Branding Is Not Selling Out ITS SELLING IN
Branding Is Not Selling Out ITS SELLING IN
Me too!
It breaks my heart to know that there are musicians, painters, sculptors, and filmmakers everywhere starving. Starving… for their art.
Why is a branding expert like me, who mostly deals with entrepreneurs and small business owners, addressing musicians, artists, and filmmakers? It’s simple. Artists are the ultimate entrepreneurs.
Think about it. Some create products and look for a market; others look at a market and create products. Every entrepreneur starts the same way! It’s the notion of business that often trips artists up.
Creating any piece of music, art, or film, is like creating a product. I’m not suggesting that all products, art-based or otherwise, are equal. We all know a good product, or painting, or film or vacuum cleaner when we experience it. Its just with some artists, imaginary barriers get created. These illusive barriers can keep them from creating the very success they want.
All creators have the same goals: to make a good product that is useful or meaningful, have it well liked by many people and to be paid portionally to the market they reach. Who doesn’t want that? Making music, paintings, sculptures, photography or film should be addressed like any business with the same attention to the big picture, IF you want to make a great living from it. But something often holds artistic creators back from making a great living from their art.
As usual fear is the culprit.
Artists sometimes fear that if they develop the recognition and financial success that comes from branding from them ‘selves’, their peers will think that they’ve ‘sold-out’ if they ‘make it’. Fellow starving artists might say that on the surface, but what they are really saying is that they are envious of the success that you have created. It’s far easier to put down someone else’s success than to make it them self. What’s more important: what your peers think OR having your ‘art’ enjoyed by as many people as possible and having the financial freedom that comes along with it?
Another fear that may prevent artists from taking their craft mainstream is that they think that they will lose control of it by becoming a business and, heaven forbid, a BIG business at that. Just like the art you make, what your business becomes is in your control. If you develop your brand based on your vision of it from the start, you protect it from becoming something else. Business is not bad— people that run them can make bad decisions. The power of your business is always in your hands.
The largest fear for some artists is that the very nature of getting paid, and paid well, for their art will change it. This will then set in motion the loss of creative connection with the “art” itself. I would argue that those that get lost were not very centered on their purpose and passion in the first place.
It’s odd to think that financial freedom, the freedom to do whatever you want, could cause one to lose their way. In one of our workshops, we were fortunate to have a successful artist who was ready to take his brand to the next level. When I asked him what does he do, he answered, “Whatever I want.” Who doesn’t want that?!
With the money you get from branding your craft, you can set up systems so that it doesn’t interfere with your focus; donate to causes, invest in real estate, create other products/partnerships. You can even hire the people to manage it all. Leaving you free to… create.
The bottom line is simple, everyone has control over what they do and what they manifest, it’s just that most people haven’t been shown how. Commitment to your ‘art’ does not preclude your ability to make money from it. In fact, the more financial freedom you create for yourself, the more art you can create. A branding mindset is taking that control into your own hands and owning the future. And it must truly start from the inside— from your innate talent and your grand vision for your art. Branding your art comes down to your commitment to yourself and to the art itself. Branding is not only slogans and TV ads; it’s the power to be who you are and communicating it everyone proudly.
The definition of artist:
1. somebody who creates art
2. somebody who does something with great skill and creativity
3. somebody who is very good at doing something
Nowhere does it say you have to starve to make good art or good products.
Remember that the next time a musician, or painter, or sculptor, or filmmaker you know breaks through to success. Ask yourself, what are you really committed to? Don’t cheat the world of your gift. Developing a brand mindset with integrity from the inside out is guaranteed to reach more people. Period.
If you do something that you really love, you’re really good at it, and people pay you to keep doing it, then branding it it’s not selling out, it’s selling in… to you!
© Castle Montone, Limited
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can. Simply include this blurb with it: “Brand Visioneer and BrandU Co-founder, Kim Castle teaches entrepreneurs and small business owners how to turn their business ideas into a money-making marketable brand. If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank™, get started now at http://www.brandu.com/rd.cfm?id=743.
Branding Is Not Selling Out ITS SELLING IN - To learn more about this author, visit Kim Castle's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Ever see an amazing band perform and wonder why you’ve never heard of them before? Ever see an astonishing artist on the street and wonder why isn’t their work isn’t in a gallery? Ever see an astounding independent film and wonder why people all over the world don’t know about it?
