Don’t Look Back, Be An Artist
“She’s an artist, she don’t look back.” Bob Dylan
I often talk about how we need to be artists in whatever we do. I thought this long before I heard Seth Godin talk about it. Being an artist is more about how you look at things, all things, and not just “art.”
I’ve always admired what I call “true artists.” True artists don’t care what others think, they keep moving forward exploring new things with an open mind. Though they have history, knowledge and experience, they don’t dwell there.
I’ve never been a true artist. I wish I could be. Whenever I’ve had the courage to drop things that weren’t working and move into something new, I was getting close. When new ways of doing things have come up in various businesses and non-profits I’ve been associated with that challenge the status quo, I’ve generally tried to embrace them. But it’s never enough and I’ve never felt like I’ve gone far enough.
I’m in good company. There are very, very few “true artists.” Most of us are too afraid to be so bold. “What will people think?” “Do I think I could fail?” “Will I have to give up things?” “Will it mean leaving things behind?” Short answer: Yes!
Truth be told, most of us don’t even think much about the way we live or do anything. Most people never even get to the questions.
When I started to do music professionally in 1985, I asked those questions. When I sang songs in Bogota, Colombia for a month in 1989, I asked those questions. When I took on the ailing BC Touring Council in 1998, I asked those questions.
This photo, and the look on my face is how I have decided to approach all the planning, building and the whole darn adventure that this new project and phase of my life will entail. I hope it will bring out the true artist in me.
It’s been more than ten years since I contemplated these questions. I’ve been sliding along, but now I am asking them again.
This coming week, I will make another stab at “not looking back.” My partner and I have sold our condo in downtown Vancouver and will be renting for a couple of years as we build a house on Hornby Island.
I am now beginning a new phase in my life. Moving to an island is a big thing for me and it comes with pros and cons, but it’s something I’ve thought of doing since I spent my summer holidays on Hornby Island starting in 1962.
I’d love to hear your experiences where you were a true artist or at least got close to being one.
Get Out Of The Wading Pool: How We Work
Last month I attended a session at South by Southwest called “Balance is Bullshit.”
A key point that came out of it was the need to get things done and the need for focus. Both moderators talked about how easy it is to be distracted from the job at hand, whatever that is.
We think we can multi-task, but science shows we can’t. What we call multi-tasking is really just jumping from one thing to another to another. If you’re working on something important and you need to get it done (ship, as Seth Godin says), having all the interruptions makes it really tough.
Being at this conference, it’s amazing how distracted people can be. They go to sessions and sit with their laptops open or iPhones on, texting, checking sites, tweeting and updating facebook. It’s so shallow.
I’m working right now on the design and layout for a public art toolkit for Creative City Network and I’m getting distracted by so many things going on around me, many of which are avoidable.
Instead of swimming in a deep, cool pool of water on a summer day, our working lives are spent like children in the kiddies wading pool.
Time to grow up.
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PS. Thanks to Judy Helfand of Webconsuls for mentioning this link to a story on multitasking on NPR
Become Visible In Your Marketing
Scenario: You are responsible for marketing a small arts organization. Maybe you’re the executive director with a staff of only a few or perhaps you’re the main volunteer for a non-profit and it’s just you and a board (with hardly anyone who helps out), or, perhaps you’re a solo artist and it’s you and your art that you are marketing.
How much of “you” do you let come through in your marketing?
I’m a believer in showing people (clients, customers, members) who I am. I’ve done this since I was a singer/songwriter or as an executive director of non-profits and I do this in my current business. I’m sure people sometimes perceive this as me stroking my ego or trying to be in the limelight, but I really just think it makes genuine business sense and it just feels right.
I believe our industrialized society has made us think that being invisible and “corporate” is ok. I don’t. We dehumanize our businesses for fear that being personal is not the best way to be. Years ago, we lived in small communities and we knew each other very well. We knew the bakers, the blacksmiths, the farmers and the butchers. These people ran businesses and they didn’t hide behind walls. Bringing this personal aspect to our organizations today is what we need.
A couple of examples…
I knew a really great person who ran an arts organization and was the spokesperson for the organization. Whenever he was out representing the organization, he spoke very formally and gave an air of authority and “stiffness” and if you didn’t know better, you’d think he represented a company with 1000s of employees instead of one with 2.5 employees. This presentation style in person as well as the other communications, meant the organization was perceived as being standoffish and arrogant.
I got to know this person though, and saw an entirely different side of him. In fact, it was so different, I could hardly believe he was the same person. It occurred to me that if he brought the warm, casual style of his personal life to the organization, the perception of the organization would be very different (and more successful).
