Every artist I mentor must define a SMARTER goal that they really want to reach within six months.

This vital life skill helps artists sell their art and it helps them define and reach other important goals, for the rest of their life.

We are all told that it’s so very important to set goals.

But what we are not told is how to define goals in a way that exponentially increases the odds of reaching them.

So what happens? We often set poorly defined goals.

And we don’t reach these poorly defined goals because they are, poorly defined. So, we just stop setting goals.

It’s too bad. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Mastering SMARTER goals is, mastering the eighth realm of MAKING Art Making MONEY, an 8-part, sequential, and iterative methodology. 

This is a proven process that helps artists build their artistic enterprises. 

Again, the two vital ingredients to reaching your goals as an artist.

1. Define a SMARTER goal.
2. Remain committed to that goal.

SMARTER stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Result
• Time Bound
• Evaluate
• Revise, if necessary

So here’s an example of a SMARTER goal.

“Will I sell $100,000 or more of my art by the end 2014?”

• Is it specific? Yes. $100K of art
• Is it measurable? Yes. $100K of art is sold by the end of 2014 or it is not.
• Is it attainable? Here’s where it gets tricky. This SMARTER goal is attainable if you can take action on it today.
• Is there a result? Yes. $100K or more.
• Is it time bound? Check. Art sold by the end of 2014.

Why is the SMARTER goal stated in the form of a question? So you can answer it, honestly.

Just stating your SMARTER goal in the form of an affirmation does not work nearly as well. 

Affirming your goal is not enough. You must take honest and focused action.

It might feel nice and optimistic to affirm your goal but it doesn’t engage your entire brain.

A goal stated in the form of a question ignites the hard-wiring of your subconscious to search for the answer even when your conscious mind isn’t thinking of it.

In other words, solutions and answers tend to pop into your head.

 “Well I have a lot of goals!” Yes, you do. And you can have everything that you truly want, but not all at once.

What is your SMARTER goal? Leave it in the comments box below.

Writing your SMARTER down is the first step that will transform your desired goal into reality.

Life is short. So don’t wait for what you really want. Get it now!

 

 

So yesterday I’m driving along on the streets of San Francisco with “Ain’t no Stoppin’ us Now” blaring on the radio and one line catches my full attention.

“I know you know someone who’s got a negative vibe (Euhh)
And if your tryin to make it they only push you aside
They really don’t have nowhere to go
Ask ‘em where they’re going
They don’t know”

This provoked a huge insight!

The most annoying, negative, and destructive people I’ve known don’t know where they’re going.

The people I know who are striving, directed, and who are accomplishing are inspiring and positive, regardless of their station in life or even their goals.

One of the many books I recommend to the artists who I coach is “Five, Where will you be five years from today?”  And here is one of the passages that I point to.

“According to Dave Kohl, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech., people who regularly write down their goals earn nine times as much over their lifetimes as the people who don’t, and yet 80% of American say they don’t have goals.

Sixteen percent do have goals, but they don’t write them down.

Less than four percent write down their goals, and fewer than one percent actually review them on an ongoing basis.

Guess which one percent?”

One thing that is unfortunately missing from the book is a formula that forms the basis for all of my coaching, defining SMARTER goals.

When I started my fine art enterprise in 2005 my SMARTER goal was, “Will I generate over $100,000 in sales of my art by the end of 2005?”  

S=specific, what specific is not is, “sell art this year.”

M=measurable, Can you measure your progress?

A=actionable, Can you can move on it today?

R=results, What is the result you are aiming for?

T=time bound, Is there a deadline?

E=evaluate, Are you on track? Is this still your goal?

R=revise, Do you need to revise it?

Here’s the other test to define a SMARTER goal. Do you really really want it? Or is this something you think you “should” strive for? 

Be honest! The truth will set you free. We don’t do “shoulds” at Artists Who THRIVE.

One more test is this. Does your SMARTER goal scare you a bit?

It should. It should scare you and excite you all at the same time.

Why is it stated in the form of a question? Because as you repeat your SMARTER goal your mind can’t help but to try to answer the question.

So engage you mind’s problem solving ability and ask the SMARTER goal in the form of a question and then listen to the answer. It will inform your actions.

A SMARTER goal is not positive thinking nor is it an affirmation.

It is a proven strategy engineered to help you accomplish great things.

