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Introduction

I’m excited to put this information up, and so I’m doing it before it’s fully baked!  This is something that will keep evolving over the coming months.  But I just couldn’t wait to share 🙂   Also, if you’re a fan (or skeptic) of meditation, check out the last part of this post.

First version of the Stages

One of the PebbleStorm puzzle pieces (say that three times fast!) I’ve been noodling on is the stages of the journey.  I want to give people a map of where they are and what comes next, and to be able to organize content and meet-ups (such as in Los Angeles or San Francisco) by stage.

Although the names, details and pictures of the stages will likely evolve, I feel like I’ve captured the right fundamentals here.  I will go into each stage in more depth here on the blog in the future.

The Stages

  1. Reflect – What is my unique genius?  What do I enjoy doing?  What makes me happy?  What is my dream business / 5th Option?  Choose the working life you want to create.
  2. Play – How can I have fun playing with the ways I can express my unique genius and mash my passions?  How do my ideas, plans and “voice” evolve as I keep playing with writing or speaking or sketching or video or photos or …?  What if I tried [this], or [that], or [the other]?  How do these morph into business ideas?
  3. Attract – Who is drawn to me?  (Audiences, subscribers, clients, fans…)  What kind of person/persona connects with what I am sharing?  Who is most active in telling others about my work?
  4. Package – What kinds of services, products, programs or subscriptions does my audience want to buy?
  5. Receive – How can I set up my “layers of the onion” and magnets to make it easy for customers to get to know me and buy?  How can I avoid any pushy selling yet steadily grow my income?  (Sneak peak at a future post around Receiving Sales Never Selling.)

The hinge, the fulcrum, the foundation of everything is of course…Enjoyment.  What brings me the most enjoyment?  (Both the process and the outcome, as illustrated in the Enjoyment Map).  How can I do more of what I enjoy, and less of what I don’t, while making my business even more successful?

And with a bigger picture (click to expand)


Goody #1: Where the Five Stages came from: Saturation + Meditation

I started meditating in September of 2007, and have been steadily improving at it. It took about six months to become pretty regular.  I’ll write more about it around a future topic of ‘healthy hyperproductivity.’  I’m finding that one of the benefits of meditation is problem solving – I can give my subconscious a kick in the pants to cough up the answers I keep looking for!

I’ve been trying to figure out these stages for a couple of months now, playing with different versions – none of which I felt were right.  I decided I’d given my left and conscious brains enough of a crack at it, and that after saturating them with ideas and drafts, it was time to shift gears and let things crystallize on their own.  Once I posed the question, and after 5-10 minutes of meditation, the basic sketches and stages started downloading, over about 10 minutes.

Goody #2: Foreshadowing

“Receiving Sales”, “Layers of the Onion”, “Healthy Hyperproductivity” are a few key ideas I’ve mentioned here that I’m excited to write more about at some point 😀   If you’re impatient, you can find them on www.pebblestorm.pbwiki.com.

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4 Responses to “The Five Stages of PebbleStorm – an introduction (and other goodies)”

  1. Christine Kane Says:

    This is so beautiful! I sat and just stared at your beautiful diagram for quite some time!

  2. Laura Says:

    This is so helpful – thank you for sharing it with me! I can’t wait to get started on my own diagram!!

  3. Wow! Last night’s PebbleStorm Open House | Pebblestorm Says:

    […] second ’stage’ of PebbleStorm is “Play”, and Los Angeles is my playground for PebbleStorm itself – events and all. […]

  4. Marble Says:

    Praise this site for your helping hand…

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