3 Tips I Wish I Knew When We First Started

3 Tips I Wish I Knew When We First Started

I am a coach. I help aspiring artists and creatives in business to understand how to bring their vision to life.  I am also an artist’s wife. That means that I have come as close as possible to living out the artist’s journey without actually being an artist myself.  From my angle, I’m able to share advice, wisdom, and things that my husband and I had to learn along the way.

Today, I am sharing 3 easy tips that you can implement that would empower you as a creative in business today.

1. Fail often!– Successful creatives that we admire always have an abundance of stories about when things went wrong. Have you ever thought, “How is it that this insanely successful person has had so many things go wrong? Most of the things I decide to do works out pretty well for me.” I believe that they have these kinds of stories because they are constantly taking risks. Brave people who step out and try new things will have more opportunities to fail.  If you aren’t failing, then you’re not trying anything. If you aren’t trying anything, then you have no opportunity to succeed. No Bueno. I’ve learned that taking risks and trying things that could either succeed or fail in front of my peers is a normal occurrence on a successful person’s journey.
2. Always pre-determine the ROI (Return On Investment)– Creative friends, this is so important to think about before considering ANY opportunity. Before accepting a gig from a new promoter. Before signing a contract with an agency. Before collaborating on a project with a new artist friend. Before doing anything new or anything you have done before, determine if there is any return on your investment of time and talent. If there is no return that you can verbalize, then ask yourself why you are drawn to participate. Sometimes, it’s because we don’t think highly about OUR time and talents so we treat them like something of no value. We aren’t treating them like our gift from our Creator. Sometimes, it’s because we sincerely feel like God wants us to do this specific thing. Unfortunately, we may also believe that He doesn’t care about reaping a return or multiplying our efforts. (That could be its own blog in itself. lol)  ROI = multiplication and the parable of the talents from the Bible tells us that is very important to GOD.
3. Under promise and over deliver– If you are a performing creative, this is how you keep your performance calendar filling up for your current project. A lot of places that book you will bring you back over and over for their future events! But they will not be inclined to do so if you or your representative talked you up and inflated you and your skill set just to get in the door. When a promoter or event planner requests a particular service and you show up to exceed their expectations, they WILL want to invite you back. What can you do to exceed expectations? This can be done in MANY different ways. One thing I see that Jarrell does often is that he makes personal connections with the people who brought him in AND with the concert attendees. He doesn’t hide out in the green room after the concert. He is often found talking, encouraging, or praying with staff, volunteers, and concert attendees until he is starving and exhausted. In this example, he may have promised to rap a few songs, but he delivered more than expected.

I hope this helped! I have 4 more tips coming in my next blog. Two weeks from now it can be delivered right to your inbox by simply leaving your email here: Click to Subscribe to Jeneil’s Angle

I would love to hear some of your tips for creatives who are on the journey too. Tell us in the comments below.