by susrene@gmail.com | Dec 26, 2018 | artists, arts, inspiration, inspirational, Uncategorized
Disclaimer: This blog post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission to fund my coffee drinking habit if you use these links to make a purchase. You will not be charged extra, and you’ll keep me supplied in caffeine. It’s a win for everyone, really.
There are a few things that people think about as they head into a new year. Usually health and fitness, their life path and career success. Let’s talk about what it is to be a success. Does it mean money, prestige, a corner office or to be be successful requires us to do more and be more of ourselves in order to bring success into our lives? What are the secrets to success?
On www.myemma.com I came across an article on the “10 Secrets to Success” from the worlds top marketers. Bringing the reader quotes and ideas from people at the top of their field. My Emma is a plethora of resources for marketing and learning to bring your skills to your audience.
What does this have to do with creativity? a creative person, our marketing is in our work. The same rules apply on another level and by bringing in these skills we can create personal and possibly professional success to our creative paths. Creatives often focus so much on their creative work they can forget the marketing aspect of their careers. A creative persons work deserves to be seen and recognized by an audience, even if it is an audience of ten or a thousand.
The first rule: Be human. Remember we are all human.
“Marketing is all about creativity, humanity, and authenticity.”
Jay Baer Convince & Convert
We all have basic needs and desires that drive us. Try to be reachable, accessible and understandable. That doesn’t mean changing your work, it means be you in what you are doing and no one else. Bring all of who you are, and your humanity into the creative work that you bring into the world and you will find the right audience for your work. You need to be authentic in your creative work.
Another piece of advice: Narrow your audience, don’t expand it. You will never appeal to everyone and the great news…YOU DON’T HAVE TO!
“GO NARROW, NOT BROAD: WE HAVE A TENDENCY TO THINK ‘IF I GO BROAD, I’LL CAPTURE MORE PEOPLE.’ BUT THE MORE TIGHTLY YOU DEFINE YOURSELF, THE EASIER IT IS FOR YOUR PEOPLE TO FIND YOU.”
TAMSEN WEBSTER
Those who relate to your work will find you and become your biggest fans. Look at Amanda Palmer as a great example of success and unusual expression. Her fan base found her and our some of the most loyal fans I have witnessed. Her success is based on her style. She marketed to the people that would love her work the way that it was. She did not try to reach everyone. You don’t either. Create what you want to create with all your heart and your people will find you. Those are two big secrets of success.
If you want the other Eight secrets, head over to My Emma and check out this eye opening article and their other resources as well that can help you on your way to becoming a marketing success with your own creative works. So often, creatives overlook this aspect of their work and wonder why they aren’t selling and why they aren’t getting their fans. You have to consider the marketing aspect of the creative side of work, the business side to really get yourself out there into the world. You success is in finding your people and creating a loyal fan base. Money, prestige and even the corner office can be nice, but if it isn’t what you are aiming for, then it isn’t real success.
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by susrene@gmail.com | Aug 20, 2018 | artists, arts, creativity, inspiration, inspirational, writers, writing
I talk a lot about creative activities and things that you can do to improve your creative self but I want to talk to you about creating a daily creative practice. I advocate a lot that your creative time spent does not need to be more than ten minutes in a day. But how does one create a daily practice? Here are the steps to developing a ten minute daily creative practice.
- Set a specific time that you can be creative each day. It works best if it can be at the same time every day, however, I know life comes up so make an effort to put the time in your calendar each day so that you know for those ten minutes you are occupied with being creative. Think of being creative as part of the work of your soul. Your being needs creativity to thrive. Otherwise, unused it festers into something else. Making time for it is of the first importance.
- Make room for it. When I began making pendants all I had was a tv tray in the living room where I would work on creative stuff while everyone around me was watching television or playing games. I didn’t have space to myself but I had a space that was mine. If you are lucky enough, and your kids are back in school or all grown up, then you get to have some space to yourself. But create some room for being creative. This is the second most important part because if you don’t have somewhere to be creative, you won’t do it.
- If you don’t know where to start, start anywhere. Unsure if you want to paint or write or uncertain what you like creatively? Look at what you are drawn to. If there are several things, try one thing at a time. Maybe one day your journal for ten minutes, then you try a poem the next day but the day after you watercolor paint or play with clay. Eventually you will find what it is that calls you. If you don’t like it, then you have only spent ten minutes and you can try again the next day. Think of it a a sort of spiritual playtime to connect with your creative self.
- Begin. Make a commitment to start your practice on a certain day and commit to say seven days in a row. Then commit to two weeks in a row and so on. The new research shows that it takes an average of sixty-six days to form a new habit. Build it a couple of weeks at a time and by the time three months have gone by, you have created your new daily practice.
