A few weeks back I was complaining to Naomi Dunford from IttyBiz that I had reached a stage in my life where I was just middle aged frumpy, with no online persona or presence. Dull, boring. Wondering how I was ever going to add video or get any of the spark I know how to create offline through facilitating experiences. (In case you are wondering, she suggested audio so you don’t have to look at me).

Shortly afterward I was having coffee with a colleague. She was telling me about thinking about me as she read the chapter about the explorer brand in the book, The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes . When she mentioned explorer, I realized it was so central to who I am and what I do that I couldn’t even see it. She reminded me perhaps there were parts I was forgetting about.

Now that I think about it, most of my prior businesses have had an explorer aspect to them. My first retail store was Quests End, a later one was Four Winds (bookstore specializing in healing, inspiration, and celebration). I created Soft Sculpture Environments (underwater scenes). My artwork often has themes of roots, doorways, passages.

It’s hard to imagine fully expressing the power of images through strictly audio. I figured I better start creating images to go with what I might want to talk about. That is how this new series of images and framing metaphor was born. This is the first image, the overview. I see it as describing the many paths we can take to explore the world. There are so many paths, it can be overwhelming if you don’t pick things to focus on.

I’m working on a small deck of images to be used in conjunction with a series of workbooks. I’m starting with these three areas; exploring me, my life, and my business. I can’t tell you all the details yet, since the images come first for me. I have been painting and capturing the visuals. I’m just starting to work on the words.

The Explorer Metaphor

I’ve been asking friends to help me explore the metaphor of exploration. I’m just fascinated by what they’re telling me.  There has been a lot of talk about preparation. At first this surprised me, but as I thought about it, I realized it’s as big a part as the adventure itself. I’ve started to organize the various aspects of being an explorer into categories. I see a correlation to the three focus areas.

Exploring Me

• Qualities of explorers
• What motivates us to quest?
• Who do we hang out with?

Exploring My Life What it takes to prepare for a journey.

• How are we traveling?
• Who is going with us?
• What are we bringing with us?
• What do we want to bring back?
• What knowledge is required?

Exploring my Business How do we share what we have learned with the world?

• What gifts have we  returned with that can be shared with others?
• How can we make the world a better place?
• How have we been changed?
• How can we guide others?

What else do you think about around Exploration and Explorers?

I’m gathering all sorts of ideas about explorers. Got any to share?

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This is part of a series of posts showing how I am working through the worksheets on the Good Little Biz™ site.

Dreaming Worksheet

Good Little Biz has a series of worksheets, the first one is about Dreaming. I started by writing the answer to the question, what experience do I want them to have as my customer.

Feel cared for, appreciated for their knowledge, expertise, and participation.

Next I quickly selected images from the VisualsSpeak ImageSet in response to the question, and assembled them on a piece of blue background paper. I photographed it,  then recorded myself describing the images in the screencast below.

What do the words tell us?

From the words describing the image, I get

• independent individuals being celebrated for who they are
• feel creativity is welcome and celebrated
• feel a part of what we have created
• room for many kinds of people
• feel part of a network of resources
• all coming together to share ways of doing similar things
• color, creativity, expansion
• part of a bigger whole
• different applications coming together to help each other see how beautiful difference can be

What do I see?

The central image is about being part of a larger whole. Having other similar parts creating something larger. Overall there is a spiral pattern, starting with the images representing individuals encountering art, then becoming part of a larger network or community. Belonging seems to be an important element. As a creative, there have been so many times I haven’t felt appreciated for my gifts, so inviting and including others is something I want to figure out how to do effectively for others.

Join me?

Anyone interesting in working through the worksheets with me? No pressure, informal. I started a group on the Good Little Biz site called Creative Good Little Biz. Email me christine (at)  visualsspeak . com or Dm me on twitter, or just join the group after you register for GoodLittleBiz if you are interested.

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Posts about the Dreaming Worksheet

a. What would you really LOVE to be doing?
b. Who would you LOVE to be working with?
c. Who do you most want to benefit from your work?
d. What kinds of benefits do you want them to enjoy?

