Archive for category Biz

Free marketing worksheet!

zebra printI’ve been teaching a class on marketing and business for artists at a local studio the past 3 weeks. I have 3 wonderful students, each one doing something completely different and they’re soaking up the information like sponges. I love it when light bulbs pop up during class.

I think they’re helpful, and so do my students, so to thank you for being such an awesome reader, I’m going to give you these handouts. Four in all.

Each one is around four pages with three of them instructive and informative and the last page is a worksheet to help you apply the information to your business.

Here’s the first one: Marketing is not a Dirty Word. It’s an introduction to marketing, concepts and how to de-ickify the whole concept of selling your stuff, a small eye-opener about what’s really involved with marketing.

Let me know what you think in the comments! (and don’t forget to share this resource with anyone you think may find it helpful :) )

Creative Commons License photo credit: smoodysarah

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Now this is a testimonial…

I did a coaching session with Yolanda, helping her with trying to figure out her new “thing” in light of her strengths and things she loves to do.

After our very first call, this is what she sent me:

Okay here’s the deal, you have a head-cold. You are the same awesome person you were yesterday but when you think about it you’re a little “head-cold-foggy”. Then someone hands you a “head-cold-cure” pill. You pop it and all the fog is gone. You are still awesome but suddenly your awesomeness is so much more clear. That’s the best description I can think of because when you work with Alexia there are so many things that happen.

You might have been thinking “I wonder if I can do that” and then 10 minutes later you’re thinking “Of course I can do that, what was I thinking?!” THAT’S the mojo that is Alexia. You will see yourself and all your awesome powers in a whole new way, you will be energized to move forward, she’ll put the pieces together for you and you’ll know exactly what you need to do.

Today I’m seeing my mission in a whole new way and it’s really cool.

Make your appointment for the free 20 minute session, by the time you’re finished you will not only know your value you will feel it too. Seriously.

I’m rarely speechless. But I often cry. And this was a time for both.

Thanks, Yolanda. And I can’t wait to see what comes next!

And if you’re moved to sign up for a free 20-minute call (no strings attached), go here and pick a time that’s best for you.

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What’s your fastest path to cash? How I’m refocusing in a time of cash flow crisis.

Kai and His PortraitCash flow has been at the front of my brain the past few weeks in that it’s not positive. Yep. Not Good.

After a few panic-filled crying spells, I decided to see this as an opportunity instead of a problem and re-evaluate where I spend my time. So I asked myself:

“Who can I help? Who can I serve? What’s my fastest path to cash?”*

I’ve toyed with the idea of finding a part-time job, but adding up gas, time commuting and part-time job wages, I can’t justify it. So my fastest path to cash right now is WPChick.com.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Getting out of the house is good for you

This week’s been an emotional roller coaster and I can’t seem to write anything that isn’t self-absorbed and whiney so I’m going to bypass that and post the article I wrote last week for my mailing list.

If you’re not on my mailing list yet, you can subscribe by filling in the super-easy short form at the right-hand side of the page, and although it’s still new I have archives of past newsletters, too. You’ll also get a 10-email Self Employment FAQs series as a thank you for being on the list as well as advance notice of anything cool going on at Thrive Creative Coaching.

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The booth...

It’s art and craft fair season again and it’s time for artists of all kinds (and musicians!) to get outdoors and sell their stuff!

I love this time of year. It always starts off in March with the American Craft Council show. I get tons of inspiration and talk to lots of artists who are making it and some who’ve been at it for a long time. This is a really pricey show and the jury is tough, so all the work is absolutely stunning.

I still do a few indoor shows, but I sold my tent and refuse to do any more outdoor fairs. Georgia summers are brutal on me and my handmade journals. Paper and heat and 95% humidity don’t really mix, and I’ve lost more than one book to warping caused by the heat. But I still go out and I still sell, only on a smaller, cooler basis.

One thing you may not realize if you’re not into the local scene and do much of your business online is that there are thousands of people within a 10 mile radius of your home.

Some of those may even be people who want to buy your stuff/thing/service.

And they’re right in your backyard!

What can you do this week to start putting yourself out there locally?

