Meet Emily Jeffords, mom of three, fine art painter, online entrepreneur
I’m incredibly excited to introduce you to Emily Jeffords, mom of three, fine art painter and incredible business woman.
I met Emily a few years ago and was immediately drawn into her beautiful paintings, her vibe and most of all her incredible brilliance as an entrepreneur. One of the things that keeps me connected with her is her unshakable belief that the starving artist mindset is a myth that must be busted.
She is on a mission to bust that myth and share her business knowledge with creatives whether we are fine artists ourselves or watercolor artists or surface pattern designers or crafters or creatives of other sorts. The same general rules apply about how to build a successful creative business online. And I’m all eyes and ears whenever Emily is talking or teaching on the subject.
Right now, she is offering a free video series called: Share The Work. It’s both a series of videos you get via email, and an online 7 day challenge inside a private Facebook group. You can sign up for both and, when you’re reading this, you can binge watch the video series and immediately join the 7 day challenge with us.
Without giving away all of the goodness inside, since I’d really like you to get to know Emily and watch the video series yourself, I’ll just share a few salient points to get you even more excited about it.
The video series, Share The Work, is organized around 4 main themes:
· 3 things you must know to sell art
· How to know if your art is worth selling
· 5 ways to share your work & get noticed
· 5 lies artists believe and how to overcome them
Let’s just dive into the first one, shall we?
In the 3 things you must know to sell art video, Emily focuses on:
· The importance of your website
· Inviting people to your site, and
· Actively attracting customers to your work
Let’s talk about these for a minute.
When you think about your website, it’s helpful to think about it as though it were a physical space, store, or gallery. The reason for this is that if you have a physical location, you know how much tender loving care you give to that space every day. The windows are always fresh and inviting. The interior is beautifully merchandised and your products are easy to find. Sometimes we don’t think about our website in the same way.
One word of caution however. As my mentor Ryan Levesque always says: “You don’t have to get it perfect. You just have to get it going.” This is super important. You’ll be able to improve and evolve your website with time. It’s critical to get it done and then tweak and enhance it. Don’t let that desire for perfection slow you down.
Now, how do you invite people to your site? There are many ways to do this thorough social media, through emails to your customer list, by having fun online “events”.
It’s helpful again to think about the type of events you’d organize if you were hosting a party at your physical store. An evening sip and shop, perhaps? A sidewalk event over a long holiday weekend. Think about how these types of traffic driving events translate online.
And don’t forget to lean into live in person events like craft fairs and gallery shows where customers can meet you and see your work in person. We all want personal connection. We want to know the person behind the painting. It makes the purchase more meaningful.
Emily’s final point in this segment is all about actively attracting customers to your work. Yes, people are attracted to the paintings themselves. Or to your watercolor artwork or to products that have your surface pattern designs on them.
They are also very motivated by you, your vibe, your personality, how you are embracing creativity at every turn and supporting others who desire to do the same. This is so important because a buying decision is often motivated by a desire to support the person who made the artwork, not just by the piece of art itself.
I can’t wait for you to dig into this Share The Work series and join us in the 7-day challenge that starts tomorrow. Emily will be sharing a bite-sized prompt with us each morning. And we’ll participate together inside a private Facebook group called Share The Work with Emily Jeffords. Go join it right now.
I can’t wait to see you there!
Remember,
It’s Never Too Late to Create
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MEET ANNE
Hi…I’m Anne!
My creative inspiration comes from a lifetime of observation. I grew up in Paris on the Place St. Sulpice and walked to school through the Luxembourg gardens. And that was only the beginning… Learn more by watching the video on my About page.
