Working on a new project! This is basically an art installation where I’m hanging plastic bags filled with water, and some of them have one or a few small objects in them. I was hoping that the as the sun hit them, there would be little rainbows, but while that didn’t happen, it is still very pleasant to look at. The work of filling the bags up and tying them is a slow and a bit tedious, but as I hang more and more of them, I’m getting a lot of joy seeing it grow. The first intention was to make 140, but then I realized that it would be insanity, so I set up the new goal of 84 to flank the entire walkway. Right now I have 20, which took me hours to make and hang. Will I make it to 84?

@kaluanas

You are Awesome

Remember that: You’re Awesome!

So, I’m going to stand on my soapbox for a few seconds here and tell you that no matter what your dreams or desires are you can do it. You can do it. YOU CAN DO IT! Just get it done. Follow your dreams. The old saying of “If you do something you love you will never ‘work’ a day in your life” is true. Just get it done. As you go through the uphill climb of pursuing your passions and building your brand, there will be many opportunities to hear things like “Get a real job and do that ‘hobby thing’ in your spare time” or “how are you going to pay the bills” and many other “uplifting” and “supportive” words. Don’t have a fear of the unknown, that kind of fear is just an illusion anyway. Just get it done.

Building your brand, creating the content, using the social media tools to promote it takes time and demanding work, and if anybody says otherwise they are just ignorant. Don’t listen to it. Go and get what you are worth. I love this movie clip. It is so true and motivational.

Using social media is demanding. Your efforts can get lost in a sea of mindless babble and pictures of food. So any advantage you have is helpful. It’s a learned skill, and it takes time to ‘learn the skill’. Peter McKinnon has some helpful tips on how to CRUSH your Instagram game.

Thank you for letting me rant. Just remember that your time is limited so follow your dreams!

You Are Awesome

Brainstorming: Harnessing the Power of the Mind

Any creative person (or really anyone who has ever had a deadline) can understand that feeling. The feeling where you absolutely NEED an idea. Maybe you are stuck in a rut in your career, or your artistic passion has fizzled. Perhaps you are having trouble in a relationship or have an assignment due for school. No matter the scenario, the feeling of NEEDING that idea and not being able to grab it is... frustrating, to say the least. So what do you do? Well, brainstorming is a good place to turn.

Brainstorming is a creativity technique that helps to move beyond obvious or cliched answers. Brainstorming can be done in groups, or by yourself (here are some good tips from Julie Niedlinger). There are a number of popular ways to go about brainstorming. I find that Mind-Mapping works well for me.

Here is an example of a Mind-Map:

I made this for a project in a visual communication class. I was trying to come up with a way to advertise bacon that spoke to the health risks associated with eating bacon. It was a fun project and was the first time I really played with mind-mapping. To mind-map is to free associate words and ideas and images that relate to your problem or idea.

However you get it done, brainstorming is a valuable tool to pack in your kit. Of course, when all else fails, I just grab a pen or a computer and get busy. Sometimes the best way to push through a block is to do just that. Start throwing things at the wall and see what sticks.

Happy creating, everyone! 

Social Media

Social Media Strategy

For my brand, I’m going to choose to go with social media that focuses mostly on images and visual aids. So I probably won’t use sites like Twitter or anything that’s text based. The social media outlets I did like were Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Youtube. I feel like I would benefit most from these platforms because I plan to present artwork and services. Pinterest is great because I can post a picture and link from other social media like Instagram and link them together. Youtube is also great because I would be interested in making How To videos and showing the behind the scenes aspect. Tumblr is great for blogging and sharing pictures, and I could also share links and from other social media. I would like to focus mostly on Instagram and Pinterest and eventually create an Etsy, I feel like these three networks could work really well together.

https://blog.fuzzyandbirch.com/blog/2016/08/16/etsy-hack-make-sale-day-using-pinterest/

http://moosestudioblog.com/how-we-reached-10k-followers-on-instagram/

Not Convinced

Do I really need a personal brand? It feels... artificial. I’ve never been very interested in what other people think. So creating and maintaining a personal brand, which boils down to trying to manipulate how and when other people think about you, just feels totally fake. Maybe it’s just so new, or maybe It’s that I’m doing it wrong, I dunno. But we all know those people with all the pics of them doing tons of cool stuff, looking like some awesome adventurer or thrill seeker, when in reality they were more concerned with getting the pics to show off than actually having fun. 

how I feel posting an update

So how do I make a personal brand that works for me, and doesn’t feel like I’m putting on a show? I should better examine how I would like people to see me. Of course, that’s not all that easy of a question, when I’d just as soon they not see me anyway, but oh well. I really just want people (small business owners) to see me as professional and competent enough to create a website for their business. Do I even need an online brand for that, or just a simple online portfolio?

