THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Miriam Schulman:
Well, hello. This is Miriam Schulman, chief Inspiration Place officer and host of the Inspiration Place Podcast, where I help passionistas, passion-makers, and passion professionals reconnect with their creativity and profit from their passion. You’re listening to episode 120 and I’m so grateful that you’re here. As we wrap up the year, I have so much to be grateful for, especially to you, my listeners. I wanted to give shoutouts to my new listeners out in Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, and Finland, way too many countries right now to list in one episode, but I just wanted to give a few of you guys a shoutout.
This is part one of a very special best-of episode. We’ve gathered highlights from our favorite moments of the solo episodes of the year. It was definitely hard to narrow it down, so you’re going to find most of those episodes included here. If you missed a show or you just want to go back and listen to one again, hop on over to the show notes, which you can find over at schulmanart.com/120. We’ve listed out all the links to the complete episodes in order that they appear in the show.
Now, if you’re new around here, make sure you hit the Subscribe or Follow button in your podcast app, and if you’ve been around for a while and you’re feeling the holiday spirit, please leave me a review. We’ve now made it so much easier for you to do so, just pop on over to schulmanart.com/review-podcast. By the way, if you pop your Instagram handle at the end of the review, I’ll even give you a shoutout over on my IG Stories. I hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker 1:
Set your intention for the year.
Miriam Schulman:
I want to share a cute story about my cat. About the end of August or September, our cat stopped coming into our room at night. Even though she ignores us most of the day, I would look forward to having this warm, snugly cat at night purring next to us. But like I said, at the end of the summer, she stopped. She started spending long hours camped out in our den. She was either on the couch there, but usually, she started hanging out on the step between the den and the kitchen. The den is basically a step up from the rest of the house. It’s pretty much built on a crawlspace.
At first, we thought it was because we had cut back on her food because when we took her to the vet in August, she weighed in at a whopping 15 pounds, so my husband and I started cutting back on her dry food, which is basically carbs for cats, so she was on more of a keto diet, just having the canned food. Don’t worry, we’re not starving our cat. She gets two cans a day. She still looks very well-fed. But we thought that her change in behavior was because she was mad at us, or maybe we thought she was making up for the calorie deficit by moving as little as possible and just staying in one room, the den, which was really close to where her food bowl is in the kitchen and only a few steps away from… Not anymore, she was just hanging out in the den all day.
Now, we’ve had this cat for a long time. I think she’s about nine years old, so this shift in behavior and personality did not seem normal. We even considered calling our vet to make sure that she was okay. With this horrible cold that I have, I know you can hear me right now, since I’ve been coughing up a storm and it’s definitely worse at night, I’ve been coming down to the den, which is something I do when I have trouble sleeping, even when I’m not sick, just because I’m 50, you can imagine night sweats, the whole thing, so when I have trouble sleeping, so as not to bother my husband, I come down to the couch. A lot of times, if I pet the cat, that helps me fall asleep, or sometimes I’ll just read a book and I’ll just sleep a little on the couch either until I feel like going back upstairs or sometimes say I’m still there when my husband wakes up.
I was sitting on the couch petting the cat when suddenly, she jumped off and headed for her favorite step. However, this time, instead of immediately jumping to the conclusion that she was rejecting me, in other words, the circumstance that the cat jumped off the couch, my thought, instead of making it mean that she’s rejecting me, I decided to listen and get curious, to get curious about my cat. It sounds like I’m doing life coaching with my cat. What I heard was something that the cat had been hearing for months. I heard a scratching sound. There was obviously some kind of rodent who had taken up residence just under that step. Maybe it’s a mouse, hopefully it’s not a rat, and the cat was just doing her job of guarding the house.
Now, there are two lessons that I can pull away from this story. The first one is I think about how many times, all of us, we’re all guilty, misjudge other people. But when we get quiet and we get curious and we try to think about what their intention might be, sometimes their behavior does not mean what we’ve been making it mean. That is so important for us as artists also. There are so many times when we have a commission and then we don’t hear from the person after we sent them a picture of our art, it’s quiet for a week, and we make it mean, that they don’t like it when meanwhile, they have the flu or their husband has the flu or their house is on fire or something else. There’s so many times we make things mean something that they don’t and that really can play with our heads.
But there’s also a lesson in it for us today, with the theme for today. My cat really knows her why. She knows her intention, she knows her purpose, and as a cat, her purpose is to chase creatures like mice, and she is so focused on that intention that it drives her behavior. She does this instinctively. This is the power of getting in touch with your intentions, with your why, and your life purpose.
