Show up brilliantly. If you’re giving a presentation, save any comments about being unprepared or doing it last minute. Clients also don’t want to hear that what you represent was achieved with childish ease. We want stuff we buy to be sophisticated, simple, and beautiful, made by a talented designer, an artist who put a lot of effort in learning the craft and making it. We want the books we buy to be well researched, the speakers we listen to well prepared, able to teach and entertain.
So often, speakers show up apologetic, they are sorry for their incompetence. They joke about how little time it took them to get ready or how inexperienced they are. They sometimes even add that they’re surprised they got chosen for a particular role and add that someone else should be there in their place. They don’t realize that they’re mocking the audience and their time they committed to be there.
If you want to appear modest, there is a correct way and a wrong way to do it. If you say “I’m standing in front of you here, and I’m terrified,” the figurative separation between the speaker and the audience disappears. You appear vulnerable and relatable to your audience. But saying “I’m standing in front of you here, and I’m very nervous. I’m not really a speaker. There are better people than me and I’m not sure why they’re not speaking here instead of me,” you do not appear humble. Rather, you show lack of confidence. It makes the audience feel like they made a poor choice investing the time to see you speak.
We hear artists describing their degree as not a real one, dancers emphasizing their lack of training, designers lowering their prices before even being asked for it, painters warning their potential clients that they may not like their work, and other creatives presenting themselves as mediocre, adding that they had not been in business for a long time. As an artist, speaker, writer or other creator, present yourself with humble pride.
We rarely hear about writers, actors, and other creative entrepreneurs who are not making it. We don’t know about books that never left the room they were written in. No one talks about unpublished manuscripts or actors who constantly fail auditions. There are no articles describing the struggle without a happy ending—making it. Speakers sharing their success stories on stage devote little time to talking about the pain of getting where they are. They want to appear joyful, successful, and funny. They don’t want to bore the audience with depressing stories of their struggle and rejections. They may mention their difficult beginnings to appear relatable to the audience, but this painful time will seem more like a challenge or a stepping stone rather than a tough time they had gone through—time full of doubt, insecurity, fear, and the overall mental exhaustion.
Most creative entrepreneurs don’t start their businesses, or they start and become discouraged because they see someone who made it without seeing the struggle. It seems to them that success should be easy. These business owners are not patient, they think that the road to success was short—that’s what it looks like when they observe these star business owners from an outsider’s perspective.
Watching the Olympics, we are envious of gold medalists. We do suspect these rewards are the fruit of hard work, but we don’t realize what kind of a commitment it entailed. Michael Phelps practiced six hours a day from the age of 14 until the 2008 Olympics at the age of 23, when he won eight gold medals, breaking the all-time record of first-place finishes in any single Olympic Games. That’s nine years of training without taking days off. When Phelps was asked about time off, he said that if he takes a day off, it takes him two days to get back to where he was and that’s two days wasted, which he can never get back. He adapted his coach’s philosophy of complete immersion in training.1
As we can see, it was not merely hard work that made Phelps so successful. It was an extreme devotion to hustling incessantly, where the days blend with one goal in mind: winning the gold medal. There are a multitude of examples of those who had put some serious work before getting where they are now. There are bestselling authors who were able to claim their status after having gone through hundreds of rejections and after they published their third or fourth novel.
Even looking into successful Kickstarter campaigns, which look simple and easy to implement, we can notice that great results are achieved by brilliant execution. Cofounder Michael Del Ponte and his team from Soma, a Silicon Valley water filter company, were able to raise more than $100,000 on Kickstarter after implementing a 10-step robust marketing campaign, employing virtual assistants, and using apps. It was a well-planned strategy, which came to fruition with a lot of effort. Its execution was featured as a case study on Tim Ferriss’ blog and other prominent publications, putting Soma even more on our radar.2
You may discover that striving for a gold medal is not for you. It doesn’t mean that you’re not ambitious, but it’s just that your priorities differ. This single-focus way of life is not for everybody. Most of us prefer dividing our energy between career, hobbies, family, and social life foregoing the obsessive pursuit of the gold.
