Creative Vocation: Developing a Creative Career

1. Introduction: And gentlemen, Kara and I've been doing this creative thing full-time for about 15 years now. I'm being within the creative industries as a performance poet, as a speaker or writer, communicate a podcast or all these different things that have come together to make up my own creative career. And so I want to welcome you to this course on Skillshare developing a creative career. It's the third in the series that I call creative vocation. You can't go and have a look at the other two are about living your best creative life and how to sustain your creative practice, bringing about a sustainable, creative, creative vocation. And now what I want to go into really is into the career side of things. How do we take something that may have been a hobby in the past and developer and work with it and market it and brand ourselves and do the things that we would need to do to bring about a holistic, creative vocation in terms of a career, how can we bring some money in to what we're doing? As I said, for the last 15 years, I've been doing this full time. So I have worked extremely hot at the career side of my creativity. And it's taken a lot of fumbling, stumbling and failures and a lot of wonderful experiences that have all come together to enable me. And this is not just I've been able to pay for my own life, but not just my own life, the life of my family and my two kids. And I've been able to build a sustainable creative career out of poetry. He, out of being a poet which you go to any dinner conversation. And the very first thing question whenever I say, I'm a poet is, how do you make your money or does that really make you money or what does that even they just don't get it. The idea of a poet or any creative making money. And here's the good news I want to share with you is this. I want to go into what it looks like for me and what I want to encourage you to begin with and simply say is, are you sick of just waiting to go viral? My creative career has developed. Not because I've gone viral, not because I have got that big break from some, whatever it might be. Rather, it's been a whole lot of things I want to go into. If you're interested, you want to come and learn for you whatever your creative practice might be, whether you're a writer or a painter or dancer or whatever you might be. This course is for you. Join us, join us in developing your own creative career. 2. Lesson 1- Chasing Opportunity: We're going to kick off this whole thing by May telling a few stories. I think it's really key stories from the development of my creative career that I think really nail what it is that is going to help you in developing your own creative career. So let me take us way back and just tell a few different stories and pick up on a few things so that we can really begin to get into it. You can work out how does this translate into your creative life away you're at the moment in terms of developing your creative career. Let's go back to the beginning of things for me was actually photography's. I know I am a full-time poet and rider and speak about photography before poetry took over my life, photography was my main thing. Photography came about because I went overseas and I was taking, I was just taking photos overseas and on a trip that I was in really interesting places like the Sudan and Uganda and the border of Thailand and Burma doing some work with some of the most least fortunate in the world. And as I was there, I was taking photos, have lots of whole bunch of different stuff. And when I got back, I showed some of these photos to people as you do kinda travel photos and one of my friends and they were getting married soon and then we're like, Hey, I just love, I love your photos. Do you think you could come and follow our photographer around and take some random photos for our wedding. Just some suntan and playful, creative, whatever I was like. Sure I can do that. Then another friend of mine heard that I was doing this friend's wedding and she was like, Hey, I'm tricking. You could actually be the photographer from our wedding. I was like Yeah, I'll either photography or wedding. Sure. That sounds fine. And then another friend before I'd even done those two weddings, another friend found out that I was doing the photography for these friends weddings and asked me to do their their wedding as well. I have three wedding photography gigs hooked up before I had even done one. All I had was maybe you remember a few years ago, a little digital excess compact camera. I didn't even have a digital SLR. I have to go out, buy my first digital SLR to take photos at these weddings. But I did them and they went well and one thing led to another, led to another. And very soon I had about 25 to 30 weddings a year is what I was shooting over a period of a few years. Before then poetry and the rest of my creativity took over. My creativity started almost as like bluffing my way into it. It really did. It started as may choosing the same. Now, this is something I love. I can do this and I'm going to do this. The courage. My courage was way beyond my skill level at that point. But I believed in myself enough to grab a hold of this opportunity and to run with it. To grab a hold of this opportunity and to run with it now, probably. I mean, that was pretty risky and it's highly recommend it, but it was the way that I got into photography. I would recommend you being courageous enough to take up the opportunities that are being presented to you. In fact, when I look back at my creative career, the development of my creative career, It's actually this, more than anything else, is the thing that has pushed me further to the next thing, to the next thing to build the last 15 years of my creative career life. And that is grabbing a hold of an opportunity. When it comes to, like I remember in Montreal, over in Montreal is touring through Montreal maybe about 12 years ago. And on this day as touring with my friend and on this day we would just go and hang out. We didn't have a show on that night. This is what I was doing. Poetry has had begun to do poetries or over touring through kinda doing performance poetry. We went up to my friend had heard about a cafe. There was a Turkish Cafe. I can't remember exactly. I'm pretty sure it was targets that you'd go to. And the idea in this cafe that the owner comes out and he pours you tea or coffee. And as he paused and he says, Tell me a story. It's this kind of cultural exchange. I'll give you tea and serve you and you pay for it. But I'd love to hear somebody whose story is how he's built his Cafe, which is really lovely, I love it. We said we were poets from Australia performing and he said, Well, can you jump up and perform a poem for us? And I'm sure we'll do that yet. So we jumped up and over in the chefs. Kitchen. Chefs put his head through the kitchen window and was like, hey, do something funny for us to realize. So I got up and I performed a funny poem about having read dread locks. And my friend performed a poem about paying her pants and then it was fine. It was just a lovely moment in this cafe was really greater than the chef. He came out afterwards and he's like, Hey, so I run this comedy night and I loved what you guys did. The comedy nights on tonight. Could you come along and perform with like, sure, that sounds