Kate and the Great Blue Heron at John Heinz Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum

Chapter 3, in which I cause a ruckus

Yesterday afternoon I stood on a chair in a library in West Philadelphia, flap, flap, flapping my wings and croaking like a heron for the kindergartners and first graders of the Charles Drew School. If you know me, you know that nothing delights me the way performing loud, ear-piercing bird calls do. You also know that I am quite good at this, even if you don’t personally have a taste for this talent.

How did this awesomeness happen? A few months ago I received a very special invite from a Mr. David Florig of the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC for short). David kindly emailed and asked if I would be interested in reading a children’s book to students in one of the school libraries the WePAC has opened, re-opened, or staffed in the area, in celebration of National Library Week. I said “Yes! As long as you don’t mind that my book is unpublished.” David said “No problem, kids would love to see your work in progress,” or something like that. I said, “Awesome! Let’s book it.” Or something like that.

First Steps (Time to Fly)

Just like that, I unknowingly joined the fancy ranks of some famous authors and illustrators who also live in the eastern Pennsylvania region, and agreed to read for WePAC, including: David Wiesner, Gene Barretta, Dan Gutman, Lisa Papp and Robert Papp… wait a minute. Do I get to claim membership in the same cool club as this bunch? That’s right, I already do. The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

After weeks of preparation, over-thinking and editing my manuscript, scrutinizing my sketches, and fact-checking my bird’s tale, Time to Fly, I threw my heart into the moment on Wednesday and totally got down like a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron. “Flap, flap, flap,” “Eeek! eeek! eeek!” and “CAWK!” echoed through the halls of Charles Drew for nearly 3 hours. I bet you a nickel that no library on Earth has ever witnessed such a wild, silly ruckus. Score one, two, and three for the birds.

Bald Eagle Wingspan, John Heinz Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum

Chapter 2, in which I receive a prize

In the same week I accepted my library reading invitation, I did another brave thing—I applied for a scholarship to the 20th Annual SCBWI Pocono Mountain Retreat. I sent my Time to Fly manuscript in consideration for the paid-in-full weekend getaway with art directors, editors, and agents, as well as other hopefuls in the kid lit business. Not even a week later I was notified of the results—I won! All expenses paid. I’ll be sharing a room with my co-winner, which is especially cool because I always attend these kinds of workshops solo.

The Poconos may not be my beloved Rockies, but yay! Mountains! Score! The Shawnee Inn does eerily resemble my favorite literary landmark, the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. I wonder if it’s even a smidge as haunted?

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron adult and chick, Avalon, NJ

Chapter 1, in which I save the birds

Coinciding with the bird book events above, I discovered a new muse: Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research in Newark, Delaware. I began volunteering as a bird rehabber in March, though I had been contemplating it for over a year. Tri-State was a first responder in the BP oil spill in the gulf, and rehabilitates thousands of birds a year with all sorts of maladies, from broken wings to abandoned babies. The oil spill specialists have even travelled to South Africa to de-oil Jackass Penguins. Sign me up!

So far in my first month of training, I have learned the special dietary needs of five species of raptors, three songbirds, two gulls, and one very great Great Blue Heron. Needless to say, this involves some rather unsavory food prep, including the butchering and preparation of dead mullet fish, mice, rats, chicken, and venison, and collecting live mealworms…

Watercolors and reeds

I fared rather well in every department but poultry. It may seem to be the tamest from the list above, but imagine, if you will, that it is 8:45am when you are asked to halve a whole, feathered chicken (complete with head, beak, feet, and all innards intact), stuck to a tray coated in its own pink, rotten leakage. “With what shall I halve it?” you ask in your most impressive volunteer voice, expecting some fine piece of butchery equipment to appear. No no, sweetie. This is a non-profit. You are directed to go find the saw. Yes, that dull one.

Despite this scenario, in which I had to leave the room after just one pass of the saw, so far I have exceeded my own expectations in dealing with the unpleasantries of the circle of life. Perhaps I could have, or still could, pursue a career in the natural sciences. The payoff of caring for an injured wild bird—even a turkey vulture—is far greater than any discomfort in serving its carrion. That vulture was released to the wild one week later. Score.

