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Creative Careers: Making a Living with Your Ideas
How to balance business and creativity to earn a living doing what you love.
Ever since B. Jeffrey Madoff launched his Creative Careers class at Parsons School of Design in New York in 2007, it has been fully booked each semester. Now, in his first book, Madoff reveals the lessons and advice that make his course one of the most popular on campus to anyone looking to build a sustainable career.
Like the class, Creative Careers is based on advice from today's leading entrepreneurs, artists, and business leaders -- and can be applied to any profession or endeavor. Madoff guides readers through best practices for pursuing your creative interests in a successful way, supported with insights and advice from a variety of creative luminaries. Filled with questions and self-assessments throughout, Madoff teaches key lessons, such as "Where Is There White Space?" (never stop looking for new opportunities), "Which Ideas Have Value" (ruthlessly edit down your creative projects), and many others.
Creative Careers dispels the myth that artists can't be good business people and vice versa along with many other myths about creativity so that readers can finally embrace all sides of themselves and reach their full potential.
Ever since B. Jeffrey Madoff launched his Creative Careers class at Parsons School of Design in New York in 2007, it has been fully booked each semester. Now, in his first book, Madoff reveals the lessons and advice that make his course one of the most popular on campus to anyone looking to build a sustainable career.
Like the class, Creative Careers is based on advice from today's leading entrepreneurs, artists, and business leaders -- and can be applied to any profession or endeavor. Madoff guides readers through best practices for pursuing your creative interests in a successful way, supported with insights and advice from a variety of creative luminaries. Filled with questions and self-assessments throughout, Madoff teaches key lessons, such as "Where Is There White Space?" (never stop looking for new opportunities), "Which Ideas Have Value" (ruthlessly edit down your creative projects), and many others.
Creative Careers dispels the myth that artists can't be good business people and vice versa along with many other myths about creativity so that readers can finally embrace all sides of themselves and reach their full potential.
320 pages, Paperback
First published June 16, 2020
13 people are currently reading
213 people want to read
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November 24, 2021
Highlights:
“Creative ideas may seem to come out of nowhere, but they almost never do. You might experience a breakthrough that connects the dots, but those dots have been percolating for a while and you are finally seeing the relationships between them.”
“You never know where inspiration will come from, what neurons will fire, to form an idea. It’s important to constantly expose yourself to the best work out there.”
“Everybody knows that’s Orion. I can’t believe you can’t see him.” “Everyone might agree it’s Orion, but it’s not actually Orion—it was just a bunch of stars until someone told a story about it and gave it meaning.”
“To facilitate creativity, I try to ask better questions. Those better questions can sometimes be absurd: What if I do the opposite of best practices? What if I stop doing 90 percent of what my competitors do for the next week? What if I completely stopped using email and phone for the next seven days as an experiment? I think we are hard-wired to have rituals and routines, and those are very, very helpful, but it can be even more valuable to jolt yourself out of that temporarily.”
“On the last day of school, the students were given a topic and had to write an essay. She chose to write the story about the last day of school through the eyes of the janitor. She won a national award for it. It’s an important insight into the creative mind: How do you tell a story that hasn’t been told before? How do you look at something that happens every day in a fresh way, and how do you look at that through somebody else’s eyes and come up with a new idea?”
“when I’m on-site this can feel a bit frantic, especially when the light is illuminating the landscape magnificently. I sometimes take thousands of photos in under one hour, but I have to remind myself to put my camera down and to be present, in order to soak in the experience with my heart and my eyes, which is equally as important as capturing it with my camera.”
“For the next week, start writing decisions you made during the regular day-to-day moments of your life and note the conditions were when you made them. (…) At the end of the week, look at the diary and then mark which ones you feel you made the right choice and which ones you did not. “The salmon I chose, good choice.” Highlight in yellow. The park choice, not a good idea. Black mark. Start writing them, and see how many good and bad choices you make. The key thing is trying to see what state you were in when you made a choice that you liked and the ones you didn’t like.”
“Here are some tips for responding effectively and professionally via email: Be polite. Write something that indicates you have done your homework. You can say you like someone’s work or congratulate them on something you read. Do some research on the person or the company. Ask questions, but only ask questions you actually care about. Don’t just go through the motions, as people can sense that. If you read some interviews and said, “I read the article about you and was curious about X,” if something is written well and demonstrates that you did your homework, you will usually get a response before someone who didn’t.”
“I don’t like regret. The worst regret is, you know something you should be doing and you have not done it. If you have done it and it didn’t work out, you worked hard and it didn’t work out, but you can move on because you tried.”
