3 Secrets to be a Confident Artist & Why Imposter Syndrome is Healthy for your Art Business

In this episode we discuss the importance of building confidence as an art business owner.

Want to build your confidence as an artist immediately? Imagine taking action in your business without hesitation. See yourself making strides in the direction of your dreams without lugging the baggage of anxiety and fear. You, my friend, just need confidence.

Confidence is for everyone. You don't just have it or not have it. It is not a feeling, but something you have to build through taking action. And you can totally do it. 

Learn why trusting yourself, trying new things, and embracing failure are key. 

And, understand the importance of celebrating small wins so that you can enjoy the entire journey towards success.

YOU WILL LEARN:

✓ How confidence is built

✓ Trying new things is essential to building confidence

✓ Embracing mistakes and failure is a necessary part of growth 

✓ A 2-step exercise to build confidence as an artist right now!

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Introduction to the topic of confidence

00:01:00 Confidence is built through action, not a feeling

00:02:00 1st way to build confidence: learn to trust yourself

00:03:00 Negative self-talk and lack of follow-through tear down confidence

00:04:00 2nd way to build confidence: try new things

00:05:00 Waiting to feel confident delays success

00:06:00 3rd way to build confidence: not being afraid to fail

00:07:00 Failure is necessary for growth and learning

00:08:00 No one knows what they’re doing at the beginning

00:09:00 Embrace feeling like an imposter as a sign of growth

RESOURCE⬇

 Follow me on IG  @ jennawebbart to get the Episode Empowerment Mantras! 

