Truth is there really is no one simple answer. Everyone is different. We all have our own decisions to make when it comes to choosing the path we want to follow. What might work well for some may be a disaster for others. How you reach your destination will be up to you. There are so many different directions and so many choices to make, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Don’t be discouraged at CI we’ve tried to put together some basic building blocks to help you find your way. We’ll go through them one at at time. Many of the things we talk about on the show will be featured on this blog as well. So be sure to check out the podcast.

Step 1- What do you want to be when you grow up?

Remember when you were a kid and people asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up? Now it’s time to answer that question. The more specific you can be the better. I want to be an artist is okay, but I want to make my living as a children’s book illustrator is better. Take some time to think about it. If you’re still not sure how to answer the question think about it this way. You are planning a trip, before you get in your car it’s a good idea to have a destination in mind. Without a specific destination how can you plan for your trip or for that matter know when you’ve arrived. I want to go to California is good. I want to go to the Monteray California is better. I want to go to Monterey Bay Aquarium, 886 Cannery Row, Monterey, California makes finding your final destination a whole lot easier.

If you don’t have the exact address yet don’t worry. Fill in as much detail as you can for now and as we move forward the final destination will become much clearer.

Homework: Think about what you want to be when you grow up. Write it down. Fill in as much detail as you can.

• Have fun
• Be creative
• Take your time
• Be specific

This is part one in a weekly series I’ll be doing about getting your art career started. Thanks for reading… see you next week.

1. Set up a Twitter account
2. Set up an account on Linked In and find the CI group and sign up.
   
3. Set up a blog and start building your site.

Make sure you add content to your blog on a regular basis. Keep it interesting and have fun with it. Begin commenting on other blogs. Team up with other artists and begin getting your art and name out there. Once you’ve completed your home work add a link to your blog, website and or twitter account in the comment section of this post so we can all find you. Good luck, I look forward to seeing your art.

Creative Independence cohost, Illustrator Bob Ostrom of Bob Ostrom Studio

Welcome to Creative Independence where we look at the many ways that creative professionals from around the world have found to create independent lifestyles by leveraging their talents and skills.

Thank you for visiting our site. My name is Bob Ostrom I am a professional  illustrator. I   co-host the podcast Creative Independence along with multimedia designer Chris Wilson.

Cohost Creative Independence, Multimedia designer Chris Wilson

If you are not familiar with our podcast please feel free to check us out on iTunes.

We are in the middle of a very exciting time here at Creative Independence. We are in the process of building and launching the new Creative Independence Network. Rather then wait to launch the site at a later date. We’ve decided that this is an incredible learning experience and have invited you, our listener, to follow along with us as we go. Each new podcast episode will feature a task in the chain of events it takes to launch our new site. We will begin by discussing our basic strategy and continue right through to the end where we will build and launch our brand new website. Chris and I will both be blogging about our experiences along the way.

Thanks for joining us, we hope you will find this collection of information helpful in you own quest for Creative Independence.

Sounds good Bob, how do I get in on the action?

First: Send us an into for the show. You can elaborate however you like but basically we’d like you to introduce yourself, tell us who you are, where you’re from and how we can find you (website, blog, twitter… you get the idea). This part of our show is dedicated to you, our listener, so go ahead and promote yourself.

Next, Let our listeners know they are listening to Chris and Bob on Creative Independence. Again, you can intro us however you like. Be creative, but please make sure to mention the name of the show….Creative Independence.

Finally, give us your best, “THAT’S AWESOME!!!”... It’s kind of trademark for us at the end of the show. You’ve probably heard it before. It comes right after the thump and glass crashing.

Rules, please send us your recorded message as an mp3 and we’ll place it in the next ep. Please remember to keep it brief, we love you guys but anything over 20 seconds and our listeners tend to get a little restless. Make sure you promote yourself or your business and have fun… and oh yeah please try to keep it rated G.

Don’t have any recording equipment? No worries, we now have a call in line where you can leave us a message.

If you are a regular listener of our pod-cast Answers for Freelancers/ Creative Independence then you’ve probably heard us mention it a time or two. If you’re new to our show then welcome and thanks for listening.

I’ve started this blog to give you a behind the scenes, bigger view of our development process. Think of it as sort of a backstage pass. Here I’ll attempt to chronicle our many  our successes and failures as we continue to grow and evolve. I hope you’ll find the info here useful and thanks again for joining us.

Next Entry: Growing Pains