I’m a slasher. I freely admit it, and it’s something I’m not likely to change.
No, not the kind of slasher featured in horror movies. (Duh.) The kind that makes frequent use of the / key when describing what I do.
As in, “I’m an artist/writer/singer/songwriter/creativity coach/teacher/etc. etc. etc.”
Recently such use of the slash has been the subject of hot debate in a corner of the blogosphere. It started with this post by Mars Dorian, which begins:
Hello fellow digital crusader !
There’s one thing that’s bothering me lately, and I see it EVERYWHERE nowadays. I see it on Facebook accounts, Twitter profiles and about pages. I see it in email signatures and tweets. It’s making me want to vomit in my mouth, and it’s keeping YOU away from success.
What ?
It’s a terrible description that more and more people give themselves.
It goes like this:
I’m a writer / entrepreneur / traveler / consultant / designer and blogger.
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaang.
That’s the sound of shooting yourself in the foot.
You know what this tells me ? That YOU suck at each and everyone of them !
The Glove is Thrown Down
Baker Lawley of Catfish Parade responded with this post, in which he admitted to almost changing his slasher description of himself after he read Mars’ post. Instead, he ended up championing the cause of slashers everywhere (and mentioning me in the company of several other online slashers I admire – thanks Baker! – which is how I discovered this whole debate in the first place).
Emilie Wapnick, another waver of the multipotentialite flag (her word – ain’t it great?), leaped into the fray with her post SLASHERS UNITE! over at Puttylike.
The conversation happening in the comments on these three blogs kept me up waaaaaay too late late night, and I figured an “official” response was in order. So here it is.
One Title or Many?
If you spend the time to read the comments on these other blogs (recommended – interesting stuff there), you’ll find that Mars claims that’s he’s not actually saying that people cannot be good at multiple things (though it’s understandable why anyone would come to that conclusion, given his rather bold opening statement.)
What he is saying (or at least what I understand of what he’s saying) is that breaking your career identity into a series of slashes is shooting yourself in the foot. In other words, if you want to have impact, if you want to leave a legacy, it’s much better to combine all those slashes under a single umbrella.
This is debatable in itself, and Emilie shares some good counter arguments in Mars’ comment stream. But let’s stop there for a moment to ponder.
Finding the Umbrella
Integrating my various identities into one whole is, in fact, precisely what I’ve been trying to do in the past year of blogging about my journey to follow my evolving Blisses and (re-)create the life I really, really want. How to combine all of my gifts under one title? I was honestly tired of the split identity that all these slashes implied, and have put a lot of thought into how to integrate them all.
I tried on Renaissance Woman for awhile.
Then Multi-Passionate Creative ARTrepreneur.
The problem with this approach, though, is that it doesn’t give a clue as to what I actually do.
Finding the Handle
Categories, labels, niches drive multi-passionates crazy, but the truth is that human beings also seem to have an innate need for them. And as Michael Martine of Remarkablogger pointed out in a comment on Mars’ blog, the systems humans have created to find what we need – from the phone books and card catalogues of days past to search engines and Wikipedia of today – are not friendly to anything that doesn’t fit into a category we already understand:
The thing is not to pick one thing as you [“you” being Mars] suggest, but to put more thought into the overall theme of all that you do and describe it better.
I don’t need to say I’m a copywriter/blogger/designer/SEO/marketer/strategist. I say I’m a Blog Consultant, which seems like one thing but isn’t. If you think about it, you’ll see how I just solved a marketing/branding/SEO problem all in one stroke. Google “blog consulting” and you’ll see.
Clients need a “handle” by which to understand you and their own problems. It’s a naming problem. In no way does it mean what you suggest: that we abandon other disciplines which we may in fact be better at than most people. That is astonishingly mistaken, in my opinion.
However, it’s somewhat understandable. People who should only focus on one thing often fail to understand that multipotentialites or polymaths (pick your term) excel at multiple disciplines to the extent most people can only excel at one.
I think you would have been better off bringing this idea up as a question rather than as a polemic.
Amen, Michael.
But that still leaves someone like me a bit out in the cold. Is anyone out there using Google so search for “Renaissance Woman” or “Creative ARTrepreneur” (or even “Creative Entrepreneur”)? Um, yeah.
Which points to the need to describe what you do in terms of how, exactly, you help people. A naming problem, as Michael puts it.
Still Solving My Naming Problem
Let me now take a brief detour to mention that I’ve never been fully satisfied with Multi-Passionate Creative ARTrepreneur for precisely this reason, and have been hunting around for a more descriptive title. A “handle” by which clients can understand me and their own problems.
