There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.
Buddha

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
Oscar Wilde

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
Steve Jobs

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I decided to write four posts about SURTEX due to the amount of information I wanted to share and the personal process involved in this adventure. It is not a secret that I registered to SURTEX at the last minute. This “last minute” decision was by itself a difficult situation and I learned a lot from the experience, A LOT.

I want to be honest and clear in one thing, I am very happy, very proud, very satisfied with the experience..but there is a lot to learn, there is a lot to reconsider and there is a lot of work ahead to make the next show and the experience a BLAST in terms of licensing deals, the reason of my participation.

I have learned a lot from licensing blogs during the past 18 months. Tara Reed’s is my favorite and almost all I know came from her PDF books and her blog. I knew I was not at all prepared but still I wanted to go and have the experience. I wanted to “START” the process. This was a goal I added to my list last year when I walked the show and I always have the urgency to complete my goals.

This post is all about the lessons learned but I will also add a few advises in case you are planning to attend next year. Here are “MY LESSONS LEARNED”. They are just mine. This may not be the lessons learned by others, it was my first experience and of course there is a lot more to learn.

The 10 Lessons Learned after SURTEX 2012

Lesson #1 – You don’t have to show everything in the booth panels. Less is More. Try to put what you know will attract more in big images.

Lesson #2- The banners are the easiest and effective way to show the art on the booth panels. I didn’t read this anywhere. I had no time for asking or reading before the show, remember I was trying to be ready in just a month.

Lesson #3- You don’t need 2,000 business cards or press kits (please don’t laugh at me). Not everybody will take a card and they are too heavy to take them in a flight along with all the stuff you need. You know what, I was going to make this question before but I was ashamed to ask. Now I have around 1000 press kits at my son’s house in PA.

Lesson #4- You can have you own sign on the Booth, this will get more attention than the one they provide. A print in a foam board for both sides will be fabulous with your art and name.

Lesson #5- Be assertive with the artists and guests visiting, you don’t have to show your portfolio to them. First, they should not ask, but if they do…Let them know you are expecting clients, your reason to be there.

Lesson#6- Start your preparation at least 6 months before the show. One year ahead is best but 6 months will be ok. THIS IS A MUST. Licensing is very VERY competitive and you should be there with your best products, with your best presentation, with the best portfolio. I learned this from my conversation with Stephanie Ryan. She told me that she started one year before. She walked the show 8 years before deciding and she did very VERY good at SURTEX.

Lesson #7- Learn from the experts..don’t follow advises from people that are not familiar or worst, that don’t know nothing about licensing..Period!!!

Lesson #8- Study the trends, the companies that license art, where they put the art, how they use it. Your art should fit in products, manufacturers are looking for this kind of art. I had the wrong idea that they will see your art and will magically transformed it in products. This can be true and ok if they see your art anywhere else but not in a LICENSING SHOW. There are hundreds of booths with art, they can feel overwhelmed with the amount of art input. If I were them I will feel that way. Thank God I had the idea of adding some prints with a single Big icon, they caught the attention of a good manufacturing company. I don’t know if they will make the deal but they loved it and asked for the images. Fingers Crossed!!

Lesson #9- If you already have licensed products, take a few with you. I should have taken some of the AVON samples and maybe some of my ceramics. I learned this from Sheila Meehan, a lovely licensing agent who was very kind and gave me lots of advises. Didn’t I tell you in my first SURTEX post, that my participation was worth it?? I learned a lot!!! Plus, I may have a few deals in the future!

And number 10!!! I ended with this one because it is the one I need to work most! I have to tell this because it was my worst mistake! I learned a lot this year about surface pattern and I was so excited about it that I ended up working a lot on patterns the one and only month I had to get ready for SURTEX. Now I know I should have put all my energy in my mixed media and what I learned after the show. It is not that surface patterns are not a good licensing art. In fact IT IS. The thing is that I need a lot of practice, a lot more learning and time to MAKE COLLECTIONS. ….and I should have worked in some collections using my mixed media.

Lesson#10- Make Lots LOTS of COLLECTIONS…..with what you know more, with what it is your style, with what you already know it is your strong area, with what you know people love. LESSON LEARNED!!! My mixed media caught a lot A LOT of attention and you know what, I was wrong when I thought this will not be what manufacturers were looking for. With the exception of a few licensors interesting in one or two patterns, almost everybody was attracted to the booth panels with the mixed media. I knew that many collections were necessary but I didn’t have the time and I lost it making new patterns…Well next time the story will be different.

