Artist Quits Working at the Mine by sharing his mission

(Transcription)

Artist Darrell Chocolate
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

@0:00 – Ann Rea

How did your art sales go? Where are you at?

@3:27 – Darrell

It’s been pretty good since  I took the course. I think I finished the course early of January 2024 last year. And I started using the methods of the course itself. And at the end of 2024, when I did my ledger, I made about, I’m just trying to think of the number, $59,700.

@0:40 – Ann Rea

Damn. Good for you. Congratulations! Gosh, you know what? Wow.

@0:46 – Darrell

And when I looked at my ledger for all the sales I’ve made in 2020. I made about $18,000 in 2020. And then in 2021, that number kind of dropped, I think I made about $17,000. And then 2022, again, that dropped to 15. 2022 was the worst year because we had the fire evacuation in Yellowknife.

@1:20 – Ann Rea

Yeah.

@1:21– Darrell

Nobody was buying art here. And I made about, I think, $12,000 that full year. Then after the new year hit in 2024, and then I finished the course, I started using some of the methods in the Making Art Making Money program.

And at the end of the year, I made about $59,000, which is triple.

@1:49 – Ann Rea

I’m so proud of you. I’m so proud of you.

@1:53 – Darrell

Yeah.

@1:55 – Ann Rea

I hope you’re proud of yourself too.

@1:56 – Darrell

I am. Yeah.

@1:58 – Ann Rea

Damn. I mean, that’s fantastic. I want to feature you. Are you cool with that? I love this. You did so well.

@2:06 – Darrell

 Yeah, sure.

@2:06 – Ann Rea

And you’re going to, you know, the thing is, now you know how to do this, you’re just going to get better at it. Right?

@2:14 – Darrell

Yeah. And I’m still. I’m still telling people about my mission, and last year around this time you know. Can I just tell you a quick little story.

@2:29 – Ann Rea

Yeah, please. Yeah. I’m here to listen.

@2:32 – Darrell

It’s kind of a sad story. There’s a community called Fort Smith here in the Northwest Territories. There’s a plane crash and it took four community members lives and they worked for a Diamond Mine but the Diamond Mine itself they contacted me because they wanted to do a tribute to their employees that lost their lives for the families, so I had a meeting with them. And then during that meeting, I told them about my mission, almost made them emotional. Well, well, that’s the whole idea yeah, yeah, so I think I told them my mission.

They got me to– they commissioned me to do the portraits for the family, and then later on that week, the lady that was at the meeting, she contacted me privately, aside from the company.

She said she knew one of the victim’s wives. She grew up with them, so she wanted to do a commission on her own without the company.

So she got me to do a portrait for one of the victim’s wives.

@3:54 – Ann Rea

That’s beautiful, but art is very healing, isn’t it?

@3:58 – Darrell

It is, yeah.

@4:01 – Ann Rea

So that’s beautiful, and when people tend to buy art during momentous events, it could be a wedding, or a big birthday, or a death, or, you know, marks like the milestones in people’s lives.

It loses, and triumphs. So, good. And I bet you never felt once like you were trying to sell yourself, right?

@4:27 – Darrell

No, I wasn’t trying to sell myself. was just trying to express who I am as a person and, you know, what I care about, know.

I also knew one of the victims in the plane crash too, so.

@4:41 – Ann Rea

Yeah, so it was personal for you too.

@4:43 – Darrell

Yeah.

@4:44 – Ann Rea

Wow, that’s really wonderful. So, I’m curious, would you be willing to share your mission because I– with me?

@4:56 – Darrell

Sure.

@4:58 – Ann Rea

Okay.

@5:00 – Darrell

So, when I do tell my mission, because a lot of people don’t understand how we get their missions through the 28-day course.

And so, when I do tell my mission to people who don’t understand it, I just tell them, you know, I took this course called “Making Art Making Money” program with, and really, I tell them, you know, there’s this 28-day cycle that we have to go through to find our mission.

And how I found my mission is I find 3 joyful moments of my life and 3 painful moments of my life.

And I just tell them one of my joyful moments and one of my painful moments. One of my most painful moments of my life was when I was 15.

I come from a small community. I had to go high school outside my community, so that means leaving my family.

So being 15, first couple of days leaving my community, you know, I all right because I had my friends off.

I was with my friends, but after the third day, it started hitting me that I started missing my family.

And I remember one time at night, I remember crying for, and because I dearly missed my family. Even my sister is back home being 15, you know, yeah, that was one of my most painful moments and lesson learned from that is that I learned to appreciate family.

So one of my joyful moments in my life is 2019 when I first won the phone book art cover and that was one of my most joyful moments in my life because that it put me on the map and being recognized as an artist here in the Northwest Territories, so the lesson that I learned from that was, you know, I’m humble and grateful for the talent that I have so the mission that I learned the overall lessons from all my painful and joyful moments is that I can help people appreciate what they value the most.

life, like if you’re outdoorsman or you love the outdoors, I can help create portraits or paintings of landscapes and if you appreciate your loved ones, you know, I can help by creating portraits.