Speaker 1:
Anatomy of a successful art show.
Miriam Schulman:
Let’s talk about presentation. This comes down to concrete selling strategies. I want you to pay close attention. If you are not driving, get a pet. This is going to be super, super juicy. It does you no good to look for a non-flea-market-style event and then lay your goods out on the table as if it were a flea market or a garage sale because that’s exactly what I saw one of the vendors do. She had these truly gorgeous pillowcases and she laid them out flat with $10 price tags, so the price alone I feel cheapened her art, these pillowcases. She thought the reason they weren’t selling is because they were too expensive and I said, “No way.” If she had presented these same pillowcases filled with down inserts, or regular inserts, whatever it is, vegan inserts, and added 50, or even $60 to the price tag, she would have been selling more, and more easily.
Whether you’re talking about art, or in this person’s case, home decor, an affluent audience is looking to collect something that is aspirational, and having a cheap price tag does not add to the appeal. I see so many artists making the same mistake of underpricing their art. Chances are no matter how much you’re asking for your art, you’re also guilty of undercharging.
Speaker 1:
Step zero.
Miriam Schulman:
What is the process? I really don’t know. I volunteer for things free, but then I kind of get tired of it. I didn’t want to give things away. It takes a lot of time to create. A couple of people have asked to buy things and I’m like, “Oh, now what do I do?”
Just so you know, I get asked this question a lot. I recognize it’s really a fear-based question because here’s the thing, to get started, all you have to do is really just ask people to pay you for your art. That’s really it. There really isn’t anything else to it. It’s not more complicated than that and people try to make it more complicated. What people are really asking me is to explain what to do exactly so they know what baby steps to take so they won’t fail along the way, but it just doesn’t work that way.
No matter how good the strategy is I give you, you’re not going to be willing to take it until you are ready to fail along the way. Nobody gets from zero to 10 in anything, anything, whether it’s art business or something else, nobody gets there without falling. Think about the Olympians and they still fall in the Olympics. Everybody falls, everybody fails along the way. You have to be willing to fail your way to success. That’s why I always bring up that analogy of a baby learning how to walk. The baby can’t ask his mother, “Hey, Mom, how do I walk? Because I don’t really want to fall.” The baby wants to walk and they will do it and they will fail and they will fall and they will be willing to happily fall down along the way.
Speaker 1:
Why no one wants your painted work.
Miriam Schulman:
One way to immediately increase your profits is to offer art that you can charge higher prices for. You can spend heck a lot of time on an item that sells for only a little bit and it’s really, really hard to make up the volume of what you’re doing. Let me explain to you, if your goal or if you need to make $50,000 a year to make it as a living as an artist, whatever it is you’re offering, if it’s a $5 item, you have to sell 10,000 of them. 10,000, that’s a lot. If it’s a $10 item, you still have to sell a lot. You have to sell 5,000. Even if it’s a $50 item, well, then you have to still find a thousand people to buy that $50 item. It’s so much easier to sell 50 paintings for $1,000 each or 25 paintings for $2,000 each.
Ask yourself, “How long did you spend on that eight-inch painting?” People like to do those eight-by-eight-inch paintings. Would your time have been better off working larger or faster? Maybe it takes you just as long to make a 20-inch painting as an eight-inch painting. Think about, how can you work larger, faster, or in some cases, a different medium? Now, if you’re just painting for fun, hey, no judgment.
Speaker 1:
Creating calm.
Miriam Schulman:
I know that we’re all a little bit on edge right now with the coronavirus and what the implications are and the fear that’s been happening and the scarcity mindset and if you’ve been following me for a while or just started, you might know I do prefer to err on the side of optimism. But at the same time, I don’t want to do so at the expense of not sharing compassion. I decided what would be the most helpful thing to do today is to be part of the solution and helping you still feel inspired and uplifted and motivated and help you work on your mindset. Adding to that fear and adding to that negativity does not help anybody.
Now, if you’re a little on edge and you need some calming down, I have got you covered. I’ve pulled together not only a powerful list of affirmations that will soothe your anxiety, but I’m also going to be sharing some of my best methods for creating calm in an age of uncertainty and chaos. Here’s the thing: However you’re feeling right now, whether that’s a little better because you’ve laughed or maybe you are feeling anxious. It’s okay. It’s because of your thoughts about what is happening in the world. The biggest gift that we have as human beings is we do have the ability to choose our own thoughts.
Speaker 1:
Redefine yourself.
