Here’s mine on See Jane Do’s blog.

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Interview: Colleen Wainwright, Communicatrix

by Shawn Tuttle

I greatly admire the fluidity with which my interview subject Colleen Wainwright’s voice shines through her writing. Even though I’ve been writing for my own blog and newsletters for several years now, I still feel like I am discovering my style. (And for the long time reader who witnessed ProjectSimplify.com’s most recent visual make-over, my working with Colleen planted the seed that blossomed into this current design, which I love.)

Colleen Wainwright

Colleen Wainwright is a writer-designer-consultant who started calling herself “the communicatrix” when she hit three hyphens. She’s a prolific writer who keeps up a couple blogs, a monthly column about marketing for actors, book reviews, and a monthly newsletter. With wit, much cleverness, and beaucoup creativity, she helps creatives get their message out to the world while staying in line with their “fabulosity”.

Unlike interviews we’ve published in the past, this one is on a very specific subject: establishing a writing practice. However, Colleen’s accessible approach has lessons and encouragement that can be applied to any neglected long-term goal.

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ST: Most people understand that writing (or any skill/art) requires daily practice, not only for mastery, but even to just get in a comfortable place with it. It’s easier when you do it frequently, you express more of yourself, etc.

However, considering how busy we are and how many demands on our time there are, taking time to write daily can be quite a challenge. Doing something that you have to “make time for” is more difficult in the long term than developing a habit (say, in the form of a standing appointment every morning) that requires minimal effort to fit into your schedule because it has become a “given” in your day.

Communicatrix: Well, I’ll have to start off by agreeing to disagree.

Having gone from making no time in my schedule to making regular time, I think that establishing a regular writing time is almost exactly like establishing a flossing habit or an exercise habit: it starts with a mindset (I want this! I’m gonna do it!) and then it’s a try/stumble/fail/move forward kind of success.

A huge hurdle is this idea that we need hours and hours. That’s just not true. It’s enormously helpful, and it’s a luxury I’m able to give myself, but you can start with fifteen minutes a day of you, in the chair, dumping stuff onto paper or a screen.

As you make it a habit, it should become easier to increase the time, both b/c you’re in the habit and b/c those around you will start taking your stated intention more seriously.

ST: How did you get in the habit of writing daily (or as much as you do)?

Communicatrix: For a long time, I did not write daily. I wrote in huge sweeps of time when I could grab them, and I wrote most every day, but it was still kind of erratic.

I finally put “10am – 12pm” in the calendar for writing as a recurring event, Monday through Friday. For the most part, I stick with it, although yeah, stuff still comes up and I’m weak, so I’ll deal with it in that so-called sacred time.

The blog (communicatrix.com) was the single biggest factor in getting me to write regularly. Something about the ease of it, the public accountability and the “not-real”-ness of it worked for me. Before blogs, I’d take stabs at writing stuff in Word or a text document, but the results were turgid and ponderous: that was “real” writing. So eff that. Find whatever makes it easy, then work your way into real. Note: the “real” comes when you’re not expecting it, in my experience.

ST: How much time do you spend writing daily?

Communicatrix: I write for at least two hours five days per week. I’ll usually take Friday off, since I do a lot of writing for the marketing blogs on Sunday (I’ve committed to a weekly roundup on my day-to-day experience with marketing in 2009) and I like to have something very fresh for Monday on communicatrix, to kick off the week in style.

In addition to that, I probably spend another hour and change per day writing substantial emails and other marketing-type stuff.

ST: Any other thoughts about establishing a writing practice?

Communicatrix: Be nice to yourself, but be firm. Also, this is a long game. It’s taken me years to develop good habits and something I wouldn’t be totally ashamed to call a body of work.

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ST’s final thought: I love her last answer. Boiling down those three sentence, I get a sweet motto for developing a new habit: Be nice to yourself, have patience and keep persevering!

You can check out Colleen’s fresh, and often spicy blogs online:

communicatrix.com http://communicatrix.com

The Virgo Guide to Marketing http://virgoguidetomarketing.com

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Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.

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Interview: Hilary Anderson – Working from the Heart

By Shawn Tuttle

Four and a half years ago I moved to Nevada County, and half a year after that I launched Project Simplify. One of my first clients was Hilary Anderson, a kind and gracious woman who helped me develop the more creative side of my organizing business. She was always ready to understand the more esoteric side of our work—an aspect I don’t talk about with all my clients. She is a wonderful example of one who allows her work to unfold intuitively and easily.

