This is a nice little tale I hope you’ll enjoy. You might have noticed a few weeks back an I Quit Sugar social media call out looking for a mural artist who’d like to get expressive with the big blank wall on the deck of our new office (which we move into today!).
I have made it a policy since I began this whole “sugar quitting e-xperience to e-business” journey to recruit within our crew. I generally find the right answer (to most things) is always closer to hand than you think. I like to keep things close. As this tale illustrates.
We had hundreds of applications for the gig. But one entry jumped out. Both Jo and I agreed straight away: “We like Tamara”. Yep, we just liked her and her application. We couldn’t pinpoint exactly why. But it didn’t matter; we just knew.
And so Gold Coast artist, mum and part-time teacher Tamara Armstrong got charged with our blank wall. And this is how it unfolded.
Tamara sent in her design. We couldn’t fault it. It was perfect. The colours were perfect. We’d been umming and aghhing (read: consulting Feng Shui expert Lizzie Wiggins) about the right colours for the space. Suddenly we had our colour palate right here – closer to hand than we thought – with Tamara’s mock-up.
Tamara flew down with her husband Matt and three month old baby Thea and got to work. It was done! dusted! in a few days. We still couldn’t fault it. And didn’t. We knew.
It was the same with the ridiculously impressive Richie Northcott – the Fresh Prince – who offered to build a hanging garden and vegetable garden on our new deck. He’s all about “fresh” – his goal is to get people growing their own food – and his self-watering planter boxes are designed to make this a reality. He knew he could contribute. We knew he had something special about him. He and Tamara united and created.
At the end of the project I took Tamara out for a martini down the road and it was only then she shared that she’d quit sugar a year ago. She and Matt had been trying to get pregnant…for several years. She quit sugar; she got pregnant. Two months later.
Then, a few weeks back she announced to her husband Matt that she needed to combine things – her art and her wellness story. She really wanted to find a way to connect with myself and the IQS team but dismissed it as a silly idea. But whattayaknow, a few days later, she sees our social media call out. Tamara says “I knew I had to make it happen and I told Matt ‘This wall is mine!’.”
[youtube]http://youtu.be/vABiPh1OwAc[/youtube]
She tells me she knew she had to get the gig. She knew. So much so Matt took long-service leave immediately, before hearing from us, so that he could travel to Sydney and look after Thea while Tamara brushed her stuff.
I’ve been thinking about this tale since Tamara shared it. She knew. But more than this, she backed her knowing. She really knew. She knew like she meant it. And then trusted from there. I see this happen so often. I don’t speak in “manifesting” terms so much. Instead I see that time and time again energy flows toward certainty. Life likes solidity, stableness, groundedness. It naturally ebbs towards committed knowing.
I’m also reminded of something marketer Seth Godin once told me: “Creating art [by which he means any kind of creation] is about leaning forward into life, like an aerial skier who leans to go further.”
When you feel you know, back it. Lean forward into it. And go further. Nice.
Thank you Tamara and Richie for showing how life and art is done well.
To book Tamara or Richie for any work, follow these links to their websites.
Tamara: TamaraArmstrong.com
Richie: Fresh Prince