Miriam Schulman:
If you’re an artist, if you’re a creative person, whether we’re talking about creating art or marketing art, you can not be afraid to fail. You have to be willing to fail and you have to be willing to fail often. But you don’t have to let your past define you. This is a time to listen to your inner voice and become friends with your future self. In a few months’ time, in a year time, you may not recognize that person you evolved into. If you’re hungry to make meaning of this time, feast on your life. Whether it’s a few months or a few years, you want to greet yourself, your future self in the mirror with pride because if you allow yourself to change, the best may be yet to come for you.
I’m just going to end once more with the words of Derek Walcott, this is from the beginning of the poem, “The time will come when with elation you will greet yourself, arriving at your own door in your own mirror and each will smile at the other’s welcome.”
Speaker 1:
Recharge your creative batteries pandemic-style.
Miriam Schulman:
I know that many of you have also felt as you have ground to a halt and you’re struggling. I know this because I’m struggling a little bit with it, too. Perhaps you need your wires cleaned off and you need to wash the dust off of your creative soul. For me personally, without access to New York City or my in-person lunch dates with my business and art friends, my creative gas tank is pretty low right now. I know I’m a bit spoiled, and I’m not just talking about the cleaning woman. I’m incredibly lucky to live near New York City, one of the greatest art centers of the world. Whenever I need to wash the dust off of my parts, inspiration is a quick train ride away, and in less than an hour, I can stand in front of Monet’s Water Lilies or Gustav Klimt’s Woman in Gold. Except I can’t do that right now. The museums are closed. Restaurants are still shuttered in New York, so this has forced me to go deep and look for new ways to get inspired.
Speaker 1:
Get out of your own way.
Miriam Schulman:
The difference between a successful artist, a profitable artist, and someone who’s struggling, it comes down to your attitude. I know that sounds really trite, but it’s 100% true. If you haven’t managed your mind, you’ll still struggle. If you’re struggling to market and sell your art successfully, you have to recognize that it might not be how your website is set up or your Instagram feed or any of those external things, it might be that your brain is the bottleneck that’s preventing you from reaching new levels of success. If you think you can’t succeed because of the current circumstance, that thought that you can’t succeed is your belief, that will become truth for you.
I don’t mean that in a woo sort of way, I mean because you will show up in a way and your brain will look for evidence to make that true for you. Here’s what I mean: Artists who give up because they believe it’s not appropriate to be selling art right now, they send fewer emails and create less posts. In fact, some of them aren’t sending anything out now at all. Less emailing and less posting and less marketing means you’re going to have fewer sales. If you’re afraid to sell, you’re not going to sell. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Speaker 1:
Everything is doable.
Miriam Schulman:
I want to directly address what’s going on right now in the US. In terms of the issue of racism in our country, we are at a tipping point, at least I hope that we are. It’s one of those moments that comes along once in a generation or so. I see art as a way to bring us together, no matter what your politics are. I don’t want to avoid discussing anything that might be deemed by some as political at the expense of affirming my own values. One of my core beliefs has always been human rights and the fight for social justice, but what the events of the past few weeks have taught me is that it’s not just enough to believe these things. In other words, it’s not enough just to not be a racist. I also have to be an anti-racist.
If you’re white and you’re listening, I’m sharing this with you not to preach to you. Believe me, I have not been perfect in my efforts, and I’m only now just beginning the necessary work. My guess is that you may want to do something. You may feel the impulse to do something, but you might be afraid of making a mistake, and I guess that because that’s exactly how I felt. I was afraid of causing more pain and getting it wrong. But to be an ally means I have to show up and silence was not the way to do it, which means I’m going to get it wrong.
Now, if you identify as a person of color, I want you to know that I see you, I hear you. I’m learning and I am listening and I’m so sorry for the pain you have had to endure for generations and I’m really sorry for my own complicity in that through my own ignorance. I know that this apology or sharing a black square post on social media is also probably not enough. I thought you should know that inside the Inspiration Place, we have many skin tones represented on my team. I’m very proud of that. That’s the way it has been. That’s the way it’s always been. I also celebrate the diversity inside my watercolor classes, meaning not just that we have a diversity of students, but also that I teach inside the Watercolor Portrait Academy how to paint a rainbow of skin tones.
However, I also know I can do better and I’m starting to see many ways that I can. It’s like the more I see, the more I see. This matters. There are so many ways to show up during this time. Some of us have done that through marching, protesting, and others show up in different ways, through donating. But there are other paths that help. Marching and protesting and donating are not the only ones. You can also make a huge difference in the world simply through education and through your art. Throughout the ages, artists have used their art this way. My firm belief is that art is a connector and a healer. Now, whether you create art that brings you or others calm, whether you use it to process your own emotion, whether you use it for activism, any way you use art, your art matters, so don’t stop creating. You can care about what’s happening in the world, whether it’s this new civil rights movement happening, or whether it’s the pandemic or anything else that’s happening, you can care and create. It doesn’t need to be a choice.
