It's Not Rocket Science! Five Questions Over Coffee
Five Questions Over Coffee with Emma O'Brien (ep. 58)
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Episode notes
Who is Emma?
Emma helps creative people get to their next level of business success through accountability, and business and strategy coaching. Her coaching work often centres around confidence building, mindset work and designing strategies to move people from where they are to where they want to be.
Key Takeaways
1. you've got to find your audience, and market to those people. You can't please everybody.
2. Your greatest success is likely when you share work that was very personal to you and had a very strong message that you are passionate about. But that takes quite a lot of courage to show up like this, because obviously, you leave yourself vulnerable to somebody saying, oh, that's awful. I hate it, which rarely actually happens.
3. "I was firefighting effectively with my business until I got to the point where I kind of hit a wall and I knew I needed to change something but I had absolutely no idea what to do. And I got help. Within six months, I had literally tripled my business income and was actually doing some really good work". That help got my business where it needed to be.
Valuable Free Resource or Action
https://creativesuccess.coach/confident-creative/
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Transcript
Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, business, creative, work, coach, emma, question, problem, big, brilliant, niche, authentically, market, point, valuable, run, important, person, specialists, julia cameron
SPEAKERS
Stuart Webb, Emma O'Brien
Stuart Webb 00:00
Okay Hi, and welcome back to it's not rocket science. Five questions over coffee. I have my coffee here with me. It's been a good morning so far. Mr. I know you're you've just had a quick slow bustle that just before we started here was great and it took us about a dog. I'm sure we might get into some of that. But anyway, welcome to the to the podcast, Emma is a is a professional photographer and has been for the last 18 years, and is now also coaching other creative by helping them build sustainable, successful businesses around their unique passions, talents and skill sets. And I'm really excited about this. Because I think that's a really great subject, Emma, welcome to It's not rocket science. Five questions over coffee. Thank you very much for having me stir. It's lovely to Lovely to meet you and connect with you. Terrific. So so let's start with the obvious first question. So what is the sort of the describe those sort of talented, creative individuals that you're helping to coach at the moment? Yeah, so I think I'm obviously as a creative myself and haven't been doing it for so long. And there are a few kind of key things that come up for creative people, I think a lot of, you know, photographers and musicians and writers decide to start a business around their talents. And they're super good at the creative bit, but not so much at the business part of it. And it's almost something that gets in the way about, you know, now I have to work out how to market my work. So I think given I've been running a business for so long, that's where my my expertise comes in and been able to support creative people to run the business side of things. And also to get past the mindset blocks that come up with being a creative and then selling your creativity effectively for a living, which can be very challenging for people that brings up all sorts of impostor syndrome and all sorts of other things, which I coach people around as well. So I've kind of it's quite a multifaceted
Emma O'Brien 02:31
skill set that I've developed in helping other other creative people with their businesses, I think you've kind of gone into it, but you're starting to sort of explore those, those those problems about sort of somebody who has a creative view of of their business, about the things they try and do to market. And I know, it's often something that my own background being as a scientist, I deal with people who are probably very technically competent. And they they suffer with the ability to sort of not understand how the rest of the world can't understand the way they see their business. And to help them to explain that you need to put it into language, which other people necessarily sort of uncertain. Do you want to just give us a little bit more background on some of that sort of, you know, where are those those hurdles that they try to overcome and somehow don't quite manage in the way that you can help them to unlock? Yeah, so I think a big thing for for creative people, is the kind of taking up space almost and the belief in themselves that it's okay for me to share my work and sell my work. And it's okay for me to make a decent living from from what I do. That's one piece. And I think it's this slight lack of confidence that holds people back, I see a lot of, I'll have people come to me, and they'll say, I'm stuck. And I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do. First, you'll have people who tend to try and market blanket market to everybody, which is you'll be able to relate to with your techy people, you've got to find your audience, and and kind of market to those people. You can't please everybody. And I think it's helping people to understand how to do that. And for me, I think the best way to do that is to actually just show up and authentically Be your Self. And that's actually quite hard to do because it involves being quite vulnerable and involves kind of really creative work is often very personal stuff that people are making. And sometimes it's easier to make work that's like other people's because we can kind of hide behind that but I know from my own in my own creative career, my own photography career. It really started to take off when I started to make and share work that was very personal to me and I had a very had a very strong message that I was passionate about. That's what connected my work to people. But that takes quite a lot of courage to show up like this. Because obviously you leave yourself vulnerable to somebody saying, oh, that's awful. I hate it, which has never actually happened to me. And I'm so it's so it doesn't happen, you know, but it's a big fear that we all sit with. Yeah, no, I think there are two things immediately struck me as you were talking about one of which is, you know, I think the one thing that, you know, all business owners, whether they be creative, or technical or whatever, often say, and I find very frustrating in my own
Stuart Webb 05:39
mentoring career is the fact that you turn around so So who's, who are the person who is the person who is your ideal customer, and they'll say, anybody, and we all know that anybody is always the wrong answer, because it's far too broad. And that and the closer you can niche down, as you were saying, the closer you can get to the one person that you're trying to speak to, the closer you will be, and the easier you'll find it to market your business to them. And the other thing, which I find so frustrating, actually, about all of this is people who sort of insist on, you know, I'm just trying to get the word out to everybody. And if I shout louder across the noise, I'll eventually start picking up the customers and you think it's never it's never that problem. It's never the sort of revenue type problem there. It's nearly always sort of, you know, if you can actually sort of clearly identify the problem the person has that you're trying to reach. And then you could just just offer them that solution to the problem. They're gonna snatch it out of your hand, you're gonna stop selling, and they're going to be begging you for it. And people start to looking at you go, but that might only be sort of five people. I go, Okay, well, actually, those are the five people that you've said you want for your business, all we've got to do now is find them. And that's it. That's the problem, isn't it?
