Laura and Nikki talk about whether or not it’s necessary to go to art school to be a professional artist. They share their different experiences related to art school and other types of art and creative business education.

• Nikki’s art school experience (1:29)
• Individual Teacher’s Online classes (7:17)
• Free mini-courses/lessons (10:43)
• Large online education platforms (11:32)
• In-person workshops (17:42)
• Traveling for workshops – Laura & Nikki’s travel stories (18:01)
• Large courses with memberships (23:19)
• Art business resources (27:59)
• Free business Facebook groups (30:16)

Read more and find links to all of Laura & Nikki's favorite art supplies in the Startist Society show notes at startistsociety.com/artschool/

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Laura and Nikki admit their art supply addiction, talk about some of their favorite supplies, discuss how to deal with supply overwhelm, and commit to embarrassing themselves with photos of their ridiculous collections! They give some advice they really need to learn to take themselves.

• Laura and Nikki admit to being art supply addicts (0:50)
• Laura talks about Copic markers and her obsession with color (1:49)
• Nikki talks about her book addiction (3:28)
• Nikki and Laura list some of their personal favorite supplies (5:29)
• Travel brushes, watercolor, and urban sketching (9:47)
• iPads and Apple Pencil (12:05)
• Nikki talks about her love of encaustic tools and supplies (13:52)
• Laura's favorite acrylic paint (17:55)
• Nikki and Laura discuss sketchbooks (18:47)
• Culling, selling, or donating supplies (20:37)
• How to use your existing stash and avoid overwhelm (24:59)

Read more and find links to all of Laura & Nikki's favorite art supplies in the Startist Society show notes at startistsociety.com/artsupplies.

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Laura and Nikki are thrilled to introduce you to their first Startist Society guest, Shannon McNab!

Shannon McNab is a left-handed, left-brained surface designer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her love of both art and numbers has allowed her to license and sell over 75 designs in just the past 4 years, working with brands like Party City, Cloud9 Fabrics and Pyrex.

But she also loves to teach other artists how to build a thriving business, tackling confusing topics like finding clients, productivity, and pricing, breaking them down to make them easier to understand. Because she believes that no one’s a better advocate for your art than you are!

• How Shannon got started in surface design (1:50)
• Showing at Surtex (trade show) and her journey toward teaching and sharing the business side of surface design (6:20)
• Roadblocks that cause designers to give up (9:51)
• Getting through bad days and comparison trap (10:25)
• Fighting perfectionism (11:50)
• Three methods to get paid as a surface designer  (15:36)
• Setting and negotiating rates (22:19)
• Sharing client work on social media  (27:22)
• Pitching your portfolio  (30:00)
• How much surface designers can expect to make in a year (32:17)
• Shannon’s surface design industry survey (34:00)
• Mindset and setting expectations (38:56)
• Shannon’s 2020 income blog post (42:56)
• Her word of the year (44:50)
• Shannon’s course Artful Pricing, opening for enrollment next week (49:37)
• Gaining confidence and charging more for your work (52:08)
• Breakdown of Artful Pricing course modules (59:34)

Learn more about the podcast and find mentioned resources in the Startist Society show notes at startistsociety.com/shannonmcnab/.

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Have you ever wanted to participate in an art challenge?  Nikki and Laura discuss all the types that are available and how they can help you further your art career. From self-directed to organized, and weekly to 100 days or more, art challenges can promote personal artistic and career growth. Hear about some of our personal experiences participating in them and what we're planning to do in the near future.

• Types of art challenges available (1:07)
• The 100 Day Challenge (1:26)
• Nikki’s 100 Day Project stories (2:27)
• Nikki’s self-guided 365 day project (5:27)
• Nikki’s state flowers and insects project (8:06)
• Laura’s 30 days of portraits (10:29)
• Laura’s 30 days of watercolor (12:35)
• Nikki’s Sketchbook project (14:25)
• Laura’s Inktober project (15:35)
• Nikki and Laura share their plans for this year’s 100 Day Project (18:47)
• Spoonflower and Minted Print-On-Demand challenges (25:39)
• How you can participate with us (30:24)

Read more and find mentioned resources in the Startist Society show notes at startistsociety.com/challenge.

