Patrick Shanahan: Sorry, I just turned on my audio. All right, coming up on today's edition of the Art Business Mornings again in the afternoon. So you wanna be an artist or a photographer that sells, start selling specifically, you wanna sell your art photography. You wanna know what to do, and you seems that you ask me about how to do that all the time.

All right, get my ear pads (indistinct). All right, well, welcome to another edition of Art Business Mornings, the show that we'll put you on the path to a six-figure-a-year-plus art business. So despite the fact, this is the afternoon, I wanna talk about morning routines. Okay, we all have them, all right.

You run a marketing department, part of yours is inspecting the collective inboxes, okay? For me, this includes email, but also Facebook Messenger. And I look at the Facebook ads and the comments Nick does too on some of this stuff. And, Facebook Messenger, might add side note by gross mismanagement on Facebook's part, my opinion.

I was saying this to Nick earlier, we get like 100 to 150 people a day, I mean, a week that are coming in and using Messenger. And for the uninitiated, Messenger launched with great fanfare and aplomb, really cool, you could build bots. We went super into it, did contests, taught our customers and then Facebook changed all the rules and messed it up because everyone was trying to use it like email.

But, despite the fact that super confusing, I think it is gonna come back. Anyway, to the task at hand. What I love about this show, okay, is that it affords us the opportunity to talk about things in real-time. The jet takes off and we're still building the windows and everything in the air. So it's, a great thing to subscribe to these things, by the way, 'cause I'm not kidding.

It is our unvarnished, unfiltered, as-it-happens on the ground information on the latest that's going on for 4,400 plus customers selling and not selling, okay, coming up the Q4. So yeah, so get signed up links in the show notes on how to do that. Anyway, Messenger, I would love, this is what I got in Messenger, Nick, and you'll understand in relation to this, okay, and I quote, and this was just this morning.

"I would love for you to check out my fiancé's work, named deprecated, on Facebook and let us know if you can help to market her in my artwork." "I am very interested in commercializing my work online." "I would like to start selling my artwork and make a living off of it." "I'd like to sell my photography and art or would like to show my talent and skills do portrait for business families and other types of artwork for a living." Okay, that was just Messenger this morning, okay?

Now let's try Facebook comments. We run the ad, you see the ad, the ad has a beautiful image in it. The trolls say was that done by a child, they promptly get deleted. See our earlier episode about trolls. The troll says, I'm not feeling it. Look, you hear that troll, phone's ringing to her mother. Okay, she's on the line, she wants to remind you that if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all, also deleted trolls.

What many others do though, is they post images of their work on our ads, looking for validations. And they will leave anywhere from one to like 15 different images that they've painted or sculpted or photographed looking for validation on our ads, okay? Others will post their website address saying, check me out, immediately deleted both cases.

I appreciate the sentiment in both cases, but in both cases, both of those comments, what happens to them Nick?

Nick Friend: Immediate deletion.

Patrick Shanahan: Immediate deleting. Do you stop--

Nick Friend: And sometimes a ban.

Patrick Shanahan: Our next question. Do you stop your car on the side of the freeway? Do you stop your car on the side of the freeway? Okay, get out to that road sign. Okay, hike over to that road, sign, climb up the ladder and post pictures of your work on someone else's billboard? No, no, you don't do it. You wanna know why you don't do it? Because it'll get taken down and it's not effective. It's a waste of your time. So as much as it annoys you, I don't even care about the annoyance.

I mean, my delete finger. I'm going, I'm Billy the Kid with this thing. But I don't want you doing it anymore because this is not a good way, okay? So let's get off all of the activities that will not put you on a path to a six-figure-a-year-plus art business, Nick. And let's get back to the activities that will, okay.

The market feedback is all well and good. All right, I understand as humans, we're wired to seek it out and to be fulfilled and sustained by it. But feedback is not gonna create a business though, is it? No, no, without a transaction you will just never know. Therein lies the problem, okay. Problem comes in two parts.