Ishta the Peregrine Falcon, permanent resident at Tri-State Bird Rescue

Preface

It’s a beautiful mid-March day, and I have chosen to spend a few hours of it painting outside, on the marsh surrounding the Wilmington waterfront. Just as I am about to pack up and leave for home, I see a Canada Goose approach the tidal gate, swimming against the current. Trying to paddle his way through, only to spin and drift backward again and again. What’s that around her neck? It’s a white plastic six-pack holder. It’s woven so tightly that she cannot do the things a goose should do, such as dip underwater, tip down for feeding, look left or right, or reach her preen gland. Her beak is a dull grey, as are her eyes.

Canada Goose, entangled neck

To get around the tidal gate she scrapes her way onto land, and waddles slowly around it to the calm tidal pool. She wades into the water and floats in the shade of the boardwalk. I call the volunteer inside the education center. She contacts Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research. They ask us to determine if the goose can fly. No. She does not flush when approached. The closest volunteer won’t be there for another hour or two. I am not sure the bird has that long, but I cannot wait around. I have my last art class scheduled in 2 hours and cannot be late.

Before heading home I visit Tri-State’s website and peek at the calendar to find the next volunteer training date. Wouldn’t you know, it’s this Saturday. I have no plans. I’ve already completed an orientation. I call. “Please let me know if there are any spots open for training this weekend.” 10 minutes later I receive my answer. “Yes.” Sign me up.

During training my group is shown the admissions log at the front desk. My Canada Goose was the last bird admitted, the same day I found her. In the status column are the letters, “DBA.” I ask our trainer what DBA means. “Dead Before Arrival.”

Canada Goose with 6-pack holder entangled around her neck

The following week, during my “shadow session,” I ask my trainer, “is it possible to find out how an admitted bird died?” I share with her my goose story. We find her chart in the “recently deceased” file. It reported that the stress of her capture and transport to Tri-State caused her to seize. When the staff attempted to move her into the safety of a playpen, she seized again and died.

I cannot get this goose out of my mind. She couldn’t fly. She pushed herself hard to get to that still tidal pool to die in peace. I couldn’t save her, but I can save others. I can help broken birds fly again, and abandoned birds fledge. Flap, flap, flap. It is time.

Snowy Egret pair

“For creative people, the opportunity to dance with the creative process is itself an experience of abundance. Abundance invites us to live the life we truly desire instead of settling for less. We are the choice-makers of our own priorities. We do indeed design our own lives.”
— Gail McMeekin; The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women Journal

My Journey Toward Creative Success

It was the year 2004, and I was miserable. I had taken a job with a company of crazymakers as a temporary measure, but sunk slowly into its quicksand with no vine in reach. I searched the internet for support in my makeshift cube in the back of the sample room. I found a web of like-minded creative souls via online “journals,” otherwise known as this new platform called “blogging.” With great haste I began my own blog. Aaaaaah, instant therapy.

I cultivated an audience of new friends—young women in similar creative struggles, bum jobs, new husbands, new homes, new puppy dogs. Some of these friends are now old friends whom I have met in person, talk to regularly, or keep tabs on through Facebook (you know who you are ;D). Most of these friends still have blogs of one kind or another, and/or tweet, and have made amazing strides over the past seven years. I am so proud.

So what does all this fluff have to do with this 12 Secrets blog tour, hmmm?

During my early years of blogging, I discovered the magic of creative self-help books. I started with the creativity bible, The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (highly recommended). I learned new habits of self-care. I entertained my lost creative inner child with lunch breaks of frozen yogurt and trips to Borders, where I found more and more books. I scanned the bibliographies of the books I found, and bought the most highly recommended titles. Somewhere in this manic research I found The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women: A Portable Mentor by Gail McMeekin (Conari Press, 2000). I loved everything about this book from the collage on the satin coated cover, to quick-reference quotes by famous women called out in the margins. Practically every other page is still lovingly dog-eared.

I inhaled Gail’s words and the stories of hundreds of women who had been in my circumstance at one point or another. Something about the women-only focus appealed to me more than books of similar ilk with a gender neutral focus. Knowing that some of my heroes overcame unimaginable obstacles gave me hope that I, too, could grow beyond my current situation. I began to dream bigger.

Unintentional Grounding

Fast forward to 2008. I had lived in Colorado for three years and was recently divorced. I lost 75% of my freelance design business from my bread-and-butter client, who had slashed their marketing budget. In my move from Winter Park to Denver I stumbled across a picture book manuscript I had written back in 2005, just before my move to Colorado. It was called, “Time to Fly.” When I read it, I cried. I had written it at a time of major transition, just before leaving everything I knew behind in Pennsylvania for what I hoped would be a better, more creatively stimulating and balanced life out West. Now mourning that loss, the words took on new meaning. Amazing. Something I wrote actually moved me. I had to do something with it.

