Is money the goal anymore? Or, in the age of insta-famous self-helpers, is personal fulfillment and living “on purpose,” the goal? What has finally become clear to me is that the goal is actually both, and the particular mix of money and meaning that is right for each of us is personal. There is no formula. All one way, cash is king. The problem with putting dollars at the pinnacle […]
Truong Tran lives in San Francisco and teaches at Mills College. He received his MFA from San Francisco State University in 1995 in the field of writing. He is the author numerous volumes of poetry. He is a self taught visual artist whose work has been exhibited in venues including the California Historical Society, California Institute of Integral Studies, SOMArts Gallery, Telegraph Hill Gallery and The San Francisco International Art Market Art […]
Ready, not ready. Expert, novice. Professional, amateur. Are we ever fully baked, polished and ready for mass consumption? Being an entrepreneur comes with its fair share of naysayers. We’ve all been there – yes or yes!? I was recently challenged by a well-meaning family member asking “how can you possibly offer life advice to others when you don’t have all your own sh*t together?” It was an arresting [attack] […]
I have never really been much of a planner or one to set goals per se; when the inevitable interview question “where do you want to be in five years” was posed to me I truly had no idea how to answer (I’m sure I made something up that sounded good for the circumstance). My perception of goals was they were very specific expectations of what you were meant to […]
Brazilian-American artist Fiona Aboud creates images rooted in photography that are inspired by painting and natural elements. Aboud’s lyrical and humanistic style frees the imagination while challenging issues of perception, multiculturalism and stereotypes. Aboud’s practice is influenced by photographers like Edward Curtis who documented Native Americans whose culture was in danger of disappearing. This mindset influenced Aboud to create projects that preserve cultures through photography, such as Sikhs: An American […]
Create a vision board?! No, thank you! Truth is, I dislike making vision boards and making new years resolutions. I always have. From an early age, I vividly remember sitting at the round communal art table with my peers who were excitedly drawing out their deepest wishes for the new year, expecting that I’d be excited too. I wasn’t. I usually loved expressing myself. I enjoyed reading in front of […]
Funding ain’t easy. Technology makes it seem easy, especially with platforms like Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and GoFundMe holding the promise of access to new fans with open wallets. Of course, it takes a tipping point of personal contacts funding a project to a certain dollar amount in order to access your yet-unknown audience. Which means outreach to friends, family, and colleagues is a necessary part of the phenomenon that is crowdfunding. […]
When I was raising money for Broadway shows, I was approached by a LOT of creatives who would ask me to consider raising money for their project. In many of these instances, these individuals would spend most of the meeting explaining to me how their show was a “surefire” hit and how if they just had more support they’d break through. Now in some cases, they really did have something […]
Raise your hand if this sounds familiar: you’re working to get your idea out there, so you sit down to write a marketing plan… because that is what responsible business owners are supposed to do. But what starts out as a valiant effort to lay out your marketing calendar for the next twelve months devolves into a flurry of cutting and pasting between quarters – an over-thought and overwrought undertaking […]
If you’re running a business, you are probably doing a lot of extra work you don’t actually need to do. Every business is full of waste. Even one-person businesses and side hustles suffer under the weight of an overabundance of ideas, messages, strategies, and tactics. If you’re lean and mean and moving fast, you can’t afford to be weighed down. There’s no way you can surge past your competitors while holding onto the […]