fine. He writes this on a scrap of paper, this address in Montreal and says just made us there tonight at this time. And so we go, we go about our day. We go we go back to this event, right. And this is not just a little comedy event. We return up to the address, we look up at. It's what was it's changed now the name of it, but it's the metropolis in Montreal. Montreal. Biggest venues like Lady Gaga had been on or we can wait before. This was the International Montreal Comedy Festival, one of their Gartler shows that this guy runs just this little, this little comedy show you that I run. So we will look up and now suddenly we are the English-speaking comedian poets in the midst of a totally French-speaking international monetary or Comedy Festival, garlic showcase. We jump up and perform in front of either know how many thousand 2000 people, how many people this venue fits. Suddenly on a day that I was meant to be doing nothing chilling out of the park, doing not much, go into a cafe suddenly where they're performing to however many people and having this incredible, amazing time and this amazing experience. All because what was it all? Because we heard that opportunity and we ran with it. We heard that opportunity and we ran with luck. I forget exactly who it was that said it, but someone said luck happens to those who were prepared. You don't get lucky without being prepared. Those beautiful opportunities that we have in life. If I didn't believe in myself and trust in myself, and if I hadn't have worked as hard as I could and my creative career at my creative practice, knowing that if someone says, jump up, can you do this? Then I say, Yeah, I can do it. I do this all the time, all the time. One of my things that I do these days at conferences and festivals is I sit there and I'd write poetry throughout the event as it's happening. And then I jump up straightaway onstage afterward and perform back to the, to the conference delegates. A poetic way, what they've been hearing throughout the day. I grab a hold of every opportunity and I ran with it. And it's scary and it's hard sometimes, but always I can tell you again and again and again, if you look around, if you hold yourself out to the world, if you believe in yourself enough, if you work, the only reason that I can say yes to these things except for the bluffing away, but the photography at the start. But throughout my creative career again and again and again, is because I know diverted **** hard on my craft. So hard that I can say, Yeah, I can do it. And it's those opportunities every time it hits those opportunities that developed the next one that developed the next one, that developed the next one. Mandla story. And this little lesson is just, so, um, this, this year on releasing a book, my first junior fiction graphic novel. And the way this happened, where the publisher thing happened is I was at a conference speaking, performing poetry. I'm sitting there in the green room chatting with these people and they're like, Hey, what's your name, what you do? And I tell them about me. They're like, well where from, where from a publisher and we're always looking for new things. Have you got anything where a comedy based? We do human-based children's books. I have anything to pitch to us. And I said to them, yeah, I do. I'll I'll meet you back here tomorrow and I'll pitch it to you tomorrow. They say that kind of gray. So then I went back to the hotel and I wrote the book. I'd had a little glimmer of an idea for a book on my way up in the plane are a member about an alien who chops the kids rubber bowls in somebody with this some idea there. So I went back and I wrote it, and I wrote the pitch. I went back the next day, I pitched it to them, they loved it. And now I have this, published, a book about to be released in the next year. All because I believed in myself enough. I've worked so hard at Microsoft that I knew that I could go back to that hotel and I could write, I could bring together a kid's book, junior fiction book that would be funny and engaging and that they would love your creative career. There's a whole lot of things that we're gonna go into over the next few lessons of the practical skills. So much of it is simply being about willing to open our eyes to the opportunities that are coming, to be prepared to be lucky. That's where it begins. 3. Lesson 2- Going Above and Beyond: Just recently I got back from an interior design retreat. I'm not an interior designer, but I'll get invited to a lot of different places to share my poetry and to speak about creativity. Something about going to this interior design retreat that took it to the next level. Say I went there to share my poetry when I went there to teach her and creativity. There's two things that I did throw out. It's something that I mentioned that I do at conferences in the last little lesson is I go and I write poetry throughout based on the keynotes that I'm hearing and things like that. And bring it together at the end and I perform it back to them. So I did that for these people. But what I also did is I offered at a star. Now I wasn't being paid to do this. But I offered at the start the 30 people that were there. I said, if anyone wants a poem, one of the things I love to do is to write poetry for people. It's a poem. Come on, let me know. Tell me, I'll have some time set aside. Tell me if you want a poem and I'll write a poem for you over the next four or five days. 25 little 20-minute interviews with people that I listened to their story. I wrote poetry for them, performed that poetry back to them. Afterwards, after the retreat finished, I took those, all those poems and I printed off, I made them look nice on sheets of paper. And I, and I sent it to them to print off to have a PDF of the poem that I've written for them. I recorded it and bought music with it and sent them so that they would have an audio version of the poem that I'd written for them. None of this I got paid for. Going above and beyond their expectations. Is the thing the thing that would make that made that kinda conference go off in that retreat go off in terms of what I was bringing over the years. This is what I've done again and again and again for people and places and conferences and events going the extra mile, showing up and doing something beyond what they were expecting, giving them something that literally would change their life. I cannot tell you how many of those incredible interior designers ended up in t is, as I shared the poems with them, I will ask you, how did you know that about me? How I feel, seen and heard, and know those people. They're the people who become the best marketers for my creative career more than anything else. So this is something else that I've done over the many years of my career, developing my own creative career. Every week, I write a poem for somebody and I give it to them. And I can tell you that simple little practice has done more for my creative career than any social media. Trying to get lax and hits and views. And when we stopped focusing on via anonymous masses. And we bring it down, bring it down, bring it down to someone that we can love and serve and give. Someone that we can. Like. Yes, this is yes, my creative career has come out of this, but at the heart of it is not about, I'm gonna give you a poem so that I can grow my creative career. None other