The feast or famine cycle is a vicious thing. If you’re not familiar with that term, “feast or famine” refers to the awful roller-coaster-like situation when your business vacillates between months with tons of work, and tons of income, to months with almost no work and almost no income. There’s no doubt about it: riding the feast or famine roller coaster is an awful place to be. But you, my dear friend, are not helpless. You can do something about it. You can take steps to get off that roller coaster and find a place of more peace and stability in your work schedule and in your business income. And networking – reaching out to your peers and colleagues within your creative industry – is a perfect place to start. Let’s look at how you can network for feast, not famine.

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Hello, and welcome to Episode 27 of the Starving Artist No More podcast. I am your host, Jennifer Jill Araya. I am both a creative entrepreneur, like you, and I’m a creative entrepreneurship coach. I love helping my fellow artists build businesses that they love and that support them well, and I’m so glad you’re here today for our discussion about how your networking can help your business grow and thrive.

Speaking of networking and learning from others on your creative entrepreneurship journey, the next cohort of my group workshop is getting started in just over a month, on July 19, 2023. Part of why I love teaching this particular group coaching program is the communal aspect of the growth that everyone experiences throughout the three-month process. Watching artists evolve in their understanding of who they are and what is possible in their creative businesses is an incredible privilege.

The group workshop program is titled “Taming the Muse: Building a Creative Business that Works,” and that’s exactly what we focus on together in the course. You’ll come out of that program with a workable, practical strategy for how you can build the creative business of your dreams, and you’ll get there with the help and support and encouragement of your fellow creatives. It’s networking at its finest! If this is something that interests you, I would love to talk to you about the program. You can learn more at my website, www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, and if you have any questions beyond what is answered on the website, you can always send me a message through the website contact page. I truly am passionate about helping creatives thrive in their businesses, and I would love to work with you.

On the other hand, if you’re listening to this podcast episode way in the future and July 19, 2023 is long past, you can still head over to my website to see what upcoming events, courses, and workshops I have available. Yes, this cohort of the group workshop may be long finished, but who knows, the exact course you’re looking for might be starting in just a week or two! That website was www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com.

And with that, let’s focus in on the main topic of today’s episode: networking for feast, not famine. Last week, we discussed what it means to market for feast, not famine. We talked about how to adjust your mindset so that you embrace marketing as a necessary and helpful part of your creative process, how to figure out what marketing strategy is right for you and your business, and how to take consistent action on that marketing strategy so that you get consistent results. (If you missed last week’s episode, or if you want a refresher, or if any of those marketing concepts don’t make sense to you, I encourage you to go back and listen to Episode 26: Marketing for Feast, Not Famine.)

All of those action steps are super important and will make a huge difference in your business, and you can stop there. If you do just those things, you will get work more consistently than you ever have before, and that feast or famine roller coaster will even out a bit in your workload and in your finances. But if you do stop there, you’re leaving a lot of growth and potential on the table. You’re forgetting about the flip side of the marketing coin: networking.

Marketing and networking are often talked about in the same breath, as if they’re the same thing. I’ve even done that myself. If you listen back to Episode 16 of this podcast, which is a discussion of the six components of a thriving creative business, you’ll hear me say that Component #1 if you want to have a thriving creative business is to have a systematized process for marketing and networking. And there it is: marketing and networking squished together like they’re part of the same thing. And while they’re absolutely related to each other, marketing and networking aren’t quite the same. They serve different purposes in your business, and the way you engage with them is different as well.

I think some definitions would be helpful here. If you’ve listened to this podcast for any length of time, you know that my primary creative work is in the audiobook industry, and as an audiobook narrator, the exact definitions of words matter to me! So let’s look at the definitions of marketing and networking so we can see what they have in common and how they’re unique.

According to Merriam-Webster, marketing is “the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.” In your creative business, the product or service you are selling is essentially your time and your creative energy. As an audiobook narrator, I’m selling my acting expertise and my time spent in my booth recording the audiobooks that I’m hired to narrate. In my other pursuits as a freelance musician, I am selling my time in the practice room learning the music, my time in the rehearsals collaborating with my musician colleagues, and my time on the concert stage performing the concert. When I worked as an artisan selling my handcrafted items at craft fairs and arts shows and online, I was selling my creative work on the patterns and products I developed, plus my time in my studio creating the specific items that my customers purchased from me.

