Name: Karen Friedland
Company Name: Karen Friedland Fine Art
Website: karenfriedland.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ArtistKarenF/
Instagram: @artistkarenfriedland
Twitter: @ArtistKaren

Karen Friedland is a Right-Brain Business Plan® licensed facilitator based in New York. She’s the February guest host of our RBBP Facebook group so make sure to stop by and get some support and encouragement from her. Plus, check out Karen’s free gift 15 Great Apps For Artistic Solopreneurs.

What is your business and what makes your business unique?

I am a visual artist, principally a painter, a teaching artist and a creative business coach. There are two main prongs to my business: sales and marketing of my art and art-related products and my teaching- art and creative expression- and coaching creatives.

My vividly hued artwork makes one’s spirit soar. It is a sensory experience that brings happiness through the use of color and satisfaction as one unravels the layers of complexity in the art. I sell my original artwork and reproductions. In addition, I offer hand-painted ceramic tiles, a line of original hand-painted jewelry and ART SPARKS, a creative project inspiration card deck. My teaching includes in-person workshops and courses, online courses and artist residencies.

I am that rare bird, an artist with a business sensibility, with a career in marketing and received an MBA before becoming an artist. I have been a Creativity Coach for 13 years.

How has the Right-Brain Business Plan® helped you? What is different for you and your business after approaching planning in a creative, visual way?

When I first heard of Jennifer Lee’s Right Brain Business Plan, I was listening to it on Creative Live while I was on a trip. I walked around with it plugged into my ear because I didn’t want to miss a minute. I knew it was meant for me. I then became part of Jennifer’s mentorship for several years.

The first and biggest change, was my perspective. I no longer was just an artist who sold her work, rather a business owner whose business is creating and distributing art and art products. I determined that my mission for my business is to bring artistic expression that is colorful, joyful and freeing. RBBP has helped me identify who my client is so I can reach out directly to them. By understanding the who, what and why of my business, I have been able to move forward in an effective way.

What goals (big or small) on your business plan have you already accomplished or have made progress on?
Over the years, I have set and reached many goals. I have also set goals that I have not attained. I realized from going after them, that they were not things I really wanted. An equally valuable lesson.

I have attained interim financial goals. I have refocused my teaching from children to adult students and developed a following. I have developed new products including a creative project card deck, a jewelry line, a line of miniature paintings and of painted ceramic tiles. I have rebuilt my website, created an Etsy shop, have a regular blog and a significant presence on Instagram. I have created new syllabuses for course offerings and produced several courses online.

Why do you love teaching the Right-Brain Business Plan® and using it with your clients? What are some client success stories?

I love teaching the Right Brain Business Plan because it takes one’s concept of how they might reach people and gives them a format, a structure upon which to build their business. It brings together the concepts of business with the creativity and entrepreneurship of individuals to let them attain their dreams. I love that the Right Brain Business Plan allows creatively-oriented people the means to understand and apply business principles to their endeavors to help them reach their goals. My clients have taken their business ideas from just a kernel to creating a full blown plan of how to launch and build the business. They have gained an understanding of who they want to reach and how to reach them. And then they created a timeline for implementing their programs.

How do you use your creative intuition in your work?
My creative intuition is a key part of every aspect of my business. In my art-making and product development, intuition is the determining element that adds originality and that special “extra something” to make the work exceptional. Likewise, as I bring my visibility and authenticity to the forefront, I take an inventive approach to meeting the world and letting them know about my business. I want the world to notice, to see what is uniquely me, so I need to present it in a way that gets me noticed. This too takes innovative thinking.

Is there anything you’d like to share about your Right-Brain Business Plan® in terms of what it’s made out of or how you made it?

I made early RBBPs in the standard accordion-fold way. Being a lover of unusual books, I made a version with origami folds, dividing my business vision into four sections. In my most recent one, my vision had grown huge and so did my Right Brain Business Plan. Making it so large, let me embrace and contain the breadth of my vision, encompassing its many facets.

What’s your big vision for your business?

My big vision for my business is expanding my visibility both as an artist and a teacher/coach. I am committing to developing a new series and getting gallery representation for it. I will develop four new online courses and create a new card deck for artists. While I’m unsure of the exact form it will take, I am looking to create an artistic collaboration.

What advice do you have for other creative entrepreneurs?

To the makers, writers and artists, I suggest you think of all the facets of your work as a business rather than just trying to sell a particular item. By taking a holistic approach, you incorporate all aspects of your business instead of parceling out individual tasks. This will let you plan your business overall.