“James announced he was going to sing some of his new songs. There was a groan from the audience. He said, with tongue in cheek, “Don’t worry. My new stuff sounds just like my old stuff.” It depressed me. He became popular by having a unique sound, by doing something different. It was his fans who put him in the golden handcuffs, instead of realizing the reason they liked him in the first place was because he was different.”
“What I learned is that which you fear and don’t face controls you. That which you fear, and you take steps to face, you can control or at least get better at dealing with.”
“It’s very easy, the more successful you are, to fall into the trap of arrogance. The more successful you are, the more you think that you have all the answers. It’s so easy to stop listening, to stop questioning yourself, to stop learning.”
“The things that mean the most to us are also the things that come along with the most worry, anxiety, and fear.”
“It’s about the work. It’s not about the money or the fame. That kind of focus and purpose is an important skill at any level of creative pursuit—and life. Stay focused on what you are doing. Be who you are. Trust yourself.”
“Never work where you’re not loved. Always go where they love you.”
“It’s inevitable. People will say no to you. That’s life. But never say no to yourself.”
“What makes it significantly easier if you want to have a healthier lifestyle? Just surround yourself with athletes. If you want to be more studious, hang out with the kids who are at the library, day in and day out. And their behaviors will inevitably permeate to you.”
“From the beginning, it’s about communication. Good communication is how collaborative relationships are built. Bad communication is how they are destroyed.”
“You can go get a second, third opinion, but at the end of the day, for really tough decisions, it’s all going to come back to you and what you feel in your gut.”
“You’re always pitching every single minute of the day. You’re not pitching when you just talk to an investor. The due diligence with an investor doesn’t start when you pitch. It starts when you walk in the room, late, early, disheveled, put together. Ready. Confident.”
“There is no intrinsic value in art. It is all based on what the buyer thinks it is worth. As an artist gets purchased by a prominent collector or gallery, that ups the price. That is also marketing, which sets up others to buy it who see it as not only something they might love, but a wise investment as well.”
“Who is your customer? Where do they look for information or shop? What is your “avatar,” and what do they aspire to and desire? How can you best communicate with them? How can you make someone feel welcome? How can you make an emotional connection with your customer?”
“Ultimately, your reputation is the only thing you have. It is the most valuable asset to protect. What do people think about you? How do they describe your character? Your brand is what people say about you when you leave the room.”
“This is super fast and super easy. What it entails is that over the course of a few days, you reach out to about a half-dozen people that know you reasonably well, and you ask them a very simple question: “If you had to describe me in only three words, what would they be?”
“To begin writing your brand’s story, consider the following: Why did you create this product or service? What is the emotional connection to the customer? What is your mission statement? What is the product’s unique distinction, talent, or capability? Why should anyone buy this? This is your value proposition and promise to your consumer. What are the emotional attributes and image you want to communicate to your audience? Communicate clearly what you are—not what you aren’t. Who is your market? How and where do you best communicate with them? What is your strategy for creating brand awareness (PR, marketing, advertising)? How do you constantly reinforce, simplify, and unify your message? Are you consistent in all the ways you reach your consumer and the people within your company?”
“My formula for pricing is that the price scares you plus 20 percent. I always get a big laugh in my workshops when I say this. First of all, “Between the two of you, you or the prospect, who’s the one who’s scared of the price? You are.”
“Yet everybody who is great doesn’t pay any attention to the pricing of the marketplace. They only pay attention to their own pricing.”
“The sooner you learn in life that whatever you’re putting up with or whatever you have in your life is your own creation. You are 100 percent responsible for where you are at in your life, and you’re not entitled to anything. I learned that money earned ethically is a by-product of value creation. So until I can create value for somebody, I don’t deserve anything.”
“An important way to prepare for negotiating is to put yourself in the shoes of the other person. What are you hoping to get, and how can you justify what you are asking for? What do they hope to get from the negotiation? What are your must-haves? What are you willing to give up?”
“If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. It goes back to, what’s the worst-case scenario? You get a no. If you get to no, is there a networking organization that you want to join? If it’s a $1,000 annual subscription, ask for that because they just said no to your salary increase. There are other things that you can ask for that you can keep in your hip pocket.”
“the most important thing when you’re negotiating if you want to get to a successful outcome is showing empathy and try to get into the other person’s head and understand what’s important to them. What are they trying to get out of this negotiation? The way you do that is by starting the conversation with questions and listening, as opposed to what a lot of us tend to do—go into a conversation so focused on what I need to get out of it—versus if you just take a breath and start with “What’s important to you in this?”
“I always tried to see how little I could get away with doing. I was like that right up until the very end of my art college, when I realized that, yeah, I can get away with as little as I want and pull the wool over people’s eyes—but is that actually what I want?”
