Ok, So we have extended the deadline for the ETA Competition to December 31st, 2009, Midnight.

BUT WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?????

There is now almost 1000 of you reading this blog daily and only ONE of you, so far, is brave enough to share what is in your heart? Don’t you want FREE help and national exposure to bring your ideas to life?

We want YOUR entry to be the winning one but we can’t give you the prize unless you enter. So WHERE ARE YOU??

What’s your E.T.A. to join our tribe?

Learn more about the competition

Read Eli Epstein’s winning entry from Round I

Read all of the entries from Round I

Write your Entry! Hurry up! It’s ONLY 1000 words or less. Have a little faith in yourself and share your ideas with us.

Nic Askew is many things. Film-maker, storyteller, musician, composer. I discovered his work through a friend who said that I would like his stuff. And yes, … it is absolutely very powerful and touching.

For me, Nic is a great artist and every movie has a specific message. Not a moral message but a message that makes you wonder, reflect, think, feel, … You can find his stuff on Soul Biographies where he captures the experience of being human. He make you laugh and he makes you cry. I have just watched a movie where he interviewed Dominic Miller – guitarist of Sting (a more famous person or is he also just a normal guy) about the story that’s out there waiting to be told by you.

How naked are you prepared to be?

I finally allowed myself to devote all of my attention to making art after a 26-year career in nursing. My evolution as an artist has been as excruciating as watching a butterfly attempt to struggle out of a cocoon, especially since the “left brain” skills required in nursing are the antithesis of the “right brain” skills demanded by the creation of art. A lifelong organizer, I distressed at the impossible amount of work required to manage a household, a marriage, a family, a job, and a career in the arts. I finally realized that the overwhelming chaos was best left to sort itself out while I attended primarily to making pictures. As it turns out, letting the mess take care of itself was the key to letting my right brain express itself.

Photography has been a passion of mine since I was very young. My very first camera was a Brownie camera given to me when I was in first grade. It was love at first sight. In fact, I was the photographer of many of our old family photographs. As much as I loved taking photographs, I never considered photography as a profession. It was never offered as a career choice. In the 1970′s, the girls in my high school class were either getting married or becoming teachers. I only knew I wasn’t interested in either of those options.

The career I eventually chose was nursing, which enabled me to travel, be useful to others, earn a living and be a caregiver for my children without relying on others. In 2001, I finally completed an undergraduate degree in photography that took me 17 years to complete. I am 54 years old and the mother of three children, ages 20, 15 and 13. My education was delayed by the birth of my three children and a decision to wait while my husband pursued his doctorate degree. I completed my MFA in 2005.

The women in my family have always embraced change and are open to learning new things. My Aunt, who had a Masters in Social Work, decided at the age 60 to return to school and obtain a Masters Degree in Music. She proceeded to tour abroad with a group of organists who traveled for the sole purpose of playing music in the cathedrals of Europe. My mother finally decided to “retire” at 78 and went back to school to learn Adobe Photoshop and calligraphy as forms of artistic expression. I want to model for my children the importance of having the courage to take on new tasks at any time in the life cycle, as the women in my family have demonstrated for me.

The examination of objects and the spaces they occupy is a predominant theme of my work. My photographs explore the liminal moment that hovers between perception and recognition. I am fascinated by “found still-life” and become engrossed in recording and studying them. These scenes have a forensic quality to them, as though the scene ultimately contains enough evidence to allow the viewer to reconstruct, recreate, remember, the fullness of what occurred when people were there leaving their social thumbprints on the space. An attentive viewer, fully open to this evidence, may notice a small detail that reveals an emotion, an automatic response to a moment.

For over six years my work has addressed the fragile nature of living institutions by examining abandoned hospital spaces. My background as a registered nurse is the catalyst for this interest. These images explore the idea that the human presence remains a part of the history and narrative of these now uninhabited places. The jetsam left in the wake of the departing staff recalls a past when the space was integral to the lifeblood of the community. The images are an historic record of a moment, a place, a community and service that no longer exists.

Coming to fine art photography later in life, I have a sense of urgency about my work. I think about my art all the time and am always looking for different ways to showcase it. I have determined 2009 will be a pivotal time for my career. I meet with a well-known photography consultant in a few weeks to prepare for a five-day photo portfolio review at the end of April. I am currently scheduling a three-year traveling exhibition of the Hospital series. I have also started a new body of work that combines text and image, looking at how they inform each other and create larger ideas.

In addition to working on my art, I teach beginning photography classes part time. Just recently, I started some freelance consultant work to local artists who are too busy to market their work. I develop strategies and target potential venues to showcase their art. I am studying web design and marketing communications to enhance this consultant work.

Giving back to the community is also important to me. For the last two years, I have worked with an inner-city high school, where 60% of the students live below the poverty level. I help fundraise monies to support the school’s visual and performing art activities. I am developing a six-week photography program starting this summer and hope to expand it year round.

I believe the artist records current trends and realities to educate people, change perception and influence behavior to make the world a more humane, cooperative place.

Written by Mary Farmilant
Mary Farmilant’s Website: http://www.maryfarmilant.com/

When visiting www.votasmeets.com, you’ll find my artistic statement detailing why I made the collection, Aorta Transformata. I wholeheartedly invite you to visit, as it describes why I made the art that depicts the journey of the healing heart in vividly raw, yet beautifully human emotion. Everything I’ve created, I’ve lived. You’ll also get a glimpse of who I am and where I’ve been in my biography. There it states, “After making several life changes in 2007, involving her health, career, marriage, and residence, Arianne began further developing her sculpting skills by working on large-scale, multi-dimensional pieces combining the use of clay and canvas”. In essence, my essay for The Entrepreneurial Artist Contest is not about what you can find on my website. My essay is about what you will not find.

What you will not find listed in my biography is that I was a “no show” the first day of school the year I won the Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club Local Teacher of the Year award. Instead, there was a substitute. Instead, I was in the hospital. Luckily, I’d been unusually motivated and set up my classroom about a week prior. The doctors said I’d been hemorrhaging so intently that I almost died on the table while having an emergency surgery just a few days before. My students didn’t meet their eccentric teacher, who decked out the classroom with a real stage and twinkling white lights, until a bit later.

