School of Creative Business - Creative Entrepreneurship

10 Best Reasons Why You Should Blog

Everyone I know is blogging, Are You?

Well if you aren't then I think you are doing a disservice to your creative talent and business. Blogging is more about marketing yourself or talent. But many people still think blogging are for those who have something to say or who are natural writers.Well, I thought the same things. Until I realized that if they had a voice- I too had a voice. So I started blogging in 2007 and have blogging every since.

Blogging has open alot of door for me both personal and professional. I am helping others start their blogs and I have stronger confidence in myself on what I have to say is important also.

So, Are you asking what's my point?

The point is after reading Blog Wild – A guide to Small Business Bloggingby Andy Wibbels. I realized that blogging was another essential tool to my creative business, really it's an essential tool to any type of business. Let me share with you, what I learned from - Andy Wibbels.

1. Blogs are a Good way to Communicate with those who maybe interested in your talents or to keep update with others in your field.
2. Educate your blog readers by providing them with links, articles, or books that have helped you developed your style.
3. Reach out to future buyers- no one likes to buy from someone who they do not know. Creating a blog helps you to create a virtual relationship with others.
4. Generate a buzz about your creative talents- let your future and current clients know about new projects or events you are currently involved in.
5.  Test out new ideas- Are you wondering about the response you would received on a new technique- then ask – post images of your artwork and then ask for comments. This a great way to get your clients, friends and admirers involved in the creative process.
6. Blogging allows you to reach a larger market – just think Global- many blog hosting companies offer translation services.
7. The Press loves blogs- lots of journalists just do not have the time to interview every artist they come across. But if you had a blog that covered array of topics about your art then a journalist would have more than what they need to write a great article about you.
8. Write a book- Blogs can easily be turned into beautiful tabletop book – go to www.lulu.com pr www.blurb.com  . These companies will actually allow you to sell your book to others.
9. Celebrate Your Success – Share with your readers when you have good news
10. Blog just because– writing about your special talents will allows you to reflect on your craft and it will also help you become an better communicator and educator of your work. Studio 2229 is where I share these types of experiences.

If you haven't started a blog- then get your butt into gear. I am looking for Fabulous Bloggers to showcase in my Fabulous Creative Blogger category. If you are a blogger, submit your  blog link in the comment section .

9 Strategies for Living a More Creative Thought Provoking Life

Hey Everyone,

This week I want to begin with sharing with you guys strategies I''ve learned as a student in the I  doctoral program  from Argosy University. In my research I located an article detailing 9 Strategies of Critical Thinking in Everyday Life from the The Critical Thinking Community.

Well I began thinking that a lot of the strategies in this article could also be applied to artists who are looking for ways to Live a More Creative Thought Provoking Life.

So with that said, I began putting together a 9 series post and video journal on Living A More Creative Thought Provoking Life and my personal video journal on Creative Thinking: An Artist's Everyday Life.

 

The 9 Strategies to Living a More Creative Thought Provoking Life series will include:

Strategy 1. Use Wasted Time

Strategy 2. A Problem a Day

Strategy 3. Internalize Intellectual Standards

Strategy 4. Reshape Your Character

Strategy 5. Deal with Your Egocentrism

Strategy 6. Redefine the Way You See Things

Strategy 7. Get in touch with Your Emotions

Strategy 8. Analyze Group Influences on Your Life

Strategy 9. Wrap Up

 

Here is How it Will Go:

I will post 1 strategy a day. A video about my artist experience as I live through each strategy will be posted the following day, Totaling up to 18 days of Living a More Creative Thought Provoking Life. 

During this process I hope everyone will share their thoughts about these strategies and also about my video journals. (Just remember, I'm an Artist and I'm sensitivity about my sh*t - Ekyra Badu).

What will You Need:

First : You will need to read as many post as you can. I totally understand we get busy, but the good thing about these 9 strategies- they aren't time sensitivity. So you can work through them anytime of the day or week.

