Standout Creatives: Business, marketing, and creativity tips for solopreneurs launching their ideas

Kent Sanders has lived a life full of creativity ever since he was young, but it never occurred to him that he could make a living from his creativity. When Kent was young, he separated his love of creativity from his love of religion. It never occurred to him that he could combine those two interests. After working in the ministry for a few years, he decided he wanted to go back to school to teach. He wanted to challenge himself by doing something new. While finishing up his master’s degree, a realization dawned on him. He realized he could combine his two passions for art and religion. So he became a professor at a religious college where has taught everything from technology, to art, and film. In this episode, Kent talks about why breaks are important, some of the biggest things holding us back, and changing our mindsets about money. Here are three things you can learn from Kent: Breaks are Extremely Important One of the things that plagues many workers today is our pull to always be working. Society has led us to believe that we must work all the time in order to be successful. Kent believes it’s not about the number of hours you work, but how effective you are in the hours you do work. “The more that you work, the more people tend to look on that as a good thing. Where ‘Oh, this person has worked so much. They haven’t taken a vacation in so many years, and they’re working 60, 70, 80 hours a week, and that’s such a great thing, and they’re so devoted.’ We kind of have a messed up culture, I think, in the Western world in that regard. Where we believe that the more you work, the more effective you are, and that’s not true at all. It’s not necessarily about the number of hours, it’s about how effective you are, how you are using your time, and are you focusing in on the right things?” Instead, Kent believes we need to set healthy boundaries for for how much we work. “We kind of have to set these limits four ourselves so that we can have some healthy boundaries.” Because when we work so many hours, we can become distracted. We tend to lose focus. Half the time we are working and half the time we aren’t. Kent believes we can prevent this by setting up times to complete different tasks. “Sometimes we operate in that space where we’re kind of working, we’re kind of not working… to me it’s much better to set a clear, delineated line. And have specific times for things. That can be a real struggle because we can work any time and anywhere. To me it requires more self-discipline and more clear boundaries that we have to set because other people are not setting them for us.” The Biggest Thing Holding Us Back is Us One of the false perceptions people have about creativity is that restraints are a bad thing. Many artists believe restraints hold us back from doing our best work. Kent believes restraints can be helpful in our creative work. An example of this is how Kent uses timers when working. Instead of giving yourself unlimited amounts of time, you should set time limits for your work. “Actually if you set a timer and you only focus intently on that one thing, it’s amazing how fast you can get something done. The problem is that it requires a lot of focus and mental energy, and sometimes we don’t want to spend that mental energy because it’s hard. It’s really hard to focus on one thing for even ten minutes or a half hour. So that’s something that has been helpful to me, just placing that limit on yourself. But also, I think, other kinds of limits can be helpful too… because you’re forced to find other solutions to get something done.” Kent also believes our resources are not holding us back. What we are missing is a tenacious spirit. “To me the issue is not do I have enough time to get something done or do I have enough money to get something done. To me the issue is, am I going to figure out a way to get it done no matter what, and that to me seems to be the single biggest key to success for almost anything. It’s not about the talents or gifts that you have. It’s not about how much money you have or how much time you have. It’s about having that really tenacious spirit where you say ‘I’m going to get this done no matter what. I’m going to find a way to make it happen.’ It may take longer than I want. It may not exactly be the way I wanted or it may not get done the exact way that I envision it, but I’m going to make it happen. And that to me is the most critical thing of all. You’re willing to kinda plow through the obstacles and figure out creative ways to get things done and just make it happen.” We Need to Change Our Mindsets About Money After talking to many artists, I’ve come to realize that many artists struggle with the idea of making money from their art. They believe marketing is a necessary evil instead of a tool to help progress their careers. Kent also had these same struggles until he realized that giving doesn’t pay the bills. “I just like to give. That’s just part of who I am, but giving doesn’t pay the bills. You gotta charge for things at some point. And once I kinda got past that initial discomfort, I think my mindset began to shift a lot on just what it means to sell things and to think more in terms of business.” This is often times the biggest obstacle artists face. So changing your mindset can make a huge difference. “Once you understand selling things isn’t bad, that selling things is actually good, then your whole mindset kinda changes because you have to support your family. You should be compensated for the work that you do. But it’s really not about you getting paid. It’s really about doing the best for the person who you’re selling to.” The best way to look at it is by realizing how much value your work has. When you don’t charge for your work, you devalue it. What Kent realized was that if you want customers to get real value from your work, you have to charge for it. “People just don’t tend to emotionally value things that they have not personally invested in. So really the best thing we can do for people sometimes is to charge them for what we do because then that person is going to value it more. They’ll probably be a lot more likely to follow through with what they have bought, whether it’s a book or a course or something. So I think once you get past this idea that making money from something is bad, you know, you’ve got to kinda ditch that idea and understand that making money from something can be a really good thing because when you have money, it lets you do more good in the world.” Read more shownotes from episode 70 with Kent Sanders

