Your Brain May Explode! TED May Be Coming To Your Area! Introducing TEDx

I have long been a fan of TED. If you are looking for a wonderful and enlightening experience you must check out their website and give a listen to the speakers.

TED is a conference that brings together minds in technology, design and entertainment. Of course the TED talks video site is a frequent for me.

I can’t imagine attending a TED conference held in Long Beach . With conference memberships costing $6,000. a year and selling out a year in advance, I doubt I will ever have that experience. 50 speakers speaking at 18 minute slots. TED is interdisciplinary the web site says it is a four day “brain spa.”

“At some point in the next 4 days your brain may explode, by then you won’t even care,” states curator Chris Anderson.

Below is a short preview of the introduction to TED

Now TEDx is coming to Houston 6/12/2010. And that is not all, apparently TEDx is spreading. There may be one coming to your area.

And according to the TEDx guidelines it may be free or very low cost.

If you can’t get excited about TED Coming to your area then think what will soon be available online as the TED lectures are made available. Inconceivable! I think I feel my brain swelling already!

The Art of Business and The Business of Art- Video Number 1- The Beginning

They are ready! Or at least number one in the video series is ready.

Video Number 1- The Beginning

In video number one Bridgette Mongeon talks about the process of
* Having a plan and knowing where you want to go.
* Setting goals
* The importance of the brain, imagination and day dreaming in achieving your goals.
* Stopping negative self-talk

The Art of Business and the Business of Art is a step-by-step, month-by month workshop series consisting of short videos and expanded workbooks. Sometimes when you are embarking on new adventures it helps to have someone to guide you and hold your hand. That is how these workshops are designed.

They are created by sculptor, writer, speaker and entrepreneur Bridgette Mongeon, and are compiled from her many workshops on business and creativity. It was her desire to make her workshops easily accessible and doable.

The series is presented as a month to month workshop. To participate begin with video one and proceed with the steps. The artist sets out a step-by-step, month-to-month procedure for success.

* Individuals wanting to start a business
* Individuals working in the arts that want to make a living with their art
* Individuals who are in businesses, but need to stretch their creative muscle
* Individuals working in a Christian business or ministry

THE VIDEOS
Each video is a portion of the artist’s weekend workshop presented to art organizations and small businesses. The videos are free and will be posted on the internet. For a list of videos see the Ms. Mongeon’s fine art website You are welcome to copy the videos and post them on your web site or blog.

THE WORKBOOKS
The workbooks expand greatly on the topics discussed in each video, and offer further reading and resources for the participants. They can be purchased from the artist by following the links below. NOT AVAILABLE

THE FORUM
Need help with the workbook or workshop? Want to meet others who are going through the series? Join the free workshops and receive a link to an online group.

I have been trying to learn about twitter and twirl.

Yes, everyone I know is twittering. Can I really use twitter to inform and gain work? We will see. I have vowed to try and be more serious about twitter and perhaps now that I have Twirl a program for my computer that allows me to post instead of going to twitter, I might be more apt to at least twitter once a day. But, I have to make more work in my life and opened up a second twitter account for the God’s Word Collectible gifts.

Free videos on marketing, business and public relations

With the help of my wonderful apprentice Caroline and my intern Hannah, we will be putting together a series of free videos on marketing. We are committing to one a month with the first coming out in March. These are from the workshops that I have presented over the years.

I know, why give them away? Well I’m pretty excited about creating video and I am also one of those people who loves to help others. Who knows, maybe more bookings for speaking engagements will come from putting them out there. Either way, people will be encouraged and inspired and that seems to be something that really turns me on!

What will they contain? Who are they for?

My workshops have always been geared toward small businesses, and those who want to “make a living while living a dream”— artist’s, writers, musicians. I write business articles for several magazines and am absolutely hooked on marketing and Public Relations.

It will be step by step videos. Watch the March video and follow the steps, then move on to the April video and follow those steps. I’m also going to open up the forum on this website to answer questions and help individuals through their difficulties or uncertainties when it comes to each monthly video. Stay tuned.

