I know, and I have coached and consulted with, a number of various artists from across our globe.

Some successful, some struggling.

I have identified six elements that are the best indicators of an artist’s success, just like an entrepreneur’s.

1. It is not the artist’s talent that is the number one indicator of their success it is their attitude, a positive, friendly, and open attitude versus one that tends towards negative, sarcastic, or cynical.

So ask yourself?  Do people generally describe you as having a genuinely positive attitude?

2. My experience has also taught me that an artist’s ability to focus is another vital indicator of their success.

The artists are clear on their goals and they finish what they start.

If they are distracted they return to their focus in short order.

Are you a procrastinator?  Do you get things done?  Do you feel busy but don not feel like you are making any progress?

Yes?  Then you are not busy, you are just distracted and unproductive.

3. Where I have witnessed the biggest successes in artists is when they take complete responsibility for their success and they learn from their failures.

I have had a few failures coaching artists.

What I have learned is that my biggest failures coaching artists happen when they think that I somehow poses a secret formula.

It eventually becomes evident that these artists believe that applying this secret formula will somehow make the effort required of them to succeed fall within their comfort zone and at their convenience.

If it doesn’t, they give up and blame me, or some other outside force or circumstance. You, and you alone, are responsible for your success.  No one is coming discover you. No one is coming to save you.

Tune it next week for the other three success factors.

 

Being grateful is a great multiplier in my artistic enterprise. 

Why?  Because when you focus on what you are grateful for, you can’t help but to focus on what is working.

This focus provides an opportunity for you to study what habits or strategies are yielding satisfying results.

As I count my blessings in business this day after Thanksgiving, I also review what is helping me make my art business successful.

1. Celebrating my successes and learning from my mistakes
2. Defining specific short term and long term goals
3. Mapping out a plan and reviewing and revising it every day
4. Taking a relaxed approach to my creative process, perfectionism be gone
5. Maintaining organized and repeatable systems
6. Managing my daily priorities, not my time
7. Being willing to ask for help from those who are more experienced and successful in business
8. Receiving referrals
9. Being grateful for the rare privilege of making my living through my art
10. Appreciating my beautiful and inspiring home of San Francisco
11. Complete dedication to continuously learning more about business
12. Commitment to improving and refining my creative process
13. Remembering that there was a time when I had abandoned art all together, when I had not yet sold a painting, and when this was all but a dream that I longed for

What are you thankful for? 

Start with where you are today and recount your successes. 

Now think. Where you would like to be next Thanksgiving?

If you are not sure how to get there then get help.  No one succeeds alone.

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more.

If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” — Oprah

 

Artists Who THRIVE has relaunched with a fresh, and easier to navigate, format. 

And I’m excited to announce two new initiatives including an upcoming eBook and an online course on Marketing Art.

Now is a good time to share my inspriation for founding Artists Who THRIVE…

Determined to make a decent living as a painter, over $100,000 within the first year, I quit my job and moved to the beach in San Francisco in 2005. 

Guess what? I did it. I actually grossed $125,000 in my first year painting full time.

As a result I received significant national press recognition and artists began seeking out my advice.  At first I shooed them away.  “I’m too busy working on my own thing.” 

Then someone made an astute observation.  “You just LOVE to talk about marketing art. Why don’t you blog about it?” 

I thought, “Why not!?  Maybe I can help lead a revolution against the senseless art establishment and kill the tedious starving artist mythology which I find so very disrespectful and destructive.”

How? Just share what I know. While making art is obviously art, selling art is business, BIG business, and these pursuits are not in opposition.

Artists do not need permission from any gate keepers to advance their careers. Why?  Because being a full time artist is actually not a “career”, it is a business.

If art making was a career, you would be receiving a paycheck. The gatekeepers know this, that’s the; art galleries, the record labels, the film studios, the publishers, you get the picture.

What are the first things the gatekeepers ask, “How much have you sold? How many fans or followers do you have? Who have you sold to?  How much money have you made?” 

So artists do not need to manage a “career”, artists need to take charge of their business.

The good news. Growing a business is ten times easier than trying to manage a so called “career” as an artist.  Why? Because you are free of the constraints of representation and you are in full control of your own enterprise, not the gatekeepers.

When you side step the traditional art market you have complete creative freedom and you do not need permission to sell your art. The gatekeepers will argue that artists need their credibility.  My response, “That’s nice. But what I need is to get paid.” 

Please note, creative and economic freedom comes at a price, responsibility. But do you know what?  I don’t have a business degree, I have a fine art degree, and my professional experience does not lend itself to being an entrepreneur. 

