Most businesses start with defining an audience and a problem to solve for them. You study people, understand their daily struggles, pick one important one, and design a product or service that addresses it.

Creatives businesses are different because you deserve to make the exact art you want to make. Conforming what you create to an audience (i.e. making “commercial” art) hurts your creative spirit. It’s not sustainable. So I never recommend it.

But that creates a unique challenge for creative businesses. If you make the exact art you want to make, how do you know if there’s a market for it? How do you find buyers who will love it?

That’s the situation this advice seeker is facing.

How do you identify and attract the right buyer/collectors?

Mary Lou

Mary Lou, you’re not alone. This is the core challenge for every creative business because of the nature of all creative businesses. Because they’re creator-led, not customer led.

The answer requires a different approach to building than most businesses.

Start With Your Brand Story

Your brand story as a creator is what will attract the right buyers because they can see themselves reflected in your brand. Brand is the place to start but most artists aren’t also brand marketers. The good news is you don’t have to be a brand marketer to build a strong brand story.

I teach a simple, 3-part framework to develop your brand story: spark, drive, and message.

What sparked you to begin creating?

This is the real experience in your life that caused you to become an artist. Maybe that spark was an event, like facing racism or some other injustice But maybe it was just always there, you always just had to create. What matters is that it’s true.

What drives you to keep creating?

This is your mission. If your spark was injustice, your mission is a search for justice. If your spark was just always there, your mission fills a personal, emotional gap. Like a search for identity, validation, or peace.

What message does your work send to the world?

This is the mechanism of change for your work. Actually changing hearts and minds. If your drive is a search for justice, your message promotes justice. Trans people deserve protection. Immigrants are humans.

If your drive is filling an emotional gap, your message does that. You’re beautiful as you are. Peace can be found in the mundane.

So start with your brand. Literally answer these questions by writing a story.

Check out my lesson on finding your artist story here:

Finding Your Audience

Your audience is made up of people who share your experience, who support your mission, or who need to hear your message. Each individual person in your audience connects with you through one of those ways. Or maybe two of them. Or maybe all three.

So how do you find them?

The first way is with storytelling content. You don’t tell your entire brand story at once. You sprinkle pieces of your spark, drive, and message throughout your content. If you do that consistently, your audience will engage and follow you. You’ll train the algorithms who to serve your content to.

The second way is in person. Through conversations. You go to events or place where people who connect with your spark, drive, and message might be. And you talk to people. One person at a time.

You lead with curiosity. Ask open ended questions that center on your spark, drive, and message. Look for opportunities to naturally tell your story.

And position support for you as a natural choice to support your shared mission.

You can see my lesson on learning about your buyers here:

What’s Next?

Write your brand story, your spark, drive and message. Build a hypothesis about what parts of your story is likely to connect with an audience. Create content that highlights pieces of your story to attract an audience. And structure conversations with people to seek connections with your brand story and to connect the dots for them.

If you do all of that consistently, a consistent audience will follow.

• The whole world is pushing back against AI and the enshittification of art. People are increasingly demanding work made by human minds and hands.

• Buyers want to form a human connection with artists. That means they’re increasingly buying directly from artists instead of through intermediaries like galleries or other forms of resale.

• Independent artists have more ways than ever to connect with and sell directly to buyers. Artists can build a digital presence and a digital storefront without funding or technical expertise.

• The political, social, and economic turmoil the world has found itself in provides countless opportunities for artists to teach us with their work. The world needs artists in moments like these. That’s why new artists usually emerge from them.

That turmoil has also impacted careers. Disillusioned professionals are looking for purpose, fulfillment, and income from a full time creative practice.

That’s what this advice seeker is facing.

I have built a following of about 1.7 million across platforms teaching people about off-grid living and prepping. I have written books and everything but I really want to concentrate on my art. I’m tired of talking about my niche and not making money if I don’t constantly post. How can I make the most of this situation?

Zani, @offgridhomesteadfam

Zani, you have every reason to be frustrated. We’re told that building a large social media following is a path to certain wealth. You’ve learned the hard way that it’s not, even after doing everything right.

You also have everything you need to build real wealth with your art business.

Finding Your Foundation

You said something in a recent post that surprised me: “I’m not a good marketer.” That got me wondering how it was possible for someone who isn’t a good marketer to build an audience of almost 2 million people. Maybe you just got lucky? But no. I’ve seen your content and you’re a brilliant marketer. I’ll address what might be missing in a moment. But what’s more important is what that statement says about your mindset.

You’re thinking about your weaknesses, not your strengths. What you don’t have instead of what you do. Let’s start by shifting that thinking.

Every successful business is built around a few core strengths. Apple was built around human-centered design, technological expertise, and brand marketing. Amazon was built around customer focus, distribution infrastructure, and technological expertise. Disney was built around storytelling, innovation, and intellectual property management. All of these businesses have significant weaknesses to manage. But what’s common among them is that most of their energy and their investment goes into reinforcing their strengths, not addressing weaknesses.

The question is, what strengths do you already have that you can build a successful creative business around? You have plenty to choose from but here are three I see immediately.

Your Story

You probably already know that as the artist, you are the brand behind your creative business. You’re the reason people will buy your work and why they’ll pay you lots of money for it. Your buyers are seeking a human connection with you. And even though you’ve only recently begun to share your art, I can already see people making that connection.

I’d love to see more of your story. What made you disconnect and go off grid? Why do you feel the need to help people do the same? How does your creative work connect to that?

Answering questions like this publicly takes vulnerability. But it’s hard for me to imagine that you’ve built such a large audience without being vulnerable with them.

Which brings me to your second strength.

Your Audience

You’ve built an audience of almost 2 million people and you might be thinking that you’ll have to start from scratch to build a new audience of art buyers. Before you start down that path, find the answer to this question: What are you giving your audience that your art can also give them?

I have an idea that might get you started. I imagine people who follow you want to disconnect from the world and maybe signal to others that disconnection is a part of their identity. Art can solve both of those needs too. And buying art is easier. It requires less emotional and financial commitment while providing faster emotional benefits.

This is all a hypothesis. You know your audience better than me. Which brings me to your third strength.

Your Skills

You said you’re not a good marketer. But whatever you want to call it, you are great at building a large audience. You’ve proven you can do that better than most marketers in the world. I suspect you did that with years of applied creativity, experimentation, and hard work. Those are the exact skills that you need to test hypotheses like the one I just mentioned.

Growing a business is really just testing hypotheses with an audience over and over. You have an idea, you structure experiments to test it, observe the results, and use those results to feed the next ideas. Over and over again until you’ve achieved whatever financial goal you want to achieve. You might not use those words in how you’ve gone about building your audience but I bet the practice is in there somewhere.

What’s Next?

The main gap I see is an art offering that helps you meet a financial goal. But you also just started sharing your work. It’s good to explore. When you’re ready, start by setting a near term financial goal. How much money do you want to make per month from selling your work? Then decide how you’ll actually achieve that with your first offer. What will buyers buy from you? At what price? And how many do you need to sell per month to meet your goal? Then how will you convince them to buy?

You have the story, the audience, and the skills to drive all of it. Redirecting those strengths will redirect your business into whatever you want it to become.

Business rewards specialization in lots of different ways. Focus on one type of customer makes it easier to learn how to connect with them and to tailor a product to them. Combine that with a focus on one type of product and it becomes easier to get really good at making it and to build the consistency in your content that algorithms love.