A recap of episode 68 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Bob Baker where he talks about doing things that interest you, why you need to be persistent, and what separates successful artists from unsuccessful artists.

This is a replay of episode 23 with Tim Lawrence. With so many people going through adversity, it is important to remember that we can grow through even the most trying circumstances. --- Tim Lawrence is a copy editor, writer and adversity researcher. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Barclays Center, and Lincoln Center, and has copyedited for New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling authors. In this episode, Tim talks about growing through adversity, the benefits of a minimalist lifestyle, and the power of listening. Here are three lessons you can learn from Tim: You have to challenge yourself if you want to grow When we grow up, we do everything we can to make life easier on ourselves. We are taught to seek comfort instead of adversity. While this may lead to an easier life, you will also stagnate. Challenging yourself is the only way to grow as a person. It forces you to be in the moment. You become more aware of you body and mind, and grow outside of your comfort zone. Otherwise you will be left unfulfilled and bored. Instead of running from adverse circumstances, confront them. That is the only way to grow. The benefits of a minimalist lifestyle One of the great revelations Tim had was the power of owning less. When he was making a lot of money, he also owned a lot of stuff, and was still unhappy. Now that he is making a lot less, he also owns less, which has made him a happier person. What he has come to realize is that by owning less, you are able to serve people more effectively. You have less distractions and you are able to focus on what is truly important. Instead of owning more things, he recommends saving money so you can have experiences. When you travel, you come face to face with cultures that are different from our own. And you realize that things like possessions, status, and power are valued a lot less than they are in the Western world. The power of being a good listener Early in life, Tim discovered that listening was a very important aspect of connecting with other people. When people were going through tragedy, they would come to him because he knew how to be a good listener. He now uses this skill to help both people who are going through adverse circumstances, and those who are trying to share their message with the world. It has been crucial in his work with successful people. Through listening he is able to dive into other people’s worlds. He allows people to expose themselves for who they are without judgement. This had led to strong relationships that can last a lifetime. Read more shownotes from episode 23 with Tim Lawrence

