I have to set the record straight. I’ve given conflicting advice on branding and pricing.

On day 1 of my entrepreneurship course, where students build a real business in 10 weeks, we start with brand.

They define their personal mission, their brand promise, and begin exploring business ideas they care about. Some of my students want to sell their art. Others want to solve a problem they see in the world like a lack of representation in film or mental health struggles among artists who are also student athletes. Most don’t yet know exactly what they’ll sell, and that’s intentional. We figure that out together through research and conversations with potential customers.

Then, during week 7 once their offering is defined, we talk about pricing. I introduce a value-based pricing framework that analyzes their offering, comparing it to alternatives in an algorithmic way to arrive at a price range.

Sounds pretty typical, right?

Well, week 7 is next week and I think I need to make a change.

I’ve realized that brand and pricing can’t be taught separately.

Not if my students want to maximize both. Here’s why.

How Brand Turns Into Economic Value

You probably already know that branding has little to do with colors, logos, and fonts.

Your personal brand as a creative is a representation of the experience you create for buyers. This experience includes how buyers feel discovering your work, purchasing it, owning it, and talking about it afterward. It’s the foundation of your relationship with them that sticks with them throughout their journey with you and your work. That relationship and that journey are valuable to customers because of the problems you solve for them or the aspirations you help them achieve.

While buying creative work is an emotional journey, its benefits have measurable economic value for your customers. That measurement is the price they’re willing to pay for your work. And that’s where a strong brand comes in.

Your brand acts as a reminder of where that value comes from. For your customers, it tells them why they paid the price they did for your work. For you, it builds confidence that your work is worth that price.

Brand and Pricing in the Same Room

Sitting with this realization forced me to ask a harder question: if brand and pricing are so tightly connected, why do we keep teaching them as separate skills?

That question is what led me to a collaboration I’m genuinely excited about. I’ve been working with ashley from Creative Self-Love Club—a full-time artist and coach who has spent over a decade building a sustainable art business—to design a live workshop that brings these two conversations together.

Rather than treating brand as something abstract and pricing as something mechanical, the workshop focuses on how the two reinforce each other in practice and what changes when artists work through them side by side.

If this is something you’re actively working through, we’re hosting a live Zoom workshop focused on brand positioning and pricing for artists. It’s practical, interactive, and designed to help you apply these ideas directly to your own work. A replay will be available for anyone who can’t attend live.

You can find the details and register here.

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Why are emerging artists expected to work for free?

Yesterday I saw a message from a gallery owner who gets frequent requests for free art.

She mentioned a well-funded nonprofit who had received millions in donations to build a new building. They budgeted for construction, furniture, landscaping, a parking lot. All paid for with unrestricted donations.

But they didn’t budget for art. They asked if the gallery owner knew any artists who would be willing to create free art for the building.

She refused and gave them a piece of her mind.

That nonprofit had assumed that, unlike carpenters, roofers, pavers, and landscapers, artists would be willing to work for free.

And they’re not alone. Even though creative professionals enhance our lives every day, the expectation seems to be that creatives stay poor.

Let’s change that.

Treat Requests as Sales

My mission is to help creatives build wealth. That includes equipping you with the knowledge and skill to price your work.

If you want help with the fundamentals of pricing, check out this article:

Think about any request for free work as just another sales discussion. It signals opportunity for work at a starting price of $0.

Yes, you should say no to that price. But it doesn’t mean you should immediately dismiss the requestor. They could be a link to paid work.

How you say no depends on the situation. Someone approaching you to do free work might just need to be nudged toward finding a budget to pay you. You should treat that person differently than someone who obviously devalues creatives and exploits them.

The big lesson: save the pettiness for when it’s warranted.

To show you what I mean, here are three different situations with suggested responses that fit.

First Timer Grace

Someone from a well-funded nonprofit approaches you for free work. They’re new at their role, were told to go find art donations, and never thought to question the idea that artists should work for free. This might be an opportunity to turn the requestor into an advocate for paid work.

Here’s how you might respond:

• I don’t work for free but I’d love to work with you. What would it take to find funding for this?

• I don’t work for free but I’d love to talk about how else I can support your cause. Are you open to chat about your organization’s goals?

• I don’t work for free but I love the cause. I’m happy to discuss a discount from my usual rates.

• I don’t work for free but I have some ideas for the space that I’d love to share. When can we meet?

• I don’t work for free but my work would really elevate the space. Who might I talk to about getting paid for the project?

Hopefully you noticed the pattern. Make it known that you don’t work for free then ask for more discussion to explore paid work. This approach isn’t just for well-funded nonprofits. You might use it to manage requests from businesses too.

Friends and Family Boundaries

A friend asks you to paint a family portrait for free. You might feel obligated and even want to consider it, but you know if you do free work once, word will get out and others will take advantage of you.

The trick here is to establish a business policy on pricing and work for friends and family before you get the request. This keeps your response from being personal and helps you prepare to have tough conversations.

• I don’t do free work for friends but my commission rates are reasonable. Let’s talk!

• That sounds like fun! I’d love to do the work but I don’t do free work for friends and family. My standard commission rate for portraits is $1000.

• I’m running a business and free work would hurt my brand and my financial situation. But my pricing is reasonable. Would you like to chat about it?

• I have a policy of no free work for my business. Do you have a budget for this?

• I’d love to paint your beautiful family. I can’t do it for free but I’m happy to discount my rate for you since we’re friends.

Responding to Obvious Exploitation

A property manager is finishing a new building and approaches you with a request for free work. The request includes a long list of reasons they can’t pay you and the benefits you’ll get by working for free. This includes vague benefits like “exposure” or promises for future paid work.

Sometimes it’s obvious when you’re being exploited. When it is, don’t hold back.

• Great! I’ll start as soon as you provide a letter from my landlord certifying that I can pay rent with “exposure.”

• No and I’m surprised the roofers worked for free. They didn’t? That’s interesting.

• Lot’s of people pay me for my work. You should join them.

• Why exactly is your lack of budgeting my problem?

• Have you tried dumpster diving? Might fit the aesthetic you’re going for.

Don’t wait your time with people who exploit creatives. Shut them down and get the word out about them in your community.

This Week

The next time you get a request for free work, pause and assess the situation.

• Could an opportunity for paid work be hiding behind the request?

• Does a well-meaning person need to be taught with a boundary?

• Are you clearly being exploited?

Make a call and respond accordingly.

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How is lipstick like Labubus?

The answer to that question can help artists weather the realities of our current economy.

I heard from one struggling artist this week.

“The economy just feels bad. I’ve spent all morning in my booth at an art fair and haven’t sold anything. Normally I get most of my sales in the morning. People are coming to look but nobody is buying”

You’re not alone. I’ve heard several artists say that their sales are down over the last few months, even though consumer retail spending is surprisingly resilient. Retail sales in the US grew 5% year-over-year in August, beating economists’ expectations.

So what gives? Are we in a slowdown or not?

Some economists say that spending is happening now in anticipation of higher prices from tariffs later in the year. That means consumers are making big purchases like cars and electronics before prices go up.

Regardless of where we are now, the expectation is that consumer spending will decline in the coming months. Savings are low and uncertainty from rising unemployment is high.

So what do artists do? Is it hopeless? Should you give up?

Please don’t. We need you now more than ever.

But to weather the upcoming storm, you might have to rethink what you’re selling and how you position it.

The good news is we can learn from historical consumer spending patterns during rough economic times.

When times are tough, consumers don’t stop spending. They prioritize where they spend and change what they buy.

They focus on the essentials. But they also buy more comfort items. Like lipstick and Labubus.

And that’s where an opportunity exists for artists in a tough economy.

Treatonomics

Treatonomics is the tendency for consumers to treat themselves with low-cost comfort purchases during difficult times. It’s a fairly well-documented phenomenon. Economists even look to the purchase of items like lipstick, candles, and comfort foods as an indicator of economic conditions.

Artists have started to see this trend too. While some are struggling, I’ve had several artists report that small, low-price items are selling really well right now. Their sales portfolios have shifted in response to consumer spending habits.

Lower Pricing Isn’t Just Dropping Prices

So the simple answer is to focus on lower-priced products. Think $50 and under to start with and experiment with different products and price levels in that range.

But I want to be careful not to lead you astray. If you sell mostly high-price, original art, don’t just drop prices. Pricing your high-end work lower might make it sell faster in the short term. But long term, it will be harder to get your pricing back up when the economy gets better. Lowering prices for original work can also hurt your brand.

It’s better to weather the storm without dropping prices at the high end if you can. Instead, develop a portfolio of low-cost items that you can sell at lower prices. Think of all the ways you can feature your work in formats like prints, stickers, bookmarks, keychains, etc.

Comfort Positioning

Simply having a low-cost portfolio isn’t enough. You should also shift your marketing and sales effort toward that portfolio too.

This starts with positioning. If consumers are purchasing low-cost items for comfort, position your products that way. Integrate messaging that alludes to feelings like hope, joy, humor, or resilience into marketing and sales conversations. Experiment with different messages to learn what works best for your customers and your work.

This Week

With a likely economic storm ahead, now is a great time for a portfolio review. If you don’t have lower priced products, think about what you might add. If you do, think about how you might shift your sales and marketing efforts toward them.

The world needs you to keep creating art when times get tough.

Which means we need you to keep selling it too.

Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future issue of The Weekly Build? Reach out or leave a comment.

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This teacher has become the student.

I teach business and entrepreneurship to hundreds of art and design university students each year.

A big part of my job is translating business language from the corporate world into the language of artists and designers. I help business concepts stick by making them more relatable.

How do I do it? My students teach me how. 100% of the time.

Last week was our first week of the fall term. In my first class, I taught about branding and its importance for creative professionals. I dispelled the belief that branding is about logos and color palettes. And I defined branding as “an abstract representation of a relationship between a business and its customers.”

But that’s corporate jargon. It’s my language, the language of MBAs and marketing directors. Not artists and designers.

After some open discussion and a brand visualization exercise around autumn’s brand as a season, a freshman illustration student blurted out:

“Oh. You’re talking about worldbuilding.”

Followed by a collective sigh of understanding that other teachers will recognize. Confusion in the room had instantly dissolved.

Because he was right. That’s exactly what good branding is.

Good branding is worldbuilding.

This lesson from my freshman student was valuable for two reasons. “Worldbuilding” was instantly recognized by other students, regardless of their creative fields. My future film directors, actors, animators, writers, even fine artists all immediately understood.

And we could immediately begin describing what good worldbuilding and good branding have in common.

Immersion

Worldbuilders create immersive experiences that engage the senses—and emotional responses—in creative ways. Ever been lost in a world created by a novelist?

The best brand builders do the same thing but have a big advantage. While novelists are limited to words on a page, brand builders have the entire real world in which to build immersive brand experiences.

Show, Don’t Tell

Worldbuilders show, they don’t tell. They use story to allow worlds to unfold. They might use descriptive language but they don’t lean too heavily on it. Character experiences are what really bring worlds to life.