I’ve got 5 kids, man. And a wife. And friends. And hobbies. My brand is there’s no time left, my plate is full.  

Come see where I work. my temple..

https://www.pscp.tv/EdLopezDesign/1nAKEVrvXQOGL?t=1s

Privacy Schmivacy

This week’s assignment was very eye opening for me.  I really had never Googled myself before – I really have never had a need to.  WOWEE!!  That is all I have to say about this topic.  The information out on the internet about me while factual, was shocking. I was able to see all my old addresses, Instagram posts, Facebook posts, LinkedIn profile, my business blog, and a handful of local articles about some non-profit work I do.  I also found pictures.  Mostly my profile pictures from various social media sites, but also photos from the articles written about me.  

If I had much more time on my hands, I might consider doing something about all the personal information that can be found online.  In the meantime, I will keep an eye out for information that may not be factual.  

During my research on myself, I Googled my kids to see if any information was on the web about them. Thankfully, there is none just yet!

Image from TBO.com – Scene & Heard | Junior League of Tampa Annual Dinner

Need Quick Social Media Advice?

With Technology always advancing it almost seems impossible to keep up. Social media is always evolving keeping up with the technology. If you want to get ahead of the curve being updated on your market is key to success. With high user rates at the college level on twitter and Linkedin are great places to start marketing your personal brand.

You ever hear the saying its not what you know its who you know? Well linkedin is the perfect place for you too meet the potential college elite. 45% percent of people using Linkedin make 75,000 a year. Making a professional connection could possibly put you in a great place financially, resource wise, and professionally as you build a reputation for yourself. If there passionate about there career like yourself a collaboration, or possibly even a sponsored project or two can be achieved.

Twitter is a great place to build a personal brand as well as its so faced paced. Always knowing whats happening in your niche market is what twitter is all about. 29% of college grads use twitter, higher than any other forms of education. Again knowing the market for today makes you like a absord the knowledge in a fun manner. Twitting where you are at the things you do can promote a positive and human feel that brings it all together.

1. http://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/#pinterest

2. https://pgrefrath.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/study-buddies-014-small.jpg

3. https://unicornomy.com/how-does-linkedin-make-money-business-model/

The Future of Tweeting

That title may be a bit dramatic. Sorry, but I need a strong title because... well... I have no idea what is going to happen to Twitter. Seems like nobody else does, either. So I guess I can’t feel too bad about it.

                                                                                                                                (Adventure Time / Pendleton Ward / Cartoon Network)

Here’s what I do know:

1) Twitter is apparently always doing poorly on Wall Street (at least over the last year, and possibly at least partially because the IPO was over-valued).

2) Nobody wants to buy Twitter but according to the internets that is all that needs to happen for Twitter to become a profitable and glorious fountain of successful bounty.

3) Twitter seems to just keep rumbling along though and as far as I can tell still remains a THRIVING social media platform. So it’s weird and confusing to always be hearing about how Twitter is failing so miserably and then log on to see the Twitter’ers are still clearly doing their thing.

Twitter operates almost entirely on profits made from advertising (with a small  portion coming from some magical business term that doesn’t make me at all uncomfortable called “data licencing”). Perhaps it’s time for the folks at Twitter to figure out a new revenue stream. So what is it going to be? All signs over the years have pointed to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey being very committed to sticking by the brand and this doesn’t seem to be changing.

Whatever happens, I’ll be watching with great interest.  

Infographics

Pinterest:

  Used to share ideas and interests

Easy to navigate

Used mostly by women with children

DeviantArt:

  Share artwork and network with other artists

  Used mostly by artists and college students

 Create forums and critique artwork

Creating a social media strategy

Because there are so many social networking tools in the world today, it is wise to pick ones that prove to be most valuable in providing the information you seek and concentrate your efforts there. While the goal of this organization is to become a useful repository of money making and business knowledge, our target market is the individual focused on those wanting to take control of their life and move toward success. For an individual to be able to step out of their comfort zone and take control of their life, this person must make changes. Knowledge allows for logical changes to take place that will move this person in the right direction.

One of the most interesting social media platforms that I discovered but have not yet used, might be Quora. The following summarizes Quora’s purpose and mission: “Quora’s mission is to share and grow the world’s knowledge. A vast amount of the knowledge that would be valuable to many people is currently only available to a few — either locked in people’s heads, or only accessible to select groups. We want to connect the people who have knowledge to the people who need it, to bring together people with different perspectives so they can understand each other better, and to empower everyone to share their knowledge for the benefit of the rest of the world.”

