“How can I connect to the right audience that my art will inspire?” – Jedidah Chick E50

Jessica Craddock: The lovely Jedidah Chick is my guest today. Where she is at in her business is, she feels like she's just starting, but really she's been at this for about two years and.

Making some decent sales. I had to prod a little bit to get there. But yes, she is actually selling, but she just needs to start making more money. It's kind of come to a point where that's important. And what she's struggling with is finding the right people, keeping on top of stuff and making sure that she's striking the right balance between her home life, all the chores that need doing, selling, painting you know, for her own mental health as well as this creative venture she's on.

And her artwork is about the celebration of female figures and female empowerment, which I love so much. And her work is beautiful. If you're on YouTube, you can see some of it behind us. If not, I'll give you a link to look at it in the show notes.

Hello Jedidah. How are you doing?

Jedidah Chick: Hi. You've described that perfectly.

Jessica Craddock: Well. Those were all your words. I just wrote them down.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah, that's true.

Jessica Craddock: Okay, so let's talk a little bit more about that. You told me a couple of different things that you're struggling to find the right people, but also that painting is therapy for you.

And so, you know, like trying to do all these other things feels like it's taking you away from that, but you know that those are, or you feel like those are things you need to do anyway. And so, which direction, just using your little intuition here, what do you wanna talk about today? Do you wanna talk about finding your people or do you wanna talk about that balance?

Jedidah Chick: I think finding my people because with finding my balance, I think I'm getting there. I'm forcing myself to clean in the morning for an hour at least before I start painting. And that seems to be working.

Jessica Craddock: You wanna know what I do?

Jedidah Chick: What do you do?

Jessica Craddock: I don't do it.

Jedidah Chick: I know we've been there for a while, but I feel like I need to now, so.

Jessica Craddock: Well good. Ugh, I'm the worst housekeeper anyway.

Okay, so finding the right people. Can we talk a little bit more about that? You, right before we jumped on here, you were kind of describing the situation to me, but like, can you do it again and we'll dive into it?

Jedidah Chick: Okay. So, I grew up in Zimbabwe and it was post-colonial. So I grew up hearing all these messages about not being beautiful 'cause I'm dark skinned and my hair is curly. So that's where a lot of my inspiration comes from. So a lot of my artwork celebrates Afro hair and our skin and our history.

There's a lot of queens in African history that I was never taught about. So the culture was very, quite misogynistic as well. So I would constantly hear statements and jokes about women being stupid. So that's what the artwork is generally about. So I had this vision of selling to women like me. Right?

Jessica Craddock: Right.

Jedidah Chick: However, I've now realized that, this is a generalization, and it doesn't represent everybody. But generally, African people don't buy artwork or invest a lot of money into art. Probably 'cause their priorities are different. A lot of them, if they're living in the UK for example, are sending money home to support their family.

So maybe they can't really afford it. They see it as a luxury. So now I'm in the position where I'm like, okay, so I know my message. And yes, perhaps it resonates with a lot of the local people. But I'm still a little bit confused as to how to find more people that appreciate it because it's not the people that I was painting for initially, if that makes sense.

Jessica Craddock: It makes perfect sense. So first off, I wanna say that almost every artist that I talk to, and this is not to discount or say that that's not true, but will say the people in my area don't buy art or they don't value it. And so I need to go outside of that area to find more. Maybe this is true for you, I don't have a whole lot of experience there.

Maybe it's not, but regardless, we need to find you some people to buy it, right? Mm-hmm. And the other thing about that is you are telling me that you are actually making some pretty decent sales.

Jedidah Chick: I am.

Jessica Craddock: So what I'm hearing is I need to find more buyers. But what you're saying is I'm selling. Let's talk a little bit more about that.

Jedidah Chick: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: Because there two different sides of what's happening.

Jedidah Chick: Well, I'm not selling enough. And people tend to buy from me if they've met me. Mm-hmm. Which means I need to have a market or an art fair or something like that. And sometimes there aren't any available locally, so like a regular in-person event. And yes, I could, I could have people in my home, which I've done once before. But what's happened is a couple of times I've gone outside of my city. Mm-hmm.

And because that's expensive, I've ended up spending more money than I've actually earned because I have this idea that I will find tons of people when actually I feel like sometimes they are more hesitant to buy because I'm not local to that area. I don't know. So yes, I just feel like I'm not making enough to cover my expenses.

