Drawn to Success #11

“How to Set Up a Personal Goals Journal”

or...

"or "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All" (Firesign Theater)”

No one ever got where they're going without KNOWING WHERE they were going. After you have decided to go from point A to point Z, you can Mapquest, Google, or Yahoo your way anywhere! All the webmaps and directions may tell you to go various ways, but they are all going to send you from Point A and have you end up at Point Z, aren't they?

Creating a GOAL for yourself short-term and another GOAL long-term is exactly like that. You MUST have a definite destination in mind before you start on your journey! What good is it to toil day after day working toward some goal that is not clearly defined? How will you ever know if you've made it there? It's like working on a drawing without knowing exactly what you want it to be! You would never do that! You KNOW that you must SEE the image in your mind clearly first to EVER be able to transfer that idea into a drawing that will represent that idea to the reader! In the same way...your vision of WHO you want to be must be clearly defined in your creative mind before you can ever create the future you want for yourself!

Make sense? YOU ARE A CARTOONIST. That means you are already an incredibly creative person who is used to being the director of your own thoughts. You spend your days at the drawing board making amazing, imaginative things that YOU SEE only in YOUR MIND come to life on paper for the entire world! Why haven't you used this incredible talent that you and only you possess to create the FUTURE that you imagine in your mind and make it real for the whole wide world to see? I know. You've been trying. You have been using every pickup line you know to woo this girl/guy of your dreams...that treasure you want more than anything. Your future. Your successful career.

But... just like a woman/man who refuses to be wooed and captured by vague, unimpressive, less than honest "lines" that are meaningless to a person of class, taste, beauty and substance...so has your future been drifting away from you...just out of your grasp...until NOW. Now you will have a roadmap. Now you will have a clear set of goals. Now you will know exactly what you want...and exactly WHO YOU ARE inside. Easy? No. Worth every moment you spend on it? YES. YOUR GOALS JOURNAL Get yourself one of those old style third grade composition books you used to write notes for reports and other schoolwork in. They cost about a buck and a half. This will be the best 1.50 you ever spent, trust me. DO NOT go out and get yourself some fancy-schmancy "journal" at the art store or Borders. I know, those things are so cool. They have Gilded edges and look like everything you would write in them will be words sent to you directly from God from your place next to the burning bush. THAT'S EXACTLY WHY you shouldn't be writing in that thing, Grasshopper!! Too much pressure to be brilliant. Nope. THIRD GRADE composition book for a buck and a half. Works for me. Will work wonders for you, too. Believe me...YOU WILL BE BRILLIANT.

Next... and this is the hard part... you'll have to think. Think of exactly who it is you want to be, and what your career looks like to you. Do you want to be a syndicated cartoonist? Do you want to be Walt Disney? Do you want to be Maurice Sendak? How big do you want to be? WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU SHOOTING FOR? This is the time when you can be totally out there! Shoot for the stars! Damn the present reality! The treasure that you create in your mind in these precious moments is the treasure you will soon have! HOLD A DREAM CLOSE TO YOUR HEART, AND SOON YOU WILL HOLD IT IN YOUR HAND, Don't worry about HOW you will achieve this dream right now. Now is not for HOW... now is for WHAT. Once you have a clear and definite idea, that will become your LONG RANGE GOAL. Write down in your journal that long range goal of yours, and a definite DATE on which you have decided you will achieve that goal.

For instance... "I will be a world famous internationally known children's book illustrator with my books in every book store in this country and beyond by January 1st, 2011, five years from today." OR... "I will be a successful freelance cartoonist working for nationally distributed magazines and newspapers, earning 200,000 dollars a year, by January 1, 2011, five years from today." What is YOUR LONG RANGE GOAL? Be specific...have a definite goal in mind, and a definite date on which you will achieve that goal. Walk right in to the dream store and grab yours NOW! After you write out exactly what your goal is, and when you wish to achieve it, sign that document and date it. It is now official. Your journey toward that dream has begun. Next, write down in your journal what your SHORT TERM GOAL is. This short term goal should be something you wish to achieve in the time between NOW and THEN... between the beginning of your journey and the destination you have chosen. Somewhere along the way that you wish to reach in say, six months. No longer than one year from the time you have begun.