This is part of a series of posts showing how I am working through the worksheets on the Good Little Biz™ site.

Dreaming Worksheet

Good Little Biz has a series of worksheets, the first one is about Dreaming. I started by writing the answer to the question, what kind of benefits do I want customers to enjoy?

Better communication, deeper connections, deeper insights, fun

Next I quickly selected images from the VisualsSpeak ImageSet in response to the question, and assembled them on a piece of blue background paper. I photographed it,  then recorded myself describing the images in the screencast below.

What do the words tell us?

From the words describing the image, I get

• ability to reach their goals, they have the ability to reach their desired outcome
• ability to reach new heights with structures to support them
• engage the creative processes that work for them
• get new skills to align with the people and organization in their lives
• creativity and color in life
• gain skills to work with differences
• see alternative ways to engage
• see they are capable of engaging in multiple ways
• exciting lifelong learning
• curiosity
• skills to bridge cultures
• moving forward in common goals
• small group will affect a huge number of people

What do I see here?

The central image has a number of elements in it. Being able to engage conflict effectively was part of it but also the ability to see that what may appear to be an advantage may not be. There is something about leveling the playing field by building the capacity of the one who might be perceived as the underdog.

When it comes down to it, I am really driven to provide tools and processes that help people get along better. Or know themselves better, but really so they can intersect with others more effectively. Seems important since we walk through these lives of ours with other people. There is also something about fostering a sense of belonging. I know there is a particular kind of energy in the room when people are working with images. There is a sense of discovery and curiosity about self and one another.

Join me?

Anyone interesting in working through the worksheets with me? No pressure, informal. I started a group on the Good Little Biz site called Creative Good Little Biz. Email me christine (at)  visualsspeak . com or Dm me on twitter, or just join the group after you register for GoodLittleBiz if you are interested.

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follow me on twitter @cmartell

Posts about the Dreaming Worksheet

a. What would you really LOVE to be doing?
b. Who would you LOVE to be working with?
c. Who do you most want to benefit from your work?
d. What kinds of benefits do you want them to enjoy?
e. What kind of experience do you want them to have as your customer?

This is part of a series of posts showing how I am working through the worksheets on the Good Little Biz™ site.

Dreaming Worksheet

Good Little Biz has a series of worksheets, the first one is about Dreaming.I started by writing the answer to the question, who do I most want to benefit from my work?

The professionals who use the tools and their clients

Next I quickly selected images from the VisualsSpeak ImageSet in response to the question, and assembled them on a piece of blue background paper. I photographed it,  then recorded myself describing the images in the screencast below.

What do the words tell us?

From the words describing the image, I get

• working directly with diverse independent professionals
• collaborating and creating tools
• professionals provide link to bigger group by working with them as clients and colleagues
  • kids
  • different races, ethnicity, regions
  • corporate people feeling out of place
  • people unhappy in their jobs
  • people interested in personal development
  • relationships and families
  • having fun
  • working with challenges in gentler more playful ways

What do I see?

As long as we assemble the images quickly without thinking too much, there can be additional clues in the visual language. The center often holds something important, and the center of this image is about the linkage. This photograph was also in the center in the question about what I love to do. Perhaps even more significant this time, since this question specifically asked about who, and still the central answer is its about providing links. The specific who isn’t as important.

I want to help my colleagues get better results for their clients. I can reach more people indirectly, more people can benefit from the visual tools if I work in collaboration with others. Use visual tools to help deepen the interactions they are already having.

Visual tools are fun. Most people find it delightful to look through the images and find things to speak their stories. There is so much hard in the world right now. Any little piece of joy that can be interjected seems really important to me.

Join me?

Anyone interesting in working through the worksheets with me? No pressure, informal. I started a group on the Good Little Biz site called Creative Good Little Biz. Email me christine (at)  visualsspeak . com or Dm me on twitter, or just join the group after you register for GoodLittleBiz if you are interested.