“There was a ten-year longitudinal study of podcasts. It showed that the average podcast lasted six months and twelve episodes before its creator quit. That’s it. So many people are starting podcasts, but not that many people are staying with podcasts. If you outlast people, if you are willing to be more persistent, if you are willing to keep going when other people are giving up, that means that you are dramatically winnowing the competition and you don’t need to worry so much about, oh, what’s the hot new channel?”
“As you get older, you realize that everything in life is maintenance.“
“Why do you want to do what you are pursuing? What motivates you? What ways could you develop multiple income streams from what you do? Write them down. What are the character traits of a person you would want to work for? How does your personality compare to that? How do you react when you confront an obstacle? How do you deal with stress? Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your younger self? How, on a personal level, do you define success?”
“So don’t shelve the things that make you you for people who are never going to be pleased by you anyway.”
“The moral of the story is, you have to do the work. There is no magic portal to pass through. There is no secret. Part of making a living with your ideas involves maintaining sustainable energy by taking care of yourself, having unbounded curiosity and the desire for discovery, so you are inspired to keep coming up with ideas.”
“Creative ideas may seem to come out of nowhere, but they almost never do. You might experience a breakthrough that connects the dots, but those dots have been percolating for a while and you are finally seeing the relationships between them.”
“You never know where inspiration will come from, what neurons will fire, to form an idea. It’s important to constantly expose yourself to the best work out there.”
“Everybody knows that’s Orion. I can’t believe you can’t see him.” “Everyone might agree it’s Orion, but it’s not actually Orion—it was just a bunch of stars until someone told a story about it and gave it meaning.”
“To facilitate creativity, I try to ask better questions. Those better questions can sometimes be absurd: What if I do the opposite of best practices? What if I stop doing 90 percent of what my competitors do for the next week? What if I completely stopped using email and phone for the next seven days as an experiment? I think we are hard-wired to have rituals and routines, and those are very, very helpful, but it can be even more valuable to jolt yourself out of that temporarily.”
“On the last day of school, the students were given a topic and had to write an essay. She chose to write the story about the last day of school through the eyes of the janitor. She won a national award for it. It’s an important insight into the creative mind: How do you tell a story that hasn’t been told before? How do you look at something that happens every day in a fresh way, and how do you look at that through somebody else’s eyes and come up with a new idea?”
“when I’m on-site this can feel a bit frantic, especially when the light is illuminating the landscape magnificently. I sometimes take thousands of photos in under one hour, but I have to remind myself to put my camera down and to be present, in order to soak in the experience with my heart and my eyes, which is equally as important as capturing it with my camera.”
“For the next week, start writing decisions you made during the regular day-to-day moments of your life and note the conditions were when you made them. (…) At the end of the week, look at the diary and then mark which ones you feel you made the right choice and which ones you did not. “The salmon I chose, good choice.” Highlight in yellow. The park choice, not a good idea. Black mark. Start writing them, and see how many good and bad choices you make. The key thing is trying to see what state you were in when you made a choice that you liked and the ones you didn’t like.”
“Here are some tips for responding effectively and professionally via email: Be polite. Write something that indicates you have done your homework. You can say you like someone’s work or congratulate them on something you read. Do some research on the person or the company. Ask questions, but only ask questions you actually care about. Don’t just go through the motions, as people can sense that. If you read some interviews and said, “I read the article about you and was curious about X,” if something is written well and demonstrates that you did your homework, you will usually get a response before someone who didn’t.”
“I don’t like regret. The worst regret is, you know something you should be doing and you have not done it. If you have done it and it didn’t work out, you worked hard and it didn’t work out, but you can move on because you tried.”
“James announced he was going to sing some of his new songs. There was a groan from the audience. He said, with tongue in cheek, “Don’t worry. My new stuff sounds just like my old stuff.” It depressed me. He became popular by having a unique sound, by doing something different. It was his fans who put him in the golden handcuffs, instead of realizing the reason they liked him in the first place was because he was different.”
“What I learned is that which you fear and don’t face controls you. That which you fear, and you take steps to face, you can control or at least get better at dealing with.”
“It’s very easy, the more successful you are, to fall into the trap of arrogance. The more successful you are, the more you think that you have all the answers. It’s so easy to stop listening, to stop questioning yourself, to stop learning.”
“The things that mean the most to us are also the things that come along with the most worry, anxiety, and fear.”
“It’s about the work. It’s not about the money or the fame. That kind of focus and purpose is an important skill at any level of creative pursuit—and life. Stay focused on what you are doing. Be who you are. Trust yourself.”
“Never work where you’re not loved. Always go where they love you.”
