Sending One Text Restarts Artist's Sales After 12 Years

(Transcription)

QUESTION: What was your challenge as an artist?

Debbie Lund: Well I haven’t been in my studio for over 12 years. I took a break. Kind of like what you did.

Ann Rea: I did that.

Debbie Lund: Yeah, yeah. I was in a federation of Canadian artists for quite a while. I was very successful at it and I completely burnt out. I had no road map. I had no schedule. And I was done. Busy life, busy family, I was creating another business. So I just decided that it was just too much. So I set my art aside.

QUESTION: What happened next?

Debbie Lund: And then I wanted to find a mentor. I wanted to be able to really take this to a new level and I always believed that what you think about, you get, most of the time. And I’m a follower of Abraham. I followed Brian Ridgway’s work about, you know, really believe that you can do it even though you don’t have it. Feel it. Become it. Even though your bank account says zero, believe that you are on the path and you are creating great wealth. It is coming.

QUESTION: Then what happened?

Debbie Lund: But you gotta feel it, or it doesn’t come. Just put it out to the universe. I want a mentor. I want someone to help me on this path to build a very successful business. And you came into my life through Facebook. And I saw it, I thought, hm, well this is interesting. Cause a lot of other things have lead up to this, of what I want. And then boom, it happened. Well, okay, well I want this. Boom this happened. Like very quickly.

QUESTION: How did you find the money to enroll?

Debbie Lund: Before that I was reading a lot of your free information and you had said that you wanted to go to this France thing. But you couldn’t afford it, so you reached out to your neighbors and your friends and you asked them for an advance to be able to do a painting for them. So I thought, I can do that. So I had this one very good painting that I had at home that I had actually done at this last summer. And it’s a fairly big painting. And I showed it to my neighbor, probably about two months ago, and his mouth just dropped open. He’s like, oh my God, I didn’t realize you could do that. It’s like yeah, it’s for sale. He’s like, okay. So when you. You did. I thought okay, what can I do today if I was brave? So I texted him, I said, hey Brian, I want to enroll into an art marketing course and my painting is for sale. This is how much it is. Do you want it? And then in a few minutes he texted back, he says, oh my God, that would be amazing. But I can’t right now. But I’ll share it with all my friends. So I’m like okay, so I sent him the book. Yeah. So then two weeks later on the 16th, actually, I went outside thinking, change my thought pattern. Because my interview with you was on the 19th. And I still had no money.

Ann Rea: Why do think. Prepare to enroll before you book a call. But I’m glad you did because, in your mind, you were.

Debbie Lund: Yeah, I’m doing this. I don’t know how, but I’m doing this. This is important. So I went outside and I thought, okay, I gotta change my thought. I gotta change my statement. Instead of saying I need this much money, it went to, I want someone to buy my painting.

Ann Rea: There you go.

Debbie Lund: I want someone to buy my painting. So that night Blaine texted me. He said I’m gonna buy it. Paid in full. The next day, my friend from Logan Lake who just lives down from us. She ordered a commission painting, paid up front. Course paid for. And then some.

Ann Rea: Nice.

Debbie Lund: Yeah.

QUESTION: Why did Debbie succeed?

Ann Rea: Okay, I can throw all this information at you and it’s stuff that’s worked for me, it’s stuff that’s worked for my student. But here’s the difference.

Debbie Lund: Mhm.

Ann Rea: You were, you took A, you were mindful of your thoughts.

Debbie Lund: Yep.

Ann Rea: And number two, you took action. If you never sent a text, it wouldn’t have happened.

Debbie Lund: No. And what happened is a thought just came to me. It’s like, call Blaine. I was like, hm, I don’t know if I can do that because you know I’m very introverted and I can’t do that, I can’t, no call Blaine. It’s like a thought from somewhere else came to me to guide me to that place. So I took a deep breath. And I did.

QUESTION: Why did Debbie succeed?