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Posts about the Dreaming Worksheet

Here are the posts about the first section of the Dreaming worksheet:

a. What would you really LOVE to be doing?
b. Who would you LOVE to be working with?

c. Who do you most want to benefit from your work?
d. What kind of benefits do you want them to enjoy?
e. What kind of experience do you want them to have as your customer?

This is part of a series of posts showing how I am working through the worksheets on the Good Little Biz™ site.

Dreaming Worksheet

This is the second question on the Dreaming worksheet. I started by writing my answer to the question, who would I LOVE to be working with?

Very smart creative highly skilled people who work with other people to make the world a better place. People who are collaborative and can recognize the gifts of one another. People who believe in the collective and who possess the skills to work with creative tension. People who are intensely curious and meet difference with it.

Next I quickly selected images from the VisualsSpeak ImageSet in response to the question, and assembled them on a piece of blue background paper. I photographed it,  then recorded myself describing the images in the screencast below.

What do the words tell us?

From the words describing the image, I get

• people who are independent, doing their own thing, but still willing to play
• people willing to walk a different path
• people who are willing to engage with dynamism
• people who have the skills to be in conflict and work with it
• people who are diverse in many ways
• people who are working with their challenges
• people who are fully collaborative while maintaining independence
• people at varying distances contributing elements to a synergistic whole
• people willing to engage over the long haul
• people wanting to make a big impact

What does this show me?

This is an area where I know more about what I want, and the images reinforced what I knew and offered some deepening to my understanding. I like pioneers, adventurers, those who are seekers. Exactly what they are doing isn’t so important to me, I’m  more interested in them being passionate and wiling to share. Willing to engage, with constructive ways to agree and disagree.

I’m better when I have other people to bounce ideas off. To get input, to check realities. I like creative engagement, but also people who think really differently from me who open my mind to other possibilities.

Other posts from the Dreaming worksheet

Here are the posts about the first section of the Dreaming worksheet:

a. What would you really LOVE to be doing?
b. Who would you LOVE to be working with?
c. Who do you most want to benefit from your work?
d. What kind of benefits do you want them to enjoy?
e. What kind of experience do you want them to have as your customer?

Join me?

Are you interested in working through the worksheets with me? No pressure, informal. I started a group on the Good Little Biz site called Creative Good Little Biz. Email me christine (at)  visualsspeak . com or Dm me on twitter, or just join the group after you register for GoodLittleBiz if you are interested.

Subscribe to this blog in a reader

Subscribe by Email

follow me on twitter @cmartell

This is part of a series of posts showing how I am working through the worksheets on the Good Little Biz™ site.

Dreaming Worksheet

Good Little Biz has a series of worksheets, the first one is about Dreaming.  I started out writing my answer to the question, what would I LOVE to do? I said:

Collaborating with other creative professionals from a variety of disciplines to create more effective engagements by adding visuals to their toolbox. I want to use my visual/artistic skills to create more effective experiences for people who want to work together better.

Next I quickly selected images from the VisualsSpeak ImageSet in response to the question, and assembled them on a piece of blue background paper. I photographed it,  then recorded myself describing the images in the screencast below.

What do the words tell us?

From the words describing the image, I get

• using art and technology to solve other peoples problems which link them to more ways to serve
• underlying container holding diverse elements
• training people to use visual communication tools
• finding diverse people who are interested in similar things
• work in the center of a web, sending tools out into a network of people
• web has structure that is adaptable to change
• holding the high level vision and being on the lookout for people who are part of the tribe
• organized details, created by people who are attracted to the vision

Hints in the visual language

As long as I assemble the images quickly without thinking too much, there can be additional clues in the visual language. The first thing I look at is what did I put in the center, since that is often where we put things that are important. The center of this one is all about structure. If I was to summarize it, I would say it is about:

organizing the pieces that link the vision to people using art and technology to create a large whole.

This makes some sense to me. I think of VisualsSpeak as being a system to deepen dialogue. Its not a random group of images, it’s a group of carefully selected, intentionally constructed photographs designed to spark different ways of communicating and thinking. What drives me is creating things other people can use to do their jobs better. In order for that to happen there needs to be a scalable delivery system underneath the work.

