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If you’d told me in 2007 that my art would both inspire people and be a big boost to  my business, I would have thought you were smoking crack!  “Art? Me? Puh-lese. I ain’t no artist, and who needs or has time for art when you’re on the corporate /  entrepreneur tracks?”

My art was a talent that came out of nowhere in 2008 as I began to nurture PebbleStorm  and my own Unique Genius.  No one’s as surprised as I am about this.  (You can see a decent collection here: “Art of PebbleStorm  CEOFlow / Fall 09“.)

It still doesn’t feel comfortable for me to say I’m an artist, even though I am…only  because I never – as long as I can remember – thought of myself as one. Engineer,  business  person, entrepreneur, athlete…sure.

But “artist”?  Yep, though I’m still getting used to the idea.

So now I wonder whenever I meet people…

What talents are in you waiting to come out that would inspire yourself and others?  What stories do you tell yourself about what you can or can’t do that aren’t true?

I also wonder what other talents will come out of me in the future that I don’t even know about yet.

I guarantee this – if you let yourself dream BIG – your ideal work, your dream business – it would involve you playing with and sharing a lot more of yourself and your talents that you do today (both known or yet-undiscovered superpowers).

pebblestorm-treasure-map-sketch-small

Mash Your Passions

Bringing those talents into your work is essential to find the money, enjoyment and meaning you crave. You will love your work more and it will make you more unique and interesting to customers.

So what passions or talents or interests do you have that you think wouldn’t be relevant to business?

Here’s a simple example: my great friend Yanitz Rubin had forgotten about his passion for entertainment and comedy until PebbleStorm. Now he’s creating an event called “Improv for Entrepreneurs” to help people unlock their creativity and ideas. His goal isn’t to design a billion-dollar business from day 1 – his goals are to create a FUN way (for him and others) to attract the perfect audience for his coaching and other businesses.  Yanitz will ultimately make tons of money at this while having tons of fun!  I’d be jealous, but I will get to go to his events 🙂

Try playing with ideas on mashing them up with your work – either your current work or a new business idea that lets you play with and envision work however you want.  This is a first step towards the freedom you want.

Listen To Yourself

What activities does your subconscious keeps bugging you to pursue that you don’t have time for or that you think aren’t for you?

(Shhh – don’t tell anyone and I promise nothing, but I’ve taken a few singing lessons recently. It’s an idea that has bugged me for months, even though I’ve NEVER thought I could sing.  I still can’t, but I’m not afraid to try it.  I even have some ideas on how to bring this into PebbleStorm that don’t include Karaoke.)

You can have fun with work, and part of that includes mixing your passions into it in ways that make it more fun for you and more interesting and fun for customers!

I hope this note gave you some food for thought. Even if you shift just one degree in course, you’ll end up in a better place in the future.

Enjoy!
Aaron Ross

Related blog posts:

The Sun Sketch and Unique Genius:
“What is your Unique Genius?”

The Treasure Map Sketch inspired its own event:
“Reinventing work with a PebbleStorm Treasure Map Hike”

Mashing your passions:
“Mash your passions!  How could you combine yoga and poetry and…?”

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Get the Unique Genius Worksheet (Playsheet!) for free by subscribing to PebbleStorm via email:
http://www.PebbleStorm.com/updates

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If you resonate with what I’ve been sharing here on PebbleStorm (www.PebbleStorm.com/about) and how I live my own life, you are meant for more – to play a bigger game in life, to have more fun and success in work, to make more money and to make a huge impact in the world (mine: I’m helping 100 million people make money through enjoyment).

Do you feeling a yearning to experience more purpose and fulfillment while making more money? Do you feel a nagging sense that you’re NOT really making the kind of contribution and positive impact in the world that is possible?

  • Perhaps you’re one of those accomplished people who doesn’t want to do only what you’ve been doing, yet you aren’t sure what you want to do next, what bigger mission is in store for you (there is one!)
  • Or even if you’ve tapped into your purpose, your Unique Genius, you still think you can’t both make a lot of money from it AND have fun and freedom in work and life at the same time (wrong!)
  • You find yourself depleted, stressed and overwhelmed by the demands of your work and the uncertainty of where you’re going (this is not the way you are meant to live.)
  • You have core values (integrity, spirituality, meaning, enjoyment, fun, giving back…) that you struggle to integrate into your work (you can.)
  • You still think that you can either do what you love and what helps others, OR make money – that combining the two is only for special people who lucked out (wrong!)

Perhaps the most frustrating is the sense that you’re just missing something – which you are…but the good news is it is possible to find it.

I know how you feel. I felt that way.  I’ve been through all of this and more in the past few years while transitioning from the stable-yet-unfulfilling-and-freedom-killing corporate life at Salesforce.com to creating my dream business, PebbleStorm.

Here’s one more issue I faced, a doozy: do you also have more ideas than you know what do with, creating confusion about what to do next?  (Figuring out how to do them all while having fun while “working,” as much as I want and from where I want, is what led to my own breakthroughs and vision for PebbleStorm.)

WAKE UP and STOP PLAYING SMALL

I want to grab your shirt and shake you and yell WAKE UP!!

Do you really want to wake up some morning in a year or two or TEN from now, still doing what you’re doing and making what you’re making?

  • YOU are the only thing getting in your own way.
  • Not a lack of money, time, education, contacts, whatever – those are all just excuses.
  • Your vision board isn’t going to magically make it happen either.
  • You can have it all f you stop playing small and stop compromising on what you want and accept in life and work.

