There's a problem with creative coaching.
I'm trying to put my finger on it.
I dunno, maybe it's just me. But every time I peek around my corner of the internet, someone is selling me sales training masqueraded as "creative growth" or "audience building". I'm a hopeless romantic when it comes to creative merit. I desperately want to believe that projects gain popularity and achieve success based mostly on their objective quality. Unfortunately, that's not how the world works. It reminds me of the nature vs. nurture debate. As a parent, I romantically hold out hope that I have a fighting chance of shaping my children into well-adjusted societal members. As a pragmatist, however, I have a nagging suspicion most people have a strict nature from birth. So just as there's a ceiling on how much impact my "sage wisdom" has on who my children become, there's a ceiling on the implicit value of creative work and its subsequent success. The rest has to come from telling people how valuable something supposedly is. So how does this relate to the proliferation of creative coaching?
To answer that, first, let's travel back in time. The year was 2009, and I was struggling to get a freelance design career off the ground. I had a few clients and some successful projects under my belt, but it became clear (a little too late) it wouldn't be enough to live on. I needed a steady job, and I needed it fast. I ended up getting hired at what I thought was a web design agency, but I was so desperate in my job search I didn't pay close attention to the red flag on their website: for all the talk about how great the company culture was - free lunch Fridays, flag football & softball leagues, unlimited snacks, and so on - there was no mention of any projects they worked on. No portfolio, no client list, no nothing. What did they actually do here?
Nothing ethical, as it turned out, and as soon as another offer came my way I was gone. But that experience upgraded my BS radar, and now my antennae perk up whenever I encounter a supposed expert creative coach. Someone who will teach me how to make money online by creating and selling products that teach people how to make money online by creating and selling products that teach people how to make money online by creating and selling...sorry, will you excuse me for just a second?
And there's the problem. These people don't do anything. And not only do these people not do anything, their entire business model is predicated on teaching you how to sell not doing anything. "Here's an online course on how to build an online course." For what, though? It's no more than a multi-level marketing grift.
It's important not to confuse this with actual artistic coaching/instruction. Anyone in a creative field with the drive to improve and the curiosity to grow has at their fingertips a global knowledge base, as well as highly qualified professionals willing to teach them for a fraction of the cost of a traditional university. But therein lies the nuance that isn't always easy to spot.
These highly qualified professionals are producing work. Their creative output is something tangible and the coaching they provide is a byproduct of the skill and experience they've built up sparring in the creative arena all these years. They're showing you how to get results in your own work, specifically. Since the scope of what they offer is based on skill-building, there's obvious and immediate feedback on the success or failure of their courses and whether they're providing the value they sell.
This is the opposite of the generic "creative coach" who sells what to do with those skills. But there's a gap between the instructors selling skill-building services and the full-on sales courses teaching the skills to sell actual products.
And that's where we find the creative coaching I'm talking about. They don't sell skill-building and they don't sell products. They're creative coaches who teach you how to ostensibly become your own creative coach.
So who cares? People have been scamming since lying was invented.
I care. Because I loathe do-nothings. A do-nothing is usually the person doing most of the talking in the meeting, but they don't have any of the tangible skills necessary to put any part of the plan into action. And I can't help but feel like this genre of coaching is an infinite Russian doll spawning more and more do-nothings. It's all smoke and mirrors for what boils down to sales training, but it's not even that because you're not being taught how to sell anything that solves a problem for an end user. There's no end-of-the-line moment where the purchaser says, "Yup, that worked. Moving on". And maybe that's why it bothers me so much. It's all so vague and unmeasurable.
But the most insidious part - and the reason this entire rant amounts to nothing more than an old man shouting at the clouds - is there's no way for them to know that they might be doing most people a disservice. Most people will pay for the services and won't make a red cent more as a result. Most. But some people...some people will have explosive success. And those are the types of people for whom this style of coaching is perfectly suited. This makes me wonder if the service actually did anything at all, or if those types of people would have figured it out anyway.
I think it's the vibe of "Literally anyone can do this!" that puts me off the feed. The success of their services depends entirely on the people who pay for them. Some will hit homers, but most will completely fail. It's like selling a hammer that only 18% of the population can even use and they also have no way to tell if it's working or not. Maybe all I want is a little more transparency. Maybe I could be more of a cheerleader for the creative coaching industry if they all agreed that it's hugely dependent on the individual. Maybe they could all adopt a disclaimer. I dunno, maybe something like:
Your results may vary. These programs are for people who already have high levels of motivation and creative mileage under their belt. If you're not already putting in the mileage now, our services will have limited effect. So go work on your creative routine. Work on your habits. Once those are bulletproof, come on back so we can take you from good to great or great to elite. Only you can take your creative output from 0 to 1, and that only starts with establishing habits that cause you to put mileage on the odometer every day. Good luck, and we look forward to seeing you when you're ready.
Thanks for reading.
-Me, literally just now.
I’ve been in summer mode if you haven’t noticed, so these last two essays had an empty week in between. Vacations, family, travel, all that good stuff. My favorite thing I read this week were some issues of Sports Illustrated in an MRI waiting room. It’s been forever since I picked one of those up. I used to love magazines but I noticed they don’t really stock them as much in waiting rooms any more. I guess they figure everyone’s on their phone, so why bother. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Next Friday I should be back on weekly schedule, so see you all then!
Enjoy your weekend,
Tim