Ep 74 Stephanie Gaffney’s Journey to Live Wedding Painter & Creative Success

Description: In this episode, Lori hosts Stephanie Gaffney, a successful live wedding painter and artist based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Stephanie discusses how she ventured into the unique field of live wedding painting, inspired by a friend's request, and transformed it into a lucrative business. She shares valuable insights on balancing motherhood and multiple businesses, the importance of asking for help, and avoiding burnout. Stephanie also talks about her signature online course, the Wedding Painter's Blueprint, which helps other artists succeed in this niche market, and her podcast, The Composed Artist, which provides encouragement and advice for creative professionals. Tune in to learn more about the challenges and triumphs of being a live wedding painter and a creative entrepreneur.

Episode Highlights:

01:00 Meet Stephanie Gaffney

01:59 Balancing Motherhood and Art

03:52 The Challenges of Live Wedding Painting

09:00 Starting the Live Wedding Painting Journey

09:55 The First Live Wedding Painting Experience

12:40 Building a Business from Live Wedding Painting

18:52 Creating an Online Course for Artists

23:54 The Journey to Creating a Digital Course

29:09 Coaching Strategies and Client Success

30:55 Balancing Multiple Roles and Priorities

42:18 Podcasting and Creative Life Balance

Find out more about Stephanie:

Stephanie Gaffney is an artist and live wedding painter in New Orleans, Louisiana. Known for her contemporary realistic portrait and painting style, Stephanie travels the country painting at weddings and special events, inspiring connections and bringing joy to the world through her artwork. She teaches other artists how to earn great success as live wedding painters through 1-1 mentorship, and her signature online course, The Wedding Painter's Blueprint. Stephanie shares her love of art and entertainment with her family, including her husband Chris and three precious daughters.

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Transcript

Stephanie Gaffney: [00:00:00] it grew, I did the first one and I was like, this is more money than I've ever earned.

Stephanie Gaffney: And they're so excited about the painting and it is a hard job. It is a high pressure job. You have to make decisions very quickly and very confidently, you have to be able to create a composition of the room. The people that are gonna be in the room that aren't in the room yet The lighting changes. The moment that you're capturing happens in a split second and then it's over It's a very fast paced environment.  [00:01:00] Hello, my friends. I am so glad that you are here with me today because today we have a very special guest. We have Stephanie Gaffney. She is an artist and a live wedding painter in New Orleans, Louisiana, and she's known for her contemporary, realistic portrait and painting style. She travels the country painting at weddings and special events, inspiring connection, and bringing joy to the world.

Lori Gouhin: Through her artwork and she teaches other artists how to earn great success as live. wedding painters through her one-to-one mentorship and her signature online course, the Wedding Painter's Blueprint. Stephanie shares her love of art and entertainment with her family, including her husband, Chris, and three precious daughters.

Lori Gouhin: Welcome to the artwork of you, Stephanie. I'm so glad to have you here today. 

Stephanie Gaffney: It's an honor to be here. Thank you, Lori. Thank you for having me. 

Lori Gouhin: Of course. You and I had met once before and we had a great conversation, so I'm really eager to have the listeners get to know you a little bit. [00:02:00] I thought maybe we could start by, because you are a young mother and you have so many things going on, more than just one business, really.

Lori Gouhin: And a lot of the people that listen to the show are mothers as well, and I think a lot of them wanna do other things, right? They want to tap into their creative side and get started on whether that's a creative business or just devoting time to creative hobbies. I think that you are a perfect example of someone who, shows up like the masterpiece she is, by really tapping into that.

Lori Gouhin: How do you do it all? How do you do it all? 

Lori Gouhin: I 

Lori Gouhin: love that question because the answer is I do not, I cannot, we cannot this is a topic that I love having with other mothers, especially women, women. Feel this weight, especially women artists. We feel this inner pull to being present as mothers, but also this inner pull to being creative and expressive and, in the studio or outdoors if we work plain air, things like that.

Lori Gouhin: [00:03:00] And so it's a common. I don't wanna say issue, but it's certainly like always present this pull in two different directions and always, and daily. As a, as an artist, there are things that I have to accomplish in terms of the work that I'm doing. I do a lot of commissions.

Lori Gouhin: I, I travel for the wedding paintings and things like that, but the children are here too, so it's every day I have to. Accomplish something in the business. And then also I have to prepare three meals. And it's the idea of balance there is really just an impossible goal to, to feel perfectly balanced.

Lori Gouhin: And anytime you look at somebody, I know this because 

Stephanie Gaffney: I, 

Stephanie Gaffney: I feel this, when I look at other people who seem to have it all together and I compare myself to that. That standard of like perfect balance and then I feel like I'm letting myself down because I could never reach that achievement. and so being pulled in two different directions I think is something that we feel constantly as parents and I achieve the way [00:04:00] I achieve anything is by definitely asking for and utilizing.

Stephanie Gaffney: Help. So my, I have three daughters. My oldest is five, and then I have a 4-year-old, and then the youngest is a year and a half, and we're actually expecting again, and we just found out it's a boy. So we're about to have our world turned upside down. Yeah. With blue stuff everywhere, I don't know.

Stephanie Gaffney: I'm so used to glitter and sparkles to help me. But yeah, so I've got the five-year-old is in a school and then the two little ones are in a daycare and the daycare. Takes them at one. And so until they turn one, they're home with me. And and so when they're home as babies and infants I really am much more limited to productive, creative time admin.

Stephanie Gaffney: I squeeze in. In really creative ways. I will answer emails while they're taking a bath, or, when I'm sitting at a in carpool I'll, take phone calls, things like that. So you find a way to get it done and then you work after hours. But currently my kids are, in childcare in a way or at school.