Now, when it comes to my business, I want to avoid falling on my butt as much as possible. That’s why I turn to experts to help me do my best, so whether that means that I’m getting an outside professional opinion on what I’m doing, or I need a step-by-step plan for implementing a strategy, that’s why I’ve always invested in classes and coaches. Don’t just invest in your time in Google. You can spend so much time searching for answers and do what I call “procrasti-learning” but never settling on a strategy. There’s going to come a time when you’re going to have most of the knowledge you need, but you’re still having trouble taking action because you have these blind spots. That’s where getting a coach will help you.
Speaker 1:
Protesting with paintbrushes.
Miriam Schulman:
Artists are painting the faces of these victims of police brutality on the walls so that people won’t forget and will be forced to reckon with their humanity. Now, in a movement that asks us to say their names, Brianna Taylor, George Floyd, so many others, we say their names to humanize them. But what the artists are doing are helping us see their faces. Cadex Herrera, one of the artists who worked on the mural said:
Cadex Harrera:
We needed to see his face. We needed to show that he was a human being.
Miriam Schulman:
Artists who paint these types of emotionally charged images recognize that this art can function to arouse anger or to calm. Joe Heinz, who created the Sterling mural in Louisiana, shared in a recent interview with the New York times that he decided to create a mural for Alton’s family:
Joe Heinz:
It’s about honoring Alton. We know what happened to him, but allowing that person who has done wrong to live forever through a mural is a more powerful message.
Speaker 1:
Five things you don’t need to sell more art.
Miriam Schulman:
We are living in a tough time now as we enter the fifth month of this pandemic. As artists, we have the gift to use our art to navigate through these challenging times and through life. On the other hand, the good news is that the pandemic has not interfered with online art sales, at least not my online art sales and not the ones of many of my peers. That’s what I want to talk to you about today, so if you’re thinking that you can’t sell art at this time, that just isn’t true. Besides that, I want to go through five common limiting beliefs that I’ve seen artists hold anytime pre-pandemic. This episode is for those if you want to make a steady, consistent income that you can be proud of by selling art, that you’re already proud of.
Speaker 1:
Five ways you could be sabotaging your art sales.
Miriam Schulman:
I had been around people, and most of them were men, but also their wives, who were very comfortable spending large amounts of money. That’s why I understand that people who have lots of money enjoy spending their money on expensive things. They are not looking for bargains, they are not shopping on eBay. They choose wine by its price tag. If a bottle of wine is too inexpensive, then they think it can’t be good. A $6 bottle wine can’t be good as a $20 bottle of wine and it’s certainly not as good as a $100 or a $300 bottle of wine. We may have our price ceilings of how much we’ll spend on things. They have their price floors, meaning that they will not go below a certain amount of money when choosing a luxury item because they view it as not as worthy. That is the main way a lot of you artists are sabotaging herself with those low prices because that’s how they’re viewing art. They’re not looking for deals.
Speaker 1:
Create an art class you can teach from home.
Miriam Schulman:
One of the things that I get asked a lot, especially now, and I’m recording this August 2020, is how my business is doing. My friends who knew that I used to work on Wall Street and left Wall Street, my friends who some of them still have very boring corporate jobs, so they look at me with a really worried expression on their face bracing for horrible news. These friends didn’t follow their dreams. Even in the best of times, they never believed me when I told them that I’m doing well. Right now, I feel a little guilty telling them the truth. Luckily, they can’t see that I’m smiling underneath my mask because I mean, yes, I’m thrilled about my business, but with all the heartache going on in the world, I really don’t like to brag about it too much because I don’t want to appear insensitive. Do you know what I mean? Because actually, my business is doing really well. In fact, in April and May were the two best months I’ve ever had as an artist.
Speaker 1:
The one thing you need to make your art business real.
Miriam Schulman:
I was arguing with my husband a little bit about whether or not to include this on the podcast. He does not want me to get too personal. I have been arguing with him that the problem with my podcast is I don’t think I get personal enough. The artists I see who I admire, the influencers I see that I admire who are at the top of their game, they show up. Well, one person I’m thinking of in particular, but one influencer that shows up on Instagram in her underwear.
