I want to start giving you a little taste of what it’s like to work with me so I’ll be creating some small but helpful resources as time goes on.

ARGH! I have no ideas… and what to do about it

This first  tiny taste is called “Thirty days to more Ideas than You Ever Thought You Could Ever Come Up With. Ever.” and is based on this post I wrote a little while ago. Go ahead and download it. No need to give me your email address (although if you do, you’ll get these things first).

I know these days there’s a lot of pressure to come up with ideas. If you’re working for someone in any kind of creative capacity, you need to keep those ideas coming to prove your value. If you’re working for yourself (or want to) you need to come up with stuff to fuel your own business. And if you’re not actively capturing those ideas or you’re so scared of letting the ones you have out, you’re gonna get sunk (picture the Titanic).

Tossing you a lifesaver

No… not the candy…

This little downloadable nugget is a bit of a life vest. I know this is something all of us face at some point. It’s called writer’s block or stuckness or “I’m out of ideas,” when in reality it’s you who’s blocking the ideas from coming out.

Censoring the censor, letting ideas just fly out no matter how dumb they may seem, writing shitty first drafts is all part of being creative.

No idea ever came out fully developed.

You didn’t. If I recall you were a squirmy wrinkly bloody mess when you first came out. Why do you expect your ideas to be any different?

You just have to let yourself go. Allow yourself to be a bit unpolished, unrefined, wild, crazy and silly.

It’s in this that you find and refine those gems.

No crap, no gems. That’s just the way it works.

So, download this 3-page easily-printable PDF and try what it says for 30 days.

And let me know how it goes. I’m also in the midst of reclaiming my own morning writing practice, and as I expected, these 3 pages of spilling out all the garbage in my head is making for smoother sailing.

I dare you.

Thirty days. Write every single morning.

You up for it?

photo credit: edenpictures

Too Many Ideas = Swirlybrain = Stuck

Creative Explorers are high-volume idea generators. We have so many ideas swirling around our brains that we could never do all of them, or even a fraction of them in one lifetime.

But it doesn’t stop us from trying.

The problem with this is that in reality we have limited time and resources, and frequently we’re stuck doing nothing at all.

Overwhelm = Paralysis = Fear

We’re overwhelmed with the sheer number of ideas we have that picking one seems impossible.

We’re so bogged down in the details of every single idea that we get paralyzed with planning.

We’re so afraid of “wasting time” on something we don’t know we’re going to like before we actually do it that we fail to begin anything.

All of the Above = Nothing

It’s this paralysis that diminishes Creative Explorers’ impact in their own spheres. It’s this overwhlem and lack of action that puts us in a mindset of “I can’t ever finish anything. I’m horrible, worthless and just plain nothing.”

This paralysis gets us majorly stuck.

And this is where the Idea Evaluation process helps.

Idea Evaluation to the Rescue!

It’s a simple process that gets all of your ideas on paper and out of your head. And once they’re all down, you evaluate them on a few simple criteria. A quick little bit of second-grade math and voila! A few float to the top that you can pick and do now.

The magic of the Idea Evaluation process is in the numbers.

Here’s an example:

It begins with a list of ideas (some of them are truly in my idea book, others I just made up on the spot):

• Open a Midnight Bakery
• Create an Ebook of Gluten-Free, Allergen-Free sweets
• Teach people to make their own hand-bound books in person
• Travel to Greece and review several out-of-the-way restaurants that the locals frequent
• Make restaurant-review notebooks for foodies
• Start a Bake Club (Sorta like Fight Club, only with food, and without fighting)
• Make series of cooking videos with my Yiayia (grandmother)

Each idea is sparkly-shiny and sounds like loads of fun. And I’d eventually like to do all of them (including the ones I made up on the spot).

But I know that with my limited time and resources I can only pick one or two to start.

Hell Yes! ≠ OOH SHINY!

If I were in tune with myself enough and if my head were clear enough, I’d be able to just look at the list and pick the one that was the sparkliest and do that one (or, if you prefer, the idea that I say “HELL YES!” to is the one I’m doing).

However, I’ve been paralyzed by overwhelm and possibility for so long that I can’t distinguish my “HELL YES” from the “OOH! Shiny!”

So I take each idea and rank each one according to a few criteria. For instance, ease, excitement and time to completion (as outlined in the upcoming Idea Evaluator Kit).

I’ll add up all the scores and the one or two with the highest scores are the ones I do.

Numbers Make this a No-Brainer

Instead of depending on my internal GPS which isn’t all that reliable (more on improving the reliability of your inner GPS at a later date) I depend on unthinking, unfeeling numbers.

Because Creative Explorers are often deep-feelers as well, introducing something as unfeeling as numbers can take the pain away from making a decision.

Idea Evaluation in a nutshell:

1. Write down all of your ideas, no matter how silly they may seem
2. Evaluate your ideas on a few different criteria, assign values to each one
3. The ideas with the highest scores are the ones you do first.

This post is the first in a series introducing my new product, The Idea Evaluator Kit. It’s set to launch later this week!

If you want to find out more about it and be notified when it comes out (I’ll be offering a bonus or two for the early explorers) read this page and sign up at the bottom.

Or is it 28 insane days of loving my customers?

Whatever it is, it’s April and it’s time for the Customer Love Challenge.

Don’t know what that is?

