Imagine walking through the Sahara desert. In every direction you look, you see what seems to be miles and miles of sand. The hot sun is beating down on you and you’ve run out of water. You’ve slowed your pace, and you’re in danger of collapsing and baking in this Sahara oven if you don’t find water soon. Then, as you see the sunlight reflecting off water on the horizon, you muster all your energy to run toward it. But as you get closer, you find there is no water. It’s merely a mirage.

As artists working on our own marketing and branding, we often feel like we’re in the desert. We feel barely able to make it, but then something gives us hope, something gives us the feeling that we’re making great strides — but it’s only a mirage.

Recently I was having a discussion with a company and I asked the marketing team about what percentage of the market was aware of their brand. Boldly, they said, “We know that at least 75 percent of the people in the art world know us.”

It was a mirage.

I was feeling especially kind and non-confrontational that day, so instead of challenging them and giving them a much-needed dose of reality, I simply asked how they knew.

They told me about all the things they were doing and all the places they were doing them. Frankly, it wasn’t much and hadn’t been going on for long, and they had barely scratched the surface. By asking questions, I was finally able to get them to come to that conclusion on their own.

Their perception had been that they were known, even a household name, but it was all a self-imposed mirage. The reality is that they were barely known, if known at all.

As a marketer, your self-confidence (or your ego) can kill your business. When you think you’re doing well, when you think you’re doing everything you can, you start to believe that is enough.

Recently, right after I was on stage and speaking at the opening of the Plein Air Convention, a young woman walked up to me, introduced herself, and asked politely, “Who are you, and what do you do?”

Gulp.

I’m at my own event, with my tribe, I’ve spent tons of time and money on marketing, I’ve told my story a thousand times, yet this person was unaware.

I felt completely stupid and realized I had become overconfident.

The next morning, when I went on stage, I started Art Marketing Boot Camp with my story, because if there was one person there who didn’t know it, chances are there were others.

As someone recently told me, “You cannot tell your story enough.”

Remember that marketing team? After all my questions, I told them that there was a very big chance that they were known by only a small percentage of the entire market. Others might be aware of the company’s name but not know what it does.

We all grow so close to our marketing that we sometimes make insanely stupid assumptions, like…

• Everyone knows who we are
• Everyone knows our story
• Everyone knows exactly what we do
• Everyone has read everything we ever put out
• Everyone has visited our website
• Everyone has seen our artwork

But we need to understand that there are always people entering and exiting the market. Through attrition, our customer list is always changing, on average by 10 percent each year, and in bad economic years, by 30 to 50 percent.

That means you have to…

• Constantly be telling your story
• Constantly be helping people know your product or art
• Constantly bring new people into your list
• Constantly stay visible

We wrongly assume that because someone sees a story or an ad, they have “captured the message.”

The reality is that most people don’t pay close attention. They don’t read things we think they should read. They skim a lot of things.

And since the average person has to be hit over the head about a dozen times with seeing or hearing your message before they become a prospect, you have to be constantly pushing and repeating that message.

And don’t assume they saw or heard it every time you ran it.

Also, repetition fades with time, so you have to compress time by being seen more frequently over shorter time periods.

There are other critical pieces. You see, every campaign is about four things:

• What you say and how you get attention
• How often you say it
• How often your target prospect sees it
• Who you say it to, which has to do with where you say it

On stage recently I asked the audience how many had seen ads for “MyPillow.com.” In a room of 1,000 people, only about 30 hands went up.

I’ve seen these ads on TV probably a hundred times in the last year, yet only 3 percent of the room was aware of them.

After seeing the ad for the hundredth time, my wife finally bought the product.

Every buyer has their own timing. Your campaigns need to repeat your story and message to the point that you are personally sick of it and think others are as well.

Even then, you’ve tapped only a small percentage of a market, and sold only a small percentage.

It all works due to the volume of people being reached and the constant repetition of the message.

I’ll bet if I asked the CEO of the company that makes MyPillow, he would say the world knows about his product because of the thousands of people reached and the large number of orders coming in. Yet he would be embarrassed and frustrated with the 3 percent of the room I surveyed.

