It’s not easy being a creative professional in the 21st century. Things keep changing, and fast.
Whether you are a fine artist, a performer or entertainer, a commercial creative, or a creative entrepreneur, many of your biggest challenges are the ones that are familiar to all creative professionals:
- Carving out time to produce great work amid the demands and distractions of 21st century life
- Balancing creativity, money, and your professional ambitions
- Giving yourself a break from the relentless perfectionism of your Inner Critic
- Creating your own security in an uncertain world
- Believing in your vision when people around you just don’t get it
- Deciding whether to approach publishers, record companies or other middlemen, or to “go direct” to your audience
- Attracting an audience from scratch, or breaking into a tightly networked industry as an outsider
- Dealing with rejection, criticism, and plain unvarnished failure
- Dealing with fear and anxiety—about your work, about your audience, about the critics, about failure, and even about success
This list is from a new book by this week’s guest on the Marketing Mentor podcast, Mark McGuiness, former psychotherapist and current poet, podcaster and coach for creatives.
The book is called “21 Insights for 21st Century Creatives: Insights to help you thrive as a creator amid the demands, distractions, and opportunities of the 21st century.”
Sounds like just what we need, right?
You can download the free ebook version here.
Here's an excerpt -- my favorite chapter -- and listen here or below to the podcast.
Courage may be the missing ingredient
If you’re feeling frustrated and wondering why you’re (still) struggling, ask yourself: When was the last time my heart was in my mouth as I started to write? Or as I opened my mouth to speak? Or I stepped out on stage? Or I hit the “publish” or “send” button?
If it has been a while since you challenged yourself so much that you created a situation calling for bravery, then maybe it’s time to rediscover your courage.
Because maybe the problem isn’t the quality of your work. Or the value of your services. Or your branding. Or your website. Or your network. Or any of that other stuff you’ve been trying to fix.
Maybe you’ve simply been playing small—out of fear.
One of the things I find myself repeating over and over to clients is: The bigger the dream, the bigger the fear.
When you dream a big dream, it will enchant you and sparkle enticingly. New vistas will open up before you. Its promise will beckon you forward.
But once the initial rush of excitement has passed, you start to think of all the things that could go horribly wrong. That’s the fear kicking in.
Fear[…]”
Fear[…]”
Listen here....
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