That’s my mission.

@7:40 – Ann Rea

Nice. Wow! You know what I love is that you just explain like where this mission came from. Like you didn’t, you know, try to pose or be someone you’re not.

You just said, “Well, I took this, I took this program and that’s what I learned.” And you just went right into it.

That’s the way to do it. I always say, you know, the truth is the best marketing strategy and then if you just use the truth, you don’t have to think about what to say.

@8:08 – Darrell

Yeah, you’re not making things up and it’s just a couple of minutes.

@8:14 – Ann Rea

You’re more confident too when you just tell the truth and people can feel it.

And this is all about emotion, right? So when you share your mission and they were getting emotional, well, that’s an A plus because that’s what we’re doing, helping connect people to their feelings, to their soul, to themselves.

So that’s the job. So we’re not selling goods, we’re not selling services. Our product is emotion. And the artist’s job, our jobs, is to help people connect with their humanity, which is what you’re doing.

@08:53 – Darrell

Right, right. And when I do tell people about my mission, I always think that I’m just gonna talk to them for about 15 minutes.

But the conversation keeps going for over 40-45 minutes.

@09:08 – Ann Rea

Oh yeah, it always does.

@09:10 – Darrell

Ah, yeah.

@09:11 – Ann Rea

Yeah, yeah. People actually want to talk to you. So what I love about this is I mean, what a beautiful thing you did for that company. for the friend of the person and people like what beautiful things you’re doing. And you’re getting paid while doing it.

@09:29 – Darrell

Yeah.

@09:30 – Ann Rea

That’s a nice way to make money.

@09:31 – Darrell

It is. Yeah. And I enjoy doing it too. Yeah.

@09:34 – Ann Rea

Yeah. I’m sure. Can I– do you mind me asking like before you join the program, what were your like biggest struggles? What were your two biggest struggles or things that were getting in your way?

@09:48 – Darrell

I think one of the two biggest struggles was my confidence. It’s just I didn’t know how to talk to people.

I didn’t know how to you know tell them to buy my art. So one was my confidence and the other thing that I struggle with most is like the business side of art.

So through your program, know, you helped me with the business side of keeping business records and telling people about my mission as an artist, and you know, but that was one of my biggest struggles, is to you know see my art as a business.

@10:35 – Ann Rea

Yeah , well the IRS says it’s a business or in Canada your texting authority says it’s a business, right? They want it like, “Where’s your profit statement? Looks like you sold some art.” Yeah business. On a scale of one to ten before you joined the program one being the lowest 10 being the highest where do you think your confidence was before you joined on a scale about selling your art

@11:00 – Darrell

Before I joined the program? I think I would say, that was out of three.

@11:05 – Ann Rea

Three? And where is it now?

@11:08 – Darrell

It’s about nine.

@11:09 – Ann Rea

Yeah, okay. So that’s, that’s it. So most graduates triple their confidence, now can you imagine buying, I don’t know, a fancy car or a home or anything for that matter from someone who’s on three on their confidence level in selling it to you or someone who’s a nine.

Who’s going to make more sales?

@11:36 – Darrell

The nine.

@11:37 – Ann Rea

The nine. Yeah. yeah. And I mean also I think a lot of artists get they’re kind of intimidated by the business side of things but it’s not that complicated.

What, how do you feel about it now?

@11:51 – Darrell

About the business side?

@11:54 – Ann Rea

Yeah, like keeping a ledger and stuff like that. How do you feel about it now?

@13:40 – Darrell

I feel like it helps me in my art business. Like it keeps track of all my sales and helps me with all the inventory and keeping track of all my supplies and it’s.

@14:00 – Ann Rea

really helped me a lot. Yeah, it makes it more tangible because there’s a saying what we measure improves, right?

If we don’t measure, it’s like saying, I want to lose 10 pounds, but I’m not going to jump. I’m not going to stand on the scale.

just going to, I’m just going to lose 10 pounds. never going to measure it, but you’re not going to lose 10 pounds or you have to measure.

You have to see where you’re at. And then, then you might lose 10 pounds, right? Um, let me ask you this, and you don’t mind.

I, if someone like was not sure about this program, or let me ask you a different way, I’m going ask you to fill in the blank.

I almost didn’t join the program because…

@14:43 – Darrell

Because of the affordability to take the program, yeah? Yeah, I’m talking about my alumni experience before I joined program because I know that.

Um, I’m almost couldn’t afford it, but I just have this, uh, this feeling of joining that I should join.

So, yeah, I took that leap of faith because you made so much more money than you paid. Yeah.

@15:19 – Ann Rea

did. And you’re not done. Like, you’re not done yet. You’re going to keep taking more money.

@15:25 – Darrell

Yeah.

@15:26 – Ann Rea

If you’re going to increase, you’re going to get better at sharing your mission, your network is going to expand just like in that one meeting you had with that one company.