Catherine Caine pointed out in our session the other day that the theme underlying everything I do is Creative Abundance. But how to express the various things I actually do atop that foundation? Among other things, I:
- create art to inspire – ie, I’m an artist. (And a calligrapher. Or artist/calligrapher, which leads to its own philosophical naming issue, implying, as it does, that calligraphers are not artists. But we won’t go down that road in this particular post…)
- inspire others to live their own creative lives – ie, I’m a coach…? (Or guide. Again, I seem incapable of limiting myself to a single word. Plus I do this not just through coaching, but also through writing, and through the art that I create.)
- mentor and empower creative types to share their gifts with the world – ie, I’m a.. what? a coach again? a mentor? a guide? a marketing teacher?
How in heaven’s name does one encapsulate all of this into a single title?
I kind of like Creative Abundance Goddess and Guide, but it still leaves me with an SEO problem, and no clear “handle” by which clients can understand me. The truth is, a slasher title – something like Artist/Writer/Coach/Creative Living Consultant, say – while less entertaining, would probably work better for SEO.
So what’s the answer?
I don’t have one. Though I’m thankful to Mars and Baker and Emilie for initiating the debate (and Michael and a whole bunch of others for contributing) because it got me thinking about it.
It seems to me that there’s a place for all of this. There’s a definite trend online toward setting yourself apart with a unique, even grandiose title:
Tara Gentile of ScoutieGirl is a philosopher of creative living and DIY culture & lifestyle design expert. Leonie Allan of the Goddess Guidebook is a Goddess. Laura Hollick of Soul Art Studio is an Artist & Shaman. Alexia Petrakos is an Expedition Leader for Creative Explorers. Caleb Wojcik of Pocket Changed is a World Changer.
I could go on.
Personally, I think these grandiose titles are fun! They give you a sense of the bearer’s personality, even if they don’t necessarily give you a clear sense of what they actually mean.
But it would seem to me a wise move to also break that title down in a way that people can more clearly understand what you’re about.
The funny thing is, even if you do your best to avoid all slashing, I suspect there’s no way you’re going to stop other people from slashing you. With all these crazy-ass titles, I can see scenes such as this becoming commonplace:
Person A: “Melissa Dinwiddie? Who’s she?”
Person B: “Oh, you know, that Artist/Writer/Coach/Creative Living Consultant over at Living A Creative Life.”
‘Nuff said.
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What do you think? Do you think slashing is shooting yourself in the foot? Do you think it means you suck at everything you do? Or are you an unrepentant slasher? Perhaps with a crazy-ass grandiose title as well? Share your reactions in the comments below.
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We are slashers because the terminology doesn’t exist yet to describe us. I want to turn my site into a TOTAL culmination of my digital self – hiking, birdwatching and my relationship marketing stuff.
It’s gonna be awesome. But most people can’t understand. Being easy to describe and seo isn’t necessary when you’re evolving.
EXACTLY, Jade! That’s the problem: there are no words to adequately describe us yet.
We slashers need those multi-syllabic-German-words-that-encapsulate-7-different-ideas-into-one. Just doesn’t work so well in English…
And I totally agree: when you’re still in the evolution phase it’s to be expected that you might not be easy to describe or search-engine optimize. (I mean, of course we’re always evolving, but sometimes it’s a bit more… intense than others.)
Can’t wait to see your blog! Woot!
Hey Melissa,
Great response you threw in here. I actually spend a lot of time with my coaching students trying to come up with an umbrella theme/overarching mission for their businesses. It’s the majority of what I do (plus it’s super fun). I completely hear you on the SEO problem though.
Another way to deal with this is by combining titles that are umbrella terms in and of themselves. Like Steve Kamb’s blog Nerd Fitness is a combination of 2 umbrella categories: Nerdery can include his interests in film, video games, music, even traveling. While fitness includes athletics, nutrition, overall health, mindset, and so on.
I know similar multipotentialites who describe themselves as filmmakers because they feel that this term includes writing/directing/producing/sound design/whatever. This is kind of what Michael was saying.
But then again, there are also multipotentialites who prefer not to bring all their passions together under one theme, and that’s cool too. Some people like having a revenue stream from music gigs over here and rev from a part time writing gig trickling in over there, keeping things distinct. Both methods can work. You can even combine them.
Most of what I do is under my combo of 2 umbrella topics (lifestyle design + multipotentiality). But I do have a few distinct interests that I keep separate. My screenwriting pursuits, for example are fairly separate (though I do write about them on the blog, so who knows. 🙂
Ultimately it comes down to personal choice. There are a lot of options for us mulitpotentialites! (Aint it great?)
