When You Were Four, You Were an Artist. What Happened?

Many of the ideas in this blog were originally penned several years ago in a post that I wrote for my company, BiddingForGood.   But the ideas are as relevant today as ever. 

As I prepare for another blissful summer as a camp counselor and also prepare to welcome my first grand baby, I am thinking a lot about children.  I am thinking about their pure spirits and their simple joy in the little things. I am also thinking a lot about creativity and want to share some of the wonderful insights that I discovered in Seth Godin’s book. Linchpin: Are you Indispensable!  Seth Godin, has written a number of books on marketing and is a very popular and inspiring speaker and thought leader.  He poses the following question-  at age four you were an artist. At age seven you were a poet.  At age 12, if you had a lemonade stand, you were an entrepreneur. So what happened? 

He reflects on the state of the workplace today which is often crushing the creativity of employees.  He challenges us all to be remarkable, to be indispensable, to be artists at work and in life.   Now this is not always an easy path.  There are plenty of people who will not choose this path.  There are those who want to show up every day, keep their heads down, get through the day and not really be noticed.  But in a world where there is more and more outsourcing for essential functions, and pressure to hire the least expensive resource to get the job done (better yet, get a volunteer), there is more of a need than ever for the fearless innovators to stand up, express their ideas, and share their “art”. It feels a little risky to do it but the challenge for those of us leading teams, building community and running companies is to create a culture that celebrates Linchpins.  We may not always like what we hear from them, but at least we are hearing new ideas and maybe new truths.


There is a wild and crazy event that happens every year in the Nevada desert called Burning Man.  It is a week long festival that attracts 50,000+ people who create a remarkable community on a parched piece of earth. I am lucky to have been to Burning Man several times. Many people think that the profile of a “Burner” is someone in their 20’s who is looking for sex, drugs and rock and roll.  Believe it or not, there are a lot of grown-ups like me who come for the community and the art and the radical self-expression.  One of my favorite things about this event is that there is a “gifting economy” at the center of the community.  What does that mean?  It means there is no commerce, nobody sells anything and everyone is asked to bring their gifts.  The gifts might be as simple as a homemade necklace that you share with people, or an afternoon where you make grilled cheese sandwiches to distribute to the throngs.  One year, someone came up to our campfire and asked if anyone was wearing pink.  I happened to have socks on that were pink and so I was presented with a pink etch-a-sketch.

One of my favorite experiences at Burning Man has been singing in the Playa Choir.  This is a gospel-type choir that rehearses all week long and then leads a “service” just before everyone heads home.  It is the most soulful, heartfelt group of singers I’ve ever sung with, led by a wonderful woman who brings the group together in remarkable ways. The gifts that are shared on the day of that service are breathtaking. This is another great concept in Godin’s book; the notion of “gifting”- of bringing your unique gifts to whatever you do.  This is a tricky concept as not everyone thinks of their skills or contributions as gifts or as “art”. But think again. You’d be surprised by how often your colleagues or community really does appreciate your gifts and your “art”.  Perhaps if we ourselves perceive them as gifts, we will be more generous with them and our companies and communities will be better for it.   I challenge us all to be linchpins in all that we do. 

Heal the Land

Heal the Land,

Heal the Land,

My Prayer is to Heal the Land.

These were the words that rang out as the Dartmouth Gospel Choir sang yesterday at a stirring service to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King.   It was a poignant ending for the weekend after thousands of peaceful and passionate women and men marched across the country and the world to show their support of equal rights for ALL people, for democracy, for this country that we hold dear.

For the first time since I began this blog, I feel an urgent need to record something, to put my thoughts on paper, to preserve this moment in time. This weekend was historic and I was lucky enough to be part of it.   Like many others, I have struggled to find the words to describe how I have felt in the face of an uncertain future, a country divided, and a set of values on display that I simply do not understand.  I have been sickened and sleepless as I have tried to grasp what our future will look like with our new administration.   Like so many I have felt a bit helpless as I have watched the Obamas leave office and the new administration move in.  I have felt deeply saddened to know that the President for whom I have felt such respect and admiration is no longer steering the ship.  I fear there will be truly bumpy seas ahead.

