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Lesson Info

Define Your Offering Discussion

Uh so we talked about these three topics of creativity spirituality and making a buck and we've broken them out so far so we had a session the second session was first with the overview of the second session was on the idea of how did to mindfulness meditation practices away of focusing and clarifying the mind that we used to do all these other activities with and then now they're knocking they want to come in and and then um the idea of um what is creativity which is sort of like I think it's like wrestling with a greased pig I felt like that whole last session we were having a lot of fun but the pig one and it got out of the barn and it's like we still maybe didn't nail what creativity is risen but I think the key point taking it forward and where are our workshop really hits the road where the rubber hits the road is deciding if our creativity is going to be the source of our livelihood or not and as I said that's a major life decision nobody can really do that for you and I myself ...

just we fear about it have a times huh had to shift focus you know I remember getting married and having a young child and it's like okay, you know the bills are a little more relentless in that situation um and sometimes it means doing something near your creative area I think julia like what you were talking about, it's still very creative and using your graphic sensibilities and that's still that's still a very viable thing. So, um, we have to be a flexible that way, but we're really talking about what? How we can channel our creativity and turn it into something that is a viable business opportunity, very special, unique topic in a way I'm not all that often spoken about, like most people, I don't have a had no training in it whatsoever. So, you know, I talked to friends it's, like I went to berklee college of music. Now they have it, but in back in the day, I said, why don't you let me just come in and teach people what it's really like out there once you have these this degree on duh, you know, how do you talk? How do you figure out who the contractors in town are, you know, who's, hiring people and what you really need a tuxedo to do a casual gig as a musician, you know, all those kind of things there's, a famous story about this guy who called fifty bass players in new york for a casual, casual means like, you know, lounge gig or a wedding or something like that? So he said you just show up on the corner of fifty first street in eighth avenue within your tuxedo with your face you know, upright bass so there's fifty oh, you know um has nothing to do with what we're talking about you know? Okay, so what we are talking about though is showing up with your base and your tuxedo and if that's your offering right um if that's what you're doing you got to be there. So what is our offering and uh what we can look at here is making a buck here and there when they were in the business section the need to create maybe a personal one but for an artist creation to serve a market or an audience we must be aware of the needs of others wow that's an interesting point somehow you must be aware of the needs of others so here's where are in in our world and our outer world come together and how does it meet the needs of others? And if we can frame it in some way that doesn't meet the needs of others how would how would we tell them what it is that we have to offer? What is it that we have to offer? What is our offering? So I think I wanted to use this notion of the bubble bubble logic like each one of us is inside a bubble in a way, that's are, you could describe your whole being as being a bubble, the south bubble, the julia bubble, the and bubble that's your whole little world has all your little shelves and tools and little ornaments and things that are important to you. We spend most of our lives inside that bubble, even when we're in with other people, most of you, you notice when you're meditating, you don't see the other people's bubble, you see your bubble in great detail. So inside the bubble we need teo begin to formulate the offering inside the bubble, but then we need to get outside the bubble to offer it and there's all kinds of sizes of bubbles like, for example, couples have a bubble you might be in in a couple bubble right now, there's two of you and you're sharing those ideas, and in each of your minds, you're both big stars are big, you know, successful people, but you have to get outside a couple bubble now and present to you a larger environment, and even groups have bubbles, you know, it's really interesting there's some let's say you work for the government as kind of a bubble uh, now you moving into the private sector that's a different kind of bubble that's a different world so the idea of our offering being cooked inside the bubble and then offered outside the bubble you know is maybe something that we could you could think about um the need to create a personal one, right but in order to serve a market or an audience we have to connect with people outside the bubble so uh what is the offering to find it and this is going to be interactive here um here's the deal on this you're going to get feedback from people so you should be doing this so you do that's so great you know it's up to you and this is the painful process of maturity and individuated we realize that not your mother not your father, not your teachers nobody is going to be able to tell you definitively what you should do not even oracles you know you can go get your tarot cards read and you can go get I had a friend who is trying to figure out you know a knish you and she's reading the ching and throwing tarot cards I said stop you could do that once then take the message and do something with it but if we keep going back to our friends to our advisors and trying to get you know more and more information about what other people think we should do eventually we're just going to get lost so at some point something inside of us goes this is who I am this is what I like to do let me take a shot with him from that you're offering can take there may be more than these but these the ones I came up with a service you know for example I have a friend in new york who's the hair stylist she offers that service I