We discuss the relationship between art, commerce, and self-promotion.

We explore the importance of building and leveraging a platform for commercial viability, emphasizing the need for artists to prioritize art while managing the business side.

We talk about the creative expression and enjoyment that can come from building a platform.

Takeaways

• Building a platform is crucial for artists to achieve commercial viability.
• Artists should embrace the role of a business owner and prioritize their art.
• Feedback and promotion are integral to the creative process.
• Artists should advocate for fair compensation and take control of their careers.
• Building a platform can be a creative expression and an enjoyable process.

If you want to write your life, join our mailing list: https://hypermemoir.beehiiv.com/subscribe

I read an article recently titled, Everyone's a Sellout, it's by a writer named Rebecca Jennings, and it was on the publication Vox. I forgot how I got it. I think I got it from somebody on threads. And I'll post a link to the original article. But the reason why I'm talking about this is because it was really thought -provoking. I didn't agree with everything in this article, as I'll get into in this podcast, but it really got me thinking about the relationship between art.

and commerce and self -promotion, which is what the article is about. The article is talking about how in order to be a successful artist in these days, you need to engage in constant self -promotion through social media or other channels. So that was interesting. And then it also talked about how artists make money or as she kind of puts it, don't make as much money in today's kind of economy. So that's what I want to talk about today on today's hyper memoir.

that relationship between art and commerce and self -promotion and kind of explain my ideas and what I've seen on this topic and what I've seen work and not work for the people that I know. So this is the HyperMemoir podcast. My name is Chris Valtimes and we talk about finding your creative voice, telling your story, and overall becoming a better creative person. There's also a newsletter which you can subscribe to if you go to the link in the podcast description. So that out of the way.

Let's get into what we're talking about today. So as I mentioned, title of this article is called, Everyone's a Sellout. And that's kind of like this 90s term, which really originally meant not so much that you're selling your art and making a living off of it, which I think is kind of a dumb definition, which some people actually think that, but that's their problem. But it really means compromising your ideals. And so I think from what I understood like back in the day,

That was more about signing to a major label and then changing your sound, changing your look because you tried to appeal to a wider audience while leaving behind the people that originally supported you and came to expect a certain thing from you. And it's within anybody's right to want to do that. But I kind of see what the term alludes to, which is that violation of creative integrity, for lack of a better term. But in this article,

I think what she's talking about and my sort of interpretation, and by the way, read the article yourself, because this is all my interpretation and I don't want to misquote anybody or get it twisted. So obviously, if you think differently, if you kind of have a different viewpoint on any of these issues, I want to hear about it and make your own sort of decision about it. But yeah, in the article, she talks about how a big part of being an artist today or being a creator today, whether you're a musician or a writer,

or anybody else and she talks about people who are all those things, is that you have to build a platform that you can leverage into commercial viability. So for a lot of people, that's actually a known thing. So I have a business that's not necessarily a creative business. It's a legal advice. We're a law firm, so we give advice to creative people. Even with that, we've had to spend a lot of time building a platform. We're a law firm, people don't just come to us.

they actually have to find us and the way that they find us is by putting things out. And we're not alone in that. So a lot of people, pretty much anybody nowadays who has a business, whether you're a food truck or a lawyer or a mechanic or what have you, is going to be able to get a better result and get more attention if you have a platform. So that typically means something on social media or a mailing list or somewhere where you can reach your audience. And that's the thing that as Ms. Jennings talks about in this article,

that publishers and labels want to see. They want to see that you have a following already before they're going to commit their financial resources to promoting you. So she kind of looks at it that this is a burden on creators and that it takes them away from creating really great art. That's the part that I don't really agree with. I actually think that creating a platform and finding your audience, as I think I've mentioned in this podcast, is a big part of

being an artist today. And I can actually think the act and the process of learning how to self promote or make your message clear or communicate it better or communicate it to more people can actually enhance your art. It can actually clarify your thinking. And I get what she's saying. I get that she's saying that for a lot of artists, they feel like they take their eye off the ball too long. They, instead of writing a book, they're spending time making TikTok videos. And I get that. That's kind of a...

annoying fact of life right now. But I think people have always had to promote, always had to do things that weren't quite in line with what their art is. And then she also talks a little bit in there about how now one of the issues is less and less money is going to creators. Definitely a valid issue, but I actually, again, not really sure if that fits into the whole scheme of, hey, an artist has to self promote now. I think it's more artists are doing more work, or at least you kind of explains it that way.

