It’s such a massive issue and something very tricky to convey in drawings, so we worked hard to simplify and simplify until we created something small, something easy to digest and something that even our children (5 and 7) could get their heads around.  Working with my good friends Greg & Michelle James, who provided the film-making and script-writing respectively, our collective five children produced the wonderful voiceovers.

Do watch – and if you like it and you’re able to, share widely:

Enough Food If Campaign from Just Imagine on Vimeo.

Credits: www.enoughfoodif.org
Drawings by Claire Holgate
Video Filmed and Edited by Greg James
Scripted by Michelle James

For the visual thinkers and graphic artists amongst us, you’ll be interested to hear that the drawings were on the wall, big scale, with marker pens and colouring pencils.  I struggled to keep my nose out of the shot and we decided from the off that we wanted just the hand, so there were a few extra long stretches that I ought to have limbered up for first!  Good fun in the making and a great way to show off the simplicity of my little doodles! <3

We’ve had some amazing feedback via social media, here are a few of my favourite tweets

Check out this great little video for all you need to know about the #IFCampaign => vimeo.com/67471207

— UNICEF UK Campaigns (@UNICEFuk_action) June 5, 2013

This is a great wee video that explains all about the #IFcampaign via drawing! vimeo.com/67471207 — Tearfund Scotland (@TF_Scotland) June 5, 2013

Wondering what the #IFcampaign is all about & why you should be in Hyde Park on Sat? Check out this vid to find out bit.ly/11Qbo4L — Progressio (@Progressio) June 3, 2013

Lovely video that explains the message behind the #IFcampaign bit.ly/15DPQYb < little voices BIG message! > Join us on Saturday!

— Christian Aid Global (@CA_global) June 4, 2013

Thankyou @benniblett for sharing lovely film explaining in drawings the story of@enoughfoodifvimeo.com/67471207. Join us 8th Jun.

— Fairtrade London (@FairtradeLondon) June 3, 2013

Check out this great video by @clairehol + @gregjamesphotos for #IFcampaign vimeo.com/67471207 Get sharing!

— Enough Food IF (@EnoughFoodIF) June 2, 2013

Fantastic cartoonography by @clairehol on whether we can feed the world? Is there enough food already? #IF #wathchit vimeo.com/67471207

— Oliver Dowding (@OliverDowding) June 2, 2013

When I hit the big 1000, I promised to send a drawing to my lucky 1000th follower. It wasn’t planned that way, I just typed and tweeted it on a whim, before I could even think it through . I was slightly taken aback when that follower turned out to be a really successful tweeter themselves, with tens of thousands of followers…

Would they even notice my little offer, would they even be bothered?!

Well, I thought to myself, there’s surely one way to find out………

In the spirit of doing what feels right (which I am doing quite a lot of lately, in case you hadn’t noticed), I started out with a little research and found some material to work with. It’s rather weird spending quite a lot of time on somebody else’s website – without them knowing – and deliberately searching for something meaningful to draw.  Especially when I wanted to draw something that would mean something positive to someone who I’ve never spoken to. This person can rest assured that I did indeed find something – in fact, I found a *really* lovely, heartfelt blog post all about how even the briefest of encounters as a child can carry far reaching, positive implications much later in life. It’s something that really resonated with me – I often think back to the stuff I enjoyed as a kid, the people who inspired me and the ambitions I held close to my heart.

Drumroll please………

The subject of my drawing is Luke Iorio. If you’re on Twitter, follow him – @lukeiorio. Check out his website: www.ipeccoaching.com – Luke is the President & CEO of the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching. Quite frankly, they seem pretty much at the top of their game And considering I seem to have acquired something of a trendy-life-coachey sort of Twitter family at the moment, I guess that at least some of you reading this might be interested in Mr Iorio’s work.

The awesome blog post that inspired this drawing can be read here.

The full poem, The Path Not Taken, by the American poet Robert Frost, can be read all over the internet, but I found it here.

And here are a few little extras that made me smile…

1. What a lovely place to start. There’s a village down the road that has a real-life sign that reminds me of this:

2. I’m loving drawing with fine line pens at the moment & this shows the great contrast of the black against the white paper… something that gets slightly lost when I Photoshop-trample all over it):

3. And we should all cherish our uniqueness, right?  Yes. We should.

4. Finally, I love the idea of a speeding chain reaction of remembered ideas, that light ‘a candle of thought, which becomes an INFERNO of detail’! I love these words, so full of life and movement:

Blog footnote.

In a little Surrey Hills village called Blackheath, there is a fantastic sign with directions to ‘this way’, ‘that way’ and ‘somewhere else’. Hilarious and random and it always makes me smile.

(image gently borrowed from the rather nice woodhillcottage.co.uk site, thank you)

I love the Happy Startups School.

A Storify page all about the Happy Startups School AND people following their dreams? WOWZERS.

