PODCLASS: Week 4, My VCUArts Lecture Series on the Creative Economy

The first video shares the class overview for the day, as well as a look into the rough draft of our business plan. The second video shares thoughts on the development of an executive summary. You’ll see that some of the video is out of sync. I had to go back and re-record the audio that wasn’t captured in the initial lecture.

If you are looking to Author opportunities, drafting a clear summary is the first major step in soliciting new work and opportunities. No one with the resources to help you who is going to give you their time and focus if you can't concisely explain your ideas. It will take you a number of drafts to find the right words and tone to explain what, exactly, you are asking for.

As a prelude to writing your summary, I would strongly--- and did I say STRONGLY suggest that you go to Kickstarter and you START a project on that platform. I'm highly impressed by the Kickstarter platform. It is for all intents and purpose, a platform for creatives that walks you through the structuring of building a proposal, setting a budget and launching it into the world. The genius of the platform is that it lets you set a budget to be reached within a set period of time. If you don't meet the budget, you owe people nothing. If you reach your budget, you owe them what you've promised. This is a direct way to test the market for your idea to a supportive audience while mitigating the risk of losing time, money and effort. The biggest drawback to Kickstarter? Artists failing to deliver what they've promised.

The outcome of going through an entire Kickstarter set up is that you will be asked to create a very specific vision, explanation, project outcomes and budget before getting close to launching. This will shine a light on the tremendous amount of work that goes into creating a proposal. All of this has to be done before you even begin promotion and advertising, which is an extraordinary amount of work, itself.

An executive summary is a condensed overview of a longer proposal. Our aim is to keep our executive summaries to 1-2 pages, with a preference on brevity.It isn't necessary to write an executive summary in full prose, but the point is to communicate your intention as clearly and succinctly as possible.

1. Title

2. Conact

3. Overview

4. The Ask

5. The Outcome

6. Phases

7. Precedence

8. Examples

9. The Closing

1. Title: A clear title for your project. This should reflect what you want to make, create, or do, while being interesting enough to invite the reader to open the document.

2. Contact: Your name, title, email, phone, as well as your contact's name and title

3. Overview: A general introduction of the scope of the project. Often, I will include the ask in the overview as quickly as possible.

4. The Ask: What do you want? Specifically, what are you asking for?

5. Outcome: What are the benefits to the person you are soliciting? To the audience?

6. Phases: You can break down the most ambitious ideas into smaller steps. These phases should follow a logical scaling up in the development and complexity of the project. They also serve as checkpoints in project development and an exit strategy should the project not progress in the way you imagined.

7. Precedence: What else has been created that is similar to your project? How was it successful?

8. Examples: What experience do you have in successfully creating a project like this?

9. Closing: A short closing that may include a brief reminder of what you are asking for.