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A Single Thought

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Creative businesses are not department stores.  You do not have something for everybody.  Your clients are only those who place a premium on the value that you offer.  Everybody loves options, but having a smorgasbord of services actually devalues your creative business.  Your clients are not experts in what you provide and therefore have no basis to truly understand what you offer.  Asking them to make a choice from your “menu” of services ultimately boils down to a function of price and not the intrinsic nature of your business.  Not a place you want to be.

Moreover, it is almost impossible to understand what is being offered when confronted with multiple businesses at the same time.  The confusion, best case, puts the right client in the wrong box, and, worst case, the right client in your competition’s box.  For instance, if you are an interior designer and you offer full design services based on a set fee/percentage and hourly consulting services (sound familiar wedding planners that offer full service and day of?) and put them on the same website, you allow those who would want your full design services to consider your consulting business.  Those clients who would have been happy with consulting services if they didn’t know about full design services are now bummed that they cannot afford full services.  I hate rules, but this really should be one for all creative businesses:  always upsell, never downsell.  Yet, by putting everything you offer in one place that is exactly what you are doing.

If you can view everything you offer as its own business, with you and your art being the common thread, you will avoid creating chaos in the minds of your clients.  After all, the model underlying each of your offerings IS different – consulting (day-of) is based on volume, full service on in-depth personal relationship – and each deserves its own light.  Today’s technology not only makes it possible, but almost demands that you make the distinction.  Here are a few businesses that, in my opinion, are very much on the right track: Laura Kirar’s Trudesign and Laura Kirar Licensing, Vicente Wolf’s VW Home and Vicente Wolf Associates, Jennifer Domenick and Mary Gardella’s Love and Life, and Daniella Faget’s Bella Signature Design and Varmala.  Each of these creative business owners understand that the value is in the art, who it is intended for and how it is delivered.  A defined thought for the right client is their mantra and it should be yours.

Frenzy v. Focus

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We are all too busy.  Juggling business, family, art, exercise and downtime is itself a full time job.  In today’s world, you can literally work 24/7 and not make a dent or you can change the world in an instant.  The difference is frenzy versus focus.

I can be, at once, a crazy workaholic and incredibly lazy.  Usually, I am a crazy workaholic because I refuse to admit just how lazy I am.   The result, though, is not productivity, it is mental masturbation.  I get to say that I am DOING something so I cannot possibly be lazy, even if that thing is organizing my files for the umpteenth time. Because I refuse to just stop and be, I do not give myself the permission to (not) think or even to daydream.  Stillness is the seed of creativity.  So by forcing myself to be productive I literally rob myself of my own creativity.

The irony is that when I do allow myself the freedom to stop, do nothing, be still and, yes, be lazy, I usually come upon an idea that captures all of my attention and motivates me to see if I cannot make it a reality.  Even though I will probably work harder (and maybe even longer) than when I am just trying to be productive, it does not feel like work.  In these moments, I am not a workaholic as I am avoiding nothing and am fully engaged in the work for its own value, regardless of outcome.

I have become a huge fan of Danielle LaPorte (thank you Seth Godin and Fear.Less) and value her incredible insights for entrepreneurs.  She talked in her last post about how she got her new digital experience, “The Firestarter Sessions” done.  She set an insane deadline and gave up most everything in her life save working on The Firestarter Sessions.  She surrounded herself with “spriritually-informed intelligence” and made it happen.  What struck me most though about her post (and the many interviews she has given), is that she chose.  Danielle made an internal calculation that The Firestarter Sessions was worth sacrificing everything to bring to reality.

Too often, we do not make real decisions as we do not fully value the other side of the trade.  What is a day without your spouse, children, friends, exercise, leisure pursuits, and, yes, stillness, worth?  You can belie their value to you and work all day long to Sunday:  “It is just what I have to do”, “There is no one else to do it”, “My clients [employees, vendors, colleagues] are counting on me”.  However, you will likely miss the opportunity that commands (and deserves) your full attention.  I agree with Danielle, super heroes are overrated.  Your creative business will demand all of you.  I would suggest that you only give it the best of you.

Journaling Revisited

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I wrote about the value of journaling almost a year ago.  Since then, I have had many of my clients journal to kick-start our work together.  The results are always astonishing and incredibly informative.

