good businesses – Bridging the Paradigms: re-connecting people and the planet

Introducing LaBelle Construction

October 28, 2011 by Robyn

At Alchemy West and our magazine, Bridging the Paradigms, we promote community: from creating healthy, balanced lives with our animals, homes, businesses, and nature to creating connections between good businesses and good people.

Let me introduce LaBelle Construction, and my adopted godson, Vincent LaBelle, and his friend and coworker, Brian Meuller. Viincent is a general contractor, and Brian is a skilled tradesman.

I call Vincent my adopted godson because he’s my beloved goddaughter’s brother, and I decided I needed another godchild and latched onto him. Sometimes life is easy like that. And it means I can say he’s a great man and fabulous musician (trombone! plus he records for ‘avant garde jazz musicians’). He’s also worked for me, and I will vouch for him being a wonderful general contractor. Here’s what he has to say about his business:

“LaBelle Construction specializes in restoration, renovation, remodels, and repairs of old homes (pre-1950). We are a full-service general contractor capable of everything from framing to finish work, kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, painting, drainage and waterproofing, and much more. And while we specialize in older homes, we are more than happy to work on any project you may have. We’re a small operation, and we’re happy to take on small projects and repairs. See samples of our work at www.labelleconstruction.com.”

Call Vincent. Interested in a remodel or simple projects? Call him.

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: business ethics, good businesses

Choosing Our Way in the New Economy

October 15, 2011 by Robyn

He didn’t mean to make me smile.

He had been loitering by my shopping cart.

We were both stocking up on office supplies. I was, as usual, simply exhausted by the choices. Wouldn’t life be easier if we didn’t have so much to choose from?

Think about it. I do. A lot. Even choosing a donut is fraught with anxiety: should it be raspberry filled, triple chocolate peanut butter, lemon glazed, or pistachio cream cheese?

With so many options, is it a really a donut, or a lifestyle choice?

Okay, maybe donuts are a lifestyle choice, but, really, isn’t it less stressful, less complicated, and equally satisfying to order coffee and a cruller than a caramel macchiato and a blueberry coconut cake donut? While we’re standing there, weighing our choice as if it really mattered, have we done one thing to connect with the people around us, made one step towards building community?

Yesterday in the office supply store the choices weren’t nearly as delectable as donuts. From the store’s towering shelves to the competing bins of goods it was confusing, tiring, and boring. I needed supplies to keep my business running and I’d had a traumatic few weeks. Which is to say I had a lot on my mind and it wasn’t just donuts and office supplies.

I was headed back to my chock full shopping cart when I saw him.

Mid-thirties, clean cut, he stepped away from my cart as he caught my eye and shyly waved at my cart. “I was leaving you something.”

He shrugged sheepishly, then walked back to my cart, picked something up off my stack, and handed it to me. “I thought you could use this.”

It was a coupon for $30 off a $150 purchase.

I laughed and thanked him. We smiled at each other and he left.

Just like that, the day got a whole lot better.

This is the thing I like about the new economy. Yes, it seems like people are a whole lot meaner and greedier. Fear seems to have stripped many of us down to some desperate level where we run right over anyone, or anything, we even suspect might be in our way.

But even more people are paying attention and reaching out to connect, even as simply as handing a shy smile and a $30 coupon to a frazzled stranger.

Those are the things that keep me going. I’m still overwhelmed by the choices in things we can buy. Fewer choices would be simpler, but it might not be better. Don’t know.

What I do know is that sometimes the choices are simple. As easy as handing a stranger a coupon and getting a smile back.

These are the choices I’m liking in the new economy: how we’re finding simpler ways to connect.

What are you choosing?

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: business ethics, creating community, culture, good businesses, inspiration, new economy

Living on the Planet of Awesome and Forever

October 6, 2011 by Robyn

I live on the Planet of Awesome and Forever.

I have proof.

Sometimes my planet is real and physical: I revel in the sun and rain, the dark and stormy, the people and the beings who make me laugh and think while challenging me to be my best, no matter what.

Always my planet is a state of mind, clear in the choice of love over fear.

