The story of Vincent Van Gogh is often treated as a horror story.
Well-meaning loved ones use it as a compelling case for why you should never try to turn your creative work into a business.
“Look at how talented he was!” They say.
“And yet he only ever sold ONE painting in his lifetime!”
I can see where folks are coming from, but I think this is… silly.
The reasons why Van Gogh failed to sell his work simply no longer exist now.
Van Gogh’s problem was never quality.
It was about distribution.
In the 1800s, success in “the art world” was controlled by a select few.
And these gatekeepers (mostly gallery owners and curators of salons, etc) absolutely HATED the impasto brushwork and vibrant colors of his work.
The ironic thing is that now a good fraction of all humans on earth love it for those same reasons.
Because Van Gogh was never able to win over the approval of these gatekeepers, his work sat unsold in his studio.
But that system no longer exists now.
The cost of reaching an audience is now essentially zero.
You could build a movement around your work, tell your story, share your process… all from your phone. And from anywhere in the world.
Social media has essentially democratized success.
And before you flood my inbox with messages: the AI slop flooding the internet hasn’t changed this at ALL.
It’s actually even increased your chances of success.
Because as human-made, personality-driven work (made by a real person, with a REAL point of view) gets rarer, it becomes more valuable.
This means that if you make a point to tell your story, and bond with your ideal customer on the emotional center at the core of your work, success is genuinely easier than it’s ever been.
So there are only two things holding you back from a six-figure business:
- Understanding how to build an audience of true potential customers that LOVE your work and are excited to purchase
- And having the systems in place to turn that attention into long-term sustainable revenue.
You have something Van Gogh never had: direct access to the people who want what you make.
All my love,
