115: Think Like a Successful Creative
See the show notes for this Episode here.
This transcript has been automatically generated.
Bonnie Christine [00:00:00]:
Do you wanna know the number one difference that I see between those who find success and those who don't? Well, it lies right between the ears. That's right. It's not the quality of work. It's not the size of the audience. It's in the thinking. So are you ready to change the way you think? I'm Bonnie Christine, and this is where all things creativity, design, business, and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains running a multi seven figure business doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. When I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer.
Bonnie Christine [00:00:56]:
Fast forward to today, I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to The Professional Creative Podcast. In today's episode, I wanna talk about what it looks like to think like a successful creative because your success depends on it. The way that you see the world and think about your contributions to the world greatly impact your ability to become an achiever. Now back in episode 111, I talked about the mindset of moving from dreaming to doing and what a growth mindset looks like and how we can literally change the way that we think about things and how that affects our success. But this time, I just really wanna talk about what does a successful creative think like.
Bonnie Christine [00:02:12]:
You know, it wasn't until I got asked to speak on a stage this past year that I realized that much of the success that has contributed to where I am today came from the mindset shifts that I've had and the actual thinking that I've had about my success and achievements over the last decade plus. As I began to think about the years, so much of the believing unfolded itself slowly, yet intentionally. Meaning, I didn't come out of the gates knowing and believing that I would accomplish my goals. It was very slowly, but it was intentional. It reminded me of all the limiting beliefs and fears that I had overcome over the years. For instance, things like, was my work good enough? Was I just an imposter? What if all of this was just a bunch of lucky breaks? What if I wasn't actually talented at all? All the way to today where I still find myself working through doubts and asking questions like, what if I can't handle the pressure? Can I be a good leader? Can I continue to show up? You know, in different ways at different times in our careers and our lives, we all have the same doubts and same questions. It's what we decide to believe about them that makes the difference. As I looked over the past decade of building my business from absolutely nothing, to this beautiful multi seven figure business that gives me freedom and supports a team of incredible women and helps make an impact in the world, I realized that every turning point, every breakthrough had to do with a mindset shift.
Bonnie Christine [00:04:00]:
It was all in the thinking all along. You know, being a creative entrepreneur is a vulnerable thing. We go to sleep every night with the risk of our success or failure on our shoulders. And as if that wasn't enough, our success literally hinges on how good of an idea we have or how great our work is and how good we are at marketing it. It's filled with taking risks and receiving feedback. That's why you must have your mind in order. So the good news is this, which is what we talked about in 1 11. Our thinking is not fixed.
Bonnie Christine [00:04:40]:
With just a little bit of intention, we can reroute the neurological pathways literally in our brain to think in new ways. Isn't that amazing? So I want us to interrogate our thinking. I wanna dive into the beliefs and mindsets that you must have in order to be brave, confident, and find success as a creative. There are some common limiting beliefs that I see in creatives over and over and over again. The first is imposter syndrome. So many of us feel like we're faking it, and so many of us are. That's okay. Some of you feel that you don't truly belong in this field, and this belief stems from a fear of being exposed as a fraud or if someone were to find out that we weren't as talented as we look to be.
Bonnie Christine [00:05:34]:
But it's exasperated by comparing ourselves to others. The next one is a fear of failure. Like, a prevalent belief among creatives is this fear of failure. The idea that a failed project equates personal failure. And this fear can be completely paralyzing, which prevents us from taking risks or trying new things. Now this one, my my goal is to overcome this one for all people at all places in their life, But the starving artist myth is still out there. There's just this persistent myth that to be a true artist, you have to struggle financially. And this belief just leads us to undervalue our work and feel guilty about seeking financial success, then I'm here to help you squash that myth if it's something that you still hold on to.
Bonnie Christine [00:06:29]:
The next one is perfectionism. Many creatives believe that their work has to be perfect in order to be worthy, And this unattainable standard just leads to constant dissatisfaction. It can lead us to being really slow and releasing things, And, honestly, it just gets in our way. And then the next one is one that you might struggle with, that creativity is innate. Meaning that people will feel like they're not naturally gifted, and, therefore, they can't succeed. But this overlooks the role of practice and learning and growth and developing creative skills, which is absolutely possible. These limiting beliefs, you may struggle with some or maybe others that I didn't mention, can significantly hamper our creative output and our assess. They can lead to procrastination and low self esteem and no self confidence and reduced productivity and even complete avoidance of creative endeavors.
Bonnie Christine [00:07:35]:
Have you ever wondered how some artists turn their passion into a Profitable career? Well, the secret's out. In fact, my incredibly in-depth and entirely free workshop is coming up. It's called The Art of Business, 7 Secrets to Success in Surface Pattern Design, and I would love to have you join us. Here's what you need to know. You can start at any experience level, so beginner, intermediate, or advanced. You can start at any life stage. If you're a teen, a young professional, a mom, or an empty nester. And you can also start with any goal in mind.
