Artists: The ONE CHANGE That Grows Your Business...

I kind of hate this question, but it's important to ask, like, why do some artists succeed and some don't, right? Because the truth is, like, most don't. And I do believe there's a big reason why. There's that old statistic that says, you know, like, 90% of all businesses fail. And I think that this teaching that I'm about to go through is the reason why, you know, they make just, I don't know, impulse decisions. They end up going through a lot of fears, and then they let the fears get the best of them. And we're going to go over all that today because I want you so bad. I want you as an artist to be able to grow your business and to do it in a way that feels ethical, that feels exciting, that feels good, Right? Like, and I want to say this because it's really important. I know you're not trying to just make a bunch of money. If you wanted to make a bunch of money, you would have already gotten another job, right? You would have already figured something else out. I know you're trying to do more than that. And if you want to do more than that, it's going to take more from you. And I don't ever want to sugarcoat that. But what is more? More just means more of you. It doesn't mean more work. It doesn't mean more, you know, like, oh, my gosh, I've got to learn all these things. It's like, yeah, you're going to have to learn some stuff, but really, what it takes is more of you, the person. Because the fastest way to build a sustainable art business is to get someone to connect with the artist as much as the art. But the thing that keeps most artists from connecting with more people is the very thing that we're going to talk about today. Welcome to the Stop the Starving Artist podcast. Today is a little bit different. I'm going to head over to the computer here in a second. We're going to go over some slides together. I've got some visual elements that I'm really excited to share. But first and foremost, we've once again gotten another, like, 800 subscribers in the last couple weeks, which is nuts. So to me, I'm so grateful to have you here. It means so much. I've gotten more and more, like, amazing comments saying that you're being impacted by these podcasts. And so that just. It warms my hairy chest into my heart, and it just feels. Feels really good. I just really appreciate you all. We are now also as a community over $250,000 in sales. Let me actually look at the total. Okay, here it is as a community. My community has seen $250,874 in art sales since January. We're on the road to a million. My mission is to see this community make a million dollars in sales. And I still believe it can happen. And I'm so excited about it. And we're going to talk today about a concept that I teach my students all the time that absolutely is in line with what gets them to making more sales. So let's jump over to the computer now and get right into it. So let's look at what makes an artist fail in their business versus what makes someone successful. And I've tried to pare this down into a really, really simple formula, because when you understand this, it's not only going to change your business, it'll actually change your life. It has absolutely changed mine. So this is what I see artists that continue to struggle doing, and I'm talking like this is their biggest obstacle. They have this idea that they want to try, and maybe that idea is, you know, Instagram, right? And they execute on that, that idea. They make a post or they do something, right? And they get a result. But the result is not what they thought it would be or hoped it would be. There's an expectation that they had, and that expectation wasn't met. And therefore, they have doubt. Right? And when they have doubt, what do they do? They abandon the idea. And that idea is now dead in the water. There's nothing else that can be done with it. And so they move on to a new idea, and they continue to do that over and over and over again. While successful artists operate this way, they have an idea, they execute on it. They see a result, and they have doubt. We do not get to escape the doubt. Sorry. Like, I wish we could, but let's just be real. Anything that you plan, whether it's a painting, whether it's song, whether it's a poem, there's always going to be a result that you are not proud of, that you are not excited about, that hasn't met your expectation. Therefore, you have doubt. But the successful ones, instead of abandoning the idea, they revise it and they take another execution toward the idea. They see a new result, they still have doubt because it still isn't what they hoped. But they revise again, and they keep going and they keep going until the idea starts to work. What does this look like, practically? This looks like you posting on Instagram it doesn't work. And you try somebody's new hook formula, and all of a sudden that didn't work. So you go to someone else's hook formula and that doesn't work. So then you say, well, maybe I should go to TikTok. And then TikTok doesn't work because you don't even know what you're really trying to say anyway. You don't feel comfortable on camera. You don't know who you're talking to. You know, all the things that you actually need to solve, you're not solving them. You're just looking for the faster way to do things, right? This is what I see all the time. It's like, and by the way, no shade, no shame. This is what we all do. We want the fast track, right? But, you know, success doesn't look like this linear path, right? Where we're just kind of going up and we maybe have a little dip and then we can look back and be like, oh, my gosh, look at the mountain that we've climbed, right? I wish that was the case, but it ain't the way it works. Success is a spiral. And if you think of it as a spiral, you have these points just like that wheel I just showed you, right? We have these points where you have an idea, we execute on it, right? Right. We have doubt, and then instead of abandoning the idea, we revise, brings us up here, right? And then we have another round on the execution, another round, until we're up at the top, able to look down. Think about this, right? How many times in your life have you said to yourself, man, it just feels like I'm in the same place. I was like, I just keep going in, you know, Like, I keep trying this, I keep trying this, right? Meanwhile, if you just took a second to look down and say, where have I come from? This is a premise called the gap in the gain, right? So the gap in the gain works like this. Let's pretend that you are looking at a map and you're in a mall, okay? I don't know if you even know what a mall is anymore, but you're in a mall and all of a sudden you are, you know, the X marks the spot, right? It's like you are here and you need to be at the art store in the mall. Actually, the food court. Let's go to the food court. You need to be at the food