His marketing person, on the other hand, would probably understand that more time will be required to reach more people, and even then, not everyone will be aware.

The point?

Don’t get overconfident and think the world knows about you or knows the details about your product.

Overconfidence will lead you to think you’re big when you’re not, and will lead you to reduce or stop your marketing because you believe that, or because you’re seeing some results.

Marketing is like a jet that never lands and has to be continually refueled in the air. If you land it, you lose momentum and it’s much harder to take off again — and you’ll see a reduction in business before long.

A great marketer understands the land of danger and the mirage of assuming people know who they are and know their story. A great marketer never lands.

Fireworks will light the skies around our great nation this week as we celebrate our independence as a country. Yet thousands of artists I hear from are lacking independence. They long to quit their jobs and create their art full-time – without having to live the life of a starving artist.

Yesterday I met a man who told me the story of spending years in art school to get his MFA, yet he was never able to make a living with his art. He said to me, "No one around here can make a living as an artist." I didn't want to disagree, but I know artists nearby who actually make a great living as artists, and who are not as accomplished as he.

The reality is, you can quit your job and become a full-time artist and make just as good a living or better in most cases. If that sounds like a stretch to you, it's not. I work with people every day who have done it, including some professionals who were already making excellent money. One artist who follows my plan sent me a photo last week of a pile of checks. She is living the dream, just three years after she started.

One of my missions in life is to help artists (painters, sculptors, photographers, crafters, etc.) live their dream. I have lived the life of dreading going in to work every day. I have stared out the window, wishing I was not behind my desk and that I could be painting. I have been jealous when my friends were traveling to faraway places to paint and I was limited to my two weeks of vacation (and I couldn't afford to go anywhere even when I had time off.) I have lived hand-to-mouth, I have struggled, I have had bosses I could not stand for one more day and yet had to bite my tongue because I needed the job, days when I wanted to sing, "Take This Job and Shove It" and just walk out. It took my getting to the boiling point before I made a change in my life.

Enough. I'm Out of Here!
The most important moment in your life is the moment you can't stand it anymore, blow up and say, "ENOUGH! I'm out of here!"

But it's also the most dangerous time, because, like a pressure cooker, hatred of a job can build up until we eventually explode. Unless you find a way to relieve the pressure in advance, you'll do something stupid, like quit your job when you're not ready, when you don't have an income.

The Danger of Ignoring Your Anger
Something terrible happens when you stay in a job you hate, when you fail to take the risk and live the dream. The longer you do it, the longer you take it, and eventually you lose your drive to escape. You start to lose your dream because you don't see any way out. One day you wake up and your whole life has passed and you haven't lived your dream. By the time you get to retirement age, you may not have the money, desire, interest, or physical ability. Why wait?

Make an Independence Plan
On the 4th, I want you to make a commitment to yourself. Every time you hear a "boom" or see a firework go off, I want you to say to yourself, "This is my year of independence."

Don't Quit Your Job … Yet
I don't want you to go in on Monday and quit your job, nor do I want to get calls from you saying, "I did what you said. I quit my job. I can't feed my family. Now what?" What I want you to do is to devote any free time you have in the summer to building a plan. When you have a plan, you already have a sense of freedom. Knowing you have a plan for how you're going to morph from a worker bee into a free-living artist is almost as good as the freedom itself. It's kind of like planning a vacation a year in advance and having all year to look forward to it. Somehow it helps you cope with stress.

How to Build a Plan That Will Change Your Life So You Too Can Be Independent
Nothing worth doing is easy. I can't give you a specific plan because each of you is in a different place. Some are near retirement, others are early in their careers, some are raising kids, others have college to pay for. What I can tell you is that it's really pretty simple to invent a plan that fits your needs. Here are six specific things you can do.

1. Start with commitments and reality. Two weeks ago at the Publisher's Invitational, I met an artist who was taking her first trip away from her kids alone, ever. Her youngest is in college, and she now can start living her dream. She knew she had to get the kids out of college first. Those were very real circumstances. So write down the reality of your commitments so you know the moment you can be free.