Even the art and technology which I am so passionate about, and are at the center of my day to day life, are means to an end.

Creating structures versus creating tools

This is helping me see there is something about creating the structure that is more important than I have been realizing. Do I want to create a publishing system? Not in the traditional sense, but a way to be able to send creative tools out in to the world. My whole life I have been surrounded by people who do really powerful work, but their impact has been limited by not having vehicles to get the work to the people who could utilize it.

We each hold a piece of the puzzle. I could create a system others can engage in, that offers a way to link content creators with those who can use it. I’ve known I want to create a web, but I’ve been thinking about it more as what is in the background. What this is showing me  is the system and the way the parts link together is the core design challenge, not just something that sits in a support role. This is a shift in focus from tools that support conversations, to systems that support spreading the work.

Other posts in the Dreaming Worksheet series

a. What would you really LOVE to be doing?
b. Who would you LOVE to be working with?
c. Who do you most want to benefit from your work?
d. What kind of benefits do you want them to enjoy?
e. What kind of experience do you want them to have as your customer?

Join me?

Are you interested in working through the worksheets with me? No pressure, informal. I started a group on the Good Little Biz site called Creative Good Little Biz. Email me christine (at)  visualsspeak . com or Dm me on twitter, or just join the group after you register for GoodLittleBiz if you are interested.

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Good Little Biz™  is a free website to help independent service professionals build a solid business. It’s the brainchild of Marsha Shenk, who has taken her thirty years of experience in coaching and transformed it into a series of seven self-guided worksheets. The website also offers workgroups, a directory of people who are working with the process, and a range of resources to hep.

You start by filling out a comprehensive profile, which helps Marsha understand her audience and how to best help us. Its longer than most, but it dials in the details of who her customer is - which is one of the things I know I struggle with defining. Lesson one before I even start the worksheets - ask your customers about who they are and what they need. Show them you want to know about them.

There are seven worksheets, focused on the following areas:

1. Dreaming
2. Good payoff?
3. The right setup?
4. The right customers?
5. The right pricing?
6. Getting the word out?
7. The right deals?

Reading through the worksheets, I can see all the mistakes I have made in the past 20 years.  It’s not the simple how to start a business information, you are looking at the most important factors that it takes to make a service business successful. Even more important, do you really have a business model that is solid and has a chance of meeting your needs.

What’s holding me back?

I’ve been looking at VisualsSpeak’s business model for a while, knowing something needs to change. While I have had many ideas, and received  a lot of wonderful suggestions, there is still something missing that is preventing a plan from falling into place.  I decided to begin the Good Little Biz™ worksheets to help sort it out.

Each question on the worksheet is simple but deep. While I can answer each one quickly, it doesn’t really drill down to the deeper level I feel I need right now.  Instead I decided to use the questions in conjunction with VisualsSpeak. This is the start of a series showing that process.

Getting beyond the stories I already know

When I have worked on a particular problem for a long time, I develop a story about it, a particular way of describing it.  This story isn’t particularly helpful in creating new insights. It tends to be stale, more about where I am stuck.

VisualsSpeak helps get beyond these stories by accessing the brain visually. If I assemble images quickly, it can bypass my thinking stuck brain, and give me a deeper level of information. That is exactly what I need right now.

Join me?

Anyone interesting in working through the worksheets with me? No pressure, informal. I started a group on the Good Little Biz site called Creative Good Little Biz. Email me christine (at)  visualsspeak . com or Dm me on twitter, or just join the group after you register for GoodLittleBiz if you are interested.

Subscribe to this blog in a reader

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Posts about the Dreaming Worksheet

a. What would you really LOVE to be doing?
b. Who would you LOVE to be working with?
c. Who do you most want to benefit from your work?
d. What kind of benefits do you want them to enjoy?
e. What kind of experience do you want them to have as your customer?

