The Business of Being Creative

When you are in the heat of the moment you have to default to one or two thoughts as you move through the moment.  In golf, they are called swing thoughts — one or two ideas that you remind yourself of as you play your game.  Creative business is no different.

You have two obligations as a creative business owner.  The first is to make Every. Single. Conversation include answers to Where Were You? Where Are You? And Where Are You Going?  And I really mean every single conversation, whether with clients, employees, colleagues, production partners, it does not matter.  Your process is your process and it is up to you (and no-one else) to define and state it — always.  Next, if you are not getting specifically paid for your effort, either with dollars or decisions (or both), then you are making an investment.  Investments require returns and you must make it clear to all involved that they know the value of the investment AND your expected return.  Again, if you do not define the investment being made then you leave it (and its value) to someone else.  A non-starter if there ever was one.

So there you have it: two thoughts that will drive your creative business where you want to take it.  A quick example, you are an interior designer and you do not shop with your clients.  You make an exception with an out-of-town client to get to know her.  You do not charge for the effort.  Given the above you now understand that it is up to you to say that the effort is to get to know the client’s taste level better and your expectation is that she will make an effective (i.e., timely and permanent) decision when you present your vision for the project.  In other words, you are investing your time with the client as you would not otherwise and expect a return for the investment.

No matter what you may want to believe, the air you breathe as a creative business is not free and needs to be paid for in one way or another.  Payment can be financial, psychic or even spiritual, makes no difference, it is your expected return on your investment given the risk you are willing to take.  Since all businesses are about managing risk, you are tasked with assessing yours and taking what you are willing to take and no more.

So what happens when communication is not crystal clear and you find yourself and your creative business in a risk position you did not intend or, worse, assumed would not materialize?  More than likely you blew the Where Were You? Where Are You? Where Are You Going? conversation and/or did not define the investment you are making when you were not getting definably paid for your effort.  Know three things then: 1) you lost control of the project even if you cannot yet see it; 2) somebody’s nose is going to get out of joint when you take it back; and 3) unless you fix it, it will get worse.  Reassert yourself then because you have to and do it in the way that defines your own value as you most want for your art and your creative business.

We are all human beings and hopefully operate from a place of well intention — you want to do your best work and be appreciated for the effort.  Compromise to your integrity and taking on undue risk is not part of that equation.  The way back is to just start again because you really have no choice.

Let us go back to the interior designer who went shopping.  What happens when the client says she wants to shop again the following day?  If the designer has more to learn, then sure, BUT only after discussing the 3W’s and what this new day is going to bring.  If the designer is comfortable in her knowledge of the client’s tastes and desires, then the answer is no, regardless of how much the client needs to show the designer her favorite tile store.

Take the opportunity to remind yourself daily (hourly?) that this is your show, your art, your business.  If there is a nagging sense in your gut that somehow this is getting lost, listen to yourself and get back to basics — 3Ws and your investment and expected return.  The rest will take care of itself.

Politics completely aside, Elizabeth Warren, gave a speech in New York City this week and then stood forfour hours taking selfieswith anyone who wanted one.  So far, by her own account, she has taken over sixty thousand selfies during her campaign.  When asked why she would stay so long after her speech, her response is if the last person was willing to wait four hours to get a selfie with her, why shouldn’t she be more than ready when they got their chance?

Nobody would fault Elizabeth Warren if she left after three hours or even if Donald Trump did one less rallyfor his base.  The point though is that that is who they have determined themselves to be to who they most care about and so it matters.

There is an exquisite lesson for all creative businesses here.  It is up to you to define what matters and then to live there.  People will always judge your determination and your decision and that is their right.  However, you must walk your own walk.  If it is important to you, then you alone have to stand in the moment and the integrity of that moment. No one else will.

Which, of course, brings me to the idea of how you compete in your universe.  I have an ever-present headache since the vast majority of creative business marketing goes like this: I do what everyone else does, just a little better (best case) or I do what everyone else does, just a little cheaper (worst case).  I will scream if I hear about how much the client needs to just sit back and relax while you do all the work.  How they just have to tell you, the artist, what they want and kablammo it will magically appear.  The insidiousness of it all makes me, well, sad.

