Afri-love

30+ ways to make more money as a creative

Making more money is a big concern for creative business owners. Perhaps it’s the case for all business owners in general but, there’s something about the starving artist expectation that seems to make the concern even more urgent for us.

Like the odds are against us in a world where there are competitions soliciting free creative work but, asking the same of legal, medical or even tech professionals, for example, would be unheard of!

It’s my vision for the creative industry to be acknowledged for the world-transforming contribution it can – and does – make. Great value warrants appropriate compensation.

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9 money mistakes I’ve made as a creative entrepreneur

Money mistakes are something we’ll all make, at some point in our life. We’re human – it’s part of the journey!

So first of all, feel no shame about the ones you’ve made. You’re not the only one and you won’t be the last. Remember also that building a business is a long game – an adventure that will have highs and lows. Being committed and acting in alignment with that commitment is what will bring you success.

I’ve previously shared the 4 most powerful money lessons I’ve learned so far in my creative business journey. These are key principles I recommend every creative business owner really sit with, absorb and take action about.

In this post, I’m sharing some of my biggest money mistakes and the additional lessons that have come out of making them. I’m hoping that in doing so, I can spare you from the setbacks they brought me. Continue reading “9 money mistakes I’ve made as a creative entrepreneur”

Content for days! 9 ways to show your creative work

I know you have a TON of excuses to NOT show your work.

Even though you know you need to do it.

Why show your work?

Showing your work helps you to grow

Whether your creative practice is just a hobby or something you earn an income from. Sharing is an opportunity for feedback and constructive critique.

There’s also something about stepping back and viewing a collection of your work that allows you to discover and refine your creative voice.

Because the act of showing your work is so scary for most of us, in doing it, we are pushed outside our comfort zone. The more we do this, the more evidence we create that showing our work isn’t actually the frightening thing we anticipated. We grow confident, bold and fearless.

Showing your work helps you to connect with your audience – or to build one in the first place.

If you make a living from your work, this is something you want because starting and nurturing relationships is how you get paid. It’s how strangers become fans, fans become customers and customers become ambassadors.

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This Creative’s Take on Atomic Habits: Book Reflections + Real-life Experiments

I finished reading Atomic Habits in the same week that the first cohort of my SHINE program came to an end. Both are ultimately about systems because, as author James Clear affirms:

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

It’s been fascinating to read the book alongside witnessing the progress of my students because there have been so many parallels!

Here are my reflections on the key lessons – the laws – from the book, with support from my own experience, as well as from leading 41 creative business owners in building the foundations for a more profitable, sustainable and joyful business.

At the end, I share the new commitments I’m making to myself, having reviewed how my own habits can support progress towards my vision.

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A self-sabotage exercise you didn’t know you needed

You know that feeling when you know you should do something for the betterment of your life but… you don’t?

When you know you should leave a toxic situation/person/environment… but you don’t?

When you hold back from showing up to do something great because you think you’ll fail (even though objectively, you have everything it takes to succeed)?

Granted, sometimes life happens and we have to give ourselves the necessary grace. But, oftentimes, it’s that pesky unwanted visitor who gets way too comfortable.

You know who I’m talking about: Self-sabotage.

Here’s some good news though – we don’t have to let self-sabotage be our master. We can transcend its distractions, tricks, and redirections.

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No Starving Artists – 4 Money Lessons to Debunk the Myth!

As a fellow artist, you’re probably not unfamiliar with money worries. It’s the way it goes since we chose to pursue the arts not just as a hobby, but as a career move, right?

Wrong!

There are 2 misconceptions about creative people that get me really riled up

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3 ways to keep business going when life gets tough

Resilience can often feel like an abstract concept. Well, I have to be honest… the past five months have been really TOUGH!

Perhaps the toughest time I’ve ever experienced in my life. I unexpectedly lost two loved ones, including my brother with whom I was very close. My son-shine was diagnosed with Autism which has brought about a lot of learning how to adjust our life to better support him to thrive. I caught COVID during the rapid Omicron phase that took over Nairobi last December. While it was thankfully relatively mild, the weeks of fatigue afterward was real! And then my fiancé suddenly developed Guillain-Barré Syndrome – a rare autoimmune disorder that rendered him immobile overnight…

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Our 9 good things from 2021

If you’re already part of our mailing list fam, you’ll know all about ‘9 Good Things’. We love curating the series every month and we’re so happy with all the positive feedback we receive! This month, we’re doing things a little bit differently: we’re reflecting and sharing 9 good things from 2021. Thus, we thought this round-up deserved to live on our blog too. Enjoy!

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5 powerful questions to help you deal with overwhelm

I don’t know about you but, for me, November is always the busiest month of the year. There’s so much to do before the end of the year and it feels like time is accelerating!

It’s very easy to let overwhelm take over. Too easy to let all the healthy habits established over the year to simply be thrown to the wind. After all, when you’re stressed out, you need cake and hours spent mindlessly scrolling, right?

Over the years, I’ve experimented with several strategies to resist this destructive, overwhelm-induced spiral and I’d like to share the ones that are working best for me right now.

Get out a pen and paper and test them out by answering these …

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5 UK Black Creatives you need to follow

Celebrating black creative excellence

October is Black History Month in the UK. In the almost 12 years that I lived there, I had the honour to meet so many fellow black creatives and this week, I wanted to celebrate just a handful of them.