You know the phrase “when it rains, it pours”? Oh my, that’s my week—in a good way!
If you’re self-employed, you know that you spend a lot of your time trying to generate or chase down opportunities: In my case, this is submitting class proposals, magazine article proposals, book proposals, market or gallery proposals…
You have to go for a bunch, because many of them just won’t pan out–and the more potential projects you have going, the better, as you’re not pinning all your hopes on one or two things.
And yet, sometimes a lot of those opportunities show promise. Sometimes, more than you might expect! I love when that happens—I love having lots of varying projects in the works.
One of my students from Art & Soul asked me how I got started in my current career of teaching and selling my work…I explained how I contacted the ABC Treehouse over a year ago with an idea for a group art exhibition, which I then curated and promoted. A lot of work, yes…but also a fantastic opportunity that then parlayed into lots of other opportunities—some of which were great, some of which didn’t materialize.
I told the student who asked: “You’d be surprised what people will let you do when you ask.” The more I think about that statement, the more relevant I think it is. A whole lot of my current career (and my past career, too, actually) has been based on asking for opportunities. You really will be surprised what people will let you do, if you just ask.
Current fun things on my to-do list? Sunday Market in November, my jewelry for sale in new shops in the lovely Jordaan neighborhood in Amsterdam, potential magazine articles and….drumroll…potential online video classes (!). Yep, I’m pretty excited to see how things might/can/will pan out. I’ll keep you posted!
