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.

1. Why? What is your creative purpose? Why are you here? Hint. It’s not about your art.
2. What? What problem do you believe is really worth solving? What are you doing about your why? Hint. It’s not about your art.
3. How? How are you solving that problem? What is your unique value proposition UVP?
4. 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.

1. 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.”
2. What? “The problem is that kids need to know they are loved and valued just they way they are.”
3. How? “My UVP is portraits of kids that capture their unique beauty and personality and preserve a specific moment in their lives.”
4. 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.

 

Selling art sucks.

Yes. You read that right.

Trying to just sell art really sucks.

Why? Because other artists posses so much more talent that you or I will ever will.

And no one really needs art.

Yes. No one needs art. They NEED food, clothing, and shelter. Not art.

Art is a luxury. It always has been and it always will be.

Artists know this but they keep trying to sell their art anyway.

My suggestion. Stop banging your head against the wall. Don’t sell art.

What should you do?

Reframe.

Create value above and beyond your art and sell THAT.

How? Know your purpose, define a mission, create a unique value proposition that clearly solves a problem, and serve and celebrate your tribe.

Trying to sell your art is like trying to sell yourself.

This leaves most decent people feeling like a big fat whore.

So what do you do?

Talk about your mission.

Share your values.

Inspire people with how you aim to serve a cause greater than yourself.

Make it not about you but about them. Then it will be all about you.

You can’t B.S. your way through this. Don’t reach. Don’t make things up. Don’t pose. Don’t posture.

Be real. Be authentic.

The truth is the very best marketing strategy.

People art smart. They have finely attuned B.S. meters. You can’t get past it.

Be clear. So that anyone, including an eight year old, understands exactly what problem you are solving.

Why do this?

Because it is so much easier for an artist to believe in a mission than to believe in themselves.

Our opinion of ourselves and our self-confidence waivers.

Our conviction to a mission doesn’t.

Why? Because people are willing to live and die for causes greater than themselves.

You just won’t give up on a mission you really believe in.

A higher purpose, that’s hard to shake.

Do something that matters to someone other than yourself.

Make art that really matters.

Then you will be rewarded. You will make art and make money.

 

Listen to my latest interview with Tyler Anderson, host of Casual Fridays.

Show notes.

About Creativity:

How to pull out your creativity:

• Look to the classics. Homer is the most enduring brand out there!
• Pull inspiration from them.
• Put your own spin on it.

Creativity as it pertains to value:

• Solving a problem or alleviating a pain.

Creative success of famous artists was due to there being a market for their work, but there was only a market for their work because:

• They knew their purpose, as a person not as an artist.
• They had a specific mission that they dedicated their lives to accomplishing.
• They solved a problem worth solving that serves their target market.

Sign up for Ann’s course on Creative Live

Mentionable Quotes:

• “No one is going to pay you to entertain yourself. You have to create value.”
• “If you’re human, you’re [creative].”
• “A lot of our limitations are illusions. They are assumptions gone unexamined.”
• “With social media, what we’re doing is telling a story and evoking an emotion.”
• “Creativity is more important than intelligence.” -Einstein
• “Every artist is an entrepreneur and every entrepreneur is an artist.” Dr. ‘E”

 

 

One of the biggest challenges the artists who I mentor are struggling with is focus.

They are also struggling with self-confidence.

Tip. Confidence is earned by focused action.

1. Focused action yield results.
2. Results yield confidence.

The burning question for many artists is, “What is it that I should I be focusing on?”

My answer? Start by defining your purpose.

Know who you are and what you stand for. Then you can focus on a mission.

When we have a clear purpose we can pursue our mission and we have a chance of getting out of our own damn way.

What is your purpose?

It is the overall lesson, the reasons, that you experienced your deepest moments of pain and joy. Your purpose is your “why?” And that’s not about your art.

What is your mission? Your mission is your “course.”

Your mission is what you are going to do about your purpose. Your mission is your “what?”

Your unique value proposition is your “how.”

When you know who you are and what you stand for, you can best determine “how” you can serve others.

And if you want to get paid you must serve others by delivering value.

There is no way around this.

This mindset is a complete game changer for the artists who I mentor.

Why? Because this world view is the complete opposite of submitting your art to be shown and hoping that someone will buy it and then hoping that your representative pay you on time or at all.

Hoping is not marketing and it is not a sales plan.

My advice? Stop selling your art. The fact is very few people want to buy art.

That’s right. You read that correctly.

