Only 10 sleeps until the papery mischief begins. Join us for a very beautiful, very inspiring creative course which will light you up in unexpected ways. PaperLove – the world’s first online course about paper – starts on November 3. Book your spot now.
We’re very excited to bring you this interview with Professor Karen Pine, co-founder of Do Something Different. Karen is a renowned researcher in Developmental Psychology, a popular women’s writer, and a sought-after speaker and media contributor. And just like us at Do What You Love, she believes in a life without limits. Karen steps out of her comfort zone and tries something new on a daily basis. She says: “Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting to get a different result. Many people are keen to improve their lives and the message is simple: if you want to get something different you have to do something different…”
Karen doing a radio interview
September and October have been months of preparation and industrious living. We have all had our noses to the grindstone making sure that all our work behind the scenes translates to hugely enjoyable and thought provoking experiences for our participants and readers.
The Do-What You Love e-course is entering its second week and the energy in the classroom has been phenomenal but even this has had to play second fiddle to the honesty that has been demonstrated. It is very evident that so many of us have complex lives and we constantly find we contradict ourselves when in deliberating what we truly want. What we are starting to discover is that if we allow ourselves the time and opportunity to reflect and consider, then some quite obvious solutions begin to present themselves.
We have a long way to go yet but I look forward to sharing some very powerful stories with you in the near future (if they will let me of course).
Our Making Time series has been running throughout September, with almost 2000 people joining our 31-day experiment in making time for the things we love. We hope it provided that little prompt everyday to ensure you find that time and space for yourself. If you missed it you can sign up here (start anytime) to get an inspiring email into your inbox every day for 31 days. It’s completely free and a great way to start the day – why not join us?
And there’s lots more exciting news to report…
1. The Little Beach Hut of Dreams has its first two ‘dreamers in residence’ booked in for later this month. We will be sharing Postcards from the Beach Hut on the blog when their residencies are complete. (Sign up here for our newsletter if you aren’t already on the list to hear when applications open again for the Spring 2015 residency opportunities)
2. In order to make DWYL more accessible and to inspire even more people we’re making some cool changes to our website over the coming months. We can’t wait to get your thoughts – stay tuned for that!
3. I informed you last month that Beth has been locked away hard at work creating the content of an amazing new business e-course. She is testing out on a small focus group of amazing people right now, and will be releasing the full version in early 2015. It will blow your socks off!
It has been a very personal and contemplative process, and in it we give away much of our business model and DNA. Why? Well the simple answer is because it can help you change your life and that is what we are all about. It has certainly changed how we view the world. We cannot wait to share it with you soon.
An update on collaborations
Make Art That Sells (MATS): The Global Talent Search 2014 winners were announced and I look forward to observing how this unique opportunity changes their lives. MATS Parts A + B commenced yesterday and the excitement was palatable. Over 500 people from over 70 countries will be sharing their work, supporting one another and soaking up all the amazing info Lilla has to offer.
Make It In Design: New recruit Angela Kiely has been settling into her role as Make It In Design Manager, and is working on exciting plans for 2015. Our immediate attention is on preparing all the classrooms for the start of class on Monday (Module 1 and Module 2). I have recently been editing all the brand NEW videos in Module 2 and the insider info provided by Rachael is just amazing.
The FREE Make It In Design Summer School – for beginners, intermediate and advanced artists has been a hub of amazing energy over the summer. The work produced by thousands of participating designers has been fantastic. I am constantly amazed at the quality of work that is created. A look back from the Summer School will be on its way soon.
Bloom True: Things are hotting up creatively around here in October, Bloom True started on October 13. This radically inspiring course will helps you explore your own brave, intuitive self through painting, led by the brilliant Flora Bowley.
PaperLove: Our collaborator Rachel Hazell has been soaking up island inspiration in Scotland, preparing some bonus Christmas features for the upcoming PaperLove e-course (starts November 3), which means there will be five season-specific projects to fire you up for any festivities. We love Christmas. We love paper. We love PaperLove! (PS we have teamed up with Rachel to bring you a free mini-course ‘Seven Days of PaperLove’ – sign up here for free creative inspiration into your inbox every day)
Our thought for the month: Make time for what really matters
As you are aware our free ‘making time’ resource has been running throughout the month. Even though we have produced it we have found the daily prompts hugely beneficial in what has been a very hectic month. We are currently moving house, gearing up for several of our courses to commence and preparing our daughter to start nursery. It would have been very easy to get enveloped by everything that is going on around us. In fact at times we do. But we have found time each and every day to do something for ourselves.
There will always be hectic and busy times, but we are responsible for how we prioritise what we do. It is vitally important to make time for you, what is important to you and your loved ones. It doesn’t have to be hours on end. A well spent 10-15 minutes can go along way to satisfying the soul. Otherwise what is the point?
If you would like to benefit from our daily prompts please sign up for Making Time. It is completely FREE so you have nothing to lose.
