Interview with Heidi Soo

Photo credit (c) Kristi Calderon 2019

Last month I was approached by Heidi Soo artist at Braid Street Studios, for an interview for an upcoming book she is authoring that interviews a variety of artists ranging from painters such as myself and Susan Greig to tattoo artists and more. Her request for us was to share three insights each in 9 areas; mindset, sales, marketing, self-care, copywriting skills, photography skills, networking, interpersonal and artistic from; our life and artistic work experience that would encourage and guide other artists to their success. Please contact Heidi Soo directly for more information about the book and its publication date. I’m excited to share my answers here. To your creative success. Deb.

MINDSET

Tip  # 1. Focus. Focus on the good, on appreciation, on what you are grateful for. This puts you in alignment for receiving more good things, more of what you appreciate.

I love saying to myself; ' I am satisfied where I am and eager for more!' 

Tip # 2. Meditation. When your mind  or emotional state goes into a negative tail spin, and this happens to all of us, I say 'STOP' . I say out OUT-LOUD: "STOP". And then I get really general in my focus about how things are getting better. I'll say something to myself, 'yup, it's natural to feel bad, we all go there sometimes, but now that I'm feeling bad I know that I am out of alignment.' Then I will go and meditate so that I can get back into alignment, back into feeling good. 

Tip # 3. Visual Reminder. I will write, with black sharpie, on my forearm 'Today, I choose love over fear'. I love remembering that choosing love  is always a choice. 

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SALES

Tip # 1. Personal Connections. Probably 95% of all the artwork I've sold in the last 18 years has been through connections, that is, people that I have a relationship with, a genuine connection. From what I've seen about people buying my art, it's because they feel good, they trust me, we have a connection, and they are inspired around what I've created and why. 

Tip # 2. Share Authentically. Keep showing up, authentically, in a good place. Share your process, your stories, you inspirations and the behind- the scenes. Your art collectors are fascinated and curious about all of it. 

Tip # 3. Be organized. I have systems in place for keeping track of my inventory, sharing specific work with particular buyers, and for how I will make a sale at my studio. Being confident, for me, comes from having a plan and being organized.

MARKETING

Tip # 1. Consider these questions first. Great questions to ask yourself before sharing something on your social media/blog flyer marketing piece are these:

So what? Why bother? Who cares? 

When you make it relevant to your audience they are more likely to be engaged. On a similar notes I often ask myself from their perspective : WIFM. As in what's in it for me?  (‘me’ being your consumer, collector, reader)

Tip # 2. Patience. Keep showing up. Generally marketing is a reminder that I'm here, have art, classes and can serve you with my unique offerings. I’ve heard that it often takes 7 touches to make a sale. So keep on reminding us and sharing the value you are here to bring and trust that it'll land with the right person at the right time. 

Tip # 3.  Clarity. Get clear on why you are unique, own it, and use this to differentiate yourself in the market. There are tons of abstract artists out there! I interviewed 20 of my top collectors a couple of years ago as part of a business course and learned that they genuinely felt both inspired and grounded when they 'hung out' with my artwork in their homes. I started to understand the uniqueness of what I bring and how this benefits me. Knowing this helps me tremendously when speaking and writing about my work. 

For example, I created a mission statement for myself as an artist that keeps me clear on what I’m doing and why:

" My mission it to serve you by creating spiritually-inspired paintings that support you to feel grounded and inspired"⁠

SELF-CARE

Tip # 1. Sleep. sleep, sleep and more sleep. I love sleep. Especially naps. When I am well rested I am like a well-oiled machine and can handle just about anything. 

Tip # 2. Go Inward First, Listen. I have learned (the hard way) in my life and journey as an artist to use my self care and spiritual tools as my medicine and resources to alignment rather than as a whip to give myself another task/hurdle to do in my day. Let me give you an example. Yoga is great, I love it. So are forest walks. Journal writing is the bomb, i've been writing in my journal and practicing Morning Pages for over 20 years. All that said, going within and really listening to what I need, trusting my inner guidance for me has proven to be much more self-honouring and kind than rigidly forcing myself to do any of those above mentioned practices. How I roll these days is I check in with myself and see what my being is needing. It may be a forest walk, then I go do that. It may be a hot bath, then bring out the epsom salts! It may be some time to do absolutely nothing. The bottom line is that really and truly caring for myself is listening to myself moment to moment and honouring that. 

Tip # 3. Meditation. Yup, The one discipline I do daily even if 'I don't feel like it'. It taps me into the Universal Source Energy that gives me everything I need and more. 

COPYWRITING SKILLS

Tip # 1. Read more. I've found that the more I read the better I get at writing. 

Tip # 2. Get Going Edit Later. Start by writing  from free-flowing thought, from your heart, then come back later and edit from your head. Even better yet, get someone else to look through your copy. Highly recommend Natalie Goldberg Writing Down The Bones for excellent writing prompts and inspiration to practice.

Tip # 3. Mind Your State. When you are producing copy for others to read, become aware that what people are tapping into is the energy you are creating with your words. If you are angry, in a foul mood, or in a place of neediness, you will attract angry, moody, and needy customers. Being in really good feeling place when you write your copy is key if you want to attract the right people - happy people excited about buying your artwork. So write in the energy of feeling happy and excited about your artwork. Be mindful of your state when you are writing your copy. 

