There’s a disturbing trend going on, and I don’t think you realize how it much it will affect your creative career.

Most (digital) creatives, including me, have a distorted view on how creating good work leads to equally good pay. That’s a myth as real as Santa Claus, the story of the Bible and other famous fairy tales.

Good work doesn’t give you good pay. Anymore.

Here’s what I think is the reality, based on the experience of me and my peers :

You do shit work = you get no pay.

 

Good work = shit pay.

 

Excellent work = good pay.

 

Remarkable, one of a kind, blow me away till I piss all over me in excitement = excellent pay.

This is not a formula that I have pulled out of my ass. This is what I see all around me :

Creative people, whether they are entrepreneurs, freelancers or authors, who struggle to make ends meet doing good work, getting shit pay.

They have good people skills, good connections and they create good work and yet they struggle. The best of them make a full time-living from their creative career, but they don’t know where the money’s gonna come for the next six months of rent. I consider myself to be part of that group, and I hate it. I have more and more clients, but I wouldn’t say I make a killing.

Now I’m still fairly young, but in the future ?

A struggling creative in his 50s or 60s ? N-i-g-h-t-m-a-r-e.

Good work gives you “meh” pay, and will lead to a poor life in the future, sooner or later.

Probably sooner.

But why is that happening ?

One word : technology.

With cheap outsource-able labor and robots on the rise, more and more creative work becomes a commodity. You don’t need to hire the costly dude around your street to get good work, you hire a kid in Bangalore, India who’s got access to the internet and the skills you need.

Intense, global competition leads to more better work at lower prices. Being good therefor is a ride down the spiral of cheap-ass existence. Every decent creative can copy almost any style for a fraction of the cost.

What people pay for in the future is not skill (that’s the price of admission). They pay for flair and meaning.

Example :

This is a cover  (no affiliate link) done by superstar Shepard Fairey for an ex-Door member who self-publishes his own book. Honestly, I could have created that cover myself based on skill alone, but my name doesn’t yet have the superstar brand power of Shepard Fairey. That’s why he probably made more for one cover than I’ll do for months. The author didn’t pay for skill, he paid for name.

Or how about Stefan Sagmeister, an Austrian graphic designer dominating NYC.

That city’s notorious for being stuffed with struggling creatives who can barely pay their rent.

But Stefan is drowning in high paid work and is busy with turning it down.

Price range ?

 Up to 96,000 $ for a CD cover, as famously showcased by a story between him and Jay Z.

Let me repeat that : ninety six thousand dollars for a single CD cover. Wowzee in my housie.

That’s what most creative people don’t even earn in a year.

—

I can even give you a personal example :

My mother once taught at a prestigious Art University. She, like her colleagues, had to negotiate hard to get good pay. The University claimed they didn’t have enough money anymore. But when a Scandinavian hot-shot artist with brand name recognition came, the -we-don’t-have-money  motto quickly turned to 10,000 $ in monthly pay, plus 500,000 $ “bonus” for art projects. Magic !

Granted, these peeps are superstars in their own right, but they showcase my thoughts.

In my city Berlin, a so-called cultural creative center of Europe,

97% of artists can’t live from their work, while the other 3% not only survive but thrive.

(according to the Berlin Artist Society.)

And the middle-class of creatives ? A dying breed.

You’re either stuck in the majority of sucky (no pay) – to good (bad pay) range,

or in the excellent / remarkable 3% part (good to excellent pay).

And you know what ? It’s a global phenomenon that’s only going to get worse.

The good of today are the homeless of tomorrow.

So, if you are only doing good good work, how fast can you stop ?

And if you stop, how can you make sure you’ll thrive instead ?

Read on.

How to thrive as a creative in the future

I don’t want to paint the future black. Bleak challenges lead to extraordinary possibilities.

The following are not actual facts. I’m not a star thriving yet, so I have no business talking about facts. But I did increase my revenue steadily over the last three years, and this is what I think can be the path to a thriving future as a creative.

Own your spot in the world. Generalized-good-for-all creators are the roadkill of tomorrow.

You want to have a distinctive style that people can only link to you, and want to hire you for.

You can offer many services now and even make decent money  for now, but it’s not sustainable. You have to own your unique style sooner or later, a specific set of trademarks that make people say “That style is totally (insert your name here).

The brand consistency gives you grrreat work and pay.

My trademarks ? Bold, modern / futuristic design, illustration and storytelling = a futurist visual artist. Still working on that.

Skill won’t save you, meaning will. If all you offer is competence, I can get it for cheaper from somewhere around the globe. Remember when I talked about Shepard Fairey and the book cover ? I could have created it, but I don’t have the meaning and reputation he enjoys.

The author’s going to say : See this cover ? It’s done by Shepard Fairey, and insiders’ mouths will fall down like dungeon doors. If you know Fairey, you know his meaning behind the work,and the meaning creates powerful connections between work and people.

Prestige and reputation will shoot through the roof.

Make your network your retirement backup.

Forget about the government taking care of you – with the ever-repeating financial crisis and

corruption and mismanagement on the global level, you have to rely on yourself. All power to the individual.

Your network, which you grow by approaching like-minded movers-and-shakers, is going to be your financial well. Ye$$$.

How ? By following this motto :  I massage your back and you massage mine.

I personally approach one to two new people every week, and I help my own folks by recommending

services and people – creating an equally mutual microcosmos.

The more my network grows, the more money I make. Fact.

And last but not least :

Your career has to be the most important thing in your life. At least for now.

I see people who luv the creative life style, just as much as they luv their friends, family, partying

and a hundred other things. With that attitude, you’ll end up in the creative meat grinder.

I personally put my career before friends and family, which means I spent more time on my creation process than I’m spending with my so-called “close” ones.

If you want to be exceptional at your creative craft to thrive in the future, something’s gotta give.