Jessica Craddock: So you just said that people buy from me most often when they've met me in person. But you also said the people around me don't necessarily buy or value art.

Jedidah Chick: Well, there's people from my heritage, so there's not very many sort of black people where I live. There's more people in like bigger cities. So bigger cities are more multicultural, which is why I've gone there seeking this person that I feel exists and haven't found.

Jessica Craddock: So if you could do it any way you wanted to do it, would that be the way or would it be some other way?

Jedidah Chick: What do you mean? Sorry.

Jessica Craddock: So, you were talking about looking for people outside of your immediate area that have more culture. Is that, is if you could do art selling anyway, would it be that in-person kind of market fair model? Do you like doing that, or is that just what you found has worked?

Jedidah Chick: I love meeting people, I love chatting with people. However, I also have to be careful what events I take part in. So if it's anything to do with Christmas as an example, then I wouldn't, you know, for my own personal reasons. So that kind of limits it as well. So it's not like I can do any event, if that makes sense.

Jessica Craddock: Yeah, it does. And that's okay. You can curate what you want to be a part of and what you don't.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: I guess what I'm getting at is are markets and art fairs the way that we want to find more people, and do we create a plan around that? Or is there a supplement to what you are already doing that needs to be added on, like as a another leg of your art business, so to say?

Jedidah Chick: Yeah, I'm not sure. I don't know. I think, you know, I've got a website and everything, um mm-hmm. But it's difficult to stand out on a website, isn't it? I don't have a huge following, but it's not too bad. But again, people don't tend to buy on instagram.

Jessica Craddock: I was just having a talk with someone earlier today who was talking about, you know, wanting to utilize her website more to sell. And I was kind of prodding about what her plan was. And basically she posts on four different social media platforms and then sends people to her website. And we started talking about the numbers of what that would actually look like. And not to say that doesn't work at all, but it's, it's just kind of, the statistics are not great as to the number of conversions from like, just straight up, I saw your social media post to, I went all the way to your website, to I found the thing, to I clicked through and bought it.

[00:09:04] Utilize your current network to bring more people to your art.

Jessica Craddock: I think of a website at this point in my career, more like a business card. It's like a, an info packet. It's not the salesman. That being said, if you have a really strong message that you really believe in and that other people resonate with, it can be easier to make more conversions in that way.

As far as social media goes, one, do you enjoy it to any extent?

Jedidah Chick: I'm fine with it now. I've got used fine with used to it.

Jessica Craddock: You're fine with it. Okay, cool. And in the past, have you ever sold anything off of social media or has it all been in person?

Jedidah Chick: I have sold something, but she knew a friend who posted it on her social media. So, no, not to a complete stranger, not on Instagram.

Jessica Craddock: It doesn't necessarily even have to be to a complete stranger because the way that I see it, you've probably heard me say something along these lines, but sales is based on connection. And one of the ways that this person connected with you was a friend of a friend knew you.

So it was like she had this Hmm, this line to you. And she probably also resonated with your message and probably also the way that your artwork looks. So when you have all three of those things, it's a much, much more likely sale than someone who doesn't have any, or only has one or only has two. That's not to say that they won't buy with only one or two connections, but the more connections the better.

Jedidah Chick: Yes.

Jessica Craddock: So maybe it's that we need to think about how to utilize your current network in order to bring more people to you.

Jedidah Chick: Okay. Sounds good.

Jessica Craddock: Think about that.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah, makes sense.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. So if I were to start with that place in mind, okay. The easiest answer here is past clients.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: I'm just, I'm just brainstorming here for a minute. So, past clients, we already know that they love you and your work because they've already shown that commitment through a money form. You seem like a very personable, open, warm, loving personality. Would you say that that feels accurate?

Jedidah Chick: Generally. Don't ask my family, but yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. So I'm guessing that you have somewhat of a network of friends, family, colleagues people that maybe you knew in the past, have worked with, had dinner with all, any or all of those things. Would you say that that's true?

Jedidah Chick: I do, yes, but, so the, the art is just, is my work. So it's not like I meet a ton of people, new people all the time. So, but yeah, I do have clients that are amazing and love me.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. So we're, we're looking at people we know from the past.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Because you just said, I don't meet a whole lot of new people. Tell me about you. You just told me that it's a celebration of the female figure, female empowerment Afro hair. Let's go down that rabbit hole for a minute.

