Today’s guest blogger is independent film maker Linda Nelson, who, like many of us, only let her inner artist come out and play after she’d had a successful business career. I hope you are as inspired by her words as I am, Rick

I always wanted to be an artist.  I was born to be an artist, a child prodigy pianist by ten, whose artistic endeavors where cut short by a strange twist of fate.  My piano teacher died right after my first solo Chopin concert.  After that, without even knowing it, I shut down my artistic side and set my sights on academic success.

Fast forward past a successful career as an international investment banker, real estate developer and IT executive.  I got to live all over the world, experience the best and the worst that life has to offer, yet I still felt an emptiness that somehow, I could not fill.  I’d had a successful career by any standards, several successful relationships – at least they were long term, and now had a beautiful daughter, who was turning out to be much like me, in that she had a strange combination of left brain and right brain talents.  In college, I majored in math and minored in art, but only because there were no SATs in Art.  In college, I became fascinated by computers and the business world.  When I couldn’t go to work for IBM, because there were dangerous race riots happening in Newark, NJ, where they trained people, I went into banking instead.

Once I knew my daughter was on a great track for “success”, I decided that it was time for me to risk all and unleash that artistic side that had been laying dormant for so many years.  I met another artist, Michael Madison, who is now my partner.  We both somehow knew that movies were our passion.  Neither of us wanted to start making shorts, so we committed to jumping off the cliff and start making feature films.  We knew nothing, but if I had learned anything in life it was that if you want something bad enough, you can make it happen.  The universe or God or whatever you choose to call your higher power or inspiration or muse, dangled a project under our nose and we have been on a filmmaking path ever since.  Our first film was easy and hard at the same time.  We had a five million dollar budget, all from one investor.  We hired the best and watched the film get made.  The result was a beautiful film, which we distributed worldwide to IMAX theaters.  Next we were to learn some painful, but important lessons about contracts.  Always get things in writing.  Somehow, we lost the rights to the DVD for our first film and that was where we had expected to make all our profit and be able to finance our next film.  Back to square one.

We put together a Business Plan and went searching for money.  When none showed up, we packed up what we absolutely needed and became starving artists.  This was difficult for me.  I’d had the best life has to offer my entire adult life.  I wasn’t used to looking at price tags.  If I wanted to buy something, I did.  If I wanted to go somewhere, I’d hop on a plane.  This starving stuff was all new to me.  We moved to a bad neighborhood, a gang torched my BMW, simply because it was beautiful, and we started writing.  For the first time in my life I took a no-pressure job.  I needed a job that was easy, close to home and left me in an emotionally healthy, place where I could nurture my artistic endeavors.  Michael did the same thing.  We started a partnership called Nelson Madison Films and continued writing.

Before too long, we had written a film that we planned to shoot, edit and release on our own, because we knew it would not have the production value required for a theatrical release and we just dove in.  It was our film school.  We had a camera and a couple of computers and lived in a city where we had access to a lot of unemployed actors.  Once the film was finished, we submitted it to about twenty festivals, got in five and did a small festival run.  Even though none were top tier festivals, we still got a few offers for straight to DVD distribution, but the deals were so terrible, that I decided to start a little distribution company and vowed that we would do things differently.

Well we didn’t sell millions of copies of our first DVD (social media was still in it’s infancy), but we did manage to gather up a number of other films to add to our Indie Rights catalogue – enough to interest several digital distribution platforms that would have have given us the time of day, if we only had one film.  Several of the platforms were new and didn’t survive, like B-side and Caachi, but it gave us a way to get our films out there and start to build an audience for our films and make a name for our company.  We now have our films on all the premium platforms like iTunes, Hulu and SNAG.

