115: Think Like a Successful Creative

Do you want to 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

un 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. But 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. 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 want to 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 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 want to talk about what does a successful creative think like, 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? And can I be a good leader? Can I continue to show up? You know, in different ways, at different times in our careers, in 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. 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's, 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. 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 want to 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, 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 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 onto. 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 success. They can lead to procrastination and low self esteem and no self confidence and reduced productivity and even complete avoidance of creative endeavors.

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. 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 going to 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 five different types of surface designers so you can choose which one is right for you. How to create a personalized roadmap to

reach all of your go 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. You can head on over to BonnieChristine.comworkshop to sign up again. That's BonnieChristine.comworkshop and I'll meet you there.

Now I want to 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 a fear of failure to learning from your mistakes. 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. 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 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 going to be in the show notes. So you can go over to professionalcreative.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 or 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, 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 of bunch bubble of information. Sometimes we gotta step out of it and just challenge some of our assumptions and really kind of 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? So maybe someone told you that you are 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. 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 the 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. 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 thousand 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, my friends. Create the beauty that you want to see. Come alive in the world, and remember, there's room for you.