I had a specific mission on my mind when I first came to New York City to pursue my passion for writing and performance. I wanted to ultimately work with the best of the best, hone my craft, develop my own persona and technique and honor the gifts I was given that gave me the ability to thrive in the arts. I also wanted to live happily, in the style I could call my own, supported with a beautiful place to call home, a healthy lifestyle and all the necessities I needed to look, feel and perform at my best, at all times. And then, ultimately, I wanted to give back, as much as I possibly could.

Does this sound familiar to you? Did you have similar desires for your own life, and felt it was not too much expect?

Your WHY is the key to finding success in your business with your art. Let’s dive into how and why in the episode right now.

I was recently talking with Kris, an artist in the Artists In Business Insider Group, my private membership group for artists who are actively working on taking their businesses with their art to the next level of revenue growth, who was telling me about some reservations she is having about creating her first online course.

We talked about how her idea is solid, and how qualified she is to teach the material but she’s not yet completely certain about who she will be teaching it to, and what details she has yet to figure out based on what those students need and want.

Plus, she’s never created an online course before and the thought of it felt a bit daunting, which is completely understandable.

So she thought she might need to wait before creating the course until she gathered more information.

This is the opposite of what a business owner in this position should do for one simple reason:

If you wait, you keep others from experiencing what you have to offer and giving you feedback on how to improve it tweak it and take it to the next level.

There is SO MUCH that goes into creating a strong online course, and the transformation you can enable people to experience has very little to do with the look and feel or design of the course.

It has everything to do with the quality of training you offer. Let’s dive into that now in this episode.

Did you know that 90% of small businesses fail every year in the U.S. in large part because they don’t have a financial plan in place for their businesses that is designed to create predictable, consistent revenue?

You may have known that from being a member of the Artists In Business community because this is something I talk about all the time.

However, if you’re a member of the Artists In Business Insider group or the 14-Day Art Biz Challenge group, you also know that one of the largest factors that contributes to ensuring your financial plan for your business actually brings you results is knowing, without question, who your true ideal clients are.

And, if you’ve listened to my episodes 115 and 116 of this week, you know how truly difficult it can be to uncover who your true ideal clients are- and that those 90% of businesses that fail have owners who have not truly uncovered their true ideal clients.

So I want to put a stop to that once and for all for all artists who are serious about growing a business with and for your art. Because if you don’t have this dialed in, you are likely missing the mark BIG TIME on WHO truly resonates with your offers, and furthermore how and where to find them.

Let’s dive into that in today’s episode.

ASK, by Ryan Levesque

Download ASK for free with the Artists In Business free audible.com trial:

www.audibletrial.com/artistsinbusiness

One thing I learned very fast when I started my first business was the importance of having a mentor.

When I launched my first company, called Love and Water Designs, I had no idea why my marketing plan didn’t take off, or why my offers weren’t converting into sales. I had a t-shirt company that so many people were excited about and seemed enthused by, but my sales were too low to carry on past the first year.

I had consulted business owners about my business plan, all of whom thought everything “looked good!” But I knew I was missing the mark, big time, and didn’t know what to do about it.

If you know me, or know my story, you may know that I then met a man named Roger Webster who was responsible for bringing me on as his online marketing director for his PR company, after telling me he believed in me and looking carefully at my marketing plan for my first company to see where I had gone wrong.

Roger saw something that no one else saw upon first glance- that my marketing plan did not have a financial plan attached to it to support its goals. This was the sole problem I was having in my business that caused it to shut down.

He then guided me on how to put together the kind of plan that would bring inevitable results if all the pieces were working together properly. And he sent me on my way to implement that plan for his largest client- The American Cancer Society.

“I believe in you!” he said, right before he boarded a flight to Paris, leaving me alone to execute this plan with the vice president of the ACS.

This lead me to understand the importance and skill set I needed to choose the right mentor to grow my business with my art, and help other artists do the same, which is what I’d like to share with you today.

ASK, by Ryan Levesque

Download ASK for free with the Artists In Business free audible.com trial:

www.audibletrial.com/artistsinbusiness

Shauna is a self-taught artist, writer, and speaker with a special focus on self-care and living an unapologetically creative life. Because she knows how challenging the path of the creative can be, she has become dedicated to supporting other creatives with the tools and resources they need to constructively face resistance from their environment and – more commonly – from within themselves. She does this and creates art under her public artist persona Cat De Pillar.

