Fear Can Be Your Friend

As artists fear is a common part of our creative process and business.

Some common fears we have:
thinking our things are not good enough
sharing our story
speaking in public 
reaching out to retail store
seeking wholesale ventures
networking
self promotion

The big thing we fear is having other people judging us personally and creatively, and the really big one, the fear of failure.

An easy way to get past those fears is to know that you are not the only one that feels that way. It is common emotion for most creatives. You just have to take a deep breath and go for it, regardless of the results after making the first step each step after that will get a little easier.

Fear can be your friend.

Use your fears to know that you are learning.  Exploring those new territories, even scary ones, make you more alert to growing and learning.

Fear is also a sign that what you are doing is important. The stuff that is important to you usually has some fear around it, because you care about how it turn out.

When you are in a situation that scares you, accept the fear, take a deep breath, recite a positive affirmation, and go for it!

Fear is part of our process as creative business owners. Don't let it stop you from trying new things and growing your business.

What scares you about growing your business?

Help someone in you social community get past their fear, share this post on your social networks.

Don't Wait for Inspiration

There are times during the creative process when you don't feel inspired, and that is OK.

Sometimes the ideas are not flowing, and we are not inspired to create new pieces over and over again. But there are times when we need to be creating, so it's important to have a list of ideas to help start the ideas flowing.

Here is a list of simple ideas to help you get started:

When you need to be working and the ideas are not flowing, what do you do to get inspired?

Motivation Monday

Take Control of Your Life

We all have restrictions in our lives.

But, equally, we all have vast areas of untested capacity:

to make decisions; to plan our future; to follow our paths.

It's easy to blame others for our inaction.

It's easy to blame our constraints.

Take the initiative.

Take control.

Decide your own journey.

Now Is the Time by Patrick Lindsay

Sleep In

It's the weekend, and for some reason we seem to be as busy on the weekends as we are during our work week.

The best part about the weekend is that we don't have to get up super early to get our day started. There is no reason you can't take a day and sleep in late, hit the snooze button, roll over and take that extra half hour. 

All your errands will wait an extra half hour as you enjoy some quite time to yourself.

I love Saturdays, because it's the one day I wake up and just lay in bed and enjoy the quite while I watch the birds and squirrels play in the trees outside my window. I have gotten some of my best ideas during that quite time in the morning.

Commit to yourself that one morning you are going to sleep in late, to enjoy some relaxing me time.

How often do you sleep in late?

Share Self-Love Saturday with your social community.

How to Ask For What You Want

As working artists, asking people to buy our items is an important part of our business.

We have to ask customers to make a purchase, ask bloggers to feature our work, ask stores to sell our items, and ask for support from friends and family. With so much asking, we have to make sure that when we ask we get the results we want.

There are five ways you can do the asking and get results:

1. Ask Clearly
Be precise. Think clearly about your idea, and take the time to prepare your question or questions. Words are powerful, so you want to choose them carefully. This is important when you are selling online, because you have to ask your customers to buy with the words that you write.

2. Ask with Confidence
Don't hesitate or act uncertain when you are doing your ask. Ask your questions with boldness and confidence. Remember if you don't get the results you want, it's not about how you asked, maybe who you asked is not be the right person. So try again.

3. Ask Consistently
The more you ask the easier it will get, and the better your results will be. If you are trying to get into retail stores, don't give up. If one says no, go to the next store and ask them.

4. Ask Creatively
With so many people asking the same questions, you have to get creative to stand out in the crowd. Brainstorm some fun ideas for getting your customers, bloggers, or retail stores interested in your product.

5. Ask Sincerely
In some cases you may need to be real with people and tell it like it is, flaws and all. This can be challenging especially with family and friends, but you may need to ask for their help and you want to ask from the heart.

Asking for what we want may sound like a simple idea, but in some cases it may be scary, or even challenging. Use these steps to help you get the results you want, because the more you ask the more you will receive.

Do you find it challenging to ask for what you want in your business?

