Blog | Artists Who THRIVE

How an Artist Can Get More Focus, More Confidence, and Sell More Art

August 21, 2015 By Ann Rea 17 Comments

Studio Ann Rea, 2005 tax return, gross sales

I have a new routine inspired by my friend and Master Mind partner Ron Douglas.

Ron is a very successful, no bullshit, serial entrepreneur who has helped himself, and many other entrepreneurs, go from $0 to $1,000,000 in sales, in six months or less.

When I met Ron last October, he had just made a bet with another entrepreneur to make over $5M in 2015. Ron won the bet by blowing past $5 million in June this year.

How does he do this?

I’m going to spell it out for you.

First things first. Here’s what this is not. It’s not the “Artist’s Way, morning pages.”

As I’ve taught you, you must have a SMARTER goal, a major definite purpose, a la Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich.”

You’ve got to know what you want because the energy of wanting it is what moves you into action.

Just working towards it makes you feel increasingly successful.

When I started my business as a full-time artist over a decade ago my SMARTER goal was to sell over $100,000 of my art by the end of 2005.

I accomplished my goal, see above.

If I had employed the tool that Ron taught me I probably could have made more money sooner but I’m not complaining.

Ron’s daily method supercharges and concentrates your focus and your energy on your goal so that you can begin to see what’s important, what can wait, or what you can let go of.

You increasingly recognize what’s important. You feel into new opportunities. Your intuition begins to guide you.

This method works and it only takes five minutes each morning. When Ron was coaching entrepreneurs, if they couldn’t get off their ass to do this each day, he would just stop working with them.

I don’t blame him. If you don’t care enough about yourself and your well being to give it five minutes of your attention each day, you have bigger issues that you are not honestly addressing.

Here’s how it’s done. Step by step.

State your goal as if you have it.
Write about why you’re grateful for it.
Write about what you’ve done so far to reach your goal.
Write about you what you will do to reach that goal. Let the ideas flow.
Outline what you will do that day to reach your goal.
Not sure if you can pull this off? Ask someone to check in with you and hold you accountable.

Simple.

This process prioritizes your focus for the day making your goal feel increasingly more attainable each day.

Write for a minimum of five minutes the first thing each morning. Before you turn on your computer, glance at your phone, or anything else that you’re in the habit of doing.

My day now starts with a hot cup of coffee, sitting on a stool on my balcony overlooking a stunning view of the Pacific, as I write for a minimum of five minutes each morning.

I appreciate this beautiful way to start my day.

Do this and you will begin to see opportunities that were always there but hidden from your view.

Your day starts out on the right foot without distraction.

Your focus and confidence increases.

Ron has been doing this for years. In fact he has filled stacks of cheap drugstore bought spiral-bound notebooks with free pens from his bank.

Ron’s journals have not only made him many millions but they have kept his priorities straight resulting in happy family life, his first priority.

The power of your mind is incredible if you take the time to tap into it.

When Ron was 18 he was in a motorcycle racing accident. His doctor told him that he would never walk again.

Ron told him to fuck off and he began to ask the nurses to bring him evidence of people who had suffered an injury like his but who had learned to walk again.

He focused every ounce of his emotional, mental, and physical energy visualizing his recovery and doing his therapy exercises.

When is partying friends came for a visit Ron was only interested in talking about his recovery. Some of Ron’s friends, who where only interested in talking about partying, stopped coming.

Ron’s response, “So what.”

He had bigger concerns and a more important goal.

Do you have some friends like this? Are they really your friends?

Although a recent x-ray of Ron’s vertebrae shows some messed up disks, he walks just fine.

Anyone can do this.

The question is, will you do this?

I hear from artists far and wide who say that they really want to succeed.

But only handful will succeed.

And it’s not because they can’t.

It’s because they just don’t want to do the work and some have just not been taught how to define a SMARTER goal and how to work towards it.

But if you’re willing to apply a bit of discipline to build this five-minute morning habit and then follow through with focused action each day, your world will transform.

God only knows how long we have to live. So why not paint a picture each day of the way that you want to live.

What is your goal? Write it below.

About Ann Rea

Ann Rea is a San Francisco based Artist and Entrepreneur. Her inspired business approach to selling her paintings have been featured on HGTV and the Good Life Project, in Fortune, and The Wine Enthusiast magazines, profiled in the book Career Renegade. Rea’s artistic talent is commended by American art icon, Wayne Thiebaud, and she has a growing list of collectors across North America and Europe.

Dropping Out of Art School Because the Student Loan Debt Will Never Quit

August 14, 2015 By Ann Rea Leave a Comment

This week I would like to share a recent question and answer exchange from “Ask Ann.” Where anyone can post a reasonable question and I will answer.

This exchange represents a common heart ache that I hear from suffocating creatives from across the globe.

I once lived this myself. There is a way out.

We are meant to experience success and happiness. Not all of the time of course but a good bit of the time.

