Lessons Learned By Kate Bradley Children's Portrait Painter

Ann Rea: Okay. I am here with Kate Bradley who is a children’s portrait painter who I’ve worked with, mentored for a while. She’s done very well for herself and go see her for yourself at KateBradleyFineArt.com. And Kate’s really quite successful given the amount of time that she’s been at it and the fact that she didn’t learn how to sell her art in art school. What I want to talk about is I want to also make clear that Kate has also failed and also encountered real big obstacles. She’s been generous enough to share some of those failures.

QUESTION: So Kate, what’s the first failure that you experienced making art making money from your art?What’s the first one that springs to mind as the worst?

Kate Bradley: The worst this past year definitely has been sort of reverting back into the old mindsets that I had before I started working with you, selling my art instead of talking about my mission.

Ann Rea: Uh Oh.

QUESTION: How did that work for you, Kate?

Kate Bradley: Not very well, because selling art kind of sucks.

Ann Rea: I say it all the time. Ironically, selling art sucks. So what do I mean by that? What do you mean by that? Why did it suck? What should you be doing? How do you make art? How do you make art and make money and make such a good living if you don’t sell art Kate? You confuse me. (laughs)

Kate Bradley: Well, selling art means that you are focused on just the art. Like you’re talking about your inspiration and the materials you used and how that separates or differentiates you from other artists like your style or technique or something. It’s just all about the art. Whereas selling your mission is just talking about how the art service this greater purpose.

Ann Rea: You’re not even selling it, right? You’re just sharing your mission, right?

Kate Bradley: The purpose that it serves beyond just you and how you provide value to people above and beyond your art. And that’s what the mission is.

Ann Rea: So everyone, Kate is very solid in her mission and her mission as she just said has got nothing to do with her art. It’s got nothing to do with her. It has everything to do with the one big problem that Kate believes at the core of her being is really worth solving. And Kate, so you were trying to sell your art and meet a sales goal for a while at first (and she’s over it by the way). And instead of sharing your mission and your mission is…

QUESTION: What was the one problem that you believe is really worth solving; your mission?

Kate Bradley: The mission is to help kids know that they are loved and valued for who they truly are.

Ann Rea: Okay. And is that better than selling art or would you rather sell your art?

Kate Bradley: No, I’d rather talk about that. I’d rather sell that.

Ann Rea: Okay, so, you got you course corrected and you’re doing well. You’re fantastic actually. So as a result, Kate’s sales are ahead of schedule.

Kate Bradley: Yeah. Yeah, I am.

Ann Rea: Yeah. Okay. So that was one big fat failure and the resulting lesson.

QUESTION: What was the second biggest fattest failure you’ve experienced?

Kate Bradley: The second one was not being a good boss and my boss and me are one and the same, so not being a good boss to me as an employee.

Ann Rea: I actually asked Kate to write a letter to her boss and get it off her chest and tell her what she really thought. And it’s really funny and you should read it because man, Kate had just… you said it, you said she was a bitch, so I’m going to say you were working for a bitch, but you’re not anymore and this boss has transformed.

QUESTION: So explain what was bad about the boss you were working for? What was she doing? What was she not doing?

Kate Bradley: Well, she would beat me over the head about supposed mistakes and failures or if I didn’t have a commission she would make me feel really bad about it. She didn’t give me any sort of direction for the day about when work starts and when it ends and what I need to get done that day. She didn’t give me encouragement or let me have any fun with the money that I was earning. Yeah. It was just all- basically everything that I was doing was wrong all the time.

Ann Rea: Oh, who would want to work for a person like that?

QUESTION: So what was the big lesson that you gained from that was what? What did you learn from realizing you were working for a really bad boss?

Kate Bradley: Well that. Just that. You have to be a good boss. You are the boss and the employee, and you have to be a good boss to yourself. You have to be good employee too. But you have to, for me it was more on the boss side.

Ann Rea: So you were a good employee, you just were horrible boss. So you’ve fixed that., right? Sounds like that letter helped.

Kate Bradley: Yeah. Right.

Ann Rea: Sometimes it’s the small things, like you have this big problem that’s been really weighing on you and just make a simple adjustment, like you did, you wrote that letter, which was real truthful. And it seemed like that just snapped you into place.

Kate Bradley: Yeah, it kind of did. I didn’t realize that was the problem and then I did. So yeah.

Ann Rea: I did because I have a bad boss too sometimes.

QUESTION: So what was the third big fat failure you’ve experienced so far?

Kate Bradley: The third fattest failure was not setting proper boundaries, not letting my clients have proper terms and a process of commissioning me and how I work and as a result wasting a lot of effort and energy on a particular client.

QUESTION: So this particular client, what was the first mistake with him?

Kate Bradley: The first mistake was that I told him I would do… He was interested in a group portrait and I told him I’d do it, which I don’t do.

Ann Rea: And why not? Why don’t you do a group portraits?

Kate Bradley: Because my work is all about celebrating a particular child and capturing who they are and making them feel special. And you just can’t really do that very well in a group portrait.

