Idea2actions Formerly Rhythm Of Profitability | I2a Creative Marketing Strategies

For anyone who's ever had a difficult time selling, it can feel pretty frustrating.  You feel like it's you, maybe you're not good enough.  Maybe you don't have what it takes to be a profitable artrepreneur.  Well, in most cases, it's not you, it may not even be your product, it's your market.  You're selling something to the wrong people.  You know when things are tough, you always want to look for greener grass.  Well, today, we're going to find your greener grass not by focusing on giving up, but by focusing on finding your market.

For many artrepreneurs, we can easily get bitter, jealous, even vengeful when someone close to us becomes more successful than us.  Like Morrissey sang it, we hate it when our friends become successful.  Sometimes, the fear of being hated can also be a deterrent for us to go all out to strive for our success.  We're afraid of how our friends or family will perceive it.  We want to avoid the snide comments, we feel compelled to hide the joy we're getting from our work.  This week, we tackle both the hated and the haters because no one wants to live like that.  The more you can focus on your own purpose, your own dreams, the less you'll care about what others are doing.  The more you can get over the fact that people are going to dislike you because of their own hangups, the happier you'll be.  

Mister Rogers is a legend in television.  His program was in its time, the longest running children's program ever.  He's won multiple awards, and even has one of his famous sweaters in the Smithsonian Institute.  However, if it weren't for a sales presentation he did in 1969 in front of members of the U.S. Senate, particularly Senator Pasture, history may have gone a different way or at least a slower pace.  This week, we break down a powerful negotiation that transpired between Mr. Fred Rogers and Senator Pasture in 1969 as a budget of $20MM was on the line to fund public broadcasting.  You'll hear how to make a sale without making bombastic claims, argumentative tones, or angry threats.  Learn how to become a sales person by just being you.

When times are tough, it's easy to focus on the negatives.  Even when things are going well, it's easy to take inventory on what you don't have enough of..money, house, vacations.  Just like when you set goals for your business, and you have to acknowledge where you are so that your goals have meaning, you need to do the same with your appreciation for what you have.  How would you know how far you've come if you didn't take inventory on where you started?  This week, I want to help you understand how to truly find appreciation in what you have so you can understand how much each day is bringing you.  In short, you're going to sleep with more than you woke up with.

If you had to sell a car, you’d probably be pretty successful at sales because it’s pretty easy to sell the value of a car to someone.  However, when you’re selling your own products and services, you may have a more challenging time selling it because you haven’t turned what you do into something simple to sell like a car.  If you’re telling people a complex story about what you do, it sounds more like a bunch of loose parts when people want to buy a car.  This week we focus on how to become a car in your way of explaining your value, and simplifying your offer.

How much money did you make when you woke up this morning?  If the answer is none, then you need to start focusing on how to change that.  There are two key things you could be leveraging for your business that would help you generate money while you're sleeping.  In a continuation of our 2016 business planning, I teach you what you can start focusing on today so that next year, you're earning money in your sleep.

Last week, I was asked a very profound question, "How well do you unplug from work?"  It got me thinking about how planning to unplug from work is every bit as important as planning your work day.  It's a tough challenge, especially for those self-employed because not only do you need to do daily tasks to stay on track, when you're marketing yourself, you need to be thinking about what you want to be doing 3 - 6 months from now, because often, the efforts you put out today will take that long to begin reaping significant benefits.  This week, we focus on setting goals for 3 to 6 months from now to motivate you for what you're going to do today.  We also touch on the importance of setting goals to unplug once and a while so that we can regroup.

We all go through trials in our life.  Relationship trials, financial trials, health trials and career trials to name a few.  Often while we're in them, these trials seem as though things will ever get better.  We experience something and we just wonder, why?  Why, did that happen?  What if we could look at these trials as a way of gaining wisdom.  What if that wisdom was something we could use some day to share and teach others how to overcome their trials?  On this week's podcast, we talk about trying to change our attitude towards life's trials and to see them as an opportunity to achieve a new level of wisdom worth sharing.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a coaching seminar hosted by Dan Miller of 48 Days.  Now, for those of you who don't know Dan, he is a very accomplished author, speaker, and coach for coaches.  One of the important lessons from this event was about having confidence to ask for the sale.   If you’re giving away your time and art out of charity and good-will, there’s no problem with that.  However, more people give away their expertise not out of charity, but out of their own insecurities. One of the biggest differences between an artist painting at home and giving away their work, vs. the artist selling their works for $10,000 is that one is asking for the sale, the other is not. This week, we discuss more about my experience at Dan Miller’s Coaching with Excellence event and I’ll tackle some topics that burden many people with getting over their willingness to sell.

