Ann Rea: (00:01)
Well, Hey everyone. This is Anne coming to you live from San Francisco, California. I’m an artist just like you. I’m also the creator of the Making Art Making Money program. And one of the things I want to share today is if you haven’t heard it before the Making Art Making Money Manifesto. You know, I’ve been working with other independent artists now for over 15 years. And what I’ve noticed is one thing that really keeps artists stuck. So the one thing that keeps them most stuck is they don’t actually have a specific art sales goal. And so the consequence of that is that they tend to grossly underestimate their ability and their prospects or grossly overestimate their ability or their prospects. And of course, either one’s going to leave you flat, right? So I just want to share that it’s really critically important that you establish a very clear and specific sales goal with a timeline, right?

Ann Rea: (01:07)
And that’s really, cause I hear from artists all over the world. I work with artists from 20 countries and counting, and one of the first questions is “Where do I even start?” And the place that you start is a goal. Now, the reason why is because once you have a goal, like let’s say for example, I’m here in San Francisco and I want to drive to New York city. Well, I first have to determine where I want to drive to New York city, right? Most artists, and it’s just because we haven’t received this training are just saying I want to drive. Well, that’s a vague goal. And if your goal is only to drive, then what’s going to happen. You’re going to run out of gas, right? You’re going to drive in circles. So you’ve got to have that goal. And also, before you get to New York city, the first goal might be that you just need to, I don’t know, stop in Las Vegas, right?

Ann Rea: (01:57)
Some of these other milestones you have to meet. I would say that is the biggest thing. Now, when you have a goal, here’s what happens. You increase your focus, and when your focus increases, then your confidence increases. And we all know confidence sells art. Confidence moves us forward. Confidence gives us strength when we get knocked back. But I want to share with you, there’s a book that I’ll share with you that I really kind of like this passage. It’s a book called–I’m not an affiliate by the way. I just like this book because I think graphically it’s really interesting, and it has just lots of nuggets and it’s called “5: Where Will You be Five Years from Today?” And that’s what I want to ask you. I want you to really think about where do you want to be five years from today?

Ann Rea: (02:53)
So if you’ve been struggling to sell your art, let’s face it. If you could have figured it out by now, you probably would have done that, right? And if you want to learn about how to sell more of your art, then I would like to invite you to a free private Master Class called “Where to Start to Sell More Art Without Feeling like a Sell-out Even During the Pandemic.” My students are selling even more art during the pandemic. And what you need to know is that it’s actually easier than you have been led to believe. Yes, you heard that, right? It’s actually easier than you’ve been led to believe to sell and market your art. I would say that the skills required to sell and market your art are much easier to master than, excuse me, than the skills– one moment while I get some water. It’s actually easier to learn how to sell and market your art than it is to make art. That’s

Ann Rea: (03:53)
in my experience as an artist. Star says “The goal is to sell work.” Well, Star, that’s not a goal. Star, how much art do you want to sell dollar wise? And by when? That’s a goal. What you’ve written down is not a goal. I want you to walk away from this with a goal. Now et me explain to you why a goal is so important. So I’m going to read this out of this book, okay? You don’t have to get this book. I just like it. And it says, according to David Cole, professor emeritus for Virginia Emeritus at Virginia Tech. People who regularly write down their goals, earn nine times as much over their lifetimes. As people who don’t yet 80% of Americans, I have a global audience. I’ve students in 20 countries. It’s not just Americans say they don’t have goals. 16% do have goals, but they don’t write them down. Less than 4% write down their goals.

Ann Rea: (05:10)
And fewer than 1% actually review them on an ongoing basis. Guess which 1%. So what I want to teach you is something called the SMARTER Goal and that stamp that’s an acronym S stands for Specific M stands for Measurable, A stands for Actionable or Attainable, Okay. R stands for Result T stands for Time and E stands for Evaluate and R stands for Revise. So, I’ll share with you my goal. So when I moved to San Francisco, I didn’t know anyone. I fired all my art galleries. That was the first thing I did. I was like fired all my art galleries. It felt great by the way. Got my– eventually got my inventory back. And my SMARTER goal was this. And I’m going to tell you this in a very specific way. “I am so happy and grateful. Now that I have earned over a hundred thousand dollars of my art during my– within 2005.” It was a way back. So I sold $103,246 of my art during my first year as a full-time artist. Now let’s back up, okay? I didn’t start at zero at a big bat goose egg, and then go to over a hundred thousand dollars. Right? It made it sound like that in the press interviews, but that’s not how it worked.