Second:Just like I will do, You will need to document your thoughts. This can be done in a journal, sketch book, note cards, voice recorder or thru- video. The important thing is that you start to analyze and assess  your creative thinking processes.

Third: Share your thoughts with the rest of us. You don't have to share the actual journal entries, but we would love to hear what you've learn in the process, so we too can learn with you.

9 Strategies to Living a Creative Thought Provoking Life Series Will Start...

This Tuesday. So that you will not miss one post or video Subscribe to this Blog  (if you haven't already). See You Then.

Peace & More Love,  

 

10 Attributes of Creative Types

We all have heard it before, "You are one of those Creative Types". And typically my response is, "Yes I am, so I'm to assume you are not". The statement of being creative can come across as condensing or sympathetic , like we have problems.  Others just don't know how to deal with us. Like we are a mystery.

But honestly the other types are the people  I sympathize with. Being creative is a freeing and joyous experience. Creative people live creative, colorful, self reflecting lives. We love spending time with ourselves - because we can entertain ourselves with the most creative things. We enjoy being around other creative souls because we feed off of each other.

10 Attributes of Creative Types. 

I've listed 10 of those attributes and have provided brief explanations of each.

1. Creatives are highly intuitive, big picture visionaries. We are at our best when we are working with abstract, analytic work that utilizes our divergent thinking. We can envision possibilities that don't exist, connecting the dots and recognizing what's missing in a given situation.

2. Creatives are agents of change. Because of our divergent thinking we often see problems before they arise. And this thinking on many levels places us in roles of critics or evaluators. 

3. Creatives want and need to be seen and appreciated for their uniqueness. We have an unusually high need to be seen and heard. We often work in companies that are small or in small groups. We need to be recognized and appreciated for being forward thinkers.

4. Creative are nonconformists. We like to do things our way. We like to define our own work and be able to take action without asking for permission. We hate to be micromanaged and we can feel stifled in companies with strict norms of behavior, excessive amounts of rules or large bureaucracies.

5.  Creatives have their own internalized standards of quality. We may often outperform other employees, but this is because we have a personal, intrinsic commitment to work and feel creative ownership over our work and personal projects.

6. Creatives have a strong need to believe in what they do. Our engagement with work is first and foremost must have a sense of purpose and meaning for us. New projects, creative freedom, and unlimited resources are high on our wish list. If we are not stimulated and engaged in our work, we can in fact "Rust Out" - present a lack energy, sleeplessness, loss of creative ideas and withdraw from others, resulting into a debilitating depression.

7. Creative have many talents and enthusiasms. We tend to have 3 to 4 highly developed skills and enthusiasms far many more activities than most. As soon as we loose interest in one area, we move on to the next subject with great enthusiasm.

8. Creatives have an insatiable appetite for learning opportunities and new challenges that utilize their diverse talents. We need a place where our intellectual and creative boundaries are limitless and where there is an abundant of opportunities for self-expression and personal and professional growth.  Many times if our day job isn't satisfying us, we have to seek other ways to express ourselves with hobbies and projects outside of our day -to- day work lives.

9. Creatives like variety and dislike routine. We like to use different skill sets on evolving projects. Rarely do like repetitive work. Working on an assembly line would just kill us.

10. Creatives often have acute sensitivities. It's very common for creatives like us to have one or two areas of hypersensitivity. We can have anything from a strong intuition, an appreciation of nature to an extraordinary sense of taste or smell.

Well, Do you see yourself in any of these attributes? I did! I totally understand why I do what I do.

I am a college professor at the Art Institute of Charlotte who conducts classes on a quarterly system ( every 4 months courses and times change), my work environment is filled with collaborative projects that require me to manage without someone looking over my shoulder. I am encouraged and celebrated when I work on projects outside of work and I have a flexible schedule that allows me to work from home on a few assignments and work on my doctoral degree.

I Love Being Creative!