There's always going to be competition, but if you want to be a big winner over your competition, you should be looking at ways you could disrupt the marketplace.  Brands like Disney, Apple, KISS understand the importance of doing something different and better to invade the space of their competition.  This week, we discuss how to create disruptive innovation in your marketplace.  PostModernJukebox and Puddles Pity Party are featured music.

One of the single biggest things that separates a struggling artrepreneur from a thriving one is their willingness to find mentors.  My guest this week, is Martin Ahm, AKA Code Elektro.  Martin a successful music producer/songwriter out of Denmark with a great story to tell of how he found mentors to help him learn the skills he needed to be successful.  With brands like FANTA, MTV and BMW in his portfolio, Martin proves that mentors and networking is the key to anyone's success.  

Think your job is tough?  Try creating a full production film that starts on Friday and has to be completed by Sunday.  Or co-writing, co-producing and directing a full-length film with a small budget and experienced actors volunteering their time.  That's what my guest Ron McDermott has accomplished through determination and networking.  Hear his story this week about how he renewed his passion for creating films, completing the full-length film series, Twinks.

Everyone goes through bouts of negative thoughts.  For some, they're short-term thoughts, for some, they last a bit longer and for others, they're a way of life.  How are your negative thoughts getting in the way of you becoming more profitable?  This week, we discuss personality traits, DISC profiles and how you can deep dive into your own negative our doubtful thoughts and begin to recognize what the true cause of these feelings.  

Everyone has a relationship with money.  Many times, the way you view money is based on how you were raised.  If you saw a lot of generosity, you might be more generous in giving.  If you grew up with little money, you might be gripping onto every dollar to be sure you don't lose what you now have.  Fear of money can cause you to miss out on being more profitable because you don't know what to do with money or have negative thoughts associated with it.  This week, we'll discuss the fear of making more money.

  An an Artrepreneur, you have probably been told time and again that your dream is too risky, you’re going to ruin your career, your credit, etc.  If you hear that enough from people you care about, or who’s opinion you value, it can begin to weigh on you a lot.  The weight may be so strong that you hold yourself back from going no holds barred to achieve your dream.  But, when that weight is lifted and you have clarity in your purpose, it’s what I fondly call your “Win Rocky Win” moment.  This week, I explain what it means to have a “Win Rocky Win” attitude.

Something interesting with all artrepreneurs is their ability to adapt to change.  There are skillsets creative professionals have that they've learned as early as childhood, a desire to figure things out that are unconventional.  This week, meet Ryan Greis, a talented creative professional who is a classicaly trained pianist, a painter, and a seasoned marketing leader in design.  He has some great insight into how to adapt to your challenge using the creative tools you possess.

No one wants something to go wrong when they are participating in an event.  However, in business, the show must go on.  It's ultimately a test of your grit when things go wrong and you push through to deliver on your promise.  For a person, we call it your character, for a business, we call it your brand.  This week on Rhythm of Profitability, we discuss the importance seeing things through when they get unbearably tough, to make yourself a stronger artrepreneur to cope with the next round of setbacks.

Building a business strategy for your art is more than selling or advertising.  It's defining who your market is so you can target them better.  It's building a platform based on your subscribers and social footprint, it's knowing the benchmarks you should be aiming for with your career.  This week, on Rhythm of Profitability, we discuss how to build a proper business strategy.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a critical tactic for generating a global audience for your business.  Content and keywords can drive new traffic to your website based on the strength and quality of your SEO.  On this week's podcast, I review a top ten list of things you should be doing to increase your SEO performance.

  Chances are, if you’re a creative person with a big vision for your success, you’ve run into the fear of sharing the details of your dreams with people because of how they’ll respond to you.  Have you ever been laughed at for your dreams?  This week, we’re going to tackle this issue head on by pushing through the laughter and determining what’s truly important, validation of your dream, or the dream itself.  Featuring music by Cause of Afflliction.