Translate Your Vision into BEE-ing: Your Code

A few years ago, I created a personal mission statement. As a solo-soul-preneur, I am the face and being of my business.  At the end of 2010, I was called to update that document. Usually the word “mission” for me is a non-starter. I’ve read far too many mission statements that put me to sleep.

As the Write Synergies Guru, I teach people the magic of growing their results (in words) greater than the sum of the parts. To do that, it calls for stepping into a level of Being in the World (and in the moment) that can only be expressed as your mindful and conscious Presence.  Sometimes, that Presence yearns to share itself by owning the parts that it encompasses. Maybe my colleagues would benefit by revising their “mission” statements into “Presence” statements…Or what I call the Code.

As a writer and a mentor for those crafting,  honing, and polishing their public messages, writing is one piece of my process. Let me share a secret: Who you are Being, from your deepest essence, is what makes the critical distinction between you and everyone else. So ponder the following questions. Take them to heart. Write your answers. Then share your riches here and with your own community of customers, clients — your circle and tribe.

First, who are you Being?

= From your Being, what is your Vision for 2011?

= What is your process for bringing that Vision to life?

= What are the words, the code that you live by when you are truly expressing from your highest and deepest self?

Please share!

For me, it is out of a place of deep inner space, of silence, of a kind of solitude, of words written by hand and by keyboard.

The Write Synergies Code

Out of the deep inner space of silence and solitude grow discernment, intuition, compassion

Walking a spiritual path, I commit to living these core values:

Listening deeply and with loving attention

Exploring with joy, curiosity, passion

Living mindfully and artfully with health, serenity, abundance

Knowing the sacred flow in all energy exchanges

Promoting peace, creativity, wisdom

Expressing compassion for Gaia, nature, and all sentient beings

Advancing with honesty, integrity, authenticity, gratitude, imagination

Connecting with the highest expression of those intersecting my path

Embodying a focus on the Light within and highest good for all concerned

Such foundational and visionary work is the beginning of declaration — what some might even call the basis for a Manifesto. Rest assured, that is coming. Living and expressing fully from this deep place calls on all our intent, requires that we show up in these new and powerful ways of Being.

I have been able to share, above, acrostic messages as part of my Write Synergies Code. These totems and ways of Being are also part of the code and reminders to me about the deeper forces at play in all aspects of life.

We are being called to wake up and act from a more powerful place. Start by unlocking your Being, shining a light on your Vision, and acting each day in the truth of your Code!

Join me on the Write Synergies Path!
Bobbye Middendorf
The Write Synergies Guru

Solstice Greetings from Shangri La

2010 Pre-Solstice

Brilliant
SunSparkles on snow
mingling my tracks with squirrels’
Fluffed robins drunk on fermented berries
Crows sing raucous verses
The passing V of Canada geese honking refrain
And the gibbous moon
rising midday spectral ghostly blur
waxing toward Solstice full
in blue firmament
Magic is airborne
riding currents of
short days with mid-afternoon dusks
punctuated by window candles
Holiday lights like multi-hued
stars of an earthbound universe

Energies of Divine Feminine
a Shakti blossoming
within perfect
circle of protection
Embracings within yin and yang
the balance unspoken
yet profound
Festivities foretold unfold
celebrating rebirth
of love alive
illuminating
the innermost sacred
center of the heart
Divine Love ignites
whisperings soul to soul
Missives of grace

17 December 2010
Bobbye Middendorf
The Write Synergies Guru

Back-to-learning

September Greetings from your Write Synergies Guru!

In this issue:
*Blog Milestone
*Back-to-learning
*<Time Sensitive> Web Site Creation Workshop
Registration tomorrow!
*<Time Sensitive> Self Employment Telesummit
Starts this week!
*<Time Sensitive> No Cost Call for
Family Caregivers
*Tuesday Writing Circles

Blog Milestone
= = = = = = = = =

Just realized that my August 21 post,
honoring my beloved fur child, was my
100th post. Interesting milestone content…
Many thanks to those who have journeyed
with me on this path.

Thanks also to so many of you who
sent kind words on our family’s loss.
I truly appreciate your caring notes!

