Politics completely aside, Elizabeth Warren, gave a speech in New York City this week and then stood forfour hours taking selfieswith anyone who wanted one. So far, by her own account, she has taken over sixty thousand selfies during her campaign. When asked why she would stay so long after her speech, her response is if the last person was willing to wait four hours to get a selfie with her, why shouldn’t she be more than ready when they got their chance?
Nobody would fault Elizabeth Warren if she left after three hours or even if Donald Trump did one less rallyfor his base. The point though is that that is who they have determined themselves to be to who they most care about and so it matters.
There is an exquisite lesson for all creative businesses here. It is up to you to define what matters and then to live there. People will always judge your determination and your decision and that is their right. However, you must walk your own walk. If it is important to you, then you alone have to stand in the moment and the integrity of that moment. No one else will.
Which, of course, brings me to the idea of how you compete in your universe. I have an ever-present headache since the vast majority of creative business marketing goes like this: I do what everyone else does, just a little better (best case) or I do what everyone else does, just a little cheaper (worst case). I will scream if I hear about how much the client needs to just sit back and relax while you do all the work. How they just have to tell you, the artist, what they want and kablammo it will magically appear. The insidiousness of it all makes me, well, sad.
First, nothing a creative business does is easy. You are literally bringing to life something that did not heretofore exist. The very act of creation is fraught with doubt, fear and, in some cases, anger at the unknown. How about you not start your relationship with a client by lying to them? Instead, acknowledge that yes, there is a risk it will not work, but that is far outweighed by the return when it does. Oh, and you have devoted your entire being as an artist and creative business owner to minimize the risk of failure and maximize the value of success. Then again, if you refuse to own what success actually is other than being a little better than the next guy, cheaper or both, you reap what you sow. Safety tip: don’t do that.
Next, the journey is everything. Full stop. If you fail to appreciate the depth of that notion and your responsibility to define your journey with your clients, you are in for a tougher and tougher road. Good luck with that.
With all of this in mind, let us talk about Homepolish. Homepolish was started by Noa Santos and paired clients and interior designers in the luxury space. It served as a marketing channel for these designers and a broker for their relationships. Homepolish also provided back-end purchasing services that allowed for easier flow of goods from manufacturer to client via a designer. Along the way, Noa raised significant venture capital and had visions of expanding to be the proverbial grease to the luxury client/designer relationship. The scale never happened and now Homepolish has closed. Have a read of Business of Home’s reporting on Homepolish here.
Of course, Homepolish will be written off as a disruptor gone bad or venture capital forcing too much too soon, but what lies underneath is the idea that a broker will never be a designer and that, at a certain point, the relationship and reputation of the designer will transcend the broker. Homepolish wanted exclusives and to take over a designer’s entire production business. In other words, Homepolish wanted to permanently matter more than the designer, but had only back office efficiency and marketing prowess to offer. It was not enough and certainly not at the scale Homepolish needed it to be to be successful.
There are always layers upon layers for why things go south and I am only highlighting one and must acknowledge, for sure, that there is much much more to the story of Homepolish’s end. I am only trying to highlight that the value of the relationship between artist and client is based on the intrinsic nature of that relationship and the willingness of the designer to define it as her own. Businesses like Homepolish teach us that the relationship can be ignited by others but its fruition remains, at base, unleveragable by others. Make no mistake though Homepolish will not be the last to try to step into the luxury client relationship and marginalize you, the artist. Some might even get it right. Until that day comes though, how about we all not make it easier on these businesses to steal your moments simply because you are unwilling to call them your own