Similarly, brand builders can’t talk their way into a great brand experience. Brand perception follows the lived experience that brand builders create.

Language

Worldbuilders use language to reinforce immersion. This sometimes takes the form of entire new languages, like Klingon in Star Trek or Naʼvi in Avatar. But it’s often more subtle and doesn’t even have to be spoken language. Think about how facial expressions—like glances between characters and smirking through the 4th wall—contributed to worldbuilding in The Office.

The best brand builders use language too. Musicians are great at this. Sit at a table full of Taylor Swift’s Swifties or Beyoncé’s Beys and you’ll hear what I mean. Or go to a sports bar on Sunday and sit near a fantasy football league. They all might as well be speaking Klingon to me.

This Week

This week, start thinking about your brand experience as a world you want to build.

• How will you immerse customers in your world?

• How will you show what your brand stands for instead of just talking about it?

• How will you use language to reinforce your curated brand experience?

I’d love to hear about any progress you make.

As my student taught me last week, I still have much to learn.

I’m just getting started with this parallel between worldbuilding and brand experience. If this sparked new ideas for you, I’d love to hear them!

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AI is replacing creative professionals.

Losing jobs or business to AI-generated work is a real fear among practicing creatives.

In the classroom, many of my students wonder if they should even be pursuing a creative career.

But it’s more than just a worry for this week’s advice seeker. It’s a reality.

“I’m a graphic designer and I lost my job to AI this summer. I’m thinking about switching to another profession entirely. Should I?”

I’m sorry you lost your job. That’s a scary experience and it’s bound to create self-doubt for even the most confident person.

It’s good to question your overall career path when you find yourself without a job. Not because you were necessarily on the wrong path. It’s just a natural place to do so. When we’re heads down in work, we rarely reflect broadly on where we’ve been and where we want to go. I like that you’re using this moment to reflect.

You have to make a decision that’s best for you. Your experience is the argument for moving on to something else. AI is here and smart people are working hard to improve it so it can replace even more creatives. That isn’t going away.

But I believe now is a great time to be a creative professional.

The rise of generative AI, and the contrast between AI-generated work and human creation, have revealed the real value creatives bring to the world that AI will never replicate.

No matter how hard smart people work to improve it.

In business terms, that means you can build a business or get a job in markets where you don’t have to compete with AI. Because it can’t touch you there.

I want to help you find those places.

Empathy for Creatives Isn’t Enough

I’m an advocate for creative professionals. That’s my job. I teach business at an art and design school and both of my college-aged children are pursuing creative careers. One is an animator and the other is a musician studying industrial design.

I love the pushback we’re seeing against AI on behalf of creatives. It’s rooted in empathy and ethics. And I agree with the idea that it’s ethically questionable to replace humans with technology.

But a plea for empathy isn’t enough. Our history suggests that market forces overwhelm empathy when the two compete. Empathy for newspaper journalists, taxi drivers, and factory workers didn’t protect them from the rise of the internet, ride sharing, and robotics.

As a father, I’ll continue to show you empathy and push others to do the same. As a business professor, my advocacy means equipping you to deal with the reality of market forces that are likely to win.

What Are Market Forces?

In this context, I’m talking about two forces:

1. Customers who have needs and will pay money to get them fulfilled

2. Competition among businesses to meet those needs and take that money

Building a successful business means winning that competition by being the best at fulfilling needs for customers in a profitable way. They’ll pay you more to fulfill their needs than it costs you to do it.

The job of business founders isn’t just to create and sell stuff. It’s to design a business that consistently wins over customers given the market forces in which they operate.

Think about market forces as design constraints that founders use to decide how their business takes shape.

Business Design Patterns

There are 3 typical ways that businesses win over customers.

• Some businesses have the best products or services for a large, diverse group of customers. Apple’s iPhone is an example.

• Some design products or services to fit unique needs of niche customer groups. Think of Bark phones designed for kids.

• Some offer products and services at the lowest price. Generic (unbranded) smart phones are the example here.

Variations on these patterns exist and some businesses combine more than one of them. But this is where most businesses start—by choosing a position of product superiority, niche customer focus, or low cost.

AI is winning in the low cost space. It can generate creative work faster and without having to pay a creator to make it. AI-based businesses target customer groups that value cost and speed over the quality of work.

Go Where AI Can’t Compete

If you decide to stick with your creative field, you should build a business or find a job where you don’t even try to compete based on price and speed. Where customers value your superior work because that’s what they need. This could be big markets where product superiority can’t be matched by AI. Or smaller, niche markets, where your work meets a specific need that AI can’t.

The specific needs and markets to target depend entirely on your creative field. But to get some ideas flowing, here are three examples of of work that AI can’t touch.

• Work that requires a unique perspective to fulfill a purpose. Aritivism, or artists engaging in activism to change hearts and minds through their work, is one example. For art to spark change, it has to provide unique perspective that the world hasn’t seen before. Although we call AI “generative,” it really isn’t. Its output is, by definition, derivative work.

• Work that isn’t easily digitized. AI can’t generate physical objects, can’t perform live performances, can’t create physical texture in work.

• Work that fulfills a need for human connection. AI will never touch this space. If the story behind your work is a major reason your customers buy it, you’re irreplaceable.

The last one is my favorite because it applies to all creative fields and can be combined with others to make you essential. Your personal story is the basis of your brand as a creative. In spaces where customers value human connection, it’s also the basis of that connection. If you need help developing your story and turning it into a brand, check out my post on creative brand development from last month.

This Week

Spend some time this week brainstorming spaces where your skills and your work can’t be replaced by AI. Look for customer groups that value unique perspective, physical work, or work that tells your story.

Don’t try to compete with the low cost and speed of AI.

Instead, find a space where AI can’t compete with you.

Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future issue of The Weekly Build? Reach out or leave a comment.

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Building a creative business is an act of defiance.

That’s a mindset shift for a lot of independent creators who have an aversion to capitalism.

I understand that feeling and I share it—even though I’m a business educator. It's impossible to ignore how big business exploits creative professionals every day. They control the creative work the world sees to shape a social narrative that suits them. And they keep the economic value creative professionals generate in their pockets.

It makes sense to want no part of that. To stay independent. To stay pure.

But here’s the thing. That’s exactly what they want you to do.

You holding back from building a thriving, independent business around your work actually helps big businesses exploit creatives.

Staying small keeps your voice small. It cedes control to big businesses who have the resources—the budget and the expertise—to drown you out.

Building your own big business that rivals theirs is a powerful way to keep them from exploiting you and others.

And you don’t have to do things their way. Your business doesn’t have to exploit anyone to be successful.

So let’s get to work.

Big Business Isn’t for Everyone

First a nod to creatives who don’t want to go down this path. You don’t have to build a big business to pay the bills. If you’re happy generating income that allows you to follow your passion and avoid menial jobs, I respect you.

And I’ll still support you. My mission is to help creatives succeed financially no matter what path they choose.

But if you want to build something bigger than that, whether you’re motivated by a call to defiance or just building a legacy, read on.

How Do Businesses Get Big?

Most businesses start with one person—the founder.

Founders start as generalists and do everything for their business early on. They develop strategy, build a product or service, market it, sell it, fulfill orders, gather customer feedback, etc.

They also become their biggest barrier to business growth.

Part of that is simple time management. One person can only accomplish so much in a year. If this is something you’re struggling with, check out my article on time management here.

Another big reason is expertise. No one person is an expert on every part of building and running a business. Any business is more likely to be successful with a team of experts focusing their work within their expertise to produce the best possible outcomes.

Check out my article on finding and building partnerships here.

Which brings us to the third reason: resources. You need money to hire experts, to invest in product, marketing, sales, and operations. Unless you start with a stockpile of wealth, you have to find it. You either need to find outside investors or to build a profitable business that generates investment capital with sales as you go.

The Money Mindset Shift

Many businesses stay small because the founder doesn’t know that getting big is even an option. If you didn’t grow up around wealth (like I didn’t), your mindset about money is probably dominated by the scarcity of it. It’s something you work for to pay the bills and survive.

But successful entrepreneurs think of money as a tool, as something they can attract through investment and sales to fuel growth.

And money isn’t actually scarce. Private donors in the US give about $20 billion to support creative endeavors every year. While data on private investment in creative businesses is hard to come by, investment in all businesses from investors like venture capitalists adds up to hundreds of billions a year globally.

But the real opportunity for creative businesses is on the sales side. In 2023, the arts and culture sector of the US economy was valued at a record $1.17 trillion. Said another way, consumers and businesses spent $1.17 trillion on creative output generated in the US. Globally that number was over $4 trillion. That’s the number you should chase.

My favorite shift in mindset came from advice I received from a kind and ethical venture capitalist several years ago:

“Building a small business is just as hard as building a big one. So you might as well build a big one.”

Her advice was news to me! It caused me to start thinking big in my own entrepreneurial pursuits. And to spend more time with successful entrepreneurs who had proven this to be true.

I hope it awakens something in you too.

This Week

It all starts with mindset so let’s work on that this week. Reflect on what’s holding you back from thinking big. What are the assumptions (often found in your negative self talk) that might be keeping your business small? Write them down and reflect on them.

Then share them. Find someone in your field who has already built a successful business and connect with them. Share your concerns about your own business and see what they say.

They’ve probably been where you are and found a way to break through.

They probably found a way to go big.

Got a question or an insight to share? Reach out or leave a comment.

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I promise this isn’t a political post. It’s a lesson for artists starting a business.

But we have to wade through some politics to get there.

Cracker Barrel’s recent brand missteps ignited political debate in the US. It’s fascinating that people from both sides are unhappy about their changes.

That universal pushback makes Cracker Barrel a great case study for this week’s advice seeker:

“I have a full time job and I paint and sell my work on the side. Someday I want to start a business and be a full time artist. Where should I start?”

Easy answer: Start with branding.

Branding will unlock your ability to go full time. It will help you sell your work and build a large following.

And most importantly, it will help you avoid selling out when capitalism’s darker side inevitably tempts you.

Cracker Barrel teaches creative founders that branding isn’t just another task in a long list of things you have to do. It’s your foundation.

Good Branding is Curating Experience

We often think of a brand as a logo or a color scheme that represents your business. But that’s, at best, an oversimplification.

Your brand is an abstract. It represents the emotional relationship between you and your customers.

That relationship forms as customers experience you and have an emotional response.

If the experience enhances their life, they become fans and might buy your work.

If it doesn’t, they walk away.

So if you want to build a big following and a successful business, curating an experience for your customers that gets more of them to become fans and buy work makes sense.

That’s all good branding is. Enhancing lives consistently in a way that entices people to buy.

If you need help doing that, here’s a branding guide I published a few weeks ago.

Changes at Cracker Barrel

Say what you want about the Cracker Barrel experience but it was successfully curated for a specific audience of people—white people in the South—despite its expansion to 45 states over the years.

Disclaimer: I’m a white person who grew up in the South and currently lives there. While I’m not a big fan of Cracker Barrel, my youngest child and I used to go there after an oil painting class to eat mac and cheese, look at toys, and play the peg game.

