Each week, Eric Rhoads answers two art marketing questions from listeners like you during the Marketing Minute Podcast. Browse the marketing minutes here to learn tips on how to sell more art.
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, Eric Rhoads explains how much art education you might want to consider if you want to make a living as an artist, and if you should consider hiring an agent or representative to help you sell your art.
Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 12 >>>
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.
In the marketing minute I try to answer art marketing questions from our audience. Email your questions to me at [email protected].
Here’s a question from Jim in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Jim asks: I’d like to grow more as an artist but, at 22 years old, I am unsure if I need to complete an actual degree. How much art education should I get?
Jim… I’m going to get in trouble here… with schools, with parents,… but I don’t think a degree matters unless you plant to teach in public schools or colleges, though it would be nice to have anyway….. The key to making a living as an artist has nothing to do with a degree and everything to do with how good you get and how good you are at marketing. Want to make a great living, take courses and get a degree in sales and marketing, then go to a great atelier like grand central, Incamminati, Florence Academy, etc… and become a great artist.
The next question is from Linda in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Linda asks: Is there such a thing as having a sales rep or agent for my art, to help me market and sell my paintings? I feel like I could use some help and would prefer to hire a professional. Where do I start?
Linda…. Reps or agents are present in all the arts…. Big in Hollywood, in fact there you must have an agent, not so in art but there are many art agents. In theory they help you build your career, build your brand and awareness and get you into places to sell your work. They are worth their weight in gold if you get a good one. Once you become successful you may wish you were not paying a % of your income but remember they built you,… and made you rich.
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.
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, Eric Rhoads shares advice for licensing your images to sell more art, insider info on if collectors care if you have a “day job,” and ideas for at least finding a job in an industry you love.
Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 11 >>>
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:
Here’s a question from Jane in Truckee California.
Jane says: I have a question about art licensing. I was contacted last week by a company that is interested in licensing a collection of my artwork as a wholesaler of Giclees. I currently sell my originals and Giclees of my artwork at two small galleries here in the Tahoe/Truckee area. After thinking about it I have decided that the only way I could do it is to create a new collection of paintings only for the purpose of licensing the images and keep it entirely separate from my other work. I don’t want to get any static from my current collectors. Do you know anything about licensing and what do you think I should do? Do artists commonly do this? Will it help or hurt my career?
Jane…. Licensing is a very good opportunity. Imagine what could happen to your career if your paintings were on mouse pads, mugs, calendars, and so on. Its a big deal to be invited in. I’m not sure I’d be too concerned about a new series, they see something they want, consider giving it to them. Get a good attorney to represent you and cut the best deal. It can bring steady income for years. In fact next week I’ve got an atty on that can give you some clues.
I have friends who do this and love it, some years they make a ton of money, some years its more lean, but they always are getting found money they would not have made. I’d go for it. Its an honor to be invited.
The next question is from Anne in Nashville Tennessee.
Anne says: Is it okay to get a “day job” to help pay for my bills? I worry that this makes me seem more like an amateur, than a professional artist.
Anne…. I’m not sure anyone cares if you’re an amateur or a professional artist. They care about your work and what you’re producing.
We all have to pay bills and do what ever it takes. Many well known artists quietly have other jobs to help pay the bills. There is no shame, and no one needs to know, and frankly no one cares. We all do what we have to do to make ends meet. And why not get a job doing what you love… if you could be working with paintings, or doing paintings for hire, or working at a gallery it will inform your work and make you a better artist.
I hope that helps… this has been the art marketing minute.
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.
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, Eric Rhoads talks about the validity of art marketing websites, and the balance of creating art for the love of it versus selling it to make money.
Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 10 >>>
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.
Unknown Speaker 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.
This is a question from Susan. As still Susan says, are all art marketing websites equal? And if not, why, and what do you recommend?
Well, Susan, I’m gonna tell you a little bit of a secret. I don’t know the answer to that. You see, I don’t ever want to be accused of stealing other people’s ideas. So I make a point never to look at the websites offering art market. getting ideas. I never read other people’s art marketing books, I want to keep my ideas original, make sure that I’m not stealing other people’s material. So I quite frankly don’t know the only thing I can recommend is my own, which is art marketing. com where I blog about marketing. And I’m sorry, I’m not more of a help, but I’m sure there’s great people out there. But I’m unique because I’ve coached hundreds of artists handled ads and content for lots and lots of advertisers over a career in radio and marketing built lots of businesses. And so I probably approach things a lot differently than most marketing people do. And so I’m not saying they’re wrong. I’m not saying I’m right. I’m just saying I’m probably a little bit different because I’ve got a lot of proven success in our marketing. No brag just fact. Anyway. I hope I’m sorry, I couldn’t answer your question more. But I’m sure I can help you if you go to artmarketing.com
The next question comes from and Dink Cal spiel. sounds like a good German name, and he says painting feels like a meditative practice for me. I’m afraid that if I move into trying to sell my art, I will lose my focus. I’ve sold my art to people I know, I like making money. But the fear remains about introducing an intention to make money into the equation.
Well, and you’re not alone. I know a lot of other artists feel the same way. They don’t want to impact their art with the intention of making money. I suppose even showing your art on social media influences that intention, whether it’s for selling or just showing off. And you know, if you feel like those things influence your painting. I can tell you I have painted something and I thought it was really good. And I’m thinking well, I can’t wait to put this on social media to let everybody know how good I really am. Of course, I’m not but you know, sometimes you think those things. And so those things do influence you. But the reality is, there’s nothing really wrong with letting the influence It’s take over, especially if you’re trying to make a living, or if you need to sell your paintings. So I guess you could kind of carry that that whole concept to the idea of, well, maybe your life isn’t as good if you’re working, so you shouldn’t have an income and then you know, you’re going to be totally natural. But that’s carrying things to an extreme, I suppose. I can say that the best artists in the world were great marketers. There were painters who were equally as brilliant and never discovered. Like Rembrandt was a great marketer. So srg they were both great marketers are both sold a lot of work in their lifetime. So, you know, did that influence their work? Maybe was their work awesome. Of course. Sometimes people get discovered, but usually the ones that are remembered are the ones that learn how to market their work. So there’s no requirement of course, to sell your art or to make money and frankly, if you don’t need to, why do it? I don’t need So my art but the reason I do sell it is because I like that validation that somebody other than my mother or my family members like my work and is willing to pay for it. It’s not because I need to make a living. And so anyway, there are a lot of artists who need to make a living and need to find a way to sell and if you don’t need to stay out of the way so they can, I suppose. But if you need to, you might want to consider that the intent of making money will influence your art. And if it does, make what you need, and paint the rest for what you want to pay it so it’s not influenced. Just a thought. Anyway, I appreciate the concept and the thought, 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.
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 special edition from the PleinAir Podcast, Eric interviews American business executive, conference speaker, and author Jay Abraham on what artists and galleries should be doing right now to stay in business during the pandemic.
Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Special Episode with Jay Abraham >>>
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.
Eric Rhoads 00:00
This is episode number 166. Today is a special edition and emergency edition if you will of the Plein Air podcast.
Announcer 00:21
This is the plein air podcast with Eric Rhoads, publisher and founder of plein air magazine. In the Plein Air podcast we cover the world of outdoor painting called plein air. The French coined the term, which means open air or outdoors. The French pronounce it plenn air. Others say plein air, no matter how you say it. There is a huge movement of artists around the world who are going outdoors to paint. And this show is about that movement. Now, here’s your host, author, publisher and painter, Eric Rhoads.