If your goal is not SMARTER you’re will eventually quit.

Action step. Define a SMARTER goal now. Why? Because we all know the negative impact of procrastination. 

Next step. Get help achieving it. We don’t succeed alone.

p.s. I exceeded my goal SMARTER goal in 2005 by 23%.

 

 

Two weeks ago I ended a fantastic coaching session with an artist. When we ended the call she was left feeling inspired and positive. I was very happy for her.

Why was she so inspired? She felt more focused. 

Why was she more focused?

Because she completed several “Valuing” assignments that I gave her. By reflecting on the most challenging time of her life she gained insights into her highest values and therefore priorities. She did this by being very honest and vulnerable.

“Valuing” is the first part of my 8-part methodology of building a creative enterprise that I’ll be teaching in “Making Art/Making Money.“

What does an artist’s values and priorities have to do with building a creative enterprise? Everything. It’s the path to an artist defining their unique value proposition, shaped by who they are and what they really stand for.

But on Monday she was in a very different headspace. She was more doubtful and unfocused. 

What happened? She got ahead of herself. It happens all the damn time.

Instead of focusing on her SMARTER goal she started thinking ahead and tripping on how she was going to build a profitable artistic enterprise, in the future.

But she doesn’t yet have a business plan so she doesn’t yet know how she’s going to build a profitable artistic enterprise. Writing a business plan is part of step 3 of 8, “Dealing.”

Take one step at a time towards your SMARTER goal.

If you skip ahead, and forget your goal, you will get anxious, doubtful, and you guessed it, blur your focus.  And focus is a key to your success.

It’s like painting. You need to buy paint, choose the colors you like, size the canvas, way before you price a painting for sale.

Naturally. We are all eager to experience success. But things take time. And to build a sound artistic enterprise you have to follow a natural sequence.

What is your SMARTER goal?  Is it to rebuild your ecommerce site, develop a new body of cohesive and inspired work, host monthly events to engage potential patrons? 

Focus on your SMARTER goal and you will gain the power to stay focused on the present and therefore to be optimistic and productive.

Someone recently referred to my growing fine art enterprise as my “dream.” 

“Dream?” Selling art is a not a dream, it is a business.

I don’t have a “dream”, I have a “plan”, specifically a business plan.

Her ignorant remark reflects twisted and lofty ideas about selling art that are too common.

So why do some artists have a fuzzy “dream” and some have a focused “plan?” 

Talented artists who struggle the most are those who believe that their success lies somewhere outside of themselves. So their dreams inevitably fail and they become disappointed.

While artists maintain a “dream” versus a “plan”, they are undermining their success.

Why? Because this “dream” state prevents them from taking full responsibility and embracing all of the hard work and consistent focused action required.

Some artists will fantasize that they are “afraid of success?” 

I don’t believe that people are afraid of success. I believe that they are “afraid of” taking full responsibility for creating their success and they are afraid of suffering the inevitable disappointments that come with pursuing success. 

It requires strength and focus to learn from disappointments and to keep moving forward.  But the reality is that artists will typically experience many more disappointments than successes, myself included.

But “Ann, I can’t focus on art and business.”  Bullshit. Learning to make art requires your extraordinary focus. So you can also learn about business.

To be fair, many artists just don’t know where to start because the road map for success that we are handed in art school leads most of us to a dead end.

Disappointing failure informs success. Yes. That’s right. Let your disappointments inform your success.

Here’s my secret success formula. It’s just like making art.

1. I test a focused strategy.
2. It succeeds or it fails. If it is succeeding I keep moving forward.
3. If it is failing, I feel the disappointment but I don’t dwell.
4. I examine the failure and I ask, “What can I learn from this?”
5. I refine my strategy.
6. I repeat.

 “Oh Ann, you’re so good at business.”

Do you know why?  Because I work my ass off and I am the first one to admit that I still have much to learn.

If your emotional state is too often parked in disappointment, you will unconsciously preempt or avoid success by not planning, following through, or escaping by not focusing. It is a pattern in failing artists.

So ask yourself, are you really afraid of success? Really?  Or have disappointments just left you ambivalent, eroded your focus, and blunted your actions?

Are you willing to learn from past and future disappointments? 

Because this is the agreement you must make with success in order to have her.

If you are disappointed that you have not attained your dreams, then start where you are today and make a focused plan.