First, nothing a creative business does is easy.  You are literally bringing to life something that did not heretofore exist.  The very act of creation is fraught with doubt, fear and, in some cases, anger at the unknown.  How about you not start your relationship with a client by lying to them?  Instead, acknowledge that yes, there is a risk it will not work, but that is far outweighed by the return when it does.  Oh, and you have devoted your entire being as an artist and creative business owner to minimize the risk of failure and maximize the value of success.  Then again, if you refuse to own what success actually is other than being a little better than the next guy, cheaper or both, you reap what you sow.  Safety tip: don’t do that.

Next, the journey is everything.  Full stop.  If you fail to appreciate the depth of that notion and your responsibility to define your journey with your clients, you are in for a tougher and tougher road.  Good luck with that.

With all of this in mind, let us talk about Homepolish.  Homepolish was started by Noa Santos and paired clients and interior designers in the luxury space.  It served as a marketing channel for these designers and a broker for their relationships.  Homepolish also provided back-end purchasing services that allowed for easier flow of goods from manufacturer to client via a designer.  Along the way, Noa raised significant venture capital and had visions of expanding to be the proverbial grease to the luxury client/designer relationship.  The scale never happened and now Homepolish has closed.  Have a read of Business of Home’s reporting on Homepolish here.

Of course, Homepolish will be written off as a disruptor gone bad or venture capital forcing too much too soon, but what lies underneath is the idea that a broker will never be a designer and that, at a certain point, the relationship and reputation of the designer will transcend the broker.  Homepolish wanted exclusives and to take over a designer’s entire production business.  In other words, Homepolish wanted to permanently matter more than the designer, but had only back office efficiency and marketing prowess to offer.  It was not enough and certainly not at the scale Homepolish needed it to be to be successful.

There are always layers upon layers for why things go south and I am only highlighting one and must acknowledge, for sure, that there is much much more to the story of Homepolish’s end.  I am only trying to highlight that the value of the relationship between artist and client is based on the intrinsic nature of that relationship and the willingness of the designer to define it as her own.  Businesses like Homepolish teach us that the relationship can be ignited by others but its fruition remains, at base, unleveragable by others.  Make no mistake though Homepolish will not be the last to try to step into the luxury client relationship and marginalize you, the artist.  Some might even get it right.  Until that day comes though, how about we all not make it easier on these businesses to steal your moments simply because you are unwilling to call them your own

Making sure your social media feed is showing the right images and you are saying the right things.  Having your questionnaire ask the perfect questions.  Going to the right conferences, making sure you are ticking all of the boxes in the collateral/pr/advertising bucket.  All of these are tactics.  Tactics are what you do to achieve a near term goal, maybe even a medium term one.  What tactics are not is a vision of where you want to go.  That is strategy.  As tactics become ever more powerful and immediate in their validation, strategy seems to fall away.  Why focus on vision when results are at your fingertips?  I get it.

Except.  Tactics are available to everyone and if they are effective you can be sure they will be adopted by everyone much sooner than later.  Podcasts have been around for a while but over the last three years, they have exploded and now there are over 700,000 podcasts available for download.  The average podcast has 124 listeners.  If you thought podcasting was your ticket to getting noticed, that ship has sailed.  Of course, you should still podcast because it is an important part of your strategy of owning your niche and your message, just not because it is going to get you noticed.

My 12 year old son took his first math test recently.  He understood the material very well but I told him that more often than not those that do not know the material as well as others do better on the test.  The reason is strategy.  Most students want to answer every question and when they are challenged, spend more time on that question(s) than the ones they know cold.  Inevitably, they run out of time working on the ones they know really well instead of the ones they are challenged by.  It should be the other way around.  Of course, there has to be a baseline knowledge and proficiency but strategy almost always tells the tale.  Get the ones right you know you are right on first and best, and then work your way through the more challenging ones.  However, the only way to do that is to know time and value each question equivalent to its weight on the test, which, most often, is the same.  If you have an hour and there are twelve questions, five minutes per question with extra time, if any, spent on the ones you know best.

