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In Episode 67...
Laurie Baars is an abstract, non-representational artist who works with texture, mark making, and collage. Her art captures the feeling of places that she's been and evokes a sense of calm and spaciousness. Laurie transitioned into a career as an artist after spending 30 years in a corporate career because she wanted to leave the stress and overwhelm behind.
The past year has been full of firsts for Laurie, and she is very proud of her accomplishments. She is most excited to continue to grow as an artist. She completed and launched two collections, entered five exhibitions and was accepted to three of them. She was a part of gallery shows in New York and San Francisco. She did a live event with an interior design firm and completed and sold her first two commissions.
Looking ahead, Laurie’s goals include growing her online sales and getting her work into galleries. She knows that connecting with the right people will help her reach those goals, but she’s not exactly sure how to go about it. Although she has been successful at attracting followers and growing her email list on Instagram, it’s not getting her where she wants to go. She is looking for new ideas on how to open more doors for her business.
Listen in as I teach Laurie how to make connections that can lead to her success.
Key takeaways:
Think of out-of-the-box ways to grow your email list. (00:08:30)
Create multiple contact points with someone to build a strong connection. (00:15:26)
Use your love languages to do something special for those you want to connect with. (00:21:38)
When building relationships, connect to your local community first. (00:28:26)
Prioritize making someone's day to build relationships that will grow your art business. (00:34:38)
Resources and links mentioned:
- Connect with Laurie on Instagram @lauriebaars
- Visit Heather's website at www.lauriebaars.com
- Apply to Be a Guest on Intuitive Art Sales here.
- Apply for my mentorship program, Consistent Income here.
Learn more about selling your art:
- For more practical and energetic strategies to create consistent income and life balance, follow Jessica on Instagram @artistmarketco
- For more insights on how to name your Ideal Art Buyers based on who you are rather than what you make, click here.
- Would you like to know where to spend your time in order to create consistent sales, without letting it take over your life? Awesome! Grab your free training, "The Artist's Day" here: https://theartistmarket.co/
- For information on working with Jessica, send your questions/thoughts to jessica@theartistmarket.co
Jessica Craddock: Welcome back to Intuitive Art Sales. I am here with Laurie Baars, who is an abstract, non-representational artist who's working with texture, Mark-making collage, and uh, capturing the feeling of places that she's been trying to evoke senses of calm and spaciousness through her work.
She left her corporate job of 30 years last year and is now working as a full-time artist. She's had a really big year of firsts. So, let's see, what all did she name off? She has completed and launched two collections, entered five exhibitions, uh, which was, she was accepted to three of them, which is great.
She's been a part of two gallery shows in New York and San Francisco. She did a live event with some interior designers. She did her first commissions. And realizing that with all of this, you can really easily turn this into a job that is just as overwhelming as her career was. So really trying to focus on where she's spending her time and making the best use of it.
How are you doing today, Lori?
Laurie Baars: I'm good.
Jessica Craddock: Good. I'm good. I'm so glad you were able to join me today. Thank you for taking the time. I appreciate it very much.
Laurie Baars: Of course.
Jessica Craddock: Okay, where we start? said, I've done all these things. Let's with, what did you learn? What did you experience that you wanted more of, learn you wanted less of?
Kind of, let's just get a feel for, what are we trying to do? We are filming this in December. I know it's probably not gonna come out till January, maybe February, but What do you wanna do in 2024?
Laurie Baars: Well, um, yeah, I've been giving some thought to that. I definitely wanna keep developing as an artist, so that's probably the top of the list. I feel like I made a lot strides that area past year, and felt great. felt good. Like the paintings I did at the end of the year, I could see a difference in those versus how I was feeling when painted at the beginning. Mm-Hmm. Felt like it was flowing better, and I just wanna, keep, keep developing my work, voice as an artist, paint bigger. Want to go super huge, but you know, create more larger work.