Don’t linger in your despair too long. Life is short. So if you’re not happy. Make a move. Today.

Hi Ann,

10 years ago I dropped out of art school because I was scared to go into roughly $150K of debt to pursue a career in art. I went the “practical” route and got a degree in Electrical Engineering and gave up art entirely. Now I work for a massive corporation as a Sales Engineer, selling our products to other businesses.

To get straight to the point, I’ve hated every job I’ve ever had, including the one I have now. I feel un-happy, un-fulfilled, depressed, and scared. Scared that I’ll live my whole life feeling this way…whether “my whole life” means if I die of old age or die today in an accident.

I hadn’t done any form of art in 10 years, until 2 weeks ago. I un-packed all my old brushes and bought some acrylic paints and a canvas. I did a painting for my wife of our wedding venue. I wanted to do something nice for her…and remember what it feels like to do art. I had so much fun…and it made me feel good…it made me feel happy. For the first time in YEARS. Afterwords I thought to myself, “maybe other people who got married at my venue would pay for something like this.” And just like that, a business plan started forming. For the first time in 10 years I feel like I might have a chance at being happy…doing what I love.

Now that you know the background, here’s my question. How did you get past feeling like you weren’t good enough? I love the painting I made for my wife because it means a lot to her…but the longer I stare at it, the more I convince myself that it’s not any good. I’ve convinced myself that my painting/drawing skills are not any good compared to 10 years ago. I’ve convinced myself that I’m not good enough for people to ever purchase my art. So even though I think I have a really good and unique idea for an art business, I’ve convinced myself that my art and my skills aren’t good enough to execute the idea. I think deep down I’m scared to put myself out there and let others judge my art. Did you ever feel this way? If so, how’d you get past it? Have you ever struggled with self-confidence when it comes to your artwork?

Thanks so much Ann. I’m really looking forward to hearing back. Your story and art is inspiring to me. I hope that some day in the future I can achieve the happiness you seem to have.

Brandon

Hello Brandon,

You asked, “How did you get past feeling like you weren’t good enough?” I think you meant my art was not good enough.

Two different and separate things but Artists often get them twisted 😉

I think I believed that my art was “good” when my mentors, Wayne Thiebaud and Gregory Kondos, Yan Nascimbene, said that it was much more that “good.”

Frankly, I really didn’t care about anyone else’s opinion besides these experts.

I only care what other people think of me and or my art to a certain degree.

I fully expect that not everyone will like me or my art or me. That is okay. That is as it should be.

What matters is that I like and respect myself.

I struggled with self-confidence around my work until I got over my perfectionist tendencies. Read “Art and Fear.”

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

If you are not happy you need to commit to changing that now. Right now. None of us know how long we have.

My sincere suggestion. Get pissed off.

That’s when things really started to change for me. Depression is anger turned inside. Flip it!

Kindly,

Ann

Ann,

Thanks so much for the response. Something happened the day you wrote me that I’d like to share:

The day you messaged me I was driving to a sales call and I got cut-off on the freeway by someone driving recklessly. It wasn’t too close, but close enough to be scary. It got me thinking…what if I just died? I would have just died…driving to a sales meeting…for a job I hate. For a life I hate. Then to top it off, I get to the sales call and they cancel on me on the spot. I got back in the car and thought…I would have died…driving to a sales meeting…for a job I hate…for a canceled meeting.

I got in my car and cried. I cried not because I was upset, but because I was so angry. I am so angry. Angry that if my life ended in that moment, it would have truly been for nothing. I was thinking, “It just isn’t fair life is meant to be lived this way.”

Then, as fate would have it, your response pops up on my phone.

I’ve always turned my anger inside so that I can continue to survive. Not anymore. It’s time to let my anger motivate me instead of incapacitate me. It’s time to change. It’s time to fight.

As for feeling like my art isn’t good enough:

I think the biggest thing I need to get over is that I expect my art to be just as good now, as it was 10 years ago when I was in art school painting/drawing every day. That’s simply not possible!

How long did your practice and hone your skills/style before quitting your job and pursuing a career in art full time? I have a wife and a baby on the way so I can’t exactly jump ship and go for it. Right now the timeline I’m telling myself is end of 2016. That gives me 1 year and 4 months to practice, prove out my idea, and start saving money to build a safety net. Do you think that’s a reasonable plan/time-frame? What was your plan when you took the leap…was it only to make 100K in a year? Or was there more to it?

Thank you so much Ann. This conversation has been one I’ve needed to have for a long time.

-Brandon

Dear Brandon,

Your near death incident was a gift. A wake up call.

It’s time to direct your rage. It’s not too late. You have your whole life a head of you to discover and live your purpose and to be an example for your child.

Keep in all perspective. You and I have many privileges and opportunities granted to us just by living in the U.S.

We have an internet connection so that you and I can type at each other and connect.

You have a job, even if you hate it, you have a wife, and a baby on the way.