The purpose of the journal is to give voice to your inner voice.  It is not there to solve the issues confronting your creative business as much as it is there to provide insight as to what you might be missing.  What you perceive yourself and your creative business to be is a function of your conscious mind.  If you permit it to, your journal can allow your subconscious mind to speak its truth.  Too often your perceptions and your subconscious truth do not match, with the result being that your creative business is more a reflection of what you think it “should” be rather than an authentic expression of you and your art.  And once you go down the path of “shoulds” you become derivative and, ultimately, boring to you, your clients and your staff.

An example.  Many of my clients have business backgrounds and want their creative businesses to be businesses first, creators of art, second.  Yet, when I have them journal with the topic being goals for their art, their business and their clients, they journal what is most important to them as artists first, businesspeople second.  They would rather a design, installation or production reflect who and what they believe in as artists than make them a lot of money.  Ironic, coming from a group of MBA’s, accountants and lawyers who, when you ask them, will tell you that making a profit is their number one priority.

To be specific, for the next ten days, I would suggest that you write for ten to twenty minutes when you first wake up.  I had said that it could be any time of day, but I have found that if it is not first thing in the morning, we get in our own way.  The length of time is up to you (not less than ten minutes or more than twenty though), but once you choose, commit to it.  Give yourself your topic before you go to sleep and then just write whatever comes to mind on the topic when you wake up.  You can ask yourself whether it is time to hire an assistant, what you think is most important about your art and how it is reflected in your business, whether your website looks good, whether you should open a new office, what color your new logo should be. The topics are entirely up to you.  However, what you MUST do is just write.  You cannot think as you do and you have to let go of the idea that ANYONE will be reading it (even you).  You cannot read what you have written until you have finished journaling for the ten days.  Once it is on the paper it is done.  After you have written your journal for ten days, give yourself the time to read back what you have written.  Hopefully, you will see what you have been missing in your perception of things.  Then, find someone you really trust (REALLY TRUST) to give you feedback on what is in the journal versus their perception of what you, your art and your creative business are all about.  I am quite certain you will discover the disconnects almost immediately.

Your highest priority should then set out to correct the disconnect between your perceived voice and your inner voice.  Issues confronting you are often symptoms of the disconnect over and above the issue itself.  Your journal will expose where you are being inauthentic.  All of the value in your creative business is in your authenticity.  The more authentic your creative business is as a reflection of you and your art, the more value you will be able to offer and receive from your clients.

Difficult Clients

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No matter how hard you work at defining your brand, your business process and your value proposition, a difficult client will find his way into your life.  He will want to negotiate everything, is never satisfied with what you tell him, demand all of your attention all of the time, and always make you feel like you are not doing enough.

In a perfect world, you would fire all of your difficult clients.  Give them their money back, refer them on and wish them well.  The time and resources it will take you to satisfy this client (who will probably never be satisfied) will far exceed the money you have been paid.  Negative energy surrounding a difficult client will almost always taint the work.  Best to let that energy go before it manifests into sub-par work and/or an unsatisfied client.

However, we do not live in a perfect world and, even in a recovering economy, letting a paying client walk out the door is simply not an option for most creative businesses.  So what to do?  Use the experience as a lesson and walk in the shoes of your client.  You may not be able to start over, but you can try to understand what the client is not getting from you and do your best to make lemonade out of lemons.  If it is too infrequent communication, set a time to talk that is comfortable for him at a frequency he might appreciate.  If he says he is not getting what he wants, try to find out what it is he does not understand.  If he does not believe you are providing him value for his money, find out why and do your best to explain why it is that you do what you do.

What you should never, ever do, though, is to sublimate yourself to your client.  The power of your creative business is yours, not theirs.  You do not need to talk to your client at 2:00 a.m. because she wants you to.  Nor do you have to talk for two hours every day.  You are guiding your clients, not the other way around.  Better for you to say, “In my experience, most of my clients need to hear from us [weekly, daily, monthly] to feel like they are part of our process.  I understand you need more frequent communication so I suggest that we talk for ___ minutes every Wednesday.” than, “So sorry Mrs. Smith for not being in better communication with you, what would work better for you?”