I think the income potential is there too. If you can sell those pieces, then it's more bang for buck. But I think still a demand. I would love to get into a gallery or two. And, you know, I've kind of been keeping my eye on like what kind of gallery would I wanna get into. You know, far as the live shows, like the art walk I did, it was great. And also I find it exhausting for me. So I think I definitely wanna do at least one this year, but you know, I've had the thought of doing one of the ones where you, you know, apply and it's a bigger deal where you kind of have a booth and it goes over two or three days, I that may be too much for me this, this year, it may be like in couple years, I might wanna try for something like that.
And even on Instagram, I have a pretty good following and engagement, but mostly other artists, and I treasure that because it's like friends and community that I love. A lot of these people I've known for years and, we've grown together as artists and that's amazing. But I would, I feel like maybe I need to kind of, be reaching out and including interior designers and other people in that as well. I haven't really figured out how to do that.
Pinterest is on my list too. I've had an account for years that I used for the other art that I used to do, was just more illustration work and, I've kind of gotten back it in the last couple a little bit, like creating some pins my art, but I don't a big strategy around that. And launching prints is another thing I've thought of. The list is long, I know, and it's too long. I know it's like, you know, probably much if I try and do all these things. So what do I focus on and you
Jessica Craddock:: It could be too much for a year. I think it's pretty accomplishable, but it just depends how much, like how deep we wanna go into some of these things. Let me flip the question now and ask, is there anything in particular that you're struggling with in terms of any of these things that you want to move toward? I mean, I know there's questions about all of it, but, like, what are your current things that you're maybe not sure how to do or have some hangups around doing even though you want to? Is there anything like that?
Laurie Baars: I think just how to sell more work. know, I haven't really been, um, I feel like the, the show was a good way to do that, but I don't know if I have the capacity energetically for too many of those. So I guess growing my work on, online sales that's kind of the, the way I would like to more, and out how to do that. Tap into more of a, an audience. online. I can't say Instagram has a huge source of buyers for me. Even though I've gotten a lot of followers, I don't get a lot sales through that. I wonder if I can explore that and push that more. Or maybe I just need to focusing on growing my list, but then if so, how to do that.
Jessica Craddock: Okay. Yeah. So you said specifically, I wanna do all these other things, but the thing I am looking particularly to do is grow my online sales.
Laurie Baars: Yeah.
Jessica Craddock: And, I wanna work larger, I wanna get into a gallery or two. I wanna have one or two art walks. I wanna grow my mailing list. I wanna work with some interior designers. I wanna do my Pinterest. I wanna launch prints. A lot of those things are, or can be in collaboration with, whether it's exclusively like Pinterest or supplementing, finding your audience online.
Of the things you listed, Is there one or two that are calling to you the most?
Laurie Baars: I'd say gallery, getting into gallery's been calling to me, one that I feel good about, and that I feel like is is a good fit for me, and growing my mailing list.
Jessica Craddock: So, one of the ways that your Instagram can be used is essentially, this is who I am and this is what it's about. Everybody thinks they have to quote, unquote sell through Instagram and you can, but it doesn't have to be that you're making a ton of sales through Instagram for it to be useful for you. So first, are you connecting with, looking for, following galleries on Instagram that you might like to be a part of?
Laurie Baars: Yes, I have done that. I can't say go comment on posts that much, but I have followed. I have like a little category on Instagram of galleries that I'm interested in that, I, you know, where I'm tracking that.
Jessica Craddock: And also growing your mailing list. How have you grown it up to this point?
Laurie Baars: I have a sign up a couple places on my website. I have a link it my bio on Instagram. I talk about it pretty frequently in posts. Actually, in June, I just sent out an email to all my friends and family, and I got tons people, like a lot of people to sign up. I also actually made some sales that way afterwards. That was nice. And there's a fair amount of artists that follow me and, and artists buy from other artists. I did had a sign-up sheet up at the art walk that I did, and I got maybe eight people that way. Those are all the ways I've done it so far.
