“Overwhelmed.” This is the word I hear again and again from creative professionals who are trying to create work they love, while creating momentum for their career.
A writer in one of my courses recently asked about the next step – the step beyond developing one’s platform and audience. As he put it:
“Ultimately we do need to reach some critical mass for our efforts to have any financial payoff.”
He ventured into the areas of money and finance surrounding one’s creative work. I tend to frame this as making one’s vision as a SUSTAINABLE one, whereby you aren’t just surviving by making compromises, or “just getting by.”
Are all creative professionals starving artists? No.
Can you be creative and productive? Yes.
Can you be a successful business owner and still be creative? Absolutely.
This writer then asked a series of questions on details about the growth of my own company, and what it really looks like on a practical level. I quickly realized how much of this how much of this is a black box to many people. That the gap between making your vision and making your career as a creative professional sustainable is HUGE.
Sure, many people have read books & articles; they have some experience in business; they are smart and capable. Yet… developing a sense of momentum eludes them.
To address his questions, I decided to develop a brand new online course, and I am giving it a test run this November and December. We are going to try to cover a lot in 4-weeks:
- SESSION 1: STARTING SMALL, Nov 10 – 16
I have seen this again and again: someone struggles to create and launch a product or service, sees it flounder, and gives up. In this first session, we will discuss how to focus your vision, your goals, and harness your resources to begin testing your ideas and turning vision into reality.- Doing less: the craft of focus
- Managing your entire life
- Celebrating milestones & small successes
- SESSION 2: WORKING SMARTER, Nov 17 – 23
Many professionals I know are overwhelmed with responsibilities and full of anxiety about how to truly manage it all. In this session, we discuss establishing weekly and monthly processes for creating momentum. In this session, we cover:- Energy & time management
- Productive work processes
- Experiment before you commit
- SESSION 3: MANAGING THE TERROR, FEAR AND PANIC ATTACKS OF BEING A CREATIVE PROFESSIONAL, Dec 1 – 7
This is the behinds-the-scenes stuff that people rarely talk about publicly, but drives so much of our actions and decisions. In this session, we’ll talk about realistic ways of managing it all from a human perspective, including mental and physical health.- Replenishing resources
- The value of collaboration
- Turning off
- SESSION 4: EARNING MONEY, HOW DO PEOPLE DO IT, REALLY?, Dec 8 – 14
What is the most difficult price hurdle to overcome? $1. We are surrounded by stories of financial success, but many of us remain in the dark as to how to actually begin to earning revenue and profit. In this session, we will review different manners of charging for your work, via products and services, and how a marketing funnel works to turn attention into action and revenue.- Identifying your audience’s core needs
- How people earn money
- Marketing funnels
The material and discussion will stem from my personal experience in running my own company and working with hundreds of creative professionals. I realized the other day that WeGrowMedia is coming up on it’s five year anniversary, which seems astounding. There is a lot that I look back on and feel could be useful to others hoping to create work that is meaningful, yet sustainable.
This is an interactive course, where I offer personalized feedback, and a group dynamic with other students via a private Facebook Group. It can’t be understated how valuable the discussions have been in this group in other courses I teach, and I have been told that access to that discussion alone is worth more than the price of this course. It becomes a supportive community that keeps you focused and motivated.
This course is geared toward people who have made progress in establishing key foundations of their vision, but find it challenging to grow their audience, earn revenue, and build momentum.
If you dream of making your career as a creative professional sustainable, but are stumbling at balancing it all, this course is for you.
Can we cram all of this into four weeks (Nov 10 – Dec 14)? I’m honestly not sure – this course covers a lot of ground. That’s why I’m inviting you to be a part of the launch at a low introductory price of $99, way less than I should be charging for it. The first group to go through this course with me will get an extra dose of hands-on guidance, and I will ask for your feedback on how I can best address your needs. I believe together we can make this course the best it can be.
You can read more and sign up here: Become a Creative Professional: Managing the Overwhelm of Turning Your Creative Vision Into a Sustainable Career.
Thanks!
-Dan