Eric Rhoads 00:59
Thank you Jim Kipping, and welcome to the plein air podcast. I’m Eric and I’m sure like me, you’re stuck at home in quarantine. I hope you’re okay. I’ve been working on all kinds of things I could do to help everybody through this. I’ve been doing Facebook live every day and I’ve been doing art instruction videos daily at three o’clock on Facebook Live from the streamline art video page. And we’ve been helping galleries with some profiles to keep them visible, you know, helping our advertisers etc. Anything we can do. We’re sending out some free copies of the magazine to extra people, just all kinds of things to try and help. Today is a departure from the normal plein air podcast. And it’s not about plein air at all. Not really. In reality, it’s about helping artists, plein air shows and galleries. we want to help you survive during this sudden economic downturn. Hopefully this will end soon. So today I’ve got an interview for you with the best marketing mind in the world. His name is Jay Abraham gets 100 k a day For his consulting and he’s a friend of mine he did the foreword to my book, make more money selling your art. And I called Jay and I said, let’s do a video together for the artists. And so I’ve already done a video of Senator…but if you’ve not seen it, you need to hear it. And you need to hear it a couple times anyway because every time I hear it, I hear new things in it. And this will help you try to get through this difficult time because you are running a business, whether you like it or not, if you’re an artist and you are selling your art, you’re running a business. So we’ll get to that in a minute. I should mention that due to coronavirus to the plein air convention has been moved to August the 11th through 14th. In Santa Fe we’re not doing Denver this year. We can’t because we couldn’t get a date. So the 11th through 14 of August and summer it’s the first time we’re doing a summertime convention which means all the school teachers who haven’t been able to come are going to get to come and a lot of people haven’t been able to because of kids that can come make a vacation out of it. And it happens to be peak time. happens to be Indian summer is going on not Indian summer What am I talking about Indian market is going on right when we finished the convention that’s the biggest weekend of the Year in Santa Fe draws lots of people so it’s good time to paint good time to be there good time to see a little extra. And of course Kevin MacPherson has agreed to do the pre convention workshop because the previous one could not make it so that’s really great news. Also, I should tell you the plein air salon which usually gives away it’s awarded the convention has been extended, the competition will continue to go on we’re going to do monthly judging for more monthly prizes and then we will do three more chances to win before the convention and three more competitions if you will. So $15,000 cash is on the line for you are 23 grand in total prizes. And the cover of plein air magazine is stories in the newsletter and so on. So enter before April 30. For the next plein air salon, we have extended it and we will award it at the convention. Anyway, I should also remind you that if you want these daily videos of art instruction, go to streamline art video on Facebook, streamline art video, just follow it and then they will come through automatically when we go live and we’re going to keep doing them as long as we can do them during the quarantine as long as the internet holds up, as long as we’re here. Anyway, let’s get right to this special edition of marketing advice for a crisis like this with Jay Abraham. I’m pleased today to have a really very important guy on the line Jay Abraham who is the hundred thousand dollar a day marketing consultant. He has built many, many businesses and helped billions of dollars worth of businesses help them grow. He’s an author of many books, and I asked Jay, to come on and talk to you about what you might want to do as an artist or as an art gallery. In this moment when we’re all a little questioning about coronavirus, and staying home and What should we do with our businesses? And is the economy going to crash? Jay has lived through four economic disasters and looks at this as opportunity. Jay, welcome.
Jay Abraham 05:10
Thank you, Eric. I’m pleased to be here.
Eric Rhoads 05:13
So Jay, we’re going to try to keep this at about 20 or 30 minutes. And the idea here is what if I’m an artist or I’m an art gallery, and everything has come to a screeching halt? What is the first thing you think I should be doing?
Jay Abraham 05:30
I think you should be strategically recognizing that this is arguably one of the greatest opportunities you will ever have to gain attentive mindshare in a very unusual way. It’s not dissimilar to the fact that art galleries do well in environments where people are stuck in in a captive place for a long time and keep repetitively visiting and and, and getting connected and bonded to the art. I think today, Eric, you’ve got people who are most of their day and lives have been frenetic and basically coming and going and they give a very meager amount of attention to anything and now they’re homebound and yeah, they’re working from home but nobody can say on the phone or on their computer on their, their device for that kind of a long period. They’re going to spend qualitative time getting getting attached to different things. You’ve got this wonderful, wonderful concept called art. Art inspires Art savs Art electrifies exactly what people need. I think today, artists should advertise. They should should offer to get on the phone spend time sharing with anybody interested, you know, their motivation, their background, you know, methodology media they do and they should use this to own mind share in your magazine, for example, you’ve got great collectors, great art investors, great advocates enthusiasts, I can’t imagine. I know it’s a very horrific time. It’s unprecedented. But art as transcended every, you know, every known period in in history, it’s not going to be abandoned now and people need the inspiration and the connection and you can do lots of things. First thing is make yourself available make yourself known don’t stop. Make sure that the beauty majesty, the allurement, that the therapeutic aspects of your art is even more evident and make yourself available to connect with people. I don’t know if that answers a little bit more portrayed.
Eric Rhoads 08:15
You know, I want to probe that just a little bit. That was very good. The The question is gonna be, you know, I’m afraid of the future. I don’t know what the future brings, you know, I, I just need to stop doing what I’m doing. And yet there’s, there’s a sense of momentum that’s lost if they stop. There’s also a sense of opportunity loss. So you and I were talking earlier about this, but just for the benefit of everybody. In the Great Depression, there was a dominant cereal by the name of post which had like a 90% market share. And there was a startup that literally started right at the beginning of the Great Depression. And it was Kellogg’s and they had no market share, and post in their infinite wisdom said, We’re rich, we’re successful. We’re not going to advertise. We’re just going to get through this period of time. Meanwhile, Kellogg took everything they had, and even stuff they probably couldn’t afford. And they put it towards marketing and advertising themselves. And post ignored them and said, You know, we’re big, they’re never going to hurt us. And then, at the end of the Great Depression, Kellogg had the lion’s share of the market, and they’ve never lost it since then. Can you talk about the importance of branding, even if people may or may not be buying at this time the importance of using this as an opportunity to establish their brand?