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Transcript

Jenna: 0:00

Confidence is built when we try, we fail, we learn, we get up, we try again and we do it better the next time. Welcome back to the show. My loves, I am so excited about today's topic. We are talking about confidence. If there's anything I leave you with by listening to the empowered artists podcast, it's confidence. The way that you feel about yourself. Confidence is actually not a feeling. It's something that we build by taking action. So confidence is not something that you either have, or you don't have. It's something that you can get through taking action. So today I'm going to teach you three ways to build your confidence as an art business owner today and every day. The first way to build confidence is by learning to trust yourself. And this is backed by scientific research. You learn to trust yourself by doing the things that you say you're going to do. That signals to your brain, a sense of accomplishment. And that builds a confidence and reward loop. For example, I varnished a painting. I made my bed this morning. It doesn't matter how small the task I completed something. And I feel proud and I feel good. And I trust that the next time I say, I'm going to do something. I know I'm going to do it. And. I will do it. Not only because I know that I'm capable, but I know that I trust myself and I have respect myself. Now let's flip the coin. What starts happening when you say you're going to do something, but you don't do it. It could be a small task or it could be something big and important. Either way. That's when the negative self-talk starts happening. That's when internally you start calling yourself names. And you pull out the shame stick and you start beating yourself with it. It happens all the time. If we write a long to do list, we don't get to everything. Or if there was something important, we start really beating ourselves down by not following through on something we said we were going to do. And then there's the dread and the anxiety of the things that you haven't done. And that really tears down your confidence. The dread and the anxiety along with the negative self-talk and that is detrimental. And guess what? Empowered artists that is not allowed in our club? No, no, no, honey. Nothing matters more than your self-talk. At the end of this is a very quick episode I'm going to give you a simple exercise to build your self-confidence in real time. Starting today. The second way to build yourself. Confidence is when you try new things. Even when they're scary. Trying new things is always scary and uncomfortable because it's unfamiliar. Starting a creative business can be really scary. Or it can be really exciting. It's absolutely both scary and exciting. So we have to deal with those thoughts and emotions. By taking confident action. But if we wait to feel confident before we start something new, We wait to feel confident before we start a creative business, it won't happen. If you're waiting to gather all the pieces and have all the puzzle figured out. You're only delaying your success. Everyone starts at zero, not just creative business owners. Every entrepreneur starts at zero. You have to be willing to be a beginner at something new. We have to teach ourselves new skills, just like riding a bike for the very first time. We aren't born experts. When I started my art business, I started without a website. Zero social media followers. And I taught myself how to paint. I took a drawing class one night a week. And there was a kid in that class, half my age, who was Uber talented. I didn't know what the heck I was doing when I started this podcast. There's 5 million other podcasters out there. But I was willing to try. I was willing to try new things, even if they were scary and I'd never done it before and had my own fears and hang ups. And one of those was showing up consistently, despite my health, I was willing to try. The mantra is feeling the fear and doing it anyway. Because trying new things are scary. But staying in your comfort zone and not experiencing change in growth is scarier. Confidence does not come from ruminating. That only creates chaos and anxiousness in your brain. And only makes you think of all the reasons of why you shouldn't or things that could go wrong. So stop overthinking right now. And have the courage to just dive in and learn on the go. The third way to build your confidence today. And every day is not being afraid to fail. Not being afraid to look foolish. Failure is absolutely part of growth it's necessary to grow. Confidence isn't gained when we're winning. It's gained when we're failing and learning the lessons. That's called a growth mindset. Confidence is built when we try, we fail, we learn, we get up, we try again and we do it better the next time. And don't expect overnight success. That does not exist. No one knows what they're doing when they start out. We're all beginners, even the most successful business owners. And let me tell you something. The most successful business owners are the most competent ones who are not afraid to fail because they're learning lessons every single time and they're getting up and they're becoming better and they're improving incrementally every single time. We're all human, just trying our best at life here. You're going to make mistakes. You can look forward to those mistakes and the lessons that you're going to learn. I like to think of anything new I'm trying in my business, like a science experiment. And anything new is going to bring me data and data is queen If you didn't get the results you hoped for, because you're not going to be the expert when you first try, then you didn't fail, my dear, you learned. And that is a success. So you can get excited about trying everything. So do the thing. Post on social media. Try a new art medium. So hilarious story that's actually really humbling is I was shown how to paint by a boyfriend. One night we were oil painting. And so, you know, if you're an oil painter, you use a solvent to clean out your brushes. To be clear that boyfriend did not teach me how to paint. He did show me where to buy the materials and showed me how to get started, which was such a blessing. But we broke up soon after that. So when I got all my art supplies back, I was able to take them and teach myself how to paint. Then I found alcohol ink painting, and I taught myself that medium. Then I took the drawing class I told you about, and I just kept moving. So when it came to acrylic painting, I was really scared to try it I had no idea what solvent to use to work with acrylic paints. No one was talking about the simple fact that you don't use solvent. You're just using water. Seems so simple to you and me. But at the time I was so confused. Always reading all the articles, watching all the YouTube channels and because it was only water, of course, no one was actually saying they were just using water. I was really confused. I kept researching and trying to get all those puzzle pieces together. Trying to figure out exactly what you do, just ruminating and overthinking the whole thing and it was delaying me from trying acrylic painting. How ridiculous is that? So finally, When I finally dove in and just tried acrylic painting, I was able to open myself up to a whole new art medium. But had I sat there and just continued to ruminate and come up with the reasons why I shouldn't try, I would have never discovered something brand new. So not being afraid to feel. With a growth mindset. You don't beat yourself up when you don't get the results that you didn't expect to get. Instead, you pat yourself on the back because you tried something new. And you've learned what you can do better. You get the data. And you are getting out of your comfort zone. Now, if you feel like an imposter, embrace it. I love it. I hope you feel like an imposter because that is a sign that you're pushing yourself. Out of your comfort zone into something new and you're leveling up. As promised, here is a simple exercise to build trust and confidence and real time starting today and every day. It's only two steps. Step one. Drop your to-do list of 100 things. It's not serving you. Pick one thing today that you promised yourself you will do that's important to you. And then do it. Have you been putting off your artwork? Okay, well, promise yourself that you're going to go into your studio and then rinse and repeat tomorrow. That's a promise to yourself. That, when you follow through that, you're showing yourself a sign of respect and the more you do that. The more that you will trust yourself, that you can do anything you say you will do. Step two is really important. Celebrate every small win. Think what have I done lately that I can celebrate and feel proud of? This is about feeling confident in real time. Regularly. If you don't celebrate the joy of your journey, then the destination is number one, going to be harder to get to. And two, it's going to be less worth it because the journey is about your purpose and enjoying those small moments. So think about something that you have done. That you've. Never done before that you were willing to try. Come and follow me on instagram at Jenna Webb Art i will save these mantras affirmations for you in some beautiful tiles that you can remember and keep for yourself. And tell me what you thought about the episode today please follow and leave a review and i'll see you right here next week Thank you so much for listening in