Have you ever felt that way? Or how about this …

If I only knew this one thing—this one elusive thing that I can’t identify—my art business would be a success. 

But I don’t even know what questions to ask to find it.

The post The Big Secret About a Successful Art Career or Business appeared first on Art Biz Success.

The post Building an Art Business Is a Choice, Not a Sacrifice appeared first on Art Biz Success.

Your exhibition is over.

Now what?

The breathing room feels good for a few days, until you realize that you have no thoughts about what to do next.

You were so geared up for this that you haven’t had time to think beyond the preparation and deadlines.

Post-show deflation is real.

But you don’t need to have a show end to experience the business blues. Maybe you’re down because you don’t have a show, you aren’t selling, or people aren’t signing up for your workshop.

Time to explore the next thing.

Without something to work toward, it’s easy to start telling yourself stories. To assess everything that is wrong. Or just to ignore the situation and convince yourself that your inbox needs rearranging.

To feel fulfilled, you need something to look forward to.

Commit to the Big Scary Idea

It’s fine to accomplish small tasks and projects, but it’s the big goals—the things that are a little scary and a lot uncomfortable—that will move your art career further faster.

Big ideas motivate us to take action, and each action builds momentum toward a larger goal. All you have to do is decide to do it and commit to making it happen.

Here are five possibilities to consider for your next project (and a 6th much bigger idea following).

1. Book an exhibition.

If I could choose a single Big Scary Idea for you, it would be to add an exhibition to your calendar. People will be able to see your art in real life, talk with you about it, and tell other people about it.

This exhibition will not be at the same place you’ve been showing for years. There’s nothing big or scary about that.

Look for a venue that is a notch above where you are accustomed to showing.

[ Art Exhibition Checklist and Timeline ]

2. Schedule an open studio.

No “official” studio? Make it a house party.

This open studio should be more prestigious than anything you’ve done before. Perhaps you could:

• Hold back new work to be unveiled.
• Invite another artist and reap the benefits of having two lists.
• Set it up early and invite your VIPS, curators, and interior designers to special showings.
• Give an artist talk.
• Be inspired by Simonne Roy’s successful Quiet Gallery Experience.

3. Have a sale.

Discounting your art is never my first choice, but there are times when it’s necessary.

When you have excess inventory or when your art is moving in a new direction, consider having a sale of earlier work.

As always, discuss arrangements first with your gallerist. And give your collectors and best patrons first choice. This eliminates any sore feelings over higher prices they might have previously paid.

Do it right to encourage more sales. Ten percent off isn’t much of a sale. People are more motivated to buy when it’s at least a 30% discount.

[ How to Have a Sale of Your Art ]

4. Start a blog.

If you write well, take advantage of blogging—especially if you teach.

Blogging, when executed well and consistently, can do the following.

• Position you as the expert.
• Help you to better understand your art.
• Make you more articulate about your work.
• Add more meaningful words to your site that might be found by search engines.

But only if you maintain it.

[ Podcast episode: The Benefits of Blogging About Your Art with Lisa Call ]

5. Teach a new class or workshop.

If you’ve been teaching the same thing in the same way for longer than you can remember, it’s time to rethink and refresh.

Maybe you increase the value by adding more features (and charging more).
Or you offer it in a new location.
Or you find an online platform that’s a good fit.
Or you decide to turn it into a retreat.

When you have a glimmer of an idea for a new class, go for it. You don’t have to know the name of it and you don’t have to know all of the features. You only have to make the commitment.

When you’ve marked all of the above possibilities off your list, there’s one more option. But it’s not for the faint of heart.

Develop a Legacy Project

Legacy projects are much bigger than a Big Scary Idea, and include a combination of these traits:

• They are conceived and created/implemented over the span of multiple years. Perhaps a lifetime.
• They are often wrapped up in a social issue that the artist is passionate about.
• They are rarely forced. The artist is driven by purpose to make it happen—never knowing exactly how it will happen.
• They almost always involve collaborating with other people.
• They might include a fundraising component through crowdfunding, grants, public funds, or a combination of all these.
• They quite often lead to more exposure and opportunities for the artist-organizer.

