Being an artist of any kind is rough in many ways. There’s the work itself, which is more like torture at times than anything resembling fun.  Then, there is a lot of negative social pressure on top of that.

Every creative professional I’ve known has struggled hard with at least one social issue, to the point of stalling their own progress.

Mine? “How do I know I’m really supposed to do this?”

My family is full of business people. Investors, bankers, corporate investors, corporate bankers… My English-and-History-Major parents make up the black sheep branch. For most of my childhood, it was assumed that I would fall into line as a business person of some sort. No one was surprised when I went into marketing and advertising.

But this art thing wouldn’t go away.

It kept cropping up, getting in the way of things like friendship and a social life.  “I’m just a passionate amateur,” I said to myself.  “I could never handle the responsibility of being a professional artist.  I already have a career I love.”

Which is true — I have a geeky love of marketing that only other marketers understand.  There’s no way I would ever give it up.

When my son was born, I thought, “Now I’ll really have to give it up.  There’s no way I can raise a child, sustain my career, and do art.”  But I was wrong.

I didn’t get to do much, but I did manage to do it when I could, sacrificing things I care deeply about, such as time with my family, and my own health.  And when I couldn’t produce any art, it felt wrong.  There was a constant pulling on my fishing line, as though an unseen hand was trying to reel me in to the surface.

I gave up many things — many money producing projects.  But I did not give up my art.

Late last year, I had a talk with myself.

I looked at all the factors, from childhood to present day, most of them based on how I have decided to spend my time and money in different phases of my life.  When I was taking an Eastern Philosophy class in college, I learned about what the Chinese call the “yin will.”  To my understanding, these are the “predestined” patterns you can’t change, but you also can’t see while they are occurring.

I did this to rule out becoming a professional artist.  To stay an amateur hobbyist.  Because it would surely be a lot easier than doing art.

But on paper, the patterns were clear.  I was “supposed to be” an artist, with all the responsibilities that come with that.  Hours in the studio, finishing things for release, selling them.  Though the outcome wasn’t what I had initially hoped, performing the “Yin Will Tests” gave me great peace of mind.

At last, I could say to myself, “Hey, look.  I’m clearly meant to do this, too.  I might as well stop being conflicted about it, manage my time so that I can have two careers, and get to work.”

It seems completely obvious now, but there’s a reason I became an art and entertainment marketer…  There are no rules for creative people.  I can do both art and marketing — they are synergistic goals.  It was pesky ol’ society again, whispering in my ear that I couldn’t possibly be good at more than one thing.  The world likes specialists, after all… but that’s why authors have different pen names.

Here are the “tests” I used, in no particular order.  Ask yourself these questions:

1. Is there anything in your life that just won’t go away?  That you’ve tried to kill — because it would be more convenient if it were dead — but it just won’t stay down?  Describe exactly how does it keep showing itself, despite your best efforts?
2. Have you had many “really good opportunities” that you haven’t taken because you thought they might interfere with your art production?
3. What did you spend your own money on as a kid, besides the obvious (candy, clothes, video games…)?
4. Were you obsessed with something as a child?  What were you really into until you learned to hide your interest?
5. Have you had any effortless successes with art?  (Not necessarily professional experiences.)
6. Even in the face of short-term gratification (such as watching TV, playing video games, eating, etc), are you driven to do art?  Such that your non-artist friends think you’re weird?  Note: this comes out in your actions, not your feelings or intentions.  If you don’t actually stay in at night to produce art, rather than going out drinking with friends, it doesn’t count.

I don’t know how to work this last one in as a question — it’s more just an anecdote.  When I did my personal reflection, I noticed that I kept acting on “good ideas” that never quite came to fruition.  I realized I did this, in part, to avoid judgment from people… my poison people.

The end result was that I kept wasting my time chasing things that got 90% complete, but then abandoned because — let’s face it — I didn’t really want to succeed at them.  I wanted to look like I was engaged in a socially acceptable pursuit, but didn’t actually want the end result.  It was, in short, a cover story.

