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From Passion to Profit8 Working Creatives Share Strategies & Insight

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Introduction

This ain’t your mama’s American Dream

As we’ve been told for several years now, there’s a New American Dream.

Our desires have evolved. We are no longer content to work for a paycheck in order to support

our nights-and-weekends life. We want work with intention; we want to enjoy and contribute

on a deep level while we’re earning.

Lucky for us, the economy and workforce have changed as well. Expectations for what a career

might look like are drastically different from a generation ago. People who are much smarter than

I  have singled out creativity as the driving force of the economy. Creativity = innovation = crea-

tive thinking & solutions = having valuable ideas and implementing them. Lucky for us, there are

more and more opportunities to innovate and profit on our own terms.

All this to say…

You can profit from your passion! And we have a series to prove it.

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Introducing the From Passion to Profit Series

This series was created for passionate, at least slightly unconventional folks with an interest in pur-

suing meaningful work. Whether profiting from your passion is a twinkle in your eye or you’re

already on track, you will find rock-your-world insight and strategies here.

You’ll hear from leaders in different niches, new & established voices, men and women. And be-

cause the New American Dream is not just for Americans (how American!) you’ll also hear from

an Aussie & a Brit. Well-rounded, well spoken; this group is ready to lead you down the path

they’ve already tread.

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Rebecca Leigh of Smart Fresh Writing

Thom Chambers of In Treehouses

Laura Simms of Create as Folk

Michelle Ward of When I Grow Up

Tara Gentile of taragentile.com

Alexandra Franzen of alexandrafranzen.com

Dennis Baker of dennisbaker.net

Lisa Sonora Beam of The Creative Entrepreneur

Connect with Rebecca: website | twitter | facebook

Connect with Thom: website | twitter

Connect with Laura: website | twitter | facebook

Connect with Michelle: website | twitter | facebook

Connect with Tara: website | twitter

Connect with Alexandra: website | twitter

Connect with Dennis: website | twitter | facebook

Connect with Lisa: website | twitter | facebook

Meet Your Contributors

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Contents

Rebecca Leigh

Thom Chambers

Laura Simms

Michelle Ward

Tara Gentile

Alexandra Franzen

Dennis Baker

Lisa Sonora Beam

From passion to profit and all the intimate work in-between

Stepping off radar, stepping up to the plate

Moving beyond myths

How to know you’re on the right track

How to find the “we” in earning more

Agony + (boys) + SUCCESS3 vignettes from a year on the verge

Living the freelance lifestyle

The Creative Entrepreneur Mandala: Or, How do I make money?!?!

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To get from doing the thing you love (your passion), to having people pay you to do it (profit), you need connection.

Passion + Connection = Profit

This means (amongst other things) finding your right people (and/or making it easy for them to find you), allowing them to

experience the value of what you have to offer, and building a trusting relationship with them.

As someone working from the heart, wanting to contribute as much as you earn, you’ve got a head-start in this economy of

intimacy.

But you’re also more vulnerable to one of the major blocks to connection.

What gets in the way of connection?

When you’re writing to connect you need to be clear, and you need to create mutual understanding.

There are techniques that help with this process, but the underlying block I see most often (including in myself) is not a lack of

technique, it’s fear.

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From passion to profit and all the intimate work in-between

Fear seeps through your language

The most obvious is the fear that your passion and belief in meaningful work somehow impairs your business judgment and

ability to sell, which means you suppress your true voice and mimic the marketing gurus (who encourage and feed on this

fear!). And your people sense the discord in what you are saying, and not saying.

But there are more insidious fears…

The fear that you’re not good enough, or won’t be taken seriously, which expresses itself in About pages bloated with official

credentials and self-congratulatory tales that put more distance between you and your people, rather than building intimacy.

Or the fear that you’re only going to get one shot—at this dream, on this website, with this person reading your page right

now—and the opportunity is going to pass you by if you don’t explain every little detail of how your thing works and how

great it is for them regardless of who they are. And you need to download all of this to them as soon as possible in one over-

whelming mass of information.

The fear is understandable

In case you feel as though you’ve been singled out and put on the naughty chair at this point, please don’t. We all feel this way.

I’ve worked with clients who are aware of the fear and how it’s affecting their communication, and who still struggle with it.

It’s difficult because we care about what we do and how we do it.

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The answer is courage

I found this wonderful definition of courage in Brene Brown’s latest book The Gifts of Imperfection: Letting Go of Who You

Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are.

The root of the word courage is cor—the Latin word for heart… Courage originally meant

“To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.”

Bring to mind anyone you deeply admire in the world of creative, meaningful work, and I doubt your admiration grows from

them replicating someone else’s passion or message. Each one has found the courage to tell their own heart, and by doing so

they’ve made a connection with you.

To turn our passion to profit, to truly connect, we need courage.

The courage to choose only the tools and techniques that resonate with our true voice. To forge a path for our story, and to do

it with skill, awareness and an underlying belief in the integrity we all share.

The courage to be wholly present in our interactions with our people, to appreciate their needs, observe where we are connect-

ing and where we are not, and then to respond in an agile, open way.

The courage to examine our motives and recognize when we are being driven by fear. To make our offering to the world hon-

estly and with passion, and to accept the inherent vulnerability of doing so.

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Be the change

I believe part of our calling in turning our passion to profit, in remaking a meaningful work life, is to remake the world’s un-

derstanding of business.

