THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Miriam Schulman: Most artists are stuck under the $10,000 a year mark. Not because they can’t sell, they’re stuck because they’re addicted to selling cheap. And I know that sounds harsh, but if you’re hovering in the 10 to $25,000 per year mark and you’ve been there for years at a time, this episode is probably for you.
Speaker 2: It’s The Inspiration Place podcast with artist Miriam Schulman. Welcome to the Inspiration 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: Hey there. I’m Miriam Schulman. I’m author of Artpreneur, The Step by Step Guide to Making a Sustainable Living from Your Creativity. And I’ve been successfully selling my own art for over 25 years, and I’ve helped other artists do the same through my artist incubator program. The real reason you’re not making enough money? I was coaching an artist recently. Very talented, selling work, getting traction in galleries, and yet a lot of her art was priced at $400 for pieces that should have been significantly higher. And when I asked her why, she said something that I actually hear a lot, I’m afraid it won’t sell. But then something really important came out in that conversation, she added, I think I’ve been prioritizing the feeling of selling over actually making money. That right there, that’s the mistake. Keeping artists stuck under $20,000 a year. So I’m curious, have you ever caught yourself doing this pricing something lower because you think it’ll sell faster? Tell me in the comments what that looked like for you. Addiction to fast sales. You’re not pricing your art based on value. You’re pricing it based on emotional relief. You want the quick sale, the validation, the somebody bought it. Dopamine hit. So you keep your prices low just enough to make the sale happen faster. And then you wonder why you’re exhausted, overworked, and still not making enough money. Now, this doesn’t just apply to artists selling $400 paintings. I see the exact mistake with artists pricing their work at $1,400 and even $4,000. $4,000 art that should be priced at 5000 or 6000.
Miriam Schulman: $4,400 art that should be priced at 2000. So here’s what happens. They create a piece. They love it, but if it doesn’t sell in a few weeks or even a couple months, they start to panic. They start thinking, well, maybe my prices are too high. Maybe Miriam’s wrong. Should I lower the price again? Or. I hear this too. Should I paint over it? That right there is the problem. Because when you’re selling at a higher level, you’re not just selling art, you are selling to a different timeline. So I want you to be honest, how long are you actually willing to wait before you start second guessing your prices or your art? Because one of these artists I coached, she says. I asked her, why do you want to paint over it? Do you not like it? She says, no, I like it, but it hasn’t sold yet. I said, well, when did you make it? She said, A few months ago. That’s not enough time. That just means the right buyer hasn’t seen it, and she’s not even in a gallery. So I’d love to hear from you. How long do you wait? I love to hear her answer in the comments, and I do read all of them. And by the way, I just wanted to add this about the comment section. I tend to respond to comments that are within the first 12 hours after the video drops. So if you really want to hear my response to you, hit the notification bell. Because when you watch the video, as soon as it goes live and you comment right away, I’m more likely to respond.
Miriam Schulman: I want to tell you next about Casey Lynn Hancock. She sells her artwork for 70,000 or even $100,000 per painting, but it takes her months to sell a single painting. And that’s normal. So whether you’re pricing at $400 or $4000, if you don’t develop patience, you will cap your income. This is why many artists stay stuck in that 10 to 25,000 a year range, not because they can’t make better work, but because they won’t give their work enough time to be bought at its true value. And by the way, this is one of the biggest problems I see over and over again. Artists underpricing their work instead of positioning it to be reassuringly expensive. Because collectors don’t buy art the same way they buy groceries. They’re not looking for the cheapest option. They’re looking for something that feels valuable, intentional, and worth the investment. And if you’ve never been taught how to do that, how to price your work, position it, and actually track art collectors at that level. That’s exactly what I break down in my free masterclass. How to sell more Art without being Insta famous. I’ll walk you through the five biggest mistakes that keep artists stuck, and Underpricing is just one of the biggest ones. So if this has been hitting you, I highly recommend you go watch that right now. Check it out over here SchulmanArt.com/masterclass. What’s actually selling right now? Let me show you what’s actually happening in the market right now.
