Should You Turn Your Creative Hobby into a Career?
Many of us have a creative hobby that we explore on the side, and maybe you've even thought about pursuing it as a career. But have you taken the reflection further? Or have you just kept your passions as a pastime, afraid or unsure about what it would take to succeed? There's a massive difference between painting puppies because you love puppies, and painting them because your livelihood depends on it. You shouldn't have any illusions about that, and it's not a decision that should be taken lightly. However, for those who are passionate about their art, there often comes a time when you have to decide whether to turn your creative hobby into a career or keep it contained to your leisure time. If you're considering making the leap, you'll need to do your research and prepare yourself for the road ahead. And if you do that, there's no need for fear or uncertainty to stand in the way of pursuing your true passion. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself before making the leap into the world of a working artist. Should You Turn Your Creative Hobby into a Career? My hobbies just sort of gradually became my vocation. - Weird Al Yankovic Are you prepared to be disciplined? It’s difficult for some people to treat an average day like a working day when there is no one to supervise productivity. It’s nice to be your own boss, but that doesn’t mean you suddenly stop wanting to binge-watch Netflix or just relax. It’s often tempting to reward yourself for doing something small, and then accidentally derail a whole day’s productivity. Learning to schedule and be consistent can also be essential to facilitating a positive customer or client experience. This is especially the case in commission work (like pet portraits, custom-knitted garments, print-on-demand items, etc.), whereby you'll lose the trust of a client if you're unable to be consistent or reliable. You'll need to learn to make accurate estimates about production time and delivery. Are you prepared to be resourceful? Some people manage to fund their careers on sites like Etsy and Saatchi Art, but every single one of them will tell you it’s not as simple as just uploading your work and cashing in. Marketing is essential. The creatives who make a living that way tend to have massive marketing campaigns that sometimes don’t look like marketing campaigns. Some artists, like Robin Clonts, are probably making a killing from affiliate programs (if she uses them) while she increases the visibility of her own paintings. Her videos are helpful, amusing, and not pushy on products. Are you prepared to stop enjoying the creations of others? Becoming an expert in a field means that you generate an understanding of what good and bad work looks like as it relates to what you do. It gets harder and harder to enjoy something for its merits if you understand its failings. A similar thing can happen when you get a degree on a topic. For example, I have a Fine Arts degree. Before I started studying art to the extent that I have, I could be easily impressed and freely enjoy the work of anything that caught my attention, since I didn't think too hard about the elements I didn't like. Now it’s hard for me to find anything I can stand. It’s not because I’m an overly cynical person, it’s just because I understand what’s going on more now: often how a thing was made, what parts were done well, and what was ignored or executed poorly. Or the better you understand writing, the harder it is to get past bad syntax in a novel. The same goes for any field. Are you prepared to stop enjoying your own creations? This one is rough, and it's probably the biggest divider between hobbyists and workers. There’s no time to have a creative block or to be a perfectionist. Often there has to be a distinction made between “finished” and “perfect.” Often there will be times when you feel like you’re doing too much of the same thing because it’s in demand. The fun can be sucked out of quite a bit of it. On the other hand, the satisfaction can increase immensely. The weeks that I put forty or more hours into doing what I love are grueling and tiresome, sleepless and exasperating, but when I am through it, I feel like I’ve done something I was told was impossible. Bottom line: Never go in blind Sometimes hobbies accidentally turn into careers, and sometimes it happens the other way around. It’s always okay to actively make the choice about which one it is that you’re doing. But at the end of the day, it’s a lot easier to move forward if you know what you want and are able to plan for it.
