Work retail.
My parents owned a small clothing store in Lenoir, NC, so I grew up working as a sales clerk there. You learn a lot when 100% of your job is to please customers. I hated it while I was doing it, but now I’m so grateful for the humbling experience.  

Be an outsider at some point in your life.
Growing up Jewish in a small western NC town made me an automatic outsider. If you have lived a life of privilege–with no breaks from your privileged position–you might think the whole world lives the way you do. It doesn’t. Get out of your bubble and learn to cultivate empathy for those who are not like you.

Take an acting class.
Studying acting accomplishes a couple of things–it allows you to inhabit characters who likely don’t share your history, position, or personality. It also teaches you a kind of “performance grace,” and gives you a greater comfort level when you are expected to make public presentations or to teach.  

Learn to write and speak clearly, without jargon. 
Get coaching if you need to. It is easier to rally support to your project or organization if people understand what you are talking about! Run your presentations and applications by someone who is not in the arts field and see if they understand you. 

Be ready to go…
with 1) an elevator pitch (a couple of sentences) about your project or organization; 2) a 5-6 minute presentation for events like a panel; 3) a 20-minute presentation; and finally, 4) a 40-minute presentation. Nobody needs to talk longer than that!

ABC: Always Be Cultivating.
Everyone you meet is a potential friend and supporter. They should all be precious to you. You need them all, so you can’t be cavalier about them. Use every opportunity to…

Build your email lists!
Social media is great, but you don’t totally control who follows your accounts. You can control your mailing lists. It is important to get to know your constituencies intimately. Your mailing lists are a lifelong asset, and can help you become less dependent on unpredictable external sources of support. Can you arrive at the place where your own audience is sustaining your practice?  Maybe you can if you …

Make a community out of your audience. 
Bring them into your process. Share your successes and challenges with them. Otherwise, you may not recognize the resources that reside within your own community.

Don’t get frustrated if you feel that opportunities aren’t coming your way. 
Don’t wait for someone to invite you to the dance. Host your own party! Be generous with your peers. Create opportunities with and for others. People really  respect that. And a little secret: there is a lot of power in being a convener.

Learn to negotiate. 
The first offer is just that. Sometimes I remember to let the other party go first; I have (unfortunately) been guilty of underselling myself, and sometimes what is offered is way more generous than what I would have proposed. Sometimes keeping my mouth shut has turned out to be a good move!!

Build a team.
You will need that as your practice matures. Who do you need on that team? Obviously, you need the people who love and support you, but over time you will need a bevy of professionals, and it is never too early to start asking your friends for recommendations–for lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, PR support, tech support, and more!  

Cultivate alertness.
The external environment is changing all the time. It is important to be able to “read” it. Always be analyzing. That is what futurists do. They research, look for patterns, identify trends, try to dig deeper to understand the main drivers, and come up with a point of view. They are looking for evidence that a deep-rooted value is shifting. We need to be doing that too.

Take care of yourself
physically, emotionally, AND financially. You can’t do your work in the world if you aren’t taking care of yourself.

And especially: get financially literate! 
Develop a financial plan and budgets, both personal budgets and professional budgets, that assure you have: 1) enough money to live/operate; 2) an emergency fund;  3) a “self-investment” fund; 4) a designated facilities fund (if you are responsible for a space); and 5) savings and investments for your intermediate and long term wants and needs. If you run an organization, make sure you are doing this at work and at home.

Be a responsible steward…
of whatever resources you have been given; report out to your supporters regularly. Communicate not just what you have done–your activities–but communicate the transformative impact those activities have had on your constituencies.  

Prepare for crises; you will face them. 
I have dealt with internal organizational crises ranging from personnel crises to financial crises, as well as external crises such as censorship battles and funding cuts. Ask yourself:  what is the infrastructure I need to have in place to avert or at least mitigate disaster? More effective HR protocols? Money? Good language, good arguments? A constituency that can be mobilized quickly?

Never phone it in. 
Never. Nothing makes me crazier or angrier than people who show up to events like panels and "wing it."  It is disrespectful to the audience and to the people and organizations that invited you. Be well prepared. If you have the privilege of being asked to be on a panel or to speak somewhere, it is because the event organizers believe you have something important to say. What is the "case" you want to make–for yourself, for your work, for your ideas and point of view? Write it all down so you don't wander! And if the allotted time is 5 minutes, speak for 5 minutes–or less. NOT MORE. I have seen people drone on for 15 minutes when their allotted time was 5. That is disrespectful too. You never know who might be in the audience who might turn out to be supportive of you and your work, and your strong, cogent presentation might be exactly the impetus to get them engaged.

Retain documentation of what you have written and spoken and all that you have made.
You will have a story to tell in the future. Whatever period you live through, your personal story will be part of the broader cultural story of that era too. If you tend to speak using just bullet points, be sure to also create the full “script,” because, trust me, in 40 years, you won’t know what the heck those bullet points meant! Of course, retain everything using whatever the prevailing technology is, but don’t forget paper–it’s a very resilient technology too!

There are no magic bullets;
it is hard work that creates luck and opportunities.

Be bold.  

Ruby Lerner
Spring 2023