Part one is you have to get the transaction, ASAP as soon as possible. Part two is that you need to be set up to take the transaction, okay. Part two is what concerns me, first. Part one is a much bigger problem, okay. Part two, yes you need a website, yes, you need a website set up to sell art. Yes, we sell those and they are good.

And no, a great many of you, are not anywhere near ready for it, okay. Do I appreciate you wanna sell your art? Yes, I do, so does Nick. Do I wanna help you out in that endeavor? Yes, I do, so let's talk about how to do that now and by which I mean today for some of you, in a few weeks, for the rest of you or a week and a half.

What you need is a PayPal or Venmo account or square way to take payment, Kashi then, you need product to sell. If you have originals, you're ready to roll. If you don't, then you need to order prints, and I mean, right now. What media type should you get, Nick? Cover the top six. Just, give me the top six.

Nick Friend: Photo paper, fine art paper, metal, acrylic, and wood.

Patrick Shanahan: Okay, for this exercise, pick three of those, okay? Find a venue and try and sell it.

Nick Friend: Did I say canvas, I don't know if I, I might've missed canvas in there.

Patrick Shanahan: You didn't say canvas, canvas is in there.

Nick Friend: Canvas is very important, sorry, that was the last one, that was the, that was the last one.

Patrick Shanahan: You can pick three, and what would you really pick canvas, not all, maybe acrylic, maybe paper, whatever.

Nick Friend: Yeah, if I had to pick three or four, I would say a fine art paper, like smoother texture, right? Canvas, just one, one canvas, right? Not two, not five, one canvas, one metal, preferably white gloss, and acrylic, that's it.

Patrick Shanahan: Okay, so you'd pick these things, small samples are fine. You don't even need the finished article, if you don't want to, if you're tied on cash, you could spend around $100, between $100 and $150, and you can have your work. The final product, not the image, not the image. What do we always say? If I hired you to sell knives door to door, would you open up a catalog and show me knives? No one's that good of a salesman.

You better have that damn knife in your hand, show me why they're not a can cut cans. Can they cut cans, Napoleon? Anyway, you get those samples in your hand. Find a venue, try and sell 'em. Try and sell 'em can be offline, anywhere code permitting. If it's online, see our entire show history of nothing about teaching you how to do art shows and flash sales, okay, all over the place.

Get the product in your hand and go and try and sell it. Don't come into Messenger, okay, leave us messages. I love you for those messages, but don't do it. Don't post your work on the Facebook ads, okay? Don't tell me that everyone tells you your work is awesome, okay? None of that matters you guys.

You have to take the product to market. You have to see where they're not, there as a transaction. Get the transaction. I have a bunch of people that have been saying to you, your artwork is awesome. It's amazing that you buy it. If you had it for sale, go to them first and get the transaction, right? You have to get the transaction.

Now I'm gonna give you an analogy, tale of two cooks, okay? Nick and I both wanna start restaurants, okay? And like all those people in Messenger we've never started a restaurant before. I've never started a restaurant, Nick's never started a restaurant, okay? We both come up with different plans, we both execute on 'em.

I write a business plan, I go to the bank and get a loan. I get a lease for two years, I buy all the restaurant equipment. I hire a staff, I decorate the restaurant. I create the menus and I opened, what do you have? What do you do here? What would you do?

Nick Friend: I make a dish or two immediately, right? So let's say if it's a taco shop 'cause that's the easiest way to talk about it, right? I make 30, 50 tacos, and I go to someplace, whether it's like the town center or a very busy office building at lunch, right? Even during COVID people are still going to office buildings, I'm in Austin, Texas, right? Like it's still happening, all right. Like at lunchtime, people are coming downstairs and they're getting out of that building. There's foot traffic. So it is wherever there's foot traffic, right? And I set up and I sell these things, right? And I say, hey, I'm planning, this is what I'm planning on doing.

