Terry Parker: Pottery Shards

Remember when you were supposed to have an elevator pitch for what you were about — something that could be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride or about 30 seconds. Well – one of the things we learned from Alyson Stanfield was that the elevator pitch has been replace by the 10 second introduction. With all of the information we ask our brains to assimilate in this fast moving world, 10 seconds is about the all the attention span we can expect to get from someone before their mind wanders. Alyson has lots of hints on what a good 10 second intro should include and how to write one. One thing she suggests to keep in mind it should include words that intrigue your listener so that they will ask questions. In my current version I say after introducing myself by name “I’m a studio potter. I make high fire functional pottery that people love to use as much as they enjoy looking at it”

You can also include something current like an exhibition you are in or something about a new work you just finished. Like when I made these tumblers as a special order, I could add “I just made some terrific tumblers as a special order that were so comfortable to hold, I’m just had to make some more”.

I made tumblers like these as a special order. It's a new shape for me.

I’m still working on my 10 second introduction. We were asked to create one for the Hollister workshop and since that time, I have formed an Art Marketing Salon with 4 other artists whom I met at the workshop. Our first meeting focused on critiquing our 10 second introductions. Not surprisingly, we all still needed to work on them a bit more — either the words or the delivery. So we determined that we would continue to work on them and start each of our meetings by delivering them.

And now you ask – What is an Art Marketing Salon? How do you form one? What does it cost? You can read about what it is and how to from one at www.artbizconnection.com . It only costs you your time as you need to make the commitment to fully participating. And at the end, you and your fellow salon members will have a complete art marketing plan. You provide the committed group and Alyson provides the material at no monetary cost.

Our art salon met for the first time last week. Ours is a small group – five members – two ceramic artist, two watercolor artists and an artist who specializes in woven art. They are all wonderful artists and I look forward to meeting with them again this week. At some point, I will post about each of them so you can see the wonderful artwork that they are currently producing.

One interesting thing came out of our last session. As we were rattling off our 10 second intros, Mark (our host’s husband) who had been listening to us, brought a timer into the room, saying that 10 seconds was longer than we thought! And it is an evolving entity. Alyson says it took her two years to come up with her intro and it still changes a bit as time goes on.