7 Reasons Why Some Artists Succeed

April 21, 2018 by Laura 5 Comments

Do you ever see an artist on Instagram who looks like a total overnight success? One day you had never heard of them and the next day, they’re everywhere and doing tons of projects – from their own studio work to all sorts of business relationships, catapulting their financial success.

Me too.

And while it’s highly unlikely they got there overnight (or yes, even in a few months), they are successful nonetheless and you want some of that for yourself!

Not to be greedy, but boy would it be nice to stop worrying about whether you can afford that course on art licensing, a new set of brushes, or a virtual assistant for a couple hours a week to take care of customer service emails.

And the validation? That alone would make you cry – tears of joy of course!

I know you’ve been trying really hard to get there and it’s like you’re missing the magic combination that would make it reality for you. So I want to fill you in on the stuff that makes these artists successful 90% of the time.

If you can check these boxes, you’ll get there.

1 ACT LIKE YOU’RE ALREADY THERE

Artists who succeed almost always start by doing the same things they would do if they were already successful and well-known.

Dream of getting your work in Anthropologie? A soon-to-be-successful artist, would go ahead and approach them now, even though she might get rejected and even though she doesn’t think there’s any reason for them to take her art.

Like hanging out on Instagram? A soon-to-be-successful artist would be posting at least once a day, making use of Stories, and documenting practically everything happening in their studio.

Wish you had an email list of thousands ready and waiting to buy your next print release? A soon-to-be-successful artist would send their baby email list the same emails they want to send their future list of thousands.

Pretend you already have the success.

This has two huge benefits. First, it changes your own mindset. You’re more likely to see opportunities and take advantage of them because you don’t really see yourself as lacking. You see yourself as on your way or even almost there.

Second, it changes everyone else’s mindset about you. When people think you’re successful (because you’re acting like you are), they are more likely to give you opportunities, take you up on your requests, and buy from you. People love to associate themselves with success. It’s human nature.

2 BE METICULOUS

Successful artists are almost always attentive to detail. Their meticulous touch is in everything they do.

They plan out what they post on social media to make sure it’s the right balance of personal life and art life, that everything feels really relevant to their audience, and that all the images look good together (especially on Instagram).

When they approach someone about a potential business deal (like wholesaling your prints to a local shop), they think carefully about what kind of email will have the best reaction. They include all the pertinent information and make sure that everything is phrased with the shop’s interests in mind, not their own.

Photographs of their art are well-lit and well-staged. They make sure that every picture looks like a professional photographer took it.

3 WATCH YOUR BRAND

Which leads us to branding – successful artists have very well-defined brands.

They usually know who their target market is (an essential part of branding) and what visual and lingual cues they respond best to.

At the very least, they choose a consistent visual & lingual lexicon that reflects their own personality and they stick to it so that it attracts the same type of person every time and they can adjust their business according to how that person reacts.

There are two benefits to this too! The first is that their potential customers know instantly whether or not that artist is right for them.

The second is that potential partners believe that you are a professional they can trust to do business with. If you are consistent with this then you are likely reliable. And that means we can safely work with you on a project without fear of things falling apart or you not holding up your end of the bargain. And really, who wants to work with an artist who doesn’t have their visual brand together? She doesn’t seem like much of an artist to most people.

4 GO BIG FROM THE START

Similar to #1, successful artists don’t just act like they’re already successful, they also start with the biggest things they can and trickle down from there.

Once you’ve got your website and originals up for sale, there’s not much reason to stress about prints or even selling those originals.

The first thing to focus on is getting the big money-makers bringing in that big money before they worry about the little sales. Think about setting up wholesale, licensing, corporate sales, etc before you worry about whether people are buying your prints or greeting cards.

5 GET ‘EM TALKING

Successful artists get the media and influencers talking about them, even if they’re not doing anything that feels worthy of mentioning.

There’s always something you can say about life as an artist that will interest your target market. Just because you think you’re boring, doesn’t mean that you are.

Boring is in the eye of the beholder.

And most non-artist eyes?

They think artists are absolutely anything but boring.

6 UNDERSTAND WHY

Successful artists know why they make their art and why they started a business with it.

