THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Miriam Schulman: Car collector clicks on your website and within two seconds they decide if your art is worth it. Not after reading your bio, not after studying your work instantly. This is what Malcolm Gladwell calls blank snap judgments that feel intuitive but are incredibly powerful. And here’s the truth that decision has nothing to do with your years of experience and everything to do with how your art is presented and positioned. They’re not analyzing your technique. They’re not checking your credentials. They’re asking one question instantly. Does this feel worth it? But the answer has nothing to do with how talented you are and everything to do with perception, positioning and clarity.
Speaker 2: It’s The Inspiration Place podcast with artist Miriam Schulman. Welcome to the Inspiration Place podcast, an Art World Insider podcast for artists by an artist, where each week we go behind the scenes to uncover the perspiration and inspiration behind the art. And now your host, Miriam Schulman.
Miriam Schulman: Welcome to The Inspiration Place. I’m Miriam Schulman, your host and curator of inspiration. I’m the author of Artpreneur, the best selling book by Harper Collins. With over 480 Amazon reviews and 20,000 copies sold worldwide. After being an artist for over 25 years, I now coach artists just like you, which is why I founded the Artist Incubator program. But here’s the part that nobody talks about. Your collector isn’t just asking, is this art good? They’re asking without even realizing it. Is it worth it? And here’s the research that proves just how fast this happens. Psychologists Nalini Ambady gave students 310 second video clips of a professor teaching with the sound turned completely off. No words, no content, just visual signals. And those students had no trouble rating how effective each professor was. Then Ambady cut the clips to five seconds each. Same results. Then two seconds. Still the same results. Two seconds of silent footage. And people knew. They knew instantly who was the most effective teacher. Not because of what each one said, but because of how it looked. Your collectors, they’re doing the same exact calculus. Is this art worth it? Is this artist legit? And am I the kind of person who buys something like this? Now, when we slow this down just a little, there are three areas that are shaping that decision. Whether your collector realizes it or not, which is good news, because that means we can start working on each of these areas.
Miriam Schulman: Think of this as a decision matrix happening in real time. So first of all, is the visual impact. This is where they decide is the art worth it before they read anything, before they click. This is pure instinct. Second is credibility signals. Now they’re asking is the artist worth it? Can I trust this? Has this been validated? Does this feel established? And the third area is their buying experience. And this is a subtle one, but it’s also the easiest to fix. Does this experience match who I believe I am? Does this feel like something someone like me would own, display, or invest in? And here’s the truth most artists miss. If even one of these is broken, the sale doesn’t fail loudly. It dies silently. So here’s the thing I want you to hold on to as we go through all three of these areas, you’re not trying to convince anyone. You’re removing their doubt. That’s what this episode is really about. And if you want to learn how to sell more art without the social media grind, that’s exactly what I talk about every week on this channel. So make sure you hit the subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any future episodes. Part one Visual Impact. This is where your collector is deciding is the art worth it? And this is happening before they read a single word. But here’s where I see artists unintentionally killing their sales on their website.
Miriam Schulman: You can’t zoom in so you can’t see the brushwork. You can’t see the textures. You can’t see the craftsmanship. Or I see the opposite. The image is so large that you can’t see the whole artwork on your screen without scrolling, which means you can’t really see it. So now the collector is confused. What am I even looking at? And then no sense of scale, no photo of it in a room, no context of where it belongs. They don’t know if it’s the size of a notebook or a statement piece over a sofa. And remember, our collectors are not visual people. They will have a lot more trouble visualizing these things than we will. But I have to tell you, even as a visual person, I’ve made this mistake many times where I’ve ordered things online and expected it to be this big and was disappointed when it was this big. So just because you list the size like it’s eight inches, don’t expect them to get out the ruler. They really need to understand what this looks like in relationship to everything else. And when there’s uncertainty, there’s no sale. And this does not just happen online. I see it also in art fairs. Beautiful artwork, but it’s displayed with maybe handwritten price tags stuck on like a ceramicist, scribbled price tags put on the bowl like it’s a garage sale, a folding table that feels more like a flea market than a fine art booth.