Don’t call it sacrifice, call it prioritization.

Conclusion :

You have to get rid of the notion “do good work, and you get good pay.”

Do good work now and you’ll end up as a homeless or social welfare patient in the future.

Living in a shed with five kids, sipping sugary soda through your rotten teeth. And too broke to care.

IF you are a freedom lover like me, and you can only work and live on your own terms, you have to go big or don’t bother at all. It’s black or white in creative career realm, because in the grey, you won’t survive anymore.

If you like this post, share the message with the creative peeps you care about.

The post Why the Good of Today are the Homeless of Tomorrow appeared first on STAND out by doing OUTstanding stuff.

Not just a linkbait headline. I seriously mean it. If you’re not wealthy by your chosen profession,
if you’re not regarded as a top leader in your field, if your peers don’t want to lick you alive,
you suck. Because there’s no middle-ground anymore. There’s no good enough anymore.

I know, this sucks.

I know this, because I suck.

Here’s where I’m coming from :

I talk with a lot of passionate, creative peeps. Either through my consulting or meeting them in offline life. And although they come from different nations and backgrounds, they almost always share the same delusion :

They think they are good. Enough.

They think good enough is the way to go, but good enough is…not good enough.
I know people who are good enough – they survive, but they don’t thrive.
They think they create kick-ass work, but they don’t, they create merely gooood work.

But in today’s world, good is another word for loser.

When I was in my early twenties and started out with my creative career, I thought I was
creating kick-ass work as well. Seriously. Friends and family told me : Mars, you’re incredibly talented.
You are going places. Claps here, claps there, claps everywhere.
Needless to say, my ego was blasting off. Up, up to the sky ! Mars, l’ increible. But I wasn’t
making much money, and one day I figured out why.
The day I met an exchange student who showed me his illustration and design work.

#Boom.

My ego flushed down the toilet on speed tap. Flush forward fast. The guy was about 8 years younger, still in his teens, and his style was already smoking mine like a tuna roll sandwich. Meh.
He told me to check out his peers, also teenagers, and that further burned the remnants
of my ego. I was nowhere near their level, despite what friends and family said. My bubble burst.

Plop !

Captain Depression visited me, and he looked like staying for a while. Shit.
Later that day, I slipped into my bed and cried. For hours.
“I’m done for.” is what I mumbled, while pulling the blanket over my head.
Talking about the stormy night of my soul.

Truth is, I hadn’t felt that depressive in years before.
Truth is, it was the turning point of my life.

The next day, I swore : forget about being good. Forget about being good in your perimeter.
If there’s a “foreigner” eating your career brunch, you need to hustle.

I realized how much I actually sucked on a global level. Knowledge of anatomy ? Barely.
Color wheel comprehension ? A funny joke. General composition ? Mediocre at best.
Over design ass-kickery ? Still in the works. Uh.

And that was the day I started practicing and honing my skills like a mad man.
I learned more about my craft in a year than I did in the decade before.

Truth is,
I sucked, and that was the greatest revelation of my life.

Truth is, you are not as good as you think you are. Truth is, you probably suck at some level.

Don’t fret, this the beginning of a grrreat journey.

Here’s how you unsuck yourself

But Mars, why are you smashing my ego ? Why are you kicking me when I’m already on the ground,
screaming for help ?

Because you need it.

Call it the dark night of the soul. Call it rebirth. Whatever.

Let’s move from sucky to skilly, right now.

In fact, skill can be based on the notorious four levels of conscious competence :

Level 1 – Unconscious Incompetence (You Don’t Know that You Don’t Know)
Meaning : You have no clue about your skill, and worse, you don’t even know that you’re clueless. Irghs.

Level 2 – Conscious Incompetence (You Know that You Don’t Know)
You have not much clue about your skill, but you KNOW that you’re almost clueless.

Level 3 – Conscious Competence (You Know that You Know)
You know your subject and are skilled, but you need conscious effort and lots of concentration.

Level 4 – Unconscious Competence (You Don’t Know that You Know – It Just Seems Easy!)
You’re a goddamn maverick with Jedi-skills. It’s a habit now – you don’t even have to think about it. Automation, baby. No effort, it’s easy as 1-2-3.

Reality check :
Most creative people (98% of the ones I meet) are stuck on level 1 – they are clueless, and they don’t even know that they are clueless. They think they’re much better than they actually are, and wonder why they still don’t thrive. That’s a dangerous place to be.

But this is not a make-you-feel-bad post, this is a shatter-your-ego-and-build-it-up-from-the-ground post.

So, here’s the recipe that can inspire you from suckyness to grrrreatness.
Below are the steps that I personally follow to build my own remark-ability.

Warning : it will hurt.

1) Epic Rival check.

Check out the best, and I mean the BEST players in your industry.

See how much money they make
See how their style trumps yours by a landslide
see how skillful they are compared to you

And then feel how it crushes your self-deception.

You have to compare yourself to them till it hurts. Ouchie times three. Like alcohol poured on your wound. The hurt factor matters a lot.
You will suddenly see your shortcomings, and what you have to do to raise up your game.

There’s no growth in comfort. Being frustrated and angered is a great place to build your skill.

2) Ask for a slap in the face.

Forget about asking “what do you think of (include your work here).”
Most people are polite by nature and will give you a BS answer.
Your most useless critics ? Friends and family. I call them bubble-builders.
They bubble you up all cushy and mushy, which clouds your critical self-reflection. Well-intended, but utterly useless and ultimately self-defeating.
Never ask anyone, especially not your close ones, how they like your work. The answer will almost always be a positive one.
Instead, ask for the negative straight away.

What’s not good about it yet ?
What’s wrong with it ?
What could be better ?

Yeah, the answer might shatter your ego like a ceramic bowl, but this is not about soothing in sugar land, this is about securing your success in the future.
Ask for a slap in the face. The harder it hurts, the more you learn.