So, you met with those people and then that led to this other woman and then that led to another woman.

@15:41 – Darrell

Yeah. did, actually.

@15:43 – Ann Rea

It did.

@15:44 – Darrell

Yeah. So, when I did that portrait with the company, the lady that was at the meeting, she works for the company itself, she commissioned me personally and then that led to another

Commission with the manager, that’s what I’m saying. Yeah.

@16:05 – Ann Rea

Yeah. if you have a gallery involved and you have a middleman, they’re not going to let you anywhere near the customer.

They’re going to say, no, no, we’re not giving you their information. So you’re seeing it. So it’s paid off really well for you, but you are not done.

@16:20 – Darrell

You are just getting started. Yeah. So this year I’ve got goals to achieve. My short-term goal is to sell at least $15,000 in the first three months.

My long-term goal is to reach at least $75,000. The end of the year. you. working at the mine. Is that right?

Oh yeah, I have stopped working at the mine.

@17:05 – Ann Rea

can’t Oh, that’s wonderful. Wow. You know, Daryl, you’ve achieved a dream that people rarely accomplish. just keep it in.

And you know why? Because they call it a damn dream instead of a goal in a plan.

@17:24 – Darrell

Yeah. And that actually helped me a lot too in my art business because I have more time to do a lot of the things that I couldn’t do while I was working at the mine.

@17:35 – Ann Rea

So proud of you. This is so wonderful.

@17:39 – Darrell

Oh my gosh.

@17:41 – Ann Rea

Wonderful. Well, I really appreciate your time. I love hearing success stories. makes it all worth it when I hear somebody’s life has changed.

@17:52 – Darrell

Yeah.

@17:53 – Ann Rea

It makes it all worth it.

@17:56 – Darrell

So it’s all due to the program I took, right? So it helped me and my confidence in my art business.

And it helps me to share my mission with others. Yeah. When I’m sharing my mission to, you know, it just brings kind of the emotional side out to people.

And, you know, I told my mission to one of my all workers at the, at the mine when I was working there.

I just told him, like, quickly, like, right, quick brief of my mission. at the end of it, his response was like, wow, Darryl, that’s pretty deep.

It’s like.

@18:45 – Ann Rea

But I mean, isn’t it cool because your mission, you get to sit with someone and relate to them in a way that’s very real.

And you’re focusing on what really matters. It’s not small talk. It’s real.

@19:05 – Darrell

Yeah.

@19:06 – Ann Rea

And I think we’re all pretty and you really connect with one another. And I think we’re all pretty hungry for the truth and for a meaning and for genuine connection.

So it’s good for you. So you did it. I mean, I know the program works, but it only works if you do work and you did the work.

@19:26 – Darrell

Right, right.

@19:28 – Ann Rea

All right. So I’m gonna feature you as a success story. I also want to let you know one of the reasons I’m doing this listening to us is putting together an alumni program so people are not by themselves because I notice not with you so much, but sometimes students who are in the program after they leave their sales kind of go down the kind of drift, you know, and it’s like, if you’re a professional tennis player, you don’t just play for a year and then

fire your coach because your your back hand might be wrong and you could fix it real quick and you know go to the next level and the next level so anyway that’s the reason i’m talking to people’s because i want to create that but i’m not selling you on it i’m just letting you know that’s one of the reasons i’m doing this right right yeah yeah i know how that feels about people i think their distractions their focus just kind of plummets and yeah in a way so yeah very easily and and especially depends like you know you know the environment you’re in sometimes you have friends or family to understand why you want to do this you know although when you start taking making money isn’t it interesting how proud they are of you now and like you know great yeah before that though they think oh you crazy what are you doing yeah

@21:00 – Darrell

I know, I know the opinions are out there, but artists are still.

@21:08 – Ann Rea

Yeah, well, anyway, everyone has their opinion, everyone’s in critic. Well, thanks again, Daryl, and I’m glad we got through this tech hurdle.

I’m very proud of you, really am, and I think it’s wonderful, and I just want to keep in touch, let me know how you’re going along.

Right. I want you to do more.

@21:30 – Darrell

Yeah, I’m still learning a lot too as an artist, so.

@21:35 – Ann Rea

Yeah, I mean, it’s never ending. takes, you know, it’s never ending. That’s what’s wonderful about it. You can always get better at your art.

You can always get better at sharing your mission, and selling your art, and getting introductions to other collectors.

@21:50 – Darrell

You get better at all that all the time. Right, right.

@21:53 – Ann Rea

Yeah, you’re never going to, that’s ever going to end.

@21:57 – Darrell

All right, well, thank you so much. All right.

@22:01 – Ann Rea

Well, thank you for dropping by and saying hi. Yeah. Yeah. I want to see how people are doing. I care about how artists are doing, so it’s really lovely.

All right.

@22:13 – Darrell

Take care. All right. Take care as well.