Audience: Me and Everyone

Quick Notes and Links:

Glamorizing the Awards Season (the Golden Globes, Oscars, etc.) makes it hard for creatives to measure their own creative success.

Every month is Black History Month and Black creatives, their histories, legacies, contributions and accomplishments will be folded into our weekly get-together on this show because it’s part of the Creative4evr mission statement.

If you want people to experience your creativity more than once, then thinking about your audience is important.

Successful creatives are very clear on who their audience is and they intentionally deliver to that audience over and over again. No one accidentally gains and maintains an audience.

Think outside of the box when it comes to making art just for yourself...you’re not really doing that anyway. You’re making art for people in your bubble, however big or small that bubble may be.

It's impossible to make art for "everyone." If you’re trying to make something that reaches everyone, that pleases everyone, your work will suffer.

Best practice: Your creative themes should be UNIVERSAL. The audience for your creativity should be TARGETED.

If you can’t figure out who your audience should be, it probably means you aren’t clear about what it is you’re wanting to create.

Finding your Audience:
1) Go back to the beginning. What is your idea and why is it important to you?
2) Gather feedback from the audience you have. Ask questions about what they enjoy/dislike, want more of.
3) Research the audiences of other people doing what you do.

Other Links:
> Three Reasons Why Your Creative Work Needs An Audience
> Eye of the Beholder: Art and its Audience
> How Authors Can Find Their Ideal Reading Audience
> How To Define Your Target Audience
> Your Target Market

Don’t forget to be creative this week. Even if you just think about it. Later.

Full Show Notes:

Hey, hi and hello! Welcome to Creative4evr. The podcast dedicated to keeping you forever inspired, forever motivated, forever creative, and forever YOU.  I am your host, Janet, a.k.a. Jai//Em, a.k.a. the voice inside your head, a.k.a. your biggest fan, and together we’re going to get some creative shit done.

Today! We’re gonna talk about audience. I am really happy to have this chat. I’ve been very excited about this episode. But first, a February check-in.

So, it’s basically the end of February, 2020 which means Awards Season is over— you know the Golden Globes, the Oscars, the SAG awards, the Independent Spirit Awards, all the awards. That’s done. We are able to put that in a box until next year. We are also knee deep in Black History Month and it is always great to see the events and marketing campaigns that happen in order to bring awareness to Black people and their important (and often overlooked) histories, legacies, contributions, and accomplishments. But I wanted to talk about two items that involve Black History Month and Awards Season just to calibrate you on how Creative4evr treats February.

So, first! Awards and events. Actor and movie awards, especially the Oscars, are always big events at this time of year. And they use to be a big event in my social circles, especially when I lived in Los Angeles. It was our Super Bowl, it was a part of being a creative living in LA. You cared about the Oscars, from what suits and dresses the