Because you and I have these privileges, we have a responsibility to enjoy them, to make the most of them, to pursue happiness. “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”

So count your blessing(s) every night before you go to sleep.

And start digging your way out and moving towards your desires one step at a time.

Take an art class and start having fun with it. Don’t worry about it being “good enough” right now. Whatever that means.

It won’t matter if it is “good enough” or not if you don’t love making it.

You need to hone your skill then you have to learn about building a business.

There’s no quick answer that I can deliver within this little rectangle.

My recommendation is to apply enroll in The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester.

It might seem like a shameless plug but I really wish that I had access to this specialized knowledge, resources, and community when I was in a similar spot and that is why I created it.

You can learn much more than making art and making money. You can also learn about yourself and your true creative purpose, which may or may not involve art.

But if making art makes you feel good. Do it for yourself first.

Kindly,

Ann

About Ann Rea

Making Money is as Easy as Making Art

August 5, 2015 By Ann Rea 5 Comments

Recently I re-launched The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester. P.S. Enrollment is currently closed.

And I heard from a number of artists from around the globe who eagerly wanted to enroll but said that they didn’t have enough time or money.

Not enough time? That’s no excuse because unlike other courses, The Semester is self-paced and it does not end, it’s on-going. Students receive unlimited access and can participate according to their schedule and commitments.
Not enough money? That’s no excuse either because if you actually do the work, The Semester is an investment that could pay for itself many times over.

If you make art, then making money is just as easy. Oh I can hear it now. “No it’s not!”

Yes it is. Stay with me. I’m not just promoting The Semester, which I obviously believe in.

I’m going to teach you how I first made significant money with my art.

I shared with a number of applicants to The Semester, a story about a time when I really wanted to attend an expensive painting workshop with my mentor Gregory Kondos in the south of France.

I was working for a music distribution company, MP3 files and Napster basically annihilated our company almost overnight.

I was left with no job, no prospects, and a sizable 50% non-refundable deposit for this workshop. Did I mention that my seven-year relationship had ended abruptly and that I was emotionally devastated?

Thankfully, my co-workers encouraged me to take the trip and to find the money and make it happen.

I could stay home and cry or I could go make art and make money.

I decided on the later and it was one of the very best decisions I have made in my life.

I put out a box of overpriced chocolate in my office cubicle with a sign that said, “Send a kid to France.”

Even though my co-workers where loosing their jobs, they bought my overpriced chocolate and that paid for all of my art supplies.

I wrote a letter to everyone my in my small network offering them the opportunity to receive a small painting that I would create just for them in the south of France. (See above.)

I included a self-addressed stamped envelope with the payment due date.

The self-addressed stamped envelopes began to arrive, some with requests for paintings, and some with just a few dollars and well wishes.

I basically created a Kick Starter campaign before it existed.

This simple sales and marketing effort not only funded my trip to the south of France, it funded a side trip to England to see my family and I made profit.

It was my first taste of making art and making money.

My patrons were absolutely delighted with the paintings that I created for them and some bought more.

It was so easy to execute because I was going to be painting anyway and I was actually more inspired by thinking of who was going to receive each painting.

What did this marketing effort cost me? Well, I had to buy:

some paper
envelopes
stamps

It helped me tremendously to have the support of a friend who encouraged me and who let me use his fancy color printer.

There’s absolutely nothing stopping you from doing the same thing, today.

Determine what amount of money you would like to make.
Create a product a.k.a. Art.
Make something easy to execute on.
Create something that will add value for your customers in some way. You can just personalize it.
Choose a price point that your network will easily say yes to.
Do the math. I only needed ten people to say yes to fully fund my trip.

I recommend first mailing a letter and following up via email with a PayPal payment link. You now have the advantage of technology, so use both.

Be clear on what you want, when you want it, how they will benefit from what you will be making for them, and why you want it, maybe you want to enroll in The Semester?

Not sure what to write? No need to struggle with copywriting. I have an easy fix.

Imagine that you’re sitting across from someone who you think would be receptive.
Tell them what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, what you would like to do for them.
Record this imaginary conversation, then transcribe, and edit it.

Your message will come across in a way that feels authentic, natural, clear, and concise.

Commit to a date to send the letter and ask a friend to hold you accountable.

Just see what happens. Treat it as an educational experiment.

The worst thing that will happen is that you will learn vital lessons about the selling and marketing your art. You’ll learn about:

Product Development
Pricing
Positioning
Marketing
Selling
Project planning
Accounting
Follow through

Essentially what I learned from funding my trip to France were the basic mechanics of making art and making money, which I just repeated until I got to the place where I was a full-time Artist.

You can do this. It’s just about committing and taking planned and scheduled action.

Someday is today. Do it now and tell someone who cares what you are going to do and by when. The only thing stopping you is an excuse and Artists Who THRIVE don’t do excuses 😉

p.s. I would never write this letter today but who cares. It worked!

