How Find the Fun in Marketing Your Creative Career
In honor of Independence Day, I thought today’s post would be based around finding FREEDOM in our marketing efforts for our creative careers.
Because, truly, at its core…that’s what marketing is supposed to do: help share you and your abilities with MORE people to create MORE opportunities that lead you to your dream life where you can do what you really want to do.
What a beautiful vision, huh?
Step One: Give Yourself permission to call the shots
So many actors see marketing as “just another box I have to fit into”. When really, it’s the exact opposite.
Unlike the actual craft of acting, where we are given a character and a script to memorize and directions to follow for our every movement…WE are the CEO’s of our own careers. WE get to call the shots when it comes to our personal brand, website, social media accounts, PR and media opportunities, etc.
So it makes sense why so many artists don’t find the freedom in marketing right away…they’ve been conditioned into thinking every arena is that same “box” they need to fit into. If that sounds like you, consider this your permission to step into your power today and be the producer, writer, director, and STAR of the damn show, y’all!
step two: create your strategic foundation
Freedom doesn’t have to equal a mess…in the context of marketing, it can and should be specific to your dreams and goals…otherwise you’ll wake up one day wondering what the heck you’re doing and whose life you’re living. A strategic foundation is like the guardrails for your efforts…you know that you’re staying on “track” and that you’ve done the research to support you. AKA a “method to the madness”. A strategic foundation looks like:
Your Why/Mission: You know exactly who you are and what you have to offer the world.
Your Career Goals: You know what you’re trying to achieve and the general milestones you want to aim for in the next 6 months (specific), 1 year (specific), 5 years (less specific), 10 years (less specific)
Personal Brand: You’ve taken your whole life story and narrowed it down to a concise “brand story” that is authentic to who you are, rings true to your Dream Audiences, and connected back to your Career Goals.
Marketing Plan: Which marketing channels will you use to share your brand story? Social media platforms, website, PR, events, etc.? How much emphasis will you be placing on Content versus Networking?
step three: experiment and play
Once you have that solid foundation built in strategy, it’s essentially your permission slip to PLAY and EXPERIMENT within those guidelines. You have the outline there to keep you on track, and now is where the FREEDOM comes in! Within that foundation, where can you get creative?
Try something new?
Use your talents and abilities to get your point across?
Put your own spin on a trend?
Create something just for you every once and a while?
If something flops, it flops. Be kind to yourself and let yourself find the fun and joy of creating instead of making the stakes so high that social becomes a chore or stressor for you. Social media is always evolving, so worry about the numbers on the days you are doing research and strategy check-ins and on the days you create, just focus on creating! You’ll develop a balance between the two that keeps you moving forward but also maintaining a healthy, creative mentality.
When you find the fun, you find freedom in the work.
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