Priorities of an Artist Entrepreneur

 BETH BARANY post

 What are the priorities of an Artist Entrepreneur?

 Well, like the name states, being an artist and doing our art is our  priority.

In a society that mostly values outer results and making money more than the creative process, I've found it challenging to put my artist entrepreneurship priorities in the right order.

In the last week of 2008, I saw that clearly when I said aloud that I would work on my novel then proceeded to work on my writing coaching business all day. Now, I'm just observing here, not judging myself. I sat down and did good work that day editing my website's products page for the Year End Sale. 

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2008 Year-End Review for this Artist Entrepreneur

Well, what a ride it's been, like Lisa Canning of Entrepreneur the Arts, says in her post "My 2009, and Yours?"

Creativity doesn't gush forth in a straight line or logical way. So, in the spirit of the nonlinear and emotional intuitive I am, I'm listing my successes in order of appearance and excitement in my life.

My 2008 Successes

I'm most proud of the products I created this year: one e-book, one e-course with workbook and audio -- the Writer's Adventure Guide, and one card deck, the Writer's Tarot.

I am proud that I launched my Artist Entrepreneurs Unite project that is growing and morphing as we speak.

I am also very grateful to have been able to help clients edit their book proposals, namely, Karen Lodrick, and Elizabeth Pagayonan. And I'm grateful to have been able to coach and consult with writers throughout the year, both in person, over the phone, and online.

And thank you to the awesome writer ladies with whom I co-created the anthology, Writing Romance.

Last, but by no means least, I have enjoyed weekly (and sometimes more frequent) powwows with three fabulous people, and have created awesome projects with them, and continue to do so.

• With Cheryl Liquori, Marketing Coach extraordinaire, I'm grateful for our weekly coffee klatches and heart-to-hearts, and for the awesome project we're creating: Breakfast Blogging Club of the East Bay, to launch the beginning of February 2009.
• Grateful for our weekly phone klatches and in awe of the delicious creativity of my web support guy and blog designer, Peter J. Ferguson. Peter designed my Writer's Fun Zone blog. And has created a wonderful peace-centered blog and site of his own, My Moment of Peace.
• And how could I forget my sometimes graphic designer, and always cheerleader and husband, Ezra Barany. He designed the cover for my Writer's Adventure Guide program, edited the audio for the course, and is an all-around great guy. Creative too! (Check out his book trailer here.)

Still to Accomplish
I'm still working on getting organized; my database continues to live in a few places. I think I need a Rolodex. I love the feel of business cards. That's why I have boxes of them.

My 2008 Lessons

I learned A LOT this year. Mostly about how to stay in the present and find the joy and sometimes heartbreak in every moment. Through getting back in touch with meditation, connecting with the divine (I call it the Divine Nothingness/Universe), and by journaling more, I have seen how I'd previously been so driven by fear, anxiety, nameless flutters.

So thank you to my meditation teacher, Jeri. And thank you to the universe. I know that you will always catch me if I fall. And that falling is okay, and part of this amazing adventure called life.

For 2009

I will always appear to bite off more than I can chew, so my resolution and plan for 2009 is to chew  a little less and:

1. Finish my novel, The Dragon Stone
2. Create the the physical version of the Writer's Adventure Guide
3. Mass produce and distribute the Writer's Tarot
4. Speak/do workshops at least once a month
5. Have a lot of fun running my business(es)
6. Expand and launch my Artist Entrepreneurs Unite to the next level
7. And be open to wonderful opportunities!

And You?

What are your successes in 2008?

What have you learned from your 2008 successes and failures?

What would you like to accomplish in 2009?

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Beth Barany is a Certified Creativity Coach for Writers, Book Consultant, and Artist Entrepreneur. 

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Artists Entrepreneurs Unite!

Another step in the Artist Entrepreneurship Adventure is reaching out to my fellow adventurers. This post is a quick shout out to them. Check out their sites. Comment on their blogs.

