I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same
place when they can fly anywhere on the earth, then I ask myself the same
question.
– Harun Yahya
So here we are - one day we woke up (in Dallas, TX, fyi) and
the calendar has turned over to 2015, and if you’re like me you wonder how the
hell that happened. Wow.
Our Word of the Year last year was “FOCUS”. And for the
most part we did, starting with a hard look at our basic business model and how
can we make it better. The answer? Change it. Do more of what works and stop
doing what doesn’t (anymore). Search for the best, match it up to the results
and set the rest aside along with old traditional method. We didn’t stop there,
nothing was off limits right down to how and where we work and live, and how
that affects (and effects) a creative life. More on that someday.
And now we’re into a new year. The market for licensed
art has not diminished as much as people like to say it has, there’s plenty of opportunity.
The fundamentals are the same – you still need a creator who has mastered their
tools to create products that tell a story. But the percentages have changed -
what that story is, how it’s delivered and what will be paid for it is in
constant flux.
But here’s a secret: it has always been that way. We
focus in on our little microcosm of “art licensing” and compare today to how it
“used to be” a decade ago and of course it’s different; some things are more
difficult, some less. Easy digital submission means the bandwagon is getting
crowded, to the point where clients are tuning out all the noise (along with
some of the substance because when everyone has a megaphone no one gets heard).
Advances are gone, shelf time is minimal and trends are vague. Just as no one
can predict the future, in today’s hyper-active paranoid retail market no one
can predict licensing success either. But it takes more effort now to get less,
that much we DO know. Which is pretty much the same lament heard since the dawn
of commerce.
So this leads us to “what now?” I think in a rapidly
shifting market artists that want a licensing career need to become light on their
feet. Change the statement “I do this…” to “I tried this…”, and use the phrase “well,
that didn’t work” more often. The ability to take a step back, evaluate the
impact of your work on the market and then allow
the results to impact your work will be paramount.
This is an important facet of our Word for 2015:
EXPLORE.
It’s more than just sales numbers however. It’s all the
other words we did not choose as well: interesting, exciting, intriguing,
exceptional. It’s moving off the path of what used to work and how we used to
do it, and heading down the road of what we LOVE to do--what’s interesting,
exciting, intriguing, exceptional… because when you do those things the story
shines through. And if the story doesn’t resonate with the market then we go looking
for a different story. Learn to move on - grinding yourself into dust by
continually executing on a plan that doesn’t work is such a waste of talent and
opportunity.
EXPLORE.
It’s a big world. Passion is not supposed to be a prison.
It’s the fire that powers you and you get to steer it, not the other way
around. Just as creativity is not random, neither is your passion and you can re-direct
it to find a workable audience. Ignore any voice that says you can’t including
your own.
EXPLORE
In business, the chances of getting it exactly right the
first time are infinitesimal. There is a reason concepts like pivot, iteration
and minimum viable product are all the rage – because that’s how it works, that’s
how you get there. It’s a process. “Well, that didn’t work” is much more than
just an acknowledgment, it implies a course of action: Next!
EXPLORE
Because you love it. Open oysters looking for pearls, search
for the tenth Muse, throw things against the wall because it’s fun to throw
things against the wall. Work your idea machine. Businesses go through hundreds
of ideas to get to the right one, so it’s crazy to believe that it will be
different for you. Continual experimentation is the new normal. You want to
create something magical to rise above the clutter, and once you get there it’s
temporary, so keep that river flowing. The worst you can hear is no, so get out
there and EXPLORE!
Happy New Year!
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