Artists are doing more work, so why are they getting less money? So we can get into kind of how to navigate that and what that all means. And this even kind of ties into my day job, which as I mentioned, I work with creatives. I help them make businesses out of their creative work. And so I see a lot of this. I see how a lot of people are promoting themselves or building their business around their creativity and advocating for themselves. So I mean, if artists are getting less money, I see a lot of artists who don't actually ask for more. Maybe it's another topic. Maybe it's a follow up on this, but just.

putting that out there. And I think the other kind of issue that she raises is that artists are being forced to be a brand. And I don't think that's anything new. I mean, if you think about Andy Warhol, I think he might've been commenting on something like that, that he was essentially turning his name into a brand. And so that's been around for a while. We've always had to brand ourselves. And I would even go so far as to say that even if we don't do any active work, we're still branding ourselves.

people know our names and they associate our names with certain things, whether it's a quality thing, a consistent thing, a coherent thing, or something that is the opposite of those things. We all have a brand, we all have a name, we all have something that people come to expect of us, right? So I think that even when you think about HyperMemoir, I think if suddenly, randomly, I turned this podcast to be about folk singing, everybody would do a double take. I don't know anything about it, so I'm not gonna do it, but my point being,

that you've come to expect something from this podcast. Maybe there's a way I can work it in, but even if I did, I'd try to connect it with the main theme. So that's my brand. Everyone listening, every artist here has a brand. And even if you're not an artist, even if you're something art adjacent or not art related at all, there is a brand. You have a reputation and that's what we're talking about with brands. So...

Yeah, so and that's why it got me thinking. You know, I think the reason I got thinking about all this stuff is because it had been in the back of my mind, this whole relationship between art and commerce and self promotion. And this is actually something I think a lot about in my business. So reading this article kind of brought up a few things. I felt like there was a lot of assumptions that might not be warranted, let's say. The main one being, and I've talked about this on the podcast,

that in order to be a good artist, you need inordinate amount of time. Like you sort of need to be able to hole up into this ivory tower or whatever you want to call it and work on your art for hours and hours and be the solitary genius. And she even talks about the solitary genius idea. I don't actually agree with that. I've told you guys that I wrote my book, the initial draft at least in like 15 minutes a day over time. And then obviously later on, I got in there and I was able to spend more time on it.

But it wasn't like I needed eight hours a day for months to do it. You can actually get a lot done. And it was my side hustle. It's like my side project. I have a business, I have a family, I have other things going on, but I was able to write a book. Maybe it would have been better if I had more time and I could devote all my time to writing. But I don't know. I don't know. I don't believe so. And I think the assumption there is that if artists are doing anything but creating art, they're kind of drifting. They're kind of...

losing the point and I don't agree with that. I think that part of being an artist and being a creative entrepreneur, which every artist is, if you're making a living from your art or trying to, you're already a creative business owner. And again, I'm having some crossover with my business and I'm always talking about that. You're already a creative business owner and the real question actually becomes, do you step into the role of being a business owner or do you let it just kind of happen and happen to you and...

always be at the mercy of what other people want. And in other words, be a bad business owner and then kind of worry about like, well, why am I not getting the creative control I want? Why do I not get the money that I want? While at the same time, hoping for some artistic purity that never comes and actually undercuts what you're trying to do, which is, I would hope, or I would advocate for getting creative control, getting more money as a creative. I think if we resist that idea that you're a brand or if we resist the idea that as an artist, you're a business,

There are smart people out there, and a lot of them work for record labels and publishers. There are smart people out there who are happy to take advantage of your resistance to becoming a business owner. And again, a little bit of a soapbox based on the work that I do, but I've been doing that for a long time. And what I've seen is that I've seen a lot of creators who are successful, and they spend a lot of time on promotion, on branding, on getting the word out. And that's a real integral part. It's not just you're going to create great art and...

it's going to be magically seen by those who need to see it. There's a lot of work that goes into being a good artist behind the scenes. And it's nothing new, by the way. One of the things I was thinking about is how even when you go back to the 90s or the 80s, before you had the internet for self -promotion, before you had social media, people would put out flyers, they would wheat paste posters, they'd put up stickers, they would go to shows, they'd promote in all the ways that they could. None of these things were making art.

