Alyson Stanfield, Author at Art Biz Success

©Jean Reece Wilkey, Mango on Silver Creamer. Oil on panel, 14 x 11 inches. Used with permission.

Empower Yourself By Taking 100% Responsibility

External factors do not determine how you live. YOU are in complete control of the quality of your life, by either creating or allowing the circumstances you experience.

– Jack Canfield

It was in Jack Canfield’s seminal book, The Success Principles, where I first read about the necessity of taking 100% responsibility for your life. In fact, it’s no lower on the list than Principle #1 in the book of 64 principles.

He’s pretty clear. It’s not 100% responsibility for this or that. It’s 100% responsibility for EVERYTHING. This means:

You have to give up all of your excuses.
You have to give up blaming.
You have to give up complaining.

Here’s the thing about taking 100% responsibility: It puts you in charge.

I understand that this amount of control can be daunting for a new business owner, but wouldn’t you rather have control than to cede it to others?

Embrace this power!

If you’re frustrated by your results, or lack thereof, don’t blame the economy, the online platform, the weather, other artists/people, or the venue.

Instead, consider the things you can control. This is taking responsibility and being a savvy businessperson and more enlightened human being.

Empower Yourself By Taking 100% Responsibility Read

Your Biggest Fear of All

Building a business is exciting and scary for anyone who undertakes the task.

Building an art business is even scarier because your artwork is so personal. It’s not like you’re making widgets. You’re baring your soul to the world.

You’d be crazy not to be a little scared.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve coached clients with the following fears:

Fear of setting boundaries with a spouse. (It ended up that the spouse wanted the same thing. What a relief to have the conversation!)
Fear of public speaking, and knowing that it is necessary when you get to a certain level with your art.
Fear of the next step when you’ve reached what you always thought would be the pinnacle of your career.
Fear of too much success and being overwhelmed.

The fears I have in my business:

Your Biggest Fear of All Read

Ann Cunningham printed six postcards at once with the intent to distribute them within the next year. That’s dedication!

8 (Other) Occasions To Send Postcards That Promote Your Art

Today we take time out to honor the humble, under-utilized, centuries-old, low-tech postcard.

Why spend virtual ink on such an old-fashioned method of communication? Because postcards can do what email cannot do.

Postcards can’t be targeted as spam by an aggressive filter.

Postcards can’t be accidentally (or purposefully) deleted by recipients.

Postcards are likely to be tacked to a refrigerator or kept as a memento.

Postcards are tactile. We can hold them in our hands and ponder them. They have the potential to delight, which is something we rarely say about email these days.

You, like the private clients I advise, would benefit from sending three or four postcards a year.

Postcards are most often used to invite people to an upcoming exhibition or open studio.

Some artists design a single postcard with a schedule of all upcoming shows they’re participating in.

But if you don’t have an upcoming exhibition, you might wonder what you’d say on a postcard or why you’d send one in the first place.

Here are 8 other occasions for using postcards to promote your art and build relationships with your list.

8 (Other) Occasions To Send Postcards That Promote Your Art Read

Patricia Aaron has work in multiple galleries throughout the country. This photo was taken at Space Gallery in Denver.

Are You Ready for a Gallery? A Checklist

Many artists I encounter are pinning all of their hopes on getting into a gallery. Most of them are adopting this outlook prematurely. In other words, they aren’t even close to ready for galleries.

This leads to unhealthy expectations, which only results in disappointment and a sense of failure.

Don’t get me wrong. I think galleries are a great way to go for some artists, but you must be realistic about the process. You have to understand what’s required for getting and keeping gallery representation.

With that in mind, here’s a checklist of what you’ll need before you start approaching galleries.

This isn’t a guide for actively approaching galleries, only for your preparedness.

Your Mindset

1. Learn patience.

Gallery representation is earned. It happens after years of hard work in the studio and schmoozing at openings and events.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

2. Practice resilience.

Are You Ready for a Gallery? A Checklist Read

How Much Time Will Your Art Career Take?