This summer they abandoned their experience and their logo. Why? Well according to their blog:

“Rather than just showing one person, we wanted to feature lots of people. The idea was to celebrate the diversity of all our guests with a logo that represented our continued passion for pleasing people of all races, colors, and genders.”

That’s a noble pursuit. But the rebrand didn’t actually please anyone.

It angered Cracker Barrel’s core audience who are more likely to be politically right and against any move toward inclusion.

But it didn’t please the political left either. For two reasons. First, Cracker Barrel’s history makes it difficult to trust them. And second, the logo and decor images they released—don't scream inclusion. They’re corporate bland. As if Cracker Barrel has been taken over by private equity and is being stripped of its soul (which is not actually the case but happening a lot elsewhere).

The Big Lesson

The big lesson from Cracker Barrel is to start curating the brand experience you want your ideal audience to have right now. Before you build a big following.

Once you have a following, their loyalty is rooted in whatever history they experienced with you. If you haven’t explicitly shown them what you stand for along the way, they get to fill in the blank with their own values.

And if you don’t align with those values and want to make a change later? You can’t. You already have a history of representing them by default. Whether you meant to or not.

If you try to change because you don’t like what you’ve become, you lose all your loyal customers. And you have a hard time attracting new ones because your history suggests they shouldn’t believe you.

This Week

Prioritize your brand this week. You can go through the brand guide linked above but it’s okay to start small.

List the values that you want your brand to represent. Those you’ll never compromise. The ones that will cause you to walk away from customers who don’t support them.

Because the last thing you want—is to build an entire business around customers you can’t respect.

Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future issue of The Weekly Build? Reach out or leave a comment.

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Try a creative exercise with me.

Maybe you’ve heard the phrase “timing is everything” in the business world.

When a business launches a product at the exact moment that demand for that product is booming—we say timing was good for that business.

This happens when businesses start with something new. Google, OpenAI, and Uber all took advantage of booming demand for something that didn’t yet exist when they launched.

But timing is actually something to think about all the time when you’re running a business.

Most businesses are seasonal, to some extent. They follow predictable patterns in customer behavior tied to moments in the calendar year.

Businesses that understand and capitalize on seasonal patterns do better than those who don’t. We see this in the retail world every year with most retailers (including online ones) making most of their money around the holiday season.

The beginning of autumn likely kicks off predictable patterns for your customers too, whether you’re selling to consumers or other businesses.

So let’s look at some of those patterns and see if you can come up with a list of new business opportunities that you might consider over the next 4 months.

Are you ready?

Let’s go!

Instructions

1. Pretend you’re my 78-year-old mom on a recipe website and print this article. I guess you can also turn it into a .pdf and work on it digitally. Your call.

2. Find a quiet place and turn on some quiet music. Or a loud place with loud music. Whatever gets your creative brain going.

3. Set a timer for 15 minutes. The time constraint helps ideas flow faster and keeps you from going too deep on one idea at a time.

4. Read through the list of 20 seasonal behaviors below.

5. For each behavior, force yourself to come up with 3 ideas that you can execute over the next 4 months to capitalize on it. Write your ideas in the space provided.

6. Don’t cheat. If the behavior doesn’t feel like it applies to your business, write down 3 ideas anyway. Even if you hate them.

7. Generate as many ideas as you can in 15 minutes.

8. Read back through the list and circle the 3 that stand out the most because they’re…

   1. Realistically doable over the next 4 months

   2. Likely to achieve significant growth

9. Pick your favorite from the top 3 and write it in the comments to inspire other creative founders.

   Leave a comment

10. Go do it. Let me know if you need help!

20 Autumn Customer Behaviors

For Consumer Customers

The upcoming holidays cause consumers to frequently change their decor.

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Cooler weather prompts consumers to shop for warmer clothing.

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The holidays lead consumers to feel nostalgic about their childhood.

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Consumers are beginning to buy gifts for the holidays.

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The holiday season causes a spike in charitable giving.

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Consumers start spending more time indoors.

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People suffering from seasonal affective disorder seek comforting or joyful moments.

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The holidays cause people to reconnect with people they haven’t talked to in a year.

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Parents of new college students are starting to miss their children.

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Consumers start reflecting on the year and setting goals for the year ahead.

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For Business Customers

Business leaders are forecasting results through the end of the year and worried about hitting 2025 goals.

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Planning for 2026 is kicking off with goals and budgets being set.

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Business leaders are reflecting on partnerships this year and thinking about new ones for next year.

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Corporate events for next year are being planned.

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Some teams are accelerating their spending to make sure they spend their full budget by the end of the year.

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Companies are planning end of year celebrations.

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Good bosses are buying gifts for their employees.

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Companies are kicking off fundraising drives and asking employees to participate in charitable giving.

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Employees are looking for ways to take advantage of educational benefits before the end of the year.

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Business travel peaks in September through November due to industry conference schedules.

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Don’t forget to drop your favorite opportunity in the comments to inspire other creative founders!

Leave a comment

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Warning: This week’s advice might sting a little.

Especially if you’ve spent tons of energy building a social media presence to boost your creative business.

Today’s challenge comes from an artist who’s considering posting their work for the first time on TikTok.

“I need to build a social media presence but I’m afraid that, once I start posting, I’ll just look like everyone else.”

Yeah. You might. That happens to artists all the time and here’s why:

Social media punishes uniqueness and rewards sameness.

I’ll dig into why that happens and what creative founders should do about it. But let’s start with some hope that I’ll keep repeating until repetition has annoyed away my last subscriber.

You’re not in the content creation business. You’re in the art business.

If you use that as a filter for decisions on social media, you'll be alright.

The Big Power Shift for Creatives

Social media isn’t completely terrible. Your ability to connect with customers, without relying on gatekeepers, means you have more power as a creative than any generation before you. I love the fall of control structures in creative industries. Check out my new trailer for more on that.

We’re seeing this play out in the demise of art galleries all over the world. I want to be careful not to celebrate that too much—many well-intentioned gallery owners and employees find their livelihoods at risk. But I’m happy to see power shift toward artists where it belongs.

It’s more than just social media that’s enabled this. Big tech helps you everywhere in your business. The technologies behind digital storefronts, payments, on-demand printing, packing and shipping, customer management, and countless others have too.

Whether you like it or not, you’re actually building a tech business right now. But you probably didn’t study technology or business in school. That’s okay. Big tech has democratized education too. Substack, TikTok, and YouTube bring educators like me to creative founders like you for little or no cost.

And who are the most successful educators on each of these platforms? People teaching you how to build big followings on them. Content influencers sell the allure of money and independence from full time content creation on whatever platform they represent. They teach you how to create content that satisfies the algorithm so you get likes, shares, and followers.

And they lead creative founders astray in the process.

We’re Not Training the Algorithm, It’s Training Us

Have you ever heard a content influencer say, “train the algorithm?” Well, that’s not how algorithms work. An algorithm is a pretty static thing. That’s why we see people freak out when algorithms periodically change. They’re designed to have predictable inputs and outputs.

Let’s try a little experiment. Which of these two videos would you predict to perform better on TikTok?

The answer is unfortunate (for me) but obvious. She gets more watch time, more likes, and more comments. The algorithm knows that and pushes her post to a broader audience. Not because the goal is to promote her over me. The algorithm knows she will keep more viewers on the platform longer so they see more ads and buy more stuff.

She builds a big following in service to the algorithm and the social media company behind it.

When content influencers give you advice to “train the algorithm,” they’re actually teaching you how to conform to it, to be more like her than me. They suggest changes in your content so it fits a predictable formula. So the algorithm rewards you with broader reach, more engagement, and more followers. And they give the same advice to everyone.

The result? Content convergence. The most successful content creators show, say, and do a lot of the same things. Same talking points, same trending audio, same backgrounds, same lighting, same dances, same vibes. Unfortunately, this includes some of the most successful artists on social media too.

Deviate from the algorithm’s formula and you'll never find a large audience.

But What About Going Viral?

Okay you might. I covered this one last week.

If you’re unpredictably blessed with a viral moment, that doesn’t guarantee success for what matters: your art business. Followers aren’t necessarily buyers. And when virality hands you a large following, keeping it is a full time job.

What The Hell Should I DO Then?

You’re not in the social media business or the content creation business. You’re in the art business, the music business, the design business, the animation business, the writing business. Whatever creative business you’re in.

I’m not saying you should walk away from social media. Just rethink it. Stop serving social media and start thinking about how it serves you.

Social media isn’t where you build your following. Serving customers is. A following of delighted customers is exponentially more valuable than a passive social media following.

Your social media profile is just one place to facilitate that. A place to showcase your brand and give people a way to contact you. That’s it. It doesn’t matter if they like, share, or comment on anything. Your goal is to entice them to eventually buy something from you.

This requires boldness. It requires you to create and post content that reflects you, your brand, and your work. Even when it bombs according to what we in the marketing world appropriately call “vanity metrics.”

This Week

So be bold this week. Create and post that weird content that doesn’t serve the algorithm. Celebrate its lack of reach—because it signals your uniqueness.

Then keep doing it, over and over, until your profile reflects the unique artist who you are.

Here’s a stack of buttons. If you feel moved to support me, please do!

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Most creatives I know hate selling.

In fact, many creatives avoid building a business because of the mere thought of selling.

I get it. We think of selling as talking. As presenting, persuading, influencing—maybe even manipulating—with words that come out of our mouths.

We think we have to be extroverted to be good at sales.

We don't. I'm living proof.

I’m an introvert who’s learned to play the role of an extrovert when I need to. I can be a motivational speaker, an energetic professor, a networker in a room full of strangers.

But I’m not great at it. Pretending to be someone you’re not is hard work and it’s exhausting.

But playing the role of a salesperson doesn’t exhaust me. It feels natural, despite my introversion.

Why?

Because the image we conjure when we imagine selling—is wrong.

The right image for you selling your work is…well…you. Not some version of you that feels uncomfortable or draining. It’s the unique and authentic you who you are.

Google “sales books” and you'll find thousands of different “systems” being sold as “the best way” to sell. If all of those authors found success with a different way of selling—there can't be one best way.

Which means you get to choose a sales approach that suits you. One that feels comfortable instead of scary or inauthentic.

In today’s Workshop, I’ll show you an approach to sales that feels natural to me as an introvert. I’ll also give you a list of 15 questions that I use to make sales conversations less scary.

The Real Role of Sales Conversations

You’re right to feel uncomfortable about becoming that pushy salesperson you don’t want to be. Your buyers don’t want that either. You can read more about why your buyers are so savvy here:

So what do buyers want?

They want you. And I don’t just mean you as salesperson. I mean you as the creator behind your work.

Creative businesses have a significant advantage in this respect. Buyers don’t just buy your work. They buy the story behind it. That story—is your story, the basis of your brand as an artist.

If you were to show up as a different person for sales conversations, buyers would see right through the show. You’d actually decrease the likelihood that they’d ever buy from you.

