Referencing this video:
Takeaways/My thoughts
- Don’t focus too much on technical mastery because advancements in technology will eventually lessen its value instead, focus on being good at knowing what x business is suffering from and then coming up with a solution for it. (In this video’s case, communicate that problem to an AI so that they’ll come up with a solution for it.)
- What not to focus: technical mastery (tool usage), processes, workflows, etc.
- What to focus: Understanding business systems & patterns in value creation
- Technical skills is not everything, it’s just a part of what makes a system work. It’s required 100%. But, it’s important not to get lost in the sauce I guess, is one way to put it.
- It’s super important to be able to diagnose business problems and provide solutions.
- Now I’ll try diagnosing what problems my business is suffering from:
- The biggest problem is - > ME ← , I burn out, I get distracted, I don’t feel motivated, I get lazy, I get depressed, etc. etc.
- Say current business:
- Customer service (Accommodating commission customers): ME
- Fulfillment (Drawing the art): ME
- Just from this alone, I can already say, customer service and fulfillment is bound to fail. Which means the business is bound to fail.
- So maybe, I need to switch to a different business. I mean, I can try outsourcing these but what’s the point then? I would stop being an artist if I do that.
- Say I change business:
- Business is T-Shirt Printing
- Designing T-Shirt: ME
- Customer service/Shopfront: idk, some platform that wants to sell stuff (Fourthwall)
- Printing: some platform that wants to print designs (Fourthwall)
- Shipping/Logistics: idk, some platform that wants to ship stuff (Fourthwall)
- Marketing: Either ME or I outsource it/find other methods.
- With this, if ME breaks/get lazy, assuming I already made designs:
- Business will still run, only that there’s no new designs instead of it just outright DYING
- With this, if ME breaks/get lazy, assuming I already made designs:
- Now I’ll try diagnosing what problems my business is suffering from:
- Understanding value creation is super important.
- Instead of complaining about my art not standing a chance when compared to more skilled artists or artists who integrate technology into their workflow, I have to start asking, what value does my art provide? 🤔
- I’ll be honest, when I ask this question, I couldn’t think of anything. It stings, but I think most of my art doesn’t serve much value aside for myself which is the pleasure of making them. There is temporary value there, I guess, when someone who likes the same things I like finds my art. But then again that value disappears as soon as the things I like change/when I make art for another unrelated thing.
- Example: Vtuber fan finds my work and likes it, I provide value, suddenly I switch to making OC stuff which provides zero value to them, now I provide zero value.
- So yeah, it’s important to be super aware about value creation. I need to get better at this.
- I’ll be honest, when I ask this question, I couldn’t think of anything. It stings, but I think most of my art doesn’t serve much value aside for myself which is the pleasure of making them. There is temporary value there, I guess, when someone who likes the same things I like finds my art. But then again that value disappears as soon as the things I like change/when I make art for another unrelated thing.
- Instead of complaining about my art not standing a chance when compared to more skilled artists or artists who integrate technology into their workflow, I have to start asking, what value does my art provide? 🤔