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Do What You Love interview – Anna DeMarco-Mills

Posted on 2015-07-02 at 8:55 am.

Anna DeMarco-Mills is a jack of many terrific trades. She’s surrounded by creativity with her New Old Fashioned endeavor that hosts well-curated craft and culinary workshops, as well as her day job in the accounts department at Urban Outfitters Inc. in Philadelphia. Beth and I had the pleasure of meeting Anna at the Sweet Paul Makerie at terrain back in April (more about this in July’s newsletters!). Here she had teamed up with talented calligrapher Meredith Langer to teach a wonderful Watercolour Correspondence workshop which was packed with practical hints, tips, tools and techniques to help us create our own works of art. It was so much fun and Anna was a fantastic teacher. We couldn’t wait to find out more about her and how she’s doing what she loves. Hope you enjoy the interview. ~ Rachel

1. What’s your background?

I was raised in an Italian American family with a chef for a dad and a very serious baker for a mom. Throughout my life, my family owned restaurants, gourmet shops and a catering business. I studied Small Business Management in college because I always knew my goal was to run my own business. Somewhere along the way, I discovered my talent for crunching numbers. That’s how I landed in the finance world. I spent many years focusing on “success” and what was supporting me financially while pursuing other passions, and honing my skills and expertise in cooking, styling and event coordination.

Once I figured out what I really wanted, I started creating and volunteering my time; I put myself out there as much as possible. When I have an idea or a concept, I don’t think, “I wonder if anyone will like this.” Instead, I dare myself to do it. So over the past few years I’ve been exploring my creative side much more and taking many more risks in order to grow my business.

3. How do you find the time to do your day job at Urban Outfitters Inc. in Philadelphia with running your own business?

It can be extremely hard at times, especially on Monday mornings after a “work-end” full of events. Luckily, I have a very understanding and supportive husband and my friends and family are very accepting. I miss socializing, but my friends are so lovely that they often attend my events in order to spend time with me! How lucky am I?

From creative crafts to pickling vegetables Anna hosts all sorts of wonderful workshops

4. New Old Fashioned started as a passion project and it’s grown into a viable business. Was this always your intention and how have your goals and dreams changed?
The New Old Fashioned started as a dare to myself! I was starting to get really angsty. I had so many ideas and concepts in my head, but I couldn’t find a way to align them to form a business plan that made sense. I just decided to forget the labels and do what felt exciting. I started throwing workshops, catering and volunteering for photo styling jobs, etc. It seemed to grow organically and take shape from there.

Watercolour stationery – one of Anna’s many talents!

5. What are the toughest lessons you’ve learnt launching a new start-up?

You don’t know what you don’t know! Sounds simple, right? You are never going to be able to predict things on the horizon, you just have to be prepared as much as possible and be willing and able to recoup when the unexpected happens.

6. What can people expect from a New Old Fashioned workshop? And when are your next workshops?

My hope is that the students who attend my workshops, first and foremost, learn something new and have fun. I want them to feel the wonder of learning a new skill and feel confident about using their new-found tools and techniques once they’re back home. I engage my students in as many ways possible for the full experience and we love to eat and laugh! Recently I’ve been incredibly busy with private and corporate events, but I have a lots of fun workshops planned for the near future. Look out for some culinary workshops that will be open to the public in the Fall.

Made by Anna: delicious sweet treats to sell at market

7. What have been your biggest highlights in the last year or two?

It’s been incredible to see interest in artisan workshops in the event industry grow. I love that in the digital age, when we are bombarded by information via the internet and social media, etc. there’s a growing desire to get together for face to face workshops and gatherings. My participation in the Sweet Paul Makerie was a particular highlight. It was a full circle moment for me. I’ve been a fan of Sweet Paul for years and the magazine is a constant source of inspiration for me so to be involved in such an inspiring event that brought so many creative, like-minded people together meant the world!

Anna’s watercolour workshop at Sweet Paul Makerie, Philadelphia

8. As well as cooking, styling and coordinating events, you’re an amazing artist; when did you discover your passion for watercolour painting and how often do you do it?

