Commercial Artistry is Dead

I’m announcing it here. I’m saying it now. While commercial artistry will continue to work for mainstream celebrities with built in audiences, gone are the days of the new artist being “discovered” and invested in by distribution companies. Commercial Distributors of artistic works are spending less and less on new risks and pouring more and more into established platforms and celebrity artists, hoping they can put off their eventual demise a few more years. The reality is that, like the music industry and the publishing industry, all of the rules are changing for artists everywhere. With so many artists navigating their own way and building their own audiences, while maintaining the rights to their work, the old way of doing business will NEVER return. Now is the age of the artist who is willing to invest in the business of their brand. It takes longer to build your own audience, but the rewards are immense. No longer do you have to share 90% of your profits with a distributor. No longer do you have to rely on them to market your work. In fact, if you do, you’ll end like most other artists, living off meager royalties/sales, working other jobs to keep afloat and not understanding why your work has not found a larger audience.

Being a successful artist requires more than talent and the discipline to create. You have to have the discipline to market and the curiosity to learn new skills and explore new territory in branding your work. The second half of the equation is completely different from the first. Consider yourself an inventor. Step one is creating the prototype. Step two is creating an awareness of the problem your art addresses in society and then demonstrating that you have the solution.

Consumers are still hungry. They are just listening differently. Their buying habits are less influenced by what advertisers tell them, and are more influenced by word of mouth. We’ve regressed back to the days prior to the media revolution. Imagine you have no TVs, no newspapers, no magazines to spread your message. Return to spreading it through impacting people one at a time and then add the internet back into the equation to tell everyone about the impact you're making. If you make a difference in people’s lives with your work, they’ll tell their networks about you and today their networks are no longer those who just live down the street.

Be courageous. Take responsibility. You have to rely on yourself…because the old model is DEAD.

Come join me, Corey Blake, 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. We'll discuss how to infuse your core values into your marketing materials!

Marketing Materials that Impact

We've all heard it before: Art is a business. And let me tell you that's the truth!! While I loved my university training (BFA, Theatre), I spent 10 years getting over the anger that they never taught me how to generate an income from my art. I've actually done quite a bit of research and have yet to find a single educational program that teaches the business of artistry and that is such a shame because talent and the development of the art itself is only 25% of the equation. Over the years, I have built numerous successful businesses around artistic endeavors and I can tell you without a doubt that the other 3 ingredients (in equal parts) are:

1. Marketing
2. Networking
3. Publicity

Today, I'll discuss marketing as it is the first ingredient I recommend artists focus on when working to generate revenue for their work.

When I speak of marketing, I'm referring to any materials an artist uses to introduce or update potential buyers or clients on their work: websites, brochures, business cards, one sheets, flyers, mailers, stationery, even the signature line of your email!

What is most important in regards to marketing is the quality of its presentation. Listen up here! The quality of your marketing materials is a direct reflection of the quality of your craft/your talent. People will immediately equate their impression of what you use to sell yourself with the quality of what they will receive if they purchase your artistic services, or an artistic product you have created.

This is a lesson I learned as a filmmaker in Los Angeles. The first short film I produced, "The Boy Scout" had a limited budget of $35k. We wanted to shoot on film and we had elaborate stunts, costumes and sets. We went out of our way to produce a high quality press kit that looked like a million bucks, complete with articulate language about the project, bios on the team, and a great poster photo we shot, all presented in an elegant folder with our company logo embossed on it. Eventually, more than 45 people came together on set to assist us, including an award-winning cinematographer and an entire stunt team (who trained our actors in their studio for three months!). What we ended up with was an award-winning final product because our marketing materials impressed talented people to jump aboard and lend their expertise. Why? Because these marketing materials demonstrated that we were a group worth getting involved with. People equated our marketing materials with how our final product would look and feel.

I have since taken these high standards for marketing materials and translated them into my other artistic endeavors. I NEVER skimp on marketing. My goals with our materials are to:

1. Design Them Beautifully: You have 2 to 3 seconds to visually stimulate a viewer. You have to capture their attention and that doesn't happen through your words, it happens through the visual design and layout which evoke a positive emotional reaction if created well.

2. Word Them to Reflect the Heart of the Art: If the design has done its job, the viewer goes on to read some of the language. This is where your words must be concise and capture the heart of your product/service from the unique angle that is you!

3. Call Them to Action: They felt something from looking over your design. Then they loved what they read. Now what? This is where the all important Call to Action comes into play. What do you want them to do? Whatever it is (call me, email me, buy this, pass this on to 3 people), tell them what you want them to do!

Marketing does not have to be expensive. What it does have to do is inspire. Hit their soul with the design, hit their heart with your verbiage, and then hit them over the head with your call to action!

And...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. We'll discuss how to infuse your core values into your marketing materials!

The Value of Truth

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.

The Core Values of Artistry

The marrying of art and business. It's the only way to bridge the gap between a hobby and a career. How many artists would love to be paid a full time wage to create? To paint? To act? To write? To dance?

So what's the difference between a hobbyist and a full time creative?

Answer: CORE VALUES.

When you can articulate your core values, you can use them to build your brand and ultimately to sell your services and/or your creations.

So what are core values?

Disney's are imagination and wholesomeness. The U.S. Air Force's core values are integrity, service and excellence.

Core Values are the driving principles that help you to make decisions on a daily basis and to define what you stand for as a person and a business.

For Example:

If you know that one of your core values is JOY, then everything about your work and your marketing materials had better exude JOY in the audience.

If CREATIVITY is a core value of yours, then your website had better be visually stunning.

Most artists never take the time to articulate their core values and so they come across in their work as hobbyists -- someone who doesn't create a strong positive or negative reaction from their audience.

Articulate your core values, infuse them into your work, infuse them into your message, and your world will open up.

A Couple Samples of Strong Core Values:
www.fromthebarrio.com (Passion, Community, Education, Leadership, Impact)
www.edge-book.com (Leadership, Collaboration, Excellence, Risk)

Join me!

Let's further the conversation of core values at the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation's "One State: Together in the Arts" conference June 1st, 2009 at 3pm.

Please also feel free to discuss your own core values in the comment section of this blog and we can begin the conversation early!