Once again, it was time to make another film.  We looked at many scripts, but none were exactly what we were looking for, so we started writing once again.  This time we flushed out a pretty commercial story – one with a hero, a girl, guns and cars, but also one that had a heart.  We got it to the first draft and then started looking for other artists to collaborate with.  This time, we were ready to make a film that we felt was worthy of a theatrical audience.  We scoured the city for other talented artists that wanted to make their mark.  With a small crew, the very best equipment we could find, we planned to make DELIVERED.  It took two years to do all the writing, planning, find the locations, find the perfect cast and make arrangements for all the cars and guns.  Several of the people involved were part of our previous production.  We even had an ROP high school classroom on set with students from a local high school, who were interested in making a career in the arts.  When I was in high school, no one encouraged the artist in me and as a result, it took way too many years before I slowly uncovered that artist, buried deep inside.

I love the collaborative nature of making a film.  Even though it is my partner and I who worked for several years to get it to the point where we could shoot it, I knew that we would need to involve many artists to make the film a reality.  I knew that if we were going to be successful, we needed to build an audience for this film while we were still in production.  The best way to do this was on Facebook.  Already, we have more than 3,500 fans and we are only about half way through post production. It’s an interesting test of your passion to have to watch the same film thousands of times, but that’s exactly what we have to do.  It is not dissimilar to the sculptor who starts with a huge block of stone and slowly chips away, bit by bit until a beautiful work is uncovered.  We shot about forty hours of footage with the RED camera and have spent more than six months chipping away at that footage and what has emerged is a beautful piece of art.  Michael and I have very different ideas sometimes and we each have our favorite parts of the artistic process.  He’s an Actor, Director and picture editor.  We both write, but I love color and sound.  I could spend hours playing with the light that bounces off the car or the way that grass looks.  We have a wonderful composer that is working on the soundtrack and an amazing graphic artist that is working on the Key Art.  Our student interns built incredible props, many so life-like that you could swear they might move. What an opportunity to work together with so many talented people – each one hoping to have a sustainable career doing what they love.   That is my hope and my dream – that I can live comfortably doing what I love all the time.  Even though I am not there yet, I am close, but more importantly, I am now enjoying the journey.

Thanks Linda and let me know if you need another writer!

Ok, ALL of you creative types made me laugh out loud, you made my day. But, Jess Owen made me laugh the hardest:

“Okay, Riley. That’s good. No, I haven’t told the other gators that you’re taking lessons. Everyone has to learn at their own pace. Now just relax. Floating is harder than swimming. You’re doing great! No, I think it’s perfectly normal. You have other talents. Okay, deep breath…try going under without closing your eyes this time…”

The clincher, for me, was, “you have your own talents”, I’m laughing now as I type it. Jess is a writer, as you can tell, I can’t wait for her book!

Join us on the FB fan page next Wednesday for more!

The industrial revolution is over, the age of mass media is over. Detroit, Cleveland, Rochester; I’m sorry but those factory jobs aren’t coming back. There’s no sense being angry about it, the world has changed. Just ask someone who used to be a travel agent or sold advertising for an AM radio station. Job security? Not really.

GM might make a good vehicle again, but it will never be the same, they won’t throw out crap to a public who will buy like sheep. Kodak, how’s that film business working for you? And; does anybody actually pay to advertise in the newspaper anymore? This year, more money is being spent to advertise on line than in print.

Normal has changed neighborhoods.

The world of instant communications, lowest cost bidders and efficient markets has replaced protectionism, old boy networks and market inefficiencies. Everyone is a click away. If someone has what we need and can get it to us, we don’t care if they are a Fortune 500 company or a guy working out of his Mom’s attic. (In fact, we often prefer the guy at Mom’s).

People who still have jobs are figuring out they need to bring creativity and artistry to the party or they won’t have a party to go to. And, if you don’t have that old job anymore, you are trying to figure out how to “monetize” your creativity. Creativity is the new currency, artists and designers are the new superstars.

You are the new factory. When I wrote about this in the Affluent Artist, when I called you a factory, I was only trying to get you to buy into a concept, that if you treat your art like a business, if you are an idea factory, that you could give yourself permission to profit from your talent.

But it’s not an abstract concept anymore. Guess what, you better think of yourself as an idea factory. The creative revolution is about an economy that depends on the right brain, people who can solve problems, think on their feet and see the world with new eyes. It’s more than about creating “content” it’s about delivering content in new ways, it’s about using your God given ability to change people, to change the world.

