Adam Street's Blog
The spiritual and practical path to freedom to do your art

Everyone Loves a Good Mystery!

Big Foot.  Stonehenge.  The chupacabra.  There’s a lot of weird stuff out there we don’t understand.  

Some things you can ignore but some force you to ask some pretty serious questions.  Like the strange thing that happened to me last week.

It happened the week before and the week before that.

This X-file that I’m referring to keeps happening when I visit my brother’s gym.  For some mysterious reason the gym won’t sell to me.

I’ve had a gym membership more or less since high school.  Gym sales people are like hungry piranha and they’re usually some of the most aggressive ones you’ll ever meet.  My old friend Zeke’s gym was so over-the-top aggressive they would make a used car salesman blush.  

Here’s the story.

My brother’s gym allows guests to workout for free.  I visit, I give them all my info.  They now have a lead.

Most gyms take you on a tour.  And by “tour” I mean a salesman in a tight shirt gives you a sales presentation.  Or at the very least  they e-mail you, send you mail, or call.

You may be thinking this is nice.  It’s great to see an organization not be so psycho about selling.  But here’s the thing, they’re leaving money on the table by not asking me for the sale.

Wanna know a secret?  

I WANT to join the gym.  I go there at least twice a week—sometimes more.  I still have my current gym membership but my brother’s classes are just that cool.  So I’ll join sooner or later.  

Could be tomorrow.  Could be a year from now.  As long as I can drink the milk for free, I’m not real motivated to buy the cow.

What’s the lesson here?

Ask for the sale.  You are doing no one any favors by not asking.

Don’t think you know more than your clients and prospects.  And don’t make decisions for them.  Ask.

Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield wrote a book called the Alladin Factor.  The book is about asking for what we want.

I love Hansen and Canfield’s work and yet I refused to buy that book for years.   I have a sales background, why do I need a book on “asking”?   The answer to that question came abundantly clear when I read the book.

I read somewhere one of the reasons Mother Teresa got so much done was because she was fearless in her asking.  If she needed time, money, resources, etc…she asked for it.  

So um.  Don’t over think it. Ask.

Adam

Chernobyl, Zombies, and why going small matters

Let’s talk about ZOMIBES! 

But first, let’s pick up where we left off with Seth Godin’s Marketing in Five Steps.  To recap, here’s the first steps:  

1.  Invent a thing worth making, with a story worth telling , and a contribution worth talking about.  

2.  Design and build it in a way that a few people will particularly benefit from and care about.

And the third step is:

To tell a story that matches the built-in-narrative and dreams of that tiny group of people, the smallest viable market.

I would have thought this was crazy talk had I not read Kevin Kelly’s essay, 1,000 True Fans.  If you haven’t read it yet, do it now!  https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

1,000 True Fans is about how an artist, musician, author, etc. needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

Back then I was racking my brain trying to figure out how I could make it as an indie comic creator.  Web comics were just taking off and I just couldn’t see how I could survive doing the ‘indie comic thing’.  

When I read 1,000 True Fans that all changed.  

I realized I didn’t need a horde of fans just yet.  I just needed a few.  A small viable market of people who liked what I did.  

This was empowering.  Every time someone told me they didn’t like my art instead of my self-esteem taking a hit, I had a different thought.  My art wasn’t for them.  So I built my audience one fan at a time.

Back then, I started from scratch but you don’t always have to.

You can also find and ride the wave of an existing small viable market.

Did you notice zombies were kinda popular for a while?  

Before the zombie craze went Chernobyl, my friend Adam Miller (and his buddy Rich) released a comic anthology series.  And let me tell ya, they milked it for years.  

Miller knew not everyone liked zombies.  But ENOUGH people did and that was enough.

An old saying comes to mind…  “Think global but act local”.  Have your big goals in mind but act on finding and satisfying your minimal viable audience.  

If you need help finding your smallest viable market contact me today. 

https://adamstreet.net/contact-me/

Adam

Turn up your volume

“Those who tell the stories rule the world.”  

Hopi Native American proverb

I disagree.  Those who tell entertaining stories will rule the world.  