Stephanie Gaffney: So I [00:05:00] definitely have help. My husband is an attorney and he runs his own firm, and so he is also very busy and very kind of project and goal oriented, but he understands on a very deep level. I. That when you need to get something done, having a support system is really the only way to get it done.

Stephanie Gaffney: And so he is an immense source of support for me if I need him. And he can 

Stephanie Gaffney: like, 

Stephanie Gaffney: if he doesn't have a trial tomorrow or something, he'll tap out early and go get the kids and step in as like primary parent for the evening if I have to meet a deadline. And then oftentimes during the week, I. Primary parent in the evening so he can work late.

Stephanie Gaffney: And then on the weekends he steps in. And so I can travel, so I can go and we have sitters that are, flexible, they're part-time, whatever. So I have a lot of help. So when people ask How do you do it all, 

Stephanie Gaffney: it's 

Stephanie Gaffney: like, 

Stephanie Gaffney: 

 I learned a long time ago, I can't do it all. And trying to do it all is it will lead to burnout very quickly.

Stephanie Gaffney: Burnout and a feeling of. [00:06:00] Failure and this weight that you feel like you're a failure as a business owner, a failure as like, you're not producing anything as an artist. And we need to do that. We have this kind of, this drive inside of us to create, to piddle, to play to, like the, it's a very specific need as an artist as a someone who was born an artist and and then.

Stephanie Gaffney: Feeling like an absent parent or you know you're disconnecting with your kids, or you just miss holding your baby. Ugh. And so I struggle it's an ebb and a flow thing of struggling with feeling like a failure and feeling like, okay, today was a good day. Yeah. And I've learned, I know I'm just going on and on, or you'll ask the best question right out the gate.

Stephanie Gaffney: But I feel nowadays with we're preparing to welcome our fourth I've been in business for 10 years, and so I've gained some momentum, and so I've got the business in terms of. Inquiries and bookings for the weddings. Because that's a whole world of traveling and service-based art.

Stephanie Gaffney: And then the seasonal commissions that I take, that's up to me when I [00:07:00] accept them. And then I devote a couple of months to focus on producing those and getting them out the door. And then I have a podcast as well, the composed artists where we talk about how we are just trying to be composed.

Stephanie Gaffney: It's a joke. And then the online course. Some people, they just are so fulfilled with helping others Yeah. And guiding others and giving of themself in a way that helps others succeed.

Stephanie Gaffney: That's fulfilling for me too. So I'm trying to make time for these projects and I think treating them like projects and focusing on the year ahead in terms of. What project am I gonna focus on, prioritize, pull back on some other things. I do not launch my online course and take commissions and do originals during the heat of wedding season.

Stephanie Gaffney: You know, Like I've very much kind of structure the year based on. Projects and what I can handle, and then I close the laptop at, I try to do it by three, maybe four. And then I'm present. And if I have a deadline, then after the kids go down, I'll take [00:08:00] coaching calls, I'll take client discovery calls at eight or 9:00 PM you just you do what you gotta do. So it's a very long-winded answer, but 

Stephanie Gaffney: no, I totally agree that, balance is so elusive, right? Yeah. I like to determine whether I'm in balance or not by at the end of the day, at the end of the night. Do I feel like I did my best? And sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Stephanie Gaffney: But as long as I, I felt like I showed up as the person I wanted to be, I would consider that balance and balance enough. And I can feel good about that. And I think you also stressed a really great point that you have to ask for help because we can't do it all. Even when you don't have children running multiple businesses you have to have help.

Stephanie Gaffney: And yeah, I'm a podcaster, so in a sense that's a business. I am a coach and so yeah, that's definitely a business and an artist. So it's now my children are grown. My youngest is in college, so I don't have little ones at home, but I can totally relate because I was a stay at home mom for many years, so that's 

Stephanie Gaffney: [00:09:00] incredible.

Stephanie Gaffney: Tell us a little bit about your course and, first, what, let's, before we get to the course, let's start, how did you get into live wedding painting? Because I feel like that's such a unique aspect of art, a unique business, I guess I should say. I never had heard of that before until.

Stephanie Gaffney: I, it was a couple of years ago, a prior student of mine, because way back in the day, I used to be an elementary school teacher before I had children. And one of my students who was a fifth grade student is an artist as well. And we were, we are friendly now all these years later. And we were talking and she was asked to paint at a wedding and I was like.

Stephanie Gaffney: Are you crazy? That sounds like a big task and a lot of pressure and I didn't know if it was a one-off thing. I didn't know it was a whole business until I met you. So tell me, how did you get into that? 'cause to me it seems like it would be a lot of pressure and very nerve wracking. 

Stephanie Gaffney: Yeah you're not far off.

Stephanie Gaffney: In fact, that was my exact response. So 10 years ago in 2015 a friend of mine, somebody I had known [00:10:00] since high school was engaged and she like messaged me on Facebook. This was before Instagram, and she said okay, we're getting married. The wedding's happening next year. And I had this idea. What if you paint we'll pay you, but what if you come and paint at my wedding, live?

Stephanie Gaffney: And I said the same thing. I was like, that sounds terrifying. I've never done that before. And there's this like fear when presented with an opportunity but also it's this really brand new idea or this concept and.

Stephanie Gaffney: Especially when it's presented as a job, you're like, okay, there's expectations. Yeah, there's money being exchanged. Like there, I don't, I've never done this before. And so there's a huge kind of step back and assessment of can I even do this? So I said, woo, I don't know. You're sure you wouldn't want me to just paint from a picture?

