Managing Phone Time

“Call me anytime.”
“Use my cell, I always have it with me.”
“I’ll be home, give me a call.”
Phrases I hear all the time, but never believe. The phone has become a casual piece of entertainment to most people, but it’s the chief way I communicate with clients. I just purchased a larger cellphone plan, one with 2,300 minutes. I won’t have any rollover minutes at the end of the month, either.

If you own your business, you know what I mean–your phone is your marketing system, lifeline, communication tool. If you are like me, at the end of the day, you don’t want to talk anymore. Your ear hurts. But other people have a different view. People who own businesses have lots of time. Free time. So they must want to chat.

As a writer, and a developer of writing training programs, I have deadlines. And I need to schedule. Because I also coach people at their convenience, I have to set times and guidelines. When someone says, “give me a call anytime tonight,” my reply is never, “OK,” my reply is “How about 7?”

Often the answer is “Whenever,” but that won’t do. I have a West Coast conference call at 6:30 p.m. It has a firm beginning and end. At 7:30, I have a coaching call, for a client that doesn’t want to talk at work. So my available time is 7 to 7:30. It’s hard to explain this to people who go to work and come home at regular times.

“Sure, call me at 7″ they answer, but when I call, they are on the phone. I leave a message and start to prepare for my next call. That means taking care of physical needs (drinking water or putting it back), or standing up and stretching, looking up something, making a note so I won’t forget.

The phone rings and it’s my friend. “Geez, you are so prompt. I was talking to. . .” I look at the clock. Five minutes to the coaching call.
“What’s up?” I interrupt.
“I thought we’d talk about that meeting we’re going to.” I know this is a long talk, involving content planning and who will drive and where we’ll eat.
“I can drive, and you can choose the restaurant,” I say, now at 3 minutes left.
“What do you want to do your presentation on?”
“I thought I’d do it on communicating with people you like and know, but don’t have time for,” I say, thinking this is a topic I’m an expert at.
“OK, so let’s talk.”
“I can’t. I have a call. I can talk tomorrow at 2 or at 5. Which is better?”
“Oh, call me anytime tomorrow. I’ll be home all day.”

When you own your own business, time is a currency that needs to be budgeted and counted. To those who see time as a space to be filled, the geometry of talking doesn’t match with the neatly packed rolls of quarter-hours to be doled out.

–Image: www.infowit.com

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and creativity coach. She watches the clock, and tries to explain the measurement system to others, often without success. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008. All rights reserved.

Tutorial: Envelope Journal

The journals I like to make best are ones with just a few pages. That way, I can fill them up quickly, and make another one. Like most people who make things, I often enjoy the design and creation more than using the actual finished piece. So I always leave room for the possibility of altering my work some more.

Materials: This tutorial uses simple things you already have: cardboard for the cover (I used mat board), number 10 size envelopes, masking tape, bookbinding tape (it’s expensive, you can substitute gaffers tape), cotton thread, a pointy awl and watercolors.

Purpose: This envelope journal has room to write in and room to keep a note, a concert ticket, or a photo along with the memory.

Assembly: 1. Cut black (or another solid color of mat board) into rectangles slightly larger (about one-fourth inch all the way around) than the envelope you will use. Put them next to each other, long sides together, but about one-quarter inch apart. Cut a piece of gaffers tape about 2 inches longer than the covers. Center the tape over the covers and place it down gently. Lift the covers, turn them over and smooth down the piece of tape at the top and bottom. Cut another piece of tape to cover the space in between the top and bottom overlaps. Cut it long enough so you have all the sticky part of the tape completely covered.

2. Lay two envelopes, flap side down, in front of you, side by side. They should be about one-eighth inch apart. Tape them together, the long way, using masking tape. Create three sets of these. If you want to have the envelopes face in different directions, take into account that these pairs of envelopes will nest.

3. Nest the pairs of envelopes and line up the top and bottom. Place them in the center of the open book covers.

4. Using the awl, or a self-centering screw punch (you get them from a hardware store) punch four evenly spaced holes in the tape between the envelopes and book covers.