Can you find a local business group? What about arts leagues? Local coffee shops can use art and music and poetry. What about something not-so-obvious like your dentist’s or chiropractor’s office? Hang some art, leave some brochures of your work (they’re certainly more interesting than last year’s PEOPLE magazine). Ask if local rotary clubs need a speaker and share your thing.

Do a brain-dump of some things you can do in your local community to get some exposure for your work.

Come up with a list of at least 5 places/things you can do.

Then pick one and do it.

Now.

Don’t forget to take cards and samples of your thing (if it’s portable).

I go to at least one craft show a week and chat with the artists and artisans.

I also attend arts league meetings.

And I’m about to start up my own local meetup group for creative entrepreneurs and wannabes.

So, what are you going to do?*

Leave a comment and let me know. If you’re stuck, leave a note in the comments and I’ll see what I can do to help you figure out what to do and where to go.

*Note for introverts: I know this sounds painful. And this isn’t the the only way you can build your business. But if you’re in business, you will have to talk to people. No getting around it. So take it slow. Be good to yourself and make it a goal to just connect with one person in one place this month. You can focus on things that are more up your alley but if you don’t challenge yourself every so often you may be missing out on some opportunities to grow.

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Stop being creative

Yep. I just told you to stop being creative.

I don’t mean with the stuff you’re supposed to be creative with—your art, music, writing, etc. Creating is part of who you are and what you do. So don’t stop creating.

I’m talking about something that should be a “rinse and repeat” kind of thing instead of a constantly-innovating kind of thing.

And that’s Marketing. I prefer to call it “sharing your thing” because marketing tends to bring up all kinds of ick.

One thing I’ve learned with sharing your thing is you must stick with what works.

Granted you do have to experiment a little at the beginning to find what works, and if something stops working you have to go back to the drawing board.

But once you find a “sharing your thing” plan/technique that works, stick with it.

If you keep reinventing ways to share your thing, you run the risk of never marketing at all. After all, it takes time to learn, get comfortable with and execute a decent plan. How can you share your thing consistently if you keep changing things up? How will you actually sell your thing and make money if you keep chasing after the bright & shiny?

If you’re creative, and if you’re anything like me, chances are you get bored easily and must constantly engage with new ideas, books, ways of doing things, new creations, pieces, instruments, materials… and that’s perfectly fine.

Use your creativity for the things you sell, not for how you sell.

So, does the bright & shiny derail you from sharing your thing? Is it something else that prevents you from sharing?

Photo Credit: Spike at http://morguefile.com/archive/display/151873

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Drive-by posting…

I’ve been out of town and focusing on family this past week, so I haven’t been around much.

But I have some news!

A newsletter, that is ;)

I’m launching my Thrive Creative Coaching newsletter today, Monday April 12th. It’ll go out at 1PM Eastern.

If you’ve already signed up for my free ebook or the 10-email Self-Employment FAQs series, you’re already on the list. If you haven’t, go here or sign up in the box at the right hand side of this page.

You’ll get my newsletter in your inbox every other Monday, and I’ll update you on what’s going on with me, Thrive Creative Coaching, I’ll throw in a helpful article, information about my coaching and maybe some links & testimonials as well.

Hope you’ll join up!

Is money *really* the root of all evil?

I was happily reading along on a blog (don’t ask me where, because I didn’t bookmark it) when I came across this awful misquote “money is the root of all evil,” and I had to keep myself from yelling at the computer screen.

The actual quote is “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” from 1 Timothy 6:10.

I think this quote, along with the mindset that comes with it, is where lots of people get hung up with regards to their own finances. I’ve heard artists and other creatives misquote this verse as an excuse for why they’re broke, and a justification for why they hate “sell-outs.”

It’s a huge stuck based around the cognitive dissonance of that misquote and the capitalist, consumer-driven, money-centric society us westerners are brought up in.

The thought process may go something like this….

Money is evil. Therefore I must hate money. And I must hate those with money. Because Money is Evil.

But I need money to buy things I need. And I want other stuff that costs money. I wish I had as much money as (insert “rich” person here). If I did, everything would be awesome.

But money is evil… I can’t want money because then I’ll be evil.

