Justin Sudds has been working with artists and creative souls for over 15 years.

He’s acted as a manager, agent, producer, mentor and coach for world-class talent, including; visual artists, performers, poets, authors, TV personalities, comedians and bloggers.

Justin owns the artist management company In Stride Entertainment, a live touring producing company and Right Angle Entertainment.

He, like me, wants artists to have the tools and the belief that they can not only live off their craft, but that they can thrive.

Justin shared the three top lies that too many artists are living with that are preventing them from thriving.

Big fat lie #1. The belief that you need other people, an agent, a manger, or a representative to be successful.

Artists don’t need representation anymore to be successful.

There are no longer barriers into the market place.

You don’t need permission, validation, or to be discovered.

The only validation that you need is that people are buying your art.

If you want to sell more art, you can learn business skills.

Big fat lie #2. Artist over estimate the difficulty of starting an artistic enterprise.

It’s so simple.

Now you can do it for less than $100.

The barriers to entry are now gone.

The barriers are in your mind and you can dissolve them easily by educating yourself.

You Irrational fear of business is not valid.

Getting over your fear of dedicating yourself to your craft is way harder than the fear of dealing with the basic mechanics of building a business.

You just need four things to get started.

1. Ecommerce site
2. Email provider
3. Social media channel, Face Book and or Instagram
4. Spread sheet for accounting.

Big fat lie #3 Just perfect your craft and success will be yours.

Too many artists invest all the time on their craft and almost nothing on the craft of building their business or they’re just inconsistent.

Then they wonder why people with far less talent are so much more successful.

You need to educate your self on how to build a business and acquire the specialized knowledge that’s required to building an artistic enterprise.

Why? When you acquire specialized knowledge it saves you time, money, and frustration. It leads to success faster.

If you put10%-25% of your time on building your business and it will dramatically change your life.

• Give the admin stuff done on Fivver.
• Listen to Audible.
• Enroll in The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester.

The entrepreneurial drive can be learned.

The most successful entrepreneurs are naturally creative. So you actually have an advantage.

What lies have you been told?

What lies have you stopped believing?

 

I met Marcus Harvey at Pioneer Nation last week.

He’s a successful clothing designer who founded Portland Gear.

In college he studied business but he got bored with it. So he started studying art and design.

Surrounded by the Nike culture of athletic clothing and gear, he got very interested in apparel design.

And as Portland native with big Portland pride, he decided to express it.

Rather than just selling his Portland pride apparel through traditional retail channels, he’s created an experience and a genuine and engaged community of over 144,000 followers via Instagram.

Marcus side steps the establishment by personally meeting up with his peeps in Portland to celebrate their Portland Pride by styling and profiling with his apparel line.

That’s the value that he delivers above and beyond his clothing designs.

I asked him to share his three biggest fattest failures and he delivered.

Big Fat Failure #1

Marcus failed to set expectations around budget and changes with his first big client. He and his business partner lost all of their time and materials, and they did not get paid.

Because they where afraid of disappointing their customer, they wired all their money back. All $7000.

Lesson Learned #1

Always set expectations around budget and changes. Define clear boundaries and expectations.

Big Fat Failure #2

Marcus shared vital resources with people who wound up nabbing them from him.

For example, he gave a new photographer a chance and did a lot work with them.

Once the photographer became part of Marcus’s network he got new jobs, got busy, got what he wanted, and he forgot about Marcus.

Lesson Learned #2

Lay out clear expectations before you bring someone into your fold. Make sure that they are loyal to you and your relationship.

Big Fat Failure #3

Marcus did not realize how vulnerable his business was when his primary marketing channel, Instagram, was hacked.

Lesson Learned #3

Protect your business assets and know that genuine relationships can save your business.

One piece of parting advice.

Believe in something.

“You need to commit and go all in.” “Even with kids, a mortgage, and a real job.”

“Be proud of it. Talk about it. Don’t be ashamed about it. Own it.”

“It’s not going to be easy and you’ll have to give some other things up to succeed.”

