026: Marketing for Feast, Not Famine

The feast or famine cycle is the bane of every creative business and every creative entrepreneur I know. “Feast or famine cycle” refers to the stomach-dropping ride that you experience when your business flip flops from months with so much work you can’t handle it and stress out like crazy (even if the resulting payday is pretty nice) – these are the feast months – and then careens down into months where your schedule is empty and you feel like you’re never going to work again and you’re terrified that your career is over and you have no idea how you’re going to pay any of your bills because you aren’t doing any work, which means you aren’t making any money – these are the famine months. And I’ll bet that, as you read these last few sentences, you were able to think back to months you’ve had in the past year or so that were both famine months and feast months. Riding the feast or famine roller coaster is common enough to be almost universal among creative entrepreneurs. And it is terrifying. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to spend your creative life on that roller coaster. You can get off. And getting off starts when you intentionally market for feast, not famine.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why marketing is essential for all artists, and is not something that means you’ve “sold out.”
• What vital role an audience plays in your creative process.
• How to figure out the right marketing strategy for you and your business.
• What to look for in the careers of your peers and colleagues to help you in your own artistic career.
• Why consistent action is essential within your business marketing plan.
• How to use your marketing strategy to step off the “feast or famine” roller coaster.

In this episode, I mention that registration is now open for the summer 2023 session of my Taming the Muse Group Workshop, and I reference one previous episode of this podcast: 007: Working in Your Creative & Financial Sweet Spot.

A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.

Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.