The Recession-Proof Artist

In this episode of the Art Marketing Podcast, we tackle the challenges creatives face during tough economic times and explore actionable strategies to navigate them. From understanding historical trends to implementing zero-based budgeting, we discuss how to get lean, audit your lineup, and enhance your offers. Learn the importance of personal outreach, running sales, and diversifying revenue streams to not just survive but thrive in uncertain times. Join us for insights that can set you up for success when the market rebounds!

Podcast Transcribe

Patrick Shanahan: Coming up on today's edition of the Art Marketing Podcast, we're talking about how to navigate tough economic times. Uh specifically, what to do in tough economic times. We'll get into some historical and then we're going to cover some tactical and some hope. Some hope. So, let's start out. Let's just get to the elephant in the room, shall we? Many creatives are feeling the pinch and you know slower sales, cautious collectors, rising costs, and just general economic malaise. And I I cultivate a number of different sources here, right? And yes, I'm a consumer just like you. And yes, I read the news and see the stock market and read about tariffs and everything that's going on. you know, the doom and gloom, the doom and gloom, the doom and gloom, the doom and gloom, you know, media death loop, uh, that we're all fed all day long. Aside, we know, um, as consumers living in this living in this world right now that inflation still feels way up, everything costs way more. Uh, and the economy is certainly by all measures in a rough patch. Whether, you know, anyone's using the rword or not is sort of irrelevant. um you you know you you know it when you see it right now in addition to that I of course have visibility on all of the sales that go down on the Art Storefronts platform and you know I have I have the ability to benchmark that against historical data so not just weekly sales figures but total order quantity what the average order value is so I look closely at that you know in addition to that as a result of being in this industry for so long I've got some decent relationships with some of the biggest printers in the entire United States And obviously I got to be privy to a ton of that water cooler talk. And lastly, you know, I talked to quite a few of my customers that are selling in all different types of manners and avenues online and offline uh the show and the circuit every which way imaginable. And I've been getting a ton of emails about how shows and thesis are off and how tough things are. So let me spare you the suspense, right? We're in a rough patch economically speaking. Okay. So, let's let's let's start with some of the cliches and platitudes. Uh, of course, and it is important to say this stuff because I think, you know, we all need to know it. We all need to hear it, right? And it's economic slumps are temporary. The average bare market lasts 9 and a half months and and the bull market runs are for far far longer. And it's important to know that downturns are cyclical, are temporary. You can be a realist about the fact that they are. You're in one. We're in one. uh uh and and and try to get smart about what to do about it. And you know, those who stay proactive during these down economic times usually win big when the rebound comes. I've got a ton of data on that. Downturns also, I think they force creativity, not just in art, but in in business strategy, right? it it they offer a great time to experiment, to try new things, to be flexible, uh uh that you would never have a chance to do if things were economically, you know, roaring. And I think it's a great time to like shift into a mindset of long-term building, right? Like it it it gets you focusing on building a sustainable business and not just getting these quick little one-off wins here. And you know, this period, I think anytime that we're in one of these can really set the foundations for like pretty massive future growth. And I think all of that is is exciting. And you kind of just need to come to terms with it. And like look, the reality is you're an artist, perhaps a photographer, a creative. And when this thing is over and in the ash heap of history, you are still going to be an artist, a photographer, or a creative. So, I think rather than panic or come off the gas or bemoone our station, let's focus on what we can do now and in the coming months to set ourselves up to win. And there's some tactical things and some steps we can do and dare I say, should we do some, we might even be able to thrive in these uncertain times. But first, let's just let's just quickly look at some history because I wanted to look back at this. I was curious, you know, the last or or going back a couple of recessions. The big one was 2008 2009, right? the the the conventional wisdom out there were art auction sales I think dipped 28% alone in just 2009 but they began rebounding in 2010 uh as collectors re-entered the market that's from art short list and then in 2022 or 2020 rather COVID you know global art sales and antique sales dropped 22% to 50 billion and shortly thereafter which is the recovery highlight they surged 29% to 65 billion in 2021 which was way above the pre- pandemic 2019 levels. So, you know, you're constantly you you're constantly fed these historical situations where things got really really bad in the bad dicey economic times in the past and then as soon as it ended, we always end up coming roaring back and sales are just way bigger than they were. So, I think the the takeaway that these these economic slumps feel long when you're in them. History shows recovery is usually swift and favor those who keep producing and keep connecting and keep innovating. So let's let's get into it, right? Because we know what the vast majority of artists, photographers, and creatives are going to do. They are going to complain, saying nothing is going on, sit on the sidelines, come off the gas, but not you. You're going to go on offense. So what will follow is what I would do. do some tips, some tricks, some hacks, some tactics um that you can think about that you can focus on more or less in order too. Um but I think I think we should start at the very top, you know, with the obvious, right? And and I know many of you are doing this already. Okay, necessity is the mother of invention, but it is definitely time to get lean, right? Um, and you know, it's interesting because we've had to go through this as a company and and you know, a great many companies, but there's this notion