All of these guests on The Art Biz podcast talked about their legacy projects …

Knit Democracy Together with Eve Jacobs-Carnahan

Building a Legacy Brand and Destination with Sean VanderVliet

The Investing Artist: Art, Real Estate, and Legacy with Mary Erickson

Multi-State Multi-Year Multi-Artist Art Project with Marilyn Artus

Crowdfunding a Public Art Project with Romy Owens

One Final Piece of Advice

When you really want to avoid the blues or predicaments after your project is finished, have another in the pipeline at all times.

This is why you plan. So you don’t have a lull in your business.

[ See Artist Planning Sessions ]

I want to be clear, though, that you need time off.  Planning for consecutive projects doesn’t mean you work nonstop.

You must take breaks, vacations, and gather your inspiration and source material in order to be fresh for your next Big Scary Idea.

This article was first published on March 16, 2011. It has been updated and expanded with comments left intact.

The post Commit to Something Big appeared first on Art Biz Success.

I encourage all of my artist-clients to articulate their goals because they have to know what they want to achieve before I can support them.

And, yet, I know there is something far more important, and more difficult, than setting goals: Doing the work.

We just survived a year in which we lost control of so much in our lives and businesses. We lost control of whether a venue would be open for a show or whether a live workshop would go on as planned or be canceled.

But, in fact, we never had control of these things in the first place.

You will never be able to control results or outcomes, but so much else is in your command. Before we move on in the conversation, let’s first look at goals.

Listen to the Goals for Artists Episode

Music by Wildermiss

SMART Goals for Artists

I used to teach how to set SMART goals for artists, which is a system for articulating goals and deadlines—a system that was definitely not devised by an artist. The acronym stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

The way I taught SMART goals to my clients and students was fairly rigid. Goals had to be articulated as an affirmation and include the due date: I will do [this] by [this date]. If my student or client didn’t write it to my standards, I made the necessary corrections.

While I understand this is a tested system that has been used by millions of people through the years, I have let it go. It doesn’t work for most of my artist-clients.

I think the reason it doesn’t work is because it’s too focused on getting the goal right. Who cares what the goal is if you aren’t taking action?

My new approach removes the emphasis on setting goals for your art business.

Stop Focusing on Artist Goals

That’s right. Stop focusing on goals.

As I mentioned, you need to have some kind of idea what you want, what your goals as an artist are (if you want to call them that) so you can start working toward them, but there is something far more important: Doing the work. It’s critical to roll up your sleeves and take steps forward—every minute, every hour, and every day.

Let me emphasize what I said previously: You cannot control outcomes. You can’t control results. You can’t control what happens in the world or what other people do (or do not do).

Staying tied to a specific goal or dream when the world around you changes dramatically is futile.  What is more effective is improving your mindset and, again, taking that consistent action.

All of this month inside of the Art Biz Success community, we are focused on taking charge of our businesses, careers, and lives. We would love for you to join us for the discussion, community connections, and ongoing support.

So what are we talking about if we aren’t ultimately in charge of results and outcomes?

Taking Charge of Your Art Business and Life

I want to take a little time to talk about what is within your control in hopes it empowers you. You have control over all of the following.

• What you make in the studio. No one is forcing you to paint that landscape, throw that pot, or accept that commission. You get to choose.
• How you choose to spend the next 24 hours. Or subsequent 24-hour spans. You can spend some in the studio, some on your business, and the rest on taking care of yourself and your family. Or you can binge on Netflix, and I’ve done my fair share of the latter.
• How you spend your money or invest in your business. You don’t have to buy the latest gadgets. You don’t have to enroll in every course, but I will always suggest the Art Career Success System when you are building a foundation because being around our community of forward-thinking artists can have a huge payoff.
• The price of your art, and where you show and sell it. Granted, once you attain a certain level where you have a secondary market (meaning auction houses sell your work) you lose all control over your pricing. Until then, you’re the boss.
• What and where you teach. You can teach in person or online or not at all. You can accept a gig at a local craft supply store for $15 an hour or you can mentor aspiring artists from your own studio or computer for $50 or even $100 an hour.
• How you use social media (or if you use it at all). You don’t have to be on Instagram or Facebook. Really! And you don’t have to post a certain type of post at a specific time of day to catch up with the most recent change in the algorithm. It’s your life. Be the CEO.