This short term goal is extremely important as a marker on your way as you are DRAWN TO SUCCESS. We all need deadlines, don't we? This short term goal will be a lightning bolt to your brain that you MUST continue moving on toward that goal. It creates a sense of immediacy within you!! It says to your subconscious...DO IT! DO IT! This is so, so critical, my student, my comrade, my peer. Again, in creating your short term goal, don't be concerned a bit about what your present circumstances are. Don't even give it a blink! ONLY YOU know how talented you are. Only YOU know what your dreams are! Only YOU know what you want!!

Write down that short range goal and date it and sign it and make it official! Your short range goal should be very specific, as it will be a marker on your way toward your ultimate long range goal. If your long range goal was... "I will be a successful freelance cartoonist working for nationally distributed magazines and newspapers, earning 200,000 dollars a year, by January 1, 2011, five years from today."...Then your short range goal should be something like... "I will be a successful freelance cartoonist whose work has appeared in at least 4 nationally distributed magazines, and I will be earning 50,000 a year by...(and put down a date between 6 months and no longer than one year from this starting day). You see what I mean, don't you? Now...write it down!!! That evil spirit of doubt and low self worth will be screaming in your soul! DON'T LISTEN TO IT!!! Of course this little demon you've been battling will pick THIS VERY MOMENT to come out and try to eat you and your dreams right up, and leave you in the dirt of self doubt and despair! This DEMON of Doubt is freaking out! IT KNOWS you now have the weapons to destroy it forever! It doesn't stand a chance once you are committed!!

So... write it down and lose this evil voice for good!!! THERE. You now have a contract with your future. Your mind, your intense, creative mind KNOWS you have given your word. Next, take two small pieces of paper and re-write your signed, dated goals down on them. One piece of paper you will put in your wallet or purse, and you will carry it with you everywhere you go. It will be there as a constant reminder to you of YOUR FUTURE and the contract you have made with it. During your day, if you are out and about, you can take this CONTRACT out and read it. I suggest you do this at least 6 times a day, especially when it is fresh and new to you. Each time you repeat this oath to yourself, it will be a recommitment on your part to DO IT! The more you repeat this oath to yourself, the more your brain will begin to ACCEPT it as the truth. This is a key to your success.

The subconscious mind accepts as TRUTH whatever thought is continually put into it. If you keep calling yourself a "failure"...your mind will believe it. After all, you wouldn't lie to yourself, would you? So, conversely, when you keep planting this seed of success in the fertile ground of your subconscious mind and imagination... it will begin to take root and grow. The second piece of paper will be posted by your workplace in a spot where you will see it each day. Put it right with your religious or spiritual object, your photos of family and friends, your daughter's finger painting...right amongst your most precious things. Because my friend...YOU and your future...your success and happiness...are precious to those who love you, and they should be for YOU, too. REPEAT YOUR OATH as many times as you can during the day, to plant and nurture and feed this new dream of yours. It has already started growing.

You don't need a plan to start with...all you need is a dream. A definite set of GOALS. Before you go to sleep that first night, and every night thereafter... repeat your goals out loud or to yourself at least three times. Then, go to sleep and let your dreaming, subconscious mind take over. As you sleep, your mind will begin to formulate a plan to get there...to your goals! Isn't it true that some mornings you have woken up from a sound sleep, not even realizing that when you went to bed that previous night that there was a problem you had to solve, and in that new sunrise of a new day, you have mysteriously woken up with the answer?? OF COURSE.

Your mind is always working on keeping you happy, and in balance. Your mind is your great friend that stands with you in every storm of life! YOUR MIND IS YOUR MOST VALUABLE ALLY. When you wake up in the morning, and that first IDEA comes to you, that first idea on how you might begin to make your goals a reality... WRITE IT DOWN MMEDIATELY. Take out your GOALS JOURNAL, and again, for the second day, write down your long term and short term goals, and your new idea! THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF YOUR PLAN. Continue to write for at least THREE PAGES IN LONG HAND, FRONT AND BACK, about your goals and your plan. Watch in amazement as the plan begins to formulate! Continue this practice each and every day. It's only YOUR FUTURE we're talking about here. Don't miss a day.

