THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Miriam Schulman: I am always getting asked, how can you tell the difference between an art show that’s worth it and one that will probably flop? And I have a complete system, but you’re going to have to stay until the end to get it. But first, I want to tell you two stories. First, the show that should have worked but completely flopped. I want to tell you about the worst day I’ve ever had in an art show. This was 2009, and I’d been selling my artwork since like 2002, so this was not my first rodeo. I had a real art career going. I knew what I was doing. The event was called Women of Einstein, a fundraiser. And on paper, this was the dream. The audience was wealthy, genuinely wealthy, not nice houses, wealthy, but the kind of woman who could buy a painting without checking with anybody. And my position was perfect. I was set up right at the entrance. First thing you saw walking in. And if you’ve ever done a show, you know that’s the spot. Everyone fights for money in the room. Best table in the house. But I sold almost nothing. I stood there and watched women walk past me all afternoon, not making eye contact, and not one of them so much as slowed down. Well, maybe two, but like almost nobody. So what did I do? I packed up early and I wasn’t the only one. Half the vendors bailed before it was over, but I drove home and I cried. Now, here’s what I want you to understand about that drive home. I knew logically that it wasn’t about me and my artwork’s good. I knew I’d sold plenty of paintings before, and I’d sell plenty of paintings after, but I felt rejected anyway, completely irrationally, like I was back in middle school and I was the odd girl out and the only one standing at the edge of the cafeteria while everyone else seemed to know something I didn’t. And that feeling stuck with me a long time.
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 your host and curator of inspiration, and I’m also the author of the book Artpreneur. Now I want to hear from you. Have you ever driven home from an art show feeling that exact way, like the whole room passed judgment on you personally. If so, hit thumbs up. I want to see how many of us are out there. And I promise it’s most of us. Now, here’s what I might have told you about that night. It happened. Maybe my setup was wrong. Maybe I didn’t merchandise it. Right. Wrong crowd, wrong prices, wrong work for this audience. Maybe I’m not cut out for this. Every one of those is what artists reach for. And every single one of those thoughts is wrong. And the proof was standing about ten feet away from me on the other side of the room, because I wasn’t the only one having a terrible day. Directly diagonal for me, in the corner was a luxury handbag and clothing boutique packed, selling all day, woman trying on belts, trying on sunglasses, laughing it up with their friends. And right next to them across from me was a woman selling gifts for tween girls. Cute stuff. Perfect. And this was a room full of moms, many of them with daughters exactly the right age. But I think she’s maybe $15. It was pathetic. Now, think about that for a second. Her product could not have been better matched to this audience. Wealthy mothers, tween daughters.
Miriam Schulman: You know the cute tie dye gift items? Bull’s eye. But she was as invisible as I was, so it wasn’t what we were selling. It wasn’t our prices. It wasn’t even really wrong audience, because these were absolutely the right people. But something about that room made two completely different products, UN sellable at the same time, while a handbag booth 20ft away was doing great. That’s the puzzle. And it took me years to solve it. Here it is. Here’s the sentence that reorganized my entire business, and I want you to write it down. Buying art is a self actualization event. It’s not a transaction. It’s not shopping. When somebody buys a painting, they are answering a question about themselves. Who am I? What do I want to live with? What does this say about the person I am becoming? That’s a private question, and it happens in a quiet part of somebody’s brain. Now look at what those women were actually doing at Women of Einstein. By the way, Einstein is a hospital in New York City that they were raising money for. They were trying on sunglasses in front of their friends. They were at a charity event where the whole point was to be seen dressed right, standing with the right people, being the cool girl. They weren’t in a private headspace. They were performing and you cannot answer who am I really? While you’re actively managing how you look to a room full of people you know and want to impress.