Jedidah Chick: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: What are some of the things that you, I mean, maybe that's, maybe that's it, but if we were gonna drill, let's just say female figure down.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: What are the things that you wanna celebrate about the female figure?

Jedidah Chick: It's beauty. So I do make my girl well with my paintings just really beautiful and striking. But also quite whimsical. So like I mentioned, I have a range where there's a girl with a gorgeous dress, because we all have like an inner Cinderella, I think. So it's the dress and the colors sometimes that that people like. And then sometimes the kind of fairytale feel. I don't know, it's hard to describe. She might have like flowers in her hair or something, you know? So I mean, people look at it and think it's spiritual. I mean, I don't see it as spiritual.

Jessica Craddock: Well if you don't, don't have to go there.

Jedidah Chick: But, yeah. But that's what I mean. Like, people read it into it and see stuff that, you know.

Jessica Craddock: Do you connect with that word spiritual, even though you said, I don't think my art is that?

Jedidah Chick: Not really, but if they wanna see it that way, then that's fine.

Jessica Craddock: Sure. But I'm just looking at like, what are the, what's the overlap? What are the things that you guys have in common so we can find more places. Yeah. You also said female empowerment. Tell me some things that you believe about female empowerment. I know that's such a loaded question. Go ahead though.

Jedidah Chick: It's difficult. Like I said, I grew up in a society where I wasn't taught about all these queens and there's a lot, you know, in African history that achieved a lot. And I find, I think the link is possibly to do with mental health because good mental health is really important to me.

So I want to have artwork that is empowering and I want them to look at it and feel courageous and think, wow, if, if this person achieved that, then I can achieve it. So it's the story behind that actual person because they're based on people from history, so So if I tell the customer what the story is behind this person, normally that's the connection. Because they're touched by that story. So when it comes to mental health and I, you know, some of the, the paintings might look peaceful, for example, or calming and, you know, I don't know.

Jessica Craddock: You're doing great.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. So what I'm doing right now is I'm just kind of digging for where are your people?

Jedidah Chick: I meet some of them. I know a lady that bought an expensive piece from me last year. She'd lived in Africa before, so that was the connection.

Jessica Craddock: Africa. Yeah.

Jedidah Chick: She saw this painting and she just had to have it just like that because it, because of the fact that she'd lived there before and she missed it.

Jessica Craddock: Mm-hmm. For sure. I can definitely see that. Okay. So, I'm gonna break this up a little bit. We've got past clients and people we already know from our past, but then as looking for to expand that circle, we have things like beauty princesses and queens, good mental health. We have history and we have Africa so far.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

[00:15:49] Develop a plan to nurture your connections.

Jessica Craddock: That's really two different strategies almost. So our past clients and people we know from the past, one of the things that we can do is nurture our circles.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: And then when it feels appropriate, make asks of them, such as maybe out of the blue there's a holiday coming up that resonates with you and your art. You'll send a t hank you note or a card or a little, what's your love language? Do you know what that means?

Jedidah Chick: I'm, I'm okay writing notes. Notes.

Jessica Craddock: So there's, there's words of affirmation.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: There's physical touch, which I usually kind of take out of the equation because that one's weird. I like physical touch, but like in this context, it's a little weird.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah, yeah.

Jessica Craddock: What are they, words of affirmation, gifts, quality time.

Jedidah Chick: I think words and gifts.

Jessica Craddock: Words and gifts. Okay. Yeah. So what I like to do with past clients is create a nurturing plan. For example, right after they buy from you, maybe if possible you deliver it to their home, you spend a little time with them like, where do you think you want to hang it? Can I help you install it? Just having a little bit of time to make that connection even stronger. Maybe a week or two after that, we wanna send them a thank you note or a special little voice message or something like that. Maybe the next time you have an event, you make sure to reach out personally to them and invite them so they feel special and say, I'd love to see you because of this.

It could be that once a year you have a little get together at a cool venue of your choosing where you can invite all your people to come and hang out. So just putting together a little bit of, not like a to-do list, but just a little structure around how you wanna make sure that you keep in touch with those people.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah. Okay.

Jessica Craddock: Same thing with all the people that we know from our past. Not all of them, because not all of them are going to be good fits, but if you're looking at the people you know from your past, and especially if you really like them for whatever reason, you just really like them, or you know that they resonate with some of these themes like beauty princesses, queens, good mental health history, Africa. Those are the ones that we wanna spend more time with.

