The Worst Advice I've Ever Received

Dear art friend,

I talked to an artist last week who asked me what was some of the best and worst advice I’d received so far on my journey to making consistent income from my art. It was hard to answer that question on the spot, but it got me thinking and today I want to share with you the worst advice I've been given on building my art business.

So what I came to realize about all the advice out there about building an art business today is that it's based on the advice-givers personal experience. And because I believe that people are generally good and honest, I have to also believe that the advice-giver is giving me that advice because it worked for them. Now that I’m at this point in my career, I can see that there are a LOT of ways to find success in the art world.

So the only difference between good advice and bad advice is how aligned it is with my art, my personality, and my goals.

When viewed that way, I have to say that the worst advice I’ve ever been given is to focus the majority of my marketing efforts on building a huge following on Instagram.

This is not to say I don’t believe you can build a huge social media following and use it to sell art. I see people doing it every day. But I also know what it takes to build that following: videos, reels, consistent posting, hashtags, interacting, building community, putting yourself in front of the camera, creating content, etc. It's a lot of time and energy and I think it's a little bit of luck too.

So if you’re an extrovert and you love being on Instagram and doing what it takes to grow a following there, then great! That’s good advice for you. But is wasn’t for me, and I think if I had been the kind of person who believed IG was the only way to be a successful artist I wouldn’t be here today.

Lucky for me I’m the kind of person who likes to find easier ways to do things. And by easier I mean more in alignment with my strengths and goals. I found other ways of building my audience without spending so much time on Instagram, and at the heart of my audience building strategies are OPA’s which stands for Other People’s Audiences. If you want to learn more about OPA’s I have a free pdf download here.

All right. That’s it for today. I hope after reading this, you will take any advice you’re given and make sure it aligns with what you want and how you want to spend your time. That’s the way to build a business that you truly enjoy.

Until next time, have a great day!

All my best,

Jennifer