Ann Rea: If you look at the effort that you invest in, if you were to look at this, you already had the painting. So it’s not like you really had to to do that much work. You just had to send a text. And then have a phone conversation. And then that also lead to another commission. So if you look at the level of effort, pretty minimal.

Debbie Lund: Yes, it’s very very minimal effort. But it took a lot of confidence to do it.

Ann Rea: Okay but here’s the thing. Confidence comes only by taking action even if you feel fearful, because fear is false evidence appearing real. It’s all made up. Right now, do you feel fearful?

Debbie Lund: Yeah.

Ann Rea: But I mean, no, do you feel, let me ask my. So compared to how fearful you felt when you sent that initial text, right? On a scale of one to ten, how fearful were you?

Debbie Lund: I was about eight.

Ann Rea: You were about an eight. Now let’s say you had to take the same actions and send another text to someone else. What would your fear be on a subjective scale of one to ten? Now?

Debbie Lund: Oh it would be easy, it would be like a one, two. You know, very very easy.

Ann Rea: That’s my point. But that’s my point. That’s how you gain confidence. You gain confidence through the act of courage. Courage is simply feeling fearful. I never, don’t bother suppressing your feelings. You’re not gonna be able to do it anyway. Go ahead and feel the fear. And then you do it anyway. And then you dissolve it. That’s the point.

Debbie Lund: Yep, yeah. Now there’s a quote that my mom told me a long time ago and I use it today, and it was just before I hit the send button, is “what would I do today if I were brave?”

Ann Rea: I love that.

Debbie Lund: I love it. I follow that all the time. And it’s just like, just embrace my life. Because it’s gonna be worse if I don’t. Because I’m gonna live in regret. And I don’t wanna live in regret anymore.

Ann Rea: You’re not getting out of here alive, anyway.

Debbie Lund: No, no. Not at all.

Ann Rea: Why don’t we all make the best of it and not allow, there’s a story I tell about my friend Angela. The story is about Angela, and it’s a story about fear. And it’s about how, you know, she unintentionally allowed fear from, you know, doing what she really really wanted to do. And instead, she stayed stuck at a job she hated. And it sucked her dry. And I really believe that, had I continued working alongside and had I continued never going for it, I would have become sick too. I really believe that. And because I didn’t, and I value that conversation. Was a huge, true epiphany for me. That, I really realized, oh, you know what, yep. That’s right. None of us are getting out of here alive. There are no guarantees. I can’t guarantee anything. You know. No one can guarantee me anything. But if I don’t try, I’m guaranteed nothing is going to change. And if you had not sent that text, you would be guaranteed that you would get the money to enroll in the program. And maybe you would have, but. You would have found something else to be scared about, right?

Debbie Lund: And it wouldn’t have been paid for in full.

QUESTION: Artists have two choices.

Ann Rea: You only got two choices. You can be brave, or you can live in fear and do precious little and have a lot of regret. Or you can be brave, and you might fall on your ass, and you might succeed. And you might be so.

Debbie Lund: You just might do it, and you just might get all the dreams that you want, right?

QUESTION: What should other artists do?

Debbie Lund: Get on to your website and just listen to all the stuff it is that you have for free. Cause that’s what I did. I built up my belief through that. It’s like, okay, you have so many tools that are for free on the internet, it’s crazy. It really is. And do that until you sell a painting or two. And just tuck the money away and just find out what’s important to you. And do it.

Ann Rea: Right.

Debbie Lund: I don’t regret this at all, I’m just so excited because there’s that community there to help me, and you, to give that roadmap for me to be successful, that no one else has to offer.

Ann Rea: You’re not by yourself anymore. Doesn’t that feel great?

Debbie Lund: No, it feels wonderful. Because all my other business I did on my own. You know, and this one is like, no I can’t do this one on my own. I want help.

Ann Rea: Yeah. You know what, we all want help.

Debbie Lund: Yeah.

Ann Rea: It’s so much more fun, anyway.

Debbie Lund: Oh yeah, it’s more fun to share and to, you know, to celebrate your wins and to celebrate your failures because through the failure, that’s where you learn. And to keep on moving forward.