Jedidah Chick: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: And you can create something similar for them. What I like to do is create a structure of how I want to connect with them. And I rarely ever follow it to a T, but it at least keeps me front of mind that these are the things I could do. How do I want to show love to this person today?

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: So when it was still available, you did the consistent income trial?

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Did you happen to download the orbit list?

Jedidah Chick: I've got it, yes.

Jessica Craddock: Cool. Okay. So use that list and this conversation to start growing that list.

Jedidah Chick: Okay, I will.

Jessica Craddock: Okay, so then the people we know from the past we're gonna come up with something similar for them. Maybe that is, Hmm. What might that look like for you? You said, I like to say nice things to people. I like to send gifts, so it might include one or both of those. Invitations are always one that I put on the list no matter what. I got this thing coming up. I'd love to see you there. Even if you don't have a thing coming up.

But one thing you mentioned was I could have people to my home. So it could be something like dinner or tea or a studio visit or whatever that is. But having a list of things that you can do to nurture these people and not holding yourself to a strict pattern. Because I feel like that leads to a little bit of overwhelm. Maybe it depends on your personality, but from what I'm hearing from you, I think it would. So just brainstorming, a list of how can I show love to these people?

Jedidah Chick: Okay. That's, yeah. Sounds good.

Jessica Craddock: So that is starting the beginning of using our list, our orbit list, to help us grow because the more we give, the more people wanna give back.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah, that's true.

[00:20:31] True fans are always eager to help you expand.

Jessica Craddock: At some point when it feels comfortable for you, you can also make asks, meaning past clients. Maybe you do two or three nurturing points and then you say, Hey, I'm looking for people who appreciate some little phrase around one of these themes, beauty, queens, mental health, history, Africa.

Jedidah Chick: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: Do you know anyone that I could have a conversation about my art with? I mean, there's a lot of different ways that you could put that, but what I like about that particular phrasing is then you can say, as they connect you, I really want to explore more how I'm talking about history. And I want to know what you're interested in learning more about. And then you get to have a little one-on-one time because you told me one-on-one time equals more sales for you with those people.

It may not lead to an immediate sale, but it leads to a stronger connection, which means they're now looking at what you're doing, kind of waiting for you to put out the thing that they connect with. The more we build that, every time you offer something for sale, the more people who are just like, do I want that? No. I'm gonna wait for the next one. I want that one. No, I'm gonna wait for the next one. Which can happen through content, but it's not just you spewing things out into the world saying, Hey, I have art. It's this almost like you're building a foundation of people who are wanting to get your art.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah. That makes sense.

Jessica Craddock: So I'm gonna stop and check in for a minute because I have more to say. But I just wanna like see how this is landing for you. Is this feeling like total overwhelm or like,

Jedidah Chick: Oh, not at all. No, I can definitely do that, and I do have one or two people that I feel like I should, I should make more of an effort with. Like one of them, she's got to me maybe two or three commissions just from one person. So yeah, I, I do need to get in touch with her and say hello.

Jessica Craddock: Definitely. Maybe even like a let me buy you a drink or something.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Jessica Craddock: People think of thank yous as I have to give them something really nice or expensive or whatever. And if you're gonna do that, maybe that's the way to go, but I would rather spend time with someone. Maybe that's my love language is spending more quality time with someone. And I think that when it's your love language, people respond better than if you're trying to make something up that's not really you.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah, that's, yeah, that's fine. I can do that.

Jessica Craddock: Cool. All right. So as far as like these people, these past clients, the people we know from the past nurturing them, they start to become, who said this? I forget, I forget the guy's name, but your true fans. And true fans are always eager to help you expand.

They might, you know, one day say, oh, I heard this podcast and it made me think of you, and you should totally be a guest. And you would've never heard of that podcast had it not been for that person. And that podcast connects you with three people, and maybe one of those people connects you with somebody else. This is organic growth at its finest.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: That being said, the asking part becomes important because not everyone always knows what you're looking for. They need to hear it from you. When you put it out there, they may go, oh no, I don't know anybody. And that's fine. You are not bugging them. They're wanting to help you, and so you're giving them an opportunity to do so.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah, it makes complete sense actually. And then I guess I feel less guilty about asking as well, 'cause I've been giving so much.

