Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Dimitris Pikros, Owner of Art-mindset Methodology, located in London, United Kingdom.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I am the owner of art-mindset methodology, an art-mindset training method designed for creative entrepreneurs and fine arts foundation industries, in order to generate a growth mindset and build meaningful skills in their life and work.

Art-mindset methodology is not just another art training or life coaching orientation method; it is a different approach that shifts our understanding of creativity and life.

Art-mindset methodology works by challenging your mind and your creativity and helping creative people discover next to me how to improve their work process and how to design their own life in the way they want. It combines self-discovery and creative modern tutoring and application.

I can help to:

  • Identify the nature and level of support required.
  • Improving creative thinking, innovation skills, and productivity.
  • Receiving self-discovery through art techniques.
  • Embrace the knowledge of art materials and how to build greater freedom to express, develop an idea/concept and come about with their own style.
  • Understand the uses of Colour, Value, and Hue from a personal growth perspective.
  • Use the Core Principles of Drawing for all levels (Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced) to capture the best proportion and tips to improve their drawing.
  • Understand Lightness as visual perception of the luminance of an object.
  • Explore and experiment with different artistic techniques like Layout, Coloration, Inscrutable, Paper Surgery, Zentangle, Distortion, Double Exposure, Obscure Portraiture, Collage, and Digital Art.
  • Create art that represents the outlook of the present moment to fuse new dialogues of shapes, textures, and elements inspired by our art/design/music/technology-oriented times. The outcome of that process is what I call an “Innovative Art Manifesto.”
  • Learn about concepts/big ideas that make connections between art and life through the disciplines of aesthetics, art criticism, art history, innovative thinking, art production and communication, and sustainable art.
  • What is their Reality (current situation).
  • Mastering time management techniques.
  • Obtaining progressive free thinking and holistic research.
  • Developing their growth mindset and well-being.
  • Make a plan, display their actions, and put their plan into action.
  • Assisting their art and design portfolio.
  • Getting mentally fit, building self-esteem, and setting goals.
  • Merging celebration and fun.

Tell us about yourself

My name is Dimitris Pikros, and I am from Greece. I have an award-winning contemporary painting background, experience in co-curating art shows, and experience in teaching my art-mindset methodology with a history of recognition for performance by also adapting my “innovative art manifesto” techniques and mindset meditating approaches since 2010.

My grandmother once told me that when I was little, I spent hours and hours looking at the small window of her house without speaking, almost meditating (without being aware, of course, of what I was doing), and one day I told her: "Grandma, there is a world out there that I want to know" - since then my adventure of seeking knowledge began.

All studies haven't come into my life by chance -if such a thing exists- since I realized that I was the one that unconsciously sought them. I understood clearly that I am the one who decides, not only about designing my own life but also about living life on my own terms. That broke all my previous barriers and gave me enough motivation and inspiration to design a holistic and creative training method that can always raise creative people to the next level.

Thus, I started spending years researching and practicing on myself everything I specialised in, and eventually applying them professionally as an art-mindset coach and tutor to my students and clients. During that period of experience, I highlighted the important topics of my studies in order to create an integrated strategic method that will be able to help creative people realise the growth obstacles of their lives and of their creativity. An 80-page art training method that will manage to generate mindset freedom for their own lives and work. So the outcome of the art-mindset methodology arose.

What motivates me every day is feeling that I have had a productive day, feeling active, healthy, and a little crazy at the same time -as Seal's song says: "we're never gonna survive, unless we get a little crazy. In a world full of people, only some want to fly -Isn't that crazy?"

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

It's the fact that I am able to share my knowledge and everything I learned and to contribute with all that to creative people and to students by giving them useful training and tools that will serve them not only for their achievements but also for the follow-up of their life and their profession based on an art-mindset way of living.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

I think it is keeping the same frequency of passion, motivation, and energy in yourself, almost like you are in love with your profession until the very end. I believe the day your devotion and enthusiasm ends, the service of the business you offer also ends. The other point that I consider very difficult, same as important as the previous one, is the positioning and establishment of your profession, especially for small businesses and entrepreneurial people who are just starting out and have little infrastructure and experience.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. The research of your profession has to be clear - even if that sounds like a cliché- people who set clear goals are happy people. People need to feel useful - it is in our nature. In fact, there is absolutely nothing in life, in nature, in existence (objective reality) that does not have a useful role. So during the Research phase, you have to clarify the steps to finding what you want to do, what you really need to accomplish by this, what are people's needs you will be assisting with, and why you would be useful to them.
  2. Explore and check your reality. In a world full of fake news, being real is more important than ever; it's like currency. Being real means having the ability to see your situation for what it really is rather than what one hopes or fears it might be. It may seem obvious, but the truth is that most of the time, being real and authentic can be a great challenge. Being real means being honest about your skills and your expectations, as well as being frank about your flaws and working hard to overcome them. The idea is to put your ego aside and your values first in order to make your profession (or any goal) persistent and not ephemeral. We do not usually deal with reality, the state of our profession as it really is, rather than as you might want it to be. To be realistic, your profession must represent an objective you are willing and able to work towards.
  3. Verify: your values, your priorities, your fears, your comfort zone, your learning zone, your growth zone, your strategies, your perspective, your confidence, your flexibility, your curiosity, your patience, and above all, verify that you are enough! And as Jean Michel Basquiat said: "It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you are not.”

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.artmindset.online/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artmindsetmethod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artmindsetmethodology

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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