When you decide to sell your handmade products, one big change is that now instead of just making beautiful handmade items you have to market and sell them!
And for some people that’s a little unnerving, and you may feel intimidated or even a bit panicked and be wondering:
“Should I take the leap and sell my products if the thought of selling them makes me nervous?”
or
How do I sell my products without feeling like I’m selling my soul as an artist?
That’s a great question, and it’s exactly what this article is about!
So, ready? Let’s dive in.
I want to take a quick minute to distinguish between fear of selling your products and hating the actual marketing of your products – these things are similar, but different.
Marketing brings in your sales, right? And you may not like marketing, or you might feel uncomfortable marketing, and that’s a very common feeling I see when working with makers. But that isn’t what we’re talking about today – I’m actually going to be talking about what to do if you hate marketing in next week’s article so you will want to be sure to subscribe if you would like to watch that when it comes out in the future.
Fear of selling doesn’t have to do with marketing your products and trying to convince people to buy them, it’s a bit more of an emotional reaction that you may be experiencing as you consider if you want to take the plunge and try and sell your products online and try to make money selling your art or craft – and that’s what I want to talk to you about today.
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There are three main reasons why you might be afraid of selling your products.
The first one is that you’re scared that this could actually work. And so it’s putting a little bowtie around your fear and acknowledging this fear of success — because if your marketing actually works, people are going to come and visit your social media, they’re going to come and visit your store, they may even BUY some products — oh my God, can you imagine?
And then you will actually be making money doing something you love. And even though it might sound a little bizarre that you wouldn’t want that success – because isn’t that exactly what you want? – we do have to recognize that a lot of us have some embedded beliefs around money and the way we make money . . . this feeling that you need to suffer at work to make money, or that making money from your art takes away from the art because of the whole starving artist/maker myth. And so it can be hard sometimes for your brain to get comfortable with this new concept that you could be making money doing something you actually enjoy.
There is also – from the creative heart and a creative soul – the fear of people seeing your creative work. It won’t be a secret thing anymore that you just do at home. If you market it successfully, lots of people will see your products (Thousands! Tens of thousands!) and the thought of it all can be quite scary.
I’m sure you’ve been told by your family and your friends that your art or handmade products are wonderful and amazing, and they’ve all encouraged you to start selling them. But we all have that little voice in our heart that whispers “what if people don’t like my products?”
And it can be hard to gather up the courage to take that leap and sell your handmade products.
The third reason you might not like the idea of selling your products is kind of an extension of fearing what people think, but it’s fearing failure — you’re scared that you’re going to put your products out there and they’re not going to sell, or no one is going to find your products – and then you’re going to feel like “Oh my God, I’m such a failure,” right?
So let’s talk about overcoming each of these fears.
Overcoming your fear of success, your fear of what people will think, and your fear of failure takes some “inner work” – it’s not about learning what to do or not to do, it’s more of an introspective process.
First you need to ask yourself, and really think about, what your deeply embedded beliefs are around making sales, making money, showing your work, your worth as artist and creator – all those things – and be really honest with yourself about what you really mean by “I hate selling”.
Let go of negative associations and beliefs, and remind yourself that those beliefs have created a reality in which you’re NOT currently selling your work successfully. To change that, and create a new reality, you’re going to have to work from a completely new set of beliefs.
Look around at designers, artists, and makers you like… how do you feel when they sell? How do you feel about the fact they make money? Are you happy for them, and inspired? Why can you feel this way about them but not about yourself?
This is the mindset change you need to have, to view your products – and the idea of selling your products and making money – in the same positive light that you do when you think of other successful makers.
Once you do that, it becomes easier to remove your ego from the equation – as in remove your self-worth from the equation of what if people don’t like my products, or what if my products don’t sell.
By facing your fears and changing your mindset, you can start making and selling your products and detach yourself from the result.
Once you have done that work and have a more positive (or at least neutral!) mindset about selling, there is another barrier many makers encounter when selling their handmade products, and that is feeling uncomfortable (or if we’re being honest, absolutely hating) marketing your products – you can read all about it here.
Thanks for reading, and until next time, aurevoir!
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