What's in a name? I had someone all upside down because I use my original real name on the internet.. It's my father's last name, an everyone knows it yadda yadda. Can't have anyone spoiling his name. First of all, in the scheme of things: Most of the world, doesn't even know who the hell my father was. So it's MY name I'm putting out there.

"Well I'll just have Facebook remove it"

Ya gonna go over the astrologer Dana Haynes too. Tell her she can't post her astrology stuff cause you didn't approve it? How about the author Dana Haynes? There is one out there. He writes fiction. Never read it, but he's taking up my name on Google search results when you search for the artist an it's annoying to me. Mainly because I'd like my art to be found, but he's got a budget for Adwords I don't have right now. Shows up more then any of us. There is also some tv personality out west that goes by Dana Haynes. Guess they should just go tell them they can't use the name Haynes, because someone died who once carried it.

What's in a name anyway?

I follow a guy named GaryVee on social media. He is branding his name. His parents ran a family business he helped blow over the top on the internet. I like him because I have a few things in common with him. One, the industry that he was in, my family was too. His was a liquor store, mine a tavern. Both he & I have been around since the early days on the internet following the trends. Busting butt on it. The difference between him & I is I had a divorce in there an lost my momentum.

You disappear on the internet pretty quickly if you don't keep hounding it.

Like him, I had spent time building a family business I didn't own an wasn't going to get credit for. It's your parents. I might have been Vice President of it on paper but just like him: It wasn't getting me anywhere. An if it did it would only be at the death of someone you love. Which doesn't feel so great. An I wanted to do art anyway if I had a choice where I was going to put my extra time and energy in. The thing I like about him so much is he got the internet was just as much a reality as “real life”. An when I talk about people I use to hang out with online or respect: He's the kind I was drawn to. The creatives that mixed business & the internet. That saw how important the internet was going to become. Who where interested in branding on it: Not just creating a website an leaving it sit out in open air an hopes someone visits it. Who weren't interested in get rich schemes, who saw the actual work you had to put in. Understood it. An interested in where it was heading.

I had my niche, to practice with: Daycare Providers & Moms.

It's what my life revolved around a lot at the time, so it was good practice on how to get up there to the top. An it took a lot of work to stay in the top ten. Discipline. I didn't have a full time marketing budget or anyone else but me to do the work. A few signed on to volunteer to write occasionally an that was about it. The ended up going into online teaching because it was starting to pay a little. Most couldn't afford those early days of really making a website work. Or the effort it takes keep one fresh: An keep on branding. Let alone have a budget to keep programming.

I just had to keep learning, an following the wave to stay on top.

It all came to a end, right about the time I was figuring out how to actually make it produce a income. My computer crashed for one. Which has messed me up several times, but I was getting a divorce. My husband at the time, an countless others around me just couldn't see why I thought this was so dang important. The most people used computers for at the time was bookkeeping. But there where other artist online, who just like me where learning to draw on theirs. Others learning how to build websites. Few where into all aspects of it like I was.

I was getting noticed so much a local Marketing Company contacted me.

They wanted to “interview” me. They said they where a publishing company an just getting into building websites: Would I be interested? Getting divorced of course I was. I went & got grilled basically about this or that topic. I was pretty much told afterwords, we like what your doing but you don't have a degree in it so please come back after you get one. An it was very much came across as “we are the real world”, the “authority” on this, you are not. What they had was something that was dying: Publishing & a hardware geek telling. They didn't undersand the internet. They just understood how to profit off people who knew they needed a website. They didn't have what I had. The ability to actually have people visit the websites. My self doubt, an listening to others tell me the “internet wasn't the real world” lead me back to college. I shouldn't have listened to them. I should have stayed on course an continued doing what I had been. It was working. Had I continued I'd have a site worth tons of money today.

I let people around me sabotage me.