Just like making great art. It is going to take time, money, focus, planning, resources, and great relationships to make great business.

Brace yourself against disappointment and you’ll brace yourself against success.

“Dream” about your art, “plan” your business.

 

“Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there.’”
— Eckhart Tolle

Stress is caused by being here but wanting to be there. I would add that not even knowing how to get from here to there adds another layer of stress.

When I consult and coach artists on developing their businesses so that they can sell more art they are most often working out of sequence and therefore their business focus is blurred.

Look. There’s no sensible cookie cutter approach to developing any enterprise but businesses do evolve in a general sequence.

Recently I was consulting with a painter.  She’s talented, she works hard, she is industrious, and taking action is not her problem. In fact, she has been taking industrious action for about 30 years and still she is struggling trying to make a living as a painter.

The problem? Her sequence has been off.  She has four damn websites.  Yes. Four.  Each a separate attempt to market her work while each to a degree is compromising her creative integrity. This is the first sign of things gone astray.

Once, a venture capitalist friend, Dr. Raul Deju, reviewed my business plan. Yes.  Artists need a business plan. He told me that when he funds businesses he looks for two qualities in the entrepreneur, passion and focus.

Artists generally have the passion down and artists are very capable of creative focus but focus can drift in their business efforts.

Why?  They don’t know how to get from here to there.  And don’t feel bad.  They don’t teach you this stuff in art school and generally the art majors don’t hang out with the business majors.  It’s too bad.  Let’s not pretend, fine art is big business.

So how do you get from here to there?  What I learned the long hard way is the sequence below.

Establishing these general milestones will save you an extraordinary amount of time, money, and effort and you may even thrive as an artist.

1. Have a substantial body of work that demonstrates your unique talent.
2. Articulate your creative passion (hold the boring artist’s statements.)
3. Create a Blue Ocean Strategy.
4. Define your unique value proposition.
5. Define your target market.
6. Write a business plan.
7. Run the numbers and set up your accounting. (Prove that their is a profit.  This is about making money not just selling some art.)
8. Write a marketing plan.
9. Create a graphic identity program. (Usually DIY.  Don’t do it yourself, it’s like cutting your own hair.)
10. Launch an eCommerce site. (Usually DIY.  Don’t do it yourself, it’s like cutting your own hair.)
11. Define an annual SMART goal.
12. Outline an annual Action Plan.

Here’s the sequence that the painter I spoke with followed.
1.    Articulate your creative passion. (Artist’s statement.)
2.    Create a graphic identity program. (Did it herself.)
3.    Launch an ecommerce site. (Did it herself.)
4.    Launch an ecommerce site. (Did it herself.)
5.    Launch an ecommerce site. (Did it herself.)
6.    Launch an ecommerce site. (Did it herself.)

Are you so productive that you never get anything done?  This is can be a professional artist’s dilemma.

Do you know why?  Are you clear on your goal?  Have you made your goal your priority?  Focus.

Here’s the big question. Are you avoiding the responsibility of reaching that goal?  Maybe you need support?

It’s only when you make your goal your priority that you’ll reach it.  Until then you’ll be distracted with busy work.

Busy work could be digital habits that include checking emails, Facebook, and Twitter.

Are you ready to put aside what is distracting you from reaching your goals?  Great!  Because life is short.

Maybe your next question is “how?”

Much of our distraction comes from our physical environment.  Is your studio a mess?

Make yourself a de-clutter date.  If this is something you struggle with then either hire a personal organizer or enlist a friend.  And most importantly give yourself a deadline to get your supplies and paperwork in place.

The next step is to turn inward.  Our thoughts either distract or shape our focus.  And thoughts are things.

What do I do?  I meditate for at least 15 minutes a day. Its like erasing the chalkboard.

Many people say that they have difficulty committing to a mediation practice.  I look at it this way.  If you can brush your teeth each day then you can meditate.  Mental hygiene is as important as dental hygiene.

But if you’re struggling, actually try steadying your mental focus while you are brushing your teeth.  You know that you are going to brush your teeth each day so start by associating these habits.

It’s no accident that Jonathan Fields refers to Attention Management and focus in his new book Uncertainty and that the billionaire Venture Capitalist who reviewed my business plan evaluated its singular focus.

Multitasking dilutes your attention and it is not productive.

Know your priorities and focus on one thing at time.  Target your attention.