I am basically tone deaf. I love joking with my kids about how awesome of a singer I am. They laugh every time because of how silly it is. I literally thought my son was using his own creation when he talked about his head voice and his chest voice. And I am a better singer than visual artist. My wife thought our then 4 year old drew a dog I drew when my daughter asked me to.
Asking what I think about an artist’s art is about as useless as it comes. I know less than nothing and my answer is beyond uneducated. And yet I am asked about it all the time. Go figure. We are all human and we all want to transpose trust where it is close enough. You help me with my creative business so you can help me with my creativity. Not so much.
I am a sponge for information. I am thrilled to be part of Editor-At-Large’s LA Summit next Monday, yes, to be able to talk to and meet amazing design professionals, but mostly to learn from the other speakers who are talking on topics they spend their careers working on – contracts, licensing, editorial, etc. We all need to invest in ourselves and hearing the wisdom of others is how I find the deepest reward. The corollary though is that I run away from ancillary discussion. If the marketer wants to talk to me about process from my point of view, not a marketing point of view, I will actively not listen.
Consider the source.
Own what you know and what those you are talking to know. Do not transpose. Survival is no arbiter of success, just a willingness to endure more pain than others. Cockroaches have been around for millions of years. A creative professional that has been in business for over twenty years, who has an awful website, a worse process and absolutely no social media presence is less than useless when asked or offering an opinion on anything internet/social media related. My guess though is that she is speaking at a conference near you very soon.
People can certainly be smart on more than one thing, just not all things. Moreover, the way other creative business owners do things may or may not work for you. Nobody has THE answer. Why? Because the only right answer is the one that works for you, your art and your creative business. The best piece of advice I got when becoming a new parent was to listen to everyone and then ignore the ones that do not matter. No different with creative business.
Please do not lock yourself into your own bubble though. Question everything. Learn from as many different places as you can. Learn from those who have invested their entire being into the subject. Ignore those invested in being right. Focus on those that are just invested.
Every creative business owner I have ever met has the wisdom to share their gift. They are blessed with a talent very few of us have and sharing it makes us all better off. However, very few business owners fully grasp that they can be sustained in every way (financially, psychically and spiritually) if they give meaningfully and purposefully to those that care. Listening to those with the answer they are not qualified to give will never get you there and will likely take you much further away from yourself, your art and your core creative business. Instead, find those who demand of you, your art and creative business to be authentically, outrageously, fundamentally you. As with your art and its stage, the rest will take care of itself.
