The following is from the Stop The Starving Artist newsletter - "heART and Business."
Every week you'll get a little bit of "H.E.A.R.T." to help you grow your art business.
Highlight 💡
(A key creative business insight I'm currently seeing.)
As we talked about last week, if you want to sell your art, you have to be discoverable and be ready to be seen as a professional when people find you.
To be discoverable, you have to show up as yourself and start conversations. Why? Because on the internet, people don't just scroll ready to buy art. They want to be entertained, educated, or inspired.
Being seen as a professional means people can learn about you, your values, your story, and your art... consistently. Not 3 times a day consistent... but you can't show up 10 times a month at random intervals and expect people to say "Yes! I'll pay $500-$5000 to this person!"
And as I say all the time, it's not just about getting in front of more people. You also have to be telling people your stuff is for sale, consistently.
A lot of artists feel really slimy doing this, and while I get it, when people see you as a professional, asking for a sale isn't slimy. It's expected. You NEVER go to a professional in any other industry and balk at the fact that they want to be paid for their service... right? Of course not!
In April, I'm opening up a 3 month intensive where we will do this very thing together.
This intensive is for those of you who have already sold your art in real life but can't seem to figure out how to make it work online.
It's for those of you who don't have your website done yet.
It's for those of you who keep "putting things off" because it takes too much time. (But you know it could be easier with some help.)
It's for those of you who are tired of trying to get the gatekeepers to run your business for you, watching them fail you again and again.
It's for those of you who are ready to do the work, if someone would just tell you what to do.
This is the only newsletter where I'll talk about this 3 month intensive, and I'm only opening it up to 25 people.
If this sounds interesting to you, follow the instructions in the "Execute" section and I'll add you to my priority list! (If you did this last week, you don't need to do it again. I've got you!)
Execute ✅
(Your action items...)
Here's how to get on the Priority List for the heART Based Sales Accelerator Spring Cohort!
- Go to this page and add your email.
- You'll receive further instructions in a few days... here's what it's going to look like.
Next week, I'll open the doors to the priority list first! Since I'm only taking 25 people, being on this list ensures you get first pick of a spot. (I'll also be opening up 8 VIP spots for those of you who want more 1:1 time.)
Once I open the doors to the priority list, I'll then open it up to my entire list of about 14,000 artists. That's the gist of it for now!
Again, this is the only newsletter where I'll mention this. Regular emails will go out about it over the next 2 weeks.
Awareness 👀
(The current things you need to know about social media, the creator economy, and running an online business.)
This is a great article about some artists who have started to move away from the gallery model.
Reflect 🤔
(Question to sit with this week.)
We've talked a lot about how building your art business online doesn't require people to discover you as much as it requires you to make yourself more discoverable.
So the question I want you to sit with is this:
How much of your current strategy depends on someone else deciding you're worth discovering?
Meaning, how much work is someone going to have to do to find you? And not just find you, but find out if they trust you enough to pay you for your amazing work? If you've been operating from a place of "winging it" and hoping the algorithm gods act in your favor, maybe it's time to try something different. Something that feels more authentic to you.
Sign up for the priority list, and I'll be sending you all the details about how we can do this together really soon.
Thrive 🔥
(This week in this community.)
This week, Marla had an AMAZING win in the community. She's currently challenging herself to do 31 paintings in 31 days. At the time of our meeting, she had done 18, and had sold 6! That's 33% of her inventory sold! Amazing...
And you can see that she doesn't have a huge following!
Marla:
"I've done 31 paintings in 31 days. I've been posting every day since March 1st across three Facebook accounts and Instagram. I've sold six. I went from 143 to almost 230-something in my Facebook group, and I've increased my regular personal Facebook page about a hundred. I'm getting a lot of engagement."
This is why I do what I do.
I hope you'll join Marla and the rest of us for our 90 day cohort that starts in April! Sign up for the priority list here!
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