July Retrospective: Back in July 2014, I wrote a daily series exploring the realities of navigating the creative economy. Twelve years later, looking back at these entries (and my original awful hand-drawn illustrations!), I’m struck by how the core truths of a creative career remain completely timeless. Each day this month, I’m opening up the archive to share these foundational lessons—with a few modern reflections layered in.

If you’re a new creative graduate looking to find your footing in the creative economy, a Gen X looking to pivot into a creative business, a side-hustler or someone who just wants to up their creative business game, there’s something for you in this series. Just don’t judge my drawings 😉

Talk to Your Customers

Yesterday we were doing all the investigating in the background. Today I want you to talk directly to them.

There’s no point in being shy about it! If they are the ideal fit for your products/services, they will welcome you. Talk to them. Introduce yourself. Tell them about yourself – but don’t try to sell to them (yet!). Instead you want to find out about them. Get to know them. Ask about their world. Take note of what they say and the words they use to talk about their lives. This is important because you want to learn to speak their language.

If you can, gather a few of them together for a focus group. Show them your work, or describe your services and ask them questions:

• Do they resonate with it?
• Do they see value in it?
• Would they be interested in it?
• What value would they place on it?
• How could you improve it?
• What would be their obstacles to buying it?

These questions are all hypothetical as you aren’t asking them to buy it (yet), you’re just gathering information. But this kind of information is gold dust! Treat it, and the source of it, with enormous respect and gratitude. This kind of market knowledge will help you to tailor your approach so it fits your target market perfectly.  Also, if you have indeed got the right fit, these testers may become buyers and/or help you to spread the word of your business.

You might consider using something like Survey Monkey or Google Survey to put together a short survey you could send out to your target market asking them a few questions about their lives, purchasing patterns, needs and desires. This will give you more valuable information. You may be able to set up some interviews off the back of the survey to discuss in more detail with people who are open to your process.

It might be uncomfortable to take these steps. You are putting your dreams and creative work in front of an audience and asking them what they think; but sooner or later your work has to see the light of day. Better sooner than later. This information will help you to make it a better fit.

It might also be that you find out this isn’t your target market. In which case you return back to the drawing board and test another market. But you are better off to determine this in the early days rather than a year or two down the road.

Action: Find a way to talk to your target audience. Ask them if you are indeed a good fit for them. Be open to their answers.

Longevity in a creative career isn’t accidental—it’s built on strategy.

While the landscape shifts, the core principles of thriving as a creative freelancer haven’t changed. For deeper, modern frameworks on building a sustainable creative practice:

• Read the Book: Looking for a step-by-step field guide to building a resilient career in the creative economy? Pick up my recent book The Thriving Creative: Successful Freelancing in the Creative Economy available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and from my publisher Routledge.
• Stay Connected: Join my community and to receive the complete 31-day hand-drawn playbook as a single PDF at the end of the month. Sign up below.