How to Stop Procrastinating and Finally Price Your Artwork

Hey, it's Antrese, and welcome to another episode of the Savvy Painter Podcast. If you are new to the podcast, welcome. Super happy to have you here. If you're a longtime listener, welcome back. This is the podcast where I give you practical tactical ways of thinking so that you can create a meaningful art practice that not only fulfills you but supports you.

One of the things that I know a lot of artists need support on is in pricing their artwork. It's a big topic. I know it is a huge one. So in the last episode, I broke down pricing techniques. In this episode, we are going to talk about why the pricing technique that you use doesn't actually matter.

What's more important is that you pick one. Pricing your artwork, selling your artwork brings up a lot of icky feelings, I know. In this episode, I'm going to help you out with that.

Oh, and before I forget to mention it, I created a cheat sheet for you. If you haven't got that, the link for that is in the show notes. It's a quick little cheat sheet that breaks down all of the pricing methods that we talked about last week. Plus I give you access to an actual spreadsheet that you can just drop your pricing in and use right away. Super, super easy. Okay, so you can get that for free. Link is in the show notes or you can just go to savvyypainter.com/priceyourwork. Okay, let's jump in.

In the last episode of the Savvy Painter Podcast, I shared the most common methods of pricing your artwork. I've been working with artists for a very, very long time, so I know that we have drama about pricing. I'm going to give you some of the most common responses from artists in my very unscientific surveys over the last 12 years with this podcast.

But in that time, I've literally spoken to hundreds and hundreds of artists, probably thousands and thousands, I'm not sure, a lot, a lot, a lot. During that time, I have noticed that a lot of us, myself included at times, have some drama around pricing our art. We resist it. We don't want to do it. We don't know how to do it. That's what we tell ourselves at least.

It's the most common question I get, is how do I price my artwork? How do I know what to charge? What if people won't buy it at that price? These are all of the things that we get scared of, honestly. Pricing your work can feel really, really scary. Because a lot of us believe that we'll do it wrong. What if I get it wrong? The next question, when artists put a price on their work off and they're then thinking, “What if I get it wrong? Am I really worth that much? How do I know if I can charge that much? Is anyone going to pay that?” They also start thinking, “Well, if I put that price on there, then it just becomes really concrete. People will criticize me for that. They'll think that I'm charging too much. I'll make them feel bad if they can't afford it.”

Those are some of the things that artists have told me when it comes to pricing their work. Also, the big fear that nobody's going to want to buy my work because of the price, which inflates that whole concept of there's a way to do it wrong.

Those are some of the most common responses from artists that I've gotten when it comes to pricing their work. Here’s the truth, I’m going to just start off the podcast right away with this, and then we’re going to dive into it because I think this is really important. There is no right price. There is just the price that you make right. I want to let that sink in for just a second.

It's a tough one and I get a lot of pushback on it. I know if you're feeling resistant to this idea, stick with me. I've got you. We're going to dig into this. Buckle up ladies and gents, this is about to get real.

Just as a recap, in the last episode, I gave you some of the most popular methods for pricing your work. In fact, I made it even easier on you and I created a cheat sheet for that episode. If you didn't pick that up, just so you know, you can get it by going to savvypainter.com/price-your-work and I will drop that in the show notes for you so that you can just grab it. But it's savvypainter.com/price-your-work.

Let me make it even more complicated, shall I? It's in the show notes. Just go ahead and click on the link that's there for you. Okay, now you know how to price your work. Because you heard that episode and you've got this amazing download. But if I had to guess, I would say that some of that you probably knew already.

You probably knew or heard about some or maybe even all of those methods. The real problem was never that you didn't know how to price your work. The real problem is that you have some beliefs about selling your work that stop you from moving forward. Beliefs like, “I'm going to get it wrong.” Beliefs like, “If I don't get this right, then I'm going to be jinxed forever and ever and ever and ever. Amen.”

That's usually what we're thinking. But the thing is those beliefs, the idea that you don't know how to price your work, it's just a really convenient reason not to move forward. Because selling your work is scary. There is a lot attached to it.

Until you recognize that, you'll cling to this idea that not knowing is the thing that prevents you from selling, but really not pricing your work is just procrastinating on selling your work.

Sometimes “I don't know,” that sentence, those three little words that we repeat in our head very, very often as artists when things get scary, it feels like a life raft, when in fact it's actually just an anchor that's pulling you down.

“I don't know” feels safe when a part of you doesn't want to do something. I don't know how. I don't know if I can. I don't know if that'll work. Those are all ways that your brain tries to keep you safe.

If you don't know, you don't know. What can you do about that? Let's just unpack this a little bit. If I were coaching you, we might go deeper into some of your specifics, but because this is a podcast episode and not a coaching session, I'm going to keep it more general. But I think this is going to be really, really helpful for you.

In a broad sense, there are two kinds of “I don't know.” One is open and the other is closed. An open “I don't know” might have curiosity behind it. It's like, “I don't know, but I can find out. I don't know, but I'll figure it out. I don't know, but I can definitely ask.” A closed “I don't know” has a full stop behind it. It's a complete dead end.

