BE A “FAUX”FESSIONAL
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No Biz Like Faux Biz Class Information

By Debbie Ellison and Susie Goldenberg
Paintin' the Town, Faux
Reprinted from “The Faux Finisher” magazine - Fall 2002

As a faux finisher, you’re always “faking” it, making things look like something they are not. You can use the same principle in your business. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or new to the business, you can “fool” your clients’ eyes by faking any professional characteristics you lack. As they say, fake it till you make it.

Maybe you’re not as confident as you would like to be. Maybe that dominant right brain of yours “forgets” you are in business and have to think like a businessperson. Well, right brain, move over, it’s time for a little brain adjustment. Become a “faux”fessional - believing and acting like a pro is the first step to becoming one. If you want to be more confident or business savvy, fake it until you are. The longer you “pretend,” the more your brain believes it. Before you know it, you’ll be balancing your business checkbook and thinking like an executive.

Success in this or any business is not an accident. It takes hard work and strategy. Watch faux finishers who are successful and do what they do. Watch those who are not successful, and don’t do what they do. Ask successful artists what their secret is and how they build their businesses. Winners are not threatened by competition and will almost always help others succeed also.

Rules for Success

•
 Failure is not an option!
•
 Set clear, achievable goals for yourself and your business.
•
 Believe in yourself. Stop criticizing and belittling yourself.
•
 Stay focused and on task.
•
 Spend time with positive, successful people. If you hang around losers, you’ll be a loser; if you hang around winners, you’ll be a winner.
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 Read everything you can about the decorative arts, trends, techniques, business, etc. Researchers have found if you read one hour a day about a particular subject, you will become an expert in three years.
•
 Network, network, network!
•
 Always keep learning. When you stop learning, you stop growing.
•
 Visualize what you want.
•
 Be decisive and confident.
•
 Turn off the television. It is destructive, time wasting, and negative.
•
 Instead of complaining about what you don’t have, be grateful for everything you do have.
•
 Stop blaming others. Successful people take responsibility for their own actions. Losers blame other people and circumstances.
•
 Develop the habit of positive self-talk. Whether you tell yourself you’re a failure or a winner, you will be.
•
 Never give up; never quit!

Set Clear Goals

Setting goals and writing them down is the most important step toward success. It takes discipline to achieve goals, but when you see the rewards, you’ll be glad you made the extra effort.

•
 Set goals to achieve within 90 days, within a year, and within 5 years.
•
 Set realistic, achievable goals.
•
 Write down goals. Written goals ensure success. Post them in a prominent place and write them in your daytimer where you will see them every day.
•
 Stay focused and on task.
•
 Use only positive language in the present tense. (“I am making $80,000 a year.”)
•
 Break down goals into “baby steps” that you can achieve now. When you achieve one small step, go for the next one. If your goal is to write a book, you might think you don’t have time. Do you have time to write one paragraph every day? One paragraph a day soon translates into a book.
•
 Set deadlines and consequences. Most people don’t follow through and achieve their goals because they don’t set deadlines and consequences for not meeting deadlines. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.
•
 Reward yourself for achieving a goal. Take yourself out for a nice dinner, buy yourself something frivolous, or pamper yourself with a bubble bath or massage.

Maintain Structure

If you don’t make an “appointment” with yourself and schedule a time to do something, chances are you will never find the time. If one of your goals is to read books on faux finishing, schedule a time to go to the library or bookstore. Write it in your daytimer. Making and keeping appointments, especially with yourself, is essential to success and goal-reaching.

Always Keep Learning

Malcolm Forbes said, “The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” Always be open, willing, and eager to learn. Think of everyone and everything as your teacher.

•
 Attend all the faux finishing and decorative art classes, demos, and seminars you can. Even if you feel your expertise is beyond what is being taught, you can pick up a new tip, a better or faster way of accomplishing a technique, or learn about a new product or tool.
•
 Read everything you can about the industry, books, magazines, trade journals, newsletters, etc.
•
 Listen to self-help tapes in the car or while walking or working at home or in your studio. Always have a self-help tape or book-on-tape in your car cassette player.
•
 Build a good research library. Invest in as many books on faux finishing and business that you can afford; accumulate them gradually. Many good books can be found at used bookstores. Subscribe to decorative paint magazines and newsletters.
•
 Cut out pictures and ideas relating to decorative painting, creative ideas, painting tips, etc. from magazines, postcards, advertisements, catalogs, and books. To store clips and ideas, file in a loose-leaf notebook with dividers, a photo album, or file with hanging folders divided by classification.
•
 Keep a reference notebook of techniques; tips; color theories and trends; and instructional material from classes, seminars, articles, television shows, and books.
•
 If you can find someone more experienced who is willing to help you, you are a step ahead of the game. Ask an experienced faux finisher if you could assist him or her, even for free, just to learn and gain experience.

