The Art Biz

Ceramic artist Heidi Fahrenbacher opened her mailbox in 2021 to an anonymous letter saying she'd price herself out of business. Well, she's still in business, and her income has grown about 10% every year since.

In this episode of The Art Biz, Heidi talks with host Alyson Stanfield about noticing what isn't working, doing something about it, and the discomfort that comes with the territory.

Heidi reveals:

• Why she burned her business to the ground and rebuilt it
• What two anonymous letters couldn't change
• How overproducing became a coping mechanism
• The work she refuses to wholesale
• Why she thinks artists should do less

Connect with Heidi Fahrenbacher

Read more and get links on the companion post

About Alyson Stanfield

Since 2002, Alyson Stanfield has been helping emerging and established visual artists find the right opportunities, gain recognition for their work, and refine strategies for sales through private consulting and group coaching. She brings experience as an art historian, curator, museum educator, and arts writer to her consulting work.

Email Alyson to discuss strategic consulting for your long-term career goals.

Think you'd make a good guest on The Art Biz? Read This

The Art Biz is recorded on the traditional land of the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute tribes.

In this episode of The Art Biz, host Alyson Stanfield explains why she won't tell an artist how to fix slumping sales until she knows their goals and their numbers.

She names the fears that keep artists from looking at their data, then lays out a simple monthly or quarterly check-in.

It covers the high-level numbers worth tracking, from revenue and email to website traffic, and how to get curious about what they reveal.

Alyson shares:

• Why she refuses to prescribe a fix before knowing what an artist wants
• The fears that keep artists ignoring their numbers until tax time
• Why even good numbers can be scary
• How often to check your numbers, based on how active your business is
• The two numbers she asks about first when sales are down
• Why tracking too much isn't helpful

Read the companion post and watch the video

Email me to discuss strategic consulting for your long-term career goals.

Think you'd make a good guest on The Art Biz? Read This

The Art Biz is recorded on the traditional land of the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute tribes.

In this episode of The Art Biz, host Alyson Stanfield makes the case that comfort is the most dangerous place to be in your art business. If you keep doing things the same way, you are bound to miss out on opportunities as things in how we show and sell art are changing so rapidly.

She walks through three signals worth paying attention to:

1. The results signal :: that something familiar has stopped working
2. The joy signal :: that something is messing with your happiness
3. The external signal :: that a moment is emerging and worth paying attention to

She mentions the external signal that Jenny McCarty paid attention to and took her art viral in episode 277.

And the joy signal that moved Ali Cavanaugh to remove her work from 10 of her 11 galleries in episode 189.

Alyson also shares her own recent pivot away from group teaching toward strategic consulting after tuning into the results and joy signals.

Read the companion post and watch the video

Email Alyson to discuss strategic consulting for your long-term career goals.

Think you'd make a good guest on The Art Biz? Read This

The Art Biz is recorded on the traditional land of the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute tribes.

When the redesign of the 2026 national parks pass became a flashpoint, watercolor artist and ecologist Jenny McCarty noticed the uproar in her community — and used her art to do something about it.

What happened next landed her on Last Week Tonight, raised nearly $30,000 for parks conservation, and added thousands of names to her email list.

On this episode of The Art Biz, host Alyson Stanfield talks with Jenny about what she built ahead of time to take advantage of the spotlight.

• The Instagram exchange that told her a sticker could be something bigger
• Why going viral would have landed nowhere without her business systems
• The partnership that let her keep the project alive when she couldn't do it alone
• Why every collaboration in her business now starts with a contract
• What the numbers told her about where her time was actually worth spending

Get all links on the companion post

Follow Jenny:

https://www.thesageleafstudio.com/

https://www.instagram.com/sage_leaf_studio/

. . . ✦ THE NEXT OPENING ✦ . . . small group coaching applications September only. Get the details and apply at https://artbizsuccess.com/next

Email me to discuss strategic consulting for your long-term career goals.

Think you'd make a good guest on The Art Biz? Read This

The Art Biz is recorded on the traditional land of the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute tribes.

Artists are a sensitive lot, and that sensitivity is what makes the work possible. It also makes everything else land harder.

It's easier to get tripped up by news headlines, family illness, and travel.

In this solo episode of The Art Biz, host Alyson Stanfield argues that it's more important than ever to keep making art. She also talks about what to do when you must keep the business humming so that it's there for you on the other side of the current obstacles.

She reveals:

• Why not making art isn't the answer
• Five reasons to keep up the work in the studio, even when it seems unimportant
• Why it's much harder to restart a business you've stepped away from
• The underlying machine that keeps a business almost on autopilot

Read the companion post

• ~ * YOUR ART MARKETING PLAN IS SEPTEMBER 10 * ~ *

Get your plan at https://artbizsuccess.com/yamp

Email me to discuss strategic consulting for your long-term career goals.

