How do you connect your venture, creation, business, project, or book — your brainchild — to your perfect audience, tribe, circle, or community?

You need a bridge. You need a strong bridge that weaves together:

~the heart of your vision, its benefits, how it will change the corner of the world you are intending to change.
~the authenticity of your voice, the integrity of your heart, the power of your soul manifesting through your intended creation and its message.
~the clear expression of how you can solve the problems or help your people overcome the challenges or deal with the issues you address.
~the longings and yearnings of those people who can only hear it from you — your tribe, your community, your readers, your clients.
~the words that create the connections, the written words that weave all these elements together so that all the pieces stand together as something brand new and stronger than any one of the items alone — i.e., synergies.

You can build the bridge and chart the path across the gap between your vision and your tribe. And sometimes it’s nice to have a guide to show you the way.

authenticity, connections, Synergies, tribe, vision

I admit it. I’m a book person. (Yearbooks in school started my publishing journey. Then working in corporate book publishing for ~20 years. Then freelancing for a variety of publishers, ghostwriting books, marketing books, writing press releases for books, helping people with web sites about books, coaching people about their books… Finally focusing on creating my own books. And all the while reading and buying still more books. Maybe lightening my load soon when I get my new iPad. We’ll see…)

In fact, I may be a book-a-holic. Yes. There it is. Out there in public. One of my “drugs of choice” is books. My husband despairs of my book piles that threaten to topple over. Our house my not really be sturdy enough to house my existing library. (Clued in about this by those funny cracks that seem to keep appearing…)

During my childhood, summer was a time to fall deeply into books. I’ve also been an avid re-reader, revisiting stories that resonated with me time and again.  “So many books, so little time,” is a phrase that was tailor made for me. How about you?

Simultaneously to reading comes the writing. Or vice versa. In fact, there are real synergies that grow in a process of reading and writing.  Each one feeds off the other.

Many people are interested in bringing more ease and authenticity into their writing. They long to be purposeful with their messages about their businesses and projects and creations and ventures. One of the ways to find your authentic voice is to practice writing, ideally in a public sphere like this blogging challenge, where you will be able to tap into a zeitgeist and community of like-minded others and to receive feedback.  You’ll be both reader and writer here.

In addition to writing, reading can be a powerful way to embrace and test your writing. One summer, I went through the letters of Virginia Woolf — volume after volume. Yes, that summer my friends from college received letters from me that unconsciously picked up the tone and flavor of VW’s letters. You can’t help but learn from your reading. It’s what nourishes your soul and heart and voice and mind.

So I want to acknowledge and thank the folks at Flashlight Worthy Books on Twitter as  @flwbooks for sharing this link. It inspired my blog post (as books are wont to do) and offers windows to “see with fresh eyes” in ways to rethink and revisit your own writing process.

“7 Great Titles for a Writer Digging for Inspiration”

And welcome to the second 30 day blogging challenge for 2010. Follow the fun on Twitter at #blog30.

#blog30, 30-day-blogging-challenge, authentic voice, authenticity, Book Publishing, book-a-holic, books, Flashlight Worthy Books, iPad, reading, Synergies, Virginia Woolf, writing process

It’s been quiet over here at http://www.writesynergiescopywriting.com
since I completed Connie Green’s 30-day blog challenge
earlier this month. But lots of things are
simmering on the back burner, so watch for the
feasts and creative explosions to come!

I was revisiting some of the posts a few days ago.
They still sound pretty good! I invite you over
to partake in the synergies that are growing!

There’s another 30-Day Blogging Challenge
coming up! For the entire
month of June, (1-30) there’s a group forming to
continue the blogging fun and business-building.

This time, Jeanette Cates is leading the group.
Go to http://twitter.com/JeanetteCates and search
for #blog30 or connect with her at

http://jeanettecates.com/what-makes-a-great-blog-challenge/

to join the blogging challenge.
Join the fun!
Plus: Today (5-28) Jeanette has “feature member profile”
of yours truly at the customized  member site for this
month’s blog challenge at http://meetourmembers.com/

(So, yes, you’d need to register to see my profile!)
Happy Blogging to All!