Stephanie Gaffney: She said, no, you have to be there. It's a thing. And so I googled. But live painting at weddings question, like there wasn't even a search term. So now we're like live wedding painters, right? But I didn't know what to even search. And I [00:11:00] searched on Google and maybe five websites popped up. So there were artists scattered in the United States who were offering this as a service.

Stephanie Gaffney: And I looked at their work and I was like, zooming into the details and the brush strokes and making an assessment of what they do and how much they charge and what the whole idea is. And so I said, okay. I ended up telling her I know I can. Yes, I'll do it. Sure. Ah, I don't know what it's gonna look like.

Stephanie Gaffney: I have no idea 'cause I've never done it before. And if you don't like it, I know I can paint something, I know I can fill a canvas in. I don't know how much time is a reception? Three hours. And I said, I know I can paint something, but if we don't like it then I'll redo it in the studio. and I've leaned on that.

Stephanie Gaffney: Don't worry, we can always redo it in the studio. I've leaned on that it silently in the back of my head, my entire career. If anytime I feel like I'm lacking courage or confidence or, the situations change, the timeline changes. There's a hurricane that hits and then the plans go completely awry and my canvas [00:12:00] gets torn.

Stephanie Gaffney: You know, There's always in the background. it keeps the anxiety at a minimum. Like it, it really is okay. It's not 'cause a wedding day's very important. It's the most important 

Lori Gouhin: day that they've ever had. Usually. Yeah. Up until that point. Yeah. No 

Stephanie Gaffney: pressure on you. Yeah, 

Lori Gouhin: no pressure.

Lori Gouhin: But it's so important. Like you said, you could always redo it in the studio. I think of that myself. Even just, painting, it's, I can always cover it up. I can always start over. So you, there's always a risk with every brush stroke, really. But knowing that you could change it back in the studio, I'm sure relieved a little bit of pressure, but I don't know how much I'd still be like.

Lori Gouhin: Very nervous. 

Stephanie Gaffney: Oh, absolutely. And then, okay, so here was my mindset. I'll try to paint a picture for you, pun intended. I was 24. I had quit my job as a graphic designer. Recently and I was very heavily promoting myself as a custom painter. I worked for, when I was a designer, I worked for a small family run advertising agency.

Stephanie Gaffney: I was designing websites and logos, and I was the designer sitting behind the computer and [00:13:00] I was in my boss, took advantage of my extroverted personality and put me in a networking group. And very quickly I learned how to talk and ask questions like talk to adults. Talk to business owners and ask them questions I really learned sales.

Stephanie Gaffney: I learned, business to business interactions, that kind of thing. And I grew very quickly. I matured very quickly and I realized, this is fun. I get this, I get business. It's so easy. It's so simple. How is there even, how is it even complicated enough to make like a business major? It's just, you just serve people with what they need, with what you can do. It's that easy. And so I was I was no longer fulfilled doing the design work. I didn't wanna be behind a desk, and so I quit. I was like, I can paint. I like to paint. I've always had good interactions with people that I painted something for.

Stephanie Gaffney: And so let's try this. And maybe I was a little crazy, but I was young and single and didn't have, worst case scenario, again, there's always that plan B in the back of your mind. Keeps the worry [00:14:00] away is oh, worst case scenario, I'll get a job I'll, leave my apartment, can't pay the rent.

Stephanie Gaffney: Move back in with my mom for a couple of months, get a job and it'll be fine. And so I was very much I don't wanna say hustling. I hate the word hustle, but I was working very diligently to earn what, whatever I could by way of. Custom paintings, pet portraits, and then I was painting original works like landscapes and I'm in south Louisiana and so there's a lot of like marsh birds.

Stephanie Gaffney: I painted a lot of blue herons and egrets, and I still love to paint the birds. But yeah, so she, she saw that I was doing custom art. This was a custom art type of thing. I ended up charging her about half of what. I saw other artists charging for this service for the same size painting. So it was a 24, the one that I booked was a 24 by 36 inch painting, which is pretty big.

Stephanie Gaffney: Yeah. To cover in a short amount of time. And then I think I charged her like $1,200 or something like that. And to me, I was like, that was rent plus. Yeah, rent. Like that was a lot of money. And so it was something [00:15:00] like a switch flipped in my head and I said, oh this could, this is.

Stephanie Gaffney: Potentially a profitable service. And it aligns with me liking to talking to people and me being energetic and I'm young, I think I could paint something. So I hadn't even done the wedding yet. And I got, I used my graphic design skills and I designed a little graphic, basically an ad, and I put it on Facebook and I've started promoting myself as a live wedding painter.

Stephanie Gaffney: You even did the first one. I even did the first one. I was so low. I love it. I love it. But you're just you're like it's, let's give it a try, and actually the first wedding I painted at was not the first wedding that I booked. So the first wedding that I painted at was one of my ex-boyfriends.

Stephanie Gaffney: Got engaged and his mom was like, oh, I love this idea. Can you do this for us? And we were on good terms. I was like, yeah, sure. So that was a really fun experience because. I learned a lot while I was there. I talked to everybody 'cause I knew everybody at the wedding and so I of course ran out of time and so [00:16:00] I was like, oh wow, I really need to zip it and paint.

Stephanie Gaffney: This is a job. It's not necessarily like a social event. So I learned a lot of lessons there. I learned lessons about contracts and client experience. You can't just. Get busy and forget to email someone back. You learn a lot. And it grew, I did the first one and I was like, this is more money than I've ever earned.