How we conduct our businesses, including our communication and relationships with our clients, can be as transformative as

the goods and services we deliver. Take heart, take courage!

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At the end of March, I published a premium ebook called The Free Fans Kit; it was the result of months of work, and it consumed almost all my spare time. Since publication, I’ve been a little bit off radar, catching up with life and sleep and friends.

This hasn’t been an extreme digital sabbatical or anything like that, just a step back to survey the landscape and take a breath. And you know what? The only thing I’ve missed is the work. Not Twitter, not Skype, not chatting or reading blogs, but actu-ally creating the work. Stepping back has shown me just how much of all this is just sound and fury and bluster.

This, perhaps, is the disconnect between passion and profit. When you’re passionate about something, you’re happy to talk about it to any and everyone. But talk isn’t work.

This morning I woke up without a job. Yesterday was my last day of employment; from here on out it’s all about the magazine and the upcoming related projects I’ve got brewing.

Because of this shift, I’ve spent a while now thinking about the change I need to make from being a passionate amateur to be-ing a profitable business. Sure, you can be a profitable amateur, working on your passion on the side whilst in employment, but making the leap has put more pressure on me to think about the business side of things.

To do this, I’ve been looking outside of the blogosphere – and if you’re serious about turning your passion into profit then you should too.

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Stepping off radar, stepping up to the plate

If you want to create a lifestyle brand, look at how Abercrombie & Fitch do it. If you want to create a small boutique line of products, look at how Tiffany & Co does it. If you want to learn about how to blow your competitors out of the water, look at how Tiger Woods did it.Online, you spend so long amongst the bluster that I mentioned above, and you forget that it’s possible to build something in-credible. Your ambitions shouldn’t be limited to what the crowd of bloggers around you is doing. The pervading emotion that I’ve had in stepping back into things and catching up on blog posts and on Twitter is that I don’t feel as though I missed any-thing too important.

Turning your passion into profit isn’t about chatting on Skype or reading your RSS feed, it’s about creating remarkable things that customers want to buy. It’s about stepping up and being willing to be professional and take risks and go for broke. Busi-nesses know this. And if you’re serious about creating profit from passion, you need to know it too.

So I’m going to step off radar for a little while longer – to create, to improve. If I’m going to make the jump from passion to profit successfully, it’s going to come from work, not from talk.

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Myths got you down?

Here you are, trucking it from passion to profit, and all this mythinformation is weighing you down. Let’s debunk and carry on

without the baggage, shall we?

myth: I don’t have a passion.

I am surprised every time I hear someone say this, and I hear it more often than you might think. Let me assure you: you do

have a passion. But you may not have found it yet.

The word “passion” can be misleading. Oh, if I’m not serenaded by angels when I think of it, then it must not be my passion!

Not so. Think of passion as an interest with drive.

A passion is something that excites you and challenges you. It simultaneously feels like home and just out of reach. A passion

grows with you. You chase it, it chases you.

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Moving beyond myths

Also likely is that you found your passion a while ago, got spooked, and tucked it into a nice, dark corner. Where you’ll be safe.

But by it’s nature, passion is persistent. Regardless of where you banish it, it’ll try to wriggle out and be acknowledged.

myth: I have only one passion.

Ahhhhh…Soul Mate Syndrome.

There’s only one thing in the world you can do that swells your heart and pocketbook simultaneously? I’m not buyin’ it. I

think you got more goin’ on than that.

But this myth is often perpetuated by artists. It’s a common saying among actors to pursue acting “only if you can’t do any-

thing else.” It’s a very romantic notion. But it’s also kinda insulting to acting and to individuals. The actors I know are well-

rounded, competent people who could excel at many different things. They are actors because they choose to be, not because

the are fated by their limitations.

myth: If I do what I love, I’ll never have to work a day in my life.

Tricky thing about love: it takes work. Marriages don’t survive on love alone, not every moment of parenthood is bliss, and

passion-based work sometimes feels like work.

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There will probably be stuff you gotta do that you don’t like–dealing with difficult personalities, working on the weekend,

handling numbers. Just because you run into things that feel like chores and have-tos doesn’t mean you’re doing the wrong

work.

Expect some tough work. The best thing you can do for your passionate work is lean into the challenges of the yucky stuff.

Your love for your work is not enough for everything, but it is enough to fuel you to the other side of any unpleasantness.

myth: If I’m good at what I do, the customers will come.

I was floored when one of the big movers and shakers of social media tweeted something like this recently: “If what you do is

great, you don’t have to market it.”

Augh! Nooooooooo!

You do need to be great, and you do need to market. Marketing is essentially creating awareness. If people don’t know you &

your great thing exist, they can’t have at it. You need ways for your message and mission to find its right people. Word of

mouth is powerful, but it’s just one way of creating awareness.

myth: I have to start my own business to profit from my passion.

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If you spend any time in the blogosphere, you may absorb this message. Lots of people online have quit their job to start their

own online business, and lots of them now teach people how to do the same, and lots of them insist that working for yourself is

the only way to go. It’s a great option, but it’s not the only way.

When searching for your ideal passion to profit gig, you’ll consider many factors: what kind of work environment you prefer, if

you like working in a group or going solo, what kind of lifestyle you want to support, and a billion other things. Working for

yourself is the answer to those conditions for many people, but it’s not the answer for everyone.

myth: I’m going to figure out this passion to profit thing once and for all and ride into the sunset with my

money bags.