I Have a Dream! Now What? 4 Tips to Make Your Vision a Reality
So you have your idea, big or small, far-fetched or incredibly concrete, but you’re lost at the outset about how to bring it to life. Your project could be as ambitious as starting a business or as bite-size as building a birdhouse. It could require the creative capacity of writing a novel or the straightforward focus of assembling an Ikea bed. Whatever it is, you'll need to maintain and channel the momentum of your aspirations so that you can get the job done.Here I'll share some simple techniques that will help you make your vision a reality.I Have a Dream! Now What? 4 Tips for Making Your Vision a RealityWrite your idea downHaving an idea is far, far easier than making the idea material. My dad once told me, “If you think you have an idea, try writing it down. If you can’t do that, you don’t have an idea.” Again, the idea can vary:Open a café.Build a house in the woods.Recreate the Mona Lisa.Teach a dog to sit.Once you have documented what it is, it makes it real. It removes itself from the floaty nothingness of the head and enters a physical reality. The other benefit: now you have something to google. This takes us to the next step.LearnDo your research. Rarely will you find yourself in uncharted territories right off the bat. Usually, a cursory google search can not only give you ideas about how to go about executing your project, but also give you suggestions of how not to go about it.Let's say you want to open a café. You might find almost immediately that you want your café to serve fair-trade coffee, to not be located downtown, and to target a small but loyal demographic instead of inconsistent walk-ins. Maybe you’ll decide that you want your café to have art but not music, or contain a yoga studio but no tables that fit more than three people.A quick search online will already give you a strong sense of what you need to move forward with your project -- a space and business license for the café; paints and canvas to recreate the Mona Lisa, etc.I personally recommend that you make a complete list of the things you need to start before acquiring any of them. Whatever your idea is, you probably didn’t set out to become an expert in collecting dust.Try. Fail. Try. Fail.I considered including this as part of "Learn," but decided to separate it to give it the importance it deserves. It's essential that you understand the degree of patience and perseverance you'll need to keep pushing forward with your project despite the setbacks you will inevitably encounter. Planning can help you move far, but a map doesn’t do the traveling for you.Maps also tend to hold invisible flaws and obstructions. Anticipate not being able to move forward easily. Hold on to hope, but don’t put all your faith in a first try.Understanding and preparing for the things that can make you fail are what will make you an expert over time.What did you do with the sawdust?Here is one final thought. In school, I had a notable professor who would ask us, “What did you do with the sawdust?” any time we brought in a project made of wood. What he wanted was for us to carefully consider the materials we used, and how we could use them in their entirety; it was a test of both character and creativity. How can you apply this to your own project? Consider this: Accomplishing one thing really well will inevitably result in a few other things being achieved either equally or nearly as well. The "sawdust" in teaching a dog to sit, for example, might be that you gain greater patience along the way, or simply that you develop a more positive technique for communicating with the dog.The world lacks the projects stuck in your brain. Make them real so that you and everyone else isn’t missing out.
How to Motivate Employees through the Power of Empathy
If there’s something you remember about any good teacher you’ve ever had, it’s likely that they were really good at communicating with a group of individuals on a personal level. They didn’t just want you to know the material; they wanted you to understand it. And that, in turn, motivated you to want to learn. As an employee, the best trainings I've received left me enthusiastic about jobs I didn’t initially want to do, and empathetic towards both employers and clients. The worst, however, failed to create this understanding, which in turn prevented the development of empathy. Empathy is of crucial importance when thinking of how to motivate employees, and training for it is essential to the success of your business. How to Motivate Employees through the Power of Empathy Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn. - Xun Kuang Poor training for an employee can ruin a business. Since I started working as a teenager in high school I have been trained and trained others an absurd number of times. I’m in training again now and have been paying more attention to what works and doesn't. There have been ups and downs in the last few days, but it’s become clear what the biggest problem is: Even though the trainer is clearly very good at the job I need to learn to do, he is not very good at communicating how to do it. If there’s something you remember about any good teacher you’ve ever had, it’s likely that they were really good at communicating with a group of individuals on a personal level. They didn’t just want you to know the material; they wanted you to understand it. This, in turn, motivated you to want to learn. In the past, the best trainings I've received left me enthusiastic about jobs I didn’t initially want to do, and empathetic towards both employers and clients. The worst, however, failed to create this understanding, which prevented the development of empathy. Empathy is of crucial importance when thinking of how to motivate employees. I will get back to this near the end of the article. There are three key messages I’m going to explain: If you want employees to give 100%, tell them to give 200% because that’s what you do. Help the employee be proud of their work, not afraid of it. Sometimes it’s better to ask questions than provide answers. Convey your passion You cannot start with the assumption that the trainee will love the job as much as you do. It is however safe to assume that if you are training someone, you have invested a lot of time and effort to get to where you are, which could be anywhere from a startup to a small business to a large corporation. If you want employees to be motivated to give their 100%, tell them that you’re giving it 200%, and that every minute has been worth it. One foot in the game is not enough; it takes two to be fully present. If it appears that the work is dull and unfulfilling for the trainer, that is