Sounds simple and obvious right? Except, let’s apply it to your creative business.  How often does a very challenging client get more of your effort than a dream client?  Do you have a process that makes sure that great clients get treated better than not great clients?  Great clients respect your process and make decisions as and when asked.  Not-so-great clients, well, do not.  The whole point is that strategy drives decisions which determines tactics.  Shifting strategy is a big, big deal, tactics are almost made to be malleable.

Why talk about this?  Because there is a huge investment in improving and overwhelming creative business with the power of tools — and all of the efficiencies and opportunities they provide.  Lost in the conversation is what for and to what end.  I am actually a fan of Homepolishand appreciate the value it provided to interior designers and clients alike.  But have a look at the struggles now confronting itwith the pressure to scale and new competition.  As with any platform, being dependent on its success for yours can be a wonderful tactic, and an awful strategy if you did not plan for what happens next.

We are inundated with the unending need to tell your story, define your mission, your vision, why you do what you do.  For those of you looking for some amazing guidance on the subject fo branding, check out Susan Federspiel from The Brand Pixie. Decades in the business of telling the most compelling story for her clients.  Susan is a hidden gem in developing a supremely powerful brand if there ever was one.

I recognize the need people like Susan fill and completely appreciate it, but the equal if not more important question is to what end?  “We do it this way as a creative force and here’s why”  The purpose of using the tactics you are using to accomplish the strategy you have decided on and why it matters.  Alignment of purpose and practice.  Of course, it may not work out and you might bomb the test.  But like middle school math, there will always be another test and the better the strategy and the more practical the tactic the better the chance next time and the time after that.  This is the most important point of all: determined strategy diligently reviewed with dispassion but compassion leads to the opportunity you cannot yet see.  Tactics alone will never do that for you, your art or your creative business.  Smart is important, focus and vision more so.

Sometimes the love is just gone and you are done.  Too many late nights, sacrificed family moments, ungrateful clients, stilted work, you name it.  Of course, if you can fix all of the ills of the business, perhaps there is a there there.  I am not talking about that today.  No, today is when the decision is made, when it is time to move on.

A few thoughts.  First, there is no shame when you are done.  Give yourself permission to just let go and know the moment has passed for you.  For so many of us, the voices in our heads will be screaming to not give up, to keep whatever is left, to be terrified to the point of inertia about what might come next.  Of course, there will be voices outside of your head too offering their “wisdom” on why you are an idiot/fool/loser/fill in any other derogative thought for quitting.  Do not ignore them.  Hear them, let it move through you and then let their perspective return to them.  If you ignore them, their voices will only get louder.  If you have come to the place where you are no longer fueled by your art, can not be responsible for the joy of transformation you are tasked with, you are doing a disservice to everyone (you, your clients, employees, colleagues) by continuing.  Creative business has no place for those who are willing to just mail it in and you will get run over much sooner than later by those who are not.  That helps no one.

Next, be done.  Most likely you have continuing obligations, maybe even some assets that have to be taken care of.  Shutting down is not selling and do not make that mistake.  Shutting down means having a date certain with specific tasks that you will perform to meet that date.  Of course, people’s noses are going to be out of joint — you are bailing on them.  So focus on what remains to be the most valuable thing you can do to leave well and just do that more than you otherwise would. The rest let be.

Yes, if you are at the final production stage of things, you have to finish.  Short of that though, say if you are still really getting ready, you must understand that the promise you made when you first started has now been broken.  Production partners must move on to those that will sustain their business.  These businesses will get the “favors” you once got because you do not matter any more.  That is not to say your partners will not do well by you but we all expect the extra mile and it just will not be there.  Also, how much will you be willing to sacrifice everything when you are gone tomorrow?  Sure, your professionalism and integrity exists but only to a point.  You are moving on after all.  If possible, outsource your production to those who will carry your vision forward.  This might mean more effort to communicate your vision than ever before, so be it.