Yet I built an art business, so maybe you can to?  Or maybe you can build a bigger art enterprise than the one you have now?

But you will need to start with these first few steps:

1. make a solid commitment to building an art business

2. take planned and relentless action towards a clear goal 

3. and despite what you have been told, it’s not about you, it’s about creating unique value for a target market

My hope is that I may make it easier for you to maintain your creative freedom and thrive by learning from my insights and my mistakes, all laid out here openly at Artists Who THRIVE.

Here’s to your growing business savvy!

1.    Not being consistent with my efforts selling art.

Not being consistent with my art sales effort selling has by far been my biggest mistake.

I am still paying for it now. I devoted most my time and energy to what I love, and what I’m good at, painting and marketing.

I’m recovering by working with a sales consultant who specializes in selling to the luxury market and going back to a system to measure my art sales efforts daily.

2.    Not listening to my instincts

Not listening to my instincts has proven almost fatal for my art business.  For example, I had a feeling about a major winery that seemed like a fantastic opportunity.

They actually stiffed me and through me into a financial tailspin.

I’m recovering by embracing my intuition and by learning to use it to my advantage, and to the advantage of those I work with.

3.    Allowing negative thinking to infect my thinking

Energy goes where attention flows and one acts according to ones thoughts.

I am able to recover from inevitable frustration or negativity by exercising and daily meditation.

4.    Not managing my SEO

I thought that I had a sound SEO strategy in place.  It turns out, I do not.

Rather than dwelling on the impact this may have had on my business, I’m on it now and working with an SEO consultant I trust.

There are a lot of shady SEO operators out there who will sell you promises of prosperity.  Maybe I averted disaster by waiting?

5.    Setting goals too high

If you haven’t already noticed, I’m an ambitious sort of gal and that has served me well.

But I have a tendency to set the bar too high, making it harder to stick with my plans.

I’m recovering by reconstructing my action plan so that I can experience more bite-sized victories.

6.    Not firing people quickly enough

If people are not doing their job or delivering the goods, show them the door immediately.

Small businesses cannot afford to carry dead wait.

I’m recovering by embracing a policy of hiring slowly and firing quickly.

7.    Networking in groups that do not serve my market

BNI or the Chamber of Commerce is not where the luxury market can be found.

It’s great if you offer car-detailing services but it’s not a place to find the luxury consumer or other businesses that serve this market.

I’m recovering by only networking where my tribe can be found or where I can find those that directly serve my luxury tribe.

8.    Falling for offers of help from men who actually wanted to help themselves

So this is a hard and icky realization.  I’m all business but not that doesn’t mean everyone else is.

There’s the wealth manager who wanted to make out and then the angel investor who grabbed my, you know what, after our last business meeting.

Some people will assume that you are vulnerable as an artist and try to take advantage of a perceived power differential.

And that is not to say that this is all men.  My advisory board is made up of generous, kind, and respectful men.

I’m recovering quicker each time it happens just knowing that some people are just bad seeds.

Sometimes it takes a while for the mask of truth to be unveiled and I’m not responsible for their deceptions.

I’m sharing these personal challenges with you so that you have no illusions that my success as an artist has been a cakewalk.  It hasn’t.

But each failure has taught me a valuable lesson and reflecting on it has strengthen my resolve to succeed.

I have noticed a lot of green-eyed envy among artists.

Its really no surprise. Success can be scarce in the world of creative endeavors.  And scarcity can produce negative behaviors.

How do some artists respond when other artists becomes successful?  I’ve heard too many say, “Oh, he’s selling out.”

A gallery owner, who I wasn’t interested in working with, said of me “she cares more about business than art.”

In fact I do care about business, very much.  But it is not an either or proposition, they walk hand in hand beautifully.

If you even have a little bitty glimmer of jealously, it’s worth looking straight into its ugly eyes and staring it down.

Why? Because it is getting in your way. You can’t have what you hate.

Better to focus on the positive and learn from other’s success.

Even though I hear a universal groan of disgust in my art marketing seminars when we examine Thomas Kinkaid’s art marketing strategies, you have to give it up to him.

Now, I’m not a fan of his aesthetic approach but his company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.  How many artists can boast that?

I actually interviewed his CPA here in California to learn more about how he built his enterprise. I was fascinated by his business model.

My thought was, “What if I learn from his business successes and failures but I maintain my creative integrity and values?”

Maya Angelou, one of my favorite poets from San Francisco, said, “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

We are all unique in our talents and in our successes.   How you succeed and how I do will not be the same.

