Fork In The Road

I'm starting the daily vlog again and I started off ages ago doing a one minute daily vlog and then I would compile them all at the end of the week into a seven minute podcast and then I would use all the text that I would extract from these videos to make blogs so I'd be doing a vlog blog and a podcast and I would put out about one minute every day and that seems fairly achievable so let's give it a go again and because sometimes I think the initial ideas that you have are often the best.

Good old-fashioned paper newsletters, posted in an envelope to a person's address… Who would've thought? It’s just such an amazing idea.

In an age where people's emails are bombarded by junk, spam and things that just get deleted and deleted and deleted.I think sending something to someone's residential address has a real personal touch now.

I know that personally I hate going to the mailbox, and I hate what I pull out of my mailbox because it's always bills and stuff from politicians and the local hardware store. Just think what it’d be like to get something in the mail that you actually want.

And with a physical newsletter, I think that it can be almost tailored to the recipient. It’d be an amazing thing as a fan to receive something handwritten or maybe even a post card, just saying thank you for supporting my art.

I know in a lot of marketing circles marketers talk about filling up your funnel and other kinds of gross things like that. But rather than attract cold clients to your work because cold clients are hard client to win. However someone who has already purchased your work, has already shown an interest, if you nurture these people from the moment they buy your work and just keep up an open line of communication continuously with them. Not harassing them just letting them know what you're doing, where your art’s going what you're creating. it just adds that personal touch and I think it's highly overlooked.

I think if you want to stand out, you want to be original you want to make your clients, your fans, your followers feel special then send them something special.

Thanks to Michael Warth @warthstudios for this brilliant marketing suggestion for artists

Is documenting your journey a really bad idea? Surely people will steal your ideas! Here’s my thoughts on the subject. To get involved and ask a question you can leave me a voice message on Anchor. Or tune in to my Sketchy lives 9:00pm ACST on YouTube, Twitch and Twitter.

Illustrating and chatting on my Sketchy live on YouTube 9:00pm ACST and answering questions: What’s the best content you can make to promote your artwork?

My first podcast recording during my sketchy live in our bus Milly. That is our new home and art studio. Join in and ask a question 9:00pm ACST on YouTube, Twitter or Twitch where I’ll be answering your questions while illustrating the second kids book for Elijah and Crumpet.

Today I received the first draft of the story for the second Elijah and Crumpet kids book that I’ll be illustrating. I chat about planning the book using a storyboard, the benefit of working in layers and creating a list of drawings that can be scheduled against your deadline.

I talk about deadlines and tight turnarounds for my second kids book and how I am going to manage it.

Livestreams have been proven to be a great way for artists to connect with their community. But if you are a parent of young kids how do you do it if you can’t find a babysitter or you are in lockdown with your family and you have absolutely no private time. There is actually a way, and I share it with you on the podcast

I’ve been trying to figure out for years what is the easiest way to document your journey and create content without it taking up all of your precious art time. And I think I may have it finally figured out... maybe

The answer might not be what you think. It certainly took me by surprise.

9% Said that ‘Skill Set’ was the most important factor. It’s certainly heartening when I feel that my personal skill set has a long way to go to be somewhere near where I would like it to be. But something I’m going to be including in my creative practice moving forward is blocking in times to learn new skills.

13% Said that a ‘Business Plan’ was the most important factor. Because without a plan with certain goals set in place you’re just a wandering artist moving from one project to the next with no real sense of direction.

18% Said ‘Community’. Find your tribe that will support you because you provide value for them. You don’t need a massive following, you just need the right following to be successful.

60% Said ‘Mindset’ (The Winner) This is an area I definitely need to work on. From perfectionism, self-sabotage and procrastination. There are so many things when it comes to mindset that can stand in your way. And they are going to definitely be things that I’m going to start exploring and sharing soon.

How do you make art your full time gig?
You treat your art as a business.
How do you treat art as a business?

I’m not sure but here are some ideas I’ve had.
- Charge more for your artwork
- Content marketing plan you enjoy
- Always be professional and punctual (be consistent with content and create deadlines)
- Schedule time for your art instead of waiting for the right time to come.
- Always be learning and researching your craft
- Have a business plan that focuses on providing value.