Fall of 2006 also brought the death of my marriage and my dog. What my student’s didn’t know was in December before break, my life was in shambles. I know…it sounds like a bad country song.

Although, they didn’t know the full scope of everything, they did once see me cry, not a highlight of my career in education. Sometimes you’re not a teacher or a role model. Sometimes you’re human. Part of what kept me going that year, was my student’s energy and hope. They gave so much more to me that year than I them. Sometimes I’m not sure what I did to deserve them nominating me in droves for the award. There were many things I didn’t do to my usual standards because I was running on empty and hadn’t yet learned to fill my own tank.

Yet, I do know what I did with great consistency. I saw my students as real people – real people who needed understanding, love and compassion. When they cried, I gave them tissues. When they had successes, big or small, we celebrated with grandeur. When it was their birthday, we sang.

What you won’t find on the website, is that the first knowledge of my existence in this world was celebration as a better option than cancer. My birth was not planned, and my mother was a brave superhero. I was never the typical case and all the doctor’s pregnancy tests confirmed – not pregnant. It was only after the x-rays, doctors discovered I wasn’t tumor, but life. My father, who raised, adopted and loved me with all his heart, showed me what true love looks like in action.

Part of my personal journey to love myself was to get over the idea I was somehow a mistake, an inconvenience, or burden. Let me make clear that this isn’t a story about how my parents didn’t love me enough. They did and then some. I just had to join them.

The result, after much therapy and self-reflection, is called Legitimate, an individual piece resembling a heart-shaped checkmark. It hangs with a statement reading, “Some of us just needed a skin suit. Check yourself in”. There are no ‘illegitimate’ people in this world. Not all great things are planned. I am here for a reason. So are you. There are more stories to tell, yet only 1,000 words.

My overall entrepreneurial goal is for the twenty-four piece Rebirth Sequence to live fully in this world, whether it’s bought as a permanent fixture in a public space or a traveling exhibit. It currently lives at Flourish Studios in Chicago until March. 2nd.

While creating it for me, I realized it was for everyone. A quote by Sonia Choquette states, “Healing occurs when a person feels accurately seen. And when they are accurately seen, they feel beautiful. They feel loveable. They feel whole.” As people see themselves reflected, it’s my hope that they can better love themselves and each other. This ripple effect will positively impact the world.

There are several other layers of entrepreneurial scope. One goal is a book which features each work photographed with a corresponding self-written essay and recipe. Yet another goal is to travel the fifty states and create each state’s heart. All hearts are assembled into a large, piece in outline of the USA.

Another goal and the reason for recently earning a culinary arts degree is VOTA: a coffee sanctuary- a place to foster deep conversation and personal enlightenment. At root, it’s an artistic community coffeehouse, with a space that hosts educational activities related to its mission.

Making the art taught me to trust the process of life. Life will bring you exactly what you need, when you need it-like this contest I found this week. Listen and all directions will be clear. Life puts you exactly where you need to be to experience exactly what you need to experience, as the groundwork for your greatness.

Each time the clay broke while molding, it always looked better broken or suggested new direction to the land of surprise and delight. Sometimes relationships need space and air to gain new perspectives and mend the whole. Sometimes your perfect healing will show up unexpectedly, looking really strange. Sometimes you don’t know the whole story. You just know the next step. Take it. If you listen to your gut screaming and reflect, it will lead you home.

Written by Stan Pope
I’m pleased to enter this contest; I feel something like this to find talent based on the quality of the artist, as opposed to how young or cute they are, is really needed in these times.

In my case I wish to have your group consider this. I personally know of no other Artist that has produced music of this complexity alone. Nothing in my music is sampled, sequenced, or artificially produced. Everything is played in real time on either a keyboard, or lead guitar, with the basic drum track as the only exception. No help with writing either, in any way.

I also want to call your attention to the music style. It’s unique. I call it Nu Groove it’s a rock, funk fusion mix. The way it’s structured is a new style, as different from R&B as rock is from blues…a new approach in music. To get a real evaluation of the style I think you’d need to listen to more than 1 song, but I will attach one that I feel will give you the overall idea.

if-its-all-right-with-you1

All the music for my songs was written and performed entirely by myself. No one else assisted in any way, and all but 2 of the 15 songs the lyrics were written by me as well. I’m trying some new things with a rock lead guitar by using it in ballads and in concert with Lead Vocals in a way I feel is unique.

This music is the result of a multi-year effort and I very pleased to realize this personal accomplishment. I left Chicago as a vocalist with a show band. I sang 2nd Tenor in the background mostly. I was part of a 4 man vocal group made up of my Brother, Myself ,and 2 others. My brother was our main Lead singer at the time. I also did some lead vocal.

When I left Chicago I vowed I wouldn’t return until I was successful in music. After a year or so on the road the band we had broke up and left us out of work as vocalists. My brother and I decided to learn to play so we could back up ourselves. He chose bass and I the lead guitar. In couple of years we were playing and singing with the Pope Brothers Band. We played mostly in southern California clubs and military bases, as we had relocated to San Diego by this time, to be close to L.A.

My brother and I wrote some songs and came very close to a record deal at points. We recorded with Perry Kibble who wrote Boogie Oogie Oogie with Taste of Honey and was offered a distribution deal with CBS, only to fall short in the funding to finish and deliver the album. My Brother went on his own and I couldn’t find anyone to work with me on original material. They just wanted to do cover songs and clubs, so I decided to learn to play keyboards and do my CD myself. I had already written most of the songs I needed and I had quite a bit of recording experience as a studio musician with Perry Kibble and Walter Johnson.

I was able to buy myself a 16 track professional digital studio and I went to work. My music is my own original style I developed. I call it Nu Groove. It’s a fusion of rock and funk..and where I think music was possibly heading, if not forHip-Hop. So now I’m poised for the next phase of my life long plan. I’ve done
everything else up to this point so I’m hoping I won’t have to buy it too.