I’m married to an engineer who is beyond packrat. Packratus Magnimus. I moved into his house/office when we got married, which was floor to ceiling electronic gear.  People say I ‘knew’ what I was getting into. But honestly, I thought I was going to change him, I mean really, why would anyone want to live like that?

I’m not exactly a neat freak. I did underestimate how challenging it would be to share space with someone who saw space so differently. I spent the early years trying everything I could think of. Negotiating, whining. bitching, pleading, rationalizing. He did change, a lot. We rented half a duplex across the street where he moved his office, some of the electronic test equipment went to the shed, he brought a whole bunch of things to his airplane hanger (don’t ask- airplanes in pieces and stashes of stuff). There is still more than is comfortable for me. All the storage is packed full. There isn’t space to stage the day to day flow of things that come in and out.

Converting Packratus Magnimus to Super Squirrel

Accepting I am married to someone who loves being surrounded floor to ceiling with electronic gear was the start. No, actually, he adores it. Full immersion, surrounded with bits of flotsam that can be combined in a myriad of ways to create new things. He’s an inventor, and he really can take a couple of tin cans, pieces of wire, and a pile of those little parts and make something amazing. He talks about thinking like an electron. Yea, and electrons are surrounded by electronics.

It’s his creativity. I started having more compassion. I never thought about creativity in the form of these kind of things. I knew he was a designer, and there was some place of overlap between the artist in me and the engineer in him. Took me a while to make the connection that he thinks the things he works with are beautiful like I think about paint, beads, and Apple computers.

When I looked closer, I started to realize that what I thought was just heaps of random stuff, actually had order to it. Things were carefully lined up and stacked. I started noticing that no matter how much stuff I piled up to go ’somewhere’, it would disappear. I know he wasn’t getting rid of it. The space isn’t that big, and only a certain percentage of it was going to the hangar. I started notice he was like a squirrel with nuts, and he can fit an amazing number of nuts into a space.

So starting with my original thought of husband as Packratus Maginmus, I began to list my associations. When I thought of Packratus Magnimus, I thought about overwhelming, overstuffed, fear, scarcity, impossible to clean, tension, battles, over-attachment to stuff and a really ugly Lazy Boy recliner.

Looking for a new metaphor, I remembered the squirrel. Yes, they can be pesty when they eat all the food out of the bird feeders, but basically they are kind of cute. The fluffy tail instead of the skinny rat tail helps. Squirrels are really good at storing things for the winter, and fitting an incredible amount of stuff into a small space. They have quite a bit of energy to scamper about.

Yes, husband as Super Squirrel.

Putting Super Squirrel to work

I’ve been working on a major decluttering and excavation of my office/studio. Through this process, I have come to a deeper understanding of where the places are I get stuck. The first one is not having a place to just empty out a room and then move stuff back in. It’s like a slide puzzle, and there is a stage when everything is ripped apart and I need to see new ways to configuring where I shut down. There is just too much.

Super Squirrel to the rescue. Not only can he spin things in three dimensions in his head, he can tell if things are going to fit in  particular configurations just by looking at them. So, when I got stuck, I was able to ask him to help me by telling me about several ways I could move things around. He even made me a little map on graph paper with cutouts of the furniture so I could play with the ideas. When I decided, he helped move them. And didn’t say anything when I changed a few of them after seeing how they felt in the space since it is about more than actually fitting for me.

Another big place I get stuck is what to do with all the stuff that isn’t trash or treasure. Where I have to decide to keep it or get rid of it. The vast majority of stuff fits into this category for me, the trash and treasures are fairly easy. This whole category of stuff in the middle does not exist for Super Squirrel. There is only trash (a tiny amount of things) and NUTS, which are all treasures. Because if there is any slight doubt that there may be value someday for any reason, it is a treasure to be stored.

When I get to the point where the whole floor is covered with things I don’t know for sure what to do with, I discovered I can call in the Super Squirrel and he can tell me multiple ways to compact and store it, using just what I have in the room. Very handy when my sister is on her way to visit and the room is still a mess.