Last, if you are fortunate enough to be able to afford some time to ponder what is next, please please take advantage of the opportunity.  Of course, there are legions of self-help resources to provide avenues for personal improvement and a recapture of the love and enthusiasm you once had for your art.  I am talking about something else, the idea that you simply do not know what is to come next.  Go take an improv class so you can see what can unfold as you are focused on being present.  Again, if it is possible, give yourself a date in the future when you will be willing consider what is next.  Between now and then be fierce in your commitment to just not know.  Whoever might ask, the answer is that you will let them know when you know.

The freedom to be done is the very freedom you will need to find the new thing, the new expression of your art.  Art always transcends its medium and as you find your way you will discover the thing you love enough for the inevitable sacrifice that the love will require.  What will never happen is that you will cease being an artist.  That will only happen if you can never come back to center.  The irony of ironies is that you are letting go, choosing to be lost with no guarantee what might be, you will inevitably find your center.  You will regain the ability to be fierce in the fight, absolute in your conviction. And we will all be better for the effort.  The world needs you to be remarkable, willing to do remarkable things for those that care enough to welcome the effort.

For any parent who has ever given in to what they knew was not the right move only to regret it later, this post is for you. Whether it is too much sugary foods, TV, electronics, you name it, when you take it away there is always a tantrum. You are the worst person in the world for taking away this deliciousness. Except you (and every other parent on the planet) know that this deliciousness is now poison and you know better than to let it persist. The people who do not know better are your children.

The lessons for your creative business are legion. No, I am not comparing your clients to children, but I am saying the behavior is similar in that you know better and have to be responsible for all that comes from being in that position. Let’s focus on two specific lessons: first, allowing what you know to be a misstep in the name of appeasing your client is a sugar high; and, second, the response when you correct and/or enforce what you need to happen will be met with anger and resentment.

I loathe the word “collaboration” when a client is really using it to say that they want what they want even if it forces you, the artist, to compromise the integrity of all that you are as both an artist and businessperson. See also “the client is always right”, “my money, my choice”. No, no and no. Yes, you have to work with what your client imagines but you never, ever have to compromise your integrity as an artist and businessperson in order to meet the demands of your client. If you do, even for a glimpse, your client will feel emboldened and you might even feel good that you have moved on from what was surely a sticking point. Fool’s gold as at a certain point you will come back to what is truly unacceptable to you and either have to eat it or face a huge backlash. Integrity matters because it is hard. When you realize your error, then come back to yourself and offer the binary choice of the implications of their route (painful) or your route (less painful). There is no in between as all roads lead to work you are proud to sign your name to and that work is not that of the client.

Which leads me to anger and resentment. Make no mistake, your client will be angry, resentful and likely indignant when you stand up for what you know to be right. They will bully, threaten, cajole, get personal, say whatever they need to to get back what you just took from them. If I had a dollar for every creative business owner that tried to manage, remove or somehow give in to a client’s anger, I would own my own island with a private plane to get there.

There is a people pleaser in most creative business owners and absorbing the tension and venom of a disgruntled client is often too much to bear. So we cave. Yes, you are the cause, however, you are also the answer as you most certainly do know better. You have to come back to yourself, your art and your creative business if you are do the work of transformation. The way through is not to take away a client’s anger, it is to own the wisdom, experience and talent that brought you to the table in the first place. We all take a wrong turn and you will not make the same mistake next time. You are here though and conviction, intention, perspective will get you through.

Last, your clients may never recover and that has to be ok so long as the process becomes yours once again. You are not your clients’ friends, you are their expert, their guide and yours is to manifest your vision for them to own. If respect is regained, that has to be good enough for you. And if they wish to fire you because you need what you need, that is, of course, their choice. You, on the other hand, do not have a choice other than to do the work you are willing to stand behind and stand up for.