The exact “product or service” you are selling within your creative industry might be a bit different from the real-world examples I just mentioned, but I can say with a fair degree of certainty that, as a creative entrepreneur, your product or service can be distilled down in some way to your time and your creative energy. That is what you are selling, the “product or service” end part of that definition of marketing I just read.

Now for the first part of the definition: marketing is the “process or technique of promoting, selling, or distributing” that product or service we just talked about. And that’s what last week’s episode was all about: how to market. The mindset you need to market effectively. How you can use your own past experience, plus the information you can learn by observing others in your creative industry, to figure out what exact marketing strategy is right for you and will get your business where you want to go. How to take consistent action within that strategy so that your results are consistent as well.

Marketing, in general, is not directed toward your peers and colleagues, but rather is directed toward the people who hire you. If you sell directly to consumers, then perhaps your marketing includes things like SEO work on your website, keyword tweaks on your product listings, social media posts and maybe even paid social media ads. If you work with other businesses, then perhaps your marketing is more along the lines of regular email reach-outs to the casting directors or hiring contacts at the organizations that you work with. But whatever your exact business format and whatever your specific creative industry, marketing is the stuff you do to make sure that the people who might be interested in hiring you for a project or buying your work in any way know about you and what you do. It’s outward relationship building with the people who are or might someday become your clients or customers.

Networking is also relationship building, but it’s purpose, focus, and process are all a bit different. According to Merriam-Webster, networking is “the exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions; specifically: the cultivation of productive relationships for employment or business.” Let me say that last part again: networking is the exchange of information for the purpose of cultivating productive relationships for employment or business.

Networking is learning alongside your peers or colleagues. It’s building relationships with other creatives who are doing the same kind of work that you are doing, and learning and growing together for the good of everyone involved.

Networking can absolutely get you work, but rather than the work coming directly from your colleagues, networking allows you to build relationships with those colleagues so that when they hear of a project that is not quite right for them but that is right for you, they are willing and able to confidently recommend you for that project, and so that you can do the same for them.

Networking helps you figure out what you don’t know about your creative industry and determine how you can get the information you need to fill in those blind spots. After all, you don’t know what you don’t know, and having a trusted creative peer point out those things you don’t know is invaluable to the continued growth and thriving of your work.

Networking can take all of the effort you put into marketing and make it both more effective, since your marketing outreaches will be supported by the endorsement of others in your creative industry, and more efficient, since your close working relationships with your colleagues can help you identify the marketing strategies that will give you the most bang for your buck. Marketing work all by itself is fine, but marketing paired with intentional networking is incredible. If you focus your outreach time on both marketing and networking for feast, not famine, then I guarantee that you will be blown away by the results you see.

So now that I’ve (hopefully!) convinced you that (1) networking is not the same as marketing, and that (2) networking is just as vital as marketing and can make your marketing work both more efficient and more effective, let’s figure out the action steps. How do you network for feast, not famine?

If you’ve listened to any previous episodes of this podcast, you’ll not be at all surprised that step #1 of networking for feast, not famine, is all about your mindset. Almost everything I teach can be understood within the three-part framework of mindset, strategy, and action, and the how-to of networking is no different. Step #1 of networking for feast is to hold fast to the truth that there is abundant work available for both you and for your colleagues.

If you approach your creative industry and your artistic work within that industry with a mindset of abundance, embracing the reality that there is lots of work available and that you and your creative peers can all find enough work to bring you creative joy and financial satisfaction, then sharing wisdom with others makes sense. If your creative peers are not your competition but instead are your colleagues and friends, none of you will have any hesitation sharing advice about what works, and what doesn’t work, in the various situations you all face.

Networking is all about learning from others in your creative industry, sharing and growing together. It makes me think of the old maxim, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” Networking is like that. Networking allows you and your artist peers to all do better, together. You can learn with and from the experiences of your artistic peers, without having to experience those ups and downs yourself. You are all able to glean bits of wisdom and tips for best practices from each other, and everyone benefits.

