Follow your path even when things are not clear.
Messages from the Universe
This week has been full of random messages from the universe. On Sunday, at the final day of the World Domination Summit, the above note was the Mondo Beyondo blessing underneath my chair from Andrea Scher and Jen Lemen. If I knew that my heart knows the way, I would live from more ease, trust, love, and openness. Such a good reminder!
This was on the sidewalk in front of my neighbor’s house yesterday. What love can you invite into your life? For me this is about deeper connection with my hubby, more meaningful connection with my friends, and developing new friendships!
This message was on a chalkboard in HUB SOMA where I gave a talk last night at a Fearless Women Entrepreneur Network event. My answer would be to trust myself and to have more fun! What’s yours?
Whole Living Magazine and Creative Inspiration
I’m beyond thrilled to have a piece in the June issue of Whole Living magazine! It’s an article about envisioning success in your career and is adapted from my book The Right-Brain Business Plan.
The spread is on pages 129-130 and the image that goes with it is gorgeous. Last month I had a brief mention in article in Whole Living, but it’s pretty darn exciting to see “by Jennifer Lee” on the page!
I must say that the past couple of months I’ve been in the “now what?!” post-book launch dip. I wrote a little bit about my blahs in last month’s newsletter. I’ve just recently started to emerge from the exhaustion and fogginess. It was good to give myself time and space to be there and now I’m excited to really dive into to some cool projects. I’m heading to Vancouver tomorrow participate in a think tank with my mentor, Andrea J. Lee, and to speak at her Wealthy Thought Leader event. (BTW, if you’re at all interested, there’s a simulcast option so you can watch from the comfort of home.) Anyway, I’m jazzed about getting t0 mastermind some new ideas I’m working on.
And earlier this week, I got so energized visiting with a community of really amazing creative women who gathered at Teahouse Studio in Berkeley. The space is absolutely gorgeous. The photo above just captures one of the many nooks and crannies brimming with colorful inspiration. I love knowing that Teahouse Studio will be a hub for creative souls in the Bay Area and I look forward to taking a workshop there and hopefully to leading one there in the fall. The workshops sound awesome and you can check them out here.
Weekend Instacraft Project
This weekend I worked on a creative project I’ve been wanting to do for several months. My friend Julie got me this fabulous Pier 1 frame for Christmas and ever since then I’ve thought it would be the perfect way to display some of my Instagram prints. (If you’re feeling super DIY, I found this link to make a similar frame on your own).
The frame hangs in our bedroom and I love that I’ll be able to see all my favorite images right when I get up in the morning.
Brian helped me make and cut the prints. He’s much better at this precise production kind of stuff than me! We printed these a little smaller than 4.5″x4.5″ at 140 dpi on Ilford Galerie Pearl paper.
We did prints of some of my other favorite Instagrams, too. So fun to be able to hold them and display them around the house rather than just have time stuck in my phone. And I look forward to swapping out the current pics in the frame with different ones as I get inspired from new photos.
If you want to use a service to order prints of your Instagrams, here are a few options:
- PostalPix is a free app that let’s you order 4″x4″ prints along with other dimensions.
- The Boo Box shadow box looks really nice.
- The free Postagram app lets you create and send postcards of your Instagrams from your iPhone for only 99cents each. I received my test one last week and it looks pretty cool. The photo pops out, too, so your recipient gets a nice little keepsake.
I’m “jennlee” on Instagram if you want to follow me (the link is to web.stagram.com – a fabulous web-based IG viewer). New to Instagram? Check out Instagram Tips a free app my hubby and I made.
Mentioned in Whole Living magazine!
I absolutely love Martha Stewart’s Whole Living magazine. They always have such great articles to inspire healthy living and beautiful images to collage with. I’m thrilled to share that I’m mentioned on page 122 of the May 2011 issue. Yipee!!!
In the article I share a few creativity-boosting tips for changing up your space. The spread features artist Robin-Luciano Beaty who moved from her dark basement into a beautiful eco-friendly studio that she built in her backyard. It’s gorgeous!
I can certainly relate to how freeing and inspiring it feels to claim your own creative space. Last year I moved from a messy, dark office that I shared with my husband in the downstairs part of our house, to a bright and sunny space upstairs. It’s made a world of difference.
May is Whole Living’s inspiration issue – Dream it, Do it – 32 ways to tap your creativity, find your calling, and write your next chapter. Good stuff! Pick yourself up a copy and enjoy.
Instagram Emeryville Photo Walk
On Sunday Brian and I went on a photo walk with some IG’ers we met at the SF Instagram photo walk back in February. A small group of us wandered around Emeryville and Oakland with our iPhones in hand. You can check out our shots using the hashtag #instawalkeville.
This was from one of the community gardens in the neighborhood.
This is another one from the community garden. I didn’t realize that the bee was in the frame. Pretty cool that I was able to capture it. Feels so spring!
There were lots of cool metal sculptures in the neighborhood. This robot sculpture was in front of a recycling center.
Was fun to be out and about snapping shots and hanging out with fellow IG enthusiasts. On May 7th there will be several Instagram photo walks all over the world. You can find out more information at the Instagram meetup page.
Celebrating with family and friends
On Saturday my parents threw me a nice party to celebrate the launch of my book The Right-Brain Business Plan and my 5th anniversary of leaving my corporate job to pursue my dreams. My brother, Gregg, even flew up from L.A. for the event (even though he had already visited the week before). That’s us above with my cousin Robert (in the black on the far left). My dad gave a very lovely and thoughtful toast. So nice to know how proud he is! And many thanks to my aunt and uncle who graciously hosted the party on their beautiful patio.
