Wanna make more money doing your art? Sure you do!  

I googled how us service industry folk can get er done! I found a nice article on the first page of Google.  How convenient!  

Here’s the first three things to do that the article mentioned.  

We can…

1. Network to get referrals…

2.  Reach back out to cold leads that had potential. 

3.  Respond faster with a more personable approach.

But wait, there’s more!  

I’m being facetious but there’s nothing wrong with these suggestions.  But if you’re not doing what I’ve written about in the last 4 parts of this series, doing those three things (and business tactics in general) is going to feel HARD. 

You’ll probably end up in The Gap with nonsense thoughts like…

Why didn’t that company book?

Why didn’t that lead call me back?

Why am I not getting likes on these posts?  

This happens because you over look the most important thing…

YOU are the most important factor in determining how much you can receive. 

In the end, it’s all about being successful.  But let me explain how I define success.  

Success for me is about freedom.  

The freedom to do your art, how you want to, for how much you want to, and for who you want to.  

AND…

Being happy and healthy and enjoying your life.  

When I was painting at Marvel, working 10-12 hour days was the norm.  I loved what I did and wore my crazy hours and work days like a badge of honor.  

Then, my body started to hurt.  

And I started missing the important things.  

My daughter had a school function that I decided to miss because I “had to work”.  She’ll understand…  

‘I’m busy.’

‘I’m doing this for her.’ 

‘This electricity doesn’t pay for itself ya know.’ 

And then she said, “daddy you never do things with us anymore”.

I was doing my art, and making the money, but my home life and health was floundering. Not matter what I told myself, I was NOT successful. 

Maybe I’m wrong.

Maybe money really can solve all of your problems.  

The gurus always say to make more money you need to provide more value. But that doesn’t always work for artists the way we want because delivering value doesn’t encompass being more.  

It’s about DOING more.  Working on the doing without the being is a recipe for disaster.  

What I eventually learned (and what most the gurus today don’t say) is value comes in two parts.  

There’s physical value and spiritual value. 

You know the physical value.

Get more clients.

Make more offers.

Provide more  services.

But that’s the 20%!  It’s tangible.  Easy.  That’s why everyone talks about it!

To provide more value on a higher spiritual level—that’s the 80%! 

“Only spiritual things can be in more than one place at a time. Think about it, you can have money in your bank account, a checkbook for that account, and a debit card for that account, and they all represent the exact same money.”

“How can money be in three places at once? Because money is spiritual.”

-Myron Golden

Think about it, money is an idea.  

A penny is 75% copper.  Based on substance a penny is worth more than a dollar (that’s made out of cotton).  But that’s not true, a dollar is 100 times more valuable.  

What that means is, the value of money is between your ears.  And how you attract it is based on who you are—how you act, think, and feel.

“Money” moves to and away from people and places for its own reasons, and for known (not mysterious), mostly visible reasons.  By syncing your character, thoughts, behavior and business with these reasons, you attract prosperity; if in opposition to these reasons, money goes elsewhere.” 

-Dan Kennedy, Wealth Attraction in the New Economy

To recap.  How you earn (and receiving more) is based on:

80/20, it’s 20% tactics and 80% personality (how you think, act, and feel).

Growing and becoming a better version of yourself.

The Gain thinking.

Using Creative Vision.

And I loosely spoke about this, but, define was success means to you.

That’s important because…

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

-Steve Jobs

Adam ‘Paid in Full’ Street

Bonus Quote:

…don’t nothing move but the money”

Eric B. & Rakim,  Paid In Full

Years ago when I first heard Gary Vaynerchuk’s Do What You Love (no excuses!) talk on TED (and read his book Crush It), I proclaimed one thing…

Artists were gonna crush it online!

All that talk about passion, content creation, and doing what you love.  Who does that better than artists?

Well, I was wrong.  Sorta.

I struggled making money online.  And I saw a butt load of other artists struggle too.  Maybe I was missing something.  

So I bought Gary’s second book Jab Jab Jab, Right Hook.  Great book, but still, no fireworks.  

Us creative folk are stuffed full of desire.

We generally have a vision for what we want for our art and we have imaginations that can rival any kindergartner.  

So why are we not ‘crushin’ it’?

I didn’t get my answer until I read, How to Own Your Own Mind by Napoleon Hill.  In the book Hill interviews Andrew Carnegie and he talks about the difference between imagination and Creative Vision.

And spoiler alert, they are NOT the same.

Carnegie said Creative Vision is an acquired ability of…  

Recognizing favorable opportunities.

Embracing opputunities.

Moving with definiteness of purpose.  

Removing limitations from your mind.

Using Applied Faith.

Going the extra mile. 

And there are more…

Einstein said,  “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”  And he is right.

Imagination IS everything.  

Until you try to SELL your art…  Without the Creative Vision part, that’s where things fall apart.  

That’s where most artists stall. 

That’s where I stalled!

