MKE Creatives started 2016 at Anodyne Coffee with Rosie Hartmann lighting a fire beneath us. 🙂 The focus of her presentation dealt with a problem common to many independent working creatives – self-marketing. She had a lot of tips for us, but I can boil it down to two major points (you can read more below): Sales often come out of relationships – so get out there; be consistent and regular – in your creating, and in your time devoted to marketing.
Rosie put forth some important questions for us to consider – What happens when an artist knows business? and what are tangible, real ways a creative can sell? She also reminded us, “You are selling you – and while you >can< sell yourself out, that’s probably not something you want to do.”
She emphasized the important presence that social-media has become in self-marketing, but also said, “don’t spend hours of your day on socmed – set a defined time and share of yourself. You have to be consistent and regular – that’s important. And you have to be sincere.”
Rosie mentioned that having a biz/marketing plan is important, but that’s important to be able to adjust that plan on the fly as situations change. Part of her marketing plan involves showing her work, but, she has created a list of five requirements that any opportunity to show must have. Before she’ll consider a show, she makes sure the opp meets at least four of her five requirements.
One of the best points Rosie made was that it is NOT enough to make good art – you have to be out “there” – getting out to Gallery Night events and gallery openings, talking up and sharing your works, building networks and relationships, and communicating with people. Half of her marketing time is spent out there “in real life” and half in online methods. She also emphasized the importance of self-direction and following your art’s calling – “artists need to be ahead of, and setting trends, not jumping on bandwagons.”
Anyone who knows Rosie, knows how infectious her enthusiasm is. It’s easy to imagine her making connections and building successful relationships. That isn’t to say that she hasn’t suffered setbacks, similar to what we all face in self-employment. True to form, Rosie found a humorous, nearly absurd image to help her through the problems she encounters. There was a time, she told us, when “I was defeated in every way, and I saw this meme of an alpaca taking out a kid, and I realized I wanted to be that alpaca, and the kid my problems; I just wanted to plow through my problems, and wanted to do it my way.” I can’t imagine Rosie ever doing things other than her way, and a lot of us should remember that lesson – learn to laugh, to recover, to persist, to keep on striving.
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Find Rosie here, here, here, and here. 🙂
