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Like you, I wake up every day dreaming of how to connect the vision for my work to those who will care deeply about it. (Thank you, by the way, for being one of those people.)

I hear from writers and creative professionals every day about their challenges in connecting their work to an audience. They want to reach more people; they want more sales; they want to feel a sense of momentum with their work.

Often, we judge our progress here with stark numbers:

• Book sales
• Bestseller lists
• Awards
• Followers
• Facebook likes

I would like to suggest that the goal should instead be a moment of connection between your work and someone who experiences it. The moment when your book connects with a reader. When your art moves them. When your song sticks in their head. When something you create makes them — even for a moment — feel inspired.

That, even when you are marketing your work, that you focus less on price and pitches, and more on the overall experience you create for the person.

Make it an unexpected joy.

For the work that I do, I tried to conjure that type of moment this week. You see, Diane Krause has worked with me for more than a year. She lives in Texas, and I’m in New Jersey. This week, she took the trip up to me, and we spent a day in New York City focused on honing our plans for 2016. Our prompt: how can we better serve creative professionals like you; how can we help you reach your audience and do more of the work you love?

To set the stage for this conversation, we didn’t want to squirrel ourselves away in a dry conference room with charts and powerpoint presentations. Instead, we wanted to elevate our own expectations for what is possible. That became the driving theme for “how” we would spend the day: amidst great creative experiences. From each, we hoped to learn from their craft. We spent 7 hours talking, all while experiencing:

Amazing food at Ippudo and Magnolia Bakery
Amazing art at the Museum of Modern Art
Amazing architecture and design at Rockefeller Center
Amazing public sculpture
Amazing unique ways of experiencing nature amidst the city along the High Line

How can experiences such as these help you grow your own audience, sell more books, get more publicity, craft better events, or do better work Well, I would like for you to consider a few things as you look through the photo tour below:

• Don’t just copy what everyone else is doing. Push yourself to treat every aspect of your work as a meaningful moment for your audience. Is everyone in your niche doing the same blog tour, or rushing to take out Facebook ads? Perhaps you should consider a more meaningful way to connect with these same people, instead of being the 4,000th person to glom onto the same marketing tactic at the exact same time.
• Look outside of your niche focus to get new ideas that will thrill and delight your audience. This is why Diane and I went to view art — to learn from those who broke boundaries in unexpected ways. Seeing that can give you new ideas as to how to thrill your audience in ways that resonates with the work you do, and why they love to experience it.
• Make this process a collaborative one. If you are serious about being a successful creative professional, realize that you can’t do it alone. I don’t think I have ever spoken to a successful person who didn’t mention the many collaborators that had a key part in their success. That is why when Diane told me she was visiting, I scheduled a day of conversation and exploration. It allowed us to experience things together, and to spend hours and hours collaborating on new ideas.
• The goal is not more content, products or services, but more moments of connection that you can create for your audience. Experiences that truly effect their lives. For instance, your goal is not for someone to buy your book, but for someone to READ your book, to be shaped by your stories and ideas. To be moved by your work. I think that too often, we forget this when we study bestseller lists. The true goal for an author is for their work to spark the imagination of the reader in powerful ways.

Here is a tour of some of the moments of connection Diane and I experienced this week as we considered how to better serve you. If you do creative work that you hopes connects with others, some of these reflections may be useful for you and your work:

Here we are setting off on our day at my local train station. The odd thing about it is that it is designed almost like a cathedral. Why is that? Why would a functionary thing — a waiting room — want to elevate those who wait there? Already, this made me consider how the most functional aspects of my work could feasibly create elevating experiences for those who come in contact with it.

Diane had only been on the NYC subway once before. AS we popped in and out of it throughout the day, it is useful to reflect not on how it elevates you, but how it removes barriers. It functions amazingly well, removing any concern for how we can traverse a huge portion of the city without a thought. For the work that we do, our goal is sometimes similar. Just as Diane and I didn’t want to become transportation experts to move around Manhattan, we have to consider how we can make our services seamless for those we work with. So that it seems effortless.

