Colin Czerwinski spent his own money making his first photo book and sold most of them by being in the right room.
Being in the right room is an elusive destination for many creative people, mostly because we find it very easy to be in the wrong room on many occasions.
Colin and I talked about our friends Diana Pappas and Tom Bland, who recently set up at a local art fair, and it didn’t go so well:
“As soon as we walked in the door to the art fair, we realized we were in the wrong room.”
Colin set out to get into vibrant spaces with a well-curated collection of artistic sellers, filled with people who appreciated a photo book like NOICE Nᵒ.001 and were willing to drop $60 to own a copy.
Most definitely the right room.
🚨 Just for Social Media Escape Club readers, get a copy for $30 using this link!
Diana and Tom are professionals and shared what they learned from their experience.
“The question becomes, how do we get into the right room? Where even is the right room? Who has the key?
In the days and weeks following the fair it dawned on me that perhaps we have the key: this newsletter is the right room and we are already there.”
Their newsletter Writing With Light is one of their right rooms, a space that contains their people. The people who signed up said, “Yes, I enjoy your work and would like to know more.”
So much of what we’re all doing online is trying to get into the right rooms.
Social media platforms have convinced us that they’re the right room to be in - if you sell photo books and art prints, well, people who like photo books and art prints are there, just waiting to buy from you.
However, the problem is that social media is for everyone, like the food court at the mall, serving the loudest, most broadly appealing items to everyone all the time.
If you make Dungeon Synth noise pop or lunch meat surrealist artwork, then it’s possible that the modern social media network isn’t the right room for you.
Avoiding the wrong rooms takes time and patience, which is why I keep talking about finding (or starting) a community to learn and grow together, to speed up the years of “trial and error.”
If you’re a musician, join Dedicate Your Life To Music for weekly group calls and learn from an industry pro and a group of musicians from all levels.
If you’re an artist, you could join the Introvert Drawing Club and spend time with other artistic individuals.
If you want to leave social media, you could join my weekly Escape Pod Zoom calls and start your adventure with other creative folks on the same journey.
Scott Perry’s Solopreneur Success Circle has actionable concepts for business and life, and plenty of dad jokes.
You could scour Reddit threads and watch 100 hours of YouTube videos. Or you could join a community like the ones above (or start your own) and learn alongside real people who’ll encourage you on your journey.
Don’t leave it to luck to get into the right rooms. Spend the time and energy on building connections and learning through others to get you to the new heights you seek.
// Watch the full interview video with Colin here.
// There’s no Escape Pod Zoom call this week (Thanksgiving and all), but we’ll be back at it on Thursday, Dec 5th at 2pm ET. Click here for the details.
// Ditch Gmail and switch to Fastmail (I’ve been a customer since 2014): get a free 30-day trial and 10% off your first year here (affiliate link).
// Need help? I do 1:1 calls and workshop projects with individuals, and I manage D2C email marketing operations for clients. Get in touch!
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