• Entrepreneur the Arts by Lisa Canning. I wholeheartedly support her button, No More Starving Artists.
• SmARTist Career Blog by Ariane Goodwin. I agree that Our "Art is a Significant Part of Economic Prosperity."
• Artist Entrepreneur Coach, Leonardo de Luca. He offers support to the creatives in life and in their art. Hats off!

That's it for now. For those of you wondering, connecting with our brethren is part of Stage 4: It Takes a Community. I'm doing the 12 Stages of the Artist Entrepreneurship Adventure out of order. In fact we really don't travel our adventurous route in any logical manner. Though it can look that way in hindsight when we try to explain it.

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Beth Barany is a Certified Creativity Coach for Writers and Book Consultant. She combines the intuitive, empathic approach, with her analytical, systematic mind to offer structure, support and accountability to writers at all stages of their writing adventure. Creator of the Writer's Adventure Guide, and author of Overcome Writer's Block, Beth strives to find better ways to make writing fun and adventurous. Check out her blog, Writer's Fun Zone on tips and musings. She loves to hear from you!

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Artist Entrepreneurship: Call to Adventure -- Stage 2

Artist Entrepreneurship: Call to Adventure
Stage 2 of 12 of my Artist Entrepreneurship Adventure ^TM

I am called to embrace my artist self and be an entrepreneur. This means I am called to marry my right-brain, and all its creative meanderings, with my left-brained organized, list-making, step-by-step self.

In my previous post, I addressed Stage 1: Start From Where You Are. Today, I sit in the place of knowing that I am an Artist Entrepreneur but, yes, there is a BUT. You know what I mean. We want something, but we don't know how to get there. So what do we do? I start with my artist self. She writes, and loves writing, and has written countless articles, blog posts, reports, academic papers, and now novels. I know, my artist-writer self, knows, how to sit down and produce. So I KNOW, I can do this entrepreneurship thing.

But what the hay is it, being an entrepreueur? Ah, this is where my knees get wobbly, and I feel like a complete babe in the woods, deer in the headlights, you know the drill. So, I breathe, and smile, and change the chemical cascade through my body. "It's going to be okay," I tell myself. "I can do this!"

"I am an Artist Entrepreneur. I will create it as I go, just like my fiction. I can do this!"

Try that on for size -- use "I am... I will... I can..." . Just replace fiction with your art of choice. Let's create a whole league of Artist Entrepreneurs, who marry, each in our own unique way, our art and our drive to make a stamp in the world, as business people. We can do this!

What this channel for more on my Artist Entrepreneurship Adventures!

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Beth Barany, a CCA certified creativity coach, helps creative individuals go on their own Writer's Adventure™, and become the hero of their book writing adventure. A fiction and nonfiction writer, Beth has worked in the book industry for over 20 years: in libraries and bookstores, as a book publicist, book reviewer, journalist, editor, book project manager, and book layout artist. As a sole proprietor and entrepreneur, she has channeled her passion for writing, books, and the creative process into a business, balancing the demands of her writing career with that of her coaching and consulting business. Blog: blog.writersfunzone.com. Site: www.bethbarany.com.
BETA project: writersadventureguide.com Read more!

ARTIST ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Beth Barany

Start from Where You Are

I am an Artist Entrepreneur. Or more specifically a Writer Entrepreneur. Or is it an Authorpreneur? I am a writer, but prefer the term, Artist Entrepreneur because my art of choice is more than just writing fiction and nonfiction, and also includes teaching, coaching, product production, photography and film.

A word about my brand, Artist Entrepreneurship. I had chosen as my brand focus, "Story as the New Frontier: Change Your Story, Change Your life." I had intended to share about how storytelling tools can greatly enhance our awareness and ability to live fully. I still intend to do that, only with a more narrow focus, that of Artist Entrepreneurship.

An Artist Entrepreneur Defined

An Artist Entrepreneur is an artist first, entrepreneur second. Priority to her well-being, she works diligently and faithfully on her art and craft. As an artist, she desires to be recognized and compensated for the art she produces, and as an entrepreneur, she applies the structure of business and its tools of planning, budgeting, marketing and sales to bring her art out into the world's marketplace.