Manage Time Efficiently

Time management helps you put things into perspective.

•
 To-Do List - Keeping a daily list of tasks you need to accomplish is the most effective tool for managing your time. Whatever you don’t finish, put on the list for the next day.
•
 Prioritize your tasks and accomplish the most important ones first. High priority items are the most important things you need to accomplish. They are also the hardest; that’s why people usually put those off. Low priority items are those that take up a lot of time and get you nowhere.
•
 Work when you are most efficient. Do the most challenging tasks when you are the freshest and most productive. If you are a day person, start your jobs early and end early. If you are more productive at night, you might want to do sample boards and paperwork at night when you are feeling more energetic.
•
 Keep to a minimum interruptions and phone calls when you are working at home (that’s what answering machines and caller I.D. are for).
•
 Handle each piece of paper once; decide what you need to do with it, and do it immediately.
•
 Keep appointments with clients short. Don’t waste time talking about unrelated subjects. If the appointment is taking longer than necessary, tell the client you have another appointment or that the free consultation is only one hour; any time after that is billable. That will keep them on the subject!

Avoid time and motivation wasters

Sarano Kelley, motivational speaker and author of The Game: Win Your Life in Ninety Days, estimates that the average person spends ninety percent of his or her time daydreaming or fantasizing about the past or future. He stresses living in the present and concentrating on productive activities and thoughts instead of daydreaming.

According to Kelley, the primary reason people daydream through their lives is lack of purpose. “How many people,” he writes, “have a purpose or how many people just wake up with a desire to get through each day until the final day?” What is your purpose? Do some soul-searching and remain steadfast in attaining it.

Criticizing yourself is another time-waster. “There is no one harder on you than you,” Kelley says. “The things you say about you, you would never say to another human being.” He says the only two things you can control are your thoughts/attitudes and your behavior. Success depends on the degree you focus on what you can control. Catch yourself achieving instead of “messing up.” Focus on your wins, not your losses.

You are only productive when you stay in the present moment. Woody Allen said, “Eighty percent of life is just showing up.” Most people drift in and out of the past and future, worrying about what they should be doing or should have done. To achieve your goals, don’t “should” on yourself and stay in the present. Successful people focus on the now. Scott Morrison, author of There is Only Now, says, “Everything we call the ‘past’ is absolutely nothing but present memory. Everything we call the ‘future’ is absolutely nothing but fantasy and commentary. If we continue to fantasize and pretend there is some other time or place to be, besides right here, right now, we are cruelly and pathologically deluding ourselves.”

“Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.” If that’s your motto, you’re wasting precious time. What really underlies procrastination is just being lazy and unmotivated. Keep those daily lists and reward yourself with praise or a treat as you complete each task.

Proper multitasking allows you to stay focused and productive while doing simultaneous, compatible activities. Driving and listening to self-help cassette tapes are compatible and beneficial activities. On the other hand, doing simultaneous, incompatible activities is counterproductive and each task detracts from the other, draining your full concentration from either. E-mailing and talking on the phone are not compatible or productive because each takes full concentration and enjoyment away from the other.

Do you do the “shuffle” all day long? Do you start a sample board, then run to the other room to work on a contract, then - uh, oh, did you forget to wash out the paint brush from the furniture you just painted? Starting one task, becoming distracted, then starting another task, and running aimlessly from one to the other, never finishing anything, is a tremendous time and motivation killer.

Brian Tracy, motivational speaker and author, in The Psychology of Success, advises doing one task with single-minded concentration until it is 100% completed, then moving on to the next. He says every time you come back to something uncompleted, you waste time and energy reviewing what was already done and figuring out where you are, performing mostly repetitious acts. Concentration and
absorption are imperative in achieving goals and being creative. Stay at one task until it is finished before moving to the next. You’ll be amazed at how much you will get done.

Remember, success is not an accident; it is a learned skill. If you want to be successful and productive, you have to work at it. Just as you strive to improve your painting techniques, you must also develop your business skills and techniques. As you become more confident and skilled in the art of success, you will find it easier to have what you want.

If you’re not as successful as you strive to be at this moment, pretend that you are. Operate on the premise that you have all the skill, confidence, and success possible. Faux your way to success! Paint your future and walk right in. After all, that’s what fakin’ it is all about!

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Debbie Ellison is a freelance writer and editor in Atlanta and teaches writing and creativity seminars. Contact her at DebbieEllisonInk@yahoo.com.

Susie Goldenberg owns Paintin' the Town, Faux, a faux finishing showroom and Atlanta’s premier school for decorative finishes. She has been a professional decorative artist for 13 years and teaches classes at her school and from coast to coast. Contact her at Susie@PaintinTheTown.com.

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