So getting good at sales starts with leaving behind your preconceived notions about what sales conversations do for your buyers. You’re not there to convince them to buy. You’re simply there to represent your work as its creator. To add depth to it through your story. And, most importantly from a sales perspective, to connect your story to what they need. To the reason they’re shopping for creative work in the first place.

So successful sales conversations look less like persuasive presentations and more like two humans connecting and enjoying each others’ stories.

How do you do start? Your buyer always goes first. Because you won’t know how to connect your story and your work to what they need if you don’t know their story.

Good Selling Is More Listening than Talking

I've written about the importance of becoming a student of your customers to build a successful business. You do this with customer discovery which is just interviewing ideal customers to learn about who they are, what they need, and how they buy. You can learn more about customer discovery here:

The start of successful sales conversations is a similar learning exercise. In fact, it’s often called “sales discovery.” You start by learning about the person in front of you instead of talking about your work or yourself.

Sales discovery uncovers why this specific person in front of you has met you at this moment. It tells you who they are, what they need, and what’s going on in their head as they contemplate buying your work. When you start with discovery in these three areas, you learn—in their own words—what conditions would lead to a successful sale.

• Knowing who they are tells you how you might connect with them personally through shared experiences.

• Knowing what they need tells you how your work might enhance their life.

• Knowing what they’re thinking as they decide to buy tells you if what you’re selling is a good fit for them because of details like price, use, or sizing for your work.

Sales discovery also tells you if you aren’t a good fit for them. So you can decide to bow out from the sale or even to point them in the direction of another creative who might be better.

There’s no hard and fast rule but my most successful sales conversations are at least 60% listening and 40% talking. And most of the talking from me is asking questions to learn more about who they are, what they need, and what they’re thinking.

I only tell my story after two conditions are met:

1. I can confidently connect my story to who they are, what they need, and what they’re thinking.

2. I genuinely believe buying is a good idea for them instead of something I need to persuade them to do against their best judgement.

When I do talk, I simply tell my story (or the story about whatever I’m selling) as one human to another. In a way that feels natural to me in the moment. I don’t have a magic, one-size-fits-all formula to pitching. It’s always tailored to the person sitting across from me and the flow of the conversation we’re having. That’s something that comes with practice.

Planning Sales Discovery

I’m comfortable with sales conversations because I’ve learned that being my awkward, introverted self works pretty well. But I also prepare for them. I know exactly what questions to ask before any conversation starts.

Over the course of my 25 year career, I’ve sold a lot of different products and services to everyone from consumers to CEOs of major corporations. My approach to sales discovery works across all of them because every sales conversation has one thing in common: I’m selling to a human.

It doesn’t matter if I’m selling art to a passerby at an art fair or tech consulting to a CEO in a boardroom. The sale will be successful or not based on my ability to understand the human across from me and connect with them on a personal level.

So I have 15 questions that I use to help me prepare for every sales conversation, no matter what I’m selling or who I’m selling to. You can download my list here:

Download my 15 sales discovery questions

This Week

This week, download the list of questions and start practicing sales discovery. Hopefully you’ve got a real conversation planned for this week. If not, practice with a friend to help build confidence.

The more you practice, the more comfortable you’ll feel with selling.

You’ll start to feel more like yourself.

Which is exactly who your buyers want to meet.

Have thoughts, questions, or an “aha” moment?

Reply to this email or leave a comment. I read every message and love hearing how your creative business is unfolding. Your insight might even shape a future edition of The Workshop.

Leave a comment

New to The Creative Build?

I publish two posts a week to help creatives turn their talent into thriving, independent businesses:

• The Weekly Build (Fridays): Advice, mindset, confidence

• The Workshop (Mondays): Tools and frameworks you can put to work

Subscribe to follow along. You’re not building alone.

Subscribe now

The Weekly Build is my free advice series where I answer real questions and challenges from creatives building their own business. Every Friday, in your inbox.

Want to go deeper? That’s what The Workshop is for. You can sign up for both here:

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Are you a creative entrepreneur who’s tired of the social media race?

Good.

Now is the perfect time to find a different way to market your work.

And you’re not alone. Most artists and designers I know are tired of social media too.

“I’m tired of fighting for attention on TikTok. I should focus more on content but I already spend more time fighting the algorithm than I do actually making art. I need an easier way to market my work.”

You’ve already taken the first step: considering that marketing your work doesn’t have to include building a large social media following.

And you’re right.

Easier options exist because the golden age of social media marketing is behind us.

So let’s find you a better way.

Social Media Marketing Is So 2000s

Social media upended the marketing world in the 2000s. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram all built huge audiences by giving us new ways to connect with people. They enabled the rise of influencers to keep their audiences captive and make them receptive to advertising. And they gave companies a cheaper and easier way to advertise than they’d ever seen.

Advertising budgets shifted from TV, radio, print, and public display to social media. Tech founders got rich. Influencers got (less) rich. Consumers got…well…consumers kept consuming.

That started two decades ago. It might as well be ancient history in the tech and advertising world.

Social media marketing isn’t cheap or easy anymore—because of the exact pain you’re feeling right now.

Fierce Influencer Compeition

Competition for eyeballs among creators has become fierce. Look at the top influencers on every platform. How did they get there? Most used one or more of the following strategies, none of which will work for you.

• They got in early before competition was fierce. You don’t have a time machine.

• They brought a following from celebrity status built somewhere else. You’re probably not a celebrity yet or you wouldn’t be reading this.

• They built a following by teaching people how to build a following. I could be cynical here but I’ll just say…that’s not expertise you have to sell right now.

Is this true for every large creator? No. Some were blessed by a viral moment. But even if that happens to you, and you suddenly gain a huge audience, the competition to keep it is intense. You have to invest even more time and money to maintain that top creator status.

Because now you’re competing with creators who produce content as a profession. The top “creators” on most platforms don’t actually create their content, at least not alone. Most lend their face to a professional production team they’ve hired to do it. That’s why we’ve seen a huge increase in the production quality of content over the last 20 years among top creators. And yes, that includes TikTok creators.

Plummeting Consumer Trust

Just because you have a large social media following doesn’t mean you automatically make money. Your followers have to buy something. Which leads us to another problem: consumers are much more savvy than we were in the 2000s.

We now know that these platforms were never really about connection. They exist to sell us stuff and nobody likes it. Dopamine keeps us scrolling anyway.

And social media is full of scams. I get dozens of scam offers every week and the volume is increasing. Scammer output (measured in weekly scams per scammer) might be the most visible productivity increase from AI.

So not only are influencers competing with one another for attention, with ever-increasing production budgets. The consumers they’re competing over trust them less and less. It’s harder to get people to buy anything. Cost is going up as the return on that investment is going down.

That’s a zero-sum game that you don’t want to play.

But That’s Not Your Business

Now here’s the good news.

You’re not in the content creation business anyway. You want to sell art, design, music, or whatever creative work you’re building a business around.

And now is a great time to build a creative business. Demand for what you offer—real human connection through your work—is booming. People are tired of fake. The frustration you feel with social media—is actually evidence that you’re needed.

So don’t be discouraged. You’re on the right track. You just have to find an alternative to social media that works for your business.

The Secret to Good Marketing

Good marketing happens in two broad steps.

First, you study your ideal buyers. Learn what they need and how they buy. You do this by talking to them, through a series of interviews called “customer discovery.” If you need help with customer discovery, I wrote about it a few weeks ago and provided a tool to guide you.

You can also download the customer discovery guide I provided in that article here:

Get the Customer Discovery Guide

Once you understand what your customer needs and how they buy, your job is simply to show up. Marketing is connecting your brand to their buying journey. Its showing up at the right time and place (digital or otherwise) when they’re making decisions that could lead to a purchase. And influencing them to move in your direction.

How that happens depends on you and your buyers. I can’t tell you the best way to market your work. The right marketing plan is unique to your business and your buyers. And it’s always evolving, through experimentation, as buyer needs and behaviors change over time.

But I can get you thinking beyond social media views and follows.

22 Marketing Ideas for Creative Businesses

Read through this list of alternative marketing ideas and see if it inspires you to come up with your own.

Social Media Shift

Shift the purpose of social media from gaining a mass following to building trust with one buyer at a time.

• Search for buyers and connect in the comments. Spark their curiosity to engage with you.

• Stop trying to beat the algorithm. Create simple content that tells your brand story to individual buyers who come looking at your profile.

• Make it easy for buyers to reach out to you from your bio. Have a link to your website, an email address, or an invitation to message you there.

Marketing Partnerships

Outsource your marketing to other people in exchange for direct payment or a share of your revenue.

• Partner with similar artists who are already successfully marketing to the same audience. Ask them to represent your work too.

• Partner with businesses who provide complimentary products to the same audience. If you’re a sculptor, you might partner with a painter, for example.

• Partner with businesses who influence buyers’ decisions about what to buy. Examples include interior designers or art curators for public spaces like hotels.

Sell in the Real World

Capitalize on the demand for real human connection by selling to buyers in person.

• Sell at events designed to sell your type of work. Like art fairs.

• Sell at events that provide other things your audience buys. If you sell art to people who also love heavy metal, sell your art at heavy metal concerts.

• Sell your work in high traffic areas where your buyers go for recreation. Think pop up shops at sporting events, parks, or shopping districts.

Network Effects

Reward buyers who promote your work to others.

• Give discounts to buyers who refer others to you.

• Ask buyers to write a testimonial for you after they purchase.

• Send personalized messages or gifts to buyers who give you referrals.

• Create levels of rewards for different referral milestones.

• Include a referral link in every email you send to your customers.

Existing Customer Base

Market first to buyers who already trust you and the experience you provided.

• Create a customer email list for new release announcements.

• Offer exclusive discounts for existing customers.

• Offer discounts for bundled purchases or subscription models.

• Build a community of customers and provide ways for them to connect with each other.

Combinations

Create combinations from the ideas above to find additional ways to market.

• Partner with an established influencer on social media to represent your work in their content.

• Schedule events for your most loyal customers as a reward. Ask them to bring friends.

• Partner with complementary product sellers to host events.

• Partner with established retailers in high traffic areas and create a shop within a shop.

If you found this useful, please repost or share it so other creative founders see it!

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This Week

It’s hard to quit chasing the algorithm when you see creators bragging about how much money they make on social media. But that’s not the business you’re in.

This week, accept that content creation isn’t your business.

Selling your creative work is.

Pick one idea from above (or one that you came up with based on reading the list) and start experimenting with it.

You won’t learn how to beat the algorithm.

But you’ll start learning how to market to your customers.

Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future issue of The Weekly Build?

You can:

• Reply to this email (I read every one)

• Leave a comment on this post (others might relate too)

However you send it—I’d love to hear what you’re wrestling with.

Leave a comment

New to The Creative Build?

I publish two posts a week to help creatives turn their talent into thriving, independent businesses:

• The Workshop (Mondays): Tools and frameworks you can put to work

• The Weekly Build (Fridays): Advice, mindset, confidence

Subscribe to follow along. You’re not building alone.

