We are in a stage of change here at the International Association of Creative Arts Professionals. Our biggest change is that we are no longer hosting our annual Creative Arts Business Summit after next weekend.

It was hard for me to decide to stop doing a successful event. After seven years, I felt rewarded by all the growth I saw in the creatives who had come to CABS, as we call it.

People who were pattern designers opened brick and mortar stores. One person saw her dream of a B&B/Retreat Center come to fruition. Someone created a “million dollar” idea. Many others also realized that they were capable of doing bigger things, and as one attendee said, she was so “much more than a stay at home mom with a hobby.”

People felt their lives were changed both personally and professionally.

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Do you know the story of Captain Charlie Plumb?

A U.S. Naval Academy grad, Charlie was a jet pilot in Vietnam and completed 74 successful combat missions over North Vietnam. On his next mission, just days before the end of his tour, his plane was shot down over Hanoi. He parachuted into enemy hands and spent the next 2,103 days as a Prisoner of War.

Some years later by chance, Charlie met the man who had packed his parachute. At first speechless at the meeting, Charlie became full of gratitude and explained that he had said many prayers of thanks and didn’t expect to ever be able to express his gratitude in person. Charlie asked the parachute packer if he kept track of all the parachutes he packed. The man responded, “No, it’s enough gratification for me to just know I served.”

Today Charlie travels around the country lecturing and asking, “Who packs your parachute?”

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For many of us, moving the needle may have different connotations, especially since so many who read this blog sew. Today I want to talk about moving the needle forward in your business. All of us get stuck. Sometimes it’s just a simple tweak that can get the machine moving again. Sometimes it is something bigger that you need to do to move your business to the next level. Here are nine ways that will help get you moving and bring in cash to your business:

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Over the weekend I was working on the content for our Creative Arts Business Summit and thinking about the 36 women and men who are joining me this year. A wave of gratitude came over me, and I reflected how fortunate I am that they are trusting me to guide them for three days. They are all blessings in my life.

When was the last time you sat and reflected on your blessings? When you take the time to focus on what you are grateful for, you will find more happiness in your life. You’ll also begin to see more of what you are grateful for show up in your life. You will find yourself more resilient and even less stressful. Positivity all around!

Here are four tips for adding a gratitude practice to your life:

1. Keep a gratitude journal. At the end of each day write down three things that you were grateful for during the day. They do not have to be big. They can be as simple as watching the sunrise or the extra cookie someone left for you or the laugh from watching your kitten chase the ball of yarn. Periodically go back and read what you have written.
2. Set aside a few minutes every morning to hold a silent gratitude session. Think about what you are grateful for. Think about those people you are grateful for.
3. As you go through your day, look for times you can say, “Thank You,” and do so. These can be little gestures. It makes a difference to you and the other person.
4. If you think of someone and the difference they have made in your life, take time to call or write and let them know.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes about gratitude:

If the only prayer you say in your life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice
Meister Eckhart

Do you have a gratitude practice? Please share.

photo credit: shannonkringen via photopin cc

How many hats do you wear in your business? I know most of us wear more than one, particularly if it is a relatively new business. We have not had time to put the necessary systems and teams in place, so we are everything from the creative head to the shipping department. While that is how most of us start out, at some point we need to look to shed some of those hats. If we want to create a successful business, it is important to take an honest look at our skills and look at where someone else could do the job, i.e., take some of the hats from you.

In the past couple of weeks I have had conversations with several clients about their plans for 2014, and some have centered around the CEO hat. When you wear the CEO hat, you need to take “yourself” out of your business. That can be hard for many of us. I think it is because what we create is so personal. We don’t want our feelings hurt if someone does not like our art, and it can stop us from getting the information we need to make decisions about our business. We have got to remember we are making business not personal decisions. Yet it is critical to put on that CEO hat if we expect to grow our business.

As you take time to look at where you are in your business in 2013 and make plans for 2014, try to take yourself personally out of the business, put on your CEO hat, and consider what the right decision is to grow your business. Look for those places where someone else can handle the tasks and allow you put your energy where it belongs: having the big vision for your business, selling your business ideas and energizing those on your team.
  

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the United States. Since it’s a holiday, we are not sending out our regular e-zine this week.

This is one of my favorite holidays, and not just because it could be termed our National Day of Eating! I will be celebrating the holiday with my husband and two of my sisters here at our home in Maryland and then heading out for a long weekend on the Eastern Shore for some relaxation.

Since Thanksgiving is often a time for reflection, I did want to take this opportunity to let you know how sincerely grateful I am for everyone who reads this e-zine, takes time to comment on our blog, has joined the International Association of Creative Arts Professionals, follows me and comments on Facebook and other forms of social media, has taken our classes, attended or is planning to attend our annual Creative Arts Business Summit or works with me on a private basis. I am truly honored that you have allowed me to contribute in some small way to your business growth. It is so rewarding for me that I can make a difference. Thank you!

This week’s article is a letter written by Kat Tucker, a quilter from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She was taken with the article last week and wanted to respond.

“I was sorry to read about those that feel that they are not where they think they should be. Oh boy, can I ever relate to that.

For me it has been a meandering journey. From the time I sold my quilt store with a five year clause of only being able to Internet sell, to losing my husband and having to go back full time, instead of staying part time, in our business, to closing the doors and semi-retiring, to procrastinating during the five years, to OMG the five years are finished and now what do I do? Oh, I know, sign on as Treasurer to the Canadian Quilters Association and use that as an excuse not to work hard, if at all, on my quilting business.

Well, the working not hard became taking course after course about learning about myself, my business, other peoples’ businesses and how they got there, and repeat, especially learning about myself. It got so comfortable taking these courses that the procrastination and the ‘fear of success’ lasted five years plus one more year.

Then one day, don’t ask me when, I decided to go to Quilt Market. Why? I finally got tired of saying, and I’m certain that my quilting friends also got tired of hearing me say, ‘I’m working on my business.’ So now, I’m walking the walk instead of talking the walk.

I go to market. It all seemed too easy to get there and be there. I wasn’t nervous or anything. In fact, I said to the universe, if I get one order I’ll be a success. Well! I got one order. LOL. Thinking back, perhaps I should have asked for more orders. On top of that order, I made lots of contacts and my friends introduced me to contacts with possibilities. One of which has been successful and is a step in the door.

During this journey I’ve always had in the back of my head that this is what I want to do. The journey to get to this point may have taken longer that it should have, not because I didn’t know my business or what had to be done, but because I was standing in my way. ‘Get out of your white man’s head,’ as a friend of mine keeps reminding me.

All that being said, today, I’m a person that has and still continues to trim garbage out of my life. I’ve finally seen that I cannot do exactly what another person did in their journey to become successful and then get upset because it didn’t work for me. That is their journey and this is my journey. Best of all, my journey will probably still meander but it can also be tweaked as it moves down the path.”

Please share your thoughts on this blog below. . .