Every client needs to feel heard, even if your answer is no.  This is especially true for those that do their very best to make you feel that your art is a commodity that you can offer a “deal” on.  If your response to her request for you to lower your price is met with indignation, it will permeate your entire relationship.  Instead, why not try to understand that different people have different ways of expressing the basic human desire to give and receive value.  Difficult clients want you to value the dollars they are giving you above anything else.  So why not honor that energy instead of fighting against it?  You can say no to her request to lower your prices by pointing out the value she is getting for her money: that you are the best at what you do and that your prices are what they are to let you do (and keep doing) your best work.  It certainly helps if you know what is most valuable about you, your art and creative business and can have someone other than you explain it to her.

The irony is that there is more to learn from difficult clients than from clients that adore you.  Those that adore you are likely to look past (too) many of your failings because of their love for you and your art.  While we all need forgiveness and acceptance, we also need constructive criticism to improve.  Difficult clients go too far and turn criticism into condemnation, but there is much to be learned from your interaction with them.  Knowing where the train went off the proverbial tracks allows you to fix both the train and the track.  The grace of difficult clients is that they expose the integrity of your art and your creative business.  They make you choose: compromise your integrity or grow more resolute in your intrinsic value.   For the sake of the health of your creative business (and you sanity), I hope it really is not a choice at all.

Points of Trust

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Your creative business depends on your ability to identify, create and manage your points of trust with your client.  Any interaction you have with your clients should have a specific goal of building, sustaining or reinforcing trust, not only in your art, but also in your creative business’ ability to deliver the art. Creative businesses stand apart because of this need to build two levels of trust.  Organizations that deliver a set product or service can focus solely on their process to support the customer and not on their ability to create the product in the first place.  Think Apple, Amazon and Zappos.

Establishing your ability as an artist AND your creative business’ ability to produce the art is very tricky.  Place too much emphasis on the art and not the art of the business, and the inevitable missteps you make (everyone makes mistakes) will likely overwhelm the beauty of the art.  On the other hand, overemphasizing the business can give your client the (mistaken) impression that your art has no soul or, worse, is a commodity.  In the Internet age, where everybody on the planet hears every voice, I am not sure you can take the risk of underwhelming your client because you did not establish and maintain her trust in your art or business.

All of which leads me to the importance of your presentation of your vision to your client.  It goes without saying that this is the key moment for you to cement your client’s trust in you as an artist.  They will either love what you have in mind, feel like you got them or they won’t.  Much more subtle though is that the presentation is also the moment where you have to switch roles – becoming a business owner first, artist second.  How you manage this transition and the flow of art to business and back are what will set the tone for the remainder of your relationship with your client.  A presentation done well makes the hand-off seamless, allows the client to see your business’ path to completion and cements the foundation of trust in both your art and your business.  A presentation done poorly (regardless of how good your art is) leaves your client with doubts of your ability to do what she hired you to do.

Like everything else, simultaneously presenting both creative ideas and the business behind the ideas takes practice, patience and a willingness to be dead wrong.  For instance, I am often guilty of going too fast.  I try to do too much in too short a time and jump to business before my creativity has had time to marinate.  It can leave the person across from me excited, yes, but also overwhelmed, confused and alienated.  Grounding myself, asking questions, engaging in related dialogue is what I need to do more of, not less.  I have to let go of the idea that everything has to be covered in order for the presentation to be a success.  Sometimes it is the single note that speaks louder than the whole song.  Even after 20+ years of presenting my ideas, it is still very much a work in progress.

Improving your skill at simultaneously presenting your art and business process may not be the answer to all of the problems confronting your creative business today, but it will probably go a long way with many of them.

The Little Things

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We all love the grand gesture – the over-the-top gift, being doted on, being shown off, etc.  But it is the little things you do every day that make all the difference.  Why?  We are human beings and we need to be seen for who and what we are.  Fabulous statements often ignore the essence of the person because, in part, the statement is about the giver as much as the getter.  The daily practice of paying attention to the person across from you and honoring who and what they are is how we see each other.  And when we are truly seen by someone we cannot help but feel valued and valuable.

At base, all creative businesses are about relationship.  Your clients need to feel not only that they matter to you, but that you get them.  If you cannot communicate that you get them, then they will never trust you completely and your road with your clients will be much harder than it needs to be.  It all starts with you and your staff being fully present to your clients.

