i used to think you either sell out or starve...
until I found a third option
I don't know about you.
But this feels fundamental.
If you want to get paid for being you.
(if that's not your jam, feel free to skip this email)
Let's back up. Rewind 10 years.
Add:
- ironed shirt,
- starched pants,
- and tie.
Remove the beard.
Back then, I was convinced we have to choose:
a) The starving artist
b) The sleazy sellout
I thought artists were just flaky bums.
I didn't see myself as a creative dude.
At all.
The paycheck.
A trade for my principles.
Culturally programmed not to question this...
I love the Dead Poets Society.
One of my fav. Robin Williams films.
Yet...
A prime example of perpetuating the divide:
He tells us business is a noble pursuit.
Necessary to sustain life...
Think of all the other genre films.
Always an air of despair around our artistic characters.
Hence...
The image of the starving artist.
Deep in our unconscious.
Don't get me wrong.
I don't think an artist needs no tension.
Quite the contrary...
The war of art and the individual (creator) struggle is real
But.
What is art?
We're conditioned to think of obvious forms…
Painting
Drawing
Dancing
Singing
Filming
Writing
Acting
What do all these have in common?
You guessed it.
The individual.
It's not the medium.
It's the creator.
Your life is the ultimate art project
Frame it like that why don't you.
Business is then but another canvas.
Now with the elephant out of the room.
Feels a lot more spaciousness.
Time to take on a new perspective.
Master the art of marketing, sales, and service
This sounds dangerously similar to...
...acquiring skills with different mediums.
(fck around and find out)
Don't it?
All of a sudden.
It just feels like honing a new craft.
Tension between you and the “marketplace”?
(fancy speak for people, m'Kay)
Just another day in the war of art.
The pain through which art becomes manifest.
What about the faceless businessman Aleks?
Ah yes.
Almost forgot.
Too-big-to-fail business as usual routine
A soulless undertaking.
Mindless extraction at scale.
No wonder we're quick to label profit-seeking.
As nasty business.
Greed.
Utter disregard for life.
(human and otherwise)
It kinda leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth...
And cynical about business at best.
Back up for a sec.
Isn't the marketplace but a sum of human relationships?
I've got pretty fond memories.
Growing up and playing outside school:
Devising marvelous games
Swapping glossy stickers
Trading colorful marbles
What is business then?
If not the most organic of human activities.
Commercial relationship building at its finest.
Minus the existential angst and transactional abstraction
The faceless transactions.
Take the soul out of the most basic of human interactions.
Taking out the individual stories.
Void of human interaction at every step…
This then makes every act against the grain...
An act of bringing heart, soul, and relationship back into business
This is an act of creative rebellion.
Isn’t this the masterpiece we all desperately crave?
Looking to launch or amplify your creative project?
I work with purpose-driven creators 1:1.
1 spot is freeing up soon as we’re wrapping up with a project...
If that’s you, drop me a note, and let's chat.
No sleazy sales pressure or commitments.
Oh, and this is not one of them scarcity tactics.
I'm raising my 2 kids in the mornings.
So a very limited bandwidth for intense 1:1 work at any given point in time.
Find me on LinkedIn
Or IG perhaps
—Your Creative Corrections officer
Aleksander Brankov