Too many business owners don’t have it as a priority to keep their business lean. Using the excuse of “you have to spend money to make money,” they give themselves permission to spend more than needed. There are firms that watch their spending driven not by necessity but by their habit of being frugal. Sophia Amoruso in #GIRLBOSS describes the lean company culture at her over $1 billion in revenue online clothing company Nasty Gal. She was in charge of approving budgets for a while, but when the company grew exponentially, she had to delegate it. One day the person in charge of office spending budgets ordered Aaron chairs for the whole office. When Sophie noticed this lavish expense, she promptly asked the person to put all the chairs on eBay.3
You may be surprised when you walk into the Walmart headquarters in Bentonville—all the office furniture there is mismatched. You’ll have a hard time finding two chairs of the same kind, because all these are samples left by the Walmart suppliers.4
Being frugal even if you don’t have to is a must to make sure you don’t run into the most common problem entrepreneurs face: running out of cash flow. Founders often underestimate their business expenses and too quickly count on the money they’re owed. Terms of payment often get extended without our consent. Net 30—being paid 30 days after receiving products—becomes net 45, while our expenses keep accumulating. This time lapse between getting paid what’s due to us and paying what we owe is often what contributes to cash flow problems in business. It’s crucial to develop our modest spending habits early, even if they seem unnecessary. We need as large of a monetary safety cushion as we can get to account for our business mistakes, unpredictable expenses, and payment delays.
Here are some habits of money mindful entrepreneur:
If you read enough entrepreneurial magazines, you may notice that there is certain glorification of failure. “Fail fast, fail often,” says a Silicon Valley mantra. Ken Tencer in an article in The Globe and Mail asks, “Who in his or her right mind would build a philosophy around failure?” He makes a point that this motto focuses on dealing with failure instead of zeroing in on success, proposing a new mantra of “Succeed fast, adjust, or move on.”6
Having multiple streams of income is the shield which will protect us from drastic effects of failure. Creatives who are affected by failure are the ones who are either too attached to their business or who didn’t prioritize creating multiple streams of income. No one can give us a recipe to avoid all failure but testing the products, practicing detachment, being agile, and other entrepreneurial strategies described in this book will increase our chances of success. Successful creatives are resilient—they come back stronger after being rejected or failing. It’s important to have a healthy attitude and treat failure as part of a process, a stepping stone on our path to success.
If you’re an actor, writer, designer, artist, or another creative, you are probably very familiar with rejection, which you have received in many different forms. Some rejections come via email, stating something about the timing that’s not right or the product or service not being the right fit. Other rejections mention revising and changing, or mention the budget, crowded market space, etc. Rejections in person are accompanied by a head shake or by shutting your portfolio, creating a slight gust of wind. And yet books get published, new actors get discovered, projects get funded, and art is sold. Those who get published, who are on stage, and who successfully sell their products did get rejected too. The difference is they persevered and made the most out of their rejections.
Liza Donnelly, cartoonist at the New Yorker, admits that some of her work still gets rejected every week. Her approach is very accepting; she says, “You have to move forward and don’t get stuck on things that you think are genius.”7 Liza treats her work as communication tool with her readers. Speaking about what’s close to her heart and making us laugh is the core reason behind her work.
Here are ways to approach rejection creatively:
In the old days, a.k.a. a few years ago in internet years, most business owners were focused on developing their own websites and platforms. There was a common misconception that it was not advantageous to put work and spend marketing dollars on an online store hosted by a third party. Within the last few years, business owners started realizing that it may be beneficial to join a party that’s already happening instead of starting a new one. Immediate opportunity of selling on an already existing platform offering a wide audience reach started appealing to many entrepreneurs.
Proliferation of selling platforms started enticing business owners to join the best option for them. Entrepreneurs are now able to quickly set up their online stores without knowing how to code. Everything was done for them with a beautiful and easy-to-use backend where they were able to quickly upload their products and be ready to sell with just a few clicks. Square and other processing payment solutions made charging online easy.
This ease of online store setup lowered the barriers of entry. It became more challenging to get our customers’ attention and make them click. Customers are now more mindful about giving out their email addresses and accepting promotional emails. Online entrepreneurs had to come up with creative solutions to get the customers’ attention, which could be summed up as different versions of offering more for less.
There are a lot of selling platforms to choose from. Etsy, which was started in 2005, is one of the most popular ones. As of May 2016, it represents 1.6 million sellers, 25 million buyers, and 35 million products. That’s an impressive number of products, which in no way could all fit in a mall. It’s easy to set up a seller’s profile on Etsy, and the community of avid shoppers is already there, ready to add you as their favorite seller and give you stars and reviews, which other Etsy community members can see. Besides Etsy, there’s Creative Market, a platform hosting mainly graphic designers selling their services as well as ready designs such as artwork and fonts. There’s also Society6, a platform where you can sell your designs ranging from curtains to beach towels, pouches to iPhone cases. I’m going to stop here—selling platforms are easy to research, and there will already be new ones once you get this book in your hands.
