A New Destination for Marketing Articles

My fabulous fellow business owners,

I’m super-psyched that you’ve enjoyed reading my blog. I’ve been overwhelmed by the positive feedback you’ve given me, and touched by every word of thanks you’ve ushered my way. Each comment, message, and tweet gives me a glorious warm and fuzzy feeling I can’t get from anything else. Even sexy-time.

While I’ve decided to steer this particular blog into more of a customer-friendly direction, there was no way in heck I could leave you guise behind.

I considered it, but your messages and words of thanks changed my mind.

You needy mother-cluckers, you!

So I’ve created a new web space for all of those business-oriented blog posts that you’ve come to love. While it’s directed towards beaders in business, most of the articles will apply to any handmade business owner and aspiring entrepreneur. I hope you’ll join me over at BeadingForBusiness.com. I’ve got some big plans for the new space; you can expect a good time.

Confidence is Sexy, Being a Douche is Not

I’ve written here before about what a difference being confident about our own work can make for our business and our bottom line. Confidence is sexy after all, and it attracts followers, fans, and buyers.

As artists, our natural instinct is to feel insecure about our work, at least until we feel it’s been validated. And by validated, we mean ordained by someone super-important, published somewhere super-recognized, or making us so much money we can afford a dozen mansions and a yacht to boot. The oxymoron of this kind of thinking is, of course, many of us won’t get that kind of validation until after we start to exhibit confidence in our own work.

A lack of confidence from the maker instills a lack of confidence from potential buyers. We can’t expect our customers to think our stuff is awesome unless we do. While this makes sense, it’s still hard to actually practice in real life. So we fake it ’til we make it. (As you should.)

However, I feel like I need to warn everyone here that there is a vast difference between being confident in our own work, and criticizing the work of others. Sometimes handmade creators do this to try to make their work look good by comparison. It doesn’t make your work look any better, it just makes you look like a douche.

Negatively criticizing other artists, especially newbies who are just starting out and trying their best to learn their way, reflects poorly on you.

One of the many jobs I’ve had was working in a big-box department store. When it came to new employees, my co-workers often treated them in one of two ways. The first group would complain about having to work with them, as it meant more work for them and having to train someone who didn’t know the ropes yet. The second group gladly took up the challenge, and was happy to show the new face the how-tos, knowing very well that proper training in the beginning prevents bigger mistakes from occurring later on. Plus, this second group knew that positive relationships all around make for a better work and business environment.

So if you want a boost of confidence in regards to your own work, create better, higher-quality products that you can feel proud of and confident enough to brag about. Using your social networking platform to put other artists down, no matter how much “better” your work actually is, makes you look low and sleazy. Don’t do it.

Enjoying the Here and Now

Setting goals is awesome. Setting goals with specific dates of fulfillment is even more awesome. It’s awesome-er.

Planning for the future motivates us and fills us with hope. It gives us the push we need to get to work and get shyte done.

Reflecting on the past helps us to consider what mistakes to avoid, and what good choices to repeat while we work on those future-goals.

But what about the here and now? The part we are currently living, but don’t often think very much about?

It’s great that you are working on your goals, but don’t forget about right now. By this, I don’t mean that you should stop working on those goals, but I do mean that you should enjoy your journey as you head in that direction. Too many of us hold off on happiness, on congratulating ourselves, until the work is finished and the goal is complete.

You have plenty of reasons to be happy right now. You may not be at the level of success you are aiming to be at by next year, but you are getting there, and that is most certainly something to be proud of and to celebrate.

You’re on a journey. Enjoy every step. Reward yourself for the progress so far, and give yourself permission to be happy now.

I didn’t know I needed THAT

I make and sell handmade jewelry. The thing about selling a non-necessity like jewelery is, well… it’s a non-necessity. No one ever really NEEDS a new necklace or pair of earrings. Come to think of it, most people don’t really NEED a new smart phone, pair of dress shoes, or package of cookies either. Turns out, people buy a lot of things they don’t really need.

When people want something badly enough, they will convince themselves they do in fact NEED said thing. It’s up to the sellers to convince their potential customers that they want what they have to offer.

For example:
Susan Smith WANTS to go on a vacation. She sees some brochures and advertisements for a cruise line deal and these images and messages further deepen her want for the vacation. Eventually, the presence of these advertisements make it more and more likely that Susan will convince herself that she not only WANTS this vacation, but NEEDS it. She will tell herself that she has been working way too hard lately, and could use a break. She will convince herself that a vacation would be just the thing to reboot herself, and she would return feeling more productive and ready than ever.

In the above example, the cruise line company increased Susan’s desire for a vacation by placing their ads in front of her often enough for their message to sink in.

Relax. Enjoy. Take a break. You need this.