*head explodes*

That’s more than enough to cause some major stuckness, and in some cases neuroses, when it comes to handling and managing your finances. In business, this can shut you down.

So let’s dispell the myth that money is evil.

Money is by nature neutral.

It’s a thing we invented to make concrete the abstract concept of value, as a means of exchange.

It can be used for good or all kinds of evil, but that takes a person.

A person can be corrupted by the love of money and the wrong-headed focus on loving money over loving people. That’s where things and people get screwed up. Even people who are broke can fall into this trap and end up seething with jealousy, feeling like a victim and harboring hate towards those who have what they don’t.

But money is not the root of all evil. Not by a long shot.

But the love of money heaps on all kinds of trouble.

What all this means for me: My pursuit of profit in my business is perfectly OK. I’m not a bad person just because I charge for my work.

And I don’t begrudge anyone else their pursuit of a profitable business.

The fact is, you can’t tell anything about me or anyone else just by how much money they have, except that they have money. But you can get a pretty good idea of what kind of person someone is if you look at what she does and how she uses her resources.

The only thing I can say for sure about money is:

Money is an amplifier.

If you’re an asshole when you’re broke, chances are you’ll be an even bigger asshole when you’re rolling in it. And the way you spend your money will reflect that.

But if you’re loving, generous and kind, more money will give you the resources to be just that on a bigger scale.

So remember the next time someone slings “money is the root of all evil” at you, that it’s really the love of money. First love others and yourself. Money’s just a thing for you to use how you see fit.

What do you think? Leave a comment below! :)

Photo Credit: Max Romersa – http://www.sxc.hu/profile/mompes

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The dark side of bartering

Darth Vader (motion-blur fixed)I have bartered service-for-service and product-for-product and a mix of the two in the past. I bartered for the same reason everyone else does. I’m short on cash and long on skills.

On the surface, bartering seems like a win-win. I get what I need for nothing but the work of my hands and my bartering partner gets the same.

Dig deeper. Under that well-meaning surface, a barter is never truly equal. It also devalues the work of everyone involved by putting a $0 price tag on anything that’s bartered.

There’s also a scarcity mindset that’s involved when bartering—that is, the mindset that believes that there isn’t enough for me, that I’m powerless to do anything about the amount of money I have now and will ever have. I’ll let Dave Navarro handle that one (see Breaking out of the scarcity mindset after you’re done reading this post).

What about having a bartering agreement written up and signed by both parties?

Well, I’ve done that too. And it works slightly better than just a handshake (virtual or otherwise)  agreement. At least here, both parties know exactly what to expect and when the agreement is complete, which limits the unfairness.

But it’s still bartering.

Because of the gut-wrenching thing I’ve experienced with this last barter agreement, and based on the advice of someone who’s been doing this thing longer than I, I have come to the conclusion that all bartering sucks and I will not barter with anyone anymore.

Sure, some of this is colored by my recent experience, and I have had a few good bartering experiences, but I think it’s one of those things that will hinder your chances at success if you’re running a business.

I’m sticking to it. No more bartering for me.

Bartering ends up being unequal, and someone ends up short.

Unfortunately the way it works out is someone (or both) feels like they got the short end of the stick. Because perspective is crazy that way.

Or one person does their thing and the other one never follows through.

Major suckage on both ends.

Here’s what happened recently: Because I have a nasty perfectionist streak and because I offered to do something I wasn’t 100% experienced in, I worked over double the initial time agreement, and found myself doing extra things that weren’t mentioned in the beginning. I was most definitely the receiver of the short end.

Bartering takes money completely out of the equation, and relies on both parties giving something away for free.

In this way, bartering devalues the work of all the people involved.

Even if you’re bartering based on equivalent value and it’s written down digitally or otherwise,  it still devalues each party’s work.

In a barter, my work and your work is essentially free. And no one values free. Even if it’s an equivalent exchange.

If you insist you value free stuff, take a look at how many ebooks and white papers you’ve downloaded. Have you read them all? You probably even have things you’ve bought for cheap (i.e. a $15 ebook) that you haven’t even bothered to open.

I am convinced that if I had been paid the full amount I usually charge to do everything I did for this particular barter, this whole thing would have gone more smoothly.

