Honored to be a Winner of the International Communicator Awards!

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

I am writing you here from Giant Leaps Creative today filled with gratitude and glee! I am absolutely honored and humbled to recently find out that a podcast website design that I created last year won a Silver Award of Distinction in the “Digital – Podcasts” category under the “General – Lifestyle” section. It is hard to describe the feeling of utter amazement and elation when we learn that our hard work has paid off in recognition from respected leaders in the field via an award. But I can tell you, it feels fantastic! I highly respect the Communicator Awards and what they are doing for design firms and agencies, recognizing our achievements and advances in design. I am humbled to share the exhilaration of receiving this award along with the other incredibly talented agencies and firms, especially the Gold Award of Excellence recipients. Big huge congratulations to all of the winners of the 24th Annual Communicator Awards!

No one does it alone! Extra special thanks to co-collaborators, Troy Young of Travel Life Media for his sound engineer work, and Cat Knott for her excellent website skills. I literally could not have done it without you and your amazing expertise, perseverance, and talent. Filled with so much gratitude for you as part of my amazing team of professionals!

ABOUT THE COMMUNICATOR AWARDS
The Communicator Awards is the leading international creative awards program honoring creative excellence for communication professionals. Founded over two decades ago, The Communicator Awards is an annual competition honoring the best in advertising, corporate communications, public relations and identity work for print, video, interactive and audio. The 24th Annual Communicator Awards received entries from top ad agencies, interactive agencies, production firms, in-house creative professionals, graphic designers, design firms, and public relations firms around the world.

JUDGING
The Communicator Awards are judged and overseen by the Academy of Interactive and
Visual Arts (AIVA), a 600+ member organization of leading professionals from various
disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of
traditional and interactive media. Current AIVA membership represents a "Who's Who" of
acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms including: PureMatter, Condè Nast,
Disney, Republica, Sesame Workshop, MTV, Starbucks, Time Inc., Tribal DDB, Yahoo!, and
many others. See aiva.org for more information.

“We are extremely proud to recognize the work received for the 24th Annual Communicator Awards. This year’s class of entries embodies the ever-evolving marketing and communications industry” noted Derek Howard, director of the AIVA. He added, “On behalf the Academy members, I’d like to applaud the entrants this season for their dedication to producing outstanding content as they continue to push the envelope of creativity.”

For more information about the Communicator Awards, please visit communicatorawards.com, email at info@communicatorawards.com, or call (212) 675-3555.

Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, booklet, or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

Annual “Gratitude Gush” for 2017 – Looking Forward to a Kickass 2018!

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

Well, well, well... here we are, halfway through January already in the new year. Happy New Year, wonderful people! I hope your year is off to an fantastic and inspiring start! To get my year off on the right foot, I have a tradition that my first post of the year is a massive “Gratitude Gush” shoutout to many souls who are helping make my humble, boutique creative & graphic design business a success! We have been in business since August of 2014, and the awesome projects, kickass clients, and excellent work that makes me come alive just keeps coming through our creative doors, and I could not be more grateful! Please help me get this year started right with major kudos to some amazing people in my life that help Giant Leaps Creative jump for joy! Let’s get this party started! Yeah!

Without further ado and in no particular order, I would like to thank:

1) The Live Your Legend Community – No one does it alone. Starting and running a business is no exception. The Power of Community has proved to serve me, my mission of making the world a more beautiful place – one logo and branding package at a time – time and time again. We need to believe in ourselves and what we are endeavoring to do in the world to truly make an impact. These global communities of friends and colleagues – originally gathered together by the late Scott Dinsmore – ALL are AMAZING and I am truly grateful that you are in my life! I would like to give a special shout out to Chelsea Dinsmore, Troy Young, Dorene Wharton, Harry Lewis, David Ryan, Steven Briginshaw, Ellen Watkins, Elizabeth Miner, Paul Kim, Bryce Eldridge, and Michael Garofalo. Thanks for your undying support, creative talents, inspiration and positive, joyful energy! Love!

2) Mike Goncalves – This AWESOME human not only gave me the idea to create this "thank you” post annually, but we have been working together through the years and beyond on many projects! We both have a constant thirst for knowledge and pushing to excel. We have taken online courses together, done fitness challenges with his ever-expanding mission at MikeGoncalves.com, attended transformative retreats, and I know more awesome collaborations and adventures will come in 2018 (possibly a mini-summit in Munich?)! Mike, I respect and admire you and your dedication to your work more than you know, and I so value your generous and amazing friendship!

3) Roberto Torres – Running a graphic design business takes lots of hard work, great technology running smoothly, and an awesome team backing it up. This fantastic human is incredibly talented and disciplined at many things including all things technical, working tirelessly to make sure all systems are running smoothly. If my computers are not speaking nicely to each other, it is a challenging day that slows me down — and this lady likes to move forward expeditiously and with the support of a quality team! Thank you, Robert for your wisdom, your talents, your dedication, and being someone I can continually ount on. You rock!

4) Viki Nova – This kickass, speedy, and highly talented web developer reached out to me after my Live Your Legend interview post went live! I am forever glad that she did. We met for lunch one day for a respectful and interesting meet and greet, and now this lovely lady is part of my amazing team here at Giant Leaps Creative. A WordPress and HTML genius, she adds another spoke to the wheel of our humble company that we seriously needed. Thanks, Viki, for your amazing and speedy work. Welcome aboard!

5) Sandy Burkhart – Working tirelessly and efficiently, my bookkeeper Sandy helps keep me line and on budget. I appreciate her diligent and efficient work, and how patient she is with me when I get behind schedule. Sandy also is never shy about singing my praises to other prospective clients and letting them know about the services I offer at Giant Leaps Creative. Sandy, I really appreciate all of the support, hard work and cheerleading over the past year! You are an amazing woman and I am so glad that you are part of my team!

6) My Clients – Giant Leaps Creative LLC would not exist if it were not for one of our most important assess – our clients! Some I cannot name here as the work we do is confidential (I do work in the nation's capital afterall!) But please know I highly appreciate you! I want to give a very special shout out here to my great friend, colleague, and now client Sue Fee! We are no strangers to working together, Sue and I. Our work ethic comes honestly from humble beginnings working side by side at McDonald’s at the Springfield Mall (PA) when we were young and fresh-faced 16 year olds. What a strange and wonderful ride it has been! We also began our creative journey together in college as roommates when I got my graphic design degree at Drexel University. What fun all-nighters those were! Thanks, Sue for believing in me and my work all these years!

7) IPEC Community – This year, I am proud to say that I am a Certified Professional Coach thanks to the fine trainers and my fellow students and graduates at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (IPEC). As creative director, CEO, and leader of creative projects, my coaching training comes in quite handy on the job here at GLC taking projects as well as the people responsible for creating the vision from concept to completion. I want to give a majorly special shout out to my colleagues and friends Bob Harrell, Rick Clemons, and Mark Downey, as well as teachers Frank Macri, Cindy Gardner, Mark Schall, Debbie Forcier-Lynn, and Stacy Hartmann.

8) Dr. Daamini Shrivastav – I met this fantastic woman through the wonders of social networking and blogging well over three years ago now. I helped crowdfund an important project she was working on, and we became fast friends. Daamini believed in me and my writing abilities, and my passion for helping other people. And she asked me to help her father’s hospital in the UAE, Conceive by authoring the blog, Slow Swimmers & Fried Eggs (SS&FE) that I write with my husband about our struggles with infertility in an international effort to help others who also struggle. Thanks for believing in me across all of those miles, Daamini. I hope to get to Dubai if not this year than next year to see your beautiful city and hug you in person! You are just a lovely and gorgeous human being! Let's keep rocking the SS&FE podcast and blog alongside our new and fantastic bloggers! The team grows! Yes!

9) Eric Olson & Jeanne Broadwell – Having the support of our families while we go forth and do our best to rock our own lives and businesses is highly important. I shudder to think where I'd be without my amazing husband Eric and my kickass sister Jeanne. These cool cats are not only a ton of fun, but loving, supportive, super smart, talented and I am so damn lucky that they are part of my family. Through thick and thin, these special people hug me close and cheer me on, no matter what I am reaching for or how outlandish it seems. Love you guys to the moon and back!

10) DePersico Design Folks – Lastly as I have been de-cluttering my house thanks for the “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of De-Cluttering and Organizing” book, my heart is full as I uncover incredible collaborative works of art at my previous jobs. In particular, a shout out to the folks I worked with at Depersico Design, my first design firm where I had the privilege of working on the Fleer / Marvel Comics account alongside Creative Director, Jeffrey Marshall, and my fellow designers including my great friend Monique Brand, as well as blasts from the past, Bryan Ward, Saul Rosenbaum,  Steven Green, and many more! I miss you all, and I thank you for the inspiration you sowed into my brain all those years ago!