I actually discovered watercolour one day at work. At URBN, we have a weekly “Brown Bag” class. It’s open to employees only and each class has a different focus. About five years ago, I attended a watercolour Christmas card class and it was a total game changer. I started making my own cards and my hobby took off from there. Last week, I taught my very own Brown Bag on DIY Designer popcorn making. It was extremely fun!

Anna’s DIY Designer Popcorn making workshop

9. Talk us through your dream day…

My kind of day involves waking up very early in the morning, jumping in my car with my husband, Tommy, and going for a road trip. It’s so lovely to live on the Eastern seaboard. We are within driving distance to so many amazing destinations. This road trip would also include any combination of a farmer’s market, flea market, antique shops, vintage cookbooks and, of course, great food.

10. Where do you go to dream, create or just be?

I go to the beach or the mountains. Here in Pennsylvania, we have the very best of both words… we are no more than two hours from both. My husband and like to spend as much time as possible in the Pocono Mountains and hope to have a little place of our own there someday.

11. It’s an exciting time for you; what’s next?

Well, as you know, this was a dare turned into a much bigger project, so it’s almost like starting from the middle. I would like to spend some time focusing on fine-tuning my business plan and branding. I think a big part of the future for The New Old Fashioned will be the workshop piece being added to amazing events. I’ve been getting a lot of requests from people who want to add a workshop element to an event or party they are organizing and I think that is a wonderful idea. How cool would it be to offer entertainment in the form of inspiration and education to guests at your next get-together?

Partnerning with Lindsey Buck of The Hive Studio to deliver calligraphy workshops in Philly

12. What’s your ultimate dream?

This is funny because I used to tell everyone that my dream would be to work for a lifestyle brand like Ina Garten , Martha Stewart or (our favourite ) Sweet Paul, but I think my secret dream, in the deepest part of my heart, is to create a lifestyle brand centred around home, cooking and crafting. I would never want to be anyone else, but I’d like to build something similar around my own loves and passions.

Anna’s snapshot

Best light-bulb moment: Realising that I didn’t need to be working full time in the event industry to start creating; I could create and produce my own work and start building a portfolio on my own. I think people who love to plan events should just start planning events. Grassroots style… throw a party, sell tickets on Eventbrite and take great photos. True passion and talent are contagious and people will notice.

Favourite way to relax: Believe it or not…cooking and baking. As long as my husband loads the dishwasher for me!

Next creative challenge: Defining my company brand identity. It’s hard because I want it to encompass so many different things. I guess I should probably just keep it as simple as possible!

Colour you most love right now: Turquoise is my very favourite, but I always love a pale peach, too.

Quote you live by: Always treat others as you’d like to be treated.

Wish for the world: That we don’t let social media destroy our connection with one another.

To find out more about Anna, visit her website, or connect with her on Facebook or Pinterest.

July’s happy list is here!

Posted on 2015-07-01 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

What’s is making you happy this month? What is making your heart sing? What are you most grateful for?

Write it all down on July’s happy list! Big things, small things – it really doesn’t matter! All that matters is that everything on your list makes you smile and feel thankful.

On my happy list this month… fun, freedom and new experiences! It was so much fun chartering a yacht from Brighton Marina and spending some quality time with the Do What You Love team ~ Rachel

Download July’s happy list here and start celebrating your happiness today!

Do What You Love – Update from HQ – June 2015

Posted on 2015-06-30 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

In our line of work, as a company where everyone works remotely, we don’t often get a chance to spend that much time – in person – with our team or our collaborators. However June provided us with an opportunity to get together and enjoy a fun couple of days in the sunshine. It was a great reminder of the energy people bring to a community when their passions and values align.

Our ‘Annual Idea Generation Away Days’ saw us bring our small (and perfectly formed!) HQ team together, from Brighton, Sheffield and Spain. We planned the two days very carefully to make sure they were as special and relaxed as possible, while also being useful and productive.

