brand-less, niche-less, value... less?
The number one rule in the creator economy is that you must provide value. It makes sense, who's going to pay for something that doesn't have any value, right? It's why we pick niches to go into, that show our expertise in any given subject or topic and then we build a brand around that niche and the value we provide to the niche.
It's a nice system when you think about it. Clean, simple and to the point.
For me, this is everything that 'creators' should not be1. We seem to be so accustomed to personal brands and being supplied with this fix of value2 that we forgot that creativity at its nature is to be unexpected and to allow for both the creator and the audience to be surprised.
We dumb everything down into bite-sized chunks, we tell our audience what the work means rather than allowing them to come to their own conclusions, we teach them how to recreate the same formula so they can make money and then we preach about the importance of providing that value.
Perhaps it is because of how accustomed we've become to convenience that this sort of creative value has become much more of a crutch now?
I suppose the point I'm dancing around is that while I want people to be paid for their creativity, I wish it was in a system that didn't reward following the same formula, sticking on the same path and providing non-stop 'value'.
I'd much rather it was built on the wonder, excitement, inspiration and fun that we could bring to ourselves and our audience.
That would be creativity worth paying for.
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