Tim Packer  - Tim Packer Art Academy

On the Truth: "I mean the universities and colleges are failing them just miserably."

We all remember being kids and making art of some kind.  Water colors, macaroni pictures, maybe even some Play-Doh creatures.  But did you ever think you could make a living from it?  Tim Packer realized he could.

In this candid conversation, Tim Packer pulls back the curtain on the realities of the art world, busting myths about the "starving artist" and explaining why most universities and mainstream art advice miss the mark for artists hoping to make a living from their passion. He details how he leveraged both his artistic talent and business savvy to grow his own career, how he turned his mentorship of a young artist into a global success story, and how his experiences inspired him to launch his online academy to help others achieve the same.

Listen as Tim explains how to enjoy what you do and make some good money doing it.

Enjoy!

Visit Tim at: https://www.timpackerartacademy.com/

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timpackerartacademy/

 

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Teaching Artists to Earn Income

07:56 "Regret, Art, and Helping Others"

12:25 Art Worlds: Villages and Markets

16:39 90s Limited Edition Print Boom

22:11 "Keys to Successful Art Sales"

30:03 "From Artist to Police Officer"

35:30 "Art, Auctions, and Breakthroughs"

39:44 "Keys to a Thriving Art Career"

43:29 "Creating Art You Truly Love"

52:39 "When to Pursue Art Full-Time"

54:13 "Turning Point in Career Success"

01:03:10 Artistic Process and Experimentation

01:04:04 Breaking Free from Comfort Zones

01:11:18 "Art, Critics, and Accessibility"

01:15:44 Art vs Commerce Priorities

Podcast Transcription:

Tim Packer [00:00:00]:

I mean, my dream when I. Because I quit my job and walked away from my pension as a police officer when I was 40 to give this another try. My goal was if I could ever just make as much as what I would have made had I stayed and gone on pension, then it'll be a wash, right? Well, I far surpass that. But while I was in there, you know, just kind of and watching the sales go up and I was mentally crunching the numbers because this was November, and I thought, holy. Know what? I'm going to make over a quarter million dollars this year. As an artist.

James Kademan [00:00:34]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link [email protected] we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call, Extraordinary Answering Service, as well as the Bold Business Book. And today we're welcoming preparing to learn from Tim Packer of Tim Packer Art Academy. I'm excited we get to talk about art, Tim. So how are you feeling today, Tim?

Tim Packer [00:01:04]:

I'm feeling great. I'm excited to be here and thanks for having me on the podcast.

James Kademan [00:01:08]:

Yeah, I'm excited because I don't know if you know this or not, but I majored in graphic design.

Tim Packer [00:01:13]:

Oh, me too.

James Kademan [00:01:14]:

Way back when. I don't do anything with it now. And I just got back from Italy and it was interesting because I'm like, wait a second, I've actually painted and drawn this cathedral.

Tim Packer [00:01:27]:

Yeah.

James Kademan [00:01:28]:

And I just never knew where it was.

Tim Packer [00:01:30]:

Oh, this is going to be a lot of fun then, because there's going to be a lot of context on your end, and I'm sure you're going to have a lot of questions as well, which is cool. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:01:37]:

So let's start with the foundation. What is Tim Packer Art Academy?

Tim Packer [00:01:41]:

Okay. It's my online art academy. And there's a lot of, like, recorded courses where people pay just for a certain course. I can get my color and composition course or see how I paint the subjects that I paint, or I have, like, whole suites of programs on there. And then I also have, like, a mastermind program. I call it the Hungry Artist Community. And that's where they get all of my courses. Plus, every week I do a live zoom call from the students, basically from around the world.

Tim Packer [00:02:11]:

But I'll critique their paintings, I'll answer any questions they have about art or the business of being an artist, and I'll give them coaching Advice.

James Kademan [00:02:20]:

So is the idea, I guess most of your students, are they looking to do art just as a hobby or are they looking to do it as a professional?

