Christina Empedocles is an artist, illustrator and designer turned personal finance expert, focused on helping other artists and creatives build stable financial lives to support themselves and their families and their incredibly important work.
In our discussion, we talk about how it is possible to work both sides of the brain as an artist to build a business that supports the work you are meant to create in the world and serves those who resonate with it on the highest level.
This is an incredibly motivating, inspiring episode you don’t want to miss!
Christina’s Links:
http://www.insightpersonalfinance.com
Christina’s Book Recommendation:
Stephen Greco is an editor, cultural journalist, and author. His most recent novel is Now and Yesterday, published by Kensington. A former editor of Interview and Trace magazines, Stephen has consulted for advertising agencies, not-for-profit arts organizations, and individual artists and entrepreneurs.
In our discussion he so graciously shares stories and anecdotes that help contextualize two sides of the table when it comes to running your business with your art: the business side and the artistic side. I promise, this is an episode you don’t want to miss!
Beth Inglish is a contemporary abstract artist who creates expressive work by connecting to the energy that resonates from her spirit. Creating art became how she learned to communicate and it gave her the outlet to find her voice. In her paintings, Beth uses line and color to share her story of transformation and paints from the abundance of her joy.
Beth is also the founder of Nashville Creative Group, a community dedicated to support, help and cultivate community for the artists of Nashville. In our discussion Beth shares how she was able to grow this community into one that artists from all over the country would like to become a part of.
I got an email from a really dear, sweet artist in my community the other day who is so kind and so nice at all times. And has the most lovely offers in her business that she is just getting up and running. She is in the Emergent stage, which means she just started to sell her work in her business but she hasn’t gotten to a point of consistency yet. So she is selling sporadically but she is building. Her whole focus is on marketing because in the Emergent faze it’s important to focus 80% of your efforts in your business on your marketing so that you can do two things. Consistently get the word out about your work and that you are here to stay and continuously discovering and refining the ‘what you know about your true ideal clients’.
However while building your business mistakes can happen, which occurred to this artist, but what you do from that mistake can help grow your business. The question on what value can you give your most Ideal Client when a mistake occurs is what I talk about in today's episode.
Our brains are wired to feel a certain comfort level around a certain amount of money based on what we’ve been accustomed to in the past. So when we begin to make more than that in our businesses, our brains can view that as a threat to what it is used to.
This causes more artists to stop building their businesses than you can imagine because they don’t know how to get past that certain level of comfort in order to allow for more cash to flow in.
I doubted this when I first started my business but as I learned first hand how true this really is, I started to find ways to identify when I was self-sabotaging my own success so I could consciously turn that around to make the amount of money I was at first uncomfortable with. I share some of the most powerful tools I used to accomplish this in today’s episode so you can use them for yourself as you continue to grow your business with your art.
When I work with artists who aren’t sure why they’re not connecting strongly with their most ideal clients, the first question I ask them is “have you been working on your ideal client pick up line?”.
When they look at me as if they have no idea what I’m talking about I explain that if they’re not working to connect with their ideal clients by testing out lines on them then they’re not doing their job, and their clients are never going to notice them.
It’s our job as business owners to take ownership over our own need to connect with our clients on a regular basis, and if we’re not then we’re going to leave our businesses to suffer.
It’s easier than you may think to come up with lines that work- and I have five for you to use and adjust to suit your unique circumstances, which is what I share with you in today’s episode.