So I decided to do something.  I made a plan with my dear friend Susie Allen and her daughter Erin.   I bought a plane ticket to Washington DC and I showed up.  To be in that sea of people was indescribable.  To hear the swells of cheers resonating in the air, moving down the mall towards us was nothing short of thrilling.  To sing “This Land is Your Land” with the crowd filled my heart. 

And here’s the thing.  Every last person that I met along the way from the beginning of the trip to the very last stop could not have been nicer or more open-hearted.  It was incomparable. The only thing I can compare it to was being at Burning Man.  Burning Man celebrates radical self-expression and radical self-reliance.  The sense of community that is created in that desert is unlike anything I have ever experienced.  Until now.  Being on the mall in DC felt a lot like being in the desert at Black Rock City. There was such passion and creativity on display.   It actually gave me hope.

At the service yesterday the speaker, Joshua Dubois, who was President Obama’s Spiritual Director and Pastor in Chief, said that we all need to dig deep, alone, to find our morale compass.  That we each need to find our way and act on what we believe and what we care about.   Maybe we need to find our morale compass alone but we also need to support each other and speak out for what we believe.  We need to choose how we can make a difference, how we can share our gifts.  There is a lot of talk already about keeping up the momentum.  It’s fine to show up and march, but the real work is in front of us.  The experience has made me think hard about the choices I am making and how I can make a difference.  I am asking myself what can I do?  What are my gifts?  Where can I contribute my time and talent and treasure?  I am resolute. I am energized.  I am hopeful.

Two Parts Effort, One Part Faith

I have been pondering lately the intersection of effort and divine intervention.  I have also been doing a lot of singing lately.  For people who know me, they know that this makes me really happy. Last year I joined a Gospel Choir at Dartmouth College.  This is a new kind of singing for me.  Give me a show tune or a camp song and I’m all about it. I have also sung in many other choirs in my life from All State Chorus in high school to church choirs and an incredible 12-year run with my beloved a cappella group, Custom Blend.  In each of these musical adventures, a lot of attention was paid to the details.  Every note was dissected and rehearsed, every dynamic in the music was noted and hopefully observed.  There were particularly challenging songs that we rehearsed for months and months. There is actually great precision in creating music for most singers and certainly most choirs. For most singers, the work is intense and can take months before you are “show ready”.

Gospel music is something quite different.  It is deeply rooted in the African American Church tradition in our country.  The term Gospel means “Good News” and the music is sung to inspire.  This is hand slapping, foot stomping music at it’s best.  With all of my years of experience singing in a variety of groups, I thought that I would be ready and able to step up and learn this new genre of music.  Imagine my surprise when I showed up at the first rehearsal and was told that we wouldn’t be using music.  What the what?  In this choir, we mostly learn by listening.  Occasionally we get the words to a song, but often all we’ve got is our ability to hear the music and feel it. 

Now I am far from a perfectionist but I do like to be prepared and to feel well rehearsed whenever I am performing.  For our recent Gospel Choir concert, that was not how I felt. As we arrived at our last rehearsal, I kept looking around wondering if everyone else had magically learned all of the music for our concert and was going to be ready for prime time.  Some of the choir seemed ready and confident. But for me, learning that many songs, without the visual aid of a piece of music was no small feat.  I should note for the record, that I did my homework.  Man, did I do my homework.  I listened to our recordings over and over and over.  But it was still a push to feel ready to perform, and  to a packed house no less.

How often are you in a situation where you feel like you are about to take a leap of faith?  You’re throwing yourself off the cliff and hoping that the wind picks you up and lands you softly on the ground?  How often do you prepare for something but in the end, hope that some divine energy will appear to assure a successful outcome?  If ever there was divine energy, it was in that auditorium on that night with that spirited group of performers.  We rocked the house and the audience came along for the ride.  It was magic. Our effort, along with a healthy dose of faith lifted us up.

In another musical ensemble that I am singing with, our director talks about getting the songs into our bodies.  I translate this into getting the songs off the page and into our heads and hearts.  At least for this group, we have music to look at.  But the process is really the same.  Do the work, put in the effort and then let inspiration and some kind of energy lift us up and help us share the beautiful music with our fellow singers and our audiences.