In future columns, I'll write more about your subconscious mind, your ability to feed it the nutrients it needs to help your dream grow, and how to plan your future step-by-step. Until then...I hope this column has been of value to you, Mr. or Mrs. Soon-To-Be_Everything-You've-Ever-Dreamed-Of-Being Cartoonist. May God bless you as you continue to be DRAWN TO SUCCESS.

--Guy Gilchrist Artist of "Nancy," "Mudpie," "Your Angels Speak," "Jim Henson's Muppets"

Founder, Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy

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Drawn to Success #12

“Training Your Mind to Realise Your Dreams”

or...

"Or "Yeah, Baby...You're the only one for me...well, look at THAT total babe comin' down the street! SLAP!"”

Are You Focused? I mean, really focused? Or, are you like most people...with that MTV attention span that flips around like a TV remote with 200 channels and nothing on you want to watch? Are you one of those people who, when you're out on a date with your lover, still gets whiplash checking out the other babes or hunks that walk your way? Yeah. That would go over BIGTIME, wouldn't it? It wouldn't be too long before your lover gives you the evil eye, the argument, and then the big boot in the butt!

After all, YOU and YOUR DATE have chosen each other. So, what are you doing checking out the competition? You lose all around. That good thing you've been working on is gone...and you have shown yourself to be someone who will probably do the same thing to the next relationship partner...so, THEY'RE not too eager to get with you, either. THAT'S what happens to your dreams and goals if you don't keep it together, and stay focused on them, as well. YOUR GOALS will get up and walk away, too...just like a spurned lover. You cannot serve two masters, grasshopper. That's why you've got to choose your goals carefully, and put everything you've got into them! As soon as you've chosen your goals... LESSER and more easily accessible treats may be put before you to steer you off-course! It's that little demon coming after you again!

Don't be fooled. Stick to your goals. A good long range goal, along with a short term �on the way there" goal is the only way to get there. The short term goal is still part of the long range plan. It's a signpost pointing you straight toward your dreams. YOU WRITE YOUR GOALS IN INK, AND YOUR PLANS IN PENCIL. While your dream, or goal, is written in stone, and is daily repeated, and translated into TRUTH in your subconscious mind, your plan is as fluid as your day to day trials and triumphs. Every morning when you wake, you go to your PERSONAL GOALS JOURNAL and again and again write down your two goals, and the dates on which these dreams of yours will become a reality. If you're like me when I began, you have no idea, or very little idea, HOW you and God are going to make that happen, however. YOU DON'T NEED TO. IT WILL HAPPEN. How do I know?

When I was 16, I was working at the drug store when I wasn't going to high school. I drew every moment I could, practicing what I thought I needed to know to become a better artist. I came from a family of eight kids and it was "understood" that neither me, nor anyone else was going to get a college education paid for by my parents. I was a middle kid, and the three kids before me had been left on their own to make it, and so I knew that I would be, too. We were not wealthy. My Stepfather, who I call my DAD, was an upholsterer, and he made a good enough living to take care of a huge family, but with no frills. I also knew I wanted to be a Cartoonist. I had ALWAYS wanted to be a cartoonist. But...I was going to have to make it without Art School. I was angry. I thought that by going to art school, I could more easily learn what I needed to know to become a world famous cartoonist. Others I knew would go. I would stay home. I would be left behind. In five years... THEY would know everything they needed to know, and be one-up on me for the prize. I would not let that happen. I would NOT be left behind in the "Success Sweepstakes".

So, I wrote down a FIVE YEAR GOAL. In five years, I would have just been graduating Art School, I figured... and I wanted more than anything else in my heart of hearts, and with all my soul, to come out AHEAD of anyone my age with my artistic ability who were fortunate enough to be able to go to art school. I know... sounds a little bit like "revenge", doesn't it? Well, I was young... and I needed an edge. THAT was my edge. I DECIDED that within five years of that date, I would be a successful, nationally known and published writer and cartoonist with an income substantial enough that I could afford to HIRE a college graduate as an assistant! The KEY WORD is DECIDED. I wrote it in stone. Done-deal. Yep. I was going to be fabulously successful by 21... and have a college kid working for me. I set up GOALS for each year...steps on my ladder to success. Where I wanted to be a year from then, two years, three, four... and my end result. I had NO PLAN. Not at the beginning. Just a decision.

