Audience: Me and Everyone - a podcast by Jai//Em

Quick Notes and Links:

Glamorizing the Awards Season (the Golden Globes, Oscars, etc.) makes it hard for creatives to measure their own creative success.

Every month is Black History Month and Black creatives, their histories, legacies, contributions and accomplishments will be folded into our weekly get-together on this show because it’s part of the Creative4evr mission statement.

If you want people to experience your creativity more than once, then thinking about your audience is important.

Successful creatives are very clear on who their audience is and they intentionally deliver to that audience over and over again. No one accidentally gains and maintains an audience.

Think outside of the box when it comes to making art just for yourself...you’re not really doing that anyway. You’re making art for people in your bubble, however big or small that bubble may be.

It's impossible to make art for "everyone." If you’re trying to make something that reaches everyone, that pleases everyone, your work will suffer.

Best practice: Your creative themes should be UNIVERSAL. The audience for your creativity should be TARGETED.

If you can’t figure out who your audience should be, it probably means you aren’t clear about what it is you’re wanting to create.

Finding your Audience:
1) Go back to the beginning. What is your idea and why is it important to you?
2) Gather feedback from the audience you have. Ask questions about what they enjoy/dislike, want more of.
3) Research the audiences of other people doing what you do.

Other Links:
> Three Reasons Why Your Creative Work Needs An Audience
> Eye of the Beholder: Art and its Audience
> How Authors Can Find Their Ideal Reading Audience
> How To Define Your Target Audience
> Your Target Market

Don’t forget to be creative this week. Even if you just think about it. Later.

Full Show Notes:

Hey, hi and hello! Welcome to Creative4evr. The podcast dedicated to keeping you forever inspired, forever motivated, forever creative, and forever YOU.  I am your host, Janet, a.k.a. Jai//Em, a.k.a. the voice inside your head, a.k.a. your biggest fan, and together we’re going to get some creative shit done.

Today! We’re gonna talk about audience. I am really happy to have this chat. I’ve been very excited about this episode. But first, a February check-in.

So, it’s basically the end of February, 2020 which means Awards Season is over— you know the Golden Globes, the Oscars, the SAG awards, the Independent Spirit Awards, all the awards. That’s done. We are able to put that in a box until next year. We are also knee deep in Black History Month and it is always great to see the events and marketing campaigns that happen in order to bring awareness to Black people and their important (and often overlooked) histories, legacies, contributions, and accomplishments. But I wanted to talk about two items that involve Black History Month and Awards Season just to calibrate you on how Creative4evr treats February.

So, first! Awards and events. Actor and movie awards, especially the Oscars, are always big events at this time of year. And they use to be a big event in my social circles, especially when I lived in Los Angeles. It was our Super Bowl, it was a part of being a creative living in LA. You cared about the Oscars, from what suits and dresses the actors were wearing, to the parties they went to at the end of the night.

But in 2008 I lost my enthusiasm for it. And it was because I realized that I would have these highs and lows. I would swing wildly between I am a creative genius and crippling depression. And all of this was triggered in 2008 when Diablo Cody was nominated for 4 Oscars for the movie Juno, and she won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. The whole story leading up to the Academy Awards was that she had written this script in 7 weeks in a Starbucks. Her winning really affected me because it made me think, This is the measurement, this is how it works. I should be able to write an award-winning something in 7 weeks. But of course I couldn’t do that and because I couldn’t do it, I felt like a failure. And when the awards season crept up again in 2009, all that depression and lack of confidence surfaced again. I would think, I still don’t have a something written, and another year has passed, but Diablo Cody was able to do it 7 weeks, and since I can’t do it I am a failure.

The thing I had loved so much, the time of year where we would drink, and talk trash about movies, and eat lots of food, and get dressed up sometimes, and then nobody goes to work on Monday… I started to hate that time of year. I started to feel like the only way I could WIN that weekend was if I sat down and wrote on that day, instead of enjoying the festivities. It was almost like I was punishing myself. I don’t have what these people have, I’m not winning these awards because I am not working hard enough so on that day I’m gonna work really, really hard. And I would write or do whatever it was to be a better creative person on that day instead of participating in the Oscars.

Now, years later I’ve leveled out. I don’t participate in the awards season, but I don’t hate it with a passion either. Because I don’t think hating the Oscars is the healthy alternative. I think it was important for me to stop consciously or subconsciously using the award show to measure my own success. I didn’t realize I was doing that, I didn’t realize that when I made a big to-do and fuss about the Oscars and celebrating that weekend, I was actually just glamorizing the award show in a way that was unhealthy for me. So in an effort to keep our eyes on the things that accurately measure our success, we won’t do any award season hubbub here. And that goes for book award season and any other franchise or community that builds hype around giving out awards to creatives. We WILL mention worthy accolades when talking about someone or a piece of work, but we will not be in the business of glamorizing the very idea of awarding creative people. It doesn’t do our psyches any good, it doesn’t do our creativity any good, and it gets in the way of each of us deciding how we want to measure our own creative success, because there are a hundred-million ways to measure creative success and that’s a topic we will cover at a later date.