I'm planning on opening a taco shop and or a restaurant. This is gonna be one of my main dishes. I'm trying to get feedback. I'm selling these for $2 a piece, right? And I'm gonna go and sell them that day, that day. And I'm going to get direct feedback. I wanna see what these people think.

I wanna see if they'll buy more. I wanna see if they'll buy more and take 'em with them. I wanna see if they say like, I'd love it if you were here a couple of days a week, I'd buy more of these, right? Because what if they just, what if none of them sell back? What if I'm giving away some free samples? What if I give away some free samples and people aren't finishing them, right there on the spot where I'm not really getting there.

I'm gonna know, I'm gonna know right there. And guess what? Guess what happens, the tale of two, right? You went and got the lease and you did all that stuff. I found out in hours.

Patrick Shanahan: I haven't even gotten out of the bank yet. I haven't even gotten out of the bank yet.

Nick Friend: And you already know.

Patrick Shanahan: I already know, I'm moving on. And you know what? I might be a great chef, but you know what? They didn't like my tacos. So maybe I should move to burgers. Maybe I should move to something else. So this applies whether you're starting out or whether you're wondering what niche you should be selling or if your niche is not working, right? If your stuff is not selling, okay? If your stuff is not selling, like you gotta get out there and try to sell it, no matter what you do.

If you can't get out there and sell it right to like to your current audience or out in person where there's foot traffic. And if you're not willing to do that you shouldn't even be starting a business. Just forget it, just forget it, right? You gotta be willing to get out there with your product and just try to sell.

You know what I mean? Like put it in front of people, you don't have to be shouting at people or anything like that. If you've got a sign and you got a good deal, you could write it. You could go to your local Michael's or Aaron Brothers, whatever it is, get a piece of poster board for like what a buck, and a Sharpie and write what the deal is.

And if you're offering a great deal, people will buy it. If they want it, like that's just, it happens all the time. We're not talking about something that is hard to do. It's very, very easy to do. And you can do it.

Patrick Shanahan: Very, very easy. You can do it right now, but the worst thing to do you know what? And what's so many people do and that's, this is what we need to unpack.

Is they dance around the problem right? They hope doing--

Nick Friend: No wait. I'll get to it in part two, I'll get to it in part two. So, okay part one.

Patrick Shanahan: Okay.

Nick Friend: All my cheeky humor aside there, okay. Like if you wanna sell, you have to be fired up about how easy this is, right? In the grand scheme of like starting a business, we use the restaurant example.

Like you could invite your friends over and you could cook for 'em and see how fired up people are, right? And tell them to tell you, honestly. In the world of art, you get the final product and you try and sell it. Nothing else matters. You don't need to google anything, you don't need to open a bank account, you don't need to go anywhere.

All you do is you put in an order and you get sales. People, people that's it, that's it like, if I had the inclination to program the Messenger bot I would say the Messenger bot. I mean, who am I kidding? This is gonna happen eventually. But guys don't get it twisted. Don't post your work on Facebook ads or in someone else's Facebook page or in a Facebook group.

If you have a product and you wanna sell the product, order the damn product and go and try and sell the damn product, don't do anything else. Don't listen to anyone else. Nothing else matters. Nothing. End of sentence. Okay, that was part two, right? Part one, part one, which is the other big problem that I have.

And I, and, it's, you need to get the transaction ASAP, okay? And I should preface this because this is so important to me and I'm not kidding. I talk to at least 15 artists or photographers a week that are stuck in this exact boat, okay. General rule of thumb on Nick our art business workshops, thrice-weekly free consulting Zoom sessions that you can join and come in and ask either Nick or I are members of my marketing team, the questions, a link to the bio link in the show notes.

All you have to do is click Zoom. We'll send you all the reminders, whatever. It's that the rule of these things. If I get 15 questions, the rule is that these Zoom sessions follow the iceberg principle, right? Whatever questions get asked, are they tiny little top? And then the whole rest of the icebergs down below.

