“keep exploring”

Nellie Jacobs specializes in creativity and helping people “mine” their own unique resources. She started her work life as an elementary teacher in 1967.  Raising her four children gave her a growing awareness of what it means to be a parent and led her to devote more and more of her time to parenting issues. In the late ‘70s she co-founded the non-profit organization MAMMA (Modern Activities for Mothers’ Mental Awareness) and acted as co-editor and publisher of its internationally received newsletter. She co-founded Creating Together programs for mothers and tots, organized workshops and mini-conventions for mothers, and co-produced/hosted a live TV, call-in program called “MAMMA Speaks Out.” Her best-selling book Grading the Teacher, published by Penguin Books Canada in 1996, will soon to be available as an e-book.

Nellie has served as Writing Workshop Director for the Toronto Branch of the Canadian Authors’ Association, as Newsletter Chair of the Writers Union of Canada, and on the steering committee of World Creativity and Innovation Week April 15-21, now celebrated in over 40 countries. An award-winning artist, her vibrantly coloured drawings created with a computer mouse illustrate her e-book Magical MousePainting®: A Tool for Computer Creativity. Nellie is a popular media guest, keynote speaker, and host of an Internet radio series “Igniting Imagination with Nellie Jacobs.”

A kidney donor who took her own advice seriously in the year leading up to and after the surgery that took place on November 25th, 2010, Nellie completed and published her newest book Making Opportunity Knock, the first in an inspirational, self-help “Mining Your Resources” series based on her radio interviews. Visit her website at http://www.ignitingimagination.com.

My favorite travel destination is our country home in beautiful, inspiring Muskoka, Ontario, Canada where friends and family gather.

My closest friends would describe me as a loving friend, kind, thought-provoking, creative, passionate, open to new ideas, non-judgmental, and hysterically funny with a dry, subdued sense of humor. How do I know this? Well …I asked them. 

My top 3 can’t-live-without wardrobe items are jeans and anything that isn’t black because I wear way too much of it (black is slimming, I’ve heard).

My best advice for other “ripe” women is to keep exploring. Listen. Laugh. Nurture supportive friendships and show your appreciation.

My favorite way to relax on a free weekend is to catch up with family, particularly our grandkids, and chat with friends.

I’m most proud of each of my kids and their mates, what they continue to accomplish as responsible, caring adults, and how they’ve done it on their own, with integrity. And I love the way those with children are raising them.

The next big goal I hope to accomplish is to continue speaking to groups, while completing each of the books in the “Mining Your Resources” series.

The book I’m currently reading is Room.