Jessica Craddock: And you can always, like, if they're a, a business owner or maybe I, I don't know what they might be, but let's say a realtor and they sell houses. So you could even say, Hey, what kind of buyer are you looking for right now? I'll, I'll rack my brain and see if I can come up with anybody and make some introductions for you. And maybe I can't, but let me think about it. Like that's another way that you can show love.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Is by offering to help them with something that they need. Or doing it without them asking if you can decipher what that might be, which is sometimes a little harder.

[00:24:55] Display your art where people are going to connect with the themes it represents.

Jessica Craddock: But, so that's like kind of our footing underneath us, but then we still wanna be finding people also. We don't wanna just rely on those people, we wanna find more particularly in person. So the first theme that we wrote down here was beauty. And especially since there's so much richness about the hair, particularly, things like salons, spas, things like that you could think about collaborating, hosting an event together. You could think about offering some paintings that haven't sold for their wall for 30 days. You could say I'm looking for some homes for my art about this and this and this. Do you have any interest?

Jedidah Chick: Yeah. So on that I do, well, I have had a few cafes with my work in the past, and now there's less, but again, hardly any sales. I feel because they haven't met me and I, I don't know if people necessarily buy from a cafe. Perhaps when they're in there, they're just thinking about having a coffee, and they don't realize that the artwork on the wall is for sale. I don't know.

Jessica Craddock: There's a lot of factors that could happen there to have made that not have any sales. I don't know that I could diagnose it without knowing a whole lot more, but what I'm talking about is not necessarily just putting art anywhere, but thinking about what are the themes that people are going to connect with because I'm not there.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: And so, if hair is a thing that they might really resonate with, they probably spend a lot of money taking care of their hair. Mm-hmm. Something like a salon might be a better fit than a cafe.

Jedidah Chick: So we've got black History Month coming up, and I've been thinking about what to do for that because obviously that's very relevant to the artwork. And one idea was to have an exhibition in the school, but I'm like, do I need to just see that as sort of helping up the school or do I need to be asking for some money?

Jessica Craddock: You have an idea or it's already rolling?

Jedidah Chick: Well, they did approach me actually.

Jessica Craddock: Okay.

Jedidah Chick: This was last year and I haven't really followed up on it because I wasn't sure what to do about it. I wasn't sure whether to just kind of set up the work and leave it there or I don't know, have a talk, but, you know, with the children. But you know what school kids can be like. I don't know.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. On a scale of one to 10, how exciting is that opportunity for you?

Jedidah Chick: Well, I think if, if it touches the heart of the right children, and of course it is because I know how hard it is for children who are mixed race or black in this area or any area really. And and I think it'd be nice for them. So how excited am I? I don't know. I don't know if, I don't know if it's worth it. I mean, it'd be nice to touch somebody's heart, but I'm still like, should I be using my time for something else? If that makes sense.

Jessica Craddock: Let's just for a minute, go worst case scenario. I don't even know that you can say worst case, but you make zero sales, zero contact, zero anything to do with your art business. But you get to touch one little girl. Please don't think I'm putting you on the spot here to sound like a good guy or a bad guy because that's really not what I mean. But yeah, this is just about like kind of reaching down and saying, was it worth it for me?

Jedidah Chick: It's worth it for me. It is, yeah. When you put it that way.

Jessica Craddock: In that case, I would assume nothing will come of it. Will nothing come of it? I don't know, like mm-hmm. Things really could come of that, but I would assume nothing is going to come of it. And I would go in there with, I wanna tell the story that I didn't get to hear as a little girl and hopefully touch one person.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Because when you go,

Jedidah Chick: sounds amazing

Jessica Craddock: at it from that angle. It's a totally different vibe.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: And it doesn't have to be this huge, extensive use of your time. You're just gonna tell the story you wanna tell, maybe have a piece of art behind you, or two or three, Whatever works for you. And then at the end of it, take the art back home with you. It was half of your day.

Jedidah Chick: Okay. Yes. That makes it clearer.

Jessica Craddock: The only reason I say take the art back home with you is because kids.

Jedidah Chick: No, I know. That's what I was nervous about.

Jessica Craddock: Yeah. So that makes it possible to still show it but not get worried about it.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah. because I think they wanted me to leave it there for like a week or two to have it on the walls for a week or two, but perhaps this way I could go into several schools, right?

Jessica Craddock: Yeah, yeah, I love that. Okay. So I want you to go back to them and say something like I'm a little bit uncomfortable with leaving the artwork at the school. Yeah. I know you would do your best to take care of it, but we all know how kids are. But what I would like to offer is have a however long talk with your students and bring some art and show it and hopefully help make an impact that way.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah, that sounds good. Okay. I'm definitely gonna be doing that then.