Jay Abraham 09:44
Well, absolutely. First of all, again, what I said earlier, is, is true. in normal times, you get someone thumbing through and they’re so frenetic. Now, we’re, we’re consciously trying to Focus on various items, issues, activities that are going to give us solace and we are actually forcing ourselves to pay more attention. If you can use this access period, to elevate and preempt yourself against the maddening crowd, you can own that crowd. Certainly when you get back in, you know, into normality or normalcy, but you know, all estimates are even if it’s horrific, it’s going to be, you know, a few months, maybe longer, but if it’s a few months, and during that time, you can establish yourself as a dominant force. You can make yourself more elevated, more, more preemptive more connected, what that means to you when everything shakes out, is very powerful. Honestly, with all sincerity you win and your counterparts will play havoc trying to catch up number one. Number two is, you know it for the modest cost. I don’t know what it costs to advertise in your, in your media, but geez for that modest cause, the ability to own the mind of the market that you’ve already identified, you know, they are serious buyers of art. You know, they are literally people who own art. And you know that there are people who appreciate the intangibles that art represents. And the majority of them I don’t really think are, are going to be totally devoid of the capacity to buy art. They might differ. Maybe an artist will make some arrangements on terms but the point is, you’ve never had that I call us a perfect storm at Yes, it’s crisis. And yes, it’s horrific, but you also have deep, focused attention, and you have the chance to get them to re attend over and over again, not unlike they would. I don’t want to use a cruise ship because it’s got some bad connotations. But a cruise ship sells so much art because they visited they leave they visited they leave, it captivates, they’re in a mindset of opening up their sensory abilities. This is more evident right now than anybody can possibly exist. And I would say if I were an artist, I probably and I’m not saying this to patronize you, Eric, I would double up I might try to negotiate a rate for two ads with you but I double up because I want to make my art so powerfully and positively aunty that I knew that I was going to own the you know the responsiveness of your marketplace which you’ve You’ve kept it you’ve cultivated and you’ve, you’ve you’ve acquired and you’ve organized and you’ve attracted it very expensive. I know what you had to go through to build your, your readership and I know that readership is is Primo great, I would want to abandon it. I want to own it. That’s just the truth.
Eric Rhoads 13:20
During during the 2004 2008 recession, I called an art dealer buddy of mine in New York, and I said, you know what’s happening because I knew he sold expensive art and he dealt with a lot of the people who, who read our magazine, because we have we have over 300 billionaires that read it. And I said, are they have they stopped buying because I was hearing you know, everybody’s gonna stop buying. He said, No, they haven’t stopped buying, he said, but instead of buying $200,000 paintings two or three at a time, they’re buying $50,000 paintings two or three at a time, he said so they’ve reduced but the ones thing that I think a lot of us forget is that people with money, still have money.
Jay Abraham 14:08
You’re right. Well, also you made a point that I was trying to make and I was struggling for a word. Yeah. You can’t get the right word. You have curated your readership. And I don’t think people understand you’re allowing an artist the chance to go in with every human being that we know of, except for a few exceptions in in the United States, certainly, and most of the world are homebound. They are sitting, they have time. They want to escape the complexities of their business. They want therapeutic, you know, you know, a refreshing alternative. You have a chance to connect with them and bond with them now. Is to goodness not trying to capitalize on that the sadness of the times but this is genuinely a situation where adversity is truly opportunity, you’re not going to get that attention, you’re not going to get that attention you’re not going to get that that that fulfillment of sensory need at the depth and the dimension that you can get right now other than if they were locked, you know, for three days in your studio or in your or in your art gallery and you aren’t gonna be able to do that. So this is opportunity honest to goodness strategic opportunity here.
Eric Rhoads 15:41
Yeah, you know, and you’re not necessarily going to reach those people with your social media because unless they’re following you, you know, we all have social media followers, but we we sometimes forget that they’re our friends not necessarily our customers or that every every Facebook post we make only gets sent to 3% To the people who’s watching it. And so and then those people might miss it. I want to tell you a story. And get your comments on this. In 2008, there was an art gallery, I won’t use its name, it’s still in business. It started up when the recession started. And I since had a discussion with the owner of that gallery, who has since sold it. And I said, What were you thinking starting up in 2008? He says, Look, I was a business consultant. I spent my life understanding recessions and I understood the opportunities that I knew the biggest and the best, the biggest galleries would say, we’re hurting. We’re going to cut our marketing budget. And he said, so I started up at that time, he said, seven or eight big galleries stopped advertising entirely. Others reduced the size of their ads. He said, I knew that once they were out of sight, they were out of mind. And once they did that, if I was visible, then I would be able to take those customers he said, so even though they’re all doing less business, you know, I got the 10%, who would would have been buying from this guy and 10% from this lady. And he said, we actually made a lot of money during the recession. And then when it was all over, we had all these collectors, they were in our pocket. And we became huge as a result of it.
Jay Abraham 17:22
Yeah. And Eric, I was thinking because, you know, given the window, and I don’t know what your deadlines are, but they could do some really inventive things. Since everybody now is doing and I was on the phone with some of the people today they’re doing amazing things with video conferencing, you could you could change your ad to invite him to, you know, watch you create or discuss and talk to the artist, you could do things that they would never have the time, the motivation, the need, and the The desire to do in normal times I mean this is such an opportunity to bond and get penetrating and, and pre emptive access if you use the same creativity that you use to forge your, your, you know your media, your your canvas, your your metals, whatever the things that you’re creating and you use it to forge the connection you’re going to make with these collectors that exist within that very well and very hard one curated readership that you’ve, you’ve concentrated for them. Yeah, I really do mean this. It’s in the scope of the rest of their, their artistic life, and they are artistic entrepreneurs after realizes if they create for any reason other than to retain it in their own house. Then they are an artist. Partner an entrepreneur has to be you’re either strategic or you’re reactive. You’re going to be reactive you might as well get out of the field if you’re going to be strategic. capitalize, you know, it’s it’s the the Latin, carp ADM, you have to seize the moment. And it’s a very strategic it’s not. It’s not pie in the sky, if you think about it pragmatically, logically intelligently. You have these very well capable people who can spend their money, who own art, who will continue to own art and these are people that will own art Do they have no place to put it? They might have walls galore, they have collections they rotate. They have art, they put in different places they’ll buy art donated, landed, they’ll leave it in their basement, they’ll leave it in evolved in a in a storage. So utilize this opportunity to bond and connect and use your artists Creativity and channel it more into your entrepreneurial, creative.
Eric Rhoads 20:05
So the same things apply to art galleries, right?
Jay Abraham 20:08
Absolutely. Absolutely. This is their chance to connect at a deeper level. I mean, you know, right now I can’t remember what they calling him. But there are all these parties going on online which are, you know, they’re much more serious. What? Yeah, I mean, I think that galleries can do some wonderful things, including what I just said. You can do, you can do shows you can go into there, the artist studio, you can have the artist basically create you could, you can, you can do three dimensional, if it’s, if it’s, you know, if it’s in metal, if it’s not, if it’s not a canvas, you can do so many things. And the truth of the matter as you said, that you maybe maybe a true collector is going to To reduce the amount they spend per piece, but they’re not going to reduce and in fact, and probably will happen. Most of these people are pretty astute buyers. So they might be astute negotiators. But if they start collecting artists that they weren’t before, even if they try to negotiate a bit with you, when they start collecting you, it’ll have more emotional connection because of what’s going on now to them than if they bought it during normal times. And that theoretically, but but logically, we’ll have them more compelled to want to buy more from you. It’s just logic.
Eric Rhoads 21:43
One foot in the door once you get them as a collector
Jay Abraham 21:45
Yeah and better now because it’s going to have much more meaning to them. I think because of the, the associative time and emotional need they have for therapeutic fulfillment.
Eric Rhoads 21:58
You know, when when I was referring to That other gallery several of the galleries that stopped advertising during the recession actually went out of business. And most of the ones that did not stop stayed in business they had they struggled to stay in business. I’m but talk to me about that aspect if you if you if you just say, Hey, I’ll wait and see what happens what what kind of a rescue putting your business in?
