Contemplating New Opportunities

February 1, 2018

I thought we would pivot this week.  I have spent a lot of time these last few months focusing on the distillation of your art and your creative business.  The work has been about developing everything you do around what you most care about and getting paid for it specifically.  Of course, we will return […]

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What Does Being A Gatekeeper Look Like Today?

January 25, 2018

Time was when if you wanted to know who to hire there were those who controlled everything and were the trusted resource for everyone associated with the project. Venue to wedding planner to wedding vendors.  Architect or contractor to designer to trades (or shelter magazine to designer to trades). The whole point was a trusted […]

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What Does Meaningful Conversation Look Like?

January 18, 2018

So let us get the elephant out of the room.  No potential client is at your door to be your friend.  They are there because they want you and your creative business to transform their lives. Full stop. That said, to do the work you are tasked with doing, you actually have to appreciate who […]

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Hyper-Local Does Not Mean Local Yokel

January 11, 2018

I hear it all the time: “Well, I am not a national name like [insert sacred totem] so I could not possibly charge what they do.” However, these are the artists that routinely take on and are sought after for projects that are at the top of their luxury market — interior design with square […]

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Two Commitments For 2018

January 4, 2018

Happy happy to everyone.  2018 is going to be a remarkable year. More than ever, there is an ability to see the reality of what was only a fantasy a few years ago.  Things like commercial space travel, 3D/Virtual Reality everything, renewable powered cars and homes, and on and on.  Go watch any 80’s movie […]

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Legacy and Evolution

December 21, 2017

So what if I came to you, one of  my existing clients, with this business proposition:  I want you to pay twenty-five percent more for a new version of my product, my tenth version. As with all of the previous versions, the new version improves things a lot but does not revolutionize anything. More cool, […]

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Why Podcasting Matters To Creative Business

December 7, 2017

People like us do things like this.  Seth Godin focuses all of his marketing efforts here and it is the basis of permission marketing.  Permission marketing requires empathy as to who the person is and what it is that they seek from you, the artist.  Of course, you do not have to be your client, […]

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Line Item Pricing Revisited And Changing The Dialogue

November 30, 2017

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity and deep pleasure of speaking to interior designers in Boston as part of Editor-at-Large’s Launch series.  I talked about pricing and client management as I have done in New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles several times before.  Everything centers around the idea that value and process drive […]

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Out With The Mullet, In With The Hoodie

November 16, 2017

Everything that we have come to rely on for our every day lives is less than twenty years old.  Sure the microcomputer existed in the 1980’s but the dawn of the Internet age changed everything. And yet.  The language and practices we use are straight out of the 1990’s.  For this post, I will focus […]

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Fear, Panic and The Addiction To Yes

November 9, 2017

Change is really, really hard.  If you intend to move to another place in your creative business, as opposed to just putting window dressing on what you already have (lipstick on a pig?), you are going to have to risk the status quo.  Nobody wants to be wrong or to realize that good enough just […]

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