Did you know that the first Right-Brain Business Plan was born during Art Every Day Month in November 2007? Yep, right there on my kitchen table! I had no idea this seed of an idea would turn into the what it has today. So you can bet I believe in the power of this creative challenge!

I’ve been participating in my pal Leah Piken Kolidas’ annual challenge since 2007 and highly recommend it for anyone wanting some structure and community around flexing your creativity muscles. It’s a great way to experiment, try new things, see what tickles your fancy. I love the reminder that it’s okay to mess things up and not be perfect. All fabulous things for right-brain entrepreneurs to pratice!

Leah has an Art Every Day Month Survival Guide for anyone needing a little encouragement and extra support throughout November.

Hope you’ll join in the fun! I’ll be Instragramming my itty bitty sketches every day.

Have you ever wanted to pick the brain of a seasoned entrepreneur? One that has been successful for decades in multiple retail channels?

Watch this replay of my Livestream interview with Levenger CEO Steve Leveen about how he grew his company over the past 25 years, his productivity tips, and his advice for entrepreneurs. We also get into traditional tools vs. digital, leveraging mentors, taking risks, and conscious capitalism.

It’s rare that we get this type of up-close-and-personal interaction with an inspiring CEO. I learned so much from his wisdom and I know you will, too.

Plus, you get inside peeks into how both Steve and I use our Circa notebooks, a view of Steve’s bookshelf, and toward the very end Steve gives the best (hilarious and insightful) 1-line summary of the biography on Steve Jobs.

You can access the chat log here.

Being a huge fan of Levenger it was truly an honor to connect with Steve this afternoon. It’s also been my privilege and pleasure to be one of the 4 Circa Thought Leaders with the Right-Brain Business Plan Circa Notebook.

Have you been wanting to make your own tangible or info product? Come join my Right-Brain Product Development Playground on Sunday, November 11th either in-person at the gorgeous Teahouse Studio in Berkeley, CA or remotely via simulcast. I’ll share my right-brain tools and approaches for helping you package your ideas and gifts into products that your perfect peeps will love.

Today The Right-Brain Business Plan is featured on Levenger founder Steve Leveen’s blog.

Steve shares, “Don’t tell my finance group, but I no longer feel quite so deficient for not taking accounting courses when Lori and I became entrepreneurs. I have Jennifer Lee to thank.”

Love it!

I chat with Levenger about creativity and business, yoga, and the contemplative power of paper. Click here to read the full interview.

Next week, you can join a live video chat with me and Steve Leveen. We’ll be discussing paper vs. pixels, how he’s grown his business (they’re celebrating their 25th anniversary this month!), and more. I’m obsessed with Levenger and their amazing products so I can’t wait to pick Steve’s brain! Stop on by my livestream channel at 1pm PT on Tuesday, October 23rd and chat with us.

Levenger and I recently partnered to create the Right-Brain Business Plan Circa Notebook.

Break out of the boring notebook rut with this right-brain system for planning, brainstorming, and launching your next big vision!

While I’m really digging my new iPhone 5 (it’s so sleek!) and I do appreciate working online, I must say that I have a penchant for good old fashioned paper. For sticky notes and index cards, for well-designed wall calendars and fun, collaged vision boards. And for really great notebooks.

I’ve been a long-time fan of Levenger, especially their Circa Notebooks (which are super functional and flexible) so you can bet I was thrilled by the opportunity to partner with them to make a Right-Brain Business Plan® Circa Notebook. Our collaborative product just launched this week and I my first batch arrived the other day. Exciting! Also available now is creative cohort and past Right-Brainers in Business Video Summit speaker Todd Henry’s Circa Idea Notebook, another great resource.

I’m not the only one who appreciates analog. Recently, I was coaching a client on a creative project near and dear to her heart. However, when it came to one major action item that involved getting on the computer and processing images, her energy got heavy and heady.

What lights her up is engaging with her art and working with her hands, so to help her ease into the task we gave her permission to work in the physical realm first before going digital. Ahh, the sigh of relief!

In his fantastic book Steal Like an Artist, writer and artist Austin Kleon talks about how he bounces between analog and digital. During the creative process Austin advises us to “step away from the screen” and “find a way to bring your body into your work.” I couldn’t agree more.

I enjoy the convenience of reading on my iPad however when it comes to inspiring my muse, nothing beats holding and experiencing a real book, especially one that’s bursting with colorful images.

For idea generation and planning, I love starting with paper, sticky notes, markers, index cards, Circa notebooks, and art supplies. The tactile, hands-on nature allows me to get messy and engage with my thoughts in a more tangible way. The process feels more open and malleable, which is great for the start of a project. Awhile back I wrote about some of my favorite right-brain planning tools here.

Then when I’m ready to structure, hone, edit, or implement my ideas, I typically will transition to the computer. I like that it’s easier to search for key words, manipulate information, and refine and track my content.

And then often times I’ll circle back to analog. I’ll print out what I’ve been working on so that I can I hold it in my hands, write notes in the margins, cross things out, and further finesse. It just makes the final version feel more “real.”

I do the analog/digital dance with calendars, too. When I’m initially mapping out a project, I need to see a physical calendar right in front of me in order for any of the milestone dates to make sense. Once I braindump and move my sticky notes around, things get clearer. And when I’m ready to lock in the dates, I like having them plugged into my Google calendar so I can block off work-time, stay on top of my schedule, and get sent appointment reminders. Once big to-do’s are done, I love walking over to my calendar and drawing a big, fat checkmark! Curious about how I use my wall calendar? In the first part of this video I share my right-brain system.

Do you prefer analog or digital? Or both? I’d love to hear about your favorite real-life or virtual tools and how you use them.

By the way, I’ll be interviewing Levenger founder, Steve Leveen, via Livestream on Tuesday, October 23rd at 1pm PT (sign-up here to get a reminder). Levenger provides tools (both the old fashioned and new tech types) for serious readers and they’re celebrating their 25th anniversary this month.

I can’t wait to ask Steve about how he grew his business over the years and also his take on the whole analog vs. digital debate. Hope you can join us!

As part of The Coaching Blueprint, creator Kate Swoboda asked the participating coaches (including me!) about their “conditions of satisfaction” for their practice. As Kate says, it’s important for anyone who is running a business to know what success looks like and feels like for you. When working with identifying conditions of satisfaction, it’s important to notice whether or not they’re someone else’s conditions, expectations, attachments, or ideas about success.

Danielle LaPorte writes: “Knowing how you want to feel is the most potent form of clarity you can have. Acting on generating those feelings is the most creative thing you can do in your life.”

In the video above, Blueprint Coaches Bridget Pilloud, Tara Sophia Mohr, Dyana Valentine, Julie Daley, Tara Gentile, Tanya Geisler, Jamie Ridler, and yours truly all share our conditions of satisfaction for our coaching practices. What we say about creative flourishing coaching practices is just as applicable to brick-and-mortar business owners, artists and creatives, consultants and 9-5-ers: Create it how you want to feel it. Enjoy this gem of satisfaction, self-care, and enoughness!

Find out more about The Coaching Blueprint and creator the fabulous Kate Swoboda here.

Wait ’til you see what Laura Burns literally has tattooed across her chest (you gotta watch the video)! I know Laura will inspire you to live your creative passions. You can view the chat log here.

Laura is one of my Right-Brain Business Plan® licensed facilitators and she is the founder of Laura Burns Consulting. She is a strategizer, motivator, and catalyst for intense change who brings joyful growth and sustainability to nonprofits and creative entrepreneurs.

If you’re in the Houston-area, check out Laura’s upcoming Right-Brain Business Plan® workshop September 21st-22nd.