We began day one by celebrating everyone’s hard work over the past 12 months, and sharing our vision and business plan for the next few years. Then we went on to discuss ideas for some exciting new resources that we are currently developing (which are all hush-hush for the time being!) and in true DWYL team fashion everyone’s positivity and ideas lifted our thoughts off the paper (and computer screen!) and transformed them into real, workable concepts.

The afternoon was packed with brainstorming new ideas for even more ways we can help people to do what they love. One of the highlights was sharing news about ‘Reading Week’, where later in the summer, everyone in the team will switch off their email and do in-depth research and thinking on a particular topic, without distraction. We gave each team member has a specific brief to work on during this time – something we know they relate to and feel passionately about. Vickie was especially pleased as hers, as it included a trip to Berlin at the end of July! Stay tuned for an update on that one!

And on the second day we took the team to a place where Beth and I always do our best thinking… the open seas! A few hours on a yacht, soaking up the glorious sunshine, saw us generate tons more great ideas, and share how we all plan to do more of what we love over the coming months. All in all it was a fantastic couple of days.

Our team: (From left to right) Rachel, Rose, Me, Beth, Louise and Vickie

There is, of course, lots more exciting news to report this month too…

1. The DWYL e-course, started on June 15 and once again we’re delighted to be joined by participants from all over the world. The honesty and courage being shown in class to date has been remarkable and we are watching on with interest as everyone’s unique journey unfolds. If you are wondering about the true power of the course, well it doesn’t come much bigger than a marriage proposal… and just wait until you find out how he popped the question!

2. The Business Soul Sessions is coming to an end, and we have loved witnessing all the lightbulb moments in the classroom. We can’t wait to see the participating entrepreneurs use their new-found knowledge and skills to make positive changes within their businesses to create greater impact, explosive growth and serious profits they can be proud of.

3. The Little Beach Hut of Dreams has opened its doors again to the ‘Dreamers in Residence’. We look forward to sharing some of their blog posts shortly. UPDATE: The Little Beach Hut of Dreams has been sold as we no longer live in Brighton and only residents are permitted to own beach huts there. This post has been archived for reference but we are no longer accepting applications for Dreamer-in-Residence. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our Dreamers-in-Residence for being part of our adventure, and to Towergate Insurance for awarding The Little Beach Hut of Dreams runner up position in Beach Hut of the Year 2015. She was very proud!

4. Our blog continues to be galvanised by our guest bloggers who are all leading all experts in their field. They include: Alastair Humphreys, Ben Keene, Frances Booth, Louise Armstrong and Lara Tabatznik. One of my favourites this month was Alastair’s post on how his book ‘Microadventures’ became a bestseller on Amazon – you can read it here. Of course what he doesn’t say in his post is that his book is also a brilliant read!

An update on our collaborations

Make Art That Sells (MATS):

1. There is only one place to start… MATS: The Global Art Gathering was just the most amazing event! At the gorgeous Brighton Dome on June 12 we played host to creative people from all across the world in what was an extraordinary day of career development, inspiration and motivation. It promised to be fun-filled and action-packed, with all the energy, passion and magic you’d expect from Make Art That Sells, and in the end it was all that and more! It surpassed all of our expectations and left all of Brighton buzzing. All the months of hard work were worth it when we saw the radiant smiles, and felt the incredible energy, of everyone in the room. The artists had gathered from across the globe with one thing in common – a love and passion for art and a commitment to making it their career.

Besides our partner Lilla Rogers, the team was joined by some very special guests including Kelly Rae Roberts, Rachael Taylor and Lilla’s agents, Susan McCabe and Joanne Hus who were outrageously generous with their knowledge, experience and advice.

For me it was great to witness 60-70 people meet for the first time in person after discussing art for the best part of two years online within our classrooms. One of them described the day as feeling like a first date: exciting and nervewracking at the same time and potentially, the start of something amazing!

From left to right: Beth, Lilla and Kelly Rae

For us the most important thing of all was that everyone left feeling inspired, invigorated and motivated to forge ahead in their career in art. We look forward to supporting them in doing that.

