Ideal Client

I often give my clients the assignment of defining their ideal client. While on vacation I read a few chapters in The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, the author is Mike Michalowicz.

He has an exercise that proved a little daunting for me - making a simple list of 100 words or phrases that identify my ideal client. This was challenging and I truly realize that this helps define the type of clients I need to market to, and who I want in my business, saving me time, energy and resources by focusing my scope.

Here's a portion of my list:
My Ideal Client is
• willingly to pay my premium prices
• often refers us
• values our expertise
• gets why we're "worth it"
• is focused and passionate about their art
• is committed
• talented
• able to follow instructions
• respects the process
• passionate
• displays a commitment to excellence
• has or desires to have balanced lives
• lives, loves, for their art
• self taught or schooled
• is current on the industry
• upbeat and has a zest for life and career
• has the resources to afford our services
• wants a trusting relationship with us - their coach/consultant/manager
• genuinely likeable
• a creative thinker
• future oriented
• decisive
• ready for action
• fearless
• wiling to invest in themselves
• may be a member of organizations ex: ASMP, APA, SOI, etc.
• open to new ideas
• willing to create new art for their portfolio
• can make smart decisions about their career
• wants to have fun while learning
• desires the freedom to pursue a higher quality career, art and life
• has a clear sense of what’s important to them
• gives us "energy" - emotionally and financially!
• wants to create multiple streams of income from their knowledge & expertise

I challenge you to come up with 100 words or phrases to define your ideal client - it's fun.

If you find yourself struggling then it's likely you're feeling unfocused on your business, a bit insecure about your expertise or value, or are afraid to narrow your niche, to name a few reasons.

If this is the case, I invite you to get in touch for your FREE 1/2 hr. consult. I'd love to discuss this challenge with you. It can make all the difference between surviving in business vs. thriving in business. Send me an email at info@fotoprojx.com

Best ~ Angela

Clive Barker's New Comic Books & TV Series CLIVE BARKER'S HOTEL

Announced earlier this week, Clive Barker returns to the comic book genre with an October release of SEDUTH, from IDW Publishing. Termed especially horrific, SEDUTH is being presented in 3D.

For more info: click here

Also announced this week CLIVE BARKER'S HOTEL will be on ABC.

Check in to "Clive Barker's Hotel"

Clive Barker's great run continues ...

CLIVE BARKER'S HOTEL

NY, NY - August 14, 2009 -

Visionary, Clive Barker has a new project set up for television - "Clive Barker's Hotel" for Warner Bros - network details to follow.

TV SERIES
The TV show premise is being kept under wraps, but the show is expected to follow a series of unsettling incidents at an eerie hotel.


VISIONARY. FANTASIST. NOVELIST. ARTIST.
Barker is world-renowned for his movies, novels and video games - "Clive Barker's Hotel" will be a new media for him - television, sure to make him a true household name.

RESULTS
The deal was announced yesterday in the Hollywood Reporter and already there are 222,000 search results for CLIVE BARKER'S HALLOWEEN on Google, BING 390,000 and YAHOO 776,000.

Barker continues to sign marketing, licensing and fine art deals and has several other books, TV and film productions to be announced soon.

Licensing and Fine Art Representation opportunities available: email Hannes Tamme at ht@foto-projx.com or 646 401 0162

Inspirations

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." Albert Einstein

"The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself." Alan Alda

"It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all." Edward De Bono

"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties." Erich Fromm

"Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort." Franklin D Roosevelt

"Obstacles are these frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals." Sydney Smith

"You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures." Unknown

"An artist cannot fail, it is a success to be one." Charles Horton Cooley

The Art of Clive Barker

Martha Graham Quote....

Recently came across this quote and I love the message and as creative people it applies to all of us...

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is on a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

Two Roads...

Talking with a potential client yesterday regarding new creative directions and I remarked on my favorite poem since I was a kid ... It was always something I could relate to, I think most creative people relate to the notion that we've chosen a different path ...

With credit to Mr. Robert Frost, here it is:
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.