I’m sure I will discover more ways to utilize the Super Squirrel. Its much better to work with the strengths rather than trying to contain/change/battle Packratus Magnimus. He is so much happier when he can help me, and when his behavior makes me happy instead of irritating me. Good all around; for me, for him and most important for our marriage.

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Atlas, I believe I have reached a point where much of the information is rehashing what I have already found. Sure there are new nuggets that emerge, but in general, I have read an enormous amount of material on business and marketing. It’s unlikely I am going to learn much more until I start applying it. Yes, its time to get down to work.

Making choices

I could get paralyzed by choice. OK, really I have been paralyzed by choice. So I have decided to view the process as a lens of exploration. I might pick well, and I might not, but I will continue to learn. Continuous assessment and small tweaks that will hopefully lead to a new whole.

When I try to look at the whole big picture I get overwhelmed. I get caught thinking I have to redesign the wheel. Especially because I love to design big things. There is a lot of appeal in the brainstorming, ideation, and mad scheming of all kinds. Less so in the structural details.

Other people do actually like the parts that are less exciting to me, so I am clear I want to create a structure that allows for different people to intersect with it in multiple ways. I am not a lone ranger, I prefer to collaborate with other people. There are some amazing resources available, I just have to chose which ones I am going to try first. While I am also attracting and building the relationships that will lead to collaborators.

Creating a viable business structure

There is a new business resource, Good Little Biz designed to help independent service professionals develop thriving resilient businesses. I was fortunate to be part of the beta testing group, and even though I am not strictly a service business, I am finding the worksheets on the site to be really helpful. The site provides a free guided process of looking at the core value exchange you are offering (or not as the case may be). I will be using parts of this process in conjunction with my own tools, and writing about them as I go here.

I would  encourage anyone who is operating a small professional service business to take advantage of this resource. Just reading through the worksheets and the list of common mistakes we make helped me see not only how my current business has failed to thrive, but also others in the past.

Creating the Organic Business Manual

I’ve started the Organic Business Manual class. Our first assignment is to create a container that is flexible, accessible, tangible and beautiful, and to come up with a name we like. My first thought was I get to shop for organizing devices, but then remembered I promised I wouldn’t do that. The popular, and I admit probably logical choice, is a three ring binder. I painted the image above for the cover to remind myself that the structure I develop for the operations will allow me to examine the core of what is important and  build the trunk from which all else can grow. Still don’t have a clever title for it. Any ideas?

Continuing the decluttering

I’m making strides in some areas, and still stuck in others. Which still feels like huge progress. I certainly have a momentum going, and just as the lovely Lisa Baldwin has promised, it starts with something small and opens up from there.

Speaking of which, Lisa has teamed up with Goddess Leonie to create a new version of her clutter class which will start on June 15.  Click here to visit Declutter Goddesses website!. Very affordable.  Here is a mini-description:

Here is a new e-course that is beginning June 15. It’s called “Making Space for Your Goddess to Shine” and is a six week e-course on divine decluttering & magical space clearing. Created by professional organiser & simplifier Lisa Baldwin & goddess guide & teacher Leonie Allan, the course takes you through practical and spirited ways to make your home sparkle with energy and support you. It covers a huge range of gorgeous tools & genius-shininess including:

• decluttering gently, easily & divinely
• using crystals, herbs, smudging and sound to cleanse your home’s energy
• use feng shui to create prosperity & your dreams
• developing and trusting your intuition
• organising in a super-simple “oh my goddess, it’s actually possible” kind of way
• creating a soulful altar as a place of inspiration, connection & peace
• clearing negative or stuck energies out of your home
• making your home a place of comfort, inspiration and support for you

Continuing to be creative everyday

I paint first thing every morning. This week I also went to the Schrieners Iris Gardens, which were in peak bloom. I think I got some great photos, but discovered I do not have a compact flash reader here. So I can’t see them yet. Soon.