Mmmmm…maybe. But maybe not. It’s more likely that you, your interests, the work you are drawn to, and the demands of the

market will evolve over time.

But hey, evolution is good! Your business may change, and you will adjust. In a way, your work is a fluid, living thing. Let it

move and do its thing. You will grow together.

The best way to bust a myth? Test it.

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You will find the glorious sweet spot of passion-n-profit overlap when you get out and try things. Hypotheticals and theories

must be tested. You run the experiments, you make the adjustments, you get the rewards.

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The Guarantee.

That’s what we’re all looking for, aren’t we? The Sign/Letter/Skywriting that’ll say “It’s all going to work out! Keep going!

You’re gonna make it after all!” (hat toss a la Mary Tyler Moore optional). Well, I hate to bust your bubble/keep ya from toss-

ing your hat, but – unless you know a psychic that has a 100% success rate – it ain’t gonna happen. And while I would have had

the tendency to groan right along with you a few years ago, now I feel strongly that (a) if someone did tell me my future, I

don’t know how much I’d trust/believe ‘em to begin with and (b) it is Bor-to the -ring to have everything mapped out for you.

I mean, Geez Louise Louise, we’re Creatives! We love new, shiny, out-of-the-box, get-our-hands-dirty, DIY projects and

wanna live our lives on our own terms but then..what? We want someone else to lay our lives out for us? To tell us what’ll work out and what won’t? To that I say: Hooey! I spit on that! A big gross loogey right on it’s stupid face!

Now get that image out of your head (sorry – my bad) and let’s move on. Let’s, instead, look within (hippy-dippy but true) to see if you’re on the Right Track:

Please don’t hit me in the face, but the hippy-dippy in me has to say that you feel an almost-equal mix of nerves and ex-

citement. Too many nerves, and it’s probably a bit too out of your comfort zone (and might lead to overwhelming fear

and lots of roadblocks that you have trouble knocking down). Too much excitement, and – while fun – it usually means

there’s not much at stake. I know the risk is scary and there are no guarantees in life, but I’d be more worried if you

didn’t feel that fear/risk/nerves.

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How to know you’re on the right track

You want or need to do it – not that you “should” do it or are “supposed” to do it. If you say your plans out loud with

the words “need” or “want” and you don’t get chills/smile wide/cry happy tears/wanna do the Rocky dance, then dig

deeper. Is this something that you feel is expected of you? Is it coming from the advice of others and not from your want

within? See what you can say using “want” or “need” and notice what excites you from the top of your head to the tip of

your toes. That’s your path.

The sacrifices don’t feel so, well, sacrificial. In order to get certified as a life coach and launch my business to feel secure

enough leaving my day job, I needed to give up lots of Happy Hours and phone dates and TV time with the hubs (who

was my pre-husband at the time) to make it happen. And while I hated saying No (I still hate saying it!), I was never in

despair about it. I loved my classes, my coaching sessions, and the business-related work I was doing on nights and

weekends, and I made sure to not totally cut myself off from those who liked/loved/put up with me. But if I was on those

calls for school and/or with clients and was regretting not beering it up with my pals instead, I would’ve taken that red

flag seriously.

Doors start opening, but you’re not pushing them. Yes, it took me over a year (I think) to get a request to guest post on

someone’s blog, and then another year to get a literary agent, and then another year to be asked to speak. But man, it felt

like doors were opening quickly when I wasn’t even standing on the other side. I didn’t seek out those posts, or those

speaking gigs, or the agent – I was just here, working my tail-feather off each and every day and putting myself out

there. Despite all that, it felt easy even though I knew I put so much work into it indirectly. If you’re putting the work

in consistently and have been at it for a number of months, you’ll notice the doors opening. It means that not only are

people picking up what you’re putting down, but that you’re in your right place. Keep doing the work there and be

amazed at what follows. And if the doors aren’t opening….it doesn’t mean you need to find an entirely new path, but

maybe there’s a slight turn up ahead you could take to make an adjustment or two and see how that affects your results.

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Give yourself the space to try. If you sell yourself short before you even attempt the first 5 steps, I will be really mad at

you. It doesn’t mean you have to quit your job tomorrow, but it means that you have to just start making progress in

some way. For the love of all that’s holy. Don’t knock it ’til you tried it.

You feel confident that you won’t have to pull the emergency lever too soon. OK, this doesn’t have to do exactly with

knowing you’re on the right track, but I had to include it nonetheless. Whether you’re planning on making your pas-

sion a full-time business or you’re hustling on the side, make sure that you’re sure it’ll be X number of weeks/months

before you run out of time/resources/money. It’s tough/impossible/unfun to continue on The Right Track if any of

those things run out too quickly. Put yourself in that position and you’ll have to get off the path completely.

So for goodness sakes, embrace the unknown, find your love of adventures (I’ve never even rode an upside-down roller coaster,

for Pete’s Sake!), and notice your feelings. The Answer lives within 80% of your gut/heart (and probably 20% of your brain – don’t let it take ya for more than that), so listen to it and listen to it good. It’ll keep ya on your right path, and that’s all that

matters.

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I started my business with about $80 that I put on my personal credit card so that my husband wouldn’t

see the bill.

That was what it cost for my first web hosting plan. I don’t think I spent another dime on the business for a few months. Noth-

ing more substantial than a fiver here or a ten spot there, that’s for sure.