Susan is the company’s target audience (working, upper-middle class income, with vacation time to utilize.) The marketing campaign of the cruise line turned Susan’s original want into a specific NEED for their product. Susan no longer just wanted a break from work, but to go on a cruise during her time off.

Consider the above example when promoting your own products.

When marketing your products, be they jewelry, bath and body, or baked goods, market your items in such a way that places the emphasis on WHY someone would want them. Discern what your target audience’s desire is, and explain to them how your product fulfills that desire. Turn your non-necessary items into the solution to a problem.

How to Get Your Copy of My New eBook

Last Monday I offered you all a chance to win a PDF copy of my latest eBook for free. The lucky winner has been selected, and will be sent her free eBook later today. (Congratulations Wendy Mueller! Thanks for entering!)

But what about the rest of you? You really need to get your hands on your own copy.

Basically, if you like reading this blog, you’ll like reading this eBook. If you don’t like reading this blog…

…WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING HERE!?!?!?

*ahem* Just sayin’. Why waste your time reading crap that you don’t even like? I’m not a fan of the vampire romance novel, so I generally avoid those kinds of books. Simple selection based on personal taste.

But now, if you DO like reading the crap I conjure up on this WordPress blog, then you’re only 3 dollars and 99 cents away from EVEN MORE crap to consume in-between business-minded posts.

Where you can get your copy (for, literally less than the price of a latte):
On Amazon for your kindle
At Barnes n’ Nobles for Your Nook
Or, BETTER YET, Instant Downloadable PDF here, here, or here.

Here’s a peek at the Table of Contents, just to show you some of the stuff I go over in this eBook:

Basically, you’ll be getting the same kind of helpful ideas, hints, and tricks you’ve gleaned from this blog. I start from the beginning and get into more advanced marketing techniques, so no matter where you’re currently at with your business, there should be a nugget or two in this eBook for you to challenge yourself with.

Oh, and did I mention it’s less than 4 dollars? I did? Well then, there really isn’t that much else for you to consider, now is there?

Creating White Space for Your Life

Graphic designers have something of a love affair with white space. We drool over the blank areas within a composition as if they were made of milk chocolate and lightly salted caramel. It’s the white spaces that make the design, really. Of course we love it.

Uh… Megan, what’s a white space?

In case you’re unfamiliar, I’ll give you a brief lesson of design. White space doesn’t necessarily have to be white, but it refers to the negative areas within a design without other elements demanding our attention. It’s the white space that draws our focus towards what’s important. For example, check out all of the beautiful white space in this design:

White space, almost as good as chocolate.

Or this design, where the white space isn’t necessarily white:

The white space in this design is actually a pale yellow, but I think you get the idea.

Now, watch what happens when we fill up the white space with other elements:

Ew, this looks gross. Plus, the text is hard to read now.

Lesson #1: White space in design helps us focus on the important elements of the design.

Lesson #2: White space in our lives helps us focus on the important parts of our life.

You just knew I was going to get all deep and sentimental on you, didn’t you?

The same white space principal applies in life as it does design. If we are intent on filling up every spare minute of our time with something, we won’t be able to focus on the important things. Instead of always trying to be busy for the sake of being busy, schedule yourself some white space. Leave a few time slots in your daily schedule with nothing filled in. Use this time to meditate, read, think, and focus on what’s important. Use this time to visualize your goals and consider whether or not your daily activities are helping you achieve them. Leave some time for yourself to breathe, to relax, and to recharge.

White space can be a beautiful thing.

Release the Pressure by Lowering the Stakes

The stakes tend to be pretty high nowadays for a lot of things. If you’ve thought about trying to run a business or start your own blog, they could be enough to scare you away. The pressure to be amazing is daunting… and is the root cause of a lot of our procrastination. We are afraid to start something because we’re afraid it won’t end up as good as we want it to be.

How to lower the stakes:
That thing you want to do but feel like you have to do it really well?

Do it.

Do it so often that it no longer becomes such a big deal. If you can, do it a little bit everyday until it becomes a habit and who cares if you’re as amazing at it every time as you initially thought you should be.

Think about how nervous you were that first time you stood up to belt out your favorite karaoke song in front of everyone. Talk about SCARY, regardless of how many apple martinis you may have downed. NOW: think about the 100th time you’ve stood on that stage to sing the same song. Not as scary anymore, right? You may have even gotten a little better at singing. But even if you haven’t, the pressure to be as amazing as you thought you needed to be has loosened, if not disappeared completely.

Now about that business and/or blog. Same technique applies.

If you’ve been hanging around here awhile, you’ve probably noticed that I blog a lot. I generally schedule a new post to go up 6 out of 7 days of the week. I haven’t been around that long (about 2 years), but I’ve already published well over 400 posts, along with a scattering of guest posts on other blogs to boot. Not every post is amazing. Some of them turn out to be downright duds. But that’s okay, because I’ll be posting a new one shortly afterwards.

