I’m a week into The Artist’s Way with a fabulous group of ladies. We meet every Friday at a sweet little coffee house down the road.

I did my morning pages every day, took myself on an artist date to Michael’s for some window (and not-so-window) shopping for brushes.

And I found myself back at my visual journal. I missed it so much, but didn’t realize it until I was back painting and stamping and writing and drawing…

It’s been a while since I did my weekly link roundup, so here’s a quick sampling of what’s been making my brain buzz lately:

Da Linkz

You only get paid what you think you’re worth: I love Dave. In a very plantonic way of course, but he hits where it hurts (but where it’s needed). I’m in the process of re-evaluating all my services and businesses and stuff and figuring out what to do, and pricing is at the very top of it all.

The Vocation Myth: Sometimes I think that if I found that one thing that I knew I was destined to do and I did it, that life would be all rainbows and unicorns. Then I realize that it’s a worthless pursuit. Mainly because the finding takes away so much energy from the doing. And it’s in the doing that you find. Right? Besides, who said you have to have only ONE thing?

Are you your own dream zapper?: If there’s one thing that I’ve learned in the past few years is that I’m my own worst enemy. Chances are, if you’re trying to make a change and haven’t yet, you’re zapping your own dreams. Ash outlines the five biggest excuses you use to discourage yourself from chasing after your dreams.

So what’s been tickling your neurons? Leave a comment with the post that made you think the most this week.

Have a lovely weekend! I’m off to see my Artist Way gals and drink some coffee…

photo credit: NomadicLass

How’d you hold up this week?

Me? I did alright.

Wednesday I was challenged to close a sale in 8 minutes. I didn’t, although 3 of my classmates did. But this taught me a valuable lesson: I can’t sell anything without leads. Yes, this is sales-y jargon that used to churn my stomach, too. But I’m in business. And if I don’t have good, solid, qualified leads people interested in what I do, I have no sales.

But I tried. I quickly created a page announcing a special Twitter deal for coaching & announced it to my stream. No takers, but the deal’s still on.

What am I going to do about it?

I’ve been hibernating all winter, barely peeking out my front door to say hi to the mail lady. So I’m going to start getting out of the house more. Start a local meetup for creative entrepreneurs & wannabes. Talk to local arts leagues about quitting the starving artist habit. Hit a craft/art fair a week and talk to artists.

If you’re in business, what have you learned recently? You can leave a comment below if you want.

And since it’s Friday, and I moved my linky posts to Fridays…

Start Clicking!

How to do what you’ve always wanted: Simple, no-nonsense, definitely no woo-woo method to do what you want. Step 1: open it up. Step 2: Make Your Choice. Step 3: Do one thing. And another. And another. As I’m fond of saying: lots of small steps add up to some really awesome stuff.

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Where Passion Met Purpose – How The Creative Entrepreneur Propelled My Biz forward: Another fellow creative who found this book life-changing. You will too. I promise (and if you sign up for my “venti” coaching package, this is one of the first 3 books you get!)

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Ignore Coaches: (at least when it comes to passion…) I’m going out on a limb here, because coaching/consulting is my newest-chosen profession, but read it anyway. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know my views on passion. This shows I’m not alone!

Our passions or appetites may be fickle and hard to satisfy; values rarely are.

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Becoming a better marketer—Part 3: Part 1 and Part 2 all contain excellent marketing advice (for someone who already has a bit of marketing know-how) but I have to link to this one because Yolanda critiqued the Thrive Creative Coaching site. And Yolanda, I will be adding the things you mentioned in your critique. Promise!

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Strategic Planning is for the Birds: Earlier this year I decided to write out a Strategic Plan ala Lisa Sonora Beam. It made me feel awful. Partially because writing out my year in advance felt like shoving me in a painfully small box, and partially because I tend to rebel against any sort of order, even if self-imposed. Thanks for this simplicity, Pam.

