Can you go from a ‘sketchy idea’ for a design business to an actual product in less than 3 months?
The point of my show Artists’ Academy is to demonstrate that good advice combined with inspired action can actually make a real difference to your life and your bottom line in a short amount of time.
Let me introduce you to Matt Jolley.
Matt doing his best mean and moody look 😉
Matt has a show 4 hours after mine on Phoenix called Jolley Selection. You can find him herehttps://www.phoenixfm.com/category/jolley-selection/ and you can tweet him here @mattjolleyradio Ask him about a feature called Asteroid News. Regular listeners to Phoenix will know that he likes that 😉
Matt’s a relatively recent graduate from a performing arts degree. Like many creative people his performing skills are very eclectic and struggle to be niched. Like many leaving uni he also has a lot of ideas, but hardly any idea of how to get any of them started. Furthermore he also had the misfortune of graduating slap bang in the middle of a recession. Dreams are free flowing, but money has run dry. So far, so typical of many young graduates.
Matt had been doodling for ages. He said he enters his zone when he draws and utterly loses himself to them. When he first told me about this 3 months ago he produced a clutch of scraps of pencil sketches in proof and then spent the rest of the show doodling. When pressed about his dreams he said he had thought about putting some of these doodles onto t-shirts. Not long after this inspiring idea floated free he then considered the cost of such a venture – and that promptly brought that soaring idea back down to earth.
Well we couldn’t have that. In terms of ways to get started, there are oodles for those doodles!
Something had to be done!
As well as being a presenter I’m also a personal development coach. I started coaching Matt on his project and we discussed what business advice was needed to realise his idea. Since then I’ve had a variety of business experts on my show who have generously gifted their help and support to Matt. These people include:
- · Sophie Jewry – holistic branding expert www.sophiejewry.com
- · Mark Wing – branding expert www.interrelated.co.uk
- · Ade Shokoya – business consultant specialising in helping small businesses be more agile www.adeshokoya.com
Matt now had a plan and inspiration.
Matt took his tiny scraps of doodles and turned them into proud, bold, coloured doodles. Despite now clearly being designs he chose to still call them doodles as that kept them feeling light and playful.
Is it a mermaid or big sea monster?
When he had loads of doodles we talked about what ones worked and he then took them to a t-shirt shop and got mock ups of t-shirts. Suddenly it was real!
A few weeks later he proudly walked into the studio with these:
The first prototypes!
We call this doodle ‘The Phoenix’
Me wearing the wave design that wraps the body
Jed’s always had a demon on his back 😉
So can you go from a potential idea to a potential product in 3 months with the right education and inspiration? Yes you can!!
I’m hugely proud of Matt. He’s very talented and only just at the start of his journey. It’s been a joy and a privilege to be part of this process.
He’s very calm and grounded about his next steps. He’s not setting pressurising goals and instead taking inspired action when something feels intuitively right. He seems to know where he wants to end up and is working with own his natural creativity. I think that’s why it’s flowing. Right now he’s working on the practical issues of transferring his designs to graphic design packages.
I’ve got loads more guests planned for 2014 and I’m looking forward to seeing where this will take Matt’s business.
I’m also looking forward to hearing your stories about your businesses and creative projects. It’s important to celebrate all your small successes so if you get a paid gig, or if your short film goes viral or if your track gets loads of views or if you release a new ebook let me know. I will give you a shout on my show. Tweet me @jaynethorpe
And always remember if you have a question about any aspect of your creative project from practical to psychological I will find an expert to answer it!!!
I want you to be the Artists’ Academy success story of 2014!
Tune in for Artists’ Academy, every Sunday 2-4pm to see how Matt’s doing and learn what you need to get your creative project up and running!