“It’s inevitable. People will say no to you. That’s life. But never say no to yourself.”
“What makes it significantly easier if you want to have a healthier lifestyle? Just surround yourself with athletes. If you want to be more studious, hang out with the kids who are at the library, day in and day out. And their behaviors will inevitably permeate to you.”
“From the beginning, it’s about communication. Good communication is how collaborative relationships are built. Bad communication is how they are destroyed.”
“You can go get a second, third opinion, but at the end of the day, for really tough decisions, it’s all going to come back to you and what you feel in your gut.”
“You’re always pitching every single minute of the day. You’re not pitching when you just talk to an investor. The due diligence with an investor doesn’t start when you pitch. It starts when you walk in the room, late, early, disheveled, put together. Ready. Confident.”
“There is no intrinsic value in art. It is all based on what the buyer thinks it is worth. As an artist gets purchased by a prominent collector or gallery, that ups the price. That is also marketing, which sets up others to buy it who see it as not only something they might love, but a wise investment as well.”
“Who is your customer? Where do they look for information or shop? What is your “avatar,” and what do they aspire to and desire? How can you best communicate with them? How can you make someone feel welcome? How can you make an emotional connection with your customer?”
“Ultimately, your reputation is the only thing you have. It is the most valuable asset to protect. What do people think about you? How do they describe your character? Your brand is what people say about you when you leave the room.”
“This is super fast and super easy. What it entails is that over the course of a few days, you reach out to about a half-dozen people that know you reasonably well, and you ask them a very simple question: “If you had to describe me in only three words, what would they be?”
“To begin writing your brand’s story, consider the following: Why did you create this product or service? What is the emotional connection to the customer? What is your mission statement? What is the product’s unique distinction, talent, or capability? Why should anyone buy this? This is your value proposition and promise to your consumer. What are the emotional attributes and image you want to communicate to your audience? Communicate clearly what you are—not what you aren’t. Who is your market? How and where do you best communicate with them? What is your strategy for creating brand awareness (PR, marketing, advertising)? How do you constantly reinforce, simplify, and unify your message? Are you consistent in all the ways you reach your consumer and the people within your company?”
“My formula for pricing is that the price scares you plus 20 percent. I always get a big laugh in my workshops when I say this. First of all, “Between the two of you, you or the prospect, who’s the one who’s scared of the price? You are.”
“Yet everybody who is great doesn’t pay any attention to the pricing of the marketplace. They only pay attention to their own pricing.”
“The sooner you learn in life that whatever you’re putting up with or whatever you have in your life is your own creation. You are 100 percent responsible for where you are at in your life, and you’re not entitled to anything. I learned that money earned ethically is a by-product of value creation. So until I can create value for somebody, I don’t deserve anything.”
“An important way to prepare for negotiating is to put yourself in the shoes of the other person. What are you hoping to get, and how can you justify what you are asking for? What do they hope to get from the negotiation? What are your must-haves? What are you willing to give up?”
“If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. It goes back to, what’s the worst-case scenario? You get a no. If you get to no, is there a networking organization that you want to join? If it’s a $1,000 annual subscription, ask for that because they just said no to your salary increase. There are other things that you can ask for that you can keep in your hip pocket.”
“the most important thing when you’re negotiating if you want to get to a successful outcome is showing empathy and try to get into the other person’s head and understand what’s important to them. What are they trying to get out of this negotiation? The way you do that is by starting the conversation with questions and listening, as opposed to what a lot of us tend to do—go into a conversation so focused on what I need to get out of it—versus if you just take a breath and start with “What’s important to you in this?”
“I always tried to see how little I could get away with doing. I was like that right up until the very end of my art college, when I realized that, yeah, I can get away with as little as I want and pull the wool over people’s eyes—but is that actually what I want?”
“There was a ten-year longitudinal study of podcasts. It showed that the average podcast lasted six months and twelve episodes before its creator quit. That’s it. So many people are starting podcasts, but not that many people are staying with podcasts. If you outlast people, if you are willing to be more persistent, if you are willing to keep going when other people are giving up, that means that you are dramatically winnowing the competition and you don’t need to worry so much about, oh, what’s the hot new channel?”
“As you get older, you realize that everything in life is maintenance.“
“Why do you want to do what you are pursuing? What motivates you? What ways could you develop multiple income streams from what you do? Write them down. What are the character traits of a person you would want to work for? How does your personality compare to that? How do you react when you confront an obstacle? How do you deal with stress? Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your younger self? How, on a personal level, do you define success?”
“So don’t shelve the things that make you you for people who are never going to be pleased by you anyway.”
