A recap of episode 73 of the Cracking Creativity podcast. If you liked it, check out the full episode with Logan Nickleson where he why marketing has gotten such a bad rap, the most essential element for finding your audience, and how we can use psychology to our advantage.
Logan Nickleson has always had an admiration for the arts. When he was a child he liked to draw and paint. When he was 15-16 years old he started getting into music. And for college, he went into journalism.
While in college, Logan saw the changes that were happening in journalism. So he changed his major to advertising. This led to his internship at an advertising agency.
His internship turned into a full-time job, where he worked on numerous projects. It was during this time that a revelation came to him. While making short videos for clients, he was having a hard time finding music for his videos. So he decided to use his own music.
Inspired by stock photography sites like Death to Stock and Unsplash, Logan decided to take all the music he created, and started his own stock site. The only difference was his stock site would for music. Thus, Music For Makers was born.
In this episode, Logan talks about why marketing has gotten such a bad rap, the most essential element for finding your audience, and how we can use psychology to our advantage.
Here are three things you can learn from Logan:
Many artists and creatives believe marketing is a spammy tool to sell things, but that's far from the truth. Logan believes marketing gets a bad rap. "I think there's a perception out there to market yourself and your work, it's icky and you're like this salesman, you know, almost like the car salesman type. I think it's really just a lack of understanding of really it doesn't have to be that way."
Logan believes people just have a false notion of what marketing is. Marketing is often thought of as a bad thing, but it isn't. "I think it's just, mostly people have this preconceived notion of what selling your art or what marketing your art is, and... it doesn't have to be gross or pushy or whatever."
Marketing, in its essence is getting your product out in front of an audience. The problem is, most marketers are still trying to do it the old-fashioned way where they just spam their audiences. This is what artists think about when they hear the word marketing. That's why they think marketing is selling out. "There's a lot of artists that think that to try to push your art out as a business is kinda selling out. I think it's kind of a misunderstanding of the process really."
If you still think marketing means selling out, I urge you to listen to Logan, and discover for yourself what marketing really is.
One of the biggest troubles artists and creatives have is figuring out who our audience is. This is one of the most important, and often times most difficult, things an artist has to do.
The problem is, we usually go about it the wrong way. We believe everyone is our audience, and that is simply not true. Figuring out who your audience is involves finding people who are actually interested in your work as a starting point. "I think it just starts off with a basic critical thinking of... who's the most basic version of the person who is interested in this, and then kinda putting it out there, and then just revising and reiterating until you find the right audience."
It doesn't end there either. You can't just rely on your initial hunch of who your audience is. Knowing your audience is a continuous process. Your audience evolves as you do. That's why it's crucial for you to constantly reevaluate who your audience is. "I would say it's kind of a continuous process where you reevaluate to see whether... this is still the primary audience or are there other audiences out there who would love their product that don't have any idea that they exist... So the research is ongoing I would say."
One point that consistently came up during my conversation with Logan was the book Influence by Robert Cialdini. In the book, Cialdini talks about all the ways we are influenced by psychology.
One of these points is one of commitment. When we commit to things, we are more likely to follow through on them. So start small, and work your way up from there. "When we commit to something, we are a lot more likely to be consistent... If you can get somebody to commit to a small thing, you can then later convince them to commit to a bigger thing like buying your product."
Another thing we talked about was the idea of accountability. Accountability nudges us to do things we commit ourselves to. It helps motivate you when you don't feel like doing something. It helps get you to the finish line. It gives you compelling reason to do something. "It's about this idea about accountability. Kinda announcing that you're going to do this or whatever and using that as a motivator to make you actually follow through and finish... I think it's a critical piece to let people know and... ideally let there be some consequence if you don't follow through. It makes a more compelling reason to do the thing you're wanting to do."
In its simplest form, it is about survival. We aren't necessarily in physical danger, but those basic instincts that helped our ancestors survive can help us thrive. "All these kinds of psychological triggers and just the way we think, I find it really interesting because it all really goes back to human survival. That idea of... the punishment is more important to us than the reward is just basic survival that we as humans have kind of learned over years and years of trying to survive."
This is a replay of episode 27 with Lee Moyer. If you want an idea of what it's like to build a successful career as an artist and illustrator, look no further than Lee. He has some great advice that's worth re-sharing for those of you who didn't catch it the first time or for those who want to re-listen to Lee's great wisdom.
--
Lee Moyer is a polymath and illustrator who has been working for over 35 years. He has worked with book publishers, theaters, and game developers among many other things. In this episode, we talk about a lot of topics including learning from others, how to handle criticism and information overload, and his Kickstarter project The Doom that Came to Atlantic City.
Here are three things you can learn from Lee:
Lee is a big believer in learning from those who came before you. He never had a traditional art education and doesn’t think it is necessary to become a great artist.
In order to become a better artist, he studied under other artists and absorbed their knowledge. This allowed him to learn under the best and the brightest instead of going into debt by going to art school.
He is also a big believer in joining forums and learning from artists on the internet. These avenues make it easier than ever to become a better, more refined artist.
Lee believes criticism is an important part of becoming a better artist. Instead of letting criticism get to you, learn from what others are trying to tell you.
People who critique your work are using their own time and energy to give you constructive feedback. Listen to what they they have to say and instead of taking it personally. If people didn’t like you, they wouldn’t bother to critique you.
Everyone must deal with impostor syndrome. Even the late, great B.B. King was not immune from it. In order to overcome your feeling of not being good enough, you have to know and believe your work will turn out well.
Even when you feel like nothing is coming together, you have to work through it. You need to be stubborn enough to work through the lulls in order to create something great. Just keep working and you will be fine.