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Thumbnail on home page: Original art by Christine Mason Miller

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Toni Reece: Christine, thank you so much for joining us today, and before we begin the interview, can you please introduce yourself?

Christine Mason Miller: Absolutely, and thank you for having me, by the way.

Toni: You’re welcome.

Christine: My name is Christine Mason Miller, and I’m an artist and writer in Santa Monica and the author of a book called Ordinary Sparkling Moments.

Toni: I love that title!  Christine, let’s go right to the very first question of the Project which is, when you think about inspiration, who do you inspire and how do you go about that?

Christine: I think I inspire my friends and my family and people who have read my book and read my blog, and I think the main thing that inspires people is that I’m willing to pursue my dreams and ideas and visions creatively and in my life.  I really work hard to create a life that is meaningful and that is based on a certain level of integrity, and I think that’s what has drawn people to my work and my writing and my blog.

Toni: How does your writing and blog help inspire people?  What messages are out there?  Is it around how you live your life, or is there another way that you believe in addition to that that inspires them?

Christine: I think the main thing that people are drawn to is that I share a lot of personal experiences, not in a sense of hanging out all of my dirty laundry and sharing every detail of my life, but what I strive to do is share an experience or a situation and what I learned from it.  Usually the specific details of something I’ve gone through aren’t necessarily important.  What’s important is how I dealt with it and what I learned from it and what I took away from it, and I think that is what people appreciate.  It’s almost as if … it’s like the more personal the story and experience, the more universal the wisdom gleaned from it becomes.

Toni: That’s absolutely … We’re finding that true every day with this Project and all of the wonderful people that are coming to the table sharing all of this wisdom with us as you’re doing today.  When you are writing this and telling your personal stories and how you dealt with things, how do you think that someone might translate that to help them explore their own potential?

Christine: Well, like I said, I think it has to do with people seeing something in themselves in the story that I tell.  And what I really always want to get across is I’m not trying to stand up and say I’ve got it all figured out and here’s all you need to know, and it’s so easy as A-B-C to create a meaningful life; I talk about how difficult it can be, how messy it can be.  I’m really honest about that, and it’s not that I’m trying to tell people what to do as if there’s some magic formula.

I’m trying to share my process, and I think that makes it a little more palatable to people rather than me claiming to be some kind of expert who has all the answers.  And it’s not that I have all the answers, it’s that I’ve worked hard to try to find my own answers.  And what I want people to realize is that they have the answers for themselves within their own hearts, within their own lives, and it’s just about being committed to that path in your own way.

Toni: It’s almost to me, I’m writing down … there’s certain thoughts that come to my mind when people are talking through these interviews, and the word that I just wrote down was “experience”, and it seems as though you are putting … really, really being brave to share and put a face on the experiences that you have had so that people feel safe, knowing that other people have gone through these trials and tribulations and that they are not alone.  Does that sound like it’s pretty close to what you think might be happening?

Christine: Absolutely.  I find, especially with my blog, the entries where … it never fails, I’ll feel a little bit nervous like, “Ooh, am I sharing too much here, am I being too honest?”  But those are the entries that get the strongest responses, and people really appreciate that I’m willing to call it what it is and to say out loud “This is what this experience was, and this is why it was wonderful or difficult or challenging”, and I’m not afraid to just call it out.

Toni: Now let me ask you, as far as your own needs for inspiration, how do you stay inspired to be brave enough to put that out there, to do the writing that you do, to help people pursue their dreams in a creative way?  When you’re seeking inspiration, where do you go for that?

Christine: I look to a lot of other writers and artists or anyone who has created a life that’s meaningful to them and lives their life on their own terms.  It’s not so much about, “Oh, just because you’re an artist you’re going to inspire me”; it’s about a certain level of passion and courage and willingness to go farther than you think you can in whatever work that you’re doing.

Toni: So they don’t need to be an artist or a writer for you to derive inspiration from them?

Christine: No.  That’s usually who I’m drawn to just because that’s what I do, but there’s people who do all kinds of things that blow me away.

Toni: And so when you’re in that “looking for inspiration mode”, are there any tools that you reach for?  I know that you say you look for the inspiration in other writers and artists and people that are actually living their life to their fullest passion, but are there tools that you might reach for?  Are there things that you do that you go, “You know what, I need a little quiet time or I seek this to be inspired?”

Christine: I would say the main thing is travel.

Toni: Travel?

Christine: Any kind of travel; just getting out of my comfort zone, going to a new location or even a place I’ve been to before because it’s always a different experience.  Travel absolutely; that’s one of the hugest sources of inspiration for me.  It’s inspired so much work.

Toni: Do you have a favorite place that you travel to?

Christine: Gosh, there’s so many.  I love Tokyo, and I’ve been very fortunate; I’ve gotten to go there a few times with my  husband because he has to go there for business at least once a year, so that’s always a fun place to go to.

