Most Artists Struggle to Get Their Art Seen.
We created programs to help artists build their audience, so they can sell more art and become known in the art world.Are you frustrated that you don’t have a gallery representing you?
More importantly, are you frustrated that galleries won’t even view your portfolio?
Are you spending more time managing your art career than actually creating art?
Are you struggling to find new collectors for your work?
Does marketing your art or creative endeavor get you down?
Do you feel isolated and alone with running your creative endeavors?
Being an artist, or pursuing any creative or business endeavor is challenging. There’s a lot to handle. I know, I’ve been there, I know what it feels like to start from scratch.
Let me explain…
My Story
After spending the first eight years of my adult life in Sydney, Australia, dabbling in music and business, I relocated to the United States, where I began my entrepreneurial journey.
When I first arrived, I was fortunate to meet someone who gave me a job in a recording studio in Hollywood. It was a wonderful experience that gave me the opportunity to work with some of the world’s greatest songwriters and musicians.
I loved working in the studio, and I thought I’d hit the jackpot doing what I loved, working with people I grew up listening to as a kid, like Frankie Vali and Bob Gaudio from The Four Seasons. Bob either wrote or co-wrote most of the Four Seasons hits like Big Girls Don’t Cry, Sherry, Walk Like a Man and Can’t Take My Eyes Off You. I also worked with luminaries such as Philip Bailey from Earth, Wind and Fire, Jerry Corbetta who wrote Green-Eyed Lady, Jim West from Weird Al Jankovic fame, and many more.
It was a dream job, and I loved working with these talented artists. It was something I could not have imagined growing up in Sydney.
A Shift… New Opportunities
While I loved what I was doing in the studio, I quickly learned that making a good living was going to be a challenge. I was struggling to make ends meet and wanted much more for myself, so I tried to figure out what I could do to earn extra money.
Around that time, Apple started to release its Macintosh line of computers. I picked up a Macintosh SE computer and immediately fell in love with it. I would stay up night and day learning how to use it, and any software applications I could get my hands on. I started to learn a program called Aldus Pagemaker (now Adobe InDesign) and Adobe Photoshop. In my spare time, I taught myself how to design with these tools.
It got to the point where I felt I was good enough that I could start to market my new talents.
Through a friend, I was invited to come to a local Chamber of Commerce breakfast networking meeting. This opened my eyes to the value of networking, and how these people supported each other’s businesses. Through this opportunity I decided to join the Chamber of Commerce and started going to regular meetings. It took a while, but after I showed up every week for several months, people started to feel comfortable giving me leads for potential new business. I finally got some referrals and started designing stationery, flyers, brochures and other materials for all types of companies.
Eventually, this gave me the confidence to set up an official business and start my entrepreneurial journey in earnest.
A New Beginning
About a year after I began attending these meetings, I met a woman, who changed the course of my life.
Diana was a marketing consultant. One of her clients was a shopping center developer who was building a large shopping center in Burbank, California. She needed someone to design the shopping center’s marketing materials. Diana invited me to a lunch where we discussed what the company needed, and I presented some samples of my work. I was thriilled when I got the project and started on my new journey.
Because of this project, I had so much work that I made the tough decision to leave the recording studio and concentrate 100 percent on serving this client and building my design business.
During the next couple of years, Diana gave me more projects, including developing marketing materials for several shopping centers throughout Southern California. My business grew and grew, and I had to start hiring people to help me. I expanded my services to include not only design, but also marketing. When the Internet became a force in 1994, I added interactive, web design and the hosting of websites.
In a way, my work in the recording studio was my initial foray into entrepreneurship, but I saw this as the stepping stone into my true journey.
My Entrepreneurial Journey
Over the past 30 years I have made a living as a musician, studio engineer, graphic designer, agency owner, event and festival producer and publisher.
I had the privilege of creating work for advertising agencies and major brands, including the Australian Tourism Commission, Bandai, Dentsu, J. Walter Thompson, Dun & Bradstreet, Flemings Steakhouse, Outback Steakhouse, Hearst Magazines, Jack in the Box, Los Angeles Times, Oliver Peoples, UCLA, Univision and many more.
I have worked with hundreds of artists and entrepreneurs, and have designed and published dozens of catalogs and artist books.
I currently publish an art magazine, run an art gallery, organize art fairs, and also run a social media and digital marketing agency for creatives.
Through my entrepreneurial journey and experiences, I have built several businesses in the fields of music, film, animation, business, publishing and the arts. I am familiar with all aspects of building a business, and an artist’s career, and what it takes to build a brand and platform from scratch. I’m pleased to have done so many times over.
My mission is to bring this experience to your journey and give you the clarity, courage, and tools you need to succeed in your creative endeavors.