Profitability

To my blog followers and those who visit incognito, I'm still here!  I can't believe it's been a little over a month since I last blogged.  It's like life fired a gun and I've been running ever since.

I've continued to live up to my new mantra:  my playing small does not serve the world.  So, I've been doing all I am gifted to do.  When we last spoke, I had just launched my new website:  suzetterhinton.com.  Since that time, I've done some tweaking.  More than two people advised me to establish a unique presence for all my businesses rather than having my one site.  I took this to heart and can proudly introduce three additions to my portfolio:

purposeful-connections.com

Purposeful Connections is my coaching site.  Since launching the site, I have partnered with a woman who knows what her calling is, but heretofore allowed distractions to hinder her progress.  So many of us can identify with that, including myself.  Life happens--this is true--but for those of us who feel the restlessness of that something-more on the inside, there is no rest.  Our dream, our calling, our longing for something meaningful keeps us up at night and interlopes on whatever else competes for our attention.  It's our reason for being.  I'm so glad that God won't allow us to slumber without shaking us from time to time.

Not only am I helping her but she's helping me.  She's putting a demand on my calling.  When I coach her, I feel the energy that goes beyond education, experience or skill.  I feel the energy of my calling and the wisdom that comes up and out and blesses her growth.  There's nothing like it!

odysseyadministrativeservices.com

Odyssey Administrative Services is my virtual administrative and bookkeeping business.  It allows the business-minded me to be expressed.  That part of me that is gifted as well as trained to problem solve, create solutions to administrative problems, partner with home-based and small businesses to handle the paperwork that oftentimes gets pushed aside.   When she was in the third grade and her mother passed, my mom took care of her brother and sister.  She took her meager earnings and managed to feed them and clothe them.  She wasn't taught this through education.  God gave her the wisdom to work with money.  That gift fell to me as well.

Despite my recent efforts to move away from it, bookkeeping always makes room for me.  I now realize that is a gift.  A gift that has often been drained rather than inspired.  I further understand it wasn't that I didn't like bookkeeping or doing administrative clerical work for that matter.  It was simply that I wanted to do it my way.  I needed the room to flow in that gift without being overburdened and undervalued.  I am now working with a company in RTP.   Though I enjoy the atmosphere, the job and the people, I sense there is a strategy at work.  My Wise Self sees it as an opportunity, a pathway to my ultimate goal of working for myself.

odysseymusicconsultants.com

Like Tiger Woods' father put a golf club in his hand and the Williams' sisters father put a tennis racket in theirs, my mom and dad put playing the piano in ours.  My mom and dad recognized our talent early on but my mom was instrumental in landing my first job:  playing for the Junior Choir at my church.  Prior to my taking the job, my elder sister had been the pianist.  "For three years, they've paid your sister $4," she said. "It's time for that to go up."  Despite opposition, my mom stood her ground.  She withstood times when the preacher brought it up in his sermon.  You know, those times when everybody knows it's you that the preacher is talking about.  I chuckle when I think of it.  My mom kept a smile on her face and an "I shall not be moved" in her heart.  This was a guiding principle that served as a foundation for what would later be Odyssey Music Consultants.

To some, this was an atrocity.  How dare she require the church to pay me for a "gift" that I should use freely!  I heard it time and time again.  When I'd return home from an event and I had not been paid, my mom would get on the telephone and find out what happened.  Though she was criticized, I realized something.  My mom held people accountable to their word.  If they said they were going to do it, she expected them to do so.  If they did not, she wouldn't permit me to play for them until they settled up.  What a gift to give to me, to all her children.  For this taught me to respect my talent and to require others to respect it too.

When I consider Matthew 25: 14-30, emphasis on verse 27, it challenges this notion that people should use their talents all willy-nilly.  The servant who buried his talent and only gave his master the exact thing he had been given was reprimanded and called slothful.  The Bible likens the Kingdom of Heaven to this for the master didn't just want his servants to acknowledge their talents but to produce something greater, richer, better.  The Bible calls it profitable.  My mom, in essence, taught us not to be slothful.  Profitability is often mentioned in the New Testament yet the church world of my younger days seemed to frown on it when it came to "working for the Lord."

Nevertheless, Odyssey Music Consultants is my bedrock of profitability.  From 10 years old to now, my gift has made room for me and yes, I have made money with it.  I believe in my heart that God is pleased every time He checks my account.  He knows what he entrusted to my care and applauds what I am doing with it.    

So I say this:  Whatever you have been gifted to do or trained to do, maximize it.  Like me, you can turn what you love to do into a business.  In the words of the Bible, make it profitable.  This let's God know that he can trust us with more.  This, my friends, is a Kingdom principle.

