If you’ve ever identified as a creator of any kind, be that an artist, entrepreneur, freelancer, or something else entirely, you’ve probably told yourself some version of the Creator’s Myth.

The Creator’s Myth revolves around the idea that if you can create something great, be that a product, service, piece of art, we can simply release it and it will find it’s way in front of the right audience.

Faced with offers that don’t suddenly fly off the shelves upon their release, creators often draw the conclusion that their work wasn’t good enough, go back to the lab, create something even better, and release that, hoping that this time it will catch on, go viral and take the world by storm.

In almost every case, that’s not what happens and the cycle repeats with the creator furiously attempting to one-up themselves in the work they do while ignoring the skill and the practice that is essential to getting their work seen — and sold.

Of course, deep down, most creators know what needs to be done, they just don’t want to or believe they’re capable of doing it.

Marketing and sales.

Two words that give creators goosebumps.

They conjure images of sleazy, slimy, slippery used car salesmen, of telemarketers, of all the times they’ve been sold and marketed to in the past when they didn’t want to be.

Whatever images these words bring up for you, they’re probably based in your personal experience and entirely justified.

The thing is, those were objectively bad marketers and objectively bad salespeople.

Real marketing is about nothing more than building a relationship and having a protracted conversation with your audience.

Whether you like it or not, if you create things that you want people to use, and buy, you cannot simply do your work, press “publish” and then wait for the sales to roll in.

You need to take the lead on getting it in front of your audience, the people who will benefit from your work.

And this is a good thing.

Why You Should Want To Take The Lead

If we’re working off the assumption that The Creator’s Myth (ie. Build It and They Will Come) is the way to getting our work into the hands of those we wish to serve, we have a couple of problems.

The first is that if we’re leaving it up to others, others who don’t know the work like we do, don’t know its specs, its intended uses, or who it was made for, to do our selling for us.

What ends up happening is a giant game of telephone in which the core purpose of our product, the promise it makes to its potential users is translated and garbled into something entirely unrecognizable.

Sure, some products and offerings are obvious, but if you’ve ever been asked “what exactly is it that you do?” by a friend or relative, you’re probably all too aware that your work requires some explanation.

If you step up and take the lead on marketing and selling your work, you’re able to ensure that you’re crafting your messaging in a way that actually does the work justice, that is clear, concise, and curiosity-piquing.

You’re also able to get that messaging in front of a clearly defined audience, one who you may know or suspect is made up largely of your ideal customers.

What’s more, since you know your work better than anyone else, you can subtly tweak the messaging to customize it to different audiences who may all benefit from what you’re offering them.

There is no such control when you simply do the work and leave it up to the universe to get the word out.

Systems

The second big problem of refusing to promote your work is that you’re relying on pure chance, and pure chance is not repeatable.

Even if you hit it big with a product once, will you be able to repeat that process for your next launch?

If you’re going to make a living as a creator, it’s essential that you create repeatable systems to give your work the best chance of getting in front of the people it was intended for.

Imagine having a template that you could drop various pieces into and be reasonably sure that the result would be your ideal customers and clients taking you up on your offer and engaging in your work.

If you’re one of the creators who has no shortage of ideas and no hold-ups about doing the work — maybe you create compulsively even — a marketing system like this starts to sound an awful lot like a money-printing machine.

Getting Your Reps In

If you can get past the slimy connotations you may have around marketing and sales, you’ll probably still run into the small issue that you don’t know what the hell you’re doing when it comes to these pursuits.

That’s not an excuse to not promote your work.

All that means is that you have work to do when it comes to learning how to market effectively, generously, authentically, in a way that connects and resonates with your audience.

Think about the time you’ve put into developing your craft. It might be years or even decades of your life.

Have you even spent a few hours educating yourself around marketing?

If learning how to market your work meant the difference between creating in obscurity and being known as the authority in your field, what would that be worth to you?

My guess is that committing a few months or even a year to really studying marketing in your downtime would be more than worth the time and expense if it meant a loyal audience that believed in your work and was ready to buy each time you created something new.

This is what effective, generous, relationship-based marketing is really about.

I get it, there are seemingly infinite strategies, techniques, frameworks and tools, each with their own horde of proselytizers. It can be hard to know where to start.

Find out which marketing experts other people you know are consuming and start listening to their podcasts, reading their blogs, their books, watching their YouTube channels.

Test drive a bunch of different marketers until you find someone who’s philosophy you resonate with, not just when it comes to marketing, but in life, relationships and business as well.

For me, that person is Seth Godin, and I highly recommend you check out his blog, books, and amazing podcast, Akimbo.

Once you find that person, dive deep into their frameworks and start applying and experimenting relentlessly.

You won’t get it right the first time. No one does.

No matter, try again, try differently, try better.

Keep what works and ditch what doesn’t until you start to find patterns that you can apply repeatedly to get your work seen.

Real marketing is not slimy, sleezy or slippery.

Real marketing is about knowing who you are creating your work for, seeing them with empathy, and in return being seen by them with trust and engagement.

Your work is already good enough. It’s time to step up and market it generously.

Your audience is out there waiting for you.

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Want to hear more about building an audience around work that matters? I think you might enjoy these reads!

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