These ready-to-sell community platforms are an inexpensive way to test our product ideas and see if this is something we want to further develop. Our businesses are now ever-morphing. We make, launch, observe, and tweak. Infusing creativity into any career has become a must in this dynamic world offering endless opportunities to those who are willing to observe and act with agility.
Julia was one of my coaching clients who made a bold move of quitting her job as an attorney to start her own law firm. She wanted to expand her reach, get more clients, and grow her practice. Julia and her new business had a lot of potential. She had a tight alumni network and belonged to a few professional organizations. There were a lot of opportunities ahead, but she wasn’t able to fully take advantage of them. What was stopping Julia was the fact that without realizing, she was not fully committed to her business. She would share that she was occasionally reaching out to her former boss making sure there was still a position for her just in case things don’t work out. It’s as if Julia had one foot in her new business while the other one was still in the former company. She was not maximizing all the opportunities ahead of her because she was not completely in and she didn’t fully believe in her potential.
Do you catch yourself explaining how you’re “not there yet,” using the words “wanna-be” or “aspiring”? How can the customers trust you and buy from you if there are so many other creatives presenting themselves as experts? They may be less talented and may offer less, but the confidence they exude will make people buy what they sell. Hustle, do what you need to be in your business with both feet in, showing your full potential. “Under promise and over deliver” doesn’t work in this competitive reality anymore. Customers have no time for your aspirations. They want to get their problems solved buying from someone who confidently states they can do it. A “not being ready” approach strategy may charm your supportive family and maybe a small percentage of customers, but the majority will expect greatness. Your talent will not get you ahead if it is not matched by confidence. You may lose business opportunities to those who not only know how to sell their products, but are also masters at selling them.
If you’re trying to succeed as an author, actor, or other creative, you know that your road to making it will have roadblocks, challenges that you’ll need to overcome to design your dream career. There are going to be people who will remind you how tough or impossible it will be to achieve your dreams. They’ll keep discouraging you, claiming that they care and want the best for you. They’ll remind you of statistics and low probability of you succeeding, backing their points with examples of those who have tried and failed. They may go even as far as giving you examples of those who made it and what attributes you’re missing to become like them.
They discourage you because they are probably dealing with something unprocessed within them. However, you shouldn’t be a part of this processing. If you notice any of this energy-draining behavior, take it as a sign and mindfully remove them from your entourage before they go any further, dragging you down their path of pessimism. You can’t afford to be exposed to this negativity; you need all your strength to keep thriving. Once you make it, don’t bother looking for their apologies. They’ll probably call their negativity reality checks and claim that they were motivating you. If you let them, they may continue with their delusional observations and add that they contributed to your success. Avoid people who show these signs. You don’t need the energy they keep spreading. It will keep affecting you negatively and evoke in you feelings of sadness and discouragement, making you search for validation and approval. Being able to selectively surround yourself with those who are your cheerleaders, those who clap for you and truly want you to succeed, will help your advancement and make the whole process more enjoyable.
I was sipping coffee, reading through Woman’s Wear Daily on my iPad. I’m not a morning person and this is my usual way of starting the day. I do research, information gathering, and reading in the mornings, then move on to working on writing, design, and strategies later on in the afternoon. The complexity of the tasks progresses as my day unfolds. I was skimming through WWD, a prestigious publication which has been delivering fashion news for more than 100 years. I was expecting that day to be just like any other one, me finishing reading the industry news, getting a grasp on what’s going on in the fashion world then moving on to my to do list. Then, flipping virtually through WWD in a nonchalant way, I noticed my friend’s name being quoted as an expert. I clenched my iPad tighter, let out an “aaaa” sound, which was supposed to be an “aaaaa” said internally but it was a loud “aaa” or an “ay” I’d almost say.