Making Room for My New Life

I just finished eating oatmeal from McDonald'st and decided to take a moment to blog.  Have you ever been in a fierce cleaning mode and had a lightbulb moment?  Well, that's what happened.  I dunno when the thought hit my brain but somehow in between hanging the pictures on the wall and getting rid of that unsightly ring around my toilet bowl there was an enlightened thought, There’s nothing greater than getting up every single day of your life doing what you love to do.  

I know it seems weird that I'd have that thought while cleaning the toilet.  Nothing could have been further from that truth at that moment.  Cleaning toilets is not my thing.  

Until today, my house has looked like a cyclone hit it.  Except for downstairs that I keep pretty okay with only a few dishes in the kitchen sink, the upstairs was a mess.  There were papers still on the floor from Summer Camp for Women, clothes heaped on the dryer waiting to be folded and put away, a ring in my bathroom sink and dirty shower stall, clothes laying around in my closet and a bed I hadn't made for a week. I'm not usually this junky.  Ever since I got the aha to launch my businesses, I've been all abuzz building websites, creating brochures, printing business cards, blind to the growing messiness.  I could make that the blame for the condition of my house but it wouldn't be completely true.  My house has been neglected for a while now.  With fresh eyes, I am seeing just how badly I've allowed it to get.    

I hear the voice of Purpose.  “Let’s make room for your new life," it's saying.  "Your home should be a reflection of who you are."  Such a huge parallel to my life.  I know from experience that if I don't manage my time and what I focus on, I will drift back into an undisciplined and overwhelmed state just like my house.      

I can't afford to allow this to go on.  Order is the word of the day.  With now working two part-time jobs and growing my businesses, I've got to be on top of my game.  So, let me get up from here.  No more clutter!      

I've been sooooo busy.  This week, I started my new part-time job.  Who else but God would have both part-time jobs within 5 minutes of each other.  Really.  They're that close!  Add to that, both employers are flexible.  The hours are complementary.  This thing is strategically mastered down to the smallest detail.  God is such a Strategist.  Along with Alpha, Omega, the beginning and the end, I have to insert Strategist.  Both jobs are transitioning in such a way that I'll be able to learn one without being overwhelmed with the other.     Only God could plan this thing so masterfully.

I've heard it said, "if you take care of God's business, He'll take care of your's."  Of course, it's always been used when it comes to Church Membership Etiquette 101.  Certainly, if you are going to be a member of anything, you need to be a good member.  Notwithstanding, I've found out that your Purpose is God's business.  He put that purpose down inside of you to serve the world.  It is his thumbprint on your existence.  It validates why you are here.  So, it's not honorable to put someone else's purpose above your own as if God has a fragmented view of what he calls good.  I see it often in church.  The preacher tells you that God blesses you for supporting His Vision.  I believe that' has merit.  But I don't believe God would bless your neglecting the vision He's placed in you in order to do it.  

I won't belabor that.  It's not truly my point anyway.  I'm just seeing a Greater, Wiser Energy directing my Life.  The more I set aside time to honor the dream He's placed in my heart, the more I look around and see my environment changing accordingly.

It's so much fun!  I didn't expect fun when building my businesses, but I am thoroughly enjoying every part of it.  From the creative to the interpersonal to the marketing to the sitting down with clients, I am relishing every part of it.  I now see it is key to my fulfillment and joy.  For that reason, I have to protect it and make decisions that make room for it.  Now that I respect it, the Universe is respecting it too.  How cool!

Is Your Dream Big Enough?

"If your dream is big enough, the odds don't matter," said Dennis Gaddy as he addressed his audience comprised mainly of formerly incarcerated men and women and prospective volunteers.  This caused the hairs on my arm to stand at attention as I rustled anxiously through my pocketbook for something to write with.  I had been wrestling with feelings of self-doubt all weekend, praying for some type of confirmation that I was on the right road.

No matter how called, appointed or anointed you are for the task or how purpose-driven or visceral the call, you will be met with opposition.  To some of us that is news.  We think that if God gave the call that it means our Red Sea will part and all of us will walk to the other side on dry land.  We forget that prior the suffering of the Israelites had become more intense.  After Moses told Pharoah to "let my people go," Pharoah started acting the fool!  Moses was proclaiming the very words I AM told him to say.  And even after plagues and disease ravaged Egypt and Pharoah finally said basically, "get the hell out," these happy vindicated souls come up against something that had absolutely nothing to do with Egypt.  The sea.  As if that isn't enough, Pharoah and his army were in hot pursuit with the intent to annihilate every man, woman, boy and girl.  Terror! 

