I wanted to talk to you all about fishing. How many of y'all like to fish you like to fish? Some of you like, I thought this was about art today. Some of you know, I have to say some people like to fish but they don't like to bait the hook is that you like I can I can get with that, you know, it's like, I like to eat fish. I like to throw the thing but I don't necessarily like the debate the hook or whatever I love. I don't get the fish very much.
But I grew up fishing. My granddaddy was a fisherman, we, we had a place in the lake go out there, I caught my first like five pound bass. Actually, everybody had gone to lunch, I ended up at like six years old, which is so dangerous in his boat fishing out of the dock and just threw it over there. And this five pound basket, my line is like, wow, I started hollering and screaming family game data, they found us and all that it was great.
But, you know, as I'm looking at my last year, you know, and what's going on this year and what God has for me next year, and I hope you're doing the same thing you know, right now. The Lord started really highlighting to me fishing, and you know, what fishing looks like and how you can fish for different things. And I want you to start to understand in your business. And hopefully you do understand this. There is not just one way to be successful as an artist as the artist that God's called doobie. There are many, many, many, many different ways.
Some of you love to do your art his ministry, some of you love to sell your art some of you love to teach some of you love to write some of you love to perform some of you love to, you know, do it in the context of church, whatever it is, there's lots and lots of different methodologies and ways expressions to do that. And the Lord started showing me this about fishing. And I was like, Yeah, that's so true is like, you know, you've got a fishing pole, right, like a rod and reel, you know. And if you throw that out there, and if you're in good water, if you're around the fish, you know, you got good bait, and that sort of they more than likely, you're gonna catch fish. And if you do that, every day, you come back, you know, you see people that y'all ever watched those shows on Alaska and on people living up in the Arctic, and that subsistence living I love that kind of thing. And they're like, they're going out there every day and catching their fish for their meal.
And that's really that's awesome, I think. And they're loving that, and that gives them enough fish for the day. But then there's some people that they're like, well, I need more than just one fish a day, I need like several fish a day. And so they turn to these things called trot lines, you ever heard of a trotline. A trotline is where you like, run a big old line across a part of a lake or a pond or even in a stream. And you drop lines off of the line with a little weight and a hook. And instead of catching one fish, you can catch, you know, eight or 10 depending on how many lines that you have. And so you may put out eight or 10 lines and you may get two or three or four in a night as opposed to just one which is like awesome.
Or a fish trap. You ever heard of a fish trap. Like I love making fish traps because they're beautiful, like Native American fish traps, they love they are like these cones or things that are like a beautiful basket and you put it in the creek and the fish as they're flowing. They'll run in there and they go in but they can't get out. So you may be able to catch 567 Fish depending on how many are running and that sort of thing. But then you kind of graduate and you see what the you know, we talked about in the Bible.
Like the disciples when they were fishing, they weren't out there with a cane pole like us, you know, beside of the lake, they were out there with these huge nets and they would throw the nets out and that sort of thing and you know, depending on where the fish were or whatever I mean that took a lot of work you remember the story in the Bible right about the fishermen and they just like they've been out all night throw in the Can you imagine throwing that net and doing all that work and all that kind of thing.
But they would get a lot of fish that made their living like that it just took a lot more energy and then there's this thing that I started finding out about I don't know maybe six or seven years ago when I started work watching Oh watch that show. Life below zero y'all ever seen that life below 00 I love me I love that show. And I love anything like curse of Oak Island and Gold Rush and all that I'm a total guy when it comes to that. But live below zero and live in Alaska, somebody the last Alaskan frontier or something like that. They develop these things called Fish wheels.
Now you ever heard of a fish wheel? Official? Imagine a Ferris wheel that catches fish is pretty doggone awesome. And what it does is as that ferris wheel is coming around, all you do is you push it out there in the water, and you tie it down. And as the water is flowing, that thing is, is catching fish. Oh, every time every time a bucket goes in, fish are getting caught, and it throws the fish off over here on a bucket. So literally, you could put that thing in the water when the fish are running in the right spot. You go home, drink your coffee, drink your hot chocolate, thank you, Jesus. You come back out there this afternoon, and you got a pile of fish.
Now, I think about some of those guys like out in Alaska, there's one guy that I like to watch. And he says, Well, I've got to have fish for me. But I also got to have fish for my dogs. So I use a fish oil because I gotta have a cyst. I can't catch enough fish with my one little rod to feed me and the dogs every day, I'd be out there fishing all the time. Or you got some people they're like, you know, what is me in a little cabin up here in Alaska, if I catch a fish a day, and I shoot a caribou every now and then I'm great. I got all I need. This is success for me.
Now, can you see how I'm easing into talking about business because your business. And the way that you plan your next year is exactly like this fishing analogy. Some of you are in a position where you're like, my goal is to have that fish wheel. My goal is to have fish coming in all the time because I want to quit my job that I've had for years, or I'm getting laid off, or this or that happen, I need a fish wheel, I need that multi-channel approach that Parthenon that we talked about, I need all of those things working and I need I need to be holding that thing up.
