Take More Time Explaining Your Art

Art- Photo by Benkay Creative Commons

Take your time assessing what you created.

Take your time explaining the beauty of your art, so we can absorb the magnitude of your creation.

Your photograph, your book, your painting, your company, the album you just finished, the car you restored, or the software release you just finished.

Don’t just move on to the next project.

Think about how long it took you (or short), how many obstacles you faced, and the crux decisions that you had to make.

That wasn’t easy right?

How many others would have thrown in the towel if faced with the same challenges?

You see most people either do not ever start or quit before they are finished.

Not you.

Beauty is very subjective.

Since you are a finisher, a winning horse, then you earned your victory lap around the track.  So take your time sizing up what you have accomplished and explaining the beauty.

As the artist you have the power to enlighten our eyes by offering a peak behind the curtain.

You will find that your creation or accomplishment is more beautiful to others once they hear the story.

Share the story, share the art, and take your time explaining them both.

Here are a couple of finishers that I have had the privilege of seeing behind the curtain with:

 @CaryPierce1 and @Thegoodrun just released a new album.
@VanceBrown just released his first book.
@Fuelpricing knocked out an epic software release.
Bluff Works just smashed their Kickstarter campaign goal.

What is your story?

What did you just ship?

Love to hear about it.

You Knowing Something…..About Something

What is it that you know?

What is it that you have mastery expertise in?

What have you logged countless hours perfecting?

What will you do with what you know?

How will you value it?

How will you share it?

How much longer will you wait?

Comparing Ourselves

Most people under value their expertise and dismiss its value because it seems small in comparison to (insert your comparison).

My neighbor testifies before congress on his area of expertise in missile defense.

Makes it easy to say “well I don’t testify before congress”.  Right?

I was on a call with a professional acquaintance and I explained to him what I do during @ my day job.

“I have been in the War Rooms of some of the largest Oil companies in the world and am privy to discussing their market strategies, competitive positioning and financial performance.”  

He said, “That is worth a lot in the market.

He asked, “Do you know anyone else who knows this much about the Gasoline markets in the US?”

My answer, “No I guess I don’t.”  There are a handful of people who I have met who have similar expertise, yet I never valued this niche insight before.  

As a result I have started interacting with a publisher of a trade magazine contributing ideas for articles.

Was Fame His Goal?

Fred Beckey was recently featured in Patagonia’s catalog giving honor to a noteworthy and legendary climber.  He is known for having pioneered over 100 first ascents in his 70 year climbing career.

That means that he was the first guy to the top of a mountain on a route or peak that was never climbed before.

I am sure if you asked him when he started climbing alpine routes in the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest was he doing it so he could write a guide-book that would be sold by Patagonia?

Answer: “No”.

And decades later, what he knows, what he has experienced, turns out to be highly valuable to some people.

Will it be a New York Best Seller?  Probably not, but does that diminish its value?

You decide.

Key Questions

Is it important how much it is worth $ in order to pursue?

What do you know that is worth something to someone else?

How much is it worth?

Does it have to be worth an exchange of money for it to be valuable?  

What if the worth is simply knowledge exchange?

What will you do with what you know?  How will you value it?  How will you share it?

Get started.

Good Relationships Equal Good Business

Recently on a trip to Nashville, TN an older wiser man told me “From good relationships comes good business”.  Although some may claim that is obvious, few choose that narrow road.

This week our software company has received two significant referrals to prospective customers.  Yes our software solution is solid and very compelling.  However, that is not the primary reason the customer is willing to jump on a call with a competitor to sing our song.

The relationship that we have invested in is worthy of sharing.  Through thick and thin, we have shown our true colors.

Software can be copied.

Relationships have to be forged.  And few are willing to put in the work.

Cultivate good relationships like you would care for your own private garden.

Your business will have a great harvest.

It is More Difficult to Be Chosen in a Noisy World

You shouldn’t base your future success on the number of Facebook likes you have.

A retweet is not a success.  Nor is the number of empty followers you have collected in trade for shallow allegiance.

You need more than this to be sustainable.

Social Media has a catch.

Yes Social Media has changed the opportunity for you to offer your Art to the world.

But there is a catch.

The mass of content being generated today compound by the immediacy of distribution is making it more difficult than ever before to be chosen.

Previously in history distribution was the major challenge in order for your innovation to reach the masses.

