Description:
In this episode, Matt’s joined by Ilisa Millermoon. Ilisa is an “Intuitive Energy Artist” working in Acrylic Ink and Gouache. But through this conversation there’s so much more that she does.. the art is a means to an end – it is a ‘tool for healing’. It’s interwoven into more services and the content she creates for her ‘tribe’.
We talk about her journey to becoming an artist; from years working as a goldsmith, in management to making the leap and becoming a full-time self-employed artist. What did that transition look like? She shares some amazing advice and insights into becoming your authentic self and creating a business that attracts ‘your people’.
I was really interested in how she wove ‘story' into her artwork and how she sells her art. We visit that and how she personally looks at marketing. What does she focus on the most? Does she use any of the traditional methods we come to think about when promoting our products and services online? A lot of gold from the former goldsmith in this one. Enjoy!
Ilisa Millermoon
Ilisa Millermoon is an Intuitive Energy Artist and Your Soul Journey Guide™.
Together with her Celestial Team, her Angels, Spirit Guides, & Dragon Guides she creates artwork to transform your living space, raise your vibration and heal your Spirit.
Ilisa is also a Spiritual Mentor, Your Soul Journey Guide™ and she works with those who are READY to design their Soul Journey & Embrace their Inner Divinity to live a life of joy and fulfillment.
THE MEAT OF IT!
- Intro
- Ilisa is an artist..
- Why I’m more excited than usual ..
- Pre-Internet I pursued art for ~7 years.
- Mostly self-taught
- Did the struggling artist life..
- Sold some, did some commission work..
- How she got started with art..
- Started when she was 3 years old.
- Parents were missionaries in Bolivia, South America
- Was in retail, was a gold smith
- Jewelry sales
- Management
- That experience helped her run her own business.
- Has a BA in Art.
- Didn’t require marketing, business ..
- Wasn’t interested in just teaching
- Started when she was 3 years old.
- All solo-preneur businesses are for the faint of heart.
- Always an ebb and flow.
- The Biggest Nugget after doing art full-time for 8 years now.
- You have to build relationships. Connecting with others.
- Learned that from the jewelry business .. building and nurturing relationships.
- Matt: “Let the world know what you’re doing.. shout it from the rooftops”
- Ilisa: “Tell people who you are, what you do and where they can find you”
- And the people you build relationships with might not buy from you, but they also could say something to someone else!
- Getting her first website.. to start her business.
- You need to direct people to it.
- Still about relationships and building connections.
- Matt’s first website – an insurance website.
- When I learned websites were a think.. this will look good on my business card.
- The Transition to going full-time as an artist ..
- Parallel at first while working ..
- Building a foundation – clients, collectors .. that are soul aligned.
- Artwork as a healing tool for her.
- She cannot NOT create.
- The art is who you are. She is her art.
- Her home is full of art
- Husband helps as he’s an architect and helps her build her ideas too.
- She knows who she is
- Knowing who you are and finding that passion.. that you’re good at..
- Adding VALUE through what we do.
- How can we be of service?
- When she learned to be ‘me’.. it was so freeing.
- As an artist you have to develop a thick skin.. not everyone will like your art.
- Learning to let go .. becoming who she is today.
- Your people will show up – people will be drawn to you.
- Matt: figured out how to marry the creative and technical side of my brain .. and business.
- Networking – circling back to that
- In hindsight, Matt feels his weakness and why he didn’t do as well as he could of with art was the lack of focus on networking.
- She didn’t learn those skills until later.. after college.
- Misconceptions about artists
- She’s also logical, structured .. loves routine.
- She has to nudge herself to be spontaneous
- She’s not starving.. the starving artist mantra needs to be let go.
- There is abundance for all of us
- She’s also logical, structured .. loves routine.
- We all need to be Meshing or creative, logical and business sides.
- We’re all multi-faceted beings.
- We have so much to offer – we are never just one thing. In any career path.
