Equilibrium

Today is about reorganizing myself and coming up with a plan to move myself into something more marketable in the up coming months. The first month seemed to focus on getting this project up and going. The second month was building networks and creating a base of models to work on building on my concepts and theories and getting my style recognized. The third month until now I have been trying to figure out what I actually want to do and where it should actually go. But it feels the past 6 weeks have mostly been in a kind of Internet Rabbit Hole I have fallen and sort of got lost. Now that I have recognized that, it’s time to pull myself out and get focused. Now that spring has actually come to Montana and the world outside is coming to life I will be drawn to get projects and jobs done outside. A good chunk of my income comes from doing landscape design and garden work. It’s also part of my yearly equilibrium to maintain my physical and mental balance, to be out working in nature. I have decided to take two nights off from UPS this week to recharge and come up with a working plan.

I began this morning by sending Julian, my new web design guru, a message inviting him to dinner on Wednesday so we can get this web project underway. I then began working on the questionnaire about where I need to go and focus to bring answers to that meeting. This morning’s questions focus on defining a mission statement, assessing competition, and setting short-term goals. The mission statement was a breeze: “First I will strive to gain an insight and understand of my subjects. Then use all my skills, talents, and aesthetic sense of color, composition and craftsmanship of lighting to design and create a personally crafted image that reflects their physical and emotional lives: to make each subject a masterpiece of classical style and extraordinary beauty. Then to display, promote and sell my unique style of creation for the artistry it has becomes.” The assessing competition is going to take some work but the short-term goals seem obvious: “What I need immediately is a place where I can showcase my talents. Where potential customers and clients can find out more about me. A single place where everything is combined and contained so that I will spend less time in the actual process of business and people can have ready access to galleries, blogs, shopping carts, and the ability interact with me. To create a mail address with the same name and to brand myself as a name and or product. To also to have a place to be able to book and plan shoots. Right now I have my information across many different sights and people have to jump from one sight to another to actually see the images and get a complete picture of what I am doing. The images need to be protected and filtered against theft. It needs to be interactive to Facebook, Twitter and all the RSS feeds. I need it to completely become a splash of me, so that every time I post or do something people to be able to follow and keep up on my process and what I am currently working on. It’s time to put this entire modern media to the test and redefine the ways I can promote myself as an artist and craftsman and make my services available. My goal is to have this set up and functional by the mid- year point.”

My mind was abuzz as a whole business model began to take form. I felt an excitement build in my body to think I am finally on track. Other people do it all the time; it’s about time I make it happen. If I want to create I need to figure out how to make my style of creation sustainable. I need to be able to stand on my own. The process of building myself as an enterprise must become as creative as my process of creating beautiful imagery. There seem to be no easy answers or pathways. I am suddenly afire with the challenge.

VIEW FULL IMAGE: Chad Shower #441