Poi Fire Dancing Spinning Performance & Twirling (Hoop Staff Fans Also)

If you’re like me and you started your business in your home, you may be wondering if it is time to take the plunge and expand into a permanent space outside your house. Here are 4 signs that your business has outgrown your space and you may want to consider expanding into an office full time.

1. You can afford to move your business out of your home and get a dedicated space. This is a huge criteria and when you are able to expand in that way, if you’re seeing clients a lot, this will give your organization a new level of credibility.
2. You have more clients in your home than friends and you don’t want to live with the footprint they leave behind. This seriously impacts your quality of life and should be considered carefully when expanding your business.
3. You have a contractor (or more than one) who is working for you on a regular basis and you really would rather not have them in your home. Furthermore, you would like them to report to a space on their schedule, not yours.
4. You do not have enough space in your home to manage the workload that you have flowing through it. This could be deliveries, packaging, the paperwork, desks, a meeting area for business meetings — all of these should be considered.

As we near the end of the footage from the 2007 Expo (most of the rest was either off stage or the sound didn’t), here’s a fun little student piece featuring the oldest and youngest performers of the evening. This 5 person piece features Gen as the oldest performer (58 at the time) and Danica as the youngest performer (13 at the time) of the evening with three other hot ladies in the middle. This is a student performance which was the premier fire performance for most of the students. Enjoy this set as Delicious takes the stage.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (27.2MB)

Here’s a mini interview I recently did and I thought some of the things I wrote might be inspiring to people starting their own business, wanting to live their dreams, or perhaps simply interested in learning from my experience. Hope you enjoy.

Q: What does entrepreneurship mean to you? Why is it important?

Entrepreneurship is creativity, possibility and the reality of people living their lives on their own terms. It allows individuals to dream and from those dreams, build realities that are thriving and sustainable which is important not only as inspiration for others, but as a way of satisfying our selves as individuals on a spiritual level.

Q: When did you know the startup route was for you? Was it a lifelong dream? Was there one life-changing event? Was it something that developed over time?

From 21-26 I did independent consulting but the idea of actually starting my own company did not happen until I got fired from my corporate job in my early 30’s. Unsatisfied emotionally and spiritually by the repressed environment and constraints my job put on me, I decided to try my hand as an artist. A year later, I started the first poi fire dancing school in the world and what has unfolded in the last 7.5 years is beyond what I had even imagined in many ways, even though it is not yet as big as I know (and imagine) it will be.

Q: How did you evaluate joining or starting a startup vs taking a corporate job? What were the specific metrics you used or events that made the decision clear for you?

For me it was all about wanting to express myself more. A few weeks before I got fired I was told, literally, “You’ll never get ahead in this company if you continue to wear glitter to work.” I decided that wearing glitter was more important to me than making a 6 figure income. It wasn’t so much about the glitter as it was about being able to express myself as an individual. So for me it was about my personal joy and self expression, which made the choice easy. And, I told myself, I can always go back — I’ll always be qualified to step into their world — but will I regret it if I don’t try making it on my own?

Q: How did you approach starting your business? Did you have a longstanding idea that you transformed into a business or did you start out with no idea at all?

I actually used this career facilitation process I now use with others where I gathered information about my skills (trained abilities), talents (innate abilities), ideologies (what meme’s I wanted to support), path (my purpose on planet earth in this life time) and boundaries (what I must have/what I won’t accept) and after making lists and cross referencing things, I came into this experience. I was operating from a space of tabula rasa which really helped. If you told me 10 years ago I’d be doing what I do now, I would have laughed in your face at the absurdity of it.

Q: What have you learned about yourself through all of this?

I’ve learned more than I could possibly articulate. That said, here’s a few key lessons:

• I’ve learned I can endure
• I’ve learned I can create a vision and manifest it in the world
• I’ve learned that as a trail blazer, if people aren’t biting at your heals, you’re not successful
• I’ve learned that holding space for a vision you are inspired by, while difficult, is perhaps the most rewarding day to day activity you can do
• I’ve learned that faith is more powerful than money
• I’ve learned that being true to myself leads to more overall health than thinking I need a good income to ensure I can pay for health insurance
• I’ve learned that I am now and always will be someone who changes the world around me and to deny it by suppressing the parts of myself that other’s don’t agree with is both a spiritual crime and an impossible task
• I’ve learned that who we are in this world is not the accomplishments we have under our belt
• I’ve learned that living on the edge is more rewarding than living in cubicle city
• I’ve learned that we all have so much more within us than we ever express
• I’ve learned that conscious capitalism is a lifestyle choice we sorely need in this world
• I’ve learned that I can redefine myself again and again and again and again . . .