the way it will be approached by the employee. Monotony only breeds monotony. Engage by making a display of how engaged and passionate you are, instead of attempting to force enthusiasm out of them. Make sure they understand what’s at stake Letting them know that no matter how small their position feels, they are being entrusted with responsibility. Responsibility implies both rewards for successes, as well as consequences for negligence. It is important to understand that negligence is not always the same as a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes: negligence is an apathetic shrug in response to responsibilities. In the job I'm training for right now, I could literally cost someone their health and well-being if I do it wrong. The trainer I have at the moment has done a poor job of communicating the gravity of this responsibility to my group. The key is helping the employee understand that they should be proud of their work and not afraid of it. Positive reinforcement is more powerful than negative reinforcement (acknowledge success more than failure) and will help build a confident workforce. This is a good place to transition into my next point. Help them develop independence Independence and confidence are intrinsically linked. Passion and responsibility are a part of it, but the most important aspect is an intimate understanding of that responsibility. It is better to answer a question with more questions that invite the employee to find the answers themselves. The man training me right now constantly makes the mistake of saying ambiguously, “I told you this yesterday,” or being otherwise vague about what he wants from the group. Independence comes from encouraging employees to ask themselves questions and to come to the correct conclusions on their own. For example, my relationship with math has been an inconstant rollercoaster throughout my life, where I sometimes excelled and other times struggled. The difference was always rooted in how the math was taught. Bad teachers listed formulas to memorize, while good teachers asked me questions so I could figure it out myself. In elementary school I was handed several models of three-dimensional shapes. The teacher explained what volume was (with no mention of formulas), and said: spend the class figuring out how you would calculate the volume of all the shapes. Come see me when you think you’ve got it. How does empathy fit into all of this? There’s a litany of articles on the Internet about training employees to be empathetic, and that explain the positive impact it can have on a company’s bottom line. It’s also interesting to read about the ways it can be exploited in psychologically manipulative ways by large corporations. This article is meant to address empathy in a way that is intended as more than just the relationship between the company and the client, or the employee and the customer. I hope that my notes here have shed some light on the importance of developing: The empathy that should be expected in the above relationships between company/clients and customers/employees. Reciprocal empathy founded on mutual respect between the employer and the employed. Empathy for colleagues and others that work alongside an individual. Respect should be held not only for superiors, but for co-workers and collaborators working at the same level as well. Sure, empathy towards customers and clients is a good sales strategy, but stability and longevity come from harmony. A workplace founded on support and respect in every direction will keep people there. A good business is one that understands the importance of people. Ford invented the weekend for its employees. Just give that a little thought.
How I'm Working Through My Beginnings as a Creative Professional
This isn’t a success story. It’s about success in progress. I work in the creative field. You know, the one that’s notorious for being full of artists and professionals who are struggling to make a living. That in itself is a myth. The creative field is actually thriving, and it’s now one of the world’s leading industries. It's always growing, even if it's constantly changing. Here in Canada, the Conference Board reported that that the arts and culture industry contributed about 7% of the country’s real GDP in 2007 ($84.6 billion) and employed 1.1 million people that year. The Globe and Mail, the main national newspaper, says that that’s “more than [the] mining, forestry and fisheries sectors, plus the Canadian Forces, combined.” So I’m not here to say that artists and other creative professional have it rough in the end. Just in the beginning. Surviving those early days, months and maybe years is what I’m doing now. How I'm Working Through My Beginnings as a Creative Professional Nobody is gonna call you and say 'this lottery ticket is yours.' - Jerry Saltz The key to understanding success in the creative domain is understanding that it is founded on risk-taking and entrepreneurship. There’s a large portion of the sector that is entirely dependent on inventing your own job, niche, or functioning, independently of typical employment structures. There is a portion that’s fairly standard too, but I doubt I’ll ever get a desk job because I can paint a portrait in the style of Rembrandt or Sargent. If that were my only skill, I doubt I’d even thrive doing that. Adaptability is key Since May of 2016 I have had to negotiate the sales of large quantities of art, initiated a residency in Ontario, painted over 100 works, sold work online myself, sold work through third parties, curated exhibitions, gave talks, taught and taken classes (after my degree), started three websites, and hired various assistants throughout it all. That’s only the part related to my work as an artist. This sounds very art-oriented, but it’s important to remember that the above work requires skills in marketing, communications, budgeting, design, and management. It’s also meant that I’ve had to teach myself or find resources as I go. I've had to learn about website marketing and digital image production (it was all analogue for me before), for example, while I continue to develop my capacity for reading and writing (which was what 70% of my fine arts degree was about). Some of it has worked out and some of it has not. I spent January and February madly applying for work, all because one sale in one exhibition went awry for reasons beyond my control. I was broke and still am because of it. I paid my rent late, and am still catching up on my utilities while trying to figure out next month’s rent. Right now I’m writing, learning about affiliate marketing, painting small portraits of people and animals (which alone, means marketing, sales, design, and