GeniusU

Sofie Marin has been in the Arts industry for over 20 years. Her experience and uncompromising passion has been focused on promoting Swedish arts and culture abroad with a special emphasis on Anglo-Swedish relations since 2009. Something she has clearly achieved with her work.

With her company From Sweden Productions, Sofie has worked with clients who have performed at BBC Proms, London's West End, top venues, and culture festivals across Europe and internationally. Their main focus is to help artists and innovative, impact-driven organisations increase their visibility and fill their events through bespoke PR and marketing campaigns as well as strategic partnerships.

Producing and promoting large-scale and high-profile events is some of the most financially rewarding work for Sofie’s company, but when COVID hit, the business imploded. With live events being cancelled, From Sweden Productions’ revenue was non-existent.

For Sofie, it wasn’t just her business that was affected, all around her Sofie could see her friends and colleagues suffering from the fallout of the crisis. The impact on the industry as a whole was far-reaching. Not only was Sofie concerned about the economy but society itself, if the Arts were lost. Then where might we end up?

A New Direction

Never one to back down from a challenge, Sofie turned to her mentors for support, including Roger, a long-time mentor and advisor for Sofie’s business. As a member of the Genius Group community, education was at the top of her priorities list and she immediately chose to change her perspective.

To move forward, Sofie joined the Cashflow program, intending to quickly identify and create new income streams. In a way, Sofie needed to go back to the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey, as if she hadn’t built a successful business, to be able to look at the problems of the moment and refocus her purpose with that in mind.

This all led to the rebirth of an old but new idea: Arts Dynamics.

Arts Dynamics was an idea that had bloomed for Sofie many years before, during a Wealth Dynamics Masters trip to Bali. Its concept was to Support the Arts. Sofie had spent years watching artists and cultural leaders struggle to generate income from their work, and with the world crisis hitting their existing income streams, it had become imperative to share her knowledge to ensure the Arts Community survived.

Community, Support and Learning

Sofie focused on building a virtual hub, where creators could learn and do business. As well as this, she created an online Arts Dynamics Entrepreneur Mastermind membership, went live weekly with an Arts Dynamics Talks Livestream/podcast series interviewing key players in the industry, and began to digitize courses and mentor sessions. In addition, she partnered up with trusted colleagues in Sweden, Denmark and abroad, for added synergies and mutual support.

Sharing the knowledge she had with the people who needed it the most.

Having created a home base for artists to collaborate and connect, Sofie’s vision turned to the future. This was to create a powerful toolbox for creative entrepreneurs, cultural teams and organizations around the world to use to help them stand out, scale-up, and make a difference, but Sofie needed support for this ambitious project and set up a crowdfunding campaign.

The success of these essential pivots can be seen in the results. Sofie’s now launched a fully scalable online members and product business, gaining over 25 founding members in its launch. With members already reporting the replacement of lost income. She’s been invited to speak at various paid online events and has several 1-2-1 clients. Finally, the crowdfunding campaign so far has received $2000 in its first round. Incredible achievements.

The Light in the Dark

In all this, Sofie believes there is always hope.

She shares, "No one has all the answers, but together we can move mountains. We live in exponential times, and so the solutions need to be exponential too. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking small, when in fact we should do the opposite and look for the opportunities that arise as a result of the situation.

For anyone seeking answers, my first advice is always to look for like-minded people, peers and mentors that lift you up and help you gain new insights. My hope is that Arts Dynamics can be such a safe haven, where artists and creatives get to tap into their genius and realise their full potential, both on a local and global scale.”

With gratitude, Sofie continues to work on fulfilling her destiny. Grateful to be able to run a business, which works alongside her family, and help cultural professionals to pivot and thrive in the months and years to come.

Challenges Faced

• Cancellation of Live Events

• Global tensions due to Sweden’s approach to Crisis

Solutions Found

• Turn to Mentor’s Support

• Joined Cashflow Programme

• Back to basics and activating the Arts Dynamics vision for which the time had come

Results Produced

• Fully Scalable Business Model Launched

• 25 Founding Members in the Arts Dynamics Entrepreneur Mastermind with people on the waiting list

• Mastermind members success stories

• One to One coaching clients as a senior consultant and advisor