Melissa Berry makes chocolates. And not just any chocolates, these are extraordinary truffles in mind-blowing flavors. I stood next to her booth at the farmer’s market the other week and watched as a woman bit into one of Melissa’s truffles and stopped. Her chin went up, her eyes rolled back, and she took a deep, stunned breath.
Then she yelled. “Oh. My. GOD!”
Evidently, this woman liked Melissa’s truffle.
But that’s not all. Melissa is a Naturopathic Doctor passionate about nutrition, and her Missionary Chocolates truffles are vegan, no dairy.
While it’s true that a chocolate truffle can’t really be considered health food, it can be tremendously healthier than other chocolates. And a flavor like pumpkin (in honor of October and Hallowe’en), can be made with a LOT of organic pumpkin and thus loaded with vitamin A. Not a bad vitamin to swallow.
For a family like ours who has gone completely dairy-free due to sensitivities, her truffles are quite a treat. Her business has grown tremendously over the last four years, and she’s about to open her first retail location here in Portland.
She’s an inspired chocolatier. And she solves a problem.
The Artist’s Dilemma
The reason a business stays in business is because that business solves a problem. Completely obvious in the case of a tax accountant, a massage therapist specializing in traumatic sports injuries, or someone who has a dogwalking business. The problems confronted by their clients are obvious, and the solutions equally so.
But what about for the inspirational business person? What about the artist or the story-teller?
Before we dig in there, let me explain what’s going on with problems, what they are, and why they’re so central to a business.
Why You Need Problems
Human beings are on a journey. Every single one of us is going somewhere. For some we’re focused on higher aspirations and spiritual “destinations.” Others are committed to more worldly goals and achievements. A healthy number of us have both.
The great Sufi saints, those enlightened masters within the lineage I study, had goals. “Immersing oneself completely in the fire of the Divine love” may not be on your garden-variety five-year plan, but they knew there was more love to taste, and they yearned for it.
Any worthwhile goal has roadblocks. This is also part of the Divine plan. Roadblocks, diversions, obstacles strengthen us, develop us, keep it interesting. They often have another effect: forcing us to accept help.
There are so many obstacles I can’t deal with on my own. (Which potentially includes everything except maybe tying my shoe. On a good day.) So I ask for help. I ask for help from my wife, my friends, my mastermind, my family, my heart, the Divine, and…
Yup, you guessed, businesses. Professionals. People who can help.
A business earns the right to continue to exist when it can help people in some way.
The Broad Definition
A problem is anything that keeps someone from an intended “destination.” The destination may be a physical goal (get my knee working again), but it can also be ethereal, like a spiritual or emotional state that someone can’t attain, or can’t hold onto.
If you’re an artist in any way then transforming inner states is your bread and butter.
The need for beauty, inspiration, peace, energy, insight, strength, wisdom, love, compassion… all of these things are universal, and art is a powerful doorway in.
J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-humungous blockbuster Harry Potter series, hit several intense needs masterfully. The need to imagine the world around us as magical. The need to know that evil can be overcome. The need for heroes with deep integrity in a world that seems full of lies. The need for absorbing entertainment- a break- in the face of a tremendous amount of just plain bad news. The need to believe that our young people can survive in the face of overwhelming odds.
There are other needs as well, but those are some big ones. The fact that she did it with such humor, craft, and great marketing means that it was a blockbuster. But even if all of her hard work and craft hadn’t been matched by tremendous luck and timing in the marketplace, I predict she still would’ve been at least somewhat successful because of the strength of what she was writing.
Melissa, our naturopathic chocolatier, is an artist and a doctor. She solves the no-dairy but still delicious truffle problem in an Oh. My. GOD. kind of way. Transformation, and practical. Because when I needed to get gifts for two people recently, they ended up with Melissa’s truffles.
Here’s a question to ask yourself: your ideal customers or clients, the people who react strongly to what you do and just love it… what is going on in their life that your work helps make better?
Is there a way to make the connection between the inner states you are wanting to affect and something external, physical, measurable in their life?
Make that connection, and your future in business just took a serious upward leap.
Whether you’ve made that connection yet or not, let’s talk.
p.s. Need to know how to name a problem… even more, how to say what you do when someone asks?
How to say what you do in one compelling sentence is a profound, effective solution, and it’s totally affordable.
30 Responses
Mark – Such a great post. You are really talking to me on this one. I’m in the current Moneyflow program and have been asking myself this question since before signing up: What problem do I solve – I make art?
What comes to mind is ok, why don’t I ask your great question “what is going on in [your] life that [my] work helps make better?” of those who have already bought art from me. I do have quite a number of raving fans (yay!). Do you have suggestions as to the best way to go about this? I’ve wanted to do this for a while and have been stuck by not wanting to do it clumsily or in a way that just seems just self-serving-marketing-y. For example do I offer some kind of gift as an incentive – that feels sort of yucky. I’d really love you thoughts. Thanks!
