Artist Dionne Woods created the business called The Turquoise Iris. She got her start painting furniture and then canvases, and she taught herself so much along the way. She’s now a pro at the details of an art business, like shipping your art, filming while making art, and finding experts when trying something new. Dionne now shares what she’s learned and coaches others through her membership groups. She has also created a digital magazine called The Turquoise Iris Journal and a podcast called Paint Talks.
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Dionne Woods
Dionne’s Website is called The Turquoise Iris. theturquoiseiris.com
She has three membership groups and they can be found under the Coaching tab on her website.
Her digital magazine is called The Turquoise Iris Journal and can be purchased from her website.
Dionne also has a podcast and it is called Paint Talks. You can reach it through her website or on most podcast apps.
She also can be found under the name The Turquoise Iris on:
And under Dionne Woods on:
Here are some great takeaways from our conversation:
- As you start selling your art, you’re going to need to learn things like the best way to package and ship your art. Dionne figured that out by researching many vendors who could ship her large furniture pieces. If you have business problems like this that you can’t figure out, see if you can find a business coach like Dionne who can teach you what she’s learned.
- When you’re still in the experimental stage of art making, use cheap brands of paints and other supplies to see what works for you. You can change to more expensive things as you get more experience.
- One way to find out if your art is any good is to put it on Pinterest or Instagram and see how people respond. That may give you the encouragement you need to keep going.
- It’s good to have different price points in what you are selling to appeal to different segments of the market.
- Realize that if you want to start posting videos of your techniques or creating classes, you have everything you need with a phone. You don’t need to invest in a lot of fancy equipment, you just need to get started.
- Membership groups are a great way to learn from an expert through videos, live tutorials and discussions, and comments. When you join, you gain access to the entire library of materials and you can use whichever ones apply to you.
- Starting your own group for others will also keep you accountable to them. Sometimes you need that accountability to make your own art, so why not do a Facebook or Instagram Live while you create and talk to other artists at the same time? If you’ve published a specific day and time, that will hold you to it.
- Doing videos on Facebook or Instagram or wherever, give your potential buyers a better idea of what you are like. They want to hear your voice and see you creating, and that will make them want to buy from you, whether it’s your art or a class.
- A great way to add content to your social media easily and quickly is to repurpose your content from somewhere else. For example, if you did a Facebook Live, save it and put it on YouTube. Then take a little piece of that and put it on Pinterest or Instagram.