What will you create and by when? Share below.

About Ann Rea

A Fine Art Degree and the Tyranny of Hope

July 22, 2015 By Ann Rea 3 Comments

Shockingly, the graduates featured in this video have far better prospects than many of the over 50,000 hopeful art students who are currently graduating from the very top 42 art schools* in North America each year. They’re currently paying an average of $51,364 in annual tuition.

How many art majors do you think will be discovered?

I learned how to make art in art school but I did not learn, in fact I was shamed for asking about, how to make money from my art.

To be fair, art schools are not business schools and academics are not entrepreneurs.

But if we value education as an investment in an individual’s future, then we need to take a long and honest look at the rate of return on the investment of a formal education in fine art.

So let’s look at the very best art and design schools in North America. Their students are currently paying annual tuition that is about 24% higher than the U.S. national norm of $39,173. ** Meaning that most have to amass significant student loan debt.

P.S. I asked Deborah Obalil, the Executive Director of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) that make up the top 42 art schools in North America, to confirm my estimate of current annual tuition but she did not respond to my request.

Let’s assume for the moment, that art school tuition will not rise, even though we know it will. A fine art undergraduate degree from the “top” schools, very conservatively, is still going to run you about $205,456. ***

What’s the likely scenario after a fine art student graduates? Let’s examine some undeniable facts.

FACT: Only 3,660 Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators where employed in 2014, earning an annual wage of $43,390, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.****

However, according to the 2001 U.S. census their where over 288,000 “painters, sculptors and craft artists.” *****

Even if we entertain the unrealistic fantasy that all of the 3,660 employed artists quit their jobs leaving open their positions to recent graduates with no experience, a fine art major would still only have only a 1.27 chance in 100 of getting a job making art.

Bottom line. If you major in fine art, you are not going to get a job doing fine art.

Let’s calculate whether or not an art school degree is likely to yield a positive or a negative return on investment (ROI).

Zero ROI = you are no better or no worse from making the investment. All you lost was your time an other opportunities that you could have pursued.

Positive ROI = you gained a profit from your investment.

Negative RIO = no bueno

Let’s pretend that you do get a job paying roughly $40,000 in annual pretax income, making your art or not.

If you’ve borrowed money to pay your tuition of $205,000 you’ll probably have a 15-year loan, with principal and interest payments, at about 6% interest.

You will be enslaved to service this debt on the level of a minimum of $1729 per month for 15 years.

And you haven’t even paid for food, housing, and transportation to and from work or other basic necessities.

You will never escape this debt through bankruptcy in the US or even by fleeing the country with an international job because the US has a repatriation program requiring you pay the host country’s taxes along with what you owe the USA. The IRS will find you even if the Department of Education does not.

Let’s pretend that you are talented, and lucky, enough to get a $40,000 a year job. You’ll only take home $31,783 a year after taxes, which equals to roughly $2648 a month.

After you’ve made your monthly student loan payment of $1729 you will be left with $919 a month, or $230 a week, to pay for food, housing, transportation to and from work or other basic necessities.

If you live in the United States you will be living below the Poverty Line, which is take home pay of $980 or less per month or $245 per week.

In the very optimistic scenario above, you are actually losing 80 cents for every dollar you spend on art school.

You are better off doing nothing which has a zero Return on Investment.

Artists who are making a good living have realized that they will never have an art career. But they could have a business.

And if a business is going to succeed, it must have a current plan to make money.

My one-page plan helped me sell over $100,000 of my art within my first year as a fine artist.

Now I’m on a mission to help other artists secure their creative freedom through business savvy because the world is a better place with art and with artists who thrive.

How do I aim to do this?

By actually offering an interactive online education, that includes eight sequential, foundational, business courses for artists that teach a proven, iterative process of building a profitable creative enterprise while connecting a community of Artists Who THRIVE.

And by demonstrating practical experience, that teaches other artists how to make art and make money, not just theory.

Can I guarantee that my students will make money with their art? Obviously not.

I cannot guarenatee a rate of return on my student’s investment.

But unlike art school, if my students are not satisfied with what I’m teaching, they have 30 days to request a full refund.

And if they like what they are learning, they can stick around and learn more.

Because once they enroll in The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester, they get to stay.

Unlike art school, when the semester is over, out you go.

Is there a return on this investment? That depends on you.

I can give my students a sound and proven investment strategy to make art and make money, but it’s entirely up to them to mind their assets; their:

talent
time
energy
network
attention

Note: 50,000 artists educated by the top 42 art schools. This does not take into account all of the fine art majors graduating from liberal arts schools, state schools and universities, and for profit schools.

*https://www.aicad.org/about/

**https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=76

***https://www.campusexplorer.com/

.****https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes271013.htm

***** https://www.princeton.edu/culturalpolicy/quickfacts/artists/artistemploy.html

******https://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/15poverty.cfm

About Ann Rea

Artists Can’t and Shouldn’t Think About Business – Really?

