THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Elizabeth Mordensky:
If there’s a client out there who’s willing to collect my art over and over and over again, then there’s more clients out there like that.
Speaker 2:
It’s The Inspiration Place Podcast with artist Miriam Schulman. Welcome to the Inspiration Place Podcast, an art world insider podcast full artists by an artist where each week, we go behind the scenes to uncover the perspiration and inspiration behind the arts. And now your host, Miriam Schulman.
Miriam Schulman:
Hello, my friend. This is Miriam Schulman, your curator of inspiration and host of the Inspiration Place Podcast. You’re listening to episode number 173. I am so grateful that you’re here. As we reach the last days of 2021, I thought it would be super fun to gather up some of my favorite interview clips of the year. Now, because I was working on a book for most of this year, I have way more interviews than I usually do. So there was definitely a lot to choose from, but I love the bite size advice and bits of inspiration from these guest experts that I decided to include. Of course, you can go back and listen to the full shows all over again, or for the first time, if you’re new around here. Now, before we dive into all that, I promise to catch you up a little bit more about what’s happening in the Schulman house.
Last week, I shared that I joined my husband in fulfilling his lifelong dream to return to his Catskill roots. So we have a rustic farmhouse in the country and my husband ordered a tractor. What for? I’m not really sure, but he claims that he has projects to do. By the way, you can see in my Instagram highlight reels, there’s a tab for the farmhouse. You can see all the creatures that I’ve spotted around the house: groundhogs, deer, bears. You can see all of it over there. Now for years, I thought I was an empty nester when our kids went off to college and this year, we had Zoom college in my dining room for most of 2021 and my nest has been pretty full. However, the little one, I call him my little one, but he’s a 21-year old man child with a full beard, he’s the one who I painted in his Batman costume.
My little baby has moved to Israel, literally moved. He’s actually declared his Israeli citizenship. So my nest really is emptying out. I have no idea when I’ll see him again, and yes, I’m trying to fight my feelings over that. They keep closing the border every new variant, but I am excited for him because this is something he wants to do. He’s fulfilling his dreams and that is what we want for our kids. But I do miss him. And Talia’s also fulfilling her dreams. So she’s the one who you might have seen in my artwork playing the cello. She’s also the model. My students paint inside of Watercolor Portrait Academy. She’s also all grown up. She’s done with college, she’s now a certified music teacher, and she’s been working. So we’ve been feeling the wins of change around here, but enough about me.
How about you? How has your year been? If you’ve been disappointed with your current art sales or what happened this past year in 2021 with your art business, let’s turn that around in 2022. You can get coached by me for a full year inside the artist incubator program. You’ll learn everything you need from production, pricing, prospecting, promotion, productivity, as well as top notch mindset coaching. You’ll get live coaching and support from myself and other experts to make sure you have everything you need to succeed. Now, you may have heard, I have two tracks. I have a self study track version of the program, and for those who want more access to me on a regular basis to accelerate your results, so you have help with application and implementation. I do offer an exclusive mastermind level of the incubator to accelerate your results.
The mastermind is by application only because I do not accept everyone who applies and I keep that group small. I usually only have one or two openings at a time. I do have two spots opening in January. So to see if you qualify, go to Schulmanart.com/biz, as in B-I-Z. I would love to be your guide to making 2022 your best year ever. All right. Now, on with the show.
Speaker 2:
It’s the Inspiration Place Podcast rewind with highlights from the best interviews of 2021. Why you are still playing too small with Shaun Roney.
Miriam Schulman:
People, they want to make a bigger business, they want more art sales, but they actually are afraid of being seen. It feels scary. So can you describe what that looks like?
Shaun Roney:
What it commonly looks like is playing small and picking what I call low-hanging fruit. So going after the things that feel like you’re busy and active and working on something and doing it, but really those are not the things that are going to put you out in front of more people. So it’s like the behind the scenes kind of busyness. A few of the thoughts that have really come up frequently are everything has changed, and I can’t get in front of as many people as I can at a live show. That is one of the biggest thoughts that has come up over and over again. Because this landscape looks different now and it’s online and some things have changed, well, that just means I’m unable to get in front of as many people and I don’t know how to reach people.
It’s so interesting because those are just thoughts. People share them like it’s true. Like, “No, no, no, no, you don’t understand. This is how the art community works. We go to shows in person and we sell art.” It’s a common belief. Not everyone believes that, but it is a common belief. And it’s like, “Oh, if we can just question that and really ask, “Is that true? How is that not true? How might I be able to get in front of as many people as I used to, or even more? How am I able to now reach people who actually will pay what I’m asking for these paintings or will pay a higher amount for these artwork?”” Those are all the other side of the coin and just questions that they can ask to really uncover some of that.
I think there’s this belief around wanting the barrier to entry to be so low. The ask is so minimal. They want to make it easy. Again, I think it comes back to that fear of rejection. If I am painting this giant piece of art, right? And I’m I asking this amount of money that feels larger, maybe for them, there can be a belief that maybe there’s this barrier of entry being created. I’m going to make it harder for people to buy from me because it’s so big and it costs more. So let me just do this little thing over here, because the risk is smaller. The likelihood of someone saying no to a mug that costs 20 bucks feels lower than the likelihood of someone saying yes to a large canvas that costs thousands of dollars. But really, it’s just a matter of matching, finding the right person that’s looking for the right thing.
And when you’re trying to build a business through your art, you have to sell a lot of mugs. If you compare the number of mugs you have to sell versus finding the one person that really is interested in that large canvas-
Miriam Schulman:
And if you do the math, if you want to make $50,000 a year and the most you can sell a hand-painted mug for is $50, you have to sell a thousand mugs. You are way better off pricing art for a thousand dollars and finding 50 people who want a thousand dollars painting, or 25 people who want a $2,000 painting. And then you don’t have to spend all of your time with a cramped hand painting on mugs.
Shaun Roney:
Yes, actually, because the level of investment, when it comes to creative investment, just like thinking of the concept and coming up with it and then actually doing the work and creating it, you’re putting in time either way. So what’s going to give you the greater return on investment if you’re creating art both ways and you really enjoy doing both, I think it really just also, again, comes back to that fear of being rejected and a belief that, “Well, it won’t feel so bad if it’s a mug. I can always find someone else to buy a mug,” but I think with the bigger level, the larger level of discomfort comes the greater possibility. That’s where you really discover what’s possible, the more uncomfortable you’re willing to be. So if you’re willing to ask for a large amount and paint that large canvas and have a few people, many people say, “I’m sorry, not for me,” eventually, you’re going to find the person that’s like, “Oh my gosh, that is mine.”
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. And the truth is unfortunately, the customer service is just as much for these little thinky things that don’t make you a lot of money. You spend just as much time answering people’s questions. “Is a dishwasher safe? Can I put it in the microwave?” All these things you’re going to be getting, all these questions and spending time dealing with customers when… And we’re not just talking about mugs. I’m talking about all of those things in the $50 and under sandbox. Playing in that sandbox, there’s a lot of time overhead that you have to invest in playing that game, that same amount of time could be invested in working with a higher-end customer who is probably going to be easier to deal with in the end, because they’re not looking for a bargain.
Shaun Roney:
That’s one of the primary goals. Not that your art is driven by that as an artist, but that when people get to the point where they’re like, “Oh, that’s a Miriam piece. That’s a Shaun piece. That’s a…” Right? They can recognize it because it stands out on its own. That is saying something. That is what people are paying for. Something that draws them, that captivates them, it’s hard to do if you look like every other flavor out there.
Speaker 2:
Why you need an email list with Teresa Heath-Wareing.
Teresa Heath-Wareing:
When they see an expert, okay, so the artist following you might see what you are doing and think, “Oh, that’s the only way I can do it. Or that’s the way I should do it because this artist has gone on TikTok and now they’re killing it and selling loads. So I must be on TikTok.” Or, “This artist was awesome on Instagram because they did reels, and now that must be my strategy.” No, that worked for them. Now, I’m not saying it won’t work for you. It might work for you, but just because someone’s art blew up overnight because they did this one thing does not mean that that’s the golden ticket to you then suddenly blowing up overnight. And I think that’s a worry when we see other things and then we think, “Oh, we’ve got to go all in this.” So we ignore some of the basic stuff. No one is ever going, “Hey, I blew up because I built my email list.”
Miriam Schulman:
Well, let’s talk about email frequency because that’s the other thing I get push back from for the artists that I coach and they want to send an email once a month or twice a month and I’m like, “You can send one every week,” and they’ll say, “I don’t want to bother people.”
Teresa Heath-Wareing:
Bother them. Oh, I love this question. So what if I turned around to you? So you sat there listening to this and I say to you, now you can only post on Instagram 12 times in a year. You’d think I had lost my mind. Wouldn’t you? You would literally, “12 times? What on earth is that going to do? 12 posts in an entire year?” Well, that’s how many emails you send if you email once a month.
Miriam Schulman:
I love that because nobody ever thinks when they post on Instagram that they’re bothering people.
Teresa Heath-Wareing:
No. No, they don’t. And the funny thing is some people on social media didn’t opt in to see your stuff. Sometimes you see things because someone else has shared it or because it just happens to throw up in your feed for whatever reason. However, I’ve opted in. I have actually said, “Yes, I want to receive your emails.” But if you’re only emailing once a month, like I said, 12 emails an entire year. And the other thing is after when people email once a month, they shove everything into an email. Literally, it’s the longest thing ever. And all that says is you could have done all these other emails as time goes along without having to keep it all for one email, which if they don’t open that email, you’ve got no hope in hell. At least, if you’ve done an email every week and they opened one in three, they’re releasing some of the content, whereas if you are leaving it for the end of the month and they don’t open that, then you’ve lost a chance.
Speaker 2:
Artist journey from so-so to sold out with Dawn Trimble.
Miriam Schulman:
How much were you selling your paintings for in 2018?
Dawn Trimble:
Don’t fall out of your chair.
Miriam Schulman:
I’ll close my eyes.
Dawn Trimble:
Yeah. I was selling my 5x7s for $25 and I would be so excited when I would get a sale. I would be over the moon when I would get a sale. At the end of 2019 before I was laid off, I took that as just as sign from God. I was like, “Let’s do it.” I mean, because I was laid off in April and you contacted me in June. So to me, it was a no-brainer. I jumped in full-on. I drank the Kool-Aid. I was going to do whatever I needed to do. Listening and hearing other artists hear the struggle, but then hearing you and Shaun give us permission to move forward anyway, to do it anyway, to do it scared, I mean, that was the big thing for me.
It was a returning to myself because I needed to remember what my voice was, and I think painting gave me that. Painting allowed that to happen. So healing came through the painting, but then it also…. Working with you and with Shaun, it allowed me to know that you already have what you need to do inside of you, but are you brave enough to show it? Are you brave enough to put it out there?
Miriam Schulman:
In addition to just raising your existing prices, what I really had encouraged Dawn to do was to paint larger and take up more space and be more visible so that she could really command those premium prices.
Dawn Trimble:
I was like, “What is she talking about? What is she talking about? What’s wrong with my $25 paintings?” It was hard to imagine, it was scary. It was hard because I hadn’t done it before. As a mother with young children, you devote your time to that and then a relationship and work and you lose your voice. So how are you going to paint large if you don’t know what your voice is? What will you be painting? So the work that I did with Shaun and with you allowed me to remember that. And then I think the confidence started to come each week because it wasn’t that I was painting a ton. I released my first collection under the artist incubator, it did great. I slowly started to move up and the audience was always there. I think that’s the funny thing. We think that the audience isn’t there, the audience was always there.
Miriam Schulman:
They were waiting for you to show up.
Dawn Trimble:
Exactly. They’re waiting for me to believe that I belong in this space and can take up this space, and this is what I have to offer. I think it is that self development and that inner transformation that you do when you finally do say, “Why not me? Why not?” And it doesn’t come from an arrogant or a cocky way, it comes from knowing who God says you are and operating from that. And when I started to switch and do that, everything seemed to fall into place. Painting larger was no longer as daunting as I originally thought. I made a lot of ugly paintings along the way, but I think you have to do that in order to get to the good stuff.
Even till this day, which I’m still blown away, people are reaching out to me, your companies are reaching out to me and I’m really excited about that, and I’m just trying to take it day by day and be as diligent and show up to do things. I’m I still make ugly paintings. I absolutely do, but I think you have to not be afraid to do that. You have to not be afraid to make the ugly painting. You have to not be afraid to hear the no, and just keep going anyway if you have that goal in mind.
Speaker 2:
Behind the scenes of her first five-figure art class launch with Ciara Gilmore.
Ciara Gilmore:
I was a real beginner and I went through this process and a mission almost of discovering everything I could possibly discover about how to create really good abstract art, and I took so many different courses and just kept absorbing and absorbing information and practicing. At the end of, I would say it was probably only about a year really, that I started getting requests from galleries and I was getting commission requests and suddenly, my art was getting legs and it was just ticking off, but it was really that process that I went through and the things that I learned that I realized without those things, the wisdom that I had learned really, really quickly, I wouldn’t have been in that position.
And I had this real strong urge to share that with other people, “You can do it, you can do it.” When things are stressful and I’m not sure what I’m doing, I just keep saying over and over again in my head, “You can do it. You can do it. Just get it done. Done is better than perfect. It works. It really does. You hear the word artist, you assume a struggling artist, poor artist, an artist who is just not a business person. When you take on this leap to follow your dream, become an artist, you tick on all these beliefs that are limiting beliefs and they kind of [crosstalk 00:18:28].
Miriam Schulman:
Which are optional.
Ciara Gilmore:
I am not going to take on all this rubbish from the past. An artist has just as much merit as any other profession to do really well, and I start to value myself and value my art. I’d just be so grateful for being in this room with my paints and my canvas and the quiet and the opportunity to paint, and I just think I am so, so lucky, and I just get overwhelmed with gratitude for this opportunity of being able to follow my dream. Then that’s when I create my best art. And sometimes when I don’t do that, I struggle and I get grumpy and then I realize, “Hold on a minute, I haven’t been grateful for being here in this moment. I haven’t done that,” and it just lifts your vibration automatically-
Miriam Schulman:
That’s beautiful.
Ciara Gilmore:
… which is the most powerful tool to help your whole life really, but especially in art. I mean, every artist who is painting has such a wonderful gift just to have the paint at their hands and their canvas and just to be able to express themselves in whatever way they want. I think we’re very lucky to be creatives like that. I think that recognizing that is a wonderful thing to do as well.
Speaker 2:
Make your arts no matter what with Beth Pickens.
Beth Pickens:
My whole thesis in life and my professional life is an artist is someone who has to make their creative work, because it’s how they understand being alive and it’s how they process their lived experience. And that, again, is what’s distinct about artists from me and the rest of the world who benefit from it. Sure, I totally benefit from that, but I don’t need it the way I see my clients need to make their work or they feel bad if they don’t make it. Your paid job, you pour into it, you get a paycheck back and that’s the exchange. Your creative practice, you pour a lot into it and you get many other things back too.
And sometimes with artists, I find that we have to actually find them a different kind of paid work. I think of it as paying work that interacts neutrally or positively with yourself as an artist, but not negatively. And if you find that your paid work is actually just draining your practice, then we might start to brainstorm, “What other things could you do for money that it’s easier to have a boundary with or when you’re not there, you’re not thinking about it?” And everybody is different.
Miriam Schulman:
But really what it boils down to is it’s this resistance to getting help to make things easier. So what do you think are the reasons artists don’t ask for help?
Beth Pickens:
I think it’s socialization, the many intersecting identities and the socialization attached to them. So for example, not only women or people who’ve ever been socialized as female, but certainly all of them too have been socialized to believe that, “I can only give, I can’t receive. I can’t ask for things. It’s wrong. It’s selfish.” How many people have been told asking for anything is selfish or narcissistic? So socialization is a huge one. And then I think artists have an extra layer socialization on top of that, where they’ve been told messages like, “If you ask for something, you seem desperate.” I hear that all the time. “You seem desperate. You have to wait for people to offer or come to you, because if you ask for something, it’s thirsty or needy or desperate.” Or that somehow if your work is “good enough” that you don’t need to ask for something like the world will come to you, and none of these things are true. None of these things are true.
And people get help all the time often that’s made invisible to us. There is so much help to people who have astronomical careers because of their proximity to power and capital, maybe because of their personality and willingness to ask, often luck, but I find that the more people ask for of all kinds of things, opportunities, introductions, emotional support, money, the more they get. It’s like probability. The more you ask for, the more you’ll get and importantly, the more you’ll be rejected and turn down, and that’s a muscle I want all artists to strengthen. The ability to detach from being told no, or not answered or rejected in some way, the ability to experience that and detach makes it easier to rebound and then continue asking.
Miriam Schulman:
So first fear, which I relate to, when you have been in the creative desert, that is 2020, 2021, and now you finally do have time to make art, that fear about making mediocre art.
Beth Pickens:
Yes. What if I make something that is bad or mediocre, and then what does that mean?
Miriam Schulman:
It means it’s all over. Never going to make anything good again.
Beth Pickens:
Right. All of the work that we love in the world, the books, the films, the visual art, all of it, we’re seeing the end of something that a lot of time went into. We’re not seeing all the work that led to making the thing that was really wonderful. And artists have to… You have to move so much trash out of the way, you have to get so many ideas out to get to the thing that you’re going to make, and a lot of that is work that you’re going to think, “This isn’t very good.” And on not being mean to myself, I’m just like, “Oh, this isn’t very good, but it still serves a purpose.” It’s getting you to the thing that’s really good.
And the only way to that thing is by getting all the other stuff out of the way. It’s like you got to write. For people who do any kind of writing practice, people have to write. They just got to get the garbage thoughts out of their mind to drop in deeper. People in every discipline find that they have to work through whatever’s happening to get to an idea that’s interesting to them. And along the way, yeah, lots of stuff that you’ll think is bad or mediocre, but it’s valuable. Even if you’re not going to ever show it, it’s still valuable.
Miriam Schulman:
Sometimes you just have to move the paint brush around, is the way I like to put it, but it’s no different than, I think, dancers. They go into the studio and they’re doing their PLAs. It’s not always-
Beth Pickens:
You have to warm up.
Miriam Schulman:
… performance of Swan Lake.
Beth Pickens:
You got to warm up. Yeah. And visual artists, I think are at a disadvantage in the warm up world. I don’t think everyone’s taught that, “No, you have to warm up.” You don’t just walk into this studio and feel like, “Okay, be brilliant. Paint something great.” You have to warm up.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s right.
Beth Pickens:
Linda Berry is my favorite example of this. She famously talks about that the first thing she does in her studio practice is she hand paints the alphabet and that’s her warmup practice. She doesn’t just start making brilliant comics or wonderful work. She has to warm up. And not every discipline is equal in that training. Musicians, people who do body-based practice, they have been taught, “You have to warm up,” but everybody, all artists have to warm up.
Speaker 2:
How Blake Jamieson makes money selling NFTs.
Blake Jamieson:
So I quit my corporate marketing job at the age of 30. I was doing very well financially, but not happy looking forward to Friday’s, dreading Mondays, that kind of thing. So I quit my job, ultimately started painting full time. Since I didn’t go to art school, it took me a while to feel comfortable actually selling my art. So for a long time, almost a year, I just painted every single day, tried to get in my 10,000 hours as fast as I could and posted my work online. And as people would say, “Hey, I want to buy this,” I’d say, “Oh, I’m not ready to sell it yet, but I’ll let you know when I’m ready.” Eventually, when I was comfortable, I put up 10 paintings for sale, 500 bucks each. Those sold out extremely quickly, which was very encouraging to do 5k on my first day ever selling art online. I wanted to focus my art in a particular niche.
So what I did is I looked at all of my existing sales, which at the time was probably 20 paintings, 10 of which from that very first initial sale, and then the other 10 maybe dripped out over the course of the next few months. I looked at each of those customers and then I made a spreadsheet of what do they do? Where do they work? Where do they live? How do I know them? And it was pretty very consistent where it’s like they work in some type of tech company, usually like marketing, PR, advertising, and I know them through social media. It just clicked to me to be like, “Okay, well, these people all work in offices. So I’m going to be the guy that makes super dope office art, and my ideal customer is going to be a company who’s going from… Maybe just raised a series A round, they’re moving out of a co-working space into their own office for the first time. They want some cool artwork on the wall that’s not just like buying it for Ikea. They want to show that they have cool culture, whatever.”
I thought I could be that guy. Okay. Now that I’m going to focus on these people and these customers, where should I find them? Instagram seems like the obvious choice for arts-related stuff, but I’m thinking, “Well, no, if I want to find the decision makers in the business, if this is where I want to get my art, where do those people hang out?” Those are the facilities managers or building managers or, I mean, sometimes for small companies like the CEO or VP or whatever. I didn’t think that Instagram or Twitter was going to be the easiest for me to cut through the other noise and competition.
So I really focused in on LinkedIn. So the content that I was putting on LinkedIn was similar to what you would see artists at the time putting on Instagram or Twitter. Time-lapsed videos of me painting, it’s, “Here’s me in the studio working.” It’s a photograph of my art and I mean, definitely there were some people that are like, “This isn’t a LinkedIn. What are you doing this on LinkedIn?” But there’s also 20 other comments to be like, “That’s dope. I never see art on LinkedIn. Really cool to see this here.”
Speaker 2:
Artist and ADD with Tracy Otsuka.
Tracy Otsuka:
When you’re in the task positive network, you’re working away. So that means you don’t even have time to be in your brain to be thinking. How do you get into the task positive network? You get into action. Those students of yours that are struggling with starting and they’re all in their head, they’ve got to learn how to control their own dopamine. And the way they do that is they get into action even when they don’t feel like it. Because that first time that they realize that, “I have control over my brain,” and getting into action, that is then what will propel them to start using it every single time either they don’t feel good, they’re kind of anxious, they’re a little depressed, they don’t feel like starting because they will learn how to control that. I mean, clearly ADHD brains are happiest when we’re in action and when we’re creating.
So it’s really… If you sit back and you think about, “When was the last time I was really happy?” Chances are you were creating something. I don’t care if it’s art or a business or anything. And then when you think about, “Okay, if I feel like crap right now, well, when’s the last time I actually created something?” I bet you, the chances are that you’re going to say, “I really haven’t in a while.” And that’s part of what’s going on. I mean, I think of art and creativity as therapy because, well, we know there’s art therapy, right? It calms the nervous system down. So that is probably the most important thing that we can do for the ADHD brain is again, to look for where is the positive emotion? Because what you want to link is positive emotion increases your dopamine. And when you have more dopamine, you feel better and you are more motivated.
So a lot of people think that, “Oh, well, motivation just shows up, right? I’m going to wake up tomorrow. Am I going to feel like I’m motivated? No, not today. Okay. What about the next day? No, not that day either.” And that’s not how it works. Motivation comes from action. So you can motivate yourself by getting into action, any kind of action, and then backend it, right? Because once you get into action, whatever that action is, you’ve increased your positive emotion, which means you’ve increased your dopamine. Now, what is the next thing you can do to increase your positive emotion a little bit more? And just keep going up that ladder.
Miriam Schulman:
I love that.
Tracy Otsuka:
We can control it. That is the biggest key. It’s not something that you just wake up one day and you should be motivated or you’re not going to be motivated.
Speaker 2:
Stories that stick with Kindra Hall.
Kindra Hall:
Another reason to be telling stories is that every story you tell is an opportunity for someone to tell a story back to you. Stories beget stories. So if you are in person, if you are at an art show, like you said, and what you want, what’s more important is not the stories that you have going out, but the stories you can get from them so that you can better tailor your message or help them create the stories as they stand there, but it’s really awkward to look at someone and say, “Well, what’s your story?” They’re not going to know what to say. So if you share a story first and it can be a really small one, it can be one of your own stories, it can be another collector’s story and you just share very briefly, what you’re really doing is saying, “This is a storytelling environment here.”
It’s an invitation for them then to, and they will. They’ll respond with a story and now, you’ve got something to work with. It’s like a roundabout way to get their stories from them. If you ever struggle with getting your work sold or whatever it is, stories as a strategy, having yourself differentiated from everybody else, stories as a strategy is a winner all the way. I realized so many more of the barriers to any success or experiences that I’m seeking have much less to do with the stories that I am or am not telling out into the world and everything to do with the stories I tell myself. Stories I tell myself about what I’m good at, what I’m capable of, what I deserve, what I don’t, what failure is, what it isn’t. I have had to systematically dismantle many stories in my life to get to where I want to be.
Speaker 2:
How to get your art noticed with Elizabeth Modernsky.
Elizabeth Mordensky:
I think one of the most amazing things that your listeners really should take away from this is that I was working five to seven days a week on my other job for the last six months, and I’ve still by far, had my most successful year I’ve ever had. I’ve already passed my income goal, not my stretch goal yet, but my regular income goal, just by implementing as much as I could in the time that I had while I was working 60 hours a week on another job. Just listen to everything Miriam says, because if you just implement a little bit of it, like email marketing a little bit, or trying to go after press a little bit, you’re going to be making strides. And I’m so excited now that I’m going into being a full-time artist here in Portland. Every small step you take, every little thing you do, that’s going to get you closer to your dream. So don’t feel like you have to have everything planned out and ready to go before you start.
Just take actions, every little action you can when you have the time and you will start seeing results. A lot of my success this year has come through one big client who has been a repeat buyer for me. On the one hand I started thinking, “Oh, well, a business isn’t necessarily sustainable through one client or a couple of clients.” But on the flip side, I started thinking if there’s a client out there who’s willing to collect my art over and over and over again, then there’s more clients out there like that. It’s not just one. I just have to find them. Not only can I right now say this is going really well for me, but it makes me realize that there are people out in the world that are going to fall in love with my art and they’re going to want to buy more than one piece. I have seen that a few times. Doesn’t take a ton of people. You just have to find the right people.
Speaker 2:
Social media success recipes with Italina Kirknis.
Italina Kirknis:
LinkedIn is the number one professional site. Meaning there are over hundred million users on LinkedIn. Studies have been done that shows earning income is higher there than on other sites. We’ve got professionals, we’ve got business owners, we’ve got executives, et cetera. Let’s say you want target a certain demographic tech, veterans, teachers, retirees, you can type those keywords in the search box. All of those profiles will pop up. I’m talking over a million people will probably pop up. I like to say that LinkedIn is a stepchild of social media. It’s the last one people don’t remember to use it. Instagram is the demanding mistress. She wants all this time. Instagram offers all these different avenues to basically share content. What all the social media sites have in common is they want you to share content so that people will use their… Spend more time on their sites.
So Instagram has created these different forms: IGTV, Reels, Stories. This is good because everyone has their preferred form of consuming content. So if you want a longer form content, then IGTV is for you. If you want a shorter form, then Reels is for you. What happens is as well is Instagram rewards you for using all of the various forms: IGTV, Stories, Reels, and they reward you via the algorithm. So meaning you’re going to be pushed out to… Your page’s going to be more visible to more people, you’re going to be found on the discovery page because as a reward for using the different forms. So that’s why you as a content creator, Miriam, that’s why you want to use the different ones, and then it also allows your audience to consume the content in whichever way they want.
Speaker 2:
Making time for it all with Jeanne Oliver.
Jeanne Oliver:
So people always ask like, “How do you do all of those things?” And it’s because I make a plan for it and I figure out what day am I going to get it done and I show up on days that I don’t feel like showing up sometimes, right? You show up and you do those things and it moves you forward. Those little acts of consistency. That’s why I tell everybody I’m not the best teacher, the best business woman, the best artist, it’s showing up in little ways consistently. It’s powerful.
Miriam Schulman:
And honoring those commitments. There’s something so powerful about putting it in writing.
Jeanne Oliver:
And I just read something the other day that said we’re 42% more likely to do something if we write it down. And I think for me, the reason I need to write out my days like that, the reason I need to be so clear about what I do and when I do it is so then I also honor my stopping time each day, I can honor my weekends, but it makes sure that my actions are aligned with what I say I actually want. We’re all being talkers, right? We can all say that we want to be a better artist or we want to hike more or we want to eat better or move, whatever our thing is.
But when we plan it, we’re actually saying, “I mean it. I’m not just saying that I want this in my life. I’m holding myself accountable that if I don’t plan it out, and if I don’t make sure my actions are aligned with what I say, most likely, if I’m reacting day to day what’s coming at me, if that’s what my business got from me, if that’s what my family got from me, if that’s what my art got from me, if I’m just reacting all the time, I’m not going to get very far.”
One of the best and worst things I ever did was I was able to see how many hours I was on my phone each day and it is mortifying. It’s just awful. And I’ve read that we pick up our phone 37 times in an hour, and every time we put it down, it can take us 10 to 13 minutes to get back on track. I don’t want that for me. It’s a choice. So it means not having my phone with me when I’m doing things and keeping it inside or leaving it in the car or whatever to do is that we all have beautiful things we want to do with our families and with our friends and for ourselves and our creativity and our businesses.
Speaker 2:
And that’s a wrap.
Miriam Schulman:
We’ve included links to all these places in the show notes, Schulmanart.com/173. And don’t forget if you like what you learn on the show, imagine what 2022 would be like with my guidance. I do have room inside the Incubator Mastermind Program for next year. So if you’re lacking a solid strategy or winning mindset, you’ve been disappointed with 2021, let’s turn this around. I can show you how to double your art sales. Go to Schulmanart.com/biz to apply and see if you qualify. All right. We’ve got a lot of great interviews planned for 2022 and trust me, you do not want to miss it. So make sure you hit the subscribe or follow button in your podcast app. All right, my friend, thank you so much for being with me here today. I’ll see you the same time, same place next week. Happy New Year, and stay inspired.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for listening to The Inspiration Place Podcast. Connect with us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Schulmanart, on Instagram @schulmanart, and of course, on Schulmanart.com.
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