When you’re networking, speaking, or just cruising around town, wear a funky accessory or your signature color to boost your confidence and make yourself stand out. Think of yourself as a walking billboard for your business.
Take one dose of Right-Brain Booster as needed to enhance your creative intuition.
Name: Chris Arcucci
Company Name: Mindful Living Arts
Website and Blog: www.MindfulLivingArts.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MindfulLivingArts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisarcucci
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/chrisarcucci
Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/mindful-living-arts-walnut-creek
Note from Jenn: Chris Arcucci of Mindful Living Arts is a generous and creative soul who embodies the wisdom of yoga. She combines massage, private yoga, and lifestyle coaching to help people nourish their mind, body, and spirit. I’m super inspired by her beautiful yoga poses and her vibrant Right-Brain Business Plan. I know Chris is up to big things in this world and she is making a powerful, positive difference in the lives of many. Loka samasta sukhino bhavantu – May all living beings be happy and free. Namaste. (All images courtesy of Chris Arcucci.)
What is your business and what makes your business unique?
I am the founder of Mindful Living Arts, a Health and Wellness Studio in Walnut Creek, California. My business is unique because it is a private yoga, massage and lifestyle coaching studio for clients who believe their health is an asset that needs nourishment and regular care. I offer intensive massage packages, which reduce pain, manage stress and incorporate home care exercises in between sessions. The semi-private yoga classes are limited to four students, which offers the opportunity for personal attention, hands on adjustments and guidance to recover from injury. Students get to know each other and this creates an incredible support for making sustainable lifestyle changes. I integrate over 30 years of personal and professional studies, which facilitates deep transformation of long held patterns. One of my clients said, “The bodywork I have done with Chris has returned the full range of movement in my neck, something I had not had for over 20 years previously.” My intention is to create a sanctuary where self care is sexy and it is working!!!
How has the Right-Brain Business Plan™ helped you?
The Right-Brain Business Plan™ empowered me to see what I REALLY want to create with my business and to notice I was playing it “safe” with my goals and planning. The course gave me the courage to recognize my desire to support the health of my local community and the greater global community in more powerful ways. I feel infinitely more confident as I create training programs, healing products, and conscious community to enhance life on this amazing planet. I support women owned small businesses through micro-lending and have ideas to make an even greater difference. I am blessed to have studied healthy living and mindfulness for 30 years and I want to partner with organizations that bring health education to communities in need. It is exciting and scary to be clearing the pathway to my big dream!
What is different for you and your business after approaching planning in a creative, visual way?
I have been making vision boards since my teens and working with Jenn has helped me to clarify my business goals with a creative format that I enjoy. The process helped me to integrate my creative side with my business mind in order to manifest my vision. It is a powerful and potent program and I am so excited to see what will unfold for my business and me in 2011!
What goals (big or small) on your business plan have you already accomplished or have made progress on?
One of my goals is to lead creative and inspirational personal development workshops and this weekend I am co-leading my first Vision Board workshop!
I have launched a blog where I share insights, inspiration and wisdom for cultivating heath and wellness through everyday activities.
I started offering one-on-one Reiki Practitioner Trainings.
I have added 3 semi-private Yoga classes per week, which are nearly full in the first week of 2011!
I am finalizing plans for a semi-private Yoga Teacher Training in 2011, this will be a powerful opportunity for students who enjoy and delight in the intensity and intimacy of a small group program, this is a dream come true!
How do you use your creative intuition in your work?
Creative intuition is an essential aspect of my life and work! I maximize all the technical training I have with bodywork and movement and actively open to my intuition for what can best serve in the moment. Often surprising things happen during sessions, for example last night as I was internally asking for guidance from my client’s Spiritual teacher, I allowed by hands to be guided to facilitate the unraveling of muscle tension that decreased her chronic knee pain. I see creative intuition as vital to my success, from massage therapy, to lifestyle coaching, to yoga classes, to training yoga teachers and Reiki practitioners. It is essential that I cultivate the ability to be aligned and in tune. I feel blessed that creative intuition feeds my passion and purpose and are so deeply infused in my life and business.
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?
My Right-Brain Business Plan™ is a in a large scrap book with images, writings, words, goals, dreams, aspirations and secrets 😉 I have crafted a box that is holding the ideas that are “still brewing”….the truth is the RBBP style has taken over my home and studio because I keep creating visual reminders to clarify my visions and to keep me on track. I love it!
What’s your vision for your business?
Mindful Living Arts inspires people to recognize everyday activities are opportunities to enhance health and radiance while reducing pain and stress. Our vision is to make empowered and life-enhancing choices, to educate and inspire people to touch, trust, move, breathe and eat for vibrancy and vitality. We offer healthy living programs and conscious products to support health & mindfulness. We are passionate about building community connection as an essential component for making sustainable lifestyle changes.
