Creative Careers: 20 Ways To Invest In Yourself
Do you know what all successful artisans have in common?
Whether they be professional poets, artists, dancers or musicians?
No, it’s not a duvet…
It’s that they continued to invest in their craft.
Before we get into the how to’s of investing in yourself, let’s make one thing clear about what it means to be successful because that can mean different things to different people…
What I mean by a successful artisan is a person who is financially stable, continues to produce work that they are satisfied with and excited about doing. A person who gets results without having to suffer for them.
Think of it this way…
When talking about fine art careers, or careers in visual art in general, we AREN’T talking about a Van Gogh story…
Sure, we see Van Gogh as highly successful, but the man never sold a painting the entire time he was alive. We only saw the success of his work after he was gone. He struggled with poverty and suffered quite a bit in his lifetime.
That’s a verrrry different scenario from an artist who is alive to enjoy the wealth and fulfillment of their achievements.
Wait, you’re telling me you can have financial security in a creative career?
Oh honey…
YES YOU CAN!
How do you do that?
Well it takes investing in your art form in various ways.
Before you start heading for the hills yelling
“Yeah, yeah, yeah it takes money to make money, but I’m broke!”
There are ways to invest in yourself that don’t cost you a dime.
Eventually you will get to a point where you have the cash to spend, but there are things you can do to move ahead now AND bring the cash that is missing in your wallet.
So no excuses and no more whining about missing out on opportunities or how you never seem to get that breakthrough to the next level in your career!
At the end of this blog there is a free list just for you! Featuring 20 ways to invest in your craft, so you can start leveling up now!
How it affects Finance
When you invest in yourself, you are ultimately growing your skill level. That means you can charge premium pricing for your services or artwork.
You can also acquire new skills to create multiple income streams and reach larger audiences which brings more clientele.
A perfect example would be a spoken word poet who is doing a 30 minute feature from city to city.
If your set consists of 4-5 poems with some dialogue in between you are probably only going to get the base price the venue is willing to pay performers, unless you are a highly known poet who can draw a huge crowd.
However….
Let’s say you invest in your writing, your performance, and even some new skill sets like oh… Let’s say screenplay writing.
Let’s take it a step even further and say you’ve invested in networking with other poets, writers and actors. You’ve bought their products, invested time and energy into building a relationship with them to form a team.
Now, you’ve created an hour long well planned show that acts as a poetry play incorporating a specific theme or story. It can now be priced at theater ticket pricing. You’re looking at $40 - $80 per ticket, as opposed to $5-$10 ticket for a regular feature.
You’ve got an awesome unique show with a great support team where the audience is thrilled and everyone is making more money.
It’s a win win.
But you had to INVEST something first.
Whether it be money, time or energy.
You had to be willing to partner. You had to be open to learning an asset or knowledge from one of your peers or someone outside of your industry.
Let’s take a look at one more example for a poet…
Say you want to release your next book of poems. You self publish without hiring an editor or spending time with feedback from peers or people you think might read it.
You don’t send out any requests for interviews or any reviews to put on the back of the book.
You promote your book release and finally it’s the night of the big event.
There you are, reading poems or performing out of your new book and when it comes time to sit down at the table to sign and sell copies, you notice a lot of people are walking up to the table, but only half of them are leaving with a book in hand.
The sad reality of this even goes beyond your book release night. Later on, you notice sales continue to drop off and it becomes increasingly harder to sell your book. Especially at venues where no one hears you recite the poems…
Well… Poets, or poetry lovers rather, are picking up your book and seeing the poor quality of the editing, the cover and finding it unpleasant to read, no matter HOW MUCH THEY LOVED HEARING YOU, they aren’t going to buy or promote the book.
The exception to this are your hardcore fans and friends, but everyone else? Not impressed.
If they are having a hard time reading the poems on the page, or getting caught up in the plethora of errors throughout the book, they aren’t going to buy it because they know they aren’t going to go through the headache of reading it.