Jessica Craddock: Good. Those are all great ways. I actually did an episode a couple of interviews back with Olivia Franklin on how to, not necessarily on growing her email list, but on optimizing her website to grow her email list. That'll be out a few episodes before yours, so when you see that, you can listen to that one.
[00:08:29] Think of out-of-the-box ways to grow your email list.
Jessica Craddock: Let's think about brainstorming together some out-of-the-box ways to grow your email list. You're already doing a great job, it sounds like, on Instagram with growing your email list. You also mentioned a lot of those people are artists, not that artists don't buy from artists because they do, but what are some other ways. How can we just grow your email list, kind of sidestepping some Instagram growth?
First of all, you also mentioned Pinterest. What happens when someone clicks a pin? What do they do?
Laurie Baars: Well, like I said, I'm just getting back into it, but mostly linking straight through to products like paintings. I'll post a picture of a painting and then it links back to that painting on my website. I also have some blog posts I've done on how to frame paper art. I have a post like that, and another post about making collage papers. And I haven't done pins on those yet, but those would link back to the post.
Jessica Craddock: So, I'm just trying to look for the easiest changes we can make because that's always the best place to start. When they go to your product page, is there a way to sign up for your email list on that page?
Laurie Baars: I do have something in my footer on my website. If you scroll, if you went to a product page, a painting page, but you would have to scroll the the way down to the very bottom. There's a little join my collectors list there.
Jessica Craddock: Yes, email sign up in the footer, you should have it, but they are like one of the lowest converting sign up forms.
Laurie Baars: Yeah.
Jessica Craddock: So what I would recommend, if you have this capability, is on your product pages, either have a hello bar. Do you know what that is, where it's at the very top of your website? You can put one there. Or you could have an exit intent Pop-up, meaning as they're about to leave, a pop-up comes up that says, Hey, would you like to be on my email list? So when we're linking our pins to our products, we'll have some sort of form to sign up there. You also mentioned blog posts such as how to frame paper art. You have not created pins for that yet, but pins to blog posts. This is one of my only reasons that I have blog posts. Well, I have two reasons to have blog posts.
And I'm not saying if you don't have a blog, you don't need to freak out and go create one. But reasons to have blogs are SEO, questions, like if your audience is asking a question, you can answer that question in a blog post so people can find you organically. t'Is also a really nice way to then have a way to sign up for your email list with a resource. For example, for the paper framing post, you could say, hey, sign up for my email list, and I'll send it to you as a PDF. Like, we don't have to get super complicated here, but that's another good way to grow your list. And one of the most effective that I have found using Pinterest is having something related to the thing that they clicked on in order to sign up for your email list.
Laurie Baars: Okay. And do you talk about that in the pin or is that just more like once you get to the post?
Jessica Craddock: Just once you get to the post, although, you can also create a pin for the thing Mm-Hmm. or multiple different versions of that pin for the thing where they know, I'm just going there for this thing.
Laurie Baars: Okay. Right. Interesting.
Jessica Craddock: Those are a couple ways we can integrate it into our Pinterest.
This is smaller scale, but you also mentioned, I wanna get into a gallery or two. I'm also interested in interior designers. So, things like, when you're doing this art walk with a bunch of interior designers, having a signup list on your table is great. I'm gonna use the word networking, even though I hate it, there's got to be a better word.
But, networking with all the interior designers that are there, introducing yourself. Saying hi, I’m Lori. I've got that table over there. I love what you did with that thing, and I'd love to stay in touch. And that doesn't necessarily mean at that moment shoving a newsletter signup list in their face, but like having a real… 90 percent of this game is being a real person.
Laurie Baars: Right.
Jessica Craddock: Right. Not, I have a business. I'm going to stand behind my table, and I hope that everybody comes and wants my stuff.
