My latest guest post for Writer Unboxed talks about the value of not just searching for attention, but being careful about where you put your own attention.
“Many people bemoan the self-involved writer on social media, the one who is constantly vying for attention and over-promoting their own work. This puts other writers (you, perhaps?) into a conundrum: you WANT attention for your work, but only in an elegant manner. Self-promotion, with grace.”
Read the full post here.
Thanks.
-Dan
“Overwhelmed.” This is the word I hear again and again from creative professionals who are trying to create work they love, while creating momentum for their career.
A writer in one of my courses recently asked about the next step – the step beyond developing one’s platform and audience. As he put it:
“Ultimately we do need to reach some critical mass for our efforts to have any financial payoff.”
He ventured into the areas of money and finance surrounding one’s creative work. I tend to frame this as making one’s vision as a SUSTAINABLE one, whereby you aren’t just surviving by making compromises, or “just getting by.”
Are all creative professionals starving artists? No.
Can you be creative and productive? Yes.
Can you be a successful business owner and still be creative? Absolutely.
This writer then asked a series of questions on details about the growth of my own company, and what it really looks like on a practical level. I quickly realized how much of this how much of this is a black box to many people. That the gap between making your vision and making your career as a creative professional sustainable is HUGE.
Sure, many people have read books & articles; they have some experience in business; they are smart and capable. Yet… developing a sense of momentum eludes them.
To address his questions, I decided to develop a brand new online course, and I am giving it a test run this November and December. We are going to try to cover a lot in 4-weeks:
The material and discussion will stem from my personal experience in running my own company and working with hundreds of creative professionals. I realized the other day that WeGrowMedia is coming up on it’s five year anniversary, which seems astounding. There is a lot that I look back on and feel could be useful to others hoping to create work that is meaningful, yet sustainable.
This is an interactive course, where I offer personalized feedback, and a group dynamic with other students via a private Facebook Group. It can’t be understated how valuable the discussions have been in this group in other courses I teach, and I have been told that access to that discussion alone is worth more than the price of this course. It becomes a supportive community that keeps you focused and motivated.
This course is geared toward people who have made progress in establishing key foundations of their vision, but find it challenging to grow their audience, earn revenue, and build momentum.
If you dream of making your career as a creative professional sustainable, but are stumbling at balancing it all, this course is for you.
Can we cram all of this into four weeks (Nov 10 – Dec 14)? I’m honestly not sure – this course covers a lot of ground. That’s why I’m inviting you to be a part of the launch at a low introductory price of $99, way less than I should be charging for it. The first group to go through this course with me will get an extra dose of hands-on guidance, and I will ask for your feedback on how I can best address your needs. I believe together we can make this course the best it can be.
You can read more and sign up here: Become a Creative Professional: Managing the Overwhelm of Turning Your Creative Vision Into a Sustainable Career.
Thanks!
-Dan
No one showed up. That is what happened last week when my friends Scott, Andrea and I held a local meetup. This was our 10th event, which we started a year ago. We called the series MOMENTUM, and sought to bring together local creative professionals who were looking to create momentum in their business and craft.
We sat there chatting, eventually someone stated the obvious: “So I guess no one is showing up.”
I wrote a post about the success of that first event – so why was it that I had a natural inclination to NOT write about the event where NO ONE showed up? What is it about that fear of sharing what could be described as failure?
Once we realized that it was just the three of us, something changed. We began talking about the local creative culture, and the projects and people that excited us. One name came up, and instead of waiting for him to show up, Andrea just texted him right then.
The person she texted was Erik Hendrickson, who she recently befriended, and who Scott and I would always see riding around town in super tall bicycles that he builds. A photo is to the right.
It turns out, Erik runs a business called HICYCLES (and here he is on Instagram). Andrea described his studio and how he works, and Scott and I were immediately drawn in. She texted him, and a half hour later, he pulls up on his bike. For an hour, we stood outside discussing his craft, his art, and what it means to turn an idea into reality.
Erik was filled with ideas, and is clearly searching for a footing to build momentum as a creative professional. At some point within that hour, he texted one of his friends, who of course shows up on their own super tall bicycle.
As we stood out there talking, the people who passed by couldn’t help but make a comment about his bike, or smile and nod in appreciation.
It was a great conversation, but… are these meetups a “FAILURE” in overt terms?
