I have been writing my blog for over ten years. I decided to begin re-reading all that I have written and see what has remained constant and what has shifted over the decade. Pretty remarkable.
What has remained the same is the growing need to tell your story and that of your art and your creative business as profoundly as you can. When I started you could get away with rehashing and repurposing far more than you can today. I remember when every blog post was of a new project you had just finished. Of course, this is interesting content, just not all of your content; THAT gets boring really fast. It did then but in our Insta everything world today, you just cannot do it. You have to be better at reaching deeper and connecting with those that really get what you and your art are all about. I firmly believe that the ratchet of outrageous promises and outrageous demands is maybe not in its infancy any more, but definitely barely out of diapers.
When I started writing, the Palm, The Flip and Blackberry were still in our mainstream. How we distribute content today, especially images and video versus how it used to be is still mind-blowing. We are still grappling with how to integrate this ability to digitally communicate into our analog experiences. It is beyond marketing and much further into connectivity and the ability to find ourselves in ever deeper relationship with each other. Fighting against this is the sheer speed of our cycles. When I started writing, there was still anticipation, the notion that you had to wait or at least modulate your consumption somewhat. Now all is clickbait and Breaking News and an ever-present grab for our attention and a firm grasp that that attention will be severely limited if and when you ever get it. The challenge is that your art, your process, it just takes time and, more likely than not, more than you are given. Reconciling these two realities will be the challenge for all creative businesses moving forward. As tools drive productivity (and creativity) forward, you will have to answer with a better deliverable yet know the bounds of what will satisfy you as an artist. Translation: you are going to have to live with a very, very specific calendar of your own making. In all but the most extreme of circumstances, hourly rates when it comes to creativity will go the way of the dodo bird.
Most profound in my decade plus of writing though is that the challenge of gaining and maintaining trust has exploded. The “trust me” businesses of 2009 are gone or marginalized at best. The feeling that there is a substitute for what you do is overwhelming, a Google search away. You are never going to be able to tell your clients (or anyone for that matter) to put their phones away. So ignoring the power in their palms is a fools errand. Instead, it has to be an acknowledgement that there ARE alternatives, just not substitutes. Again, the value of relationship and your willingness to be iconic. If you do not like the word “iconic”, go with idiosyncratic. The concept that you do things the way YOU do them as that is how you do your best work was powerful ten years ago, it is vital now. Else you are going to get run over by “why should we trust you when there is this…”
What it all means is that all (or most) of the slack in the system of creative business is gone. No, I am not saying you have to be perfect or ultimately reliable (like your WiFi or cell network), I am saying you have to be a thousand percent purposeful in all that you do. If you accept a “just because that is how we do it” mentality you will fail. No one will trust you and once that trust is gone the megaphone of cynicism and criticism will be overwhelming. Instead, intentionality of all that you do coupled with your willingness to both accept and educate clients, colleagues, even employees alike as to the meaning of your intention (i.e., the method to your madness) is and will forever more be paramount. You are not better because of the way you do things, you are just you. For those that that care deeply about you, your art and your creative business, this is, in fact, what makes you better for them. Of course, you must appreciate your clients to do great work for them, however, the key is that they have to appreciate and profoundly respect you. The very price of admission.
