Friday Dispatch: A Full Circle Moment
Five things + the eCourse (you didn't know) you helped build ✍️🎉
“I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”
~ Brené Brown
Friday Greetings,
First off, five things from the week:
We had some new friends over for dinner & a game! They brought a bag of choices for us to consider along with the ones we have here at home. After we ate, we ended up choosing Catan. I was intimidated at first by the rules and didn’t know if I’d catch on, but before long, the four of us were deep in it and it was really fun!
Rose DePaolo offered a pay-what-you-can, one- or two-card Tarot reading in honor of her birthday week. On a whim, I decided to sign up. A few days later, I got her email with a card and a short audio attachment. She had pulled the Six of Pentacles. She asked some really insightful questions about generosity, giving, and receiving, and I smiled at the synchronicity of timing since I happened to be on my way to a massage as I listened. But this is what really stayed with me: What are you begging for that you already have? I mean, wow. What a great question.
I have had monstrous PMS the past few days. For the most part, I’ve been able to observe it rather than getting mired inside of it, and it’s been interesting to experience the choice part of this amidst roiling feels of ungrounded anger or irritability. Taking myself out for a run or a walk, burying myself in a novel, being quieter than usual, and making a conscious effort to express appreciation (and using my words if I just need to cocoon up) have all been helpful. Also: Power naps on the sunporch glider. Just about every day this week after lunch, I have curled up under a blanket for 20-30 minutes in between clients or groups and fallen into a deep sleep. I find that this really helps restore and revive me midday.
Speaking of books: Aviva recently devoured a novel called In Memoriam by Alice Winn. I was in need of an immersive reading experience (aka a really good book), so I picked this one up from the library. To say it does not disappoint is an understatement. It’s achingly beautiful.
Mani has been making smoothies for us every morning. Yum.
The other thing I want to tell you about today is that I’m in the final stages of developing my first-ever eCourse. It’s called Getting Words on the Page and it’s coming soon… to you! You may not realize this, but you built this, too.
Let me go back.
I wrote my first 10 prompts – which are included in the course – and led my first writing group in December 2014. But it was the summer of 2015 that I took the leap into making Fierce Encouragement for Writing + Life a full-time gig.
For eight years, I’ve been making shit up as I go, coaching all kinds of writers from all kinds of places, creating and facilitating groups, leading retreats, and sharing the ebbs and flows of my own creative process (which, for the record, is very ebby and flowy).
From one perspective, I’ve mostly done all of this on my own. In other words, it’s just me here, hi! I don’t have a team. I don’t have an admin person or a money person or a marketing person or a website person or even a virtual assistant.
But widen the lens, and there is a bigger truth. And it’s really, really important.
And that is this:
I’ve done all of this with you.
Every single person who has chosen to write with me, work with me, entrust me with their shitty first drafts and book babies and fledgling ideas and stuck places and audacious dreams first-ever poems and creative fears and courageous choices and new beginnings and long slogs – every single one of you is (on) my team.
We are the team.
Creating this course, which is designed to help new and experienced writers alike start, enliven, and sustain a writing practice, feels like a really beautiful full-circle moment to me – as well as a new beginning of sorts, the kind that emerges from, and in some ways synthesizes, so much of what has come before.
The course folds in so many of the practices and philosophies about writing + life that have guided my work with people for almost a decade now. My hope is that this will offer a way for lots more people to access these tools – and the encouragement itself we all need to give ourselves and each other – at any time.
A handful of wonderful humans around the globe are currently doing a beta round of the eCourse. As feedback rolls in, I find myself feeling more and more excited about it, and more and more sure it’s the right next thing. (Well, one of the next things ;)
I’m also getting actual marketing help – also a first – around launching GWOTP. During a meeting yesterday, the person who’s guiding me through this process said at one point, “Wow, you’re really good at this marketing stuff!” We were brainstorming and I was throwing out ideas for fun and new ways to get the word out.
As you probably know, I’ve largely eschewed conventional approaches to marketing in favor of a much more intuitive – and for me, authentic – approach to building community, connecting with folks, and building my business.
I’m now seeing that I’m at a point where creating “a launch strategy” and my more organic process can merge. This is a reflection not just of my own confidence, but of the relationships WE have created over time.
“I really enjoyed the tangible, easily-accessible, impactful strategies in this course. Knowing you for as long as I have, I've seen bits and pieces of so much of what you presented in this course, so seeing it all fleshed out fully was ridiculously cool – and helpful! Every writing book on Earth instructs us to sit down and write, but this course offers practical structure for how to make doing so compelling and intentional.”
~ Adam Ortiz
Adam has participated in my online writing groups, worked with me privately, self-published a beautiful book of poetry, and witnessed the entire evolution of my work over the past eight years. Hearing this from him was so affirming and moving.
Where is all of this thinking-out-loud leading?
Writing + life can both be lonely work. Let’s keep going – together.
Shabbat Shalom and love,
Jena
p.s. Keep an eye out over the next few weeks, as ’ll be sending out an unusual flurry of emails about Getting Words on the Page. I can’t wait to share it with you.
p.p.s. Don’t forget – I’m offering pay-from-the-heart coaching sessions through June! To sign up, just grab a time that works well for you and send any amount via Venmo (@JenaSchwartz) or using this link.