DIY Business Association

Let’s get some cents together: Financial empowerment is creative empowerment

Creative Money Maker #1, by Eleanor Whitney

Money.

Everyone wants it, but very few people talk about it honestly.

Though we live in a culture driven by money—with definitions of success and self-worth attached to it—there’s not a wealth of accessible financial advice for creative people.

Chances are, as a creative entrepreneur, money is on your mind all the time, and it’s time to take control of it so that your money can start working in the service of your creativity.

Taking control of your finances will enable you to take control of your creative process.

According to filmmaker and musician bill badgely (pictured above), creatives can shift their thinking about money to empower themselves artistically.

“You must work to make art and finances as healthy and beautiful as you can,” says the New Yorker who produced Kill All Redneck Pricks, a documentary about the band Karp.

Money, according to bill, is nothing more than “having the resources and the ability to do what you want to do” for your creative project.

badgley made the mental shift when he began working on his film a couple of years ago.

“In my band [Federation X], I used to do things that made no financial sense,” he admitted. “But I learned that thinking about money won’t crush your project—it will strengthen it. I learned that if my bottom line is really small, I have to pay more attention to finances because my margin of error is smaller.”

So, if having or making money from your art or creative project is merely a tool, why is it that so many of we creative types feel guilty about earning a living from our work? This is one of the issues I’ll tackle in Creative Money Maker.

As a musician who works by day at New York Foundation for the Arts to help artists, shifting my own thinking about money helped me work through the mental block I formerly encountered when it came to budgeting and financial planning.

Viewing money as a tool for my creativity—instead of something I’m limited by—helped me face my fear of looking my finances straight in the eye. Knowing where I stand financially and understanding what I need to achieve a personal or professional goal have helped me ease financial stress.

So, how can you get to this financially empowered place?

Good question.

Creative Money Maker will provide a road map for shifting from financial disempowerment to financial empowerment and will enable you to create a plan to fund your creative vision.

Every other Tuesday, I’ll cover making budgets and tracking expenses, pricing goods and paying yourself, and share foolproof tips and resources for raising money through grants, crowd funding and bartering.

And what’s the secret to creative financial empowerment?

The first step is to understand your own relationship to money.

Is there a part of you that wants to run away screaming as soon as you hear the words “financial,” “money” or “finance?” Or, are you a careful budgeter who already tracks your personal expenses?

Either way, as Dixie Laite writes in the first installment of 15 Minutes of Dame (“Who the Hell Are You?”), knowing yourself is the most important part of running a micro business.

Before we dive in together through the Creative Money Maker journey, take as little as a few minutes or as long as a few hours to contemplate each of these questions and jot down your responses:

1. Do you have a personal or project budget?

• Do you follow it? Why or why not?
• How diligent are you in tracking your day-to-day expenses?

2. Think about your financial history:

• What are your proudest achievements?
• What are financial lessons you learned the hard way?
• Do you see a pattern or repeated mistakes?

3. In your opinion, what’s good about money?

• What about money makes you anxious? Be specific!

I know it can be scary to look yourself (and your bank account) straight in the eye and acknowledge your weaknesses, but you might also find that you have stronger financial skills than you thought.

The first step in the Creative Money Maker process is to know where you stand so you can assess what you need to secure resources to fund the project of your dreams.

In my next column, we’ll talk about honing in a financial goal and coming to a clear understanding of what exact part of your project you need to fund. In the meantime, please join me on Twitter and Facebook to discuss your responses to these questions!

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Eleanor Whitney is a Brooklyn writer, rock musician, educator and arts administrator raised in Maine. She blogs at killerfemme.com and is the author of Grow: How to take your DIY project and passion to the next level and quit your job, which will be released in 2013 on Cantankerous Titles. A proud holder of a master’s in public administration, she loves nerding out about business strategy for creative people and works to guide artists through the fundraising and professional development process. @killerfemme eleanor.whitney [at] gmail.com

What to do when low self-esteem gets in the way of personal success 

15 Minutes of Dame #5, By Dixie Laite

“Walk tall, or baby, don’t walk at all.”—Bruce Springsteen

For most of my life, I’ve been a real jerk.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had what magazines and Oprah term low self-esteem.

