Being who you are is a big concept. We’ve all heard the advice “Be who you are.” But what does this really mean and how can it be useful when striving to be an artisticpreneur? First off, you are the sum total of your experiences. So how you’ve processed those experience tells us a lot about who you are. Use your experiences and use how you’ve processed them in your creative work. Also, you can take artist steps toward promoting your career and taking it to the next level if you know what the steps are.
How do you find out what those steps are? You could just use your intuition or guess. This may be what you are already doing. How is it going for you? What if there was a way to take three steps each day to be more successful as an artist. That’s what the online education site known as Art Gush is all about. This would mean that you would learn how to use “who you are” to build your career. In short, be who you are, monetize your life. That’s the secret to being an AtisticPreneur.
Background in Artist and Actor Marketing
After spending 12 years doing actor marketing it became clear to me that the best demo reel to have to land the role was one with major television and movie credits. That said there are ways around this – self produce. Build yourself up. It’s pretty hard to beat Hollywood at its own game but what you can do is build your visibility, prestige and income with using the skills of an ArtisticPreneur.
For example, theater is respected. Doing a play is a nice focus of a campaign. Or even doing a play plus being a part of a web series and so on.
And who’s to say you can’t get sponsors for the program for the play as well as sponsors for the web series whose locations you shoot in.
Keep on Building and Believing
The sky is the limit with possibilities on how to make money with the craft you love as you build your image and profile to land the bigger fish.
An example of this was producing a series of plays, each at a different theater. Now it’s a known fact that it is very difficult to make a profit on Off Off Broadway theater. We thought outside of the box and traded the theaters TV commercial time (on our then television program) for theater rental. Removing the big expense of the theater allowed us to create financially successful productions.
Traditional Artist Promotion Steps
Taped auditions do get results. One of our clients did a taped audition with us and landed a leading regular role on a major TV show. So you never know.
Think Like an ArtisticPreneur
But you need to think like an ArtisticPreneur in the meantime. How can you create an experience that will be interesting for people to work on as well as be compelling to others to watch?
In short, how do you get cooperation for your venture?
It needs to be win-win.
Making a Living with Your Art
Look at it this way, truth be told most actors don’t make it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be making a living doing it.
There are many ways to approach this including self-producing plays, web series, movies and more. Traditionally these undertakings would be done at a loss, but with a little thinking you can figure out a way to do it where it is successful through learning resources like Art Gush.
Getting Started
The important thing is to start the project. We’ve experienced how a few lines of a voice over, combined with a bit of clip art can start a venture as easy as that.
The point is to make sure that every step taken forward is advancing the project.
Don’t Listen to Negative Influences
You’ve probably heard it before but it is true, don’t listen to naysayers. Set your goals high but also be realistic.
Follow the Road
Think in terms of creating a win-win situation. Be very clear about what everyone involved is getting. Someone does not necessarily have to be paid to be involved with something. She or he may want the publicity for example. Or maybe there are philanthropic reasons. The steps become clear when you focus on results.