The Right Questions with James Victore
The Right Questions is designed to help you get paid to do what you love and stay sane in the process.
The Right Questions with James Victore
Episode 39 - There Ain't No Starving Artist
If you are a stuck or frustrated creative and want to get paid to do what you love, let's talk. https://yourworkisagift.com/coaching
For too long, creative professionals have lived under the shadow of a toxic phrase—"the starving artist."
This damaging myth has convinced countless talented individuals that choosing creativity means choosing poverty. It's time to kill this lie once and for all.
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Mic check, check On two Check. In more than one conversation lately I've rubbed up against a certain phrase, a phrase that I hate more than I hate hell. This continuing lie is a weight, a burden that has been thoughtlessly handed down through the years. Even the schools and universities that should be responsible for educating its students and eradicating this myth Nary speak a word about it and allow this poor ghost to rumble around in their students' heads and hearts. And we have to put an end to it now, because words matter, and these words that I hate, this phrase that I detest, is called the starving artist.
Speaker 1:This is the idea that there's no money meaning no living, no future in poetry, philosophy, music, dance or insert your dream here. We live in a society that sadly believes to its own detriment, mind you that art and creativity is an unfortunate part of us. It's clever, cute, good for decoration, but useless. Creativity is something for children to do or be and something to be grown out of eventually. And here I quote from art itself and an artist himself, robin Williams, with his beautiful speech from Dead Poets Society. He says we don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race, and the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering those are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love these are what we stay alive for. Words matter, and the most important words are the ones we use on ourselves, and there's a host of self-deprecating words and phrases that we use, and I love that phrase self-deprecating it literally means shitting on yourself, and there are a number of self-deprecating words and phrases that are rampant in the graphic design field.
Speaker 1:I have found numerous Instagram feeds that persist in the lazy attitude of graphic designers and I call them out every time in the comments. But in these feeds and in our business, we joke. We joke about bad practices that kill our livelihood. We think our jokes are cute, but they continue and they repeat bad practices. We joke about how badly clients treat us and clients will treat us badly because we have no fucking spine, we don't set boundaries, we don't teach them how to work with us, we don't explain who we are. We joke about having to do multiple revisions and numerous sketches, or how a client will say I'll know it when I see it, or make it bigger, or getting stiffed on the money, and we joke about these because we've failed to be adults and failed to communicate our needs properly. All these myths exist because we let them exist. That's it. We perpetuate that bullshit.
Speaker 1:I am amazed at how many designers took a job that is so clearly below their creative abilities out of fear of poverty. So they go on to live creatively frustrated lives, all because someone told them the myth of the starving artist. And the way to kill this myth is to get to the truth of it and then grow a spine and set some standards and take control of your life and your business. I get it. It's easier to adopt a poor attitude than to do the work. So artists, designers, young, mid-career, even should-be-wiser, older designers accept this rotten myth and live it with shrugging their shoulders and by repeating it over and over to themselves like a secret, shitty mantra. Then they begin to physically and psychically embody it. The reality is that there is no starving artist. There is only poor thinking, a poverty mentality. And where did this horrible myth of waving a white flag saying I give up my art is not worth fighting for? Where did it come from? I'll tell you.
Speaker 1:In 1851, the French writer Henri Mourget wrote a novel called Scenes de la Vie, boheme Scenes of a Bohemian Life, which depicted the lives of impoverished artists and writers in the Latin quarter of Paris in the 1840s. Mourget's novel went on to become the basis for Giacomo Puccini's beautiful opera La Boheme, and Boheme is what we now call Bohemian. Mourget was one of the first authors to portray the lifestyle of struggling artists, and his novel influenced many young artists to pursue the bohemian life. Listen, if I could go back in time, I would go back to 1850, 1852, and I'd be screaming. It was a novel, dummies, a fucking book, not a plan for your life. You don't have to live it because you read it in a damn book. So this cliche has existed as if it were the truth. But here is the truth. Here is the truth. The starving artist is the artist who doesn't know that they are in business. Hold on a second, let me get up on this rooftop and repeat that the starving artist is the artist who doesn't know that they are in business. Think about that. Think about that. Think of it like this If you're an independent entrepreneur or a designer, an artist, a writer, a dancer, a poet and you are in business, think about how your day would go.
Speaker 1:You would get up early and have a coffee and go to work and during that day you would break it up into different tasks to ensure getting everything done. You'd take a break for some food, maybe go to the gym, and then you'd get back to it. You would employ what I call James Victoria's secret yet boring super weapon of scheduling and organization. You would schedule yourself to make sure you're taking care of business Literally taking care of business every day. You would schedule time for creating, time for selling, time for the gym, of course, take care of your body, time for the noodley and dull business tasks of keeping track of everything. Scheduling and being organized beats the shit out of talent every time. Also, you would probably have to learn and use some marketing. So here is James Victoria's School of Marketing Made Easy. Number one have something to say. Number two say it again and again. That's it. James Victoria's School of Marketing Made Easy is designed to make it easy for you Find something you fucking love, to talk about it and talk about it in interesting ways over and over again. That is marketing. It is also called sharing your love of your craft. Also, you may have to learn how to handle money.
Speaker 1:This is a huge category in itself and way too big for me to handle here. It first of all asks that you go, maybe do some research about your relationship with money, how you think about money, what your blocks are with money, and that comes from your childhood and your parents. Your blocks are with money and that comes from your childhood and your parents and their relationship with money Okay, whether you learned anything or not from them. And there are some basic things about money and what to do with said money when you get it, like how to allocate it and where to put it. There are rules about that shit. But here is the number one basic rule about money Spend less than you make. Boom, remember that one. Write it down. There are a number of rules about business and I wish I could get into all of them here.
Speaker 1:Like never work for assholes. That's a really big one. That's really important, especially for us, because there's a lot of assholes out there and we just want to get paid. So we're out there on our knees like, please, sir, more right, never work for assholes, get up off your knees, grow a spine. Never work for assholes. Get up off your knees, grow a spine. I can't fix all of your business and creative problems on one podcast, but I can inspire you to fix your own. Get on it, make shit happen.
Speaker 1:I'm going to tell you right now you're worth it. I'm going to tell you right now your work is worth it. I'm going to tell you right now you have an audience. They want to hear from you. If you do want some personal, one-on-one assistance, then go to my website, go to yourworkisagiftcom. There's a little button up in the corner that says book a free call. Easy, freaking peasy. There are a few questions there that will probably help you and we'll talk. Hell, I'll give you everything you need to know and walk you through the steps every week.
Speaker 1:Listen, there ain't no mystery or myth about running a business. It takes consistency and time and audacity. That means boldness and that can be learned too. So, listen, if you work for yourself or as a small team to create value through your talents, your gifts, your art, you're a business and you need to act accordingly. Your first act is to watch your words. Your first act is to watch your words. Words have meaning. There is no such thing as a starving artist, just an artist who has not learned how to do the work in order to make their future beautiful, cool, cool. I'm James Victoria and I love you and believe in you, even when you next time.