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.
(Your first comment below has to be approved, so it may not display instantly depending on the time of the day. Once your email address is approved you can post instantly. If you want your own profile photo to show up beside your comments, instead of the cute little design, upload your photo on Gravatar.com and give them an hour or so to make it happen.)
Anyone else with a dream of a cross-country move like Mary Ann? Penske’s giving away truck rentals as prizes at http://www.pensketruckrental.com/openroadsweeps/
Oops. I goofed up my previous post, but I think you get the gist. Thanks!
I have a copy of Barbara’s book, “Refuse to Choose”, because I am a scanner. I want to publish e-books, but I am sick of the current wave of “gurus” urging us to be experts in one thing. Boring!
My e-books would not be about one subject, but the ideas I have in mind do seem to have a common theme regarding consumer issues, such as avoiding ripoffs. My plan would be to research topics which are not only interesting to me, but are also in need of a good, instructional resource.
I realize that my plan would be breaking all of the guru’s “rules”, but I wouldn’t be comfortable following their rules. Besides, who makes the rules, anyway?
Are idea parties ever held in person? If so, how can I learn of an idea party coming to my area?
All the gurus say that you have to have a mailing list to maximize your profits. While I definitely see the value in that, I don’t see myself communicating to a list on a regular basis. I’d feel like a slave to the growth and maintenance of the list. I feel like I’d be breaking all the “rules” that these pundits
Jeff, check on http://shersuccessteams.com/findateam.htm for a Success Teams leader near you. They hold lots of Idea Parties in person.
You need a way to get your books to your audience(s). You can make money writing about lots of different topics if they are all for the same audience, like the book rack in every DIY store. A mailing list or blog is a really great way not only to make it easy for your audience to find you but also to learn what your audience wants to learn about. (They will definitely surprise you.) Another way to market instructional material is through a service like Udemy, Ruzuku, Skillshare, or en*theos.
For the first time in decades, I absolutely know what I want. Last year I invested everything I had, air miles, savings, credit card credit, to take a three weekend UCLA course on color and architecture. The goal being to become an architectural colorist. Prior to that I didn’t even know it was a Thing. I took the first class and discovered I was not only over the moon about it but also very good at it. Having worked on architecture for decades I found a real area of need. (Interiors designers usually are good at it. Exteriors are often not.)
The instructor and UCLA cancelled the second an third courses. I continued to self-teach as much as I could. They again offered it for February and it was cancelled again. The instructor suggested I take an IACC certification course held in San Diego; it’s coming up March 19. I can not for the life of me figure out how to pay for this. I’ve booked the hotel, signed up for the course without paying, and tried to book airfare from Seattle but I don’t have enough miles. When I think about just bagging it for now I want to scream. (Next time they offer it is fall of 2015!) Color really does change everything on so many levels. I need a fast solution!
Leslie — I love to hear that someone has discovered a love like this!
Time is too short for crowdfunding. Search for / share a ride / in Google and start checking the listings for someone headed from Seattle to San Diego or LA (there’s a train). You might also try http://seattle.craigslist.org/rid/ and http://sandiego.craigslist.org/rid/
And why not tell us which frequent flyer club you’re in? It might be possible for someone here to donate extra miles to you.
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Wish: to get rid of all my clutter
Obstacle: where to put all those cute little things I’ve collected throughout my life; it seems such a waste just to throw them away
I’ve already gotten rid of alot of those extra things, thrown out broken and useless ones and taken old clothes and books and magazines to a flea market. I just used to be such a collector when I was young that I ended up having lots of unnecessary things in my possession.
Hi E.K.
I’m struggling to declutter too, although I’ve never been a systematic collector and just seem to have far too much stuff.
Why throw your lovely things away? If you wanted to collect them, chances are someone else will too, and they’re probably in good condition, right? I discovered online auction selling last year and was amazed to find how easy it was and how much I got for stuff I thought was tat and only fit for the bin. It turned out to be fun too, despite my earlier misgivings.
Give someone else the pleasure of ownership and know your things are being lovingly cared for. If you don’t want the money, you can always donate it to charity. I’d suggest you start off researching the stuff on auction sites and specialist collectors sites to get an idea of what things are worth before plunging in. Lurk a bit and see how the people who are successfully selling similar stuff are doing it.
See it as an an adventure and a chance to learn rather tha a wrench.
Good luck and have fun.
Jay
I want to make a midlife career change from a teacher to a life coach/writer. Feeling overwhelmed with all the decisions and ideas.
