So I interviewed one of the most successful artists in the world yesterday – Wyland.
For those of you who do not know who he is he is probably the world’s top environmental artist. You can check out his website at Wyland.com.
The interview was great. Funny, I almost immediately liked the guy when we got on the phone. He just sounded relaxed, was courteous (referred to me by name many times) and, at times, very funny – kinda like speaking to my brother.
We covered a TON of stuff on the interview – however the thrust was mostly marketing. I mean, Wyland has a friggin empire! Just go to his site and you can see all the projects, relationships, causes and more he is involved with.
I did want to cover one thing he said (to get the rest of the “secret sauce” to artistic success in the interview you’ll have to wait until the launch of the Art Marketing Association early next year – sorry)
And that one thing concerns your brand. He talked a lot about creating a personal brand. Now those of us in marketing have most likely been exposed to that philosophy before. There was even a book out recently called The Brand Called You
What does that mean – create a personal brand? Well, it really means to use all channels available to you to extend your brand – meaning your artistic niche, your lifestyle, your interests – they are ultimately all extensions of you and your personality.
And, don’t, for a minute, think that you are stuck with your current “personality” – Like people will say, “I’m too shy” or “I’m not that good at speaking” or “My interests are not as flashy as Wyland’s” etc. etc. well that’s just dog poop.
The real secret is you can create your own personality or brand whenever you like. It’s all a creation anyway. It’s not something stuck in you or your DNA. You created your own personality now that is moving and interacting with the world.
If you don’t like your current one then CREATE a new powerful personal brand that supports your new goals and vision. CREATE the person you want to be – much like Tom Hanks or Jack Nicholson or Glenn Close does every time they create a new character on the big screen.
Another excellent book (I’m a pretty big reader so I like to share these “finds”) that goes into quite a bit of detail on creating a powerful personal brand when formulating your own business is by expert marketer, Allen Bechtold, called – Will Work for Fun: Three Simple Steps for Turning Any Hobby or Interest Into Cash.
The book gives you some simple exercises to recreate your own “character” in some simple and fun ways. It really opened my eyes to the fun and creativity of how you can differentiate your business from others.
I really think this is important stuff and deserves your attention. I would start with the books above and then stay tuned for upcoming announcements on the launch of the Art Marketing Association which will have some amazing resources (including the Wyland interview and transcript) from some of the most successful artists and marketers on the planet.