Mark E Shellshear.

  We all understand that in the Art business there are no guarantees, so it’s better to be the one who is stepping out and trying new and challenging things, than to be the one who always talks themselves out of doing something new because of fear. The one who never tries, never wins and has no chance of ever being successful, failed before starting. The reason a lot of people never try is the fear of criticism, what others will say or think about them. You must give yourself permission and be the one to step out and bring change, the Art world is waiting for you. .

  I always encourage Artists to get the email address of all their customers so they can follow them up and send them their monthly newsletter. Most Artists never contact a customer after they sell a painting to them. Why is this? We don’t want to bother them? Or they are we afraid they don’t like the painting now and will want their money back? Imagine if we contacted them and they are very happy with their painting and love having it hang on their wall and would like to see your new work. W ouldn’t that be a wonderful surprise?

One of the most interesting things I see in the Art world is the rush of Artists to follow fads and trends in the belief that they are first, when really they are just part of the crowd . This is certainly not the best way to be a successful Artist and get the attention of strangers. The problem with being lost in the crowd of the same is you do not stand out, but it makes you invisible. You would be far better to do different and original work and race ahead where no one else sees a path and deliberately hold back from going where the crowd wants to go. Conforming to crowd think and b eing invisible is fine if that is what you want for your career , but it’s very hard for an invisible Artist to get the public's attention. It is far better to stand out and get the attention of strangers, because once we get there attention, we then have the opportunity to sell our Art to them. Don’t think you can’t do it, know you can do it. Change your thinking and you will change...

  N ot everyone will like your Art especially if you are doing really new and different work. M ost want to recognize what they see and buy what others are buying. The lesson to be learned in the Art business is that you cannot please everyone and if you do original work you will be misunderstood by some. Always be true to your own vision and your Art and educate people about your work , e specially people who have never seen anything like it before and win them over . T hat is why I love story telling my Art, it educates the viewer and videos do this as well. We are only for our people, the ones that love our work and they are the ones we created it for. Tell new people why you do what you do, the more people we can win over to become our people, the bigger our Art business will grow.

  Most people are busy, some very busy, because busy is safe, but are they doing the important work? Create and sell, that’s the important work. Just these two. Everything else we do must be to support these two functions, if it’s not, we are not working. We may be busy and many are very busy, but work is creating and selling, for without these two functions none of us have a business. A business must have a product or service and it must sell it. So look at what makes you busy and ask yourself, is it supporting the two most important things I do, create and sell?

  I n the Art business there will be some difficult times, we are not just painting wonderful paintings but there is the constant pressure to get sales. Don’t give up when it’s hard, push through the hard, stick to your goals, you will make it. Don’t let the pain of one setback destroy the joy of all the other achievements in your life.   Don’t judge life by only one event or one person.  Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come.  Always r emember the promise s of scripture, “ The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance and diligent hands bring wealth.”   Life is not one event, so plan your life and work hard at making that plan a reality.

  This means doing more than you said you would do, not less. That you keep your promise or better you over deliver on your promised. You said you would deliver in four weeks and you delivered in three. I received your wonderful painting and you included a small gift for me and a beautiful hand written note thanking me and I am overjoyed. You over delivered and that was not part of our contract and I am amazed, you made me happy. Value adding is the secret to word of mouth.

  I am amazed that someone would send this to me. “ Let the artwork talk not the artist.” My first reaction was to come back at them but then I thought better to ask the question, “Why would someone say this to me?” First they probably do not know my opinion on this subject or they are making a statement disagreeing with me, but lets go back and look at this statement. Most Artists who say this are unable to confront the fear/thief, because it’s scary talking to strangers and this is a great excuse for not having to talk about your Art to strangers. They would also tell me that none of their friends talk about their Art so they can all sit back and justify the statement, “Let the artwork talk not the artist,” because they all agree. Yet it is so wrong and stops so many Artists from selling their work. Art works do not speak. Yes some people experience an emotion when they look at Art, but the Art work is not speaking it is the catalyst that stimulates the persons em...

  Why do many collectors go straight to the price and try and get the Artist to lower it? Because the Artist often gives the customer nothing else to talk about. They answer questions with a yes or no and don’t talk about the work and why they did it. It is the intangible value that you give to the customer that will justify the price. The story you tell about the joy of making the Art piece, how it developed and what inspired you to create it and expressing that to the customer. How much you love the piece and you hope that they love it also. How it is some of the best work you have done and sharing your enthusiasm for the piece, talking about all these things keeps the conversation centred on the Art work and why it is so wonderful. Or you can let the customer go straight to the price.

