Welcome!

If you’re here, it means that you’re interested in growing your creative business!

HOORAY! CONGRATULATIONS.

JUST BEING HERE IS A HUGE STEP!

Art has always been my door to the world;

always the lens from which I see and understand.

But there’s this funny thing about art, there are so many ways to be an artist and making money as one has its stories and tales. I talked about starting my business endlessly to my husband until one day he said, “Just do it Sarah!” So I did it, I freakin’ did it! I started Atwater Designs in February of 2017 and began following Emily on Instagram shortly thereafter. Fast forward to the summer of 2018 when Emily posted that she would be running a Mastermind. I applied! I held my breath and then one morning I checked my email on the way to the bathroom and silently hooped and hollered to myself before heading back into the bedroom where I whispered to John, “I got in!” He rose from the bed and said, “Honey, that is fantastic!!” I wrote to Emily telling her this same story and that I couldn’t wait.

I really enjoyed her enthusiasm and positive outlook on her art and her business.

I loved how she was a cheerleader for us artists and creatives.

At the beginning, that kind of cheering-on felt monumental. I had many voices from school, my own family, and the culture we are a part of saying, “You can’t do this.”, “Artists don’t make money”, etc. But somewhere that just didn’t sit well with me, I just didn’t know how to change it. Little did I know what I had in store! I have learned so much and benefited more than I could have imagined from Emily, her mentorship and her course. Taking Making Art Work in 2019 (and then again in 2020) was a huge part of what has propelled by art and business forward. I had made a ten-year plan to leave my full-time photography teaching job, setting up my business to be what I wanted ten years from 2017, and this past September I stopped teaching and moved Atwater Designs to full-time — a plan that I expected to take 10 years turned out to be 3 1/2! I know that a huge part of that was learning from Emily and Making Art Work. I don’t say any of this lightly! It’s a huge investment but what I have said a lot this past year before I stopped teaching, “Maybe the risk is in staying.” And so, if you are on the fence, feel the pull or the itch to move forward, maybe the risk lies in not moving forward.

I hope that you find some encouragement and practical steps within this free series and if you are ready for more, Making Art Work is an investment for your business that you won’t regret.

If you didn’t make it for the free mini series, you can still join! Click below to binge all of Emily’s great content.