The Business of Being Creative

I spend an awful lot of time looking at the digital media of creative businesses of all kinds.  First, the positive.  As a general rule, the quality of images that I see has dramatically improved over the last ten years, exponentially better over the last five.  The value of Pinterest’s IPO speaks to the power the image represents today.  Hard to imagine any creative business could be relevant without a terrific Instagram feed.  The bar has definitely been raised — your work must be displayed beautifully in high quality images or you will be run over.  Most creative professionals have embraced the challenge and we are left with images of tremendous work spilling out everywhere.

The question then is what is next?  If all pictures become pretty, pretty will stop being enough to be dispositive.  Pretty will be necessary as an appetizer but the meal has to be something else.  What that something else is is, of course, story.  Not the story of any particular project, which is always interesting, sort of — seeing project after project is fun as you look into how you, the designer, contemplated the challenge and met it.  Rather, it is your story as an artist and what drives you to get to the place where you find a solution to what is in front of you, far more than the solution itself.

The question then is how to tell that story, your story, visually in a way that connotes your talent, wisdom and experience, while at the same time demonstrating what drives/compels you to create in the first place.  You can scream to the rooftops how much you love to do what you do, but unless you are captivating in your passion, you will not reach those who you need to care about what you do.

No doubt, you can write a book, produce a video, blog, vlog or web series, though these are simply tools.  The idea is what can you share that provides a window into what you are all about. When you care deeply about the “thing”, whatever it might be, it becomes resonant.

Need an example:  check out this video from Jacobsen Salt. Salt??? Yes, salt from Oregon.  When you care and believe as Ben does in the power of salt, then you can charge what he does and build the size of business he has (i.e., it is not small, think millions not thousands).  A little price comparison for you: a 3lb bag of Kosher Salt costs $4.99, a 5lb bag of Jacobsen costs $250.  The reason the value is there is the story and the way Ben tells it.  Of course, there is all of the digital support to make the business go, but it is driven by the compulsion to make great salt.  No better commentary on the power of niche and how to make the point of the earth’s bounty, over and over again.  Great stuff.

In my mind, the ability to define what drives you to your niche and how you are obsessed with its translation has to be front and center today.  Some have tried to do this with a “things they love” or a well-crafted bio, and those are great, just not enough in today’s visual digital world. I do wish that I had the specific answer as to how to craft your story in the most effective, powerful way, sadly I do not.  What I do know though is that it is on-going and never a single moment.  Just as so many of you are constantly posting on Instagram, YouTube, etc., so too the storytelling of what lies underneath.  Perhaps your website has a grand statement and social media moments in service of the statement. That part is up to you.  Vulnerability (i.e., the willingness for the disbelievers to hate your work) is the key though.  Pretty shuns no-one, least of all the disbelievers.  Time to leave pretty as a stand-alone and find your way to specificity, authenticity and integrity.  Be the essence of who you say you are.

Pass the salt.

I wrote a column for The Business of Home this week on plagiarism and how to deal with it.  To summarize, I said that there is mostly no point in screaming that it is yours but rather a quiet confidence in knowing what you have (and have not) done as an artist.  The response I have gotten from the column validates the idea that there are more than a few who would take short cuts to find their way to success that they themselves have not built. Others will simply want to say they are the original so as to demonstrate their own prowess.  Either way it is about being derivative or accusing someone of being derivative for your own aggrandizement.

David Tutera’s thought in the book, Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story Of The View, that Melania and, specifically, Preston Bailey copied Star Jones’ 2004 wedding to Al Reynoldsfor her wedding to Donald Trump in 2005 is an example of accusing someone of being derivative for your own aggrandizement. I was President of Preston’s company in 2005 and had an upfront view to the whole undertaking of Donald and Melania’s wedding.