3) Understand technology, and how it relates to your career.

Back in the day, a painter needed only to know about painting. A writer needed to know about writing. And so on, and on.
Lots of illustrators / designers I meet still think they need a college degree to succeed.
When I tell them about building an online presence (blog + social media) and attracting international clients, they look at me as if I’m trying to sell them dragon eggs from Alpha Centauri.

They don’t see how technology changes the landscape. They don’t see how schooling becomes less and less important, while online presentation and networking become your life essence. Pretty much.

No matter which market you’re in, technology will dramatically change how and IF you make money in your career.

If you’re an author, understand how all-you-can-read-buffet-style subscription models will dramatically change the way you make money.
And prepare.
If you’re an indie artist, understand how 3d printing will dramatically change the way you sell
your artwork. Prepare.
If you’re an online biz owner, understand how social media expert will be a thing of the past.
And prepare.

Technology will change the way you earn money in the future, no matter how untech-related
your current career is. Better to get informed about it.

Places to check out :
wired.com
io9.com
fastcompany.com

4) Bridge till you break your fingers.

Bridging is the process of closing the gap from where you are right now (the suck state)
to the place where you want to be (the success state).
I’ve written a whole post about this :

How “Bridging” Took My Entrepreneur Friend From Poor and Shitty to Grrreat and Successful

It’s a lifelong process that will only end when the grim reaper comes knocking on your door. Knock. Knock.

Conclusion

The minute you finish reading this post, thousands of new competitors will have entered
the global arena. Blood lusty beasts. Embrace your suckyness and move from level 1 to level 2,
still sucking, but at least knowing why.

Only then will you re-awake your hunger for greatness.
Only then will you do what it takes to succeed in the future.

You know what they say :
The truth will set you free,
but first, it will piss you off.

And if you share this post with your friends and peers, you will
make one unofficial step to sucking less already.

The post You Suck appeared first on STAND out by doing OUTstanding stuff.

In this post, I’m going to tell you how I think you can predict ze near future,
and why it’s super-important if you want to survive and even thrive as a creative content producer.

Here’s where I’m coming from :

In 2012, I did a lot of mistakes, 99% of which I did not regret, because I was
experimenting like a mad scientist (no animals were harmed ).
But there’s one thing I DO regret :

The inability to spot emerging trends.

And to be clear :

The lazy syndrome of following what my peers are doing instead of seeing where the online game heads next.

I was reacting instead of acting, which cost me a lot of money.
(insert *face smack* here) (*__* )!

Here are just a couple of things I started wayyyyyyy too late :

• Starting a blog in 2010 when I should have done it at least 3 years earlier. Ungh.
• selling a PDF guide in 2012 although PDF guides are on their way out (responsive, anyone ?)
• not getting into the Kindle Publishing business which I should have started 2 years ago.

In short, I overslept important trends and shoot myself in the fiscal foot. It hurt, and I’m still bleeding dollars. But hopefully…no moa !

You see, the web world is moving and faster with every passing year. If you don’t keep
with it, you’ll have to spend your time coping with upcoming challenges.
But as a (creative) entrepreneur, you don’t want to spend your life “coping” with things.
That’s the surest way to flush your future down the toilet. Wosh.

So why even bother ? Why ze häck would you want to predict ze future ?

Here are just a couple of important reasons why you should start predicting now :

• become the first in your (mini) field and snap your first mover’s advantage

• be prepared when the economical shit hits the fan (and somewhere, someplace, shit always hits the fan !) = more crisis resistant

• create (art) work that stands out and has no initial competition (by the time you get competition, you are well established not to fear it )

See ? Predicting the near future is all about staying relevant and building yourself a lucrative
future while others keep reacting and losing out. You get the get the cake and they suck on the crumbs.
And crumbs neither fill up your stomach nor your wallet !

If you want to be successful, you need to predict the near future, at least to an extent, to know where you should focus your precious time on.

You need to see how people are going to consume content, what kind of content they consume, and what kind of content you should be producing (and content meaning design, blog posts and stories and eproducts).

Don’t panic.

You don’t need some shiny crystal ball to do it, only a minor part of your brain (remember that wobbly thing in your head ?) and a bit of creativity/curiosity.

I have done a lot of personal research (read: glued my eyes to my shiny Macbook screen
and soaked up everything about psychology / news / technology) and came
to an interesting discovery – a single word that allows me to predict partially
the near near future….

and that my dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, is one single word called :

LAZINESS.

Yep, you heard that right.

Nature is lazy. It wants to achieve the maximum result with the least effort. We are nature,
thus we are lazy. I believe a major aspect of becoming future-resistant is to see how technology responds to our laziness.

If you look at all the incredible inventions we made, you can see it clearly :

TRANSPORTATION :

1)Horses  2) Cars  3) Driverless cars  4) teleportation ?

1) High maintenance. Unreliable. Slow. Uncomfortable.

2) Medium maintenance. Relatively reliable.

3) No need to drive (good for minors, intoxicated, disabled, physically unfit). Safe.

4) Superfast. Safe. No maintenance. Not yet invented.

WORK :

1) highly qualified workforce 1)outsource to cheap countries 3)robots

1) Effective, but high maintenance. Bureaucratic and cost-intensive.

2) Cheaper and less bureaucratic, but still needs oversight and control.

3) Super-cheap in the near future. Works 24/7. Doesn’t need health care.
Reliable. Efficient. Never complains. Never revolts (unless we build Skynet)

PUBLISHING

1) Traditional publishing 2) indie-publishing through third party 3) 100%indie publishing

1) You need publishing permission from a big gatekeeper, who owns your right and controls your career.

About 15 % – 20% profit for each book sold.  (major hassle)

2) You can publish yourself, but you rely on a market place (Amazon, Apple etc.) and still share profits.