I'm gonna give a random example here. I was at my son's preschool this morning teaching a little art class for them because they're having an art month. And yesterday there was a note in my son's folder that was a really nice note from a teacher assistant that I didn't know. Just saying how awesome my son was, and how he was quiet at nap time. And he didn't flush the toilet because he didn't want to wake his friends up, and how thoughtful of him, and yada yada yada. And it was signed Nikki. I'm like, who is Nikki? I don't know who Nikki is. And then today when I went there I was like, anybody know Nikki? I need to know who Nikki is. And she happened to come in the room when I was doing this art project, and she was talking about how much she loved art. And I'm like, oh, you're Nikki. And so, just like that, there was an immediate connection. I was like, I wanna know her more. I wanna be friends. Let's talk. It doesn't have anything to do with my business, but it could have. Just those types of, I call them making people's day, moments.
Laurie Baars: Right,
Jessica Craddock: And when you do that, they're gonna remember you forever. You're not just some person that was standing behind a table. You're Laurie Baars. She was the one who blah blah blah… So how can we do some more of that? And as we're making these connections being like, hey, I have a newsletter list. Do you have any interest in it? That's the scary part, is making that ask. Yeah. But if you can train yourself to get more comfortable with that uncomfortable question, one, it'll become more comfortable. But also, all of sudden, you're starting to get interior designers or galleries on your newsletter list, right. Which, if that's the direction we're trying to move our business or do more of in the coming year, we need more opportunities to stay in contact with them.
Because we don't always remember, Hey, I need to go back to this list of galleries from my Instagram and comment on some of those posts, or whatever we're doing.
Laurie Baars: Right. Yeah.
[00:15:26] Create multiple contact points with someone to build a strong connection.
Jessica Craddock: The more contact points we have with someone, the more likely they are to remember us, buy from us, work with us, collaborate with us, et cetera. So, you have accomplished so many amazing things your first year being a full-time artist. Like, I think you're killing it. Great job!
Laurie Baars: Thank you.
Jessica Craddock: But also, as more of these things, or even less of them, how can we optimize all of them to create more opportunities for ourself? So, I'm going to challenge you to let this be your big takeaway. Yes, we had some email sign up things that we can do, but I want your big takeaway to be make their day, which can be very simple, and also to make the ask.
Laurie Baars: Yeah. Okay.
Jessica Craddock: So, I'm actually going to shut up for second because I don't like to just tell people what to do. I like to teach them how to think. So, if we're thinking about the two things I just said, making their day and making the ask, when we're thinking about the galleries we've already got on our watch list, think about one in particular. Which one's your favorite? What's one way that you could make their day and then make an ask?
Laurie Baars: I was just trying to think about that. Like, how does that concept translate to
Jessica Craddock: Online?
Laurie Baars: Yes. I actually have reached out to a couple, different smaller ones, an art buyer, a local art buyer consultancy type place. And the other was a very small shop or gallery. And, you know, one them, I went in and talked to the woman in person. I just wandered in one day and chatted with her, and then I followed up by email. I actually haven't heard back, but I'm trying not to take it too personally. You know, who knows? I did tell her that I'm probably not going to be ready to provide any art until early next year, so who knows? And I didn’t hear back from the other one either.
But yeah, what could I have done to make their day? I don't know. Maybe say, I love your business. I love what artists you have and your place.
Jessica Craddock: That is one way that you could do it. I'm trying to think of some other things that we could add in there because like I said earlier, the more touch points we have with them, the more likely that is to turn into something. So you went in person, which is great. That's the highest level of connection that you can make with someone in an individual interaction.
Laurie Baars: Right?
Jessica Craddock: So, good job. And you followed up with them via email. You didn't hear back, but good job. Just because someone doesn't write you back, doesn't actually mean anything. You never know what could be their reason for not responding. There are so many things that I have to respond to that I need to get to. And I may not ever get to all of them.
Laurie Baars: Yeah.
Jessica Craddock: That doesn't mean that I don't respect or care about or think about, and I get to as many as possible for sure, but in someone in their situation where they probably have a lot of artists reaching out to them trying to get into their gallery. You may have fallen through the cracks.