Miriam Schulman: I recently reviewed real sales data from artists inside my program. And what we saw was this one group sold five paintings that made nearly $20,000. Only a few paintings. Only a few artists. The other group. Lots of artists selling tons of small underpriced work and working way harder for less money. So let me ask you, what gets you to your goal? Faster selling 50 cheap pieces or five properly priced ones? And which one are you doing right now? Are you selling more art at lower prices or fewer pieces at higher prices? And is this actually getting you where you want to go? Because the issue is not your art. The issue is that you’re avoiding discomfort because raising prices requires something most artists are not willing to do. Wait for the right buyer. Wait without panic. Wait without lowering the price. And this reminds me of research I remember reading about. This goes way back to my commuting days, and that is, people would much rather have their commute take longer rather than have to wait in traffic. Yeah. So even if it takes less time, the waiting in traffic is so uncomfortable for people. Think about that. Why patience pays more. You’re choosing between two types of dopamine, the fast dopamine of a quick cheap sale, or the delayed dopamine of a higher value sale. Most artists chase quick wins. Successful artists wait for the right one. And if you agree with that, that you’d rather have the bigger result later than the quick win. Now I want you to give this video a thumbs up so I know that I’m talking to the right people now.
Miriam Schulman: There’s a lot of research on delayed gratification, and it’s pointing to the same pattern for decades. People who can tolerate short term discomfort in service of longer future path tend to do better over time. That’s the big idea behind the famous marshmallow research. Do you ever hear about the marshmallow test? Kids were given the choice between one marshmallow now, or they were told if they wait and don’t eat the one marshmallow now they’ll get two. And they follow it up with these kids and found out that the ones who waited for the two did better in school, got higher grades. They had better academic and social outcomes. Now, to be perfectly fair, newer research has added an important nuance. Delayed gratification is not some magic personality trait that guarantees success all by itself. Environment, trust, family stability, and cognitive resources matter too, and newer follow ups have found that the original effect was smaller than people first believed. But that doesn’t weaken my point here. In fact, it actually sharpens it because in business, and especially in the art market, the ability to wait without panicking is still a competitive advantage. If you can tolerate the discomfort of not getting the immediate reward, you give yourself a chance at a bigger ones. So when I say successful artists choose slower sales, I mean they are willing to trade the quick emotional payoff of a fast, cheap sale for the longer term payoff of a better collector, a better price.
Miriam Schulman: And a stronger business.
Miriam Schulman: And if you think this is just a modern artist problem, it’s not. When Ambroise Vollard gave Cézanne that now famous show in Paris in 1895, Cézanne was not some overnight sensation. Bullard later told the story that an opening day. The stout, bearded man came in. He looked like a farmer wearing overalls, but carefully selected three of the best paintings without even haggling. And you know who that buyer turned out to be, Claude Monet. Now that story matters. For many reasons. It’s one of my favorite stories. First of all, it’s about not judging or buyer ahead of time because he did not look like somebody who was a wealthy art patron. He came in in his gardening clothes. But it reminds me of something that artists hate to hear. The right buyer may not show up on your schedule. And if Suzanne had been thinking like a panicked artist today, it’s been slow. It’s been a few weeks. Nothing’s sold yet. Maybe I should lower the prices. Maybe I should paint over it because nobody wants this. That would have been the wrong lesson. The lesson is patience. The lesson is.
Miriam Schulman: Trust.