Stephanie Gaffney: And they're so excited about the painting and it is a hard job. It is a high pressure job. You have to make decisions very quickly and very confidently, and you have to be able to create a composition of the room. The people that are gonna be in the room that aren't in the room yet because they're not there yet for the reception.

Stephanie Gaffney: The lighting changes. The moment that you're capturing happens in a split second and then it's over  It's a very fast paced environment. People are. Observing some of them are observing energetically and positively, and some of them are quietly maybe whispering behind you and you're like, oh [00:17:00] my gosh, they hate it.

Stephanie Gaffney: They, what are they saying about me? And so it's so much pressure. And then painting anything, just the creative process. It's such a vulnerable 

Lori Gouhin: act. 

Stephanie Gaffney: And we know every single painting goes through an ugly stage. 

Lori Gouhin: Oh yeah. 

Stephanie Gaffney: The majority of the time is oh, it's unfinished.

Stephanie Gaffney: It's unfinished. And we don't want to show that it's even hard for artists to maybe put their work on a wall for critique for a mid. Progress critique 'cause it's but it's not done. But it's not done. And being able to expose that whole process from start to finish. To hundreds of people, hundreds of strangers,that, that's alarming.

Stephanie Gaffney: That, that takes a lot of courage and then to produce something that feels finished by the end of the night is, it's quite a feat. So there's not a lot of people who can do it. And I. It's been very fun and challenging for me, and other people are doing it and they're, people have been coming and asking me questions, just one-off questions, and I've always been like, oh, here's the answer.

Stephanie Gaffney: I've always been very generous I gain nothing from not telling you [00:18:00] the answer to this question. And so then I created the course and now I show people. Everything. Here's all the obstacles to avoid. Here are the clauses you need in your contract. Here's the mindset of the buyers that you're dealing with.

Stephanie Gaffney: In the wedding industry, we talk about, oh, and here's how you paint faces that are the size of a dime or a quarter. Quickly, and make it lifelike, so we talk a lot about that in the course too. 

Lori Gouhin: I love how you have that mentality of that there's enough for everybody, right?

Lori Gouhin: Your slice of the pie doesn't mean that somebody else's slice is smaller or that there won't be enough. And just not gatekeeping. Just sharing. And so how did you, or why did you decide to, is it because people just kept coming and asking questions or knowing you can't be everywhere, so it's a great source of income and you can teach other people to do something that you love and that you see really is a high ticket skill?

Stephanie Gaffney: Yeah, it's a combination of many of those things. And I noticed during the year 2020, we had a cataclysmic event [00:19:00] in the world and. All of the weddings were canceled. So it was scary are we gonna continue to have work after this? But artists turned to social media artists around the world and were sharing their work and sharing their process and, and so the idea and the trend of live wedding painting took off during.

Stephanie Gaffney: It really went viral during that period of time, between 2020 and 2021. More and more people were exposed to the idea. So before that, I was working for five years and I was doing a lot of selling. I was doing a lot of people would see me at a bridal expo and say, what are you doing? What is this?

Stephanie Gaffney: And I'd say, oh, you haven't heard about this. And then there's just, and then there's more of an element of educating the audience. Whereas after 2020. It was like, oh, I've heard of this. I need this. And so more and more artists were just like girls who knew a friend from college. They'd reach out and say, Hey, you're an artist.

Stephanie Gaffney: Can you paint at my wedding? It is a very similar story to mine and [00:20:00] artists who were. I guess not trained as I was. They were being positioned. They were given the opportunity to do this work, and then they started marketing just like I did. And they I don't wanna say they weren't doing a good job because they were doing good work and they were doing the best that they could with the knowledge that they had.

Stephanie Gaffney: There was no opportunity for education out there. And the only thing that was, the only thing that I knew. More than they did was what I had experienced. And the artists in the industry who have been doing this longer than I have, know more than I did, but it's just good luck.

Stephanie Gaffney: You'll figure it out on your own. There was no education being offered. So I recognized that there was a need for that. People were asking people, I was receiving dms on Instagram emails with one-off questions, the same questions over and over again. And some of them were related to business, the business side of what we do, marketing, things like that.

Stephanie Gaffney: Some of them are related to the [00:21:00] art and the technique of it all. How do you paint it more quickly? I'm so slow. And I know I can, but I don't know how. That kind of thing. And I was like there's an overarching. Knowledge required for this industry, for this particular job, and there's no education available.

Stephanie Gaffney: I would have paid, I would have scrounged and saved and pinch pennies. I would've hired a mentor or a coach. I would've just to answer my questions and just helped me avoid. Some of the mistakes that I made, oh my gosh. Some of the heartache, some of the, just setbacks, right? Bad reputational kind of experiences.

Stephanie Gaffney: A client had a bad experience and they told everybody, and so then it was, you have to overcome that bump in your reputation kind of thing, and that could have been avoided. So I created the online core. That was the reason, and then also the bride. So I saw. My, my success the success of my business and the continuation of my business requires the whole trend of live painting to [00:22:00] continue.

Stephanie Gaffney: Brides have to want, they have to continue to want this. People don't want people are still having photo booths at the wedding. Okay? Don't get me wrong, but photo booths have been around for a long time and I have encountered clients who are like, yeah, I don't really wanna do that. We had something else instead, or we had a painter instead.

Stephanie Gaffney: Videographers. Yeah. I didn't really wanna do that. I love a videographer. I think it's great and important, people pick and choose based on what's been done. And so I didn't want inexperienced artists who, c who just simply lack training. Technically, I didn't want, I didn't want there to be an influx of clients like brides having a poor experience with their live wedding painter who they paid a lot of money for the, the average, the national average cost to hire a live painter in the US as of last year was $2,600.

