THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Miriam Schulman: This isn’t business as usual. This is a sacred return. More than just the metrics. Let’s talk about the message that only you can bring forth. It’s going to make you unforgettable. That’s what I want for you. And that’s what the Inspiration Place is going to be about this year.
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. Author of Artpreneur and your host and curator of inspiration.
Miriam Schulman: Welcome to the Inspiration Place. Today’s podcast episode is a special one is an important one. And it’s all about a pivot that I have been making lately. And you may start to notice this shift. You may start to notice this on social media. My clients are noticing the way I’m showing up in this shift, showing up a little bit differently on emails, and I’m certainly going to show up a little bit differently on the podcast, although it’s not too much of a disconnect to where we’ve always been after all. This is the inspiration place. So this shouldn’t come too much as a surprise, or it’s not like it’s coming out of left field, but I’m making a pivot to focus a little bit more on spirituality or sorcery. I like to call it just a little bit less in strategy. That doesn’t mean that strategy isn’t important, but this is about not burning out and making sure that your creativity and your artistic soul remains paramount. When you build an art business, when you build an art career. So this is going to be the first of a series of solo shows that I’m going to create for you that will explain this new philosophy of how I’m showing up, as well as the invitation that I’m making for you also to show up in a different way. I want you to think about these episodes as sacred transmissions for your soul, truths that maybe you already know deep down, but you need to hear them out loud, uncensored, unpolished, and unapologetic.
Miriam Schulman: So I spent years With you on this podcast in the Artist Incubator, helping artists grow their businesses with structure, systems and strategy. And I still love all of that. And none of that is going to go away. And yeah, this is a yes and yes. And something deeper is now calling. So let me share what has changed for me and what it’s going to mean in terms of this. So I’ve been sharing on the podcast, and I’ve been dropping little breadcrumbs about this shift for a while. I talked about this, I think, with Beth Davis. I was going to talk about it. I was going to pretend like, this is your first time here, and you don’t even know what I’m talking about. So all of 2024, I worked on a book proposal and at the beginning of 2020, and then I paused it in November because of family issues. And also Harpercollins had said no to me, and I had to rethink what that whole message was going to be. And if I was going to rejigger the proposal and send it out to lots of other places, and I never could bring myself to do that work. And when I journaled around this question, which is a great question to journal around, and I also offer offered my inner circle members the same question, what is an unnecessary burden that you’re carrying? And I wasn’t completely sure when I journaled that if the unnecessary burden I mean, I knew right away the unnecessary burden was this unfinished book proposal.
Miriam Schulman: But what I wasn’t completely sure of, what was unnecessary, was the fact that I hadn’t finished it, or that I thought I had to finish it. And now I’ve decided that is definitely not what I’m working on this year. A couple reasons I’m going to share them all with you today. So first of all, I’m recognizing that I have not saturated the market with Artpreneur. We’ve done great, and that’s most authors would probably give their eye teeth to sell the number of copies that we’ve sold. We’ve sold over 18,000 versions. I’m going to say versions of the books. I haven’t sold 18,000 paperbacks, but we sold 18,000 versions of Artpreneur, either Kindle, audible or the paperback. And that’s a lot. Yet there are so many more people out there who this book can help and can reach, and I need to do the work to get that out there. So that’s number one. I haven’t done enough with the first book, and I don’t want to pull my attention away from that first book to write a second book. And if you haven’t gotten your copy of Artpreneur yet, or maybe it’s sitting on your shelf and you haven’t thoroughly read it, or maybe it’s time to read it again.
Miriam Schulman: Take this as your sign. Now is the time. This book is your permission slip. It’s your permission slip to stop waiting and start thriving as a professional artist. Now you can find this book wherever books are sold. If it’s a traditional bookstore, whether it’s Barnes and Noble or indie bookstore because it’s published by Harpercollins. They’ll be happy to order it for you. Or you can get it on Amazon, or you can even request it from your local library. And I think you can even request audibles from the US library system. So more information about the book head on over to Artpreneur Book.com. And now let’s get back to the show. I have the luxury of not having that second child yet. And speaking of that metaphor, I also felt or I was very aware. Let me put it this way. So I’ve always been aware that with this second book idea that I wanted to write a second book, and I probably will write a second book. It’s may not look the same as what I thought it was, but it just won’t be this year for sure. In fact, I even emailed my agent and let her know there is not going to be a second book this year. And she applauded that decision, which I actually was a little bit surprised about because I know she would make more money if she says, oh, your proposal is almost done, you just have to tweak it.