Jessica Craddock: Good. I'm glad. I have one client who has sold quite a bit of artwork by making connections at her kids' schools. Just, you know, meeting people at the bus stop and talking about what she does and like, this leads to that. She invites them to go have a coffee somewhere and that leads to, you know, it just turns into things. So you never really know where something is going to go. You just gotta know what you intend to get out of it and the effort that you're willing to put into it.

Jedidah Chick: Makes sense. Yeah. Okay.

[00:31:05] Look for ways to create even more connections with people who’ve shown interest in your work.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. So some of your other themes were princess, like the feel of every woman is a princess and also Queens, but that was more about the history.

Jedidah Chick: That's right. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: So if I, I'm gonna let you problem solve for a minute and talk about,

Jedidah Chick: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: If you wanted to feel like a princess, if you were someone who loved that feeling, where would you be?

Jedidah Chick: At a spa, I guess.

Jessica Craddock: We got two votes for spa.

Jedidah Chick: Okay. So where else would I go? Feel like possibly hotels, but then they tend to, I think anyway, have their own, they tend to be chains, don't they? So they already have artwork in there from, whoever makes the decision. Fashion shows. I, I haven't done this yet, but I know with some designers, they're always looking at artists who are willing to have their paintings on clothes and things. And I don't know, hair and beauty shows, I guess.

Jessica Craddock: So with all of those thoughts in mind, does anything come up with, oh, I'd like to do that. That kind of sounds fun.

Jedidah Chick: I think, with the hair and be, yes, but then again, I'm coming back to this thing where a lot of the artwork is Afro, but like, if I concentrate more on the kind of princessy ones, I think I can definitely have a look to see what's coming up and see if I can have something perhaps.

Jessica Craddock: So what I would, based on your problem solving, what I would do is go brainstorm that list, write it down. Then find out who the contact person is for those things, and reach out and say, Hey, this is what I make and here's why. And I love your show, organization, whatever, because I resonate with... Do you have any interest in discussing some sort of collaboration? I'm open to ideas.

Jedidah Chick: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: This is another example of using people to move things faster. So we're looking for who's gonna resonate? What kind of fun things could we do? In, in a perfect world, this doesn't always work, but in a perfect world, we have like one thing a month that we can work on executing that gets us in front of people.

So one thing might be this month I'm going to reach out to the salons and spas, and next month I'm gonna reach out to these fashion places and see what are some collaborations we could get on the books so that we're not spending all of our time chasing opportunities. We're booking them out, executing them and then looking for some more.

Jedidah Chick: Okay. So talking about collaborations I've done like three paintings for a few people on Instagram. So one perhaps with beautiful hair or whatever their their message kind of resonates with me. And yes, I do get a few followers from that, but never any sales.

Jessica Craddock: What are you doing besides just creating the artwork? Anything else?

Jedidah Chick: So, well, I give it to them, and then they post it on their page. And I get some followers, and then that's it. Really?

Jessica Craddock: In my group I say that about a third of people are fast action buyers in person. Someone told me today who makes way more money than me, that it's 20%. So somewhere in that kind of range is people who will say, Ooh, I love it, I gotta have it.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: But online, I think that that's way smaller. So the fact that they are posting it maybe once or twice and then you're getting some followers from that is not necessarily a reflection on if it's working or not. So what I like to do are look for leads. And if someone sees you on someone else's page who already has a similar message and resonates with you, and they come over and follow you, I would make hella sure I am messaging that person and saying, Hey, thanks for coming over from so-and-so's page. Don't use these exact words 'cause they're terrible. I would have to rethink. But I just really appreciate you taking the time to check out my work. And if you don't mind sharing, what did you resonate with about it? Something like that.

Jedidah Chick: Okay.

Jessica Craddock: Maybe that conversation turns into someone that you like having conversations with who goes on your orbit list.

Jedidah Chick: Can I just say that your email sequence was great? I did get a sale from that.

Jessica Craddock: Oh, yeah.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Really? That's exciting.

Jedidah Chick: Do you know, I, I would've never done it on my own. Like the thought didn't really occur to me.

Jessica Craddock: Are we talking about the one that's like the five day?

Jedidah Chick: Yeah. That one.