An inveterate self-loather, I’ve encountered countless books and articles bemoaning my sad state of affairs and explaining that if I were promiscuous, frigid, too aggressive, too passive, shy, aloof or the life of the party, this pesky low self-esteem was to blame.

These pros listed all the things, people and events that might shepherd one down Low Self-Esteem Lane, and I could easily tick off each one and marvel at how I hadn’t become a serial killer.

Experts of every stripe gave me license to feel mighty sorry for myself and to patiently tolerate with all my insecurities and anxieties that made so much inevitable sense.

Weight training made me stronger, in some ways.

But one day I’d just had it.

What people with healthy self-esteem may not realize is how incredibly exhausting it is being insecure. Suspecting strangers dislike you, confident friends and family despise you—all that negativity is positively draining.

Riding the subway one morning 15 years ago, sheepishly averting my gaze from the throngs doubtlessly ridiculing my appearance behind their sleepy faces, the obvious dawned on me: I was a complete douche.

This is me at the office. Really.

My epiphany made clear that there is no greater narcissism than hating yourself. My perception of my complete lack of value still had me dwelling on my value, not the wealth of value to be found all around me.

Though some people’s self-hatred extends to the rest of the human race, mine was of the everyone-else-is-better-than-me variety. “Well, then,” I thought. “Let’s go with that.” If other people are so wonderful that’s a pretty good half-full perspective on which I could focus.

You know, self-loathing and insecurity are not modern afflictions, but a century or so ago, the problem was more sensibly addressed. Low self-esteem (I believe the Latin is Self-Conscious Numbskullus) was addressed not as the inevitable product of familial or societal flaws, but as a lack of confidence and positive thinking, both of which could be learned and practiced. (I’m looking at you, Dale Carnegie.)

It’s Not All About You

It’s said one “suffers” from low self-esteem. I think that’s kinda bullshit.

As painful as all the insecurity and terror can be, at the end of the day, it’s still all self-obsession. The shyness and fragility may not feel like self-centeredness, but that’s what it is. “Everyone is staring at unlovable, ugly me!”

So here’s what I learned:

1. Be interested in other people; stop being interested in what they think of you!

2. Use your vulnerability as an asset, not a liability. Use it to think about how other people are feeling. It’s much more important—and fun—for me to see other people blossom under my attention than worry about my own wilty petals.

Animals don't judge.

So, what does all this have to do with personal branding?

Marketing guru Seth Godin recently wrote that while being judged can be uncomfortable, the flipside has its price:

“Snap judgments, prejudices, misinformation…mean you will inevitably be misjudged, underestimated (or overestimated) and unfairly rejected. The alternative, of course, is much safer: to be ignored.”

Yes, in life you’re going to be misjudged, misinterpreted and ridiculed. (Especially when you’re a bit of an odd duck like me.) But you can’t allow self-consciousness and insecurity to keep you out of the game—and most importantly, away from your teammates. We’re all on one big team, and we’re all here to help each other and have a good time.

In other words, don’t let you get in your own way—and get out there and have some fun!

This is the fifth episode of “15 Minutes of Dame,” a column to help you create, develop and promote the living crap out of your personal brand. Dixie Laite has been putting the “broad” in broadcasting for over 20 years, working in television, online, print and marketing for a variety of household name brands. She’s currently Senior Editorial Director for TeenNick and also freelances as a writer, speaker and digital content strategist. Dixie’s column is published every other Wednesday on diybusinessassociation.com. Follow Dixie @DameStyle, email her at diydamedixie@gmail.com and post your suggestions in Comments below.

Brute Hustle #3, by K. Tighe

Marketing and PR are tricky little devils.

It’s tough to shake the feeling of phoniness when you’re self-selling.

Perhaps that’s why the concept of “thought leadership” has emerged as a corporate holy grail. If you can position yourself as a subject expert, the press comes to you. Not a bad gig if you can get it, eh?

Being a thought leader isn’t about being well-liked or charismatic. It takes authenticity, passion and dedication. It also takes hustle.

But the payoffs—not only is it free press, but speaking fees, freelance assignments and consultant spots can even contribute to your income—can be well worth the effort. We’ll explore ways to leverage thought leadership in the next Brute Hustle, but for now, let’s start with the “thought” part:

Brute Hustle Tip #3
Become an expert in something to position yourself as a thought leader.

If you bite into a hard shell and no one is around to hear it, is it still totally inauthentic? Flickr.