Today, with the click of your mouse you can distribute and deliver everything from your musing thoughts to a product that you created with recycled material in your basement.

And you are among a sea of competitors adding to the noise attempting to allure eyeballs, ears and hearts.

How will you and I be any different?

Two formulas of Social Media today:

1) Ease of communication x large crowds = higher probability of being noticed.

2) More content x short attention spans = quickly move on to something else.  

Understand how ideas and products are accepted.

The Diffusion of Innovation graph is often used when dissecting the stages and speed of adoption.

Key ingredients required are:

  1. The Innovation (Your Art, business, book, music, message)
  2. Communication Channel (Blog, Social Media)
  3. Time
  4. Social System (The Crowd, Your Tribe)

Although we have never had a vaster Communication Channel it has become saturated and polluted with noise.

In today’s instantaneous e-world the speed of adoption is accelerated.  Yes, you can indeed know within hours or days if your Kickstarter campaign is going to be funded.  The downfall is the speed of departure has increased as well.

How many Kickstarter campaigns are there to choose from before they choose yours?

Fickle Faster

The world is rapidly becoming more fickle, faster. In order for your innovation or Art to be adopted it has to be plucked out like a small needle in a one tall haystack standing in a thousand acre field at harvest time.

Your innovation or creation may instantly receive massive distribution but there is another one right behind it to capture the attention of the adopters.  The “Like” button or a re-tweet requires so little allegiance or conviction.  And the brevity of the impact is fleeting.

Sustainability is still core to survival.

Continual value over time is infinitely more important than a spike, a peak or even a dip in your Google Analytics stats.

The issue is that the information globe has increased its speed of rotation. The rotation increase has caused more of our vision to be blurred. We see more, but we see it at such a high speed that it is something like driving down the Las Vegas strip at 100 MPH.

Yes, we saw it.

Yes we were there, but none of it sticks.

What do we do?  What choices do we have?

  1. Invest your time in original creations, not knock offs and redistribution of someone else’s Art.
  2. Turn off your Google Analytics and offer your Art to those people who have already chosen you.
  3. Change your definition of what it means to be rich and famous.

Learning How to Swing for Cheap

“I figured out how to swing cheap“. Clay Hebert

I was on the phone with @Clayhebert and I couldn’t help but write down this quote.  In today’s electronic world most of what you need to get started is already free or cheap.  It means that you do not have to wait to save $1000.00 or $10,000.00 to get started on your idea.

I remember in the early 90’s when the idea of having your own website would require that you fork over $5K to get four pages.  Today, in three minutes for free.

So much of what once required a specialist, now only requires an internet connection and your PC.

The below tools are some that my team have been using.  I hope you find them useful.

Change This-has a great list of manifestos e-books authors include: Seth Godin, Hugh MacLeod, and more.

Guy Kawasaki’s Garage.com has some practical tools like: PowerPoint slides for investors, Business Plan Outline & Operating Income Plan Excel sheets.

$100 Startup is a new book from Chris Guillebeau.  Start with watching his video.

What are you starting on?

The How of Your Life is the Essence of your Special Sauce.

What you accomplish is less important than how you accomplish it.

Our Reward System is a Mess.

In our world today, we are rewarded and revered for What we accomplish.  But I believe the world has it all wrong.

Follow me as we scrutinize our lonely metric of empire building, wealth generation and conquest oriented success system.

The What of your life is easy to size-up.

  • You built a consulting practice from scratch.
  • You stood up a software company.
  • You made partner in your firm.
  • Your book sold a gazillion copies.
  • You started a non-profit for orphans in Swaziland.
  • You run a Fortune 1000 company.

But How you went about your What is only evaluated after you are gone.

If you are one of the greats, the How of your life will be detailed in a PBS documentary or New York Times best seller.

Most of us will not be personified in film and print after we are gone.

What will the lasting effect of your How be?

North Korea and the United States both maintain peace in their countries.

How this is accomplished evokes condemnation and admiration.

Donald Trump and Walt Disney both generate(d) a lot of wealth and were/are considered massively successful, the What of their life.

Which will change history for good?

Who would you follow?

Will The Apprentice reruns be played throughout every home in America fifty years from now?

A forefront example is Steve Jobs.

His What was on the cover of magazines affirming our beliefs about greatness and genius.