By necessity, I did everything myself. What I didn’t know how to do, I learned or ignored. It was about 5 months until I started

to bring in more that a few dollars per week.

That was the summer I bought Scoutie Girl with a loan from our local credit union. The 2 block walk with the check from my

house to Jan‘s was exhilarating. I felt like I walked there a wannabe and walked back a real business owner.

That very real exchange of money kick started my drive to grow the business. This wasn’t about some cash on the side any-more. It was about profit. Passion-driven, profit-earning business building.The very first month the site was under my management, I brought in more ad revenue than ever before. I also created a fall

advertising package that earned more in a month than I had at my previous full-time job. I was making a profit!

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How to find the “we” in earning more

Of course, that was the first time I felt uneasy about the money appearing in my PayPal account. It was the first time I really

questioned whether it was okay for me to be pulling in a profit in a way that was just so much fun! I got really uneasy about

“me” and my skills.

That initial exchange was also a dive into the deep end of collaborative business relationships. You see, my business is not an is-

land. Nor is yours.

Over time, I came to understand that making a hefty profit isn’t about “me,” it’s really about the “we.”

My profit is part of the community’s profit. My growth is part of the community’s growth. My success is part of the community’s success.

There is no room in microbusiness for a business that is not part of the greater whole.

You’ve heard it said that “you gotta spend money to make money.” I would argue that the flip side is true as well:

You gotta spend money because you make money.

The more money I make, the more I can let flow back out to other businesses that support me: my assistant, my coaches, my

technologies, my designers. The more I profit the more sustainable those other businesses are.

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I increase my expenses as my profit increases because, each time I do, I gain freedom, security, and support. My business no

longer relies upon my ability to get stuff done – now I have a team to fall back on, to trust.

Without profit, there is no team. Without the team, I can’t profit.

If I try to hoard my profits, I end up becoming overwhelmed & disillusioned. And I owe a ridiculous tax bill.

You can’t DIY yourself to sustainability. And you can’t DIY yourself to freedom.

The road between passion & profit can feel like a greedy one.

Who am I to earn money from something that comes so naturally?

Yet, earning a substantial living from your passion allows you to support others in their own passions. The cycle is generous and

unending.

Profit isn’t only about “me” – profit works best when you consider the “we.”

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“There’s a New American Dream.”

So states Laura Simms, creator of From Passion To Profit.If you hang out here once or twice a week, I suspect you’d concur.

Climbing the corporate ladder, in the hopes of a 3.5% annual salary increase and (joy of joys!) three blessed weeks of vacation, ‘stead of two?

Not the apex of awesomeness it used to be, for many.Not even remotely appealing, for some.

Nostrils to the grindstone, from 18 to 65, and then a blissful retirement in south Florida, with the grandkids bouncing on your knee?

Maybe.

Or maybe several careers that serve your multifarious talents and interests, and tai chi lessons in the permaculture garden that you helped plant…at age 103.

Dating, then engagement, then marriage, then mortgage, then baby, then another?

Possibly.

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Agony + (boys) + SUCCESS3 vignettes from a year on the verge

Or possibly buying a house on your own, as a 24-year old — ’cause it feels right.And not having kids, ever — ’cause it doesn’t.

389 days ago, I quit my 9-to-5 job. In the months leading up to quittin’ day, I heard the following phrase about four dozen times:

“Well, if anyone can do it, it’s you.”

It was a compliment — a vote of confidence — but it saddened me. Deeply. Why me? Why not you? Why not…everyone? The idea that freedom, travel, adventure, breathing space and sizzling-circuit-board passion should be relegated to a select few — a special breed — was a major brow-furrower.

A year (& change) down the line, I’ve had a few minor epiphanies. One of ‘em? Not everyone is die-cut for entrepreneurship — and that’s not sad, it’s just diversity. After all, someone has to flip the burgers. Deliver the mail. Fly the jet planes that get me where I wanna go. One man’s calculated risk is another’s catastrophe. My field is your box. My box is your circus.

So, when Laura Simms asked me to write a post for From Passion To Profit — a post about the highs & lows of my first year of full-blown entrepreneurship — my first instinct was to do a tactical, bullet-point, what-worked-what-didn’t parade of pointers.

And then I remembered: My field is your box. My box is your circus.

Sometimes, I dispense tactics, when what I really wanna deliver is a story. Stories are universal. Tactics are personal.

In the spirit of storytelling — and of alchemizing passion into profit — I’m offering three vignettes from a year on the ver-ge…of (my) new American Dream.

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AgonyAbout 10 months ago, I had a Come To Jesus moment. With $1,600 in my checking account, and gads of (low-paying) résumé design & cover letter editing projects for (highly-demanding) clients, I felt a pulsing sense of dread in my cardiovascular system. Things were looking pretty dire for Ol’ Man Franzen. I wasn’t playing to my strengths, and it showed. In my bank account. And in my aura.

I cuddled up to my worst-case scenario (losing my house could have a certain Dust Bowl / Great Depression charm! Hobos al-ways look pretty chipper! I kinda like ramen noodles!) and got real about my rates, revenue streams and client boundaries. I called my mom. I sobbed — a lot. I liquefied my retirement account (just in case). I put all my bills on my credit card (tempo-rarily). I took a deep breath. And then, I launched my shiny new website, re-positioned my services, designed my last résumé (thank you & goodNIGHT!), got crystal-clear ’bout my ideal clients (rejoice, rejoice), and watched, agog, as the cash came crushing in.