Does a client come in and get greeted by name?  When a client calls does the person answering the phone give their name and engage in a brief, but personal pleasantry?  Or is it: “Thank you for calling XYZ Design, how may I direct your call?”  Do you speak to clients while you are driving?  At the grocery store?  Or do you take the time to be in a quiet place before you call.  Do you send clients messages in text speak?  Or do you address them and write out your thoughts in plain English?  Do you keep in contact with your clients to let them know how things are coming?  Even if it is only to let your client know that you are thinking of them?

If you put all of your attention on the product instead of the experience, you miss the whole point.  Your clients do not buy your art, they buy the experience of having you create your art for them.  Your willingness to create and maintain a real, personal relationship with your clients is what will drive your business forward.  You can and should weave how you want to be treated by your friends and family into the fabric of how your creative business treats its clients.  Consummate professionalism is not sterile formality; it is personal connection.

Abundance

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In my best place, I know there is more than enough for everyone; the more I give the more will be given to me; and creativity is its own success no matter the result.  I wish I were always in my best place.

In so many ways, it is just easier to worry and to think that I will not be able to make or do what I need to do to support myself, my family and my creative business.  I can drive myself so crazy as to make the fear palpable, trying as hard as I can to kill my creative spirit.  The reason I go here is because when I fail (as we all do more than we succeed), I can say to myself, “I told you so, it was a dumb idea anyway.”  If I were my client, I would want to shake me until I saw how much harm I cause myself and everyone around me when I am in this place.

I only come back to myself when I remember just how much I love what I do.  My life’s passion is to help people.  Experience and dumb luck brought me to the creative community.  And it all fits.  I feel privileged to get to help artists be the best at what they do – to inspire them to be as brave and creative with their businesses as they are with their art.  When I see the courage and determination of my clients to not only change what they have done in the past, but to think about and run their business in an entirely different way I am filled with gratitude and admiration.  The work in and of itself gets me through my moments (well, days) of doubt and insecurity.

There will always be naysayers and haters.  People who stay stuck to the fear of what the future might bring instead of its infinite possibility.  If you listen, you will probably hear YOUR fear masked as their judgment of what you are trying to do.  If you can have empathy for them and yourself, maybe you can get past their voice and let your own authentic expression of your art carry the day.  Abundance does abound only if we choose to believe it does.

I am absolutely not saying that if you ignore the doubting voices and judgments (internal and external) you will be successful.  Whether the time is right for your new idea/strategy or whether its execution effective, is largely a matter of fate.  Apple certainly learned its lessons from the Newton before launching the iPhone, but that didn’t guarantee its success any more than iTunes guarantees Apple TV.  What I am saying is, to paraphrase Seth Godin, shipping is its own reward.  It IS incredibly scary to put yourself out there in a wholly new light.  So actually doing it is remarkable in itself.  Scarier still is the idea of staying true to your initiative and giving it the best chance to thrive when the inevitable roadblocks come your way.  Just because the world wants and needs what you have to give does not mean it is going to make it easy for you to do it.  My prayer for myself and for you is to do it (and keep doing it) anyway.

Humility

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Great artists are humble. They know their talent is a gift that they choose to hone to better share with the world.  The average artist’s folly is arrogance and hubris — they see their gift as a birthright rather than grace. It should be no surprise then when average artists resist the hard work, tenacity, courage and patience great artists exude.  Nowhere is the difference better seen than in the creative businesses of each.

Great creative businesses have a definable process that is unique to them.  The process is ever evolving, but always obvious to employees, clients and colleagues.  Average creative businesses leave it murky as to what the next step is and many times employees, clients and colleagues are left wondering who does what and when things are going to happen.

Whether you have a great or average creative business has nothing to do with profits in the short term and everything to do with lifelong success.  Developing your creative businesses process takes every bit as much hard work, tenacity, courage and patience to cultivate as your art.  The goal is to create value for you, your employees, your vendors and your clients.  Value in the most holistic sense of the word.

The experience of working with you and your creative business should be enriching for everyone.  No question, you need to make a profit.  However, to profit on the backs of others is, thankfully, no longer a viable option today.  Humility is to honor your power, as well as that of your employees, vendors and clients.  It is to accept that you can simultaneously teach and be taught without sacrificing anyone’s integrity.

What humility is not is shame (although it can be created through authentic shame) or sublimation to power.  Yes, your job as an artist and creative business owner is to translate your client’s vision into reality.  This does not mean though that you are simply there to do their bidding.  You are not their servant and you are not being humble by acting like one.  You are an artist and they are paying you to translate their vision BEYOND what they could ever hope to create themselves.