Same applies for your business. Not every item I list is amazing, but by listing as many as I do I don’t feel the pressure that each one has to be. Not every craft show is going to be a smashing success, but if you do enough of them every year one single show won’t have as much pressure for you to make it one. Not every Facebook update is going to go viral, but if you update on a daily basis, you’ll start to get a better handle on which ones grant a larger reach.

I know what you’re thinking: Quantity does not beat quality. Maybe not, but it sure beats doing nothing. And, dare I suggest, that the great quantities you produce will give you the room and practice to create better quality right along with them. It’s simple, really. The more you do it, the less pressure you’ll feel each time.

How to Run a Successful Handmade Business & KEEP Your Day Job

I love helping my fellow crafty peeps out. I always feel a deep sense of accomplishment whenever one of you dear readers lets me know how much this blog has taught and motivated you to press on and become more successful in your life and business. I appreciate you and I practically end up on cloud nine every time I hear that you return that appreciation.

I love offering you guise help and advice and recommendations based on my own business and personal experiences. However, sometimes my response needs to be much longer than a single blog post, LinkedIn comment, or Twitter response. When I’m asked, “How do you do it all?” It’s hard for me to correctly answer in just a few sentences.

So I wrote an eBook.

… an it’s available on Amazon for your kindle or e-reader right now for $3.99.

In this book I go through the beginning steps of setting up your business (deciding what to make, and who to sell it to), how to promote those products to increase your sales, and how to manage your time so you can still do all of the other things that are just as important.

I set the price lower than a cup of coffee, because I really want all of you guise to read this book. In fact, I want to give a PDF version away to one of you for FREE.

Share this link (http://www.amazon.com/Successful-Handmade-Business-KEEP-ebook/dp/B00BCQCTKU/) on the following platforms, and receive an entry to win each time you share:

- Post on Facebook +1 (can be repeated daily for additional entries)
- Post on Twitter +1 (can be repeated daily for additional entries)
- Pin to Pinterest +1
- Post to your blog +1
- Post to Wanelo +1

Please leave a comment with your links/usernames to prove how many times you’ve entered. Contest is open until midnight on February 19th, winner will be announced on the 20th.

Meet Kristiann from LoveJoyPeaceCreate

Today’s featured artist is Kristiann from lovejoypeacecreate.com.

Can you sum yourself up in 3 sentences? Give it a go!
I’m an artist. I’m an optimist. I’m a dreamer.

Tell us about what you sell:
I sell fine art designs for everyday people. I want great art to be acceptable to everyone. Not just people that have enough money to buy original artwork. I create invitations, business cards, save the dates cards, greeting cards, along with custom commissioned pieces.I use my artwork usually watercolors or colored pencils for the cards so the customers can share and enjoy a piece of me.

Custom Painting of you and your significant other – $250

What is your favorite thing about creating?
I have a need to create, when I am not creating I am thinking about what I will create next. If I am not utilizing my creativity I feel lost and bored.

Where do you find your inspiration?
I draw inspiration from nature and the world around me. Everywhere I look I see new and beautiful shapes and colors. I take photos of things that interest me and work from those.

Personalized business cards – $12

Do you have any advice for other sellers?
My advice is to just do what you love and out of that you will find something that others will love and want to buy. If you would be doing something anyway, why not try to share it with others.

Where else can we find you?
www.lovejoypeacecreate.com – blog
www.facebook.com/LoveJoyPeaceDesigns
www.twitter.com/LJPcreate

Why Every Artist Should Read The Icarus Deception

Just when I think Seth Godin can’t get any more awesome, he goes and writes an incredible inspiring book like The Icarus Deception.

While most of the lessons in the book can apply to anyone and everyone with a job or a business, I feel it particularly strikes home with the entrepreneurial artist. The reason being that the one of the main points Godin makes is our need to pick ourselves.

We are a part of a new, connection economy. We have the tools available to not have to rely on anyone else to choose us. We don’t need a television show host to give us permission to make our art, or even a famous blogger. All we have to do is pick ourselves.

The reason picking ourselves is so scary is due to our innate shame. We are afraid of the ding to our pride that will happen if [when] we fail. We won’t be able to point the finger at our agent, record label, publisher, or network. We will only have ourselves to blame. It’s safer not to try, safer to be invisible, safer to fly low.

I agree with Seth down to the last word. Real art is only being created when there is that risk of shame. The risk of our pride being hurt if and when we fail. It’s not art if you keep it hidden, it’s only art if you dare to make an impact with it. Dare to show it another person. “Here, I made this,” is a scary statement. But the more we say it, the more we fail and try again, the better our art becomes.