The Successful Dilettante
July 20, 2007 - Issue 26 - ISSN 1935-48866
Editor: Susan Henderson, coach@susanhenderson.com
Visit our website at: www.susanhenderson.com
In This Issue
1) Greetings/News
2) Susan's Musings - Alone No More!
3) Featured guest: Jessica Albon
Follow this creative multipreneur's path to realizing she is happiest exploring a multitude of interests. Learn how she juggles it all without dropping any balls.
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Greetings/News
Welcome new friends and old. Hope your summer is going well. I appreciate that you allow me space in your email inbox. It is my intention to offer you inspiration, tools, and resources in this twice-monthly ezine and through the new products and services that I am developing.
I just launched the Power of Five Mastermind Groups program a week ago. If you haven't already checked it out, I invite you to visit my new web page and download the assessment to see if a mastermind team would be just the right support you have been wanting for your business growth. The early-bird price will be available only until July 31st. Check it out here:
http://www.susanhenderson.com/mastermind.html
Also, if you haven't had a chance yet to sign up for my ecourse, Five Secrets to Making a Living as a Creative Multipreneur, hop on over to www.creativemultipreneurs.com to learn more and read some testimonials.
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Susan's Musings - Alone No More!
In nearly every book on success that I have read--and several on personal development--the authors are absolutely convinced that they, and others they write about, have achieved this high level of success because they belonged to a mastermind group.
It's not that I didn't believe them or want that for myself, but, you see, I am an introvert. A loner who loves people, mind you. An INFP on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test. I love working alone in my home office with no distractions.
However, I longed for some feedback on my ideas, some "Atta Girl!" support, brainstorming, accountability, and challenges to stretch. What was I to do?
Again, let me emphasize that I love people with all their differences and complexities. I am perceived as very friendly and outgoing. Strangers often speak to me in stores. But I just didn't have the time, energy or local contacts to set up a mastermind group and figure out where to meet, and so on in this new community where I knew very few people.
It finally got to the point where I could no longer ignore this yearning for a team of like-minded individuals coming together to help each other grow their businesses. I read everything I could get my hands on physically or on the Internet about how to put together a mastermind group.
Then I jumped right in and invited four other people I have never met in person (with the exception of one that I met one time at a conference) to join me by teleconference every other week in a mastermind group. Even before our first meeting, my productivity level increased greatly just knowing I had this in place for myself. Everything I read about the energy and motivation created was true!
My passion for the power of group-mind and support is so large I want to shout it from the rooftops. This is why I created the Power of Five Mastermind Groups program.
I want to make it easy for you to get into a group that fits you like a glove by offering facilitated groups where all you have to do is commit to showing up with four others on a 90 minute teleconference call every other week plus post as needed to your group's private message board between calls. Leave all the details to me.
Do this powerful thing for yourself. Either start a group or join a mastermind program today.
Hugs,
Susan
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Featured Guest: Jessica Albon
Jessica is a native Californian currently living in North Carolina. She shares her home and office with the amazing Izzy, a gorgeous yellow labrador who reminds her daily not to work too hard, but take time for play. She shares with us here her journey to discovering that she is a creative multipreneur and how she has come to terms with that in joy, wit, and grace.
SH: Jessica, when did you realize you would be happiest engaged in a multitude of interests?
JA: The first time I realized that I wasn't really "normal" was when I declared my first major--journalism--and hated it. I'd loved the intro classes, but when getting into depth I just felt overwhelmed and disinterested. My advisor said that was common and I should choose a new major. So I did... and hated that one, too.
I discovered I liked taking about two classes on any one subject before I would lose interest. So I started looking for a degree that would let me take as many intro classes as possible, found Global Studies, and couldn't believe my luck. I got to take a handful of classes on everything--literature, art, film, economics, environment-- and I didn't have to stick with one thing for very long.
At this time, I was working three part-time jobs, attending university full time, and enrolled in a couple of courses at the local junior college. When I'd planned that schedule before the semester began, just looking at it made me tired! But I found it intensely energizing--I was learning so much, meeting so many people and just having a great time.
Then school was over and it was time to get a "real" job--which meant full-time, of course. But somehow I never managed to find a full-time job. Instead I continued working part-time while building a business as a freelance writer and copywriter for magazines and companies--two very different markets, but they compliment each other well.