Hi Debby. Well preferably you don’t start by making any big irreversible decisions, like quitting your job and plunging into full-time self-employment.
But do start writing all your ideas down in an ideas book, or a folder on your computer, so you don’t lose them. It helps with calming down the feelings of overwhelm too. Then pick a couple of them to focus on in your free time for the next month (or two or three). Maybe you could get a couple of volunteer guinea pigs for coaching practice, and then perhaps your first paying client.
For your writing, a blog is a good way to start and find your voice and get into a regular writing habit. You can set it to be public or private. Use free blogging services like blogspot or wordpress.com.
Then if your small enterprises start bringing in money, you can gradually cut back your job hours accordingly.
Not sure exactly when, but almost certainly in 2015, I’ll be running the WriteSpeak program for the first time since 2009. All of it will be online – no in-person retreats from now on. It’s a very unusual program. You might be able to learn everything you need to know in Part I (and stop there). That’s a 2-day telephone workshop.
You’ll learn what drives you and turn it into a book in a new way I’ve designed and use myself. It will be a good, readable book, too. But best of all, it will ensure that you get good speaking/coaching fees.
When Patty gets back, you can ask her for more information. She’s the planner.
(Of course, if you want to be trained by me, my 10-month course in Frankfurt, Germany, starts in November. You’ll have to be in Frankfurt for at least 4 of the 5 face-to-face weekends, but the rest is online. Let me know if you need more info on that.
Good luck!
I have a couple of dream wishes
Firstly, I love travel and adventure – experiencing different cultures and topographies. I love to walk (hike) and would love to find a travel companion who also enjoys walking, visiting museums, taking in local arts and culture. As a mature person on a limited budget, I do not have the financial means to join expensive guided tour groups.
Secondly, I would like to share my talents and skills with a third world community to improve the lives of its members – to help third world citizens improve their health and overall well being. I am a spiritual person but not religiously affiliated.
I know there are organizations that let you volunteer overseas. I think you need to pay to do it though. There are also organic farms all over the world. You can apply to volunteer to work on a farm. However, you’d still need to pay to travel to the country, etc.
There’s also teaching English. If that interests you, you could obtain a TEFL certificate from a school that places its students in jobs.
I don’t know whether you mind sharing with people or not. If you don’t mind sharing, you could stay in youth hostels and save a lot of money. There’s also ‘couchsurfing.’ If you search that term online, you’ll find some web sites for it.
Anyhow, off the top of my head, that’s all I can think of right now.
SERVAS is a great organization that is sounds like you might like. Their mission of increasing global awareness and community (my paraphrase) encourages people to go overseas and share culture, etc. It has an interview process, but the costs are minimal for the value.
As for traveling internationally, could you organize travel for others and take a small group with you to various hikes in other countries? You can offset your travel by charging a modest fee to others (travel logistics are stressful and you can just let them pay and play!) to organize the tour. It can be as complicated or easy as possible…I don’t want to ride on a tour bus, but I would also not like to have to organize EVERY single part of my vacation, especially since I have a kid (most tours are not geared toward families, I’ve found—unless they are to disney places and no thanks!). But you can cater to your friends, or a small group of hikers, etc. Connective travel (where the experiences AND the people create an unforgettable time–I made that term up!) could be a lovely way to enjoy new adventures…heck, I may do this myself! 🙂
With regards to sharing health practices with developing countries, I’ve found that the smaller the organization, the better chance you have. There are plenty of really small groups, with no funding (or very little), and no religious/church groups to help, that need services and information. My parents ran a non-profit that started out when they brought clothes (collected by diff people in the states) to flood and earthquake victims. They just did it. There was no org, no place to plug in, they just went to a makeshift village and started handing out (later, they realized that that wasn’t the best way to distribute, but what they learned gave them the idea to help orphans get better educations!). You could raise the money to get down there, ask for donations from organizations for health items (toothbrushes, soap, etc), even get college kids to pay their way to help, and make a stunning presentation about how to do whatever you want to teach. From my experiences all over the world, in developing countries, interaction and connection and some solid laughter is really what folks want, but it doesn’t hurt to talk about hand-washing…:)
For your first goal, Dolores, you could stay in hostels in places with good museums and cultural resources, and/or landscapes for hiking. Then make friends with other hostellers who would be happy to go exploring with you.
I’ve often seen people who become friends in hostels and then make further arrangements to travel together or meet up in other places. Just try to avoid party cities or known party hostels at the weekends, when hostels are often full of people who just want to get drunk and party all night. Stag parties are the worst!
