Sharing passions, inspirations, projects and interesting finds
The reply is: when a guy who is not from your team shows up in your beloved cubicle, interrupts everything you are doing without any consideration, says “I need you do to do that for me, I want it exactly like this, and I want it now” and you turn around to reply “sorry I don’t do commissions”.
A bientôt!
Patricia
© 2010 – Patricia C. O’Neill
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I just finished reading Crush it, now it’s time to cash it on your passion from Gary Vaynerchuk and it kept me up at night. So many ideas, so many conflicts were going through my head… I just could not sleep.
I am a long time fan of Gary Vee and I enjoy his straightforward way to speak his mind. Basically, his new book is about living your passion to the max and eventually making a living out of it. The book is loaded with great insight, great advices, great tips. However, while I was up at night thinking about how I can apply all of this to little old me (he, I want to crush it too!!!), my main road block was to identify my passion. Not that I have none. On the contrary, I have too many…
I think the world is divided roughly into 3 groups:
1- Those who have passion for nothing. They are living an ordinary life and are happy with it. They grow up, go to school, get married, get a job, buy a house in the suburbs, raise their offsprings, watch TV and then die content with their life.
2- Those who have one passion. They discovered it early on and never looked elsewhere. They live and breathe that calling. This is pretty much simple to manage. Anything they do, read, talk about is related to their passion. They are known as the wine guy, the queen of clean or the adventure girl. Those are the crush it people.
3- And then, they are those who have multiple passions. This one is more complicated.
I did some research to try to understand the phenomena. As I place myself in this category, I wanted to know if something’s wrong with me. Maybe I have ADD or something?
A while back, I was already wondering if my blog had ADD and here I go again with the same old questions. Ummm… strange coincidence… so, I really had go to deeper into the subject.
I found out that these people are voracious learners. They are able to converse knowledgeably about several topics. But they are also constantly living in the guilt that there is never enough time to truly accomplish or master their passions.
Someone told me that whatever I focus on expands. Yes, but I am not able to focus only on one things. Am I going to be able to expand several things? Arrghh!!!! Going deeper into my research, I found out that it’s a known phenomena (ouff! I am as normal as I can be!). There is no need to feel guilty about neglecting one of your passions because if you are commited to it, it’s not going anywhere. At some point. you will return to it with a fresh perpective.
I am now convinced that having multiple passions is not like having multiple personalities. It is a perfectly acceptable path and that I am not doomed with a life of frustrations. I think it would be a much bigger frustration to have to give up on some of my passions/interests to keep only one. Life is long enough. I have time to explore them all and discover new ones.
As an artist, it could be easy to say that my passion is to create art and that the rest is just source of inspiration.
But in my situation, I see it in reverse. I have passions that I need to express and share though my art.
At first glance, it sounds like the same things. But for me it is not. How do I know that?
Put me in a room with people talking about art, glass, jewelry. I have nothing to say or share and there is not much they can say that speaks to me. But put me in a room full of shooting sports enthusiasts, scuba divers or UFO buffs, and I have a blast.
Give me a booth in a traditional art show and I get skunked. But give me a booth at a dive show, UFO convention or NRA meeting and I am sure I’ll do a killing.
Yesterday, I was expressing myself through glass. Today it’s jewelry. Who knows of what tomorrow will be made… polymer clay… wicket baskets… but I’ll still be a diver, I’ll still shoot guns and I’ll still keep looking at the sky wondering if I am alone in the Universe.
So, do I believe that I can crush it with my many passions? Hell yes. Or I’ll die trying.
By the way, I highly recommend to anyone to read Gary’s book.
A bientôt!
Patricia
© 2010 – Patricia C. O’Neill
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I firmly believe that the Universe is going to bring me what I need at the exact time I need it. It happened so many times in my life. The signs are often subtle, yet they are here.
I was hitting my head on the wall looking for a logo for Invincible Art. Nothing cartoonish, something simple yet elegant and powerful. As much as it is easy for me to have a vision for others, I have difficulties when it is time to create for myself.
I badly need a new identity… business cards, web banner, gift boxes, etc… and know that I have only one shot at a good impression. So, the way I present my business is very important.
I was in a dead end when on Tuesday, I’ve met my friend Chrichton. She is also taking her spa and massage therapy business to the next step and she proudly announced to me that she found a great designer. She gave me his web site url, and I liked what I saw. She showed me her new business cards which are stunning. So, I called Greg, he was available and we met on Friday. When it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. Two weeks from now, I will see the first draft of my new identity. I am so excited!!!
Besides, Nancy Vince from wholesalecrafts.com suddenly announced the creation of a second ACRE show, this time in January in Orlando. ACRE will share the exhibition floor with the Orlando gift show and its load of imported junk.
What a mess!! I am happy to have decided to leave the show business scene and go the direct marketing road.
I am even going one step further and have started working on a shop-invincibleart.com which will be my online store. I will keep working wholesale for arts and crafts galleries but I also believe in the power of the internet and social marketing. More and more people are choosing the convenience of online shopping over going to the mall. Not only this is a trend I cannot ignore but I cannot put all my eggs in the wholesale basket.
This upcoming week is going to be placed under the multiple signs of preparing my taxes return, keep producing more “bulletproof” work and optimizing my sites for SEO. If I want to promote my work using the web, I must go up in those google pages!
A bientôt!
Patricia
© 2010 – Invincible Art Studio
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Monday was a very exciting day for me. I spent most of the day at Shooter’s World where I showed around the prototypes of my new “bulletproof” collection.
The reactions have been overwhelming. Even a customer stopped by to look at what was going on and she wanted to buy something right on the spot.
The charm, made of silver, reproduces the primer part of a bullet. On my photo, this is a 9mm caliber, but I plan to make more handgun calibers and also shotguns and AR15 ammunitions for guys.
As I had the women in mind when I started my project, I enhanced the center with a little gemstone available in all birthstone colors.
Then, the charm is used in different jewelry designs such as earrings, bracelets and necklaces.
Phil, the owner of Shooter’s World proposed to organize a trunk show when I am ready. He is interested to have events that will bring people at the range. I am interested to get my feet wet and have feedback. Then, I’ll go up from there and I am not lacking of new ideas.
In the meantime, back to work I am going. This time in production mode as I need some stock, more designs, more colors. Sounds like my idea of adding a birthstone is a hit.
I need to design my table/booth and get the supplies. Business cards, gift boxes, jewelry cards, a few marketing materials… I already have an appointment with a designer to create a new logo and a new business identity.
And most of all, I need to launch my invincibleart.com site as well as an online store.
I have some very busy days ahead as I’d like to schedule this trunk show ASAP. But I am so excited about this project.
In parallel, I am still working on more generic designs to upload on wholesalecrafts.com. I have had my ups and downs with them, but I still think this is a good place to be. I just have to find the way to make it work…
So, what do you think of my new direction?
A bientôt!
Patricia
© 2010 – Invincible Art Studio
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