Fine artist who more than tripled her confidence and sales

(Transcription)

Artist Leisa Lewis
Bitterroot Valley, Montana

Ann Rea: (00:01)
It’s fine. Do you pronounce your name Leisa or Lisa?

Leisa Lewis: (00:05)
Lisa.

Ann Rea: (00:06)
Okay. Because it’s different, depending–

Leisa Lewis: (00:08)
Yes.

Ann Rea: (00:08)
I just want to check. Make sure I did it right. Welcome! Everyone, my name is Ann Rea. I am the creator of the Making Art Making Money® School of Business. This is one of my students, Leisa. Where are you sitting on the planet?

Leisa Lewis: (00:22)
I am in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana.

Ann Rea: (00:26)
Montana. Okay. 

Leisa Lewis: (00:28)
Yup.

Ann Rea: (00:28)
I got a few people from Montana.

Leisa Lewis: (00:32)
Yes. And It’s actually very, very hot here today. Finally. 

Ann Rea: (01:47)
Is it? Well, what I would love to do is just ask you to a couple of questions so that other artists who don’t, maybe don’t have a clue about Making Art Making Money® or maybe they do, but they might want to learn more about your experience. Before you enrolled in the program, what were your top two challenges? 

Leisa Lewis: (01:03)
I was very unsure of myself and extremely unorganized with my time management. 

Ann Rea: (01:17)
Okay. What do you think made you unsure of yourself?

Leisa Lewis: (01:21)
Listening to other people instead of being– listening to me.

Ann Rea: (01:28)
Yup. Okay. Do you listen to yourself now? 

Leisa Lewis: (01:33)
Yes, very much. My Life is forever ever changed.

Ann Rea: (01:39)
That’s awesome. So let’s talk about what are like two or three things that changed for you as a result of joining Making Art Making Money®.  What happened to you?

Leisa Lewis: (01:52)
I realized that I did not want to be a hobby artist. I wanted to be serious. I had– I have something big to put out there in the world. And I matter. I’m really cool now. 

Ann Rea: (02:15)
Yes. Well, you did before, but now you know it. 

Leisa Lewis: (02:18)
Now I know it. I’ve got to say though, when I joined, I thought I was just going to learn to sell the hell out of my art. I did not know you were going to dig deep into my heart and rearrange everything about me in a profound, spectacular, wonderful way. 

Ann Rea: (02:45)
Do you understand why I did that now?

Leisa Lewis: (02:49)
Yes. You scared the heck out of me for a long time, but you know, you, I didn’t enter this to make you my friend and you didn’t want me, you know, I, I don’t have to be your friend. You are an excellent, oh gosh. I don’t, I don’t want to get too goofy. 

Ann Rea: (03:14)
Go ahead. Get goofy.

Leisa Lewis: (03:17)
I just don’t know if I could explain how many areas of my life have been changed because of Making Ar Making Money®. 

Ann Rea: (03:27)
Wow! Well, name a couple. Give me like maybe one or two scenarios that you think these are direct– the changes are a direct result of what you learned in Making Art Making Money®.  

Leisa Lewis: (03:41)
Well, a really big one for me was for about 20 years, I should have gone to Al-Anon. And in the extreme search for my Why, somehow Al-Anon found me again and I started with Al-Anon. And I, I don’t believe I would’ve gone there without getting my four-part code. And wanting and knowing how important it is for everybody to know your Why, 

Ann Rea: (04:21)
Isn’t it? You know what? It’s so, it’s so is. And I think it’s something that so, so many people, even, you know, outwardly super successful people are really lost on and really hungry for. 

Leisa Lewis: (04:36)
And that would lead me into my other is I remember, and even to this day, you always tell us  to be honest, to tell the truth, to be honest with people. And I have since opened a studio of my dreams downtown. 

Ann Rea: (05:03)
Nice!

Leisa Lewis: (05:03)
I call it my really expensive she-shed. 

Ann Rea: (05:09)
I love that! 

Leisa Lewis: (05:11)
It is on the main street of our town. So I have a lot of people that come in and visit. Not what I was after, but I’m selling a ton of art, so that’s good. But I’m real. I’m true. I’m me. And the feedback from that is, it’s just amazing. it’s so true. People love truth and people are coming in now on a regular basis to see what’s new that week. And they want to be a part of what I’m doing. They believe in me, and they just want to be a part of what I’m doing. And it freaked me out for a hot minute. And now I’m just grateful. It’s awesome! 