- Continue committing and recommitting. I have learned this through my new exercise routines as life comes up and trips and other events get in the way. Don’t beat yourself up over it, just recommit to starting over and keep going. It isn’t the end of the world. Life isn’t going to always stop for us plus we need vacations and outings with friends or have family dinners. Do the best you can to make the time sacred and commit to it but allow yourself to be flexible and not rigid. There have been times where I skipped my creative practice for meeting with a friend and was more inspired through that meeting that I came home and did creative work anyways.
- Try new things. The problem some people have is that they get bored doing the same thing every day…some people thrive on the routine. Don’t change the commitment. Change the activity. Scour Pinterest for new ideas. Read craft blogs or DIY blogs or writing blogs for other ideas. Even here I list prompts every Thursday as well as ten minute projects on Tuesdays. You don’t have to do the same thing every day.
- Just do it! That’s it. Show up every day and be creative. Allow yourself at least ten minutes. You might find yourself expanding to fifteen or thirty over time depending on what you are working on. Ten minutes to just to open that window and let some light in on the creative soul. It doesn’t mean you have to stay there. Grow from it. It will feel great to move into your creative self more often. Your soul needs it.
There you have seven steps to creating a daily creative practice. Do you already have a daily practice? What does it look like? If you don’t, what would you like it to look like? Feel free to answer in the comments or on the Facebook page. Happy creating!
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by susrene@gmail.com | May 8, 2018 | artists, arts, creativity, inspiration, inspirational
In a world that often moves too fast and is too busy, it is easy to lose sight of our creativity. Our lives get overloaded. Kids, maybe parents, jobs, housework can swarm around us and take up most of our waking moments until we fall, exhausted into our beds. It is easy to see how creative expression can be sidelined. However, I want to tell you that the act of creativity does not have to happen in huge, planned out moments of time. It is possible to dedicate just five or ten minutes to a creative project or exercise. Everything from coloring pages to drawing mandalas, from painting to making jewelry or even five minutes of journal time, all count towards your creative spirit’s health.
I do this often. I recently created a prayer flag mobile for someone who just had a baby. Over all, it was quite the process from painting the fabric to stamping the designs, and then because it was for an infant, I laminated the flags so no paint was exposed. I attached it to a small wreath that I also decorated with ivy and flowers. I broke the tasks into small ten to fifteen minute increments that I could work on between other projects, kids, etc. The project took about a week to finish but it got done. I could have easily said, “Nope,. It’s just too much work,” but in doing it in small pieces, I had the creative satisfaction of completing a project that was important to me and fulfilled my creativity needs.
Your creativity needs to be taken care of in the same way you would attend to your mental or physical health. It is part of your part of your health. Creativity helps physical, mental and spiritual aspects of our selves. It is why it is such an important practice to attempt daily, just as you might meditation, or jogging. In fact, these practices done together, help one another. The act of being creative brings our mind to life.
I am encouraging you to seek out small daily acts of creativity. Sneak the time in during soccer practice with a journal in your bag. Or maybe give yourself ten minutes before you go to bed to draw or write or begin a painting. No one says it has to be a completed project, just take the time to invest your creative self.
There have been a few days where I have come to the end of the day and I feel like I am missing something and it is because I have not done any creative work. I make an effort, sometimes just making simple artist trading style cards or I journal. Some days, I paint or draw mandalas. I want to encourage to find a practice that suits your desires and needs. Are you a needle pointer, a knitter, maybe a wood-burning person ( like my friend). If you need to, try scheduling it into your day, the same way you would schedule your workout or plan a menu.
If you aren’t sure what you want to do creatively, start with something small, like picking up some pens and colored pencils with a coloring book or a small palette of water color paints and paper. Pick up a journal and write for five to ten minutes. Play with play dough. The point is to start doing something to be creative.
If you are stuck creatively, maybe you need a little guidance or coaching along the way. Maybe you just need a boost through out your week that you need to be creative. I offer two coaching packages that are just for these occasions.
The first package is the Encouraging E-mail Coach. This is a subscription designed to prompt you during the week to reach your creative goals and hold you accountable to them. It is a simple coaching program designed to jump start your creative endeavors. Three encouraging e-mails will go out over a 7 day period to cheerlead you on your creative project. At the end of seven days, send me an e-mail and tell me how you did and where you left off, and we will keep going from there.
The second package, The Creative Play E-mail Coaching, is a more intense email package. It is more interactive with us working together toward your creative goals that include homework assignments to get you there. There will be up to five e-mails a week from me, and you can feel free to e-mail me anytime with questions and epiphanies. This package can be done in 30, 60, or 90 day increments, depending on what you want to accomplish.
