Following up with contacts: ArtBizCoach Alyson Stanfield
April 15, 2008 by Jennifer Hofmann
(www.myorganizedbiz.com) – Today I’m hosting Alyson B. Stanfield, author of I’d Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion. Alyson is here as part of her blog tour to promote the book and is also giving away a free copy!
Jen: Welcome, Alyson!
Alyson: Jennifer, thanks so much for inviting me to your blog! I just love what you do.
Jen: As we’ve been preparing to feature you on my blog, I’ve been consistently impressed with your follow-up – with even the smallest details. And I bring this up because, in the book, you talk about the importance of following up with contacts. You and your assistants are practicing what you preach!
Would you share your own internal systems for following that provide such outstanding communication? How do you stay on top of it all? Inquiring minds want to know!
Alyson: First, let me say how happy I am that you feel we have it all together. One of my secrets is given the nod in your question: I have good people working with me! My virtual assistant that was in touch with your for the blog tour is extremely organized. I trust her more than I trust myself! And after a few projects with her, I quickly realized that I could turn stuff over to her. This is key and was hard to do at first.
I am a do-it-yourselfer by nature, but as my business grows–as my home office and online business grow–it became more and more clear that it’s silly to try to do everything myself. I realize (thanks to the insight of my husband and many personal growth gurus) that I can make much more money doing what my genius is and turning over the rest of the business to those who can support it in a way that helps it grow even more.
Jen: Brilliant. I agree that turning things over can be hard for small business owners. How did you do it?
Alyson: I started with one VA, then got help with my weekly Art Marketing Action newsletter, then added another VA, and am about to hire a bookkeeper. I have so much I want to do and the details are better left to those more adept at handling them.
Having said that, I am still the boss. I am still responsible for making sure things get done.
Jen: Will you tell us how you do that?
Alyson: The single most important routine I have are my daily check-ins. Before leaving the office at night, I go over my task list. I go through my emails and make sure any new tasks are on the list. Then I prioritize against my calendar. What do I absolutely have to do the following day? I write these tasks (usually 3-5 of them) on a small piece of paper with the date at the top. I can’t leave the office until these items are taken care of. Having this list gives me peace of mind and helps me sleep better because I know I’ve got a handle on things.
Then, before checking email the next morning–before doing anything else except for dressing for the day and warming my tea–I go over the task list I wrote out the night before. I double check everything and make sure I’m clear on what needs to be done. Then I tackle the hardest one first. What a great way to start the day!
Jen: It sounds like it! I think the important thing is to create a balance – once you know what you need to do, it’s easier to schedule it all in.
Alyson: Things will always slip through the cracks or not be executed as well as I had intended, but I do the best I can. And I am at the point right now where my office needs a big cleaning. I’m one of those people who don’t function with a messy office, so I’m really excited to be working with you on the Office Spa Day. I think it’s a great idea!
Jen: I do, too! Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experiences and thoughts on staying organized and following through.
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Alyson’s running a contest during the blog tour where you can win a free copy of I’d Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion (which is great for small businesses, too).
Visit this site, read the instructions, and enter. Odds are good as she’s giving away a free copy on most of the blog tour stops. You can increase your odds by visiting the other blog tour stops and entering on those sites as well.
I’d Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion is for artists of all kinds. Painters, sculptors, ceramist, jewelers, photographers, and others will benefit from the easy-to-follow self-promotion practices in this book.
Author and art-marketing consultant Alyson B. Stanfield, of ArtBizCoach.com, focuses on sharing the artwork directly with potential buyers through electronic and traditional communication outlets—in a manner that is comfortable, not artificial. Artists match Internet marketing strategies with sincere personal skills to take charge of their art careers.
This post was extremely timely for me! I’m someone who tends to go in several directions at once – or tries to anyway, with predictable results.
On my walk this morning I was chanting the three things I really must do today. (My master To Do list probably contains about 300 things, and I often think I’m going to do them all). My plan is to be really disciplined about doing those THREE things today, and Alyson will be my inspiration. She obviously knows what she’s doing!
Thanks for the comment, Ann!
It really comes down to capacity. The thing I like about what Alyson is doing (and what I want to copy!) is delegating what others are best at, so she can focus on what she does best.
Seems to me if you did this, Ann, your list of 300 would be much shorter – and more enjoyable to complete.
Great interview. I would love to have asked Alyson where she found her assistants. I am starting to feel like I need the help, but don’t know where to begin, or how to structure it. Pointers about the process of adding help would be great.
Something as simple as writing a task list the night before..you’d think everyone would know that. Well..I know what I’m doing tonight!
Isn’t it funny how simple and yet profound it is? I’ve been writing a task list in the morning, but it would be great to do it at the end of the day so I don’t have to think so hard trying to remember what I was doing the day before.
Grad students call this “parking downhill” – when you get back to work, you can easily pick up where you left off.
I can’t wait for Alyson’s tour to come to my blog – the only problem is, as I read the current tour, it always makes more questions! The one that comes to mind here is how to persist. I can’t seem to hold the course more than 3 months….that seems to be my cycle. How do we organize ourselves and keep on trooping through our own cycles of up and down? And reading Alyson’s remarks about her office made me look around mine – oof, there’s another todo, and soon, before all the piles start falling over!
Tammy – This is a great question and I have to say, if you know you’re on a 3 month cycle you’re way ahead of the game. And you’re right, the next step is to learn how to work with it.
I’m going to write a blog about this topic today, because it’s something that’s really important to know about organizing… More to come.
Judy: One of my assistants found me. She was wanting to work with artists and I kept her name awhile. A year or so later, it was I who was asking her for help. My other assistant I found through an organization I belong to. Because she specializes in working with authors, she’s just the person I needed when my book launched. And she helped me find my bookkeeper. My Web guru I found years ago when I was helping my mother try to find someone to do her shop Web site. An artist put me in touch with her.
Tips: Be VERY clear on the type of person you want to work with. Tell everyone that you’re looking for this person. The universe will answer.