__________________

Giant Leaps Creative would not be where it is today without the love, encouragement and support of these fabulous, inspiring and special people in my life. I thank you in the sincerest way that I know how. And I also thank all of you for reading this post and being here today, supporting one girl’s dream. May you have a fantastic year ahead, and I wish you many happy days!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

WDS: How Do You Live A Remarkable Life In a Conventional World?

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

I hope this post finds you all well and thoroughly enjoying your summer! I’m elated to write you upon returning from the seventh annual World Domination Summit (WDS) in Portland, Oregon, and my third year in a row attending this inspirational and awe-inspiring event! As a creative as well as an entrepreneur, I have found this event critical to giving my business an adrenaline boost of educational insights, productivity and business ideas, as well as connection opportunities with the speakers and attendees. What is this event you are wondering? The team of WDS creators, ambassadors and other like-minded individuals strive to explore this key question: “How do you live a remarkable life in a conventional world?” while focusing on the values of community, adventure, and service. 

This sentiment and photo captures some of the magic of this highly creative and diverse city.

This year the overall theme of the event was “Building A Better World” and that theme was very visible throughout the week I was there. From the speakers who focused on global change and health crisis, down to the inclusiveness of different sexualities and orientations, this year had an overall feeling of joy, love and “We are in this together” that shined through. I proudly donned my “Team Everybody” t-shirt at the closing party and enjoyed seeing them all over the wonderfully creative and open-minded city of Portland. During the breaks between the main stage sessions (think TedX style talks), day one featured over 30 drag queens serving donuts, treats, and delicious snacks – while day two featured acrobats, creatively dressed live musicians, unusual dancers, and balloon art makers to entertain us as we enjoyed the beautiful park behind the theatre. 

Chris Guillebeau highlighting two the themes during one of his monologues: global environmental issues and acceptance of diverse sexualities and orientations. 

As stated by the WDS Team:

“As we move forward, we want to make sure that we don’t ignore world events and the collective environment that we all share. This community has been affirming and inclusive from our first year. We value diverse perspectives and want to hear from different voices. However, we also want to take a clear stand: when entire groups of people are threatened or victimized, we will speak out and do everything we can to support those people. 

We also know that anything we do is a two-part process of coordination and community: We’re all in this together! Let’s do everything we can to build a better world.”

Two of my friends, Amy White and Elizabeth Miner proudly sharing their signed books with Agapi Stassinopoulos. Read more about Agapi’s fine work in this article she wrote.

The main stage speakers were incredibly fantastic, inspiring, and just plain awesome! Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“It's about finding the RIGHT people, not the most. Shame fuels the fire of our worry. Yet ‘Me Too’ punches through worry. Worrying is not an investment in failure prevention. Every part of the hustle teaches you something about yourself.” — Vanessa Van Edwards (recovering awkward person)

“Dominate the world with your open heart and your light. I was raised with olive oil and the principle of radical generosity. We are not supposed to fit in — we are supposed to stand out! Comparison is an addiction to losing.” — Agapi Stassinopoulos

“Words left unchecked can cause (a holocaust). Bring justice and tolerance back home to our cites.” — Harris Safar

“We over estimate how much control we have, and under estimate how much choice we have. When the bad luck truck drops off boxes at your house, healthy perspective helps you realize that those boxes (after you unpack them) are still useful. Many people would love to trade places with your problems.” — Charles Hunt

Scott Harrison was highly motivational, passionate, and excellently lead the charge for clean water for all human beings. Learn more about Scott and how he spreads his mission here. Feel free to give a donation, no matter how small to: charitywater.org/wds

“Give joyously! (versus ‘give back’). One of the few things in the entire world we can agree on —> we all deserve and can fight for clean water. Do not be afraid or work that has no end.” — Scott Harrison

Every year, my business chooses a charity to donate part of our proceeds to. This year thanks to the passionate spirit of Scott Harrison, we are choosing charity: water as our chosen charity in an effort to make the world a better – and healthier – place. Will you consider joining me when you select a charity to support this year?

My own “Happiness of Pursuit” project – How many WDS magic makers could I get a selfie pic alongside with my super cool Canon EOS M3 camera? Here is a smattering of some of my favorites. 

Filled with so much gratitude at the opportunity to catch the above fun, exhilarating, and humbling moments with some of my favorite speakers, workshop producers, magic makers, and best-selling authors that help make World Domination Summit the major inspirational success that it is! Thank you for sharing your mug with this gal for this fun "Happiness Of Pursuit" adventure, Chris, Isaac, Jedd, Ben, and many more!

#WDS2017
#selfieadventure
#happinessofpursuit
#teameverybody

My amazing housemates including two of my design clients (Embrace Different and Thrive This Day). We all like to work with people that we love who inspire us. My clients are no different. We inspire each other! Thank you, Harry Lewis for organizing such an amazing group!

Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, T-shirt or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

Photo Credit: Armoso Studios

30-Day Entrepreneur Fitness Academy with Mike Goncalves – Register by April 30!

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

At Giant Leaps Creative, we majorly support health and overall well-being, as well as working with amazing, outstanding people such as my great friend Mike Goncalves whom I've collaborated with in the past – with both design work and otherwise. That's why I'd like to share a new program that Mike is launching today! Read on if you value your health, fitness and rocking your days!

It seems like more than ever before we are living in a time where most people are putting their health and well-being last on their list of priorities.

Either because of limited time, lots of other responsibilities, or a lack focus and mental discipline.

For one reason or another, health and well-being ends up at the bottom of this list even though when asked about it, we all would agree that our physical & mental health is a priority.

Even though we know this, we just aren't sure what to do or where to start to make health & fitness a priority.

That’s why when I heard about my good friend Mike Goncalves creating a 30-day step-by-step experience for entrepreneurs committed to mastering their time, health, and business – I knew I had to share it with you.

TODAY, April 25, 2017, Mike is launching Entrepreneur Fitness Academy!

A 30-day experience for entrepreneurs committed to taking their health & business to the next level.

Having worked with entrepreneurs from all over the work for the past 17 years, Mike's created a 30-day online experience to get you from where you are today, to where you want to be.

Whether your goal is to lose weight, get fit, leaner, feel stronger, boost your confidence and energy, workout regularly, or double your business profits, Entrepreneur Fitness Academy will get you there.

My call to action for you?

Click here and check out Entrepreneur Fitness Academy that just launched TODAY!

Entrepreneur Fitness Academy will provide you with the guidance, resources, and accountability necessary to make you, your health, and well-being the priority.

Because when you're feeling your best, you'll be your best in all you do.

Just an FYI too... there's only 50 spot available in the academy and chances are they'll fill up quickly.

Thank you for checking out what Mike has going on. It means a lot to me!

Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, T-shirt or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

Photo Exploration in Paris with Expert Photographer Gregory Berg – “Reflecting The Light In Paris”

Cheers Creative Enthusiasts!

I hope you are enjoying your month of March with the topsy turvy weather many of us are experiencing. We are enjoying our snow days here in Alexandria, Virginia knocking work out while we enjoy the occasional warm fire. Creative juices flow better with some warmth! 

I am so excited to share an incredible opportunity with you! I have had the sincere pleasure of meeting, getting to know, and working with a superbly talented and expert photographer by the name of Gregory Berg of Enso Photography. I had the good fortune of meeting him at a life-changing retreat I attended last year with The Connection Effect which I wrote about here in this blog post featuring Greg’s outstanding photography. On this retreat, I had brought a brand new camera that I was excited to try out. Greg took time out of his busy schedule to show me not only how to best operate the camera, but how to maximize the beauty of the pictures that I captured. He is a prince among men, incredibly capable, and an all around fabulous human being that I have recommended to those in need of a great photographer. 

He has an incredible opportunity for those that would like to take advantage of it! He is creating a special one-time event called Reflecting The Light In Paris from June 13 – 17 this year with Gregory as your guide in a custom photo exploration and workshop. Wow! So cool! Please click the image below to learn more about this kickass opportunity if you are so inclined:

Here are the details spelled out:

— Experience the magical light of Paris through your camera & develop your personal lens.

— All skill levels welcome! DSLR or interchangeable lens cameras recommended.

— Features daily group and one-on-one instruction plus independent exploration!

— Customized itineraries will be tailored to your interests and schedule!

— Space limited to 12 participants, so sign up now!

Cost: $1,300   Deposit To Book: $500   
Click here to REGISTER

Paris is such an amazing city (I got engaged there even!) and I would love to partake of this amazing event if I am able to. Maybe I'll see you there!

__________________

Giant Leaps Creative would not be where it is today without the love, encouragement and support of these fabulous, inspiring and special people in my life. I thank you in the sincerest way that I know how. And I also thank all of you for reading this post and being here today, supporting one girl’s dream. May you have a fantastic year ahead, and I wish you many happy days!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

Major Gratitude for 2016 & Loads of Excitement for 2017!

