May
31
20 Infomercials and 1 Question, or How I Found Clarity In My Business
This article is by artist and designer Amy Crook, who I should have had writing here years ago.
I was talking to the magnificent Ashley Sinclair the other day, and one of the things she remarked on was that I had an unusual amount of clarity about my businesses — I know what I do and what I don’t do, what my assets are and where my boundaries lie.
So how did I get from there — from that sense that I had so much to offer but I didn’t know what or to whom or for how much — to where I am now?
Practice makes perfect.
I was in BNI, a networking group, for a while that required us to give a 30-second “infomercial” (what you would probably call an elevator speech if you’re not in BNI) about our businesses. We were encouraged to mix it up, say something interesting, tell a very short client story or have some sort of special going on every week. So every week I had to stand up and say, “Hi, I’m Amy Crook with Not Dead Yet Studios, and I…”
The first dozen times, it was really painful. And then, one day, it got easier. I’d said it a number of different ways. I’d thought about what got me there, and where I wanted to go from here. I had to tell these people, every week, in a very short amount of time, what made me different from the 73 other graphic designers they’d met.
I thought about my business a lot.
I was also doing a lot of reading about marketing at the time, about forming a Unique Selling Point and refining your message and figuring out your niche or target audience, so I fed all of that into this one thing that I did week after week, and one day, it was just clearer.
I also thought about what I was and wasn’t willing to do to make myself fit in with the business crowd. Did I want to buy a suit? He- er, heck, no. Was I willing to clean up my language? Obviously, yeah. That opened the door to the idea that it was really okay to not have morning office hours, to not work weekends, to not do the stuff that felt weird and icky to me. I’m not saying I decided to start coming to the meetings in my STFU t-shirt, but I did a lot of poking at my own boundaries and figuring out where maybe became do not want.
The hardest part here, by the way, is learning to respect your own wants when other people’s wants conflict with them, and in this case I went the woo-woo route and tried to practice Sovereignty (the state of not giving a damn what people think because you are the king or queen of your life) a la Havi Brooks.
And then I had a crisis.
Then, I needed money to get to my 72-year-old mother’s wedding in the middle of nowhere. On a SpeakEasy call, I asked Naomi for advice on doing an emergency sale, and she asked me the final question that really crystallized it: What do you have, and what are you willing to do?
So I looked at what I do, what I’ve been doing and all the assets I have — and I rattled off a list before I could be too afraid to do it. I had to think, right then and there, what I did and didn’t want to discount for the sale. And it worked.
For the record, the list went something like this:
- Well, I have all this art and I’m willing to sell it for a discount, if someone will buy. (Someone did.)
- Plus, commissions. (I got one of these.)
- And I have Be a Cartoon, which I love doing. (I also got one of these, with one more pledged.)
- Plus, I could reopen the Draw Your Monster offer. (No takers here is a sign this isn’t a good product for me, sadly, despite how fun it is for me.)
- And I’d be willing to discount some of the design stuff, headers and logos and business cards. (I had a taker here, but surprisingly she refused the discount.)
- But not whole websites, because I outsource part of that, so I can’t really lower my cut there. (Actually, despite the fact that this is my biggest-ticket item, I haven’t been doing much to market it lately because it’s also the highest-stress one.)
So what I got from that was, first off, I need to charge more for websites, or stop doing them. This doesn’t surprise me too much, since I’m charging about half what other comparable people I know do. It also showed me what I like doing, versus what I do because people want it — I like art, cartoons, monsters, and I like doing small illustration and design projects. I could finally see the giant finger pointing at the parts I disliked, because even though I really needed to raise a pretty big amount of money (for me) in a relatively short amount of time, there was stuff I just wasn’t willing to do for cheap anymore.
Now, I don’t recommend the financial crisis as clarifier method, but it was still a great way to strip away all the rationalizations and justifications and get to the bottom of it. So, answer how would you answer the question:
What do you have, and what are you willing to do?
Amy Crook has been a graphic designer since 1996, and freelance since 1998. She’s participating in the Ittybiz 1000 by jumping ship from design to fine art & illustration, and donates 10% of all sales at her Etsy shop to charity. Her newest homework from Naomi is to start posting naked people on her site more often.