July 15, 2015 By Ann Rea 8 Comments

July 2105, feature

The idea that artists can’t and shouldn’t think about business is an entirely new construct, says California painter, entrepreneur, and LivePlan customer Ann Rea (https://www.annrea.com). Master artists have marketed themselves to potential patrons throughout history, and “Andy Warhol was a PR master,” she says.

With Rea’s help and inspiration, artists all over the world are doing just what she did 10 years ago: starting businesses and finding ways to earn a living.

Two of the biggest things anyone needs to be successful at their own enterprise, Rea says, are a plan and the ability to focus on what’s in front of you. As she sees her own enterprise evolving, LivePlan is helping her with both.

In December of 2004, Rea moved into San Francisco and wrote a business plan outlining how she would earn $100,000 from her artwork in the coming year.

Rea attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, where she studied industrial and graphic design. She assumed this combination would give her some marketable skills when she graduated–even though what she really wanted to do was paint. She found work as a designer, but had to give it up when her then–husband’s job took them to Sacramento. Unable to land another position in her chosen field, she took a dead–end “cubicle job.”

“It was like shoving a round peg into a square hole,” she says. “It required absolutely no creativity.” For years she struggled with depression and anxiety.

Ann Rea’s original oil painting of the Napa Valley, “ Earthen Vines”, showcases her unique artistic style.

Eventually, she couldn’t take it any longer. “I realized that life is very short and that I should just try to do what I wanted. If it didn’t work, I would go back to doing what I was doing before.”

For Rea, doing what she wanted meant making a living as an artist. On a whim, she wrote a letter to Wayne Thiebaud, who she describes as “one of the most famous painters alive,” and asked him to critique her paintings. He told her she had real talent and should pursue her dream of painting full-time.

Her next question was how to earn a living as an artist. His answer shocked her. “His words were, ‘I don’t know. I’m not a businessman,’ ” she recalls. “He saw a disconnect between making art and making money.”

This was her epiphany moment. “I didn’t want to wait until I was in my seventies to figure it out,” says Rea.

Rea had no background in business. What she did know was how to make a plan and follow it through. “When I had a job I was a project management consultant,” she says. “It didn’t teach me how to be entrepreneur, but I did know how to set a goal and make a plan to accomplish that goal.” She also read everything she could find on marketing.

Ann sees no conflicts between creating art and making money from those works of art. Good business sense applies to every industry.

In December of 2004 Rea moved into San Francisco and wrote a business plan outlining how she would to earn $100,000 from her artwork in the coming year.

She didn’t meet her goal–she exceeded it.

What she realized, she says, is that “selling art is very different, because you’re in a very saturated market. You have to create value above and beyond the art itself.”

Her plan for creating value–added art was to partner with wineries in Napa and Sonoma. She didn’t know anyone in the industry, so she cold–called wineries until she found several managers who would listen to her proposal.

She would paint their vineyards in her striking contemporary landscape style, she told them, and they could offer reproductions to their best clients as special gifts. She would also sell her originals at wine tastings.

“The wineries benefited because they got a permanent advertisement in someone’s home,” she says. From their perspective, the true value of the artwork was that it reminded their customers how much they enjoyed the company’s wine and encouraged them to keep buying it.

“Every artist is an entrepreneur, and every entrepreneur is an artist, that very much summarizes my world view”

Rea’s compelling story of personal achievement earned her recognition in the press, and other artists started coming to her for help. She realized she liked marketing almost as much as she liked helping other artists realize their dreams. She started a blog called Artists Who THRIVE (https://artistswhothrive.com/) and dedicated one day a week to working with others.

Demand for her services was quite high, especially among the many smart artists leaving school with lots of debt and no road map, she says. In 2013 Rea decided to formalize her expertise into eight-courses in The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester. (https://www.makingartmakingmoney.com). She taught a portion of it on a website called CreativeLive in 2014 and got rave reviews. The full curriculum will be offered for the first time this year.

Rea didn’t use LivePlan her first several years in business, but she says having a written plan was absolutely essential to her success.“ It’s insane not to have a plan. You would never build a house without a blueprint. You wouldn’t bake a cake without a recipe. That’s how important it is.”

Through her blog and classes, she’s proud to share the wisdom she’s learned from entrepreneurship and business planning with other artists who can use those tools to their advantage.

Now, as she looks to reposition her own brand as an artist, she’s using LivePlan to help her clarify her thoughts. The software’s question and answer feature has helped her determine how to most effectively communicate her message to others.

The fact that LivePlan is accessible online means it is very easy to share information and gather feedback from her colleagues. She also regularly collaborates on the plan with Caroline Cummings, her mentor at Palo Alto Software, who she met through MicroMentor (https://www.micromentor.org/), a free online community of entrepreneurs and volunteer mentors.