Here’s what I’m starting to understand: It’s not that I need to show up on Instagram in my literal underwear, but if I want to be real and authentic and not watered down and not whitewashed, I have to start showing up in my metaphorical underwear, which means things are going to be raw, real. You’re going to see my moles, you’re going to see things that maybe you don’t like, and I’m going to learn to be okay with that. Sometimes I will say things later on that I will regret, too, as I evolve into the next version of myself. But I’d rather do that, I’d rather make mistakes along the way than be quiet or not be true to what I’m thinking and feeling right now.
Speaker 1:
Innovation, evolution, and revolution.
Miriam Schulman:
I value innovative-thinking forward thinkers who reject outdated societal norms like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who refused to accept a lower salary as a professor and fought for the rights of other women to do the same. I’m not afraid of technology. I will get the best camera, software, podcasting equipment, or whatever it takes to deliver the best experience for my art students and for you, my listeners.
When I first started my business as an artrepreneur, I got this piece of advice that I still treasure. I’m going to say it slowly because it’s really important: “Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.” I didn’t know until just now when I Googled it, but this quote is attributed to Jim Rohn. Again, let me just say it again: ” successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.”
Speaker 1:
Embrace your inner weirdo.
Miriam Schulman:
I’m learning to embrace my inner weirdo. I want you to know that if this resonates with you, if you feel weird because you are weird, your art will exist in a much more powerful way when you learn to be comfortable with your own weirdness. One thing I hear over and over again from artists who come to me who are looking to join the incubator program is that, “I just want to paint what I want to paint,” and they’re unhappy because they’re not creating the art in the way they want.
Here’s what I want you to know, my friend: You do not have to give up your weirdness to create art. In fact, the exact opposite is true. You have to give in to your weirdness to create art and embrace your weirdness and go to that place that is different than everyone else and create art that is different and not care what other people think and not get mad or upset or be resentful. Just embrace that weirdness on every level because the best art in the world is produced by us weirdos and the best art in the world is much more than just a pretty picture.
Speaker 1:
How to choose an artist mastermind.
Miriam Schulman:
The most successful artists throughout time have also been part of a mastermind, at least the way we’re defining it here today, even if they didn’t use that word. If you look back throughout art history, we find artists have always traveled in packs, from the French impressionists in Paris to the abstract expressionists who painted in the winters in New York and summer together in Provincetown. Artists who reached the highest levels of career success do so in groups, even reclusive van Gogh was regularly in contact with his artist friends, Gauguin, Bazille, as well as his brother Theo, the art dealer and a mastermind doesn’t have to be huge to be successful. Anytime two people mind-meld, you can consider that masterminding.
Speaker 1:
Why celebrating your wins moves you from funk to flow.
Miriam Schulman:
No one wants to be around an Eeyore, no one. I know some people use complaining as a badge of honor, we all know people like that. They all want to tell you about all the terrible things that are happening and it creates the worst kind of energy ever and it can really repel people. This is the opposite of what you want to do. Especially if you’re in the business of selling your art, you do not want to be repairing people by complaining. Going into that whole thing, “This stinks,” and, “That stinks,” and, “Ugh, I can’t see my friends because of COVID and I can’t go to the museum.” That kind of complaining can just suck the oxygen out of any room and when there’s no oxygen and no one can breathe, it’s just like the Dementors in Harry Potter. When you’re breathing out hopelessness and there’s no happiness left to breathe in, it’s going to vanquish your hope. When you don’t have hope, you’re going to give up on your goals.
I think the oxygen is the sort of power that we need for change, the hope that we have the capacity to change our circumstance, or to control the way we act inside our existing circumstances. When we’re complaining, it takes away our power over the situation versus when we focus on the positive, so if you find yourself complaining or a Debbie Downer ear for just even one minute, stop yourself, stop it, write down some wins, write down some things that you feel positive about that you can celebrate.
Oh, wow. That was so much fun. Now, don’t forget, we’ve included links to all the full episodes featured in today’s best of in the show notes, which you can find at schulmanart.com/120. Now, make sure you tune in next week for part two of the Inspiration Place Rewind. Next week, we’ll feature highlights of interviews. In 2020, we certainly had some amazing guests, inspirational speakers and thought leaders like Suzy Ashworth, Amy Porterfield, Gretchen Rubin, Heather Alice Shea, and so much more. Whether you’ve been around for a while, or you’re just discovering this podcast for the first time, you’re not going to want to miss it, so make sure you’re subscribed to the show by hitting the follow or the subscribe link on whatever app you’re listening.
Now, before you go, I wanted to let you know that I’ve also rounded up some of them, my favorite freebies so that you can pick out your holiday gift. Head on over to schulmanart.com/freebies right now. All right, my friends, have a beautiful holiday weekend. I’ll see you next week.
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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