In our discussion, Shauna reveals how she discovered her true ideal client- and how the process toward making sales consistently is connected to your willingness to deepen your relationship with those few who resonate the most with your work. If you’re an artist who worries you won’t be able to find enough clients to keep your revenue consistent and predictable, this episode is for you.

Shauna’s Book Recommendation:

Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield

I recently posted a Daily Art Bite on my Facebook page with this quote from Georgia O’Keefe:

 “To create one’s own world, in any of the arts, takes courage.”

 So many of you responded to it so favorably that it reminded me how important the Blue Ocean Strategy can be for every artist and every business owner, so much so that I wanted to share it with you today as a follow up to Georgia O’Keefe’s words that resonated with you so deeply.

The Blue Ocean Strategy is a practice developed by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim about how to make competition irrelevant by creating your own, uncontested market space with your business. It is truly the single most compelling perspective I have ever taken in my life as an artist and business owner, so much so that I attribute the entire life force of my business to it.

Get the Blue Ocean Strategy free on Audible by clicking here!

Order the Blue Ocean Strategy on Amazon here!

Rebecca Schweiger is the owner The Art Studio NY, New York City’s #1 art school for all ages and levels, offering nearly 100 art classes weekly that offer the joy of authentic self-expression, creativity and stress-relief.  The studio inspires students to release their creativity while creating a more fulfilling life making art they love. In her more than 15 years of teaching art to people from all walks of life, Rebecca has honed her ability to bring out the creative spirit in anyone. She KNOWS that everyone is truly creative.

Rebecca's new book, Release Your Creativity from Sixth and Spring Publishing, teaches everyone how to create meaningful works of art with 15 step-by-step painting and mixed-media projects designed to get their creative juices flowing—no previous art experience required. These hands-on projects, coupled with inspiration and encouragement, help beginners explore and develop their individual expression. With her warm approach and nurturing sensibility, Rebecca shares the thrill of putting paint on canvas and the freedom of releasing your distinctive vision in your daily life.

If you’re an artist at heart who is ready to tap back into your creative flow, or a working artist who simply needs a new direction for your creative juices, this episode is for you.

Get Rebecca’s Book, Release Your Creativity, on Amazon by clicking here!

Are you overwhelmed when you think about how to market your work as an artist? Have you looked into marketing courses and found an endless abyss of information that seems to go on for days about how to include your website, every social media platform, Google ad words, lead magnets, content, video series and something called a marketing funnel, which requires a six-week course alone to learn how to set up?

All of this can become absolutely maddening, especially when each course promises to bring you the best results and grow your business in a record amount of time, and every coach promises to help you stay “motivated” enough to keep on going! Before you know it, you’ve invested a TON of your hard-earned money into courses, programs and coaching only to find you’re armed with knowledge you don’t know what to do with, and feel more confused than you did when you started.

The truth is none of what you learn in those courses matters if you don’t have the one core element in place that makes any marketing plan result in profits.

I learned this lesson the hard way, and I share with you here how I turned that around and began making six figures.

Do you ever wonder how you will be able to create a sustainable income with your art without sacrificing an incredible amount of time doing something that does not seem to coincide with the work you know you’re meant to create as an artist? Or do you wonder how to save enough when you make a large amount of income at one time and don’t know when the next opportunity will arise?

Many artists I know are faced with a daily struggle of trying to figure out how to create consistency in their lives financially. This becomes especially true when working various survival jobs. They can seemingly lead nowhere, in either the short or long term. And worrying about it so much becomes an incredible drag, especially when you can’t get it off your mind, day in and day out.

In my last live online training, we discussed three powerful action steps to take to create a solid financial foundation for your business with your art, your way. These steps are based on the three fundamental steps any successful business owner takes in order to establish where they are financially. They look at how much they have when they start their business, how much they need to bring in to meet their basic needs and what they need to sell in order to get those needs met.

CLICK HERE to download The Artist’s Guide To Saving Time And Being More Productive In Your Business With Your Art

When I was running two businesses I learned very quickly that I needed a better system in order to get things accomplished. I originally thought I needed to better manage my time- but quickly learned you can’t actually manage time; it was managing my projects that I needed to tend to.

Managing your projects is the only way you can learn to shave off the time you spend in your business and more time on your art.

I have a special guide to walk you through to help you better manage your projects and save a ton of time in that process.

Download The Artist’s Guide To Saving Time And Being More Productive