Again, an open “I don't know” leads to a next step. It leads you to ask for help or Google it or try out an idea. The results of an open “I don't know” is empowerment. You have this feeling of curiosity and you are willing to take the next step, try something, ask for help, et cetera, et cetera.

A closed “I don't know” leads to zero action. A closed, “I don't know” leads to spinning in thoughts or rumination. It leads to spinning in worry, like, “What if I do it wrong? What if I change my mind? What if this isn't right? What if I make someone feel bad? What if I can't sell anything at that price?”

It's just what if, what if, what if and you just spin in that forever. It also leads to resignation. Sometimes a closed “I don't know” after all that worry, all that spinning, it just leads to, “I guess I just have to wait.” Or, “I guess I can't do anything right now.”

It's also known as the silent quit. You just stop right there. You don't say, “I'm going to quit,” but you're just like, “I can't move forward, so I'm not going to do anything.” It also leads to commiseration. Instead of doing something about it, instead of getting curious about it, we tend to want to talk to other artists who we know will jump in on that bandwagon and commiserate with us.

Again, we don't get to do anything. We're never going to call the people that might help. We're going to call the people who are going to commiserate in it. That's what a closed “I don't know” feels like and leads to. It's a zero-action “I don't know.”

It results in this feeling of helplessness or frustration. It's really important, this distinction, because recognizing the difference between the two of them, it allows you to shift if you're in a closed “I don't know.”

If you're thinking you don't know how to price your work, and the feeling you get from that is helplessness or frustration or anything along those lines, then I'd want to shift you out of that because feeling helpless is not fun. It's exactly the opposite of fun. It totally, totally sucks.

Now in this particular example, you have answers. You have the information on how to price your work because I gave it to you in the last episode and spoiler alert, I even made you a quick little spreadsheet that you can use to price your work right away. Super simple, easy-peasy, handed right to you.

But I know that some of you are still feeling stuck. Why? It's because you have a very healthy human brain that sometimes tries to stop you from doing things that it thinks are scary. Sometimes your brain will try to stop you from doing things that you actually want to do, AKA, you're just human.

Don't worry, I've got you and I will take you as far as I can in this podcast episode. Some of you might be thinking, “Okay, you told me how, but I still don't know what number to put in there.”

Notice again that your brain is just trying to tell you “I don't know.” It has just replaced "I don't know how" with "I don't know what." Here's what I want you to do. Pick a number. Any number. I promise you it will be okay.

I know I can hear you already. You're like, "But, Antrese, it can't be that easy. Come on." It is. It is. This is your brain trying to tell you that you will get it wrong. That you're going to make a catastrophic mistake that will follow you for the rest of your life. This is your brain, again, trying to stop you.

Some of you are going to imagine that you'll do it wrong and that there will be some type of consequence that you don't or that's going to destroy everything. Put another way, some of you are going to think that you can't do it because you're going to do it wrong, you're going to blame yourself.

Some of you are going to argue that it is so much more nuanced than that and Antrese has no idea what she's talking about. In other words, you're going to blame me and/or you're going to make it a lot more complicated than it is.

Totally get it. I'm right there with you, I promise. Even if you are blaming me, I'm right there with you. Some of you are going to argue that the art market won't tolerate that price and will think that people just don't buy art anymore. It's another way of saying, “This is not me, it's them, I don't have any control over it.” That is the most important piece of it. That with all of these, it feels like you have no control over it. So when you pick a number, you have something to work with.

I know it's scary, but here's the truth. There is no artist handbook that has an established set of rules that are going to make or break your art career. I know we all want that sometimes because we want an answer. Our brain just wants to say, “It says right here on page 563 that this is the proper way to price your work. I looked up on the roster and I found my name and I found today's date and this is what I should charge for it.”

That would be amazing, but it doesn't exist. There is no artist handbook to tell you what the rules are for this. So stated another way, you can't do it wrong because there are no rules. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is making it up as they go along.

For some of you, that might be really scary and for some of you, that might be really liberating, I'm here to show you how that is actually completely liberating. With that in mind, you are free and you have permission to put whatever price you want on your work.

I mentioned this in the last episode, but I want to mention it again here. This is my gut check on pricing, and I think it's highly effective, and it's also really important. It's very, very unscientific, but it goes like this: When you think about your price, if you look at that price and you imagine selling your artwork to somebody at that price, and the feeling that you get is, “I feel like I'm taking advantage of them,” then your price is probably a little bit too high.

But if you feel on the other hand like you're feeling resentful, you feel like you are the one who's being taken advantage of, then likely your price is too low. You're looking for something that realistically, in your gut is in the middle of that. You might feel a little bit scared if you're not used to selling your art, that's okay. That's different than feeling resentful or feeling guilty.

That's my very unscientific barometer that I use with a lot of the members of Growth Studio to just start the conversation. Just get you started thinking about, “How does this price feel? If you were to try it on, how does it feel?”