2. Seek a transition plan. This very artist told me her story, how she dreamed of becoming a full-time artist and traveling. She said, "Just like I have to breathe, I have to paint." She told me that she had to work, make a living, and raise her kids, but she knew if she did not paint, she could not live. So she made up her mind to work on her art when her kids were in school. She found a way to start a gallery in town, where she showed her work. She could close it when she needed to deal with the kids, and she has been running it most of their school years. By working TOWARD her goal, achieving part of it, she saved her sanity.

There are many ways to invent a transition plan. I don't have any desire to retire and I love what I do, but I have told myself that once my kids are in college, I can travel more and work a little less. I'm working on a transition plan by getting my company gradually prepared for me to be absent a little more, but I've also had my work in a couple of art galleries for the last 10 years. I intentionally don't market it (the plumber's house always leaks, right?) because I'm not yet in the mode where I need that income, yet it's a way for me to challenge myself to paint better and paint more, and a way to get used to the gallery environment. It's important to put yourself under pressure to reach your goals.

3. Develop a financial plan. Lay out your needs and where you'd need to be to quit your job. A friend of mine set a five-year goal to sell enough paintings monthly so he could quit his sales job. He set annual goals that grew each year, and he worked all his spare time beyond his family and job to hit those goals. On weekends he visited galleries. At nights he painted.

4. You have to be so driven that you'll work doubly hard. Again, nothing worthwhile is easy. You may have to work extra jobs for a year, or a few years, to save extra money. You may have to work late at night and on weekends. If you want it badly enough, you'll find the time. I recently laid out a plan for my friend who is trying to get more painting time around his family and work. I simply said, "Sleep less." So instead of staying up till midnight watching TV, he goes to bed earlier and awakens at 5, giving him two hours of painting time before he was to wake the kids for school. He is so driven that he has not missed one morning, seven days a week, for the last three months.

5. Be disciplined about your goals. Each week I receive a report about where I am regarding my goals in my business. It's weekly — rather than monthly – so I know when I have to hit my numbers while I still have time left to do it. I am obsessed with never allowing myself to miss a goal. I beat myself up when I do, and I make a point of making it up in the next month on top of my new monthly goal. This is the ONLY WAY to make sure you hit your goals. If your goal is to produce five paintings a month, you must NEVER LET YOURSELF OFF THE HOOK. Never give yourself an excuse. Excuses are for wimp
s. Winners never say, "I'll try." They always say, "I'll do it."

5. Share your goals so others hold you to them. I've read about a million goal-setting books (I recommend you do, too) but never has any guru said this — yet I think it's the most important: Share your goals with your spouse, friends, even in public, and tell people to hold you to them. If I want to get something done, I'll announce it in public or on my blog because I know that I'll be embarrassed if I fail. That motivates me not to fail. Recently I told my friends I was going to build a guitar because I had been thinking about it for three years but never did anything about it. I told them knowing that it would force me to do it. (I started yesterday with an instructor.)

6. Remove the garbage in your head. As you read this you may be thinking, "Well, it works for him, or it works for others, but my circumstances are different." That is complete head garbage. This week I was coaching an artist on his marketing and he said, "I can't do that because there are lots of younger artists who are better at getting their names exposed by using technology." I said, "Let me guess. When you were younger you gave yourself excuses, saying, 'I can't do that because the older artists have more experience and contacts and advantages.'" Dead silence. We all have garbage in our heads. We all tell ourselves that things are not possible, that others have bigger advantages. Stop it. When you catch yourself doing it, stop it. Everyone does it, winners just work harder at stopping it and redirecting their beliefs to what they can do.

If you use these steps to build a plan, it will set you on the path to independence. Life is very short. It's amazing to me how fast it goes by, and how many dreams I've missed by not holding myself to standards and goals. I reach more of my goals today than I did 10 years ago, and I refuse to let one of them slip. As a result my business is growing, my personal life is improving, and I'm living a dream I never thought possible. You can do it. Make this Independence Day the beginning of your independence so you can live the dream.

Happy 4th of July.

