CREATIVE BIZ MARATHON

Hi there! Today is June 1st so it's time for me to give you guys an update on where I am in my creative business!  Here's a little video - it's just 5 minutes.  Thanks for watching!

What's happening with you guys? Share your business progress with me. Would love to hear from you. Alease Michelle School of Creative Business

I just read a blog post from iHanna, which some of you may already know.  iHanna does a lot of fun things, one of which is art journaling.  Her post was about a class in Amsterdam by the author of The Creative Entrepreneur, Lisa Sonora Beam!   I'm not anywhere near Amsterdam, but if any of you are, I would recommend registering for her class!  I know it would be totally awesome and inspiring, and put you on the road to getting your business plan lined up. The Creative Entrepreneur is business strategy designed especially for creative thinkers. Read more: http://www.creativeentrepreneur.biz/about_the_book.html#ixzz1ES40UODc I wanted to share this information with you, just in case you were anywhere near to this class.  I would definitely take this if I could! Hope you all are well and journaling your way to fulfilling your creative business goals!! ~Kelly

It's Sunday and although we're in marathon mode, It's my prayer to start this year of business off, like I want to finish. It's my dream to spend Sundays Worshiping my FATHER, resting and hanging out with my family and friends. So, I will leave you with this most amazing video to ponder, what you have learned and what you will learn. CLIMB on! I'll be reading The Creative Entrepreneur today from cover to cover. No doing, just reading. 

For the past week I have been watch video series from Ittybiz.com  - How to Fail proof Your Business.  Naomi and Dave are really good at given you honest, no B.S. advice on starting your business. Of course there is a sales pitch, but not a hard one. Actually you learn a lot from the videos and there's homework assignment after each video lesson. I was able to implement most of their suggestions the same or next day. GREAT Right? Go ahead and check it out. Good a advice for FREE is worth it. Here is the link to the first video: How to Fail Proof Your Business: Ep. 1 Talk with you soon, Alease Michelle

School of Creative Business- Target Market Profile I thought I understand who my target market was for my business. And actually I do, but Chp. 5 - Communicating Value made me visualize a better picture of my target market and their needs. So this is what I did- I answered the following the questions. Where they shop? Target, Amazon, consignment shops, Earth Fare, speciality boutiques Where they don't shop? Major department stores, Wal-mart (too generic and too many people) Media consume? fashion, interior design, & craft magazines; self help and up-lifting books; interior, craft & fashion blogs; thought provoking TV shows Usage of Internet?   For research, shop and share photos with family and friends Trade associations?   belong to very few trade associations. If they do it is career related- not passion driven Trade shows? Attend only a few, maybe one a year or less. Don't live close to major trade show event. The travel too expensive. E...

As I've gone thru- The Creative Entrepreneur - I've realized that I need a plan. Please know I plan everything I do. But a majority of my planning is in my head. So this is what I did. I created a Business Marketing Plan for the School of Creative Business  The Plan for the School of Creative Business blog site  The Plan: Offline Networking Strategy attend one event a month - pass out new designed business cards Web Strategy Post more often on blog Article Marketing (2 per month) Use money keywords Outreach Strategy Email Marketing ( include Blog RSS feed ) Work on email auto-responder Information Product Strategy Create 2 Free Reports Mini - ecourse (video or print) Teaching/Mentoring Strategy Brainstorming sessions Business Launch Social Media Networking training Online Network Strategy More involved on Facebook, Twitter Use  Ping.fm Then I had to create a To do List.  The To do List  1, 2, 3, 4  I just listed all the actions I needed to...

 Me (Alease) with one of my Creative Entrepreneurs (Tara Davis)     In my last post- I mentioned that my goal is now to change the mind set of artist. Internet marketing is the key to our success in moving beyond the starving artist. At the event, I assisted Tara in marketing her event through video, social marketing and email marketing. All key components  in Internet marketing. So you ask what is my heart?  Teaching and sharing what I know. What's my desire? To learn as much about Internet marketing as I can. The next picture is my action plan- mind mapping my thoughts. It's not a mandala, but it is the way I think. Right now, as I write this post, I have two of my clients working on their Internet marketing plans. They are complaining about of the work. But I say to them- once you get it step up, the rest is easy. After they finish their plans we will work on our stop doing list. Which will require them to hire a virtual assistant. I am happy for t...

As I was thinking about my creative business and its purpose - I realized that my main objective for starting my busines is share with other artist what I've learn about making money online. The key thing I want my creative readers to understand is that I want them to move beyond the straving artist mentality. We have to move into the world of internet marketing. Learn the skills and techiques they use and apply those same tactic skills to our art and craft business. I'm taking an internet marketing course now and I am learning so much. And all these techniques can be used in anyone's artist business. We - artist just have to move beyond just creating art, we need a mindset of that we are in the business of marketing our artist ability. So artist lets get into the habit of marketing what we do and learn all that's required to make it happen.

Creative Thinking Supplies Although I am an artist, I also think of myself as a little too technical when it comes to my brainstorming. I don't do much sketching in nice blank journals, but I do lots of mind mapping and note taking. My main creative thinking supplies: Lined Journal - easy to fit into my purse and at the bottom of each page are inspirational quotes. Webcam - to share my thoughts and advice with my blog readers Voice recorder - to record my thoughts while in the car Colored Sharpies - Just like to see color on my pages. Post it notes - to mark ideas in a book I borrowed from a friend or library. Bubble Gum - a treat. Since the removal of my braces I've really enjoyed the process of blowing large pink bubbles and thinking at the same time. More to come... Peace & More Love, Alease Michelle

I am SO excited to be on this journey!  2010 was a good year for me.  I got back on track with my artwork and felt my old self come back to life.  This was so thrilling for me!  Now that it's been a few months and I've got a new line of sculpture that has found life, I am ready to figure out my plan for 2011.  I received this book, The Creative Entrepreneur, a few weeks ago, and got started on the exercises, but I lost steam as the holidays rolled around.  I was also juggling creating some more work for an exhibition, with the exercises in the book, and suddenly, I found myself a bit overwhelmed.  Fast forward to now, post-Christmas, and I am ready to get my plan prepared for 2011!  Join me as I work through some of the exercises, learning my strengths and weakness, and so many other things! Let's get started! I'm going to dive right in, so here we go! In this photo, I'm showing my workstation, which last night was at my kitchen counter. :)...