Barbara Sher’s Idea Party

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How Does the Online Idea Party Work?

You have a dream or a wish, and an obstacle to getting there. (If you don’t think you know your wish, work through my kick-starter and read this post. To learn why you must put logic aside to find your dream, read the following.)

The online Idea Party is here to help you – and the other fellow party goers – with your wishes and obstacles.

Voices from Success Teams and Idea Parties:

Having a team to report to and hearing what everybody did each week is very exciting. It’s kept me moving all year. In the past I made some good starts on my own, but found, every time, when the energy ran out, I ran out. Now it doesn’t run out.
Jade G.
Children’s Playroom Therapist, New York Hospital

I would do a painting a year, a sketch a year. If it was only me I know I would never do it. Having to tell you makes all the difference. It’s crazy why I didn’t do this years ago, it’s so easy all of a sudden.
Caroline R. Personnel Executive, Macy’s Dept Store

Post Your Wish and Your Obstacle Here!

And help your team mates out when you can. Use the Reply link to help, the form below the comments to add your own Wish and Obstacle.

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4,428 thoughts on “Barbara Sher’s Idea Party

  1. Hi everyone!
    I’m a wealth management specialist with 2 yrs work experience in India working with HNIs, doctors, corporate employees, and businessmen. I have an MSc in Finance & Investment with Merit from the University of Edinburgh (14th best uni in the world), however, it is not very well recognized in my country.
    MY WISH – Get a job in the USA/ Canada/ Australia where my degree and skills will have a much bigger impact (I’m passionate about helping people create wealth & financial independence, social investing through venture capital, and working with startups)
    MY OBSTACLE – Not having contacts and referrals who can help me with this.
    Thanks for reading my post Would love to connect if you can help me in any way (even counsel is highly appreciated right now)

  2. I desire my own life style brand focused on self care and having virtual tea parties where multi cultural women and I come together over a great pot of tea with healing medicinal properties to improve our health, write, pray, recite poetry meditate and I provide self care kits consisting of motivational card decks, inspirational book marks, meditations on demand, health and life coaching.

    For now this would be virtual tea parties and everyone would pay a fee to participate and I will have the tea and tea accessories shipped to them.

    This would be geared towards women feeling overwhelmed by the challenges of life and going through changes and personal transitions and seeking balance and connection.

  3. I desire my own life style brand focused on self care and having virtual tea parties where multi cultural women and I come together over a great pot of tea with healing medicinal properties to improve our health, write, pray, recite poetry meditate and I provide self care kits consisting of motivational card decks, inspirational book marks, meditations on demand, health and life coaching.

    For now this would be virtual tea parties and everyone would pay a fee to participate and I will have the tea and tea accessories shipped to them.

    This would be geared towards women feeling overwhelmed by the challenges of life and going through changes and personal transitions and seeking balance and connection.

    I am seeking feedback on best ways to move forward ?

  4. My dream is to have a house by a lake (without alligators/snakes) and a dock, where people can come for some good food, peace, renewal and refreshment of the soul through kayaking the lake, good food and company, and perhaps some ping-pong . I picture a studio above the garage where I can paint, sculpt, and also teach and have art therapy classes as well.
    Anyone have a place to rent out (Maybe rent to own)?

  5. I want to be a songwriter, but I don’t know how to get people to listen to my music. Actually, I want to have a variety show for children like Mr. Rogers, and write songs and little skits, but I don’t know how to get into children’s television.
    I’ve put my songs (for adults) online, but I don’t get any views. Most of the time, I’m the only one who hears it. How do I get people to listen to my music?

    • Liv,
      You can always go to the schools in your area, and see about doing a performance for the kids gathering. We used to have those in the gym, demonstrations, concerts, etc.

    • You reach out to the people most likely to be interested. As they play your songs on YouTube or talk about them on Instagram or Pinterest or Facebook or TikTok, more people come listen. So, who is most likely to be interested? Anyone who has heard you sing in person in their neighborhood. Be sure to post your YouTube channel address on the stage and on business cards and upcoming events schedules. Are your songs topical? Is there a Facebook group for people interested in that topic? Are they aimed at a particular demographic that you could advertise to on social media or join up with through MeetUp.com? Are there other musicians targeting these folks, perhaps someone you can open for or swap website links with or create an event with?

      Are your songs for adults suitable for young ears, too? If so, apply to perform at local art fairs, school fairs, First Night celebrations, etc., so you can begin to add songs for children into the mix and watch the reactions to see if you’re headed in the right direction to find your way to children’s TV. There’s less of it these days, so you’ll need a good in-person and online audience to break in.

