Shop My Porch

I am back after a self-imposed hiatus just to let the proverbial batteries recharge.

I firmly believe that the future of all things is in the power of community.  1,000 true fans as Seth Godin would say.  I have had in/consulted with several businesses that seek to build community and serve that community, JazzWire and Well and Wonder very much among them.

Now comes Phyllis Cheung with Shop My Porch.  Shop My Porch is a hyper-local Etsy where buyers and sellers are connected within their communities.  Have a ten year old who loves to make Origami sculptures? Shop My Porch can help her find buyers in her area and vice-versa.  The ultimate community experience empowering makers and patrons alike.  The Shop My Porch app just launched after building a Facebook community of over 70,000 people.

Of course, no one knows SMP’s future but I am definitely on the train in a very big way.

Why is SMP so important for creative business? Simple.  It gives voice to the otherwise voiceless.  That is what JazzWire and Well and Wonder share with SMP.  The idea that connectivity is the future of hope and the aim of technology should be to bring us together, not break us apart.

Next, we should all be able to live as what makes us feel most alive and have an outlet for that expression.  If it happens to be your business, wonderful; a side hustle fine, or only a hobby, terrific.  Creation and self-expression should be the norm, not the outlier.  We should make it easy to try, fail and try again until you do not. Test quickly and often to paraphrase Safi Bahcall from Loonshots.

We all need to recognize that the world has, in fact, changed because of COVID.  Things we now argue over, take for granted, demand, have all evolved.  The real question is your desire to find yourself in yesterday and why living as you once did would be so precious to you.  Nostalgia is a lovely notion in that it white-washes all that was not so lovely about the time gone by.  As true for your creative business as it is for life itself.

I am ever frustrated by those unwilling to challenge themselves to do better in the face of a radically different world.  The entire point of living the truth of your Apple Tree is to look up.  Apples still on the tree are the ones that are most vibrant and have the best chance to thrive.  The beautiful apple already on the ground is already dead and rotting even if it does not look that way.

If you began with the premise that creative business exists to serve better clients better, to create meaningful community with those clients, you would necessarily stop treating them the same as all others.  You would be forced to develop a business structure that would recognize the commitment these clients are willing to provide to you, your art and your creative business and you would then ask them to pay more, not less.

Wait, what?  If you asked your best client which they would rather pay for — an employee that costs $100,000 and is the best in the world or one that is $70,000 and is great, might one day be best, but is just not there yet.  Every single time your best clients would choose best AND pay for it.  Yet you persist in the idea that keeping employee cost low is the way to go.  Good luck with that.  The factory model never was for creative business, post-COVID it will never ever be again. Serve better clients better.

Back to SMP. What Phyllis has created is remarkable in that it gives the opportunity for makers to truly know who they are creating for — likely someone literally around the corner. When these makers learn even more about why their products/art are beloved, they will do even better.  Community lifts all boats if every one is committed to connection.  Intimacy where it matters most.  I would like to believe in this future and do so pray that Phyllis is right.  The world is a huge place but what always matters is right around the corner or down the street.