You also have control over:

• Your self-talk. If you continue to say you’re bad at business or hate marketing, guess what? You’ll never improve.
• What you say or don’t say, and how actively you listen to others. Whether you’re writing an email, posting to social media, or participating in a Zoom meeting, you’re in the driver’s seat of what comes out of your mouth or fingertips.
• Your self-care. It’s nobody else’s fault that you gained 20 pounds, lost muscle weight, or have bags under your eyes. You get to choose what you eat, how much you exercise, and how much (or little) you sleep.
• What you read, listen to, and watch, and how you respond to each. If you are angry every time you watch the news or comedy shows that are riffing off the news, you have no-one to blame but yourself.

See? There is much that you are in control of (including many things that I didn’t even mention), and you can empower yourself by accepting 100% responsibility for each of these areas.

Accept 100% Responsibility

Taking charge—controlling what you can—doesn’t mean that you do it all yourself. On the contrary.

When you are in charge, you are smart enough to know that you can’t do it all alone.

When you are in charge, when you are behaving like the CEO of your art business, you connect with and hire people who have strengths that you don’t.

You need to be around other artists to motivate and inspire you.
You need family to support your ambitions.
You need teachers and mentors to learn from.
You need assistants to help you with work outside of your genius zone.
You might also need coaches and consultants to hone your business strategies.

Being in charge doesn’t mean you do it alone. It means you understand that, while you may have support, you are solely responsible for your success. Nobody else cares more about your success than you do. If you aren’t taking charge—if you aren’t leading the way by projecting clear and committed intentions—very few others are going to buy into your plans or buy your art.

I am forever grateful that I learned this early in my business—from none other than Jack Canfield, of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame.

In his book The Success Principles, Canfield’s success principle #1—the very first of 64 total—is that you must take 100% responsibility for your life and actions. This means giving up making excuses, blaming others for difficulties, and complaining without taking action to rectify a situation.

You will never achieve your artist goals without owning them. Without owning how you manage your time. Without owning your current actions.

Take Consistent Action to Achieve Your Artist Goals

Go ahead and set goals for your art business and life so that you have direction. But don’t dwell on the outcome or results. Make a plan and then get to work.

Commit to consistent progress every day and every hour. Ultimately, that’s what will move the needle in your favor.

How I Can Help

That’s why the planning process I teach is project-centered planning rather than goal-centric, and why we do it seasonally—so that you can check in with your projects, tasks, and actions and adjust them for the next season.

Join our community at the annual level right now and access the recordings of the planning sessions I led during the first week of the year. As a member, you have access to monthly group gatherings, Get It Done Days, business strategies and challenges, and more. Most valuable, I believe, are the connections you’ll make with ambitious artists all over the world.

Membership is open through January 18.

Listen to the Goals for Artists Episode

Music by Wildermiss

The post The Art Biz ep. 71: Goals for Artists and What You Should Be Focusing On Instead appeared first on Art Biz Success.

You were looking at your calendar. You’re counting the days until a fresh start. Thanksgiving … Christmas … New Year’s Eve … and, at last, January 1. Or, rather, January 2 because no one works on the first day of the year.

Maybe you’re lamenting the fact that it’s the end of the year and there is much left undone. (Incidentally, the core message in this post applies regardless of the time of year.)

You had big plans last January, right? Big goals for your art. That’s when you were wearing rose-colored glasses with glitter on them and sipping the New Year’s Kool-Aid.

Now you’d rather think about next year and give up on this one. You are so ready for a fresh start. After all, the holidays are upon us and, if we’re being honest, very little gets done during the holidays what with all the baking, decorating, wrapping, card-writing, shipping, egg-nogging, and Hallmark-movie-watching (no judgment).

Stop This Nonsense

If this is you, stop it. This is unproductive, and it’s no way to run a profitable art business. You can’t make progress or maintain momentum if you’re effectively writing off more than 5 weeks at a stretch.

