ArtBizVoice: Seriously? How are you allowing your business self to appear to others..

Dear Mr. Trump,

Yesterday, I found a blog that was new to me. It was by Shannan Trenholm. Her post was on people who hear what you are up to and tell you to "Be  Realistic" every time you share an idea or dream with them.

Most of my "seemingly successful" friends  who have this "Be Realistic" Attitude are successful because they had chosen to work for companies instead of starting companies of their own.

These friends judge the worth of a company or a business idea by these two things:
 *Are they top among their competitors in profits
*Does the company have  a good reputation among the community.
In other words those businesses have to be paying big salaries and on the social fast track.

One of these friends once told me "I will never put my name with anything that is not successful."

Not to fault my friend, because she is amazing in every way and worth every penny of her hire, but her perspective is that she doesn’t see potential in people or small businesses.  This means she inadvertently says and does things that show me that she doesn’t believe in what I’m doing. Or so I thought.

This past week I was talking with another friend of mine. I told her how exciting everything was becoming how many new possibilities were opening up in my business. Her response was "What do you mean, you just do some of your art on line on t-shirts, right?"

It hit me like a ton of bricks.

My successful friends had been demeaning my work all this time. I never noticed. Maybe I let  them do this because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my work. It has taken me a while to have a clear plan and really run the numbers. Then I mistakenly thought that my friends would support what I was doing simply because they were my friends. In effect they were not taking my business or me seriously.   I had let them demean my business. I wasn’t accepting what they said, I simply didn’t correct their negative attitude and words about what they thought I was doing . I, of course didnt let her demeaning of my business stand this time. I admit it was a little painful standing up to a friend I assumed was being supportive. Amazingly, we are still friends.

I have to say that my world view of being a self starter and taking the risks, while noble to me, it was not something my successful friends could relate to. In fact, those friends would never be able to run a business ever. They had no desire or talent for it. They are highly paid skilled worker bees that provide, sometimes white collar, services to large established firms. That sort of explained to me why people making 6 figures feel like they are middle class. They are workers but they just get paid more and have more social exposure.

Here is the thing, every business out there started with an idea or a dream. All of them had small beginnings. The success of a business is simply the pay off in the gamble in my opinion. All those successful friends of mine would not even have a job if someone like me and you had not taken the risk. It takes creative people with big ideas that they are passionate enough  to make it happen. As you know it can take a life time.

I am not against  being "realistic"; however,  I must say that realistically without people who have the dream and the passion to take the risk there would be no place for any one to be successful.

~L

If  you would like to see Shannon Trenholm's blog you can read it here: http://shannatrenholm.com/2011/work/be-realistic/

ArtBizVoice: Getting People Involved. ( The PPN Project)

Dear Mr. Trump,

Since I basically have no start up money and I live on a shoe string budget on the best days, I came up with this idea of how to market my work. I call it Partner Marketing or Partnership Program for Non-employees(PPN). Perhaps there is a better name already for it.

Here is the need: I need to make sales to pay for art supplies to keep making art and pay for my expenses.  The people I invite into the program want to buy original art but cannot afford it. Usually the art they want is something special to them like a pet portrait or a painting of their child and their horse etc.

The goal:

The key to my marketing strategy is to sell as many reproduced products as possible. These products will fund further art and some additional programs I would like to accomplish in my community.  By using PPN participants to share the product s  this increases my chances of making the necessary sales and gives them  an opportunity to have art that they couldn’t otherwise afford.  The cost of making the art is covered.

How it works:

Sample of PPN Project invitation

Each person agrees to participate for a year(They can actually participate as long as they want to). For the first month I work with them to teach them how to do the project. Basically participants share three or 4 pre-determined items throughout the day on their social media venues. Each item they share has a special code assigned only to them. Each sale of an item with their code gives them a point. The points are tallied at the end of the month. The participant then receives a statement of points that they can use as a discount against the purchase of original work or signed prints.

The participants in the PPN project also are taught how to do recommendations and reviews and given support in how to market as they go. In the program they do this about 2 or 3 times a week.