So at 15 people are asking me that a week. I know there's actually 60 or 70 questions, okay. They range in topics, but they are all, part of the same problem. They all involve worrying mind share, stress, about what happens after the piece is sold. They all have the same problem. They all come after the only part that matters.

The hardest part of this entire thing is getting the sale. All the rest of the problems are easy to solve. I just took that whole load off your back. I don't care about the shipping or the frames or what printer's going to do it, or whether or not you've got the work photographed for reproduction or that you don't have a bank account, or you haven't figured out taxes in your town, or you don't have a business name or business license.

None of that crap matters. And yet we can weak out. All I deal with is artists after a photographer that has been agonizing and, or spending months and months and months, Nick, on everything that happens after the sale and never going and trying to get the sale. And it breaks my heart, it breaks my heart. It's wrong, it's it just, it's wrong, it's wrong.

Patrick Shanahan: It's amazing how, it amazes me after 20 plus years of entrepreneurship, like.

Nick Friend: Yeah.

Patrick Shanahan: Like we're like, like where this information like is coming from, and I've, I've spent a long time. I have spent a long time analyzing it a long time. And all, and all I can say is that, is that it just goes back to the inputs, the information that is coming at all of us, right? And who, and what you are allowing to sink into your mind, and who you're following, who you're getting your information from, right?

And all of that, versus who you are not, right? Like what you're choosing to filter out, versus what you're not. And gosh if you're not careful, it's like you look at the website companies and we're a website company. What's the irony net, you know what I mean? Like when you're, we could talk about this and we will tell you the truth, right? The website companies are so good at getting you guys to buy websites.

They're so good at it, there are ads everywhere. They're even on TV, they're in every part, they are everywhere.

Nick Friend: I know.

Patrick Shanahan: YouTube, I mean, it doesn't matter where you are. Every company go, daddy, Shopify, Squarespace, dah, dah dah, all of them, right. There's so good at getting you to do that.

And you know what happens? A bunch of people, the vast majority, the vast it's not even like, it's, I'll get into the stat in a second, but it's the vast majority. What do you think they do? They end up launching websites before they even have a business Before they have any, before they have products that's sellable.

And that is, that is the biggest scam.

Nick Friend: Hour, weeks, months of work. Months of work.

Patrick Shanahan: Months of work.

Nick Friend: At 100, they'll put 50 or 100 into the website, right? And then the website company will say well, you, it's a business card really. You don't need to make any sales from it. It's a glorified business card, right? You have to have this in this day and age to have a business right? So here you are paying your monthly fee for a website and all of this other stuff that you've spent money on,

Patrick Shanahan: And you don't even have a product or a business, okay? That's what you've been fooled into folks. That's what you've been fooled into. You gotta work the other way around. So these things are coming at you everywhere. Buy a new camera, if you're a photographer buy a new lens, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy.

Before you even have a product or a business, right? Buy a website by business cards, by a logo. And I mean, go down the list and think about all the things.

Nick Friend: Oh God the logo, not even me got started with the logo and the business card.

Patrick Shanahan: And what, I think

Nick Friend: And what would get you started with that

Patrick Shanahan: I know and look at what we're saying is we're going.

Nope, remove all of that. You guys now have your radar up for all of these things, trying to be sold to you and understand that you don't need any of it. All you need is Venmo or a PayPal account or cash. Cash is fine, a cheque, send it to your house, doesn't matter, right? And the product and you that's it.

That's all you need because you can go out and sell that product right now today tomorrow this weekend, and you will figure out the answer to your question, right? Whether you're just starting out as a photographer or artist, trying to sell your art or you have been at it for a while and are trying to figure out whether it will sell, you can find out.

Or you've got something you wanna try a new niche right? Like a new subject matter. Like you can go and do it and you don't need anything. You don't have to upload it to your site, you don't have to do any of that. You just basically get out there and sell it. Whether it's on social media, show the product, and we've got a whole playbook on this, on our flash sale.

And or you get out in person where there is, foot traffic anywhere.

Nick Friend: Anywhere, anywhere.