Hi Cara- Glad it landed for you! And I want to encourage you to ask in a clumsy way. 🙂 Meaning, if they are raving fans, they care about you. And It can be as easy as asking that very question the way you wrote it. The more you do it, the less clumsy it will feel. And let us know what you hear!
Mark, this is something I struggle with so often, and even more so lately as I’m about to begin marketing my art again after my 6 months away. I always wonder, What problem am I solving?
Thank you for reminding me that the problems I solve are so much more philosophical and emotional than just how to clean your bathroom faster. I’m going to try and remember that over the coming weeks.
(And Cara, your artwork is FANTASTIC. Great sense of light and colour. Your roses are delicious.)
Sarah- I’ve totally been following your adventures on the road, so welcome home and thanks for sharing your journey with us. 🙂
Sarah, how sweet to find you here! I’ve been following your journeys in France and now home and newly married.
Mark’s thoughts today zero in on an idea that I have been wrestling with for years. What problem does one of my paintings solve when someone buys one and puts it up on a wall?
Often, it appears to be a decorating problem. They need something pleasant in a space that is demanding an image. But why are they selecting one of my works?Somehow they can relate to that particular image. Maybe it’s the subject matter, ocean waves or tranquil bays, reminding them of a place they love and feel good because it’s beautiful and connects the viewer to nature. The colors like lavender, cerulean blue, dove gray have an emotional influence if you are sensitive to that.
The other part is that my name and images are out there in my local area (marketing). Just writing that and I feel conflicted. So much of being a professional artist means that you have to concentrate on the business end and it is always competing with the the actual painting time. How to balance that (and the rest of life) without being annoyed?
Awesome Mark!
I’m deeply passionate about uplifting creative, inspirational types and this perspective on marketing and framing one’s art as a Solution is fantastic. Thanks for sharing!
Jason! Fantastic.
I agree with Jason, Good content automatically attracts people to read whole blog and stay connected with the blogger and this is what i feel while reading this article. worth reading.
I agree with you Jason, Good content automatically attracts people to read whole blog and stay connected with the blogger and this is what i feel while reading this article. worth reading.
As one who is in extraordinarily good health for a sixty plus guy,
I heartly recommend NOT to be vegan “all the way.”
The bigger picture can be found at the food page on my website http:/:AwarenessEqualsFreedom.com, but the short take, my opinion,
is that tooth loss was a result of too many vegan years.
Some blood types need as little as 2% animal protein, but, my opinion,
and way backed up by discoveries of Westen Price, we all
need some. Raw dairy in chocolate might be extremely healthy whereas pasteurized can have huge liabilities.
Food consulting is not my business, but I’d love to spare others from what I consider big dangers to total veganism.
AND, the bigger picture of your column I love and it’s so aligned with what I’m searching for providing for myself and others: ecological and enlightened abundance.
Ciao,
Chris
Hi Mark and all,
Thanks for this great post!
Man and woman alive do I struggle with this identifying the precise problem!
I know the folks I want to and do serve and I am clear (me thinks) on the goals we are pursuing, but the clear stating of concrete problems I seem to squirm at.
I’ve been doing Rememberence and getting great guidance from saavy heart marketers and one of my obstacles has been a fear of losing my existence base of diverse folks if I zero in with more laser focus on problem areas. Will those who do not identify with them step back and go somewhere else. I am allowing more space and freedom into that and finding that only opens up more choice and a better fit for all.
Then, I find, if I tackle the specific problems I want to next… the critic pipes in, “Hey, who am I to be leading people there as I am no expert! I struggle with this too!”
Any reflections?
David
David- First of all, remember that this is a doorway for folks- but it doesn’t mean you *have* to say no to others. And you are getting that- it actually creates more space. Also- it’s true, we all struggle together. I think the main thing isn’t that you struggle, but that 1) you know how to move through the struggle to some degree and 2) that you are one or two steps ahead of your clients.
We have business struggles over here, even though we’re teaching business. But they tend to be at a different level and in different areas than our clients are experiencing. Also, when we do experience struggles… often it’s because I’m not following what I teach, and so it proves the effectiveness of the teachings, and reason we need to come back to what we know. And that is such a great gift you can give your clients.
I’d like Melissa to ship her chocolates to England please 🙂 I know from personal experience how vegan chocs meet needs: to feel a sense of luxury, pleasure, self-indulgence, to not feel marginalised and left out of the “Mmm chocolate!” gang.
This post reminds me of another you wrote, about how our clients have their immediate, obvious goal and the horizon goal (which we see but they won’t yet).
e.g. I help coaches & complementary therapists make money and find clients AND I know there are other problems I solve through doing this but which my clients aren’t so readily going to spend money to solve – namely, a lack of feeling safe and supported, deeply connected to Source, in community with like-minded people.