A filmmaker friend of mine was getting ready to hit the road for a cross-country shoot this summer.  She had planned meticulously and had the myriad details well planned for the casting, the locations, the housing of the crew etc.  She had made arrangements for childcare for her three boys while she would be away for over a month.  She was excited and very anxious about how the project would unfold.  My one word piece of advice to her was – Trust. 

Trust in what?  Trust in herself and her team?  Trust in the planning and the work that she had already put in?  Maybe it was all of those things.  But I think it was also trust in something bigger.  I think I was telling her that she could jump off the cliff and that something would hold her up and help her float to the ground.  I think I was also telling her that the ride would be thrilling and the views incredible.

It’s almost impossible to put words to it, to define it.  But there is something downright exhilarating when we give ourselves over and trust, when we allow ourselves to have faith.   I would never suggest short-cutting the work or the effort but I am learning more and more that there is energy in the universe that holds us up, that inspires us, that brings us joy. How lucky for me that I am finding places and people with whom to experience that joy and that magic.  How about you?  Can I get an Amen?

Best. Facebook. Birthday. Ever!

Best. Facebook. Birthday. Ever!

It’s official.  I’m starting a new trend.  We’ll see if it catches on.  It has to do with celebrating your birthday in a new way- especially on Facebook.

I have been a loyal Facebook user for a long time and have grown to really enjoy and even anticipate the birthday love.  In fact I penned a blog several years ago on this very topic. What I love about it is hearing from so many people from different times and places in my life.   I revel in that connection- even if it is only once a year. 

This year, for a host of reasons, I was especially looking forward to it.  Maybe it’s the result of moving full-time to Vermont, away from so many friends in MA.  Maybe it has something to do with transitioning into a different chapter in my career and missing my former colleagues.  Whatever the reason, I was really looking forward to the day.  But an interesting thing happened.  I began to hear from lots of people beginning early in the morning.  Most of them sent a simple Happy Birthday.  That’s probably the most efficient way to make the gesture without too much of a commitment.  But I found is curiously unsatisfying.  It just felt a bit flat and empty so I decided to do something about it.  I posted that at this stage in my life I am much more interested in experiences and creating memories than anything else and so I wanted to spend the day remembering some of those great memories and how my friends were part of them.  I began by posting one word or in some cases one sentence about the person and our shared experiences.

I’m sure some people were a bit surprised to get my short reply to their birthday post.  Some jumped right in and began sharing their memories of our time together.  I quickly realized that this would be a fabulous way to spend the day.  I actually took the time to think about each and every person who I heard from. For some it was very easy to recall a signature thing about them.  Like my friend Louis.  Louis and I met in business, he, at an advertising agency and I, at a media company probably trying to sell him advertising.  Here’s what I remembered about Louis.  Whenever I would see him, he would open his arms and say, “Show me some sugar”.  I just loved that about him and that is what came to mind as I remembered him. 

Other people from very early in my life bubbled up- my dear friend Meredith. Meredith and I were best friends when we were in elementary school and were in a secret club called the Flying Eagles.  That was her memory and boy did it bring me a smile.  I remember our super secret meetings, and our custom designed t-shirts.  I don’t remember exactly what we did in our club of 7 year olds but we thought we were pretty special.  Meredith moved to France a number of years ago so my only connection with her now is through Facebook.

Another friend from high school remembered the many singing adventures we went on together. We both sang in the high school choir and travelled to All State chorus several times. She actually remembers us ending up on neighboring cots in the nurse’s office when we returned from one of those adventures.  Wow.  I wish my memory was that crisp. 

A more recent memory that came bubbling back was skinny-dipping with a friend after a soccer party at a very swanky Silicon Valley home.  Anyone who knows me well knows how much I LOVE skinny-dipping and to have to sneak around to do it makes it even more fun.  That party was probably the highlight of the two years we lived on the West Coast. 

A particularly special exchange for me was with my cousin Rob.  There was a famous recipe in our family that our grandmother used to make every Christmas.  The recipe was for peanut sticks, a delicious hors d’oevre that was a real labor of love as it took hours to make them.  That was the memory I shared with Rob and his very quick reply was “Jincie”, my grandmother’s name. So we each were able to spend a few minutes remembering our extraordinary grandmother.

