Laura C George Registration and Sign Up Information | lauracgeorge

Since you''re new around these parts, you might want to read some of the top posts of all time from my blog:

The #1 Secret to Ending Your Website Shame- because I know you hate showing people your site or online shop.
Fear?- we all have it and it''s time to break the silence.
Print on Demand Can''t Be Your Only Strategy?- why sites like Society6 won''t make you your millions.
How to See if Your Images Are Being Used on Other Websites?- because sometimes you want to enforce your copyright.
The Perfect About Page?- how to write a bio that really works.

Of course, there are tons and tons of articles for you to dig into. So feel free to use the search box for tips on things like pricing, time management, or?marketing.

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You might be wondering how I can be an expert in building an art business if I don''t have an art business myself. This is something people ask from time to time and it''s actually a really interesting story that might help you along your own journey.

It all started when I was very little and was drawn to all sorts of creative pursuits: crafts, singing, piano, writing poetry, and most of all dancing. As I grew up, I kept these passions (yes, all of them) but I also dreamed of being a skilled illustrator, painter, or photographer - yet I never pursued visual art. I was a shy kid and perhaps too afraid to fail in front of others when I knew even my notebook doodles were sub-par.

Graduation... And Disappointment

In college I was interested in many things, but I didn''t identify as being talented or skilled at any of them. I found out later that this is a common problem for young artists because they have better taste than ability, but that the ability only comes with experience. Maybe you''ve felt like that before?

Well I muddled through my first art class, introductory sculpture, and finished with two pieces I was actually proud of. This gave me enough confidence to get my degree in studio art.

During my senior year, I explored my careers options and was feeling completely lost. I had the same experience that so many artists come to me complaining about now - I asked my professors what I could do with a Bachelor''s degree in studio art and they told me to teach art to grade schoolers. The only other suggestion I got were to go to New York and try to become a prominent, cutting edge artist or to work the desk at a gallery.

None of these appealed to me, which left me stuck and frustrated. And scared.

And I''ll just say it, I felt betrayed too. Like I had been led to believe I was choosing a great major - something I loved that would also take me somewhere when I finished school - but then the rug was pulled out from under my feet!

Luckily, I managed to find a job in marketing that I was qualified for. It was a wonderful first big-girl job, but at the end of the day I felt drained and I still had to help with dinner, do the dishes, and take care of other household chores. I wasn''t getting to be creative enough at work. And I was trying to cram personal pursuits and the social, romantic, and familial parts of my life into the hour or two left before bed. It was impossible and it felt like my soul had been sucked into the vortex of my office cubicle.

When the opportunity arose, I jumped at the chance to work from home as an assistant for a small business owner and set my own hours, even though I wouldn''t be working in a creative industry.

And Then I Met Etsy

While working as an assistant, I began listing my handmade jewelry on Etsy in my off-hours. This was my first mistake.

I don''t really love making jewelry, but it was something easy and relaxing to do on the weekend and it felt like it brought me further away from the boring nature of the work I was doing during the week.

I dreamt that my jewelry would magically become popular and sales would flood in and I would suddenly escape the drudgery of traditional work. I didn''t realize that I was doing loads of research to get my work seen and bought, but I wasn''t acting on much of that research because I didn''t really want to succeed in the jewelry world. And it never even occurred to me to try to sell my intaglio prints (I focused in printmaking in college) because I don''t think I''m a very good artist.

But I was muddling along, fooling myself into thinking I''d create a couture line of beaded jewelry, and suddenly I got lucky. But not in a way I expected at all. Other Etsy sellers started asking me about running their businesses. Through all my career struggles, I had established this level of intense knowledge around selling art online. And it just so happened that answering these questions was absolutely thrilling to me. It turns out that I was more interested in learning the business of art than I was actually making any art (or jewelry) myself.

So my jewelry business died. My art business never started - I hated having to hear negative feedback anyway. (If you can''t emotionally handle negative feedback you are going to hate being an artist, at least until you get over it and learn to accept or reject the feedback with grace and without taking it personally.) But I found a purpose that feels innate and beautiful to me. And, frankly, I''m really good at it!

So Who Do I Help?

While I love all creative people, I am really, really, ridiculously good (watch out, Zoolander!) at helping visual artists who work in 2D mediums and like to interact with some of the people who put their art on their walls. I look for passion, talent, and optimism too because these qualities make you the most likely to succeed.

Is that you? If you''re serious about taking your business to the next level, take a look at my consulting services (I''ll be your fairy artmother!) or check out my most popular courses, Artistic License and The Artist''s Business Plan, to kick your art business into high gear! If you have any questions, I''m on the other side of your email, just hit reply.

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See back when I was starting out, I wasted a TON of time. I thought I was working around 60 hours a week on my business (and probably 10-20 hours a week on my work-from-home day job that paid my bills). But I was doing a lot of futzing around things.

I would tweak something little on my website that no one was going to notice.
I would read a bazillion articles about online business.
I would scroll Instagram and just binge-like bunches of posts.
I would spend an hour designing a Pinterest graphic.
I would watch tv the whole time I was working.

Endless things. Those are just the first ones that came to mind. I was wasting time. If you do even one of these things, LISTEN UP. ha!

When you take your work on vacation (it''s ok to do a LITTLE vacation work though), it''s just another symptom of this big problem of not being able to focus on the core things that will make your business run well.

And a) you need to be spending your work time on things that make a difference in your art business and b) you need to spend your vacation time relaxing.

To that second point, you come up with really good ideas when you''re relaxed.

I''ve heard countless stories from artists who came up with brilliant stuff while relaxing, taking a walk, on vacation, sitting in a bubble bath, spending time with their kids, etc.

And I just had one myself.

While on a little beach trip with my husband and our sweet 1-year-old boy, I was watching him react not-so-great to the sand and the waves and I kept wishing he would just let go a little so he could have fun.

See, he was scrunching the sand in his hands and looking at it like it was assaulting him. Why was this stuff stuck to his hands?? And each time a wave came up (don''t worry, the water never got above his cute little booty) he would cry and ask me to pick him up. But the beach is fun! He could be splashing the waves and digging holes in the sand and watching the big kids play!

And I realized that emotion I was feeling was something I''ve felt before with some of my clients. It''s a hard feeling to describe exactly. But the situations definitely felt the same to me.

If my baby boy allowed himself to be a little more vulnerable, he would have fun.
If my artists allowed themselves to be a little more vulnerable, they would sell more art. (And probably have more fun too.)

Vacation moments are the best, right?

Because it all clicked into place. I''ve been working on this new Studio Circle and boom! This came to me and it''s actually the very thing you need to do before you can actually commit to any of the stuff I''m teaching at the next Circle.

Like, seriously. If you''re not willing to get a little vulnerable - show a little of who you are as a person on top of who you are as an artist - then you shouldn''t come to the next Circle. It won''t help you. You''ve got to at least be willing to work on being more vulnerable.

So I reached out to some past clients about how they''ve let vulnerability creep in a bit and saw big results. Ellen Von Wiegand, told me a lovely story about her work.

She creates linocut portraits of nudes and uses herself as the model because it is the most practical way to get all the poses she wants. When she started out, she didn''t tell people that the images were her. People would ask and she would get embarrassed telling them these were portraits of her own nude body.

The transition she made to being open about it is lovely. Let me share it with you in her words:
"At a certain point I realised that there was a story to tell if I owned the fact that it was my body I was showing. I could talk about my history of being a shy introvert, and the ways that this has held me back in the past. I could talk about issues I''ve had with being seen and being comfortable in my own skin. I could relate to people on a personal level that would allow them to connect more deeply with my art. ... Now people interact much more with my work, and I have more sales. It has been such an important key to my success."

I know that was very difficult for her, but she made the leap and has reaped amazing rewards.

Vulnerability opens the door for you to connect so deeply with people that all these cold, soul-less strategies you learn are injected with humanity and meaning. They''re no longer just sales tactics. They''re ways to share your art with the world. And getting paid? That becomes a by-product that just feels natural and easy.

And being vulnerable can be a slow journey. Don''t feel like you have to start by showing nude self-portraits! Or even end with that! ;)? If you are ready to TRY to share some of your personality and your real life, then you will see big improvements in your art business when you start using the right strategies.

Ready for the next step? To build directly on that vulnerability, I want to teach you how to get noticed. Really noticed!

There''s a Studio Circle coming up called Make Art. Make Waves. and it''s Pay What You Can! Yep - you can pay full price or you can pay anything you want all the way down to $1.

I don''t know about you, but I hardly ever get valuable business training for under $20.

Just trying to make these Covid times a little happier and a little easier to get through. Check out the details here and hit reply if you have questions!

P.S. - You have to learn this stuff if you want to be one of those artists who stops people in their tracks AND sells everything they make. We''re going to talk about what makes people buy art, 5 big categories to check off, and more than 20 specific marketing strategies... and loads of other stuff of course! Studio Circles have become my favorite way to teach, second only to my one-on-one coaching. I know you''ll love the relaxed & intimate feel, coupled with me jam-packing it with knowledge and actionable steps. Please come!!

"Working with you was transformational for me. Before beginning our work together I felt like I was flailing. I would go month to month feeling like my sales were about hope. You gave me the tools to understand how to build and maintain a business. I now feel like I am in charge and I know what to do. I made 30% more in income than the goal we set together in the year following the coaching. I continue to grow my business and I have yet to employ every strategy you''ve offered because I''ve had so many projects on that there hasn''t been the time." - Ellen, a "graduate" of my consulting program

Interested? I do have some summer spots still open. Apply here.

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I''ve got another present for you! I have a free planning worksheet that I''ve designed just for artists to track what''s going on in your art business each month, including all your cool ideas!

Some artists like to print them and put them in a binder each month so they have a record of what''s happening all in one place - a great summary of your art business. In six months or a year, you''ll be thrilled to look back and rediscover old ideas or see how much money you made last February in comparison to January so you know what to expect from your sales this February. And it''s especially fun to see what marketing was a success so you can go ahead and do it again and see those great results again!

Go download your own copy of the free monthly planner for artists right over here.

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Part of what I''m teaching in the Circle is about how people make the decision to buy a piece of art. What makes people buy art?

That question is so important and we so often try to answer it with price or luck or coincidence.

Those are the tiniest factors in the decision, though! The main thing is that they connect with both the artwork and the artist. If those things aren''t true, they wouldn''t pay $1 for the art. But how could they connect with you if they don''t know anything about you?

Even knowing that, it can still be pretty scary. I''ll be honest, part of letting people connect with you means that you''re letting other people very much NOT connect with you. You will get unfollows, unsubscribes, un-everythings. People might even tell you they''re not into you, what you''ve said/done, or your art. Usually, even people who don''t get you are nice or they just walk away and you never know about it. But occasionally someone might be mean to you. You might get hurt.

If there wasn''t any hurt or risk, practically everyone with the crave to create would be a fulltime artist, right?

Choosing to pursue this as a career means opening yourself up to some of the not-so-fun stuff.

But that happens in any career! Office jobs can mean awkward colleagues, getting passed up for a promotion, and getting told your work isn''t good enough. Medical jobs can mean tough conversations and even losing patients. Sales jobs can mean people think you''re slimy, sometimes you get yelled at, and your worth as an employee is tied directly to the money you bring in. Any job you can think of, even your dream job, is going to have parts about it you don''t enjoy.

So if vulnerability makes you shrink away, try to think of it as the necessary evil to make your art career dreams a reality.

And remember, you get to decide how far to go with vulnerability. Nobody can force you to talk about your health, your religion, your family, your politics.... whatever it is that you''re just not comfortable with. Keep it off limits. You don''t have to share EVERYTHING or even any one particular thing. You just have to let them in on your personality in some way.

Need some help figuring out how to be vulnerable enough to connect with potential art buyers? And what else you can do to make them want to buy from you? Make Art. Make Waves. is my next Studio Circle where I''m teaching ALL of that goodness - and it''s happening next week.

We''re going to hang out live and work on this stuff. I''ll be teaching you 20+ actionable strategies for getting people to notice you, connect with you, and buy from you. And we''ll beat back overwhelm by working on the most important bits right then and there. I''ll be guiding you through some exercises to get some of this work done.

I''ll neatly categorize the strategies for you and provide you with a recording of our Circle, the slides (so you don''t have to take notes if you don''t like to!), and links to examples and resources after the Circle.

You''ll leave the Circle with a ton of confidence and the exact steps you need to take to get just as much success and attention as your favorite Instagram-famous artists.

Let''s do it!

Cheerfully,

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It''s tough trying to figure out how much to charge for your work, but you''re?-thisclose- to finally feeling confident in your art prices and actually selling more of your work!

Block out some time to watch the video today or tomorrow so it doesn''t end up on your to-do list for months, never getting done. Plus, your enthusiasm will wane if you wait too long, which decreases the likelihood that you take action - which is the only way you''re going to end up fixing your prices and selling more art.

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