In today’s episode I’m chatting about my recent success using Instagram Reels and how you can incorporate the creative work that you are working on and integrate it with trending hashtags to help you gain a larger audience for your work.

I’ve stumbled upon the perfect morning routine for me as a parent artist that that runs his own business and has very little time to create . It’s not going to work for everyone, or maybe anyone but me. But I suppose it’s just a matter of figuring out what your day looks like, when your best at doing certain things and trying out come up with something that suits you.

These last few weeks I have been anything but consistent, but all that’s about to change… hopefully. I’m slowly working out that there are a few things that if I do them everyday will help me stay consistent.

But it’s hard to plan when you are working for yourself, being a parent and then on top of this trying to work your side hustle, your dream that’s hopefully going to take over that day job. So that then you can hopefully start spending your days doing what you love while getting paid for it.

For me my side hustle dream job time slots are during the day in between jobs and at nighttime when my kids are sleeping. But sometimes when I get to that nighttime slot of time I’m so exhausted that it’s hard to get back into it. However when I do, I often get into the groove and work so late that I pay for it the next day.

So I’ve worked out the few things I should and shouldn’t do if I want my creative side hustle time to be productive when I get some time. The first thing is I need to get my head right. So I meditate for 10mins morning and night to help me clear the garbage out of my head, clear my desk, and get a fresh start. The second thing is for me to have a plan of what I need to get done, so I don’t waste time and energy trying to figure this out when I finally do get some time to do it. Then my next thing is I need to just start that thing without even thinking, just get the ball rolling and resist that urge to open social media (consume after creating).

To help with my consume only after creating plan I have mobile data turned off for all my social media apps. And the only time I get to turn it on is when I post something I’ve created for that channel. I’ve found that this is a great bad habit blocker and can stop an unproductive time wasting scrolling session.

I’ve only figured these few things out by looking at how I spend my time. Trying to figure out the things that help me be productive or waste my time. And trying to figure out a habit that will support my creativity and not suck it from me.

As an Artist with a full time day job and even possibly kids, the time to create your art is more precious than its ever been. So why would you devote some of that special time to documenting your journey when you could be creating your art instead?

I’ve finally illustrated my way to the end of the Elijah and Crumpet kids book. So where to from here?

I’ve been inspired to change my content around after listening to Will Mosley’s awesome podcast. My plan is to create one piece of pillar content during the day, in the form of my sketchy lives on Instagram. And then breaking that down into micro content for other social media posts. And this is part of that first experiment as this episode has been taken from my Instagram live. Will brings so much awesome advice to the table, I hope you enjoy and get something out of it like I did.

My content strategy as an artist has changed again. With Instagram becoming my main place for content production, exhibition and chatting my community.

How do you go about squeezing out your day job so you can just be working on your dream job. I think the answer is to continually be promoting yourself. But it’s not as easy as that, you need a way to balance the two as best as possible to create a steady income and how am I gonna do that? I’m not sure but that’s what I’m pondering today.

What do I need to get done in 2020? What are the important things? Applying the 80 20 rule to doing what’s important.

Robots will be able to do everything. We’re pretty clever little monkeys figuring out how to get out of work. ‘Make a Robot’, that’ll fix it, ‘I know, make it a thinking Robot’, even better. In the not too distant future jobs are gonna be completely different. And I’ve been thinking, while sketching, that one of the best and most secure jobs to have is going to be a creator. But not only a creator, a creator that creates their own personal brand and story tells… Documenting their journey. Robots and AI will be able to do everything. But what they won’t be able to do is, be human. And human beings are pretty sentimental creatures, there’s still a niche for LP’s/Vinyl and I think there will still be a niche for us. We are gonna love our robots. But in time we’ll want to connect with other human beings again, through storytelling, through art. And not masterpieces created by robots, but imperfect creations that tell a story, a real story that connect humans in a non-digital way.

I’ve been wanting to chat with Will Mosley ever since I started seeing his cinematic daily vlogs popping up on Instagram and YouTube. Then I found Will’s podcast where he talks about his creative process. Will produces awesome content packed with value on a daily basis. And considering he’s a father of four, has a job and a side hustle I was super keen to find out how he does it.