Toni: When you are surrounding yourself in a community of creative people or you’re doing this travel and you’re re-inspiring or inspiring yourself, how do you think, then, that translates into or helps you to explore your own potential?

Christine: I think the main thing is seeing examples of how other people live their lives and how things are done differently around the world, and just an awareness that there’s so much going on all over the world at any given moment and to just keep in mind that there’s still so much out there.  I feel like I’ve been able to travel a lot and do so much, but it’s still just the tiniest little grain of sand compared to everything that goes on in the world.

So I think it’s just a willingness to keep seeking and exploring and being inspired by things all over the world and always having my radar open for that.  I might see something that inspires me on a walk to the grocery store.  It doesn’t have to involve getting on an airplane and traveling across the ocean; it can happen in my own home, in my own neighborhood, reading the newspaper.

Toni: And then what does that do for you when you read that story or you see something that strikes you and inspires you?  What does it inspire you to do?  What action do you take from that inspiration?

Christine: It inspires me to keep pushing myself and pursuing what I want in life and not taking for granted the life that I have and that I’m healthy — and there’s so many amazing things in my life — and to keep staying present and staying in the moment and pursuing as much as I can while I have the opportunity to do it.

I think the main stories that inspire me the most are the ones where people … it’s kind of, you know, rags to riches sort of stories – I’m oversimplifying – but the stories where people have had to overcome all kinds of obstacles or traveled some kind of arduous journey to get where they wanted to go.  Those stories remind me to keep taking advantage of the opportunities that I have and, like I said, my health, and the fact that I can travel and do these things; to just not ever take for granted that I’m able to do this.

Toni: It’s really amazing when I listen to people speak on the Get Inspired! Project and, listening to you today, I’m hearing it absolutely come full circle that the inspiration that you seek being around writers, artists for your creative passion but also knowing that maybe there’s some trials and tribulations that people went through in order to get to their purpose to live the life they’re living now.  And you seem to really be inspired by those examples and that, in turn, seems to be what you’re doing for others, that the people you learn from, you’re transferring that to the people you’re inspiring.

Christine: Yeah, I think it’s really easy – and I’m absolutely guilty of this – I think it’s really easy to look at another person in whatever “successful situation” they’re in and think “Oh, that must have been so easy for them, and how great for them, and everything must be just perfect in their lives” … and no one gets to be successful without working hard, I don’t think.

I just think it’s easy to look at someone’s success and forget that they started somewhere as an unknown, not knowing what they were doing, making mistakes.  Everyone started somewhere.  No one just wakes up and is a celebrity or a famous artist or a successful writer or whatever label you want to attach to it.  That doesn’t happen overnight.

Toni: And how interesting for you and for people who benefit from seeing your work that as you are on your journey and as successful as you are, you are showing warts and all … so those that are successful that we don’t know how they’ve gotten there, you are providing a snapshot into how you are getting there, and what a gift you’re giving people.

Christine: Thank you.  I hope so.  I always hope that the honesty I share is ultimately uplifting and encouraging.  It’s not about putting a dark cloud on the truth of making a dream real and making it seem really hard, it’s about just telling the truth.  Because I think otherwise it can be, like I said, too easy to look at someone and go “Oh, well, they’ve got it all figured out and that just must have been so easy”, when really it’s not.  And the good news about that is that I feel like if I could figure certain things out, anyone can.

Toni: Like I said, you’re putting it out there, warts and all, and I think that’s amazing.  Some of us might have bigger warts!

Christine: I mean, it’s true.  When I started my greeting card business in 1995, literally, absolutely every single thing that I needed to do for the business, I did it wrong the first time.  Everything, everything!  But that’s how I learned.

Toni: Absolutely, absolutely … I think there are so many stories that people could tell, that it’s just a collection itself of the bumps along the way, and that’s what you’re bringing to life and sharing this snapshot and your perception of how you inspire.  But what you need for inspiration has been a very valuable lesson for this Project and for people who are going to read and listen to your post, and for that I thank you so much for being  part of this Project, and I hope we see more of you in the future.

Christine: Thank you so much.  Thank you again for having me.

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For more information about Christine Mason Miller:  www.christinemasonmiller.com

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Toni Reece: I’d like to welcome SoulDancer to the interview, and I am so grateful, Soul, that you are joining us, and before we jump into the interview, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

SoulDancer: Well, thank you, Toni, I am honored and delighted to be part of this wonderful launch, and introductions are always difficult for me because I never really know how to introduce myself; it kind of depends on the circumstances.  Corporate clients, researchers, and folks who are kind of in the professional field, they know me as a kind of a corporate shaman.  I get involved in corporations where they really need to dissolve office politics quickly, to build a sense of solid corporate ethics; the bottom line there is get better ethics and you are going to have overall improved morale, creativity, and profits.  I can show bottom line results there.