Miriam Schulman: No signage, no name, no presence. And here’s the hard truth. Your collector is not going to separate your art from how it’s presented. They’re not thinking, oh, it’s great art, just poorly displayed. No, they’re thinking this doesn’t feel valuable. And that decision happens instantly. Let’s take this outside the art world for a second so you can really see this. For in your own life, think about buying clothes online. So it’s rare that you’ll see nowadays a shirt without it on a model. Even on Amazon, you’ll see the sweater on a model. They don’t just show it lying flat on the floor. If they do show it like that, that’s usually on eBay. So eBay on a floor, you expect it to be cheap, but even when it’s on a model. Have you ever hesitated because you’re thinking, hmm, that model doesn’t look like me? I don’t know how this will actually look on my body. So you don’t trust it? I know I have that problem. I’m petite, but I’m not petite in all areas. I’m a little curvy in some areas, so I’ll hesitate. Like what? What is this small really like? And if the model does not resemble me at all, then I’ll definitely hesitate. So your collectors, they’re doing the same exact thing. They can’t automatically visualize your art in their space the way you might, so they hesitate. So let me know in the comments. Have you ever not bought a piece of clothing online because something about the presentation felt off to you? Share in the comments.
Miriam Schulman: Here’s another analogy. Think about furniture. If you look at brands like Pottery Barn, how they sell a coffee table, they don’t just show it by itself. They also show it styled in a room in front of a sofa with lighting, with context. So you see like how it fits in there, helping you see yourself living with it. Oh, and here’s the one that gets almost everyone booking a hotel. You see? Beautiful photos, but they’re all tightly cropped shots. And if you’ve ever been burned like I have, you start looking closer on the beach. But it’s actually across the street from the beach. The pool. Does it have a big fence around it? Because that means that the airport might be right on the other side of that fence. Or the bathroom is so small that the toilet is basically in the shower. These are all true stories that have happened to me. So now you don’t trust the photos. And when you don’t trust what you’re seeing, you don’t reserve it. You don’t buy it. So tell me, have you ever not booked a hotel for that reason? Or have you been burned because the photos didn’t really show you the real thing? Let me know in the comments. Now, here’s something else that I see on artists websites as well as in booths as well.
Miriam Schulman: By the way, as in the comment section on YouTube, is an artist with five different styles or three mediums or something like that, because you don’t want to be boxed in creatively. But that’s not what the collector sees. The collector doesn’t think, oh, she or he doesn’t want to be boxing creatively. What the collector is thinking is this is inconsistent. What is this artist really do? What am I buying into? So instead it feels a little bit like amateur hour. Like maybe the artist is still trying to figure it out, and maybe you are trying to figure it out. And let me not be misunderstood. Yes, you should be experimenting. You should be trying to figure it out your entire artist’s career. But when you go to present, you’re only going to present a cohesive, strong body of work. Not experimentations, not stuff from five years ago that doesn’t match what you have today. So if the vision isn’t clear, the value won’t be clear. Again, let’s take this outside of the art world. My husband and I, we love going to diners here in New York City. He’s giving me a thumbs up. He’s like listening right there. But you never, ever, ever order something like lobster at a diner. You order grilled cheese, maybe a Greek salad, a veggie burger if you’re feeling adventurous. Eggs. So what’s something you would never order at a diner? I want to hear yours. The reason you don’t is because, you know, with all these things on the menu, it can’t possibly be good.
Miriam Schulman: And now let’s talk about Target and Tiffany’s. So target cells. Absolutely everything. But nobody goes to target to buy a diamond ring. Why? Because when a place tries to do everything, you don’t trust it to do anything exceptionally well. So let me ask you, do you trust a place more when they specialize or when they offer everything? Now let’s bring this back to the art world. Yes, I think experimentation is awesome and you should always be evolving as an artist. But let’s be honest, do you think showing multiple styles helps you sell more or confuses your buyers? I bet there’s going to be a lot of controversy down below. Because here’s the hard truth you’re not trying to convince anybody your art is good. You’re removing their doubt about the art. Before we go any further, I want to make sure you actually have a way to fix what we just talked about, because here’s what I see happen all the time. An artist hears this and thinks, yes, that’s me. But then goes back to doing exactly what they were doing before. Not because you don’t care, but because you don’t know where to start. So I created something just for you. And it’s free. It’s called the Luxury Positioning Checklist. And it walks you through exactly how to identify the subtle signals that make your art feel premium versus ordinary.