Love drives the Planet of Awesome and Forever. There are a lot of us here. It’s time for everyone else to join us. Here’s why.

I keep hearing how bad things are out there, how desperate people are, how survival means anything goes.

Well, anything does not go. Not on the Planet of Awesome and Forever. Here’s what that means for me.

In many ways 2011 has been a wonderful year for me: I won a prestigious national award for my book, I launched a new kind of intuitive consultation practice—a partnership with my crystal, Fallon—and I’ve met fascinating new people on their own amazing journeys. It’s been both humbling and exciting.

I’ve also faced stunning difficulties:

a virulent flu that derailed most of my year
a crisis that both complicates and enlightens my future
people who learned from me and then stole my work
people who expected me to work for free while they paid themselves (welcome to the new feudalism)
negligent and uneducated vets who endangered my dogs

So here’s what I did:

I took time to get well.
I looked for alternatives that make life easier for me and for my family.
I turned some matters over to an attorney.
I strengthened my resolve to model compassionate, thoughtful interactions.
I continued to quietly build a business that enriches my life as it serves an enlightened community.
I’m bringing the vets up on charges. Oh, you better believe that one!

And here’s what happened, just in the last few weeks.

I am finding answers that are healthy and make sense.
I discovered attorneys can be a good thing, and that controversy can both enlighten and strengthen.
I decided that if I’d had a choice 20 years ago, I’d still choose the pain and limitations of being disabled and having to reinvent a life over being an asshole and a thief and never finding my path.
If you open yourself up to love, fear just bounces the hell off:
- I’ve made wonderful new friends who think my intuitive practice with a partner who’s a crystal is intriguing, fun, and worthwhile.
- Neighbors came running to help my recovering dog.
- A close friend whose mother is dying raced to the vet ER and massaged a painful kink out of my shoulder.
- A dear friend who is undergoing her own family crisis cheerfully bathed my stinking dogs in exchange for a home-cooked meal.
- Two wonderful vets who love my dogs expertly cared for them.
- I finally met my eldest dog’s ‘grandma,’ and we’ll be celebrating life, love, and Cavaliers with her and her family next week, on what will be my multi-species family’s 13^th anniversary together.

Life is awesome!

Choosing Love Over Fear in a Practical World

Here’s what I know. Choosing love over fear doesn’t solve all our problems, because we won’t always agree. But choosing love does model our choices.

My experiences this year have sobered and intrigued me. What I and so many people see out there is troubling and encouraging. Troubling, because serious problems exist. Encouraging because many people are choosing healthy, compassionate ways to explore and resolve them.

We urgently need to define community, whether it’s our work or our social life. How do we want to live together, and how will we?

Make no mistake: living on the Planet of Awesome and Forever is not naïve. It is not turning a blind eye to the problems. It recognizes the increasing hostility in our society, the strange personal and business meltdowns that are justified in the name of survival. The disquiet is everywhere. I’m not the only one who’s noticed.

Make note: it is not only humans who are concerned. Remember, I work as a professional intuitive, I talk with all manner of beings, and they, too, are advocating change.

It’s time for change.

The first change is a truth check:

Anything goes does not work.
None of us will survive if ‘survival’ defines our lives.

So here’s a plan:

Quit counting the desperation.
Start counting the awesome.

Here are my awesomes.

I have the world’s greatest family: a woman, two dogs, and a cat are proving that we’ll always be a family, in body or not, because on the Planet of Awesome and Forever love endures.

If we have to have bad days to get to the good ones, then we will. And we’ll make them count. Because there’s no other real, practical, inspiring choice than love. It’s awesome. And forever.

We live on the Planet of Awesome and Forever:

Where nothing is too hard or too much work or too painful
Where all beings are held responsible for their choices: firmly, compassionately, clearly
Because love and truth are always, always awesome and forever

It’s time to take back love, and community. It’s time to stand up for what’s right, to dig deep into conflict with patience and respect and compassion.

It’s time.

Come join us on the Planet of Awesome and Forever.

It’s your planet, too.