go there once every five weeks it may not look like it and she cuts my hair you know she does a great job at it jeep if you out there salaam aleichem my dear new york sister you know so that's clear isabel she's got a place she's got the tools the instruments you go there I know what it costs she does a good job she follows up on it it's fun to be there this is someone who is really clear about what they're doing they're offering is really really clear very very helpful now she has other things that she likes to do is doing them on the side at the moment um so counseling people and things like that it could be a product um you know goodness gracious who invented the bottle opener when you like to be the person who invented the can opener somebody came out you know they didn't use have cans yeah you have to get the food out of the ground and eat it but some genius came up with the idea let's put in cans and we can preserve it for a long time and then somebody came along said, uh, sorry day, but we can't figure out how to get them open there's a business opportunity I mean, we should be looking around in our world all the time if we're creative people going there's a can has no opener so that's a product right? We could be designing a product that is already has an established market or that needs to have a market created for it. The other thing that we can create as an offering his intellectual property very interesting topic in today's age. Speaking of south by southwest, I was at south by southwest three or four years ago, and there was a very intelligent man on a panel I don't know what his name was said that intellectual property is going to be extinct in about eighty years no such things and can you imagine no intellectual property? You write a book and you don't have any rights to it all you create music, you don't have any rights to it all we're practically there already with him with the music industry and probably photography uh, anything that could be digitized basically can be stolen much more easily so that's a really insane question, but for the moment and since we're doing this in two thousand fourteen intellectual property is a suarez I'm concerned the best of all three and the reason is because intellectual property multiplies while you're sleeping you know if you have a service you have to be there provided so it's hour by hour your time is what's involved if you have a product if one unit by one unit yourself you can sell a lot of that's really good news but intellectual property is something that at least now on the system we currently have can produce offspring has what we call the long tail in the business so you're offering let's figure out what you're offering is and even if you don't know maybe we can use a little time together here too figure out what our offering is comes from who we are, what we're good at and what we create in our life to present to others um if we don't get clear about this if we don't get focused about this it's obvious to anybody who is we'll see that you're not that's that's how the business world works people who are focused and clear about these things will see that you're not or that you are and honestly you can if you are you'll find a spot and you'll find it pretty quickly but like for example I remember when I had my company selling the computer music systems and I needed a front desk person and it was a small company of time we need somebody who could could do the front test stuff so a woman comes in and you look at her resume and I think if you does everybody here have a resume? Yeah, you know, if you don't, I don't have one because I don't need shouldn't say this out loud. I don't need a job in the moment, no, because I keep making things captain from previous things, but if you need a job and you need work, your resume is people like you who are used to looking at them comptel really, really fast if you're in sync with what you're trying, how you're pitching yourself. So for example, somebody came in for that office job and color me beautiful shed all kinds, hair design things on there and she's applying for a job as a secretary, I don't care about that she's not gonna design my hair, so diversity is good, you know sometimes, but if your resume says, hey, my offerings all over the place and in fact I don't know who I am and what it is that I'm offering what my product service their intellectual property is, I'm taking a big risk, hiring you at that point, I'm not sure what you're going to bring, and I'm not sure if you're gonna stay with it either so this is an interesting thing is the clear you are about it um the easier it's going to go and we can't fake being clear about it there's process there and we've talked about in the sandbox and not knowing and entertaining some degree of uncertainty but at some point you need to get clear and focused and nobody else can do that for you and maybe you know sometimes a life coach or consultant or somebody can help me get her back here back but it's gotta come from us um what who we think we are what our offering is and it's really clearly defined so that somebody else can really see you know it's something that's so obvious when you have the experience from the other side like of hiring people or or financing something or you can see how clear of somebody's presentation is and immediately figure out if you want to get involved or not so um want to pause there for a minute and give you all the chance to define your offering okay and if you out there in a virtual land I invite you to jump into this point and right in um where are you in terms of defining you're offering and clarifying if you could get up here let's say somebody was here we could hire you tomorrow what you gonna tell them uh or by your artwork or by your record or you know hire you to run a nonprofit whatever or direct a movie you know what how do you define yourself? What is your offering and also where is the lack of clarity and focus there because this is a workshop it's a process where we're allowed to look through the rough edges of this thing right now we're not um we're rehearsing is the rehearsal so if you don't mind let's have that start with the people here the live gang and um you know tell me who you are and what you're offering us and let's take it past the point of I wish I kinda sorta