I hope you love the Nu Groove… I seek to put more passion into my music, really though, let me know how you like it. And look out for me, I’m coming!!!!!!!!! Since I’ve done this alone and I’m the only person involved, I’m starting to seek others that would be interested in participating with me in launching this music. I have a lot more than what’s posted here and look forward to any producers, musicians, financiers, promoters, publicist, and anyone else that feels the passion, the potential of this. If you want to come aboard message me and lets talk.

You can also find a little more content from me and a longer preview of all at www.myspace.com/stanpopemusic or www.soundstation.com/stan2nite for a more complete playlist.

Thanks
Stan Pope

Tough Times, High Hopes
Written By: Christopher M. Simondet

Decisions are made every day for better and for worse. Throughout my life I have seen decisions that others have made and I have learned from them. I realized that every decision made has a ripple. The size of that ripple depends on the decision to be made. I had also realized that each person has a path. It is not always clear what that path actually is. I was once told that each person has a path and is always looking for it. What we don’t know is that we are already on that path. This knowledge came about after I found out that not everything in life can be controlled.

My life started out growing up in Minnetonka, MN raised by my parents, Jim and Julie. At a young age I looked up to mom and dad and always went to them for advice and counseling. I was a funny kid who was definitely different from most other kids and I loved to draw. I had an attention problem and was always in my own world but I was happy. As I grew a little older, I became more independent and less likely to listen to my parents. Right around my senior year in high school I started getting into trouble with the law. I was hanging around with classmates that weren’t the best influences and I was loosing sight of what was really important to me, and that was family.

Going to college at The University of North Dakota was a time of growth for me. I was able to explore my world and figure out who I was as a person. I started to really find my artistic side in a few art classes I had taken and took the initiative to design my fraternity’s rush shirts. Every body wanted one so the shirts sold in mass amounts. We ended up selling out of them and had orders for more. Being a student in commercial aviation I looked past what was really important to me and that was using creativity to design and to express my inner self.

Two and a half years into college at UND in the commercial aviation program I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. I had been admitted into Altru Hospital in Grand Forks. My doctor struggled to get the right combination of medicine for me. The whole time I was in the hospital, I spent hours on drawing. After two weeks of being at Altru, I was discharged, still not doing well. Because of my condition I was no longer going to become a commercial pilot. I ended up leaving Grand Forks to move back in with my parents in Minnetonka. Life was very confusing at that point but I never lost hope.

Living with my parents again was ok at first but with our differed schedules, we began to get on each others nerves. I got back into school for Architecture at Dunwoody College of Technology when things settled and I had decided what I wanted to do with my life. I loved the program and was really getting into it. I was involved with the advanced student program, Phi Theta Kappa, and was burning the candle at both ends. I became sick again at the end of my first year. I was hospitalized again but, this time it was for three months. I then moved around to various housing facilities in Minneapolis. Through all of these hard times, the only thing that kept me going was my art. My true passion doesn’t lie within the art I produce and keep myself, it’s the art that I can share with others to brighten their day.

Once I moved out of the system’s hosing, I moved in with my brother in St. Louis Park. My true growth started the day I moved in. I have four roommates, including my brother, who care about me and want me to reach for the stars and succeed. I am the youngest in the house and have learned so much from these friends of mine. I have become a better person by being around them and have been able to share my art with each of them.

While living at my brother’s house, I joined the Family Savings Account program, through Lutheran Social Services, to secure some funding for the business I wanted to start, with the name Simi Stuff LLC. I went through classes, received business coaching, and wrote a very detailed business plan. I have just recently received access to the grant money and am now searching for suppliers to do business with. My company is very small but I like to say that I have big designs and big ideas. The artwork that I have presently been working on is all done with a black, ball point pen. I have utilized the “Continuous Line” concept that Picasso practiced, in most of my artwork. The designs I currently have in my portfolio are very unique. With these designs, Simi Stuff LLC will initially offer shirts, flex fit hats, zip up hoodies, wrist bands, and stickers. I am now back in school at Academy College for graphic design and absolutely loving it. Every day I look forward to what lies ahead for me.

My true passion is in drawing and is what I have the most practice at. I am always open to new mediums and plan on expanding my horizons with new ways to express myself. When I look at my life, all I see is art. It doesn’t have to be perfect and it doesn’t even need to make sense. I haven’t had an easy life and I don’t see it getting much easier. Sometimes the most valuable lessons are learned the hard way and this is the knowledge that lasts a lifetime.

Christopher M. Simondet
www.simistuff.com

Dream Share written by Rita Milios

Share a Book…Share a Dream

Like most artists, I suspect, I have a unique relationship with the “offspring” produced through my creative endeavors (in my case, books). Each one is an expression of the deepest part of me and each brings forth into the world by its very existence a message, a gift that wants to be shared. My children’s middle grade novel, Dream Share, nagged me to birth it. Now it is nagging me to send it out into the world with a unique and dramatic launch so that it may hopefully open minds and hearts to a greater awareness of the spiritual, metaphysical and paranormal realities that exist in our world—realities that today’s children are awakening to at increasingly early ages. As a psychotherapist, I know that this generation of kids is in desperate need of reliable, mature, well-grounded sources of guidance and stewardship regarding the metaphysical/spiritual realm. With Dream Share, I am building on my past work and also building a foundation for future work that most truly represents who and what I am… as a writer, as a person, as a psychotherapist, and as a pioneer and stalwart soldier of the Ancient Wisdom spiritual traditions.

I am not new to the world of book publishing. I have more than thirty published books, many of them for children, and most related to education and curriculum. Dream Share is my first children’s novel. Over the years, I have seen the marketing aspect of the book publishing process become ever more important and the responsibility for the bulk of this marketing shift more and more to the author– something I resisted at first, but I now enjoy. I’m passionately excited about marketing Dream Share, because it opens the door to a long-range marketing plan that involves numerous creative endeavors that move my career path ever closer to my true passions and my true gifts, as a teacher and guide to those just entering a spiritual path, and as an advocate for the newest and most vulnerable of this population, the recently awakened children, who are currently too often left to their own devises and lack a source of reliable, trustworthy education about the powerful potentials they are discovering within them.