If you didn’t see my tribute,
you can read it here:
http://bit.ly/aIpY31

Back To Learning
= = = = = = = = =

Even if you think “back to school”
doesn’t apply to you, please reconsider.
If you need to write and are in business
for yourself, the opportunities to learn
and expand on your expertise and results
are a crucial part of growth and success.
As my mentors Judith and Jim like to point
out, you have to grow yourself in order to
grow your business. That is true for your
writing as well.

I so enjoy sharing resources, colleagues,
and classes that have had a profound and
positive impact on me and my work. I can’t
help but recommend these folks who provide
serious value. The  following resources
can make a difference in your business!

<Time Sensitive>
Christina Hills’
Web Site Creation Workshop
= = = = = = = = =

Doors open tomorrow morning for the famed
Web Site Creation Workshop with Christina
Hills. Learn more by reading at my blog:
http://budurl.com/aedp

Or go here to get on the early notification list.
(Early sign-ups are eligible for bonus gifts.)
http://thewebsitecreationworkshop.com/a/?af=976734

<Time Sensitive>
Molly Gordon’s
Self Employment Telesummit
= = = = = = = = =

Molly Gordon is starting her Self-Employment
Telesummit this week, and there’s still
time to register. The experts that she’s
gathered will help even the most reluctant
“Accidental Entrepreneurs” overcome the
fears around being in business while taking
focused action.

One of the big problems with
these kinds of group presentation events
is that they often end with information
overload. Molly is taking care of that —
by helping participants to integrate all
the great information from the workshops
via integration sessions that she will
facilitate.

(And YES! She is an awesome facilitator!)

Go here for info:

http://bit.ly/9LqIXT

OR if you’d like to read what I
posted on my blog, go here:
http://budurl.com/mgSETS

The Self Employment Telesummit is
designed by self-employed
people for self-employed people
to end the epidemic of
under-earning among heart-centered
professionals. Only
3 days left to sign up.

http://bit.ly/9LqIXT

<Time Sensitive>
Betty L. Smith’s
Free Family Caregivers Call
= = = = = = = = =

Author, coach and speaker,
Betty L. Smith, is one of my clients.
If you or any of your loved ones are
faced with the stresses of
being a family caregiver,
then Betty’s free call on Saturday,
September 18 at 9AM Pacific may be
a good fit. She is celebrating
September’s “Healthy Aging Month”
with a free phone call to help family
caregivers increase their health and well-being.

Go here to learn more about Betty’s
free call for family caregivers:

http://www.authorbettylsmith.com/caregivers-preview/

(To register for the free call,
you will find the sign-up box at the
bottom of that page.)

The above are links to resources and
colleagues who have made a difference to me.
Please explore their messages to see if
these are a fit for you at this time.
If you do choose to purchase, I will
receive a referral fee. Please understand
that these are people I really respect, who are
providing work that has helped me.  I
highly recommend them even if I didn’t receive
recompense.

Tuesday Writing Circles
= = = = = = = = =

Chicago-area writers!
(Write in the Garden, weather permitting!)
Gather your resources and start to share
the gifts and sacred stories that are
why you are here. I am offering an
in-person sacred writing circle for
an intimate group on four Tuesdays
(21 and 28 Sept; 5 and 12 Oct).
Cost: $125.
Email me for more details.

I help visionary authors and writers,
and world-changing soul-preneurs. You need to
connect to your tribes/communities with
WORDS — to share your healing
messages and stories so that people “get it.”

Charge What You Are Worth

Do you struggle with charging
what you are worth? I know I do.
If you’re satisfied
with what you are charging, then
stop reading right now. If not, then join
me. You, too, can be like a fly
on the wall. Read on to find out how.

My coach and colleague, Molly Gordon,
has invited premium pricing coach
Dave Navarro to discuss why it’s
so hard for artists, writers,
visionaries, healers, and other
Accidental Entrepreneurs to set and get
good prices for your work.
You offer transformation:
Now what’s *that* worth?!

It’s a touchy subject that goes right
to the heart of issues about money,
value, and self-worth. Without the
right price, you can’t have the
security you need to make your greatest
contribution to the world. Yet getting
to that price and naming it confidently
can be a real problem. That’s why
I’m so looking forward to this Thursday’s
free conversation.

