Dead Dog Syndrome

"Nobody kicks a dead dog" 
(Famous words worth remembering often)

Let's be honest if you do make it big, which I hope you do... get ready for criticism from all angles. But consider this, if  people are talking about your art either positively or negatively at least they're talking, your art did it's job :)

Avoid dead dog syndrome, and make your goldmine idea come to fruition. Take it all the way, because why not, if you don't, someone else will. 

Embrace the criticism, it's the nature of the artistic beast.

Swim To Yr Ship

 “Some people talk about waiting for their ship to come in, but the people who win in life are willing to swim out to the ship.”
                                       Les Brown

We have to put ourselves out there… we have to swim out to our ship.

When we put ourselves out there in any area of our lives, it creates an energetic frequency that must give us back what we are putting out. 

I recently heard the story of teenage millionaire, Cameron Johnson who is a money making protégé. The story I heard was not one about him making money, but more specifically about him putting himself out there; his first key to success.

Cameron was eight years old, and he loved the movie Home Alone. It was his dream to visit NYC and stay in the Plaza Hotel, the same hotel Macauley Culkin had stayed in, in the movie. He wrote a letter to the owner of the Plaza Hotel, Donald Trump and asked to tour the suite the movie was shot in. Upon his arrival to the Plaza Hotel, he was greeted by the concierge, who told him that Trump had arranged for his whole family to stay in the suite during their time in NYC.

In his book You Call the Shots, Cameron Johnson uses this story to explain the importance of putting yourself out there, because you never know what you might get back.

As we get older putting ourselves out there becomes a bit more complicated. Swimming out to our ship can cause our Ego to kick into high gear…

If I put myself out there, I might get laughed at.

If I put myself out there, I might offend or step on someone’s toes.

If I put myself out there, I might fail.

Putting yourself out there, can be scary… But the possible pros that can arise, greatly out weigh the cons. So why not put yourself out there?!  

I’ve recently been challenging myself to do just that, and Ive had some great responses.

--A few weeks ago, I attended an agent meet and greet, and had a great conversation and connection with one of the agents. During our session she said, “Wow, you should really get Mimi, from Rent on your resume.” I smiled and said, “Id love to play that role, and I’ll work on that.”

I went home that afternoon, and saw an audition posting for Rent Off-Bway, and thought what an interesting coincidence. I decided to put myself out there. I wrote to the agent, and asked her to consider submitting me for an audition appointment. I also included a demo cd of myself, singing a song from the show, to spark her interest.

I cannot tell you how great it felt to drop that letter in the mail. Now the excitement was paired with a little bit of fear, but it was overall empowering. I thought “Cool, if she calls me great and if not, at least I did my part.”

--About a month ago a close friend of mine, offered to submit my headshot and resume to her agent. (Now this was sorta putting myself out there, through her putting herself out there… but Id say it still counts.) Anyway, she submitted my information... and yesterday, I received the good news that her agent would like to meet with me this coming week.

--Now my family and I have been going through some rough times for a while now, and last week we all reached our braking point. It was decided, big changes needed to occur immediately. One of the big changes was my need for another job as supplemental income.

I began my job hunt, and was lucky enough to receive two job offers within the first couple hours I was out interviewing. But the pay and time constraint wasn’t the most applicable for my lifestyle.

And then, something inside me told me to call this swanky nightclub and ask for a job as a waitress. I don’t know what compelled me to do it, but for some reason I just knew I needed to try my luck. So I called at 2pm, thinking no one would answer. But shockingly, someone did answer. The guy on the phone said that I could send in my resume for consideration.

So I sent my resume. Low and behold, I received an email back just a few minutes later. The guy on the phone, who I had just sent my resume to, just happened to be my ol’pal from my freshman year dorm at NYU. I started training just a few days later, and began working the week after that.

You never know what you’ll get if you just put yourself out there. You could get nothing. But you could also get something, something even more exciting than you could have ever imagined. 

Like energy begets like energy. So if you put out positive energetic frequencies, you must receive back the equivalent. Now it might not come right away, and it might not come in exactly the way you had planned, but once the energy is out there, the like-energy is bound to come back your way.

Fear stops most of us from doing this, but all the “fear” is, is your ego, and we are so much bigger than our ego. 

So why not put yourself out there in all aspects of your life, and see what opportunities may arise. My guess is you’ll feel empowered… and this empowerment will generate the flow of success coming your way.

Ode to Spectacle

Spectacle is great. But make sure you’re using it for the right reasons.

Create art that seeks to move and entertain.

Ditch the boas, the cheesy lyrics, the wow/shock factor. And please create art that comes from the heart and not from one’s greed for money and fame. 

  

"Is your [art] better than it sounds, or does it sound better than it is? We call the first a discovery, something worthy of word of mouth. The second? Hype."Seth Godin

get OFF the internet! (oh the irony)

When Malcolm Gladwell was asked in an interview if he used social networking and the like, he responded…

“My goal is to do less things online, not more… Because I have a limited amount of time. My whole goal in the world is to clear big spaces of time to think and to explore, to follow my curiosity. And if I’m constantly on my blackberry it kinda chews into what’s important.”

What is important…

Love?

Friendship?

People?