The program is active marketing, meaning sharing the content in a public way and talking about it to generate interest.

I read once in Guerrilla Marketing, that a product or brand name must be seen at least 15 times before  a potential client will remember it and act on it. IF, of course, it is something they want or can use. Participations should begin seeing a response to their efforts by sales that begin on about 15 day once they fall into the routine. It generally should take no more than about 15 minutes a day to do this sort of program, especially if they have multiple social media venues. This program will allow people to see what is available multiple times on multiple venues, help a worthy cause, empower people in the project and help me to go on to paint another day.

One important distinction about this program is that it is not aggressive marketing; Meaning that those who participate are not allowed to spam. Spamming is repetitively posting the exact same information over and over again to a large number of people who have no interest or who have not asked for information. If participants spam on their social media or email they will be removed from the program and banned from further participation. 

Active Social Marketing will do four things:
Provide information about the product,
Provoke a discussion
Show people how to purchase the product
Lead people to other products they might enjoy having, if the original product is not to their taste. 

Beautiful day today! Warm and sunny. Have a great day,
~L

ArtBizVoice: State My Passion, Then SUPER SIZE IT

Dear Mr Trump,

Today my goal is to figure out how to state my what my vision for my business is in One quick sentense and then in the second sentence say how I am doing it.

What is my Vision?
Ok, this is going to be a bit harder than I thought. Why? Because just defining vision is probably too broad. People would assume my vision would be simply for my business.  I have bigger fish to fry and my business is going to get me there. And no I’m not really that political, so politics is not actually part of my vision. However, they possibly overlap as politics affects policy, and policy affects the daily lives of everyone living in the country.

So what is my true Vision for my life:
To  provide a platform for the issues I care about while providing entertainment and education for  my community, my state , my country and the world ( I guess that would be globally). 
Ok let me say it this way.

My Personal Vision is to build a company that will provide entertainment and educational opportunities for issues I care about that will benefit the local community and can positively impact the world.

How am I going to do that, you ask?

I am doing this by passionately creating art that encompasses those issues and working that art into designs that can be incorporated into everyday things that people wear, use and collect , then marketing those items globally.

Gosh, I could really use some input here.

Simply put my Mission is to: Use my talent and skills; build a business,  then help make life better for as many people as is my ability to reach.

I saw this quote by you yesterday on twitter:

"You have to love what you do or you are never going to be successful no matter what you do in life.” - Think Big

I do indeed love what I do. I love connecting with people who love their animals and want to make a better life and I love creating things that bless them.   I am already living it.. now its time to Super Size it!

Today was my kind of snow btw. Just enough to be beautiful.

Blessings of the Day to you,
~L

ArtBizVoice: Taking Steps and Finding the Right Person.

Dear Mr Trump,

Today I decided the best thing to do, since I am serious about finding another person to work with me is to put together an ad.  I made a list of all the qualities that I wanted in this person who will be the face of my business.

Here is what I came up with:

Needed Experienced Person in Merchandising, Marketing and Sales
This person would be the public face of my business, negotiate contracts and help implement the marketing strategy, find new leads, and act as an advisor and provide feedback in design directions.

Requirements:

~Must have good networking skills and the ability to build a high profile reputation
~Must have experience in  the Gift and Clothing markets or specialty fields

~good social and language skills.
~Must be articulate and professional

~Must enjoy the challenge of building a business from the ground up.
~Must be willing to invest time and work on spec.

 Interested parties email Resume and references to:

Info@llmartin.com

While it is true that I am an artist, The real money to be made is in the conversion of my art into designs on clothing, gift and housewares products. Eventually, I will probably also contract with designers as well.

I am a small business with no start up capital, so everything is on a shoestring. One thing I did learn about hiring a few years ago is a lot of people want a job, but few are willing to research the business. I have a respectable on-line, Internet,  presence for my skills, talents and my business, so the people who are going to be working with me will also be able to take the initiative and figure out who I am and what I do. That is one of the most important things to me. Anyone who works with me has to care enough about what I am doing to take the time to do the research.