We began our conversation talking about how attitude affects her work with clients, and this became the theme of our interview.
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ST: Will you share a little bit about what your work is?

Hilary Anderson: Yes. The easy answer is that it’s like a gentle acupressure, the name of that is Jin Shin Jyutsu®. The name is not important because it’s simply holding space for that person. The core of Jin Shin Jyutsu is self-help, how can we help ourselves. People would come for an hour session and I would do hands-on gentle acupressure. And then toward the end offer some suggestions of things they could do on their own.

Over the last few years, I felt like I really wanted people to be getting the self-help part. I wanted to be less important to them. I wanted them to be fine on their own, rather than coming for what they thought I would do for them. Because all I was doing was simply creating a space for them to do their balancing.

When I became a grammy, I just wasn’t in town as much, and I didn’t want to be. I just wanted to be down there with the baby. So I opened to the universe that I’d like to share my office, which was very unusual for me. That day, the morning I woke up with that intention, there was a message waiting, “Say, I know you don’t like to share your office but I’m needing an office a few days a week.”  That’s the way I am so blessed!

It was a natural progression. Back to the attitude, my excitement that had always been there with one-on-one work with clients, shifted gradually over the last few years, and then vwoop! This brand new thing came in, a new grandbaby. I thought, I still love Jin Shin Jyutsu, especially the self-help, so why don’t I just make that be it, and see where it goes?

ST: I work with a lot of people who have ADD or ADHD. I see them express excitement for a lot of different things and if they followed them all, they’d be totally scattered. Do you have a sense of what the difference is between the excitement that guides you wisely, and the kind that is more right-now-in-the-moment?

Anderson: That is such an important way to differentiate. I can get excited on a ride at Disneyland. It would be passion that I’m probably speaking about now. It brings me present. So it’s that type of excitement when I feel lighter, a higher resonance, I feel joy.

ST: I appreciate how you take clues from that excitement, as well as seeing outward signs, and allow things to click into place.

Anderson: You know your Project Simplify, “let it be easy”?

It’s the ease that I feel, that I’ve learned over the years. If it feels easy, there’s an “ahhhh” to it and things will fall into place. If it’s something I have excitement about but when I sit with it quietly, it feels like work, or hard work, that’s a clue to me. And that’s a personal way for me, I don’t think that everyone necessarily functions that same way. If I push through it anyway, thinking, “I’m just going to do it,” then I won’t see the synchronicities falling into place, so that’ll be another clue. Hopefully I’ll listen then, but if I don’t, then it’ll really be hard work—then I will listen generally.

ST: One thing I’d like to come back to is how you’ve made space in your life to allow yourself to listen at that level. A lot of people are so busy and have so much going on. I hear people ask, and I’ve asked myself, “How do I know which is my intuitive voice? How do I know if my head is playing tricks on me?“ How have you cultivated the space in order to hear that voice and trust that intuition?

Anderson: There are two parts to that. The first is quick and easy. If I ask the question, “How do I know if it’s my head or my heart?” then that’s my clue to stop asking the question, that I am in my head.

So then how did I cultivate in my life…I remember when I was in my early twenties and I was first learning about quieting myself and meditation and contemplation. The word “peace” would come up a lot in my readings and with my teachers. There was a moment when I thought, “What is peace? I don’t know what that is.” Something shifted in me and I knew that was what I wanted to open myself to—peace. And it has been a lifelong, many path journey that has brought in Tai Chi, yoga, Jin Shin Jyutsu. All different but the same ways of my experiencing deeper and deeper peace.

One of the practices that has stayed is that I know that I am helped or guided when I sleep.  So I’ll frequently set an intention or ask a question when I’m falling off to sleep at night because I know first thing in the morning is where the answer comes. How do I know if it’s my head or my heart? In the morning when I sit five or 15 minutes, in that quiet place…I know.
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Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.

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Interview: Nancy Shanteau – Following Life’s Signs
By Shawn Tuttle

Nancy Shanteau and I met at the Wild Mountain Yoga Studio several years ago. She is quick to smile and has an infectious laugh. Upon learning that she was a writing coach, a yoga teacher, and a jewelry maker, I knew she was a woman who had figured out how to follow her heart. I then learned that she had a corporate background which seemed totally incongruous with her current life.

Going from big business to solopreneurship, Nancy has created a life that she absolutely loves. Understanding that following your heart can be simultaneously empowering and crazy scary, learning to read the signs in your life can make the difference between floundering and docking safely on a new shore. My intention in this interview was to explore her transition between two successful worlds.

