The KEY INGREDIENT To An Authentic Brand.

So you may feel like no matter how good your art is, you're just failing to connect, right? You pour your heart and soul into this work. You post it online. You're putting, you know, some sort of process video or something out there. You're just sharing any way that you know how, and it's still not connecting. Something's missing. So why is it that some artists seem to effortlessly build, you know, a following, while others seem to struggle, you know, even though they have a ton of talent? So what if the missing piece isn't your art? What if it's something else? Because if you're like most artists that I come across, you want people to invest in your work, both emotionally and financially. You'd like to be compensated for what you do, and you should be. In order to get people to pay you, they got to trust you. And in order for people to trust you, they got to feel like they know you. And in order for people to feel like they know you, they need to know your story. See, people knowing your story is the best way to get people to connect with and trust you so they will actually purchase the work that you create. See, 91% of consumers value honesty and authenticity in the brands that they follow. And whether you like it or not, you're a brand. So as someone who's been very fortunate to help a lot of artists and creatives grow their audiences online, be able to develop real revenue streams, and sell their work, I'm really excited to share this information with you today. So today I'm going to talk about the biggest mistakes that you're making online by when you're telling your story. We're gonna talk about what makes a good story, and then we're gonna talk about when you should tell your story so you know you're not doing it at the wrong times and how to do it in a way that doesn't feel repetitive, like you're just kind of wearing your audience out.

So one of the biggest mistakes that I see artists make when it comes to sharing their story online and is that they just share their artist statement, right? And we'll talk about, you know, your artist statement in a whole other series. But for now, you know, I want you to see that your artist statement is not your story. And the big thing that I see artists want to do all the time is when they tell their story, they're always just trying to tell the story of the work. But when you only tell the story of the work, right, you're really missing an opportunity to get people to connect with you on a human to human level. So what I want you to consider is if you took your art away from you and you no longer had that in front of you, who are you? Right? And rather than starting by telling the story of your art, you can start by telling your story and then leading them to the art. I always like to get real practical, right, because you're running a business here. So think about this in terms of a plumber. I think a plumber is such a logical example. If a plumber came to you and they said, these pipes are, you know, copper plated with blah blah, blah, and quarter inch thick, blah, blah, blah, and you know, you'd be like, great, I don't care. Like, what is the thing that you're going to do for me? Put it in terms of someone like a plumber or, you know, a carpenter. And would it still work? Would it still be exciting? Put yourself in this scenario. For example, if you go to a party, right, and you end up chatting with somebody and you find out that both of you absolutely love to journal, right? And you guys start talking about journaling. And now you're hearing this person's story around what got them into journaling in the first place. And then you ask this person, what do you do for a living? What do they say? I'm a plumber. What are you gonna say? Oh, my gosh, I have a leaky pipe. Would you be willing to come fix it? Why does this work? Because we see in this moment, when we hear their story, that they share similar values to us. And now we would love to have them be a part of our world because we trust them. So don't get caught in this trap of trying to make everything about the story of your art. Just be willing to. To tell your story as a human being. So to recap, your artist statement is not your story. And your story is not just the story of your art. It is the story of you as a human being. But what makes a good story, because it's one thing to know the mistakes is another thing to know how to make it better.

So when I ask someone to tell their story, they usually tell it this way. Well, I was born here around this time, and then I moved to blank, and then I went here, and then I went to art school, and then I discovered this. And then I. And then I. And then I. And then I. Right? This is actually a series of events. This is not a story. So I want to simplify this for you, right? A story has four elements, right? It has a character. In this instance, that character is you. This character has to want something. So in your life story, maybe you always wanted to help people connect deeper with themselves and see their own personal value, but there's always a problem, right? So maybe the problem that came up is that despite you wanting to do this, you couldn't see your own internal value first. And then the fourth element is that there's a solution, some sort of transformation that happens. So the solution could have been I ended up finding a life coach or a therapist that helped me get through this time, and I was able to see my own personal worth and value and learned X, Y, and Z. And now I know that when I bring that back to these people that need that very thing, it's not only helping me because I'm rediscovering who I've become, but it's helping them because it's meeting them where they're at. So. So a story is not a series of events. It is a character who wants something and then has to overcome something to get it. And there's some sort of transformation on the other side of that. And mind you, when you think about it, you might have multiple versions of your life story, depending on which part of it you're in. So this is also really cool because now you can pull pieces out, right? It doesn't have to be, because beginning to end, it can be like, in the context of what I want to talk about, this version of my story is the most powerful.

Next, we need to talk about when you should tell your story. The answer is all the time, right? Remember how I talked about, depending on the context of what you're trying to say, you can pull chunks of your story out. Tell that. So I think about this in terms of my kiddos, right? If I want to teach my kiddos a lesson, then there are moments where I get to tell them, yeah, like, you know, I'm just being real here, girls. Like, I know very well that alcohol is not necessarily a bad thing, or at least we don't view it that way. But I can tell you that if you don't respect it, it can absolutely create bad events in your life. Because I went through a period where I became a social alcoholic, I've seen what it can do when you get carried away, right? So this personal experience that I've had, I can take to my kids and really teach them something without needing to be some sort of master or guru or anything like that. It's just me sharing my experience so they can see the context from where I'm coming from. Right. And when you do it this way, you're doing what Matthew Dix calls story mining. You're looking for little things that have happened in your life that you can pull out and talk about, and you can use these stories over and over and over again. This obviously helps you prevent from being overly repetitive, but I want to remind you that, you know, when you're out there being an artist who's building an art business, it is not your responsibility to create something new every single time you make a piece of content. Every single time you're, like, marketing your work. I would encourage you to have in the beginning, three to five, like, little stories that you know you're going to tell over and over again to keep it really, really simple. And remember that when you remind your people, sometimes your people just need to be reminded as much as they need to be taught or to learn something new. So consider that. And also consider that when you're making stuff, you're really trying to reach new people all the time, not constantly cater to the old people. And the more that we feel like we know someone's story and we hear it, it's reaffirming. It's like, I already knew that. Like, I'm excited to feel like I'm a part of this person's life in some way. So tell your story as much as you can. Start with three to five stories that you know you can tell really well that you'd be excited to share with your people, and then do it over and over again. Get better and better at telling those stories. Keep your engaged audience clued in and make them feel like they're a part of something, like they're inside on your life. And allow those new people to get to know you as you're creating these. So now that we know why your story matters and a little bit about some of the mistakes that we see, how do you go about crafting it? Well, well, in the next video, we're going to talk about that very thing. But if you're up for a challenge, before you go into that video, map out three to five stories that you know you want to talk to your audience about that that really shares who you are as a human being, not just as an artist. And then when you're ready, click on this video and we'll start crafting that story together.