I have to admit, I find marketing challenging as I know many of you probably do too! Artists, coaches and freelancers tend to do work they love and having to do marketing can taint the beauty of the freelance existence.
There is often a guilty voice in the back of my head that taunts me ‘you should be marketing yourself today’ and most of the time, I choose to do work that I find more soulful, such as writing or coaching. I’d prefer to earn less money and live a simpler life than to do a marketing plan.
Recently however, I made a discovery. I’ve been asked to do a story telling workshop for ‘The somatic coaching school’ who I trained with. I decided to reflect on how my clients had found me and I realised that a large proportion had come through random encounters when I shared my story.
This weekend is an example. I was at a wedding. I started speaking with a woman called Jess who told me that she worked at a local charity a couple doing admin. She asked me what I did and shared how I coach creatives and her face light up, ‘Oh but I’m also an artist but I never describe myself as an artist as I don’t make any money from it. There are millions of conceptual artists out there, why would anyway be interested in my work”.
I challenged Jess to tell a different story as it’s the story we tell ourselves and others that can lead to paid work or not.
I told her that every artist needs to know how to narrate a story around their work if they want to stand out from the competition. I told her how I found every artist fascinating once I unpicked their story and once artists know how to tell stories around their work, they could potentially sell their work anywhere – even at a wedding!
I asked her to tell me a story about how she became an artist and all of a sudden, she blossomed and shared passionately here views on how much she cared about authenticity and started painting to find a way of expressing herself.
Jess went from being a bit apologetic to being forthright, confident and engaging. Her story ignited her and her passion for her work was obvious.
Jess asked me for my details. I had ignited her and I had a potential new client.
Most importantly, I was pleased as I’d enabled one more artist to see their work has value and that story telling is an artful and beautiful way to promote your work, even if it’s at a wedding.
So – going back to my original story – most of my clients have been activated by a conversation with me out and about.
And I think that clients are everywhere. On the bus, at a party. When you are passionate about your work and connect with people the meaning of what you do – then surprising things can happen.
So – if you’re reading this and thinking ‘I don’t have a story around my work’, then, I’m running a free webinar on story telling for my coaching company.
Want to attend my workshop on Saturday 7th September 2024 at 1.30pm UK time?
Click here for the: The Embodied Business Symposium
