Kingdom Knock

I hear Artists talk often about being self-sufficient in their area of artistic expression but rarely do I see the proper effort and investment being put into that self-sufficiency.

Let me ask, do you have these bare necessities on deck right now: 1) Copies of your books, CDs, poetry, paintings, essays, etc. 2) At least an hour per day outside of work or school dedicated to your art 3) Business Cards (with information where #1 can be found or purchased) 4) A business plan (which is the most important) One of the ways to be financially stable is to have streams of income coming in. In addition, if you truly want to be self-sufficient in your work, it will take some investment (money) and sacrificed time on your part. How bad do you want it? If you truly want this, you have to make sure that you have done everything you could possibly do on your end in order to make it happen. There are some things that God has already instilled in you and you don’t have to pray for those. The gifts and the call of God are without repentance! God has already given you common sense and wisdom in certain things: you don’t have to pray and fast for that! It’s already present: you just have to be accountable and responsible for it. Like…you have not stopped to put gas in the car so the needle is pointing towards “E” (this did not happen by the way), but you are praying that the Lord helps you to make it home and to your surprise, the car stopped on the shoulder of the road. “God..how could you let this happen?” Huh? Smh…dude, you passed how many exits where you could have stopped to get gas? How many gas stations did you pass? In the two aforementioned questions, this may have occurred due to lack of gas money or being late to an engagement where there is not enough time to stop for gas. That's preparation, responsibility, and accountability. It just takes the discipline on your part to implement those things. That was somewhat off the subject but hopefully you catch my drift. I bet most of you pass at least 10 to 20 people per day that you have never seen before. How many of those people know what you do or what your art is? Every person you run into should know that you are a writer, painter, poet, actor, musician, vocalist, or emcee. How bad do you want it? There are a number of artist without as much talent as others, but their hustle has pushed them to the forefront. Printing up their own material; always up in people’s faces pushing their product, handing out cards, flyers to their next gig, always at the spots where there is a large clientele (parties, concerts, festivals, etc.). They can’t go anywhere in town and not be known by somebody. How bad do you want it? Bron