Doing my taxes this year was pretty fun. (Tripling your income is neat.)

(boys)I’m a lesbian, but this year I dated a boy. Or three. As they say on the Facebookz, “it’s complicated.”

My dark-haired RogueBoy called me up, at 2 pm, one afternoon. A walk by the river? A beer? Why not? 15 minutes later, I was horizontal on the sun-warmed grass, watching Union Pacific trains crawl across the horizon, my thumbs hooked into a boy’s (!!) belt loops. He smelled like French Fries and cigarettes. I couldn’t stop grinning. Crazy. Stupid. Totally happening. At 2:15 pm on a Tuesday.

Totally happening, because of my new work-life-sex-play-biz mantra:“Never again. Except just this once.”

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SUCCESSOne week ago. T’was a Sunday night, and my mom pulled out her ukelele. We sat down and started jamming. I was crooning in my virgin-choir-girl soprano. She chimed in with her retired-opera-singer vibrato. We recorded our first track. It was light. It was lovely. It was purely for pleasure. And we vowed to take our One Song Band on the road…to Ireland, Scotland, Wales — and beyond.

I was there. Present. In my PJs. Unplugged. Unfettered. With my momma. Because I OWN my time. Because my entrepre-neurial life is location independent. Because spending time with my family — not just for birthdays and funerals, but for spon-taneous cups of tea, Richard Thompson sing-alongs, and walking by the sea — is a priority. For me.

You can set — and shatter — barometers. Lock down — and loosen — metrics of success. Hold yourself accountable to your progress. And all that jazz.But success can be a simple ballad, too.

What’s your American — or Canadian, or Australian, or Lithuanian — Dream?Are you sure?

Just checking.

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Skills & Time ManagementTo continue the freelance myth busting, started by Laura, the saying “jack of all trades, master of none” does not mean one can not have multiple passions in which profit can be made. The odds are you are reading this blog series

because your passions are not paying 100% of your bills. That means you are left balancing multiple income streams from mul-

tiple projects as you start the journey of a freelance entrepreneur. If you could not tell from the website, I am actor, teacher, web

designer/developer and social media/SEO specialist. These multiple income streams all contribute to my overall freelance in-

come. All of these require me to have various different skill sets. What are your different skills sets (or passions, per the series

topic) that you can create into income streams? What online classes, books, workshops can you access to build your skill set to

the level that you can create income?

Once your skills are built to the level of being able to create income, time management becomes key. This can be as simple as

how you keep a calendar to what are your sacrificing to get all the work done. And as soon as you have it figured out some-

thing will change. More work will come in, for me recently it has been working with a two-year old in the house. If it is your

passion, you make it work. Living in Los Angeles, there are times I can commute up to an hour and half. I try to schedule

phone meetings, in which I don’t need to be in from of my computer, for when I am driving. How can you structure your time

to be the most productive? Once you get far enough along the journey, you will be able to set up a team, as Tara so wisely sug-

gests. Before you have that team, you will be doing it all your self. Take that time to really assess want you enjoy doing, and

what you would be willing to pass off to your future team.

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Living the freelance lifestyle

Networking: Sometimes You Have to Go to WyomingI recently presented at the annual Shepard Symposium on Social Justice in Laramie, Wyoming. It was the last day of the confer-

ence, and I was not planning on attending, as I had to drive down to Denver to catch my flight. There was a morning session

on the topic of using theater as a tool for social justice to empower at-risk youth and communities, presented by Los Angeles

theater company. Moving back to Los Angeles in the last year, I was struggling in finding theater companies that needed teach-

ing artists to work within communities. I was hesitant to attend the session as I was afraid of being late to my flight. I decided to

risk it, and I was I was glad I did. I met the program director and quickly realized that we had worked in similar circles in the

arts education community in New York and knew many of the same people. We immediately hit it off, and a connection was

made. A connection that I was trying to make for eight months…I just had to go to Wyoming to do it.

Networking is a must, but how one networks is the key. There are many reasons why we might not network, fear of being

needy to too busy working to get out of the office. Whatever the reason is, time needs to be scheduled to get out and meet

other people in your field. Number one rule of networking: get out and meet people. This ties into the second rule: find com-

monalities away from the field. I consider twitter a networking tool. I follow people who are highly involved in the entertain-

ment industry, theater, arts education, web design and social media fields. And while I tweet with them about their respective

fields, and I also look to connect on other topics. There is a casting director I follow on twitter whom I have never met. She

tweeted once that she just found out about the social media speaker Gary Vaynerchuck, some one that I have followed for years

and have blogged and tweeted about. I knew he was coming to speak in the area the following week, so I tweeted her back let-

ting her know and giving her the link to his speaking schedule. Did this have anything to do with acting, or me asking her to

cast me in her next project? No. This was me reaching out and helping a colleague. Does she know I am an actor? Sure, my

twitter profile says so, and it is clear on my website. Life is bigger than the next job you are trying to get, or about the field you

work in. So look to connect, and be of genuine service, in life…just not the field you work in.

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ResourcesThese resources have helped me in finding my own journey as a freelancer.

