Shipping is key.  Your project started as an idea.  Perhaps you created and worked your plan.  Now you have finished the work.  It is packed and ready to go.  Now all you have to do is send it off.  Simple right?  Pasop!!!  This is often the time when the demons of resistance and self-doubt strike with a whole new vehemence.  Shipping may be the monster that annihilates your project.  The creative landscape is littered with the detritus left by authors, artists, musicians, and all manner of creatives who created but did not ship.  Only we don’t see it.  Because, well, they didn’t ship.  The script, the novel, the recordings lie in a cupboard somewhere gathering spiritual dust.

I still work with the watercolour artist mentioned in a previous post.  The one who says running a watercolour business is a lot more complicated than painting good watercolours.  A month or two later he comprehends just how complicated.  There are critical processes and tools to refine.  There are decisions to be made.

He has been painting one watercolour a day for five years.  When the stack was too high to fit on a shelf he began to sort, scan and categorise his work.  He set up his online shop and began to post work for sale.  All this was too much.  He spent days going around in circles.  Then he engaged an administrator of formidable focus.  Now he has over 800 quality paintings to exhibit.  He has a clear strategy for next year.  His watercolour business is moving forward.

In 2020 he painted a set of watercolours for a calendar.  Here in Somerset West we have the most beautiful park on the banks of the Lourens River where people walk their dogs, meet or sit to take in the calm.

He painted the watercolours.  He designed a calendar.  He began to seek out a sponsor and a marketing platform.  Then he got stuck.  Fast!  Progress continued when he engaged the services of a consultant who draws publications out of artists.  “Everyone has a book in them” she said, “I get it out and get it published”.  And she did.  The printed calendars are due for delivery in the next 36 hours.

Now he has a calendar.  He has sold 60% of his first edition.  He is building his brand.

He shipped!

See the calendar here

What do you do to drive you to ship the product of you labour of love?