Five weeks is plenty of time to make an impact. It’s plenty of time to get sh*t done. It’s plenty of time to cross a few things off your list.

Every day is precious.

Every day presents an opportunity that you can either grab with gusto or thumb your nose at.

High achievers don’t write off weeks at a time because they prefer the excitement of a New Year to the hard work of the current one.

Reevaluate Your Priorities

If you find yourself looking forward to the New Year rather than putting your whole heart into finishing this one in style, you have some difficult questions to answer.

Do you really want an art business? Is being profitable important to you?

Are you committed to your work and sharing your message with the rest of the world?

What are you willing to sacrifice in order to achieve your goals?

What habits or routines are you willing to change to make room for your art career?

Once you are clear that your art business and career are top priorities, you can dive in. Recommit yourself to a daily schedule. Take ownership of one thing you wanted to get done this year.

End-of-Year Push

Back in September we asked our clients to create a push goal: What is one thing you will achieve in the next few months?

Notice that we didn’t ask them for push goals (plural) but for a push goal (singular). We asked them to focus on one thing they could mark off their list.

Our request had a caveat. The push goal couldn’t be anything new. Now is not the time to add new goals and projects to your already busy schedule. It’s time to commit to finishing something you started.

You can do this exercise at any point in the year, but it is especially relevant right now. And you don’t need months. Try it for yourself.

Look at your calendar again. You have 5 whole weeks to focus relentlessly on one big goal you wanted for yourself. Think of how proud you’ll be to apply yourself in this manner … to not give up on yourself just because of the date you see in front of you.

What will it be?

Stay focused on your goals and gain momentum in my Art Career Success System and community of ambitious artists. Get started today for just $99.

The post 5 Week Push for Your Art Goals appeared first on Art Biz Success.

We readily throw around the word “success” without defining what it means for us.

I am guilty of the same. My business is Art Biz SUCCESS. My signature program is the Art Career SUCCESS System.

But what does Success mean to you and to me?

In this bonus episode of the Art Biz Podcast (accompanied by a complete transcript), I explore the word Success.

I’ve been examining this on my own for a few months now and, confession—or perhaps it’s a warning—I can go a million different directions on this topic. I’m not going to give you a nice package so that, by the end of the episode, you’ll know exactly what success means to you.

I ask you to go on a messy journey with me. One that takes twists and turns.

But maybe … just maybe … hopefully … it will serve you.

Listen Now

Music by Wildermiss

Highlights:

• Why I haven’t been feeling successful lately.
• What makes me feel successful.
• The 3 ways most artists define success, and what each definition overlooks.
• Stop the comparisons to other successful artists. You’re more creative than that.
• Why we must start embracing success in much smaller increments.
• “The happier you are, the more successful you are.”–Jeff Haden
• What it means for you that success is repeatable and predictable.

I also ask that you join the conversation. Leave a comment below or use #ArtBizSuccess or tag me, @alysonstanfield, on Instagram.

Resources

The Motivation Myth by Jeff Haden

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

How to Be More Successful and Lucky

What makes you feel like a successful artist? Read the comments here.

The Art Career Success System

The post Success Is Complicated (32) appeared first on Art Biz Success.

You can’t possibly get everything you need from a single person, and I can’t possibly know everything there is to know about artists’ businesses and careers. That’s why I created the Art Biz Inner Circle and why it has grown over the years.

Our members represent a wide range of media, personal goals, and geographical regions – including quite a few who are overseas. Yet they rely on one another for inspiration, motivation, strategies, and accountability.

Throughout the year, we have watched many of our members create and attain their stretch goals – several of them doubling (and more) their income from last year.

We supported members as they struggled and reorganized their plans. Yes, even the ones who attained their big goals encountered bumps along the road to success.

Our team of coaches is top-notch (I don’t trust just anyone with my clients).

In this podcast, I talk with Debby Williams and Cynthia Morris, who serve as coaches for our members in the Art Biz Inner Circle. We discuss the celebrations we witnessed as well as the many struggles our artists faced and we provide numerous tips to help with your artist journey.