Soon...Between God and little ol' me...I had a plan. I did it. By the time I was TWENTY, not twenty-one, but one year earlier than I had hoped, I was the cartoonist of SUPERKERNEL COMICS, a monthly comic book published and distributed all over the country by Weekly Reader Books in Middletown, Connecticut. STAYING FOCUSED WITH A FLUID PLAN. I learned that THE PLAN would all come to me in bits and pieces. Day after day, I would work in my journal. First I would write down my goals... then I would write about my goals and how I might get there. Many of my early pages... remember I ask you to write THREE long hand pages FRONT and BACK every single day were full of questions, and few answers. Heck! I didn't know what I was doing!! I just KNEW what I wanted! I BURNED MY GOALS INTO MY MIND! My goals consumed me! Even CONSUMED by my goals, and the fluid formation and re-formation of a plan, I found I still had PLENTY of time for family, my "real" job at the time, and even dating.

I would get married at the age of twenty, by the way, so don't think I was ALL WORK and NO PLAY.I found time to woo this gal, and win her heart, even though all I really remember taking up my thoughts from that period was THIS BURNING DESIRE TO ACHIEVE MY GOALS! I guess even then I knew that I needed to achieve my dreams to become someone that someone else could love, needed to achieve my dreams to support a wife and future children, and create a successful marriage and homelife. I had little formal art training. Little formal training as a writer. Little money. No contacts in the business. Yep...I guess you could say I had no shot. Everybody else did...everybody except ME and MY GOALS JOURNAL. Over and over again, I TRAINED my mind to believe my dreams as truth until my dreams became truth. YOU CAN DO IT, TOO!

You would be absolutely AMAZED at how much daydreaming and wandering your mind does in comparison to direct, concise thinking about ANYTHING during a normal waking day! So, what I'm asking you to do is fill that daydreaming time in your mind up with YOUR FUTURE! You! YOU! YOU!! You have the supreme power over WHAT your mind is filled with and ultimately creates! Think of your future as a drawing that only YOU can see until YOU CREATE IT, and make it truth on paper for the world to see. You have an incredible imagination when it comes to your art...so let's transfer and grow that brilliance into creating your own future! YOU MUST TRAIN YOUR MIND TO SEE YOUR DREAMS AS TRUTH UNTIL YOUR DREAMS BECOME YOUR TRUTH, AND EVERYBODY'S REALITY. If you will fill your mind with the POSITIVE TRUTH that you will be successful... Your mind will believe it, and so will YOU. In your waking hours, you must repeat your oath over and over and over until it becomes an absolute truth.

Then, as you sleep, relax, or play, when much of your decision making, and creative mind is usually "on hold"... your mind will begin to figure out what the next step is that you must take to achieve that truth. Each morning, after you again state and date your goals... your subconscious mind will send answers to your questions about your PLAN to your conscious mind as you write and think... and those answers will be revealed to you in your journal during your waking moments. These bits and pieces of brilliance, over time, will come together creating YOUR PLAN! IT WILL WORK, IF YOU WILL. This is not easy. All along the way, roadblocks will spring up in your pathway to your goals, and ultimate success. LIFE will try to get in the way. You have a lot of responsibilities, I'm sure. Everyone, and everything in your life needs love, caring and your time. How will you ever find time? YOU MUST! Think about it.... IF you were already successful, and had world class clients that needed boatloads of awesome artwork that only YOU could create, you would HAVE to MAKE the TIME to be that successful artist that everyone was clamoring for! So...start right now. Start to "compartmentalize" YOU�your life, your brain, your thinking into what YOU ALREADY KNOW MUST HAPPEN if that dream is to come true!

