Building an audience for your creative work

If you build it, they will come. But is it true?

Hey there, creatives. Perhaps you've heard that old saying, and maybe you even know where it's from. If you build it, they will come. If you don't know, it's probably because you're younger than me. It's from an old 80’s or 90’s movie called The Field of Dreams. It's about baseball, but it's actually a really good movie.

A lot of people know that phrase, but they don't know where it's from. If you build it, they will come. I think a lot of people love to toss it around in the business or entrepreneurial world. I do. I love to hold that in my heart as belief. If I build it, they will come. But is it true?

There's a couple ways we can answer that. First of all, what is it? It in this case, it’s the creative thing that you want to build. It could be a painting. It could be a gallery. It could be a gallery show. We have this huge scale - it could be just this one small creative expression that you want or the whole huge vision that you have. Whatever the it is, get it in your mind. They will come.

Who's the they? It's your audience, right? It's the people that you're trying to communicate and share your artwork with. Will they come? In my case, having a small immersive theater here in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, the it is a show. It's the theater itself. It's the experience of keeping theater alive, but also putting this creative, sexy, modern twist on it. People come to our shows and they're like, “I've never experienced anything like that before. I've been to shows, but I haven't experienced something like that.”

For us, that's the it: this really unique theatrical experience that is full of heart and emotion, joy and suspense, awe and surprise. That's our it. It's our theater and it's our shows. The they is, of course, butts in those seats. I want my house full of guests who are going to love this show and give us five star reviews.

I've held that belief for a long time, or at least I thought I did. If I build it, they will come. I thought that if I just chanted it enough times that they would come. And sometimes they weren't coming. That's because we can say one thing but feel another, and saying it isn't enough. I had to get myself on board with the belief that if I build it, they would come.

Rewinding my business a little bit, it's weird that I didn't see it then, but I can so clearly see it now. If I knew then what I know now, wouldn't that be helpful? Which is why I'm making these posts for you. Maybe I can fast-track you past some of your limiting beliefs. My husband and I ran the business together and held this vision for a long time - this vision of having a theatrical production company where we can create whatever we want and people will come and pay us to see it; but simultaneously we were juggling these three revenue streams. We have this beautiful historic venue, not a traditional theater. It's a big ballroom event space, if you will.

Because of that, we were doing multiple things in it. We started our career teaching dance, and we could absolutely teach dance in this space, but we got the space because we wanted to be able to rehearse and perform in the same venue. Very cool as a creator. Also very cool as someone who has to pay the rent. When we came into this space, which is about 10 years ago now, the owners were also doing some weddings in the space at the time. So I was like, “Hmm… money, money. I guess we could side hustle some weddings. Like, I guess we could. Weddings are really just a show. We can do shows, so we can do weddings.”

So we started side-hustling weddings. At the time, I was actually kind of grumpy about it because I didn't take on this venue to become a wedding venue person for my career. I took on this venue so that I could do shows full-time; but, you know, all the resources weren't quite there. Now I see what a blessing it was that we were able to do weddings and help us get ourselves to a stable position where we can be a full-time theater. But I was so grumpy about it then, that we just weren't already a full-time theater!

We were juggling.We're doing dance lessons. We're doing weddings. We're doing theater shows. All the while I'm sitting there thinking, “Why can't I just be a full-time theater?”

First of all, that's annoying. I got annoyed with my own whining. Secondly, don't ever ask yourself why you can't do a thing because the answers that will come to you are confirmation of why you can't.

So I'm sitting there running this mantra... If we build it, they will come… and they're not coming… because I'm juggling all these other revenue streams. The extra revenue streams were confirmation of my disbelief. I wasn't allowing us to be a full-time theater because there was this belief in there that we couldn't do it. I wouldn't let go of those other revenue streams because it was scary to let them go. When I became aware that I was the only one standing in the way of us being a full-time theater, things changed so fast! After all, we’re not called the Melonlight Ballroom anymore. We are now called the Melonlight Theater.

We completely stopped marketing weddings. we cut back on the dance hours we were teaching and we quadrupled the number of shows we were producing each year. We became a full-time theater and it was because in this one instance I said, “Wait a minute, I don't even believe we can.”