Great comment, Emilie!
As someone who follows a slew of Blisses, I spent most of my life keeping them separate. It’s only in the past year that I’ve intentionally started to integrate them and find an overarching mission/theme. That in itself is an ongoing adventure…
Like you, though, some of my interests are more distinct. My singing/songwriting/performing, while certainly a big part of my own creative abundance, are for the most part focused on quite different themes. Most of my songs so far revolve around the trials and tribulations of dating, and other dilemmas of modern living.
I haven’t yet been compelled to write songs aboutcreative abundance — I’m more interested in making people laugh. 😉
I have thought, though, about ways I can incorporate my music more into my site. The fact that it is one of my Blisses makes it an obvious element to incorporate, once I find the “right” way to do that.
Anyway, I agree: personal choice is what it’s all about. Lots of options can be great, but they also make things a helluva lot more challenging.
Being a multipotentialite is great, but it ain’t always easy! 😉 (But I’d take the harder-but-more-interesting road any day.)
What are you? You are Melissa Dinwiddie. You’ve chosen that name to go by, so your aim now is to do what Google did. Does anyone have to ask what Google does? Google is an identity that does a miriad of things that could quite easily be slashed, but they don’t need to describe themselves that way because they’ve created a brand that has become that meaning.
You need to create that online identity (which you’ve certainly made a great start on) and ‘Melissa Dinwiddie’ will become what your want it to be. What you write will create the character. What do you think of when ‘McDonalds’ is mentioned?
I really don’t think the short summary is as important as it seems. What you are is written all over your website.
I’ve kinda given up putting all my interests into one dish to describe myself. Here I interface with my fellow artists as an artist. Elsewhere I interface with other genealogists while researching my family tree. When I’m playing in fandom, I don’t think I tend to talk about my gardening interests much. At Gumnut Inspirations I have specifically focussed on certain interests and left others out because I want to create an expectation in my audience for my brand. They know what they are likely to get from me and that becomes my identity. A gumnut is the woody fruit from a eucalyptus tree, but now it is also the nutty/arty/writery type person who hangs around my blog.
And I’m babbling, I know, my brain isn’t giving me the words to explain myself clearly. Too much multitasking of my own just recently, I think. Sorry.
Do you have to summarize yourself explicitly?
-o-o-o-
Hi, I’m Melissa Dinwiddie.
I art.
I write.
I inspire.
I seek to help others to do the same.
I dare you to take my challenge.
-o-o-o-
There isn’t much that you could do that isn’t covered by that. Heh, I just realised that I do the same, but as you can see, we both do it very differently (you pro-active powerhouse of a woman, you :D) The SEO will be taken care of by the words in your blog, and the list of programs and activities you run.
In summary, you don’t have to tell people you are multipassionate, you have to show it. Which you are doing quite nicely. And create an online identity that is what you want it to be.
Liz
(too tired to write coherently)
What a brilliant point, Nutty! And I LOVE your summary of me at the end! I may have to steal it. 😉
Thanks for pointing out something that has been missed in this entire discussion: that maybe showing is more important than telling.
You’re welcome to steal it 😀 I’ve been thinking that perhaps it is better to use verbs than nouns, that way you can avoid the entire labeling issue. In creative writing, descriptive verbs are much more effective than adjectives, so why should this be any different? And you avoid labels. Say ‘I do this’ rather than ‘I am that’. It seems to me that it is easier for someone to do more things than be multiple things without them interfering with each other.
Or, if nouns are preferred, kill off the ‘I am’.
Melissa Dinwiddie
Artist. Writer. Inspirationalist.
Keep each noun at the top category level so you can umbrella yourself under them, but at the same point, use them only as a starting point. Your website will say the rest. And besides, beyond first impressions, people will make up their own minds as to what your skill set is anyway.
What would you put on your business card?
Liz
(who needs to rewrite her own bio, so really can’t say anything anyway :D)
Marvelous! I do have a sort of an umbrella to cover the various hats I wear. I have received the feedback that I am “shooting myself in the foot” Integrating all I do – the slasher at work – is important to conveying who I am and what I offer. Multipotentiality does exist and we do a variety of things well. So here is to the slasher!
Also, the feedback to meet the appropriate marketing techniques at times is helpful for solid presentation, but your presentation of who you are – and evolving is taking place both within you and with the medium.
So I will be the rainbow with many colors – because we have a connection and direction it is just not unilateral.
