2018 – Learn, Apply, Interact…my positive words to guide me through

2017 for me was guided by Focus, Aspire, Inspire and if you read by last blog post; which you may not have as it came bang slap in the middle of Christmas and New Year and we were all largely too stuffed and too busy partying to keep up with many of our social media activities; but fear not you can find it here; you can find out how I got on in 2017.

2017 was super duper kind to me.  It was a truly magnificent year.  I created and helped make a legacy that will long outlast me and for that I will be forever proud.

My son finished his first year at of his Mechanical Engineering Degree at Cardiff Uni with the equivalent of a first and is thriving and enjoying his second year.  He loves me and Hubby and is not afraid to show it.  We have a great relationship and see him and his friends loads..

I turned 50 and was overwhelmed by the number of cards, gifts and, most importantly, people, who came and celebrated it with me , it was the most joyous and long, celebration

I became a (step) grandma.  I say “step” purely to accentuate what a young grandmother I am (tee hee) ; I love him as my own as I do my two absolutely gorgeous stepsons.

And….. I am about to have the preview of my first ever solo art exhibition ….eek…on the 12th January.  I am setting it up with the curator at the Radnorshire Mueum  in Llandrindod Wells this Friday.  Wish me luck.

On reviewing my 2017 goals it became apparent to me that to progress and achieve what I want not only do I need to get myself more organised (have ordered white board and wall planners/calendar) but I need to learn some new skills.  I’ve been using twitter for a good 18 months now but I really feel like I’m missing the trick but I don’t know what the trick is so don’t know what questions to ask.  I also don’t use Instagram or Pinterest even though I have accounts as I really can’t see how to use them properly .  I need some social media courses.

This is what I want to do;

I want to LEARN, I want to APPLY that learning by INTERACTING more appropriately

1. I need to find a local guru who will run a small group or one to one workshop relatively locally, even in my house – I’m happy to provide the venue.  LEARN advanced skills for Twitter.  LEARN how to get the best out of Pinterest and Instagram and decide whether it it is advantageous to use all these platforms in relation to the time I would need to commit to maintaining all these platforms
2. Sort out my blog/website.  At the moment I have an old website that I can’t update www.cerdynvilla.co.uk.  I also have a new blog/website cerdynvilla.wales which is supposed to be my ‘lifestyle’ hub and link all my facets together B&B , stained glass and art, teaching, blogging etc…needs completely restructuring…. its on wordpress so in theory I should be able to do it myself but am happy to pay someone (you know who you are 😉 ) for a half day or full day of their time to get it right and remove the old site
3. Decide what I want each platform to achieve and either get them working together or seperate them.  For example twitter is pretty much the place I rant on about politics, religion, women’s issues, mental health etc   but I also want it to enjoy all the linkys and maybe I also want it to generate business for art and glass.  So does this mean I should have 2 accounts?
4. FB – should I be using FB pages instead of websites for Cerdyn Villa B&B and Berni Benton Art and Glass or do the pages suffice?  Should they link to blogs instead?

Once I’ve embraced the learning I should be able to work towards some measurable goals, so, following on from 2017 and my review of how that went here are my 2018 measurable goals

