Season 2, Episode 11: “How can I take control of my income and market my own brand?” – Megan Martin

Jessica Craddock: Okay. I am here with my new friend, Megan Martin. She does some really whimsical drawings for the young at heart that are generally used as a pattern at this point. That's kind of her business model is like this POD wallpaper kind of deal. She has a very developed artistic practice. She's been working on this for about 20 years and she's had some great luck with marketing. But she feels like she needs more stability and prowess was the word she used. Isn't that a great word?

So, hi Megan. Welcome. How are you doing?

Megan Martin: Hello.

I'm very good. Thank you so much for having me, Jessica. I'm excited to talk to you. As I had mentioned in my letter that I've been reading your emails for a couple years and just kinda waiting for my moment to feel like I am ready to take off.

So I'm excited for this conversation.

Jessica Craddock: Awesome. And she also said that you have two children at home?

Megan Martin: I do. I have two children at home. One's in school, well one's in school, young in school, and then the other one will start school next year.

Jessica Craddock: Great. So she had also mentioned that, she wants to make moves right now, but she's kind of waiting toward the fall when they go back to school.

And so we are going to try to come up with some moves for her today that she can do now or she can do later. And as always, I still don't know this where this conversation is gonna go. We talked a little bit earlier about kind of her problems and vision for the future. So Megan, I'm gonna put you on the spot and ask you to kinda describe what we talked about to the listeners and we'll go from there.

Megan Martin: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: Does that sound good?

Megan Martin: Yeah.

So like handful of years ago, I started putting my artwork out digitally, which beforehand I was doing paintings, oil paintings, some printmaking, mostly keeping it to myself and just really loving the process. And then I had children and I moved to digital work, which was kind of difficult, but also I found easier to put out into the world.

So I've been putting my artwork out mostly on print, on demand site. And over the years I've found that people want to buy my artwork. So things have been growing and I make a good part-time income from it. And I also have a licensing deal with Hawthorne Supply Company, where I do fabric and I sell on Etsy.

So I'm really excited about the opportunities and at the same time, while I feel comfortable putting my artwork out for people to see it on these sites, I am at somewhat of a loss of how to, how would I say that? Let people know it's available for sale or that they could purchase a product or to get on the radar of new people who haven't found me.

And when I first started, I was active on Instagram and really enjoying it when I was just an artist hanging out with other artists. Instagram was so much fun. I've met so many wonderful people. And then about two years ago I thought, well, I need to change my mindset. I have a business here, so I should market.

Well, it didn't go that simply. I started creating Instagram posts with the intention of bringing attention to product and what products I have and what they could be used for and who might want them, and all these questions you might ask yourself when you're making a post for marketing instead of hanging out with your artist friends.

And I just burned out on it. And then I stopped posting at all, and then I tried a couple things and then stopped posting again and tried a couple things and stopped posting again. And now I think that maybe social media is not going to work for me. I want to go back to hanging out with my artist friends on it and that there is value in that.

 But that's what I want to focus on there.

Jessica Craddock: Sorry. I just wanna summarize what Yeah, no, and what I think I'm hearing is that the print on demand sites have worked well for you. Mm-hmm. And you also feel a little bit, I don't say worried exactly, but kind of, that might be the word about what if something happens to them.

And I have no other recourse because I have no control over them.

Megan Martin: Yes. Yes. So I feel like I have all my eggs in a basket that I have no control over who's carrying the basket or I wanna carry the basket that, does that make sense?

Jessica Craddock: Yes.

Megan Martin: And, and right now another company is carrying the basket, which is so wonderful and is really given me a start and it's time for me to start carrying the basket so they don't drop it. Because, I mean, they're a business and I'm just one of thousands on there and, they don't, whether or not I make a monthly income is of not much interest to them.

So I want to be in a place where I have control over where I feel like if I have a, let's say a new painting I've done or a new line of patterns I've done, and I don't put it into someone else's hand, like, here's this. Whether or not you advertise it, whether or not it shows up on your search engine is up to you.