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Motivation Monday

A Simple Idea for Me Time

Some of my best ideas happen when I am out on a walk. Having that time to myself to process ideas and to relax my mind of everyday thoughts is essential to my creative process.

Finding a few minutes to yourself for a quick walk around the block, or an adventure on a nature trail is the perfect way to have some me time.

When you go out for a walk with the idea of having me time and processing ideas, you get to enjoy some time to yourself and you get the added benefit of it being good for you too.

Try taking a walk daily even if it's only for 5 minutes, to clear your mind and enjoy spending time with yourself.

Do you enjoy taking walks?

Share some Self-Love Saturday with your social community.

Finding or Creating a Group that Will Help You Succeed

In the last post I talked about the purpose of a mastermind group, and why you should consider being a part of one. Today you get to decide if you want to join an existing group or start one of your own.

There are many different kinds of mastermind groups, for business owners, managers, artists, crafters, moms, or even weight loss. They may not all be called mastermind groups, but the focus is still the same, for everyone to succeed.

You can easily find a mastermind group to join by asking friends, family, and your peers about groups they belong too. You can check sites like meetup.com, they have several options especially if you want a group you can meet with in person. You can also try Google.com for mastermind groups looking for members.

Be sure you know what you want from a mastermind group before you contact the leader of the group about participating.

Here are a few questions to consider:

Do you want to meet in person or online?
Do you prefer morning or evening meetings?
What topics are important to you?
What do you want to be held accountable for?

Once you have the answers to these questions you are ready to make contact. Talk with the leader and other members of the group to make sure the group is a good match for you.

Joining an existing group may not be what you are looking for, maybe you are ready to start your own.

If that is the case you can easily set up a group with these 5 simple steps.

Pick a niche or topic. The more specific you define your group the easier it will be to find the right group members.

Decide how many people you want in the group. The best groups are between 4 - 8 people. It gives everyone the opportunity to participate in a meeting without the meetings taking all day.

Find the right members. You want people who are ready to make positive changes in their business, have a positive outlook, and ready to receive and give support.

Decide how your group will meet. Do you want it to be a local group where you can all meet in person, or an online group. These days it is easy to have group members from all over, with Skype, Google+ Hangouts, Facebook, and other social media sites.

Decide how often you want to meet. Meeting once or twice a month is best, to keep the ideas flowing and to really hold you accountable in meeting your goals.

Once you have your group in place there is an abundance of information about starting and running a mastermind group online.

Are you interested in being in a mastermind group?

I would like to start a group of online shop owners with a creative business that are looking to have a successful 2014. If that is something you want to be part of, Email me and lets see if we can get something started additionsstyleblog@gmail.com

Mastermind groups are an important part of business, share this post with your social community.

Is a Mastermind Group For You?

As independent business owners and artists we spend a lot of our time working alone. When you are looking for new ideas or trying to get inspired occasionally working alone can make it challenging to generate ideas that will help you grow your business or as an artists.

One way people are doing this is working with a mastermind group.

Being part of a master mind group offers a combination of brainstorming, education, accountability, and support. The benefits of working with this type of group can bring you and the members of your group greater success.

As a participant you challenge each other to set important goals, and more importantly, to accomplish them.

The group requires commitment, confidentiality, willingness to be creative and brainstorm ideas/solutions, and to support each other. This is the essence and value of a mastermind group.

There are six factors you should consider for a mastermind group:

Commitment - You want commitment to showing up to the meetings and commitment to participating in the conversation.

Two-way Sharing - Sharing includes asking for help and giving help to other members.

Follow Guidelines - When you are trying to create spirit, harmony, and trust within your group you need to have a set of guidelines that everyone agrees to. Setting boundaries and a safe place to discuss your business will create a group that works well together.

No Competitors - It is challenging to open up when you have a competitor in your group. Having people from varied backgrounds make your group more diverse.

Similar Skill Levels - When the group members are working at similar levels, it is much easier to generate ideas that will benefit the entire group.