It was something proposed by Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz and LaVonne Ellis latched on to the idea and created the customer love challenge. Twenty eight days of being supremely awesome to your customers and on the 28th day (or thereabouts) launch something for them. It could be an ebook, a course,  a series of videos, etc. Check this page out for more infos, but only when you’re done reading this.

So, how am I loving you (that is, my customers)?

I’ve decided to offer 28 Pathfinder Sessions. Free of charge. Or more accurately, in exchange for your honest, accurate, and straightforward feedback.

What’s a Pathfinder Session?

It’s a quick exercise and call that helps you figure out the underlying theme, the core, the path that runs through almost everything you do.

The free Pathfinder Session consists of:

1. A questionnaire
2. A 30-minute Pathfinder Expedition with yours truly (aka a Skype call)

Who is this for?

Do you do a lot of different things?

Do have lots of different interests?

Do you feel spread thin or pulled in too many directions?

Are you struggling with ways to integrate all you love to do (or most) into a manageable life?

Are you sick of not having enough time to do the things you love and find yourself wishing you didn’t love all these different things?

Then you’ll get some good mileage out of a Pathfinder Session. You’re a Creative Explorer that just needs to find her Path.

What do you get?

You discover your core (aka Path), the underlying theme that runs through almost everything you do.

We may or may not discover the entirety of your core in the 30 minute call, but you will be able to see it more clearly, and maybe even after a good night’s rest figure it out for yourself.

Why should you listen to me?

Well, the Alternating Current is evidence. It combines my love of art, technology, strategy, helping people and so many other smaller things into one. I have been juggling at least 4 different sites (at one time it was 6) and four different businesses and my brain was about to explode from having to split my personality in four (or six) different ways.

It wasn’t until I was so fed up with having to split myself up so much that I realized the core in everything I was doing, which is helping creatives express their unique genius and get it out into the world. It was that in combination with bouncing ideas around with some trusted cohorts, trying new things, and picking up something I left behind a long time ago (this site) that I began integrating it all into one.

That’s why I made (and still make) hand-painted and leather  journals. It’s why I used to set up and modify WordPress websites. That’s why I teach bookbinding and visual journaling. It’s why I coached & consultated (it’s a real word because I say it is!) creatives, and still do.

And that’s why the Alternating Current exists. And that’s why I think the Pathfinder Sessions will work for you.

What others are saying

So, you want one?

I have 28 9 8 5 0 open for the month of April. All gone… 

If you’re ready to schedule your Pathfinder Session… 

It’s no secret, I’m a sucker for all things Apple. I have an iPhone (and have had one since they first came out), a MacBook Pro, a Mac Mini that’s hooked up to my TV (along with a Roku box and AppleTV), an old G4 iBook, an iMac and the most recent edition to my little Apple family is my iPad. And I’ve named it “Crow.” Yes. I name my gadgets.

So, Crow and I have been together since Christmas 2010 when my dad, my technology pusher, gave it to me as a gift. This past week my husband gave me an Apple wireless keyboard so I can type faster on Crow. It’s not like the on-screen keyboard is bad or anything, I just lose about 40 WPM off my normal typing speed and my thoughts don’t get translated directly when I write on it.

In the few days I’ve had the keyboard bluetooth’ed to Crow, I’ve written the majority of an ebook. It was so easy and helped me focus so well that I decided that I’d write and design the entire ebook on Crow (that’s my iPad if you’re still confused).

So here’s what I’m using:

• Apple iPad Tablet (32GB, Wi-Fi)*
• Apple Wireless Keyboard*
• Apple Pages app
• iWork.com Beta to store/share/backup my work
• Adobe Ideas app
• PhotoShop Express app
• Stylus Socks Pro – probably the most accurate stylus I’ve found yet
• iRest iPad Stand

And here’s how I’ve been using each one:

I sketch some ideas and created the main title graphic as well as various illustrations for my ebook using Adobe Ideas. You can draw with your finger or a stylus which is what I use. Color selection is limited to the “themes” you can build using photographs (this is my favorite feature).

This app is free, but you can buy Layers for $4.99. These work like layers in most graphics programs.

You can save images as pdfs and email them or save them to your iPad’s photo album.

Then I take the sketches and open them in the PhotoShop Express app, which is also free. I can crop to my heart’s content and save those as well into my photos.

Now, writing in Pages on my iPad is a completely new and intimate experience. I tweeted this the other day and I do mean intimate. I can touch my document. Move things around with my fingers. Pinch to resize images I place in my document from Crow’s photo album. And since the iPad’s MO is single-focus, I’m not distracted or tempted to click away from what I’m working on.

Pages is $9.99. There are other word processors out there, and you could use Google Docs if you wanted, but they don’t have the layout capabilities that Pages does.

I can’t describe how giddy I am with this whole new way of creating. I don’t have to wait for programs to launch. I don’t have to worry about being distracted. I’m using my hands to interact with my creations instead of just a keyboard and mouse. I feel more creative using my iPad, and things just flow.

I’m sensing a whole new level of creative output for me. Keep an eye out for the product I’m launching soon on getting a grip on those hundreds of ideas floating around your head. I’m creating the ebook part of it entirely on my iPad. The graphics, the text, and the final PDF will not go through my MacBook Pro except to read it.

And that’s how I’m getting this shit done. Do you have an iPad? Or some other tablet that helps you get your shit done? What do you use? What do you find about this new way of computering?

*These are Affiliate Links. Feel free to use them or not.