Miriam Schulman: This is how to strengthen the way your work is presented so collectors perceive greater value instantly. And the common habits that quietly undermine trust with higher end buyers habits most artists don’t even realize that they have. And the best part? You don’t have to sound fancy. You don’t have to become a different kind of artist. You just have to remove the doubt. So you can grab it for free over at SchulmanArt.com/luxury. I’ll drop the link in the description. Okay, let’s keep on going. Part two credibility signals. Is the artist worth it? Now their brain kicks in. They’re looking for proof they felt something. But they want to know. Can I trust this? Because at this stage, your collector is asking, is the artist worth it? And here’s one of my favorite stories from Malcolm Gladwell’s book blink, because it comes from the art world in the 1980s. The Getty Museum in Los Angeles was offered an ancient Greek statue called a chorus, and they ran every specific test imaginable. 14 months of geological analysis paperwork checked out. The test came back clean, and Getty paid nearly $10 million for it. But then they brought in some of the world’s leading art historians, and one by one, within seconds. Within seconds of seeing it, their gut said no. One historian described a feeling of intuitive repulsion. Another said the word that came out of him immediately was meaning the statue looked too new.
Miriam Schulman: The statue was eventually proven to be a forgery. But here’s why this matters for you. Those art historians weren’t reading a report. In other words, they weren’t looking at your artist statement and they weren’t running tests. They were what’s known as thin slicing reading signals. Picking up on QS QS. That said, something here does not add up. Your collectors are subconsciously doing the same thing when they land on your website or they enter your art booth. They can’t always tell why something feels off. They just know. So the question isn’t whether your work is good. The question is what signals are you sending? Now there are three credibility signals that most artists either hide, ignore, or completely forget to use. So we’re going to go through them. The first one is context. Where has this been seen? Collectors are looking for that. Where has this work been shown? Who else has validated this artist? So it’s not like this particular artwork, but your artwork in general or where has the artist been shown? And here’s the mistake that I was talking about. A lot of artists bury this in their CV. So you know that you get to there about the artist page or the artist statement page and fine print all the way down on the bottom are the list of your accomplishments, your credentials, those types of things. That stuff really should be top and center because nobody is digging through your website looking for proof.
Miriam Schulman: It really needs to be visible right on your home page, as seen in collected by, exhibited at. And yes, small things do count, but only if people actually see them. Credibility signal number two is specificity. Not vague but meaningful. So the second signal is specificity. And this is where artist statements go wrong. Here’s the one I see like too often. If this is in your artist statement you have to rewrite it. I loved art ever since I was five and could hold a crayon. Art has always been my passion and it doesn’t build credibility. It just sounds like everybody else. And instead, what’s your point of view? What are you exploring? What makes this work yours. So I want to give you an example. So you can actually see this in action. I recently did my signature signal excavation process with one of my inner circle clients. Her name is Cheryl Shanahan. And before the session, she had written this on her about page. I’ve been painting boldly colored animals in New England inspired scenes for collectors, corporate clients, commissions and galleries since 2020. I work with acrylic and gouache paints, and my work is recognizable by my loose brushwork and use of vibrant hues. Okay. It’s okay. It’s not terrible. I’m not mad at it. But after our signal excavation session, I learned about her love of piano. So we rewrote part of her about page to this.
Miriam Schulman: I grew up playing the piano. Music was my first discipline. I learned early that mastery doesn’t come from inspiration alone. It comes from showing up day after day and doing the work. I could sit at the piano for hours, losing myself in the rhythm, the repetition, the pursuit of something just beyond my reach. That same discipline now lives in my studio. Every morning I show up to paint the way I once showed up to the piano with focus, persistence and respect for the craft. Painting is where structure meets possibility. The intersection of what if and why not. The years of musical training taught me how to stay with the process long enough for something meaningful to emerge. So look what we did here. Instead of looking like a pandemic artist, she turned her mastery of the piano into a natural evolution into her art journey, something collectors can respect. Now if that rewrite. Now if that rewrite gave you chills. Give me a thumbs up. All right. And I want to share another example. It’s Neil Forster. So Neil is a retired police officer who always had art as a passion. And we used his work experience to increase his credibility of doing animal portraits. So listen to his after I paint animals because I believe they see us more clearly than we often see ourselves. For much of my life, I worked in environments where reading expression mattered. I served in the Royal Navy, boxed for Scotland, and later worked as a police officer.