Even better than that, if you and your peers truly embrace a mindset of abundance, you’re able to joyfully and freely share the work. Let’s say your friend Jamie is offered a project that is really interesting but isn’t quite right for them, so they’ve already decided that they’re not going to accept it. But as they’re learning about what the project entails, they realize that this project is absolutely perfect for you. If you and Jamie both have mindsets of abundance, such that you aren’t fearful that there isn’t enough work to go around, and if you and Jamie know each other’s work well enough for Jamie to say with confidence that you would do a good job on this project, then Jamie will not hesitate to recommend that the potential customer reach out to you instead. And when the reverse happens, when a project comes your way that isn’t quite right for you but that is uniquely suited to Jamie’s creative energy, then you’ll recommend them.

When artists embrace the truth that their fellow creatives are their colleagues, not their competition, again, everyone benefits. Everyone thrives.

But all of this sharing and thriving begins with everyone embracing a mindset of abundance. If you view the other artists in your creative industry as your competition, as people who take work away from you, then you’re not going to want to share your hard-earned in-the-trenches nuggets of wisdom with them, and they’re not going to want to share that valuable advice with you. And you’re certainly not going to be willing to pass a project on to a friend. If there’s not enough work to go around, you’ve got to keep a death grip on every single opportunity that comes your way, even if it’s something that isn’t actually a good fit for you and doesn’t truly give you the opportunity to do what you do best. A mindset of scarcity halts networking in its tracks. The communal learning stops. There is no more rising tide.

In order to network effectively, you must intentionally cultivate a mindset of abundance and plenty. You must resist the “starving artist” myth as it whispers in your ear that the people around you are your competition, not your colleagues. When you hear those insidious whispers, refuse to listen. Tell yourself instead that your creative peers have a lot to teach you, and you have a lot to teach them. Your industry is abundant with work, and you all can find a place of thriving and fulfillment. And once you believe it, and then start to act on that belief by sharing and learning and growing together, you all become a vital part of making sure that your creative industry is in fact one of abundance. By believing it is so and acting as if it is so, your actions make it so. Networking for feast begins with embracing a mindset of abundance.

Step #2 of networking for feast is developing business accountability, and my favorite way to do that is to work with an accountability partner or group. Wikipedia defines an accountability partner as “someone who supports another person to keep a commitment or maintain progress on a desired goal.” If you worked in a corporate environment, you would have built-in accountability partners, and likely even a built-in accountability group.

My husband Arturo is the team lead of a software development team within a Fortune 500 company. While I was working on the outline for this very podcast episode, he had a phone one-on-one meeting with one of the members of his team, where Arturo checked in with this team member about the things that were going well for him and what he was struggling with, and Arturo gave the team member advice and pointed him in the direction of possible solutions for his problems. And Arturo himself has one-on-one meetings with his boss, where his boss does the same for Arturo. Arturo’s entire team meets together for a quick check-in at 9 am every morning so that everyone can share what they’re going to work on during the coming day, and the areas of their work where they anticipate needing the help or advice of others on their team.

Everyone on Arturo’s team has numerous people around them who are holding them accountable: supporting them as they keep their work commitments and follow each of their projects through to completion. It’s part of how their corporate environment is structured, and it helps them all get their work done well and on time. If you’ve ever had a corporate or office job, you probably had an accountability partner or accountability group, even if you didn’t recognize it at the time.

Most creative entrepreneurs are also solopreneurs, meaning they work alone – solo – within their creative business. Sure, you might have contractors who help you in your work, or maybe even a part-time employee or two, but chances are that you, and most of the other creative entrepreneurs listening to this podcast, work primarily alone. You are the sole guiding force behind the direction of your business. If you don’t make sure something happens, whether that means doing it yourself or handing that task off to a contractor who is helping you, then that thing doesn’t happen.

Working as a solopreneur can be a lonely experience, but it doesn’t have to be. Just like no man is an island, no solopreneur is an island. The advice and input and guidance and camaraderie of others in your creative field can work wonders to make the lonely work of a solopreneur feel much more communal and connected. And when that advice comes within the framework of an accountability relationship, all of a sudden you are duplicating the best parts of the corporate culture like the one I just described in Arturo’s workplace, without dealing with any of the headaches that come from corporate bureaucracy. You can get the support you need to keep your commitments and maintain your progress toward your goals, and you can give that same support to your accountability partner or partners.

