Imagine. What if you were living in one of the most expensive cities in the United States with:

• over $100,000 worth of inescapable debt
• with no job
• no marketable skill set
• and no immediate prospects?

During my last live Mini-Marketing Makeover Seminar here in San Francisco, three young aspiring illustrators enrolled.

As did an older wealthy businessman, recently turned aspiring artist.

A striking contrast of circumstances sat before me.

These three young ladies had amassed an average of over $100,000 in student loan debt by attending the San Francisco Academy of Art.

One had not even yet received her BFA from the San Francisco Academy of Art.

These young art students where attending my class because they realize that there are no fine art illustration jobs awaiting them to cover their monthly student loan load.

The San Francisco Academy of Art is noted, not so much for its academic excellence, graduation rates, and stunning success of alumni, as it is for being the largest landlord in all of San Francisco.

The student loan debt of these three young artists, over $300,000, will service the San Francisco Academy of Art’s real estate portfolio quite nicely.

And their student loan debt, that can never be discharged by bankruptcy, will severely compromise their futures in ways they have yet to imagine.

The only possible way out for these artists is to master two essential practical skills.

1. Sales
2. Marketing

These vital life skills are not taught in art school or in business school. (Trust me. I have worked with several artists who majored in marketing and even those with an MBA.)

And it’s for good reason. Trying to master sales and marketing in an academic environment, is like going to a seminar to learn how to ride a bike.

The harsh reality that is awaiting these young ladies is that they will need to take whatever job they can get to pay their debt and to cover their basic living expenses, leaving little time and energy for making art.

So it is highly likely that they will abandon their art, just like I did for over seven years.

The wealthy successful businessman, on the other hand, has no concern of debt.

He is searching for more meaning.

He wanted to pursue art when he was young but he did what a real man does with a young family, he pursued a more profitable career to support them.

This is admirable.

He describes himself as an “abstract painter.”

Although not always, this is often code for “I’ve received little to no formal art training and I can’t draw.”

The wealthy man was excited and curious about the idea of being an “artist” as he recently had a couple of paintings “accepted” by a “prominent gallerist.”

What this man did not realize was that the reason his inexperience art was most likely “accepted” by this “prominent gallerist” was because of his wealthy personal network, one that will likely attend art openings and buy art.

It’s business. All business. The San Francisco Art Academy is a genius real estate play and the art gallery is an astute collector of collectors.

So. You can play their game and pay their price or you can play your game.

It’s your choice. I prefer not to be played.

I prefer to create value above and beyond my art that is of service to a target market, an in a way that I can be proud of.

The wealthy businessman urged the young aspiring artists to apply for my mentoring program.

As an astute business man, well versed in the upside and downside of risk, he could see the extraordinary cost of their inescapable debt and the likely negative rate of return on their current education investment.

So he advised them that an investment in working with me could yield them a significant and ongoing and measurable return on their investment.

I know that and he knows that.

But they won’t know that until the harsh reality of their debt repayment hits them.

And it is for this reason that I founded and that I maintain Artists Who THRIVE.

 

 

 

I very proud to say that my Creative LIVE course is the most popular business course in their current catalog, and I’m in the company of courses delivered by several NYT best selling business authors who I admire.

My experience with Creative LIVE is proof positive that we do not succeed alone.

It takes a tremendous amount of coordinated effort and cooperative talent to co-create this kind of quality broadcast.

One that reached a virtual stadium full of artists.

This success points directly to number seven of the eight-point credo for Artists Who THRIVE.

“7. RELATIONSHIPS equal revenue. Our success is shared.”  

Sometimes we are working so very hard on honing our creative talent or trying to grow our artistic enterprise that we forget two things.

1. We don’t have to go it alone.
2. We can ask for help.

So I’m inviting you to do a little exercise.

Engage the power of your imagination.

Celebrate your future success by counting all of the people who will be involved in helping you manifest it.

Have fun. Play with this.

I’ll lead with my most recent example at Creative LIVE.

Here’s a “partial” list of those who made a vital contribution to the success of “Make Money Making Art.”

