Lately, I have been working on re-focusing my mind on what I truly love and along with my dreams. I intend to have a mindset that can’t be altered away from my own goals for my business so there are a couple things that I had to change with my own actions and environment to do so. Initially, I did not realize how important this was until I came across Wonderlass article The Ultimate Guide To Starting & Growing An Epic Online Business. Having a forward moving mindset that is focused on the positives within your business is the difference between just running your service, and running a successful service that keeps going for years to come.
Check out some tips below on how I am changing my mindset towards more support for myself, producing better quality artwork, and my new views on and towards art overall.
- Stop Focusing Solely On The Money – As an artist, it can become very easy to be focused solely on creating the most expensive art piece that will sell the quickest to the public to where you may forget that the quality of that art piece is worth more than anything. Just think, focusing on the quality over the quantity of the sale amount means your art will receive more recognition and more clients and customers will be attracted to your work, and guess what that equals for you in return as well over time……more money.
- Stay In Your Lane – If you are good at one specific art job, stick with it. Sometimes we may see another artist doing an art job that just looks so cool to us that we end up attempting to do the same job simply because it sparks our interest and not because we have a natural born talent for it. Tweet: You can lose a lot of time and money attempting to travel down a lane that you are unfamiliar with. via @deluxds #DE
- Don’t Be Scared – Get rid of that fear that you will not succeed in what you want to do. Any dream worth doing will often seem scary. Being fearful of what you could become can often lead you to go no where in life. Fear also leaves you stuck in that comfort zone often times as well. Just think, what you truly want is right on the other side of that zone, fight the fear, and keep pushing.
- Facebook Group Support – Begin researching groups on Facebook if you have not already. Opt for ones that are focused on empowerment within your field of business through encouragement and engagement. There are many groups online that include other like minded business professionals who have the same goals for you and may be of help throughout your journey to success as an artist by providing assistance when you need it on certain projects, free online critiques to keep you on your game, brainstorming strategies for new projects to begin, inspiration to keep going, and just that extra push you may need on the days you either feel like giving up or are slacking off. I know it can be lonely on this entrepreneurship journey so it is good to know that there are people out there who have similar interests as you when it comes to Facebook groups. You may even be able to create new friendships and partnerships from these group settings as well if you take advantage of them. Check out our own support groups on Facebook to help you all towards changing your mindset for the better when it comes to your business:
- Believe in Yourself – Doubting yourself and your abilities to pursue your goals is often the biggest dream killer…..stop it. In order for others to believe in what you want to accomplish along with all that you are doing to accomplish those goals, you must believe in yourself first before anyone else.
Mindset is SO important – both more generally in life, but especially as an entrepreneur or small business owner. If you don’t believe in yourself – in the services or products that you offer – it’s hard to get others to believe in you too. – Horkey Handbook
- Get Rid of Comparisons – Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Comparison is the theft of joy”. This plays into #2 as well, but what another artist may be doing is none of your concern. This is where minding your own business comes into play literally. The more you compare yourself to the next artist or even entrepreneur or business period, the less you will become focused on you and your own business all together.
- Begin a Workout Routine – Working out daily can really help towards clearing your mind of any negative thoughts in order to make room for positive ways of thinking for your business or service. Pick a specific time period, about 30-45 minutes worth daily whether it be in the mornings, mid day or late in the afternoon, to get a good workout routine in for yourself.
- Begin a Journal – We will all have bad days, but how you respond to those bad days is what truly matters. Having a consistent journal schedule can be a big help towards this and I highly recommend it if you are the type to run to social media a lot during bad times. Check out our previous post on How Social Media Drama Can Affect Your Sales, along with our newest journal activities The Opposites and Dump Your Brain if you need help or assistance with this.
- Target Audience – Refocusing who I wish to work with when it comes to new clientele for my service is a big deal to me right now. Beforehand, when I first got started, I would just accept any potential client that came my way. It didn’t matter to me where they were from or what they were doing, my goal then was to get and keep their business no matter what, you know going by that motto, “the customer is always right” not realizing that this was not true in my line of work. I ended up having clients take advantage of my kindness and extreme want for money with back to back service and design projects that either were not matching up with my full potential or distracted me from real deal projects. They knew I would not turn down their service no matter how badly they would treat me not only professionally, but personally as well and this killed my business for at least a year straight and I rarely got much done to benefit me and DE in the long run. Since then, I figured out who would be best for me to work with and who I needed to let go of as soon as possible in order to thrive and flourish again in my service. Check out one of my resources that I have used for this from The Bronze Hustle on Finding Your Target Audience.
- Daily Planning – Every night before I go to bed, I always go to my calendar which is a dry erase board calendar that hangs on my wall in my studio area. I also refer to my daily planner to-do list in which I keep in a small notebook that I can take with me from place to place to jot down notes and other things I may need to get done. I also make sure that I cross off everything that I have got done that particular day before I go to sleep. This helps me become more organized so I won’t be so overwhelmed with the amount of work I must get done everyday of the week. Check out Wonderlass new planners, along with Clementine Creative as well for downloadable planners to help you on your entrepreneurship journey.
- Clean Up – Your work space, or work area, is a key factor in how much work you truly get done there. I was always told growing up that “if your room is dirty, then your mind will become dirty”, and this applies to your desk area or studio as well. If you never clean up, and have junk everywhere to where you can’t find anything you’re looking for then you won’t get anything done on a regular basis there. This also applies to your brand’s look and style as well. If your logos and banners are all mixed together and do not correspond with one another then that will show potential clients that you don’t know how to keep it all together. With me being an artist and designer, it is highly important for me to keep all my graphics up to date and corresponding with one another. If a potential client sees that I have just rushed through my own branding and styling process, they may not request any work from me, out of fear that I will make a mess out of their brand as well. Cleaning is essential for entrepreneurs, and can be therapeutic for you as well.
- Unfollow – Stop following up with negative things and people. If you’re around someone giving off bad vibes to where you can’t get anything done with your business or service, then remove them. Check out our previous post on Focusing On Those Who Focus On You that speaks briefly about this. This also applies to who and what type of pages you are following online in our social media age. What you read online really does affect your life outside of the internet. I know some have told me, “oh it’s just twitter” or “its just facebook, I’m just having a little bit of innocent fun”, but all that innocent fun could be detrimental to the next person who may take what is being said to heart, especially if you’re truly trying to focus on being and doing better for your business. Negative energy is real on and offline and can be transferred on and offline daily if you allow it to happen. Rid yourself from negative conversations and posts by unfollowing people and pages that are posting these things so your focus will solely be on positive things relating to your business and service overall.
- Take Care of Your Mind – This also ties into #12, taking care of your mental health is the most important thing you could do for your business or service. As an entrepreneur, at some point in time, you are going to run into a heavy load that places a ton of weight on your shoulders. This comes with the territory, but it is manageable with a good mental space. Just think, without a positive mental space, you won’t be able to pretty much do anything effectively including keeping up your physical health and running your business. Check out our #MentalHealthMondays segment for more resources on improving your mental health.
These are only a few steps that I recommend for everyone to take in order to improve your mindset. Of course everything doesn’t apply to everyone, and there may even be more things that need to be added to the list above. But this is a great start. If you have any suggestions or routines that you believe can help someone else when it comes to improving their mindset, feel free to leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comment section at this bottom of this post. Thanks for reading everyone!
Resources:
Confidently & Unapologetically Self-Defined | Mind-Shift Pt. 3
Wonderlass
Clementine Creative
Find Your Target Audience | The Bronze Hustle
5 Tips to Get Over Envy & Comparison
How To Conquer Fear & Go After Your Dream | Wonderlass
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