Creative Entrepreneurship: How To Balance Creative Vision with Business

Hi friends, LJ McCombie is here, back again to teach 3 ways to balance artistic vision with commercial viability. This is a big one, because as creative entrepreneurs, we want to create, we love what we do, and at the same time, we are working as a business. We need to be making money, otherwise it's a hobby. So, we have to be constantly thinking about both sides, the creative side and the business, online, transactional side. So today, I'm going to help you focus on the top 3 ways for balancing these, and these have really helped me. So, I'll share a couple of stories as well, and hopefully you'll find them very helpful. So, number 1, one of the best things I've ever done for my business, if not the top thing I've ever done for my business, was to define my intrinsic core values to help guide my decision making. This has been so huge and such a game changer. For me, they've been my North Star, because once I got clear on what my intrinsic core values were, they helped me set boundaries. I know what I am willing to do, what I am not willing to do, who I want to work with, who I definitely don't want to work with, right? It's so clear to me, in fact, it saves me oodles of time. And while the process of defining intrinsic core values might take some time, it's such a beautiful investment that you can make in yourself, because it's a forever thing, it's your essence from the inside out. And so, you are honoring yourself in your business by following your intrinsic core values as a guide. Okay, so the second thing that's really important to do when you're balancing your artistic vision with your commercial viability, right? Because this is a creative entrepreneur business, it's not a hobby, is to practice flexibility. I am really big on the 80-20 rule, which means that 80% of the time, you are sticking to your plan. If you are operating from the inside out in terms of honoring your intrinsic core values that we talked about in step number one, you are aligning with that, like laser focused on that 80% of the time. I say 80% of the time, ideally it would be more, but realistically, we don't live on this planet alone by ourselves. There's many occupants here, and because we're creative entrepreneurs, we work with others. In some way, shape, or form, we are reliant upon other people to make our business successful. Not only is it imperative that we are open to working with other people, it is a wonderful way to expand your world, your knowledge base, your growth opportunity, your growth mindset. And as creatives, that is so important to thriving and not just surviving. So, opening yourself up to that 20% of the time being flexible. Flexible to taking in new information. Flexible to pivoting in a new direction. Flexible to just asking yourself the question, what would it look like if this was even better? What would be even better if I did blank? So that 20% is actually an opportunity for growth. It's an opportunity for new information, for new people, for new energy to come in and mix with your own and to see what might come out of that could be even better. That's the frame of mind to take care of because we want to maintain our creative sense of control and energy. However, we don't want to become too rigid. Too rigid breaks. So there needs to be some malleability, some bendability to be able to move in an even better direction. And that helps us grow. So, back to that 80-20 rule. And if I'm speaking specifically about being flexible, being adaptive to new things, new interactions. So number three, to balancing your artistic vision with commercial viability is taking intentional causes and using them to assess your alignment. This is huge because it puts us in a mindset of thoughtful responsiveness instead of reactivity. We maintain a sense of self-compassion and compassion for others when we're not just out there in the world reacting, reacting, reacting, reacting without thoughtfulness. This is the opportunity to wake up, tune in, pay attention to what's going on inside of us and what might be happening around us. This is an opportunity to practice emotional resilience and emotional intelligence, right, where we're managing our emotions. We're aware of our own emotions and we're managing them. We are aware of the emotions in the room and we're managing them. What a beautiful opportunity to practice being human. And if we're just constantly out in the world reacting, it's almost like we are asleep after a meal. And we're falling back on old tools from the toolbox that may, we may sometimes serve us well, but they may not be serving us as well as they should be. Tune in, pay attention to what's going on inside of us and around us. To check to see if what you want to do is actually in alignment with your core values. The pauses, they can be a second long, they can be five seconds, they can be five minutes. If you're in a meeting, you might even need to say something. Hey, I'd like to take a moment to think about this and come back to you. Would that be okay? Here's an opportunity to practice more interpersonal communication skills with others. To grant yourself the time you need to tune in. So based on what's going on, it may require more time, less time. Only you can gauge how much time you might need. And if you are off by how much time you thought you needed, always ask for more time. Or just take the time you need. It's really important to honor this because not only does it benefit you, it benefits everyone around you. You are honoring yourself and aligning with your core values. People around you can see them where you stand. And they can make a decision for themselves. Oh, this person is aligned with what they are thinking and what they are passionate about and what their values are. But not necessarily aligned with my values. I think maybe we part ways on this decision or on this project or in this company. Again, it gives a signal for a boundary setting. And it doesn't mean you have to be a jerk. This is a very big compassion practice. And it starts with tuning in. So taking these intentional pauses. Asking yourself questions like, does this align with my intrinsic core values? Does this align with my goals? How are my values aligned with this person's values? If you don't know the answer to that, maybe ask them what they value and see where there is overlap. Often times, there is overlap in values. Very rarely are you on two totally separate planets. That usually means that you probably are so far apart that you won't be working together. But there is usually some overlap. The question is, how much overlap is there? And how aligned are you with the overlap? Does this feel like a great place to work? Or maybe is there too many incongruencies where maybe this didn't work out very well for this decision? It's really, really, really important to take intentional pauses. In order to do this, we have to give ourselves permission to slow down and not react so fast. So, let's do a recap here. The three ways that you can balance your artistic vision with your commercial viability is one, get really clear on your intrinsic core values to help you better guide your own decision making. Number two, practice flexible thinking. I talked about this 80-20 rule, but 80% of the time you're sticking to being aligned with your values and your thoughts and your actions, staying aligned with that 80% of the time. And 20% of the time you're open to taking in new information, new people, new energy, to help you realign to something that could possibly be even better. So, growth opportunity, growth mindset. And finally, use intentional pauses. Take the time you need to tune in to what is most important to you. That's usually your balance. This will help you align both your creativity and the business side of your freedom. I wish you so much success with this. I wish you well. Keep on keeping on. Compassion loves. And I'll see you next time.