dreamfleur Creative Inspiration Suite by Julene Fleurmond

I’ve been taking part in CreativeLIVE‘s free online streaming courses, in topics raging from photography to Photoshop, for about a year now, and have continually been inspired! The latest course “Taking Care of Business” was taught by esteemed photographer Tamara Lackey who has paved a way with her photography studio, and who shared techniques for running a successful business and branding your uniqueness. You can watch the beginning of the course above to get a feel of it, and if you need direction in your own creative business, purchase the full course on the CreativeLIVE site.

I took in the course, pen in hand, scribbling down notes and pieces of creative wisdom. My favorite parts were the discussions about being yourself in business and presenting what makes you unique. Here are snippets of my notes below:

- Defining you is one of the hardest (but valuable) things you can do for your business
• What are you drawn to?
• What makes your soul shrivel inside? What makes you feel empty inside? Find someone else to outsource to
• What have you always thought that you could do that you haven’t?
• What are you really good at?
• When you’re about to do something but don’t because you’re afraid of how people will think of you, just do it. People will see you authentically! They’ll say, “Oh, there you are!”
• How much of you is about what other people think about you?

- The true entrepreneur is a doer not just a dreamer

- The War of Art
• A child does not always stop to think, be more childlike in your work
• Everybody faces resistance – especially artists – resistance tries to keep them from creating – wasting time

- “Don’t compromise yourself, you’re all you’ve got.” – Janis Joplin
- Your unique vision – not necessarily your strengths but your quirkiness – that’s what will draw people to you.

I really enjoyed this interview with beauty, fashion and celebrity photographer Matthew Jordan Smith which was part of the course, and filmed for Tamara’s reDefine Show, featuring creative people who are following their passions:

“Make sure you’re loving what you’re doing or you won’t stick with it…”
“You’ve gotta get out there and experience life and find your inspiration. When you get that and put what inspires you into your work that’s why nobody can copy your style, because your style comes from your heart and what inspires you…”

“…Once you’re in the mode of doing what you’re fearful of doing, the butterflies go away and it’s the best feeling ever…” – Matthew Jordan Smith

More About Tamara Lackey
Tamara Lackey is a renowned professional photographer, innovative entrepreneur, author, and web show personality. Her authentic lifestyle photography, from children’s portraits to celebrity portraits, is praised within her industry and published internationally. Tamara’s work has been featured in dozens of media outlets including Vogue, O – The Oprah Magazine, Town & Country, Parenting Magazine, Food & Wine, Men’s Journal, Professional Photographer Magazine, Rangefinder Magazine, NBC’s The Martha Stewart Show, ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, PBS’ Need to Know and NBC’s The Today Show.

Combining artistry with spontaneous authenticity, Tamara’s new web series, the reDefine Show, examines the inspiring stories of top-tier creative artists who make it work. Tamara’s interview style showcases her abiding interest in real conversations that share practical tips, innovative methods, and previews of the newest and most useful technologies on the market.

Visit Tamara Lackey’s Website

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“I’ve failed a lot more than I’ve ever succeeded. I think that’s the way life works – you fail a lot more and the more you fail the more you succeed.” – Jasmine Star

I loved this TWiT Photo episode with one of my favorite entrepreneurs, wedding photographer Jasmine Star (I wrote about one of her online workshops in a previous post). She describes her journey from an aspiration to amazing success, and gives awesome advice both on the artistic and business side of running a business. (Confession I’ve listened to the TWiT podcast thanks to my tech-obsessed brother but just came across TWiT Photo thanks to a tweet:)

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CreativeLIVE is an awesome and valuable resource for anyone interested in photography, video, web and graphic design, app development and a wide array of other creative topics. It’s virtually a worldwide creative classroom that streams workshops online in real-time for free then offers the recordings for purchase once the live workshop is over.

I first came across creativeLIVE from one of the photographers I’m really inspired by, Jasmine Star. I love that she’s living out her dream and is doing what she loves, capturing moments and sharing others’ stories. Her specialty is weddings, and last year she had a live wedding filming where she brought the online audience behind the scenes of shooting a real wedding -it was amazing and informative to say the least! Ever since then I’ve been tuning in to creativeLIVE for their other workshops so that I can expand my photography horizons. Here are some great upcoming free workshops that might be of interest if you are an aspiring photographer like me or if you want to grow and learn more about various techniques and the business side. One of them is another free workshop from Jasmine Star:

FREE Workshop: Posing and Lighting with Bambi Cantrell – 3 sessions: 03/18/2011 to 03/20/2011

Join in a LIVE ONLINE weekend with Bambi Cantrell for an intimate three day workshop focusing on posing and lighting techniques with a focus on wedding, boudoir, and portrait photography.

FREE Workshop: Building your Wedding Photography Business with Jasmine Star Jasmine Star – 2 sessions: 04/08/2011 to 04/09/2011
In this workshop Jasmine explores how to grow your wedding business. Build a brand that embraces your unique strengths, and communicate that brand to attract clients through today’s online social media tools.

Visit www.creativelive.com for even more workshops and resources

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