Eric Rhoads

PS: OK, here I go. I'm going to invent something now, on the spot, commit to it, so I am getting it done and so YOU will hold my feet to the fire. For the last three years at the Plein Air Convention, I've done three different Marketing Boot Camp sessions (three days each) to help artists with the essentials of artist marketing. It has transformed careers. But I think it's time for me to offer something completely new. So here is my new commitment and an official announcement so new, it's not even on the website.

Next year for the Plein Air Convention, I'm going create a new series: "How to Quit Your Stinking Job and Live the Dream of Being a Financially Successful Full-Time Artist." Not only will this be a blueprint for success to launch your career as an artist, it contains mission-critical information and tools most artists need even if established and successful.

In the series I'm going to show you:
-  A step-by-step plan to transition out of your job
-  A system to create a financial plan to help you prepare
– A transition plan to launch your art career
- My exclusive Rhoads System for Building a Base Business Income™, which will give you a plan to pay all of your expenses each month and make sure you're succeeding
- The 10 most successful ways to build income as an artist
- How retiring baby boomers can "ramp up" and succeed fast and have a fruitful career for the rest of their lives
– How to reinvent yourself to stimulate new life in your career as an artist
– The 7 traps established artists fall into that hamper success
– 19 tools artists must have in their arsenal to create success, whether new or established
– How to ethically and legally leverage your current job to make you more successful in your new career
– How to overcome the need for time in marketing
- How to become known worldwide as an artist and sell more art than you've ever dreamed
- How to know you're ready and have the confidence to move forward toward your goal

This is the tip of the iceberg. I've only just begun to design this program, and I have until April to find out what exactly you want from me and build it into the program. Though this program has to do with going out on your own, it will be a huge boost to those of you who are already there. The base business strategy alone will revolutionize your life, as it changed my life and success when I learned it from one of my business mentors after two decades in business.

These early-morning sessions will be held each morning of the Plein Air Convention and at no additional charge. Note that the convention attracts over 700 artists and will have dozens of top artists teaching oil, watercolor, pastel, and acrylic. Most are not listed on the website yet. Plus we have sessions for landscape and figurative artists. You don't have to be a plein air painter to attend, because most demos are indoors on four stages, with video so you can see them well. Frankly, the new sessions will be well worth the price and will change your life and help you live the dream.

To register, call 561.655.8778 or visit www.pleinairconvention.com, or register here. We even have payment plans available so you can stretch out your attendance investment.

Ten Reasons Not To Advertise

My clients are often surprised when I tell them not to advertise. Since I own a few magazines, they assume selling them advertising is my only interest.

Not every client is ready to advertise, and others may not be a fit for certain magazines or websites, including my own. It depends entirely on their needs and goals.
 
No one would ever trust me or my people if the solutions we proposed always led back to our magazines. Here are 10 reasons you should not advertise.
 
Ten Reasons Not To Advertise
 
1. You Don't Know What You're Trying To Accomplish
Frequently a meeting with a gallery or artist will reveal that they need to improve their business, but they don't have a specific strategy. They often approach us about advertising with nothing more in mind than "I'm not sure of my goals, I just want to sell more." Though that's a starting point, it's never good to advertise until you have a deep, specific strategy. We can help you work on a strategy, but you must have that in place before you do anything else, or you may waste money and hurt your reputation.

2. You Don't Know Who You're Trying To Reach
It's hard to hit a target when you don't know what it is. It's important to understand where most of your existing customers come from and why they buy from you, so you can find more like them. Make sure you know what your customers care about. Many people simply say, "I don't know, I just need to sell more." The problem is that a broad, un-targeted approach will most likely not accomplish your goals — that is, if you have goals.

3. You're Not Ready To Promote
I got a call last year from an advertiser in Artist Advocate who was concerned that she had not accomplished her goal of selling landscape paintings and getting a gallery to sign her. When I reviewed the website she included in her ad, it was all about commissioned portraiture. Nothing about landscapes. She had wrongly assumed people would look beyond her landing page to find her landscape work.

If you're going to point people to your business, you need to be fine-tuned and ready so they get what they expect when they visit your site or call your number. If the site is not what they expect, or if they get a voice message or a name other than the person or business they think they're calling, that is opportunity lost.