Miriam Schulman: The lesson is that serious art often takes longer to find a serious buyer. So what if Cezanne had painted over those paintings when they didn’t sell right away? Now, have you ever wanted to do that? Lower your price or give up on a piece too soon? What made you feel that way? I remember I did used to feel this way. I have painted over or painted pieces, but usually I paint over them. When I decided I didn’t believe in the art anymore. But when I did this, there was a time. Back in 2006, 2007, I used to sell on eBay And I took life drawing every single week and I would take my life. Drawings of some of these were five minute sketches. Some of these were 20 minute drawings, some of these were 40 minute drawings. And I put them all up in auction, all at the same starting bid. And at the end of the week, whatever didn’t sell, I actually tossed. So yeah, maybe I was guilty of this as well. But here’s my lesson to you. You cannot build a sustainable art business on emotional decision making. You just can’t. If your pricing is based on how fast can I sell this? Instead of what is this actually worth? You will stay stuck. How to break the cycle. Here’s how you fix it. This is not about overnight doubling your prices and hoping for the best. This is about building tolerance for higher priced Artworks. Step one raise your prices incrementally.
Miriam Schulman: So if you’re at 400, maybe you only feel comfortable going to 600. Then go to 800. Then go to 1200 and look for the evidence that it sells at those higher prices. Step two stop measuring your success by speed. A fast sale is not necessarily a successful sale. Profitable sale is. So if we go back to those $400 paintings, if you’re selling them for 1201, sale is the same as three fast ones, a lot less work. Step three you’re selling fewer pieces. Your goal is not volume. Your goal is revenue. Step four build patience as a skill because that’s really what this is. Not strategy. Not talent. Patience. You’re not overwhelmed. And I’m gonna say something that might sting a little if you say you’re feeling overwhelmed because there feels like there’s too much you need to do in your business, or you don’t know where to start or something like that. A lot of times you’re not overwhelmed. You’re avoiding avoiding the discomfort of being visible at a higher level. And let me expand on this because this is important. A lot of artists tell me that they’re overwhelmed, but when I look closer, it’s not overwhelm at all. It’s avoidance. I had another artist, and by the way, all the stories I’m sharing today, they’re true stories. But I’m trying not to call out anyone specifically because I’m only sharing stories where I see this pattern over and over again, so it doesn’t necessarily have to apply to the artists who most recently told me this.
Miriam Schulman: So if you are the artist and you’re like, wait, is that me? It’s not just you. It’s lots of artists. That’s the only reason I share things on this show is when it applies to lots of artists. Okay, so this other artist told me that, you know what? She decided she was going to step away from her art business, and she decided she was just going to make her art a hobby. Now, this was an artist who had sold seven artworks in one show. So this is not an artist who lacked talent, and her reasons to herself might have sound convincing. She said, I’m 60. I’m too old. It feels tacky to sell. It’s too techie and I don’t want to push myself. Okay, 60. That’s not old. You know who else is 60? Demi Moore and Laura Ingalls Wilder. She published her first little House book at age 65. Grandma Moses didn’t become Grandma Moses in her 20s. She started painting seriously in her late 70s. And Colonel Sanders, well, he built KFC in his 60s, so no, 60 is not too old or too late. That’s a story you’re telling yourself. That’s just discomfort talking and listen. On the surface, maybe it feels true to you, but I do work with artists in their 60s and their late 60s, and even in their mid 70s and beyond, who are building thriving, profitable art businesses. So it’s not age, not timing, it’s discomfort, because building an art business requires you to be visible, which is uncomfortable.
Miriam Schulman: Ask for the sale uncomfortable, price your work confidently uncomfortable. And this is the big one. Tolerate uncertainty. And if you’re not willing to feel that discomfort, your brain will hand you a very reasonable excuse to quit. It’s the same thing people do on a diet. They say, I don’t really want to lose weight. I’m fine the way I am. And remember, it’s also the delayed gratification. So you’re trading the discomfort of not eating something now that you want for the discomfort of perhaps not fitting into that outfit that’s smaller later. And I don’t mean to use weight loss as some sort of great virtue. There’s, there’s no more virtue in being thin than being a full sized person. It’s just a great analogy. People who give up on their goals too soon because they make a story for themselves that feels more comfortable because our brains have evolved for survival, not goal achievement. And we will always choose what feels more comfortable to us. So if you’re telling yourself you feel overwhelmed, I want you to pause and ask, am I actually overwhelmed or am I avoiding the Discomfort required to grow. When you say you’re overwhelmed, what is the specific thing you’ve been avoiding? Name it in the comments. And by the way, this is exactly why I created that masterclass I told you about earlier. Because what most artists think is the problem. My art isn’t selling, my audience isn’t big enough, I need more.
