(Excerpts from opening remarks by Robert Fishbone)

What is it about place? About knowing where one is. What is it about choosing to be somewhere? And when there is a gathering, how is it that a community is born?

While the practice of yoga is really individual, we still find value in attending classes, retreats and even events like this. Though we may all be at different levels in our yogic abilities, we are each contributing something unique when we assemble.

Our added energies truly lift each other up, even as we go deeper within ourselves through poses and maybe more importantly, through breathing.

So many times when I hear someone say, “okay, everyone take a deep breath!”, people fill the tiny empty space in the top of the their lungs with a tiny bit of air…Hello!

What I see is that each breath holds the potential for each of us to be reborn, again and again and again.

Now imagine this:

When we empty our lungs from the bottom, from our core, we’re letting go of not just old air, but the past, which is gone.

For a moment, when our lungs are empty, and we are still, we are truly present, and anything is possible.

Drawing in a new breath is like stepping into the future, our new life that we just created.

I believe that if we could take one intentional breath every day, just one, if we only made that simple of a commitment, just one breath in total awareness, it would plant a seed that would grow and help us live lives of deliberateness. This slight change in how we breathe would help us see things differently… it could even point us in the direction of being the difference in other’s lives. Think of it as the pause that refreshes.

Just as yoga guides us in the ‘repair’ of ourselves, it can also provide insight on ways to fix the world, to help the world get back into balance as we get ourselves back into balance, one small, achievable step at a time.

Because breathing, like yoga, fosters self connection. And the practice of yoga further creates a sense of community and a link to the oneness of all beings everywhere.

Of course, you all know this.

When we enter a practice room, we are honoring each other no matter the level of our abilities, because we are respectful of what everyone brings. Even with our limitations, as human beings and as students of yoga, we embrace the simple essence of being in the world.

We do not tell each other what to feel, or how to think, or how to live… but we do support each other as we literally and figuratively stretch ourselves to become more grounded and joyful people, as we expand our awareness from the center of our consciousness, through our familiar bodies, and out into the world. This is our intention today, this is our intention every day.

Remember when you were a kid and you decided to finally go off the high dive?  You were excitedly waiting on line with your friends who had already done it…they didn’t seem nervous at all.  Then it was your turn to climb the ladder.  You looked up.  It was tall but it didn’t seem all that bad.  Half way up the ladder though it began to grow more and more steps until by the time you got to the top it was the tallest thing around and at least a hundred feet down to the water.

You watched the person in front of you charge off the end of the board screaming and fall forever until they cannon balled into the pool.

You were told to wait until they came up before taking your turn.  But why were they still under water?  Did something go wrong?  Were they all right?  Were they drowning?  Finally they appeared, smiling…huh!

OK, you can do it.  Walk to the end.  But the farther out you go the more the world around you bounces up and down.  You pull your arms into your chest and feel your heart beating like it’s going to burst right out of you.  This is crazy. Why oh why did you climb that ladder?

You turn and see kids all the way down to the ground, looking at you like, “OK, jump already!”

You are scared but know you can’t go back down.  You look at the water, at the line of kids, out at the adults sitting in their chairs, at the water again and slowly take the last steps to the end of the board and then someone behind you shouts, “Jump” and you obey, leaping up and out.  For a moment you are motionless and weightless and then you begin to fall down but the illusion is that everything else is going up and it all turns blurry and you hear someone screaming and then you realize it’s you and after forever there is a loud Splash! as you hit the water and you go under and then all is suddenly silent…….you open your eyes to a million bubbles through which you see phantom shapes in the distance…it’s wonderfully warm and comforting.  Then you realize you are alive and need air and rise to the surface to breathe.  You swim to the side of the pool where a waiting friend asks “So, how was it?”, to which you automatically reply, “That was great, let’s do it again!”

You are fearless and now you can do anything.

Remember this: it doesn’t matter if you are thinking about a product, a service, an innovation within a company, or a major life change.  By having confidence in yourself, by valuing your dream, by finding the right assistance you too can begin the process of making your own Crazy Idea a reality. Sound good?  Ready?   JUMP!