Preston is one of the most creative event designers to have ever lived – his six books on the subjectspeak to this truth.  Preston imagines a world very very few of us could even contemplate, let alone bring to life.  In the time I worked for Preston (2003-2009) as I am sure it is now, most of his inspiration came and comes from nature, fine art, theater, food and travel.  He largely never looked at other designer’s work as reference to his design process, especially when it came to creating his vision for any event, Melania and Donald’s wedding very much included.  What David accuses Preston of doing is factually inaccurate.  Wildly so.  Makes for great copy though, which is, of course, the point.  Such are the times.

There truly is nothing original in this world.  However, originality defined as being pristine and heretofore unheard of is a fools errand as value based solely in the uniqueness of a thought is one in a billion, if that.  No, value is in the ability to define the thought with a unique, ethereal and deeply personal take on it, to reshape an idea as you would have it be seen and THAT is what becomes original.  Now, stealing another’s idea blindly and then calling it your own is not what I am talking about, that is plagiarism and theft and no creative business owner should ever go there.  What I am talking about is standing on the shoulders of giants so that you become ever able to see and relate to us a new vision.  The world is forever changed when we share the vision since it presumes there will be another to follow as we reach ever higher.  Moore’s Law.

The insidiousness of plagiarism or similarly accusing someone like Preston of being derivative is to call into question the absolute value of the creative universe as if it is, in itself, limited.  We all lose when that happens.  Instead, we have to be better at acknowledging what folly drives those who would be derivative (i.e., plagiarize) or accuse someone of being derivative when they are not (i.e., David).  The answer is in the fragility of the human condition and our incessant need to be someplace we are not.  Every step of the path has to be walked.  You may not skip ahead because you pretend to be someone who walked before you, nor is your path easier or superior because you seek to diminish another’s in service to your ego.

The point of creative business is transformation.  Give yourself permission to go as you would go and refuse to be a bastardization of what has come before.  You will only diminish yourself and the energy coming before.  Yes, sometimes first wins, but Father Time is undefeated.  Better will carry the day.  Always.  Shame on plagiarists and David, not so much for stealing what is not theirs, but for besmirching what has come before.  Cynicism is the death of creativity and we all need to do better at being intolerant to those that would feed it.  As Seth Godin said today, we make things better by making better thingsand we are permitted to make better things when the truly original idea (i.e., the idea generated honestly and intentionally by an artist) is rewarded because of the idea’s relationship to those you, the artist, seek to move.  The rest is just noise.

All things being equal, the tie should go to the one that cares the most.  About themselves.

There is no question that amazing customer service, with a focus on being responsive to your client, proactive with your process and diligent in maintaining the flow and management of the relationship will do wonders for any project and the clients you seek to serve with your art.  While there is certainly a difference between businesses, there need not be given the effort.  The idea is that if it is available to everyone, then resting your creative business on the idea a very dangerous thing to do.  Of course, this is not to say that you should not have amazing service, you should.  It is just to say that it is not enough.

For those that have returning customers, either BtoB or BtoC, what do you do for these customers?  How are you making your relationship indispensable to both of you?  Are you solving new problems or only being reactive to the problems you are confronted with? How much work are you doing to know, really know these customers?

I see creative businesses invest thousands upon thousands of dollars on PR, marketing, all things social media, networking, conferences. Yet, I hardly ever see a true investment in making their relationships stronger with those that care.  I specifically do NOT mean here, commissions, kickbacks, or other similar “grafty” type arrangements. I mean authentic, purposeful investigation of how a client currently lives/operates and what you, your art and your creative business can do to improve that life or operation using your skill set to do just that.  

However, let’s go even further.  If you are invested in those that care the most about you, treating them differently than those who do not or have not yet demonstrated their willingness to care, then how can you get them to take an even bigger risk with you, your art and your creative business?  Duncan Hines.  He got offered to put his name to bread and ready made cakes when he was not in the food business?  Of course, in hindsight, it made complete sense.  But, in the moment, how did Duncan decide to take the risk?  Who made him so comfortable as to say, why not? And for those of you who do not have repeat clients (i.e., wedding planners), then how do you surround yourself with those who will push not only you but your clients too?  How does the symbiosis work?

