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Building an Artist's empire

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...
D

Deleted65172

Guest
Here I am, ready to rumble.
First, a quick overview of who I am.
- Italian, but lived and traveled in various countries.
- Bilingual Ita/Eng with some knowledge of other European languages.
- Writer, mostly fiction.
- Digital artist, book cover designer.
- Early thirties.
- Currently living in Italy, in a lovely city with great opportunities in side hustles, lead gen, and more.
- I love learning stuff. Self-taught in a lot of topics.

Predicament:
-want to make money through my art + other enterprises and not by working for somebody else.
-want to have money for even bigger missions (for example, tackling environmental challenges).

Solution:
I've got a plan. It is geared towards growth and expansion from day One. It is agile, parts are interchangeable, but gives a general direction and will be modified according to regular assessments and necessity.
I'm being bold and setting the bar high. In the style of Cardone's 10x rule, if you will.
This year will be the baseline on which future endeavors will be built. Hence, the progress thread :)

In short:
-multiple income streams
-not all will adhere to the CENTS test, but I believe will serve a purpose in the grand scheme of things, or at least I think may be worthwhile attempting
-mostly revolving around art, but by approaching "art" from various angles to test various possible businesses
-no "build it and they will come" and no "sunk cost fallacy". Also, you are all welcome to shoot me in the foot if I end up action-faking.

Practical Goals for 2019

-At least 6 non-fiction books published (self-publishing)
- At least 4 fiction books published
- Milwordy challenge completed (= write 1 million words in one year's time. It will run to February 2020, technically).
- At least 2 art businesses making stable income by end of year.
- 3D art skills acquired and tested through sales of own 3D art.
- Services business up and running with minimal stable income
- One blog with affiliate marketing in a niche I've already chosen making stable passive income
- In total, a full time earning level, plus savings and money to reinvest in businesses.

On a more personal level:
- Read 50 books
- Reach Japanese language level of roughly N3 (currently n5)
- Brush up my French
- Travel
- Exercise regularly ('cos I've got to build some muscle. Plus, mens sana in corpore sano.)

This is the overview. Next post I will talk more about the different goals and what I've done so far. I welcome all constructive criticism, questions, anything you want to throw at me. Hope the journey will help others, especially artists or people who deal with digital products and self publishing.

Thanks and to the next!
 
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Isaac Oh

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Those are some great goals! I hope they stretch and pull you. I know you'll rise to the challenge. Will keep an eye on this
 

RazorCut

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Hi Bea,

Wow! That is a LOT to fit in in one year. Write and publish 10 books? Read 50 books? Start 2 art businesses plus a services business? On top of that start and maintain a blog and become competent in two languages?

I would say that lot will spread you way too thin and most enterprises will suffer but then maybe I'm just old and slow.
 
D

Deleted65172

Guest
The starting base
So far, here's what I've got:
-30% of first non-fiction book already written. To be published second half of March.
-outlines for other 3 non-fiction done. They are all part of a series, so are easy to link and produce.
- Outlines for 3 fiction books ready.
-Websites set up. Will have 3 main websites: writer 1 (main one), writer 2, visual art.
-social media set up and running.
- Art to be sold ready and uploaded on website plus an online store (40+ SKUs).
-Other material for artworks ready to be organized and put up for sale.

To do in March
- Write copy for websites. Then blog posts, mainly for writer 1.
-Finish and publish first non-fic.
-Start on first fiction book (actually probably write about half of it at least)
-Start advertisting and marketing the art work, plus produce more
-Social media pick up
-Word aim for the month: 85k

Hi Bea,

Wow! That is a LOT to fit in in one year. Write and publish 10 books? Read 50 books? Start 2 art businesses plus a services business? On top of that start and maintain a blog and become competent in two languages?

