After the long gap between publishing the first 29 chapters of my memoir and the last four, I thought it would be helpful to readers to provide a quick recap of the three chapters preceding the next four.
In 1988, after setting up a successful coaching and workshop and coaching business in Calgary, I moved to Vancouver, where I thought there would be a larger client pool — and better weather.
But I misjudged. I spent time and money setting up my business in Vancouver, then slammed into a wall. First, I broke my collarbone cycling. Excruciating. Heavy drugs. Physical, mental, and emotional setback. Second, my expensive new promo materials generated only 4 participants for my first workshop.
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With time on my hands, I changed gears, turning my attention to turning my Taking A Stand For The Earth outline into an article. I continued to promote and did a few small courses that year. But, by the end of 12 months, I had burned through my nest egg and struggling to pay the bills.
I took a consulting job with a science education program that paid well but had no heart. I thought the director mishandled provincial government money. When he applied for a $100,000 grant to finish the project the government had already sunk $150,000 into, I acted on my own.
I proposed doing the same things the association claimed it would do, but for only $16,000. For the next 18 months, I developed and delivered training programs and materials for leaders and participants in youth teams working on environmental projects in local communities. It was challenging and satisfying work. But a change in governing parties ended it.
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At the same time, I increased my capacity to work with businesses and other organizations. Once a month I joined an Alberta team doing workshops for Petro-Canada, an oil company. It boosted my confidence that I could work well in an organizational setting.
Nudging my organizational rock uphill, I ran successful half- to three-day workshops for organizations as varied as Motorola, Fisheries Canada, Boys and Girls Club, several universities, and three local non-profits. They paid well and increased my competence and confidence, but lacked the heart I longed for.
On one Petro-Canada trip, I came across the Oliver Wendell Holmes statement, “I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.”
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Inspired, I reworked my ‘Taking A Stand’ article.
I spent a month in a rented cottage on Saltspring Island, drafting a detailed outline for a potentially published book. As I did, I wondered whether Vancouver was the best place for me to walk my ‘simple living’ talk. At the end of the month, I stumbled upon a cheap cottage for rent and moved to the island.
I refurbished my cottage and began promoting ‘Create What Matters’ workshops and follow-up coaching to islanders. Success was slow in coming.
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With the help of a young fellow, Charles, who’d taken part in the environmental program, we landed a year-long contract developing and delivering ‘creative teams’ program with the Open Learning Agency of BC. It included a retreat for the executive team, an off-site workshop for team managers, and on-site workshops for their team members.
The executive retreat was successful; “The best three days of training I’ve experienced,” the President told me. Some team leaders bought into our approach. Others needed more persuasion and demonstrated results. I could not figure out whether it they were leery of me and my personal approach or that our program contradicted many of the problem-focused ideas those with MBAs believed. But their team members enjoyed the workshops and rated them high.
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Seeking “heart,” I developed and promoted a new five-day retreat on Saltspring. ‘Living Well; Living Deeply’ did not have the success I had hoped for. I only ran one session for a Seattle non-profit.
I increased my focus on local creating courses and coaching. And decided to turn Taking A Stand into a book-length manuscript. So, I spent a series of five to nine-day writing sessions at a funky, ocean-side resort — The Ecologic Place On Marrowstone Island — near Port Townsend, Washington.
The ‘Place’ provided access to beach walks, salt marsh exploration, old growth forest walks, and glorious sunset viewing from a cabin deck each evening. Those work/write visits were some of the best days of my life. Thinking and writing about why and how to live simply with a minimal ecological foot print flowed in such an earthy, natural setting.
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At the end of that year, I had a well-worked manuscript for Taking A Stand for the Earth to send to three literary agents. They all liked it. But one recommended I strip the environmental action parts of the book and focus on the simple living strategy. Both recommended I create a ‘book proposal’ to send to publishers rather than the full MS.
I revised the MS and re-titled the book Simplicity and Success: Creating the Life You Long For. I worked and reworked the proposal process, finally crafting one the agents liked.
One agent from New York shopped it to publishers but thought they passed because I lacked a large enough “author’s platform” from which to promote the book, if published.
“Platform” refers to everything an author does to make themselves known to potential book buyers and drive book sales. Big numbers of social media followers, presence on national radio and TV, and articles by and about you in majour newspapers and magazines. A huge undertaking.
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Frustrated, I self-published it in spring 2003.
Simplicity and Success garnered excellent reviews in Canada, the US, and Great Britain. I sold many more copies than I expected, on Saltspring, Vancouver Island, and resorts such as Whistler Ski Village — via Amazon — around the world. New clients didn’t ‘flood’ in, but the flow was much more than a trickle. I felt gratified. I finally had my own damn system, and it worked.