than that. When we stop trying to just make our creative career about ourselves, our individualist, about me getting the most money that I can, et cetera, when we actually start giving ourselves to something that is beyond ourselves. Not only are we developing our creative career, but actually are holistic self-development of our lives out of us as a community and a society together where we listened to each other and serve each other and help each other be orderly, beautiful things can happen. And I tell you what, I'd go into houses ten years after I've written someone a pole at a poem that I wrote for them ten years ago is still plastered on their mirror and they say to reach all, I read this every day before I go out. And it reminds me of who I am. I can't even tell you without breaking into t's because this, this is what's sat at the heart of developing my own creative career. Hasn't been about money and it's been about something so much more, so much more fulfilling his payment of human connection. And our creativity and its heartbeat is all about human connection. I've got to do this over and over again. It's started. Share that story about Montreal last lesson. This, this kind of writing poetry from people. It started in Montreal. Actually, really interestingly, only like a day or two later we were in a park. My friend and I we had another afternoon off and we're like, Oh, we're gonna do today, we're going to come above all and other international Montreal company Vesto, know what we do instead, we got a typewriter, friend had a typewriter there. We went down and we went to a park where there's lots of people. We simply offered to write poetry for people. Come and tell us, tell us, give us, give us a story, and then come back in 10 min and we'll write you a poem. So we'd write them a pole. There was a practice that I then brought back to Australia. I kept on doing takeaway poetry where I bask and people would come and tell me their stories and I'd write them a poem instantly on the spot and give it to them. Then I, That's what kinda started this thing because what I saw is it changed people's lives. And as people's lives were changed, as I went over and above to give them a gift. They then became my best marketers. They then started more than anything else, getting the name of what I do out into the well, few of them are teachers right? Now. We're like, Hey, can you come along, teach at my school? Like teaching poetry and this kind of thing on my school is like, Sure, I can do that. So I started going along to some schools. One thing led to another, led to another, another teacher heard another teacher, her what I was doing, word of mouth, word of mouth. One of the major things that I do in my creative career these days is going into schools. I go into about 20 or 30 schools a year. One of them a lot, a majority, a lot of my money comes from my schools work. That never would have begun if I hadn't been willing to not even worry about money, just to give and serve someone. I wonder what you are doing, your creative practice. Where at, at the heart of what you're doing to develop your creative career, how could you go over and above people's expectations? How could you serve them and give them? Not for this, not just to get money in the world. We're sick of people asking for money. Like we just went bombarded by advertisements, thousands and thousands and thousands through Facebook and social media and the TV and all the things. We constantly being asked for money. When was the last time someone gave you a parliament sat? Just wanted you to have this. I noticed this about your wanted to write about was the last time you gave someone a painting. If you're a painter, when was the last time you created something or, or went to a conference where you were meant to just be the speaker. Instead of just doing that, you wrote. You either know you're a portrait artist and you did a portrait and you gave a portrait for each of the people at this retreat, or you wrote a poem like idea. Whatever that might look like for you. I can tell you this is the stuff beyond the practicalities, beyond the social media, beyond all these things. Simply having the heart, the, the love enough of people that you would serve them. It's gonna do more for your creative career than anything else. Because that's what I've seen in my life. That's how so much of my creative career development. Let's keep on going. 4. Lesson 3 - Going wide and deep: All right, friends. Let's take some of these ideas and start bringing it down into some real practical things in the development of our creative careers. As we come to life, there's a number of different ways. There's a number of different things, as you've heard that make up my creative practice and therefore also my creative career. I really want to encourage you that this is actually really important to have lots of different things that come together to make up what I would call the ecosystem of my creative vocation. Things, yes, that make you money, but other things as well. Let me start with this quote by a fantastic writer named Danny Shapiro. Danny Shapiro says, in relation to start a new creative project, she says they'd be willing to stand at the base of a new mountain with humility and grace bound to it. Allow yourself to understand that it's bigger than you or anything you can possibly imagine. You're not sure the path. You're not sure where the next step will take you when you begin spit to yourself. I don't know. I don't know. I loved that as kind of a an urging for us that when we stand at the bottom of the mountain, that's a new creative project or how we're developing our creative Korea. That humble stands have actually there's all these different paths up the mountain. And one of the things that we often think is this just one. And often that's that going viral or getting picked up by someone. Like we've got being constrained into such a small picture of what, of what creativity is looks like or as meant, meant to be even. Like. There's not many people I know who are who have there. One thing that they do, the one path up the mountain, and that's all they do and that's enough to sustain their creative career. There's not many people I know who just paint and just the painting and selling of their paintings is enough to sustain them. Now, many people I know who just write books, just write poetry, and just the writing itself is enough. Instead, there's a whole lot of pods up the mountain that come together to make up our creative vocations, to make up my creative vocation and my creative career. The humble that Danny Shapiro is calling us to do too, is to stand at the base of the mountain and say, I don't know, I don't know the way up and that's okay to stand at the base of a new creative project. Let's get into credit projects for a second. Not making Korea career or whatever, but just the act of creating to come before new creative project and say, I don't know the way up this mountain and that's okay. Let me work it out. Let me travel this trajectory in this trajectory in this directory. And as we go, you'll begin to develop and we'll begin to see actually, like I said, there's a whole lot of ways up this mountain, a whole lot of different parts. For me. Like just up here on my whiteboard, there's a big list of all the things that I do that make up my creative, my creative