If hostelling is new to you, I suggest starting with a few days in one in an interesting place not very far from your home.
For your second goal of sharing your talents and skills with a third world community to improve the lives of its members, you can do this by online or virtual volunteering. Here are a few links about it.
http://www.idealist.org/info/Volunteer/Online
http://www.volunteering.org.uk/component/gpb/virtual-volunteering
http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/resources/how-to-guides/volunteer/doc/ever-considered-online-volunteering.html
https://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en/index.html
if you want to combine volunteering with traveling, here are some sites for shorter term volunteering opportunities in various countries. You get free accommodation, and often food, in exchange for a few hours work.
Help Exchange
http://www.helpx.net/
Work Away
http://www.workaway.info/
Worldwide Opportunities on Organic farms
http://www.wwoof.net/
I starting a coaching business and I’ve read a lot already about marketing. I’m actually a really good (great?) writer and I know that writing an ebook would be good for my business (and my self-esteem)…but what to write about? I have interests all over the place (of course, since I’m a Scanner) and even my coaching is pretty broad. Relationships, financial stuff (how to still live a good life even when broke), feng shui, family healing, parenting, owning a home, writing itself (how-to, etc), creativity,…what would you read? What are you interested in? What questions do you have? What are your struggling with?
Thanks for the brainstorming, peeps!
I’m a writer and scanner as well.
For me, writing just about “what I know” or what I’m “interested” in just doesn’t energize me. I find writing what I CARE ABOUT, or what of my experiences might help others going through a similar thing is what gets me motivated to write. That might be different from one time to another.
If I have a meaningful spiritual experience, I like to share it with others. If I’m experiencing a challenge (like a mid-life career transition), then I like to write about what I am learning and what has helped me.
Awesome. Thanks for the ideas!
Hi Becca, I am also a scanner, so can totally relate.
I think as a coach, you could legitimately write a book that would be a roadmap for ‘uplifting your whole life’. You could cover off you interests by each chapter.
People are always looking for a guide and an easy accessible way to improve themselves. There are really successful examples like this that I can think of: Gretchen Rubin’s ‘The Happiness Project’ for one, ‘The Artists Way’ for another. And so many blogs out there are really just the same model, offering readers various paths of information to follow.
I think a lot of current culture with blogs and self emprovement books is geared towards a scanner mentality – which is great for us! Especially self evolution, which seems to be what a lot of your interests cover.
Good luck!
I’m personally interested in how to survive in this economy, how to earn a living without a job, how to become self-employed or start your own business in a tough economy–and without much money. Things have changed a lot. The old ways of finding a job and succeeding don’t work anymore.
True enough! I’m in the situation myself! I had a job but left it since it was so unfulfilling and now I am able to pursue all my interests (I think I might be a plate spinner!), but the “old ways” of employment and enjoyment have shifted. Thanks for your ideas!
“The old ways of finding a job and succeeding don’t work anymore.”
Yes that’s very true meri. I’m going to suggest some books that could help you find more effective methods.
A good place to start is Barbara Sher’s first book Wishcraft. Even though it’s over 30 years old, it has a lot of original and practical ideas about how to have a successful life, which are very applicable now.
Then you could read Barbara’s Idea Book, which is full of more specific ideas about ways to earn money and keep yourself from starving. It can only be bought directly from Barbara at http://geniuspress.com/books.htm. But for two more days you can get the downloadable version much cheaper by donating here http://gogetfunding.com/project/help-us-get-this-good-person-home-to-seattle
If you’re a Scanner with many interests, Refuse to Choose is essential reading. In it Barbara suggests different life design models and ways of earning a living for different types of Scanners.
Making a living Without a Job by Barbara Winter is also a good one, especially if you want to have multiple streams of income.
And for the currently most effective methods of finding work, get the most recent edition of What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Bowles. He updates it thoroughly every year.
Hey, thx for all the suggestions. I’d read Wishcraft a long time ago (why I’m on this site) but didn’t read Refuse to Choose all the way thru, so I think I need to revisit both books. I took a seminar once with Ms. Winter also.
I think I need to focus on obtaining a support system right now. Finding my “tribe” is most challenging for me. It’s linked w/my ability to earn money, i.e., I need money to go to the places where I can find my “tribe.” And I think that once we find our tribe that results in our making the connections we need to earn the money too, doesn’t it?