The ramen at Ippudo is amazing. It’s like, you didn’t think Ramen could be this good. What’s more, is that they create an experience. When you walk in, every member of the staff yells out a welcoming expression. The staff wears polarizing shirts that say things like “ramen = life.” Your food is prepared in plain site, via an open kitchen, with a sense of energy. It’s not just great food, it is a memorable experience.

At the Museum of Modern Art, different works of art sparked different creative insights. For Andy Warhol’s soup cans, it was a challenge to realize that each work of art didn’t need to be a unique expression. That, when you create work that will be replicated, that each can still have unique value for others.

The art challenges you. I brought Diane over to a corner to see this work by Jasper Johns, explaining that this is an important work. She asked, “Why?” I honestly had no idea. But the question was the point. Why was the context of this representation of the American flag on display, protected by glass? We thought about it then, and I later looked it up in Wikipedia. Good art should encourage questions.

Some of the work that we saw was work ingrained in our visual culture, such as Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night.” Again and again, from room to room, artwork to artwork, we had to confront that question of why. Why was this art world-shifting? How can our work strike people as something meaningful and unique?

Some of the work appears to be “simple,” and at a modern art museum, there is an instinct for people to say, “well I could do that,” in an unimpressed way. Yet, there is more to it: the fact that you didn’t do that. That the artist did, in a time, place and context that made it unexpected. They somehow turned the simple into the beautiful. How can we create that with our own creative work?

For many of the work, each person sees what they want to within it, as with Jackson Pollock’s “One: Number 31, 1950.” The artwork itself offers no clear guide. Not everything can be categorized, spelled out, and fit into a box. Some of you will see the paint splatters of Jackson Pollack and think it is meaningless. And yet…

You will see the work of Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies” and it can be a nearly spiritual experience of meditation. You bring to the art something unique to you. That is important for Diane and I to understand, not everyone will appreciate our work. We can’t make everyone happy.

Moving out of the museum and over to Magnolia Bakery, it was a lesson in creative wonderful experiences. When you see the rows of cupcakes, they can seem like tasty commodities. Dozens of the same object. Yet, they too have an open kitchen, and you see the individualized process behind each cupcake. Each delicious cupcake. Each, which will deliver a wonderful moment to those who bite into them. Again, I see this challenge of how to create something that scales to help many of the people I want to serve, yet for each of them, a unique moment of joy.

Exploring Rockefeller Center challenged us in another way. Again: how does a functional work of architecture work to elevate those who experience it. These buildings are filled with artwork within it’s lobbies and on the outside of their buildings. There is an ethos and a message that they are trying to craft for all of those who walk through it.

And boy is it hard to not be taken aback by the sheer scale of what is possible when you look up at 30 Rock.

I have always loved this statue of Atlas, and I think it is particularly apt to creative professionals: writers and artists and crafters. How, as they craft these things, it rests entirely on their shoulders until they are able to connect it to an audience. It can feel like a massive weight, at times, ready to crush them.

We finished our exploration by walking the High Line. It is a park that was built on elevated railroad tracks between 20 blocks and between buildings. The experience is extraordinary because it forces you to reconsider the city, and where the lines of nature and city begin and end.

There are parts where the city engulfs you, where buildings grow before you.

And parts where nature engulfs you.

It is among these experiences that Diane and I discussed our work and how it can better serve you. I hope you enjoyed this tour. Oh, and if you have ideas as to how we can better serve you, please tell me! Email me directly: dan@wegrowmedia.com

Thanks!
-Dan

My newest course begins next week. It’s called Find & Engage, and is focused on helping creative people create clarity around who their ideal audience is, and how to best reach them. (Please consider checking it out or telling a friend — deadline to register is Monday.)

