I was having trouble reconciling my sense of responsibility to my professional training, with a recurring entrepreneurial drive that I didn't know how to express! I knew it was time to work for myself but I didn't know how to marry my skill set to an enterprise that I wouldn't have to adopt someone else's persona to perform. How can an artist who loves people, hates the hard sell and doesn't like leaving the house, establish an international clientele?!
I joined the Experience Product Masterclass and learned new ways to quantify and value what I do; even the things I do that I've always considered the 'faffing about' between proper jobs.
I've been between 'proper jobs' for several years now and EPM gave me keys to understand the value of my 'time-wasting' activities, which WERE: maniacal visual archiving; incessant internet auction site trawling; spaztastic curation of my Instagram feed; and soapbox-style critique of interior design/home improvement TV shows.
NOW I appreciate I have ways to quantify and communicate the value of: my extensive terms of reference; my ability to recognise genuine deals on decor items with cachet and investment potential; my distinct aesthetic sensibility and ability to help others latch on to theirs; the service and value I can provide to folks living in a particular DIY interior design gap, while representing myself authentically and empowering them to do the same.
Because of EPM I've experienced a paradigm shift that has me thrilled at the prospect of launching an online product I wouldn't have otherwise conceived. My mission is to coach folks through the discovery of their inner-interior-design-style-maven, then to formulate their own tailor-made interior design template in four weeks or less. I'm confident that I can market and deliver my product successfully, and that it's only the first of a stable that will represent the kind of business I had always hoped to build.
I am currently designing a website through the powerful, yet friendly giant that is the Heroic platform. It will incorporate a 'Fast Result' freebie PDF and a 'Start With an Experience' voucher for a free 45 minute session avec mois, both which I have compiled and designed.
The PDF will do double duty in a 'Give Them What They Want' campaign when I add it as a thank you to the survey I formulated earlier in the Masterclass. All these actions are new to me and required engagement with technologies I knew I should utilise in the digital world but without really knowing why. Well, now I am orientated and this is another important win for me.
As a mother of eight (now adult) children, I haven't yet lived a conventional life, nor do I want to express my artistic practice in a 'usual' manner. I've been looking for a way to make 'Mutualist' artworks that speak of and to their owners.
Providing this product will give me the opportunity to present a new way of thinking about art while serving in way that is meaningful to my clients and me (and may pay for international travel I would leave the house for!)
What is your biggest takeaway from EPM?
The revelation of all that I have to offer and how little I had previously, personally valued it. It's like asking a fish to tell you about water. Before EPM, I was the proverbial fish; taking my distinct talents and expertise for granted and assuming since I hadn't managed to market them I had nothing new to offer.
I also had some wonky ideas about what I should be doing' but since it was work I certainly didn't want to do, I was stuck. HOWEVER, I now understand (because EPM helped me take a punt on myself) that there is a way to marry my professional training with the 'time-wasting stuff' I do daily, that can provide value for others and income for me!
How did EPM help you become successful?
EPM gave me keys to understand the value of my 'time-wasting' activities (maniacal visual archiving; incessant internet auction site trawling; spaztastic curation of my Instagram feed; soapbox-style critique of interior design/home improvement TV shows) - ways to quantify and communicate that value while giving me the freedom to represent myself authentically.
How has EPM and your success impacted your life?
I now know that my artistic sensibility is valuable and purposeful and not the frivolous, peripheral 'bent' I once thought it. I have reason and ways to successfully test, market and deploy any number of ideas hereafter and get to make room for two of my top five Clifton Strengths! YAY - this genie is out!
What has been the biggest change in your business?
The biggest change in my business is (potentially) its reach in terms of prospects and innovation. My first product gives me a foot in the door to clients that my home-based artistic practice could not. Previously, my thinking was 'sell through galleries' but that's not a good fit for someone who lives far from a metropolitan area.
The interior design template is a way to establish a tribe and serve them in a way the 'autonomous artwork' does not, while also engendering opportunities to create the 'Mutualist' artworks I actually want to make as we develop in our relationship with each other.
What are you most excited about moving forward with your Experience Product?
My first Experience Product portends any number of others and the activities of this journey have provided pace and spaces to create that I have thrilled to - Yum! Now I know I have good reason to nurture my 'flakey' self and I have meaningful forms with which to express and extend my artistic practice (meaningful to my lovely clients AND me!)