Lennon Bone moved from touring musician to studio artist and argues that confidence and making people feel something matter more than talent. He shares what it actually takes to build a career in art.
If you're trying to make a living or any sort of income from your creative work, then I'm about to try to make the argument that becoming a professional artist is impossible.
All right, so when I was coming out of touring lifestyle, if you don't know, I was a touring musician for 10 years, and then I went into doing more studio work full time. And now all this is going to apply to you. No matter if you're a visual artist or, you know, a musician, it doesn't matter. But when I was starting to do more studio work, I had my prices really low because I was afraid that my outward perception wasn't professional enough, meaning I didn't think that the website was strong enough. I needed to get more of a body of work, all those kinds of things. And I was fortunate to have a mentor who told me, you know, Lennon, just start charging more money. If you want to be seen as a professional, then just think of yourself as a professional, and don't wait for all the other stuff to be in line first. And so, because I actually trusted this guy a lot, I did that. I just went to my next potential client and said, here's my rates. And it was way more than I had ever charged before. And I told them what I wanted to do, and I got excited, and I just, like, had a lot of passion for where the project could go. And I expressed that to them, and sure enough, they said yes. And we ended up working together. And not only did I make good money for the project, but I had to step my game up. Like, I ended up working better because I was working with better people. I got more confident because of it. But what actually changed during all that? I didn't go and get better at my craft. I didn't update my website. I didn't change all of my branding, and I didn't do any of these tactics that we talk about so much. It really comes down to two things, so let's talk about those real quick.
So the two things I really focused on were, one, believing in myself. I'm not talking about having an ego. I'm talking about confidence. And confidence doesn't come right away. What you hear in that little story is, is that confidence came first with action. I took action, and that action created clarity. And then I got more confident afterwards. So don't look for confidence first. Just take action. And the second thing I focused on was making somebody feel something. You know, I realized, like, they wanted to feel like they were operating at a professional level, too, with a professional. Right? So If I showed up acting like an amateur, including charging amateur prices, then they were going to feel like they were dealing with an amateur scenario. All right, it's lunchtime. We're post Thanksgiving. I smoked a baller turkey, so I'm going to make a turkey sandwich. Look at that. I mean, you don't get much better than that. Most important thing for any good sandwich is the hot sauce. Pineapple habanero. All right, I'm going to make this little lunch, and then we'll. We'll come back and talk.
All right, let's take a little. A little bite. Let's get into it. So I love this idea that there's only good and bad art, that there's not, like professional and amateur artists. And I love that because it. It just levels the playing field for everybody, right?
And really, it's true. It's a reminder that it's not whether or not you have the best technique, the best website, the best sales strategy. You know, it's really, are you making somebody feel something? I talk a lot about this inside my program. When you're trying to get somebody to buy your art or get them to buy your creative service, you're not really getting them to buy a thing. You're getting them to buy a feeling, right? They have to feel something before they'll take action with you. What does your technique make the viewer feel? What does your art make them feel? What do your lyrics make them feel? What does your story as the artist make them feel? What is your product, the thing that you're trying to sell? What does that make them feel? I think all art is intended to make somebody feel something. And I think even you, despite having maybe a rickety website or like, inconsistent social media, you can still make that happen. You of all people can make that happen. And why do I know this? Because you're a human. And at the end of the day, all we're striving to do is connect with other humans. It's why we're all on the Internet doing the thing that we're doing right now.
If there's anything that I've learned over time, it's that I didn't become a professional creative artist. Whatever it was, all I did was take action. I made a ton of mistakes along the way. I believed in what I was doing, and I took action. And I believed before it was real. I had to believe in me. Despite my imperfections and mistakes. I just made stuff and put it out there with its imperfections, and I fixed it as I went along I was never an amateur or a professional. I just made good and bad stuff. And the best part about that is that the bad stuff helped me to make my good stuff better. So I'm just out here still making like bad stuff and good stuff. And with that, you know, I hope in the end that I end up making something great. There's a lot of nuance to all of this and you may be saying like, well, how do I start to make more money as an artist? I think it's really a mindset thing and I want you to go watch this video right here where I talk about why artists aren't making money right now. I think this is going to be incredibly helpful for you if you found this video to be helpful at all. So I'll see you over in this video and thanks so much for being here. Don't forget to subscribe. Do whatever it is that you do.