Anyway, hope this helps.

Let’s say the mechanic looked at your smoking vehicle and said, “Eh, what makes a car run is black magic.  It’s hit-or-miss, really, whether it’s going to start or not.”

Wouldn’t you ask to see this joker’s certifications and demand your “diagnostic fee” back?

Or, let’s say you went to a doctor for weight loss advice.  After taking a look at you, she said, “Well, it all depends on having good genes, and a fast metabolism.  I’m sorry, but you were just dealt a bad hand, and you’re destined to keep getting fatter.”

Wouldn’t you want to get a second opinion, ASAP?

I don’t know about you, but I’d be heading on over to the next auto garage, or trying a new doctor.  Just about any sane person of my acquaintance would do the same thing.

But if I asked them about artistic or creative success, these people — the same ones who’d be calmly looking up mechanics on Angie’s List — would say any or all of these things:

“Oh, business is a black art.”

“Success is hit-or-miss.”

“You have to be lucky to make it, you know, right place at the right time.”

Do not believe a word of this.

How can I say this with confidence?  Because I am a creative business mechanic.  For select people, my job is to help build, “tune up,” or fix smoking creative businesses.  I know from experience that it can be done.

Because business is a machine.  And just like any machine, if a part is broken, your business won’t run.  But here’s where the trouble begins…

Let’s say that Jane is trying to make money selling prints as an art photographer.  She’s been told that her photos are very beautiful and that “she should sell those for a living.”  She puts up a little website and shopping cart… and gets no sales at all.

She gets anxious.  “What’s the problem?  Oh, I know.”  The lightbulb goes off.

“Oh, it’s gotta be that I’m not getting enough visitors to my website.”

This seems logical, right?  If you sell art prints on your site, but no one comes to your site, you won’t get many sales, if any.  So, Jane enrolls in an online class about getting traffic and learns about how to run banner ads on blogs.  She designs some beautiful banners, since she has good artistic skills, and… still, no sales.

She thinks, “What happened?  I did the right thing, I got traffic, but no one bought.  This selling thing must be a black art.  Maybe it’s not for me.”  And she gets even more upset.

Let’s go back to the car scenario.

So, let’s say your non-starting vehicle is at the garage, and the mechanic doesn’t claim “black magic,” but asks you about what happened.  When you start to answer, he interrupts.  “Waitaminute, I know e-zackly what’s wrong with this car.  I can see it, plain as day.  Hold on a sec.”

He gives you a fancy new coat of paint in a designer color — an expensive color.  Then, he says, “Let’s fire it up!”  Nothing happens.  He is devastated.  “I just don’t understand it,” he says.  “The car looks great!”

In comes his boss, who opens the hood and fixes the problem, after running a few simple tests.

It would seem ridiculous at a car garage, but this is exactly what happens when people “diagnose” their business troubles.

They jump on the easiest solution that comes to mind, but they’re usually fixing the wrong part of the machine!

How does this happen so easily?

When it’s your car, it’s easy to spot this kind of “logic.”  But when it’s your business, you’re usually in no frame of mind to solve problems.  Problem solving requires a clear head; a business in distress causes an emotional sh*tstorm.

• Losing money often causes feelings of panic.
• Failure can cause feelings of inadequacy, especially if you know other people are watching you, waiting to say “I told you so” or offer “advice” in the form of criticism.
• Helplessness can cause feeling of hopelessness and frustration.
• And worst of all, you still don’t know if your work is objectively “worth anything.”  Because you don’t know what you’re doing, and it’s like you’re just churning around in deep water, waiting to drown.

You can’t make good decisions under any of those conditions.  It’s not that you want to give up, but you can’t make any kind of logical choice.  When you’re caught in a hurricane of panic, there’s no way you can reason yourself out of it until you’ve got a clear head.