So if you're out there trying to promote your album on the street by handing out stickers or something, you're not making art, which is fine, actually. That's okay. And because you're also getting in touch with people who are gonna buy it, right? So the more that you're out there, the more you're kind of getting feedback. You're hearing what's working or what's not working or what people don't like or what they do like. And then you can work that into your artistic practice. And I do think that getting that feedback is a key part of building and developing.

creative voice and artistic practice, which is why I talk so much about how you have to get stuff out there. How you have to, it's not just good enough to make something. You have to get it out to people. And there is an art to that itself. There's a lot of creativity to that. And it's interesting to me. So that's kind of another thing I would explain to any artist that promotion is part of it. And again, if you don't want to do it, that's fine. But don't be surprised if the result is not the result that you're looking for.

if you don't get as far as you'd like to. I think one of the assumptions is, again, it might take a lot of work to get to that level of mastery, that 10 ,000 hours that everyone quotes, but it's kind of a little bit off by the way. So let's say you need 10 ,000 hours to get good. You go to art school, you go to college, you practice, whatever, but by the time you're ready to enter the market, for lack of a better term,

You don't need to spend that much time. You don't need that inordinate amount of time or you can manage your time better or whatever. So, yeah, I think that one of the things that every creative starts to learn, and if you think about probably the people who are at the top of their field, I mean, I don't know. Everyone talks about Taylor Swift and Beyonce and these sort of mega artists. They have teams. They're entrepreneurs in their own right. Yes, they're musicians.

But what they've probably built behind them and what makes it so that they can do all the things that they need to do is they have a team. They're not doing their own publicity. They're not doing their own makeup. They're not doing their own promotion. They have a team. And so that's something that you grow into. And as a beginning artist, let's say that you're just starting out, that might be you at the beginning. But one of the things you learn on the path of an entrepreneur is as soon as you can, you delegate that to other people. So...

let's say that you are a visual artist and you spend a little time and you're like working on promoting or how to do social media or this and that, making videos of you drawing, whatnot. Cool. You do that for a while and then you realize, okay, that's getting some sort of return, some sort of traction. You hire someone else to do it. So again, one of the assumptions I think is hidden in this article is that artists need to do all the work themselves. They might need to set the path, but...

the way that you grow as an entrepreneur and as an artist is by having a team. I mean, even artists will have teams who help them create their art. They're not doing it all themselves. I even hired someone to edit my book. I'm not doing it myself. To me, that's not part of my creative process. So I think you can work to a point where you can bring on a team. And it does take time. It's not to say that that's going to be an instant thing. It's a skill like anything else. But my point is not to resist.

the reality that you need to do that, but to really embrace that and get into it and be like, all right, I'm gonna, you know, if I'm actually looking to be an independent creator, I need to learn things like how to delegate my work to other people so that I can focus on the core thing that I do. And this is something you come back to and hear about a lot in entrepreneurship circles, like what is the unique kind of zone of genius that you bring to the table? And if you can identify that.

then what you're aiming to do is build a team that does everything but that. And whatever it is that's your thing, whether it's performing or creating a piece of art, you're going to be the one who does that. And you take all the other things you've identified and hand it off to other people and build an organization behind you. It takes time, but I don't think resisting that reality and saying, I wish it was different. I wish I didn't have to promote. I wish I could leave it to someone else. That may not happen. Those days might be gone. And so my goal in telling you this is to be helpful.

Because again, I talk about creativity and creative voice. And I do think that learning how to build a business around your creativity, if that's what you're inclined to do, if you're inclined to be, you know, kind of scale what you're doing up or make it bigger or get it out to more people. And again, making a business doesn't mean about, doesn't always mean just you're focused on making money. Money is a medium that you use to then, let's say, promote yourself. If you wanted to make it so that...

more people hear your message or see what you've created. Even if you don't make any additional money, you kind of need money to make that happen. So again, it's a skill, it's a process, it's something that you learn. And so this article got me thinking about it. It got me thinking about, well, what is the role of an artist in society today? And I think part of it is also being a business owner. And it's almost like the, in the kind of article, it almost did feel like there was this hearkening back to a

the good old days. I think at one point she mentions in the article about, you know, how there used to be a time of grants and residencies and all that, that artists couldn't rely on. And yeah, there should be that stuff, but to say that there's no sort of work to get those or that you don't have to adhere to someone else's requirements, I think is missing a little bit of the picture there. I think even with those things.

to get a grant you have to apply for a bunch of grants. You have to do interviews, you have to do a bunch of stuff, you have to self promote yourself to the people giving out the grants and then you might not get it or you have to kind of take your art and modify it so that it fits in with what the grant maker is doing. So even in the age of like patronage and like Venice or wherever that was, if you were like let's say a Michelangelo or someone else like that, you still had to curry favor with

the noble families who are giving out the money. So it wasn't just like this free money that you could do nothing with. And to do that required a lot of political skill. So maybe the political skill of those days are replaced with the social media and platform building skills of these days. And that's kind of, to me, actually, I think that's an improvement. I'd much rather be able to communicate directly to the people interested in my work, even if that's a little more work, because then it can be.

