We were lucky to catch up with Miriam Schulman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Miriam, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Ever since the fourth grade I wanted to be an artist, but didn’t believe I could make a living at it. Although I studied art history in college, I ended up taking the practical route, pursuing a career in finance. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I had a wake-up call and abandoned my lucrative hedge fund job on Wall Street to work on my art full-time.

My love affair with portraits really kicked off during this time. I painted my son in his Batman costume. And he LOVED it so much, he was so proud of it, that he invited his friends over to look at it.

Those kids told their parents, and pretty soon I was painting my son’s friends…and then more people saw THOSE portraits and asked me for commissions… And pretty soon I had a business painting portraits! I started selling my art online and I expanded to different medium and techniques, including mixed media and watercolor.

Through my online art classes like Watercolor Portrait Academy, Painting With Words, and Farm Animal Spirits, my students get past the fear and doubt and truly enjoy painting their passion (whether they haven’t picked up a paintbrush since college, they’re doing it for the first time, or they’re an old pro looking for new tricks.)

I felt like I had so much to share about how I built my business – that I created the Inspiration Place Podcast to give a voice to my story. After dozens of episodes on mindset, marketing, building your email list, attracting high end commissions, and more, people begged me for a way to get more personalized help.

That’s why I developed the Artist Incubator Coaching Program to work with artists to go beyond the technique and grow thriving art businesses – so that they can have the time and freedom to create art and do what they love.

Miriam, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My art has been featured in major publications including The New York Times, What Women Create, Art of Man, and Art Journaling magazine by Stampington, as well as seen on NBC’s “Parenthood” and the Amazon series “Hunters” with Al Pacino. Moreover, my art has been sold around the world and included in New York museum gift shops. Published works can be seen on my longtime blog, which is going into its 14th year, and in several, full-length features in Professional Artist magazine.

And now, my book Artpreneur with HarperCollins will be published on January 31, 2023.

A step-by-step guide for creatives to transform your passion into a profitable business.

Whether you’re a musician, photographer, painter, writer, dancer, singer, or any other creative with aspirations of making a living from your art, this is the perfect time to turn your creative ideas into a sustainable business. With gatekeepers no longer controlling the market, anyone with a laptop and a dream can make a thriving living from their creativity.

This is the definitive sales and marketing playbook for anyone looking to make a living from their art. Each page provides the inspiration and practical steps you need to build a personal brand, overcome starving-artist syndrome, and finally make consistent sales from your art. By combining left-brain traditional marketing methods with the tools you‘ll build a confident mindset, take charge of your destiny, and create a clear path for success.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

I made many rookie mistakes on my path to making it as an artpreneur, including starting commissions without getting a deposit first. Kim, a mom I met through my son’s preschool, gave me a photo of their backyard, which overlooked the famed Winged Foot Golf Club. She planned to surprise her husband with the painting as a Father’s Day gift. With the photo in my possession, the size and price finalized, I thought I was good to go and finished the painting.

When I bumped into Kim the next day, she informed me, “Hey, don’t start that painting yet. I decided to give my husband a new set of golf clubs instead.” With a poker face worthy of my Wall Street bosses, I replied, “Kim, my gallery would be happy to sell the painting if you don’t want it.” Her fear of missing out motivated her to whip out her checkbook on the spot and collect the painting after all. However, that was the last time I started a painting without first taking a deposit.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Gifting my clients with notecards created a way for them to easily share my art and generate referrals. (My information is printed on the back side of the folded notecard.) This “social sharing” all happened long before social media came along, but I still recommend that my artist clients use physical marketing pieces to promote their art. A social media post slides by in the blink of an eye, but a physical piece will sit on someone’s kitchen counter for days (or weeks, if your counter looks anything like mine). These old-fashioned marketing tactics I learned all those years ago form the foundation of what I use today to sell art and fill my art classes. I’ve even used physical mail to sell online classes. Of course, digital methods are easier to scale, but there’s no spam filter for the postal service, which is why physical mail is so effective. Sending emails and snail mail is part of every successful artpreneur’s promotion plan. However, promotion is only one business element you’ll need to have in place. To make it as an artpreneur, you’ll need to develop all five of the foundations in the Passion-to-Profit framework.

My new book, Artpreneur, breaks down the five core elements in the “Passion to Profit” planning framework to help you develop your art business—so that you can have the time and freedom to do what you love:

PROSPECTING: Build an audience of followers who want what you’ve got and are prepared to pay top dollar.
PRODUCTION: Draw attention to your creations by embracing your authenticity.
PRODUCTIVITY: Create work-life balance by managing your priorities and setting manageable goals.
PROMOTION: Attract collectors in an authentic and non-salesy way.
PRICING: Price your art, products, or services based on cutting-edge research that explains buyer psychology.

Now is the time to leave the rat race and pursue your highest dreams. Don’t wait for a sign from the universe to gamble on yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: schulmanart.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/schulmanart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/schulmanart
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schulmanart/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/schulmanart
• Other: podcast: The Inspiration Place schulmanart.com/podcast

Image Credits
Stacey Nadal