Websites:

43 Folders

Freelance Folder

Freelance Switch

Unclutterer

Email and Productivity Tools

Books:How to be a Rockstar Freelancer

One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success

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From Passion to Profit with The Creative Entrepreneur Mandala

Whether stated or not, the primary presenting problem for most creatives who come to my workshops or call for individual

consulting is: How can I make more money???!!!!(The number of question marks or exclamation points attached to that ques-

tion is completely individual.)

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The Creative Entrepreneur Mandala: Or, How do I make money?!?!

The Creative Entrepreneur Mandala consists of four intersecting pathways that form a flower shape.

Arriving the center “sweet spot” is the result of refining each pathway.

It’s a good news / bad news kind of question.

The Bad News: There aren’t any easy answers that will solve the problem overnight. But you’re smart and have already tried a

bunch of things, so you already knew that. Buyer beware of methods that promise easy and or overnight success.

The Good News: By thinking about this question a little differently, and applying your creativity to it with some fun Mandala

map-making (described below) you’ll not only figure out how to earn money, you’ll get to experience a hell of a lot more of

Who You Really Are and What You Really Want To Be Doing.

That is, living the life you want to live, with money being the icing on the cake.

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More good news: We creative souls are a unique species. Who else can create something out of nothing? Your ability to do this

in your art can be applied to making money. Keep your creative powers in mind as you read on.

Instead of asking the More Money question, try framing it this way:

“What is the unique gift I can leverage that has a value in the marketplace people will pay for?”

This opens the question up to get at some answers that will be useful to you, and is also the kind of question our creative brains

like to wrap themselves around. Living that question myself and with clients led me to create a model for creative business de-

velopment I call the Creative Entrepreneur Mandala.

The Creative Entrepreneur Mandala consists of four intersecting pathways that form a flower shape. Arriving at the center

“sweet spot” is the result of refining each pathway.

This “sweet spot” of your business is the absolutely unique value you deliver to your ideal clients that is aligned with your in-

nermost aspirations and ideals—resulting in profits for you.

Read on and I’ll share what the pathways are and how to construct your own Creative Entrepreneur Mandala.

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The Four Pathways:

Heart & Meaning: How to follow your bliss. Do what you love. What happifies you.

Gifts & Flow: How uncovering and using your unique gifts contributes to flow, or less-effortful accomplishment. Otherwise

known as: It’s easy to work all hours of the day (when necessary) because I don’t even feel like I’m working.

Value & Profitability: How to create and deliver value that people will pay for, that is aligned with the first two pathways (i.e.

you’re not having to prostitute yourself — even though the money is good — to keep a roof over your head.

Skills & Tools: Determining the appropriate tools (what sort of website, which sales channels, supply chain management and

other initially-intimidating business-ey stuff) you need to run your business; and developing the leadership skills (sales, market-

ing, communication, wizardry, ability to talk clients off the edge) to achieve the results you want in the first three pathways.

33Making Mandalas in the Puerto Vallarta Studio

at the Creative Entrepreneur Retreat

How and When to Use The Creative Entrepreneur Mandala

The Creative Entrepreneur Mandala is a wayfinding tool. It’s a way of visually mapping out where you are right now in your

business (or life), by tapping into your right-brain, and the “thought” centers of imagination and intuition.

The Creative Entrepreneur Mandala can be used as a diagnostic tool: discovering the weak areas will show you where you need

to focus your energies. It can be used as a planning tool: for testing and shaping new business or product ideas. And it can be

used as a decision-making tool: how do you know which opportunities to say yes to? Which gigs to turn down?

When you’ve done the work up front of filling in your Creative Entrepreneur Mandala, all of these decisions and choices be-

come so much clearer, and will ensure you are actually getting from here to where you really want to go.

34Image Hunt and Mandala construction at the

Creative Entrepreneur Retreat in Mexico

DIY: Creative Entrepreneur Mandala

I recommend doing this in several small segments, maybe an hour or two at a time for each step, with some time (up to a week)

in between. Dwell time does wonders for this type of problem solving. Don’t rush. Allow things to percolate, marinate, simmer,

whichever cooking metaphor you like.

1. Get a big piece of paper (like a roll of butcher paper, or tape some sheets of copy paper together) and sketch out the outlines

of The Creative Entrepreneur Mandala as diagramed above.

Then, using Journal / Image prompts (below) for each of the four pathways, go on an image hunt through books, magazines,

your own work portfolio, photo album, google image searches, etc. to find pictures of the people, places, things, activities, feel-

ings, outcomes that best answer those prompts. Don’t try and get too literal with your images. Suspend your rational mind and

allow your imagination to play and dream. You want to “answer” the questions with images first. Words (from the magazines/

books) color, pattern, texture all count as Images.

2. Paste your images for each pathway into your mandala. Hang it up on a wall. See what’s there. Keep it somewhere you can

see it everyday, for at least a week or so. Make notes on what you observe, what connections you see, how things can go to-

gether in new ways.

Only after you’ve done the image hunt, go ahead and do some quick written responses to the Journal / Image prompts. If you

jump directly into writing, stop. Go back and get your images.

35

Why am I insisting on this? Writing uses language, which is the realm of our “known”. We want to get at things we don’t

know…things that are not obvious to our critical minds. Getting the images first uses that other (90 percent?) part of the brain

that is typically wasting away and feeling woefully under-utilized.

4. Take your written notes and combine with the images in some way (use your creative noggin again). Now take notes about

what intersections you see between all four pathways. This is the sweet spot you are looking for. Remember, don’t sweat it if

isn’t immediately obvious…new ideas emerge when they’re ready (usually when you’re in the shower, without paper and pen).