career. What I really want to urge you, what this lesson is about is we need to both we need to go wide and we need to go deep. We need to go wide and we need to go deep, going wild. Let's get into that. Going wide is kind of throwing the net out there. Throwing the net wide in terms of the creative stuff that you do. If you're willing to, one of the things that's really going to develop your creative career is not just getting really stuck in NADH. This is the only thing that I do. This is what I'm doing, just this, That's it. There are things you're going to go deep on and we'll get to that in a sec. But to start with actually going wide can be a beautiful, beautiful thing. Finding inspiration. Finally, all these different things that are capturing your attention and then engaging with them. And then having a play with them and seeing if they become something. Developing my creative practice and my credit practicing do a creative Korea has been about taking on and playing with and engaging with a whole lot of different things. So my things, they would come under, like I've got projects that I do that it just from a credit projects, projects that I do that are for other people. I got projects that I do that or for organizations that I work with. I've got projects that I do that I'm collaborating with people on projects that I do that I am intentionally doing seeking publishing for. I've got all these different types of projects. Projects I'm kind of going wide, so I've got here, I've got creative projects, just simply creative in and of themselves like writing, I write books and screenplays, and I write poetry, and I bring together poetry albums and graphic novels and all these different things. Alright? Alright, stories and I write speeches, keynote speaking, all that kinda stuff. So many different things. I've got profit projects which I'll get into a bit less stuff that makes me money. And then I've got audience projects, which is the things that don't certainly make me money, but they connected me with my audience. I'm going to podcasts that I ran and I've got poetry that like I said, that I write for people. This is the social media side of things. Facebook and Instagram. I've got email this and the stuff that I do that connects me to other people, but collaborate, the collaborative works that I do, my audience projects and then there's partnership projects. One of the big things that I do as well is working with different organizations. That some of them employ me as an artist ambassador to go and share the message of their organization, their aid and development organization employs me to do that, gives me money to do that, to be their voice and to make people aware of all that they're doing. And then there's colleges that I work with and schools, as I said, I do whole lot of school stuff and there's there's libraries, and there's a whole lot of different kind of partnership projects that I do. But with all of these things that probably one of the big things that I'll say is for your creative business to be successful. It is as much about all the other things in the ecosystem, not just the money-making. This is really important. My creative career has not been developed because I've focused on how I can make money. My creative career has been developed because I've focused on how can I bring about a holistic, sustainable, creative practice that seeks to serve and give a big generous to people. How can I shape my life around my creativity? And then intentionally getting to the money thing. But the money thing is, it's secondary. And it has to be as soon as we put the money thing first. I think we are going to struggle. I think we will struggle because people will see that. People will see that. And so what I would say, it's about diversifying your creative practice, throwing that net wide, going wide, and just having a play with lots of different things. One of the ways we can do that is like the thing that we creatively love like and what we creatively want to focus on. But then there's also a whole lot of other skill sets and passions and things that we have. I love, I love woodcarving, and I I love painting and art history. And both of those things have come into my creative practice. Just a few years ago, I ran a whole art exhibition that combined poetry and, and watercolors. And I did the poetry with musicians around the world. And I worked on skateboards and I ink to the, the things, the paintings of watercolors. I ink to them under the back of skateboards. And I sold the skateboard and the paintings and the poetry and the music. And it all came together to be one big exit exhibition. And it was hugely successful when really, really well. And it developed a whole lot of new followers and stuff as well. And the focus was, the focus was just throwing the net wide and having a play with things and seeing what happened. So as you go about your creative practice, throw them out wide. Have a play yes, with the things you love to do, but also with other things as well, and just begin to see what happens. And then this will then play out also into not just diversifying your creative practices, but also diversified away your income comes in from. As I said, there's very few people. I think you have one stream of income who are creatives in our world today. And for me, my income stream where my profit, like I said, I've got those profit projects that I do. That comes from a whole lot of different places. I get money, money comes into me through the speaking that I do, keynote speaking that I do through the performing of my poetry. Going to schools and conference through go into schools is a big part of it. And running workshops and teaching through going to retreats and conferences and speaking at those and performing at those. I have five different books and five different poetry albums. So through merch, I get money coming in. I get money coming in through commissions, through working with these partner organizations, through teaching. Through this. There's a whole lot of things that bring money in. And what this means is when some of those things dry up, which they will do like what coming out of COVID over the last few years I lost during COVID, I less than 90% of my work makes a massive changes and go online. So I have a lot of online education stuff as well that brings money in. There's a whole lot of different license. So it's like it's kinda like all these taps are running and bringing, bringing money into what I'm doing. All these forces are running, bringing money in, but then some of those dry up. They're turned off because of the reality of life, because COVID hits, because this happens, this happens. And if I didn't have a diverse amount, if I didn't have a whole different amount of fake things that are bringing money. I'd be stuffed. I'd have to go and do something else. But instead I've worked out where does my creativity crossover with the other things that I'm really good at in my life. And how can that bring money? I love speaking in front of people. And so keynote speaking kinda became a really key way for that to happen. I love teaching. So going into schools became this place where my creativity kinda crossed over with this other love of mine. I love, as I said, painting. And so bringing poetry and painting together. All these different ways in which, in which I was able to throw