On June 22nd, 2010, my wife, best friend and traveling companion of 38 years, the very talented artist Sarah Jean Linquist, died from ovarian cancer. She was 58 years old.

A few days before she died she was visited in the hospital by Rabbi Susan Talve from Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis. Susan is a very close friend and shared the same birthday with Sarah.

Patting the bed indicating Susan should sit next to her, Sarah opened up her arms for a big hug and as they held each other Sarah said, “Did I leave them with enough of me to fill them when I am gone.”  Susan said it was not a question.

So what does this mean for the rest of us, who are not amazingly prolific artists, or captains of industry, or magnanimous philanthropists, or brilliant doctors or teachers or web guru’s, or Pulitzer prize-winning writers or spiritual leaders?

What does it mean for the rest of us just regular people? If Sarah wondered if she gave enough to the world, wondered if she touched people, how could the rest of us possibly measure up…it would seem impossible.

But I don’t believe that you need to be extraordinary to live a worthwhile and meaningful life.

The Jewish tradition of Tikkun Olam, ‘fixing the world’, can be interpreted as doing small things, tiny things, even things that seem inconsequential, but that have the effect of putting balance back into life…one little action at a time.  We all have this capability.

Sarah spanned and filled in the space between extremes: huge scenic artworks that commanded everyone’s attention, and being able to simply listen, making you feel like you were her best friend, because while you were together you were, and she was yours.

Whether Sarah created a new vision that flowed magically off of the end of her paintbrush, or just sat next to you, she was committed to, as Rabbi Susan said,  “lift up the ordinary and release holy sparks”.

Sarah found her inner light years ago in Bali where they have a wonderful saying, “We have no word for art, we do everything as well as we can”.

I think rather than try and compare ourselves to people who accomplish one monumental good work after another, we should be wondering are we doing everything as well as we can.

It is more about how we move through life, how we move through the world, how we embrace one another.

If we can live with joy and deliberateness, if we give the gift of ourselves by listening and loving, if we remember that everyone has a limited time in this life, we are sure to make choices with more intention.

So what would Sarah say? I know one thing that she did ask others from her hospital bed, “What do you really want to do? I mean really!”

The challenge is finding our own true voice and being courageous enough to embrace it. This will involve fearless exploration, where you cast aside self-doubt and self-criticism, where you love yourself unequivocally, where you realize each breath opens limitless possibilities.  Then you act, not because others are watching, but because you know you are being true to yourself, you are following your heart.

For Sarah, her mural artworks were worlds that she created both for herself and for others to delight in. Each was a mystery to be explored, to learn something from, to be shared. Yet, for everything that Sarah did, for all of her accomplishments, she had a small ego, and maybe that’s part of what made her so unique. To be so big in life and so quiet at the same time, that is certainly creating balance.

Sarah would have loved to live a much longer life; really, who wouldn’t. Like the rest of us she wanted to taste more. But following her own mantra, her classic advice, “Aim for Grace,” she filled the time she had with gentle splendor.

Whether it was celebrating a joyous holiday with her family and friends, traveling to a new place, or even fighting the cancer that she eventually died from, she carried her own light that lit not just her way, but allowed all of us to see more clearly, to see things that we never knew even existed.

She left her handprint everywhere, and in each of us who loved her.

—————————————–

To see examples of Sarah Jean Linquist’s artwork, please visit wwws.sarahlinquist.com

“What? You don’t want to sell our Screams any more?”

“No, we think it’s about time to stop.”

“Why?” I asked, almost in a panic, “Aren’t they selling?”

“Yeah, they still sell, but we just think it’s time for a change.”

They’re going to stop selling our great-selling product because “it’s time for a change?”  WTF? How dare they?

Robert Fishbone and his Scream Product line

Reality check: it’s not personal, it’s business*. There can be so many reasons why a store stops carrying a product or even an entire line. Maybe they just want a different look in their store. Maybe they want the space for something with a smaller footprint or higher profit margin. Maybe staff doesn’t want to look at inflatables screaming in anguish any more. Maybe a customer said the Screams were downers. Maybe the store got some defective product.

(*Maybe it is personal!  Maybe the store had a bad experience with your sales rep or delivery driver or – could it be? – you.)