It can be what I want to express to people and they can get it. I can get feedback instead of having the intermediary who is going to try to tell me what they think people want to see and then try to give people what they think they want to receive. That makes sense. Hopefully I got that right. And I think as an artist doing this stuff, as an artist thinking about building a business and the role of commerce and all that stuff, yeah, get into it. Like, please. Like that's the move. But I think...

what you always have to do is maintain the balance. And I've talked about this before. I think it might've even been the last episode where I was talking about prioritizing your long -term creative goals over the short -term stuff. So, or even talking about taking control of your time, which I've also talked about in past episodes, where it means that, yes, you have all these things to do. You have the social media posts that you have to do. You have the meeting you have to go to. You have the person you have to interview or whatever it is that you're doing in your practice. There's all these things that you have to do, but...

you should prioritize art. So if you are a writer, make your first few hours of the day or your best energy, whatever that is, go towards writing and make that sacrosanct. Put it on your calendar and treat it as a meeting with yourself. A lot of people don't know how to do that. So they get overwhelmed. They're like, I have to go on TikTok and I have to post something and I have to do something on LinkedIn and I have to make my new website and all this. Yeah, do all that stuff. Great, good. But stay focused on what it is that you are uniquely creating.

and put that at the front of your priorities, at the front of your time, so that that stuff always happens. I mean, you know, the other thing I'd also say is, you know, I think for most people, I've heard from a lot of artists that like, really, you have like only four good creative hours in the day. So just bust that out, you know, as much as you can. Hey, shit, even if it's only like 15 minutes, bust out what you need to do, like do the big shit and get it done. But then know that you can spend the rest of your day doing the little stuff. So.

It doesn't need to interfere. I don't think there is any tension or any kind of opposition between taking care of the self -promotion and the little stuff and the business stuff behind what you're doing and actually creating art. If you know how to prioritize, you're always going to get to the art. So it's about finding balance and, again, keeping the long -range plan in mind, which is a practice, by the way. Not everyone gets it right. I don't get it right. A lot of people I know have a hard time with it. And so even another point that she makes in the article,

is how a lot of people don't... Where was I here? Yeah, so, sorry, I got lost in my notes. Yeah, a lot of people, like artists are seeing less and less money. So one of the things she kind of, like a part of the article is talking about how artists are seeing less money as a share of income. So like getting less money from publishers, less money from promoters or whatnot.

And yeah, that should be changed and people should be treated fairly. But then at the same time, what I also have seen in my work is a lot of artists and creators who don't advocate for themselves. They just take what they're given and don't realize a lot of it's malleable. If they offer you this much, you can actually ask for more or ask for different terms. And a lot of artists don't do that. And the way that you get there,

is by getting better at business, by understanding, okay, what is the value that I'm bringing? What is the value that this platform is bringing, that this publisher is bringing, that this music label is bringing? And then really question them and be like, you know, so if you're not going to market for me, if you're going to rely on my platform, what's the point? And you might find that it's not a good business deal. Yeah, they have a great reputation and they have, you know, like you're now published with a big five publisher, but if you're not making money or they're not bringing much to the table,

As a business person, you kind of consider, is this a good deal or not? I know a lot of people and there have been the tradition of a lot of people who have done really good for themselves completely independently, like record labels and film creators, all these other people who they don't need a big publisher. So again, the concern is that, you know, artists are getting less money. You have the freedom to choose. You have the freedom to choose one over the other and

Again, part of that is being a business owner. It's not like you're working at a job that you're stuck in and you have to take the money. Like you can literally say no or literally ask for more. And it does take a little bit of doing to learn how to do that. But an artist who does that is going to do themselves a big favor. And that's really about embracing the business side of things instead of kind of hiding from it or hoping it's going to be okay, which I mean, do it if you want, it's fine. But I'm just saying, like there's a different way to go about things. Or you can partner with people.