court, but you came from the south entrance. And you see that to get to the food court is going to take you at least 10 minutes. Meanwhile, your friend that's meeting you, they came in from the north entrance and they're going to get there in a minute and a half. Now you can either focus on the fact that you have this huge gap between you and the food court, or you can say, you know, where I came from was the frickin parking lot. And you know, where I drove from was my frickin house. That was 15 miles ago. And when you think of growth in a spiral, you can look back and see, you know what, I actually have grown. My post Maybe didn't do 2 million views like I hoped it did, you know, but it did do 220 instead of 200 and now I can look back and go, why did it do 220 instead of 200? And how can I replicate and repeat that? So here's something that comes up for me, you know, in this. Cause I always say I'm a creative problem solver. If I don't have a problem, I'll create one so I can solve it. And this is really what we're talking about here, is that rather than facing the fear, facing the fact that something isn't going to work right away, a lot of times we'll create a new problem to avoid having to do the hard work and allowing ourselves to feel busy. The hard work for me right now in a lot of ways is like just doing YouTube videos consistently, you know, and it's mostly a mental game. It's like, well, what am I going to talk about, what am I going to say, what am I going to teach on? Blah blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, I have all these things that sort of come up and so what do I do in my spare time? Well, I find myself today going on YouTube and looking up how to create an app for my clients. And I spent probably two hours watching videos on how to create an app for my clients. Now this is something that I've had on my brain for a long time. I've always wanted to do this and now I'm closer than ever to being able to do this. But the problem is if I want to make a business work, I have to be focusing on the things that matter most, right? Which is getting in front of people, serving people well, inspiring, educating. Right? And it's the same for you. And so my version of not doing the hard work is getting distracted and saying it's okay because it's this thing that I want to do. But meanwhile, like in order to feed my family and to continue to feed my family, marketing has to be first priority. I have to be thinking about getting in front of people. And it's no different for you, Right? And so what can you look at right now and say, you know what? This isn't growing fast, but it is growing. And while I don't know quite how to fix it yet, I do know that I can make a revision to the best of my ability and make something happen. And I just want to say that, you know, often it's. It's challenging because I see artists that, they'll, like, just kind of give up and they'll blame something else and they'll. They'll blame the algorithm. They'll blame the fact that, like everyone else, like, oh, I have to wear all these hats and do all these roles and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, I'm sorry, like, I hate that too. But you and every other artist is in the same boat. So what are you going to do about it, right? How are you going to handle it? Are you going to, you know, continue to just do the same thing? Because here's the truth, right? If growth is a spiral, right? If we're climbing one step at a time, but you keep abandoning your ideas before they've had time to become good, or you never revise them, you never find. Get feedback from peers or from a coach, or you never actually make changes. Because I see a lot of people, they'll say, well, Lyndon, I've been doing social media for a long time. Well, there's a difference in doing it and doing it well and doing it well consistently. Right? Because if you're not making revisions, you're just kind of doing the same thing over and over again. You're just going in circles. If growth is a spiral and you keep abandoning your ideas before they've had time to become good, or you never revise them, right? Which is the same thing. You're going in circles. And a lot of times it's simply fear that is keeping you from making that revision. It is fear that it won't work because it didn't work, what, once? Because you made five posts in the last month and you're like, well, they're not doing anything right. Yeah, of course they're not. You know, it's like you didn't make five paintings and then all of a sudden you were great at it. Yeah. And I'm sorry that you have to learn some new skills or take on these things, but I'm telling you, it's simpler than what you think. But it takes work, right? And the biggest Part of that work is learning to say, like, who am I and what am I trying to say and what am I trying to bring to the world? And how can I do that? In the most honest way possible, the most ethical way possible, because that's what will get you to stand out. You know, I'm so grateful for all the kind comments that you all have left me, but. But, you know, it's just me being me. Like, that's all it is. I'm just putting this out there because this is me talking about the things that I'm excited about. And that's fun, right? So even though I had distracted myself for two hours and created a new problem today, I sat down and I made the video. Because I know at the end of the day, it's really just about me being me, showing up and serving people in some way. And when we serve instead of sell. And I don't care if you're selling hamburgers or you're selling artwork, it's the same thing, you know, like, you go to a restaurant and someone serves you well, you are going to buy more hamburgers for them, guaranteed. Right? We don't forget those things. So I hope that this is helpful for you and that you find some value in this. And I want to know in the comments below, what's the thing that you keep abandoning that you haven't made enough revisions on yet that you want to fix up and just keep going and keep going and keep going because you know that if you just get good enough, it will work. So it's one thing to have these concepts and these mindsets of, like, how we want to keep moving forward, right? But one of the biggest elements for artists is having a personal brand. It's. It's having something that people say about you when you're not in the room. And if all they can say is, well, they make watercolor paintings or they do this or they do that, that's not enough, right? There needs to be more. And so I have a whole playlist here where I walk you through the mistakes that artists make when it comes to building a personal brand, as well as how to build your personal brand. These are really, really great, great teachings. I think you're going to love it. So go check these videos out. And don't forget, you don't make art. You are the art. I'll see you next time.