Great post, and an excellent message.
I would suggest when things are going well is when it is easiest to go through this process but when things get tough is when you put it to the test.
I’m going through clearing a lot of “junk” right now and part of that has been a similar process of what I want to be doing. I have the good fortune of a financial buffer where I could stop working for a bit, so that means I can be selective and if that doesn’t work out go back.
I know though if it came to the crunch I would probably do anything to put food on the table. Not sure if I would get any takers stood on street corners wearing fishnets, but you know, I would try.
Business is no fun if you are constantly getting yourself to do stuff you don’t want to do. That is going from hating your job working for a crazy boss to hating your business working for your crazy self :)
Chris, that’s it exactly — I had to go through the initial refining process in the “safe” networking group before I was ready to face up to the realities in a crisis. (And, as crises go, it was a pretty minor one — food was already provided for while plane tickets were needed.)
It’s hard to transition from the mindset of “feed the body” to the “feed the soul,” and I’m glad we both have a safe cushion from which to do so!
Thank you for this posting. I am actually in the process of thinking through a business based on my art and this really inspired me. It also helped me to realize I don’t have to get it right the first time, I can modify and change and tweak and reorganize until I find the right way.
Sara, that’s just exactly right — I’ve watched my business evolve a lot over the years, and it’s just in the past year I’ve been ready to make this new, big, scary change in direction.
Amy, thanks for the idea, I have been working to refine my blogs direction and this process looks like it would help me narrow my focus.
Jerry, good luck with it! It helped me a lot to make many mental notes on what was working and what wasn’t (or was working ok but just no fun at all).
I stepped away from a 25-year fundraising career in January to transition into self-employment. A few days ago my wife reminded that since that time I’ve made exactly $500 from one freelance writing gig.
Fortunately we had been preparing for the transition for a couple of years with a good-sized cushion of savings. I’m still a long way from a self-sustaining lifestyle business, but I’m getting closer every day. Chris Gillebeau’s Empire Building Kit is a great resource, and that connection has opened up all kinds of additional doors and windows to things like Ittybiz, JohnnyBTruant, etc.
Thanks, Amy, for nudging me to think about clarity, focus, and taking inventory of what I have and what I’m willing to do (or NOT). Great post!
Richard, congrats and good luck! And yeah, it makes a big difference once you stop looking at what you can do or might do, and think about what you want to do instead. It also really helps you connect to your real audience when you’re more clear on who they are, instead of just hoping that anyone with work will wander your way and give it to you.
After all, sleeping as late as I want isn’t the only perk of being self-employed, just the one I appreciate most often. ;)
Thanks for being so clear about your actual thought process – obviously, you’ve spent A LOT of time thinking about this, and it shows.
You’re an inspiration. :)
Thanks, Rachael! You know I think you’re pretty awesome yourself, and I have learned a lot from watching your biz evolve this year, too.
I did something similar not too long ago. After years of doing what I thought I “had” to, I finally couldn’t take it anymore.
I sat down, outlined what I loved doing, what I was best at and what I could supply the greatest value to others through.
Like Chris said, I was working for my crazy self and hated it.
Great post, Amy.
Thanks, Adam! I’m still refining and transitioning even now, but it helps that I have a very clear set of “Want” and “Do Not Want” items.
This is a great resource for those of us who aren’t so clear about what we do, what we have, and what we won’t do.
Thanks for providing such a detailed explanation of the process you went through, it makes it easy for those of us who still need to do it.
I’m off to check out your website. From one artist to another, it looks great so far!
Thanks, Matthew! I was sort of surprised when Sinclair told me I had more clarity than her average client, but I could see how I’d learned a lot in that area over the past year. This post is kind of the distilled essence of a lot of the advice & info I got about the process myself during that time.
I hope this helps you on your own quest to get clear (and make a good living doing it, of course!)
I remember in Johnny Depp’s movie Public Enemies, he said something like “the worst time to pull a robbery is when you are desperate,” followed by, “the time when you need to pull a robbery most is …. when you’re desperate.” Those are some ‘no shit’ statements if ever I’ve heard any. Desperation it a great motivator. If we let it, it tends to clarify the mind and open it up to any possibilities.
