Under normal circumstances, changing the dynamics with my kids is often as simple as playing with iMuseCubes, an iPhone app that shakes virtual dice and provides a movement and a sound for you to create simultaneously. 3 rounds of that usually shakes me out of a bad place. If the kids join me, it can go on for some time and become hysterical.

This particular day, however, MuseCubes weren’t enough to salvage her dying mood and create “a deeper feeling of grace in my body.” Check out the entire blog entry to read what did finally work for her (it’s a sweet story).

His name is Wendell Martin, and he is the iPhone app developer for iMuseCubes.

The iMuseCubes development team has decided that it’s time to be more “out” about the iPhone app development process.

So get ready, dear readers! From time to time I’ll be posting updates. And since this is the first one, how about a little history of the project?

Where Will I Find a Programmer Who Will Work For Free?

A year and a half ago, I was overwhelmed with my new life as an entrepreneur. It felt lonely and risky, and I felt adrift.

I had so many creative ideas, but I didn’t believe I had the skills or the resources to bring these ideas to fruition.

For example, the task of creating an iPhone app for the MuseCubes seemed completely insurmountable! I had no technical skills, no money to hire professionals, and no desire to work alone.

The Resources are All Around Me

One day I was complaining about this to my friend Randy while we were on a walk. Suddenly, he asked me some questions that changed everything:

“What if the resources you need are all around you? What if you don’t have to do it alone? What if all you have to do is ask?”

A few months later, the very first iMuseCubes meeting adjourned. It turns out that Randy’s friend Wendell is a Java programmer who’d been curious about learning to program on the iPhone. He liked me and enjoyed the MuseCubes. Furthermore, he didn’t need to be reimbursed for his time until after the iMuseCubes began to make money. And Randy was willing to serve as business manager for the project.

It turns out Randy was right. The resources were nearby. I didn’t have to work alone. And all I had to do was ask. Amazing!

Limitations Create Unique Opportunities

We had a team. But we also had limitations.

Wendell, for example, didn’t even own an Apple computer, which is a requirement for programming xcode. We decided that he’d simply come over to my house to work, and thus: a new guideline for collaboration was born: no one was expected to work on the project alone. We would always be accompanied by another member of the team.

On the one hand, this isn’t the most efficient way to work. Sometimes weeks would go by without moving forward on the project. Sometimes we’d spend the first half hour of a three hour meeting gabbing… about dating, relationships, job searches, and more.

But on the other hand, working together became so much fun!! We both looked forward to our work sessions together. Wendell commented that programming is usually a completely isolating experience during which he’s hunched over a lonely computer in a cubicle or at home. However, the iMuseCubes project was entirely social and creative.

We sat next to each other on the couch. I used Wendell’s PC while he borrowed my Mac. I brought him snacks and drinks. We always kept a set of the real MuseCubes nearby, and when programming got tricky, we used them to shake off the stress. Totally fun!!

And the best part was: when Wendell left my home, I didn’t have to do any more work on the app. And neither did he. We were free to lead our regular lives. No homework!! What a relief!!!

Even this blog post, I’d like to point out, was written while we were working together.

A Year Later…

It’s hard to believe a year has passed!

On March 25, 2010 iMuseCubes 1.0 became available as a free app on iTunes. If you’ve got an iPhone, check it out!

It’s still a rough version, and we have so much more that we want to do with it. I’ll blog about those plans later. Because we’re still smoothing out the edges on the app, we haven’t done any real marketing (other than a shout out on Facebook, and this blog entry).

Without any marketing, though, there are 102 phones who sport the app. And the cubes have been rolled 613 times. Yay!!

What I most want to celebrate is: we did it!! At our own pace. In our own way. And I’ve learned (at least) three valuable lessons:

1. The resources are all around.
2. Warm bodies working with me are key to collaboration.
3. Slow work is satisfying work.

Wendell, Randy and I are meeting again in two weeks. More news then…

This post was originally published on May 2, 2010 on www.gretchenwegner.com.

