Our stories are our wealth.
Our practice for gathering creator stories has been evolving since the beginning of the Garden. How do we introduce ourselves to each other in a virtual congregation? What language, imagery, and format feels most authentic to who we are and how we create? The Creator Story Lab is a soft-time practice portal designed to help you feel for your Yes in how you communicate your story as a creator to yourself, to the Garden, and to the world.
One of the ongoing experiments in the Garden is finding a way for creators to update their stories while making it soft and accessible for creators, and relatively low-tech and compatible with Mother Mother’s labors. Something else that has become more evident as the years go on, is that some creators are entering the Garden without having ever (or not in a really, really long time) considered these questions. Others have gotten used to old narratives that are not actually true anymore. And there are others too who are just not very practiced at centering themselves in their own story. Well the Creator Story Lab is here for all of this! We’re still getting it all fleshed out, and what we have so far is still a very generative start!
You are invited to explore these prompt threads and cultivate your Creator Story with the elements that feel good to you. These elements can morph and shift over the years. The Sistership Enterprise Guidebook (an in-the-works, e-book-like resource to house all our creator stories) is a living document that can grow as our stories grow. When you develop your Creator Story, it will be added to the Sistership Enterprise Guidebook. For your Creator Story to be added to the Sistership Enterprise Guidebook, you will need to prepare at least these 3 elements:
Your short bio
Your headshot
Your titles
All of the other components of the Creator Story Lab are optional for you to include in your Creator Story. The more you share, the more we get to know you!
This emergent portal is expanding softly and slowly. What began as a few questions in a Google form has transformed into a devoted practice of identifying and articulating who we are to ourselves and each other. The Creator Story Lab support creators who want to discover the most authentic language and platforms for expressing themselves and the ways they create, labor, and dream. More elements will be shared as our practices grow. Your feedback, shares, and questions are always welcomed! Here we grow!
As it turns out…I still don’t have a truly short bio that is only 2-3 sentences. I counted mine and it’s actually 5 long sentences—but it’s the shortest thing I’ve got, so I’m going with it at the moment! I celebrate this because in the last two days I was asked to submit 2 short bios for something that was needed quickly. I was ready to copy-and-paste what I had and press send because I’ve been working on my labor narrative (trying out new language for “bio”) for months now. My short bio is still a work in progress AND it also feels true for me. I really do feel good sharing as is.
The invitation for this practice is to prepare a working short bio. Pretend Oprah has invited you to be featured on a Super Soul Sunday episode. Congratulations by the way! The producers need your information so they can post it on all their channels. A working short bio doesn’t have to be perfect. It only has to be for right now. You can always edit it for next time. Don’t keep Oprah waiting! You can do this! Enjoy your practice!
originally posted in creators channel on 26 July 2022
We take a thousand selfies (or maybe none at all), and then when it’s time to submit a picture of ourselves to go with the bio, we’re scrambling to find the right one! Whether you have a collection of workable options on your phone, or pics from a professional photographer, chances are you still might be unsure about THE ONE to use in your official materials.
Here are some reflective questions to consider when choosing your headshot, profile photo, or image of yourself to be paired with your bio:
Does this picture express who I am right now?
Sometimes we love a picture from 10 years ago, but it’s not relevant to who we are today. For this activity, assess if your current headshot is a true reflection of your now. If it’s not, begin taking new pics of yourself (or have someone else capture them). Try a variety of poses, settings, and moods. If you have different bios for your multiple labors, experiment with creating a collection of headshots that correlate with each of the bios.
Is this headshot a high resolution photo?
In our world of digital everything, pixels and saturation affect how a picture reads in different spaces. Sometimes we’re looking at it in one context, but when we email it to someone and they post it, the pic we thought was so great is now grainy and fuzzy. As you sift and gather your photos, notice the file size (larger file sizes generally yield clearer pictures if they are being enlarged). Notice how clear or not you picture is. Notice if it’s an original or a copy of the original. When possible, play around with the editing settings in your photo app. Adjust brightness and tints as you feel support the best look and feel for your headshot. Keep making edits until you LOVE it! If you don’t absolutely love this picture of yourself—for any reason—don’t use it!
Is my face/body in good proportion to the space around me in this headshot?