It’s also easier to tell your mom what you do for a living. That might sound silly but being able to succinctly describe what you do is important every time you talk to someone new who you’d like to support your business. That happens all the time. It’s hard for businesses to thrive without effective conversations with new customers, new investors, new partners, and new employees.

So what should multidisciplinary artists do? Choose one medium and cut out the others? Or find a way to manage the difficulties of a multidisciplinary business, as this advice seeker suggests he’d like to do?

My name is Luigi and I am an Italian artist. I am a painter, an illustrator, and a tattoo artist, and this creates a lot of confusion for me. In addition to selling my work, I would also like to attract art galleries. How can I structure and divide my work into what I consider artistic research and what I consider purely sellable, pop artwork?

@stratidiblu

Don’t worry, Luigi. I’m not going to suggest you pick one medium. That would be like asking a duck to choose among swimming, walking on land, or flying. Ducks were made to do all three and the natural world adapts around them. You were made to be multidisciplinary and we can adapt your business world around you too.

The key to doing this is recognizing that business is actually your fourth creative discipline.

Business as a Creative Discipline

Most people view business as a technical discipline, like engineering. You have a fixed set of rules and formulas that you can learn in school and apply in practice to achieve predictable success. Build a business plan, execute the plan, grow your business.

Creative disciplines don’t look anything like that. Instead of natural rules, you have creative constraints, most of which are actually loose suggestions. Creative disciplines are a place of exploration, experimentation, and invention. Artists are rewarded when they break through constraints to make something the world has never seen.

My own multidisciplinary nature is relevant here. I studied chemical engineering as an undergrad and started my career as an engineer just over 25 years ago. Then I went to business school and switched to a career in business where I built businesses all over the world. Now I teach at an art and design university where I help creatives build businesses around their work.

Business looks more like a creative discipline than a technical one. It’s not guided by the rules of nature but the rules of markets which are as diverse, dynamic, and complex as the billions of humans within them. It’s not predictable or business failure rates would be closer to engineering failure rates which happen but are notoriously low. Economic collapse would be nearly impossible. Like artists, business leaders are also rewarded when they break through constraints to create something the world has never seen.

What does that mean for you? Treat the business rules I opened with as creative constraints. Build a multidisciplinary business that recognizes them and then breaks through them.

Building a Multidisciplinary Art Business

Here’s what that might look like.

You have three creative disciplines: painting, illustration, and tattoo art. The rules of business say that you’re selling three different products to three different markets. You’re running three different businesses. One serving fine art buyers through galleries. One serving pop art lovers, probably through e-commerce among other channels. And one serving tattoo enthusiasts in a physical shop. Different products, different buyers, different channels.

The rules of business say you should separate them and pick one.

But wait. Some assumptions buried in that analysis matter:

• There’s an inherent difference between fine art and pop art.

• Fine art lovers don’t love pop art and only buy through galleries.

• Pop art lovers don’t buy fine art and never buy through galleries.

• Neither of them get tattoos.

Those assumptions don’t hold up to broad trends. The boundary between fine art and pop art is blurring. Galleries are struggling because more buyers want to buy directly from artists. Tattoos don’t carry the stigma they once carried. They’re often a badge of honor, signaling participation in the creative world.

So while the business rules might tell you to separate your businesses and find a way to position them that makes sense, I say you should combine them. You have a strong description of an ideal customer to build one business around:

• They don’t differentiate between fine art and pop art.

• They love both and have the money to buy both.

• They don’t care where they buy as long as they get a chance to connect with the artist.

• Being a participant in the creative world is an important part of their identity.

• They signal that to others by treating their skin as a canvas.

If I were you, I’d explore building a business around that customer. Does that description sound so outlandish that not enough people like that exist to build a business around? I don’t think so. But it’s possible to find out for sure with experimentation.

One interesting thing about this approach is that it happens to address all of the rules of business that I opened with. You’re specializing in a customer group, not a discipline. That makes it easier to get great at serving them with whatever you do, enabling your creative practice to actually expand instead of contracting. It makes it easier to tell people what you do. And it addresses the niche focus that algorithms love.

My Advice

Treating your business as a creative discipline tells you what to do next. What I’ve suggested is just an idea to experiment with. Treat that experimentation like your artistic experimentation. Build on it with your knowledge of your creative practice, then bring it into existence so you can step back and observe it. Start finding people who would embrace all of your disciplines, share your ideas with them, and listen to what they have to say.

That will teach you more about your business than my knowledge of business rules ever could.

As a professor at an art and design university, you’d think I’d get this question all the time. But it’s actually rare and I think that’s because high school students considering college have no shortage of old people telling them what to do.

The fact is, higher education has changed drastically since I experienced it as an undergrad. Barriers are higher, costs are higher, competition among schools to attract the best students is intense. If my advice to high school students about preparing for college is based on my experience preparing for college, it’s irrelevant by several decades.

But I do have some thoughts for this advice seeker. It’s based on my current role as an art school business professor and my observations as the father of a college senior studying animation.

I’m a 16-year-old high school student in Florida who wants to become a character designer and visual development artist for animation or games. I’m currently building my portfolio by focusing on character design, shape language, silhouettes, expressions, and storytelling rather than just rendering. I’m trying to decide between schools like Ringling, ArtCenter, SCAD, CalArts, and similar entertainment art programs. My biggest concern isn’t just getting accepted, but graduating with strong industry connections and actually getting hired. If you were starting today and your goal was to become an entertainment character designer, what would you prioritize over the next 2-3 years?

Prospective art university student

I see plenty of evidence in your question that you’ll do great wherever you end up! So while your decision might feel heavy right now, try not to worry too much about it.

I have some thoughts but first, a disclaimer. I teach at one of the schools that you listed and my child goes to the same school. I’m biased but I’ll work hard to remove that bias here.

The Typical Checklist

What I see in your question follows a checklist of things to consider when preparing for college.

• You have a specific career goal in mind and you’re using that in your search and your preparation.

• You didn’t arrive at that by accident. You’ve done your research and probably a lot of reflection.

• You’re already a practicing artist and you’re building the portfolio to prove it to admissions offices.

• You recognize that higher education is about more than education. Career opportunities through institutional connections is a big part of your decision.

All of these things matter. Because of the hard work and reflection you’ve put in, you’ll likely have options when it comes time to make a final choice. All the schools you listed have the resources, the connections, and the faculty to take you where you want to go.

So how will you choose?

And that’s where I have one question to add to your checklist and guide your preparation over the next year or so: Where will you feel safe?

Psychological Safety in Education

I didn’t discover the importance of psychological safety until late in my career. It became central to my leadership approach in business and it remains my top priority in the classroom for several reasons.

First, let me define it. A psychologically safe space is one where students aren’t afraid of repercussions like judgement or ridicule if they do something that’s uncomfortable for them. Like sharing ideas. Trying something new. Asking someone for help. All the things required for growth.

Some say good education is challenging because it pushes students beyond their comfort zone. I say good education is safe because it encourages students to challenge themselves, to voluntarily step into discomfort without fear, because they know the benefits will outweigh the discomfort.

So my advice is to add psychological safety to your checklist and to put it at the top. Here’s how you might do that.

My Advice

Spend the next 12 months exploring psychological safety at the schools you’re considering. Make it your final research project before you make your choice. Spend as much time as you visiting your short list of schools or speaking to people there and find the answers to these questions:

• Do you feel genuinely welcomed by the people you meet or do you feel like a number who’s being recruited?

• Are the faculty and industry connections accessible to you on day one or are they hidden away and protected from being bothered?

• Do the students you meet feel safe to explore and grow without fear of judgement? Ask them directly!

• Do you genuinely connect with the people there?

