Dear Creative Ones,

One of the frequent questions I get about opening an online shop for your photography, art, or for that matter literally anything, is ‘Is it right for me?’ ‘Is it easy?’ ‘How long will it take before I will start earning money?’ And the list goes on…

In this blog, I talk about what having a successful online shop involves. 

Online shops aren’t for everyone, they aren’t a get-rich-quick program where you just upload your art or product and bingo, you are selling. 

Just like a real shop, an online shop requires time, love, energy, marketing, promotions, and creativity. 

You know how your local shop changes their mannequins and clothes each week, creates a whole new look for Summer or Winter, and has a party to launch something new, an online shop requires the same sort of creativity and love. 

The selling and marketing of an online shop depends on different pieces of the puzzle and how many of them you may have in place and how many others you are willing to put in place. You also need to know ‘why’ you want to do this. What is your reason for having an online shop?

My publisher once spoke at a workshop of mine in relation to publishing a book and she asked people, ‘Do you like this idea enough to live with it for 3-4 years?’ Publishing a book isn’t about just making the words and the photos, after you have passed this to the publisher then comes the editing, the layout, the backwards and forwards over the fine detail, then comes the launch, the promotion, and the interviews. 

Writing a book is no longer just a solitary exercise.

This is a question I believe you should ask yourself when considering opening an online shop. Do I love this idea enough to do it for the coming years?

In my humble opinion, opening an online shop is for those people who are good at what they do and love creating their work, have a fire inside, want to make a career out of it or it to be part of a bigger picture they have for their future. 

It’s for the folks that want to be doing what they do in years to come, they want to build a solid business and they want a place they can direct people to complete a sale. 

They want to ‘expand’ what they do and the great thing about this mindset is that all sorts of opportunities can open up for you when you decide to share your work with the world. 

When you open yourself up to new opportunities, who knows what incredible relationships you will build, whether it will not only lead to selling your work but maybe publishing a book, encouraging you to have an exhibition, or seeing your work in one of your favourite bricks and mortar stores.

That’s what I wanted when I pressed the publish button on my online shop almost 7 years ago, I wanted to create my own work and sell it. I wanted it to be part of the mix that would allow me the freedom to keep creating, and exploring what brings me joy. 

I hope to share with you in the coming weeks stories of other creatives and how they have created their own shops and created a life they once dreamed about.

If you would like to know more about selling your work online, you can access my free masterclass here.

Carla x

P.S. If you want to know more about setting up an online shop and selling your art or photography online, join my Free Workshop here.

This is one of the most frequent questions I have been asked throughout the past twenty years. 

Is it good enough to publish? Is it good enough to exhibit? Is it good enough to sell? Is it good enough to call myself a photographer or artist? 

When is your work good enough? In this video, I discuss the delicate path to loving your work, believing in it, and knowing when it is good enough to share with the world no matter what it is you want to do.

I also discuss when not to share it, when you need to continue to work on it, to keep it private and in which direction to take it. 

I’d love to hear what you think.

Carla x

P.S. If you want to know more about selling your art or photography online, you can watch my FREE 1-hour workshop.

Image Credits: Left, Photo by @berkeley.interiors and @hannahpuechmarin on Instagram; Right, Photo from @formanpictureframing on Instagram.

Dear Creatives, one of the biggest mistakes creatives make is that they cringe or feel they need to be salesy to sell their photography online like a telesales person with a ‘comb over’ flogging a set of free steak knives. This holds them back from launching their glorious work out into the world.

I would like to help you make a couple of mindset shifts around this as it’s one of the primary reasons that hold creatives back from selling their work. I have learned thanks to all the beautiful feedback from my clients that sharing my work with them has brought all sorts of emotions to their lives and walls. Some tell me they feel good every time they walk past their image, it inspires them to be brave or book a ticket to a new destination, to continue with their creativity or dreams, to feel pride and joy in their room, or simply to feel calm.

Here are some myths when it comes to selling your artwork and how you can switch your mindset:

1. Myth – You are ‘taking’ people’s money

Firstly, sweet soul, you are not taking people’s money, you are creating an energetic exchange and they are receiving something for their money that will bring immense joy, pleasure, make them feel good about themselves or their home, allow them to dream, be transported to another place, to beautify their space, to be brave, to believe in themselves and numerous other emotions. When we are creating a home one of the most important and exciting choices we make is what to put on our walls. A house or a space isn’t a home till the art is in place.

Mindset shift: Switch the focus off YOU and onto THEM. Move away from the ‘taking’ mindset and into the ‘giving’ mindset. It’s not about YOU, it’s about helping THEM. You are creating an ‘edit’ of work they will love, particularly if you understand who your ideal client is and you are making their job of finding that type of work easy. You are ‘giving’ joy, beauty, a vision and a style and they are willing to exchange money for it.

Image Credit: From the gallery of Forman Art & Framing in Australia. Instagram: @formanpictureframing

2. Myth – You have to be good at ‘sales’ to sell your work

No, in fact the less you try and ‘sell’ the more sales you make. What, you say? You don’t have to be salesy, you need to have work they want and that you and they feel an emotional connection to the work.

Mindset shift: Facts tell, stories sell. Tell them a story or let your work tell the story. Bowl them over with beauty or a tell them a story about why you created the work, behind the scenes of creating the work, what the work means to you, who you created the work for, what is your process, why you have chosen this subject or any other titbit that will connect them to your work. Remember the person who is interested in your work will have a lot in common with you. The more you have fun with it and let go of the angst of selling, the more sales you will see come in.

