Vision Board 2020

I was inspired to make a vision board for the next decade. What kind of life do I want to have in 10 years? Confession - I’m older than I look and there are many things that I’ve always thought would happen eventually, but they haven’t happened yet. Well, I need to take steps to MAKE them happen in the next 10 years and be more PROactive instead of REactive. It was surprisingly easy for me to brainstorm all these things - they’ve been in the background of my mind but I haven’t really put pen to paper on many of them. As a visual person SEEING your goals is super important!

AER HEAD was the first thing I thought of, but I’m talking about the WHOLE SERIES here, not just issue 1. #1 is a goal for just 2020. If I can complete an issue per year with one Kickstarter per year that would be fantastic.

After I had my main ideas, I wondered what it would take to achieve them. They fell into 3 main categories: time, money, spirituality, or some combination thereof. Having a more abundant mindset is more on the spiritual spectrum, whereas I definitely need more money to get an art studio space. Also gotta say that even though I do all this crazy planning, I need to make more room in my life for spontaneity/enjoying life more, which is hard to do when I need to be so disciplined in art creation.

I came to the conclusion that before most of these things can happen, I need to focus on creating a more sustainable art career first. In the next blog you’ll see my separate action board for that. Note the distinction between VISION board and ACTION board. Vision boards are nice ideas to look at, keep in mind, and be inspired by, whereas action boards are specific actions you can take to achieve your vision.

Action

What are some big life goals on your mind you’ve been thinking about for awhile? Make a vision board! I just used a big sheet of paper, construction paper, and a marker. Make it fun by writing in different styles, cutting fun shapes, or using different colors. If you’re not that “artistic,” you can type out words in different fonts in Microsoft Word. Cheers to your success in life, career, love, pets, etc in 2020!

Inspiration: Make 100____!

I’m already thinking about my plans for the new year, which is actually a new DECADE! I want to hit the ground running in 2020 and will do a post on some of my goals in the next few weeks, but I wanted to share something cool with you: Kickstarter’s “Make 100” campaign. I’m not participating in it (still working on my own Kickstarter fulfillment!) but if you want to get your feet wet with Kickstarter for the first time, Make 100 is a great way to finally give yourself the push you need!

Make 100 happens every January and you can make 100 anything - 100 copies of zines, 100 bracelets, 100 cupcakes, anything! It’s very advantageous if you coordinate a project you’ve wanted to do with one of Kickstarter’s special promos like this because you’ll probably get a bit of extra attention from being a part of the larger campaign. Kickstarter promotes Make 100, people search for it, and your project may end up in a featured newsletter (happened to me twice for “Small Press Big Ideas.”)

I’m telling you this now so you still have time to plan if you want to launch anytime in January. You could even launch at the end and have almost 2 months to plan. I know that people have various thoughts and feelings about Kickstarter (my launch happened mid-kerfuffle), but you can’t deny that it is the best platform to launch a project in a HUGE way. There were people who just found me “out of nowhere” just from Kickstarter!

Business Tip

Start planning for the new decade now instead of the first week of January and then give up the second week of January. By brainstorming now I feel like I have more time and space to determine what goals matter to me.

Made My First Patreon Goal: IT'S POSSIBLE!

I'm so happy to say I've surpassed my first Patreon goal of making $100/month and celebrated by taking my first surfing lesson!  This was important research for AER HEAD, the comic I'm creating, which features surfers.  See how I persevered through fear and how I'll apply my surfing experiences to my comic on https://www.patreon.com/mindyindy

Y'know, when I first started Patreon, I wondered if it could really be possible to make legit money from it because I'm not a famous YouTuber with thousands of fans (which is a large portion of their creators).  But I felt like I had to at least try it!  My Patreon has steadily grown, thanks to the support of family, friends, and fans!  YOU could start a Patreon too.  Anyone could, really.  There are so many categories of creative things people are doing on there.  Even if you have a regular 9-5 job and want to get motivated to do your side passion, I recommend Patreon.  You really have to plan it out well though and consistently post and reach out to people to start to see successful results though. 

