Sam's Testimonials | DARETOGROW / The Online Course

Sam’s Testimonial

26 March 2018

“With support and inspiration from Lisa, I was able to put on my first ‘Paint A Cow’ workshop”, Sam said. “I’m now on my fifth work show and the cows and I are going on tour! We’ll be visiting 10 spots around the UK and my aim is to inspire lots of artists around the country to paint their own cows. This will help me to develop my online platform – ‘Be an Artist’ supporting people to make creativity more important in their every day life.”

Meet Sam Morris. Sam is an artist who paints cows from her beautiful ‘Cow Shed’ in Gloucestershire. Commissioned as special gifts by family members and friends, Sam creates unique and beautiful paintings that create a special moment between family members and friends all over the UK.

“It’s in handing over the gift that I get a real feeling of connection”, said Sam, “And that’s what I repeat every day in my business.”

Before reconnecting with her love of painting and building her business as a full time artist, Sam was Head of Business for The Prince’s Trust for over 10 years. Sam now combines the experience she gained working with business mentors and start-up companies with her successful career as a artist, to support people into becoming full time artists.

Sam joined DARETOGROW / The Online Course in Cohort 2, having heard about DARETOGROW through a Facebook ad. Sam started to watch the vlogs and comment on the posts.

“I started to feel ‘part of the gang’ quite quickly”, she said.

When talking about the programme, Sam said: “I knew the power of habit but the programme really brought it home to me. It turned up the volume on the benefit of introducing good habits. It really shined the light on my habits and I started asking: ‘what habits do I want to undertake?’… ‘where do I want my focus to be?'”

Sam added: “I remember part of the programme separating all of the different parts of your life into a pie and realising: you can’t eat the pie all in one go… You’ve got to take it slice by slice. It’s your choice -what slice you want to tackle – and that was a very empowering feeling. I knew I could go back to other parts of the pie when the time was right. This helped me realise I could just take on a little bit and focus on moving the needle on that bit first.”

Sam fitted the programme in and around her work. “I’d make a cup of tea and come down to the shed”, Sam explained. “I’d set out my paints and I’d log on to the computer. I’d either look for a vlog and make sure I was up to date or I’d log into the programme. It became part of my habit that when I was working here I’d hear Lisa’s voice in the background, playing on the vlog or through the lessons”.

“As you log on there are different models and different lessons you can go through”, Sam added. “Some lessons I’d have on repeat so I could learn by osmosis whilst my focus was on the painting.”

A really brilliant surprise of the course for Sam was the uncovering of a new passion…vlogging! Sam went from being ‘camera shy’ to running her own weekly vlog through her You Tube channel Be An Artist.

“The idea of putting myself in front of the camera and talking to the camera and being comfortable in front of the camera wasn’t something I had on my list of things to do! It snuck up on me because Lisa is so inspiring in the way she tells her story – the highs, the lows, the challenges, the successes – and you believe in the story because it’s in real time”, Sam explained. “Suddenly, telling my story of becoming an professional, commercial artist was possible. I thought: I can do that in a really authentic way, in my way; I can find my own unique style because Lisa has found her style.”

Sam loves the supportive DARETOGROW community and loves the discipline of tuning into weekly lives or Facebook challenges. “It’s a supportive community”, said Sam, “and every now and then there is a discipline to turn up and be part of a conversation with the others – whether that’s a live or an early morning Sunday”.

When asked ‘what do you love about the programme’, Sam said: “The things people don’t often see are the little tiny things you do every day. They eventually add up to the huge shifts and they give you the courage and confidence to make the big leaps. It’s a mix of the little steps and the big steps. The programme allows you do both and that’s what I love.”

This year, Sam will be going ‘on the road’, taking her new ‘Paint a Cow’ workshop around the country.

“With support and inspiration from Lisa, I was able to put on my first ‘Paint A Cow’ workshop”, Sam said. “I’m now on my fifth work show and the cows and I are going on tour! We’ll be visiting 10 spots around the UK and my aim is to inspire lots of artists around the country to paint their own cows. This will help me to develop my online platform – ‘Be an Artist’ supporting people to make creativity more important in their every day life.

Press play to watch Sam talk about her business and how the course has impacted her life.