Jay Abraham 22:24
Well, I mean, I was watching at one of the shows on one of the stock market channels today and they were talking about how if, if certain businesses stop restarting is a nightmare. It’s like there’s certain engines you can’t motors you can’t stop. There’s certain vehicles. I don’t mean vehicles like cars, but there’s other things like that. Stop them and start them again is onerous. It’s extraordinarily hard both in in regaining momentum and velocity in resources necessary to create All the positive pressure that’s going to need to start the movement again. It’s just really I mean, again, you have to realize that the world will not totally add, it’s going to come back it may have to be like that. But people will buy art. People who have the resources will continue to buy they may buy differently but if you are there for them and you are top of mind, and you are allowing yourself to connect in deeper and more more inventive ways now than you normally could, in the busy inattentive times that have been the norm up until a few weeks ago and will be the norm again, in a few months this window is, is rare and the cost of of of optimal mining, capitalizing harnessing and dominating right now for two or three months. I mean, I don’t know what I don’t need to know what a page or two pages in your magazine cause I’m just saying I would think that that would be the best strategic investment Art Gallery could make for the rest of their, their viable life because this can be the propellant that can get you more, more indelibly embedded in awareness, your artists more established in the mind your chance to connect them at more, in more ways. I would use this inventively. I would use this creatively I would use this in ways that nobody else does, I might add, my ads be different than just pictorial, but I would really capitalize on this access window and this concentration of attention window and this emotional need to be fulfilled window in ways that I don’t think everyone in the gallery businesses recognizing,
Eric Rhoads 25:06
you know, you and I talked about this, I think we were in Miami together, you were doing a consulting session with us. And you said something about, oftentimes there’s a spark that happens, a business can be in business for 20 or 30 years and going along, and you know, just going through their everyday thing. And then there’s one thing, one event that occurs, that is like a spark that just sets off the rocket and they go highly you and I talked about that in the context of me doing a PBS show. And the idea that this might be that moment where it could be their Spark.
Jay Abraham 25:46
Yeah, absolutely. If you think about it, when everyone else is retreating when everyone else is paralyzed. You have the opportunity to literally take care Not just market share, but but basically, Top of Mind awareness out of, you know, out of the market, you have a chance to take people who normally would probably and I’m not a a psychologist or a neuroscientist, but they probably would spend this much of their time normally focused on art. Now, you have a chance for them to spend not only this amount of time, but back and back and forth and over and over again. And if you are inventive, and it’s not just a single picture, but you say, Hey, we’re doing every day a different, a different show. And you can do shows that you connect now to somebody and somebody, whatever their studio is or their house, you could visit collectors, you can do so many really cool things that will engage even deeper and then that engagement, it’ll do two things. it’ll, it’ll, it’ll establish artists, but it will all also distinguish you in very, very, very unique ways in the mind of that collector because you’re doing stuff that’s interesting, it’s entertaining, it’s enjoyable, it’s stimulating. It’s fascinating. It’s dimensional, and it’s therapeutic.
Eric Rhoads 27:23
Well, Jay, thank you so much. I know all the artists and galleries watching this are are going to get a lot out of it. And I I know that you’re busy, everybody’s calling you for consulting at this time and, and I just want to thank you for spending the time with us today.
Jay Abraham 27:36
I really want to acknowledge I think what you’ve created is such a vital value that will give them direct access. It’s a greatest right this moment, the greatest life you know, lifeblood you, you as a gallery owner can give to A collector that needs you right now they actually need you for for their own, their own great, you know peace of mind take advantage of that. You could mean there’s never been where there’s a one party thought in our lives. We are rewarded in our lives for the amount of problems we solve, and the amount of opportunities we make possible for others. Everyone today is in enormous strife. We are suffering if you can help relieve and and temporarily stop that suffering and turn suffering into joy. And that joy is dimensionally something beyond what your competitors even seek to do and you’re introducing them to experiences and opportunities and and creations That can really transform their mindset their lives. They’re mean it this is just a wonderful opportunity if people grasp it. That’s all I want to say.
Eric Rhoads 29:11
Thank you, Jay.
Jay Abraham 29:13
You’re welcome Eric.
Eric Rhoads 29:14
Well, I hope you found this helpful. Take action. Don’t wait. Thanks again to Jay Abraham for letting me do this and give you some information. A reminder to schedule yourself at the rescheduled plein air convention in August in Santa Fe. You don’t want to miss it. This is the first summertime that we’ve done it usually do it in spring. Come while you can in summertime. And then also make sure you enter the extended plein air salon art competition at pleinairsalon.com. If you’ve not seen my blog, where I talk about life and art and philosophy, it’s called Sunday coffee. And you can find it and subscribe for free at coffeewithEric.com up to about a quarter million readers. I can’t believe that people keep forwarding it to people. I love this. Thank you so much. I really as well. It’s fun doing this, I’m sorry, the circumstances are such that we have to talk about survival. We’re going to get through this. We’ll get through it together. Remember what Jay says, and that is this will have an end. And things probably will get better when the end comes. And so hang in there, be strong, stay secluded. Don’t talk to anybody. Don’t shake hands, get a lot of painting done. And watch for me on Facebook Live and I’ll do things for you. You can follow me on Facebook, Eric Rhoads or on Instagram. And I’d love for you to do that. Now I don’t have Public Accounts on either of them. So I have a limit. But you can still follow even if even though I don’t have a public account, I don’t do a public account because I want to see what the people are doing that are friends with me. So anyway, I’m Eric Rhoads, publisher and founder of plein air magazine. Remember, it’s a big world out there. Don’t shake hands with it, but go paint. I’ll see you bye bye
Announcer 31:08
This has been the plein air podcast with Plein Air magazine’s Eric Rhoads. You can help spread the word about plein air painting by sharing this podcast with your friends. And you can leave a review or subscribe on iTunes. So it comes to you every week. And you can even reach Eric by email Eric at plein air magazine calm. Be sure to pick up our free ebook 240 plein air painting tips by some of America’s top painters. It’s free at pleinairtips.com. Tune in next week for more great interviews. 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.
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, Eric Rhoads explains the benefits of joining an art society, and if you should ever give away your art.
Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 9 >>>
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 starving artists. So let’s get right to today’s questions. Here’s a question from Brianna More don’t know where she’s from Brianna says when starting an art business, is it beneficial to belong to or join art societies? Why or why not?
Well, Brianna, thank you so much. I think the answer is absolutely you should join anytime you can collaborate with others. Be around others learn from others, you’re going to gain knowledge make contacts Learn about things you otherwise might not know about. And you can usually get some experience participating in shows or exhibits. And it’s a great way to find new opportunities. Plus, life’s more fun with new friends. So I’m a member of many art organizations. I’m a member of the California art club. I’m a member of the National Arts club in New York, the Selma Gundy club in New York and of course, the planner painters of Austin, Texas. And, and probably a lot of other things I should join. I’m a member of the oil painters of America. And so there’s a lot of stuff like that and and so it’s nice to be part of national organizations, where you can be in the shows and also local organizations, you can learn what’s going on. I think you’re going to get a lot out of it. I highly recommend it.
Next question is from I guess this is an email because it’s not a full name. It’s Sarah 2000. Sarah 2000 says, should I ever give my art away?
