Being an artist is almost like being any other “self-employed-entrepreneur”. It is a fulfilling life choice with many rewards in terms of personal freedom to choose what you do, where you do it and when you do it.
But it also requires vision, discipline and planning, as the road is littered with challenges, large and small, of almost every kind. The biggest is probably changing the way you perceive your life and believing in yourself and your dreams.
In this article we present ten easy to follow steps to realize this change, get closer to your true passion and turn it into your profession.
The simple question is: “What can you do now to start living a life guided by your dreams and your heart?
1. The Dream
As children we are born dreamers, we create a dream world for ourselves and play in it. But slowly, as we become “educated”, we begin to forget how to dream and how to believe in those dreams. We focus more on getting a title, a job and buying instant gratification. We are tempted to believe more in marketing and consumable happiness than in our own dreams and intuition.
The problem is, money can’t buy lasting happiness. Fulfilling your dreams can. You are in charge of your life and your happiness. No one else.
It is time to start dreaming, or to remember what you dreamed of when you were a child. Maybe someone told you “you can’t do it”, but that’s not true. Only those who have realised their own dreams can really know that something is possible. And most dreamers were considered crazy at first. You are responsible for making it happen. Be specific! Make a statement about it, visualise it in a collage or mind map. This will help you to be reminded of your dream every day. Believe in your dream and in yourself. If you do, others will too. Say “YES” to life and the opportunities it offers. In every chance there is a little bit of magic that happens to teach you, to bring you closer to your true self. Listen to your mind, debate it, but follow your heart.
“We are privileged to be alive, and we should make the most of our time in this world.” – Richard Dawkins
2. Create
Start creating. Realise the little ideas and dreams you have as soon as you can. Learn from problems and develop new ideas and approaches. Design a work environment that invites your creativity and stimulates your workflow. Establish a routine, set daily, weekly, monthly goals. Drink coffee. Dedicate yourself to achieving your dreams, keep doing it & get better.
“Your only job is to shrink the time between idea and reality.” – Aaron Levie
3. Brand
Create a little brand for yourself. Decide on a name, design a logo, print some business cards and a website will do for a start. Show a selection of your work online. Many tools to help you create your digital exhibition space are free in a basic version. To get started, try wordpress, tumblr or blogger. Share your projects on facebook, google+, twitter, behance or youtube and invite your friends to comment, like and share your work.
Make it a habit to update your page and social networks with your latest work. Little by little, your portfolio will grow and say more about your way of expressing yourself, your passion or your profession.
4. Market
Create some initial products and services from what you have. Keep it simple. People love to buy things with heart from people with heart. Make it easy for potential customers to buy from you. Create products & services in a wide range of prices, becoming more exclusive and valuable. You can start with something small for $1, $5 or $10. Later you can create something more valuable for $25, $50 or $100 and also establish very exclusive products or services for $1000 or more. Look at the Pareto Principle: 20% of your sales will come from 80% of your customers and 80% of your sales will come from probably 20% of your customers. But you need both groups. Serve each and every one of them. Keep your customers happy, but more importantly, keep yourself happy with the services and products you provide. Set your standards at a level where you have to grow every time you reach for them. Make it an experience for others to buy from you.
“Making a living is not the same as making a life.” – Maya Angelou
5. Reflect
Have you ever tried meditation? It is nice to look at things from the unattached level of an observer. Also for your own life. Look at it as if you were interviewing yourself: “Who are you and why do you do what you do? What motivates you? What are you proud of? Where do you want to go?” or “Where do you see yourself in 3 or 5 years? These questions are important for your own record and often it helps to record them in some way. I keep a diary, both for dreams, ideas and tasks. I had to learn to set milestones for every other week, month and year, even if that milestone was playing frisbee in the park. So that every day when I wake up, I have a task to do that is a small part of my big dream. It has also helped me to record what I have done and to keep a diary of the important steps. When you read those tasks later and see how you did them and what you had to “invest” to get them, you will see your own success in a different light and learn from each of them.
“Live as if you will die tomorrow. Learn as if you would live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi
6. Collaborate
A fundamental key to personal growth and great performance is collaboration. Accept that each of us has some kind of superpower. Imagine how cool superheroes are when they find their true power, and now imagine what great things they can do when they work with others. In creative or artistic teams it is almost the same for me. Different people have different kinds of special abilities, and the more they use them, the better they get. For example, if there are enough crazy musicians jamming together in a jazz band, new sounds begin to emerge as they find the flow and rhythm of their collaboration and create beautiful music out of intuition for each other and their own instruments. Working with other creatives should always be like that. Surround yourself with creative people.
Find others who are equally crazy, get involved and create new projects together, think of common areas where your arts combined create great results. Each portrait is a short collaboration between the photographer and the subject. Especially in the field of visual productions I love to work with other artists, like yoga masters who know how to speak with their bodies or musicians who say a thousand words with a deep look into their soul.
7. Network
The simple rule of karma: “Give the best to get the best” also applies to your work and, of course, to your network. A book publisher once described his job to me as “I move what others have written”. If you do not have a manager or an agency representing you, or even if you do, you can always count on the success of networking. It is not about who you know, but who knows you, and more importantly, who recommends your work to others. Karma says that if you do good deeds, the universe will return the favour even stronger. The same goes for networking. It may not be the exact person, but if you do good work for other people, they will naturally be interested in having a good relationship with you. Often these relationships grow in value with each year or project you do together. It’s love theory in action: Build up your ‘love bank’ and your relationships will grow in value over time (and good relationships lead to referrals and more clients).
8. Be Humble
Make it a habit to listen to your customers first and then ask yourself, “How can I solve their problem, or even your customer’s problem? What is your experience in this area? What potential do you bring to the table? Of course you are good at it. But accept that there is probably someone who is better – but they are not around to do the job at the moment. Acknowledge your own shortcomings, but count your blessings. Often a small favour or project, like the flutter of a butterfly, can turn into an (innovative) tsunami.
9. Plant Seeds
Every interaction, every project, every little piece of heart-led work you do leaves a seed in your footsteps. Let these seeds grow, cherish them as little gifts from your past that will one day bear fruit. It is the same with creativity, one day you will find a blossoming garden on your doorstep if you nurture each flower in it. Chinese bamboo, for example, takes 3 years to take root, but once it is rooted, it grows like wildfire.
10. Share
Teach what you have learned. Share your knowledge and experience. Sharing knowledge is a great way to never stop learning. It also means constantly improving yourself. The moment you stop getting better, you have stopped being good. Ask yourself how you can help those around you.