Another example, in less specific terms, are arts presenters. My observation of the wonderful people who often volunteer or who run these small organizations that put on concert series in their communities is that most of them, are too afraid or shy to be the face of their organization and thus, miss creating meaningful links to their community and audience.
Perhaps they feel they don’t want the spotlight or maybe they think it would look egotistical to be “out there.” These people are often the equivalent of an artistic director. Take a look at some very successful organizations who feature their artistic director. This person is known by every audience member and is integral to the success of the organization.
Take someone like Leila Getz and the Vancouver Recital Society. She is always out there and is tightly recognized with that organization. When things go well, she gets credit. When things don’t, she gets blamed, but at least there’s a face there and she’s real. As Leila said in an interview in Vancouver Magazine “… it’s better, you see, to be outrageously bad than to be boring.” Leila is rarely bad and never boring.
Here are some things you could do:
- Speak in public wherever possible (on the stage, at meetings) or in traditional media (newspaper, radio, TV)
- Get some half-decent photos taken of yourself and put them on your website and on any print materials such as flyers and brochures.
- Get business cards made even if you’re a non-profit. Make sure they have your personal name on them. If you have staff or other key volunteers, make sure they do to.
- Sign your name on promotional materials.
- Get a twitter account or a facebook account and create updates about your role and what you’re doing. For example, if you were at a booking conference, update on what you’re seeing that is exciting you. People will see that you’re “real” and they may get engaged. Heck, they may even get engaged in a conversation
- Write a blog about your role in the organization. Include photos related to your role. If you were an art gallery manager you could include stories and photos on the set up of a new show or if you were a performing arts presenter you could write about how excited you were about an upcoming artist’s performance.
Big organizations go out of their way to appear small and folksy. The bank, CIBC says “for what matters” and they match this with pictures of smiling people looking helpful. The phone company, Telus, says “the future is friendly” and accompanies that with pictures of little creatures doing cute things. Their messages and the reality are very different. What “matters” to CIBC is their profit at your expense. What’s “future” and “friendly” to Telus is future and friendly profit, not their automated voice system when you call in and go through hell to get service.
Small organizations don’t need to fool people with catchy slogans and cutesy images. The people in them just need to be themselves. Stop trying to act like big corporations and instead, use what we genuinely have right within us: “YOU”
You are your organization’s biggest asset.
Stop hiding the biggest asset.
Become visible.
What Am I Really About?
“Do people really know what you are about?” was the question posed today on Julien Smith’s blog post (my favourite blogger, by the way).
What a question!
To me, there are two ways to look at it.
As my mother would say “when I was your age, I didn’t have time to think about this stuff.” So, if I do as she did, I can merrily go on my way and not worry about it and who knows, perhaps live more happily.
But, like Julien—and this is probably why I like his posts so much—I can’t leave it, so I have to look at it in more detail and pull it all apart.
Deep down, it really doesn’t matter if people know what I’m “about” because I believe in the supremacy of the individual and as such, should be free of the constraints others put on me including expectations, rules, limits, and so on.
Of course, we do care about what other people think of us and we act more carefully when we are presenting ourselves. I think we’re often very afraid that people will see deeper into us and discover we are scared most of the time and so we watch what we do, say, act like and share in public for fear of being tossed out of the community and laughed at.
I heard very successful speaker, Tim Sanders say at South by Southwest in March that he keeps his political and religious beliefs to himself because if he exposed them, he’d lose work. I find this sad, but I understand it. Even “un-famous people” like me do it in our own way. For example, I often have contracts to manage arts grants and there are times when I think the entire system is totally screwed up, but do I say anything? (well, sometimes, I do, but not enough).
We each have a brand that is uniquely “us” and for most people, to one degree or another, it’s somewhat manipulated and fake. For very few, its genuine and unforced.
Here’s what I think I’m really about:
I’m about shedding the forced and manipulated aspects of my “brand” and peeling away the layers so that I’m honest with myself (as much as I can be). I think that as I’ve gotten older, I have peeled away much of this, and where I do fake it—such as having photos taken of myself for promo or being a little nervous prior to presenting a workshop—I at least try to be aware of it when I am faking, and even laugh at myself if I can.
There are myriad ways we can fake: nice clothes, gym body, expensive car, big house, superior attitude, the list goes on.
What you think of me (referring to my family, friends, clients, world-at-large):
I’d love to know what you think for interest’s sake, but realistically, it doesn’t matter what you think of me nor should it matter what I think of you.
I like the journey of discovery, but I don’t think I’ll ever really know 100% what I “think of me.” I will keep trying.
The person in this photo (me, many years ago) knows what he’s really about. My task is remembering him and reawakening every day.
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I found a post on Seth Godin after posting mine. It relates nicely regarding work.
