Creating Daily

I started getting up at 5am and being at work at 6am all in effort to be off and painting in my studio by 2:30 in the afternoon. The daily journey of producing for four hours each weekday begins!!!

A critical step - making art priority

I paint when I have free time but if I want my business to be successful, producing needs time; it needs to be a priority. I took a critically big step on Thursday. I talked with my boss and arrange to come in at 6am and work until 2pm. This frees up my afternoon's to paint when I am still energetic.

Next is securing interns to help with the marketing.

Gap Analysis in Production Time

On average, I produce one or two hours a day weekdays and 5 hours on weekends.

To create a fantastically successful extraordinary art career, I need to produce at a minimum four to six hours a day five days a week.

As I look at this gap in production time, I am struck to the core by how big that gap really is. I am off by at least two or three hours every day. Ohhh - this is tricky. I work full time for an accountant. So... what to do? What to do. What do I do about this production time gap?

After deep consideration with some trial and error, here is my solution.

• Work earlier for the accountant (I am talking 6am to 2pm rather than 8am to 4pm)
• Get off earlier in the afternoon
• Go directly to the studio and produce, produce, produce.
  
• Produce for four hours straight and be done for the day between 6:00 to 6:30pm.

This will work. I can do this. I can think of it like training camp really. Discipline is key. Tweaking some current lifestyle choices also will help this strategy to work.

• Each weekend, plan, shop and prepare food for the weekday meals.
• On weekdays, get up early
  
• Go to bed early so I can get up early
• Drink herbal tea on weekday evenings rather than a glass of wine (as much as I love a glass of wine in the evening, wine makes it easier to sleep in in the morning so save the wine for the weekends!)
  
• Say no to weekday things that take time away from production time
• Save the weekends for all the fun stuff. Really take time off and do fun things: gardening, cooking, writing, movies, time with my sweetheart and friends ...
  

All of these elements are critical to my success. There is just no way around it really. Top priority is to shift away from "fitting creativity in-between".

Top Priority:
Produce extraordinary work between 2:15pm and 6:15pm every day of the week.

Keep my production time top priority by tying my time to my finances. Starting today, convert my production time into dollars. From this point forward, I keep track of my time on whatever project I am working on: painting, wirting, film, children book illustration. Each hour that I work on a project I value at $75 per hour.

I keep track of and value each production hour at $75 per hour.

Think of it like a counselor or an accountant. They don't charge you for every hour they do their own bookkeeping or their own marketing but they do charge you for every hour they work with you or on your taxes.

Behind the Scene

Producing
Marketing
Getting Help
These are the steps I need to do every day.

Three critical steps I need to do today:

Produce: Finishing the first draft of the narration for the film. Connect with both Oklahoma Historical Society and Oklahoma Publishing Company to ensure that archival photos are mailed today. Call and connect with retired journalist and owner of archival film of Ol'Miss race riot.

Marketing: Blog both film and art blog sites plus ping, digg, twitter, fb and myspace. Set up dates and deadlines for photo shoot.

Getting help: Write out job description to post at Western for intern search.

Five Times More Money

My goal for 2010 is to make five times the amount of money as 2009. Each day I ask myself, what critically important actions do I take today to propel myself forward in reaching my financial goal.

PRODUCING:

This morning I spent a few hours scanning zerox copies of photos and sending requests to get the actual photo for the film. I am working with the Oklahoma History Society (thank you Terry Zinn) and Oklahoma Publishing Company (thank you Robin Davison).

MARKETING:

I blogged today and linked blogs post to websites, plus shared on facebook & myspace.

This morning I was super productive in getting a much clearer picture on my next step in marketing my work to the ideal customer. Here is my plan.

1. Design a professional business card and place throughout town (not just hand cut and in my purse).

2. During the next two months, borrow an awesome camera and do photo shoots of different locations where my artwork has been purchase. Photograph the work with the people in the shot. Each image has the art as the central focus and each photo has people in motion. (This will be super fun! And very useful over this year).

