Define the Problem-then Build the Solution

so, to make the solution building more effective and actually worth it. You need to figure out the problem, or the bottleneck to your business and life. Like, this is the most critical aspect of your not only business, but life too. Most of our life comes from trying to get away from problems either by external or internal means. And this is mostly considered philosophical, but also there are practical ways to get into this mindset.

Like, the problem might not be as complex for most people.(Unless you are doing SpaceX or Microsoft level stuff, most of your problems are relatively doable.)

For example, in my case. I felt the need to get away from it all. The action caused me to lose sight of what I actually want to do.

A few key things I do to solve my problems is to for sure put a lot of things on pause.

‘See, the problems comes from, often times clutter, the overexposure and overflow of well everything. From the media, technology, to even something simple as food. So, after chopping a lot of things that is making my life a living hell, I found the epiphany. I just had to do a few key actions for my business and brand to go forward. And it was more or less easy to pull off.

they are either

• technological-getting software or something to automate or streamline the process.
• Hardware-having tools or equipment that allows to leverage your actions tenfold.
• Funding-grants, patreon, sponsorships, the list is suite vast.
• Practical-you actually needed less things and time than you thought.
• or a shift in mindset-you had the problem in your head all along or your answer was with you the entire time.

the list is seemingly endless but really it’s based on the principles of what your options are on hand to solve it. It’s not always the case of buying the new tech or something, but sometimes, the cheapest, or more practical option option is the best bet for you.

the main ideas of different types of solution is to have a layout of what methods or means you have actually at your disposal to optimize the resutls you want.

It basically boils down to the idea of what you actually want in on time and if it’s to do with your interest or not.

So, have a list of things you need done, have a layout of what options you have at your disposal, and see which courses of action is the best optimized ones.

For example maybe it’s more rational to buy a contractor to fix a house’s plumbing than doing it yourself since it would be much time to simply learn the basics, it’s better to save time and effort so you can focus on the more productive and focused activities like the business.

Another one would be to simply cart around your laptop since, buying another might be too expensive or something. Who knows, it would depend and the idea of long term telecommuting might be your thing or at home is better.

Like, the list of solutions you can come up with initially will be quite a few but by the end of the day, not as effective, learn to sit on it for a few days to test your beliefs.

The Bottom-line is this, if the solution is easy to understand, implement and follow in simple steps, you have a winning strategy. It’s not as complicated often. So ask your self, what is the easiest way to make it work?

 

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Well…it’s not really a long story for this case but for sure, it was a series of trial and error on how my art came to be. Or specifically the prints that my fellow customers buy on etsy.

‘See, it wasn’t really initiated by me actually. More or less, the idea of prints came from customers and my art mentors, (posters, but be honest, for my case, they suck) suggesting and well, constantly bothering me on if I have prints of these available. After a year or so, and the concept of commerce for my art started to become a reality. It was not until, my arrival of grants to get my own self-employment up and running is that the print series really start to take it’s place.

There were a few attempts to get a working prototype for sure. Ranging from, simple, photo prints that have a finish, but not quite the way I wanted. Or even the dreaded cardstock series that were made at the local kinkos and the quality was awful.

So, after a month of running around town seeing which printer shops will do for my business model, I have finally landed on this kind of prototype.

It was not until a few weeks later that I go my first sale on the said thing and after working on the presentation and idea of how to present my work in a more pallet-able manner, things start to pick up.

And after the few sales the rest of the printing prototype is history.

here is a PDF file to download below.

Etsy Prints samples and copy version1

 

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There are two schools of thoughts that sell.

Products and Services-based, or, Information and Content-based.

Or Tangible and Non-Tangibles

The Service and Product is for sure a tried and true economy but, the entry to think of an idea and start producing the results they can yield is now more or less low-cost into entry.

Not to mention the concept of Product and Services has been around for a long enough time to understand universally.

With the modern technology and digital information however, it’s just a case of either making a cool reel or a inexpensive prototype to showoff and convince customers that it’s a good thing.

If you can sell the idea that your product or service can do good for the world or at least produce results and satisfaction to a small portion of the global population, it’s on a good start.

Examples of how to convince people to give funding?

Kickstarter

Gov, Grants

Ety, Fiverr, etc.

These are examples of active markets and pre-startups where you can attempt to sell your products and services,

Most of these are for sure leverage-based. At least in the labor aspect.

Crowdfunding

Community

Connected ‘sites

its’ all about using the actual market to build the Project/Product/Service.

Like, to get dough, you have to provide things that society wants or needs but it’s unable to get it it’s self and you can be one of the few that provides it in scale.