Often, people grab on to the first easy solution they can think of because it is easy, and rationalize it later.  For example, throwing lots of money at a vague problem.  Or going with what they are most comfortable with, such as me with Google AdWords.  But just because I am skilled at Google AdWords does not mean it’s the right solution for every business problem!

So the result is: you just don’t know what went on.  You don’t know where the machine is broken, so you don’t know how to fix it.  I’ve watched many people flush money down the toilet because it’s the easiest thing to do.

The good news?

But there is good news.  If this has, in fact, happened to you, it is no reason to give up.  You probably jumped to conclusions and tried to fix the wrong part of the machine, so there’s no reason to assume that you can’t have a viable business.

This post is already getting long, but I’m working on Part 2, which is about more issues with the Business Machine.  I’ll send an email to the list when it’s ready.

It was fueled by a phone call from a subscriber, my own experiences on Etsy, and my clients’ challenges for this new year.

I know, it’s been a while since I’ve sent anything out about creative business. There’s a good reason for this, and I will tell you about it a little later.

But first, let me tell you a story — my recent experience as an Etsy buyer.

So, my brother shaves the old-school way, with a straight razor, mug, brush, and soap. I was looking on Etsy for shaving soap to give him as a gift, and I could not believe how many bath and body / perfume / home fragrance sellers there were! The choices were dizzying, even for men’s shaving soap — something that I really didn’t expect.

On the one hand, this is fantastic.  It means that more people are making stuff, and there are lots of choices for buyers. But for sellers, it can be really intimidating.

Just from my tiny site that is woefully out of date (I’m a baaaad blogger, I admit it), I get questions about how beginners (and even some non-beginners) can compete with all the sellers “out there.”

This is a question that many people have, but it is not the right question you should ask.

Because I didn’t buy any bars of shaving soap. I wanted to buy something — I love buying stuff for other people, and I had my credit card literally sitting out, next to my keyboard, ready to be used!

But in the end, I chose to do nothing.

The real question you should ask is: “Why should people buy your stuff vs doing nothing?”

I believe that doing nothing is your real competitor, these days. Confusion is the enemy of sales. When faced with too many choices, all delivering more-or-less the same thing, no clear decision can be made.

Quite honestly, I was confused. I knew nothing about men’s shaving soap, and they all looked the same — the same level, the same scents, the same general product. Sure, they were all attractive, but I was looking for the one that would elevate itself above the general noise, shining like a lighthouse over the sea. And I did not find it.

Here’s where we get to the “good reason” part of the post.

Up until a few years ago, my marketing consulting was all about techniques. I would implement techniques for people — setting up ad campaigns, watching website stats, optimizing pages for lower bounce rates, writing snappy copy for Etsy, etc.

My articles, papers, and advice used to be mostly about techniques, too. Nuts-n-bolts stuff that any small business could use — setting up and managing an email list, writing promotions, pricing strategies.

But when I started representing more lifestyle & entertainment businesses, I realized that those techniques have limited value. They are putting the cart before the horse, to use an old-fashioned saying.

Instead, I started working with companies on their core strength (just like personal trainers!) Even when they said, “We’re really struggling here, and we have to come up with money FAST,” I redirected them back to the fundamentals, first.

In a short time, they all boosted their normal level of sales. Less customers did nothing; more bought, even without the added incentive of a sale, or a holiday season, or something new.

If the core strength of a business is there, doing nothing will become less of an option for customers.

You might have guessed that I’m talking about values. Values are the core strength of your business — not your products, not your website. And your values come from you.

Anyone can make products. But only you can make your products. Are your products somehow uniquely you, in some way?

This post is already getting too long, but I would like you to think about your values, and how they translate to your products.

Do your products reflect you? Or are you simply “doing what sells,” letting trends and fads be your guide. Have your values truly influenced your decisions, or have you felt a little lost, especially about things like packaging design, logo, and websites?