Well, Sarah, it’s a controversial issue and Firstly, I’d like to encourage you to listen to the podcast that we did with Barbara Tapp. She talks about giving it away and the benefits she receives from it. So I think that’s, that’s something that’s worth doing. I think also, if you’re selling your work, then giving it away seems a little counterintuitive. But think about how giving something away might give you some leverage. For instance, giving something away to a charity auction provides a world of publicity and a lot of list building opportunities. If you give it away based on the terms that they give you certain amounts of publicity, or they mentioned your name, or they do certain things for you, they share their list, whatever. I have a whole section about this in my art marketing in a box program. And we also have I do some training about this and the art marketing bootcamp videos. I’ve talked a lot of depth about it there and not so much here. Of course, you can also do it out of the goodness of your heart, but you can also do it to create more leverage in other ways. So let’s say that you’re you In a community gallery and your work is hanging in the gallery and, and in walks Steven Spielberg and he falls in love with your painting, but for whatever reason, he doesn’t buy it, he walks out. So you grab him and you say, Stephen, Stephen, Stephen, listen, I’d love to give you my painting. Now this happened with a friend of mine. She was I can’t tell you who because it’s a confidential story. But she was in her community gallery and in walked a bunch of Secret Service agents and then a former president of the United States, and he fell in love with her artwork while she gave him the painting. And now he could have afforded it and he may have bought it, but she gave it to him. Why? Well, she wanted to make sure he had it. She wanted to thank him for his service, but also, you could use this with a Steven Spielberg or whoever it was. Former President you could use this as leverage because then you could say, you know, my painting is in the collection of former president XYZ my painting is in the collection of Steven Spielberg. Of course you want to get their permission. And to say that but I think that’s something you could do. You could say, I’ll give this to you. But by the way, would it be okay with you, if I happen to mention it? Sometimes they’ll say yes, sometimes they’ll say no, but it helps invest in your marketing story. And I think that’s a good thing. You also, let’s say you wanted a gallery to carry your work, and they just were not flat out not interested. What have you said to him? Hey, listen, I’ll send you one painting. You see if it sells, and if it sells, I’m gonna let you keep 100% of the first one that sells and then if it sells bring me into the gallery, and then we’ll have a future together that might get their attention might not but it might be worth trying. And unless the painting doesn’t fit the gallery, or it’s a piece of garbage, which probably wouldn’t be that I think that makes a lot of sense. And there are a lot of other ways you can get leverage to so for instance, paint something for the CEO of a big local Corporation, send a note as a gift or asked to meet them and, and then say, Hey, you know, I’d love to do commissions for you in the future. A friend of mine did this. And what he does now is that company has him paint a landscape painting and they give them as retirement gifts. So he’s getting a few thousand dollars for landscape painting that they’re giving a nice retirement gift and that way that painting is there in front of those people in their home. And it’s a memory of the company that is appreciating them, so there’s cool things you can do to leverage. Anyway, I hope that’s helpful. 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. 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.
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, get advice for pricing your painting, especially if you’re new to selling your art, and when and if it’s smart to take on an exciting painting project that might not pay that much.
Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 8 >>>
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 starving artists. So let’s get right to today’s questions. Here’s a question from John. I don’t know what town he’s given us. John Hornbuckle says, I’d like to know how much a beginning artist should charge for their paintings. I don’t agree with starving artist stuff.
Neither do I, John. I had a man offer me a ridiculous price once and I told him to forget it. But I do believe in being fair. Stephen Baumann said the charge a price based on square inch, which I liked, but I wanted your input. Thank you. Well, John, it’s an interesting question. A square inch price, though doesn’t solve your problem, see a square inch price is just a way to make sure that your pricing is consistent. Like if you’re doing eight by 10, that it’s eight times 10, that tells you how many square inches it is. And then you put a price on that. But if it’s a 12 by 15, and you’re trying to figure out the price way, it’s just 12 times 15. That’s the number of square inches, you put a price on that. But if you’re charging $10 a square inch or 10 cents a square inch, you still have a price issue you’ve got to solve. So square inches, an easy thing to calculate. I don’t necessarily do it that way. And the reason I don’t is because sometimes I’ll work on a painting three or four times longer than I normally would and if it’s something that’s really special, sometimes they’ll put a higher price on it. I know that doesn’t always work for some galleries, my gallery loves it because they like, the higher my price the better for them, right? Anyway, here’s the catch the manor offered offered you money, and he thought it was worth that amount of money to him. And of course, if you’ve got somebody who’s not necessarily well educated about prices, you know, they might offer you 10 bucks for your painting, and you think it’s worth 1000 bucks. So you got a big gap. But anytime somebody is offering you money for your painting, that means they would like to own it. And typically, you know, people might want to lowball you. And so you might be able to come up come to terms, don’t be offended. If somebody offers you a low price. It’s what it’s worth to them. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. And so, keep in mind that anytime there’s a dialogue, capture that dialogue, say Listen, you know, I typically sell my paintings more for more than more for $10. But can we come to the middle somewhere, maybe they will, maybe they won’t. But the idea is that he’s offering you and that’s a good thing. Now the thing that you have to understand Pricing is difficult, it’s never easy. And you may think that you should get a high price. I mean, what if I just said, You know, I started painting, I love my paintings, my paintings are worth $100,000 you’d say I’m nuts. Well, but there are painters who have done that and managed to get their price I can think of one I won’t mention a name and gets it every time because of the quality of, of the painting. But what you want to do is edge yourself up, you know, the idea is get used to selling paintings. If you’re new at this, hold a little show, maybe at a restaurant or something, and ask yourself, what’s a reasonable price that people would be able to pay and try that, you know, you start out with a little bit lower. You never start out typically high, and you add your way up over time and over time. It’s about are you becoming more collectible? Do you have a collector base? Do you have a gallery? Are you getting a lot of notoriety And publicity Are you getting invited to be on the stage at the plein air convention, you know, things like that, that matter and build your career. And of course your branding. Your branding is extremely important because branding elevates price always does always does. So anyway, it’s a little bit of a difficult problem to tell you what you should be doing. Now saeko Corporation I’ve read I don’t know this for a fact. But I’ve read psycho Corporation starts out by offering a higher price. And if something doesn’t sell in the store, then they lower it and they keep lowering it a little bit until they get to a price where everything is selling and then that sets their price that’s allowing the consumers to set price but this is not exactly a consumer scenario. I mean, you are talking to consumers, but you’re talking to them in an art gallery environment, or maybe a direct show. So anyway, I can’t give you have an exact answer but I would say probably start out a little lower and then get some sales in that area. Once you’ve proven yourself, then you know, move it up. I like artists to raise their prices once a year, because there’s inflation and so you’re right, your money is worth less money. Anyway, hope that helps.
