Thriving Artists Podcast

Today we are sharing a timely episode about planning for the new year. We talked in the last episode about how to plan during any time of year, but today we will take a look at how to wrap up one year and plan ahead for the next amazing year as an artist. So, join us in Episode 54, How to Map Out Your Year as an Artist, as we cover how to assess the longer term picture of the previous year and how to use that information going forward! 

Jamie and Kaylan’s 5 Ways to Map Out Your Year are: 

Brain Dump: Have a big brainstorming session and write down every goal and idea you have for the year ahead. You will not take action on every goal you write down, so don’t be afraid to dream big. This is your space to let it flow. 

Sort by Size: It’s important to sort the goals you really want to do by size and spend some time thinking about how much effort and energy will go into each goal. We recommend sorting your goals by big, medium and small. This will go a long way in setting you up for solid time management practices.

Identify Your “No’s”: Spend some time writing down what you will NOT do or not focus on in the new year. This activity is valuable because it helps you form concrete boundaries and stay focused on your goals. Think quality over quantity!

Set Up a System: Get yourself organized by setting mile markers for planning and create a goal setting strategy. Book planning and goal setting strategy times into your calendar for the start of the new year and moving ahead each week, month and quarter.  Reflect & Rest: Don’t skip this one!! It may be the hardest to find time for, especially around the holidays but we really encourage you to set aside some time to write and reflect on the year you’ve just had. 

As always, we are here for you, we are cheering you on, and we believe in the work you are doing as thriving artists!  Join the Thrive Together Network to plug into our programming that sets up a planning structure for you! Visit www.thrivetogethernetwork.com to learn more!

Whether you’re a parent, caretaker, working another job, or a full time artist, we want to talk about ways to plan smarter as an artist! You may love planning like us, you may hate it, or maybe you are somewhere in between. Whatever the case, we can all use ideas for how to improve our planning. Join us for Episode 54 of Thriving Artists Podcast, 5 Simple Ways to Plan Smarter as an Artist, because this is the perfect time of year to reflect on how you plan as we wrap up 2023.

Jamie & Kaylan’s 5 Simple Ways to Plan Smarter as an Artist are:

Schedule in Time for Planning: Plan a time to plan! Planning IS a task that needs to happen and so it is important to put that planning time in your calendar. It takes time to get set up in order to do what you want to do with your days!

Plan Your Year in Quarters: We really believe in this philosophy and live it out on the Thrive Together Network – planning out each quarter has many benefits! Planning out three months at a time is a perfect chunk of time to set some larger goals without losing sight of the smaller steps it takes to make them happen.

Move from Macro to Micro (and back again!): Whether you are a big picture type of person or someone who is all about the details, we encourage you to find balance between the two. Keep both in mind as you set goals, create to do lists, and schedule out your work time.

Follow a Map with Other Artists: We created a planning tool that values all of the things we cover in this episode. It’s the Thriving Artist Map and it is a weekly studio planner with tools to plan your year while considering the big picture and smaller goals all at once.

Remain Rooted in Your Why: For any plan you make, always keep an eye on why you are doing what you do. Don’t work toward things that are outside of your motivations. Regularly check in to make sure your plans match up with your goals. 

As always, we are here for you, we are cheering you on, and we believe in the work you are doing as thriving artists!  Join the Thrive Together Network to build your network of support! Visit www.thrivetogethernetwork.com to learn more!

Today Kaylan is solo on the podcast to talk about her experience with stress and some resources for dealing with “Open Loops” that can cause us stress as  artists*. This discussion is centered around a very specific type of stress created by having many things on your plate that are not yet complete. Artists especially experience this type of stress frequently because we wear so many hats and are responsible for so much. There are so many different types of jobs artists are expected to do within our business and many of us have other jobs, caretaking responsibilities or more on our plates.

Our brains can only hold so much in our active memory. These thoughts that continuously loop in our brains, or “Open Loops” can weigh us down mentally & emotionally over time. Open Loops are: things you've started and haven't finished, tasks or ideas that are 'on hold' in your brain and that occupy your active thoughts. So, tune in to learn a few tips to deal with these Open Loop from brain dumps to the “3 D’s”: delete, delegate, and do!