What can you do? Be a problem-solver. Ask the store’s specific reasons, and be understanding of their situation. Maybe you can keep your product in that store after all. If not, what you learn can only help as you serve other clients. See this as an opportunity to explore possible new products, or new clients, or even a new client category. Could your product be educational?

Could your product be a give-away premium or promotional item? Could it be an added-value addition to someone else’s product or service?  We sold Scream inflatables to a financial services company that used them to comically calm down their clients during a market crisis. Be proactive.

Offer your retreating client a better deal. If you have other products, see if the store wants to sell them. For sure, ask if you can contact the store again in a year to see if they want to pick it up again. Ask them for suggestions on what you could make; maybe they already have something percolating in their mind that they’d love to see. You could even suggest someone else’s product line. If you do, that client will remember you as The Problem Solver, and eventually, it will come back to you in a positive way.

Just don’t burn your bridges. Word spreads fast and you want to “all ways and always” maintain a good reputation.  If a client is no fun to deal with, or difficult, or even awful, just say your most pleasant “Thanks” and don’t do business with them again. Other potential clients are just waiting for you to help them grow their own businesses. Be their solution.

Take Action!

Reintroduce your products to old clients that don’t use them anymore.  How can you make your stuff seem fresh again?

Ask your clients for suggestions on who you could approach for sales.

Invite some creative people over for lunch. Explain ahead of time that you want everybody to brainstorm crazy ways you could position your Crazy Idea so that it will be attractive to new client types.  Offer the participants an honorarium for their help.

I took this to mean a number of different things:

First, does it look like you actually are open. Are the lights on? Is there activity to be seen? Does your store look inviting? Is there anything that would compel someone passing by to want to stop and visit? Does your business look fresh and up-to-date, maybe even properly nostalgic?  Or does it look obsolete like, “there is no way you are going to be able to help me”.

Does your signage make it clear what you do, what you have to offer? Does it look like you only serve a particular niche audience? Is that a good thing? Are you excluding a wider customer base by the look of your business and your signage? Perhaps it’s possible to tweak your public image in a way that other people would say, “oh, this business is for me too; that’s great!”

Again, by open I don’t just mean your physical presence on the street either. The same interest and clarity and simplicity has to carry over to all of your other touch points: business cards, your web site, all of your social media pages, any advertising you do, your marketing outreach, how your employees and staff talk about your business, and of course how you yourself represent your business when you’re networking. Consistency, which really is about your brand, is paramount.

Potential customers need to understand what it is you do and what you offer in 3 seconds or less; if they don’t they are gone. That is just as true on the Internet as it is driving down the street; everybody surfs now and knows that there are a lot more options than there used to be. So if you can’t find a compelling way to get them quickly interested in what you do, they won’t even walk through the door.

Identifying, finding, and communicating with your niche audience is extremely important and social media is one way of doing that. The general process is you first find a platform that you want to participate in such as Twitter.

You join and create your own Twitter page, then you find people to listen to by using the search function, you follow their conversations, then you slowly and politely join the conversation by adding your own pearls of wisdom, which will make people more interested in you, which will get them to follow you and thus build your audience, eventually driving them to your content rich website, where you have established yourself as an expert and the go-to person in your field, which will help to lead to an expansion of your business.

Until the proliferation of the Internet, advertising and marketing was pretty much one way…not anymore. If someone has an opinion and decides to post it, thousands of potential customers will hear about it by the end of the day, maybe sooner.  Customer service has taken on a whole new meaning.

You can’t control it, but you can actively participate in it by quickly addressing issues both on and off the web.

So whether you have a brick and mortar presence, or exist purely as a virtual business, always remember to go ‘outside’ every day, turn around and look, then ask yourself the question, “Am I open?”