The next question is from Sam, in Pebble Beach, California always wanted to live there. What a beautiful area, he says, Eric, I’ve got a question. I’m not sure anybody can answer but I’ve been asked to do a mural on the side of a building and they want me to do a giant seascape, like my gallery paintings, but they only want to pay me $2,000 to do it. And I get at least that for my small paintings, but it would be kind of cool. It’s a busy part of town might be good for my career. What do you think I should do? Well, I can’t tell you what to do. Sam. I can answer this for you though. You got to consider everything. A mural. That big is probably going to take you a couple of months or longer to complete. Especially if you want to do it well. It’s going to require you to research What kind of materials to use because what you’re painting with now isn’t what you’re going to be painting with on the side of a building. I don’t know if that’s fresco techniques, or house paint or what it is. But then you got to kind of learn to paint with that, it’s going to take some time, materials are going to be different than what you’re used to, because you want materials are going to hold up and look good for the next 20 or 30 years or longer. And so that’s going to take some time, and then the cost of materials for that amount of square footage is going to be amplified considerably. Maybe they’re going to pay your cost of materials, I don’t know. But the other thing you got to keep in mind is there’s wear and tear on your body, on your arms on your shoulders. It’s going to disrupt your life in other ways because you’re going to be so tired, you’re not going to want to paint anything else. And so what’s the value of this? The wear and tear to disrupt your life and other ways? At the end of the day? Will you get noticed? Is this going to buy you anything? Is it going to get you publicity I think that’s a question you always ask yourself is, what’s in it for me? What’s in it for my career? Is this a good business move for my career? And if it is, consider doing it. If not, don’t do it. You know, most murals there’s so many murals on buildings now that a lot of them don’t even get noticed. You just kind of drive by you don’t ever know who the artist is one of the few exceptions to that as weyland, who’s been famous from doing these giant murals, built his career on these ideas of murals. And I’m sure he makes sure his signature is big and a noticeable spot, not necessarily the bottom corner, and I talked to him find out what materials he’s a nice guy. I’ve met him, find out what materials he uses and how he does it. And chances are, if he’s smart, he’s probably got somebody else doing it for him. He probably comes up with a design and then maybe he goes in, has them they do under painting. Maybe he goes in and does touch up maybe doesn’t even do that. Because when you’re blowing something That large things get very posterized when you get up close. And so that’s a whole different animal you got to learn. Anyway, it’s worth talking to somebody in researching it and thinking about, is it worth several weeks? The other thing I would do is whoever is sponsoring this, whether it’s a city or otherwise, I’d want to know, what’s the publicity plan? Are you going to get my picture in the local newspaper? You’re going to get me on TV, you’re going to get me on the local internet stuff? How are they going to bring attention to you? What are the other benefits? Is there going to be like a grand opening a party where you can invite a bunch of VIP guests where you can get business cards and spread your name and talk about your work? Is there going to be a show of your artwork in conjunction, think about all those aspects because for the amount of time and the effort it needs to be worth doing? 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. 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.
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 if you might want to consider using a different name, and how to make the most of Instagram.
Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 7
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. Well, here’s a question from Joan Barnum. Now, I normally don’t use last names, and I don’t know where Joan is from but in this case, it’s relevant because she says thanks so much for your podcast and for the marketing minute. I tune in every week and I’ve learned so much value from both. I’ve been learning what I can about selling my art and I’ve been trying to establish some kind of online presence, but I discovered recently However, that there is a well known watercolor artist out there whose name is very similar to mine. She’s Joanna Barnum. And I’m Joan Barnum. I wonder if it will make it difficult for people to find me online. And if I should consider changing the name, under which I do business, reverting to my maiden name, for instance, I’m just in the beginning stages of the process. And so I’m going to make this sort of move now would be the time.
Well, I couldn’t agree more. It’s a great question. It happens more than you think I can think of several. What comes to mind is Scott Pryor. And then there’s Scott W. Pryor. Both artists, there’s Charles white, and there’s Charles H. White, both artists. And Heck, there’s even another Eric Rhoads. Who was, well, an adult film star. That wasn’t me thankfully. Yikes anyway, he’s dead. I might not be after I mentioned that. Anyway, if you already established the name and then you discover somebody else’s got the name or then you got a little bit of a problem. And you if you’re starting out though this is a good time to avoid confusion and brand yourself under a name where there’ll be no confusion. Now I grew up in radio and we used to do stage names all the time, and you might want to invent a name that sends a signal of confidence to your buyer. Some people pick names that are about their brand, you know, like if you’re a spy, you could be Roger danger. Or you know, remember Jonny Quest. He was an adventure in the cartoons, Richie Rich. But seriously, go out there and come up with a name that really works for you. Now, I wouldn’t call yourself Monet, though there are people out there who’ve done it. There’s an actress whose name is Monet. I wonder if it’s real. I doubt it. But anyway, come up with something distinctive. Stage names are pretty common and there are a lot of artists actually who you Stage names it and if your maiden name works, it’s great. But if it’s hard to say, or it’s hard to spell or hard to read, like if your maiden name is Roberto, it’s, you might want to do something easier. Like I have this friend who’s a radio person and her name was Rabinowitz. And you know, how do you spell it? So she changed it to Robin’s. And you might do something like that. Or you could just be distinctive by saying, you know, your middle initial. The other thing you’ve got to your advantage is that you want a name that’s memorable and you have a name that’s memorable. Right? Who is memorable PT Barnum is memorable. Why not be L. Barnum or PT Barnum or some variation on that or there may be you play off of that, you know, Linda Barnum, like you know, like PT Barnum, the greatest show on earth, you know, you can have some fun with that. So give it some thought. Anyway, it’s a good time. Remember, you are a brand we invent names for brands. And why not do it for artists brands now I think authentic and real is best. But in a case like yours, where there’s going to be confusion, and the names are close, you might want to consider distinguishing yourself with a different first name at least. And don’t forget, there is some gold in that name Barnum, because you want something that people remember because everyday names like Jones and Smith and so on are not very memorable. But if you say you introduce yourself or your website says, Hey, you know, it’s Linda Barnum, like PT Barnum, and then they’re trying to remember who you are, they’re going to remember that.
Here’s the next question from Adam. In Los Angeles, Adam says, I’ve noticed everybody’s moved over to Instagram from Facebook. How can I get a lot of followers so I can sell more art?
And Adam? Well, you’re asking the wrong question, not to embarrass you. But the question should be How can I sell more art, Instagram as a tactic? Just like a magazine ad, or an Email as a tactic. You want to start with a strategy. How are you going to differentiate? Who is going to be your audience? What is the avatar of your audience? The Avatar is like, Who’s the average person who buys your art? And what do they like? Explain and understand that avatar, you know, like, we know the avatar of the people who come to the planner convention, and there’s a lot of the similar type of people, so we tend to talk to them. So think about that, because you want to think about who you’re trying to sell art to. Now, most people on Instagram and Facebook are misusing it. And they’re really talking about themselves a lot. And they’re not really talking about the business aspects. And so you want to think about that, and I’m going to do something very special with plein air convention this year. I’m going to do a morning on Instagram in my art marketing boot camp. And that’ll be worth the price of admission alone, believe me, so I went to the world’s top experts. I got their tips. I’m going to explain them Plus, I’m going to share some of my own. And there’s not enough time here because I’m going to spend about an hour just on that. And probably an hour isn’t enough. But the bottom line with Instagram is it’s about engaging people. It’s about commenting, often smart commenting, and those kinds of things engagement and commenting will help people follow you also liking other people, but there’s a whole lot more to it a lot of strategy behind it. So I didn’t mean to be snide by saying it’s around question, but you want to be thinking about multiple pillars. You don’t want all of your business relying on one thing like Facebook has lost 60 million people recently. So what if your business was based on Facebook? You know, would it affect you? It might so if your business is affected by Instagram at one time, and then you have to reinvent yourself another time, you should be doing multiple pillars Anyway, you should be having a lot of different variations on the way that you You, you market yourself? 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.
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 when it’s better to outsource your art-related marketing versus doing the work yourself, and advice for designing your own print ad, including the most important things to consider.
Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 6
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 starving artists. So let’s get right to today’s questions.