Think you'd make a good guest on The Art Biz? Read This

The Art Biz is recorded on the traditional land of the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute tribes.

In this episode of The Art Biz, host Alyson Stanfield makes the case that a marketing plan doesn't have to be a spreadsheet full of self-imposed deadlines. She argues for routines over rigid plans, walks through three distinct ways she sees artists approach their marketing, and reframes marketing as something bigger than self-promotion. If you've ever built a plan and abandoned it by week two, this episode is the reset you need.

Alyson reveals:

• Why routines stick when spreadsheets don't
• The three profiles most artists fall into — and why even the best one isn't ideal
• What marketing actually includes beyond self-promotion
• The foundation work that makes promotion pay off
• Why 30% more structure is enough to count as a win
• The two kinds of plans every working artist needs

Read more, get links, and see featured artists

* ~ * YOUR ART MARKETING PLAN IS SEPTEMBER 10 * ~ *

Get your plan at https://artbizsuccess.com/yamp

Email me to discuss strategic consulting for your long-term career goals.

Think you'd make a good guest on The Art Biz? Read This

The Art Biz is recorded on the traditional land of the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute tribes.

In this episode of The Art Biz, host Alyson Stanfield names three paths a serious artist can take — and makes the case for the one no one talks about. After more than two decades of teaching online, she's changing how she works with artists, shifting from multi-month courses to coaching groups and private consulting.

She also announces The Third Path, a new group for artists staying in the work on their own terms.

Alyson reveals:

• Why "ambitious" doesn't describe every serious artist
• What's changing at Art Biz Success after more than 20 years teaching online courses
• The three paths a serious artist can take
• Why the third path has never been modeled
• What The Third Path group is — and what it isn't
• Who it's for and how to get on the list

*~ * THE THIRD PATH BEGINS IN OCTOBER * ~*

Email Alyson if you're interested in figuring it out with a group of other artists. Watch your inbox for her short set of questions.

Read more, get links, and see featured artists

Email Alyson to discuss strategic consulting for your long-term career goals.

Think you'd make a good guest on The Art Biz? Read This

The Art Biz is recorded on the traditional land of the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute tribes.

Many artists know exactly what they need to do to move their careers forward. They just aren't doing it.

In this episode of The Art Biz, host Alyson Stanfield talks with Georgie Coote, a National Board certified health and wellness coach who specializes in ADHD in adults, about what's often underneath that gap and why standard productivity advice tends to fail the people who need it most.

• Why so many artists know exactly what to do and don't do it
• The pattern behind late-in-life ADHD diagnoses in women
• What most productivity advice gets wrong for ADHD brains
• The difference between ADHD and ordinary overwhelm
• Where strategies fail and what helps instead

GeorgieCoote.com

Instagram.com/georgiecootecoaching

Read the more detailed post

. . . ✦ THE NEXT OPENING ✦ . . . small group coaching begins September 1. Get the details and apply at https://artbizsuccess.com/next

Email me to discuss strategic consulting for your long-term career goals.

Think you'd make a good guest on The Art Biz? Read This

The Art Biz is recorded on the traditional land of the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute tribes.

In this episode of The Art Biz, host Alyson Stanfield makes the case that waiting isn't ambition — it's longing.

She unpacks why so many artists organize their careers around a big break that rarely comes, names the three kinds of openings available to every artist, and offers a simple five-step cycle for building real momentum on your own terms.

She covers:

• Why waiting has no relationship with ambition
• Why hustling isn't the alternative most artists think it is
• The 3 kinds of openings, and the one most underused
• What "building a career on someone else's schedule" actually costs you
• The 5 A's that turn intention into follow-through
• Why doing this alone is exhausting and often uninspired

Read more and see featured artists

The Next Opening is a small coaching group for ambitious artists who are done waiting for the big break and ready to make their next move. A year of aiming, acting, assessing, adjusting, and doing it again, with support and accountability. Application only. Next cohort starts in September. artbizsuccess.com/next

Email me to discuss strategic consulting for your long-term career goals.

Think you'd make a good guest on The Art Biz? Read This

The Art Biz is recorded on the traditional land of the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute tribes.

You worked hard to get your art on those walls. So when only a handful of people show up to the opening, it stings.

In this episode, Alyson Stanfield looks at the most common reasons your supporters stayed home — and what you can do differently before your next show.

In this episode:

• Why the 5-10 days before a show are too late to fix most attendance problems
• How a cold list can cost you the people most likely to show up
• Why you can't rely on the venue to bring people to your exhibition
• Why one or two social media posts won't cut it
• The power of a personal invitation and letting people know why the show matters to you
• Why sending one email isn't enough, and why your supporters will thank you for the reminder

Read the show notes, get links mentioned, and watch the video

July 9 workshop: Follow Up Already

Email me to discuss strategic consulting for your long-term career goals.

Think you'd make a good guest on The Art Biz? Read This

The Art Biz is recorded on the traditional land of the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute tribes.