My dear friends Hannah and Kate were there to celebrate. We all met a few years back through Ladies Who Launch and I just adore these talented and creative lovelies. And of course, Kate is the one who did all of the fabulous illustrations in the book!
And here I am with my book club ladies Lily, Francisca, and Kristen (we missed you, Christina!). While we were eating at the party realized we’re going on year 10 of our book club this year and started plotting a milestone celebration.
My friend Linda from my Old Navy HR days joined us as well. Our cubes used to be right next to each other and we sure had fun together!
And here I am with my college roomie Julie and dear friend Julie. She’s the absolute best and has been super supportive all these years.
I’m so grateful to be surrounded by such loving and wonderful friends and family! Thanks everyone! Couldn’t have done it with out your support.
March Recap
OMG, I can’t believe March is over! It’s been a whirlwind month filled with so many exciting things!
The first half of the month I spent immersed in a community of more than 2,000 creative souls who came together from around the world to participate in my first ever Right-Brainers in Business Video Summit. The energy and passion of all of these amazing people inspired me to no end. It definitely felt like we started a revolution of right-brainers in business! You can check out what some of the people have been up to since then on the RBBP Facebook fan page. And if you missed the summit, not to worry, you can still access the multimedia library to get inspiring and practical tips for running a creative business.
Oh and this is so freakin’ rad… toward the very end of the summit Jen Landis surprised me with this adorable Pincurl girl drawing of me. Thanks, Jen! I love it!!
Earlier this month I had my local book signing at A Great Good Place for Books in Montclair. Kate made my hubby take the photo above. I think it’s hilarious! I had a great time and was absolutely thrilled that it worked out for my friend Darlene from Canada to swing by on the first leg of her California trip.
I’ve also been busy doing a virtual book tour including guest blog posts, podcasts, and radio interviews. I just found out today that I’ll be on KOIT, a local radio station, next week. Yay!
As part of the video summit this month, I sent out many, many books all around the world. It’s thrilling to think about RBBP’s being made as far away as South Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand!
I must say the two weeks of the summit were super intense for me and I certainly needed downtime after to recoup after all the excitement. In fact, I am still recouping! I made sure to have lots of rest and to schedule in some small celebrations for myself. I treated myself to a morning of painting back at Chris’ studio. It had been several months since I was there.
And last weekend, my hubby, our dog, and I took a lovely trip up to Napa for some much deserved and needed rest and relaxation. We spent most of the trip indulging on delicious food at the awesome dog-friendly B&B we stayed at called the Inn on First, and at fabulous restaurants including Ubuntu which serves the most amazing vegetable dishes (and they have a yoga studio in the restaurant – how cool is that?) and Morimoto Napa where we had an absolutely incredible dinner. Oh, I want to go back! Mmmm.
So those were some highlights from March. Hard to believe the first quarter of 2011 is over. I’m really looking forward to more exciting things to come in April and beyond!
Namaste, Larry
I found out on Facebook last night that Larry Schultz, my yoga certification teacher and the founder of It’s Yoga, passed away recently. Such sad, sad news.
It was four years ago in March 2007 that I graduated from the It’s Yoga teacher certification program in SF. I have such fond memories of practicing in the studio. I can still hear Larry saying, “Where are your hands and feet?” as he walked around with his yard stick making sure we were paying attention to our alignment. You could tell who was an It’s Yoga TT because we all had a black sharpie line drawn down the center of our mat with dots for, you guessed it, our hands and feet in downward dog. But mostly I remember his mellow spirit and sage wisdom.
I was fortunate enough to lead several Dream Box Workshops through the teacher training program. Larry invited me to run these sessions after I shared my wish box with him during one of our training sessions. I’m forever grateful for that opportunity!
Larry was a pioneer in bringing Ashtanga yoga to the states and in particular growing the vibrant Ashtanga and power yoga community in the Bay Area. He was also the yoga teacher for the Grateful Dead for many years. And he trained teachers from around the world and developed an amazing practice called The Rocket.
Larry’s life and passing remind me how important it is to be living your passion and making a difference. He was doing his legacy work and his teachings will forever remain in the hearts and minds of all the people he has touched. Namaste, Larry!
Book Launch Bonanza!
This week is filled to the brim with exciting book launch activity! If you’re in the Bay Area, my local book signing is this Thursday from 7:00-8:30pm in Oakland at A Great Good Place for Books. I stopped by there yesterday to say hello and they were really looking forward to it, as am I.
Although I did dream last night that I showed up at the book store for the signing and forgot to bring all of my handouts and goodies. (Oy! It’s like those dreams of showing up at high school with just your socks on and forgetting that there was a calculus exam that day! Haha!). Remembering to breathe!
And if you’re not in the area, there are plenty of ways you can celebrate the launch with me! For starters, tomorrow, we’re kicking off the first ever Right-Brainers in Business Video Summit! There are already more than 1,000 people from around the world signed-up to participate.
We’ve got an amazing line-up of experts who will share their insider secrets on how to run a creative business successfully. Not only will you get to hear their pearls of wisdom, you’ll get to see them in action because this is a video summit after all! And I’ll be there live to chat with you and answer questions. Just check out these inspiring speakers:
Would love to “see” you there! You can still sign-up here (and did I mention, it’s free to watch!)
As part of the launch, I’m doing a virtual book tour where I’m doing guest interviews and posts on blogs throughout the next several weeks and beyond. You can check out my past posts here and see the upcoming schedule. If you’re interested in hosting me for a guest post, please drop a line to info at artizencoaching dot com with the subject line “blog book tour” and someone will be in touch soon! Thanks!
Lots more goodies and exciting announcements to come, so stay tuned. Sign-up for my Artizen Coaching newsletter so you always get the latest and greatest.