Creative Collaboration Brings the Results You Want

Before you can decide if you want to work with me, you need to know what kind of results you can expect and how I work with creative people like you. You may also want to know a little about the values and beliefs that guide my work and how I’m different from other coaches and teachers.

You Can Expect to:

Clarify your priorities and take effective action to achieve those goals. You set the agenda. You commit to what action you’ll take. When you honor your commitments, we celebrate and determine what rewards will keep you motivated and moving to the next stage.

Figure out what obstacles are in your way and how to get around them. When you don’t do what you said you wanted to do, we talk about what’s going on. I ask questions to help you find the ‘a-ha’ insight. We determine whether you are facing a genuine problem or resistance disguised as an excuse. Together, we strategize your best responses to solve problems and/or get past resistance so you can do what you most want to.

Establish regular habits in three basic practices that support your creativity and ensure you have time for what’s most important. Making time for your creative work is rarely easy, but I can help you make it simple.

Identify how you sabotage yourself and figure out what to do about it. The Saboteur is like the arcade game “Whack a Mole.” You see how a certain distraction acts as one way you sabotage yourself, change your behavior there, and suddenly you’re sabotaging yourself in a different way. I’ll help you stay alert and develop strategies to respond to each new variation of resistance.

How I Work with Writers and Artists

I’ve worked with hundreds of writers and artists to help them fulfill their creative vision. Options include:

            Creativity Coaching

            Writing Classes

            Hybrid Class and Coaching

            Workshops and Retreats

            Dancing in the Dragon’s Den book and CD

We Keep the Focus on You

I ask questions to prompt you to explore possibilities. I encourage you to take action aligned with your values and goals. I am your witness and advocate as you hold yourself accountable. I listen with discernment, never judgment. I celebrate and congratulate your successes. I reframe your perceptions of setbacks or failure so that you can learn what you need to learn, change what needs to be changed, and keep working to make your creative vision a tangible reality.

Standard Practices Flex to Meet Client Needs

I know what practices and techniques work best for most writers/artists, most of the time. I recommend we start there so you can spend your time inventing your art instead of reinventing the things I can teach you, and I can stay alert to how to tailor the approach to fit your unique style, personality and talents. As one example of how I will individualize the standard practices to fit you, my policy is to send a personalized postcard to each coaching client after each session. The postcard has a cartoon and a personal message to celebrate, congratulate and motivate you. (sample postcards) Nearly every client tells me how much she or he loves getting the postcards!

Fun Professionals

Writers and artists are my kind of people. I’m delighted to work and play with other creative people and honored with the trust and insights they share with me. I’m often in awe of the creative and personal power my clients bring to the world. When we work together, we are always professional, serious when we need to be, and playful and joyful as often as we can be.

If you have questions or would like to arrange a free sample coaching session, please contact me. 

If you’d like information about the logistics of creativity coaching, click here.

If you’d like information about upcoming classes that I’m teaching, click here.

If you’d like me to present a workshop to your group or association, or if you want information about designing a retreat for your group, click here.

If you want information about my book and CD,  Dancing in the Dragon’s Den, click here.

Guiding Principles

Creativity is a process. Art is a result of creativity. So is personal growth, spiritual growth and making a contribution to your community. All these results are important. It’s my job as a creativity coach to support my clients in achieving all the results that matter to them.

Writers/artists should be paid for their work. Sometimes we’re willing to work for recognition and personal satisfaction, but at least some of the time, we need to be paid in cash. We offer products and services of real value, and we deserve to be treated as the skilled professionals we are. No one would even think of asking his or her dentist to work for the personal satisfaction of it.

Not all projects will earn money. Some projects feed our spirit.  A sustainable creative life must balance the time spent on work for money with the time given to work for spirit. If the only thing you want to make is money, I’m not the person you want to work with.

All people are creative. We are all called. We all make a difference. Each of us contributes to the whole. If we don’t do our small part, the whole is diminished. Little things matter. A lot.

Talent is important. Commitment and persistence are more important. If you don’t have a threshold level of talent in a given creative area, hard work can only take you so far. For example, I’m just not very musical. With training and a lot of work, I could improve, but I’m never going to be great or even really good. However, once you pass that threshold, talent pales in comparison to the willingness to learn, practice and work hard. A person with slightly above-average talent who is committed and persistent will always be superior to the highly talented person who doesn’t develop her or his craft. In fact, what most people perceive as extreme talent is really the result of years of practice and work.

You have to love your work. Making art takes courage, commitment and extreme effort. It can be tremendously rewarding. But mostly it’s just plain hard work. Love is what brings us to our creative work in the first place and love is what keeps bringing us back. You won’t like everything you create, but if you don’t love what you do, find some other way to spend your life.

I love working with creative people.

If you have questions or would like to arrange a free sample coaching session, please contact me.

If you’d like information about the logistics of creativity coaching, click here.

If you’d like information about upcoming classes that I’m teaching, click here.

If you’d like me to present a workshop to your group or association, or if you want information about designing a retreat for your group, click here.

If you want information about my book and CD, Dancing in the Dragon’s Den, click here.