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

Happy New Year, wonderful people! I hope your year is off to an amazing and inspiring start! To get my year off on the right foot, I have a tradition that my first post of the year is a massive “Thank You” shout out to many who are helping make my humble, boutique creative & graphic design business a success! We have been in business since August of 2014, and the awesome projects and excellent work that makes me come alive just keeps coming through our creative doors, and I could not be more grateful! Please help me get this year started right with major kudos to some amazing people in my life that help Giant Leaps Creative jump for joy! Let’s get this party started! Yeah!

Without further ado and in no particular order, I would like to thank:

1) Mike Goncalves – This AWESOME human not only gave me the idea to create this "thank you” post annually, but we have been working together throughout the past year and beyond on many projects together! We both have a constant thirst for knowledge and pushing to excel. We have taken online courses together, done fitness challenges with his mission The Wellness Bucket, attended transformative retreats, and I know more awesome collaborations and adventures will come in 2017! Mike, I respect and admire you and your dedication to your work more than you know, and I so value your generous and amazing friendship! 

2) Chelsea Dinsmore – Live Your Legend’s inspiring leader and champion Chelsea took the torch from her amazing husband Scott after his passing in 2015, and I could not be more proud of her. Scott – with Chelsea by his side – created courses and products with one mission: to help people all around the world find and do work that they love, work that makes their heart sing. Through his course and lifestyle, he helped teach me to run my business leading with generosity and gratitude (with a good dose of fun thrown in!). Nothing can stop this man's legacy from continuing on... both via Chelsea, myself and so many others across the globe. I am so incredibly proud of Chelsea (and amazed!) at her achievements in carrying on Scott's awesome mission and honoring his memory so beautifully, including her awesome presentation at this year's WDS. Chelsea, you are a marvel and an extraordinary woman that I admire!

3) Naz Murphie / Leah Hynes – These Terribly Awesome Twins of The Connection Effect from “down under” have helped rock my purpose, my business and my life! After having made their acquaintance in Live Your Legend's How To Connect With Anyone Course, with their support and encouragement my achievements only keep growing in a positive direction! Their epicly awesome retreat that I attended in Utah last April was completely transformative, highly productive, and majorly community building for me. As I write this, I just spent an illuminating weekend with a fantastic colleague that I met at that very retreat (Michael Garofalo). You ladies freaking rock, and I value your friendship and mentorship! I hope to see you soon!

4) The Wider LYL and Connection Effect Community – No one does it alone. Starting and running a business is no exception. The Power of Community has proved to serve me, my mission of making the world a more beautiful place – one logo and branding package at a time – time and time again. We need to believe in ourselves and what we are trying to do in the world to truly make an impact. These global communities of friends and colleagues ALL are AMAZING and I am truly grateful that you are in my life! I would like to give a special shout out to Troy Young, Dorene Wharton, Harry Lewis, David Ryan, Steven Briginshaw, Bryce Eldridge, and Ellen Watkins. Thanks for your undying support, creative talents, inspiration and positive, joyful energy! Love!

5) Cat Knott – This extraordinary human – whom I yet again met in the How To Connect With Anyone course (see a theme here?) – is hugely inspirational, talented, awe-inspiring and someone that I hope is a colleague and friend for the rest of my life. She and I have collaborated on many projects throughout recent years, including her book design and branding, my website designs, and much more. Cat, if I don't tell you enough, I kinda love you BIG TIME! Your talents and enthusiasm for life, helping others excel, and being a quality human are infectious. Keep going! I got yo back always!

6) Roberto Torres – Running a graphic design business takes lots of hard work, great technology running smoothly, and an awesome team backing it up. This fantastic human is incredibly talented and disciplined at many things including all things technical, working tirelessly to make sure all systems are running smoothly. If my computers are not speaking nicely to each other, it is a challenging day that slows me down – and this lady likes to move forward expeditiously and with the support of a quality team! Thank you, Robert for your wisdom, your talents, your dedication, and being someone I can count on. You rock!

7) Eric Olson & Jeanne Broadwell – Having the support of our families while we go forth and do our best to rock our own lives and businesses is highly important. I shudder to think where I'd be without my amazing husband Eric and my kickass sister Jeanne. These cool cats are not only a ton of fun, but loving, supportive, super smart, talented and I am so damn lucky that they are part of my family. Through thick and thin, these special people hug me close and cheer me on, no matter what I am reaching for or how outlandish it seems. Love you guys to the moon and back!

8) Pauline Goulah – This seemingly fearless, amazing woman started her own graphic design business, Goulah Design Group, about 17 years ago. She worked as one of my lead designers in my creative department way back in the MacVicar Design days, and over the years we became wonderful friends and co-designers, and now are both female entrepreneurs who own our own respective businesses. She is currently part of my advisory team for Giant Leaps Creative and I highly value her insights and wisdom. Thanks for all that you do to help make the world a more beautiful place full of empathy, compassion, beauty and love, Pauline. You rock!

9) Dr. Daamini Shrivastav – I met this fantastic woman through the wonders of social networking and blogging well over three years ago now. I helped crowdfund an important project she was working on, and we became fast friends. Daamini believed in me and my writing abilities, and my passion for helping other people. And she asked me to help her father’s hospital in the UAE, Conceive by authoring the blog, Slow Swimmers & Fried Eggs (SS&FE) that I write with my husband about our struggles with infertility in an international effort to help others who also struggle. Thanks for believing in me across all of those miles, Daamini. I am so happy to report that we got to meet in Boston again this past year alongside my co-author Eric so I could thank her in person! You are just a lovely and gorgeous human being! Let's keep rocking the SS&FE podcast! Stay tuned for more episodes. Yes!

10) Sandy Burkhart – Working tirelessly and efficiently, my bookkeeper Sandy helps keep me line and on budget. I appreciate her diligent and efficient work, and how patient she is with me when I get behind schedule. Sandy also is never shy about singing my praises to other prospective clients and letting them know about the services I offer at Giant Leaps Creative. Sandy, I really appreciate all of the support, hard work and cheerleading over the past year! You are an amazing woman and I am so glad that you are part of my team!

__________________

Giant Leaps Creative would not be where it is today without the love, encouragement and support of these fabulous, inspiring and special people in my life. I thank you in the sincerest way that I know how. And I also thank all of you for reading this post and being here today, supporting one girl’s dream. May you have a fantastic year ahead, and I wish you many happy days!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

Honored to Share My Live Your Legend Transformation Story & Interview

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

I am deeply honored, humbled, grateful, and touched to be able to share my transformation story and interview blog post that Chelsea Dinsmore of Live Your Legend (LYL) posted this week. But this was not just a blog post or just an interview to me – this was a journey that started back in 2007 when my father first was battling cancer, the spiral downward that happened after that, and then the years of clawing my way back up all the way to this very day. My story was not an easy one to tell. I got teary at least once during the interview with the beautiful and encouraging Nazrin Murphie and Leah Hynes – two women who inspire me every day and I cherish as business coaches, colleagues and dear friends. Yet I was STOKED to share my story in an effort to help others that might be struggling through depression or a challenging period of their life.

Scott Dinsmore – founder of Live Your Legend – and his course How To Connect With Anyone came to me at a critical and needed time of my life (back in August of 2014). I will be forever grateful to Scott, Chelsea, Nazrin, Leah and all of the amazing people that I met in the LYL community who support and encourage me to this very day! No one does it alone! And be mindful of who you surround yourselves with. I am grateful beyond words for this amazing, diverse and truly kickass community!

Click the image to go to the Live Your Legend website, read the blog post, and watch the recorded interview. Photo Credit for “After” Photo: Jae Yi Photography.

Speaking of how amazing this community is, I am deeply humbled to read some of the comments that poured in from the LYL community since this post went live. These comments illustrate how incredibly important it is to speak out and share our stories, no matter how difficult they are to tell:

“What an inspiring story, Cathy! I knew some of this... but not all of it. It was great to learn more about you... and hear more about how LYL and CWA impacted your life at such a critical time. Loved it!” — Ellen W.

“I already thought the world of you, Cathy, and after listening to this interview, I have even more respect and admiration for your drive and all you do – so awesome, so inspiring, just like you :) Cheers to you, Cathy... YOU my friend, are awesome!” — Mike G.

“I relate very much to this ‘before’ pic. I’m kinda inbetween the two at this point. Congrats. You are a beautiful person, I can see that in the interview. Very deep and strong. Great job keeping it real for us, Leah and Naz. Thanks for this.” — Lauren S.

“Thanks you for your authenticity, Cathy, you are a beautiful, amazing and very inspiring person!” — Lilli L. 

“You’re even more of an inspiration to me, Cathy! Thank you for sharing your story.” — Steve B.

“Awesomeness, Cathy! Thanks for sharing your story! <3 you, girl!”  — Yazminh

“Very inspiring. Thank you for sharing your story.” — Elza D.