Information and Content-Based economies

in terms of Digital-it’s pretty new, Steemit, Youtube, Patreons to name a few big places that can be worked into.

However historically, information or content based economies were around for a while, for examples manuscripts or text-books for academic purposes.

So, the purpose of the information based product is along the lines of giving insights or entertainment to the reader’s mind. It’s as simple as it gets.

The real challenge is to well massage the works in such a way that it seamlessly makes the thing.

Modern forms of Content-Info based things. E-books, Patreon, and YouTube monetization.

The Problem with YouTube monetization. It adds complextiy to the issue only more so,

The problem with this kind of content-creation business model is that it’s not only unsustainable for the long-term(trust me, most of these “youtubers” will be wiped out by the mid 2020s if they don’t smarten up and get stuff going actually)

True enough patreon does adds at times a buffer or supplementary income and another way for people to interact with the on-line brand, but this can only go for far.

Like, to just monetize your content on youtube with patreon is a lot of hassle to the audience, they have to do extra work and adds friction.

It’s advised to not do this kind of business model as a whole since most of these on the patreon life-boat has not plan or bigger strat to work from the start. They mind as well quit and clean up the digital junk info clutter they left for the world to reap in.

To reap better yield from the Content or Info Economy.

Try to offer not only entertainment, but insights, or even share knowledge and skills.

Youtube, despite being a rather stupid platform at this point, has in it’s 2014-2016 days a plethora of knowledge and seemingly timeless education that can help those stuck in Middle North America(basically nowhere and with wild beasts and troublemakers still roam, so employment is easy to disrupt).

SkillShare, many experts and sadly, gurus too go over to SkillShare or even Udemy to well literally share what they know about their respective industry and show up updated methods to fast-track your education.

Like, this  concept of a education where, you get the right and relevant kinds of knowledge and education in scale, and at an unbeatable price is where the mainstream education system should be, since it gets actual results and is with the times.

Patreon, well, other than being a lifeboat for the failed youtubers to hitch on to, it’s a popular platform for Artists, or other content-info creators or holders to share their so-called industry secret.

There is much to talk about these platforms but overall it is viable for their respective brands and audience they cater to. It’s just knowing their policies and playing to it.

The only thing about these is that yes, the internet allowed this wave of free information to come in swallow up paid-information, save for the top 1% that have a closed off-off grid master group somewhere in the Mountains or Bahamas. There is very little reason to have industry secrets, since the technology of today exposes well, literally the truth to people on a daily level. And with the rise of quantum and neural link level technology, aka “the Future”, certain kinds of people will end up with super-human cognitive abilities and rendering the normies useless.

Patreon, is a bit tricky, so, each tier should reflect the results it yields.

But yes, patreon for sure has been a somewhat of a proven model to certain kinds of brands and businesses. It’s all about the intent really, if the brand likes to either create or document their content. It’s all good really. The thing about tier level is that the information or content given should really reflect it’s value.

For example, it’s good to ask yourself if the content or information you provide on pateron to actually get results for your fans or at least give them actionable thoughts that give them an edge in their life, that’s the only good thing I can see so far.

Other Methods of getting paid for this kind of thing is also through twitch or mixer,(now this is shaky territory for me, but this gist is that, there is the rise of the small-brand entertainer class people thanks to the youtube monetization movement, and this is a proof-of-concept that you can get paid for being a clown basically.)

So, using a few examples, Offline TV, Ninja, or even Jim Lee tends to these streaming or as I call it Live-Show platforms. So, it’s a viable platform if one wants to make it as a live-show entertainer or speaker of sort. (The concept of these Live-Digitla interactive systems are intriguing but somewhat hard for me to understand since I actually suck on camera and tends to go south.)

Wrapping up the concepts

So, there isn’t much else to say myself since not only the idea are shaky territory but, due to the world we live is so over-exposed with information and action in general, it’s good to not only have information but start doing and focus on a few key options only.

If you want to sell art, just focus on the product, and the story behind it, everything else is either an afterthought or ditch all-together since eventually the rights kinds of people will get the idea that you are an artist that sells their work. And seeing the story in written or voice form will give context to the work.

If, you want to be like, Ninja, better up your voice and personality, and a bit of the craft you want to flex on. And learn to get good doing your thing on camera while streaming on Yoututbe or Twitch, or even Mixer. People will notice and eventually the re-posted or silly complications of your skits and streams will reach people in scale.

Just think of which of the 4 paths or a combination you want in on to make the most of it. It’s all about what you want to master. Don’t Dabble, Grind.