This is another super random example, but I'm gonna give it anyway. This is not necessarily make your day, but my husband has been doing these shows for, let's just say his art, so I don't have to go through the whole spiel. And at the last show someone walked up to him, a wife, and was like, oh, these are beautiful. But I'm going to let my husband make a decision, and she just kind of walked away. I don't think that that husband was in a place to want to buy anything, but obviously his wife liked it. So my husband, being my husband, was like, hey, whatever his name was, let's call him Scott. Hey, Scott, be a hero. Come on, Scott, be a hero. Like, just joking with him, showing some personality, and like, encouraging him to be a hero for his wife.
Yesterday, he got an email that said, Hey, John, I'm the guy you told to be a hero. Can you send me your pricing list? That level of humanity alone, it wasn't a make your day moment. I mean, kind of, because it was funny. Maybe.
Laurie Baars: Right. Mm-Hmm.
Jessica Craddock: Just showing that level of humanity to someone makes them remember you, and has a greater potential to lead to something.
[00:21:37] Use your love languages to do something special for those you want to connect with.
Jessica Craddock: Do you know your love language?
Laurie Baars: I did do that long ago, and I’m trying remember. I know there's like acts of service and…
Jessica Craddock: There's acts service, words of affirmation, gifts.. There's always one that I can't remember.
Laurie Baars: I think one of mine is touch and maybe words of affirmation or something.
Jessica Craddock: Okay. I'm not sure. So words of affirmation come pretty naturally for you. What are some, I'm gonna call it unique ways that you could give words of affirmation to this gallery as a touch point?
Laurie Baars: You know, cite a specific artist they carry, or a group of artists that I like that they have, or just maybe that I really like the whole vibe of what they're doing.
Jessica Craddock: Yeah, showing that you're paying attention to them.
Laurie Baars: Right. There's one I have my eye on that's new and the women who were starting it seemed really cool. They have an artist I really admire. They're local and it would be really fun to be part of it. I haven't reached out to them yet. But maybe just to say, I've looked at a lot of galleries in town, and you stood out to me as one that I really want to be part of, or something.
Jessica Craddock: Yeah, I'm thinking about, I had a client that physically mailed me a Christmas card, and said something like, It had a picture of her family on the back of it, and it said something like, Thank you for everything you do, just so you know, these are the people that you're helping me support. And it was so nice. I was like, aw, and I looked at it like 20 times. And then I hung it on my fridge.
Laurie Baars: Yeah, yeah.
Jessica Craddock: It’s little things like that. Like, I'm gonna send you a postcard, or I'm gonna send you a of my paper art pieces that maybe I'm not going to do anything with. I think that you would like it, and you could hang it in your office. And I just wanted you to know that I've been following you and this artist is amazing. I'm so glad that you're working with them because such and such, and you really make a difference to this community. You're using your words. If you could express gratitude to that person for what they're doing, what would you say?
Laurie Baars: I like what just said.
Jessica Craddock: I liked it too. It was pretty good.
Laurie Baars: Yeah, it was.
Jessica Craddock: Go copy that.
Laurie Baars: It sounded good to me. So maybe, I like the artist you're carrying and the feel of what you put together in terms of your gallery, and it just seems exciting. And I want to be part of it.
Jessica Craddock: But even before saying I want to be part of it, like, can we just like, yeah, give them some love.
Laurie Baars: Yeah.
Jessica Craddock: Another example, a past client of mine posted a story on her Instagram stories, and it was like a Spotify end of year digest. And my podcast was number one on it. And I was so touched that not only was I number one but she shared it to all of her friends and followers.
Laurie Baars: Wow.
Jessica Craddock: And it was just such a nice surprise. It made me feel as though I'm doing something good, and she sees it and appreciates me, and I feel gratitude for that. So it could be a mix of I'm going in and introducing myself, which you've already done, writing a follow-up email, sending a card or a gift or a piece of art or $5 Starbucks card or whatever they like. The more research you can do on the person and find out the things that they care about, the better.