Emma O'Brien 06:54
Yes. Yeah. It's figuring out I think it's, and it'll be what you're doing as well with your your coaches is helping people figure out where the market is, and how do we speak to them? And how do we get in front of them. And I think sometimes people are afraid to niche because they're afraid that they're going to lose customers by specialising and I think, so I'd be interested to hear your experience with it. But I found that the more specialists you get, the more you are seen as an expert, and then you become sought after. And then you can actually you can charge more, because you are the go to person. And it takes time to do that. Sorry, I've got a dog rustling round in the corner. She's still now and I think it's but it often takes I think it takes a period of time to get to that point. And you've got to be prepared to, I think go with the flow of the business and allow it to unfold a little bit, there has got to be a stretch always got to be a strategy. But I think there has to be a degree of flexibility with it. You know, so I've been doing it for a long time. And it took me by accident, finding my niche, actually, as a photographer totally, totally by accident. And once I found that I kind of hit the ground running. And actually, if I look back on my my career, it also took me over a decade to start working with a coach and it would have been so much easier if I'd done it sooner.
Stuart Webb 08:27
I've come across that so often. And so many people turn around and say, Why didn't I do this at the beginning rather than at the end? And because you know, I've spent 15 years I know somebody said it to me recently, I've spent 15 years trying to build my business. If I could have done this 14 years ago, I'd have had 14 years, much easier life and you go Yeah, that's kind of like everybody, but we all, you know, somehow we all sort of somehow think that we can solve the problem on our own, don't we? And we just need to. And you know, I'm a I'm a business coach, and I've got a coach and I only realised I needed a business coach after I started coaching somebody and thought, I need somebody to talk to him. I need somebody to sort of critique some of my stuff. And hey, why have I not thought of this before? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's been invaluable to me. I mean, I kind of look I was doing okay for a decade, but it was it was it was meandering along, but there was no,
Emma O'Brien 09:23
I was firefighting effectively with it until I got to the point where I kind of hit a wall and I knew I needed to change something but I had absolutely no idea what to do. And getting that help. Within six months, I had literally tripled my business income half my client base and was actually doing some really good creative work. Because I think a lot of people get stuck in almost this starving artist myth of you know, it has to be difficult and I have to take on every job and this comes back to that point of we were talking about specialists I think sometimes you have to pick a lane and get in it and get on with it and stop trying to, you know, have clients everywhere, because, you know, it's kind of that that phrase, you know, jack of all trades master of none. And then there is another part to it, which nobody quotes but, but I just think it's, it's so true. And sometimes we need a little bit of help to, to be brave enough to kind of to really, to really go for it,
Stuart Webb 10:30
I love I love the way you putting it, I love the way you putting it. So has there been a particular book or concept or something which has enabled you to sort of crystallise all of this and really sort of move your business forward.
Emma O'Brien 10:46
I am a very big reader so I could share a whole library of books with you I'm forever reading stuff so I think for creative with creative people in mind the artists way by Julia Cameron is a very a very nice book resource to have because there's a lot in there she talks about nurturing your creativity which I think is super super important for if you're effectively earning a living from your creative vision another two here that I have got is your you're a badass at making money by Jensen Cerro she does have an acquired humour taste. But I think she's brilliant and the way she writes this is fantastic. And also an Ariana Huffington thrive. And because I think another thing might, from my own personal experience, I I was at the point of burnout and I started working with a coach, I'd let myself get to the point of working myself into an oblivion. And, and actually think it's so important to remember why we run our businesses. We don't, we shouldn't be living to work, we should be working to live. And I think it's, it's so often forgotten, especially when you run your own business, you can get so engrossed in it, that nothing else exists. And it's if you wear yourself out, you you reduce your ability to make a living, so we have to look after the earthly vehicle. And and we'd be mindful of our of our health and everything as well.