Miriam Schulman: In those roles, I learned to watch carefully, to notice the small changes in a face or posture that reveal character. You learn quickly that the truth of the moment often lives in the eyes. Okay, so do you see how we turned him into the obvious choice to paint pet portraits? And we didn’t say the very banal cliche thing. Like, I focus on the eyes and eyes is where the souls are, which is which is all true. However, we made him the obvious choice for doing a pet portrait. By the way, we incorporated his personal history into it because he’s a master at reading faces. So tell me in the comments, what’s one line from your artist statement that you’re actually proud of, even if you’re rewriting it after watching this episode? I want to hear it drop it down below. The third credibility marker is social proof, and we’re not talking about likes on an Instagram post. We’re not talking about the number of followers. Collectors are looking for people, real people who have already said yes and people who they might look up to. That’s why Nike made a fortune with Air Jordans. But let me tell you a true story, one that will matter more for you. When my kids were little, I used to volunteer at their school, and it was a great time for me to market my portrait business.
Miriam Schulman: I carried around what used to be known back then as a grandma brag book. And if you’re too young to remember, this was before we all had phones with our photo albums in our back pockets. It was a small, physical album, four by six. The one that I got was black, so it didn’t say Grandma’s Brag book on it. It was just a mini four by six album. And let me tell you, in today’s digital world, that physical piece, it stood out. So I suggest if you’re head portrait artist, a person, portrait, whatever kind of art you do, carry it in your backpack, in your purse. Because when people ask about your art, it’s great to be able to show it to them. But here’s the part that matters. I didn’t lead with my best painting. I led with a portrait of Stephanie’s three children. Not her real name, of course, because Stephanie was the queen bee mom at the school across grades. She had three kids. Other moms saved her seats at like Flag Day events. She was treated like royalty. The other moms wanted to dress like her. They wanted to look like her. They wanted the same nail polish as her. So when other parents saw that I had painted her children, that was out of credibility that I needed. So I want you to know, have you ever bought something because someone you admire had it first, whether that was in real life or maybe an influencer? Let me tell you that one commission led to so many other commissions because here’s what was really happening.
Miriam Schulman: Stephanie was like a micro-celebrity in that world, and people weren’t just seeing my skill, they were seeing who had trusted me. And they thought, if Stephanie chose this artist, maybe I should too. And collectors are always asking, has somebody like me already trusted them? And if the answer isn’t obvious, you haven’t made it easy enough for them to say yes. So are you showcasing your collectors or hiding them? Because that’s what this part is really about. You’re not convincing them that you’re credible. You’re removing the doubt. Part three The Silent Deal Killer. This is about a confusing buying process because a confused mind never buys. Now this is the part where the sale is either completed or lost. They like the art. They decided you’re credible. They click and then they click and then they click. It’s like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of the Tootsie Pop. Price might not be listed. Maybe there’s no clear button. Contact the artist for details. Email me for the shipping price or like on Fafsa websites, where it takes like ten clicks to get to a checkout page and they’re gone because maybe they don’t even get there. Let me say this as plainly as possible confusion kills luxury, but it’s not just about luxury. How many times have you been on a confusing checkout page and didn’t buy and just said to yourself, oh, it’s a sign from the universe.
Miriam Schulman: I shouldn’t buy it anyway. Mhm. Give me an amen in the chat. Because at this stage, your collector isn’t asking anymore. Is this good? They’ve already decided that. They’re asking, is it easy? They’re not even asking if it’s easy. They’re expecting it to be easy. So is this safe? Does it feel like the way I expect to buy something at this level? And here’s what I see all the time. Websites where it takes five, six, ten clicks just to figure out how to buy it, or pages filled with so many options prints, canvases, metal, acrylic, five sizes. And now the buyer has to do the work to decide what they want to do. Confused mind never buys. I talked about this in my book Artpreneur that I think I talked about in my book. Anyway, how I can’t buy sport bras at Athleta, because if you go on to their website, there’s like 100 options for sports bras. Too many choices, too many choices. I’m ADHD, I will shut down if there’s too many choices. But even people without ADHD, they don’t want too many choices either, because if they have to make up their mind, they’ll probably won’t. Here’s one that will also kill your sale. It’s contact the artist for shipping. Does Lands End do that? Does any luxury brand make you email them just to find out what something costs? No, no they don’t.