In subsequent chapters, and earlier chapters, I will write and have already written of some other tools you can use to help you through the day to day triumphs and trials of your life as you move closer to your dreams, and SURPASS THEM...as you are DRAWN TO SUCCESS. My next chapter is on "sustaining success". But, first you must SUSTAIN YOUR GOALS. Here's to your success!

--Guy Gilchrist Artist of "Nancy," "Mudpie," "Your Angels Speak," "Jim Henson's Muppets"

Founder, Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy

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Drawn to Success #13

“Continuing Success Day After Day”

or...

"or "It's Getting Better All The Time" (Imagine Lennon and McCartney Singing)”

FLAT.

What an ugly word. The only "flat" I want in my life is my Strathmore Bristolboard... oh, and my stomach...and sitting at the drawing board with my Strathmore Bristol isn't helping my abs at all. But... it IS helping me to not go FLAT in my career. I am continually trying to stay focused on learning and getting better in my art. I constantly fight the notion that I am any good at this at all. Do I sound like I have a "self-esteem" problem? Sorry, Oprah. I don't mean to...because I don't.

As a matter of fact, one reason I believe in myself and my work is because I know how hard I try to not "flatten out" and "plateau". So many artists do. I did once, too... and I didn't even know it. When my first blush of true success came with Jim Henson and The Muppets comic strip, I worked extremely hard to get better and better at my task of a daily comic strip with well established characters. I made mistakes and LEARNED each day... on a worldwide stage in the bright spotlight of 660 newspapers. I was a kid. I was still learning, and the thrill was tremendous... and frightening.

But Jim, and Michael K. Frith, the Vice President of Creative at Henson gave me a year of working "under the radar" before the strip launched in September of 1981 to get used to it all. I practiced SO HARD! For myself of course, for the fans of the Muppets... and for Michael and Jim. I believe I made huge artistic strides that first year, and the next three or four years. Certainly, being thrown into the deep end like that, you're going to sink or swim...and I was determined to not sink. Learning comes naturally easier to you when you're younger. You are just out of school, and accustomed to "classes", "homework", "grades"...and testing...both by others, and by yourself. As you get older, however...LIFE takes over.

Your career and money take over, and it becomes easier to "plateau" or to do what is expected of you... instead of consistently trying to learn and improve. For about a year or so, in the mid eighties, I have to take an honest look at myself and my work and say that I skated. Besides doing my work on the Muppets, I had many other lesser commercial accounts and I have to say that I only did what was expected of me and nothing more. I shamefully, I can say now, believed I was good enough. I was making consistently good money, and had many accounts. The accounts were all happy with what I was providing for them... but I KNEW I could do more...and do it better. I can give all the standard excuses about deadlines and time restrictions, life, family, and improving my golf game. That's probably what I was telling myself then to help myself not feel guilty about "skating". It's just not a good enough excuse. THERE IS NOT GOOD EXCUSE.

That's what this column is all about. That's the reason I'm making this confession to you. It's another "cautionary tale" from your pal, Father Guy, of the Church Of Don't Do That. It's incredibly simple to fall back into "fat and happy" mode when things are going well in your career. It's like any relationship...a story as old as time. How many marriages would be saved if either one of the two people TRIED as hard to please their spouse in year 6 or 12 as they did in year 1? Okay... probably not Liza Minelli's. I don't even know if there was a year one there... But, you get my point. I broke out of my funk before things got real bad, not because I was brilliant and saw a big fall coming, I wasn't and probably still am not that smart... but because of an opportunity that came my way. Henson Associates and The Muppets were so HOT that they just had so much work to offer, I HAD to get better.

I was offered jobs illustrating merchandise, books and games and I was not adept at full color work. So, if I wanted to be involved, I had to learn to paint! So... I did. I learned so much about art, and about the business. I learned that to continue to succeed, you need to be constantly getting better. You need to keep on learning, and try everyday to master new skills. Jesus said... "Come to me as a child..." I began to approach each new day as a child would. I advise any artist to do the same. What I mean by that is to come to your art each day wanting to learn something new! Some things will come easily, some hard. Some you will never master. What a blast!! If we keep on drawing... life drawing, gesture drawing... anatomy drawing... continuous line drawing... we'll have a good shot at getting better! If we keep on inking, painting, using new methods of computer assistance... we'll keep growing! And the world we create for ourselves to work in will be brighter, and more exciting!