the net wide, go wild and whatever way you can, both in your creative practice and in the income streams that you have. All these things come together to be this full-time creative career that I've lived for the last 15 years. A whole lot of different stuff coming together. So I want to know what spend some time thinking for you. What does that look like for you? What are the different different avenues, different tabs that you can turn on, faucets that you can turn on, that will bring so I'm just copying a bit today that will bring some income into what you're doing. Not just the income thing is I want you to also work out what are the different themes, creative practices and things that you can do that connects you to the audience that are unpaid. Things that connects you to organizations that are a number of organizations. You can throw that wide manner. All this going wide is about spreading yourself out there, getting out there, doing lots of creative things and seeing what happens. And then beginning to drag those net scene. And this is where we're getting and we go deep on the things. We go deep on the things we go deep. So as I said, I have Eric and I have about 15 creative projects on the go at the one time. The rotting of books and a poetry and of albums and of fiction stories, YA stories and junior fiction and graphic novels and all. I have a lot of things, podcasts and spotlight, just so many things. But on each of these, I make sure that I go deeper with them. Say I don't just some people might fall into the trap of throwing the net wide and not going deep. So it means they start a project and they never finish that. They start a project and then I'll finish it. And the challenges, yes, go wide, but then grab that thing that you know at the moment is what you need to focus in on. Perhaps it's the thing that gives you energy at the time. Like I, as I said, I might jump from writing poetry. I get stuck with something. So I go and write my junior fiction and gets stuck on that. So then I jump over to my YA novel that I'm writing and I do some writing on that and then I'll jump back to this. But as I went I'm focused on it. I'm getting to it. I push, I push and push and I might give I might just have a few days where I'm just focusing on this one project and then I'll jump to the next project for a few days and then something else for a few days. And I'll come back to that first one and I'll see it from a new lot seed in a different angle because I've worked on some other things. And then I can really go deep on that and I choose to be. This is the challenge with the going deep. I think why we struggle with it is because it means letting go of other things as well. Focusing on those things that matter. It's about choosing. So once a week I choose one or two projects that are really focusing on for that week. That's what I give myself to. The others are on the back-burner. They're constantly there. And it might be that halfway through the week, I'm like, Oh, I just had a really great like through for that other things all grab that and I'll work for a few days on that. Going wide and then choosing a candidate and go deep. I'm going to dedicate myself to sit here and work hard and get a workout. I'm going to bring it to the next step and then the next step, bring it to completion. Forcing ourselves as creatives to bring out projects and other things to completion is going to be really, really important as well. So go wide and then go deep. 5. Lesson 4- Finding a Niche: There's a guy named Daniel Priestly and in his book oversubscribed, he says This, too many business owners focus on the entire marketplace. They're deeply concerned by what the majority will pay, rather than finding the small group of people who really value what they offer, your value is much higher than you think to a small number of people. And Seth Godin, one of the marketing gurus of the world, he says there's a beginning instead, with the smallest viable market. What's the minimum number of people you would need to influence to make it worth the effort. The smallest viable market is the focus that ironically and delightfully leads to your growth. I organize your projects, your life, and your organization around the minimum. What's the smallest market that you can survival? When I first heard that it was so incredibly frame to think, I don't have to reach the anonymous masses. What if I just focus on the small, on a small niche market that I can give myself and my creativity to. What's the smallest viable market that I would need to make that happen. But to be able to shape my life around my creative Korea in the way that I want to, What's the smallest number or not? I want to go viral. I don't want to get millions of viewers and I need to keep on trying to get more and more viewers. None other than that, instead, stop focusing on trying to get more likes and more followers. What if instead you focus on the followers that you have? Maybe it's 30 people who love your stuff. You know, they love your style. What if you started a really pouring into them? Giving them like serving them, giving them what they can, pouring into them in whatever way that might look like for you. That is gonna do so much more than all of the social media trying to get more likes, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Let's say someone has 1.5 million followers, large amount of followers on social media. Well, because of the algorithms, et cetera, these days of Facebook and Instagram. This kinda like when you put out a post, about 1% of the people who are following, you actually get to see it. Obviously that varies, et cetera, et cetera. But the whole point, the social media companies, they're just trying to make money off you, try and get you to spend money to advertise to the people who are already following you. So let's say someone has 1.5 million followers. Like when we put something out, it might be that they get 10,000 of those might engage 10,000, probably less than that. I get to engage with the post. Then maybe like 1,000 who would regularly engage and support this, this thing, like buying the product or something like that. That's 1,000 people. Then you might have like another 1% of those, just a few people who actually a lack the super fans like they would do anything, will buy any product that comes out from them. Absolutely loves them. That that jumps down for 1.5 million until like just a handful of people. Even for these massive, massive, like people who have massive social media followers, let's say a company has 30 million followers, if it's like 1% is the kind of the organic reach for a thing. There may be they get 300,000 people respond, and then 1% of those people actually engage. So that's what 3,000 people, then 1% of those become those super fans. That's 30 people. Way. This company that has 30 million followers, bring it down, bring it down, bring it down, still live. Only got like 30 super fans. So what if instead you just focus on the 30s to prevent? What if you focus on those 30 people and you do enough for them and in their life that they would miss you if you were gone. That would be odd socks that this world no longer has this person because they've been so moved by your creativity, because they love your creative works and what does that, what it's done in their lives. That's what I'm talking about. That is