I can’t say I hated my job as corporate project manager. I didn’t hate it. It taught me a lot about business, leadership, strategy, and negotiation. Skills I use in my everyday life to this. It’s just that when I asked myself if it’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, the answers went gradually from I’m not sure to definitely not.
I was always the creative type.
I always made music, art, film, design. But at 35 years old, how would I ever be able to change careers. Forget changing careers! how would I keep myself from starving to death and living on the street?
My strongest talent was recording & mixing, yet I didn’t have the talent that many of my favorite recording engineers had. I didn’t have the years either.
Coming from a business background, however, I knew something most artists ignore:
"The creative industry doesn’t just reward talent; It rewards strategy."
So I decided to jump head first into audio recording and mixing with my mind set on kicking everybody’s butt in two areas: business management and marketing.
If you’ve followed our dear friend Taskmaster, the diehard technologist and content-creator, you’ve probably heard him say
"Treat everything like a business."
And this, my friends, is the key to making it in the creative industry.
Yes, you need to hone your art, whatever that may be: design, music, motion graphics, 3D… But you need to sharpen another tool in your toolkit at the same time: your business sense.
Here are three areas you can start working on if you don't know exactly where to start/
Marketing
Marketing is a huge part of your business and it should be at every touchpoint with your audience. Put intention into how your blog posts are written, give your thumbnails a nice, consistent design and develop your personal brand.
Forget about selling. Focus on telling a compelling story.
Have you ever heard of the term storytelling? It’s incredibly powerful in marketing and it’s an incredible tool in today’s world where brands are fighting for their consumers’ attention.
Right now I'm focused on telling my story as a recording studio owner gone rogue, lol. Sharing my journey and working on keeping my personal brand consistent. I started using these type of colors about a year ago and kind of went with it. I'm now making sure it's consistent across my social media:
YouTube:
Twitter:
HIVE:
Build systems
Coming from the project management world, building systems has always been part of my work. Streamlining the process of sending a quote to a potential customer has to have all the key ingredients. It needs to show some of your work, a compelling (but short) pitch as to why you’re the best candidate for the job and a nicely designed quote document with a breakdown of the pricing, and what your potential client will be receiving. That’s one part. After sending the quote you need to send follow up emails, thank you content and maybe some updates on your newsletter, blog, YouTube channel and so on. So a strong CRM system is key. Just like this example, there are infinite number of systems you can build as a creative entrepreneur:
- Outreach
- Production
- Post-production
- Marketing schedules
Community
Because you’re a Hivean, you know exactly how powerful building a strong community is. i'm not talking about followers, I'm talking about humans that love, support and share your work with others.
Have you ever heard the term “1,000 true fans”? Here's a really powerful keynote speech by Patreon CEO Jack Conte titled Death of the Follower & the Future of Creativity on the Web. I couldn't possibly say it better than Jack. Watch to learn how you too can build a community of true believers:
So start here my friends. I wish you success in your journey as a creative entrepreneur. If you have a blog here on HIVE, a website, a YouTube channel, I'd love to check it out. Share your thoughts and/or links in the comments below.
And Happy New Year!! May this 2025 be an amazing year for your creative endeavors!
