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You can learn a lot about self-marketing from watching the video Isn’t She Great? a fictionalized version of the author’s life starring Bette Midler and Nathan Lane. Jacqueline Susann was the master. When her first novel Valley of the Dolls was published, she and her husband created their own marketing campaign which included arriving at the distributors’ loading docks with doughnuts and coffee and complimenting the teamsters union. She and her husband made a cross-country tour arriving at bookstores (pre-Barnes and Noble days) in every small town to introduce herself and her novel. She memorized the shop owner’s name and birthday and arrived with bravado to introduce herself to them personally.
It worked. Valley of the Dolls is noted to be the best-selling novel of all time at 30 million copies sold.
Why I bring this up is that an artist friend and I were discussing self-promotion and what it takes. As you can see from this example, Jackie put as much into the publicizing of her book as she did into the writing of it, if not more. This friend mentioned a colleague who seemed to be spending more time on social media and self-promotion than on honing her creative skills. Not jealousy, but observation. It sounded to me like this artist would find a more profitable niche actually helping other artists spread their message.
There’s a fine line between being the creator and letting others know about it. In the movie version of Susann’s life, the literati were not exactly flattering. There was a television clip of an interview with Truman Capote about the success of Valley of the Dolls. His quote was, “That’s not writing. That’s typing.” (Interestingly, on Wikipedia the quote is attributed to Gore Vidal.)
I’m curious if any of you struggle between being the business owner and promoting the business. Where are you in the mix?
A lot of people talk about wanting to move to Hawaii, but for most of them, it’s simply a fantasy. When Kathryn Ryan first expressed that desire, I have to say, I thought she might be just another New Englander seeking to escape the cold and icy winters of our corner of the world. But I grossly underestimated this woman’s seriousness of purpose. On Monday night I had a conversation with Kathryn by phone accommodating the 5 hour time distance between Connecticut and Maui.
I got to know Kathryn a few years ago as an energy healer and client. She was looking to grow her practice when we first started working together. The desire to live near the water in a tropical climate came up early in one of our coaching conversations. It was a strong vision for her throughout our sessions. I was supportive of her desire and very happy to hear her story of success. It strongly follows the principles of creating visions and taking the action steps to make them happen.
In brief, Kathryn had an uncle in Hawaii who offered her temporary quarters while she tried out the Big Island. She knew she wasn’t going to immediately start her own business, so went for interviews as a massage therapist to earn income during her transition. She actually had to fly in a small plane to Maui for one of those job interviews. “If I’m meant to move to Maui, I want to see a whale,” she bargained with the Universe. The interview was only so-so, but she caught eyes with a man on the beach while on that island and exclaimed, “Did you see that whale?” shortly after one surfaced near the shore. Maui it was! That job didn’t pan out, but another did. Kathryn is supporting herself, living a block from the ocean and is in love. She also was happy to report that she’d those 25 pounds she’d been hanging on to before allowing herself her vision.
Kathryn took the risk of leaving her home of over 30 years with two suitcases and her massage table. She followed every lead that came her way and trusted her gut that this desire for a warmer climate and slower pace would bring fulfillment. In March 2011 it will be two years since she made that decision. By her own admission, she’s never been happier.
Liz Alpert Fay hired me several years ago to make her create. I say that somewhat facetiously, although there’s an element of truth in it. It’s the same reason I pay my coaches and service providers money–to hold me accountable to that which I have previously procrastinated, avoided or languished over.
Sounds kind of crazy, but without the financial commitment and respect for the professional I hired, I had not preciously achieved what it was I set out to do.
Liz is an extraordinary artist with an extraordinary vision. A few years ago she added on a working studio to her New England home. One of our summers working together involved her first committing to specific numbers of studio hours each day. That meant saying no to many requests from the outside world. This is significant. In order to accomplish your visions and goals, saying no is essential. Even if it means turning down a day at the beach, lunch with your mother-in-law or being first in line to see Eat, Pray, Love. People who accomplish big goals have had to say no to hundreds or thousands of temptations along the way.
Back to Liz, who is a master of focus and dedication to her art. Not only did she commit the hours a day to studio time, she also broke out of the mold of the traditional rug hooking medium in which she had achieved such success. Although the images here are small, the tree skirts surrounding the interestingly shaped tree stumps, are all created using fiber arts and textile techniques.