They didn't, an a lot of them still don't understand the internet. They have a old school business model of how things work, an it's like pulling teeth to even get some to use their little computer phones correctly. When they finally did get it on it, I suddenly got attacked a lot in real life. Omg, she's saying this, she's doing that. No, I won't make a myspace page, or a Facebook page. She's a bad parent! I'm going to take her to court, an try to take away her son. I'm going to take her to court an have the judge stop her on Facebook. Even though everything I was doing was actually exactly what I should be doing. I had to deal with someone walking into court with a 100 pages of my facebook feed printed out. With them going on about how crazy I was, an how I was sabotaging them. The judge threw it out: basically stating all he sees me staying on it: Is leave me alone.

It's a fact, recorded down at the Winnebago Court house.

Literally trying to take away my free speech. It's the same people that always have sabotage me in real life, an my grandmother. So I pretty much ignore them as much as I can. But it's a little hard to ignore when they are calling police on you with false accusations, harassing you in court, through courts and the system. I've had police called, the health dept, dcfs an all kinds of stuff done to me all in the name of trying to shut me up. It's all on record. Documented.

An it's why I left the internet, an went an worked in a another town completely.

Then they called me “paranoid”. It's not paranoia if its really happening to you. They told everyone I had mental issues, tried to have me locked up in a mental ward an that I'm bipolar. When I was actually going through a breast cancer scare an pretty much starving cause I was too exhausted to work. They got away with taking my child away from me because I was too broke & sick to fight them off any longer. All sorts of dirty tricks pulled. An a lot of money lost combating it.

That's how real the internet is. An it's how real a bully is.

I suffer from PSTD from what happened before I was 13, an what happened after my grandmother & dad passed. I've had clinical depression from it. A normal reaction to BULLSHIT. In fact the first time I didn't go along with the program at 21, one of these people who was behind this tried to say I was crazy back then. So, I went to the a shrink. Told him all I had been through up to that point in my life. An that's exactly what he said: Your not crazy. Any normal person would be depressed having gone through what you have. Myself, I'm going back to what it is I do: Art. An I really don't give a rats ass if a few select few who bullied me back then or over the years don't like it. They where the major ones saying “the internet” isn't real. Scared of the technology to begin with. They don't understand it, aren't very good at it or the art of it. They are just running around with phones, thinking they are experts now since everyone uses one. Deep down bullies live in fear an try to push that on to others.

And the internet is competitive enough without having one of these bullies bothering you. Block them. Get a restraining order if you have to.

I am if one more thing happens to me.

Most people doing that won't have an major significance on the internet. They have little in real life. An if they do have some kind of influence, It won't last without them putting in the work I originally was talking about anyway. Few are willing to go the mile it takes to really be a “influencer” or successful on the internet. I had a 51% influencer rate back before I stepped out to deal with these bullies. Don't even waste your time with them. They are nothing but making themselves an obstacle to your success.

Much like that little marketing company did me. They knew a little bit, but not a lot. They knew a one side, but not all of it. Promoting even a small business on here is a lot of work to brand it. To really be successful on it, you have to be on about ten platforms at one time. But if you are an artist, not only do you have to do your art, sell it in real life, run a website, be on ten social sites at once but every art website on it there is.

It's a shit ton of work. It’s not just about Likes.

You don't have time to get side tracked by a bully who's jealous, insecure or doesn't understand what your doing. The art world is pretty competitive to begin with. You really have to stand out to sell art in the first place let alone on the internet. You really have to work the internet to stay alive in real world sales too. You can no longer just sell in the “real world”. You have to be in the “internet world” too. It's becoming “the world”. Just like Gary Vee says, I've said.

You can not rely on one or the other an make it.

Internet sales for artist are growing by 40%. But it's less then 1% of artist who actually make sales on the internet. I am one of those 1% who actually made sales. I've watched a whole art industry (photography) take a nose dive in “real life” because they just didn't have a strong internet presence. They can't compete with the internet photographers. An that was with them having some of the best locations in the “real world”. They are being forced to step up their game, include the internet or get out of the business.


I am a actual successful artist on the internet an in real life.

