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.

How can you overcome shyness when painting in public? What can artists take away from the pandemic? Eric Rhoads answers in this Art Marketing Minute Podcast. (Originally published July 12, 2021)

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 76 >

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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:
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:

So thanks again, Jim. In the art marketing minute I try. Sometimes I Well, I always answer your questions whether or not I do a good job. That’s another story. But I try to answer your questions you can email your questions, [email protected]. I love questions. And what I do is I just kind of read these as we go and I make up the answers off the top of my head. I don’t have any prepared answers. Because I think I work best that way. This is coming from Derrick Jones in Syracuse, New York who says I’m new to painting outdoors. I’m very shy. When people come up and watch while I’m trying to paint I get nervous because they don’t like my I don’t feel like my work is good enough for others to see yet. How do you overcome that? Well, you know, that is a huge topic, Derrick. First off, it’s a self esteem thing, right? We don’t feel worthy, because, you know, we maybe are not painting as well as quite aspa vague, you know, the great, the great client aspect, and or maybe not even as well as some of our friends. But every painter goes through that that is a process. And we all have to knock out a lot of bad paintings before we start knocking out some good paintings. And even those who have been doing it a lot of years will still knock out bad paintings from time to time. And by the way, there’s not a bad painting because every painting is a lesson. So here’s how I dealt with that particular issue. First off, I first off, when I first started painting, I just kind of went and painted places where there were not people because I just didn’t want to be around people who were critical. The next thing I did is I as I was painting around people, I took some earbuds, some iPod earbuds or whatever. And I stuck them in my pocket, you know, put them my ear stuck in my pocket as if there was a player in there. And surprisingly, not very many people would bother me when I’m doing that. But you know, there are always going to be somebody who is going to some somebody is going to come up and talk to you about it. And I used to make excuses. I remember I was standing up, I was painting Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and I was on the corner. And this is before it burned down. And there were a bunch of teenagers and they’re all gathered around watching me there are 10 or 12 of them. They’re all speaking French and laughing and making fun of me and stuff. It was a little uncomfortable. But they were nice kids, they weren’t going to beat me or anything. And one of the kids came up and said in English. He said you should give up painting, you’re not very good. And I said, Well, thank you for that encouragement, but I’m, you know, I’m doing what I call a study, I will take this information and then I’ll go and do a more in depth painting at home. And you know, I just you know, what can you say? I mean, some people aren’t going to like it, some people are going to be critical. Sometimes I would say well, you know, I’m, I’m just getting started, you know, come back in a couple hours and see how I do. But you know, you just have to you just have to live for yourself. You can’t live about how others think. And so, I will tell you this that your self talk makes a huge difference. If you constantly are telling yourself you’re not doing a good job, guess what will happen. You won’t be doing a good job. If you constantly tell yourself you’re doing a good job, you’re learning you’re growing, you don’t care what happens you just are going to make it the best you feel you can make it today. You know I have I’m looking around my studio here I have dozens and dozens of paintings on the walls and their studies that I’ve done in each one as a memory. Some of them are good paintings, and some of them are not so good paintings, but each one is a memory. Each one gave me a lesson and so there was value in every single one of them. So just embrace it for what it is, it’s not really a big deal. So you’re not unlike others. The best way to overcome it, though, I’ll tell you that I had a guy by the name of Michael ringer. He’s a great artist, or great watercolor artist, but does many other mediums as well. He came to visit me and I’m kind of walking him through the house. And every time we’d encounter a painting, he’d asked about it, and I would make some excuse. And then we went for a boat ride. And then he came back and I put him to a tech took him to his car. And before he got in his car, he said, Eric, I want to talk to you about something. I said, Yes. And he said, Listen, you did a lot of apologizing for your work. You don’t need to apologize, you’re a good painter, you have a lot of potential. And yes, there are some growth that you need to go through. He said, but you know, you’re doing better than I was at this stage of your career. So just Quit complaining about it and quit apologizing if it’s gonna impact your head. And you know, when the fact that he cared enough to stand out and say something like that really meant it. And so I’ve been very careful to try and stop making excuses. And just let it be what it’s going to be. But if you want to avoid the crowds, in the beginning, I understand that, you know, there are people who have said to me, Well, I don’t want to come to the plein air convention, because I’m not good enough. But you know, everybody there has been through it. Everybody there has made bad paintings, including many, many of us, all of us, actually. And so you know, we’re all we understand that you’re with family there, you’re not with consumers who are going to give you a hard time you’re with people who are going to give you love and say, hey, you’re you’re okay, you know, you’re you’re doing a great job. And you know, just tweak this do this but a little more dark in the foreground or bigger shapes or something, you know, a lot of those things will make a big difference.