Check out this quote from Dr Joseph Murphy from the Miracle Power for Infinite Riches.  

“When your desire and  imagination are in conflict, your imagination always wins.”

That means no matter how bad you want to make money off of your art, if your creative visions isn’t dialed in, you can seemingly do almost everything right, and still struggle. 

This is why Future Self thinking is so important.  If you can use who you want to be as a measuring stick for how you act today, you active your Creative Vision.  And your Creative Vision pushes you forward.  

Instead of saying I can’t do that, or how can I do that?  You look for WHO can help you do that.  Then your imagination and creativity kick in and things fall into place.  

On the other hand if you do NOT use your future self/creative visioning your imagination works against you.  And as Murphy said no matter how bad you want it you’ll keep thinking of reasons why it won’t work.

Years ago before Amazon did same day Prime shipping, I read about it in Success magazine.  When Bezos said he was working on getting products delivered the same day I thought he was…

Out.

Of. 

His.

Friggin’ mind!

And then Amazon did it.  Not everywhere.  Not all the time.  But they did it.

That was Creative Vision at it’s best.

Want to make more money while you sip on a Caramel Macchiato in Starbucks, warmly in your Supreme hoodie, while typing on your tricked out 16 inch MacBook Pro?

Master Creative Vision.

And reading chapter 1 of How to Own Your Own Mind wouldn’t hurt either…

Adam

“It doesn’t take you a long time to build a successful business.  It takes you a long time to become the person to be willing to do it.”

-Myron Golden

Don’t you just love in cinema when the caterpillar becomes a butterfly?

Like when Luke became a Jedi in Star Wars.

Or when Harry was ready to fight Voldemort.

Or like how Neo figured out he really was The One in the Matrix.

That stuff only works in fiction because those same rules apply to us in REAL LIFE.  Your life changes when you BECOME the new version of YOU.

The problem is most people look for evidence of their life improving with their five senses. 

I’ll be happy when:

I SEE the new Lexus in my garage.

I TASTE  great food at a Michelin Star Restaurant.

I TOUCH a new MacBook Pro instead of my old clunker.

We can’t help living in our 5 senses because our 3D world is REAL.  The problem is focusing only on what we can perceive with our senses often keeps us living in The Gap.  

We end up staying overly consumed with what we CAN’T see, smell, hear, taste and touch.  To manifest, we need to use our imagination and feelings to see and feel what we want.

This may sound weird but this is how the universe sees it.  If you’re looking for it, that means you’re separated from it.  

And if you’re separated from it, the Law of Attraction can only bring you more of the same.  

Which is you not having it…

Check out this blog passage from Benjamin Hardy, PhD:

“Here’s a painful but liberating truth:  

Whatever you see in the outside world is a reflection of you.  

You can know who you are by what you’re seeing in the outside world.  

The food in your pantry is a reflection of you.  

The apps on your phone are a reflection of you.  

The content in your newsfeed and on your social media is a reflection of you.  

Becoming aware of these things, and then shifting them, will change your life.  

Asking the hard questions of these things will enable you to make MASSIVE leaps and bounds in your life.  

You’ll completely transform.”

I know what you’re thinking…

“Ok Adam, so how do we BE more clients?”

“How do we BE more money?”

“How do we BE more love in relationships?”

You get clear on who you want your future self to be and then live your from that perspective.  

For example…

In Natasha Graziano’s book Be it Until You Become It, she talks about how she finally attracted the mate of her dreams. 

At first she had a laundry list of qualities and attributes she wanted.  She eventually  realized she needed to BE those things on her list too.  As she became what she wanted (e,g, more loving, giving, etc.) *poof* her perfect partner showed up.

When I think about my future self I think of me traveling, drawing for hours, or maybe doing Mixxedfit. Those things require clarity, energy, and vitality.  

When I’m debating on what to eat for lunch, do I want junk food or do I want the smoothie?  I still eat junk sometimes but my point is that thinking about my future helps me make better choices today. 

We have thoughts like this everyday.  It’s not about controlling your thoughts.  That’d be about as practical as herding cats.  We don’t control our thoughts, we guide our thoughts.

And when you do that you’ll live in The Gain more of the time.  You’ll get rid of that cognitive dissonance and you’ll get closer to the you YOU want to be.  

And then you’ll get more of the stuff.

Adam

When I started offering live digital caricature as a service, I did NOT want to.

I didn’t talk about it.

I didn’t put the service on my website.  

I just didn’t want to do it.

I kept it a secret like a Code Red in the movie A Few Good Men.  I only did it because I was tired of saying no to requests and leaving money on the table.  

So… I sold out.  

Keep in mind I draw with a Wacom tablet daily so it wasn’t anything I wasn’t already doing.  I just had a sh-tty attitude about it.

Over the course of a year or so I couldn’t help but notice something always went wrong.  Usually something I could control.

I’d forget print paper.

Cords.

Hell, one day I even forgot my whole printer!  