This woman was quoted as an expert, an expert in WWD. This thought was circling in my mind, back and forth and across for some unknown reason. I had no idea why this impacted me so much. I’ve never contacted any of the WWD editors to pitch a story. Looking at my whole array of goals and aspirations, being quoted as an expert in WWD was not on my list of aspirations. So why has my heartbeat accelerated, you may ask? I think it was a mix of being surprised, becoming really motivated with a touch of envy. The quote was a proof of her hard work and having achieved something great in her field. This little incident gave me all the motivational and creative juices needed for the whole day and beyond. I have known “Ms. the expert quoted in WWD” for a few years; we see each other, unintentionally of course, at New York Fashion Weeks. We both started blogging about fashion really early and have been invited to fashion shows and events as press. I’m not sure how easy it is to get a press pass for fashion bloggers nowadays, but in 2008, when we both started, people were still confused about this whole blogging idea and didn’t know which category bloggers really belonged to. When I was applying for a New York Fashion Week pass, I said I needed a media pass and my request was simply accepted. It also helped that I apologized I looked exhausted as I got back from exhibiting my jewelry line in Paris the day before and was still suffering from the Parisian jet lag. “Parisian jet lag” just simply belonged in the whole Fashion Week registration process. I’m not sure if I used these precise words, but I highly recommend throwing in the “Parisian jet lag” excuse if you had just got back from Paris. This just adds this “je ne sais quoi” into any story right away.
So every time I’d see the “Ms. the expert quoted in WWD” at fashion events, we would do the cheek-kissing-but-God-forbid-really-touch-faces hello, engage in some fake sounding small talk about looking good, doing well, and being busy, then continue on with our fashionable schedules.
But let me share with you how and why “Ms. the expert quoted in WWD” got transferred from being an acquaintance or friend into a “frenemy”—and let me just make sure that you and I are on the same page as to what this word means to me. Let’s call her Shana for simplicity purposes. Shana and I, believe it or not, were supposed to work on a project together. It all sounded promising and we had a few great meetings, but then Shana found out I was going to New Zealand for a month right at the start of the project coming into fruition. Well, I’ve been doing whatever I wanted with my time for as long as I remember, and this included my month-long trips at the beginning of the year. When Shana criticized my poor choice of priorities, I knew that our lifestyle choices would get in the way of any possible collaborations and it was wiser to end this thing before it started, parting ways when it was still amicable. And so we did. I was off to the unknown and dreamy land of New Zealand, looking forward to climbing glaciers and hiking to the fiords.
I’m sure there have been countless times when you felt envious. Why not use this perfectly normal human feeling to your advantage? Here is how you can do that: Think or write down the feeling you had last time you were envious of someone’s professional achievement. Was it a business venture? A published book? A raise? Describe it and write about your feeling in detail, then try and refocus the feeling of being envious into the feeling of being motivated by their achievement.
My example: My friend got a blog sponsorship from a major brand. What a great accomplishment! She treats her blog as both a creative outlet and a full-time job. After having heard that, instead of thinking of getting back to blogging and trying to get a corporate sponsorship as well, I started thinking how I can apply this creative motivation into my career. Preparing new line sheets for my wholesale jewelry clients sounded like a great step. Her achievement in the field of blogging motivated me to regain focus and prepare new line sheets for my wholesale clients to see.
One of the main reasons we procrastinate is that we feel so overwhelmed by the size of the task that we don’t feel like starting it. We may also try to defer doing something regardless of the size simply because we dread it. We try to avoid doing taxes, writing proposals, and other things that involve hours of mundane preparations. Sometimes it’s not the scope of the task, but our anticipation that we’re not going to enjoy it that is in the way of us starting it. Convincing yourself to deal with the task you dread first thing in the morning is one way to deal with procrastination.
We often procrastinate by tricking ourselves that what we’re doing is actually work (even though it’s not). A writer who wants to finish his book will schedule meetings instead of staying focused on writing, justifying it to himself by saying that he needs to get feedback and network. “Doing research” is another excuse—it is so vague that any internet activity can be considered research. We often start by reading a relevant article and get side-tracked into reading unrelated things and also calling it “doing research.” Another one of our excuses is “doing marketing” which often involves posting and being active on different social media channels. We measure our promotional efforts by checking the number of shares, likes, and retweets, and we also check out other accounts and channels that are related to ours. If we’re not mindful, our social media involvement could be a huge drain on our productivity.
One of the first steps to get over procrastination is recognizing it. We all have our own ways to procrastinate, whether it’s Facebook, YouTube, reading too many blogs, cleaning, preparing elaborate meals when we’re on a deadline, or talking on the phone—the list is long. The first step you can take toward eliminating it is determining how you procrastinate and being aware of it.
Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week, who seems to be one of the most efficient people on this planet, said he tries to pick out the lead domino from his to-do-list: the task which, after completion, will make other things easier or irrelevant.12 We often don’t realize that some of the tasks on our list are obsolete or will not help us reach the goal efficiently, yet by being on the list, they make it longer and more overwhelming.
Few creatives realize that one of the crucial things to being productive is accepting your controlled mess. Being preoccupied with making sure our surroundings, inboxes, and to-do lists are perfectly in order may negatively impact our creative process. We may use the tidying tasks as excuses to procrastinate. If you want to stay in the work flow and be efficient, it’s necessary to embrace imperfection and things that are unfinished. Your laundry may be pilling up more than usual, you may have some unanswered emails, or skip taking a shower. Give yourself the okay to accept your controlled mess and focus on your creative process instead. Inspiration, as you know, is fragile, so if you find yourself in the work flow, stay there for as long as you can.
Gary Keller, in his book The One Thing, suggests using time blocking. If you decide to try this method, be mindful about it. Keller prompts us to block four hours in our day, preferably in the morning, and treat it as important as a scheduled meeting, a meeting with yourself. Projects, paperwork, and errands have to wait.13 If there is something that comes to our minds during the time block, we should write it down and take care of it at a later time. However, trying to work in continuous time blocks may negatively impact our productivity. It’s as important to schedule breaks as it is to plan for work time.
Find out what your own time managment system is. Trying to create all day with no interruptions is not a system; it will result in you not being productive. We should be able to manage our productive time as well as the down time. One of the methods of working creatively for a set period of time is the Pomodoro technique. It uses a timer to break down work into 25 minute intervals and short breaks. This method, often called “time boxing,” is used to force us to achieve uninterrupted focus on one task for a set period of time. After the timer rings, we should put a checkmark and set it for 25 minutes again. After a few of these work intervals or “pomodoros,” we can take a longer break.14
If you are a writer, there are apps and software to keep track of your word sprints—periods of time when you commit to writing non-stop. You can join a group and start writing for 25 minutes of every half hour. You’ll see your progress. For example, if you decide to join word sprints at MyWriteClub.com, you’ll see the running clock, your progress in the tool-bar, and if you choose to, you’ll see how many words other participants have written, without seeing what they actually wrote. Once you get to 100 words, you’ll receive a star next to your profile picture. At any time, you can click on the stars or word count to check how you’re doing compared to others. If you don’t want to participate in the group word sprints, you can opt in for private sprints. You’ll see the running clock and your word progress, and you’ll receive the stars but you will not see anyone else’s results. Timers are an excellent method of staying focused on your task. They make you get into a silent contract with yourself to keep going until the timer stops.
“We have it all!” I could hear the excitement in my friend’s voice. He quit a job at a bank and was excited to start his new life of an entrepreneur and start a professional cleaning business. “We bought a van, machines, lots of supplies, and products. All we need is customers.” I’ll never forget that phone call. In all honesty, I really wanted to laugh. There was so much that I wanted to tell him, like “Isn’t it what you should have thought about first?” We decided to meet up and talk.
During our conversation, we started by defining what was important about his business. His business was local, so having a high-ranked web-site rich in local keywords was important. We didn’t want the focus of the business to be private homes; my friend would apply to win government contracts and would try forming collaborations with real estate agencies to be the company that they’d call when they have a change of tenants in the properties they manage. Focusing on bringing in orders in volume as well as maintaining a decent website was a great strategy to start with. Fast-forward five years, and my friend registered his company, has won multiple government contracts, and was able to form a partnership with multiple real estate agencies. He now has two teams and two vans that go to different locations and finish multiple projects daily. His company grew so much that his girlfriend quit her day job to run all the bookkeeping and accounting of the business. This is a great end of a story of doing things not in order.
My friend’s fortunate outcome is unusual. There are businesses that can’t share such a successful end to their stories of not making sure first that there’s the demand for what they offer. Everyday there are businesses offering products that no one wants to buy and owners are surprised by it. Friends’ suggestion to start selling your products and your gut feeling are not strong enough proofs that that’s what people want. You can avoid a disappointment if you start your business mindfully. You need more than your gut feeling, more than a sample of one or two to make sure that people want and will buy what you offer.
How will you present yourself with humble pride?
What steps can you take to make sure your business is run with financial mindfulness?
What are the selling platforms where you can test and sell your products and services?