1. Figure out your area(s) of expertise…

Figure out a topic or two (or three, but stop there) that you can really devour. Areas of expertise can emerge from your product offering (e.g. screen-printing, beer or folk music), from cerebral elements that impact your business (e.g., collaborative consumption or veganism), or even from your customer base (e.g., the Millennial generation or Brooklyn renters). Figure out the handful of topics you really give a shit about, and narrow from there. Once you’ve narrowed, think about how saturated those thought areas are. It may seem totally hokey to decide “I’m going to be an expert in tacos now,” but humor me here. If there are 100 taco experts in your city, maybe your focus is taco trucks. What’s your taco niche?

2. …and dig deep…

Tap Wikipedia, the local city college, every book on the subject and the blogs of existing thought leaders. Design your own syllabus if it helps. Did Taco Bell really invent the hard shell? What role did taquerias play in Mexico City’s working-class life? Could a Korean taco have been created anywhere but Los Angeles? Know these things!

Once you have a foundational history down, be sure to keep your finger on the pulse of new developments. Set Google alerts for keywords within your area(s) of expertise (taco truck, taqueria, Kogi BBQ), and regularly search Twitter (#tacos) for mentions.

Korean Tacos: A socio-geographic anomaly? Flickr.

3. …and into other areas.

To spot overarching patterns, understand broader cultural context and apply unique frameworks to your thought areas, you’ll need to branch out to understanding adjacent fields.

If one of your areas is collaborative consumption, for example, you better understand economics. After you identify adjacent areas, find panels and talks to attend on those topics. Read topic-specific blogs and journals. Standing on the very edges of your thought arena helps you see the frontier, and you can find intersections of thought that no one else is looking for—for example, how do new trends in social networking promote taco consumption?

4. Keep up with current events…

Don’t tune out. Breaking news in politics, science, health, business, even entertainment can have a major impact on your thought areas and provide breakthroughs.

Scan the headlines (not just the blogs) on the regular and consider how current world, national, and local news might connect with and impact your fields. Maybe an uptick in unemployment leads to an uptick in taco buying, maybe a new city policy threatens to kill all the taco trucks. You’ll only connect the dots if you know they exist.

Should California taco trucks really be considered part of the food truck trend? Flickr.

5. …and learn to read the future.

No, I’m not suggesting you take up reading tea leaves, but the future isn’t so hard to ponder if you have the right data.

Analyze any information you can get your hands on, worship at the altar of statistics, and use the knowledge you’ve accumulated to posit some possibilities. And keep it optimistic—doom and gloom won’t reveal much in the way of originality. Did you find an existing pile of stats correlating summer heat with ice-cream truck transactions? Maybe taco truck transactions will rise in the summer, too.

6. Listen to people.

Pay attention to the complaints people have, be they customers, friends, competitors or peers.

Collective pain points often give way to the next wave of ideation, so look for patterns. Maybe you’re hearing that the best tacos are in hard-to-get-to parts of town. Maybe this helps you figure out that localized taco delivery is the next big thing in tacos. Is it?

7. Think Critically.

Be relentless. Question all assumptions. Ask “why” until your brain cries. Then ask “why not”? Find more patterns.

Recently, some cool dudes in Oakland asked this question: Why can’t we have a mobile biking and taco conference complete with talks about tech, urban development and tacos?

They answered themselves by introducing the very first Taco Conf to the world. Beat that.

8. Prescribe and aspire.

This is where the leadership part comes in. Once you figure out what you think about a problem, ask yourself what a solution might be. Once you identify an idea, figure out what the world looks like when it comes to fruition.

Then go tell people about it. We’ll get to that next time. Stay tuned for my next Brute Hustle on Tuesday, June 5, 2012.

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K. Tighe is the founder, publisher, editor-in-chief, and Chief Taco Officer of Poor Taste, a collaborative online magazine covering the underbelly of food and drink culture. In addition to basking in the bahn mi and bourbon perks associated with running a food publication, Tighe spends her days getting geeky over micro-entrepreneurship and the collaborative consumption movement as Content Strategist for TaskRabbit. Click here for the Brute Hustle Archive. @k_tighe | tighe.k@gmail.com

Peggy Li 

Occupation: Jewelry Designer
Business: Peggy Li Creations
City: San Francisco
Age: 38

What started as a hobby to earn extra income a decade ago has landed jewelry maker Peggy Li with all kinds of accolades, including her designs being featured on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and in Lucky magazine.