Ann Rea: And it doesn’t align with your mission.

Kate Bradley: Right.

Ann Rea: Which is everything. So what happened? So you blurred your terms, you actually overstepped your terms with this guy.

QUESTION: And then what happened?

Kate Bradley: Then? I spent almost a year wrangling him, trying to get certain steps in the process completed and it was like pulling teeth and herding cats. And then at the end it finally culminated in me having to show up at his house to get paid.

Ann Rea: At what time?

Kate Bradley: 8:45 in the morning.

Ann Rea: And what was he wearing?

Kate Bradley: He’s wearing his PJs.

Ann Rea: He was scared of her and he paid her.

Kate Bradley: He was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Ann Rea: You got paid and you learned a lesson. And I know it was miserable for an entire year, a long time.

QUESTION: What did you learn from that?

Kate Bradley: I learned that I have to set clear boundaries and terms with my collectors. And then if there’s anyone who’s not abiding by those, then that’s it. And I don’t work with that person.

Ann Rea: Right. Okay. Yeah. And it’s just that simple. I have the same terms. They’re very clear. They are not hidden. They’re clear. And we make an agreement, you don’t want to live by the terms, so then we’re done. Just that simple. You have a legal contract so we both have to abide by the terms. If you had to go back to the Kate Bradley who wanted to be a successful full-time artists but just hadn’t figured it out, didn’t know what to do. If you could travel back in your time machine and you could give her one piece of parting advice that you could share with other artists, who will be listening.

QUESTION: What would you tell her? What would you have told her?

Kate Bradley: I would have told her that you have to learn how to… You’re in business now you’re an entrepreneur and you have to get those skills so you have to get some help if you don’t already have it.

Ann Rea: Right.

QUESTION: And you said that you looked for help and where did you look or what did you look for?

Kate Bradley: Just on the internet or from like other artists. There are people who are portrait artists who make their living that way and so I would talk to them and they were all just very discouraging. And then the artists, the coaches who are out there, what they were saying was just basically what my professors in school were saying, only maybe a little bit better.

QUESTION: What were your professors at school saying?

Kate Bradley: Apply to get your MFA so you can teach and you’ll have something to fall back on because you won’t be able to make your living just selling your art. Nobody does that. And if you’re lucky, maybe you can get a grant here or there.

Ann Rea: So Kate makes a good living.

QUESTION: How long have you been at this?

Kate Bradley: I’ve been doing it now for like four years. Maybe three and a half.

Ann Rea: In relatively short amount of time. And you’re making a good living.

QUESTION: Do you like what you do?

Kate Bradley: I love it. I mean it’s hard and challenging, but I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Ann Rea: When you were looking online, you said that you found this program was different. What I teach was different.

QUESTION: How did it come across as different to you?

Kate Bradley: I just knew from like, I read every single one of your blog posts.

Ann Rea: Oh God, it’s full of typos. (laughs)

Kate Bradley: Everything you were saying was so different. I never heard anybody, no other artists was talking about having a unique value proposition and a mission and just all this stuff that I had never heard before. And so I just knew that you were different. And I was like, I have to work with this woman.

Ann Rea: I tell everyone that what I teach is very different and I do not know anyone else who’s doing it because even the people who imply that they are doing something, they’re not actually full time artists. They haven’t made their living full time selling art. And so I can say that and it just sounds like I’m simply self promoting.

QUESTION: Has that been your experience? That it’s different because I actually am an artist. There’s my easel, by the way.

Kate Bradley: I mean 100%. Like if you’re not, you don’t get it. And you can’t help other artists very well. I don’t see how you can. That’s vital and the fact that you were doing it and you were successful at it and then you were able to tell me all this stuff that like I needed to do. It was just amazing.

Ann Rea: Yeah. And Kate’s done it. So that’s the other thing too. Then you’ve got to do it, right?

Kate Bradley: Then you got to do it.

Ann Rea: And then sometimes you fail and you were successful before you said when you had that awful boss, (here I’m going to get my puppy. She’s going crazy). That awful boss who reappeared this year. And so you still have challenges and it’s not like, oh, it’s all a walk in the park now. But you were able to course correct pretty quickly when you wrote that letter to yourself, which is great.

Kate Bradley: Yeah.

Ann Rea: So your piece of parting advice is get help.

Kate Bradley: Yeah.

Ann Rea: And specifically me, but if you don’t get help from me you got to get help, period. I had to get help. I still get help just to be very clear. I still need help too. No one ever stops learning or failing. And so that’s important to just appreciate, that’s just part of being human. Part of being in business also is that it’s a continuous process. So thank you so much for being willing to share your big fat failures. I really appreciate it. And most importantly your lessons and being patient with our technology. And I just want to introduce everyone to Rebel. My little puppy. She’s joining us today. A little side view her and her multi-colored collar (’cause I like color as you see).

Ann Rea: Well, thanks again, Kate. I really appreciate it and I’m very proud of you. She’s way ahead on her sales goals, by the way, and she does not sell her art. She just shares her mission.

Kate Bradley: Exactly.

Ann Rea: Take good care.