#blog30, 30-day-blogging-challenge, Connie Ragan Green, Jeanette Cates, Synergies, Write Synergies Copywriting

Tailored and edited for a public community,
these thoughts to build the momentum for your creative project
are adapted from a piece I wrote this week to encourage a friend.

So you, my conscious creator friend,
are in a total creative mode at the moment.
Your vision and creation are being nurtured.
You are cutting to the bone of living your purpose and giving your gifts.

Consider you are in a kind of birthing process.
It’s an inner path and inner process, the river you dive into alone.

And yet…

In this deep dive, realize that a lifeline to the surface is just a best safety practice.
Do you have people in your circle, community, or tribe?
If so, let them know, especially if you’ve been out of touch.

Keep your people apprised of the new energy and excitement.
You’re sharing part of your new creative cycle.
Make it a sort of a “stay tuned” message.
Bring them into the excitement.
Let them know something big is in process.

Take your time.
Remember if you rush out with your creative brainchild, there’s a risk:
That it will not be formed enough or strong enough to maintain its momentum.
So NOW, in this pre-birth process, is the moment to take the time you need.
Ask for the support you need — so that the new brainchild can grow to its fullest potential.

Know that followers of your message really love you, your energy, your presence.
Invite your community of friends and colleagues to the pre-party.

Invite and invest  your people into the process.
Request good thoughts, mental, emotional, and spiritual encouragement.
Create safe and sacred space around you, your creation, your community.
It works on the same principle as prayers and energy healing from a distance.
There is no distance. That’s just illusion.
Best of all, this creates a true two-way community –
as you invite people to support you in this exquisite time of creativity.

Strengthen the vessel of you.
Put into practice all the good intentions for all the good new habits. Do it!
The vessel of  you–body, mind, spirit– is your means for delivering the gifts of consciousness into the world.
From the inner path to the outer expression, it is like a birth process.

Ponder the apparent “gap” between the dream-creation you are nurturing –
and the challenge of bringing it whole, strong, healthy, and long-lived into the manifest world.

And ask for the help you need.
The momentum you add will generate still more synergies — a positive spiral.

Follow the 30 Day Blog Challenge on twitter:  #blog30

#blog30, 30-day-blogging-challenge, conscious creators, Creative project, gifts, inner path, momentum, outer expression, Synergies, tribe, vessel of you, vision

Legacy, “something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past,” says Merriam-Webster online: It is most commonly considered something you leave behind. It is how you are remembered. Will your words paint the stories of your purpose fulfilled, your passions pursued, your life lived fully in the moment with a presence of love?

Forget the tired old definition, and don’t LEAVE a Legacy. LIVE Your Legacy instead. Live your legacy with your words and writings as well as your actions. Writing to live your legacy: it’s a stunningly powerful way to leave something of value behind.

In reality how you are remembered is created one day and one moment at a time, through interactions, conversations, and yes, the slipstream of your written words. Those synergies make up the raw materials of your legacy. If you are writing, it’s your presence embracing the moment of the writing that creates the memorable and remarkable.

• Have you considered, rather than “leaving a legacy” behind you, instead to live each day as you wish to be remembered?
• Have you considered, as you write, to bring to the page the conscious presence of your deepest truest self in the moment?
• Have you thought it just isn’t possible or it’s too hard to express your gifts as a legacy?

You create what is memorable by how you passed through this world one moment at a time. Doing it with words makes your presence all the more powerful.

Your legacy is constructed of the bricks of consciousness, of the moments of your days stacked one atop and next to the other. It’s much like a dry stone wall–one rock fitted inevitably and perfectly next to the neighboring rock. No filler. No mortar. Just rock by rock. (Similarly Anne Lamott’s famous anecdote in Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
gets at this too. Bird by bird, her brother got the report done.)

Whether it’s rock by rock or bird by bird or word by word or tweet by tweet,  your legacy is created like that–day by day, word by word, moment by moment. You construct your legacy a day at a time, one moment and one interaction at a time, just as you live it. How you will be remembered? Will your legacy stand like some of Ireland’s dry rock fences, for centuries?

