352 - 5-Minute Mentoring: 5-Step Framework For Thriving As An Artist

I have a confession to make.

When I first started building my art business, I had no idea what I was doing at first. 😳

Okay, maybe that isn’t that big of a confession - I think a lot of business owners feel this same way! 

Trying to turn your creative life into a successful art business creates a whole host of challenges, frustrations, and uncertainty.  Everybody tells you that they have the “secret sauce” of strategy, mindset, and tactics, but often they just leave you confused, bewildered and nowhere closer to where God wants you to be.  

Luckily, I had the world’s best mentor on my side. 😉

Over time, God showed me a simple, effective methodology for thriving as a Christian artist.  It consists of five principles you can put into your art business to make sure it aligns with God’s unique design for you.  I call it the “Created to Thrive Artist’s Framework.”    

On this episode of 5-Minute Mentoring, I’m going to share the elements of the framework with you.  Grab a notebook and pen so you don’t miss anything! 

And when you’re ready to build a business that helps you thrive spiritually, artistically, and financially?  Here are 4 ways I can help: 

1️⃣  Get my FREE Guide, “5 Biggest Mistakes Artists Make When Pricing Their Art” Struggling to price your art in a way that feels authentic to you and your faith - but still makes you money?  Make sure you’re not making any of these mistakes!  Download here
➡️  https://thrive.matttommeymentoring.com/5-biggest-mistakes-when-pricing-art

2️⃣  Read the Book: Check out my book “How to Price Your Art: Pricing with Confidence for Sales & Profit” on Amazon ➡️  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097XBP733

3️⃣  Create Art and Profit: Discover how to create the art you love while still providing for yourself financially in my “How to Price Your Art” workshop. Get more details here
➡️  https://thrive.matttommeymentoring.com/how-to-price-your-art-evergreen

4️⃣  Ready to truly thrive?  Join the Created to Thrive Artist Mentoring Program to discover how to build your art business and live the abundant life Jesus promised you as an artist in His Kingdom! Click here for details and to enroll! 
➡️  https://www.matttommeymentoring.com/artmentor.html

Connect with me online: https://thrive.matttommeymentoring.com/stay-connected

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Transcript

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If you've been wondering how to crack the code on how to build a successful art business, I'm going to give you five steps today that are part of a framework that are going to really simplify things for you here today on 5-Minute Mentoring.

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SPEAKER_00: 0:13

Have you ever wanted to have someone in your life who you could ask real questions about your art, your business, and even your walk with the Lord? Well, that's exactly what we do every Friday here on Five Minute Mentoring, where I answer one question from one of my awesome podcast listeners in order to help you start really thriving as the artist you know God created you to be. Why, my friend, so glad that you're with me today here on 5-Minute Mentoring. You know, after helping artists build successful art businesses for a lot of years and also turning my art hobby into a multi-six-figure art business over the years, I've realized that there are a lot of, you know, kind of misconceptions when it comes to what it takes to actually build a successful art business. And over the years, I've found that artists really kind of go into one of two camps. Either they think that it's all related to the art that they're creating and, you know, their uniqueness. And, you know, does anybody else do what they do? And is there a lot of competition in the market? And they're all caught up in that end of things. Or on the other side, there's this idea that, you know, I got to be the latest, greatest marketing guru and do all the tips and tricks and all the social media stuff and all of this. And they get all caught up in the and the tactics and in the marketing strategies, and they kind of bounce back and forth. And both of those camps really, really frustrate people. The other thing I found for Christian artists in particular is a lot of times artists who are believers can just kind of sit back and think that God's just going to do everything and that they don't have to do anything. They just have to wait on him to kind of bring their art career to fruition. And again, that's just not reality. And it's not how the kingdom of God works. You know, as I was learning to build my own art business as led by the Holy Spirit and really step into the things that God had for me, he began to show me a framework, a methodology, if you will, to build my art business and my life in a way that not only glorified him, but it was also profitable and really allowed me to build the life that he had called me to live. I want to share those five things with you today because it's a really simple framework I call the Created to Thrive Artist Framework. And once you learn this, you can begin to employ these principles and these pieces of the framework into your life. The first part of that framework is what I call think, which is really all about learning to cultivate your inner life so that you can thrive in your external life. Again, everything that happens externally starts internally. And most of the time, I've found that artists are dealing with what I call subconscious obstructions, and they don't even know that they're dealing with them. They're just running around over and over and over in these self-sabotaging patterns, wondering why things aren't working out, why they're going through the same old and Issues why things never work for them, but they seem to work for other people. Sound familiar? That's subconscious obstructions. Once you learn how to walk through that and move through those by learning to thrive internally, you begin to thrive internally. The second part of the steps, you know, in our framework, then once you start learning to think and thrive internally is create and not just creating in a vacuum, but learning to create unique and masterful and skillfully executed art with the Holy Spirit. And that doesn't mean that you're creating all quote unquote Christian themed art, but it means you're allowing the Holy Spirit to lead you in your creative process in a very intentional way. So are you starting to get this? You change the way that you think, get rid of those subconscious obstructions, all right? You begin then to create in confidence with the Holy Spirit as led by him. And guess what? As you start doing that, you start wanting to share your story. Your work starts to get out there and you begin to number three, connect. Connect with ideal prospects, partners, and clients so that you can begin to build a niche of clients who will not only purchase from you, That leads you to the fourth part of the framework, which is all about building, learning to build an art business that becomes the vehicle by which you actually take your art to the marketplace and also create that faithful income stream so that you can have the time and energy and money that you need to do the thing that God's called you to do. And the number five part of the framework is what we call live, which is where you begin to intentionally craft your life. in a way that serves you in the season that you're in. That framework, and there's a lot more to it, but that framework is the basis for everything that I teach inside the program, inside the mentoring program, everything that I've followed in my life, everything that I teach artists to do. Because listen, if you just try to do the marketing stuff or you just try to do the art stuff and you don't do the inner work that it takes, you don't learn to create with the Holy Spirit. You don't learn to authentically connect and intersect with ideal clients, prospects, You don't actively and intentionally build a business that becomes the vehicle for that faithful income stream to be developed. And the number five, you don't actually craft a life and a business intentionally that fits the life that God's given you and the season of life that you're in. Listen, without those five things, you really either get out into striving on your own or you get into burnout trying to do it all by yourself or either just frustrated and give up. Listen, give up. Giving up, being frustrated, burnout, that's not God's best. God's best is that you would thrive in everything that he's called you to, spiritually, artistically, and spiritually. If you want to learn more about this five-part framework, I'd love to invite you to watch a free training that I have on this very subject. I'll go a lot deeper into this process and hopefully give you some tools and next steps for you to begin to step into all that God's got for you as you start building your own successful art business. My friend, whether you're just starting out or you've been doing this for years, it's absolutely possible for you to thrive as the artist that God called you to be. I love you. Thanks for being on with me. And remember, until next time, Until next time, you were created to thrive. Bye.