This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What's up, welcome to Side Hustle School. So glad you're out there. We've got a community of people all over the world who are trying to create new sources of income, diversify their income, perhaps quit their job, perhaps go out on their own, or perhaps remain happily at their job while doing something on the side, building that creative outlet. Today, we're gonna hear from a visual artist who hopes to monetize her creative words and images creations. She calls it visual poetry.
She's wondering, you know, could there be something else she hasn't considered? Might a subscription model be the best option? What is a good path forward? And the thing is, selling art can be a real challenge. Okay, I hear from artists all the time.
It's very different from selling a product that meets a practical need. Like recently, I was working on an episode where I mentioned a story we had a long time ago in the archives about these guys who created a thing called Steppenpole, which is a tool for public restrooms that allows you to open the restroom using your foot. So you don't just like wash your hands and then go use your hand to open the door, which of course has been a problem for a long time, but, you know, in the age of COVID-19 is even more urgent. So that's an extremely practical solution, you know, pretty easy to sell it, you know, at this point. Selling art is different than that.
So not to say it can't be done selling art. It's just something we have to be aware of that art meets a very different need than something that's more practical. So let's see what we can figure out. Any ideas to monetize visual poetry? That's the question.
It's coming up after this quick message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Lisa Scarlett from Vancouver, Canada. I've been listening to the show for well over a year now and I really enjoy it. I'm a visual artist who works with image and text, the text element being original poetry written by me. The problem is that while people seem to really like my work and spend a good chunk of time reading it and sometimes buying it, I realized that most do not see hanging poetry on their wall in a frame.
I must pivot somehow and I'd like to earn money from what I'm good at. My cars have been more successful but that market is very competitive. My question is, how do I get my poetry out of a framed visual art piece and into/onto something people want to buy? With subscription model of some sort work? I'd like to contribute to the world in a positive way and I'm open to any suggestions you may have.
Many thanks for all you do, Chris. [Music]
Thank you, Lisa Scarlett. I appreciate the call and the question. I think Lisa is asking the right questions and thinking about pivoting. Always good to be willing to do something different without necessarily compromising your art.
There's usually lots of different ways we can express art. So I always appreciate and respect artists who are willing to try different stuff, to accomplish the twin goals of like one, doing something creative, but then also hopefully making an impact on people enough that they're willing to pay for it. So it's both an artistic creation and a commercial transaction. Nothing at all wrong with that. So I think, first of all, how do you sell art of any kind?
Like therein lies the first part of the answer. Like ultimately art that is sold, not just art that is for sale, because lots of artists have worked for sale, but they don't actually sell much of it. Ultimately art that's sold has to have some kind of connection with the buyer. It doesn't meet a practical need, so it has to meet some kind of emotional need. And in terms of selling cards, I think Lisa mentioned something about selling cards, her cards sell more, but it's a very competitive space.
I agree that that's a competitive space, also lower priced than original art or copies of original art, depending on the medium and such. So I do tend to think like there's a better approach. I don't quite know what it is. I mean, if it is a subscription model, I think it works mostly as a gift. So maybe there is some kind of art box that she could make.
Take a look at "Crate Joy." We've featured a number of episodes of people that have made subscription boxes. Look at cratejoy.com. There's lots of different options to do it there. I don't know if that would work for 100%, but it's an idea. Ultimately, it will depend on finding the right form, the right medium.
So that's an artistic decision. It's hard for me to say what might be best there. What you might wanna ask though, in this situation is, the next question is, is there anyone else finding success doing something similar? And when I say something similar, just to be clear, I don't mean similar to your medium or finished product necessarily, or even similar to your style. It's more like who are the artists who have pivoted in this way and have found customers who will buy, not just appreciate, who have found a way to sell their art, not just have it for sale, go and find them and study up.
There are a lot of them out there. One example, a friend of mine is Ella Francis Sanders. Ella does really beautiful work that I don't think is compromised in any way, yet she has a very active online community and communicates regularly with her buyers and followers. So that's Ella Francis Sanders, if you just Google that name or EllaFrancisSanders.com, or also on Instagram. And one last thing, whoever it is that you look at as a role model or someone to emulate, I'm pretty sure they're gonna be focused on their customers and not the art community at large.
So this is one thing that might be helpful to somebody. A lot of artists, and this happens in other fields too, become very insular. And the networks in which they communicate tend to be mostly other artists. And so it becomes kind of this, as I said, insular thing. And ultimately, if you want to sell to customers, you need to be focused on your customers.
So considering this external versus internal focus is also something that might be good to think about. How can you really build community? And those are your people, not other artists who are also trying to do the same thing. So hopefully there's something there you can pull out, Lisa, that is helpful to you, but definitely let us know how it goes. And I'm cheering you on, all of our artists out there.
Just don't forget to make that emotional connection. Always remember that the emotional connection with your customer, your client, whoever is supporting you, your patron, that really is paramount. That's the most important thing for anyone not selling a practical product. All right, that's all for me today. Listeners, if you've got a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
I love having these interactions. I would love to hear from you. I'd love to know what is working, what's not working, what your struggle is, what your success is, all the things. We are a global community, as I said, and I am fortunate to connect with you each day. So thank you for listening.
Do come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