]]> http://www.christinemartell.com/2009/06/business-redirect-time-to-get-to-work/feed/ http://www.christinemartell.com/2009/05/addicted-to-organizing-devices/ http://www.christinemartell.com/2009/05/addicted-to-organizing-devices/#comments Sat, 30 May 2009 22:45:30 +0000 Christine Martell http://www.christinemartell.com/?p=1177 I think I may be an organizing-device-aholic. I first noticed it right before I moved to Oregon. I had a yard sale of the things I wasn’t going to move across the county. Just before it started I looked out the window and noticed the entire lawn was covered with everything from boxes to shelving, baskets to all kinds of things that hold paper in various ways. Everything out there had to do with my eternal quest to find the magic device that will suddenly make me organized in a socially acceptable way.

Organizing anxiety

Here is my pattern. I am overwhelmed by stuff/objects/paper or if I am honest the emotions around feeling out of control. I’m like a shark with blood in the water. It starts my quest to make the feelings stop. Trolling from store to store looking for the magic device that will make all the overwhelm stop. I have a local circuit, and a larger one that includes the meccas of The Container Store and Storables. I’m not really fond of shopping, so I can only troll for awhile before I just buy some usually cheap option to try. I bring it home and attempt to stuff my life into the device of the day. A short time later, there is a worse mess around the device since it never really worked in the first place.

Last week I excavated my office by Dancing with the Space Monster and ended up with a divide. The half of the office that has transformed into my studio area was a breeze to set up. Things that I love and inspire me just fell into place.

On the other side where the ‘business’ stuff was supposed to go, I had no idea what to do. And what did I have there? The infamous pile of organizing devices. Only this time they weren’t offering salvation. Instead they were serving up a big dose of stuck.

Just tell me what to buy to fix it!

I had a session scheduled with Jennifer Hofmann  of Inspired Home Office. Perfect, she can tell me what to buy to solve my problem. Only, it didn’t quite go that way. No, she had other ideas about what might really be going on. Here was the turning point. Jennifer innocently asks, ” Christine, how many projects are you working on right now?” I have no idea. Not only do I have no idea, I’m not really sure how to think about it. She’s wondering how much volume I am looking at. I feel like she has just uncovered the core of my flaws.

Office as mirror of business

I have had an army of people trying to help me turn my business around. More than once it has been suggested I don’t really have a business model. Yesterday, a coach spoke the core truth to me- I don’t really understand the fundamental value exchange in business. I have an abstract understanding, theoretical underpinnings, but no real concrete understanding of how things get organized and actualized in the world. Other than product creation— I’m really good at that.

So now I think I am finally at the bottom of the pit, understanding the depth of my challenge. Ready to stop trying to find the magic organizing device, and starting to organize what really needs to be organized. Taking my strengths and using them to develop a structure for bringing my products into the world in different ways.

Remedial organizing

Jennifer helped me make a plan. Get rid of all the organizing devices for now and start with a clean table. Begin a discovery process to figure out what I am working on. Just how many projects do I have? Start with one container for all the paper I need to sort. How much current stuff do I need close by?

Seems easy. But I am an organizing device addict. I am fighting the urge to go trolling for new magic organizing systems.

Where do you put the cats?

One thing that is clear. I have to make spaces for my cats. If I don’t they walk all over the piles of paper, sit on what I am working on, and drink my paint water.

I have one extra chair, and have been fairly successful in training them to go sit on it when I tell them to. Problem is there are two who hang out with me. And the one on the right is relentless in sneaking up to lie on the laptop keyboard. Esp if the chair has the other one in it. Because they can’t come close to each other. No distance must be maintained.

So I am looking for ideas. I’m tempted to start trolling for cat furniture (they have a lot in other rooms, trust me), but I think that is probably just transferring my quest for organizing devices to a  new thing. Instead, I thought I’d try asking what other people do who have pets in the office. Especially cats who are a bit devilish?

Back to sorting

The table is almost empty. Luckily my sister in coming to visit next week, so I have no choice but to keep moving forward since the guest room has all the excess mess in the middle of it right now. The next lesson in The Gentle Art of Clutter Clearing arrives on Monday, and the Organic Business Manual class starts. It’s hard to change these life-long patterns. I am committed to it though. Piece by piece, deepening levels of insight all the time.