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: bridging species, business ethics, creating community, family harmony, good businesses, human-animal bond, inspiration, intuitive communication, multi-species families

How a Company’s Raffle Prize Helped an Animal Shelter

September 13, 2011 by Robyn

On the weekend before the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show back in February I attended a pet writing conference in New York City, the day before I won the Merial Human-Animal Bond Award for my book, Bridging Species: Thoughts and Tales About Our Lives with Dogs. Yay!

It was a fun weekend and I met some fabulous people. Winning the Merial Award, a coveted prize in the dog writing world, plus a cash grant, was wonderful. The recognition for writing about new ways to think about the human-animal bond felt great.

I also got lucky and won a raffle prize from Hartz at the writing conference. A few weeks later this enormous gift basket arrived in the mail, full of Hartz treats, combs, brushes, a toothbrush, toys galore, and a wonderful note from Jennifer Dombkowski, Integrated Marketing Manager at The Hartz Mountain Corporation.

It was far more than my multi-species family could use, although these pictures prove that they were fascinated! And, yes, played with a toy or two.

The feature photo here is a shot of the complete gift basket at our vet’s office in Port Hadlock, WA, as the gift was on its way to the Jefferson County Animal Shelter. (My apologies to Hartz, as the gift arrived perfectly wrapped, but was inexpertly unwrapped and rewrapped by, you guessed it, me.)

Thanks to Hartz’s generosity at a pet writing conference in New York, a group of homeless dogs and cats in rural western Washington had some fine treats and toys. Jefferson County’s animals have taken a hit with the tough economy, and this briefly helped.

Every time you think that a nice gesture doesn’t count, think about what tossing a business card into a raffle basket can do for an animal near you. Yep, a nice advertising plug for a company, and a good benefit to some needy animals.

Awesome and forever, two of my favorite words.

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: animal care, bridging species, business ethics, cats, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, good businesses, human-animal bond, multi-species families

How We’ll Make the Economy Work Again

September 9, 2011 by Robyn

We’ll get the economy rolling again when we start taking it—and ourselves—seriously.

That means we start saying ‘NO’ because we should have said that way back at some crazy point when buying things became convenient, and price and ethics didn’t matter.

What is a fair price? What is a fair profit? How do we exchange goods and services so everyone is comfortable?

Granted, this is a big discussion, but it all comes down to one thing: how we create a worldview that includes an economy that makes sense for all of us.

Like this:

The big retailers are now into ‘rollbacks.’ Yay, they’re reducing prices so goods are cheaper. Score one for … can’t say.

Because what were they doing before? ‘Rollforwards?’ Scoring bigger profits than they needed? So they needed to ‘rollback’ to keep us buying?

And you still do business with them why?

Give a good, sound, win-win answer to that for all of us and our economy will work again.

For all of us.

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: business ethics, business mentors, good businesses

It’s Summertime: Lavender and Good Business Are Both In!

August 27, 2011 by Robyn

It’s been a strange summer in Seattle, in fact, two stranger summers in a row. Cooler than normal, and damp when it’s usually dry.

But all’s well because the lavender is here!

I use lavender for my business. I keep huge bunches of the grosso variety everywhere, clumped in vases, draped over towel racks, and enjoy it all year.I keep bunches of the giant Hidcote variety, modernist yet exuberant, in my bright, busy office. Lavender is everywhere here, because it’s our home and our office.

I teach out of my house. My home is a carefully balanced place where many beings visit, many who aren’t human, as my intuitive practice involves talking with all life. My home is a peaceful, energizing space where students come to study storytelling and learn how to intuitively communicate with all life, where clients come to meet and work with me and my crystal partner, Fallon, the citrine Lemurian quartz sphere.

True confession: it’s sometimes difficult for me to do business. I have particular views about how the world should be run, and how we should live in it. I don’t always live up to my ideals, but I believe in tolerance and grace, respect and compassion, humor and good judgment.

That’s why my lavender is important. It is beautiful, it is one of the few plants Grace the Cat won’t eat, it smells great, and it’s a wonderful, vibrationally clearing plant.

