What Do You Have To Offer? #Discussion

WWhat do you have to offer? is not the question you have to answer only at a job interview or while making a sales pitch. It is a question you have to ask yourself and answer while dealing with every single person you come in contact with at home, at work and anywhere you have business to do.

As an artist I am faced with this question everyday, and with the growing ease that technology brings to the general industry climate, it gets more difficult to answer.

What do you have to offer?

Often I imagine what it must have been ten to twenty years ago for a girl of my age trying to make some headway in this kind of work space. Usually I am reminded of the relatively lesser market of opportunity as opposed to now, where opportunity is everywhere, but its convenience has made us blind. Not to mention the fact that the competition is stifled by the non-existence of it in its large numbers.

I ponder this a little while and I just realize how I have missed the initial question that lead to this – “What do you want?”

At a point in my life all I thought I wanted was a record deal. Then I learned that does not end the inherent desire in every artist to be heard. With or without a record deal or major management contract you still have to bring something to the table that keeps you relevant and consequently continues to pay the bills and excesses.

The question of what one has to offer presents itself in so many ways and does not have to be mind threatening if you see it as a sea of opportunity. What is lacking? What can you provide to fill the needs that exist in the space of what you want? Can you take yourself outside the situation of what you desire to bring a collective solution that can serve you as an individual?

Can you, in wanting to be led, be a leader of some sort?

As an artist, can you take your wants and transform them into an opportunity to give? Can you look outside of yourself and involve your community or network in some sort of way that gives your art and skill relevance?

These are the questions I ask myself and am working to find answers that can be executed.

These are my thoughts, but what are yours? Let us know in the comments.

The following guest post comes from Christine Ben-Ameh, independent artist & songwriter, currently signed with JTV Digital, a digital distribution company allowing artists & labels to get their music to major digital retail stores and monetize their content online.