My middle-grade paranormal children’s novel, Dream Share contains a nonfiction section at the end, called The Story Behind the Story. Here paranormal elements of the novel are elaborated on, using an author interview, scientific explanations and information. Readers are told why I wrote the book (some of the paranormal events are based on events experienced by a school principal¬–an interesting tidbit of trivia for students). I share scientific views about the paranormal aspects of the story and information about how kids can use dreams to elicit their own inner guidance. I also provide templates for creating Dream Journaling Pages.

A Dream Share Day Awareness Project is scheduled to coincide with the Dream Share book launch. It will raise awareness of the value of using dreams as a source of inner awareness and guidance and will encourage the sharing of dreams–both nightly dreams and “dreams” as aspirations. It will link Dream Share to future activities for both children and adults. Some of the associated marketing projects include:

1 . Dream Share Kickoff Dream Contest: Readers send in a “special” dream to share, telling why it is special (scary, prophetic, provided a lesson etc.). The winner receives a My Dream Journal book to record their dreams and a Dream Journal Slumber Party Package (“I Have a Dream to Share” buttons for party participants, free pizzas and a personal phone or online chat with the author–parental permission required).

2. Online Dream Quiz – What Kind of Dreamer Are You? (Daily Dreamer, Problem-Solving Dreamer, Mystical Dreamer, Lucid Dreamer)?

3. Ongoing Contests:

a) “Thank You for Telling Your Friends” (Florida-based Contest) Participants win a chance for an in-person Author Visit to their school and for their class to take part in Dream Research when they refer Dream Share to friends.

b) “My Dreamy Valentine” Contest: Participants write about a “dream person” (characteristics of an “ideal” boyfriend/girlfriend/ pal). Winner receives a “Pleasant Dreams Package” (body lotion, aromatherapy items etc.) to help them feel special and have “pleasant dreams” and a “Pleasant Dreams Technique” booklet that teaches how to “ask” for a night of pleasant dreams.

c) Dream Share Readers’ “Pop Quiz”: Participants answer questions
about Dream Share . Prizes include: Slumber Party; My Dream Journal; Pleasant Dream Package.

d) Monthly Birthday Dream Contest: Participants write about their greatest “dream” (aspiration/wish) during their birthday month. Winners receive an email consult /chat with Author to brainstorm how to make their dream come.

4. Dream Share Book Clubs: Children have an opportunity to enjoy reading and discussing books on topics related to the spiritual, metaphysical and paranormal, with an adult “mentor” who can act as resource person. Club Leaders receive monthly book suggestions and Discussion Points handouts for selected book, plus Q/A tips and relevant child-friendly website links.

5. Ask the Dream Lady Blog and Internet Radio Show: Readers send in dreams for interpretation. Selected dreams will be discussed on Author’s internet radio show or her Blog.

6. Rookie Researcher Investigative Discovery Project: As a Writer-in-Residence, Author will teach students how to conduct simple surveys, polls and focus groups, using dreams as the research focus. This project offers an opportunity to reach parents through related educational workshops (Why it is important to talk to kids about their dreams?). It also provides an opportunity to garner media attention for the project, the school and the Author. The project has curriculum correlations to Language Art and Science standards for grade 4-

With these plans I hope to help others, especially children, share their dreams and embrace their potentials; and I also hope to fulfill my own dreams as an author, entrepreneur and spiritual mentor.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my dream with you today. May all your dreams come true!

Rita Milios, The Mind Mentor, Hudson, Fl. www.ritamilios.com

© Ann Rea. All rights reserved and enforced. Absolutely no reproduction of any kind permitted.

my story
For seven years I didn’t paint or draw anything. I worked at a variety of anxiety producing corporate jobs until I meet two stage-four breast cancer survivors. I realized then that life is too short to avoid pursuing my dream.

It is no accident that collectors comment that my paintings make them feel happy and calm. I started painting again as an active mediation to alleviate anxiety, a concern about the future. Painting the subject of light as color in a moment allowed me to “savor the colors of a moment ™”.

At the end of 2003, I quit my job, sold my house and moved to the beach in San Francisco. With the encouragement of renowned painters Wayne Thiebaud (an American Art Icon) I was finally determined to make a living as a painter and to pursue my dream.

I am reviving the tradition of the French Impressionists, with a contemporary point of view. Winemakers take me on a tour of their vineyards where I plant my easel. Then I paint the colors of the vineyards as they change with the seasons, creating authentic and timeless pieces reflecting the unique beauty of each vineyard. I sell the wineries the reproductions and accessories to retail or to offer as special promotional gifts. In return, they host me at their wine tasting events where I sell the originals to a target rich market.

The collectible status of my work is quickly increasing. My talent is commended by Wayne Thiebaud (an American Art icon). I have collectors across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Since 2007, my paintings, and my business, have been featured nationally on “Fine Living”, and in “Fortune” and “The Wine Enthusiast” magazines. And most recently my business was profiled in the book “Carreer Renegade”, by Jonathon Fields, and published by Random House.

my business
How did I avoid the myth of the “staving artist” and swim with the savage sharks of the art market? I went swimming somewhere else. I invented a new market, one where I could thrive. I built a business that offers value that did not exist before. I created a Blue Ocean Strategy* before I knew that there was a name for it. A Blue Ocean strategy creates value in a market space that did not exist before, making the competition irrelevant.

I established Studio Ann Rea as a sole proprietorship in January of 2004 to overcome the limits of the traditional marketing of art and to create opportunities by controlling the sale and the distribution of my art and to leverage my intellectual property. In 2007, I established Ann Rea Incorporated, an S Corp, as a profitable vehicle for my artistic career and as a business with an expanding catalog of products featuring my images. These products offer more passive forms of revenue.

From these “field studies” I paint in the vineyards I create custom merchandise featuring the paintings of the winery’s vineyards, including: fine art prints, stationary, and accessories. The winery may offer this merchandise as promotional gifts or retail it and double their investment. In return, they host me at their wine tasting events where I sell the originals to a target rich market, wine enthusiasts are collecting personalities.