I’m preparing another installment on this, but until then, feel free to email me with your comments and questions.

Make stuff and prosper!
- Katherine

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Most of the ELG Business action occurs off the site.  I prefer the more personal communication of emailing the people on my list — it’s more of a real conversation, since people can just reply directly to my emails.  If you’d like to join the conversation, sign up for my free series of papers and join my list on this page.

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/garage-sale-warrior/2009/11/flipping-for-fun-and-profit.html

Garage Sale Warrior is my mom’s Chicago Tribune-affiliated blog about the Chicago community of second-hand and vintage buyers and sellers.  You can direct comments to her at didurkes@yahoo.com, or post them on this blog.

I got to wondering, “Why would someone take the time to leave those comments?”  She had quite a chip on her shoulder.  She obviously didn’t want clarification, or even help.  Instead, the whole thing just had an air of defensiveness about it, as though my blog had touched upon a something that she did not want to accept.  Plus, it was clear that she didn’t read most of my actual text, but saw only what she wanted to.

The gist of it is: She thought my message of success was unhelpful.  More to the point, though, she thought my position was, “All you need is to have a successful attitude, and success will be yours.”

What is a successful attitude, anyway?

That isn’t what I say.  My stance is more like, ‘You need to have a successful attitude, or else success won’t be yours.”  In fact, you can invest every drop of time, effort, and energy you have into what you’re doing (successful actions), but if you don’t have The Drive (successful attitude), you’ll probably not get far.  At least, this has been true for me.

It’s like going to church with an empty spirit, or showing up to work but not doing anything productive.  Sure, you go through the motions, but if you’re not really there, it’s just busy-work.

Positivity Is Misunderstood

Having a positive attitude isn’t about feeling happy and cheerful all the time — not even close.  It’s about stopping bad habits of thought: blaming, feeling sorry for yourself, criticizing, and it’s also about staying present — continuing to really care about what you’re doing.

The positive attitude is not comfortable or comforting, because it’s the cold, hard knowledge that only you can do what you have to do.  There is no one there who will take the responsibility off your hands.  And it’s a constant battle to avoid indulging in negativity, but you can’t give in.  If you do, all your attention will be spent thinking, “Poor me,” not on what you gotta do.

Don’t use your problems as fuel for bad emotions.

As any soldier or top athlete will tell you, success is a mental game. It can mean death to indulge in negative emotions.  You should admit the facts, absolutely — if you’re broke, in hard times, in bad health, or otherwise at a disadvantage.  But don’t think, “Oh, I can’t possibly succeed because my kids… my job… my health… my debt.” If athletes thought that every time they got hurt, no one would ever come back from injury.  But they do it all the time, and sometimes it seems miraculous because they overcame so much!

Like an athlete, say to yourself, “What’s the plan for recovery and getting back on the field?  What am I going to do about the fact that I’ve got this problem?”  Start solving the problem, not using the problem as bad-emotion fuel.

If you are thinking about how bad your life is, you are not thinking about how to make it better.

Just keep on; there is no other choice.

If you think that I’m happy and positive all the time, think again.  My writing rings true for so many people because it’s also a constant battle for me!  Yes, some things come easily to me, like expressing myself in writing.  But some things are very, very difficult, like weight loss, and having to attend to a high-need toddler 22 out of 24 hours (that’s not an exaggeration) when I am an extreme introvert.  But, as my friend put it, “You just do what you have to do, because you have to do it.”

If you’re truly success-minded, there is no choice.  You care far too much about what you’re doing to leave it alone, no matter how broke, friendless, stressed, or ill you are.  (Which is why I’m writing this at 4AM while my son tosses and turns due to more inexplicable problems with his sleep and digestion.)