I’ll Be On The Radio- An Interview About My new Book “Kisses From Heaven”

Book two is titled “Kisses from Heaven”

There are special cherished moments after the death of a loved one. Some call them coincidences, others a message from beyond. In this case, we are calling them Kisses from Heaven. They are simple things that happen that remind us of our deceased loved one. Some seem so bizarre we are not sure how they could happen. They may be snuggling in a dream, or perhaps having a symbol of a loved one continue to appear over and over, smelling the perfume of a deceased mother or cigar of a father who passed away. These moments, however strange, comfort us. It is my personal opinion that God gives these moments to the bereaved as a way to say, “I know your pain, and I’m still here.” As a sculptor who specializes in sculpting the deceased for individuals homes, prayer gardens, and cemeteries, I have heard of these incidents over and over again. It is the desire of my heart and my co-author Zanna Mangini’s to collect these unusual stories into a book. We would love for you to be a part. Please send us stories about your Kisses from Heaven.

Here is a link to the writers guidelines should you know of anyone that would like to submit.

On Friday at www.psychiconair.com Zanna and I will be talking about the book. I will also be talking about book three. 10 a.m. eastern time.
Book three is titled “Bringing to Life the Spirit of the Deceased a Sculptors- Journey” It is about 4 posthumous commissions and the interactions with both my clients and subject. More can be found at the link

I am still seeking publishers for Bringing to Life… and Kisses From Heaven.

Great Resource! Help A Reporter Out!

I have to tell you about this great resource. I’m about to release a video on it, but thought I would share a bit of the script here.

It is called HARO.
HARO? HARO? What the heck is a HARO?

It is simple it is an acronym for Help a Reporter Out. It is another great resource and definitely something to check out.

Peter Shankman, CEO, Entrepreneur, adventurist and cat lover started this simple Face Book page to help out some of his reporter and friends that were looking for sources. Instead of having to cull through his list of names he developed the Face Book page, and well it grew so quickly he moved it to http://www.helpareporter.com.

If you are writer working on a story, or have a podcast and are needing guests maybe you just have an online blog and want to get some real meat into your blogging. Then fill out the form on helpareporter.com.

Or maybe you are a PR firm that has many different clients that you represent. Then you can request to be added to the HARO mailing list and three times a day you will get requests for sources. All you need to do is find some that fit your clients.

Now I’m not a huge PR firm, I’m just a sculptor and writer work on my own public relations for my fine art sculpting, gift line, and speaking engagements that I do on marketing in the arts, and oh yes, I write articles. So I signed up. As of this date I have worked on both ends. I have given interviews on being a caregiver for an elderly parent, a female sculptor and entrepreneur, fostering animals in my home, being a women techy and of course art.

Three times a day I cull through the listings to see if anything fits, I want my reply to be on target. Can I really help this journalist? I need to be very careful. It is just good PR form not to send my stuff to everyone. And we all want to be very careful not to abuse this wonderful resource.

A few weeks ago I used HARO on the reverse end. I had a quick deadline on and article that I was writing and was looking for resources on a subject that I thought no one would be able to help me with. Writing an article about the Orphans work act. I went to the site and filled out the form and a very short time later I was inundated with sources, all in time for my next day deadline. Be prepared to file those resources. I’ll tell you they come fast. It made my job so much easier as a writer.

How much does all of this cost? FREE! Peter Shankman says that it is worth it for him to take time out of his day to put the list together, after all he gets a great deal of publicity out of it. Now if you want to donate remember he is an animal lover he has no problem with you sending a few bucks to such places as Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, or the National Dog Foundation. What a guy GO SHANKMAN! And thanks for HARO.

Pass the word and let others know about the resources. Having the list grow can only help both writer and source!

It Pays To Pay Someone Who Knows What They Are Doing

I am excited because I have hired a professional to help with some areas of my website that I just could not figure out, and they did it!  There is a bit more they will do and you will soon see this blog with a header and the colors of my https://creativesculpture.com website! 

For those of you interested in what this absolutely cleaver person did…
My gift collectibles site, God’s Word Collectibles, is a merchants site, which basically means it is a shopping cart.  They do not provide a blog, and I was told I could not put a blog on the site because it would compromise security. I needed a blog because I will soon be putting up a podcast and I wanted a blog to go along with the podcast.  ( the podcast is sponsored by the God’s Word Collectible site. Here is the cool thing- we made a blogger blog look like my merchants site.  If you want to see this fancy trick just go to http://www.godsword.net and then click on the link that says blog and podcast.  They look alike.  I’m thrilled. 
Can’t wait to see this blog change its appearance!  This is magic!