Can Be Done

I thought I couldn’t go any further in terms of weird marketing after the candle store, but here we are.

Life never gives up on educating us

Last morning I drove White Orchestra to Prague from the cottage where we’d been hiding out for the past few days, including my birthday. After watching Sasha work remotely at her so-called real job, I wasn’t sure if she could handle the two jobs I had just offered her.

We tried to reach the subway so she could get to the office by 9 am. We failed miserably btw. But thanks to the horrible morning traffic, we had an extra half hour to panic together and talk.

Hearing parts of her endless company meetings was depressing, but also motivating for me in the end. I almost forgot how helpless you feel during those events especially if you need someone to approve something that is not 100% going to bring money right away.

This is where I realized that I have another incredible power.

I may be poor compared to all those Ritalin-infused people in suits, but I am free

I can have a social media manager who doesn’t need to get each post approved. Does not have to take tickets for tasks and count their working time longer than she actually works. I can afford to trust the artist. Because I believe it can work. Because it’s not all just about money.

And this is a perfect introduction to my pants-on project. The one that made me reconsider my affairs with Patreon recently.

“Can Be Done” is meant to expose my knowledge and experience in marketing and business strategy for the sake of art and the financial freedom of artists. Also to provide them with the necessary technical support by sharing or creating opensource based solutions.

CBD’s strategy is partly based on the so-called direct distribution approach (yes, the one Tupperware and Oriflame use), but slightly more sophisticated, where artists (I’ll call them CBD agents or simply the Agents further) will be able to use our magic and resources for their own needs first, and if they want to, they can later bring other artists on board to co-create.

Non-toxic productivity exists in trying

Each Agent can have their own tasks and benefits, but the general goal is to build a community of proactive creators and actually

make

things

happen.

I originally intended not to publish a single article on CBD myself. Or to publish very little. And let the real heroes tell their stories instead. I believe in this because I already know many of those stories and heroes.

But the biggest pleasure in all this for me is to see things grow from nothing, right before your eyes. That’s where the magic is. I just didn’t fully understand how to do it until now.

Now I do. By exposing the communication. The rules. The steps. The exceptions. The failures and misunderstandings. Anything that can be useful. Everything that is important.

I’ll simply start listing the names and tasks in posts here and we all can see what comes out of this. Sicut-dico.com is only one of the projects powered by CBD and WO’s first job will be to help me manage social media, on top of the visual directing that she is already doing.

tasks for sicut-dico.com

The main task of the social media manager at sicut-dico.com is to get more people to land here. As simple as that. (Some will read my posts, some will understand me, some won’t. A few will buy my candles. Others will be offended and hopefully ~~wreck their device with a hammer~~ find the “close” button.) Specific tasks in prioritized order are listed below.

1) All public posts on this website should somehow be reflected on the Instagram feed. I see this as a gallery with screenshots of the website. Please consider the warnings and inclusivity, but otherwise feel free to put your own comment in the text fields. Also, you need to make my website content “safe” for Instagram, you know the drill. Start with the new landing page. Then go for the “social media statement” and “how to” posts (Some posts don’t have featured images. When you have something visual to add to posts upload it to the drive with proper naming and let me know).

2) Once you have established some routine for Instagram, I’d like you to fill out my LinkedIn profile and think about posting strategies for it. I have someone who has agreed to consult on this, if you have specific questions, send them to me in text format.

3) Next on the list will be Reddit. I have no idea what the strategy is for Reddit. I would like the solution to come from as many people as possible. Maybe we should ask the IG and Mastodon audience for advice on what kind of Reddit-proof content they would like to see.

4) Please take over Sil’s email job for SD for now. Since you have her laptop anyway and need to learn the context especially. But once Sil is ready to take it back, you can hand it off to her and brief her.

tasks for canbed.one

– Establish consistent communication with Gene, another Agent who actually has been testing our magic the longest. Discuss together the areas of work you are considering (we already have grants and music videos, but there may be more.) Try to prioritize them.

– Start the hiring process for CBD (see task #4 for SD).

– Add products to your profile post and start creating similar posts for Gene, another Sasha who works for CBD.

CBD tasks are not ordered or prioritized yet, feel free to manage them at your own pace. Please assign deadlines yourself in our progress file for SD. There is no progress file for CBD yet, feel free to create it and share it with me and Gene, we definitely need one now.

What is next?

I’m rewriting CBD landing concept to fully get rid of Patreon mentions. I guess we should save some screenshots of the old version for history (Sasha, could you please grab this task too).

One thing I know for sure. It might take a lot of energy to make words turn into action. So on top of the blog and individual solutions, I’d like to try to host weekly motivational support meetings for artists of any kind. Dates and topics TBA soon. Donation based.

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