Motivations vary from artist to artist, but if you don’t have one or can’t remind yourself what it is, you won’t have the stamina to weather the troubles of starting a business.

There’s a lot of rejection, tedious tasks, difficult tasks, and confusion. You need to be able to return to a strong foundation in your mind. A reason for doing what you’re doing and sticking with it.

I’ve seen a number of artists quit when it got hard because they really didn’t want the business in the first place. They just wanted to paint because painting is fun. And I’ve seen the occasional artist stop creating because they felt so disenchanted by the experience of trying to sell their art that it quite literally took the joy out of art making.

I don’t want that fate for you and I bet you don’t want it for yourself either!

7 STAY POSITIVE & PERSIST

Successful artists almost always respond to the difficult tasks and the chores of everyday art business with a positive attitude and they just keep at it.

They might admit to not preferring something, but they approach it with a relaxed attitude. The task is part of what will get them to the “why” from #6, so it’s not all bad because it’s leading them where they want to go. Like stepping through a big puddle blocking your way to the candy store.

I like candy!

Artists who put off the stuff they don’t want to do for too long, or come at it with a negative mindset, tend to do a bad job with those tasks, thus sabotaging their own success.

Stick to these 7 principles and embody them as much as possible, and you will be a huge success that other artists look up to too!

Which of these do you feel like you’re struggling with most right now? Let’s chat it out in the comments – I’d love to get to know better!

I’ve Tried Everything

March 10, 2018 by Laura 9 Comments

Unfinished Poem by Anca Gray

You know what I hear from artists that gets me ranting every time? I just hate it!

“I’m doing everything I’m supposed to be and I’m working so hard, but no one buys my art. I get lots of likes and comments but no sales.”

So many things wrong here!

1 Can you ever do “everything you’re supposed to”? What would that look like? Even super-successful artists have tons of things on their mental list that don’t get done, but would help them sell more art.

2 Are you really doing all the right work, even figuratively speaking? Do you have a real strategy in place that’s well-thought-out and makes sense for your art, your target market, and your different revenue streams? And are you actually following that plan?

3 You believe in the possibility that someone who does all the right things could end up not selling enough art. And that’s absolutely not true.

You don’t get results (sales, growing fanbase, notoriety, etc) because of a list of things you should be doing.

You get results because of a very complicated mix of things you do that work for you (your personality), your art, and your target market.

You could copy a 6- or 7-figure artist’s website – same layout and branding, go all Mad Libs on their copy, use the same prices, etc – and sell nothing.

BECAUSE THEIR SUCCESS ISN’T THAT 1-DIMENSIONAL!

Another perspective I want to dig into a bit is that you feel a pull to make more money through your art. There are lots of artists out there who don’t care about selling their work. There are lots who actually hate the idea of making money from their art. And there are artists who want to sell their work, but don’t really want to make a business out of it. They like their day jobs.

But you want this.

You’re going after this for a reason. So, on some level, you’re meant to do this. You’re meant to share your talent with the world.

And there is a magic sweet-spot of business strategy that will work for your business. Once you find it and start implementing it, your art will sell like hotcakes! (What is a hotcake, anyway?)

All this doubt and anxiety you’re having stems from not finding the sweet-spot combo.

And for a lot of you, you’re not finding that sweet-spot combo because you’re so busy looking at other artist’s papers. You’re stealing their strategies, mimicking their website & social media, and wasting a ton of time wondering how they got different things to happen…

Natural next question: What should you do instead of mimicking?

1 Trust that if you’re persistent, you’re going to find the magic sweet-spot combo and things will get awesome, fast!

It’s not only possible for you, it’s written in the stars because you’re meant to be doing this.

It just might take time if you keep getting distracted by everything everyone else is doing and stressing about your own situation. (I remember sitting on the floor crying when I was struggling to make money too! No shame. But it’s totally counter-productive.)

2 Use your intuition more. Which is also a lot about using your brain. We are hard-wired to take the easy route (our brains love easy!) of not really thinking about what we want, what our customers would want, who our customers might be, what strategies make sense for our art, etc.

You have to fight that.