Publicly, I am known as a talk show radio host.  I am an author, speaker.  I lead a lot of retreats and seminars, especially on the big island of Hawaii; I love Hawaii, where I live.  If you are talking from the academic standpoint, I am a lifetime alumni member at the University of Minnesota, based on completing my undergraduate degree in human relationships, and then I followed that up with a Master’s in social work.  So, from an academic standpoint I can be known as a social worker, but most folks I think know me as Soul Dancer, the private professional development person.  I work with people one-on-one to really release whatever chains are holding them back from doing what they want to do with ease and grace.

Toni: Well thank you very much for that.  There is quite a lot of an introduction there.  It is very comprehensive and a lot going on, so thank you for that.  The last point that you made leads into the very first question of the project, which is if you think about who you inspire, okay, how do you do that?  Who do you inspire and how do you do that?

Soul: Hmm, that is a yummy question.  This is based on feedback.  I never know what to take up as far as who I think I inspire from my standpoint; that would be my ego involved, so what I am about to say is based on what I have been getting back in the way of feedback over the years from doing workshops and seminars and so forth and so on.  It seems I inspire the people who really want to grapple with those big life questions, like “Who am I?”,  What I am here to do?”,  “What is my passion?”, “What am I supposed to be doing?.”

I seem to gravitate towards attracting those types of people who are in that space ready to deal or at least begin to ponder those questions, and over the years I have enjoyed kind of the same 3-step process.  It is certainly customized to each customer, each corporation, each client, each individual, but the first step is always one that I think is the most powerful.  We do kind of a treasure hunt.  We go out there looking.  What do you already have?  Most people have really forgotten what they already have, because to them it’s mundane or it’s tucked away some place, or they have forgotten about it.

So we go on a treasure hunt, and that takes a little bit of time, depending on the situation, but it is absolutely critical.  It is like tending your garden; you have got to plow the field first.  Let’s plow it first, let’s find out what’s in that soil that we can work with.  Then, we allow that plowing, that treasure hunting to start finding out what are you really called to do.  What is exciting for you?  You know what’s exciting; you know what’s not exciting.  And after we get that kind of sorted out, we go through a sorting process to then simplify, really laser focus.  The most successful people I know are laser focused.  Once they hit that stride, once they are like boom – I love this – they are laser focused and then there are really no blocks whatsoever to them being inspired to do whatever they are called to do.

Toni: I see.  So, what I am understanding that you are saying is that who you inspire would be the clients that come to you or you reach out to that are looking for some help in understanding where they are in their life, and the how is, which I love, the treasure hunt and plowing the field, so to speak, and then also sorting so you can laser focus.  Is that correct?

Soul: Right.

Toni: Fantastic!  So, when you do this work in the inspiration field, working with your clients, is the treasure hunt and plowing the field and sort and the laser focus, is that all part of what you do to help them explore their potential, or are there other techniques that you use as well?

Soul: Other techniques I use as well, the ones that I … for example, corporations really stuck in office politics, is engaging some pretty basic root cause analysis type of work.  Put on the newspaper reporter hat.  Let’s get into the facts.  Let’s explore the facts so that we can dissolve the fictions.  So when we need to be really rock-hard from a business standpoint, I ask from more of a corporate ethicist, kind of feeding in a corporate shaman angle, compassion, gentleness, being kind in the process.  There is never a need to beat people up, ever.  It does not help anything.  So part of my inspiration tools is people adopting ways that are appropriate for them, for their gender, for their culture, for their age, ways that they can be kind to themselves first.  Ironically, I see that the biggest step is being kind to oneself first, to get that inspiration really going from within.

Toni: So the exploration of their own potential has to start with themselves; so your work with them is to find that way to be kinder to themselves, to look for that compassion, because when they get there, that helps them then deal with others.  That is what I have heard you say.

Soul: Right.

Toni: So what do you need to be inspired?  When you’re looking for inspiration, to keep that going for yourself, what do you need?

Soul: Me, if there is anything that I am greedy about, anything that I am greedy about, is my quiet time.  I really have to have quiet time every single day.  I need at least 30 minutes of absolute, uninterrupted quiet time, no matter where I am at, no matter what I am doing.  That quiet time is kind of like my pin code into my ability to find inspiration or, not necessarily find it, allow it to find me, allow it to bubble up inside of me so that I can go “Wow, okay, it is already there.  Now, what do I do?”

Toni: So when you become centered in your quiet and you’re looking for the inspiration to find you, are there ever any resources or places that you go to seek inspiration?