I use lavender to make a clearing, cleansing product I make: Fallon Lavender Salt. It’s a combination of coarse ground Himalayan sea salt from Solay Wellness and lavender, in proportions that both look and feel good, which is then infused by my crystal partner, Fallon. It is a unique product, and it makes me laugh, because I never thought I was a crafts person, but then I never thought I’d be an MBA with a crystal ball, either.

But the product itself works first because I only buy the elements of it from people I trust and respect. Salt from Solay Wellness, where I’ve also purchased salt lamps and salt products for over four years. Lavender from Cedarbrook Lavender and Herb Farm in Sequim, Washington.

For two years now I’ve happily called Marcella Stachurski at Cedarbrook. I receive prompt, courteous service, advice on handling the lavender, and neighborly interest in exactly what I did with that much lavender. This year was a strange one: the lavender was a month late, even for the reputedly dry climate in Sequim.

I am impressed with businesses that make an extra effort, particularly in a time when even basic courtesies are missing from our dialogue and behavior. It makes a difference to me that the owner of Cedarbrook was particularly concerned to find the longest-stemmed lavender for me, in a year when it just wasn’t warm enough for the lavender to grow as tall as it usually does. How she decided not to send a variety I was interested in because it didn’t meet “her standards,” and generously gave me extras to make sure I had enough.

I will appreciate their good business for the next year, and so will my family and my clients. Every time I look at the lavender I’ll smile and think that a simple brief business connection yielded a few minutes of warm conversation and an order created just for me, and for my business.

It’s not hard to do good while doing business. I don’t know why it doesn’t happen more often, but for now I’m grateful my lavender is here. We’ll sleep well for the next few weeks as it dries. We’ll smile at our house. We’ll do good business in the coming year, because good people have done good business with us.

Isn’t that the way it should be?

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: business ethics, good businesses, intuitive communication, lavender, Solay Wellness

Yellowstone: It’s Why I Buy Canon USA

August 9, 2011 by Robyn

Sure, I love my Canon printers. Even the non-techies among us can use them, and if you can’t, they have excellent customer support. I should know: this summer the kind folks at Canon have had to help me install my printer drivers for two printers on three different occasions, as I dealt with computer issues.

Sometimes it isn’t always a great product or great service that makes me like a company. Sometimes it’s what the company does.

In this case, it’s Yellowstone.

Yellowstone National Park is one of my favorite places. I’ve been going there since I was a kid. Thanks to Canon USA, I can go there every day via the webcam service they sponsor.

Every day I get to smile and enjoy Yellowstone, from Old Faithful to Mammoth to Lake Yellowstone.

I don’t get paid to promote Canon, or to tell people what I like. I can say that people always look at the bad things in life, forgetting that there are more people, and businesses, who take the ‘bad’ out of things every day. I’m happy they are there, building community, one person, one business, one national park at a time.

Sure wish I’d known about the Yellowstone webcam before I bought my digital camera. I’d have bought a Canon. You can bet I’ll always look there first next time I’m buying something. Just because they offered not just something I like in a webcam service, not just because they were smart about advertising (sure, they’ll get business just because they sponsor things like this), but because sometimes selling is about service. And having some fun while we’re all at it.

And thanks to the people who maintain the webcam and keep it up for all of us.

Check it out! The Yellowstone Webcam: http://www.yellowstone.co/webcams.htm.

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: business ethics, good businesses, Yellowstone

You Are Your Brand: How Being a Lousy Criminal Can Be Good for Business

January 15, 2011 by Robyn

Yes, being a lousy criminal can be good for our business. Let me explain.

We are our brands. As entrepreneurs, as people living our daily lives, everything we do reflects on our business, good, bad, or indifferent. It makes a difference. So how do we make that difference a good one?

By always thinking about how we build relationships, from our business to our personal and community lives. Because it always matters, no matter the task.

With the media spotlight on 24/7, we notice this on a large scale every day. What we don’t always consider is the small scale, where most of us live. How does our own behavior affect not just our business but our community?

Impressions stick, to our brands and to us. They affect what people think about our business and about us, what we think about ourselves, and, because I work as an intuitive, what our businesses think about themselves.

It’s not hard to be nice, but is it a winning strategy? Well, are you in it for the long haul, to both build a great business and contribute to your community, or are you planning to move to Mars?