Music: Keep It Simple by Wildermiss. Used with permission.
Listen to or subscribe on iTunes.

The Inner Circle isn’t for everyone, but it is for you if you’re ambitious, committed, and want to explore how our ongoing support can benefit you.

I hope you’ll take a moment to read how we can help. Visit our site.

About My Guests

Cynthia Morris is an artist, author, workshop leader, and certified coach. Cynthia coaches you on the topics of motivation and mindset, getting unstuck, productivity on your terms, and time management that feels good. She also helps with writing projects and Instagram strategies.

Debby Williams has been a gallery curator, museum director, arts council grants coordinator, and head of public art programs. Debby is uniquely qualified to consult with Art Biz Inner Circlers on their professional presentation: artist statements, resumes, bios, cover letters, grant applications, and exhibition proposals.

The post The Art Biz ep. 12: The Bumpy Road to Success: Stories from Our Clients appeared first on Art Biz Success.

Road trip!

Conveniently, the getaway coincided with a discussion I had with one of my coaches about the need to create more “space” in my life.

Since that time, which hasn’t even been two weeks, I have found space not only in soaking in the springs, but also in embracing silence; seeking questions rather than answers; and saying No.

Kelly and I also found space on the road. The trip down to the springs should be just over 5 hours. We somehow turned that into 7+ hours.

There are people who see the dot on the map and race toward it without stopping for a restroom break. And then there are those who, like me, look for any diversion to learn or to be entertained along the route.

I tend to explore on my road trips. I have been caught:

• Coming across a newspaper from a nearby town and rerouting the return trip because it might be an ideal place to retire. (It wasn’t.)
• Visiting the local cemetery.
• Driving out of the way because I heard on NPR about the “green” rebuilding of Greensburg, Kansas ten years after a devastating tornado and I wanted to see it. (It’s pretty cool. I’d go back! And I’d eat again at this Mexican restaurant where they were lovely and one of the few places open on Memorial Day.)
• Veering an hour off the interstate to see a visionary artist’s creation.

Yeah, I could get there faster if I focused on the dot on the map, but where’s the adventure in that? I prefer the stories I can gather along the way – stories that will become part of the fabric of my life forever.

What stories are you gathering?

Your Career Journey

Your career path is marked by exhilarating highs and devastating lows. I wish I had learned earlier the wisdom in riding the waves rather than fighting against them.

When you seek shortcuts, you miss out on opportunities that might lead to bigger rewards.

When you have your eye only on the end goal (the dot on the map), you become blind to all that can enrich your art and life.

I contend that if you aren’t committed to the journey of your career, you surely won’t be satisfied with the destination.

Of course, the journey isn’t all roses and fairy dust. It’s messy.

What You’ll Encounter on the Journey

Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way. Among the artist’s lows are:

Rejection from shows, grants, residencies, and buyers.
Doubts about your talent.
Criticism from others and, worst of all, yourself.
Anxiety over lack of .
Discomfort with making bold moves.
Impatience with your pace of progress.
Confusion about your next moves.
Frustration with yourself and the system.
Overwhelm from all that is possible.

They all suck. I’m pretty sure you have experienced every one of these downers, but the danger is when you find yourself swirling in a vortex of self-flagellation.

You can’t afford to wallow when you’re committed to your art. Your art needs you.

And … you understand that the rewards, which really do exist, are the brighter half of this journey. Your highs include:

Validation that you’re doing the right thing.
Acceptance by your audience, other artists, juries, critics, and curators.
Utter bliss when you do your best creative work.
Understanding when you find your tribe.
Pride when your friends and family show up at your first solo show.
Appreciation from students and your audience.
Recognition from the art world.
Love of what you do every day.
Accomplishment because you went for it.

Remember these potential rewards when you find yourself questioning your commitment to the journey.

The post Committing To Your Art Career Journey appeared first on Art Biz Success.

A neighbor knocks on the door and invites you to coffee during studio time. Mmmmm. Coffee would be good, you think. Do you take her up on her offer?