Our full conversation was at times loose and informal; I’ve tightened it up a bit for your reading pleasure. The full version, in MP3 format, can be heard here.

Nancy Shanteau
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ST: Will you share a bit about where you came from and what you’ve been doing since you moved to Nevada County?

Nancy Shanteau: I worked for ten years in a medical biotech device company doing information technology, project management, and  business analysis and support. Lots of different hats but they mostly involved computers and the computer-people interface. Also, application development–trying to get new applications and technology available for people who didn’t necessarily really understand computers or what they could do for them. I’ve always been a translator.

I think I still do that. I translate the writing process for people. I help them understand how what they have in their head can translate onto the paper, it can translate to a readership, can translate to a process.

ST: When did you decide to go solo?

Shanteau: That decision was a little bit made for me. After about 10 years in industry, there were some big structural changes in my environment. We went from all these small applications to putting in these big enterprise applications. In order to go through the two or three year cycle everybody had to be told “no” for a while. I had a really hard time with that. People’s needs weren’t being met and I thought, “Why can’t we meet people’s needs and do the big project?” So I was running into all kinds of conflict. I went to get training on that and that’s how I ended up in a coaching environment.

I got trained at the Strozzi Institute as a Somatic Coach. I took all the courses and then thought, “I almost have a coaching certificate so I’ll just finish it.” I thought I was going to stay as manager of sales operations and keep doing what I was doing. What ended up happening instead was that I had negotiated telecommuting and part time so I could work up here, and they laid me off—right as I got my coaching certificate. It was one of those universal moments that was a little kick in the pants.

ST: Because you weren’t taking action yourself?

Shanteau: I wasn’t committing to being a coach and going solo, though I was actually doing it—during that time I had 10 clients—

ST: But you hadn’t hung the shingle out.

Shanteau: I kind of had, but I was very half-way. I was standing on the threshold with one foot in each world.  When I got laid off I had really great support. I’d started seeing a Skills for Change coach, and she helped me figure out how to become a solo operator. She helped me set up plans for both directions, if I was going to do it and if I wasn’t  and how I would know if I was being successful. I really did a lot of the homework. I didn’t just make a call of the heart and go into it blind. I ran all kinds of numbers and did business plans.

ST: Is that something that you already knew how to do?

Shanteau: I think my 10 years in industry really helped me. I knew how to do a projection and I knew how to figure out component elements and put them on a spreadsheet. That stuff didn’t feel alien to me and I know it can be alienating. [The coach] also helped me put some structure around the decision-making. I was very emotional at that time. It was really scary. I had been an employee for such a  long time and successful. There was a lot of identity tied up in that.

If I’d have known how much I was going to love it when I was young, I totally would have wanted to line myself up to do this. I didn’t have models in my family who were entrepreneurial. Not one. They didn’t know how to do it.

ST: Since you didn’t have the models, and since you learned a lot of the business sense through your job, how would you have done it differently if you had known you’d want to be an entrepreneur?

Shanteau: I didn’t know what I was going to become an entrepreneur in until I was doing the coaching certificate. I had looked at being an editor or being a freelance writer, and had decided I didn’t want to do that. It was too isolated. So until I found writing coach, I don’t think I was ready.  I don’t know if I could have done it any earlier because that alchemy needed to happen—where I was putting writing together with a social activity.

ST: Your love for your work clearly comes through in your personality, your attitude. Every time I see you you’re positive and have a great “go out there and kick butt, girl” kind of attitude.

Shanteau: Yeah, I really try to encourage everybody to do what they love.

ST: Tell me more about the transition process and the combination of following your heart  and looking at the decision-making process, the projections and those kind of nuts and bolts aspects—what is your experience of following your heart?

Shanteau: I feel like the intuition was knocking on my door much earlier than I put the pragmatic nuts and bolts in place. There were places where people were saying, “Why aren’t you making a commitment to being a coach?” and “You look like you’d be really good at this” and “It seems like people are really attracted to you”. I was reluctant in answering the call. It was really knocking on my door for a while before I stepped in and said yes.

I had a lot of evidence–I had clients in my practice already, I had a lot of support and people saying “yes” to me.  I both get regular coaching clients and writing clients. I love both—I get to wear two different kinds of hats. I love writing because we end up with a product, something original that never existed before it gets created. And I love coaching with people because people love their lives. They fall in love with themselves and what they are doing, and get a feeling of peace and centeredness in their life.
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Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.

