by Tara Joyce | Mar 29, 2011 | Innerpreneurship
Do you see yourself as the artist you are?
Are you dedicated to creating goods and services that you are proud of and can stand behind?
Do you strive for excellence and are unwilling to accept anything less?
Do you treat your work as the art form it is?
Do you think of your work, whatever it is, as your art?
Do you strive to perform at your highest level?
Do you focus on excellence?
Sure, you might not always act like the master you are. And sure, sometimes your words might betray you. But at the heart of you, do you see your artist? Can you see the part of your Self who is dedicated to getting your art, your work exactly right, and will not accept anything less?
Your work is Art. Treat it with the respect it deserves.
I’ve been learning that to treat my work as anything less than an art form is a detriment to my business and my brand. In not honouring the excellence my artist and my art demands, I am not being true to my ideals and standards, and ultimately not performing at the highest level I can.
Developing the artist within is a great marketing strategy.
Through focusing on getting our art exactly right we will build a reputation as a true artist, and a great person to align with, and invariably attract people who truly appreciate our work, and our standards of excellence.
Through being true to our ideals and standards, and honouring our art form, we can have what we desire. By focusing on developing our excellence our true fans will be born.
photo credit: coincoyote
by Tara Joyce | Mar 17, 2011 | Self/Business Growth
Sometimes I really suck at communicating… yet I’m also a great communicator. It’s what I do naturally. But sometimes, I’m down right terrible with it.
My coach Teya Sparks reminds me that I need to be willing to be both extremes. That as a human being, it is only natural.
As a perfectionist, it seems insane. How can I make a career around communication and also be a bad communicator? I must be the best communicator ever. always. period.
But I am not. Sometimes I suck.
Not a Great Communication Moment
Like last week, when I wrote about discovering my designer, I kinda forgot to inform my current clients of the post before I published it. It was a bad communication move on my part not to inform my current clients ahead of time and explain the ‘change’.
The reality is, nothing has actually changed with my clients, I still work with them the same way but THEY didn’t know that when I published the article. I gave some of them a scare.
Me Communicating Good
I’d like to take this moment to express clearly what I did not clearly communicate last week. I have realized that:
I am a designer who employs coaching, not a coach that employs design.
This does not change how I create with others. I still think coaching and co-creation is the most strategic way to design one’s marketing and communication tactics.
There is, however, a change in how I see myself. I’m now ready to see and embrace what I am.
by Tara Joyce | Mar 8, 2011 | My Journey | What's On My Mind
I’ve been hiding from you.
Okay, I’ve been hiding from myself.
I’ve been calling myself a coach for a while now – and it does fit, sort of. I mean, it is a part of what I do…
But at the heart of me, I am not a coach.
At the core of me, what I am, what I have always been, is a designer. A designer and a writer. Doing those two things brings me the greatest pleasure in this world.
The wonderful people I meet and co-create with, and the way in which we design together (through coaching) is important, but is secondary to my deepest pleasures and god-given talents.
I was hiding my designer behind a coach because…
I thought I’d like me better as a coach.
I thought I sometimes think that my value lies in what I do for others, not in who I am. Being a designer, in my old mind, wasn’t “good enough”, it was too much aesthetics and not enough about strategy and helping others. Even though design, to me, is all of those things and more.
Coaching felt safer. It kind of fit and I felt more confident with the description. It helped me to not deal directly with my denial of my designer. It allowed me to feed her sideways off the coaching table. So I did. And have for the last two years.
I thought you’d like me better as a coach.
Why? I don’t know.
… because I doubted my talent to design, but not my talent to help and support you.
… because I thought you’d like and respect me more.
… because I didn’t trust the designer in me, and I doubted you would either.
… because I didn’t want to deal with what I love being reduced to aesthetics when I know it as so much more.
I see now that it doesn’t matter what you think about design — or my designs. It matters how I feel when I’m designing. If I design, I am a designer. This is a fact. And it can not be erased by what I actually create, or how anyone else feels about those creations.
I love to design. I love me as a designer.
It makes me sparkle. And, while I love to talk with and support others, I love to create more.
I am, from this moment forward, embracing this. I’m ready to be who I am. It is good enough.
Maybe it won’t be good enough for you, but it’s finally good enough for me.
The truth of me.
I love to write and to design. It is my heart and it is where my passion lies. Everything else I can do is a wonderful bonus.
Check out the new DESIGN section of my site to see me clearer, and my value to you. I’ll be adding more to it soon but feel fee to take a look around in the meantime.
photo credit: Six Studio
