I recently sat on a panel of artists and crafts industry professionals, speaking on various issues and answering questions from the audience.
Near the end, an artist badgered me unmercifully, repeatedly asking me to reveal my marketing "secrets" for the entire audience to hear.
I felt extremely uncomfortable, even resentful, about the demands for several reasons.
First, I wasn't even sure what was being asked. A list of all my marketing efforts for the past 18 months to promote my artwork? For the last 8 years? The efforts before or after 9/11, the dot com crash and the recession? Did they want to hear all my mistakes, too? Or just my successes? Did they want to hear what I learned? Or what I'm learning now?
I was also frustrated because I had no context for the person asking the questions. I had no idea what their work was like, where they are now in their business plan (or if they even HAVE a business plan) and what they are willing to do to succeed. I had no idea what their personal, financial and professional goals are for their art/business. I had no idea who their market is and what they've done to target it or even identify it. How do I know what will be of use to someone else unless I understand where THEY are?
Finally, I was confused by the assumption that I've figured it all out and can neatly box it up and simply give it to someone else. I'm still learning, changing, growing as an artist. I have no idea if I'm even thinking the right way about MY marketing plan. How on earth do I put all this in context for HER?
But I also felt vaguely guilty. After all, wasn't the panel discussion a culmination of an entire weekend doing just that?--helping others take their next step by sharing my own experiences and learning? Hadn't I already mentored a number of people here, and at previous conferences, offering insights and advice freely? Don't I do that daily with my blog, in my magazine articles, and in other professional development classes I teach?
So why was I feeling intense resistance to this woman's demands?
I'm been thinking about why these sceneriors seemed so vastly different, why I would respond wholeheartedly in one instance and clam up in another.
Today I ate breakfast while reading an article about long-term weight loss in the April 2006 issue of REAL SIMPLE magazine. The article is called "Secrets of Thin People" by Lorie Parch. And I had my "aha" moment.
The person was asking me for my "secret diet" for losing weight.
And I don't HAVE a secret diet for losing weight.
What I DO have is results from deciding four years ago that I needed to change the daily choices I was making in my diet, my activities and my attitude--to achieve a different outcome in my life.
What I feel comfortable sharing is how I got from a person who constantly made unhealthy choices, to a person who consistently makes healthier choices—which, as a consequence, RESULTS in me being thinner.
I still don't actually diet nor are all my choices perfect even now. But I've been successful in MODIFYING many of my choices slightly over a long period of time. And the side effects are, I've lost 40 pounds, I am extremely fit, I've lowered my blood sugar and cholesterol to within healthy limits, and I walk/talk/carry myself and care for myself differently.
I also now have vibrant red hair, but that is the ONLY physical shortcut I've taken. Better living through chemicals and all that.
Tomorrow I will share some of the professional, artistic and emotional changes I made years ago that got me where I am today professionally(with apologies to Ms. Parch for using her article for the structure.)
But for today, rest assured there are no "secrets", no insider information that is being systematically withheld from you.
I know it feels like that sometimes.... It feels like other people KNOW what to do and when to do it.
But that's not the case.
Success in the arts, like any other success in life, means staying the course. Staying with one course of action until it has a chance to provide results—but also recognizing when to switch because it isn't working for YOU. It means making daily choices, often small choices, that eventually—EVENTUALLY—lead to big results.
Because, just like losing weight is an END RESULT of making many different, healthier life choices, being successful is an END RESULT of making many different, "healthier" artistic, professional and personal choices.