I am blown away by the response so far to this post. Thank you, Scott Dinsmore, for being a beacon of hope for me when I was wondering if there was no tomorrow, if I was even strong enough to start my own business, and if I could ever find true happiness again. Today, partly thanks to Scott and all of these amazing people he introduced me to through the community he created from scratch, I am ecstatically happy, grateful, and just amazingly PUMPED UP every day when I wake up. I know that my mission is to help make the world a more beautiful and loving place. And I do it one logo, one design, one podcast, one performance, one blog post, one conversation at a time — and I LOVE it! To infinity and beyond! Truly!

Click the image to go to the Live Your Legend website, read the blog post, and watch the recorded interview.

Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, T-shirt or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

We Won A Davey Award for Website Design! Small Agencies. Big Ideas.

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

I am writing you here from Giant Leaps Creative today filled with gratitude and glee! I am absolutely honored and humbled to recently find out that a website design that I created this year won a Silver Davey Award in the Website Design category under the “Strange & Unusual” category. It is hard to describe the feeling of utter amazement and elation when we learn that our hard work has paid off in recognition from our peers via an award. But I can tell you, it feels fantastic! I highly respect the Davey Awards and what they are doing for small agencies and businesses, recognizing our often overlooked achievements, big and small. I am humbled to share the exhilaration of receiving this award along with the other incredibly talented agencies and firms, especially the Best of Show and the Gold award winners. Big huge congratulations to all of the winners of the 12th Annual Davey Awards!

Want to learn more about The Davey Awards or enter next year? Click the photo to visit the website as well as see the other prestigious and talented winners!

ABOUT THE DAVEY AWARDS
The largest and most prestigious awards competition exclusively for the “Davids” of creativity. With nearly 4,000 entries from around the world, your work is among the best small firms provide worldwide and deserves to be recognized.  
 
David defeated the giant Goliath with a big idea and a little rock – the sort of thing small agencies do each year. The annual International Davey Awards honors the achievements of the “Creative Davids” who derive their strength from big ideas, rather than stratospheric budgets.
 
Think of yourself as a “David?” Then enter the Davey Awards, the first major awards competition specifically for smaller agencies, where you compete with your peers to win the recognition you deserve.

The Giants Behind the Davey
The Davey Awards may be for smaller companies, but the judges have big reputations. The Davey is sanctioned and judged by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms.
 
AIVA members include executives from organizations such as Condé Nast, Disney, GE, Keller Crescent, Microsoft, Monster.com, MTV, Push., Publicis, Sesame Workshops, The Marketing Store, Worktank and Yahoo! and many more.

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Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, T-shirt or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

Creating Workshops from Scratch with Beautiful Slides & Activities & Then Show Time!

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts, 

I am writing you on the other side of attending and presenting at a conference about relationships and communication in Columbus, Ohio. I attended this conference last year and loved it! This year there was a majorly important difference than last year from my end: I created from scratch and presented two communication-related workshops! What an honor! I find myself wanting to help others on their respective journeys through life and love any way that I can – doing my part to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others. So I applied to present at this year’s conference. The difference this year is I have more experience, more time, and truly valuable skills and wisdom to share – both due to my own life adventures, and also because I am mid-way through a coaching certification program. Yay!

Lo and behold, I was accepted. So in August, I turned my spidey senses on high gear, and took notes of my favorite techniques at workshops I attended at such epic events such as World Domination Summit and my IPEC Coaching training. From September through show-time, I worked on my two workshops – conceiving them, doing research, planning the welcome bag handouts, creating the complementary PowerPoint decks, and allowed time to practice. I wanted these workshops to have as high impact as I could make them! Last Sunday, I presented the workshops at my home four times to practice in front of a small live audience. They gave me GREAT feedback and valuable insights. 

Take note: Passion, integrity, a good cause, and the desire to help can propel us all to achieve more. In times like these, we need to stick together and help each other. Nothing was going to stop me from rocking these workshops – I was as laser-focused as I could be. In the end, I was pleased with the results. Nothing beats someone telling you “your presentations were so helpful and right on point with a lot of the challenges we are going through right now.” YES!!!! Another couple told me how much they loved the workshops, that my slides were beautiful, and they loved all of the participation I incorporated. I’m SO GLAD! That makes it ALL worthwhile. Let’s do it again! Whoot!

Two of the books that I used as reference to conceive, create, and present my two workshops. 

I did a ton of research to create these workshops. Three books that helped me immensely are below. I found that creating a great workshop can be truly an art!:

HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations by Nancy Duarte (recommended to me by expert speaker and science-based people skills expert Vanessa Van Edwards – THANKS!)

Power of Participation by Adrian Segar (recommended to me by Joel Zaslofsky – THANKS!)

Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentation by Garr Reynolds (found this one mah-self)

The Workshop Welcome Baggies: Before (contents only – left) and After (assembled – right). 

To create something truly awesome, no one does it alone. Never under-estimate the power of community! Therefore I want to give extra special thanks to Ellen Watkins, Rick Clemons, Shadeen Francis, Frank Macri, Mark Schall, Ryan Mantione, Dr. Elisabeth Sheff, Billy Holder, Bob Harrell, Gena Seroogy, Jeanne Broadwell, Robert Torres, Eric Olson and to all of the attendees to my workshops (both the practice runs at my home and the live workshops). I could not have done this without you and all of your help. I appreciate it more than you know, and am forever grateful. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me if I can ever help you in your endeavors as well. I'm ready, willing and able!

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Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, T-shirt or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

World Domination Summit 2016 – Stories of Connection, Inspiration and Kindness

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

Another year of answering the question:
“How to live a remarkable life in a conventional world.”

Another year of amazing connections made deeper, inspiration to last a lifetime, and awesome reminders that acting with kindness will get you far in life. 

The sixth World Domination Summit (WDS) conference in Portland, Oregon has come and gone. But the lessons, relationships, and takeaways will take me well beyond awaiting WDS 2017. Though the full main stage attendees were limited down to 1,000 this year, this event was just as fantastic and mind-blowing as ever! Created by Chris Guillebeau (author of many books including the latest “Born For This”), this event creates magic under the tents of “Community, Service and Adventure”. And for the attendees, life will never be the same afterwards because you can’t un-see or un-hear all of the fantastic-ness! I am forever grateful in boatloads to Chris for creating this event, putting together an amazing team to turn it into reality, and masterminding its success year after year!

This photo exemplifies how I feel about attending World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon. It features the WDS Concierge Jedd Chang jumping for joy with friends. Photo credit: Armosa Studios

The WDS team leads through example from the word “go”! There are non-stop gatherings, meet-up groups (one of which I hosted as did several of my friends/colleagues) and “socials” that are more than simply “networking opportunities.” They are events filled with joy, laughter and gleeful squeals as people from literally all over the world come together to meet in-person for the first time or alternately discover brand-new lifelong friends. These remarkable explorers and adventurers all share in the vision that is WDS adding to the sense of community. Then of course, there is the event itself which includes an outstanding opening and closing party, and of course the speakers themselves on a gorgeous, innovative, and colorful stage. Coming from the standpoint of creativity and thinking outside the box, this event is completely outstanding, and for me not to be missed. 

Nazrin Murphie and Leah Hynes of The Connection Effect take the main stage. I’m so very proud of my business coaches, colleagues and friends for their success. Photo credit: Armosa Studios

Here is a snapshot of some of my biggest takeaways that I brought home to my design studio and my life:

“Happiness is a skill we can learn, and the CAUSE of success (not be-CAUSE of it). So her question to us: ‘What are you waiting for?’ Also... anger doesn’t oppose happiness, it CONSUMES it.” – Vanessa Van Edwards, founder of the Science of People, researcher and motivational speaker

“How you do anything is how you do everything. We need to want to go on even when we don’t know how. Be endlessly curious (versus shutting down). We’re only alone when we choose to be, as we are in this together. When you do work you love, you give a gift to everyone around you.” – Chelsea Dinsmore, Chief Inspiration Officer of Live Your Legend

“If only we can see ourselves from the outside, we can see all of our beauty. You will step forward into growth or back into safety. What would you do if you weren’t afraid of disappointing others? Doubt kills more things than failure ever will.” – Michelle Poler, fear de-bunker and graphic designer

“Don’t take for granted the privilege of pursuing our dreams. To truly experience the world, know that sometimes it’s going to kick your ass. Be grateful for every opportunity you get to live your life. We all have a short amount of time that we are given. Our responsibility is to leave a legacy, have an impact, and make a mark with love and compassion in our heart.” – Zach Anner, author of “If At Birth You Don’t Succeed” and motivational speaker

“People want to help their loved ones struggling with illness and loss, but don’t have the tools. Being in the position of the person with the illness or trauma is often very lonely and scary. Understand and come to peace with your past and be pulled into your future.” – Emily McDowell, cancer survivor and owner of Emily McDowell Studio

Chelsea Dinsmore of Live Your Legend delivers a powerful and moving presentation, touching on her dearly missed husband Scott and so much more! What an inspiration! Photo credit: Armosa Studios

Those are some pretty kickass take-aways – and that’s only some of them! I am THRILLED to already have my golden ticket to attend next year. Look for another update in approximately 350 days. Whoot!  #WDS2016

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Want to read more blog posts from attendees of this spectacular weekend event and conference? Here’s more sharing from my inspiring and talented friends:

10 Blueprints on How To Make a Difference and Change The World (by Mike Goncalves)
World Domination Summit: A Crazy Cult or Something More? (by Dave Ryan)
Why Joy and Sorry Can Co-Exist (by Dorene Wharton)
Stay Hungry (by Kristen Blake)
...and much more to come! Check back. 