For the past year and half, I’ve enjoyed a delightful accountability relationship with two of my fellow narrators, Marni Penning and Gail Shalan. We meet together every other week, sharing the ups and downs in our creative work, getting advice and support on the things that are giving us problems, and sharing our joy about the things that are going well. (After all, joy shared is joy multiplied!) We check in with each other to ask about how difficult tasks are coming along and give each other the encouragement and support we need to take those hard action steps that we don’t really want to take but that we know we need to take.

My creative work has benefited immeasurably from the support and encouragement of Gail and Marni. In fact, I started this business, the Starving Artist No More creative entrepreneurship community, at their suggestion and encouragement! Without Gail and Marni’s support, you wouldn’t be listening to this podcast right now. Talk about having a huge impact on someone’s career trajectory! I wouldn’t be a creative entrepreneurship coach right now without their influence. And I know Gail and Marni’s work has benefited from our accountability relationship as well. We are all good for each other.

That said, I fully recognize that finding an accountability partner as a creative entrepreneur can be really hard. I am so blessed by Gail and Marni’s friendship and accountability support, and I know it! I’ve tried to have accountability relationships with quite a few other creatives over the years, and sometimes it worked for a time and sometimes it didn’t. I still cherish my friendship with all of those fine artists, and quite a few of them are still some of my very closest friends, but for a variety of different and all very valid reasons, the accountability partnership portion of the relationship didn’t work out. So here are a few tips for how to find an accountability partner.

•  Choose someone working within your creative field, with a similar or complementary background. Marni, Gail, and I are all audiobook narrators, and we all have a somewhat similar background in acting and on-stage performance. Because we have a similar background, we speak a similar language and understand the past struggles we each have faced. Because we are now all working in the same creative industry, we are able to share what works and what doesn’t for our specific artistic pursuits.
•  Don’t be afraid to ask. This advice comes courtesy of Gail. I was actually between accountability partners in early 2022 when Gail asked me and Marni to meet with her. Gail had a specific question that she thought Marni and I would be able to help her with, so she just asked if we would be willing to meet. And I’m so glad that she did. Our accountability group grew out of that first interaction, and it never would have been possible if Gail hadn’t gone out on a limb and asked if we could meet with her. If you’re afraid to make the ask, remember that human beings are terrible at guessing the thoughts of others, or at predicting the actions and reactions of others. In general, we don’t know what others are thinking, and we’ll guess wrong more often than we’ll guess right when we try to predict how others will respond. If you ask someone to meet with you to discuss the possibility of beginning an accountability relationship, the worst they can say is no, but chances are, they’ll say yes.
•  Set your expectations upfront. Looking back on my past accountability relationships that didn’t work out over the long-term, and the ones that did stand the test of time and continued for a year or more, setting expectations upfront is the difference. After that initial meeting to find out if the person or people you’ve chosen are interested in pursuing an accountability relationship with you, take time to decide on your group expectations right at the beginning. Figure out how often you want to meet: once a week? Every other week? Once a month? What time of day do you want to meet? If various members are in different time zones, can you find a time that works for all of you despite those time zone differences? If someone has something come up, how willing are you all to reschedule your meeting time? Does rescheduling need to be an “only in an emergency” kind of thing, or are you willing or able to be more flexible? How long do you want your meetings to be? If you don’t set a time limit, and if the accountability partner you’re working with also happens to be a good friend, your “meetings” could balloon into multi-hour gab fests that don’t actually support either of you in pursuing your goals and successfully completing your creative work. Put a time limit in for how long your meetings will last! And perhaps most importantly, decide together what kind of support you most need and want out of the relationship. Are you going to share specific SMART goals with each other and then check in about the completion of those goals? Or will this be a more general “discuss our business and how things are going” kind of thing? None of these questions have a right or a wrong answer, but these are all things that need to be decided together before you get started in an accountability relationship. Set your expectations upfront so that everyone knows their responsibilities and can look forward to the benefits.
•  Stay flexible. Remember that you and your work, and your accountability partner and their work, will change over time. Some of those expectations that you set together at the beginning of your accountability relationship might not still make sense or still fit 6, 12, or 18 months later. Your goals might change so that you’re not working in the same creative arena anymore. You might realize that the kind of accountability relationship you or your partner thought you wanted isn’t quite the right fit anymore. Stay flexible – with the relationship, with your accountability partner or partners, and with yourself. If something in the setup isn’t working out for you or your partner, be open to changes and adjustments. Like me and the previous accountability partners that I no longer meet with, changes don’t mean that you’re not still friends and that you don’t still value the relationship. It just means that something about this particular accountability setup needs to be altered. In accountability relationships, as with so much in life, flexibility is key.