So my artist friends, its your time, create something, don’t wait for someone to tell you to do something different, do it. It’s better, when it comes to your initiative and your creativity to ask for forgiveness instead of permission.

Business today is about filling customer needs, about telling stories, about being empathetic, about solving problems. All the things that make you an artist. It’s your time.

No more starving artists, not just no, hell no.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The room is bursting at the seams with professional women: lawyers, health professionals, realtors, those in politics, marketing experts, bookkeepers, accountants, and a few artists. It’s a vibrant meeting that has great energy. It’s the perfect spot to meet the new client or two. In fact, quite a few of my current clients came from this particular networking group. Some have spent a lot of money with me, others have spent less. All are people I like.

At the end of this two hour meeting, a newbie was discussing possible membership, but was reluctant. “Because, you see (insert your best New York accent here, since that’s where she originated), these ladies here… they can’t afford me”. I also hail from the east coast, and probably posses some regionally-inherited arrogance, but, even I couldn’t believe this was said out loud. And, mind you, this was said to the founder of the networking group who just so happens to know all the women who, ahem, can afford her. At this point, I only remember those few words. I don’t remember her name. I don’t want her jewelry either.

I assume she didn’t talk to too many people that night. I could rant right now about her arrogance and ego. I won’t. In an effort to turn the negative to positive, I would rather consider this thought: What about this story can I apply to myself? And what can I do to change how I approach potential clients?

Know your market:

I live in Columbus, Ohio. I originated in New Jersey. These two markets are so different I’m pretty sure you could find a book or two to explain them. I began my photography studio in New Jersey about fifteen years ago. I set up shop, brought in customers, and was paying my bills inside of six months. I didn’t do anything special. I advertised and gave referral incentives. In this particular area, word-of-mouth kept me fed. But my customers did not have to know me personally to do business with me. They had to like my work, that’s it.

I moved to Columbus in 1999 with the same business plan. No one came in. Oh, I had dribs and drabs of customers that would find me by mistake, but nothing consistent. I spent too much on advertising and just about gave away the store in incentives, freebies, and charity donations. It didn’t work.

Comparing then to now, I realize that I didn’t know the Columbus market.  I priced myself competitively, but I also must have had some arrogance in me to think that people would drop everything to do trade with me. Hmmm. I have found out that people here want to know you first. You have to network.  Your ad means absolutely nothing…really. Once they know and like you, they will buy. Bonus points: they also stay loyal and refer you with or without incentives.

Find out what your customer wants:

This may sound similar to ‘know your market’. It is, and it isn’t.

I do commissioned paintings. At first, I admit to being reluctant to offer this kind of service. As an artist, it is so much easier to work on my own visions. Doing commissions means letting go of control. Wow! It’s not just me in the studio anymore, is it? But I found that I love doing painted portraits, which has become a complimentary service to my photo portraits.

Accepting a commissioned piece also means accepting a challenge. I posses the ability to paint and the client has a vision. It becomes a nice collaborative effort between client and artist.  My first piece was overwhelming yet very satisfying. I worked within a deadline (another thing I didn’t think I could do!) and produced a piece that someone would love for many years. One client I had cried when he saw the painting of his daughter. I still get goose bumps when I think of this moment. Another was ecstatic that I understood what she wanted, even though she couldn’t tell me in enough words what that was.

The key to making them happy?  Besides being good at what you do, ask the client what their vision is. Yes, it’s that simple. Then make suggestions based on what you have heard. I generally do this by showing some samples of works I’ve already completed. I will also ask what their favorite painting style is and what colors they prefer. It’s not that I will try to paint what I cannot do. I ask this so I can see what they are not giving me in words. When the painting is near completion, I invite my client to see it. If they approve, we’re good. I varnish it and they pick it up later. Or, they may have minor changes they want done. I do it, and invite them back for approvals.

This is simple. Client satisfaction will keep them coming back to you. It will also cause them to refer you to someone else.