Alright, the 2nd thing you should know about February and the Creative4evr podcast. As I said, February is Black History Month— but, and some of you can guess what I’m about to say. Every month is Black History Month as far I am concerned. We will be talking about Black people often on this show, it’s one of my goals for the podcast and yeah, it’s gonna happen. Now, please understand that I do participate in Black History Month. And you should too. I just want you to know that here on the podcast we will not have a BHM book reading or a special episode brought to you by BHM where we are calling things out just because it’s Feb. Black creatives, their histories, legacies, contributions and accomplishments will be folded into our weekly get-together on this show because it’s part of the Creative4evr mission statement. If you haven’t heard our mission statement, please check out our very 1st episode where it’s all laid out.

Okay, so this week is really special. We released 2 episodes. You are getting this show and an our book chat episode. But on this show we are going to talk about audience. Why you should think about your audience when create something, who your audience is and isn’t, and how you figure out the audience for your creative endeavor.  Hope you enjoy!

So, how important is your audience when you create something? Well, I think, if you want people to experience your creativity more than once, then it’s pretty important. Most artists are looking to make more than a 1st impression. I can’t think of a anyone that said, I just want to be creative one time. It’s not that kind of gig, people that sign up to be creative usually want to do it more than once and usually they want people to experience it in some way. Even if you draw something and show it to one person, you are sharing it, you’re asking someone else to experience it. That’s the truth for most creative people.

Which means the experience you create has to be intentional, especially if you want a large audience to see it, to enjoy it, to experience it in a positive way, whatever that might be. It could be a scarf, you want whoever you had that scarf to, to experience it in a great way and to express appreciation, right? So this means you have to create intentionally, whatever it is. You want to keep your followers, readers, butts in seats. We used to talk about that when I worked on movies and marketing. The goal was butts in seats and you had to make it happen again and again and again. Our work toward that goal was very intentional and always had a specific group people in mind. For TV, each episode has to have intention so the targeted audience will tune in for the next episode, or will keep binge-watching. For books, each page, each chapter, the goal is to keep you reading, turning the page, and writers do that intentionally.

Which means some work is gonna be involved. No one accidentally gains and maintains an audience. And that goes for large audiences as well as small audiences full of die-hard fans. Tweeting is a great example for this. Those tweets that randomly go viral, never end up transforming the life of the person that tweeted, unless they are able to actively keep that audience with subsequent tweets. You know what I’m talking about. A tweet goes viral, you see they got 10k likes on a witty remark so you follow, and a week later that person is back to 10 likes a tweet because everything they’ve said since that viral tweet is trash. Or everything the tweet has nothing to do with what you are actually interested in. It was that one witty remark that made you believe you were their audience, but you’re not, so you unfollow… People that are able to be successful as creatives, including people that are just really good at tweeting, are very clear on who their audience is and they are able to intentionally deliver to those people over and over again.

Now not everyone agrees with me on this. Here are 2 responses I’ve heard when talking about the importance of having a specific audience in mind when being creative. First one — some creatives have said to me that they don’t care about an audience, that thinking about your audience when you create something is a mistake because artists have to make art for themselves and themselves alone. They have to make themselves happy. And I don’t want to be rude, so I don’t just shoot them down right there, but in my head my response to that is— If you are creating something just for yourself, why are we even talking about it? But the reason we are talking about it is because something else is happening. They do want to create work for other people, they do want to create work that people care about and are interested in. But when they say they don’t create stuff for anyone else, what they are really saying is they are creating for people LIKE them. So this person is talking to me, because they believe we are liked-minded, so now we are talking about their creativity. But in their head they made it from them, they just know I would like it.  No, no, they made it for people like them. They were inspired by themselves, as we all are, especially during our first creations, and they want to make something that speaks to them, thus to people like them. Their audience isn’t non-existent. So yeah, I don’t subscribe to the idea that you should only make art for yourself, because you’re not really doing that anyway. You’re making it for people in your bubble, however big or small that bubble may be. People just like you.

The second response I’ve gotten when talking to people about audience and creativity— and this is the one that is gonna fuck you up every time. When creators say, I am creating this for everyone! The demographic is ages 16 - 64. Everyone! No, no, no. Okay, we might think that is what we are doing. But we’re not. And you don’t want to be. The world is too large, there are too many types of people and situations in this world to be creating stuff for everyone. Unless you speak all the languages you can’t create for everyone! America is the worst at this. If you are American, chances are you already don’t actively consider the rest of the world on a daily basis, let alone when you create. It’s hard to hear, but it is ingrained in us as Americans to think about no one but ourselves. So we certainly aren’t creating for everyone. And if you’re trying to make something that reaches everyone, that pleases everyone, that everyone will respond to, your work will suffer, not to mention you’ll drive yourself insane and probably end up abandoning your project because of it.