this focusing in, instead of the anonymous masses focusing on the people who are already following you and your creative career will really begin to take off in a whole lot of different ways. So who are these people? What does this look like? I think find luck group that you feel a lack you and your work connects to. Its kinda about finding your niche. Find, finding your people, your niche who then could become your tribe. That's what, that's what sits at the heart of my creative marketing, etc. Finding the group of people who will lock you and your work connects to a group that maybe you know that underlying questions and tensions of a group is already listening when you speak. So for me, I do a lot of work within kind of social justice C, and within, within spirituality and. Progressive Christianity. And as I said, I do a lot of work within schools and that kind of stuff. But what they took was finding those people where my voice is, where I have something to say where that overlap, that connects ME, my creative stuff with a group of people. I wonder what that is for you. When is your creative stuff? What's the overlap of your creative thing with a specific group of people? Perhaps it's the people who are passionate about wellness and holistic living. Perhaps it's people who are all. Think about the different groups of people in your life. Where would that crossover happen? In your creative stuff? And then as you connect with them, ask, what are the, what are the tensions within that niche? What are the problems they have? What are they afraid of? What did they want? This is what you can speak into with your creativity, engaging what their wrestles, or with your creative voice and speaking into that. Isn't that exactly what my poems that are right for these people, for individuals, what they're doing. It's kinda naming the wrestles and struggles that someone who's going through and offering the gift of being seen. The gift of being seen through my creativity. That's what I'm trying to do. That's what I'm trying to do there. It's understanding that the tensions, the problems, while they're afraid of what they want. What is the, what did I love? What is your niche love? What is your nice, excited about? And what creativity does your niche spend their money on to find the group of people who you connect. You can connect your creativity to, then ask these questions to work out, okay? How can I best speak into their lives and what would that look like as I do so then it's about becoming a servant to your knees, to your group of people. What would they highly value from you? What do they, what are they highly value if you do they value and what could you give them that would, that would kinda speak into that. Don't don't sell people things, add value to their lives. Don't sell them a product and value to their lives and now buy the product because you are adding value to who they are. Again, Seth Godin, he says, once you've identified the scale, then find a corner of the market that can't wait for your attention. Go to their extremes. Find a position on the map where you and you alone are the perfect answer. Overwhelm these groups wants and dreams and desires with your care, your attention, your focus, make change happen, change at superfan, people can't help, but talk about people got help. I'm talking about they become your market as they become your tribe who starts marketing for you? Marketing really is an act of giving. It's nine marketing is 90 per cent giving and ten per cent receive. That's what marketing is 90 per cent giving, 10% receiving. Week. I've swapped around and we make marketing 90 per cent trying to get from people and ten per cent little bit of giving. What if you swap that back around? 90% focus on what can I give people, serve them, love them, change their lives. Then they will market you. Then that will market. When you don't have to think, what is, what is your niche thing now and rights and stuff. What's your name? Shoes, your group. Who's you? Can you, can you focus upon and delight. Who can you delight in that niche? By giving them, by serving them? What does that look like? How can you connect with them further through collaborations and partnerships? And are there other, other people who are doing stuff within that niche that you can collaborate within connect with. The, the important thing as we finish this lesson off is it find your group, find, find the group that you fit in. And then work out how you don't fit into them. How you offer something that is unique. Lock when I went along to that interior design, carry the bunch of creatives. But what I offer is very different. To stand up and to share poetry is very different. Most of them never really had that experience before. So it's a bunch of creatively open-minded people. It wasn't my crew with my life. It was a nature with people that are connected to a creative. But I stood out. I was kinda wasn't. I didn't look exactly like them. I stood out to them. So part of this it's working out. Who is your niche that you can serve and delight? And how do you then stand out? How are you different from that nature? That's what Seth Godin calls being a purple cow driving along and there's a field of cows. But one of them is purple. You slam on the brakes and you stop. You're like a purple cow. What the heck? Stand out amongst that small group of people in whatever way that you can. That's when you'll start being significant. That's when people will start taking notice. That's when you can delight and then go above and beyond. That's when they'll become your super fans. Focus not on the anonymous masses. What's the smallest viable market for you? You should be able to write their names down. And then start thinking, how can I pouring with my creativity into this market and serve them. The next step. 6. Lesson 5- Building a Tribe: So how do we then go about building this tribe or connected with our niche? And we've thought about who they are and thought about how it could be distinct within them. But how do we then develop this as, as a tribe, tribe of marketing? Often our marketing kinda looks like this. There's you, you create a thing and you mark it that thing through a social media campaign. And then you sell that thing to them. And then they go on about their day and you repeat, you create a new thing in your market, that new thing, and just try to sell that thing to them and you go on about their day. But what if, what if we move from individual product sales to inviting people on a journey into being part of a community. That's a very different kind of approach where you create a thing. Then you kinda communicate. You're sharing as you're creating it in the midst of cranium, the journey of yourself as you're going through it, your own creative process, doing this on social media and with, with your email list and followers, you're sharing the journey of yourself when you're sharing the journey of creating that thing. And as you said, there's this connection that happens. That connection happens from people towards you as you authentically say, I just, I'm struggling with this today. I can't go. I've gotten dual, I've just got to push through. And people see you struggling and see you going on an authentic creative journey. They're going to start to connect to you and they're gonna start to connect towards your thing. The thing