The topic of finding and engaging a readership has been on my mind a lot lately, and was perhaps best embodied in an event I was a part of last week: The Morristown Festival of Books. I have been a volunteer for the festival the past two years, helping out with social media.

Before the keynote began, I was able to grab a few minutes with author Christopher Scotton, who was a client of mine during the launch of his novel The Secret Wisdom of the Earth. As we looked out on the crowd of 800+ people who showed up to see authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, he reflected on the power of these events.

Here are a few reflections I have had this week since experiencing the festival:

The Author Shows Up. Again. And Again.

The bottom line? People show up. They show up to see authors they admire; they show up to discover new authors and their books. And to me, a festival such as this one represents so much about how authors try to connect with a readership.

Sure, it is a wonderful thing to have a festival invite you to speak about your book in front of hundreds of people. It validates so much about why you do what you do, and what you hope the book can achieve by reaching more readers.

But let’s face it, this is work. In order to spend 40 minutes in front of an audience, you have to travel perhaps hundreds of miles, be away from family, justify donating this time with other responsibilities, and put all of your other personal needs on hold so you can do the thing that most people dread: public speaking.

This tweet by author Emily St. John Mandel puts it in context. Her novel, Station Eleven, was published more than a year ago, and this is what that year has looked like for her:

She has shown up to 100 events in that time. I just think that is incredible. It illustrates the gumption required to reach audiences one person at a time.

Yes, The Author Matters

Very often, creative people try to justify that the audience only cares about the work itself, not the creator behind it. They want to save themselves the social pressure of putting themselves out there.

But the creator of this work does matter — deeply — to their audience. Readers at this event loved hearing the backstory behind the books; they were enamored with the process of writing these books; they nodded their head in agreement with the worldview that an author represented; and walked away with a deeply relatable human connection to art and ideas.

Promotion Happens One Person at a Time

When I look around at the audience during an author session, I don’t see an audience as much as a group of individuals. Each is hearing the author with a different context in their mind; with different questions, different agreements and objections.

It reminded me of how similar this was to the way authors connect with readers online. Even if they send an email newsletter to 10,000 people in a single moment, each of those people receives the newsletter individually. It is a one-to-one connection.

It Takes an Incredible Effort

Because I get to see behind the scenes when this event is created, I see how much of an incredible effort it is. So many people volunteer their time at every level, from the authors to those directing attendees to events on the streets. It is all about connecting authors, books, and readers.

I think it is too easy to take that for granted. That Linda Hellstrom had this idea for the Morristown Festival of Books, and as a first step, moved a core group of people to back it. That many more people then volunteered to help get it off the ground. That sponsors then put money behind it. That the local community found room for it. That the media wanted to talk about it. That authors wanted to show up, taking time away from their writing and families. And of course, that individuals throughout this region wanted to come out to attend on a rainy Saturday.

This is the stuff I obsess about. How can you work to find those who will love your work, and engage them in a way that fulfills the vision of why you create? It’s certainly what I bake into my Find & Engage course (did I mention that the deadline to register is Monday?) It is what fills conversations I have every day with authors and other creative professionals.

What have you found works best to connect you to the work of creative people that you admire?

Thanks!
-Dan

In my guest post at Writer Unboxed today, I dig into the topic of the silent crisis many creatives face at mid-career. Amidst success, their days are filled with fear, anxiety, depression, and shame. Their self-worth becomes too closely tied to their work, and to protect their reputation, they hide what they are going through.

I share a lot of examples in the post, and encourage a single action that can change everything: talk to others about what you are going through.

You can read the entire post here.

Thanks!
-Dan

Something happened this week that is a big deal for me. An article I wrote — “Searching for Tim Cook’s Energy Bar” — was featured on 99u.com.

It would mean a lot to me if you could check it out, and if you enjoy it, share it with others:

http://99u.com/articles/51741/searching-for-tim-cooks-energy-bar

This such a big deal for me for a few reasons…

First, I LOVE the community surrounding 99u. These are creative doers, those who are working within organizations and out on their own, trying to “make ideas happen.” I put that phrase in quotes because it’s similar to the title of a book written by 99u founder Scott Belsky, Making Ideas Happen.