Patrick Shanahan: No one's gonna stop you. Yeah. I mean, people walk it out of a restaurant. Like, I mean, it's, you can partner with a restaurant you can do a farmer's market. Like you could do any of these things, right? (indistinct)

Nick Friend: You know what I have 15 pieces.

Patrick Shanahan: I just gotta, I just got to work and create these five more pieces because somebody told me I have to launch with 15 pieces. Who told you that? Stop, stop.

Nick Friend: Yeah exactly, exactly. So you can get out there and you can validate everything, right? You can validate every, anything there and it does, and it doesn't take you time and you don't need an investment to do it.

And so you got to work the other way around, everybody, it's look, here's the thing. People are, companies are good at hawking their products and services at consumers in general. You know what I mean? And so it's coming at you hot and heavy everywhere. It's coming at all of us in every single way.

And all it does is obfuscate, the one thing that you need to do, sell your product.

Patrick Shanahan: Yep, I'm not talking 'cause it ain't working anyway, sorry about that. But look, it comes from a very contorted part of my heart because you see these people spend all this time, waste all this time on this energy or effort.

And it's just in vain. You don't know, you don't know, you don't need anything. There's nothing that I'm gonna tell you in Messenger. There's nothing, I'm gonna tell you in Facebook. There's nothing that I can tell you except for this, get the product you're trying to sell in your hot little hands and go sell it either in person or on live video.

If you can sell it, you have a business. If you can't, you need to change to a different type, a different style, a different something. That's it so it's all I got, that's all I got. I know there's going to be more on the subject, but these things are super important.

Nick Friend: Yep.

Patrick Shanahan: But I hope if one person, if one person listens to this and doesn't go open a bank account and doesn't get a logo, and doesn't get a business card, and doesn't waste 40 hours building a website and just goes out on the street

Nick Friend: And tries to sell something today. they'll will be worth it, they'll be worth it, they'll make me happy.

Patrick Shanahan: So mwarrenstudio on Instagram is asking, "is there a list of member websites you can share, a lot of comments, small wins comments, don't include a link to their website?" Yeah, so, we, if you request a demo one our people on our outreach team, will send you all like, we'll give you a whole list.

We've got a webpage on our blog that has a whole bunch of them. If you simply Google their names very simply, you could find them and go to their website. Lots of different ways to do it. It's all there for you.

Nick Friend: Yeah.

Patrick Shanahan: Do we, yeah, so that's, that's the easiest way to do it. You can contact them, just ask them to post their, in the comments, ask them to post their websites any art storefronts members, postal linked to your website if you're on Instagram or on Facebook.

So at any time you can reply and just ask them.

Nick Friend: Yup yup, anyway, that's what I got. What do you have in terms of announcements? Well, I mean, we gotta talk about Q4. I mean how could we not talk about Q4, the fourth quarter here? I'm just like, my excitement is like it's just through the roof.

And the reason is because like hardly anybody understands and we've been banging this drum and I've been banging this drum and I'm not gonna stop but hardly anybody in the art photography industry, understands what has happened, right? All of the demand has gone online. All of it all the galleries that are closed in every single city and state in the United States all the art shows are closed, right? Do you guys understand all of that is gone.

You never had a chance at selling in those except if you did those in your local community. But if you think about it like pins on the map in the United States or in Canada or wherever you're located, right? All of those pins in every town, city state across, across the country, our markets, right, where art is being sold, it's art is being purchased.

That's demand, that is art demand. Do you realize that all of that is now online? Okay, that's why we've been seeing, black Friday levels of sales on our customer websites throughout the entire pandemic since April, every single week, every single week, right? And records are being smashed, artists and photographers on our platform that have been with us for a year or two years, three years records are being blown out of the water and smashed and you're gonna use, if you're on our email list, you're already seeing about it, the scene that happened, 'cause we're announcing those things and you're gonna be hearing a lot more about it, but I'm so excited for all of you guys, because if you just understand that this is the year that you gotta take this seriously, if ever, right? Like it's starting now but like investing in your own skillset and becoming a better online business owner online marketer, because this is the future, right? You're running, you are running.