We hope you can continue to join us here on the podcast or come be an artist we can really get to know by joining our network! Head to www.thrivetogethernetwork.com to learn more. The “Open Loops” episode is exactly the type of thing we walk you through each week on Art & Tea, our Tuesday zoom calls with dozens of artists that are included in your TTN membership.

*Just a reminder that Kaylan is not a therapist and anyone struggling with severe anxiety or health related issues due to stress should seek support from their physician or counselor.

One of the beautiful things about being an artist is that we all structure our careers a bit differently, and while we can learn from each other, our paths will never look exactly the same. Today on the podcast we are sharing some questions from the “Building Your North Star” activity we do once a year during one of our weekly Thrive Together Network meetings called Art & Tea. So, join us for Episode 52 of the Thriving Artists Podcast, 4 Questions to Help You Find Focus in Your Art Career to identify what you want your unique art career to look like!

Jamie and Kaylan’s 4 Questions to Help You Find Focus in Your Art Career are:

What matters most to you as an artist and how do you most want to spend your time? These are very basic points, but powerful when you think about it. Our time truly is our most valuable resource. It connects DIRECTLY to what matters most to us. So what do you want to spend your time doing?? 

What are your main gifts as an artist and what do you feel good doing? This question is important because it puts your unique strengths into the equation. Find the balance between your passion and your strongest skill sets, and keep in mind that this might change over time!

How do you want to feel as an artist? This question is about the big picture. Do you want to be on-the-go and moving a lot as an artist? Do you want to feel rooted and calm with lots of downtime in your studio? What are the overall, big picture feelings you want to have for your art career and your life? What impact do you want your work to make in the world?  This is also a big picture question that will take time to answer. If you know what your intentions are, it can provide so much clarity in what steps to take now in your practice. Give some thought to what you want your work to say and do, and think about what conversations you want people to have about your work. Focus on impact to gain clarity.

As always, we are here for you, we are cheering you on, and we believe in the work you are doing as thriving artists!  Join the Thrive Together Network to build your network of support and participate in more activities like this one! Visit www.thrivetogethernetwork.com to learn more!

Today we are wrapping up our podcast episodes centered on the theme “organize”. In this episode, we tackle the realm of finances. It can feel very stressful and overwhelming to think about money, but when we start taking control of our finances amazing things can happen. Join us for Episode #51 of the Thriving Artists Podcast, 5 Tips for Organizing Your Art Finances, as we talk through how to wrap your head around your expenses and income and make use of that information.

Jamie and Kaylan’s 5 Tips for Organizing Your Art Finances are:

Do a Wealth Check: Spend a couple minutes defining your wealth as an artist. This is more than just the money you might earn, but also other valuable aspects of being an artist such as the freedom to think creatively and put it into action.

Assess Your Mindset: We often create stories about our money which makes it an emotional topic. Think of money as numbers that tell the story of how we spend our resources and time. Ask yourself some questions about your attitude toward money.

Track It: Find a system that works for you to track where your money is going that you can stick to month after month. Use a spreadsheet or a program like Quickbooks Self-Employed to keep detailed records of your income and expenses.  

Review It: Implement some sort of regular process to take a look at what is happening with your money. This could be monthly or quarterly, but whatever you do, carve out regular time to take a look at where money is coming in and where it is going out. 

Use It: Once you have gone over your numbers, take action based on what you have learned! Spending all this time tracking and reviewing only makes an impact when you take the story your numbers are telling you and adjust the parts that don't serve you anymore. 

We hope this series on the theme “organize” has helped set you on a path to more clarity and ownership over your art practice! Join the Thrive Together Network to build your network of support and participate in our Art Business Workshops! Visit www.thrivetogethernetwork.com to learn more!

In today’s episode, we continue our theme of “organize” and bring this concept to your digital space. Do you open up your computer and feel stressed because you don’t know where your images are and you just can’t seem to find the most recent version of your CV? Don’t worry, in Episode #50 of the Thriving Artists Podcast, 5 Tips for Organizing Your Digital Assets, we help you set things on a better path so you can find what you need with ease. 

