Greetings from London.
Two weeks ago at my Qohort private dinner in LA, a client said something casually which stopped me in my tracks:
“Producing great work is only half the battle.”
Wait… what did you just say?
The simplicity of that statement blew me away. We then compared this notion against the conventional wisdom (perhaps you’ve said this one?) which goes like this:
“It’s all about the work.”
Meaning, focus on producing great work… and the rest will take care of itself. And by “the rest,” most owners mean:
- Your studio will stand out
- You will meet top clients who value your expertise
- You will win killer, big budget projects
- You will produce great work and make a lot of money
But is this how firms actually succeed in the real world?
No.
So I’m going to be a bit brazen here by asserting that if you are fully invested in the “It’s All About the Work” myth… your creative firm is struggling.
Don’t be ashamed. I know just how seductive that notion can be (I spent six years there myself). In my case, what finally kicked my business into high gear (10X growth over ~5 years) was replacing that myth with a new belief:
The real work is getting the work.
We creatives hate this. But no matter how much I resisted, this truth refused to budge.
Talk to enough owners and you’ll confirm this truth. Because nobody – not even the top studios producing the industry’s best work – are just being handed the work.
Cheers,
Joel
P.S. If your studio is below USD $1MM/year, I can recommend my Why Up-and-Coming Studios Get Stuck. This live session is being replayed in preparation for my next Jumpstart accelerator starting end of October.
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