of what's called zerobased budgeting, right? And what you essentially do is you start at the beginning of the year and you don't have a budget. You can't have any of those things that are on your credit card. You have to literally justify every single solitary expense that you're making, right? Every single solitary one. And you know, there's these crazy posts that I see on on X, formerly Twitter, you know, about CEOs, super proactive CEOs that literally cancel their credit cards of every single solitary member of their team at the end of the year, reissue cards with brand new numbers, and make them resign up for all the various different things that they do. And that's not such a crazy way to play it. You can do that at any point in time, right? You know, there's there's there's no better way to add 15% to the bottom line than by cutting 15% right off the very top. You don't even have to sell anything. You have to just cancel a bunch of stuff. And, you know, canceling a credit card maybe seems like a little draconian, but it's a great way to force the issue because I think, you know, every one of us, especially more so when we're busy and less so in tough economic times, but these little these little pitily paddly subscriptions to this, that, and the other are on there. Some of them we paid for annually. We forgot that they even exist. You got busy. You sort of just, you know, say, "Hey, this is this is just my expenses. That's what they are. I've got to just pay." But it ends up being like entropy, right? You just kind of rolling with it. And when you hack everything down to zero, it's an amazing amazing exercise. And you know, I realized it's probably more profound for me as a business, but one of the amazing things that I discovered, which is a tip, a trick, a hack in all of this, is that we did this exercise at the beginning of the year. Um, I've done it. I've done it again since I'm I'm actually in the midst of doing it again right now. And one of the crazy things that happens when you do this, okay? Because again, our natural tendency is just to ignore these things. Yeah. They show up on the credit card, whatever. They're there, their bills, da, you know, even me personally, I've been doing this. My wife's been super on it, too. Like, we had four trash cans that we were paying too too much for. We cut down to two. We didn't need the four. We have two. My other neighbor never fills theirs up. Whatever. I don't want to talk about trash cans. But here's the hack. What you find when you do this is and and my example is probably a little bit outsized because I run a marketing department and a marketing department is heavily dependent upon software. But I looked at my zero base and I'm like, okay, I have to justify every expense. Do I need two services here? Could I get this down to one? Why is this bill so high? D. Almost every single solitary service that I cancelled, whether I canceled it or not before it let me cancel, it came back with like a, hey, no, no, no, no, no, don't go. Don't go. We'll offer you 3 months free if you hang around or what if we cut your bill down to such and such or we can get you on a new plan that's way way lower. Right? Because all of these services, no matter what it is, whether it's our cell phone or the cable at the house or this or that, number one, they're all going through the same economic uncertainty. Number two, they just always naturally raise prices, don't they? Prices never go down. They always just go up. And sometimes you don't even realize that these deals are available until you go and cancel the thing. So, it can be a valuable exercise to just go and cancel all of these things just to see what kind of a deal they're willing to offer before they let you go. are you really really sure you want to cancel? It's it's a great tip. It's a a great tactic and I found just going through it there were a bunch of services that I needed to keep but I just went through the cancellation process anyway and just to get these crazy deals and and some of them were like massive like you know I saved the company thousands and thousands of dollars just as a result of doing this because once I started doing it I was like oh my gosh you know some of these some of these services had been running for months and month or years and years and I hadn't renewed them or gone back or changed the plan or looked at it. So very easy to do. You can absolutely cut things in worst case scenario if you're like I can't live with it. Go and get it. So very simple tradecraftraft there, but it's it's a great way to put money back into your pocket. And I'm telling you, you can do this in your personal and or the business life. Cancel a bunch of things. And mark my words, even just going through that process, okay? Even if you're not going to cancel, they're going to offer you some way, way, way way way hangaround deals. So that's number one. Number two, it's time to audit your lineup. Okay? You have got to audit your lineup and you don't have to slash your prices, right? You need to make sure that your lineup is in order. And what do I always say on this podcast? You have to have a range of prices. Zero to 100, 100 to a,000, a,000 plus. You need nonwall art in your lineup. Obviously, at Art Storefronts, we make this very easy to do, but even if you're not with Art Storefronts, it's still easyish to do because of print ondemand, okay, which is one of the greatest assets any creative has. You don't have to have minimum orders. You don't have to hold inventory. It's very easy for you to get off your butt and do a little work and start getting some items in your lineup such that your lineup has 0 to 100, 100 to a,000, a thousand plus. When times get tough economically, if you do not have the range, it is going to make it way harder. It's like going into a fight with an AR arm tied behind your back. It is no way to be in a fight. Okay, the fight analogy side, um, you got to have the range of pricing. Okay, you have to be able to open yourself up and your creations up to impulse purchases. That only happens at the lower end of the scheme. You also have to have the higher end of the scheme. The range is absolutely fantastic way to do this, right? It is a way for you to capture all of the demand in the market. And it tough economic times is one of the best times to focus in. You've got the extra time. Is my lineup in order? Do I have $0 to $100 price points? Is non-wall art included in there? Do I have $100 to $1,000? Okay. Do I have $1,000-plus? Yes, I have the entire range. Are customers aware that I have the entire range? Right?

