During Her First Exhibit Artist Sells 26 Paintings and Gains 3 Commissions

(Transcription)

Artist, Khadeeja Sheikh, Southwest London

Ann Rea (00:00):
She said, should you be living and breathing? My why and my, what was it? Just the first two parts, the four part code, and then had to put a pause on her lessons because she was getting involved in her first ever exhibition. So to be clear, you’d never sold any art before? Nope. Nope. So a lot of people think, Oh, I can’t enroll in making art making money semester. I can’t do anything cause I’d never sold anything before. Well, we’ve all been in a place where I’ve never sold anything before and usually collectors just don’t come in your house and buy your art do they?

Ann Rea (00:43):
So she said it’s been a journey. Much like Nadine. Nadine is another student. This made some great strides. She’s found much incredible wisdom and guidance just to solidify my Why and my mission. Having never sold my work before. It was a huge leap of faith, but with the confidence of my purpose and my ourself, I had such confidence in what I was creating. Bingo. And this also helped in not undervaluing myself. Bingo again. She wrote a lot of good stuff in here. I’m just getting some highlights. Cool. And when she was at the exhibition said that way that people connected to me and my Why was astounding. Hey Rebel. I was blown away by the response when I spoke from my heart, my truth, what do always say all the time. The truth is the best marketing strategy. And she said she spoke from her heart and that’s because our product is emotion.

Ann Rea (01:47):
Yeah, good job. So I sold 26, 26, 26 and she has orders in the pipeline so it doesn’t stop there she has orders in the pipeline and Anna had done three commissions, bingo. And most importantly now I have an email list. So, so everybody, she didn’t have email list, email list of potential collectors for the future. And I’m starting to build something really special on solid foundations. I’ve made connections and potential new collaborations are now on the horizon and I still don’t have a website.

Khadeeja Sheikh (02:32):
I thought that was really funny.

Ann Rea (02:34):
Well I’m glad you don’t because remember that you’re not even to Course 05 or you should have one. You’ve got to put the brakes on it and then says, there’s so much followup to do. It’s a bit still a bit of a high. People were visibly moved and two women cried when they saw my work and spoke to me about it. Talk about selling emotion.

Ann Rea (03:00):
I’m going to get back to that in a minute. Uh, I feel so empowered and awesome. I’ve done the Code to Joy exercises. That’s from my friend, Dr. George Pratt, almost religiously every day, which is what I prescribed, even in the busiest periods and I still went to yoga every day and the week before the show. And I’m living in what I believe in that mindfulness is a lifestyle and I’m so passionate about, I have such conviction because I got clear on what is what it really, really is and I believe is worth solving, I was able to respond to any question confidently because I value myself and my work so others could too. For now, I’m in state of immense gratitude and I’m understanding the iterative process of what I’m creating. That’s right. It doesn’t happen all at once. No. One thing is for sure. I had huge support from people around me and Donna showed up making art. Where’s the photo of you too? Um, it was, um, I think my mom might have taken one. I haven’t got hold of it yet, but I will have your mother and put that in. Um, that’s so lovely. So a fellow student who also happened to be from London or around London came to your

Khadeeja Sheikh (04:20):
cool. We’ve only just done um, messages yet. We never met before.

Ann Rea (04:25):
Wow.

Khadeeja Sheikh (04:26):
And we hugged each other and it was, I literally, she felt like an old friend and she was so supportive because it was right at the beginning of the um, opening, you know when people show up late and you’re just going,

Khadeeja Sheikh (04:38):
Oh no, it’s going to be, and then the people were coming, but she just came when it was just so great. Cause I, I felt so supported and um, I’ve got this and she’s like, you’ve got this.

Ann Rea (04:56):
You can’t do this by yourself. You’ve got to have a supportive network. And the unfortunate reality is a lot of groups of artists are in competition mode. Yes. And so they compete with one another and it become jealous of one another when someone becomes successful and they can frankly be a little backstabbing. It sounded like Donna was jealous and you should hear all the comments in our Facebook group. I mean, people were just really inspired. So glad you shared this because even re-ignited people who might be asleep.

Khadeeja Sheikh (05:35):
Well, cause I realized how much I got inspired, but other people’s posts, like when they Nadine posted off to her show and I was like, I really have to share because it’s so important.