Here’s a fantastic run down of the event I went to speak at last week.  I had a great time & met some really interesting people.

Here’s a write up of our recent Happy Startup Stories event spookstud.io/16i1iXj #startups #london #happiness @searsio @clairehol

— Happy Startup School (@happystartups) April 4, 2013

Or the direct link to the Storify is: http://storify.com/happystartups/happy-startup-stories-27-3-13.

What do you think?

So, last night I gave a talk at the Happy Startups event about ‘Happy Startup Stories’.  My talk was one of the inspiring stories, eek.  It was:

inspiring

interesting

engaging

with some really cool people, great stories and – amazingly – quite a bit in common between the three speakers.  Each of us have been along a very different journey but all come up with similar lessons learned, similar ideas of what makes us happy.

Neat, huh?!

We talked about serendipity. I showed some drawings and explained to everyone why following my intuition is so important to me, and how I never planned to do what I’m doing now…. I just opened myself up to opportunities and let things happen.  I took a few interesting turns along the way but I’ve learnt sooooo much.  It was awesome to hear how others are also taking the plunge with their own new and exciting ventures.  I loved hearing people’s stories.  I love the realisation that we’re all still learning, everyday.

Eeek, 1 minute left. Photos needed…… quick snaps I took (none of the talks, I was too busy talking/listening!):

Wise words from great people – I’ve scribbled all over my best picture printouts but the words mean a lot so I’m happy about that:

Seeing other people’s drawings – IDEAS COMING TO LIFE! – Love that. Thanks so much to those who shared

The Baker Street sign.  I love Underground signs. They make me smile.

My poor feet at the end of the evening. When will I learn that pretty little shoes don’t equal comfy walking-fast shoes?!

Ah well, that was 6 and a half minutes.  Not bad, and nice to just see what’s possible when you set yourself a little goal.

One final thing…. check out Laurence, Carlos, Fiona and the cool team at @happystartups. Thanks for inviting me guys, I had a great time.

For a while, I’ve wanted to get Out There and do some serious networking.  I’ve been offered lots of opportunities, have been to various events and have met some really interesting people.  However, there’s no getting round the fact that I really don’t rate formal networking events that much…  For the most part, there’s some sort of needing-to-be-invited situation, or a fee to attend.  Or they start at a working-Mummy-unfriendly 7.30am, or right smack in the middle of the bedtime routine at 6.30.  Worse still, they might expect me to Stand Up And Sell Myself In Front Of Strangers.  Jeez…  Add those all together and I do just find it a little un-appetising.  Perfectly fine for some, but just not for me.  And I don’t reckon they’re that fine for a lot of the sorts of people and businesses that I really want to work with either.

So……. I decided that actually I’d like to try a new sort of collaborative meet up.  Some trusted pals gave me a little nudge and between us, we realised that there was room for something NEW.  So, ahem…. drumroll please….. let me introduce you to:

Commonplace: a new regular co-working event for creative & collaborative ‘ideas people’.

Step forward all you forward-thinking, open businesses and individuals who are looking to work together with others, share ideas and get creative….  For people who want to build their businesses and to promote a flexible, collaborative and sustainable approach to business that you’ve probably already realised that I think is so important.  The new way of working, if you like.

Unlike other ‘networking’ sessions, there will be no fee to attend.  This is to keep true to the fact that the most meaningful collaboration (and creative thinking) tends to happen through serendipitous connections and not through paid-for services.  We hope to create something very special with this group and if it is successful, it’ll be used as a blueprint for similar groups elsewhere.

It’s a bit of an exciting adventure and a work in progress.  Ideas flutter along as things progress & I’m hopeful that lots of fantastically talented people will want to join in and get involved.

The next events in the diary are:

GUILDFORD, SURREY – 10am, Friday 5th April 2013 (& subsequent 1st Friday of each month)

CRANLEIGH, SURREY – 10am, Friday 19th April 2013 (& subsequent 3rd Friday of each month)

Full venue details will soon be on the Commonplace website or follow on Twitter for details – @teamcommonplace.

Put one or both in your diaries & tell me that you’re coming!

Brandy talks about neat ways of organising your thinking (and doing) and how to bridge the gap between those of us who learn best through words and processes (the Auditory Sequential folk), and those of us who work better with visuals, innovating and ideas (the Visual Spatial guys):

Auditory-sequential vs. Visual-spatial people
- diagram by Brandy

And then there’s the bit in the middle – to bridge that gap:

The seriously snazzy people in the middle…!

With Brandy’s talk in my mind, I set to work this morning to CHUNK my to-do list into some distinct areas and sort it all out. And come up with a more visual plan.  I’ve found that this has been really helpful in organising my priorities….

Brandy and her ‘chunked’, ‘sorted’ and grouped post it note board

And here’s my own chunked and grouped post it note board!

