• I’m writing an ebook. I thought it was finished, then I discovered it wasn’t.

    It will be out later this year, and it’s called How to Market Your Art. So, as a little teaser, here’s a very practical description of some of the main ways I market my own art.

    First though, a quick word about ‘art’. When I say market your art, I don’t just mean paintings, or songs (although it could be those things). I mean your Creative Work – the expression of who you are through artefacts that move and provoke people.

    Everyone has their own art. It may be more or less visible. It may be more or less skilfully expressed. But your art is your art.

    And then there’s sharing it – marketing it. This is where ‘artists’ traditionally possess less skill, or more resistance. But it’s crucial. Because art doesn’t count if you don’t share it.

    So, here are the 3 main ways I share my art.

    I’m only going to write about three, because they’re the only ones I can speak to with lived authority. They are not the best. They’re simply the ones I find most aligned with my work (so far).

    1. I write on this blog

    As a writer, this is my most important platform. It’s where I put my most in-depth and rigorous work. I’ve written very long articles, and shorter pieces. I’ve written practical business articles and I’ve written poetry. If anyone asks about my work, this is where I always point them.

    I don’t have a strict publishing schedule. Normally every couple of weeks or so I publish a new piece. I’ve experimented with weekly. At the moment, I’m incredibly sporadic with publishing here due to the writing of the ebook, and various other excuses!

    I only write about the things I want to write about. I have an ongoing list of article ideas. Sometimes I pull one out and sit down to write. Sometimes I just journal and something comes out of it. Sometimes I plan something out heavily in advance. Sometimes something pops up and I have to sit down and write it out.

    Most of my writing will never be read in public, because most of it isn’t very good.

    I write for me first, and my audience second. Which doesn’t mean I don’t constantly think about what would help my tribe. But I’m an artist first, and unless I’m writing something because I want to, because I feel called, it normally falls flat.

    Sometimes writing for me first means the first draft, and then I reframe it during the re-edit. Sometimes it means writing the piece I really want to, and then writing a second one that addresses something I know folks are coming up against.

    Both aspects are crucial. Writing for me. And writing for others.

    Titles are important. I try to write article titles that do two things. Firstly, a title must represent the piece accurately. Otherwise, I’m being misleading or vague. Secondly, a title must be written to draw people in. Attention is at a premium. Write titles that really elicit curiosity for your tribe. Sometimes it’s hard, don’t sweat.

    These were some of the titles that really worked for me.

    The Most Powerful Question I Know

    Speaking Your Truth can be a Trap

    6 Stories that Stop Us Creating our True Work

    It’s a loud market place out there, and you do have to interrupt people. Here’s no way around that. Good titles interrupt people’s newsfeed scrolling…

    “Oh, that sounds intriguing…” *click*

    2. I email my tribe

    When I work with my clients on their marketing, this is the platform I almost always say is a non-negotiable. If you want to grow your tribe in today’s marketplace, a mailing list of the people in your tribe is basic necessity.

    It’s important because this is the place I get to speak directly to my core tribe. These are the folks that have given their explicit permission to speak to them. They want to hear from me, they want to be led deeper into the ideas that I write about.

    If you have an engaged list of several thousand people (which is no small tasks these days) that like what you offer, then you probably have a sustainable business (at least for you the artist).

    An email list is like your tribal meeting hall. Every time you have something you want to share with your followers, you can simply drop your words into an email, and suddenly, they all get it, direct to their inbox.

    I use Aweber for my email list, I’ve used it for years. Mailchimp is also good, and is free for the first 1,000 subscribers.

    When I email my list, I try to be very personal, very direct, and ‘un-markety’.

    You know those lists you’re on and every time their email arrives in your inbox, a voice inside your head says “Oh nice! I love their emails, let me go read it” – that’s what you want with your own list.

    Don’t write newsletters, write letters, like you would write to your friends. Don’t try and ‘sound professional’ just be your post-conventional self.

    “Hey Horatio, I wrote a thing about un-markety marketing. I’ve wrestled with doing good marketing without being an ass for a long time. And I had some interesting thoughts about it this week. I think it might help you. Here’s the link, I hope you like it.”

    There’s no formula for email. Everyone has to find their own groove. Here’s what I would advocate though.