In April 2012, she quit her part-time marketing job with Electronic Arts to work full time on her business. Though it wasn’t easy to make the leap of going it alone, she’s confident about investing in herself.

What’s your #BHAG2012? 

My BHAG is to grow and maintain my business in a way that continues to give me creative and financial freedom.

What’s your startup story? 

I was wearing jewelry I’d made for myself at work, and people would stop me on the street and ask where I’d gotten it. The experiences gave me the idea that I could make and sell my pieces. It started with wanting a little cash and a way to use up old supplies, but eventually my business was born.

What is your typical work day like? 

The first hours of my morning are spent answering emails, updating social media and organizing my work for the day. If I finish my orders for the day, I will spend any extra time working on new designs and updating my website.

When do you feel successful? 

I feel successful when I set a goals and then accomplish them. I always tell people to set short-term and long-term goals, then you have more chances of feeling that accomplishment.

When don’t you feel successful? How do you combat those feelings? 

It’s very easy to see the things other businesses are doing and feel like you aren’t doing enough yourself. I focus on my own goals and what I get out of running my business, and tune out those insecurities.

How did you decide that you were ready to work for yourself? 

I had been part-time with my day job for many years, so it was definitely time to choose a path as both jobs—my business and my part-time—were suffering from my split attention. But even if I rationalized it, the emotional part of the decision was difficult.

Ultimately, you’re taking a leap of faith, but you are investing in yourself. What better investment can there be?

What advice do you give someone who wants to do something creative on their own, but hasn’t started yet? 

Start! Just start.

Keep an eye on the business side of things, experiment and learn about all facets of your craft, but don’t let fears stop you from moving forward. Just trying can be fulfilling in many ways. You don’t know where the path will lead you.

Have you collaborated with anyone or an organization?

I’m open to collaboration, but I’m usually so swamped that it’s difficult for me to make time for it—even if it would ultimately result in freeing up some of my time. Therefore, I would love to finds ways to collaborate that could take work off my plate—like PR, bookkeeping, social media and blog writing.

Are you open to mentorships?

My dream is to have a business mentor for myself. I’ve been working on my business for over 10 years, and I’m not a beginner, but I’m still a small business. I’d love to have a group of people who are my “go-to” for different issues and questions.

“Ultimately, you are taking a leap of faith, but you are investing in yourself. What better investment can there be?”

On the other side of mentorship, I often get questions from people interested in starting their own businesses and love to do what I can to give them a boost. I often write about business topics on my blog, and perhaps in the future I’ll do more organized consulting.

Peggy Li | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

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On Mondays, DIY Business Association features a stand-out self-starter as our DIY Business of the Week. If you or someone you know is rocking an awesome small business in art, craft, tech, food, media—you name it—we want to know about it. Tell us about your DIY business on the DIY Together Facebook wall, or email stories@diybusinessassociation.com with a short description and links to the DIY business website and social media.

By Jenny An

Tavit Geudelekian and Andy Kopas

Occupation: Video Game Producers and Designers

Business: King Post Productions

City: New York

Age: 28 and 26

Tavit Geudelekian and Andy Kopas took what they learned from the big guys and spun the experience into a more agile company of their own.

A year ago, they worked for Kill Screen Magazine to create an affiliated production label called Kill Screen MFG. They’ve built games for Puma, Pitchfork, Sony Records  and Incubus. The duo also has produced events and fetes for game publishers. The rest is a whale of a tale.

What’s your #BHAG2012?

Our BHAG is to create the foundation for our company to create a video game based on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.

Tavit and Andy built this game, Incubattle, for Sony and the band Incubus when they worked with Kill Screen. "It was a fun one-or-two-player, old-school, beat-'em-up game that featured all the members of the band as playable characters," Tavit says. The game launched in web browsers in July 2011 and was played over 100,000 times. Incubattle is currently not online but should be returning soon to a browser near you.

What skill did you learn on the job?

Salesmanship. We’ve always prided ourselves on the passion we bring to projects we work on, and this past year has been an exercise in turning that passion into a pitch.

How did you know you were ready to start your own company?