Let’s explore this with the typical glass is half full/half empty metaphor.
Here is the half empty glass:
This is a total pathetic failure, right? Perhaps. Well, let’s explore the glass is half full angle here:
In the book I am writing, one thing I am exploring is that lonely, anxiety-ridden, time consuming work that happens before one finds success with their craft. I can’t help but consider the good that has come from these meetups, and to challenge Scott and myself to see how we can make the momentum we FEEL turn into something that is obvious to others.
Scott and I have been exploring the initial catalyst that lead us to create these meetups. Scott put it this way:
“To keep it simple, I think the value of Momentum meetups really has been, “Oh there are people doing things, I can do things, too.”
He explained how so much of success is to “keep going,” even when things don’t seem to be working, and that our meetups should be about helping others in the area to do just that – to keep going with their creative vision.
When I look back at the past year, I remember so many conversations we have had at these meetups, and incredible people I have met:
Sure, no one showed up to our last meetup, but I do feel there is a momentum of spirit. That so many creative professionals I know feel a bit lost; they wrestle with anxiety; they look around and see so many indicators that encourage them to stop. These are things that every meetup has been about – even if it was just Scott, Andrea, and I.
Is there real failure in this process of running these meetups? YES! Failure of opportunity. Scott and I will both freely admit that we haven’t taken this meetup as seriously as we could have. This was always positioned as a fun extra, but we made the mistake of just hoping it would fall together each month all on its own. That isn’t really fair to Andrea – our host – and even to the expectation we set with those who do attend.
Was there value to be found in every single one of our meetups? Sure. Could there have been MORE value if Scott and I actively reached out to the community throughout the month, bringing in more guest speakers, aligning with events and projects in town, and doing really ANYTHING to market this to a broader audience? YES, absolutely. We failed to do those things, and there is no doubt that this means we could have delivered more value to Andrea, to those who support the meetup, and to ourselves.
Moving forward, Scott and I are discussing how we can evolve the idea of Momentum meetups, and do work that truly honors our intention.
Our conversation with Erik provided a spark for what Momentum could look like in the future: a roving meetup that brings us to artists studios, community events, and into the lives of people doing incredible work in this community. I think we have to challenge ourselves: how can we do more to not just recognize these people, not just connect these people, but truly SUPPORT them and their work?
Momentum in your creative work isn’t always obvious. It can’t always be represented in data – in fancy charts and graphs. While Scott and I have a lot of work ahead of us, I am excited by the milestone that a year later, we are still here trying to figure out how to make this work.
What does your process of trying to build momentum look like?
Thanks.
-Dan
This past weekend, two women amazed me with what they created for our local literary community. They launched things that were wholly unreasonable in their scope, are full of risk, but which are resulting in profound resources for readers, writers, and inspiring this community to embrace their own potential.
You know how people are talking about how important indie bookstores are? Well, Barb Short went and created one, opening Short Stories Community Book Hub this past Saturday. Barb can say, “I created a bookstore.” That is astounding.
As a local resident, I can’t even tell you how exciting it was to discover that a new storefront was not going to be yet another bank – but rather – a center for literature, art, and a meeting space. Barb and I have had lots of conversations in the past few weeks, yet I can still hardly comprehend how she was able to pull it off.
Her vision was not to just open a store that sold a product (in this case: books), but to become a local center for activities, learning, clubs, and performance. We were talking last night, and she described the bookstore as a series of experiences it creates for people. That is awesome.
The weeks leading up to the opening felt like what I imagine a barn raising to be like: with lots of helping hands along the way. She created a Kickstarter campaign which raised more than $18,000, and held several building events for shelves and books. Overall, she estimated that 200 people lent their hand in getting the store open.
When I showed up at the store in the weeks before opening, it always seemed to be filled with kids that were there helping out – middle school and high school students – building shelves, unboxing books, and making decisions.
Barb’s two daughters are in the 6th and 9th grade, and she is completely aware of the experience she wants to give them before they head off to college: to be a part of building something. At every stage of the process I observed, these kids were taking responsibility, involved in decision-making, and learning what it means to “take a risk worth taking.” That is how Barb described her decision to open the store when I asked.
The best part: these kids and young adults are referring to the store as “we.”
