Hi-
I’m launching three month group coaching program in September called The Art School. I’ve been very successful working with artists/creatives in the past in 1:1 coaching engagements- both in helping them deepen their creative practice, develop a much healthier relationship with themselves, spend more time making their art and in a satisfying way, less time in angst and on blocks, develop meta skills of mindset mastery, be physically healthy, and make a lot more money. My idea is to now open this more people at once – a better business model for me and gives them the advantages of group coaching. My niche is artists, like the people I’ve worked with in the past – visual artists, performers, writers, photographers, and even people creating in the business world, who want to cultivate their creative potential, who have a specific project/goal for which they’d like to produce a specific result by the end of the 3 months – or move the needle in big and meaningful ways.
One of my underlying premises of this is to bring the kind of rigor and discipline and COACHING an Olympic “hopeful” athlete training for the world games would get to these “big creative dream” hopefuls – and make them not just hopefuls, but resourceful and strong artist athletes. I’ve seen that in working with so many creative people, I see how brilliant they are in their creative work and how amazing their mindset can be in that area, but they also can have some of the flabbiest, undisciplined thinking when it comes to belief in their ability to create results. There is so much, “that’s just the way it is as an artist – you’re broke, you’re struggling, you never make that much money unless you’re a unicorn or get famous after you die…”
My other inspiration for this is that I think so many people think they need to go to art school or get an MFA to be a successful artist. And yet I know and have worked with so many people like that who did that and still don’t feel like artists and even just had it more embedded into their head limiting beliefs about who gets to make great art and who gets to be successful (it’s rarely them, by the way). I myself have thought about going back to school but I knew what I wanted to PRODUCE and I couldn’t find a program that would guarantee me that, Yes – come here and we will teach you how to be so creative that you will write the novel you dream of writing, or make the paintings you feel inside of you. Instead you might do some amazing studying and you might get respect from others and maybe an easier time setting boundaries around your work…but it is no guarantee you’ll do the great work of your life. So I want to make an alternative to MFA – like Marie Forleo’s B-School- where you create alumni that are rocking creatively and in all areas of their life are healthy, thriving, growing human beings. So, that’s where I want the work to end up – I’m starting with the three month program.
That is the background. My question is what should I do to make sure I stay on track myself to create this? I have been coaching myself from the Results I want to have — 50 artists who are experiencing off the hook success because of the work they did in this coaching experience AND the Result of being an artist/coach/entrepreneur who is making $500K+ a year, in a healthy sustainable, sometimes fun, strong, resilient way.
But I feel all over the place and I could use some discipline and coaching myself here on the business creation end of things. Specifically, I feel like my messaging is not there yet – not going to inspire a hell yes! this is a no brainer! I feel like I am all over the place working on this and I need to focus on a step-by-step plan to define the curriculum, market it, fill it (I’d love 50 for this round), and put all the details in place (the platform and content and coaching schedule) to make it a mind-blowing experience for everyone involved. I also need to keep my focus on mind-blowing experience, because I notice as I work on this that I am already almost reflexively toning down my enthusiasm and expectations.
I had a great tutoring call yesterday with Kirsten. She helped me with a couple things, including offering the thought, “It’s possible that I’m not too disorganized to do this,” as a replacement for my unintentional model, “I am too disorganized a thinker for this.”
I think what I am really asking at this point is what can I do to get out of my own head, think more clearly, keep grounding myself and focus and move forward. The tutoring call was great. Do I need to hire a coach to get me through this next month? Or do you think I can self-coach and bring that work to scholars and the certified site?
Thank you!