Speaker 2: (06:36)
It wouldn’t be smart, right?

Ann Rea: (06:39)
That would be an enormous percentage increase. So what I want to emphasize to you is to start where you are with what you have and be realistic. Pretend for a moment your boss was asking you to set a goal. If your boss said to you, I want you to set a goal. I want you to tell me when you can get this thing done, realistically, right? When can you get this thing done? You would not turn to your boss and give them a far-flung answer, right? That there’s no way in hell you’re going to accomplish. You get fired. Well, you, as an artist, are your own boss, and you are your own employee. So create a realistic goal based on where you are today, based on how many sales you’ve generated today. And then pick a time when it’s going to get– you’re going to get that done.

Ann Rea: (07:23)
Now, what you’ll notice in the way that I phrased my smarter goal was I had a little twist. So I stated it in present tense. I said, “I am so happy and grateful now that I have sold over a hundred thousand dollars of my art in 2005.” Okay. So what am I starting with? I’m starting as if it has already happened. I’m training my subconscious mind into an understanding that this has already happened. This feels like a possibility because I’m repeating it, right? That’s right. And I wrote it down. I committed it to writing. That’s the first step in manifesting it into reality is to write it down. So, that’s one thing I want you to notice about the twist that I put on a SMARTER goal. The second thing is I start stating the goal and I express how I imagined how I would feel.

Ann Rea: (08:19)
And in fact, I was happy and grateful and silly that I, that the goal, right? So you have to remember, there has to be a motivation. Why do you want this thing so bad? It’s because of the way you imagine that it will make you feel, so you don’t have to use the words happy and grateful. Those are my words. You don’t have to use a year timeline. That was my timeline. You can shorten the timeline. As a matter of fact, I would suggest that you do shorten the timeline. I would look within the next month, or within the next quarter where the next six months, I wouldn’t look at a whole year. If you haven’t done this before. And what’s great about this is you can use this skill in any area of your life, not just selling art. You could use it in any area of your life, but I would love for you to use that criteria and pop it into the comments. Pop it into the chat. Let us have a look at it.

Ann Rea: (09:15)
Let’s make sure that it meets the criteria, because if it meets the criteria. The chances are incredibly high. That you’re actually going to be able to hit that goal. Like the chances are going to, I think it’s like, well, I can’t, I mean per different studies, but it’s like, if you have a goal writing down the goal, if you have a smarter goal writing down the goal, it’s about 80% more likely to happen than if you have a written plan to meet that goal. Then the percentages of you meeting the goal goes up. But here’s the next twist that I want to put on this. All right, here’s the next twist. Once you’ve established your smarter art sales goal, the next question you should be asking yourself is not how can I accomplish this goal? It’s who can help me, who can help me? And I certainly can help.

Ann Rea: (10:09)
And the artists who are part of our global community can certainly help. We have artists from 20 countries and counting from about 23 different creative disciplines. We have an emerging artists. We have established artists, and what does that mean? We have artists who most of my students in full disclosure have already sold some of their arts. We typically look at applications and we look for people who have already sold some of their art. Now the reason why we do that is because if you’ve already sold some of your art, I know that if you start to implement the strategies and the tactics that I teach, and you have a proven roadmap, number one. And you have an experienced mentor, me, number two. And you have a support network, then the chances like I know if you just do it and you do what I tell you to do, you’re going to sell more art.

Ann Rea: (11:06)
There’s no guarantee. I remember there was somebody in my chat actually asking me for a guarantee. If you’re looking for a guarantee, don’t apply to my program. If you’re looking for a guarantee, you’re not going to find one. If someone is offering you a guarantee, you need to run in the other direction, because there are no guarantees in life. That’s like saying, I’m going to take, I’m going to enroll in this pottery class. And I want the teacher to guarantee that I can make beautiful ceramics. Well, that’s not gonna happen, right? So, what I would suggest is again, ask who can help you. Who can help you, and we can definitely help you. And we would like you to we’d like, I’d like to invite you to apply to the private masterclass. It is absolutely free. There is no obligation. And based on that application, I’ll get an immediate sense, been at this for over 15 years, I’ll know if we can help you or not. If we can help you, then we’re going to try and help you. If we can’t help you, then we’ll try to point you in the right direction at the very least. Anya student of mine also like Angela, Anya says “The only guarantee is you doing the work or not.” Yes.