Ann Rea: (06:08)
Man am I proud of you? Look at you. Look how far you’ve come.

Leisa Lewis: (06:14)
I have.

Ann Rea: (06:15)
Damn. You also renewed too. So–

Leisa Lewis: (06:19)
I did. 

Ann Rea: (06:20)
I’m going to tell you something. My best students, my best students are the ones who renew always. Always. 

Leisa Lewis: (06:25)
No regret renewing. That was– I had to, I absolutely had to. And I’ve told my husband,  like I told you, there’s just not enough words to explain the difference in my life and who I am personally and as an artist 

Ann Rea: (06:52)
And being– and it’s so personal. Your art is personal, right? 

Leisa Lewis: (06:57)
Oh, very personal. I’m proud of it now.

Ann Rea: (07:00)
Good! Yay! Because, alright, so you’re in such a good place compared to when you started. Oh my God! What a transformation. What a transformation. If someone like travel back to where you were, you know, before you enrolled and maybe, I don’t know if you were sitting on the fence and hem and haw. I don’t know where you were before you joined, but if you go back in time and give that Leisa a piece of advice and maybe the other artists who are listening, what would you say to them? 

Leisa Lewis: (07:36)
Make art that is true and real and part of you. Don’t make buffaloes because you live in Montana and everybody could paint a buffalo. I love painting buffaloes!

Ann Rea: (07:54)
There’s plenty of buffaloes,

Leisa Lewis: (07:57)
There’s amazing artists here that do buffaloes. 

Ann Rea: (07:59)
Which is fine if that’s what they do. 

Leisa Lewis: (08:01)
I’m not one of them.

Ann Rea: (08:02)
She doesn’t do buffaloes. Okay. So don’t ask her.

Leisa Lewis: (08:27)
No. if if I do a buffalo, it’s going to be a very silly smiling buffalo with a flower hanging out of its mouth or something. 

Ann Rea: (08:16)
Nice. Very nice. So we’re– let me just ask you this question and you can fill in the blank. I almost didn’t join Making Art Making Money® because?

Leisa Lewis: (08:28)
The cost. 

Ann Rea: (08:29)
The cost. Okay, let’s talk– It’s not cheap, everybody.

Leisa Lewis: (08:33)
Nope.

Ann Rea: (08:34)
Now let me ask you this.

Leisa Lewis: (08:36)
Can I say it’s not cheap, but it’s worth every single cent 

Ann Rea: (08:41)
Because if you had not joined, what what would it have cost you? 

Leisa Lewis: (08:51)
Everything. I probably wouldn’t be doing art anymore. 

Ann Rea: (08:58)
Oh!

Leisa Lewis: (08:58)
Because I would be exhausted. I’d be lost. And defeated.

Ann Rea: (09:07)
And I think that’s where so many artists are. 

Leisa Lewis: (09:11)
Yes.

Ann Rea: (09:13)
Just get to a point. I mean, I got to that point where I’m like, “I just can’t freaking do this. I can’t keep up. This isn’t working.”

Leisa Lewis: (09:21)
It’s not fun.

Ann Rea: (09:22)
Not fun anymore. I freaking Yeah. I hate it now. I mean, it’s just, yeah. All the joy got sucked out of it. 

Leisa Lewis: (09:28)
Yes.

Ann Rea: (09:29)
Alright. So, okay. So you’re– so you know your Why. You know your mission. You know who you are. You know what you stand for. You know what you stand against. 

Leisa Lewis: (09:39)
Yes. 

Ann Rea: (09:40)
Why does that matter? Tell us.

Leisa Lewis: (09:43)
Well, again. It matters in more ways than just art. Because every day when I wake up, I know who I am. I know who I am when I come and do my yoga. I know who I am when I get in the car and maybe somebody’s pissing me off on the road. I’m a nice person. I don’t. Bye! And then when I get to my studio, I am so focused in so many ways with my art.

Ann Rea: (10:26)
That’s huge. You know why? Because when I survey artists and I ask them what their number one challenge is, they say a lack of focus. Which you started off by saying like, your time management was all over the place and you were disorganized. 

