Use your superpowers for good: how to align your creative gifts with work that pays I have a fundamental belief that each of us on earth has a special gift that is uniquely ours and that we can do better than anyone else on the planet. Marilyn Scott-Waters describes this as "using your superpowers for good." And she has indeed used hers! I first heard about Marilyn from my mentor Suzanne Falter-Barnes. All I knew was that she went by the moniker of "The Toymaker" and that her website of free paper toys had received 1.4 million downloads. As I got to know her, the part of her story that really fascinated me was not just her bustling toy business but her journey of moving from partially to fully using her creative talents. I wondered how she went from Art Director for Nike to stay-at-home mom and toy entrepreneur. Use the player below to listen to the full 25-minute audio recording of my interview with Marilyn. A number of years ago, Marilyn had attained what many would believe is the holy grail of job status: Art Director for Nike. She supervised a group of 8 designers that worked in the baseball cap division. Yet despite doing good work and making good money, she still didn't feel that was the best use of her creative talents. "There are only so many things you can do on a 4" by 2" area." "It was a challenge to keep coming up with something creative every day, and keep the designers motivated." Not to mention that the travel was extensive, and it was starting to wear on her. "I realized that there was a problem when my travel budget was higher than my annual salary," she said. In order to stay closer to home with her new son, she went on to design high-end motorcycle clothing, which gave her good skills, but still didn't utilize all her gifts. "I was spending eight hours a day typing spec sheets. And I am not the world's best typist of spec sheets. Ninety percent of what I was doing was not matching my skill set."(It was only reinforced when her boss told her "You will scrub toilets if I tell you to!" Cubicle Nation nightmare boss behavior at its worst!) When she was laid off, she decided to try freelancing, and was surprised to find that she could support herself. "Every month we didn't lose the house." Expenses were reduced, and they made ends meet. "It worked!" she said. "It took about three years for me not to be surprised." Her freelance work included illustrating children's books which was much more in line with her passion. But it still didn't make her feel like she did when creating paper toys. "I always loved making things out of paper," she said. While typing spec sheets and measuring clothing during the day, "At night, I would doodle these little toys and hide them in the closet." So she started offering her paper toys for free on the internet. "My husband said 'What do you want for your anniversary?' I wasn't really into diamonds or fur coats, so I said 'Bandwidth!' I wanted a website where I could share my paper toys." Her humble website caught fire and attained the mind-boggling statistic of nearly a million and a half downloads in 18 months. Since starting her site, she has published a book The Toymaker: Paper Toys That You Can Make Yourself, and plans two more in 2006. Marilyn attributes her success to the following thought: "When you have the wind of God behind you, you can go faster!" I interpret the "wind of God" as the divine energy which is released when you line up your unique creative talents with work that sustains you. All of a sudden you feel a rush of inspiration, energy, enthusiasm and people stand up and take notice. What can we learn from Marilyn about aligning your creative gifts with work that pays you? Tap into creative work that you adore. Marilyn loved to make paper toys and create things that would bring parents and children together. What are your creative urges? Where does your creative fire burn bright and strong? Beware of "shadow careers." You can be in a career that is related to your passion, but is not yet "it." Marilyn says "People that want to be artists become art dealers. People that want to be writers become editors. And they are just a shadow of what they would be good at." Test out your products or services by offering them for free. Marilyn sure got validation! "In my "official" website, Scottwatersdesign.com, in all the years I had been in business, I got about 7,000 hits. On my toymaker.com site, I get from 2-7,000 hits a day." Create a very clear intention and make it happen. Like October's Get a Life interview subject Louis Buchetto, Marilyn had a strong affirmation: I am drawing my right livelihood to me. She kept repeating this mantra to herself, and took action every day to make it a reality. Start small, and rely on viral marketing networks. Marilyn promoted her toymaker.com site by writing a newsletter to 20 friends. She encouraged them to pass on the link to their friends. Now her newsletter list is about 6,000 and growing every day. She has had mentions in USA today, Woman's World magazine, Artella magazine, The Current/Los Angeles Times, both the Melbourne and Sydney papers, the St. Petersburg Times, Family Fun Magazine, The Automobile Club magazine, and about 640 mentions online. Now it is 641! Thank you Marilyn for using your superpowers for good! You can find Marilyn, her online journal and her paper toys at www.thetoymaker.com. Blog entries from Escape from Cubicle Nation In my blog Escape from Cubicle Nation I write about 5 entries a week on topics related to helping people in corporate jobs break out and start their own business. Here are some recent posts: Why I have an enduring love affair with working for myself How do you stick it out in your corporate job when you are almost ready to break free? Attract what you want by getting very clear about your vision I never thought I would be stunned by PowerPoint I can finally talk about my secret work for Seth Godin's Squidoo! If you want to be notified of new posts, you can sign up in the box in upper right corner that says "Sign up here - and I'll let you know when I post." Not a Get a Life Subscriber yet? Click here to subscribe. Thank you for your referrals! Like Marilyn, my subscriber list started small with mostly close friends and relatives, and has grown to include people all over the world. My feeling is that the more people we have in this Get a Life community, the more we can share ideas, support and learn from each other. I have a goal of increasing this group by 1,000 by January, 2006 so if you know someone that would benefit from this newsletter, please send them to: ganas.com/referral Please tell me how you want to, or are currently using your superpowers for good! pcs@ganas.com All the best, -Pam Pamela Stewart Ganas Consulting 7744 E. Albany Street Mesa, AZ 85207 480-663-3252 pcs@ganas.com www.ganas.com To View Past Issues of Get a Life click here To unsubscribe to this publication, please go to the following page:  http://ganas.com/unsubscribe ©  Pamela Stewart, All rights reserved. You are free to use material from the Get a Life eZine in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution. Please also notify me.