• The drivers who picked me up and dropped me off on time.
• My Creative LIVE producer who brainstormed with me to help me craft the course, while having loads of fun.
• The sound guy who kept checking that my mike was still taped to me and wasn’t falling down my dress.
• The in-studio audience who where so open and vulnerable about their successes and struggles on live camera.
• The people who prepared and served our delicious meals and snacks.
• The Artists Who THRIVE who I have coached, who conferenced in from across the country to generously share all that they have learned.
• The hair and make up stylist who helped make me look my best.
• Artists around the globe who chimed in on the chat room to ask me questions.
• Two gracious and experienced hosts who helped the live broadcast flow seamlessly.
• The technical and production team whose various expertise I can’t even begin name.
• The social media facilitator who engaged the live online audience.
• The audience to purchased the course and who are now taking meaningful action.
• The host who helped while she interviewed me before the broadcast so that people could know more about me and why I created the course.
• The creative talent who crafted the course promotional graphics and copy.
• The audience who took the time to review the course.
• The artists who took the initiative to find an accountability partner, a mastermind, to complete the 50-Step Action Plan that comes with the course.
• The founders of Creative LIVE who had the courage and fortitude to pursue their vision to create a positive disruptive educational model.
• All of the creators of the social media channels and technology who made it possible, going back to before Thomas Edison.

There is no way I can name everyone who played a hand in this success.

As you can see, I could go on for days acknowledging and appreciating these direct and indirect collective contributions.

The point is that this. This is not my success. This is “our” success.

Take action now. Imagine a specific future success with your artistic enterprise and the relationships that will help you get there.

Who will you count on the list of people who are going to help you accomplish your specific success?

Make a list.

There is power in the present moment.

Energy and focus fades.

If you do this now, right now, you will plant the seeds for your success.  

(Ann Rea is a nationally recognized artist and the creator and instructor of an intimate, live, online, foundational eight-week business course for artists called MAKING Art Making MONEY. Rea’s book “SELL YOUR ART without Selling Out, 101 Rules” is now available on Amazon.)

 

 

Calling all Artists Who THRIVE!

If you’ve been sitting on your hands thinking about pulling the trigger on a one-on-one coaching application, applying for The MAKING Art Making MONEY Course, or thinking about booking a phone consultation but you have just not been ready to invest in yourself, I have something for you.

Over the past couple months I have been collaborating with the producers at Creative LIVE to deliver a two-day, live, on-line course for FREE. 

If you can’t make it or if you want to review it; no problem. Get anytime access for $79.

I’m spilling all the beans for two days straight. Those who enroll will be receiving an electronic copy of “SELL YOUR ART without Selling Out, 101 Rules.”

And those who purchase the course will receive an electronic copy of the course book called “Make MONEY Making Art, 50-Step Action Plan.”

Successful artists who I have coached will be appearing and talking about their successes, failures, and big fat lessons learned.

If you want to Make MONEY Making Art someday, let me tell you. Someday is today.

Enrollments are already off the charts.

So get on it. Buy the course. Find a friend and go through the exercises in the “Make MONEY Making Art, 50-Step Action Plan” together.

“We do not succeed alone.” That’s one of the things I share in my most recent interview with the lovely Kenna Klosterman, host at Creative LIVE. Tune in here…

 

 

Last December, Jonathan Fields interviewed me for the Good Life Project.

If you haven’t tuned into his inspiring series I highly recommend that you do.

You’ll enjoy deep-dive interviews with an amazing group of people who are living “a good life.”

“People who…have more fun, cultivate higher-levels of freedom, touch more lives, leave bigger legacies and, straight up, live better lives.”

After our Good Life Project shoot a number of us gathered for dinner.

During our lively dinner conversation something dawned on.

I felt something shift inside and I realized two things.

1. I am eager to take my art in a new creative direction that is much more grounded in my personal experience and values.

2. But before that, I have to first reach out and speak directly to a much bigger audience of artists to teach them what I have figured out about making art and making money.

So during that dinner last December, I silently made it my mission to eliminate the “starving artist” mythology by helping to empower artists through business savvy.

I was already doing some of this through my weekly blog, Artists Who THRIVE.

But I realized that I want to have a much bigger impact and so I need to reach a bigger audience of artists.

So in 2013, I created MAKING Art Making MONEY, an 8-week, initiate, live, online foundational business course for artists that teaches my 8-step methodology to building a creative enterprise.

This includes the proven process that I followed and that I have successfully taught other artists one on one.

Unlike typical web based tele-seminars, The MAKING Art Making MONEY Course allows a small group of artists, no more than 9, to actually connect with one another because we meets live via Google Hangouts.

Why? Because most artists exist largely in isolation.

I launched the pilot course and it was a great success.

Although The MAKING Art Making MONEY Course pays back significant dividends to those artists who invest in themselves, the course isn’t cheap.

