The Black Friday Sale-a-thon Solution

The sprint to garner sales during this week of the year is something that used to really rub me the wrong way. 

I've hated commercials since I was a child, to the point of having angry spaz sessions when they would come on, and- I dunno- I've always been frustrated at the idea that we're subject to the bombardment and conditioning of media no one really asked for.

I think I'm what psychologists would call oppositionally defiant, especially when it comes to the subject of like, marketing and ads. 

I'd see a lot of people fake performing for their bag and -before understanding and doing some of the same things myself - it would just irritate and bother me. I know I'm supposed to be an unbothered and moisturized capybara or whatever, but my instinct towards this week of the year was aggression and scoffing and mild disgust and the urge to either not participate (to my own detriment) or do something 'different'.

BUT

I've come to realize that feeling that way about something I don't have the power to change is a fool's errand and a major distraction draining me of my energy and focus. 

So sits this week's entry about my journey from angst, to reluctant participant. to finding my own little way of marketing that doesn't feel inauthentic or performative. 

I've sketched a rough outline of being triggered by marketing. I'm sure at least someone reading this feels the same way.

I started making art with little to no idea of turning it into a business. Initially it was an automatic and subconscious way to work through buried feelings and a truly rough patch in my life where I had become disillusioned with relationships and my trajectory. 

I imagine most artists feel the same. And there are plenty of people seeing that and building courses and subscriptions and whole industries promising to solve the problem of your creative brain not wanting to deal with the administrative slog of figuring out how to sell things online. Anyone tried those? Do they actually work?

When I started making images way back in 2010, I never thought I'd be thinking of creative ways to get people into my store and buying my work. Never thought I'd be considering trend-jacking to boost sales or giving discounts and doing what everyone else is doing so as to make a little bit of money this time of year. I never thought I'd essentially be considering making ads. 

Maybe for like the past 7 or 8 years I've tried the old song and dance on social media with very little success. I knew I needed to at least attempt to sell my work online but as we all know, mentioning sales drives your reach into a black hole.

I even signed up to work with an ad company in 2022. Long story short- it was super expensive, they gave me a group of interns who's ads weren't aligned with what I was going for after multiple requests to change and it did not work. 

Last year, though, I tried e-mailing you all and I actually made 3 sales. And they were fairly large sales too.  Let me tell ya- the difference between three sales and none is astronomical. Well, it's actually just 3x more -but psychologically- it's a whole new universe. 

So, here's the full transparent truth about these blogs and emails- they are not only a way to express ideas and parts of my self to you, but I also hypothesize that they will convince you to support the artistic work I do. 

I'm marketing this way because I've realized that 1. marketing is necessary to stay in business and 2. it's the only way I'd want to be advertised to, myself. Fully opt-in, mostly just ideas and updates when I have something new to offer. 

Now, all the gurus will say that you shouldn't market in a way that you want but in a way that your ideal customer would want. And, I'm sorry, but that would be inauthentic and I'd probably just miss the mark anyway. 

I hope this style of marketing resonates with you and you'll consider grabbing some art that will last a lifetime over a product from a mega-corporation that might bring a few moments of a high and fade over time.

So, I'll end this entry with the classic Black Friday sales pitch: as a reward for subscribing to these newsletters you get 25% off your ENTIRE order until 12/2/25 at 11:59pm MST.

No discount coded needed if you're signed up to my emails.  It will apply automatically at checkout. Thank you and have a lovely week!