Ideas can enter our awareness in so many different ways. During the past 6 months we’ve been reflecting and discussing how to integrate the now plentiful array of workshops, strategies, projects, and skills we’ve been building over the last ten years. Big task, we know! So we pulled out a large selection of these from the files, drawers and boxes stored in various places within our studio and literally laid them on our big work table. At first glance there didn’t seem to be a connection or anything in common when we did a ‘top down’ view. There were all the hand-crafted tangibles and the program/workshop content along with inspirational printed products and quotes & sayings – what wasn’t visible were the websites, content and graphics we had created for our clients in addition to the coaching, support and strategizing we’d provided – that had been a huge part of the journey as well.
For a few weeks we just looked at everything laying there. We keep asking ourselves “What does this mean about us?” “What can we do with this awareness, moving forward?” We were searching for a new way to show up in our business and through our business, and we were certain that there was an answer within all the ideas that had materialized over the last decade. We loved seeing the colors, the uniqueness of our ideas, and re-visiting the memories of those times – but our minds drew a blank beyond that. It felt frustrating to not have an immediate answer. Can you relate?
During this time we were also discussing what kind of business model would work with our ever changing lifestyle needs. We needed more flexibility in our schedules with baby Luca being a priority; going out and doing workshops together wasn’t going to work for both of us; and we wanted to spread our reach to women everywhere going into deeper connections with women globally. Both of us are Dreamers and Makers as far as our Trailblazer Traits go (you can find yours here) – and as we both share the same vision to help enterprising women expand in life and in business… we knew that we wouldn’t settle for anything less than creating something that would be transformative and have a lasting impact. We discussed that we needed to have a way to bring our full selves into this new offering and that we would embrace a new learning curve if that’s what was needed. We are lifelong learners… and life continues to give us opportunities to demonstrate it!
We showed our table display to a few people, and the response was “Wow – this is amazing!” “Do you know what you’ve got here?” We have to say that we almost shrugged off the reactions because what was on the table seemed ‘old hat’ to us. In hindsight – we weren’t valuing ourselves in a way that we could really see or acknowledge our worth as women, as creators, as visionaries. And probably not surprisingly, once we let in the good vibes our minds and hearts seemed to stir and open up with some of the insights we were looking for. So truth telling – we have been really hard on ourselves over the years… measuring ourselves against the financial success of projects rather than seeing them as stepping stones on our business journey, rich with experience and wisdom-building. Who’s been here?
What we’ve learned as we’ve taken a more ‘top down’ look at our business and ourselves is pretty amazing to us. We’ve been creating our life’s work and underneath it all there’s been a BIG Idea forming, ready to spring up. What we realized is we had the foundation for developing a strategy to empower women to integrate their wealth of skills, passion, natural talents and experiences into their own BIG Idea. We could help women make their mark in the world through a business that is meaningful to them. We had already created the tools and strategies to develop an integrative roadmap so women can truly understand the value of what they have to offer and build a personal brand or business or pivot their current business around it. We’ve now called this strategy – Go Claim It Trailblazer. Through it we will teach what we’ve learned!!
Go Claim It Trailblazer is the roadmap to owning your worth and claiming your unique place in the world. It’s as much about us as it is about the women who will benefit from it. We’re developing it as an online course, as that is the model that best fits how we want to work and it fits our lifestyle needs perfectly.
And we can’t wait to reveal it and tell you more. So stay tuned… more exciting info coming soon!!
Live Wholeheartedly. Live Prairie.
– Jan and Erin
Two Prairie Girls