Miriam Schulman: Oh, and one more thing. They had about 15 minutes because the whole event was really about the lunch, the ballroom, the tables, the shopping was a sidebar, a thing you passed in on your way to the actual event. That’s why when everyone went to lunch, I packed up and left. I wasn’t waiting for them to come out and hope that, oh, on the way out, they’re going to shop. No, on the way out. They’re not going to shop. 15 rush minutes socially observed on the way to somewhere else now. Handbags work great in that mode. A handbag is a performance item. It’s literally for being seen wearing it. So of course that booth was busy or it doesn’t work in that mode at all, and neither does it turn out thoughtful gifts for your daughter. Now, if that reframe just landed for you, that’s the kind of thing that I do here every single week. So hit subscribe so you don’t have to spend nine years like I did, figuring the next one out on your own. Oh, and I want to hear from you. What’s the show or event where you should have sold more but didn’t. I want to hear your horror stories. Share in the comments. Before we go on, everything I’m about to show you is part of a bigger system, and I put the whole thing into a free masterclass called How to Sell more Art without being Insta famous. Because you don’t need fame, you need the right room, and you don’t need the right platform either.
Miriam Schulman: So go to SchulmanArt.com/sellmoreart and you can watch it right after this. Now let me tell you about the other end of the spectrum. This is the room where I killed it in 2019. I did $9,500 in two days. That was my best show that year. And here’s the part that will mess with your head. And it’s why I wanted to tell you both of these stories in the same episode. Who was I standing next to at the music school? A purse vendor? Yep, a jewelry vendor and a vendor selling gifts for tween girls. The same exact lineup that surrounded me at Woman of Einstein. Same neighbors. Same category of shopper but opposite result. So it was never about who was next to me. It was never about competing with handbags. All of that was just noise in my head. The variable was the room. Here’s the difference. And it’s not what you think. It’s not the money. Both rooms had money. Honestly, the woman of Einstein crowd maybe had a little bit more. And it’s not free time, although that matters. It’s whether the people in that room had already decided that art is worth deliberate investment before I even showed up. This is what I call violin families versus travel soccer parents. A family that bed, enrolls their kid in private music lessons, has already made that decision.
Miriam Schulman: They’ve already spent real money and real Saturday mornings on the idea that making beautiful things matters, and it’s worth sacrificing for. Nobody in that building needs to be convinced that art has value. That argument is over. And it was over before I unpacked my car. Now compare that to a family whose kid plays travel soccer. Wonderful people, sometimes with more money, but they’ve made a different bet about what deserves their time and their checkbook. At the music school, I wasn’t selling anybody on the idea of art. I was just showing them my specific art. At Women of Einstein, I was standing in a hallway trying to introduce the concept of art mattering to women who were mid-performance and late for lunch. Same artist, same artwork. But one room did $9,500. So let me ask you, do you have like a violin school for your work? Like if you’re a cat artist and you know, going to cat conferences are for you or something like that, put it in the chat. I would love to hear from you. And if you’re sitting there going, okay, but how do I actually find those rooms? Well, that’s exactly what I walk you through in my free masterclass. How to Sell More Art Without Being Instafamous. It’s at SchulmanArt.com/sellmoreart. It’s free. It’s on demand, and you can watch it tonight. Now let’s talk about my actual filter. After 2009, I stopped saying yes to everything. I built a filter and I still use it.
Miriam Schulman: And here it is. One is shopping the main event or a side bar. And this is an interesting one. It’s a big one. If the real event is a luncheon or a single performance or a ceremony, and vendors are something that you only see on the way in and the way out. Full stop. I’m not doing it. That’s what Women of Einstein was. It was a lunch with a hallway attached. I went shopping to be the reason came or at the music school. Shopping may not have been the reason people came, but the performances were happening all day long. So the parents. Maybe they had to get there an hour early and send their kids upstairs to warm up. And what are they going to do, watch some other kid perform? No, they’re going to go and shop. What if they have multiple kids and their youngest is getting restless during the performance. Are they going to be disruptive? Are they going to go home? No. It’s cold out. It’s December. They go into the boutique and they shop. That’s why it works so well. Number two are their parents. Now, this one is specific to me because portraits were my main bread and butter. And my portraits are usually of children. Except for that green gloves client that I told you about. Your version of this question is different, but you should have one who has to be in the room for your artwork to make sense.