Leisa Lewis: (10:44)
Yes, very much. 

Ann Rea: (10:45)
So now, let’s say on a subjective scale of one to ten,  ten being the most focused, where were you before you joinedon a scale of one to ten? 

Leisa Lewis: (10:56)
Off the top of my head and being honest, I’d say it was a two.

Ann Rea: (11:02)
So that’s average, by the way.

Leisa Lewis: (11:03)
Oh, it is? Okay. 

Ann Rea: (11:04)
It’s average. Yeah. And then when you– now, where are you on a scale of one to ten, when it comes to your focus? 

Leisa Lewis: (11:13)
Again, to be honest, because life is life. I will go between eight and a half to 10. 

Ann Rea: (11:22)
Oh, damn! Well, well, that’s a triple increase. That’s more than triple. 

Leisa Lewis: (11:27)
Yeah. Yeah. 

Ann Rea: (11:29)
So, okay. Now let me just try this. So on a subjective scale of one to 10, 10 being the most confident, where were you before you joined your level of confidence when it came to marketing and selling your art before you joined? 

Leisa Lewis: (11:45)
I know this sounds silly, but I was zero. I really honestly was zero.

Ann Rea: (11:52)
Well, a lot of people are there and that’s actually what prevents them from enrolling because their confidence is so low. They don’t believe that they’re going to be able to make it. They’re even going to be able to graduate. So you’re not alone there. 

Leisa Lewis: (12:08)
Yeah.

Ann Rea: (12:08)
Now, on a sale scale of one to 10, 10 being the most confident now, how do you feel about your ability to market and sell your art on a scale of one to 10? 

Leisa Lewis: (12:18)
There are two, because of life. Nine to 10, but most often a 10.

Ann Rea: (12:26)
Okay.

Leisa Lewis: (12:27)
I just– I don’t even care if I sound vain. 

Ann Rea: (12:34)
You’re not vain. I’m asking you for an actual measurement. 

Leisa Lewis: (12:38)
I love my art. I love sharing my art. I love that It is me. It’s 100% me. Again, it’s not a fake buffalo. It’s me. 

Ann Rea: (12:54)
One thing I want to– I just can’t emphasize this enough. If you don’t have confidence in marketing and selling your art, you’re not alone. It’s something that you earn by learning, you learn and you earn confidence. What a lot of people don’t realize is the focus and confidence are linked. Do you ever notice the more focused you are, the more confident you are? But I mean, like, you literally are a person who has more than tripled their level of focus and confidence. That is a different person. 

Leisa Lewis: (13:26)
Yeah.

Ann Rea: (13:27)
Do you feel like a different person? 

Leisa Lewis: (13:29)
Oh, absolutely. 10. Big 10 there. 

Ann Rea: (13:34)
So let’s just say someone’s sitting on the fence. I’m going to just, we’re going to part with this. Someone’s sitting on the fence. They weren’t sure. “I don’t know. Should I even apply?” What would you say to them?

Leisa Lewis: (13:48)
Well, I would say, “Do you want to be an artist?”

Ann Rea: (13:55)
Yes.

Leisa Lewis: (13:57)
Like, because I know I wanted to be an artist. I know that, but I did think I was entering a group that I was going to be– have a calculator and writing and learning. I did not know, again that you were going to dig so deep into my heart. So be prepared for that. It’s going to happen. Your emotion, the fibers of your body are going to change in a good way. And if you don’t want that to happen, I don’t think you should be doing art. 

Ann Rea: (14:38)
I don’t think you should be doing art either, because an artist is not selling goods or services. Our product is emotion. So we have to start with our own interior. Our own emotion really explore it and expand it so that we can express it and touch the heart of a collector.

Leisa Lewis: (15:00)
And be really– you remember I made it so difficult. 

Ann Rea: (15:06)
I know.

Leisa Lewis: (15:07)
I can’t remember what you called it, but you kept telling me, “Settle down, relax. Just do it.” And, “No, I wanted to do it perfectly.”

Ann Rea: (15:19)
Oh yeah. 

Leisa Lewis: (15:19)
And I think, probably the fourth time I went through it again, I thought, “Oh,I get it now. Settle down.”

