In working with Kevin Skarritt of Acorn Creative on the “Go Nuts!” special report a while back, he came up with an incredible list of marketing tools and tactics - Content Catapults, if you will - which has expanded over time to be a 3-page, single-spaced list of ways a business could get their message, mission, and vision OUT there to their Ideal Audience.

And amazing as it may sound, “cartooning” isn’t even on the list.

It isn’t on our own shortlist of Content Catapults, either (which we chose on the basis of being the easiest, most cost-effective, and having the biggest bang for the smallest buck). But we DID include the “Create Your Own Content Catapult” catch-all, and here’s one example of someone who used cartooning as a Content Catapult - despite being very bad at it.

Scott Adams’ latest book, Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!: Cartoonist Ignores Helpful Advice, reveals some of the details of his early experience trying to get Dilbert off the ground:

I remember telling my friends and family that I was going to submit some comics to become a syndicated cartoonist. I don’t remember even one person predicting I would succeed. Thousands of wannabes submit comics for syndication every year and only a few get contracts. And most of those comics fizzle after a few years. My entire art experience included frequent doodling plus getting the well-deserved lowest grade in art class in college. That was my total preparation for my new career.

I sent my samples to several comic syndication companies. One syndicate helpfully suggested that I find an actual artist to do the drawings for me. United Media had lower standards and offered me a contract for Dilbert. That turned out to be a good move on their part.

The related thing, which he mentions in one of his other books, is that it took something like nine years of doing Dilbert before he finally quit his “day job” at SBC Communications and became a “full-time” cartoonist, so to speak. Nine years!

He may not have been a great (or even good) cartoonist, but what he did have going for him was fabulous content. So when it came to his drawing skills, “good enough” really was “good enough.”

And if you have great content, don’t hold yourself back with perfectionist thoughts, like “I need good recording equipment to do a podcast” or “I’ll start blogging after I get my website’s look and feel updated.” Just go for it!

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Posted in All About Content, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"? |

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 2:12 pm and is filed under All About Content, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.