THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Go big. Paint large because those paintings are the ones that make the biggest impact. I was very nervous making that switch, but once I did, I could see immediately how much impact it’s making on collectors or even like art lovers. And then all the art collectors who were there to, you know, buy. They were asking, why aren’t other artists doing it? Because these are the paintings that we want to stick on top of a fireplace, or we have these big spaces.
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: Today’s guest is a plain air oil painter, sustainability advocate, and founder of the 1000 plus member OC Women’s Outdoors and Wilderness Group. She left a 19 year career intact to pursue art full time. Originally from India and now based in Southern California. She creates bold, meditative landscapes inspired by backcountry hikes with her dog and eco conscious bagpipe, an eco conscious back painting eco conscious backpacking painting gear. Her art practice is certified as a California Green business, reflecting her passion for nature and helping more women access the outdoors. Cleaves. Welcome to the inspiration place, Sangeetha. Well. Hey there. Welcome to the show.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Hey. Thank you Matt. I’m so excited to be here.
Miriam Schulman: I am so honored to work with you. I was just telling my team today. Like I said, oh, I love her. We have the best clients. We have such good clients. And I especially like the, you know, the current inner circle members. They’re just like amazing.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: So thank.
Miriam Schulman: You. It’s my honor to like, help you be your Sherpa. We’re going to use a are we going to use mountain climbing metaphors?
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: I love that Sherpa. You are the true Sherpa.
Miriam Schulman: Yeah, I am the Sherpa on this journey. And you know what mountain you want to climb? I am just helping you climb higher than you. Right?
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Imagine everything is like, you know, working out really well. All your analogies.
Miriam Schulman: And let’s deal with that this whole time. Like the whole now when you, when you mountain climb with your groups or is it like serious, like rope. It’s not rope climbing, right?
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: No, we’ve done that. But that’s rare. That’s right. I’ve done some training. I’ve taken courses for that. But no, I, I’m not a professional guide. I’m, I just tell everyone. I’m just inviting you to come on a trip with me. You know, everyone is responsible for their own safety and everything.
Miriam Schulman: Okay, but you don’t recommend people do this on their own. Right. It’s safer with the guide. Yeah, it’s easier with a guide. I’m using the analogy of with coaching as the guide.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Absolutely. And even when I go solo trips, I always have my GPS, which is like the guide, you know, it tells me where to go and it shows where I am. It brings safety and guidance the whole time. So yeah. So you’re never by yourself.
Miriam Schulman: Okay, so let’s take us back to the moment where you were standing at the bottom of this mountain and looking up and thinking, I need some help. So I want you to describe what your art business looked like, then to paint a clear picture.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yeah. So, like you said, I’d been an engineer for a long time. And last year. I had a strong calling to leave that and just jump into this and I and that person who had such strong conviction, I was that person at the base of the mountain and looked at the mountain peak and said, I can do it myself. That’s what I was saying. And what I thought was, all I need to do is take art classes to improve my skills so I can be a better artist of selling and just listen to artists interviews. That was my strategy, and I was, you know, just taking art classes and, and my professor said, okay, don’t take any more classes because it’ll ruin your style. So yeah, there’s that. And then while listening to an artist interview that YouTube randomly suggested to me, which was one of your clients, Priya.
Miriam Schulman: Gauri, I love you too, by the way. That’s the only TV station I have now. I’m not the only one. I’ve read recently that YouTube has more watchers than Netflix.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: I believe that because that’s the only subscription I have right now too. So, yes. Right. Yeah. So YouTube just suggested this interview, maybe because they had similar profiles. She was an engineer and from India and female and so on that interview, I heard that she was in your program and she was talking about you. And I was like, what? That was the last thing I’d ever thought I’d need, because all I was thinking was, I just need to improve my art skills to become selling things. So then I started following you. I got onto social media and I, you know, started getting your emails. And then then I was more and more convinced that, oh, there is a world out there where that you can be coached to sell art. And it made more and more sense to me. And then I finally decided to sign up to your bootcamp. And you know, the rest is history. But I was in that position where I did not know that I needed it, and it was almost like a universe. This has brought me to this place. And now looking back, oh my God, I would have been like, completely lost if I had just gone down that, you know, art class path and just listening to artist interviews and doing it on my own. Yeah.