Post your thoughts on being a Creative Type and how you overcame living  a mundane life .  I love to hear about your expereinces.

Great Example of Documenting the Artist Process

Learning to document the process as we are working on our art projects can be time consuming and down right impossible. I have tried my best to document my artist process. but sometimes I get so involved in the actual doing of the artwork, that I forget to take pictures of the steps.

Art of Wyanne, does a great job with documenting her artist process through video. It actually tells story and where her inspiration comes from. By the way, buyers love background information about the art pieces we create.

Check Out Wyanne creative process below.

Cheap Marketing Ideas

As a small business owner, I have to think of cheap marketing ideas that I can use to promote my art. I don't have much money for a marketing budget, so thinking of 'cheap" marketing ideas are essential to my growth and my future goal of making a good living with my art.

With that said, I wanted to share a few ideas I've ran across during my cheap marketing idea search.

Cheap Marketing Ideas

Wear Your Products - Place your artwork on t-shirts, totes, or even on your laptop. The ideal here is to showcase your artwork to others to see, who typically wouldn't go to a gallery or find you online.

Business Cards - This may seem like common sense, but have you thought about adding an image of your artwork to the business cards. Neither did I at first, but it is a good idea to display your artist style on a business card. Check out Moo Cards for inspiration. Get 10 Moo business cards for Free!

Pictures- Take pictures of your work, especially the process. Collectors love to see the artist's process work. So take those pictures and share them in your blog, on facebook or flickr.

Create a Widget - Design your own widget. You could place this widget on your blog, website or on your social networks. The possibilities are unlimited.

That is all I have for now. But a few post ago- I wrote about creating an artist package which included artist brochures. This also a really good self-marketing idea- its not cheap, but it's effective at getting yourself noticed.

Planning a Website Fine Art Portfolio

Are you thinking about creating a website to showcase your artwork? Well if you are,  then know that your online fine art portfolio should be designed the same as your traditional fine art portfolio. Your online portfolio has to represent you without you being there. It should have a strong presentation that's reflective of your artwork.

Below are suggestions on how to plan a website fine art portfolio.

Home Page

The home page is very important. It is the first impression of your work. The goal of the home page is to provide maximum visual impact to lead your visitors further into your website. Avoid to many pictures and text. I suggest one large image or if you are more savvy with flash, then maybe several revolving images.

Gallery

In selecting images for your gallery, use the same guidelines suggested in creating an artist brochure. Don't include every piece of artwork you have created, only show your current work. But if you have a need to show older work or work unrelated to your current body of work, Carroll Michels suggest to add a hidden link, that can be sent on your request to others.

Your artwork should be labeled with the title, size, and medium. Prices should not be posted, they can be an distraction. Include a note indicating to contact artist for prices.

About Artist

Your artist statement and biography should be included here. The biography can be used in place of your artist resume. In some cases I have seen artist include their resumes a PDF link. You can also include a head shot or a photo of yourself working in your studio.

Contact Information

This is a must. In this section provide a way for gallery owners/ visitors to contact you: email address and PO box address is good enough.

Press

A page devoted to exhibition reviews, articles and video presentations about your work should be included in this section. This is the place to "toot your own horn".

Blog

This has become the newest and hottest thing to include on your website. This allows your website visitors to seek out more insights about you as artist and it also is a good way to keep fresh content on your website. Include a link to your blog if it is hosted on another site or if your website has a blogging feature, then surely include it.

Favorite Artist Websites

I thought I would end this post with a few links to my favorite artist websites. I hope it inspires you to create your own website fine art portfolio.

Francoise Nielly

Michelle Caplan 

Yellena James

Billy Colbert

Cedric Smith

What's an Artist Package and What Goes into an Artist Package?

What's an artist package and what goes into an artist package? I have wondered this often, and thought I understood what to include in an artist package,until I started reading How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist: Selling Yourself Without Selling Your Soul. Caroll Michels makes it so clear in this book that's it is hard to miss, but just in case you do miss it I've provided you with a list of the essentials to include in your artist package.

