Your business sounds fun, adventurous, and fluid! 🙂

I didn’t end up imagining a picture, but now after looking at my list of words I just imagined this:I made a thorough list of words that are descriptive… “a breath of fresh air,”

As I’m walking down the street, I feel a presence. It feels like deep, cool waters and a breath of fresh air. It makes me feel immediately lighter, energized, creative, and curious. I feel an openness to reflect and engage in things that cause are uncomfortable (in a good way). I feel more ready for an opportunity for change.

Thaaaaanks! <3

I just re-took mine after 3 years of lots of changes in my life and career, and it hasn’t changed one bit.

Empathy | Adaptability | Developer | Positivity | Arranger

Hi all!

I use WordPress.org and have Bluehost as my hosting.

I started with WordPress.com, but decided to switch to WordPress.org when I wanted to use plugins (which didn’t work on my WordPress.com theme). My first WP.org website was based from a $70 theme I bought. My most recent website was built from scratch using the Visualmodo Builder plugin. If you do decide to build your own site, I HIGHLY recommend making a mock-up on paper (or Canva, which I used!). This helped me immensely with my most recent website build.

+++++ Agreed

“I feel like I’m running ragged trying to keep up, working more hours than I want to, and for less compensation than I think is warranted. I would really like to use this course and being in community with all of you to take some time to get more strategic, especially around my offer, pricing, and building out a team.”

MICHELLE!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Our lives are crossing yet again. I am SOO excited to share space with you about biz development. I can’t wait to hear how much you’ve accomplished since our last biz dev chat!! Let’s keep growing together.

. -Molly

Hello fellow St. Paulite! I would love an IRL chat. Maybe in later March? I usually prefer outdoor things still. So, perhaps we can do a coffee/tea walk and talk? Looking forward to meeting you IRL and in our cohort!

Hi new friends. 🙂

My name is Molly O’Connor, and I am based in St. Paul, MN (the unceded lands of the Dakota people, specifically the Wahpekute Band). March 2022 is my 3 year anniversary of starting my creative evaluation firm, Coco Canary Consulting (and yes, if you do the math, I was most definitely a COVID layoff!). And, if you’re curious about the name, it’s named after my band (we’re in the process of recording our first album!!) 😉

I recently just did A LOT of business development (easy to do when you have a VERY slow Oct – Jan, and took an AMAZING biz dev course with the lovely Nora Murphy-Johnson—her and her husband, A. Rafael Johnson, JUST dropped their Creative Evaluation & Engagement Book; squeeeell, mine just arrived in the mail!).

Within the last 6 months, I developed guiding principles, revamped my website (linked above), and rebranded to only doing creative evaluation & coaching/thought partnering work. I also am being intentional that the work I do is grounded in equity and justice work, and have built it into my practice to have candid conversations with clients about white supremacy culture (like, when I witness harm or (un)conciously oppressive behaviors, I call-them-in—versus call-them-out—and offer time for radical reflection and discussion). I’ve had a few clients who were like, “yeah, I am tots ready for equity + evaluation” and then when we start doing the work, they are like, “AAAAH! I am not ready.” It’s been a learning process for me for how to assess if the person I am working with has the attitude, willingness, and/or experience (and $$$) to do the work authentically and not performatively.

I’m excited about this course because I feel like I have done some solid reflection work on who I am as a person and professional, and want guidance on what’s next. Here are some of my initial thoughts on where I feel like I could use guidance from this BEAUTIFUL hivemind and from Stephanie.

1. I am toeing the line of evaluation work and equity work. I enter the project as an evaluator, but then 1/2 of my time is actually having to facilitate difficult discussions (predominantly with white-privilege folks) on how to re-design the project in ways that will reduce harms and inspire authentic relationship-building (or convince them to scrap it completely). The last 2 projects where this has happened, I left feeling good of the work I did, but was like, gosh, that was WAY more emotional labor than a 10K-15K project should have been.
2. I don’t want to work alone, and I like managing/mentoring people. And also I am unsure if I care enough to grow Coco Canary into a larger firm. I have been reached out by larger firms to join/merge, but I don’t think I am ready to be internal yet (still healing from a VERY toxic job at a natural history museum). So, would love to talk to folks who are in similar spaces.

Looking forward to our first chat! And, I hope to make the first chat. I may actually be on a plane….. so, will likely just listen in if I can. I have never tried to use the airplane wifi before…. >.>…<.<…. is it free on Delta??

<3 Molly