Maybe their name is John Smith, and you Google them and find out they are posting something online about dogs and how they have two dogs that they love. Send them some dog treats. It doesn't have to be anything crazy, but the more you pay attention to that person as a human and not just, I need something from you or I want something from you, the more they're going to recognize your sincerity. They will feel it.
Laurie Baars: Yeah. What about like what about like reposting in your stories, one of their posts?
Jessica Craddock: Of course, you can do that and that is always nice. However, the more thought you can put into that repost, meaning let's say they've got an opening coming up and you think it looks really great. You could repost it with, hey artists in the Delaware area, this is one of favorite galleries. Their lineup is amazing. So-and-so and so-and-so are two of my favorite artists. You don't want to miss this. Here's an event reminder button.
Laurie Baars: Right, right.
Jessica Craddock: You know what I'm saying? Like, how can I support Yeah. that person? Because half of this is, really not half, all of this is relationships.
Laurie Baars: Yeah.
Jessica Craddock: Yeah. I mean, you can write the best content and make some sales, but blah.
Laurie Baars: Yeah.
Jessica Craddock: If you want to grow a community inside of your online space, you want to be the person you want them be. If you start out with that in mind, they will reciprocate. They're going to help you grow organically by doing the same for you. Hey, artists in the Delaware area, Laurie is amazing. You should check her out!
Laurie Baars: Yeah.
Jessica Craddock: You wanna think about any relationship you're trying to build with these interior designers or galleries as a collaborative effort.
Laurie Baars: Right.
Jessica Craddock: You always need something, and they always need something. How can I give them as much as I can of what they need so they'll support me as well. Not everyone's gonna support you back. That's just a given.
Laurie Baars: Right.
Jessica Craddock: Some people don't care about other people or don't have the time or whatever. But the more you make that a practice, the more you're gonna get back.
Laurie Baars: Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. I hadn't really ever thought about it that way. It’s so clear. So yeah, that's a great perspective. I'm definitely going to do that. It's getting my wheels turning.
[00:28:26] When building relationships, connect to your local community first.
Jessica Craddock: Yeah. So instead of going and saying how can I make viral content or whatever. I mean that's never bad to know too. But that's secondary to how can I actually build relationships with some of these core people that I would love to be partners with.
Laurie Baars: Right. Maybe identify more of those people too. I mean, especially local, I think, cause then you can, those are the people you can actually see face-to-face easier.
Jessica Craddock: I'm a big fan of really honing in on local first Mm-Hmm. and like, we've been doing a good job of connecting supporting the community around you and growing from there.
Laurie Baars: Right.
Jessica Craddock: Because it's easier to grow from there when you have that base.
Laurie Baars: Yeah. Right.
Jessica Craddock: A lot of people come back from that and say, Well, nobody in my town is art buyers or whatever.
Laurie Baars: Yeah.
Jessica Craddock: I will just say I've heard that from just about everybody ever. which make it true. It just means you're not either offering the thing they want to buy, which, you know, is a tricky, you gotta figure out where that overlap is of what want and what they want, or not really doing a great job of marketing and selling my work.
Laurie Baars: Yeah.
Jessica Craddock: usually that's the real thing. No one wants to go there first. They wanna go, it's all these other problems, Right. which is understandable. But look at, I'm not saying you, but look at yourself first and see, how could I be doing more if it's not, not more, but better if it's not working?
Laurie Baars: Yeah, that makes sense. I feel like the one show I did last year, the local show, it made me realize there's a lot more potential to be capitalized on here in the local area than I really maybe had thought. I've been more online focused, which is more of the bigger world.
Jessica Craddock: Most people are. It's safer because you're behind a screen. Also you think, well, one, there’s no one around me that's going to buy anything, but also, you think, I need to be bigger. I need to get my out art out in front of everybody, and you will. But start with one area.
