Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tommy Manning. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tommy, appreciate you joining us today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

Well when the covid lockdowns started I was a junior in highschool and in the state I lived in your online school work had no negative affect on your grade so I had no reason to do my online school work. I was pretty much on a constant vacation. So I had a decision to make, either I waste all this free time or use my time to grow my artwork and my passion.

I started making more paintings at a faster rate than ever. I started posting more on social media. Then I found tiktok and started making short form video content about my art. I kept working and kept working, making content, growing my following and it started to pay off. I started to blow up on social media gaining hundreds of thousands of followers across platforms. This lead to me jump start my business selling lots of artwork online. I took the profits reinvested in a higher converting website, grew the infrastructure, and ever since then I’ve been a full time artist.

The covid lockdowns really made me realize what I need to spent my time doing and doing that and having the free time to do that helped jumpstart my career in a way that wouldn’t be possible without the lockdowns.

Tommy, 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?

I’ve been drawing and painting since I was 3 years old. I’ve always loved art and was very good at it. I started taking it seriously when I was 13. I continued to learn and grow, I learned about the business side of art and was able to start making money even when I was 13 and 14. A few years later when covid hit everything changed. Having the discipline to put my time into my passion even at a young age has helped me tremendously.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

We had to pivot from only organic content promotion to paid traffic. The organic promo ended up being too inconsistent and even tho the paid traffic had lower margins the money was more consistent

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I was in highschool my art teacher had an art competition every year and every year even though my art was easily some of the best in the show, she would never let me win any awards. It was like she had something against me every year. even though I was making better and better art she would never give me credit. It was tough to get that from my teacher but it made me become a much better artist and it gave me determination to prove her wrong.

Contact Info:

• Website: TommyManningArt.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tommymanningart_/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqHf0nshG4rYNuKRQR_XWdQ