Tag: goals

Paradoxes, Purposes and Ponderances: What a Difference a Week Makes.

paradoxes-purposes-ponderances

Until recently, I never considered myself a business person or an entrepreneur.  I never had any desire to be one either.

I never really had any intention of going into business. The whole idea was distasteful to me. Life experiences, though, have led me down this path of becoming a professional freelance artist. And that means I have to be a business person if I want to succeed.

Last week, in thinking about this, I was almost bleak–desperate.

I was contemplating my weaknesses more than my strengths, and I was reckoning with the realities of my capacities versus my incapacities when it came to business oriented tasks.

I wasn’t throwing in towels by any stretch. I was just getting real about my needs and asking for help.

And help I got.

I posted a blogpost about needing direction as an entrepreneur  in several online locations, and I received moral support, concrete suggestions, resources and enthusiastic direction.

I have connected with people all over the country who are interested in helping me succeed. I have some interesting business ventures to consider and lots of new opportunities. I have contacted some resources in my own community that are designed to help people just like me, and I am realizing that I am not as lost as I may have thought I was.

I am being deliberately vague here, as it would not be prudent to discuss some of these opportunities publicly. I do, however, want to share my hopefulness about this process of developing myself as an Artist Entrepreneur.

My situation is far from fixed. I am still a hopelessly right-brained person needing a left brain.

I have discovered, though, that I have an ability to attract people of integrity to help me with certain needs. I am now feeling that I can do this, which I am not sure I could say last week.

Some things that I have learned about business this week that have been a pleasant surprise to me:

  1. There are people out there who genuinely want to help you succeed. Especially among women entrepreneurs, I have experienced a real “Pay-it-Forward” approach of women reaching out to other women to help them get going in business.
  2. Women-owned businesses are projected to be a game-changing force in transforming the future of the workforce.
  3. The fact that our economy is so bad right now means that there is a lot of support for new small businesses. There is also a lot of forgiveness and less pressure to succeed instantly in the business world, because, quite frankly, everyone is struggling.
  4. Social media has turned traditional marketing on its head. Authenticity is back in style.
  5. Being a creative artist with limitations in certain skill sets does not necessarily mean I am destined to fail at business.
  6. I am actually, sorta kinda, enjoying this process of learning and developing new skills!

Stay tuned to see where this adventure leads…

Life is an Adventure!

BZTAT

New Year's Resolutions–My Vision Board

Artwork by BZTAT

I meant to publish this on New Year’s Day, but I accidentally hit the publish button and it went on out into the RSS feeds. So I figured I would go ahead and publish it now.

Awhile back I received a Facebook message from a  friend suggesting that I create a vision board. The message included a link to my friend’s Facebook photos where she had made an album dedicated to her own vision board.

The message read, “So… the purpose of creating a vision board is to define your outcomes and goals and allow those things to manifest in your life… And… When you share that vision with others the more powerful your intentions become…”

That friend was Amanda Hite, CEO of Talent Revolution.  Amanda is a social media rock star and “change agent”,  and she apparently is quite famous in the field of talent acquisition/consulting.  I feel sorta honored that she even knows my name.

OK, so the message was a group one and not intended solely for me. But social media makes everything more personal, so I took it as an invitation to do something special.

Also, one of my social media strategies is to find people who are using social media effectively and creatively to make a difference in the world, and then try to incorporate some of their strategies into my own repertoire.

I have been thinking about it quite a bit, and I have decided to do my vision board here on my blog for my New Year’s Resolutions. Not that I will complete everything on the vision board in the next year, but I do want to dedicate myself towards making my visions real.

So, without further ado, here is my vision board. These are some of  the outcomes and goals that I intend to manifest in my life. Let’s see how powerful my intentions become through the process of sharing them with you.

MY VISION

Create one of the prime attractions of the Canton, OH Arts District

Inspire others through my art
Get off the "Super Size Me" diet
Make this guy have to change his byline

Paint lots of portraits of cool cats and develop enriching relationships with the people in their lives

Have appliances that don't require quarters INSIDE my residence
Have more appliances
Find a good left-brained person whom I can trust and who will tolerate my right-brained-ness to help me with all the details of running a business
Make the Brew's Posse more famous and influential than @Sockington's Army
Outsource this job
Write one of these
Be able to stamp this on all my bills and debts
Paint lots of portraits of cool dogs and develop enriching relationships with the people in their lives

Paint Bo Obama's OFFICIAL portrait
Explore licensing of some of my artwork
Explore licensing of some of my artwork

Create Dialogues Murals for major events, conferences and causes
Do my part for world peace in a way that makes me proud to be an American
Do my part for world peace in a way that makes me proud to be an American

Help children heal their hurts and find peace and hope in their lives
Change the world

What is your vision? What are your outcomes and goals that you would like to manifest in your life? Will you share that vision with others to allow your intentions to become more powerful? Please do share!