you know this is your this is your defining moment uh is not interesting tio okay, so I truly do want to lead a revolution to destroy the artists to starving artist mythology and why why do you want to do a whole revolution reason I want to do it is because I know it's you know not everyone is going to come along because it's fundamentally destructive and disrespectful and there's another option so you want to bring that you want to bring that to people you want to like enlighten them in the sea do yeah I feel really passionately about it feel very strongly about it so define that as an offering them what do you offer? The offering is very specific so the offering is that I've defined a methodology which isn't sequential it's it's theater of attractive process, which has eight steps it's a road map really, and not to build a creative enterprise and it's this road map that I used in the road map that I've taught other artists to use. So it's a method it's a method you're offering us a method correct it's, intellectual property, intellectual property? How would you protect that method like, for example, once you publish it once what's to keep it from just people take the method and run with it? Well, they could I mean, I've registered with what I've produced so far with the copyright office, you know, what's copy written about method, what the book that I've written and my name, the brand, the whole thing, the khan, the content, not the name for the trade dress or anything like that hasn't been, but the the content has been the course. So you're offering what we characterize this intellectual property in particular a method for particular neige, a group of people who are artists, right, how to stop having ahh lower view of what their value is in relation to, I think helping them make art, make money and that could and then and then specifically understanding what their mission is understanding, defining an unique value proposition, identifying a target market and the process involved in that which is daunting I think for um I think it's daunting for a lot of artists okay but you know we're staying with you yeah yeah yeah okay I understand your inspiration but what am I doing what would your pitch be let's say I'm a potential customer what would you let's say I'm a potential buyer of your uh intellectual property of your method I want you to see I want to look at your mouth and evaluate and see if I want to purchase it I think it's really about you know it's learning out of it's the name of the maiden name my website making art making money so if you're interested in learning more about making art making money this is this how to do it how do it yeah and how's it going so far it's good it's in the it's in the beginning middle stage ok but it's getting it's getting lift so it's exciting what's beautiful is is that we go along this afternoon tomorrow we'll talk about how you marketing it you know how how well how deeply have explored the market how aware of the competition are you were going to be looking at all those I'm excited yeah good okay so but that's clear you're offering is very clear it's intellectual property it's a method that is how to make money making art it's also the intellectual property really can yield products to know like what books you know but you know training's ok um okay, so I think yours is clear and then maybe the execution is the part that you will be drawn into a cz you go forward how to execute that and then you know if you have that focus and that offering and you figure out how to market it and then you know, theoretical result would be you yourself have figured out how to not because being how to not be a starving proponent of on starving artists I did already figured that out for myself no, no, no no that's different you figure that out, which is a great ground, but you will figure out howto how to be a successful proponent off the method I'm not being a starving arts, which is a different business that that is a different business and selling your own art that's what? Who a target market abs but it's interesting because it's, based on your own experience which is like everything I'm talking about is fortunately based on my own experience so you can shake me and turn me upside down and I say no, no, no this is actually the way the way that things work. So you're going from the ground of your own experience and your own journey, which is a very powerful like what we said you're offering is coming from out of who you are and what you've experienced all right that's great. Thank you what's the name of your website making art making money dot com o k we don't mind plugging in a little bit doing uh okay, who else is going to talk about defining you're offering okay um so director so that I think the service and I think specifically it has to do with it I thought about it a lot recently I said primordial director so if we broke it up because obviously that isn't really a cocktail the conversation are easy word that's to do with there's a mythic element to any thing that I try to direct in the sense that there's like some kind of relations to a larger sense there's a natural element which is to say like natural forms natural pieces something based in nature and then there's a subjective like a highly subjective something going on individual something individual going on so that I may be that needs more clarity but I think it has to do with things that happen often in nature or with natural elements like the wood stage or the wood in the other room to me that's really important ads you're going to direct would no but that would comes in as an element of the pieces that I'm directing now in terms of frame where we put together of heaven and earth where are you? Are you in heaven or earth at the moment heaven I would say yeah okay so bring it down and help this poor unsophisticated fool over here tell me what you're actually going to do what you're offering us um direct movies about people struggling to have a relationship with with uh larger meaning in their life okay so so eh that's got two parts is I want to direct movies and b I have this inclination towards this particular zone off movie directing yeah, right a zone uh if you had the opportunity direct movies with it would you preclude other types of movies were so if somebody says