I would have had a contract that spelled out my responsibilities and once those were complete, I’d be done. Any more work would have to cost more money. And possibly I would have a bit more respect from that bartering partner because it would be a professional arrangement spelled out clearly.

I’m also convinced that if I paid for what my bartering partner has offered, even if she paid for my services and I turned around and handed her that same amount of money back to pay for her services, the energy around this whole agreement would be better. Cleaner. Happier.

The exchange of money is sort of magical.

I’m not big on the whole “universal energy” thing or karma or whatever, but there’s something almost magical when money is involved in a transaction.

The person paying values a thing and the person who made/did the thing more than she would if she got it for free.

The person getting money in exchange for their thing is properly compensated for the hard work she did.

Both people are satisfied with the transaction, no one’s hurt, and no one can take advantage of the other.

No matter how you may rail against it, money is important when determining value.

I have no patience for people who say that money’s not important. It is. We left the bartering society behind a long time ago and  money is what we have to work with.

The exchange of money, like it or not, is a reflection of how much you value yourself, your work and the person you’re buying from.

I value my work and my time. And I value the people I work with.

In requesting payment for my work and paying others for their work, there’s some energy thing that happens. It’s a good energy thing. And I prefer it to the uncertain muddy stuff I’ve been slogging through the past few months.

Twitter version: Bartering will suck the life out of you, keep you broke and heap bad mojo on you. So don’t do it. Pay for what you want.

Feel free to leave your comments below. Have you ever had a barter that went sour? What about good experiences?

Creative Commons License photo credit: Andres Rueda

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Flying in the face of convention…

Or at least flying in the face of what I’ve been told by someone who makes a hell of a lot more money coaching/teaching than I do. After reading several blog posts about removing obstacles to your cool stuff so it can spread around the ‘net unencumbered by an opt-in form, I’m forced to re-evaluate my approach to distributing my ebook.

On one hand, everything I’ve been learning from this gal the past six months about list building insists you put all your “freebies” behind an opt-in form and goes as far as to say that I should have a squeeze page as the first page of my web site so I can funnel people on to my list, enticed by a really cool free thing.

(Besides this, I’ve been learning some REALLY VALUABLE STUFF from her, so I’m not knocking her process. It works, she’s making a shitload of cash, and she’s showing no signs of stopping. She’s one of my teachers & I wouldn’t be where I am without her guidance.)

This list building technique makes sense, and I did it because I’m relatively new at the whole coaching gig and my mailing list is a bit anemic.

But on the other hand, squeeze pages make me squirm.

And I know that they’ll most likely make tribe/ideal customer/my people squirm as well. Worse than squirm, actually. Squeeze pages make them frustrated and more inclined not to trust the business squeezing them.

In fact, I’ve been told as much.

I know my people are savvy internet folk, are tired of the hard sell and stuffy-ness of corporate-ish ways of doing stuff. And they’re tired of the hype and hard sell.

I know this because I’m tired of these things as well.

So I’m going to blatantly ignore what I’ve learned. It served me for a while, I’ve learned the basics of internet marketing, but I need to do things my way (there’s that fiercely independent streak…).

And since Trust and Honesty are at the top of my positioning list, the way I approach this needs to change.

Not only that, I have a message:

It’s OK to be a hungry artist. It’s not OK to be a starving artist.

And I want to spread my message far & wide and to as many people as I can touch.

Having this book behind an opt-in box limits the reach of my ebook.

So in response to all that’s been going on in my head, I’m officially offering my ebook “Five things to do before you kick your day job’s ass to the curb” for free. Forever.

No strings attached.

No email required.

All I ask is that you send it to everyone you know. And ask them to do the same.

Steal this book - five things to do before you kick your day job's ass to the curb

photo credit: Jason Nelson

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And we have a winner!

The random number generator picked #39.
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And the 39th person to sign up for my mailing list is Lauren from Hark Industires.

Congratulations, Lauren! I sent you an email earlier so please respond with your address & I’ll get it out ASAP.

And for everyone who signed up this past week (and before ;) ) thank you SO MUCH!  I hope you’ve all enjoyed the ebook and if you’ve been on the list longer than 2 weeks, I hope you’re getting something out of the self-employment questions series.

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