About 30% – 70% profit for each book sold. (minor hassle)

3) You can publish yourself, without needing a market place. Tools will be built that allow you

to reach your audience all by yourself.

About 80% – 100% profit for each book sold. (no hassle)

CONTENT :

scriptures – physical books – ereaders – Google glasses – interactive contact lenses
Why ?

Books are bulky and heavy. AND – not good for older people with bad sight. Ereader ? Light, effective, can carry up to thousands of books, comes with adjustable fonts and font size and much more. It’s the lazy man’s choice.

Then : Google glasses. Forget about the bulky phone in your pants. Touch and swipe ? Too much effort, you can

talk to your Google glasses and update, search, buy, photograph everything by voice command.

Then : Interactive contact lenses. Just like Google glasses, but you don’t have to wear that weird thing on your nose. It’s invisibly on your eye, allowing you digitally connect with everyone and anything, and yeah, even read text and watch movies whenever you want to.

Conclusion :

Everything that supports and caters to our inborn laziness is future-sustainable. Nothing stays the same. Every person with free internet access will be able to build their own media empire, getting up to 100% of the profit.

Every gatekeeper will eventually lose out, as gatekeeping always equals extra effort, and nature doesn’t like extra effort.

The more you familiarize yourself with the future, the better you can (financially)
prepare yourself for it. That’s why you should ask yourself :

What supports our inborn laziness ?

What’s a better / faster / quicker way to do it ?

If you look at “lazy” trends, you can see where you should spend your creative working time on.

• You will see that stiff PDFs will be out-matched by lean website-based formats like epub.
• You will see that digital content creation will become and more important profitable thanx to mobile reading technology
• You will see that being an entrepreneurial content producer will be more sustainable than being a freelancer

And if you need reading, I dare you to frequently look up blogs like these :

www.wired.com - new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics.
www.io9.com – scientific and pop-culture tech entertainment
www.fastcompany.com  - online mag about innovative business, design and creation processes

All of these blogs are fairly entertaining to the non-geek while offering a diverse range
of future-related content.

No matter if you’re online biz builder, author, artist or musician, you should occasionally read these blogs,
as they include innovation and upcoming trends that you should pay attention to.

What are your thoughts on predicting the near future, and you have tips and recommendations to do it effectively ?

Share this post with your peeps if you want to spread the message.

The post Why You Must Predict the Near Future If You Want to Survive and Thrive appeared first on STAND out by doing OUTstanding stuff.

I don’t care.

I don’t care whether you are an author, marketer, mom, designer, biz owner or rebel leader – if you want to succeed in today’s environment, you have to be a grrreat storyteller first.

And it doesn’t even matter if it’s the verbal or the written way – if you can’t capture or engage your audience, whatever you’re trying to accomplish will crash and burn.

Brzzzzzzzzzzzzz (the sound of fire engulfing your crash)

Storytelling is one of the most essential skills you have to master in today’s age that can help you…

• getting your message across
• make people buy your stuff
• spread inspiration
• influence people in general to act on your calls-to-actions

Remember : we told stories when we were smelly cave men, and we will tell stories
when we’re doing 180° flips with our hoverboards on planetary colonies.

Yes.

I would even claim that mastering this art is the closest thing to applying Jedi Mind tricks.

Honestly.

Now, let me present you the top 5 podcasts that have taught me how to use stories to hook people, influence them, create suspense, make people laugh and inspire the heck out of them.

What follows is a snapshot of each podcast, who made them, and why in the heck you should listen to it :

Let’s start with…

The self-publishing podcast with Johnny B. Truant, Sean Platt and David Wright.
Now this is a special one. With these three guys, there’s enough bromance going on to fill ten buddy movies. Their podcast hangout show is stuffed with fun stories, bantering, tips and tricks for the modern story publisher and lots, lots, lots of humor, which is 100% NSFW.
Parental guidance strongly suggested.
They occasionally (read: constantly) get off the track, but if you like irreverent entertainment and interesting nuggets on storytelling, storySELLING
and finding your right ideas, check these guys out.

Why you should listen :

Entertaining, irreverent humor, hilarious…and occasionally informative.
They sometimes even feature interesting interviewees that they squeeze out like a ripe orange.

Writing excuses “Because we’re not that smart!” with Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler and Dan Wells

A couple of fairly popular fiction writers get together to create a group discussion about
very specific writing exercises. The advice is spot on and ranges from
idea generation to kicking writer’s block in the nuts. They occasionally invite pros from the traditional industry who share their own .02 cents on being a successful storyteller.

Why you should listen :

The information is straight to the point and the format is delightfully terse.
Each show just goes for 15 minutes and is jam-packed with information on making your
storytelling immensely powerful.

The Creative Penn with Joanna Penn.

She’s what I call a true authorpreneur who built a respected platform abundant with story writing tips, self-publishing marketing advice and sweet-a-licious interviews with professional storytellers from all over the world.

Why you should listen to her :
Diverse topic range – from personal branding (cool guy she interviewed for that) to fiction writing and community building, Joanna offers quite the spectrum of information to the modern storyteller. Her interviews also feature some incredible storytellers who share their tips on succeeding.
Extra bonus : her charmingly, very British dialect. Bloody hell, my dear !

Books and Beer with Evo Terra and Moriarty
Exactly what it says – two guys get on a Google hangout, drink beer
and invite experts from the self-publishing space to talk about
finding your unique writing voice, creating cover design for your book and leading
a successful kickstarter campaign.

Why you should listen to them :
Funny and insightful hosts, interesting and knowledgeable interviewees mashed in
a fun to watch and easy to digest web format.