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Every creative founder eventually hits the same wall:

You can’t grow your business to its full potential by yourself.

You already know you need other people in your life. I hope you’ve also learned that the benefits of human connection—joy, enrichment, comfort—are heightened when you connect with people from different backgrounds who share similar values.

Something powerful happens when different lives lead to the same beliefs about what matters.

This hit me 20 years ago when I met Martin, a fellow father and lifelong learner who happened to grow up in Shanghai instead of Arkansas. My Southern roots would have me believe that any Buddhist member of the Chinese Communist Party is my adversary. It turns out Martin’s my friend.

I hope you’ve had that experience with people too. If you haven't, go chase it.

Why am I writing about personal connection in a business publication? Because the same magic happens in business.

And I mean exactly the same. Martin and I were coworkers who grew a business together in China.

That’s why diversity still matters to businesses in 2025, despite hostilities from the political right. It’s why companies like Costco and Delta Airlines are doubling down on their DEI policies despite political pressure.

I support diversity for moral reasons. But it’s also good for business. Diversity boosts innovation and problem solving. It makes every business stronger.

And for creative businesses, it’s the key to solving one of the hardest challenges you’ll face as your business matures: scaling it.

In today’s Workshop, I’ll show you why creative businesses are so hard to grow and how the right collaborators can help you break through.

I’ll also provide a tool to help you find collaborators who can help. Because they bring diversity to your business.

Why Are Creative Businesses Hard to Scale?

Let’s start by defining what it means to scale a business.

Limits to Growth

You probably understand business growth. You’re trying to grow revenue to support your livelihood.

Let’s say you’re a painter. You spend 40 hours on a painting and sell it to a customer for $2,000. You might say, “Hey, if I can sell 100 paintings to 100 customers a year, that’s $200,000 in revenue!” Sounds great, right?

But that’s hard to do. If each painting takes you 40 hours, you don’t have time in a year to create 100 paintings, run a business, and live your life. That’s 11 hours of painting every day without a single day off.

And what about the costs? If you spend $300 per painting on materials, that’s $30,000 per year you have to invest. If you sell at art fairs, and average 2 paintings sold at each fair, you’d need to attend 50 art fairs per year. At an average of $1,500 in booth fees, that’s another $75,000, for a total of $105,000 in annual costs. And these aren’t the only costs you need to consider.

That doesn’t mean you need $105,000 to get started. You could invest as you go, reinvesting profits from paintings you sell. But you might sell nothing at some fairs and 4 or 5 paintings at others. You need 3-6 months of your business costs in savings to help you weather the slow periods. Do you have $50,000 in the bank right now?

This illustrates the challenge of growing any creative business, regardless of your field.

Your business is highly dependent on your time and resources as a creator.

Scaling a Business

In my last Weekly Build, I gave advice on time management and how to be more productive with each hour you spend.

Better time management helps, but only a little. You’ll eventually hit a limit.

Scaling is different. Scaling breaks the link between business growth and the time or resources you have to invest in it. By scaling a business, you get more revenue with the same number of hours or dollars you invest.

There are lots different ways to break that link and scale your creative business. Today, I’ll focus on the most powerful: collaboration.

The Collaborative Model for Scaling

Creative collaboration isn’t a wild idea. You probably understand how collaboration leads to more creativity and better creative work. We see this all the time in music, film, and theater. People with different creative talents come together to create something not one of them could ever achieve alone.

But collaboration can also help you scale your business. Let’s see how.

Creative Outcomes & Pricing

The simplest way to scale your business is to increase prices. If you could double the price of that $2,000 painting to $4,000, you get double the revenue without increasing the number of creative hours or dollars you invest.

Collaboration enables that because of the phenomenon I just mentioned. When you collaborate with someone and push one another’s creative boundaries, your combined work is better than either of you could achieve alone. And you can charge more for it.

Working alone, you and another artist might each finish an average $2,000 painting in 40 hours. But when you collaborate, you might finish two phenomenal paintings, each worth $4,000. You’ve doubled the value of your combined creative output from $4,000 to $8,000. That’s what scaling looks like.

Talent Specialization

The second way collaboration helps with scaling is more businessy, but just as powerful. It’s based on the concept of talent specialization.

If you’re starting your business alone, you’re a jack of all trades. You’re a creator, a promoter, a chief financial officer, and an order fulfiller. Chances are, you’re not great at all of those roles.

Maybe you’re an amazing creator and promoter but the finance and fulfillment side of business drags you down. Finding a collaborator who’s great at finance and fulfillment would free up your time to focus on creation and promotion. Even better if creation and promotion are the exact talents they need to scale their own business.

Talent specialization helps the two of you achieve more together than you can alone. With the same amount of hours and resources you have to invest. This works because you both focus your time on work you’re uniquely qualified to do.

The Power of Diversity

Both of the ways that collaboration unlocks scale depend on diversity. The first one depends on creative diversity. The second, on talent diversity. And where do we get diversity in creativity and talent? From diverse lived experiences.

Think about it. If you clone yourself and partner with your clone, you don’t get either benefit. You don’t have new ideas pushing your work to new heights. And you don’t have someone with different talents to fill in your gaps.

So again, I agree with the moral argument for diversity in business. But the benefits of diversity are also practical. They’re measurable in dollars.

If you know someone who needs to hear this lesson, please share it with them!

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Healthy Collaboration

So when you’re looking for a collaborator, look for someone different from you. Easy enough, right? But that’s not the whole story.

Not all differences are helpful and some actually hurt collaboration.

Like any human relationship, business partnerships have the potential to be unhealthy. Maybe you don’t click with some personality types, for example. But more than that, it’s hard to be successful with people who don’t believe in your mission or share your values.

Let’s go back to Martin and me growing our Chinese business. We had differences that made us complementary. He brought unique insights into the Chinese market and was fantastic at building relationships with Chinese customers. I brought strong strategy development and market experimentation skills. We accomplished more together than we could alone.

But we also had similarities that kept our relationship healthy, despite our very different backgrounds. We weren’t just growing a business, we were providing employment for a growing middle class in China. That was our shared mission. And we both valued people more than anything else, whether we were talking about employees, customers, or family. If either of us believed it was okay to hurt people in the name of profit, we would have fought and we would have failed.

So successful collaboration includes a mix of differences that complement each other and similarities that keep things healthy. To help you achieve that, I developed a tool to evaluate potential collaborations—The Healthy Collab Worksheet:

Get The Healthy Collab Worksheet

It guides you through a series of questions, with a place to take notes and score collaboration health across five dimensions:

• Mission — Do you share the same mission or have missions that naturally coexist?

• Values — Do your values align or do they conflict?

• Strengths — Do they have strengths where you have weaknesses?

• Roles & Boundaries — Do you see a natural division of work based on your different talents?

• Red Flags — Do you see anything else, like personality conflict, that might make the relationship unhealthy?

If you still need to define the mission for your creative business, check out the branding guide in last week’s Workshop.

This Week

All creative founders eventually hit a growth wall and need to think about scale. But you don’t have to wait. It’s never too early to start benefiting from diverse collaboration.

So this week, identify one potential collaborator and start the discussion. Reach out and set up time to talk. Use The Healthy Collab Worksheet to guide your discussion and see where it takes you.

You never know. The two of you might start building something that neither of you had considered possible before.

That often happens when you embrace diversity.

Have thoughts, questions, or an “aha” moment?

Reply to this email or leave a comment. I read every message and love hearing how your creative business is unfolding. Your insight might even shape a future edition of The Workshop.

Leave a comment

New to The Creative Build?

I publish two posts a week to help creatives turn their talent into thriving, independent businesses:

• The Weekly Build (Fridays): Advice, mindset, confidence

• The Workshop (Mondays): Tools and frameworks you can put to work

Subscribe to follow along. You’re not building alone.

Subscribe now

The Weekly Build is my free advice series where I answer real questions and challenges from creatives building a business. Every Friday, in your inbox.

Want to go deeper? That’s what The Workshop is for. You can sign up for both here:

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All creative founders struggle with time.

Unless you have other means of support—a partner’s income or savings—you’re probably wrestling with a version of this week’s question.

“I work full time and I’m starting my art business on the side. How do I find time to build my business while I still have a job?”

I’m dangerously close to 50 and still haven’t found a sugar mama, so I have no wisdom for you there. Let’s assume you need to fully support yourself like me.

Creative businesses are harder to start and grow than most other businesses because of one reality:

Your creative business is heavily dependent on your time.

You’re not just the founder and CEO. You’re also the one creating the product. That’s a lot to expect from one person!

What you’re struggling with has little to do with your ability to manage your time. Every creative founder has the same problem.

So let’s deal with it.

Prioritization Is Personal

You’ve already heard the advice. Carve out a set amount of time, every week, and protect it. But how you do that depends entirely on you.

The beautiful neurodiversity among creatives is one of my favorite parts of teaching them. Every year I get to see hundreds of different ways to see and organize the world. That’s why I can’t give you one “best” time management method. What works for me probably won’t work for you.

So instead, let’s look at three characters who manage time in very different ways. Which one sounds most like you?

Aria the Architect

Aria’s calendar is her creative anchor. She time-blocks three evenings a week for her photography side business, using the Pomodoro Technique to stay focused. The structure keeps her from feeling scattered, and she loves the satisfaction of ticking boxes in her planner.

Gareth the Gardener

Gareth keeps no written list for their illustration business. They track priorities in their head and naturally gravitate toward the most important or most exciting work. If something falls through the cracks, it probably wasn’t that important. The looseness works because they’ve honed a strong instinct for priorities.

Millie the Mixer

Millie uses sticky notes on the wall to track big milestones for her animation studio. But day-to-day? It’s pure flow—she works on whatever sparks her energy. The notes are always there when she needs to zoom out, but she doesn’t force herself into them when she’s in her groove.

Accept Who You Are

Whether you’re an architect, a gardener, or a mixer, the goal isn’t to turn yourself into someone else. Fighting your natural style burns more energy than it saves.

I’m a gardener. I’ll sometimes try lists or sticky notes, but I never stick with them for long. I’ve accepted that and it works for me.

If you’re wired for systems, use them. If you run on instinct, trust it. If you’re somewhere in between, blend structure and flexibility. The method matters less than the results.

And that’s the real secret to time management.

Return on Time Is The Real Goal

Time management isn’t about how many hours you work. It’s about what those hours give back to you.

Think of your time like an investment. Every hour you spend on your creative business has the potential to pay you back in sales, audience growth, or another tangible return. That’s your return on time.

How you track it depends on your style:

• Architects: Don’t just track hours; track results per hour. How many sales, signups, or leads did three hours produce?

• Gardeners: Gut-check your instincts. Are the things you call “important” actually moving the needle or just filling time?

• Mixers: Mark high-return activities so they stand out. Color code, star, or icon them so you instantly know what to prioritize.

So far, everything we’ve discussed assumes that you’re building your creative business alone.

It might be time to rethink that too.

Better, Faster, and Stronger Together

The fastest way to waste time is to work in isolation and unknowingly duplicate effort. Collaborating with other creatives on similar paths can help you share resources. But the real magic happens when you find someone who complements your strengths.