The full audio from that interview is available here:

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Interview: Jesse Locks, Countercultural Multi-Doer

By Shawn Tuttle

While I was on the Board of the Nevada City Downtown Association, Jesse Locks and two other principals of the Nevada City Film Festival approached the organization for sponsorship. I was very impressed with Jesse—she led the presentation, which was thorough and interesting, and she had anticipated all of the questions the board might have. Unlike most of the other projects we’d sponsored, she came back after the event to give us a report on how it had gone. When our paths crossed again at Ladyfest Nevada County, which she had co-organized, it was clear—time to get to know her better!

Her professional life has revolved around freelance writing, marketing and publicity for publications such as Seattle Weekly, a skateboard, snowboard, and music magazine called Heckler, and a women’s magazine based in Chicago called Venus Zine. She was one of the founders of the bi-monthly counterculture magazine Arthur and helped launch the Grass Roots Record Company. Throw in some independent marketing work for Tylenol’s OUCH! Campaign and Toyota’s launch of Yaris, and Business Development for Nevada City Film Festival and you get a pretty good idea of how skilled this woman is! (For a full write-up of her professional adventures, click here.)

Jesse Locks
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ST: You’ve achieved impressive accomplishments in an impressive variety of settings, especially for your age–you are 28-29 years old? What do you feel the variety has set you up for?

Jesse Locks: Thanks for thinking so.  I’ve always been a doer.  I like to connect people with one another and make things happen.  I like to entertain, teach, and inspire people, be it through a written story or an event that I’ve organized.  I think being involved in several different areas or industries has opened up more possibilities for me.  My skill set doesn’t fit nicely into one box, but rather several, and because of that, I’m able to communicate with more people in a variety of industries and actually know what I’m talking about.  There is never a dull day for me.

ST: We talked a bit about needing to be resourceful, flexible, and even humble to make a living here in Nevada County. These are such required attributes for success these days, but too much can dilute one’s efforts to the point of becoming amorphous. How do you see yourself maintaining your effectiveness and your power in the midst of a shifting economy?

Locks: I’m not above anything.  Sometimes painting a house or doing yard work is much needed respite.  It’s definitely a challenge to stay organized and focused when there are so many different things on my plate.  You’d be surprised, I actually say no to a lot.  This summer I was having a hard time though and sought the help of a professional.  I meet with Nancy Shanteau who is a Skills for Change Coach every other week and she helps me keep my eye on the prize.  I also carry around a copy of the first story I wrote in third grade to remind myself that first and foremost I’m a writer, even if I’m taking my sweet time in writing the next American classic.

ST: Do you see a connection between your love of gardening/sustainability and your position as a community builder (in the sense of where they root in yourself)?

Locks: Absolutely.  As a Master Gardener, I work with Nevada County on their Compost program.  Composting is one of the easiest and most basic things we can do in helping the environment and lessening our carbon foot print, but it is the gateway to changing many of our bad habits and creating awareness.  It teaches us about how much food we actually consume versus throw away, how long it takes for that food to be grown, how precious that food is, and how amazing the people who grow that food are.  That way of thinking leads us to think less about ourselves and more about our community and our place in the community.  And seeing it first hand makes it so much easier for me to write about gardening and sustainability for magazines.

ST: Not everyone who has a great idea can bring it to fruition. How do you decide which projects you’d like to participate in? I’m thinking about the NC Film Festival, Ladyfest, the record company…

Locks: I decide to work on projects based on the team either in place or being cultivated.  With the members of the team I look for good communication, common goals, positive attitudes, creative vision, and if I’m going to learn something from the experience.  If all these seem to be in alignment, I’m usually guaranteed success and a meaningful experience.

ST: Your energy is so positive and friendly… You seem like you’d be great fun to work with. What ticks your stress button and how do you manage in those times?

Locks: Thanks, I do make a conscious effort to try to stay upbeat and surround myself with only positive people.  Negative thinking doesn’t accomplish anything except in making people miserable.  The only time I stress out about something is usually over money.  Most of the people I’ve worked with will tell you that I rarely lose my cool.  I have a lot of patience, and that comes from keeping everything in perspective, money included.  I don’t allow other people’s stress to effect me either.  I can’t, stress leads to burn out, and I have so many more things I want to do, that I have to keep myself healthy.  And in the world of freelance or contract work, feast and famine is part of it so you learn how to weather both.  I also get a lot of sleep and talk to my parents every day to alleviate stress.