5. Thread a tapestry needle with cotton thread. It should be thick enough not to tear. Starting from the back of the book, come up through the top hole. Go down into the next hole, come up through the third hole, and down through the fourth. If you want to make your book sturdier, come back up through the third and work your way to the top. The needle should exit out of hole # 1. Tie the thread off and trim the ends.

6. Decorate the cover. Paint geometric figures on the plain side of the envelopes. Leave enough space for writing.

–Quinn McDonald is an artist, writer and certified creativity coach. She teaches at the Mesa Art Center in Mesa, Arizona. Images: Quinn McDonald. (c) 2008. All rights reserved.

Fighting to Change

Even when you want to change, it isn’t easy. What makes change hard? Two major factors: yourself and others. The rest is easy. When you decide to change, you have your past to wrestle with. You choose the path to change and suddenly your inner voice pipes up. “What’s so wrong with who you are now?” “Love yourself the way you are, change is a sign of self-hatred.” “Can you really keep up this behavior?”

If you want to change a habit, you’ll have to substitute the new behavior for about two month. That’s as long as it will take you to establish the new habit in place of the old. No doubt about it, they will be the longest two months of your life. You will invent a thousand reasons to go back to the old behavior–it’s your birthday, you just started a diet, you are stressed, now is not a good time. But like having a baby, there is never a perfect time, you have to gear up, crank up your determination and get busy.

Just when you do, your friends will start chipping away at your resolve. They will give you excuses to fail. They will tell you they like you the way you are. They will whine that you don’t need to change. Why are your friends so focused on sabotage? Because if you change, they will have to change. They will have to get to know the new you, they will have to change the way they treat you . And your friends don’t want to change. It’s too much work. It is a lot less work to complain until you quit changing.

Your friends can be persistent and threatening. Most people don’t like confrontation, and they do like their friends, so they cave in and go back to being “normal.” And there goes the path to success.

If you are determined to change, tell your friends you plan ahead of time and enlist their help. Ask them to support you before the chorus of complaints begins. Often asking for support not only makes friends understand that this is important to you, it helps you be clear about what you want. And talking about the change helps you be clear about what you want for your future.

That doesn’t mean your friends will always support you, but it gives you a better start. And a good start is the best way to start toward a good finish.

–Image: www.triathletemag.com

–Quinn McDonald is a life coach and certified creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved.

Coaching: The unasked question

In the life of a person being coached, there is a question that raises its head. More than a few people have accused me, in a moment of anger, of being in it for the money. Of talking to them only because they pay me to.

On the face of the accusation (it’s never just a statement), they are right. My clients find me, they call me, and they pay me. Because coaching is intimate work, it is often easy to confuse coaching with talking to a stubborn friend who is totally involved in you and keeps asking questions about things that interest you.

I admire most of my clients. It takes guts to call on someone for help. I appreciate all of them. The struggle is almost always worth it—I’ve got the letters of amazement to prove it. “You didn’t give up on me.” “You showed me how to believe in myself.” And I do.

Coaching is a calling. I didn’t have a divine light come from the sky. I wanted to help creative people be comfortable with their creativity–being creative writers, illustrators, parents, employers, speakers–whatever life they choose. My life has been one of change, rejection, acceptance, and making peace with being creative in a time when ‘cheap price’ wins over ‘well-done’ every time. It’s not an easy path, but I’ve walked it, and I enjoy helping people make the choices they can live with happily.

And yes, I charge for doing this. In our culture, time is money. We get up and go to work in the morning because we need to eat, pay a mortgage, and drive a car. If you didn’t need to earn money, would you still go to your daily job? If you could do whatever you wanted in life, would you still go to your office? Exactly.