One important thing to consider when creating a business plan is that the same format won’t work for everyone, Rea says. “You have to make the plan suit you. Sometimes people look at business plans and say, ‘I don’t get it, ’ and then they say, ‘Screw it. I can’t deal with this.’ It has to be your blueprint. “That’s why LivePlan offers entrepreneurs many different tools and resources for creating the business plan that’s right for them.”

Businesses that create plans and keep them current have a much higher success rate, she notes. “A business plan is not a road map, it’s a compass. You take a few steps toward a destination and it’s going to change. It’s a living and breathing tool. Schedule time to look at LivePlan every day. Make it a habit even if you’re busy. Ask yourself, am I headed toward the destination I want to reach? Am I pointed toward my mission and my values?”

The idea that becoming a business person means “selling out,” is also a dangerous myth pervading our culture. It’s one that scares many artists away from using their passion and talent to make money. But the two things don’t have to be at odds. Keeping a firm focus on a personal mission and specific values is one of the best ways for artists to remain true to themselves and to earn a living.

“Every artist is an entrepreneur, and every entrepreneur is an artist,” Rea says, quoting Pepperdine University business professor, Elliot McGucken Phd. “That very much summarizes my world view.”

About Ann Rea

How can an Artist define a target market for their art?

July 9, 2015 By Ann Rea 9 Comments

When I was in art school I earned straight As in art history. I was even a student tutor. All the while I wondered why some Artists made it into the art history books and some did not.

It’s simple. Artists are celebrated in history because there is a market for their work. That means that at some point each significant Artist delivered a unique value proposition that served a target market.

How do you define a target market for your art?

I’ve cracked the code. You just need to follow a four-part formula by answering these questions. Is it easy to answer these questions?

No. It demands emotional intelligence and deep honesty, your soul’s truth. Is it worth it? Yes. It’s transforming.

Why? What is your creative purpose? Why are you here? Hint. It’s not about your art.
What? What problem do you believe is really worth solving? What are you doing about your why? Hint. It’s not about your art.
How? How are you solving that problem? What is your unique value proposition UVP?
Who? Who does your UVP serve, who is your target market? Who is not?

Successful Artists know their creative purpose. They know why they are here and what they are here to do.

Successful Artists dedicate their lives to a mission, to a problem that is really worth solving. They are aiming so much higher than just making art.

How are these Artists fulfilling their mission, solving that problem? By creating value above and beyond their art.

Here’s what they are not doing. They are not just making “art for art’s sake.”

Whatever that means. I’ve never really understood what making “art for art’s sake” means or had much respect for the notion.

It sounds like a personal hobby. Not that there is anything wrong with a hobby. It’s just that no one’s going to pay you just entertain yourself. Your art will only sell if adds value to the market place.

Successful Artists are also abundantly clear about who has the problem that they are solving, and who doesn’t. They know their tribe, they share the same culture, ceremonies, and values. Artists celebrate their tribe and their tribe celebrates them by buying their art.

You might be thinking. Great. That’s nice. I haven’t a clue what my creative purpose is. You can and you must learn. Andy Warhol and Thomas Kindcade provide us with excellent examples of Artists with distinct target markets.

Listen to Kate here. She’s not reciting an artist’s statement. She’s not talking about her “special” creative process. She’s talking about her mission. Just like a taught her.

We have a strong sense of who Kate is and want she stands for, and who she’s not, and what she doesn’t stand for.

Kate’s not selling children’s portraits. She’s on a mission of emotion.

Can you feel it? BAM! Yes you can. You can feel in Kate and in her subject.

Here’s Kate Bradley’s answers to the vital four part formula. Note you must answer these questions in order. Yet artists want to immediately know the answer to #4. So that’s where they start and why the get really frustrated.

Why? “The purpose of my art is to affirm the inherent value in every person that is not based on what they do or how others see them.”
What? “The problem is that kids need to know they are loved and valued just they way they are.”
How? “My UVP is portraits of kids that capture their unique beauty and personality and preserve a specific moment in their lives.”
Who? The name of Kate’s ideal customer Avatar’s name is Lauren. “She’s an affluent, stay-at-home wife and mom. She goes to church, is a member of a country club, and attends charity functions. Her kids are between the ages of 2 and 6 and attend to private school.”

Bottom line. How can an Artist define a target market for their art? By first defining themselves.

What is your Why? What? How? And Who?

Please share below and share with two friends.

About Ann Rea

Who can you ask about how to become a successful Artist?

July 2, 2015 By Ann Rea Leave a Comment

Who can you ask about how to become a successful Artist?

Ironically, you generally can’t ask your fine art professors without being dismissed or even shamed for asking.

Even if you’re attending one of the top 42 art and design schools in North America and paying their current average annual tuition of $51,364.

