The Weekly Glow Up: April 19, 2023

Apr 19

Here’s what I’ve got this week:

1. ☝️Reco: Where to Sell Your Digital Products

Later this month I’ll be hosting an artist happy hour where we’ll gab about digital products—but I’ll give you a sneak peek by sharing the platform where I’ve seen the most success (by FAR) selling digital products:

Design Cuts.

Design Cuts is an online marketplace similar to Creative Market that sells digital creative assets. They’ve got Photoshop mockups, Procreate brushes, fonts, templates, graphics, you name it.

But the thing they have that really sets them apart is how they give a damn about their members.

When you add a new product, they include it in bundles and help promote it so you get more sales.

They host workshops and trainings for artists to learn new skills (and showcase products available for sale).

They have charmingly British, very kind, thoughtful, and thorough customer service reps.

And I made more than 5x as much in sales on their site as I did on Creative Market.

Want to hear more about my experience with digital products and get feedback/ask questions about yours? Sign up for this month’s virtual artist happy hour!

2. 📙 Good Readin’: Stop Charging by the Hour

This post by Chris Do hits on pricing by value, not time.

If your business involves services (i.e. commissioned pieces, murals, menu chalkboards), do you charge an hourly rate, or a fee based on the value your client will get from the end product?

Charging by the hour punishes you for getting better at your job. As you grow your skills, you can usually complete a project faster—does it make sense for you to get paid LESS for that?

It’s not the amount of time that’s valuable, it’s the skill and expertise you’ve built up.

Getting paid by the hour is an antiquated way of doing business, IMO.

But if you HAVE to because that’s the only way the client will operate, figure out your value-based price FIRST and then divide it by the number of hours you think you’ll spend on the project to make sure you get what you're worth.

(P.S. I have a product coming out soon that helps you figure out EXACTLY what to charge to meet your income and profit goals for your biz… click here to be added to the waiting list and get an alert when it's available! 👀)

3. 🍵 Client Tea: Overcoming Perfectionism

The other day I had a call with a lettering artist who was struggling to launch a digital product.

She had the skills. She knew what steps to take. She still had to do a little research into the right platform, but that wasn’t the main issue either.

It was perfectionism.

As a creative, it’s hard to separate yourself from your work. It feels personal.

Which makes it that much harder to put it out into the world and open yourself up to feedback.

BUT, that feedback is actually really essential to running a successful business.

I’d even venture to say that if you put out something that “sucks” (note: it probably doesn’t actually), get feedback on it from the market, and use that feedback to improve and optimize your work…

…you’ll probably get to a better version of that product QUICKER than if you kept it to yourself, ruminated on it inside the echo chamber of your head, and kept making little tweaks before showing it to anyone else.

Here’s another way to look at it: you create products or services because they HELP people in some way, right?

So by never launching that product/service, or by waiting and waiting until it’s perfect, you’re actually doing a disservice to the person who could have been helped by it already.

So take a deep breath, let go, and put your “bad” work out there! (I promise it’s not nearly as bad as you think it is).

This is why mindset is a core component of my coaching program—all the skills in the world won’t matter if you can get your brain in a money-making mindset and let yourself actually sell your shit! 🧘🏼‍♀️😘

I did a mini-training on IG the other day where I taught an exercise I use to help me overcome perfectionism - watch it here (gotta be on my Close Friends list to see it, DM me/reply here if you want to be added!)

4. 📙 More Good Readin’: Starting an Art Business 101

If you’re just getting started down the path of creative entrepreneurship, give my latest blog post a read.

It’s a long one, but I broke down the 4 major things you need to think about when you’re considering turning your creative hobby into a money-making venture.

From the different products or services you can offer, to your marketing plan, to the tax & legal stuff, this should give you a good starting point!

Read it here.