The unique benefit to the winery is that they gain a permanent presence in the hearts and homes of their customers and they have an opportunity to double their investment.


In 2009, I will be expanding my company’s sales to other markets, including: more fine home décor and gift retailers, private collectors, private commissions, and interior designers.

my lessons
The “current state of the economy” is not the primary reason for a sales decline in 2008. The decline was caused by two major clients failing to meet their legal obligations to assist in the sales of the original paintings of their vineyards at their events. My company failed to respond with consistent marketing efforts to replace the lost sales.

When I refocused my marketing efforts in December 2008, I sold a record of 15 original oils to private collectors.

Four big and hard lessons that I have learned and actions I have and will take:

1. I must maintain consistent and measurable marketing efforts. I have learned that “marketing must be as regular as breathing”.**
· I have begun working with a Harvard graduate marketing consultant at the Oakland SBDC to complete and implement a measureable and consistent marketing effort.

2. I now realize that in order to thrive I must diversify my income streams so that my eggs are in not all in one basket.
· I am targeting wineries and interior designers and private collectors at affluent events.

3. I must have clearly defined contractual agreements with a means of accountability and teeth to enforce the terms.
· All of my contracts are under review by a business and copyright attorney.

4. I can only be so successful operating alone, I’m going to need a sales force to grow and experienced business advisors or mentors to help guide me.
· I am interviewing an experienced wine country merchandise rep next week.
· I have discovered the world of virtual assistants.

company vision
The vision for Ann Rea, Inc. is to firmly establish itself as the brand of tasteful wine country art and accessories while cultivating satisfying and profitable business relationships and alliances. This system will be repeated with other iconic landscapes, such as: wetlands, parks, seasides, and private gardens.

The goal is to leverage my intellectual property by building a brand that hosts a tasteful catalog of fine art merchandise and books. These products provide a source of more passive income, publishing.

The goal is to maintain simplicity and as little overhead as is possible by expanding on-line sales using affiliate marketing, social networking, and PR.

*Blue Ocean Strategy by Kim and Mauborgne

**Gorilla Marketing, by Leveinson.

The Evolution of One Entrepreneurial Artist written by Amy Wachspress © 2009 Amy Wachspress

I have been a writer for as long as I can remember. I spent years trying to get a publisher to discover me, until the day that I got wise. I researched self-publication and the world of independent publishing opened up before me like a door opening onto a field of daisies. In June 2006, my husband and I founded Woza Books to publish my children’s and young adult fantasy adventure The Call to Shakabaz, which we launched in 2007. During the first months after we founded Woza, I felt as if my learning curve was taking me straight up a cliff. I was astounded at how much work was required to simply get the word out to my prospective audience. To date, the book has sold about 1,200 copies, received four national and two regional book award honors, and was released as an audio book in September 2008. The audio book, which just received a Mom’s Choice Award Silver Medal (2009), was produced by Legacy Audio Books, Inc. in a joint venture with Woza. We will split the profits even though Legacy produced the audio book and will do most of the marketing.

A lot of things took me by surprise when I published Shakabaz, but none more than the enormity of the task of marketing and promoting a book, which astonished and overwhelmed me. At the beginning of my self-publishing adventure, I dedicated 90% of my energy and resources to producing the book. I was like a first-time pregnant mother for whom it was all about the birth. But after the baby was born, I had a child to raise. I had to completely shift gears and dedicate my energy and resources to running a publishing business, including the behemoth of marketing, publicity, and promotion. I swiftly realized that if you have a terrific book and you’re no good at marketing then you might as well crawl under a rock.

In my business plan, I should have budgeted ten times as much for marketing as for the production of the book. By the time I had the book in hand, I had spent most of the money I had set aside for my self-publishing adventure. If I ever have enough money to publish my next book, I will spend far less on the production end and budget far more for getting the word out about the book. Since I didn’t have the resources to mount a comprehensive marketing campaign, I relied on the internet and digital media avenues, which eat hours like candy. Marketing a book is a bottomless pit. No matter how much you invest, it’s never enough; you should always be investing more. Reminds me of parenthood.

I took six months off from my job to start Woza and to publish Shakabaz. I spent hours and days marketing and promoting the book, managing my paperwork, and running my small publishing company. I hate bookkeeping, processing invoices and checks, documenting inventory, talking to vendors, scheduling, selling, ordering mailers, and on and on, so forth and such not. All of this stuff is exhausting, overwhelming, time-consuming, and boring. I often wish I hadn’t published the damn book so I would have the time to write again. My stint as a fulltime publisher/author came to an abrupt end when I returned to my day job as a freelance grant writer attempting to put my three children through college, help my husband pay off the mortgage on our house, and earn enough money to pay our medical bills. In short, life picked up exactly where I had left off to publish my terrific, award-winning book. I enjoyed the taste of the literary life I bought with the publication of Shakabaz. More than anything, I enjoy talking with children who have read and loved the book. That is my deepest reward and makes my efforts worthwhile.

I recently published an article in the Independent Book Publisher’s Association (IBPA) trade journal entitled “Just Said No.” The article explains why I chose to say “no” when a bona fide small publisher approached me about publishing a sequel to Shakabaz. I discussed why I prefer to have my own indie publishing company and to self-publish. The gist of the article? I’m a control freak. I have received an extraordinary deluge of emails about that article, all cheering me on. But the truth is, I don’t have the money to publish another book. Even if I did have the money to publish a book, I don’t have the money to market it, and I certainly don’t have the time to market it without any money. So the thought of someone else picking up the tab for all these things has started to look more and more attractive. (Don’t tell my ”Just Said No” supporters.)

Some people are born entrepreneurs, some become entrepreneurs, and some have entrepreneurship thrust upon them. I am the last of these three. I had the time of my life starting Woza and publishing Shakabaz. I still do authorly things when I can spare the time. The book still sells, a couple copies a week, out of my garage. If I sold all the copies I have left, I still wouldn’t make back what I invested in Woza. But truth be told, I was never in this for the money. I think that when love supersedes the desire for profit in someone like myself who has very little business sense, then profit simply loses the arm wrestle. If I were in it for the money, I would have made some, right? I sure did make a lot of love, though.