Flexibility and compromise are not the same thing. Ever. You can be flexible and adapt to any situation you caused or allowed to happen. Mea culpas might even be necessary. However, the line is yours to own as is redemption and recovery. This is your show, your business, your process, your promise to be the best in the world, your world, at what you do. Live there without compromise — no matter the noise.

My daughter went to storytelling camp for a week this summer.  Her teacher, Brandon Spars, is a master storyteller and I became curious.  So I read his book and watched some of his sessions at The Moth (insanely good). Then I became obsessed with The Moth’s Podcastand started listening to story after story after story.  All of the stories told at The Moth are true and are incredibly varied.  One was about how a fire captain dealt with The Worcester Firethat took the lives of six firefighters.  Another about how Adam Rossfound out not only that his father was not his father but the father his mother thought was his father was not actually his father either.  There was a wedding planner, Kari Adams, talking about how her perfect wedding wasn’t and how her father’s choice to not attend was heartbreaking even though the wedding did not work out (yet, she is still driven to create beauty in the details for others).  And on and on, each one more compelling than the next.

Of course, it got me to thinking about why I preach the power of story relentlessly.  What is it that drives ME to want to implore you as artists and business owners to tell your story (as both an artist and creative business owner)?  Why do I cling so fervently to the idea that the best storytellers win?  I keep coming back again and again to this — humanity, relationship and connection.  Yes, those telling the story feel an amazing catharsis in the telling.  I have when I have shared the story of my brother’s passingand the demise of my businesson this blog. But I have not gone that extra step of telling it to a live audience or even to a single stranger in person.  And that is what has dawned on me:  the point of the story is for the audience’s catharsis as much as the storyteller’s.  Even more than that though is the singular community that exists around the story in its very intimacy, the idea that there is a glimpse of the tapestry that makes you, well, you and all of us, us.

I think this is what is missing more and more today: the idea that we as human beings are meant to be together to share experiences and relate our own experiences with each other in an effort to bring compassion and empathy, courage and humor, and, I dare say, love into the equation.  Modern technology should make that better, but it has done the opposite so far.

I am a huge fan of Bill Baker’s work to use story to drive your creative business forward.  I am firmly in the mindset that if you do not understand what he is talking about, you are going to get run over and you will be left behind.  Yes, it is that important and that powerful.  Bill’s work is not what I am talking about here though.

I am talking about the story that lets us see you just as you are with no other purpose than to reveal yourself without an agenda, letting those think of you as they will.  Of course, you are in a business relationship with your clients, employees, and colleagues alike.  However, this is about your relationship with them as people, human beings, all, struggling to make sense of it all.

As I said when I talked about my brother, maybe these stories have no place in your creative business and that is okay by me.  But if they do and you are willing to give a window to you through one of your stories, perhaps you and those who you share it with (and they their story — which, of course, is why they are with you in the first place) will find catharsis in the vulnerability of your found community.

My son came to me the other day (he is 12) and said, “Look Dad, now I can play my video games and have a chance to make three million dollars like the sixteen year old that just won the world-wide Fortnite competition.”  I said that I would give him the three million (as if I had it to give) for him not to play.  He stared at me and said, to paraphrase, “WTF!”  To which, I said, “You are the truest artist I know.  Every day you are drawing, acting, singing, playing your guitar, doing your origami, generally making something out of nothing.  Your creativity oozes out of you (and it does).  It is who you are and what you will always be.  Why would I ever want you to spend your life playing a game someone else made up?  You are here to create the game, not just play it.”

To which I say to all of you, please tell your story and refuse to play the game someone else created.  Yes, learn the rules, understand everything about their game, then make up your own.  Start with what is intoxicating to all of us – not your ability to create, but the notion that you are the embodiment of creativity.  Let that be the window you share because it just is.  From there, give yourself permission to bring your clients with you to wherever you vision will take both of you.  Humanity, relationship and connection are the elements that define us all.  Let them serve us as you, your art and your creative business help us understand what tomorrow will bring.