I would say that lot will spread you way too thin and most enterprises will suffer but then maybe I'm just old and slow.
It probably sounds like a lot of difference pieces, difficult to juggle, etc. But at their core all these goals/things to do feed into each other and are linked, which is why I've designed the path this way - working on business A feeds ideas into business C, and the exposure I get from business B helps with the future project D...
Plus, this is my job. Like, this is how I am spending my hours during the day etc, so it is more doable then trying to do it all as a side hustle. And I've done the research - now it's time to act and move forward. And if I don't reach all the goals by the end of the year, well I will still have accomplished something. Next year I may focus on less things, but this year is the start, and there are many pieces to put in place and gears that need to start running if I want this to grow and not be a hobby of sorts. Not all the businesses above need to make 10k a month - the variety is there to ensure some income from each - depending on what shows promise I will adjust the course.
But thank you for speaking up! I know it looks like a lot, and we will all have to see what I will be able to do - but I rather aim high and accomplish a lot than limiting myself from the start :)
As a side note:
-writing books (especially the non-fic I planned) does not take an ungodly amount of time, at least for me.
- one language (French) I'm already sorta-fluent, so it will be a casual brush up every now and then. Japanese is pretty much my only hobby, and it is hard but... I just want the challenge.

Those are some great goals! I hope they stretch and pull you. I know you'll rise to the challenge. Will keep an eye on this
Thank you and I hope so too!

That's it for now - will update probably next week with recap of the first week of March :)
 
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D

Deleted65172

Guest
Ok, it's been exactly 7 days into March, plus today it's a great time to make an update.

Done
-Non fiction book is at 50% completion.
- Solved some issues with one of the websites, finished the setup of the others. Outlined and drafted 5 posts to finish and publish next week (plus more).
- Created 5 more art pieces
- Worked out some plot points etc for fiction book

On more personal side:
-Reached 20 books read so far this year! Had a good reading run in the past couple of weeks.
- Exercised regularly plus went of a charity march on Sunday
- Slowly inching forward in Japanese study

To Do Now

From tomorrow I'll be out of town for 5 days, so activity will be reduced. In any case:
-Aiming to finish writing the non fiction book next week
- Adding posts to website etc
- Push the art business forward
- Start on the fiction book
- Finish some bits and pieces that need to be done but just take time.

All in all not bad - progress will be more clear by the end of next week, I think, since the bulk of the non fiction book will be done, art business will be open, etc.
Have to go pack for the out of town trip now - unfortunately it has to be done, and it's already been postponed twice. Oh well, should have time for lots of thinking away from the computer.

I don't know if people might be interested in details or side notes about aspects of my journey, but I will be happy to provide more thoughts - just ask!
 
D

Deleted65172

Guest
Already Monday - this past week has been so much busier than I expected.
The business out of the city has taken over my time so I accomplished less than I had planned.
This week I'll be playing catch-up.

What I've done:
- non-fiction is at about 70%
- done quite a few admin tasks and random little things that just needed to get done.
- managed to create some art sketches that I can finish this week
- I had some time to read, so at least I've made progress in that!
-while I could not access the computer for most of the week, at least I could think! So I brainstormed, mind mapped and did some thinking on various projects etc. I've got lots of notes and improvements to my projects coming out of that, so I can feel that at least I did something.

Things that need to be done this week:
- non-fiction book done
-fiction writing for book 1
- art business stuff

In more personal news, I had a talk with my partner about the future - really good insights in there, and I am happy to find there is a communion of objectives - sometimes it is hard to have a different mindset from most people around you. I know my partner doesn't really know and understand my point of view regarding business and so on, but at least we can build a common path for both of us. Anyway, I thought perhaps other people here can recognize the doubts and struggle that sometimes can pop up when we are not alone. Fastlaners/entrepreneurs I think have a different way of regarding the possibilities of life, and what one can accomplish. This can sometimes (most of the time?) cause friction and misunderstanding and pain, if not addressed properly and with maturity.

Sorry for the detour! I am now going to go back to my work :)
 

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