How can artists increase their focus?​

(Transcription)

Do you struggle with focus?

Ann Rea (00:02):
Hi, my name is Ann Rea and I’m an artist. Just like you. I’m also the creator of the Making Art Making Money program. And I can tell you that I used to really struggle with focus. I didn’t know what to focus on. I didn’t know when to focus on it. I was all over the place. And if you think about it, if you’re trying to sell your art, you’ve got to wear a lot of hats, right? You’ve got to wear that hat of the artist. You’ve got to wear a hat of the marketer, you’ve got to wear the hat of the sales person, the accountant. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. Yet you’re brimming with creative ideas and you just don’t know what to focus on. Well, that leads to some frustrations. And number one, I would call it the curse of the creative. We get a lot of ideas, but we don’t get a lot done. And if we don’t get a lot done, we don’t get a lot of results. So that’s one big frustration.

Do you struggle with confidence?

Ann Rea Artist (00:56):
Another thing that can erode your focus is really just a lack of confidence, right? So if you’re really just not sure about what you should be doing, you kind of flit around and try this and try this and try that and try that. You start winding up thinking, well, maybe I need to change my style. Maybe I need to change my medium thinking that that will actually change your results. So you flit around not focusing on any one thing long enough to develop it and really feel confident and really feel focused.

Are you frustrated?

New Speaker (01:32):
Now if you’re like a lot of artists, you’re really hardworking and dedicated people and you wind up burning the candle at both ends. But when you burn the candle at both ends and you’re tired and you’re fatigued and you’re frustrated, well what happens? It shatters your focus. I mean if you think about it, your emotional state produces their results. So if you’re experiencing a lack of focus, chances are you’re pretty frustrated. Or maybe you lack confidence, or maybe you don’t have community.

Do you have some self-doubt?

Ann Rea Artist (02:10):
A lot of artists who have these frustrations around a lack of focus start to wonder, well maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m not good enough. Maybe my art is not good enough. But maybe it’s just that you need to fix your focus.

How can you increase your focus?

Ann Rea (02:27):
So let’s dive into what you can do to increase your focus. Well, number one, it starts with the SMARTER goal. So a smarter goal is specific, it’s measurable, it’s actionable, it’s results oriented and it’s time bound and E stands for you evaluate it from time to time and you revise it as necessary. So my SMARTER goal, when I became a full time artist, I moved to San Francisco. I didn’t know anyone here and I wrote down, I am so and grateful now that I’ve made a hundred thousand dollars over over a hundred thousand dollars of art sales in 2005 you can see it’s specific, it’s measurable with something that was actionable because I’d made about $23,000 the previous year when I wasn’t a full time artist. So as a realistic number, I can just pluck it out of the air. I didn’t just copy it from someone based on my sales record. It was a pretty good, it was a pretty good projection. It was time bound. I said I want to make over a hundred thousand by the end of 2005 and that was that was the time. That was the result and I evaluated from time to time and I chose not to revise it because it was a SMARTER goal. If there was something smarter for me to do or a number that was smarter for me to choose or to aim for than I would have. Here’s the thing, most people don’t have goals and when you don’t have goals, you don’t know what to focus on and you don’t know when to focus on it and if you don’t have goals then that’s your goal.

I’m looking for 10 Case Studies.

Ann Rea (04:10):
You made it this far. Maybe one of your challenge is a lack of focus. So next month I am gathering 10 artists who are going to be case studies and Making Art Making Money program. And what happens in the Making Art Making Money program is my students actually double, often triple their level of focus when they graduate. Think about that. What would your life look like if you’re a level of focus? Doubled? Likely tripled. Pretty game-changing, right?

Apply Now

Ann Rea Artist (04:44):
So if that’s something that appeals to you, I’d like to invite you to apply. It takes about two minutes, and if your application form indicates that I can help you, then we’ll hop on a quick call to make sure that I can, if your application form indicates that I can’t help you, I’m still going to help you. I’m going to offer you some free resources so there’s no risk. Go ahead and apply now.