We always told ourselves, “Let’s not treat King Post like a business until it is a business.” Now that we have contracts lining up and more work on the horizon, we both just sort of shrugged and realized, we are a business.

What’s most rewarding about working for yourself?

The little victories are so much bigger when you’re working for yourself. Every efficiency we learn, every new friend/partnership or contact we make brings us a lot more joy.

A taste of Banana Bandits, a game that King Post is developing as we right this caption. Slated for release on the iTunes App Store in late July/early August.

Have you ever collaborated with anyone or an organization? Are you open to collaborations?

Our business is completely reliant upon collaboration.

We use a myriad of specialists from coders, to designers, to artists to digital marketers and community managers. That said, we’re always thrilled to meet new people and make new friends. We’re looking for experienced game developers, artists and designers, and we’re always open to helping nurture new talent that may not have experience in games but want to break into that industry.

Are you open to mentorships?

While we’re totally open to interns and mentorships, we’re still working to get stable as a company so we can truly provide these people with the value and education that we were provided in some of our best internships and mentorships. Once we reach a critical mass of projects, we’ll be wide open to the idea.

Email King Post Productions at kingpostproductions@gmail.com.

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On Mondays, DIY Business Association features a stand-out self-starter as our DIY Business of the Week. If you or someone you know is rocking an awesome small business in art, craft, tech, food, media—you name it—we want to know about it. Tell us about your DIY business on the DIY Together Facebook wall, or email stories@diybusinessassociation.com with a short description and links to the DIY business website and social media.

Brute Hustle #2, by K. Tighe

I’m smitten on sharing.

So when I decided to return to San Francisco earlier this year, I had one Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) in mind: do my part in moving the Collaborative Consumption movement forward.

This was serendipitously almost the exact moment that TaskRabbit—a company I deeply admire for its role as a pioneer in the Sharing Economy—invited me to work with them. Not a bad start to my #BHAG2012.

In the DIY community, we’ve long been wise to the values of collaboration and co-working. The flagship marketplace Etsy is rooted in peer-to-peer transaction—a cornerstone concept of the CollCons movement. Now, a new crop of companies has emerged in the sharing space, providing an infrastructure to help entrepreneurs and small businesses thrive. These sites lower the barrier for entry for entrepreneurs and float us through the broke times—all while helping move our brands forward.

Hustle Tip #2: Diversify your revenue streams and grow your brand by plugging into the Collaborative Consumption movement.

At Poor Taste, the food news startup I founded, we’re still very much in bootstrap mode. So how could we leverage the Sharing Economy to keep the lights on while pushing our brand forward? Here are the options we’re looking at:

Biz-Dev Idea #1. Pimp out our expertise by leading tours.

Through Vayable, our editors and contributors can set up neighborhood food tours in the cities we cover. We can show tourists and locals alike how to navigate the food scenes in L.A.’s Koreatown, Chicago’s Pilsen or San Francisco’s Mission. This lets us further position ourselves as experts in culinary awesomeness, allows us to meet would-be readers in an offline environment and puts a little coin in the pig.

Biz-Dev Idea #2. Hand down life lessons to other fledgling foodies.

We have mad skills when it comes to intimidating things like shopping at Thai grocery stores, making pie crust from scratch and pairing cheap (but yummy) wines with dinner. Through Skillshare, our editors and contributors can make money by teaching others. Poor Taste’s whole mission to smack the intimidation out of food and drink appreciation, and Skillshare provides another (paying) channel for that.

Biz-Dev Idea #3. Party like it’s our business.

One of the things all Poor Tasters share is an appreciation for the role food can play in gathering people together. There’s a spankin’ new company called LifeCrowd that provides an easy way for Poor Taste to make a little income hosting offline social food events. Events like grilled cheese cook-offs, speakeasy brunches, lowbrow high teas and culinary bookclubs. Lifecrowd already has a recurring Chinese food and Mahjong event—wish we’d thought of that.

Biz-Dev Idea #4. Take food errands off other people’s plates.

We already spend a lot of time at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, what if we could supplement our food budget by picking up other people’s groceries? That’s exactly what TaskRabbit makes possible by connecting busy people with neighbors like us who want to help out and make a little extra money. Since we’re also food experts, we can pick up tasks like selecting beer or wine, cooking dinner party meals in people’s homes and baking holiday cookies. We’d make some dough and probably nab some devoted readers along the way.

