5 points of advice by Carl Atiya Swanson
For ARTZ ID’s ‘Ask a Mentor’ Session 1, we invited Carl Atiya Swanson to give some tips for creative projects and professional development in the arts. He also answered attendees’ questions during the live session that took place on Instagram on August 10. Carl describes himself as ‘a creative with an MBA, a practical optimist with a mission to facilitate and support projects that bring people together.’ He is the associate director at Springboard for the arts and a strategic facilitator with Cast Consulting, focusing on helping connection and strategy-building in relation to creative projects. This entry is lifted from Carl’s own article published on Linkedin on August 14, rounding up 5 tips to successfully complete creative projects, that he spoke about in the online session.
Don’t try and be everything to everyone.
It’s easy to get pulled in directions that move you away from the things that you really want to be doing, so focus in on what you love (or in an organizational setting, your core mission and values) and make that the basis for your decision-making. This isn’t to say do only one thing – having a variety of skills can make you more valuable and engaging, and many people starting their own projects or businesses don’t have the luxury of saying no to opportunities. But in knowing the how and the why of your work, that is a clarifying filter for you to focus.
Set realistic timelines.
We can be so cruel to our dreams by not giving ourselves the timelines to succeed. There is a book that I love and recommend by choreographer and educator Andrew Simonet called Making Your Life as an Artist, which has a section charting his income over 13 years. Being a waiter paid most of his bills at the beginning, and over time, most of his income came from his dance company and other arts projects. That timeframe doesn’t undercut ambition, it gives it the structure to succeed and grow.
Remember the Pareto Principle.
The Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule, is an observation that holds true across sectors and scales, namely that 80% of a phenomenon comes from 20% of the actions. In computing, 20% of bugs cause 80% of crashes; in sports 20% of exercises have 80% of the impact. As you are building an audience, 20% of that audience are likely to result in 80% of your sales or engagement – those people are your evangelists and core supporters, so find, connect, and nurture them. Having deep connections with a smaller group can be much more fulfilling and stable than a broader reach of weak connections.
Be curious about things outside your discipline.
I flagrantly borrow from Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From on a regular basis and the concept of “the adjacent possible” is one of my favorites. (Johnson borrowed it from Stuart Kauffman, so it all comes around.) If you’re looking for inspiration, don’t look to your own field. If you’re looking to do something different, don’t look to your immediate peers. What you are looking for is probably happening in some way in some other sector, and it’s definitely already happening in the natural world. Push yourself outside of your own practice to deepen your own work.
Find your people.
We’re in a time when we need each other more than ever, and so finding and connecting with people who can support and nurture our work is critical. This isn’t a strategic or a tactical choice, that weights each transaction with what it might do for your career or project. We need to be building a culture of exchange and recognition as we come out of this moment that is posing existential crises, necessary reckonings, and big questions about what we do next. Find your people, whether in the place where you live or online, and stay engaged to build for the future.
If you are curious to know more about this topic, you can watch the whole conversation in the video above and you can always connect with Carl on Linkedin. ARTZ ID’s ‘Ask a Mentor’ sessions, in which we invite practitioners from the field of art and culture to share their expertise and answer questions is an ongoing initiative, so follow ARTZ ID on Instagram to stay tuned and know about all upcoming sessions.
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