Bonnie Christine [00:08:15]:
So if you want to reconnect with your creativity, start with a hobby, build out a side hustle, or transition into an entire career, this workshop is for you. You're gonna learn the opportunities available to you in the world of surface design, the first steps You need to take, in order to get started, the 5 different types of surface designers so you can choose which one is right for you, how to create a personalized road map to reach all of your goals in surface design, and ways to create multiple streams of revenue and Start making income from your artwork. Now throughout the workshop, I'll be sharing my top seven secrets for you to find success in surface pattern design. This workshop is truly transformational. We hear every year that Through the free workshop, people have completely transitioned and transformed their lives. So come join us. All of the sessions are self paced, so you can go through it on your own time, but I am also including live q and a sessions with me. And I would love to see you there and get to know you.
Bonnie Christine [00:09:24]:
You can head on over to bonnie christine.comforward/workshop Stu sign up. Again, that's bonnie christine.comforward/workshop, and I'll meet you there. Now I wanna talk about the exact opposite mindset shift for each of those for a creative breakthrough. Okay. So from imposter syndrome, you can embrace uniqueness. You can shift the focus from feeling like an imposter to understanding that your unique perspective and style add value. You can recognize that every creative has a unique journey and a contribution, and yours is needed. Now the next one is, fear of failure to learning from your mistakes.
Bonnie Christine [00:10:12]:
Instead of seeing failure as a negative, you can just literally reframe that as a learning opportunity. Understanding that every failed attempt is a step towards mastery and growth. Now from starving artists, we get to move to valuing your work, changing this mindset from accepting struggle as a norm to recognizing the value of your creative work and embracing the idea that financial success does not diminish the integrity of your art. From perfectionism to progress. Shift from a focus on perfection to a focus on progress and growth, and celebrate those small achievements and understand that Creativity is a journey. It's not a destination. So we don't need to be perfect. We just need to have continual progress.
Bonnie Christine [00:11:04]:
All of these will take you from a fixed to a growth mindset. When you embrace the idea that creativity can be developed and enhanced through effort and practice and learning rather than it being a fixed trait. Finally, let's talk about, maybe struggling solo to really learning how to seek support. You can change the belief that you have to do everything alone and instead embrace community and seek mentorship and engage with others. Understand that collective wisdom Them can enhance your personal growth and get you on a fast track to success. So by addressing these common limiting beliefs and encouraging these mindset shifts, you can overcome these mental barriers and truly embrace your creative potential. So your take action or your homework, if you will, for this episode is to just have some time to think about answering these questions. And if you are somewhere where you can't write these down, they're gonna be in the show notes.
Bonnie Christine [00:12:10]:
So you can go over to professional Christine .com, grab the show notes for today's episode, and I'll have these questions there as well. The first one is to identify any negative self talk. We are so good at this. We talk to ourselves like we would never talk to a friend, or someone who we loved. So what negative phrases do you find yourself telling yourself, And how might they affect your confidence and your creativity? Go ahead and write them down, and see if you can start to take note when they pop up and replace them with something positive. Next, I want you to just challenge some of your assumptions. Like, what assumptions are you making about your own abilities or the creative industry as a whole, that might not be true. You know, a concept that I talk about sometimes is one of informational planets.
Bonnie Christine [00:13:04]:
And sometimes our informational planet tells us something that might not actually be true. And some of this has to do with what we surround ourselves with, like what news station we listen to and who we follow on social media and what kind of content is being served to us by the algorithm. We can really get in, like, a bubble of information. Sometimes we gotta step out of it and just challenge some of our assumptions and really kinda poke holes in what we are assuming to see if they're actually true or not. The next is to revisit some of your past experiences. Are there any past experiences that have shaped your current mindset, especially in a negative way, like, how can you reframe these experiences positively? Now maybe someone told you that you were too young or too old or not creative or you could never make a living at this. Right? If you are working through something that someone told you a long time ago, write it down and reframe it into a positive. The next are future fears.
Bonnie Christine [00:14:12]:
What fears about the future are holding you back, and are these fears based in facts or assumptions? You know, there is oftentimes a fear of failure, but there's also oftentimes a fear of success. Like, what if you do that thing and you do find grand success at it? Is that terrifying? I mean, it probably is for all of us. But is it so terrifying that it's holding you back? And then think about whether those fears are based in facts or assumptions. And then finally, reality versus expectations. How does your expectation of perfection or success differ from their reality of the creative process. And this kind of has to do with some assumptions that we make if certain things happen as well. So how does your expectation of perfection or success differ from the reality of the actual creative process? Because sometimes we just get wrapped up in what could be or what might happen when, really, we just need to get to our creative process. So I hope that these made you a little uncomfortable.
Bonnie Christine [00:15:23]:
They did me. Hopefully, not too uncomfortable, but just enough to really interrogate some of our thinking and reassess some of our internal narratives and help us pave the way for a healthier, more productive mindset where we're absolutely thinking like a successful creative. So to wrap up, when we shift from dreaming to doing, it's really important to remember that the journey is A 1000 miles, but it begins with a single step. And the mindset shifts that we discuss here are real actionable changes that you can implement along the way of that journey. The way that you think literally shapes the reality that you live in. So by challenging these beliefs that all of us struggle with and embrace a growth mindset instead, you open up a world of possibilities. You're not just a dreamer. You are a doer, my friend, and you have the power to turn your creative visions into realities.
Bonnie Christine [00:16:31]:
My friends, create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world, And remember, there's room for you.
