The Creative Genius Corner
Lessons, musings and advice from the author of ‘The Life I Won’
Are you one of the ‘popular’ people?
It starts at school doesn’t it, the cliques of popular kids. The beautiful ones. The sporty ones. The well-off ones. The brainy ones.
It continues into college and university, with the cool ones, the clever ones etc,
Then you get married and have kids and face the horrors of the school gate crowd! The mums that continue to form little cliques and shun the women who don’t look the part.
And just as you think you have grown up and made it past all that, there is the online space. This is where everyone is shouting about how well they are doing, how they have 000’s of followers, they are influencers, yadda, yadda!
YAWN!
I have never wanted nor tried to fit in anywhere. I am happy being the creative weirdo who isn’t skinny, trendy, tanned, drives a flashy car blah, blah, blah. I am happy being me, but I also know that not everyone is so comfortable in their own skin and that being different or quirky can mean that you are lonely or feel isolated.
It really is a battle out there if you are not one of the popular people, but I want you to feel proud that you are not.
Let me enlighten you. Many of the so-called ‘popular’ people are faking it until they make it. They are great at marketing and creating the perception that everything is perfect, but often they are doing no better than you. Some of the popular people and influencers are doing well and making loads of money, and I applaud this, but their system has positioned them in a place where they are disconnected with their clients and audience. After all, how can you feel connected to and have a relationship with 000’s of people at a time? You can’t.
Their success is genuine, but they have scaled it into a money-making machine which detaches them from people other than their upper circles. This looks attractive from the outside, just like it did at school, university, and the school gates. But it is not for everyone, and this is OK. What this online success has done is what it always does, create a void between the haves and have nots. Those at the bottom, earning just enough to live on, see the millionaire online business gurus and want to be like them so they give them even more money to do their programs so that they can become them, and it doesn’t work.
The ‘have nots’ pay the ‘haves’ for a snippet of their success but still lack the self-belief to implement it and create the same. I am NOT portraying you as a pauper, but I am saying that society is built this way and continues to thrive on the same old rules. Someone does a thing that makes them wealthy, packages the thing, sells the thing, and becomes wealthier. BUT the thing might not be a fit for everyone so it can’t create the same success.
Therefore, I stepped into the creative space, where all the best and most interesting people hang out, my people, and I created a program and business model that keeps me connected and changes lives.
This was a bold move because I could have created a successful program and sold it to 000’s with the knowledge I have. I toyed with this, but that pull to help creative women was strong. In fact, it became my mission. So, I wanted to share with you my NOT ‘cookie cutter’, NOT ‘copy & pasted’ reasons and strategy for leveraging your uniqueness.
IDENTITY
Getting to know who you really are and accept every part of you is your first monumental step. You DON’T need to fit in or be something you are not. Often, we lose ourselves in the expectations of others and try to ‘fit in’. Don’t fit in, stand out. Who you are is amazing and the more weird, quirky, unique the better! Think about some of the greatest musicians, Boy George, T-Rex, Ozzy Osborne, Pink. What about great artists? Picasso, Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo…
When you can know and accept all of you then show up authentically on your social media, in your business, in life, people can see and feel the difference and they will trust you and buy from you.
You can take my Creative Archetype Quiz here and find out more about your identity here.
The most successful weirdos of the world felt just like you once, but they chose to show up and be persistent. Which brings me to my next point…
TALENT
Success is 10% talent and 90% marketing. You never have a terrible product; you were just terrible marketing it! Think ‘The Crazy Frog’, this horrendous cartoon was paired with someone else’s music and was a mega phenomenon. NOT because it was great, but because there was a massive marketing strategy at the back of it.
Often as creatives we are caught up in our talent and we keep making, producing, or writing things and wonder why they don’t sell because they are fantastic. We know they can help people or enhance their lives, but nobody is buying. We share half a dozen posts to a limited audience and then think our product is rubbish because nobody bought it! It’s not the product, nor your lack of talent, it is always your sales and marketing strategy.
Accepting that you need a bespoke marketing strategy for your creative business is paramount, many of the ‘successful’ coaches and gurus are teaching you how to operate a cut and paste online course business model, not much use to you if you have a product or a book. You need to work with the right person who understands how work with products AND service. If you invest in a one size fits all program and it doesn’t fit, it’s because you compromised in desperation. You desperately needed sales in your business, and you believed the promises of wealth – see how good marketing can be when you do it right! We believe what people are telling us, this is how you need to show up to sell your product. Persistent, relentless, and selling the benefits.
SELF-BELIEF
The final ingredient to your success is your own belief in YOU. I find this all the time in my clients; they just don’t believe in themselves. There is a huge miss-match between their amazing talent and ability and their belief that they can operate a successful 6 or even 7 figure business. In fact, many of my clients are setting targets of less than £5K a month because to them this seems like a fortune. It is possible for you to be in the 6-figure club, but first you need to move to a realistic level of predictable income so that you can see it is possible and believable. Self-belief doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time, action, and results. The more you succeed, the more you believe. This is what I focus on in the first few months of my 12-month program. I genuinely believe that sustainable change takes time and that can’t be achieved in a 6-week program. Give yourself the gift of time and have a plan for developing your self-belief before you try and build your business. As soon as you believe you can, you will.
When I write, my main aim is to make you think, so I hope that I have achieved that in this blog. Think about things properly, find the right people to help you, invest in something that fits with who you are and carve out your identity authentically so that you can show up with your talent and a marketing strategy you believe in.