Stuart Webb 12:21
You've given us some great content, Emma, and I'm really hopeful that, that there's a valuable free action that we're coming to that you're gonna be able to, I think, I think it's here at at your website, and I just, I just say it, it will be in the show notes for everybody. And it'll be it'll be attached to it. But then you can describe to us what is the valuable for resource at creative success dot coach forward slash confident hyphen creative. So as creative success dot coach, forward slash confident, hyphen, creative, tell us what's a valuable free action or valuable free resource that we can we can pick up there, which will enable us all to sort of understand a little bit more how to push our businesses forward.
Emma O'Brien 12:59
Yeah, so it's a free mini a free five part mini course that I've created, literally addressing the big issues that I have a lot of my coaching clients come to me with. So it's tips on defining your ideal client pricing your work properly, how to show up authentically as you and why that's important for your business. There's a module in there on dealing with procrastination, because that's a big one for a lot of people. And just have a bit of care of my notes. Yeah. And it's just just about how to kind of push to use these tools to push your business forward. And, and the value of being you and how you know how saleable that is, when you're running your own business.
Stuart Webb 13:42
I love that. I love that. And I'm going to, I'm going to be very cheeky, I'm going to go on to that page any minute. Now. I've had a look around already this morning, as you can imagine, but I should go to that page, I should get something myself because I think it's a valuable, really valuable free, free resource, which is a hugely, hugely valuable for those people that are doing exactly what you're describing. Well, I've done I've done a little bit of asking questions at the moment, Emma and I, I guess there is one question right at the moment, you're thinking he's failed to ask me this, because that's the real key that I need him to ask in order to be able to sort of to explain my thinking and to get across what it is that I'm here about. So what's the question that you wish I had asked you? And then once you've asked the question, what do you want answer it for us?
Emma O'Brien 14:29
So this is this is very, very interesting one to ponder on. So I think the question is, what is the key to creative success? And there's a question and my answer would be you have to just start where you are. So often, people are like, I'm going to wait until I've got a bigger better camera or I'm going to wait until I've done another course or I'm going to do it next month. You will never be ready. Just start What
Stuart Webb 15:01
do you know, it's a very, that is a brilliant, brilliant lesson. And I think it's one that we all need to take on board. A mentor of mine many years ago, said to me, a poor sales message out in the world is better than the brilliant one that you're still crafting Three years later, you will always, always find some reason that you're not ready to start. And I guarantee that you're never quite as good as just giving it a go and starting to learn from the experience of having given it a go. So I know it's a brilliant message ever. I love that absolutely love it. I thank you very much for reminding us of it again.
Emma O'Brien 15:42
It's important, it's it's just, it's it's kind of how I've managed to do stuff is is to just go I've had an idea I'm going to execute and I'm there's something I'm very good at. Not always so good at the finishing, I'm very good at the kind of executing, then halfway through. I'm like, Oh, is this a good idea.
Stuart Webb 16:05
So always, you know, it's very, very important to remember, you'd never ever fail, you just have an open job opportunity to learn, you know, if something doesn't work, well, okay. What did you what worked and what didn't and just do it again. You never fail, you just have another opportunity to learn.
Emma O'Brien 16:25
That's the I love that that piece of, of using failure as a signpost rather than a means to beat yourself around the head is to look at it and go, alright, this didn't work this time. It's working for other people. So what do I need to change here? And to just incrementally change something and keep going, because if somebody else is doing it and making it work, it's it's a proven idea. It's a proven product, it's a proven, whatever. You're just missing something missing. And it's just you've got to keep tweaking, and it's a journey. It's and I think that's how you've got to we've got to see life and business. It's a journey. And you know, you guys gotta
Stuart Webb 17:09
absolutely love it. Listen, no, this has been a really fascinating discussion. Thank you so much for spending a few minutes with us talking. I think I think some of the stuff you've got absolutely fantastic. And if you're watching this and thinking, Well, I'd love to sort of spend a bit more time listening to some of these interviews, we do get onto the mailing list, and then you get an email on a morning of the talks that we do so that you can join live. And what's really interesting people like like the creative success coach that we've got in front of us this morning era, and you can get onto that mailing list by going to TC a dot FYI, forward slash subscribe, that's TTA dot FYI, forward slash subscribe. Emma, thank you so much for spending a few minutes with us today at it's not rocket science. Really appreciate some of the stuff you brought to us. I look forward to seeing people downloading that, that that cheat sheet that you've got that mini course that will give us so much valuable insight into the way in which we can run our businesses and and we will really will love to see some more I've just seen here. Ivan has just sent us a comment. He's got another book that you might like to check out the win without pitching manifesto, which I should go check out that that's a really interesting one. Thank you either very much for that. Emma, thank you so much for being on with us this morning. Really looking forward to to seeing some of your stuff and see you again soon.
Emma O'Brien 18:39
Thank you very much for having me. It's been great to do it.
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