4. You Don't Have A Capture Strategy
What if your ads motivate people to call you or visit your website, and you don't have a plan in place to convert those people to sales? Have you refined your story? Stories are important. Is there someone designated to sell, like a spouse, an agent, a sales associate? Is your site tuned up for success? Do you have a plan to capture names and e-mails? Increased site visits are nice, but only if they convert people to sales.

5. You Don't Have A Branding Strategy
It's critical to understand branding: what you stand for (or against), what you want people to think of you, the image you're projecting, etc. Branding is building awareness and trust, and it doesn't happen overnight. While most people expect their ads to work instantly (and ads usually don't), they fail to understand that ads also help sell the brand. People will buy more once they trust you and your brand.
 
6. Inability To Maintain Repetition
Think of success as the top of a ladder, and each ad as a step toward success. Stepping up one rung won't get you to the top, and neither will one ad. Reputation is built by repetition: If you don't have the resources to repeat and repeat and repeat, it's best to save your money. There are exceptions, but they are rare. Advertising is a process, not a single event.

7. You Don't Have A Powerful Ad
Don't assume the art will stand on its own. Great ads work. Good ads and bad ads don't. Great ads get noticed, cut through the clutter, stand out, look different, relate to the audience, have strong headlines, and make people pay attention. Most ads are good ads, not great ads — but the people who create them think they're great. Get a second opinion from an expert, and learn the language of effective ads.
 
8. You Don't Have The Right Audience
Bigger is not always better, but people usually think larger audiences are better than smaller ones. I always ask art galleries whether they would prefer a busload of schoolteachers or a single collector who arrives at the gallery driving a Bentley. If your ads reach 100,000 people but none of them can buy, you've wasted your money. But a small number of the right buyers from a smaller niche publication or website can often sell artwork. Don't get caught up in big numbers.

9. You're Stroking Your Own Ego
I used to call on Myron, who owned a store that sold jeans for teens. His business was dying, and I went to discuss advertising on my radio stations. I asked why he was advertising on a station that reached grandmothers instead of a station like mine, which reached teens and young moms. He told me that he advertised on that station because it was the station all his friends at the country club listened to. Myron impressed himself and his friends by advertising in a place they liked, but he failed to reach his audience and eventually went out of business.

Fifty percent of advertising is ego-driven. I've had people tell me, "I want my friends to see my art." I know of publications that reach almost no art buyers, but they get advertising because of peer pressure. There is nothing wrong with advertising to enhance awareness among peers, but don't confuse your expectations. If you want to sell something, you need to advertise where the buyers are.

10. The Promise Of Free Editorial
Everyone wants editorial coverage. But I know galleries and artists who refuse articles in any publication that offers articles in exchange for advertising. They assume the readers will think they bought their coverage, and they don't want to harm their hard-earned reputations. Though it's very appealing to gain the coverage, readers are not stupid and will assume you paid for it. That damages their perception of you.

Though I'm almost always willing to help my advertisers when there is legitimate reason for editorial coverage, I lose a lot of advertising because I refuse to do it over and over for the promise of advertising contracts. My readers would catch on, and I'd lose all my credibility.
 
If you're advertising in a publication because it's the right fit, that's fine. If it's because of a free article, that's not a good reason, especially if a publication is filled with articles accompanied by ads. Reputations are costly to build and quick to fall.
 
It's always best to have a well considered strategy before spending a dime on advertising.

P.S.: Sometimes I feel like a juggler because we have so many balls in the air. I'd like to take a moment to tell you about some of the exciting things we're up to in the art world.
 
