Creators who can easily get in the zone of generosity, generation, and joy when creating say to me on the regular “I don’t like to sell my work, because it feels gross.” We think we need to switch roles for these vastly different tasks. When I coach them thru the process, this changes. It’s not a big secret, but it does take a few big cognitive adjustments.
( I’m talking about selling products, getting gigs, negotiating contracts, selling tickets / downloads, and more )
The selling is part of the making
Making entertainment stuff without an audience is pointless. It’s not entertainment. Making something that people don’t value is pointless in this craft. Understanding what sells informs how we can make things that the world values.
Free stuff still costs
Even if we give away our novels, people are still paying for them. Time is more valuable that money. We don’t get out of selling our stuff by giving it away or making it cheap.
Making something free or low priced lowers the value of the something. It often lowers the value more than it lowers the consumer’s barrier to entry.
Okay, then!
Make sales fun
We can’t escape sales if we’re going to make something that’s great for people. The mental shift to make sales fun is straightforward. “I am going to price what I have below its value”
If we could sell awesome shoes to people that need them and have the money for 50¢ per pair it would be fun. We would want everyone to know that our shoe store exists. It’s a miracle and the more people know, the more lives we could change. We don’t need to trick anyone. We don’t even need to convince anyone. We only need to communicate to people…
- I have shoes
- These shoes are valuable
- The price is ridiculously low
It might still feel icky right now
“But I’m not selling 50¢ shoes, I’m selling $10,000 paintings…” Now, we find our real block. Our block is not sales. Our block is imposter syndrome. The way to remove this block is to understand our value. People pay $10,000 for paintings because they are REALLY GETTING SOMETHING WORTH MORE.
Understand value. go!
Part of our job is to honestly examine our value to our audience, then communicate it. When we can land in this premise; it is clearly generous, part of the creator’s flow, and it is enjoyable.