1. STAINED GLASS DESIGNING, COMMISSIONS, TEACHING : create a pricing sheet so people can access my services and know what they are likely to be charged and how.  I think sometimes people don’t ask for a window or a design because they are embarrassed about asking the cost and then having to decline the service.  Likewise, because I don’t have a structure for costing, I always find I’m underselling myself.  Sometimes I think I lose business because I am too cheap, it gives a false message that I’m either not very confident in my abilities or my work isn’t good enough to charge the going rate.  SO in JANUARY I need to create a charging/costing structure and then advertise it somewhere (using the social media learning that I will have implemented by then or not long after)
2. TEACHING: organise and advertise the first private workshop at my home studio for late January / early February and RUN IT !!! Get my head around a stained glass retreat combining teaching with staying at my B&B , possibly engage with other crafters/artists.  Decide a format and advertise it in JANUARY. Run a trial retreat early MARCH.  I’d also like to continue to co teach at Myddfai, offer more workshops and hopefully have the opportunity to deliver a window project similar to the one Jan-Jun 2017, from SEPTEMBER 2018.  This means keeping up the momentum within the team at Myddai to source a funding stream and create the opportunity.   I need to be proactive in that.
3. COMMISSIONS: target is to obtain commitment and complete 6 glass or art commissions in 2018.  I have one painting commission deadline November 2018, a small glass commission for this month.  I hope that two window commission I did the drawings for and quoted for last year will come to fruition this year, if not I need new ones to replace them and two more.
4.  PUBLIC SPEAKING – I have offered to do two, Womens Institute talks already during 2018.  I want to run them with a view to obtaining commissions or teaching opportunities.  My goal is to write the talk and decide the demo, prepare a ‘talk pack’ so I know exactly what I need and how long it will take.  I want to have this ready by EASTER.
5. TWITTER: I wonder if 750 followers is too much to ask of myself by the end of 2018?  Most importantly I want to be more INTERACTIVE; LEARN how to set up useful lists;  use my lists; what the point of moments are; and engage in more linkys.  I think setting a follower target is probably the only way to measure progress on Twitter.  However. I get the vague feeling that there are better ways to analyse twitter success / failure.  That will come with the learning… you can find me on twitter @Berni_Benton
6. I’ve joined @64M_Artists and their #TheJanuaryChallenge.  My goal is to complete all the daily tasks and share (some) of them.  its a great idea.  5-10 minutes a day to do something creative and be a bit mindful about how you felt doing it.  Then share via their FB ( @64millionartists )and/or Twitter ( @64M_Artists )
7. BLOGGING – another area where I really want to be able to measure my success in terms of interaction, what I want to do is know who is reading, responding to and sharing my blog.  However, at the moment my prime reason for blogging is my need to ‘mind dump’.  But I do like it when other people find my ramblings interesting in some way.  I also love to read other peoples blogs.  For want of a better measuring tool I will pick these two arbitary numbers by which to measure my blogging success in 2018.  Please bloggers out there, advise me of a better way to measure.  Followers  – increase from 143 to 200; views from 18.000 to 25,000.  There must be better stats to keep watch of.
8. FACEBOOK:  I went back in 2017 and redivided my Cerdyn Villa B&B page from my Berni Benton Glass and Art page.   For a while it made total sense to combine them but now I’m a ‘real’ Artist  (what with having both commission and an exhibition under my belt – ooo eer get me!), I think they need to stand independently whilst supporting each other.  Again its the interaction that really matters and I guess I could measure that by targeting reviews.  so here we go.  For @BerniBentonGlassArt, I’d love to have 35 reviews by year end.   I’d also like to have 1000 followers (thats a step up from 11 and 753 respectively).   @CerdynVillaBandB I’ll aim for 35 reviews and 500 followers (from 11 and 375).
9. OK here’s the target that I least want to do but most need to achieve.  I need to make stock items for outlets in the area.  I have a catalogue of my own designs made into light catchers which sell well – garden birds, Easter themes, Christmas themes, potted flowers etc but I never have any made.  I advertise some of them for sale ‘made to order’ over at my Etsy shop but I really must get some stock made…. so (even as I’m typing this my head is shouting ‘won’t happen’.) I’m setting myself a target of 2 stock items a week on top of any that are specific orders…  that’s 100 speculative items to make before Christmas.  Keep asking me how I’m doing folks otherwise this one may drop by the wayside again this year and I will be so ashamed of myself.
10. The Vlog… I’m not setting this as a target as I failed to embrace it last year.  What I am hoping is that it will organically become part of my social media development once I engage in the learning process.

So there we go, 10 (well 9) measurable targets for the business me for 2018. I’ll keep you posted (whether you like it or not!)

In life my goal remains my mantra Love, Laugh, Live; and, as I shimmy my way into 2018, I feel full of hope for a glorious 12 months.

Happy New Year xxx