From left to right: My amazing sister Jeanne Broadwell, myself (wearing a T-shirt that I designed for Live Your Legend, Mike Goncalves (owner of the The Wellness Bucket and my client), a new friend we met in line, and the awesome Kristen Blake. Photo credit: Armosa Studios

Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, T-shirt or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

Celebrating Two Wonderful Years in Business Alongside a Live Your Legend Post!

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts!

I cannot believe two years have gone by since Giant Leaps Creative opened its doors. What an honor it has been to serve my spectacular clients! I have really enjoyed celebrating each of their stories, passions and missions here in these blog posts. When I started this business, there were three tenets that I built the foundation on:

1) Generosity

2) Gratitude

3) Listening

On the day of Giant Leaps Creative’s second anniversary in business, I am so honored to have been featured in a Live Your Legend blog post. I find it fitting that the first quote that they feature is this:

“The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention.”
–Rachel Naomi Remen

Listening can be such an underrated skill and gift that we give each other. I do my best to really listen closely to my client’s needs, goals, wishes and desires. I find out exactly what they are looking for, what they are passionate about, what their vision is, and then I do my very best to give it to them. Thank you to each and every one of you, my clients, for allowing me to serve you with my talents and skills in a manner that creates a win-win for each of us! Yes! That’s what it’s all about! And each of my clients has given me gifts in return. 

“The Mutually Beneficial Results from 7 Real-Life Stories of Living Legends Connecting with Uber-Successful People” blog post.

I have had the absolute privilege of creating magic doing work I love with Scott and Chelsea Dinsmore of Live Your Legend, and I will cherish those experiences for the rest of my life. The gift that they have given me in return is the friends, colleagues, and business partners that I have found in the larger Live Your Legend community. The other gift LYL gave me is the hope and courage to rock this entrepreneurial adventure, but also the bravery to reach out to other entrepreneurs that I greatly admire to use their mad skills as my mentors. One such mentor is NY Times best-selling author turned friend and colleague, Karen Salmansohn. Read all about how I achieved this awesome goal in the LYL blog post. I am honored to be featured in this post alongside some amazingly talented, passionate, and highly skilled colleagues of awesome! Thank you LYL Team! You guys rock! See you at this year’s WDS next week!!

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Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, T-shirt or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

“The Flipside of Failure" Ebook by Elizabeth Miner of Thrive This Day

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

Once again I have had the pleasure of working with some fine people recently. Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Elizabeth Miner for the first time at the World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon. I found her to be a breath of fresh air and a lovely human being. I got to know her even better recently at The Connection Effect’s Utah Retreat back in April. This was an incredibly immersive environment of positive world-changers all looking to create something great in an effort to help our fellow human beings out there any way that we can – because giving back feels just so damn good... for everybody!

Well giving back is exactly what Elizabeth Miner and her business Thrive This Day is all about. She is on a mission to help others succeed and thrive – whether they are coming from a disadvantaged place and digging their way out of a big hole, or creating large shifts in their career and looking to achieve greatness. I was absolutely honored when she came to me to create the cover of this inspirational and amazing book full of her hard-earned educational tools to achieve success with any endeavor. It was a blast to create a visual representation that spoke quickly to how any one of us can flip our fortune and circumstances around if we just set our mind to a goal, and then work diligently towards achieving that goal. In a word, this book ROCKS and anyone can benefit from the awesome tips that are inside. 

To get your copy of “The Flipside of Failure”, just click here or the image above. 

My great friend, David Ryan – who also attended both events I mentioned above – I thought put it best. Thanks for letting me borrow your words, Dave. You are a great writer. :-)

Have you found it difficult to attain the success you've been looking for? Have you tried to set goals you thought were achievable, but seem to have a hard time reaching them?

You might be making some easily remedied mistakes in your goal-setting process.

Luckily for you, a very dear friend of mine, Elizabeth Miner, has just released her new book: The Flipside of Failure. In it, she offers a program that breaks down each step in goal achievement to ensure maximum, repeatable success. 

Are you tired of seeing success just beyond your reach? Read The Flipside of Failure and finally achieve the greatness you've been looking for!

[By the way, this is NOT an affiliate link and I get nothing from this financially - just the warm fuzzies from helping out a friend!]

And in the author’s own words:

This is a unique time in history when countless amazing opportunities are possible to so many people. So why is it so difficult to succeed?  

The process that has been taught to set and accomplish goals is inadequate and doesn’t take into account the vast amount of competing activities in the calendars of those wishing to achieve more out of life. 

The Flipside of Failure is the missing ingredient to your achieving success. This program takes each step in goal achievement and breaks it down to insure maximum, repeatable success. 

Pick up this copy of “The Flipside of Failure” and join me as we work together to dream, plan and achieve the life and goals you seek. 

— Elizabeth

Sign me up, Elizabeth! This is exactly what I need right now for various projects that I am working on. I love your no-nonsense, get right to the point attitude with tangible methods to success. THANK YOU so much for sharing your gifts and your light with the world. We need people like you to guide us to better and more productive places, helping us all achieve more together. You are AWESOME!!!

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Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, T-shirt or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

Utah Retreat De-Brief: Outcome? Weekend of Epic Proportions of Awesome!

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

Left: Group shot of retreat attendees and workshop facilitators. Right: Front shot of the Timber Moose Lodge – which is the largest privately-owned log cabin in the nation. 

I am still enjoying the afterglow of an amazing business retreat in Timber Lakes, Utah that I wrote about earlier on this blog here. This game changing and fantabulous retreat was created out of thin air by two women I have really come to respect and adore: Leah Hynes and Nazrin Murphie of The Connection Effect. I met these fine women through a course I took right when I opened shop here at Giant Leaps Creative – a course conceived and written by a mentor and friend of mine – the late Scott Dinsmore. It was a special treat to me that his wife Chelsea Dinsmore was in attendance at this amazing event. I finally got the chance to tell her in person how strong and resilient I think she is, as well as what an amazing impact her husband Scott, his teaching, and his communities such as Live Your Legend has had on my life. What a gift to be able to express that! I’m honored to be a co-host of the Live Your Legend (LYL) chapter in my area of Northern Virginia. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity, Naz and Leah, more than you know. I bring the LYL flag that I designed for Scott to every single meeting and take our goofy shot with my selfie stick with great pride in his honor! (OK, now I'm getting weepy). 

Left: Leah Hynes and Nazrin Murphie hyper-engaged in educating us. Center: Logo design that Giant Leaps created for The Connection Effect that was featured on gift tote bags to all attendees (previously on t-shirts). Right: The unstoppable Mike Goncalves of The Wellness Bucket leading us in super-charged fitness workouts focused on releasing our inner greatness. 

This retreat’s focus was on sharing Naz and Leah’s secrets of building hyper-connected communities to accelerate your impact in the world. They promised to create at this amazing lodge a space of connection, collaboration and community-building with other purpose-driven entrepreneurs. And let me tell you – it did not disappoint. From the word “go” this was a super-charged, exciting and thought-provoking event at every turn. From the hugs and high fives when we walked through the front door, to the super-hero themed welcome party, to the many highly engaging workshops throughout the weekend, we were on fire with massive immersive learning, diving deep into each other’s missions of creating greatness in the world. Many of us arrived as strangers with unique missions, but we left as close friends with a deep connection and unified purpose with surprisingly overlapping goals. 

All attendees and facilitators proudly displaying our artistic canvases that we created as a brilliant group effort being lead by the amazing Ellen Watkins and her creativity workshop.

One of my biggest takeaways from the event was a concept that occurred to me as I was on my voyage home. To be a success at putting greatness out into the world that has a massive impact, it takes four key elements much like a four-legged chair. The chair cannot properly stand without all four of its “legs” or foundations. It takes smarts (a great idea or mission worth sharing), focused action (no action = no impact), courage (the bravado to go for it!) and a community of like-minded individuals supporting you. The last element – the supportive community – assists with all three of the previous items by helping you see that you can do it or picking you up when you “fall facedown in the arena”. If you are going to dare greatly, be certain that you will eventually fall down from time to time. No question. And no one gets to great places alone. Yet without ALL FOUR of these elements, you either won’t make any impact at all, or you won’t make as big of an impact as quickly as you could or should. And who wants that?

To me this was a profound and extremely helpful thought to guide me and help me see the path that lays out before me. What’s my next move? Who do I need to talk to next to achieve my goals? What’s my next product? Who would be an incredible addition to my team? And what do I focus on now, versus what can wait until next year? Powerful stuff. 