ST: Any final thoughts along these lines?

Locks: I’m sure some people might read this interview and be overwhelmed, I know I am.  But when you are in the trenches working on something or some things you really love and believe in, it’s not overwhelming at all, it’s fun and exciting.
—

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.

Please share an overview of your professional life and interests.
I’ve worked in the music and publishing industries for over 10 years.  While attending UC Santa Cruz from 1997-2001, I was a freelance music writer for several national publications and also handled the publicity and marketing for the Catalyst nightclub, an 800-person venue in downtown Santa Cruz.  While there I had the privilege of meeting and writing about such great musicians as Emmylou Harris, John Hiatt, Bad Religion, NOFX, Modest Mouse and the Shins among others. 

After college and a brief stint as a booking agent for bands in LA, I went to work for a nationally distributed skateboard, snowboard, and music magazine called Heckler, in Sacramento.  It had been THE magazine my younger brother and I had grown up, using it as our textbook on riding the mountains and asphalt around us.  It was a small magazine, with people wearing several different hats, so I handled the advertising and marketing, while also writing and editing the music section of the magazine.  While at Heckler, I traveled much of the US and Canada.  We also published a book with Chronicle Books called Declaration of Independents. 

In 2003, after two years in Sacramento, I moved to Seattle, WA.  I had just joined a group of friends and launched a new bi-monthly magazine called Arthur.  Writers, illustrators, photographers, ad reps, and designers were scattered across the country, but we officially based the magazine in LA.  From my office in Seattle, I once again handled the advertising and marketing and continued to freelance to magazines such as Surfer Girl, Alternative Press, and Thrasher Skateboarding.  Arthur was named “HOT” new magazine by Rolling Stone in 2004 and again in 2006.  I guess our newness hadn’t worn off yet. 

Even with the magazine’s accolades, I still needed to fine a main source of income so I went to work at the Seattle Weekly, which at the time was owned by Village Voice, and handled their Arts and Entertainment advertising.  I think the best way to familiarize oneself with a city or town is to meet the folks who drive the arts and sub sequentially the culture of each area by either owning a bar, restaurant or live music venue, booking bands or performers, hosting independent film screenings and festivals, etc.  While there I helped organize the Seattle Weekly Music Awards and pushed for changes to the website to appeal to a younger demographic.  I thoroughly enjoyed working at the Weekly and I loved the new friends I had made, and it sounds like a cliché but the rain and grey weather definitely got to me so I moved back to my home town of Nevada City in November of 2005. 

From Nevada City, I was still able to travel and work on Arthur Magazine and a women’s magazine based in Chicago called Venus Zine.  I also consulted on some exciting independent marketing campaigns for Tylenol’s OUCH! Campaign and Toyota’s launch of Yaris, and organized two festivals for Arthur in LA where over 8,000 people attended. 

In 2006, I helped launch Grass Roots Record Company with Marc Snegg.  It was a locally based record label that represented local artists like Mariee Sioux, Lee Bob Watson, Aaron Ross and El Capitan from San Francisco.  We released five albums, a truly remarkable number for a new label, and booked two west coast tours and one east coast tour.  We received press in the Boston Globe, Spin.com, Bust, SF Weekly, SF Bay Guardian, Seattle Weekly, Parade Magazine, and many others. 

Around the same time I joined up with high school friends Jason Graham and David Nicholson, who along with Magic Theatre owner Jeff Clark had founded and run the popular Nevada City Film Festival.  I’ve been the Director of Business Development for NCFF for the last two years.  That really means, I’ve handled our PR, Marketing and Sponsorships, and threw in my two cents and using my connections to draw well known directors and folks from the independent film making world to our festival.  I adore the film festival and believe it is one the County’s most promising events, especially with how popular film festivals are with the general public, and how it helps bring together the community and the budding tech industry here. 

Currently, I still work for Arthur Magazine, freelance write and consult on marketing campaigns.  Recently I organized along with my friend Sasha Soukup, Ladyfest Nevada County, which was an all day festival of workshops and music for women to connect through.  I’m also working with Amy Terhorst at Empire Events on the California Worldfest, KVMR’s Celtic Festival and KZFR Community Radio in Chico, and Elisa Parker and Leta Gibney on their new radio program for KVMR called See Jane Do.

