee jump (from a hot air balloon!), become a certified scuba diver, have my own kitty, create my own product line with my illustrations and designs on them, travel to Spain, London, Prague, Berlin, Toronto (many more, but those are the big’n’s), make six figures, fall in love, start a video series, and more recently, everything on this list.

What’s on your life list?

UPDATE: I wrote a post documenting all the awesomeness that went down!
Check it: My weekend at the mighty Mighty Summit! – photos, links & more! So fun.

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My WordCampSF talk: Leveling Up Your Blog With Video

For all of you who were interested in my WordCampSF talk, it’s now available to watch online… slides and all!

If you can’t see the video above, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

You can also view this on the WordCampSF website, where you can find videos & slides from ALL of the WordCampSF sessions – amazing!

Thanks to everyone who came to my talk, asked great questions, offered additional resources and/or came up to me afterwards or later at the happy hour. It was so great meeting new friends and fellow fans of WordPress!

If you missed my first funny video & post telling you all about this talk, here’s the description:
Blogs are not only a place to post your latest news, but they’re an opportunity for you to express yourself, define your unique voice and share your personality with your readers. In this session you’ll learn tips for recording and adding video to your site, the benefits of syndication and distribution, and how to monetize your content and increase sales.

Do you have any questions that I didn’t answer? Or have any additional resources or tips that I didn’t mention? I’d love to hear them in the comments!

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