Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of June 22nd | Comfort Zone RESET

comfort zone quote by neil donald walsh | misty michelle design

We have four astrological events this week worth talking about!

And I am writing this on the Summer Solstice (today's chart sets the scene for the next 3 months) so lots going on.

We'll start with a challenging aspect we have been kind of muscling our way through since May 9th when Mercury (in Gemini, where it rules) began squaring Neptune (in Pisces, where it rules).

This has not been an easy aspect.

We might have been hit hard with information we received or things hidden may have come to light. News out of the blue we didn't have the grounding for, issues regarding balance and our relationships with others, lots of nostalgia and crazy weepy feelings these last 6 weeks have strained many people. This stuff is karmic. The good news is this aspect begins to wrap up on Tuesday and every day after that continues to lessen.

Our comfort zone has been permanently RESET.

One of the best things about astrology is it lets us see the cycles and gain some perspective on why things happen when they do and also see when challenging cycles are going to begin to smooth out.

The potentials for this Mercury and Neptune square started in 2011 when Neptune went into his own sign of Pisces and continues until 2024 when Neptune moves on. We have not had this exact aspect since the mid 1800's so know that whatever came up for you over the last 6 weeks, and this could apply to someone near you and your karma is to help them through it, for example (you could think past life or family karma with this) it is probably very old.

This aspect has been happening at some point every May or June for the last 4 years but until this year has only lasted a couple days - this one lasted 6 weeks. There is another dousy in 2021 - if you haven't been playing out some long karmic situation these past few weeks, your turn will probably come up then. I know you will still be remembering this blog post in 6 years right?!

It is important to think about what has happened to us since May. Depending on your birth chart this will hit everyone in different spaces but it is the same basic theme of choices that need to be made and news we needed to deal with. Our response matters, but mostly just having dealt with whatever came up will move us forward. 

Lots of breakthroughs can come from these annual transits, too. Artists will create the best work of their lives, big romances (one of the great loves of your life regardless of outcome), medical breakthroughs, spiritual awakenings. We also have asteroid Chiron, the wounded healer, shadowing this transit for 4 more years so there are many opportunities for great healing.

When you heal any aspect of your story you heal the collective story - when anyone lets in more light, there is more light for all of us. 

On Monday we have a big, powerful trine between Jupiter in Leo (growth, happiness) and Uranus in Aries (fast change, action) shaking something up and breaking us out of our rut. This is the final one that started back in late September - what has expanded in our life since then?

Uranus is always about landing us (yes, sometimes with a kick in the ass) where we need to be when we can't quite get ourselves there.

By this week the groundwork will be set for this so we likely have some idea of the potential for a positive something or other shaping up in the background, paving the way for something BIG and something NEW.

If an opportunity just comes totally out of the blue now, I would say go for it. Whatever is growing will begin to blossom between now and mid August. This is about hope and opportunity. It's all good.

And it's another comfort zone RESET.

Venus in Leo trines Uranus from Thursday through the beginning of next week and then joins with Jupiter next Wednesday. Venus adds love, money and our values to the mix. While there are no guarantees, of course, our best bet is to reach beyond what’s comfortable or common. The opportunity will lie within something's newness now.
 
On Wednesday Mars enters Cancer. Anything uncomfortable - feelings or issues should probably be confronted head on. Sensitivity could bring on anger or vice versa and mama bears will be dangerous. Don't say I didn't warn you.

This cycle through August 8th will focus us on Cancer favorites - security, home, real estate, family, roots, renovations, etc.

I am going to do a post later in the week about various summer aspects we will all be working with!

xo all

seeding without weeding .... how to destroy your business by using Etsy fundamentals outside Etsy

Weeds for Sale © 2011 Mufidah Kassalias

Many people I know with maker businesses started their business on Etsy. It is understandable when, as they move their business outside Etsy territory, they might stumble a bit.

You'd think it would be easier for someone who had a business before Etsy, but I seem to make all the same missteps and then invent a few of my own.

(and now that I think about it this is the same thing that happens to me when dancing although I am excellent at that dance move Courtney Cox does in the Springsteen video, yeah that move)

1.  On Etsy more is more. More options, more variety, more opportunities to draw more people into our shop, more price points, more for sale = more sales.

 (this more is more will actually cause our business to break down on Etsy, too, or give us one, but it does usually produce more sales, at least until it doesn't)

Some of us have been seeding without weeding our Etsy shops for years.

But outside Etsy this more is more stuff doesn't work at all.

At shows - now for in person sales, we need a certain amount of product to sell a certain amount of product. At a craft show for example, I want to make 10X my booth fee and I stock with 2.5-3X that to make it happen. So if my booth fee is $100, I want to make $1000 and I bring $2500 - $3000 retail of my makings.

