Do you ever wonder if there is recipe for how to work one's way to the life they want?
Joanna Penn, author, speaker & entrepreneur is one of my favorite creatives to look to for how to mix up the right ingredients to create the art life I want. I discovered her via her "Creative Penn" podcast about marketing, selling books and discovering better ways to write, publish and market one's work.
After several failed entrepreneurial attempts and an extended life in the world of corporate IT consulting, Joanna found her niche (and success) in......
Well, it's hard to say.
Just like it's difficult to pin down the exact ingredients for artpreneurial success, it's hard to figure out the one thing Joanna did to create the tipping point for her creative business.
Joanna started as a fiction writer but delved into the world of book marketing, podcasting ( now up to almost 200 episodes), a nonfiction book line, a professional speaker and digital product developer.
She's done what I think every "successful" (success defined by living off of your art) artpreneur does: she's learned the art of decreasing the uncertainty by developing multiple skill sets around one or two primary areas of expertise.
When I think of decreasing uncertainty, I think of adding skills. I don't mean being a jack of all trades and a master of none. I'm thinking more of taking what you know and are best at and breaking it into different ways of learning.
Plus, developing your own recipe for artpreneurial success is a lot like creating your own pumpkin bread recipe: you gotta experiment with different ingredients and techniques, omit the nutmeg, try a banana, add a leavener, add some cinnamon, and finally, have others "taste" your concoction to see if they like it.
I heard a podcast episode recently where the interviewee said he thinks in the future, the writers who are making a living from their work will have mastered the multimedia presentation. They won't just write books. They will create "books" where there is video and audio components and/or options.
It's probably a prediction that is right on track. Why? It meets people where they are- the audio learners, the visual learner and the experiential learner.
And fiction writers (like Joanna and many others) can completely take advantage of this.
And so can visual artists.
To expand more- I'll use an example of a visual artist who is taking her main area of mastery and leveraging it with multiple skills in different ways. This keeps their income more consistent and steady (they aren't reliant on one paycheck or "job" to pay the bills) and it helps them reach more people.
And....I think it does one more thing: it keeps our skills and awareness up. If we only write, we stay in that world. But if we participate in some video production, speaking and presentations, we open up our circle of influence and our circle of friends and colleagues. We are growing more, more people are able to see us and give us feedback.
Consider artist Christy Tomlinson.
She started selling products on her Etsy line in 2009. From what I can tell, her art began to pick up through word of mouth, exposure online and in magazines like the Stampington series. (Her background is in the scrap booking industry so she did have previous art-related industry experience).
She still sells her art via her Etsy shop and her own online store, Scarlet Lime.
She also sells many specialty supplies for mixed media artists in her online store(I didn't think this would make financial sense until I realized it's hard to find specialty products in art and craft stores).
Christy develops new online courses each year and the accumulation of these courses creates an impressive body of work.
She goes and exhibits at shows and has been a sponsor for products.
Christy teaches at live events and recently teamed up with Jenny Doh to teach a weekend workshop.
She teaches at 1 and 2 day workshop events and hosts her own workshops in her hometown, creating a once in a lifetime experience for her most enthusiastic students.
From my perspective she has three strong skills.
First, her whimsical, colorful and story-telling art resonates deeply with a specific audience.
Second, Christy connects with people on a heart level. Even though you don't know her personally, you feel like you know her; she's that kind of warm, inviting personality.
Finally, she's a good teacher. I've taken one of her classes and I loved it. I'm going to review the class here on the blog soon; it was a great experience. I learned more in the Boot Girls class than I have in any other online art e-classes.
So, if you are thinking you cannot make a living at your creative endeavor, consider other artists who are doing it.
A few things to keep in mind - this is NOT an overnight thing. I think this plan can take a good 3-5 years at least. It's doing one thing at a time, adding one more ingredient to your artpreneurial recipe to create a beautiful life with a more consistent income stream and more margin. (to read an excellent resource on margin, check out this post on margin by the Sheryl and Dave here).
Does this idea encourage you? Excite you? Exhaust you? I'd love to hear what you think and where you are in your artpreneurial journey.
Are you feeling stuck in your artistic journey right now? Have you downloaded your copy of The Heart of Getting Unstuck- it's my gift to you when you leave your email address. (and if you don't want more emails from me, you can unsubscribe!)
The post Is there a Recipe for Artpreneurial Success? appeared first on Launch Your Creative Life.