My goal here at The Creating Room is to feed and encourage the creative soul. I believe that we all have within us the ability to be creative and that it arrives in us in different ways. Sometimes we might not have yet discovered what that is. That’s okay. I am inviting to come along on this journey to discover your creative self…to seek out the creative soul within you.
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by The Creating Room | Jul 21, 2016 | artists, arts, creativity, inspiration
Many creative people have their creative toolbox that they keep on hand. They pull stuff, and tips and tricks right out of it. It’s like having a magicians magic hat. The key to a Great Toolbox is to include in it the things that will keep your creative soul going even in those times where you feel stuck or are feeling blah and uncreative.
Let’s start with what I keep in mine.
For inspiration, I have many Artful Blogger, Artful Journalling, and Where Women Create magazines, all produced by the Stampington Company. I love flipping the pages and seeing the beautiful pictures and sharing in others creative adventures. It is my hope one day to be in one of those magazines myself. It inspires and motivates me when I feel stuck or lost on what to do.
My favorite creative tool is my laptop. It is a MacBook Pro that is nearly four years old. Since I am first and foremost a writer, I find it essential for working on fiction, moving my poems from the written page to being saved and edited, and where I create my affirmation cards. I also use it for collecting my photos. I will give you a secret, I have about 22,000 pictures. NOT KIDDING. I always find reasons to use ones I thought I would never use especially in designing mini stories and affirmation cards. It is also where I create my stationary, my cards, and anything else that strikes me.
Pick your favorite tool! What is it? Keep it in good condition. If it’s something that gets used often, like a sketch book or journal, do you keep a back up so you always have one. My daughter keeps two or three around the house so she can just grab one.
Now onto some more practical, hands on stuff. Even writers need a little something out of scope of traditional writing to feed the creative soul. Here is what I highly recommend and what I keep for creative tools.
- Watercolor Paints: you can go to the dollar store and get the watercolor kits or you can go to Joanns and for ten bucks get the watercolor tubes. I use them for creating backgrounds, just playing when my mind has been so full of words, I need something that doesn’t require too much language processing.
- Pens, markers, pencils: I will admit to being an office supply junkie. I am fully addicted to new pens and pencils. I love makers, gel pens, colored pencils, Papermate Flair pens, and my fave are Pentel RSVP pens in purple. They just make writing, drawing, doodling so much more fun and interesting. Sometimes, it helps me to brainstorm in different colors to see patterns.
- Paper or Card Stock: A writer needs paper, whether hand writing or printing from a computer. If you want to make little notes or cards with writing or doodles, it helps to have sturdier card stock around and a good pair of scissors.
- Another thing that the paper is good for is making Word tiles. Inspired by Susan Wooldridge’s poem crazy. She creates word tiles and has her students draw out so many words and they have to create a poem. But I have also used them to inspire photos, or doodling or messages to friends. I think of word tiles as a great way to get out of stuckness because you have to work within the confines of the words you picked, it brings out the creative self.
- Tactile: A great toolbox as something wth texture that you can play with, touch in between or during projects. There is something about the switching of the cerebral writing, organizing to something that is just about touch. It changes our posture, calls on different parts of the brain, creates flow through other avenues. especially when stressed or up against a deadline, having some tactile object like play-dough or clay or even different types of fabric can re-direct us.
- TIME! Make sure that you give yourself time to use the tools in your toolbox. Our creative expression is of great importance. Even if you have a job and work forty hours a week, it is essential to our health that we take time for creative expression. I have said before, Brene’ Brown, a well know mental health writer, says that “UNUSED creative expression is NOT benign.” It will manifest itself in agitation, frustration, anger, guilt. A host of negative feelings that eat away at our self-esteem. So being creative helps you be a better you.
- Miscellaneous: 1) Music: I know for me when I am working on certain projects I have specific music that I listen to that creates the mood and environment that I want, especially if I am writing and I want to tune out the noise. 2) Add some acrylic paint as well. The colors are brighter and you get different results by blending. It is just a different than watercolors but fun. 3) Ribbons and stickers. These are just bits of whimsy to add to your toolbox. Maybe you only use them once in a while. I love using my own stickers to decorate packages when I send out orders. 4) Glue. All kinds but at least a good glue stick and a reliable craft glue, like Aleene’s tacky Glue. 5) A Journal. Whether you are a writer or an artist, a photographer or florist, keep a journal. They are great in offering us a chance to reflect. Maybe you just have a project journal. That’s ok. Its just another handy dandy tool for your box.
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Hello Everyone! I’m Susan: a Writer, Speaker, Coach and Creator.
Creativity and I have been friends since I was a kid. I was always involved in a creative project…from putting together neighborhood skits and plays, writing stories, dance, theater. I loved to play with my creative side from painting, photography, to writing... 