The Thriving Christian Artist
The Thriving Christian Artist
436 - How Do I Know If My Work Is Good Enough To Sell?
436 - How Do I Know If My Work Is Good Enough To Sell? 05/23/2023
Podcast Number: 436
Podcast Release Date: 05/23/23
Podcast Description
Being a professional artist, by definition, requires you to sell your art. Selling your art requires buyers to be interested enough to shell out actual money so they can take your work home. And getting buyers interested requires your art to be good - really, really good.
But we aren’t always the best judges of our own work, so it’s hard for an artist just starting out to look at a piece and say, “Yep, that’ll sell.” What artists need are guidelines they can follow to objectively determine whether their art is good enough to sell.
As a long-time professional artist myself, I’ve picked up a lot of the ins and outs of the business, and I usually have a good idea of what’s going to sell. And in this episode of 5-Minute Mentoring, I share my three best ways artists can use to determine if their art is good enough to sell in today’s market. Check it out!
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2️⃣ Learn a New Framework for Living: Watch this free 60-minute, on-demand workshop I created called “How to Start Thriving as the Artist God Created You to Be,” where I share a simple, Kingdom-based framework for living that anyone can use starting today. Click here for details and to enroll! ➡️ https://matttommeymentoring.mykajabi.com/ew-optin-how-to-start-thriving
3️⃣ Connect with God: Discover how to connect with the Lord and discover His intention for you and your art in His Kingdom in my course, How to Connect with God to Create & Sell Your Art. Get more details here ➡️ https://thrive.matttommeymentoring.com/how-to-connect
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
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Have you ever asked yourself, how do I know if my art is even good enough to start selling? Well, I'm going to give you three ways to know here today on 5-Minute Mentoring. Hey there, I'm Matt Tommy, and over the last 10 years, I've helped thousands of Christian artists all over the world start thriving spiritually, artistically, and in the marketplace, while at the same time building my own super successful art business. If you're ready to bust through the roadblocks that have held you back for years, create the work you love, and really live the life you know God created you to live in His King Then you're in the right place, my friend. Now with over a million downloads, you're listening to the Thriving Christian Artist podcast. Hey, my friends, so glad you're with me today here on 5-Minute Mentoring. You know, whether you're just starting out as a hobbyist who's kind of wanting to dip your toe in to start selling your work, or even if you're an emerging artist and you've been, you know, seriously making for a while, but not really selling, but wanting to get into that, you've probably struggled with the question of, how do I know, Matt, if my work is even good enough to start selling? Three ways I think will be pretty easy for you to start implementing right now in your thought process in that. And I'm gonna put all of this in a caveat. My theory on selling art is that somebody will buy it. Regardless if you're just starting out or if it's not your favorite piece or whatever, somebody will buy it. So I think that the main issue is that you just start putting your work out there depending on the price point depending on the market that sort of thing you will begin to have people that will be interested in it for sure especially if you're developing a connection with them in the marketplace but three ways I want to I want to give you today I think will help you you know understand is your work really in the best place it could be to really start selling and you know being available in the marketplace the first thing I would say is this As you're sharing your work on social media, as people are seeing it, friends and family, church, people in the community, wherever you may be showing your work or people be seeing your work, are they asking you? Are people saying, wow, that is so beautiful. Is that for sale? Do you do commissions? You're just learning to listen to the market. And that's a skill that's never going to get old for you. As you're both an artist and an entrepreneur, you got to keep an ear to what you're your clients are wanting and saying. And so starting out with that is just great practice. So are people asking you? If they're starting to ask you, that's a great practice. place to start and say, hey, well, maybe I'm ready to start putting it out there. Secondly, I would do some research and look at other people that are in your artistic genre or style and look at, you know, how their work compares to your work or rather yours compares to theirs. People, artists who you admire who are working in the same style, but maybe further down the road. When you look at it legit, You know, when you look at it, you're like, all right, I'm putting my work up against theirs. What do I see about theirs that's better than mine? What do I see about mine that's different from theirs? How's the level of finish? How are they framing or displaying their work? How is it packaged? Just all of the different things. Give yourself a real world comparison with other people whose work you know is selling in the marketplace. Then thirdly, and I think this can just really probably be the most invaluable, is to either ask a seasoned artist that you trust in your genre, comma, a gallerist or gallery owner that is buying and selling the kind of work that you want to do, or a peer that is making and selling the kind of work that you want to sell, that you respect, that's doing that successfully. Ask one or all of them for a legitimate gut level critique. as they look at your work and they consider it for their gallery or for sales in the marketplace, what input would they give you? And you can do that very easily. You can say, hey, you know what? I'm really getting serious about my art. I think I'm trying to, I want to start selling it, but I want to make sure that I'm covering all my bases. I wanted to know if you would give me a gut level, honest opinion of my art and things that I could grow in. And I'm not trying to get a backdoor into you selling my work in your store or whatever it is. I'm just looking for some honest feedback, and I really trust your opinion. That would go a long, long way. I can think of so many people over the years who I've trusted with that kind of relationship in my life to really speak in to my creative process and speak into what I was doing creatively, and it just yields huge, huge returns when you can have your work critiqued by somebody that you trust and somebody that you know is successful in the marketplace. All right. Doing those three things will really, really help you. And I hope that you'll take at least one of them and put it into practice today in your life. All right. I love you, my friend. And remember, until next time, you were created to thrive. Bye.