BIO: Ilise Benun has made it her business to teach basic business skills to creative professionals who should have learned them in school but, alas, did not because it’s not taught in school.
STORY: Ilise hired a designer to design a brochure for her consulting practice. Instead, he delivered a folder with her logo.
LEARNING: Stand up for yourself. Ask every question you can think of.
“Ask every stupid question to confirm the details of any arrangement.”
Ilise Benun
Ilise Benun has made it her business to teach basic business skills to creative professionals who should have learned them in school but, alas, did not because it’s not taught in school. This has, for years, perpetuated a “starving artist” mentality amongst creative professionals, who are naturally talented and could easily bring their creativity to the business side of their business if only they knew how. That’s her mission with all of her work through marketing-mentor.com, including The Marketing Mentor Podcast, seven books including The Creative Professional’s Guide to Money, three online courses for Creative Live and Domestika.org, and much more. If you want more from Ilise on mindset, money, and marketing, sign up for her Quick Tips.
When Ilise started her business, she came across a graphic designer and thought it would be great to have a brochure for her consulting practice. The designer showed Ilise images and examples of what the brochure would look like. Ilise was very excited. But when the brochure arrived on her doorstep, it was not what she had imagined. The designer designed boxes of folders with Ilise’s logo on it. The designer asked her all sorts of questions, and she answered them. She was utterly disappointed in the product but didn’t say anything. She just never worked with the designer again. Ilise was so young, immature, and afraid at that point in her career that she just didn’t stand up or advocate for herself.
Ask every question you can think of, even if it feels like it would be a stupid one.
Ilise recommends her Domestica course, Writing a Winning Proposal. She teaches what she calls the proposal Oreos strategy. This is a way to help people using a food metaphor to learn how to have the money conversation and then decide whether or not to write a proposal based on that conversation.
Ilise’s number one goal for the