When you have that, you’re going to capture the highest amount of the demand curve that you can. And a great many of you don’t necessarily do this right out of the gates—and you need to, right? You need to next also work on the lineup because I think this is important.

Down economic times are epic opportunities to drastically improve your offer. What is your offer right now? Is it just: “Hey, buy my art, buy my photography, buy my creations”? Okay, buy this and you get this. That’s great. But here’s where you can start working in some tiered pricing. You can have the high-end originals, your mid-range prints, the small open editions, and potentially digital downloads.
And what can you bundle that you’ve never bundled before? You could have an “inflation sucks” sale or a “times are tough” sale. And you can say—not only do you get the print, but you also get the sketches that were the motivation/inspiration for the print, plus digital cellphone backgrounds that go with the art. Now, instead of just getting one print, if I come and do business with you, I get the print, the sketches, and the phone background.

You’ve drastically improved the value proposition of your offer. So it’s a great time, along with the lineup, to think about how you can improve what you have on offer—the creations that you are selling.

Now, once I’m lean, I’ve sorted my budget stuff, my lineup is in order, and I’ve got great offers, it’s time to start marketing, right?

Wrong.

The next step is a personal reach-out to every single collector I have. Every single person that has ever purchased art from me. And I’m not talking about a group batch email. I mean one-on-one: a text message, a handwritten letter, a postcard, a direct message on Instagram or LinkedIn—whatever. But it has to be personal and one-on-one.

Never forget the rule: the easiest customer to get is the one you already have. Tough economic times call for going on offense, doing things you wouldn’t ordinarily do, and engaging in the things you should be doing all the time. Go find your collectors, like some of their Instagram posts, and a week later, send them a personal message or letter.

When you reach out, don’t sell. Just check in. How are they doing? Is your art still hanging proudly on their wall? Mention some new ideas or ask for feedback—whatever it is, just make sure it doesn’t sound salesy. The goal is to start a conversation.

For those just getting started with no sales yet, check in with every Instagram follower. Check in with every email subscriber. Try to start conversations. That’s how sales conversations start.

Next: run more sales. You knew I was going to say that. Run more sales—not slashing your prices. You don’t need to slash your prices. You don’t even need to change your prices. Just run more sales.