hey you could will hire you to direct a movie but it's not about that would you be is now you offering is not is not intact it's interesting what I tend to do including my work here this isn't narrative filmmaking but it is kind of in my mind there are elements of what I love about directing so there there's the mythic element you know, the plot is like this enlightenment plot where we come to talk to a master and we learned um so it kind of depends I think what I'm trying to find out is where those lines have to be hard where they are soft uh okay yeah so there's some exploration going on for sure right now you're in a kind of which is fantastic we're talking about allowing space for transition and things like that but that I got a lot more justus listen, I got a lot more clarity about what? You know what it is you your vision is I think assed we go down the list here I'm gonna come back to you okay? Okay, okay. Uh what's the market for that. How are you going to go about putting that out there? And and how is that going to manifest and pretty earth? And you're a little heaven at the moment, you know, in terms of what we talked about it I love this idea of heaven on earth so it's a balance between the two it makes it such a so poetic, but it makes it makes complete sense. This comes from this is part of the tradition that I studied which is shambala and buddhism and it's a very, very key concept joining heaven on earth when you, uh melissa is not here, but when you do flower arrangement in those cultures there's those three principles are supposed to be present, which is the heaven principles you put the first sort of you and creates the ark and the height of it. And then you put the earth element. This is not really done according to his pencils, but interestingly, if it's not far off you know which might be fern around the bottom or something and then you put human human beings are the ones that connect a tte the middle level they connect heaven on earth so it's a very cut through a lot of cultural uh windows but in particular in these cultures it's ah it's about how to create kind of unenlightened situation a positive balance situation and that express itself is a lot of different ways leadership at the top you know people working you know moving the moving the sets are out you know and when having an earth disconnect then you have disharmony cast when the connective harmony and balance but it's a very old very old notions all right define your offering step up to the plate here it's like casey era I would say I'm a visual creative storyteller ok and what I do is I make your marketing material beautiful okay I make people want to read a okay that's a good there's a good pitch in there so I have let's say for example a company like creative live comes and says we have this idea we want to pitch you could help them tell their story usually in graphics and advertising things like that and graphics and photos uh and how is that going that often is pretty clear is that is that what you do all day every day for now? Yes freelance okay, so that's gonna be another thing of course assumes you have your offering this freelance what else you have to do your own sales and marketing that's boys that challenging for entrepreneurs individual operators so that's going to hold other topic if you need somebody else to represent you do you have to develop those chops yourself okay so that's good so that's very clear that's uh you know of course what would happen and again you know kind of bouncing back and forth if I was a potential client if I were a potential client first thing and says show me you're talking about visual something within the first two minutes I'll be looking to see your portfolio what have you done I'd be looking for credentials who did you do it for you know so that's another we're going to get more into that but you're offering it's pretty clear what you like to do you looked relaxed with your talking about it you look like you've thought about it you know you've done some of it so then it would come back to everybody in the next round of the sales and marketing so the what's your defined you're offering I want that digital design is that you're offering is that your final over e I mean that's what I do yeah but is it now you're offering to be a service of product or intellectual property comes from who we are what we're good at and what we create in our live to present two others yeah it's all of those things okay are you content I mean I want to be doing other things as well like okay all right so you'd like to have, uh, more diverse offering but that one's working for you yeah isn't paying the bills you know uh you'll see that as we go on one of the other other we'll get into the business side it's like one of the slogans is and it's worth repeating don't not feed the cash cow yeah somebody's grazing on your property and giving you the milk you gotta think twice three times four times before you walk away yeah especially it seems close you using a lot of your talents that you would use in the other thing in this thing, right? Yeah, totally I guess it's just about integrating other things you're kind of so what other offerings that you like to have? I mean I'd like to make more art about uh like what? Like a fish a lot and did a lot yeah what's stopping you um I guess it's really just like I prioritized other things in my life you know it's so easy to be lazy basically okay, yeah. Okay. Laziness is going to come up a little later. Yeah, so if you have one thing you're doing for like for the money and you want to do another thing boy, can you not afford to be lazy that's really uh you know that's really a tough one because you're, you know, if you're trying to change horses in midstream, you have toe really be managing, you know, kind of two different things at once. So that's okay, that's, good, but you like your job. Overall, it sounds like, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, so you have a good offering, it's. Not your ultimate offering, maybe, or maybe it's part of your ultimate offering, but I've seen worse in terms of people going. I hate my job, yeah, okay, so you don't feel that way, right? And you work for a company or an employee, right? Not freelance. Okay, so it's a whole nother topic, freelance versus working for somebody.