FOR CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURS: A few days ago, I watched a replay of Marketing Consultant, Megan Macedo, talking about the artistic approach to business. She explained the difference between:

(a) The traditional entrepreneur's approach to business, which is to find an unmet need in the market and meet it

(b) The artistic entrepreneur's approach, which is to create stuff that calls us then send it into the marketplace

Anyone who has been successful in the traditional paradigm would find the artist's approach ridiculous, but as one who feels called to create from a place of uncertainty, I can say it simply cannot be helped.

For an artist, it is imperative to respond to the calling, to explore and discover and then explore some more. The urge lives in every fiber of our being, propelling us through every moment of our lives.

For the artistic entrepreneur, the question is not: "will it sell?" but "what's worth doing even if I fail?" Unlike the traditional entrepreneur, we do not have an elevator pitch but a personal story that allows others a glimpse of what motivates us.

To find our personal story, Megan suggests we plot our entire body of work along a timeline and identify:

🦊 Key moments of insight and resolution
🦊 Major turning points when our focus shifted
🦊 Underlying questions we were trying to answer in our work
🦊 The parts of our work we are most proud of
🦊 Things we have invested the most time, money and energy in
🦊 Wounds we might have been trying to heal

When we complete this exercise, we can:

🦄 Collate and group our findings
🦄 Look for patterns and themes
🦄 Identify which were personal and which were cultural

Our mission and purpose should then emerge so clearly, we can summarize it into a few sentences, thus having a personal story we can articulate.

I don't know about you, but I'm inspired to take on this exercise during the quiet moments of this 2022 festive season. And I'm definitely going to buy a limited edition copy of Megan's book "Uncertainty, Gentleness, Cultural Forces"