Stephanie Gaffney: That's the national average. So some people charge a little bit less. I think you should I think it's like a $2,000. Job just because It is such a hard job to do. Yeah. [00:23:00] There's so much involved in it. And then you're painting, you typically, the paintings are larger. They're 20, 24 by 30 inches on average.

Stephanie Gaffney: I like to paint really big, so I'll paint three feet by four feet, that kind of thing. But I really saw that, I was hearing kind of rumors that, and then threads on Reddit. I was hearing that brides were no longer satisfied with. What they got and they're like, don't waste your money on it. Yeah.

Stephanie Gaffney: And I was like, oh, we can't have that. We can't have that because it is a really wonderful keepsake and it's a work of art and you're commissioning this and then it's a wonderful form of entertainment. There's so many reasons why I'm a huge fan of the idea of a live wedding painter and a painting from the wedding, and I didn't want, and I love what I do.

Stephanie Gaffney: I would, I don't want this to just taper off because people stopped hiring us. 

Lori Gouhin: Yeah. 

Stephanie Gaffney: And so I was like, somebody's gotta provide training for artists, or at least the opportunity. And so that's, so 

Lori Gouhin: you single-handedly stepped in and said, I'm going to make sure that this continues. I love that. [00:24:00] Very bold and courageous on your part.

Stephanie Gaffney: And a little crazy I had my first child in 2019 and I had the idea to create the course in 2000. 18, 2019 when I was pregnant and I signed up for Amy Porterfield's Digital Course Academy. Because I was like, I want it to be able to reach people outside of my local area.

Stephanie Gaffney: Yeah. So it has to be online and I wanna do it well. And so I invested in that course and I learned how to make a digital course and I was like, I'm gonna do this. And that was in 2019 and then 2020 happened and then I had a child at the end of 2020, and then 2021 I had double the bookings. So I did 80 weddings in 2021.

Stephanie Gaffney: It was outrageous. And then even 2022, I was, this is like an overview snapshot of my, the last five years of my life. 2022, I was still experiencing burnout. Very overbooked, very overworked. Then we we got pregnant again in 2022 in the fall. [00:25:00] And I remember thinking, God, dog it, I still wanna do this course.

Stephanie Gaffney: I have to do it. I can't wait another two years. We're growing our family. This isn't gonna stop. Like I have to do this. So I created the course in three months and launched it for the first time while I was pregnant with my third. 

Lori Gouhin: Wow. I 

Stephanie Gaffney: love that. And 

Lori Gouhin: Yeah, let's transition into the course and starting a course and marketing a course and making it successful.

Lori Gouhin: Now I think it's great that you've, that's a niche. Course, right? There wasn't anything out there very, it was a desire, but how did you go from idea to signing up for Amy Porterfield and then once you have it done, how do you market it? Because again, people that listen to the show, many of them are entrepreneurs, many of them have ideas, maybe have ideas of a digital course or.

Lori Gouhin: Have even created one, but just sitting there on their laptop. So how do you Yeah. Make it a success? 

Stephanie Gaffney: Amy tells you how to do everything, how to mar how to come up with the idea and how to make sure the idea is right for you, [00:26:00] what type, of course to create. You can create something really simple, low cost and serve more people.

Stephanie Gaffney: Very kind of basic fundamental level information. So I could have done like fundamentals of painting or something like that. And then you go, you ramp up in, in denseness of the course and all the way up to a signature course or even a mastermind level course. And that's what I decided to create because I wanted there to be an element of mentorship.

Stephanie Gaffney: I wanted it to be a guide guided course. I knew that I couldn't pos when I was writing the lessons. It was such a whirlwind of. Following thought patterns and like I, I wrote out basically an outline and it was pages and pages of information and topics that needed to be covered in order to, they were all relevant to what I do.

Stephanie Gaffney: And they just compounded and then it's okay, I've got 55. 20 minute videos. This is outrageous. How long is this gonna take? Oh my God, I don't have time to do this. Over six months. This is crazy. And then it's if you're gonna give someone so much information, what are you gonna charge?

Stephanie Gaffney: And so then I had to really consider the [00:27:00] value of what I was offering. And so it wasn't like a 97 47 99 Yeah. Course that you could sign up for and it's evergreen and you can sign up anytime. It wasn't that it had to be. Launched every year and guided it had to be high value. So I, I have consistently, and it's grown in value every year.

Stephanie Gaffney: We added guest expert interviews. So today, actually this afternoon, we're going through the course now and the guest expert is my SEO manager. So the person who handles the search engine optimization of my website. And my website is top of the page, first page of Google. Thanks to her and I'm a huge fan of, again, just like with the kids asking for help know and realizing where my weak points are, and then working with someone who's much more talented in that area.

Stephanie Gaffney: So she's coming in and answering questions and speaking on SEO, so it's grown in value. The ticket price is about equal to the average cost of one booking, because I'm like, [00:28:00] if you sign up and you start learning and you get one booking based on this rate, it's paid for itself. Yeah.

Stephanie Gaffney: So it makes it easy. Yeah. 

Lori Gouhin: And I love that you do a guided course because again, as I said, people like make, create a course and it stays on their laptop. People buy course after course, and. They don't finish it, they I know from clients that I work with, and so a lot of times part of our coaching agreement is that if they have a course to help them create whatever it is they wanna create, I hold them accountable to that.

Lori Gouhin: Yeah. And in addition to our coaching, I, we, I don't need to know the course or wanna be doing whatever that is that they're doing, but the guided thing is so important for accountability and just making sure that people get. What they're supposed to be getting out of it and that they complete it.

