The Mission Paradox Blog

Fresh Content

The other posts I did covering the Black Playwright's Convening are up and available here.

Also, I just found out that a presentation I did for the 2009 Creative Chicago Expo is available as a podcast.  The presentation was called Marketing for the Cash Strapped and it is here.

FYI, I'll be at the 2010 Creative Chicago Expo.  It's on Saturday, April 4th.  The coordinators of the Expo have gone nuts and put me in a larger room. 

A big room requires a big idea to present.  So I better get to work.

Save Yourself, Save The Industry

I hope by now the whole question of "should I self produce/publish my work" has been settled.

Of course you should.

Is there a catch?  Of course there is. 

Getting your work into the world is an entreprenuerial act and like any such act it requires a certain set of skills.

The ability to manage finances.

The ability to strategically plan and then execute the plan.

The ability to work with all sorts of artists, vendors and related folks.

You get the picture.

If you don't want to learn those skills, or even worse, consider your art to be so special that you don't need to learn those skills . . . then self producing is going to be like your own 8th circle of hell.

But you knew that right?

Right.

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The part I find interesting is that people are talking about self producing in the context of leaving the mainstream industry behind.

So people are saying "screw institutional theatre, I'm going to do my own thing."

Or "forget the big record labels, I'm going to produce my own records."

I understand the impluse, but I want you to think about it in a different way.

Self producing your work isn't abandoning the "industry", it's what's going to save your industry.

I'll explain:

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I was flying home on Southwest airlines.  I asked for a cup of coffee.  The coffee was pretty darn good.

That got me to thinking:

You can get a pretty good cup of coffee almost anywhere now.  Gas stations, airlines, fast food joints.

How did that happen?

You know how.

Starbucks.

Starbucks arrival on the market and the innovations they used to grab a hold of the market forced everybody else to adjust.

Or to put it another way, if Starbucks had not come around, that cup of coffee I got on the airplane would have sucked.

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Great companies, great entreprenuers, force industries to change.

The best way for you to create a better, fairer, more robust theatre/visual arts/dance/indie film world is by building your own thing and building it well.

Your success will put pressure on the rest of the field.

They will change because you and your fellow entreprenuers have left them no other choice.

Picking Your Extreme

I was reading Mead Hunter's take on Outrageous Fortune when I noticed a powerful line that I couldn't let go of:

"The powerful, numinous, affecting work is happening at the extremes"

He's exactly right.  The ability to do powerful, impactful work - in the arts or any other field - comes from your ability to pick an extreme.

The first extreme is to be powerful and small.  In this model you are doing work for a defined group of people, your tribe. 

Your career becomes all about producing work that satisfies your own artistic needs and thrills the 500 or 1,000 or 1,500 people in your tribe.

You depend on the people in your tribe to sustain you.  You actively resist the natural impluse to grow.  You understand that have 1,000 people that love your work is WAY more powerful then having 10,000 people that "like" your work.

What's the downside to this approach?

Well, your tribe may not be big enough for you and your team to make a living.  It may never, EVER, be big enough.  You may always have to produce your art AND do something else to pay the bills. 

Plus, tribes require a bit of handling.  You have to be willing to get outside your artistic bubble and talk to people, listen to what they have to say and adjust to their feedback.  That doesn't come easily for some people.

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The second extreme is to GO BIG.

Here you aggressively and openly go about aquiring the resources you need to become a powerhouse.

You play the political games to get the big time players on your Board.  You build an infrastructure big enough to attract and pay top artistic and administrative talent.

You understand the importance of being visible.  You show up to the galas.  You press the flesh.  You toot your organization's horn LOUDLY.

You develop enemies because loud, aggressive, well resourced organizations (or individuals) always have enemies.  That's just how it goes.

You make compromises, some of which you may HATE.  You sacrifice the here and now for the greater good, over and over again.

People will call you a sell out.  They will tell you that you have lost your way.  It may be years before people really understand why you did what you did.  Some people will never understand.

Along the journey the resources you get will allow you to make the sort of artistic choices that blow people AWAY.

But you'll pay a heavy price for those moments.

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It's one extreme or the other.

The problem is that most artists and arts organizations go for the middle.

The middle is death.

The middle is death.

The middle is that arts organization bringing in just enough cash to pay everyone poorly.  They have just enough audience and just enough infrastructure that they make conservative choices to keep what they have.

The middle is that artistic death zone that crushes damn near everybody.  You don't want to make the sort of choices that will allow you to get big, because you are afraid of the consequences. 

And you don't want to take three steps back and get small because you want to make a living through your art.

That's a horrible place to be.

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You and your team have to consciously, intentionally decide which extreme to choose.

Small, flexible, artistically free . . . and probably with not enough money to give people a full time living.

Or you go for the whole damn thing.  You try to bring in MILLIONS of dollars, with all the complexity such a journey implies.

Big or small.

Choose one.

Please, please, choose one.

Because if you just linger in the middle then you are just waiting for the wave that will wipe you out.

 

Leading by following

In the business world they call it second mover advantage.

Some organization (the first mover) brings a new product, or new idea to the market.  Another organization watches the move, learns from it and then copies it (the second move).

It's called an advantage because the second person can learn from the mistakes the first guy made, copy what they did right and then execute.

How do you get this advantage?

Learn from other people.

Watch what other people do, observe their outcomes and then see what you can do.

Constantly keep your eyes out for arts organization that are marketing or making programming choices you admire.

