Worth Sharing Vol. 25
A round up of what’s good on the interwebs. 6 links I’m reading and listening to.
Mad Libs for Creatives. The internet doth giveth. Fill-in-the-blank exercises for focusing your ideas, from strategic conception to sale.
You Contain Multitudes. Don't call yourself moody. Name each of your multiple personalities instead. Ask Polly does it again.
I’m reading, Under the Whispering Door. I think TJ Klune is a brilliant storyteller.
People who take my in-person yoga class seem to really like my current playlist: BEAUTIFUL MOMENT
Read this lovely essay, Surface Tension. Or just this snippet: My body so badly wants to forget that above all else, I am water. How badly I want to believe that I have access to no moment except the present. How do you remind a spirit that it does not belong to time? I ask because I do not know. It is easier to live as if nothing is in my control. If water and time exist in fundamental opposition to each other, I would like to learn to trust water.
Take Back Your Art (from Alex and the Get It Done team). JIC the link doesn’t load well read below:
After a long and difficult legal battle with her ex-manager and ex-record label, Taylor Swift now has the right to re-record her past music catalogue—hundreds of songs that she painstakingly wrote for her first six albums.
She doesn’t have to ask a corporation or manager for permission. She can make art on her own terms. Her voice. Her words. Her way.
To quote Taylor: “I had a choice whether to bet on my past or to bet on the future.” Taylor ultimately decided to bet on herself.
Jessica Simpson recently won a similar battle. She now owns 100% of her name, personal brand, and the billion-dollar clothing business that she founded. (Can you imagine not even owning your name? Can you imagine how empowering it would feel to claim it back?)
TV writer Shonda Rhimes—the genius behind hit shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice—is another artist who is courageously reclaiming her work.
After making massive amounts of money for networks like Disney and ABC, Shonda got tired of feeling undervalued and overworked. Tired of the relentless pace, the constant demands, and the small profits she earned compared to what the networks were raking in from her work…she left.
To quote a Forbes article on her departure, “Rhimes spent the first 12 years of her TV career contributing to Disney’s empire. Now she’s building her own.”
There’s a powerful lesson here for musicians, freelancers, small business owners, creatives, and authors:
Instead of building someone else’s empire, build your own.
Instead of signing a document where you give up 90% of your rights (and earnings), pause and think it through. Maybe the reward isn’t worth what you’re giving up.
Whoever is reading this message, most of all, we want to say:
Take back your intellectual property. Take back your earning potential. Take back your time. Take back your power. Take back your art.
For you, the phrase “take back your art” can mean publishing your own work, starting your own podcast, starting your own business, or opening your own art gallery.
It can mean asking for higher pay, more vacation time, or some other form of compensation and that honors the contribution you make to your employer.
It can mean giving yourself the green light—giving yourself a book deal, giving yourself a raise, giving yourself an opportunity, rather than waiting for somebody else to do it.
. . .
It can be really exciting when you get offered a deal from a publisher, record label, client, or company. Signing a deal can be a major milestone in your career. A big victory.
But just like Taylor, Jessica, Shonda, and so many other artists demonstrate:
Maybe the biggest victory isn’t selling your intellectual property to a corporation.
Maybe the greatest victory is taking it all back.
Or never giving it away in the first place.
-Alex, Lindsey, and the Get It Done team
BONUS! Love or love to hate pigeon pose? Take a whole class on hip openers with me Sunday, Feb. 27th. 12p. EST. Live online.
Soon Spring, soon.