Left: Our incredible private chef for the weekend, Kris Dews preparing sushi for the team. Right: One of the delectable spreads that Kris lavished us with. So delicious as well as nutritious! She is a marvel and a master chef. So grateful for her gifts at the event. 

Finally I want to wholeheartedly express my gratitude here to first the facilitators. Naz and Leah – I cherish your friendship, your guidance, and your constant cheerleading. I know for certain that I would not be where I am today without your support, your teaching, prodding and poking. You are experts at getting me out of my comfort zone – which is partly what entrepreneurship is all about after all. To beautiful Ellen Watkins – you absolutely floored me and blew me away with how amazing your creativity workshop was. Absolutely brilliant! Kudos to you, my friend! To the awesome-sauce Mike Goncalves – thank you for helping inspire greatness in me everyday. Both the human you and the bobble-head you are constantly nodding YES – I am awesome! And I thank you immensely! Running bear hugs to you! To the rest of you lot: Whether I knew you before or we just met, I think you all are amazing, courageous, geniuses in your corner of the world, and have huge hearts. I am honored to call you friends, colleagues, educators and saviors. Please know that I support you in all your endeavors, today and every day. You rock!

I am humbled. I am grateful. I am at your service. 

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Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, T-shirt or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

PHOTO CREDIT: All photos featured here by the amazing Gregory Berg of Enso Photography

Remembering a Purple-Clad Innovative Legend, Prince

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

Many people often ask me: Why the purple hair? I get compliments or even just comments quite often about my dark purple tresses. Why did I choose that color? That’s pretty easy. 

In one word: Prince.

In a longer explanation: hey at my current age, I have been going grey for many years now. If I have to dye my hair (and I do “have to” as I am not going to age gracefully – I’m going to kick and scream along the way), I might as well have some fun when I cover up the greys in my aging mane. Purple is super fun! Maybe in my 60s, I’ll reverse it to all white hair with one purple streak. Who knows?! Have some fun, people!

But all joking aside, many know that purple is my favorite color. It has been for many many years. And I can thank Prince for that. Prince (and Madonna) were the first two creative and innovative artists to help me develop my own sense of style, if you want to call it that. Many joke around that I need to throw out all of my 80s clothes that I still hold onto which apparently are no longer “stylish” – but hey! I like wearing costumes and vintage is even cooler! While Madonna taught me to embrace fun, lacy things and adorn my hair with girly decorations if I so choose, Prince taught me to fall in love with the glorious color purple and to rock an outfit, even if it makes a bold statement. 

Prince Nelson Rogers – an artist who masterfully blended R&B, pop, funk, jazz and rock – was such a positive influence on my life and someone that I have always admired. In a world of conformists, Prince helped show us all what it means to be innovative, courageous, march to the beat of your own drum, and not compromise on artistic integrity, no matter what the cost. And yet with that type of “just-watch-me-and-my-purple-clad-arse” attitude, he catapulted himself to major success and stardom so that he could continue to do it his way in style at every turn. I loved that he showed us that men could wear frilly, white, pretty shirts in the modern age and still be masculine and attractive – as well as in that tiny, densely-packed-with-awesome frame of his. Thus he also proved to this 5’1” framed gal that great fantastic things can certainly still come in small packages. Thank you, Prince for helping me believe in myself, my own creativity, and rock my short stature despite myself. 

One of my favorite places to listen to his mind-blowing and innovative music was the basement of my childhood home where I could really focus alone if I wished. I would study the album covers, lyric sheets, his logos, artwork and symbols and revel in the artistry of the images, his beautiful words, and his perfectly coifed hair and purple-adorned ensembles. I’d sit in a 70’s style creaky wooden chair with red plastic-covered cushions, put the huge cumbersome (yet comfortable) white and black headphones around my ears (and entire head it seemed), sit inches from the stereo with the big-ass headphone plug shoved into the receiver, have the Purple Rain album spinning on the turntable with lyric sheet in hand, and soak into and memorize every single word. I’m there right now. Nice! Wow do I look dorky with my braces, shaved head with teased top coif and a “tail” popular back then. THAT’S where I learned that it was OK to look different and revel in my uniqueness!

Prince, I want to thank you and tell you how grateful I am that you helped shape my formative years, giving me permission to experiment, be creative, find my own passion like you found yours, and rock da haus, yo! You inspired millions, showed us what excellence and dedication to your craft looks like, and taught us all to never ever give up. Rest in peace, genius. Find that purple banana. And of course, if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy and punch a higher floor! Love you, miss you, and I honor you with my whole heart. 

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

Fare-Thee-Well to a Legendary Typography Teacher, John Langdon

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

Ah, the end of an era. One of my favorite teachers from college that I wrote about here is moving on to the next phase of his life. I am thrilled for John Langdon as he embarks on an epic journey to the sunny side of life in California leaving my alma mater, Drexel University and the my hometown of Philadelphia behind – but with many fond memories, and even more grateful and humbled students. I met John for the first time in 1988 when this fresh-faced girl with a pencil and paint brush in hand landed on Drexel’s campus wondering what to do with this artistic talent that I came upon honestly. My paternal grandfather had in fact also graduated from Drexel with an architecture degree taking night classes when the “main building” was the only structure to speak of many many moons ago. John’s Farewell gathering was held at the URBN building lobby – which is a gorgeous structure for today’s design and media students that was opened up about three years ago. I wonder if these students know how good they have it compared to the graphic design program’s humble beginnings at Nesbitt College of Art when I was the third graduating class. Back then, I felt honored to be taking classes at Nesbitt under John and many other fine teachers, such as Sandy Stewart and Jack Cliggett who were also in attendance Friday, April 1st (Yes, April Fool’s Day! – but there were no "fools" there to be sure!)

Left: Ambigram created by John Langdon. Can you figure out what it says? Answer in a moment. Right: Promotional poster of John Langdon’s work featuring his ambigram/logo work. Answer: “Advanced Typography.”  :-)

I had an absolutely fantastic time, even when I was "fanboying” John asking him to sign my copy of his Wordplay book that he wrote about ambigrams and the art of logo creation back in 1992. He was also sweet enough to sign my copy of one of my favorite books of all time, Angels & Demons (Dan Brown) next to one of his mind-boggling ambigrams that he created for the storyline. It was heartwarming to hear the often hilarious and complimentary stories told of John and his antics as a punchy professor of graphic design. So many good times, and great memories. I will spare you pics of John with his chained wallet on his jeans and me with my 80s coif and turquoise earrings. Use your imagination and enjoy that bit of nostalgia sans proof of it! :-)

From left to right: Drew Fader, Marita Podder Gray, John Langdon, Kerry Fader, myself (Cathy Broadwell), Mike Welsh – Class of ’92, Graphic Design Program, Drexel University. SO GREAT to catch up with all of you cool cats! I'm thrilled that you attended! 

John, you were and still are one of my favorite teachers of all time. I am in your debt for the excellence in typography that you instilled in me, my love of the yin/yang symbol, and the playfulness and joy that I find in typographic shapes and graphic art. I loved working with you while enjoying my career and I have every confidence that we will again! Stay in touch, my awesome friend! You ROCK!

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Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, T-shirt or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

“Power Of One: Preventing Suicide in America” Movie Preview & Discussion – Arlington, VA

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

Last week my great friend and client, Alivia Tagliaferri promoted her upcoming documentary “Power of One: Preventing Suicide in America.” in my own neighborhood, featuring a panel discussion. I went with some colleagues to help support her on her mission of creating a positive change for those suffering from mental illness and/or depression. She displayed marketing materials that we had worked on together for this event that was held on Tuesday, March 8th at Bus Boys & Poets in Arlington, Virginia. 

There was a great turnout of attendees all eager to hear Alivia's message and learn more about the stories of families struggling with the effects of suicide, so that we could all learn how to make a difference in preventing such tragedies. Alivia stresses in her message that it is incredibly important talk about mental health to help reduce the stigma around this sensitive topic. Dealing with suicide means creating a dialogue to connect communities around the nation struggling with the problem. Alivia Tagliaferri urged people to “keep the conversation going.” 

Alivia Tagliaferri giving her presentation in support of her upcoming movie “Power Of One", and reducing the stigma around depression and suicide. 

I will share with you some of the valuable information that we featured on the “story stations” that we displayed in the reception area to help create a meaningful dialogue:

MYTH
Suicide can’t be prevented. If someone is set on taking their own life, there is nothing that can be done to stop them.

FACT
Suicide is preventable. The vast majority of people contemplating suicide don’t really want to die. They are seeking an end to intense mental and/or physical pain. Most have a mental illness. Interventions can save lives. 
    ~ American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

Story Stations and marketing materials that we created together on display at the event in Arlington, Virginia.