My goals and future in art licensing…

1. I am looking for an agent. I know this “one woman show” in licensing is not for me. They were a few interested and I am working on sending my submissions and I have good feelings that I will find the right one, lets see!

2. I will attend SURTEX again, with or without an agent. You have to be seen there by the manufacturers, It is important that they know you are committed to your art and the licensing business.

3. I may attend, just to walk the show, Print Source 2012. I love surface pattern and I want to learn more. The more I know, the more I can offer and the more could be licensed.

4. I am already working on more mixed media and COLLECTIONS!!!

5. I will be working on a few proposals with my collections.

6. I need to earn a living and that is where my manufactured products help. I am working on a few proposals for big stores and adding stores where I sell at wholesale prices.

7. I will expand my online presence to sell more.

8. Again, I need to earn a living plus I want to share my knowledge of 16 years producing and selling art to stores and individual clients. In a few weeks I will be launching my very first ONLINE COURSE…Still a few days to let you know the Name of the Course and the juicy things it will have. I can promise it will be worth the inversion.

This a preview of the first video making a ceramic piece! Enjoy!

The Making of a Ceramic Cat

With LoVe,

“The purpose of Life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience” E. Roosevelt

“We may run, walk, stumble, drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey, or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way.” ~ Gloria Gaither

I have written this post in my mind many times. Never reaching out the computer to finally write it. The time is now. I hope I didn’t forget all I wanted to share with my blog friends.

Many things had happen in the last month that changed the way this post was going to be approach. Many questions came to my mind, many answers needed. The title Enjoy the Ride…The Collage had specific reasons: 1. Include all comments (as a collage) received in the first post where I asked the meaning of the words “Enjoy the Ride” to my blog followers; 2. Evaluate and include the comments in all posts of the series Enjoy the Ride; 3. Explain the meaning for me; 4. Include a series of projects made by me regarding this theme; a collage, the words painted in my studio, the words made in ceramic, the finished collage in memory of my mom, etc, etc. Most of those projects are not finished, yet. Most of them are “in process”. How can I write the post without those “requirements”? No way… …That is the real reason I was postponing this post. But here it is…with most of my projects not finished yet but with some “real and touching” experiences lived….some of them the reason I couldn’t work more on “growing my online presence”, on completing the challenges I was enrolled in, for not even starting the course enrolled with Rebecca Parson I was longing to, for not continuing the exciting “At home with Claudine Hellmuth” online class, for not writing more, for not collage painting more.

The time is now….here is the Post

“Enjoy the Ride… the C o l l a g e”

For my blog friends with all my heart and soul.

I “google” the words Enjoy the Ride in order to decide if I was going to name my blog with those words (“Elizabeth GLZ Enjoying the Ride”). What I found was this amazing blog “Enjoying the Ride”. I am sharing the words that touched me so much:

“Before my diagnosis I had a Chemical Engineering degree, an MBA, and a promising career. I had an amazing wife and two wonderful children (still do). I had a nice house with a swimming pool, a big lawn, and a bunch of toys. I was living the dream. I enjoyed a variety of physical activities such as golf, camping, hunting…operating the brake and gas pedals with my feet, typing, and standing in the shower. Then one day as I was jogging on my treadmill I noticed that my left foot went slap, slap, on the treadmill, whereas my right foot smoothly transitioned from heel to toe, heel to toe. After a year of visits to an assortment of specialists, I was diagnosed with Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, a particularly disabling variety of MS. Eight years later I sit here in my power wheelchair, dictating to my computer because my hands won’t allow me to type more than a couple of sentences. I can’t work anymore, and my wife now doubles as my caregiver. I’ve started this blog to help me pass the time while engaged in a productive activity- advocating for the disabled community, of which I am now a reluctant member. I am Mitch, and despite everything I am still “Enjoying the Ride”.

WOW…After reading those words I stood still and shocked! For those days I was having these concerns: how can I write and explain that one can Enjoy the Ride…despite sickness (ours or of others), sadness, poverty, economic stress, and all the tragedy in the world we see everyday in the news? How can I write a responsible post on this theme? How can I tell a dearest friend to Enjoy the Ride when she received the shocking news that her 4 years old granddaughter was diagnosed with leukemia? How can I explain that I am “Enjoying this Ride” no matter that my mom is not “here”, that I can’t live with the husband I love, my economic situation changed…A LOT, I still don’t have a “secure” job, my fingers are always swollen and this will not change, I will be old, and this will not change, either. Oh my!!!….I thought, I am in a BIG trouble.