Great businesses depend on developing—and keeping—good relationships. Especially when you goof up. How quick are you to recognize a problem and try to solve it so everyone benefits?

Here’s an example.

I’ve been going to Barnecut’s in West Seattle for over 20 years: I gas up my car, get flats repaired, get air for my tires. I value their friendly, concerned service.

Then came the day I stole gas from them. It was an accident. Honest. I slipped my card in the slot, pumped gas, wrote it down in my gas log, and drove off.

A few months later I drove up to get gas and the owner came out, smiling, saying: “Robyn, did you come to pay for your gas?”

Puzzled, I said: “Sure, but I have to pump it first.”

“No,” he said, “this was a few months ago.”

Puzzled, I followed him inside. A young attendant waited behind the counter, shaking in righteous excitement. “It’s her,” he said. “I recognize her and the car. She did it.”

I stared at him. He was stunned that he’d ID’d a criminal. Me. He held up a receipt they’d taped to the counter, convinced that I’d pumped $23.03 in gas and driven off without paying. They’d been keeping an eye out for me for two months, but apparently not a keen one, since I stop regularly.

I looked at the receipt. “Well, I see the name, Robin,” spelled wrong, as usual, “but I don’t have a Camry.”

“But it’s you, I recognize you,” he insisted. “And your car.”

Okay, this was getting tense. I went for humor. “So why didn’t you have me arrested?”

Well, they’d known me for 20 years, like you know a lot of people you bump into or buy things from, but they didn’t actually know how to find me. Arresting seemed extreme (and difficult). So they waited to get lucky.

What was hilarious and absurd was now serious. A long-term customer relationship was hanging. The owner was smiling, but tense. The young attendant was uncertain about pushing it. And I was what we all sometimes are: confused.

I hesitated. I could have a temper tantrum and walk out, upsetting all of us and ruining my reputation, and everybody’s day. Or I could calmly try to figure this out.

“Well,” I said. “I am clearly the worst criminal in the world. Not only did I have no idea I’d stolen anything, but I clearly didn’t get away with it.”

They cracked up and the tension immediately evaporated.

“So, would someone fill my tank for me while we figure this out?” I asked.

Another attendant ran to do that while I retrieved my gas log and we matched records. Sure enough, I’d written it down but there was a glitch in the pump system, so it had allowed me to pump gas without recording my card.

“Criminy,” I said to the owner. “People must drive off all the time without paying.”

“No,” he said, grinning. “Just you.”

We promptly settled up and I left. The next time I got gas, the young attendant who’d ‘caught’ me came rushing out to help me.

I laughed. “You’re never gonna let me pump gas again, are you?”

“No, ma’am,” he said. Then laughed.

So here’s the thing. Barnecut’s and I both had proof that I was an accidental crook, a lousy criminal. What would I have done without proof? Pay up. Why?

Because I believe in their brand. And they believed in mine enough to hang onto a receipt until the next time they noticed me come in.

A year later I’m still buying gas from Barnecut’s, and they still tease that I can get free gas any time I want: after all, I’d been coming back for 20 years. But for a few minutes that day, a relationship and a reputation hung in the balance: theirs and mine. I chose to be a customer who listened to a business’s complaint and tried to resolve it. The same way I would if the situation were reversed. That was good for both our businesses and for me. It boosted my brand because I am my brand.

So how do you react when things go wrong? Do you figure out and and resolve the problem, or do you sever relationships and move on?

Business or customer, are you your brand?

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: business ethics, creating community, good businesses

Talking with Our Homes: The First Principle

January 13, 2011 by Robyn

I always start at the beginning when I talk with people about intuitively communicating with anything, especially our homes.

That means we start with the earth paradigm, which acknowledges that all life, whatever its physical form, has a separate and distinct soul and personality, consciousness, equality, rights, responsibility, and free choice to do its work and to contribute to our conscious, self-aware, evolving planet. All life holds the fate of the world in its choice. Including our homes.

Our homes are living beings. The difference is, you live and sometimes work in them, so their needs are as intimate as yours. To you your home is part of your family; to your home, you are its family. Seen from the earth paradigm, this is at once an enormous responsibility and opportunity for people to authentically connect with their most intimate, private settings.

