I am super excited to share with you this Q & A with Jennifer Lee, author of The Right-Brain Business Plan.  She is a fellow journal junkie and has been a huge source of inspiration to me!  Soak up what she has to say about journaling, creative business and what she does for her sanity!  Meet Jennifer Lee!  She is a certified coach, writer, artist, yogini, and the founder of Artizen Coaching. 
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I’ve heard that you are a journal junkie yourself...
Yes, I am a fan of journaling, especially in the morning just to clear my head.

When did you start journaling?
When I was about 7-years-old my grandma bought me a pink journal with colorful hearts all over it from a Hello Kitty store. I would write in it whenever I was excited or upset about something. At some point during my early teens and young adulthood, I stopped journaling because I was afraid someone would read what I wrote. And then it was probably around 1999 that I started to write in a journal again and did it even more consistently when I started working with my first coach in 2000.

How does journaling play a part in your life and business?
Journaling helps me get the junk out of my head when I first wake up. I don’t do it every single day, but for the most part, I’m pretty consistent. It helps me work through challenges or issues I’m facing by just writing out what I’m thinking or feeling. I also use journaling to help remind me of the things that are going well and I’ll tend to write a lot of affirmations. As for how it helps me in my business, sometimes I’ll get sparks of inspiration while I’m journaling or in the middle of the night and I capture it in my journal.

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Did you journal through the process of writing the Right-Brain Business Plan book?  If so, how did it support you?
Yes, I kept my regular journal as I was writing my book. The process of writing and marketing a book has certainly stretched me in ways I never could have anticipated, so journaling helped me work through those challenges.

I also did intuitive painting while I was doing my book proposal and writing. Having these larger-than-life images from my imagination reflected back to me was also helpful in working through different roadblocks during the writing process.
How can journaling help in the process of writing a business plan?
Dig through your journals to find nuggets that might be your next business idea.

Sometimes people get hung up with the formal writing style that they think needs to go into a business plan, but if you’re doing a business plan just for yourself, then hey, why not write in the same way you write in your journal?

One of my past e-Course participants, Tori Deaux of The Circus Serene, wrote a love letter to her perfect customers and that ended up helping her define her target market and gave her actual copy to use on her website.

What are the top 3 things you do for your sanity as you birth new business ideas?
1. Practice Self-Care Fridays – no meetings except with my inner muse, a masseuse or nail salon.

2. Lean on my Nurture Huddle for emotional support, brainstorming, and accountability.

3. Get as much out of my head and on to paper as possible in fun, visual, and tactile ways.
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What advice do you have for Right-Brainers who have a book idea of their own?
Start collecting all of your journal pages, chicken scratch, notes, e-mails, and documents you have about your idea. You’ll be surprised how much existing material you have to work with. Organize it and use that to start from instead of trying to start from a blank page.

I highly recommend working with a book coach to help you flesh out your ideas further and to hold you accountable to the writing process.

Keep writing!!

Where do we get all the juicy details about your book, etc?
You can visit http://www.rightbrainbusinessplan.com to see info about the book and other resources to help you with your business.

Thank you Jennifer!!  Enjoy, share and be inspired everyone!  Here's to the creative dreams that live inside you waiting to be revealed with pen and paper!
 


Comments

Gratitude Girls link
04/06/2011 8:14pm

Love this, especially the idea of taking a self care day! Great tips, thank you for sharing!

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Business certificate link
04/30/2012 6:16am

Nice blog about the business concepts and its important facts that should be known by a businessman or a business student.Thanks for the post.

Reply
Carla
04/06/2011 11:21pm

Glad you enjoyed Elizabeth! Thanks for coming by!

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