I’m a Full-Time Artist. Here’s How I Manage My Business

[@armandovega3285]

Love these videos!!! So i’m a Texas attorney, and seeing how you organize yourself is helpful in my practice. Also, just ordered my first BC print, excited to frame it in the office!

[@b.cormier]

Thank you so much!! For watching my videos and for supporting my work, it means the world. I hope you love your new print! It was so fun the paint that one 🌵

[@MsCaleb79]

I studied art in Austin Texas many years ago

[@janinafisher101]

Brooke, I'm really struck by how beautiful those parts of your paintings look in your Notion app, and I'm thinking you should turn some like that into cards and other merch, if you don't already do that. Congrats on getting yourself organized. I hear Notion is a great app!

[@b.cormier]

Thanks so much Janina! I'll definitely consider that in the future 🥰

[@devernepersonal3636]

Me Finally watching "Putting Together an Art Exhibition" which was deep in my watch later that i am clearing out, and i see the notification for this video.

[@b.cormier]

Haha add it to the list 😉 thanks for watching!!

[@annabellebyrne876]

Hey Brooke, love your videos! I was wondering if you would be able to do a video on what is required for global shipping? E.g. which countries require special requirements (such as the new EU regulations, etc) I just cannot get my head around it! Xx

[@cathycathycathy]

Can so relate to needing some sense of control over alllll of the to-dos!!!

[@b.cormier]

It is a constant battle!! PS. miss u ❤️

[@cathycathycathy]

@ miss you (and your muffins lol) too ! If you ever want to come out to LA we’ll finally have our tea party ☺️🥺

[@erinloughery]

Yay new video! Will watch it after finishing my painting commission tonight 😉

[@b.cormier]

Yay! Good luck with your commission! 🙌

[@erinloughery]

@@b.cormier thanks 🙏🥰

[@ChantelleArts]

this is so fascinating, thank you for sharing this with us all ☺

[@b.cormier]

Happy to! Thank you for watching, always so appreciated 🫶

[@ProjectRoulette]

Love it, this is awesome! Thank you! I feel like as a creative, there is always so much going on in my brain and I'm constantly trying to find ways to impose order on myself, but I end up reinventing my organizational system over and over. This seems like a wonderful solution! :)

[@b.cormier]

So glad it helps! And I think we all go through that process of reinventing our systems - just a matter of discovering what works for you 😊

[@braighlee]

slayyyy! I was JUST making a template yesterday in notion and saying to myself how difficult it was and that I wish I could just have Brooke's!! 😁Thank you for sharing your wonderful insights!

[@b.cormier]

Hahaha perfect timing! 😉 thank you for your interest and support! 🫶

[@KimberleeKesterson]

This is so nice. I use Notion and have started piecing together my own system, but just putting it together takes so much time and mental energy…. So it’s a honestly still mess. Having a ready-made system is so helpful. Yours is so beautiful and thoughtful! I can definitely see myself buying it to replace my mess!

[@b.cormier]

Thank you so much! ☺️ I know what you mean, it took me MONTHS to put this one together and then I spent the whole year tweaking it here and there haha. Purchasing a template can save you a lot of time and headaches, as long as you're confident you'll use it and like the way it's set up! If you have any questions about mine in particular, I'm happy to help! 🤗

[@miagaquarela]

Bought this amazing template ❤ It works so smoothly. Thank you, Brooke

[@b.cormier]

Thank you so much!! Hope you're loving it 🤗

[@yinghsi6481]

bought it! love it! thank you for making this template!

[@b.cormier]

Yay!! Thank you so much, I hope it serves you well this year! 🤗

[@erinloughery]

Ooooh… your organizational skills are superb! I keep a physical journal, and for 5 years now I have succeeded in keeping track of every…single… thing I do each day, ie. what I ate, what time I woke up, exercise, projects I worked on, things I’ve watched or read etc etc… I just record everything from the previous day each morning, takes 10 minutes. I find it very helpful for numerous reasons 😊 But, I think I’m better at recording the past than planning for the future. I’ll be considering your Notion template 😅

[@b.cormier]

Wow that is so impressive!! And I’m sure so nice to be able to look back on. I really want to stick to a better journaling practice next year, you’ve inspired me 🙌 If you have any questions about the template, don’t hesitate to ask ☺️ thanks for watching Erin!