    • Show yourself, write in the first person, don’t be ‘professional’
    • Tell people what you have for them and why you think it will be useful or interesting
    • Tell them what you want them to do. Be direct. “If you’re curious, click this link.”
    • Write to them consistently. It doesn’t have to be on a schedule, but these are your peeps, be in relationship with them.
    • Train them to expect good stuff when they open your email, or click a link

    Email lists are secure, private and powerful. The rules can’t be changed on you suddenly, like on Facebook or other centrally controlled platforms.

    Whatever your art, whatever you create and share, allow people to easily stay in close relationship with you. Have sign-up boxes on your website. Invite them in warmly. Tell them what they’re signing up for, explicitly

    “I’ll email you every couple of weeks with my new stuff. I hope it serves the shit out of you. Unsubscribe any time.”

    And then welcome them when they sign up. Maybe you want to give them a gift for signing up. Maybe you don’t. But welcome them. These are your people.

    3. I write on Facebook

    Facebook is a powerful and unique platform, if you use it the way it’s designed to be used. Facebook is not a marketing platform. What I mean by that, is…you can’t directly promote stuff on Facebook. Well, you can, but it will probably bomb.

    “Do you struggle to be productive when it comes to phalange making? Sign up for my free webinar: “Phoebe’s 7 secrets to powerful phalanges.” It’s free, but places are limited.”

    You might get a couple of ‘likes’ but mostly, people really dislike this stuff on Facebook. It’s like walking into a party and trying to flog your latest thing. People are there to socialize and share connection, not listen to your pitch.

    Here’s how I use Facebook. I learned this from Michael Ellsberg who is a fabulous writer and has a wonderful course on the art of writing for Facebook.

    1. Learn to notice when interesting ideas float past in your mind. Get used to grabbing them with a butterfly net. They happen naturally, practice seeing them.
    2. If an idea has a somatic feeling with it – a fizz in your chest, gurgles in your chest, excitement, fear – then stop what you’re doing and open up Facebook.
    3. Type right into the status update box (don’t copy and paste from Word), and share your thoughts. Reveal yourself, don’t self-edit. Don’t try and sound clever. Get vulnerable. Share what you’ve learned, or how you see something. Share your process or your story.

    Because people are bored of pitches, and inspirational quotes, and cat pictures, and political choir-preaching.

    They’re also tired of what Michael calls bliss fronting – showing only the good shit, in a dis-proportionate way, or an attention seeking way.

    “OMG. I just had the most amazing meeting. I’m blown away.”

    “I just love myself so much. Life is awesome. I’m awesome. Wow.”

    It’s the bliss front. What about the shitty backside? Show us. Why did the meeting impact you? Why do you want to share it? When do you also not love yourself? Tell me vulnerably how awesome you are. Or tell me what’s been really hard for you, and how you navigate it.

    I’ve used Facebook to push my edge with my writing. I write about anything that interests me. I’ve shared very tender personal things about feeling like a little boy who just wants everyone’s attention. I’ve written about politics and stirred dissent among many old friends.

    And that’s the thing about Facebook. It normally contains a pretty diverse range of people from your life. And it can feel almost unbearable to write things on there that you would really rather certain people didn’t know about you.

    Your edge is yours to find and flirt with.

    What I will say is that Facebook is an amazing space to practice self-revealing. If you can tell people on Facebook that you’re actually into BDSM, or Astrological therapy, or Libertarianism, or you’ve just divorced your partner, or your father died, then you can tell anyone.

    Some people may unfollow you. Let them. And new people will friend request you. Let them. You have no obligation to please your Facebook friends. It’s your party. If they don’t like your toasts, then encourage them to leave, with love.

    And then share your art there too. I post all my blogs on Facebook, along with a short message. I’ve had an awful of people find my work through Facebook. An awful lot.

    Just remember, it’s a social-network, not a marketing-channel.

     

    Ewan Townhead

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  • There is a disease at work in our marketing. It’s afflicting everything we do. It is chronic short-termism.

    The desperation to succeed at my new launch, so that my ego doesn’t get kicked in the teeth, and my bank balance doesn’t dip into the stress zone. The eagerness to get as many people to sign up on my list as I can, so that I don’t have to deal with my loneliness and insecurity.