When your painting is completed, forget about the ego:

This is the most difficult lesson I’ve had to learn. Mostly, it’s when we’re talking about pricing or armchair critiques that I have to remember to check the ego.

I find it easier to realistically price my works a few weeks after I complete them. When new, my paintings are my babies, my new favs. I don’t want to part with them. When I was newer in this field, everything was worth at least a thousand for my time…well it was! I now price my works lower, and I sell more. My goal is to work full time as an artist, not to have a ton of paintings on my walls. While I don’t want to give away the store, I also like to eat and pay my bills. My prices will go up when I can’t keep up with the work load.

Armchair critiques can be more difficult. I want everyone to love what I do. But they won’t, and that’s ok with me now. If a customer wants the background color changed, I don’t take it personally (even if the reason is, ugh!.. that it doesn’t match her couch). After all, it is the client who has to live with the painting, not me. Imagine every time one of her friends sees the painting, and she says ‘yeah, I like it, except I really wish the background was blue and not orange’. It could haunt you, or you could paint it blue. I opt for the blue.

Anyone is a potential customer:

We try, don’t we? We try to size up the people we’re meeting. Maybe it comes from waiting tables and wanting to get the best tippers. ‘Just look at the shoes, it’ll tell you everything’. Really…does it? All it tells me is how much they spend on shoes.

The professionals at my meeting were in jeans and sweaters and sneakers. A few wore blazers, and some wore sweats. Some have money and some don’t. All of them can be your customers.

I try to have what I call my entry level prices, mid-level, and my higher end pricing.  This is not my original idea, I’m pretty sure I read it somewhere. But, the idea is this: if you have a few items that are less expensive, it gives the people who like you but can’t afford you right now a reason to buy (keychains, small art, bookmarks, prints, small framed photos, etc.).   I generally bring them in with business head shots and small artworks. When they start earning more money, they come back. It’s one way to cultivate lifetime clients, rather than one-shot customers. In other words, get creative and work at making it easy for these ladies to afford you!

Marie K Godwin is a full-time artist in Columbus, Ohio, specializing in portrait photography and custom-commissioned artworks. http://www.mkgodwin.com

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Imagine having a brother in law who is a really obnoxious life insurance salesman, a guy who, asks, “Wanna buy life insurance?” every time you see him: at church, at dinners, at Christmas. You get the point after a while, he sells life insurance, no need to talk to him unless you want to talk insurance.

The shift in marketing is this, people don’t mind buying, but they don’t like to be sold. What Panera’s, Starbucks and Facebook figured out is how to help a community of people. They didn’t create a community, they helped it, gave them something they needed, a platform. While people are at Starbucks they’ll buy coffee, while on FB, they’ll click on some of the ads. A friend of mine went to Panera’s to meet a client and they stayed 4 hours. She said there were people there before she got there who were there after she left. To use a web page term, Panera’s has “stickiness” (and not just the pastry).

Now, look at your website. Is it asking me to buy something or is it entertaining me, educating me or helping me connect with someone else? Do I have a reason to come back to your site everyday? Are you someone with just another website or are you capturing me? Is the website about you or is it about me?

I can hear your gut reaction from here: “I don’t have time to re-design my website!” Did you know that E Bay had more gross sales revenue last year than all of Federated Department Stores? People find businesses on-line now; what will they find when they find you?

I have a few ideas about websites, you can have them for free, I think creative people should be more creative when it comes to marketing and maybe these will help to set you apart from the crowd:

1. Why in the world wouldn’t you have You Tube videos of you working on a project? A behind the scenes video that might help to generate a buzz and demand for your work? Better yet, what about a live feed to your studio when you are working? Teach, offer stories and help us learn the reason you are doing what you are doing.

2. What about creating a graphic novel on your site using your work, tell us a story with your art, reveal a new page every day.

3. A name the caption contest for your work?

4. Invite other artists that you admire to discuss both of your work via podcast, blog or chat.

5.  Ask existing customers to comment; explaining what they love about your work and where they display it.

It’s a given that you have a web page, who doesn’t? The trick is, have fans. No one else can have YOUR website but you can have the same one as everyone else. It’s your choice.