I got a couple of questions from a guy named Jason Bowman who’s in Ontario, Hamilton, Ontario, which is right outside of Toronto, and Jason happens to be a creative agency and ad agency there. He’s also a planner painter. He’s been in touch and he sent me these questions. And so I got two questions from him. And he happens to be in the marketing business. He’s an artist and so he’s probably not going to agree with everything I say, but we’ll see. His first question is in your estimation, what marketing functions are best outsourced versus doing it yourself?
Well, in my life, I want to outsource everything somebody can do better. So I don’t have to burn time learning. I can’t learn everything. Well, I can’t do things as well as someone who’s been an expert for 30 or 40 years or 10 years or five years. And so some things I try to set, what are the things I like to do? What are the things I’m good at? What are the things I’m not good at? I try to push all the things I don’t like to do, and push all the things I’m not good at, often somebody else. And so anytime I can get somebody who’s better at it, I’ll do that. But it depends. Like as an artist, there are things that when you’re kind of getting started marketing your work, well, you’re going to have to do them yourself because you don’t have the extra money. And there are some services. And some of those services you almost have to use, right like there are services for building websites. You know, if you do it from scratch, it’s probably a giant waste of time trying to figure it out, where you can get a company You can just upload your images and everything’s done for you. And there are people who do this who specialize in websites for artists for instance. And and of course, there are others out there who do it for everybody. So you can kind of pick things like that. I know artists who actually outsource things like social media to experts, because those experts are good at getting them massive followings in it. And it pays off in some ways, you know, maybe it helps them fill up their workshops or other things. There is some evidence that some people are starting to sell some art via social media, but most people aren’t. And there’s some very specific tricks. We’re going to talk about some of those at the marketing sessions in the planner convention, but you know, there are lots of people who can do things for you, their agents who can set up gallery relationships, and manage them. There are people who can set up and manage your workshops or do your shows etc. And it depends on how much time and money you have. We do this program called Art marketing in a box, which it’s not an outsource, but it’s like You pay us the money. And it’s a year of marketing this planned out for you. It’s all pre written for you pre written newsletters, emails, mail campaigns, etc. And pretty much the people that we’re hearing from that are using it and getting really great results. In I saw something on the private website where we all communicate. One person said they had doubled their income last year, and other ones said that they more than doubled their income. So those things are pretty cool. And they basically still have to be customized, right? You got to put your paintings and stuff in them, but they can save you a lot of time, but you got to have the money to buy them, and sometimes you don’t. So there’s this old adage, and that is that marketing either takes time, or money. The more time you put in, the less money you have to spend of course that time is keeping you from making money if if making money is about painting and doing enough paintings, and you have to make that you know that balance thing, can I spend a little money, get somebody to do something for me, so that it doesn’t take my time so I can do more painting. And so that’s the way you want to Look at it. When I started my business, I worked a full day basically from about seven o’clock in the morning till about five or six o’clock in the afternoon. And then I didn’t have any time for marketing. So I had to learn marketing. So I would take from like six o’clock at night till 10 o’clock or 11 o’clock at night, and driving home at 11 or midnight every night and I was working on marketing during those times, so I had no choice. So you got to put in the time or you got to put in the money if you want something to happen, and sometimes you have to put in both, especially when you’re growing a business. But after I got some meat on my bones and I had had a little money then I would take that money and hire somebody to help me out or hire a freelancer. Today we have sites like Upwork where you can hire people for projects and design and writing copy and things like that they’re invaluable.
Jason has another question. It says best practices for designing an ad in planner magazine, what to include what not to include what to emphasize tagline call to action. Well when I did my First Magazine Ad I knew nothing about it. I remember specifically the time I bought my very first Magazine Ad I thought it was a hot shot. I thought it was really cool. And I went out and I called this magazine, I talked to the sales rep. She told me exactly what to do. But I decided I knew better. And so my friends had been giving me some advice. And I did exactly the opposite of what she told me to do, and the ad bombed. And then I kept doing it in the ad bombed and kept bombing. And I wasted a lot of time and money. It’s expensive. And so I think first off, you want to listen to people who are experts who do this who know their publication, and I could have saved a lot of money and had a lot more success a lot faster. Let’s start with some of the basics. In a magazine like planner, you have basically one of two audiences you have collectors who buy or who go around to the various plein air events and you have artists who buy paintings but they also go to workshops and surprisingly, about 80% of the artists are buying paintings. And so even though you might think it’s a magazine for artists, what we’re finding is a lot of people who’ve gone to a plein air events, as collectors have taken a painting and they’re still buying paintings. As matter of fact, what we’ve been learning is they’re buying more because now they want to have them around them so they can look at them and understand how they did them. Anything. Everything you do, though, you want to start with the outcome in mind. So what do you want to accomplish, you may want to drive people to a show, you may want to drive people to an event, or you may want to do branding and build your name awareness or create any awareness of you. You may want to sell a specific painting or maybe you want them to visit your website, or maybe you want to get their email address. You can’t do it all in one ad. And when people try to it just becomes one giant cluster mess, right? So honestly, try to figure out what’s the one thing you want to do? What’s the one purpose and everybody’s got a different purpose depending on what’s important to you? And honestly, realistically, in most cases, one is never enough. It’s pretty good for a show. Like if you’re doing a planner event, you know, you should really be doing two or three of those minimum. So people get it on their calendar way in advance. But it’s like a doctor asking you to take antibiotics and you say, Well, I’m going to take one pill, there’s a cumulative effect of that pill over and over time in your bloodstream. And the same thing happens with advertising. There’s a cumulative effect. And that’s why I always preach about repetition and never ever giving up because you just the more repetition, the more momentum you build, momentum builds on momentum. And then after a year, two years, three years, you’re just really rocking it and really getting results. And then what happens is people get cocky and confident and they stop, they think, okay, things are going well, and then their business crashes about six months later, and so then they kind of start up again and they’ve lost momentum. So keep that in mind. You want to be careful not to get seduced by numbers. Now I can buy a magazine with a million readers. I could buy a magazine with 100,000 readers, or I could buy a magazine with 1000 readers. The natural thing we default to when we don’t know about these things is we think bigger is better. But what if the hundred thousand people were people with no money, or people who didn’t like paintings or people didn’t like your kind of paintings or people who maybe they liked paintings, but they just, you know, they’re all in positions where they don’t have the money to buy them. Or what if a magazine had 1000 people but every one of those thousand people were billionaires make a big difference, like fine art kind of sir. My other magazine has, you know, it’s got a lot of readers but it’s got 310 billionaires 310 billionaires, and I have one advertiser tells me he gets $80,000 average return on his investment, every time he runs an ad because he’s targeting billionaires who buy you know, half million dollar paintings and so that’s, you know, that’s really good for him. So it kind of depends on the product. The reality is that every artist, most artists paint only Like 5200 paintings a year, and some of the better artists early can paint, you know, four or five or 10, or maybe 20. But the reality is you don’t need 100,000 people to buy paintings, you don’t even need 1000 You don’t even need 500 you know, if you’ve got an output of 50 to 100 paintings a year, you only need to sell it to 50 or hundred people. So you want to do advertising in a place that’s most likely to get people to buy who wants something specific that you have to offer where you really fit the target niche of the audience. That’s why plein air magazine is a great place if you’re selling planner or studio or landscape paintings because it’s really, really focused on that collector and it’s a it’s a nice, it’s a good group of people, but it’s a narrow niche. Now when you’re building an ad, start with the outcome in mind, like I said, and keep in mind that most art ads all look alike. And that’s not good. You need to stand out. Ask yourself How can Stand up. There’s an ad running in plein air magazine right now by Michelle jung. She’s writing ads that brand her have a big photo of her stands out. She doesn’t show her artwork on the on the ad. And the temptation would you would think would be, well, let’s show the artwork, but everybody’s showing their artwork. So she’s going the opposite. She’s standing out. And I think Charlie hunter has been doing that a little bit too. And so the idea is you want to stand out, what can you do that’s going to stand out. experts will say the number one most important thing is the headline. It’s like an email. The number one most important thing is the subject line. You got to get them to read the subject line to get them to open the email. In an ad you got to grab them fast with a headline because they’re flipping through the pages and that headlines, gotta grab them, talk to them, get their attention, make them want to read to the next line and then the first line is got to draw him in. The photo has got to draw in second most important thing is is either the photo or the first line in your copy. And then your call to action you want to have copy that draws them through, draws them to a conclusion. And then you want to ask people to buy something, or to do something or to take action, you know, go to my website and do this. I’m a big fan of offering what I would call it ethical bribe, right. And that is come to my website for a free note card or free book or free something of value so that they will want to give you their email address so that they’ll sign up for something and then you have a name and you can do more contacting with them over time. But don’t do what everybody else does. get attention and attention getting ad works 10 times faster than one that blends in and looks like everything else. And don’t copy other people because you don’t know the outcome you want remember it you know there was a time when everybody after Got Milk, everybody’s doing, you know, got plumbing got this or got that. Well. You know, it isn’t necessarily what the outcome that these copycats desire, you know, don’t copy the big national advertisers. They’re not necessarily looking to do anything other than keep their brand alive and less. That’s what you want to do. So be original stand out, have a call to action and that will work. I hope this helps. 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.