Do you want to be a part of the Mindy Indy community on Patreon and get the behind-the-scenes scoop on how I'm creating AER HEAD, the story of a surfer who predicts the future in his dreams?  Just go to  https://www.patreon.com/mindyindy  and click the orange "become a patron" button.  Then select the reward tier you want and you'll be able to have access to posts according to your tier!  I'm particularly excited about the next set of "see the present" posts where I'll talk about how I'm directly applying what I learned from my surfing lesson to the comic.  

Business Basics for Freelancers Class!

Happy New Year!  Are some of your 2018 resolutions to make more money, become more successful at freelancing, or get more organized in your business?  If those goals sound good to you, please sign up for my new class at Shoestring Studio! 

Often, we’re artists first and business people second, and sometimes the business side of art can seem overwhelming to us. I’ll break down some “scary” concepts into bite-sized steps you’ll work on during the class. We’ll cover everything from making a product and pricing it to how to get more freelance work by exhibiting. We’ll also talk about the “not-so-fun” but very important aspects of keeping track of your earnings, banking, and taxes. We’ll also touch upon contracts and time management. All in 3 hours – WHEW!

Probably the biggest question on everyone's mind is how Trump's new tax laws will affect you.  This class is on February 24th, well before taxes are due mid April, so you'll have time to sort it all out.  Take deep breaths - we'll get through it together!  Although I'm not a "tax professional," I have one, and will share what I've learned from them and point you in the right direction.  Really, the whole class is me presenting you with information that I've learned through trial and error, but what you DO with that info is entirely up to you.  I'll provide you with work sheets so you can start taking concrete steps on topics immediately.

Business Basics for Freelancers is a one session workshop on:

Saturday, February 24th from 2-5pm

Shoestring Studio is 640 Classon Ave in Brooklyn, NY 

You must sign up through the Shoestring site (no walk-ins) here:  http://shoestringstudiony.com/classes/business

It's $75, which is cheaper than other Shoestring classes, but in the bigger picture, you'll be saving money in the long run with the knowledge you'll gain.  Feel free to email me any questions about the class at [ mindy at mindyindy dot com ].  Very excited for the class!

Meanwhile, what are your other new year's resolutions?  My theme for 2018 is to "simplify my life," starting with lots of decluttering and cleaning in January! 

New Month Resolutions

Well it's that time of year again.  For the past 5 or so years, my New Year's Resolution has been to finally finish volume 1 of my comic series AER HEAD, without much result.  I realize I never made a REALISTIC step-by-step plan of HOW to accomplish that goal before (for example, getting all the drawing done in one month is NOT realistic under my current schedule or any previous schedules).  But now, because I've been implementing productivity techniques for various goals and projects for awhile, I think I can finally start to make more progress on AER HEAD.  My strategy this year is to set super small monthly goals instead of one huge resolution.

I've also divided my goals into 2 areas:  creative and non-creative.  The non-creative goals are usually financially related.  For example, for February, my non-creative goal is to get all my taxes done before the end of the month, while my creative goal is to write the over-arching outline of the whole AER HEAD series.

When setting these small monthly goals, it's important to seriously take into consideration how much time you can devote to each goal each week, which is something I didn't do in the past.  I've set in my calendar 4 hours a week, from 11pm-midnight M-Th, to work on these goals.  I'll alternate M/W creative goals and Tu/Th non-creative goals.  This leaves me with 8 hours per month to devote to my creative goal, and 8 hours for the non-creative goal.  With my teaching hours and freelance projects, this is a reasonable time I can dedicate.  If my schedule changes, I can add more time, but this is doable for now. 

I also realize that even at taking 8 hours to draw one page, it will take 2 years to finish just the drawing portion of AER, but hell that's more than what I'm doing with it right now.  I've made a road map for myself, and it's OK to deviate from it, but I have to have a concrete place to start.  I've planned up until June, but no farther because life changes and I'm always adjusting plans accordingly.  And that's OK.  Give yourself the freedom to be flexible with your goals.  I'm also curious about some of YOUR goals too!  Would you like to share any of your creative or non-creative goals?