The end of the talk goes on to explore the idea of how to facilitate the bringing together of different types of learners and thinkers to achieve better things.  I love Brandy’s idea of bringing LibLabs together (not anything political as UK readers may automatically assume… but in fact a way of collaborating between those who prefer libraries – the auditory-sequentials – and those who prefer laboratories – the visual-spatials) and giving people permission to draw and try new things.

I’m working on a plan for a co-working event and I’d like this LibLab approach to feature highly.  This has given me lots of food for thought and I’m really excited to explore the possibilities  And I’m looking forward to sharing the ideas as they develop…

So, thanks Brandy.  And for those of you who want to watch it, take a look here. Worth spending 16 mins of your time, for sure:

You can find Brandy Agerbeck on her website at www.loosetooth.com, on Twitter as @loosetooth or you can buy her fantastic book ‘The Graphic Facilitator’s Guide’ on Amazon here (I have a copy, it’s a great reference).

My job was to pull together all of the themes and ideas being discussed into one large drawing – something for participants to takeaway at the end.  Here are a few images:

And the finished drawing:

I was working with a whopper of a blank canvas and I must admit to being slightly nervous that I’d have enough material to fill the space – but I needn’t have worried.  So much of the subject matter related to me & my work, my mind – it was just as inspiring listening and synthesising the subject matter into my drawing as I think it must have been for those taking part.  Having experienced Angela’s fantastic Alexander Technique exercises before, I enjoyed seeing how receptive others were when trying things out for the first time.  I particularly loved the PLAYING with bubbles and balloons – so rare to see a room full of grown-ups doing such fun stuff

Angela has since written a really lovely blog post about the event which you can read here.

I’m really looking forward to working with Mark and Angela again and there are rumours of a further run of Inspiration sessions in the not too distant future…. keep up to date with them both via Twitter or on their websites:

Angela Bradshaw – Alexander Technique teacher extraordinaire – www.angelabradshaw.com or @Bradshaw1Angela on Twitter.

Mark Gillett – intrepid explorer, photographer and filmmaker – www.junglemoon.co.uk www.suitcasemedia.net or @MarkGillett538 on Twitter.

A final note of thanks goes to my friend Catherine Jennings (AKA fab blogger Bella And Will) for kind reproduction of some of her great photographs, thanks Catherine!

I like to talk a lot. I love sharing my ramblings with the world via this blog and website. I adore Twitter, for its up-to-the-minute helpfulness and the wonderful contacts and REAL friends I’ve made using it . I’ve recently started giving 1:1 tuition to a few people who’ve wanted to learn a bit more about these crazy things I do on my computer and phone the whole time…..  and I’ve really enjoyed helping them and seeing them learn, try out and then really embrace new ways of doing things!

So, if you or anyone you know could do with a helping hand, do get in touch.  I’m also planning my first set of small workshops about using social media and being more creative – let me know if you’d like to register your interest for the first run of these.

You can contact me here or see a bit more about things I can help with on my Project Kickstarting page.

So, the bit I excel at – and the bit I love to help others with nowadays – is the PLANNING and IDEAS bit!

I love the bit about positivity. It’s something so often overlooked but there’s so much to be said for a little help in that department.  I have been accused of being too enthusiastic in the past (imagine that! Surely it’s not possible?!) – but sometimes it is exactly what is needed…. especially if you’re trying to make sense of a complicated situation or set of tasks and can’t see the wood from the trees. I should know, I’ve been there often.  When I think of the really helpful mentors I’ve worked with, it’s always the most positive role models who have been the most helpful, and I will be eternally grateful to them for their cheery support and positivity

I like this picture. I went overboard on the blue edging but the colour makes me smile.

For the geeks & doodlers amongst you, you’ll be as excited as I was to hear that I drew this using my new Wacom drawing tablet. Squeeeeeal! Digital drawing, a new one for me but I quite liked it

So, I’m moving steadily along at the moment, thinking of ways to sum up what I do and what it means to others.  It’s not easy to describe.  I don’t like labelling myself as A Somethingorother or A Thingymajig.  I quite like to do lots of different things, and in starting up a new business from scratch, I quickly realised that it’s actually essential to do lots of different things – both for my sanity (!) and to get work coming in.  Some of the stuff I do has yet to really get going, other stuff is more widely understood.

Anyhow, I have started working on a few doodles to try and explore the idea of ‘what I do’ a little further.  I wanted to share the first one with you now.  It’s all about the graphic recording.  I think I may even have featured it on a previous post & it’s covered elsewhere on the website already….. however, as the first of a set of 3 images, I wanted to share this one again:

I hope it makes sense to you.  I really LOVE my little doodles.  They aren’t fine art, they aren’t very complicated, but I do hope they ARE easy to understand and engaging.  They help people understand a subject and they help to get people started when talking about a subject.  If you are having a conversation (real or virtual) and you think you might like to bring something visual into the mix, please do give me a shout. I’d love to get involved!