The Wright Brain Stuff: March 2012

Saturday 31 March 2012

Continuous improvement

I'm reading Start It Up: Why Running Your Own Business is Easier Than You Think by serial entrepreneur Luke Johnson. He shares that when he launched the pizza chain Strada, he really wasn't doing anything new. Pizza chains are, after all, ten a penny. However, he added a little drop of something extra that was unique to his business. It was as simple as placing a free bottle of mineral water on his diners' tables. Nobody else was doing it. He stood out.

Launching a creative eCourse is certainly nothing new. However, most tend to focus on one aspect. I'm hoping that my differentiator will be to inspire my tribe to tap into the broader range of creativity that goes further than just sharing my creative process with others. Discovering my Muse was like finding a long-lost friend. She is an integral part of what makes 'Lisa' and pushes me to experiment and discover.

One thing I've learned about her though is that she thrives in company. With every course we have taken together we have bloomed - poetry in motion. We have found strength in each other and nurtured the magic that creativity gives.

The urge to share this sparkle with others pushed us to create this business and this course. We hope you'll follow your own calling and join us.

"Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified."

Samuel Johnson

Tuesday 27 March 2012

A messy book group

Three summers ago I joined a group that helped change my life. I know that sounds a bit far fetched - and you'll be even more dubious when I tell you what the book was - but it's the truth. It awoke something inside me that had been lying dormant for a very long time.

The book was Wreck This Journal: To Create is to Destroy by Keri Smith and the group was run by coach Jamie of Jamie Ridler Studios. Over the summer of 2009 around 40 of us destroyed our journals in the most creative ways imaginable and underwent a transformation. Suddenly we realised that art did not have to be about carefully positioned paint or strategically structured design. Art could be the messy stain left over after you squashed your spaghetti between the pages of the book. Art was words, dirt, stickers, fluff. Creativity was burning, cutting, smearing. Supplies were everywhere - from the long forgotten impulse buys from the craft shop to flora and fauna or even your own hair picked up off the floor of the salon!

We mixed in some guts and a whole heap of fun and just let go. Our Muses were given free rein and they loved it! We shared our wrecking each week on Jamie's blog and inspired each other to be more revolutionary, daring and downright dastardly to our books.

Our friends and families, at first bemused, began to join in too. By the end of our adventure we each held something really special. I for one, was truly inspired. I knew that from that day forward, my house would never again be tidy and nor would I ever be far from a tube of paint. Magic had happened!

Does that sound good to you?
Do you fancy quite literally letting rip?
Want your creativity to be let loose to have a mash up with your Muse?

Well, let's do it! Join me for a couple of months of messy play with another of Keri's books Mess: The Manual of Accidents and Mistakes . Every week we can return here and share our creative adventures, inspiring each other onto more daring devilment with every page.

Are you in?

Sign up below. All you need to play is your imagination, somewhere to post your week's mess and plenty of wild, crazy abandon! Let's start sharing our first forays into letting loose on Friday 6th April - I'll create us a separate blog so we can keep all posts together, but you'll find the link to it here. I'll make us a badge too - but do spread the word Tweet: Join the Wright Brainers for a Messy Book Club

Buy your copy

Monday 26 March 2012

Dream a little dream

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.

Harriet Tubman

One of my corporate clients describes me as their Head Dreamer. I rather love this job title - especially as it comes from what you might expect to be the left-brained world of IT Hosting. It turns out that Rackspace is anything but left-brained.... but that's a whole new blog post!

I have a dream where I can share my love of words and art, my overflowing pot of creativity with a tribe of like-minded souls. I have a dream where I'll bring that community together and share my passion for prose and picture.

I have a dream where I will inspire and make magic.

Yesterday I launched my dream to the world and was overwhelmed by the positive response shared in the comments on this site. Feedback is fuel for my artistic soul and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Sunday 18 March 2012

Something by way of an introduction

The last few years have changed my life. I went through a very difficult patch leading up to a marriage separation and divorce. It was a struggle to find the person I used to be.

Then I started a blog and picked up a paintbrush and things have never been the same since!

In 2012 I finally have the confidence to call myself Writer & Artist. I blog, I paint and above all I earn my living by the craft of running words across pages and allowing them to conjure story, idea and emotion in the hearts and souls of my readers.

Along the way I have made friends across all four metaphorical corners of the globe. I’ve taken courses, read books, practiced, learned, refined and stretched my mind. I’ve found my tribe.

I’ve run my own consulting business for over two years bringing my unique blend of both common and un-common sense, motivational experience, communication talents and wacky sense of humour into the corporate workplace. I love what I do, and this part of my business remains firmly in my future. But hey, whoever said we couldn’t have two jobs?

Take a look at my blog and you’ll see a diverse and creative mind. I have always allowed myself the freedom to have a go at everything. When I was younger I’d find myself half way up a rock face or slapping face down into the sea after a water skiing wipe out. I would try anything, sometimes putting myself through water inhaling and vertigo torture several times before I’d decide it wasn’t quite for me!

I’ve taken the same approach to my creativity. One day you’ll find me painting a landscape without a brush, the next I’ll be crafting a portrait with pencil or layering up digital images. I find and take inspiration from everywhere. Sometimes my mind feels so full of the stuff that it hurts. My brain bulges.

This is where you come in. I want to share some of this inspiration with my tribe. I want to share some of what I’ve learned and what goes on inside this head of mine. My Muse in particular is most keen to get out and meet you all. She is full of surprises.

I've dreamed of this moment for a very long time. I am thrilled to finally launch my eCourse - The Wright Brain Stuff. Will you join the creative adventure?