Everyone in your artist organization knows that you are the go-to guy to get stuff done, so they ask you to chair a committee for next year’s group show. You know your schedule is packed, but you feel a sense of duty. Do you give in and help them out?

Every time your father gets the chance, he insinuates that you aren’t a real artist. It’s really driving a wedge between the two of you. Do you say anything?

You hop on to Facebook to post to your business page and are tempted to click on an old (and previously long-forgotten) roommate to see what she’s up to. Do you do it?

In order to act confidently in these situations, you need to have a solid commitment to the boundaries around your life and career.

Bagging your studio time, agreeing to be the go-to volunteer, allowing people to poop on your dreams, and wasting time on social media are all career-killers.

Here’s how you can handle these situations. It all boils down to how you handle yourself.

Setting Boundaries With People Who Want Your Time

People will often impose their needs and desires on your time – not because they don’t care about you, but because you haven’t set boundaries with them.

So many people want our time, opinions, art, and assistance. We want to make them all happy.

We want to please them. We don’t want them to be mad at us.

And yet, dropping your priorities when something is requested of you doesn’t serve anyone.

Changing your focus because someone else wants your time and energy makes you frustrated. You’re mad at yourself for agreeing to the request and at the other person for asking you to do it in the first place.

Sure, the new task may be easier or more fun than other things you have to do, but it pushes you off the path of a successful career. You’ve put others ahead of your dreams.

If you keep giving and giving, you only have yourself to blame.

Setting Boundaries With Negative People

Get rid of the naysayers in your life. Banish people who are jealous, unsupportive, or oblivious to what you want and where you want to go. They have no right to poop on your dreams.

If you can’t eliminate the naysayers completely (and legally) from your life, limit your time with them and tell them that certain subjects are off limits.

You may find it difficult to do this with family members, but it’s even more important to have this conversation with those close to you. Avoiding it only deepens the wounds and weakens the relationship.

One client dreaded every meal she had to spend with her sibling. I suggested an alternative: that she go to a movie with her sibling rather than face the anxiety of conversation.

Tell the naysayers how you feel when they do/say and what your boundaries are. Do this before you become too emotional and before it’s too late.

State your boundaries plainly, matter-of-factly, and leave no doubt in people’s minds that if they can’t be supportive, you’ll have to find other topics to talk about or restrict your time together.

I think you’ll find that those who love you don’t want to be accused of helping to kill your career.

Setting Boundaries With Yourself

Setting boundaries with other people isn’t possible until you enact the boundaries in the first place.

The bottom line is that you have to make boundaries for yourself because you can’t control what other people say and do. You can only control how you react.

You teach people how to treat you through your words and actions.

You either honor your boundaries or leave them squishy – easily changed on a whim. If you aren’t demonstrating that the boundaries exist, how will anyone know to respect them?

Here’s the thing: You will regret dishonoring your boundaries about 95% of the time.

If you are trying to build or expand your art career, the first boundary you need to observe is around making art. Studio time has to be your priority and not something you do only when everything else is taken care of.

You must also set boundaries around marketing time, especially your use of social media.

When others see you practicing professionalism, they will grow to respect the work you’re doing. By way of example, here are some of the boundaries I have established.

• I refuse to work with anyone who whines, complains, or makes a lot of excuses.  Oh, boy! Did my client list ever get better when I established this boundary! The people I choose to work with are phenomenal – not just as artists, but as humans.
• I have exactly zero notifications from social media or email interrupting me. I check both when I’m good and ready rather than allowing them to interrupt my workflow.
• I don’t have time to answer questions from every artist who writes to me needing an immediate response. My policy: I will consider answering questions on my blog or in my newsletter so that all artists can benefit from the reply. It’s posted here.
• I do not answer my business line after 5 p.m. or on the weekends. Period.

Think About It

What are your boundaries?

Has there been an occasion when you wish you had honored a boundary that you thought you had in place? 

The post Why Having No Boundaries Is Killing Your Art Career appeared first on Art Biz Success.

Right then, I knew we had to talk about it. I knew she was on to something.

Listen in to the podcast as Cynthia and I talk about why too many ideas can be a bad thing for artists. This is especially true when you’re trying to make a living from your work.