I suspect every school you visit will have some strengths and some weaknesses across all of these questions. But in the end, your gut will tell you where you’ll feel safe.

Trust your gut.

One is the place of something called fine art where connections matter. Where artists hope to be discovered by a circle of wealthy “philanthropists.” Where a chosen few artists rise to the top and all others are kept out so the wealthy can get wealthier from the art they buy.

That’s not where I operate. Not because I have anything against the artists chosen by those circles. But because I believe all art is fine art simply because it comes from the beautiful imaginations of artists. And because most of those artists will never be chosen by the elite, by design.

I support artists in the accessible corner of the art industry because every artist deserves to build a comfortable life around their work.

That’s where I get questions like this one from fine artist, Tracy Lee-Garshong.

I am a 24-year-old Ghanaian, no 9-5, no connections and I make surrealist art. I started painting roughly 3 years ago and have made no sales. I’ve applied to many exhibitions and only exhibited informally very few times. How do I build a collector’s list or even actively sell my work when I am finding it difficult to even reach my target audience?

Tracy Lee-Garshong, @lee_garshong

Tracy, your talent and your vision for the life you want to live as a full-time artist are inspiring. You absolutely have everything you need to achieve your vision.

I want to start with my column from last week because I think it will help you think about working with the connections you do have, your friends and your family, to help you understand your future audience.

But I want to build on that here by addressing your comment that you have “no connections.”

Do you need connections to sell art?

You need connections to sell art. There’s no getting around it. But you might not be thinking about the kinds of connections that are more likely to make your art business successful at an early stage.

Here’s where the dual nature of the art industry comes into play.

Most artists are taught that the connections that matter are the ones who get them placed in exclusive exhibitions, galleries, shows, or fine art auctions. That side of the art industry is dominated by wealthy investors who have an incentive to keep most artists out. So the value of the art they purchase rises quickly and makes them wealthier.

Artists who have those connections are either born with them or are able to achieve them with the right combination of talent, hard work, timing, and luck. If you’re not born with connections like those, the probability of you achieving them is low. By design.

So let’s turn to the nature of connections in the democratized parts of the art industry.

The connection that matters most here is between you, the artist, and your buyers. With no gatekeepers between you. I addressed how to begin to build those connections in the article I linked above. Even wealthy art investors are increasingly valuing connections directly with artists over the gatekeepers. I don’t believe the gatekept corner of the art industry will survive the next couple of generations.

The second kind of connection that matters to you are true connectors, not gatekeepers. These are people who can connect you with buyers and are willing to do so, simply because they love artists. They love you and your work. Not because they have something to gain from the connection.

That kind of connection might sound rare but in reality, they outnumber the gatekeeping connectors considerably. There are more kind art fans in this world than there are professional art gatekeepers.

But how do you find them?

Technology and the Democratization of Art

Technology can be used for evil (see my commentary on AI art and AI art theft). But it’s also good. The platforms have democratized the art industry. You’re able to sell your art from Ghana to almost any country in the world with nobody between you and your buyer.

I see that you’re already trying to do that. You’re on Instagram, TikTok, and Saatchi Art.

So in addition to looking locally for connections, starting with your own friends and family, I’d make sure you’re fully leveraging the global reach you already have. It’s not about growing followers, it’s about finding the right followers and you have a head start doing that too. Your work is fantastic and unique. I’d like to see more of your personality as the artist behind it shine in your content. You don’t have to show your face in your content to do that. Just find creative ways to remind people who you are.

And don’t be afraid to ask for secondary connections to find buyers. A simple call to action in your content that says, “Hey if you know anyone who would love this piece, please share this with them.” Let your audience know what you need and let them help you. I suspect you’re reaching kind people who would be willing to help if they knew what you needed.

My Advice

This week, read my article on finding local connections and try a simple call to action in your content. Ask the people who love your work to share it with others who might.

In the democratized corner of the art industry, where reach is global and community reigns, you actually can depend on the kindness of strangers. Try asking for it.

Or better yet, to not make it in the first place.

But there’s a better way.

Today’s question follows a theme I’ve heard all over the place this week.

What do you tell artists who don’t post their work online because they fear it will be stolen? I always tell my friend to post more and it’s ok if someone uses it because it gives her more exposure.

Thank you for advocating for your artist friend! That fear might be about general art theft but I’ll tie it to AI theft because that’s how your friend’s art is most likely to be stolen. It also poses the largest risk of their work being used in a very big, public way.

Artists are told you have two options:

1. Hide your work, keep it off the grid so AI never sees it.

2. Accept that theft is going to happen and share your work anyway.

But there’s a third option that isn’t talked about enough: you can organize for change.

Here’s where we’re starting to see that happen.

The False Dichotomy: Submit or Submit

Both hiding and submitting to theft are clearly bad for artists. So why are they the only two being talked about? Because AI companies don’t want to be regulated.

Their ideal is for everyone to get on board with AI, to open our wallets to use it, to buy products and services supported by it. Both of those choices serve that purpose.

If you share your work, they get to steal it and use it to train their models. If you hide your work, they have less competition from human artists. It’s the perfect outcome for them.

And that’s why those are the two options we hear about. The narrative is coming from them because it serves them. It’s an outstanding case study in public relations.

But it’s also crumbling around them.

The Market Shift

Tools like Midjourney came out in 2022. When Midjourney launched, we were all a little shocked. How can a machine create this image in front of me?

As the industry launched tool after tool, our fascination with their output wore off. The technology feels normal today. As our fascination waned, we found the space to consider the implications of AI, both environmental and human.

And here’s how the people who love art feel about AI “art” now: they absolutely hate it. They want human art. They want you.

The people buying AI “art” aren’t your customers. They’re declining in numbers. And the companies serving them on the backs of artists will eventually fail. The thieves will fade away.

How to Fight AI

If the two options are hiding from AI or sharing art, I say share without fear. Will your work be stolen? Probably. Will that hurt your business? Maybe.

But there’s also a third option, beyond the false choices provided to you by AI public relations. You can organize. The way to stop AI from stealing your art is to stop it from stealing everyone’s art.

Every country in the world needs copyright regulation to catch up with the technology. You can’t impact that by yourself but you can support organizations building the resources and scale to influence legislation.

My Advice

My advice is to keep sharing your art and to get involved with organizations who are advocating for artists, like the Human Artistry Campaign.

Change is already happening but we can accelerate it together.

The answer to that question can help artists weather the realities of our current economy.

I heard from one struggling artist this week.

“The economy just feels bad. I’ve spent all morning in my booth at an art fair and haven’t sold anything. Normally I get most of my sales in the morning. People are coming to look but nobody is buying”

You’re not alone. I’ve heard several artists say that their sales are down over the last few months, even though consumer retail spending is surprisingly resilient. Retail sales in the US grew 5% year-over-year in August, beating economists’ expectations.

So what gives? Are we in a slowdown or not?

Some economists say that spending is happening now in anticipation of higher prices from tariffs later in the year. That means consumers are making big purchases like cars and electronics before prices go up.

Regardless of where we are now, the expectation is that consumer spending will decline in the coming months. Savings are low and uncertainty from rising unemployment is high.

So what do artists do? Is it hopeless? Should you give up?

Please don’t. We need you now more than ever.

But to weather the upcoming storm, you might have to rethink what you’re selling and how you position it.

The good news is we can learn from historical consumer spending patterns during rough economic times.

When times are tough, consumers don’t stop spending. They prioritize where they spend and change what they buy.

They focus on the essentials. But they also buy more comfort items. Like lipstick and Labubus.