Miriam Schulman: Nope, she didn’t say that. She she plotted the decision and she was like, just let me know when the muse strikes you again. So I always recognized that with the first book, I was very pregnant with that book, and it was just a question of delivering the book, going through the labor of birthing out that book. And the second book. I wasn’t pregnant with the book, and I felt like I was trying to get pregnant with the second book. So I’m not going to try to get pregnant with the second book anymore. I’m focusing on the first book now at the same time. There were things also I wanted to write about in the second book, and what evolved over the year of me working on the book proposal, working with a book editor, working with my agent. And this is not to blame either of them. They were doing their jobs in the most perfect way possible. But in the beginning, when I felt the calling to write a second book, I wanted initially to be about spirituality, kind of what we’re talking about today. And I kept getting pushed. Like I said, they did nothing wrong. They had very good reasons for pushing me to do more strategy. This is what you’re known for. This is what you teach. And I kept people pleasing my second book, and that’s why I wasn’t happy with it anymore.
Miriam Schulman: I just was not happy with where it turned up. So I started to get that feeling and I put it aside and it felt really good to put it aside. And then I had a dinner. I have these salon dinners where I invite people to my apartment. A lot of the people you’ve met here on the podcast and at one of these dinners, the people around the table, the subject of my book, came up and I told them I had been writing a book about marketing, and I and the reason I gave at that dinner for not working on the book, which is a valid reason. I said, well, I feel that I can’t write a book about marketing without addressing AI, and I can’t write a traditionally published book about AI because by the time the book gets released in two years, it will be out of date. But the feedback I got at that table was that why are you writing a book on that? Because they see me in a much different way. They see what I bring to the table, both literally and figuratively. Because we are talking about a dining room table is I bring this magic to my friends around the table. I pull oracle cards. We share our lives with each other, and I really create this sacred space for them to explore those things. And that’s why people love coming to the dinners.
Miriam Schulman: And they come back again and again. And I’ve started now doing that sacred work with my clients. I’ve been pulling cards with them in the inner circle. At first I was a little bit nervous about doing it, especially some of my newer members. So they joined this program for all my strategy and my throwing them a loop by pulling Oracle cards. And just so you know how I do it in the inner circle, I pull the card less about fortune telling, and it’s more about here’s a piece of inspiration. Here’s the question that this card is asking of you. Journal on it and see what comes up for you. That’s how I do it during my Inner Circle sessions. So I got the advice from that dinner that I need to lean more into my witchiness. I need to think about creating experiences like a coven. I need to look at bringing that magic, that sorcery. That’s why I called this podcast The Sacred Shift. The Sacred Pivot is about leaning more into the sorcery. It’s less about the strategy. Sure, the strategy will always be there, but now I’m making space for magic and it feels really good. I am craving meaning over metrics. I’m coaching people not just on what they do, but I’m helping artists remember who they are. It’s a really important, deeper work that we’re doing. So doing strategy first. It’s not that it’s wrong.
Miriam Schulman: It’s just that strategy only model feels a bit hollow without adding the soul, the magic, the sorcery, the spirituality to the mix. I’m not here just to give you a strategy. I’m here to remind you who you are. The work that I’m doing inside the inner circle now is where strategy meets spirit. Yes, you do need to grow your systems as a business. And yes, I bring a plus strategy to every session. But you’ll also get the space to reconnect to your intuition, to lean into your most aligned self, in your magic, and into your creative power. If you’re craving coaching that honors your art and your soul. Go to SchulmanArt.com. To learn more and apply. Okay, so I want to redefine what I mean by sorcery in this context. So it’s not about doing incantations. This is nothing if you are a deeply religious person, which by the way, I actually am a fairly observant Jewish person, and I know that it’s against the Bible to do any kind of witchcraft. So we don’t mean true witchcraft. It’s more about relying on your intuition. It’s embodying your most authentic self. It’s about being in energetic alignment with who you truly are and letting those creative truths come out. And it’s also about looking at sacred timing. I am not anti strategy. You will still hear me share lots of strategy, but strategy is the structure rather than the source.
Miriam Schulman: Sorcery is the spark. Your spirit is the spark. Your soul is what’s going to light the fire. And what makes you powerful isn’t just your plan. Yes. I give you five plans inside the book. Artpreneur and inside the Artist Incubator. But what makes you powerful is not just your plan. It’s your presence. It’s your presence. When you can show up 100% in your power. And artists need this. You need this now more than ever as we move into this AI world. The people who are going to truly stand out and dominate are the ones who go deep with their soul, who lead with soul. I can do so much for us. But if you try to outsource your soul, you’ve got nothing. I know the online world is very performative. I don’t have to tell you that. But I don’t want you burning out over performance. And that’s why you need this sacred shift now more than ever. So here’s the series that I am working on. You’ll get it. Don’t worry. It’s coming to you. Make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast or the YouTube channel. Either way, hit the plus. Follow subscribe whatever button is in that app that you’re in. Today’s episode is really just the beginning to announce my deeper journey. What I’ll be doing is I’ll be alternating the solo episodes with the interviews, and the only reason I might do two in a row of solos, if, you know, like if an interview falls through that I had originally planned, because I’m going to be recording all these episodes, these solo episodes, and I can’t wait to bring them to you.
