Filed by Lance at 11:43 pm under General, Love, Shameless Plugs, The Arts

I’ve been fortunate enough to have some amazing mentors in my life, and I’m happy to say Lisa Canning is one of them (I don’t know if she likes or knows she’s wearing the name badge of “Lance’s Mentor,” but I’m sticking it on her, anyway). She’s taken my thinking in directions I didn’t know were there, and if I can get my feet out of the mud, the things she teaches have the potential to simply take my life somewhere I’ve always imagined it could go.

This is not a quick fix, and what she’s selling us is hard work. But why did we all sign up to become artists in the first place? Why not believe that what we have as artists is economically valuable and viable?

This is a blog entry Lisa wrote which merges the ideas she has about artistic entrepreneurship, and what the members of the Bite Size Arts Ensemble are trying to teach, which is all applicable back to artistic entrepreneurship. Here’s a summary of what we’re presenting, and Lisa’s thoughts on them. You should really read the entire blog post, though, if you’re as sick of the whole day job/night artist mentality as I am.

A Willingness to Fail:

Seemed like a lot of work for nothing, right? So what did Jane do? She complained that her music was not for everyone and repeated over and over to her friends that ” she knew there was a reason why she never had bothered to try and sell it in the first place” and then she gave up. [...] If only Jane was willing to apply one of the most important ingredients of imagination - her willingness to fail - to her emerging music business as she has to her playing and composition that now has lead her to great success as a big band leader.

Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

Building a creative ventures requires MANY MANY MANY moments of feeling the same way. The same creative passion that flowed from your imagination that lead you to that first public moment, is the same one, if you let it, that can lead you to embrace the same kinds of awkward uncomfortable moments as you learn how to build your first creative venture.

Flexibility and Fluency

We are taught how to change styles at the drop of a hat and, in our artistry, are constantly willing to be “open” to new ideas. [...] And yet when confronted with lessons to learn in the business world- like how many different ways you need to be able to communicate to potential clients, how to close a deal with different personality types, why you need to be more agile and adapt to the needs of the audience you wish to serve– seemingly those same principals of flexibility and fluency that are so well known to us in our artistry fly right out the window.

Improvisation

Improvisation is a core tenant to building a business and can take many different shapes and forms. Improvisation is a very necessary tool to learn how to create authenticity and real connectivity between you and your clients or audience.

Diverge and Converge

Once you have diverged by mastering how you can utilize all the tools of your imagination in building your creative business, you will be ready to converge them into the realization of a dream.

The Bite Size Arts Ensemble is working hard to prepare for our first public gig on April 10, and The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship is working hard to open its doors to students soon. Here’s the shameless plug part: you should join us for both!