And so I charge for my talent, my experience, my time and effort. For years, I had clients whom I coached for free. Over time, I noticed that clients who didn’t pay often weren’t invested in their own progress. They missed calls. They forgot to call on time, then complained when I ended their session on time. They didn’t do their weekly work, would refuse to think through a question, simply repeating “I don’t know. Tell me.”
The answer was always, “I don’t ‘tell you’. If I give advice you will spend too much effort telling me why you can’t follow it. If you create your own solutions, and fail, you’ll learn why and then succeed.”

People who were not required to pay quit after a few weeks, blaming me that “coaching doesn’t work.” People who believed in themselves enough to pay, worked hard and succeeded.

And for some people, those who are working hard and struggling, there is extra time on a session. Or a lot of emails between sessions. And sometimes, an extra session I never charge for.

And that is wonderful for both of us. It’s the reason I coach–you can change, if you want to do the work.

–Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008. All rights reserved. Image–Quinn McDonald. Under the same copyright.

How To: Write an Ad for Your Art

Ads help your clients understand your work. If the client doesn’t understand your work, they won’t  buy it.  If the client can’t understand your ad,  they won’t understand your art and you won’t make a sale.

Several years ago, there was a trend for artists to use their pets in the ad. The reason? A pet supposedly made the artist seem more appealing, interesting, human or fun. Generally the pet’s name was included as well as a title, “Chief Tester,” or “Canine of the Board.” I never understood this trend. I wasn’t selling my pet.  Why waste space showing the client my cat and not more of my art? Most ads are sold by size, and the more space you use up not showing your product and selling it, the less space you have to allow the client to fall in love with your work.

Rule #1 for art ads: Show your art. It’s what you are selling. If you do pet portraits, paintings, or other artwork, you can put your pet in the picture. Otherwise, leave your pet out of the picture.

Rule #2: Give the clients a reason to like your work. Close ups of your art is best. If your art is functional, showing it in use is also a good idea. Clothing is almost always shown on gorgeous models so you can imagine yourself looking that wonderful if you wear that item.

Rule #3: Talk to your audience. That means you have to know who your audience is. Hint–it’s not “everyone.” Use words, references, and ideas your audience knows and approves of. If your target audience is young women between the ages of 16 and 30, skip the references to Woodstock, Audrey Hepburn, Twiggy and The Beatles.

Rule #4: Keep the copy simple. The best copy includes the features of your product (characteristics that make it special) and the benefit to your client. (Benefit is how your product will make the user’s life easier). I know it might sound obvious that a waterproof purse lining will not absorb spills from your water bottle, but the reader may not be thinking about that.

Rule #5: Include your contact information. Give the reader at least one way to see more of your work (store hours, website) and one way to reach you (phone number or email.) And include the name of your business as well.

Rule #6: Show the price. This is controversial. Many artists believe hiding the price keeps clients from rejecting it before the artists speaks to them about it. I don’t believe this. If the client is shopping by price alone, and will eliminate your piece only because the price is too high, the price will always be too high. I’ve tried it both ways, and I get more sales if I show the price.

Yes, ad writing can be complicated. Yes, there are a lot more rules. But if you follow the ones above, you’ll have an ad people will understand. And that’s a big step forward.

–Quinn McDonald is an artist and a trainer in communicating clearly. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved.

Hidden Costs on Websites

There is an annoying trend starting up on websites, and I’d like to nip it in the bud. All of you who sell products and services on your websites, quit hiding the cost of your memberships, classes, and products. Quit making me click on “buy now” or fill out registration forms with all my information before I find what I have to pay.

You are probably thinking that telling me the price up front will make me leave, because my buying decision is based on price, and if you can show me a few more facts, I’ll think the price is a bargain.

Don’t know about everyone out there, but if I can’t find the price, I feel like I’m being scammed. I don’t like searching for things you cleverly hide. You can’t make your clients eat your vegetables on your website.

Put your price where I can see it and consider it. I’m not so dumb that if you’ve led me on a chase through your website, and I finally find the price, I’m going to think it’s worthwhile and buy.