Terror, yep, that's the feeling.  Despite planning my work and working my plan, terror.  Despite meeting with a client excited about utilizing my musical services, terror.  Despite the here-here's of my boyfriend and the excitement on the faces of the people at the church who enjoyed my piano playing, I was in a chokehold that I couldn't shake.  It would lift for a moment while I played or later sang, but everytime I'd get alone, it would wrap its chilly fingers back around my neck.  At these times, what you believe is tested.  In these moments, you grasp for your original resolve but just can't get the same feeling.  In these moments of aloneness when nobody is spurring you along anymore, you start to question if you really have what it takes.

Those who were once on your team have stopped asking how you are.  And if they do, your paranoia tells you they don't really want to know.  They want you to say that you have a job.  They want you to say that everything's great.  They don't want to hear about your suffering.   And honestly, you don't want to hear about it either.  You feel like detaching from everyone because now, they are more a danger to you than you could ever be to them.  Any lack of enthusiasm for your dream is exaggerated.  Every sigh, every glazed look, every hesitation heightens our sensitivities.  So with all those feelings wrapped around my neck, I decided to go check out Mr. Gaddy and CSI's orientation.  Yep, I tend to do the opposite of what I'm feeling.

Mr. Gaddy introduced two previously incarcerated individuals to the group.  I can't recall their names.  One was of Puerto Rican descent and the other was a devoted Muslim.  Their stories were unbelievable!  With the crimes they had committed, they should not have been greeting us or even alive to tell us about their experiences--yet there they were.  Men who had overcome the odds stacked so high against them that it was likened to the Red Sea that the Israelites faced.  Yet, their stories removed every single excuse I or anyone else had for not moving forward. 

Paramount for me was the fact that they persevered through opposition.  Where most would have sat down and quit or committed a crime to go back to prison, they perservered.  I heard a whisper.  "Crashing is part of the journey," it said.  On the road to success there will be crashes.  You'll be going strong and making progress then...wham.  These men both were thriving for a while, then due to the economy, had to close down their businesses.  They didn't stop though.  They kept moving.  Going back to prison was not an option for them--they had decided that--so, they had to find a way to make it work.

That's what happens when your dream is big enough.  Even if you wanted to give up, the strength of the dream won't let you.  Even if you decide to close your mouth, it'll speak to you through people, places, things.  Even if you refuse to pursue it during waking hours, it'll haunt you in your dreams.  You can't get away from it. 

Difficult Day

I feel so hyped up.  You know that kind of hyped that knows you need to take your tired butt to bed but you're just up and fidgety.  So here I am typing a blog. 

Today was a tough day.  It started yesterday and I haven't been able to shake the dry, discouraged feeling.  I was so temperamental today until my pork and beans and cole slaw made my bread soggy and I began to cry.  You would have thought somebody had beat me, I was crying so hard.  In a word?  Fatigue!

Surprisingly, I think that having my TV on for the noise has helped.  Somehow over these few hours, different successful icons have talked about dark times, trying times or times when they were turned down.  It's easy to forget that Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team.  It's easy to forget that Michael Baisden had to self publish his books.  It's easy to forget that Jennifer Hudson was voted off American Idol.  It's easy to forget that Oprah was criticized for her name, her hair, her nose, her name and was ultimately demoted. 

This reminds me that regardless to how BIG your dream is or how certain you are of your Purpose, there will be days when you ask what-the-hum.  The fight can become so intense that you start to question yourself.  "Did I make a mistake," you ask.  You wonder if you have what it takes, if you're going in the right direction or if you're waaaaaaay off base.  You get tired and frustrated with your current state.  Things are getting dire.  Some things happen that you just can't figure out.

Jay-Z talks about learning more from failure than success on an encore of Oprah's Master Class.  He also talks about difficulty building character.  That actually helped me to hear that.  All great successes are riddled with failure, missteps, see-nothing days, or underwhelming responses.  Everybody talks about those dark times, those hard times, those times of uncertainty, those times when you couldn't pay the Universe to cut you a break. 

Nevertheless, what I see that's common among all these successes is consistency.  They didn't let one bad situation or misstep discount the validity of what was in their heart.  I'm sure there were nights where tears were shed and sobs were muffled in a pillow.  Nights where they just stared up at the ceiling wondering how they were going to do this or that.  Yet somehow they found a way to show up.  I don't think they could help themselves.  Might have looked a hot mess and felt even worse than they looked, but they showed up.  They reported to work.

Show up, my friend.  I know that Life can throw some hard blows or put up a steel wall that can't be scaled.  Still, show up.  After you have your temper tantrum, pick yourself up and keep moving in the direction of what you know deep down.  Cry if you have to, but show up.  Crawl if you have to, but show up. 