1. Linking Galleries And Artists
Artist Advocate is entering its third year and has helped hundreds of artists gain visibility with art galleries and find new gallery homes. If you're looking for a gallery and want to be exposed to more than 15,000 art galleries (mail and digital editions), the next quarterly issue will be publishing in a couple of weeks. www.artistadvocatemagazine.com
 
2. A Conference To Promote Realism
Fine Art Connoisseur Editor Peter Trippi and I are on a mission to pave a successful future for realism artists and have developed a conference devoted to that goal. Everyone involved in the realism ecosystem should be there: collectors, historians, galleries, ateliers and schools, artists, frame makers, students, and suppliers. This is a true forum, where you will help us shape a strong future for representational and realist art. We have announced the recipients of our Lifetime Achievement Trailblazer Awards, our advisory board, and will soon announce our speakers and panels for the November Los Angeles conference. www.realismforum.com.
 
3. PleinAir Magazine Returns With Success
In February we relaunched the magazine about outdoor painting with editor Steve Doherty, and we were thrilled with the response. Not only did we sell out at Barnes & Noble stores nationwide, they re-ordered and we ended up with one of the highest nationwide sell-through rates. Barnes & Noble is now adding PleinAir in more stores. We also sold over 4,500 subscriptions (print, digital, iPad, iPhone) and distributed more than 22,000 copies as we launched with 116 pages — a huge embrace from advertisers — and 156 pages in the expanded digital edition. Our next issue will be out soon; if you have not subscribed, please do so today. Call 800-610-5771 or go to www.outdoorpainter.com.
 
4. The Publisher's Invitational Paint Out
I'm hosting a painting event for artists next month in the 100-acre Adirondack Park. It's all play, no work. No show, no sale, no events, just painting with friends in the same places painted by the Hudson River School painters. See who's coming and join us. I've rented Paul Smith's College and reserved 100 rooms. So far about 60 are sold. To learn more, visit www.ericrhoads.com.
 
5. October Fall Leaves Danube Art Cruise Is More Than 50 Percent Sold Out
I'll be hosting a group of art collectors, artists, and art lovers on a fall art cruise down the Danube. Our Russian art cruise was met with such rave reviews that most of our new friends asked us to keep the tradition alive by doing an annual cruise. This year we start in Budapest, then cruise down the Danube to Vienna and several ports, plus we're offering a side trip to Prague. Of course we're lining up special art events along the way. To learn more and see a new video about the cruise, go to www.danubeartcruise.com. Join us — again, we're more than 50 percent sold out, so please book soon.
 
6. Documenting The Important Realism Movement On Video
When artist Michael Klein approached me about a venture to showcase the best realism painters in the world on video, I instantly fell in love with the concept. When he told me he wanted to do it for $10 an issue for two hours of content, I thought it would be a giant success. I had no idea how successful American Painting Video Magazine would become, but now it has viewers all over the world. www.americanpaintingvideomagazine.com
 
7. Fine Art Connoisseur: Soon Entering Our Sixth Year
Its hard to believe that we've been publishing this magazine for over five years now, and that just two more issues from now, we'll start our sixth year. The May/June 2011 issue is out already and features a stunning portrait from Nelson Shanks' upcoming exhibition in Russia.

Our summer issue (July/August 2011) will feature articles on the Utah landscapist LeConte Stewart (1891-1990); James A. McN. Whistler (1834-1903); the French Impressionist painter of urban pleasures Jean-Louis Forain (1852-1931); and the German academician Heinrich Hofmann (1824-1911); plus living painters Max Ginsburg (b. 1931), Andrew Jones (b. 1961), Robin Hall, Sarah Lamb, and the London-based painter Alan Dick. The Destination Art section will focus on the booming art scene in Wyoming, especially Jackson Hole. To subscribe or advertise, call 800-610-5771 or go to www.fineartconnoisseur.com
 
8. The Largest Gathering of Plein Air Artists In History
Not only do I want to get your name in the Guinness Book of World Records for being among the largest number of people ever painting outdoors in one place, I want to gather everyone in the community of plein air painters to discuss our world and how we can improve it, improve our skills in painting and marketing, make new friends, and of course paint together. I plan to have collectors, artists, suppliers and more, and we're taking over Red Rock Casino and Resort on the outskirts of Las Vegas, abut five minutes from Red Rock State Park. I went out there last week, and it is spectacular (the hotel and the places we plan to paint.) Hold the dates, April 12-15, 2012, and make your plans to be there. www.pleinairconvention.com