Passion Part two: I saw on Etsy today a thing about Teams

What I day I have had. Went to my day job per usual, however I was able to take my dog Buddy, who is my personal muse, with me and we had a great time!

I get home, relax a short bit and boom get hit with a scam attack on FB, Face Bookers beware, they are hacking your friends - almost got me too, but my spider antenna is dull to somethings and sharp to others. Trust me, if ANYONE says to you "Can you keep a secret?" this is the first thing you do not want to do.  Why would anyone, who is a friend, want you to keep a secret? But I digress....

So con artist attack, gone, check!

I go back to business as usual, check the stats for my Etsy accounts, try and figure out why I can't sleep and hope my guardian angels continue to watch over me to protect my artist life.

I read the first part of a blog on Etsy about teams.  It's good and inspiring.  And it talks about the essence all artists, entrepreneur's and generally every person who walks this planet shares in, which is passion!

I breathe passion as a form of nourishment.  This has lead me to discover the added benefit of teams on Etsy and has got me to thinking about teams in general; are there any local to my neck of the woods? Yes, maybe, I don't know.

I am, metaphorically speaking now, working from inside a boat, most often by myself.  I am Captain, Flag Raiser, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer when it comes to my "evening job" activities, you know the drill and being a responsible person this makes my balancing act of struggling artist a very big challenge.  The Etsy Teams opened up a door to my small, "boat mentality world" and I discovered teams really do help little boats like mine to handle larger waves and grander shades of sunlight.

Think about this, how often do you see a winning team?  Even the single person who catches the winning pop fly, had a team helping with this final victory.  Teams start with family, branch out to friends, then the smattering business associates who pop in and out during a life cycle and surprise, you discover Teams on Etsy.  This is the basic way I found teams on Etsy.  It wasn't something I really thought about until now, however there is passion in these teams.  They are Etsy Members who network together and find ways to empower each other into bringing the life force of teams as a real form of support for your business!  After reading the first section on the blog, mentioned earlier in my blog, I realize need to do more (there is always more by the way).  I need to look further into finding any Etsy people closer to me than the people in the teams I belong to now.

Please do not misunderstand me, I love all of the teams I have joined, they have been a great inspiration to me and have caused me to start this blog.  However I think I also need to find handicraft people, also on Etsy, who are closer to me geographically and can help in supporting our passion in a very proactive way as suggested in the blog linked in this blog. Are you with me so far?

The purpose of teams is to support the passion, drive the engine to be passionately successful and stay on track with what is the core element of our passion - which in my case, is to be creating more and fulfilling the responsibility parts of my life with my creations, not my day job, so I can create more and know the responsibility part of my life is being taken care of by my passion.

You see, right now I am awake, writing this blog, talking to you all and not feeling a wee bit sleepy when I should be zonked out asleep, as Buddy the dog is, lucky dog.

Look for teams with like minds as your passion.  Easy enough to do - just go to the top right corner of your Etsy page, where it says "You", then click and hold. Scroll down to "Your Teams", even if you don't have teams, I am hoping it will take you tout suite to where you want to be to find a team to your liking!  If not try this: I think it is a link to the Teams search section on Etsy (crossing my fingers it is):

• Home ›
• Community ›
• Teams

From there, locate the spot in the picture here - as seen

in your Etsy browser and type in what key words (in the lower search bar section - look carefully at my picture) who you think will attract like minded people to you in support of your passion.  As in all things, dip in with just a toe, don't go cannon balling into the team pool.  Each team has rules, as do all things in life and these guidelines help make the support you seek a better path for all who are there for your passion and their passion.

So keep on swimming Etsy buds, be the little trains that could and reach for the stars, for there is plenty of stars for all of us who were born to live out a life of passion, without nets to hold us back!

I just love passion!