by Tish MacWebber | Apr 9, 2019 | #Tishspiration
I have been here before.
On the verge of a new idea, ready to burst with excitement. It is hard to contain it, to keep the important parts to myself. I cannot wait to reveal what I am working on to the world. Yes, to the world!
It has potential. When my ideas are getting interest within a circle of like-minded people who I trust, I know I am on to something. It could be life changing. If I take the time I need to develop it properly. If I get the support I need from the creative community in the city I live in. The possibilities really are just beyond my grasp, and can expand exponentially, under the right circumstances.
In literal terms, I am sitting at my computer desk, in my home. My home office is a part of my living room, which is centrally located within the floor plan. I have access to my TV and music while I am working, or on a break.
Figuratively, I am not exactly sitting.
I am on a tightrope, way up high, where I can still see the ground and the safety net. From this vantage point, I am on the brink of something new. I can see what is waiting on the other side of the tightrope. There is a place to go from here, with a ribbon to cut upon my arrival.
There are people who support me waiting to hand me the scissors to cut the ribbon when I reach the other side. They are holding balloons, and wearing party hats. Everyone in that space is waiting for me, tentatively holding their breath while they smile through the tough part.
The tough part, well that is on me. I am heading in the right direction, but like the sentence I opened with, I have been here before.
Deja Vu can lead you astray or guide you to where you were meant to be all along.
I have been on the verge of something wonderful before. People can attest to the joy I have when I am working on my dreams. The first time I went down this path, I had everything but a realistic business plan.
A local craft store was closing, and I got the idea to buy it and take over the business. I even had a price tag on what the owner was willing to sell it for. Networking within my community allowed me to meet people and start looking into a new location for my store. I had a vision for the design and layout. The problem, however was that I had no idea how much work and research is needed to create a proper business plan. I didn’t have the necessary support or resources to fund my dream. As a result, my proposal was declined, and that dream died when this happened.
When you pour heart into something, it is a devastating blow when it doesn’t work out. It could have put out the entrepreneurial flame within me. It didn’t, because I wouldn’t let it go out.
My next idea was for Tish’s Treasures.
I decided to forego the business plan this time, and just see what I could do with my love of creating. I wanted to run a jewellery business. The location I started at was very limiting. I went to the local Farmer’s Market and was told I had to sell other items, hand-made, but they would not allow me to sell my jewellery there. There were too many vendors already with jewellery for sale. I got creative, and worked on creating beaded ornaments and suncatchers. I went to craft shows with my full stock, and was thrilled with each and every sale I made.
This business idea was but a hobby, and so it never really turned a profit. When I stopped going to the Farmer’s Market, I would then turn to friends and family to generate income from my hobby. Again, it fizzled out of being an actual business. I began creating jewellery to give to people as gifts, with a custom order from time to time. I do have a few loyal customers, but it was never enough to generate a sustainable income.
Reality is a tough thing to understand as a dreamer.
Don’t get me wrong, I do have a logical side to my brain, along with the creative side. I am always thinking, and sometimes it takes me a while to find my courage to try again. Enter the dream of becoming a published author.
I was inspired to write From Where I am Sitting…A Collection of Cat Tales after working very hard at starting this blog. Again, I did not create a business plan, because cat people would totally get this book, and read it and love it. I am an optimist and a dreamer. It will generate future sales, and I hope it does. I have had success with the book, although not as much as I had hoped for, but the sales are not something which will ever really stop unless it is sold out. What a dream come true that would be, not just for me, but for any author!
After finishing the book, and indie publishing it, I wanted to write a second book. I do have a plan for the books I want to write, and unless this is the first contact you have had with Tish MacWebber, you know I am working on #Tishspiration: The Art of Surprising Yourself. It will be more than a book. It is the foundation on which I am building that tightrope walk on. I am working very hard on a new business plan, based on #Tishspiration. I am still in the development stages, but this time, I am playing on more of a level tightrope.
How are things different this time around?
For starters, I have learned lessons while I have been on this journey. I am finding out what resources are available to me, and I plan to use them to the fullest extent. While I am working on a new concept within #Tishspiration, I am still sticking to my original ideas. My business will not conform to narrow my scope, although I am looking to work with local artists in a very niche setting. There is plenty of room to grow with this idea, and I know where I need to start to get things going.
This time, I will be writing a business plan. I have contacts who will not write it for me but will support me to help me to succeed. This new business does not only help me. It helps other creatives, and the customers I will have who will buy what I am planning to offer. I am learning about my target market, and what I will need to do to get the idea to sprout from a dream into a garden. (Again, speaking figuratively here).
This time, I have a lot more information, and experience to guide my path. I need to focus, look straight ahead, hold out my arms to keep my balance, and dance my way across that tightrope. With the right plan of action, there is only one outcome that I will allow to happen. Fearless Success. Who knows, I just may surprise myself with another source of…
#Tishspiration
by Tish MacWebber | Oct 22, 2018 | Weekend Warrior
I am writing today live from the Grand Opening Event at The Purrfect Cup Cafe in Fredericton, New Brunswick. It is fairly close to my home, and there has been an impressive turnout. The sun is peeking through the clouds, and the line to go into the room with the cats ( some of them have been adopted today!) is still going the length of the cafe, right outside the door. There have been a few moments when the line wasn’t going right outside, but not for very long.
