Mimi's Newsletter - Making Lots of Videos! (Patreon)

Hello my lovelies!

These past couple of weeks have been quite topsy turvy for me as I get back into the groove of illustrating and content creating. I've been trying to be more structured with my time but naturally as soon as I make plans they get flipped upside-down because something else comes up - but that's ok!

I've been doing quite a bit of brainstorming and planning for what I want to work on this year, which is difficult because I have so many ideas and it's really hard to know what to prioritise. I really want to focus on helping small artists achieve their art dreams, whether that's making an income from their art or just improving their skills and confidence.

What exactly that looks like I'm not sure, but it helps me make decisions about my content when I have some direction, and it'll probably mean making some kind of course, workbook or e-book during the first half of this year, as well as focusing my YouTube channel on art business tips.

I'm making a really conscious effort this year to not over-commit to things because it's sooo easy to do and I did it a lot last year, because I love what I do and kind of just want to make everything all at once! I'll be really motivated for a while but inevitably will get tired and stressed because I've got too much on, so I'm determined to be more balanced this year. I've gotten much better at having a calendar and sticking to it (mostly), except for weeks like last week when everything gets flips around.

This is how my calendar ended up looking last week. I loosely block in my time but I don't stress about sticking to it accurately, it's more about thinking what I need to get done on any given morning or afternoon. I'm trying to not start working until 8 or 9am, and then finishing up around 5 or 6pm. The hour between 5 and 6pm I always just allocate to "wrap up & schedule" so it gives me time to schedule posts/videos if I need to, or just finish up what I'm working on.

I got asked to collaborate with a brand on a YouTube video (which I'll tell you about the whole process of once the video is released) and was planning to make the video in the last week of the month, but Dan (my boyfriend who edits most of my videos and does nice filming) was available last week to work on it and I wanted him involved to make it look really nice. I have basic filming and editing skills but it's definitely not my strength, and it's also WAY easier to have help with things like video, especially when I'm in it because then I don't have to keep getting up to stop/start the recording!

So I flipped my schedule around a bit to get Dan's help with the video this past week, and I had also just filmed and edited a vlog earlier in the week, PLUS I'm working on the Beautiful Bluebell video lesson at the moment so I feel like I've been non-stop filming! I thought my week would be way more balanced with other activities but it is nice to get some video content done and I'm really happy with the collaboration video so I'm excited to share that process with you!

I'm definitely hoping to do more illustrating this week because I didn't get any done at all last week which is really unusual for me. In fact I think I'm going to go and do some illustrating as soon as I share this post with you because I really want to finish the animal cafe that I started a while ago!

I hope your January is going well!❤