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Six Things each Day – Balancing Creativity and Business

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I’m often asked, “How can you make art and run a business at the same time? How do you balance your creativity and business?”  My answer, “I have to manage my priorities.”  Notice I didn’t say, “I have to manage my time.”  That’s impossible.  We’re always interrupted.  The phone rings, the FedEx deliveryman is knocking on the door, or this morning there was a Great Blue Heron walking slowly on top of the carport. I had to stand for a while and watch him.

So I focus on my priorities and those priorities are six action steps that I’m going to complete each day, action steps that will move me towards attaining my annual goal.  My annual goal is my company’s 2010 sales goal, which I aim to at least double.

Each night before I go to bed I list six action steps that I’m going to complete the following day.  They are numbered one through six in order of their priority.  I get up and I focus on the first one and I work on it until it’s done. Allowing for appointments, I move to number two. I try my best to get through all six but if I don’t, I at least know that I have worked on the most important action items first.

Generally I like to divide my day in half.  The mornings are for left-brain related business and marketing tasks.  Then if I have time, I go for a run to help shift into my creative right brain.  I find the repetitive and meditative motion of running, and the tranquil natural setting of The Presidio, to be very helpful.

When I return, it’s time to paint.  Painting is not always listed as number one and I don’t spend every afternoon in front of my easel. But as I get closer to my sales goal, it will be number one most every day.

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Artists Investing in their Businesses

CIAI was pondering the investment required for my one-on-one artist consulting and coaching services.  Recently it has been suggested to me that the cost of these services are too low for the value that’s provided.  Although every one of my artist clients is different, and so are their results, most artists increase their sales to cover the fee during the time we’re working together.  If they don’t, artists can see clearly how they will increase their sales the near future.

This got me thinking and I decided to examine the current annual cost of the fine art education that I received. I attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, established in 1882, a prestigious member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design.  This year the annual tuition is $47,780! The investment for my services? They’re a small fraction of the current annual tuition.

In 1987, the bachelors program I attended required five years.  I can’t imagine taking on that investment of money and time at this point in my life without a clear path to success in mind.  But for those students who have, I wish them the very best.  Because the odds are not good, even with the finest education from a prestigious art school.

Part of the artist dropout is simply unavoidable but tragically much of this is avoidable.  Even the very best art schools do not adequately prepare their graduates for the realities of the art market. If a student wants to become, and remain, a professional artist they’re going to have to make an additional investment.  That is an investment of time, money, and effort in learning and applying business and marketing principles to their art career, or rather, their art “business.”  If there’s no employer involved, we’re talking about a business, not a career.CIA

I’ve said before that I believe that becoming a top artistic talent is much more of a challenge than learning about marketing and the business of art.  Evidence of this abounds.  We see mediocre talent in the art and music industries everyday. What’s happening?  A lot of mediocre does well when it is effectively targeted to a well-defined market.

Besides instruction, just think of what we must invest in art supplies, photography, framing, or show fees, etc.  Now why is it that are we not investing more in our businesses?

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What’s your attitude?

I have experience coaching and consulting with artists, from across the globe on their business and their marketing.  And what I have been struck by is the number one determining factor of their success.

And that success factor, hands down, is their attitude.  Of course their artistic training, their talent, their marketing strategy, are vital factors but they are just the basic cooking ingredients. They are the chef that needs to cook the recipe.

And despite the fact that my artist clients have hired me specifically to coach and consult with them on growing their businesses, for some of them, we spend a LOT of time on examining and adjusting their attitude.

Despite inevitable setbacks, those artists who maintain a positive attitude are the ones that I have witnessed reach success with more ease and in less time.

If you’re reading the Artists Who THRIVE it is most likely because you want to grow your art business.  If that is so, then what is your attitude? You know, most of the time?  What do you believe about yourself? About your work?  About selling your work?

Don’t underestimate the importance of this question.  Be honest.  The truth will set you free.  And the truth is the first place to start when you want to make a change.

What are you doing to manage your attitude? Do you meditate?  Exercise? Do you have focus?  Do you have a well thought out plan to reach your market?  Do you know who your market is?

Steering your attitude is a discipline and it’s a choice.  What choice do you make each day?

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Going to Hollywood

We all know it.  There are a whole lot of artist wanna-bes. This month I was in Beverly Hills for a number of evening events with famed chef  Thomas Keller.  I was having lunch one day and I couldn’t help but to overhear a group of men talking about actors.  One remarked that Hollywood, as the hub of the film, TV, and the music industry, must have the highest number of broken dreams per capita.

He went on to say that he has met so many who announce themselves as actors but they really haven’t, and don’t, do much.  They exert a minimal amount of effort, taking occasional acting lessons, and inconsistently going on auditions, to maintain a thin veneer of identity as an actor.  And it’s really the identity that they’re invested in, not the diligence required to be an actor.

Then he said there are a few actors who are relentlessly pursuing their career.  Doing whatever it takes, without complaint, because they are committed, they will not be dissuaded, and they are talented.  They accept rejection as par for the course.

It sounded all too familiar.

During my events in Beverly Hills an actor was hired to assist me. He shared his experience as an actor in Hollywood.  We mused about whether it was more difficult to achieve success as an actor or as a painter.  I maintained that he had a tougher road because his industry was even more scarcity and permission based. Without having your Actor’s Guild card, the number of auditions you can go to is limited.  And without the right part, fulfilling specific criteria, you can’t get your card.  A vicious circle.

The next day I met a patron, who is also a friend, for lunch at the famed Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel and we sat among they Hollywood glittered and saw a number of recognizable faces.  I thought of my actor assistant and I was struck by the limits of his opportunities.  But when I decided to become a painter, the limits of the art world did not daunt me. I thought only of how I could create more value to set myself apart.