Some artists have an exceptional ability to use language to convey an idea. Others are brilliant with metaphor. Still others excel visually or through movement. I was watching James Lipton being interviewed by Dave Chapelle for the 200th episode of the show Inside the Actors Studio. Throughout the episode, they played back various moments where guests of the show described what they believed acting was. Harrison Ford’s comments struck an epiphany in me. He talked about how hard he worked to “live” in front of that camera. To expose the ugly, weak, frail pieces of a character as well as the strength, optimism and courage that a person exhibits in their life. It struck me that that desire to live in front of others is the strongest asset that I brought into the world of writing from my previous career. If you’ve ever read my books (Excalibur Reclaims Her King, Edge! A Leadership Story, From the Barrio to the Board Room), or the fiction of those I have coached (Duckey and the Ocean Protectors, China Girl), what you’ll find above all else are moments of very vulnerable truth. I do not have a huge vocabulary. I do not have a colorful way with language, or description. But I do have a way of bringing the truth of a moment to life.
When I work with artists at defining their core values, I bring my desire to expose their truth to the table. My goal is to help them to uncover what lies at the heart of their creativity so they can then use that as a selling point for their work.
If you don't know who you are, how can you sell yourself? If you have yet to articulate who you are, how can others? Clients, customers, investors...they all make determinations about you in seconds. What are you telling them with your website? With your brochures? With your business cards? With your art itself?
If you are truthfully exposing your core values, then your marketing materials will do one of two things: Turn people on, or turn people off. And that's exactly what you want. Ignite the fires beneath those who love your work, and turn away those who are not inspired by it. Let them love your work, or hate it...what's most important is that they feel something powerful.
Come join me for a conversation about your core values at the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation's "One State: Together in the Arts" conference June 1st, 2009 at 3pm.
Or visit my Web site at www.writersoftheroundtable.com.
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This gets me thinking about another recent blog post by Adam Thurman on ARTSblog (http://blog.artsusa.org/2009/04/10/dont-hate/). He talks about people's discomfort with marketing. I suffer from it myself and see a lot of friends in the arts world echo my cry of "Can't we just make good art? Why do we have to sell it to people?" For a lot of us, marketing = sales, and selling something we're passionate about and protective of makes us feel icky.
ReplyDeleteSo this approach of communicating your core values seems like both a more effective way of marketing and somehow less icky than marketing. I'm excited to talk more about this at the conference and to hear how it affects other people's thinking.