One of the persons I admire most, a Baptist minister, once said: “we can not stop the pain, but we can stop the suffering”. And I can say now: If we can stop the suffering, then we can “Enjoy the Ride”.

I have to admit that a few years ago I was not “Enjoying the Ride”. I used to stay focus on my problems and because of that I was not able to reach for solutions and least to see the problems of others. I can tell you now that I have learned to Enjoy the Ride.

I found this quote recently and I love it: “Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass ~It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.” ~ Vivian Green

“Enjoying the Ride” is a decision. We have to face it, to embrace it, to work on it, to practice it, to make it a habit, to believe in it, to have faith in it. Most of the religions have an answer for this approach. The one that I know best has Jesus words written in the Bible: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” And I strongly believe that we can do that, too. We can change our attitude toward everything in our life and manage to Enjoy the Ride through this amazing but yet difficult journey we are in. I can write a long book on this theme, but this is not the time or place. I have many, many experiences lived that can prove that changing the attitude, being grateful, forgiving, embracing each moment, seeing the cup half full instead of half empty, loving one another, being understanding, being kind, being honest, being brave will get one to Enjoy the Ride. I read once that we have the responsibility of being happy, to smile at others so we can help others to be happy, and Enjoy the Ride. In the movie “Patch Adams”, the character said: “The reason adults should look as though they are having fun, is to give kids a reason to want to grow up!” ~ Patch Adams

I have this motto in my life and I try hard to never forget: a minute you dedicate to negative thinking, to hate, to complain, to suffer, to envy, to judge, to condemn, to make fun of others, to be angry and stay that way …..it is a minute lost, and that minute will never get back. It is my duty and my responsibility to get to Enjoy the Ride!

The Collage

I can’t finish this post without including the “collage” I created with the meaning of “Enjoy the Ride” to my first giveaway participants: Linda Robinson, Susan, Suzanne, Kelly Ann Kelly, Kelly Thiel, Valerie Hart, Michele Fauss, Carrie Schmitt, Sydney, Kris Johnson, Jacqueline, Rebecca E. Parson, Trudy Honeycutt, Wini, Kristy, Jennifer, Kelly Letky and Marianne. This is for you and for all these brave girls!

Enjoy the Ride is paying attention to the surroundings, noticing all miracles, colors, smells, feelings. It is to relax and embrace each moment, each situation. It is living grateful for all you have. Circumstances change, but we can find joy in the ride. Don’t take things too seriously. Plan to get things done and enjoy the execution. Focus on the present and enjoy it, the past is gone. Live each day to the fullest, pay attention and live it consciously, find joy even in the smallest things and share that joy. Have fun while you are here in this amazing Earth. Enjoy each minute of this wild and wonderful life because is a long journey. Live it up and be “present” in all you do savoring each moment. Conquer your fears. Learn to let it go and listen to the beauty that goes in your life. Forget the blues and put on a smile. Embrace and enjoy all the opportunities available in this life. You only get one “go around” in this Earth, kick back, relax and breath it all. Make the most of each moment. Look for the good and focus on the positive, “throw your hands to the air”, be ready for some bumps along the way and “Enjoy the Ride”.

One Last Thought….

To get to Enjoy the Ride…no matter the circumstances and problems we face, we have to EMBRACE with all our heart, with all our energy a change in ATTITUDE. We must practice KINDNESS, GRATITUDE, FORGIVENESS, LOVE, ACCEPTANCE, HUMBLENESS, HONESTY, JOY and LAUGHTER. Practicing all those values one day at a time, one step at a time will get you to ENJOY THE RIDE ……THE KEY FOR A LIFE WORTH LIVED….

“Being Happy is the Cure of all Deseases”..from Patch Adams

ENJOY THE RIDE

Mom, my sons and me... a few years ago

I would love to hear from you in my comment’s section or through my email. For this specific post your comment will allow you to participate in the GIVEAWAY posted on earlier that ends in September 30! Go to the post Enjoy the Ride..Finding Connections..The Giveaway for more information, come back, comment and share this post!