Why? Because when times get tough economically, people get into a psychological mode. They’re budgeting. They’re staying lean. So if they’re presented with something full-price, a defense mechanism kicks in. But if the item is on sale, they feel more comfortable—it aligns with their lean mindset. It’s not about the actual price, it’s about the perception of value and savings.

Improve your offer to increase that perceived value. Add things. Bundle creatively. This helps buyers feel like they’re getting more for their money in hard times.

Diversify your revenue streams. I’ve never met a legal revenue source for creatives that I didn’t like. Downturns are the best time to try things you’ve never done before. There’s no downside—if nothing’s working, you can try everything.

Never opened up to commissions before? Now is the time. Never added a services arm? Try it—workshops, teaching, portfolio reviews, licensing, brand collaborations, pet commissions, even photographing houses for homeowners. Whatever it is, just open yourself up to it.

Often, it just takes a small mindset shift. You think, “Okay, I’m going to open myself up to services. I’m going to email my whole list and tell them I’m doing X, Y, and Z. If they need an artist, I’m available for hire.”
That’s the freedom downturns give you—to test new services and revenue sources you never would have considered pre-recession. There’s opportunity in tough economic times.

Low-overhead teaching is another option. Everyone talks about Patreon, but there’s a great new platform called SKOL (School). It costs almost nothing, takes seconds to set up, and gives you a walled garden where you can charge monthly—$5, $10, $15, $50, $100—whatever it is, and teach something.

