#unmistakablecreative

[joyful-dancing]

”Flow follows focus” - Some triggers for focus:

Passion and Purpose

Risk

Novelty

Complexity

Unpredictability

Clear Goals

[joyful-dancing]

Candid Conversations With Creative Entrepreneurs and Insanely Interesting People

Listening to “Dancing Your Way to Self-Confidence” with Ben Weston.

[datingbetweenthelines-blog]

Living In The Must

We are half way through our Indiegogo Campaign, and I have to say, it has been more of an emotional journey than I anticipated. It's crazy how much my ego has gotten wrapped up in each contribution, each unanswered email, every Instagram post and Facebook share. Whether it's lots of likes or total crickets, there's an emotional reaction. In my personal life, I don't interact with social media very much, and I thought of myself as above it all. How wrong I was! My desire to be liked and my need to feel successful is alive and well, my friends!  

Although I am happy for the day that the campaign is over, it has been a truly wonderful teacher. Asking loved ones for money is a great practice in humility, in gratitude and has pushed me to reconnect with my "why." Why should my loved ones support me in this project? Why does the book matter enough to ask people for financial support? Am I ready to show up for this? Can I make my backers proud and feel that their money is well invested in me? 

But at the end of the day, I’ve found that the person that needs the most convincing of my worth and ability is myself. When I perceive rejection, there is that little voice saying all sorts of nasty things. Things like “see, people find you annoying and this project is dumb and frivolous, stop acting like it’s anything special.” When I get over that voice, there’s an even darker one that says “You don’t deserve to have this book work out. Who do you think you are?!” 

There is an incredible interview with Elle Luna (video below) where she describes this struggle perfectly:

"It’s like the final level. It’s the final duel and it’s really you versus yourself… After you've dealt with all the shoulds that they've [society, friends, advertising] put on you, you're last one is really yourself... it's you by yourself passing through that final passageway and if there's one thing that I have learned in all of this work... choosing must is the greatest thing that you can do with your life." 

The hardest part of this project is not the work or raising money, it’s convincing myself that I’m worthy of my own dream. I have to constantly remember that Pick Me Up is absolutely the right path, even though it’s muddier and more complicated than others laid out for me. And like a video game (maybe? I don’t really play video games), we have to cycle around to this realization again and again. 

I had the same feeling when I quit my first job out of college and drove across the country with no plan. I had it when I decided to move to Oakland, also with no plan. I had it again on the morning of February 11th when I woke up filled with a vision of this book and the path it would unearth for me. And I am having it again with this campaign. 

I know that Pick Me Up is fun and silly. AND, I know that it's fueled with positive social change that we need.

I know this project is meaningful because it’s pushing up against something in need of reworking

, something toxic. I know that my experiences and jobs have lead me to this moment, where I am capable of bringing this project to fruition and wild success.

If you haven’t done so already, I would love for you to join me in whatever way feels good for you! There are a couple of ways we can do this:

1. You can contribute to

the Indiegogo campaign

– any amount is wonderful, but I want to let you know that if you contribute less than $15 using a credit card, more than 10% of your money will go to fees. So if you plan to contribute less than $15 it’s better to use PayPal. 2. You can join the

email newsletter

where I send out weekly updates and a link to the Tumblr blog3. Share

the Indiegogo

and the newsletter with your network – if you don’t feel good contributing right now, you probably know someone that likes investing in empowerment art and indie publishing! Let them know about us :)4. If you live in the Bay Area, come to the

It’s A Group Potluck on May 15th

! More info on

our Facebook event

5. If you’ve already contributed, THANK YOU! If you want to get freebies, you can share the love online and get bumped up to the next highest perk 

(find out more here!)

 Thank you so much for reading and caring! 

Love love love

Emma