Some recent observations I’ve made around quoting for work. And how the power of positivity can equal profits.

After the recent disruption to Youtube with the introduction of the ‘made for kids’ labelling system. I’m looking at finding my next cornerstone platform, a hub, a new home to be the base for my content. It certainly helps that the documentation of my creative journey has been happening across multiple formats; video, audio and blog. Because now I have more options now that I’m faced with pivoting my format. Could Instagram be my new home base?

The new YouTube regulations around the labelling of ‘made for kids’ content is very confusing. I talk about being stuck in the grey area of not being kids content even though I’m creating kids books.

I’ve been looking forward to catching up with videographer and content creator Will Mosley for some time. But some days the technology, the apps, the everything stands in your way. We had a great chat on Instagram LIVE but the audio was so bad we couldn’t salvage it... This is that story.

Sometimes all the things that can go wrong with recording a podcast, do go wrong. I’m looking forward to having another go at the podcast with awesome creator Will Mosley in the future.

I look at traditional scheduling Vs. my ‘If This Then That’ Scheduling Idea, and is there any real benefit to going for a task sandwich? Listen to all my latest productivity ponderings as I make my way to my next lawn mowing job.

Receiving criticism is never easy, especially about your art. Because it can almost feel like a personal attack. And when it’s from a collaborator or client it can feel even worse. And I don’t mean you Crumpet, but you did get me thinking as you’ve been giving me detailed feedback on my preliminary sketches to your kid’s book that I’m illustrating. I’ve decided that… I’m here to say that… criticism is awesome.

It’s Sunday and I got a giant two and a half hour lawn to cut. But with podcasts in my earbuds drowning out the mower it’s all good, it’s still all research time, motivation and inspiration time for my side hustle. My creative dream to earn a decent living doing creative work i love. But in order to get to where I wanna go, I believe I have to put myself out there and document my journey and share my passions with the world. After all it’s how I got my first paid job as an illustrator thanks to Elijah and Crumpet seeing my work. Seeing my documented journey. The only problem is, is what about the critics? if I’m out there in the world I can be criticised by anyone and everyone. And the more I think about that, the more I think it’s a good thing. And I’m not talking like ‘you look kinda funny’, ‘you suck’, ‘Are you wearing your wife’s sunglasses?’ and ‘I wish you’d die’ kinda critics. They are just straight up assholes making up for their own insecurities. And to them I give you (crickets) I’m talking about the critics who look at your work and thoughtfully and give you constructive positive or negative feedback. They might say things that are really hard to hear and sometimes it’s the hardest to hear it when it’s true. These critics need a hug, because they’re helping you grow and develop as a creator, artist or whatever. They could be wrong, but they could be right. I think you gotta be open to criticism, because it’s not all bad. You need to detach yourself from and not let it ruin you tho. All movie critics don’t hate every movie ever made. You could choose to work in a vacuum and I suppose that’s cool too. But I think outside eyes can often have a perspective on your work that you were to close to see. And they can provide invaluable feedback that can help you grow as a creator. So I say embrace your critics.

Sometimes you know exactly what you need to do to succeed, but for some strange reason you still don’t do it. Why is that? I chat about all the things that I think I need to do when it comes to Mindset and health.

Can you become more productive with a simple mind shift? What Stories and internal chatter fills your brain? And does this effect your productivity? I also chat about some issues I have been having with the Prism LIVE Studio app.

I think the best platform that artists should make the most of, if they wanna go from being a starving artist to a thriving artist is Youtube. Here are a few reasons why.

Discovering that I have less time than ever. I try to figure out how I can use the 80 20 principal to give me more time to create my art and potential do it for a living. Life’s too short to do work you don’t love.

Go live across multiple streaming platforms including Youtube and Periscope from your mobile device using the PRISM live studio app. I was extremely excited to find this app for going live from my smartphone as I am a small youtube creator wanting to connect with my community. In this podcast I give an overview of how the app can be used. It’s great features and some features that could be improved.

Inspired by my limited time and Gary Vaynerchuk’s Idea of documenting over creating. I’ve come up with a couple of ideas of how I can document my creative journey as I illustrate a kids book. When I hardly have any time to illustrate the kids book in the first place.

If you are having problems finishing a project, or even starting like me, maybe you’ve got a problem with perfectionism.