However, I’m still committed to my mission.

So I’ve just partnered with Creative LIVE to offer a FREE two-day live course on March 10^th and 11^th, that will reach their more than 1 million students worldwide.

If artists can’t make the free live course on March 10^th and 11^th, they can buy  it at a very reasonable cost and go at it at their own pace.

Craig Swanson, co-founder of Creative LIVE, is very excited about our partnership so we spoke yesterday for quite some time.

It was such a pleasure to connect with Craig and to affirm that we share the same values and core belief.

“Every artist is an entrepreneur. Every entrepreneur is an artist.”

“Money doesn’t matter.”  I only hear this from people who have never been without money for long, or if need be, they would have ready access to it. 

An early retired investment banker remarked to me and group of artists who she was hosting, “Money doesn’t matter to you guys.” 

I didn’t want to insult my host, but I could barely contain myself. How absurd. How ignorant.

The harsh reality is that most artists struggle to thrive financially. 

That financial struggle negatively impacts our emotional, physical, and social well being.

What we know through experience is confirmed in a “Summary of Findings” from a report  “Artist and the Economic Recession, May 2010.”

This survey reached a diverse array of artists, ranging across artistic media, racial and ethnic backgrounds, age, levels of formal education, geographic locations, and years as a practicing artist. 

Here are a few key points:

• Artists play multiple roles – seven in 10 artists hold at least one job in addition to making art

• Most artists have multiple jobs. Two-thirds hold at least one job in addition to their artistic practice, while 21% hold two or more additional jobs.

• Designers and architects (54%) and musicians (42%) are most likely to earn their living solely through their artistic practice, while literary artists are most likely to supplement their artistic work with other employment (59% have at least one additional job).

• Artists are well educated, but not highly paid – six in 10 artists made less than $40,000 in 2008, although two-thirds hold at least a bachelor’s degree.

• More than eight in 10 artists in the sample have a college degree, including 56% who have at least some post-graduate education. Interestingly, higher education does not seem to correlate with higher income levels.

• Two-thirds reported their total 2008 income as less than $40,000, and nearly one-third earned less than $20,000.

I can only wonder many film, art, theater, and music schools graduates are actually pursuing their craft one, two, or five years after graduation. 

Even I quit after only two years and I barely made it back to making and selling art.

 

If your selling art without a written business plan, you are hobbyist.

 Here’s the Wikipedia definition of the word hobby:

 “A hobby is a regular activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure, typically done during one’s leisure time.

Examples of hobbies include collecting, creative and artistic pursuits, making, tinkering, sports and adult education.

Engaging in a hobby can lead to acquiring substantial skill, knowledge, and experience.

 Generally speaking, the person who engages in an activity for fun, not remuneration, is called an amateur (or hobbyist), as distinct from a professional.”

Sound familiar?  It is descriptive of most artists’ general approach to business.

If you are selling art without a business plan, you are pursuing a hobby, not a business. Therefore you do not have a viable plan to earn a stable living.

Let’s put this another way. Despite what we have been told, an artist does not have a “career.”

If artists had careers, we would have jobs. 

If artists had jobs, we would receive regular paychecks.

If artists received regular paychecks, we would have bosses. 

So, you as an artist, who sells their work, has a business.

Still not sure?  The IRS is. When you sell your art, according to the tax code, you operating a business.

If you have a business, and you want it to be successful, you had better have a written business plan and a marketing plan so that there is no confusion about how you are going to make money.

If you are reading Artists Who THRIVE, I assume that you have no confusion about making art but you may be looking for information about making money with your art.

Just like a doctor, a chef, or a car mechanic, every entrepreneur must balance their business with their production. So balancing both realms is not a new idea and it is far from impossible.

Entrepreneurs balance each left brain and right brain realm everyday.

So it is a choice. Be an artist who is a hobbyist or be an entrepreneur. 

And dramatically increase your chances of success by maintaining a written business and marketing plan.

There is nothing wrong with being a hobbyist, an amateur, unless you really want to make money with your art.

 

 

 

• Do you know where you stand financially, today?
• Do you know exactly where your money is coming from and where it’s going?
• Would knowing empower you?
• Do you have a system to access a real time picture of your financial situation at any time anywhere?

Yes? Congratulations! You need not read any further.

So many artists, so many people, strain over their money.  Accounting is scary for many creatives.  But having ready access to current and accurate financial data is not only critical to your creative enterprise is is vital to your well being.