2. MATS: Creating Collections for Home Decor started last Monday. It has been hugely in demand since we announced its launch a few months ago. Lilla and Beth have teamed up with Top Art Director Margo Tantau (VP of Creative for MidwestCBK) to create it. Margo says: “This course is teaching something desperately needed in the industry. It’s a gamechanger.”

3. Registration for the 2015 Global Talent Search is now open! Don’t miss out on what could be one of the biggest and best opportunities for your career… you can register here. We are proud to be producing this global online event again this year, and are blown away by the calibre of the judges and prizes on offer. Find out more here.

4. MATS: Assignment Bootcamp finished with the publishing of the June gallery. I can honestly say that I’ll miss the buzz in the Bootcamp Community but I know there will only be a short interlude before attention turns to this year’s Global Talent Search.

5. The Make Art That Sells website continues to turn heads! It’s bursting with free resources, industry insight and motivational videos to help the artists among you make leaps forward with your career. Be sure to check it out.

Make It In Design (MIID)

Rachael Taylor – speaking at three industry events: already this summer Rachael Taylor and the Make it in Design team have hit the road – and the sky – to attend a number of industry events. Recently Rachael spoke at The Make Art That Sells Global Gathering and the New Designers trade show in London, and she’ll also be speaking at Printsource New York in August 2015. Read more on the MIID blog.

Registration opens for Summer School: back by popular demand Summer School returns to bring fun, creativity and inspiration to homes around the world this July. There are three tracks Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced and you can sign up for one or more options to use this opportunity to stretch yourself, connect with other designers, experience working to a brief, grow your portfolio and even get your work published! Summer School starts on July 6 and finishes on July 31. Visit the Summer School page to discover what’s in store, prizes on offer and free resources at your fingertips.

The Ultimate Portfolio Builder course is well underway. We have welcomed students from around the world including the USA, Dubai, Italy, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Slovenia, China, Bulgaria, Austria, Netherlands, UK and more. The course’s private Facebook group is alive with creativity, buzzing with excitement and brimming with artwork inspired by different cultures. We’ll soon be opening up registration for our next round of courses starting September 21, so be sure to sign up and prepare to launch your career and design work to dizzy heights.

Thought of the month…

I am currently reading ‘An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth‘ by Chris Hadfield and I thought I’d share a few passages, which I’m sure we can all relate to.

“Square astronaut, round hole. It’s the story of my life, really: trying to figure out how to get where I want to go when just getting out the door seems impossible. On paper, my career trajectory looks preordained: engineer, fighter pilot, test pilot, astronaut. But that’s not how it really was. There were hairpin curves and dead ends all the way along. I wasn’t destined to be an astronaut. I had to turn myself in to one…”

As a 9-year-old after watching Neil Armstrong land on the moon…

“…I was old enough to understand that getting ready wasn’t simply a matter of playing ‘space mission’ with my brothers in our bunk beds, underneath a big National Geographic poster of the moon. But there was no program I could enroll in, no manual I could read, no one even to ask. There was only one option, I decided. I had to imagine what an astronaut might do if he were 9 years old, then do exactly the same thing. I could get started immediately. Would an astronaut eat his vegetables or have potato chips instead? Sleep in late or get up early to read a book?”

I think Chris’s book is beautifully honest and reminds me that are very few things in this world that we cannot achieve if we want to.

Have you let the seemingly impossible stand in your way?

Until next time,

Mr. K

You are the master of your own destiny

Posted on 2015-06-29 at 9:31 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Today’s post is written by our Senior Editor, Rachel Kempton.

My big dream, growing up, was to be a magazine journalist. When I was eight-years-old I had an article published in a national newspaper and that was it. I just knew that was what I wanted to do. But as I got older, a combination of bad careers advice and self-doubt led me down a different path and for years my dream was just that: a dream.

(more…)

Some inspiration for dreamers

Posted on 2015-06-26 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

What are you dreaming about today?

Download a high res version to print here.

