Most creatives I know would love to make money doing their thing if they could. In fact, I haven’t ran into anybody who has said “I love doing this creative thing, but I’d rather keep my day job.” Normally, the day job allows them to do their creative thing – but given the chance, they’d drop it in a heartbeat.
But what keeps most creatives in their day job is the fear that they won’t be able to make money doing their thing. Some of that fear is just creative doubt and the residue of a culture that has a psycho love-hate relationship with people doing their own thing.
There’s more than fear, though – there’s this weird feeling creatives get about selling their stuff or their services. Were somebody to give them money for it, they’d take it. But the whole thought of selling their creativity seems…wrong. Difficult. Dirty.
So when you talk to creatives about their brand, they clam up. When you ask them about how they’d get people interested in buying their stuff, they have all sorts of resistance to it. Underneath all of this stuff seems to be some sort of “Field of Dreams” mentality: if I create it, they’ll come. And if they don’t come, I’m not good enough.
Here’s the truth: creating it is usually not enough. It being good enough is not enough. You have to learn how to sell your stuff if you expect people to buy your stuff.
But learning to sell your stuff doesn’t have to be dirty. It’s simply a matter of being able to show your stuff to people and get them predisposed to buying it from you.
So, here’s a quick crash course: Your brand is more than your product or service; it’s the story behind your product or service. Why do you create what you do? What are your creative values or principles? How is this creation unique from all the other creations out there?
Marketing is being able to tell that story in a way that helps people see how what you’ve got is what they want or need. And that they can get what you’ve got for a reasonable price.
It’s that simple – and that hard. You could learn all of this the hard, painful way on your own, the slightly easier way through the School of Seth, or the easy way through Naomi.
What you have to know about Naomi is that she’s one of the smartest people I know, but her brain is still smaller than her heart. It’s hard to find someone who’s as good as she is at marketing, business strategies, and coming up with 342 ways to rock your business who also cares about you as a person. She does what she does to change the world, which is one of the reasons I’m proud to call her a friend.
She’s teaching Marketing 101 over the course of nearly a month. It’s a teleclass, so in typical Ittybiz fashion you can wear whatever you want. There will be recordings of the material, and you’ll get the ebook that comes from the course for free.
You’ll also get to attend another teleclass that’ll come in handy: “Networking For Wallflowers: How To Schmooze When You Suck At Schmoozing.” The only way you’ll get in this class is by signing up for Marketing 101, and “Networking” is happening two days before SxSW. I need to work on my schmoozing and I’ll be at SxSW, so I’ll be there, too.
The first class starts this Wednesday, so you’ll have to move pretty quickly to take advantage of this opportunity. It’ll run you $94, but that works out to $12.53 per hour – not counting the fact that you’ll get the ebook, too.
So instead of paying for a movie and popcorn, invest a few dollars in your future and learn to make money from your creativity. It’ll be fun, it’ll be interesting, and it might just change your life.
Click the link to learn more about Marketing 101. I hope you’ll come hang out with us.
The links to Marketing 101 in this post are affiliate links and this review falls under my review guidelines. Please purchase Marketing 101 by using my link if this review helps you make an informed purchase. Thanks!
Hey Charlie – Enjoyed this post and the psychology behind what drives a creative person. “Learning how to sell your stuff” is a great challenge. For me it is hard because my work has festered for so long in my brain that I’ve lost perspective! Good stuff!
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Great post! I really can’t do it (I wish I could but I am on the rocks right now financially-speaking). If I get somewhere with this latest contact, then I will definitely be buying some private tuition with Naomi.
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I’ll admit it…. I’m a wallflower. Self promotion is a skillset that I’ve had difficulty with my entire adult life. I’ve gotten much better at in the past few years by re-training my brain to separate the business side of what I do from the creative. Creative is one facet (albeit large) of my company but it is the other stuff that also keeps me in business, ie client relationships, product/service development, bookkeeping & accounting.
I’m going to a networking event this evening with a singular goal: to inquire with other business owners about their marketing plans for the next six months. I find that if I have a goal it keeps me focused so the networking event doesn’t turn into just another “meet and greet”.
I absolutely agree. It’s tough to convince yourself to take that leap–it’s simple to say that you won’t know until you try it, but making that career change or selling that hobby as a product can make your life a lot harder [financially].
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