How do you document your creative process or journey in a way that is still engaging without going into your personal life. I talk about figuring this out as well as working out what your boundaries should be when it comes to your privacy.

If you are a youtuber and your looking for additional exposure there is no better way than sharing your message out to a podcast. It’s so much easier than you might think and it’s free. Plus it’s a great way to drive a new audience towards your YouTube channel

Daily vs weekly vs consistently. How often should I upload videos to YouTube to engage with my audience and be picked up and promoted by the Youtube algorithm? This is the very question that I’m pondering in today’s video after uploading 200 vlogs to YouTube.

I explore 3 different ways to get money as a starving artist and hopefully, maybe, become a thriving artist.

I’m back, it’s time to get into it, restart, reboot, stronger, faster, 10x, it’s time to kick some ass and get back into it.

I’ve lost my drive, I’ve been waiting for it to come back but it hasn’t. With all the stuff that’s been going on. Looking for a job, trying to sell a house, having a new baby in the house and my wife being in hospital for weeks, I’m spent. I’ve made this first vlog back about 3 times so far, all completely different. It just didn’t feel right. I’ve watched so many motivational videos and listened to inspiring podcasts that I’ve made myself a sick consumer. I’ve gotten so sick of myself that I decided today I hit record and I post. Because if I wait for inspiration to come I might be dead before I start creating again.

So I’m gonna start creating and hopefully then the inspiration and motivation might hit. Fear, anxiety, depression and no money are the killers of creativity. So as I attempt to get back on track I’m gonna tackle those things first. I’ve gotta get my head right my mindset right or I don’t stand a chance.

There is one last way you can create more time that I’m overlooking. You can stop sleeping. However I would only recommend this if you want to become the worst version of yourself, You’ll be grumpy, forgetful, stupid and worst of all tired. So I’m thinking the situation is hopeless. But then I got to thinking. What creative work am I doing with my available time. And is it the best use of my time. Does what I’m doing now have the potential to earn me some money to allow me to buy more time, so I can then do more creative work. My creative work that I’ve decided is going to be a series of kids books hit a roadblock. The problem was there was no time, and there was no time because of an idea a concept from Gary Vaynerchuk that I got confused. He said document don’t create and that meant I literally didn’t create anything. I spent all my time documenting my documentation process.

I’ve been flip flopping all over the place. With the birth of my second daughter. I’ve been taking some time to access this whole career pivot experiment thing, And why it isn’t working. Why isn’t it working? I could get down on myself and say I’m full of it, but that would go against my whole positive mindset thing. I could say I don’t have time, which is garbage. Everyone in the world has the same 24hrs in the day. That’s the argument. My only issue with that statement is that only some people can afford to outsource, their laundry, their house cleaning, their cooking. When you’re broke, your not gonna outsource your laundry. To give you some extra time so you can work on that creative project that may bring you in some cash in six months or a year or maybe never. You can only create more time if you have the money. There are some painful alternatives though,

Welcome to Fork In The Road my midlife career pivot experiment. Where I attempt to earn a living doing work that I love, creative work. And throw the concept of the starving artist out the window and focus on becoming a thriving artist. I’m Andy Marshall and I’ve decided that this season of my life, being a daddy, is perfectly aligned with my passion to make a series of kids books. And I’m documenting my journey along the way. And today I’m chatting with a couple of Creator friends of mine on Instagram live about all things creator but mainly focusing on this idea of how going live with other like minded creators can be beneficial for everyone involved. Because as Jeff Goins author of real artists don’t starve states. Thriving artists practice in public, have mentors, and find communities of like minded creators to collaborate with. So let’s start our virtual creator community off with this Instagram live chat I had with Jay Lippman, followed by Frank Garcia.

You may have wondered where I’ve been recently. Because In the last two weeks I’ve only created a weeks worth of content. I suppose that’s what happens sometimes when you lay your values out as health, family and career. I’ve had to see a doctor and set up a mental health program. Because my anxiety has been coming back with a vengeance. And for those who don’t know, stress and anxiety can present itself in many different ways. And recently for me I’ve spent about the last four weeks feeling like someone’s giving me a bear hug or sitting on my chest, while at the same time squeezing their hands around my throat. And I figure It’s all part of this self sabotaging cycle that I need to try and break through. So if this is what’s happening, I must be doing something right.