Why? Because when fine art students ask how they’re going to make a living, here’s what they generally hear:

“You can try to get a job as a teacher.”
“You could wait tables or tend bar.”
“It’s a good thing you have a trust fund.”
“Don’t worry about money, man. Just make art. It will all work out.” That from a tenured professor at U.C. Berkeley. Easy for him to say.
“Maybe you could get a job in an office?”
“You should marry someone with money.” The hardest way to make money.
Can you add to this list? Please do below.

My mentor was Wayne Theibaud. He’s not just an extraordinarily successful and significant artist, he’s an American art icon.

During the time I was meeting with Theibaud, he was experiencing the heights of success.

He had a retrospective of his life’s work on exhibit at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and this show was touring the nation.

Theibaud’s paintings were beginning to sell for over $1 million on the secondary market.

One day after a critique at his studio in Davis, California, he encouraged me to pursue my talent full-time.

When I asked him how I could make a living as a full-time artist, he told me:

I don’t know, I’m not a business man.

To be fair, for most of his life, Theibaud earned his living from teaching. However,

I did not want to be an art teacher.
I did not want to wait that long, and work that hard, with just a faint hope that the art establishment would recognize me, so that I’d finally get paid for my art.

The point of this post is this.

If you can’t ask your fine art professors how you are going to make a living once you have graduated, and if I couldn’t get a straight answer from an artist who had clearly met with ultimate success, who can you ask?

One day I was meeting with my other mentor, Gregory Kondos, a friend and colleague of Wayne Theibaud’s.

I thanked him for his generosity and encouragement. His words to me where this.

“No need to thank me. Just promise me that one day you’ll take some time to help another artist.”

How do you become a successful Artist? Who can you ask?

Well. You can ask me.

When? You can ask me live next week.

Mark your calendar now for Tuesday, July 7, at 1:00 PST and join me for live Q&A with me, generously hosted by Bplans, a widely read resource that provides business guidance, tactics, tips and industry insight from key tastemakers.

Bring your questions and be ready to learn!

Space is limited, and I’m not just saying that. 😉

So sign up today!

About Ann Rea

As an Artist, what are you afraid of?

June 24, 2015 By Ann Rea 4 Comments

As an Artist, what are you most afraid of?

Do you know what you’re afraid of? Not sure what you’re afraid of? Just feel a generalized anxiety?

Just naming your fear can help arrest it.

To help name your fear, I highly recommend that every artist read “Art and Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Art Making”, by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

This classic thin volume clearly and concisely dissects all that kills an artist’s muse. It’s fear. Creativity and productivity killers come in several flavors.

Not only does fear kill making art, it kills opportunities to make money with our art.

Perfectionism is a particularly tricky flavor of fear because it’s disguised behind the virtues of diligence and care.

But perfectionism is an unforgiving lie. Why? Because achieving it is impossible and ultimately it can crush our soul.

Voltaire warned us, Perfect is the enemy of good.

Perfectionism is just simply inefficient. Increasing your efforts to achieve impossible standards inevitably results in diminishing returns.

Bottom line. Perfectionism is stifling, unrealistic, and wasteful. Nothing gets done under it’s influence.

“Art and Fear” names many fears that plague the creative. In over a decade of my work with artists, perfectionism is the most pervasive and insidious.

How do I know about perfectionism? Because it still creeps into my psyche if I don’t keep it bay.

It can not only kill my art, it can kill my business.

Building a business is a continuous act of creativity. That’s why some of the most successful entrepreneurs are creative, a la Steve Jobs or Sir Richard Branson.

So what’s the antidote to fear?

You can’t kill fear. You feel what you feel. And we need to feel fear to warn against true danger.

What you can do is focus on courage. You can feel fear and anxiety and move forward towards your desires anyway.

Feel your fears. They won’t kill you.

As soon as you become aware of your fear, your perfection, employ your imagination to shift your attention on your courage, confidence, and ease. Eventually these emotions will eclipse your fear.

You are an artist. So your imagination is your strongest secret weapon.

What do I know about fear? I suffered from severe anxiety and depression for over three decades. Finally, I was told that I would most likely never be free of it.

Instead of accepting a diagnosis that seemed to me like a death sentence, I thankfully, got righteously pissed.

My anger fueled my recovery and I’m now grateful to be free of it.

What are you afraid of? Name your two biggest fears below.

About Ann Rea

Do You Think That Art & Money Are A Lot Alike?

June 18, 2015 By Ann Rea 10 Comments

I was speaking to a new friend last week, Dr. Adrian McIntyre, a smarty pants colleague who I met through a private Face Book group.

We are both studying a certain sliver of online marketing and Adrian generously offered to answer some questions that I had about online learning environments.

We got to talking about what we were marketing and I mentioned The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester. Then Adrian offered a brilliant insight.

Art and money are a lot a like.

Here are 12 points that support this statement.