Follow the 30 Day Blogging Challenge on twitter at #blog30.

#blog30, 30-day-blogging-challenge, Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, gifts, Legacy, Living Your Legacy, Purpose, Synergies, Writing

Riffing off Debra Marrs‘ great blog post series (for #blog30)  about writers and procrastination, I noted:

I just realized that procrastination is rather like the shadow side of synergies. Instead of creating results greater than the sum of the parts, it’s not creating anything at all. (AKA stuck.)

What I’m noticing:  taking up Connie Ragan Green’s 30 day blogging  challenge, plus

• finding clients who fit just right with Molly Gordon
• becoming a master of enrolling people in my work with Bill Baren
• connecting with my soul-aligned business with Elyse Hope Killoran
• getting the nuts and bolts of web site creation with Christina Hills
• creating the book both here and in the Book Breakthrough workshop

–everything is connected. It’s  all conspiring to move me to a completely new place — a much bigger and more visible place.  All these connections are building, one on the other, and they are creating immense synergies between the book, the marketing, the clients, and the audience, and doing it all simultaneously.

This is the power and excitement of synergies. All these pieces of learning and being mentored are clicking together in a brand-new way to generate results greater than the sum of the parts.  It helps to be as intentional as possible and then just step into the flow and take action. But more than all the learning situations I’ve stepped into, it’s the 30 Day Blogging Challenge that is making such a difference. It’s giving me a container for sharing the insights and opening the space for new communities and interactions.

You might also want to stop by Debra’s blog for another installment about procrastination — a seriously crazy way to start your day that makes granola look really good.

#blog30, 30-day-blogging-challenge, Bill Baren, Book Breakthrough, Christina Hills, Connie Ragan Green, Debra Marrs, Elyse Hope Killoran, Molly Gordon, procrastination, soul-aligned business, Synergies

It’s Day 2 of Connie Ragan Green’s Blog Challenge! (Find it on Twitter  at  #blog30).

Note to self: figure out the automatic publishing timer on Wordpress.
This is the sort of thing that I figure left brain thinkers can do without a problem.

And it’s pre-income-tax weekend. For us, there’s a head start. College Financial Aid requirements mean getting our act together sooner rather than later. Still, what’s in my face this weekend, as a solo-preneur self-employed type, is getting the package of first quarter biz details summarized and over to the accountant, Victoria Zimelis, CPA. Hands down, the money  I spend on having someone who actually knows about taxes to take care of the forms is “priceless” as the commercial says.

There are benefits to giving the left side of the brain a bit of a workout every now and then — In this case, at least quarterly.

For writers, it’s generally considered that language is a left brain function, so maybe I’m not as hopeless as I initially thought.

So, what are your writing exercises for right-brain workouts versus left-brain workouts? Share your insights!

blogging, Synergies, Writing

OK, so here goes: My friend Connie Ragan Green is doing another of her 30-day blogging challenges. I’m stepping up to it this time around because I have a book to develop and create.  To read more about the challenge, here’s a link to Connie’s post, along with some great tips to connect through social media for building an audience:

http://ebookwritingandmarketingsecrets.com/30-day-blogging-challenge-2010-connie-ragen-green/

So, why am I taking up the challenge right now?  In a related vein, (I’m a writer, after all!) I am starting a three-month mentoring program to get my book (long anticipated in its planning stages and long incomplete) into some serious forward momentum.  I’ve been challenged by my Book Breakthrough coaches, Elizabeth Marshall (yes, she of Author Teleseminar fame) and Janet Goldstein (NY publishing uber-consultant) to start to feed out into the universe the ideas, nuggets, processes, and philosophy that will make up the underpinning of Write Synergies, as the book is tentatively titled. (You might notice a commonality with my web site…

I was pleasantly affirmed today during the monthly meeting of Entrepreneur Group (facilitated by long-time Chicago-area career coach, Robin Sheerer), to learn that “synergies” is the word that expresses the process that people experience when they work with me.

