The story about selling as an artist
Panic panic panic.
That’s probably as close to the feeling of sending out ”an offer” you get. Your mind-trolls will try to trick you into believing you’re a fraud. That nobody will care. Nobody will buy. Because you suck.
YOU. DO. NOT. SUCK.
Period.
It’s amazing to me how tirelessly the trolls come back and back again. No matter how many years or campaigns you do.
I’ve probably launched over a hundred campaigns at this point, and yet the trolls are there.
So, I’m writing to you as much as I’m writing to myself in this very moment:
YOU. DO. NOT. SUCK.
Pling.
A notification just landed…. Do I dare to open it? Look at it?
Oh.
Not a sale.
A few minutes pass. It’s dinner time. I should eat. Feed the family. Pretend I don’t think about my inbox.
Check the notifications quickly in the pantry.
Nothing.
Why do I even check the inbox when I just checked it five minutes ago?
And so I check it again, a last time, just to be sure.
A couple of hours pass and I’m about to throw in the towel right then and there. Because now, I reeeeeaaaaallllyy suck.
Or,
A sale just came through!!!!!!
The angst roll off my shoulders like liquid honey.
The body gets warm and the arms feel like spaghetti.
Maybe I don’t suck. Maybe people don’t hate me. Maybe what I offer isn’t that fraudulent. Maybe I won’t quit my dream today.
Yeah, I won’t quit it today.
Dreams are hard work
We’ve spoken a lot about dreams lately, and I intend to continue to speak more about dreams.
Dreams are an essential part of life and when nurtured well serve to guide us through the journey of ups and downs.
But something we easily forget in modern comforted realities is that dreams are hard work.
We dream to make immediate sales from our offerings, yet it rarely happens.
Dreams, when followed, spice things up.
It’s illusional to think that we can continue in the same track to get closer to our dreams… the dream track is the bumpy road a risk-averse person rarely chooses (and society does everything in its power to make you as risk-averse as possible and stay within the limits…..).
This makes me think of one time when Charles, my husband, and I thought we took a shortcut but ended up stuck in sand for two hours (we lived in the south west of France at the time).
We had to literally push our little Wolkswagen Golf out of the sand, which took 2 hours and all our energy. We were starving and the sun was about to set. No reception either, of course…
When the wheels finally had a little bit of leeway, I quickly took the steering wheel, hit the gas as hard as I could and slid up the sandy hill in a way you’d think I was born a rally driver. My dad would’ve been proud of me had he been there.
Cool Elin!!!
I learnt from my year in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa 2014/2015, that you can’t be hesitant when driving in sand. It’s as if the sand knows it and will try to eat you whole.
Show who’s the boss, hit the gas, feel scared as shit, and you’ll reach the top somehow.
Dreams are like that. They’re scary as shit. They’ll shake your world.
Offers are like that too.
They’re scary as shit, but they’re also the one connection between you and your dream life as an artist.
To sell something is ultimately a fear that we all go through when we want to move forward.
If it doesn’t work this time, you might need to dust off some sand, get out of the rut, and hit the gas again.
To be a working artist is to be in a constant internal battle.
Should I, should I not?
We invest our souls and heart into our work and so the business bit feels almost unbearable. It truly is a necessary evil. It doesn’t get easier, but it does get more exciting.
Because once you’ve tasted that first sale, and the honey drips down your body, you know that the show must go on.
You’ve tasted the sweetness of absolute creative fulfillment, seeing an idea come to life, putting it out there and ultimately receiving hard earned cash in return.
The loop is fulfilled.
Until next time, of course.
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed the odd format today as much as I loved writing it 🙌
Ps. For the one who needs it: Hang in there ❤️ Your art and others artful involvement with it depends on you not stopping 🙏🏼
Elin, xx
For more embroidery 🪡 you’re invited to check out my other publication Embroidery Wanderlust
You can also read more essays from the archive, or grab my book in my digital bookshop here on Substack:
Elin I was writing an email today to my list and I remembered what you said about how you had the most success in your career when you didn't plan for it and worked for the pure joy of making. I had a similar experience on Medium in 2017. I wrote there for a year without expecting anything, just loving what I made. By the end of the year I started a pretty decent business that supported me financially for the next 4 years. I'm going to approach Substack in 2025 the same way I approached Medium in 2017. I'm just going to trust that good things will happen now that I'm very in tune with what I'm making again.
Thank you, I needed that today ☺️