I'm telling you, I don't even know if I want to put in the effort required to “make it” with the health problems I have going on. I'm tired a lot, but I also don't want to give up because I know what's just around the corner an can be a guide. I'm going to listen to my gut on this, not someone else's who doesn't know what they are talking about. An isn't supportive.
I've been right to many times in the past for me to question it.

My dad made fun of me, few years before he passed because I said I wanted to go into tattoo. Asked me what the hell would I want to do that for? Well because it's an artform an I want my own businesses doing just art for a change. Not all this hassle. He was all, no no no: Whatcha need is to go into publishing. Print. Open us a newspaper.

See?

My dad, thought old school business. An not a lot about art. I was right: years later tattoo exploded. Publishing was/is loosing money. I should have listened to MY GUT. Instead of getting caught up in his approval or not. I'm going to listen to guru's that have been on this thing as long as I have that actually know what they are talking about. Those are the types I've missed. But I would advise you to be cautionary about even that: A lot are self professed guru's that haven't really put in the work. An not really going to teach you all aspects of something you need to know.

Just like there are a lot of self professed photographers running around these days. They've never worked in studio. Don't know sales. Don't understand branding. They haven't invested in software. They aren't good with enhancements. Don't know Photoshop or Lightroom or even much about a camera. Let alone much about the internet. Yet they got a social media account an think they are going to be the next Anne Grddes. It took her decades to build that kind of portfolio & income.

It doesn't happen over night.

You can claim to be whatever you want to, but it’s the real work involved that makes one an expert. Even on the internet, unlike what so many want to believe: You have to put in the work.


I've got so much work out there, I can't even keep track of it anymore. I've worked at companies, I can't even show a quarter of my work. But get this?

A bully will sit around an tell you: You never worked. Don't listen to them.

Art is WORK. Even if you aren’t earning a big paycheck.

It just doesn't feel like work to most of us because we enjoy the work. I've put my share of 18 hour days on it. An that's the other reason I like Gary Vee: suggest if your interested in making a name for yourself, your business or company you listen to him. He's done the work in real life. He gets the internet because he has done it successfully. Most of what he say's can be applied to any business. He's very matter of fact about it. An gets what's going on. But if your not willing to put in the work, or handing it off to someone else you probably won't get very far.

A digital footprint on the internet doesn't last very long. Followers stop following if you have poor marketing. An the likes get less an less if you don’t have a sense of humor. An it really doesn’t work if your marketing to the wrong audience for your business. Or not being authentic. Fake doesn’t fly so well. An things disappear.

Things I worked on 21 years ago, can't be found. Poof gone. Just like in real life, it's hard to get your name out there, let alone remembered. Everyone remembers Nike, but few know the founders full name. Few, remember my dad's: Let alone knew him. Even fewer my Papa's who gave him, then me the last name to begin with. I don't sit around an think up ways to shame it. An I'm pretty sure the people that have the exact same name as me could care less what I’m doing. I really don’t pay them that much attention, nor them me.

My goal, an I'm sure theirs is for it to be found & remembered. We all just kinda go at it differently. For different reasons. They are doing themselves, not me. An I dont sit around telling them they can’t use their own name. It’s just a concedence we have the same name anyway. It’s what each of us chooses to make of our own identies that matters anway.

It's human nature to want people to remember your name while you are alive, an gone. But it's even bigger deal to an artist. Sometimes our name is what sells a piece of art.

We brand it.

Cause we all want to be like Dali. Not only great at the art we do but successful.

So I don't really get in a huff over someone having the same name as mine. Or last name. My name's my name. I can do whatever I want with it. They can do whatever they want with theirs. So no amount of bullying is probably going to stop any one of us from using our names. An if you are, you probably need to rethinking what your doing. People have a right to be who they are. Those 3-4 people with the same name as mine: I don't have any right to go stepping on their toes, any more then they do mine. An wonder why anyone would.

Don't like astrology, don't read her site.
Don't like his book, don't buy another one.
Don't like my art don't buy it, use it or unsubscribe.