I had to change the question.

Instead of, “Why can't we just be a full-time theater?”

(Watch, this is cool... you don't even actually have to change the question!)

I went, “Why can't we just be a full-time theater?”

I just changed the tone. Why can’t we? Of course we could.

Or you could change the question: How could we be a full-time theater? What would we do if we already were a full-time theater?

I changed the question around. I changed the name of the business. We changed what we were doing. And guess what? We're a full-time theater.

We had to let go of those other things we were juggling because those were crutches of disbelief. I want you to think, what's the it that you want to build? Who's the they that you want to come? And do you believe in it? Because if you don't, it will not come to pass. It will not.

Yes, this is manifestation. Creatives, we are manifestors. We think a thing, we see it in our minds, and we want to create it. We want to turn a thought into a thing.

Now, everyone's a manifestor. Everyone's a creator. But we are literally creating creative work, right? So you have to believe in it.

I'm asking you to look at your own work and your own beliefs and ask yourself: do you believe if you build it, they will come?

I want to share one other thing. I want to thank the universe, but even though I believed it and I built it, they didn't ever come. We might call that failure, but in retrospect, I was really grateful for that failure. So let me tell you one more short story.

Before I had this revelation - we can have a full-time theater, I'm the only one standing in my own way - we were still trying to juggle. We were still trying to supplement income. I was like, let me build this thing over here (that isn't a theater and shows, and the creative work that I'm really good at) so it can support that. In the wake of COVID, my husband and I launched an online course company called Dance Dates where we taught couples how to dance online. I stand behind it. It was really beautiful concept, really beautiful teachings, and we poured so much heart into it. We taught some really amazing lessons. We built out this whole business. I threw a bunch of money at it and it sank. Like nobody bit. I think we waited too long after the wake of COVID and everyone was like, I don't want to be online anymore. At least that's what I tell myself, right?

It didn't happen. We kept trying and trying, throwing money at it and saying, "This is the thing. We're going to use this money to support this theater." Crazy, right? I mean, if the theater is good, then the theater should support itself at some point, right?

The day I had that epiphany about why can't we have a full-time theater was also the day I chose to throw in the towel on Dance Dates. It was the same day because I realized Dance Dates had become a crutch.

It had become “Let me try to do this so I can do that.”

No, no, no. Do the thing you need to do to do the thing you need to do.

If you want to build a full-time theater, then don't build online dance courses. Heard?

If you want to build a full gallery show for your beautiful paintings, then don't do something else. Do that. Do that.

I know your creative work might not be your full-time work yet, but do the thing you need to do to do the thing you need to do.

Now, I built it - Dance Dates - and I did believe in it. I still do believe in it. I still know it's a great course and product. It's really passionate, beautiful things that my husband and I shared in that; but I'm so thankful to the universe that they never came even though I believed.

At first. I was really sad. I was really disappointed. I was like, why not me? I did all the things. It was because the universe - or God or whatever you might believe in, that's what I believe in - was kind to me. The universe told me, “You can't have that because even though you built it and even though you believe in it, it's not what you actually want. And I'm not going to give it to you because if I do and it starts raining on you, money, success, access, opportunity, you will be too busy to build the thing that you actually want to build, which is the theater, which is more shows.”

So, it never came. They never came. I'm getting like emotional writing about it because when I first closed it, it was really hard. I was like, "This sucks. I feel failure." I tried SO hard. I had so much beautiful stuff to share and it just sank. I'm crying because the failure hurt, but I'm more like crybaby face because because thank you, universe, for saving the space within me so that I could create more shows and create more theater, and do this because I actually really want to do this. I actually really want to connect with more creatives and help you push the thing out into the world that you really want to put out into the world.

I'm so grateful for that failure.

So, here's the takeaway questions. Enough Emily Cryface. What is the it you want to build? And is it the right it? Is it really the thing you want to build? And do you believe they will come?

If it's the right thing and you believe, and you're not standing in your own way, then yeah, they'll come. So, let's do it, right? Let's make the world a more beautiful place by putting our creative work out into it.

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That's a wrap. Now, go do your creative work.