That depends on your Domain.
How to know if you should bring your bright shiny idea to market.
When I went full-on plant lady a few years ago, I did so with one goal in mind:
“Do not try to monetize this hobby.”
You could call it the elder millennial impulse to turn every hobby into a business venture, though I would argue that it’s my natural tendency as the daughter of an artist and an entrepreneur to try to find a way to make money from any creative pursuit. (I did start my first business, selling handmade confetti, in fourth grade. And you may have seen my recent IG video where I shared how I tracked the things I made on my bead loom to sell when I was a kid.) Whatever the reason, the urge to turn creative pursuits into revenue-generating activities is strong with me.
But I started buying plants specifically because I wanted a non-exercise, non-making hobby. Emphasis on hobby.
So I resisted the urges I had to potentially monetize my plants. I didn’t start a plant-focused Instagram account or turn myself into a plant influencer. And despite staying up way too late one night to design some plant-themed t-shirts (even going so far as to order a few print-on-demand samples), I didn’t bring that line into my business. Yes, I did occasionally use my plants as props on my Instagram and blog, but I was steadfast in keeping my plant obsession to hobby status.
All that changed a couple of weeks ago, when I decided to launch a line of bronze plant stakes in my signature leaf shapes. Suddenly, it felt like my plant obsession and my business were colliding in the best way possible. So I ran with it.
You might be wondering, what changed? Why did this idea make it into my business while planty influencer and t-shirt designer didn’t?
And if you’re like me, with ALL the bright, shiny creative ideas that could potentially be brought into your business at any moment, how do you decide which ones to pursue and which ones to ignore?
The answer comes down to Domain.
Domain is one piece of the Alignment puzzle that I teach to help artists and makers figure out how to create profitable businesses that play to their strengths. (The other parts of Alignment are Personality, Model, Market, and Economics.) Basically, the goal of Alignment is to build a business that makes you money AND makes you happy!
In Alignment, Domain is what your work is about. It’s the materials and processes that you’re drawn to, the things that inspire your work, the aesthetic you use, and what you create.
Having a clear Domain is what sets you apart as an artist, maker, or brand. It’s what helps you have clearly distinguishable work that people recognize as yours.
And, when it comes to shiny object syndrome, Domain is what helps you decide if something should become a part of your business or if it should stay in hobby status.
Another way to think about your Domain is as your lane. It’s the things your creative practice is built around, that you focus on and come back to time and time again. For some people, their lane is wide – think a super-highway. For others, it’s much more narrow – a goat path up a mountain. But regardless of how wide or narrow your Domain is, it’s made up of the things that make your art or craft distinctively yours.
Let’s look at my Domain as an example.
Even though I’ve dabbled with lots of things over the years, there are clear elements to my work that I come back to time and time again. When it comes to techniques, I’m most drawn to welding wire, which means I work with the metals that are best for welding – steel, silver, and bronze. Even when it isn’t obvious to others, my work is inspired by floral patterns and botanical forms. (I just often simplify them down to a great degree.) My aesthetic is built around contrast, abundance, and surprise – meaning I like repeating elements with hints of unexpectedness. And while what I’m most known for is my jewelry, I’ve also brought all these elements of my Domain into home decor since way back in my grad school days.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking. “But Megan, I’ve seen you do lots of other things in your work! What about the paintings or the textiles?”
Well, you’ve got some good points. So two things to keep in mind:
1. I’ve got a broad Domain. I’m fascinated by a lot of things, and they come into the periphery of my Domain. But if my Domain is a super-highway, all the things I shared above are my center lane. When push comes to shove, those are the things I’m known for and those are the things I come back to in my work. (Also, while I am a business coach that teaches this stuff, I’m also a creative human, and so sometimes I stray out of my lane from time to time. But I eventually come back to center at some point.)
2. Your Domain is really about the parts of your creative practice you bring into your BUSINESS. You can still have hobbies or side-gigs, but at the end of the day, Domain shows you what is most likely to succeed in your business and support you as a brand. There’s a reason painting sits more on the level of hobby for me now, rather than forming the core of my business. Just because you CAN make something doesn’t mean it makes sense to sell it.
So from the perspective of my Domain, it becomes pretty obvious why plant stakes got the green light while planty influencer and t-shirt designer did not. Plant stakes hit all the elements of my core Domain. If my Domain centered on photography, posting pics of my plants all day long might make sense. And if my Domain was focused on graphic design or illustration, well of course plant themed t-shirts would be a natural extension of that!
But they’re not, so adding them in would be a big distraction, not only for me but for my customers. While they were cool ideas at the moment (and could be both potentially fun and revenue-generating), evaluating them through the lens of Domain made it easy to see that they weren’t the right business opportunities for me.
When it comes to the question of whether or not you should monetize your hobbies, I’m not an either/or kind of girl. I think, as creatives, it’s really healthy for us to have hobbies. Things we do just for us, with no intention of selling or monetizing. But if you find yourself with a new hobby that aligns perfectly with your Domain? Well in my mind, that is worth exploring.
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I’ve got a big announcement about Alignment coming next week! (Hint: it involves a longer class!) But if you want to learn more about Alignment stat, you can get full, instant access to all the Alignment Retreat recordings when you join Artists and Profit Makers!