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: Advice for artists who have a difficult time with the sales aspect, and how you can get more people to buy your paintings.
Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 5
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. And here’s a question from Minnie in Little Rock. I wonder if she’s married to Mickey? Yeah, I’m sorry. She probably heard that her whole life. I don’t think I should go there. Anyway. Minnie in little rock. Eric, I’m an artist and I met a little community gallery at a small tourism town nearby. We all volunteer time and some of the people in the gallery sell really well and I don’t seem to sell well at all And I’m not talking about my own paintings. They sell well with other people. People are selling them. But when people come into the gallery, I don’t sell anything, I’m just not selling well. And Matter of fact, I think I scare people off. And honestly, I gotta tell you, I hate selling because I don’t like being sold to have any advice for me.
Well, Minnie. Don’t do something that you’re uncomfortable with, unless you want to grow. Now, if you want to grow, it’s okay to get out of your comfort zone. If you’re perfectly happy where you are, stay where you are. But don’t try to be something you’re not. You have to ask yourself this. Why do you hate being sold to? What was the experience that you hated so much? That you decided you hated salespeople? I think it’s worth asking the question. And what is it about selling that you hate? Is it asking for money? Well, one thing you have to understand is that most of the sales that take place in the world are not unethical and not pushy and you don’t have to be pushy to sell. And so don’t assume that selling is a pushy Yeah, car dealers, whole nother animal. I don’t like that very much and but they’re even getting better. But the way to sell is not to try and manipulate. That’s not that’s old school. The way to sell is just to listen to people and ask them questions. Pull him in. If you see him asking about a painting, or you see him looking at a painting and staring at a painting, ask him about it. Instead of saying, may I help you? You know what the answer to that is? It’s just looking. So ask questions that are open ended, like, Tell me your thoughts about that painting. You seem pretty engaged in it. Don’t ask, Do you like it? You’re going to get a yes or no. And then when they tell you their thoughts, ask them more questions. So they say well, you know, I really like the colors. There’s a thing you can do called mirroring. And all you have to do is repeat something they said and you can actually keep somebody talking for a long, long time and that will open Been up more and more the more you do it and and you may feel like you’re manipulating and you’re really not you’re just trying to keep the conversation going. So mirroring is like they say, Oh, I like the color. You go, huh? The color Tell me about that. And then they’ll go well, you know, I really like the reds and the blues and the greens and I really really, really like the glow of the mountain in the way that you know, this artist made the water sparkle on the water. You said What is it about that sparkle that turns you on? Oh, well, I don’t know. You know, it reminds me of when I was sitting on a boat with my grandfather when I was a kid. We were fishing and I remember the sun came up over the mountain and my grandfather was catching the fish and I was just mesmerized by the sparkle in the water it’s kind of hypnotic. Well, all of a sudden they’ve opened up they’ve told you something cool about themselves. So just, you know, ask people to keep talking and and don’t push you don’t have to be pushy. sellings. Not pushy, right? You just want to help people find things sometimes they don’t know to find them on their own. You got to help them, help them discover what they like, and help them understand that it would be a cool thing to own this. Well. That’d be nice if you had that sparkle in your living room. And it reminded you of your grandfather every time you walk by it. I mean, is your grandfather around anymore? No, I mean, wouldn’t that be cool? And you know, that’s kind of what selling is. It’s not anything more than just being honest with people and letting them talk.
Next question comes from Juliana Clara, in midvale, Utah. So Juliana says, Eric, how can I get more people to buy my paintings?
That’s a loaded question Juliana. And it’s a broad question. So I’ll give you a broad answer. Because, well, first off, you want to get your paintings in front of more people. The first thing that painters need to do to sell paintings for the first time is to get used to being out there get used to putting your paintings in front of other people. So you got to make sure you’re ready and it just takes a little time to get used to it. So first off, get some outside objective advice. Are you ready to sell your panics, maybe somebody will give you some advice on what you can do to improve now my brother in law Scott is a painter and he brings his paintings to work with him to show his coworkers. And He never says there for sale. He never talks about it, but they always end up buying them all. And or they end up commissioning him to do things. He’s not selling them for a lot of money doesn’t need to but he, he’s like, yeah, sure I’ll take 100 bucks for it or 200 bucks or 500 bucks, whatever the number is. And he takes him with him everywhere he goes. So he was going to the chiropractor and he took some paintings and he said, Hey, Boston’s going to show you what I’ve been doing. And it shows them the paintings and the guy says to him, yeah, I’m opening a new office, could you make me some big ones? And he said, Sure. He said, What do you need? He said, he ordered 16 of them. So just kind of put yourself out there, get used to that. Take him around. I take paintings with me to the dentist. I take paintings with me to the doctor, I took my magazines I take sometimes I take my videos, I take all kinds of things, because I really am just trying to make them remember me and help them remember that I’m a little different than the other 530,000 patients that they See? And then you know, if I forget to bring a magazine or something, sure enough there go, where’s that magazine? So you know, you could take paintings that I’ve taken paintings into the dentist with me and not not to sell them, but just to show them. And so I think that’s kind of cool. It just makes you stand out. So that’s kind of what marketing is all about Juliana is it’s just trying to get people aware of you. Once you get into the level where you want to go a little deeper, you want to start selling nationally or selling more in your community. There’s a lot of other answers as a lot of things like, you know, do you need a website or not? You know, a lot of people are debating that today. I think obviously, it’s a good idea. But a website alone isn’t going to bring you any business. You got to figure out how to get people in there. You got to figure out how to get people to respond. So that’s what I talked about in some of my other stuff by books and videos and things, but I hope this has been helpful. 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 Eric@art marketing.com. 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.
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.
