Ep 1 How to consistently post on social media as an artist

TRANSCRIPT:

Small favour before we start today, as you know, podcasts generally grow by word of mouth, right? So if you know any artists who could use this podcast or benefit from listening to some of the stuff on the show, please message it to them or share it on your social media pages.

This would mean the world to me. All right. I appreciate you guys. Let’s get this podcast started!

Welcome at “Making a living from your art.” this is Elie Castonguay, and I am your host for this new brand new podcast that I’ve been postponing for a while. 

I’ve been coaching artists for a couple of years now and through the pandemic and helping so many people, I always wanted to start this podcast, but I was never, organized enough to start it. 

So I’m really happy to actually start this first episode in my car. just read, Russell Brunson expert secrets book. And this is where he talks about how he started his, sorry, his own podcast, during his commute to work. So I’m doing the same thing this morning. I don’t know if the sound is good or not, but it’s going to be the first episode. 

And as he mentioned in his book, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Actually. We don’t want it to be perfect because this is a podcast, real life, in the making content, you know? So anyway, so good morning to you. 

I don’t know if you’re listening this to your, in your car this morning or later or whatever date you’re listening to. I’m glad that you’re here and that you’re listening to this making a living from your art podcast. 

So actually, this morning, I wanted to talk about, getting organized because this, this was my main problem. and it still is. I mean, nobody’s perfect still, and this is still a problem for me. 

As I have so many things that I want to do as an entrepreneur. And my, my main goal in life is to help millions of artists. Like this is my main purpose, helping artists, making a living from their art.

So that’s why I named this podcast, that name. So, and this is like my main, main problem to be able to do all the stuff that I want to do, without being overwhelmed by all the stuff that I want to do. 

So, one thing that always helped me in the past was when I was making really good schedules, personally, what works best for me is, like, schedules that come back every week that are the same. 

Of course, depending if you’re an artist, gigs come and go and the time is not always the same, but you don’t work like 80 hours a week, being on stage or painting, or then like you practice, you do promotion, you make sales, you do admin work. 

You know, you do social media, all of that jazz. So if you’re able to use all these tasks that could be put in a schedule, like in a regular constant, like same time, same day schedule, that’s what helped me get more s*** done or things done. 

(Sorry, sometimes I curse or I use bad words. my main language is french so. I love to use curse words and English. That’s one of my hobbies!)

So anyway, so, you know, let’s say that you want to do social media and you don’t. You’re like, oh, I’m not good at this. I never followed through. And I’m like, oh, I should do more. And I know my friends told me that everyone, every time I post, they love it. 

They like it, whatever. so the best way of being able to do this is to first don’t put any time on the schedule, just give you a challenge, give yourself a challenge for two months straight, give yourself a challenge of posting something every day or two. Like it doesn’t have to be perfect. 

You can even skip a day or two if you want, but the challenge to be consistent or constant during two months. So 60 days, do this and you will be amazed at how many people will actually tell you. And it can be anything about your art. It can be all, it can even be like personal stuff if you want, but mainly like let’s say 80% on your art, 20% personal stuff, like family, travel, adventure, movie, whatever, whatever you want to talk about. 

It can be pictures, videos, posts, questions that you ask your, your followers and do this for 60 days. I would, I like the ideal scene would be to do it every day, but I know that sometimes life gets in the way, or you’re not like, I don’t know, inspired that day. 

So if you’re not inspired, just like talk about what you’re going through in your career, or what project are you working on? And behind the scenes stuff is actually what people loves the best. 

So if you’re able to just grab a picture, you’re practicing something or creating a new piece of art or whatever, or doing a show for kids or in front of an audience, like a quick picture, a quick video is always the easiest thing to do because you’re actually just documenting the progress. 

And that’s what Russell Brunson in his book expert secrets talks about. So anyway, so do this for 60 days and see how many people actually tell you like, oh, well, you’re, you’re, in business again. Or, or, oh, I thought that you stopped. 

Or when you start being very active on social media, what will happen is that people will actually think that you’re back in business or that something special is happening. But the only thing special happening is that you’re only being active on social media and communicating to these people. 