Jamie and Kaylan’s 5 Tips for Organizing Your Digital Assets are:

Create A Naming System: Decide on the format you are going to use to name your photos and other digital assets like your CV, resume, or artist’s statement. Move forward sticking to these formatting rules you’ve made for yourself and your life will get a lot easier!

Create Your Process: Determine the way you are going to save, store, and organize your files. This could be on an external drive or a cloud-based system. There are even softwares you can subscribe to like Artwork Archive that provide an inventory system you can follow.

Be Consistent: These systems only work if you follow the plan exactly. The more disciplined you are in following your plan, the quicker it will be when you are updating your website, organizing instagram posts, and completing applications. The upfront time will pay off later!

Save Twice: This means having a backup of your digital files. Don’t put all your files on one device without storing them somewhere else as well. Keep this backup up to date. You don’t want to lose or damage a hard drive and no longer have a record of your work. 

Start Where You Are: It may feel like you need to make everything you have ever done be perfect or why start at all!?! But, we disagree. The next time you make a piece of art, photograph it, name the file according to your system, and save it in two places. That is a great way to start.

We hope this gives you confidence as you approach organizing your digital space. As always, we are here for you, we are cheering you on, and we believe in the work you are doing as thriving artists!  Join the Thrive Together Network to build your network of support! Visit www.thrivetogethernetwork.com to learn more!

In this podcast episode, we continue our theme of “organize” by discussing studio organization! It’s so nice to work in an organized space, so let’s make it happen! In Episode #49 of the Thriving Artists Podcast, 5 Steps to Organizing Your Studio, we go over how to take a close look at your space, how you operate in it, and how to optimize both! Let’s get the clutter out!

Jamie and Kaylan’s 5 Steps to Organizing your Studio are:

Take Stock: Ask yourself what is working and what is not. Do you have multiple workspaces? Are supplies in multiple places? Do you waste time shifting things around as you work? 

Look At Your Gaps: Write down what is not working. Are there areas of your studio you are avoiding? What areas are particularly disorganized or cluttered? This will help you know exactly what you want to change.

Make An Easy Tweak: We can’t always just move to a bigger space, but we can spend a day sorting through supplies and getting rid of things we don’t use. Taking the time to make small tweaks can have huge benefits in the long run. 

Test Run: We suggest you test run any changes for at least a month to get used to things before you spend so much time, energy, and often money making big changes.

Invest in Big Changes: Once you’ve lived with some small changes, you can feel confident that you know what big things you want to move forward with. This could be building custom storage in an existing studio, or totally renovating a garage or shed to make your dream space. 

We are here for you, we are cheering you on, and we believe in the work you are doing as thriving artists!  Join the Thrive Together Network to build your network of support! Visit www.thrivetogethernetwork.com to learn more!

In this episode, we discuss tips and tricks to staying organized in your art practice and business. We focus on all the administrative tasks that go beyond making artwork and spending time in the studio. This could be accounting, ordering supplies, posting on social media, and more. Artists have SO many art admin tasks. Don’t get overwhelmed though, because in Episode #48 of the Thriving Artists Podcast, 5 Tips for Organizing your Art Admin, we are going to give you some simple tasks to tackle this type of work.

Jamie and Kaylan’s 5 Tips for Organizing your Art Admin are:

Get clear on what repeats and what is a one-off task: Sit down and take time to think through all of your tasks. List tasks that repeat regularly, like sending out a monthly newsletter. Then write down tasks that don’t repeat regularly. This could be applications to shows that don’t have a set schedule.

Batch your repeat tasks: Look at your list of repeat tasks and group similar tasks together.For example, creating images for instagram can also become images for your newsletter. Doing these groups of tasks at once can make them easier to get done. Block out chunks of time to get many related things done at once.

Automate! Automate! Automate!: When you look at your repeat tasks, are there tasks you can automate? For instance there are many tools now to automate your social media posts. So, after you create a set of posts, you can schedule them to go out automatically over the upcoming days and weeks.