Jessica Craddock: Cool. Mm-hmm. If anybody's listening and they're like, wait, what? What? Let me know. I'll send it to you.

Jedidah Chick: It's good.

Jessica Craddock: I don't know how else you would get it. I think it's in the treasury actually, yeah, which is only $27. But I will send it to you because Jedidah mentioned it. So, do you see what I'm doing here? What I'm looking for is more connection instead of just putting something out there and then pulling back.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Going, no one bought it. I'm looking for what's an excuse that I can use to create more connection every time someone shows a little bit of interest.

Jedidah Chick: I guess some people have, have private accounts, don't they? So you can't message them unless you start following them.

Jessica Craddock: Well, in that case then you can't. Or you could, if you wanna start following a bunch of random people who you don't know what you're gonna get. I generally if, if their account is private, I leave it private and I just say, eh, move it on. I like to look at people and see, do I feel like I could talk to this person? And if I do, then I do. And if I don't then I don't, and that's okay. You can't make fake connections with people. No.

Jedidah Chick: Would you mind doing some introductory emails for commissions as well because I'm kind of stuck. I've had so many people saying they want commissions and then I'm like, well, how do I sweet talk you into actually doing it? You know?

Jessica Craddock: Don't, don't do that. Get on a call with them. Say, Hey, let's talk about it. Here's my phone number. Or let's talk about it. Let's hop on Zoom, or let's talk about it. Let's go get coffee. Like actually have that conversation because that back and forth sometimes works if they're highly motivated, but more often than it working, it will fizzle out.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: You can have that talk with them, even if it's over the phone, you're gonna probably get twice as many commissions just from that.

Jedidah Chick: Okay. Good idea.

Jessica Craddock: And it's less frustrating. Yeah. Because even if you then still have to follow up with them. You have the information. They have the information that they could ask their questions.

Jedidah Chick: Okay. Cool. I'll do that.

Jessica Craddock: Good. Okay, so we're gonna start wrapping up here. Actually, I want you to start wrapping up here. What are your takeaways? We talked about a lot, but like overall takeaways, what do you got?

Jedidah Chick: Well, I definitely need to do my orbit list. Nurture people more. I am doing it, but obviously I could do it more. And I feel like I'm a bit more confident about the whole nurturing thing because you said probably three conversations or three gifts or whatever before I make an ask. And I like the way you phrased the asking. Right. The second thing, I need to go into town and look around a bit more.

And I feel like I do have an opportunity with Black History Month coming up. I think that's in October here. So I really need to make a bit more of an effort, sort of going into places and just seeing if they would be interested in having some artwork on their walls. And the school thing as well, that resonates with me because even if I don't have any sales from it, I think it would still, like on my social media just inform people better about my artwork, if that makes sense.

Jessica Craddock: Who you are and why you do what you do. Yeah.

Jedidah Chick: Reinforce the message more. This, this is good. I feel like I do have a plan.

Jessica Craddock: So on my end, the notes that I wrote down are, okay, figure out how you wanna nurture your past clients and the people you know from your past, and you're gonna write their names down so you don't have to brainstorm them ever again.

Jedidah Chick: Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: And then also brainstorm a list of between female figure, female empowerment, Afro, beauty, feeling like a princess, good mental health, queens in history and Africa. Some  kind of go together. What places care about those things as well? Those are the places where you're going to find more buyers without having to drown in the online sphere yet.

Jedidah Chick: Okay. Okay. That's good.

Jessica Craddock: Is that helpful?

Jedidah Chick: Yeah, totally. Always I feel like you're pretty good at what you do.

Jessica Craddock: Thank you. I've been working really hard at it.

Jedidah Chick: I know. Wow. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Like 20 years now on learning how to do this.

Okay. So we're gonna wrap up. Jedidah, tell me where do you want people to look for you?

Jedidah Chick: So, my website is onaii art. So Onaii is spelled O N A I I and then A R T. And my Instagram is, this is onaii, O N A I I.

Jessica Craddock: Perfect.

Jedidah Chick: Onaii is a Shauna word.

Jessica Craddock: We'll link it in the show notes. If I can make a recommendation, go to her website and look, but go to her Instagram page and follow her. Tell her you heard her on the podcast. She would love it.

Jedidah Chick: Yes, definitely.

Jessica Craddock: Great. Thank you again for coming.

Jedidah Chick: Alright, thank you. You take care and have a good day.

Jessica Craddock: You too. Bye-bye.