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Nikki and Laura discuss the dreaded imposter syndrome and comparison trap. In a world where we live so much of our lives on social media, how do we combat the feeling of comparing our lives and work to others who seem so much further along than we are? How do we stop feeling like imposters in the work that we do?

• Comparing ourselves to others on social media (1:00)
• Nikki’s story about getting hired by IBM (1:23)
• Laura’s comparisons to artists she admires (5:34)
• Nikki’s story about The Jealous Curator (7:01)
• Getting past what blocks you and taking action (9:42)
• Actionable steps you can take to combat comparison (11:38)
• Celebrate your progress (12:47)
• Engage with your community (14:43)
• Feedback and criticism (15:26)
• What Nikki and Laura are going to do to combat comparison trap and imposter syndrome (19:13)

Read more and find mentioned resources in the Startist Society show notes at startistsociety.com/comparison.

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Nikki and Laura discuss the concept of creating a word of the year and the difference between having a New Year’s resolution and having a guiding word to live by for a year.

Topics discussed:

• Laura talks about what exactly a "word of the year" is and how she learned about it (1:00)
• What to think about when choosing your word (2:15)
• Laura shares her past words (3:18)
• Nikki shares her past words (4:33)
• Laura coaches Nikki through choosing her word for 2021 (5:40)
• Laura shares her word for 2021  (10:19)

Read more, download your free Word of the Year PDF and other mentioned resources in the Startist Society show notes at startistsociety.com/wordoftheyear.

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Laura and Nikki talk about the importance of staying connected as a creative entrepreneur. Whether you live and work alone or you live in a house full of people who aren't artists, it's important to find communities of like-minded people you can relate to.

In this episode, we discuss many different ways to connect to other people who are going through the same types of things in their businesses and lives, including:

• Isolation of working alone, especially in 2020 (0:42)
• Accountability groups (2:02)
• Masterminds, what are they? (5:50)
• Facebook groups (8:48)
• Paid memberships (10:07)
• Direct connection through Instagram (11:54)
• How to feel connected in a huge group (12:30)

Read more and find mentioned resources in the Startist Society show notes at startistsociety.com/connection.

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Nikki and Laura discuss the overwhelming topic of overwhelm! What do you do when there are so many things going on that you don’t know where to start? How can you break things down into manageable chunks?

• Four types of overwhelm (0:58)
• Tools we use (2:43)
• Choose one thing a day (5:43)
• Weekly planning methods (6:23)
• Parkinson’s Law (7:50)
• Estimating (underestimating) time things will take (8:36)
• Perfectionist tendencies  (9:13)
• Getting outside your comfort zone (13:07)
• Nikki’s current overwhelm: completing her artist website program, Make Art Not Websites (14:00)
• Using ClickUp for managing the project (16:01)
• Laura’s current overwhelm: planning Skillshare classes (18:40)
• An old-school method to manage overwhelm (19:31)

Read more and find mentioned resources in the Startist Society show notes at startistsociety.com/overwhelm.

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Laura and Nikki share stories of how we get in or out of our own way, the importance of adjusting your mindset, and several helpful steps you can take to get beyond these challenges to advance your art business.

• Fixed vs. growth mindset
• Learn how to draw what you see, not what you think
• Change the way we think to get out of our own way
• Learning to grow in our abilities
• How we self-sabotage by being afraid to ask for help 
• Creating lasting habits (even for the “icky” stuff) 
• Proactive time management and how to fit it all in 
• Creating systems that work

Read more and find mentioned resources in the Startist Society show notes at startistsociety.com/outofyourway.

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Laura and Nikki discuss procrastination, fear, overwhelm and analysis paralysis that keep you stuck and offer 3 actionable steps to help you get out of your own way and start making progress on your art biz.

Topics discussed:

• Fear of failure vs. fear of success
• Shiny object syndrome
• Analysis paralysis
• Wanting to do ALL THE THINGS!
• Overwhelm
• Forming habits/habit stacking
• Using timers
• Narrowing your focus
• Breaking things down
• One thing every day
• Accountability groups

Read more and find mentioned resources in the Startist Society show notes at startistsociety.com/procrastination.

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