It was ridiculous!  But that was the day I realized it was my crap attitude that had me attracting such nonsense.  And as Wayne Dyer said, when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.  

In my last post I quoted Regan Hillyer who said, success is 20% strategy and 80% psychology.      

I agree with the ratio but I wanted to break down my “psychology”.   And how to change YOU to get you more of what you want.

“Fundamental to our work is the idea that your personality creates your personal reality, and your personality is made up of how you think, act, and feel. Thus, in order for a person to create a new life and a new reality, they have to change their personality.”

-Joe Dispenza

And the by the way, you can be a great friend, son, daughter, parent, etc. and have  crappy cash flow.  When I say you need to change your personality, I’m talking about your personality with…

MONEY and business!

This is why artists, accountants, plumbers, etc. do their art for 5 10 or 20 years and then they leave their ‘job’ to do what they are already great at and fail.  

If you think, feel, and act from the wrong place with money, your business will always be a struggle.  It’ll feel like you’re swimming with a 50 pound weight strapped to your leg.  

Here’s one of the easiest ways I found to change your results and get more money in your pocket. 

You need to understand The GAP and The GAIN.

Dan Sullivan, the founder of Strategic Coach has a philosophy called The Gap and The Gain.  Dan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy have a book (by the same name) and it drills down on this beautifully.

As entrepreneurs we’re all about checking boxes and getting what we want.  “I’ll be happy when…”

I hit my money goals…

I have time for…

I achieve…

When your happiness is tied to something in the future you can’t be completely happy NOW.  Your faith and confidence is as dry and bland as old used chewing gum.  

They call this, The Gap.  

When you live in The Gap, you’re comparing your end goal to what you’ve achieved.  

For example…

Let’s say I make $50,000 a year but I wanna make $100k.  Let’s say at the end of the year I bump it up to $60k I’m still $40k away from my goal and that sucks! 

Then you tell your colleagues or husband how you didn’t hit your goals.  Or complain how it was the market, or government, or whatever! 

That’s The Gap at it’s finest!

But if you turn it around and look at it from The Gain’s perspective, you’d look at it not from your goal, but from where you started and what you achieved. 

You look backwards.

That means you’ll focus on and appreciate how you earned $10k MORE.  Two totally DIFFERENT energies!

The Gain gets you out of The GAP.

The Gain creates immediate happiness.

The Gain gives you power over the direction of your life.  

Living in The Gain will up your vibration like a credit score.  And that will give you everything you need to change how you think, act, and feel.

“I don’t think we set and achieve goals in an effort to become happy.  We do it because we are happy and want to expand our happiness.”  

-Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Keep in mind, I could have just said, ‘be grateful’.  ‘Gratitude is everything’.  Appreciate what you got. And THAT, would be TOTALLY TRUE. 

But when you approach your life from The Gap and The Gain perspective, you have more of a blueprint on how to reprogram your mind.

Think in THE GAIN.

FEEL in GAIN.

BE in THE GAIN.

And you’ll be that much closer to getting what you want.

Adam

Got any money goals for  2024?  

I bet you do.

When I first started blogging about entrepreneur stuff, I really clenched on to copywriting.  How to tell a better story and write it so you can get people to buy your stuff.  

I thought that was the most important thing for me to master and teach.

But in the end (and plenty of frustration later) I realized success isn’t just “marketing” or “sales”.  Or “positioning” or “influence”.  None of that crap.

Well…

Those things are super helpful but if you’re not repeatedly hitting home runs in work and life, they’re going to be about as helpful to you as a book on how to peel oranges.

You don’t need a new business tactic you need a new YOU.

It’s called personal development for a reason.  YOU need to work on developing YOUR person. 

Regan Hillyer said, success is 20% strategy and 80% psychology.  

If 80% of success happens between your ears, that means who YOU are determines how much you earn.  

Don’t think so?  

Imagine this…

Ray owns a house in Des Moines and his home yard is stuffed with Republican voting signs.  He has a banner in his window that says Trump 2024.  He even has a life-size cut out of The Don and Melania on his porch.  

What if the chief of staff at the Biden administration called Ray and asked him to be on stage with President Biden in Iowa.  You think he’d go for it?

Um, hell no.

But what if they paid him $1000?  I’m guessing, still, a resounding hell no.

But what if President Trump’s staff called him and asked him to be on stage, at the exact same place with President Trump.  You think he’d go?  

Of course he would.  

Now, here’s the rub…

They didn’t have to get Ray on their ‘list’.  

They didn’t have to work on a minimum viable product.

They didn’t have to figure out the best e-mail sequence to deliver to Ray.  

The only thing that changed is… the person who did the asking.

“Grow so fast that your friends who haven’t seen you in a month have to get to know you all over again”

-Vischen Lakhiani, The Buddha and the Badass

Make your growth your number one goal and be the highest expression of yourself.

Adam

PS  I wanted to talk about money and there was no way I could do it in one email so I’m breaking them up. This is part one.