Adam Street's Blog
The spiritual and practical path to freedom to do your art

Star Wars, freakin out, and the important of training

I was watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Anakin Skywalker’s padawan Ahsoka was taken by some bad guys.   Did they abduct her because they wanted to have tea and crumpets with her?  

Hardly.

They wanted a padawan for their own creepy little version of the Hunger Games.  

After Anakin realized Ahsoka was gone he got worried.   Crazy worried.  He was freakin’ out until finally Plo, another Jedi master, dropped some wisdom on him.

He said if you trained her properly, she’ll find her way back home.

This was a hard pill for Anakin to swallow… 

He knew Plo was right though.  Instead of trying to scour the universe for her he knew he had to let go and trust she’d be ok.  

And Ahsoka made it home.

What made this good fiction is the fact that this is so true and so applicable to real life.  

When the pandemic hit I thought I could out maneuver it like flying a X-Wing around enemy fire.  I thought I was going to pivot and my business would be safe.  Instead I got swallowed like that creepy toothy mouth thing in the Return of The Jedi.  

I had the marketing training but what I didn’t have was the mindset and belief in my skills to match it.  That’s why in my upcoming boot camp we’re going to go over the practical business skills creative entrepreneurs need, but the mindset as well.

https://www.adamstreet.net

Adam

I was wrong

For about a year I used to get annoyed at events when people commented on my drawing skills.  

They would give me compliments and I said thank you but inside I was annoyed.  I used to say a monkey could do my job.  You know, if the monkey drew three hours a day for 20 years.

He and most people could do it…

I was wrong.  I admitted I have natural gifts and desires that make me suited to draw cartoons.  The fact that I drew everyday to get good enough to turn pro was just the icing on the cake.

Let’s see… What else was I wrong about?

I was wrong about Google.  I called them a one-trick pony.  When the stock closed at over $100 after the initial public offering I thought the people who bought it were crazy.  

I was also wrong about marketing my business with traditional Business Paradigm tactics.  I wrote about that here:  https://adamstreetblog.com/the-artist-paradigm-letter/

I thought I had to do what the gurus said.  I took ME out of my marketing and replaced me with a USP, fear, scarcity, and looking at metrics.   Focusing on SEO and fine-tuning my elevator pitch made for some really good Sundays…  Not. 

Those things are ok.  They’re useful even.  The problem was I realized they were the opposite of what I needed to do.  As I focused less on what “they” told me to do I  started enjoying marketing and promoting my work again.  And, it got easier.

This is why I’ll be introducing my new boot camp soon.  I’ll be  sharing with you what worked for me and shiz-nit that you need to get rid of and avoid like the plague.  

More info to come.

https://www.adamstreet.net

Adam

Is your work dry or wet s**t?

Stan Lee called The Scarlet Pimpernel the first superhero.  If Stan Lee says it it’s gotta be true, right?  

It’s like taking acting advice from Meryl Streep or learning how to stroke a 3-pointer  from Stephen Curry.

The Scarlet Pimpernel was a novel published in 1905 by Baroness Orczy.  Orczy’s ‘superhero’ would save the day and leave a card behind bearing a scarlet pimpernel flower.  

How pimp is that?  

Today that would be the equivalent of foiling a crime, putting it on YouTube, and sending it to the bad guy.  

What I love about leaving the card is (and I’ve never read the novel in case you’re curious…), it leaves a piece of you behind.  It puts a face on the work or transformation.  And here’s the million dollar question…

Do you do this with your tribe?

Matthew McConaughey interviewed a musician he loved in West Africa.  He asked him why he didn’t come to America and other countries.  The musician said…

“Because there I would be dried shit, neither me nor my scent would stick with you.  Here, I am wet shit, both me and my scent stick with you.

Do you stick with your audience?  What part of YOU do you leave behind in your work?  

In your marketing? 

In your  promotions?

We’ll talk about this in my new boot came for creative entrepreneurs. You can be unapologetically you and attract the right clients and earn a great living doing what you love. 

More into to come!  But until then, keep puttin’ your funk out into the world.

https://www.adamstreet.net

Adam

PS McConaughey’s quote was taken from his book, Greenlights.  It’s a keeper and worth checking out.

Sticks and stones can break my bones, but…

I love proverbs and old sayings.  

For short little phrases they can pack a lot of power.  Unless…  They’re flawed. 

Jim Rohn was the first person I ever heard talk about this.  

There’s tons of old sayings that are floating around in our heads that are incorrect.  Like, so incorrect they’re bad.   Like, if they manifested and crawled up to us, you’d probably try to whack them with a hammer.

One old saying Jim Rohn picked on was, “ignorance is bliss”.  

Ignorance is NOT bliss…

Ignorance is poverty, ill health, and shitty credit.  To be ignorant about something important will give you feelings FAR from bliss.  

Growing up I remember, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”  This one may help with bullying on the playground but the older you get it’s about as useful as trying to run your car off toothpaste.  

Why?

Because what someone else tells you means nothing.  What YOU tell YOU means EVERYTHING.  What you tell you, WILL break you.  

It affects your relationships.

It affects your self esteem.

And it affects your ability to grow your biz and live your best life.  

This is one of the big hurdles I had to get past and I’m going to show you how you can do it too.

This week I’ll be unveiling my five week boot camp.  We’re going to deep on the spiritual and practical things I did to grow my businesses over the last 18 years and bounce back after 2020.  

Stay tuned!

https://www.adamstreet.net

Adam Street

My Ravenclaw t-shirt and celebrating life

I stopped at a convenience store and the cashier complimented me on my shirt.  I was wearing my Ravenclaw t-shirt (from the Harry Potter series).  

Proudly by the way…

If you’re not familiar with Harry’s wizard school, Hogwarts, it’s composed of four ’houses’.  Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw.  My house is RavenClaw.

After a little chatting I found out the cashier’s house was Ravenclaw too.  She also said her and her family went to Universal Studios’ Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction.  We were in nerd paradise worthy of The Big Bang Theory.

The TV show, not the scientific theory…

In the end, my favorite part of our conversations wasn’t about wands and spells.  It was why they were at Universal to in the first place.

Her mom (or grandma, I can’t remember which) beat cancer so they were all there to celebrate the victory together.   Celebrating that win as a family is beyond cool!  

It’s easy to celebrate the big things though…

Beating cancer.

Graduating from college.

Getting a big client or losing 40 pounds.  

Here’s the master skill, though.  You gotta celebrate the little stuff too.  For me it may be as simple as a fist pump, eating some delicious ice cream, or buying me something pretty.  Big or small, I find a way to acknowledge it.

The Secret’s Lisa Nichols said, she does this too.  She knew she was on the right track because when she told Oprah she did this, Oprah said she did it too! 

“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”  

Oprah Winfrey

Too often we want others to celebrate us and acknowledge our achievements.  But if you don’t do it for yourself, why should anyone else?

And speaking of celebrating…

This week I’m launching my bootcamp that goes deep on the little things that held me back my when I was freelancing and started my own businesses.  I’m addressing the spiritual and practical changes I had to make to finally make consistent money.

The little hinges that swing big doors that kept me broke for far too long.  

Things every creative entrepreneur needs to know.

In my five week bootcamp you won’t be alone.  I’ll be there in the trenches with you.

More info to come!

https://www.adamstreet.net

Adam