So that’s the best way to actually kickstart how to be active on social media. And like, just to be clear, like don’t think that because you’re active every day on social media, that you will sell art. 

That’s not like one of my main tips that I have for you to sell art. But one of the basic, basic basic thing to be able to actually sell art is to communicate and the easiest way and easiest form of communication to confront in my opinion is social media. Because it’s quick, you don’t have to call someone. You don’t have to sit down and writing a long email. You know, you just take a picture and put it on social media and that’s it. 

I don’t know if you hear me well, but I’m going to use my headphones tomorrow. I forgot. But so now I’m on speaker phone, but anyway, so the best way is just social media. And then when you’re done with the 60 days of implementing the content, easy content creating, and just putting stuff out there about what you’re doing with your services, et cetera. 

Then you can look at the 60 days that just went by and look at like, okay, what am I most comfortable posting stuff on social media? What is it the most convenient time for me to do this? Is it right in the morning when I get up, is it, doing a bunch of photos and then using them all? That’s, that’s actually a good tip. 

When you, you don’t know what to post, you could do like a full day of pictures and videos change, like outfits, change, different kinds of posts and videos that you want to do. 

Just take the photos, you put them into the folder and let’s say you 30 photos and videos. And then you, you simply use them every single day for the next month and you don’t have to create content for the next month. So that’s a tip that’s like bulk creating for social media. And that’s the best way to do it in my opinion. 

Except if you want to do some behind the scenes while you’re doing stuff, because that’s, I mean, you’d think the picture while you’re doing this stuff, but if you want to create an advance, that’s a great tip for you to do bulk creation. 

Like you go in a park, you go in a, in a, I dunno, studio, you go with a friend and you take some pictures and videos, and you’re talking about your art and you show your art creation, your art pieces. You talk about your art, artistic services, whatever. 

So anyway, so when the 60 days are done, you look at the, when it was more convenient for you to post, and then you just put it in his schedule. So you start like this, and this becomes like a priority. Like everyday you have to put this in your schedule. So that, that way, you know that from, let’s say 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM you post on all your social media platforms? 

And by the way, you don’t have to use like a different picture or video for every different social media platform. You can use the freaking same thing on all your platforms, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, whatever it Tik Tok. I don’t do Tik Tok, but I feel I should, but whatever. so, and you just pose the same thing at first. You don’t have to be creative, like for like eight social media platforms. And then you’re like out of creation for a week. 

So that was my main thing this morning, for you, for my first episode of the “Making a living from your art” podcast, just communicate to the world. 

This is therapeutic in a way just communicating. And it will help you because the first step of any kind of sale artistic or not is to do some promotion about who you are. So that’s like branding or PR like public relations. Like you tell people who you are, what good you do to the community, to the society, how your art helps people. And then you just promote it. You promote good stuff about what you do and you make people think good about you and your services. 

So, yeah, that’s it for today. I mean, I I’m driving in my car, so I hope that the sound is okay. I will keep this as my first episode. I don’t want it to be perfect. I, I want it to be there. I just wanted to create this this morning as a first episode. I hope you liked it. 

So my name is Elie Castonguay. I’m from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and I I’m actually a marketing coach for artists. So I help artists sell their art and their artistic services. and I want to help you if you’re an artist. And if you’re struggling, to, transition from a hobby to a full-time or from a hobby to a part-time job and eventually to a full-time income, I’m, that’s my specialty. And I’m here for you. 

And if you’re, curious about how that works, you can contact me. I mean, usually I just talk to people on social media and book people for my coaching. So you can find me on Elie Castonguay on Facebook, or you can send me an, uh, an email at elie.castonguay@gmail.com. 

And eventually I’ll have my website up (https://eliecastonguay.com/). I hate websites, by the way, you don’t need a website to start when you’re an artist, you just have to sell art. So don’t bother about creating a website right away. And that’s why I don’t have a website yet. I’ll create a website like livingfromyourart.com so eventually you’ll be able to, to book me for a call there (https://eliecastonguay.com/contact/). Sooo be good, be creative and talk to you soon!