The best thing you can do for yourself is to accept the fact that you’re not going to give up, so it’s no use playing out scenarios where people come to your rescue, pity you because you have it so hard, or help you justify why it was the best thing to drop out.  Face it — you’re in, and you’re in for good. Best to apply your energy to your strategy and tactics, not imagining yourself as a tragic figure.  Maybe your tragedy is justified, but is that the role you really want to have in life?

Just fight on, and remember, that even though it looks like people have it easy, everyone’s got their problems.  Everyone’s involved in their own silent battle.  Even the rich and “successful.”

As far as I know, these beliefs only leads to trouble. I know, because I’ve subscribed to both of them at various points in my life, with no positive results. My thoughts often took the “If I could only…” form: If I could just get a good grade on my SATs… if I could just find three hours to organize all my papers… if I could just fix the graphic design on my website… etc.

The health industry is making a killing because of this tendency — “If I could just buy this home gym equipment, I would be thin and healthy.” I don’t blame Bowflex or anyone else for profiting from it. This tendency comes from within us; it is not created by advertising.

The “one thing” mindset is a completely false belief that we create based on our desires, not reality. It would be so easy if it were true! If I could just find the one workout video that really gets results, I would be fit forever!

But what really works like that? In my experience, nothing.

Success Is A Complicated Combination Lock

A better metaphor for success is a complicated combination lock, the kind where you have to put in a parallel row of numbers. Once we get the right combination, though, we’re often faced with another lock to get to the next level. You have to expect that, to survive in goal achievement. If you’re completely convinced that you’ve got the key to success, and it doesn’t work, it creates a void of helplessness from which you have to recover. “Well, what do I do now?”

Success, whatever your definition of it may be, is a combination of things all done basically right, continuously.  For example, success in health is a continuous combination of:
- healthy eating
- healthy sleep
- exercise
- mobility
- positive mental attitude.

Without all of those things, total health is incomplete. And, even worse, the combination is different for everyone.

Success in writing is so much more than just language ability or “talent.”  You see plenty of “talented” writers never even finishing a single story!  Success in productive writing is a continuous combination of storytelling, self-honesty, being aware of the world, discipline, focus, and much humility.  And those are just some of the things that one has to do right in order to be a writer.

Success in business is also a combination of factors, and depending on who you are, they may be different for you than for other people.  You cannot expect to take one class and have all the knowledge you need.  It’s more realistic to expect to take class after class or read book after book, forever, as your success maintenance program.

In business, there is no one key to wealth. There is so much emphasis on breakthrough thinking, but that is because a breakthrough is dramatic, easy to understand, and makes everyone wish / hope that a breakthrough will “happen” to them.

Breakthroughs are nothing more than the last number in your lock.

I think of achievement as the output of a machine.  This machine has many parts that all have to be in good working order to produce results.  It may be that there is one major thing holding you back, but all too often, that one thing just covers up another thing that you have to see to.  Is it frustrating?  Yes!  Especially when you buy a book or take a class promising you a “fast, easy way” to build a business and start getting money TODAY.

That is why I’m never going to tell you that there is a fast, easy way to build a good business — any more than there is a fast, easy way to learn to play the violin (I do play fairly well, by the way, so I know what I’m talking about here.)  I will never promise that there is ONE key to success in business.  In my experience, there are several keys, and they are all equally important.  Only when you have all the numbers will the combination be right, and the lock unlock.

Do something worth doing.

This is why it is so important that you are doing something worthy of your time and energy.  If you aren’t, you will look back five years from now and it will feel like wasted time, no matter how much money you get (success is not only measured in dollars!)  How do you know if you’re doing something worthy?  Only you can know that — see the section on The Drive in “What It Takes” and “A Day Without Action,” two of the chapters in my free business course.

You see, I brought this cold on myself.  No, really.  I know my “machine” very well, and I know that I opened the door to sickness by staying up too late, too many nights in a row.  It happens every time.  I know this compromises the immune system — everyone’s, but mine especially, and I somehow thought I was the exception.  So, when my two-year-old’s nose started running, I didn’t think, “Oh boy, I better do everything right so I don’t get sick.”  Nope.  I didn’t think at all.