[Ready for answers about your pricing?
Go straight to the sign up page
by clicking: http://bit.ly/9LqIXT ]

I’m so excited about Molly’s
upcoming interview with Dave Navarro
on how to set and get premium prices
for your work. Dave is on the faculty
of this year’s Self Employment Telesummit.

In this no-cost preview of his feature
presentation, Dave will share:

*= The inspiration for his work around pricing.
*= The biggest challenges self-employed
people face around pricing, especially
after they’ve been working for themselves
for a few years.
*= The three avoidable pricing mistakes
that can cost you big-time.
*= What you need to know to be comfortable
(and successful) raising your prices.
*= The secret that makes your
price the *right* price.

WHAT: Premium Pricing Secrets Preview

WHEN: Thursday, August 19, 9:00am Pacific/Noon Eastern

HOW: Teleconference

SIGN UP: http://bit.ly/9LqIXT

If you already know Molly’s work, you
know she is deeply committed to ending
the epidemic of under-earning among
Accidental Entrepreneurs. And she’s
hand-picked Dave Navarro to hone in
on this topic to help you get over
The Hump from just getting by to
shining profitability.

To sign up for the call, head on
over to http://bit.ly/9LqIXT.
There’s no cost and there’s so
much you’ll gain.

Come, spend an hour with Molly
and Dave and shift your thinking
about pricing.

Warmly,

Bobbye Middendorf
The Write Synergies Guru

P.S.: This no-cost, content-rich call
is a preview for the 2010 Self Employment
Telesummit. I’m proud to recommend this
event and the telesummit as an affiliate.
I hope you’ll take a minute to learn more
about how the telesummit can help you get
over The Hump when you sign up for the
pricing secrets call at:
http://bit.ly/9LqIXT

P.P.S.: Can’t make the call?
Sign up anyway and Molly will
send you the link to the
recording.

http://bit.ly/9LqIXT

P.P.P.S. Pricing secrets shared!
Don’t miss this.
http://bit.ly/9LqIXT

Hope to “see” you on the call!

Bobbye Middendorf
The Write Synergies Guru

Conscious Businesses Get Results with Words

Conscious businesses, even more so than other ventures, have a commitment to bringing heart to marketing messages and soul to business. These words play a critical role as they carry the essence of your business story.

Do your writing and business communications lack impact and pizazz? If your written messages are not getting attention, if your words are not moving your customers, clients, or employees to take the actions you are spurring them on to, if your results are suffering, then maybe it’s time for a messaging makeover.

Words are powerful. The right written words, even if just a 140 character tweet, can nurture existing relationships with clients, introduce your business values to prospectors (people looking for the types of products or services you offer),  and move people to take action to get to know you a little better.

While you might not get every one of those benefits from a single blog post or Twitter tweet, your communications are an ongoing affair that, like your relationships with your customers, require regular cultivation for long-term business success and results. In fact, cultivating your messages and nurturing your client relationships are two sides of the same coin. They are inextricably related.

Clear, focused, and articulate written communications are the foundation stones on which powerful businesses grow. You, as chief messaging officer, whether owner, CEO, or marketing leader, know the difference that the right words can make. But…
*Do you have the time?
*Do you have a trusted writing partner?
* … Someone who can download all your insights and polish them up to best serve your business, provide solutions to your customers, and expand your own inner development all at the same time?

There’s a greatness in the gifts you and your business are here to share and the service you provide to your perfect audience or tribe. The right words can build bridges between your vision that you are striving to achieve and the people you are here to serve.

If you’d like to consider a messaging makeover with a proven bridge-builder, then contact me directly at jasbjm (at) earthlink (dot) net to open a dialogue.

Bobbye Middendorf
The Write Synergies Guru

Seeing with New Eyes

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.”
–Marcel Proust

What makes you “see with new eyes?”  In late June, I returned home from a week-long retreat just a short couple of hours’ drive from home.The retreat, in a beautiful, sacred space, was filled with radiant and divine people. It was a magical time out of time.

(And did you know that yesterday, July 25, was Day Out of Time Day, courtesy of the 13 moons, Mayan calendar?)

So from this June 2010 time out of time retreat, with people I’d never met, and yet who became like long-lost family to me, I hesitantly returned to my ordinary reality. But I returned with new eyes that saw the blessings in my life for what they were: true gifts of support in every way.