I want to be like, I have these resources. I put this out. People see it because I've shown it to them. And right now I don't have that.

Jessica Craddock: Okay, so let's think about this for a second. Let's pretend we live in a world where print on demand and such does not exist. Where places that will help you get in front of their audience and all you have to do is hand it off.

Those don't exist anymore. Now you have nothing.

Megan Martin: Yeah

Jessica Craddock: So, and I, I don't say that to be like doomsday. I say that.

Megan Martin: No, but that's what I'm scared of.

Jessica Craddock: Let's see where we're going here.

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: How, if any, ways would you want to market your art? Do you have any inklings of an idea?

Megan Martin: Yeah, I feel like, well, I think two years ago when I was like, I'm gonna start marketing, I did set up what do you call a little thing to grab people's email addresses.

Jessica Craddock: Mm-hmm. Hmm.

Megan Martin: So I have, I don't know, last time I looked like 50 people who said, Hey, here's my email address. And so I guess that would be where I would start, because these are people probably I know or I've talked to before or probably people on Instagram I'm friends with, that I feel comfortable with and are interested in what I'm doing.

Jessica Craddock: Have you ever sent an email to those?

Megan Martin: I have not. No. Now I feel like I need like an apology email before I send an initial one.

Jessica Craddock: No, please don't do that. Every time I get an apology email, I unsubscribe.

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: I'm like, just, just jump back in there and pretend nothing happened and I won't even notice.

Megan Martin: Yeah, I know.

Jessica Craddock: But if you get a, I never send you anything and now I promise I will, I'm like, yeah, I don't believe you.

Megan Martin: Like it's true. And if I said that you probably right in this moment, you probably shouldn't believe me .

Jessica Craddock: Okay. So, here's what I want you to think about.

Inside my Consistent Income Program, I teach this four month rotation, and the idea of it is to continue building on itself in ways that have worked or ways that I want to try in order to give us more, let's call them marketing assets.

Megan Martin: Mm-hmm.

Jessica Craddock: So right now you have Spoonflower as a marketing asset that's working really well and you've already got that set up and running.

There's not a whole lot we have to do with that.

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: You've got Etsy, which is set up, it's not working so good. So it could be something that that was improved on. We've got Hawthorne, which is doing something for you. Mm-hmm. Maybe that could be improved on, but is there, and also, lemme back up and say no one can do everything.

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: So that's why I teach this four month rotation where we're gonna focus on one thing for a period of time and build it and get it working and decide. Do I want to keep building it and make it work more? Do I want to try something else? How can I kind of set this to keep working for me? Mm-hmm. And so with that in mind, if we're thinking about what's the next marketing asset we want to build?

Is it improving one of your existing assets or is it trying something new? Maybe something that you have felt inspired by, and you said newsletter, but right at this moment you had mentioned, I have no way for people to find me to know what I do. And so that's kind of step one newsletter is nurturing those people.

But yeah, if we're thinking about, just in terms of what I call visibility, how might you want to be found by more people taking Spoonflower out of the equation?

Megan Martin: Yeah, I guess, I mean, then what comes to my mind would be website should be the first goal. So if I have a

Jessica Craddock: Website, could be, but in order for a website to be something that's going to help more people find you, there has to be something to it that helps people find you.

So years and years and years ago, I had a, a website business. And I would build websites for more than just artists, but it, it tended to be mostly for artists. Mm-hmm. And they would come back after it was built and say, yeah, but nobody's seen it yet. Like, well, yeah. It's just something that's floating out there.

It's not gonna just magically be found. So you have to either market it. You've got to maybe spend time on search engine optimizing it. Mm-hmm. Which means you've got to have some sort of place to SEO, search engine optimize, for people to find. Mm-hmm. It's not one of those things that you just put out there and people find it, so that's an option, but you have to think, how are people going to find it?