“It’s in the business code of conduct that you are going to fail and fumble and then you’re going to have to recover from it.”

What do you believe in? Leave a comment below.

 

 

 

 

By Justin Barker, Producer, Creative Live

Minutes from boarding a 16 hour flight in Istanbul to San Francisco I got a text from my friend Ann Rea.

Shivers went down my spine, goosebumps covered my body, my eyes filled with tears that wouldn’t stop — I immediately texted my Mom, Dad and Brother telling them I love them.

Ann had delivered terrible news. That Scott Dinsmore had died on Mt. Kilimanjaro. He was on a round the world trip with his wife Chelsea — doing what he loved — Traveling the world and creating a life he wouldn’t regret.

If you don’t know Scott  — you should. His mission was to change the world by helping people find what excites them. Check out his website and take time to get to know him.

I was lucky to meet Scott when I produced Ann Rea’s Fulfill Your Creative Purpose on CreativeLive.

“Scott Dinsmore was true a bright light, inspiring, kind and generous” Ann Rea reflects “I remember being in the green room with him when I warned him that my CreativeLive course that he was about to join was controversial. He said if you’re not doing something controversial you’re not doing anything that’s of much importance. He and I both escaped  the corporate cubicle to create a life and business that we loved. Although he was smarter than me because he didn’t stay in a place where he was unhappy for a very long. He went outside of his comfort zone, sought mentors, and walked his talk — inspiring people all around the world.”

He left for his around the world trip only two days after this appearance. At the time his words moved me and watching it now is overwhelming with the news of his death.

This exchange on the show was particularly poignant for me:

Ann: You don’t want to look back on the landscape that was your life and say I wish I would have taken that chance and I wish I would have gone for it.

Scott: You just touched on the biggest risk in the history of the world. The risk that you regret you didn’t do it. That is how I run my life, my decision making process, everything. It’s not like you won’t fail because you will always fail, things won’t always work out, the best things happen that you didn’t plan.

Ann: Is that why you decided to go travel around the world? Because you’ll look back and you and your wife would have been really regretful if you didn’t go for it?

Scott: For Sure!! In 20 years, 30 years. I am 80 years old and I’ll look back wishing I wouldn’t have traveled around the world. I mean come on!

Sadly Scott didn’t live to be 80. He died at the age of 33. But he left his mark on the world. He had created a global community of people who refused to live mediocre lives and that community will continue after Scott’s death.

Scott’s mission was to bring people together and he did that.

Scott’s death is sad for so many reason — But it has inspired me to ditch my fears and make the most of every moment I have, knowing it could be my last.

“Death is our inevitable fate and ironically it can stop most of us from living fully.” Says Rea ”It’s Better to pass climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and touring the world inspiring others than to leave this earth getting a gallon of milk at the Safeway.”

Our lives are all hanging by a thread. We never know when our time is up — so make the most out of every moment. Call your family and tell them you love them, go and mend that broken friendship, tell the barista that you like their haircut, say hi to the person you catch eyes with on the street, leave that job you are not happy at. Don’t wait for next year to take that dream trip. Create that business or art piece that’s been on your mind. GO. NOW.

In honor of Scott, I invite you to do four things. Go read Scott’s favorite book “The Alchemist”, read Scott’s blog, reflect on what parts of your life where fear is causing paralysis and remember:

“People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.” — Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist .

RIP Scott Dinsmore 1982-2015. You left a powerful mark on the world.

 

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (Slick Willy) and Academy of Art University President Elisa Stephens at the school’s annual fashion show in May 2015.

Katia Savchuk of Forbes magazine recently published an expose on the San Francisco Art Academy.

All I have to say is…thank you Katia, it’s about damn time that someone spells out the truth.

The San Francisco Art Academy is the largest private college in the United States, over 18,000 students.

What helps fuel their size is that they promise that anyone can be an artist because you don’t actually have to show a portfolio to be admitted into the San Francisco Art Academy.