Passion + talent + attention to detail = a Global Art Gathering in Brighton

Posted on 2015-06-23 at 11:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

The Global Art Gathering 2015 is behind us, but the magic of the event lingers on. Rose Radtke takes a look back on why the event was special for her…

Usually, when I picture Brighton, I picture home. The familiarity of my little flat, a pebble beach remaining unchanged as the seasons come and go, the route I take to work and the shops and cafes I like to mooch around at the weekend. But now I look back on one week in June 2015, and I see Brighton differently. I see it through the eyes of a group of people who arrived in a sunny, quirky seaside town on the south coast of England, eagerly anticipating exploring a new place and meeting long-distance friends in person for the first time.

This group of people are special. Led by Lilla and her lovely team (including husband Andy, son Jacob and daughter Natasha), they radiated positivity from the moment they set foot on British soil. They saw Brighton sparkling in the sunlight, and sought out treasure in the little shops that line the North Laines. While we obsessed over whether the weather was on the turn, they obsessed over our British accents and reveled in our polite, gentle culture.

A whole week was festooned with new people, group shopping trips and VIP events, but the main Global Art Gathering event, held at the Brighton Dome, was undoubtedly where the real magic happened. With artists from the UK meeting those from as far afield as Australia and New Zealand in person for the very first time, you could feel it in the air from the moment we opened the doors.

As I watched so many women (and one man!) join forces, I was struck by how different this event was to any conference I’d been to before. Instead of suits people wore colour and big smiles, and instead of business cards they exchanged compliments. I suddenly understood the power of this community that exists in the most part online, but sets a room alight when they come together. Even though I’m not an artist, that week I felt like one. And seeing those women living their passion made me more determined than ever to seek out my own.

Some really hard work went in to making this event happen. That much you could tell from the careful details on each table, the surprise envelopes hidden under each chair and the stage set up as a cosy living room. The attention to detail combined with the talented speakers and the passion of the crowd made the event so worthwhile for all those who’d travelled from far and wide.

I’m sure the Global Art Gathering 2015 will stick in my mind for many years to come. And I hope I’ll continue to draw on the magic I became a part of. Next time I’m feeling a little deflated I’ll cast my mind back to that special day and remember that I have passion, talent and thoughtfulness somewhere deep inside me.

Where does your mind take you when you need a lift? Is there a person, or a tribe, that continues to inspire you even when you’re not together?

All images by Debbie Joliff

What would you do with a day away?

Posted on 2015-06-23 at 8:56 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Last week we had our annual ‘away day’ at Do What You Love. It was actually two days – a strategy meeting on Wednesday, and a day on a yacht on Thursday! We chartered the boat to give us a way to get a complete change of scenery, open our minds and think differently. And it worked!

We were brainstorming ideas for my book (more on that in the coming weeks), and it was amazing how the gentle lapping waves helped us forget about to-do lists and tune into some big deep questions.

It was also good to spend some fun time with our lovely team, on a gloriously sunny day, to hear more about their individual dreams and plans, and get to know them better.

We are only a small team, but moments like this are important.

Even if you work on your own (or for someone else), can you give yourself the gift of an away day? If so, here are some tips to make it special:

Put it in your diary and guard that time carefully. No adding little meetings, or cutting it short for urgent business. Protect it, and make it happen.
Go somewhere you don’t normally spend time, or use an interesting mode of transport to get there. Try being on the move as you think – perhaps walking, hiking, cycling, or sailing.
Clear away all distractions (no email, no phones, no small people – just for a few hours!)
Plan one specific thing to think about, and ask yourself a handful of probing questions
Let your mind wander, and see what emerges
Make notes about your ideas, as they may disappear as easily as they arrive

This week we challenge you to find time for your own awayday. We’d love to know what you thought about, and what came out of it – please share with us on Facebook or Twitter!

Have a lovely week

Beth and team

[Tweet “What would you do with a day away? “]

Everything is possible

Posted on 2015-06-22 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Remember those dreams you had when you were a kid? As children we could lose hours pretending we were explorers, zoo keepers, sports champions, movie stars or characters from our favourite storybooks. Heroes or villains, astronauts or aliens, pirates or deep sea divers – no adventure – real or fantastic – seemed impossible. The only limit was our imagination.