Laurie Baars: Mm-Hmm. Yeah.
Jessica Craddock: I am going to use my husband as an example again because we're working a lot on growing his business right now. We live in the Durango area, which is not a bad place for his product. However, we found a better place, which was the Phoenix area, simply because of the demographics there. He welds steel into what looks like wooden logs, and they go on gas fire pits for your outdoor fireplaces.
So in this suburb in the Phoenix area, they have a year-round situation where they've all got fire pits, and they're all using them. They're all retired and partying in their backyards. So, it's just perfect spot. Once, well, I guess it's more like twice a month now, he's going down there, and he's building his business in one spot, mostly.
And while we're also, well, I say we're working to grow his online presence. I'm telling him to grow his online presence, and he's not doing it, but we'll get there.
Laurie Baars: Yeah,
Jessica Craddock: But we're trying to mix the in-person and the online networking, right? Because, say he had some really great blogs that are informative to help with using his product or using the environment for his product, and we had some SEO going on. And he was creating some relatable content and doing a newsletter, like all of those things in conjunction with just really saturating the market down there. He has the potential to grow outside this community while he's building his core face of people there who are already recommending him to each other.
And the more people he connects with the more people buy from him, the more that grows. And it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
Laurie Baars: Yeah. Makes sense.
Jessica Craddock:: Okay, so I yammered on a lot today. Sorry.
Laurie Baars: No, it was good.
Jessica Craddock: What are your takeaways, things that you really want to focus on as you're moving forward from this conversation?
Laurie Baars: Well, I think I'm gonna make some of the changes we talked about to like, well, for email sign up purposes on my website, about how on product pages, having an easier way for people to sign up for my email list. Maybe blog posts kind of tweaking those to have like a resource. Also, focusing on make day set the local, whether local or not, you know, relationship building, Um, whether it's, you know, when I go visit somebody or reach out to somebody locally, or maybe on Instagram through repost of a story or whatever, just trying to think of ways to really support them without maybe even making any kind of first. Mm-Hmm. or at events. I mean, there's that one interior design firm that I the art walk with also said, you know, hey, you can come in sometime and do presentation of your work and what you're about. I haven't taken them up on that. I'll try and be creative about that. So. Yeah, and maybe just little more of a local focus, I think, in building relationships locally for me this year.
Jessica Craddock: Can I recommend, and I don't wanna give you a number, but even one, let's say like, do you work on your art business, how many days a week?
Laurie Baars: Well, it varies, but on average, two days a week, I guess.
[00:34:37] Prioritize making someone's day to build relationships that will grow your art business.
Jessica Craddock: Okay. So for those two days, can I challenge you to say, I have to make at least one person's day today. That's the first thing. Because you can get that out of the way pretty quick, and then move on to all the other things you need to do.
Laurie Baars: Yeah.
Jessica Craddock: But that'll keep it front and center. And when it becomes a habit is when it's really gonna start to work.
Laurie Baars: And do you that that, that like, through an email I send? Or sending a piece of art like you said? Or
Jessica Craddock: Okay, so your other homework is to all the ideas that you had from call today. Mm-Hmm. adding your own to it. Ways I could make someone's day. Just to have a go-to resource, and then you can personalize it from there. But if it's like, send a piece of art, like, oh, what kind of art do they enjoy? Like, if, if it's a gallery, what kind of art are they picking all the time? Obviously, it's not always gonna match exactly what you're making, but I picked this one for you because I noticed you're always drawn to reds And so, this one has a lot of red in it.
Laurie Baars: Yeah.
Jessica Craddock: What else should we say? We said emails. We said introducing yourself in person. We said up isn't really a make their day, but it is an excellent thing to do. Words of affirmation, reposting their stories with something really thoughtful, I think those were all the things we listed out today. And then other ideas are gonna come to you when you're not really looking for them, especially if every day you're like, Oh, what could I, what could I, what could I? And then one day you're gonna go, Oh, this is a great idea. Go write it down on your list. Let's say you go down your list, and you’re checking them off. Do one, and then do another one, and then do another one. Try a variety of different ways to connect.