Amy Wachspress
Woza Books

My Life, My Passion, My Dream written by Tamera Bourne

When I first read The Diary of Anne Frank I knew I wanted to write. I was eleven. I started keeping a diary and have not stopped. Her raw honesty about her growing pains gave me comfort in my own struggles. My thinking, at the time, was I could be the next Anne Frank, I could be the young girl that touches everyones heart. Part of me believes that I’m carrying on her dream since she wasn’t able to.

To write means to me that I am able to bring the gift of imagination to people. The joy of opening a book and learning something new, or loosing oneself in a far off place and becoming a character in a story. I always dreamed I was Lucy in The Chronicles of Narnia. I always have a book in my hands and I am typically reading two books at once.

I believe the gift of reading helps everyone to be a better person. Through reading we gain knowledge, confidence, and a desire to spread the wealth of information. We want to communicate what we have learned. We want to inspire people to read the book. I want to be the writer people talk about. I want my books to influence people, to teach them, to bring joy to their lives. I believe I can do this through my newest project.

I call this project “What’s in a Names?” series. I’m researching what all 50 states names mean and how they became that name; also how the license plate slogans were chosen, what it means, and why. I envision this project on multiple levels. First , as two books containing all the information, and these could be sold anywhere — bookstores, travel stores, gift shops and more. I see these two books as the definitive books of state facts. I want people who have a question to immediately think of these books and pull them from the self. Secondly, the states could be split apart and create chapbooks, essentially, that will have the meaning of the name and slogan together. This can be marketed specifically to little gift shops through out that states name. These little books could sit on truck stop shelves in the souvenir section. They would be made for the impulsive buy. A nice memento of the trip that can go into a scrapbook. Thirdly, as a kids version to help children learn more than the capitols in school. I believe the education that children receive when it comes to our states is limited. As a child I was taught the capitols but not much more. How can we expect the children of the World to be knowledgeable when we don’t provide the information. This version can contain a map, CD-ROMs, game, vocabulary, lesson plans, and more. The education version can be tailored to what the school wants.

I believe the ‘What’s in a Name?” series can expand beyond the United States. Each continent can be done, each country of the world, and have their regions broken down. In the United States I could write how each capitol received its name, each river, each lake, major cities, the possibilities are unlimited. I want the “What’s in a Name?” series to be a household name like Chicken Soup for the Soul.

I have never lost my passion for writing. I studied journalism and creative writing. I want to infuse the two and create a publication that is enthralling and educational. I want to pull my strengths as a researcher, writer, and educator into this project, creating a unique piece of work. I have travelled throughout this country and world. I have not seen anything like this idea. I believe it will be fruitful for all.

To build a brand- an entrepreneurial identity that reflects the products and services you provide (or will soon provide) – others need to believe in you.

So how do you create this kind of emotionally positive connection to your audience?

I came up with the ETA contest in hopes of helping you begin to learn how to. Let me explain.

In any venture you begin, to initially and continuously draw in your potential client, you need both “features” and “benefits” to do so.

A feature of your product or service might be that you “brand” runs free competition for great prizes, writes interesting articles and offers free informational resources like book lists, free on-line business tools and more.

A benefit, on the other hand, is when you actually use or experience the services that “brand” provides and you receive a benefit, something tangible and concrete that is at least as valuable to you as the price you paid for it– but hopefully far more valuable to you than the sum you paid.

The difference between features and benefits is that a “feature” focus on what makes or defines the product, while the “benefit” focus on your experience of that product.

At any level, beginner entrepreneur (aka I have an idea I am willing to try!) to those in an advanced class (aka I am building my customer base daily,) your support base from day one must begin to grow by offering features and ultimately real benefits your customers’ experience that keep them coming back for more.

Whatever level you are currently at, rallying support around your features and benefits is critical, not only to developing your business daily, but especially to your overall mental health, as Kelly Penick described in her recent post ” Stop and Reflect on YOU, for once…” Given the certainty of feeling fearful from time to time, and having moments of anxiety, which often are particularly high in the beginning, (when you least know how to cope with them because they seem unfamiliar) I can assure you votes of confidence are VERY important to beginning and sustaining your entrepreneurial evolution and journey.

So how can the contest help you begin to build your brand?

You may notice that one of the ways contestants for the ETA Competition are being evaluated is based on how much attention they draw to their post.

How are these contestants drawing attention to their posts? Are they posting links to the ETA site on their websites, on YouTube, Facebook, blogging about the contest and asking readers to read the post? What exactly are they doing to seek out potential votes of confidence for the features and benefits of their established or emerging brand?

Not only will studying what each of the contestants is doing give you some insight into what you might want to do, but it also might help you to recognize how much further you will get developing your ideas by asking for a little bit of support for what you are trying to accomplish.

My wish for you, ON CHRISTMAS DAY,
will be for you TOO, to keep the GRINCH at bay!

But if by chance, you simply cannot,
Band mighty together, as a great big Who-Ville lot!

WWHHYY????? Smarty-Arty, I hear you say?

BECAUSE, with all your JOY stirring together,
the grinch who came to visit, just might feel a WEE bit better.

Merry Christmas, my dears, what’s your ETA,
to ENTREPRENEUR The Arts, in a new innovative way.
PLEASE COME WITH ME, lets ride far, far and away!

signed your friend, an artistic missionIST, a student of Dr. Suess-a-visionIST, gliding, and sent with love.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL0uu_q2grc]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkDELa8YSqY]

Written by Eli Epstein

Inside Out audiences realize that classical music can be a tremendous resource for understanding oneself and others. It’s food for our minds, hearts and souls. And yet classical music is intangible, mysterious, and undiscovered by most of the American population. It’s generally thought of as elitist and inaccessible except to the knowledgeable few.