If you’re a gardener with great instincts but poor organization, find an architect who loves building systems. If you’re an architect who’s great at structure but struggles with branding, work with someone who can craft a story and visual identity.

When you combine different strengths with a partner, you’re splitting the work and multiplying the results. You get more done with better results in less time. So you both get a higher return on time.

A word of caution here. Complementary skills matter but shared values matter more. Partner with someone whose values align with yours to avoid unnecessary conflict.

This Week

Here are three things you can try right now:

1. Identify your time management style and accept it. Then set a realistic weekly hour goal for your creative business.

2. Define “return on time” for you and start tracking it. Even if you can’t get exact numbers yet, use a simple high/medium/low scale.

3. List potential partners who share your values and compliment your strengths. Set up a conversation with at least one.

Even if you don’t find the perfect partner now, starting the search will make growth easier later. Because even after you go full time, you’ll eventually need others to help you scale your creative business to its full potential.

We’ll tackle that challenge—scaling creative businesses—in a future issue.

Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future issue of The Weekly Build?

You can:

• Reply to this email (I read every one)

• Leave a comment on this post (others might relate too)

However you send it—I’d love to hear what you’re wrestling with.

Leave a comment

New to The Creative Build?

I publish two posts a week to help creatives turn their talent into thriving, independent businesses:

• The Workshop (Mondays): Tools and frameworks you can put to work

• The Weekly Build (Fridays): Advice, mindset, confidence

Subscribe to follow along. You’re not building alone.

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Branding feels too corporate for many creatives.

Maybe you’re already uneasy about making money from your work. You worry that building a business around it will compromise your integrity.

Slapping a logo and a color scheme on that business? That feels like the ultimate sell-out.

But I have good news:

Strong branding should actually support your creative integrity, not compromise it.

Branding isn’t slapping a logo on something to make money. Strong branding is actually selfless. It extends the joy, challenge, learning, or entertainment of your work into spaces where the work itself can’t go. Often to people who will never buy anything from you.

With selfless branding, you’re giving value to the world for free. But by doing so, you’re also building a following that will happily pay for your work. And a career that supports your livelihood.

In this issue of The Workshop, I’ll show you what that looks like with an example from an iconic artist. I’ll also give you a downloadable guide to help you do it.

True Story

Of course branding feels corporate. Corporations invest billions every year in their brands. But that’s only because they have to.

In the corporate world, brands exist to create an emotional connection with buyers. They keep buyers buying at higher prices, even when it doesn’t make sense.

Corporate brand experts tell stories that favor emotion over logic:

• Wear this shoe to perform like your favorite athlete.

• Chew this gum so your breath doesn’t offend your date.

• Drink this drink to connect with your friends.

Branding your creative business is different. You don’t have to invent a story to sell anything. The story that shows up in your work is a true story. It actually happened and it’s still unfolding as long as you keep creating. And your story generates real meaning and emotional connection for people who experience your work.

In other words, corporates spend billions to fake something you already have. So if you want to build a business around your work, it makes sense to use it.

Here’s a guide to help you build a brand around your story. Download it now and come back to it later.

Get the Brand Guide for Creatives

Your Story in Three Parts

The story structure I use in the guide has three parts. They cover your history as a creator, your motivation to create, and the impact your work has on the world.

Your Spark

What sparked you to start creating? It might be conditions from your childhood, something that happened in the world, or a mentor who introduced you to creativity. That’s where your creative history starts. It’s also where your emotional connection with customers starts. Your spark humanizes your work, building empathy for you from those who either share your experience or want to support it.

Your Drive

What keeps you creating? “I just have to create!” might be your immediate answer. But why do you feel that way? Do you have a specific mission you support through your work? A purpose that serves you or the broader world? Capture it. Referring to it in your brand marketing will attract a following of people who support the same mission.

Your Message

What message does your work teach people? All creative work sends a message that challenges beliefs or creates awareness. Your message might be positive but it doesn’t have to be. Maybe your work makes people feel hopeful or content in the face of difficulty. Or maybe it intensifies discomfort by shining light on a problem. However it teaches, your message should reinforce your drive. It’s evidence for customers that you’re on the mission you say you’re on.

Let’s look at an example from the art world.

Nikkolas Smith

Nikkolas Smith is a self-described artivist—a blend of art and activism that he champions. He grew up in Houston, Texas in a household that appreciated art.

But the spark for Smith’s artivism came in February 2012 with the killing of Trayvon Martin. The following summer, after Martin’s killer was acquitted, Smith revealed his iconic portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wearing a hoodie similar to the one Martin wore when he was killed.

Smith’s drive is a clear demand for social justice. His message? His work challenges the way the world views Black lives.

Beyond Your Work

Nikkolas Smith’s story is a compelling one to learn from for several reasons. His spark, drive, and message are clear. But more importantly, his artivist mission extends beyond his work. Smith’s speaks and writes about social justice in places having nothing to do with selling work. And he inspires other artists to join him.

As he stated in a 2020 interview with My Modern Met:

“Artivism is my way of using art to inspire people to make a positive change in the world. That is sometimes accomplished by painting what is broken, and sometimes by painting what our world would look like if the issues (social, environmental, etc.) were fixed. Seeing eyes and hearts open up when my art is viewed is one of the main things that makes me proud to be an Artivist.”

Smith impacts people all over the world who aren’t buying. It’s the mission, not the money, that matters to him. Yet that connection with meaning has enabled him to build a healthy, independent career around his work.

That’s what selfless branding does. It provides value by supporting a purpose that extends beyond your work. In places where your work doesn’t naturally go—like a news site, a podcast, or a stage.

This Week

If you’re worried about protecting your creative integrity this week, work on building your selfless brand.

Use the guide to define your story and to translate it into inspiration for your marketing.

Then start brainstorming ways to share your selfless brand with the world.

Have thoughts, questions, or an “aha” moment?

Reply to this email or leave a comment. I read every message and love hearing how your creative business is unfolding. Your insight might even shape a future edition of The Workshop.

Leave a comment

New to The Creative Build?

I publish two posts a week to help creatives turn their talent into thriving, independent businesses:

• The Weekly Build (Fridays): Advice, mindset, confidence

• The Workshop (Mondays): Tools and frameworks you can put to work

Subscribe to follow along. You’re not building alone.

Subscribe now

The Weekly Build is always free. It’s where I answer real questions and challenges from creatives building their own business. Every Friday, in your inbox.

Want to go deeper? That’s what The Workshop is for. You can sign up for both here:

Subscribe now

“Sales” is profanity in the creative world.

It might also be the most emotional challenge I hear about from creative founders.

“I need to get better at selling my work but—I hate it. I feel like selling cheapens my work and I’m not a salesperson. I don’t want to become someone I’m not just to make money.”

We’re getting to the core of building a business around your work with this one. Do you have to compromise the integrity in your work—or yourself—to make a living from creative work?

If I thought the answer to that question was “yes,” I wouldn’t be doing this. No career is worth losing yourself.

But I get it. We’ve all avoided overbearing salespeople at the mall, chasing us down to pressure us into a deal we don’t want. Creative founders rightfully don’t want to become that.

The good news is that you don’t have to. In fact, you shouldn’t.

That sales approach doesn’t work for any business. Especially not yours.

Shifting Consumer Perceptions

The biggest reason it doesn’t work? Nobody wants it. I haven’t researched this, but I’m pretty sure not one person in human history has ever asked for a salesperson to pressure them.

Beyond that, the evidence against high-pressure sales—and in favor of a selling approach that’s more natural for creatives—is overwhelming. Four consumer trends tell the story:

1. Consumers are more informed than ever. We have the entirety of human knowledge in our pockets. And we use it to make decisions about what we buy before a salesperson has a chance to talk to us. Consumers who show up armed with knowledge are hard to pressure.

2. We’re also increasingly wary of being tricked. My grandparents inherently trusted businesses selling them the American dream with every purchase. Because why would anyone lie? We’ve since learned our lesson. The belief that corporations serve our best interests is decades behind us.

3. Yet most businesses still act like dealmakers, the mass market version of that overbearing salesperson you don’t want to be. We’re bombarded by ads all day, every day, in every place that ads can possibly go. The spaces where ads aren’t is shrinking. I’ve heard we might even see them on Substack soon. (Sigh.)

4. So consumers are tired. In the face of information overload, predatory business practices, and shrinking spaces without them, we’re all seeking meaning and human connection.

Did you catch that last one? Consumers are seeking exactly what you provide as a creative. You’re not selling a product to make a quick buck. You’re providing something valuable that people actually need at this moment.

That sounds loaded with integrity to me.

Your Own Approach to Selling

When you sell something people need, selling is pretty easy. When part of that need is connecting with you? The act of connection is selling.

This means you get to shape your sales approach based on how you naturally connect with people.

Are you a storyteller? Buyers will love hearing stories about you and your work.

Are you a helper? Buyers will love when you connect the dots for them.

Are you altruistic? Buyers will be loyal for life when you promote other artists’ work because you think they’ll love it. (Seriously, promoting others is one of the most effective sales approaches I’ve experienced.)

The point is, your connection strengths become your sales strengths. Because it’s the connection, not the deal, that matters.

Also, Sales Isn’t Everything

Successful sales means you show up as you, not some pushy version of you. Hopefully that’s comforting. But if you’re still feeling unsure, you can actually make sales even easier.

That’s the job of marketing. Great marketing warms people up for a sales conversation so you have less work to do when that conversation happens.

Great marketing…

• Introduces people to you

• Tells your story to draw them in

• Provides a valuable experience that builds trust

• Introduces them to your work

• Gives them a reason to reach out to you

When you’re good at marketing, sales conversations exist to confirm what your buyers already know—that you’re amazing and they want to buy from you.

Compare that to a sales conversation with someone who has no idea who you are. It’s easier, right?

I’ll talk more about marketing in future issues. For now, just remember that the goal is to keep sales simple: show up, make a connection, be yourself.

This Week

Hopefully I’ve convinced you. You don’t have to compromise your integrity to sell creative work. In fact, you’ll be more successful if you don’t.

So this week, let go of the pressure to be a salesperson. Be yourself and connect with customers like you would any human.

That’s how you hone your own unique approach to selling.

Instead of becoming something that you—and your customers—don’t want.

Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future issue of The Weekly Build?

You can:

• Reply to this email (I read every one)

• Leave a comment on this post (others might relate too)

However you send it—I’d love to hear what you’re wrestling with.

Leave a comment

New to The Creative Build?

I publish two posts a week to help creatives turn their talent into thriving, independent businesses:

• The Workshop (Mondays): Tools and frameworks you can put to work

• The Weekly Build (Fridays): Advice, mindset, confidence

Subscribe to follow along. You’re not building alone.

Subscribe now

Welcome to The Workshop–a weekly series with tips, lessons, and tools from the messy, behind the scenes side of building a creative business.

