One of the biggest challenges the artists who I mentor are struggling with is focus.
They are also struggling with self-confidence.
Tip. Confidence is earned by focused action.
- Focused action yield results.
- Results yield confidence.
The burning question for many artists is, “What is it that I should I be focusing on?”
My answer? Start by defining your purpose.
Know who you are and what you stand for. Then you can focus on a mission.
When we have a clear purpose we can pursue our mission and we have a chance of getting out of our own damn way.
What is your purpose?
It is the overall lesson, the reasons, that you experienced your deepest moments of pain and joy. Your purpose is your “why?” And that’s not about your art.
What is your mission? Your mission is your “course.”
Your mission is what you are going to do about your purpose. Your mission is your “what?”
Your unique value proposition is your “how.”
When you know who you are and what you stand for, you can best determine “how” you can serve others.
And if you want to get paid you must serve others by delivering value.
There is no way around this.
This mindset is a complete game changer for the artists who I mentor.
Why? Because this world view is the complete opposite of submitting your art to be shown and hoping that someone will buy it and then hoping that your representative pay you on time or at all.
Hoping is not marketing and it is not a sales plan.
My advice? Stop selling your art. The fact is very few people want to buy art.
That’s right. You read that correctly.
Why might someone want to buy your art? They like you, they like your aesthetics. Yes. But that alone is not near enough to make a sustainable market for your art.
Why? Because there a ton of artists who are way more talented than you and and I and we know it.
So sell your mission and your aesthetics. It’s a powerful one-two punch.
“Plant your flag in the ground and see who salutes.” Grammy Dan, co-author of The Remembering Process
Every famous artist in history had a purpose born of his or her pain and joy, a mission, and unique value proposition that served a target market.
How Do You Determine Your Creative Purpose?
It’s a big and important question and very few people will ever answer this question or even ponder it very deeply.
Yet purposeful people live the most meaningful and rich lives and they are the people who we respect and admire most.
I wish I could tell you how to determine your purpose in the space of this blog post or just give you a link to click on.
But we both know, your life’s meaning is just not that simple and you deserve deeper and profound consideration.
So join me on Creative Live for my 30-Day Course, “Fulfilling Your Creative Purpose.”
This course is free to watch.
It is also an incredible investment to buy.
I highly recommend that you do buy it, now.
Why?
A. So that you can watch it over again and give this question the ample consideration it deserves.
B. Because I have never delivered this much actionable content in one place, with such extraordinarily high production quality, for this low price, and I’m not so sure that I ever will again.
Glad I could help.
Your confident recommendations intrigue me because I am dealing with how much of my motivation to reveal to collectors. In a perverse way, you helped clarify the issue. Some artists are more private than others. To the degree that I share my deepest reasons for painting landscapes, I sense a reduction in my commitment. It is important to me to leave room for the viewer/collector to bring his beliefs to the painting, and if I take a “my way or the highway” stance, the collector is left out of the conversation. Were I a rabid “Earth First” supporter (I’m not, but maybe should be), I would lose sales–guaranteed. A little finesse goes a long way in communication.