Trust.

5. Take these insights back to your business or product idea afresh. Plug them into a business plan. Play with them some more.

Share with your interested stakeholders — ask them to help you connect the dots. Keep adding images, making observations,

hanging out with the mandala until you get clarity.

Don’t be discouraged if “getting” all four pathways seems daunting at first. The mandala is a tool for reflection and critical

thinking, which requires time and space to evolve.

Personally, I make a new Mandala every year during my annual review for myself, but also for my various businesses, and any

time I’m thinking of launching a new product.

36

Exploring the Four Pathways of The Creative Entrepreneur Mandala

Pathway 1: Heart & Meaning

There’s so much hype these days about doing what you love. But without considering how what you love fully utilizes your

gifts, or will add value in the marketplace, or teaches you how to manage your business—it’s probably not going to bring you

that money. There are lots of people doing what they love, and the money is not following. Most likely because they are pursu-

ing what has Heart & Meaning in isolation.

37

Journal / Image Prompts for Heart & Meaning:

I’ve always wanted to:What do you do for its intrinsic value—that is, what would you do even if it didn’t pay?

If you were to answer your creative calling and knew you could not fail, what would you do?

Pathway 2: Gifts & Flow

The Pathway of Gifts and Flow asks you to consider what your unique gifts are and how pursuing those gifts leads to effortless

accomplishment. Everyone is gifted at something, usually many things. Using a gift doesn’t mean we’re not working hard.

Flow could also be called effortless accomplishment. When we’re in the flow, we can be working our butts off but it doesn’t

feel hard.

Journal / Image Prompts for Gifts & Flow:

What do I do so well that I barely have to exert effort?

What do people compliment you on accomplishing that seems so easy to you?

What do you get absorbed in for hours?

38

Pathway 3: Value & Profit Ability

What is the unique value you offer your customer? Essentially, this is how you make money. Please do not confuse your value

as a person, or the value of your creative work, with the concept of value as defined by the marketplace. This is a common mis-

take creatives make.

When we create something, offer it for sale, and no one buys, we conclude that our work—or ourselves, or both—is worthless.

The consequences of this line of destructive thinking are never good. It’s more constructive to understand that value in the

marketplace is defined by the customer’s willingness to purchase the goods or services for the asking price.

Think of it this way: We profit when we provide value people are willing to pay for and when we are able to communicate that

value in ways our customers can understand.

Journaling / Image Prompts for Value & Profitability

The pain I eliminate for my client is is:

How am I helping my clients get what they want?

What my business does better than the competition is:

39

Pathway 4: Tools & Skills:

You can be smart, gifted, creative and even providing value to your customers, but without the appropriate Tools & Skills to

manage your business and yourself, you are likely to experience only short lived success, unsustainable growth, or things like

cash flow, staffing, and supplier problems, just to name a few potential issues.

The Creative Entrepreneur Mandala is a tool. So are marketing plans, financial projections, the type of website you have, how

effective your branding is at reaching your target audience.

Skills refer to the areas of development that effective business leaders practice: excellent communication and presentation skills,

salesmanship, savvy in working well with suppliers, employees, customers. Both Tools and Skills must be learned and practiced.

They rarely come naturally to most people, but they can be learned and applied by anyone. Yes, you.

Pay attention to Skills you already have (giving a great presentation, selling ice to Eskimos, being masterful under pressure,

meeting deadlines) that are also in your Gifts area. This is pure grace and something to lean on whenever you get stuck with the

parts where you need to really apply yourself to learn new skills, or master new tools.

Journaling / Image Prompts for Tools & Skills

What one tool, used well, would make the most significant difference in my business?

40

Who in my field is a rock star and what skills do they posses that I need to develop?

What other Tools and Skills seem to be missing from your repertoire? What is your plan for filling in those gaps?

In closing:

Consider that there is much less competition for those who can (eventually, with some work) answer the question:

“What is the unique gift I can leverage that has a value in the marketplace people will pay for?”

This is simply because most people (not just us artistic types) do not make the effort. With that in mind, here is one more Jour-

nal / Image Prompt to explore when you’ve worked on your Mandala:

What is my plan of action for using the information in my Mandala? What will I commit to now?

Arriving at the “sweet spot” of your creative business is not only a competition-buster, but it’s also a road map to living the life

you are meant to live, doing the work that only you can do, and serving the clients that you really enjoy working with.

When you get to do that, you’re truly rich, and not just in cash.

If you do make a Creative Entrepreneur Mandala, I’d love to hear about your process, questions and results.

41

There’s a whole chapter on this process (from where this article was partially excerpted), with lots more pictures and prompts in

my book, The Creative Entrepreneur.

Images: Are from the bold and courageous participants in my Creative Entrepreneur Workshops.

42

43

Contributors

Smart fresh is for writing that is breathtaking in its clarity, for stories that are deeply affective and effective, and for expressions of truth that pulse with life.

Smart fresh is for business writing that hums and thrums and beats to your very core.

I call myself an intuitive business writer and message medium because I don’t conjure these stories from nothing, I dip into the energy that already flows in you, in your business and in the world. I gather and concentrate what is already shining within.

Smart Fresh Writing

@rebecca_leigh

44

Thom Chambers is the writer, editor, designer, and publisher of In Treehouses. In April 2011, he left his job as Marketing Manager at a design agency to start a digital publishing house.