Miriam Schulman: Three is this organization already invested in the arts? The music school, obviously, but also I did extremely well with a group called the Friends of Music and Arts, which was a PTA that funded only music and art programs. Not the sports programs. There was a different PTA for that. The Friends of Music and Arts, their entire reason for existing was the arts matter. That’s my crowd before I even say a word. Now, later on, I ran Open Studios where I sponsored a music and arts charity specifically. Same principle. My own event. You’ve heard about that on other episodes. Number four art only beats mixed every time. Okay, so I did the Junior League art show in Fairfield. Art and only art all weekend long. Oh, that was fantastic. Everyone who walked in the door walked in for art, and it was organized by the Junior League. And so they were running it the whole time they were coming in. The whole thing was to go in and buy art that became the performance event. What art were you going to by now? I also did the Junior League holiday show in Scarsdale, which wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the Fairfield one because in Scarsdale I was one option among many kinds of gifts. Five. And this one’s a hard rule. No bouncy castles. Never. I mean this literally. And I also mean it as a category. If there’s a bouncy castle, the children are the event.
Miriam Schulman: Cotton candy is the event. Parents are in crowd control mode, chasing a four year old holding somebody’s shoes. Nobody in that state is answering, who am I becoming? Or what do I want to put on my walls? Six. Watch out for themed, gift focused boutiques if you don’t fit. That’s why I stopped doing Hanukkah boutiques. Because the audience. Lovely audience. Great. But the only thing I could tell there was Judaica and I did not have a lot of Judaica. So it’s a completely different purchase than buying something for your wall that maybe doesn’t fit the theme. Seven. This is the one that nobody talks about. Don’t do the flea market style events where a school packs as many vendors as physically possible into a gymnasium. And here’s why you need to know how the event makes its money. So there’s two models. Model one the organization charges vendors a table fee. In other words, they make their money the moment you pay to be there. Whether a single person buys a single thing is completely irrelevant to them. Their incentive is to cram in as many tables as possible, because every table is revenue. They’re not thinking about your sales. They have no reason to. And model two is. The organization takes a percentage of sales. Now they only make money if you make money, which means they suddenly care very much about who walks through that door and how long those people stay, and whether they’re in a buying mood.
Miriam Schulman: And the shoppers who come to that kind of event often come specifically to support the cause. And they want to spend because spending is the way that they’re supporting the cause. And you can find out which one you’re walking into with a single email before you ever commit. Just ask, is this a table fee or a percentage of sales? That’s it. That one question tells you more than photos, more than the flier, more than we get a thousand people through the door. And I’ll give you one caveat. My music school charge, a table fee and a percentage of sales and the tables he got applied to your percentage. And that was just so they made money in case a vendor flaked out. But they did care about how much we sold. And if somebody didn’t perform well, they didn’t get asked back. Okay, I want to come back to that drive home from 2009. Now, I sat in that car believing something was wrong with me or my art. Like I was that nerd back in middle school again. And yeah, irrational. I know I knew better, but it felt that way anyway. So here’s what I wish somebody had told me that night. Nothing was wrong with you, Miriam. You were standing in a room full of wealthy people who were not, at that moment, in a position to buy art, not because they didn’t have the money, not because they don’t like art, but because they were busy being seen.
Miriam Schulman: And buying art is something you do when no one’s watching. Between gifts. Lady figured that out, too. Probably on her drive home. So if you’ve ever had that show, the one where everything should have worked but nothing did. I want you to consider that you might have diagnosed the wrong thing. You probably went home and questioned your art or your prices, or yourself or your sales process. Question the room instead. Wealthy is not the same thing as a buyer. Wealthy plus already believes art matters. Plus already came here to shop. Ding ding ding ding. That’s a buyer. And your job isn’t to convince a hard room. Your job is to stop standing in hard rooms. Now, one more time. Don’t drop your worst event ever anymore. I want to hear your best event. Tell me about that too. Because we love to celebrate the good ones. And if you’re ready to build in our business, where you’re not depending on any one room or any one platform to save you. Go watch my free masterclass SchulmanArt.com/sellmoreart. It’s how to sell more art without being instafamous because you don’t need to be famous. You don’t need to be famous. You don’t need to be the cool girl. You don’t need to be an influencer. You just need to be standing in the right room. Okay my friend, I’ll see you the same time, same place next week. It’s Miriam Schulman signing off. And until then, stay inspired.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the Inspiration Place podcast. Connect with us on facebook at facebook.com/SchulmanArt, on Instagram at @SchulmanArt, and of course on SchulmanArt.Com.
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