And that’s where an opportunity exists for artists in a tough economy.

Treatonomics

Treatonomics is the tendency for consumers to treat themselves with low-cost comfort purchases during difficult times. It’s a fairly well-documented phenomenon. Economists even look to the purchase of items like lipstick, candles, and comfort foods as an indicator of economic conditions.

Artists have started to see this trend too. While some are struggling, I’ve had several artists report that small, low-price items are selling really well right now. Their sales portfolios have shifted in response to consumer spending habits.

Lower Pricing Isn’t Just Dropping Prices

So the simple answer is to focus on lower-priced products. Think $50 and under to start with and experiment with different products and price levels in that range.

But I want to be careful not to lead you astray. If you sell mostly high-price, original art, don’t just drop prices. Pricing your high-end work lower might make it sell faster in the short term. But long term, it will be harder to get your pricing back up when the economy gets better. Lowering prices for original work can also hurt your brand.

It’s better to weather the storm without dropping prices at the high end if you can. Instead, develop a portfolio of low-cost items that you can sell at lower prices. Think of all the ways you can feature your work in formats like prints, stickers, bookmarks, keychains, etc.

Comfort Positioning

Simply having a low-cost portfolio isn’t enough. You should also shift your marketing and sales effort toward that portfolio too.

This starts with positioning. If consumers are purchasing low-cost items for comfort, position your products that way. Integrate messaging that alludes to feelings like hope, joy, humor, or resilience into marketing and sales conversations. Experiment with different messages to learn what works best for your customers and your work.

This Week

With a likely economic storm ahead, now is a great time for a portfolio review. If you don’t have lower priced products, think about what you might add. If you do, think about how you might shift your sales and marketing efforts toward them.

The world needs you to keep creating art when times get tough.

Which means we need you to keep selling it too.

Want more help like this to boost your creative business? Now’s your chance.

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Losing jobs or business to AI-generated work is a real fear among practicing creatives.

In the classroom, many of my students wonder if they should even be pursuing a creative career.

But it’s more than just a worry for this week’s advice seeker. It’s a reality.

“I’m a graphic designer and I lost my job to AI this summer. I’m thinking about switching to another profession entirely. Should I?”

I’m sorry you lost your job. That’s a scary experience and it’s bound to create self-doubt for even the most confident person.

It’s good to question your overall career path when you find yourself without a job. Not because you were necessarily on the wrong path. It’s just a natural place to do so. When we’re heads down in work, we rarely reflect broadly on where we’ve been and where we want to go. I like that you’re using this moment to reflect.

You have to make a decision that’s best for you. Your experience is the argument for moving on to something else. AI is here and smart people are working hard to improve it so it can replace even more creatives. That isn’t going away.

But I believe now is a great time to be a creative professional.

The rise of generative AI, and the contrast between AI-generated work and human creation, have revealed the real value creatives bring to the world that AI will never replicate.

No matter how hard smart people work to improve it.

In business terms, that means you can build a business or get a job in markets where you don’t have to compete with AI. Because it can’t touch you there.

I want to help you find those places.

Empathy for Creatives Isn’t Enough

I’m an advocate for creative professionals. That’s my job. I teach business at an art and design school and both of my college-aged children are pursuing creative careers. One is an animator and the other is a musician studying industrial design.

I love the pushback we’re seeing against AI on behalf of creatives. It’s rooted in empathy and ethics. And I agree with the idea that it’s ethically questionable to replace humans with technology.

But a plea for empathy isn’t enough. Our history suggests that market forces overwhelm empathy when the two compete. Empathy for newspaper journalists, taxi drivers, and factory workers didn’t protect them from the rise of the internet, ride sharing, and robotics.

As a father, I’ll continue to show you empathy and push others to do the same. As a business professor, my advocacy means equipping you to deal with the reality of market forces that are likely to win.

What Are Market Forces?

In this context, I’m talking about two forces:

1. Customers who have needs and will pay money to get them fulfilled

2. Competition among businesses to meet those needs and take that money

Building a successful business means winning that competition by being the best at fulfilling needs for customers in a profitable way. They’ll pay you more to fulfill their needs than it costs you to do it.

The job of business founders isn’t just to create and sell stuff. It’s to design a business that consistently wins over customers given the market forces in which they operate.

Think about market forces as design constraints that founders use to decide how their business takes shape.

Business Design Patterns

There are 3 typical ways that businesses win over customers.

• Some businesses have the best products or services for a large, diverse group of customers. Apple’s iPhone is an example.

• Some design products or services to fit unique needs of niche customer groups. Think of Bark phones designed for kids.

• Some offer products and services at the lowest price. Generic (unbranded) smart phones are the example here.

Variations on these patterns exist and some businesses combine more than one of them. But this is where most businesses start—by choosing a position of product superiority, niche customer focus, or low cost.

AI is winning in the low cost space. It can generate creative work faster and without having to pay a creator to make it. AI-based businesses target customer groups that value cost and speed over the quality of work.

Go Where AI Can’t Compete

If you decide to stick with your creative field, you should build a business or find a job where you don’t even try to compete based on price and speed. Where customers value your superior work because that’s what they need. This could be big markets where product superiority can’t be matched by AI. Or smaller, niche markets, where your work meets a specific need that AI can’t.

The specific needs and markets to target depend entirely on your creative field. But to get some ideas flowing, here are three examples of of work that AI can’t touch.

• Work that requires a unique perspective to fulfill a purpose. Aritivism, or artists engaging in activism to change hearts and minds through their work, is one example. For art to spark change, it has to provide unique perspective that the world hasn’t seen before. Although we call AI “generative,” it really isn’t. Its output is, by definition, derivative work.

• Work that isn’t easily digitized. AI can’t generate physical objects, can’t perform live performances, can’t create physical texture in work.

• Work that fulfills a need for human connection. AI will never touch this space. If the story behind your work is a major reason your customers buy it, you’re irreplaceable.

The last one is my favorite because it applies to all creative fields and can be combined with others to make you essential. Your personal story is the basis of your brand as a creative. In spaces where customers value human connection, it’s also the basis of that connection. If you need help developing your story and turning it into a brand, check out my post on creative brand development from last month.

This Week

Spend some time this week brainstorming spaces where your skills and your work can’t be replaced by AI. Look for customer groups that value unique perspective, physical work, or work that tells your story.

Don’t try to compete with the low cost and speed of AI.

Instead, find a space where AI can’t compete with you.

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But we have to wade through some politics to get there.

Cracker Barrel’s recent brand missteps ignited political debate in the US. It’s fascinating that people from both sides are unhappy about their changes.

That universal pushback makes Cracker Barrel a great case study for this week’s advice seeker:

“I have a full time job and I paint and sell my work on the side. Someday I want to start a business and be a full time artist. Where should I start?”

Easy answer: Start with branding.

Branding will unlock your ability to go full time. It will help you sell your work and build a large following.

And most importantly, it will help you avoid selling out when capitalism’s darker side inevitably tempts you.

Cracker Barrel teaches creative founders that branding isn’t just another task in a long list of things you have to do. It’s your foundation.

Good Branding is Curating Experience

We often think of a brand as a logo or a color scheme that represents your business. But that’s, at best, an oversimplification.

Your brand is an abstract. It represents the emotional relationship between you and your customers.

That relationship forms as customers experience you and have an emotional response.

If the experience enhances their life, they become fans and might buy your work.

If it doesn’t, they walk away.

So if you want to build a big following and a successful business, curating an experience for your customers that gets more of them to become fans and buy work makes sense.

