So how do we market our Creative businesses in a way that is true to our Creative Selves? My biggest concern for the longest time was that I would be in the position of offering something that didn’t feel like “me”. I’d struggled with a feeling of rebellion against doing what all the business and marketing books/videos/blogs/teleseminars told me to do, just because they “said so.”

I was filled with questions and worry. How do I market my business from my authentic self? How do I stay true to my message that everyone is creative? How do I balance doing it “my way” with doing it “the right way”?

This morning, I remembered Jack Kornfield’s wisdom about the “Four Rules of Relationship” and thought about how it might apply to marketing my Creative Business:

Show Up. To me, this means to show up fully as myself. Don’t hide or diminish what you do in any way. Remember and celebrate all of your accomplishments and how they have positively influenced others. Be willing to be vulnerable. Share who you truly are.

Be Present. This one can be a challenge. Being present, to me, means being focused on what I am doing, what I am saying, how I am being in this moment. Marketing my business from this state of being present allows me to approach tasks from a calm and centered place, rather than a state of worry or anxiety, which is not the best way to attract others!

Speak Your Truth. Here’s where you get to express your true Creative Self. What is your Truth as it relates to your Creative Business? What is the message you wish to express to the world? Is it about beauty? Courage? Passion? Speak it – in your Marketing message, in your newsletter, on your business cards, website, promotional brochures, etc. Your Truth is a reflection of who you are and what you bring to the world.

Let Go Of Outcome. This is by far the toughest part. But it can also be the most rewarding. When we put our message out there to the world, when we share who we truly are, when we are vulnerable, passionate, caring and Creative, we connect and build relationship with the people who need us, our services and works, the most. By letting go, we free ourselves to be ourselves in our business and our lives. When we cling to outcome, worry about what others might think or how we’re going to pay the bills, we limit our capacity to build relationship. When we can let go, we open the door to others and keep it open, inviting them to come again and again, to view our work, to visit our seminars, to read our newsletters and blogs. When they are ready, the will choose us because we have kept that door open long enough and consistently enough for them to know, like and trust us. In this way, the clients and customers we desire the most will also be the ones who desire us and our work the most.

When I choose to market my business with these four basic rules of relationship in mind, my marketing “efforts” become “effortless.” I attract the clients I truly want to work with and who truly want to work with me. Marketing in this way is an opportunity for me to share all of who I am and my Truth with the world. Even for those who do not choose my services, I am providing a message which may inspire them. When I choose to be in this state of non-attachment, I can see that Marketing is truly just about expressing myself, who I am and what I hope to bring to the world, building relationships along the way.

That feels so much better than worrying about “getting it right”!

How will you choose to market your business with Heart?

I’ve lived with fear a long time. It’s been such a close companion, for much of my life I didn’t even know it for what it was. I assumed it was normal to worry like crazy, feel anxious and berate oneself for failures. Most of us do it all the time, behaving as if we all should somehow magically be prepared for any possible contingency, every possible outcome. “What an idiot I am! Why didn’t I realize that was going to happen? I should have known! I should have seen the signs!!!”

Lately, I found myself worrying a lot about whether my business will succeed or fail. Am I doing everything I can to promote myself? Am I doing it right? Do I even know what I’m supposed to be doing? What if it doesn’t work? What if I can’t do it???

The questions were swimming around in my head, keeping me up at night and waking me up in a state of panic in the mornings. “I’ll be OK,” I told myself. “I have faith that it will work out; I’m in a learning curve, that’s all.” But no matter how much I tried to hush the panicky voices inside me, they only seemed to hang on tighter and get louder.

I finally sat down to confront them the other night. I wanted to truly understand why, no matter what I said or did, I still felt this anxiety. Finally, it hit me: what my fear needed to hear was confirmation that I have failed. I HAVE FAILED. I’m doing it even now. Oh, my. Wow. I am currently failing. My business success is not happening the way I wanted it to right now.  I’ve FAILED!!!!! Aaaarrrrggghhhhh!!!

And then I started laughing. Because as soon as I admitted to myself that I am failing, I have failed and I no doubt will continue to fail, I FELT BETTER. My anxiety lightened up a little. The problems I’m dealing with didn’t go away, but the panicky questions in my head – the constant stream of “what ifs?” – got quieter.

I’m still giggling a little as I write this. What a relief to remember that it’s OK to fail; in fact we do it all the time. How lovely to revel in failures and the lessons they can teach rather than shy away from them. Now that I’ve admitted to failing, I am open to possibility. Instead of the nagging “What if?” I can hear the exhilarating “What’s next?!”

Try it. Admit to your deepest fear. You can fail. It doesn’t have to be spectacular; it can just be. I wonder what will happen when you do.

It could be you’re grateful for the sunshine. Or the rain. You could be grateful for your friends, your family, your beloved. You could be grateful for your job. You could be grateful that your boss isn’t bugging you with more work, or that you have an upcoming vacation. You could be grateful for your dog or cat. You could be grateful for the roof over your head.

What do we have if we don’t have gratitude? How could we connect with joy, with our drive and motivation, with our souls without it?

Gratitude is up for me today. Don’t even quite know why, except that I have had some experiences and achievements lately that are reminding me to acknowledge my gratitude. I’ve completed my Certified Professional Coach training. I think it didn’t occur to me how BIG this would feel. I’ve spent the better part of the last two years dedicated to this achievement, and now, here it is. So much has happened in my life; so much has changed (mostly for the better!)

I am grateful there was a Coach Training program near me. I am grateful that I had the courage to make the choice to go to this program. I am grateful for my instructors: their kindness, compassion, support and modeling of what masterful coaching is. I am so very grateful to my fellow classmates who have been with me on this extraordinary journey.