I love your metaphor of a rainbow with many colors, Edith. And you’re right — all of it is evolving all the time. Hopefully the result of all this evolution is more and more clarity around who you are. The definition may get richer and more complex as time goes by, but hopefully more clear. 🙂
I’ve adopted “hopeful creative” as my umbrella. I’m always refining, looking for that perfect way to say “I’m a soulful performer with a fabulous voice who writes thoughtful songs and sculpts when she can who has spent years counseling high tech companies in marketing and PR and is now applying that experience to help other artists shed their fear of marketing and embrace it as a responsibility to their fans and supporters. And I still work with tech clients because I like it and I can do it part time to fund the rest of my life.”
Only I always apologize for that last part because I fear people won’t take me seriously as an artist.
And I’m never sure which website to link to. My marketing blog or my music site?
Maybe I need more slashes 🙂
I love “hopeful creative,” Bev, and knowing your work, I think it’s a good fit.
I do understand the fear of people not taking you seriously if you “admit” to getting income from other streams, but the fact is, most creatives pay the bills with a patchwork of income streams. Putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea anyway, and rarely realistic for a creative solopreneur!
I think it’s awesome that you have a variety of skills and gifts to share with the world and sustain yourself with. 🙂
As for which site to link to, that’s exactly why I created this site — to bring everything together in one place. I don’t work with corporate clients, though, so the wacky presentation isn’t a problem for me. If I were seeking corporate copyrighting gigs for example, though, it might now suit me so well…
Ah, yet more challenges for us Renaissance souls!
Well…I’ve gotten it down to one slash recently. Professional psychic and life coach. I thought about reducing that to a one word title and got Psycho. Um, no.
I think I’ll try…”Hi, I’m Sandi and I’m going to rock your motherlovin’socks off.” How’s that for an elevator speech?
You rock Melissa for bringing this topic to the table!
”Hi, I’m Sandi and I’m going to rock your motherlovin’socks off.”
unrepentant slashers of the world unite!
I claim creative catalyst/dream advocate/creativity enabler/artist/writer/coach/nomad/performer
and even with my slashes I have slashes!
“oh you’re an artist? what do you do?”
“well I’m a painter/maskmaker/mixed-media/printmaker who collages and does the odd sculpture form time to time”
“uh, OK, what do you write?”
“well, I write about travel/creativity/authenticity/time and our relationship to it both seasonally and cyclically . . .I blog and write stories and articles and . . .”
I could go on and on -LOL- but I won’t
I’m beginning to ponder just saying artistic nomad – and let teh questions begin 🙂
My slashes have slashes too, Paula:
Artist/calligrapher/book artist
Jazz singer/songwriter/Uke Diva
Etc. etc…
LOVE Artistic Nomad. Definitely a conversation starter! 🙂
I’m with you, Melissa! On both accounts – being an unrepentant slasher and being stuck for a label. One of my friends (Tessa Zeng – you may know her?) suggested the label “creative strategist”, and I really love it – it’s a neat little label for most of what I do, and “writer” covers the rest, really. Getting things down to one slash is quite the accomplishment for me 😉 But then I worry that it’s one of those titles that doesn’t really say a whole lot, even though it sounds cool, yanno?
I really liked Gumnut’s comment – full of genius!
Creative Strategist is a great title, Michelle. And like Artistic Nomad or Inspirationalist (LOVE this and am TOTALLY USING IT, Nutty/Gumnut/Liz!) it has the “feature” of being a good conversation starter.
Michael Port, in his book Book Yourself Solid, recommends having a sort of “script” to improvise from when you talk about what you do, and in fact advises against using a noun title (as in, I’m an artist/coach/whatever).
Instead, it goes something like this:
Q: So what do you do?
A: Well, you know those people who [insert the problem that your services help solve]? I [insert how you solve that particular problem] so that they can [insert what benefits they get from working with you].
He has longer and shorter versions to use, depending on the situation, but the goal is to engage someone in an actual conversation. When you state that you’re a [noun title], it tends to close up the conversation, rather than opening it.
Nevertheless, titles are useful on websites, business cards, etc!
And I LOVE Inspirationalist! 🙂
Ooh! I’ve been meaning to read Book Yourself Solid. Just more motivation to do so. 😉
It’s great! AND you can download a FREE workbook from his website (that has a lot of the info in the book to, btw). VERY good stuff here.
I prefer commas.
: )
Heh! Very creative way of staying out of slasher-dom, Peter. 😉
Well, at least you guys are in the same ballpark 😉
Mine could be artist / biologist / psychic / business coach . I think mine will likely have to remain separate!
Yeah, sometimes slashers need to keep their slashes in very different boxes. 🙂