Bob Baker has always been determined to make a living from his creative career. He started off his career by creating a music publication from scratch, with no prior experience. He didn’t let his lack of experience prevent him from achieving his goals. He just experimented with different ideas until he made it work. Since that first publication he has expanded his interests well beyond a local music magazine. He has dabbled with writing, painting, and creating courses for aspiring artists. He even got into stand-up and improv comedy. Bob has not let the starving artist mentality prevent him from making a career out of his creativity. In fact, he has thrived as an artist and creative. In this episode, Bob talks about doing things that interest you, why you need to be persistent, and what separates successful artists from unsuccessful artists. Here are three things you can learn from Bob: Do Things That Interest You Many of us have this fear of pursuing our creative careers. We are afraid that we will crash and burn, and never recover from our failures. Bob takes a different approach to his creative interests. He doesn’t play it safe. He explores the things he thinks are fun. “I had this philosophy early on where, if something seemed liked it was fun to do, I was like, I want to take some action… I want to experience that and see what it’s like sooner rather than later. So, you know, a lot of people play it safe, or they wait til they know everything about a topic or they think everything’s perfect… before they dive into doing something. And I was just like, ‘I want to see what that’s like. That looks like fun.’ So I did that with comedy, with improv, with publishing a newspaper.” It all started with creating his local music publication and has blossomed from there. Bob has never let his lack of experience stop him, and neither should you. “I published a local music newspaper and I had no business doing that whatsoever because I had no previous experience. Never wrote for the school paper, never really took journalism classes. You know, had just written on my own, had a passion for music. So I said I want to combine these two long standing passions, and just started publishing a local newspaper. And it was ugly. There were typos. People pointed things out. And I eventually learned just from doing and getting things out there to make it better.” You Need to Be Persistent There are no guarantees that you will ever make a living from your creative career. Not everyone is cut out for it. But there is something to be said for doing something you are passionate about. That’s why Bob believes persistence is crucial if you want to make a career out of your art. You need to pursue it regardless of the outcome. “There are no guarantees. The world does not owe you a living. So even if you are persistent and keep your nose to the grindstone for years on end, there’s no guarantee that you’re going to make it, whatever make it means to you. However, I guess what I encourage is if you’re meant to do that thing, to express yourself in that way… You should do it regardless of the outcome. You should do it for the joy of it, however, at the same time, you could be strategic in doing it and learning the things that will move you to toward that greater potential of maybe supporting yourself some day. But hopefully it’s something that even if you don’t make a living at it or you don’t reach that point, that you’ll still do it for the joy.” Bob recommends creating goals you can work your way towards so you can see the progress you’ve made. The key is to be strategic when you move towards your goal. “Making sure that your financial needs are met first just takes the pressure off to do your art more free flowingly I guess. And I kinda like that approach. But you can still be strategic in moving toward that goal if you have one of sustaining yourself like I did. It’s just… it may not happen on your time table… and that’s where the persistence comes in I guess. Yeah, if the payoff is not there in a month or two, are you willing to stick with it? And that’s another thing… that not everyone will, which is why not everyone succeeds because all of these rare… traits have to come together to make for a successful life.” Being Successful vs. Being Unsuccessful There are always people who will find success and those who won’t. There’s a fine line between success and failure. Bob believes one of the things that separates success from failure is seeing thing through to completion. “There are tons of people that want to write a book. There’s tons of people that have started writing books. There’s tons of people who have even finished the first draft of a manuscript of a book. But there’s a very small percentage who actually follow it through to get the darn thing published. So there’s this seeing it concept, and I don’t know what quality that is, but it’s like, when you start on a project, make a commitment to chip away at it and to see it through to completion.” Bob also sees another trait from many creative people: the need to jump from one project to the next. But you can’t always chase the shiny new object. You need discipline. “Another thing creative people are excited about new fresh things, and that’s cool, but you also have to follow through on the things that you’ve already started that may not be as exciting as they were those early weeks that you’re working on them. And that’s just a discipline I suppose and a personal commitment to stuff.” Another thing Bob recommends is re-framing the way you look at marketing. Artists need to stop looking at marketing as a necessary evil and approach it as something that is creative. “To me the marketing thing, the necessary evil, is all about an attitude toward it. If you re-frame and realize that all you’re doing is just sharing your work with people who are going to resonate with it, that’s not painful, you know. You just gotta do it in a more strategic way. So get on friendly terms with marketing and don’t lump a lot of things into this “business” category.” Read more shownotes from episode 69 with Bob Baker

A recap of episode 68 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Kym Dolcimascolo where she talks about creating plans, why you should know your audience, and how artists can change the world.