A zip file containing the Artist Productivity Tips in a PDF form for each entry.

Consider taking the home with you and bolster your creative business for the better.

artist productivity tips-PDFs (click to start download)

 

So, All creatives have this particular problem hat they face daily.

It’s the meter or pool of things to draw from for their creative work.

The Pool is used for well, this.

It holds the energy, references, resources to create work in a effective and efficient manner.

However in the current culture of grinding and hustling daily to a point of well, overworked death.

It’s a no wonder many creatives tend to either leave or do poorly in the field, it comes to well having a few things. Ranging from having a clear goal, or strategy, have some quality time for their selves to distance and see the bigger picture.

‘See, you can’t just keep grinding and expect quality work and that is well, not even a thing.

When i mean by filling your pool, this involves having time off from your well “quality” work but it doesn’t mean you are excused from mundane tasks that needs to be done. Chores will always be around.

When I mean by Quality work. It’s like this blog post that took a few days and thinking about the other line-up of work to think about, and doing the good draft usually takes up more of my willpower and intelligence(which have a time-cap actually) and it’s nonsense to do work when you’re not ready.

‘Like, when working on the larger scale things, I don’t go straight to ink and just “wing it”, it’s waste of well everything I have on my disposal and with limited resources and energy, that is well…

stupid.

What is the better approach? Fill your creative pool, sketch more, take walks alone, and let the action of your strides generate ideas you can’t think up of on spot when stressed.

The Big issue with stress is that it actually lowers the quality and effectiveness of your work,

So grinding and working under poor conditions are the last thing you want to be doing when tackling creative work.

It’s better to deploy good judgement and discerning than just improvising it in the places I’ve been in. It saves a lot of trouble and stress.

So, learn to fill your pool and you will have less drought to plague you.

So, this is another creative issue I keep finding in the ‘net.

People overcooking well, formulas and not pushing their boundaries.

To be creative or noticeable, you gotta do one particular thing.

Combine unexpected things. What i mean by that is well this.

What are some examples well things that are unexpected and really should

not work but they do?

Well, as a Certain Joe Rogan podcast guesting Naval stated.

Bear and a Ball, used in a circus fashion is something one simply doesn’t see.

So, to summarize the idea, it’s like this.

Bad Ideas-Great Execution.

So, to give a bit of context in the art world, it’s something along the lines of this.

Artists, those who have well actually made thier mark.

They have all these common traits,

They create thier own genre, they actually branch out from a simple thing but eventually decides to so a series of works that isn’t expected, but the results somehow worked out.

Let’s take a few examples but it’s creators like

Simon Stalenhang, Youji Shinkawa, Hayaoe Miyazaki, Y-Nakajima.

They tend to combine really, “unorthodox” things. (and really, they shouldn’t work, sounds almost like an abomination)

Ranging from real life setting given a scifi grafting, to doing Japanese Inks with a technical precision. Or just duct taping Children’s franchises with a Madmax style post apoc flair.

The Combinations are really bad on paper, but in execution, it’s great.

It’s quite simple this one. It’s only two things you have to manage and that is all.

The so-called complexity or other factors what have you is like this.

The difference is the pace of each thing you want to do. Let alone it’s intensity and level of work that is put in.

For Example,

a series of small sketches for practice and visual catalogue to get a hang of a thing you had in mind. Compared to chipping away at a large project you work on for a few days. Such as comics or Canvas.

Barbell Effect goes along the lines that, Micro Actions with Macro Effects. It’s almost like the compound effect too but not exactly. It’s the Two extremes that Buildup the whole but, the middle are is well, mute.

Think Grinding vs Batching.

• Work on a small or medium thing daily
• Working on a bunch of small things at once to make a process easier

Or Active vs Passive Work.

• Active work is akin to work that needs to be done within a day or week so it’s usually urgent and gets immediate results
• Passive work is well chipping away at something much larger, think week or month’s scale here so the results aren’t immediate nor noticeable until a few weeks months later.

The variations and dichotomy of what kind of work can be achieved with this approach is well seemingly endless….

Apply in a few other ways to.

• Day Job to Side Hustle
• Original Works to Fanarts
• Dabble on a few mediums on the cheap to Grinding on your Forte
• Brushing up on a few practice pieces to prep for a larger scale one
• Work on a few client’s small tasks while building up your own large thing
• the list of duos goes on here…

So, the takeaway is this. You do a series of small manageable works while developing a larger project.

*concept was a take away I got from Nassim Nicholas Taleb Author of Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder

it discussed how to do multiple things to full effect.