In the end, that is where the ultimate value lies: acknowledging that those that care matter more to you, your art and your creative business than those who do not, sure, but also those that are lukewarm.  Then because they care, they will be treated differently — first to express value to the relationship and then to deepen it.  The work is an active endeavor, meaning spend money on the investigation, not a gift.  Think deeply about what problem is not getting solved by your best customers, understand how you might solve it and then invest in doing just that.  An example: say you are a high-end florist who works with five key planners in your area.  Color is your thing and as much as they appreciate your understanding of color, none of them really get it the way you do.  Is there a tutorial — hard copy, video, digital — that you can provide to these planners so that their clients, staff, even colleagues might get a glimpse of what you see as the importance of color?  Then with the color book in hand, are you willing to provide five actionable ideas to each planner (twenty-five ideas total) monthly?  And not just a “what do you think about this?” but a complete idea with color story, possibly renderings and other media necessary to communicate the idea?  Of course, you would like to put the idea to reality, however, the reason to do it is to live across the chasm of the expected into the risk of what might be.

It sounds crazy, too much work and not a guaranteed enough return.  Fair point.  Then again, when you are in the business of proving how far you can go, stepping up and investing in that proof to those that matter seems like a pretty smart investment to me.

Or you can wait for the phone to ring after you send your gift basket.  Your choice.

It is too easy to dismiss the work of creative business as only a reflection of the wishes of the patrons who hire them.  If a designer is hired to transform a residence, what bearing does that have on society? Does the designer have not only an impact on the perspective of her clients, but a responsibility to impart her own statement?  Does it matter?

Of course, you can choose who you are willing to work with as a statement of your perspective and you might even have to go all the way to the Supreme Court to honor that perspective (or not).  That is not the topic of this post, although an evergreen when it comes to what really matters to you, your art and your creative business and who you choose to share it with.

No, this post is about the work you are, in fact, undertaking and your effort to influence your clients’ perspective.  And here is my outrageous statement for the day: it is your responsibility to shake your clients’ worldview with your work.  It can be as simple as introducing an unexpected element from an unexpected source that becomes accepted as integral to the design.  Of course, you are a validator of who and what your client most believes themselves to be but you are oh so much more than that.  You are a guide to a perspective they themselves do not fully inhabit and, as such, you are an educator.

Think about things that are mainstream in our culture today — everything from hip-hop to anime to tacos — all of them were introduced by creative businesses in the context of a project(s) that became influential to the rest of us.

Diversity, nationalism, bigotry, economic inequality (and inequality in general), global warming are huge issues today.  For some, you live on the other side and do not see them as huge issues, which, of course, makes them huge issues to you too.  Art might reinforce your world view but it can also move you to another place, even if only in a very narrow context.  Mojito anyone?

So then what to do as a creative business owner first, artist second?  Do you hide and stay in a safe place creatively or do you go further?  Can you make a lingering statement that will move you and your client long after your work is done?  What does it mean to be committed to the purpose of truly sharing your perspective?  How do you incorporate it into your creative business? Best said, are you willing to contextualize your work to what matters to you?  Can you stand there so that the art itself tells a story?

If you can go there, likely is, however subtly, you will demonstrate the hypocrisy present in the joy of celebration to that which it is opposed.  Wear your politics on your sleeve or not, but let your art speak your essential truth always.

I come to this place because art is bigger than all of us, it is in the universal collective and born from the soup of inspiration.  This “collective” notion might be woo woo to you and that is ok, but is also great business as you and your creative business are truly paid for this inspiration, from your connection to the collective, like it or not.  In your willingness to dream for your clients as they never could themselves you can share a piece of yourself with them as an artist.  It might be altruistic to consider, however I would like to think that even the most jaded of us can be touched by the moment.  The glimpse you provide to other is what allows us all to go somewhere else.  Moments become timeless in the blink of an eye.

There is a ton of discussion these days about how to scale your creative business.  Dane Sanders does a great job of distinguishing solopreneurs from entrepreneurs.  The first is always dependent on the core artist and the second is where the organization serves the art.  Typically, a solopreneur is not scalable where an entrepreneurial enterprise is.  Scale means, in this sense, size and not leverage.  Maybe.

