346 - 5-Minute Mentoring: 3 Secrets for Growing an Art Business

Whether you’re just starting out in your art business or you’ve been at it awhile, chances are once the excitement of stepping out in faith wears off, you are going to start wondering…

How do I actually make this work?  😳

I was in the same boat myself when I started out - struggling to turn my art from a hobby to a business that could sustain me and my family…

…and into the kind of success I felt God had in store for me.  

So in this episode of 5-Minute Mentoring, I’m going to help you get through this uncertain period of transition by sharing with you some of the most important things I’ve learned in my journey.  

Take a listen as I reveal 3 of my biggest secrets for growing your art business - I think you’ll see how you can put them into practice yourself.  And when you do, you’ll be that much closer to the artist God has created you to be.  

Could you use some guidance on how to build a business that helps you thrive spiritually, artistically, and financially?  Here are 4 ways I can help: 

1️⃣  Get my FREE Guide, “5 Biggest Mistakes Artists Make When Pricing Their Art” Struggling to price your art in a way that feels authentic to you and your faith - but still makes you money?  Make sure you’re not making any of these mistakes! Download here ➡️  https://thrive.matttommeymentoring.com/5-biggest-mistakes-when-pricing-art

2️⃣  Read the Book: Check out my book “How to Price Your Art: Pricing with Confidence for Sales & Profit” on Amazon ➡️  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097XBP733

3️⃣  Create Art and Profit: Discover how to create the art you love while still providing for yourself financially in my “How to Price Your Art” workshop.
Get more details here ➡️  https://thrive.matttommeymentoring.com/how-to-price-your-art-evergreen

4️⃣  Ready to truly thrive?  Join the Created to Thrive Artist Mentoring Program to discover how to build your art business and live the abundant life Jesus promised you as an artist in His Kingdom! Click here for details and to enroll!  ➡️  https://www.matttommeymentoring.com/artmentor.html

Connect with me online: https://thrive.matttommeymentoring.com/stay-connected

Transcript

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Artists are always asking me, Matt, what's the secret to growing my art business to one like you've had over the years? Well, I'm going to give you really three of my biggest secrets today here on 5-Minute Mentoring, all about growing your art business. Music God created you to be. Well, hey, my friend, it's Matt. So glad that you're with me today here on 5-Minute Mentoring. You know, I didn't start out having a really successful art business. In fact, I went through a lot of junk, probably like you're struggling with and trying to grow your art business over the years. But there was a moment where things began to transform in my life, where that business went from a hobby to an emerging business to then six figures and then multiple six figures over the years, where I started just I started out doing things that I knew would sell to actually creating the work that I loved and connected with my best clients and all that sort of thing. And as I look back, there were really three differentiating secrets, three really needle movers, if you will, for me in that journey. And they're the same things that I teach inside of our Created to Thrive Artist Mentoring Program for Artists that really will help you to grow your art business in a much more accelerated and sustainable way. So I want to give those to you today, at least just kind of get you thinking about these concepts. The first thing is differentiation. That is, you have to have the ability to set yourself apart in the marketplace, not just from an art perspective, but also from a marketing perspective, the way that you tell your story, the way you present yourself to the market, the thing that you do creatively, all of that sets you apart. And that really is what people are looking for that are buying original art. I think to myself over the years, you know, I've made baskets, which is not very special. There are a lot of people that made baskets out of there. But when I begin to take something very simple, which is basketry techniques that have been around anciently, and I begin to turn those into sculpture, and I begin to interpret those in a unique and different way, and I begin to then market those and tell a story around those in a way that set me apart in the marketplace, that differentiation began to move me out of the place of competition and into the place where I could really grow as an artist, where there was nobody else who was competing with me. I really had my own blue water, as we say in the marketing world. There's nobody around me. So differentiation for you is absolutely huge. Number two is relationships. See, a lot of people think that the art business is about art and it is, but really the art business is the people business. You're in the people business and you're in the business of developing and cultivating and maintaining relationships with who? Other artists, with your clients, with your prospects, with strategic partners, so that you can build not only a niche of clients, but also this network that is thinking about and referring you every day, all day long. That begins to develop an incredible amount of loyalty and an incredible amount of, you camaraderie in the market so that you're not out there doing this thing alone, but you're developing this relationship, this community, if you will, that will support you and refer to you and send you business all along the way. When I look at my business and the businesses of so many artists that I help grow inside the mentoring program, it's the people that will invest in relationships that see acceleration and really great growth over time, sustained growth over time, that up into the right movement that we're all looking for in business. It comes out of relationships, all right? So number one, differentiation. Number two, relationships. Number three is leverage. There will be a point in your business where you realize, hey, there's too much to do by myself. I can't do it all. And unless you begin to learn the concept of leverage, which we teach inside the mentoring program and start learning how to find people to help you along the way, find processes that make it easier, find ways to get done what you need to do faster, you're going to actually create a plateau in your business where you can't grow any further than what you're able to do just by yourself the way you've always been doing it. I remember being in ministry years ago, we would always, you know, you could look at a church and And you could tell very easily whether they had learned the principle of leverage and of delegation because when you look at the average size of a church in the United States, it's actually under 100 members. And you know what that tells me? That tells me that that's about the size that one pastor can handle by their self. And when you look at the size of the average art business out there in the world, it usually stays really, really small. You know why? Because... Most artists don't learn the principle of leverage. They don't ask for help. They don't find other people to help them along the way. They don't find other ways to bring processes and people into their business that can speed things up and allow them to get back to doing the things that actually make sense for them. Things like, you know, maybe finding a studio assistant to do some of the production work, maybe finding somebody to photograph your artwork, maybe finding somebody to help you build your website. What about all the taxes and the accounting side of things. Those things matter. Those things take up time. And unless you learn the principle of leverage and employ it in your business, it can be a really detrimental factor in your business. So listen, if you will differentiate yourself, if you will develop meaningful relationships, if you will learn the principle of leverage, I promise you those three secrets will help you grow your art business in a huge way this year. Listen, my whole job in life is raising up an army of artists to help you thrive in everything that God's called you to spiritually, artistically, and in business. I'd love to be able to help you grow your art business and take your hobby into that faithful income stream that God has for you. There's some great resources that are right here in the description below and in the show notes. Just click on one of those and let's take the next step and let's help make this year your best year ever as an artist. I love you, my friend. Remember, until next time, you were created to thrive bye