Seven Days, Seven Jobs

For me, one of the hardest things about running a creative business is finding the most productive way to manage my time.  I have a lot going on.  And there are only seven days in a week. 

I am realizing that lately I have let myself get confused about the difference between being productive and bringing in an income.  It's easy to look at these two things as one and the same, but in reality, when you're running a creative business, being productive may not necessarily mean bringing in immediate revenue.  A lot of the time, it actually means setting yourself up to bring in future revenue while you work diligently with no immediate payoff. 

Ideally, if I could spend my whole week making jewelry with occasional teaching thrown in, I would be a happy girl.  But right now, I have 7 jobs.  Yes, SEVEN.

1. Making my own artwork/portfolio/gallery pieces. 
2. CopperTide (production jewelry work)
3. CopperDog Studio (etched copper dog tags, ornaments, etc. with 10% of proceeds going to animal rescue groups.)
(And let's not forget the marketing of all of the above, but we'll just include that as part of each of those jobs.)
4. Teaching (regular weekly classes at Sawtooth School for Visual Art and occasional weekend workshops traveling elsewhere.)
5. NC Black Co. (tool fabrication and design, and sometimes I teach with them as well)
6. Apprenticeship/Assistant to Betty Helen Longhi
7. Helping unpack/organize art, ship orders, refurbish machines for Art-o-Mat

While the last four provide more predictable and immediate income, it's the first four that are the most important to me and make the me the happiest.  Not that I don't enjoy the others or appreciate the opportunities afforded from each one.  It's just too much.  On top of the new-old-house that we bought a couple of months ago, with all of its new-old-house issues that must be dealt with, mostly by me, plus home chores, cooking, etc.  I don't get a lot of studio time to work on those first three.  So I know I need to adjust and not overextend myself into these other jobs that aren't focusing on my work.  But can I afford to lose the immediate income?  Will it pay off in the end if I can focus my energies properly on my work and marketing it well?  I'd like to think so.  But right now, I have bills that don't really want to wait for future payoff. 

So what to do? 

Well, leave it to Megan Auman at 'Designing an MBA' to have the perfect post!  "Making Multiple Revenue Streams Work for Your Business."  She's a clever girl, that one. Her first piece of advice in this post is to think of yourself as one business with multiple components.  Even though you may have very different facets of your work, if you think of them all as one package, or your one brand, it becomes easier to work with the natural ebb and flow of the business(es) and focus on the aspect of the business that needs the most attention at the time rather than trying to fit it all in and do everything at once.  Seriously, go read her post if you can relate to anything I'm talking about here today.  It's amazing how much you can change just by changing the way you look at things.

So I'm going to try to consolidate the way I am thinking about my jobs to :

1. My work
2. Teaching
3. Working for other people

And maybe if it's a little easier to wrap my brain around it like this, it will be easier for me to make time to do what I need to do. 

Now... off to the studio!  (And I've got a pretty sweet new space!)

What to Do When You're Feeling Blue

Some weeks are a little tougher than others.  One week I'm all inspired and confident, and the next week I get smacked back down to reality.  Last week was one of those weeks.  I was already in kind of a mood anyway with all the crazy political business (I'm not going to get into that, don't worry).  Then there were a couple of rainy nasty days, and I missed my afternoon runs and going to the dog park.  Then I got a rejection letter for a guild I had applied to.  They were very nice about it... "many applicants... very subjective... not a reflection on you... new jury next year... please try again..."  but still, it's rejection... So then I got a returned package that I had sent to a lovely gallery in hopes that they would want to show some of my work, and by the scribbled handwritten note on my cover letter of "thanks for the information, but we're not accepting new artists at this time," my guess is that they didn't even look at my work.  Would have been nice for them to tell me that on the phone when I called so I wouldn't have to waste my time, materials, and postage, but you know, whatever.....

