The 7 Part Business Plan for Artists
All our discussions are held on our private FB group HERE. Problems with the course? Please Email me or contact me via facebook
2 – Passion
Your “what“
Your vision (section1) ties directly to your passion. Your passion, your what, is a manifestation of your vision. If your vision is your motivation, then your passion is an activity that embodies what motivates you. You gotta pin point what action or activity motivates you.
What inspires you? What do you like to do? What do you avoid? What makes you actually do work or create art? And then you gotta sum it all up in 1 sentence. And you gotta sum it up in one sentence bcause we’ve got to boil it down to its purest most undiluted truest form.
I hate accounting. Accounting is not my passion. I am DEmotivated by accounting. And so when I was working with dear old Dad in the CPA firm I learned a lot… and I learned I just wasn’t cut out to work in that sort of job. Finding your passion and motivation is the key to staying productive. And it usually relates to your vision in some way.
I am passionate about creating. I love art and the creating process. I love the idea of creating a painting series more than actually painting it. Put me in the middle of a tornado mess and I enjoy the action of building order from the rubble. I can handle the stress of fixing. But put me in a smooth running operation and I soon become bored and disenfranchised.
My Passion
My “what”, my passion, is creating. I love the beauty and colors of creation. God made me an artist and I can’t go a day without seeing an amazing tapestry of color and lines and design and patterns in the world around me. I experience the colors, the lines, the patterns, the sounds, so deeply that I am often moved at the intricate beauty, majesty, and interconnectedness of the world. I HAVE to create. I create music, and stories, and symphonies, and poetry, and cartoons, and paintings, and plans, and businesses ALL THE TIME. They are constantly running through my head without end and without rest.
I love creating an idea more than I love implementing an idea. I don’t love change. I love creating. Some of the best parts of creating comes FROM implementing and change. Sometimes you have to create something first in its most basic form and then make changes. You can have an idea, or even a well throught out plan, but you have to cover the canvas with paint first before you can continue to adjust the colors and shapes to make it perfect.
Identifying your passion
To help identify your passion all you have to do is find the things that you spend your time DOING. When you have a to do list, what do you procrastinate on? Those things are not your passion. What do you find yourself doing a lot of or doing first? Those things are usually your passion.
This might take you a while. it might take you several weeks. That’s okay. It takes time to identify your passion. But here is what I would suggest; identify your passion within 1 hour. Work with that. Test it out. See if it feels right to you. Don’t announce it to the world just yet. Just see if it makes sense to you. This course, and identifying your vision and passion and such is like a picture slowly coming into focus.
Reconsider your passion after 1 day. Work with whatever idea you have. Test it out. Does it feel right to you? Does it make sense to you?Reconsider after 1 week. But all the while, feel free to move forward through this course. Your thoughts on your passion might change. during this time… and thats okay. Make progress, not perfection. Perfection comes from progress.
What passion ISN”T
Your passion will not be a feeling… believe it or not. Don’t get confused here. We aren’t looking for a feeling. We’re looking for a physical manifestation of your motivation. What do you do to fulfill your why? We are looking for a physical action that you take.
Your passion is a verb, not a noun.
What passion IS
For me it was very difficult to figure out my passion. It took months and years even to figure it out. For as smart as I may be… I can be a real idiot sometimes. I “do” a lot of different things. I write stories and music and movies. I create paintings with all mediums. I sculpt and weld. I design constantly; clothes, buidlings, and more. I plan out business ideas galore. How could I boil that down? It was clear as mud with a thousand ideas. So it made it really hard for me to identify my specific passion, the passion of creating. For me, I love to create. My brain is a little idea factory producing one nicely boxed idea after another, with a workforce putting out ideas 24/7. I have to work insanly hard to shut down my factory every Sunday. And I find it a guilty pleasure to be asked my thoughts on a Sunday afternoon cause I can sneek back in, turn on the magic creation machine and let it boil and move and work. (I need help.)
Make progress, not perfection
I can’t stress this enough. Make progress, not perfection. Perfection comes from progress.
Many people I know have become stymied trying to figure out every last detail BEFORE they implement a solution. This is a bad idea. Its often called paralysis by analysis. Don’t do that. Figure out a working solution within a few days at most and move forward with something that works. You can always come back and rethink this section and refine your idea later.
Aim for resonance
Resonance is a scary place. Its a place where your ideas feel right to you. It can be super scary because once you find resonance, resonance demands action from you.
Yes, you want to make sure to get this right. Yes, you want to make sure you have the correction vision and passion. Yes, you need to identify something that resonates with you, no matter what I or anyone else says.
Resonance danger
Resonance is also a danger zone. When your vision and your passion align, and you can clearly identify them, they are like a spark and tinder. They are the beginnings of a fire. Your vision and passion, working in harmony together, will light your mission. Your mission is like the larger logs you place on your fledgling fire to make a truely strong fire that can heat and light your way. And if tended corectly, your mission will become a bonfire for others.
The danger of this place of resonance is that it has to resonate with you. Its very internal. And sometimes people take this very personal resonance and give it some sort of manifestation that isn’t accurate. And then their attempt falls apart because its not authentic.
Let me give an example…
Lets say Jon loves to paint pictures of dogs. Jon had a dog as a child who saved his life, and ever since then he has an inordinate love of his 4 legged friends. Jon believes that his passion is to paint dog portraits. And so Jon spends countless hours and countless dollars on materials painting dog portraits. And almost nothing sells. And Jon becomes mostly broke. Jon gives up his dream of becoming a famouse dog portrait painter thinking he’ll never make it… or even worse… questioning his vision and passion for dogs altogether since they are now the source of his impending bankruptcy. All the time Jon was absolutely SURE that he was on the right path because his vision of becomeing a great dog portrait painter and his passion of painting dogs was really resonating with him. He had reached resonance! What went wrong? And then Jon throws out the dog with the doggie water.
Jon’s failure wasn’t in his vision or passion. His error was that he didn’t create a correct value (section 4) for his market (section 5), and nor did he bring his product to the market place in an efficient manner (section 6).
Sometimes we feel like we are in such a high level of resonance that we throw out other relevant information. That is why in this course we have included section 7, our review, which includes 3rd party people.
Don’t worry about the danger right now. Just be aware that its possible. Your goal should be to identify your passion, and make sre that it has resonance.
Join in the conversation
Comment on our private FB group your thoughts on this lessons.
Click to Comment
Your Roadmap Starts Here
Want more help?
I can help build your personal art business. This can save you time and headache and give you unique ideas that aren’t in the course. Contact me and we can set up a video chat and get things rolling. $60 per 1 hour meeting. 1 hour minimum .