Well guess what it takes a while to do that done it you got to put those pieces in, you got to test and measure, you got to make sure the machine is running, you got to make sure you're in front of the people. But eventually, when you get that thing running man, fish are coming in. That's the kind of thing that's the kind of business that that I built, you know, in my business in my basket business. So that fish are just coming in referrals and shows and sales and people walking into the studio and social media businesses coming in.
But some of you are in a place where you're like, you know, what, if I had a fish a day, or if I had three fish a month, that would change my life, like Matt, I'm retired, I got money coming in, or my spouse works, and we're not really looking to my art to make money, I just need a little bit coming in, or I'm just trying to pay for my supplies and make this make this this hobby not so expensive anymore, you know, everybody is in a different place. And here's what I want to say to you.
The way that you set up your business, alright, determines the amount of fish that you're going to be catching. And also the amount of work that you're going to have to put into catching those fish. If I need a bucket load of fish, but all I'm using is a cane bowl, it's going to be really, really difficult to catch as many fish as I want. That's one of those things, you've heard me say this before, you can't have business dreams with hobby habits, you've heard me say that, that that's one of those things where that that's one of those dynamics, because you're like, I want all these fish coming in, I want all these sales coming in. But I'm not willing to do anything other than just do what I've been doing and just kind of throw in my throw my line in and just well, you know.
If you want systematic business coming in, you got to build a system. And what I figured out is, you know, you don't just have to have a fish trap, you don't just have to have a net. I mean, you can get a lot of fish with a net. But I mean, how many people know you your tie yourself out quick. But if you build a system, which is what we're teaching you here and created to thrive, you can begin to have regular business coming in on a regular basis and not have to work near as hard.
I remember for me when and we there's many of you in this in this mentoring program who have added instead of just selling your work, you know directly you've added wholesale, you've added shows, you've added a web of E commerce site on your website. You have started a membership for the class, the members of your classes that you're that you're teaching, you say hey, the class doesn't have to end. We can keep talking about this and we can continue the conversation just like we do in Korea to thrive. I remember when I started when I was thick in my art business and making great money and But I was I was throwing the net, I was throwing the net. And I remember when people started asking me, Matt, we want more than just reading your books, we want interaction with you, we want to be able to ask you questions.
We want all this back in 2016. And I said, okay, okay, well, and I am God's gonna show me this thing about membership. So I started a membership. And I remember when we got 100 People in created to thrive. And do you know what that did, though? 100 people to an artist income, because the membership that there was $37 a month. And we didn't have we had like this many resources. He was like me and my camera. You know, Deborah remembers that it was it was like slim pickins. But do you know what 100 People buy in $37 a month did my income. That was an additional $3,700 A month coming into my art business?
Well, guess what, I didn't have to do as much traveling anymore. I don't have to do as much shows anymore. I was starting to build that fish wheel. And over the years, in every area of our life, I'm always looking for, what can I do, that will allow me to have the same impact or more. But at the same time, make me do less, allow me to do less work, so that I can focus on the things that I want to be focused on in my life, making great art, loving Jesus serving my community, loving my family, all of that sort of thing. Is this resonating with anybody, because I see a lot of heads nodding. And that sort of thing.
I just want to say, wherever you are, in your business, you can begin you need to begin to think, what kind of tools am I using? And am I getting the results that I want. And if not, I can't just hope for more results, I got to change the tools, I got to change the methodology. And that is what created thrive is based on obviously is being able to give you the step by step pathway that you need and a myriad of tools, so that you can begin to sort of build this machine that is bringing you business and bringing you referrals no matter what's going on.
And I and I would stop with this. But I mean, you, you heard me say all through the pandemic, all through COVID, when everything was shut down, guess what I was still getting, I was still getting website inquiries, I was still getting referrals from clients, I was still getting referrals from interior design to sell them expensive work. Why? Because just because a couple of my channels had slowed down, a couple of my tools and my marketing tool belt had slowed down. There were others that were still working, that that machine that this wheel that I had built, was still working. And so as you're thinking about this year, coming up, and you're thinking about what's going on this last year, I want you to be really focused on what has been working, what part of my my business economy, you know, my business ecosystem is really working well.
What can I turn up a little bit? What is like that is not working, what new things are out there that I want to try. Alright, do more of what is working, turn up the things that have been working a little bit if that's possible. And always be on the lookout for new things as well, that are new opportunities for you. If you'll do that and start to plan like that. And think like that, from a systems perspective. You can build a business and what does that fish we'll do that fish we'll a mentality. That is what we call regulated cash flow. That means on a regular basis, daily, weekly, monthly, there is money. And there are sales coming into your art business on a regular basis. That is how you move from doing your art as a hobby, doing it part time and just barely scraping by to actually stepping into doing it on a regular basis is that process of developing all of those strategies together as a machine so all right. Hey, is that good i i wanted to incur I just felt that strong this morning because I've like I just woke up this morning and the Lord is like fish, fish. I'm like, okay, Jesus, we're gonna talk about fish.