Thom studied at the universities of Exeter, Edinburgh, and Santa Barbara, and currently lives and works in rural England, from a studio amongst the lanes and fields of the Hampshire countryside.

In Treehouses is a free micro-magazine designed to help microbusinesses reach 1,000 True Fans. Lots of micro, basically.

Established in June 2010, In Treehouses has grown into a lively young thing. This year, there will be ten free editions of the magazine on a variety of topics vital to entrepreneurs and microbusiness owners.

In Treehouses

@intreehouses

45

I help creatives design the life and work they want. I empower you to live a ful-

filling creative life, take permission, and act on your passions.

As the daughter of an artist and an attorney, I have dual citizenship to the lands of

Big Dreams and Practical Action.

How that shakes out: big ideas sprout from my noggin, and then they actually

happen. By chasing my own improbable dreams, I’ve found friends, my husband,

travel, professional success, adventure, purpose, and yes, money. My role is to

guide you as you navigate the deep waters of creativity, creative entrepreneur-

ship, and living a life on purpose.

Working with me, you will find the confidence, courage, and tools to step into

the life and work you are meant for. Learn how to work with me one-on-one.

Create as Folk

@laurasimms

46

Michelle Ward, aka The When I Grow Up Coach, helps creative people devise

the career they think they can't have - or discover it to begin with!

A certified life coach by the International Coach Academy & a musical theater

actress with her BFA from NYU/Tisch, Michelle has served as an expert source

and contributor for such outlets as Newsweek, Etsy, and Psychology Today, as

well as leading workshops and seminars at SXSW 2011 and the sold-out Etsy

Success Symposium.

She encourages everyone to claim their uniquity via The Declaration of You, an

e-course with Jessica Swift, and could be found coachin', bloggin' & givin' away

free stuff at whenigrowupcoach.com.

When I Grow Up

@WhenIGroUpCoach

47

I’m Tara Gentile and I’m a philosopher of creative living and DIY culture & life-style design expert.

What that really means is that I had the crazy notion, at the age of 26, that my degree in contemporary religious thought should be enough to afford me a small living, working from home with my brand new baby girl. Once that crazy dream became reality, I had another vague notion that odd jobs could become a full-time business.

That notion led to a complete lifestyle redesign for my family.

In less than 2 years, my business – my brain and its output – now support my family entirely. We live a life that allows me to concentrate on helping you to re-alize your own vague notions and crazy dreams. My goals for you exist at the in-tersection of technology, DIY culture, and the divine spark of creativity.

I will empower you to find your own creative spirit, give you the tools to turn ideas into reality, and apply practical philosophy to your life’s challenges.

taragentile.com

@scoutiegirlblog

48

Howdy! I'm Alexandra, and I'm a promotional wordsmith and pro-active pimp.

I whip up wicked webcopy, pivot brand positions, and ghostwrite for entrepre-neurs who want to expand their empires—without the hassle of cloning.

Think of me as your personal scribe and secret business-building weapon—with ruthless (but loving) attention to clarity, aesthetics and poetic details.

Wanna play with me? Like, for a whole day? My 1-on-1 VELOCITY sessions are pretty righteous.

What else? I'm captivated by heart-shaped crystals, Finnish power metal, any-thing chartreuse, and Leonard Cohen. Someday, I'll dye my hair turquoise. Again.

If your world-shifting vision needs a voice to make it walk, we oughta talk.

alexandrafranzen.com

@alex_franzen

49

Dennis lives the ultimate freelance life as an actor, teaching artist, audition coach, fight director also working in web design and search engine optimization.

He grew up in Central California and after studying at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival he went on to graduate from Azusa Pacific University with a degree in Communication and Theater. After graduation he spent four years in Los Ange-les working as an actor, teaching artist and web designer. He worked with popu-lar theater companies like the Knightsbridge Theater, Write Act Repertory and Actors Workout Studio.

He currently resides in Los Angeles, after spending four year in the New York metro area. He received his masters in Educational Theater from New York University. He has worked regionally at the Two River Theater Company and with New York companies Gorilla Repertory and Instant Shakespeare.

He continues working in web design, web development, and search engine op-timization working with such companies as LexisNexis and Graphic Design USA. You can view his work at Website for Actors. He has written for BlogCrit-ics Magazine and Backstage/Backstage West.

dennisbaker.net

@dennisbaker

50

Lisa Sonora Beam doesn’t go for the whole “starving artist” thing.

She’s worked for decades on her rebuttal: She thrives as a mixed-media artist, writer, and founder of Digital Hive EcoLogical Design, a San Francisco–based communications firm that works with green businesses. She earned her MBA in Sustainable Enterprise, whose business theories form the strategic backbone of this book.

Lisa has learned that business savvy in an artist is rare: most creative people shy away from the strategic skills necessary to make a living doing what they love. So after yet another artist friend responded to Lisa’s business insights with, “I never thought about that,” she decided to help make sure they did.

With The Creative Entrepreneur, Lisa has finally put passion to paper to help ar-tistic types develop and harness their business savvy. The Creative Entrepreneur is the culmination of an eclectic life of business and art, strategic planning and creative calling. It’s Lisa preaching what she’s practiced: that it’s possible and practical to make a living doing what you love.

The Creative Entrepreneur

@LisaSonoraBeam