PK 026: Yamile Yemoonyah on Turning Making Art Into Making a Decent Living

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Yamile helps artists realize their dreams through innovative methods and a unique approach

“If you’re passionate about your art and have that
all-important fire in your belly, we can help!”

How can artists turn doing what they love into actually making a decent living? It’s just one of the questions that prompted Yamile Yemoonyah to become what she describes as a ‘business coach for artists’ after setting up her first website in 2008.

But wait…what does making art have to do with business? And is it even possible to market your art without being salesy and feeling kinda sleazy or icky?

Yamile passionately thinks so, and she’s already helped countless artists do just that.

In this podcast interview, she talks about what inspires her and how you as an artist can make serious money just by visualizing your goals and learning how to market your work in the right way.

How did Yamile Start Helping Artists Make Money?

Yamile set up her own website in 2008, at a time when few other artists were doing this. After teaching herself how to create an awesome site in WordPress, she soon found that fellow creatives were asking for her help in setting up their own.

As she delved deeper into the world of online marketing, she soon realized that just having a website wasn’t enough.

How many of you have had the same experience? You set up your site and make it look awesome…and then nobody visits your pages. Frustrating and disheartening, right?

That’s what Yamile found too. It’s why she started learning about things like:

  • SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – how to get your website seen in Google search results
  • Marketing techniques for artists
  • Blog posts
  • Social media

When she spoke to many artists, she found that most of them hadn’t thought too much about actively selling their art. However, nearly all of them were curious about promoting themselves online and selling their work.

Before too long, Yamile found herself devising all kinds of ways in which artists can make money from doing what they love. And we’re not just talking making a modest living here – we’re talking about raising your goals as high as you think is possible.

How Can Artists Make Money From Their Work?

Yamile has a unique way of getting artists to market their work more effectively.
Basically, you need to think about your business as a work of art.

How does this work? Think about when you first start a project. You’ve got an idea in mind of how it’s going to turn out, and what you need to do in order to make this happen.
Now think about applying the same approach to marketing your art business and actually making some money from it!

It’s all about changing your mindset, and Yamile has got some great ideas for doing this. In fact, she’s seen many of the artists she’s helped get awesome results from following her lead.

For example, if you’re a painter why not think about other ways to sell your work? As well as selling your actual paintings, you could be getting it printed onto more affordable postcards or prints. Some of her clients have had their work printed onto mobile phone covers, cups, plates and even bed linen!

She also encourages artists to create personal to-do lists and devote a little time each and every day to developing your art business. A great way to do this is to use Trello – a free and super user-friendly app which helps you organize all your important stuff.

Yamile is about to launch a new 30-day course, The Art of Selling Art Online, which will give artists all the tools they need to build a successful creative business through one lesson each day.

And do you know what’s even better? She’s offering five Pencil Kings podcast listeners a 33% discount off her course!

Simply go to her site today and sign up using the discount code PencilKingsHooray

As she says: “If you’re passionate about your art and have that all-important fire in your belly, we can help!”

Sound good?

Listen to this week’s show and learn:

  • Why it’s OK to see your art as a business
  • Why it’s important to visualize your goals
  • How to finally make money from doing what you love

People on this Episode:

Mitch
Yamile

Mentioned in the episode:

Yamile’s Website
Yamile on Facebook
Yamile on Twitter
Yamile on Pinterest
Yamile on Google +

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Thanks for listening to our show! We’ll be back next Wednesday morning 8AM EST.

Cheers,

Mitch

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