Liz’s work is on exhibit now at the prestigious Peters Valley Craft Center a vision come to fruition through creating the dream, putting in the hours day after day, saying no, showing up and letting the world know what she was up to.
Let me put this in perspective for those of you reading this who are under, say, 40. Having my picture taken with Bruce Jenner would be the equivalent of you having your picture taken with Tiger Woods last summer. Bruce Jenner was THE athlete back in the early 70′s. No way would I have been anywhere in the vicinity of this superstar athlete. But, at BlogHer ’10, I was wrangled over to his area of the trade show asking if I’d like to have my picture taken (on my own camera, thank you) with Bruce Jenner. Why not?!
There’s something here about the trajectory of a career. He’s now stumping for Tropicana. What does that tell you? My kids and others more familiar with his career asked if he was the one married to a Kardashian. I’ve vaguely heard of those folks. Made me think about what fame can do for or against you. Sobering…Not sure I’ll ever have to be concerned with that degree of fame and its aftermath.
I had the immense pleasure and privilege of sitting at the table with Missy Germain and her mother Gail at the opening breakfast session at BlogHer 2010. I was with Sarah Youngblood, my client and friend from Georgia, when we randomly sat down and then pinched ourselves with delight that we had met such successful bloggers right at our table.
Missy and a partner created the blog bittenandbound.com which, her by her tagline’s admission offers “the not so pretty side of Hollywood.” On my own, I would never have come across this blog, but after talking to Missy, I got more interested. She shared their sky-high hit rate and how hard they have worked to achieve this. What was so exciting was to hear someone so successful in this medium, and a very nice person to boot.
I also loved the relationship between this mother and daughter who work together. They clearly had great affection for each other. You could see the pride in each others’ eyes, not to mention the delight at the fact that they were being very well compensated for their efforts.
I couldn’t help but noticing the tattoo on Missy’s arm. I saw it, but wanted to really get a closer look at what the message said. It reads, “I will choose the outcome.” Gail, her mother, elaborated. “Missy believes in wearing her intention.” Clearly, Missy has her eye on the prize and goes after it with intelligence and drive.
I choose to follow these women and learn more about how they’ve become so successful. I’ve committed to diving in deeper to social media as the way to achieve that knowledge. A large part of that commitment I owe to Miriam Salpeter who has been encouraging, guiding and nudging me forward via twitter. I’m in, Miriam!
Dr. Debbie Danowski, a professor at Sacred Heart University, is a friend of mine and also a former client. We were in a writers group for several years and have stayed connected since. Over a year ago Debbie wanted to work with me on her vision for her dream house. She had found this poster image which, she said, captured exactly what she was looking for–a log cabin on a large country property with a water view. My business is all about helping people reach their visions.
So, it was not a surprise when I got a call from Debbie saying, “I did it!”
Last Sunday I went to visit Debbie in her dream house–a log cabin on a large country property on the side of a large pond. Debbie had followed the recommended course of action which includes looking at your vision daily and taking action steps along the way. She did it all herself, and it was an arduous journey. But, sitting on the front porch and looking out on a divine summer afternoon made it all worth it. There were plenty of glitches along the way–there always are–but, Debbie’s perseverance, powerful vision and hard work turned her dream into her reality.
That’s the title atop page 68 in The War of Art, a volume I recently listened to on CD and also own in paperback. The author, Steven Pressfield, likens being an artist to being in the Marine Corps.
“The Marine Corps teaches you how to be miserable.
This is invaluable for an artist. [My note - You can substitute business owner for artist here.]
…He will be dining for the duration of a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation…
Because this is war, baby. And war is hell.”
There’s something perversely heart-warming about how Pressfield states this. I want to say, “Yeah! I’m fighting for my life every day!”
If you’re reading this, and you’re and artist/entrepreneur, you will thoroughly enjoy this book. As promised in the subtitle: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles.
I don’t know an entrepreneur out there who doesn’t face the challenges of, what the author calls, resistances and coaches call gremlins. This book arms you for that battle and makes you proud to show your scars.
Back-to-back coaching calls with similar themes give me ideas for my blog. Yesterday two of my creative clients reported in with extraordinary success stories.