A great many of you could teach on a myriad of subjects and a small paid community can go a long way towards covering expenses and keeping the lights on. You know, you have skills. What could you teach? What would folks pay to have you teach them monthly aspects of your painting? Are there certain things that you do really really well that you understand better than anyone else? That you have a ton of skill with so too about photography. Maybe it's retouching. Um maybe it's uh how how you purchase gear. Maybe it's Lightroom hacks. Maybe it's your work process. How you do whatever, right? And you know, how you set it up is is is completely up to you. But there's just a great opportunity to do this now. And it really is like an huge massive emerging subject matter market. And like look, you don't even like you even have to have like some sort of long course uh uh uh uh curriculum or material or all these lectures. A lot of times you just open yourself up and have office hours, you know, then you can teach people that way. So I'll I'll put a link I'll put a link for school so you guys can see it in the show notes. It's it's really actually kind of cool. It's a huge cottage industry that's like sort of popping up. So I like the attempts at diversifying your revenue streams. Make a list. No ideas too crazy. And go after it. Open yourself up for it. Next, adapt your marketing. Okay. Yes, we're all going to be doubling down on the free lowcost channels. Your Facebook, your Instagram, your Blue Sky, your Pinterest, your Tik Tok, your X, wherever you are marketing LinkedIn. Make sure you stay consistent there. That's critical, right? But now is the time absolutely to switch up your strategy a little bit. You can't just keep posting and doing what you're doing before economic times got bumpy. that is not going to work on its own. Um it it does work, right? And you know, everyone that stays consistent does get results regardless of the economic times, but the point is is that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. We're in extraordinary times. So, you got to do a little bit more. And you know, damn near every single solitary one of you, by which I mean every single solitary one of you. I've seen all your social profiles. I've seen more artists, photographer, creative social profiles, uh than just about anybody. Okay? All of you need more story in your marketing. How did you create it? Why did you create it? What is your process? How hard was it to do? Where did the inspiration come from? Why do you do what you do? And I came up with an analogy recently that went super viral um at least for our account on YouTube shorts and reals. And I sort of came up with this rainforest analogy. I think I actually came up with that on this podcast. Um, but the shorts went crazy. And the point the point is is that you guys all create these beautiful visual creations. The default way in which you share these beautiful visual creations is via a JPEG that you post onto the socials. A JPEG, a GIF, a PNG, whatever, an image on the socials, right? Well, it turns out that the default way the vast majority of the social media posting world posts on these same social social networks is with images, okay? With the same aforementioned images just of different things rather than art. And when you sort of zoom out for a second and think about that, that means your individual images of your art, right? This notion, my art's incredible. It's really, really good. People just saw it or they just saw an image of it, they're going to buy it. It's sort of like you trying to be the tree in the rainforest that stands out. Of course, your tree is spectacular. It's beautiful. Incredible roots, brilliant verd, amazing, amazing foliage, the whole thing. But it doesn't matter. You're still just an image in the rainforest. And if you were the only tree that people could see, you're right. It would be incredible. People would purchase it. They would be breaking your door down. But you're not the only tree. You're a tree in the rainforest. And when you look at that rainforest, all you see is a rainforest. It's pretty hard to look at the individual trees, right? And and the takeaway from that is how you be the tree that stands out in the rainforest is you take your JPEG, the same thing that everyone else is posting, and you give it something extra, okay? That all the other JPEGs don't have, right? And what is that? That is where the story comes in. Okay, when you start adding in some story, and there's a bunch of ways to do this. There's a myriad of ways to do this. It is outside the scope of this podcast. You can do it in carousels. You can do it in reals. Okay? You can do it with text on top of the image. You can do it with music. You can do it with you, including video. But start telling more stories. None of you do it enough. I know it's not necessarily easy, but just start telling stories. I have put out a ton of content recently on our art helper account. I'll link it up in the show notes. Uh that shows you how you can do this in some creative and fun ways leveraging AI. You know, one of the things for you nature photog and have them complaining about something. People go nuts for this. They go nuts for this stuff. And instead of just an image of a bird or bear or deer or a squirrel or whatever it is that you're shooting in nature, it's that animal anthropomorphicized telling a funny story. Okay. Now, the image has a story and it's actually a tree that can stand out in the rainforest. So, story is a big big big one. I also like under the header of adapting your marketing, go on offense. Nobody does it. Nobody ever does it. I do it all the time. Why? because it works. You know why everybody else is just posting and praying? You start taking the initiative. Start sending direct messages on Instagram. That's going on offense. Start hand replying to every new follower you get. That's going on offense. Start hand replying to every email subscriber you get. That is going on offense. Start proactively writing into your designers on Instagram. That's going on offense. And by the way, brand new feature I just cooked up in ArtHelper makes that super easy to do. I'm going to link that in the show notes. Start sending 40 directed messages on Instagram a day. Start sending LinkedIn messages. Start sending postcards. It doesn't matter. Go on offense. The takeaway is you have to step up your game and do things that you weren't doing before because things have gotten more difficult. It's just the way that it is. The takeaway is to go on offense. I know it's hard. I know it's hard. But tough times call for tough efforts. Okay. Start proactively reaching out and starting conversations with folks that you think will potentially buy or can help your business. The worst thing that can happen is that they ignore you. Okay? You will get over that really quickly in my experience. You know, I send out hundreds of personal emails. Okay? I do this all the time because I want to get intel. I want