Varied Skills - It is nice to have a group of people with a variety of skills. If you have someone who is knowledge about certain subjects such as social media, or running an online shop, or branding, etc... it will benefit the entire group.

Now that you have the basic idea for creating and participating in a mastermind group, you need to decide if a mastermind group will be good for you.

Answer these questions:

Are you ready to grow personally and professionally?
Can you commit to meeting regularly with a group of your peers?
Are you ready to create to a more focused plan and achieve your goals?

If you like the idea of working with a group that will inspire and guide you to greater success, then being part of a mastermind group should be in your plans for 2014. Thursday I will share some ideas for joining a group or starting your own.

Does being part of a mastermind group appeal to you?

Share this post with your social media community!

Motivation Monday

Learn

Each day we meet someone new.

We're exposed to new thoughts, new ways.

Use every opportunity to add to your knowledge.

Go with an open mind.

Relish the chance to learn.

Enjoy the challenge.

Seek perspective.

Now Is the Time by Patrick Lindsay

Share some motivation with your social networks.

Buy Something You Love

We spend a lot of our adult life thinking about others. We want to make sure our family has everything they need and we tend to take care of them before we think of ourselves.

Every once in a while you need to do something just for yourself. 

One way to do that is to purchase a piece of art from an artist you love. You are then supporting a small business, and getting something you will love and cherish for many years.

You don't have to spend a lot of money, consider buying a print or greeting card and framing it, maybe a piece of jewelry, or a hand knit scarf, you just want it to be something you love.

Autumn Leaves Watercolor by trowelandpaintbrush on Etsy

Go to an art show, search online, today is the day to buy yourself something that will lift your spirits and make you smile.

When was the last time you purchased something for yourself?

Share this Self- Love Saturday post with your social network.

Time Can Be Your Friend

We all have a love / hate relationship with time. Sometimes we want the day to go faster so it will end, and other times we want it to slow down so we can get more done.

Understanding that you are responsible for your time, and how you use it will make you better at managing your time.

There are three qualities that will help you stay in charge of your time:

Awareness - When you are aware of what needs to be done and the time you have to work on those needs, you will have more control and flexibility. The more awareness you have the more you will experience.

Understanding - With awareness comes understanding, but only if you are curious. Asking questions with curiosity leads to expanded understanding. Ask why and how instead of judging and disapproving the things around you. Making time to understand things happening around, will make you more conscience about your time.

Choice - You have the choice to choose the skills and tools that will move you forward one step at a time. Personal choice is your ultimate control. The choices you make will be the result of how you spend your time.

So when you are in situations that you feel are out of your control, stop and become of aware of  what's happening around you, make an effort to understand the situation, and make a choice that is right for you and your time.

Time management is one of those struggles that we all have to deal with during our work day. Adapting these three qualities into your decisions about your time will help you accomplish more each day.

How do you feel about your relationship with time?

Share this time management tip with your social circle.

Create a Digital Vision Board to Boost Your Holiday Sales

The ideas of creating vision boards or dream boards has been around for a long time. They are great daily reminders of our aspirations and goals.

Vision Boards are also great to reinforce a goal you are working toward achieving. That's why creating a vision board to inspire you to boost your holiday sales can help you meet your goal.

A vision board I created for my studio

There are many ways to create vision boards. You can go through magazines and pull out words and photos of things that encourage your goal. You can create a poster, use a canvas, or pin everything to a cork board and change it as needed.

If you prefer you can keep it simple, create a Pinterest board or boards for every aspect of your life, with photos and words of encouragement  to inspire you. There are also many online options for creating vision boards like Digital Dreamboard and O Dream Board.

Another easy way to create a vision board is to create one on your computer. You can do this in programs like photoshop, publisher, PowerPoint, or PicMonkey.com.

Start by choosing a poster size document (16 x 20). It's the perfect size to hang, but if that seems to large choose a size that works best for you. Next find positive images that and quotes that excite, inspire, and motivate you to reach your goal. Once you have all your images you can copy and paste them in a pleasing arrangement on you poster size document.