The Roundtable Podcast with Dave Robison and Brion Humphrey

First of all – do you know that deep, manly-style voice that narrates movie trailers ?
The one that cracks out lines like these :
They took his wife, his freedom…and now, he’s back to kick some serious ass.” ?
Well, podcaster Dave of the podcasting roundtable sounds exactly like that ;) Besides that extremely eartastic sound experience, the boys focus almost exclusively on fiction writers and storytellers. It’s super-valuable, as they find the right mix between humor and spot-on information of how to succeed as a storyteller in today’s world.

Why you should listen to it :
Ass-kicking engaging voice (seriously). Concise length. Interesting guests.
A good dose of humor and entertainment.

#boom.

Conclusion :
I have listened to lots of, and I mean lots of podcasts during the last two years.

But these 5 are easily the best for the modern storyteller – YOU – who not only wants to influence people but is also interested in making a living from it.

These are the best on helping you becoming a powerful and successful storyteller.

If you have any other KICK-ASS storytelling / writing podcasts that I missed, please share ‘em in the comments for everyone to see !
There’s ALWAYS room for more.

And please share these podcasting recommendations with your folks.

The post 5 Essential Podcasts That Help YOU Become a Successful Storyteller appeared first on STAND out by doing OUTstanding stuff.

The end is nigh…the apocalypse right in front us…
but before heaven descends upon us and lava rivers swallow our bodies,
let me uncover my 2012 revelations, predictions for 2013 and my MOST important blogging biz lessons that I have learned throughout this year.
I’m sure they will all help you with your OWN online biz journey.

Let’s start with the positive first.

What I did right :

I created more than I blogged.
There’s still this odd phenomenon in the blogosphere where people get famous for writing cool shit rather than doing it.
Something along these lines :
“I don’t know shiiiit about marketing, maybe because I have never marketed a product,
but hey, everyone’s doing a marketing blog, so maybe I should too !”

NO, you really shouldn’t.

In 2011, I too talked (writing and consulting) more than I created, and I shifted that ratio in 2013.
This year, I have done more and more design and actual branding work, creating real world
results and THEN blogged about it. Wowzee. What a concept !

2)  I focused on my mother base
Instagram, Twitter, Facebook – they’re all online platforms with lots of followers
but obnoxious biznass models.

• Instead of making my online presence rely on such a fickle outlet, I have channeled my clients and audience all back to my home base (this blog) which I self-host. (more on that later)

3) I connected with the people that matter
When I started blogging, I wanted to dominate the blogging world Rambo-style :

Get in, take no prisoners and become successful the (Han) solo way.

I don’t know what kind of illegal liquid did flood my brain back then, but that’s of course bullocks.
Your community and peer network is the LIFEBLOOD of your online biz.
Most un-successful web creatives are unsuccessful because they DON’T have a network – no peers and or raving fan customers that recommend them.
That’s why I passionately connect with digital crusaders from around the planet – to
help each other out.

Sadly, those are the only things I got right.

Now ze bad stuff…

What I fucked up :

1) Listening to the social media circus
I realized that most social media talk (99,999999999%)
is full of nonsense and clowns…REAL clowns with red noses and circus music;
dip-dee-dip-dee-doo-dee-doo-dip-doo-dee-doooo – dancing on bears and riding
unicycles.

Honestly. There’s this perception that “Social Media” is that grand, elusive force that you have to master in order to be successful with your biz. Itsy-bitsy special sauce !
Which is complete bullshit with capital BS.
It’s just a tool, like a telephone, not some magic elixir that boosts your bottom line.
It’s a way to connect with your community and customers, nothing else.
I wasted too much buying into that social media deception instead of doing what
matters – creating epic shit.

2) I failed to keep a dedicated accountability group
When you’re self-employed and you have no boss breathing down your neck,
you are the only who can kick your ass.
And you’ll almost never do it.

This year, I “suffered” through several productivity slowdowns.
Of course there are a lot of productivity apps and techniques out there that help you going,
and I even use my favorite one pomodoro, but nothing’s more powerful than teaming up with
like minded biz crusaders who MAKE SURE YOU ACT ON YOUR GOALS.
I tried it several times this year and it always failed – the group vaporized into dark, undefined matter. Bad. I have to change that.

3) I didn’t master the Doing VS. Talking mode
Although I achieved much more during this year than in the last, there was still too much talking.
Talking about stuff doesn’t make you incredibly successful – shipping out work DOES.

I have shipped my guide, my cartoons, a course, slideshare sand lots of designs, gladly sacrificing my blogging time. But it wasn’t nearly enough.
I don’t want to become known as the guy with the kick-ass posts, but rather for the KICK_ass work that I create.
2013 will see me more cranking out WORK.

4) I jumped too late on the self-publishing train.
We all know self-publishing is all the fire – especially in the epub and mobi format. But the majority of the gold rush will come to a severe slow in 2013 – at least in the most important market, the USA. The rush was HOT in the last two years, but it’s become standard now. Shit, Mars, you PDF cock-sucking sympathizer. Next year, I want to tune more into the force and sniff those trends out.

—- I can summarize all these “mistakes” in two sentences :

Focusing on the puck instead of focusing on where the puck is going (failing to see trends and
the future) and failing to create enough work that matters (thanx to self-owned distractions).

Now onto the discoveries…

MAJOR revelations and surprises I made :

Your network is your only job security. About 70% of my gigs and income came through
features and recommendations from my peers this year.
Only a third of my work came through my blog.
What a revelation !
Connecting with your peers and building a kick-ass network will not only mean you get to know
cool people from around the planet, but that you also receive a constant influx of offers, collaborations and opportunities :

• I made over a thousand bucks through Srini’s blogcast FM interview. Not because he paid me, but because the interview proved so successful that it resulted in ebook sales, design and consulting gigs.