Miriam Schulman: The only time you’ll get that is if it’s a watch. That is so price exorbitant, like over $25,000 that they want to qualify the buyer first. But for the type of art we’re talking about, art that’s under $10,000. You shouldn’t have to contact the artist to find out how much it costs. So let me ask you, have you ever abandoned a purchase just because it felt too complicated or told yourself, oh, it’s a sign from the universe? I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Let me know. Now let’s clear something up, because I know what some of you might be thinking. Luxury. That sounds fancy. That doesn’t sound like me. I want my art to be affordable. Listen, this isn’t about being pretentious. It’s not about using big words or trying to impress people. It’s not about acting like a gallery or becoming someone you’re not. Luxury is not a personality. It’s an experience. And its core luxury is incredibly simple. It’s clarity. I know exactly what I’m looking at. I understand what makes it special. I know what to do next and it’s confidence. You’re not apologizing for your prices. You’re not hedging your language. You’re not asking for permission to sell your certain and its simplicity. No friction, no confusion, no extra steps. Everything feels handled. So if something in you is resisting this idea, if you’re thinking this isn’t me, reframe that.
Miriam Schulman: You’re not trying to be fancy. You’re trying to remove doubt. But this isn’t just about convenience. It’s about identity because your collector is asking, does this experience match who I believe I am? Do I feel taken care of? Do I feel confident? Do I feel like this is a premium purchase? And luxury doesn’t mean complicated. It means clear, calm, handled. You know the price. You know how it ships. You know what happens next. No guessing, no chasing, no awkward back and forth. Luxury is white glove. It anticipates questions before they’re even asked. Like they don’t have to ask what the shipping is. It’s there. It removes that awkwardness. It makes the buyer feel taken care of. You’re not saying, can I help you? You’re saying this is how it works. And more importantly, you’re signaling people like you buy art like this. And here’s the part most artists miss. Luxury doesn’t make people feel small. It makes the right people feel seen. Now, if that reframe just shifted something for you, hit the thumbs up. Because people don’t buy things that feel out of reach. They buy things that feel like a natural extension of who they are. When you’re buying experiences done right, your collector doesn’t just understand the purchase. They feel good. They feel right making it. They’re not just deciding if the art is worth it or if you’re worth it. They’re deciding, am I worth it? Am I the kind of person who owns this? So have you ever looked at your own website and thought, does this actually look like the artist I know I am? Be honest.
Miriam Schulman: Tell me the right collector will feel like this was made just for them. So have you ever bought anything because it made you feel like a certain kind of person? When the experience feels premium, the art feels more valuable. And when it feels confusing, even great art won’t save the sale. So we’ve just covered all three layers visual impact, credibility, signals, buying experience. And maybe right now you’re thinking, oh, I need to go look at my website. I need to audit this. Good, good. That instinct is exactly right. And I don’t want you to have to figure out where to start on your own. So I’ve made this really easy for you. It’s the luxury positioning checklist and it’s a free resource I put together specifically for artists who want to attract higher end collectors without overhauling everything, without sounding like a gallery, and without pretending to be someone you’re not. It shows you how to identify what’s making your work feel premium, or what’s quietly making it feel ordinary. It shows you how serious buyers form their perception of value in seconds and exactly what signals they’re looking for. And it helps you stop doing the things that are undermining trust with the collectors you most want to reach. This isn’t theory.
Miriam Schulman: This is based on real buyer behavior. I use it with my private clients and inside my Artist Incubator program, and it’s free. And it’s waiting for you. And it might be the most useful ten minutes you spend on your art business this week. So go grab it right now at SchulmanArt.com/luxury and link is also in the show notes. All right, my friend, so here’s what I want you to remember. You’ve got three layers working for you or against you. Every time someone lands on your page or enters your art show, visual impact, credibility, signals, and buying experience and the goal of all three is the same. You’re not convincing collectors or you’re removing their doubt. When you remove the doubt, the right collector doesn’t need to be convinced. They just feel like this was made for me. You don’t need more followers. You need a better 30s. Now we just talked about what happens once a collector finds you. But next week I want to tackle the question that comes before that. How do you get them to find you in the first place without social media? Because here’s the thing. Posting constantly and still not selling isn’t a you problem. It’s a strategy problem. I’ll show you why artists who rely on social media are burning out, while others are quietly building profitable businesses without it, and exactly what they’re doing instead. So tune in. Same time, same place next week. Hit the subscribe so you don’t miss a thing and I’ll see you then. Bye for now.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the Inspiration Place podcast. Connect with us on Facebook, facebook.com/SchulmanArt on Instagram @SchulmanArt and of course on SchulmanArt.com.
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