When you are done you can send your finished document to a photo shop (such as Walgreens or Costco) to have it printed. It's pretty inexpensive to have it printed, usually under $5. If you are working with a smaller document print it out on your own printer.

Hang your vision board where you can see it in you workspace. When you need a boost take a few minutes and look at the images, read the inspirational messages, and get inspired with new ideas.

Creating a vision board is a great way to get clear about your goals for the holiday season. Your vision board will help you make the connections from vision to reality.

Do you have a vision board?

Share this idea with your social network.

Motivation Monday

Use Your Wisdom

Wisdom is the ability to use experiences to gain perspective.

We all have unique experiences.

The trick is to use the knowledge we gain from it:

to see the relationship between things.

Allow yourself to use your experiences.

Now Is the Time by Patrick Lindsay

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Music Break

Music can calm the soul, and transport you into a peaceful frame of mind.

For a little me time this weekend, create a playlist of relaxing music. Play it when you need a break at home or out running errands to help you relax and enjoy what you are doing.

When creating your list be mindful of the songs you choose, organize the songs from fastest tempo to slowest, and consider starting with lyric songs and ending with classical. The natural progression will assist you in slowing down.

Play this list of music anytime you need a break, or to relax your mind. The more you do it, every time you choose that playlist your mind will automatically start to relax.

What is your favorite song to relax too?

Share Self-Love Saturday with your social community.

4 Keys to Achieving Greater Creativity

Inspiration and creativity are the key to creating art that inspires and excites your customers.

As we all know sometimes it can be a challenge to get and stay inspired all the time, so we can create our best work.

There are many ways to boost your creativity, many discussed here on  Everyday Inspired, but there are four creativity traits that you can adapt to help you create more and stay inspired.

Creativity requires...

Curiosity - Curiosity and creativity are never far apart. You need to be curious to identify problems worth solving, and then to come up with creative solutions.

Risk - Taking - True creativity requires risk. Creativity and risk are intertwined, and to create something you are passionate about and has meaning for you, you have to go outside of the box.

Energy - Energy is about the ability to make something happen. Energy directed into a creative endeavor causes something new, unseen, and different to come into existence.

Patience - Patience helps us find balance. To gain that balance you need to have the patience to fail, the patience to practice, and the patience to perfect.

Are these traits part of your creative process? What is your biggest struggle?

Cultivating these traits will make your creativity soar. Nothing will be able to stop you from becoming a creative powerhouse.

Share these creativity traits with your social network!

Do You Compare Yourself with Others?

Source

It is human nature to compare what we have to what other people have. We just feel better when we have more then someone else, and when we don't, we feel as if we not doing anything right.

I admit it, I compare my work to what other people are doing. I look at Etsy shops and wonder why do they have more sales, why do other blogs get more comments, how come other people get more responses to there social media post, then I do.

I do it more often then I would like, and it's a bad habit that is very hard to change, but one that I am starting to work on.

We compare ourselves to others to gauge our progress and to see where to set the bar in the first place.

There are some easy steps you can take to stop comparing ourselves and our businesses to others:

Recognize that you are comparing yourself and that it's a bad habit you need to change. Once you recognize you are doing it, you can quickly stop and move on. We are all different and do things differently so embrace you methods as the right way.

Realize everyone is different. We all have a way of doing things, and changing what feels comfortable to you to the way someone else is doing something will not give you good results. Don't change because someone said their way is better, always do what works for you.

Don't be afraid to be yourself. Embrace all your quirks and nuances and let them shine. You can never go wrong being an original.

Change what needs to change, because you want to change it. Never let anyone else's ideas dictate how you do things and what makes you comfortable. If it feels right and needs to change go for it, and always strive for the best.

Habits don't change overnight. 

Give yourself time, and 

don't give up.

I have gotten better at accepting the direction my business is going. When I see someone with better results then myself, I just look to see if there is something I can learn from them, and move on.

Comparing ourselves with others is natural. It's what you do once your realize you are doing it that is important.

Do you compare business to other creative businesses?

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