Storytelling Tools Applied

The first tool from storytelling that I will apply to Artist Entrepreneurship is the GMC tool. This fabulous tool was developed by writer, publisher, speaker, Debra Dixon (debradixon.com), in her book, GMC: Goal, Motivation and Conflict. In GMC, Deb Dixon teaches this tool for character development to add dimension to fiction characters and depth to plot. I have adapted this tool to the creative process and more specifically to the book creation process in The Writer's Adventure™ Method. Now I will apply it to the story of being an Artist Entrepreneur.

For the purposes of this blog, I will use my journey as an Artist Entrepreneur as a test case. I will be posting interviews of other Artist Entrepreneur at my blog, blog.writersfunzone.com, and digesting and integrating what I learn for you in my weekly posts here at the Joy of Living Creatively blog. So, stay tuned!

I will also be presenting some of my Artist Entrepreneurship findings at the 1st Annual International Creativity Conference, Creativity: Let it be Life!™ presented by the Creativity Coaching Association in Lake George, New York, October 4 and 5, 2008. Join us there! More at www.creativitycoachingassociation.com.

GMC and S for Beth Barany as Artist Entrepreneur

Each Goal, Motivation, Conflict, and Strength (I added that one) have an inner and outer component, as you'll see below.

Goal

Inner: To live my truth, to live in truth, to see who I am through my all my creativity, creative projects, especially fiction writing.

Outer: My goal in being an artist entrepreneur is to give first priority to my art, which in the immediate future and the present is writing fiction, first, and nonfiction, second. Third priority is running a successful business.

Motivation

Inner: I am motivated by my desire to share my light with the world, to let as many people as possible know they can tap into their creativity too. I desire to be a shining beacon of light, living my creative life to the fullest. I am motivated by joy, compassion to myself, and love of the deliciousness of life.

Outer: I am motivated by the positive effect I can have on those around me by teaching what I most love: the creative process of book writing.

Conflict

Inner: I am currently challenged by the mental chatter that tells me not to take care of myself first, and tells me to be a little hamster on the never-ending treadmill of a to-do list.

Outer: Uh, making a living. It's a challenge we all face. Making a living is the sandy grit that will make me do the work to bring my artist self into the world.

Strengths

Inner: Resilience, confidence, excitement at doing what I love, joy, writing, teaching, organizational, networking, marketing and selling skills, my health and vitality, gratitude for the gift of life I have received.

Outer: Wonderful support from family and friends, strong professional network, good laptop, library of resources, good weather, lots of sunshine. Thank you all!

Now what? Next Steps

Now that I've done my initial assessment of where I am in my Artist Entrepreneurship Adventure™, I am more clear on what next steps I can take today and moving forward.

Number 1: Truly, putting my art first is vital.

Number 2: The only way for me to see my way clearly is to clear my mind. Meditation is the key for that.

Number 3: Continue to give thanks for this wonderful opportunity to create my life anew each and every day.

Today I presented Stage 1 of the Artist Entrepreneur's Adventure™: Start From Where You Are. I presented to you where I was, and what my vital next steps are. Now it's your turn. Write in, post your comments, and share with us where you are on your Artist Entrepreneur's journey, what your goals, motivations, conflicts and strengths are. I'd love to hear them.

Thanks for being a part of this adventure with me, and thanks to Eric Maisel for sparking my own journey, and for providing this wonderful forum.

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Beth Barany, a CCA certified creativity coach, helps creative individuals go on their own Writer's Adventure™, and become the hero of their book writing adventure. A fiction and nonfiction writer, Beth has worked in the book industry for over 20 years: in libraries and bookstores, as a book publicist, book reviewer, journalist, editor, book project manager, and book layout artist. As a sole proprietor and entrepreneur, she has channeled her passion for writing, books, and the creative process into a business, balancing the demands of her writing career with that of her coaching and consulting business. Blog: blog.writersfunzone.com. Site: www.bethbarany.com.

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