How much time do the lessons take?How much time should I spend on social media?How much time should I spend on marketing vs. making art? These are questions I’m often asked to which there are no easy answers (except maybe the last one, and I take a stab at that below). Everyone wants to know

How Much Time Will Your Art Career Take? Read

Dwelling In Your Zone of Genius

There comes a point in every artist’s (every entrepreneur’s) business where you can’t grow without hiring someone.

It might be a paid intern, your kid, a website helper, or a bookkeeper, but you need the extra hands if you want to expand.

Who do you hire?

What will they do?

Your primary focus as an artist is on making art. That’s when you are in what Gay Hendricks calls your “Zone of Genius.” In his book, The Big Leap, Hendricks writes:

In your Zone of Genius, though the time you spend there produces great financial abundance, you do not feel that you are expending effort to produce it. In your Zone of Genius, work doesn’t feel like work.

I’m certain you know what that feels like. Bliss.

Your goal is to take those tasks off your plate that aren’t in your Zone of Genius – the tasks that keep you from making your best work. It’s the art you produce in the studio that nobody else could do.

For example, you might be competent at updating your WordPress template, but it’s not your best work. It takes you away from your best work.

Consider how lovely life would be if you could dwell in your Zone of Genius most of the time. How would that feel?

Dwelling In Your Zone of Genius Read

Marketing As You Go

Marketing isn’t something you do when you are done with the work.

You can’t afford to wait until everything else is in its place to promote your art. You must be marketing consistently.

Marketing is more than taking out an ad or sending an email. Marketing is a combination of everything you do to sell or to gain recognition for your art. Everything.

There will be times when you must focus on the work in the studio, which means there is no room in your life for marketing tasks. But something is amiss if this drags on for weeks without attention to your business.

Don’t wait until you’re finished with a body of work before you start marketing it. Think about marketing daily. Actually, do more than think. DO your marketing daily – as you go.

You don’t want to wake up one day with the realization, Not again! I forgot to market my art!
By this point, it’s probably too late to get the results you want.

Don’t think of marketing as separate from your art. Marketing is the final step of making: sharing your art with others.

But it’s more than that.

Marketing As You Go Read

Art Is About Being In The World

[Art] isn’t about being in the studio, it’s about being in the world. – Robert Irwin I count myself lucky that I ended up at an art talk with Robert Irwin last April. Irwin didn’t just get off the art school bus. He’s been in the ‘hood for a while now. He’s 86 and was

Art Is About Being In The World Read

Book Your Next Exhibition – Now

Yeah, I know you’d rather be in the studio.
Yeah, I know it’s super cheap and easy to show your art online.
Yeah, I know it’s a slog to find a good exhibition space.

And, yeah, I know that if you’re physically and geographically able to show your art in public and you’re not doing so, you’re just making excuses. Not only that, you’re also:

Missing out on sales and networking opportunities.
Taking the easy way out.
Working your way to a less-than-stellar art career.

Exhibiting your art in live venues should be one of your primary goals. Book a show now!

Let’s Define “Exhibition”

For our purposes, an exhibition is simply your art on public view. It could be any of the following:

Book Your Next Exhibition – Now Read

How to Build a Student Following – Online and Off

If you want to teach, you need a pool of potential students.

You need a following. And a following suggests there is a leader. If you expect people to sign up for your classes or buy your how-to book, you must step up and be the leader.

You’ve got to position yourself as an expert.

Becoming known for your skills is not an overnight process. It’s a process that you must be dedicated to and in it for the long haul.

I built Art Biz Coach using all of the tactics I share below. I think it would be harder to start my business today because the market is much noisier than when I opened back in 2002.

Your market is also robust. There are more people seeking instruction, and there are a lot more artists who are teaching in their own studios, in art centers and supply stores, and online.

In business terms, this presents both a threat and an opportunity. The threat is that more people are competing for students. The opportunity is that you can differentiate yourself.

The distinguishing characteristics of a successful, independent art teacher are:

How to Build a Student Following – Online and Off Read

Alyson Stanfield