There were lots of memories of shows that I have done over the years.  Facebook, as it turns out, is a fabulous place to stay in touch with theatre friends and see and hear about their latest and greatest artistic endeavors.  There were camp memories and parenting memories and work memories.  One former colleague wrote that he missed me every day. How good does that feel?

So why do I think my trend is bound to take off?  Because it takes what has become routine for many people and cranks it up a notch.  It moves it from being a day when you get a celebratory light touch from friends through Facebook and turns it into a wonderfully rich day of connection and memory.  For isn’t that what’s it’s all about?  Isn’t it just awesome to get to remember friends from every corner of your life- all on one day each year?  Whether this takes off or not, I’m going to stick with it.  In fact, from now on when I am moved to send a birthday greeting to any of my friends on Facebook, it’s going to come with a fun shared experience for us to remember together.  Who’s in? 

Why Can't Life (Work) Be More Like Camp?

For anyone who has known me for any length of time, they know that I am a camp person.  I come from a long line of camp people, going all the way back to my grandmother who went to camp almost one hundred years ago.  I have spent 16 summers at camp, first as a camper and later as a counselor.  That does not include the many years in between when I was a camp parent as my two children were campers and then counselors.  So this camp thing runs very deep for me.

This summer after a 15-year hiatus, I returned to my camp (Aloha Hive) in VT as a counselor, heading up the performing arts department.  It was a blast. It was hard work with plenty of challenges and abundant rewards.  And since for most of the last 15+ years, I have toiled at a range of companies, I spent a lot of time thinking about how organizations run, how they inspire (or not) their people.  I mostly pondered how the principles that guide building a camp community could apply to companies. 

I marveled as I watched the camp community come together.  I observed the power of simple living, of hard work and pitching in, of silliness and fun, of being present in the moment and appreciating the beauty around us.  I was astonished to watch the counselor staff become confident young women and commit to bringing their best selves to their work at camp.  I was inspired by their hard work and their adventuresome spirit and by their great sense of fun.

There was a moment towards the end of the summer that crystallized for me the spirit of the place.  By the end of the summer, the staff was pretty well spent.  They’d devoted their entire lives over 8 weeks to a group of kids and to each other as members of the community.  Before everyone could say their goodbyes and head home to their “other life”, we had to close up camp and do a series of work projects, many of which were not very glamorous.  I was given the task of dolling out these projects.  One counselor, when asked to clean the “dungeon”, the area below the kitchen that is dark and dank and riddled with spiders, looked at me with a smile and said, “I am the luckiest person alive!”

How often does that happen at companies?  Not often enough. In many companies, employees become expert at dodging the unpleasant tasks.  So how do we inspire our people to bring more of themselves, to commit more, to truly share the best version of themselves?  My camp has a core mission statement- to create fine people.  Imagine if more companies, as part of their corporate mission statement had “creating fine people” on the list.

Each company that I have worked at over my career has had their own set of practices that are intended to create loyalty and company spirit.  One company stands out for me- Eons, founded by Jeff Taylor (founder of Monster.com) Jeff is not only an extraordinary entrepreneur but he is an inspired leader.  At Eons, Jeff believed in creating memorable moments and rituals. The company spent every Wednesday night working late, eating dinner together, celebrating individual and team accomplishments and often having fun.  He inaugurated an annual “Leap” into Boston Harbor.  This typically happened in the early fall, when the water was still relatively warm.  The entire company would walk down the pier from our offices and take a leap into the harbor.  Apart from just being a wacky and fun thing to do, there was a lot that was unspoken about this ritual.  It was a leap of faith, a leap of solidarity, a leap of shared celebration.

While Eons did not succeed, the esprit de corps was remarkable and the things that bound us together reflect many of the principles that are at play at camp.

  

When I was interviewing to join my last company, BiddingForGood, I told the CEO, that apart from my skills and experience, I was really a camp counselor at heart.  At that moment in the life of the company, that resonated with him.  He hoped that having a “camp counselor” join the company would go a long way towards uniting the employees and would help bring out the best in them.  I’m proud to say that I think we did that. Our holiday videos became an annual ritual that has been immortalized on YouTube.  While not everyone was enthusiastic about participating, most people did.  We were silly.  We sang and we danced and we laughed at ourselves. And our customers loved it.