They will forever know the experience of what it means to not just have a dream, but to realize it – and that experience will likely fuel so much of what they each individually create in their lives. Even before she opened the doors of Short Stories, Barb has created exponential potential in the lives of kids in our community.
While so much of this has felt like a community venture, I am always aware that Barb is at the center of it all – that the pressure and risk of this venture lies on her shoulders. And how difficult that can be – and how inspiring it is.
Well, Linda Hellstrom didn’t just daydream, she created Morristown Festival of Books, which had its inaugural event last weekend. Linda can say, “I created a literary festival,” and that too is astounding.
The event featured more than 20 authors, from a wide range of topics and genres. It was so impressive to see dozens of volunteers in red shirts helping out, and to hear from author friends how they couldn’t believe it was the first year for the event – it was so well organized.
Events were packed, lines at the book sale table were long, and author signings connected readers to writers in a very personal way. Local businesses got involved, and Bill Moyers even showed up!
It turns out, her daughter is also named Miranda. Well, Miranda and Miranda hit it off and chatted for about 10 minutes.
This is how young Miranda described the experience:
“I really liked meeting her because I don’t meet a lot of Mirandas around! She liked my necklace and we talked about art. She told me about Shrinky Dinks, which I did not know about. It was cool to meet and really talk to a real author. Miranda is super cool. I loved being at the festival. It was fun to meet people who write books.”
And this is how Miranda Beverly-Whitemore described the meeting:
She’d never met another Miranda before. I told her how the name Miranda comes from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and how it means “full of wonder” and the character of Miranda in that play is stranded on a desert island with only her wizard father, Prospero, so that when she finally meets other humans, she really is struck by wonder at them. She said that sounded cool. And she told me about how in her school there’s a special tea party where kids get to present stories they’ve written, and she’d done it now two years in a row, so she is a writer too. Then at the end of the day, Julia [Fierro] and I went to get ice cream, and got a chocolate ice cream for Celeste Ng, but the line took forever and by the time we got back, Celeste had already left for her train- so I found Miranda and told her my dilemma and asked if she could help me out by eating the chocolate ice cream for me. She seemed okay with that ;)”
To me – observing this conversation as it happened is so much of what a book festival is all about, and really what so much of publishing is about. Not the numbers (attendance, bestseller lists, sales), but the one-to-one connection that someone has with a book or an author. How we can’t possibly measure the effect that this festival will have, because the results will happen within subtle choices that young Miranda makes throughout her life.
This is not just about selling books; rather, it is about inspiring a 9-year old girl to realize her own potential.
There is a flip side to all of this. What if Barb’s store fails? Maybe not right away, but within a year, or two, or three. And these same kids have to see the store they created taken apart. They have to feel the arduous decisions leading up to a closing.
What if the literary festival hits some major roadblocks in its second year, and despite Linda’s best efforts, it becomes unsustainable?
This is the area of risk that we gloss over when celebrating milestones and successes. Things we gloss over when we easily embrace a hashtag about indie bookstores, like putting a bumper sticker on our cars, but don’t comprehend or take on the incredible risk and commitment that these women have made.
For each of the ventures I mention here, I tried to get involved in a more real way. For Short Stories, I built a book shelf one night, and unpacked and shelved books another night. I tried to stop in as often as I could on other days, help spread the word, and made sure to buy a book on opening day. But, clearly, I can do more.
For The Morristown Festival of Books, I volunteered to become the Community Manager, which basically translated to managing their social media accounts. Again: clearly, I can do more.
As I celebrate these women and what they have created, I have to also challenge myself: how can I support them and the communities they are creating in a more consistent way? How can I feel responsible for their challenges?
As I consider and practice this, I would love to know: can you tell me about a bold woman creating something amazing in your community?
Thanks.
-Dan
PS: If you would like to see how these two communities evolve and thrive, inspiring young minds, you can connect with them via social media:
Short Stories Community Book Hub:
Morristown Festival of Books:
In my guest post for WriterUnboxed.com, I explore the concept of creating more capacity in your life as a writer and creative professional. I also talk about my recent efforts to write my first book; the result so far has been a habit of writing 1,000 words per day. I just reached the 26,000 word mark after 20 days of writing. Having created the capacity to write like this feels like I have created exponential potential in my life. You can read the full post here.
Thank you.
-Dan