that you are creating. That you have been blood, sweat and tears and talking about it as you go. They'll start to connect to that as well. And this is what then creates a tribe. Them becomes part of a group of people journeying with you together in the development of creative projects and of what you're doing. And this tribe then becomes an ***. And this asks you, they become your marketers. They're the ones who get out there sharing the word about what you were doing. And they have this sense of it's us creating this thing. So next time you come to a project and start doing something new. There's this sense of our, this is our thing. I wonder what that would look like within your creative world to move from just trying to sell individual things, to seeking to create a try. But by authentically putting yourself and your own journey out there into the world. As you do this, then that tribe grows or tribe, this whole process becomes part of the tribe. So then instead of having like the sales funnel, we always hear about the sales funnel where you start with awareness and you get interest from people. You get, they start considering whether they're going to buy your thing, they make a decision and then they buy the thing. That's the sales funnel you might have heard of. But what if you were creating awareness instead around you and your creative process and the creative project as you go through and whatever the product is too, you're creating these general awareness it which creates interest in what you're doing, not just in, in buying this product about in the credit process you are going on. People start connecting to that. They start that they feel this sense of connection to you. They then have the consideration of art. Do I want not even? Again, this is that consideration moves beyond just am I going to buy this person's product? Now it's like I really liked this person's stuff. And the consideration of the decision that becomes maybe I could actually join what they're doing that tribe in some way and they again become the marketers. So again, you're not individually trying to sell a product. You're trying to create a community of people journeying together to make each other's lives better. And your products are in the midst of that, yes, but they are not the thing you're continually trying to sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. Instead. Instead of thinking about selling, selling, selling thinking, think about the tribe that you could take on a journey to help them come to the best version of their life that they can. Adding that value to their life, create that tribe. Don't focus on trying to get new clients and new customers focus on the way on who you already have. Add the most value to them that you can. I will be your best market as 100 per cent way more than a social media marketing plan to reach new people. Seth Godin again, I love, I love a lot of Seth Godin stuff. He says this, here's the truth about customer traction. A miracle isn't going to happen. The old school market is Dream revolves around transforming a product, this normal average, it's fine product or service. The one that's sitting there with nothing much happening, transform it into a hit dream is that with public relations, with hype and promotion, distribution with ad buyers and influence marketing with content marketing and a little bit of spam. The dream is it will become the IT thing and everyone will want it. There'll be popular precisely because it's popular. But you're not fooled by this shore. Every so often a superstar is born, but most of the time this approach merely leads to failure, expensive failure. The alternative is to seek a path, not a miracle. A path up that mount. That path begins with customer traction. The challenge for most people who seek to make an impact isn't winning over the mass market. It's the macro market. I bend themselves into a pretzel trying to please the anonymous masses before they have 50 or 100 people who wouldn't miss them if they would go on. This is the heartbeat of that has made my creative career success. Daniel precis says it's about being famous for a small number of people. Being famous for a small number of people who would, who would be your tribe. It's finding that niche, as we said. Finding that niche. And then within that, I think there's a few things that make up your tribe. There's supporters. There's people who I would call kind of family. There, your super fans. It's a nice way of saying super veins or your creative family. Then there's people who you will collaborate with going even closer. And then there's the people that you truly let into the inner circle. Like the people you really share your height. Obviously, I'm saying what we should be doing is sharing our highs and lows on our creative journey with all of our people bringing them on the journey of that. But there's, of course, there's gonna be this stuff in my life that I don't share with everyone and there needs to be. But there's, but I do share it with a small group and inner circle of people. As I'm building trust and belonging. That which will lead to loyalty. It's that which will lead to loyalty with my nation. We build our tribe by not claiming attention. And Seth Godin says, but earning more trust. Secret is not claiming attention, but the secret is earning more trust by listening to their story. Listening is a massive part of this. The only way that I could write poetry, puppy bullies, because I intentionally listened to them very closely. Intentionally listened to them to their muscles and their struggles. So that I can then speak into their muscles and their struggles. They would feel support in that area. Intentionally listening is gonna be one of the biggest things that you can do to create a tribe. Having empathy, gaining true empathy for them, don't fake caring for them just so you can sell them something people see through that. You got to open your heart to people. Yes, have boundaries about how much you open your heart. That's the idea that inner, inner circle. But you've got to open your heart in empathy towards people making their lives better. Bernadette us as the salesperson, asks, how much can I sell? But the gifted modern, modern marketer, us, how much difference can I create? You're trying to create difference in people's lives. Not just sell them things. Open up your process, as I said, and let people in. Again, Bernadette Judah says pretending is exhausting when we pretend we're not only miss the opportunity to deeply connect with the right audience in a way that gives us a sustainable advantage. More important, well, they're feeling is unfulfilled as they are disappointed. Opening up our process and letting people into that is going to be one of the major things that helps you create your tribe. Your tribe of followers, people, your journey with celebrate with them. Celebrate your people, not just your own successes. Celebrate their successes. Celebrate their successes, champion them and all that they're doing. Put their stuff up on your social media. If they see that you are championing them, they're going to start championing you just as much becomes this, this, this way that we serving and help each other. As we said, ask what you can give them. A tribe is a group of individuals. So what can you give them? The individuals? What's the change that you want to see in them as you serve them. These are just, these are just a few of the things I think that will that helps you to, once you've named your niche, now you're building your tribe. And here are a few other things that have helped me so much build the tribe that has become the heartbeat really of my creative career. 