With that in mind, if you're looking at pricing your work, here are a few guidelines. Any of the methods that I gave you last week will work. Just pick a number. Here are a few guidelines I will also add to that.

Simple pricing is better than complex, especially when you're getting started. You just want to pick the simplest, easy way. If you don't believe in your pricing, your collector won't either. I think that's another really good guideline. That takes us back to that gut check.

If you don't believe in your pricing, your collector won't either because you're not going to be able to say it. You're going to stumble. You're going to act weird. In your head or in your heart, you're really nervous about it. If you don't believe in your pricing, your collector is going to interpret that in lots of different ways, and very few of them end up in them buying the piece from you.

Then the last guideline I would place on that is check yourself if you think that the reason a collector doesn't buy your work is because of the price. More often than not, the price doesn't have anything to do with why they didn't buy.

Oh, I know, right? Let me repeat that. More often than not, the price doesn't have anything to do with why they didn't buy your work. Hmm? Oh, my God. Did I just let an elephant in the room? I think I did. All right, I know that's a big one. I know the question is, “But then why?” Okay, here are the most common reasons. I'm going to list them out for you and I'm going to repeat that again because I know a lot of you hear it.

You think that your art's not selling because you made a mistake on the price. Again, this is why so many artists procrastinate so much on pricing their work. It's because actually selling it is scary because there's a lot to think about and it's so much easier to think that the reason my art's not selling is because there is a price somewhere that is the perfect price and if I just knew what that price was and I stuck that on my artwork, it would sell.

When I say more often than not, the price doesn't have anything to do with why they didn't buy, here are the most common reasons why they don't buy: wrong audience, no audience, confusing offer, no offer, a confusing website, meaning it's hard to navigate, or it's not clear how to buy.

Other reasons are they're not sure if they can trust you. They don't know you well enough. You haven't established a relationship with them. They're afraid of buying the wrong painting, AKA they're afraid of looking stupid. Or you're acting all weird.

Acting all weird means like, “Hi, I have this piece of art that maybe you would like to buy, and if it's okay, it's $500.” That's an extreme example of it, I know. There are lots of different ways that we act a little weird when we're talking about our work or talking about the price. What it does is it makes the other person feel just a little bit uncomfortable.

If they're a little bit uncomfortable, then they're probably not going to buy. I know, I know, I know, so many artists have a lot of feelings about that, but the root of it typically is you are not comfortable with your price and you're not comfortable saying it out loud. You're not comfortable saying, “I have a piece of work. It costs this much money, would you like to buy it?”

That will cause us to act all sorts of weird. When somebody that is trying to sell you something is acting all kinds of weird, usually what happens is you back off and don't buy. I know I'm saying the hard things right now, so if you're still listening, you're amazing.

This is why for a lot of artists, it's so much easier to just procrastinate on pricing your work. It's to not price your work, because if you're not pricing your work, then you can't even get to any of these other steps. For a lot of artists, it's so much easier to blame the price rather than to address those issues that I just mentioned.

That's why, subconsciously, many artists will take months or even years even to put a price on their work. Remember when I said that your brain is a healthy human brain? This is what I mean. This stuff is scary.

When you are afraid and when you are mentally painting these pictures of catastrophic events happening if you put a price on your work or you offer your work to sell or or somebody says no to your work or you put the wrong price in all of those things, all of those images that we bring up, your brain interprets that as danger.

When your brain feels like it's in danger, it will throw up all the roadblocks to keep you safe. Brains are going to brain. Your brain is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. So your job in this situation is to be on to yourself and to notice what is going on with pricing your work.

Start with the "I don't know" question. Is it open? Is it closed? Does it lead me to action or does it lead me to spinning out inaction? Those are really, really good clues that you have some limiting beliefs that are holding you back and it's an invitation to take a look at that and just start to notice “What is going on when I think about pricing my work? How am I feeling? Am I feeling open or am I feeling closed? Am I feeling curious and wanting to take my next best step or am I feeling like I just want to shut down and hide?”

That will tell you a lot. If it's the latter, then I would suggest doing some journaling on that, just really see, “What exactly is it that I am afraid of? What am I envisioning? How am I seeing this play out if somebody were to ask me how much is your work or if somebody was to ask me, ‘Hey, is this for sale?’” That will usually bring all this up.

Awareness is always, always, always the first step because if you're not aware of it, there's nothing you can do. If you're not aware of it, that limiting belief just keeps playing its old tape over and over and over again and you will continue to react to that accordingly. I know that I've given you a lot of information, a lot to think about in this episode, so I am going to leave it there for now. Have an amazing week and I will talk to you soon.

Hey, if you want to take what you are learning here on The Savvy Painter Podcast even further, join us in Growth Studio. This is where you will take what you've learned here on the podcast and apply it, practice it, and take these concepts from just good ideas that maybe you'll do someday to habits that become part of your practice. Growth Studio is a unique community of artists. We meet multiple times a week for live coaching, critiques, and demos. Just go to savvypainter.com/join.