Social media is optional
Is winter treating you nicely? What's the weather like in your part of the world? Here it's mostly been wet and slippery. Just walking across the road to the garbage bins and mailbox is a dangerous venture. I'm so grateful for being able to work from home and not having to commute. But I'm really starting to long for spring now. Have barely been outdoors for more than 5 minutes since last spring. Crazy.
Soooo... My Instagram experiment did not last long this time either. 🙄 (Why do I even keep trying?) I posted for like two weeks and then my motivation was gone. But that was good, because it inspired me to make a much requested video about how we can market ourselves as artists without Instagram or any social media. Because the fact is: social media is totally optional. Even though the rest of the world acts like it isn't.
As creatives, our time and energy is precious and we must protect and nurture it carefully. For me, that means being very mindful about how I spend my time, and how various activities make me feel. The more of my time and energy I can spend "in the zone", doing things that inspire me, light me up, and give me energy - the quicker I make progress. Sure, sometimes we have to do things we don't like. (*cough* bookkeeping *cough*) But let's at least try to minimize those draining activities.
If there's stuff you dread doing, but that you think you "have" to do to grow your creative business: question it. Think about the underlying reason why you do it, and explore alternative ways of accomplishing the same thing. If one of those alternatives feels a lot more exciting to you, do that instead.
I realized that I felt more inspired by less frequent but better quality communication. That's why I write these emails now, instead of Instagram posts, and it feels so much better. It feels like sitting down for tea with you, instead of like...throwing a flyer at you from a passing car (which it feels like to me in the fast-spinning, speed-dating-type of environment that is Instagram.)
It also lets me spend more of my time doing the things that really matter for my career, like creating art and making videos and courses.
What activities matter most to you, in the grander scheme of things? And how can you spend more time on those?
I'm aching for some watercolor painting right now, because I haven't done it since December. I painted a crow in acrylics, which I'm showing in the vlog I released a few weeks ago. But other than that, I've just been drawing, making videos and working on my next Skillshare class about portrait drawing. It looks like I'll finally be able to release the class next week, fingers crossed. And after that, I'm taking a break from portraits for a while. 😂
Now, I'm off to enjoy a weekend I've longed for since...Monday. (It's been one of those weeks.) I have a new studio easel that I got as a birthday gift from my mom, that I haven't even had time to unpack. So I'm going to do that. And then I'm going to draw the last few demonstrations for the portrait course. And change strings on my guitar. And continue my Homeland binge re-watching. 🥳
What are you doing this weekend?
Love,
/Louise