One of the results I hear most frequently from clients is “more clarity” but I tend to market the “more clients, more money” results because they’re more tangible – but reading this I’m wondering: maybe I could focus more on the “are you lacking clarity? is it driving you crazy to be fuzzy?” in my marketing… Because that’s actually one of the greatest roadblocks my self-employed clients face.
As ever, thank you and love,
Corrina
Melissa… you listening? Corrina- It might be worth testing, the whole clarity thing, eh?
Yes, Mark! So grateful you answered this (these?) question(s)! I, like Corrina, thought I had to focus on more practical, tangible problems for my clients in my new marketing materials, but what you said about the needs Harry Potter meets, I feel some permission to describe the inner transformations I foster with my storytelling and poetry!
You gave me great questions to ask about how to combine inner transformation with more mundane needs my clients have. Thank you thank you thank you for writing about this. I’d love to use some of what you wrote in this paragraph:
J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-humungous blockbuster Harry Potter series, hit several intense needs masterfully. The need to imagine the world around us as magical. The need to know that evil can be overcome. The need for heroes with deep integrity in a world that seems full of lies. The need for absorbing entertainment- a break- in the face of a tremendous amount of just plain bad news. The need to believe that our young people can survive in the face of overwhelming odds.
So I hope you don’t mind. You just say it so clearly and it so describes some of what I hope I provide for people. I just didn’t know you could say it in business marketing!
By the way, I’m grateful for your Momentum class and the opportunity to engage with you on topics like this. And the permission to be sloppy while we do!
Thanks again & take care,
Kali
Hi Kali- So glad it landed for you! As for the paragraph, I’m going to urge you to take the concepts, and have you rewrite it in your own voice. I may have said it clearly- but I said it how I say it. How would you say it? 🙂 You want people connecting with your voice, not with mine.
Thanks Mark,
No I will not plagiarize, but thank you for the concepts!
The title is very catchy and caught my attention completely. I agree, there are business that solve an issue for others, but there are also businesses who create new needs (for example Apple: we don’t really need an iPhone, but we do want it). I think that it takes creativity and strong concepts to tackle the latter concept, however presenting your business as a solution can be the best approach when it comes to profit.
I’ve been struggling to find the heart in my business endeavors. Internet marketing can be a cold place; it’s fraught with scam artists and shills. Not to say all marketers are bad, but the focus seems to be “take the money and run”. The other side of my issue is the DRYNESS. The subject matter is not “interesting” in a lot of ways, even the web pages are “professional” rather than creative. That’s something I have to find a balance between- my very colorful, out there nature, and the image of respectability and authority. I just can’t do things the “traditional” ways no matter how I try. But there is love behind my motivations- and it can be harnessed by those who wish to do so. At the core of it all, I want to teach others how to pull themselves up out of their situations, take control of their lives, and their professions, and become the bosses of their own destinies.
I have a long road to travel before I get there, but that is the driving force behind everything I do. Honesty, integrity, and the desire to help.
Great blog, I’m really glad I found it! 🙂
Jenny!
Welcome. 🙂
A title that hooked me like a very big fish, three things I love (chocolate, Harry Potter and art), and food for thought on an issue that I’ve been struggling with for some time – How to describe the need that storytellers fill. Thank you for a post that I’m sure I’ll come back to many many times.
You had me at Chocolate. and Harry Potter. 🙂
I also want to try Melissa’s chocolates. Aside from being delicious its a healthy chocolates. Its a little bit of heaven here on earth.
Amazing post Mark. The artisan’s way of combining artistry and business enterprise seems almost forgotten. You’ve really captured the magic of it.
As professionals, we can easily forget that we’re magicians and not just technicians.
Joe 😀
I
Hi Mark
Whew. Aha, and ping! The analogy from farmer’s market vegan chocolate through to Harry Potter lit something up for me. I’m on the RIght Brain Business Plan course with Jen Lee and am about to start pitching my work as an illustrator.
My previous attempts at answers to the ‘problem you solve’ question were lacking, entirely lacking, in heart and magic.
I’m good to go now – of course, I can now see, my illustrations celebrate the beauty of the everyday (OK, maybe more sparkle could land on that sentence but I’m on my way at least).
Thank you so much.
Tanja- Woo-hoo! You are so welcome! And the sparkle comes through- the words don’t have to be shnazzy, your presence is the difference. 🙂
That’s reassuring. So you mean I don’t have to crack my skull open trying to bedizzle the living daylights out of all I email, and I don’t need to worry about whether I’m stand outish enough, better than the competition and so on and on? I buy that. My presence is the key? I take that on board. Wholeheartedly.
Again, thanks.
Tanja- please don’t crack your skull… 🙂