DID YOU KNOW?
•    Over 40,000 Americans died by suicide in 2012. 
•    An estimated 26% of Americans ages 18 and older – or about 1 in 4 adults – live with a diagnosable mental health disorder. 
•    Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death among teenagers and young adults. 
•    67% of college students tell a friend they are feeling suicidal before telling anyone else. 
•    Suicide killed more service members in the U.S. Army than enemy combatants in 2012. The number of military spouses and children dying by suicide is currently unknown and untracked.
•    22 veterans die by suicide every day. 
•    Middle-aged men and women between the ages of 45 and 59 have the highest suicide rate in the U.S. 
•    Men who are 75 years or older have the 2nd highest rate of suicide. 
•    In 2013, the most recent year for which data is available, 494,169 people visited a hospital for injuries due to self-harm behavior.

90% of people who take their own life have
at least one and often more than one treatable mental illness, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and/or alcohol and substance abuse. 

With better recognition and treatment, many suicides can be prevented.

Panel discussion with Kristy Kaufmann, Earl Granville, and Alivia Tagliaferri.

SUICIDE PREVENTION ORGANIZATIONS
National Suicide Prevention LifeLine – 1-800-273-TALK
Suicide Prevention Resource Center – www.sprc.org
National Foundation for Suicide Prevention – www.afsp.org
National Alliance on Mental Illness – www.nami.org

If you would like to contribute to help Alivia raise funds to complete her documentary, Power Of One: Preventing Suicide in America, please click here. 

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Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, T-shirt or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

Interview for Empowered Women Revolution with Casey Lightbody

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

Recently I had the honor of being interviewed by my great friend and colleague, Casey Lightbody to share the story of my journey with her community at Empowered Women Revolution. Her mission is help foster a global community of women with small voices who have big dreams, one courageous, gentle step at a time. I am so fortunate that I got to know and work alongside Casey through an online course that I took called World Changer’s Blueprint (rypl.rocks/courses). But I also was thrilled to meet her in person as we both strived for excellence by attending the World Domination Summit together last summer in Portland, Oregon. She is just as lovely, vivacious and enthusiastic in person as she is online. It was a delight to share my story of overcoming shyness and self-doubt in my youth, and share tips and strategies for how I have made bravery a “practice” and utilized tenacity in my own personal life and career to achieve my dreams. 

With Casey’s mission at Empowered Women, daring ladies share how they faced both the highs and lows that come up along the way of living a life with heart and passion. Her previous interviewees all have such wisdom and a wide rage of tools in their belts to live extraordinary lives, and she shares this wisdom and practical tools they use with the world through her podcast to help other’s learn along the way. This interview with Casey helped me realize just how privileged I’ve been over my personal development journey to meet such a wealth of inspiring souls, all of whom are leaving a beautiful mark on this world. I am proud to have a generous spirit such as Casey in my circle.

Casey is a true inspiration and just rocking her life and her mission! I am so proud of her and her work. In her own words, here is Casey’s vision for her Revolution:

“This is a space for quiet women entrepreneurs to connect, collaborate, commiserate and celebrate. A place where you’ll be welcomed, embraced, challenged and supported by other women just like you.

We know what it feels like to live the crazy, frenetic life of chasing a vision. To try and blaze a trail while juggling the (let’s face it, never-ending) demands of your business, your life, your friends and your family. To be filled with passion and determination, but be held back at every turn by secret fears and doubts.

We’re here to share our experiences and yours, to laugh and cry with you, to cheer you on - and above all to make sure that the challenges you face never bring you to your knees.

We’re here because we believe with all our hearts that for self-conscious, heart-filled women like us, the support and conviction of a strong, loving community is absolutely essential.

That together we can empower each other to not be held back...to find our voices and achieve our dreams!”

Click the image above to listen to the interview. We would be honored if you would take a brief moment to leave a short review in iTunes about this podcast.

Casey! Thank you so much for the opportunity to be a voice to help your community any way that I can. I never would have been able to venture off on my own and start my creative agency without overcoming my bouts with shyness, self-doubt and fear. Giant Leaps Creative would not exist without overcoming those challenges. My hope is that more and more people will find your work and overcome their own challenges to help make their own lives and thus the world a better place for all of us! Cheers! Keep up the great work!

Folks, if you are so inclined, I invite you to subscribe to Casey’s Empowered Women podcast and rate and review it in iTunes if you like what you hear. :-)

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Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, T-shirt or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

Branding Case Study: Witopia Corporate Logo and Product Logos

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

Last summer, Giant Leaps Creative was fortunate enough to have been introduced to a new client thanks to my bookkeeper, Sandy Burkart. (Thank you, Sandy!). Founded in 2003, Witopia found a way to deliver complicated and expensive security technology over the Internet as a set of managed services. Among other things, they developed a hosted platform to secure and manage wi-fi networks, as well as perform Wireless Intrusion Prevention, all over the Internet.

Today, customers in over 160 countries use Witopia for VPN services. People from every country on Earth secure and privatize themselves online through the Witopia network. Their services will help ensure your online privacy as well as provide secure encrypted access to the Internet from anywhere on the globe. Bottom line is that they know what they are doing, and that’s a good thing since they are handling something as important as your data. 

Current updated Witopia corporate logo and newly created product logo for PersonalVPN.

They came to Giant Leaps Creative to help re-brand their Witopia corporate image (created over twelve years ago), their existing products such as PersonalVPN, as well as brand new products in the pipeline, such as SecureMyEmail. We knew that we wanted the updated look to be clean, professional, forward-thinking and hip, as well as trustworthy, but not TOO corporate. I chose an easy-to-read sans serif font that is approachable, and combined that with modern, technical, abstract type of logomarks to help relay the the services that Witopia offers. We are pleased with the end results that you see above and below, and are in the process of creating their style guide which will be implemented across the board in their marketing materials. 

Click above to check out Witopia's Indiegogo campaign for their upcoming product SecureMyEmail.

Indiegogo Campaign

Witopia recently launched an Indiegogo campaign to help them finalize their new product, SecureMyEmail, which will make any email address, safe, secure, and private with end-to-end encryption…for $0.99 a year! With SecureMyEmail™, only you and your intended recipients can read your email and the attachments. No one…not your email provider (Including Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft), an identity thief, or even us, will ever be able to read your email again.

Why the Indiegogo Campaign?

To do this right has taken an astonishing amount of money and effort. The good news is, after over two years of really hard work, runaway spending, and breathtaking quantities of caffeine, they are almost done and just need some additional support for the final push!

What will the funds be used for?
– Finishing up and testing the Apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android
– Deploying production infrastructure in Switzerland
– Exclusive launch in April 2016 for all early beta access perk holders
– A free year for the invitees of beta access perk holders, and their invitees, and their invitees…until we switch to a paid model (they will keep this rolling as funds allow)

Click here or the image above to learn more about the campaign. There are lots of fun perks too! I invite you to check it out. 

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Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, T-shirt or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

Game Changing Retreat in Utah with RYPL to Create Your Impact! April 22-24th

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

Would you like to be part of a ground-breaking approach to making your impact?

Join me and 24 other game changers for 2 ½ days of hands-on learning, mentoring & fun where Nazrin Murphie and Leah Hynes of RYPL will share the secrets of building hyper-connected communities to accelerate your impact in the world.

A Space of Connection, Collaboration & Community Building with other Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurs.

I can vouch for these fine Aussies that they know how to create an impact and build hyper-engaged communities! I have known both of them for over a year and a half now, having met them when I took Scott Dinsmore’s How To Connect With Anyone course. As my mastermind leaders, they helped me launch my Giant Leaps Creative boutique design studio, supported me in creating this website, and start building my own communities in many areas of my life, including quality design, effective marketing, and a network of amazing people I can call on when I need them. We attended Pam Slim's Indispensable Community Tour and workshop in Philadelphia last August at my alma-mater Drexel University. We had a blast together learning techniques that we could all use moving forward. 

This coming April, I will be joining them for a real treat of a retreat! If after reading this post, you would like to join us, there is a special discount going on until midnight PST February 15th, so get your spot while it's hot! Please read on if any of this interests you...

With over 26,000 square feet of living space, Timber Moose is the largest private log cabin in the United States. Timber Moose sits on 12 private acres in the Utah mountains with commanding 360° views, visible from its 9,000 square feet of outdoor decks and balconies.

What’s Included?

• 2 1/2 days of transformational learning, and strategies and tools to build hyper-engaged communities so that together you can build a business that enables you to make a real impact on the world.
• Friday night welcome party where you will learn and practice our #1 QuickStart Connection hack to help you not only build fast and deep connections with your house buddies but to begin to build your ability to create hyper-connection with others (including your community)
• Intensive group workshops, presentations, and mindset group coaching from licensed Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Meta Coaches (Leah & Naz) where you will be able to shift the mindsets that have been holding you back from taking the action you need to make your difference. 
• Smaller workshops led by experts in creativity, fitness, community building and more! So many retreats fail to focus on the entire picture. We have invited some amazing facilitators to help you get creative unlocking your hidden talents. And without exercising your body you cannot exercise your mind.  We have the fitness side of things taken care of too. This is going to have your poised to be in your best condition to get the very most from the weekend.
• Indoor/outdoor games & purposeful team fun.  It is not all about ‘work’ – fun is just as important to help you unleash your very best. 
• Options for recharge activities including: meditation, yoga, fitness activities, and nourishing food.
• Luxurious lodgings in a stunning natural location so you can also unwind, relax and more easily soak in and retain all the important learnings and connections you make over the weekend.