I might have to update that later but think this is a good start.
Have a great day,

~L

ArtBizVoice: Criticism, A Failure's Best Friend

Dear Mr Trump,

Wow what a beautiful sunny day today after all the dreary week. I bet those who had snow last evening even have it brighter and even more beautiful.

All of those dark days made me think of something. I think one of the most difficult things I have had to over come in all these years has been my own attitude. You see its very easy for someone who is isolated by poverty and disability to fall into a very disgruntle critical view of life. It really isn't helped much by people who surround you that are also disgruntle and critical.  This is a trap that a lot of  very talented people fall into when they think they can not move forward. Then they make the fatal error. Blaming those who are successful.  Its the kiss of death, I think.

I caught myself one time falling into the trap. I criticized a group of people. The very group that was most likely to be  my clientèle. I haven’t a clue why I did it except it was a really bad habit.  Well a competitor used it against me right while I was standing there. Yes, the result was it killed my business. There is nothing worse than being better than your competitor in every way and having them steal your business right out from under you because you had the bad habit of only seeing the wrong and never pointing out the good. What a hard lesson. Yet,  I am thankful I learned it.

Most disabled people already have isolation and poverty against them. Those are pretty insurmountable without the favor of people who believe in what they are doing. Maybe people in poverty criticize those who have wealth and success, because they have not figured out that is the successful that can help lift them up.

 An artist, or business man for that matter, just does not know where that help is going to come from.  So a really smart person is not going to criticize or be little anyone on any economic level.  Smart people know that the favor they need can come at any time from the most unsuspecting directions.  I think criticism is in fact a form of offensive insulting behavior that destroys any hope the budding business person has of getting the help they need to be successful. 

I think that most people, including successful people, already know their weaknesses. They don’t need them pointed out and to be constantly reminded of them.  I think we want to favor those who favor us.  And we favor those who are kind and helpful to us. It works both ways.

What a great thing it would be to help people who want to be successful to be positive instead of critical.

Wishing you a very wonderful and safe weekend,
~L

ArtBizVoice: A Different Sort of Life Part 2

Dear Mr Trump,

With all the help I received from Social Security and  The Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services there is one thing that was never addressed: How to overcome the limits of Isolation caused by on going poverty.

Counseling happens and that helps those who are disabled to overcome the self image issues.  It is also true that some spending does happen and field trips but those are mostly to show what is possible and be encouraging. It is all helpful however it doesn't address my problem.

You see most people who have seen the possibilities and  have over come the self image issues would have already developed social graces and would already have put aside money to join organizations that would give networking possibilities. Disabled and impoverished people don't actually have that opportunity.

Here is why: It costs money and effort. And it needs someone savvy and experienced to generate the income in doing it. There are 7 or 8 Local organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce, Business Women Associations, Artists groups and guilds, Rotary, etc etc  and all of them take cash.  And even if you had the cash  most of the time if you haven't had a good meal or you are disabled, fatigue and clarity of mind are not going to be an asset you can draw on. Then of course there is the problem of accessibility.

All of the rehab programs in the world are not going to get the disabled where they need to be if there is no one to partner with who can do the networking and the sales and marketing leg work.

I don't have money so I tried to get somewhere with this through the only two options left to me. The SCORE organization of retired business men who help small businesses to get started And my local church.

Here is what happened. The available gentlemen from SCORE wouldn't even touch what I am doing because I currently use Internet Marketing venues. I didn't need more information on Internet Marketing I needed a way to connect to real people and real businesses face to face and I needed some alternate ideas on how to do that since I  am unable to do it myself. SCORE wouldn't touch me.

I  also joined the only church in my community that  had access to the building for disabled people. Well they refused to help even connect me with any business people and got mad at me because I would not commit money I didn't have to participating in galleries or art shows. And they got even madder when they saw that I had no money to give to the church.  My dad was a pastor, I never heard him not help anyone who need it, even helping people get jobs. So that was a real shock.

