Business Artist Digest Oct 13, 2023

One of the most important questions you can ever ask yourself is, “Why am I drawn to the type of work I do?”

There are probably dozens of reasons why you’re drawn in a particular direction. I’ll leave that to the psychologists to figure out. But at the end of the day, the single most important reason you’re pulled toward a certain type of work is because it feeds your soul.

Maybe it’s sales, design, writing, finance, HR, entrepreneurship, media, or one of a hundred other areas. If you enjoy your work, it’s because it gives you joy on a fundamental level.

I believe it’s important to connect with that source on a regular basis. In the midst of all the distractions that are part of business today, you can easily get sidetracked.

On any given day, there are projects to manage, people to talk to, and messages coming at you from a half-dozen different platforms. It’s easy to get burned out and lose connection with the very thing that drew you to your work in the first place.

Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, said, “Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself … It’s a self-exploratory operation that is endless. An exorcism of not necessarily his demon, but of his divine discontent.”

The concept of discontent doesn’t just apply to writers. Every artist creates because it fills a need in themselves, and in the larger world.

You might create for the market, for clients, or for your company. But when it comes down to it, you’re creating because you can’t not create. It’s part of your wiring as a Business Artist.

Whenever you feel irritable, grumpy, or a bit lost (who doesn’t sometimes?), take a look at how much you’ve been creating. Your soul is telling you it’s time to return to the source.

- Adam

From the Blog

7 Tips for Better Storytelling in Business

We all know that business has to run on data. Charts, reports, graphs, spreadsheets, and databases are critical for almost every business today.

But what really grabs people’s attention? Stories.

Our love of stories is why we spend time watching Netflix, going to the movie theater, and reading novels. Our ancient ancestors would sit around the campfire spinning tales as a form of entertainment. We may not always be sitting around a campfire today, but we love stories just as much.

That’s why storytelling is such a critical skill for Business Artists. As humans, we think in story. Yet in most business settings, communicators gravitate toward sharing data instead of stories. What if you could harness the power of storytelling and speak in a way that truly captures other people’s imaginations?

My peers and colleagues have told me again and again that storytelling is my primary strength. Even though I have a natural gift for it, I believe anyone can learn to improve their storytelling skills.

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Adam Recommends

I love the concept of creativity in the workplace, but there are so many opinions on how to do it well. People get even more passionate when discussing hybrid work.

I recently met Elise Keith and Dave Mastronardi and was intrigued by their work on challenging the widely publicized articles that Zoom destroys creativity. They have been conducting a full research experiment via their site, New Rules for Work.

In this experiment, they give groups of individuals a creative task that is delivered via Zoom or in person. They are almost complete with their research, but the good news is that there is one more next week! You can join the experiment here and be part of history at no cost.

Business Artist Spotlight

This week I’m excited to feature Bart Fanelli and Kerri Barton , the founders of Skillibrium, which focuses on empowering and enabling creativity in others through software. (Their mission is remarkably similar to our goals for Meahana).

Rather than relying on one sales or coaching methodology, their platform allows you to customize, create, and deploy your own methodology based on your unique audience needs. Whereas my software, Meahana, allows you to build from scratch or customize from templates for live collaboration, they do the same but in an asyhcronous way.

Bart helped grow Splunk from 60M to over 1.5B and understands the role of sales and coaching very well. Rather than going the route that so many senior leaders go in being a solopreneur and starting a coaching or consulting business, he chose the entrepreneur route.

Just as I did with Meahana, Bart realized his knowledge could help more people through software instead of working with individual clients or companies. A key skill for the Business Artist is not just to create, but to enable creativity in others as well.