But I hadn’t heard of the Idea book so I’ll look into that. I like Ms. Sher’s practical suggestions. Too many career advisers focus on positive thinking & it’s hard to get honest answers because they want to sugarcoat everything.
Thanks again for the thoughtful response!
Two messages you definitely won’t find here, meri, are “Think positive!” and “Find your one true career!”
I think for Scanners it’s often better to ask yourself “What’s a reasonably pleasant way for me to earn enough money to eat and pay my bills for the next few months?”
Who are your tribe and where do you need to go to meet them? Are they people who don’t use the internet?
Nowadays you can find and connect with almost any kind of tribe for free from your home by online networking.
It sounds as if you particularly want to make professional connections, so LinkedIn is probably your best place to start.
“And I think that once we find our tribe that results in our making the connections we need to earn the money too, doesn’t it?”
I don’t know. Maybe sometimes it does, but that’s not always the main purpose of finding your tribe.
It could work like that if you find a tribe of fellow professionals who can help you make good connections, or a tribe of potential customers. Or your tribe could be like a big success team who support you in achieving your goals.
Or maybe they are just a bunch of people who make you feel normal because they understand you, and think that your interests and ideas aren’t the slightest bit weird or uncool.
So why not write a series of e-books about all your interests? You just have to choose which one to start with. If you can’t decide, put them all in a hat and draw one out. (And if in the moment before you make the draw you find yourself hoping for a particular result, then write about that one first instead.)
Or you can write a series of blog posts about them all instead. A blog is also a very good marketing tool. Maybe better than an e-book.
As a Scanner myself, I would probably read about any of those subjects if it was written in an interesting way, (except for feng shui, or anything else new agey or spiritual, but lots of other people like those subjects).
I generally like it better when people write from a personal viewpoint, e.g. how you are parenting, or managing to still live a good life even when broke, or how you are creating or growing stuff, with photos of all the stages, including the failures, rather than general stuff about how to parent or be creative etc. (And if you mention left brain/right brain in connection with creativity, I’m gone! Brains don’t actually work that way.)
If it’s your story about how you do things, I could find it interesting even if it’s a subject that doesn’t personally apply to me, like parenting. I probably wouldn’t pay to read it, but I’d read it on a blog. If it was a subject of more specific interest to me, I might join your email list to download it free.
I think if you want people to pay, you’ve first got to build up a reputation as an authority on the subject, e.g. by means of your blog and/or newsletter, then write a book that helps to solve an important problem for your readers.
My dream is for my business, Rainbow Tales Literary Services, to be successful to a point I can support my household. The business has an umbrella with an Editing, a Publishing, and a Coaching business under it.
The Editing is going fairly well, as I do contract work for a couple of niche publishers. I’d like to see it expand to where I’m working more with individuals than companies.
The Publishing, so far, has published my novel, Out of the Past. My dream is to publish more of my own work and to also assist other people along the self-publishing route.
I just launched Coaching for Writers a week ago tomorrow. I promoted it by sending a survey to every Facebook and Yahoo group I’m a member of. I’m also making posters and flyers to post at libraries, book stores, and coffee shops. I have one potential client so far. My dream is to have a minimum of five clients and a maximum of ten at any given time.
My main obstacles are: 1) Having good marketing skills, and 2) the means to get out and put the posters up – I’m disabled and have to depend on others for transportation.
Hi Glenda,
Sounds like you have good marketing skills as you have already promoted yourself using Yahoo and Facebook. Do you have to hang up posters? Maybe you can just email the libraries/bookstores indicating what you’re doing? Or maybe a friend wouldn’t mind dropping off a poster when he/she is in the area? You could reimburse him/her by inviting them over for dinner or something similar? Or maybe you could just focus on promoting via the Internet, find some writers forums in your area and send out invites/announcements there. There are lots of writer’s groups on LinkedIn also.
I’m just brainstorming here, of course. I’ve put up ads at coffee shops, etc., and didn’t usually get a lot of responses that way anyhow so you might be better off just using the Internet.
Thanks for all the brainstorming. Every little bit helps. After this week’s snow storm I am feeling some cabin fever. I’m going to ask my partner to take me to different places to post flyers. We can do that while we run other errands and it’ll be fun to mix up our regular routine.
Thanks again for all the good ideas. I’ll have to look at LinkedIn. Someone else suggested Goodreads. I have my homework cut out for me today. 🙂
Hi Glenda,
I think forming a community around your classes might be a good idea. Giving classes surrounding events, featuring holidays. Marketing for introverts has some valuable ideas.