I'm tired.  Trust me when I tell you that.  The fatigue is as thick as my natural hair.  I'm getting tired of being tired.  I'm getting tired of feeling hopeful one minute and panicky the next.  All I know is I gotta keep moving.  I can't help it.  In frustration, I tell myself I'm going to close my laptop and I ain't doing another God-blessed thing but then I find myself opening it back up.

Creating a Buzz

When you do what you're born to do, it isn't work.  Yesterday was my rest day.  But rather than lay on the couch watching talk shows, game shows and soaps, I worked on my businesses.  I'm not a marketing guru neither do I have a PR agent so I prayed for God, the Ultimate marketing guru and PR agent, to give me some ideas.  Using social media and the Secretary of State list of corporations, I sent information about my businesses out into the cyberworld. 

Sometimes it's not so much in the who or the what but in the doing.  The creating a buzz is what I call it.  I didn't know half the people or the corporations that I forwarded information to. I don't know if my introductions sounded contrived or like a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman.  All I know is that I did something. I made steps to get the word out that Suzette is in business.  Like a barber taking his towel and knocking the hair off the barber chair in preparation for the next customer, I was telling the world I am ready for my next customer. 

I believe the wisdom needed is activated when you create a buzz.  It helps you to recognize the opportunities that your buzz creates.  Just the few days ago, a friend came to me with a problem.  She knew what she was born to do but admitted to feeling intimidated and afraid.  As I encouraged her, the idea came for me to coach her.  I didn't have it on my mind.  I wasn't looking for it at all.  The motivator in me was in full swing and it just happened.  "I'll be your life coach," I told her and she happily agreed.  Last night was our first session.  It was GREAT!   She was ready and so was I.  As I stood in my authenticity, the wisdom came and we both recognized the moment.

I know most coaches would warn you against coaching friends.  I wholeheartedly concur if, and I say if, you or your friends aren't able to distinguish between the coaching relationship and your friendship.  In this case, neither of us had that problem.  She was about business.  So was I.  The business of moving towards the fulfilling and purpose-driven life she knew was hers. The business of no longer accepting the roadblocks both internally and externally that had held her up in the past. How courageous she was!  She made me bring my A game...lol.  I LOVED it!

Another moment where wisdom was in full swing was related to a church I was considering providing musical services for.  I was to get back in touch with them after checking my calendar to see if I could play for their choir this Sunday.  In the course of the conversation, I became aware of something.  Sometimes decisions aren't made immediately.  Sometimes you create experiences that will help you to make the right decision.   

With respect to this local church, the first experience was to attend a worship service.  Before accepting the job, I wanted to get a feel for the environment.  I needed to sit in attendance and absorb what was going on around me.  Wisdom required that.  I've learned it is a serious mistake to jump at the first thing just because of the potential.  Observing things is a step we often fail to take that can cost us big later on.

Secondly, especially if working with a choir, I think it is important to either attend a choir rehearsal or, if there is an opening, to actually play for a choir prior to accepting the job.  For me, this second experience is necessary for clarity.  I need to know what I have to work with and if it has the capacity to nourish my Purpose.  It also demonstrates your abilities to the people you are considering serving.  

I've seen it happen repeatedly that the decision makers tend to be more open and willing to negotiate when they've heard you play.  An instance of that happened.  After the worship service ended, the pastor told me he wanted to talk; however, he was in the midst of shaking the hands of parishioners and visitors.  I contemplated sitting down to wait but remembered my dress was too short for me to feel comfortable on the front row.  Soooo, rather than appearing to pace, I walked over to the keyboard and hit a couple of notes.  Before I knew it, a lady walked up and asked if I knew how to play a song and began singing it.  Talk about creating a buzz!  As I played for her, we became the focus.  Without my planning it that way, the church went from an idea of me as a Musical Director to an experience of what I could offer them.   

Creating a buzz happens in many ways.  Before clients invest in your product or service, they have to not only know that you exist but they have to want what you're offering.  You have to be savvy and strategic, yes; but I'm not speaking of ego.  I'm speaking of Purpose.  I'm speaking of doing what you were born to do.  Purpose strategically presents opportunities and Wisdom helps you to be savvy in how you respond.  I heard someone put it this way, "A miracle happens when preparation meets opportunity."

It Mattered... And We Made It

Have you ever had a day where you were walking along and all of a sudden, it felt like a bolt of lightning hit it and it exploded?  Mine was yesterday.  I had worked an 8-hour temp assignment;  changed clothes in the bathroom for the Summer Camp for Women gala banquet; drove to The Salvation Army to make sure the transportation was there and the campers had all they needed:  bag lunches for their kids, check, car seats, check, the Salvation Army banner, check, only to lock my keys in the trunk of my car. 