The fastest way to get grrrrreat at something is to admit that you SUCK in the first place

I looked around what people are doing creatively in the world and wondered why some are sooo great while others created bland and amateur work, even though they hustled just as hard.
I found one reason for it – the ones who kick-ass at work are more honest with themselves when
it comes to their work evaluation. They know exactly how their current skill measures against the world, and effectively work on creeping out their lack of skill the and getting insanely better at their craft.

If you want to create work that blows people away, you have to really see how your current skill
matches up with the creme-de-la-creme of the world, INSTEAD of kidding yourself and seeing your work better than it actually is.

Only if you know how much you SUCK will you be able to create awesome shit.

________________

Seth Godin is the world’s best (book) marketer.
He has written one book called Purple Cow and has managed to best-sell the same book again and again to hundred of thousands die-hard fans, merely by switching the covers and titles ( the latest iteration being “The Icarus Deception.”)
He clearly established himself as the go-to-guy in the category brain-porn for (aspiring) entrepreneurs.
And yes, I have bought every one of his iterations because I like porn.

________________

Aim to become NOT the best, but the only one who does what you do.

This is especially true for creatives making money through the net.
I truly believe that if someone can measure your value in a specific stats, you’re TOAST.
Everyone who aims to be the number one will eventually drop to 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc. place.
Now matter how good you are, there will always be someone younger, more ambitious and
crazier than you.
The goal then is not to be the best, but be the only one who does what you do :

Ze Frank
Lady Gaga
Tim Burton
Gary Vaynerchuk
J.K. Rowling
Quentin Tarantino
Yayoi Kusama

You may deride them or laugh at them, but you can’t put a definite number on them. That’s because they have no competition – they’re mavericks. There is no one like them, and there will never be anyone like them. Aim to be THAT kind of person, and add your name to the list.

________________

OWN your online presence
I have talked to biz owners and creatives who use solely Facebook, Blogger and/or other free platforms as their MAJOR online presence. Ouchieeee !
Needless to say, they all got butt-fucked this year, because of Facebook’s priority to paid content promotion and Blogger’s ability to censor and shut down every blog.

While you have to use other outlets to get traffic and attention, NEVER NEVER NEVER build your online presence foundation on a platform that’s not self-hosted. The example of Instagram trying to sell your photos without your consent just proves this. Social media platforms are fickle creatures with bad business models – they come up with obnoxious pay models that often hurt the way you build your web presence.
You will always be at their mercy, and that’s a game you can only lose.

Be self-hosted. Use e-mail list. Everything else is an optional conversion and communication tool !

I have written a guest post on Mark’s popular blog about that :
A cautionary tale: Putting your business in the hands of Facebook

________________

Action inspires more than words

Similar to what I wrote in doing vs. action.
If your goal is inspire others to do/create epic shit,
you have to do it yourself first INSTEAD of just writing about it.

• Stefan Sagmeister didn’t teach his fellow graphic designers how to break boundaries, he inspired them by BRRREAKING them.
• Felix Baumgartner could have written the best blog post on jumping from space, but it was his actual action that hold the earth’s breath and inspired it.

Talk is cheap. Action is priceless.

Now ze future talk.

What 2013 will bring :

Self-publishing will be wayyy bigger and slowly move into the noise era, similar
to what we experience in the blogging scene right now.
Every monkey who can hit the keyboard will publish something, and that means
clutter will be the norm. In order to stand out, you have to create a product that’s
as pro as a traditionally published one :

Unique, compelling writing + eye-grabbing cover + editing = chance of success.

( Disclaimer – this “revolution” will while SLOWLY creeping into the rest of the world.
I say rest of the world even though I’m from Europe, because people here are only SLOWLY
accepting a digital ereader over their smelly-ass paper-based reader.)

________________

In much of the Western world, mobile will the main device through which peeps will consume your site. That means that every blog design decision (email form, banner, posts etc.) must be based on how it will look on a much smaller screen. Don’t forget this !
I’m already working on my mobile-friendly redesign.

________________

The unofficial major theme in 2013 will be DISTRACTION, and the successful people will shut down anything that will disturb their creative process. Most of the apps you use are useless – they’re funky little toys that don’t serve a purpose. I personally don’t have a smartphone, because it doesn’t positively influence my life – it only distracts me from creating important work. Ultra-successful peeps like Gary Vaynerchuk and Seth Godin know how to exclude themselves from all the social media and app world, focusing on their work and being insanely productive.

Your success will partly depend on your ability to get rid of all the digital noise in 2013 – separating what truly matters and NOT falling for shiny little things.

And last but not least…

Information won’t matter anymore, only experiences.
You job is as an online creative is not to just inform people, but to give them an experience
only YOU can give them. That used to be different just a few years ago, but with Wikipedia and so many content networks out there, pure information is a commodity.

Let me repeat that so you can burrrn it into your brain :

Information is a commodity now.

I sold my branding and marketing guide in summer 2012, and I’m still making sales because
of the way I presented it – funky designs, edgy rainbow-raped cartoons and lotz of humor.
You can probably find the information on any major marketing blog, but
you won’t get the same pleasing experience.

E-X-P-E-R-I-E-N-C-E.

Every informational content that Seth Godin, Chris Guillebeau and Danielle Laporte crank out
can be found almost everywhere. We all know everything they will ever write about, but that’s not why we check them out in the first place. We want to tap into their worlds, be part of their
experience so we can create our own.

So, worry more about HOW you present your products and services, rather than WHAT you present. Make (art)work that only you can make – I will work my face off to create a website experience in 2013 that only
Mars Dorian can offer.

The post My Blogging Revelations of 2012 + What The Online Future Will Bring You appeared first on STAND out by doing OUTstanding stuff.

In this post, I show you a better and more effective way to build your online audience and client base.

I also have a special announcement that I make at the end of this post, but let’s jump right into the online biz

revelation that I witnessed this year.