3. Create a website modeled after successful interior design firms websites, clean, crisp and cool. Put a select group of images on the sight, just enough to show what I can do.

4. Create four direct marketing postcards with compelling tag lines and send these postcard campaigns quarterly to potential ideal customers.

5. Research and hand selected potentially ideal customers.

6. Email postcard images to targeted groups.

My goal is to get 3 galleries (one in Seattle, one in Portland and one in

San Francisco Bay area), 3 interior designers in the Seattle and Northwest region and 1 nationally recognized corporate art director from the west coast.

GETTING HELP:

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I need to get help. What do I need the most right now? I need someone with a different set of business skills than I currently have. I am looking for someone to research potential ideal clients, understands the social media network, an excellent editor and photo manager. Since my budget is tiny, this is a bit tricky--but possible. I live in a college town with a lot of talented egar student. This week I am writing out a job description for interns that can come regularly to help with this process. This step is a critical action necessary for success.

Critically Important Few Actions

"Garden Illuminated"

There are a few things I tell myself every day.

• I have all the time I need to do all the things I want and need to do.
• I am creating a fantastically successful extraordinary art career today.

The first eases my mind. The second sets my focus for today. Then I ask:

• Which are the critically important few actions that I must take and do today?

I can answer that in four words.

• Paint (Produce)
• Market
• Get Help

Today I am painting a friend's sign for her antique business. I am also putting another layer of oil paint on my "Hollyhock" painting. I will also email/make a phone call to Bob Mathews, one of the journalist we interviewed for the documentary - "The Faces Of Change".

Today I am blogging and linking my blogs. I am writing solutions to my gap analysis in marketing (the gap between where I am and where I want to be) so that I am seen by potential ideal customers more than 50% of the time.

After four weeks of reviewing what critical elements I need to propel my business to the $100,000 per year level, the most obvious is I need help. Today, I am writing out the kind of help I need.

Art - My Greatest Gift

I know the greatest gift I have to offer the world is my Art. Painting, film, writing and illustrating children's books - whatever the medium.

• Art is my calling.
• Growing my art business into a financially successful business is my job.

Challenges:

• I work full time for an accountant in order to pay my monthly bills (we are in the beginning of "tax season"). Meeting my financial obligations in the interim of growing my art business to meet my financial business goal is indeed a challenge ... and possible.

It's 2010

My art business financial goal for 2010 is to increase the total income by 5 times the amount made in 2009. This time next year, I work full time for myself.

What are the most critical elements I need to incorporate into my daily life that guarantee to propel my art business forward financially, way into the black, so much so that net income covers my living expenses, savings & debt reduction goals by 125%?

TIME! FOCUS! ENERGY!

Important ingredients to accomplish this:

1. Truly embrace that growing my art business into a financially successful business is my job.
2. Create and produce new work daily. (Production time grows as accounting time diminishes.)
3. Market work daily and in such a way as to place my work in front of potential ideal customers more that 50% of the time. (The most successful real-estate people are out in front of potential clients 80% of the time. The least successful real-estate people are out in front of potential clients 20% of the time.)
4. Get help from experts in areas that are my weakest links (marketing & selling, coaching, support groups, whatever it takes to grow the business).
   
5. Create new healthy beliefs about money at the core level, (the subconscious).
   

Keeping Other Parts of Daily Living:

• Health is important to me. I am starting a new exercise program. I plan and shop for healthy meals. I grow organic healthy food with my partner. We (he) cook(s) and eat dinner regularly together.
• Relationships are important to me. I spend quality time with my sweetheart and friends. I communicate regularly with my family.
• Personal growth, balance and relaxation is important to me. I am learning how to meditate (still this overly busy mind and let new beliefs form). I study a myriad of topics for an hour nearly every morning. (Oh yeah, I like to take hot baths and, on occasion, I like to take a nap.)

Accountability:

• That's what this blog is all about!

Awesome Read:

• "The Answer" by John Assaraf & Murray Smith