Kym Dolcimascolo got a degree in photography and film making but didn't follow that path once she graduated from school. Instead she became a computer engineer and worked her way up the career ladder. After working for a while in the corporate world, she decided she had had enough. So, she set herself up to leave her corporate job and started a web design company. This career move allowed her to work with people who embraced creativity, and eventually led her into coaching for artists and creatives. In this episode Kym talks about creating plans, why you should know your audience, and how artists can change the world. Here are three things you can learn from Kym: You Need a Plan As artists, we tend to do things on a whim. We want to live a free-spirited life. We want the freedom to choose our own destinies. But this line of thinking often hurts us instead of helping us. We should be planning our way to success instead. Kym didn't walk away from her job immediately. She decided what steps needed to be taken and she took them. "It wasn't instant. It wasn't, you know, I walked out that day and that's the end of the story. I created a plan for myself. And the plan was, I'm going to start working on my business and I'm going to actually have my business be able to generate enough money that I can afford my cost of living. And then I literally went out and did that." Many artists believe in the starving artist mentality so they give up on their dreams. But what they really need is a plan of action. Kym believes a plan of action can help us overcome our negative mentality. "I think that part of it is that a lot of people... don't see that if they actually plan things out, and if they actually take actions that they need to take, that the starving artist thing is just whatever it is. It's something we've bought into. It's something that everybody's told us. It's something we've bought into. It's just kind of another BS that we fall for." Know Your Audience One of the mistakes that artists make when trying to selling their work is not knowing who they are selling to. Instead of figuring out who wants to buy their art, they try to sell it to everyone. Unfortunately, that strategy does not work. Kym believes it is vital for us, especially in the beginning, to focus on finding people who want our work. "There is a market that's dying for your particular work and if you don't focus on that market, at least in the beginning, then the frustration is really high, if nothing else. Obviously the frustration becomes very high and your bank account stays pretty low." That's why Kym believes we have two choices. We either need to find the people who want the art we are already creating or we need to create art for the audience we have. "If you really want to create that kind of art, then there is a particular person that wants that. Go find those people... It's one thing or the other. Either if you really want that kind of audience, then produce the art that that audience wants or if you really want to produce this kind of art and sell it, then go find that audience." If you an artist that wants to create for your own self expression, that is awesome, but if you want to sell your art, you need to learn the game. "There are tons of artists... [that] create for their own self-expression. They have no interest in selling their art at all... and that's fabulous, but for those artists who really do want to make a living off of it, then there is a game afoot." Artists Can Change the World One of the things that artists fail to realize is how much of an impact they can have on the world. While many artists start creating to satisfy their own creative needs, most don't realize how big of an impact they can make. Kym believes artists can make a difference once they are ready to move to the next level. "If you really had it inside of you to alter some of the things on this planet, that we could totally do it through art, and I think a lot of artists are up to that... They move beyond the 'I just create for me,' and they... actually admit 'No, I actually want to make a difference with my art.' Right? It's not just for me.... I think that that's kind of the next level." It all begins with thinking and knowing you can make a difference. "It's beyond I just create because I have to create. Now it's move to I can take what I create and make a statement, make a difference on the planet with it. But even those artists sometimes resist the conversation about making money off of it." In order to get to that level, you have to change your mindset. You have to be able to produce work when you want to, not when the Muse hits you. You have to call on the Muse yourself. "I think that's one of those things too, by the way, that I see that the artists that do actually build success and continue to build success for themselves is that they really know, that they can actually sit down, and they can create, and they can produce what they need to produce, whenever that is... and it's not waiting for the moon to be in a certain phase, and them to be in a certain space, and their environment to look in a certain way. It's like, okay, I can harness this and I can pull it forward, and I can put it to work right this second because I have everything it takes to do that." Read more shownotes for episode 68 with Kym Dolcimascolo 

This is a replay of episode 44 with Sarah Jackson. In these trying times, it's good to remember that people like Sarah are making a huge difference in the world. Sarah Jackson is the founder of Casa de Paz, a hospitality home for families affected by immigrant detention. She is also the founder ofVolleyball Latino, a year-round indoor volleyball league that raises money for Casa de Paz. In this episode, Sarah talks about why she started Casa de Paz and Volleyball Latino, the importance of taking small steps, and why you need to take action if you want to achieve your goals. Here are three things you can learn from Sarah: One Moment Can Completely Change Your Life Sarah was working at a church when she received an email that would change her life. The email was an invitation to the pastors of her church to visit Mexico and learn about immigration. The pastors couldn’t attend, so she volunteered to go to represent the church. Before going, Sarah had never thought of immigration or its affect on people. She just thought it would nice to take a free trip to Mexico. Little did she know, the trip would radically affect her life. While there, she learned that there are families who want to be together but can’t be. Since her family was so important to her, she wanted to help other families be together. From that moment on, Sarah has spent most of her energy trying to figure out how to help the families of immigrant detainees. This led to the formation of Casa de Paz and Volleyball Latino. The Power of Small Steps There are days we all feel overwhelmed. We have so many tasks on our to-do list. That giant project looms over us. Instead of panicking and worrying about everything you need to accomplish, focus on the next thing on your list. Sarah gives the example of cleaning her house. Even though she knows exactly what she needs to do, it can be overwhelming thinking of all the things that need to be done. Instead of being overwhelmed by the enormity of the task, she makes a list of everything that needs to get done. “Even though I know in my head what needs to be done to clean the house, I still write it down.” This allows her to measure her progress. She can see that what she’s doing is making a difference. “It makes me feel better and it keeps me motivated.” Whenever you feel like your task list is becoming overwhelming, just focus on the one thing you should work on next. This allows you to break down giant tasks into much more manageable ones, and you are also able to see the progress you are making. Just Do It We all have lofty goals, but how often do we act on them? We badly want to change the world, but we rarely ever take that chance. We are afraid to fail. We let the enormity of the task overwhelm us. One piece of advice Sarah got was to just do something, even if it is something small. Just get started, and the path ahead will reveal itself before you. When she first started, Sarah was intimidated and embarrassed about her idea of creating a hospitality home. Her thoughts were clouded by all the what ifs. Her fears overwhelmed her, but then she decided to just do it. She started with something small. It created momentum. “One thing led to another and now it’s it’s own apartment.” Sarah believes you shouldn’t let your pride, your fear, or the embarrassment of being a failure “prevent you from starting something you know that you need to do.” It might not end up being the right thing for you, but you will never know until you try. Find people who will support and respect your crazy ideas. Find someone who has done something similar and ask them for advice. You need to understand what your part is and just go after it. Shownotes for episode 44 with Sarah Jackson