Yeah. Am I also going to do Pinterest where I drive traffic to my website. Or, keywords are really my favorite to get people to my website as a visibility activity. So that might be Pinterest or keyword search engine. There's other ways, but those are kind of two biggies that I like to think about with artists.

Mm-hmm. So are either of those of interest to you? Oh, or is there something else?

Megan Martin: I actually love Pinterest. I am, I go on Pinterest every day. So actually it might be like, would that be like a good first thought, I guess?

Jessica Craddock: Sure.

Megan Martin: My thought with Pinterest is I thought I shouldn't do it yet because I don't have a website and they keep saying like, link your website to Pinterest.

Jessica Craddock: Yes, it has to go somewhere.

Megan Martin: Yeah. And that's maybe just down the road.

Jessica Craddock: Do you have any sort of website presence at all, or you just don't have it where you want it to be?

Megan Martin: I have a page that says coming soon, and it's a drawing. Mm-hmm. So it's cute, but it says coming soon and that's it.

And I have been thinking about what do I want to do there? And that is kind of an organizational thing in my head is my, I my ideas are always take too long. It's, my idea is up here when probably all I need is right here.

Jessica Craddock: Right.

Megan Martin: And I have trouble wading through that.

And so that's, that's kind of a whole process in my head. I've thought about more recently hiring someone just to build like five basic pages, like super basic pages. My husband is a front end developer and so that kind of is, so he does like website stuff. So I get these crazy ideas and he's like, oh, that would be so cool.

I can do that for you. And we have two kids and he works full-time and he's a writer, so it's always like, I don't wanna take time away from his writing to be like, oh, build my website, or, play with the kids.

Jessica Craddock: Yeah.

Megan Martin: So, even though we dream up that stuff, I don't know that it's actually going to happen anytime soon. And I think I just need to come to terms with that.

Jessica Craddock: I don't necessarily agree. Yeah. But I wanna keep going.

Megan Martin: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: So let's skip down the road a couple steps and say if we did have a website. What would people buy? Would we have to then send them to POD, Spoonflower, Hawthorne, something, something.

Megan Martin: See, in my mind, my website, is a destination because I've put fun, playful things on it that are fun to look around and interact with. So, I guess like, I want to approach it like an piece of artwork. I don't know if I want to put things for sale on it, or, I mean, I do.

And I want to, but it seems too fussy right now. I don't know. Like, I don't know if I need to just get over that. Like print on demand right now. Cause I've, I know how to drop ship or, so this is, this is the thing I've thought in my head. I know how to drop ship. I could drop ship stuff from my website, right?

I could even drop ship stuff from my Etsy store. And right now it feels, it feels like if I take that on, that I'm not taking something else on that maybe would move me further right now.

Does that make sense?

Jessica Craddock: Yeah. So,

Hmm.

Megan Martin: And then if I offered the products I offer at my Etsy store right now on my website, which I think I could like, is that enough? So what I have on my Etsy shop is like eight prints, I think, that I'll print in two different sizes from my home and I, I mailed them

So I could move that to a website. But is that the next step for me?

It could be.

Yeah. Because it would make more of like a presence there, right?

Jessica Craddock: So what I'm looking for really is yes, we could, we could go down and solve that problem, like that's the discussion we could have. But what I really want to solve, is the first problem to solve, is how do we want people to find us?

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: If that is Pinterest in our website, then yes, that is the problem to solve. If it's, I want to p artner with more fabric printing stores so I diversify in that way, then that's the first problem to solve. When you, when you don't filter it like that then it just turns into this huge overwhelming to-do list that you can't possibly finish.

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: And so I really wanna solve the first problem first.

Megan Martin: No. And I think that that is what I need help with because my mind is like possibility!!

Jessica Craddock: Bing, bing bing, bing.