Lori Gouhin: So I absolutely, I think that's fabulous that you designed it that way. As 

Stephanie Gaffney: a coach, I wanted to ask you how, you can see from an outside perspective of what your students maybe need or maybe. Lacking in, in their their current operations. And you're like, I can see it.

Stephanie Gaffney: And so you make a [00:29:00] suggestion. How do you follow up or what's the, what do you do to make sure that they take the next steps moving forward? Because once you get off of your call, it's up to 

Lori Gouhin: them, yeah. My. Coaching is very high touch. So I work one-on-one directly with clients and there's,  is just a huge part of it.

Lori Gouhin: So they have, I give my personal cell phone number to each of my clients and when we get off the call they know what they're supposed to be doing, what their goals are for that week. And I like to differentiate right from the beginning with them, the difference between a target and a goal.

Lori Gouhin: Because I think a lot of times people get confused. They might have a target of, whatever, creating X amount of dollars or a target of getting XX amount of weddings booked or something for you, for one of yours, sure. But that's really a target. That's not a goal. You don't have complete control over that.

Lori Gouhin: So what's going to help you reach that target is developing daily, weekly, and monthly goals. Things you can check off the list and complete. And so they always have their plan, right? And they know when we get off the call, what their plan is for that week, and I just hold them accountable. We [00:30:00] make touch points during the week

Lori Gouhin: Or I'll touch base with them. How's this going? If they're having trouble or if they realize they're not following through, they might give me a text because a lot of the times. People will agree to something on the call okay, yeah, this sounds great. Yep. I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this.

Lori Gouhin: so another thing besides the targets and the goals, we, I really like to address any hesitations and usually I can, our calls are face to face, so I can see. On their face, even if they don't quite realize it, like something's coming up. So what is going to be the hesitation that's going to make you not follow through on that?

Lori Gouhin: There's usually some kind of fear or discomfort, and so we either address those limiting beliefs right then and there, or we come up with an alternative plan, something, a workaround that's going to, produce the same result. Maybe a little bit slower maybe a little bit different, but just a workaround so that they will take the action.

Stephanie Gaffney: Absolutely. Does that answer your question? It, it does. That's so valuable. What an experience. To be touching base regularly throughout the week. That's something that I've [00:31:00] learned to. For my own business too, to have a goal and then break it down into smaller goals to like, what do I need to do today?

Stephanie Gaffney: What do I need to not do today? Yes. If the goal, like right now I'm going through the course and teaching and I have the commitments to show up live three times a week. I've got support emails to answer but I also need to paint. And on Monday and or Tues Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday when I go live.

Stephanie Gaffney: I know I have to be prepared for the call. I know I have to be prepared for the follow up steps that go after the call. And so I'm not gonna be in a position to be painting those days, but Monday and Friday I need to put the computer away and only paint. Because I won't reach the goals of completing my commissions or completing, re reaching deadlines within my own business if I'm ignoring those tasks.

Stephanie Gaffney: And yeah. And so helping people see. Just the small, what's something you need to do today? Or what, more importantly, what do you put off for tomorrow intentionally so that at the end of the day, like you said, what did [00:32:00] I do today to that made me feel good. Like I did the right thing and accomplished something.

Lori Gouhin: Absolutely. And you're so correct in that a lot of times it's more about saying no than it is about saying yes. You really have to limit those things that you're saying yes to in order to really move forward. And I also agree with the scheduling with having multiple businesses. I was finding this past year that.

Lori Gouhin: A lot of the times painting almost seemed like it was an afterthought because I was so consumed with trying to grow other aspects, a new podcast coaching, and I had to really take a step back and I made the decision this year that I really need to pivot back to making, art is. It's such a huge part of who I am.

Lori Gouhin: It's a big part of my business. So yeah, I need to remember to schedule that time because what was happening by the end of the day that I was tired or, I had done other things that it, again, it became almost like an afterthought sometimes. So now I'm really much more regimented with scheduling my time in the studio.

Lori Gouhin: And, sometimes people [00:33:00] think that's not creative, right? You should just create when you wanna create, but. I disagree because you need to schedule that time so that, and the creativity will come once you're in the studio. 

Stephanie Gaffney: And if you're not doing anything else, if you're not working on other projects or balancing motherhood or whatever, and you can just go by whim and create and you don't have to sell it.

Stephanie Gaffney: That's my retirement plan. I don't know. What is your retirement plan? My retirement plan is to get rid of everything. And then just plain air paint with no pressure of selling it, and no, and just say no to everything else because I'm so tempted by the shiny objects of need. People are like, oh, I have an idea.

Stephanie Gaffney: You should do this. You could make a lot of money, or you could sell this. And I'm like, yeah, the need is there. I can do it. And you know that those are the shiny objects that I chase. What's what's your retirement plan? 

Lori Gouhin: Yeah, the shiny object is a real thing, and that just also reminds me, you know what I find with my clients, a lot of the times I.

Lori Gouhin: [00:34:00] Is thatthey don't give their ideas enough time to percolate, to take, hold, and have success. And so that shiny object is oh, this isn't really working, but this is a great idea because as a creative, you're never short on ideas, right? They just come right. From all over. And you wanna take advantage of them, but you have to again, say no to certain things.

no, doesn't mean not ever. It just means not now. So you have a great idea for something that's great, put it in a notebook full of your great ideas so that when the time is right, when other things are rolling along smoothly, or you've decided to pivot for a great reason, then you have those ideas.

