How to Sell Creative Work without Wanting to Throw Up
Unlearning to Avoid Sales
There’s something that all artists and creatives who want to make a living from their creative work will face: sales.
And it’s a touchy subject.
So many artists want to avoid it. So many feel the nausea begin simply by thinking about it. And sadly, so many leave their dreams of leading creative careers behind because they believe that sales is simply not for them.
In a week when our inboxes are flooded with Black Friday mayhem, we might all have particular feelings about sales as consumers, too…
And this further makes us question our ability or desire to participate in this game.
But I feel the pull to tackle this topic head-on, because over the last few months I’ve been on my own exploration — and redefinition — of my relationship with sales.
When I started my business, I didn’t foresee an issue. After all, I have a business degree and a master’s in Entrepreneurship. I’ve marketed and sold things on behalf of companies before. So you’d think I’d be comfortable with sales.
Turns out, I wasn’t.
In fact, I was low-key terrified.
And I avoided it like a coughing child on the subway.
You see, it feels different when you’re selling on behalf of someone. Or selling a product that, while you might approve of, you’re not deeply invested in.
But when you’ve made something from the heart, an expression of who you are… when the thing you’re selling is, in essence, a part of you, it feels dramatically different.
Because a rejection of that thing you made feels like a rejection of you.
Which is a little crazy if you really think about it, since there are plenty of reasons why someone might not buy from you (and still like you).
But that’s how it can feel.
Vulnerable, threatening, and a little bit nauseating.
After hanging out in my brain for a while, trying to think my way out of this feeling, I tried something else.
I decided to accept how I was feeling in the moment; to make peace with it.
I decided I needed to move forward and try to sell anyway.
My key question was: How might I learn to sell my creative work, without wanting to throw up every time?
In the last several months,
I’ve learned from teachers, coaches and peers,
I’ve experimented through my own playful approaches,
I’ve failed at a number of launched offers,
I’ve intentionally reshaped my relationship with money,
I’ve worked on my own magnetism,
I’ve consistently increased my revenue (the last 2 months have been my highest earning months as an entrepreneur)
Here are three new lenses I have for sales that I’ve come to adopt:
1. Sales as experiment (selling like a scientist)
You can approach every offer and every sales process as a scientist might do in a lab. You have a hypothesis of what might happen, and you test that hypothesis. You are trying things out, observing and taking notes of any results.
Here, the most important thing is to follow your curiosity. You need to stay open to things not going as expected, while remaining committed to learning and applying those lessons to your next experiment.
By the way, the experimentation is not only about observing the tangible results, but also about observing your own inner experience as you run your experiments. For example, I might get results by posting on social media 3x a day, but I feel like crap doing it. So perhaps I run another experiment, where I run some paid ads and notice I feel more energised.
2. Sales as creative play (selling like an artist)
You can also approach your sales process like an artist (which you are!) You might come up with unconventional, creative ways to get the word out and sell your offers.
A few months ago, I challenged myself to do a 100 tiny acts to promote my work. But I swapped the long Excel sheets and project plans for cutting up colourful paper and used my fun markers to write my commitments to action.
I also love Amie Mcnee’s approach to selling her book with the help of her husband
And I’m sure there are countless ideas you can get inspired by in the internet by searching for “fun and unconventional” sales tactics. Here’s where ChatGPT might be a helpful partner as well ;)
3. Sales as service (selling like a fairy godmother)
Now, I know you might raise an eyebrow or two here. I certainly did when I first heard someone say, “Sales is service.”
“Suuuuureeeeee…” I thought, “A service to your own wallet!”
But over the past months, I’ve had to change my mind on this. Because I experienced something really insightful in my own programs. In one of my group programs, I sold a few seats and then gave a few seats for free to people I thought would be a great fit.
Now here’s the (perhaps in retrospect not-so-shocking) result: the people who bought a ticket to my program engaged far more, and got far more from the experience, than the people I gave a free ticket to. The paid clients were ultimately better served. Not by me, but by how they showed up.
I realized then that I mostly act the same way in my life. When I access free resources (e.g. courses, communities, etc.) I show up differently, with a much more diluted engagement than when I pay for similar experiences. It’s like paying for a personal trainer at the gym. Even though you technically have access to thousands of top-notch trainers for free on YouTube, you show up differently if you pay for a personal training hour at your local gym.
So, yes, selling something to someone is not just about valuing your own services. It’s about them valuing the time they invest with you, and energetically and intentionally saying, “this is important to me, and I will prioritize it”.
This comes with a key exception: I gave a scholarship ticket to someone who was proactive enough to ask, and they had to apply and write an essay on what they would get out of my program. This person also had the same commitment (or more) than the paid participants. This is to highlight that someone can “pay” in different ways when money is not readily available. But an exchange is needed for the full value to be delivered.
For all of the points above, however, something else needs to be worked on.
Non-Attachment
This is probably the most critical aspect to approach sales, both for external results and for internal ease.
When we are attached to an outcome, we are in a state of desperate clinging. It’s like being the person at the bar who is too keen and needy as they try to pick up a date. That’s not very attractive.
So you need to be able to confidently know that you are valuable and enough just as you are. And any sales are a cherry on top.
But this requires that you work on the beliefs you have about needing the sales.
Some examples:
I need this to sell so I can feel safe.
I need this to sell to prove my value.
I need this to sell to give me peace of mind.
I need this to sell so that I can pay my bills.
The reality is that all of these are beliefs that we feel in our bodies as objective facts in the moment we are showing up to promote and sell our work. And the energy of our clinginess, just like the energy of the person at the bar, is felt by your prospective clients.
If you want to work on dissolving any of these beliefs, I’m running a free workshop this Thursday where I’ll share tools to unlearn your limiting beliefs. See more details below.
Last but not least, I want to say that money and sales are tools. They hold no moral standings. They are neither a representation of evil nor our salvation. They’ve been invented by humans as a way to transfer energy and value. They are not the only tool to do that, but they are effective tools nonetheless.
So, as artists and creators, we can think of sales as simply a powerful tool to serve the people that most need our work. And we can have some fun along the way!
Thanks for being here.
It means the world.
With love,
Paula
Upcoming Events & Offers
The Power of Unlearning
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