Inside Out builds bridges to audiences by showing that a connection with music is not so much about knowing (although it’s useful to know the historical and cultural context of a piece), it’s more about tapping into the emotional essence and universal human experience that’s inherent in every work of art, be it music, dance, theatre, film, or visual art. This innovative interdisciplinary approach helps concertgoers access their memories and activate their imaginations so that they can have more moving, meaningful, and personal experiences.

I’ve been passionate about classical music my whole life. As a child, I performed as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra several times; as an adult I was a member of the prestigious Cleveland Orchestra for 18 years. In those formal settings, the artificial wall that separated musicians and audiences troubled me.

I began thinking about how I might improve the connection with an audience by creating a more informal atmosphere and presenting novel ways to help people relate better to the music. When I started conducting ensembles at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2000, I noticed how much the students craved to be emotionally connected to what they were doing. I was rehearsing Brahms’s Serenade No. 2, and came to a difficult cello passage. Instead of saying, “Cellos, you really need to practice that,” I took a different tact. I said, “When I think about this melancholy passage, it reminds me of the gypsies in Vienna, who were probably looked down upon and didn’t have enough to eat.” An oboe player raised his hand and half-jokingly said, “That’s how I feel as a music student, looked down upon and hungry!” Everyone laughed. I said, “Okay, so you’ve felt how those gypsies might have felt. Hold onto that.” We played the passage again and the sound of the cello section changed completely. It was dark and emotional, and most of the technical problems had disappeared. The students and I were amazed. I started thinking about how I could give listening audiences a similar “right brain” experience.

I presented my first Inside Out Concert in Shaker Heights in 2002; I rented a church and asked colleagues from The Cleveland Orchestra to perform with me. I advertised this way: “Do you feel uncomfortable at classical music concerts? Are you scared about not knowing the rules of concert etiquette? Please wear comfortable clothes and bring your imaginations!”

I welcomed the audience of about 100 adults. I encouraged them to get physically comfortable by letting them stretch and breathe deeply, since people become more imaginative when they’re relaxed. I told them bits of information about each piece, and gave them creative ways to project their lives onto the music. For example, before we performed a Bach Fugue I told the audience that a fugue is about building something. I asked each of them to choose something they felt most earnest about building in their lives. I explained that every project takes many steps to complete. Every time the fugue melody was presented, they could think of it as a building block. Things always come up that we don’t expect so we have to improvise, like Bach, who improvised between the fugue statements. We demonstrated several excerpts, since familiarity helps people relax, then played it through. Afterwards people seemed excited. “I was totally engaged.” “I’m a rock ‘n’ roll guy, but I really liked this concert!” “When’s your next one?” I was juiced!

Through my collaboration with three different psychotherapists, Ceci MacDonnell LISW, Alan Bachers PhD, and Cynthia Anne Hale PhD, Inside Out has evolved to include guided visualizations to connect concertgoers with universal emotional themes such as joy, loss, strength, struggle, gratitude and grace.

For example, I presented Brahms’s Horn Trio, which, I told the audience, was written during the year after his mother died. I related that loss is a universal human experience, and led a guided meditation to help the audience get in touch with their sorrows. After the concert, the pianist of the trio said, “Eli, do you realize that half the people in the audience were crying during the third movement?”

In 2005, I left The Cleveland Orchestra and moved to Boston to have more time and energy to develop Inside Out and other creative endeavors. The Arlington Street Church in Boston has been hosting my Inside Out Concert Series for three years. Listeners have reported having amazing and moving experiences. In fact, 62% of survey respondents disclosed that this approach changed the way they thought about classical music. 
The Boston Globe, Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Santa Barbara News-Press have published feature articles about Inside Out.

Programs have varied in terms of method, repertoire and ensemble size (from solo to chamber and orchestral). I’ve presented diverse music of composers such as Beethoven, Ravel, Messiaen, and Paquito D’Rivera. I even presented a solo piano recital where Eve Kodiak, after performing Schumann’s Scenes from Childhood, asked the audience to share titles of episodes from their own childhoods. Then Eve improvised a whole new suite, a sort of “playback” of their personal childhood scenes.

Our society is hungry for meaningful experiences. People will come back to classical music concerts if they think there’s a good chance they’ll have another moving experience. I would use the Entrepreneur the Arts funding to reach a wider audience through orchestral concerts, CD’s, and radio.

It’s been challenging to persuade established musical organizations that incorporating the Inside Out format could help them bring in and build a new audience base for classical music in America. Alan Brown, director of Audience Insight said, “What you have here, Eli, is a lever to get people into the concert hall again and again.”

Eli Epstein
www.eliepstein.com

Written by Chuck DeWolfe

My name is Chuck DeWolfe I am 42 and have been working for my self since I was 12. When I was 18 I left my parents house and traveled for 15 years. In that time I received a BS in Art therapy and an MFA in fine art, had over 100 art shows collaborated with over 30 other artists and ran my own Gallery. I have worked in over 10 artists’ communities as a student, resident artist, visiting artist, art fellow, grant recipient, teacher, mentor and professional artist.

After chasing a tenure track position for several years I decided to stop and move back east and recover from what had been a very challenging four-year period of poverty, mental instability, bad personal relationships and enough drama to write my own HBO pilot – I was 33.

When I stopped moving I realized that from all my rich experiences and all the many respected people that I had created art with and for, I had nothing to show for it accept a truck which at the time I was sleeping in, and good number of lines on my resume.

I combined a free real estate class and some research in to a foster care business. I bought a 30-ache farm with a negative balance of -179.76 in my checking account. Began living with 3 to 4 boys’ ages 9 to 17 full time. I continued to show my artwork, invest in real estate and build my foster care business. After five years developing my program I gave the program to the state of Vermont. I began to research how I would work as an artist full time and share what I had learned about being an entrepreneur with other artists.

I studied the coaching model and began to coach artists one on one and started to study on line marketing and over the last two years have built up a small business working with people on line, selling my coaching programs and negotiating art coaching globally.

I had to overcome several personal changes surrounding money, marketing, selling, and a heroic identity as an artist that just did not serve my goals as an entrepreneur. When I started this project I did not email people. Now I have several web sites and communicate globally with hundreds of artists all over the US and abroad.