So, part of the plan over these 30 days at the blog is to continue to develop the ideas for the book and start to put them out in a more public way. Hidden away in my notebook, they aren’t especially useful to anyone. This is one way to share the wisdom — and to get some feedback loops going!

Since this dear project has been hanging around for awhile in many iterations, this new version is still finding its way and its content. Stay tuned and be part of the process!

30-day-blogging-challenge, Author Teleseminars, Book Breakthrough, Career Enterprises, Connie Ragan Green, Elizabeth Marshall, Janet Goldstein, Robin Sheerer, Synergies, Write Synergies

Owning Your Greatness in 2010:

The Write Synergies Path to Manifest Your Creative Vision

For Conscious Creators, more so than for most, aligning your heart — the inner fire and desire — with what you intend to create and manifest in the world, is absolutely crucial.   Without this inner alignment, all the outer marketing tools create anemic results at best.

At worst, they fall flat, and drag you farther from your goal because you are literally “losing heart.”

To start 2010, is there some way to bring that inner heart-knowledge into alignment with what you intend to create in your business, book, or creative project?

One powerful process to manifest your creation and your vision is to follow your inner yearning. Listen to it. Get into a dialogue with your inner yearning.  I’ve discovered that one of the most effective ways of tapping that inner yearning and building the dialogue is using a gentle writing and journaling process.

I call it, “The Write Synergies Path to Owning Your Greatness.”  A guide to this process is my gift to you for signing up in the box at the top of the right column. But what does this “The Write Synergies Path to Owning Your Greatness” really mean?

Write Synergies is all about generating results greater than the sum of the parts using writing.  This can be both a process of uncovering information as well as generating finished results.

Owning Your Greatness means just what it says. We each have gifts to give.  Those gifts are our greatness, often living quietly hidden for years.  After a time, the inner yearning to express those gifts becomes palpable, not to say painful.  When the pain or divine discontent gets great enough, that means it’s time to listen, to really pay attention, and make something happen in bringing your vision to life.

“The Write Synergies Path to Owning Your Greatness” is a process that gives you the chance to listen and write your own vision into expression. So many of us hold ourselves back. We haven’t fully stepped into owning our greatness.  Now is the time.  We are called to express our greatness and gifts fully.

Make 2010 the year that you are Owning Your Greatness.

conscious creators, Creative project, gifts, inner yearning, journaling, Synergies, The Write Synergies Path to Owning Your Greatness, Writing, writing process

Life as Kaleidoscope: Beauty in Motion

Remember those magical tubes filled with beads and bits of glass with mirrors that multiplied the images?  As a kid, you probably looked through a cardboard tube with plastic bits, but there are high-end kaleidoscopes with brass tubes and gems.  It doesn’t matter really what the outer materials are, because the magic is in the constantly shifting array of patterns and beauty.  It’s all ephemeral. No view through the eyepiece is ever quite the same. No patterns repeat.

Isn’t life a lot like the kaleidoscope?  Some days it feels like the patterns are changing so fast, it’s as if a giant is shaking the whole thing and no pattern  is allowed to coalesce.  Certainly some people repeat nightmare images and patterns.  But to  get really present and conscious, it is possible to see the beauty.  Sometimes it’s just one small beautiful thing: sunlight glinting on the water, the dappled pattern of leaves in sun and shadow, sand under the toes, the perfume of a perfect rose.  Even among all the confusion and constant change, can’t you find some beauty too?  Close your eyes; breathe in deeply and exhale. Repeat for several breaths, then open your eyes.  See with these new eyes, renewed by your breath.

For one day, for one hour of one day, for one minute of one hour, focus your lens and your vision on all the beauty that is in your world: The pooch or kitty, the plant, the song, the lasagna, the mountain.  Try focusing on the shifting beautiful gifts within your sights.  Part of the beauty is in the constantly shifting patterns, just like the kaleidoscope.  But when you pull back and see your whole life’s patterns, you’ll see the synergies that grow from considering all that is beautiful in the shifting bits of precious images that are your life.  Acknowledge the beauty of your kaleidoscopic life.

For extra credit, look inside yourself to see the beauty there too.

beauty, kaleidoscope, patterns, Synergies