Mr K
Are you in your twenties? Do you dream of starting your own business? Find out why 20-somethings make the most successful entrepreneurs here.
Today we bring you an interview with Ben and Billie Mitchell, a talented couple who moved to France to live a more creative life and start their own business.
Ben is a composer for film and TV, a producer and a musical artist in his own right. During his 20-year career he has recorded over 250 singles and 18 albums from his CanCan studio. He’s also composed ad soundtracks for some of the world’s biggest brands including Adidas, Nike, Nokia, Samsung, BMW, Bacardi and Swatch. His gorgeous wife Billie has sung with legends like McCartney, Sting, Prince, Lionel Richie, Beverley Knight and Annie Lennox and is the female lead vocalist with popular 80s band, Heaven 17. She’s a writer and a soloist and she still performs regularly in France and the UK.
1. How are you leading a life ‘doing what you love’?
We’re living in rural France in our dream house. We’ve been lovingly restoring it for the past three years and running it as a hip B&B and self-catering holiday venue as well as a centre for group events, retreats, courses, weddings and parties.
Billie & Ben in the grounds of La Grande Maison
2. When did you decide to live the French dream – how did it all come about?
Originally, moving to France was part of our 10-year plan. We had made a short list of requirements for our dream property which included a river, a ballroom for concerts and events, room for a large recording studio, 10 bedrooms, at least three acres of land and outbuildings for gites. One day, out of the blue when we were online, we came across a house which had everything on our list. We took a winter break in Saumur and decided to have a look at the house while we were there as part of our research. It was love at first sight. From the moment we walked through the gates our lives changed. Our 10-year plan went out of the window and within six months we’d bought the house and moved to France.
La Grande Maison
This fantastic commercial prompts some important questions, not least “What can you do to witness more happiness today?”
[youtube width=”550″ height=”445″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWA2GbcnJU[/youtube]
David Price, OBE, is a learning futurist who writes, talks and advises on some of the biggest challenges facing business, education and society. He is passionate about finding innovative ways to engage people and he has has given keynote presentations all over the world. David has created many popular teaching resources, including a book called OPEN: How we’ll work, live and learn in the future, which was published in October last year. We’re delighted to chat to him and find out more about his inspirational work…
David Price, OBE
1. How are you leading a life ‘doing what you love’?
I write books, give talks, and work with organisations who want to change what they do. They range from students, teachers, college principals to CEOs of private and public sector organisations. I’m inspired by their passion and desire to improve. I’ve worked for myself for the past 14 years, and I vowed, when I started, to only work with people I personally liked. Thus far, I’ve stuck to it, and never had to walk off a job yet.
More recently, with the publication of OPEN, I’ve been contacted by people who I’ll probably never meet, who want to tell me how the book has changed how they think about the future, and how they’re changing their organisations as a result of reading it. That alone, is reason enough to love what I do.
2. What’s your background? What did you do before this?
My first job was in the civil service – I was terrible. So, I quit to become a professional musician, though I had no idea how I was going to do that. After three months, I was making a living (albeit an extremely modest one) and continued to do so for 15 years. Then I went to college, and that, in turn, led to a lifelong involvement in learning, in pretty much all its forms.
I’m proud to be a Senior Associate at the Innovation Unit, and co-founder of We Do Things Differently. Being intellectually stretched every day is about as good as it gets – especially is you can have a laugh while you’re doing it.
3. What inspired you to write Open: How we’ll work, live and learn in the future? How did it come about?
I spent a lot of time trying to understand the world my two sons were moving into through their eyes. Most parents have no idea how different the world of work now looks – how globalisation, disintermediation and automation are combining to devastate the concept of ‘the job’ – by 2020, half of all jobs will be freelance. What are we doing to re-think education, training and how we maintain purpose in our families and communities?
Conversely, outside our workplaces and formal learning spaces, we’re sharing everything we know, behaving and acting collaboratively in order to do good things. Yet all we hear from mainstream media sources on social media and the internet generally, are either tales of treachery, or an obsession with celebrity. I wanted to write the book as both a wake-up and a source of advice for leaders, learners and parents.
4. What’s the book about and why should people read it?
OPEN argues that the are fundamental shifts happening in the way we now work, and in the way we live our lives, as a result of how we now view knowledge. The so-called ‘knowledge revolution’was supposed to make intellectual ‘property’ the holy grail, the means to make profits. Instead, digital technologies have democratised learning, so we now give knowledge away to gain social capital. We now learn from each other in ways that were unimaginable even 10 years ago. Learning from each other is also changing our values: we don’t trust institutions anymore, but we trust each other (think of how the sharing economy could not function without trust). It’s a complex, uncertain, but tremendously exciting future. People should read it so they can best prepare for the future that doesn’t get talked about much – how we’re radically changing the ways we learn.