to get feedback. I want to learn things. And do you know what happens? I'll send out hundreds and I'll probably only get a few responses. I'm actually getting really good at it. Something like 30 40% recently. But likely some of you listening to this podcast. Have gotten one of those emails from me and ignored it. Are my feelings hurt? No, not at all. You were just busy. You had a lot going on. The responses I get though are such a shot of dopamine that it just keeps me going. It gets me all fired up. So it doesn't matter. Going on offense is in marketing especially is a game of numbers of arrows fired at the target. So start shooting. Okay? Start shooting. Go on offense. No one does it enough. Just apply the analogy to whatever venue you feel excited to market in and start going on offense. No more of this I'm going to post. Come to me. Go on offense. Okay? Go on offense. This is just a fun one and I think it's also, you know, we're in a crappy economic time. lemonade out of the lemons. Okay, you can't change the fact that we've got lemons. So, start newsjacking. If you don't know what that is, search this podcast. I think I have multiple episodes dedicated to it. You go right back down, get the entire history, 45minute episode dedicated to it. But come up with some creative ways to insert yourself and your art into the zeitgeist, into the news of the day. And it can literally be about anything. It can be locally, it can be nationally, it can be globally. It does not need to be about celebrities or politicians, but it can be if you want it to make it funny, witty, creative, dark, do you, but insert your art into a new story of the day or create art that is about the new story of the day. Again, this is this is just another one of those opportunities where it's like you have the time right now to get creative. Get creative. So, if none of that made any sense to you, go back and listen to the news jacket episode. I'll put that in the show notes. That is why I keep saying show notes because then I can just search the transcriber after the fact and I won't I promise I won't miss it. Uh next partner outside of the art bubble. Okay, it's time to team up with local cafes, boutiques, restaurants, interior designers, real estate stagers. Uh uh offer corporate gifting bundles for HR or client appreciation budget items. Explore charitable tie-ins, right? um appealing to valuedriven buyers. I had my notes. I don't even know why I wrote that. But you're not the only ones that are hurting economically. Everybody is. We're all in this together. It turns out a whole lot of uh uh uh restraints. Um uh a whole lot of restraints. A whole lot of restaurants, sorry, my phone ringing, or doctor's offices or small business owners or corporations or charities are all listening to similar podcasts in their niche about what they're going to do to this rough patch, which means they are going to be a whole lot more open and a whole lot more receptive to hear from you about a potential partnership, getting your eye in the walls of a restaurant or a doctor's office or partnering with a charity on something or like working with the real estate stager. You know, all of them are going to be like, "Yeah, times are tough economically. I need to do more than I I'm doing and this is just a great way to go for it, right? Plus, if the inventory is not moving, you've got inventory. Get that out and get it in front of somebody's eyeballs. You know, take every Monday to search Instagram, find every restaurant within a 50 mile radius and send them a DM about some thresh for their decor. Let them know you can show up with the yard and show it off, right? Like these are the some of the things that you need to start doing. And and it's just about going on offense. Like it is the number one number one thing to do. Why would you want to do this? Why am I going to do this, Patrick? We're in tough economic times. it would make sense to me just focus on other things in my life. The effort when you do this pays off. Number one, there's absolutely a visibility multiplier. Like while many peers go quiet, your voice gets louder relative to the noise. Okay? I've seen this firsthand too over the years over the economic downturns that we've been through, right? You know, collector loyalty, those who connect with you now will become brand ambassadors, fans, customers later, right? platform algorithms reward consistency so your reach expands exactly at the moment when everyone else's pauses because they're not going to do anything as well as the future scarcity effect. You know, continued creation during the div means a rich back catalog when demand spikes. And there's a ton of anecdotal feedback out there. And you know in in in in the the marketing business sides of the house, everyone always cites Microsoft because they launched in April 1975 and it was weeks after this like 7375 I wasn't even born yet. Oil price recession ended um you know the the facts on the ground were US stagflation 9% unemployment the PC market unproven and then it talks about how big Microsoft got. Everyone also cites Airbnb, Uber. When did they launch? The 2008 2009 great recession. Tourism collapsed. VC funding pretty much dried up. Uh taxi demand. Taxis were barely even being used. Each now commands multi-billion dollar market caps and have reshaped travel and mobility. And you know, I think the the bottom line takeaway is that like there's rigorous data that show survival and growth advantages for downturn babies, okay? For businesses that are were effectively launched. And you could also argue for, you know, businesses that stayed on the gas. You learn these creative marketing strategies that none of your peers are ever going to have that launch when things are good. Okay? and they stay with you for the rest of your art marketing life. And you know, this data set, especially as it applies to a bunch of other companies, demonstrates that recessions have repeatedly produced household names, household name corporations, right? And it's a it's an argument at the macro for you can't afford to sit on the sideline. You cannot afford to sit on the sideline. I know it's hard. It is what it is, right? We just we have to be realist about the scenario that we're in. doesn't doesn't mean we downplay it or doesn't mean we, you know, inhale a cigarette filled with opium. It just means if we put in the time, the energy, the effort, okay, it will come back to us in spades. Yes, I know it's hard, but you're going to be creatives for the rest of your lives, okay? You put in this work now. You get creative with marketing. You open up new revenue channels. You realize how to get lean when the rough economic writing is on the wall. All of it will pay dividends. And I'm going to wrap up with a quote chat GPT gave me. And I quote, "History shows recessions punish the passive but reward the proactive. Keep creating, keep connecting, and you'll be the first in line when the tide rises." Thanks for listening, and as always, have a great day.