The work that he, 99u editor-in-chief Sean Blanda, founding editor Jocelyn K. Glei, and the entire 99u team do is deeply meaningful.

It aligns with what I love: helping mid-career people work through real challenges of doing work that matters. How this is not about blind inspiration, but dealing with the realities of working a day job, raising kids, dealing with serious health issues, caring for others, mental health, physical health. All while turning vision into reality.

In the article, I get really honest about the psychological struggle to seek shortcuts on the long road to success. Even when we know that the journey is the real point, it can be tempting to seek a different path to reach your destination more quickly.

I share three key tips on how to find more energy for the work that matters most to you. These are things I spent years and years learning, not just for myself, but in working with hundreds of creative professionals.

Huge thanks to Jennie Nash for her editorial prowess in helping me shape the piece. Here is the link to the article again:

http://99u.com/articles/51741/searching-for-tim-cooks-energy-bar

Thanks!
-Dan

My days are profoundly different now that I have a team. Five years ago, I launched WeGrowMedia, loving the efficiency of “doing it all,” working where I wanted, and when I wanted.

Last year, I decided to make a big change. I realized that I need to take the next step and turn WeGrowMedia into a team. When I interviewed artist and baker Andrea Lekberg, she framed it this way:

“If you have a business so small that you are doing everything, then you don’t have time to think about growing it. You can’t grow. You are always behind and overwhelmed.”

The WeGrowMedia team is comprised of me and two other people:

1. Diane Krause – Project Coordinator
   Diane is basically my business therapist. She strategizes with me around a thousand details about the courses we run, partnerships, timing, and helping me work through decisions. She keeps it all on track, and also happens to be an editor and publishing expert, so she basically makes everything better than it was before.
2. Leah Shoemaker – Graphic Designer
   Remember that kid in high school who was wildly creative, and could create something magical from a pile of random junk? Well, that’s Leah. She creates original photography, graphics, layouts, coding, and other material for our courses. Leah is basically pixie dust.

Why I Think Outsourcing is a Horrible Idea

Since I run my own company, I obsess over entrepreneurship, interviews with other company founders, and the tools that make it all work. Again and again, I hear about online marketplaces that make it easy to outsource small projects. An easy example is 99designs. You upload an idea that you need designed, a bunch of freelancers “bid” for it with ideas and price, and then you select one.

Loads of people I know and trust use 99designs. For many of them, it works. It gives them access to a talent pool that was previously difficult to find, and at prices that are super cheap.

My own very personal opinion of this type of marketplace: BLEH!

Now, if you use 99designs or are a designer who finds work through it, I am NOT judging you. You are awesome. I love you. Do what works for you. I will gladly shake your hand, buy you a beer, and wash your car Biff Tannen style.

But I don’t want to outsource stuff to the lowest bidder. I don’t want to turn my creative work into a bunch of component parts sourced out to day laborers. (Again, nothing wrong with day laborers, I just don’t want that to be the foundation of my daily life in the company I create.)

I want to invest in others. And by doing so, invest in my company.

I want a team, not a bunch of hired hands who are treated as replaceable at any moment. I mean, don’t we all prefer to be treated as a member of a team?

The more I work with Diane and Leah, the more I wonder: Why would you want to outsource when you can develop a team?

I can say a lot here, but I will just make two more points around this:

1. I am learning how to become a better manager. This means I am inherently becoming a better communicator, and learning how to establish processes that include others. This is a skill set that will benefit me in 1,000 ways through the rest of my life.
2. I am helping each of them grow professionally. I am investing in each of them. Sometimes, it is simply the nature of the work; Leah was thrown into three back-to-back course launches within the first six weeks of working for me. She learned a lot of stuff in that time that it takes some entrepreneurs years to experience. Other investment is more direct: I suggested she learn Adobe Illustrator, and am paying for it and training for it via Lynda.com. That is a skill she will have for her own work, and for anyone else she ever works for.

