Exquisite Focus

Facilitated brainstorming sessions designed around and for you.

Understanding. Idea generation. Discernment.

Idea generation, whether it's called brainstorming or ideation, is a vulnerable exercise. When we do it solo, we can get stuck within walls we don’t even know exist—we might start to judge and reject our thoughts, get lost in a maze of tangents, reach overwhelm, and give up.

With the right expertise and attitude, a person outside of yourself can help you look at things from a different perspective and recognize potential that is right there, but that you aren’t seeing because you're so used to it being there.

Enter my facilitated brainstorming sessions: I create and nurture the safe space to help you relax and go deeper to connect with possibilities you might not allow yourself to consider, say out loud, or write down because of self doubt, a lifetime of being told "no," shame, and/or other unfortunate blockers. All of this with trauma-informed sensitivity and a much-needed sense of fun and play.

Yes, fun and play! I've found it is often the "silliest" thoughts or the “mistakes” that lead us to the brilliant ideas, the ones that just work and make sense.

Ideation is exhilarating, but what about getting lost in that maze of tangents? That's where discernment, another aspect of my expertise, comes into play. Before we even get to brainstorm, I ensure I understand your world—a combo of your goals, needs, vision, values, project parameters/constraints, dreams, fears, audience, community, and more. After the brainstorm, this empowers me to help you organize and evaluate your ideas so that you may choose the direction that is right for you.

All of this is done human-to-human: As an artist and creative person, I say No to Generative AI and its chatbots.

Let's talk!

“I had a very helpful brainstorming and problem solving session with Liza and Exquisite Focus during a time when my practice was negotiating a significant decline after leaving Twitter - which had been a huge generator of referrals for me. I had been using my mailing list and online newsletter functions mainly to share essays, and Liza suggested that it might revitalize my practice and my email list to set up a more personal, informal newsletter where I could share less formal, more conversational reflections and resources with my subscribers so that those who use my services had a clearer idea about services and programs I was developing and why.
It was an easily implemented and elegant solution that has helped me not only to keep my online community together through a time of social media fragmentation, but has become a place to share community resources and support programs of colleagues and organizations whose values I respect.
I couldn't see the forest for the trees before our session, and I'm very grateful that Liza was able to cut through the noise and confusion to identify a pathway forward that felt right to me. Her skills as an advocate, a creative artist and a book coach all contribute to Liza's capacity for listening and helpful practical discernment.”
— Martha Crawford

Facilitated brainstorming sessions designed around and for you.

Might you feel stuck, like you can’t access your ideas, but need to get that project started and completed on deadline?

Or, could you be overwhelmed by that cacophony of thoughts that are all shouting “pick me!” inside your head, and need help discerning which one is right for you and your project?

Perhaps you have an idea for—or a draft of—a thing (for example, a book, an essay, talk, proposal, website, newsletter, art project, application, etc.) and are wondering if it aligns with your vision for it, if it aligns with your values, and if it will be received by your audience as you intended?

Do you wish you had a creative partner who would focus all their curiosity, sensitivity, and expertise on understanding you and your vision and facilitating and guiding and accompanying you to complete it?

Let's talk!