Megan Martin: Yeah. But I need to, yeah, I just need like, okay, this is the one thing and then when I find an hour today, that's what I'm gonna work on. Is it Pinterest to a website? I think that might be it. Cause I do know it's not diversifying print on demand. That already feels unstable to me and like I guess that is an option. Like I could have like five different sites so I'm not depending on one of the sites. Right.

Jessica Craddock: Right.

Megan Martin: And that, see, that is appealing cuz that's very passive income.. And then I'm like, Ooh, that's appealing.

Jessica Craddock: Sure.

Megan Martin: But I don't think, and maybe someday, well, but I think right now I need to feel like this right here is mine and then I can send you to these other places, but this right here is mine. I think that being a website.

Jessica Craddock: That kind of sounds right to me. What I look for is not what I think I should do, even though that's what you're saying.

Megan Martin: Mm-hmm.

Jessica Craddock: But your underlying desires are, I wanna have something that's mine. I wanna feel ownership over it. I want to be able to have some control and be able to send people there and et cetera. So that feels like a good direction to me. So let's go back to that conversation and continue making solves down that pathway, right?

Megan Martin: Yeah, yeah.

Jessica Craddock: I teach my students this thing called momentum boosters. And essentially the point of them is to help you get unstuck. One of those is called the easiest way or the simplest way to execute. And when we start with the simplest way to execute, we make progress, and then we can continue making progress from that point.

So if we're thinking about, if we had a website, what would we sell? Probably the simplest way to execute to get started would be to pull, not even pull from Etsy, but take those same prints that you have available on Etsy and offer them on your shop.

Megan Martin: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: That's a starting place. That probably is not the ending place.

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: But that's where we can start. The simplest way to execute the website is not to build a whole website. Yeah. But to build a landing page that has those available for sale. It has maybe a place to sign up for your email list. It has a little bit about you and it's got a header about what your art is about.

You can build on it from there. But what is the simplest way to execute is to build one page website with something you already have available for sale and know how to sell. From there, now we gotta learn Pinterest, so that's a whole nother game, right? Mm-hmm. But you have a pretty good idea of how Pinterest works. My guess is because you spend a lot of time on there already.

Megan Martin: Yeah, I pin a ton of stuff. I actually have dabbled in creating my own pins, but it like really just like kind of playing and trying, to not much avail, but I haven't really like dug into a strategy there.

Jessica Craddock: So if we're sticking with this same pathway that we are starting down to build one marketing asset then we're gonna create multiple versions of pins that lead back to buying that thing. So I'm gonna make this up. I am looking at your Instagram. You've got on your first pin is a really cute owl slash hot air balloon in a night sky. So let's say one of your prints is that.

Megan Martin: Mm-hmm.

Jessica Craddock: So we're going to do a pin of that hanging on the wall.

We're gonna do a pen of that, maybe with your kids running around in front of the print. We're gonna do a of that. Just as like a scan, we're gonna do a plan of that in like as many different ways as you can think of.

Megan Martin: Mm-hmm.

Jessica Craddock: And we're gonna repeat for each of the five that you have available.

And we're gonna pin that to a board.

Megan Martin: Would you make an, like a board for that? Like make a board and just be like, prints or art prints or like title it like cute kids art prints and then just pin them all on the same board.

Jessica Craddock: That's one option. But just like any search engine keyword type place, like Etsy is another one of those, you really wanna think about what are people searching for?

So I like to start with the the broad like, You keywords. So Megan Martin, Megan Martin Art, Megan Martin artwork, Megan Martin illustrations, like all those kinds of keywords. Mm-hmm. And then I like to think about, kinda like what you said, the more broad children's room art.

I don't know, let's, let's go back to that specific example. Hot air balloon art, hot air balloon prints, night sky art, like just those bigger examples. Why might somebody want to buy those? You might wanna hang it in a nursery art, we might wanna have a children's art gift. Like why might I be searching for that?

Mm-hmm. And then we also wanna get really specific, Fox in hot air balloon.