Tim Packer [00:02:27]:

Yeah, that's my niche is like I've been, I am a very successful artist. I've had a really successful career as an, as an artist, as a self publisher, kind of ran my own gallery. But what I really want to do now is my new mission in life is sharing the lessons and the knowledge that I've acquired over 25 years of being a full time professional artist with other people who share that dream, where their dream is they want to be able to actually make a livable income from their art and that's a huge void. I mean the universities and colleges are failing them just miserably. And also most of the common wisdom that's out there is actually just plain wrong that I found in my experience. And so I, I mean not only was I successful, but I ended up mentoring a young artist back in 2017. She was a, just a daughter of a friend of mine that I golfed with who was, she was taking landscape architecture but she really liked to paint and she did it as a hobby. And I got to know her first of all, we did a small print job for her of a painting she'd done for her grandfather and she wanted to do prints for like neighbors on the cottage road.

Tim Packer [00:03:39]:

And over her last couple years of school I got to know her and she would always be picking my brains about art. And then after she graduated I was golfing with her dad and he said, well yeah, Brooke spoke to us last night and I said oh, how is she? And he says well she doesn't want to be a landscape architect. Apparently after a four year university program, she wants to be an artist. And he wasn't happy and he wasn't happy with me and he was just, you know, if you could have had a thought bubble above his, it was it's all your fault. Oh no. And because every time we got together she would like. Cause I would, she would meet at social functions, at the club and she golfed a few times with me and her dad, but she was always picking my brains about art and about being an artist. And she knew too like my background.

Tim Packer [00:04:25]:

I, I grew up wanting to be an artist. I took graphic design like I just found out you did as well. And then by the time I was 21, realized I'm just not talented enough to make a living as an artist. The Toronto police force was hiring and that was an 18 year career that I did as a Toronto police officer before I discovered the whole idea, the growth mindset. So if you're hope, I guess I should let your listeners know too, if they're hoping for a quick story of how I went from being a kid who liked to draw to where I am now. It's not there. But anyway, she knew my story and so she knew that I knew. And by the time I met her, I was a very successful artist.

Tim Packer [00:05:02]:

So I said to her, I said to her dad, I said, listen, she's, she's just graduated, she's young, she's living at home, she doesn't have any debt. If there's ever a time to take a chance on this, it's now and then. And I already had my YouTube channel that, that I was doing which was all directed at just free content for helping artists who want to make a living from their art. And I said if she wants to, if she's willing and wants me to mentor her, I'd be willing to mentor her over the next couple of years as long as she's willing to have all of our sessions filmed and have it go up on YouTube. So we did that in 2017-2019 and now she is a worldwide superstar. She's got over a million followers on social media. She's living in Vienna right now. Her work sells around the world.

Tim Packer [00:05:52]:

Her work sells for much more than mine. She's got much, you know, and most artists was a recent study is that most artists in North America who are full time artists who are have make less than $10,000 a year in their net income. And she did 30,000 in that first year that I was mentoring her. Now I don't know what she's at, but it's a lot. And so that kind of reinforced to me that, okay, I can help people. And I knew that I wasn't gifted, right. I was not the most talented, most naturally talented person in any class that I took. I was always kind of maybe just above the middle.

Tim Packer [00:06:31]:

And then in 20, 20, 2019, I had, I contracted graves disease. I almost died twice. I was kind of lying in the gurney with my wife, not really knowing if I was going to survive the next 10 or 15 minutes. And that was kind of a life changing moment for me. For in a couple ways, the first thing, the great thing about that, again, I'm fine now, I'm healthy, healthier than I've ever been. But you know, you think what a lot of emotions might run through your head when you're lying there Thinking, I don't know if I'm going to be here in five or 10 minutes. And for me it wasn't fear, it wasn't terror, it wasn't regret, it was gratitude. I just really, you know, I just, I just, I can vividly remember both those times just thinking, hey, like, whatever is up there, whoever's up there, if this is it, okay, I'm really not ready to go.

Tim Packer [00:07:24]:

But if it is, thank you so much for allowing me to live the life that I led. I got to achieve the dreams that I had as a child and way beyond my wildest dreams. And then over the course of that year while I was sick and the other thing that was really cool is at the time I thought,