If you are selling art as a physical product you are running an international art gallery right now. Whether you thought you are, think you are, or you're not like up to this point, I'm telling you that you are, okay. So wrap your head around that and realize, you are like a physical retail art gallery, okay? Your own with your art, okay? You just happen to not be in, physical retail, you're online, but the same things apply.

You learn how to market this business and you learn how to do it effectively and inexpensively from home, all right? And you can sell your art all over the world to people who have an emotional connection with your subject matter. Your job is to learn the requisite skills as a marketer, okay? And have a plan and a strategy yeah to, to find the people who have an emotional connection with your subject matter everywhere, they are congregating on the internet, okay? That's called lead generation.

You wanna get them, you wanna get your art in front of them and you wanna have tactics and strategies that get them back to follow you and to get onto your email list, right? This is the smartest thing that you could be doing right now, because this is the future. It's like, there is no past, we all know it.

They mean like, you people talk about the galleries in New York City. New York City is boarded up, boarded up. It's called the retail apocalypse. Do you guys think that when this thing is solved that people are gonna be going back to the cities, to go shop and walk the streets when like all these places are boarded up now.

Like some people might and some people will, but like the whole the whole in-person experience of shopping has been just, I mean, it's been decimated. That's why they call it the retail apocalypse. So if you're hoping for these things to just open back up and you haven't solved that problem and you're not moving on, like you gotta wake up.

You gotta wake up and you should be really excited about it. Just get mentally prepared, for what, for where the market has already gone and where it's going to be in the future. And most importantly understand right now that this is going to be the biggest fourth quarter ever, okay? Wait till you see it.

You're going to see articles. Just remember that I told you this, you're gonna see articles, that this is the biggest black Friday ever in the history by a mile, okay. Biggest cyber Monday the biggest fourth quarter for all e-commerce retail ever. You're gonna see big, you're going to see companies that focus on e-commerce, their stock prices will probably go through the roof, after the fourth quarter is done because people are not, they're not understanding exactly what's going on.

Now we have the vantage point on it. I mean, a lot of people are talking about this right? We're not the only ones by far, but we've got a vantage point on it because when we're seeing record levels of sales to the tune of 200, to 300% growth since 2019, which was a non-pandemic year, I'm sure most people that are listening to this are like, wait a minute, I would have expected more art to have sold on a platform like art storefronts in 2019 and 2020.

Ah ah, it's 200 to 300% up, okay? Like, you, like we know what's going to happen. I mean, the volume is going to be through the roof. We've already staffed up, like from a support standpoint for all that stuff to handle all of the fulfillment and all the things that are happening. And of course, in supporting our customers on their marketing and to make sure that they have the by far, the best strategy ever to capitalize on this.

I mean, it couldn't be more serious, right? There couldn't be a better time for us to coach our customers and consult them on their marketing strategies. And it couldn't be a better time for all of you artists and photographers to like mentally wrap your head around this and say, you know what? I'm gonna commit to like actually doing more marketing than I've ever done.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna not be lazy. I'm gonna be like aggressive this time. I'm gonna like, I'm going to be like, proud of myself at the end. It's almost like, when you go to like, when you finally get your workout routine down and like, you're so proud of yourself 'cause you're like, gosh, I'm doing it again, I'm doing it again.

You know what I mean? I'm not being lazy anymore. You will be so proud of yourself in the end. If you take advantage of this because all the demand is there. So if you tried last year and the year before, do you realize that you're going to have 10X the opportunity that you had 10X, 10X the opportunity that you had last year and the year before simply because all of the offline is closed.

So the only place that you can buy art is online. And guess who's gonna win the ones that are doing the marketing, the ones that are doing the marketing. The people that have been, that have already knew that the market was going online a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, those are the ones that are gonna crush it.