Megan Martin: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: Like that's so specific that not very many people are gonna be searching for that, but if they are searching for that. Guess who's gonna pop up? So we're thinking about you keywords. We're thinking about more general,

why would they want it, keywords. And then we're thinking about really specific to that particular piece, keywords. And you're gonna pick a mix and match of the above. And you're gonna write it as a paragraph.

Megan Martin: Write it as a paragraph. Okay?

Jessica Craddock: In broader terms on Pinterest, think about boards?

Boards as a more general things they might be searching for. So like your first board might be Megan Martin, art portfolio, Megan Martin, art something.

Megan Martin: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: And then we might have a board of nighttime hot air balloons, and then we might have a board of, what else do we have on this page of yours florals.

We might have evergreen trees, we might have oceans. So kind of look at your art in terms of themes, and you can create boards for the different themes. You can also, not in your Megan Martin Art Portfolio board, but some of the other boards, if you find other relevant things, such as you find another artist who does hot air balloons floating around in the nighttime, you can add them to their board.

Mm-hmm. Cause then that will help with your exposure. So Pinterest is kind of a warm hole of how to make it work the best, but the, the thing that you need to know for sure are keywords. Otherwise could be useless.

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: You have a lot of great images already on your Instagram that you can use.

Megan Martin: Yes. Use for Pinterest. Would you pin them straight from Instagram or would you create

Jessica Craddock: No, because then it'll link it back to Instagram.

Megan Martin: Oh yeah. I wanna link it back to my, page.

Jessica Craddock: So the other part of me that's going wishy-washy on you is your main source of income is these fabrics and wallpaper currently. So I feel like there should be pins for those.

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: But if we do that, we are doing it to your print on demand sites, which I don't love, because if we're gonna spend time generating traffic, I want it to come back to ours.

Megan Martin: Uhhuh. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: But we don't have that yet. That's, that's still a problem to solve. It's just not the first problem to solve. So let's just leave that on the back burner for a minute. Because you have enough to work on.

Megan Martin: Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: You might also look into Shameless plug for this company I like called Tailwind. Do you know Tailwind?

Megan Martin: Yeah. I think I tried something at one point. It may have been Later. I don't remember which, but I'm familiar with Tailwind. I know about it.

Jessica Craddock: So the thing, the thing that I like about it is that you can schedule outcomes. But not even just schedule them out one time, you can schedule them to go out again and again. Which, if you're gonna take the time to do it, why not make it work harder for you?

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: But that's like a couple steps down the road. So let's recap real quick.

Megan Martin: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: The first thing that we, the problem that you came to me with was, I need more stability and prowess in my marketing so I'm not relying just on these other places to keep promoting me because things happen.

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: So then we looked at, okay, what is the way that feels the most, right? I'm gonna call it in your soul. Like based on the things that really motivate you that you want. And that was to have a place of your own.

So we said, okay, what are the easiest steps that we can take, the simplest ways to execute to make this happen. Knowing it's not the end all, be all of what it's going to be eventually, but just to get going. And that was to create a landing page to add the things that we already have for sale on it, and then to create pins around those things that we already have for sale.

Megan Martin: Mm-hmm.

Jessica Craddock: That's a pretty good project right there. That could take you a month or two.

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: If you've got an hour here and an hour there. And I wanna preface all of this and say this isn't necessarily going to lead to sales. Right now the only problem we're solving is how do we get more people to see us?

And it may lead to more sales. But there's a good chance it's not gonna lead to like a steep increase cuz we don't, know these people. We don't have a really good way to grab these people and then to nurture them and then to sell to them. Which is why I mentioned that little email bar, that's kind of mm-hmm.

Like our lead in for our next thing. But we are solving this first problem first.

Megan Martin: Yeah. And I think that's partially like before what I had a hard time wrapping my head around cuz I can think of all these ideas of like, wouldn't this be a fun thing to say or do? But like, where do I say or do it from?