This week I’m attempting to get clear on what it is that I’m actually trying to do and get started. I had a few days off the vlogging hamster wheel to ponder, and dangerously that’s when the voice of that lazy couch potato located somewhere in the dark recess of my brain is at its strongest. Offering continual excuses as to why I should give up. The kids book I’m actually starting today, progress is probably gonna be slow and it could be complete shit, but at least I will have done it, and in the case of a shit that’s a good thing.

The great thing about brand is that it’s a story, where as niche is a thing. You can niche down on a thing, and pinpoint your market and you can attract people who are gonna be interested in that thing. But with brand you don’t have to niche down, because as an individual your already pretty niched down. In fact older you get the more niched down you become, I recon. The only problem is the only person who cares about that niche is you. And the only way that you can attract your community is by making them care, and the only way that they are gonna care is by sharing your story, your goals and your mission. Because by telling your story you instantly become relatable. Still the majority of people still won’t care, but the world is still a very big place and you can contact most of its inhabitants in an instant. And those people who have connected and invested with your story in some way will care about what happens and will be interested. Even if they don’t buy what your selling they’ll still may support you by telling others and sharing your story.

I want to talk about personal brand, I think it's important for solopreneurs, creators, entrepreneurs, people working by themselves basically, artist, because that way people get to know your personality, your personality is your brand. They know what they’re getting, and people recognise your work by your personal brand because your fingerprints are all over it. I think you need to decided early on whether you want a business brand or personal brand. if you're one person working I think a personal brand potentially is really important because people know who they’re getting when they hire their services or they buy your book or they watch your movies or whatever, they know what they are getting. I think for a long time I was the travelling cinema guy, I was road movie mobile cinema, that was me and the thing is now that I wanted to pivot, if I pivot then I completely lose all that prior work I've done. it's almost like my CV that’s out there, it's gone. but if I'd been documenting from the beginning and building up a personal brand that kind of allows you to pivot a little bit easier and potentially bring your audience across. The whole thing with personal brand if you want to do lots of things... because everyone is talking about niche or niche if you're American, how does that fit into a personal brand?

After 150 vlogs and 20 podcasts I’ve uncovered a lot of tips, strategies, mindset tricks and hacks. And I’ve actually found some of them quiet useful, but how many am I using right now tho? One, maybe two a day when I think of them, but certainly not enough to help me as I try and create a successful career for myself. So how do I create good habits that stick? It’s pretty easy to create bad habits, maybe because they are usually the path of least resistance to get you to that quick fix. And as many people say you’ve gotta get out of your comfort zone to grow and if getting out of your comfort zone consists of doing good things then I suppose it’s time for me to get uncomfortable. It’s time for me to figure out how to make the good habits that I already know are going to help me towards my goals and find ways to make sure I’m doing them every day.

It’s time to pivot again, a pivot within a career pivot. Because now I finally think I know what I’m doing. That’s the thing with just starting without knowing the full picture. I would have never seen the full picture without starting. The key is starting, doing the things that you are passionate about and actually excite you, and just start doing them. And trust that the answer will come to you. It didn’t just come to me though, I recognised a pattern that I’d seen in my travelling cinema business - Road Movie Mobile Cinema. I was comfortable and lacking long term goals, big goals, I was just coasting. Being comfortable and not having any vision of my future I think is my biggest roadblock to succeeding, to having a successful career. And I don’t mean the Lamborghinis’ and infinity pools of Instagram kind of successful career. For me It’s about earning a living and supporting my family doing work that I love, spending time with loved ones and enjoying what I have now, not when I retire.

Happy 2019, I hope you had a good one and that your head doesn't hurt too much, or should I really call it international goalsetting day? I think a surefire way of having all your goals fail is by setting them too big, making them too grand, I'm not saying that you shouldn't make them grand but maybe it’d be a good idea to start at small achievable bits and once you can consistently - cause I think consistency is the key - To consistently do small bits every day which are gonna take you towards your goals. Once you can meet them maybe then you can start building on them and getting towards a grander or more massive achievement.