Although the San Francisco Art Academy’s annual tuition is steep at $23,000 a year, plus there’s the cost of living in San Francisco, the most expensive city in the nation, their tuition is about half of the top 42 art and design schools in North America.

So if you don’t have the talent to get into an established art school or can’t afford it, you can always go to San Francisco Art Academy.

The liberal “no talent required” clause sets up a lot of unsuspecting and hopeful art students, and their supportive parents, for very disappointing failure.

It’s a bit like American Idol, one or two artists in the open call might actually have talent. It could happen.

The San Francisco Art Academy’s top market share is also helped along by the fact that they market well to foreign students.

The problem with this admission free policy is that it contributes to the San Francisco Art Academy’s paltry graduation rate of around 32%. Frankly, I think that’s optimistic.

I suppose that would be just fine if you could actually make a decent living after graduating from art school.

But as we all know, art school is not the place to develop skill and knowledge that’s currently marketable. It just isn’t.

Now no one, including myself, can guarantee artists that they will make a living from their art. However, I have a big problem with selling false hope.

And this is exactly why I advertise a clear earnings disclaimer and “13 reasons why you should not apply to The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester.”

How is the San Francisco Art Academy selling false hope?

They are selling the dream of a promising career as an artist.

They use the phrase “career as an artist.”

That’s the first big damn red flag.

According to the United States Bureau of Labor and statistics, only 3300 fine artist where employed in the United States in 2014.

So there are no jobs for fine artists.

If there are no jobs for fine artists, then there are no careers for them.

Now I’m not talking about designers but they too have to brand and market themselves to succeed and they will not learn marketing and sales in art school.

Bottom line is this. If you want to make art and make money with it then pursuing an art career is a dead end road.

Successful artists run businesses and that is not something that the San Francisco Art Academy, nor any art school, is prepared to teach art students how to do.

How do we know? Because art schools have career offices and because academics are just not wired to teach entrepreneurship. They don’t teach business because they can’t.

Whether you attend the San Francisco Art Academy, or any other art school or art program, they may be able to teach you to make art but that is very subjective and it will largely depend on your innate talent.

Talent, is a critical success factor yet the San Francisco Art Academy omits it from their admission process.

The problem is when over 18,000 young unsuspecting students and their parents swallow this false hope they can unwittingly enter into student loan debt that they will never escape.

The other issue is that our tax dollars finance San Francisco Art Academy’s ill gotten gains.

How? Because the tuition revenues are backed in large part by the U.S. government via guaranteed federal student loans. Yes. Your tax dollars are at work.

This revenue, and the student housing rental income, makes First Republic Bank more than happy to extend mortgage loans to the San Francisco Art Academy.

BTW my former intern from the Art Academy paid $1,000 a month several years back to be crammed into a room with four or five other students. That was the lowest rate back then. It has to be much higher now.

And this is why the San Francisco Art Academy can boast such an impressive portfolio of 40, and counting, prime San Francisco properties.

Interestingly, they yanked down their red logo signs from the face of their many properties after some heat in the press over about their code violations amidst the affordable housing crisis here in San Francisco.

Let’s not forget to mention their other assets, an incredible antique art collection. One car currently on display is worth over $8 million.

Year after year the San Francisco Art Academy is in blatant violation of San Francisco building code law and they continue to rack up unpaid fines like no other property owner. Seems that they get to play by different rules, it’s not like they don’t have the money to pay the fines or to correct their code violations.

Yet not even half of their students, who they are indebted to, will ever graduate.

Too many of the San Francisco Art Academy students will be forever working off their student loan debt as baristas or Uber drivers.

I don’t begrudge the San Francisco Art Academy, or any business, earning a fair profit.

But selling false hope is not earning a fair profit it is taking a profit at the expense of U.S. taxpayers, the citizens of San Francisco, and a record population of unsuspecting students and their hard working parents. That’s not fair.

It’s abundantly clear that the first priority of the San Francisco Art Academy is not to teach promising artists how to make a good living.

Let’s call a spade a spade.

The San Francisco Art Academy’s first priority is to employ an ingenious real estate play that fuels a small private family trust bought and paid for with futures that belong to young artists their parents.

