Last year around this time, I had my head buried in my manuscript. Thankfully, the cold, gray days of winter made it easier for me to slip into hermit-mode and write, write, write. I simplified my workload and said no to new business opportunities so that I could focus on this one endeavor. While it was difficult to hunker down for the winter, it was what I needed to get the job done and to stay balanced. And fortunately by the time I turned in my manuscript in April, I was greeted by the vibrant growth of spring.

I was grateful that I could follow the season to help me conserve my energy. Winter is the time to slow down and reflect. To hibernate and look inward. It was the perfect container for concentrating on an intensive and very internalized process.

Is there a project or idea that could use your undivided attention? How could you use the winter months to turn inward and let things gestate?

And hey, if you’ve been going full-steam ahead in your creative business, how about taking a cue from winter and giving yourself a break from it all? Even if for a week or a few days. Enjoy some white space. Give yourself some breathing room. Let the lessons of the year soak in. I’ll be doing that next week.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season!

Track your progress (with flair, of course).

Find a beautiful bowl, and each time you complete something from any one of your creative projects, drop a bead into the bowl. Before you know it, your bowl will runneth over.

Take one dose of Right-Brain Booster as needed to enhance your creative intuition.

Name: Mary Daniel Hobson
Company Name: Mary Daniel Hobson
Website: www.marydanielhobson.com

Note from Jenn: Mary Daniel Hobson’s artwork is simply gorgeous with a hint of mystery. Last year “Danny” attended a Right-Brain Business Plan workshop where she created her collaged vision book shown in her spotlight below. Danny shares what keeps her inspired and what helps her move past the frustration of the left-brain details. I think you’ll appreciate hearing about her creative process and how her goals have gracefully unfolded.  (All photos courtesy of Mary Daniel Hobson)

What is your business and what makes your business unique?

My business is making and selling fine art. I love to combine objects, texts and images in a way that creates poetic meaning. What really makes my business unique is the artwork itself. My processes are tactile and unusual, such as bottling photographs in mineral oil or creating collages with photographic transparencies. In addition, I am very interested in symbolic meaning and creating art that speaks to the universal experiences of being human – both the challenging and the joyful.

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?

The Right Brain Business Plan has given me the green light to trust my intuition in the midst of very linear processes like marketing and promotion. My favorite part of the RBBP workshop was the visualization and then making the collage about that vision. I felt filled with possibility and new insight. I loved that we made the collages inside an accordion book, because it is then so easy to carry it with me and expand it anywhere I am. It has really helped me integrate my vision into my whole life more easily, because it can be on a ledge in the kitchen while I do dishes and then on my main working table in the studio.

During the visualization at the RBBP workshop I saw a beam of light coming through the center of my studio (which is a little building just across the yard from my house). This light was coming into me and infusing my hands with creative, healing energy that I was using to make new work that touched people deeply. I also saw myself working with people in my studio space and spreading that creative, healing inspiration directly out to others.

I got a little tripped up when we moved to the left brain, detailed work of goals, marketing, target audience, financials, etc. I realized afterward what happened was that as soon as the class shifted to those items, I abandoned my vision and started answering questions from the existing model of my business. I felt immediately constricted and my heart was just not in it. In fact, I came home full of frustration. Then in the middle of the night, I had an epiphany. I realized that I did not need to make conventional, linear goals. I could simply let my collage show me my next steps. I could literally read my collage like a book and cull it for guidance on how to move forward. For example, the first panel of my collage book had a woman doing yoga – so it literally was encouraging me to do more yoga and in fact a month later I began substitute teaching yoga and brainstorming ideas for workshops that might combine yoga and creative process. My collage also had a book cover called Standing in the Light – so I checked that book out of the library. It had a nest with a blue egg – so I used a basket shaped like a nest and bought some little blue eggs and put them in my studio. In this way, I began to read my book like an intuitive map of the next steps for supporting my creative business. In the end, the great gift for me of the RBBP was that it really helped me to trust my intuition more deeply, and to trust in the natural unfolding of my business as it changes and evolves in new ways.

