“As a hobby artist, how do I attract buyers to increase sales?” – Kristine Hurd

Jessica Craddock:  Welcome back to Intuitive Art Sales. Today I'm here with Christine Hurd who does mixed media with alcohol ink and acrylics and watercolors, and she's pretty prolific with it.  But at the same time, she works full time outside of the home. So her goal in selling art is just to get it out of the house so that she can make more. 

Selling art for her is about continuing to be able to do the thing that she loves without running out of room or supplies. And she feels like it's something that she can't keep doing unless she sells it.

 Something unique about Christine is that she actually has a marketing degree but still feels that social media can be really all consuming because she's still not sure who her target audience is or what the story behind her art is. So we're going to dig into all of that. Let's go.

Jessica Craddock: Hello Kristine. It's lovely to have you today. How are you?

Kristine Hurd: I'm good, thanks.

Jessica Craddock: Okay, so we are, talking today a little bit about how, even though selling art is not the thing that you are looking to make a full-time income, you still want to sell it 'cause it allows you to make more art, which is a really great reason to sell art in the first place.

Right. And I think a lot of people relate to that. You wanna tell me a little bit more about kinda what's happening there?

Kristine Hurd: I've been doing art as a hobby. It's kind of like a good stress reliever, anxiety reliever for me for a couple years. And, once I started getting into alcoholing, actually my husband built me this studio so that I had like a ventilated place to work.

So then I really started, you know, doing a lot more of it. I just find that the more art I do, the more space I need. And I run out of space because I started working on canvases and of course they take up more space and they cost more. So, it's like I don't have an infinite budget for buying and replacing art supplies.

 I look around and think, okay, so now what do I do with all these paintings? Like I have a ton of paintings, but I can't just leave them sitting around. It seems kind of wasteful.

Jessica Craddock: Why did you start working on Canvas is the first thing I wanna ask.

Kristine Hurd: It was actually because I started taking a class last year and we did some paintings on paper and then we moved to Canvas. And also it was because we started using acrylics and acrylic ink, whereas previously I didn't really like using alcohol ink on canvas. Mm-Hmm.

But, I mean, I guess it's a little easier to store alcohol ink papers, but I'm finding that I just like doing a lot of different things. I do really like using the canvases now, unfortunately, because they take up way more space.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. So, we're not gonna go too deep down this rabbit hole. Yeah. But because creating a super high income is not like your top priority thing. Your top priority thing is I wanna make art, and I wanna have that freedom to do it as much as I want to do it. Right. What if it turned into something like, I'm gonna do one really amazing canvas a month. And I can keep painting over it until I really love it.

Mm-Hmm. And up until that point, I'm going to do this stack of papers that will help me inform how I want to do this really grand piece, something along those lines. Just so one, we're still doing what we want to do, but creating a little bit less tension around it.

Kristine Hurd: Right.

Jessica Craddock: And. Let's be honest, the art on paper is gonna be a lower price point. It's gonna be easier to ship. It's gonna be easier to sell for those reasons. Right.

Kristine Hurd: Yeah, no, that definitely makes sense.

Jessica Craddock: But I don't wanna say don't create on canvas 'cause you like it.

Kristine Hurd: Yeah. And no, and I totally get that. And I have thought of that, which is why actually I started buying more art journals to work in, just because Mm-Hmm. You know, that's just for me. I think the thing with the canvas is because they're bigger, you have freedom to do different things with them that you can't do on the paper. Because you're used to using more paint, and then you get on a little piece of paper, and it's kind of like you're just kind of trying to paint in a tiny space, and it doesn't quite come out the same. So it's almost like you have to do a different style completely to do the paper versus the canvas. And I think that's what I was, you know, one of the things I'm struggling with is just, I was scared to paint on big canvases before, but now I like it because there's so much more room to work with.

[00:04:56] There are alternatives to working on canvas to save space.

Jessica Craddock: Okay, one more idea and then we're gonna move on to something else. Okay. I have or have had these big 18 by twenty-four. Uh, Tearaway papers in the past, right? Uh, you can get them to where they're really high quality and they're nearly as expensive as Canvas, as a cheap canvas, right? Or you can get, you know, kind of crap quality.

Even something like, what is this one that I have? It's like a Post-It brand or something. There's no grit to it, okay? But, the point is these don't necessarily need to be saved for all time. I just want to be able to work big and practice working big and get into that space. Mm-Hmm. That could be an alternative to having 20 canvases a month piling up in your workspace, right?

Yeah. Okay. Okay, so moving on from that, you said social media can become all consuming even though you got a marketing degree in 2000.

Right.

Kristine Hurd: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Tell me a little bit about the marketing side of things.

Kristine Hurd: Well, I think for me, and I, I assume this is what it's like for a lot of artists, especially when I'm not doing it as a primary income, I can't really spend a lot of money on marketing. So I'm trying to do it all free, which is why you choose social media, but then you have to, you know, the algorithms are always changing and it's like you have to post this many of this a day and this many of this a day. And it just gets really time consuming, especially when you're not dedicating all of your time to trying to promote stuff.

Jessica Craddock: Right?

Kristine Hurd: And so it's like you don't get as much exposure as you would if you were doing it full time. So, it feels kind of frustrating because it's like, well, okay, what's the better way to do this if I'm not using social media? Because I don't wanna be making reels every single day. It's not something that I excel at. I don't have a staff that could do it for me, and I don't have the money to outsource it to someone else because really I'm just painting for fun kind of thing. Right. You know, like we talked about. So I don't have a budget per se to do things like that.

Jessica Craddock: So I think, again, there's different ways we could go here. One way is coming up with almost a formula of what does my post look like every single day, right, in a way that people are still interested in engaging with it, but I'm not reinventing the wheel every time.

Kristine Hurd: Right?

Jessica Craddock: Even in the form of a reel, it could be, first I do X, then I do Y, then I do Z. And then I say, it's this much and here's how you buy it and post it, right? That's not something that I would necessarily recommend for anyone, but in this case, that could be enough.

Kristine Hurd: Right.

Jessica Craddock: But the other way I wanna look at this is you said it's not something I excel at. What do you excel at?

Kristine Hurd: Good question. I'm very good at a lot of things, but I wouldn't say excel at any of them.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. What are you really good at then?

Kristine Hurd: I'm usually good at problem solving, but here I am, and like researching and getting information and coming up with solutions for things. But yeah, I don't know, this is just eluding me for some reason.

Jessica Craddock: You know, I have an idea.

Kristine Hurd: Like I'm good at coming up with ideas, but the follow through maybe is where I'm faltering because I either don't have the time or the money or you know, like I'll forget to take a video of something. I'll be like, I'll paint and think, oh shoot, I completely forgot to take a video of that.

So I don't have something to do with it.

[00:08:28] Establishing standard procedures can help you follow through with your ideas.

Jessica Craddock: So it sounds like, this is probably getting a little bit ahead, but as you figure out things that do work for you, you know what a standard operating procedure is?

Kristine Hurd: Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Probably need to have one of those in place where it's like, Fridays is not a good example of a standard operating procedure, but it's for artists, whatever, right? Fridays I paint. While I paint on Fridays, I have my video on. I move the camera around four times. I store that in my B-roll folder on my phone. Something along those lines.

Kristine Hurd: Right.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. But, again, I asked what are you good at? You said, I'm good at research, I'm good at processes, I'm good at figuring things out. My guess is also thinking outside the box a little bit when it's not your own thing.

Kristine Hurd: Right? Like I'm good at coming up with ideas, but I've always struggled with the follow through. And I don't know if that's partly because I have ADHD and I always wanna do so many things. It's almost like I can't pick what to do first, and then I end up doing nothing.

Mm-Hmm. And it's kind of like that when I've come up with processes, it's like they work for a little while and then I'm like, Ooh, I feel too stifled. Like I can't just do this on Friday. Like, I wanna go paint on a Monday and do this instead. And, and so I think part of that is hampering me, maybe.

Jessica Craddock: Yeah. I have an idea. I might just give it to you. But first I wanna try something else.

Kristine Hurd: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: We're gonna switch roles.

Kristine Hurd: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: You are the coach. I am the artist.

Kristine Hurd: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: And I'm gonna make up a scenario and you're gonna coach me through it, Okay. So I have been painting with my one-year-old daughter a lot recently on watercolor paper. We've just been using watercolor and kind of like throwing the colors around and. It's stacking up like a little bit crazy, and I don't know what to do with it. I had this idea that it would be really cool if, you know, we could sell them for 20 bucks and they could all start funding her college fund or something like that, I think.

Right. You know, starting now with something like that would be great, but I don't know what to do with it. Do you have any ideas?

Kristine Hurd: Like in the meantime or,

Jessica Craddock: No, like, I, I have this stack of artwork, and I wanna start selling it to whoever, right? I don't care who, buys it. But I wanna start our college fund, and I think that would be a good way to do it.

Kristine Hurd: Okay. Well, if it were me first, I would find a place to store it in the meantime, so it wasn't driving me crazy. What I've done with stuff like that is get little portfolios, you know, that you can buy for art. Mm-Hmm. Um, especially for the paper ones. Like I just store everything in there. Like I have a ton of stuff that's you can't see.

But, another thing would be just kind of looking at, okay, where do I wanna sell it? Because there's so many options out there. Right. I know like lots of people use Etsy, but then they have their different, like they have their different, um. What's the word I'm looking for? Um, fees. So I think like for a lot of people, especially, it helps to look into different places where you can post online. I think it depends too, how much time you have to commit to it as well.

Jessica Craddock: I probably have like, I don't know, five hours a week max, five hours a week. I mean, I've got a 1-year-old. She's crazy. Yeah.

Kristine Hurd: Well, I think I would focus on just one painting at a time rather than, I know like in social media, people are like, this is my newest work. This is my work in progress. Blah, blah, blah. I think if you can take it and focus on one piece at a time, and then if you are not wanting to pay for, say, a website, maybe start with social media, but just Mm-hmm. Focus all of the, the pieces of it on the one piece.

Jessica Craddock: Well, I haven't started a social media account yet, so I don't really have anybody on there. Is that still the best thing to do?

Kristine Hurd: I don't know if I would say it's the best thing to do. I mean, to be quite honest with you, I have followers, but I don't find it's my followers on social media that are buying my art. So, I'm kind of switching here back into the other role. I think that's why I'm kind of questioning whether it's the best place to be for me or not, because it's great to have people interact and like your stuff, but that's not what's gonna get me the sales, I think.

Jessica Craddock: Yeah.

Kristine Hurd: Um, because those people aren't like, Ooh, I have to buy this right now. They're just like, oh, that's really nice. I like the colors you used. And I also find that on social media, it's a lot of artists following other artists, and sometimes they buy your work, but not necessarily. So it's, it's more of a, like, where are the collectors?

How do you find the people that want to collect your work and not just say, oh, that's very pretty. Um, without having to post on social media constantly to keep like. You know, to maybe randomly one day come across one person who might want to buy something.

 Everybody says you have to be on it, but it's not very efficient at all. Like,

Jessica Craddock: It's not very efficient.

Kristine Hurd: No.

Jessica Craddock: I'm not saying it's not a good thing to do. There are definite advantages to being on there. It's not always the answer though.

Kristine Hurd: Right.

Jessica Craddock: So then you went into, okay, so if these, and I'm not gonna argue with you here because I've argued with other people in other episodes about that. If your buyers aren't following you on Instagram, where are they? You said, earlier. Before we record it, I think, I'm not really sure who my target audience, my consumer is.

Kristine Hurd: Right. Which is I think why I'm struggling, because I know where they aren't. They're not on Instagram and Facebook. Because if they were, I mean, maybe I'd be selling more, but

Jessica Craddock: Is that necessarily true? See, I can't help myself.

Kristine Hurd: Well, no, not necessarily. I mean, I have gotten a few sales through that. Okay. But most of my sales up to now have been friends and family, and they know about it. Mm-Hmm. Because they do know about it through social media, but I don't think that's necessarily why they buy it. They buy it because they know me.

Jessica Craddock: Do you think they would've bought it if they hadn't seen it on social media? If you hadn't sent a post that said This is for sale?

Kristine Hurd: No, they wouldn't because they wouldn't have known I had it. 'cause I don't have them anywhere else.

Jessica Craddock: See I'm wavering in and out here.

Kristine Hurd: Okay. I know.

[00:14:31] Recognize that friends and family are your ideal art buyers.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. The first thing I want you to hear, okay, I want everyone to hear, friends and family are ideal art buyers,

Kristine Hurd: Right?

Jessica Craddock: Almost always. Ninety-eight percent of the time. I've not found many exceptions to that rule, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Kristine Hurd: My mom is my biggest collector.

Jessica Craddock: Yeah, my mom is my biggest collector. Yeah, his mom is his, it's accurate, right? Pretty much across the board, right?

Kristine Hurd: Yes.

Jessica Craddock: Then artists go, well, it's not really valid or doesn't really mean anything, or it doesn't count, or whatever. If they're buying, so I want to expand, or eventually they're gonna wanna stop buying my stuff, so I need to expand. Either way, they're not wrong. Mm-hmm. But that doesn't mean that these people are no longer valid ideal art buyers,

Kristine Hurd: Right?

Jessica Craddock: Just my 2 cents. The way that I've been teaching ideal art buyers, I still stand behind, but I don't wanna get too deep into it. So we've done a lot of episodes on that One. Thing that I've been thinking about the most recently is who is my ideal art buyer based on my core message, values, et cetera, which sounds a little overwhelming. And, you already told me, maybe I'm bad at introspection or maybe I just don't wanna dig deep.

But what's happening is I just wanna paint, and so I sit down and I get some colors out. And I paint it, and it felt good.

Kristine Hurd: Yeah,

Jessica Craddock: So then you're like, well, I don't have anything deeper, et cetera. Can we do my little exercise? I made a YouTube video about this recently, so it's really like hammered into my brain.

Kristine Hurd: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: Why do you paint?

Kristine Hurd: Because it makes me feel good.

Jessica Craddock: Makes you feel good? Why do you wanna feel good?

Kristine Hurd: Because it's better than feeling bad.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. But why does that, lemme ask it a d boy. It's, why does feeling good matter to you?

Kristine Hurd: Because it's just more pleasant and it's better for your health as well. So I guess in a way it's kind of like meditation for me. I can't meditate Mm-Hmm. Because I get distracted too easily. But when I'm painting, it helps me to get rid of the stress and anxiety about things I'm feeling. But, I guess that in turn makes me happy because I come from a place of stress and then I'm more relaxed when I'm done.

Jessica Craddock: Why are you coming from a place of stress and an anxiety?

Kristine Hurd: Well, part of it's probably just my brain chemistry and part of it's that I have two teenagers and a husband that farms and a full-time job and a house to take care of. And a lot of times it just starts piling up on me. So, I just need that kind of break away from everything.

And I think too, in our house, there's a lot of stuff I can't control. Like, I can't control my kids not, putting their stuff away. But in my arts studio, it's like, okay, it's a mess, but this is my mess. And I can control it, and I can clean it up if I want. So I find that it's more relaxing here than, you know, when I'm stressed out in the house kind of thing.

 It's a different feeling. I guess.

Jessica Craddock: Why does it matter to you to have a place where you can feel like you're in control?

Kristine Hurd: Because feeling like I'm out of control makes me feel anxious. 

Jessica Craddock: I think so. We're, we we're doing circular logic here.

Kristine Hurd:  Yeah, we are. but that's, that's a big part of it. I think it, it's like when I'm in the house, I can sit down, and I can try to relax. But it's like I see oh, that laundry needs to be put away and oh, I need to tell my daughter to go hang up her coat and somebody needs to take out the garbage.

And it's like things are always in my head. And, I'm either on people's cases all the time, or I'm doing everything myself. Or I come to my art studio and it's like I can just kind of let that go for a while.

Jessica Craddock: So back to all the things you just said, you said several times, stress and anxiety, relaxation. Um, there's too much happening whether it's outside or in my head.

Kristine Hurd: Right.

[00:20:02] Think about your goal in creating your art.

Jessica Craddock: So the ultimate goal there is what?

Kristine Hurd: To improve my mental health.

Jessica Craddock: Okay.

Kristine Hurd: I would guess.

Jessica Craddock: That wasn't what I thought you were gonna say, but that's, I, I agree with that. That's accurate. To improve my mental health. Things are always in your head, stressed, out of control, and you want to improve that mental state,

Kristine Hurd: Right? Even if it's only temporarily.

Jessica Craddock: How would you describe, you said relax, but I'm trying to, I'm trying to dig a little bit past relax. What happens when you are relaxed? Let's go there.

Kristine Hurd: My thoughts slow down a lot more. I'm not constantly thinking about all the things I have to do. You just kind of get in the zone. Like I said, it's more like meditating for me where I think about things a lot less, and it's just kind of going with the flow of the paint. And one of the reasons why I do abstract rather than, you know, try to paint realistically because I can just kind of do what I feel like doing in the moment. It lets you be free, I guess.

Jessica Craddock: The cliche phrase that I just wrote down is "frees my mind." I try to write this phrase in a way that you have used those words because then it feels more true and not that cliche.

Kristine Hurd: Right?

Jessica Craddock: Slows down my thoughts. Things are always in my head. Those were the two that stood out to me.

Kristine Hurd: Yeah. I'm constantly thinking, like my brain is kind of like, I've always compared it to like a hamster in one of those rolling balls that you put on the floor and it rolls. And it bumps around into things and changes direction all the time. And I feel like that's in my brain sometimes. And it's just, it gets exhausting after a while. For some reason there's two things I can do that I can focus on. I can read and I can paint.

Jessica Craddock: Mm-Hmm.

Kristine Hurd: When I paint, there's something at the end of it. It's nice to be able to create something from that.

Jessica Craddock: I'm trying to, in a way, detach it from the creation. Right. And attach it to who I am as a person and what I really care the most about. Could you say like, at, at your core that my brain is a hamster and I'm always just trying to slow down my thoughts. Does that feel accurate?

Kristine Hurd: That feels pretty accurate.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. Yeah, maybe it will evolve over time, but we can leave it there for now. Okay. Where it's not just saying, this painting is relaxing. You should relax with it. It's I am a person whose brain operates like a hamster, and I'm always trying to slow down my thoughts. Then we can talk about, and I'm gonna make this up now, patience. We can talk about ADHD. We can talk about being overwhelmed. All those things relate back to my brain is answering and I'm trying to slow down my thoughts. And then it's more about you, right? And the art is a product of that thing that you want. And it's not about them. We're not saying, now if you buy this painting, you'll relax.

Kristine Hurd: Right?

Jessica Craddock: Maybe they will, but we're saying patience is something that I'm working on. It's really hard for me. There's this and this and this, and sometimes I just wanna throw something across the room, but instead I painted today. Here's what I made. Then that painting all of a sudden becomes about being patient and remembering not to throw things across the room

Kristine Hurd: wish I could paint at work more often than or more often sometimes.

Jessica Craddock: So back to the original question, which was, who is my target audience? It's all those people who want those things.

Kristine Hurd: Right.

Jessica Craddock: And maybe one of my other circles is, it's people who like alcohol ink. But how do you know who likes the alcohol ink and who doesn't? That's pretty hard to define.

Kristine Hurd: Right?

Jessica Craddock: Unless we're doing SEO and keywords and search terms and blah, blah, blah.

Kristine Hurd: Right? Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: That's one way to use that bubble. And then the other bubble is people we know, aka we're gonna throw friends and family in that bubble. And if they have more than one of those bubbles in common, then you're really hitting the nail on the head, but you don't need all three.

Kristine Hurd: Okay?

Jessica Craddock: So when you're thinking about someone else who's brain is like a hamster and they just wanna slow down their thoughts and. Again, I made up those other examples, right? But wants to have more patience and not throw things across the room and all blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Can you think of people like that?

Kristine Hurd: Oh yeah, for sure.

Jessica Craddock: So then when you're talking about your art like that on your social media, and you're somehow getting them onto your social media, which you're not getting to yet, right? But then they're like, oh, I connect with this person. Especially if they already know you, that helps.

Kristine Hurd: Yeah. No, that makes sense.

[00:25:17] Reach out to people on your list through Instagram and ask for connections.

Jessica Craddock: Okay, so I'm gonna give you two baby steps. No, three, three baby steps. Baby step number one, go make you a list of anyone that you can think of that has anything to do with what we just wrote down. Look in past schools, past classes, past groups, past whatever, current friends and family people, you know, make a list.

Kristine Hurd: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: It may even be, like a, a store or a market or something like that. Step two, so we're gonna go find those people on social media. And we're going to follow them, and we're gonna send them a DM that says something like, Hey, I found you nice to connect, it's been a while. We should catch up something along those lines. Okay. And then like something of theirs, whatever.

Kristine Hurd: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: This is not an exact formula, okay? You're just trying to grab their attention that you are on Instagram and you have an account, and the goal is hopefully they're gonna follow us back if they have any interest. Third step is you're gonna go after, you know, you've hung out for a minute with them or say, Hey. I have a favor to ask. I'm trying to, grow my art business more organically because I work full time and I don't have time to, or a budget or whatever, however you wanna say it, to blah, blah, blah.

Do you know anyone who has a brain like a hamster and has trouble slowing down their thoughts because that's what my art account is about.

Kristine Hurd: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: Then they're either gonna say nothing. they're gonna say, yes, that's me, or they're gonna say, yes, I know somebody. And then you're going to, either if it's yes, it's me, like, Hey, I have a newsletter where I send out stuff about that. Would you wanna be on it? Get them on your newsletter so you don't have to worry about that algorithm. Or if they say, yes, I know somebody, send them something like, would you be willing to share my art account with them? It would mean a lot.

So in those three steps, one, we're finding more of our people. We're getting them onto our Instagram account where we can share thing, easily getting them onto our Instagram account without having to go through that whole thing. And then inviting them or other people that they know to either come follow us or join us in our next thing, which is our newsletter, which more people are gonna see.

Which step four, I guess would then be start a regular newsletter, where you offer things for sale.

 Kristine Hurd: I've done that before, but not, it's definitely not regular. Something that I've done a little bit of, but not a lot.

Jessica Craddock: We're just, we're trying to simplify this as much as possible. Because you only have. I'm guessing five hours a week, maybe more, but are we talking on top of you also wanna of painting time?

Kristine Hurd: Yeah. No, I'm talking. Yeah, so that would be definitely marketing time. Yeah. Five hours would probably be the math.

Jessica Craddock: What is the simplest process we can do? Write all that down on a standard operating procedure.

Kristine Hurd: Make it simple, stupid.

Jessica Craddock: Yes. Make it simple, stupid. It will evolve over time and you're gonna be very tempted to start adding a whole bunch of crap to it, right? Pay attention to, I've asked this many people. This many people have joined. This many people have started following me from that 'cause I'm not really doing a whole lot else to get people to follow me. This many people have joined my newsletter. And look at, is the time I'm putting in, is it actually translating into what I think it should be now?

Kristine Hurd: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: Before we start adding a whole bunch of other stuff, because we don't have time to add a whole bunch of other stuff yet.

[00:29:22] Start simple by covering all your marketing needs with a newsletter.

Jessica Craddock: How often are you gonna send a newsletter?

Kristine Hurd: A couple times a month? Once a month? 

Jessica Craddock: Once a week.

Kristine Hurd: That's a lot!

Jessica Craddock: That's, that's more than I normally encourage people to start with. Right. But because that is our end place. We're not doing a whole lot else. That's where we're gonna be selling.

Kristine Hurd: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: We can take our favorite social media post, plug it into that email, put an image in there and say, here's how you buy it. You respond, it's this much. I'll send you an invoice, and I'll ship it out tomorrow.

Kristine Hurd: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: If we're not offering things for sale, people aren't buying anything, and it doesn't matter if anyone's on your list or following you or whatever. We have to offer things for sale too. So we're covering all the bases. We're covering visibility. We're organically using relationships to grow. While it feels slow, it's probably faster than happening now with a lot less time spent and they're gonna be warmer leads.

We're nurturing by writing things that connect with my brain is a hamster and I'm slowing down my thoughts and we're, we're allowing them to connect with us through our own stories about that. We're selling by sending the newsletter with the art in it that tells them how to buy. So it's a very simple boom, boom, boom.

Kristine Hurd: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. Let's wrap up.

Kristine Hurd: I think step two for me is gonna actually be the hardest 'cause I am. Uh, there's that whole anxiety and introvert part of me that comes into play when reaching out to people and it's just like, I don't know. I'll do it.

Jessica Craddock: Step two. It's gonna be hard. Practice on me. Ready, go.

Let's pretend we're doing it in person. We bumped into each other at the grocery store.

Kristine Hurd: Hey, how's it going? I haven't seen you in a while. 

Jessica Craddock: I'm good. I've been really busy. I've got this and that, and I'm just buying some hamburgers for dinner.

Kristine Hurd: Oh, good, good. And I just totally blanked out now. I had something in my head. The hamster balls are going through and it's like, whoa.

Jessica Craddock: That's why. That's why we role playing.

Kristine Hurd: Yeah, I know.

Yeah, that sounds, that sounds good. I've been doing a lot of artwork myself and just trying to get some of that.

Oh God, that sounds terrible. 

Jessica Craddock: No, that was great.

Um, I've actually been painting a lot more, and I started a Instagram account. Are you on Instagram? I'd love to follow you so I could see you more often on there. Right? Something like that. I didn't say that perfectly, but you got the gist of it.

Kristine Hurd: Okay. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Selling is informing, connecting and helping. Everything you're doing is pretty much selling. You're selling them to come onto your Instagram. You're selling them to this, you're selling them to that. But it doesn't have to be like use car salesman selling. It can be, I really genuinely will want to keep up with you and see what you're up to on a regular basis.

I'm telling you I have an Instagram account. Do you wanna follow me? Can I make it easy for you? Can I just go follow you? Inform, connect, help. If you think about that all the time, you'll know what to do. Okay?

All right. Kristine, tell all these lovely people who are listening, or practice telling them where to go.

Kristine Hurd: Practice telling them where to go? Are we talking Instagram or just... ?

Jessica Craddock: I don't know. That's up to you. Where do you want them to go?

Kristine Hurd: Well, ideally I'd like them to go to my website.

Jessica Craddock: Why?

Kristine Hurd: Because that's where they can see all of my art in one place. And if they see anything that resonates with them, they can buy it there as well.

Jessica Craddock: Can I actually interject because most people wanna send people to their website. I haven't ever said this. Sure you can send them to your website, but there's no way for them to connect with you on your website unless they happen to stumble across your newsletter signup form and then they decide to do it on a off chance that you'll send something interesting.

[00:33:46] Make it as easy as possible for people to get into your orbit.

Jessica Craddock: Another selling concept that I really like to push is easiest yes. What is it easiest yes? Getting them to your website where they have to then go look at your art and then decide this is exactly what I've always been looking for. And press the buy button all in one go. It's just, there's not a whole lot of easy yeses there.

Instagram's the easiest yes. Right. Newsletter would be the next easiest, probably.

Kristine Hurd: Right.

Jessica Craddock: Tell them to go to one place and tell them why they want to.

Kristine Hurd: Okay. Although if they're gonna do the newsletter, most people have the newsletter signups on their website.

Jessica Craddock: That is true. But then you're still having to tell them all these steps.

Kristine Hurd: Well, unless you have a landing page?

Jessica Craddock: A better way you could do it would be direct message me or email address, and I will get you added.

Kristine Hurd: Right. Okay.

Jessica Craddock: We're thinking, how can I help them? How can I make it as easy as possible for them to get into my orbit where then I can see them and then invite them to my newsletter and make it easy in the process.

So yeah, you can start with, go to my landing page, go to my website, go to my blah, blah, blah. But is that the easiest next thing? Right? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.

Kristine Hurd: So actually while you were saying those things, my brain was spinning and I had a thought, 'cause you were talking about Instagram and you know, comment below or whatever.

Like if somebody is interacting with a post and they say they like something, is it weird or is it okay to, 'cause I know sometimes people say, you've got to ask permission for all kinds of things, to reach out to somebody and DM them. And maybe not talk in there and say, Hey, like I saw you like this thing and um, you know, I have this newsletter that I thought you might be interested in that has blah, blah, blah.

And then ask them in a DM if they've interacted with you.

Jessica Craddock: I thought you were gonna say, would you like to buy it? And I was gonna go No, no. Uh, that's a couple too many steps in one.

That is okay and good. Yes. Okay.

Kristine Hurd: I can do that.

Jessica Craddock: If they're taking the time to comment on something you're doing, they're probably gonna go, sure. Send it to me.

Kristine Hurd: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. So we circled again. I gave you things to think about. I'm putting you on the spot. Where do you want people to go?

Kristine Hurd: Uh, I would like people to visit my Instagram profile.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. And let's add one. Message me that you listened to my podcast.

Kristine Hurd: In Instagram?

Jessica Craddock: Mm-Hmm.

Kristine Hurd: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: Because if people are interested in what you're saying, you're giving them an open invitation to message you. It just makes that connection aspect way easier.

Kristine Hurd: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. That's not always the answer. That's just the answer we came up with today. Sense and you can steal it if you want.

Kristine Hurd: Sounds good.

Jessica Craddock: Alright, so you're gonna go to Christine's Instagram, and you're gonna message her that you listen to her podcast. And if you wanna tell her what you thought about it, do it.

Kristine Hurd: All right.

Jessica Craddock: Well, Christina, it was lovely. I will let you get back since you are at work on your lunch break, but thanks for chatting with me.

Kristine Hurd: Yes, thank you for. For your advice. That was really helpful actually.

Jessica Craddock: You're welcome. Good.

Kristine Hurd: I have a lot to think about.

Jessica Craddock: I think there's this whole other realm of people who, you know, wanna sell art but aren't looking to build a business and grow. And I think this will be really helpful for them. So

Kristine Hurd: Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: I appreciate it.

Kristine Hurd: Okay. Okay. Thank you so much.

Jessica Craddock: You're welcome. Bye Kristine.

Kristine Hurd: Okay, bye.