July 2012 .:. Biz Goals

June was full and fuller. Busy in the studio. Busy on the computer. Busy doing research and making plans. All in all a good month, and now we’re on to July.

I realised in the midst of attempting to cross all things off my list for June that there was more thought and more work that needed to go into the”About Liz” section of the website. In fact there was (and is) a lot more thought that needed and needs to happen.

I have become totally wrapped up in creating the jewelery I am making. The art pendants I’ve been doing for a little while, and in addition the creation of my initial pendants (see above), with an alphabet and flower patterns of my own creation. But I realised in the process it’s about more than creating beautiful things for people to wear around their necks and wrists, there is a deeper meaning to the work for me, and that’s what I need to tease out. Comb out words and thoughts from the beads and the colour and the gold and the silver and look at them, and then write about them. So that’s my biggest goal for July.

So here was JUNE

1. Contact the potential licensers I identified in March. Try to get all contacts out by end of June. – one potential license in the works!
2. “About Liz” on website – still working on this one
3. Finish contacting potential retail outlets and keep researching more. – Research happened but no contacts yet.
4. Etsy shop research and planning to get more sales going. – Research and planning and lot of new ideas
5. Press releases and announcements for jewelery – move to July
6. Walk everyday for at least 30 minutes in the morning. Breathe the air, listen to the birds, and feel my feet touch the ground. – Most days this happened, a few days it didn’t and on the days it didn’t my day was lacking.

JULY

1. About Liz section of the website, and also a deeper diving into why I’m making jewelery.
2. Retail outlets.
3. Paint
4. Have some holiday time
5. Walk on the beach at least 5X
6. Dream

Welcome in July, and all its summer-y loveliness. Hope you all have a wonderful month!

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IF you are new to The Meetup or would like to play along, here’s the scoop:

• Post a list of your business related goals for the current month on the 1st of each month on your blog. {If the 1st falls on a weekend, post on the following Monday.}
• Come back over here and leave a link to your goals blog post in the comments of my current month’s goals.
• And then {and this is the most important part, since we are a community} visit all the links in the comments, stop in and say hello, have a conversation, meet and greet and etc.

June 2012 .:. Biz Goals

I announced to a group of friends a month or so ago that I was going to spend the next wee while putting energy into my etsy shop and really working at making it work, instead of just complaining that it didn’t feel like it was working, and doing nothing about it.

Part of what was holding me back was all the things I knew I’d need to learn about: SEO, ROI, Relevancy, Analytics, Keywords and stats. Ugh. But since I said it out loud to a group of people who will keep me accountable, in I dove, and yes, the water was cold, but it’s warmed up a bit since I took the plunge. I bought a book, I signed up for an on-line seminar, and I started talking to people.

My sales have inched up a teeny bit, not in an earth-shattering way, but I’m still working the knowledge I’ve gained, and what HAS happened is that with the help I sought out, I got a lot of my products to the first page of etsy searches, so I’m getting viewed, like 50X more than I was, and getting favorited more too. The popular wisdom is that the sales will follow, and so this month I will continue to work the plan I’ve come up with, and see what happens.

Before I started doing this, the big question-issue-concern that I’d been avoiding was: what if what I make is not of enough interest to buyers on Etsy? And now, I’ve taken a few steps back, donned my “scientific assessment” cap, and I’m ready to look at whether what I make is working overall, and if so, great, but if not, how can I made adjustments and re-think, re-imagine and re-look at what I’m creating, and what I want to create. I’m not talking about creating to fill a demand, but creating that will fulfill me, and make me excited and energised, and sell. The mysterious formula for that I’ve discovered for that? Keep trying things till something works.

So here was MAY

1. Research and contact some retail spaces for jewelery sales. Bay Area, and more. – Done the research, and am working on the contacting part.
2. Contact the potential licensors I identified in March. Try to get all contacts out by end of April.
3. Get packages off to the 2 companies that are interested in my design work before 15 April. – Done, and waiting for responses.
4. Etsy shop marketing – Done and still doing!
5. About Liz on website
6. Press releases and announcements
7. Drawing, sketching, doodling. – this has been so much fun!
8. Practice NOT comparing my progress to other people’s. Practice being on my own timeline, knowing that I will get where I’m going on time. - this has been an on-going practice, and I have to say it’s tougher than I thought, even knowing how tough it would be.

and June will be much of the same.

JUNE

1. Contact the potential licensors I identified in March. Try to get all contacts out by end of June.
2. “About Liz” on website
3. Finish contacting potential retail outlets and keep researching more.
4. Etsy shop research and planning to get more sales going.
5. Press releases and announcements for jewelery
6. Walk everyday for at least 30 minutes in the morning. Breathe the air, listen to the birds, and feel my feet touch the ground.

Let’s make June divine, and celebrate the joy in our work and our lives.