  Who is going to select me, where do I line up? Who is going to give me their approval? Is this the right line? You will never know when its your opportunity to be successful, because everyone else is waiting to be called also, but they haven't started calling people yet. The line to be selected is very long and only seems to move when the people in front of you give up, but they haven’t started selecting yet. Yes stay in line because this what the other Artists are doing, hopefully it must be right thing to do. Why am I staying in line and who are “they”? The only person who will give you approval is yourself, so give yourself approval and change the Art world, no one will stop you. You make your own opportunity to be successful, work on it now. There is only one person who will select you and that is you. Get out of that line that everyone else is in because it is going nowhere it’s hopeless, you don’t need to be in that line find your own way your allowed. There are ...

  Success is not based on luck or chance, it is based on people who believe in themselves and are prepared to do what it takes to succeed. You have to get the words “I can’t do that,” out of your mental vocabulary and replace it with, “ I will give it a go,” or “ I will do that,” or “ I will find a way to do that.” When faced with a problem you want to solve or something you want to do, don’t say “ This is to difficult to do,” or “ I can’t see an answer here,” because you won’t see an answer and it will be to difficult to do, because your mind will not argue with you it will confirm what you have said. Better to say to yourself,  “  What would I have to do to fix this?” “  What would I have to change to make this happen?” Ask yourself positive inquiring questions and your mind will search out positive ideas for you, then write down the ideas that come to you, because most times if you don’t write it down you will forget. Do this when you are faced with ...

  Seek the unique opportunity that makes a place for you and your Art. Where you sell your Art may not work for others and where they sell may not work for you. We all need to seek that unique opportunity that works for us, don’t look to others, look within. For some, galleries may be the answer, but with so many more Artists today, that journey will be out of the question and they will have to find their unique niche in the Art market. It maybe on social media platforms, it maybe using videos, blogs and storytelling, it maybe Art fairs and competitions, or maybe street markets. Find what works for you and then see it as a great opportunity for you to sell and market your Art. Work hard at it. Build it strong. Respect what you have and make change happen.

  It is very easy to be seduced by the desire for quick success and do things in a rushed and shoddy way and not giving it your best effort. Success cannot be bargained with, it is something you prepare for over years. Making your Art to a high standard, learning the necessary skills to sell your Art and continuing always to work on personal development. I believe it is working on these three areas of our career and life that prepares us for success. If you are working hard on these three areas people will start to see value in you and your Art. It is easy to trick people with shoddy work and try and get successful as fast as you can and make claims of already being successful. Success is not an act or something you fake, it is something you prepare for until it comes. If you build on a lie, it will be revealed, build on something that matters and is truly you, make wonderful Art, confidently sell your Art and work hard on yourself to bring change in you and your worl...

  If you play by the rules of others and it doesn’t work out you can blame them. We should make our own decisions and play it out to the end. If it works, you are responsible and can take the credit. If it doesn’t work out, you are responsible and you now have to get a better idea. Always play on your terms and always give it your best effort. This way you are responsible. So many don’t want to be responsible, so they copy others and pass it off as their original work. If they are told it’s very good or even better that the original, they are very proud, but if they are told it’s bad, they then blame the original Artist, they have no responsibility. We want to be original Artists, creating our own work and taking full responsibility for it and being able to say,“I created this.” .

  One thing you can easily do that doesn’t cost you money but would bring increased income to your Art business is great service. Give the best possible personal service you can, before the sale, during the sale and after the sale. Make the sales process a memorable, enjoyable experience one the customer will talk about to their friends in a positive way. Customer recommendations is still the surest form of advertising. Before the sale be very friendly and polite and story tell your Art so the customer learns to see your painting through their own eyes according to the story you tell them. When the sale takes place don’t let it be just a financial transaction, make it about two friends chatting about your new Art work and their life. After sales service, send them an email thanking them for buying your work and asking for them to take a photo of their work hanging in their house and get permission to post it on social media. Also get permission to put them on your mo...

You never hear of accountants getting accountants block, or plumbers getting plumbers block. Yet I hear of many Artists getting Artist block, others sometimes call it fear of the blank canvas, they stop painting as they don’t know what to paint. Some can’t paint because of fear, they want to paint the perfect painting, but what if they don’t paint the perfect painting, so they don’t start, it’s safe. The answer to Artist’s block is to just paint even if they are bad paintings. So paint bad paintings, just paint, you have to paint some bad paintings in your career so this a great time to get them over and done with. Once you start painting the bad paintings you will be surprised that your Muse will turn up along with inspiration. The Muse and inspiration always seem to turn up after you have started working, not before. The key is to start working.