And while I’m at it, stop calling prices “investment fees,” “opportunity cost” and other nonsense. It’s a price, and I’m willing to pay it if you give me real information and put the price up front, so I can make a decision like an adult. If you don’t, I’m finding someone who will.

–Image: secrethidingplace.com

–Quinn McDonald teaches Writing for the Web and other business communication classes. She is also a certified creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved.

Tutorial: Monochromatic Collage

Working with just one color is a study in shifts and changes, a challenge in training your eye. But the work is rich, and the rewards many. One of the most amazing parts of this work is to see the effect in a changing light. Shadows, highlights and shading creates a display you can watch as the sun moves through your day. Try viewing your work under different lights and at different distances from the light source. You’ll be delighted at the different look you can achieve from one card, just by changing the light source.

Both of these cards are monochromatic. Made on 90-lb. recycled paper, the card background is plain white. Not the bright blue-white of sketching paper, but a simple, matte white.

Fold the paper in thirds, trimming to fit a standard envelope. Then open the paper, and place it so the back of the card is at your upper left. (If you are right handed, try it with the back of the card on your upper right).

Using an X-acto™ knife, cut in freehand waves from the top corner to about halfway across the bottom edge of the paper. In other words, the bottom edge of the paper should be the shortest part, about half as long at the top edge.

Now refold the card. It will be in an accordion fold, with the tallest part in the back.

Cut squiggles, triangles and other shapes from other shades of white paper. You will be surprised at how many shades of white you can find without using paint. Washi papers are creamy white, photocopy papers are blue-white, pages from old books are almost tan.

In monochromatic collages, you can use several shades, even if you can’t do the same thing with fully saturated colors.

Arrange them in interesting patterns. In the two cards shown, the triangles become trees, a larger circle of natural washi becomes the moon, squiggles of white paper printed with black become shadows and hills.

Once you find a pleasing arrangement, use a small brush dipped in diluted glue or liquid matte medium, paint the back of the entire squiggle and apply it, glue side down, on the card. Try not to reposition it, as the glue will leave a visible mark.

Note: Never glue on your cutting mat. It will ruin the mat. Use the back of photocopies you are going to toss out. Glue one piece and move down the sheet, so you don’t wind up with glue on the front of the piece your are gluing.

When gluing triangles or circles, be careful what side you want to glue. Sometimes you want to glue the front of a triangle onto the back of a card. You won’t need a lot of glue. When you are done, stand the card upright to let it dry. When it is completely dry, press lightly under a heavier book. Do not press in a book press, as the shorter pages will imprint on the longer pages.

–Quinn McDonald is an artist and writer. She teaches several art and journaling classes at the Mesa Art Center. See her work at QuinnCreative.com

Journal Prompt: Know Who You Are

Yesterday, I heard an interview with Helen Prejean, the nun who wrote “Dead Man Walking.” She spoke briefly, yet with great conviction. the sentence that made me sit up and take notice was, “To know what I believe, I watch what I do.”

A simple sentence, but a powerful one. How often do we speak for compassion, but don’t act on it? How easy to point to a fault in someone and not see it in ourselves.

The sentence was a great one, and one that makes a wonderful journal prompt. I spent a timed five minutes writing, and was surprised where it took me. Try it for yourself and you’ll be surprised to find out who you are.

–Image: Quinn McDonald. Quinn is a certified creativity coach. See her writing at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved.

The Many People We Can Be

“ Don’t I know you from somewhere?” the woman asked me. She was in my booth at an art show. I had recognized her when she came in, but I knew that in this different context, she would not recognize me. “I was your trainer two weeks ago, ‘Problem Solving for Leadership,’ I said.

She looked horrified. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m an artist, too,” I explained. I left out creativity coach, life coach and writer. One thing at a time.

“You can’t do that,” she said in a stern tone, “You can’t be both. What are you really?”

