In the Art Marketing Minute Podcast, you’ll learn how to sell your art, how to market your paintings, and everything else you need to know in order to have a successful art career. Each episode answers questions from artists by host Eric Rhoads, author of “Make More Money Selling Your Art,” publisher of several art magazines and newsletters, and author of ArtMarketing.com.

In this Art Marketing Minute, you’ll learn how to build your confidence if you feel as though you’re “too shy” to begin selling your art and why it’s important to go to (and network!) at painting events.

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 4

Submit Your Art Marketing Question:

What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

FULL TRANSCRIPT of the Art Marketing Minute:
DISCLAIMER: The following is the output of a transcription from an audio recording of the Art Marketing Minute. Although the transcription is mostly correct, in some cases it is slightly inaccurate due to the recording and/or software transcription.

Announcer 0:02
This is the art marketing minute with Eric Rhoads, author of the Amazon best selling book make more money selling your art. In the marketing minute we answer your questions to help your art career brought to you by artmarketing.com, the place to go to learn more about marketing. Now, here’s your host, arts magazine publisher, Eric Rhoads.

Eric Rhoads 0:23
Thank you, Jim Kipping. And thank you for joining us today. My goal is to eliminate the idea of the starving artists. So let’s get right to today’s questions.

Here’s a question from Chuck in Atlanta. Chuck says, Eric, I want to sell more. But I’m overwhelmed by all the things I should be doing. And frankly, I’m not sure if I can even ask somebody to buy my paintings. I’m kind of shy.

Well, Chuck, you’re not so shy that you wouldn’t ask the question. So that’s a good start. You’re not alone. But you have to ask yourself if being shy is serving you or it’s getting in your way. I’d say The best thing you can do is start out to seek ways to build some confidence, and maybe get you comfortable with selling your own art. Now, this is going to be hard to believe for you. But I was a complete introvert, very shy, very afraid to speak to people one on one, and never get in front of a group. And yet today, I’ll stand in front of thousands of people and be silly and feel comfortable with it. And I learned how to do this by some of the things I’m going to tell you to do. One of the things I’m going to tell you to do or suggest anyway, to build confidence, join Toastmasters club, they have one in every town, and Toastmasters really teaches you how to speak in front of other people. I was mortified. I went and I didn’t want to go. My palms were sweating. I was just like freaking out that I was gonna have to talk to people. And they made everybody kind of stand up and do 3030 seconds on who they are and what they do. And that was pretty tough. And then you know, they just do it every time and everybody gets a chance to speak and they teach you how to do it. And by the end of the time there I was like I could have stood up In front of that whole thing and done somersaults, I was so so happy with it. So that’ll help you. I’d also suggest a Dale Carnegie course on how to win friends and influence people, it’s a good way to learn how to be around people. And they also do a sales course, you might want to take that. So anyway, keep that in mind. And remember, sales is not what it used to be there. You know, there used to be old school sales techniques that were sleazy. But you know, today, it doesn’t have to be that way. You know, some of the car dealers still operate that way, but most of them don’t. And so you want to do things that basically are helping people discover what they want, helping them discover how to get what they want. And these courses will help you see the world through a different lens and help you get out of your comfort zone. And we all have to get out of our comfort zone to grow a little bit. If you do these things, you’ll pull yourself out to some new behavior and get rid of the behavior that’s not serving you. I didn’t want to be shy but I was painfully shy and I just you know, I didn’t know how to overcome it. somebody suggested these things to me and I did them. And you’re very capable of helping yourself. If you do something, but you gotta take action to do it today. Don’t hem and haw around about it. Just do it, pick up the phone and do it.

Next question is from Dawn in Pasadena, California. I love Pasadena. I’d like to live there. Mr. Rhoads, I watched one of your video interviews and you talked about the importance of getting out to events and meeting people and how it can help your career. Can you tell me more about that?

Sure. I can Dawn But first off Mr. Rhoads is my grandfather. Call me Eric. I’m not big on formalities. Have you ever heard of the artist Charlie Hunter? Charlie’s become pretty well. Well known pretty famous these days. Charlie had come to my paint camp in the Adirondacks, the Publishers Invitational I think it was the first year about 10 years ago. And though he was very outgoing, personally, he was very insecure about his painting and he had never been part of the planner community and had hardly even painted outdoors but Because we all bring our paintings in at night, everybody looks at them, we all started noticing how good he was. And he started building confidence. I noticed him too. And I gave him my two cents worth about his paintings and that I loved him. In fact, I have three of them right here in the studio, the podcast studio that I bought from him that week. And I’m glad I did because they’ve gone up in value tremendously anyway, not that that’s why I … my paintings. But I ended up doing an article about … starting to get invited to painter events. And then he started winning awards, and now he’s famous and he’s selling a ton of work. His workshops are in high demand, and he’s a rock star. And that all kind of started because he got himself out there. Now I’m not suggesting for a minute that I did this for him. He did this by taking a chance putting himself out there putting himself at risk. And he built confidence from others. He got feedback, he learned the ropes of the planner world and met a lot of people, made a lot of contacts and made his career happened. Actually, Lori Putnam did the same thing by coming to the first plein air convention. She couldn’t even afford to go but she decided she needed to be there and she got there she got notice kept coming back. Of course she’s very famous now. And I just saw a young guy at our fall color week up in Canada recently. And his name is Jed and Jed came to fall color week I noticed everybody was marveling about his paintings, and he does acrylics and they’re beautiful. So the event gave him some exposure to the crowd and gave him some confidence resulting in some things happening in his career. And I even ended up putting them up on the faculty for the acrylic at plein air convention. So I think it’s a pretty cool thing to do stuff like this getting out there is really important. It doesn’t have to be one of my events. Doesn’t have to be a planner magazine event. It can be anywhere painters gather but you want to get out there get to know people have them get to know your work, help you build your confidence, learn the ropes, and you got to take a little risk to make progress. You’ll make friends that will help you along the way because no man or no woman is an island right? I hope this helps. Anyway, that’s Not so much direct marketing or advertising advice, but these things are important in marketing, so I thought this was a good time to put those questions in there. Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the starving artist and to help your dreams actually come true. So if you want to submit questions, simply email [email protected]. And to learn more about marketing ideas, you can visit Artmarketing.com. Thanks for listening.

Remember to Submit Your Question: What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.