There are tons of solopreneurs that are very big businesses indeed. No matter the size though, they remain dependent on the core artist for survival. Entrepreneurial creative businesses on the other hand do not depend on the core artist but need not be very big businesses at all.

All of which leads me to a discussion of what is it that you actually want as an artist and creative business owner?  To scale? To leverage? Both?  Or neither?

Today as ever there is an enormous pressure to say that you will be bigger tomorrow than today.  Somehow, if you are not expanding you are stagnating.  This is a fools errand.  If you are making the money you want to make, doing the work you love to do, who is to say that you will love it more if you made more money, did more and bigger projects?  That would be no one that matters.  You have to ask yourself if the plateau you find yourself on offers the best view that works for you and your creative business.  If it does, stay there and work to clear away the brush the best you can.  Do what you do better every day.  Value is in knowing yourself and what matters to you.  See Jiro Dreams Of Sushi and you will understand what I am talking about.

No, the ONLY time to think about scale and leverage is if you are trying to get to a new plateau and are stuck.  Then the view is boring and it is time to move on.  But moving on requires contemplation about who you actually are and whether you are ready to scale or leverage or both.

Scale first.  Getting bigger — both to serve more clients and/or do larger projects requires a deep understanding of the shift in promises you are making.  You need infrastructure to support that new promise — staff to become ever more specialized and themselves entrepreneurial, a larger capital base (i.e., more money) to provide necessary products and services to this new client, and, most important, the financial wherewithal you will needs as you switch away from your current core customer.  There will be a dip as you say to your current clients that those who do not value the new focus will be left behind.  By definition, they will be angry.  You are specifically telling them that you care about someone else more than them and you are leaving them behind.  No change happens without pain and this will be it.  The only reason you would ever be willing to go here is if you believe in what the future will bring with the new you.  Think about how much Netflix angered its base in 2011 when it even considered splitting its DVD and streaming businesses.  Netflix back-tracked then but as we all now know today plowed forward into streaming and original content production as the primary drivers of its business.  There is no crystal ball and the impetus of change has to be the compulsion of faith and not the satisfaction of expectations that deep down are not yours.

Leverage. Ronald Reagan v. Jimmy Carter.  Today, there is an idea that you have to spur entrepreneurs within your organization by giving them both authority and responsibility.  And if you are the creative business owner that can do that, wonderful.  The underneath though is that, if you cannot, there is an expectation that you have to.  Absolutely, positively not.  Having your fingers in it all and being responsible for every moment is perfectly fine if that is the expectation you have set for yourself, your employees and, most of all, your clients.  That does not mean that others will not be involved but that all roads lead back to you.  This is an empowered choice if you go there and it truly harkens back to the days of a guild with a master craftsman and apprentices.  Just be straight about it.  Let employees know the value of your training and let them know that there will be an expectation that they will one day leave your nest to build their own.  Why not provide a backstop by way of infrastructure to help make that happen for them?  What would it look like if your creative business was an incubator for employees as much as a provider of amazing art?  Better than an unenforceable non-compete.  Legacy can be in the stars of tomorrow that you have helped establish.  Robert M. Stern anyone?

For those who are able to seek leverage, demand leverage.  Turning employees into owners demands that they have an ownership stake in what they do.  Defined return for entrepreneurial success.  It is not about you, it is about the organization and what everyone can individually achieve in it as it gets stronger and stronger.

At the end of the day, focus is on where you are today and whether you really want to be different tomorrow or just a better version of what you are today.  A distinction with a huge difference and equal value in the ability to own and execute either.  Own your choice and stay there until you are truly ready, if ever, to make a different one.

Many of my clients have been and will continue to be women, people of color and gay men.  Overarching all, including straight men (and women), is the stereotype of the flighty artist.  No matter the size and scale of any project, the prevailing bias is is that the creative business is not “serious” in the way it goes about doing what it does.  Were that I was out of touch and that this bias, in 2019, did not exist.  Sadly, oh so sadly, it does.  I experience it through my clients almost daily.