LET YOUR CREATIVE  BEAST OUT!!!

The best part of this story is that she used creativity to encourage creativity! As creatives trying to find financial success and ways to stand out from the crowd, Betsy gives us one helluva an example. I pray my friends, that you let your beast come out and play. When an artist learns to use money as another color on his palette, we don’t call her an artist anymore, we call her an entrepreneur!

Let me first say that I am a lover of God, the earth, a go green person, a vegan and a champion for animal welfare. All these things contribute to who I am as an artist. The weird thing is that I come from a family of what some might call -Guidos, Italian American people like the kids from the Jersey Shore Show, In fact I live 1 mile from where they filmed it. What’s the matter can’t guidos be vegans? Tree Huggers? Animal Lovers? I guess so! But they would not be from my family, if that’s what you want to call it. My dad left my mom with 4 kids and remarried a wonderful woman. They live in the country on 20 acres, he makes his own wine and has a favorite saying“ One foot on a banana peal and the other one in the grave“ Huh? WOW ok dad…he gave me a road map once and that was the extent of his fathering. My mom lived with her mom her entire life and is a 75 year old child who just learned how to boil an egg 3 months ago. Ah Yes, my dysfunctional family 101. Why am I telling you all this? Because all this, contributes to my artwork. Everything I have experienced in my life, where I came from and who I have become, what I love and what I believe in pushes the paint onto the canvas. I decided to paint a collection of family members. This is the first time I am telling the world about it. So you are the first to know. It should be funny and larger than life!

Back to the beginning, I live in Joisey, but I stick out like a sore thumb. I am a 42 year old petite woman with 2 dogs who drives a truck, wears bandanas and eats salads at local Italian restaurants instead of chicken ptarmigan. Being a chick in Joisey is no easy task. Your talking, tanning beds, gyms, hair and clothes. Help me Montana!

For those of you who do not know me, I am a painter and creator of whatever I find interesting enough to paint. Whatever I decide to put on the canvas becomes what I am a part of. I am a rebel, a NO RULES follower when it comes to art. Many people have asked how I became successful just painting what I wanted and not going by the restrictions of what fine art should be. I have one answer. I do what I want, when I want, I am a unique individual like we all are who never let people stop my creativity and imagination. When you Grow up dysfunctional, you have to have a saving grace, something to keep you sane, so I embraced my imagination and lived in fantasy worlds where no one could hurt me or find where my heart lived and my soul thrived…..Just look into my art and let me know what you see.

My Paintings convey my individuality and spontaneous thoughts and ideas. My Art has been described by others as “an embarrassment of riches in a colorful world of subconscious thinking.” It is like a journey into the deepest corner of my mind which pulls out current ideas and accumulations of my past experiences, welding them together and presenting them to the world allowing the viewer to create their own conclusions and individual meanings that are all their own.”

If there is one thing that I am proving to the world, it is to be yourself and let your soul shine! They said I would never get anywhere with my attitude and I had to follow the guidelines of art, but I didn’t and I am living proof that following your heart will give you success. Here are some of the thing I have achieved by just being myself:

My Painting Entitled: Model has been chosen for HGTV’s new show: Battle on The Block and will be featured in an up coming episode in April of 2010 the West Orange NJ Show.
In 2009, my painting entitled PUG DOG was picked up by a scout from icon shoes. They will be using my artwork for their handbags, golf shoes, belts, purses and much more. If you are interested in seeing my new products please check out my “Pug Dog” at the ICON SHOES website and look for them in stores near you starting 2010.

*Published: NY ARTS Magazine 2008* Hollywood Reporter * Forbes & more
*Public Collection: Community Medical Center in Toms River, NJ*
*Artwork “Shapeshifter” Chosen by Well Known Writer for NEW BOOK (Kim Carlsberg)

To find out more about laura’s achievements as an artist and to read the full biography, please visit her website http://laurabarbosaart.com

Thanks Laura, we love you and your work!

