I have said it countless times already, and with many more waiting ahead:
“If writer’s block came in a bottle, I’d pay for that.
A lot.”
And the reason is very simple;
Because creativity is really the last thing you need building a business.
Consistency.
Connection.
Showing up.
Being visible.
Having a plan.
Being resilient.
Being smart, and I mean the intelligent kind of smart, not the Productivity Is My Religion kind of smart where the letters stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely goalsetting.
Something that will appeal to few people who call themselves creatives. My guess is each and every one of us would rather burn our whole body of work to the ground, and pick up a job in the weapon industry, than to start setting “smart” goals.
Unless of course setting smart goals and monitoring data is your actual creative expression!
Then this is your art, and you should totally own that.
But I doubt if you do “smarting” with all your heart, it is still the optimization tool others claim it to be.
Your smart has become art.
And it may have you crying out to the heavens that if the ability to NOT look at numbers and to not invest every waking minute monitoring your numbers, you would pay for that.
A lot.
Just like I did with my writer’s block.
So I think all these extra free bonus sentences, clogging up the rhythm of this “info-piece”, is already a great example of how the creative mind (in this case mine) is different to the productive, goal driven mind.
If we had asked AI to write this piece it would probably have done a great job at writing a coherent, easy to read, concise piece.
That you would have read in its entirety, whereas I’m guessing 30% of readers will have stopped by now (so congratulations if you’re still here!) or is browsing, skipping, to the actual model of the creative drip.
And that’s great too.
You know why it is great you are currently sighing and struggling your way through this post?
Wondering why the f I cannot just come to the point?
Because that, is your problem too.
Your creativity expresses, expands, grows, flows, creates just for the sheer joy of it.
Not for the job, of it.
It has no sense of time, and it doesn’t even have a sense of purpose other than this desire to feel the rush of being into the realms of knowing you’re doing your highest work.
The joy of being lifted out of your daily grind to new heights and never explored worlds.
But it are these (daily?) trips to Lalaland, that make it so hard to navigate the capitalist waters while also being a secret frequent flyer of the realms most people will never go.
For the sake of this piece, I will limit my focus to those overwhelmed by a desire to create something which we all recognize at creativity.
Writing, painting, designing, and so on.
But in truth, the areas of creative expression are infinite such as activism, curating someone else’s work (for example in Bon Jovi fandom we have multiple fans who do this work), and so on.
If you are interested in this, I can highly recommend doing the Creative Constellations course from Sara Saltee:
https://www.salteeacademy.com/liveprograms
If you’re reading this in real time, you can still join for the course starting September 2024, and learn your own creative chart this fall.
(link not sponsored)
So the flow captivating us and transporting us to higher realms, is definitely not limited to activities that result in “art”, in the narrow sense.
And it is THIS flow where whatever it is that you do, pulls you in and doesn’t let go, that is YOUR art (whatever it is) and that is the TOP layer of your Artist’s Drip.
Imagine a coffee drip.
Everything that goes on top, drips down to the bottom.
Your purest, most natural, most irresistible expression, is the thing you are pouring on top.
So it’s not wasted at all.
It’s just that because it is so natural to us as boiling hot water to everyone who owns a kettle, we fail to see how this is a suburb resource, and essential in order to get a working coffee drip!
we’ll call this top level Self-Expression
it’s where you do whatever creative expression comes naturally to you
Then we get to the second level where we do everything that relates to money and building a business.
Here we work what we have already poured in under one, package it up, write a sales page for it.
Here we make your work user-friendly, provide context and so on.
We give it whatever it needs, or we take from it whatever we can use for our commercial endeavors.
Here you may also find activities that you wouldn’t normally do, or that are not part of your core creative expression, but that you know connect you to your buying audience.
All content creation falls under this category, and this is why you see why it is a drip-> all content created as your primary creative expression automatically drips down to the second level.
we’ll call this second level Business
it’s where you do whatever is needed to build your audience and sales
Then we move down to the third level, and this is where your belonging and connection comes in.
It doesn’t have anything to do with your commercial or artistic success, and is about being loved and appreciated by your family, friends, partner, lovers, colleagues, neighbors and so on.
The reason it is low in the filter or drip, is because it doesn’t go back up. It doesn’t feed into those top to layers, but the top layers do trickle down here.
If you have 1 and 2 in place, you will find yourself having an easier “job” maintaining your personal relationships, than if you haven’t found your voice (layer 1) and are struggling with the business side of things.
But you will find your time spent on this layer to trickle down directly, building your LIFE (the cup of coffee)
Some relationships at the layer of connection will come straight from your highest work (level 1) or be clients as well (level 2), but many will be unrelated to your work under 1 and 2.
we’ll call this third level Connection
it’s where you maintain relationships with everyone who is important to you
And then there is a fourth level.
And I have no idea if everyone will want this, but I am definitely including it, because if you do want it;
This one, needs its own focus, plan, budget and so on.
Do you want your work to be preserved?
Live on after you die?
Then you need to start planning for this.
If you want only the work itself to be preserved, you can look for ways to sell it or give it to archives or museums.
But if you want the work to remain active/current, and its message to go on, then you need business models that can stay up after you retire or die.
Ones that generate enough money to pay for a curator or commercial director, whose work it will be to helm your work.
Or you can sell the rights to your work off for a high enough price, so that the new owner has an interest in monetizing them.
It is the potential of your work to keep making money, which will ensure its place in the spotlight.
we’ll call this final level Legacy
it’s where you do what is necessary for your work to outlive you
Knowing these four levels, Self-Expression (1), Business (2), Connection (3) and Legacy (4) does not solve their conflict over resources.
Something you will frequently be facing.
But it makes it easier to surrender to the task at hand, whether that is giving into your passion (level 1), something that will ultimately drip down, directly contributing to all other levels and is the core ingredient to your delicious cup of Life Coffee!
Or whether it is diligently setting time aside to publish your collected work, a book that will stay in print forever, level 4 (your legacy).
Whether it is showing up every day to sell what you have and run your business (level 2), or making it a daily habit to answer messages from family and friends and be there for your loved ones (level 3).
The four levels of The Artist’s Drip cannot just help you stay afloat in the challenging waters of living authentically in a consumer driven world;
It can help you raise the sails and set course to the harbors that you actually, and deeply, care about.
.
Suzanne L. Beenackers
20th century writer, diarist & yoga teacher
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This blogposts marks the ending, of how far deep into the 21st century I am prepared to go.
When I started this series, I did not yet know about the worldwide computer fallout.
When I say I almost amputated the wrong arm, I mean I once again caught myself wanting to terminate a healthy part of my life, without noticing it was actually a response to introducing a not healthy part.
The title of the legendary Prince song proved to be true, although the polar exaggeration of the weather forecast still made me think that it was at least a partial April fools day joke. I definitely did not see the 5-7 cm of snow, we had been told to brace ourselves for.
World Between Worlds 