Valuable.
I've read all the creative entrepreneurial articles. [Or at least hundreds of them. There are more of them everyday.]
Some are meaty and full of tactical plans for success, hard evidence in favor of hashtags, real life advice for elevator pitches and why they work + practical tax advice. Some are a little fluffy, but well designed. But all of them, literally all of them, preach this fundamental idea:
Provide value to your audience.
When you are an illustrator specializing in drawings that are light, whimsical and a bit simple: answering the question "What value do I provide?" can feel challenging when applied to the newsletter you just sent out that offered readers an illustrated pun featuring a chicken.
This question haunts me each time that shivering monkey hand hovering over a button pops up when Mail Chimp asks me "are you sure you want to send?" It enters my mind each time I click "save and publish" on Squarespace to put a post out into the interwebs about my name being linked to a fictional, deceased television character. But there is something I try to remember.
Value is in the eye of the beholder.
That's the real truth of it. "Providing value" is as much about "bringing the fun" as it is about "offering advice." Once I shifted my thinking from "ahhh. I'm providing a holiday pun about a taco... that's not adding value" to "ahhh. This is hilarious. My readers will totally giggle when they see a taco pun this morning" I was able to see that value is in the eye of the beholder. They don't call it "perceived value" for nothing.
So what "value" am I offering you today?
Today, and everyday, I'm offering what I do best: drawings made with highlighters, markers and wit. And FREE for you to print, color and enjoy. Because free coloring pages are valuable. Right?