(of course I still need the weather and the foot traffic and the location and the right show to make this happen, but much of that is outside my control, the parts I can control and inventory is one of them, is how I give having a successful show my best shot)

So, let's say my retail price point was $30 and I was bringing $3000 worth of makings - that would mean I was bringing 100 items with me. Now, on Etsy the way to more sales would be to have 100 different items for sale and just remake things as I sell them. At a show this doesn't work of course and would be a very bad idea anyway. You might think more choices would give you something for everyone, but my experience tells me something different happens.

Given too many options people face overwhelm and can't decide.

There is an infamous 'jam' study about this. Lots of options = more eyes on our stuff. Lots of people stop and look, but then they more often leave without buying than when we have fewer options.  

There is a sweet spot with this between too few and too many and it is our job to find it. 

Since I sell mostly picture jewelry the customer has to like a particular style of jewelry and then they have to like a particular picture. This is easy on Etsy where I can offer almost limitless options.

In person this is trickier.

So I limit the options on a particular style down to say 12 options, sometimes as few as six. The customer who likes that style can make a decision and a purchase much easier.

(And yes, sometimes they ask if I have something I do have but didn't bring - I just hand them a business card - most of the time I will never hear from them anyway. I find that when I have a customer who says something like "oh I love this style I wish you had an owl" and I whip out an owl, will just as quickly respond "oh I wish he was blue" - they don't really want to buy anything even if they think they do. This happens to me in Anthropologie where I often like everything but nothing enough to buy it - like if that same plate were in the drugstore I would snatch it up but in Anthropologie surrounded by lots of amazing whoseewhatsees I can pass it up. I'm not sure we can totally eliminate this.)

Remember also at shows we have just a few minutes to get a buyer to purchase. They didn't just come to see us (although that doesn't mean we aren't totally adorable and have minty fresh breath). Unlike Etsy where people tell me they return to my shop again and again to decide - that isn't going to happen with in-person sales.

We need to be weeding.

On our own website -When I started my own website I just pulled all my listings over from Etsy and made a huge mess of it. I have been weeding it ever since (yes, my back hurts and my gardening gloves have holes worn through the fingers). I do not suggest anyone do this.

On our website things need to make total sense - for your customers, stores that stop in and for SEO.

1. We need to be selling the things we are talking about (this is why I am absolutely moving the astrology posts off this site this summer, I know I said it before and backpedaled because it was so sad for me to see the traffic stats on the new site, but this time it's all moving - it will always include astrology since it's a passion of mine, but I need to have many more posts using the words I want Google to affiliate with what I make) - blogs are necessary SEO tools for our website, assuming of course we update them regularly, but can be detrimental if not used correctly.

We need to weed.

 2. We need our lines to be consistent. For example if we sell lip balms and lotions we probably need to have the same flavors/scents for both. We need to sort things out seasonally. If we have a line of necklaces and sell bracelets - we need that line of necklaces to work with that line of bracelets or we probably need to just ditch the bracelets. Things need to make sense and be consistent.

We need to weed.

3. Our websites do not have the SEO strength that Etsy has and people are not often randomly Googling the thing we are selling.

How often do you buy from a random website? Well, that's about as often as everyone else does. People aren't just going to Google "necklace" and stumble into my website. People need to be looking for me.

Which means I not only have to be selling something people want - they have to have heard about me. All that social media/promotion stuff we haven't wanted to do

(and yes, I know I am just talking about myself here, but I think many makers can relate)

 - well with a website it is no longer an option. This stuff is going to take a lot of time and since we sell things we make and not just something we purchase and bag up there is not a lot of time to do this part.

If we set up our website the way we set up our Etsy shop - no one will ever find us. We need to figure out what works and what doesn't with this stuff and trust me we don't want to be late to the party - and when it comes to social media I am often late to the party.

(I think because they didn't serve wine and cheese and finish it off with chocolate cake, that would have had my butt in line much, much sooner)

Although to be fair to myself I jumped into Twitter with both feet, was a little more tired by the time Facebook came along and maybe gave it more of a one legged hokey pokey kind of effort. With Pinterest I was years behind the curve and just started my Instagram a couple weeks ago! Gulp!

We need to make time to do this stuff if we are going to have a website and we need to choose which social media to focus on - we don't have time to do it all.

We need to weed so we can focus.

A diluted focus will always lead to diluted priorities, diluted enthusiasm, a diluted brand and a diluted bank account.

Wholesale - Off-Etsy we might decide to sell to stores and we might need to sell to stores in order to make a sustainable income. Store owners are busy people. They don't have time to be figuring out how to work our website or read our 10 page linesheet. We need to be streamlined and consistent.

They want stuff that is new and interesting but they also want stuff that has a track record and sells. These are not things that go together. We have to figure out how to give them both these things. For example with my new aromatherapy lockets I tell stores about the popularity of aromatherapy and the popularity of my regular line with customers on Etsy. So they get something new and exciting, but they do not feel they are going way out on a limb with me.

We need to weed through our losers and seed our winners for them because we want them to be successful and we want them to come back and buy more from us!

There are many changes we need to make as we maneuver outside Etsy, and maybe you have been weeding all along. But if our weeding is really only dictated by the Etsy expiration date feature we need to take a better look at this. Continuing to seed new stuff without weeding out the old makes the life we are creating for our business as short and unattractive (unattractive as in both ugly and not able to attract) as the life for our garden.

Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of June 14th | One Part YES and Two Parts Pure Panic

every sunrise by the amazing aimee dolich of artsyville

So, we have a lot going on!

We now have Jupiter, Uranus and Mercury direct!

Are we ready to start? Within a week something is likely to kick into gear and life is going to look a whole lot different for a whole lot of people. In Gemini there will be choices - but we know the one that sets our heart on fire is the one we need to reach for - something that is likely one part pure YES and two parts total panic. Something new.

Do that thing Yes, that thing. There is luck here. And things are different now. We will grow with the situation. One step will lead to the next.

Mercury is direct and by the New Moon on Tuesday communications begin to pick up speed and then late June (Mercury totally out of his shadow) many hanging plots will be wrapped up.

We have a retrograde Saturn back in Scorpio today for the next three months. If you are a very late degree Scorpio, or have very late degree Aquarius, Taurus or Leo planets you will feel this strongest.

 (if you have planets in very early degree mutable signs - especially Sagittarius but also Pisces, Gemini and Virgo - you will feel Saturn's brief absence from Sagittarius and his restrictions easing up, so use this time to reflect on what Saturn in Sagittarius has brought you so far - likely some kind of roadblock. 

You’ll get a Groundhog Day style repeat when Saturn returns to Sagittarius in September - maybe there will be something you can do differently with that second chance?)

We will all be tying up loose ends from his Scorpio transit of October 2012 through December 2014. Yes, a recap of two years worth of lessons in three months ... oh my. This is heavy and, in fact, significant decisions or shifts in consciousness are happening.

If we ignored the stuff this stern taskmaster planet asked of us then, this will be one last chance to get our crap together. Situations will crop up that allow us to see if endings, boundaries and commitments we made are still valid and still being honored.

This will give all of us an opportunity to confirm why we ended that thing we ended or why we made that new commitment or took on that extra obligation in the first place. Are we sure this is the way we want this thing to go down?

Stuff we thought we were finished with can show up again. If this makes us feel like giving up, and it might at times, like we are going in circles, know that Saturn allows us to complete this stuff once and for all. This extra step back for another opportunity to get this right (ie step into our responsibility) will be a gift in the end. I want this. This is where I am going. This is what I am going to do. By going back over everything that confirms our choices - we will be certain.

On Tuesday we have a New Moon in Gemini. Here's some excellent New Moon posts. This Moon is sextile Eris (female warrior), conjunct Mars (masculine warrior) and squaring Chiron (wounded healer) in Pisces and Black Moon Lilith (outsider, rebel) in Virgo. This feels like, YES, stand up for yourself and for what you believe in and for those who cannot stand up for themselves! We can use Gemini logic, intellect and maybe even humor for whatever shows up. This is also an excellent moon, Gemini is the twins after all, for another look toward that damn flock we need if we haven't found it yet! The Moon goes void within hours so don't start anything new right at this Moon.

Mini astrology lesson : The moon is called "void" or "void of course"when she makes no aspects to any other planets. This is important.

Our moon lives in imagination where all our possibilities are kept alive simply because we never choose to live them out. So, in astrological terms, the Moon has to make an aspect to a physical planet before she leaves the sign she is in, before she 'changes the subject' so to speak, for anything to actually happen in the physical realm.

When an action is taken under a void of course moon - nothing will come of the matter.

Now sometimes this is a good thing. I got a letter on Friday (Mercury direct) from the IRS that they are missing our 2012 tax return. WTH! Thank goodness they have our money. So, I need to file/refile. A void of course moon is the perfect time because I want nothing further to come of the matter. I want the matter to end there. No one wants any further dealings with the IRS, right?

But now with most things we do, we want something to come of them, so should avoid starting things at the void moons which occur every couple days or so for a few hours. Here is a list of void moons for June.

xo all

owning our gifts | part II

awakening by elif demir

You can read the prequel here
and part I here

(this is starting to feel like Jurassic Park, which yes, I'd kind of like to see, have to find a kid to drag along)

I heard from a couple people last week who were not really feeling it when I wrote about letting go of the idea of "hard work". I know where this is coming from because we might like the idea of being a "hard worker" and "paying our dues".

(although I think if we are honest with ourselves we like these things best in hindsight when they have led us to victory or some kind of reward or achievement and not so much when they just lead us in circles - feminine energy is not linear, circles are our friend now)

If being a hard worker means doing the best job possible, I'm totally with you. If paying our dues means putting in the time it takes to get really good at something, you and I are in total agreement and maybe should go on vacation together or at least have a sleepover and do our nails.