“The moral of the story is, you have to do the work. There is no magic portal to pass through. There is no secret. Part of making a living with your ideas involves maintaining sustainable energy by taking care of yourself, having unbounded curiosity and the desire for discovery, so you are inspired to keep coming up with ideas.”
January 31, 2021
3.5
11/75 #2021ReadingChallenge
Creative Careers: Making a Living with Your Ideas is about the experiences of the author and people he has met/spoke with, and how they were able to make their creative / artsy hobby into a career.
This book had a strong start and then got repetitive by the end.
The three biggest takeaways I got from this book were:
1. "Be yourself. Whatever you do is good enough. And do not start doing what other people want...That's not my market, that's not what I do. I'm not going to bend to do something else that everyone wants me to do [just] because that's where the industry is going...Just sit on your horse and drive, and stay strong."
2. How to calculate risk -- Imagine yourself in 3 years. "It's the year after the year of the next. Most people can visualize that, but once you get to 5-10 years, that gets more complicated."
3. Right Brain vs. Left Brain -- Logic & Creativity go hand-in-hand, "because a large part of creativity involves problem solving. Believe you are one or the other can limit your potential."
These three things did strike a chord with me, because I have felt each one of these. You know with my dog walking business (@firehydrantpetsittingco), I felt like I had to become the one-stop shop. Comes to find out, I really-really enjoy ONLY specializing in dog walking.
Or people will ask me where I see myself in 5 years...which I feel like is an IMPOSSIBLE thing to do. Especially after the year we just had (*cough* *cough* 2020), and how everyone's plans went down the toilet and how we ALL had to pivot. I am just thankful to be alive and am taking it a day at a time...but I can also see 3 years from now a but clearer.
And on the last note, with right vs. left brain. I always thought I was one and that meant you couldn't be the other. BUT, what blogging and owning my own dog walking biz has taught me -- is that you CAN be both. You just have to give yourself permission to be, and then go for it. You will suck at first, but will get there.
11/75 #2021ReadingChallenge
Creative Careers: Making a Living with Your Ideas is about the experiences of the author and people he has met/spoke with, and how they were able to make their creative / artsy hobby into a career.
This book had a strong start and then got repetitive by the end.
The three biggest takeaways I got from this book were:
1. "Be yourself. Whatever you do is good enough. And do not start doing what other people want...That's not my market, that's not what I do. I'm not going to bend to do something else that everyone wants me to do [just] because that's where the industry is going...Just sit on your horse and drive, and stay strong."
2. How to calculate risk -- Imagine yourself in 3 years. "It's the year after the year of the next. Most people can visualize that, but once you get to 5-10 years, that gets more complicated."
3. Right Brain vs. Left Brain -- Logic & Creativity go hand-in-hand, "because a large part of creativity involves problem solving. Believe you are one or the other can limit your potential."
These three things did strike a chord with me, because I have felt each one of these. You know with my dog walking business (@firehydrantpetsittingco), I felt like I had to become the one-stop shop. Comes to find out, I really-really enjoy ONLY specializing in dog walking.
Or people will ask me where I see myself in 5 years...which I feel like is an IMPOSSIBLE thing to do. Especially after the year we just had (*cough* *cough* 2020), and how everyone's plans went down the toilet and how we ALL had to pivot. I am just thankful to be alive and am taking it a day at a time...but I can also see 3 years from now a but clearer.
And on the last note, with right vs. left brain. I always thought I was one and that meant you couldn't be the other. BUT, what blogging and owning my own dog walking biz has taught me -- is that you CAN be both. You just have to give yourself permission to be, and then go for it. You will suck at first, but will get there.
June 9, 2020
Creative Careers is a workbook style book with real world examples, rooted in psychology, education, brain research and much more. The book is divided into five parts: identifying your vision, getting started, debunking myths about doing it all alone, utilizing the power of stories and branding, and, potentially the most difficult step of them all, determining your value and running ideas like a business.
Every creative pursuit starts off with confronting some fears, biases and expectations. Whether it is our fear that we will not be successful or if we are asking too much money for our services, launching a career and putting value to what we do can be a daunting task. Creative Careers is a fantastic book that addresses a number of these aspects.
Ideas simply don’t come to us like a flash of lightning – they have been brewing a long time – nor do people work in isolation to get stuff done. I loved that through examples of working professionals and successful folks in the communities, Madoff exposes and debunks these and other myths.
Education and schooling never teach every aspect of a career. You can go to art school and never learn the business side of opening a gallery. You can pursue higher ed and never learn how to do your taxes. It’s these gasps in knowledge that often paralyze us and stop us from taking the first step. This is why we have Proof of Concepts. Doing something which is potentially low risk to try out an idea and then figure out if you will stick to it.