With a local coffee company, The Whitney Coffee Company supplying the beans for the brew, and Chess Piece Patisserie Cafe providing the best brownie I ever ate along with a variety of cookies, they are open for business.
The Purrfect Cup Cafe
I was able to visit last weekend before the grand opening today. My husband and I took a chance to see if we could check the place out. It was open, and I was able to purchase a coffee. More importantly, I got to play with some cats. It is the main draw for me. It is the only cat cafe in Fredericton, and it is a well-designed establishment. The cafe is out front, with the baked goods coming from a popular downtown cafe. The food safety aspect is not a concern, as the baked goods are prepared at a different location.
Behind a large window wall with a glass door is the cat room. There are washrooms in both sections, and the one out front is fully accessible for all visitors. There are carpets, tables, couches and chairs in the cat room. The various shelves all around the wall to allow cats to exercise and perch as they please. There were 2 cats that day, and I did have fun entertaining their playful antics.
The Cafe in action!
Shona Newton & Korey Jennings, the owners, were both here last weekend, and are here today also. I have been talking to them about setting up a separate event in a month or two for a book signing of my debut book, From Where I am Sitting…A Collection of Cat Tales. They seem open to the idea, and I think it was a good plan on my part to not try and combine my event with their grand opening. Today is about them launching their business.
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Decorative Posters inside
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Decorative Posters inside the cafe
You know, as I look outside, there is less than an hour officially scheduled for the remainder of the Grand Opening, and the people are here. I think it is going better than they expected. I am really happy to see the overwhelming support my city has showed for The Purrfect Cup Cafe! Although I did not make it inside today with the cats; I will find another time to visit. It was very busy in the cat room all day!
With all the excitement here today, I am planning to stay close to home tomorrow, to prepare for another work week. Someday, I may be able to write full time, and that will be wonderful. I am working towards this goal with every spare second I have. I will be making time for Bling creations tonight & tomorrow, as the Cat Tales Jewellery Collection will be the first Always Blinging…jewellery for sale in the store on this website! I am making progress, and I have one design which I am pleased with. The next design is a bit more complicated, so I need time to play. I look forward to the reveal when the store is ready to open.
After I wrote this, something came up on Sunday. I found out that it was a day to go check out a local meeting. The Chickadee Cat Club happened to be having their meeting this afternoon. I grabbed the proof copy of my book and went. There was a general meeting and a presentation about raw food diets for cats. It was an interesting afternoon.
When I got home, I made 7 pieces of jewellery in the design I have decided to go with for the necklace. I need to spend time working on the earring design this week. I have made progress, and this is good! As some of them will be necklaces for the Book Launch Party I held on Facebook a few weeks ago, I am anxious to get those pieces complete, so I can work on the ones I will be selling locally and on the website. With that, it is time to sign off and get ready for the upcoming work week. How was your weekend? Did you do anything creative or interesting? Let me know in the comments! Have a great week!
by Tish MacWebber | Feb 26, 2018 | Weekend Warrior
In Weeknd Warrior #53: Multitasking for the Win, this weekend was busy and not. All at the same time. I had baking to do Friday night, for a bake sale on Saturday. I participated in some writing sprints. So I wrote for an hour, then made Macaroons. Then after I got them in the fridge, I entered into the second hour of writing. In that time of writing, Friday, in both sessions, I started a new fictional story about the cats in my book. It will have a time and a place for release. It was fun to write a what if story about them. It is going to be something special when I am ready to share it.
Saturday I got ready and picked up some bottles at work for the Bottle Drive. The event that I was baking for Friday night was a three part event. It was for Boston Terrier Rescue Canada, and I am a volunteer with them, so I pitch in when and where I can. This event was made up of the bottle drive, a bake sale, and a local grooming business was offering nail trims for donations as well. I had the job of watching the Bake Sale Table when I arrived.
I thought about bringing my laptop to use wi-fi while I was there. It was going to be a few hours, and I debated the idea. I decided to print out the partial manuscript of my book and work on the editing while I was between customers at the bake sale. It worked out well. I was able to convince another volunteer to take a picture of my multitasking at the event.
Volunteering for Boston Terrier Rescue Canada while editing my first book. Multitasking win!
I wrote some more of that story I was working on Saturday. I didn’t make the earlier session but I managed to get to the second one. I spent the day writing and napping Sunday. I tried something different Sunday morning, and it was tough to write, and I don’t know if I will ever do anything with it. It was really personal, and it made me cry. Sometimes writing is just for the Author. Other times it gets to be shared with the world. I actually went back to the other story in the morning today and finished it. For the last hour of writing this weekend, I started writing my second book. I want to finish the editing on my first book before continuing to write it. I am worried that I am going to be repeating myself, and then I will have more work to do. So that is what I was up to this weekend. Volunteer work and writing. Not a lot done around the house, but a productive weekend, in other areas. Time to get ready for Monday.