I have participated in and with exchanges with some of the most influential Internet marketers in the worlds today. All of which look at me a little side ways because they know, as I do, that artists are not going to pay you much to help them market, sell and promote their work.

Presently I am commented to unlocking the doorways in which creativity and art can meet with commerce and community. Offering to individuals a way at looking at themselves not only as artist but also as entrepreneurs. I will confess it has not been easy and for all my efforts my business is struggling in the face of what has been 2 years of perpetual work and striving to create a viable business on line serving artists.

I am committed to coaching and to looking at “creativity as currency” working with artists, and other creatives, in a financial structure that is dynamic and aggressively poignant in today’s world, to transform the ideas of so many into pragmatic solutions and uncover what at times is “the miracle” and the mystery of art and financial prosperity.

Respectfully – Chuck DeWolfe
www.chuckdewolfe.com

Contestant #2 Spiked Our Blog Stats using geurrilla marketing to promote his contest submission. Good job Dewey Chaffee getting the word out and drumming up support.

Without a doubt, this contest offers you the potential to flex and test your marketing muscle.

In addition to reader support we are looking for great content, a great idea and sincere feedback from what you have written as well.

Who will be next to submit? Are you willing to try?

Written by Dewey Chaffee

My name is Dewey Chaffee. I turn forty years old on December the seventh. In almost every way, I’m what people would call a “Late Bloomer.”

I am also a comedian.

I spent the first half of my life wandering from place to place, feeling lost, wondering why I was alive. The second half of my life is being spent rejoicing in the lucky discovery that I have comic timing. Extremely grateful for this gift, I work tirelessly every single day in an effort to find new ways to make people laugh.

I was never afforded the opportunity to receive a college education. For years, I was convinced that this meant that I was stupid. However, my mother was fifteen years old when I was born, so, every chance I get, I remind people that I went to high school twice.

The fact that I held no degree embarrassed me for a long time, until I was cast in a professional production alongside other “classically trained” actors who owed thousands of dollars to their acting schools. I realized that I was in the exact same place in my career as they were, and I didn’t owe anyone a nickel. I was the smart one after all.

In my family, I was the first person to graduate from high school.

In my family, I was the first person to live in a house without wheels.

In my family, I was the first person to recognize the ugliness of prejudice and vow not to be that person.

In my family, I was the first person to witness patterns of complacency and defeat and strived not to repeat them.

For a long time, I was afraid that, like my young mother, I was doomed to work a mind-numbing, dead-end factory job that I hated.

When I was much too young, I married a girl named Marie and we had a son. His name is Christopher, he is sixteen now, and he turned out just great. One of the best things about Christopher is that he doesn’t mind having a gay dad. His mother struggled with it, however. I can’t blame her. We were always fighting over who got to hang the curtains.

I was fortunate. After I lost my Ideal Family, I was given the Funny in return. Being funny healed my broken soul. Being funny gave me renewed purpose.

One day, I created a character and I named him Wayburn Sassy. Wayburn is eighty-nine years old and has declared himself an “Entertainment Legend.” He embodies the bigotry and the prejudices that I witnessed from the people who raised me. I knew from the very first moment that Wayburn appeared on stage that, with him, I had stumbled upon something special. Audiences need Wayburn. He demonstrates to us how laughable blind ignorance truly is.

The most valuable character in my life, however, is one that I did not have to create. The Universe handed him to me on a silver platter. His name is Douglas and he tolerates me better than anyone on this planet. In spite of my many faults, Douglas does everything he can to uplift and support every crazy idea that I come up with. He understands my desire to introduce Wayburn Sassy to the rest of the world.

Together, with the singular purpose of promoting Wayburn Sassy, Douglas and I formed our own comedy company called Dewey Chaffee Comedy Enterprises, LLC. In just two years, we have successfully mounted two local award-winning shows starring Mr. Sassy. We have managed to position Wayburn as a recognizable local celebrity.

Our biggest success so far: this month, we are ecstatic that Wayburn will conduct his very first celebrity interview, speaking with openly gay Hollywood star Leslie Jordan, best known as the flamboyant Beverly Leslie on Will and Grace.

Earlier this year, however, things were tough for our fledgling company. In an effort to ride the wave of Wayburn’s local success, Douglas and I opened The Blue Revue Starring Wayburn Sassy on Orlando’s tourist strip. Unfortunately, the overhead was too much for us to bear and we were forced to close the show after only three months. I had grossly underestimated the enormous advertising costs of such a production. I took the closing as a personal failure. I was devastated.

Undeterred, however, we knew that we needed to find a cheaper way to continue creating opportunities for Wayburn Sassy. Because we owned a camcorder, we decided to try the internet. Currently, we are shooting an online “web-reality” series centered around Wayburn Sassy. Entitled “Pushing Sassy,” our camera follows Wayburn to every appearance that he does. So far, we’ve completed two episodes, (each under ten minutes in length to accommodate the short attention span of today’s internet audience). We plan to launch the show in January of 2009 on both YouTube and on our own website. (www.wayburnsassy.com).

Wayburn’s career-path is modeled after the brilliant Barry Humphries and his world-reknowned alter-ego, Dame Edna. We dream of equal success. As a team, we continue to search for unique and interesting ways to get Wayburn’s face out there. One day, we envision Wayburn Sassy on a national stage.

As someone from a background of little opportunity provided him, I have had to find my own voice. My family could not foster it. Public education did not support it. Higher education was out of the question. However, I refused to see these challenges as hopeless roadblocks. Instead, I viewed them merely as hurdles that I needed to leap. I was prepared to leap then, and I am prepared to leap now.

I view Wayburn Sassy’s success as my potential salvation. I view Wayburn Sassy as my son’s college tuition. I view Wayburn Sassy as a ticket out of my day-job as a theme-park actor.

This is a lot of pressure to place upon the shoulders of an eighty-nine year-old man. But, Wayburn Sassy is an Entertainment Legend. I’m pretty sure he can handle it.

Dewey Chaffee
www.wayburnsassy.com