Use your big vision as a holder for your dreams, in all their variations and discover what really matters to you. Get to know your perfect customers and they will tell you what they want.

Hold the process lightly and remember to enjoy the ride!

Plus, don’t forget to check out Karen’s free gift 15 Great Apps For Artistic Solopreneurs.

Want to create your own Right-Brain Business Plan®? The Right-Brain Business Plan® Kit includes supplies to make your own accordion book style visual business plan.

Name: Shealagh King
Company Name: A Nurtured Life Coaching
Website: www.anurturedlife.ca

Jenn will be a guest speaker on Shealagh’s A Nurtured Life Online Body-Mind TLC Retreat which starts on January 28th! You can grab your free seat here. Read the spotlight below to find out how the Right-Brain Business Plan® helped Shealagh with her Big Vision for her biz and helped her dream up the retreat.

Watch Shealagh’s fun RBBP show and tell video here and read her interview spotlight below. Enjoy!

What is your business and what makes your business unique?

A Nurtured Life Coaching [NLC] is an oasis of embodied TLC tools that support helping, teaching & business professionals fill their cup so fatigue & overwhelm stops costing them precious time, energy, money or relationships.

Taking the Nurture Wheel tool for a spin dials into one of the 7 Elements of A Nurtured Life. Each of the elements serve to bring the body into the conversation about where to start with self-nurture in order to create our own inner sanctuary.

Securely rooted in neuroscience & balanced with experiential discovery tools, A Nurtured LIfe embodied methodology & tactile tools support life / work balance like nothing else out there.

How has the Right-Brain Business Plan® helped you? What is different for you and your business after approaching planning in a creative, visual way?

Quite honestly, there would be no Nurture Wheel without RBBP!
The original summits got the concepts brewing that are at the centre of my work. Starting small meant 7 hand drawn mandalas on construction paper strung together while still working at the Chopra Centre. During a meditation, the 7 element methodology was born!

Jenn’s offerings helped visualize how to take my skills & experience beyond 1 on 1, work steps out on white boards towards my vision & bring my balance back when things didn’t work out. Creating the nurture dials & my business card with moving parts all stemmed from the Product Development Playground.

Her nudges to go with intuition led to a hilarious conclusion with logo design, & from sharing drafts with colleagues a hose handle ‘place holder’ pic in the centre of my logo became a moving part & VOILA! The spinable Nurture Wheel was born!

What goals (big or small) on your business plan have you already accomplished or have made progress on?

• Completed a dynamic formal business plan to compliment RBBP
• Designed methodology congruent with my values of organicity & mind-body unity
• Created & crafted my own branding/signage
• Naturally developed close, trusting relationships with local cohorts that have influence in both target markets [B2B & B2C]
• Built an international network of relationships who are primed with my main message to tap into when I upscale
• Designed individual & group programs that intro coaching tools
• Designed / half produced a free offering of A Nurtured Life Online Body-Mind TLC Retreat for January 2019 to spread the message, methodology & tools to a wider audience.
• Was part of a team for an international [79 countries] Embodiment Conference
• 7th year in Hakomi Body-Centered therapy training that helped me create my own inner sanctuary, as a place from which I can support others to do the same

How do you use your creative intuition in your work?

• The planning tool & process that I developed brings my body wisdom & imagination online when I experiment with posting a commitment on different timelines on the planner.
• I use finger puppets (or sometimes just fingers) to help get in touch with the parts of me that are stuck, that are resisting, that are lazy, that are over the top so nothing is stepped over in the creative process.
• I use white boards religiously to fool around with paper shapes, textures, imagery & sticky notes that represent concepts until things start to shape up or some kind of theme emerges. I have my little 1 inch binder collection that brings my project scraps together so I can see what I have.
• I designed a timeline chart to move to do’s around within a timeframe

I feel way more creative after reading this list over!

Is there anything you’d like to share about your Right-Brain Business Plan® in terms of what it’s made out of or how you made it?

It’s a accordion booklet with 8 sections I made myself (even ‘chomped’ the corners round)
On one side, the first panel is the title, & then a single image on each panel represents the vision & values plus all the rest of the 7 areas of the RBBP, including a short phrase to anchor it.

On the opposite side, I actually melded the concepts of the RBBP with the 7 Elements of a nurtured life so that my methodology informs everything I do in the business. I have glued pockets on each of the 7 panels, with a single colour, mini-collage values card for each element. In the pockets I have index cards with the concrete steps for the current quarter.