Your Artist Package

 An Artist Resume

Now most of us have an resume of sorts. It might not be updated, but we have one somewhere. If you want to get down and serious with your artist career, you gotta have an update artist resume. If you are at lost with how to start write an artist resume go to the College Art Association.

An Artist Statement

For me, actually sitting down and writing an artist statement, was just painful. It was hard for me to translate my visual concepts into writing, but I did it and I got help from some really good sources. Empty Easel . Making a Mark, Renee Phillips, and Molly Gordon

A Cover letter

Yes that's right a cover letter.  Michels states in her book that "a cover letter can provide a context to help people view your work".  An artist cover letter should include: an introductory paragraph- stating who you are and your purpose; a short artist statement; a brag paragraph - picking out a few key accomplishments from your resume; a concluding paragraph - reminding them that if they are interested in your work you could send additional materials or they could view your website.

Visuals

Include quality images of your work. With the advancement of technology there really is no need to send slides of your work. You now can include images of your work on a CD and some galleries prefer you send them as attachments in an email.

Michels suggests also to rethink the way you might send your artist package. Her suggestion isto create a brochure.  Brochures- are cheaper than putting together a slide presentation and can assist you in getting a higher response rate from galleries, it resolves the problem of having to wait for matierals to be returned for recirculation, they are easier to handle and quicker to assemble, and they can serve as a sales tool for art dealers and consultants.

Designing My Artist Brochure

I've decided to take this route and create a  3 fold brochure to send out to galleries. I've spent the last few days designing the cover and inside pages. I also had to update my resume and artist statement.  Check here to view few pages of my artist brochure.

11 Lessons Learned from My 1st Art Market

Last week I participated  in my first art market- NODARoity, in Charlotte, NC. Based on selling out of two of my prints, I think I did pretty well for my first time. Although I did good in sells, I also learned a lot from my first art market. Below is a recap of what I learned.

1. Merchandising your table is really important to the overall branding of your image.
2. Be ready to explain how work over and over again.
3. Bring a few snacks and drinks with you.
4. And make sure you have proper clothing for the weather. ( I was inside, but I almost froze my butt off).
5. Walk around and view other artists' table. It is a good way to get new ideas for products and merchandising.
6. Establish a price point that is suitable for the target audience or have several items at different price pts.
7. Have enough product to sell -to maximize your table area
8. Establish a goal or purpose for participating in the art market - gain exposure, sell a prints for extra cash, to do a little market research on a new product. Just make sure to have some type of goal.
9. Keep in mind the purpose that many people attend art markets. For this event- my assumptions was that many of the people there, where looking for unique Christmas gifts.
10. Have some type of way to gather information from people who stop by your booth. I missed out on this opportunity-  I got a few names and address, but I could have gotten alot more if I had a book for people to sign. 
11. Bring your camera. I should have brought my camera to take pictures of my table- but again a missed out opportunity.

Show your Support and Subscribe to this blog. Peace and More Love, Alease Michelle

10 Tips to Staying Happy and Positive

Today I wanted to share 10 of my favorite Tips of on Staying Happy and Positive.  During the stuff times I have to often reflect on these tips to help me get through my day. We all have bad days, but what is important is how we handle those days so they don't become part of our everyday lives. Take some time and read over the following 10 Tips of Staying Happy and Positive.

1. Don't Put Yourself Down- It's important to recognize your weak areas, but it's not important to beat yourself up. Instead of thinking about your weaknesses, match them with strengths to help keep confidence levels high.

2. Stretch Away Toxins - During the winter months we sometimes neglect exercise. But still try to add some type of activity to your lives, even in the cold months. Try walking around the house, or doing yoga or pilates by video. Keep your body's circulation going and get rid of those winter blues.

3. Have a Tea Party - Simply going through the motions of making a cup of tea can reduce stress. There are four (black, green, white, & oolong) types of teas that have their own health- giving benefit.