[@erinloughery]

@ hooray! Yes, starting in January, you be better with journaling & I’ll be better with planning 😁 Merry Christmas!!

[@bobmarone6192]

This was an eye opener. I now have a new appreciation of how many details you have to manage in order to run your own business. Seems daunting, but it looks as though you've made it well organized, and I have no doubt that other self employed people will find this video to be extremely helpful. Another fun/interesting watch................as per usual.☺

[@b.cormier]

Thanks a lot Bob! ☺️ I’m glad you found it interesting seeing a peek behind the curtain haha

[@nidasalim7743]

Love this video!!❤ very much useful one and soo soothing to watch. love it Brooke . 🥰

[@b.cormier]

So glad to hear that! Thank you for watching 🥰

[@SandaliPabasaraGunarathne]

Watching this on 1st of January and It is the first thing I wanted to do for this year. Using Notion will be great! Thankyou Brooke for Sharing!

[@b.cormier]

I am so happy to hear that!! 🥲 Hope your 2025 is off to a great start!

[@itsmaxmint]

Thank you for the amazing transparency Brooke! Many of the functions remind me of Obsidian, which I also use for sorting thoughts. I think it's also an important touch that you have your own art as beautiful photos here and there because it keeps reminding you that you are doing these things. Atleast I as an artist tend to forget all the works that I have done and tend to only stress about what I COULD do in the future.

[@b.cormier]

Thanks for watching! ☺️ yes I think that’s a really nice way to think of it, it’s good to reflect on the work that you’ve done in the past and not just focus on what’s to come in the future!

[@FlorenceRyan]

Brooke this was so interesting and satisfying to watch!! You are so organised wow. Also who starts the week on sundays???

[@janinafisher101]

That's what I think when I look at agendas and calendars that start on Sunday. 🙄

[@b.cormier]

Awe thank you Florence!! 💖

[@sophiasmith6583]

Always look forward to your videos!

[@b.cormier]

Thank you Sophia! 🫶 means a lot!

[@markus6729]

Thank you for your videos and insights! I love your work - and your voice, so calm and relaxing. I could listen for hours! 😂 I started painting few weeks ago and love the progress. 😊 Greetings from Vienna :)

[@b.cormier]

Thanks so much Markus! ☺️ viel Glück mit deinem Bild!

[@ninaknezevic4873]

Thank you Brooke , this is trully an excellent tool for organizing my chaotic life ❤❤❤❤

[@b.cormier]

You're so welcome! I hope it helps you tame the chaos haha 🫶

[@laurenvonduyke-dadmun9928]

This template looks great! What a wonderful tool for organizing a creative business!🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆

[@b.cormier]

Thanks so much! It has been life changing 🙌

[@donnamunday6749]

Brooke your Notion template is awesome. I am an artist learning how to be a Professional Artist and having something specific to a creative mind has proven to be invaluable just in the couple of days I have been setting this up. If you ever update your template, please consider adding a column to the commissions section that allows someone to link to an idea in the idea nursery so that you can see the correlation between the ideas you are having and your sales/types of commissions received from work attributed to an idea. Now that I think about it, it would be cool to have a style and/or materials column where I could list the medium and techniques I was using to see if there is any change in my sales based on new learning from my personal artist journey. Oh, also, is there a way to make recurring calendar entries that populate in future dates when an event has passed. Like a birthday or holiday or something? Right now it seems like you’d have to fill all those in at the start of every year which could get time consuming. Or I guess you could duplicate it but still, it would be nice to automate that somehow. I am going to keep deepening my knowledge of Notion and how it works (it’s on my projects list 😅) moving forward so maybe it is just something I don’t know how to do yet and that will help me figure it out.

[@b.cormier]

Thank you so much Donna! ☺️ I’m really happy to hear that you’re finding it helpful so far, and I love hearing your feedback! What’s great about Notion templates is that they’re completely customizable - so after purchasing your Digital Studio, you can edit it the way that works best for you (which I highly encourage!). You can change headings, photos, add or remove sections and insert your own data the way that you want. Once you get the hang of the commands, the possibilities are endless! If you want to add a new column to the commissions section, simply click the “+” in the top right corner of the table to add a new property, then you can select “relation” and select what you want to relate it to (in this case it would be “idea nursery”). For the recurring calendar entries, you can actually synch your Google calendar to Notion - so if you have recurring things like birthdays in your Google calendar, it would then show up in your Notion calendar! Maybe that answers your question - but if not I would just type your specific question into KZbin or ChatGPT and there is a ton of resources, since Notion is such a widely used app. Hope this helps and thanks so much again for purchasing the template! I hope it works wonders for you in 2025! 🤗