Cynthia gives practical tips on how to choose among your many ideas for your next big project.

Music: Animals by Left Hand Shakes. Used with permission.

This episode is brought to you by the Art Biz Inner Circle, a  year-long coaching group where ambitious artists find support, accountability, and strategies for a successful art business.

Show Notes – Authored by Cynthia Morris

Creative people are blessed with an abundance of ideas. New ideas arrive daily, pulsing through our awareness and lighting up our sense of possibility like a scintillating fireworks display.

How fun! We love inhabiting the land of possibility, where our ideas inspire us, energize us and make us feel like omnipotent creators. We could do anything!

The problem is, we can’t do everything.

This abundance of ideas can become painful when we arrive at the crossroads of what to make next. The fireworks we loved so dearly becomes a dissatisfying decision swirl, making us second-guess everything, including our desire to make anything at all.

So, how can we know which projects to work on, and when?

Which of the seductive ideas do we devote ourselves to?

When I help my clients with this common challenge, I use a five-step process, which I have outlined here as writing prompts to help you get clear on your next projects.

Writing your answers will reveal more potent insights than only thinking about them.

Step 1: Remind Yourself of the Big Picture

Perhaps you seek to be an award-winning artist. Or maybe you are trying to increase your art income.

What vision do you have for your art career?

We start with the big picture because it is what drives everything else.

Step 2: Determine Your Focus

What’s your focus for the next 6-12 months?

If you haven’t yet decided that, start now. What do you want this next period in your life to be about? Is this a theme? A big goal?

At the end of this time, what would help you feel deeply satisfied?

With your ultimate focus in mind, consider what you will do this year to bring yourself closer to your art’s purpose.

You might be in the phase of your career where developing your skills and body of work is more important than selling.

You could be at the place where showing your art and gaining a larger renown is your primary focal point. Knowing where you are now will help you decide which projects to take on.

Step 3: Gather Your Ideas

Now it’s time to capture all of your project ideas.

Projects require multiple tasks that must be completed to ensure a successful project. Examples include:

• Organizing an exhibition
• Proposing a class to teach
• Inventorying your artwork
• Updating your mailing list

Write down on one piece of paper or digital document as many ideas as you want.

Step 4: Play Favorites

Now, look at the list. Make a check mark next to the ideas that directly lead to that sense of satisfaction you want to feel in the coming year. (Review step 2.)

Make another mark next to the items that align with your big picture goal.

Any items that do NOT have check marks should be taken off the list for now. Feel free to put them in another document entitled ‘someday’.

Or, if they don’t relate to what you are trying to achieve, perhaps they don’t belong on your list at all. Ask yourself what they are doing in your realm of possibility if they aren’t aligned with what you seek to achieve with your art.

Step 5: Choose One

From your winnowed down list, choose ONE project to focus on in the current quarter.

Depending on the scope of the project, it may take longer than three months to finish. Plan your other obligations around this one project.

By now you should have a clear sense of which project to work on now. Easy peasy, right?

You might not get off so easily. As a seasoned coach for creatives, I know that you may be squirming right about now.

Perhaps you don’t want to choose just ONE project. You lament having to set aside all those sexy ideas. You think you can choose up to THREE projects.

This is where you have to get real with yourself. It is the ‘rubber meets the road’ moment. If you have squirmed at committing to one project, ask these questions:

What is preventing me from focusing on one project? What are my beliefs around this kind of focus?

What do I have to give up in order to choose one main project?

And finally …

What do I really want? What will truly satisfy me in the end? What am I willing to do to get that?

There will come a point when you are less enamored by all of your great ideas and more interested in making things that matter to you both in the moment and in the long-term.

Mentioned in the Podcast

Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky

Your Turn

Have you ever struggled with having too many ideas or not being able to prioritize them? Tell us about your experience in a comment below.

About My Guest & Author of the Show Notes

Cynthia Morris is an artist, author, workshop leader, and certified coach. She is a longtime ally of artists and mastermind partner to me.

The post The Art Biz ep. 5: Which Ideas are Worth Your Time? appeared first on Art Biz Success.