About six months into my post-college life, I lost my job. I dove ever deeper into my business, phasing out the free-lance writing, thinking that in order to have a really successful, thriving business, I had to concentrate on doing one thing, and doing it well. After all, that's what I'd been told all my life
And that's what I did for several years.
Then my business expanded into a membership club where I support business owners as they publish their own newsletters. I put together little bonuses for my members. It was all related to what we were working on, but it felt so much more creative than my "regular" work. As I created these packages, my business started to flourish. I realized that my creative work as an extra along side my business, I was actually making my "real" business more successful.
As I focused on more creative ways of engaging with my business--from product packaging to marketing campaigns that were creative and fun to put together, I started doing more of the "side" stuff for sale. So, now I balance three businesses--my primary business providing clients services for getting their newsletters done, my membership site, and my jewelry/stationery business.
It wasn't until recently that I started to really feel okay with my need to have lots going on. Even though I'd started to accept that I just couldn't keep myself limited to one particular business, I still felt like it meant there was something wrong with me. That I was a flake. But I'm slowly coming around because the proof's been in the pudding, as they say. I'm more creative in all three of my businesses, I'm more able to attend to my clients, and I'm having a lot more fun!
SH: What systems, tools, or practices work best for you in juggling your life as a creative multipreneur?
JA: I'm an introvert, which is kind of interesting, because I need lots of stuff going on at all times. I love people! But I also need a ton of downtime, and can easily take on too much. So, keeping the two in balance takes a lot of attention. It also means that the routines and systems I set up are constantly getting tweaked and need to be really flexible to support all of my needs.
One of the things that's been working quite well for me lately is to have "in" days and "out" days. So, on "in" days, I do my own work, and on "out" days, I try to schedule phone appointments, and really get my email tackled.
I've also found that I simply can't work on the computer all day. So, I build in lots of breaks--for everything from playing fetch with the dog, to taking a mid-day break to read (fiction!), to getting away from the computer for lunch. I find that on the days where I keep telling myself, "I don't have time to take a break, I've got so much to do, I've got to work faster..." that those are the days when everything takes longer than it should and I end up more unproductive.
I use a paper planner that I love--it has three daily work activities that I do (they change by the day), and then I add my appointments, and other to-dos into the big open space. It helps to be able to flip back through and see if maybe I've been planning too much (or too little) and I really like to use one full page per day to record everything.
I'm using a new online tool called "Sandy" (www.iwantsandy.com) which is working out really well for me. She'll email reminders, remember appointments, that sort of thing. I've been surprised at how much I'm using it and how useful it is.
SH: How do you manage your time? Do you make a plan?
JA: Only in the broadest sense. As I mentioned earlier, I set three tasks to complete each day and then fill it in with whatever comes up. I reserve certain days for absolutely no phone calls, and have been experimenting with doing the same with email--so far I've not been able to go a whole day without replying ;-). I like to have plenty of time for the task at hand, so I try not to over schedule my days.
SH: Have you had any mentors, books or people, who have influenced you?
JA: My dog is a big influence. He comes into the office three times a day to tell me it's time to play. And he doesn't like it when I'm on the computer past six. So he's in charge of the breaks and the quitting time.
I've been very heavily influenced by David Allen, author of Getting Things Done (www.davidco.com), and also Julie Morgenstern (www.juliemorgenstern.com) when it comes to organizing my time. I appreciate how they both are very practical with their suggestions, but what works well for me is trying out new approaches and seeing if they fit.
Michael Neill (www.geniuscatalyst.com) has also been really helpful, and I'm eagerly awaiting his next book.
Both of my parents have been long-time entrepreneurs and have been extraordinarily encouraging about my pursuit in what interests me. I certainly couldn't have accomplished half of what I've done without them.
SH: What advice would you share with our readers in their quest to become successful dilettantes?
JA: Really know that it's okay to have lots of interests and passions--that it doesn't make you a flake. For so many years I believed people who'd tell me that if I could just "focus" I'd be more successful. In reality, what it took for me to create a life I love and my business to flourish, was to pursue *everything*. The best thing is to just listen to your own voice.
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To learn more about Jessica Albon check out her sites at: http://www.designdoodles.com and http://www.newsletterspa.com. She is working on the website for her jewelry/stationery business.
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Shameless Marketing Plug
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