Lori Gouhin: Not now doesn't mean not ever. And you have to work on what you committed to long enough to let the idea take hold and to achieve success. Absolutely. Such good advice. You're a great 

Stephanie Gaffney: coach. Sign me up. 

Lori Gouhin: Thank you. Tell me a little bit about the clients that, or the customers that come to you for your course.

Lori Gouhin: Because there, there might be other artists listening that hadn't heard of this or have, but didn't know can [00:35:00] I actually do this? So what do you see? Other than people that are going to follow through, what kind of clients make the best success stories for wedding painting?

Lori Gouhin: What is, what does it really 

Stephanie Gaffney: take? Oh my gosh. What a great question. I, one thing that I do wanna mention is that if you go to my Instagram account, I have branded myself as a live wedding painter. I can do many other things. I've done murals, I've done, I was a designer. You did beautiful work.

Stephanie Gaffney: All kind of stuff. And I have a fine art print shop on the side that nobody knows about. And there's all like things that I can do as an artist, but in terms of marketing and being recognizable and being memorable, I've decided to niche down and brand myself as a live wedding painter.

Stephanie Gaffney: But you don't have to. Many artists create original work and they book weddings and serve those clients on the side, and they market it, but they market themselves as an artist, but here's a tab about live event painting. And so you can do one or the other.

Stephanie Gaffney: There's not like a right or wrong way to do it It is a tough job in that you are likely [00:36:00] standing for seven hours because you get there a few hours before and then you're there the whole time.

Stephanie Gaffney: and that's standing and creating a single painting. There's the option right now, it's very hot in the wedding industry, which is guest illustrations. So you can sit down and create kind of caricature style, not caricature. Like what we know is a caricature, but character sketch illustrations, whether it's pen and ink or watercolor, a lot of people do watercolor sketches.

Stephanie Gaffney: 10 minutes. You're whipping out portraits. Very simple detail, but oh my gosh, it's me and my blonde hair and my pink dress with my husband in his navy suit. Very simple. And it's a favor for the wedding guests. Okay. It's another form of entertainment that's very popular these days.

Stephanie Gaffney: And with 300 people at a wedding, you need three or four artists. And so people team up. And so there are agencies that are doing that. There's so many. Yeah it's, artists have seen the need and are filling the need with the service, so you can do that. There is great potential for [00:37:00] earning because like I said, the wedding industry, the people who are making the buying decisions are very emotionally driven.

Stephanie Gaffney: And so me, my wedding is long passed andmy buying. Decision process is less emotionally driven. I will sit there and deliberate whether or not to spend $60 on a monogrammed smock for my child, But I was like, what's the difference between sixty five hundred and seventy five hundred on a photographer package, so value wise, there's a different buying mentality. And so everything feels very inflated and people complain about this, and it's a hot topic, the cost of things when you're planning a wedding. Yeah. But the truth is. There's higher demand for excellence in that industry. 'cause it has to be perfect.

Stephanie Gaffney: And so you have to have a really good reputation. You have to be excellent at your job. And if you're not, word goes around and you don't get as much work. So there's a lot of pressure involved in the day I. About 50% of the work is creating the painting. The rest of that work happens before and [00:38:00] after client experience.

Stephanie Gaffney: Having a very well-written and easy to navigate website if you want to compete with all of the artists in the world who are also doing the same thing. Having your website optimized for search is very important. So we talk about that. Being technically trained so that you can walk into a ballroom and know what direction and what angle and proportions and perspective to choose, because you're looking at a blank canvas and you have to make a decision like that.

Lori Gouhin: Yeah. 

Stephanie Gaffney: Do you 

Lori Gouhin: do any technical training in the 

Stephanie Gaffney: course 

Lori Gouhin: or? 

Stephanie Gaffney: I do. Expected to. Okay. 

Lori Gouhin: All right. 

Stephanie Gaffney: Oh, absolutely. Now, one thing that I did, I chose not to do because I, there's so much free content on YouTube. There are so many. foundational videos, foundational courses people have, there's so much information already out there.

Stephanie Gaffney: So many free resources. Yeah, and I had all this very specialized. Information I'm not gonna require someone to spend three weeks learning foundational stuffWe don't have time for that. Here's links to all the [00:39:00] YouTube videos that I like.

Stephanie Gaffney: Here's why I like them. Here's a video on demonstrating critiques. And so we go over that. We have live critiques, and when you do a live critique on a live wedding painting, you have to consider. The environment that they created the painting in, you have to consider the process. You have to consider, oh, they didn't end up doing their ceremony exit 'cause it was raining.

Stephanie Gaffney: So how do you've already started the background, this is the moment you're painting. How do you capture that without the reference photo? What do you do? These kind of things we consider Yeah. Decision making on the fly. A lot of times when you're critiquing work. The student either can go back to the studio and piddle with it some more and take a different direction at their own pace.

Stephanie Gaffney: The decision making process is much less stressful whereas we're finished in the job and a lot of people, if they're working in acrylics, leave the painting at the end of the night. So if they, even if they take a photo of it and we critique it. You have to critique with the intention of making better decisions on the next job because that job is [00:40:00] done.

Stephanie Gaffney: So it's a very nuanced course, and I love to supplement and fill with, this is a free YouTube video. Oh, I did a little research here. Go follow this Instagram account. They're really good at plain air painting. So yeah, so there is an element of, if we're working on painting the face, you have to understand the skull and the shapes of the bones underneath.

Stephanie Gaffney: Here's a good resource for that. I love that. And I 

Lori Gouhin: think that I love that you. Give out links. Just go find it here. You don't have to reinvent the wheel because that is such a valuable service, right? It saves people so much time trying to research it all on their own and find the good one.