Why might someone want to buy your art? They like you, they like your aesthetics. Yes. But that alone is not near enough to make a sustainable market for your art.

Why? Because there a ton of artists who are way more talented than you and and I and we know it.

So sell your mission and your aesthetics. It’s a powerful one-two punch.

“Plant your flag in the ground and see who salutes.” Grammy Dan, co-author of The Remembering Process

Every famous artist in history had a purpose born of his or her pain and joy, a mission, and unique value proposition that served a target market.

How Do You Determine Your Creative Purpose?

It’s a big and important question and very few people will ever answer this question or even ponder it very deeply.

Yet purposeful people live the most meaningful and rich lives and they are the people who we respect and admire most.

I wish I could tell you how to determine your purpose in the space of this blog post or just give you a link to click on.

But we both know, your life’s meaning is just not that simple and you deserve deeper and profound consideration.

So join me on Creative Live for my 30-Day Course, “Fulfilling Your Creative Purpose.”

This course is free to watch.

It is also an incredible investment to buy.

I highly recommend that you do buy it, now.

Why?

A. So that you can watch it over again and give this question the ample consideration it deserves.

B. Because I have never delivered this much actionable content in one place, with such extraordinarily high production quality, for this low price, and I’m not so sure that I ever will again.

 

Where do artists stumble most?

In the very beginning of the 8-part sequential and iterative methodology that I define in my The MAKING Art Making MONEY Course.

Why? Because they want to skip the first, and THE most important, step of defining a mission.

Why? So that they can get to the second step, defining a unique value proposition.

Why are they over eager to skip this step?

A. Defining your mission is often painful and raw and it exposes how well you know yourself or how well you don’t.

B. Because we just don’t want to wait to define the value of our art because we want sales, damn it!  Who doesn’t?

But a business only makes money if it offers value in service to a target market.

“’Business.’ I thought we where talking about ‘artists’?” Yes. Business.

If you are selling your art you are indeed operating a business. If you disagree with me ask the IRS. They’ll confirm this fact in a hurry.

Offering value for payment is a universal economic law so I am stating the obvious.

The not so obvious rub for most artists is that do not know how to define, and therefore how to articulate, their unique value proposition.

“I create unique beauty” does not make a unique value proposition.

AND artists often get the value they create mixed up with their self worth. Ugh!

Artists also do not realize that in order to compete in an over saturated art market they MUST create unique value above and beyond their art.

However, most artists have no idea where to start in the process of defining a unique value proposition because they have not yet defined their mission.

Let me share a few examples of hope.

These are artists who have worked with to help define their mission and the resulting unique value proposition.

1.) Colleen Attara’s mission is to artistically transform discarded materials, lessoning the impact on our natural environment while simultaneously transforming our emotional environments.

Her unique value proposition is through strategic partnerships she reclaims what others no longer see value in, “garbage,” and she reshapes it into inspiring hand-scripted words of hope and joy.

2.) During her MAKING Art Making MONEY course Jenny McGee found her inspiring personal mission and shortly after we defined her unique value proposition.

Jenny’s mission is to help people express their love for one another through her art.

Her unique value proposition is that she sits down with her patrons to help them create a “love list,” the specific reasons that they love someone.

3.)  Memphis based artist Kate Bradley has a mission to help families celebrate their relationships by honoring their children.

Her unique value proposition is that she specializes in painting portraits of children and capturing their essence in the context of their interests and personality by actually getting to know her subjects.

If you think that that the examples above are just about a bunch of snappy copy or simple poetic language, think again.

Each is an authentic and deeply meaningful example of which each artist has devoted their life to.

So sarcastic skeptics. Step aside.

Isn’t what they describe so much more compelling than the rambling and self-involved artist’s statements that are often too painful to read?

See. It’s possible.

But you do have to follow a certain logical sequence.

You can’t skip a step. Particularly the first one. First define your mission.

Know who you are and what you stand for.

Artists are thought leaders. What thoughts are you willing to lead with? What could you devote your life to?

You can’t put the cherry on top of the cake without mixing the batter, or before that, preheating the oven.

I’ve heard from so many exhausted and frustrated artists from all over the globe who have been doing just that for years and years.

The sad thing is, it’s not necessary!

 

Watch the interview here.

Memphis based artist Kate Bradley is 28 years old and she graduated from art school only 3 years ago.

Kate graduated from MAKING Art Making MONEY only last year, but she is already making a very good living.

Kate specializes in painting portraits of children and capturing their essence in the context of their interests.