I contacted Gail personally. We began one-on-one phone coaching sessions. She helped me break down my once abandoned goal of children’s book publication into baby steps. Her presence gave me courage to submit “Time to Fly” to a grant competition with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Six months later, I was shocked to receive a Letter of Commendation for an honorable mention. Wow, right? My first manuscript ever received critical recognition!

Just as I gained momentum, I found myself in transition yet again—this time, back to Pennsylvania. Gail remained in contact with me, even though I could not afford formal sessions. She remained a cheerleader for my progress, celebrating my small successes and offering alternate paths when I encountered roadblocks. Gail exhibited an infallible faith in me I did not completely comprehend. She invited me to join her Creative Catalyst Group—a teleconferencing support group comprised of other women in various stages of goal pursuit. This support helped me reach a major goal—I completed the production, design and illustration of a children’s album of lullabies called “Sing Me to Sleep, Indie Lullabies.” I organized and attended release parties in London and New York City. The album won two awards (NAPPA Gold and Creative Child Seal of Excellence) and was nominated for an Independent Music Award—once more, recognition and acclaim.

Creative Recovery

Start-stop, start-stop. My darling beagle, Maggie, began suffering from glaucoma and a luxated lens which required specialized veterinary care. As soon as that was over, I began visits to orthopedic doctors for my spine and hip. Everything but health went on hold. All the while, Gail remained in touch. When I received an invitation to be a host for her blog tour, I was flattered and honored, and I accepted graciously. I reserved my slot and received Gail’s books in the mail. Time to fly.

I have just begun to explore my new creative companions, and already I have dog-eared a page or two, and scribbled some sketches in the hand of my inner child. If it wasn’t a chronological impossibility, I might have asked Gail in her interview (below): “Any chance you wrote all of these books with me in mind?” I know the answer has something to do with like-minded creative spirits.

The Interview

Kate: Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and include me in your blog tour celebrating the release of your new book, The 12 Secrets of  Highly Successful Women! I first came to know you through your prior book, The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women, while going through a creative crisis some 10 years ago. How would you say your new title, The 12 Secrets of  Highly Successful Women, essentially differs from the first?

Gail: This new book is the advanced version of my 12 Secrets program. It assumes that you already know that you are creative and are actively ready to take your creativity and your life to a new level. It also directs you to discover your own definition of personal heart-felt creative success and to figure out how to leverage your success by using your creative edge in today’s marketplace. It tackles major issues for women like low self-confidence, burnout, perfectionism,  inaccurate societal myths about women, and fear of rejection and gives you insights and strategies on how to deal with them. While I interview fewer women in this book and use more of my own business/creativity knowledge, the 31 successful women I interviewed are all passionate about their work and actively using their creativity daily, they are great role models too. There are Creative Challenges for each chapter so that you get to design a dynamite action plan.

Kate: Have any particular life experiences inspired this second book? And the first?

Gail: The first book, The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women, came about after my own recovery from CFS which led to a creative renaissance for me and a fascination about women and creativity. In my research, I noticed that much of the literature and programming on creativity only mentioned a few token creative women like Martha Graham or Georgia O’Keefe. Frankly, that ticked me off. So I set about to write a book profiling modern-day, sane, happy, creative women, like many of  the women I had as clients, and to create a roadmap for women so that they could get their creative work out into the world. In this new book, The 12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women, I took all the mentoring and training that I had experienced and wanted to share the journey with the reader so that they could take their creativity to a higher level and be well-compensated and fulfilled by it. I should mention here that at the request of my readers, RedWheelConari just released a companion Journal book to the first book which is called simply The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women Journal and is another program for deepening your creative exploration and writing out your dreams and goals. Writing that Journal book has been a 10 year dream of mine and I am thrilled that it is finally out there to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first book.

Kate: You speak of yourself as intimately familiar with “ideaphoria.” How did you come to discover your own ideaphoria? How did you personally learn to harness it?