This post is free, but most issues of The Workshop are for paid subscribers. The Weekly Build, our weekly advice series for creative entrepreneurs, is always free. You can receive both in your inbox here:

Subscribe now

I failed once and I embraced the hell out of it.

Now? I own a jet. ✈️

And I don’t fail anymore.

Last week, I went to Istanbul.

For business. 💼

I conquered unified field theory and met my fiancée.

I used to not marry models or crush it in Turkey.

Now I do both. 💍 👊

All because of this one thing I learned.

What was it?

Man, it’s this whole complicated thing.

DM your email address and I’ll send you my entire system…

Bad Theater

I love a good LinkedIn humblebrag.

But this kind of (only slightly exaggerated) post is damaging for creative founders just getting started.

Humblebrags program us to think our story should follow the hero’s journey. Start strong. Fail. Learn from it. Rise above. Succeed. Brag post. Package and sell what you learned.

If our story doesn’t follow that formula? We’re actually failing. Not humblebrag failing. Close-up-shop-and-apply-for-jobs failing. I’ve fallen into this trap as a founder many times and it sometimes still pulls me in.

But humblebrags don’t just lead to unhealthy comparisons. They also diminish the role of failure in building a business. They limit failure’s time frame and brush past its impact. In the hero’s journey, failure exists to highlight greatness that the hero had inside them all along. It has a beginning and an end. When failure ends, the story ends. We imagine the hero living the rest of their days failure-free.

That’s not just bad theater. It’s a poor representation of what building a business looks like behind the scenes. If you’re building something meaningful, failure never ends.

But don’t let that discourage you! You don’t want failure to end.

The most successful businesses in the world fail every day. They’re constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, knowing that they’re going to fail at most things they try. That’s why they’re successful.

So it might be time for you to rethink your relationship with failure. It’s not something to react to or worry about. It’s a tool for your success. Maybe reframe it this way:

Successful founders don’t embrace failure. They cause it.

Launch Day Failure

Let me show you what that looks like from behind the scenes at The Creative Build. This series that you’re reading right now—The Workshop—failed last week.

Last Monday was the first time that I tried to monetize content with a paywall. Like ever. In my entire 25-year career.

I spent three days writing that first monetized post. Most of it was just thinking and taking notes on my couch. Had you been seated next to me, you would have assumed I was mostly napping. Maybe waking up every 15 minutes to write in a dream journal.

The LinkedIn experts said that my first monetized post had to provide value. I had to deliver something that my audience would be willing to buy. So I spent 24 hours building and designing a tool. A guide to help creative founders interview customers and sketch what they learn. It’s something I would have loved when I first started building businesses but with a twist for creative founders.

Here’s a link to the tool if you’re curious. No email required.

Get the tool

I showed the tool to a friend who has decades more experience doing this sort of thing. “Man, that’s going to kill on Substack. You’ll have 100 subscribers by lunch.”

So I made it the feature of my post. Wrote around it. Teased it in the title and the intro. Linked it in the text.

And what happened on the big day? Nothing. I got one click. No engagement or new subscribers.

I tried giving it away in my Linktree. I got a few more clicks but no downloads. Nobody who saw it wanted it.

My tool had failed.

So what’s the big lesson from this failure? What revelation will propel me from the ashes?

I don’t know.

Read that again. 👆

I’m starting a business, not living the hero’s journey or writing a LinkedIn humblebrag. “I don’t know” is an acceptable answer—and the most common one.

Evolving The Workshop

So my first go at monetization didn’t work. I don’t know why but I have three leading hypotheses:

• Maybe readers don’t need it.

• Maybe they need it but don’t know they need it.

• Maybe it’s not about the tool and I’m trying to force my entire university entrepreneurship course into weekly, 5-minute newsletter posts. I mean the math on that is wild. At the rate of one 5-minute lesson per week, it would take 11.5 years to cover the same ground that I do in a semester.

For now, I’m leaning into that last one. I still like the tool. I think I actually pushed the purpose of this publication to failure by trying to do too much. In response, I’m adjusting The Workshop to be something simple and more true to what a workshop actually is.

Workshop: An open, messy place where work gets done.

Maybe there’s something you can learn from seeing my mess or the messes others face in the process of building their business.

Or maybe you’ll find comfort in seeing that you’re not alone in your own mess.

So in addition to learning something about failure, you’re reading the first Workshop issue with that purpose.

What happens if this new direction fails? I’ll try another one. And I’ll keep trying until I find one what works.

The Founder’s Journey

The hero’s journey is alluring.

But founding a business isn’t theater. If it was, the audience would walk out during act one. Behind the scenes is always messy and sometimes boring. Cue me nap writing my post last week.

Yes, failure plays a role. But it’s not the hero’s foil. Failure is the main character.

It usually doesn’t result in eureka moments or breakthrough outcomes. Sometimes it doesn’t teach you anything at all.

When it does, it nudges you, daily, quietly, toward an almost imperceptible reduction in uncertainty.

In the moment, failure is all you feel. Only later—sometimes years later—can you see what it moved in you.

Your lessons? They’re mostly irrelevant to other founders. You’re building something that’s uniquely you serving customers who are uniquely them. You can’t package and sell what you learned. Anyone who tells you otherwise is literally selling you something.

But you can celebrate that movement.

Not because it has value for other founders. Because it has value for you.

Because you tested the boundaries of what’s possible for you.

That’s what I want to see in your humblebrag. Regardless of how the story ends.

Have any “ah ha” moments or your own failures to share? I’d love to hear them.

Reply to this email or leave a comment. Your insight might even shape a future edition of The Workshop.

Leave a comment

New to The Creative Build?

I publish two posts a week to help creatives turn their talent into thriving, independent businesses:

• The Weekly Build (Fridays): Advice, mindset, confidence

• The Workshop (Mondays): Tools and frameworks you can put to work

Subscribe to follow along.

Subscribe now

The Weekly Build is always free. It’s where I answer real questions and challenges from creatives building their own business. Every Friday, in your inbox.

Want to go deeper? That’s what The Workshop is for. You can sign up for both here:

Subscribe now

Do you price your creative work low because you’re afraid nobody will buy if you price high?

If so, you’ve got it backwards.

Pricing creative work too low is likely to keep buyers away.

I know. It’s counterintuitive. But stick with me and I’ll show you why this is true and how you can raise prices to unlock growth.

The Creative Pricing Paradox

Regardless of your creative field, you’ll run into this pricing paradox at some point. I saw two examples from the art world this week.

“I’m new to selling art. How should I price my 30” x 40” oil painting?”

This artist was seeking advice from someone more experienced. Several artists jumped in with bad advice. We’ll get to that.

The other example came from an artist with more experience.

“An art expert told me it’s hard to sell work for less than $5000. Another told me that I should ask for at least $10,000. I’ve never priced that high and it feels uncomfortable!”

This artist is close to a breakthrough for their art business and their livelihood. Their expert advisors understand the creative pricing paradox.

Pricing too low sells less. And this isn’t just limited to oil paintings.

Let’s look at the psychology of pricing (and buying) to see why.

The Misunderstood Law of Supply and Demand

You’ve probably heard of the law of supply and demand and know it has something to do with pricing. (Don’t worry, I’m not here to teach economics.) This law is often oversimplified:

If you price really low, you get a lot of demand. If you price really high, you don’t get much demand.

Creatives feel pressure to keep prices low to sell more work!

But this simplified version only kind of works for commodities. Commodity products are not emotional, can be made by anyone at low cost, and look exactly the same no matter who makes them.

Single-ply toilet paper is a good example. Every tissue manufacturer in the world makes cheap single-ply that’s exactly the same. When people buy it, they’re unemotionally choosing something cheap. Drop the price and you’ll sell more because some buyers will trade down from nicer toilet paper to save money.

But you’re not selling toilet paper. You’re selling an emotionally-charged, exclusive, branded experience that appreciates in value over time. No matter what creative field you’re in.

In economics speak–you’re selling luxury.

The Consumer Pricing Continuum

Ditch supply and demand thinking. It’s better to think about a continuum of pricing power that ranges from commodity products (like toilet paper) on the left to luxury goods (like private trips to space) on the right.

Luxury buyers don’t try to save money. They have money to spend and want something exclusive. Price becomes part of your brand. It’s a signal of the quality and exclusivity of your work.

The ultrarich pay millions for a few minutes in space, just to be among the first in human history who can do so. What would happen if prices dropped and anyone could afford a ticket? The wealthy would stop going.

Your work is the same. In fact, it’s even more exclusive than a private trip to space.

• You’re the only one in the world who can do what you do. Even space trip providers have competitors.

• Private space trips last minutes and burn money. Your work lasts a lifetime and appreciates in value.

• Your work isn’t blatant extravagance. It’s meaningful. And that’s increasingly rare.

If you price too low, you lose all of those benefits to your brand.

Buyers who seek them will overlook you because of your low price.

Shifting Your Mindset

I’m not saying to start charging millions today. It takes years to build a brand that commands millions.

But you should start thinking big. The value you bring to the world is worth a lot for people who will gladly pay for it. So go find them.

And if you’re just starting out, ignore advice like, “New artists should charge $2,000 for a 30” x 40” painting.” The amount your buyers are willing to pay is set by them, not other artists who priced low when they started out.

You’re also not new at this. You’ve probably been creating your whole life. You’re just undiscovered and that’s the ultimate in creative exclusivity. Use it.

This Week

Start experimenting with higher prices this week. It’s the best way to learn what your buyers are willing to pay.

Pick one piece or one offering that you’re especially proud of. Raise the price to a level that makes you uncomfortable. Have an original piece priced at $5,000? Make it $15,000. Offering a performance at $10,000? Make it $25,000.

Then try to sell it. You’ll be surprised at what you learn.

If your customers balk, they might not be your people.

That’s good to know too.

It just tells you it’s time to expand your horizons.

Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future issue of The Weekly Build?

You can:

• Reply to this email (I read every one)

• Leave a comment on this post (others might relate too)

However you send it—I’d love to hear what you’re wrestling with.

Leave a comment

New to The Creative Build?

I publish two posts a week to help creatives turn their talent into thriving, independent businesses:

• The Workshop (Mondays): Tools and frameworks you can put to work

• The Weekly Build (Fridays): Advice, mindset, confidence

Subscribe to follow along. You’re not building alone.

Subscribe now

Most creative entrepreneurs start selling too soon.

I get it. You're feeling the pressure. To pay bills, to turn your passion into income, to make it.

But your buyers have a story to tell that starts long before they meet you. And it keeps unfolding long after the sale.

That full story can teach you how to draw them to you, to keep them coming back, and to make them a fan for life.

Without having to chase them.

In this week’s Workshop, I’ll show you how to uncover that story.

And I’ll give you a powerful customer discovery tool that you can use today, complete with sample questions and space to sketch your insights.

The Arc Method™ Business Design

In the last issue of The Workshop, I introduced a business design method structured specifically for creative entrepreneurs. It ties every part of your business to what matters most to your customers, bending the arc of your customer’s story toward you because you improve their life in some way.

