Notes at the End of August

I’m apt to beat myself up for not making strides quickly enough, but I’m feeling pretty good about August.

I was telling Jacob that “my business feels like countless little random tasks strung together” at times. I wouldn’t say that’s true of my life, in that I do my best to prioritize deep work, like getting in the time to paint or write in the mornings before things get too crazy.

I didn’t do nearly as much deep work in August, but I certainly made some moves and pivots and had a lot of fun along the way.

A friend, floating.

Figuring Out the Purpose for My Content — Who Can I Help?

I made more intentional, purposeful content in August than I’ve made in any other month. I spent time recording the concepts from my Exercise Principles, Philosophies, and Programs document into formats for my Flex and Paint course and for social media. I also recorded most of a long-form demonstration on oil painting for my separate painting course. I’m almost done with that demonstration—I haven’t actually done that much painting in August, so that’s slated for early next month.

I’m still trying to figure out my niche, so to speak. I’ve had a lot of mixed results, honestly—some people, including my personal training clients, tell me that they love the mix; I’ve had some patrons enroll in training, and some personal training clients purchase paintings. They tell me that it’s a unique concept and they can see the value in the overlap. Others have claimed that I should make two separate accounts for each, or even two separate websites. My gut feeling lies with the idea that I should continue to build my brand around these two important parts of my identity, so I’m planning on keeping it rolling.

Speaking of which, I spent a good amount of time in August promoting the packages that I offer. In August, I enrolled a few clients into my 90 day fitness program. I’m still offering painting courses, but I haven’t done much outreach on that front. More interesting to me is the concept of a true “fitness for artists” or “art for fitness enthusiasts” course or seminar. I’ve workshopped some exercises which I think illustrate the true overlap of both an artistic and an exercise practice. Many of these exercises aim to build body awareness which will bolster both practices, making lifting enjoyable, promoting exercise adherence, and even expanding your creative “gut feeling” to point you in the right direction for making “subjectively good” art. I’ll expand on what this entails in a future post—you can find packages here.

Finding Clarity around My Audience

One of the things that’s been nagging at me is that my content doesn’t necessarily attract the people that I want to engage with. I’ve gained a substantial amount of Instagram followers from one particular video where I’m talking to the camera with my shirt off—and many of the comments are about me and my body rather than the concepts that I’m preaching. I’ve gotten comments like, “why is there a shirt in this video?” and “when are you releasing the OF?”

Perhaps humorous, perhaps inviting a moment of reflection—what’s the direction I want to take?

Now, I have absolutely no problem with people following me for the physique I’ve achieved—if anything, I’ve leaned into it and invited it. I wouldn’t livestream shirtless on TikTok if I didn’t think it meant something. I think the disconnect lies with the fact that for some, that’s all they want to engage with—and I’d much rather invite them to think about the concepts or the art that I’m working on. If that sounds like you and you’re here, reading this blog, don’t consider this paragraph a dig—I’m grateful you’re here, appreciating not only your attention but also your focus into these thoughts; I consider anyone who takes the time to read this far as having “graduated” to a “real one”—you’re on the inside of the real value that I’m offering. There’s a lot to be gained through fitness and art and I’m glad that you’re here.

Personally, I’m seeing the silver lining to the meandering path of figuring out myself, my audience, and the content I aim to create through this period. It has solidified the ideas that I want to share (and I’ve always heard that you should “make content for yourself/your past self”).

Engaging Locally

I’ve gained a lot of clarity around who I want to bring to my social media pages and invite into my life. I’ve reflected on the people who I’d want to engage with in my community as well—I spent a lot of time this month prioritizing upcoming in-person showings of my art. I spent time networking in cafes and I’m hopeful to line up some shows. I set up my art booth and applied to art fairs this fall. I’m also planning on (oddly enough) going door to door and seeing if homeowners have empty walls that they’d like filled with some color and warmth. I’ll keep you posted on all that.

I also went to show one of my existing clients some of my art in person, which was a highlight. We had a great conversation about how things are going for him and he was a great sounding board for some of my concepts and business endeavors this month. He commissioned a painting for me which I’m eager to work on.

Do I Actually Hate Advertising?

August was the first month that I got real about advertising. Advertising is scary in that it’s mostly an issue of mindset—”I hate ads,” I used to claim. But why should I feel that advertising is inherently evil? Even to make a video saying, “hey, I have art, want some?” is advertising. I’ve had baristas at Luanas tell me, “what the hell? I didn’t know you were an artist. You should have told me!” If I believe that the stuff that I’m offering is immensely valuable, it’s my obligation to tell people about it and to help them improve their lives.

Thus, I spent some time editing some testimonial footage and recording some pitches which will align me with my ideal clients, whether for fitness or for placing art in a space devoid of color and warmth.

I’ve found that I can use everything as an opportunity to advertise, but the main takeaway is that I need to reach out. I have been coaching people since I started with the whole “flex and paint” routine months ago—I had some clients reach out to me directly from TikTok and Patreon in order to get help with their fitness goals—but I had made no effort to do any outreach. Sure, I mentioned that I’m a personal trainer, but I never directly asked people who followed me: “do you want help with your goals?”

It’s a lot of work. I’ve gotten a few people who respond to my DMs and think that I’m a bot—I actually send every DM manually. I’ve gotten a significant amount of the cold shoulder—not too many people reply, but I’m thankful to those who do engage. I’m really thankful to those clients who have engaged, sparked a fruitful conversation, and chose me to help them with their progress. Typically I’ll hop on a call with someone, give them as much condensed advice as I can in 30 minutes, and if we’re a match, we mutually choose to pursue coaching.

I’m hoping to find a similar path for art. My concept is that I can advertise to target the Phoenix area and ideally meet up with people to showcase my art—it always comes across better in person. I haven’t yet found success with this, but it’s in the works.

Challenges in Mindset

One of the main issues I’m grappling with this month is scarcity mindset. My inclination has been to hoard my inventory so that I can align my paintings “with the right opportunity”—my brain says, “don’t put your entire inventory in a low-traffic cafe! Don’t do it, you’ll need the pieces for art shows!” or the like. I think it’s worthwhile to make a value judgment on where is the best place to showcase, but that’s scarcity mindset in action. I’m much better off throwing my paintings wholeheartedly into my community. It’s about both increasing the surface area of opportunities, and just making something better—the paintings do little good being kept in my private apartment. I’d rather approach it from a place of abundance—I will always make more.

I hope that this resonates with you—keep that momentum up, and don’t think about how you can hoard, but consider how you can share and recognize that whatever you put out will be returned, amplified.

Ceramics impermanence. It sucks to break a piece or lose art. It’s a part of life—we create, our creations decay. I will always do my best to make more and to support people who I know will also just make more.

I spoke with Jared about this recently. If you’re interested, check out his writing:

I do think there's some element of throwing yourself entirely at your endeavors as an artist that makes you trustworthy. I've told a lot of people lately "Artists can be trusted with money because you know that they'll just turn it into more art."

He goes on to say that there’s peril in either leaning too hard into the business side of things or in being too chaotic with your artistic efforts. He and I often differ in our execution and philosophy around artistic production (where he completely disavows social media vs how I’ve leaned in. He made the “jump” into the art-full-time-world earlier, and in contrast, I spent a significant amount of time prepping and planning my full pivot into the art world).

I think his writing offers a good reminder: always make more. We agree that there’s a middle ground as an artist, so long as you’re engaged in using what resources you have to improve your community and environment.