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Skype Interview with Rebecca Shapiro

Again, I'm honored to introduce you to someone who's been very practical and many ways so much better than me about partnering and she is herself on artist, as I'd mentioned before, she has an installation at portland airport and she's, an entrepreneur and she's, a, um new oregon representative for freelancers union, rebecca shapiro, and why I want to bring rebecca on so strange and on she can't see me is that's that wonderful mix of lively, creative, accountable does what she says she's going to dio on dh her arts in my home and she's helped other people, I think, and and she would just enjoy talking about ways that people make money from their art. But rebecca also, I just want to say I make it for you to tell us about the two partnering opportunities that you saw and the benefits out of them, and I don't know whether we want to start with awaken campaign, but hi and welcome to our world over here. Hey it's been great to watch you guys that it's been really fun. Why don't we start wi...

th the portland timbers hundred seven ists? So this is a really great group one hundred seven ist that ist stands for independent supporters trust its own members based nonprofit that's open to anyone that loves soccer, portland, oregon, and especially the portland timbers soccer team and they worked closely with timbers management and the huge fan club called the portland timbers army to make sure that the game day experience for everyone is bigger and better and just loads of fun and they do a really good job at it and they also helped fund various charities in the portland community and when you're a member of one hundred seven this what they have done that's pretty good as big partnered with local businesses so there's over eighty businesses where you could go flash your hundreds feminist card and get a discount on services and the other thing that they don't really well as they hold these social media contact just where fans can win things so they might ask a targeted question like what's your what was when they did recently what's your game day ritual and they might ask you to post a picture so one of the contests they help was a partnership with key big and people went two hundred fifty dollars each week during that campaign and another one was a partnership with stumptown coffee and the winners got things like jerseys and stumptown coffee as well as mugs and even a hand grinder which I've been told is how you make a very good cup of coffee. So while the fans are armed with their smartphones and their cameras and their already primed for these photo contest, the hundred seventy's contain this contest further increasing partnership visibility, drying and war fans and even involving people that aren't fans or may not know anything about the portland timbers. So for example, instead of these short kind of targeted campaigns they could have won that extended over the entire game season, and so when they would do is they would fans would post their best pictures that day, the ones that really represented the spirit and energy of the games and in the end of the season, the best pictures for each one of those games could be blown up and framed by one of their partners. So in this case it would be very framing and put on display at one of there are other partners let's say road distillery for an end of season, game and party and this season show in party and what this does is it gets the fans bragging rights, which is really important. People love to be able to draw on their family and friends and neighbors and other fans would be included as well at thiss end of season, party and show and I guarantee everyone would be posting pictures to their own feeds and what that does is it generates excitement because not everyone's a fan that's following these people who are following let's say road distillery and they want to know what's going on now the other thing that they could do it and this is where I get kind of really excited is they could also take the show and rotated at various partners through the offseason so take advantage of the down season when there aren't any games and extend fan love and also increase awareness about the game and the team and so they were post and say we're gonna have the show's going up road distillery this month and then maybe next month it's going up laurel her spot they have like over twenty pubs and broom houses that are participating so they had rotating around and one of the things that they could do that would drying fans members of the one hundred seven minutes as well as people who are you know they're just patrons of those locations is they could have a tour card and the tour card would be available for download often their website but also at one of these locations and when people would be encouraged to do is go visit each time the show goes up in a new spot get the torque are stamped and then at the end of the offseason these would all be submitted for a drawing and something significant would be given away like a year's membership to one hundred seven ists or maybe a season pass to the games now sometimes businesses shy away from, you know, doing something like this because it sounds like it's expensive but actually people are finding out that you get more business when you invest a little bit like this on dh also, you're drawing in people that, like I said earlier, may not be fans that may not even know anything about the timbers army and about one hundred seven ist and more importantly, and this is something I think a lot of businesses could take better advantage of is creating a ritual, so this could be something that people look forward to at the end of each season each year and finding perky, and these rituals give people something to look forward to, just like when the game's air starting or when the games, and so that's one example that I have before you go into the other one, I can see how I say, when you get a partner in mindset, you learn from other people, and I've learned so much from her over time, I think she should be hired because she extended four times. We went through bragging rights, rituals, something to show off genuine value that pulls people into all of partners, doors for business and it's, both online and in person, and it builds a spirit even beyond the core audience, and extends you around those air powerful things and the things we've been talking about, and you and you should be a strategist for them I think before you on the second one you have any questions? Oh, by the way, julie, we're talking about her husband chris on here had a good example because she likes the design of the community and when another person here who was raised in milwaukee and we've been