Lennon Bone explores why artists struggle with money and how to reframe it as energy and appreciation. She shares stories about a boss who pushed her to ask for more pay and argues that earning more lets you grow and help others, not just survive.
For some of you, you've had a lot of people in your life that maybe have had money that weren't very good people. They use money, let's be real, in our government and all these things, to do a lot of really shitty things.
Let's talk about making money as an artist in a very, very transparent way. Because I think when artists think about making money, two things happen. One, you feel like, well, I don't want to be salesy, or I don't want to be whatever, Right? Or you feel like I don't want. I don't. I'm not driven by money. And so today I want to talk about the truth around making money as an artist and what I feel like it actually means. But just know that it's not about making money at all. It's not about making money at all. This is a very, very real conversation based on some stuff that I'm personally going through. So, uh, let's jump into it. What's up, everybody? My name is Lennon. Welcome to the Stop the Starving Artist podcast. I'm so grateful that you're here. Seeing artists in my community make over $380,000 this year so far. And we still got about a month and a half left, which is really, really exciting. So let's talk about this M word money.
I had a boss that told me something that was maybe the most powerful thing that I had ever heard in terms of making money. Because when I went in and I applied to work for him, and this was my first and only salary job, now I've since left and gone on my own because I'm a terrible employee. But he said, how much do you want to get paid? And I said, I don't know, like, 35, $40,000 would be great. And he was like, oh, well, I think you're really undercutting yourself. I think you should make at least 60.
If not more. I was like, whoa, that's wild. I've never had someone tell me that I should be making more money as a creative first.
I've always felt like the value that I had wasn't worth a lot of money. I've since changed that mindset. But in that moment.
I realized something.
Money.
Creates a boundary.
If we're not careful.
But if we treat it as opportunity, it creates community, it creates a relationship. This is one of the most powerful things that I think we can learn as creative people, is that money is just energy. The thing he told me that was really great is if you think of money, it's really just Token of appreciation. It's my way of saying thank you for your hard work. Right? And what does that do? That reciprocates into me getting me excited about doing better work. And so it wasn't about money, it was about energy. Again, it wasn't about money. It was about energy. And for some of you, you may be this place where money to you, you've had a lot of people in your life that maybe have had money that weren't very good people, or you see a lot of people in our culture that have a lot of money that aren't great people, and they use money, let's be real, in our government and all these things, to do a lot of really shitty things.
This is why I'm so adamant about the fact that we need more creatives to. To have more money, because more money means more energy being put into the world. And the person who holds that money also extinguishes that energy or puts that energy out there based on the energy that they have. Like, I see this all the time when I am fortunate enough to go to a restaurant and I tip like someone. Well.
It can be just a tip or it can be an energy exchange. We went to a restaurant recently, and my kiddo was like, oh, this server's doing so good. You know, my kiddo's nine. And we said, well, you should tell them. Like, tell her. She's going to really appreciate that. And so they did. And we found out that they were. This server was saving money to buy her dad's house. And I was like, wow, that's crazy. Just to help him, right? And so we tipped her really well, and you could see the tears in her eyes because it was not just, hey, here's a good tip. It was, hey, thank you. This is a token of appreciation not just for what you did for us, but what you're doing for the world, what you're doing for your dad, what you're doing for. For all these things, right?
And it's really fascinating because your business needs money to survive. Your art business needs money to survive, but it is not about making money.
Your art business, and this is the thing that I have learned the hard way, and this has been my whole experience this year. Whatever you are in, whatever you are choosing right now to do, to put your time and effort into it, is not there just to be the thing that gets you to do whatever it is you're doing. So if you're trying to make money as an artist, you don't have that desire just so you can make money as an artist, guaranteed. Right? You have that desire because that is how you will grow as a human being.
How many of you know this to be true? That the things that you refuse to put your time and effort into because they're hard or they're scary are also the things that would grow you the most as a person, that would help you get past a fear, that would help you move on to something that, you know, would make you a better version of yourself. Because you can't hold.
This frequency of.
I want to call it, you know, appreciation or whatever. Right? You can't hold that if you don't first appreciate yourself. I'm saying this again from experience. I have had to learn how to see my value from the moment that my boss said, you deserve double what you're making.
And so I don't want to go on and on about this, but I just want you to think on this as an idea. I want you to write down five things, five reasons that you deserve to make more money and what that money would do for you and what that money would do for the world.
And then on top of that, how would you grow as a human if you made that money? How would you have to grow as a person?
And when you figure that out, drop it in the comments because I want to know. I want to celebrate it with you. Okay? Sending you all tons of love. I'll be back with more videos shortly. I'm going through some stuff, but I think I'm getting back on track here. And don't forget, you don't make art. You are the art. See you soon.
