Hey, creative. You should talk about yourself more. You ever heard anybody tell you that you should? It’s great marketing actually. We talk a lot about our art form, and we can tell you all about how we made that video or how you did that painting or whatever. But especially in the creative fields, people want to buy you your story, the artist your work came from just as much as they want to buy your work. Our stories, specifically our backs, stories are one of the most powerful marketing tools we have, and most creatives don’t use it at all because one, I know you’re super introverted and you’re scared to talk to people, and I get it. I, I trust me, I, I understand that. But also, two, we were taught that it was rude to talk about ourselves, weren’t we? Right? Your mom and your grandma told you to just be quiet, don’t talk about yourself.
However, in the marketing sense, that is not true. People want to know and connect their story to your story. And if you aren’t sharing your story, your motivation, what made you want to be an artist? When did you know your life would be devoted to this? How did you know what art form, uh, or when you had found the art form that was gonna be yours? What was it like the first time you sold a piece or a song or got that first paid gig? That’s all great stuff for your marketing. And it’s not just me saying this. Let me share a book with you that I read over the summer. Um, and it just really, really, really helped me get my mind around the power of story in marketing and telling, uh, the story of Weah films. The book is called Stories That Stick by Kendra Hall, stories That Stick by Kendra Hall, outstanding book.
And in this book, Kendra Hall breaks down what makes a story powerful, the steps you have to go through to tell a good story. And she gives different kinds of stories that can be used in business to help drive business. One of those stories is called the Founder’s Story, or your founding story. It’s your origin story. It’s why we like origin stories, right? Of all the comic book characters or whatever. We want to know where they came from. Well, people want to know where you came from, and so you should lead with that. Actually, you should lead with your founding story. Tell us those deep motivations you have that wanna make you do this. Art. Tell us all the things about your childhood that led to this moment making this piece. Tell us what you were thinking when you were painting this piece, or writing this song, or what, designing this mural or whatever it is.
I saw this in action one time with a, a very successful artist named Patrick Reynolds. He’s a painter. Pat, if you’re out there, uh, hi. Pat Reynolds is an oil painter and I, this is way back in the days when we had malls. Remember those days? Old people? We had malls and Pat had a gallery in the malls and he would make these big. He did. He painted these angel paintings and they’re huge. I mean, they’re like life size, six feet plus tall, big old things. And I watched Pat Reynolds sell original artwork out of a mall for tens of thousands of dollars per original. I saw it with my own eyes. But you know what he did? When people came into the gallery and they were walking around and they were just looking at stuff and they were perusing, pat would walk up next to them and just start looking at the painting with them and just start chatting them up.
Say, yeah, this is, what do you think about that? And he wouldn’t tell them that he was the painter and they would say, oh yeah, I love this and I like that. And, and he, and he would say, well, you know, when I was painting this, um, I was thinking about this. And he would just start talking, giving the backstory on the painting, the founding story of that painting. And it would dawn on people over. They’d go, did you paint this? Are you the artist? And he’d say, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, I painted this on Pat, introduce himself. And all of a sudden the whole dynamic changed now because they’re meeting the creator of this art and they’re having a personal experience with him. And then he would say, well, I’ll tell you what I mean. If this is a painting you’re, you’re interested in, I would love to come to your home and hang it for you, and we could help find a good spot for it.
And now they’re getting a personal, like, customized experience with this person. And it all started with his backstory. Now his story’s connecting with their story and he and the price just went through the roof on these things and people just gobbled them up. Cuz that’s neat, right? Because we want those stories. So I know you’ve been taught not to, and I know it’s uncomfortable for you, but read this book, stories That Stick. Get your founding story together and start telling it. Start putting it on your socials. Put it on your website. When you’re, go on a podcast, tell your founding story. It’s interesting, I promise. And it will bring more people to you. It will help us connect to you. So when we look at your art, we have a little bit of context on the human being behind it, and that’s what we really want. Isn’t that why we really buy creative expressions? It’s for the person and the soul and the heart behind it. So you can do it. Start talking more about yourself. I love you.