That's what we did when we marketed the Fugard fest.  We learned from what the Goodman Theatre did with their Eugene O'Neil Festival.

There's power in being a second mover.  You can't follow the pack all the time, but sometimes it is a REALLY smart way to go.

Playwright Convening Post 1

My first post about the Black Playwrights Convening is here.

Oh, and have I mentioned that I love people who subscribe to my blog?  Yup, I do.  My love is cheap and easy to get.  Just put your email in that box to your right.  As a sign of my love I promise not to send you email, or spam you, or anything like that.

The voice of reason

The environment you are operating in matters.

So it's important for us to remember that in the world we live in now, many, MANY people are scared to death.

The issues with the economy, the uncertainty, people are really freaked out.

Many of those freaked out people are around you right now.

They are on your Board.

They are in your audience.

They are your fellow artists.

We all know what fear does.  It paralyzes us.  It causes us to clinch up and restrict our ambitions.

So now, more then ever, a vital trait to have in this world is the ability to help people calm down and be brave.

We don't need any more people freakin' out.

We don't need any more people talking about how their favorite art form is dead or dying.

We need people . . . we need you . . . to give people a sense of confidence.

It's not about having all the answers.  Sometimes it's just about letting people know you understand the questions.

But right now just remember that confidence is key.

Two ways to the top

If you are in a nonprofit arts organization and you want to pay a "living wage" to anyone, artist or administrator the money has to come from two sources:

1.  Individual donations

2.  Ticket sales, or some similar type of earned revenue

That's it.

That's the list.

There is no foundation, no government source that is EVER going to provide sufficient income to consistently pay a living wage.

If you want the wage, you are going to have to build the infrastructure and capacity necessary to get actual money out of the pockets of actual people.

"But Adam, we don't want to focus on this things, we want to focus on the art."

Fine.  Cool.  I understand that building the sort of relationships and connections you need for audience and donors is a lot of work.  I know from experience that it is easier to write a grant. 

I also understand that you may find it hard to justify bringing in (and paying) fundraisers and marketers when you don't even have the money to pay the artists.

I get all of that.

But there is NO BUSINESS (nonprofit or otherwise) that can neglect the revenue side of the equation on one hand and then be worried about wages on the other.

It's your choice.

Develop the skills necessary to fundraise and market your work or live on the whims of foundations and government sources.

 

 

 

Get it into the world

One of the really encouraging things I took away from the Playwrights Convening over the weekend was the discussion of artists self producing their work.

It doesn't matter if it's a play, book, series of painting, dance exhibition, whatever, I believe self producing can be a smart, powerful way of getting your art into the world.

It is important, however, to remember this:

Self producing is a skill.

Or to be more accurate, it is a skill set.

If you want to produce your own work you need to get mentorships and guidance from those experienced with such things.

You need to understand the rules of such things.

Of course, once you understand the rules you should feel free to break a few (or more then a few) of the rules.

But just remember that lack of knowledge can be a deadly flaw in the world of self producing.

You don't want to be the guy (or girl) that made a series of misguided mistakes that could cost you money, time and even friendships because you let your enthusiasm about your art overwhelm your need to learn a few things.

Also remember that there is no shame in starting small.

Don't try to do the large scale production of your play right away.  Maybe you produce 4-5 staged readings first to get a little experience.

Maybe you publish a few of your short stories as an e-book before trying to get it into bookstores.

Self producing work is a powerful thing.

Just make sure you get into it with your eyes open.

My review of Linchpin

It has been said that you need to learn how to play like someone else, before you can learn how to play like yourself.

Seth Godin was the guy I learned to play like.

When I discovered his blog several years ago, I discovered a guy that was having the sort of career I wanted to have.

A career that wasn't about loyalty to a particular company, but about spreading useful ideas.  Ideas that ultimately would help people improve their lives.

Seth's latest idea is developed in his book Linchpin.  To me, it joins Steven Pressfield's War of Art as the two vital books any artist, or person who hopes to work in the arts, must have.

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Linchpin's are the essential building blocks of great organization.

Every collective that produces great art, whether it's a for profit or a nonprofit, does it because of the linchpin's within the group.

This book is about developing the mentality necessary to become a linchpin.

To talk about all the good, great and borderline genius thoughts in the book would take forever, so I've chosen to focus on just one or two of his core points.

Everyone has art within them.

The person who does your marketing, that person is an artist.

The person who does your fundraising, that person is an artist.

Or at least they could be, if they were allowed and encouraged to let that art come out.

One of your jobs, as a leader is to create the environment where creativity, risk taking and all the other elements of true artistry are encouraged.

It's ironic, so many art organizations stifle 90% of the creativity within their walls.

Sure the director may be allowed to take a risk, but that fundraiser better do things by the book, or else things could go wrong.

Seth reminds us that there really is no book.

Not any more.

There's is not an easy to follow road map that will allow you to accomplish anything worth doing.

Linchinpin will give you some advice about drawing your own map.  It will give you some advice on how to help others draw their own map.  For that alone the book is worth purchasing.

So when Linchpin is available to the public in a week or so, buy it.  Hell, go crazy and purchase the War of Art with it.

Those two books are really all you need.  Everything else is just the details.

 

Playwright Scramble

Just a reminder that this weekend the place to be is on Twitter (#newplay) and Arena Stage's New Play Development Blog.  That's where we will be covering the Black Playwrights Convening.