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And for good measure (the title says it all): Why Affordable Products Hurt You & Your Customers.

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Did you find any good reads on the internet this week? Share them in the comments below!

photo credit: Sarah G…

This week has been really eventful. Isn’t there some Chinese curse that says “May you live in interesting times?” Well, my time has been like that.

I released my ebook to the wild, had some bartering agreement that went sour and all the emotional turmoil that accompanies feeling it was all my fault and fear that someone now hates me churning in my chest (she probably doesn’t… I have to keep reminding myself that people really don’t think about me as much as I think they do).

Stay tuned for my rant on bartering.

On a brighter note, there was so much linky goodness this week!! I had 9 links in the initial draft for this post, but I had to narrow it down to 5… next week I’ll use the ones I excluded.

The goods:

Breaking out of the scarcity mindset: How to afford anything you want: I heart Dave Navarro. No, not that one. The Rock Your Day one. I could have written a lot more on my bartering post set to go live soon, included this scarcity/poverty mindset piece, but he puts it so nicely I figured I’d prime you, my blog readers, with this.

Oh Squeezy sales pages, how I hate thee! Let me count the ways… This was the original inspiration behind my Flying in the face of convention post. Kelly so eloquently expresses her distaste for “conventional” sales pages—you know the ones where you scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and still need to click a button to find out how much something costs? Yeah. I don’t like them either. She instead recommends being honest, clear, concise, and to quit the BS.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road: How to lead your tribe when you’re a wanderer: I am a wanderer. If you haven’t figured that out already. And I’ve been struggling with all these different parts of me that don’t seem to fit one title/mold/box (not that I want to be shoved into any of those). I’m afraid of being seen as flighty, non-committal, and flaky. But I’m not. So I’m going to take her advice. Stay tuned for some group classes .

Better than an Expert: 7 Things I’d Rather Be: I’d rather be any of the things Ken mentions (friend, explorer, advocate…) than an expert. Experts are regarded highly for their expertise, but it sounds boring to me. All my life focused on knowing everything about one thing? I’d rather be a question mark.

How do I figure out my passion and purpose? If you ask me, passion’s highly overrated. However, it’s a word that means purpose and love and all that wrapped into a big huge thing that everyone uses, so I’ll excuse Cath for using that word. But she does have a great set of exercises that’ll help you figure out what you’re put on this earth to do.

Have you come across any good links this week? Let me know in the comments!

My energy level has tanked.

But a big part of getting somewhere in life is showing up, right?

So I’m showing up.

I’m dragging, but I’m here.

But I was full of it (energy,that is) last week… and I did something: an ebook called “Five things to do before you kick your day job’s ass to the curb.”

It’s about taking small actions, things that will stir up your inner ninja and preparing yourself for your major leap into a new career or even self-boss-hood.

I have one chapter available – all pretified and stuff – if you sign up for my Thrive Creative Coaching mailing list.

When I actually launch the eBook, people who are on my list will get a special discount code. SO…. want a preview? The free chapter is on Vision. What it is & how to get it & why you need it.

I have a handy sign-up form right there (pretend I’m pointing you to the top of the column on the right).

Enough self-promotion for now. On to the links!

10 Steps to Escaping the Job World and Creating the Life You Really Want. Valerie Young gets to the heart of what it takes.

The Silence of Becoming A Linchpin: Jen’s talking about Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin – and what it means to actually ship (i.e. get stuff out there).

I have a problem with too many tools… so what do you do to get rid of what you don’t need and streamline your toolbox? Ken Robert’s guest post on Productive Flourishing may help.

An occasional romp into the worst-case scenario may be good for you. Screw positive thinking! Creativity, Motivation, And The Dark Side Of The Future

And for some inspiration… The Change Maker’s Creed:

I am changing the world. Lead, follow, help, or get the hell out of the way.

If that doesn’t make you want to unleash your inner ninja… I don’t know what will.

Photo by Barbie Pido