Partnerships on your professional artist journey

For the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about how you can share your work with someone else’s audience.

If you haven’t had a chance to test it out for yourself yet,
we’ll be talking a bit more about how to do this in our next live Zoom webinar,
The 5 Steps to Start & Grow the Business Side of Your Art on May 3rd.

(This time in Europe & Asia Pacific friendly timezone — as promised!
But you can register to watch the recording within 24h through the same link)

It’s basically all you need to know to build $3,000+ per month in art-related income
using predictable, repeatable systems
instead of guesswork, failure, and constant doubt.

(Click here to claim your seat if you want in.)

For today, we’ll just recap the process briefly:

Sharing Your Work with Someone Else’s Audience

First, get clear on your unique artist niche.
Ask yourself what 2 or 3 key words are at the heart of your work.

Next, search for potential collaboration partners (podcasts, facebook groups, newsletters…) who serve an audience interested in those same key words.

For example:

A- What topic(s) is your artwork about? (visually if figurative, conceptually if abstract)

• (e.g. “horse portraits”)

B- Who are the target audiences that resonates with your core topic?

• (e.g. horse owners, horse riding, Western lifestyle…)

C- Who serves that audience?

• (e.g. horseback riding centers, rodeos, horseback riding gear companies (saddles, boots, pants, helmets… ), horse breeding podcasts, horse training newsletters…)

Reach out to (C) with a genuine connection (you both love horses!)
Offer them value: sharing your perspective as an artist with their audience.
Ask if they are interested.

If you don’t hear back, remember to follow up.
Be kind — to yourself as well, if you encounter people who say no.
Because if you keep reaching out, the right way,
the magic will happen…

Someone will offer to feature you to their audience, for free.

It takes some thought and a little research to find the right fit.
And maybe this way of reaching out is new for you.

But this is how you can share your art with 1000s of new people
from just a single conversation with someone you respect.

You might feel stuck on exactly what to say
or how to go about searching for these kinds of collaborations.

We’ll cover some quick examples in the webinar.

But first, let’s talk about something that may be holding you back in your career.

“I’m Not a Marketer!”

Someone reacted strongly to the last piece we shared, about pitching to a potential partner.

“I’m not a marketer or a pitcher… I only paint.

I am pretty much a recluse and I even hate talking on the phone. I’m hopeless!”

(Hint: collaborations can be purely in written/visual form, it does not have to be live)

A lot of artists are so turned off by business words

that they dismiss the very concepts themselves —

even when they desperately want the results that those ideas can bring

Let’s try a quick experiment:

How does reading these words make you feel?

• Networking

• Self-promotion

• Marketing

• Pitching

Are you cringing?

Totally disgusted at the thought of sales gimmicks for fine art? for YOUR art?

Exhausted, drained, even hopeless … because allthis stuff is the total opposite of anything you ever wanted to do?

(Stay with us here. It gets better…)

If yes, then for you — those words carry toxic energy.

And so it’s the reputation of those words — rather than what they really are once you understand it how to do it right — that give you a headache just thinking about them.

We know this because we’ve helped countless of artists

discover new ways to reach collectors who will buy their work.

And many of them were skeptical about “marketing” language too.

So drop the marketing lingo.

Collaborating with someone else who has a big audience

is one of those ways to help your art reach new collectors.

It’s NOT about being manipulative, selfish,

trying to use other people as stepping stones to get where you want to go.

In fact, it´s the opposite: it is about thinking of OTHERS before YOURSELF.

Starting a sincere conversation to build a bond comes first.

Offering them something of genuine value comes next.

Only if they accept is it ok to ask for something that benefits you also.

In fact, often they will want to help you in return without you asking.

Creating opportunity in this way aligns with your creative energy.

So instead of “networking“,

you’re creating genuine relationships with others passionate about your topics.

Rather than “self-promotion“,

you’re helping your artwork see the light (it can´t do it by itself! it needs your help).

You’re not “marketing” —

you’re offering the people who like your art an opportunity to acquire it

And “pitching” an idea to someone?

You’re starting a conversation to see how you can help them.

So if even the word “selling” makes you think you’re “selling out“,

you can do one of three things:

1. Pour all your energy into creating art, with the hope that if you just work hard enough, someone will notice (how is that working so far…?)
2. Give up entirely, because you’ve already tried someone else’s advice — it didn’t work.
3. Be open to a different mindset…
   some words that may hold a new meaning for you as an artist…and a variety of ways to connect with people who like your art.

Listen to Shreya talk about it in her own words, here.