In 2018 you have to be both an artist and an entrepreneur.
You can’t be one or the other anymore.
(If you ever really could).
I’m not saying you have to cut off your ear, or throw paint at a canvas. I don’t mean that kind of artist (although if you are, then that’s cool too).
What I mean is that in order to achieve ‘cut-through’ in today’s marketplace—particularly online, when you’re building a personal brand—you must employ both huge creativity and enviable business skills.
Why?
Well, put simply, there is now an attention deficit in society at large. This is to a great degree a demand-supply problem. There is (literally) TMI—too much information.
And that’s not going to change any time soon.
The truth is that the bar to having a presence online to make money (or just for fun) is incredibly low.
We can all set up a new social media account in seconds, no problem.
What this means is that there a large number of people out there who are talking loudly—and you have to get your voice heard over them somehow.
People come to online business (content creation online business) usually from one of two angles. You\re either someone who wants to create art and put it out in the world (a writer,a poet, a musician, a photographer, or whatever) or you’re someone who wants to make a boatload of money.
(Of course, you can be both—I certainly am. But it took me a while to realise it. We’ll get to that in a moment).
Which ever side of the equation you are on, you need to polish up your corresponding skills on the other side so they shine like a diamond.
Put simply, if you are an artist, you need to get your entrepreneurial hat on. And if you are a marketer, you need to don the artist’s robes.
The artist needs to learn strategies to sell his art. And the business guy needs to create the sort of differentiation for his business that really only comes with art.
The good news, of course, is that the two sides are not entirely opposed. A great many people have a bit of both ‘in them’, myself included.
When I was a kid I always wanted to be a writer . . . until I started watching those eighties shows like Dynasty, and movies like Wall Street, and then I wanted to make a ton of money too.
The beauty of the personal brand model is it allows me to do both at the same time. It enables me to create my art (my writing, particularly the more personal posts on my website, and my books etc). And it allows me to sell it for a profit.
Of course, this was always possible—in theory. An author could try his luck with the publishing industry, and failing that he could print up a load of copies of his book and sell them from the boot of his car. But let’s face it, having a WordPress website and a Twitter account is a damn site easier.
Which is why I am so in love with the personal brand business model—and why I’ve created my new course, Personal Brand Mastery. And it’s why I fervently believe that everyone should begin building up a personal brand today.
If you have something to say it’s ideal. And if you want to sell, it’s also ideal.
And let’s face it, with the job market looking particularly rocky right now, anything we can do to future-proof ourselves for the years ahead has got to be a good thing, right?
If you like my writing, sign up to my daily email list. Each day I send out a new, premium article. In many cases, it is only available to subscribers and won’t appear anywhere else. Sign up here.