Interview: Gayle – Creating a Healthy Business

By Shawn Tuttle

About two years ago I was referred to Gayle for a creative perspective on a business challenge I was having. I found her to be insightful, cheerful, and calming. I had the sense that she could apply a skilled and focused eye on the issue at hand (whatever it might be) while remaining solidly connected with the spirit of the heart. It was this experience with her that totally piqued my interest in how she would develop a business in our current climate that still places disproportionate value on the $ bottom line. I’m thrilled to offer the following interview as a window into that scenario. Her story is further proof that business can be done differently. 

Gayle
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ST: Let’s start with a brief description of your business.

Gayle: We founded the company a year and a half ago. We have a new technology that Tom [Gayle’s partner] developed that is a safe, environmental way to kill toxic mold in homes, buildings, and structures. The beauty of it is: number one, it is environmentally safe. Secondly, it rides on frequency waves so it goes through walls, sub-floors, and ceilings. In your typical mold removal or remediation situations, you hear these horror stories where people have their walls blown out, their toilets ripped out…with this technology, you don’t have to do any of that. The third benefit is that people don’t have to be displaced out of their homes. The last benefit is that we are allowing people to get healthy again. We are curing their environment. By doing that, they are able to go back and live, work, or play in a safe, healthy environment.

ST: What a wonderful service.

Gayle: It is. Our goal is serving the people on the planet, and that’s really our intention. Yes, we are starting a business, and yes, it’s a for-profit business. The ultimate goal is the health, viability, and safety of the people on the planet. It’s a fun thing to be involved in.

ST: Since you are looking to grow it substantially, that means a lot of different resources and people to bring in and interact with. How have you been finding the right people to help you along the way?

Gayle: That’s the perfect question, Shawn! This is the best part of this whole experience, because the people have found us. We’ve both been in business—I’ve been in corporate America a long time—28 years, and Tom has built businesses before so we have experiences being in the typical model in the business world.

We set the intention at the very beginning, verbally and in writing, about how we wanted to build this business. This business is being built with us, and intention, and spirit. As we set that platform, we really simply stated: this is what we intend to do for the people and the environment, and this is what we intend for ourselves as abundance and prosperity goals.

We also said these are the types of people we want to work with and for. It’s about integrity, it’s about ethics, it’s about maturity, it’s about simple. So we set the intention for that. Without a great deal of effort the perfect people started showing up at the perfect time for what we needed. The first thing we needed was when Tom was working on the technology, he needed a little more scientific help. He has scientific and engineering background to a degree but doesn’t have it fully. We asked, “what are we looking for?” and these people magically began showing up and, with a huge amount of integrity, began working with Tom on the technology.

At the same time. I was starting to work on the business plan and I did the same thing.

I said, “OK, I need resources and people to support me in doing this.” I put a couple of feelers out with people I knew from my career and, same thing, perfect people, perfect timing. We started to recruit, if you will, in a different way. It was easy, effortless, and graceful.

ST: Did you have any people show up that didn’t quite fit and how did you discern between the two?

Gayle: We had two times, one on the business side and one on the technology side where we began the process with them (people who had showed up) and, we probably began it more from a human ego mind stand point, than really standing in our own intuitiveness. There were telltale signs that these were not a good fit, and without us having to actually cut the ties, they did; the other people did. It was very gracefully how it all worked. It didn’t interrupt anything in the business, it didn’t take the business in a different direction, it didn’t do any harm. It allowed us to look at ourselves and say, maybe we were also out of step with our own intention.

ST: How are you staying in your intention? Is this something that you work on daily to remind yourselves to stay in? And how is that fitting in with the larger business world?

Gayle: We don’t meet on that daily but we are pulled into it weekly. Whenever we have a meeting—whether it’s about investment or public relations or the science and technology or even our tax return—Tom and I go “OK, what happened within the framework of that meeting or that discussion? Is there something we’re feeling right, or not, about?” Then we go to our counsel, the people who have been pulled in as our advisory board and we may bounce something off of one or several of them. They are now trusted community around us. That’s how we’ve done it—independently, together, and then with the group.

This all sounds glowy, easy, and fun—and it is. And it’s really churning, difficult, intense and even chaotic at moments. Some of the challenges we’ve had, some of the interesting ones, have been around funding. Because truthfully, this business could have been brought to market around March of this year and we’re now sitting here in August because of our choice to not take the money. And that was a really good decision, but it was a tough decision. If we would have said yes to a couple of these investor situations, we’d be a different company. What we saw being put on the table looked much more like greed than we wanted to participate in. We are being asked to walk the talk of allowing and the right person or people will show up at the right time with the right investment to make this happen.