Miriam Schulman: And you discovered me in the fall of 2024. Is that right? Yeah. So do you know how much money you made in 2024? Just to give people something to compare your success now to what your success was before?
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Oh, well, I was I was just I was an engineer, so I didn’t have a lot of time to sell. But I had one art show where I sold maybe $2,000 and maybe like maybe $2,500 the whole year.
Miriam Schulman: So before you found me, you had sold $2,500. Period. In art. That was it.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Okay, great.
Miriam Schulman: Don’t worry about the rest of 2024. But you do know how much you’ve made either since you’ve joined this program or this year, right?
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yeah. I’ve made so far 13,000.
Miriam Schulman: 13,000. And we’re recording this in July. Yeah. Okay. So that’s like.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: That’s pretty good.
Miriam Schulman: Like almost ten times.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yeah. Yeah. It’s more than ten times. Yeah. It’s not more than ten times. But yeah, it’s it’s pretty pretty incredible just to even say that that I was able to do it.
Miriam Schulman: Yeah. It’s like I mean if you want to be specific, it’s like 8 or 9 times, but what? Yes. Right. Yes. For us nerdy engineers, you’re like, actually.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: So it’s exactly.
Miriam Schulman: It’s high, high times. Whatever. You know, like.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: .56.
Miriam Schulman: Is the limit. Okay. So yesterday we had a coaching call and we were chatting about some of the biggest changes that you’ve made, and I love to give the listeners like that kind of free advice of like, what’s worked for you so that they can see if they can make that apply for themselves. So we narrowed it down to like three big changes that you made. And the first one is about a big one. So let’s talk about that.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yeah, I think so. Just to remind people that I’ve been a cleaner painter. So I was painting outdoors these small paintings, eight by ten, eight inch by ten inch or in that vicinity. And the one advice that I got from Miriam is that, you know, go big, paint large, because those paintings are the ones that make the biggest impact. And I was very nervous making that switch. But once I did, it was amazing for me as an artist, first of all, because it was so fun to paint large. Secondly, I could see immediately how much impact it’s making on collectors or even like art lovers just watching those paintings because they stand out so much and they can really draw in a collector to art. And they everywhere you go, you become like the talk of the the party because your paintings stand out. So that’s how I feel. You can make the most impact among art collectors by making them remember about you through your art. And big paintings do that. So that, I would think, is like the biggest positive. Yeah.
Miriam Schulman: And let’s expand it further, because what a lot of artists, especially if they are playing air artists like you, are thinking, oh, people only buy small paintings. Well, if you only make small paintings, that’s all the option they have. That’s number one. But tell me what happened at your most recent art show. First tell me what the artist said, and then we’ll talk about what the art buyers said. Yeah, the artists first.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yeah. So there was a positive and negative feedback from the artist, because you could see the fear in artists that, oh, will these big paintings work? But then all the artists in that show, they showed up to see the big paintings. Oh, we came to see the big paintings because they’re beautiful, they’re big and they’re, you know, amazing. You’re so bold to be doing it. I really want to do it, but I don’t have the guts in me to do it. So that was the reaction from artists so I could see the fear in people coming out. But they’re also like excited, oh, I might want to do this. And then all the art collectors who were there to, you know, buy it. They were asking, why aren’t other artists doing it? Because these are the paintings that we want to stick on top of a fireplace, or we have these big spaces that we look for art. Most of the time we are collecting these tiny artworks to fill up that space. Why aren’t more artists doing it? And my answer is, I don’t know.
Miriam Schulman: They don’t have Miriam.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yeah, exactly.
Miriam Schulman: I don’t know. Well, the reason is because of fear. I mean, you said it. They have fear. They have fear of taking up space. Fear of asking a higher price. Fear of being different than the other artist. Because all the other artists had small paintings. So it’s it’s like all. It’s the trifecta of fear. Fear of being seen as too much. Like, who do you think you are? So it’s fear that keeps them from doing it.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: And I could also see myself like pulling. Like when all these negativity from other artists. Oh, should I just go back to small paintings? So yeah. But then I have to remind myself, hey, don’t don’t listen to your, you know, the negative thoughts. Yeah.