In short order, Temple of Poi will be offering an Instructor Circle program. This program will consist of monthly teleconferences led by Temple of Poi Founder, Isa “GlitterGirl” Isaacs, addressing various topics relevant to flow instructors both related to how to run the business as well as how to most effectively teach clients.

We’re looking for input on content for the upcoming Instructor Circle tele-seminar series I’ll be facilitating and I’m wondering what would be most interesting that would support you in:

• making more money teaching
• teaching more effectively
• taking the plunge and starting to teach as a means of making money/supporting your hobby
• run your small flow business more effectively

Some of the topics we’re considering right now are:

• How to create win-win solutions for clients: marketing in a down economy
• How to manage a classroom: different rates of learning, challenging clients
• managing your reputation with clients: maximizing positive press and smoothing over troubled situations
• learning from other instructors: how to model another teacher’s material to learn from it and learn how to teach it
• trouble shooting techniques: what to look for and how to assist clients as they struggle with learning
• generating coursework: developing courses that encourage repeat business with your clients
• operations: finance, contracts, liability, and covering your ass

Please let us know what topics would be most interesting to you and maybe we’ll include them in the teleconference. If your topic is selected, you will get a discount on that teleconference, so help us out and post your topic ideas!

I first started dancing at Sunset Parties the day before my 29th birthday (if you’re not up for the math, that’s 1998). One of the things I really loved about it was that I was in the midst of a bunch of dancers vibing off their energy and that was feeding my dancing. Of course, I didn’t really start relating to it that way until much later when I reflected back on it and started to realize how much I really like to dance.

As I started to play with poi, my poor skill and the subsequent space requirements at dance parties relegated me to the back corner of the room. Ug. What a bummer. I was not able to play in the crowd and rather than being one of the dancers on the floor hanging out with my friends and vibing off the flow of the crowd, I was one of the side attractions on the way out the door.

For my 40th birthday, I went to LA and visited with Randy and Spencer and we went to Billy’s Society party. I had a great performance, and, later on in the night was even more fun. I can recall the two of them sitting on a couch in a narrow hallway on the way to the rest rooms and I wanted to be spinning and not sitting down. So I just started whipping out my ogg poi in the narrow hallway. On one side was a glass fronted display case and the couch on the other. Between the couch and the display case was perhaps 2.5-3 feet of space.

At that point, I was playing with being able to do moves and interact with people as they were walking to the bathroom. It was a fun little game and it was so interesting to see how different people responded — some fearful, but most playing with me and moving with me as I was doing my tricks because they recognized I was very aware of them and they could see I was skilled with the poi.

I’ve been out dancing a few times since then and done this a little bit, but last night something amazing happened. I was with my Illuminaughty crew — my first Burning Man family — at the Dia De Los Muertos fundraiser. The space was small and the sound system was intimate, so I really wanted to be on the main dance floor. And, I wanted to be dancing with my poi. And there really was no space for me to go for it with long poi. And, I wanted to dance with my friends. Later, at the afterparty , with an even smaller dance floor and disco ball overhead, I was in the same situation.

I started playing this game of, “How Close Can I Get?” And I had some huge breakthroughs! Because of the tiny space, I would go between dancing without the poi and dancing with the poi wrapped up in my hands. What I noticed is that I really started using my body in new and different ways with the poi because I was both watching out for hitting my friends while also trying to really go for it and maintain my high NRG dance style. I was amazed by how small a space I really needed to be able to flow with the crowd and I had an awesome time just being one of the dancers on the dance floor AND also using my poi at the same time. I was right in the midst of dancers — not up against a wall, at an exit, or even off the main floor like I was in the past. The dancing was really much more body oriented than normal and the movements, while fun, were much more in connection with the flow of the dance floor itself than in connection with the tricks of the poi, even though I definitely did some tricky things.

If you’re a dancer and you get all juiced by being on a dance floor, there is nothing like being in the midst of “your people” and playing with your poi. Of course, you have to get competent enough with the poi to do this. . . which is the game.

And, I really have to admit, I wouldn’t do this with the same level of NRG I had last night on just any old dance floor. These people know me and trust me with my poi and are also somewhat forgiving (well, very forgiving — thanks Chris!) if I brush their legs  with the poi. Still, it’s a game worth trying for all your poi dancers out there!

Have fun and I hope you end up as happily sore as I am today!