Imagination is a powerful thing. It makes it possible to experience a whole world inside the mind. It enables us to look at any situation from a different point of view, and to mentally explore the past and the future. It’s the key to achieving our goals and making our dreams a reality.

Do you still have a wild imagination? What are your big dreams? Do you believe they are possible? What are you doing towards making them happen?

How my book became an Amazon best seller

Posted on 2015-06-16 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

This is a guest post by adventurer, author and motivational speaker Alastair Humphreys. Find out more about Alastair here.

The day you finish writing your book is not the day your book is finished. Nor is it the day the book is published and you gaze with a mixture of relief, disbelief, pride and trepidation on the book in your hand. Your book! At last!

Now you need to sell your book. This requires at least as much work, and is almost as important, as crafting your beautiful manuscript was in the first place.

My book Microadventures, reached #12 on the chart for all books sold on Amazon UK. To put this in context, my long-time most popular book, Moods of Future Joys, is currently sitting at 33,365 in the book rankings!

Here are a few things to consider that will help you boost your sales on Amazon.

1. How does your book, and how do you, the author, look on the site?

How good is your Amazon author page? Get your photo, bio and Twitter feed all up to date on there.

How good is the book page itself? Can you ‘Look Inside’ the book? Are there plenty of images available (where appropriate)? Are there enough? Is the description of the book as good as it could be? Look at the books of your competitors to see how you match up.

If you have several versions of the same book available (paperback and Kindle, for example), get them consolidated onto one page. Fix any inconsistencies. Having random rubbish appear when people search for you and your books damages your brand equity. Yes I did just write “brand equity”!

2. Make sure the book is very “discoverable”

People search for books in two way, so you need to focus on both things. These are:

Search: What keywords are people going to type in to find your book? Amazon explains it well: “Please include any words customers would use to search for your product on search engines that aren’t already in your item title attributes – brand name, model name, target audience, product description, size, size unit of measurement or colour name.” You can get idea of the stuff that people search for by typing in a word to the Amazon search box. Amazon then drops down lots of suggestions. Nab these. Then write the word followed by ‘a’ to get the popular second words beginning with ‘a’. Then do it for ‘b’ and so on… (Thanks, Jo, for this tip!)

Dual Noding: Also known as “finding your book in more than one area”. Look at the list of topics on the left of the page here. Could your book fit into more than one category? Where might the customer reasonably search for your book? There are a bazillion sub-categories to all of these things too. You obviously want to be in the right category. But bear in mind that if you can become a best-seller in a tiny, random category then you can more or less claim your book to be best-selling without feeling too much of a fraud. Clearly every book ever written claims to be best-selling so I wouldn’t hold too much in store from this dubious honour!

See what random categories my book has ended up in:

3. Casting the net wide

I should have (but haven’t) tried to get the book on Audible.

4. Reviews

If you are an Amazon customer yourself you will know how you respond to items that have lots or not many reviews. Which do you prefer? My personal preference is for books that have lots of reviews, but not when the reviews have blatantly all just been written by the authors friends with an instant 5-star rating.

When Microadventures came out I worked really hard to get people to review the book. I asked – a lot – on social media. I probably annoyed people by doing it too much. I didn’t ask them to write a good review, I asked for an honest review. I didn’t just want 50 identical 5-star reviews from my friends. I believed that the book was good and that the reviews would genuinely be good. So I was willing to accept a few bad ones too, if necessary. Like this 1-star review I got.

5. Rally your tribe

Amazon takes note of spikes of sales: sudden sharp bursts of activity are more likely to get your book zooming up the charts than a steady trickle of sales. You need to rally your tribe – your friends, family, blog readers, social media followers and beg, plead, order them to buy your book on one certain date. Don’t do this lightly – it’s quite annoying for them. But people are willing to tolerate you hassling them like this if you’ll built up a rapport and a store of goodwill. Here’s how I did it for Microadventures. I went so far as to offer one of my other books for free as an incentive.

I am certainly not an expert about any of this stuff, so I would welcome any thoughts and suggestions you might have.

Good luck!