If aliens are monitoring our Instagram feed from outer space somewhere, they would definitely be planning their invasion, apart from the fact that we are all doing weird duck bum smiles. From outsiders point of view our lives are fantastic - we are on the beaches, we are climbing mountains, we are sipping Pina coladas while racing down the freeway in our Maseratis and working on our laptops at the same time. what they fail to realise is that we have completely photoshopped our lives within an inch of their lives. We've taken all of the struggling out of it, we have just shown the highlights. That's why I really want to focus this week on a movement, a Facebook group #AllHumansStruggle

When I first started YouTube and doing all these things, the podcast and all that. I told my dad, feeling really proud ‘look I’m doing all this stuff’ and he just said ‘can you monetize it?’ and, well, I said 'I don’t know, probably not'. It’s not about that tho, It's about getting the word out there about what you doing, about your work, so people know what you’re doing. so by the time you actually create something, people already know. You don't have to go and do all this work to actually let people know that you've done something in the first place - I don't know if that makes any sense - but I'm gonna see if I can potentially monetize what I'm doing now. With a small following and see how I can start to get that in place now from the beginning of my journey and see if I can start to bring in $.50 here or there.

YouTube, I thought it was just basically a platform for cats doing cute things and funny accidents between people and heavy machinery. I got started on YouTube about three months ago and it wasn't initially what I was setting out to do. I was gonna have my video content on Instagram and then I’d be doing my podcasting and my blogging as well. I thought I had the video for Instagram for one minute posts and I thought why not just put them up on YouTube anyway. And it turns out that it's my number one social media channel, which is really exciting there’s so much engagement, so much community involvement, so much support, that it's really exciting and so I want to be going into what I've been doing and how far of come.

Power of the mind. Mind body connection. Making my brain work. Can I overcome my self sabotaging, kind of, things? I'm just starting to think with the ‘Career Pivot Experiment’ and trying to better myself… I got another cold and I’m wondering if the two are connected? I know there is an element of stress involved in stretching yourself and stepping outside of your comfort zone but I'm wondering if there is something that, you know, it often kinda feels like my body is trying to stop me from striving, from doing things, and I'm just wondering if there is something in that. So this week I'm gonna be exploring the brain.

Now I’ve set these daily goals I've gotta work out how exactly I'm gonna go about achieving them. I’ve already done a week on time management and I’m gonna go back and look at time management with more detail to see how I can actually achieve these goals in a day without getting too stressed, without compromising my values which I've set up as well. I'll be getting down into the nitty-gritty finding hours where I never knew that existed before optimising my time so whenever I have a couple of minutes I'll be able to put them to good use and work out how I'm gonna get a page of a kids book plus this vlog out each day, when some days I might on average get a couple of hours, but some days I get no hours and some days I might get three hours. So how my gonna make that work?

This week I'll be focusing on my goals and my long-term goals like five year goals, year goal, month goal and how it comes down to even like a day goal, what I need to be getting done each day to head towards where I wanna go now.

So with my discovering my why under my belt the next step, next stage, in the Golden circle chart, theory, strategy, whatever you wanna call it is working out my ‘How’. And I'm thinking, how am I gonna do it? Limited time, limited resources, limited technology, limited money and all these kinds of things and then I'm kinda thinking well if you want to get my creative story out to the world and I don't have any of these things that is probably my point of difference, that is my ‘How’, because if through all these experiments that I'm doing as a part of this fork in the road vlog that if I can actually make it work, then you should be able to make it work as well.

Jumping back into productivity with a positive mindset. The biggest thing to start with is to know how much time you've got to work with, and from there work out what your goals are, and then try and realistically work out what you can get done in the time available. Being a stay at home dad initially feels like time is of a minimum, but when I looked at it there’s little snippets of time all over the place, half an hour here, an hour there. So what I'm looking at doing for these little snippets of time is applying the Pomodoro method which is pretty much a cool name for a tomato timer, you know it could be called the egg method, that doesn't really sound as cool and that's only a couple minutes anyway. So Pomodoro method is about short burst of 25 minutes or so where you focus a hundred percent on that job, try and get that specific task done within that amount of time and when the timer goes that's it, you're done, you're finished. I’d love to hear from you in the comments, find me o