•••Love your Crazy Ideas, be fearless

•••Hang with positive people

•••Embrace risk taking throughout your whole organization; learn from mistakes, don’t punish bravery

•••Be prepared for the unknown, plan for success

•••Don’t be afraid to evolve with the the changing times and changing market landscape

•••Network constantly, especially with people outside of your familiar field

•••Use social media as a way to contribute to the discussion; this will help to establish you as an expert thus driving traffic to your content rich web site; inquiries and sales will more likely follow this methodology

•••Does your business look open and inviting? Open extends to all the ways the public comes in contact with you: actual place of business, ads, business card, PR & marketing literature, networking meetings, social media

•••Is it easy to understand what you do, what you offer?  Keep it simple

***Does your business target a niche?  Is it too limiting…does your public image unknowingly restrict who may want to buy your products or services?  Can you reach other clients by changing, adding or subtracting something simple?

•••Look for alternative meanings and uses for things that have become familiar; read your old marketing literature for ideas

•••Look for ways to reinvent, rename and reposition your established products and services for new niche markets; using the web, a new niche market can be tens of thousands of potential new customers

•••Break patterns to unleash creativity and innovation; start with something as simple as rearranging your work space, and most importantly,

•••Have FUN!

This is not a comprehensive list to start, run or grow a business, nor does it follow a set order, but it does inject some creativity into the process of evaluating your current state and moving forward. Remember, it’s often the obvious stuff that gets overlooked.  And if something seems way too complicated, you got it, there is likely a simpler way to proceed.  When in doubt, pause and ask for help. You’ll be glad you did.

Though he was from Columbia, South America, and had a pretty heavy accent, he had an excellent command of English and understood a lot of the terminology associated with entrepreneurship. As he was telling me about his own experiences starting and running a series of businesses, unsuccessfully, he suddenly turned to me and asked, “So, what can you do for me?”, to which I replied, “Now that IS the question isn’t it.”

You see, I am paid to work with companies, universities and arts organizations to raise the level of creativity within their ranks, to inspire them to look in new ways at the things they take for granted. But here I was being put to the test, a real life situation, just two guys talking in a cab…and how could I help him?

I had him tell me more about the nature of his business ventures and why he thought they failed.  What he seemed to be lacking were two things, an advisor or mentor, and some kind of plan, like, a business plan.  I then wrote down resources for help: SCORE for mentors, Community Colleges for classes in basic business and entrepreneurship, suggested he speak with the Chamber of Commerce, suggested he look at local business journals, and I gave him a copy of my book which has several pages of web sites that could also help him.

I then asked if he wrote at all; his experience in the U.S. and his way with words lent itself to at least a blog or an occasional article, maybe even a book of his own.  He said that he did submit comments to other blogs, and he did fantasize about doing a book.  I encouraged him to keep that goal in mind and to just keep writing.

Once he asked that question about what I could do for him, I made sure to stop being the Speaker, and start being the Listener, and am taking that as a lesson for me.  If being a so called expert in something means all I can do is speak to rooms of people, I am not doing my job.  To really make a difference, I have to step off of the stage, making myself vulnerable, and be willing to hear an individual’s needs before my own.  Then my advice may have some value.

Not only did my driver take me to my destination, he helped clarify my path.

I’ve always been interested in languages and pride myself in being able to say Hello, Thank You and Please to people from many different countries.

When I first started my product business in 1991 it was all phonecalls, faxes and even, yes, believe it or not, hand written letters.  Whether I wrote or called, people often complemented me on my few words in their tongue.  I certainly was not fluent in anything but French, and that marginally so.  It was more a thing of respect and courtesy, it shows you are paying attention, that the interaction is important, that you are invested.

When I visited one of my inflatable factories in Taiwan, it so happened that many of the workers were women from Thailand.  As I passed them I put my hands together, bowed slightly and said “sa-wat-dii, khráp”, basically hello.  Their faces exploded into beautiful smiles and they giggled and answered back, and were looking at each other and at me, pleasantly surprised that I knew any Thai at all.  Later that day, my trading partner who was hosting my visit kept remarking about how impressive it was that I spoke Thai!  I honestly told him that  the only other thing I knew in Thai is a tongue twister that if said properly means “new wood doesn’t burn, does it?”…

When I was at a trade show in Paris in 1998, 1999 and 2000, held in the Louvre, I prepared by finding a tutor and working on the types of conversations I might actually have with new clients.  I knew that I couldn’t learn too much more new grammar, like proper verb tenses, but I could keep refining my accent (already decent), and memorizing facts about my product line, like where we got our ideas, and terms of sale, like pricing and shipping conditions….For instance:

“Nous avons creé quelque choses inspireé par l’histoire de l’art, comme les gonflables de le Cri, le Sacophage, Les Garguilles de Notre Dame… (We have created several items inspired by the history of art, like inflatables of the  Scream, a Sarcophogus (mummy), Gargoyles from Notre Dame…)

As long as the conversation was kept at a basic level, it got to where we could understand each other in French…it was Fantastique!