Gail: I always knew that I had lots of ideas. In fact, my husband used to have a request that he have two cups of coffee in the AM before I started talking about all the things that were on my mind, as he initially found them overwhelming, and he is great listener. Now I write in my Journal in the AM so we have shifted the pattern and we talk when we are both fully present. But about 15 years ago, I got invited to take a battery of Aptitude tests at the well-known Johnson O-Conner Research Center in Boston  (they are in several U.S. locations) and I scored in the 99th per centile in Ideaphoria, which is rapid flow of ideas. What a revelation for me! It is my greatest gift. But often our greatest gifts have a down-side and when you have too many ideas for your lifetime, you have to learn to manage it. I talk alot about how to do that in The 12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women as you have to be focused in order to choose the right projects and complete them and not be scattered. So you need sorting strategies, filtering strategies, and I have developed an original FOCUS model that I use in my groups and workshops.I now use post it notes for ideas and then organize them from there.

“You cannot be successful if you cannot control your thoughts.”
— Gail McMeekin; The 12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women: A Portable Life Coach For Creative Women

Kate: One “secret” I have found most challenging in the past and present is delegation. Is this something that you have struggled with in your career? How so?

Gail: For many years I taught a program I developed called Positive Management Strategies to entrepreneurs and managers in large businesses and delegation was a key component. I also coach business owners currently in what I call the “art of delegation.” Some of that material is in The 12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women, as learning to do it well is a huge challenge for many women. Women business owners often try to hold onto way too much responsibility for too long, while men hire a book-keeper and an assistant very early on. Delegation is not dumping—it requires careful training and coaching until the person you have delegated to is up to speed. But most importantly, you have to delegate to people who have the willingness and the ability to do the job. Without those two elements, the delegation will fail. I have had virtual assistants and web designers on my team since 2000 and I feel very comfortable delegating to the right people. But there are always challenges and both parties have to keep the channels of communication wide open.

Kate: The 12 Secrets, when read quickly may seem like no-brainers upon first glance. What is the difference between knowing a Secret, and living that Secret? Can you cite an example in your own creative journey?

Gail: You know that you have mastered a Secret when you are getting the results you want and we often cycle through all 24 of them at different times. In the Success book, Secret #7 which is called “Crafting a Business Plan that Helps You to Grow Personally, Generates Prosperity, and Enhances Your Lifestyle” has been a challenge for me as my Life Purpose is Passionate Mentor, so I am wired up to help people, above all. But I have had to learn more advanced business management techniques the past few years in order to streamline and grow my business. I have the lifestyle I want and I love my work, so those parts are in good shape. But this is my year of metrics and ROI monitoring and businesses development and I was in an intensive training program last year to give me the best skills which I share in the book. Creative people are always learning and mastering new things.

Kate: Knowing what you know now having interviewed some of the most successful, creative women in our lifetime, what advice would you give yourself as a young newcomer to the work force in this economy?

Gail: Invest in a comprehensive career/life assessment with an experienced coach and choose a career path that you really are excited about where there is a need in the marketplace. I work with lots of young women and help them to find their Life Purpose, their best skills and talents, and help them to make their passions and dreams a reality. Also, stop listening to people who give you advice who have no idea what they are talking about. Women are not just supposed to be nurses, secretaries, and teachers, unless they choose to be. There is a whole world out there for us with new kinds of jobs being invented every day. Know thyself, as Socrates said, is your best guide.

“Transformation is about changing potential into reality. It’s about shifting the condition, nature, or function of our lives.”
– Gail McMeekin; The 12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women: A Portable Life Coach For Creative Women

Special thanks to my coach and mentor, Gail McMeekin, for including me in your blog tour of successful and creative women. You have been a huge part of all my successes in this ongoing journey. I look forward to forging the next path with you soon.

…and the secrets of hundreds more women who have inspired her get to that place we all dream of.

Before I can post my full entry as part of the Blog Tour of Gail McMeekin, creative coach and mentor, I must tend to a few minutes of delegation on a code red design project. Delegation is a secret I learned about in Gail’s first 12 Secrets books, and have discussed with her one-on-one in numerous coaching sessions. It has been a major challenge for me as a one-person, self-employed art department for hire.

I also need to quickly brief my client/partner in this project on Secrets Nine and Ten. When the project is over I will wrap both Gail’s books and her workbook in pretty wrap and ribbons and FedEx it to her, wherever she is in the country at this point, building her potentially highly successful business.

In the meantime, if you are not familiar with the amazing Gail and her powerful work, please visit her website and get started on the 12 Secrets to Highly Successful Women Blog Tour. I’ll meet you back here before end of day with a personal interview with Gail and some more of my experiences with the 12 Secrets.

Gail\’s Secret #2 – Sift Through Your Ideas to Get Heart Focused