Make A Monthly Schedule: Create a monthly calendar that reflects your repeated tasks. That way, you aren’t reinventing your task list each month and  you know how to structure your time each month based on what worked in the past.

Don’t do it alone!: Having an accountability buddy can help you stay organized and that can make all the difference. Contact a fellow artist and see if you can do weekly check-ins on what tasks you are doing and your overall monthly goals. 

We hope you are breathing a little easier after this one! But, if you don’t want to coordinate your art admin by yourself, remember Thrive Together Network Members meet every Tuesday on Zoom to work on our art admin tasks for the week as a community. Find out more at thrivetogethernetwork.com. 

Making money from your art does not have to be limited to selling the original piece of artwork! There are so many different ways of having multiple income streams as an artist such as: art prints, printing your artwork on products, teaching art, online classes, artist talks, licensing your work, and more. Sometimes, it can almost feel like too many options, so in Episode #47 of the Thriving Artists Podcast, 5 Steps to Have Multiple Income Streams as an Artist, we talk about how to identify what path works for you as you grow your art business.

Jamie and Kaylan’s 5 Steps to Have Multiple Income Streams as an Artist are:

Look Outward: Look at other artists you admire that have multiple income streams in their business. Make sure you are picking artists that show evidence of success in their multiple income streams, and take notes about how they do what they do.

Look Inward: Your art practice is about you and your artistic dreams so if you are adding new products and ways to sell your work they have to feel good to you! Ask yourself some probing questions about what type of artist you want to be in the world.

Create Your Vision: Make a roadmap for yourself that outlines your new plan. Putting things down on paper will formalize what your goals are, and you will be able to make decisions based on this plan to grow your offerings. 

Move Slowly: Start slowly and move slowly. Really think through what you are offering, and don’t put too many things out there at once, that could overwhelm your audience. Test things out and move toward what is successful. 

Assess as You Go: Do not offer something new until you have had success with your first new endeavor. Track sales, make sure what you are doing is worth your time, and that your client base is responding positively. There is no rush! Do a few things well rather than overwhelming yourself.

We hope to see your many new endeavors as you diversify your income streams as an artist! We are here for you, we are cheering you on, and we believe in the work you are doing as thriving artists!  Join the Thrive Together Network to build your network of support! Visit www.thrivetogethernetwork.com to learn more!

The lack of inspiration, the fatigue, the dearth of ideas, you know what it is: the dreaded creative slump. If you make art long enough it happens, and maybe it happens a lot! Everyone is different and everyone is going to have different ways of combating a slump. In Episode #46 of the Thriving Artists Podcast, 5 Tips to Get Inspired When You’re in a Slump, we discuss some ideas to lean on if you are currently in a slump or find yourself in one in the future. 

Jamie and Kaylan’s 5 Tips to Get Inspired When You're In a Slump

Try a New Material: Try a new material to get into play mode. When you go back to exploring rather than pushing a specific direction with your typical medium, it releases you to channel that young artist feeling again and tap into new ideas and curiosity.

Take a Class: A class can offer a break from your responsible artist self coming up with new ideas and having to guide the creative ship. Instead when taking a class, someone else is in charge and you can tap into play and exploration and feel creative again. 

Book an Artist Date: So much inspiration and creativity can come from connecting with other artists. After spending time in real life or even on Zoom with other artists, you almost can't stop yourself from having new ideas.

Set Up a Studio Visit: Reach out to a collector or a friend, and invite them to the studio. Talk to them about your work! Your own work can re-inspire you, and having a fresh take from a visitor has the potential to generate new ideas.

Use a Deadline: Find a way that you can build in deadlines to help keep you focused on your creative work. This could be setting up a meeting with an art world professional to share your progress or finding a show to apply for. Those deadlines can be really key to motivation.

We can all experience a slump, and we hope this helps you get through the low times! We are here for you, we are cheering you on, and we believe in the work you are doing as thriving artists!  Join the Thrive Together Network to build your network of support! Visit www.thrivetogethernetwork.com to learn more!