    The disease of short-termism narrows our eyes onto the immediate need in front of us. And it can come with a whole host of side effects…

    • egoic manipulation
    • failing integrity
    • cringing inauthenticity
    • slimy sales
    • clichéd copy-writing
    • uninspired offers.

    The antidote is realizing the bigger game you’re playing.

    The game where you create a thriving tribe. One that endures. One that will ultimately go way beyond you and your work. One that is here for decades to come.

    There’s an African proverb that says: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

    A tribe will go far, reach far, and make an impact we can’t even conceptualize from where we are.

    When you cultivate a thriving tribe, you create a thriving ecosystem. When you devote yourself to the service of your tribe’s growth, they will grow. When your tribe grows, they will serve you in return, and support your leadership of them.

    A thriving tribe is not only the basis of a truly successful business, it is the basis of a truly successful movement. One where your business can spawn business for others. One where collaboration and cross-pollination feed something entirely new.

    So, here are 4 principles that you want to cultivate, as you cultivate your tribe. 4 principles that when cultivated, will create a thriving tribe.

    1. Intimacy

    I feel you. I feel connected to you. I feel close to you.

    Intimacy is making the inmost known. It’s the closeness that is created when we show ourselves to one another.

    When we are intimate with one another, we are weaving a pattern of interconnectedness. When we are intimate, we create community.

    You create intimacy with your tribe when you show yourself. You start the dance of intimacy when you take the first step.

    When you are truly vulnerable, your tribe will be truly vulnerable in return.

    My most uncomfortably revealing articles have been the ones that people have emailed me about the most, sharing their own tender stories. Intimately showing your inner world creates a space for others to intimately show theirs.

    Intimacy is about the space between us. Intimacy is the sensation of deep connection. People no longer want adequate. People no longer want useful. People want deep meaning.

    Create deep intimacy with your tribe, and you create something meaningful to which people can belong. Create intimacy, and you create belongingness.

    2. Authority

    I’ve witnessed your expertise. I’ve felt your power. I’ve followed your advice, and it worked.

    Authority is what you must practice, if you are to lead your tribe.

    Authority is what is created when you speak your wisdom and serve those who have gathered. Authority is what is revealed when you tap into your natural power.

    Authority is authoring new wisdom.

    As you continually discover more of what you have to say, and your tribe are continually helped by your teaching, your authority will be established.

    Authority is not power over someone. Authority is not assumed or abused.

    Authority is what people recognize in you, when you consistently step into your own genius, and create wisdom and insight that helps them.

    Your tribe give you authority only when you demonstrate your competence to lead them. You step into that authority, when you trust in your ability to create life.

    Authority is what enables people to follow you. A leader leads through wisdom and power. Disseminate your wisdom. Channel your power. Lead your tribe.

    3. Trust

    I know you. I believe you. I can rely on you. I trust you.

    Trust is what all marketing should be designed to create. Trust is what very little marketing actually does create. Most marketing erodes trust, fast.

    If I’m focused solely on maximizing sales for my new thing, then all I need to do is create enough trust that I get you to click buy. After that, I don’t care.

    Trust takes time to create. Because trust is what I feel when I’ve related with you over time, and believe I can rely on your integrity.

    If your actions are in alignment with your espousal, if you walk what you talk, and you do it consistently, you’re enabling me to create trust for you.

    When your tribe trusts you, you don’t need to use marketing psychology to persuade them to buy your new thing. You can just tell them about it, and they’ll buy it if serves them.

    When your tribe trusts you, you don’t need to shout loudly about how amazing your latest offering is, and why it’s going to change their life. You can simply share your heart, and they’ll listen.

    Trust is the antidote to a loud and crowded marketplace. When you have a tribe that deeply trusts you, you can whisper rather than shout. You can offer rather than push. You can create rather than take.

    4. Permission

    Change me. I give you full permission.

    Permission is the agreement to let things through.

    Permission is what your tribe gifts to you when they believe in your authority. Permission is what they activate when they trust you, when they know you, when they choose to follow you.

    Permission is the agreement to be permeable. When something is permeable, it lets things through it.

    A permeable membrane is one that lets water through. A permeable tribe is one that lets you impact them deeply.