ST: So you are having a lot of trust in timing.

Gayle: Yes.

ST: One of the words that keeps coming up for me when thinking about the different aspects of creating a business framework is patience.

Gayle: Yes. In huge amounts and it’s a humbling experience, because also when you have the expertise to do this, it’s hard to not just charge down the path and get it done. Tom and I are both "get it done" kind of people, so to sit in that place of patience and allowing is a lesson for us. It’s a good one, and at the same time it’s like, “O.K.… when’s this really going to happen?!”

ST: Any final thoughts to share?

Gayle: The people are so much healthier and lighter when we are done with the treatment. So even though we are dealing with the dense, physical structure, it always comes back to the people. There’s such a humble reward watching people continue on with their lives without having things destroyed. It’s huge. There’s not much of a price tag you can put on it when you see that.
—

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.

Interview:  Patt Lind-Kyle – Author, Businesswoman, Meditator

By Shawn Tuttle

When Patt Lind-Kyle smiles, the entire room brightens. Her insightfulness combined with her curiosity creates an irresistible charm, such that you can’t help but feel brighter after talking with her. (This may explain why our interview was actually twice as long as would fit below! The entire section on her background can be read here.) For the last several years, she has offered a monthly meditation circle through Gather the Women. I’ve been in the circle for the last year and a half and have been fascinated by her understanding of what the brain is doing when meditating. She has just completed a book (which is on the way to a publisher right now) entitled Meditate the Way the Brain Works – The Mind’s Most Powerful Resource. Whether you meditate or not, this woman has a lot of enlightening thoughts to offer.

Patt Lind-Kyle

Lind-Kyle: I was living in Portland at the time. One night I got out of the truck to open the gate, and didn’t pull the emergency brake. It started moving and I jumped on, but it was too late. It crashed through the gate, went over the little precipice and was stopped by a tree. It threw me off and I landed on my bottom. Eventually I went to the hospital and I had a broken coccyx. Three days later, my kundalini rose. Kundalini is the energy in the spine; it goes through the spine, and it was quite an experience. It took six months to bounce back from that. After that experience, all I wanted to do was meditate.

ST: So the kundalini being released was a positive experience?

Lind-Kyle: Yes, It’s an energy that shoots through your spine and it changes conscious. My consciousness was changed and I had no interest in anything but meditation. I’d do the dishes and take care of things and then I’d just sit all day long.

ST: How long ago was that?

Lind-Kyle: This happened in ’94-’95. Then David said, “You really need to do something longer than just a 10-day retreat. ” He was very supportive–so I did a 3-month in ’95, then in ’96 I did another 3-month. It was like heaven.

ST: One of the things I find very interesting about our meditation group is how you tie it in with the brain. How did that connection develop?

Lind-Kyle: neuro-feedback machine. I ran across Anna Wise’s website and I found it fascinating. She said you check people to see if they are meditating. I thought, that’s revolutionary! I can check my brain to see if I’m meditating or not? So I studied with her and learned the machine and learned about the brain waves. Anna showed me that there were indicators if you shifted levels of consciousness. 

ST: What do you see as the connection between meditation and everyday life? How does it affect ones ability to do business and to function in the world?

Lind-Kyle: Meditation reduces stress. Stress affects our blood pressure and it affects our ability to think clearly. Meditation keeps us in balance. Most every illness is stress-based in some way. What meditation does is create a homeostatic balance between the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system. When you are under stress, the sympathetic nervous system gets in gear to take care of whatever the issue is that’s going on, and if you don’t meditate or otherwise get it back to the parasympathetic, it will continue producing those stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which are really toxic to the system if they are not released within about 90 minutes.

The cells have to “poop” and they should “poop” within about 90 minutes. So you should only be under a stressful situation for 90 minutes or two hours, and then go back in to rest and reset. If you meditate, you can get right out of beta, go into alpha and reset your system, and that will reduce stress–it’s a health issue.

ST: Do you have advice for those beginning meditation, like how often or for how long?

Lind-Kyle: Meditating right before you go to bed is really good. The cortisol needs to come down. If it’s high, you can’t sleep. It keeps you in beta, and when you sleep, you want to get deep, into delta. 

ST: Cortisol is one of the stress hormones?

Lind-Kyle: Yes. So that’s really good. Meditation is really good to do in the morning, too. Even if it’s just to sit up in bed for 10-15 minutes. Once you do that, some people want to go longer, which is great, but most people don’t have the time. So morning and night would be wonderful for 10-15 minutes. You’re building little muscles in your mind.