  Learning to walk was hard, but you mastered it. Learning to ride a pushbike was hard, but you did it. Learning to drive a car was hard, but you did that also . Once you learn to do it you no longer think about how to do it, you just do it instinctively. Learning to paint was fun and not hard, because we are passionate about it. Learning to sell is hard, because we have a built in resistance when dealing with strangers. We have been educated to fear strangers since we were little children, “stranger danger,” and like walking it is instinctive. We need to reeducate ourselves to like strangers because we need them, lots of them to have a successful and rewarding Art business. Remember, they to you and you to them are only strangers until you speak to them and then you become acquaintances, then friendlies and then friends. Learning to walk was hard and learning to talk to strangers may be hard, but like walking once you master it, it will become instinctive and yo...

  I made a video last week and talked about making videos and I said the hardest part of making a video was posting it, hitting that share button. What if people laugh at me? What if people criticize me? What if my friends see it, what will they think? These are all real concerns that people have and are quite confronting and I understand that, fear is powerful. I think it is much harder to paint an original painting and show it to the world and say, “ I made this,” than to make a video and share it. We have silenced the fear of showing because we all do it, but we don’t all make videos. Overcome the fear and join us as we make videos, post them and share them. .

Most people find it far easier to bet on lucky and then wonder why they are disappointed by their bad choices. We seem to always look at the outliers, those who win the lottery or get the big payout, but they are not the rule they are the exception. Luck is far more appealing than effort, unfortunately you don’t get to choose luck, but effort is always available to us. We can wait for luck to come or we can put in the effort and work hard. The more effort we put in the greater change we will bring to our Art business. We need to put more effort into three areas of our Art business, creating great original Art, selling our great Art and working on personal development. If we choose to put more effort into these three areas, we won’t need luck because we will see the fruit of our effort.

  Often we are so self absorbed that we do not learn all we can from the other person we are engaged with in the sales situation. We need to get information. It is amazing how much people will tell you if you show interest. Most people when selling talk about what they can do for the customer, benefits, benefits, benefits. Few asks what the customer wants. Few ask what are the customers needs. Few show enough interest to get information from the customer. Good questions influence the sale. Understand what the customer wants and why? If you know these answers then you may be able to help them or refer them to another. Remember in the sales process get the customer talking by asking good questions and listening. Learn all you can, great questions are needed. We want to know what they want, what are their needs, how much are they are wanting to pay? If you ask good questions you will learn a lot from the customer. Are you and them a good fit? Are you able...

  We live in a time where fame is fleeting, your video can go viral and you become famous, until someone else has a video go viral and then you are forgotten. It is very hard to come up with two viral videos in a row, the audience has already moved on to a new cat video. Artists, the most assured way of growing your business is consistently getting your Art in front of the right audience, those who care, your fans. This is far better than getting in front of the mass audience once. Real value is created by consistently putting your work out there for your audience, those who see you, know you and value what you do for them . We create Art for our fans, we don’t want a viral video once, we want our valued audience to continue to grow and follow us on our Art journey .

  One of the most important things you can do in the sales process is ask good questions and allow your customer to answer them and then you reflect back what they said and keep the conversation going. The more someone is allowed to talk the more interested they become and they feel in control because they are telling us. People like to talk and express their opinions, they feel important when they do that. Think about and prepare good questions, this done by design not by chance. If you ask good questions and you keep it always away from price, so price does not become an issue, their opinion of the painting becomes the central area of discussion. If you ask good questions and allow them to talk and tell you their opinions of your Art, of course in a positive fashion, you will allow them to buy. People like to feel they are buying, not being sold. .

  We know that repetition brings mastery, if we regularly do something enough times we will master the task. Also repetition brings evolution. Interestingly, you and the task will change the more you do it. It’s the Toyota Way, a system designed to provide the tools for people to continually improve their work. (a) D o the same things over and over and small improvements are made and the product slowly evolves until eventually it is totally changed. Imagine if every day in our Art practice we repetitively did the task of creating over and over, in time it would evolve into something different because we would intuitively bring small improvements and in time o u r work would totally change. . ( a) The Toyota way by Dr. Jeffrey Liker