4. Make it Moody- Put on your favorite piece of music. It can be something that reminds you of a pleasant memory like a happy holiday (Christmas music is my favorite) or your first romance. Then sit back in a comfortable chair, dim the lights and just listen. Music is said to appeal  directly to the primal part of the brain to calm and soothe.

5. Be Beautiful - Fill your home with things that give you the most pleasure. Do worry about conforming to others' perception of beauty; simply choose things that appeal to you and just sit around and enjoy your beautiful things.

6. Write it Down - Keep a pen and paper by your bedside. It can help you in two ways: first, write a list of things you need to tackle the next day; second writing it down allows you to let go of anything playing on your mind.

7. Bath before Bed- A warm bath will gently warm and relax you, and not only that, the reduction in your  body temperature mimics your body's natural sleep rhythms.

8. Learn for Another - Find a story about someone who has achieve greatness. Use their story to help you stay positive about your life and the opportunities you have.

9. Admire your Reflection- Make time each week to reflect on the decisions you have made and how they affected your life positively or negatively. Then make a promise to yourself to learn from your successes and failures.

10. Embrace Challenges- It's all too easy to be grateful for things like your house, family and loved ones, but remember to be grateful for life's challenges too. Often, it's facing challenges that helps uncover hidden strengths.

If you have any tips on how you stay happy and positive, please share them, I would love to add them to my list.-

Build a Strong Brand With a Marketing Portfolio

What's the best way to build your company brand? Should you focus on your website, direct mail, print ads, advertising specialties, electronic newsletter or social networking? What is the magic bullet that will build your brand?

There is, of course, no magic bullet. Effective marketing requires a variety of targeted communication tools with a strong marketing message. Think of this approach as building a marketing portfolio, a mix of marketing strategies that ensures that your message reaches your customers and prospects consistently and continually. Whether you have a shoestring marketing budget or a more sizable one, you can develop a powerful marketing portfolio. Here's how.

• Understand your customers. Effective marketing is always customer-centered. It focuses on the needs of your customers, not your products and services. Thus, the more you know about your customers and prospects, the easier it is to convince them to do business with you. Begin by looking at who your customers are and who you want them to be. Understand the pain points or needs that drive them to purchase your products or services. Find out how your customers get information when they make a decision about a purchase. If you aren't sure of the answers, talk to your customers. Conduct an informal or online survey. If your budget allows, consider a focus group. Review over Building a Foundation for Artist Career: Why People Buy
• Develop a strong marketing message. Now that you understand who your customers are, you need to develop a concise marketing message that captures your customers' pain points, your solution and what makes you different. This message should be a succinct, memorable statement of 25 words or less and should be included in every marketing strategy you use.
• Plan. Armed with information about your customers and prospects, develop a marketing plan that includes a variety of marketing strategies. Focus on those strategies that are most important to your customers. Ensure that you are in contact with customers and prospects on a regular basis. Include a timeline and assign responsibility for each task to hold yourself and your staff accountable. Think of your marketing plan as your roadmap to branding success.
• Execute your plan consistently. Once you have developed your plan, execute it consistently. Refresh your website on a regular basis by making it copy rich. Distribute your newsletter at regular intervals. Take part in networking opportunities. Use social networking tools as yet another avenue for reaching people.
• Evaluate and adjust. Closely monitor the results you receive from each strategy over a period of time. If one strategy is not giving you the results you anticipated, consider adjusting your plan.

Build your marketing portfolio consistently and continually and watch your brand grow!

_{Written By: Joan B. Marcus, president of Joan B. Marcus Communications LLC, helps small businesses and nonprofit organizations build their brand through the power of words. Sign up for a free newsletter that offers practical and low-cost strategies to market your business at http://joanbmarcuscommunications.com. Services include branding and marketing message development; communications audits; marketing communications planning; implementation of marketing tools including websites, electronic newsletters and brochures; writing coaching; and grant development.}