    They give you permission to change them.

    They give you permission to love them so fully that they cannot remain the same. They give you permission to challenge their assumed smallness. They give you permission to beckon to their wholeness.

    Permission is what opens up a giant space. One in which we can all change one another. One in which the tribe can establish a whole new way. One in which we can transform things. Forever.

    You Can’t Fail

    Your work is your Work. Your work is to create what you’re here to create. That’s not a short term game, that’s a life-time game, at least.

    You can’t fail at it. You can only turn away from it.

    Go and feed your gathering tribe. They’re hungry for your wisdom. They’re aching for your power. They want to trust you. They’re eager to know you, get intimate with you.

    Go and serve them today, so that they give you even deeper permission to change them tomorrow.

     

    Ewan Townhead

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  • You’re creating something new. Or thinking about it.

    How do you launch it? How do you create a powerful promotion strategy for it? How do you get the word out? How do you make sure your new thing is a success?

    Marketing. It’s unavoidable. It’s necessary. It’s changing.

    The rules are changing. The game is changing. The old ways aren’t working any more. Have you noticed?

    There’s a new way. It’s not easier, but it’s so much more powerful.

    The tried and tested marketing model

    Here’s how the old way goes…

    1. Define your ideal customer
    2. Make something you believe that customer would pay for
    3. Wrap that something in marketing that will hit that customer target
    4. Sit back and watch your sales grow

    It’s been around a while. It seems entirely logical. And it’s what most people teach (and profess to use).

    And it works really well…

    …if (and this is a big fat hairy if), you already know who your customer is.

    And I don’t mean theoretically (like you sketched it out on some funky worksheet), I mean you actually, literally, really, experientially know who they are. Because you’ve sold stuff to them already.

    I once created a brand new 3-month coaching program in two weeks, concept to launch. We sold it out with 2 emails, in 3 days. Nailed. We were stoked.

    But. We already knew our customer really well. We’d run an online conference 18 months previously, with the exact same customer, so we knew who they were. Precisely.

    What happens if you don’t know your customer?

    Indeed.

    And further, what happens if you don’t know what the product is either?

    The old method works really well because it’s operating within small margins of error. Existing companies use it to great effect when they research a new product, because they have years of experience with their customers.

    The assumptions aren’t too hairy. It’s not a leap into unknown abyss, it’s a calculated step down a well mapped corridor.

    But when you’re creating something radically new, when you’re birthing something that’s on the edge of your own comprehension, when you’re working out what-in-the-hell-it-actually-is as you go, the old marketing method doesn’t work.

    In fact, it’s spectacularly ineffective.

    Because making something genuinely new is inherently unpredictable and risky. And despite your best efforts to map it all out using marketing blueprints, you can’t predict the unpredictable. You can’t make the risky safe.

    The claim that you can use old predictive marketing for genuinely new entrepreneurial creations is one of the most widely spread myths I see in business. It doesn’t work.

    Here’s what to do instead

    It’s really simple (but not easy).

    1. Reveal yourself – who you really are – and what you really care about, radically
    2. Create your work, say what you have to say, and share it, continually
    3. Allow your natural, organic, authentic tribe to show up
    4. Make things that serve them, and grow the tribe

    Your natural tribe is just that. Natural. It already exists. They’re already out there. You don’t get to choose them. Just like you don’t get to pick your family. You get to discover them, as you discover yourself.

    When you reveal your own essential shape, then you create space for the reciprocal shapes to find you.

    The more you reveal yourself, the more your tribe will reveal itself to you. The more you discover yourself, the more your tribe will discover you.

    And then you just make stuff that supports the tribe to grow, and your business grow.

    There’s nothing standing in your way

    The powerful thing about this new way? There isn’t a whole lot of preparation necessary.

    You don’t need a plan (there is no plan).

    You don’t need a website (just share your stuff on facebook).

    You don’t need a product (you’re the product).

    So, when there’s not much in the way, it tends to illuminate the inevitable excuses that we’re making to ourselves. The excuses that obscure the fact that we’re afraid.

    It’s scary to disclose yourself.

    But that’s the game. It’s powerful, it’s new, it’s real.

    How can you start playing?

