My cousin came to visit us in the Netherlands recently. He’s made a living as a professional musician for many years now. He’s amazing and you should check him out.

He’s also really into permaculture, regenerative agriculture, and community building for resilience. If you’ve spent any time with me at all, you’ve had to endure some geeking out on one of these topics. We did just that on our ancestral road trip across Denmark this summer.

He’s weaved together a successful living as a performer, teacher, and music director. But into his late 40’s he wants to make an even bigger difference and create more financial security.

I’ve been thinking about my creative friends out there who have businesses as photographers, florists, clothing & jewelry designers, artists, and writers. You have, despite the challenges, made careers from your creativity. You're amazing!

Being creative, there are some real frustrations you have to deal with in order to make your living. These are real circumstances.

1. Many people don’t value or understand how much work goes into your craft, the combination of skills you’ve developed combined with your unique talent and artistry.
2. You would do this even if you didn’t get paid.
3. Creation and delivery of your product almost solely relies on you.

And because of these real circumstances, you may have developed some of these beliefs. Tell me if you relate to these:

• I have to do it myself, it all relies on my creative skills.
• I’m not sure my art or craft is having the impact I want. I
• have another creative interest but starting something new will be so hard.
• How would I stay on top of my current business?
• I like the money and can’t slow down. If I slow down, the money will stop.
• I’ve had a lot of good luck and I’m not sure I can rely on that moving forward.
• I don’t like business.
• I don’t want employees.
• I’m already charging as much as I can.

This is commonly how it goes. These beliefs can make it hard to reach the next level in your business.

You may believe that you were just lucky and that what you did is not repeatable. BUT it didn’t just happen. It happened because you did the marketing, asked people to buy, and delivered a very high-quality product with great customer service. Now, after all those years of trial and error, you’ve got a nice income from your craft.

All of that was a sh*t ton of work and now you STILL have to work a lot to keep it going.

You don’t see how you can increase your revenue. People already tell you you are too expensive. You don’t have time to create and sell more - maintaining your current levels is taking up all your time. Plus, when you can, you like having a life outside of your work.

You sometimes get bored. You have other interests and ideas as well and think about starting something different. You’re tired. You might also want to have a bigger impact and make a contribution to things you care about. You’re deeply passionate about areas outside your craft.

You feel stuck.

If this is you, please schedule a free session where you’ll leave with a renewed sense of what’s possible in your business to work less and earn more. To free you up to add more brilliance into the world.

In the meantime, here are some actions you can take and we’ll be posting more on this topic.

Step One. Write down all of your accomplishments. Appreciate where you are today and all the ways you created what you have now.

Step Two. Take a breath and dream about life 10 years from now. Where would you like to be in 10 years? Who is around you? How are you spending your days? Take enough time to allow your brain to creatively dream and not let your “practical side” shut it down. This is the first in a three part series devoted to creatives. Next, we'll talk about how and why to do this 10 year visioning exercise.

Lastly, we'll share how you can start thinking creatively about how to work less and earn more, how can you cash in, so to speak, on the expertise you have both in your art and also in business. Sign up and stay tuned!