Lori Gouhin: So that, that's great that you include that and also that all the decisions, right? Teaching them to make quick decisions, that's going to be beneficial for their whole life, for in, in all aspects of their life. Because that's another thing that people really struggle with is making decisions.

Lori Gouhin: They belabor things back and forth, and just in the context of the course, teaching them on the right there, they have to make quick decisions. I can't help but think that carries over into [00:41:00] other areas of their life, which I think is so beneficial. 

Stephanie Gaffney: Yeah. Decisions with creating the work, of course, but also professionalism.

Stephanie Gaffney: It does not matter what type of art you create. If you're selling it, even if you work with a gallery and you don't work, you know that's a different area, but you're working with an audience. You're trying to connect with the audience, how you journal to then write. About, do a description or a thesis or a memo.

Stephanie Gaffney: You're writing content for your website, how you connect with your audience. We talk about that a lot. Writing for the reader. We talk about being responsive and being professional and being kind and when you, and when you're engaging with a potential client. Trying to put yourself in their shoes and figure out what's important to that person, because some people really want this fun experience, and

Stephanie Gaffney: They really want the vibe they want that. But some people don't care about any of that at all. They're very pragmatic. They're very decision. Oriented, just get it done. What does it cost? No emotions, and that's men and women. And [00:42:00] so we talk about buyer types, So if somebody is interested in maybe supplementing their income or taking on this service and promoting the service, maybe they were asked to do one or have been asked a couple of times.

Stephanie Gaffney: it's literally everything I know in my entire career that, that we walk you through. Seems so valuable. Very 

Lori Gouhin: valuable. 

Stephanie Gaffney: I try. 

Lori Gouhin: Before we wrap it up, let's touch on your podcast for a minute. Okay. What, tell us again the name of your podcast and what the premise is. 

Stephanie Gaffney: What's the show all about?

Stephanie Gaffney: Thank you so much for asking. This has been my, my baby. My, most recent project has been the podcast, and the podcast is the composed artist, and it is. I, I thought, oh, I could do a podcast. I could talk for an hour. That's no problem. And I was, I don't know why I thought I could get away with recording my thoughts in the privacy of my closet because we decided to have an editor and a kind of a production team because that, again, I.

Stephanie Gaffney: That's not my, I don't have time to learn how to edit videos. Oh my goodness. I do have a team that's been an investment as well, and a worthwhile one. It's been very fun. [00:43:00] And so we record, it's on YouTube. You can go and watch it on YouTube and we're on Instagram. The composed artist, basically, I it, I am a live wedding painter who, a lot of the guests that I have are also live wedding painters, but not all of them.

Stephanie Gaffney: The premise is to discuss the. The con, the constant effort of balancing a creative life with. with motherhood, with all of the other things that you're trying to accomplish, having these conversations asking what kind of advice you would have, I wanna give the platform to other artists to tell their stories.

Stephanie Gaffney: What advice do you have for artists who are just getting started, who are sitting. In the loneliness and isolation of their studios, and they don't know what to create next. They're not, they're lacking inspiration. They don't know where their next paycheck is gonna come from. Maybe they've had a bad experience with a client.

Stephanie Gaffney: Maybe they reallydisliked, did not enjoy the process of creating the last piece. And so they're put off by the whole thing. We talk about all of these things, and then there's some solo episodes where, you do it so well. Huh? [00:44:00] You're so thorough and concise in your solo episodes is what I love about your show.

Stephanie Gaffney: And I'm working on, I'm working on that. I'm working on getting a thought across and trying to educate and inspire in a generous way and just using it as a platform to, to bring encouragement and good into the world and. Create a platform for other artists to show off and share their advice.

Stephanie Gaffney: Yeah, I 

Lori Gouhin: love that. I love that. Giving a voice to the creatives. 

Lori Gouhin: Beautiful. Beautiful. Thank you so much for being here today, and if you could share where the listeners can find you, your Instagram handle, your website again, the composed artist, is that available on all the platforms, I would assume yes.

Lori Gouhin: Yeah. 

Lori Gouhin: Thank you so much. Thank 

Stephanie Gaffney: you for having me. I'm just delighted. I'm so sad we have to end this. I know. Every time. But yes, the composed artist on all platforms, apple apple Podcast, Spotify, and YouTube. On Instagram, I have a couple of different websites. For like coaching and mentorship, it's Stephanie Gaffney, G-A-F-F-N-E y.com.

Stephanie Gaffney: You can also [00:45:00] find. The podcast is on the website as well. Each episode has its own blog page, if you will. Yeah. So that's fun. And then I have my brand is Torah Grossa. Torah Grossa. It's my maiden name. Torah Grossa Fine Art. That's what I sign my work with. And Torah grossa Fine Art dot com, that's my website.

Stephanie Gaffney: And then to Grossa Fine Art on Instagram. 

Stephanie Gaffney: And then the wedding painter's blueprint is the online course. We opened it for enrollment once a year in around February.

Stephanie Gaffney: And so it's closed today. But I did want to offer your audience if they are interested in getting a snapshot of some of the value. And then also look inward. I have a goal setting workbook and it's a free download And it's an assessment of your goals and things like that. And you can do that basically anytime, but we usually do it at the beginning of the year. So I did wanna give that to your audience if you'd like. 

Lori Gouhin: Yes, we would love that. 

Lori Gouhin: Thank you again for being here today. I really enjoyed this conversation and I'm sure it won't be the last time that we talk. So have I, Thank 

Stephanie Gaffney: you for having me.