But stuff like that can shake your confidence a bit.  Which, for most of the artists I know, is often on shaky ground anyway.  Every couple of weeks (sometimes more) I consider quitting this business and getting a "real" job.  I mean, the thought of that makes me a little sick to my stomach, but sometimes it would be a lot easier just to go to work and come home and not have to worry about it.  Not have to put yourself out there constantly just to be told no.  I get sick of being "almost good enough."  What do I have to do to break through that barrier of "almost?"  I realize there will always be someone who is better at one thing than I am or who knows how to overcome another thing... but damn it, it gets frustrating sometimes.  And maybe the easiest thing to do would be to put this on the back burner and go get a full time job. 

But I did that.  And I hated it.  And I got nothing done.  And I felt stagnant and trapped and miserable.

So right now, even though I feel frustrated and less than confident about my work, I am not stagnant and trapped and miserable.  I'm still hopeful.  I still believe that there are all kinds of possibilities out there.  I just have to challenge myself.  I have to figure out how to break through the "almost" to the "awesome."  And it's going to take a shit-ton of hard work and pushing myself, even when I feel like quitting.  And I'm going to consider quitting again.  But then I'll go read The Alchemist and remember, "The secret of life is to fall seven times, and to get up eight times."  I'll look at my pinboard Words to Live By and all the little inspirational quotes I've pinned up for times like these. 

And I'll get on with it.

The Alchemist

I recently read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho for the first time.  I have no idea why I never read it before, but it's something every artist and every person who is trying to persue their personal legend should read.  Both Mark and my dear friend Lindsey recommended it to me, and I'm sooo glad!

Lindsey and I were talking one day about our job and life situations.  She is a friend from art school, a college roommate actually, and a very creative person.  She recently quit her job to go back to school to pursue a dream that she had always had.  I, however, did not quit my job, but was laid off two years ago.  But rather than rush out and take the first crappy McJob I could find (to be fair, even crappy McJobs have been hard to come by the past two years), I began working for my friends (NC Black Co.) in my field, and began pursuing my dream of being a full-time artist and living an artful life.  Sometimes things happen for a reason.  As the book says, "we must be prepared to have patience in difficult times, and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we might not understand how." 
Coelho says that in order to pursue our dreams we must first overcome four obstacles.  First, we are often told from the time we are children that everything we want to do is impossible.  Our dreams become buried in layers of prejudice, fear, and guilt, and can become nearly invisible, but they're still there.  If we can hang on to the dreams and overcome this obstacle, then comes a second: love.  We're afraid we're hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dreams.  But we have to realize that those who love us genuinely wish us well, want us to be happy, and are prepared to accompany us on this journey.  Once we've accepted that love is a stimulus rather than a reason to not move forward, we're up against the third obstacle: the fear of defeat.  This is particularly terrifying because those of us who fight for our dreams suffer much more when it doesn't work out because we can't use the excuse that we must not have wanted it that badly anyway.  But defeats will happen.  It's just part of the game.  As Coelho says, "The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times, and to get up eight times."  After overcoming all of these obstacles, there comes the fourth: the fear of actually realizing the dreams we fought for our entire lives.  We actually feel guilty for getting what we want because we see all those around us who have failed to do so, that we feel we don't deserve to get what we want either.  We forget about all the obstacles we overcame, and all the suffering along the way, all the things we had to give up.  This is the most dangerous of all because it has a "saintly aura about it, renouncing joy and conquest."  But we must believe that we are worthy of the things we fought so hard for, and that this is the reason that we are here in this world.

And all of this from the introduction?!?  Love. 

The book itself is actually a novel about a shepard boy who meets an old king who tells him about following his personal legend.  The boy sells his flock and buys a ticket to Africa to begin his pursuit, and soon loses all he has.  He has to stop a few times along the journey for various reasons, and he finally meets the Alchemist, who helps him to see things more clearly.  The boy never gives up, though he is sometimes distracted by all the obstacles of life, but he is always, in some way, in pursuit of his personal legend. 

I love this book.  It is so inspiring to me at this point in my life as I try to figure out the best way to pursue my dreams and be the best person I can be.  When I feel myself getting discouraged or frustrated, I think about the message of this book, and it puts me back on the right track - or at least back in the right frame of mind. 

Seriously, go read it.  Now.