Really, I need some help here. Do you have any ideas on how I can network or who can be my networking face?

~L

ArtBizVoice: A Life Before Limits ( A little personal history.)

Dear Mr. Trump,
 I have read your bio  so I will give you mine now. Well, ok it will be more like a personal history.

I am a 57 year old college graduate who trained in art and education.  I really wanted to have a business and journalism degree, however,  I have dyslexia. I was willing to try but everyone did all they could to talk me out of it. Since spelling is a bit of a problem for me; well one must adapt.  Lets just say in the 1970’s no one was going to let someone who couldn’t spell into those sort of jobs. I also trained for a year at a small western Virginia college in Horse management. I have a life long love horses.

One of the problems with having Dyslexia is that you really seem sort of dumb to the rest of the world and lets face it, people who can see fine have no trouble making fun of people who fumble for their words, cant tell the difference between g, h, d, y, and b ( if I close my eyes I can sometimes write them correctly with a computer) and  cant tell when to punctuate or when a letter doesn’t belong.  I have been laughed at many times by people who should know better. Intelligent people even.

The up side of Dyslexia is that I can look at a model in art class and draw it completely backwards in detail.  Which on a number of occasions surprised my Professor. The scary part of Dyslexia is making sure your check book is balanced.

After college I was hired by a small rural private school to teach art and fill in. It seemed I was so talented that they eventually gave me my own class and made me liaison with the public school system in dealing with special needs children. I was 23.

 I loved the children, however,  being in the class room made me claustrophobic. I was encouraged to go for a Masters in special education with recommendations to University of Virginia. However,  the truth was  I was afraid I couldn’t pass the entrance tests  and qualifications exams, and how on earth would I ever write so people could read it.  How on earth could I ever read all those books.  The one thing that really never crossed my mind was how much it might cost. 

At that time, I also intuitively felt myself  becoming weak, it was just a feeling. I knew I only had a small window of time to have horses, so I bought a few and started training and coaching. I don’t regret it one bit.  I was at my happiest but  I was having issues either with genetics or just that my body wasn’t made for that kind of work.  One minute I was filled with hopes and dreams of helping anyone, rich or poor to work with horses and the next I was flat on my back with a number of health issues. I don’t think I was as depressed as much as I was in mourning.  In 1988 I went on disability.  I have been trying ever since to figure out how to get off of it and using my talents and skills to sustain my own life.  I was right at the edge of actually pulling it off in 2008 when “change” happened.

I'm trying to keep these letters short so I will share with you what I did to improve my chances for success  in my next letter.

Have a wonderful weekend. I hear that we are suppose to be having  very warm weather on the east coast.
~L

ArtBizVioce: Searching For The Way In

Dear Mr. Trump,

I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to write to you over the last year. Finally I did. Then, when I went to discover how to get a letter to you, Well I realized that you would probably never see it. One of the reasons that you might not see it is because, well, how could one man possibly read all that mail.

So I saved my letter and decided to pray about it, because I do pray. Prayer tends to be something that works for me. So I prayed and I waited and some how I made it through the holidays. And the thought hit me that perhaps I wasn’t the only one who needed input, perhaps I wasn’t the only one who was trying to be successful and just needed a little bump to get there.

So I figured if I write this blog then maybe one of your assistants might see it and then they might recommend it to one of your underlings and if it seems useful maybe you or one of your children might actually see it. In the mean time, maybe I can voice the real problems that people like me have. Perhaps I can help a few along the way. So, I thank you for reading this in advance and for paying people to search out the Internet to find little bits and blurbs that contain your name.

By the way, I loved your website biography. I think you are uniquely qualified for what you do and years of experience haven’t hurt that one bit. I appreciate people, every person, who takes what they have and at least tries to do something creative and at times flamboyant, simply for the joy of doing it and because we have the Freedom in the United States to soar. Thank you for sharing so many of your experiences with us.

You know I read that you wanted to be in show business when you were young. You did it! Maybe its not how we start out but really what we do to get where we want to go that makes the most difference in our lives.

Have a wonderful Day. ~L