Before you work on ANYTHING, stop and get still & quiet. Think (and intuit) about whether the thing you’re going to work on will actually help your business. Imagine what your art business looks like with that thing checked off and done. What gets better? What’s truly been accomplished?

3 Find a business bestie or a mentor who will help you tap into the magic sweet-spot combo. Someone who is naturally good at seeing what you’re meant to be doing, rather than just telling you what the internet says to do to sell stuff.

They could be another artist who is further along than you (but won’t just tell you what she did is the right thing for you), someone who runs a different kind of business but knows all sorts of business strategies and totally gets you as a person, or someone who teaches business, does life coaching, etc.

Find that person you vibe with and let them guide you back to your intuition over and over again.

You’ll find your magic sweet-spot combo in no time!

And then you’ll be unstoppable!

The Problem of Plodding

February 25, 2018 by Laura 6 Comments

This is a revisiting of a concept I originally discussed because of Lady Gaga. Seriously. You can read the old post written way back in 2012, What Lady Gaga Taught Me About Business if you like. This post expands on the idea and brings it into 2018.

Untitled Embossing by Caryn Ann Bendrick

A lot of artists seem to really get stuck in this feeling of plodding along, doing little things and waiting around until it all comes together or they find that magic strategy (they’ve read sooo many articles!) that suddenly fixes their business.

On the one hand, building an art business does take time. You have to be patient.

But on the other hand, you have to take action too. And the BIG action is what gets you the BIG results.

Artists who post once a week on social media are plodding.

Artists who post twice a day on social media are taking BIG action and will quickly see BIG results.

Artists who make a list of dream blogs they want to be featured in and follow the bloggers on social media are plodding.

Artists who make a list of dream blogs they want to be featured in and send an email to each blogger asking to be featured are taking BIG action and will quickly see BIG results.

Artists who send a newsletter every couple months and hope their previous customers will buy again are plodding.

Artists who send a personal email to each of their previous customers to connect deeply and inspire another sale are taking BIG action and will quickly see BIG results.

Do you see what I’m talking about?

THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR ART BUSINESS IS TO START WITH A BANG!

Even if you’ve been at it for a while.

Choose BIG instead of plodding.

Make a bang and see the impact. Then take a breath, decide what’s next, and make another bang.

There’s absolutely no reason it should take you 3 months to set up your Etsy shop (true story).

There’s absolutely no reason to have an email list smaller than 20 people when you start it (true story).

There’s absolutely no reason to wait for the media to start talking about you (true story hundreds of times over!).

When you’re wondering how other artists are finding success, 90% of the time it’s that they decided what they wanted and then took BIG action to get there.

Make the decision that you want to make this business happen. And then make it happen already! What are you futzing around for?

If you’re not sure how to take BIG action, I just gave you 5 ideas. Here are a few more…

Ask 10 galleries if they’re taking new artists and submit your work if they are.

Write a series of emails to be delivered automatically whenever someone signs up to your email list to help them get to know you and take them through an in-depth look at the creation of one of your recent artworks (with the opportunity to buy the original or a print at the end of the email series!).

Ask 20 local businesses if they’re looking for new art for their offices and offer to give them a good deal if they buy five originals or more.

Pre-write your next 10 newsletters and schedule them in your email marketing provider so you don’t have to think about it and fuss over it throughout the year.

Make a list of all the things that bother you about your website and take a few hours to find a web developer and pay them to just handle all the changes for you and get this plodding work off your plate so you can focus on the BIG action.

Call up 15 of your previous customers and offer them a referral commission if they send new customers your way.

Set aside a day this week to film 6 videos showing your fans your studio space, 2 works in progress, how you pick out which colors you’ll use, your recent sketchbook pages, and you talking directly to the camera about being an artist.

And there are hundreds of other things you could do to take BIG action.

Right now, I want you to pick a BIG action. Then think about if you can make it even bigger, while remaining doable. Got it?

Ok, now look at your schedule for the week and block out specific time to do this. Put it ahead of social media, blogging, fixing your website, or whatever else you regularly spend time on because you feel like you have to. This shoots to the top of your priority list, even if it means the other stuff doesn’t get done.

Report back here and let me know what kind of results you got.

READY TO GET BIG RESULTS? GO GO GO!