Miriam Schulman: Never should listen to other artists. It’s the collectors that who came through who said they want the big art. Hey, artists, if you’re standing at the base of your art career looking up at the mountain ahead, wondering how will you ever reach the top? You don’t have to climb alone. I’m Miriam Schulman, author of Artpreneur and host of the Inspiration Place podcast. I’ve coached hundreds of artists and gotten dozens of them all the way to the top of the six figure mark so they can make a sustainable living from their art. That’s why I want you to join me for the Artpreneur Boot camp, where I’ll be your sherpa, guiding you step by step up that mountain so you can take bold action, overcome fear, and finally see your art business from the summit. This free training will give you the map, the gear and the confidence to start climbing higher than you ever imagined. Grab your spot now at SchulmanArt.com/bootcamp. That’s SchulmanArt.com/bootcamp. Now, I know that at this particular show you didn’t sell anything big, but I know in the past you have. So take us to the show prior to that and tell us the sizes that you were selling at that show.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yeah. So the sizes I was selling was four feet by three feet, and there was a three feet by two feet paintings I sold and 30 inch by 48 inch. Yeah. So that’s like 2.5ft by four feet. So. And the painting behind me, that’s a five feet by three feet painting. But that was like everyone was quite drawn to it. And I was thinking that what people thought the money to invest in those, but they do. They they showed up to that show, and there was one lady who showed up with the price that she saw on the website like, I want this, the large painting. And yeah, it was quite I’m convinced that that’s what I want to do.
Miriam Schulman: Yeah. I also spoke to an artist yesterday. If you’re listening, I’m not going to say her name out loud just because I don’t have permission to. But who’s not in the incubator? Who’s making $100,000 a year? And she’s in Indianapolis. So for people who think this only works if you live in New York, only works if you live here or there. She lives in Indianapolis and she’s she’s selling paintings for $4,500. $6,000. Because people want big paintings. Yeah, that’s what they want.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Exactly.
Miriam Schulman: Yeah. Most artists I know who are successful are making big artwork because it’s just less sales.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yeah, and you’re not chasing these collectors or art lovers who are just want to spend a $300 or $400. It’s it’s a lot of work. I realized.
Miriam Schulman: That’s.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Right. Yeah.
Miriam Schulman: Okay, so that’s number one. All right. We’re going to move to number two. And this one is about the FOMO email that you sent out. So that’s kind of related to what we just finished talking about. So FOMO email. Let’s talk about it.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yeah. So that’s after I send after I sold a lot of paintings, I decided to send out this email to my email subscribers saying, hey, you can’t have these paintings because I sold them all. So I had like a really like a lot of reaction to that email. A lot of people replied, you know, wow, all that. But the best part was people were emailing me after that, like a week after or two weeks after. Hey, when is your next art show? We want to come to that and we love your art. And I saw that even on Instagram. I posted that, you know, all the paintings that I sold. And initially I was also feeling a little, hey, is it bragging? Is it too much? But I decided to do it and I got that subject line that was like an idea from William. So that that really worked too. And those art collectors came to my last show and I sold paintings to those, you know, the email subscribers who actually saw that email. So.
Miriam Schulman: Okay, wait, wait, wait. We just need to say that one more time. Slowly. Go ahead.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yeah. So the email subscribers who got my phone or email, they got my art invitation and they showed up to my next art show and they bought the paintings. So it worked. Email really works, but you have to be consistent. I feel I hadn’t been consistent every week. And people actually tell me, I love how you are promoting your art. You know, through the emails, people are now telling me that it shows a lot of dedication and people see that and it makes you look very, very professional.