Get over the fact I intend to leave a BIG footprint when I leave this world. I wish some would stop asking me or trying to get me to stop being who I really am just because they have a expensive phones. I'm an artist, an it's usually a goal of most artist to leave a footprint before they leave this world. No matter what their gene. I’m not stepping on your little corner of the world. Nor have I. I'm not gonna disappear, just because the bully finally showed up to my world. It's not my fault you didn't get it. You could have had a big asset on your side.

I've had a lot of time to work on building my brand. MY NAME.
An it's what happens with artist. We need our names recognized.

An most don’t care who the other Haynes are if they are looking for a specific one.

Believe it or not I'm doing exactly what I should be. Managing, writing, drawing, painting, photography, programming, branding, media, promotion, sales & the internet. An others serious about it should give Gary Vee a listen. They aren't just “good idea's” They are the right ones to compete into today's market. I'll help brand him cause he knows what he's talking about. An he's gone through the old schoolers call him crazy too.

So what's in a name anyway? Plenty.

It seems okay for some to drag yours through the mud but god forbid you speak up when they do.

Me dad use to say your word –name-- should be is as good as gold.

Mine will be if God gives me enough time on this earth to do all the work I want to do. An that isn't taking away from my father, or my grandfather. An I don't go around asking those that have the same name as mine to shine less so I feel better about myself. If I want people to remember me, I have to work. My name isn’t going to be remembered because of my uncles, fathers, mothers or some stranger I don't know. Mine. This name is the one I was given by my father that most people know me by: I'm sticking with it lol

I've got too much work invested in being me.
I don't have time to be someone else.

Dana Renee Haynes

I've spent my whole life focused on specific things: art from a very young age. My life has revolved around it home, family & management. I grew up in a family that started out as farmers that centered their lives around homes: Real Estate. My mother sold them, my aunt brokered them. My uncle built them. My grandmother rented them. An my dad remodeled buildings to rent. An I painted them from the age of ten onwards. Not very artist but practical painting!
I was so sick of painting versions of white by sixteen: I wanted to scream every time I opened a can of it.


But it did teach me to apply a skill I had from a very early age in the real world. My trade mark? My boombox playing in the background of everything I did. Music got me through everything. No matter how hard or tired I was. I had a belief in myself other kids my age didn't have. I could make a living at something I could do. It might not have been as artistic as I desired but it was a skill. Being a latch-key kid the rest of my time was spent watching my sisters, cleaning and managing the house. My life revolved around kids. After one of the adults got home, then an only then did I get time for art.

I didn't have a lot of time for socializing like other kids.I've spent my whole life focused on specific things: art from a very young age. My life has revolved around it home, family & management. I grew up in a family that started out as farmers that centered their lives around homes: Real Estate. My mother sold them, my aunt brokered them. My uncle built them. My grandmother rented them. An my dad remodeled buildings to rent. An I painted them from the age of ten onwards. Not very artist but practical painting!

I was so sick of painting versions of white by sixteen: I wanted to scream every time I opened a can of it.

I wanted to but it just didn't fit in the schedule. An I told myself, I could do all that after I turned 18. An I did. Partying became a “hobby” of mine. I took a bartender job up in Beloit just to get paid to socialize. Because if nothing else my childhood made me practical. The rest of the time I worked painting new construction. Staining woodwork. I worked Sharkys one nite a week, starting out as a “Shot Girl”. Graduated to full on weekend, an picked up another bar tending job at Rockton Wagon Wheel to learn “classy” bar tending. You know, mix something a little more complicated then Lady's Nite well drinks.

I didn't set out to open a bar.

But I did learn to mange one without meaning to. I got into retail management because I was a organized person. I didn't like a unpredictable pay check. Or working three jobs at once. Which I was. I went to RVC, took a certification course in accounting just to get away from what I considered at the time: a no where job. Just a phase of my life. It gave others belief in me that I could do more then just serve others or paint walls. I learned I liked practical sales, not sales jobs. I've been in retail management since. I believed I could manage millions of dollars stores. An proved it.

I believed I could. An did.