It turns out that they all spoke some English and they didn’t expect me to actually speak French.  But after we conversed for a while I was often given the compliment:  “Vous parlez francais tres bien pour un Americain”,  ”You speak French well for an American”, which I came to understand referred to my accent.  The French especially get ill when they hear foreigners, yup, usually Americans, butcher their language.  So when they hear someone actually pronouncing things pretty close to what they are familiar with, they are quite pleased, and will forgive a lot of grammar and vocabulary.  And how do you nail an accent, or at least get close? You have to practice with a native speaker, and frankly, be willing to sound stupid, almost like you are doing a caricature of the accent. Then your tutor can help you scale it back for acceptability. Remember, your overseas associates will see that you are trying to honor their culture, that you are showing respect, which is the groundwork for a good relationship, and as many of us already know:

ALL BUSINESS IS ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS !

…as is most anything else that involves two or more people.  Going even further, it is in our relationships with everything in the world, people and otherwise, that determine our character and how we are perceived by others.  Respect the world and the world will respect you…nuff said.

Whenever my partner (aka, my wife) and I came upon a new opportunity that we felt passionate about, we would just remember our lessons from college, then look at each other and say “Hey, we can do that!”. We would then marshall the resources, make a teeny, tiny plan and proceed. Looking back, I can see that unfortunately neither of us had much traditional business sense, and I know I reinvented steps that were already well established; I could have found them out if I had asked more experienced people for help, like other business owners. But, as an artist running a business, I treated my venture a little too personally, and way too creatively, too much like making an art piece or composing a musical score. Yup, it’s been a roller coaster ride, learning the business ropes one mistake after another; the results have been a combination of wonderful success and near catastrophes.

As a speaker, one of my target audiences is colleges and universities. I recently spoke to an entrepreneurship class at George Washington University. To grab their attention I have written songs about being in business and accompany them with plenty of real life stories of mine and others’ forays into creating a start-up. I find that students are inspired by unconventional approaches to entrepreneurship, by odd businesses, and trust me more when I admit my mistakes and failures: they thus see that there are many ways to birth a business, none of them easy. Their questions after my talks and the glow in their faces show me that they really want to jump onto the entrepreneurship express.

But rest assured, after the excitement and fun of the presentation, I also stress the value of making a plan, getting informed help, doing market research including looking at niche marketing opportunities especially through the web, planning for success as well as failure, having a great web site, and networking as much as possible. What I don’t do is tell them that their idea won’t work. What I do tell them is, “Don’t let the craziness of your crazy idea stop you…let it inspire you!” Far be it from me to dampen their enthusiasm.

 Point is, so many ‘craftspeople’ don’t get that they ARE artists, just as much as a painter or sculptor or dancer or writer.

 In Bali, everybody does something artistic, but they relate to it differently, they say:

 ”We have no word for art, we do everything as well as possible”.  They don’t say it to brag, they say it with a self assured, and egoless certainty.  

 In modern Western Society art has been separated from normal day to day life so much that unless you are atrained artist, what you do as an embroiderer, or quilter or flower arranger or chain saw carver or wall builder is consider at best a craft, or just as a utilitarian necessity.

 What we need is more art everywhere of every kind.  It started happening when Jimmy Carter was President, then disappeared when Ronald Reagan took the helm.  I believe Barack Obama will make strides to regain the artistic and cultural ground that we so need to enrich our daily life.  In a way, art needs to be so integrated into our society that it doesn’t seem as special as it is now, but just something that is expected.  Surprises should lurk everywhere, waiting to wake us up and give us some newness.

 And while we’re at it, more companies and agencies would do well to have an artist or two on board to provoke people into seeing things in new ways…it’s the innovation engine at work.