Me too!
It breaks my heart to know that there are musicians, painters, sculptors, and filmmakers everywhere starving. Starving… for their art.
Why is a branding expert like me, who mostly deals with entrepreneurs and small business owners, addressing musicians, artists, and filmmakers? It’s simple. Artists are the ultimate entrepreneurs.
Think about it. Some create products and look for a market; others look at a market and create products. Every entrepreneur starts the same way! It’s the notion of business that often trips artists up.
Creating any piece of music, art, or film, is like creating a product. I’m not suggesting that all products, art-based or otherwise, are equal. We all know a good product, or painting, or film or vacuum cleaner when we experience it. Its just with some artists, imaginary barriers get created. These illusive barriers can keep them from creating the very success they want.
All creators have the same goals: to make a good product that is useful or meaningful, have it well liked by many people and to be paid portionally to the market they reach. Who doesn’t want that? Making music, paintings, sculptures, photography or film should be addressed like any business with the same attention to the big picture, IF you want to make a great living from it. But something often holds artistic creators back from making a great living from their art.
As usual fear is the culprit.
Artists sometimes fear that if they develop the recognition and financial success that comes from branding from them ‘selves’, their peers will think that they’ve ‘sold-out’ if they ‘make it’. Fellow starving artists might say that on the surface, but what they are really saying is that they are envious of the success that you have created. It’s far easier to put down someone else’s success than to make it them self. What’s more important: what your peers think OR having your ‘art’ enjoyed by as many people as possible and having the financial freedom that comes along with it?
Another fear that may prevent artists from taking their craft mainstream is that they think that they will lose control of it by becoming a business and, heaven forbid, a BIG business at that. Just like the art you make, what your business becomes is in your control. If you develop your brand based on your vision of it from the start, you protect it from becoming something else. Business is not bad— people that run them can make bad decisions. The power of your business is always in your hands.
The largest fear for some artists is that the very nature of getting paid, and paid well, for their art will change it. This will then set in motion the loss of creative connection with the “art” itself. I would argue that those that get lost were not very centered on their purpose and passion in the first place.
It’s odd to think that financial freedom, the freedom to do whatever you want, could cause one to lose their way. In one of our workshops, we were fortunate to have a successful artist who was ready to take his brand to the next level. When I asked him what does he do, he answered, “Whatever I want.” Who doesn’t want that?!
With the money you get from branding your craft, you can set up systems so that it doesn’t interfere with your focus; donate to causes, invest in real estate, create other products/partnerships. You can even hire the people to manage it all. Leaving you free to… create.
The bottom line is simple, everyone has control over what they do and what they manifest, it’s just that most people haven’t been shown how. Commitment to your ‘art’ does not preclude your ability to make money from it. In fact, the more financial freedom you create for yourself, the more art you can create. A branding mindset is taking that control into your own hands and owning the future. And it must truly start from the inside— from your innate talent and your grand vision for your art. Branding your art comes down to your commitment to yourself and to the art itself. Branding is not only slogans and TV ads; it’s the power to be who you are and communicating it everyone proudly.
The definition of artist:
1. somebody who creates art
2. somebody who does something with great skill and creativity
3. somebody who is very good at doing something
Nowhere does it say you have to starve to make good art or good products.
Remember that the next time a musician, or painter, or sculptor, or filmmaker you know breaks through to success. Ask yourself, what are you really committed to? Don’t cheat the world of your gift. Developing a brand mindset with integrity from the inside out is guaranteed to reach more people. Period.
If you do something that you really love, you’re really good at it, and people pay you to keep doing it, then branding it it’s not selling out, it’s selling in… to you!
© Castle Montone, Limited
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can. Simply include this blurb with it: “Brand Visioneer and BrandU Co-founder, Kim Castle teaches entrepreneurs and small business owners how to turn their business ideas into a money-making marketable brand. If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank™, get started now at http://www.brandu.com/rd.cfm?id=743.
Branding Is Not Selling Out ITS SELLING IN - To learn more about this author, visit Kim Castle's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
|||
John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
|||
Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
|||
Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Kim's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | ||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
 |
 Get Working Capital Instant Newsletters Solving Problems Maximize Trade Shows Performance Emotional Intelligence |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Political Blogs
Top Political Blogs of 2009 | |
 |
Top 50 Geek Business Blogs
Top 50 Geek Business Blogs | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||