Not only is it not enough to act professionally, creative business owners have to move far past professional to even get credibility that is mostly assumed for other professions.  Would you ever talk to your doctor, lawyer, accountant the way some clients speak to you and your team?  Of course not.

There is noone to blame here and I am not really commenting on the behavior that is rampant in creative business, by clients, even employees and colleagues.  What I am advocating is to call it what it is when it happens — that subtle wrenching of power or effort to marginalize — and then do something about it.  Bring the bias to the light.  Examples abound, but I will point to three areas: money, design and “I made you, you owe me.”

Money.  If you are getting flustered when money conversations start happening, then know that most of the conversation is about power much more than money.  When I ask you how much, you have to tell me how much YOU are worth as much as the thing you will be producing.  Many times you get to relate your worth to the thing, but you still have to justify THAT value (why 15% and not 10%?).  Here is the point: you are NOT a) a jerk, b) non-responsive, c) stupid, d) not professional, or e) flighty by asserting your expertise.  If a client asks what you cost before you can establish that they are willing to pay for what “it” will cost, there is no point to answering the question.  By the way, it is never a question of afford, it is a question of willing.  Clients all have the wherewithal to engage you (and if they do not, why exactly are you talking?), it is whether they choose to spend it with you is the real question.  This is where power comes in.  If you answer the question of what you cost before establishing they are willing to pay for what “it” costs because one of the above reasons are running through your head, you have subtly, insidiously, yet demonstrably ceded your expertise to the client who is not, in fact, the expert.  Please stop doing that as it serves no-one, least of all your client.  Production budget first, the cost of your creative business second.

Next, design.  Ideas are ephemeral, options today bordering on limitless. If you believe in blue, there can be a wonderful argument to be made for red.  Who cares?  You believe in blue, have sold blue, value blue and are willing to stake your reputation on blue. It ends there — your clients, colleagues and employees alike get to believe in blue or they do not.  Again, here is where the power thing comes in.  “I will not pay for the blue couch, I want a red couch”. The idea is that the impact on your design of a change from blue to red is up to the client when it is not. You and only you get to decide the significance of the change and it is almost always irrational, meaning two designers might come to exactly the opposite conclusion — “Meh, the red couch, no big deal” vs. “OMG, the red couch kills everything.”  You can then see the slippery slope to design marginalization, if not oblivion.  See above about asserting your expertise.  Standing in the position of saying the red couch is thermonuclear (or not) to your design is EXACTLY what you get paid for.  If you give up the position, so too your intrinsic value.  Again, please stop doing that as it not only serves no-one, but undermines the fabric of the very industry you so dearly love.

Last, the “I made you” zombie.  Most creative businesses have had patrons, those that helped you get to where you wanted to go as an artist.  Sometimes these are amazing relationships where the purity of the work remains and you are fairly paid each time.  What I am talking about is where it slips into an expectation of “you owe me” because of the past.  Here is the point, if you sucked, there would never be a next time.  The reason there is a next time is because your work was brilliant for what the client needed.  End of story.  Will you be better the next time?  Sure — if you are not promising to improve on today tomorrow, you should quit.  A big break is valuable, but, once proven you belong on the stage, you need not keep paying for the break.  The proverbial genie is out of the bottle because you are that good.  See above statement about expertise (applies here more than anywhere else).  If someone has market power, they deserve to be paid for that power — i.e., an interior designer getting a trade discount from a production partner they buy a ton from, a wedding planner getting a discount on rentals she might purchase for many of her events.  Even for these players though, there has to be an explicit understanding that there will be a future purchase, else no discount/preferential treatment.  Still though, I see artists giving over their power to patrons who no longer are, compromising themselves and everyone around them daily.  Please stop.

For the most part, bias can be exposed if only artists can demonstrate how the bias jeopardizes the power of the art, the ability to say, “Here, I created this for you” and to say it purely, with integrity and not a shred of doubt that it yours and yours alone to say.  I have said it thousands of times — if your clients could see what you see, do what you do, they would.  They cannot so they choose to come to your world to receive its largess. No sense making your world look like theirs, especially today, when it never did and never will.

