My 4 P's: People

We have successfully made it to my 4th and final P, people. Oh, how I love this one! When I have made it to people it means that I’ve actually created something of value to myself and to the outside world. It means that the 3 P’s before were successful in someway. It is the final level. Typically referred to as an “end user”, which feels so impersonal to me. I prefer to just say people. My funnel typically looks like the people who are my clients and then their clients having the experience of the product that I created. 

Stephen in the Safari Toile Mask to mitigate COVID-19

Finding people to purchase my products or who would benefit from my services always feels like the hardest thing to do. Maintaining clients for repeat projects, or for all around new client/project relationships each its own planning and processing to be fruitful. I’ve been very fortunate to create that at a time of need. But who do you connect the products to the people? This is where marketing taps into the front end and the back end of any business. Last year I was introduced to a book by Seth Godin called “This is Marketing”. It has proved to be my marketing bible. It is the book that forced me to look at my business from a different perspective and being the journey of refining what and how I present myself to the world. This is marketing. 

People are vital to any business. Whether it is a B2B or B2C transaction, people are the ultimate interaction. I have to interact with the person that is hiring me for a project, and then have a relationship with them. Once the project is completed that client is going to have a relationship with their customers and in between my work connects and influences the relationship. Art is what binds product to people. 

I believe this with every fiber of my being. An in store experience can bring customers into a store, and how the in store experience is presented is through art and design. How the business presents the products within the store influences customers to purchase. In todays world we have unfettered access to people through social media, and technology. Content creation and the curation of the message is marketing, but if you aren’t connected to people and if no one is acknowledging the work are you really filling a void, being valuable, and helping others. 

I’ve talked about social responsibility in the past and I’ll say it again for the people in the back. I have a social responsibility to create art for myself and others. It my mission to create to experiences for your enjoyment and delight. Nothing is possible without you, the people

My 4 P's: Process

One of the most awesome….yeah, I said it MOST AWESOME…things that a person can do is find a process that works for them. Having a plan is the first step towards an idea, authenticity, and a mission, I refer to it as the vision. Without a vision; defined as the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom, one is unable to move into the process of achieving the vision. Process is formally defined as a systematic series of actions directed to some end, continuous action. Wisdom is defined as the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment. If the vision is the plan, the abstract idea that will propel something great into the universe, than wisdom is the process that works that vision into reality. 

So here’s a little story to help describe what I’m talking about. I had a project that required a vision for a sculptural wall installation. I had 2 locations in the building and I could do whatever my heart desired based on the mission of the company. The vision was to translate the brand mission into a large scale art installation, "live, work, play". Well how the fuck do you process that? I took the brand philosophy and started making rounds of sketches. From the sketches I kept the process going by finding inspiration, material palette, color story, and texture details that I felt would be powerful and exciting in the space. I found wisdom; experience, knowledge, and good judgement. 

Once my final sketches were completed, I deconstructed the idea. I use this method everytime, because it's what works for me. These actions always lead me to a product. I outline everything I’m going to need, this includes how much the materials are going to cost, and how long it will take for me to construct each piece. Prototyping. More action. Taking a vision and making it a reality is one of the most difficult things anyone can do. No matter what your vision is…a business, a building, a painting, a sculpture, a piece of music, it takes a plan; an abstract idea, and a process; actions, in order to produce a product. The tangible thing for others to experience. Process takes wisdom to know what you need and how you are going to do it. The three fundamental ideas defined in wisdom; experience, knowledge, and good judgment are about learning. If you don’t have these, find them, and find them fast. The process is all about obtaining these three things, and it requires asking for help, finding a team, and a lot of research. 

The method to my personal madness is having a vision or a plan, finding wisdom or a process in order to make dreams reality. The process is all about putting pieces of a puzzle in an order that works for you. You may not know it, so I'll just tell you, this is a creative rescue mission.

To schedule a Creative Rescue Mission meeting click Make Magic. 

My 4 P's: Plan

Planning isn’t always linear. Putting together a business plan is scattered with information that you put in some form of order that works for you both visually and organizationally. Most people think that this is a singular way to think. For me I use these tools in order to produce art. Art is such a broad term used by many. It also comes with some negativity when dealing with business. I work the two together. Business and art are not mutually exclusive. There are abstract ideas involved in both. There is research. There are materials. There is a pathway.

When I start a project, business or art, I always start the same way, with the abstract ideas. The basics help define how to put the plan together. Being playful and having fun is the best way for me to start. If I take myself too seriously nothing good comes out. But when I find inspiration in unlikely places, the hidden corners, the quick, and the impulsive. I’m able to expand on this and integrate it into the plan. 

Getting messy is my favorite and most successful way to defining what goes together and what doesn’t.  It means I've got tons of shit in front of me. It also means that I get to design a way to get into the process or strategy that will help achieve the end goal. But remember ideas are worthless until you implement them into a process and execute. Check in next week for my post about designing a process that works!