SHOWNOTES
Today Jen is talking to Miriam, an artist and small business owner. She is always crafting plans for her business. She has greatly evolved her art making business and now design products with her art that has a more modern and contemporary vibe.
After 911 she jumped ship and left her fancy job on Wall Street to be an artist.
But she kicked the "starving artist" persona straight to the curb and has proven that you can absolutely have a successful online business without teaching business stuff.
Miriam suggests to have your own site with your outstanding brand and messaging - it’s a way that you don't have to compete with Etsy’s (and other bigger markets) lower prices so you can offer something that's very exclusive and very high-end and personal.
When she first started her business and doing Facebook ads, just targeting the right audience makes the difference. The next thing she did was putting a video series together with her launch and that worked really well with her audience.
For the people who are coming to her for the art classes, she gives them a step by step on how to learn a painting process. Her philosophy is that they shouldn't be learning how to copy a project, but how to learn a process.
She invests in her business - in learning, support and coaching. These are just necessary steps to scale the business. When she invests to things/people/course, she uses this formula: Is the nudge going to bring me in x number of people? What is my break-even on it?
She suggests the book Overdeliver: Build a Business for a Lifetime Playing the Long Game in Direct Response Marketing by Brian Kurtz
One of the things that made her stand out to her audience is by sending them snail mail. She said that it is something that really all of us should be considering. Recently, she sent out a hundred mail pieces and costs her about a hundred dollars and she made about $6,000 on it.
“Sometimes these things that we do, it may not get you that intended result , but then it has a ripple effect later down the line” - one client of Miriam that received the snail mail didn't take her up on her particular offer that was mentioned in the mail but joined her other course. The client also mentioned that it made her feel special to get something in the mail and says that she wanted to be coached from like someone like Miriam, to learn from her - on how to treat customers.
We couldn’t resist: The Real Housewives dish!
RESOURCES
Book recommended by Miriam, "Overdeliver" by Brian Kurtz
Miriam's book "A Writer's Sketch"
Miriam's podcast: The Inspiration Place
Real Housewives Barbies on Instagram
Real Housewives "Watch What Crappens" podcasts
Miriam’s Bio:
Miriam Schulman, a watercolor and mixed media artist for over 20 years is founder of the Inspiration Place, an online art class site. Schulman abandoned a hedge fund career after witnessing the devastation of 911 to work on her art full time. Rejecting the starving artist myth, her watercolor and mixed media paintings have been seen on NBC, published in art magazines & home decor books and collected worldwide. In addition, New York museums have carried her artistic accessories in their gift shops. She has been published in art magazines such as Art of Man, Art Journaling Magazine by Stampington and was a regular contributor to Professional Artist magazine. She is a host of her own podcast, The Inspiration Place, a podcast for art lovers who want to quiet their inner critic and reconnect with their lost creativity.