Speaker 2: (12:17)
It’s really simple, but it does help

Ann Rea: (12:20)
to know. Number one, what you’re working towards, number two, the steps and the timeline to get there. And number three, who can help you. Anya is a member of the community. She’s a great help. Angela is a great help. Angela says “We don’t just dream of success. We plan for it. Angela is quoting, let me just get this. I’m back. Sorry about that. Angela is quoting the Making Art Making Money Manifesto and the making art mani– really you’ll get an immediate sense of what the Making Art Making Money program is all about by reading the Making Art Making Money manifesto, which I just stuck in the chat. It’ll tell you who this program is for. And it’ll tell you who it’s not for. Cause definitely not for everybody. Certainly not for art snobs. If you’re an art snob, no thank you.

Ann Rea: (13:29)
Not interested. Life’s too short. We like people to be pleasant, and helpful and collaborative, not competitive. That’s important. But really it’s just 10 main tenants or fundamental principles and it will teach you a lot. Here’s the thing that I find is really true. It’s hard to be hopeful. It’s hard to keep yourself motivated. If you don’t believe you have any options, if you only feel like you have one option, that one option is finding representative or finding a gallery. That is not the only option. As a matter of fact, that is the worst option. It is the most expensive, most demoralizing. I don’t know. What do you think Anya and Angela? Am I speaking the truth or what is your experience been trying to work with art galleries? Trying to work with art representatives. I mean, it’s not good. And right now with the global pandemic, a lot of art galleries are closed and they’re about to go out of business.

Ann Rea: (14:32)
If you are struggling because you have been working with art galleries and now you don’t know what to do, there is another way. It’s a better way. And it’s an easier way. It’s a more profitable way. It’s more enjoyable way. So I would encourage you to at check it out. Go apply to the private Master Class and see what there is. There’s no obligation, there’s no pressure. It’s free. You’re going to learn about the principles and the strategies that I teach. And you’re going to learn about the Making Art Making Money program. Angela says “It’s so elitist and snobby.” Yes. Which is really a thin layer for deep insecurity. It’s a very insecure environment. If you think about it, because you’re at the whim of some critic or some curator or some, select group of gallerists so you can’t win. You’re powerless. I want you to take your power back and go sell your art, and go make the money and keep all the money.

Ann Rea: (15:36)
Because the fact of the matter is the little dirty secret that the art establishment doesn’t want you to know is that collectors are customers. I like to call them customers because that’s really their customers. Not everyone collects, but some people will buy one or two pieces. That’s a more descriptive term. But what they don’t want you to know is that they care about the artists. They don’t care about the middleman. They would much rather know support the artists than some middleman. So Anya says they take advantage of artists like there’s no tomorrow, correct bad business terms. Yes. The business terms, I mean, when I tell people who are not artists, what the business terms are for gallery representation, they are shocked. They’re absolutely shocked. They had and, a lot of them are engaged in practices that are illegal. For example, in the state of California, if you sell your art, that representative has an obligation to share your collector’s contact information with you.

Ann Rea: (16:50)
They are not their customers, because they don’t own the inventory. They’ve consigned the inventory. So you have every right to ask for that. You have to check the laws in your legal jurisdiction. And– but that’s– imagine what business could operate without knowing their customers? Think about that for a second. Yet that is what galleries are asking artists to agree to. It’s ridiculous. So, I’d love for you to– give you a little assignment. So I’m gonna give you two assignments. Number one, write down your SMARTER goal. And then number two, take a look at the Making Art Making Money Manifesto. Think of one or two other artists like you and discuss it and see what preconceived notions have been baked into your head from art school or from the media and see what’s really true. Anyway, I hope this was helpful and I’d love for you to share your SMARTER goals because just by writing down your smarter goal and by maintaining the criteria that I spelled out for you, the chances of you actually accomplishing that goal go up exponentially. So it’s worth it. Just go ahead and do it. It’s going to be so much fun to read your SMARTER goals.