More product

Funny thing - this morning I made a connection in my head between selling my artwork and the work I do with my team at the office. By day, I work for a consulting engineering company - they design and construction roads, bridges, light rail lines, pipelines, restored streams and wetlands, etc. - I help them sell their services and win work. (It's a great job and I work with wonderful people.) At home, in my down time I design and sell artwork on an Etsy site. http://www.redwingblackbird.etsy.com/

In both instances, the classic seller-doer model is in play. You have to sell and do at the same time. At work, for the past 16 years, I've worked only in the seller mode as a marketer. I've watched my engineer and environmental scientist friends struggle with balancing selling (talking to and convincing their clients to use their expertise) and doing (once, sold - designing the project). I never really grasped why its so difficult for them to do both.

Today, my Etsy site is down to a bare minimum of "product," only 9 pieces when I usually strive to have a good 15 - 20 pieces on display. I was so foucsed on selling, that I stopped doing all together. This same thing happens in the office. I find it really hard to be creative, when I'm focused on being a seller. Does selling shut down the creative side? It shouldn't and in fact, it really cannot.

Besides a whole new appreciation for what I'm asking my cohorts to do every day, I have to wonder if there isn't a better way. Bringing a sense of creativity into selling and a sense of selling into the creativity is real the challenge, both in my studio and in my job. Any ideas?