A designer client began apologetically, saying she hadn’t completed her fieldwork assignments, but that she had booked $15,000 in business that week. She was about to rush into her reasons for not making her first Toastmasters speech. But, I stopped the conversation right there to celebrate her enormous victory.
“This is the universe showing you that you can support yourself with work you’re passionate about,” I reminded her. She knows this, but because there are no labels like ‘end-of-year-bonus’ or ‘promotion’ attached to these occurrences, they’re harder to identify.
Another client who is a successful illustrator targeted getting her MFA, creating a body of work and extreme self-care as her goals in our work together. She had just returned from a two-week intensive program that marked the beginning of her studies. Her husband is taking a work opportunity on the West Coast leaving her on this side of the country to completely focus on her art. Again, because these coincidences don’t come labeled, it was important to articulate exactly what was happening in her life. The planets had lined up to allow her to have precisely the time and space she requires to accomplish her goals.
Often, it’s only in looking back that we can see how these events pave the way to our future. Sharing what’s going on with another mortal, be it a coach or colleague, is an excellent way to validate what is happening for you. It’s easy to miss the signposts. And the gremlins are never far behind saying, “Yeah, but…”
Wishing you a success-filled and gremlin-free day!
I’m attending the Kushi Institute’s Macrobiotic Conference for the next few days in Palisades, NY, and just heard Annemarie Colbin speak. She’s the founder of the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts, plus author of multiple books on nutrition and cookbooks. The talk I attended was about Healthy Bones, to which Annemarie applies what she calls her Three Bears Rules. You’re probably way ahead of me on this already, but here they are:
- Too much is no good.
- Too little is no good.
- You want it just right.
Today she was referring to the amount of calcium we take into our bodies. Too much, like a quart of milk a day–which she admittedly frowns upon; too little–not paying attention to your intake of dairy or leafy greens; or just right–finding out exactly what YOUR body needs and giving it that. I loved what she called an accurate means for measuring your bone strength. She asked for a show of hands if anyone had fallen in the past year and not broken a bone. Many hands went up. Then she asked if anyone had fallen and broken a bone. A couple of hands went up. That, she said, was as good a bone density test as there is.
Being who I am, I can see this set of rules for everything related to owning and operating a small business as well. Too much marketing, networking, goal-setting can interfere with production and quality of your work. Too little of those can result in stasis or disintegration of your business. The test with a healthy body and/or business is discerning what the exact right formula is for you. Although I’d love a doctor’s or consultant’s precise recipe or remedy for a healthy body or business, I’ve known for a long time now that I am the best advocate and practitioner for those formulas.
My younger daughter Laura, to whom my book Soul Proprietor is dedicated, helped me out this week by listening to the soon-to-be-released audio version of the book. Line by line, she read the text while listening to the recording I’d spent the last couple of months on. I wanted a fresh pair of eyes and ears to catch any stumbles or other errors in the recorded version.
She did a fine job dog-earing any page that had a repeated phrase, a mispronunciation or missed word from the text. I want this to be letter perfect. I plan to submit it for acceptance in iTunes and know that any boo-boos would throw it into a reject pile. (BTW, if anyone knows the best way to get onto iTunes listings, please let me know.)
When she was all done reading this new edition as well as listening to my voice speaking it, I asked her if she had learned anything new. After all, she’s known me for 28 years. I was pretty sure it would be in her bones having lived with and observed me for the first 18. Laura is entrepreneurial now herself, translating Japanese text daily for an international television company. She works independently and takes on other freelance work as it comes.
“I was not aware of how much help you’ve gotten from other people,” she told me. The book is filled with examples of my reaching out and asking questions of people in my mastermind group, taking courses, attending networking events and otherwise relying on a think-tank of friends and colleagues who have been more than generous with their advice and resources.
“I didn’t realize how many people you’ve hired and how much you’ve delegated.”
“I had no idea how persistent you have to be. You would call someone six times before letting go. I’ve never done that.”
I love that Laura had me so magically powerful–that I had created it all by myself. But, I love it more that she knows the truth and has a realistic sense of what it truly takes to be successful: lots of help and the determination, willingness and self-caring to go for it.