At the end of this experience you will …

• Know how to Build a Business With a Small, Hyper-engaged List
• Have made the crucial mindset shifts to create trust and foster lifelong connections with peers, clients, and raving fans
• Discovered the Common Myths About Building An Engaged Community
• Know how to balance body, mind & soul for the long-haul entrepreneurial journey
• Discover how to step into your power.
• Experience how to use your innate creativity to make serious progress toward your impact.
• Be sure about how to use accountability to accelerate your journey.
• Have made connections and possible collaborations in the pipeline with fellow participants.

Various pics of Naz and Leah literally creating hyper-engaged communities, revelry, and general awesomeness. That's my sister and I in the bottom right photo with Naz, Leah and our colleague and friend, David Ryan at the Art Museum in Philadelphia. 

If interested, there is a special going until midnight PST, February 15h. Otherwise, the retreat is full price after that. 

Whether you join us or not, stay tuned for a follow up blog post after the event to report on how it went, what I learned, and how it will impact my business here at Giant Leaps Creative. 

Can I help create your promotional materials for your important, world changing mission or business, or help you with your new website launch, branding, T-shirt or invitation design? I invite you to contact me so that I can offer a free consultation and price quote for any of your design needs. Have an awesome week and happy creating!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC

Filled with Gratitude and Enthusiasm for 2016!

Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,

Happy New Year, you cool cats! I hope your year is off to an incredible and inspiring start! How is it February already? To start my year off on the right foot, I have a tradition that my first post of the year is a great big “Thank You” shout out to many who are helping make my humble, boutique creative & graphic design business a success! We have only been in business since August of 2014, and the awesome projects and excellent work that makes me come alive just keeps coming through our creative doors. And I could not be more thankful! Let’s get this year started right with these kudos to some amazing people in my life!

Without further ado and in no particular order, I would like to thank:

1) Mike Goncalves – This amazing human not only gave me the idea to create this "thank you” post annually, but we have been working together throughout the past year and beyond on many projects together! We both have a constant thirst for knowledge and pushing to excel. We have taken online courses together, done fitness challenges together (he helped me lose 10 pounds!), and now we even write blogs together! Mike is the lead author at the B Method for Conceive Hospital, and I occasionally contribute a piece there as well. We also will be working side by side to redo his branding this year for his amazing fitness mission, The Wellness Bucket. Mike, I respect and admire you and your dedication to your work more than you know, and I so value your generous and amazing friendship! 

2) Scott and Chelsea Dinsmore – Words may fail me to do this justice. In 2015, the world lost a great man that I had come to call my friend as well as an amazing inspiration to me. Even with his tragic passing in September of last year, nothing can stop this man's legacy from continuing on... both via myself and so many others across the globe. Scott was and is an incredibly inspiring man who created his own revolution at Live Your Legend. He created courses and products with one mission: to help people all around the world find and do work that they love, work that makes their heart sing. Through his course and lifestyle, he has helped teach me to run my business leading with generosity and gratitude (with a good dose of fun thrown in!). I had the honor of getting to know Scott working side by side with him on many projects. I was able to meet his lovely wife Chelsea at Scott's memorial service in San Francisco, and I am so incredibly proud of her (and amazed!) at her achievements in carrying on Scott's awesome mission and honoring his memory so beautifully. Chelsea, you are a marvel and a strong woman that I admire!

3) Naz Murphie / Leah Hynes – These Terribly Awesome Twins from “down under” have helped rock my purpose, my business and my life! After having made their acquaintance in Scott's How To Connect With Anyone Course, I eventually opted to join their first ever World Changing Blueprint course which spanned literally the entirety of 2015. What an epic community these ladies have created! I had the pleasure of making their acquaintance at The World Domination Summit (WDS) in Portland, Oregon and with their support and encouragement, my achievements only keep growing in a positive direction! You ladies freaking rock, and I value your friendship and mentorship! We are also working together on their branding for their business, Rock Your Purpose Live! Yes! Stay tuned for updates!

4) WCB Team and Dorene Wharton – Naz and Leah really know how to create a hyper-engaged community, and that they have with the World Changer's Blueprint community that I am proud to be a part of. The talented, inspiring, dedicated and generous individuals in this group helped sail all of us to new heights! We cheered each other on and helped one another as we each did our part helping make the world a better place in each of our respective corners of the world. Every single one of you I am blessed to know. Thank you! We collaborated on such projects as the Heropreneur Project, Your 52 in 52, and Out of the Blue where I had the pleasure of being interviewed. I want to give a special shout out to my accountability partner, colleague and friend, Dorene Wharton, co-founder of Travel Life Experiences. I was lucky enough to be able to meet her and her talented husband Troy Young at the WDS conference in Portland in August. Your friendship, support, collaboration and insights are invaluable to me. 

5) Eric Olson, Jeanne Broadwell, Steve Knickerbocker – Having the support of our families while we go forth and do our best to rock our own lives and businesses is highly important. I shudder to think where I'd be without my husband Eric, my sister Jeanne, and my brother-in-law Steve. These cool cats are not only a ton of fun, but loving, supportive, super smart, talented and I am so damn lucky that they are part of my family. Through thick and thin, these special people hug me close and cheer me on, no matter what I am reaching for or how outlandish it seems. We also got to enjoy each other's company at, you guessed it, WDS in Portland last August. What an epic adventure that I'll never forget! Let's do it again! (oh right, we are!) Love you guys to the moon and back!

6) Pauline Goulah – This seemingly fearless, amazing woman started her own graphic design business, Goulah Design Group, about 16 years ago. She worked as one of my lead designers in my creative department way back in the MacVicar Design days, and over the years, we became excellent friends and co-designers, and now are both female entrepreneurs who own our own respective businesses. She is currently part of my advisory team for Giant Leaps Creative and I highly value her insights and wisdom. We also are working alongside each other taking Brené Brown's course, the Living Brave Semester. I am loving it! I highly recommend the book, Daring Greatly and Rising Strong! Thanks for rocking the course with me, Pauline.

7) Dr. Daamini Shrivastav – I met this fantastic woman through the wonders of social networking and blogging well over two years ago now. I helped crowdfund an important project she was working on, and we became fast friends. Daamini believed in me and my writing abilities, and my passion for helping other people. And she asked me to help her father’s hospital in the UAE, Conceive by authoring the blog, Slow Swimmers & Fried Eggs that I now write with my husband about our struggles with infertility in an international effort to help others who also struggle. Thanks for believing in me across all of those miles, Daamini. I am so happy to report that we got to meet in Boston this past year so I could thank her in person! You are just a lovely and gorgeous human being!

8) Alivia Tagliaferri – I have known this fabulous woman for years through mutual friends, and always knew she is an outstanding author, writing about causes she believes in. But today, we are now enjoying collaborating our efforts for her upcoming documentary, Power Of One: Preventing Suicide in America, a cause that I stand behind as well. I am honored to assist her with my creative services for her project. She also collaborated with me by conducting an interview for my blog mentioned above. I was thrilled to help her with creating story boards for the debut of her documentary this past September in her hometown of Williamsport, PA. So impressed with her work for an important cause. You rock, lady!

9) Rich Rodgers and the GoSend Team – Rich has been an incredible friend of mine for... wow, over a decade now. An incredibly smart, diligent and ambitious man, he always has new business ideas up his sleeve with innovative ways to get them implemented. He was one of my first clients here at Giant Leaps Creative, and I have loved every single minute of working with him and his team at GoSend. I had the honor of joining Rich and the GoSend team in Las Vegas last month for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), helping them with their graphics needs on the fly, and helping man the GoSend booth at the show. What a great learning experience and a ton of fun! I see great things happening for GoSend and I hope to help any way I can!

10) Sandy Burkhart – Working tirelessly and efficiently, my bookkeeper Sandy helps keep me line and on budget. I appreciate her diligent and efficient work, and how patient she is with me when I get behind schedule. Sandy also is never shy about singing my praises to other prospective clients and letting them know about the services I offer at Giant Leaps Creative. Sandy, I really appreciate all of the support, hard work and cheerleading over the past year! You are an amazing woman and I am so glad that you are part of my team!

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Giant Leaps Creative would not be where it is today without the love, encouragement and support of these fabulous, inspiring and special people in my life. I thank you in the sincerest way that I know how. And I also thank all of you for reading this post and being here today, supporting one girl’s dream. May you have a fantastic year ahead, and I wish you many happy days!

To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.

Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC