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Streaming through the leaves of the ancient twisted oak trees, orange morning light kisses the tall grasses below and illuminates my little brown-wood clapboard art studio in the distance. The string of party lights that trim the porch are glowing as if turned on.

The tops of the oaks sway gently with the welcome breeze on this otherwise oppressively hot morning. The dogs sit atop the deck, at high alert for chasable squirrels. And I’m blinded as the sun blasts my eyes, and ready to let the screen door slam behind me as I escape to the cooler air-conditioned indoors.

Avoiding Reality

Now home for a week after my summer escape from reality, I’m still working hard to avoid it. The mere sight of a TV in a restaurant makes me walk out the door as I try to continue my vacation from news media. I suppose I have to ease into it slowly. 

Tuning Out TV

Remarkably, the temptation is always there. I’m so used to turning the TV on when cooking dinner or sitting around at night that it’s a battle not to succumb, yet my stress melted away so much when I took TV out of my summer that I’m trying to keep it away as long as possible.

Reading Old Books

Since I have no TV in my studio, I make my way out there to start reading a pile of new art books I’ve recently acquired. I’ve also been reading Elbert Hubbard, a philosopher from the late 1800s. I discovered him through my friend Roy WIlliams, who told me Hubbard had created Roycroft, a commune for artists, writers, and musicians in East Aurora, New York. So Brady and I stopped there for a night and had dinner with artist Thomas Kegler, who lives minutes away (and who graciously kept the dogs, since the hotel wouldn’t).

Ahead of His Time

Hubbard, as it turns out, was the biggest-selling author and largest publisher of the time, yet few know of him today. His most famous book was A Message to Garcia, and he is known for starting the Arts & Crafts movement in America after a visit with designer William Morris in England. The campus at Roycroft is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. Small, but quality — just as everything Hubbard published was done with elegance, high design, and quality paper. Though I did not know of him at the time I started publishing magazines, we appear to have shared that interest in quality.

Don’t Cheap Out

I’ve taken many a lesson from my parents, especially my dad, whose steps I followed into being an entrepreneur. He used to tell me how much quality mattered and to never give in to the temptation to go cheap if it affects the quality or appearance of your brand. It was one of the most important lessons I ever learned — because it matters. Even this week, a woman I met with picked up Fine Art Connoisseur for the first time and said, “This is one of the most beautiful magazines I’ve ever seen.” She even hugged it! You simply can’t get that impact with cheap paper and weak designers.

What if everything you and I do is done with the highest-quality aesthetics in mind?

What if everything you touch is done with excellence?

A Giant Turnoff

Someone once approached me about buying my magazines. Curious, I asked what immediate changes they would make, to which they said they would save by cutting paper quality and doing away with the thick paper covers and high gloss (all of which are expensive). It was then that I knew I’d never sell, and my instruction to my heirs is to never follow the temptation to save money when it comes to appearance. 

Pondering Excellence

I’ve been thinking about excellence a lot lately, and I’m trying to up my own game. How can I take what’s good and make it better? How can I improve on our publications, trips, retreats, conventions, and video products? Though people tend to say good enough is good enough, raising the bar makes you better. And others can tell the difference.

We need to always be asking ourselves the question … do I want to be good enough, or do I want to be better than good enough?

Done Well Isn’t Enough

I tell my kids that getting things done isn’t enough, and getting them done well isn’t enough. Getting things done to the highest possible standard is where you need to be with everything. 

Deep Quality

In my books by Elbert Hubbard, the quality of printing and design is impeccable. These things were clearly the best on the market at the time, and to this day few books approach his standards. Publishers over time have told themselves that cheap paper and poor design are OK. They’re not OK in my book.

What has this got to do with you if you’re not publishing anything? What’s it got to do with your family?

Challenge Yourself

Striving for better is always a great challenge. I’m not suggesting buying better, though that’s OK if it’s meaningful to you, but making better. Taking the extra time to do things with excellence.

Replace or Repair

Our little summer cabin was built in 1898, and this summer, when an old fixture broke, I could have gone to Home Depot and bought a new, modern fixture that faked being old. But I wanted to keep the vibe, so I spent several hours over two days, with lots of trips to the hardware store, to repair the old fixture that dated back to the early 1900s. I felt gratified in taking the time to do something right. In the case of that old camp, new isn’t better. Original is better.

Pride Matters

Take pride in doing things well. Take time to get them right. Go out of your way to make sure the design is excellent so others have a wonderful experience. Even if you’re doing something for yourself, make it the best it can be. Whether that’s a house you’re building, a report you’re making, the presentation of a meal on a plate — anything. 

Our world is focused on cheap. They bark about high quality, but it’s rarely found. I’m not suggesting you do things expensively — quality is often unrelated to price. 

Excellence matters. It makes others feel as though you care. Though some will balk and say it doesn’t matter, you can balk back and say, “It matters to me.” 

Eric Rhoads

PS: I just wrote a piece about the 10th-anniversary art trip we’ve created. It is truly a quality experience that is un-duplicatable. This year will top them all. (Read a letter I just sent out about it here).

We tend to believe that success is a signal that change isn’t needed. Though our November Figurative Art Convention & Expo is only three years old, we’re making some changes this year to make it better, just as we’re doing with the Plein Air Convention & Expo, even though it’s almost sold out and we don’t need to make changes. It’s just the right thing to do. Let’s all be the best we can be by pushing ourselves to be better than yesterday.

The soft wind tickles the birch leaves and deep green pines as they move gently in harmony with the breeze that appeared here in the wilderness overnight, after an intense furnace of heat baked us over the past few days.

Rocking on the Porch

Soft, squishy carpets of transparent red oxide pine needles blanket the ground below this old porch where I sit rocking. It’s my first time on this porch, looking over the lake. It’s about 25 feet long against the decorative wood shingles on the wall, a bird feeder hanging from the 120-year-old roofline, perched on a slight hill about 10 feet from the shoreline. 

The Smell of Pines

The seven owners over the past 120 years have tastefully hidden these cabins in the trees, not visible from the water. The tall, established trees share the shoreline with fields of blueberry bushes and young pines hoping to one day make the journey to the sky.

Brain on Fire

My favorite mornings are those when I’m feeling well rested and my brain has been spitting out ideas faster than a firehose into a teacup. I awaken to capture them all with pen and ink, knowing some will be lost because I can’t write fast enough, and others may not seem like a good idea with the perspective of daylight.

The flood of ideas is often the result of experiencing what I call an emotional trigger, a moment or event that makes me realize something about myself, something that makes me desire change in my life. 

Rocket Fuel

Emotional triggers are like igniting the fuel in a rocket, pushing it forward to new and undiscovered planets. They are never predictable, never obvious, and they creep up on you like a thief in the night, stealing away your comfortable life by suddenly making you realize you need to do more, and often new things. 

Though I embrace them, I also dread these emotional triggers, because comfort is a wonderful place to be. Yet that same comfort is what binds our arms to our favorite chairs, where we can easily rock our lives away, living out the status quo.

An Earthquake

When these triggers come, they shake our very being, they awaken us internally, and they crack the foundation on which we stand like a giant earthquake, leaving cracks into which we can fall. We can be swallowed up in clinging to our existing stale yet comfortable life. It’s a point at which we either leap to new ground, unfamiliar territory, and embrace it as our new home, or we live among the cracks of certainty. 

The Colors of an Exotic Bird

When we cling to certainty, we often fail to experience what our creator has placed before us, which is the beautiful, colorful, shimmering peacock feathers opened just for a moment, so that we might see our bright future. At that moment we either chase it to see where it leads, or we tell ourselves we like where we are and we are unwilling to see what lies ahead.

Living life as a curious explorer, challenging ourselves to climb new hills and enter uncharted waters, is what takes us to new levels of excellence and excitement.

Unexpected Stimulation

For me, emotional triggers come in many forms. Someone will say something seemingly simple at a cocktail party, and it may help me put something together I didn’t even know I was searching for. It might be something one of the kids will show me, or something my wife will say, or often it’s a simple statement in a book or a movie.

I don’t chase emotional triggers. They show up at the most inconvenient times, and they immediately change your plans.

A Family Prayer

My dad has a prayer that we kind of consider our family prayer … “Change our plans according to your plans for us.” And to me these emotional triggers I receive are that voice telling me, “Turn left here. Trust me, just do it.”

A Night Out

Last night my trigger was the result of a movie, Yesterday, about a young musician with a career that’s going nowhere until a blackout wipes out the world’s memory of certain things — one of which is the Beatles’ songs. He becomes famous bringing those songs, as his own, to the world. 

Though I loved the film, what triggered me was that I had never stopped to realize the impact those four men had on the world, and the impact those songs had in our lives, and how the world without them would not be as good as the world with them in it. 

The Mozart of Our Time

The result of that thought was that these men, the musicians McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr, were the Mozarts of our time, and their persistence made an impact on the world that truly changed culture forever. 

Touching More Lives

As the movie showed this man performing in Wimbledon in front of tens of thousands of people who are emotionally responding to the words and music of these songs, it struck me that I’m not doing enough, that I’m not touching enough lives, that I have too much more to offer and that I can’t stop, or even slow or get comfortable. Could I, in some small way, change the world for the better?

Happy People

As you know, I’ve been on a mission to teach a million people to paint, because painting changed my life, opened my eyes, and made me see the world through the eyes of an artist. And I have discovered that plein air (outdoor) painters are the happiest people I’ve ever met, I think because they are painting and being creative, but also because they are outside in nature and with other painters, which is fulfilling socially, and because they are traveling to beautiful spots and continually challenged, which keeps them mentally stimulated.

Doing More Than Before

My mission is going well, more people are joining our ranks every day, and we’re able to help people with things like our Plein Air Force Veterans Squad, which is getting veterans in the U.S. and Canada to discover painting and perhaps giving those with PTSD a break from their demons. But this film made me realize that I need a bigger platform, I need to reach more people, that a million is a nice goal, but it’s too small. 

Embrace Discomfort

Now, frankly, I am comfortable. I could coast for the rest of my life, probably keep doing the things I’m doing, and just keep the machine running. But this film made me realize that doing the status quo isn’t enough, and that I have to ramp up and do more. I have no idea what doing more looks like, how it will change me, but I can tell you that when I follow that voice, those emotional triggers, it always results in change.

Have you ever experienced emotional triggers?

I’m guessing you have. Falling in love is an emotional trigger that changes you forever. Having kids is also a trigger, because you have to rework your life. I never cared about making money until I had to have enough to feed and educate my kids. 

For years I didn’t even want kids and I never thought I’d have them, until I met the woman I loved so much that kids were the next natural step. Now I can’t imagine life without them.

Deep in Your Gut

Emotional triggers are feelings of discomfort. When something hits your gut and you know you’re the one who has to do something about it. It can’t be “Someone else will do it.” You may be the only one on Earth who ever receives that idea, that thought. What would have happened if Edison had not followed his emotional triggers? I’d be writing this in the dark and mailing it to you (thanks to whoever thought of the idea of mail).

The key to emotional triggers … we all get them. The key is being tuned in to embrace them, and to grab them and do something with them. 

Different Than Ideas

I get hundreds of ideas a week, but emotional triggers are bigger than ideas. They are things that are beyond ideas, things that can change your life and direction. Maybe they are things that will change the world, or things that will simply change your family or your work or your retirement. 

You should also know those quiet voices will nag you because you know, at a subconscious level, that you’re supposed to be doing something with them.

Do you have something nagging at you?

Chances are this voice has you in mind, and you are the designated person, the only one on earth, who is supposed to do it. 

Listen for it.

Embrace it.

Take action.

The result will be something you did not know you had in you. You will fear it, you will try to avoid it, but it will nag you till you do something with it, and as a result your life will be rich, never boring, and never sedentary. 

The idea of getting new triggers at a time when most people are winding down is both frightening and invigorating. Having new purpose and new challenge is exciting, though very discomforting. 

No-Regrets Living

Looking back, yearning for what you never tried, is not the way you want to live. “What could have been” should never be on your lips. If you’re breathing and can communicate, even if you’re physically impaired, you can still change the world. Stephen Hawking did not let that stop him, and I cannot imagine how difficult it was and how much patience and persistence it required. But he was triggered and knew he had things to do. So do you.

Eric Rhoads

PS: I have no idea how this new trigger will impact what I’m doing, but I know I need your support and don’t want to do it alone. I do know I need to amplify my efforts. If you would consider passing this on to just 10 people, the 10 you care about the most, and if they subscribe (you should too if this is just showing up somehow), you can help me touch more people. And if you happen to know someone who has a platform that can help amplify … a publisher, a celebrity, a media person, an influencer … send them a note and pass it on.

If I had one goal, it would be to help the world see another perspective, one that is rooted in love and respect. Chances are, if you’re reading this, you believe that too. Let’s help others find it.

PS2: Speaking of love, today is my brother Dennis’ birthday. He’s two years older than me, and I love and respect him, and thank him for being a role model for me in many ways.

PS3: There are a lot of people who are going on my behind-the-scenes fine art trip to the South of France and the trail of Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin, Chagall, and others. Though it’s not a painters’ trip, it’s just for people who love art, I have decided to do a painters’ trip for three days before to Saint-Paul De Vence, a charming medieval art village in France. If you’ve been reading about this stuff, want to go on the trip, and would love to dip your toe into painting — or if you’re on the main trip and want to go on this one to observe the painters, or learn to paint yourself — I’ll happily carve out some of my painting time for you to set up beside me for some personal instruction. I may have a target of a million people or more, but it starts with one person at a time. Of course, one of the best ways to begin that journey, without having to go to France, is to join our Plein Air Basics Course at the Plein Air Convention in Denver this coming May. It’s very, very close to being sold out; we’ve already exceeded last year’s attendance and won’t have many seats before long. I think we’ve already sold out a couple of hotels. But you will be with other beginners (in the Basics Course), and the instructors stay with you the entire week to coach you. Many people have done their first painting ever at the convention. It’s one of the best ways you can learn plein air painting (or even learn to paint).

My cold skin is instantly warmer as I sit in the sun-baked 100-year-old Adirondack chair on the old stone porch next to the dock. Once the foundation of a lakefront house that burned decades ago, this porch has a view across a vast lake, reflecting the blue overhead and the distant forests that surround it. The water is splashing against the shore from the wake of an old aluminum rowboat en route to the next secret fishing hole. The roaring sound of its 1950s-era outboard motor briefly disrupts the chirps from the branches above. As it passes, the cheery chirping returns.

Sly and the Family Stone

Pondering memories created here at the lake with the family, I’m reminded of a song from my youth, “Hot Fun in the Summertime.” The kids will never forget their summers here, sailing across the lake with friends, cruising in speedboats towing inner tubes or skiers, hiking the deep forests, even cleaning up garbage cans invaded by rogue raccoons and bears. Though my own lake memories growing up did not involve bears, forests, or raccoons on Lake Wawasee, in Indiana, I can remember the freedom I felt driving the boat as fast as I could, long before I ever got my driver’s license, and my summer friends who lived in different places the rest of the year. 

Flames of Memories

Last night my kids went to a bonfire with other kids on the lake, all reconnecting in person after a year apart. Though they are in contact minute-by-minute all year on Snapchat and Instagram, it’s the ghost stories, the starry sky, and the roaring fires with friends that will create precious lake memories.

A Magnet to Draw Everyone Back

One of the biggest gifts I can give my family is the gift of summer memories, and it is my hope that they will come back to this place during and after college with their families, and that their kids and grandkids will also have these experiences in this special place. Our intent is to be a magnet so we can see our family more often. It’s the gift my father gave us at his place, drawing us together summer after summer, and it’s a tradition I hope to continue in our own place.

Finding Themselves

One of the great joys of my life is watching my kids grow into teens and young adults, watching their phases of growth, seeing the struggles they share, and knowing there are things that have them confused or perplexed, but they’ll never talk about them to us. It’s that time when they really start to find themselves, time when we can contribute but not control. Letting go, yet keeping a lifeline, is a delicate balance for a parent. 

When I think back to the difficulty of being a teen, it was a struggle to find myself. In an old bit, comedian Jackie Mason said, “I went to find myself, but did not know where to look. And what if I find myself and don’t like what I find?” I wish I could give them all the answers to make their paths easier, yet they have to make their own paths, their own mistakes, and probably wouldn’t listen anyway. Still, I try to impart some wisdom, hoping it will sink in somewhere down the road when it’s needed. I share the little secrets I’ve learned in this life of experience. Here are a few I’ll be sharing.

Listening Is More Powerful Than Speaking

Being a know-it-all is part of growing up — our egos are still in control and provide brash confidence. And though we need ego to push us through life, it’s not till we learn to listen that we see real progress. As a young business owner, I was demanding, knew all the answers, and was not very considerate of those around me. Little did I know then that listening to others is the key to everything. The Bible says, “There is wisdom in multiple counselors,” and those who think they have all the ideas are missing out on some of the best ideas by not listening. Listening to your co-workers/team members, listening to your customers, listening to outside advisors is all priceless. Ultimately, you have to take it all in and make a decision. You may or may not use those ideas, but some of the best things in my life and career are a result of listening.

Surround Yourself with the Best and Meet with Them Often

A variation on listening is to be a part of a mastermind group, or getting some mentors and advisors who are the best in their field. A mastermind group is a combination of great minds working together, as one mind, to help solve your problems. It took me decades to discover this treasure trove of help, and it has made more of an impact on my life and business in the past five years than all my years of experience combined. Why take the time to figure something out when you can find the best people in the world at a particular skill and ask them to help you solve your problems? No matter how good we are, we cannot see the bottle from the outside. We need others with experience to give us feedback. Seek to surround yourself with the best of the best. I’ve considered offering an art marketing mastermind group for artists, and may do it one day. The moment you let go of your ego, let go of thinking you have all the solutions and start listening and getting others to help, is the moment you see real progress begin.

Stories and Emotion Are the Most Effective Communication Tools

Facts and figures are rarely remembered, but stories almost always cut through. Stories are memorable. People visualize stories, so if you want to communicate anything to be remembered, tell it in story form. This is one of the most powerful yet simple things, and it changes everything. It’s worked for thousands of years. I can lecture my kids or my team members and it will never be remembered, but if I tell a story about the point I want to get across, it’s rarely forgotten. Just yesterday my son brought up a story I told him a decade ago, and he remembered it as clearly as the day I told him.

A Spirit of Generosity Amplifies Your Success

Giving is getting. The more you give, the more you get. In my early career it was all about me (ego), and all about getting from others. Frankly, it did not work all that well. The minute I decided that I should approach everything with a spirit of generosity, not interested in what I get, but instead interested in how much I can give, how I can help others, everything changed. For instance, we carved out a significant part of our profits and gave it to our employees. We carved out another significant piece and donated it to an organization that helps homeless people. And our attitude of being generous impacts the way we approach and address everything, hopefully making it better for everyone we encounter. “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” Proverbs 3:9-10.

World-Changing Purpose

Lastly: Life is short, then you die. We are each given life for a purpose. The sooner you focus on finding purpose and doing something that plays a significant role in changing the world, the more you will be fulfilled, and things will go better than ever. For me it was finding ways to help people in my two areas of passion … radio and art. Focusing on making people’s lives better, creating experiences, and helping others change their lives by finding something of value has made a giant difference.

Powerful Secrets

It took me decades to discover the power of these five tips. I discovered them one at a time, and they had a huge and powerful impact on my life and my business. They are simple principles that I have found amplify everything disproportionately. They can apply in life, in business, in charity, and in anything you do. 

Eric Rhoads

PS: When we start to reach mid-life, we start thinking that there must be more to life than this. It’s when most of us start to explore our inner thoughts and try to find our soul work. It’s when most of us discover our creative side. If that’s you and painting is what you’ve discovered, I’ve got some free lessons on some important principles you may want to learn. Don’t ignore the voices in your head. There is more to life. We are born to create. For me the discovery of painting was another life-changing moment, so another tip or secret … find something you love doing to create something. Find your art, and your life will be filled with interest, challenge, and joy.

PS2: When you walk into our 120-year-old camp on the lake, you’ll find a photo of a young girl planting a birch tree with her father. Today that tree at the edge of the water is a giant. We continued that tradition this week with our triplets, planting a new birch by the water. This birch has three trunks, representing our triplets. Its photo will hang beside the other for future residents to discover when this tree also becomes a giant.

PS3: A shout-out to Dean Pickering, editor supreme who helps create our art instruction videos. Today is his birthday! We love him and honor him today.