Ann Rea (05:44):
Yeah. Yeah. And it’s, you know, it’s important to share questions and to share, you know, where you’re stuck. It’s equally as important to share where you have actually I had a victory, a big victory or a little victory. They all add up. Um, so anyway, she just goes on to say, um, she said, yeah, we met in the first, first time in person and hug like we were old friends. Thank you for all, for being such an incredible community. I’m so grateful to having joined in January. So you only joined in January and hello? Uh, now I could have achieved this. We could now I, no way I could achieve this without this structure. Thanks. And Elizabeth Rea. Well you know what, you could have achieved it maybe without the structure. That’s true, but you can achieve it unless you did all the work. So you take full credit for that? And so although you haven’t, um, so one of the, one of the requirements making art making money semester is you need to sell enough of your art to earn back your tuition investment at a minimum. So have you earned back your tuition investment? I have a couple of times right through times, you times. A few times he started. So just wanted to congratulate you and, but let’s travel back before you even started the making art making money semester, what was your, what was the thing that you were most stuck on or most challenged by?

Khadeeja Sheikh (07:18):
Mmm,

Khadeeja Sheikh (07:19):
just not knowing how, not having a structure, just having these kind of vague desires and wanting somewhere, but really not knowing how.

Khadeeja Sheikh (07:30):
Mmm.

Khadeeja Sheikh (07:30):
And it was, I had a lot of fear. I was really scared of being vulnerable and showing myself and sharing my work and being rejected and all those kind of normal things that everybody feels

Ann Rea (07:42):
right. So yeah, fears veer can be, um, yeah, a daunting enemy. How, how are you now, how do you feel? How fearful are you now?

Khadeeja Sheikh (07:54):
Really, I’m just amazed because, um, if I notice it, I just notice things in my body of like when I feel fear and I can now talk to myself. So, um, I had something really horrible happen to me today, which I normally would have panicked. I had a, um, a mini car accident. Yeah. And it really just a little bump, but normally I would have had panic attack and fearful and just freaked out and I just kind of had really calm breathing and I just talked to myself and I, and I had interacted with the lady and it was all fine and I just went, Oh my God, I don’t that really differently. That’s so interesting. My whole life has changed in the way that I approach life. Yeah.

Khadeeja Sheikh (08:34):
Yeah. Code to Joy exercise.

Khadeeja Sheikh (08:38):
Honestly. I really do. I know, I know some people have a bit skeptical, but, um, I’m a huge believer in, in the power of these things and I’ve, you know, had massive, um, shifts from just doing the, the four minutes.

Khadeeja Sheikh (08:54):
Yeah.

Khadeeja Sheikh (08:56):
That’s all it takes. And just those, the affirmations that you say when you’re, I’m rubbing that point and I really start to feel them and embody them cause I could know them in my head and it, the difference is, is that I am actually feed it. I can be it now.

Khadeeja Sheikh (09:12):
Yeah.

Ann Rea (09:15):
So it doesn’t matter if you’re skeptical, skeptical about, um, so we have, uh, we have, so just to put some, Dr. George Pratt as a guest lecturer in the making art making my semester and he gives a recorded four minute daily exercise and you can be skeptical all you like, but I’ll just tell you what he told me. He said, you don’t have to believe it in order for it to work because it’s just science. There are, he’s got mountains of clinical studies that prove the effectiveness of this technique, which takes four minutes a day and it’s the same damn exercise he’s given to athletes who’ve gone on to win Olympic medals and artists who’ve gone on to win Grammys, Common the rapper and after common is one of his clients. So I can say that cause he endorsed him. Um, my rise, you’re not usually supposed to say who’s anyway. So I mean it just works that you did and you, you say you’re, it has this beneficial ripple effect, not just in selling your art, marketing, your art and other aspects of your life,

Khadeeja Sheikh (10:17):
All aspects. But that’s what I loved about it actually. Cause I wasn’t expecting all the other benefits in my life of feeling so wonderful about so many different things that it’s not just my art. This like taken off like my relationships, my feelings about how I deal with people about myself in particular. Um, my self worth and my value of myself is just, I’ve never felt like this before. It’s amazing.

Ann Rea (10:43):
That is music to my ears. It gives me chills. That’s exactly what I pray for everyone to get.

Khadeeja Sheikh (10:52):
Yeah.

Khadeeja Sheikh (10:52):
And if you can’t give it to you, you have to, I can put it in front of you. You’ve got to go pick it up.

Khadeeja Sheikh (10:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it’s been amazing. Cause I am, I turned 40 a couple of weeks ago. Thank you. And I was just like, Oh my God. Normally, you know, you’d be like, Oh God, I’m getting old. All this stuff. I was like, Oh my God, this is the best time in my life. I feel so incredible. Really blessed. Um, and that state of gratitude or so, you know, seeing those, um, kind of affirming that I’d already had that I’m so happy that I’ve, um, created this wonderful art business that’s so successful and earned much money. Um, they were all just, I was really believing them and, and other people were doubting me, but I never doubted it. Nope. And so everyone’s been really shocked. Like, wow,

Ann Rea (11:47):
people have such a low expectations for artists that I just love when we, we completely shattered that, that, that’s just, that’s amazing. So what would you say it before you enrolled in the making art making money semester. So you had some, you had, it sounds like you had two things. You had a feeling of like not knowing where to start, not having a structure and if he feeling just an overwhelming sense of fear, fear of rejection, and just a generalized anxiety. So if you could travel back in time to that person who was not sure about enrolling, not sure about what this program was all about or what she might should be doing next, what would you tell her?

Khadeeja Sheikh (12:36):
Oh, I’d say don’t, don’t doubt it for a minute. Sign up. I mean, this is the best gift you could give to yourself. And I’ve, I’ve already, um, um, recommended it to so many people. I like, you got to do this to do this. Like I have loads of artists, friends who I can see, I can actually see their limiting beliefs. I can see that patterns and structures now and I just go, Oh my God, it’s, you can make it really simple if you just do this, it’s so easy because you just, you’re, you’re just guided through it. It’s like you don’t need to know. That’s the other thing. I always wanted to know everything beforehand. I wanted to know how all the time, I just had to let go of that. And that’s been the greatest thing. Getting comfortable with unknown. Actually, I just take the next step. I don’t need to know how next step is all I’ve got to do.

Ann Rea (13:27):
And have you noticed that the artists who ignore that bit of instruction, right. Who, who are, I want to know. I want to know my, who. I want to know my, how have you noticed how they struggle so much? More mightily?

Khadeeja Sheikh (13:40):
Yeah. But that because they’re, they’re overthinking everything. Like I, I was trying, I did actually, you know, I’ve got blanks in my, um, 4_Part Code and especially in the tribe and advertise like, but okay, so I’m not going to get stuck here. Let’s try this. Let’s just start doing other actions that will still inform me, um, to build up so that my intuitive wisdom can really gauge on what’s working, what isn’t working.

Ann Rea (14:07):
right. And now I’ve got 24 new, um, well you’ve got 24 plus the three commissions. So you’ve got a whole solid test group right now who you can go back to and you can ask them some questions to gather some intelligence about that target market and, and to see what problem you solve for them. So we actually, you’re farther ahead on your How and your Who than you might believe right now. Just the matter of you just have to do some, you have to verify how they express what value they received and in their words, not your words. That’s key. So a little tip for you. Um, but I just, I’m so proud of you and I’m so happy that you shared this and I’m so, um, and I’m, so, it just gives me so much pride and enthusiasm when I see your fellow students’ reaction and the fact that you, you know, you had a fellow student, where did she come from? In England to see you.

Khadeeja Sheikh (15:17):
Um, I think from Ealing, so I’m kind of a West London and I, I’m in Southwest London, so she came, I don’t know how long it took her, but, um, we, we’ve been talking about meeting for so long and we’ve had great study sessions and it was just so nice and I, I, I didn’t expect her to come on the opening night. She just said, I thought, you know, so many people say they’re going to come but don’t, but she showed up.

Ann Rea (15:44):
Well cause she’s part of the making art, making money semester, you know, do something. Unless you don’t say you’re gonna do something, unless you’re going to damn well do it right. For sure.

Khadeeja Sheikh (15:55):
There’s not actually huge numbers of people around London, um, that I have connected with just yet. So it was just really amazing to have her there. Um, that’s

Ann Rea (16:03):
awesome. Well good. So I’ll leave you on this note. Thank you. It’s, it’s, it’s what, what time is it in London right now? It’s 10 to 10. Everyone, she’s staying up late. Take have this chat with me. Uh, make her for that. It’s all, it’s 10 to two in the afternoon here in San Francisco. I just wanted to share with you, we have whale migration, so I saw a whale pop out of the ocean just before our call. That’s amazing. Pretty damn awesome. It’s pretty good. I take that as a sign that you are one of many artists to come who will realize your potential. Get the hell out of your own damn way and join a community who you can feel supported and who you’ll support in return. All right. Thank you so, so much.