036: Scarcity & Scheduling

Starving Artist No More

I’ve said before that your beliefs about what is possible for you and your business will be the limiting factor in how your business grows, which is absolutely true. But your beliefs about the possibilities available to you and your business do more than impact your big picture. Those beliefs touch every part of what you do, from that big 10,000 foot view all the way down to the email you write when someone offers you work. When a job offer comes your way, how do you decide whether or not to say “yes”? What goes into your mental calculations as you figure out if this is a project you want to be part of? The nature of the project itself is probably something you consider, and you also probably look at the financial aspects of the project to see if it’s a good fit for you. But what else should you think about? How do you know if this project is something you should be part of? Specifically, how does your mindset influence the work you accept and the work you pass on?

In this episode, you will learn:

• How a mindset of scarcity and a mindset of abundance impact the growth of your creative business.
• What mindset problems lead to overscheduling and how to adjust your mindset to be more supportive of your creative work.
• How to decide which projects are right for you, and which ones aren’t.
• Why saying “yes” always has a cost, and how to figure out what that cost is.
• What your Creative & Financial Sweet Spot is, and what it has to do with your mindset and your schedule.
• Why your mindset and your schedule are intricately linked.

In this episode, I discuss the dictionary definitions for "abundance" (Merriam-Webster definition here, and Thesaurus.com info here) and "scarcity" (Merriam-Webster definition here). I also reference this blog post from the University of Washington School of Medicine, and I mention a brief story from the book Hell Yeah or No by Derek Sivers.

I also refer to two previous episodes of this podcast:

• 007: Working in your Creative & Financial Sweet Spot
• 016: The Six Components of a Thriving Creative Business

A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.

Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.