The value of both art and money is made up. We just agree to the value.
Art and money are relatively worthless physical objects. Unless we are talking about gold coins, the actual value of the materials that they are made of are negligible.
Art and money are highly prized and sought after because of their scarcity. They are precious because they are limited. Too much money in circulation or too much art, a la Thomas Kindkade, and the value tanks.
The market for art and money ebbs and flows according to their secondary markets or resale value.
Art and money must be consumed or circulated by people or its worthless. Think about it, if an artist makes art and no one ever sees it and purchases it, it doesn’t contain value to anyone but the artist.
Art and money are both manifestations of congealed creative energy and innovation.
Art and money each represent self-expression, a reflection of our values. We buy brands and art that we are morally aligned with, that reflect our lifestyle, ethics, and ideals.
Technology has sped up the markets for art and money. A rising tide of money has elevated the resale value of contemporary art. Artists don’t need to wait until they are dead to make money from the resale of their art.
Just as it is illegal to deface currency, it is illegal to deface, mutilate, or alter it without the artist’s consent, according to the “moral rights” clause in U.S. Copyright law.
Both art and money are capable of triggering deep emotions in people.
The people who make art and the people who “make” money (entrepreneurs, financial traders, etc) often obsess about their craft and work ridiculously long hours.
Art and money inspire ingenious forgery and dramatic heists.

It’s worth noting that during the most recent recession every single category of luxury tanked, including; real estate, designer clothing and accessories, wine, jewelry, automobiles, and hospitality, you name it.

What category of luxury actually went through the roof? The art market.

Why? Because wealthy folks decided to reposition their financial assets into the secondary art market.

We artists obviously don’t create a currency of direct trade. The currency we deal in is the currency of emotion.

Emotions are what we artists are really selling. We don’t sell paint stuck on canvas, musical notes hanging in the air, or footsteps patterned on a stage.

What makes you feel is different than what makes me feel.

That is why are is truly in the eye of the beholder and why the value of art is more subjective and less precise than the value of currency.

An artist’s main job is to put us in touch with our humanity.

If you do this, if you really make someone feel, inspire them, through your artistic medium, it’s priceless.

How do you think art and money are alike or different? I want to know. Please share below.

About Ann Rea

Do you have a hard time charging for your art?

June 10, 2015 By Ann Rea 6 Comments

Do you have a hard time charging for your art?

Be honest. Even if your prices are outlined clearly do you still get a twinge of guilt when you take money for your art?

It was so damn easy and fun to make your art, how could you possibly charge for it?

I aim to complete a painting in under two hours, with ease and joy, whether it is a $3000 study or a $25,000 commissioned paining.

Why? Because it feels and looks better when I paint quickly and because I can.

However, many artists feel guilty and they are conflicted about charging for something that they enjoy creating.

I don’t. And neither should you.

What’s the answer to “how long did it take you to paint that painting?” All my life.

When a concert pianist climbs on stage to perform a concerto, he or she is not charging by the hour.

Even though the very best source of creative inspiration for an artist is getting paid for their art, emerging artists too often feel conflicted.

Why? Artists see a purchase of their art as an affirmation of themselves.

This is precisely where things get twisted.

When someone buys your art it is an affirmation of the value of your product, your art, not you.

Just so you don’t miss my point, I’ll say it again. Collectors, fans, customers, however you refer to them, are not affirming you as a person. They are affirming the value that they perceive your product is offering them.

It’s not about you, it’s about them.

If you perceive a collector’s purchase of your art as an affirmation of your value as a person, you are naturally going to feel conflicted about charging for your art.

If fact, you going to feel like a bit of a whore.

Our culture offers artists two disrespectful categories that, with your help, I aim to stamp out :

“starving artist” or
“art whore”

“Art Whore. Noun- someone who specializes in feeling special for maintaining the delusion that art is inherently valuable. This is typically done by selling their artwork, which requires a massively inflated ego and fosters a dependence on the insulated world of art critics. This dependency can be likened to the relationship between a hooker and a pimp.”

“John Doe is an art whore. Before that he, like all other artists, was a wanna-be art whore.”

So the choice is “starving artist” or “art whore,” two universal destructive and conflicting labels that make it so that artists can never win. Each choice is some tired bullshit.

Here’s the truth, as I mentioned in my last post.

“Every artist is an entrepreneur and every entrepreneur is an artist.” Dr. ‘E” Elliot McGucken

Have you had trouble charging for your art? Be honest. The truth will set you free. Share below.

As I’ve taught you, you must have a SMARTER goal, a major definite purpose, a la Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich.”

Your focus and confidence increases.

About Ann Rea

About Ann Rea

I’m going to teach you how I first made significant money with my art.

I basically created a Kick Starter campaign before it existed.

About Ann Rea

How many art majors do you think will be discovered?

How do I aim to do this?

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About Ann Rea

How do you define a target market for your art?

About Ann Rea

The point of this post is this.

About Ann Rea

Just naming your fear can help arrest it.

So what’s the antidote to fear?

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What makes you feel is different than what makes me feel.

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I don’t. And neither should you.

It’s not about you, it’s about them.

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