Audits
These are the equivalent of the "Unfair Advantage" or "Secret Sauce" element of the Lean Canvas. It should be done first as it informs your next steps. A key difference between the business and creative canvas is that the former is usually testing a new idea, whereas a creative is potentially deciding how to monetise existing assets, as well as decide which new assets to create based on demand.
Personal Audit
List each specific thing about YOU that gives you an advantage over other creatives. This is about you, not your output. Go wide. Go deep. Examples might be:
- Specialist skills in your field
- Already known for other reasons
- Personality traits
- Tools you have that give you an advantage
- Your passion for your craft and huge commitment to making a success of it
Brand Audit
For each of your Brands, what makes it stand out?
- Existing backlog of work
- Existing followers
- Niche with few other players
Example
I'm using Sam Battle as an example. Sam is a manic UK electro musician who has a brand called Look mum no computer.
Sam:
Sam:
- knows his stuff re analog synths
- is a real musician
- is funny and manic
- is chaotic but somehow delivers
- has a load of gear and space to make crazy stuff
- has a great haircut!
- has an established YouTube channel established in 2013 with 189,000+ subscribers as at July 2019
- the channel has 177 video uploads which have been watched over 13 million times
- Performances - Modern Gas
- Reviews of old synths - Yamaha CS80
- Mad inventions - Furby Organ (I really mean MAD)
- Tutorials - Oberheim DX Drum machine mod
- Public Talks - TEDx - the edge of insanity and invention
- Just wandering about doing cool stuff - 1000 Vintage Synths