5 Mistakes Artists Make When Talking About Their Work

It’s not enough to make great work, you also have to show it to the people. And before you get the chance to show it, you have to learn to talk about it. Whether it’s orally at a networking event or in writing in a pitch email, you have to present yourself and your project well, or you’ll never get the connections and backing you need to get it off the ground. Unfortunately, most people don’t feel comfortable talking about their work at all. Here’s some of the most common pitfalls and tips to overcome them.

Book Notes: The Confidence Code

Confidence is a big issue. It’s taken on an almost magical quality. It’s definitely a buzzword. It makes things happen, makes people want to be near you, makes entering that roomful of strangers a breeze, right? Well, not necessarily. Confidence is often confused with extroversion, self-esteem, self-worth, and unfortunately with arrogance. So what IS confidence? And how do artists strengthen their confidence?

5 Things Artists Do to Sabotage Their Career

I’m an Art Director, and it’s part of the job to evaluate artists. I’ve seen a lot of artists succeed…and a lot more drop out of the professional art world. There are patterns that are easy to see from my perspective that are more difficult for freelance artists to recognize, so I’ve listed the top 5 ways that artists sabotage themselves here. Are you sabotaging your career?

Artist Therapy: Confidence

Confident people just seem to have permission to do more, safe in the belief that it’ll turn out ok. People who aren’t confident watch in envy and are convinced that they could never move so easily in the world. Well I’m here to tell you one very important thing: there’s no such thing as confident people — no one feels confident all the time (those people are either arrogant or delusional). Confident people are exactly the same as insecure people, they’ve just figured out one really important lesson.