We all want to take short cuts.  Sometimes those shortcuts are actually really helpful and make our lives better.  Most often though, shortcuts excuse the hard work and let us be the “regular kind” as Seth Godin is fond of talking about.  Except.

If you are truly in the business of being creative, by definition, you do not want to be the regular kind.  You seek to create that which did not exist before you created it, even if you have done something similar to this creation a thousand times before. So when your business itself says, “don’t worry, we are the regular kind” you are in a fight with yourself.  In that fight you lose day by day by day. You lose because you did not take the time to care about the journey, only the destination.  I hear it all the time, “I explained what I do when we first met, my focus is on the sale and once that is done the rest will take care of itself.”  Yeah, no.

I have talked over and over about the importance of the journey over the destination and I will keep at it until I cannot talk anymore.  However, today we are reaching a critical point in most creative business industries.  There has been massive investment in diminishing the journey because those that can deliver a significant version of the destination at a fraction of the cost are winning.  Houzz, Wayfair, Homepolish and Modsy (and many others) for interior design and coming stronger every day, The Knot/Wedding Wire (and many others) for weddings.  Don’t judge.  These businesses are seizing the opportunity to elevate access and take over the regular kind because, ahem, they can.  If all eyes are on the destination, easy to minimize the value of the journey, or, better said, the value of creativity in and of itself.

Your creative business has to be your kind because that is the only kind that matters to you, your clients, your employees and colleagues alike.  I had the opportunity to do another Next Level podcast for Andy Kushner’s The Wedding Biz talking about David Stark’s second podcast with him.  First, David’s interview is awesome and all creatives should have a listen, whether you are in the event business or not.  What I talked about with Andy, among other things, is that the real value David places on his creativity.  Yes, he makes money retailing products and services, but he gets paid to create and because he does he pushes ever deeper into the story of that creation.  So while everyone else is focused on the sale, David is focused on being ever more creative and developing tools for him to display that creativity because it alone is valuable.

A few thoughts that I hope will hit you hard if you continue to mail it in with the regular kind when it comes to your creative business.  Think about rental companies today, even furniture makers.  Today, they need massive amounts of warehouse space to produce, store and ship their goods. For certain items, storage makes sense.  For rental companies, tables and chairs that are not that special but get used over and over and over —low margin, high volume stuff.  However, what if higher margin, special items could be 3D printed, and then recycled and turned into something other using the same material.  What happens when the cost of 3D printing reaches the point when just about anyone can print a couch, design the fabric to cover it and have a freelancer assemble it all for them?  Don’t think this is coming?  Then you aren’t paying attention. What it means is that the value of being able to source the fabulous couch is going to pale to being able to design the couch in the very near future.  Still do not want to figure out how to get paid for design?  Of course, I love eco-friendly companies like Repeat Roses that recycle flowers and reduce the waste caused, but what happens if we can reuse what exists by simply melting it down and starting again? What would be the reduced footprint then? What if warehouses were a third the size they are now? Hmmm. For those of you who have had a crown put on one of your teeth, they print those in your dentist’s office now. Oh wait, that happened five years ago. Just saying.

Too far out for you?  What about the DJ industry that prides itself on having a collection of music that can be used to entertain guests at an event?  If it is about the playlist, think about the amount of information digital music businesses — Spotify, Pandora, etc. — have about the musical preferences of your client and every single one of their guests.  There is no doubt that these digital music businesses can put on better, more relevant music than a DJ ever could.  What they cannot do is read the room (yet) and create wonderful, if imperfect, art.  However, look at how most DJs sell today and it is all about the playlist and the amount of time they will be there.  The regular kind.

It is very simple.  If you as an artist and creative business owner cannot tell me what I will get along the way to the destination and why I should care MORE about these deliverable(s) than the actual destination, you are in a fight you cannot win.  The regular kind is taken up more and more by those who are smarter, bigger and hungrier for your clients than you will ever be. Instead, go the other way, value the biggest asset you have — what is between your ears — and do the hard work of getting paid just for that.  The reason that is matters so much is because, once you do, it is yours forever, your kind.