As a product inventor, people often ask me whether I’ve “protected” Musecubes. Certainly, I’m in the process of trademarking and copyrighting my products. So in that sense — yes.

But with any creative idea, to what extent do I truly “own” it? And would I really want to?

A year ago, I found out about a preschool teacher who made giant MuseCubes by covering boxes with wrapping paper, and adding her own verbs.

Just today, I stumbled upon Dayna Collins’ blog, Alley Art Studio. Wow! I’m stunned at Dayna’s creative application of the MuseCubes idea. In her own words:

Our creative project for last night was to design and make a personal set of MuseCubes. I heard about Muse Cubes sometime last year and went online and bought a set. I used them during my last Artist’s Way session and they were great fun. Basically, one cube has words related to noises and sounds you can make and the other cube has action verbs, i.e., shake, bend, and dance. You roll the dice and do as instructed. You might be howling and bending, or laughing and shaking. You get the idea.

I absolutely love how Dayna personalized the Cubes. And aren’t they beautiful?! I’ve included one of the pictures, above, but I highly recommend going to Dayna’s blog and checking out the gorgeous art work yourself.

Back to that question of ownership. I think of the MuseCubes as my child. And as poet Khalil Gibran points out in The Prophet, we do not own our children:

Your Children are not Your Children
They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

The timing of Dayna’s blog is ideal for me in terms of MuseCubes business development.

Because I live in the land of America — where we encourage entrepreneurs to get bigger, better, faster — I’ve been feeling the pressure to turn MuseCubes into a mass-produced, commercially viable product. And I won’t say that I’m NOT moving in that direction. Perhaps I want to!

However, one of the pleasures of this delightful product is the homemade beauty of each Cube. And Dayna’s blog entry reminded me of just how stunning the cubes are when they are decorated with random art cutouts.

As Khalil Gibran reminds me, the idea of MuseCubes — that we are all inherently creative; sometimes our creativity gets buried underneath thinking and mistrust; and movement, whimsy, and silliness are GREAT tools to unlock our stored gems — is not “mine.”

So I still don’t know which direction I’m going to go with the business. Will I mass produce? Will I quit altogether and sell the idea to someone with more resources & time? Will I continue making small, homemade ones by hand? Will I sell MuseCube making kits? Will I put more of my focus onto the upcoming iPhone app?

What I DO know is that more and more people (in general) and women (more specifically) are taking to the Cubes. This is an idea that, now that it’s born, can’t be stopped.The whimsy, creativity, and surprise that comes from a random roll, and subsequent shake & howl, really does open up our creativity and sense of possibility.

What might happen if I now, following the guidance of Gibran, “strive to be like them”? In other words, strive to have my business processes and goals be more like the MuseCubes themselves — whimsical, creative, flexible?

I’m not sure what this all means, but you can be sure I’ll blog about it when I figure it out.

Thanks, Dayna, for your creative application of MuseCubes — and for inspiring to expand my vision of how my invention might play in the world.

I did sell 41 sets of MuseCubes, though! Not bad given that the extent of my marketing including: (1) two weeks of carrying a basket of MuseCubes around with me wherever I go, and (2) one week asking folks on Facebook and Twitter to repost my MuseCube announcements!

There’s something else I’m excited about: whereas last year I sold 126 MuseCubes to people who know me, this year the bulk of the sales came from people who DON’T know me directly, but are loosely connected through social media. This points to the power of neo-marketing, and gets me excited about putting more effort into nurturing relationships around the globe through my blog, twitter, and facebook.

A final pleasure to announce: just yesterday I received Flat Jack in the mail. Flat Jack arrived to me from an elementary classroom in Vermont along with the following note:

Dear friend,

Our class read “Flat Stanley” by Jeff Brown. In this story a boy named Stanley Lambchop is flattened by a bulletin board. He doesn’t get hurt — in fact, he has many fun adventures as a flat boy. …

Enclosed is my very own flat traveler that I made. Please help my flat traveler to have adventures during his visit with you. In January send him back home in the enclosed envelope along with letters, drawings, and photos to tell us about his time with you.