There is much that has been published and disseminated on creating a positive company culture.  It is my sincere belief that if more companies were more like camp, we would make the world a better place. So herewith is my checklist of simple things you can do at your organization:

  

1.     Spend time together away from technology.  Have meetings with no phones and no computers.

2.     Eat meals together. 

3.     Be silly.  Allow time for laughter.

4.     Do skits.  Instead of long boring memos on new company policies, demonstrate through skits.

5.     Celebrate creativity with costume parties, holiday videos.

6.     Take recess.  Get outdoors.  Do walking meetings.

7.     Sing.  For birthdays, for holidays, for fun.

8.     Have rituals. Leap into Boston Harbor.

9.     Set lofty goals.  To create fine people.

 If you have been lucky enough to go to camp and have brought some of your camp experience to your workplace, I’d love to hear about it.  Share your stories with me. I might just put them in a book. 

Shifting Gears Through An Identity Crisis

Shifting Gears Through An Identity Crisis

There are some who get through life with a “slow and steady wins the race” approach.  That would not be me.  The arc of my life and the twists and turns along the way have always been made up of periods of wild activity, a life jammed to the gills with commitments and obligations, interspersed with occasional periods of slowing down. This last year I have taken the opportunity to slow down…. kind of.  I penned a blog last year called, “A Report From the Slow Lane” on what it means to slow down. In another blog, “The Last Lesson my Father Taught me”, I shared thoughts about the importance of slowing down.  

Now "slowing down" is a relative term as some would hardly characterize the last year for me as a “slowing down” time.  I worked on a number of theatre projects, I launched my Great Gifting Experiment last fall, I brought my beloved puppy, Smooch into my life,  and I topped off the year working at my awesome camp, Aloha Hive.  Directing the performing arts department for a camp of 158 little girls can hardly be described as slowing down or restful.  But even within my year off, I have had periods of extreme busy-ness as well as periods of less activity, more reflection.

Perhaps most importantly, I have, for now, left behind the very consuming career as a sales and marketing executive that I had built over three decades or more.  It begs the question- (Cue Opening number of Chorus Line “Who am I anyway? “Am I my resume?”)  Sorry folks, once a theatre nerd, always a theatre nerd. 

But how do I really define myself?  I have always been an interesting stew of different interests, pastimes and passions.  Being a Mom was an incredibly important chapter for me.  The countless hours in the car and on the sidelines of the soccer field will count as some of my most precious memories.  My career has also been incredibly interesting and mostly fulfilling.  I have many former colleagues who I count as dear friends even today.  I am proud of much of the work that I have done and the teams that I have managed and nurtured.   So who am I when I’m no longer the busy executive or the Mom with a houseful of kids?  I ask myself this question as I try to write my “headline” on LinkedIn or Twitter.  I have tried to break out in the past while tackling this challenge and have included words in my headlines like “rabble-rouser” or “spark”

I was at a camp reunion recently and saw many old friends who I have not seen for a while.  By the end of the weekend, I was a bit weary of trying to answer the question about … what I’m doing.  What am I doing?  Right now, I’m resting.  I’m thinking.  I’m writing.   I’m imagining.  Would I take a job if it felt like the right job, a job that would be challenging and fulfilling and put me back on a team?  Absolutely.  Would I jump into another theatre project?  No doubt about it. How about get another puppy.  Hold on, sister.  I’m not sure about that one. 

Often in life when we are casting about for new opportunities, we are advised to have an elevator speech.  What’s my elevator speech?  Well.  I might say I’m a marketing executive, a theatre buff, a camp counselor, a devoted friend/wife/mother, a seeker, a chicken-farmer, a singer, a dreamer.  Oops.. the elevator speech is getting a bit long.  Too bad.  That’s what it is for now.  The order might shift and the intensity around one descriptor over another might change.  But that’s the crazy mixed-up stew of my life right now.  Right now,  I am not defined by one persona.  It’s not always comfortable but I think it’s where a lot of growth and learning happens. So if you’re looking for a fellow seeker, or a marketing consultant or a director or an actor or a rabble-rouser, hit me up.  Who knows what might happen.