Miriam Schulman: And yes, which brings us to our third change, which is basically I’m going to call this like the compounding effect, kind of like compounding interest for all our nerdy people out there. So how is email marketing like compounding interest to you or bank account to you? Yeah.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: It was like I was also like unsure how it would work. And it’s been six months since I started my email collection practice. And uh, yeah, the way I feel about it is it’s like a long term investment. You’re not collecting these emails and nurturing them just because they’ll buy an art tomorrow or by an art next weekend. They keep seeing your emails and it’s like, yeah, it’s like a compounding effect. You know, you see the email the next week, there’s more. And it’s like investing in your long term retirement account or, you know, you’re not trying to cash out that next month. It’s for the long term you want to wait for, you know, years in the case of retirement. But here it might be months or it might. It might be yours. Someone will come back. So I really feel that, like someone who had been reading my email for six months, they just showed up to my art show. I thought this person had no interest in my paintings because I had texted this person and, you know, in the past where, hey, you’re interested. But he and his wife came back. He came to my orchard and bought a painting this weekend. So that has meant, oh wow, he was so quiet. He never responded to anything. But this showed up, so he was quietly reading and, you know, interested in the art. So. Yeah. So I’d say like, don’t try to cash out your investment right away. Just let it build up and give new returns.
Miriam Schulman: That’s right. So another artist had said to me recently, well, I only send. Six emails a year because I don’t make sales for my emails. I was like. And it’s the same thing with the small paintings. It’s like, well, if you only make small paintings, you will only sell small paintings. If you don’t send emails regularly, you will make sales from emails regularly. That’s what follows. It’s like it’s becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. You think you won’t and you don’t do it, and that’s the result you’re going to get.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Absolutely. Yeah. No, that’s it’s fantastic. I have this email collection cards and it’s it’s a fantastic idea. People love those and. Yeah.
Miriam Schulman: Yeah. And the email collection cards, it’s something I do talk about inside the Artist Incubator, but it’s also Inside my book Artpreneur. So if you have not gotten the book Artpreneur, make sure you do. You can always get it from your local library. So it’s not about me trying to sell books. I just want everyone to have this information. I’m trying to find like what page it’s on. Yeah. Go to your local library, get the book or order on Amazon. Hey, artists, I want you to think of your art business as a mountain climb. If you try to scale it alone, you might struggle, slip, or even quit before reaching the peak. I’m Miriam Schulman, an artist for over 25 years and host of the Inspiration Place podcast and author of the book Artpreneur. Now, if you want to climb a steep mountain with a spectacular view from the top, you need a guide. That’s why I created the Artpreneur bootcamp. It’s your climbing team, your rope line and your safety net. In just a few days, you’ll learn how to chart your course. Avoid costly detours and push past the fear that keeps so many artists stuck at base camp. If you’re ready to climb higher, faster, and with more confidence. Join us now! Schulmanart.com/bootcamp. That’s SchulmanArt.com/bootcamp. Okay, I know that we said we would give three big changes, but there’s really a bonus tip that I want to share. And before I ask you about that, I just want to share with everybody. Sangeetha does consider herself an introvert, is that right?
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yes. Very much.
Miriam Schulman: Okay, so there’s two things that you are doing that have been working out really well for you. Tell us about it.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yeah. So one is. So I’m a plein air painter, and my preferred way of plainer painting is going to the wilderness, remote wilderness, and paint the mountains and all the scenes. But I’ve been trying to do more in public places, like, you know, like a beach looking at a sunset and is trying to build up that courage to do it. And one of the ideas from Miriam was to like, hey, if we’re out in public, why don’t you set up small paintings for people to see? And, you know, say that I’m an artist and maybe collect. And I’ve been doing that more and more, and it’s incredible how much people love connecting with an artist who’s actually working. And they can see their paintings being, you know, made in front of them. And I’ve collected so many emails and I’ve sold paintings while painting because I had these small paintings set up next to me. So that is like a great, great thing as a planar painter. It’s amazing. The other thing is, like I was saying, like when email is like a long term investment, I see art shows are like those instant ways of like connecting and, you know, you know, maybe sell art more quickly. And the best part about art shows is that they can see you as the artist in front of them. Not on a website, not on Instagram. They can see your personality. They can hear your stories from you directly and they’re more genuine. I feel like to that connection and I that’s how I’ve sold more paintings. I feel in art shows and it’s, you know, that connection is quite important. So I highly, highly recommend anyone who is not doing them to be. Yeah. And you, Miriam had told me, encouraged me to do these art shows one every one month, like when I had the opportunity.
