At first blush, you would not think that a discussion on how we can improve diversity in all kinds of creative business would be related to finding the right client for your particular creative business. And yet nothing could be more profoundly linked.
The point of asking for all aspects of creative business to be more diverse is not actually to drive business one way or another. For instance, featuring more African-American weddings on Style Me Pretty now that Abby and Tait have reacquired the business is not to highlight those creative businesses that are creating Style Me Pretty-type weddings for African-Americans. The reason is that turns the conversation into a transaction and that, in turn, limits the purpose of the forum. Instead, Style Me Pretty should feature more diversity on its site — race, sexual orientation, religious preference, etc. — simply as a statement of the cultural significance of the art.
No one should be forced to produce art for those they do not believe in. I am actually on the other side of the gay wedding cake Supreme Court case, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, in that I believe the baker is an artist and has the right to share his art with who he pleases. That said, I also believe deeply in the right of the gay couple to be able to marry. When we force Style Me Pretty to promote diversity under the guise of highlighting the artists that created the wedding, it loses the import that the right to have this wedding in the first place, equal to all other weddings, is what really matters. Separate but equal is awful, separate but same is the place of cultural evolution, if not revolution.
We have to acknowledge that niche and the power of our digital world is to allow those who we will connect with deeply to find us and us them. For purposes of commercialism, this is magical. It allows for targeted media to be deeply relevant. Amen to that. However, let’s not confuse this with the burden of media to be inclusive as a definition of culture.
This is where it gets so hard. Because where do you draw that line and where is your responsibility as an editor larger than that of a businessperson? When you create content for a specific market, what is your responsibility to acknowledge the power and legitimacy of other markets? I would suggest that it is risky to try to wear both hats at the same time. If Abby decides (or is shown) that being more diverse is bad for business, how far does she have to go to be the standard bearer for the idea that weddings of all kinds are a reflection of tolerance and an evolution in our society?
I find it fascinating that the single most important cultural moment in weddings is about to happen on whenMeghan Markle (a divorced, bi-racial, American) marries Prince Harry. This was heresy in England and is now being fully embraced. Or is it? I see tabloid coverage of the wedding in the United States thus far, but profound insight into the implications of the wedding globally, not so much.
The equality of diversity is the link between more inclusion and finding the right client. We need to do better at not eliminating differences but celebrating difference as the same. When we build the value of diversity as a touchstone, it allows artists to reach in and find their slice. So, where I have to respect the baker in the Masterpiece case to create art for who he chooses, I despise the reason – that he does not want to recognize gay weddings as a fundamental right. We all have to acknowledge that we have a long way to go on the diversity side, and on the client side it then has to be to create fundamental statements that belie the argument that “this” wedding should not be included in the conversation. The two actually go hand in hand.
To the nitty gritty of finding the right client, when you say yes to the almost right or even the very wrong client, you value those who do not show up at zero.
The profound solution is to write a check every single time you accept a client who does not honor what you are all about. Yes, write a check — make a donation, pay money into a “why did I do that” fund, I do not care, just make what you cannot see real. The math: if your perfect client would pay you $10,000 and allow you to do your very best work, when you accept a non-ideal client, what is the chance the perfect client never contacts you? Ten percent, twenty? No way is it zero. Probably more like thirty percent, but I will go with ten percent here. The perfect client would say, “Oooh, I did not know she did designer-lite weddings, I want couture, let me keep looking.” And let’s say when that perfect clients does call you have about an eighty percent chance of getting her to sign with you. Then the math is easy. Every. Single. Time. you take the wrong client you will write a check for $800. Write enough of those checks and you will realize that taking business where you have NO chance to do great works costs you more than just not getting paid to the work you most want to do.
When you own the price of taking the wrong client, you will stop talking to them. Instead you will fully embrace that you can ONLY talk to clients who care about what you most care about. The rest will take care of itself.
Working with those who do not care leads to generic work, generic work to a sea of sameness regardless of who the client is, and back to the K Car generation we go. We can do better, so much better. If we let the world see the power of beauty – deep profoundly authentic beauty, different but same becomes ever more possible. And, yes, I may be naive, overly optimistic or even delusional but a world where we all matter equally is the one I choose to aspire to. Art and artists have always made that journey for us. I want to say, “Keep going, you are just getting started. When you teach all of us to see another way, we wake up bit by bit by bit.”
