How should artists think about marketing as part of their career?

Marketing is your second vocation, your second craft that requires just as much practice, dedication, and time as creating your art. Just like your art-making train, your marketing train will sometimes go fast, sometimes crawl, and sometimes feel derailed—all of that is normal. You’re not supposed to like marketing at first, but in time it becomes fun when you apply your creativity to it and figure out how to leverage social media and other channels to get the word out about your work. Marketing can and will become a beautiful thing if you apply your creativity to it and stay consistent. You must realize that there is no one out there who will effectively market your art for you in any way that helps you build a real business. This second train is just as important as the first, and both need constant forward momentum with no brakes.

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Asked by general teaching point · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2023-07-19