You have been in business for forever or you adhere to the teachings of those in your industry who have.  You have worked on many many great projects over the years. Lately though, well pretty much for the last five years, life has become increasingly more difficult. It used to be that clients gave you the benefit of the doubt when it came to your vision for the project and the budget.  Relationships with the media were important and respectful on both sides.  You felt as if you were part of a rather insulated and high-minded profession. There was a distinct difference between the true professionals and the newbies or Debbie-dabblers and everyone knew it.  Now, none of this matters and the “professionalism” of yesterday has been replaced with client distrust and rampant competition on all fronts.

The response for these old guard creative business owners and all of their acolytes has been to double down. They talk about setting standards, licenses; try to protect at all costs “to the trade” and dismiss those who refuse to accept the way of yesteryear as interlopers — whether that is the media, tech startups or even competitors.

So we find ourselves at a cross-roads in so many creative businesses: choose to embrace what is coming as opportunity or die a painful death to irrelevance.

First, the painful death to irrelevance. Death will not come as you believe with a meteor shot that will  wipe you away.  Instead, it will be an erosion of your foundation until you are unable to stand. You will be fighting increasingly for irrelevant ideas and standards.  The easiest example is the purchasing power of a professional interior designer — you get paid 35% on your purchases but rely on the idea that you get a discount that consumers simply cannot get on their own.  

While there will always be some truth to this notion, the spread narrows every day.  The reason is audience.  If there are 100 designers in the world that each purchase a $100,000 each year, it is worth it to a business to offer a significant discount presuming reaching the end user of such high-end, custom products is both costly and risky.  Better to offer the discount to designers rather than spend an enormous amount on marketing to a consumer that is very hard to find.  You see where I am going.  When it becomes ever easier to identify the end consumer who is ready to purchase, investment shifts. Of course, this does not mean that the designer is not valuable, just not nearly as valuable as she once was.  If you are designer hinging your entire value on your designer discount, good luck with that. What then the 35% commission?

Managing multiple vendors and inflow into a single place so that it can be installed/produced at once is a challenge and quality control matters.  How about we talk about what this means to consumers and the value it offers?  But wait, you conflated the commission with your cost of design. So exactly how much is for design, how much for management? Oh, it is all in the percentage means your client gets to decide, not you.  Slip sliding away into oblivion you go.

Or.  The opportunity is to see the value in redefining culture, to embrace what has created distrust today and actively work to change your industry so that this very thing that is currently creating distrust becomes the measure of trust. Clients need to fall in love with process AND to pay for the value of design alone.

The day when your ability to capture the value of creativity in places other than the creative endeavor itself is almost over. The hubris all of those wedded to the old guard will be not be in evaporating businesses but rather in client experiences that will become ever insufferable.  They will forever be blaming technology and how it has blown up the professionalism that never was.

In the midst of their hubris will be those who free themselves of the burden of provincialism and  the opportunities that will abound once culture is changed so that the value of the idea and the creativity, experience and wisdom behind it will itself be the driver.  In that realm, technologies such as 3D Printing, Virtual Reality, even Artificial Intelligence will come to represent brave new frontiers instead of being the enemy of all things traditional.  

Culture does not change overnight though.  It takes committed artists to embrace that the age of imperfect information pales to the future of ever-increasing information. And to do something about it, namely to change the story of what matters.  HT to Bill Baker — now is the time more than ever to acknowledge that the answer is not in a better solution to the same problem but an understanding that we need new problems to solve.  Getting the world to care about the new problem is the challenge and then getting it to pay for the solution is even more difficult. Drip by drip though it can be done by those who refuse to be anything other than radically, irrationally authentic.  With no note of hyperbole at all, your soul as an artist and your ability to wholly practice your craft depends on it. The future is here for us to shape if we as creative professionals so choose.  I, for one, hope we do.