Did you attend this school? What was your experience? Are you earning a good living now?

 

I have a new routine inspired by my friend and Master Mind partner Ron Douglas.

Ron is a very successful, no bullshit, serial entrepreneur who has helped himself, and many other entrepreneurs, go from $0 to $1,000,000 in sales, in six months or less.

When I met Ron last October, he had just made a bet with another entrepreneur to make over $5M in 2015. Ron won the bet by blowing past $5 million in June this year.

How does he do this?

I’m going to spell it out for you.

First things first. Here’s what this is not. It’s not the “Artist’s Way, morning pages.”

As I’ve taught you, you must have a SMARTER goal, a major definite purpose, a la Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich.”

You’ve got to know what you want because the energy of wanting it is what moves you into action.

Just working towards it makes you feel increasingly successful.

When I started my business as a full-time artist over a decade ago my SMARTER goal was to sell over $100,000 of my art by the end of 2005.

I accomplished my goal, see above.

If I had employed the tool that Ron taught me I probably could have made more money sooner but I’m not complaining.

Ron’s daily method supercharges and concentrates your focus and your energy on your goal so that you can begin to see what’s important, what can wait, or what you can let go of.

You increasingly recognize what’s important. You feel into new opportunities. Your intuition begins to guide you.

This method works and it only takes five minutes each morning. When Ron was coaching entrepreneurs, if they couldn’t get off their ass to do this each day, he would just stop working with them.

I don’t blame him. If you don’t care enough about yourself and your well being to give it five minutes of your attention each day, you have bigger issues that you are not honestly addressing.

Here’s how it’s done. Step by step.

1. State your goal as if you have it.
2. Write about why you’re grateful for it.
3. Write about what you’ve done so far to reach your goal.
4. Write about you what you will do to reach that goal. Let the ideas flow.
5. Outline what you will do that day to reach your goal.
6. Not sure if you can pull this off? Ask someone to check in with you and hold you accountable.

Simple.

This process prioritizes your focus for the day making your goal feel increasingly more attainable each day.

Write for a minimum of five minutes the first thing each morning. Before you turn on your computer, glance at your phone, or anything else that you’re in the habit of doing.

My day now starts with a hot cup of coffee, sitting on a stool on my balcony overlooking a stunning view of the Pacific, as I write for a minimum of five minutes each morning.

I appreciate this beautiful way to start my day.

Do this and you will begin to see opportunities that were always there but hidden from your view.

Your day starts out on the right foot without distraction.

Your focus and confidence increases.

Ron has been doing this for years. In fact he has filled stacks of cheap drugstore bought spiral-bound notebooks with free pens from his bank.

Ron’s journals have not only made him many millions but they have kept his priorities straight resulting in happy family life, his first priority.

The power of your mind is incredible if you take the time to tap into it.

When Ron was 18 he was in a motorcycle racing accident. His doctor told him that he would never walk again.

Ron told him to fuck off and he began to ask the nurses to bring him evidence of people who had suffered an injury like his but who had learned to walk again.

He focused every ounce of his emotional, mental, and physical energy visualizing his recovery and doing his therapy exercises.

When is partying friends came for a visit Ron was only interested in talking about his recovery. Some of Ron’s friends, who where only interested in talking about partying, stopped coming.

Ron’s response, “So what.”

He had bigger concerns and a more important goal.

Do you have some friends like this? Are they really your friends?

Although a recent x-ray of Ron’s vertebrae shows some messed up disks, he walks just fine.

Anyone can do this.

The question is, will you do this?

I hear from artists far and wide who say that they really want to succeed.

But only handful will succeed.

And it’s not because they can’t.

It’s because they just don’t want to do the work and some have just not been taught how to define a SMARTER goal and  how to work towards it.

But if you’re willing to apply a bit of discipline to build this five-minute morning habit and then follow through with focused action each day, your world will transform.

God only knows how long we have to live. So why not paint a picture each day of the way that you want to live.

What is your goal? Write it below.