While it is rare for us to consciously consider our homes to be living beings, with their own opinions, we do offer them a level of unconscious understanding in the subtle ways we respond to them. For example, if you walk into a home and just know it’s yours, don’t think it’s all about you. The house is probably trying very hard to get your attention. (Note also that many homes are becoming vividly aware of themselves and are eagerly trying to attract anyone who can hear them—so if you’re willing to engage a home as an equal, you’ll have lots of volunteers!)

The same goes for paint colors and even dishes, furniture, and decorative items (much like feng shui). If you are wondering whether something belongs in your home, simply ask it. You never know what you’ll hear (and you may or may not like it).

House Hunting

Many homes actively search for their families. Ever visit an open house and feel welcomed? Or not? Of course, it’s partly your attitude in searching, but it’s also the house either looking for its family or desperately hanging on to its family and refusing to move on.

I’ve met both kinds of homes. When I first started hearing houses speak to me I thought I was looking for one to buy. I drove my real estate agent crazy going from place to place. She had intuitives in her family, and finally pointed out to me that something else was going on. By that time I could walk into a house and point out all its positives and negatives as I looked around the room, from the house’s aversion to a new family to its eagerness to share itself with a new one, sometimes mine. I also visited a house I was strongly pulled to, where my agent sent me in alone. Once inside, I realized the house was overwhelmed by mold, and had asked me to witness its death.

“Look,” another house shouted when I was in its basement, looking out over a large backyard. “I have a sink to wash the dogs in and a really big back yard.” At another house, on a calm, windless day, my agent walked freely through the front door, but it slammed abruptly in my face. She was ready to leave right then, but I insisted on going in to learn, intrigued to notice that it pointed out every defect. I thanked the house for sharing, told it I would not be buying it, and suggested it work closely with its family, since I had been told they were determined to move on.

I went to one open house, convinced it was mine because it had been calling me, only to walk through the front door and blurt out, “This isn’t my house, it doesn’t even want me. What am I doing here?” I glanced around and spotted a woman staring around her, star-struck. “Oh,” I said to my agent. “It’s her house.” If I had been more confident in what I was learning at the time, I would have walked up to her and told her she was in her house. Later, I realized that was exactly what the house had wanted: it knew I could hear houses speak, and it wanted me to help it find its new family.

Talking with a Home and Clearing It

When I work with a home or a business I usually conduct an intuitive communication session with it and the humans involved. This is a direct conversation between the house and its family, whether it is clearing the space or preparing the house for sale or rental. Sometimes it’s a means of letting go of each other, at others it’s renewal. These direct conversations are often surprising, as homes are rarely given the opportunity to speak directly to us.

Often a space cooperating session is also part of an intuitive communication session. It is not what people normally consider when they consult a feng shui or space clearing expert. It does help people and their homes live and work together comfortably and harmoniously.

In future posts I’ll write more about clearing a home while conducting an intuitive communication session with it, and what is unique about my work. But for now, have you communicated with your house? What was the most important thing you learned about it?

Filed Under: Intuition Tagged With: good businesses, intuitive, intuitive business consultation, intuitive communication, intuitive home consultation, space clearing, Space Cooperating

Alchemy West: Our Interview at Working Dog Wednesday

January 13, 2011 by Robyn

Robyn: One of the best things at Alchemy West in 2010 was working with Bella the Boxer and her staff, Ellen Galvin and Patrick Galvin, on Bella’s book.

Yes, Bella is a dogpreneur and wrote Secrets of a Working Dog: Unleash Your Potential and Create Success. Bella has upped the ante on the self-help genre, showing humans how they can create successful lives with the vigor, wisdom, and wit that only a working dog like a boxer can provide.

I loved helping Bella shape her book. And we also helped her publish it, teaming up with Robert Lanphear, the artistic director who is the creative and technical expert at Lanphear Design in Seattle.

Bella writes a blog, too, http://blog.bellatheboxer.com/, and has a regular column, Working Dog Wednesday, where she ‘interviews cool working dogs.’ In our case she graciously agreed to include me and Grace the Cat in her interview with Alchemy West’s Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Murphy and Alki.

