I am excited to share this story with you, because it happened exactly 10 years ago to the day! It was August 30th, 2011 and the reason I remember this, is because it was my husband’s birthday. I had made him a secret birthday appointment… snicker-snicker (at a spa for a pedicure and a massage). When he found out that he was getting a pedicure, his male nature became very hesitant to go in, but he did. Anyways, when I was sitting in the waiting area, reading and writing notes on things, as I always do, I suddenly saw a book out of the corner of my eye.
The book was The Present Moment: 365 Daily Affirmations by Louise Hay.
This book was so small, yet so inspiring. Each page has a quote or affirmation on it, with random art. Being an artist myself, I suddenly thought that I could create an inspiring book like this! I could add my contemporary art onto all of the pages and use my favorite quotes or stories to compliment each image.
In the next few months I called up a friend that I had just met about 7 months before. She was great at writing and was very inspiring in her own way. Coffee shop after coffee shop, we complied our book of encouragement, empowerment and color. We started meeting up at least once a week, collaborating on quotes and inspiring tidbits of information. The underlined subject kept addressing artistic individuals doing what they love to do. We were going to create… a coffee table book.
This amazing coffee table book was going to inspire anyone that peeked inside of it. As we met up more and more to collaborate on this idea, we suddenly realized; who was going to buy this book of ours? We knew we had to drum up interest somehow… and creating an online community was a smart idea. I quickly hopped onto Facebook and created a page. The page was called, Connection To Creative.
The Facebook page Connection To Creative quickly took off. It was inspiring more people than we had ever thought it would. As we posted and posted, getting more positive feedback day after day, we also started a website that complemented the Facebook page. The momentum of creating our coffee table book was suddenly shifting into something a bit bigger! After 3 years, the coffee table book was completely put aside. Before we knew it, ‘Connection To Creative’ had taken off. Our passion for inspiration, art and learning, had shifted our coffee table book into a creative movement.
Our mission was clear. We wanted to fill the lives of individuals with a creative mind-set and an empowered spirit. We wanted people at their offices to become instantly inspired; by going onto our website to view the art, take a personality quiz, or by picking a daily oracle card which gives them a whimsical insight on a situation that had been bothersome to them. We wanted to empower everyone to live their best life. We wanted to create memorable artful experiences that most people were missing in their lives; a creative portal that held mystery, magic and inspiration. By then our Facebook page had grown to 150,000 LIKES and we were mainly focusing on providing people with an inspiring and creative online experience.
In the fall of last year, my creative friend and I decided to go our separate ways regarding our business. Sounds strange right? The website was doing well, our follower base had grown to almost 200,000 people and we had a great list of things we wanted to work on. But, my friend decided that her creative calling was to focus on her two children to raise, spend time with them and begin to home school them. I decided that I wanted to continue on. It was a very interesting shift, for our website had been somewhere in the conversation, every day for the last 900+ days. The decision just felt right. Everyone has the ability to live artfully, and for my creative friend, this route was with her children. We are still great friends and are both still living creative lives (obviously), but I decided to take the opportunity to start my own blog/ website.
This is where my website changed to Wild and Creative. At first I was freaked out. It was me, all on my own… in Internet land. I soon got over the fear, for it just became an annoying voice, rather than a feeling.
This last year has been very interesting. Not only did I re-brand the website, but I managed to create a line of Wild and Creative Colouring books which you can find on Amazon, as well as transition my website into Creative Success Coaching brand. An inspiring support platform geared towards female entrepreneurs. My blog is also still for everyone wanting to read about interesting ideas and creative ways of thinking. So don’t be a stranger.
The reason I am sharing my little trip down memory lane, is so I can reaffirm to you that things will happen on their own. Yes, you have to be clear on the things that make you smile and our heart sing, but being open to the idea of EASE AND FLOW will take you places. Four years ago I had no idea that the small book I was looking at that day was going to take me to where I am now. Inspiration and creativity can guide your life into many directions. This is what makes life so special. Look at this story for example… We never did end up making that coffee table book. However, different ideas lead you to different people and situations. You can truly find inspiration everywhere you look! Keep your eyes open and let the creative process guide you.
“Creativity is the product of passion and courage.” – Sarah Marie Thompson