production), and it looks like I might be starting work soon in the graveyard shift of a call centre. All of this is so I can continue making the work that I believe has integrity and will stand some test of time. There is no set structure for me to easily fall into, and I believe this is essentially the case in all creative fields. There are regular patterns and relationships that can often form (artist-gallery, actor-agent-producer, writer-publication-publisher, etc.), but they can be highly unpredictable and inconsistent over time. There are two things that I believe are essential to making sure that risk-taking and failure are viable options for creative professionals: working unstoppably and building community. The only solution to workblock [...] is more work. - Jerry Saltz Work unstoppably Working unstoppably is important, because ceasing production is stagnation, and stagnating stinks. It keeps your mind fresh, and it's the best way to reaffirm your passion for what you are doing. It will be miserable, and it will have its ups and its downs, but it amounts to something if you work hard at working smart too. Build community Building community is crucial to working as an artist, because there is no way to do this alone. Talent can be honed in solitude, but hiding it away will never amount to being magically discovered. Surrounding yourself wherever possible and becoming a recognizable (and welcome) face is essential. Avoid making enemies, whenever possible. An English teacher once told me that you never know who you’re going to bump into down the road; that if you you ruin someone’s relationship or insult them greatly in your art school in Canada, you will inevitably bump into them as the assistant curator to one of your shows in Italy fifteen years later. Here is another quote I like about maintaining the community around you: Form groups. You must protect the runt. [...] Why? Because four of the other people think you’re the runt: they’re just never going to tell you. [...] Never break ranks. Guess who. It’s Jerry Saltz again. For those of you who don’t know him, he’s a respectable art critic based in New York. This is a great talk he gave about working through the rough as an artist, but it translates to any creative field. The thought I’d like to leave you with is this: I am struggling right now. It would be wrong to deny it, but I believe that my work is amounting to something. I may be tired and I might be stretching myself as thin as I can, but I feel like working through it is more important than even bothering to look up for a light at the end of the tunnel. So far as I am concerned the tunnel is endless, but it might have windows on the side some day. And I think I can convince some people to walk in it with me too.
What Your Workspace Design Says About You
In my last article, I talked about the importance of designing a workspace that works for you above all. Once an office or space is setup for yourself, however, it's rare that you're in a position where others won't be seeing it as well. Whether these people are a boss, clients, co-workers or guests, you want your workspace to communicate a positive message to visitors about you or your business. For this, it needs to be professional, accessible and comfortable. What Your Workspace Design Says About You I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one. - Marilyn Monroe Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success. - Christopher Lasch Professionalism Arguably, everything on this list is about professionalism, and about optimizing the design and presentation of a workspace to help promote a business. For this first point, I'm speaking about professionalism in an esthetic sense. Regardless of your own taste or idea about how a space should look, it must be remembered that others will see it as well. Eccentricities should either be maximized or removed entirely, depending on the context. If you research the offices of your idols, you’ll see fairly quickly that there is no standard design or appearance. There’s the eclectic art of Anna Wintour and the industrial simplicity of Elon Musk; the bright and colorful homage to American Idol for Ryan Seacrest, and the quiet simplicity of Joan Didion’s wooden desk and wall-to-wall bookshelves. Professionalism and appearance are a matter of character. Understanding the character of your own office or workspace will help you remain consistent, and consistency is an active enabler of trust. Accessibility If you have a meeting scheduled with someone central to your success, it can go completely awry if they have trouble getting to your office, or if you are drastically unprepared for their company. Accessibility is a matter of thoughtfulness and courtesy, and it shows that you care. Some major considerations include “Is my workspace wheelchair accessible?” and “Is it hard to find my office?”. There are smaller things to consider as well, which can also have a large impact. Here are three examples: Should your office door be labeled with your name or title? Even when someone is in the right place, it can feel incredibly nerve-racking if there is even a smidge of uncertainty. How many people can fit in your space? How many should be able to? If you receive deliveries (either internal or external), is it clear and straightforward where things should be brought? Comfort Once people have made it to your space, what message is it communicating to them? Do they feel welcome and at ease, or anxious and unsettled? There are obvious questions to consider here, like “How comfortable is the chair for your guests?”. There are also more nuanced considerations that could change someone’s physical or emotional comfort. For example, when I was in university I had a professor that organized the books on her shelf by color. She did this because she assumed a student visiting her office might be nervous, and felt it gave them something to look at. There’s something very thoughtful and kind in little human touches like these. Use comfort as a display of empathy. Final thoughts My professor was absolutely right about using the books, but she also reinforced a point about defining the character of her office. One of the reasons I made an appointment with her was to see the books. They helped give that office its character, and became a longstanding, silent marker of my respect for her. I have to admit that it was a nuisance to find her office though, which could have been helped by a name on the door. All of which is to say that when considering your workspace design, professionalism, accessibility and comfort are all inter-related. When you consider one, you should never fail to consider the other two.