Artists sell confidence. Everyone who wants to work with you wants to believe in you and your creative business first, your art second. You have to stand tall and instill the sense that your clients’, employees’, vendors’ and colleagues’ faith will be well placed. Given the neurosis we all endure (myself very much included), so much easier said than done. An easy answer would be to fake it until you make it. Except you can’t. The line between in your belly confidence and paper-thin bravado is incredibly faint. Bravado only goes so far until the real deal comes along and runs right past you. Authentic passion and desire to create will trump a star turn, maybe not in the short run (every dog has its day), but definitely in the medium and long-term.
So how to make your confidence real? You could stare in the mirror and say your self-affirmations to motivate you to believe in yourself. You could find a coach to help you focus on the positive. I am a golf fan and am fascinated by the power of positive thinking in the face of adversity. The New York Times has an article just today about pro golfer, Matt Kuchar’s, decision to work with sports psychologist, Dr. Gio Valiante, to do just that. You could also hire great motivators like Simon Bailey. All of these are terrific personal strategies and whatever works for you; I applaud your willingness and desire to use them in your lives. However, for your creative business, personal confidence, although a prerequisite, is not enough. For you to exude confidence in the eyes of those that care, your confidence in your business model is paramount.
Confidence in your business model means that you embody the how and why you do things and never, ever apologize for it. A fantastic example is how Vicente Wolf presents his designs to a client. Vicente hands his client a pad and pencil before he begins his presentation and asks that they write down their questions and comments during his presentation. They are not allowed to interrupt his presentation. Why? His designs are based on logical relationships that are not immediately apparent until the entire thought is conveyed. For Vicente, unless he has the opportunity to deliver a complete thought, he cannot provide real feedback on each component in the design.
Many of you would say, well that is fine because he is Vicente Wolf and I am so and so. To which, I respond A) he has risen just like everyone else and B) he has always done it this way. Confidence – not just in himself, but in the how and why he does things the way he does. It does not cross over into bravado or arrogance because it is the fabric of his business.
Make no mistake, confidence in your model is not “Well, this is just the way we do it.”, it is “We do it this way because”. If you are thinking that the difference is just semantics, you are limiting yourself and the growth of your creative business. You can never justify “this is how we do it”, but, if you are fully committed to the reason why you do things the way you do, you will never have to.
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Love this Sean!! SO relevant (as always). Thanks for sharing! The golf article was a great read too. Reminding myself to articulate our strengths (and to let go of fears)
Very sage advice Sean. I have two thoughts.
First, in many ways, I believe clients treat us the way we allow them to treat us. Some are respectful; others are less so. If I establish good patterns of exchange and boundaries at the onset of a relationship, I find that clients will respect us (and our work) more for it.
Secondly, there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. One must be self-assured when they’re presenting their work, but also have an openness to discussion and debate around it. I have found that the most meaningful relationships I have with clients are those that are collaborative, in which clients feel they are contributing to the work in some way while still respecting the expertise, skills and creative judgment of our team…which is what they are paying for after all.
There is one thing being confident, but I’d like to also add some thoughts on being too modest because you don’t want to be perceived as arrogant (rather than confident).
If, in working with your clients, you are too modest about your knowledge, experience, expertise and so how you can help add value for your clients… you are doing both them and you a disservice.
If you are an expert in your field, you didn’t get there by accident, so not only be confident (in both yourself and your business model.. as so well put by Sean), but also don’t be modest about it.
In an example, just this week I finalised a significant project in which I convinced the client to apply resources (money) to one area so that I would, as project leader, have more time free to apply to other areas where my expertise would create most value. To do this, I literally said “I’m going to put modesty aside..” then detailed where and why I was particularly expert and felt my efforts should be applied. Without expressing myself in such a way (confident, not arrogant), the project value would have been lessened for all concerned.
You are a wise man, Mr. Low. Thank you for the thought provoking feature. As always, excellent advise.
It’s just like anything else, you have to believe in yourself and do it. And that will attract the right people.