I Give Them as Much Freedom As Possible

I live and work in New Jersey, Diane is in Texas, and Leah is in western Canada. None of us have ever met in person.

Diane and Leah work the hours they want. That changes day to day, based on the rest of their lives. It’s not unusual for Leah to message me saying, “I won’t be able to work tomorrow, because I’m climbing a mountain with my friends.” After I think to myself, “CANADIANS!“, I message her back saying, “Thanks for the heads up!”

I love that I am able to support her creative work, while also supporting her personal interests. That combined, this creates a LIFE for her that she wants to lead. I want her to lead that life, not feel controlled by me, her “boss.”

My Hiring Process

The idea of hiring a team is kind of scary, right? For me it certainly was. As someone who runs his own small company, and one that 100% supports my family, it can be terrifying to think of also being responsible for paying others. Let’s face it, I feel so much responsibility already.

So I put limits on everything to help me mitigate risk:

• When I hire, I call it a 3-month internship. So if things don’t work out, it is already agreed upon that there is no job after three months. BUT… with both Diane and Leah, I had conversations about extending that. Diane has now worked for me for more than a year. Leah for more than four months.
• Because I start out hiring “interns,” I start out paying intern rates. This allows me to not worry as much about immediate value when I begin working with someone. We have a runway as they settle in and figure things out.
• Each of them generally have an expectation on a cap for hours. It’s not a firm rule right now, but they each work between 10-20 hours per week. So it’s firmly part-time, and I gladly advise each of them on how they can get other work outside of what they do for WeGrowMedia. Both Leah and Diane do have other work they do. I have VERY ACTIVELY tried to advise them on how they can get more clients and charge more for their work outside of WeGrowMedia.

When I hire people, I create a job description and post it on my blog, then just circulate it through my network. In 2014, I made a big effort with this, and received 80 applicants. In 2015, I rushed it, and received 20.

What I tend to find is that most of the people who apply are qualified. Which makes it really difficult to choose the best candidate. In 2014, I lost sleep over this because all of the people I interviewed were so awesome. I ended up hiring three interns that summer! Two of them, Kathi Gadow and Rachel Burns, did work beyond that initial summer, but then got wrapped up in school and a new job.

While I always frame it as a 3-month internship, I’m looking for a partner. I now know what people know when they say, “you are overqualified.” When you speak to someone who you can sense is in a short-term transition, and will quickly move on when the next opportunity comes up. That they are READY for a bigger opportunity than the one I am offering.

I am also learning my own preferences along the way. On more than one occasion, when talking with my wife about someone I had interviewed and was considering, when she asked why I wouldn’t want to hire them, I would say, “Because they didn’t smile in the interview.”

It turns out, I have a strong preference for people who smile. Who are enthusiastic enough to smile without much prompting. I’m not sure what that says about me. But if I am speaking with three equally qualified candidates, I will hire the one who smiles at the drop of a hat.

When I consider why this might be, I think it may relate to a post I shared not too long ago: This Isn’t Easy. Because it isn’t. Trying to create a company from scratch — one that supports my family and helps me and my team grow creatively — it’s difficult. And if I’m going to be on this journey filled with danger, I want it to be filled with joyous people who see silver linings, who find joy in small moments, and who will look at a crazy mountain we have to climb, and take that first step with a smile.

Or maybe I’m just superficial.

How We Work Day to Day

There’s so much more to share. I created a guide called “How to Create Your Team,” which covers the following:

• My hiring/interview tips
• How much to pay
• How to create systems around communicating with your team
• Why you should hire virtual workers
• How to limit risk

You can grab it here (when you do, you will also be added to my weekly email newsletter list, by the way. You can unsubscribe anytime.).

Thanks!
-Dan