Why do most artists fail in their marketing efforts and fall into a vicious cycle of starting and stopping?

Most artists fall into a destructive pattern: they create a body of work because they’re inspired and love creating, but then not enough work gets done to actually get that work in front of enough eyeballs to see if it will sell. Then they stop, take a break, get bored with that old body of work, and move on to create the next body of work. This cycle repeats endlessly. It’s like the New Year’s resolution phenomenon—you sign up for the gym in January, go four days a week initially, but by March you haven’t been once. The problem is artists focus on the wrong question. Instead of asking ‘What will my business look like in 3, 6, or 9 months?’ they should ask ‘What will my business look like in 5 years?’ When you understand you’ll be doing this for the next 20-70 years of your life, it changes your perspective on the importance of consistency.

---

Asked by synthesized from teaching · Answered by Patrick · Art Business Webinar · 2026-05-22