The Mission Paradox Blog

Another Paradox

Courtesy of the Standford Social Innovation Review, I give ya The Nonprofit Paradox.  See if it describes where you work.

And a bonus link from Derek Sivers on value and art

On To The Next One: Changes and Plans

On a personal note:

From now until early September I'll be changing my blog schedule.  I'll be doing posts on Monday through Thursday (instead of through Friday).  That change of schedule will allow me a bit of extra time to devote to my next book, which I'll discuss in a second.

Of course I can't talk about the blog without reminding you that I love blog subscribers.  If you don't get this blog via a RSS Reader or your email already, now is a great time to do so.  Just enter your email into the box on the upper right hand corner and you are all set.

Now about the net book . . . .

When I wrote Authentic Arts Marketing (on sale now for $11.95, BUY IT) my goal was to help the reader see marketing in a different light.  By the end of the book, my hope was that reader would have the mindset - and a series of tools - that would help create the sort of marketing they would love to implement.

This next book (which doesn't have a title yet) will focus much more on the specific tactics that go into effective marketing.

For the past three years I've been working with clients under the Mission Paradox banner.  A decent number of them fall into two categories

1.  Artist who are trying to handle the marketing of their own work.  Often they have been neglecting the marketing function for quite a while.

2.  First time marketers.  These are often artists who have been thrust into the role of marketing director.  For many small and midsized arts organizations there is a lot of turnover in the marketing position.  I've worked with clients that have had 3-4 different people involved in the course of a year.

These types of people (and others) find themselves simply overwhelmed by the whole idea of marketing.  They are willing and able but they just don't know where to start or how to wade their way through the world.

So this next book is for them (and maybe you).  It's going to be a very tactical "here's how you market" sort of thing. 

Now I'll be honest, writing that type of book makes me very nervous.  I always worry that any "how to" book runs the risk of oversimplifying things, or offering steps that simply aren't useful to people.

But my sense is that this is the sort of info that people are hungry for so I'm going to try and provide it.

The goal is to have this one out in the world by early to mid August.  Wish me luck.

 

 

 

Chill, or Not

Because we in the arts really need to chill the f*ck out sometimes, I present to you Zen Habits.

Or maybe you need to get fired up.  In that case, take this: 

A Tony State of Mind

My New York friends are shocked and appalled by the fact that I have never actually stepped foot in the Empire State.  I'm working on correcting that this year. 

But I have made it to the virtual pages of NYC.  Timeout New York interviewed me as part of their Upstaged theatre page.  We discuss the Black Playwright's Convening in DC and other issues.  The link to the interview is here.

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Also, for my Chicago peeps, I am partnering with the Chicago Media Workshop for another presentation.  It will happen on March 4th.  It's called "Taking Your Social Media to The Next Level."  You can get some details by going to the CMW website.  The event is listed under the workshop section.  It's the third one on the list.

I'll be talking a bit more about the event soon, but please remember I only do this a few times a year.  If you missed the Jan. workshop please try to make this one.

 

Inspiration

What history teaches us is that times like these aren't without precedent.

There have been worst economic times.

I've had people tell me that the Regan Years were worst on the non-commerical arts then the present state of affairs.

What history also teaches us is that some people will come out of this stronger then ever.

10 years from some smart ass blogger like myself is going to talk about what we did.

What you did.

Did you push harder or did you let the fear shut you down?

Did we adapt to the impact that technology and different consumer choices had on our field, or did we overreact to it?

Somebody is going to thrive in the midst of all this chaos.

Make sure one of them is you.

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Happy Thanksgiving.  See you Monday.

Earning Audience

I heard somebody comment that one of the remarkable parts about Roger Ebert's blog is the overall quality of the comments left on his blog.

Even when he writes about controversial topics like health care, generally the commenters are well informed and have intelligent things to say.

Compare that to many other blogs, particularly those that cover hot button topics.  Those blogs often quickly fill up with idiots who let the racism, sexism and overall ignorance fly off the keyboard and onto the screen.

Ebert has the sort of audience most people dream of.  Interesting.  Aware.  Ready to engage in debate.

That's the sort of audience most of us in the arts would kill for.

The kicker, of course, is that sort of audience has to be earned.

All of us, in the arts, ultimately get the audience we earn.

