New Brass Magnetic Interchangeable Lockets in Polarity Shop - oh yes brass is magnetic now!
Friday, March 30, 2012
answers $1.00 - correct answers $2.00 - dumb looks are still free (hiring a coach for your maker business)
Monday, March 26, 2012
(personally I'm waiting for someone like my old field hockey coach except maybe she won't spit on me when she screams my name loudly enough to have everyone in the stands looking around the grounds for a four legged calico)
Now I have never hired a business coach so my advice is of the "dumb looks are still free" variety
(if I charged for the kind of tidbits I offer up on this blog you would probably all be thinking I had a screw loose, but since I give my tidbits up for free I am pretty certain you are left thinking, that Cat, she is pretty freakin' clever ... once in awhile)
but not knowing what I am talking about has never stopped me before and from what I have heard from friends it hasn't stopped some of the coaches out there who charge oodles, so here is my advice for hiring a coach for your small business:
1. Nice is not always a good thing. Kind is a good thing - you don't want to work with a meanie, but nice is probably not what you need. You probably need to be pushed to the edge of your comfort zone - to see what you are really capable of - you need to sweat.
2. Expertise in your particular field is not a requirement - if you are a knitter and you feel you need the advice of an expert knitter (or someone who has grown their knitting business in a way you aspire to grow yours) what you are really looking for is a mentor not a coach. A coach needs to be a good coach not a good knitter.
(and sometimes a mentor is exactly what you need)
3. Expertise is required. You need someone who knows what you don't know - don't pay someone to tell you stuff you already know - unless what you really need is a kick in the ass to get you going and you can probably find someone to do that for you for free
(I recommend one of those paper signs taped to your back)
You want vision, systems, knowledge and fresh perceptions about your business niche - if things are too general you probably won't get much out of it.
4. Do your homework - you are hiring this person after all. Check references, understand just what you will be getting - materials, proven systems they have developed, private consultations, group consultations, etc - understand the fees
(I have an Etsy friend who hired a coach who helped - ie sent my friend an url to a loan site - her get a small business loan. The coach then collected 10% of the loan since her contract stated she got a percentage of any debt she was able to broker)
when you are paying someone more for an hour of their time than you make for an hour of your time they need to be worth it.
Ask them to connect the dots between the work they did with a client and the results that client achieved.
5. Trust your gut - find someone you like and want to work with.
6. Don't expect too much - unless you are hiring David Blaine you probably can't expect levitating playing cards and disappearing coins (dammit) - this stuff is hard and there aren't usually any easy answers.
A great coach can make a good player into a great player
(and although I'm not sure Coach Spitzer made me into a great player - she did substitute my fear of getting hit with the hockey stick into a fear of her which definitely greatly improved my game)
and we can all benefit from lots of voices having lots of conversations, so I think this is all a good thing just remember if you are looking in this direction to grow your business that a coach is someone you are hiring not a friend you are having coffee with.
(unless you pay your friends by the hour which I may have to start doing actually - sniffle)
* canvas print of 1969 postage stamp by pastpostage
coming up for air ....
Saturday, March 24, 2012
(yes, I just said truly four times in one sentence)
and that when we are not being truly (five) ourselves - the part we were supposed to play in this galactic drama we are working out together goes empty - we don't get an understudy after all - it just sits there all hollow and achy while life rearranges itself around our empty places all the while trying to coax us back into ourselves, into the part we are supposed to be playing - the part we agreed to play when we could see the big picture - calling us to find our voice and use it.
These past few weeks (months?) we have been on an emotional roller coaster around here on several fronts. The challenge as always has been to make sure these new circumstances don't cause us to shut down, contract or stop trusting ourselves and life.
To stay open - even when we want to put up the CLOSED sign and go fishing.
I know that surrender and vulnerability are ground zero for creating anything new, anything lasting, anything real.
