#88: Is Anybody Even Seeing My Work?

Visibility Isn’t Everywhere: Build Consistency Where People Already Pay Attention

Courtney Gray introduces The Jeweler’s View and addresses makers’ anxiety about whether anyone is seeing their work, especially when social posts get little engagement. She shares a client story of a maker overwhelmed by trying to be on every platform, then reframes visibility as being where people already pay attention by asking where the last five sales actually came from, mostly referrals and existing relationships, not the platform she worried about. 

Gray emphasizes that visibility and engagement aren’t the same, that many people quietly watch for a long time before buying, and that makers often quit channels too soon. She argues visibility is usually a consistency problem, not a marketing problem, and recommends choosing a home base plus a few reliable paths, using a “last five sales/inquiries” exercise to find patterns and focus efforts.

We cover:
00:00 Podcast Welcome
00:35 Visibility Struggle Story
02:14 Where Sales Come From
03:56 Engagement Versus Visibility
05:04 Consistency Beats Platforms
06:01 Build A Home Base
07:02 Five Sales Exercise
07:43 Closing And Next Steps

Transcript

88: Is Anybody Even Seeing My Work?

[00:00:00] Welcome to The Jeweler's View. I'm Courtney Gray. I've spent nearly 30 years in this industry running schools, doing custom work, coaching, consulting, and working with makers at all stages. Over time, I've started to see the patterns, the things that actually move a creative career forward and the things that can quietly hold it back.

I built this podcast to cut through the noise. Less time in your head or down the research rabbit hole and more time building something real. Let's get into it 

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: Okay, so

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: you spend 20 minutes to photograph 

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: a new ring.

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: new ring.

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: The lighting is wrong,

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: stone refuses to cooperate, the metal reflects everything except

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: what you want

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: people to see, and eventually you get the photo posted. You share it, you wait. Three likes, one comment.

One of those likes is your aunt or your [00:01:00] partner, and suddenly you're asking yourself, "Is anybody even seeing

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: my work?"

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: Welcome back to The Jeweler's View. I'm Courtney Gray, and today I wanna talk about visibility because every week I hear some version of the same question. "Should I be on TikTok? Do I need Pinterest?

Should I be doing shows? Do I need a newsletter? Should I be pursuing galleries or wholesale?" And underneath every one of those questions is the same concern: "What if nobody is seeing my work?" A few years ago, I was working with a maker who was completely

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023:overwhelmed.

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: She had convinced herself that she needed to be everywhere: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, email, blogs, video, stories, reels, all of it.

Every time she opened her laptop, she stu-

And every time she opened her laptop, she felt behind.

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: There was

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: always one more thing that she wasn't doing, one more platform that somebody [00:02:00] else was telling her that she needed. The problem, she was spending so much energy trying to become visible that she barely... She was spending so much energy trying to become visible that she barely had time left to make the work that she wanted people to see or buy in the first place. So I asked her a simple question: "Where have your last five sales come from? Not where you hope they'll come from, not where sh- some, not where some marketing expert says they should come from.

Where did they actually come from?" So she started listing them, right? A former coworker, a friend of a friend, the veter- the veterinarian, someone she'd met through a local organization, a repeat customer

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: and

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: not one came from the platform that she was spending the most time worrying about.

That kinda changed everything in how she was looking at this because visibility isn't about being everywhere. It's about being where people are already paying attention. Have you ever heard that saying, "The low-hanging fruit"? Well, that's kinda what we're talking about. [00:03:00] Sometimes those places are not nearly as glamorous as we'd like them to be, and I think social media has

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: this

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: strange idea that strange- Figures matter more than relationships.

That growth only counts if it comes from someone who's never heard of us orThat growth only really counts if it comes

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: from someone

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: who has never heard of us before. But when I look back over 25 years in this industry, that's rarely been true. When I owned the jewelry school, some of our best students came through referrals, word of mouth.

A friend had brought a friend. A former student told a co- coworker. A former student told a coworker a coworker. Someone took a jewelry class years ago and finally came back sometimes people would walk through the door and tell me they had been following us for years. Yes, years. Meanwhile, I had no idea they were even paying attention.

They weren't commenting, they weren't emailing, they weren't raising their hand, they were simply watching. And that's something I think we forget. Visibility and engagement are not the [00:04:00] same thing. Someone can see every post you make and never leave a comment. Someone can read every newsletter and never

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: reply.

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: Someone could visit your website 10 times before they ever contact you. In fact, most people do. Think about your own life. Think about your own life. How many businesses have you quietly followed before making a purchase, before buying? How many artists have you admired before collecting their work?

How many podcasts have you listened to? How many podcasts have you listened to before subscribing?

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: By the way, if you're not

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023:subscribing, be sure to hit

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: that button.

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: We all do this. We observe, we pay attention, we wait, and then one day the timing is right. The problem is that from the business owner's perspective, all that waiting looks like nothing.

We assume silence means nobody noticed. We assume low engagement means low interest. We [00:05:00] assume a lack of immediate results means something isn't working. And that's where many makers get themselves into trouble, because they abandon things before they've had enough time to work. Because they abandon things before they've had enough time to actually work. They post consistently for maybe three weeks. Nothing happens. They stop. They send two newsletters. Nobody replies. They

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: stop.

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: They do one show, and sales are slower

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: than expected.

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: They stop.

Hmm. Take a sip And then six months later, they're starting over somewhere else, not because the first thing failed, because they never stayed with it long enough to find

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: out.

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: This is the one of... This is one of the reasons I often tell students inside Transform that visibility is not a marketing problem. It's usually a consistency problem , and this is not because you're lazy or you're doing something wrong. It's because they're exhausted. They're trying to maintain six different visibility channels instead of building one or two [00:06:00] strong ones. And the truth is, most small creative businesses really don't need to be everywhere.

They need a home base, a place where people can reliably find them, 

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: and 

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: then they need a few paths that lead people there. That's it. For some people, that's Instagram and a

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-audio_the_jeweler's view _0023: website.

riverside_courtney_gray_raw-video-cfr_the_jeweler's view _0023: For others, it's a show and an email list. For some... For others, it's shows and an email list. For some, it's galleries and referrals.

I've even had students whose strongest visibility channel was their personal Facebook page, and honestly, why not? Who cares? Those people already know you. They already trust you. They already care about what happens in your life. Why are we so eager to abandon the audience we already have in pursuit of one that we haven't built yet?

That's a question worth sitting with because visibility isn't really about reaching the most people. It's about reaching the right people often [00:07:00] enough that they remember you. I wanna leave you with a simple exercise. 

Take a piece of paper and write down your last five sales, or at least the last five people who inquired, and then ask yourself, "How did each one find me originally?

Who introduced them? What platform were they on? What relationship existed before they purchased?" Look for patterns, not assumptions. Patterns. You may discover that your business is already telling you where your visibility efforts belong. The clues are usually there. We're just too busy chasing the next thing to notice them. So if you've been wondering whether anybody is seeing your work, here's what I'd tell you: more people are paying attention than you realize. The real question isn't whether they're seeing it. The real question is whether you're making it easy for them to keep finding [00:08:00] Until next time, I'm Courtney Gray. This is The Jeweler's View, and if you're not subscribed yet, go ahead and do so. I put one of these out every week, and I'd love to have you here with me. Onward and upward. . See you next week. 

Speaker 2: I'm glad you're here. This path takes a lot, especially when you're building something of your own. If you wanna go deeper, I share key takeaways and additional teaching through my email list at courtneygrayarts.com. Keep going. This part matters. I'll see you next [00:09:00] week