What I didn't believe I could do was sales. I mean, I knew I could because I watched my mother do them. She's good at them, but I also watched her go through the ups and downs of it. An I was actually very good at convincing people they needed another shot as a “Shot Girl” but I just didn't think sales positions where for me. I took what seemed to me the easier route: There's the candy bar on the shelf, I'll organize it. Clean it. Manage it. Make it look nice: You buy it if you want to. I'm not gonna spend my time talking you into it if you don't really want it. I liked PRACTICAL sales.
Not sales, SALES.

Or so I thought. I didn't choose to go into an Art Career because I was so practical about it. I wasn't into the idea of “starving artist”. I went into what I had learned growing up: Managing. Being practical. Being an artist wasn't going to make me a living. Only the best, an few make any real money in art. I ignored it as career option. Even though that's what I was best at. It just wasn't “practical” to believe I'd get any where in an art field. Except being a teacher. An I started to go that route returning to college in my 20's because I had a art teacher tell me: “If nothing else works out in art for you Dana, you can at least go into teaching.” Not even the art teacher, no matter how good she thought I was had a belief that there was any good way to make a living in art.

An here's the point of this whole piece: Belief.

What you believe is going to effect your whole life. I grew up being discourage from actually following an art career. I was encouraged to do art, just not to believe it would earn me much of living. I used the things I learned as a kid to guide my whole life. I grew up watching entrepreneurs all around me. I was taught I could turn something I loved into business that would support me an later on my family.. I was taught family working together is everything. An what I wanted to do for work, just didn't quit fit into being as successful as they had been. Or at best it was a “long shot”.

An you have to examine those beliefs you have learned or been taught.

I was taught to believe in myself, just not so much about art. Painting a wall is an art form. Believe it or not. A practical one. It's boring but can be therapeutic. An you can get so good at it you don't need a drop cloth or have to put up painters tap. But it wasn't going to provide me with income I wanted. It could have had I stuck with it but it was just too boring to a person who'd rather paint flowers on the wall. Or anything else that wasn't white. I'd do big jobs, commercial now an then to catch up on bills but it left me dissatisfied.

When my kids where born, I went into Home Daycare. Again being practical.

I wanted to be home with my kids, Do art when they slept. An got to use those business management skills I had learned. I believed I could do it. So I did. An I made a “okay” living doing something I could believe in. Being home for my little ones. Family: A Family Business. Again, my drive of wanting to do something, but having to be practical at making a living doing it. I had managed to get paid to be social parting in the 80s. An I managed to get paid to stay at home with my kids. Then, when my daughter was about six I got a phone call from my grandmother.

My dad had bought a bar.

I was the only one in the family that knew anything about running one. I was the only one that had any kind of retail management experience: Could you please go over there an help him. So, I did. I ran the daycare during the day. Worked at night running the bar. An picked up a huge commercial painting bid job just so I could afford to follow everyone else's dream but my own. An it was a success. Still is. I believed we could do it. An we did. As a family.

But when my father passed in 2007, an my children growing up:

I hit a full on depression because my whole life revolved around them. kids and managing things. I had spent years returning to college, learning computer programming struggling to raise the kids during it so I could be in a art field. An had landed right back into retail management. I wasn't doing art. An the only thing that got me through the grieving possess of loosing him and my grandmother was ART. I dived in head first into digital fractal art. I didn't care if it sold or not. Practicality went out the window. I had to do some art, or I'd loose it upstairs. I'd work my management all day an come home an do art all night. I finally decided by 2010 if I didn't figure out how to do something in a art field I was gonna go crazy. I spent my whole life revolving around managing this or that: painting walls an raising children. I had to get over this belief you couldn't make money in an artistic field. Everything I had learned an put to practical use over the years had been successful. Even parting. An not many can say that. So I had to get over this block I had. Or disbelief.