Who Are You Today?
It’s an interesting question. We are many people—spouses, parents, significant others, neighbors, organ donors, —but we see ourselves as one person at a time. During the day we are what we do—corporate employee—and when we leave work we become the “real” us. And if we’ve integrated what we do with who we are, we favor identifying ourselves by our work. “I’m an accountant,” or “I’m an engineer,” is something we hear more often than, “I’m intrigued by the idea that there is a great deal of similarity among the origination story of different religions.”

Learning How to Be You
Two generations ago, most schools prepared us for life—we took languages, world history, art, music, science, math and philosophy. We learned how to reason abstractly and think creatively. Now schools prepare us for a job—engineer, lawyer, journalist. We learn only those facts that can be proven to be necessary—either on the next test, or for the job.

But most of the things that have served me best in life—compassion, understanding, listening, exploring possibilities—aren’t taught in school anymore. They can’t be quantified enough to be put into a multiple-choice test. But life, it turns out, is not a multiple-choice test, it’s a series of essay exams.

Think Big: Be More
But experience can’t be summarized in a sound bite. Life doesn’t fit a three-word definition of who you are and how you fit into society.

As we speed up life, we have just enough time, it seems, to get one job done right. And our culture tells us that getting it right is very important, so we’d better not have time to learn about more possibilities. Instead, we’d better prove that we are worthy of regular title promotions and salary increases.

Think Creative, Live Creative
You can, of course, be someone else as a hobby. But hobbies need to be controlled and preferably quantifiable, like collecting something. Once you start to make money at a hobby, you better have a name for your company and be ready to fill out a form C for the IRS—and make a decision about what you really want to do.

Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Poisonwood Bible, The Bean Trees, and Animal Dreams, found strong disapproval when she gave in to her need to play music and joined the Rock Bottom Remainders with Amy Tan, Dave Berry and Stephen King. Of that experience, she writes “As I get comfortable with the middle stretch of my life, though, it’s occurred to me that this is the only one I’m going to get. I’d better open the closet door and invite my other selves to the table, even if it looks undignified or flaky. . .I’m not looking for a new me, just owning up to all the old ones. . . . The Rock Bottom Remainders went on record as half-bad musicians having wholehearted lives.”

One Life, Many Lives
I’m well past the halfway part of my life, and there are still several lives, ideas, paths, to try out. I don’t want to say ‘no’ to any of them. There is a lot to do in the time I have left and a mind clear enough to do it. I want to look forward. Looking back is comforting because we are no longer there, and because we know everything we are looking at. Looking ahead is full of mystery and the unknown. But I would rather spend my time looking square-on at today’s mystery than looking back on things that can’t be changed.

–Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach, writer and trainer in how to communicate in the corporate world. See her work at QuinnCreative.com 

Creativity Lessons from My Motorcycle (Jan. 08)

I was grumbling about all the chrome on the bike. Not a fan of shiny, polish-needing parts on anything, I was using a toothbrush to clean the wheels of the bike. No, I’m not a neat-freak, but the bike is black and chrome, and it had started to look unkempt, insect-spotted and dusty. So I was polishing, wiping, washing and toothbrush- wielding. It felt like the whole bike was made of chrome.

Dan rolled up in the driveway behind me.
“What’s new?” he asked, getting off his bike.
“Polishing up Suzie Lightning, then going for a ride,” I said.
He considered the cloud cover and said, “Every minute you spend polishing that thing, you aren’t riding it. And you bought it to ride, not polish.”
He was right, but I said, “Gotta keep it clean.”
“Sure,” he agreed, “but you can keep it clean at night or when it’s cold. Take advantage of what you have.”

The same is true of creative work. Artists and writers can spend a lot of time on prep work, and never get to the actual writing or art. Cleaning the studio, the house, doing laundry all are important, but the wrong time to do them is when it is time to do creative work.

Leave the cleaning for a time when you aren’t creatively charged or know that you have just enough time to do one load of laundry. Life is short, your creativity is calling you. Go answer.

Image of all-chrome bike: www.motorbiker.org

–Quinn McDonald is a trainer in business communications and a certified creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved.