THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Miriam Schulman: Too many websites—it’s like, what’s wrong with your About page? It’s probably written in the third person, even though the rest of your website is written in the first person. So, you want to make it in the first person because it will make it more human-like, and it will resonate the most with your customers.
Speaker 2: It’s the Inspiration Place podcast with artist Miriam Schulman. Welcome to the Inspiration Place Podcast, an art world insider podcast for artists by an artist where each week we go behind the scenes to uncover the perspiration and inspiration behind the art. And now your host, Miriam Schulman.
Miriam Schulman: Hey there, it’s Miriam Schulman here, and you’re listening to episode number 322 of the Inspiration Place podcast. I am so excited that you’re here! We have a really great episode for you today.
Before we get into that, I just want to catch up a little bit. Personally, we’ve been basically putting out episode after episode after episode, and I’m not even sure that I’ve checked in with you to say hi. How are you? How was your summer? Mine was amazing.
As I’m recording this—I’m actually recording at the end of July—I know you’re listening to this in September. And guess what? My son is getting married, and I couldn’t be more excited! By the time you hear this, I will have come back from that, and I am very excited for him. So good times over here!
And my daughter—you’ve heard me talk about her on this podcast as well—she also got a new job. She’s working for a charter school in New York City. She’s in the Bronx and in Inwood, so she’s excited as well.
As this is being released, we’re in the midst of a bootcamp. Hopefully, you joined us for that! I don’t think it’s too late for you to catch up, though. If you want to go to SchulmanArt.com/bootcamp—if you’re listening to this when it goes live, we’re on Day 2. If you’re listening to this when it drops on September 10th, it’s a 3- or 4-day bootcamp, depending on whether you’re counting the bonus days or not. And we would love to have you come in and catch up with that.
Alright, so what inspired this episode is one of the things I do for my Artist Incubator clients: I review websites. I’ve looked at literally hundreds of websites since I started doing this. For my Inner Circle members, I actually deep dive with them on anything they need help with, and one of the key pieces I always help them with is their About page. I’ve seen a lot of About pages, and that’s also something I wrote a whole chapter about that will be in my brand new book. Hopefully, very soon, I’ll be able to share some good news about that—about who my next publisher is going to be, whether I’m going with HarperCollins again or someone else.
In my next book, I will be sharing with you the rules for writing a stellar About page. But until that happens, and also, by the way, yes, the Artist Incubator clients get all these rules inside the Incubator—I will be preparing brand new training for them. But before that even happens, for my listeners, I always like to give away some of that knowledge for free.
So a lot of what I do on the podcast is I give you the what, but not so much the nitty-gritty of the how, or I’ll tell you what not to do to help inspire you. So this is kind of the “what is wrong with your About page.” Like I said, I’m basing this on the chapter that I had to write for my proposal for my brand-new book.
I start off the chapter by sharing a true story. When I went to record the audiobook for Artpreneur, at the end of that recording session, the audio engineer asked me to take a look at his website. Now, normally I completely lose my mind when people ask me to coach them for free. But this wasn’t exactly for free—he had spent a good day recording with me. It was a different engineer who worked with me the first day, but this guy did a particularly meticulous job helping me, and I was very grateful for that.
I do look at so many websites, so even though I was very tired from a day of recording in the studio, I was more than happy to take a look at his website. And his website had pretty much all the same mistakes that I see on a lot of my clients’ websites. So if you recognize yourself in any of the mistakes we’re going to talk about today, don’t feel bad.
You’re not alone. I’ve done it too. In fact, I actually had to stop writing the chapter to rewrite my own About page because I realized, “Oh, I’m making some of the same mistakes I criticize my clients for.” I also noticed some of these mistakes on the About pages of other very talented writers. That’s why your About page is not a “do it once and forget about it” exercise. You should periodically revisit this page so that it evolves with you as you advance in your entrepreneurship. The About page should also advance as you learn how to market yourself more effectively.
Now, a lot of what I’m talking about in terms of About pages will be true of any personal brand copy that you write—whether it’s a product description, a post on social media, or an email. But before we dive into that, let’s talk in general about the Sacred Creativity Framework. I’ve been mentioning this quite a bit over the last year on this podcast, so if you’re new to me, let me give you a refresher on what that means.
When we write our marketing copy, we have to remember that customers care primarily about themselves. All people do, and so do we. We care primarily about ourselves, but our customers care primarily about themselves. So when we write any copy, we have to focus on the “who” and the “why” of our customers.
However, too often I see entrepreneurs, especially artists—especially you, my friend. I’m talking to you, artist. You focus on your “why,” not your customers’ “why.” That’s why in this chapter, I included a lot of examples so people can really understand it. But what I’m going to do differently here, that I didn’t do in the chapter, is talk specifically to artists.
This is a mistake I’m really seeing a lot with artists: you get into your art, especially those of you who had a different career and are now transitioning from the corporate world to the creative world. Whether that means your corporate world was graphic design—which was sort of creative—or if it’s completely different, like you were in a legal or medical profession and now only want to focus on your fine art.
Perhaps you’ve taken a lot of marketing classes, or even just a few, or maybe you’ve listened to a podcast about how to do this. Most of the marketing advice out there is geared toward coaches and service providers who have solved a problem that is the same problem they are solving for their customers. Unfortunately, that is not the case if you’re an artist who left your career because art brings you joy.
Because the problem you solved for yourself—that you were burnt out and wanted to do something more meaningful—is not the problem you’re solving for your customer. So if you talk too much about yourself in a way that is not connected to your customer, it’s not going to resonate well.
Let me show you a couple of examples of how this works. Let’s go back to our audio engineer. Now, I don’t even remember his real name anymore, so I didn’t pull up his About Me page to give you this example. Instead, I went on Google and searched for “audio engineer in New Jersey” to see what would come up. I then changed the person’s name and the name of their school, but other than that, it’s pretty much the same. I’m only going to read you one paragraph because the second paragraph gets really boring—believe it or not, it’s even more boring than the first. I’ll explain what’s wrong with it and how it could have been done much better.
Alright, let’s go: “My name is Joe Matthews. I am a recent honors graduate of Madison Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Tech and a minor in Marketing and Analytics. I am deeply interested in music composition and engineering, as well as sound design. I mainly use—[he lists a bunch of software, and I’m not going to bore you with the list]. I am also a drummer of about ten years with a passion for jazz fusion and funk. I have an interest in music and audio for video games and hope to pursue this interest further in my career.” Okay, there are so many things wrong with this. First of all, many of us have been taught this by our English teachers: use contractions. When you’re writing, nothing will make it sound more robotic than “I am, I am, I am.” So “I’m,” “I’ll,” “don’t,” or other contractions. Also, nobody cares that he’s deeply interested, nobody cares that you’re deeply interested. Nobody cares that you’re passionate about your art. They really don’t. I know you might think that your customer is and I’ve had Incubator clients ask me, “Miriam, wait, isn’t it good that this is something we want to do?” Yes, but you really need to talk about it in a way that is important to them.
And also, his passion doesn’t matter here. I see this all the time on art websites: “I love to do commissions, I love to paint cats, and I love to paint dogs.” And that’s not exactly what’s going to draw in our ideal client. Another issue I noticed here was his use of hesitant language, which I think I’ve talked about before in the podcast episode I did with Candace: “Why Your AI-Generated Copy Sucks” (or maybe I used the word “stinks”). So we’ll link to that episode in the show notes. But you can see it here, “I hope that I can pursue this interest”, hesitant language. And then out of the ten sentences, seven of them begin with the first person “I.” At this point, you might be recognizing your own writing style, and maybe you’re not even sure what’s wrong with Joe’s copy. So what I want to do is rewrite Joe’s copy so I can show you how much stronger it could be if he focuses on the “who” and “why” of his potential customer—or his potential employer, could be either one—and less on himself. It’s very difficult to do this, by the way,` without doing it consciously. That’s why even when I’m writing my own copy, I write it first, and then when I go to edit it, I do so with the mindset of how to rewrite it to better speak to my customer.
So let’s hear how I would’ve rewritten this: “My name is Joe Matthews, a recent honors graduate of Madison Institute of Technology.” So that first sentence I didn’t change at all, I even put in what the bachelor degree is and all that stuff. Okay, I did list the software, but listen to how I framed it: “Using the most cutting-edge software” — and then I listed a few. You can trust that you’ll get the most professional, high-quality sound for your next project. So, instead of saying, “I use this, I use that,” and so on, I reframed it to let the customer or employer know that because he’s proficient in these tools, they can trust they’ll get cutting-edge sound. Now usually, your customer is not gonna be familiar with all those things, but if he’s trying to attract somebody to do a freelance project, they may not be familiar with all those tools. If he’s trying to attract an employer, they probably would be familiar and happy with those tools. So this way, it covers it either way.
“As a jazz fusion and funk drummer, I understand the nuances of complex and syncopated rhythms, so that your production also features a tight, infectious rhythm.” So, this is instead of saying, “I’ve played drums for 10 years.” So basically, in the rewrite, I’m letting you know “Why does it matter?”. And then I ended that paragraph with this sentence: “Whether you’re looking to remix your compositions or are coming to me for a signature sound for your video game, you’ve come to the right place.” Okay, so basically what I’ve done here is, instead of having Joe talk about himself, he’s sharing how he can help you, the reader of this copy or his potential customer. The content is more or less the same, but he focuses on the “who” of the customer and why the customer cares—not why he wants to do it or why he likes it. He focuses on the customer, and that’s what you need to do as well. You need to focus on what your art collector cares about.
Mistake number one: You’ve written your About page in the third person. Too many websites, it’s like “what’s wrong with your website’s About page?”. It’s probably written in the third person, even though the rest of your website is written in the first person. You want to make it in the first person because it’ll make it the most human-like and it will resonate the most with your customers.
Mistake number two: You’re apologizing. Stop apologizing. This is the type of About page I see where it’s using the hesitant language, but the really the reason why it’s using the hesitant language is because the artist is apologizing for how little experience they have.
One example I saw—and this is, again, a real example. And again, I found this in New Jersey. I don’t know why I like using New Jersey. I just figure if I was searching in New York City for an event planner or an audio engineer, I’m going to be served with a lot of ads for production companies or big party planning companies. I figure in New Jersey I would get more mom-and-pop type places. So, I’m going to share an actual, real event planner bio that I saw. Names are changed, of course—this is the “before”: “Eve’s passion for art and creativity has manifested itself through many mediums over the years. She founded Eve’s Events LLC in 2014. She is very hands-on with creating a vision for your event, a.k.a. party decorations and event decor. This is not work for her—it’s fun, and that’s why she loves being the owner.” So why is this a mistake? I see this all the time. She’s apologizing for the fact that she hasn’t always been an event planner by saying, “her passion has manifested itself through many mediums.” Don’t say that! I mean, I found this in 2024—just say Eve has been an event planner for over ten years. That’s plenty of time. You don’t have to say it’s “manifested itself in many different ways.” You don’t have to say your career had many twists and turns before you finally became an artist. If you’ve been an artist for 12 years, 10 years, even five years… Heck, even two years! If it was just two years I would say, “has been dedicated to art for the last few years.” That’s not lying, and it’s not apologizing either.
Okay, Mistake number three: focusing on why you like it instead of why it’s important to your customer. If you’re anything like my clients, you might be wondering, “Shouldn’t we be sharing how much we enjoy doing our jobs?” And you should—but only in a way that your customer cares about. So, for example, “While I enjoy painting dogs, I also love to paint cats,” no, no. Say, “Whether you have a dog or a cat, I’ll bring the essence of your pet portrait to life.” Or even better, “Whether you have a cat or a dog, you can trust that my art will bring the essence of your pet to life”. Just tell them why they should care. You don’t have to tell them that you love it. They’re assuming that you like doing it, or you wouldn’t be offering it.
Mistake number four: speaking about your client as if they’re not in the room. So even when about pages are written in the first person, you really need to talk to your client. I’ve made this mistake too. Let me give you an example of how I’ve gotten this wrong. Let’s see if you can see how much more powerful it sounds in the rewrite. So before—before is the wrong way: I help all artists, from absolute newbies to professionals, develop their skills and grow a thriving art business so that they have the time and freedom to create art and do what they love. Okay, now I’m going to rewrite this and talk directly to you, the client, the prospect. See how much more powerful this is: Fast forward to today. Whether you’re an absolute newbie or a seasoned professional, you too can learn how to grow a thriving art business so that you can have the time and freedom to do what you love.
Mistake number five: Your copy sounds like ChatGPT wrote it. And if you want to avoid any of those mistakes, go listen to the episode I did with Candace Davis, Why Your AI Copy Stinks. We’ll link to that in the show notes.
Before we wrap up, let’s review all five of the most common mistakes in your About page: Mistake #1: Writing the about page in the third person. Mistake #2: You’re apologizing. Mistake #3: Focusing on why you like it instead of why it’s important to your customer. Mistake #4: Speaking about your client as if they’re not in the room. Mistake #5: Your copy sounds like a robot wrote it.
All right, I hope that helps you! Like I said, we’re going to have a lot of training inside the Artist Incubator. If you want to join us, registration is opening this week, and it’ll be open for a full week. If you haven’t jumped into the bootcamp yet, you can still do that if you’re listening to this when the episode goes live. We’re only on day two of the bootcamp, so you can totally catch up! Go to SchulmanArt.com/bootcamp. And if you’re listening to this and registration has opened on the Artist Incubator—heck, we would love to have you in there! What are you waiting for? If you’ve been a fan of the podcast, or if you’ve read the book, or perhaps you’ve just discovered this, the Artist Incubator is the place to watch your art business soar. You get me for a full year as your business coach, and you get lifetime access to all the training materials! To sign up for the Artist Incubator, go to SchulmanArt.com/BIZ. All right, my friends, so I’ll see you next week, same time, same place. Until next time, stay inspired. Bye for now!
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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