- Do you know your purpose?
- How does your purpose define your mission?
- Is your unique value proposition grounded in your mission?
- Do you know what problem you solve?
- Do you know what target market you serve?
Is your answer yes to each question above? Congratulations! You are among a very few happy, grounded, focused, and confident artists.
To sell your art, you need to identify, reach, and serve your market.
If you are extraordinary lucky, you’ve stumbled upon a market niche for your art. However, if you were not very intentional about creating your market niche, chances are that your business is not sustainable. Why? One reason is that artists are generally idealistic and spiritual so they chafe at creating anything that is not deliberately fueled by their passion and balanced by their integrity. But this is not unique to artists; this is true of most entrepreneurs. Most people want to make money in a way that they can be proud of. It’s not just about the money. The cover story of Fast Company magazine this month is “Find You’re your Mission.” Another way to say “find your mission” is to “know your why.” It’s solid advice so we hear all the time. The problem is that most of us are not clear about how to go about finding our why. Finding your “why” is not about crafting an engaging narrative. Your mission statement isn’t a snappy headline; it is your core truth. The truth is, and has always been, the best marketing strategy. Hands down, it is the ultimate strategy. Finding your “why” requires deep honest self-reflection. Your mission does not come from greater wisdom outside of yourself. It comes from within, so you must “know thyself.”
Who can possibly know your calling but you?
An artist must know who they are and what they stand for. When I mentor artists we spend about 80% of our time on the first of eight artistic business development realms, Visioning. Once artists master this first realm, they have their purpose, their mission, and their unique value proposition. It is the most important and challenging realm yet the most satisfying. So when Creative Live asked me to come back and create another course, I suggested two things.
- That we focus the course on helping artists discover their purpose, fueled by their passion, so that they can better generate a profit.
- I also suggested instead of teaching over two or three long days, I teach this course over a span of 30 days with short segments so that students can digest and process the 30 daily exercises included.
Do you know your purpose?
Imagine if you did. “Don’t dream it, be it.”Enroll today for “Fulfill Your Creative Purpose”, Dec 2 – Jan 23 2015. 9:00am – 11:00am. It’s flippin’ FREE! Can’t watch during the live broadcast. Then buy it now. Want to be there live!! Apply now to be a part of the studio audience in the San Francisco recording studios here:
