How can you connect with art collectors if you're painfully shy?

(Transcription)

Artist, Anya Warda, Sacramento, California

What where your challenges as an artist?

Anya Warda (00:04):
I was all over the place. I didn’t know what to do and how to earn money from my art. I just didn’t know what to do. So I used to go the the traditional way. I would join art contests. I would rent walls from galleries just to have my art seen. Just the typical way that I knew about, I opened up an Etsy store. I mean, nobody really tells you how to do it, what to do. So I just did what I knew what to do.

Ann Rea (00:38):

What else?

Anya Warda (00:38):
Oh, lack of confidence. I just, you know, when you don’t have much success, your confidence goes down and then you start doubting yourself. You’re thinking, Oh, maybe I don’t know, what am I doing wrong? And it’s, it’s just not a good place to be. I mean, I do have confidence in my art skills. I have six years of art school and university, but anything other than that, the business side, money making, you know, how to approach people, how to talk with people. Nothing makes me, it makes you feel that tiny.

Ann Rea (01:10):

What was art school like?

Anya Warda (01:10):
And I started, I started with painting and illustration, but then I stopped because a one art teacher, actually we had an assignment and I was drawing, you know, the creation of an adam in charcoal and the only comment, I put my heart and soul into it. And the only comment my art teacher told me, he says he doesn’t look like Adam and his bowls are square. And that just like threw me off. So I stopped doing art and then I went to university of the Arts in Philadelphia. That was back in Pennsylvania and I started with woodworking, but it just wasn’t working for me. So then I switched to metal smithing and jewelry. So I was all over the place. I did glass blowing, I did photography. I was just, I think the bottom line was that I was not good enough in one medium that I was not an illustrator or a painter. So I tried something else. Maybe working with my hands would would be better, but that wasn’t working. So from big, large furniture, I went to tiny little jewelry and, and that still wasn’t working even though I took one class, which was a rendering. So you paint jewelry on paper and I excelled at that, but that’s not what the course was about. So I’m a painter, illustrator at heart and that kept showing up. But I kept searching because I just was so discouraged.

Ann Rea (02:32):

What did you learn about making money?

Anya Warda (02:32):
Goodness, nothing, nothing. And in fact, I’ll tell you this because two months ago I actually researched my, the main professor at our university. She was the chair of the jewelry department. Her name is Sharon Church. I found an interview with her, um, from about four years ago and she talks about, you know, her life, her experience. And then at the end she was asked, what kind of advice would you give to your students too, you know, artists. She said two sentences. And the second sentence was “get used to being poor.” I was blown away. I was upset because I’m up to here with the student loans and, and I’m not, I cannot really pay it off right now. And, and that’s what I paid my money for. Get used to being poor. I got upset. I mean, when I was in school, I was young and stupid and I really didn’t know what I was doing. But now I understand and I, after taking your course, you know, I understand those things. I got so upset. Is that what I paid my money for? That’s not. Okay.

Ann Rea (03:35):
And I can’t tell you, I have actually reached out to the top 42. I wrote a letter personally to every president of the top 42 art design schools in the United States and Canada. Here’s what happened. A didn’t answer B, they were incredibly rude, really rude. I would say. I will always say, look, I’ve got a program, I do some webinars, they’re free. Your alumni benefit from them. Right?

Ann Rea (04:04):
Oh,

Ann Rea (04:04):
I’m not taking anything from you. You know, like really rude. Or they tried to steal. They went to like, well, we want to have, we want to have access to your entire program. We want to have a look around. I’m like, no,

Ann Rea (04:17):
Piss off! No. Wow.

Ann Rea (04:22):
Uh, and one of them was Otis in Southern California. Yeah. They tried to rip me off and Philadelphia. Oh, that too. That was the other one. There were two that wanted, like they were like, yeah, we have to see. I’m like, do you know what I don’t do you know what copyright is? Because if you don’t, you need to really bone up on that because that’s how your students are going to make their living.

Ann Rea (04:47):

What did you learn about copyright?

Anya Warda (04:49):
I didn’t have a single class or single talk about copyright throughout all my years of art school. Art students, they graduate. They know nothing about it. Seriously. Yeah.

Anya Warda(05:03):

What did you do after you graduated?

Anya Warda (05:03):
I graduated, I left school and I was so dismayed. I was like, I don’t even know how to find a regular job, let alone an art school job. And I was an immigrant so I was in this country for like five years. At the time was six years. I don’t know anything. I went to a friends of mine and I sat at their table and I cried cause I said I need help. I just graduated. I don’t know how to get a job and the student loan payment is coming up. Help me.

Ann Rea (05:26):

Were you a serious introvert?

Anya Ward (05:30):
Yes. So I used to be a very shy person and I had this thing where I would be so scared going into groups of people where I don’t know anybody, maybe one person, but, um, I was just so shy. I didn’t know how to talk to people. I was literally scared of people. And I remember this one incident when a friend of mine, she invited me to her birthday party in the bar and she would be the only person that I, that I knew and of course wanted to go on and to meet people, you know, inside of me. But you know, I was getting get, getting dressed, you know, putting my face on. And the closer it got to leaving the door, the higher my anxiety group. It was growing, growing, growing. I couldn’t get myself out the door. I don’t know what was happening with me. I would just collapsed on the floor and cry because I was like, something is wrong with me. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. And that was going on throughout years and I talked to two psychologists about it and they could not figure out what’s happening. We tried to address the problem, it just no solutions. And then I joined your program and I started doing the Code To Joy exercises. And as one of my first self limiting beliefs, I put down in the ability to um, to make a meaningful relationship or to create meaningful relationships with people. And um, and just an amazing thing happened about two months before I joined your program. A friend of mine or Facebook friend that I never met, this person in person in person invited me to a business networking meeting that we have like once a month. And I was like, eh, no thank you. The second month he invited me again and I was like, I like to go, but I’m so scared. My anxiety already was going up even even though I was thinking just from thinking about it. And then I joined your program and I started doing the exercises and then he invited me again. AndI think I’m thinking, okay, I’m going to give it a go. Let’s see what happens. Because the exercises were just, you know, giving me a little bit more confidence. And the night before the event, because we met was early in the morning, I called a friend and I asked them, can you do a something called the Remembering Process with me? Yes. So I told my friend how the process works and I said, let’s just have fun. Let just anything can happen. Let’s be creative. Let’s be free. Let’s be open.

Ann Rea (07:56):
Let me just, let me just mention. So the remembering process is a book that was coauthored by a former student of mine and um, Joe Vitale, who’s in the movie, The Secret. And so it’s an incredibly fun, funky process, but it works.

Anya Warda (08:15):
It’s amazing. It’s an amazing process. I loved it. We had so much fun. It’s just I can, I can praise the process and off. It was just amazing. We came up with the most crazy stories, but when we were done, I just felt my confidence, like so strong. And guess what? The next morning I got up and I drove to this place of meeting and I didn’t have a bit of anxiety. I went there with this excitement, I’m going to meet new people. And on top of that, at this time I already discovered my Why. So I was, I felt equipped with something like a mission, like a passion that I can share. Now I’m not, I don’t have to be afraid of that awkward silences that I used to be scared of or that I will be standing in a corner and people will be mingling. And I was just like, I don’t belong here. No, none of that. I came in here and I took it by the storm and it was amazing and I felt like a new person. And on top of that we have to do that, you know, the 32nd elevator speech, get up in front of everybody, the 40 people in the room. I got up and I said my Why and it was amazing.

Anya Warda (09:17):
Yes! And ever since then it’s just that part of my life. Before the exercises, it’s like I was a different person. Now I’m a different person. I go to those meetings. I even joined chamber of commerce. I stand up in front of a hundred people and I talk about what I do. It’s amazing. It’s empowering. It’s, if I can do it, I’m seriously, I used to be so shy. I used to be so scared of people. If I can see the kind of a change in me, so can anybody else. It’s amazing. I’m just, I’m just so grateful. This is like the biggest thing, the best thing that ever happened.

Ann Rea(09:51):

How do you feel now?

Anya Warda (09:53):
It feels like I’m a new person and now I can. Now I do things that I never imagined that I would ever be doing.

Ann Rea (09:59):

What if artists are on the fence about this program?

Anya Warda (10:05):
Honestly, don’t wait. Don’t wait. Signing up. This is this was, this is signing up for this course. It’s such a life changer for me. I’m a totally a different person and there’s no point sitting on the fence. You’re gonna fall, fall off the fence and then you’re going to injure yourself basically. I mean, seriously, if I didn’t sign up for this course, I would still be sitting, waiting, probably applying to galleries, feeling rejected. I’ll be sitting wondering why nobody’s buying from my Etsy store and I would make nothing out of my life. This is life changing for me and, and I know, I know. I believe things will happen and it can happen for anybody. So absolutely. I encourage people to sign up. It’s, it’s amazing. It’s, it’s going to change your life.