You know, there's a lot of artists who form collectives or form groups where everybody has different skills. Maybe one person's really good with numbers and like handling finance. Another person is really good at promotion or whatever. They're all artists and they'll have their art, but they kind of partner with each other. So that's another thing. Or you hire someone who might not be an artist themselves, but it's really good at building a business. Maybe that's a manager or something. I don't know. But yeah, I think that, you know, you've always had to promote. I mean, anybody who's familiar with DIY culture like

punk or underground dance music or anything like that knows that self promotion and promoting your thing has always been part of the game. So this is not a new thing that just kind of came out with social media where it's like, oh, I have to make TikTok videos, boo hoo. It's literally like been part of the job always. So I just want to say that. And I think the idea is just to go into it eyes open and not feel like, you know, I mean, obviously we want things to be different, but while we're waiting for the game to change, it's really easy to like,

what's the word, be like, oh, this is such a bad situation. There's nothing I can do and not really give yourself that agency. And in the meantime, people take advantage of you. People who are better at business or at least have invested more time and energy into understanding how the business works are gonna be the winners. And then, you know, you'll be complaining, well, why did I get taken advantage of? Or why didn't I get enough money? It's because you didn't embrace that part of being an artist. And...

By the way, none of that has to compromise your ideals. In fact, I'd say it's the opposite. The more that you're able to handle the business side and understand the promotion side, the more creative control you can have over that stuff. I mean, if you are someone who isn't good at handling the business side and you're always needing money, you're going to have to take jobs. And I've been in this situation before when I was a designer that you don't want because you need the money, because you weren't good at business in a previous engagement that you had. So.

I actually do believe that if you don't take control of this stuff, somebody else will take control of it for you and they'll also take the money and the control. So just putting that out there. Final thing I would say is that building a platform is fun. It's a creative expression in and of itself. This podcast is my creative expression. It's my building a platform, as it were. To talk about

Creativity or to kind of share anything else that I might come out with but it's also an end in and of itself like doing this Podcast is I like doing it. That's why I keep doing it. I enjoy talking about this stuff I enjoy thinking about this stuff and sharing it with you and hearing back from you So yes, I guess in making this podcast. I am building my platform because I'm not Selling anything here, right? This is just communication and building an audience and that's what I'm trying to do

find more people who are interested in this stuff and who want to hear me talk about it, and build a platform so that if there is something in the future that I want to share that I think is going to be valuable and creative and helpful for you, I know where to find you. I know who is interested by their interest in what I've talked about. So if I ever decide, hey, I'm going to take everything I've talked about here and write a book, I already know where to find you because you're already listening. You're on my newsletter, all those kind of things. Follow me on social.

I enjoy it, you know, and I think that if you look at platform building the right way, it can be a creative process in its own right. And that's how I felt about this podcast. It's, I enjoy it. Like I just said, and I know that there's a lot of people who, you know, they enjoy making their Instagram account for their artwork. They enjoy sharing stuff and getting feedback. They enjoy taking their ideas and turning it into a different form for a different medium so that people can kind of get a...

sense of what you're about and learn more about you and connect with you. It's a great thing. And I think we live in a time that makes it really cool. Yeah, there are problems. And I think the article that I'm initially talking about in this discussion raises some valid points. I mean, I think there's a lot of places where industry and technology companies don't treat artists fairly or that the playing field can be shifted more towards the artist. And I'd like to see more of that.

But again, like I said, in the meantime, as artists, there is room to take control. There is room to take agency. So, and enjoy the process as you're doing it. So that's my advice to you. I mean, you might disagree with me. You might see it differently. Totally cool. Um, that's just, you know, what I wanted to share about this whole thing with art and commerce and self -promotion. So, and by the way, I'm not meaning to single out this article. It just kind of raised a bunch of ideas and I was actually going to record something different, but I read the article, which came out a few days ago.

And I'm like, you know what, that seems like a good topic for hyper memoir. So hopefully you like this discussion. Hopefully this gave you some sort of help with your creativity and your creative works and how to think about it. That's my goal here. That's all I'm trying to do. And you know, if I did that, I'd love to know if I didn't do that. If you feel like I missed the mark, I'd also love to know. You can reach me. I put a link in the show notes so you can kind of go on the description and get connected with me and reach out to me. I'd love to hear from you. I love hearing from people.

About this again. This is part of my creative process as I develop my ideas to get feedback from you all What you like and what you don't like? So anyway, I'm Chris Waltimes. This was hyper memoir. Thanks for joining Thank you for listening and I hope you'll join me again I try to do this every week and I'm pretty close to that So thanks for everyone who's been tuning in and giving me feedback and reviews and all that. So see you next time