[@donnamunday6749]

@ omg thank you for those instructions. I will definitely look into finding additional info as needed. So far, I am loving having a place to drop all my idea. The inspiration catcher and idea nursery sections are my favorites because I constantly find things I love but haven’t really had a good idea of how to organize or catalogue that information short of learning how to build a database, to which my artist brain was like “NOOOOoooo”. Considering my current “solution” if you want to call it that, was having it saved in a giant folder and trying to group things by file name. Having a database templatetized where I can just plug in the info is perfect for someone like me 🥰

[@jessicandothings]

Brooke. I know you have much on your plate already, but have you ever considered doing something like a podcast? I love listening to you talk art!

[@b.cormier]

Thank you Jessica!! I’ve actually been thinking about this more and more - could be something fun to pursue in the new year 😊

[@EricMoore790]

My ducks are somewhat in a row. I like her videos.

[@b.cormier]

Thanks! 🙏

[@TheBlobobloboblob]

Thank you Brooke, this is amazing! I'm so inspired! When you said you cleared out the weekly planners from the other months (in the weekly planner), where do these go? Do you archive them somewhere, or just delete manually, and then add new weeks for the coming year?

[@b.cormier]

Thanks so much! I’m glad you think so ☺️ There’s a way that you can export the whole weekly planner page and save it to your files for future reference, then I just manually delete all the weeks and add new ones!

[@sakshi_ch]

This was really helpful❤

[@b.cormier]

So glad you think so! ❣️

[@DaveJacobseniOS]

You've got it dialed! Cool to see your process and cheers to 2025 ✌

[@b.cormier]

Thanks a lot Dave! Wishing you the best in 2025 too! 🕺

[@Pillit0]

thank you brooke

[@b.cormier]

Happy to help! 🤗

[@mariadelestrenes]

Gràxies Brooke, sempre aprenent amb tu! 〽️💗💙💚

[@b.cormier]

🤗💛

[@ErvBot31]

Absolutely love the way you built your template :0 I dropped notion twice already for a paper planner, because until you've made it pretty and fitting for you, it seems so bland and unattractive. I might give it another try with your template though, at least for finances and personal projects!

[@b.cormier]

Thank you so much!! Yes, when you start with a blank slate its a big time commitment until you can get it to a functioning and aesthetically pleasing state - I think that’s why a lot of people opt to buy a template! If you have any questions about mine don’t hesitate to ask and thanks for watching! 🙏

[@carolahlgren5656]

Phew! Good for you.

[@b.cormier]

🤗

[@Natalie.I.ChristlicheKunst]

Thank you for your video! Could you maybe tell me which camera lens you use? I would really appreciate it ❤

[@b.cormier]

Thanks for watching! All my filming gear is in the video description ☺

[@creagiovane]

can you link the notion calendar with google or ical?

[@b.cormier]

Yes it's possible to link your google calendar or apple calendar! I personally haven't done it, but there are tons of articles out there that walk you through how to do both! :)

[@JohnWolffPortraits]

Just wondering….in my previous life as a commercial pilot, oftentimes a passenger or a little nerdling would visit the cockpit and ask about ‘all those dials and gauges and did I really know how to use them!” As I watched your overview of Notion I could not help but remind myself that there was a time I felt that way myself. But, Notion seems quite powerful and task oriented with perhaps a steep learning curve…was there a process you used to begin the ‘getting to know you” and then adding more comprehensive tasks as you got comfortable with the power of the program?😊

[@b.cormier]

Hi John! I love this comparison - I was in a small float plane this past summer and that exact thought crossed my mind haha. Yes, there was quite a steep learning curve with Notion (and I'm still no expert) but now that I understand the program, I feel like the possibilities are endless in what I can create! What's great is that all the answers to your questions can be found online. Any time there was something I needed help with, I could type it into KZbin, ChatGPT or reach out to the Notion help centre and I would get my answer. Sometimes the hardest part was simply how to phrase the question haha. But that's what's great about Notion, since it's such a widely used app, there are so many resources out there (made by users) to help - and I really took advantage of that! Hope that answers your question and thanks for watching! :)

[@JohnWolffPortraits]

@ Yes it did and thank you for your own personal story too!

