Best Business Model Ever (For a Creative Spirit)

Best business model ever! 🔥 👌 ✨ I just love it when creatives find their edge: This musician has done just that.

How many piano players on Spotify?

100 million bajillion. 😜 

How many piano players on Derry quay??

Just 1. 🔥 This musician.

She positions her work in a space where no-one else is doing what she does. And the audience is rapt, delighted.

She's travelling the world in a ship with a piano, playing gigs in harbours (from the deck of the boat), recording songs in cabins with musicians she meets, & enlisting her adorable kid to sell CDs with his da on the quay.

She made her authentic life's adventure into a distinctive story that defines her work. I mean, if that's not exquisite personal branding, I dunno what is. 🤷‍♀️

Case in point: I gave these guys £20 for a CD. 😆 I don't even own a device that plays CDs! But that's how much I wanted to show my support. Seeing someone fuse their unique way of life with their creative work is inspiring that way. I was moved by the daring adventure she emboided in her life & art.

Lesson's to learn from this hero (via questions for reflection):

• Can we show our work in a space where no-one expects to see us?
• Can we take a stand with our way of life, so our true story has the spirit of Hero's Journey?
• Can we infuse our creative work with that Hero's Journey mythos from our life?
  
• And (coming full circle), can we express that mythos in a way that spills out the edges of our medium (an album, a blog post, or a song) into our embodied life?

When creatives pull this off, it's compelling & exhilirating, & provocative - it grabs attention, & ruffles feathers:

• Amanda F Palmer
  
• Jordan B Peterson
  
• Malcolm X
• Philip Pullman
  

A rich, authentic vitality emanates from their work. They can speak off-the-cuff because they know what they stand for, & can speak from the heart. And I suspect 'marketing' need not be so draining or tiresome for them, as for those who're less aligned.

Good marketing, in the Seth Godin tradition, is about finding a deep why, taking a stand you can believe in, & changing culture with deliberate intention. When your work is coherently aligned with your ilfe, & your life is rich with intent, then marketing can be as simple as showing up & vividly being who you are.

It's something to reflect on & aspire to. & (judging by this lady's adventures), it seems like a lot of fun.  😊 🎉

In conclusion: A powerful business model for creatives is to show up where we're least expected & stand for something powerful enough to cross the boundary between our work & life.   ♥️  🚀

You can follow Marieke Huysmans-Berthou's journey at http://pianocean.org