Art Business Lessons from the Holidays

January 6, 2018 by Laura 7 Comments

Untitled by Amy Barone

A couple weeks ago I was practically blind-sided by a lesson whilst scrolling through Instagram.

Whitney (of @whitneydesignstudios who you should totally follow!) was doing a giveaway and to enter you had to tell her your favorite thing about the holidays.

I was looking at the comments, getting in the holiday spirit, and realized that loads of them said something to the effect of ‘getting time to relax’.

“Me time.”
“Lots of R&R”
“Having time for my family, my art, and myself.”

And the answers kept coming. Sure there were lots of other great answers that ranged the gamut of the holiday season. It was super happy and inspiring and festive!

But a tinge of sadness lingered with me because of how many people feel stressed, overwhelmed, and run down leading up to the holidays.

I did some investigating and found that this was definitely common amongst artists.

Tons of artists feel like there’s never enough time to paint, never enough time to daydream, never enough time to sit and relax.

ALL THINGS YOUR CREATIVITY NEEDS TO SURVIVE.

The obvious lesson is, of course, to make time to create and downtime to just chill out. Find moments in your normal, non-holiday life to rest your spirit and fill your creative cup to the brim.

But that obvious lesson does lack some understanding of reality.

So I want to dig deeper today. As you start this new year, I do want you finding time to rest and to create, but I also want you aware of the realistic balance that exists in most people’s lives.

AND THAT IS THAT THERE ISN’T REALLY BALANCE.

You’re not going to ever feel like you’re giving enough time to your family, your friends, your romantic relationship, your art, your spirituality, your career, your health, and yourself all at once.

Letting that idea go is one of the hardest things to do.

So hard that I’ve actually done it multiple times because it keeps coming back. Our society keeps telling me that I can have it all and all at once, so the concept seeps back into my psyche over and over again.

BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL, WITH DIFFERENT THINGS TAKING THE LEAD AT DIFFERENT TIMES.

And the different times may be anything from hourly to yearly or more!

For example – maybe in the morning your highest priority is getting your kids ready for school and out the door, but the second they step on the bus your priority can change to painting. And then you know you have to get a few business things done, so you can prioritize those after lunch. And then before the kids get home from school, you prioritize getting groceries for dinner so that you can focus on the children for the rest of the day.

That’s the kind of prioritizing we are used to, which usually makes us feel like most of our life isn’t getting our attention.

Because that example day is missing a workout, a date night with your spouse, relaxing time to sit and journal or meditate or read a book, etc. Tons of stuff isn’t getting your attention. You can’t have it all.

There are only 24 hours in a day.

You’re probably not going to have it all in one day.

But let’s look at a different example of balancing the different areas of your life – On Saturday, you’re focused on family because the kids don’t have school. You get a little time focused on art, but you’re really just trying to be present for your loved ones. On Sunday, you’re focused on your spirituality because you have Sunday School, church, and Bible Study all in one day. There’s some time that you have to make sure your kids have done their homework, or you might have to do laundry, or you might sneak a moment to answer some emails. But overall, the day is about your faith.

Then on Monday, you get as many business tasks handled as possible. You fix something on your website, you ship out a painting to a customer, you research galleries or submit your work to a few, etc. Same thing here: other stuff happens during the day, but your goal and your focus is your art business. And then on Tuesday maybe you gift yourself a day of creation and spend the majority of your day in the studio.

That’s another example of balance and it’s sort of the “advanced” way of looking at your productivity.

WHEN YOU START RESEARCHING PRODUCTIVITY, HAVING A DAILY FOCUS IS ONE OF THE MAIN PIECES OF ADVICE.

For the record, it totally works!

But what you don’t hear about very often, and most people aren’t very familiar with, is balance on a long-term scale.

What does it look like to have a focus for the month, the quarter, or the year?

What if 2018 were the year of ______?

Sure you’d do other stuff, but you’d really focus on ______. That’s the priority. That’s the thing. And then in 2019 it could be something else.

That might work for you, even though it doesn’t feel daily like it’s a balance, it will feel like a balance over your life because you’ll see major progress on things that matter to you and you’ll reduce stress because you won’t be trying to do it all at once.