Somehow when I returned to our cozy house and expansive, lush garden, I saw what had been there all along in a totally fresh, and yes, radiant, way. Where we’ve lived, rooted, for more than two decades, shines with a renewed vigor and magic, visible through my newly polished eyes. I said, while on the retreat, that I lived in a Shangri La, although in the middle of urban Chicago. When I came home, that is indeed what I experienced.

In seeing with new eyes, I strive for maintaining consciousness, for appreciating the blessings, for stepping into each day as a gift. It is easy to appreciate. What is harder, at least for me, is to take the mindful action steps necessary to expand my presence within this holy, sacred space of my life.

Several weeks after my return from the retreat, we (husby, teenage son, et moi) ventured to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, a preserved segment of Mother Earth tucked in between heavy smokestack industries on both sides. Lake Michigan was still cold, but the day was hot enough that the chill felt refreshing. I spied hawk flying over the beach twice, bent on some mission. The smell of pine tickled my nose as we walked along hot sands to the dune succession trail boardwalk through the preserved wild lands inland from the beach.

Counting my years along the shores of Lake Michigan, I realize it has held my heart for more than three decades, as I bask still in her flowing and liquid magic, a grateful acolyte to these central waters of Mother Earth.

I’d love to hear how you are seeing with new eyes. Take a look into your own life, your own backyard or treasure closet. What do you see when you look with new eyes? Where can you gain renewed energies from looking anew at what is familiar?

My friend and mentor Susan Castle is leading another magnificent, eye-opening retreat, this time within the sacred space of Sedona, Arizona. I’ll be there. I’d love to have you along! Retreat spaces are very limited. To learn about Susan and this opportunity for learning to “see with new eyes,” I invite you to step into her circle. Click here to learn more.

I wish you Abundant Blessings that are available when you are willing to see with new eyes.

Warmest regards to you,
from Bobbye Middendorf,
the Write Synergies Guru

Embrace Your Marketing Mindset (4Cs)

“I’d really rather just be doing the work that is mine to do, practicing my art or craft or therapy or career or profession. What is all this about marketing?!”

I’ve heard variations on this phrase for years — starting with the authors I worked with at the publishing company that employed me. They saw marketing, at best, as a necessary evil.

Now that I’m a free agent, hiring out to write and market and coach and strategize with and for my clients, I regularly come across writers, artists, healers, coaches, therapists, designers, attorneys, entrepreneurs, and even bankers who deeply dislike (hate?!) marketing. They see it, at best, as a necessary evil.

These are perfectly capable people who seem baffled when it comes to marketing. They tap fearfully into the seemingly endless supply of  variations on “marketing.” There’s corporate marketing, database marketing, SEO marketing, LOA marketing, internet marketing, social media marketing, MBA marketing, marketing trends, marketing research, marketing segmentation, branding, Superbowl marketing, direct response marketing, B-to-B marketing, B-to-C marketing, and we haven’t even touched advertising or PR, which might be included if you talk about integrated marketing or its longer-winded cousin, integrated marketing communications.

Are you intimidated yet? Are your palms sweating? Is fight or flight kicking in? Maybe this is why you hate marketing. Where are you in all this foreign-sounding gibberish? Where is your heart? Where is your gift? Where, even, are your people?

At the most fundamental level, for Conscious Creators, soul-preneurs, world-changers, visionaries, healers, and others in the soft sell marketing community, it really is all about your people. It’s about you and your community and connecting the two. We can talk about marketing without even going past the letter “C.”

Marketing is all about your Community. You can call it your circle, your clients, your customers, or even your audience. You can even go past “C” and call it your tribe. It’s all about your people. Well, what about them?

Marketing is all about Connecting. Connecting is a two-way process. You connect with them, and they connect with you.  How do you connect? From my perspective as The Write Synergies Guru, I’m partial to making the connections via words.

But connections come in every sensory variety. Music connects. Visuals connect. Paintings. Sculpture. Movies. Architecture. Movement connects. The healing touch of massage therapy connects. Even the tantalizing smells from your local cafe-bakery make a connection.