If you are looking for specific advice related to creative pursuits and starting a business, Creative Careers is the book for you. With multiple examples from all walks of life, workshop questions at the end of each chapter, this book explores creative careers are in depth. Many thanks to the publisher Hachette Books for providing me a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review. This has been an informative read! Read my takeaways on Armed with A Book.
Every creative pursuit starts off with confronting some fears, biases and expectations. Whether it is our fear that we will not be successful or if we are asking too much money for our services, launching a career and putting value to what we do can be a daunting task. Creative Careers is a fantastic book that addresses a number of these aspects.
Ideas simply don’t come to us like a flash of lightning – they have been brewing a long time – nor do people work in isolation to get stuff done. I loved that through examples of working professionals and successful folks in the communities, Madoff exposes and debunks these and other myths.
Education and schooling never teach every aspect of a career. You can go to art school and never learn the business side of opening a gallery. You can pursue higher ed and never learn how to do your taxes. It’s these gasps in knowledge that often paralyze us and stop us from taking the first step. This is why we have Proof of Concepts. Doing something which is potentially low risk to try out an idea and then figure out if you will stick to it.
If you are looking for specific advice related to creative pursuits and starting a business, Creative Careers is the book for you. With multiple examples from all walks of life, workshop questions at the end of each chapter, this book explores creative careers are in depth. Many thanks to the publisher Hachette Books for providing me a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review. This has been an informative read! Read my takeaways on Armed with A Book.
October 1, 2020
“Creative Careers” is a book for artists and creatives. But it’s mostly a book about how to succeed as a creative in business.
As readers, we get key insights from 40+ well-known artists, actors, authors, chefs, comedians, publicists, film makers, photographers, creative directors, musicians, journalists and fashion experts. Each person has learned to run a business, all while keeping their creativity flowing.
Just some of those creative storytellers that float my boat include: Tom Bilyeu, Tim Ferris, Daymond John, Dylan Lauren, Joy-Ann Reid, Simon Sinek, Dan Sullivan, Roy Wood, Jr. and Randi Zuckerberg.
As a creative-turned-entrepreneur, I can attest to the fact that the life of an artist or creative is half business, half art. It’s wildly surprising how much on-the-job training we still need after college, internships and/or trade school. We have no idea what we don’t know. Writers don’t know how to charge for their work and send invoices. Clothing designers don’t know how to balance the books and negotiate with the trades. It takes the right mindset to be able to juggle so many balls and to not burn out.
Some things to think about when being paid for your creativity:
• How can you find “white space” and capitalize on it to create a new product – what spaces have yet to be filled?
• Are you an entrepreneur in terms of your mindset, way of thinking and lifestyle? Do you know how to work hard, can you problem solve and get through the bad times? Are you an eternal student – always curious, attentive, engaged and always learning? Can you recognize opportunity and connect the dots?
• Can you put out an MVP (minimum viable product) and let the market help you tweak your idea or product?
• Are you a storyteller? Can you tell your story in a compelling that to make others get on board?
• Can you manage your finances so that once you make money, you keep it?
• Do you have experience in critical thinking – can you look at ideas and question them?
• Who can mentor you? Where can you intern or be an apprentice?
• Can you work for free to get experience?
• What’s your most affordable next step?
• How can you assess and get comfortable with risk? How can you push your creative boundaries beyond what is safe, predictable and boring?
• Ask yourself, “How willing am I to fail today?” What is reversible and what is not? What is temporary and what is permanent?
• What’s really scaring you? Not knowing the outcome? Embarrassment? Rejection? Losing money?
• When does your side hustle become the hustle?
• How do you build a relationship with your buyers?
• What’s your voice, your story, your brand?
Special thanks to Hachette Books for an electronic copy of Creative Careers, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. I was so impressed with the contributors to this book that I purchased a copy right away. Get yourself a copy and be inspired to earn a living doing what you love.
As readers, we get key insights from 40+ well-known artists, actors, authors, chefs, comedians, publicists, film makers, photographers, creative directors, musicians, journalists and fashion experts. Each person has learned to run a business, all while keeping their creativity flowing.
Just some of those creative storytellers that float my boat include: Tom Bilyeu, Tim Ferris, Daymond John, Dylan Lauren, Joy-Ann Reid, Simon Sinek, Dan Sullivan, Roy Wood, Jr. and Randi Zuckerberg.
As a creative-turned-entrepreneur, I can attest to the fact that the life of an artist or creative is half business, half art. It’s wildly surprising how much on-the-job training we still need after college, internships and/or trade school. We have no idea what we don’t know. Writers don’t know how to charge for their work and send invoices. Clothing designers don’t know how to balance the books and negotiate with the trades. It takes the right mindset to be able to juggle so many balls and to not burn out.