Here’s the next question comes from Hunter Smith in Los Angeles, California. Hunter says, looking back and forward, do you think there’s anything we can take away from the pandemic in regards to making a living as an artist? Man, tough question. Hunter, I think that the pandemic is the best thing to ever happen to me. And thankfully, I’ve lived through it so far, and hopefully will continue to. But the I think the idea here is that I learned a lot about myself, I learned about my priorities, what I want to do what I don’t want to do what I want to spend my time on, I want to spend more time with my family, I actually have enjoyed the time at home, I’ve been working harder. And but I had to kind of you know, rebound and come up with some new ways to make a living like my 12 noon Daily Show and on Facebook and YouTube. And, and so I think that a lot of artists have said, you know, this is has been really good for them, because they’ve, they’ve gotten off the circuit off the merry go round, and they’re not traveling around as much. And they’re, they’re focusing on their painting. And so a lot of them have said, You know, I learned a lot as a painter, I grew a lot as a painter, because I was painting more I was painting in on erupted, I wasn’t tempted to you know, get in the car and go get stimulation by you know, going and getting, you know, some shopping or something in and so I think you know, from that standpoint, we’re all better. I think in terms of making a living as an artist. First off, a lot of artists are telling me they’re selling more art than ever, because other people are starting to appreciate more art more and also look at their walls and say, Hey, I need something there. I think in terms of making money as an artist, you what you’ve got to do, and maybe what the pandemic will do for you is it will set your priorities. Ask yourself, what am I willing to do? What am I not willing to do? Am I painting for myself? Am I painting for others? Am I doing both? Am I in a position to kind of focus on what I want to do? You know, life’s too short, I had friends pass away, you probably did too. And life’s too short, you know, suddenly, people who thought they’re going to be around forever are not going to be around forever. And so ask yourself, if I always do this in my seminars I did this way before the pandemic, I do this on my videos and stuff and ask yourself, if you only had you know, you went to the doctor, and you only had one year left? What would you do with that one year, because that’ll help you crystallize your thinking. And then the other thing I do in some in my book and some other things, I asked you to write your own obituary, and write what you’ve done, and then write what you want to get done as if you’ve done it. And then that’ll help you crystallize what it is you really need to do. You know, it might be about selling paintings, it might be about giving away paintings, it might be about getting recognition, you have to determine what is it that’s important to you, is it a living you need to make is it recognition you need is it helping others you want to do so I think in those terms. And then now that you’ve crystallized your thinking, then you have to say Okay, how do I get there? And whatever it is you decide how do I get there, everything starts with a goal. And then a goal leads to a plan a goal sets your strategy. And then a plan sets your tactics, a strategy is the overarching thing that you’re trying to accomplish. The tactics are how you accomplish them tactics are things like advertising or social media or doing shows etc. And, and then you have to ask yourself, you know, how busy do I want to be? how, you know, how much money do I need to make? If you start with the questions, you always come up with the answers and, you know, you got to spend a lot of time thinking, but thinking is where all the answers come from, right. It’s just don’t do it routinely, you know, I sometimes will spend 10 1215 hours thinking about a particular topic. You know, when I went on vacation, I had 60 pages of notes of my thinking, I read four books, three or four, four books. And I took one online course, in a particular area of marketing that I wanted to learn more about. And so and then my thinking really started happening as a result of that. So I think that you’ve got to just kind of figure out where you want to go and then how to get there. I mean, that’s, that’s the bottom line.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of starving artists 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.

How to Submit Your Art Marketing Questions: 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.