Let’s look at how this plays out from a visual artist’s perspective...
You’ve got an awesome idea for a new art series.
You’ve done the work and secured a local venue to set up the art. Hard part down right? Should be a breeze now to get them all in and sell some pieces…
But wait… You didn’t invest in the aesthetics of the art opening.
There’s no interactive element for the crowd to become a part of the experience, there are vague artist statements for the pieces and there aren’t any graphic elements to match the exhibit throughout the gallery.
You’ve got wine and cheese though… Good job.
And it looks like constipation from the cheese and a gallery wine hangover are all the crowd left with… well other than the money still in their pockets.
What if you invested in the time and creativity to really level up the opening? What if you had a compelling artist statement for each piece and a board that viewers could write on to get them actively participating in the concept?
What if you actually invested in some public speaking skills and opened up the evening with a moving story about why you did this showcase?
Now your audience is leaving with a connection and more than likely a piece or two of your art.
I think you get the picture of how diverse investing in yourself can be and how vital it is for creative career paths.
I ain’t got the money, Honey!
First of all, I don’t want you beating yourself up every time you see a workshop you really want to go to but feel like you can’t afford or a new product or service you know could benefit you. Stop the guilt right now because that isn’t getting you anywhere.
Stop comparing yourself to other people in your field and feeling broken by seeing the level they are at compared to where you currently are.
There are levels to this entrepreneurship thang and you got to understand that in a creative world no one can be your competitor because it’s based off YOUR unique style.
Now, that being said, I want you to ask yourself one question before you go on believing you’re too broke to invest.
Am I paying other people or myself?
What do I mean by that?
Well, are you spending your 5 bucks at the coffee shop under the illusion that it’s a treat to yo’self, when in actuality it is making the owner of the shop richer?
Who’s really getting paid here?
If you haven’t read The Latte Factor, I HIGHLY suggest it for those of you who are frustrated with always feeling like you don’t have enough money to invest in stocks, retirement or even your own joy and creative life.
It will blow your mind. I’m telling you.
It basically shows you how $5 a day can completely change your life. Start really watching where you are spending your money and who’s really benefiting from it.
Girl, I got debts to pay off, cut to the part where no money is needed!
I got good news for ya!
The ways to invest in your craft without having to pay any money are literally limitless.
All you have to do is be aware of your resources.
Check this out:
I would bet that you got a ton of friends who are in your field or maybe close to it. You at least have acquaintances.
I’m going to ask you to put your pride and ego aside and really look at what skills and special unique flairs those friends and peers of yours bring to the table.
I mean REALLY TRULY see them for the unique beautiful creative geniuses they are.
Here’s the thing….
WE ALL HAVE SOMETHING TO OFFER.
There is a gold mine of knowledge, tips, partnerships and brainstorming ideas that are just waiting to be mined through the people you already know.
Throw your ass the party of the year, invite everyone you think you’d like to learn something from and start networking immediately.
Find out what you can also bring to the table to help and support them in turn. Trade some private lessons or resources and get your growth on!
And if you’re an introvert, hang on, there’s other ways without the icky human contact…
There are TONS of free webinars, EBooks, library classes and college courses you can find online. Not to mention newsletters you can join from highly successful people in your field. These people give out free content all the time, so stop hating and start following them!
I give out a ton of free content in my newsletter and I also follow a lot of top influencers in my field so I can continue to learn and grow. I read and listen to other poets’ work, I check out free gallery crawls of local artists and artist talks. I look for opportunities at every turn to learn something new that could benefit my inspiration, my business and my own development.
Remember that creative entrepreneurship is a steady and slow race.
Don’t beat yourself up with what you can’t do right now, just do what you can.
To get you going, I’ve compiled a list of 20 ways you can invest in yourself and some of them don’t include any money at all.
Download the list and let me know in the comments creative ways you’ve used to invest in yourself!
Liked this blog? Check out this one on “How to Invest In Yourself and Not Feel Guilty About It.”