Some things to think about when being paid for your creativity:
• How can you find “white space” and capitalize on it to create a new product – what spaces have yet to be filled?
• Are you an entrepreneur in terms of your mindset, way of thinking and lifestyle? Do you know how to work hard, can you problem solve and get through the bad times? Are you an eternal student – always curious, attentive, engaged and always learning? Can you recognize opportunity and connect the dots?
• Can you put out an MVP (minimum viable product) and let the market help you tweak your idea or product?
• Are you a storyteller? Can you tell your story in a compelling that to make others get on board?
• Can you manage your finances so that once you make money, you keep it?
• Do you have experience in critical thinking – can you look at ideas and question them?
• Who can mentor you? Where can you intern or be an apprentice?
• Can you work for free to get experience?
• What’s your most affordable next step?
• How can you assess and get comfortable with risk? How can you push your creative boundaries beyond what is safe, predictable and boring?
• Ask yourself, “How willing am I to fail today?” What is reversible and what is not? What is temporary and what is permanent?
• What’s really scaring you? Not knowing the outcome? Embarrassment? Rejection? Losing money?
• When does your side hustle become the hustle?
• How do you build a relationship with your buyers?
• What’s your voice, your story, your brand?
Special thanks to Hachette Books for an electronic copy of Creative Careers, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. I was so impressed with the contributors to this book that I purchased a copy right away. Get yourself a copy and be inspired to earn a living doing what you love.
March 21, 2020
Thank you B. Jeffrey Madoff, NetGalley and the Publishers Hachette Book Group for allowing me to read and review Creative Careers.
B. Jeffrey Madoff created a class called "Making a Living with Your Ideas" for Parsons School of Design in NY City and this is a lot of that class put into book form. How great is that!
We are very lucky to be able to access this information and all of the valuable tips and guidance this book brings.
I really enjoyed the comprehensive advice, real life success and failure stories from people who have struggled to get their businesses going or where great successes quickly. People like Ralph Lauren, Daymond John, Dan Sullivan and so many others give testimony of their climb to success (and sometimes failure before the successes).
It covers in depth What is your Vision? Getting off the Ground, The Myth of the Lone Genius, The Power of Story, and Run your ideas like a Business. Each topic has real life experiences from successful business entrepreneurs. At the end of each topic there is a question section to give you introspect into what you need to ask yourself on that topic. Its a guide for you to look at what and where you are on that subject.
Everyone in business can learn from this book, I found valuable information I could have used in my career in marketing when I worked for a corporation.
The book isn't just for those who want to go out there and build a multimillion dollar business it's also for the person who just wants to start a business for themselves and make a decent living. Creative Careers covers most everything you need to think about and know when you find the niche for you to become an entrepreneur.
Knowledge is power and Creative Careers is a must read.
B. Jeffrey writes an easy to read and follow book that you will read over and over as it has so much good information to absorb. It isn't a class book it's written casual and conversationally.
This book doesn't tell you specific ideas to get into but will guide you in your search and if you already have your product or service it'll help you going forth.
I gave the book a five as it is an excellent beginning resource. I hope he does write a sequel as there is always more to learn.
B. Jeffrey Madoff created a class called "Making a Living with Your Ideas" for Parsons School of Design in NY City and this is a lot of that class put into book form. How great is that!
We are very lucky to be able to access this information and all of the valuable tips and guidance this book brings.
I really enjoyed the comprehensive advice, real life success and failure stories from people who have struggled to get their businesses going or where great successes quickly. People like Ralph Lauren, Daymond John, Dan Sullivan and so many others give testimony of their climb to success (and sometimes failure before the successes).
It covers in depth What is your Vision? Getting off the Ground, The Myth of the Lone Genius, The Power of Story, and Run your ideas like a Business. Each topic has real life experiences from successful business entrepreneurs. At the end of each topic there is a question section to give you introspect into what you need to ask yourself on that topic. Its a guide for you to look at what and where you are on that subject.
Everyone in business can learn from this book, I found valuable information I could have used in my career in marketing when I worked for a corporation.
The book isn't just for those who want to go out there and build a multimillion dollar business it's also for the person who just wants to start a business for themselves and make a decent living. Creative Careers covers most everything you need to think about and know when you find the niche for you to become an entrepreneur.
Knowledge is power and Creative Careers is a must read.
B. Jeffrey writes an easy to read and follow book that you will read over and over as it has so much good information to absorb. It isn't a class book it's written casual and conversationally.