What’s your big vision for your business?

A Nurtured Life as part of a collective movement towards more right-brain, holistic balance through a growing network of embodiment facilitators that support people to get back to their natural rhythm of life vs the unsustainable pace of modern society so that we live more aligned with & connected to the nature world.

With collaborative online & in person retreats, an online body-mind TLC course & bringing TLC tools & programs to helping, teaching & business organizations, we have the ability to expand the reach of the message & experience of self-nurture as a path to a more nurtured world.

Revenue will double from $30,000 to $60,000, and a portion of each year of sales will go toward a space where NLC teachings & awareness can continue to develop & expand it’s reach.

What advice do you have for other creative entrepreneurs?

Come to terms with being an imperfect person in an incredible (but messy) process of discovery.

Let yourself be foolish – ridiculous even – because the state of play is the most creative way of being & always where our new path seems to sprout from!

Find friendly ways to be with the little kid inside you – she’s got game when it comes to creative brilliance!

Want to create your own Right-Brain Business Plan®? The Right-Brain Business Plan® Kit includes supplies to make your own accordion book style visual business plan.

We all have feelings, but sometimes it’s difficult to put those emotions and sensations into words. That’s why Orkid Toys founder and VIP Client Ginny Campbell created her popular plush toy product line Meebie.

Meebie has a variety of swappable patch-like pieces that help children and grown-ups change Meebie’s facial expression to convey a wide range of emotions from happiness, joy and excitement, to sadness, anger, confusion, and fear and everything in-between.

I’ve had the honor of working with Ginny as she’s put together her second run of Meebies and added to her line with her new Meebie Mini and picture book and I’m thrilled that we can finally get our hands on the new Meebies!

Download Ginny’s free printables

Want some fun and simple resources you can use right now? Sign-up for Ginny’s free printables which includes 3 downloads: A Mindful Moment with Meebie with instructions for a kind care pause, a Meebie Color Page where you can doodle your emotions, and a Feeling words List from Meebie’s book to help you identify what you are feeling.

Save 10% on Meebie

For all those creative, sensitive, heart-centered folks here in my right-brain community, I thought you’d appreciate this playful visual and tactile approach to getting in touch with what you or those you work with are feeling. Watch our fun video above to hear how we’ve both used Meebie to help us and other great ideas for acknowledging your emotions.

If you’re a therapist, play therapist, counselor, teacher, parent, or just a kid-at-heart like me, check out Meebie as an enriching ally to use in your professional practice or your personal life.

Also, Meebie Mini and the Meebie Has Feelings book both make great gifts for a great price!

Ginny is offering a special 10% savings on all Meebie merchandise with code RBBP10 for my community from now through November 30th.

Growing up I was a “good girl” – you know… nice, quiet, polite. I shied away from rocking the boat, dominating a conversation, or speaking up when something felt off. Being the youngest in my nuclear and extended family I dutifully tagged along with what everyone else was doing even when I was upset or uncomfortable.

Even as an adult, I admit that I still find it challenging to assert myself in the moment and I worry waaaay too much about being nice/liked/proper. Perhaps you relate on some level?

In my 15+ years of working with creatives and heart-centered folks, I’ve seen how often we tend to minimize anger by saying we’re merely frustrated or annoyed when really we are seething with rage, especially if we’ve let it build up over time.

Rage about a passive-aggressive comment a colleague made because they didn’t have the courage to say what was really on their mind. Rage about someone copying your creative work or a co-worker taking credit (again!) for something you did. Rage about a client giving you the run around when they owe you a final payment for a project you just delivered with all your heart. Rage about injustices in the world, and the list goes on.

Sure, anger can feel scary for a number of reasons (it seems unsafe, out of control, or too bitchy) AND it can be a catalyst for action and transformation, it can lay the foundation for clear boundaries, requests, and communication, and it can be a powerful rallying cry that helps you find your right peeps.

For creative business leaders, anger is an often untapped yet extremely valuable resource.

So, what has you seeing red?

Here are a few prompts to get you going:

• What really pisses you off because it feels unfair, insensitive, or just plain wrong?
• What are you constantly (and angrily!) complaining about because you wish it were done differently? Remember, complaints are usually requests in disguise.
• What seems totally broken to you but no one is talking about (argggh!!!!!)? Or maybe there’s lots of talk but no action and that makes you even madder (ARGGGH!!!!)
• Who tends to trigger you? What are they doing and/or saying when you sense your skin crawling?