Biz-Dev Idea #5. Become a bed and breakfast.

Airbnb lets anyone with a spare room or futon make some extra income. We love the idea of being cultural ambassadors of our city by playing B&B host to food-minded out-of-towners. We’d stock the kitchen with local coffee, beer and baked goods, provide expert culinary guidance to off-the-beaten path eateries, and make sure every guest leaves with a local’s knowledge of our city (and the URL to Poor Taste, naturally).

Are you smitten on sharing now, too? For a crash course, check out Shareable, Rachel Botsman’s What’s Mine is Yours, and (TaskRabbit Founder) Leah Busque’s column on The Huffington Post.

—

K. Tighe is the founder, publisher, editor-in-chief, and Chief Taco Officer of Poor Taste, a collaborative online magazine covering the underbelly of food and drink culture. In addition to basking in the bahn mi and bourbon perks associated with running a food publication, Tighe spends her days getting geeky over micro-entrepreneurship and the collaborative consumption movement as Content Strategist for TaskRabbit. Click here for the Brute Hustle Archive. @k_tighe | tighe.k@gmail.com

By Jenny An

Nate Cooper

Occupations: Educator and consultant focusing on technology and entrepreneurship

Business: Pedestrian Consulting

City: Brooklyn and Manhattan, New York

Age: 31

Nate Cooper is an entrepreneurship 2.0 success story.

The former trainer at Apple turned his tech savvy into a thriving personal business—with the help of organizations like the Freelancer’s Union, coworking space New Work City, Skillshare and Meetups.

The self-proclaimed “happiness evangelist” founded Pedestrian Consulting in 2011. Now, his days (and nights) are full of consulting gigs and working on a comic book that’ll teach readers how to build websites. He’s also a cofounder of Reboot Workshop, an “unconference” for freelancers and entrepreneurs on how to live their independent lives in an even more rocking way.

What’s your #BHAG2012?

Empower others to continue learning outside of academia, especially around entrepreneurship.

How did you acquire the skills you needed?

Let’s face it, IT people are a dime a dozen.

I like to think the reason people come to me is more because of the care and effort I take to train someone. I learned customer service at Apple when I worked in sales and as a trainer.

There’s no better way to learn about [customer care and engagement] than to work in a retail or customer-service job. When people ask me if I build websites, I say “sure,” but what I really offer is the option to learn to do it yourself.

What is your typical work day like?

Right now, I’m working on a book for No Starch Press. It’s a comic book based on my classes which teach how to build websites. I also do onsite consulting and teach classes in the evenings.

How did you know you were ready to go it on your own?

Toward the end of my time at Apple, I had developed a number of internal training modules and done a tremendous job building a team of top-notch people. At the end of the day, though, I didn’t get any credit.

I realized all of my accomplishments were done for other organizations and felt like the next step was building something where I was the product. Then Skillshare came along, and the rest is history.

Working alone can sometimes get lonely. Are you part of any organizations where you can meet like-minded people? Do you attend any events regularly?

The key to making it alone is to not let yourself feel alone. Go to a coworking space, join a Meetup. Freelancer’s Union is a great resource and anything hosted at New Work City. My friend Nate Heasley runs a meetup called Goodnik, and they have excellent mixers. Creative Interns and Be Social Change are also wonderful groups. Then, of course, Jim and I run events for Reboot.

Have you ever collaborated with anyone or an organization? Are you open to collaborations?

Yes, I regularly collaborate with designers. I meet quite a few through my classes. I’m always looking for people who can take on web gigs—design or development, especially WordPress—that I’m unable to. I tend to refer people since I’m more focused on teaching and consulting.

Reboot Nation is a growing group, and we need eager people to help out with any aspect of the running of the event whether it be promotion or just being on hand to check people in.

Are you open to mentorships?

Absolutely.

Nate Cooper | Facebook | Twitter

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On Mondays, DIY Business Association features a stand-out self-starter as our DIY Business of the Week. If you or someone you know is rocking an awesome small business in art, craft, tech, food, media—you name it—we want to know about it. Tell us about your DIY business on the DIY Together Facebook wall, or email stories@diybusinessassociation.com with a short description and links to the DIY business website and social media.

Amy Flurry, a media vet with 15 years of experience behind the editor's desk.