This book doesn't tell you specific ideas to get into but will guide you in your search and if you already have your product or service it'll help you going forth.
I gave the book a five as it is an excellent beginning resource. I hope he does write a sequel as there is always more to learn.
June 7, 2020
I found Creative Careers to be an interesting and fresh perspective on a book about business. This book is focused on careers that fall under the title of creating (art, writing, music, etc). Madoff makes some profound suggestions for those still in school with the intention of a career in the arts, like taking accounting classes. I do think that his background in fashion has kept Madoff enclosed in a bubble, and feel like he needed to expand more outside of that industry with his examples and interviews conducted throughout the book. While he has created a fantastic book for those intending to work in fashion, the other artistic and creative careers out there have been poorly represented or neglected completely. As a writer, it is difficult for me to feel that the suggestions and advice are valuable when it is primarily focused on a field that has nothing to do with my work, or is not neutral in its delivery.
March 25, 2023
Imagine having the opportunity to interview the most innovative, acclaimed, and financially successful creatives in the world. Then imagine having their most valuable insights distilled for you into the most helpful form possible, along with stories and additional wisdom from the compiler...who is himself an extremely accomplished creative.
Now imagine if all of this information was presented in a single book that is compelling to read from beginning to end.
That is Creative Careers by B. Jeffrey Madoff.
I didn't even know a book like this was possible.
No one trying to make a living in a creative field should be without this book.
Now imagine if all of this information was presented in a single book that is compelling to read from beginning to end.
That is Creative Careers by B. Jeffrey Madoff.
I didn't even know a book like this was possible.
No one trying to make a living in a creative field should be without this book.
March 11, 2021
Sharp directed advice on how to turn wish into reality. Madoff's book breaks down all you need to know to learn how to make a career with your passions. He breaks the knowledge into easy to understand lessons and highlights key points with quotes from experts in their field. This book will become your bible and lode star as you navigate a dream of making a living with your ideas to living that reality. If You cant take his course then you must get and digest this book
March 25, 2020
Excellent book. True to the book description, this content will help readers to excel on the business side of creative careers, i.e make money and find material success. However, many of the principles and topics are equally relevant to all careers, for example, building strong relationships, starting off as an entrepreneur or building your personal brand.
Practical, sage advice!
Practical, sage advice!
March 28, 2020
Different things to consider and advice from a number of people who have created their own path. Not a book of different careers - more for those who have that career in mind and want some advice. How to define your own success, passion, pitching. At the end of each chapter, you get questions from that topic to think about.
February 8, 2022
Very basic. I don't expect you to find any new gems here. I do like the angle of hearing from lesser known designers, etc. But if you've read any business books in the past, you've probably read most of the advice here.
Not a bad book at all. If you're just looking to get started and a bit frustrated, this is probably a good book to read.
Not a bad book at all. If you're just looking to get started and a bit frustrated, this is probably a good book to read.
May 21, 2023
I read this book in two goes as I lost steam the first time. It's not the easiest read, there are lots of quotes and points can feel laboured at times but I'm so glad I stuck with it. I think there is a lot of extremely valuable information, especially for those who want to make the jump into freelance work but feel like they have no idea how to do so or the mindset involved.
September 17, 2020
Madoff gave a very good case on how whether you are employed, freelancer or a business owner, you need to take charge of your creative pursuits in order to live a fulfilling life. Very good read for anyone, especially in the age of artificial intelligence.
June 24, 2021
Skimmed through this. Pretty basic guidance. It converges basic business know-how and interviews of successful people.
August 18, 2021
This is a pretty basic rehash of "follow your dreams" and "be yourself" and it will all work out. He quotes people he interviewed, but didn't get past the surface.
December 9, 2021
It was good to read about the creative careers around the world.. but I guess I was looking for something different.
March 19, 2022
Although some very interesting points are made, this book feels repetitive at times. A bit basic. Also the structure is quite loose and jumpy.
March 4, 2022
If you are starting your career (or thinking about it) I recommend reading “little bets” “so good they can’t ignore you” or “how to fail at almost anything and still win big”.
If you already have a running business than “the 1 page marketing plan” and “the personal MBA” is better suited.
It’s not a bad book it’s just not at a level where you could actually implement the stated lessons.
Good luck
If you already have a running business than “the 1 page marketing plan” and “the personal MBA” is better suited.
It’s not a bad book it’s just not at a level where you could actually implement the stated lessons.
Good luck
December 27, 2022
An impressive list of SMEs agreed to be interviewed for the book, but something went wrong along the way, and this, the result of those interviews, doesn't deliver a ton of insight. Useful to skim; some interviewers drop brilliant little nuggets of insight, but this was a missed opportunity.
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