Have you ever dreamed of quitting your job and becoming a full-time artist?
I mean you’re pretty good at making art, you could probably make a pretty good living with it, right?
Well more and more people are taking things into their own hands and starting online businesses, becoming freelancers, and getting smart about making a living.
But art is a bit different. Art isn’t just something you show up and do. Sometimes you create jaw-dropping and inspiring work. Other days you walk out of your studio frustrated, wanting to light a match, throw it over your shoulder, and torch the whole place.
So when you’re considering making money with your artwork, it is important to realize that being passionate about your art doesn’t necessarily translate into a successful business practice.
Sometimes your mission and your business are two different things.
Making Money vs. Doing What You Love
When it comes to making money, only one thing determines how much you make – how much value you bring to the market. Thats it. Period.
How much money you make is determined by how valuable you are to the market.
The market doesn’t care how passionate you are, how much time you put into making an amazing piece of art, or what kind of degree you have.
This means that what makes you money isn’t always going to be something you’re passionate about. Sometimes there is overlap, but not always.
The difference between the art industries and other industries is that making great art requires you to exert emotional labor. Its not only physically and mentally exhausting, its emotionally exhausting.
When you’re on the plane of inspiration, you’re pouring out all of your love, your passion, and your emotions into the project you’re working on. You do this because you want your audience to feel the same passion and intensity you felt when you were making the art.
Trying to make a living out of this is really difficult.
Thats why many artists turn to what Sean McCabe coined so brilliantly as The Overlap Method. You overlap your day-job and your passion, building your business on the in your spare time until eventually you don’t have to work your day-job anymore.
This method is really great because your bills are covered with your 9 to 5 job, and you have dedicated time each day to working on what you are passionate about. This gives you the freedom to experiment and try new things, without having the pressure of paying bills and trying to make ends meet.
If you want to learn more about this method then check out SeanWes.com where he talks about his new book Overlap (not an affiliate link).
I haven’t read the book, so I can’t attest to its quality, but I’m familiar with what Sean teaches and he is a great learning resource for any artist or young entrepreneur.
My Daily Schedule: Making A Living + Doing What I Love
For a while I was doing freelance work full-time. Though I enjoyed the freedom to control my own schedule, I realized that trying to earn 100% of my income through freelance work was more hurtful than it was helpful.
Each month I worried about if I would make enough money to pay my bills. If I didn’t think I would make enough, then I would be forced to take on projects I normally wouldn’t have taken just because I needed the money.
This led to frustration, poor-quality work, and a very unhappy Brandon (& probably unhappy clients).
So instead of trying to do it all by myself, I decided to get a day job that takes care of 100% of my expenses, and I dedicate my nights and weekends to building my art-business.
Here is a brief overview of my day:
6:00 AM – Wake up, write for 1 hour, do morning routine, and leave for work.
8:30 AM – Drive to work & listen to a business or marketing podcast. (Today it was Seth Godin’s Startup School, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in learning the basics of starting your own business.)
9:00 AM – Work as marketing developer for the property management company I’m working with.
11:45 AM – Edit blog post and brainstorm catchy headline. Post blog at noon and immediately share an update to instagram.
12:00 Noon – Eat lunch and spend the rest of the day finishing up marketing responsibilities.
5:00 PM – Clock out from work and work on client work, which can range from a $500 logo design to a $4,500 commission drawing. And I’m super thankful because my boss lets me stay late and use the office space.
~7:00 PM – Leave the office and go spend time with family and friends, or go skateboard and get exercise.
11:00 PM – Lights out.
This is by no means a perfect representation of my schedule, but its a good idea of what I’ve been doing for the last 6 months.
I’m also surprised to say that I’ve been more productive in the last 6 months than I ever was when I tried to do freelance work full-time. This is largely due to the fact that having a structured schedule helps me to maintain a healthy life balance. I have a time to clock in, I have a time to clock out, and everything else has to be fit around that schedule.
I share this with you in an effort to be helpful and transparent. Sometimes I take what I know for granted and forget that my unique point of view is actually incredibly valuable.
Even with my writing, fear and self-doubt try to creep in and scare me away. But like I mentioned in a previous blog post about overcoming your fear, I’m committed to hitting the “Post” button every single day so I can help as many artists as possible.
I hope this helps you to make sense of the business-art struggle.
Keep making great art!
-Brandon Mikel Paul
I’m in the process of building a course where I teach exactly how I use instagram to get commissions, so sign up for the email list and check back regularly for updates and to learn more about how you can use Instagram to level up your art career.
And if you have any questions then send me a message on Instagram @BrandonMikelPaul.
I do my best to reply to every single DM 🙂
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