Because I think, I think I do need to build like, A foundation, I guess, for lack of another word. I need a foundation to build on before I build anything. And part of me who wants to do the exciting ideas all the time is a little resistant to that. And like, I think that is what I need to do.

Like, I need to spend some time doing that.

Jessica Craddock: I've heard you a couple of times say something along the lines of, well, I want this thing, but I'm really resisting it because X, Y, and Z, so I'm gonna do this other thing instead. And I, the reason I recognize that pattern is cuz I have very much had that pattern.

I actually was thinking about it yesterday. Let me give you an example. So, one of the things that I value the most in my business and in my life is spaciousness. Like it's one of my core, got to have-its. And for a long time I thought, I can't build a successful business unless I'm working 24, 7.

And so while I still really wanted that successful business, I kind of self sabotaged a lot along the way because I thought by getting what I wanted, that successful business, I would lose the spaciousness. Mm-hmm. And I would lose being able to have life balance and taking time off and doing what I wanted to do in the mornings and having my thinking time and my creative time and my whatever, whatever.

 And so I wouldn't do the things that I, and I, I did this all subconsciously, of course.

Megan Martin: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: But I wouldn't do all the things that I knew I needed to do because I thought it would take away from my most important motivators, one of which being that spaciousness. So you just said something along the lines of, I know I need to do foundation work, but I think it's gonna take away from my creative exploration, my creative sparks.

And so part of reconciling that is figuring out how can I take my creative sparks and plug them into building my foundation?

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: And I think, I might be wrong. But I think what we just came up with as a action for starting to become more visible in a way that is based on our work is you said, I love Pinterest and I want this website. I just, just don't know how. Like those creative sparks can be focused in on. Building that foundation.

Megan Martin: Yeah. Like be more playful with it. Because right now when I look at it, I'm like, I'm gonna have to figure how to lay out my images on the page. But really, maybe I should be thinking about, I get to draw a picture that is gonna go on the header and then play with drawing the picture.

Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Have your husband help you with, what's the fastest way to get this up? And then how do I wanna make it mine? How do I wanna, yeah. Draw a picture on the header and how do I wanna make it more like a interactive art exhibit, and how can I make it all of these fun ideas that I have?

But without letting the fun ideas keep us from actually getting it executed.

Megan Martin: Yeah, I do. Cause I feel like I'm finish these five ideas so they can go on the page in a way. I don't know how yet and then it will be good to go. But yeah. I need to make something boring to start. Is that what Saying like, just something.

Jessica Craddock: Not boring.

Megan Martin: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: Just keep asking yourself what is the simplest way to execute this?

Megan Martin: Like, is this necessary right now?

Jessica Craddock: That's how you wanna say it? Yes.

Megan Martin: Okay. That, what's the simplest way? That's really the positive way to say it.

Jessica Craddock: Yeah. It's the same idea. Yeah. But I agree.

Megan Martin: And I'm actually thinking now, I think I maybe do need to put some wallpaper on that page.

Jessica Craddock: Maybe it's wallpaper. Like as some of your image backgrounds for now?

Megan Martin: Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: And then you can say maybe at the bottom, I also have wallpaper for sale.

Click here to email me if you're interested. And then you're not necessarily sending them all these other places, but they can talk to you. You can have a conversation about what do you want? Let me help you figure it out. I don't know how that all really works in the backend that you would be able to order wallpaper for them.

Megan Martin: Yeah. Yeah. I actually do know. I do know how to do that. I just have been not wanting to take it on because if I turn into a person who's putting through wallpaper orders, that's not what I picture myself doing.

So I don't know. But I mean, I think also there's transitions that need to happen.

Jessica Craddock: Right.

Megan Martin: And maybe a transition can look one way and then I can plan it long-term to be something else.

Jessica Craddock: So, so one of the biggest mistakes I see people make is, well, I don't wanna be an order taker. Mm-hmm. So I need to plan it out so that if we were 20 years in the future, it is looking like what it would look like then.