That’s all good branding is. Enhancing lives consistently in a way that entices people to buy.

If you need help doing that, here’s a branding guide I published a few weeks ago.

Changes at Cracker Barrel

Say what you want about the Cracker Barrel experience but it was successfully curated for a specific audience of people—white people in the South—despite its expansion to 45 states over the years.

Disclaimer: I’m a white person who grew up in the South and currently lives there. While I’m not a big fan of Cracker Barrel, my youngest child and I used to go there after an oil painting class to eat mac and cheese, look at toys, and play the peg game.

This summer they abandoned their experience and their logo. Why? Well according to their blog:

“Rather than just showing one person, we wanted to feature lots of people. The idea was to celebrate the diversity of all our guests with a logo that represented our continued passion for pleasing people of all races, colors, and genders.”

That’s a noble pursuit. But the rebrand didn’t actually please anyone.

It angered Cracker Barrel’s core audience who are more likely to be politically right and against any move toward inclusion.

But it didn’t please the political left either. For two reasons. First, Cracker Barrel’s history makes it difficult to trust them. And second, the logo and decor images they released—don't scream inclusion. They’re corporate bland. As if Cracker Barrel has been taken over by private equity and is being stripped of its soul (which is not actually the case but happening a lot elsewhere).

The Big Lesson

The big lesson from Cracker Barrel is to start curating the brand experience you want your ideal audience to have right now. Before you build a big following.

Once you have a following, their loyalty is rooted in whatever history they experienced with you. If you haven’t explicitly shown them what you stand for along the way, they get to fill in the blank with their own values.

And if you don’t align with those values and want to make a change later? You can’t. You already have a history of representing them by default. Whether you meant to or not.

If you try to change because you don’t like what you’ve become, you lose all your loyal customers. And you have a hard time attracting new ones because your history suggests they shouldn’t believe you.

This Week

Prioritize your brand this week. You can go through the brand guide linked above but it’s okay to start small.

List the values that you want your brand to represent. Those you’ll never compromise. The ones that will cause you to walk away from customers who don’t support them.

Because the last thing you want—is to build an entire business around customers you can’t respect.

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Especially if you’ve spent tons of energy building a social media presence to boost your creative business.

Today’s challenge comes from an artist who’s considering posting their work for the first time on TikTok.

“I need to build a social media presence but I’m afraid that, once I start posting, I’ll just look like everyone else.”

Yeah. You might. That happens to artists all the time and here’s why:

Social media punishes uniqueness and rewards sameness.

I’ll dig into why that happens and what creative founders should do about it. But let’s start with some hope that I’ll keep repeating until repetition has annoyed away my last subscriber.

You’re not in the content creation business. You’re in the art business.

If you use that as a filter for decisions on social media, you'll be alright.

The Big Power Shift for Creatives

Social media isn’t completely terrible. Your ability to connect with customers, without relying on gatekeepers, means you have more power as a creative than any generation before you. I love the fall of control structures in creative industries.

We’re seeing this play out in the demise of art galleries all over the world. I want to be careful not to celebrate that too much—many well-intentioned gallery owners and employees find their livelihoods at risk. But I’m happy to see power shift toward artists where it belongs.

It’s more than just social media that’s enabled this. Big tech helps you everywhere in your business. The technologies behind digital storefronts, payments, on-demand printing, packing and shipping, customer management, and countless others have too.

Whether you like it or not, you’re actually building a tech business right now. But you probably didn’t study technology or business in school. That’s okay. Big tech has democratized education too. Substack, TikTok, and YouTube bring educators like me to creative founders like you for little or no cost.

And who are the most successful educators on each of these platforms? People teaching you how to build big followings on them. Content influencers sell the allure of money and independence from full time content creation on whatever platform they represent. They teach you how to create content that satisfies the algorithm so you get likes, shares, and followers.

And they lead creative founders astray in the process.

We’re Not Training the Algorithm, It’s Training Us

Have you ever heard a content influencer say, “train the algorithm?” Well, that’s not how algorithms work. An algorithm is a pretty static thing. That’s why we see people freak out when algorithms periodically change. They’re designed to have predictable inputs and outputs.

Let’s try a little experiment. Which of these two videos would you predict to perform better on TikTok?

The answer is unfortunate (for me) but obvious. She gets more watch time, more likes, and more comments. The algorithm knows that and pushes her post to a broader audience. Not because the goal is to promote her over me. The algorithm knows she will keep more viewers on the platform longer so they see more ads and buy more stuff.

She builds a big following in service to the algorithm and the social media company behind it.

When content influencers give you advice to “train the algorithm,” they’re actually teaching you how to conform to it, to be more like her than me. They suggest changes in your content so it fits a predictable formula. So the algorithm rewards you with broader reach, more engagement, and more followers. And they give the same advice to everyone.

The result? Content convergence. The most successful content creators show, say, and do a lot of the same things. Same talking points, same trending audio, same backgrounds, same lighting, same dances, same vibes. Unfortunately, this includes some of the most successful artists on social media too.

Deviate from the algorithm’s formula and you'll never find a large audience.

But What About Going Viral?

Okay you might. I covered this one last week.

If you’re unpredictably blessed with a viral moment, that doesn’t guarantee success for what matters: your art business. Followers aren’t necessarily buyers. And when virality hands you a large following, keeping it is a full time job.

What The Hell Should I DO Then?

You’re not in the social media business or the content creation business. You’re in the art business, the music business, the design business, the animation business, the writing business. Whatever creative business you’re in.

I’m not saying you should walk away from social media. Just rethink it. Stop serving social media and start thinking about how it serves you.

Social media isn’t where you build your following. Serving customers is. A following of delighted customers is exponentially more valuable than a passive social media following.

Your social media profile is just one place to facilitate that. A place to showcase your brand and give people a way to contact you. That’s it. It doesn’t matter if they like, share, or comment on anything. Your goal is to entice them to eventually buy something from you.

This requires boldness. It requires you to create and post content that reflects you, your brand, and your work. Even when it bombs according to what we in the marketing world appropriately call “vanity metrics.”

This Week

So be bold this week. Create and post that weird content that doesn’t serve the algorithm. Celebrate its lack of reach—because it signals your uniqueness.

Then keep doing it, over and over, until your profile reflects the unique artist who you are.

Good.

Now is the perfect time to find a different way to market your work.

And you’re not alone. Most artists and designers I know are tired of social media too.

“I’m tired of fighting for attention on TikTok. I should focus more on content but I already spend more time fighting the algorithm than I do actually making art. I need an easier way to market my work.”

You’ve already taken the first step: considering that marketing your work doesn’t have to include building a large social media following.

And you’re right.

Easier options exist because the golden age of social media marketing is behind us.

So let’s find you a better way.

Social Media Marketing Is So 2000s

Social media upended the marketing world in the 2000s. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram all built huge audiences by giving us new ways to connect with people. They enabled the rise of influencers to keep their audiences captive and make them receptive to advertising. And they gave companies a cheaper and easier way to advertise than they’d ever seen.

Advertising budgets shifted from TV, radio, print, and public display to social media. Tech founders got rich. Influencers got (less) rich. Consumers got…well…consumers kept consuming.

That started two decades ago. It might as well be ancient history in the tech and advertising world.

Social media marketing isn’t cheap or easy anymore—because of the exact pain you’re feeling right now.

Fierce Influencer Compeition

Competition for eyeballs among creators has become fierce. Look at the top influencers on every platform. How did they get there? Most used one or more of the following strategies, none of which will work for you.

• They got in early before competition was fierce. You don’t have a time machine.

• They brought a following from celebrity status built somewhere else. You’re probably not a celebrity yet or you wouldn’t be reading this.

• They built a following by teaching people how to build a following. I could be cynical here but I’ll just say…that’s not expertise you have to sell right now.

Is this true for every large creator? No. Some were blessed by a viral moment. But even if that happens to you, and you suddenly gain a huge audience, the competition to keep it is intense. You have to invest even more time and money to maintain that top creator status.

Because now you’re competing with creators who produce content as a profession. The top “creators” on most platforms don’t actually create their content, at least not alone. Most lend their face to a professional production team they’ve hired to do it. That’s why we’ve seen a huge increase in the production quality of content over the last 20 years among top creators. And yes, that includes TikTok creators.

Plummeting Consumer Trust

Just because you have a large social media following doesn’t mean you automatically make money. Your followers have to buy something. Which leads us to another problem: consumers are much more savvy than we were in the 2000s.

We now know that these platforms were never really about connection. They exist to sell us stuff and nobody likes it. Dopamine keeps us scrolling anyway.

And social media is full of scams. I get dozens of scam offers every week and the volume is increasing. Scammer output (measured in weekly scams per scammer) might be the most visible productivity increase from AI.

So not only are influencers competing with one another for attention, with ever-increasing production budgets. The consumers they’re competing over trust them less and less. It’s harder to get people to buy anything. Cost is going up as the return on that investment is going down.

That’s a zero-sum game that you don’t want to play.

But That’s Not Your Business

Now here’s the good news.

You’re not in the content creation business anyway. You want to sell art, design, music, or whatever creative work you’re building a business around.

And now is a great time to build a creative business. Demand for what you offer—real human connection through your work—is booming. People are tired of fake. The frustration you feel with social media—is actually evidence that you’re needed.

So don’t be discouraged. You’re on the right track. You just have to find an alternative to social media that works for your business.

The Secret to Good Marketing

Good marketing happens in two broad steps.

First, you study your ideal buyers. Learn what they need and how they buy. You do this by talking to them, through a series of interviews called “customer discovery.”

Once you understand what your customer needs and how they buy, your job is simply to show up. Marketing is connecting your brand to their buying journey. Its showing up at the right time and place (digital or otherwise) when they’re making decisions that could lead to a purchase. And influencing them to move in your direction.

How that happens depends on you and your buyers. I can’t tell you the best way to market your work. The right marketing plan is unique to your business and your buyers. And it’s always evolving, through experimentation, as buyer needs and behaviors change over time.

But I can get you thinking beyond social media views and follows.

22 Marketing Ideas for Creative Businesses

Read through this list of alternative marketing ideas and see if it inspires you to come up with your own.

Social Media Shift

Shift the purpose of social media from gaining a mass following to building trust with one buyer at a time.

• Search for buyers and connect in the comments. Spark their curiosity to engage with you.

• Stop trying to beat the algorithm. Create simple content that tells your brand story to individual buyers who come looking at your profile.

• Make it easy for buyers to reach out to you from your bio. Have a link to your website, an email address, or an invitation to message you there.

Marketing Partnerships

Outsource your marketing to other people in exchange for direct payment or a share of your revenue.

• Partner with similar artists who are already successfully marketing to the same audience. Ask them to represent your work too.

• Partner with businesses who provide complimentary products to the same audience. If you’re a sculptor, you might partner with a painter, for example.

• Partner with businesses who influence buyers’ decisions about what to buy. Examples include interior designers or art curators for public spaces like hotels.

Sell in the Real World

Capitalize on the demand for real human connection by selling to buyers in person.

• Sell at events designed to sell your type of work. Like art fairs.

• Sell at events that provide other things your audience buys. If you sell art to people who also love heavy metal, sell your art at heavy metal concerts.

• Sell your work in high traffic areas where your buyers go for recreation. Think pop up shops at sporting events, parks, or shopping districts.

Network Effects

Reward buyers who promote your work to others.

• Give discounts to buyers who refer others to you.

• Ask buyers to write a testimonial for you after they purchase.

• Send personalized messages or gifts to buyers who give you referrals.

• Create levels of rewards for different referral milestones.

• Include a referral link in every email you send to your customers.

Existing Customer Base

Market first to buyers who already trust you and the experience you provided.

• Create a customer email list for new release announcements.

• Offer exclusive discounts for existing customers.

• Offer discounts for bundled purchases or subscription models.

• Build a community of customers and provide ways for them to connect with each other.

Combinations

Create combinations from the ideas above to find additional ways to market.

• Partner with an established influencer on social media to represent your work in their content.

• Schedule events for your most loyal customers as a reward. Ask them to bring friends.

• Partner with complementary product sellers to host events.

• Partner with established retailers in high traffic areas and create a shop within a shop.

This Week

It’s hard to quit chasing the algorithm when you see creators bragging about how much money they make on social media. But that’s not the business you’re in.

This week, accept that content creation isn’t your business.

Selling your creative work is.

Pick one idea from above (or one that you came up with based on reading the list) and start experimenting with it.

You won’t learn how to beat the algorithm.

But you’ll start learning how to market to your customers.

Unless you have other means of support—a partner’s income or savings—you’re probably wrestling with a version of this week’s question.

“I work full time and I’m starting my art business on the side. How do I find time to build my business while I still have a job?”

I’m dangerously close to 50 and still haven’t found a sugar mama, so I have no wisdom for you there. Let’s assume you need to fully support yourself like me.

Creative businesses are harder to start and grow than most other businesses because of one reality:

Your creative business is heavily dependent on your time.

You’re not just the founder and CEO. You’re also the one creating the product. That’s a lot to expect from one person!

What you’re struggling with has little to do with your ability to manage your time. Every creative founder has the same problem.

So let’s deal with it.

Prioritization Is Personal

You’ve already heard the advice. Carve out a set amount of time, every week, and protect it. But how you do that depends entirely on you.

The beautiful neurodiversity among creatives is one of my favorite parts of teaching them. Every year I get to see hundreds of different ways to see and organize the world. That’s why I can’t give you one “best” time management method. What works for me probably won’t work for you.

So instead, let’s look at three characters who manage time in very different ways. Which one sounds most like you?

Aria the Architect

Aria’s calendar is her creative anchor. She time-blocks three evenings a week for her photography side business, using the Pomodoro Technique to stay focused. The structure keeps her from feeling scattered, and she loves the satisfaction of ticking boxes in her planner.

Gareth the Gardener

Gareth keeps no written list for their illustration business. They track priorities in their head and naturally gravitate toward the most important or most exciting work. If something falls through the cracks, it probably wasn’t that important. The looseness works because they’ve honed a strong instinct for priorities.

Millie the Mixer

Millie uses sticky notes on the wall to track big milestones for her animation studio. But day-to-day? It’s pure flow—she works on whatever sparks her energy. The notes are always there when she needs to zoom out, but she doesn’t force herself into them when she’s in her groove.

Accept Who You Are

Whether you’re an architect, a gardener, or a mixer, the goal isn’t to turn yourself into someone else. Fighting your natural style burns more energy than it saves.

I’m a gardener. I’ll sometimes try lists or sticky notes, but I never stick with them for long. I’ve accepted that and it works for me.

If you’re wired for systems, use them. If you run on instinct, trust it. If you’re somewhere in between, blend structure and flexibility. The method matters less than the results.

And that’s the real secret to time management.

Return on Time Is The Real Goal

Time management isn’t about how many hours you work. It’s about what those hours give back to you.