They're gonna be, those are the ones selling hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, right? Because they're way past the stage. Like they, they've got this big list as big email list, they've got their following. They know how to build it. And so they're sitting here ready to capitalize, but the next best thing that you can do is start right away.

Nick Friend: Yeah I, over the course of the weekend, you know everyone that lives in San Francisco is in the tech world in one capacity or another while where I live in Orange County, everyone's in real estate. It feels like in one capacity of real estate or not. And so I'm at a kid's birthday party this weekend and I'm sad, talked to a bunch of my buddies that are in the home building industry.

And it was really funny to hear it one they're like, "I've never been busier in my entire life." "Our businesses are exploding." "Home sales are out of control." And they sort of specialize in these areas that are a little bit outside of the various different towns, right? And they're outside of like the main metro areas.

And it was so funny to hear him 'cause he's like, he's like, this is so good. He goes, "do you realize like new land is being purchased?" Everyone that's working in the land, people are moving out of the various different cities, a lot out of LA, a lot of, out of more congested Orange County out of apartments, out of condos into more, they want more, they want offices, they want bigger bedrooms.

They want backyards, none of which they had. All these malls or shopping off and he's like all the people that sell the dishwashers and I'm just sitting there and my head going contemplaty, increase in wall space for our business. You went from a tiny little condo to a three or four-bedroom house and you've got blank, white walls everywhere.

What's gonna happen? Where are they going to go to buy it? Where are they going to go to buy the art and photography? To a, to a local fair? I don't think so, and it's a new town for them, they wouldn't even know where that is, right? They're gonna go to a local gallery down in town? No it's closed.

So what are they gonna do? You have a perfect storm, like a thousand different ways to Sunday. It's going to be phenomenal. It's going to be phenomenal.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah. Yeah and the part that I love is that, with the artists and photographers that are members of art storefronts that were coaching like, you can see that when they're doing their direct marketing and they're doing it right, especially right now, it's like the bonds that they are able to form with their customers, with their followers.

It's like, this is a whole like new level, a new relationship, a new way, that is the experience for the buyer, is like 10 times better than what it otherwise was. You think that it wasn't, right? Like you think that buying in person is better because you're stuck in the way of thinking like, Oh, I go to a Z-gallery or I go to an art gallery, where the artist isn't even there selling the work.

I realized that in some cases it is the artists and photographers gallery, right? But, you get to have a relationship, with that artist or photographer because they are online. They're telling you about their process about how they do it, about their inspiration. They're taking you on the journey. And it is a phenomenal experience for a buck, for a buyer.

And I am a buyer, right? I follow these people, I buy their work and it's like man, if you haven't experienced it, you have no idea. It's like, it's the same thing. Like if you're, into a couple of bands, like musicians or whatever like, and you can follow them and they're taking you on their journey and how they create the music and all that stuff.

I mean, it is a phenomenal experience. And guess what? You don't have to leave your home. You don't have to do anything, right? It's coming right at you.

Nick Friend: Yap.

Patrick Shanahan: In the convenience of wherever you're at, wherever you're at

Nick Friend: Yap that's something--

Patrick Shanahan: And you get to be on the journey. Like I always love, I always love bringing up, photographer, Andy Crawford, Crawford, one of our members.

And look 'em up guys, if you don't know who he is and Andy is just a, just a regular guy from Louisiana and yet he's taken us on his journey, right? Through the swamps of Louisiana you literally waist deep in water to take his photographs kayaking, down rivers and the, by you and with, crocodiles and it's like, you get to be a part of that.

And you're like, oh my goodness. Like these images take on a whole new meaning. And when I hang them on my wall, I'm able to talk about those things to my friends, and go, do you know that this guy like you, it's a cocktail party in my conversation, right? This guy is like, this guy's getting in the swamps.

And he took that picture like waisted, you wouldn't believe it. Like he's out there on scouting trips, like finding these things, and it's like the difference between that, and just like going to art.com and like, searching, right? For like, what thing will look good on my wall? It's just a whole different experience that's happening.