Negative space—the space around you in a photo—is actually a big part of what makes a picture pop! Too much or too little negative space can take away from the beauty that is you. When choosing a headshot, select an image that feels balanced so that your energy isn’t eclipsed by a feeling of lopsidedness when you look at the pic. Sometimes we cut out too much negative space because we’re trying to crop something (or someone) out. If after all the cropping you’re left without enough negative space, this isn’t the picture to use! Consider this as an opportunity to take new pictures!!! With most phones having decent (and many, exceptional) cameras, it doesn’t have to take a long time or be too complicated to get your new headshot ready to send!
Originally posted in Creators Channel 4 August 2022
I love coming up with names for my labors and my life! Mother Mother is my most courageous title to date. I actually had to grow into it. Two years ago when the Garden was born, this was the first place I admitted out loud that I was Mother Mother. I practiced using the language in our sistership, and then gradually began saying it out in the world. And now I confidently lead with it everywhere! In all official posts, bios, applications—I put my name as Mother Mother Binahkaye Joy, in the same way someone might put Rev. or Dr. on their name.
A name can grow on you. It’s okay if you’re not quite sure of the what or why. Sometimes we have to practice wearing the language, seeing if it feels right. We might also need to take off other language that doesn’t feel right or applicable anymore. Like I’ve discontinued Lactation Consultant because it’s not true for me anymore. Instead, I speak very deliberately of my labors as a Sacred Nourishment Practitioner, and everything in my story reflects that shift. This took time to arrive to, and in the meantime I used the language I had until I found my true language.
I also birthed our Glossary for further explorations of language because I am creating so many new words and terminologies, and because the language is alive! It grows and morphs and evolves, and we’re all sharing and pouring into it! The glossary brings visibility to this labor!
This practice is an invitation to make a list of all your titles. Gather them all and look at them collectively. Then, taking your time, go through the list and assess each title, creating your own coding system that helps you determine the truth an accuracy of each title. I suggest having 4 (or more or less…whatever works for you!) categories for assessing the names:
FULLY TRUE
This title is true for me, a full Yes.
PARTIALLY TRUE
This title is something I say about myself, but I don’t feel it really reflects my truth.
NO LONGER/NEVER TRUE
This title is not a reflection of me and I wish to discontinue attaching it to me or my work.
POSSIBLY TRUE
This is a title I am considering/growing into, but maybe I am not yet ready to share it with the world.
Please do share your findings with the Garden in whichever ways are a Yes for you! Thank you for being here! Here we grow!!!
Originally posted in Creators Channel on 14 August 2022
Where do you live online? You might have multiple sites where you share your brilliance and offerings with the world. Websites, social media pages, video threads, podcasts, and more…all of these spaces can be curated and intentionally designed to make you shine, and also essentially make you accessible to the world. Your webhome is how people who don’t know you, and how people who want to better understand your work and your practice, find you.
What do they see and experience when they arrive at your webhome?
Are your stories “in order?”
How are folks invited to engage with your work?
Are you happy with the presentation of yourself and your creations to the world?
What do you feel is needed to make your webhome complete?
For this practice you are invited to take a full assessment of your online presence. Ask yourself, Is this space/site adding to my story, or detracting from it? If you don’t yet have a webhome—the place where you officially live online AND where you have autonomy over producing what is shared there—then make a list of all the places that come up when you Google yourself. Go through each of those sites and determine if any of them are outdated or misrepresentative. If you do have a webhome, look through it with fresh eyes and make notes about the elements that work for you and things that you want to change. If there are things you don’t know how to do, research who might be able to support you, or where you can go to get more support. Write all your questions down and breathe into the possibilities of how you can journey through each of them. Let’s also bring awareness to the diversity of webhomes, and the many creative ways we can apply them for our practices.
As with most webhome spaces, it’s a continuous work in progress! We are always growing, evolving, and coming into deeper understanding of how we create and how we want to share. This means we’re always coming back to our webhomes and seeing if the stories are aligned. It takes time and practice, and we get to be in loving community while we labor through the process!
Here’s to a generative and magical webhome discovery! We welcome your shares in all the ways that are a Yes for you! Your stories help everyone get deeper into their practices. Our stories are our wealth! Thank you for being here! Here we grow!