Just so, Mike! And it’s a measure of how much you don’t like something (and how desperate you are) when you figure out what you don’t want to do to get over a cash crisis.
For the record, robbing a bank was never on my list. ;)
“who I should have had writing here years ago.”
No shit. Off to track down girlfriend’s particulars right now.
Thanks, Colleen! I’ll drop you a line, since my link up there has a typo in it (my fault, I shouldn’t write bios at midnight).
Thank you, Amy… What a rockin’ message…
Rock on!
(This makes me want to make devil hands \m/ but then I get sad about Dio all over again…)
Dear Friend of Naomi’s Amy,
Thank you for this post. I am right at the point in my ‘try to be self-employed’ career to use this information! I am going to print it and use it as a guide for a couple of months and see if I can’t narrow down what I want to do and how I want to do it and how much time I want to devote to it. I’ve got to find “IT” too. Thanks for your help! I’ll let you know how it goes.
~~Lyn
Thanks, Lyn! Please do keep me posted, I got all this advice from people like Naomi and distilled it into my own process, so I hope it really helps you out.
Amy is awesome. She made a cartoon of me, and I found her to be an incredibly intuitive artist. She figured me out and gave me a great image to work with.
And now, here she is giving out an awesome example of figuring out your offerings!
Mazel Tov on your Mama’s wedding, Amy!
Bridget, your cartoon was such fun! You were great to work with, and I can’t wait to finish Fabeku’s so you can use them together.
This is just really everyone else’s awesome advice, distilled into the process that worked for me, so I hope it helps everyone else a little bit.
And thanks! She seems quite happy.
Amy, I have been asking myself “what am I willing to do” for a while now. As I have stated to Naomi it has taken me a long time to find something that I enjoy doing and also occupies a seat in the sell-able arena.
Pricing is always a pain in the butt for me. It’s hard to judge the value of your own creations as they are labors of love and are often something you’d be doing anyway, thus they seem priceless and worthless at the same time.
Pricing is a pain in the ass, but I enjoyed your take on the whole ordeal.
Josh, I’m right there with you on the pricing issue. I’m taking an e-course from Tara at http://www.blondechickenboutique.com/ (I think the sales page for people not on her list goes up tomorrow?) about that subject, but in general I try to find a price that sustains me, that makes me feel like I’m being given value in exchange for my creations rather than squeaking out the least I’m willing to part with them for.
Good luck!
What you’re willing to do to make your business work is a huge deal, and I’m glad that you hit that clarifying point, even if it took a not so great situation to get you there. I really admire the strength you have to look at your art and various other things and face up to what works, and cut the stuff that doesn’t, even if you’re attached to it. That’s the attitude that makes you a business and a professional.
On a personal note, I am so proud and happy to see you up here. You really deserve it. <3
Thanks, Holly! It’s really been a great motivator to start making the changes I’ve been inching toward all along. Not to mention getting unstuck in making art, as evidenced by the half-finished paintings drying all over the place. ;)
I had to realize when the attachments to certain things or ideas were just habit rather than useful to me going forward, too, and I think that’s where the crisis really helped crystallize the places I was ready to detach from old ways of thinking.
Ah, yes, the old crisis method of figuring stuff out — I know it only too well!
Great post. I’m currently in the process of figuring out what I have (“Oh, yeah, I guess I have *that* too!? Hunh! Cool!”) and what I’m willing to do. Pecipitated by a crisis, of course. Since I’m adding new stuff to my offerings, I still don’t really know what I’m willing to do, and for how much. But I’ll figure it out as I go along.
And if I’m really lucky, maybe there won’t be the need for additional crises. ;-)
Melissa, good luck with your current crisis (and having few in the future as well!).
Sometimes only experience can teach you what you’re willing to do, and unwilling to do. Something that sounds awesome on paper can turn out to be a huge pain in real life, and you never know it until you’ve given it a shot. Then you just have to be willing to listen to the part of you that’s saying, “never again!”
Yay, Amy!