Ebert earned his audience by writing his ass off and demonstrating his passion and knowledge for movies on TV.

If we want the sort of curious, intelligent, passionate audience that builds a business (of any type) you have to earn them.

You earn them by making the strongest artistic choices possible, building the deepest relationship possible, making promises . . . and keeping them.

If your audience is apathetic, not willing to take a chance, etc. remember:

THAT'S YOUR FAULT.

Because all of us get the audience we earn.

 

 

Amen

Michael Kaiser, of the Kennedy Center, on diversity:

"I have been spending a great deal of time thinking about the issue of diversity in the arts, specifically, the drive to diversify the programming and constituents of all arts organizations.

The more I consider this thorny issue, the less I am convinced that the arts world has worked hard enough to dissect the true costs, benefits and implications of recent diversity efforts.

(snip)

Having spent a great deal of my career working with arts organizations of color, I am as committed as anyone to the diversity of our arts ecology. I do not believe that we can have a truly great artistic community if all segments of our society are not represented well.

But I do not think I believe anymore in forcing Eurocentric arts organizations to do diverse works or to put one minority on a board." (emphasis added)

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If I ever see Kaiser I'm going to kiss him just for saying that . . . and I don't care how he feels about said kiss . . . he deserves it.

I touched on this in my "Gravity" post but Kaiser says it better then I ever could.

Part of embracing diversity is accepting people's choice not to be diverse.

Many people, myself included, believe that for the arts to thrive now you should probably build an organization that attracts a wide range of people.

But if someone doesn't want to do that, for whatever reason, we have to be mature enough as an industry to go "that's ok."

Few things are more painful then watching an organization try to jam an African-American or Latina artist into their lineup in a transparent attempt to be diverse.

It's bad for them, bad for the artist and insulting to audiences of all colors.

They shouldn't have to engage in such measures if they don't want to.

Now let me be clear, I think refusing to embrace the diverse and interesting world we live in is just dumb.

But if they do, it's their choice and we should respect that.

Embrace the ones that want to reflect the world.  Let the other ones work things out on their own.

 

 

 

Art and Politics - Field Style

One of my favorite political blogs is Al Giordano's The Field.  In this excellent post, Al talks Obama's Stimulus, the Arts and the implications for the NEA

Marketing and Emotion

Changing a brand. 

Redesigning a logo.

Those can often be deeply emotional decisions.  Particularly in the arts. 

Sometimes I forget this.  Then I get a reminder like the one I got a few days ago.  I was helping someone to rethink their marketing strategy and she started to tear up a little bit.

My coaching isn't designed to make people cry so I asked what was wrong. 

She said that the emotion came from two things:

The first was the feeling that she had been doing the marketing (of the company she founded) incorrectly for such a long time.

She felt like she had wasted a lot of time.

The second reason was because even though her old marketing strategies were a bit off, they were still HER strategies and she couldn't help but cling to them a little.

Marketing is about (among other things) transferring emotion from the organization to the consumer.

Sometimes you have to overcome your own emotions to get that done.                                                                                                                                                               

Watch Out for The Game Changers

Do me a favor, take 50 minutes out your life and watch this video of Seth Godin talking about the future of the music business.

UPDATE:  The Link Is Down Right Now, But The Point Still Applies

If you are musician, it is a must see.

If you aren't in the music business it is a must see.

When you watch the vid, take careful note of how Seth breaks apart the way the music business is currently being run and then helps to develop a way to make it work more effectively in the future.

I want you to follow his thinking because somebody is looking at your particular artistic field (dance, theatre, painting, whatever) in the exact same fashion.

While people get caught up in arguments about new plays versus classical works, or why people don't go to dance recitals, somebody is out there thinking about the theatre business as a whole, the dance business as a whole . . . and working on a way to change the whole damn thing.

This person . . . these people . . . are game changers.  And you need to be ready for them.

Look at the music biz.  For decades the big guys thought things could never change.

But they did.

When the wave of change hit they didn't respond to it nearly quick enough.

So now many of those companies are fighting for survival.

It is no different for the arts.

Eventually somebody is going to figure out a way of funding and selling theatre that is going to allow for well paid artists, complex artistic expressions, etc.

Somebody is going to figure out how to build a well respected arts gallery in 5 years, not 25 years.

When that happens, how are you going to respond?