And now that he is gone, the How of his life is being unpacked.

How he erected the tower of Apple was not always as worthy of admiration.

Let me suggest to you, What you accomplish fails in comparison to how you accomplish it.

How you navigate life, family, and work is more important than what you accomplish.

Your How is difficult to copy, reproduce or fabricate.

Your How is actually your competitive differentiation, your special sauce, your art.

When you fuse What and How together it’s like the joining of atomic particles.

You engage a mushroom cloud of power, influence and goodness.  

Disregarding one or the other will leave you in want eventually.

Focus on your How today.

Your What will be of greater value if you focus on How.

Get Outside of Your Normal

Getting outside your everyday circles is like dropping a bunker bomb on your normal. Today I spoke with an Environmental P.H.D Economist.  How he thinks. What he thinks about. The zip code in which he resides.  The country he just returned from.  All of which are outside of my every day.

And it requires my brain to stretch and tear apart the synapses of normalcy.

I’ve never met with an alligator wrestler or a Prince of royalty.

I’ve never shared a meal with a refugee who lived in the Gaza strip.

But I have……

Cold called and interviewed the man responsible for the first Cubicle design for Herman Miller.

Shared coffee with the Sherpa who carried the IMAX camera to the summit of Everest.

Toasted over a glass of wine with David Robinson, Hall of Fame basketball player.

Cried over the stories of slaughter listening to a first person account of slaughter in Rwanda.

Normal is overrated.

Small is too small.

Live well. Choose Adventure.

Marinate-The Juices of Life

Soak, absorb, take-in, become, slow, the longer-the-better.

Much in life becomes better with age or in time.  The more time, the more the juices can be absorbed.  In life, business, family we tend to move so fast that we are unable to absorb and fully become conformed by our experiences.  We are always eager for the next thing.  And as a result, we rarely marinate in only one place, theme, thought, or season.  In essence we skip the aging process and deep flavor available to us because we’d rather just keep moving.

Marinating requires stillness.  The good stuff will never take its full effect if we don’t slow down long enough to take it into our veins.

This goes for pain as well.  Our survival nature prompts us to hurry past pain.  Of course, right?  But what if the lessons, the wisdom available from the experiences can’t be taught or the seasoning can’t infiltrate the core unless marinating occurs?

The juices of life can’t all be absorbed thru a blender, a microwave, a pill or a speed read.  Some of it, the best of it, just has to be experienced.  Sometimes on a slow simmer and soak.

What should you marinate in today?

The Greatness of Men’s Dreams

Over the past two months I have had the privilege of seeing Mount Rushmore, Independence Hall and the original Stars and Strips flag in the Smithsonian.  I am struck by the greatness of men’s dreams.  The dream of democracy was once only that, a dream, a vision, a far off someday.  And yet, with a lack of evidence or proof and with grave risk, our current freedoms were initiated.

These symbols are powerful emblems of our heritage as Americans.

I wonder what dreams that we have that beg to be birthed?  Although they may not be carved into a hillside or spark a song of national anthem.  What might they do to the world we live in today?

Risk much.

Dream.

Passion and the probability of success

Without passion, how will you be successful on your next project, your startup, your next …..?

Very few people are willing to hang their neck out on the limb of passion.

Most, would rather play it safe in the shelter of the safety of someone else’s.

With Passion, your probability of success is exponentially greater.

A fervent belief fueled by the rocket boosters of passion is difficult to duplicate, emulate or fake.

You either have it or you don’t.

If you pull a lever every day, then it is likely that you are resting under the umbrella of someone else’s plan.  Which can be very difficult and often those you are following have long since lost the passion that started their quest.

A good friend of mine has hung a shingle and issued a warning against the industry he is accusing of profit focus and not passion.  Buffalo and Company (about to become Buffalo and Jackson Company).   Xan is bringing passion and belief into a shallow shell of an industry-men’s clothing.  How can he not succeed?

Do you know how many times Howard Shultz heard from potential investors “no one will ever pay $3.00 for a cup of coffee”?  Starbucks founder, now has 12,494 stores worldwide.  How ’bout them apples?

What do you have passion for in your life today?  @ work? away from work? with your family? life goals?

See my latest encounter with Stefan Loble, founder of Bluff Works.  You will love his passion and excitement.  Click here for the full Podcast Interview.