This is a hella-smart post. I especially liked the part about getting better talking about your business via BNI. I’ve been doing this with my chamber of commerce, and what used to be horrible scary is now pretty easy. I’m still working on improving it, but at least I’m not afraid of it any more.
Also, Amy made an awesome cartoon for me, too, and you should all go buy one from her immediately. I LOVE MINE!
Thanks, Avonelle! I really think that gut-wrenching experience of standing up in front of a bunch of people to say what you do can give a lot of benefit, though there’s other ways of getting the same benefit if that’s not an option. Tweet it, maybe, or try to explain it to your parents, or kids.
I had so much fun doing your cartoon — flippy hair is fun to draw! Not to mention the Code Poet t-shirt.
Amy–
I’ve visited your site and it is a visual feast.
Hmm-what do I have? Creativity, honesty and balls-to-the-wall focus and drive.
It’s amazing that when we experience crisis, we are most apt to exercise that creativity and drive.
Hope mom is happily married.
Thanks, Linda! I try to keep a mix of stuff in the daily art, and I just got off my butt and updated the Gallery this weekend, too.
Those are all good things to have, though I hope you’ve also got something more specific in mind (or will find it soon) — all of those things, while awesome and necessary, aren’t tangibly saleable. At some point you have to figure out what to do with your awesomeness, creativity, and drive, so we can all give you money for it. ;)
Thank you for the response, Amy. Absolutely right–one needs the vision, a tangible one at that, to get the goods off the ground.
I’m honing up the biz plan, listening and watching the experts, trying to find my inner-marketer, and consulting with Naomi, to boot.
Maybe one day I’ll have a successful biz like yours…
Take care!
Amy-
Great post, and I loved the focus on maybe vs. do not want. I can do so many things for clients, but what will I do, really?
“It’s okay not to have morning office hours” YES, YES, YES. I do content creation for clients all over the world, and some of them seem to think that their providers should be hanging on the other end of the Internet 24/7 just in case they get a midnight inspiration. I’ve spent a great deal of the last year redefining my schedule boundaries, and learning to say no when my gut says a project is going to turn out to be utter hell. Even when the money is good. The clarity to sleep soundly on a decision with no anxiety is just priceless, even when the decision isn’t what others might counsel.
Thanks for guest posting!
Thanks, Jen! Not a lot of the business advice breaks it down quite so simply, but that’s how it broke down for me — especially the morning office hours thing.
And I totally agree about saying No when there’s a bad feeling about a project. There’s always the temptation to slip into “the customer’s always right” but in the long run, sometimes, the potential customer is an idiot who’d be more trouble than they’re worth.
“the hardest part here, by the way, is learning to respect your own wants when other people’s wants conflict with them” – hell yes, darlin’. Well done!
Thanks, Sinclair! I just needed a little push to share, I guess. ;)
Thanks, Amy!
I think this is a great reminder that businesses are not static things. They learn and grow and change just like we do.
If you get into business thinking you will always do things the same way as when you started, you’re in for a big surprise.
Good for you for knowing what works and what doesn’t for you!
Thanks, Naomi! I’ve been reminding myself that “what got you here won’t get you there” but also that it’s okay to not want to be here forever.
One thing I’ve always been pretty good at is the No, which makes things easier all around, I think. ;)
Totally love this what I am willing to do/what I’m not willing to do thing.
And you’re right, desperate times, er, call that into focus. (See: Last Year, Economic Crisis, Last 200 Bucks)
You’ve started a slow-burn thinking process…
(And, dude, guest post!)
Thanks, Andrew — obviously guest posting was one of the things I am willing to do. ;) I’m just glad Naomi was willing to take it!
And I’m right with you on last year — this year, things are so much better that the clarity can shine through the need.
I hear what you’re saying about the website pricing thing too. I don’t know why I baulk at the idea of charging more, since I also outsource the coding, but looking at it like in this example, I can totally see that I have to. I love how sometimes breaking it down (can’t say that without striking a stupid MC Hammer pose) to the basics can really make the answers obvious!
Great insight Amy…fortunate for me that other people, like you, have already gone down this road!
…And are willing to share…