Why creativity is so important (and how to unleash yours) + last chance to join the DWYL e-course – starts today!

Posted on 2015-06-15 at 8:13 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

A very pregnant me hosting a discussion on passion, connection and community with Lilla Rogers and Kelly Rae Roberts

Wow, what a week. Here at DWYL HQ we are recovering from an incredible few days of being ‘lovebombed’ by creative women from across the world. We hosted our first live event since the original Do What You Love retreat, and it was such an uplifting, energising experience.

‘Make Art That Sells: The Global Art Gathering’ brought together creative women (and one creative man!) from around the world – as far away as Australia, New Zealand, the US and right across Europe – to our city of Brighton to learn how to make art that is more commercially viable whilst staying true to themselves. It was a live version of the wildly popular ‘Make Art That Sells’ online courses we produce for top art agent Lilla Rogers, and was special in many ways.

Firstly, it brought together some of my favourite women, a number of whom are business partners and all of whom are dear friends, including Lilla, Kelly Rae Roberts, Rachael Taylor, Margo Tantau and more. It was life-affirming to spend so much time, and have so many rich conversations with them all.

Secondly, it made me so proud of our awesome team, who worked so well together to make it a really magical experience.

And last but not least, it became the catalyst for many creative journeys that are only just unfolding, as it brought together a new community of creatives who bonded over shared dreams and values, laughter and generosity of spirit.

Although the majority of our work is delivered online, and that very valuable communities are built there, it is impossible to deny the power of bringing together like-minded people to discuss, share and learn. Friendships blossom, business ideas burst into life and people really start to glow. It’s as if they suddenly got permission to be creative, to want to make a career from that, and to be proud of what they do. And why not? Creativity is what makes the world interesting, ever-changing, beautiful and unexpected.

How about you? Are you being as creative as you could in your life? We are all on a creative journey. For each of us, that journey probably began earlier than we realise, and runs deeper than we know. Along the way, we discover new mediums of expression, and new parts of ourselves.

Creativity isn’t just about painting, or writing, or taking lovely photographs. It’s about the way that you interpret the world, how you think, and what you do with that information. Discovering and pursuing what you want to do and be and feel in your life is one of the greatest creative adventures you could ever undertake.

If you are under the impression that there are two types of people, ‘creative’ and ‘not creative’, I can assure you that is a myth. We all have creative capacities, but some people use them more than others. At different times, different sides of our brain are dominant; but they’re interconnected, and we use both sides at any one time. It is possible to develop our creative capacities over time – sometimes this happens through need, and sometimes through desire – and with practice, we may become more in tune with our creativity. Don’t be fooled into thinking creativity is something that has to be learned. It doesn’t. It is in you already. All you need to do is to feed your creative soul.

To me, creativity is all about ideation and the creation of something that did not exist in a particular form before you made it that way. Creativity is proactive – it is about making things, and making things happen.

Creativity is exciting – it is about making decisions which are not necessarily the same decisions others would make, and which may invite the unknown. Creativity is imagination – it is about beauty, possibility, and wonder.

How do you unleash that creativity? Here are a few ideas which you can get started on straight away:

Give yourself permission to spend time bring creative, and silence the voice that tells you it’s a waste of time
Surround yourself with people who also value creativity – sign up for a workshop, join an online forum, get involved in a local group
Tackle the normal, routine parts of your day from a creative perspective. Make your to-do list beautiful, do a photo walk on your way to work and post it on Instagram, cook a delicious meal and consider the colours on the plate, write a letter to an old friend… anything goes.

Discovering a need for more creativity, and choosing to pursue that, is one of the most frequent outcomes of our flagship e-course ‘Do What You Love’ (which starts TODAY). If you feel that the time is right to explore your own creativity and general life direction further, why not join us? This is the LAST TIME this course will run this year, as I am heading off on maternity leave soon, and have several creative projects of my own in the pipeline for that treasured time off (not to mention welcoming a new baby into the world in a few weeks’ time!).

This week we challenge you to be more creative in your everyday routine. Share your ideas on Facebook or Twitter, and don’t be shy about it!

Have a great week

Beth