    Ewan Townhead

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  • Marketing isn’t about advertising anymore. You can’t build a product and then hope to ‘find an audience’ for it. Mad Men is truly over.

    The new marketing is being who you are, attracting your natural tribe, and then creating products that deeply serve them.

    As Seth Godin says, “You don’t find customers for your products, you find products for your customers.”

    So how do you gather a tribe? How do you find more of the people you’re here to serve? Well, I’ve drawn out 5 ways for you.

    I was resistant to writing this piece

    I confess, I’ve avoided more practical articles like this so far. I’m not totally sure why. Part of me has assumed that this blog had a more philosophical identity. But I also know that’s my comfort zone.

    So, this is me walking my talk, and choosing to create new stuff despite feeling resistance.

    I’ve done a lot of marketing the last few years. I know the conventions really well. I know that a small business that doesn’t focus strongly on marketing is going to struggle. I also know that non-vomit-inducing marketing is hard to come by.

    And yet, I think the new marketing really does transcend (and exclude) vomit.

    So, let’s get stuck in. How do you grown your tribe? Here are 5 ways…

    1.     Share your wisdom (consistently)

    This really is the bed rock. That’s why everyone’s dog has written about it. You want to grow your tribe? You need to show up and share what you’ve got, so they can find you. No sharing, no gathering.

    Share your wisdom. Whatever it is that you think can help folks, give it. Don’t hold back the good stuff for some vague future product. Lay it all out.

    It’s a process of self-revealing. When you disclose who you naturally are, your natural tribe will naturally find you.

    And if you want to do this effectively, you’re going to want to be consistent.

    Whatever it is you’re putting out, put it out regularly. As you get better at saying what you have to say, and people get more trusting that you’re going to keep saying it, your tribe will increasingly grow.

    2.  Say the things you don’t want to say

    Show yourself. Radically. Share the thing that you don’t want to share. If you’re not quivering as you click ‘publish’ you probably played it too safe.

    No-one changed things without making a ruckus. No-one followed a leader that wasn’t radical. You can’t create a new tribe without dividing opinion.

    What are the things you don’t want to share? What are the things that seem inappropriate? What do you fear will piss people off? What do you worry might ruin your reputation?

    If it’s deeply important to you, you feel it in your heart, and you know it needs to be said; say it.

    Losing 10% of your community because of a controversial share is a good thing if the other 90% love you even more deeply for it.

    3.  Say the things you do want to say

    Share what you care about. Yes, you’re here to help and serve. But if you don’t fundamentally feel excited about what you’re sharing, people will feel it, and they’ll turn off.

    Forget your ‘target market’. Ignore the strategic leverage. Share what you know you’re here to share. Say what you want to say.

    What would you talk about if you could talk about anything? What would you talk about if you didn’t have to do anything except drink strawberry smoothies through a straw for the rest of your life?

    Talk about that, and see who shows up. That’s your tribe.

    4.   Signpost the route

    “Build it, and they will come.” Except they don’t.

    You need to show people how to find you. You need to signpost the route. Maybe you prefer an understated little sign with a personal message. Maybe you prefer a big flashing neon monster.

    But you do have to sign post it.

    “Tribe this way. We’re into preserving the endangered Tualamanian nose flute. If you want to join come this way.”

    Facebook. Workshops. Email. LinkedIn. Meetups. Parties. Wherever you think your people hang out, mark a trail back to your tribal home. And welcome them when they arrive.

    5.  Interrupt people

    When I’m designing marketing strategies for my business or clients, the end goal is always creating trust and intimacy. It’s about getting into genuine relationship with them, for the long term.

    That’s the most effective long term strategy I know. And it’s what feels good in my heart, and my bones.

    But to get into relationship, you’ve got to make contact.

    Today’s market place is like a packed room at a party. It’s loud, fast and fickle. If you stand alone in the corner (like I prefer to do at parties) and hope people wander over and strike up a conversation with you, it’s going to be a slow and lonely process.

    You need to interrupt people.

    Which is why, for the first time ever in four years in this game, I decided to use a (hopefully tasteful) popup. Scroll a little further down and you’ll find it.

    Interrupt them. Make contact. Touch them. Then you can build a relationship, which grows your tribe.

    Ewan Townhead

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