An it was deeply ingrained in me for some odd reason I couldn't make a living doing “art.” I'm still not sure why that it is, other then years of listening to people who are not artist tell me it was a impossibility to make a living doing it. So 2011 or so, I got determined when I was looking for a job. An it was bad. I was behind on a house payment. Pissed off what I had worked for was being taken away from me. An pretty close to getting my lights shut off. I just didn't care. I had to find a job that was going to actually be forefilling or go nuts.

You can only merchandise beer displays so much an tell yourself at least it's somewhat artistic marketing them an not flip the hell out on yourself. So I looked hard for something that would actually fit me. An got over the fact it was gonna involve sales. An FINALLY I found a job that incorporated everything I had spent my whole life invested in. And I didn't have to paint a white wall! Or get someone drunk to do it. A studio was looking for a retail manager. Must be good with children. Artistic a plus! We will teach you sales!

When I read the ad, I thought I had died an gone to heaven.

I've never been nervous at a job interview. I was at this one cause I wanted it so bad but practically needed it or me an the kids where gonna freeze to death if I kept up this craziness of wanting an art career. It was a god send! An it might not seem much to most, but probably taught me the most about getting over my phobia of not believing in myself having a career in what I loved. An it's definitely not for everybody. The hours are long, the attention to detail exacting an you have to really like people an socializing to do it.

It was a perfect balance of art, family and management for me. An I rocked it out of the park because I fell in love with it. Could believe in it.

I officially became the retail manger of a photography studio.

All my years of learning digital art, working with kids, family and the public in management had finally paid off. An I had some of the best years of my life doing it. I can't complain. But I will tell you it's not a job you can do if you don't believe in yourself. I don’t care how many guru’s you pay. It's not a job you can do if you don't believe in the art of it either. An it's definitely not a job you can do if you don't get over “art doesn't sell”.

I grew as an artist more my first year as a studio manger then I had in a decade.

Why? Cause the job makes you confront every self doubt you have ever had about yourself and your art. The first couple of weeks on the job, I didn't know if I was gonna make it. I really did have a lot of self doubt about my ability. And it was confronted by customers daily. People that loved what I was doing. I mean everything that could go wrong did. Right down to, the DM quit during my training. To not knowing how to even open the registrar on my first sale. I had to retrain my mind, to not be scared of sales. I had to make myself get out there every day on the floor an push myself to engage with people to bring in new customers. I had to get past being scared of rejection. I had to show people daily my work. I had to report in every day that I was in fact selling the art: photography portraits.

An to do that, you have to believe in it. An yourself. You have to have confidence in what you are doing. Something I had always had in every other area of my life. A belief.

You have to have a belief system in your life that works for you. Mine hadn't in one area of my life: art. An the job pushed me past a limiting belief, that art doesn't sell or can't support you. I kept looking for it. My whole life, an what I found was a self limiting belief that had to go in order for me to be happy. My life has been nothing but “do what you love” an the money will follow example. If it's not, you have to examine the roots of your value system an pluck all the self limiting weeds out of it. If you can't do that, art or the art of photography really isn't gonna be a career you can make it in. Your not just selling art, your selling a belief in it an yourself. An if your a slash an burn photographer selling it for less then portraits are worth your harming the industry.

It was very easy for me to get behind the notion that family memories are important an should be captured by a photo lens. An they are worth paying good money for. It was a lot of fun for me to get to part take in the artistic experience of it with others. I don't think I've laughed so much in my life. An there was nothing better in the retail world of being greeted by customers that smiled and where actually happy to see you. It was the perfect combination of life balance for me. But it took a lot of over coming myself to achieve it. An that all boiled down to belief.

So believe, but don’t be stupid about it.

Your looking at a girl that “followed her bliss” practically.

A woman that turned painting houses & buildings into a paid off home for her family. Turned a hobby of 80s parting into a rock solid tavern business. A mother who wanted to stay home with her children into successful daycare business an internet site. And manger that turned her artistic dream into reality that ended up running the district. It's never a matter of can you. You can. That just takes practice.

It's a matter of how to turn a belief into a reality. An that starts with your beliefs to begin with.

So take the time to examine your own beliefs. But believe: Because what you think, look for or invest your time in. You will find.