Here is what the creatives I consult with will often say.

• “But I can’t find time to crunch numbers.”
• “I don’t even know where to start.”
• “I can’t afford a bookkeeper.”

Knowledge is power and there actually is a free and easy way to gain access to knowledge.

I recommend Mint.com.

In case you are wondering, I’m not getting a kick back from Mint.com. I actually use it and I recommend it to artists that I coach and consult with so that they can get a handle on and manage their financial situation.

Why? Three reasons.

1.    It is free.

2.    It is easy to set up.

3.    It is real time.

Mint.com allows you to track your spending and to monitor your online banking accounts.

The set-up is relatively painless. You simply link your online bank and credit card accounts to your Mint.com account.  Then you categorize each of your personal and business income and expenses.

Once the set up is done your Mint.com account automatically updates.  Then recurring transactions are automatically categorized, making your tax preparation easy and breezy.

Here’s the thing. If you pay cash for a lot of personal or business expenses then obviously  this system is not going to be so helpful.

So I pay in cash for as little as possible.  Why? So that I can…

• keep track of my  expenses
• earn credit card bonus points and cash
• dispute charges  if I did not receive the goods or services I was promised

One last note.  The security of your online accounts is based in large part on the uniqueness of your passwords.  Make your passwords memorable for you but impossible for others to find or guess.

Andy Warhol said, “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.” And I could not agree more.

How can artists secure the resources necessary to sustain and express themselves without money?

Admit it.  What is more inspiring that getting paid for your creations?

The idea that a creative mind and a business mind cannot coexist is absolutely absurd.

I challenge a common belief that is not only fundamentally disrespectful but also destructive. Entrepreneurs are creative by nature.

Is it true that some artists struggle with business and marketing? Absolutely.

Why? Some would say because they do not receive a business education.

Well.  I’m not buying that excuse either. Business fundamentals can be learned.  It does not require an innate talent like art.

Just look at the number of entrepreneurs without college degrees and uneducated immigrants who continue to launch successful businesses in the United States.

A very successful businessman once said, “Artists are the most selfish people I know. They do not take responsibility.  Artists hope to be discovered or expect to receive financial support and so they suffer.”

This is a damning generalization but there is a kernel of truth in his statement.

The fact is, art is business and it is not only of great value to collectors it is of great value to communities.  Dollars invested in revitalizing art communities yield significant returns in the economic development.

Real estate values sore where artists colonize. Culture is capital.

Yet the business minded and creatively minded too often blend like oil and water.

So what are artists to do?  Heed Andy Warhol ’s sage perspective.  Examine his successful history.  He intentionally blurred the lines between art and business.

Embrace business.  Take responsibility for your own economic success.  Learn. This will yield financial and therefore creative freedom.

Artists Earning Over $100,000

I recently received an inquiry from an artist who apparently found ArtistsWhoTHRIVE.com by searching online for “artists earning $100,000.”

This week I also consulted with another artist who asked me, “How did you sell over $100,000 in art in your first year as a full time artist?”

Apparently this is a magical number equaling success for many artists.

I found these inquiries serendipitous and a bit amusing so I knew that I must answer the question this week.

How did I sell over $100,000 of art in my first year as a full time business?

I tell you how I did it.  And I’ll share how other artists that I have coached have done it or who are going to sell over $100,000 of art.

First let me say, obviously how I sell my art will certainly be different from how you sell yours.

But after coaching and consulting artists from across the globe I have noticed that there is a basic formula for success.

1. Successful artists have a very clear and specific goal, a SMART goal.

My goal was to sell over $100,000 of art in my first year in business full time.

Notice the specificity of this statement.  Also note, I did not “earn” over $100,000, I sold or grossed over $100,000 of my art.  In fact, I exceeded this goal by 25%.

2. Successful artists are disciplined and focused.

I got up every day knowing what my goal was and I built and maintained an action plan to keep me focused.

Building an action plan was pretty easy for me as a former project management consultant.  But if this is not your natural skill set you’ll need to get some help.

3. Successful artists have a positive attitude.

This is huge.  It’s very difficult to remain focused without a positive attitude.  And making and selling art can clearly be a daunting task when you’re starting out.  A few pearls of wisdom to ponder.

Thoughts are things.

As you think so shall you become.

Stand guard at the gate to your mind.

If you don’t know where to start, I recommend starting first by:

A. Developing and maintaining a positive attitude.

B. Then define a SMART goal.

C. Take focused action on it every day until you reach it.