Bella is Director of Goodwill (D.O.G.) at Galvin Communications in Portland, Oregon. Ellen Galvin is the company’s chief wordsmith. Patrick Galvin is a professional speaker who galvanizes audiences to achieve greater levels of success in work and life.

Match Bella’s spunkiness with a couple of Cavaliers and a cat and you end up laughing a lot as you chat about working and living in the 21st century. Here’s the complete interview, before editing (not even an intuitive communicator like me can keep three dogs and a cat from goofing off on the job and just gabbing). It also had to be edited for things that might not meet FCC standards, like a cat saying the word ‘naked.’ It would come from a cat, wouldn’t it?

You can also find us at Bella’s blog, Bella the Boxer!

Here’s the complete interview.

Bella: Well, this is a first … I’m interviewing a whole team! Murphy, Alki and Grace the Cat make up the powerful board of directors at Alchemy West Inc., a Seattle-based company led by Robyn M Fritz. Robyn also happens to be the editor of my book, which is one reason that I’m so proud of it! Welcome!

Robyn: Hi, Bella! I’m glad you liked my help with your book. You have wonderful things to tell all of us about leading balanced lives, with the emphasis on fun! And you were fabulous to work with! I can’t wait to see what you write next!

Grace the Cat: What, a dog writing a book? How does that happen?

Murphy and Alki: Bella’s talented. And we helped by keeping the office in order while Robyn worked with her.

Grace the Cat: Well, there was a lot of laughing.

Murphy and Alki: Bella’s funny!

Bella: And smart.

Murphy and Alki: And wise! We have to admit, boxers are cool, especially Bella. But we’re Cavaliers, known for exceptional clarity of thought and devotion to duty, well, okay, cookies and fun times. We could write a book.

Robyn and Grace the Cat: What?

Murphy and Alki (giggling): Well, there is that thing about Bella being a working dog!

Bella: Wait, why are you guys laughing?

Murphy and Alki: We’re toy dogs! We get paid to play and look cute!

Grace the Cat: Sheesh, dogs. You don’t say that kind of thing around humans!

Robyn: Really. I see a lock on the cookie jar coming.

Murphy, Alki, and Bella: Oh, no!

Grace the Cat: Like I said …

Bella: Tell us a bit about yourselves and Alchemy West, Inc.

Robyn: It’s all about storytelling. I believe that telling stories creates good will, good humor, and great communities, so I tell my stories and help visionary writers tell theirs. I go out and talk with groups about storytelling, especially telling stories about their animals. And because I’m also an intuitive communicator, I help people speak with the beings in their life. It’s all connected because a healthy, balanced world starts with an intuitive, heart-based connection between humans and the beings they most treasure, from their writing projects to their animal companions, homes, businesses, and the land around them.

I love working with writers who are eager to jump into an intuitive, gut-level approach to find and shape their books, whether it’s through individual book development services or group writing seminars.

And it’s inspiring and deeply fulfilling to see how intuitive communication enriches people’s family and business lives by simply helping them talk with the beings who are waiting to talk with them.

Bella: I understand that Robyn wrote a book about you, Bridging Species: Thoughts and Tales About Our Lives with Dogs. The Dog Writers Association of America has nominated it as 2010 Best Book – Humor. It was also nominated for the 2010 Merial Human-Animal Bond Award, given to the work that best highlights the unique relationship between a dog and its owner and best brings to life the concept of the human-animal bond. Very big deal for you guys. So, what does it feel like to be famous?!

Grace the Cat: We’re famous?

Murphy and Alki: Well, we are! We get all the attention at book signings and public events because we’re the cover dogs. People actually stop when they drive by and see us on the street (even when Robyn is outside in her pajamas).

Grace the Cat: I’m the only one here with fashion sense. Those are NOT pajamas. And the dogs—they wear raincoats outside! I’m for the natural look: naked!

Murphy and Alki and Robyn: We noticed.

Robyn: Grace, you just said …

Bella: Robyn, why do you write about the human-animal bond?