What advice do you have for other creative entrepreneurs?
Believe in your dream and love yourself with wild abandon!
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
I am so grateful for the chance to work with Jenn at Artizen Coaching, I would highly recommend the Right-Brain Business Plan™ as a powerful process to clarify and create your dream business. I am honored and thrilled to have the opportunity to share my story with you….. May I manifest my heart’s deepest longing to make a positive and powerful difference in the world through my creative expression & work, thank you!
Creative Resources
Click here for more information about Chris Arcucci
Click here for Right-Brain Business Plan™ e-Course and here to pre-order the book The Right-Brain Business Plan: A Creative, Visual Map for Success.
Danielle LaPorte’s money perspectives and practices posts offer valuable insights and tips on how to be around the moola. Part 1 covers personal money practices and Part 2 covers business money practices.
This week, talented artist and creative entrepreneur Laura Hollick launched Soul Art TV. This show features leading edge interviews with Revolutionary Leaders (including yours truly and some of my favorite creative cohorts) with inspirational insights to ignite your own Creative Spiritual Revolution. Check out Laura’s exquisite and inspiring video below. And join the Creative Spiritual Revolution here.
If you find yourself worrying about how you’re going to accomplish your big vision or when you’ll ever have a crystal-clear picture, just notice that your left brain may be on overdrive, wanting everything to be ironed out pronto. Take a deep breath and trust that, as you take small steps forward, your vision will unfold.
Take one dose of Left-Brain Chill Pill as needed to quiet your judging mind.
NOTE: This post originally appeared in my Musepreneur column on the Wishstudio.
What brings you alive? Maybe your spirit soars when you see a stunning sunset. Perhaps you feel most at home when you’re experiencing the thrill of foreign cities or cultures. Or you beam with excitement when you’re creating and connecting with your best friends. These moments of aliveness speak to your core values.
Your core values are what you hold as most important to you. Values are your lifeblood. They give your life meaning and richness.
Values also help you authentically run a business. Many right-brain entrepreneurs honor their personal values through their creative work, so your business values most likely will be based on your personal ones. I know mine are!
Identifying Your Core Values
To identify your core values, reflect back on times in your life when you felt fully alive. When have you been happy and totally fulfilled? Your special moments could be significant events or simple pleasures from your day-to-day life. They could be from when you were a little kid or from just this morning.
In these peak moments, who were you being? What was going on around you? What were you doing? What were you feeling? Write down as much detail as you can. Once you’re done reflecting, go back and circle words that stand out to you. Those circled words are a good start to creating your list of values. Begin to group the values into strings that make sense to you. For example, beauty/creativity/expression might be a string and adventure/freedom/exploration might be another.
You can download my free values form for more ideas and guidance through the process of identifying your core values. Ultimately, you’ll want to end up with a list of your top 5-10 core values.
Getting Down to Business
Look at your values list again and see which ones apply to your creative business. It may be all of them, or just a few. What do you and your business stand for?
In your creative work, expressing your values gives people a sense of who you are and what’s important to you. How do your values show up in your blog, offerings, artwork, or interactions?
Create Your Business “Values Chain”
Stay connected with your values by crafting your own business “values chain.” No, I’m not referring to that dry MBA concept of “value chain analysis” and competitive advantage that you might’ve heard suits drone on about. Instead, remember those colorful paper chains you made in grade school? Now that’s way more delightful!
Cut sheets of construction paper lengthwise into approximately 8.5″ x 1.5″ strips. Write or rubber stamp each of your values on individual strips. Feel free to decorate with creative embellishments like images, stickers, or glitter glue to fancy it up. Take one strip – decorated side-up – and curl it into a circle. Then glue or staple the edges together. Take the next strip and loop it through the first circle before attaching the edges together to create your chain. Keep repeating until you’ve linked all of your values together into a gorgeous garland that you can hang in your office or studio.
If you’d rather work with collage instead of making a values chain, consider creating a deck of collaged values cards. They’re another great way to stay connected to your core values.
Refection Questions
How well are you honoring your values in your life and your creative business right now? What do you notice when you don’t honor them? How can you honor your values even more? What new choices are you willing to make in order to live and work in alignment with your values?
Pick a theme song for your brand or create a soundtrack for your business or creative life. Play these tunes whenever you need inspiration or a pick-me-up.
Some of my personal favorites include, “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield and “Strength, Courage and Wisdom” by India Arie.
Take one dose of Right-Brain Booster as needed to enhance your creative intuition.