      A friend of mine who loved to write songs and do skits for kids contacted all of the nursery schools and Pre-Ks in our area and got contracts with three of them. She would try to complement their curriculum, and she did a lot of improv songwriting with the kids, which they really loved and she loved even more. On weekends, she was a paid soloist for a church choir, even though she’s Jewish.

  6. I want to become a music producer, song writer, fashion designer and a college graduated. I’m a high school senior has doesn’t know where to start my journey but I know I want my future career to be in a independence girl group. What’s stopping me is me feeling to comfortable with being lazy and just watching YouTube. What stopping me is me trying trying and never getting anywhere. What’s stopping me is not truly believe in myself or that others would believe in me.

    • Paris, which of these goals would most benefit from college education and connections in the long run? That’s the one to focus on first. Choose a few colleges that teach this and schedule three hours a week for researching each of them to figure out if you’d feel at home there (including being able to pursue the other two dreams in your spare time) and what you need to include in your application to get in. It’s OK to watch YouTube, but you need to use it as a reward for putting in the time on those college applications, not something you do until some mysterious force leads you to think now would be a good time for that work.

  7. I am a painter and live in a tiny apartment with my husband and 2 sons. I paint large paintings and have run out of room. I would love a studio space where I can have elbow room to paint freely. Also it would be nice to not constantly breathe in paint fumes.. My obstacle is that I don’t have the money to rent a space. I live in East Islip, on Long Island in New York.

    • i will keep it short i almost lost my last notes here again.
      1- do you rent your paintings so that you can at least free space whether through a third party or on your own? 2- can you somehow barter with window displays of stores where they can have some thing to show and you can make a deal that will make both happy… the point is you need space and eye balls. 3- can you find a rich bored person who may want to engage with your painting and you can take a shed on the backyard..i know this lady was sewing her purses like this…it seemed so interesting. 4-can you get a small storage space where you can mostlikely line up 100 painting in a small space 5- can you barter your painting with their space or other things you need?
      6-some are renting room in their homes as storage, you can look around all those options. 7- some companies need to upgrade their look and feel and look rich…you may wish to strike a deal with them for hanging your paintings there? 8- we have an argentinian yerba matte here which had life sized paintings and they look super inviting …network network…and don’t forget the insurance and legales around your paintings.

    • Dear Denise,
      You Need The Studio Space. I once lived with a woman who was an artist, and had yearned to be one for years. She had a divorce from a physician, and so she rented out the bottom half of their luxurious home to me. This helped. She was working a regular 9-5 job in addition to this, doing wetlands mitigation, and she Hated IT! One evening, she arrived home with a broad grin. “Guess what! I’ve just been fired!”
      Me: “Fired! And you’re grinning about it? Watch out! In 6 weeks, that grin is going to turn into a look of sheer panic!” (It did, and we weathered the storm._
      Her: “Oh, no, it won’t!” And almost immediately, she went down into the industrial district, south of the downtown core, where there were a lot of old warehouses. A group of artists and sculptors had gotten together to rent out some space in one of these places and they were busy turning it into studio spaces. In no time at all, she had her studio.
      I don’t know what money she was using to set it up. Rent from me, perhaps? I don’t know. But what I Do Know is that she was working with a group of artists, and they were all creating their spaces together, out of this old, cavernous, spooky, grubby old warehouse. I went and visited it after she got it set up. She was eager to show it to me.
      And Then: Every day, she pulled out of the driveway at 8:30 a.m. as if she was going to work. She was! She was reporting to her studio! She stayed down there all day, and would come back by 5 or 5:30 or 6, with cerulian blue on her nose, yellow on her chin, and red somewhere else. She had been happily splashing away all day long. And she really began to make some serious art. She painted very big canvasses, too. Huge ones. She sold one of her paintings to a hotel. Think enormous, and you get the idea. She even got an commission to paint the columns inside the building of the athletic club. Silver, gold, and various colors, including some really interesting peach tones, that wrapped their way around the columns in abstract designs. It wasn’t long before she had a one-person show of all of her art, little and big. I encouraged her to do something little, because otherwise, people couldn’t buy it, only corporations, because the average person just doesn’t have room enough to hang it. She did, and I bought two of her pieces. She got together with other artists who were creating their spaces in this grubby old warehouse, in an ugly, industrial district of town. That was the key. Cooperation, and working to create their spaces together. So, is there a chance that you could somehow meet others who want to start art careers? Could you paint in a friend’s garage? (That’s a bit of a stretch, I know!) But I know an artist who did this. But you’ve gotta have space! Getting the studio was so fundamental to having my artist friend’s career take off.
      Cheap space in an ugly old warehouse, and the skills to hammer and saw and drill a little bit to create what was needed. And the cooperation. That’s what it took, and that’s what they did. I know this doesn’t answer it completely, but here’s another idea:
      To create the money, start putting up a stash in a sock, or an empty cereal box, or somewhere, that is just for the creation of the space, and nothing else. Up to $1,000, or whatever lesser amount you determine will to the trick, basically. And you create this by the following method: Every time any money at all comes to you, from any source whatsoever, you skim 10% off the top, before you pay Anyone Anything. Period. You pay yourself first, and into the sock it goes! You’ll be surprised how fast it builds up. If I, as an old granny on Social Insecurity can do it, then so can you. And no whining about “living paycheck to paycheck.” Yeh, I know! I know that one only too well. That’s exactly what I was doing before I did this. It works like magic. In 3 months, I had $500, and in 3 more, I’ll have $1,000, even if I make no extra money at all, as I usually do. It really works. Just don’t put it under the mattress–that’s the first place the burglar looks!