Art?

Nature?

Conversation?

The air we breathe?

We all know time is precious. But I think more often than not, we ignore this notion.

If you were to die tomorrow, what gifts would the world lack because you didn’t share them with us?

Challenge yourself to set aside some time to simply take in the important stuff around you.

Challenge yourself to use the internet for networking and furthering your artistic path, and leave the other stuff to the non-artists.

Challenge yourself to go an adventure, to go somewhere new… even if it’s just a subway ride away. New images and environments create new energy, sparking your creativity.

And of course… CREATE YR ART daily.

A few tricks I learned from the Ultimate Sales Machine, by Chet Holmes: in order to better focus your time and energy it’s very important to plan your day in advance. For the To Do List Makers out there here’s a new way to go about your day.

1. Make a Giant To Do List
2. The night before each day take 5 to 6 things from your Giant To Do List, and plan out your day hour by hour, allotting time to work on each project.
3. Include your normal day’s tasks too, making sure your day does not exceed 10 hours.
4. Remember to schedule time to check email, phone messages, and meal-time.
5. When you begin to work from your schedule, turn off your phone and email notifications. For example, say I allotted 20 minutes for a workout session, I make sure I turn off my phone. After the 20 minutes are up, I check for missed calls. If something is urgent I respond to it then, but if not I deal with the phone conversation when I have allotted the time in my daily schedule for that.
6. Within each day, set aside time for your art. Time for creativity allows for increased positive energy to flow into your life.
7. Also remember to add a couple breaks throughout the day to sustain your momentum.

Time is what it is. And it’s our challenge to make the most of what we’ve got.

Organize your life with your daily to-dos, but be weary of your Ego who’s waiting to steer your focus. More time spent focusing your energy on your daily to-dos and your art, creates a powerful Ego Defense System.

Spend less time doing everything else, and more time doing the important things, like creating and sharing yr art.

"Get off the internet. I'll meet you in the street." Le Tigre 

little you BIG YOU

Would little you in kindergarten, be proud of BIG you today?

When we’re little, we’re free to dream BIG.

Soon after…

We’re told to be realistic… to set our sights on a REAL job.

The other night while at work, a gentle-caller approached me to shoot the sh*t. I kindly tried to brush off the conversation, but his list of questions was seemingly endless. One of the many questions…

“What do you do besides coat check?”

I replied, “I’m a professional Coat Check Girl, duh… But really, I’m an artistic entrepreneur: actor, writer, fashion stylist, and co-owner of a fashion boutique. You?”

He responds, “I’m in finance, it’s boring. I always try to live vicariously through my artistic friends, someone like you. Your lives are so much more interesting than mine.”

I couldn’t help but think… here’s a guy working a dead-end job that will make him money, something he thinks he wants. Until one day he wakes up with some disease, that’s a manifestation of him never pursuing that “something” he’s always dreamed of.

And all because, he got a REAL job.  

I think its safe to say, a good majority of us believe the child inside of us is still alive.

This child inside wants you to create yr art… it says:

Write a song

Paint a picture

Travel

Fall in love

Dance

And of course DREAM BIG.

If we trust ourselves to dream big, the creative juices can’t help but begin to flow. Our inner child will propel this process.

Would little you be happy with your life today?

If you can answer yes, you’re golden.

And if not, try to focus new energy on creating something from your inner child’s creativity.

Many would agree ultimate fulfillment comes from within. I believe this fulfillment arises from creating your art. The creation of your art, preserves your inner child’s existence, which can only make life so much more enjoyable. 

"Everyone is born creative. Everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten" 

                         Hugh MacLeod

EGO Patrol

How’s that creating your art thing going?

Are you really talented enough to dive into that artistic endeavor?

Do you have the funds, to make your insane dream come true?

Has your Ego got the best of you?!

I hope not… but just in case, let’s fight back together.

Best way to fight …

Seek to discover what your body is truly feeling, instead of jumping to a conclusion your mind has made up.

“I’m tired, I’m bored, I'm …” Just because the mind says so, doesn’t mean its true.

Seek out what your body is truly feeling.

“You’re cells are never bored, distracted, inert, or detached. They are fully engaged in being alive.”

                        Deepak Chopra

And if they weren’t fully engaged, you’d be dead.

If we can challenge ourselves to focus on radiating the life-force within us everyday, NEW energy will flow into our lives.

During the day I may have the thought, “I need a nap, I’m tired.” Instead of blindly accepting this notion as fact, I challenge myself to listen to what my body is truly feeling. Am I really tired?

Most often the answer is "No"… I only think I’m tired, because I want to get out of doing something work related: e.i. networking, playwriting, blogging, etc.

Just today, as I started this blog, my mind said, “Come on Malorie, you need a nap, write the blog later.” I decided, this nonsense was probably my Ego talking, trying to stop my creative flow. So I decided to continue to write. And here I am writing, and no longer ‘tired.’ Imagine that.

To me the body offers not only truth but also renewal. When we shift our focus to our body, rather than everything else, we embody new energy.

As artists this new energy, is often times creative; the exact spark we need to begin and maintain our artistic endeavors.

Focus on your body’s new energy.

Meditate on renewal.

See what you get.