And the people that are doing it and they get it are winning.

Patrick Shanahan: I think you said crocodiles and you meant alligators, gators.

Nick Friend: Thank you. (laughs)

Patrick Shanahan: You got the correct--

Nick Friend: I probably said a couple of things wrong but you get the point, the bigger point.

Patrick Shanahan: For live show. Its a live show.

Nick Friend: Yeah exactly. You guys get the message, you guys get the message.

Patrick Shanahan: So a lot of the crocs go into saltwater and the freshwater. Oh, yes, yes, so look, there is still time, right? And this is an important piece of perspective. Like, I was on, I was on with the customers today, and we had an office hour session and a bunch of them are just getting started. They don't have a ton of attention yet, right? They don't have a ton that they can market and do, but you know what? They're online, they can take credit card and they can give this Q4 what for, right? Give it what for give it everything you got, right?

Because the potential is there for it to be so staggering. And I just, it's a perfect storm, it's a perfect storm. And I go, I go back to like, look, you own a farm, right? And you do everything you can to make that farm, to produce to the best of its ability. This year you might only have one little field, sorted out, right? And with a plan to do an entire six acres.

But this year you've got that little field, do the best you can with that, right? Because we think the conditions on the ground, the weather, the humidity, the precipitation, is going to offer these circumstances to have a banner bumper harvest crop session. I get so out of control of these analogies, sometimes I go I got to take myself out back to shoot myself.

All right, any other announcements? I gotta go pick my kid up at school.

Nick Friend: Yeah, last announcement is if you've been checking out art storefronts for a bit, and you're thinking about joining, we have our summer special which we extended is ending tomorrow. It's actually tomorrow, it is the last day.

Patrick Shanahan: Yup.

Nick Friend: Last day to get in, so request a demo, if you're interested in learning more, getting the details, and all that type of stuff, just click on the link in the post that you're on right now. Or if you're on Instagram, it'll be a link in the bio. Or you can just go to our website. There's a request a demo button always in the upper right-hand, corner, big button there.

Big orange button, click that, fill it out. Let one of our team members get back to you. They're very, very busy right now. But if you're seriously interested, I would get it in right away. I'd get it in right away. So they could try to get back to you. It'll have to be tomorrow at this point.

But other than that great, great conversation. You know what I mean? Great conversation, I hope all of you guys. I hope all of you guys, like, I hope this motivated you to like, to obviously we, we started the conversation about like getting out there, just get your work sold just go sell it, right? Go sell it, you're gonna go try a niche.

Like go sell, stop delaying, stop, forget all the other BS all the things that people are trying to sell you. Just get out there and just go sell it and make sure you have a product first before you go and do all the other things that everybody else wants you to do. That's the only thing you need to do.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, and then the second thing is, please if you've been selling your work for a while take Q4 seriously, take this fourth quarter seriously. You've got more opportunity than you've ever had. So get your mindset around it, right? I know sometimes it's like we're all resistant to doing the work, right? And like, oh gosh, what am I gonna have to do? I'm gonna have to do this this, this, I'm gonna have to put an extra hours.

I got this job already, what I'm trying to tell you is if there was one time to start mentally like planning this out, carving in your extra hours, mapping out your plan, this is it. There's more demand than ever before. You're gonna make more money. You like, whatever your opportunity is like you're gonna do as good as you possibly can this year, way more than 2019 or 2018 or 2017, simply because the entire market is online.

And by marketing in that market, you have a bigger opportunity than you had in previous years. So by definition, your probability of success is going to be higher than ever before. Therefore if you put time into it the return on investment on your time will be heightened. It will be highest. So I just wanna encourage all of you guys please take it seriously, take it really seriously.

Take this one seriously. And I wanna see you in.

Nick Friend: And it starts in two days, so giddy up.

Patrick Shanahan: And it starts in two days. It starts in two days.

All right, as always, thanks for watching and have a great day. Gotta be consistent with those tag lines.