This post isn’t just for artists. It’s for anyone who practices any kind of self-employment (and probably for those employed for others too – life is like that. We share more than not).
This past weekend I participated in my first outdoor show of the season at AnnMarie Garden Market Day (Solomons, MD). Great way to start: 3 hours and done. Perfect!
The car was packed the night before and I had run through the set up in my head.
Note that I did not run through the actual setup, which is what I advise any artist do. No – not me. I had it down pat.
Did I even check my checklist? (The checklist that’s included in my new e-course Sell Your Art, Keep Your Soul: An Authentic Artist to Artist Thrival Guide on Selling Your Art?)
Well, no, I didn’t.
No surprise I forgot my chair and my packaging material. I sent one set of earrings off in a used envelope because that was all that was in front of my car.
Why the front of my car and not the back?
Earlier my screens had been blown over and were now residing up against the back of the car for stability.
I forgot the stability bar for the screens. And yes, things broke.
I KNOW how to do this art marketing thing. And yet there are days I don’t even take my own advice. How much harder is it for artists still trying to figure out the what – never mind the how!
I get what artists struggle with day to day: how to find a space, how to set up in that space, how to remember everything you need because, unless you have help, you are there for the duration.
I especially get how hard it feels to find time to do it all (hint: if you have a system, like, ahem, a checklist, you don’t have to think about it – much quicker and way more efficient! But you have to use your system!)
I cannot make you successful, but I can give you some tools that, if applied, make a space for you to make yourself successful (that’s called empowerment – and only you can do that for yourself).
Click here to learn more about Sell Your Art, Keep Your Soul: An Authentic Artist to Artist Thrival Guide on Pricing Your Art.
Click here to get my FREE Report on Artists’ Suvery: The Business of Art.
Go ahead, learn from 10 years of my own mistakes and experiences. Cut some time off your learning curve. And join me in a joyously imperfect, but quite wonderful life of following your heart!
Wylde Women’s Wisdom:
When you are in a creative or appreciative zone, you literally have no access to your inner lizard, to that fear-based, non-creative, shrieking little beasty who is so afraid you’re going to be a bag lady. Martha Beck
3 Comments
Tammy,
I just wanted you to know that I am enjoying reading your blog!
love & light,
Claudia
Ursula – that’s the Ursula: that’s the trick…to know that we’re all out here making mistakes, because we’re all out here *doing* not sitting back and thinking about it!
I love this, Tammy! Thanks for sharing it. Makes me feel better about how i forgot to take the food to my opening reception (even though it was on my checklist, which I obviously didn’t check!)! That is the trouble with systems – you actually have to use them – dang!