Balancing authentic expression with making a livelihood from your creation
The modern creator’s dilemma 💸
Hi everyone! I hope it’s been a lovely spring week 🌷
I had something entirely different planned for this week’s post, but just in the last day or so I’ve been pinged to write about the dichotomy between a creator’s duty to authentic expression and their ability to earn a living from that creation.
Many of you are creators. Creators of businesses, brands, Substacks, and offerings to share with the world.
So maybe you’ve felt pressure to “find the product-market fit” or “get inside your target customer’s head” and “figure out exactly who you’re writing/cooking/acting/building for.” To fully understand who you are creating for, and ultimately selling to, before going too far down the path of your own creation.
If you’ve grappled with the degree to which you need to think about aligning your creation + art with who’s eventually going to be consuming it—what they want, what they’re looking for, what they need—this one’s for you.
** I’d like to mention that Amie McNee’s posts have been extremely vindicating on this train of thought. Check out her Substack for utterly unapologetic takes on creating art—in whatever form you choose—and staying ruthlessly true to yourself in the process.**
I didn’t need to pay tens of thousands of dollars for an MBA to know that when you’re planning to launch a product or business that you’ll monetize, you should probably check first whether there’s actually a market for it. (whoops, already did 🫠)
i.e. Does someone out there actually want to spend their money on what you’re planning to create and then sell?
But what about when you’re creating something that truly taps into what you believe you were put on this earth to create?
Something that, for this season of life, springs from you like a jack-in-the-box, simply unable to be contained within four sad, windowless walls for too long?
Even when you bring to life something that represents the essence of your soul’s expression, should you first consider who the target audience is?
I recognize that harsh, jargon words like “target audience” and “customer demographic” sit poorly next to the contextual melodies we hear when we think of “creation” and “artistry”. But, it’s worth enduring the dissonance to explore the relationship.
There are two schools of thought here.
Each thought has been used by creators far and wide, each with plenty of success. By business owners. By moguls. By the women opening up a neighborhood cafe. By the writer who’s come a long way from starting a Substack from zero 😉
On one hand…
If you have aspirations of making a livelihood off of what you bring into the world, whether that’s as a singer, a chef, a coach, an architect, or a writer, you do need to think about your market and your target patron or target customer.
You can create from the heart all you want. If you have no intention of making a living off what you create, then there’s no need to align your creation with anything but your own internal voice.
But if you’re creating something so pure, so original whose value may not be fully understood or appreciated by your audience, and thus they aren’t willing to exchange their money for it, you’ll have a tough time making a livelihood.
I was listening to a podcast this morning with Les Alfred who hosts “She’s So Lucky.” On this episode, Les vulnerably spoke about her journey with self-employment and creating a media empire.
One thing she touched on really stayed with me: sometimes you can create something genuinely valuable, expansive, even ahead of its time—but if people don’t yet understand the beauty of it or how it fits into their lives, they won’t buy into it. Not because it’s not good.
But because creation, if left unpackaged, can easily be misinterpreted.
This made me realize that there’s a big difference between compromising your authenticity in what you create vs. learning how to translate your vision into something your audience can actually grasp, desire, and then pay you for.
*Les also used betting in a casino as a metaphor for betting on yourself, which was pretty badass. So give it a listen! ♠️♣️
On the other hand…
Your duty to yourself as a creator and/or an artist is to create something that is truly authentic to you. Your vision. Your perspective. Your desire to bring something into this world you want to see exist.
Because if you’re creating something—pouring over it with your heart and soul and time and tears—to align with someone else’s vision or appetite, then what’s the point?
I listened to another podcast from Elizabeth Endres Orrigo over at The Wellness Process, whose latest episode is an interview with the founder of Ghia, an alcohol-free apéritif.
This founder, Melanie Masarin, spoke about how she started her business by creating the exact drink she wanted. She created from her heart, something that she wished existed in the world.
And she pointed to how easily success comes when you operate from a place of flow — a place that’s typically only reached when operating from your heart & soul. From the “zone of genius”, where your unique talents and inherent passions converge into your creation.
I knew what I wanted it to look like, to feel like, to taste like. I really made Ghia for me, you know? You can tell when people are creating from the heart… all the [marketing and branding] stuff we get praised for now, that comes easily.
So… what’s the right answer?
Creating from the heart in a way that expresses every irreplicable, luminescent detail of your desire? Or reverse engineering what the market needs & wants that you could uniquely bring to fruition in order to make a living?
Maybe it’s not one or the other.
Maybe it’s creating exactly what you feel called to create, feel excited to introduce to the world, but presented in such a way that resonates.
Thank you, big fancy expensive MBA that’s currently yellowing in a jam-packed storage bin at my parents’ house for your role in helping me come to that conclusion.
Sneak peak into a post coming soon…
I believe a great deal of the results you get have to do not only with which of these strategies you begin with, but the intention and energetics at play throughout your journey.
That is a much larger topic that deserves its own post, which is coming soon! For it, I’ll feature insights from a couple of my new Substack friends. Looking at you, Lucite Vision and Amber Talarico!
Stay tuned!