Here’s what I personally discovered :

• The competition for eyeballs (aka getting attention) is extremely high.
• They are tons of sites and blogs who want to “make it big” in your market.
• Everyone who wants to build a thriving and profitable online presence needs to build their audience from scratch…

or not ?

When you’re not already a bigshot today, the strive for attention and customers can
get really challenging, not to say punch-your-face-with-a-Koala-style-frustrating.
But there’s hope on the horizon, smiling at you like the sun’s lost son.

Enter the audience stealer.

The most time effective way to increase your readership and customer base.

Woozaa !

Premise :
Instead of trying to get all the people coming to your site directly, which requires
endless work and persistence, you tap into a thriving online outlet and snatch up
your audience from there.

Huh ?

Let me explain. The majority of my blog traffic, and more importantly my sales, came
from digital outlets that featured me/or my work :

• an interview by BlogcastFM media mastermind Srinivas Rao earned my thousands of dollars (through guide sales and high-quality clients)
• my slideshows on Slideshare brought me product sales, new readers and customers
• my monthly contribution post to Grow increased my readership and let to more clients

It’s fair to say that around 70%-80% of my income this year came from indirect resources,
meaning outlets different than my blog.

If that’s not setting an Oompa Loompa on surprise fire, then I don’t know what can.

But why is getting you/your work featured on other sites so powerful ?

Think about it.
There are already so many established platforms and media sites out there who already built an incredibly big and dedicated audience. Instead of trying to replicate their years of hard-ass work yourself, you can simply tap into their audience and steer a big chunk back to your site !

This approach is super-effective, because you…

• tap into different markets (thus increasing your reach)
• attract a highly-targeted crowd (who dig your specific content)
• get extra Google link ranking juice and reputation, because you’re a featured and linked on name brands

Now how the hell can YOU do that practically for yourself ? How in the Sauerkraut’s name of the holy Wiener can you steal audiences from established platforms ?

I’m glad my brain assumes that you ask that question, that’s why I unlock
my tips and tricks here for you…

3 ways to steal audiences effectively

Create fun to consume and easy to share project-based work. 

(aka make your work media-friendly)

Andrew Kim’s  impressive design portfolio on http://www.minimallyminimal.com/ created quite the ruckus online.
He’s done incredible concept and redesign work on Coca Cola, Microsoft, Honda etc., which he shared openly in a respective one page concept presentation, easy to consume and easy to share.
This caught the attention of various renowned media outlets, such as Mashable, Y Combinator, Tech Crunch and Fast Company,
allowing him to get MASS attention and high-quality client work.

Lesson : If you are in the creation department, such as illustration, (web)design and film/music making, consider producing highly shareable online pages that news media outlets can include
in their articles. You will gain access to insanely big audiences and work opportunities.

Create specific content on and publish on a platform that’s specifically build for that kind of content.

Wowzee, what a mouthful. But here’s what I mean :
Take Slideshare, which is a popular slideshow sharing platform. I luv it. No seriously, I do.
If it was a woman I’d do some naughty, NSFW gigs with it. But for now, I stick to creating visual presentations. In summer 2012 I uploaded my first presentation ever, just for the fun of it.

It gathered over 65,000 views in a short amount of time, bringing me mucho attention and sales.
I almost fell off my chair, pissing all over myself in surprise, because of the unexpected impact.
In the following weeks, I decided to create more slideshows, which lead to more client work and biz opportunities.

Would I have gained the same amount of attention and work by simply posting the slideshows on my blog alone ?
No. Because their platform has a built-in audience that’s FOCUSED on that kind of content.

Or look at my buddies Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant who unleashed an offbeat indie-publishing podcast. They built quite a large fan base in a fairly short amount of time (1-2 months), simply by tapping into iTunes’ incredibly big podcast market and focusing on a specific niche, in their case, self-publishing. Despite their incredibly irreverent charm, they’d never be able to
attract that fan base on their respective sites alone.

Note: when you create specific content on other platforms, MAKE SURE you link back to your home base, aka your blog or website. And when I mean “link”, I don’t only mean the weblink, but including your site reference as well. Mention your website and URL in your work, especially at the end of your content, so people visit your home base where you can turn them into customers or email-list subscribers.

Lesson: Find a popular platform that thrives on a specific kind of content-creation, whether that’s
slide design (Slideshow), podcasting (iTunes) or video (Youtube, Vimeo) and then produce hiqh quality, unique content for it that attracts their audience.

Fill in the gaps 

There are lots of huge personal and media blogs out there that entertain their own, big-ass audiences. A grrreat way for you to tap into their market is to contribute content (e.g. a guest post) by looking into what kind of content they offer and what kind of content they LACK.

So that YOU, the awesome content hero, can FILL that gap with your own content and style. When Mark Schaefer from Grow approached me, he already had a bunch of cool writers that contributed to his immensely successful marketing biz site. But what he missed were some cool graphics and visuals, namely cartoons, spiced with a passionate and unique writing flavor.
So, exactamente what I had to offer. I approached him and pitched him my style and how it could enrich his site, and whoopsie-doopsie, turned into a paid contributor to his platform.

Lesson : Find a gap on a big-ass blog and fill it with your unique style.
You enrich their platform by heaps, and get mass attention and reputation in return, which can lead to subscribers and customers. Win win all the way, baby Sue !

Conclusion time
Yesss, your blog or site is the MAIN platform, your HOME baby. But there are other outlets out there, with wayyyy bigger audiences than yours.
It would be FOOLISH not to tap into their market and steal their audiences so you can grow YOURS…

Now BTW – I have just released a build-your-online-presence multimedia course with my
buddy Srinivas Rao from Blogcast FM. You learn how to build a successful online platform from scratch, including how to get your voice heard online, how to stand out and attract the customers you need to thrive.
Click here to find out more !

The post How Do You Attract your Online Audience and Customers Today ? You STEAL them (Here’s How) appeared first on STAND out by doing OUTstanding stuff.