I Have a “Too Much Stuff” Problem
Right now, my partner and I are starting to pack prior to moving out of our condo that we just sold into an apartment while we have a house designed and built on Hornby Island in the Gulf of Georgia on the British Columbia coast.
Moving is a great way to find out how much “stuff” one has. It’s depressing as it becomes very evident just how much we buy, collect and keep and, how much we really don’t need.
This is my Working Wednesday post so I’ll stick to work “stuff.” In particular, paper. It’s amazing how it amasses: everything from scraps of notes to receipts that are kept for income tax. It takes up space and needs to be managed, handled and physically moved.
I’ve been reading some blogs by minimalists lately (mnmlist.com and farbeyondthestars.com ) so my mind has been working on how things could be made simpler.
Back in the 1990s I had a flatbed scanner and I would occasionally scan things like bank statements and other documents which I turned into PDFs. The process was tedious then because the scanner was slow and the creation of PDFs was slow. I never made much of a dent in the few filing cabinets worth of documents.
Things have changed. Two years ago I purchased a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner to convert arts grants I was processing into digital files. It worked like a charm. It was fast and almost flawless at drawing large amounts of paper through, scanning both sides of the page and giving me PDFs that were text-searchable.
With the move coming up, I decided to start scanning all my paper documents including the last six years of income tax returns and all the receipts that accompany them (I checked the Government web site and this is acceptable).
I am being careful to back these up, both on an external drive as well as on an online server, but the liberation I feel is amazing.
I have one file folder of paper now.
Gone are the hard copies of income tax returns, receipts, ancient correspondence, notes and cards, you name it… it’s been digitized.
Get over it!
I’ll admit, I have moments of trepidation when I’m about to shove the previously scanned documents through the shredder. It’s amazing how attached to this physical “stuff” we become. But what are we tossing?
All we’ve really done is replace one display technology with another that takes up less space.
I challenge you to give this a try.
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Postscript – April 22: Judy Helfand, who often kindly comments on this site, offered me a link to a blog post her son posted recently about using Google Docs. It’s apropos to this discussion and interesting to get a 20-something’s perspective. Though I don’t use Google Docs much yet (I find its interface rather unpleasant), I totally agree this is the way to go.
I’m also trying out Evernote now as a way of reference for things I do digitally.
Internet Presence and Arts Organizations
Last week, I attended an arts conference in Nelson, British Columbia. One of the sessions was led by Jerry Yoshitomi. Jerry’s session was about how you could market the town of Nelson—or any other town in the region—by using tools on the Internet (there were other great ideas too, such as offering free space to artists for vacant stores on main street).
In listening to the ensuing discussion last week and over the last ten years, there seems to be a disconnect between the creative individuals that make up what we call “the arts” and how un-creatively this community often uses technology.
there is no reason to be sitting on the sidelines and avoiding getting more involved.
One person stood up and said how his organization had essentially just shut down their web site a few years ago because it didn’t appear to be worth it and that now he realized that it was time to revive it (I appreciated his candor and honesty).
I left wondering what it is that makes so many small organizations drop the ball when using the Internet to market themselves. Besides the fact that it takes time, the only conclusion I can come to is that it’s about their expectations or what it can do in the first place.
We are bombarded in the media with how the Internet with its web sites and social media tools have such a great impact but the actual experience at the level of the really small organization is so different. Time is invested in setting up a website or trying to use a Facebook fan page or Twitter and the messages go out, but hardly anything seems to comes back.
This is what happens: It feels like you put a lot of work in and get very poor results. You get discouraged, and like the man earlier, you give up on the website or social media plan.
Don’t give up.
Three things strike me:
- The Internet is not going away and is becoming an even more integral part of almost all businesses. For the arts, it’s very effective.
- Creating a website and implementing the various social media tools is much easier and cheaper now than ever. An artist or arts organization could easily set up a website using WordPress at no financial cost.
- Manage expectations. Instead of expecting instant huge results and massive feedback from online endeavours, consider the small online community that follows you (it may only be a couple of people at first… or for quite some time) as an opportunity to create richer and stronger relationships with these fans, audience members, customers, etc.
I strongly believe (and have since the late 1990s) that most arts organizations lag in the area of their online presence. With costs of being online so much lower now, there is no reason to be sitting on the sidelines and avoiding getting more involved.
The Words We Use
It’s funny when we still use words for things that have no meaning anymore because their original reference is gone. Odd, as well, to think about people using these words who don’t have any sense of where they come from.
Who has “dialed” their phone recently? Does someone under the age of 20, even know what dialing a phone refers to?
The idea for this brief blog post has been running through my head for some time, like a broken record. I finally dropped the needle.