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

I think again as I have described already, the big impact of the RBBP for me was encouraging me to trust my intuition and the visual images I assembled in the book collage. It has been a year since I completed this collage and I can see more clearly how certain images in the book relate to how my life has unfolded. For example, the center panel with the light coming into the studio is surrounded by imagery of gardens, three young girls, and a basket full of fall vegetables. I have held two Open Studios in my Muir Beach studio that were wonderful events done in collaboration with my neighbor and master gardener, Wendy Johnson – the first one there were several young girls including my daughter playing the garden. The second one was at harvest time and Wendy even had baskets full of pumpkins and squash. When I made this collage I had not yet even dreamed of doing these events.

How do you use your creative intuition in your work?

Creating artwork is very much an intuitive process that relies on letting go and trusting each step as it unfolds. Often I will have an idea for a piece of art, but once I get my hands into the materials it shifts and grows in new and unexpected ways – and so relaxing and letting my intuition guide me is very important.

Creative Resources

Click here for more information about Mary Daniel Hobson

Click here for Right-Brain Business Plan™ e-Course and the Right-Brain Business Plan e-Book.

Scoutie Girl Tara Gentile is always chock full of helpful information for creative living and entrepreneurship. She’s bundled her best posts of the year into a free-e-book.

Here are some great, creative tips for achieving follow-through based on your learning style.

10 Laws of Productivity curated from the Behance team.

Artist Jessica Swift recently posted a new, free illustration to help you set your 2011 intentions. She’s got other cool worksheets in her treasure chest, too.

Here’s an inspiring visual manifesto for women in business.

Alyson Stanfield of the Art Biz Blog listed out some helpful, specific prompts to help you count your accomplishments in your art and creative business.

Release your limiting beliefs.

Your judging, logical mind loves to make up rules. If you have old rules and limiting beliefs that are no longer serving you, you have full permission to let them go.

Write them down and tear them up. Burn them. Flush them down the toilet (where they belong!).

Take one dose of Left-Brain Chill Pill as needed to quiet your judging mind.

Creative dreams flourish with positive support. For the past two years I’ve been participating in a 90-minute conference call every other Wednesday with my Nurture Huddle. In fact, we’ve got our call tonight – Yay! We’re a small group of creative bloggers who get together to help support each other in our creative process and in going after our big dreams. Their support and encouragement have been invaluable. We’ve watched each other grow and stretch, move past challenges, and bring our visions to life.

When I’m working with clients, one of the things I hear a lot is that they feel alone going after their dreams and growing their business. It can feel isolating working for yourself or taking risks that other people in your day-to-day life might think are totally crazy. Having a support system like a Nurture Huddle can give you the perspective, encouragement, and accountability that will propel your forward with more confidence, ease, and fun. You’ll feel understood, heard, and called forth to your bigger self.

Here are some tips for creating  your own Nurture Huddle:

• Choose people who are also working on their business or creative projects so that you can mutually support each other. Four to seven huddlers is a good size to get different perspectives and still have an intimate feel. Make sure your huddlers are positive, constructive people you can count on. Because you can meet by phone, your huddlers can live anywhere.
• Set up a conference call line. There are several free services like freeconferencecalling.com or freeconferencecall.com. Or you can use video conferencing like Zoom or Google Hangouts.
• Depending on the nature of the calls, you can get agreement with the group if you want to record the call so that the ideas are easier to refer back to. We don’t record our Nurture Huddle calls, but I’ve been on other accountability type calls where we do because sometimes there’s some great brainstorming that can happen and you might not be able to write down the great ideas fast enough.
• Rotate leadership each time so that each huddler facilitates a call. The call leader sets the agenda and reminds people ahead of time when the call is and what the conference call number and pin is. During the call the leader kicks off the Huddle and helps to move the conversation along so that each Huddler can get her turn.
• As each Huddler shares, make sure that you’re identifying what they want accountability around so you know what to follow-up with the next time you all gather.
• Over time your calls may become more casual and organic as you get to know each other more deeply.  But when you’re first forming, it’s good to have some structure so that you create a safe container for sharing.
• On the very first Nurture Huddle call, get alignment around group agreements such as confidentiality, time commitment (including how long the huddle will exist for and when, how long, and how often calls will be), group communication between calls, how to handle accountability with each other, role of leader, etc.
• You can keep in touch via e-mail in between calls and/or you can set up a private blog or online community to help you stay connected.

Reach out to a few people this week to see if they’d be interested in forming a Nurture Huddle with you. Try it out for 3-6 months and go from there. I hope you’re able to get some good nurturing and huddling!