Image Credit: From the gallery of Forman Art & Framing in Australia. Instagram: @formanpictureframing

3. Myth – Nobody would want your work!

This my dear folks is a limiting belief and as long as you believe this then probably nobody will want your work. Limiting beliefs are subconscious programming that runs in the background of our lives and no matter how many times we think we want a certain outcome your true energy doesn’t show this. You are energetically screaming to the world a story of ‘lack’. Kind of like having one foot on the accelerator and the other on the brake, ‘I want this’ but ‘it’s never going to happen!’

Mindset shift: Firstly know there is a market for everything. You need to be the first person that believes your work is worthy. You need to be in a place where you are proud and excited about the work you have created and be willing to put it out into the world. Check your energy, get good at understanding how you really feel instead of what you think. If your body feels off, ask yourself ‘what’s it about?’ Get good at understanding when you feel lack and switch it to abundance. That can be simply by sitting with true gratitude for what you have, see how far you have come, what you have today in your hands and know the more you feel gratitude, joy and contentment that the good stuff is one the way

I hope these three shifts help you have the courage to share your work with the world.

Love and light

Carla

P.S.: If you would like to learn more about selling your photography and art online, you can watch my FREE training here.

Hello Creative Ones, Creating a body of work or ‘photography series’ that stands out is the first step to selling your work and having a successful online shop. Many people when they start a shop put together a bunch of their favourite images that have no connection at all, and this is OK. 

It’s a normal way to start.

Creating a photography series does three important things:

By creating a strong connection between your images or creating a ‘photography series’ from scratch, your work starts to stand out. 

You start to create your own USP, or as the marketers call it, your Unique Selling Proposition, by finding your own unique space in the photographic or art market. 

When you start to stand out the more you are willing to be fully you and the less competition you have. 

A USP  is literally something that only you have.

One of the things I see people doing all the time in business and in online shops is not digging into their creativity enough to enhance their USP or to allow the full expression of their creativity to help them stand out from the crowd. Often I see ‘cookie cutter’ creativity where it is hard to tell one photographer from the other. I love it when I find a photographer or artist that feels like they have tapped into their true creativity, by bringing different elements they like together to create an exciting body of work that is uniquely theirs.

Tapping into your creativity, pushing it, daring it, allowing yourself to do what you love, asking yourself the deeper questions, getting a stronger message, being more aligned with your true values, and having the courage to bring that into your marketing, your message, your branding, your product and services, means that you immediately have a stronger USP.

Your alignment WITH your creativity is your greatest USP.

Alignment is a fancy word for doing what resonates with you at your core, what brings you joy, makes you happy, comes without an enormous effort of pushing against life and that you would almost be doing anyway, even if there wasn’t money involved.

 Why start with your creativity? Well, often in creative businesses, people pick out their ideal client first and then build a business or a creative product or service around that person. So they are starting from the outside and then accommodating what they think that client might like or need.

I’m going to invite you to switch it around. When you start with what you love, what you would do even if you weren’t being paid for it, then you literally are at the same time creating your ideal client.

WHAT YOU HAVE, NOBODY ELSE HAS.

You are a splendid unique human being and the way you see the world, the way you think, feel, love, work, play, the conversations you have with yourself and your life experiences, are uniquely yours.

YOU ARE ONE OF A KIND and that is what makes you so special and that is why if you dig into your creativity it will NEVER be like someone else’s. It can’t be. It is uniquely yours. 

THIS IS YOUR GOLD!

It’s something I tell every client I have ever worked with.

The goal is to look inwards at what is inside of you: the joy, the pain, the experiences, the light, the colours, the stories and the thoughts.

It is only when we continually look to others that we make a mistake. We have all the information as a base inside of us to create something that is unique to us. Just add skills, technique, and practice, and you can create whatever it is you want in life.

In the process of learning, there is a part in all of us that needs to copy in order to see how things are done or to understand a process. All the great painters painted the masters to learn certain techniques.

However, there comes a day when you have the technique down and that is when you need to stop looking outwards, rather go inwards and use ‘your story’ or for those that are intimidated by this concept ‘the stuff you like’. Use what is inside of you and what is uniquely yours to create. Allow yourself to be attracted to what you like, no questions asked.

It might be that you hear music in a certain way or you are attracted to certain colours, shapes or a particular era.

Perhaps you come from a faraway land where the colours are special and trees are a particular shape or you have a vocabulary that is rich or you are attracted to a certain era in history. You may be romantic or incredibly modern, soft and sweet, or organized and structured. You may be altruistic and believe in causes or be all about getting down to business.

It doesn’t matter, what matters is that you don’t judge it! Instead, you can use it, focus on it, and believe in it.

YOU MAY THINK THIS ISN’T ENOUGH, IT’S NOT ORIGINAL ENOUGH AND THAT IS YOUR BIGGEST MISTAKE!

All of this can inspire and be woven into your creativity and work and an eventual photography series.

What it takes is to give yourself permission and believe that what you love, others will love too. Creating at your highest level is about really trusting yourself and your vision.

When you are operating from the outside, you are operating from a weaker less authentic place. Developing faith in your creativity is the key.

So, my loves, believe in your creativity, start there, go deep and have fun and you will be creating work that is truly yours.

Love and light,

Carla x

P.S. If you would like to learn more about selling your photography series or art online, you can watch my FREE WEBINAR HERE.