When I see the work I did only a year ago, I feel the urge to punch myself in the face.
Not only punch my face, but also rip it off my head and piss on it.
Yep, I think it’s that bad. But that’s ok, because I’m making progress.

I have made TREMENDOUS improvements over my biz and (art)work over the
last 12 months, because I radically changed my mindset.

In this post, I want to reveal the top three tips that I incorporated into my style,
allowing me to drastically improve every part of my work and career.

They are all based on an incredible concept made famous by radio host
Ira Glass :

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer.”

So the problem is you get the vision but not the skills.

The gap from where you see yourself and where you are right now is miles apart.
And your whole mission in life is to close that gap – until the day your actual work matches
your grandiose vision.

Well, with those tips I told you about, we can close that gap much faster, allowing YOU to
create much grrrreater work soon, advancing both your life and your career.

Let’s reveal them right now.

First…

1) Be 100% honest about your work.

It seems like a no-no-no brainer, but it’s frightening to see how many smart people do
no-braining things.

The problem is that most creatives share a distorted vision of how good their work really is. They think they crank out good work, when in fact it’s flat and forgettable. Now I know that taste is in the eye of the beholder, but skill isn’t. You can actually see if someone possesses skill or not, no matter which style they use.
But most “creators”, either through laziness or lack of attention, simply don’t get how their work
compares to their competition. They think their work is pretty good, when it really isn’t.
It’s a DANGEROUS place to be, as you wonder why your biz NEVER really takes off, even though you work your face off. More often than not, your work is average shit and you can’t see (or accept) that.

You have to compare your work with the best one in your market, and then be absolutely honest with yourself.

Am I really good, or is it fairly average and not remarkable in the least ???

The more critical you are of your work (it will hurt), the BETTER. Because when you see what’s
wrong with your work, you know how to fix it.

I’m getting better and better at my drawing / designing, but compared to my role models, I’m still useless. I can SEE the difference between my skillset and theirs – my anatomy looks like it got raped by aliens with laser dicks, and some of my “form creation” lacks the punch it needs.
But I’m working hard to close that gap.

Be honest about your current state of work. GO HARD ON YOURSELF.
Compare it with the best in your field, and then find out what’s not right yet and fix it.

2) Get interested in what you’re not interested in

There’s a virus flying around, and it’s causing you to create average work, despite having high standards. I dub it “Incest Inspiration”, a concept that I always warn people about, because I want to burrrn it into your membrane till your synapses pop out !
You want to create kick-ass work and products, and no matter how hard you try to make it
stand out from everybody elses, it always looks pretty similar to what the top peeps in your fields are creating.

You know why ?

The problem why your work looks sooo similar to everyone else in the market is because you mainly check out what your peers and competitors are doing. You are committing incest inspiration, consuming only ideas from your market.

“Hey, I want to create a marketing blog. Let’s check out all the other popular marketing blogs to
get an idea about what I can write.”

WRONG.

You’re imprisoning yourself into the echo chamber and write about the same stuff like everyone else. A mindless copy machine that adds more noise. Irrghs.

BTW – this sickness hits every kind of creative – whether you are a designer, writer, drawer, maker, builder or online biz creator. You unconsciously copy the best / most trending in your market and create look-alike work.

Here’s the cure :

Instead of consuming ideas from your peers, check out something completely different – how about a YA novel about a crystal meth addicted girl that creates a messed up alter ego ?
( This is not made up – the book’s called CRANK and I enjoyed it very much )

I nowadays FORCE myself to extract ideas from areas that I’m not the least interested in -
be it from DIY crafting, girly YA novels, cooking shows, space engineering etc.

I don’t give a rat’s ass about these topics, but I try to find interesting things about them so that my mind gets flushed with NEW ideas, which will then help me create better & more original work.

That’s the only way to get FRESH ideas into your thought pool and create remarkable work that people want to talk about (and pay for).

You create what you consume. So if you consume the same sources like your peers…
you get it.

Force yourself to get (work) inspiration from places you are NOT interested. You can extract a helpful idea from almost everything – a designer can find a brilliant design idea from a Wantan soup even if he’s not interested in food.

The goal is to get new ideas, so that your synapses build NEW connections, allowing YOU to think differently and thus create better, more original work.

3) Be a perfectionist long-term and an im-perfectionist in the short-term

We all know the urge to keep refining our work UNTIL it’s ready, because our work is never ready and we have to work longer on it before we can ship it.

That’s your BS !

BS meaning belief system.

In reality we are afraid that we’re about to yellow our pants like the sun, because shipping something publicly always means attracting (negative) feedback, and we don’t want that.

That’s why I challenge YOU to think like an imperfectionist short-term.
When it’s good enough, you get it out there. Not brilliant, not epic – but good enough.
This ensures you actually deliver your work and get on with the next one.

But in the long-term ? You should have an insanely high standard.
You should believe you create work epic enough to make angels wet themselves.
Something incredible that YOU can get known for – a style and idea overkill that people
will remember and talk about.

Now how do you combine these two contradicting principles ? Easy fleasy.

You ship your work when it’s “good enough” (short-term), while constantly (long-term) asking yourself  how you make the NEXT one much better !

Delivering frequently and improving every shipment after another – you’ll learn like a Jedi.

conclusion

Ira Glass I love you.
Your whole concept of having a great vision and terrible skills really opened my eyes, especially the “gap” idea.

and IF you…

• be 100% critical of your work, seeing what’s missing
• force yourself to get new ideas from things you’re not interested in
• and think like a perfectionist long-term (always better) while being an im-perfectionist in the short run (good enough)

you will be able to close that fucking gap much faster.

Please share this post with your fellow creators, the message needs to get out !

The post What No One Told YOU About Creating Grrreat Work appeared first on STAND out by doing OUTstanding stuff.