- The path to figuring this out.. trying and failing.
- She no longer sees anything as a failure – WIN or LEARN
- That’s how you learn.
- You never know what people will like without putting it out there
- You have to figure out where you fit in.
- Again, you need to build connections with people that ‘get you’.
- If someone doesn’t like something you’re doing, that doesn’t mean your not good.. it just means this is not your tribe.
- About her Art Style
- Her unique approach …
- Starts with no pre-conceived notion of what she’s going to create.
- More abstract, free-flowing
- Acrylic Ink and Gouache – doing a dance together.
- Releasing that notion of needing to control it.
- If it makes your soul sing.. go do it.
- Matt: a few years ago I tried doing digital art.. until I got busy with the agency.
- Ilisa inspring me to do more art.
- DEVELOPING THE BRAND STORY
- Developing the meaning of the work.
- Was terrified of writing in the beginning.
- 10 years ago.. when starting to trust her intuition.
- Decided to roll with it.
- Her art was a ‘tool for healing’.
- What her art ‘means’ and does for others.
- Hard to talk about at first.
- BUT .. she found her people when she started talking about it.
- It took time to get comfortable.
- Believe in what you’re doing.. be authentic.
- It all ties into her art.
- Matt: Story of a client.
- Was making clothing that wasn’t just clothing.
- The website communicated the same. What was behind the shirt.
- Anther nugget of wisdom.
- We are all deeply connected through our story telling.
- 10 years ago she learned the impact of connecting the story with the artwork..
- And getting comfortable with writing.
- Learning conversational writing..
- What She sells – Original art on her website and other types of products on Etsy
- Reason she does both.
- More about what she does.
- How she has everything interwoven.
- She sells more originals than prints
- Does more commission work than originals.
- Only has sold 2 paintings in the last 10 years to people she didn’t know. ‼️
- Traffic, SEO.. content. Optimizing.. etc.. OR?
- She’s tried, but…
- Focused on it occasionally, but just go back to nurturing and building relationships.
- Alignable (where we connected! on a networking call)
- Blitzr for a bit..
- THIS is way more valuable
- Doesn’t do social media at all.
- Even YouTube – tranferring to Vimeo.
- Right now existing tribe and Alignable..
- Weekly email.
- Matt: For our agency..
- Finding your lane.
- Us.. it’s social media and networking mainly. Today.
- Ilisa: a Story about a networking event ..
- Just handing out cards.. and hoping. Doesn’t work.
- Old school never worked..
- Today we are building relationships..
- Just handing out cards.. and hoping. Doesn’t work.
- It does come down to what you’re comfortable doing as well.
- Being an introvert.. and getting out of that comfort zone to network.
- Being terrified.. but doing it anyway.
- “Everything you want is on the other side of fear”.
- She doesn’t enjoy larger groups.. that’s why she like doing the one on one’s.
- Her experience doing a 2k campaign on Facebook (advertising)
- She just needs to reach ‘her people’.
- Matt: a friends telling me, “embrace all those experiences and how unique you are because of them”.
- Ilisa: “What is YOUR definition of success?” .. it’s not the mainstream definition. What’s it look like for YOU?
- Being happy as the goal.
- Living the life you wanted to design..
- Not waking up to an alarm.. going on sparkle quest walk at 2:30 in the afternoon.
Check out these related Episodes:
- Episode 56: Finding Time to Learn and Implement Marketing in Your Business? Where to Start!
- Episode 53: Edward Fox: A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey & How He’s Generated ALL THOSE IDEAS!
- Episode 51: Building Confidence & Controlling Your Imposter Syndrome
Web Developer, WordPress & JavaScript Nerd at Unified Web Design, LLC
Matt is the Founder & Web Designer at Unified Web Design, Owner of UnifiedPlugins.com, blogger at MattLevenhagen.com ( who else would be? 😉 ) AND host of this amazing podcast, The Builders!
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