Artist Debbie Bakker Doubles Her Confidence in Less Than 30-Days

(Transcription)

Artist, Debbie Bakker

Yeah, that didn’t know any more than me, yeah.

How did that work out?

That wasn’t working so well, we did a lot of wonderful mutual support and for our frustration on, where do we go from here?

Yeah my experience with that is that when artists who are in the same place get together for advice to move to the next place they start to marinate in their own frustrations and not move and they actually keep themselves kind of locked in that space, that same place. Yeah Which is no good.

I mean that’s not their intention. It’s just what winds up happening I think a lot.

So what is it that you wanted to achieve?

Well, let me just tell you my second big. Oh, yeah let’s start with that. Yeah, is that lack of confidence and which didn’t match my abilities. Right. And I knew I have, I know I have something special.

I just constantly second-guessed myself that I’m not good enough.

Yeah, that’s a big one for artists and it’s, they do have something to offer but they don’t know how to offer it so it gets, after a while you can’t help but to take it personally and start start to undermine yourself.

Yeah, and really really believe that voice that says you’re doing something special you’re doing something great. And you need to find a way to live that truth. Right.

Now what did you, so what did you want to achieve?

You joined the program, were there, before you joined the program, what specifically did you want to achieve? I know you wanted to pursue art, but was there something in particular that you wanted to achieve.

I want to get paid what I’m worth.

I’m working very very hard and I want to do this as a career.

This is a huge career change for me and I’m doing it as a career.

Business, you’re doing it as a business. A business.

I’m doing it as a business and I’m doing it more than full-time and my goal is to make that financially representative of the time I’m putting into it as a business.

Yeah, because it’s the reason why I call everyone out on it’s not a career because you can’t have a career if there are no jobs and you’re not going to get a paycheck for this. And the IRS, you’d have to take my word for it. Right?

When you sell art, you have to file a profit and loss statement whether it’s with your schedule C or your S Corp or whatever.

So by definition it is indeed a business. But if you approach it like a career and you work on building your resume. You’re lost. Yeah.

LinkedIn doesn’t have a big selection of jobs for fine artists

No exactly, exactly. So, what does it mean you know, for you to achieve that?

What does it mean to you?

This means a lot to me.

It means a lot to me personally.

I loved what I did in my first career and I loved what I did with staying home and raising wonderful independent strong adult children now, but there’s always been a piece of me that and I used to say it as a joke, ‘when I grow up I’m going to be an artist’ because I always had an artistic flair and I was too insecure to jump in and try it and so I didn’t come to art until my my late 40s and as you know, I’m a bit of a perfectionist.

Yeah. I know, so I went to art school and I got another degree and I studied it traditionally and you know professionally for school.

So this has been a long time coming and when I went to art school, I realized that my whole life had been leading up to this. So let’s say you never joined the program, right?

You didn’t find your mission. You didn’t find a support network. You didn’t find you know.

Let’s just say you kept doing what you were doing. What do you think, how do you think that would have impacted you personally?

What are 3 ways that would have impacted you personally, just whatever pops into your head. True.

First of all tremendously disappointing.

Tremendous disappointment because I just I feel like I spent too much of my life saying this isn’t what I’m worth.

I’m worth so much and I’m working so hard and I’m not seeing the results from it. I’m not seeing the sales of the artwork meaning enough people.

I haven’t been connecting with enough people who want my artwork Right. and I’m also not making enough money and I just the frustration level has just been rising and rising every year.

Yeah, so number one, you would have just been completely frustrated even more and more and more.

You would have, it seems like your self-worth is really tied and a lot of artists is really tied to our ability to sell our art whether you want to admit it or not it is! Okay. Yeah, I’ll admit it. Yes it is.

Because it feels good when you sell your art, right? So frustration would have continued to rise, sales would have continued to be what they were and I’m sure I would have eased off in terms of my production because I wasn’t getting, I wasn’t meeting my goals.

And what happened when you shared your mission? Yeah well to two of the three women were just in tears by the time finished and of course we couldn’t hug because we’re on sheltering in place.

But and the most amazing thing one of the women and she said does huge abstract painting we couldn’t be as opposite in in our styles of painting but we respect each other as artists and we have great advice for each other as artists, but she, you know said, you know, as she wiped the tears away, she said oh my God.

I totally understand why you paint the way you paint. It sounds like, it seems like your colleagues saw you. Yeah.

They saw you and they understood you when you shared your mission. Yeah. What did that mean to you personally? I felt so connected.

So absolutely connected because we talk art we’ve been talking art for years and it’s the first time we actually talked about who I am in relation to my art and I felt seen it wasn’t just talking about technique and composition and they really got me and I thought I thought they did get me, but of course I didn’t get me either until I went through day after day after day, of course two Yeah and realized what it was I was connecting with in my own art.

How do you think this will impact your business? Oh, this is going to be huge.

I am so filled with excitement.

I can’t tell you just the just the amount of excitement I have and I’m not doing anything different yet. Exactly.

So let me ask you this. Did you kind of hem and haw and almost not join the program?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, and then I got into it and I’m going I didn’t know this is what I’m signing up for and a couple of my friends says, you know, I had looked at other courses as well and I was going back and forth and looking at that and I had my interview with you and I just said yes on the spot, to this.

And I have a couple friends said, of course you did Debbie because your higher self needed you to connect with more than just a bunch of business step by step.

You’re going to get into the business stuff. Oh I will. I do need that area, Yeah first we need to you to understand what your product is. Yeah. Yeah. Why would you, you can’t start a business If you don’t know what the hell your product is absolutely and I understand it so much better now. Yeah big difference.

So has it been worthwhile so far?

Oh, yes. Absolutely. Absolutely and it’s been worthwhile on a personal level, you know, whether tomorrow my whole art career you know came to a screeching halt for some reason, that wouldn’t matter.

This is more than just my business. this is about me.

You’re the factory, as an artist you are the factory.

So you have to know who you are what you stand for and what you stand against. Isn’t it empowering to know like what’s… isn’ it empowering to know your purpose?

It is, it’s fabulous.

And like I said, I just I’m just like buzzing with the excitement for where I’m going to go from here.

So I know you’re just like you’re not even a third of the way through the program yet.

But what’s your favorite?

What’s been your favorite part of the program so far?

Well, so two parts one is connecting through the Code to Joy and I do it every day before I do my work with you.

If someone was kind of sitting on the fence, which I know you were and they weren’t sure about applying to enroll in this program. What would you honestly say to them?

Take a leap of faith.

This is so different than any of the other classes that give you, you know, a just a toolkit of to-do’s.

This is so much more than that. Great. Yeah and just jump in and with a leap of faith and go for it because you have, it’s amazing what you’ll walk away with. For those of you who are listening to this interview yeah I hope it was useful.

You can hear your from someone who’s in the program and you know, if you’d like to see how the program can potentially help you I want to be clear. It’s available by application only. I don’t, we turn away more artists than we accept but you just click on the link below and you can schedule a brief call with me.

You have to take a brief survey to confirm your call and we’ll hop on a call and I’ll see if I can help you.

If I can help you I’ll let you know and if I can’t help you I’ll be honest with you and try to point you in the right direction. So this was great.