Business Artist Digest Nov 17, 2023

Next week is Thanksgiving here in the United States. I know it’s not a worldwide holiday, but perhaps it’s a great time for all of us to reflect on the many reasons we have to be grateful as creatives and business leaders.

Gratitude is always in season! Here are a few reasons to celebrate and be thankful:

1. You have access to more people than ever before.

Because of the internet, you can connect with almost anyone you want. Whether it’s a business leader, an influential author, or an artist you admire, most of them are just an email or LinkedIn message away.

And if you have a podcast or blog, you can reach out to these people and offer to interview or feature them. An added bonus!

2. You have incredible creative tools at your disposal.

Writing, video editing, podcasting, design, coding … there are so many apps and resources available today for all of these that it’s hard to choose.

No matter what kind of creative work you do, there’s probably a free or very low-cost tool to accomplish what you need. Imagine if the great minds of the past had the vast amount of resources we have today!

3. You can get the equivalent of a college education for free.

YouTube, blogs, and podcasts offer all of us the chance to learn anything we want, on demand. It sounds a little silly to point that out because we’ve had access to these for a long time now.

But it wasn’t always this way. Just twenty or thirty years ago, you had to work much harder to get the equivalent of what you can now get with a search and a click.

4. You can start a business today right now.

Anyone, anywhere, can start an online business simply with their phone or computer. The possibilities are endless. Do you want to blog? Write books? Do coaching? Sell digital products? Offer courses? It’s all right there for anyone who’s willing to put in the work.

Ironically, the challenge today is not the lack of opportunity. The challenge is choosing a set pathway and then sticking with it long enough to make it successful.

5. You can reach almost anyone in the world with your message.

Estimates show that 85% of people in the world have a smartphone. That’s over 6 billion people! When you consider that you can instantly reach any of them with an email, video, or social media post, the possibilities are mind-boggling!

Gone are the days when your impact is limited by your geographic area or your immediate social circle. The opportunity to grow your business and spread your message is limited only by your imagination.

So this coming Thanksgiving, take a few moments to be grateful for family and friends … as well as all the incredible ways you can help people and make a living as a Business Artist.

- Adam

From the Blog

Three Visions for Business Artists

The quiet town of Cortez sits in the southwestern corner of Colorado. With a population of less than 10,000, the town is less famous and not as flashy as Denver, Aspen, or Telluride.

But if you ever visit Cortez, it’s worth your time to drive south on Highway 491, then west on Highway 160. After a short jaunt off the highway, you will arrive at one of the most fascinating tourist attractions in the United States.

The Four Corners Monument is the only place in the United States where four states (Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico) converge into a single point. If you sit in the middle of the giant seal that marks the spot, with your legs spread out and leaning back on your hands, you can literally be in four places at once.

This geographical marker is a good metaphor for this moment in time. We stand at a great convergence point where technology, trade, and world events have forced us to decide the pathway we will take. People throughout history have always faced decisions, but this is different. The next decade represents a critical point for humanity where we must decide how we will relate to technology and what our pathway forward will be as humans.

We have to make sure that, as Business Artists, we don’t get lost in the chaos of the modern world. In this post, I’ll share three visions for our collective future, naturally arguing for the pathway of the Business Artist. It is the only viable way forward if we want to retain our true humanity and creative potential.

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Adam Recommends

I love learning about culture, history, and psychology. When those three topics come together in a compelling framework, I’m interested!

Last year, the popular YouTube channel Big Think featured Todd Rose’s video, “Psychologist debunks 8 myths of mass scale.” Collective illusions–false assumptions about society that many people share–have existed for thousands of years in many different ways. Today, because of social media and modern technology, they have become even more common.

As former Harvard professor and bestselling author of Collective Illusions, Rose explains that the antidote to collective illusions is becoming a more authentic individual, and gaining a deeper understanding of how our innate drive to conform to social norms works against that.

As Business Artists, we constantly have to fight against the urge to conform to these norms. You have a unique gift to offer the world. This video will help you be more aware of the forces that make it harder.

Business Artist Spotlight

For this week’s Spotlight, I’m excited to feature musician and YouTube creator Rick Beato.

Beato describes his channel as “Everything Music,” and that’s a pretty accurate description of his unique angle on music. As a music industry veteran, he has the inside scoop on every angle of the recording industry. A random sampling of his videos from the last couple of years will bring you thoughtful breakdowns on chord progressions, business, creativity, music production, and much more.

Beato recently did a short retrospective video featuring some of the notable people he’s interviewed, including Sting, Steve Lukather (Toto), Brian May (Queen), Seal, and producer Daniel Lanois, among others.

He’s truly a business artist–a creative who does his thing yet is also highly involved in the business side of things. Highly recommended!