There is no job security. If you work for a company that promises you a job for life, the company will probably go down. If you just go through the motions, doing as little as possible to get by, you are eventually going to be replaced. Business, after all, is always trying to reduce costs. How do you become someone who can’t be fired? Become indispensable.

I’ve been telling you about Seth Godin’s marvelous argument for artists to step forward and let our light shine, his book called Linchpin. He argues that our educational system was designed to produce factory workers who conform, follow directions and do anything before they think for themselves. I talked to my daughter, who recently completed nursing school and passed her boards (GO LIZZIE!), that no one would send her to find the answer to a question they already knew the answer to again. The next time she needed to figure something out it was because she REALLY needed to find the answer, not because she has to pass a test. (Thank you Seth). People who can think on their feet are the ones needed in the real world.

Artists find answers, they use intelligence, passion and yes, creativity to change the people around them. Artists are indispensable, they make companies work. Seth expands the definition of artist beyond painters and sculptors. He talks about anyone who makes a difference, anyone who has the courage to take initiative and use creativity, empathy and passion to change other people. This person is a linchpin. Your medium might be a canvass, it might be a telephone.

Art, Seth feels, is a gift, a gift we should share. Give away our best work? Seth would argue you should, it will get you noticed, help people get to know and eventually hire you. Seth talks, in detail, about giving gifts without expectation of reciprocity, about giving because giving makes you better.

I know, with many artists, this is a touchy subject, that we are all asked to do things for free, for a share of future profits or, worst of all, for the exposure! Keep in mind, Seth is America’s foremost export on marketing, that he has no problem with anyone achieving financial success. What he is saying is that consumers are smart. They don’t want to be tricked anymore, your competition is all too easy to find and someone who comes to business from a place of love and abundance is going to win. People want to buy YOU.

Hugh McLeod, author and artist, says to “Keep your day job” and Seth makes the argument to bring your inner artist to your day job and let it play. It will make you a linchpin, someone who feels fulfilled and needed at their job.

The Affluent Artist lesson from Seth is that artists are crucial, the world is changing, there is no more job security. Those of us who combine the knowledge of business with our artistic sense are best positioned to succeed in the new business world.

Seth is one of the most important business writers in the world today, he understands the power of new media better than anyone else, he understands how business gets done in this digital age. I subscribe to his blog and I suggest you look at it regularly. So, I was ready for his book to be good, but I wasn’t prepared for the emotional re-charge I got from Seth’s call to creative people to step forward and claim leadership in the business world.

In a world where students are taught to do nothing more than conform, where workers are expected to do just enough, where “cozy” jobs are disappearing daily, Seth calls artists to come forward. “Art is about intent and communication, not substances. An artists is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it personally.”

And: “Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient. The medium doesn’t matter. The intent does. Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that changes another. ”

So, there you have it, art is a painting, but it’s also a customer service rep who goes the extra mile. Art is a song but it’s also a teacher who changes lives. Art is a poem; and it’s a CEO who understands the way of the world and leads his company forward. Artists bring passion, pathos and enthusiasm to their work, they change OTHER people.

Steve Jobs, definitely an artist, says, “Artists Ship”. Seth’s book is a call for us to “ship”; to deliver art, to set deadlines, to produce, to get our work out there. Artists lead, they inspire, they change lives.

I needed to hear Seth’s message because I was, frankly, a little lost with The Affluent Artist. I had hired consultants, hired them even though they didn’t like my message, didn’t think enough of you were interested in merging art and business success. They told me that “artists” were too flakey, that artists were only poor painters. Seth reminded me that I was on the right track, that I was ahead of the trend, not behind it. He reminded me that we all have what Julia Cameron called “An Inner Artist” and part of my work is to help people find their genius. It’s also about helping your genius come to terms with money.

So; thanks to Seth, I’m back on track, I’m leading the Creative Revolution again, I understand that we are all destined to find creative and business success if we pay attention. I’m going to write more about Seth’s book in the coming weeks, there are many more incredible things to tell you!

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