3 Biggest Successes as a Portrait Painter

1.    Kate is 28 years old and with only three years experience, she is earning a very good living as an artist. Her sales are impressive for any new business, never mind an artistic enterprise. After six months of us working together Kate’s art sales increased 53%.

2.    As soon as Kate determined her unique value proposition and defined her target market not only did her art sales increase significantly, so did her confidence.

3.    Loving her work gives her a sense of peace and real purpose.

3 Fattest Failures

1.    Not clearly communicating her business terms to a patron and not liking working that patron.

2.    Surrendering her creative control and not liking what she was creating.

3.    Failing to keep her financial house in order and not really knowing how she should do this.

3 Most Important Lessons

1.    Listen to your gut. If a patron does not seem to be a good fit don’t risk it.

2.    Maintain your creative boundaries. You have the responsibility to complete the commission so you have the control.

3.    Slow down. Pace yourself. Don’t loose your joy. Don’t be so focused on making money that you loose the fun and passion in making art.

1 Piece of Advice for Artists

Kate quotes a rule from my book, “SELL YOUR ART without Selling Out, 101 Rules”, “It’s not all about you, it’s all about them, and when you make it all about them, then it will all about you.”

 

 

Who are you and what do you stand for?

Are you clear on what you value?

What does this have to do with the business of art? Everything.

And that’s why the first week of my new Making Art/Making Money Course is dedicated to “Valuing.”

What is art? Is it beauty? I think not. That’s in the eye of the beholder.

On a deeper level art is a celebration, an examination, of values designed to stir our emotions.

Artists really sell feelings. If we didn’t then we would just be selling musical notes hanging in the air, paint stuck on canvas, or strands of text.

What do you, not as an artist but as a person, really care about?

If what you value is not reflected in your art then your art making is simply a technical exercise.

By knowing what you value  you can connect with your tribe and their values.

Why? Because sharing our values brings us together and satisfies our deep longing for belonging.

Andy Warhol valued and marveled at the consumer consumption of celebrity.

Thomas Kinkade valued American conservative Christian values.

I value painting as an active meditation by focusing on light as a reflection of colors.

One artist I’ve coached values celebrating family relationships, as a children’s portrait painter.

Another artist I’ve coached values playful transformation of recycled materials, as an eco artist.

Yet another young artist I’ve coached values self-reflection as it relates to his emotional maturing as a man. He’s a fine art illustrator whose images are inspired by narratives from his journals.

What you value is a reflection of your unique human experience.

This the very basis for your unique value proposition that will be the foundation for value above and beyond the art itself.

This is the only way to differentiate your art.

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ― Oscar Wilde

Or as Russell Simmons tells us, “Do You.”

Last but not least.

“If you have something to say to the world, you must make art.

If you want to be heard, you must sell art.” Ann Rea

 

 

The Ancient Greek aphorism “Know Thyself” was inscribed in the pronaos of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

“Know thyself” is a warning to pay no attention to the opinion of the multitude.

When someone asks you, “What do you do?”  They are asking who are you. How do you answer them?

“I’m a painter.” “A house painter?”  “No, an artist.”  “Oh.”

This kind of introduction fails to land and so no connection is made.

When you introduce yourself by describing the primary tool that you use in your artistic craft, you say nothing about what you really do or what value you bring to the world.

That’s really what people want to know.

For example, if you introduce yourself by saying, “I’m an abstract oil painter,” I guarantee that you will lose most of your audience.

Why? Because people who buy art are mostly not artists. You need to help them connect.

“What do you do?” How do you answer this question?  It’s vital to your art sales.

Why? Because your number one source of business is going to come from face to face networking and referrals.

That means you will need to verbally convey, clearly and succinctly, the value you bring.

An artist’s statement will not help you.

I have yet to read an artist’s statement that doesn’t make me cringe.  But I’m open to reading a really good one.  So if you have one, please post it below.

Who was John Singer Sargent?

He was an uber networked and cultured member of the British aristocracy.

What value did John Singer Sargent Sargent bring to his target market?

He elevated his patron’s status in society.

Who was Andy Warhol?

He was a devote of celebrity and a celebrant of mainstream American consumerism.

What value did Andy Warhol bring his target market?

He reflected our values back to us including celebrity worship.

Who was Thomas Kinkade?

He was a conservative born again Christian.

What value did Thomas Kinkade bring his target market?

He affirmed his collectors’ “family values” and delivered his message in accessible mainstream distribution channels.

Who are you?  What unique value do you bring?

If you want art collectors to know your unique value, you had better know.