#WeekendWarrior
by Tish MacWebber | Dec 11, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
I am feeling a little stressed about getting my list of things done this weekend. I had Wednesday off, this past week, and I worked yesterday to make up the missed time. I usually have 2 days for a fun-filled weekend, and this week I was only able to work with one. Let’s review Friday and today, then.
Friday there was a potluck at work. I was up into the wee hours early Friday morning preparing for both the potluck at work and the TGIO (Thank Goodness It’s Over) NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month – November – An annual challenge.) So I made it through work, had a successful potluck, and rushed home to cut the cheese! I planned cheese and crackers for the party.
I was really surprised that one of my guests brought along a bottle of Writers Tears Irish Whiskey to try. I loved it. I will be buying some to put in my flask that friends brought me as a gift from Scotland. It is in a pink and purple and blue tartan holder. It is adorable, and a really good effort at matching the MacWebber Tartan I designed. 😉
The party was small, with only 2 guests. The other guest brought art supplies, and we all sampled the whiskey, listened to music (I introduced them to the Screaming Goats Christmas Album before going to my mixed tape list) and we got crafty.
I decided to make the characters of my book, the main 5 cats, for the sticky sticks. The end result of my artwork looks like this:
From left to right we have Dude, Lucy, Rascal, Missy, and Simba. These cats are the main characters in my book, From Where I Am Sitting A Collection of Cat Stories by Tish MacWebber. I am still writing it and will update when it is ready for publishing.
Yesterday I worked for 8 hours. Then I came home and worked on my #Momentum18 Challenge. I am getting things done, and other things are brewing in my mind. I had to creep the Facebook walls of my ideal customers, to find out what they are interested in, and to share it. Thankfully, most of them enjoy humour, sarcasm, and wit. I can keep working with that in mind, and know that they will laugh with me. 😀
Today I have spent at least another 8 hour day working on the social media platform. We ran out to the store for an hour, and have settled in for the night. I made a new Facebook Live video for my contest, and plan to film every evening this week. I have other projects on the go, but I am quite tired after a very busy and way too short weekend. What did you do this weekend?
#WeekendWarrior
by Tish MacWebber | Dec 5, 2017 | Treasure Seeker Tuesdays
Here we are again for another Treasure Seeker Tuesday. How are we this week? I have launched my December Beaded Snowflake Contest on Facebook with a live video.
Here is the link, I have it on my own, personal Facebook wall. It is where I am most active on my own and my author social platform.
Treasure Seeker Beaded Snowflake Contest Video
I have never shared a video on my Blog before…let’s cross our fingers that it works.
The information for the contest is in the written part, with links. It was fun. I like videos, they are usually short for me, and I just wing them. Usually.
In #Momentum18 #Week2 #Day4 the challenge was to write a blog post about the challenge. I think it is supposed to be about this current week, but my mind is still lingering on last week’s challenge.
What I learned about myself is nothing new. At least, not to me. I wanted to launch something for my blog. It was an idea I had, and I wanted to try something different. I have been thinking about it for almost 2 weeks now. Do you want to know what I learned?
I have to go back to the drawing board. You see, I am quite determined (stubborn) and I am not ready to give up on the idea of what I want to do. This idea, however good it sounded at the time, will have to wait.
I need to prepare to launch my own website. It was in limbo during November while I was writing :
Yes, that is the draft of a cover for my first book. There is a story behind the picture, of course, and it will be in the book. So that is something that I am working on, but have to put aside for the website building. (Thanks to my friend Noa Price for help with this cover picture and design advice).
This book was never even supposed to be written. I wasn’t going to do NaNoWriMo. I have learned that when an idea strikes, and it is a good idea, especially in terms of writing, that I should just write it. I am in the middle of writing the first draft of this book and will be continuing to write it after I launch the website. Unless my brain has other ideas that I am not currently aware of.
That is what is the most important thing to me right now, launching my website, not a checklist. I have been brainstorming and thinking about how to use a different theme to make it the same, but different, and to make it better than the WordPress website that hosts my Blog right now. I am not working it to my fullest potential, here, and I need to get out of the brainstorming process and put the ideas into action. Like that book I am writing. I can put it aside, for a month, and really spend every spare second into getting that website finished so I can have a place to promote and sell this book when it is ready.
I have to prioritize what I need to do first, or nothing will get done. I did work on writing the book in November. I prioritized that as my main project for November. In December, I need to make a beaded snowflake for the contest prize, maintain consistency on the blog, and get the website ready and launched.
When I launch the website, I will be gathering information on how to also launch a newsletter by Tish MacWebber. When that is ready, I will have a launch for that to get it up and running. I hope that the Treasure Seekers will all sign up. I expect it will be starting with a monthly publication, at least until I get the feel for what I want to do with it.
What are you working on in December? Do you like the book cover I designed with the help of my friend? Are you ready to move along with me to bigger and better things? I hope so because when I decide to get something done, nothing stands in my way.
#TreasureSeekerTuesday
Treasure Seeker Tuesday: Photo by Tish MacWebber; Photo Edited by Noa Price