By Jenny An

Do you want to get your work noticed by magazine editors?

Master of publicity Amy Flurry offers these four tips from her book, Recipe for Press.

1. Think visually.

Photos sell.

“The first thing editors look at when they read your pitch via email or snail mail is the picture,” says Flurry. “And they know within a few seconds if the product will work for their pages and if they’re going to read on.”

2. Create an attention-grabbing one-liner that shows you know the publication.

“A great picture coupled with a punchy header—for example, ‘Wet-Weather Gear for Under $25′—lands your product into the publication even more quickly,” she says.

The header should make it clear to the editor that you read her pages or section and know the type of story or product the publication tends to run.

3. Make a strong first impression with your web site.

If an editor likes your pitch photo and header, he or she will likely visit your web site and social media to read more about you.

“Make sure your site is ready for that kind of scrutiny,” Flurry says. “If your site is still ‘under construction’ or in the middle of a facelift, then put the kibosh on pitching until after the unveiling.”

4. Contact the right person.

“All your hard work is for nothing if you don’t put your pitch in the hands—or inbox—of the right editor,” Flurry says.

Take time to double-check who actually edits the pages you want to be a part of. Read magazine mastheads to find out who’s-who, editorially speaking.

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Read more about Amy Flurry and her book, Recipe for Press, in our “DIY Business of the Week” feature about her.

15 Minutes of Dame #4, By Dixie Laite

“Give the people what they want.”—Everyone from Red Skelton to the Kinks 

“Don’t give people what they want. Give them what they need.”—Joss Whedon

People are so cute.

Lately I’ve had the pleasure to help several people use the 20-10-4 Personal Brand Words Exercise, and I was struck by a common misstep.

People would say something like, “I’m really good at surfing, love horror movies, play guitar and have amazing penmanship—so, what’s my personal brand?”

Your unique selling proposition (your good ol’ USP) is not meant to be a personal ad for a dating site. Your personal brand is your pithy way of capturing what you uniquely, reliably and engagingly bring to the table with your service or product.

Your USP is a way of expressing what you offer, what you value and what people can expect. It should be consistent, engaging and something people want. (And if they don’t want it now, you can persuasively tell them why they should.)

Think about your customers, what they might want, what they might need, and especially what it is about you that answers the question, “What’s in it for them?”

Don’t get me wrong, though. You don’t need hordes of people to want your USP—just enough people.

While it’s great to have something scalable that will draw the multitudes, to operate a successful business, you need a certain number of people who really want what you have (but more on the long tail in another column).

As you think about your personal brand, think about what you have to offer in terms of what people do or might want or need. Let’s say you’re a surfing horror-movie aficionado who can rock out and dash off a legible letter, and you want to start your own party-planning service. I should hire you because…?

Tell me why you’re a good—no, great—party planner. Based on what you’ve told me about yourself so far, I might imagine you’d say that you’re full of ideas on lots of ways people can have a good time; you make the whole planning process fun; you can improvise to make everything look seamless; and as fun-loving as you are, you’re also detail-oriented and nothing’s ever sloppy. I’d totally hire you!

Your brand needs to tell a story

And that story’s happy ending must include you getting hired (or selling something, or being booked, etc.).

Look for how your brand/story makes you special and how it makes what you do appealing. The fictional party planner that I want to hire might decide to go with a werewolf hanging ten as his logo, or he may just decide to find a phrase, title or tagline that expresses his brand promise of perfection powered by imagination and fun. (As you know, perfection isn’t always so lighthearted, so knowing you can get class without anal obsessiveness can be mighty attractive.)

The point is, as you explore your personal brand, don’t just think about you. Think about your customers, what they might want, what they might need and especially what it is about you that answers the question, “What’s in it for them?”

As you work on crafting your personal brand’s message, explore how your personal qualities might make you attractive to potential clients. Also, as I encouraged Liz Gold to do in my last column (“Are You a Talented Self-Starter Who Needs a Kick in the Brand?”), think about how your personal qualities, interests and experience might make you uniquely well-suited to serving (and uniquely appealing to) a particular niche market.

Remember, in business and in life, when you think about giving people what they want or need, you are much more likely to get what you want and need as well.