Name: Micheline Courtemanche
Company Name: Betty and Bing
Website: www.BettyandBing.com
Note from Jenn: I adore letterpress and I adore Micheline Courtemanche of Betty and Bing. It was so cool to have Micheline in one of my Right-Brain Business Plan e-Courses and then seeing the launch of her Betty and Bing website. As Micheline shares below, she really put her heart and soul into her business plan and her dedication and passion has paid off! I’m sure you’ll be inspired reading about her creative journey and seeing how she surrounds herself with her colorful and functional visual plan. (All photos courtesy of Micheline Courtemanche.)
Over the past two years I have been putting together a letterpress business. I have three antique letterpresses that I primarily use to print commissioned work such as business cards, invitations and promotional material. My next step is to put together some of my own ideas to print and sell on-line, in stores and at craft fairs.
That last paragraph seems pretty simple and straight-forward but it took me a really long time to get there. In the beginning, my ideas were all over the place. There were too many oh-I-could-do-thats to ever do them successfully at the same time. As a result, it became very difficult to talk about my business without sounding scattered. I lacked vision and focus but I wanted to succeed. I needed a business plan.
I sat down to do a traditional business plan more than once. Each time I stopped it was because I felt uninspired to make it work and I turned into a drop-out before even getting started. I found the traditional plan started me on the outside of the business circle. There were lists and lists of obstacles that I was supposed to overcome and other competition that I need to elbow out of my way if I had any hope of success. And I had such a hard time with the static approach to the information and the research. The graphic designer in me rebels against spreadsheets, graphs and business jargon. This approach just didn’t work for me and I stopped trying.
But I wasn’t ready to give up. I fell in love with letterpress and the person I was when I was doing it. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else and couldn’t deny the need for a business plan any longer. I came across the Right Brain Business Plan (rbbp) completely by accident one day. I was avoiding my traditional plan with a fury and was aimlessly surfing the internet. I was immediately inspired by their approach. What I was doing clearly wasn’t working and I was desperate to try something new.
When the rbbp began, I was blown away by the difference in the approach. Instead of trying to thrust my business into a world that didn’t want any newcomers, it started with me and my vision for my business and then examined what we had to offer. There was a real feeling of there being a spot for me in the big world of business. One that I would have to work really hard to keep but not one that I would have to elbow anyone to get. It was refreshing.
The course turned out to be challenging on every level. It was emotionally difficult, there was a lot of research to do and organizing it took a lot of time but I was always excited to work on it. I looked forward to new assignments and threw myself into each one. Translating all of my notes that I kept in a workbook into visuals was by far the most rewarding part of the class. It turned my business plan into a living element of my business. It hangs on the walls of my office but it’s so much more than a series of pictures. I move things around, change them and re-evaluate them all the time.
There are five key elements on my wall. All of them have been put together with magazine cutouts, printer paper, cardboard from cereal boxes, printouts of some of my photographs, my trusty black pen and a roll of tape. There are a million ways to put together a visual plan (as you can see from touring this website) but this is the way that best reflects me and my talents. It was a completely natural solution which is why I think it works so well for me.
I have a vision board so full of images, ideas and colour that six months after making it I’m still inspired by it. I have some character sketches of my ideal clients made of magazine images and words. I have a money-in and a money-out chart (revenue and expenses in traditional terms) so I can keep my eye on the finances in a glance. I created lists of people who are always there to help me for different reasons. I’ve worked from home for fifteen years so to be able to have a list of people I know will help, share their knowledge or just listen to my ideas when I need to get them out is an invaluable resource. Having them there on the wall is a nice reminder that I’m not in this alone. The largest element on the wall is my calendar and I would be lost without it. It’s my main organizer. It’s my motivator. It’s the hub of my business. I post all of the things that need to get done in regards to all aspects of the business. Every day I’m reminded of what needs doing and what’s coming up. Since it’s just taped to the wall it’s also not set in stone. I can easily add, move or remove any of the parts. I love when form and function comes together like this. In the short time this calendar has been up, it has helped me to organize and photograph my portfolio, create and activate my website, get my finances organized, develop some promotional ideas and get my shop closer to completion. Simply by working with this calendar on a regular basis, I’ve gained so much more confidence in myself in regards to my business and business in general. It was an unexpected but very welcome side-effect.
If I had any advice to give anyone starting a business it would be to keep one foot in front of the other. If you constantly do something for your business, no matter how small or big, you can’t help but move forward. It might not always feel like it but that’s why it’s so important to take a moment every now and again to look back. You will have undoubtedly moved closer to your goals. That alone is worth celebrating.
Creative Resources
Click here for more information about Micheline Courtemanche
Click here for Right-Brain Business Plan™ e-Course and the Right-Brain Business Plan e-Book.