Then, there are the other things we do in life that aren’t words, but rather ways of thinking or activities that have lost their original meaning. We don’t realize that we are still doing things the same way we always have and are forgetting to ask “why” when maybe, it was time to give up a long time ago and get new activities and lose the old ones.
We continue to play “tapes” in our heads that are familiar and comforting without questioning whether they are still relevant.
Do you have some examples of expressions or words you use that have lost their original meaning and are now just metaphors for something new? How about things in your life?
Working Blind and Stupid
This is about work and focus, not about the pros and cons of an impending harmonized sales tax (HST) that is coming to my home province of British Columbia or the sneaky way it has been implemented.
There is a political movement afoot to stop this tax by having it repealed. The energy and effort to get the required signatures to do this is gargantuan and I’m amazed at the supporters of it for their zeal and determination.
But what a stupid waste of energy!
It makes me think of how we often jump on the bandwagon of small issues to divert ourselves from doing more meaningful activities.
It makes me think of how we fool ourselves into addressing petty wrongs with clients or friends or family and needing to “set the record straight.”
It makes me think of spending so much time worrying about the wrong things when all the energy could be directed towards more creative, positive and worthwhile endeavours.
We love getting diverted from the more important things. We do it all the time and when a cause comes along we jump on it and expend huge amounts of time to try to fix some injustice that is really not an injustice, but rather some point that we have to “correct” to supposedly make ourselves feel better.
The people fighting to change this tax remind me of myself when I get onto some issue in my head and divert myself from spending my time on the things that really matter to me.
We are so mentally blind and stupid sometimes!
It makes me want to scream.
Think Darwin, not the Bible with Social Media Marketing
You know the headlines and the hype? “Use social media marketing tools in your organization and your business will be transformed overnight.”
Maybe, in some larger companies with huge audience/member/customer bases the results of employing some social media tools could be fairly dramatic and have a positive impact. For many small organizations, I don’t think it will happen this way.
Last week, I put forth my idea of a sweet spot in marketing for performing arts presenters, artists and the audience members who come out to see the artists.
Paul Gravett who runs the Kay Meek Centre in West Vancouver, BC commented that he’d been using some of the online media tools to engage with his audience but had found limited success so far. I think he’s found, as I have, that though we hear from the “experts” that if we employ these tools, great success will follow but in reality, the success is often very limited and very hard to measure.
We’re still in the early days of all these tools and how we use them. Maybe our expectations need to change.
For small organizations such as performing arts presenters like Paul’s or one-person companies like mine, the “metrics” that we use to gauge the success of using things like podcasts, twitter and facebook are not as important as:
- Taking many small steps in the early days that over time will/may pan out
- Using the tools as an intimate way to connect with an audience.
In other words, we’re in new territory here. We need to try new things with the knowledge that not all will bring results. Because we have relatively small audiences and only a small fraction of them are connecting with us (or our organization), we need to use the tools as a way of strengthening the relationship with the few people who do connect with us this way.
It’s more about “Darwin” than it is about creating our social media marketing world in six days and then getting to rest because it’s all done.
Why I Like My iPad So Much
John in 1965
I was born with poor eyes and have worn glasses since I was two years old. Even after eye surgery a couple of years ago, I still require very good light when reading.
My partner and I are planning to build a house on Hornby Island and move there in a couple of years. We are just beginning the design phase and I’ve been thinking a lot about requirements for reading places where the light is good thus making it easy to read.
All that just changed. I bought an iPad.
For the first time I no longer require perfect lighting conditions to read. I can read anywhere with the exception of direct sunlight or in the bathtub.
I never dreamed this shift in perspective would be so profound to me. For years, I’ve alway sought certain places to sit next to windows with diffused light or lamps that offered enough light to get good contrast. No longer is this a requirement.
Now, what’s funny is, I’ve known the e-book has been coming a long time and have followed stories on it and eagerly awaited its arrival, being very sure I’d like what it had to offer in terms of portability and the ability to read in poor light situations. I wasn’t prepared for just how radical it would be for me. Now that I have one, it’s way more than I expected. It’s a huge and positive change.
I don’t need to worry now about “ideal reading places” in the new house, nor about places to put books (and CDs and other things that have gone digital).
Some people will say the iPad (or any e-book reader) is just another gadget, but when you remove all the physical books that take up so much space just as I’ve removed all the old CDs that took up so much space, it’s one mighty big step to less junk.
Yes, the iPad will be “e-junk” in a few years, but it’s a lot less than all the physical books I will not have purchased (and the carbon required to create them and ship them).
So, on a bigger level, the iPad and related devises will change how many businesses operate in profound ways (see my post last week) and on a personal level, the iPad has made a big, positive change in my life.
That’s why I like the iPad so darn much. It’s personal.