In my next column (on May 9, 2012), we’ll talk about not falling into the trap of only thinking about what people currently want or need. (Not pitfalling into the trap?) Anyway, until then, dolls, please feel free to let know how you’re doing and if there’s anything I might be able to do to help.

Mmmmwah!

This is the fourth episode of “15 Minutes of Dame,” a column to help you create, develop and promote the living crap out of your personal brand. Dixie Laite has been putting the “broad” in broadcasting for over 20 years, working in television, online, print and marketing for a variety of household name brands. She’s currently Senior Editorial Director for TeenNick and also freelances as a writer, speaker and digital content strategist. Dixie’s column is published every other Wednesday on diybusinessassociation.com. Follow Dixie @DameStyle, email her at diydamedixie@gmail.com and post your suggestions in Comments below.

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Brute Hustle #1, by K. Tighe

What if you could get the people you admire most to advise you on your career and business decisions?

Don Draper could help spin your marketing strategy into poetic gold, Sheryl Sandberg could consult on building a bridge from hipness to monetized ubiquity and Henry David Thoreau could dish out inspiration while sharing some pond-side beers.

If only that pesky “reality” thing didn’t get in the way.

Since this spankin’ new column is all about sidestepping the status quo and hustling your way to a better business, we’re gonna bend the rules on reality with our very first Hustle Hint:

HUSTLE HINT #1: Assemble a Panel of Enablers

Be they living, dead or fictional, assemble a Panel of Enablers that inspire and motivate you. Distill the most important takeaways into a dossier on each of your Enablers, like I’ll do below for Henry David Thoreau.

When major decisions or doubts creep up, consult the dossiers and ask yourself, “What Would My Enablers Do?”

As for Thoreau, not only does his Walden experience resemble stepping into the great unknowns of starting a business, freelancing or working for a startup, his words reaffirm that we’re doing the right thing by bucking the status quo.

Professor Tighe with a Ph.D in kicking ass.

Henry’s Rules:

1. Sing Your Song

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

Henry was hip to the fact that people spend most of their lives putting off the things they really want to do. They let their perceived limitations enslave them, tell themselves they don’t have enough time or education or experience and never make that leap into living a life true to themselves.

Those of us who’ve entered into self-employment or the startup life are bravely starting to sing, sometimes out of tune without knowing the words, but always our own songs.

And First Mate Thoreau.

2. Kill the Status Quo

“Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.”

Working for yourself or a startup is a lifestyle decision. It means walking away from society’s definition of success, at least for a while. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that you have more control over your life than the cogs still riding the cubicles.

Whenever I start to panic about the riskiness of startup life, I think of how much more agile not having these expectations has made me.

3. Opportunity Cost Matters

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”

Trading 40 hours a week to a company you don’t like much directly translates into 40 hours you didn’t spend building your business or developing new skills. As easy as it is to wallow in the “woulda-coulda-shoulda” triangle, let’s not.

Let’s just be honest with ourselves about the way labor is structured: You trade units of your life for money. Figure out what those units are really worth to you, and shift your actions accordingly.

Hack your way to success. The corporate ladder is so over.

4. Generalists Eat Specialists for Brunch

“Author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian and leading transcendentalist,” one look at his Wikipedia entry tells us that Thoreau was a generalist with an arsenal of skills he could transfer to any situation.

Since he was (among many things) a naturalist, let’s break this down biologically: Generalist species are able to adapt and thrive in all kinds of environments, and specialists kick serious ass under the exact right set of conditions. When those conditions change—which, let’s face it, they inevitably will—specialists face extinction while the generalists of the world adjust and keep right on hustlin’.

5. Suck the Marrow

“Suck the marrow out of life.”

If Thoreau intended to drive only one point home, it was this one. Figure out what you care about and do it.

Right now.

Consume every second of life as fully as you can. The happier you are, the more you notice positive things in your environment. The more engaged you are, the more you engage others. Cultivate optimism and you’ll see opportunities everywhere.

—

K. Tighe is the founder, publisher, editor-in-chief, and Chief Taco Officer of Poor Taste, a collaborative online magazine covering the underbelly of food and drink culture. In addition to basking in the bahn mi and bourbon perks associated with running a food publication, Tighe spends her days getting geeky over micro-entrepreneurship and the collaborative consumption movement as Content Strategist for TaskRabbit. Click here for the Brute Hustle Archive. @k_tighe | tighe.k@gmail.com