5. What career advice would you give young people today?
This is the hard part. The value of getting a degree is in sharp decline, because it isn’t the entry to a career that it used to be, and there are so many cheaper ways to access the knowledge that a degree offers. It’s going to be a fragmented, freelance future – so it’s never too soon to start putting a portfolio together. Your knowledge won’t be as valued as much as your network. Don’t allow yourself or others to judge your worth by the money you earn – instead, concentrate on what fulfils you and gives purpose to you and others.
6. What five tips can you give to help prepare us for the future and the shift in societal, personal and technological perspectives?
a) Don’t look at the world through your own eyes – look at it from your kids’ perspective. All the things that anyone over 40 takes for granted – the democratic process, the environment, employment to name just three – look very different when you’re 15.
b) Improve your digital literacy – and that of your kids. We’re still working out how to distinguish truth from fiction, love from ‘likes’ and fact from opinion. But this hyper-connected world isn’t going away, so learn from others how to deal with it.
c) Seek engagement, not achievement. Find a job that you really care about; if you’re a boss, pay attention to employees being engaged before you pay them bonuses; if you’re a teacher, involve your students in what they want/need to learn. Funny thing about engagement – success usually comes with it.
d) Expect transparency – keeping secrets isn’t possible anymore
e) Follow the geeks and the mavericks, the hackers and the makers – they’ll inherit the earth.
7. What’s the key to living happily in our ever-changing world?
I’ll tell you as soon as I’ve worked it out…
8. Tell us about your company, We do things differently…
My company is actually Educational Arts – at least for my work with people who obsess about learning. We Do Thing Differently is a newly formed collective, initiated by my friend and colleague Mark Stevenson, formed to work with organisations that recognise the need to be more innovative. Both areas of work recognise emotions and values as much as intellect and performance.
9. What’s next for you? What does the future hold?
I haven’t the faintest idea, but I hope it involves playing a bit more golf! I used to teach a thing called ‘career development’ and then I realised – with a CV like mine – that I was a complete hypocrite. I have never had a career plan, so I’ve had to be comfortable with uncertainty. Besides, that’s what’s so exciting. I haven’t done a day’s ‘work’ since I worked for myself!
10. What do you think is the key to following and fulfilling a passion and ultimately ‘doing what you love’?
There was a moment in my life where I realised I was chasing jobs for the status and the salary. Once I saw the smokescreen those two impostors create, I was fine. You can’t do what you love because you think someone will respect or value you more – but if you respect and value yourself more, you’re half way there.
A proud moment: David receiving his OBE for services to education in 2009
Happiest place: Byron Bay, NSW, Australia
Biggest passion in life: My wife and kids, obviously.
Best bit of advice you have ever received: “Nothing can be taught”– Sri Aurobindo
Most inspiring book you’ve read: Stephen Sondheim’s Collected Lyrics (with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes) – spread over two volumes, such is his genius.
Best light-bulb moment: Understanding that less really IS more!
Anything is possible… what’s your wish? To hit a golf ball like Rory McIlroy, just once
Quote you live by: “You know, we’re not curing cancer here” (unless I’m addressing oncologists…)
Buy David’s book OPEN: How we’ll work, live and learn in the future here.
“If you can dream it, you can do it” – Walt Disney (Co-Founder, Walt Disney Productions)
This month’s theme is ‘Love Enterprise’. I thought it would be interesting to give you a little insight to the birth and subsequent growth of our company.
Just over four years ago I was sat at home listening to Beth tell me that she had made a rather spontaneous decision to book a trip to San Jose in California. She was off to ‘An Artful Journey Retreat’ to take a class from two artists named Kelly Rae Roberts and Mati Rose McDonough. She’d been reading Kelly Rae Roberts’ book ‘Taking Flight‘, and decided that she wanted to meet her. As always I told her to go for it. Sometimes we just have to spend some money and treat ourselves.
Remember when you were a kid and thought you could do anything? Well you still can!
Here are our 5 top tips for building a business and creating more passion, more profit and a positive impact in the world…
1. Do what you love. Choose a product or idea that you’re interested in and passionate about. Not sure what you love or if it’s worth pursuing? Enrol on our 5-week Do What You Love e-course, which begins on October 13. It promises to open up a whole new world for you.
2. Dare to be different… Try something no one’s ever done; create a new product; or shake up an existing market by improving a service or delivery model. Think outside the box!
3. Do your research. Make the most of free online resources to help, support, inspire and motivate you.
4. Get a mentor. Team up with a successful entrepreneur or business leader. This person can help build your confidence and help you understand the risks and challenges of business while listening to your ideas, offering advice and even helping you find investors for your business.
5. Organise yourself. Running a business while studying, working another job or taking care of a family can be a challenge. Know what is required of you in your separate roles and use an online time/project management system to plan your time. Keeping your affairs in order from the start will prevent you getting in a muddle later.
Don’t be afraid to step back once in a while and take time out. Do something that you enjoy to relax and remind yourself that you’re not competing against anyone but yourself. Do whatever you can do today, and be proud of yourself and your achievements.
What did you dream about doing when you were little? What’s your business idea? What steps can you take to make it a reality?