The Mission Paradox Blog

A good enemy

When's the last time you listened to a record that was absolutely horrible?  I don't mean a song that doesn't fit your particular taste.  I mean a song with poor audio, misplayed instruments, etc.

I bet it has been a while.

When's the last time you saw a horrible play?  Missed lines.  Set pieces falling down.  The whole nine.

Been a long time right?

The truth is that most things we encounter in life are pretty good.  The coffee is hot.  The lights in the building come on.  The musical instruments are played in a competent, professional manner.

We are surrounded by good stuff.  Especially in the arts.  In my hometown of Chicago I can see a well produced, well executed work of art anytime I want.

This is your problem.

Your good art will lose out to the good (but cheaper) stuff.

It will also lose to the good (and with a better reputation) stuff.

You've got to do better then good.  It has to be remarkable.  Not just your art but the experience you surround the art with.

It's a high, difficult, bar to hit.

But nothing less will be enough.

Nothing to say

I get this question a lot:

"How can get my audience/friends to spread the word about my art?"

I'll be honest, my first instinct when I'm asked this question is to dance around it.  I want to talk about the use of social media, smart use of referrals, that sort of thing.

Most of the time, I drop all that and give them the truth:

If people aren't talking about the experience you offer, it isn't worth talking about.

Ouch.

I know.

But we have to be honest here, the tools of word of mouth marketing are every-damn-where.  You, right now, have more ability to tell people stuff then the President of the United States had 40 years ago.

We all have microphones and we use them to talk about the things that we love.

My peeps at Wynn Las Vegas don't have to pay me a dime to rave about them.  They don't need to ask me to do it.  I love the place, I want other folks to try it.

If someone sees me using my Kindle, I can talk their ear off about it.

We all have things that we gladly, actively, spread through our networks.  But we only do that for the "wow" stuff.  We only do it for the thing or the experiences that moves us.

Everything else, the average, the merely good, we stay quiet about.  Not because we are bad people, but because we only have so much time to talk about stuff.

My job, and your job, is to give people the wow moments that will cause them to talk.  And when I say "wow" I don't mean "big".  I've seen entire retail operations made by small interactions between employees and customers.  They can be very small gestures, as long as they are unexpected or delightful.

This is the point where someone starts typing me an email saying "but my art is the WOW moment!"

Sure it is.  Sometimes.

But part of what makes real art work is that we really have no idea what people will think of it.  Some will love it.  Some will hate it.  That's the way it goes.

You can guarantee that your art will wow them.  You can ensure that the many interactions people have with you both before and after the artistic experience will stay with them.

Remember, Zappos couldn't ensure that you would love the shoes you bought from them.  They didn't even make the shoes.  They became legendary for offering the sort of service that would make people tell their friends.

That's how what they did spread.

That's how what YOU do can spread.

 

 

Most people

Most people have never heard of me.  They never will.

That's probably true for you as well.

Can you handle that?

Can you handle the fact that you can have a pretty successful career and still be invisible to 99.99999% of the world?

Some say they are ok with that.  But they really aren't.  Artists (like a lot of folks) have healthy egos and it's natural to want a sizeable and ever growing audience of devoted fans.

The issue is that mass markets have exploded into a million niches.  The most watched TV show today would have gotten pulled off the air 20 years ago for miserable ratings. 

"Big" is relative.

Most blogs don't get any readers.

Most books never get purchased.

Most art sits on the shelf, unsold.

So the truth is if you have any sales, any readers, ANY AT ALL, then you are doing much better then average.

The goal isn't (or shouldn't be) to have the world know you.  The goal is to build a following large enough to sustain you . . . large enough to be able to devote a substantial portion of your life to art creation.

You can do that and still be invisible to the world at large.

You cool with that?

On the shelf

Now is not the time to put your artistic skills on the shelf.  You need them now more then ever.  That's true whether you plan or pursing an artistic career or you want a more traditional, non-artisitic, career.

The world of work has changed forever.  Career paths, job security, all that stuff is gone.  Those who will thrive in this new world are people who can handle ambiguity, can start (and finish) projects and can be extremely flexible.

Sounds a lot like an artist to me.

In fact, it's probably a good idea to create as much art as possible.  Doing so will not only improve your technical skills (i.e. ability to write or act) but it will also help you to develop the skills that are so vital in today's world.

It may not feel like it right now, but the future belongs to artists (and, FYI, to women).  The future belongs to those who can stare into an uncertain space and create something of value.

It's your time.  Enjoy it.