Journal your thoughts and see what themes or ideas begin to emerge.

You could discover clues to a manifesto that helps to crystalize what you are taking a stand for in your business or the messaging for a new offer. I get mad when I hear very authoritative, arrogant figures lecturing (and boasting – ew!) about how things “should” be done as if that is the one and only way. And I get even more upset when I see the confusion, overwhelm, and shame creatives experience when they then think they’re doing it all “wrong” and are failures. You can see how that inspired the work of the Right-Brain Business Plan ;).

Or perhaps you find the words to better articulate your company policies or guidelines so that you have clearer agreements and boundaries. For example, a few years ago I wrote up a page to explain what people can and can’t do with my materials after we found several unauthorized uses of my work and had received lots of well-intentioned but overreaching requests because people didn’t understand copyright or Intellectual Property.

Maybe you find the courage to speak your mind to a group of friends, colleagues, or even family members and give them feedback about how something landed with you. It may ruffle feathers at first, you may need to deal with some messy fallout, and you just might create deeper trust and connection in the long run.

Let anger be your ally and advocate

In order to transform anger into an ally and advocate, make sure you’re able to identify what is going on for you and take conscious action.

• Become aware of what anger feels like in your body so that you can easily identify it as it arises. Does your skin feel prickly? Your belly tense? Do you clench your fists or jaw? Does your temperature or heart rate go up? Do you feel like screaming at the top of your lungs?
• Articulate what exactly you’re angry about. What core value of yours has been violated? What boundary has been crossed? Sort through what’s yours to own and what needs to be cleared up with the other party. That’s much healthier than blaming and putting it all on the other person (she made me soooo mad!)
• Ask yourself how anger can be your ally. How can your anger provide support and be in service of healing and growth? What is the message it has for you? And what other allies can you enlist to help you take on the issue so you don’t have to go it alone?
• Advocate for what you believe is right. Speak up in order to make change. Give voice to the unspoken. Be willing to say the thing no one is willing to acknowledge. This all requires tremendous courage. Thankfully, the fiery energy of anger can help you access the boldness and bravery needed to take a stand!

I love this painting called “Depth of the Iceberg” by my VIP client, artist Annamieka Hopps Davidson. I didn’t realize it when I bought it but it was actually born out of our coaching work together! Annamieka later shared with me that this painting is her business plan. How cool and perfect is that?! This piece was her “visual reminder to be solid and yet, flowing… respect all the work that you do beneath the surface in order to show up in the world.” Very powerful! BTW, she is totally working that plan.

I placed the painting in my office right under my RBBP as a beautiful reminder for me to honor all that’s going on below the surface. I’ve simplified my biz and haven’t been pushing as hard (which is great for my health and well-being!) AND I’m still attracting and working with awesome clients, I’ve been rolling out online RBBP rights to my licensed facilitators, and I continue to serve our right-brain community with my products and self-studies.

This shift has given me space to focus on my foundation (the bigger piece of the iceberg that you can’t see). I’m choosing substance over flash.

With so much hype flooding your social media feeds sometimes we forget that we’re only seeing the very flashy tip of the iceberg.

Perhaps you’re comparing yourself to someone who’s been at their craft for decades and yet you expect that your business “should” be on par with theirs after just a few years. Or maybe you’re judging yourself for not moving forward on your product or book fast enough and you’re not accounting for all of the journaling, drafting, brainstorming, and action that have led you to where you are now.

Just because your project hasn’t broken through the surface yet, doesn’t mean you haven’t made progress.

Remember that and keep going! If you keep taking small steps, eventually your end-goal will emerge and you’ll share it with the world. Besides, you’ll have plenty of growth along the way if you’re open to the learning.

Until then, honor the process and savor the richness of doing the deep work.

Whether it’s in the form of re-wiring your inner belief system to fuel your big vision, moving through emotional blocks so you can let your best self shine through, mending or strengthening relationships so you feel supported and seen, claiming your voice so you can take a stand for what you believe in, making the tough choices to prioritize what’s most important to you, owning your value, stepping into your bigness, forgiving yourself, or anything else that’s requiring your soul’s attention.

While these deep and subtle shifts may not make the flashy headlines, they are essential to running an authentic business and leading an authentic life.

They form the basis of all the goodness that bursts through the surface.
What do you discover when you dive below the surface? What deep work will you acknowledge yourself for?