I worked in Cavalier rescue for a few years, helping dogs find new homes. I realized that I could help a few dogs that way or help a lot more by writing about how and why we create families with animals, and what that means from a mystical, cultural, practical, and even comic aspect.

Murphy: I’m very funny. And Alki, you can’t help but laugh with him!

Grace: You’re dogs, goes without saying.

Robyn: It’s like that all day around here. The cat and dog wisecracking! I sometimes wonder how we get any work done.

Bella: What other projects do you have in store for Robyn in 2011?

Murphy and Alki and Grace: Robyn is busy writing Murphy’s Tales. It tells how Murphy’s chronic illness as a young dog inspired our family’s journey to wellness and sparked Robyn’s intuitive abilities. And how Murphy taught Robyn street smarts—

Robyn: Sad, but true, and she was only six months old.

Alki and Grace: And saved them both from an earthquake—before it happened!

Robyn: Yes, all things that made me wonder what was going on in animal minds, and how I could find out. This year I’m also doing a lot of writing coaching and teaching events, to help people focus and tell their stories efficiently and well and get them out into the world. And speaking about how we deepen relationships with all life, from animals to the world around us.

Murphy and Alki and Grace: We’re also writing an online magazine, Bridging the Paradigms, full of stories about creating community with all life. And Robyn is doing all kinds of intuitive work with our newest family member: the crystal, Fallon. It’s intense, but we’re never too busy to play, eat, and power nap!

Bella: So, Robyn, are Murphy and Alki and Grace the Cat your creative muses?

Robyn: In many ways, yes. They help me explore a new normal for a family: that multi-species families are families first, and species second, and what matters is that we’ve chosen to live our lives together. When I look at my family I see thinking, intelligent, resourceful, loving, intriguing souls who just happen to be in animal bodies. Their lives are worthwhile, and ours are together. They accept my limitations with far more diplomacy and patience than I do theirs.

Grace: Yes, dogs can be a trial. That’s why I trained mine well.

Murphy and Alki: What?

Robyn: Grace, that’s a secret of a working cat.… Seriously, my family makes me think about what the world can be like if we accept the diversity of all life. If we can create loving relationships within a multi-species family, how hard can it really be for humans to get along?

Murphy and Alki and Grace: We’re the inspiration—and the comic relief! We’re not just pets, we’re family. We help Robyn see what families look like when we don’t take each other for granted, when we don’t set limits on how they should look but explore what they can and do look like when everybody’s equal.

Robyn: That’s right. I pay attention to what bores, entertains, intrigues, annoys, or puzzles them, and I write about how we try to mesh that into a multi-species family, where we all have attitudes.

Grace: What’s an attitude?

Bella and Murphy and Alki: A cat.

Murphy and Alki and Grace: We joke around, but we’re creatives, just like Robyn. We helped her realize that families come in all shapes and sizes and manner of beings, and learning how to adapt to each other is how we come together to make the world a better place.

Bella: What are your roles? How do you avoid stepping on each other’s fuzzy little toes?

Grace: Alki snoozes all day on his dog bed and Murphy holds down the recliner, so I clearly have to supervise them and watch for intruders from my windowsill perch. When I decide the work day is done, I sit by the keyboard, push all the pens off the desk, and, if that doesn’t work, I climb on Robyn’s shoulder and put my tail in her face.

Murphy and Alki: We taught Grace how to shut the laptop.

Robyn: That trick I could do without.

Murphy and Alki: Plus we take Robyn for walks, fetch sticks, lobby for cookie breaks, make people laugh at our cute grins, run errands, greet visiting writers, take Grace for car rides, and feed Robyn one-liners. We’re on duty all day unless a sunspot shows up or we need to snoop on the neighborhood.

Bella: Any advice for other working dogs (er, cats, too!)?

Murphy and Alki and Grace: We like being part of the new families people are creating with us. Teach your humans how to laugh, take breaks, and play and exercise with us, and keep imagining new ways for all of us to be together in one big community. Take your jobs as family members and office mates seriously. The pay is great.

Robyn: The pay? Well… thanks, Bella, for chatting with us. And keep writing!