[@lookingglassartstudio-blutz]

Hey Brooke, I am working with the template you made, love it! Thank you! I am stuck though on the Finances section. Entering Expenses steps 3-5 I am not able to find in your database or tables you made. Help! I really need to categorize expenses, but I am struggling with the formulas. Thanks

[@b.cormier]

Sorry, just seeing this comment now! Glad you're loving the template! 🤗 That was actually a mistake on my part; I didn't mean to include those steps in the finances section - I wanted to add those extra fields,, but it wasn't working properly and I forgot to omit the steps from the instructions! Sorry for the confusion! If you have any more questions about it in the future, just shoot me an email at [e-mail] and I'll get back to you sooner :)

[@b.cormier]

PS. If you really want to categorize your expenses, I would recommend reaching out to the Notion support team and perhaps they can point you in the right direction!

[@saramayo7559]

Hi Brooke! Amazing video. What template did you use for having a clock, your projects, habits…etc in the same page? Thanks!

[@b.cormier]

Thank you! The template I’m showing you in the video is one I build myself ☺️ I’m selling it if you’re interested! You can find more details in the link in the description. If you’re wondering where I got the clock, it’s from indify.com!

[@jstarttherapy]

Wow, what a great template. You really thought this through. You being Canadian, I hoped the price would be the same for USD and CAD. We always pay more in Canada with the added tax on top of it. Just a thought and wish. 🤣

[@b.cormier]

Thank you! 😊 the template is priced in Canadian dollars, and on my website you can choose the currency you wish to pay in, it will then automatically apply any applicable taxes based on your shipping address :)

[@jstarttherapy]

@@b.cormier I didn't use the link on your website ;-) . I used the Notion template site which showed me the price in US first. I bought it right away and love it. There is so much I can use to organize my creative projects and inspirations. I've used Notion for years especially for my empty canvas inventory. I have the tendency to buy more canvases when I'm out and about. 🤣

[@artworkbyjb]

Thank you!

[@b.cormier]

Hope you found it helpful! ☺️

[@tomcopepainting]

I care for a fern too, we have much in common

[@robynadams6938]

Hi! Is it possible to change the artwork used - can I swap out yours for mine?

[@b.cormier]

Yes of course! I encourage you to customize it in whatever way you want :) You can change photos, add and delete sections, etc.

[@robynadams6938]

@@b.cormier wonderful. It looks absolutely perfect.

[@missrebeccadance]

Is this app also available to see on your phone?

[@b.cormier]

Yes! You can have Notion on your phone and desktop :)

[@creagiovane]

cool I'm not the only one with a calendar project that has to be postponed 😄🤝

[@b.cormier]

It happens to the best of us 😂

[@amandabethstudio]

Brooke this is AMAZING!!! I have just started using notion and I love it!

[@b.cormier]

Thanks Amanda! 🤗 I’m glad you’re loving it!

[@baderyasin]

Didn't you hire an assistant at some point? i remember you talking about it!

[@b.cormier]

Yes! I had someone helping me with my emails for a while but things didn’t work out unfortunately. It’s been me myself and I for the past year or so!

[@Artbymirach]

*Here's to an amazing 2025 for you!*

[@b.cormier]

Likewise! 🤗

[@Onnnt]

[@chrissketches4357]

Waking up from massive headache only to have it soothed by this notification. thank you very much!

[@b.cormier]

Awe, that’s really nice to hear - thank you 🙏 Hope your head is better!

[@chrissketches4357]

@@b.cormier it definitely its. Also really great video, my life is so unorganized so it’s nice to see a tool like this exist!

[@alokasiablackmagic3444]

I thought I am a well-organized person, but you...

[@b.cormier]

Hahaha it took me 8 years to get here 😅

[@Loumoyleart]

Give me that "Ugly Art Video"!!

[@b.cormier]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnqpgpRpedWkr80 Some great exercises - enjoy! 😊

[@mauricioescalanteart8185]

Now I feel a little guilty, you have too many things to do and we are distracting you!😅

[@samtho-o]

It is the same for me L😂L

[@b.cormier]

Haha no way! You are the most welcomed distraction 🙏