My Creativity Coaching Refresh
Gingko Time
You know it’s fall in Charlottesville, VA when the gingko leaves turn gold.
It’s back to school season, and here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the beginning of fall. (Those gingkoes will wait another month or two to turn this year, but I couldn’t resist using these ancient trees to illustrate autumn.)
I’m delighted to tell you how my coaching practice has evolved over the summer.
What’s changed? Audience and intention, mainly.
Audience. As a creativity coach, I’m trained to enjoy working with artists of many kinds – not just authors of nonfiction books (who have been my primary focus since 2012). Whether you’re a visual artist, musician, composer, writer, or other creative artist, we can work together for one session, or a length of time that suits you.
Intention. And while past coaching relationships typically involved long-term commitments of time and attention, along with craft advice, I’m now available for quick interventions when your creative practice needs a refresher, a boost, or some truth-telling. You’re the expert on how you make your art; chat with me about the other stuff.
What kind of stuff?
- Claiming the time you need
- Forming habits that serve you
- Discerning when you need a course correction
- Owning your identity as an artist.
Process, process, process
Although I have loved working as a book coach, I’m enjoying this change. I’ve experimented with it over the past few months, with some kind (and, they tell me, happy) beta tester-artists. And, for years, in a small group of creativity coaches, we’ve been coaching one another every week in our many artistic pursuits, from dance to music composition to yoga to many forms of writing. Now, rather than continuing to coach writers on their long-term book projects (along with craft, and even project management) my clients and I are now focusing on process, day by day, small change by small change, for people in a variety of creative fields.
Why? Partly because my decades in the NYC art world taught me a lot. Partly because I’ve been a music person since childhood, and miss that community. And mostly because as artists, we all need a boost now and then. It doesn’t need to be a major project to rate some coaching. The life of an artist is a complex one, as we’re all living what amounts to a second, parallel life (along with the regular one in the regular world). As good at problem-solving as we may be, sometimes a little outside consult is just what we need.
We’ll work together exploring how to live the life of a creative artist. What does that look like? Here are some ideas of topics we can investigate.
- How do you talk about your work? About yourself as a creative artist? Are you at ease calling yourself one?
- How do you describe the market for your work? What is your relationship with it?
- Are you too isolated? Do you need colleagues you can chat with, celebrate with, commiserate with? Are there fellow artists in your circle you can trust?
- Do you tend to stall out before things are really complete? Is “Done” an ever-vanishing destination?
- Is it a battle to make the time for your practice? Are you clear which bright idea(s) will get your attention this week and which will go on the back burner for now?
- Do recent health changes – yours or a loved one’s – necessitate other changes to routines or spaces or relationships?
- What helps you welcome inspiration and identify the good ideas that show up?
With creativity coaching, we can explore questions like these together.
New clients, get started by booking a free Welcome Call with me. Let’s chat. Thereafter, we can schedule a one-time coaching session, or you can get a reduced-price bundle of five.
If you’re a returning client, just drop me an email, tell me what’s on your mind, and we’ll go from there.
What you do matters. Enjoy the work.
I look forward to hearing from you!
~Anne