comparing notes on oregon it's a lot, isn't it? Yeah, we'll dig in and tell them about the cafe, okay? And I just have to say, you know, when I first started thinking this way and how you contain partnerships further, it was really hard, like there were a couple of times I felt like I broke my brain, so it is a way of thinking, you know, and kind of blowing it out biggers but it's fun for everyone and it's beneficial for everybody, so it takes a little while to get the hang of it, and I'm still working on it, but, um, anyway, let's, move on to the next example so second example is the wake and cafe and opened up california, and I just learned about them because I was at a lecture where michael shuman was talking about investing in main street and it's really cool cafe, their unique its agreement award winning espresso bar and tea house wine and beer bar event and performance space in our gallery and there's our and they're active fixture in their community and their mission they say is to bring people together and last movements so here's something that they did that was really interesting and unique as they needed one hundred thousand dollars to move into a new space back in twenty eleven and the way that they funded a large portion of that was they presold coffee to their customers a slightly could explain and their customers helped fund a huge portion of this move which really shows like how committed everyone laughs this thiss cafe but when they couldn't done and this is totally inventive I mean I love what they did but they might have been able to save money and increase community ties and visibility by partnering smartly with other local businesses and organizations that would benefit from using the cafe when it opens let's say during its first year so each partnering organization would be given a reduced price for the use of the cafe space and their services that would benefit from so here's a couple examples of what that might have looked like let's say that they had joined forces with three local wineries and the winery's couldn't paid upfront at a reduced rate renting the cafe for three separate wine tasting evening sometime during the first year or another one are using would be using non profit organizations or cause groups that needed the space to be able to host events or fundraisers or performances and another one that a lot of businesses kind of overlook our co ops and loosely formed groups let's say arts and cross co ops they're always looking for affordable space for bazaars so you know they're held during certain times of the year that businesses could take advantage of like valentine's day or the time between thanksgiving and christmas and then all of these partners could have participated into a countdown to cafe opening watch party you tell I like parties I think it is really great because everyone's coming together and good spirit and you know just getting to meet other people so it's a really good way teo celebrate you know these partnerships and anyway it is party there could be information available about h partner and a calendar about coming events for that year a tw the cafe so like I mentioned earlier the cafe already successfully talked in their client base and help fund this move and they're already an event space in a bar and really active in the community so why would a partnership like this minute and here's why I believe that when you drawn partners even was curry that you call her unlikely allies the ones where it looks like you might be both going after the same type of customers you're actually helping to cede new customers and increase your visibility and your garnish will bring their fans and backers to your business and services and vice versa and I also feel that people really like to see cooperation at work, especially between businesses and they'll remember s o the launch party could have been a big magnet and an opportunity for partners to gain a warmed up introduction to each other's customers and backers and members and you talked about this a little bit yesterday about how important that soft introduction is it's like a soft bedding you know, people are more inclined to be your customer if they've heard from someone else that they trust but this is a good place to go so that's my other example and then I have do we have time for me to share one last little one? Yes okay, so this is what I experienced personally recently I was telling card about it it was really interesting. I was up in the gorge on on the washington stateside and a vineyard and we were having a lovely afternoon of a wine tasting and and lesson when competitors vineyard showed up like their logo was emblazoned on their little car and everything and they came and jumped in and join us for lunch and wine tasting and also educating and I was kind of watching this s relationship and what I realized was these guys were working together because they know that they're at some point they're gonna have a customer that's going to come in that may not like their cabernet but they probably know that their competitors cabernet would be more along the lines of what this customer wants, and so they're referring clients back and forth to one another's vineyards, and I thought that was really great because as a customer, you wouldn't know that you're being cared for it's not just about them making money that they're really they're really showing their passion for the grape and wine and your passion for it as a collector of wine and and people end of leaving feeling really cared for, and I guarantee that people end up buying from both vineyards, not just one when they are doing that. In fact, I was one of those people, so wow, this is so specific, you packed so much, and I really appreciate it, and I just want to follow up a bit because there may be some questions at this point when you talk about the cafe and away that's, a model that other people could learn from around the country. And earlier today I was talking about having a hook, having a platform, something to which other people can attach and it's a great tom sawyer model you're giving because you're showing excitement, interest and increasing customer participation. With all these things, you sort of seated these examples with a lot of the things we've been talking about yeah, I just want to ask I students rebecca if anything comes to mind, does it remind you of anything you've seen or something you'd like to do or a question about it? I know that you think I overload you sometimes have packed this is a lot of juicy stuff here. Well, we do have a lot of questions coming in for for background I'd hire back and actually the host t j k oh, nice to meet you nice to see you you know you can't I was looking at your profile and you've done so many things off so you're