jennifer louden

The lovely Danielle LaPorte and I hung out recently to jam about the transformative power of masterminds for my upcoming course. Or as Danielle says, "You need people. You can’t, shouldn’t, couldn’t do it alone. Anywhere worth getting to will take a cast of loving, lucid, masterminds behind you. All the way. "Everything I’ve accomplished has had mastermind group support — high-minded, big strategy, sleeves-rolled up kind of support. No secrets, soul-bared, nuts and bolts hashing it ...

Late Fragment by Raymond Carver And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.   This is the only poem I can recite from memory.

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At our Brain Trust retreat two weeks ago, Michael Bungay Stanier asked Eric, Molly, Michele, and Mark to talk about Chris Guillebeau's great new book, The $100 Start-Up. Michael came up with a handful of spot-on questions and we came up with more than a handful of spot-on answers and juicy insights. Here's what we covered:

• How we avoid (hopefully) being sleazy, slimy sales manics and get known -- no chicken suits or sandwich boards required.
• How

And are they helping you get your art done and out in the world? Helping you do more great work? Influence is a profound factor in our health, well-being and success -- it can make the difference between creating deep happiness and making real progress on your desires or floundering, getting lost in yet another eddy of your own fearful thoughts and out-of-date patterns. I made a little video (Noir style!) in which I ask  you powerful ...

Yesterday my girl Lilly turned 18. I planned on baking her cake. Carrot. No nuts. Lots of frosting. I also planned on spending time in quiet reflection. I imagined myself walking pensively through the woods, finger on chin, recalling the last 18 years while harps filled the sun drenched air. Then I would come home to thoughtfully wrap sweet presents for her (one of her "love languages" is gifts so in an effort to speak her language...) ...

Last week was our annual Brain Trust retreat, and it was a doozy. I mean that in the best possible sense of the word.  I feel liberated. Seen. Supported. Lightened. As Mark Silver said in his beautiful recap of the retreat:  "These five people are among the brightest lights in my life, and have patiently and compassionately helped me walk ever more deeply through my core pattern." Here's where the wombat comes in. Every year we spontaneously come ...

Alex Blackwell is one of those guys that inspires me to love more. He exudes kindness and lives the idea that celebrating others brilliance -- repeatedly! -- increases the good for all. Also, Alex allows himself to do what I am learning to allow myself to do -- to teach people they are worthy to have their heart’s desire. My hope is your heart will expand like mine did reading Alex's good words.

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What is creative joy? That was the question Marianne, Susannah, and I started asking when we decided to convene a retreat called Creative Joy. Creative joy is one of those phrases that you may think you know what it means to you and yet, when you start digging and inquiring, you find so much more. We asked a smattering of friends to think about creative joy. We hoped to both understand it more deeply to create a ...

"While the hero journeys for external fame, fortune, and power, the heroine tries to regain her lost creative spirit."

Valerie Frankel, From Girl to Goddess

Ever falter and lose your momentum right before the finish line on a project or when preparing for something big? Lord how I hate when I do this! Sustaining momentum: honestly, it always felt a little boring to me.  Pedestrian. What I loved was bolting out of the gate, getting all lathered up, ticking a bunch of stuff off the list... look at me go! How amazing! But then, somewhere along the line, I'd wind down... get foggy... ...