I’ll add a caveat here, I am not saying your themes can’t be for everyone, that you themes can’t be universal. You can have themes that everyone can relate to. Love is a universal theme, right. But a queer love story about two trans people of color has a targeted audience. The theme is universal, but the audience has been thought about, is targeted and intentional. And then, if people outside of that targeted audience enjoy whatever it is you created within in this love story about two trans people of color, that’s great! But you start with your target.

So, think about who your audience when you are preparing to write, perform, stream, shoot your film, start a podcast, create a line of products to sell on Etsy. And if you can’t figure out who your audience should be, it probably means you aren’t clear about what it is you’re wanting to create. This happened with me and this podcast. Everything has happened with me and this podcast! At first I was gonna inspire everyone! Yeah, well I just explained how that is impossible. Then I decided on creatives. And that is better, but it’s still not specific enough. So I’ve now drilled down to creatives like me— which means people of color, people in marginalized communities, queer people, people who care deeply about the world around them. And honestly, I know I haven’t gotten specific enough. Again, if there are people outside of those communities that enjoy this, that’s fantastic! But I have to be very intentional about what I am doing so that I am able to do it consistently and with clarity. Over and over and over again.

And I can do that! As I create episodes I am thinking about my audience, who they are, and how I can consistently deliver to them. I am asking listeners to provide feedback, I think I already have, you can send notes to hello@creative4evr.com so I can understand what you like, what you would like to talk about on the show and that will help me drill down and be able to do what I wanna do, but also meet the needs of my audience and make some magic happen right there in the middle. And again, the cool part is, I will probably reach people outside of my target audience. You will do the same. But those people that find you outside of your targeted audience, that respond to your work, your humor, your brain, your creativity, but otherwise have nothing in common with you?… They are the icing on the cake. They are the bonus. The extra success that you can enjoy. You still gotta create with focus, knowing who you are wanting to connect to with your work.

Alright so, what if you are having trouble identifying your audience. What if you were thinking it’s everybody and now you want to focus in? What do you do?

As always, check out the links in the show notes for a few suggestions on how to go about this.

Links:
> Three Reasons Why Your Creative Work Needs An Audience
> Eye of the Beholder: Art and its Audience
> How Authors Can Find Their Ideal Reading Audience
> How To Define Your Target Audience
> Your Target Market

Here are my thoughts:

1) Go back to the beginning. What is your idea and why is it important to you? Creative people should get into the habit of identifying why something is important to them, whether it be a drawing or starting a company. For the drawing, something as simple as a drawing on one sheet of paper, you might start with— I am drawing this because I like it. Well why? Because it’s pretty. Okay, why do you find it pretty? Because it’s pink. Why do you like pink? It’s my favorite color. Okay, why? I dunno, my mom really liked pink. So this reminds you of your mother? I guess, A little bit. And it might sound strange, but there’s your answer. This drawing is important because it’s pretty, it’s pink and it reminds this hypothetical person of their mother. From there it’s easy to figure out the audience for this one drawing. People who like pretty things that are pink! A majority of them will probably identify as female. And if this person really wants to target mothers, they now have a deeper focus to inspire them as they draw. It’s the same thing for starting a company, starting a book or a YouTube channel. Start at the beginning. Why is this important to you, and ask yourself a follow up question to each answer. When get specific enough, you will be able to identify your audience.

2) Second suggestion. If you are already in the middle of the a project and feel like your audience is thin even though you’ve been at for a long time, or it’s just a weird vibe. You’re getting responses from people, but you’re like, These people are not what I was going for, I’m having conversations with people that I did not expect, and it’s not just one person, it’s all of them… I would start with a survey because I think you need to find out why this group of people are responding to you, so you can look at that and say, Is that what I mean to do? Am I doing this intentionally or accidentally?  Ask the questions: What do you like best about what I am doing? What do you think would make it better? Questions like that, nice and simple. Now you'll need to develop a tough skin for this because asking people for critique or feedback is not for the feint of heart. There is always some asshole with the most unhelpful advice, with little to no knowledge of how to offer it, and they have been waiting for you to ask them what they think. But you can mitigate this by doing a survey that has multiple choice questions, or talking to people 1-on-1 so it’s not like a formal situation where someone trashes you in front of a bunch of people. You can preface any conversations about your work with boundaries. Request that people just give you a short answer. And if you know you don’t want feedback from a certain person. Just don’t ask them. It’s so easy. If you’re gut is telling you it’s gonna do more harm than good, do yourself a favor and leave ‘em off the list until you’re ready to hear whatever it is they have to say.

3) Third suggestion. Find someone that is doing what you want to do, and see who their audience is. And this one— research — is crucial. You should have knowledge about the space you are in. And that includes competition, and people that have inspired you to do what you want to do. Study them, study their audiences. You will learn a lot and be able to use that information to focus in on what you want for you creative journey.

So that is it. A little audience talk for the week. If you have questions, thoughts, or you just want to say hello, hit me up at hello@creative4evr.com. Find me on Instagram, find me on Twitter.

Don’t forget to be creative this week. Even if you just think about it. Later.

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