Check out Quora, see what this site offers that will help you advance toward your goal, then share what you learn on this blog. Together we all can grow.

Future Millionaire

https://www.quora.com/

https://www.quora.com/How-useful-is-Quora-to-your-work-life

https://www.quora.com/How-useful-is-Quora-as-a-serious-resource

What Have I Done

This week I made large batches of the glazes Amber and White. I glazed most of my bisqueware with these two colors the other day and even combined them for a few. I started a glaze firing last night and took them out of the kiln this morning and realized that, what I thought would be white, is actually Clear! I was so dumbfounded and couldn’t pinpoint what had gone wrong until I looked back at my notes and compared the two recipes. I accidentally copied the recipe for clear instead of white and didn’t realize. I’m happy that I found out went wrong and I learned from it. Even though it’s not exactly what I wanted or expected, I’m satisfied with the results and even found another combination of colors that I like! I’ll post the results of my mistake next week and the recipe will be posted today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHACmMQCP5Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3mxXA90cxE

Passion to Grow

Are you passionate about changing your future and becoming a millionaire? Without some changes in the way you think, chances are you will never reach that goal. But if you are willing to step out beyond your comfort zone and start changing how you think, you can achieve great wealth. Most millionaires will tell you that they are no smarter than anyone else. They have just put in the extra work to become a better entrepreneur, better business owner, better business marketer, and better a better person.

Some millionaires will talk about being self-educated, but this does not mean they didn’t have teachers and mentors. Don’t let anyone fool you; you will need to increase your level of education to increase your bank account. This does not mean you must go to college to become successful either, but if you are passionate about becoming rich, you too will need to put in extra work to get the education you need.

Passion should drive each of us to want more knowledge. How will you ever reach the goal if you do not take the step? What steps will you take, if you don’t know the way? You do not need to take this journey by yourself. Follow us on Twitter and grow with us as we grow.

Future Millionaire  

 http://cashmoneylife.com/do-you-need-college-degree/

http://www.richdad.com/Resources/Rich-Dad-Financial-Education-Blog/april-2013/what-does-it-take-to-get-rich.aspx

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/273038

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Some people will spend their life waiting for a ship that will never come in. Others will set sail and steer their ship toward wealth and prosperity. Many of these Future Millionaires will make their money by starting and operating businesses. Business ownership is no guarantee to riches. You should also be aware that many businesses will fail within their first year. Other businesses will not make it much past the first year, or will not make near the profits the owner had hoped for. But for a great many, business ownership is the best way to great wealth.

Are you ready to start working toward business ownership? What is it that you are passionate about? Do you have skills or abilities that you could use to make money? List these assets you have and see if a business can be built using these talents. Document what you have and what you need to make this happen. From here you can research to see if this would be a viable business.

Businesses are started for various reasons, but no matter the reason, you will want to have a well thought out business plan. Part of the plan will look at look at what it will take to get the business started, and that includes any educational needs. You may not have all the skills or knowledge to start a business, but there are plenty of free resources to help you get the education you need. Take advantage of these, especially government programs as they are there to help you succeed. There are also lots of website where you can get free information on starting and growing your business. Again, I would recommend free government sites like the Small Business Administration www.sba.gov.

A well thought out business plan is a tool that will help guide you in starting a profitable and successful business. Do not underestimate the value of making this a written document. This will be your guide and should help keep you on track. Keep in mind that this should be a living document. If you see that you missed something, it should be added, and if you will realize that something needs to change, it should be changed. This “map” will guide you in the process of starting and running your business, but if you encounter a roadblock, simply reroute and continue.  

Starting and growing a business can be financially rewarding, but it is not the only reason to set out on your own. Perhaps more important is the independence and quality of life one can find by steering their own ship.

Here are some great resources that you can use while researching:

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4686-how-to-start-a-business.html

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/starting-a-business

https://business.usa.gov/start-a-business

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/271446

https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/how-start-business/10-steps-starting-business

Future Millionaire

Throwing Methods

This week I’ve been focusing of throwing and different methods I could use. I also want to experiment with different styles and forms. With the tools that I use its easy to make the forms round in shape, because the tools are round. Since the inside of the cups and bowls are round, it’s hard not to make the outside round too. When making functional ware, such as cups and bowls the outside is supposed to reflect the inside. I’m used to throwing with tools so maybe I need to try throwing with my hands so for the next few weeks I need to try throwing with just my hands or different tools to create a different shape on the inside of the vessel. The way I was taught to throw is an eastern method called the Arita Method and because of this, Western styles are hard for me to understand. The methods are almost exactly opposite, but there is one artist’s videos that I have found helpful. His name is Hsin Chuen Lin his videos are posted below.