Miriam Schulman: Let’s set up. Let’s set up the story. So she came to me, and it was it that you had three weeks in a row or three months in a row?
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Three. May. June? July 1st.
Miriam Schulman: Oh, is one per month?
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: One per month.
Miriam Schulman: Yeah. And you said, is this too much?
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yes.
Miriam Schulman: And then I just laughed at you. I was like, well, it’s not like, how much money do you want to make? You know, it’s like. And I said, this is an opportunity for you to test different strategies, to get better at it and to build a choreography around it. Oh, and let’s keep using some mountain metaphors. We completely forgot about that. So you enjoy the mountain climber. What metaphors would you use about doing multiple? You know, actually listening to me and doing the shows every month. Like getting that. Yeah. Building those muscles.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yeah. It’s like, oh, that’s too many mountain peaks to climb. You know, I don’t think I can do it. It’s it’s too much for my body and, you know. So yeah, I was really trying to not do it because even as an introvert, I thought that’s too much exposure and talking to people. And yeah.
Miriam Schulman: But those were stories you were just telling yourself to keep you safe.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. On hindsight, that’s what I feel. Yeah. And you’ve made all the shows.
Miriam Schulman: So many sales from those shows. I mean, it was the the first show, the second show was even more successful because whatever you learned from the first show, you were able to apply it to the second show. And so and it just and then being able to send that FOMO email out that led to sales for the third show. So it just keeps building on each other.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yeah. And I and I won an award for from a, like a prestigious gallery on that show. Yeah. So all that, all that really helped. Yeah. So it was stories for me and. Yeah, Miriam really helped me to go pick that up. Yeah.
Miriam Schulman: Fantastic. Okay. So we’re going to link to your Instagram and your website in the show notes, so people can check out your art and follow you on Instagram and say hello. Because I know artists love following other artists. I know I do. Your your Instagram account handle is the same as your name, right?
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: It’s Sangeeta G artist. Okay.
Miriam Schulman: We will make sure that we link it to look in the show notes. You can click on it. You don’t have to worry about how to spell it and all that. All right. Now, do you have any last word before we call this interview complete?
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Don’t be scared. I mean, that would be my to invest in yourself and invest in your art and just go big. I think that’s that’s what will, you know, really help you grow as an artist. So that would.
Miriam Schulman: You and would you agree that it’s not even about not being scared. It’s about doing things even if you are scared. Yeah.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Oh yeah. Absolutely. You feel that? Yeah. Right. That feel the fear and don’t do it right. That.
Miriam Schulman: Yeah. I mean there’s a lot of books that all say the same thing.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: Yes. Yeah. You will feel that fear.
Miriam Schulman: Yes. The fear doesn’t go away. The fear will be part of that journey. But if you have a Sherpa, if you have a group like you have, do you have an accountability group or just the inner circle?
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: I know that we have the best accountability group. They’re amazing. I look forward to go to that pod meetings because I love it’s so inspiring. And, you know, you I get so motivated to do things. And yeah, they’re all super positive. And it’s such a great idea that we have that in this book.
Miriam Schulman: You need a hand. You need a hand up that mountain. And sometimes you need someone just to hand you a cup of water until your. Or sometimes you just need someone to tell you to keep on going. And you can do it. And sometimes you just just see, like there’s an easier way.
Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan: So yeah, I was a person who knew nothing and everything I did was because of this program. So thank you. Miriam was incredible.
Miriam Schulman: Oh. You’re welcome. So I think this is dropping when? Registration is open. And if that’s true, go to SchulmanArt.com. Be is in boy eyes and ice cream is in. And you can either sign up and if you’re listening to this. Watching this later that we always have a waitlist available for you to join the incubator during a registration program. All right, my friend, thank you so much for being here today. I’ll see you the 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 at @SchulmanArt, and of course, on SchulmanArt.com.
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