Setting Expectations
Part 5 of the Corporate Creative Series
I began my return to creativity through a desire to explore my gifts. Having remained diligent with writing as a hobby for 4 years now, I’m still excited and curious about what each new page will reveal as I process my thoughts. With my personality type, my mind indulges hobbies but will eventually question what my objectives are for any significant time spent.
My expectations from writing have evolved as I shared my content with different audiences.
I started with wanting the experience of writing a book. What would I say?
Once the book existed, I wanted to explore who was interested in what I had to say. I reached out to schools and parents in my social circle, and would ask them to share the book with their students, children and mentees. It took a year for me to be comfortable sharing the book with my professional network. This was the final frontier in acknowledging that I am a card-carrying creative. I did it because many people in my network are parents and mentors. I parked aside my personal apprehension in favour of the desired impact of the work.
After great feedback from my young readers, I began exploring how to reach more of them. I realised writing wasn’t the gift I was searching for. It’s become a vehicle to reach young people for what I am really passionate about which is mentorship.
Because my fixation wasn’t on being an author, I could easily experiment with sharing advice and resources on social media. There, my expectations were framed on engaging as well as sharing.
I listened to the challenges young people face and was compelled to go beyond empathising to provide an impactful resource. This journey led me to writing a second book. I know my style will not appeal to all young people. My objective is to be consistent and authentic in how I engage as someone here to help rather than sell books. It’s a tricky balance!
I’d love to have the validation of a major publishing house wanting to invest in my book but I’ve learnt the industry isn’t easily accessible in my chosen category. Fiction sells across all age groups. But personal development for young adults from an unknown author? That is not an intuitive business case for a publisher. I get it. This is why one’s reason for writing has to be clear and convicting because the interest and success of your creative project could have little to do with quality relative to how big a platform you have to sell it. My expectations about what makes the books successful is whether they empower my target audience. That’s it.
I do have a sales target in mind: 10,000 copies for each self-published book. That doesn’t sound like much compared to international best-seller volumes but bear in mind those authors have deep marketing support behind them. Book authorship is entirely new and different to fintech and investment banking. I’m having to build entirely new networks which I find exciting and humbling.
Fellow corporate creatives, I’ve found it essential to set realistically optimistic expectations for my creative pursuits so that I can stay the course. You won’t know how it will be received or if it provides an income until you try. Make the art anyway.
What expectations do you have for your creative endeavour?
Will you keep it private to yourself and close circle, or will you share it publicly?
How will you define success?
If you go public, and only one person takes notice, are you willing to appreciate the process and ignore the lack of applause?
In your current life stage, are you looking for a creative experience or a creative lifestyle?
Do you expect to make money from it? Is it enough to break even or do you want to make a certain profit?
Given this is something you do in your spare time, and potentially with less skill than your corporate career, do you have a realistic understanding of what you can expect to achieve? How are you calibrating your expectations?
If you don’t make the art you feel inclined to make, will you regret it? We only pass this way once.
What’s your approach to setting expectations from your creative work? Please share a comment below.
Also, share this article with a friend or colleague who’d be interested in this conversation.
