Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cody Clark. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Cody , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I’m glad to say I’ve been a full time professional magician and autism advocate for the past decade and counting! I’ve practiced magic for 20 years and the idea of being a professional performer was always in my head – even before magic, I went through a “pro basketball, pro baseball, and “I want to own a business”” phases. It was when I entered college and saw how, rather than my studies pushing me towards an office job, that they gave me a blueprint for small business success, that I decided to take the immediate leap into business.

My marketing major taught me how to run my own business, successfully close sales, and all about “targeted marketing” – the idea of focusing specifically on a small subset of customers who very specifically need your offer rather than “mass marketing” to the world at large. My theatre arts minor gave me the performing skills I needed and stage time to figure out my artistic voice. Both led to the creation of a show that was essentially my college thesis and is still my core show offered: “A Different Way of Thinking”

This show uses magic, comedy, and storytelling to share what being autistic is like from an authentically autistic perspective. The core idea it expresses is that autism’s nothing to be scared of, but simply a different way of thinking. It started my career by touring the fringe theatre circuit. It was ticket sales based, so it taught me a lot of real world marketing and budgeting lessons. It also gave me stage time, credible endorsements from press, and via my contacting of disability advocacy orgs, would lead to my path forward of those orgs paying me flat for this show and talks to help young autistic adults transition into adulthood.

This path from ticket sales to flat paying customers kept me stable, but on the lower end of income earning for the first five years of my career. It was during the worst days of COVID, when live presenters had to adapt to Zoom or die, that I gained a business coach named Jonah Babins who not only helped me pivot to Zoom, but learn systems which would help me scale my lead gen to a point of making a yearly income on par with and exceeding many traditional salaried job positions.

I’d say the big lesson from my path is to start your creative business endeavors by focusing on credibility building rather than profitability, then take notice of your biggest fans and start targeting them specifically, then scale up by finding more people/clients who are just like your biggest fans and using systems to make this process as large and efficient as possible.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Cody Clark and I’m a full time professional magician and autistic self-advocate. I was diagnosed with autism at 15 months of age and my parents we’re told I’d hardly be able to do anything. Thanks to their tenacity and ability to find therapy resources, I was mainstreamed in school, eventually gained a degree from the University of Louisville, and at the age of 11, was inspired by a magic show during a family vacation to aim my life towards being a professional magician.

I started incorporating my backstory of being autistic into my show when the Slant Culture Theatre Festival in Louisville was looking for magic shows that felt different than usual. They felt my blend of magic, comedy, and storytelling with my experiences living with autism fit that bill and thankfully, this show is still touring ten years later! It is my core offering alongside sensory friendly magic shows for adult day cares and “transition planning talks” which help 18-30 year olds with disabilities become successful adults.

For more information, you may check out codyclarkmagic.com or @codyclarkmagic on all major social media pages.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Finding my business coach Jonah Babins is why I’m thriving! He explains, to me and my fellow “Mastermind” members, core business concepts like we’re five and explains it over and over again! His coaching is based on the core idea of “The E Myth” by Michael Gerber – that systemized and delegated business operations can allow for consistent lead gen and for “hobby business” owners to make their living in a way that allows them to continue enjoying their passions. He’s applying it specifically to magicians and teaching us lead gen, operations, and management systems that consistently work and giving each of us all the attention needed for it to “stick” within our business. There are many people in the program who are having huge success with it!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I want to show the world that differences like autism are nothing to be scared of, but rather a different way of thinking. People who aren’t in the know (and even sometimes those who are) may accept autism on the surface, but have underlying fears about it underneath. By using my magic routines to show how exactly I think differently – while frying their brains with astonishment – I hope people see how I indeed think differently, but how I also have the same goals and dreams as everyone else and that us with autism should have the same rights to live those dreams as everyone else. I want to humanize autism and help people see those with it as an asset and not a liability.

Contact Info:

• Website: codyclarkmagic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/codyclarkmagic
• Facebook: facebook.com/codyclarkmagic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/codyclarkmagic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CodyClarkMagic/videos