Megan Martin: Mm-hmm.

Jessica Craddock: But then you skip all of the in between learning opportunities and steps to actually get you to the 20 year in advance. And you get stuck because you, don't know all the in-betweens. And you have some information already because you know what's selling. That's good information.

Megan Martin: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: But maybe you don't quite know. What's the way to make the biggest profit margin from this. So I'm gonna give you a homework assignment on top of all of the actual action steps. And I want you to list maybe the top three filters for decision making for you.

Megan Martin: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: So you had mentioned I want to have creative sparks.

You mentioned, and these may or may not be it. I wanna double my income so my husband can go part-time and there was something else. But when you can look at my filter of, well, is it worth this transition period where I'm taking orders for a little bit until I figure out the best way to do this, or a better next way to do this? Is it worth it? And I'm gonna look at my decision tools. And say, mm-hmm. Well, it would help me get my husband part-time faster, so that feels worth it to me.

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Or you're gonna go, no, I don't wanna do that. I'm just gonna send them to my print on demand site. Oh, maybe the other one was, I wanna build my own business, essentially.

Megan Martin: Oh, right. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: My own stability and my own prowess, instead of just handing it off to someone.

Megan Martin: Yeah. I think I resonate with needing filters, so I think that'll be a good thing to think about.

Jessica Craddock: Yeah. And then when you said you have all these decisions coming at you and all these ideas, you can look at the filter and say, is this the right next move for me? Or not.

Megan Martin: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: So after you build this, this is one more marketing asset to help people find your art. Look at nurturing. Next look at sales and then come back and do visibility again. So that you're always have this constant building of assets of all the different marketing places That are gonna get you that stability.

Megan Martin: You know that, that's interesting to think about cuz people always say you need diversify your income. That's interesting to me to think about the marketing touchpoints being where the diversity is to some extent, or at least for right now.

Jessica Craddock: It's the same and it's different. I think that advice is somewhat faulty because just building all of these different things without the whole process in mind doesn't necessarily work. A lot of times that turns into, I have all these places that people are finding me. Cause that's generally the one that people go to is that visibility piece.

I have all these places people can find me, but still nobody's buying anything. So, yeah. I'm glad that you pointed that out cause I, I really like that as well. So thanks for being savvy. Well, you've got more than you already know.

Megan Martin: I hope so. I just have to organize it in my head and do something about it.

Jessica Craddock: Well, in the fall you can come work with me, and I'll organize it for you.

Megan Martin: Yeah, that sounds good to me. I need someone that's just gonna be like, okay, Megan. Let's stop dreaming about new things and focus maybe on what we're working on right now.

Jessica Craddock: But that's kind of my thing is I love to organize people's brains.

Megan Martin: Yeah, that's good. Cool.

Jessica Craddock: All right, Megan, thank you so much for being with us today.

Megan Martin: Oh, thank you.

Jessica Craddock: If people were to want to find you, where would they do that?

Megan Martin: Well, I'd have to say Instagram at this point.

Jessica Craddock: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Why?

Because you said I hate being on Instagram. I don't wanna do it.

Do you think you could have a landing page created in the next month?

Megan Martin: I think so. Can I give my Instagram and my website?

Jessica Craddock: Yes, you may.

Megan Martin: Okay. Oh.

Jessica Craddock: Yeah. So I'll do it. Instagram.com/at_the_cottage_studio. Yes, there is an AT that you have to write out. And then also where, because you're gonna have your website up when this airs, where are they gonna find you there?

Megan Martin: Well, I do have a U R L and it is Megan Martin studio.com.

Can you spell that out?

Yep. M e g a n M a r t i n studio, s t u d i o.com.

Jessica Craddock: Perfect.

 Thank you for taking the time with me today. I super appreciate it!

Megan Martin: Thank you so much.

Jessica Craddock: Bye Megan.