The Mission Paradox Blog

Welcome to Paradox

This is the Mission Paradox Blog.  I'm your friendly host, Adam Thurman

Since 2007 this has been a place where artists and those who work within artistic organizations get insight on marketing, leadership, diversity and other topics.  

The main source of that insight are the blog posts that appear right below this one. Typically you'll get a new one every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  You can get the blog post directly in your web based reader (like Yahoo or Google news) by clicking here

You want more?  I got more.

My e-book Authentic Arts Marketing is available as both a free download and as a cheap buy in the Kindle Store.  Get details on that here.

Want to work with me directly?  I do a limited amount of presentations, workshops and private coaching.  Details are here.  Testimonials are here.

I hope you find this place a helpful resource as you go about the hard work of connecting your art to an audience.  Feel free to drop me a line at mission.paradox(at)yahoo.com.

Remember, new blog posts appear below.

 

More Required Reading For Artists

Get these titles on your bookshelf (digital or real world) ASAP.

1.  The War of Art and Poke The Box - The resistance.  The lizard brain.  There are many external obstacles to success but most of them can be overcome.  The biggest obstacle and the one that crushes us most often is the internal obstacles.  Steven Pressfield and Seth Godin give those obstacles a name and face.  The obstacle that can be identified can be defeated.

2.  The Art of Profitability - It's a simple formula.  Revenue - Expenses = Profit.  If you're some nonprofit hippie then just change it to Revenue - Expenses = Surplus.  This book reminds us that the road to profit/surplus is paved by a bunch of tiny decisions.  It's a bit of tricky read but stick with it and see if any of the profit models given work for you.

3.  How The Mighty Fall - You may have heard of Jim Collins "Good to Great".  I find the book equally interesting.  Organizations in decline tend to go through a similiar process.  Take the lessons in this book and apply them to your organization.  What you discover may freak you out, but at least you can do something about it.

4.  Authentic Arts Marketing - What?  You didn't think I would include my own book in this list?  Silly mortal. 

5.  The Art of Governance - If you run a nonprofit arts organization please do the following.  Buy each of your Board members a copy of this book.  Any member who doesn't read it, and embrace it, should be kicked off the Board.

6.  Evil Plans - If you need a role model, Hugh MacLeod is a damn fine one.  He's an artist that has found some brilliant ways to leverage his work and impact a lot of people.  He's also a great writer.

 

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