This is primarily a geography project so please also include information about where you live and what it’s like there.

Thank you,
Mr. Leal’s First Grade
Union Elementary School
Montpelier, VT

I had fun bringing Flat Jack with me as I packaged and mailed all my MuseCubes orders this morning. The picture above shows Flat Jack in the MuseCubes basket along with the new MuseCubes brochures as well as a flower that just recently fell off of a tree. (I think it’s a cool geography fact that California actually has flowers in the winter; in Vermont, where Flat Jack is fun, he just has snow!).

Here’s a picture of the basket underneath the flowering tree…

And here’s Flat Jack lying on top of envelopes filled with MuseCubes.

Flat Jack helped me bring the MuseCubes to the post office, and we mailed them off to Texas, Washington DC, Florida, Seattle, and Texas. Soon I’ll actually put a map on the website so that we can watch the MuseCubes fever spread like wildfire across the country (once I launch the iPhone app, I anticipate it stretching across the world as well!

A final note to Mr. Leal: I’d hoped to write a blog entry that’s more first-grade friendly. Sorry that this has ended up being more “grown up” than I expected. Just let your students know — and Jack in particular — that Flat Jack is having a great time. He’s so glad that he doesn’t need his winter coat, since he forgot to put it into the envelope when he got mailed to California.

This post first appeared today on www.gretchenwegner.com

The Challenge

Is it possible to sell 126 MuseCubes in 5 days and raise $126 for a local charter high school?

Can this happen without any advance marketing — and relying on word of mouth and social media alone?

I bet it can, with your help! Read on…

The Story

Sometimes things don’t go as planned.

This year a series of life changes interrupted my momentum with the MuseCubes. Last year I’d sold 126 sets, and donated $126 to a fabulous but struggling charter high school in Richmond, California. This year I’d hoped to sell many more.

But life got in the way. I just wasn’t able to manufacture and market my li’l product the way I’d hoped. Last week I felt myself spiraling into disappointment.

This week, however…

I counted my inventory and discovered that there are exactly 126 sets ready to be shipped today! Suddenly disappointment turned to inspiration.

What if I sold all 126 of those sets in just 5 days?! I’d still be able to make a year-end donation to the charter school to help them reinvigorate their Learning to Learn curriculum (more about this in a future blog post). And I’d feel great about not having given up when life threw a few roadblocks my way.

How You Can Help

Would you help me meet my challenge? There are so many different ways you can contribute:

• Buy a set or two of MuseCubes for your loved ones this holiday season. Shipping this week!

• Spread the word and win a free set! Post about MuseCubes on Facebook, Twitter, or through email. Tell me that you did it, and I’ll put your name in a hat to win a free set of MuseCubes at week’s end. Tweet me at @gwegner or @musecubes or email me at gretchen [at] musecubes [dot] com.

• Imagine MuseCube success – people the world over shaking & howling, whooping & twisting with delight. After all, visualization can be a powerful force for change.

Yeehaaa! I’m so excited to get this show on the road. 126 sets, here we go!

Today at Wing It! rehearsal I was feeling kinda down in the dumps. But then Bobbie, one of my fellow performers, knew just how to lift my spirits: she told me about some of her recent MuseCube moments! I made a point to snag her at the end of rehearsal and ask if she’d be willing to repeat her stories to my iPhone camera. And voila!

Enjoy this short video in which Bobbie shares how:

• how a teacher of gifted and talented students uses the MuseCubes she received as a gift
• how her grandson is a bit shy about “moan”, but loves them anyway, and
• they’re such a great icebreaker at her church meetings.

Do you have a story about your favorite MuseCube Moment? If so, do tell!

And if you’d like to create a MuseCube Moment of your very own, I’d be honored if you bought a set or two. I’m hearing over and over what a unique, surprising, and useful gift they are. Order a pair at www.musecubes.com.

This story was first posted at www.gretchenwegner.com on December 7, 2009.