Miriam Schulman: Visibility is usually not the real issue. It’s usually things like underpricing impatience, avoiding discomfort, and the patterns that quietly keep you stuck in that 10 to $25,000 range. So inside that training, I break down all five of those patterns and more importantly, what to do instead. So if you’re ready to actually start changing this, not just understand it, go watch SchulmanArt.com/masterclass is absolutely free and it’ll give you a completely different way of looking at your art business. Stop thinking about small money. Let me give you another version of the same problem, because it doesn’t always show up as pricing. Sometimes it shows up in how you think about money. I was talking to an artist who had just come back from a workshop with an abstract painter that he admired, and this abstract artist sells his artworks for $50,000 a pop. So yeah, that’s a that’s an eye popping number. And he’s telling us the story, how this artist felt like he lost $25,000 because his gallery had made the sale instead of him. He thought he was losing money because of the commission. Now, I want you to think about that for a second. If you see a 50% commission as a loss, you will subconsciously avoid opportunities that could actually grow your income because you’re focused on the slice that you’re giving away instead of the size of the pie. I will always give a slice of my pie away if it’s a bigger pie.
Miriam Schulman: Successful people and successful artists, they don’t think like that. They understand. I would rather have a percentage of a much bigger sale than 100% of something small or nothing at all. A gallery brings new collectors credibility exposure you don’t have on your own. So that’s not a loss. That’s leverage. And if your mindset is stuck on I’m giving something up. You will cap your growth before you even get started because you’re protecting small thinking instead of building something bigger. And again, this isn’t new. Let’s look at Jasper Johns. He had his first solo show with Leo Castelli in 1958, and that show didn’t just kind of go, well, changed everything. Major collectors showed up. The Museum of Modern Art acquired his work, and his entire career accelerated. So imagine if Jasper Johns had said, I don’t want to give up a commission. I’ll just sell everything myself. I don’t want to split the pie. He wouldn’t be Jasper Johns because it wasn’t just about the sale, it was about who was selling it, who was seeing it, and who was buying it. That’s what a gallery does. It doesn’t take from your success. It expands it. So how do you actually feel about gallery commissions? Does it feel like a loss to you or an opportunity? And I want you to be honest. I want to hear your perspective. I do read every one of the comments. Now listen. This is normal. Every artist I’ve ever coached goes through some phase of what we’ve talked about.
Miriam Schulman: So if that’s you, don’t feel bad. It’s not your fault. This is normal. However, you do have to decide. Do you want a quick win or do you want a real business? Because artists who break past $10,000 years are not more talented. They just stopped underpricing their art. And if this is the kind of thinking you need more of the real strategy behind how to actually build an art business, make sure you’re subscribed to this channel, because this is exactly what I talk about here every week. And if this hit you, I want you to look at your current pricing today. Ask yourself one question. Am I pricing at the real value or am I price seem to feel safe, safe from criticism and be honest because that answer determines everything. Now, if you’re willing to share your answer in the comments, because the more honest you are about this, the faster you’ll change it. Now, next week I’m tackling another biggie, because I know some of you are thinking, oh, this sounds great, but I don’t have the time. So next week I’m going to show you exactly how to sell your artwork. If you only had ten hours a week. So if time is a thing that you feel is holding you back, you’re not going to want to miss that one. So hit subscribe and I’ll see you the same time, same place next week. Until then, stay inspired. Bye for now.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the Inspiration Podcast. Connect with us on facebook, facebook.com/SchulmanArt, on Instagram @SchulmanArt and of course on SchulmanArt.com.
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