While not everyone is meant for big things...YOU ARE if you’re reading this and you feel it, if it resonates.

Examples Of The Power I’ve Found Through Play & Purpose

The name PebbleStorm came from my intention to create an environment of work in which I, and others, can make big impacts with small amounts of effort (“small pebble, big wave”).  Play and Purpose have been the keys to discovering my Power:

  • I created two profitable passive-income businesses (www.DataSalad.com and www.ColdCalling2.com)…in four hours each (well, ColdCalling2.com took 4:15). And I spent less than $100 to do it, each. They’ve generated more than $25,000 in passive income in the past twelve months – including $6,000 in July.
  • I created and developed PebbleStorm into a $10,000-per-month attraction-based coaching, speaking and seminars business – going to $20,000 and then $50,000 per month next year – while spending less than 4 hours per week to found and launch it. (Now that it’s past the baby stage and is growing up, I can productively spend more fun time on it). And with no “selling”!
  • I’ve spent less than $100 out-of-pocket to create and launch PebbleStorm – yes, I know it’s time to redo the website 🙂
  • Without me asking, a top internet marketing guru offered to help me launch PebbleStorm, resulting in a first webinar of 1300 registrants and a sold-out first group mastermind program (a follow up one is coming in early 2010).
  • I wrote a soon-to-be-published book (“CEOFlow: Turn Your Employees Into Mini-CEOs“) in one weekend – Nov 22-23, 2009 – yes TWO DAYS.
  • I am designing a first-ever “PebbleStorm Immersion: Uncover, Build & Launch Your Business In 3 Days”. This will be an intimate event in January for my private coaching clients.  Even better – 1/3 of the time will be for playing, getting to know each other and building ongoing relationships!
  • Over the past three years, while doing all this, I’ve lived and traveled overseas for four months in places like Bali, Argentina, China, Japan, Brazil, India, Nepal and Bhutan.

And that is just in the first year of PebbleStorm – 2010 will be crazy!

Most of these topics will be the subjects of their own blog posts in the coming months.

Until then, come to the event and learn how it works

A New Kind Of Event With Nancy Dunn

play-purpose-power-sketchFor a couple of years, people would ask me “PebbleStorm sounds great, but what do I do? How can you help?”  This year, 2009, I’ve begun creating more ways to help people: Unique Genius Playshops, a six-month Mastermind program (a new one will begin early next year), private coaching, etc.

Now I’m doing something brand new with another PebbleStormy (yes, that is a word) entrepreneur, Nancy Dunn.

Nancy is the founder of TimePlayPowerAndPeace.com.  She’s an ex-Sony/MGM/Fox senior marketing executive who managed more than $1 billion in spend. She left that world to have a family and to discover her true purpose: to help women in leadership live a life of more time, more play, more power and more peace.  Oftentimes women in leadership have to play the corporate game to succeed, and in the process lose parts of themselves. Nancy’s truly mastered how to combine the power and action required to succeed in the business world with her feminine side and the conscious design of what she wants from life.

(Here’s how Nancy describes me: “My friend Aaron Ross, founder of PebbleStorm.com, ex-Silicon Valley CEO, adventure-seeker, and general awesome guy just found a way to combine all his various passions and crazy ideas into a single, meaningful business that he loves, that helps people, and that makes money.  Now he helps other people do this too.”)  Hey, thanks Nancy 🙂

We wanted to have fun doing something together that would help the kinds of people that resonate with what we do – professionals like you who have been successful at something, yet now are looking for more meaning, enjoyment and money in work. People who want to integrate their values and spirituality and life with their work, rather than having their work and life be disconncted.

So Nancy & I put our heads together to CREATE A REALLY FUN AND POWERFUL LIVE EVENT that will:

  • Inspire you to step into the life, contribution and impact you know you came here to make.
  • Teach you secrets and practical tools from two master teachers and successful ex-corporate executives, each of whom left their corner offices behind to find their true, authentic, dynamic calling – and are having the time of their lives doing it!
  • Introduce you to a cool, community of like-minded people that will become playmates, workmates, clients and partners!  (The whole point of PebbleStorm is to expand our trusting community of people that has fun helping each other succeed.)

We are hosting a unique event called:

“PLAY, PURPOSE AND POWER: CHARTING YOUR COURSE FOR 2010 AND BEYOND”

* We’ll Play – Because it’ll be fun and it will open up your creativity and give you more access to what will make you happier and more successful!
* We’ll show you ways to tap into finding your Purpose – What are you meant to do?  What is your Unique Genius?
* We’ll reveal 3 ways to shift into exponentially greater levels of Power – How can you make a bigger difference and make more money?

You will also connect and build support for your goals and actions within a community of like-minded conscious leaders, high-level executives, and purpose-driven entrepreneurs who are authentically committed to helping each other succeed.

Whether you’re ready to take the leap into a career that has deeper meaning and fulfillment, OR primed to step up into greater levels of impact, purpose, and contribution doing what you’re already doing, you won’t want to miss this AWESOME event.

You will also connect and build support for your goals and actions within a community of like-minded leaders, high-level executives, and purpose-driven entrepreneurs who are authentically committed to helping each other succeed.

Come PLAY with us and design 2010 into the life of your dreams!

How To RSVP

Click here for the details and how to RSVP

So You Live Outside LA…Want Us To Host This Kind Of Event In Your City?

Leave a comment, you never know what you’ll get if you ask for it!  Especially if you live someplace fun or exotic 🙂  We’re always looking for excuses to travel and build the PebbleStorm community.