Laurie Baars: With the same gallery.
Jessica Craddock: With the same gallery.
Laurie Baars: Yeah.
Jessica Craddock: Yeah, remember, more touch points, more memory, more success, more chance of one of them resonating with them.
Laurie Baars: Yeah, I think you have to balance that with not over bombarding somebody too.
Jessica Craddock: Okay, so let me clarify. When I said that I didn't mean twice a week reach out to one gallery forever until they respond.
Laurie Baars: Right.
Jessica Craddock: I’m going to say one more thing, but I'm not gonna expand on it because we're going over here, but I keep a list of people too. In your case you want to collaborate with galleries and Interior designers. On your list, develop a system of keeping track of when and how you reached out. You could even put little check marks by their name. I reached out once. I did something nice. I sent them something. I said hello. I recommended their gallery opening. I went and visited their gallery opening and introduced myself. For me, creating a visual reminder is a great way to help me see the power of doing it more than once.
Laurie Baars: Okay. That's a good idea.
Jessica Craddock: And then, once something works, count up how many checks, and you can start to say, oh, that took five. I want to try to do five with this person. I'm gonna try to, do, oh, that time it took six. That time it only took three. Then you can start to see that when you do nice things, or make their day, or make an ask, or reach out, or all of these things we've talked about five times for one person, 50 percent of the time, something comes of it. And we start to look at it as data.
Laurie Baars: Right.
Jessica Craddock: Which you don't have to do, but some people's brain works that way. I think it's a nice tool to have.
Laurie Baars: Okay, I'm excited. I'm going to create a spreadsheet.
Jessica Craddock: Okay, good. I'm so glad. I love spreadsheets. Don't throw rocks at me.
Laurie Baars: No. I kind of do as well. I don't know. That's a way to get my brain organized, I think.
Jessica Craddock: Okay, so Laurie where can people sign up for your email list?
Laurie Baars: The best place is my website. It’s lauriebaars.com. That’s two A's in the last name.
Jessica Craddock: Will you, will you just go ahead and spell the whole thing for everyone real quick?
Laurie Baars: Sure. It's L A U R I E B as in boy, A-A-R-S as in Sam.com. And on my Instagram, you can also link through to my sign-up page there. That's just @ Laurie Baars.
Jessica Craddock: Perfect. And if someone wanted to get to know you, communicate with you, say hello, would you rather than do the through email or Instagram?
Laurie Baars: Either one is fine. I don't have a preference at all.
Jessica Craddock: All right. Well, thank you so much, Laurie, for coming on and talking about one of my favorite subjects, which I call relationship marketing. I need to talk about it more because it's one of the biggest things that I teach. And so we need to talk about it more, right?
Laurie Baars: Well, that's good. Thanks for having me.
Jessica Craddock: You're very welcome. We'll talk again soon.
Laurie Baars: Okay. Bye.
Jessica Craddock: Bye Laurie.
More about Intuitive Art Sales
This is the show where I, Jessica Craddock, am going to teach you how to source your art marketing from within. You're going to practice claiming that authentic art business that you want and leaning into the most natural way for you to get there. You're going to learn to get connected to your intuition, your confidence and your community, so that you can sell your art consistently while holding strong boundaries on your work life balance.
Most of my episodes are full of interviews with your peers. In these and all episodes moving forward, I explore what each artist wants and give them the next steps to get there. You can take their struggles and their challenges and learn how to navigate your own and create actionable steps towards creating more art sales, more consistently at higher prices than you've ever sold before.
Just a note to our long-time listeners: We're doing away with our "Seasons", but you can still find this designation abbreviated at the end of the show titles for Seasons 1 & 2. From now on episodes will be numbered chronologically at the end of the title as well as in the episode description.
You can find all the episodes here.