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Mastering Your Mind

Marketing starts in your mind. So the first step is to fix your mind.

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Mastering Your Mind

It’s never about the thing. It’s all about the mind. It doesn’t matter if it’s business, engineering, medicine, pro sports, relationships, parenting, friendship, socialization, or anything else. It’s all mind. Nothing else. - Kapil Gupta

Marketing starts in your mind. So the first step is to fix your mind.

An artist said to me, "I feel like it’s hard for me to entice people with my email newsletters and don’t want to be cheesy so I hardly do them."

This is a common, but dangerous mindset for your art practice.

Assuming you haven't "cheated", meaning you haven't used deceptive or misleading methods in the way you've built your newsletter list, your list is populated by fans, past buyers, patrons and potential students. These are people who look up to you. These are people, for whom you're a minor "rock star."

There is nothing about your art, the inspiration and stories behind your art, or other details about your studio or exhibit schedule that is "spammy" or “cheesy” to your followers, unless you allow some marketing coach to sell you own using spammy techniques to artificially juice engagement.

On the contrary, in a world full of spam, scams, bad news, and in-your-face advertisements, the beauty and inspiration that you, an artist, provide is a welcome respite for most people.

Your emails provide a simple human connection with someone your fans admire, someone in whom they are interested, and someone whom they respect.

Research that our team has done indicates that newsletters about art have some of the highest open rates across all industries. Try not to forget that many people wish that they could do what you do.

With that in mind, ask yourself, why wouldn't your fans and buyers be interested in hearing from you? The answer is, they are interested.

Think about this: Can you imagine Taylor Swift not wanting to “bother” her fans with an announcement about her newest music? Can you imagine how disappointed those fans would be if she promised them insider access, but then released tickets to the general public without notifying them first?

When you allow the false thoughts your mind creates to stop you from communicating with your fans, that's what you are doing. You're disappointing them. If the people on your list are true fans, you are disappointing them when you doubt yourself.

As much as it might bother you to think so, you are a micro-celebrity to your followers.

What is a microcelebrity?

“Microcelebrity is the phenomenon of being extremely well known not to millions, but to a small group - a thousand people, or maybe only a few dozen. As DIY media reach ever deeper into our lives, it's happening to more and more of us....[If you engage in online information publishing via web sites, blogs, and newsletters] odds are there are complete strangers who know about you -- and maybe even talk about you.

- Clive Thompson, Wired Magazine, issue 15.12.

That definition of micro-celebrity was written long ago, before the rise of social media and influencers, but it still rings true. A micro-celebrity generally has a smaller number of followers than an influencer, but a micro-celebrity’s fans are far more invested in the micro-celebrity’s art, writing or whatever they are known for.

Let me illustrate with an example from years ago:

I conduct the all of BoldBrush’s (and FASO’s) business online, so I don’t interact much with the vast majority of our readers. Several years ago, we attended the Oil Painters of America exhibition as a sponsoring vendor. I set up a booth to demonstrate our software and was present at the show for two days. I had enlisted the help of a photographer friend to assist me with manning the booth. At this point, I had been publishing our free newsletter for a year or two.

As the show progressed, a constant stream of artists, art industry experts, art collectors and acquaintances approached the booth to greet me. Everyone seemed to already know who I was and wanted to say hello. It was a bit of a strange feeling.

My photographer friend turned to me and said, "Dude - you're a rock star!"

Actually, I was fairly uncomfortable being described as a "rock star.” Those who read my writing regularly have probably picked up on the fact that I like to remain kind of "low key." I'm certainly not a rock star but, the point is, that to my friend, it seemed like I was famous. And indeed to a small group of people....I am.

And you are too! If I can accomplish this with a blog, a software service and a newsletter, I've shown that it's not that hard to become a micro-celebrity. Andy Warhol got it wrong. It’s not that in the future we all got fifteen minutes of fame. It’s more like we all became “famous” to fifteen people. For an artist, this process should be far easier. Creating art is far higher status, impressive and beautiful than what I did at that time which is simply write software.

For most people artists are glamorous and represent something they consider fun and interesting. You must purge your destructive mental thoughts. You are not spamming or bothering people, you are sharing exciting news with your fans. This isn't "made up" just to convince you to send a newsletter. This is reality. Just pay attention to how people react when they find out you (or someone) is an artist. They immediately start asking questions. Or telling you how they wish they could create art. Or telling you about art they've collected or a friend or family member who paints. People find artists fascinating, so fascinate them.

If you can fix your mind, you can fix everything in your art practice.

What you think is what you get.

Creatively,

Clint Watson
BoldBrush Founder
Creativity Fanatic

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