Not everyone reacts the same and there is no universal fix. Don’t try to use all these fixes at once. Pick out items from this list and try them out until you find the right combination for you. Visualization strategies that can be used anytime Concentrate on how good you are at public speaking. Pretend...

Once again I woke up this morning to a white world, with Chicago getting more snow overnight. That means I need to think differently now about people and plans and how I’m going to travel (as I hear a car spinning its wheels in the distance, desperate to leave a parking space). Suddenly the way...

“We need to make 2010 what Obama should have made 2009: the year of innovation.” ~Thomas Friedman in the New York Times As I continue to speak out, discuss with others, and read/hear thought leaders grappling with how to make our culture more innovative, I am struck by common themes and agreements....

How often do you step back and re-examine your goals, your passion, your methodoly, your marketing, WITH NEW EYES? I know I do it on a continual basis, daily and yet I also realize that I NEED NEW TOOLS AND IDEAS to more thoroughly examine what needs to be updated, changed or thrown out and re-evluated. Here...

I’m a big fan of J.D. Salinger, who passed away this week at 91, and of the Grammy Awards, which celebrated music in its stunning spectacle of creative performance on Sunday. Now, Holden Caulfield would likely take issue with the superficial celebrity culture of pop music. As you may recall, Holden,...

Still tasting the tortillas from my recent excursion to Mexico, I am most struck by one cultural difference here: a distorted sense of urgency of American life. We always have somewhere we have to get to, something else we must do, this to get done, that deadline to meet. It’s a badge we wear....

I found this information extremely useful.  It has made a difference in my approach to reaching the clients who want me and will pay for my services.  (the following has been edited for this blog) Identifying Your Ideal Client Profile By Nancy Michaels Not everyone is an ideal client. Stop accepting...

I’m sitting on a rooftop in Oaxaca, Mexico, attempting to de-rat-ify from the American ratrace, seeking creative renewal as I wrap up a year of “blarticles.” This is the 86th time I’ve reflected on creativity and innovation this year (Click to access my full Innovation on My Mind...

“Where will your next big idea come from?” asks the year’s final 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review. In its “Spotlight on Innovation,” HBR offers articles exploring issues ranging from open innovation to career paths for innovators to social technology tools that foster...

Looking to other people for cues as to how you are doing as an artist is a trap. It is a trap for a host of reasons. Here are some: 1.    People are not always honest. 2.    Sometimes people do not have good intentions. 3.    When the praise is good, it is never good enough and when it is bad,...

When you engage in the act of creating something new, if that thing develops roots and begins to take hold, you will find a mix of public reactions. You will likely hear lots of support from friends, family, colleagues, peers, well-wishers and others. Simultaneously, you will likely encounter sour pusses,...

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your...

One of the many tricky things about being a starving artist, is that so many of one’s basic needs are not met. When basic needs are not attended to, our sense of balance becomes out of whack. As our balance is off, most of us are not able to operate at our potential or achieve any sense of sustainable...

So many artists, following graduation from school, flee to either New York or LA. What a shame. These markets are so oversaturated. Artists have been flocking to these cities for decades and there are, in these cities, tons and tons and tons of under working or non-working artists. Ideally, I believe,...

Education is, first and foremost, a business. As is exemplified by rising tuition costs, educational institutions are not charity organizations. There are a vast number of arts education schools in the states and the competition between schools is fierce. If schools desire to be well thought of as serious...

If you crave celebrity, this post is for you. It is no surprise when I say that our country is obsessed with celebrity. Celebrity sells and celebrity images are pumped out to the point of exhaustion. I think that most young artists, if honest with themselves, would admit to having celebrity lust. They,...

Uncle Eddie is drinking a little too much and grandma can’t hear. The kids tore the hinges off my office door and another took a crap behind my daughter’s playhouse. Yea! It’s Thanksgiving time! That time of year that many of us cling to the possibility that this time…it will be magical (and...

The incomparable Matt Groening (his self-portrait, below right), creator of the Simpsons, spoke here recently as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. Alongside cartoonist and former college friend Lynda Barry (who frankly overshadowed him with her bubbly storytelling), Groening (pronounced “Gray-ning”)...

Features and benefits are being bandied about.  And as important as they are, they need to be constantly in front of the consumer to do work their magic.  It is said that a buyer needs seven times to have a product in front of them before they buy.  How do you make sure there are repeat peformances...

In our present day economy, our US greenbacks are no longer based in precious metal. Rather, they are based in what we say they are. Such is the advantage of being a super power.  Though that is likely to change with time… Money is a Symbol of Energy. Paper money. Is it not just an agreed upon symbol? I...