Gill Fox was a good friend of mine. Gill was a master at everything in cartooning. He was one of the first cartoonists in comic books in the thirties. He worked on Betty Boop cartoons in animation before that. He did a panel for NEA called SIDE GLANCES for over twenty five years. He was very successful in commercial work. But, at the age of 75...THAT'S 75, mind you, he wasn't satisfied! He still chased his dream of becoming a Political Cartoonist. He practiced all the time. And, at that advanced age of 75, when almost everyone has shut it down... Gill Fox became the staff Political Cartoonist for the Connecticut Post. He was like a kid. EVERYDAY... Gill was like a kid. I wish you could have known him. He could inspire anyone with his enthusiasm for cartooning! Every time I would learn a new skill, or get a new client that was going to stretch me creatively, Gill wanted to know about it. I still think of him frequently, although he moved on to that much better place of light and love a while ago. I know he'd be yelling at me if he ever thought for a moment I was skating. And he could YELL. He was a tough German-American from Brooklyn. He would get mad and yell if he EVER thought anyone was �skating�.

So... I never do. I hope you won't either. If it helps you to think of ME, yelling at you... then... good. I am a good yeller... I have three kids. Continued success will be yours always if you continue to try. Quit trying, and face the fact that there are 100 guys and girls out there who...at that moment... want YOUR job. And they are trying just as hard as you USED TO. An ex -girlfriend or boyfriend never looks better to us than when she/he is in the arms of someone else. Or, have we learned nothing from Days Of Our Lives, people? I hope this column has been worth your time, and that you have found something meaningful in it to keep you DRAWN TO SUCCESS.

--Guy Gilchrist Artist of "Nancy," "Mudpie," "Your Angels Speak," "Jim Henson's Muppets"

Founder, Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy

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Drawn to Success #14

“Learning From Adversity”

or...

"Or "If It Don't Kill You, It'll Probably Just Make You Stronger...So Keep Telling Yourself That In The Emergency Room"”

I never learned anything from those times when everything went the way I wanted them to, and I was just plain happy. It is always those tough times when I find some things out about the world, the career, and myself. Don't think for a moment I DON'T LIKE BEING HAPPY. It's wonderful!! My brain is full of 60's bubblegum music, my back is loose, and I'm walking on sunshine like Katrina and The Wave... I just never LEARNED anything. I was too busy being happy. It's Adversity that teaches me what I need to know. How about you?

Adversity is a great teacher. Never mind that sometimes you can have so much adversity it makes you feel like your teacher is Larry Holmes... and that you're getting a full 15 rounds of his schooling. In cartooning, as in all the arts, you're going to hit rough patches. Storms Of Life and Career. Everyone gets knocked down. It's those that get up that are the SUCCESSFUL ones. Just the nature of the business makes it that way. That's why there are so few winners and so many losers.

Whether you're a web cartoonist, a comic book or strip cartoonist, a freelance gagman or woman, a commercial illustrator, or a book illustrator, the reward you get for a job well done is usually a check, and the invitation from the world to start looking for another job. You make one client very happy, but they don't have another job for you right away... so you're essentially out of work. Sure... they'll call you when they're ready to have you work for them again, if you did a good job, but for now... you need another job. BUT... YOU knew this going into it, didn't you? You knew that you didn't want the security of a staff position, because you wanted to do your own thing. Make your own way. Have your own creative say. You didn't want the monotony of the same job for years on end. Same old, same old. You wanted the excitement of making it on your own terms. Your own way.