To create amazing art as a business requires process.  The process can only be borne from experience and introspection as to what it takes for you to do your best work.  Humility is your ability to listen to your experience and introspection and your conviction to have it permeate your creative business.

Time Is Money

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If you are in the business of designing and producing art for your clients, then your goal has to be to maximize the time between design and production.  Whether you are a baker, set designer, florist, stationer or caterer, the more time you have to aggregate orders, purchase inventory, optimize your design and plan for installation/delivery, the better you can do.

While the price of creativity is subjective, the price of its production is not.  What you pay for a flower, a nail, paper or a pound of butter is driven by market forces: supply and demand and inventory risk to the factory and/or wholesaler.  Presuming your business is large enough to matter to your suppliers (where they would notice if you didn’t buy from them), then the price you pay is driven by the absolute size of your order and your willingness to remove risk from their business.  Walmart gets the prices it does because of how much they buy of any item AND their willingness to commit to buy it no matter what.  When the risk of a sale goes away, the price becomes solely a function of production and not inventory.  The farmer selling milk to Walmart never has to worry that he will be stuck with his milk and literally watch his money go down the drain.  Same goes for a floral wholesaler if you commit to buy far in advance.  If he doesn’t have to worry that the flowers will go bad on his shelf, he can afford to give you a better price than someone who walks in the day (or even week) before to get their flowers.  And, for hard goods, like paper, linen, candles, etc., if there is enough time to ship them over sea or ground, rather than air, it will also be reflected in the price.

Most creative businesses that design and produce art are seasonal.  So extending the time between design and production will also allow you to aggregate your orders.  Instead of buying paint for the three sets you have coming up on a particular week, you would be able to buy all the paint you need for the thirty sets you have coming up for your two month season.

Apart from increasing your ability to purchase inventory more efficiently, having time prior to final installation/delivery will help make your production process more efficient.  We all get better with practice and, given the opportunity, skilled craftsmen will get faster at making your prototype the more times they do it.  Moreover, given enough time, they might be able to change the prototype (and still give you the art you need) to be able to build it faster and cheaper than you could ever imagine.

Once you understand how valuable the time between design and production is, you will be able to communicate that value to your clients.  Architecture and construction is a terrific example of how it can be done: once the plans are done, changing them is enormously expensive.  The larger point is this though: you want to provide your absolute best to your clients, not just the best you can do under the circumstances.  Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is the best version of your art.

Dialogue

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There is no absolute truth in business.  Nobody knows the future.  The only thing you can have is faith that what you present to the world will be rewarded with the ability to keep going.  One foot in front of the other.  But it cannot be done in a vacuum.  You need to have dialogue with everyone and everything.  Dialogue beyond words.  You need to listen to reason and ignore naysayers with equal conviction.  Allow your intuition, not your ego, to guide you to your truth and how you choose to portray that truth in your art and your business.  The goal is to be able to say, “This is the way we do it.” without apology or hubris.

If you permit yourself, authentic communication will determine what you rely on and will give you the ability to define and ever evolve your message.  Marcy Blum wrote a terrific post yesterday about the art of salesmanship and the importance of energy and enthusiasm to anything you do.  I am talking about taking it a step further – to know that dialogue infuses passion and can define all that you are as an artist and creative business.  It allows you to be in the moment and still be able to shape your future.

I attended my sister-in-law’s funeral on Wednesday.  She was in her early 40’s and leaves behind my step-brother and her two boys, 12 and 15.  The funeral home was overflowing and grief visceral.  The eulogies spoke to the daughter, wife, mother, sister and friend that she is.  The words were what they were, but the moments when words could not come spoke volumes.

We all die.  The sadness of death has to be juxtaposed with the the joy of being alive, to live and love well and to go forward.  Art communicates beyond words, expresses all that we are and hope to be.  Art is life and, more importantly, love.  Artists are the gatekeepers of our humanity.  They are its stewards and its guardians.  Turning your art into a business only increases your responsibility as an artist.

Listen and communicate beyond the literal, actually feel what surrounds you and allow others to feel you as you express your art.  You might not choose to believe it, but this dialogue is what you are really selling and what your clients most want from you and your creative business.

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