That was the lightning bolt.  Stunned and shaken, I used my co-leader's cell phone to call AAA to come unlock my car.  The operator said it would be 2 hours before the locksmith would be there.  Mind you, the gala banquet started at 6:30pm, it was now 7:00pm.  Once the last camper from The Salvation Army was ready to be transported, we decided to go to the camp and just leave my car.  Five minutes up the road, a call comes in.  The locksmith is going to be at my car in 5-10 minutes.  Though I argued that I was told 2 hours, he said that if I wasn't there when he got there and he had to stay or there was another dispatch, AAA would charge me. 

Sooooo, we had to turn my co-leader's car around to take me back.  My heart ached.  It ached for the campers already at the banquet, waiting, wondering what was happening.  It ached for the camper and her child in the car.  It ached because neither of them had eaten.  It ached. 

As I entered the banquet to all the revelry and stood behind another camp about to make it's entrance, waving their butterflies and excited as they crossed stage, my heart ached once again. I tried to smile, I tried to talk, I just couldn't.  I didn't know where my campers were.  I just stood there with bags in my hands.  Bags containing the gift bags with each campers name, filled with beauty goodies from friends who generously donated them.  When I finally found the ladies, one looked up at me and said, "we didn't get to cross stage...we didn't have our banner."  The banner!  I had left it in the car.  So, I put the bags down walked back to the car that was parked a country mile away and came back with the banner.  Even with the efforts and the hope that, though late, maybe just maybe they could be recognized, those gorgeous butterflies didn't get to cross stage.  They attended the banquet, yes, but didn't feel part of the banquet.  My heart ached again.

"At least you made it!," you might interject.  And though that's true and I appreciate the clarity and focus and perspective you'd like to bring to this; it's a tad dismissive to me.  Besides, it wasn't about me.  It was about the campers who had to get dressed, round up their children, struggle with car seats and crying babies to get there.  It was about the final camper being delayed, hungry and tired from catching the bus from her job to pick up her child to come back to a place she didn't want to be, only to get dressed, get to the banquet and by then most of the food was gone.  

This morning, it's hard to accept the "at least you made it" argument.  The reason for my tears and the sadness in my heart doesn't alter that fact.  That's a given.  It's this: just fast-forwarding to the end makes it seem like it didn't matter.  It did matter.  Feelings matter.  Their feelings matter.  Your feelings matter.  My feelings matter.  And I can't fast-forward to the victory without acknowledging that it mattered.  When you care, it matters.  When you feel for someone else's experience, it matters.

So this is what I say.  It mattered.  I'm gonna let it rest there for a moment.  I'm not going to rush to the conjunction: the but, the yet, the still, the and.  I will feel all the discomfort that comes when something mattered.  I will allow myself to feel it.  I will allow myself to grieve the loss of that moment.  That moment the ladies didn't get to have.  That moment we didn't get to have together.  I will allow myself to care.  And I believe this.  I believe that if I allow my heart to feel as it does without blaming anyone else for what happened, including myself, I will move to, "and we made it."  For on the we made it side was seeing the ladies in their pretty dresses and their special hairdo's, sitting together, laughing together.  On the we made it side was seeing how impacted they were as the dancers twirled in their white dresses and gold flags.  On the we made it side was the look of surprise and delight as the ladies opened their gift bags, read their personal handwritten notes and smelled the fragrance of their shower gels, bath tea bags and salts. 

Understand, this blog isn't because I was treated like it didn't matter. Quite the contrary, when I entered the camp, the concern on my sister camp leader's face as I walked in late with my bags was heartfelt. She didn't have to say a word. When my friend, my neighbor, walked up in her yellow and hugged me and said "I was praying for you," I felt her sister heart. When I called the organizer to tell her of all that was going on, she was caring and affirming. So, it was one of those things that happened.

The lesson in this?  When people express discomfort or hurt feelings over something.  First and foremost, respond in a way that acknowledges that their experience, what they are saying matters. Let it rest right there.  Let them feel the healing of those words.  Let them feel the validation of their feelings, the validation of their experience.  Let it rest.  Don't try to move them too quickly.  For to do it puts them on the defensive.  They start arguing against what you are saying.  Let there be a pause.  A respectful pause.  A hug.  A rub on the shoulder.  A listening ear.  Do this before you shift them to the but, the still, the yet or the and.  They'll be more receptive to it. 

It mattered...and we made it.