Soul: Nine out of ten, I have to groom the environment to allow that to happen, and what I mean is, I am kind of a traveling, nomadic teacher.  And so when I am in a new situation, people are unfamiliar with what my needs are, and so, of course, I doubt they can read my mind.  I certainly can’t read theirs; I need to groom them.  I need to say “Look, some time through today, I need 30 minutes of quiet time, or don’t schedule me back-to-back with calls or appointments or interviews.  I need this much time blocked out for me.”  And so by seeking out that permission and having that permission granted, it makes the whole process work much easier.

Toni: Okay.  And when you’re seeking the quiet and the ways to be inspired for yourself so you can help others, what do you need to explore your own potential?  How does that happen?  What do you seek for that?

Soul: That’s a fabulous question; it is one I have been pondering on ever since you invited me to this interview, and it really dawned on me, I need less analyzers and more explorers.

Toni: Can you tell me what you mean by that?

Soul: Analyzers:  Analyzers in the Western world generally are concerned with getting to their destination.  They have something to prove; they want to make it happen.  If what it is that they want or seek doesn’t fit in nicely, they force it.  Now for me, what I need to explore my own potential is to release the need to make it happen.  Release the forcing.  Release the “here’s your 12 steps” or “here’s your agenda” or “here’s your goal”; releasing that need allows me to tap in to a much wider, broader, more abundant plate of resources and gifts.

Toni: When you say release the need, does that mean that you release the ownership of the outcome?

Soul: Bingo.

Toni: Okay; and that is the difference between the analyzers and what was the second term that you used?  The seekers?  The explorers?

Soul: Yes.

Toni: Okay.  So there is less investment in the outcome for you as an explorer.  How do you think that links to how you become inspired?

Soul: Very much so.  It is a wonderful, nurturing ying-yang sort of thing.  As I release the need for the outcome, I release my tunnel vision.  As I release my tunnel vision, all of a sudden, anything that was a problem, anything that was not inspiring me, phew … gone … just gone; blown away.

Toni: Wow.  And then do you ever use your needs for how you inspire yourself and explore your own potential?  Does that translate into how you inspire others and explore potential in others?  Do you ever transfer that knowledge and those ideas to others?

Soul: Most definitely, and that is where I get myself tingling all over.  I get my goose bumps on my arms here.  When people walk up to me and they look at me and they think what a new-agey, way out there, cosmic sort of dude, it’s like yeah right, get a life, you know.  They look at me like I am just some sort of an alien.  I chuckle, because years and years ago, I wrote this in the back of my book … years ago, if you were to approach me and tell me I’m doing what I’m doing now, I would have laughed you silly.  I would have told you get out, you’re a good sci-fi writer, go have fun!  I never would have believed I am doing what I am doing right now, and the only way that I have been able to do that is to get out of my own way.

Toni: Excuse the recording of the motorcycle that just went by … as we said, this is going to be a very authentic project!

Soul: I love it!  Works for me!

Toni: So you had to get out of your own way in order to keep this real, in order to help others, is that what you mean by that?

Soul: Exactly.  Here’s a live example.  Within minutes before this call, I firmly thought I would be accepted to attend an event where I thought I would literally pole vault what I am doing into the international limelight.  It is rare that I am declined, especially when you are paying to attend that event; it is rarely that you are declined.  You have the money, you go.  Well, to their credit, I got a decline email stating that basically what I am bringing to the table so overlaps what other more earlier registrants have brought to the table, that at this point they could not really accept my application; there would be too much overlap, and they just pole vaulted in ethics for me.  It is like, wow, here is a corporation that isn’t concerned with just the dollar bills.  They actually are concerned with the outcome.  This even gives me more inspiration that should this event come up again, I will apply earlier on in the process to see if I want to go to that.

Now, I released the outcome; I could have been devastated.  I had a lot of plans, blah, blah, blah, but it is like wait a minute, no, there is a reason for this.  I may not figure it out immediately, it will be made apparent, and who knows what will become as this door closes.  Another door always opens, always.

Toni: Which I would believe fits into the way that you explore your own potential by saying that you are more of an explorer than an analyzer, because you have released the outcome or the ownership of that outcome of whether or not they would accept or decline your offer to go to this speaking engagement.  So, if you release the outcome, I would imagine that great things are going to happen, based on this interview.

Soul: I am thinking as well.

Toni: I absolutely cannot tell you how we appreciate your participation in this Get Inspired! Project, and we are hoping by people reading the needs and approaches that people like yourself  and others are doing and having, and sharing, that this will inspire others to do the best work that they can do.  And your words of the treasure hunting and plowing the fields and sorting to finding your compassion and kindness, to being more of an explorer, I believe has been such an outstanding interview and answers to my questions, and I so appreciate that.

Soul: Well, mahalo.  Any time that there needs to be follow-up, I am game.  Make sure people know how to get in touch, and happy to help.

Toni: Thank you so very much for this interview.

Soul: Thank you, Toni.
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For more information about SoulDancer:  www.souldancer.org

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