We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mathew Heggem. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mathew below.
Hi Mathew, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
My mission is to help 10,000 artists achieve financial wellness. I’m only just beginning that mission, and certainly have a long way to go. However, this mission is personal and it’s also about practicing what I preach. As an artist myself, I’ve experienced the highs & lows of what it means to be a professional artist within an economic system that cannot support you, at least from a “traditional” sense. And as I entered into the world of business, I learned the hard way what it means to be taken advantage of. In hindsight, I was naive and lacked boundaries. I didn’t know how to stand up for myself, and I also didn’t always know when to say no. I trusted the wrong people, and was blinded by my own hopes & aspirations for that someday vision, hoping that one day it would just get better. I was blinded by the entrepreneurial, capitalist dream that comes with getting equity in a business. Now, I have a much better relationship to myself, my boundaries, wants and needs. I also have gained a lot more business experience, and a deeper level of acumen around holistic, financial wellness. It’s that perfect moment of hindsight. So, I started 10kCreators.com to return the lessons I’ve learned along the way back to my creative community, to help artists & arts organizations thrive, and to guide them down a path towards financial wellness that is counter to the systems of traditional capitalism that limit our collective, creative human potential. I went through the flames, so that others do not have to!
Mathew, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Mathew Heggem and I am a financial strategist, business advisor, artist and entrepreneur. I founded 10kCreators.com as a social enterprise to help artists & arts organizations improve their financial wellness. I do this from a holistic perspective, taking into consideration everything from accounting systems and cashflow management to personal, financial goals and obstacles around money trauma. I work with my clients to help them understand what their obstacles are, and guide them towards moving through those obstacles, teaching them what I know and holding them accountable towards a better financial future. I got into this work after having parallel careers in the Arts, as a professional dancer and choreographer, and accounting. 10kCreators sits at that intersection, but from a broader and more regenerative perspective than current solutions. When it comes to the work I do, if there’s one thing that a prospective client or community member must understand, it’s that the business side of the arts cannot be pushed off onto some external manager. Passing the business buck is never okay! We must take responsibility for our financial lives, personally and in business, and not expect some outside party to steward our resources without a level of oversight. Often, I get people knocking on my door asking me to be their “business manager,” as if I’m just going to take 100% responsibility for operating their arts businesses. This I will never do, because it’s irresponsible and unsustainable for both parties. It’s also not equitable, and adheres to a mindset that perpetuates negative stereotypes about artists as incapable of being successful business people. I am living proof that you can be both, successful as an artist and as a business person. This doesn’t mean you won’t hire people to help you along the way. But you need to get there from a financial perspective first & foremost, and even if you have a business manager you still need to be able to hold them accountable, understand the finances, and be able to participate in the business strategy conversations. Artists are just as responsible for the business, as they are the art making.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
People often say, “it’s all about the relationship,” and that they don’t want business to be transactional. I get the sentiment. Sadly, however, I’ve found this to be an excuse for the fact that many people are simply operating poor businesses as a result of low transactional competency and banking on a relationship that may inevitably go sour. It goes sour, because there wasn’t enough time & attention paid towards designing an effective transaction. So, I say that great business about both: relationships AND transactions. This stance has been reinforced by the countless times where I went into business with people who I appreciated and cared for as people, only to discover that the “agreements,” a.k.a. assumptions, we had established would later be broken or disregarded as circumstances shifted. I’ve also been flat-out lied to, and taken advantage of by people who I thought of as friends & family. I don’t care that you’ve known the person for 10+ years. Get a contract, and go through the process of diligently spelling out the details. I’m done learning this the hard way! One of my favorite quotes is “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Live by that!
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Networking, networking, networking. Social media marketing is great, but human relationships are better. And most of business that I have to this date, certainly the best opportunities, are a result of years of relationship building. This is the #1 area where I see people falling flat, especially artists. Creative folks, entrepreneurs included, will go into their creative caves and come out later with brilliant ideas only to discover that there’s no one outside the cave to receive them. And, there’s a healthy and regenerative way of networking that doesn’t equal the “spray & pray” method most people seem to be familiar with. Instead, think of networking as tending to a garden. You cannot force the tree to produce an apple, but when it does and under the right conditions, you’ll have more apples than you can handle! Networking IS cultivating great relationships and maintaining them overtime without the expectation that they’ll pay you back. You need to learn to give, as much as you expect to receive, and never assume that you know where that next client will come. In the world of the arts, audiance development takes time, patience and persistence.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.10kcreators.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/10kcreatorsllc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/10kcreators/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10kcreators-llc/
- Twitter: https://x.com/10kcreators
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@10kcreatorsllc?si=7BhLpyp02F3c_r7T
Image Credits
Dance photos with Emma Batman of Left Side Labs by EK Designs.