Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Suzanne Redmond. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Suzanne, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
As an artist, I had friends in the Palm Beach County art world, but also artist friends all over the United States. Some I met at art workshops, some I knew only virtually. I loved their stories about how they developed their artistic style, and how they worked their art business. In 2017, I decided I wanted to collect and share their stories through an interview-based podcast. I researched how to do a podcast, from the equipment needed, to the programs needed to record, edit, and host a podcast. In actuality, I spent way too much time researching how to do a podcast, as a way to avoid the risk of failing. At the beginning of 2018, I decided I had to just go for it, and take the leap into starting a podcast. I started with a list of potential artists I could interview. When my list became larger than 52 artists, I knew that I could start the podcast and not run out of weekly interviews for a full year. I wrote a commitment letter to myself outlining how I would start the podcast, and I gave myself a two-month deadline. Since I had already done all the research on how to do a podcast, I figured that was a realistic deadline. Well, it took me about four months, but in that time I also created my own website to support the podcast, and completed my first three artist interviews. The Left Brain Artist podcast was launched on June 1st, 2018. Since then, I have created 250 episodes and received over 300,000 downloads. I’ve interviewed artists from 10 countries and 31 states. As for my own art, I’ve continued to create and since 2019 have had artwork displayed in 12 exhibits. I’ve also attended one artist residency. I believe that if I hadn’t started this podcast and talked with artists from all over the world, I wouldn’t be as confident about showing my own art. I’m so grateful that I took that leap to create my artist interview podcast.
Suzanne, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have a degree in accounting, and worked in statistical analysis and contract management for over a decade. And now I’m an artist! I always made crafts, and I love taking classes to learn more techniques and work with new media. I started painting in 2010, and learned through online classes. I got involved with the local arts group The Wellington Art Society, where I met so many wonderful artists. Soon I used my business background and became their President, helping to create many group exhibits and a solo show with a local business. Later I joined The Artists of Palm Beach County, so I could meet more local artists. That introduced me to two artists and business people, Anthony Burks and Trina Slade-Burks, and I started working with them to help create and execute their annual Continuum pop-up art gallery. Over time, I learned how to curate a show, stage and hang a show, and manage the Calls to Artists and the promotion of the show. In the last four years, I really worked to develop my own artistic style with my acrylic painting. I’ve shown my artwork at local galleries in Palm Beach, Martin, and Broward Counties, as well as the Palm Beach International Airport. I show my work on large gallery-wrapped canvases, but I practice my art on paper and canvas sheets. On my Instagram feed, @suzanneredmondart, you can see how I will create small series of art and collages on paper so that I can work on different ideas and techniques. My other Instagram is @theleftbrainartist, and that’s where I promote my weekly podcast artist interviews. I’m proud of how my art has developed, and I’m most proud of the community of artists I’ve brought together from around the world for my podcast.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When the pandemic began and everything shut down, I realized I wouldn’t be able to continue my podcast as it was. It seemed wrong for me to email artists and say “I’d love to talk to you about your art business,” when for many, their business had just ended. I knew that artists who relied on gallery shows or the art show circuit had abruptly lost all their forms of income. For artists who relied on teaching in person classes, they had just lost an entire calendar of income. I had to think about how I could continue my podcast, be sensitive to what was happening to artists and the rest of the world, and yet still support the artist community. Stopping my podcast was not something I wanted to do, but I knew I had to make a change from the weekly artist interviews. I decided to re-visit artists I had interviewed in the past. Instead of framing my questions around how they got started in art, and the aspects of their business and sources of income, I would re-interview artists but just ask them how it was going. I knew that other artists would want to hear what they’ve tried in this changed world and what worked or didn’t work for them. Many artists had to completely change the focus of their business, as I was changing the focus of my podcast. On March 31, I emailed 17 artists that I had previously interviewed. Within two days, I received 17 responses: 16 said they would love to come back on the podcast and 1 said they’d tried new things but they hadn’t worked so they were still figuring out their new business. For those 16, I did mini episodes, about 10-15 minutes long rather than the usual hour. I also posted two of these episodes per week rather than the usual one. For the months of April and May, I provided 16 podcast episodes that helped my community of listeners with advice and solid steps that these artists took to change their art businesses and maintain a source of income. People loved hearing their stories, not just of what they had to cancel, like art shows and classes, but what they turned to instead. Many artists switched to online teaching. One art store owner put all of their inventory on their website so customers could purchase remotely. Another artist gathered 16 artists and they each created 30-minute online classes that she then gave to people for free. That free summit of classes gave back to those instructors in goodwill and later paid classes. I am so happy that I stuck with my podcast during that time, changed its format a bit, and was able to share the successes artists were having during the pandemic.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
When I started my podcast in 2018, I knew these things were important with social media: 1) I needed to promote the podcast using Instagram, because that was the platform that most artists used to showcase their art. 2)I needed to post on a regular basis. 3) I also needed to post my own art so that the artists/listeners of my podcast would know I had a legitimate background as an artist. For my podcast The Left Brain Artist, I interview a different visual artist once a week. The key to developing a following for a podcast is to be consistent in putting out your episodes. I launch a new episode (artist interview) every Wednesday. I created an Instagram account called @theleftbrainartist so that I could promote every episode. I do a promo post the day before the episode and then another post the day of launch. That is consistent and never changes. I also sometimes do other posts during the week, highlighting an artist’s upcoming class, show, or book, to get more interest in the artist. As for my art, I use the account @suzanneredmondart. I post my art there, and try to post something every week. In the description of the IG accounts I mention the other one. Often someone new will follow both of my accounts at the same time, so I know they have read my profile to see that I make my own art and I have a podcast. My followers steadily grow because I am consistent in posting every single week. My stats for the podcast are about 1,500 listens per week, and that is something that has steadily grown in the almost four years since I started.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://suzanneredmond.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theleftbrainartist/ https://www.instagram.com/suzanneredmondart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/suzanneredmondart
- Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-left-brain-artist/id1392658815 My podcast is on many apps, like Google, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Castbox. Above is the direct link to my podcast on Apple.
Image Credits
Suzanne Redmond