Marketing = Connecting + Communicating. So you make this connection, and from this connection you communicate. As with connecting, above, all your senses have their ways of communicating. But unless you’re right in front of the bakery or the painting or on the massage chair, the actual connection is tough to maintain. Distance isn’t a friend for these ways of communicating.

That’s why words as a medium (though imperfect) can paint the sensory details in a way that makes the communications possible over long distances and across time and space. Words can connect. Words can bring alive the connections across the world.

Words may be stories (Jeanne Kolenda is a master at stories with a purpose.) or metaphors. Words may be how-to or checklists. Words make up the books, the info products, the blog posts, web sites, brochures, business cards, press releases and even the 140 character tweets that are the currency of our communications.

Words weave the background texts of our lives. Words, both spoken and written, are how we communicate!

You mean marketing is just about talking to people? In the broadest sense, yes. That’s exactly what marketing is.

Connect with your Community by Communicating your Content. We prefer, all things being equal, to do business with people we know, like, and trust. How, in this digital marketplace, do we learn to know, like, and trust strangers?

The bakery cannot communicate its smell across the city to connect with bread-lovers in another neighborhood. But our words, imbued with meaning, with the content of our expertise, shared appropriately and clearly, focused on helping our people address whatever issue they face, packaged in a way to be useful, our words can communicate valuable content.

Marketing is that remarkable bridge, weaving together you, your heart, your creation. It weaves these “Cs” of Community, Connection, Communication, and Content into your message and beams it to your people in a way that they can hear it, can take it in, can process it. Suddenly the two-way span back and forth across your bridge is open.

They walk across the bridge to you. You meet them on this bridge constructed out of words that communicate your content and connect with your community.

Being Your Own Guru

I call myself The Write Synergies Guru. Why guru?  I made it up, though I have a genuine, if tenuous and academic, South Asian connection. I took Sanskrit at the University of Chicago for three years.

So did I choose this name just because of a connection with one of the most ancient, sacred languages?

For me, the key is in the term “sacred.” Because the work I do involves creating a sacred vessel around my clients and our conversations. Drawing from the deep and sacred roots of Sanskrit, I place myself firmly in a lineage of teachers whose work touches on the deep inner fire. Drawing out the soul of a client or their project and sharing it in words is a sacred trust.

I have taken “guru” as part of my public persona, not to attract mindless followers, but rather to invite into my circle and sacred space mindful,  visionary people who are committed to becoming ever-strengthened in their own mindfulness, awareness, and consciousness.  In essence, those who want to become their own gurus and their own best teachers, reaching out to exactly who or what they need as a resource in any given moment. They themselves become the sacred vessel.

But have I erred in taking this name? After all, many so-called gurus seem to have earned the bad rap they mostly receive these days. Guru means teacher in Sanskrit, or revered one, and that “revered” part is probably where things get dicey.  Teacher, by itself, is pretty innocuous as a title, even in Sanskrit.  That doesn’t give the term “guru” a free ride necessarily.  I guess you just have to be mindful and discerning in choosing the gurus you hang with.

On being your own Guru

The following quote gets at the essence of my point:  “You are your own teacher,” Mr. Gumucio said he was told. “You are responsible for your own experience.”  This quote came from the New York Times story at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/fashion/25yoga.html?ref=style via a twitter reference by @zenpeacekeeper.

That quote, “You are your own teacher…You are responsible for your own experience,” is really at the root of being your own guru. It means being aware and mindful of your own experiences and what you need.

So in creating this post,  I was intrigued to find my good friend Michael Toms at New Dimensions Radio has a show on exactly this topic: Michael has interviewed Jeff Brown taking about “finding your own inner guru.” You can check out the replay at http://www.newdimensions.org/flagship/3340/jeff-brown-finding-your-own-inner-guru/source: (It’s free till June 9. After that. it’s just $1.99 for an MP3.)  I am a donating member of the New Dimensions Global Broadcasting Council. Your support can help keep this national treasure of recorded wisdom going.

Write Synergies: What It Means — Blog Challenge Post 25

Write Synergies. It’s the name of this blog. (Oh yes, along with copywriting. We’re getting to that tomorrow…with the case of the missing keyword…Watch for it!)

Write Synergies: It’s the name of the book that’s under construction, the process, the sub-processes, even the author, who calls herself (for heaven’s sake) the Write Synergies Guru. More on gurus coming too.

