We are so excited to have partnered with Check Advantage to bring a number of new Working Girl styles to a check near you. Dale and the entire staff was so wonderful to work with and we're excited to see these new images on covers, address labels and checks. You can pick them up over the Check Advantage website!
Surtex follwup is still in full swing and we hope to have a fresh line of products to debut soon. It's so exciting to work on new projects with new companies and expand and explore new options with our existing manufacturers. So this week we are participating in the Declaration of You Blog tour. The Declaration of You! is written and designed by the uber cool Jessica Swift and Michelle Ward. It's been fun to be a part of the blog tour and discover new artists, writers and general creative types and read what they have to say on various subject. This week it's all about INTENTION! This is one of the subjects near to our heart and we actually have a formula we use over at Working Girls central. Don't freak out, there will be no algebra test at the end so here it is:
(h) I + (c) A = (d) Outcome
huh? Okay here it is simplified. (heart) Based Intentions plus (correct) Action = (desired) Outcome.
What's a heart based intention? It's an intention that doesn't come from your brain. It's an internal push or a desire to create, manifest or somehow bring to life in a 3rd dimensional reality. Let's say you want to get in shape, your brain could set the intention all day long to eat carrot sticks and go to the gym, but if that is not centered in your heart guess what, you're going to end up doing just about anything other than your intention (like matching your husbands massive pile of black sox to watching back to back episodes of the Housewives of New Jersey). Or surfing You Tube for funny videos about procrastination like this one! That's why it's important to find the joy and the fulfillment in setting your intention. Both Jodi and I are very busy, and exercising is not our favorite thing to do. But Jodi loves getting out of the house sometimes and going to see her friend Grace who just happens to be a fabulous pilates instructor, that intention works because it's coupled with friendship and a change of scenery. I don't like exercise either, but I do love the outdoors and happen to live in a community with a resort style pool, thus I end up going to the pool and swimming, much more appealing to me then throwing some 10 pound barbells around in a testosterone filled gym. These same rules apply to business. The only intentions that really matter are the ones you set that you are WILLING to follow through on. Which brings us to the second part of our equation.
(h) I + (c) A = (d) Outcome
Intentions must be coupled with (correct) Action.
Correct action often involves things that aren't too exciting like phone calls, sending out email newsletters, follow up, and even, dare we say it...collecting on accounts. Early on, we might have had some grand ideas that we just set our intentions, work on our lovely little projects all day, and wah lah, all this magic happens with our products lining the store shelves and money oozes from our bank account. But alas, there is no creative/intention/magical bypass. The creating is a lot of fun, but equally enjoyable and sometimes challenging is the selling, the collaborating, the building and tweaking process. We are still perfecting our processes but one thing is clear, taking the (correct) Action is key to having your intention fulfilled. When our action doesn't lead to our desired result, we view it as an opportunity for corrective action. In five years, we've had to course correct within our business more than once. While not fun, we found the experience to be very educational. As Oprah likes to say, "When you know better you do better!"
So that's the formula. Hope it inspires you to create something grand and do what only you can do, bring something authentically yours into the world. Here are a few of our own most recent intentions, we'd love to hear yours too, so don't be shy. Well behaved, mild-mannered women rarely make history you know! INTENTIONS LIST - Summer 2013 To launch a collection of books with a publisher that makes people laugh - we've done it once so far! Create patterns and images that make their way to fabric, scrapbook paper, and crafting supplies. Put our Working Girls images on products sold throughout the UK. Develop some art images perfect for computers, iphones and skins. Create a collection of Working Girl tabletop and gift items available in boutiques. To travel out of state with family enjoying rest and relaxation. Enjoy and appreciate our new Working Girls SUV and Car. Best, Jodi and Tonja
Hello All! We hope you are having a fantastic start of your summer. Things have been jumping in the Working Girls Design, Inc studio here in Las Vegas. We enjoyed a very busy week in New York for the Surtex show and are busy, busy, busy with follow up and excited to bring you some fresh, new cool Working Girls Designs soon!! And speaking of cool, have you heard about the new book The Declaration of You! It's written and designed by the very talented Jessica Swift and Michelle Ward. The book also has lots of really cool contributors including one of our favs the very funny and super smarty - Danielle Laport.
So to celebrate all these fabulous women and their sage advice, we are going to be jumping in with our two cents on certain topics. This week it's all about enthusiasm, and we have a few gems to share about the topic.
First, if you're going to start your business whether it's selling art or opening a hair salon, you're going to need a big healthy dose of enthusiasm. Your ideas and dreams are unique to you, and if you have the desire to express yourself uniquely in your business, then it can become not only a reality, but an uber successful venture too. And how cool would that be, to live like a rockstar in your own chosen profession and 100% in charge of how you shape and grow your business.
Now, in addition to enthusiasm, you're going to need to have a big dose of taking regular ACTION steps to reach your goals. We meet artists all the time and they want to see their artwork on products, they want to see their creations line the store shelves and we say creating the artwork is the EASY part. In addition to creating the art, you'll need to do a lot of legwork and very unsexy things like art licensing tradeshows, cold calls to manufacturers and walking the gift shows in Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas or New York. We've done all those things. It took time, capital and hard work, but wa lah - we've also put over 2,000 products on the store shelves in cool places like Bed Bath and Beyond, Steinmart, Staples, Cost +, JC Penny, Fred Segal and Barnes and Noble to name a few.
Our guess is that when Jessica and Michelle had the idea for the book they were very enthused about it! But that's not nearly enough to bring a successful book like this to market. What you may not see is all the hours they spent creating it, gathering content, proofing it, and finding the perfect partner to publish the book! For success to happen, you've got to schedule in time, maybe a lot of time, to turn all that enthusiasm swimming around in your head, into a 3rd dimensional object like a book or product.
Now another funny thing about enthusiasm is that it really helps to have a partner. Working Girls is made up of Jodi the artist and Tonja the writer, we have different levels of enthusiasm and push and pull each other forward. Likewise, Michelle and Jessica co-created their book together. It's not necessary that you have a partner to keep your enthusiasm up, but it sure does help to have another living soul that believes in your project as much as you do!
Last thing, we love this little gem of a video by best selling author Kelly Corigan.
We know when you are enthused about your project you want to share your ideas with a spouse, sibling, parent, co-worker, friend and maybe even a stranger, but recognize that early stage investors are rare!! If you have a strong vision, keep moving forward with it, you are bringing something fabulous into the world and that means you may hear a few "I don't get it" or "That won't work" from friends and family. That's okay, keep going anyway, because when you feed your enthusiasm with ACTION and keep bolding going in the direction you desire, that's truly when the magic happens! We would love to hear about your next big aha project, and how you plan to keep your enthusiasm in full swing.
