Try giving yourself away
My career has flourished on the power of giving myself away.
Through reckless generosity and a promiscuous heart, I’ve always treated the bulk of my work as a gift. As an offering to the marketplace. As a loving impulse of emotional labor that signals to the world, there’s plenty more where that came from.
This strategy, if you can even call it a strategy, hasn’t failed me yet. Because it comes from a place of abundance and love and connection. In fact, the concept of giving yourself away began as an anonymously written article in a business magazine nearly a hundred years ago. And due to its popularity and volume of reprint requests, the piece was later expanded into a bestselling book, which became an inspiration to millions. Myself included.
And so, when it came time to decide on a distribution strategy for this documentary, there was never really any question. Of course I’m going to give the entire movie away. Of course I’m going to stream the whole thing on my website for free. Of course I’m going to adopt the direct to consumer channel. Because anything that’s a barrier to getting my work in people’s hands is a problem.
Besides, since most of the independent documentaries that premiere each year never even see the light of day anyway, much less secure theatrical distribution or achieve commercial success, I see no reason to exhaust and expense myself in the process.
Middleman, schmiddleman.
Are you keeping your giving away machinery in good working order?