7. Lesson 6- Moving Past Excuses: During COVID, I ran my first ever, our exhibition. I mentioned that a little bit, a little while ago. But I was really fascinating for me. So I had only picked up the, I only picked up the paintbrush like before COVID started for the first time really in my life. I went along to a friend's to a friend's art school. She just invited me along to go to a session because I was touring the launch of a book up there. So I went along and didn't think that I could do. But she taught me just a few simple ways to get into them to stop trying to paint what I was thinking I was saying and just paint the colors and the shading and the shadow. And then she showed it to me. I was like, it's hot and I just fell in love with with creating. I'd always told myself I was a words person, not an AP person. And then I just I just gave myself to it. I went deep on it. I dive deep and I was just painting and painting and painting and doing this stuff. And then I started doing these animals. And that's what came together as that art exhibition, the combination of poetry and watercolor and skateboards and I'll kind of thing that I was telling you about before. And I remember at that time, I remember whenever I tell it because it was a huge success. Like I had thousands of p or as an online exhibition because it was COVID, but had thousands of people go through within the first two days. And all of the paintings salt. Interestingly, none of the skateboards deed though the skateboards are cool. I really like them. But maybe this to say that it doesn't, It wasn't a success, but there was a huge successful part of it I'd connected it was called human and exploration for the inner life. And as I did it, it was all around this mirroring of our inner lives based around something called the NEO Graham and personality and how we see ourselves and our, what drives us in life and mapping them onto different animal characters. And it all came together and paper, I got so many emails from people saying how changed their lives were just by this exhibition, by finding a poem and an artwork that's spoke deeply into who they are. But the other thing that I heard a lot of was around that time was from other artists who were like, Oh, I've always wanted, I can't believe you did this. I always wanted to do like an exhibition, but I really, for years I want to do an exhibition, but I just kept on hearing. But here's the thing. There's always a but there's always a but what I would say is that I don't want to finish with this. Is that the difference between those who do something and those who do not do something is that those who do something do something? Sounds pretty simple, unlike yes, of course, the difference though is we do something and those who don't do something as those who do something, do something simple, but it's actually extremely profound. It's the people who show up and do the work who have had enough of the Butts. They're the people who I've seen develop their creative career into something who aren't sitting there waiting for the big break, but who choose to do the hard work of giving themselves to a particular group of people, serving them and loving them and going above and beyond that too, I've seen and that's what I've seen in my life. So enough with the bots already stopped with the excuses. Start with who is it that you can go above and beyond it being generous to them to just see what happens coming out of that. Just this last year, I was at a conference and there was a guy there was a guy who was wondering around and it was like a volunteer helping cleaning toilets and taking kids. It was a school's literary conference are out in the bush in Australia or out west. And he was just serving the community, just loving the community. And he had been his family were there volunteering and I didn't know who they were. But I hung out with them quite a bit Over the time and especially his kids, he had I think three girls who came along to all of my sessions, my workshops. They loved it. And I really focused in on them and, and kind of stirred this creative love and heard their poetry and it was wonderful. And then at the end, Nazis were chatting and he was like, I know, you probably don't know who I am and I'm I'm the I'm actually the CEO of basically is the CEO of one of the big entertainment and amusement park companies in Australia and making films and amusement, they do a whole lot of different stuff and cinemas and like this is a CEO who has 5,000 people under him. And all I had done throughout the week was just love him and he's and he's like Just so I've just do what I can to help them. And he said, May I appreciated what you've done for my family this week that look, I just want to get you guys up. I wanna give you a free hole, wake at the different amusement parks to stay at the resort and go to the amusement parks. To my family. And I got to go and have these big holiday. Just because I did that. Not only that, but now about to fly up and also go and lead and be the keynote speaker at his at the management retreat, the leadership retreat of this massive cooperation. Work out the best way to add value to people's lives and to serve them. The other stuff happens, the brakes happen. Those opportunities come and we've worked so hard and we have our eyes open for them that we can take them and run with them. That's my encouragement for you. Enough with the bots. Let's just get on with making this world a better place. And your creative career will blossom as you do that. 8. Conclusion: And so friends, you've reached the end of the three-part creative vocation series or maybe you haven't. Maybe this is the first one that you've looked at. I really want to encourage you go and have a look at the others. Creative vocation, building, like sustainment, building a sustainable creative practice. The idea of vocation, the lifestyle that you want to go and check those out. But thank you so much. I hope that this course has really helped you to nail down and think about your own creative practice and how you can develop it into a creative career by thinking about it more than just as developing a creative career, more than just as trying to make more money, but actually as something that might impact the world around you. There's a guy named Frederick big nine. He says that our Create and maybe I said this in one of the other lessons. I'm not sure, but let me finish with this. He said that your your vocation should be the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness. The stuff that makes you come alive. And how that interacts with a deep hunger and thirst and pain of L. Well, that's where we give ourselves. That's my encouragement all along. Give yourself to that place where the stuff you love intersects with the great needs of this world. That's where your creative career is going to blossom. But more than that, That's where holistic, contented, full integrated life is going to happen in that place. Let's go. I live well together and create and see what happens. Thanks for being a part.