Never knock anyone’s success.  Don’t hate, congratulate.

Kate Bradley is a young portrait painter from Tennessee who is currently enrolled in the Artists Who THRIVE coaching program.

It’s satisfying watching her achieving her SMART goal. She’s about 80% complete to her reaching her SMART goal and we are only about halfway in to her program.

Week by week she is getting there.  And that’s because she is asking herself new questions and therefore thinking and acting differently.

The artists that I coach are required to send a brief weekly update every Sunday before midnight and it must include any insights that they have gained or shifts in their perspective.

Writing down and sharing these insights helps artists become much more conscious and deliberate about improving their success and it helps us track their progress.

Why is the artist’s thinking so very important?  Because it is an artist’s attitude that is the number one factor of their success.

Kate’s attitude has been shifting towards a successful entrepreneur.  This is not where she started but she is committed to making changes.  It is commitment that is the second factor of success.

Read what she has to say in her last update.  Do you hold this mindset?  If not, what if you did?  Do you think success might come to you with more ease?

1.     When things are going well I tend to slack off a little bit and rest on my previous successes. Moving forward I want to be more consistent with my marketing efforts.

 

2.       I have learned to treat my failures and successes the same. If I have a success, I don’t quit trying. If I fail, I don’t quit trying. I lost a potential commission this week. It was disappointing but I want to use that failure to learn something new and to give me the energy to push harder.

Artistic creative talent is important, no doubt.  But then it’s about creative entrepreneurial talent.  Andy Warhol, John Singer Sergeant, and yes, even the late Thomas Kinkaid, are shining examples of creative entrepreneurial talent that is a product of their thinking around their and commitment to success.

Change your mind, change your life.

In my last post “Artists Struggle with Fear and Consistency”, I received this remark.

“Many artists are whippy. If they had to heat and eat from doing good business, or learning how to do it, they would have no fear.”

Synchronically, I then heard this quote, “You can’t teach hungry,” summing up the essential ingredient to success.

No amount of my coaching, encouragement, tips, or experience can replace an artist’s hunger.

So what if you are not hungry enough?  Then engage your imagination.

If you could wave a magic wand and be assured of your success, what would the picture of your artistic success look, feel, taste, and move like?

Artists have the power of imagination to paint this picture, yet how much time have you spent focusing on your picture of success?

I confess. I have been so busy taking action towards my SMART goals that I have not given time to step back and ask why these are my goals.

Why you want success is what makes you hungry, not the how you’re going to be successful.

Both are obviously important but if you just focus on the how, it feels like work.

If you focus on the why then the how begins falling into place. 

Why do you want to paint, write, sculpt, sing, take photographs?

I want to paint because painting transforms me. Creative expression grounds me firmly in the moment.

I’m relaxed yet focused and unconsciously time passes. When a collector discovers my work, they too are transformed. This gives me great joy.  I’m rewarded with feelings of contribution.

It’s the human connection that I am hungry for.  That is why I paint.  And that is why I teach about the business of art.  I want to connect and have a positive impact.  My why, my hunger, is not so complicated.

What are you hungry for? What is your why?

What are two issues that artists struggle with the most in business?

1.   Fear

2.   Consistency

Awareness of these challenges alone can help neutralize much of their negative impact.

The inner dialogue of fear might sound like:

1.   “I’m not making enough money.”

2.   “I don’t know if there is a real market for my work.”

3.   “I don’t know what to focus on.”

Antidotes may be:

1.   Implementing and maintaining a consistent sales system.

2.   Outlining and implementing a marketing plan and calendar.

3.   Have a SMART goal and action plan.

Fear can “F” you up or it can be your friend as my friend Jonathan Fields tells us so well in the title of his latest book “Uncertainty, Turning Fear & Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance.”

Recently a colleague of mine at the National Speakers Association asked what motivated me.  “Fear.  I want to eat and live in San Francisco.  It’s very expensive here.”

I must admit, during my first year in business I was very deliberate and consistent about my sales efforts.

Fear of failing fueled me. I measured my sales efforts daily. As I met with success, what did I do? I slacked off.

The result?  A lack of results in my sales.  I’ve since returned to a consistent daily system of selling art that worked so well before and my pipeline of prospects is growing.

Fear can crush you or it can motivate you.  Sit quietly and name your concerns.  Then you can face them directly and turn that negative energy into fuel for your success.

Making a living as an artist is no doubt a challenge, but it is far from impossible.

Those who choose to build a creative enterprise are at the bottom and the top of wealth.

What do you focus on?  What do you choose?  How consistent are your efforts?