Maybe 2018 is for your artistic practice. So you can take the pressure off yourself to lose weight, to make more money, and/or to update your home decor. Major stress reduction because you’re no longer trying to ~~balance~~ juggle all the things.

There is middle ground too.

You might not have the willpower for a yearly focus. It might work better for you to do a quarterly or monthly focus because you can more easily stick to it in that shorter term, while still reaping the benefits of bigger progress and less stress.

Or perhaps you need to baby-step-it by starting with the daily or weekly focus…

Try what you suspect will work for you.

The goal is that this year leads you to a better perspective on balance so that you don’t end the year feeling like you never have time for yourself or your creativity, but rather that you’ve consciously chosen when to focus on yourself or your creativity and when other things are the higher priority.

Why Your Art Business Isn’t Working

November 18, 2017 by Laura 4 Comments

Cactus by Britt Hermann

Have you ever looked up at the end of the day and thought, “What am I doing wrong?!”

You’re trying really hard to build your art business…

You’re working during every spare moment…

And somehow, none of its coming together. There’s just not enough money.

Has that happened to you?

In that situation, a variety of things could be wrong.

But I find most of the time that the artist is flitting from strategy to strategy.

And that’s usually a symptom of not actually knowing what kind of business you want to build.

Have you spent time to dream what your art business will look like one day?

What do you really want from your career?

I recently got to dig into the idea of finding out what you want from your art business a lot as I was preparing bonus content for my The Artist’s Business Plan course because I took examples of actual artists I’ve worked with and why we picked the particular type of business for them that we picked.

For instance – One of my clients was an illustrator who didn’t want to feel daily pressure. She hated the idea of having to ship orders on time or deal with customer service emails, or other daily pressures and urgent responsibilities of selling art directly to customers.

So for her, we needed to find ways of making money that didn’t involve selling to customers because she didn’t want to build a business she didn’t like running.

We picked licensing, children’s books, and the occasional commission that she has complete control over.

That eliminates surprise orders that need to be packed & shipped. It eliminates the daily hustle to connect with new potential customers. And it eliminates scary or exhausting customer service emails.

In its place, she’ll have to deal with asking lots of companies to work with her, hearing a lot of rejections from publishers, and saying no when commissions come her way that are a bad fit or she doesn’t want to spend the time and energy on at that time.

You can’t eliminate all the negatives, but you can pick negatives that bother you less.

We used her personality and preferences to determine the right fit for her art business.

But in order to do that, she had to dream about what her day would look like and realize the parts about it that she didn’t want.

IT ALL STARTS WITH A BIT OF DAYDREAMING.

Imagine it’s 3 years from now. Your art business is making consistent money and you walk into your studio to start work.

Is it morning, afternoon, or night? Is your art business the only responsibility you have today? Do you spend the day inside or out and about? Are you doing a lot on your computer, more pen and paper, or is it all about your artwork? Is there a balance of business and artistic tasks?

Give yourself time to really envision it. Unfold the day. Maybe even journal it out as if it were happening right now in front of you.

And then ask yourself…

What seems fun and exciting?

What seems stressful or terrifying?

What seems comforting?

What seems tedious?

Start to identify the types of things you want and don’t want from your art business.

Then line those things up with the ways you can market and sell your art.

Here’s an excerpt from the business plan course of just a handful of the list of ways to sell your art:

Originals sold directly to customers
Originals sold through galleries
Prints sold through a publisher
Print subscription service
Crowdfunding
Licensing
Wholesale
Commissions
Teaching art at a community college
Art fairs
An agent selling everything for you

And here’s an excerpt from the course of just a handful of the list of ways to market your art:

Email newsletters
Influencer marketing
Collaborations with other artists
Joining local networking groups
Flyers
Getting featured and interviewed (public relations)
Open studio events
Getting work hung on consignment in stores & office buildings
Referral program
Facebook ads
Giveaways
Art fairs
Workshops

AND THAT’S JUST THE BEGINNING!

There are loads and loads of options for your art business. It can look like anything you want it to.

But you have to decide. You have to know what you want so that you can head there.

And that’s part of what the business plan course is for. If you need help either deciding what you want or figuring out how to get there, then the course is perfect for you.