Miriam Schulman: So we’ll be talking about visibility as a sacred act. I’m going to show you how to reclaim visibility as a sacred act, not about hiding from your brilliance, but letting it shine. And not just as a marketing tactic, but letting your soul and your artistry shine through. Then I’ll be creating another episode about how pricing is all about self-worth, not spreadsheets. You’ve heard me talk about this before inside Artpreneur, where I talk about that in the part where I give you the Overcoming Objections chart. So in there, it’s not about memorizing a script to overcome objections. If you look at that chart, you’ll see that there’s a column where I say, this is what your client might be thinking at this moment when they’re presenting the objection. And what you’ll notice is a lot of times what they’re doing is not thinking, oh, is Samantha’s painting worth it as Samantha’s sculpture worth it? They’re thinking, am I whoever the customer is, am I worth investing $7,000 in to get this thing that you’re offering? Whether it is an artwork, a sculpture, whatever it is, that’s internal work. If you don’t believe in yourself, remember the belief tried. If you don’t believe in yourself and you’re projecting uncertainty about that.
Miriam Schulman: If you don’t believe in your art or your service or your product and you’re projecting uncertainty around that, or if you don’t believe in your customer that they are worth the transformation that you’re offering. If you are lacking belief in any of those three parts of the belief triad, that’s what sabotages the sale. If you have 100% belief in all three of those triads, that’s when you can command the highest prices and not just command them, but get them. I am recording this little commercial break long after I recorded the original episode. When I did the original episode, I knew that I was taking a break from writing a second book, and I knew that the second book, as I imagined it, would probably never exist. It would probably have to morph into a different form. What I didn’t know when I recorded this that I would go on to start writing AI programs, which I know for people hearing me may be really surprised, but if you really, really know me, it’s not a huge surprise. I actually studied AI when I was at MIT. That’s why I was recruited to work on Wall Street, because I was working in these cutting AI labs at MIT. And so I was building these computer programs for Wall Street people to make money. I left that job not because I didn’t like writing computer programs, because in my book, remember I said, people say to me, oh, you must have hated that.
Miriam Schulman: I didn’t hate what I was doing. I hated the purpose. Now I’m starting to write AI programs with a purpose. And one of them that I’ve created, which I have released actually for free. I am not charging for this one because I wrote it. For me, it’s still in development and you may use it. It’s the Artpreneur Daily alter. You can get it at Schulman Art. I’m most likely going to record an entire episode around this. I’m not sure if that’s going to be released only on YouTube, or if it’ll come on to the podcast audio to your earbuds as well. But I most likely will be recording an episode all about the Artpreneur Daily alter it is basically a self-development prompt that will help you check in with your mindset and help you set a ritual for your morning. So there we go. I absolutely could not write a book about why you shouldn’t be using I when I’m writing I programs, so there you go. I hope those of you who are into using ChatGPT and AI will play with it and write back to me and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you. Okay, let’s get back to the show. Okay, the next episode that I am writing is about promoting your art as sacred devotion. So we talked about how visibility, being a sacred act while promoting your art is creative devotion towards your art.
Miriam Schulman: It’s not just about making noise, it’s certainly not about bothering people. It’s devotion. Then I’m going to produce an episode that is your art matters beyond productivity, likes and sales. And finally in the series, although hopefully there won’t be finally. But this is all I have planned for now is about protecting your creative integrity even when others don’t understand it. So just so you know, in between these solo shows, I will be bringing on guests that will give you the same sorts of insights that you’ve come to expect from the show, both strategy as well as mindset that will also help you make that shift. And these interviews will help give you more of that practical grounding around it. Next, I want to talk about why this shift Matters not just for me, but for you too. I was going to say artists are burned out on formulas, but really, I see this also from my entrepreneur friends. Entrepreneurs in general, which includes artists are burnt out on formulas. They are burnt out on feeling unseen in their own success. So this is not about abandoning the structure, but reclaiming sovereignty. This new path forward is about your truth over tactics, wholeness over hustle and presence. Presence over performance. Tactics are going to get you seen. Yes. That’s why we’ll still share with you tactics. And I teach that inside the Artist Incubator I will teach you the tactics.
Miriam Schulman: But the truth. The truth, my friend, is what’s going to make you Unforgettable. So what I’m inviting you to do. And this year, it’s not too late. 2025. We’ve barely begun. I’m recording this in the spring. I think this comes out in May. This isn’t business as usual. This is a sacred return. More than just the metrics. Let’s talk about the message that only you can bring forth. That’s what I want for you. And that’s what The Inspiration Place is going to be about this year. Okay, so now I want to leave you with a reflection. I want to invite you to journal on this. Where have you relied on strategy and tactics and abandoned your own magic? So stay tuned because the series will be coming up. And if this episode resonated with you, take a screenshot of it. Share it on Instagram tag. You can tag me if you want to. I’m at Schulman Art or you can just tag a friend who you think this will help. All right, my friend, this episode stirred something in you. Let me know. Like I said, you can screenshot, tag me, DM me, email me, even leave a review. This is how we spread a sacred truth in our noisy digital world. So I will see you same time, same place next week. Until then, 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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