Finding Your Way Artistry Unleashed: Crafting Your Mission Statement

by Jenny Jakl

I’m Jenny, a local creative, coach, community leader, & instructor. I’ve been a creative for some time now and have encountered several trials throughout my creative career. Through it all I’ve found a couple of things to be steady throughout. I can always find advice and comfort from my creative community. The reason for that is because they themselves have either experienced it firsthand or know of another creative who had a similar experience.

In an attempt to embrace community this is how this article has come into existence. I’ve had this vision to develop a space to address common issues related to creatives of all mediums. Depending on the size and depth of the topic I’ll address it in one month or over several months.

I hope you hang with me, because we’re going to cover it all. Everything from talking about the work you create, to finding your audience, and everything in between. I myself am a visualartist, but I will do my best to speak in the most general terms so creatives of all mediums can take this advice and apply it to their creative practices.

With that said, let’s dive right in.

Crafting a clear vision for your Creative Business        

Last month we dug deep into what is important to you and why. We dove into the type of work you’re creating, how customers can work with you, developed those boundaries and so much more. If you need a refresher or just a recap, here are some questions to get your brainstorming thoughts. Write everything down that comes to mind. Don’t worry about editing yourself, we’ll come back to this. For now it’s important to just note everything of interest.

What is most important to you? What are your personal values? How do those intersect and cross over into your creative career? What type of work do you create? How can clients work with you? What client work are you not open to? What kinds of opportunities do you want to explore with your creative practice? What sounds exciting to you? What type of work/activities just make you glow? And again, in the reverse, what type of work doesn’t bring you joy? What are your non-negotiables? What does your creative career look like a year from now? Ask yourself what is it that you want to accomplish with your art?

Navigating your own path

This exercise is creating a mission statement for your business. This mission statement will forever be a part of your creative space. It will be your focus or reminder when you need a little uplifting moment. This is the core “why” for the work you are creating.

Note: The creative opportunities (medium dependent) will look different for all of you, so spend a little time in this space exploring and see what avenues exist in your creative career. And remember there are multiple paths to be taken, so go with your intuition and interests. These are indicators of opportunities to explore.

Identifying what’s important

Now that we have defined what’s important to you and what you want to focus on it time to put it all together. This process is going to get messy, so I could encourage you to make a copy as your original so in case you need to go back as a reference then you can.

Remember this practice was pretty loose so now we’re going to start pulling out certain pieces that define you and what you’re about. Go back to that list you created (or your copy) and start to highlight things that are most important or stick out to you. After you’ve gone through these prompts, start to look for duplicates or similar items that can be combined together. I want you to continue to break down your responses until you have just a few key items listed.

Remember as you’re working through this process I want you to be thinking long term. Not just the next year, but think really big about where you want to take your business.

Putting it all together

When you feel like you’ve broken it down as much as you can and you’ve captured the key points, I want you to combine them together into a mission statement. So just as before, I don’t want you to be too precious about this. Again, this is the early stages, so it will be kind of rough. You’re going to keep re-working it until it’s something that fits you and your overall mission. When you have something that you feel aligns with you, I’d encourage you to share it with your community. Ask people you trust to review it for you. Ask for constructive feedback if you feel like it’s missing something. Ask yourself, “Does this sound like me? Does this encompass where I want to go?” If so, then you’re on your way. If not, keep re-working it and go back to your journal notes to reshape it. You’ve done the work, now it’s just putting it all together.

Re-Defining your Mission Statement

You did it, you’ve made this beautiful mission statement that defines you, your business and what you’re all about. But what happens if things change? Your vision, your values, etc. ? I can tell you this isn’t uncommon and something you should consider. I’m going to let you in on a little secret here. As a best practice this is something I actually do every year. I actually have a running document that has all of my mission statements by year. Sometimes it changes because of my values, goals or my focus changes. It’s important that your mission statement matches what you’re trying to accomplish in your business. And don’t worry the changes don’t need to be drastic by any means. What matters is that your mission statement is telling the story of you and where you’re taking your business. If you’re still undecided, need some guidance or just want to see some examples of mission statements. Check out some of the companies or brands that you love. Just look them up and see what their mission is about. Get inspired as you define your individual mission statement and don’t get overwhelmed by this. This is fun and a very important building block for the core of your business.

Jenny is an artist, creative coach, community leader, and instructor. She works with creatives of all skill levels to help them achieve their creative goals. Clients can work with Jenny through classes, coaching, or by utilizing her online resources. To learn more go to jennyjakl.com