A recap of episode 67 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Marcella Chamorro where she talks about letting go of your ego, getting into creative flow, and becoming more mindful.

Marcella Chamorro's creative journey hasn't been a straight line. Her career path didn't reveal itself to her until well after she graduated from college. In fact, she took multiple detours including working at a non-profit, getting her masters degree, and starting a web design business, all before finding her true calling. She only recognized her true calling of writing, photography, and technology after running her web design business. Through these mediums she is able to help people tap into the serenity and enjoyment they crave. In this episode, Marcella talks about letting go of your ego, getting into creative flow, and becoming more mindful. Here are three things you can learn from Marcella: Let go of your ego One of the problems we face as creatives is letting our ego get in the way of creating something truly great. Often times we tie our self worth to our achievements or the amount of money we make. Marcella believes those things fed directly into her ego. "The main thing that I had realized was that for a long time, I had been attached to my self worth, to my achievement, and to my ability to make money. And that was feeding my ego so much. Like I made this much this month or I landed X client, or whatever." When Marcella decided to close down her web design business, she was prepared for the blow it would make on her ego. She knew she wouldn't be making any money, but she also believed it would help her peace of mind. "It was more of a blow to my ego and one that I was looking forward to. So I knew it was going to be an adjustment and I knew the area in my life where I needed the most growth... That's kinda what I felt was holding me back from peace of mind... So I decided, you know what, you think that you're cool cause you make money, how about you make no money and see how that feels." Our egos often get in the way of being at peace with ourselves. We let it control what we do. We let it drive our ambitions and our lives. But if we are willing to let go of our egos, we open ourselves up to greater possibilities. Getting into creative flow One of the problems we often face as creative people is tapping into our creative flow. We know that energy, or spark of ideas, lies within us, we just don't know how to tap into it when we need it. Marcella believes discipline is the key to tapping into that creativity. "For me it's a lot about discipline. It's a lot about repeating routines over and over, and just kind of triggering that in my brain, and say 'Oh yeah, it's time to write now,' and not having to use a ton of willpower when it's become kind of like a system... In my experience, if I plan things in advance, there's not creative flow." Another important thing we need to get into flow is working on things that matter to us. We need to choose topics that really speak to us. We need to let it come to us and let go of our ego when creating. "I need to really be feeling a certain topic to... really get into that creative flow. So for me, it's kind of spontaneous and... it definitely has a lot to do with letting go of the ego." Become more mindful When you work in a creative field, your mind often wanders. Your head is filled with so many ideas that it becomes hard to concentrate. That's why it is important that you build a mindfulness practice. A Mindfulness practice allows you to clear your head. It allows you to live in the present moment instead of always living in your head. Marcella's practices mindfulness by concentrating on her senses. "The main mindfulness practice for me are my five senses. I use my five senses to just reconnect with what is instead of what I'm thinking about. So either I'll stretch and feel my body... one of my favorite ones, just because it's so easy, is to just sit and hear everything. So really listen to all the sounds that I'm ignoring the majority of the time." Marcella believes taking breaks helps her get back into creative flow. She believes those breaks, even if they only last ten seconds, help her get through lulls in her productivity. "I try and really check back in to my surroundings via what I'm hearing, what I'm listening to, and then I get back to work. And it could be 10 seconds, but I realized when I did that that I got through that hour of writing or that email or whatever, however long it took, and I felt kind of energized and not depleted." Read more shownotes for episode 67 with Marcella Chamorro

A recap of episode 66 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Charlotte Eriksson where she talks about facing obstacles, knowing yourself and your fans, and the importance of knowing your why.