ST: It’s funny how those are the hardest muscles to flex! 

Lind-Kyle: It’s proven that meditation actually builds a level of cells in the area on the left frontal lobe related to positive thinking. You’ll find that meditators are likely to have a more positive attitude. 

ST: So Beta is our normal waking chatter-brain. Alpha is when you are more physically relaxed and the breath starts slowing down…

Lind-Kyle: Yes, and you are in the present. There no longer is a past and future in Alpha. In Beta you are always worried about what is going to happen. So Alpha gets you out of that and drops you into awareness of your body. You feel calm and present. When you exercise, like when you ride your bike, you go into alpha, and then when you get the endorphines going you can get into Theta. It’s a place of expansion and well being. It really is that place of peace, tranquility, serenity and a feeling of love. 

ST: And Delta?

Lind-Kyle: Delta is the unconscious, theta is the sub-conscious, and the other two, beta and alpha, are the conscious. Delta is making the unconscious conscious. It is the being state. Where theta was being “one with”, this is an “I am that I am” quality. People here are equanimous. Something terrible will happen and they’ll go, “oh, I see” and then something wonderful and they’ll say, “oh, I see”. 

Image courtesy of Dr. Hugo Heyrman’s Museums of the Mind

ST: Anything else you’d like to share with the readers who are in business?

Lind-Kyle: They really need to take care of themselves. Yes, they need to take care of their business but if they don’t take care of themselves, there’s no business! In order to take care of yourself, you have to balance the inner and outer life. The prefrontal lobe, which is the newest brain that we have, contains the tools for self reflection–no other mammal has it. These mental tools are the ones that allow us to look inward. And as we look inward, it allows us to be more complete, more fulfilled. The outer world doesn’t fulfill us, the inner world does. So if everything goes to hell in a hand-basket, you have this refuge to come to.
—

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.

ST: Let’s start with your professional background. Did you grow up with Swamis?

PLK: No.I was born in Minnesota but grew up in California. I went to USC and got a degree in dental hygiene, when it was still a four year program. I did dental hygiene for eight years and then I taught, first at the University in Hawaii and then at Foothill College (just south of San Francisco) and was there for 15 years.

While I was there I got fascinated with how my students learned. I started looking into what was learning. At that time, in the late ’70′s, nobody was talking about learning and there weren’t classes in it, not even for teachers. So I took a year off teaching and took every class I could put together related to learning. I then put together an assessment on how we learn. I took eleven assessments and strung them together and created a profile of how people learn. If you knew how you learn, you knew how you could teach. Foothill College allowed me to teach my class for every student who entered the college. When Prop 13 (a tax initiative that resulted in a lot of money being taken from the community colleges) hit, they cut the class.

I wasn’t interested in teaching dental hygiene anymore so within a year, I resigned form the school and started my own practice.

ST: Utilizing the learning assessment?

PLK: Yes, I did their assessment and then would teach whatever they wanted to learn the way they learned. Then I started going to private schools and offering the assessment to students the teachers would identify as having difficulty. While at one of the schools, one of the parents came up to me and said, “I think you should bring this to where I work.” I asked, “Where do you work?” And he said, “the City of Sunnyvale”. They had a lot of money. I was brought in for two years. I did assessments on every single major person on staff. That’s how I got into the corporate world.

So then I wrote a book about it, which was never published because I got chronic fatigue. That just stopped everything. My husband David has taken that assessment and enlarged it. He uses it in his work with business leaders.

ST: How did you fall into meditation?

PLK: So I had chronic fatigue, got well, then wrote a book about it. When I took that out to the world, doors kept closing. Because I used methods that were “dangerous” to get well, they boycotted my book. I had a TV interview scheduled in Seattle and they called ahead to say that I was talking about dangerous methods.

ST: What was dangerous?

PLK: I went to a clinic in Sacramento that injected all the nutrients, you know the vitamins and minerals, along with hydrogen peroxide. What chronic fatigue needs is oxygen to the brain. As a dental hygienist, I knew that. When your gums start to bleed, generally, they need oxygen to get the aenarobes, to kill the little guys. So I knew what he was doing with me was going to work. Three weeks after I started the therapy, I got better. At the beginning, David had to drive me to Sacramento. In three weeks I was able to drive myself.

I wanted to tell people about this! I had something to tell, something to teach, I’d written a book about it–and they stopped it in its tracks. It really knocked me down.