I am grateful to be finished with my schoolwork. I am extremely grateful to those clients who have been with me for over a year, who took the risk to begin coaching with me when I was still a “newbie”. I am grateful for my newer clients and for the clients who are on their way. I am grateful for my friends and family members who have supported (and worried for) me through this career change.

I am grateful to be living out loud my dream of being my own boss, doing what I love every day and doing something that matters in the world.

In a way, this blog post is turning into one great big THANK YOU note, but that’s OK.

Gratitude is about acknowledging where you’ve been and where you are now. It gives us permission to see our own accomplishments and who has been there with us all along. Most importantly, gratitude puts us in touch with our JOY. And joy reminds us to be who we truly are in the world, thus inspiring others to do the same.

So, write down 5 more things you’re grateful for. Tonight, before you go to bed, list 5 more. Do this every day and you may start to see something shift in your life – shift inside of you.

What are you grateful for right now?

That’s OK though. I can always plant in a container. In fact, I plan to put some tomato plants in a container here in the next couple of weeks. See, that’s one of the things I love about gardening: plants will grow pretty much regardless of what you do or don’t do. Once the soil is prepared and the seedlings planted, there isn’t a lot more for me to do.

Keep an eye on them to make sure they aren’t being “pestered” by bugs. Water (when there isn’t enough rain!) Pull a few weeds here and there so they don’t get crowded out. And then, harvest. Lovely little baby lettuce leaves, arugula and those tomatoes will make a nice salad.

Couldn’t my life be this way? Like a garden? No garden responds well to “over-doing”. If I water more than is necessary, the plants could drown. If I constantly handled the plants to make sure they were OK, the leaves would get bruised and the fruit could fall off prematurely. But I find myself “over-doing” my life sometimes.

Over-analyzing. Worrying too much. Building up big expectations, only to be disappointed at the outcome and myself. Living in the dreamworld of “what if’s” rather than with my feet solidly planted in the soil of the here and now.

My garden has incredible resiliency. And it doesn’t take a whole heck of a lot of worry or coddling or fear-driven thinking to grow. In fact, pretty much none. I noticed that one of my baby lettuces had been uprooted the other day. I paused for a moment thinking, “should I just toss it? It probably won’t survive.” But, I took the risk of putting it back into the ground. The next day, it looked as though it had never been uprooted: perky green leaves greeted me when I checked.

How many times have I given up on something – or on myself—when all I really needed was to get grounded again, to trust that my roots will nourish me? The garden takes very little worry – what it does require is trust. Trust in the power of Nature.

I make this commitment to myself: I trust that what I need will be there for me; that, like my garden, I can stay rooted in my sense of self and know that nourishment is available if I seek it. I trust that I will continue to grow.

Could your life be like a garden?

But the very idea of trusting the process is rooted in the notion that we are not stagnant. We are not stuck in the past, doomed to continue making the same mistakes or decisions that do not serve us. The first step to trusting the process is remembering that LIFE is a process. The second step? That, as living beings, WE are a process.

I’m sitting in my backyard as I write this and the process Nature goes through — renewing herself yet again at this time of year– strikes me. The process of pushing buds out into flowers, followed by leaves; the process of insects emerging from their hidey-holes into the light of day; the process of birds returning North to fill our skies with song.

Nature trusts her process.

What would it be like for you if you trusted that you could make choices that were different, were right for you? How different could life be if you allowed mistakes as a part of the process, pausing to admire the learning along the way?

The flower blossoms don’t stay on the cherry trees forever (much as I wish they would). In Nature’s process they are joined by leaves and eventually become fruit. What fruits will you harvest when you trust your process and let go of the wilted flowers of your past?

What becomes possible for you?

Inspired by a fellow coach’s practice of creating Vision Boards each year, I created my own Vision Board for 2009. (If you don’t know, a Vision Board is a homemade collage on poster-board with words and images that are inspiring to you and your vision for yourself.) My theme for 2009 has been “Being in Flow”. It hangs on the wall to the left of my desk, and each time I look at it, I am reminded to “cherish the moment”, “ creative a life you love”, “follow your path” and “choose a positive thought”. The images I chose reflect water in a variety of locales, such as a waterfall in a garden, the ocean, water flowing around rocks, a bridge over water, etc. Throughout the year, I’ve found myself glancing at these images and remembering to be in flow with myself and what life presents.

A Vision Board is an excellent way to stay inspired throughout the year. Of course, you can make a Vision Board for any occasion – mainly it’s a visual cue or reminder of your goals and dreams for yourself – how you envision your life. Whether you make one to help you envision a new home, a new (or improved) romantic relationship or a new job, a Vision Board is a fun, creative and meaningful picture of where you want to be.

So, what will your Vision Board look like for 2010? Grab a bunch of old catalogs, magazines, greeting cards, etc. and go to work collecting those words and images that inspire you. You don’t have to know ahead of time what your theme is. Sometimes the theme becomes apparent as you find yourself drawn to certain images.

My theme for my Vision Board this year is “Receive & Allow”. Like many of you I can find myself giving – till it hurts. I want to consciously practice receiving – with grace and gratitude. Also, I want to “allow” – to let things happen as they may, rather than constantly struggling to “make” things go the way I want. While I am a firm believer in taking action to achieve your goals and aspirations, I know I can fall prey to the desire to grip my goals by the throat in a vain attempt to control the outcome. Which, then, leads me to feel let down when things don’t go the way I want. Which, subsequently leads to me beating myself up for not “doing it right” – whatever that’s supposed to be.

So, in 2010, I consciously Receive & Allow. My Vision Board will be a supportive reminder to me, helping me to not only remember what my theme is, but to feel inspired to return to the theme when I get off track.

Have fun creating your Vision Board for 2010 and I wish you a very Happy, Healthy and Creative New Year!