Think of your time like an investment. Every hour you spend on your creative business has the potential to pay you back in sales, audience growth, or another tangible return. That’s your return on time.

How you track it depends on your style:

• Architects: Don’t just track hours; track results per hour. How many sales, signups, or leads did three hours produce?

• Gardeners: Gut-check your instincts. Are the things you call “important” actually moving the needle or just filling time?

• Mixers: Mark high-return activities so they stand out. Color code, star, or icon them so you instantly know what to prioritize.

So far, everything we’ve discussed assumes that you’re building your creative business alone.

It might be time to rethink that too.

Better, Faster, and Stronger Together

The fastest way to waste time is to work in isolation and unknowingly duplicate effort. Collaborating with other creatives on similar paths can help you share resources. But the real magic happens when you find someone who complements your strengths.

If you’re a gardener with great instincts but poor organization, find an architect who loves building systems. If you’re an architect who’s great at structure but struggles with branding, work with someone who can craft a story and visual identity.

When you combine different strengths with a partner, you’re splitting the work and multiplying the results. You get more done with better results in less time. So you both get a higher return on time.

A word of caution here. Complementary skills matter but shared values matter more. Partner with someone whose values align with yours to avoid unnecessary conflict.

This Week

Here are three things you can try right now:

1. Identify your time management style and accept it. Then set a realistic weekly hour goal for your creative business.

2. Define “return on time” for you and start tracking it. Even if you can’t get exact numbers yet, use a simple high/medium/low scale.

3. List potential partners who share your values and compliment your strengths. Set up a conversation with at least one.

Even if you don’t find the perfect partner now, starting the search will make growth easier later. Because even after you go full time, you’ll eventually need others to help you scale your creative business to its full potential.

We’ll tackle that challenge—scaling creative businesses—in a future issue.

It might also be the most emotional challenge I hear about from creative founders.

“I need to get better at selling my work but—I hate it. I feel like selling cheapens my work and I’m not a salesperson. I don’t want to become someone I’m not just to make money.”

We’re getting to the core of building a business around your work with this one. Do you have to compromise the integrity in your work—or yourself—to make a living from creative work?

If I thought the answer to that question was “yes,” I wouldn’t be doing this. No career is worth losing yourself.

But I get it. We’ve all avoided overbearing salespeople at the mall, chasing us down to pressure us into a deal we don’t want. Creative founders rightfully don’t want to become that.

The good news is that you don’t have to. In fact, you shouldn’t.

That sales approach doesn’t work for any business. Especially not yours.

Shifting Consumer Perceptions

The biggest reason it doesn’t work? Nobody wants it. I haven’t researched this, but I’m pretty sure not one person in human history has ever asked for a salesperson to pressure them.

Beyond that, the evidence against high-pressure sales—and in favor of a selling approach that’s more natural for creatives—is overwhelming. Four consumer trends tell the story:

1. Consumers are more informed than ever. We have the entirety of human knowledge in our pockets. And we use it to make decisions about what we buy before a salesperson has a chance to talk to us. Consumers who show up armed with knowledge are hard to pressure.

2. We’re also increasingly wary of being tricked. My grandparents inherently trusted businesses selling them the American dream with every purchase. Because why would anyone lie? We’ve since learned our lesson. The belief that corporations serve our best interests is decades behind us.

3. Yet most businesses still act like dealmakers, the mass market version of that overbearing salesperson you don’t want to be. We’re bombarded by ads all day, every day, in every place that ads can possibly go. The spaces where ads aren’t is shrinking. I’ve heard we might even see them on Substack soon. (Sigh.)

4. So consumers are tired. In the face of information overload, predatory business practices, and shrinking spaces without them, we’re all seeking meaning and human connection.

Did you catch that last one? Consumers are seeking exactly what you provide as a creative. You’re not selling a product to make a quick buck. You’re providing something valuable that people actually need at this moment.

That sounds loaded with integrity to me.

Your Own Approach to Selling

When you sell something people need, selling is pretty easy. When part of that need is connecting with you? The act of connection is selling.

This means you get to shape your sales approach based on how you naturally connect with people.

Are you a storyteller? Buyers will love hearing stories about you and your work.

Are you a helper? Buyers will love when you connect the dots for them.

Are you altruistic? Buyers will be loyal for life when you promote other artists’ work because you think they’ll love it. (Seriously, promoting others is one of the most effective sales approaches I’ve experienced.)

The point is, your connection strengths become your sales strengths. Because it’s the connection, not the deal, that matters.

Also, Sales Isn’t Everything

Successful sales means you show up as you, not some pushy version of you. Hopefully that’s comforting. But if you’re still feeling unsure, you can actually make sales even easier.

That’s the job of marketing. Great marketing warms people up for a sales conversation so you have less work to do when that conversation happens.

Great marketing…

• Introduces people to you

• Tells your story to draw them in

• Provides a valuable experience that builds trust

• Introduces them to your work

• Gives them a reason to reach out to you

When you’re good at marketing, sales conversations exist to confirm what your buyers already know—that you’re amazing and they want to buy from you.

Compare that to a sales conversation with someone who has no idea who you are. It’s easier, right?

I’ll talk more about marketing in future issues. For now, just remember that the goal is to keep sales simple: show up, make a connection, be yourself.

This Week

Hopefully I’ve convinced you. You don’t have to compromise your integrity to sell creative work. In fact, you’ll be more successful if you don’t.

So this week, let go of the pressure to be a salesperson. Be yourself and connect with customers like you would any human.

That’s how you hone your own unique approach to selling.

Instead of becoming something that you—and your customers—don’t want.

If so, you’ve got it backwards.

Pricing creative work too low is likely to keep buyers away.

I know. It’s counterintuitive. But stick with me and I’ll show you why this is true and how you can raise prices to unlock growth.

The Creative Pricing Paradox

Regardless of your creative field, you’ll run into this pricing paradox at some point. I saw two examples from the art world this week.

“I’m new to selling art. How should I price my 30” x 40” oil painting?”

This artist was seeking advice from someone more experienced. Several artists jumped in with bad advice. We’ll get to that.

The other example came from an artist with more experience.

“An art expert told me it’s hard to sell work for less than $5000. Another told me that I should ask for at least $10,000. I’ve never priced that high and it feels uncomfortable!”

This artist is close to a breakthrough for their art business and their livelihood. Their expert advisors understand the creative pricing paradox.

Pricing too low sells less. And this isn’t just limited to oil paintings.

Let’s look at the psychology of pricing (and buying) to see why.

The Misunderstood Law of Supply and Demand

You’ve probably heard of the law of supply and demand and know it has something to do with pricing. (Don’t worry, I’m not here to teach economics.) This law is often oversimplified:

If you price really low, you get a lot of demand. If you price really high, you don’t get much demand.

Creatives feel pressure to keep prices low to sell more work!

But this simplified version only kind of works for commodities. Commodity products are not emotional, can be made by anyone at low cost, and look exactly the same no matter who makes them.

Single-ply toilet paper is a good example. Every tissue manufacturer in the world makes cheap single-ply that’s exactly the same. When people buy it, they’re unemotionally choosing something cheap. Drop the price and you’ll sell more because some buyers will trade down from nicer toilet paper to save money.

But you’re not selling toilet paper. You’re selling an emotionally-charged, exclusive, branded experience that appreciates in value over time. No matter what creative field you’re in.

In economics speak–you’re selling luxury.

The Consumer Pricing Continuum

Ditch supply and demand thinking. It’s better to think about a continuum of pricing power that ranges from commodity products (like toilet paper) on the left to luxury goods (like private trips to space) on the right.

Luxury buyers don’t try to save money. They have money to spend and want something exclusive. Price becomes part of your brand. It’s a signal of the quality and exclusivity of your work.

The ultrarich pay millions for a few minutes in space, just to be among the first in human history who can do so. What would happen if prices dropped and anyone could afford a ticket? The wealthy would stop going.

Your work is the same. In fact, it’s even more exclusive than a private trip to space.

• You’re the only one in the world who can do what you do. Even space trip providers have competitors.

• Private space trips last minutes and burn money. Your work lasts a lifetime and appreciates in value.

• Your work isn’t blatant extravagance. It’s meaningful. And that’s increasingly rare.

If you price too low, you lose all of those benefits to your brand.

Buyers who seek them will overlook you because of your low price.

Shifting Your Mindset

I’m not saying to start charging millions today. It takes years to build a brand that commands millions.

But you should start thinking big. The value you bring to the world is worth a lot for people who will gladly pay for it. So go find them.

And if you’re just starting out, ignore advice like, “New artists should charge $2,000 for a 30” x 40” painting.” The amount your buyers are willing to pay is set by them, not other artists who priced low when they started out.

You’re also not new at this. You’ve probably been creating your whole life. You’re just undiscovered and that’s the ultimate in creative exclusivity. Use it.

This Week

Start experimenting with higher prices this week. It’s the best way to learn what your buyers are willing to pay.

Pick one piece or one offering that you’re especially proud of. Raise the price to a level that makes you uncomfortable. Have an original piece priced at $5,000? Make it $15,000. Offering a performance at $10,000? Make it $25,000.

Then try to sell it. You’ll be surprised at what you learn.

If your customers balk, they might not be your people.

That’s good to know too.

It just tells you it’s time to expand your horizons.

“I’m not excited about learning business. Like at all. The few business classes I’ve taken were boring and I don’t remember anything. How can I make myself want to learn this?”

Traditional business education wasn’t made for you. That’s why it feels boring, forgettable, even hostile.

So let’s find a way to learn business that actually works for you.

Why Business Education Fails Creatives

Here’s the thing. Business education wasn’t designed for me either. (I’m honestly not really sure who it was designed for.) As an engineering undergrad, I took the required 5 courses to get a business minor and remember nothing about them. Not just because they happened at the turn of the century. (This side of it, mind you.)

About 7 years later, I completed an MBA program where I did learn something. But not because of the curriculum. I learned because I worked in a corporate strategy role and could immediately apply concepts in my work. The classroom lectures and assignments? Gone with the wind.

When I started teaching business to creatives, I knew I had to do it differently. If business education bored me, it would bore creatives 100 times as much. So my job isn’t to teach as I was taught in school. It’s to translate what I’ve learned in the real world into the language, mindset, and lived experience of creatives.

But you’re not in my classroom, are you? The good news is, as I’ve honed those classroom experiences, I’ve discovered they apply to creatives out here in the real world too.

Learn As You Go

Traditional business education is theoretical. Its textbooks and case studies force students to imagine situations they’ve never been in to apply concepts they may never use. It’s an expensive waste of time.

Instead, learn what you need when you need it. Don’t spend any time deep in business books learning theory if you don’t know when (or if) you’ll need it. Spend that time on your business and, when you see something unfamiliar, seek only the exact education and guidance you need for that moment.

Learn from a Coach

Your creative work is uniquely you. But you’re not the first person to build a business around their creative work. Much of what you need to learn has been learned and translated into building a creative business by successful entrepreneurs who are ready to give back to others facing the same challenges they once faced.

So find a coach or mentor who’s walked your path and is ready to give back. I know, asking someone to mentor you can be uncomfortable, can sound like you’re burdening someone. But a lot of creative entrepreneurs do this as a part of their business, in an effort to give back and support their income. If you find someone who does it for a living, it’s supporting another creative instead of being an imposition.

Learn Together

Nobody should try building a business alone for a whole host of reasons. I expect my students to learn as much from one another as they do from me. As I'm translating business to creative language, I'll be successful with some students but not all of them. The ones who get it can quickly translate for those who don’t.

So find a community of creatives who are building a business and grow together. You’ll learn from the successes and missteps of those around you. You’ll solidify your learning by teaching them and helping them grow. And you’ll have a support system in place when you need it.

These suggestions are all generalizations that come from my experience with creatives who need to learn business. But every person has their own style of learning that sticks. You’re unique in that regard too.

This Week

This week, reflect on how you learn. Do you thrive on theory? Or do you learn best by doing, hearing, watching? Write down the way you intend to learn business and then find a resource that aligns with it.

And reach out if you have any questions about specific resources I’d recommend. I’m always happy to point you in a direction that fits your learning style.

“I want to do this full time but I’m not built to run a business. I just want to make art. How do I make this work?”

You are wired for entrepreneurship. You just don’t know how yet.

My Experience with Entrepreneurs

As an art school entrepreneurship professor, a business founder, a corporate veteran, and a dad to two adult creatives, I’m passionate about this one. Enough to write five essays unpacking all the ways you're wired for this. But let’s be honest. Even my kids wouldn’t read that.

So here’s the bottom line:

When I coach business leaders and founders who aren’t creatives–artists, designers, animators, musicians, producers, actors, writers, etc…

I have to coach them to be more like you.

Here’s what you do naturally that the most successful entrepreneurs also do.

Humanity

You already serve humanity with your work. You reflect humanity, uplift it, challenge it in ways that ultimately improve the human condition. Even if you don’t think about it consciously, that thread runs through every creative field.

Business also exists to serve humanity, but most business leaders forget it. Trade allowed humans to specialize labor, become more efficient, and free up time to start creating art in the first place. Most business leaders have forgotten that purpose and act like people exist to serve their business instead. (Side note: I refuse to work with those kinds of leaders and you should too.)

Emotion

You already connect emotionally with people. As much as we want to believe buying products and services is rational, it’s actually deeply emotional. The most successful businesses tap into emotional needs and build a relationship with their customers to fulfill them. That relationship is the foundation of brand loyalty.

Having worked in the toilet paper business, I can tell you, you’ve got a massive edge here. Unlike toilet paper, automobiles, anti itch cream, your work is, by definition, emotional. You put emotion into its creation, that emotion is evident in your work, and it evokes an emotional response from those who experience it. Toilet paper manufacturers spend billions of dollars a year to fake what you do every day.

Experimentation

You already experiment. This might be the most important skill for entrepreneurs to have. It’s also one of the most difficult to teach for anyone who doesn’t have your experimental mindset.

Starting a successful business isn’t an event like a launch or a grand opening. It’s an evolution that starts with experimenting at the edges of what’s possible and evolving into a successful business as you learn what works. Exactly like the process of learning and applying your creative skill.

I could go on. I’ve seen creatives thrive in entrepreneurial and corporate leadership positions throughout my career. And my time teaching creatives in the classroom has solidified my belief that you’re uniquely suited for this, even if you or the rest of the world don’t see it yet.

When I teach entrepreneurship in the classroom, my job as an educator is pretty easy. Yes I teach business concepts and frameworks to help creatives start and run a business. But most of my time is spent helping them uncover the strengths they already have, then connect them to successful entrepreneurship. That’s what I do here too.

This Week

So this week, reflect on your own strengths. I’ve given you three starters that most creatives already have. What strengths do you uniquely bring that might fit with your entrepreneurial future? They might be variations on my three themes or something else entirely.

Write them down. Keep them visible. They’re the foundation for everything you’ll build from here.