It also prevents you from building something just because “that’s what other people do.” You save time, money, and energy by focusing only on what matters to your customers.

Every customer story has five acts, borrowed from marketing and sales: Awareness, Consideration, Decision, Retention, and Advocacy.

Understanding what happens in each act helps you shape the right experiences to meet customers where they are and draw them forward.

An Emotional Arc

We tend to treat purchases as transactional. Customers part with money in exchange for something that benefits them. But every sale is actually emotional. We all have a unique emotional tie to both sides of any transaction. To our parting with money and to the benefit we get on the other side.

The emotional nature of buying is especially important to creative businesses. Your creative work is emotional work that’s designed for emotional impact. And your buyer brings their own emotional history to every decision. How they relate to money, how they chase or avoid certain feelings, what it means to “invest” in someone’s creative work.

Understanding the emotional journey through all five acts of your customer’s story helps you design a business to have the exact emotional impact your customers seek at every moment.

The Arc Method™ Customer Discovery

So how do you understand that journey?

You ask.

Customer discovery is simply learning your customer’s story. What they’re doing, thinking, and feeling before and after the sale. In simple terms, it’s interviewing customers. Either past customers or future ones you hope to serve.

But here’s the catch: people are notoriously bad at describing what they want in interviews. That’s why strong interviews rely on open-ended questions that get people speaking their truth. By comparison, yes or no questions actually cause people to subconsciously deny their own reality. They’ll say what they think you want to hear. Just to keep you happy or to avoid conflict.

To help with that, I created a printable discovery guide built for creative entrepreneurs.

Click this image to download it:

This six-page guide includes:

• A breakdown of the five acts in your customer’s story

• What you’re trying to learn and design in each act

• Five strong, bias-free interview questions per act

• White space to sketch, doodle, or write what you hear

Capturing your insights visually is powerful because it becomes a tool you can test with future customers later. (We’ll get into that next week.)

This Week

If you’re tired of chasing sales, this is your invitation to pause.

Print the guide. Talk to 5 real people, either customers or people like them.

And sketch their stories.

You’ll be amazed at what you learn.

Next week in The Workshop, we’ll talk about refining what you learned.

And how to start shaping a business that attracts the right people at the right time.

Have thoughts, questions, or an “aha” moment?

Reply to this email or leave a comment. I read every message and love hearing how your creative business is unfolding. Your insight might even shape a future edition of The Workshop.

Leave a comment

New to The Creative Build?

I publish two posts a week to help creatives turn their talent into thriving, independent businesses:

• The Workshop (Mondays): Tools and frameworks you can put to work

• The Weekly Build (Fridays): Advice, mindset, confidence

Subscribe to follow along. You’re not building alone.

Subscribe now

The Weekly Build is always free. It’s where I answer real questions and challenges from creatives building their own business. Every Friday, in your inbox.

Want to go deeper? That’s what The Workshop is for. You can sign up for both here:

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My day job is teaching business and entrepreneurship at an art and design university. At the start of every term, I hear some variation on this question:

“I’m not excited about learning business. Like at all. The few business classes I’ve taken were boring and I don’t remember anything. How can I make myself want to learn this?”

Traditional business education wasn’t made for you. That’s why it feels boring, forgettable, even hostile.

So let’s find a way to learn business that actually works for you.

Why Business Education Fails Creatives

Here’s the thing. Business education wasn’t designed for me either. (I’m honestly not really sure who it was designed for.) As an engineering undergrad, I took the required 5 courses to get a business minor and remember nothing about them. Not just because they happened at the turn of the century. (This side of it, mind you.)

About 7 years later, I completed an MBA program where I did learn something. But not because of the curriculum. I learned because I worked in a corporate strategy role and could immediately apply concepts in my work. The classroom lectures and assignments? Gone with the wind.

When I started teaching business to creatives, I knew I had to do it differently. If business education bored me, it would bore creatives 100 times as much. So my job isn’t to teach as I was taught in school. It’s to translate what I’ve learned in the real world into the language, mindset, and lived experience of creatives.

But you’re not in my classroom, are you? The good news is, as I’ve honed those classroom experiences, I’ve discovered they apply to creatives out here in the real world too.

Learn As You Go

Traditional business education is theoretical. Its textbooks and case studies force students to imagine situations they’ve never been in to apply concepts they may never use. It’s an expensive waste of time.

Instead, learn what you need when you need it. Don’t spend any time deep in business books learning theory if you don’t know when (or if) you’ll need it. Spend that time on your business and, when you see something unfamiliar, seek only the exact education and guidance you need for that moment.

Learn from a Coach

Your creative work is uniquely you. But you’re not the first person to build a business around their creative work. Much of what you need to learn has been learned and translated into building a creative business by successful entrepreneurs who are ready to give back to others facing the same challenges they once faced.

So find a coach or mentor who’s walked your path and is ready to give back. I know, asking someone to mentor you can be uncomfortable, can sound like you’re burdening someone. But a lot of creative entrepreneurs do this as a part of their business, in an effort to give back and support their income. If you find someone who does it for a living, it’s supporting another creative instead of being an imposition.

Learn Together

Nobody should try building a business alone for a whole host of reasons. I expect my students to learn as much from one another as they do from me. As I'm translating business to creative language, I'll be successful with some students but not all of them. The ones who get it can quickly translate for those who don’t.

So find a community of creatives who are building a business and grow together. You’ll learn from the successes and missteps of those around you. You’ll solidify your learning by teaching them and helping them grow. And you’ll have a support system in place when you need it.

These suggestions are all generalizations that come from my experience with creatives who need to learn business. But every person has their own style of learning that sticks. You’re unique in that regard too.

This Week

This week, reflect on how you learn. Do you thrive on theory? Or do you learn best by doing, hearing, watching? Write down the way you intend to learn business and then find a resource that aligns with it.

And reach out if you have any questions about specific resources I’d recommend. I’m always happy to point you in a direction that fits your learning style.

Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future issue of The Weekly Build?

You can:

• Reply to this email (I read every one)

• Leave a comment on this post (others might relate too)

However you send it—I’d love to hear what you’re wrestling with.

Leave a comment

New to The Creative Build?

I publish two posts a week to help creatives turn their talent into thriving, independent businesses:

• The Weekly Build (Fridays): Advice, mindset, confidence

• The Workshop (Mondays): Tools and frameworks you can put to work

Subscribe to follow along. You’re not building alone.

Subscribe now

Welcome to The Workshop–a weekly series where I show creatives tools and methods to build businesses that serve real human stories. Starting with your own.

This post is free to help you get started, but most issues of The Workshop are for paid subscribers only. The Weekly Build, our weekly advice series for creative entrepreneurs, is always free. You can receive both in your inbox here:

Subscribe now

Most business tools weren’t made for creative entrepreneurs. They’re rigid, lifeless, and built for corporate enterprises, not creative endeavors.

That’s a problem.

Because businesses, like great art, have to connect with people.

But most business tools forget that.

They strip the soul out of entrepreneurship and creatives feel it first.

The Need for Creative Business Design

We build creative businesses here at The Creative Build. But before you can build anything, you have to design it. In the business world, this means making choices like what types of customers you’ll serve, what you’ll sell, how it gets to customers, and what parts of your business will be run by partners instead of you.

Traditional business tools treat business like a machine, a set of parts to be optimized. They were developed for manufacturing companies during our industrial era. That approach misses the heartbeat of a creative business—the relationship between you and your customer. And it risks making choices that don’t serve you or your customers just because that’s the way businesses have always been built.

Instead, let’s build your business right from the start. Creative businesses thrive on human connection and story. So tools used to design and build them should treat human connection as foundational, not an afterthought.

What if we stopped mapping value propositions, channels, and partnerships first?

And started with your customer’s story?

Introducing The Arc Method™

The Arc Method™ is a business design tool built for creative businesses. Instead of diagramming what you want to sell, you start with what they are living through. You don’t sell stuff, you earn a role in their story.

The Arc Method™ designs your business around your customer’s story. Your goal is to be invited into their story as a long-term supporting character–and to be compensated for your role–because you improve the arc of their story in some way. Any choices you make about your business that are not tied to those goals should be avoided or scrapped.

The Arc Method™ uses storyboarding to visualize your customer’s emotional journey across multiple acts.

As an entrepreneur building a business, you choose business design elements throughout their story to influence it. The choices you make link to individual moments in your customer’s story.

Here’s how it works.

Customer Story Acts

The Arc Method™ borrows common stages of a sales funnel from marketing and sales: awareness, consideration, decision, retention, and advocacy. But instead of using these as goals to be achieved with marketing and sales tactics, they’re acts that describe movement in your customer’s story.

The storyboard describes what that movement looks like from their perspective. Some acts may have only one scene, some may have more. That’s okay. You’re not filming a movie, you’re building deep understanding of your customer. Start with the biggest emotional moment in each act. That’s often enough.

Let’s see what might happen in each act you’re an artist selling prints of your work:

• Awareness: Customers are becoming aware of a need that might be fulfilled by your work but they haven’t decided yet if they’ll do anything about it. Maybe they need to feel uplifted from a difficult moment in their life. Business design choices like storytelling-focused marketing, your social media presence, or your brand voice might get them to take action.

• Consideration: Customers are considering what to do about the need they feel. They could buy artwork but they could also do something else like take a vacation or visit a spa. Business design choices like partnerships with galleries, promotional bundles, and digital visualization tools on your website could move their story arc toward an art purchase.

• Decision: Customers are deciding what to buy. They’ve decided to buy art but haven’t decided who to buy from. But they want it to feel personal and they want it fast. So your business offers customization for your work, fast-turnaround, and local contract printing with next day delivery.

You get the point. The retention act, where you influence customers to stay customers, and the advocacy act, where you influence them to recommend you to friends, work the same way. Each business design choice is tied to a moment and a need for customers, bending their story arc toward a more positive outcome for them. By bending it toward you as a supporting character.

This Week

It doesn’t make sense to start making choices about what your business looks like until you can sketch out your customer’s story and understand how you want to influence it. So that’s where your business design–and eventually your build–should start.

In the next issue of The Workshop, I’ll show you how to start sketching out your customer’s journey. For now, think about what kind of customer you’d want to sketch. Are there behaviors, likes and dislikes, or common stories that you might imagine your customers experiencing?

Build hypotheses about your customers and take notes. Don’t worry about getting it right just yet. If you need inspiration, look to your own work. Ask yourself: What kind of transformation does my best work spark?

And download a free, printable template of The Arc Method™ by clicking the image below.

Next week we’ll use it to start sketching your customer’s story together.

Have thoughts, questions, or an “aha” moment?

Reply to this email or leave a comment. I read every message and love hearing how your creative business is unfolding. Your insight might even shape a future edition of The Workshop.

Leave a comment

New to The Creative Build?

I publish two posts a week to help creatives turn their talent into thriving, independent businesses:

• The Weekly Build (Fridays): Advice, mindset, confidence

• The Workshop (Mondays): Tools and frameworks you can put to work

Subscribe to follow along. You’re not building alone.

Subscribe now