an artist you're an entrepreneurial advisor and I also see that you're a beekeeper which I we want to hear more about maybe even just for some of our audience are offset a lot of your fans are in the house because they got some great questions but maybe just give us, um broader background about your your background on dh and your experiences sorry, sure well I am an artist that had been a freelancer for most of my adult life, so at least twenty, twenty five years and I have really I love some of the things that car has really been bringing up here today because a lot of times artists tend to isolate themselves andi really don't think about how we can partner my piece being in there or it was a really strong partnership with that with the airport itself and it's up there through the end of january and I'm very, you know, frill down that partnership with them and it's opened up all kinds of other opportunity he's for me as well was outreach from your ted talk to you might have iss I did give me ten x talk earlier this year for concordia university and it was the third artist in residence for the event and I created the stage installation and so that peace is the one that said the portland airport right now on that kind of shows like these partnerships, you know how they can kind of blow it out and you could trap one to the next, you know, as you're growing your network in your customer base it's really great and one of the reasons why I got involved in entrepreneurship and really heavily over the last decade was because as an artist I just felt so isolated and I really didn't know, you know, I have my studio life but then there's also your outside life like, how are you going to pay your bills and how are you going toe, you know, get your kids educated and all those types of things so that's how I ended up getting into entrepreneurship and leading these communities where I'm really advocating for people to work together and then as a funny way that kind of ties into my beekeeping because I'm so fascinated watching how these he's worked together, too, you know, stay alive during the winter when it's freezing cold outside and make lots of honey and, you know, all this stuff that, uh, these d'oh and how did you get started with doing partnerships? I mean, did you have very early success? That sort of catch you going or did you find you have a harder time ramping up? I had a hard time ramping up some of that was just my mindset, you know, I was really focused on staying in the studio, andi, I was very uncomfortable talking about myself, and I was really uncomfortable making money. Um, I e they will work around that, rebecca, I just have tio, but in here we have a wonderful person here is a student artist I like. And to tell you the name of the course she's developed. Okay, obviously you're like a sister from another life. S o I need to meet you. And so the name of my course is making art making money, and I write a blogger called artists who thrive so I'm so is so is what you're saying about artists being isolated I'm just anyway I got I gotta talk to you all right we'll make it happen I happen to have another question yeah I mean in terms of the half time you said you had ramping up I mean what lessons did you learn from that that you can share we actually have a number of photographers have just come in to join us now obviously jane jane pictures just asked that question and then follow up there as well levy on dh in terms of photographers yeah yeah that they do they are there any specific examples or ideas for photographer specifically that you might have um sure like well yesterday you know kearney was talking and I think it was with you and somebody mentioned that pat industry and how that's a really growing industry and if you are passionate about that that's something that you could do is start looking at how you could partner with say, dot workers and you know, food dog food in places and even the places where they're starting day cares there's a ton of them in portland portland's this huge dark community so that when you know that's an easy one because you guys already talked about that but I would look at you know where what are the areas that you're really passionate about it it's some children's photography where could you partner with faces ghouls or getting some of the you know parenting magazines and things where you could have biz ours you could you know partner with other photographers so that you guys could show like how how great you know, kids photography can be like it doesn't have to be those kind of you know j c penney tight ones with a background like that could be really fun and active and outside and really show your kid's spirit so um those are some those are some things I can think of right off the top of my head is like find where your interest is like what you're your your thing as your niche and photography and then look for those other industries that are related and see where you might be able to partner with them and I would also really encourage people to look at other photographers and see how you can partner with them. A lot of us especially artists tend to shy away from partnering with somebody who's doing the same thing but recently I over the last couple years I developed a partnership with a woman who's an a graphic design artist and I also do graphic design and she and I have worked it out where she did her name is zoey mandel and she's only pediatrics and she works out the labels for these italian look yours as well as gourmet food labels and I do the botanical illustrations for them and so we worked together, and we refer customers back and forth on dh I think it's really important that artists, photographers really learned howto build their network and feel comfortable referring people to one another. They're botanical photographer in our students tara interview. I don't put on this part of your question, it's or rebecca. I just wonder if any of our students have questions for rebecca before we before we let you go. You how did we reach you? Rebecca shapiro, art dot com there's a contact page at the back and you've really touched on so many of the points in such a concise way, the notion that finding this situation, finding complimentary partners, even among your own people and also making it really visible, uh, the benefits so people can experience it. I was a lot fast. Hey, rebecca, any other questions or comments here? They're doing their processing today we've been throwing a lot at, um yeah, yeah, I've been catching some of the statements and it is a lot of info. It's great. Well, I appreciate your taking the time a lot, and maybe one day you'll be doing one of these courses too. Thank you, thanks for getting me let's don't give her back her huge, created by round