I hope these four tips help you find and build an accountability relationship with other creatives. I know my accountability relationships are incredibly valuable to me, and I hope that you can enjoy those benefits, like I do. Developing an accountability relationship is absolutely part of networking for feast, not famine.

And the final step to networking for feast not famine is a bit of advice that will serve you well in every aspect of your life, not just in your artistic pursuits: be kind to everyone. Treat everyone that you come into contact with, whether that’s in a personal setting or in a business setting, with kindness. Be kind to everyone.

In a purely mercenary sense, you never know who will one day be in a position to give you work. In the field of audiobook narration, there are plenty of current casting directors, including at some of the major publishing and production houses, who used to be narrators, or who even are still narrators. In my life as a freelance musician, most of the personnel managers I interact with are musicians themselves and have performed on stage with me for plenty of concerts where they didn’t do the hiring. In the art fair and craft show world, the people running the shows and sometimes even the people on the jury, are themselves artists and artisans working within the craft show industry.

And for all of these people, even if they’re not in a place to hire you right now, they might be in that place in the future. The audition pianist at your musical audition may end up being the musical director of a show you really want to be part of in a year or two. The audition monitor at an orchestral audition may take on the job of sub list personnel manager in another six months. The stage manager at the local playhouse might end up landing the job of executive director of that playhouse in another few years. I know from personal experience that sometimes the very best projects come from the most unexpected of sources. Being kind to everyone is good for business.

But aside from that self-serving reason to be kind, which may be self-serving but is also very valid, there’s a deeper reason that being kind is a good thing. Everyone who intentionally puts kindness into the world is part of making the world a better place. If you want your specific creative industry to be one of kindness and understanding, that starts by making your little corner of your creative industry one that is characterized by kindness and understanding.

Putting kindness into the world is never a bad thing. When you treat those around you with kindness, it shows everyone you meet that you love what you do and that you care about your craft, but more importantly, that you are someone who values others and treats others with dignity and respect. And that is something that has value way beyond your networking efforts.

Kindness is absolutely part of networking for feast, not famine, but kindness is more than that. Kindness makes the world a happier place for everyone, and in my mind, there is no better benefit that your creative energy can give to the world than that.

Thank you so much for joining me for today’s discussion of what it means to market and network for feast within your creative business. I hope this episode gave you some food for thought and that you’ll be able to take these action steps to grow and thrive in your artistic work. If you enjoyed today’s episode, or any episode of this podcast, please consider subscribing to this podcast using your podcast player of choice. That way, you won’t ever miss an episode! And I always appreciate anyone who leaves me ratings and reviews, especially on Apple Podcasts. Subscriptions, ratings, and reviews are a big part of how new listeners find me. Speaking of new listeners, if you found this episode helpful and know of another creative who might also find it helpful, please consider sharing the podcast with them. After all, sharing is caring! I’d like to send a huge thank you to my husband, Arturo. In addition to his work as a lead software engineer, as I mentioned earlier in this episode, he is also an audio engineer, and if this podcast sounds good as you’re listening to it, that’s all thanks to Arturo’s audio wizardry.

And thank you to you, dear listener, for spending this time with me today. I hope this discussion encouraged you to be intentional about your networking. Cultivate a mindset of abundance so that networking and sharing feels easy and obvious. Work with an accountability partner or group to get the support you need as you work toward your business goals. And be kind to everyone. It’s good for business, and it’s the right thing to do. You can network for feast, not famine. I can’t wait to see what you create.