Therefore, I have absolutely no cause to whine, even in the theater of my mind.  Instead, I am using this opportunity to practice discipline and responsibility.  All day long, I was teeth-grittingly perfect.  I ate every 3 hours even though I had no appetite.  I even took a nap when I was tired.  I drank water.  I exercised heavily in the morning (it’s just a cold, not a reason to throw me off my schedule.)

Even though none of this was pleasant — what is, when you have a cold — I was able to feel good about myself.  I was able to gain back the responsibility points I lost by staying up all night.  But even better, I turned my cold into a real opportunity to teach my readers about opportunism!  (This quality is featured in “What It Takes,” the first paper in my free business course.)

Opportunism is turning adversity into real opportunity, not just thinking positively through a bad spot, finding hacks around a problem, or acting cheerful.  No, it’s the ability to really and truly turning it into an unique advantage for you, and use it as a springboard for success.

In martial arts, Shr Fu often talked about this.  When I heard my teacher — who has real-life combat experience — speak about fighting, it was clear he never stopped strategizing, even when he was getting a blow to the stomach.  He taught us to use our sparring partners’ energy to give our strikes more power.

This quality comes from physical training, but it’s an example of “the body trains the mind.”  Opportunism comes from being mentally ready and open to opportunity.  You have to constantly ask yourself, “How can I use this to my advantage?  How can I make the situation even better because of this opportunity?”

If I had been in the mindset to act cheerful and weather the storm, I would be focusing on distracting myself from my cold.  If I slipped into self-pity (yep, I am quite a baby about being sick), I would just be making myself miserable.  But because of my opportunism, I actually was grateful for the chance to practice my responsibility, repair my self-image as a healthy and disciplined person, and have ready inspiration for this blog!

Now, I’m off to bed at a reasonable hour so that I can feel as good as possible tomorrow…

Yesterday was a cold, sort of wet day — not good for an active toddler!  We strolled around downtown and went in different stores to pass the time.  One of these stores was Design Within Reach.

I had only seen the catalog, so I was interested in looking around and sitting in all the chairs.  I couldn’t believe the price tags!  $1000 for what looked like a silver lawn chair… $180 for what appears to be a simple children’s coat rack (I actually own this.)  $3000 for simple glass tables and simple couches.

But I had to admit, there was *something* about every piece there that set it apart from its IKEA and Target knock-off cousins.  Everything seemed so thoughtfully designed, and all the couches and chairs were actually comfortable.  I was surprised, having only shopped at IKEA and Target for furniture, at how sturdy the pieces seemed.  This was not disposable furniture, but stuff that you could give your children for their first apartment so that they would have at least one classic work of design.

The store had no music playing, which I really like.  Everything was quiet, spacious, and inviting.  The price tags were not paper, as I had originally thought, but magnetic holders with printed magnet labels stuck on them.  How smart!

The one sales person greeted me politely, but left me to meander around.  He did not say a word about my son trying out all the chairs (I did make him take his shoes off.)  When he saw me looking at a particular couch, he engaged me in intelligent discussion about design.  He told me that he has several of the pieces in his own house, including the couch I was trying out.

My son started getting bored, so we had to go.  On our way out, I noticed this quote printed on the glass wall:

“The details are details. They make the product. The connections, the connections, the connections. It will in the end be these details that give the product its life.”
Charles Eames

For those of you who read my paper, “The Difference Between Something Good and Something Great,” this should serve as a real-life example of how excellence makes vastly more money than simply good.  Design Within Reach produces the equivalent of First Class tickets.  Yes, they are basically the same as the cheaper IKEA products, but DWR totally outclass IKEA in its attention to detail in all the areas that count… not just the products, but the entire customer experience.

I, for one, will be thinking about how to apply this to my life, and certainly my business.