Coffee with a Rebel Podcast 

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Show Notes 

In this episode, you'll learn:

• My experience selling my art in person 
• My thoughts about pricing 

Links 

petramonaco.com

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Full Episode Transcript

Today I want to talk about when we talk about the experience I have had with customers at the art events that I'm doing said the beginning of the year. Quick story, I used to sell all of my artwork every weekend at farmers' markets and events up until like 2011. I completely burned out on edge and I was just done. I just could no longer show up every week for that and focused on selling my art online and also started my coaching business at the same time, so that took a lot of time away from creating art for a really long time. And late last year, I had decided that I want to get back into selling my artwork in person, but I was going to be more selective about how many events I was going to do and where I was going to do them, so I started scheduling and booking events of March forwards. I am only doing one event a month right now. 

As it stands, I don't have any events in August, November, and December, but I'm also waiting to see if some of the events pop up because I know of a few, and I'm probably just gonna like pick and choose which ones I go to. Truth be told creating my art, takes time, and I am not able to crank out you know, inventory every week because I have all these other projects and things that I wanted to you in a few like once a month is good enough for me, and because I'm also a recording tutorial and working on my art memberships over at Petra Monaco dot com - shameless plug right here - and so I've been doing these events.

I just completed my fourth event, and it's been a really great time there's been a trend of what burning happening, but a lot of people use lasers red. They use the engraving setting on lasers. I'm still old school with my woodburning pen and. I am pretty proud of that because the tool gets hot, and I've heard commentary like "I would burn myself". You'll learn how to not burn yourself. I mean you'd just will! And there are people coming in and they are like "they used to do them when they were kids". I think it was a big trend here in the United States. I don't think it was a trend in Germany, because I didn't know about wood burning until much later in my life.

People will share something about how they used to do them as kids and again how they're burnt themselves and I was like while you learn. Like you're not going to do that again, but one of the things that I had one post struggle with is to price my artwork. I think that's a common thing for a lot of artists and creators to figure out the pricing, and am I pretty much settled into pricing. I still hear people telling me I'm undercharging for my artwork, and it is what it is. I feel pretty good about it. I think that's what matters and there will probably be in a price increase in the next coming weeks, I think at least for some of my projects, not the small things.

I settled into doing these events, and I love hearing people's stories. I love people acknowledging that whew, that's a lot of work that goes into it, and it takes some kind of skill or talent to make that happen, and I love to do personalization. I love doing commission work for customers, and people ask me:

Do you do personalization? Do you do custom work? And I do!

And I have this wolf wood-burning I did some time ago and people like well can you personalize this one? I would have to create a new one because they are all protected with polyacrylic or shellac, and you know I'm not burning on that cause you really shouldn't. That's bad for you not only your tool, but you're inhaling toxins too no, so I told them they could reach out to me through my website. Send me a message and we can work something out because they couldn't really decide on two different designs. One was a wolf and what was a dragon.

And so they were on the price, and like wow, how much is that and I was like the wolf as $80. It's an 8" x 10" portrait of her wolf and the person literally took a step back and said. 'Oh my gosh, I wasn't expecting that,' and in my head, I am going: 

Why would you expect anything less? There is work that goes into it. Again I don't use a laser. I am not a machine. This is all detailed with my woodburning pen by hand. And back in the day when I first started, I would have probably offered it for less. I would have probably charged $40, and a completely undercharged. The amount of work and skill is required to create these pieces.

And so, if you're listening, and you are an artist and a creative, and you're selling or want to be selling. You're going to get these responses of "Oh my  Gosh. I wasn't expecting that. Oh, No, that's too expensive and I would never pay for that. Why is it so much?" 

And if people don't want to pay for it, they can make it themselves that's literally in my head. You just figured I'd do it yourself. You can do it yourself and I'm fine with that.  I don't allow other people's opinions and projections about the price to get to me. I charge what I charge. It is what it is. It's a boundary that I've learned to set, and you know I'm a business. I'm not a charity. I'm not doing this for free. I've got bills to pay. I have that food that needs to be put on the table. 

It's a business. You're not gonna go to a department store and look like why is it so much. You're either going to decide to buy it or decide not to buy it.  It's that. And that goes for service-based businesses, too. If you're charging an X amount for hourly or your packages, whatever it is that you're offering like your business. You're not a charity. You're not offering things for free, so you've got to get into the mindset that people don't go to department stores like said challenged the prices within that space. They have a choice to decide on whether they're going to buy it or not right, and at same as with your product and your services.

People have a choice to either invest in working with you, to invest in your art, or invest in your books. I have different offerings at different prices. For that reason. I've got some low-priced items,  even in my services, I have some low-priced things that people can buy, and then I have some higher-priced items people can buy. The choice is theirs. I am not forcing their hand on anybody to buy my product, but I'm also not going to give a discount on things. Now have I've given discounts? Of course, I have, I actually give a percentage off for second/third-time buyers. You'll have to buy, and then you go a cart with a coupon code, like, there are things that I facilitate those relationships and invite them back to my business, but I'm not gonna be like. Oh, yeah, today's 25% off.  That's not happening.

You only get that after you may be bought. It's a marketing thing, just saying. And have I given discounts to family and friends, sure, but my friends also know the work I put into it and they may have realized that they have gotten it at a discount and some of them have not. It is not about whether I liked them or not.

If you're a customer or a person that attends events where artists are selling their work don't be shocked. Don't be shocked about the pricing we put hours upon hours into perfecting our art. I've been wood burning since 2005 that's quite a bit of time that I've invested into learning the skill and practicing the skill to the point where I'm just now feeling comfortable and teaching this at all.

So don't be shocked, and then if you are somebody that is selling their work, stay confidently with your pricing, like just know that you've put the work into mastering that skill, and you deserve to be paid. Whatever it is that you charge for your product and services.