________________________

IF you are new to The Meetup or would like to play along, here’s the scoop:

• Post a list of your business related goals for the current month on the 1st of each month on your blog. {If the 1st falls on a weekend, post on the following Monday.}
• Come back over here and leave a link to your goals blog post in the comments of my current month’s goals.
• And then {and this is the most important part, since we are a community} visit all the links in the comments, stop in and say hello, have a conversation, meet and greet and etc.

A Start to Re-Defining Success

I’ve been thinking a lot these past months about success. I’ve spent time with friends in conversation about success and what it means to us. How we define it as a culture. How I define it for myself. How the idea of success can creep in and change a moment, and how we all have our own measuring stick for what success is for us.

This past weekend I went to a Battle of the Bands at a local high school with my husband. One of his private music students was in one of the bands playing. There were some great bands, and there were also some nervous kids and some false starts and some out notes, but overall it was a truly great night. I sat there in the audience listening to each band play there 3 or 4 songs: some covers, mixed in with some originals and I felt gratitude.

I felt gratitude to each and every one of the kids that got up there to share their gifts, their passion, their excitement and their hopes of winning because it reminded me that I am on this path to do the same; to share with others what drives me to create, and keep creating. It’s the winning that I sometimes trip over, the idea that in the process of working towards a creative goal there may be a winner and there may be a loser.

And I might be the loser.

I might not get into a show in a gallery I’ve always wanted to show at, one of my illustrations might not get picked for the poster that I was competing for, my design work might not get accepted by a publisher that I so hoped to work with, and etc.

Watching those kids jump around on stage, playing music together, having fun and sharing their hearts, I thought: wow, this is success. It’s the trying for something and following through. Win or lose. Good or bad.

For me personally, I am looking at re-defining what success is, and that doesn’t necessarrily include huge licensing deals or a solo show in a big gallery. It does, however, mean trying for something and following through. Would I turn down a big show or a great deal? Of course not, I’m not crazy. If I don’t get either does that make me a failure? Not even close.

Every day I get up and try for something, even if it’s just settling down the ugly voices in my head, or cleaning my studio because I can’t find my favourite drawing pencil. Each day I get up and think about the projects I have on the table or on the computer monitor or on the easel and I’m excited to dive in and solve a problem or finish up a project that’s just about there and make notes on the new ideas I gather during the creative process.

Every day I show up in my own life, on my own creative path and I create, and I’ve made my living this way for a lot of years now. So the beginnings of my own personal redefinition of success equals going for something and following through.

My husband’s student’s band rocked that high school auditorium and had people up on their feet yelling and clapping and waving lit up cell phones in time with the beat. The crowd was yelling encore encore as they finished their last song.

They didn’t win.

Were they successful? Damn straight they were.

The Dream Big Award: Nominate Someone!

Is there someone in your life who has consistently inspired you?

Is there someone in your life who has inspired you to dream bigger?

Is there someone who inspired you so much that you
put that dream you’d been hiding in your back pocket into motion?

Nominate him or her for the Dream Big Award!

Beginning this week, with the Dream Big Award, the website CreateMixedMedia will host a series of 3 more awards all centered around Christine Mason Miller’s book Desire to Inspire. (see below) Each award corresponds to a chapter in the book, and each week, Christine will share a bit about the chapter and how the award links to the book.

• The DREAM BIG Award (boldly making one’s dream a reality)
• The MOUNTAIN CLIMBER Award (overcoming great challenge with a positive perspective)
• The MAKE-A-DIFFERENCE Award (inspiring us to be of service to others)
• The LIVING IT FULLY Award (offering a beautiful example of being present in every moment)

At the end of each week’s post, you are free to nominate your special someone, by leaving a comment explaining who you wish to nominate and why. {Please include a link to this person’s blog or website if they have one.}

Each week, everyone who comments will be entered to win a copy of Desire to Inspire, and then on March 15, the winners of the four awards—who will be selected by a specially appointed panel from CreateMixedMedia—will be announced on Christine Mason Miller‘s site.

Haven’t you always wanted to nominate someone for an award? Well, now’s your chance!

For ALL the details: you can visit Christine or CreateMixedMedia.

At Work on Ideas: pinterest-ing pins

Seeing sketches in mid-creation, or drawing tables filled with the tools of a craft, journals being worked on and creativity in session always gives me a thrill. I love to get glimpses of how others work, aspects of the processes that other people use, a peek into someone else’s world.

(clockwise from top left):
journals on Wild Thyme Creative {pinned by Theresa L.}
A Canvas for Creativity by Lucrecer Braxton (found via Liz Lamoreux}
Journaling 101 by Chookooloonks {pinned by Trish W.}
Pen & Ink by Nicola Hensel {found via Pia Jane Bijkerk}
Sketches by Emerson Made (pinned by me}

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Each week a different topic illustrated with some of my favourite images from Pinterest.

If you are a Pinterest user, pinning on pinterest please remember to “Link with Love” and credit the maker, the creator, the ideator, or the originator.

If you’d like to share on Pinterest you can find me here!