Well... now you have it. And it's scary sometimes. I had been an established cartoonist with world class clients for over fifteen years when the phone stopped ringing one day. I don't think I even noticed for the first couple weeks that the phone had stopped ringing. But it had. For the first time. I went to my mailbox. No checks in the mailbox either. WHY? What happened? Surely I wouldn't panic. The next job was probably on my answering machine. No panic. No panic. No p-p-p-panic... PANIC!!!!!!!! RING! PHONE! RING!! I've got a good friend, Frank McLaughlin, who is one of the most talented guys I've ever known. He did Wonder Woman, Batman, and The Flash...all through the 1970s and into the 1980s. He's always worked steady. Fatale in the 1990s. Commercial stuff. He does Gil Thorpe these days for newspapers. Frank cracked me up one day. He asked me if I was going to do an appearance at one of the big NYC Comic Conventions. He said, "You have to show up at these things from time to time or people think you're DEAD!" How true, how true. Maybe the phone wasn't ringing because folks thought I was dead. Maybe my cartooning career was. Maybe I was and I just didn't know it yet.

At the time, this was about 15 years ago, I was in the midst of a very messy divorce. One of those storms of life I write so frequently about. I had been so wrapped up in the divorce that for almost a year I had stopped doing the things to promote myself and my work out there in the marketplace that I had always done to find work and sustain my studio. As soon as I realized this valuable lesson that adversity taught me, I began to quickly try to turn this tide. I began promoting myself again through the same avenues I had previously for years, and searching out NEW ways to offer NEW services as well. I learned several lessons from this storm that I hope you will take to heart as I did, in hopes you can turn the tide BEFORE it becomes a tidal wave that threatens the safety and security of your own career.

Continue to reach out to new and old clients, even when you don't need the work. When you're busy, and up to your armpits in work, it's easy to forget to promote yourself. It sometimes seems even a good idea to NOT promote yourself. After all, HOW MUCH CAN YOU DO? Promote yourself anyway. If you're good, clients will wait a week or three for you. They may be able to adjust their deadlines because they really WANT YOU! There's no harm in asking. A busy artist is a successful artist. And an artist the client knows they can count on. After all, you wouldn't have all this work if you weren't fantastically talented, professional in every way, and didn't meet all your deadlines. You're very attractive to the client... they may wait a bit.

You can also adjust your own timeframes to try and accommodate more work. For instance, working more jobs at once. Getting a helper on a job to job basis. Doing a rough quickly for the client is also a good way to spread yourself around... so they can visualize and plan their project out and wait a few more days for the finished job that they KNOW will be on time. If you just flat out cannot do the job, recommend another true professional friend of yours to do the job, and check in with both the client and your friend to make sure it all works out. Yes, you take the real chance that the client may wind up staying with the friend of yours, and you lose that client... BUT, more likely, the client may truly appreciate your willingness to help them out, and reward you by staying a client... even if in the future you will SHARE the jobload with your now �happier and more indebted to you� friend.

You will also most likely be rewarded by your friend, either in a 10% "finder's fee" or even better...your friend REMEMBERING you and your goodwill when the same thing happens to them. There will come a time when THEY have too much work and call you with a job. It just might be when you aren't busy and the rent's due, too. God has a way of doing things like that. PROMOTE! PROMOTE! PROMOTE! Send mailers and email mailers out on a consistent schedule! Keep you, and your work in front of clients! They WILL forget you if you don't. DON'T MISS DEADLINES! It's all for nothing if you do. Don't Let Your Life AND Your Career Fall Apart... TRY to keep your professional and personal life separate! I KNOW... Believe me, I know how hard this is. But, TRY!

Remember... if you have a career that's going nowhere... YOU will fall apart and have nothing to offer anyone on any level. You'll be broke. Depressed. You won't feel like drawing. It will be a short walk to your new career... asking, "Do You Want FRIES With That?" And, if this ever happens...even if you're just like me and KNOW it shouldn't... go back to square one and start all over doing what you know is right. Remember... we all fall down. Some, like me... probably more than others. But the WINNERS get right back up and start swinging again! That's YOU. Keep on swinging! I hope this column has been worth your time and that you have found something valuable in it to help keep you DRAWN TO SUCCESS.

--Guy Gilchrist Artist of "Nancy," "Mudpie," "Your Angels Speak," "Jim Henson's Muppets"

Founder, Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy
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MORE CHAPTERS TO COME...........CHECK BACK OFTEN............................