Creativity is My Purpose

Cuppa Creativity has been around for a while. Since 2013.

It was a blog, an art studio, a Facebook page - alternately and at the same time sometimes. But it only became a business in April 2020.

I had been laid off from a software company after 15 years and suddenly started getting freelance design requests. Having always dreamed of running my own business, it felt like it was now or never to take the leap.

The Question

I already owned both the CuppaCreativity.com and VivianLiebenson.com domains and spent a fair amount of time weighing the pros and cons of each name. I loved the name Cuppa Creativity, I loved my logo, but I was worried that it didn't sound like a design agency. 

On the other hand, my name is hard to spell and pronounce. I mean, not for me. But based on the fact that everyone asks me to spell it when they hear it, and 50% of everyone who reads it immediately remembers it as Lieberman or pronounces it Libenson, Lieberson (or also Lieberman), I didn't really like my odds of being found on web searches. (Now forget I wrote any of that and remember my name is Liebenson...Vivian Liebenson.)

The Decision

I also knew I still wanted to sell my artwork on my website, so my gut reaction was to go with Cuppa Creativity. I redesigned my logo, added a tagline that said Art + Graphic Design, registered my business with the state of Maryland, and the decision was made.

But, there was this niggling feeling in the back of my mind that I couldn't really reconcile the art and design being part of the same business. I also couldn't articulate their relationship.

Until last week.

As a small business owner, an entrepreneur, or solopreneur as we are often called, I suddenly had to learn how to market myself. Quickly. And as I clicked on more and more marketing articles, I stumbled onto this branding eCourse. There were a number of helpful exercises in it, but the most useful of all was a simple question:

What do you stand for?

 It was a simple question, but the answer was the biggest aha moment I've had in a while.

I stand for creativity. 

Everything I do is about creativity. My company, my purpose, my raison d'etre is to help people be more creative!

It all made sense. Creativity was baked right into my company name. 

The free art events I offer help people set aside the time and space to be creative.

I create art, frequently, and share it to inspire people to keep up a regular creative practice.

And my art for sale inspires and delights people when they see it everyday.

But what about graphic design and web design?

It's simple. I help other business owners get to their creative work. By taking design off their plate, they don't have to waste time learning to be a graphic designer or web designer when they could be tending their own creative projects. And it doesn't matter if the work they do is considered creative. Anyone running a business is using, at the very least, creative problem-solving on a regular basis. In all likelihood, they are probably using more creativity than they realize. So here's to following your intuition. Your conscious mind may not immediately understand why it's the right decision. But, it almost certainly is, and you'll probably figure out how to articulate it later.