Ann Rea: (15:36)
Yeah. Okay. So you’re not the only one. This is really common. I’m throwing a lot of new things at you. Right? When you come into this program, it’s not what people expect a lot of times. And so we’re rewiring you. But man, am I proud of you. 

Leisa Lewis: (15:57)
It’s so truthful. You’re not. It’s not. It’s so real. It’s not fake. It’s not woo woo. It’s amazing. You will be a part of my life forever. 

Ann Rea: (16:14)
Aww.

Leisa Lewis: (16:15)
Ever and ever. And I also, if I can say. I graduated a little bit ago, but I don’t think there’s one single day that I don’t put into practice my time with MAMM. Something from MAMM comes into my art day or even my day, something. And I think, “Oh, oh. I remember that.” This is how, this is what I’m doing.

Ann Rea: (16:48)
Well, I got a little surprise for you. We’re about to announce the new Making Art Making Money Alumni Association.

Leisa Lewis: (16:56)
Oh, thank God. Yay! 

Ann Rea: (16:48)
Graduates have done so well. And we want to– I want the momentum to keep growing and I want, you know, the graduates to be able to hang in together. Right? Because you’ve learned so much. You’ve all come so far. So I’ll keep you up to date when we’ve got it. 

Leisa Lewis: (17:17)
And can I also say, like I said, I am not a techie person, so Zoom and all that. I thought, “Ugh.” I have the most amazing friends literally all around the world. 

Ann Rea: (17:33)
Your study partners!

Leisa Lewis: (17:34)
Yup. 

Ann Rea: (17:37)
Let’s talk about–

Leisa Lewis: (17:40)
I can reach out and ask Matt, “Hey, I’m doing this. What do you think?” And Andrea, we– Andrea and I still touch base every, and she’s in Australia. It’s tough because there’s a big time.

Ann Rea: (17:57)
There’s a big time difference. Yeah. In Australia, it’s like tomorrow. 

Leisa Lewis: (17:59)
That is really important to us to talk.

Ann Rea: (18:02)
So let’s talk about that just real quick before we sign off. So all my students have various study partners, not just one. They have study partners from all over the world, which are amazing artists with amazing experiences and skillset that they share. And in my experience, study partners– what happens with the community is like if one person’s succeeding, you kind of think to yourself, “Well if she can do it, I can do it. If he can do it, I can do it.” And then we don’t have this, first of all, we don’t show art in the Facebook group. Okay? We’re not critiquing art. Okay. So we just don’t even get into that conversation. If you’ve already sold it, we know it’s good enough, period.  That’s all we care about. But when you have the support of like-minded people who really care and who really want to see you win, that is a game-changer. Don’t you think?

Leisa Lewis: (18:54)
Oh, absolutely. I love telling people about my friend in India, and my friends in Australia. And I love it. I didn’t expect that. That was a really big bonus for me. 

Ann Rea: (19:10)
Doesn’t it open up your whole universe by just coming into the program and meeting with global community of other artists who want to make art that matters that is meaningful to them and meaningful to their collectors and get paid everybody?

Leisa Lewis: (19:26)
Oh, I’m making some Moula. 

Ann Rea: (19:28)
Nice! Well, I’m so proud of you. Thank you!

Leisa Lewis: (19:31)
Thank you!

Ann Rea: (19:32)
I’m so proud of you.

Leisa Lewis: (19:33)
I appreciate hearing that.

Ann Rea: (19:34)
You’re an example of why I keep doing this. Honestly. Honestly.

Leisa Lewis: (19:38)
You must not stop. I will haunt you if you stop.

Ann Rea: (19:43)
I’m not stopping. I have no plans to stop.

Leisa Lewis: (19:46)
Nope.

Ann Rea: (19:47)
But seriously, this is why I keep going because of these transformations that I get to witness. I’m so proud of my students. They work so hard. They want it so bad and they’re so generous to one another and they overcome some big obstacles. And of course, they’re not alone doing it, so it makes it a lot easier. So thanks so much for taking the time to come and chat with me and to share your story with other artists, and stay tuned because I’m going to talk to you soon about the Alumni Association. 

Leisa Lewis: (20:22)
Great! Thanks for letting me share. I appreciate it. 

Ann Rea: (20:24)
You are very welcome. Alright, take care! 

Leisa Lewis: (20:27)
Bye!