Needing to write a blog post to explain what Write Synergies means indicates that the name isn’t ideal.  Maybe the people in the #blog30 challenge have been especially kind and have kept an open mind to explore such a non-keyword-named blog.  (thank you.)

As I pondered how to reinvent myself once again –to rename this body of work, at one coach’s suggestion — (I’ve been doing reinventing rather regularly. To hear about my lifelong commitment to reset, listen to my BlogTalkRadio interview with Nina Price on her show, Push the Reset Button.) — What happened?  A client said, “You know, that word synergies, it’s a perfect description of how it was, what happened, what you did, when you worked with me.” Whoa.

For the moment, I’m back to this word that no one understands–Synergies.

So, for the down and dirty explanation:  Synergies = Energies + Synthesis.  Synergies means energetically putting something together that’s greater than the sum of the parts. It encompasses the energies around bringing things together in new ways. (Remember the equation: thesis –>antithesis–>synthesis.)  It brings together the opposites to create something brand new.

Bottling up the synergies magic through and with words.
Those hidden (or not so hidden) synergies are what I help people uncover in their own creative vision.   Sometimes it’s something they didn’t even know was there.

The Write Synergies process supports conscious creators at any place along the spectrum of the creative process: in tapping their vision; in writing and polishing up their creations; with their copy, the message of the creation, so it connects;  in their communicating and outreach to their tribes; even in finding and connecting to the tribes…And to do that, I write. I listen and write. Write and listen.

For people looking for the courage to call themselves writers and authors, who want help, mentoring, support, inspiration, and encouragement in their own writing process, I serve as coach, teacher, and guide.

I write for people and about their projects and creations. We collaborate on writing so my conscious creator clients build the strong inner foundation that will support their outer work of bringing their creation, book, web site, newsletter, or healing venture fully into the world.

I use words, written words primarily, to help my people generate results greater than the sum of the parts. I help people bring their creations to life and to light. I listen and write souls (and their gifts) into authentic expression. (To do this, I have an extensive toolkit of expertise and experience. Again, a topic for another day.)

No matter where you are in a process of writing and conscious creation, you may need support, a sounding board, someone whose expertise resides in all the many manifestations of the written word.

Write Synergies is an alchemical, transformative process that moves with you along the path of your heart and soul, to where you really want to go. I love being your guide, joining you on your creative journey.

And for my new friends from the 30-day blog challenge, #blog30 on Twitter, I want to acknowledge all the gifts and greatness of your expressions and messages in the conversations over this past month. Thank you. You are truly owning your greatness in the world with the unique manifestation of YOU!

Push the Reset Button–Day 3 Blog Challenge

The Write Synergies Guru, Bobbye 6.1, finds herself scheduled to appear on Nina Price’s Blog Talk Radio Show, Push the Reset Button, on Saturday, April 17 at 11 AM Central.

Nina Price calls it “reset.” It’s that after-40 moment when the opportunity or the challenge is to recreate and reinvent oneself for enjoying the new half of life.  Nina is host of Push the Reset Button on Blog Talk Radio. Through a couple of different connections, I find myself scheduled for an interview on her show on Saturday morning.

I’m coming out of the closet on the book I’m working on, the one whose content is supposed to be unfolding right here as part of the blog challenge. That is, Write Synergies: Creating the Map for Your Journey.  [anyway, that’s the current iteration!]

And in the interview, we’re also going to talk about my various reinventions of myself, what I call Bobbye 6.1, along with the Sanskrit Factor, Interdisciplinary Arts, and how writing can be a perfect companion for finding the vision and the inner gifts waiting to be expressed. Writing is also the key to bringing that inner vision quest out into the world. The key to constant reinvention is continually learning, creating, and trusting your own inner connections. As the Write Synergies Guru, I share how to use the writing process to become your own guru and live your legacy so you don’t die with the dream and vision stuck inside.

Nina has posted the show description and my bio at her page on Blog Talk Radio. I hope you will log onto Blog Talk Radio on Saturday  at 11AM central time for a dose of reset and reinvention with yours truly.

Signing off on #blog30, day 3 of Connie Ragan Green’s Blog Challenge!