That’s why I’m always rambling about adding Blockbuster Storytelling or SHOW to your words.  An ounce of entertainment can go a long way.  It’s like adding caramel and candy sprinkles to vanilla ice cream. 

That’s why the media loves Donald Trump.  You may not like what he says but you know it’s probably going to be interesting.

‘Entertaining’ is also how we can connect with our audience.  But it doesn’t always come naturally to most of us.  

So how can you do it effectively and keep it real?

When you return calls, send emails, and post on social, it’s you.  It’s you BUT with the volume turned up.  

If you listen to “Stupid Love” by Lady Gaga on level 3, you’ll hear it.  If you turn up the volume to level 9, it’ll be even louder.  Same song, same lyrics.  

Just louder.  

You give your audience more of you.  More of your thoughts, philosophy, personality…all the good stuff.

What you’re doing is what Perry Marshall calls racking the shotgun.  When you press send or post you’re qualifying and disqualifying leads.  The louder you and your message are the wrong people leave and the right people lean forward to hear more.

Adam

Why your super-power isn’t as important as you think

When I was trying to break into comics (which is to say work for DC or Marvel) I used to go to DC Comics’ Talent Search at San Diego Comic-Con.   

You’d get the ‘fire and brimstone’ speech on how hard it was to break into comics.   They already “had” the best talent so they made it clear… They didn’t NEED you.  

You had to be a unicorn with a style and mastery they had never seen before.  It was a good presentation but it was full of holes. 

You didn’t have to be some child prodigy to get a gig at DC, they employed tons of mediocre artists.  Including me by the way…  But unlike the artists that give up I knew I had the total skills needed to break in.

I knew I was cool.  People liked working with me.  I was hungry to learn and to improve.  Sooner or later I’d get in.  And I did.  But it was because of my Talent Stack, not because I was a stellar artist.

I picked up this term from artist Scott Addams in his book Win Bigly.  He said, “ a talent stack is a collection of skills that work well together and make the person with those skills unique and valuable.”

A lot of people say you should ask yourself, what is your superpower?  This is cute but it’s flawed like DC’s Talent Search.  

That’s like saying Stephen Curry is a good basketball player only because he’s can shoot 3-pointers.  Or Michael Jordon was successful because he could ‘dunk good’.  

Instead of looking for a magic bullet, you should be asking this instead.  What is your Talent Stack?

What are the two or three skills that when combined make you a juggernaut?  

And an even better question…

What can you do to make the parts of your talent stack even stronger?

Adam

https://adamstreet.net

E-mail Advice from a man crazy enough to stop the Hulk

Lots of people struggle writing e-mails.  I’m a copywriter and I struggle with it sometimes.  I get. it.  I’m sure Jillian Michaels eats a bagel or skips it’s a workout every now and then too.  It happens.

So how do you write good emails.  One that gets read by the people on your list?

You can go the hypey route if you want.  You can focus on hooks, persuasion gimmicks, clickbait, and closing techniques.  In the end you’ll feel so dirty you’ll want to take a shower.

That’s a lot of work just to see unsubscribe notices filling your inbox like stimulus checks in 2020.

You want your e-mails interesting and entertaining, along with some value for your reader. 

I was reading the book Marvel Studios:  The First Ten Years.  When Marvel Studios was filming the Incredible Hulk, William Hurt (General Ross) was asked about being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  His answer I thought summed up what really matters in writing e-mails.

He said, “I have to consider the character.  As an artist, it’s my job to ask, “Is the character I’m playing interesting enough?  Is he true enough, you know, to who we are as people?  Are they believable?  That is my anchor.  The really good artists pull it off.”

Change a few words in there and look what happens…

It’s my job to ask, Is the e-mail I’m writing interesting enough?  Is it true enough, you know, to who we are as people?  Is my message believable?  That is my anchor.  The really good marketers pull it off.

It’s about being true to you and your message and being sincere with your audience.  John Wooden  put it like this.  “Sincerity may not help us make friends, but it will help us keep them.”

When your message is interesting and believable the rest will work itself out.  Because your list will see your name and read your e-mails because it’s you.  Not because of your catchy subject line and perfect grammar.  

Adam