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Tip # 1. Systems Rock. I loved the E-Myth by Michael Gerber about creating system in your business. I have systems in almost every aspect of my business and it helps me to be more efficient with all the tasks required to keep the 'machine' running. For example, one such system is 'Mondays are My Money Management Day'. On this day I'll make sure invoices are out, send reminders for overdue invoices, file financial paperwork, pay bills, etc. 

Tip # 2. Go the extra mile. When I have a studio visitor, even if they don't end of buying a painting, they always get a free gift from me. Its a hand-made note pad, blank inside so they can use it for anything from grocery lists to great ideas, with an original piece of art on the cover. I make them with love and they have my logo and website on the back. It creates a touch point and a good feeling to have the gift ready for them and a nice way to wrap up a studio visit. Giving them the gift also leaves them with a physical visual reminder of me, as often art sales is a process of building trust and relationship and they may come back in a f ew months or years and purchase a piece, meanwhile enjoying their note pad and remembering the artist they met back 'when'. I also like to have tea and cookies for studio visitors!

Tip # 3.  Keep Learning. We are living in the most ever-changing, continuously evolving time in history with regards to technology and how we do business. My tip for this? Keep learning. Right now I am taking a course on how to put all my workshops online as e-courses. I am completely out of my comfort zone, but I have also learned and trained myself to LOVE learning. It's the only way to "keep up" that is to keep learning new things, evolving and growing as the market, the internet and how we do business globally keeps changing. Never a dull moment that is for sure! 

PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS

Don't have any 🙂 I delegate it. I have a professional company that photographs my artwork and great people like Kristi Calderon who took the above photo of me working in the studio. So I don’t know much about photography at all and I’m okay with that.

NETWORKING

Tip # 1. In Person. Networking in person at live events is a great thing and yet often really challenging for many artist because we are so sensitive! I've had to slowly build myself up for handling groups and managing myself, my energy and my emotional state. Some networking groups can be super intense and overwhelming.  My tip for artists is to set a parameters and or boundaries for yourself. This could be something like 'I'm going to go to one networking event each month and my intention is to connect with 3 people and/or stay an hour, whichever comes first.' Then there is a clear intention and an exit strategy. 

Tip # 2. Social Media. Online networking can be really powerful and effective for getting your artwork out there. One mistake many artists make are to only 'socialize' with other artists. Generally other artists (there are beautiful exceptions!) don't buy your artwork so using social media networking strategically to connect with people who are either going to buy your art and help you in some way to sell it, for example a gallery or corporate art consultant, makes sense to budget your online  networking time and focus. Be intelligent about who you are 'liking' and 'commenting' on and why. Is it helping you with your goal, to sell more artwork for example? Or...?

Tip # 3. Network with Source. There is nothing more powerful on this planet that you aligned with your Higher Self and to be in alignment with Source. You can do this easily with meditation. Source will guide you, show you what’s next for you, line you up with what you are desiring, and bring things to you that your tiny little brain couldn't even fathom. Use The Universe and go within yourself first, before you do any outward networking. 

INTERPERSONAL

Tip # 1. Pay Attention to Feeling. The biggest thing people remember when they are with you is how you made them feel. Not how good you looked, or if you make-up was bomb, or if you went to the gym and are totally ripped and look great in those jeans. Who cares! They remember how YOU made them feel. Be conscious of this in each conversation. Really learn to be present, focus on the other person. Be open to hearing they have to say. See something good in the other person and let them know.

Tip # 2.  Handling Upset. I love the Ho-oponopono prayer from the Hawaiian Shamanic traditions.  When someone comes into your sphere that is pissing your off, bothering you, or triggering you, remember that it's an unhealed part of yourself. Take responsibility and it with love and then gently and lovingly clear it away by saying; “ I'm sorry , please forgive me, I love you, Thank you. "  Do not under estimate the power of these four words. Read Zero Limits By Joe Vitale and learn about how an entire prison of criminally insane in-mates was transformed from this prayer.

Tip # 3. Choose Love and Kindness. Ultimately each person we come across is reflection of our relationship to to ourselves and is a projection. The more we can choose love, empathy, compassion, acceptance and kindness over judgement and fear the better we'll be interpersonally with others. 

ARTISTIC SKILLS

Tip # 1. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Show up. Do it. Dot it, again. There is no replacement for actually making the art. Make bad art. Make great art. Make more art. Make it when you don't feel like. Make it when you feel inspired to do it. Just do it. 

Tip # 2. Find the good. I have made is a new practice to find the good in each of my paintings and really love and appreciate them. I think they can feel it and it transpires into my life so that when I go out into the world I am in the habit of 'finding the good'. Whatever we look for and focus on arrives in our experience, therefore I do experience a lot good things lately as I maintain this focus! It starts with my art practice with my paintings in process " What's good here? What can I appreciate?" 

Tip # 3. Put is aside/away.  When its not working, sometimes we just need to put it away and give it some space. When we come back to the painting after some time. It has been shown in scientific studies that we now actually see the painting with a different part of our brain. So we'll see things we didn't before and get some new ideas of how to work through the challenge. 

I wrote an e-book called ‘The 68 Secrets of an Illuminated Artist  - How to Stay in your Creative Flow Despite Any Obstacle’ It contains 68 simple tips to support you unstoppable creativity. Click here to Get the Book.