To love we have to be willing for our hearts to break, definitely open, but maybe all to pieces, too. It takes courage to make the kind of mistakes that bring us to our knees - maybe we do it to evolve at a quicker pace - maybe we want to wake up faster - maybe we just can't not do it.
All the stuff going on in the world is just mirroring all the stuff going on in our individual lives - I truly (yes, I am going for the world record now) believe that so many people I know are being called to slow down, our priorities realigned and drawn back to center for a reason.
DAVID UPDATE - I didn't intend to update about David, but maybe this is all a little too cryptic without it although this post is definitely not all about David. I will say that he has had alcohol relapses (and this is way too small and insignificant a word for what actually happened which included the police and a BAC of .30 and was followed by heartache, anger and finally numbness) and still has received no medication for his schizophrenia - although he did open up to his case manager that he hears voices in the attic talking about him which could be a huge step.
As I write this we have no idea where he is (he walked out of the first day of his day program yesterday) and what we are going to do next .... when I finally broke down at the hospital and said that he was a danger to himself and others and I would sign that and have him committed I was told "it doesn't work that way" (after I have been told for weeks that it does work that way) and he was asked "are you homicidal?" "are you suicidal?" his negative answers and his signature (and mostly I'm sure, his lack of insurance) got him released ...
For so many years we didn't know him. We knew he was out there, but his problems didn't feel connected to us. Now that we know him everything has changed - we can't unknow him - we can't be unconnected.
And although sometimes it feels like the gains have come at too high a price as we struggle to keep our hearts open (I cannot imagine how a parent could go through this with their child - and anyone who has come out the other side - and I pray we are lucky enough to get an other side - still open and connected with the world is my hero) we know in our deepest places that our seeds have been sown into future gardens that we cannot even begin to imagine; gardens that bloom so brightly they will burn our eyes to look at them.
*amazing underwater photography by elle moss
Thankful Thursday or tickets, tailgates and teeth-skin ... yes, you read that right
Thursday, March 22, 2012
The first 3 things that come to mind are:
1- I am thankful that my sister scored tickets for James Taylor. Yes, Sweet Baby James. This is the woman who teases me about my love for all things Mellencamp when at least he's still mobile.
Hopefully, her seats are close enough to the stage that she'll be able to hear his bones getting brittle and see the wires holding him up and moving him across the stage. True, when Mellencamp sings "when I fight authority" he's talking about the AARP, but at least he won't crumble to dust if you shake him vigorously ... yet ... just kidding Tori. I love James, too.
2. I am thankful that hubs got a new tailgate from the dealer. Hubby went to some kind of "restaurant" auction (are we opening a restaurant now - I don't ask) and his truck tailgate was stolen ... off his truck ... in the parking lot. Someone just lifted it off (you would think these things would be welded on somehow) and carried it away.
(I think it was his "buckle up, it makes it harder for the aliens to suck you out of your car" sticker)
so anyhoo, he got a temporary dented up one from the junkyard and drove around for awhile with one of those sticker families on the wrong color tailgate. The wrong color didn't bother us, but the sticker family with its tiny little row of ... cats ... was driving Olive nuts.
3. I am thankful that Shark Week repeats are now on youtube so we can spend our evenings alternating between Jon Stewart and learning everything you ever wanted to know about Great Whites before we head out to the beach this summer.
Like did you know that the skin of a Great White is composed of denticles, which are like scales made of tiny teeth. How badass is that? This shark can kill you with its skin.
(which is kind of like me right now, have I told you I have a staph infection ... on my nose ... don't ask)
Also sharks prefer Pottery Barn to Target. Trader Joe's to Whole Foods. And they wish to God we'd stop peeing in the ocean.
OK now back to work for me - I feel compelled to mention that there is a new moon right now in Aries which makes it a perfect time to set our intentions for some new things to be thankful for - true you may not be able to manifest the kind of amazingness we have going on over here in Jersey, but James Taylor could be
*ninja tee from geekthings
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