      • Hi Karla: thanks for reply, yes I do:

        Goal:

        Begin a transitional school in Vallejo for the formerly incarcerated that trains them in cleantech, new economy professions, with connections to Silicon Valley / high powered firms looking for job placement and success stories with that population.

        Obstacle: I don’t know or have connections to those people and firms that have those goals. I know some have those goals, among others. Need to meet social justice high tech system reformers, who are looking for success story opportunities. I have access to the formerly incarcerated, with facilities for instruction, and ability to form a school ‘on the ground.’

        • Dear Richard,
          I think, somehow, it would be a matter of writing up a proposal for people in high tech firms to review, unless you’ve already taken this step. And then, comes the more difficult step of finding out which individuals in which companies are open to this.
          What goes through my mind is, when someone gets out, before they get out, they need to have a plan for their parole. And when they are out, they need to meet those conditions of parole. And so, would it be possible that talking to parole officers or a parole officer who would like people to succeed on parole be of benefit in terms of creating a bridge to the potential employers? This is where a well-written proposal would come in handy, and would work better than some good idea that’s vaguer than a proposal would be. It may well be that a person like that would be willing to be helpful in contacting companies, so that you wouldn’t have to do all of that seemingly impossible piece all by yourself. Get them on your side with a proposal, and they might become helpful. Just a suggestion. You may not have to meet with system reformers at all, just the right people affiliated with the corrections system who can possibly help with the outreach to the companies. It’s good that you know of a few companies who have those kinds of goals.

          • Thank you, Mary Ann, for your thoughtful reply. I’ve done a lot of research on this, and have already put together parts of it on the parolee’s end. I was very drawn to Barbara Sher’s stories of the immediacy of people’s connections with each other, which had me reach out to you and this group. It’s the executive and company end that I need the contacts with. Writing up a proposal to a friendly source that could help with guidance would make a big difference. The Bay Area is a very likely place for this sort of thing to occur, so I remain hopeful for this kind of connection.

            I appreciate your thoughtfulness, thank you!

  8. Dear Courtney,

    I’m very sorry for your health issue.
    I can not help you, but I will provide a suggestion that hopefully can help you. I dont know how it is in the US. (Assuming you live there) but here in Europe these studies in Communication, Marketing, SEO Content creating are very popular. A lot of interns available. These young people usually are already quite experienced in the field and eager to learn It could be helpful to have one or more interns to help you out in need and when your health is better, they can help you grow your business.
    Hope this can help you in any way.

  9. Hello everyone. I hate even asking for anything but I’m in need of a little help currently. I have recently started my own business in social media marketing for doctors clinics and unfortunately have just had a major setback in my health. I’m trying to find volunteers to help me out in exchange for some of the knowledge I have in how to start your own social media marketing agency. I need content created or help with SEO/website optimization. Any suggestions would also be very much appreciated.
    Much love ❤️

    • Dear Courtney,

      I’m very sorry for your health issue.
      I can not help you, but I will provide a suggestion that hopefully can help you. I dont know how it is in the US. (Assuming you live there) but here in Europe these studies in Communication, Marketing, SEO Content creating are very popular. A lot of interns available. These young people usually are already quite experienced in the field and eager to learn It could be helpful to have one or more interns to help you out in need and when your health is better, they can help you grow your business.
      Hope this can help you in any way.

      Reply ↓

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