How Artists Can Finally Feel Confident Selling: Money Talk S5E5

This set effectively summarizes and segments the detailed content of the interview into easily navigable chapters for viewers.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Journey
02:30 From Turmoil to Triumph
05:07 Making Choices for a Fulfilling Life
09:20 Overcoming Fear and Taking the Plunge
11:44 The Long Road to Writing Success
15:09 Processing Trauma Through Creativity
18:45 Art, Money, and Success: A Roadmap for Artists
21:18 The Art of Making Money
24:24 Overcoming Money Conversations
28:01 Shifting Mindsets on Money
32:42 Building Confidence in Pricing
35:37 Five Steps to Artist Success

Charuka (00:00.366)
Welcome to the podcast everyone. Welcome to the podcast. I’m very very excited to have you on the podcast for a new season and thank you so much. I know you had to wait for me and we’ve chatted a little bit before just to loosen up but how are you doing today?

Maria Brophy (00:20.634)
doing great. It’s the morning for me. So my day is just starting. I know it’s late for you. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Charuka (00:26.19)
Mine’s almost ending. Mine’s almost ending. I’m glad. I’m glad. I’m very happy. So, you know, this is like, I’m a little rusty today because I’ve taken a long break from recording new episodes and one of the reason is it gets really hectic. I’m sure you’ve seen like, you know, had to pack up myself here and all of those things. So, but I’m very excited because I love

having these conversations on the podcast. are now on the fifth season, is very exciting because I never thought I’d be able to go this far. So you are a special guest for us and I’m very looking forward because you also talk about things which is something artists love, but yet it’s a love and hate relationship, would say, like money, success. And it’s been…

It’s confusing for a lot of people so we’ll dive into it. But why don’t you first introduce yourself in your own words? How would you like to be known?

Maria Brophy (01:24.816)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (01:30.586)
How would I like to be known? I’d like to be known as somebody who figured out how to live life on my own, live life my own way, to create a life worth living. I think that is, even though I talk a lot about art, money, success, how artists can make money with their art.

really, when I drill down my real purpose in life, like when I really step back and think about it, it’s about helping people see that they have the power to create whatever life it is that they want, regardless of what everybody else out there says, including your teachers, your parents, and the fine art world and society.

Charuka (02:08.161)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (02:21.732)
I don’t listen to anybody. just do what I think I want to do with my own life. And I think everybody should be doing that.

Charuka (02:22.015)
Thank you.

Charuka (02:30.925)
Can you paint me a picture before and after of what you were before you are who you are today? Like were you always like that as an apologetic or you know what changed for you?

Maria Brophy (02:47.663)
Yeah, yeah.

Maria Brophy (02:55.216)
That is such a good question. I love that question because it forces me to drill it down deeper and further into the past. I grew up in a very violent household. And I remember as a child, I remember being seven years old and looking at my parents, they were throwing things at each other. And there was a lot of violence in the house and it was not a safe place. And I remember looking around and saying, I’m not gonna be like these people.

when I’m old enough, I’m going to be different. I’m going to live a happy life. And I did so. So then I knew that I wanted to write books, even as a teenager.

Charuka (03:37.516)
You always knew that? Were you somebody who would use words more often than the other ways of expression, let’s say.

Maria Brophy (03:48.132)
Yes, and I but I didn’t have any confidence in myself and I didn’t know anybody who wrote books and I didn’t know how to go about it. anyway, I ended up getting a job in corporate America, you know, a nine to five job, which was fine. It was good. It got me out of poverty. But I was never really happy. And so the. Yeah, so the turning point for me. Was when.

Charuka (04:09.438)
Happy about it.

Maria Brophy (04:17.966)
I met my husband and he was painting surfboards for a living. And he said something to me. He was painting surfboards for a living when I met him. So, but I remember him saying to me, and we had only known each other for a few months. And I remember him saying to me, Maria.

Charuka (04:23.313)
she was painting?

Charuka (04:28.805)
wow!

Maria Brophy (04:42.906)
You can have anything you want in life. All you have to do is know what it is that you want, and then you just have to go after it. And I remember thinking, well, that sounds a little too simple. But I knew what I wanted. I wanted a life of travel. I wanted to work for myself. I wanted to write books. I wanted to be surrounded by artists and musicians and interesting people.

Charuka (04:54.218)
That’s true.

Charuka (05:08.755)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (05:11.098)
That was the life I wanted, but I didn’t have that life yet. But I realized I could have it once I made the decision to move towards it. And that was what I started to do. I started making decisions in my life that led me down that road. And then I can say for the last 20 years, I’ve worked for myself. I’ve written eight books and

Charuka (05:30.75)
Hmm.

Charuka (05:38.229)
Wonderful.

Maria Brophy (05:40.046)
And I’ve traveled all over the world with my husband and my kids, doing things on my terms, not anybody else’s terms, living life on my own terms.

Charuka (05:53.493)
Did you ever feel Maria that you had to choose between, you know, something? Like, you know, often artists are told, you can be creative and successful, but you’ll have to compromise, let’s say, your personal life. You may not be as involved as a parent. Maybe you might not even want to have children. They will take away your focus. Or if you want to make more money, then you’ll have to compromise.

your creativity or if you want to be more creative then you have to accept that you will have to maybe you know not have enough funds, poverty all those things. Did you ever feel like you had to choose between any of these?

Maria Brophy (06:33.06)
Yes.

Absolutely. to have a life of travel, when we weren’t making, when we weren’t making a lot of money, here were some of the hard choices I had to make. I wanted to get a puppy, but how do you travel when you have a puppy? Not easy. So I never got, I never got a puppy. Okay. I needed a new car one year.

Charuka (06:41.342)
Yeah.

Charuka (06:51.71)
Yeah. Yeah.

Thank

Maria Brophy (07:02.428)
and we got a little bit of money. My mother owed me a lot of money and she paid me back just a little bit of it. And I was like, okay, we could get a new car. And then I thought, oh my gosh, this car is gonna cost like $13,000 a year after all the everything. Why don’t we just go to New Zealand for a month instead? So those were the choices that I made. So I kept my old car.

Charuka (07:23.335)
You had to.

Yeah.

Maria Brophy (07:27.556)
And we went to New Zealand and lived out of a camper van for a month. And those were choices that I made over and over and over again. I don’t regret any of those choices. I have such a rich tapestry of memories of doing the most amazing things all over the world, hiking mountains, going in glow worm caves, paddle boarding.

the Colorado River, like just doing so many things that just all these bucket list things that were really important to me and and having a life where I was always there for my son when he was a baby and when he was a child. We I was involved in all his school stuff because I worked for myself. So I set my own hours. But the biggest compromise that you have to make

Charuka (08:04.842)
Yeah.

Maria Brophy (08:26.996)
is you have to give up all the limitations you’re stuck to in your own mind.

Charuka (08:34.286)
Yeah. What was your first push? Once you get through one, it’s easier to get through the next and the next and the next. But what’s the most hard part of this whole process is to getting started.

Maria Brophy (08:38.108)
And that’s the biggest one.

Charuka (08:57.725)
to finding the plunge, to doing things for the first time because they scare you, they intimidate you, you’re afraid of putting yourself out there, you’re afraid of failure, you’re afraid of losing what you have, maybe if it’s worthless, am I wasting my time? Like all of those questions that we all have in our head. Can you take us through that journey? Like where were you when…

what brought you actually to write the first book and what that looked like?

Maria Brophy (09:32.292)
Okay, so this is all really good. So first of all, to get started is to know what you want and get a vision in your mind of what you really want. And if it doesn’t scare you a little bit, it’s not a worthy vision. It has to scare you a little bit.

Charuka (09:54.512)
Yeah, it has to feel big. Otherwise, what are you working towards?

Maria Brophy (09:59.994)
because that fear is showing you your mental limitation and you want to be very aware of your mental limitation so that you can bust it, so that you can break through it. So that’s it. Number one is getting the vision and writing it down so that it’s crystal clear and expanding on it.

Charuka (10:07.421)
Yeah.

Charuka (10:11.41)
Yeah.

Charuka (10:24.199)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (10:27.34)
Expanding on it. We do this work in my artist mastermind I lead in an online artist mastermind and we have live meetings every week and we often will visit our Big vision and then I’ll say to them. Okay now I want you to add more detail to make it bigger and so this way we expand so once you Have that vision and you expand on it Notice where the fear is and go. Okay. This is what I need to

Charuka (10:43.551)
Yeah

Charuka (10:55.313)
Mayday.

Maria Brophy (10:56.506)
be aware of and work on. And then you start taking steps. Start taking steps towards it.

Charuka (10:58.108)
Yeah. And it’s also starts to feel more real.

Maria Brophy (11:08.134)
For me, writing that first book, well, the first book I wrote, I’m trying to remember what year it was. It was probably 20 years ago. Yeah, 20 years ago. And it was a very short book. It’s called Living the Dream. And it’s really based on these principles, but a very simplified version of it. And…

Charuka (11:20.807)
Wow, 20 years.

Charuka (11:27.003)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (11:36.188)
I just made that book available as a PDF. never printed it. So I’m going to revise that book.

Charuka (11:40.549)
Boom!

20 years ago, having a PDF book was very visionary, isn’t it?

Maria Brophy (11:49.617)
What?

Charuka (11:50.416)
I’m saying having a PDF book 20 years ago was really visionary. Like, you know, we were not in a world where e-books were popular back then. Like, you know, it wouldn’t be that common.

Maria Brophy (11:54.523)
Yeah.

Maria Brophy (12:00.356)
Right.

Maria Brophy (12:04.316)
True, true. then, and I’m gonna revise that book. That’s the next book I’m going to work on and bring it back. Only I’m gonna ban on it and bring it up to date. But the most popular book is the Art Money Success book. And I’m gonna admit something kind of embarrassing, but it took me more than seven years.

Charuka (12:12.743)
Okay.

Charuka (12:16.422)
Okay.

Charuka (12:20.368)
Yeah.

Charuka (12:26.649)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (12:33.796)
to write and finish and publish that book. And it was all fear that held me back. Seven years. Imagine if you’re a painter and you work on one painting for seven years. It’s ridiculous. Ridiculous.

Charuka (12:47.479)
Have any other?

Can you take us through what were the biggest, like you know, what were the fears and then how did you find yourself through them?

Maria Brophy (13:01.658)
The fears were, the main fear for me when it comes to writing is saying something wrong and being harshly judged for it. I can’t stand to be harshly judged. And it goes back to my childhood. know, everything, all of our triggers as adults, it’s the way.

Charuka (13:10.948)
Yeah.

Charuka (13:25.818)
comments. Yeah.

Maria Brophy (13:27.772)
It’s just us being a seven year old all over. We’re still, you are still the seven year old girl that you were at seven years old. And that’s me. So like our seven year old within us runs the show. And for me, it was the fear of saying something wrong because if I ever dared say something wrong, I would get hit.

Charuka (13:35.365)
Yeah.

Charuka (13:42.887)
I write it as after all, a human.

Maria Brophy (13:52.476)
And I would get physically abused in my home. And so I grew up being afraid of saying the wrong thing. And here I am wanting to be a writer and a writer does say the wrong thing to some people, right?

Maria Brophy (14:11.342)
Yeah. Yeah. So that was what held me back the most was just the fear of criticism. But I have this thing inside me that has to create. I have to write books. So I am fighting the criticism, the fear constantly. And my need to create and to get the work out eventually wins over the fear.

But I just finished writing a book that took me two years and it’s making me physically ill writing this book. I have to say physically ill because it’s so much trauma involved. It’s called COVID a love story. And it’s about when my husband was dying in a hospital from COVID and he was on a ventilator.

at for for 70 days and nobody lives. 7070 days. Yeah, he’s an absolute miracle. But the hell I went through fighting for his life and fighting for alternative therapies to keep him alive. It was a battle. And then he came home. He’s a miracle. He’s he’s almost fine now. It’s been almost four years. But

Charuka (15:11.91)
70.

my goodness.

Charuka (15:30.009)
How is he now?

Charuka (15:35.46)
I’m so glad. I lost my mom to COVID. And she was on the ventilator and she couldn’t make it.

Maria Brophy (15:38.382)
He came home in a wheelchair. I’m so sorry. Yeah, I lost.

How many days was she on the ventilator before she died? Yeah, so 85 % of the people die within the first four days. So ventilators, yeah, it’s just death and it’s just horrible. And I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry you went through that. And my book will, you know, it’s a memoir.

Charuka (15:48.333)
Not even two. Not even two.

Maria Brophy (16:13.912)
It’s reliving not just the horror that I went through, but what in America, 1.6 million people died that way. But writing the book has been so horrible and it comes out in a few weeks and

Charuka (16:15.513)
That pain.

Charuka (16:22.851)
Yeah, it was a bad time.

Maria Brophy (16:36.43)
I’m now recording it so it’s on audio as well. So I’ve been spending long days in the recording studio and I have two more recording days to go. And I got like a stye in my eye and I got a headache and my, had got, I mean, I got really sick after two days of recording.

Charuka (16:47.878)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (16:59.512)
And I thought, my God, this book is just making me sick because I’m reliving this trauma over and over. And I thought, why am I doing this? Why did I even write this book? Why did I do this to myself? And the answer is because I have to.

Charuka (17:19.687)
There’s no other way.

Maria Brophy (17:22.94)
There’s something inside me.

Charuka (17:23.309)
It’s also, I think, as creative people, as artists, authors, painters. I know after my mom passed away, there was so much of painting, and even today, there’s so much of painting, writing I need to do, because I also need to process those kind of feelings and emotions that I experience everyday basis, specifically then. I remember after my mom, came to a shutdown mode, and I literally, like, I completely shut down, but…

I think that was more because of the shock. But then after that, I came to a point where I needed, there was so much of insight that I needed. There was no other way and the only way I could process that was just through art and just through writing and just through painting. And I think that is why we’re so compelled to do it.

Maria Brophy (18:13.786)
Yeah, yeah, I know a lot of artists that work through their grief with painting and it is very healing painting and doing any kind of creative thinking and really even just exercise. I mean, just moving, moving the, the, the emotions out of the tissues because they say that

Charuka (18:20.556)
Yeah. Yeah.

Charuka (18:33.632)
Yeah, absolutely. Moving your body.

Maria Brophy (18:43.61)
The issues are in the tissues, right? Your emotions are just stored in your tissues and you have to move them out. Otherwise, it will make you sick.

Charuka (18:45.911)
Yeah.

Charuka (18:54.296)
Yeah. Okay, tell me something about why a book, why do you think art and money and success, why is such a pivotal book for you and, you know, for the audience, what brought you to writing a book like that? Your own experience?

Charuka (19:15.202)
Anything?

Maria Brophy (19:15.58)
Okay, so I started, you know, I should have led with this at the very beginning because your audience probably may not know. I have been in the business of art for 25 years and I started.

working with my husband 25 years ago, he’s an artist, he was a professional surfboard painter when I met him. And I realized there was so much more we could do with his art.

Charuka (19:35.544)
Yeah.

Maria Brophy (19:45.912)
He was so busy painting all the time. didn’t, he didn’t want to deal with the business side of it. And he actually is a good businessman, but he, it’s, he couldn’t scale it bigger to support our family. So I stepped in and I started learning how to take his art, license it to companies to print on their products, how to take one painting and, and

Charuka (19:55.415)
It’s.

Charuka (20:02.18)
my goodness.

Maria Brophy (20:10.434)
and sell so many art prints off of it that over the years, one of his paintings that he painted in 2006, to this day, we’ve made over a half a million dollars off of that one piece. And we’ve done that with multiple pieces of art. Just yesterday, we released a new painting and in one day we made over $10,000 in art prints. Like we’ve developed this process

Charuka (20:27.619)
and

Maria Brophy (20:39.914)
of

Maria Brophy (20:43.688)
that just works. And so I started writing a blog in 2009, like a long, long time ago for artists. And then artists started coming to me. I started coaching artists one-on-one.

Charuka (20:50.677)
Long time.

Maria Brophy (20:58.332)
Over the years, know, I’ve had mastermind groups. So like right now have an online artist mastermind group and I help artists do all the things that we do with Drew’s art. But my book, my book, Art Money Success, it lays out a roadmap, a very specific roadmap for artists to make money with their art. And it’s out of the box thinking it’s non-conventional ways. If you follow the art,

Charuka (21:09.214)
Okay. Yeah, absolutely. think I completely agree with that.

Maria Brophy (21:28.048)
the fine art world, you will not make money as an artist. Okay?

Charuka (21:37.763)
The system is made for artists not to be able to live off it. Only just a few percent. And I don’t even know, I’m sure what happens there.

Maria Brophy (21:45.124)
So.

Maria Brophy (21:51.586)
A majority of the artists that I work with directly that make over six figures a year are not educated in the fine art world. So what I’ve noticed is the more educated an artist is, for example, artists that have an MFA,

Charuka (21:59.763)
Amazing.

Charuka (22:15.97)
Yeah.

Maria Brophy (22:17.91)
Master of Fine Arts are least likely to make money with their art. Now I’ll tell you why. Now you can overcome that if you have an MFA. Don’t let this discourage you. You have to unlearn what you learned about the art business and learn new things, non-conventional ways to make money.

Charuka (22:24.62)
Bye.

Charuka (22:29.952)
Yeah. Line.

Charuka (22:39.128)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Yeah. Okay, so yeah, give me an exam.

Maria Brophy (22:46.972)
I’ll give you an example. In the fine art world, you will hear a lot of art gallery owners and fine artists say, never sell art prints of your paintings. It lowers the value of your paintings. 100 % false.

Charuka (23:04.277)
Okay.

Charuka (23:09.164)
call.

Maria Brophy (23:10.94)
it increases the value of your paintings. So do you think that a Van Gogh painting is worthless because you can buy a lot of things with a Van Gogh painting on it? No, it’s never gonna reduce the value. That is BS. So we will sell art prints of a painting before the painting sells.

Charuka (23:26.562)
Yeah.

Charuka (23:36.996)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (23:37.37)
We do it all the time. As a matter of fact, we did it yesterday. So we just dropped a new art prints of a painting Drew just finished called Trestles. And if anyone follows him on Instagram, his Instagram is Drew Brophy. You can see he released Trestles yesterday morning.

Charuka (23:41.151)
Haha.

Charuka (23:50.899)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (24:03.868)
and released canvas and paper prints of it. We sold like $8,000 in art prints and then I get a text from one of his art collectors that said, hey, is the original painting available? I’d like it. And I said, yes. I sold that painting for $6,500 by text.

Charuka (24:25.196)
Amazing.

Maria Brophy (24:33.256)
And so this happens all the time. do this like eight times a year with like eight different paintings.

Charuka (24:36.383)
Miss, other time.

Charuka (24:42.207)
Amazing. Amazing. What are other fears that you feel like artists have and like, you know, ones that you’ve also focused in the book specifically, how, what, how, how, what are the things that you’re challenging for them? What are the, what are you asking them to really focus on?

Maria Brophy (25:04.06)
I’m asking them to do things that feel hard, but they will get easier. For example, having a money conversation. If you can’t talk about money, you have to learn how to talk about money. Because if you can’t learn how to talk about money, you’re never gonna make money. And if you say, and if you say money’s not important to me, you’re never gonna make money. So if you say that,

Charuka (25:20.054)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Maria Brophy (25:33.262)
If you ever say that, correct that. And I want you to stop saying money’s not important because if money is not important, then how do you pay for food? How do you pay your rent? How do you pay for your car? How do you pay for your children’s things? How do you, how do you take care of your family, your parents, your… How do you make more art?

Charuka (25:37.504)
Yeah.

Charuka (25:55.192)
How do you make more?

Maria Brophy (26:00.826)
So money is important, get over it. It’s a part of life. It’s not changing yet. Has not changed. It might change in our lifetime. It might not, I don’t know. But I’m 60 years old and as long as I’ve been alive, money is the only way I can eat.

Charuka (26:00.852)
Yeah.

Charuka (26:14.689)
The more you talk, the better it

Maria Brophy (26:20.974)
And it’s been that way as long as I can remember. So money is important. So that’s number one. Number two, get comfortable talking about money and learn how to get comfortable with it. And there’s only one way to learn and that is to talk to people about money. when some, yeah. So if somebody wants to buy a painting from you, tell them how much it is and tell them how they can buy it. And

Charuka (26:48.96)
you

Maria Brophy (26:50.8)
work through those weird feelings. And I understand it because I went through that in the beginning, myself, when I started selling art, when I started having money conversations with clients, with companies, that was the hardest thing for me. But with practice, I got through it. And now,

Charuka (27:07.2)
Hmm.

Maria Brophy (27:14.382)
Now I don’t even think about it. Because everything, it’s just like when you’re a kid and you’re learning how to brush your teeth, you don’t wanna do it. Now you can do it without thinking about it. You don’t even think about it.

Charuka (27:21.331)
Yeah.

Charuka (27:28.832)
Yeah. What are the biggest tools that you feel that artists, if they focus on, they can get more comfortable with the idea of representing them. A lot of artists struggle with the idea that, you know, I don’t have the skills, I don’t know how to market myself.

I am not good with money. It’s not even that they’re afraid. There’s also this notion that they feel they are not good with money. And also the fear of, like you said, the fear of failure and, you know, I’m going to prove people wrong. They said, this is a scam or, they, you know, I just proved them right. How do you get past those thoughts and the fear that, nobody will show up?

I’m going to send out that email and nobody’s going to reply. And what if I quote something too high and that person thinks, this is, she’s, you she’s not real or I don’t know. I mean, what’s your thought on this?

Maria Brophy (28:44.508)
There’s so much to everything you just said. So I’ll go back to the very beginning. The words you say to yourself bring about your reality. So when you say, I’m not good with money, you just created a reality where you’re not good with money. It’s not true that you’re not good with money.

Charuka (29:07.657)
Yeah.

Maria Brophy (29:11.894)
If you can, so your words lead to your thoughts, lead to your feelings and your feelings create your actions.

Charuka (29:17.055)
Yeah.

Maria Brophy (29:27.044)
And then you’re, so you start with what you say to yourself. So let’s say you really believe you’re not good with money, but you wanna change that. So you say, okay, instead of saying I’m not good with money, I’m gonna correct myself. I’m gonna say I’m learning how to be a good money manager. I’m learning how to be good with money.

Charuka (29:48.312)
Hmm.

Hmm.

Maria Brophy (29:52.456)
Or you can just go straight to, I’m really good with money. And you just play with that. And then when you have to have a money conversation with someone, before you have the conversation, work out in your mind, okay, this is what I’m gonna say. I know the person’s gonna ask me how much is it going to cost for…

Charuka (29:57.041)
Yeah.

Charuka (30:17.871)
Trust. Yeah.

Maria Brophy (30:19.6)
for this painting. And I’m gonna say it’s $3,000. And I’m gonna say it confidently. And then I’m going to say, this is how I like to take payment. I take payment by either Venmo or however you take payment, make it easy for them to pay you. And then you say to them, would you like to own this piece of art?

Would you like to take this home today? Would you like me to ship this to you today? You have to close the deal. You have to get the customer to say, yes, I want it. I have seen so many artists blow it because somebody actually wants to buy something from them. The artist makes it too difficult.

Charuka (30:54.806)
Yeah.

Charuka (31:05.8)
Because it would I.

Charuka (31:12.402)
You know, I remember years ago, I had this painting and I had this like, I posted a lot of work online and it suddenly blew up and I was working on this large painting which still sits with me, you know. What’s the parent joke about? I was so scared of, and it had a lot of attention. A lot of people would ask me, I really love this, et cetera. I don’t know, one day this woman,

messaged me out of Instagram and she asked me, I love this piece, I would love to buy, please let me know when it’s ready and what’s the, what’s it’s going to cost. And I remember years ago, I was so afraid that, and also like you said, I also came from the idea of I don’t have to outrightly say,

I don’t want to look desperate, I need it. You know, I said, and I was so afraid of it that I said, it’s not yet ready. And I will, I will let you know once it’s done because I was so afraid to say a price, feel like a imposter. And if I, I felt like, if I say a price just right now and she’ll feel like, I’m not, I’m just too desperate. And I felt like

Even so many years later also, I will always think about that. I still don’t know why I ever did that. I would never do that today. Somebody asked me even in the middle of the painting and they say if they want it, I’ll be more than happy to say, you can have it and I’ll take the time. But even when it was almost there, I just couldn’t find the courage because I didn’t believe in myself before anything else.

Maria Brophy (33:03.578)
Well, and so how do you get to believe in yourself? That’s the question. So anybody listening, I know a lot of artists can relate to that story that you just told. I witnessed my own husband doing that at times early on. mean, he’s very, you know, he’s been a professional artist his whole life, so he doesn’t do it anymore. But I remember in the early days, he would do that. And I would be like that too. So there’s a couple ways to overcome it. Number one,

Charuka (33:17.721)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (33:31.726)
Have all your pricing figured out. And if it’s not perfect, it’s okay. Don’t stress over it. If you under price a painting, it’s okay. Don’t under price the next one. Just be okay with that. That’s one thing. But the other thing is to get a different result, you have to take a different action. And that means doing something that feels scary.

Charuka (33:40.156)
One, yeah.

Maria Brophy (34:01.828)
were unnatural. And that is

telling someone how much it costs to say would you like to make a payment or make a deposit on it. That way you can have it when it’s finished or when it’s ready but I’ll take half of your payment now and we’ll call it sold.

Charuka (34:12.933)
Thank you.

Charuka (34:23.939)
Yeah, I love that idea.

Maria Brophy (34:23.942)
So I just did that yesterday with the painting. I’m getting this painting framed for this guy, but I want the payment now. So I had him make a $3,500 payment yesterday and then he’s making the rest of the payment. Actually, he’s making the rest of the payment in a couple of days, he said. But since I got the deposit, it’s sold, it’s a done deal.

Charuka (34:47.12)
Yeah.

Maria Brophy (34:47.544)
And he is ecstatic. So I want you to stop thinking about yourself and think about the person that’s so excited to have this piece of art because it’s exciting to buy art. The person buying it is like super excited. So get out of your head and think about them.

Charuka (34:56.745)
Yeah.

Charuka (35:01.017)
Yeah, and it’s a privilege.

Charuka (35:07.267)
Yeah, and I love that idea because you sometimes if I look at it like you know if I’m trying to buy a piece I’m always so excited you know what’s going to come, how it’s going to look, where I’m going to put it up, how it’s going to get framed and often the mistake that we actually make is that because we are afraid, we often confuse ourselves.

Maria Brophy (35:28.891)
Yeah.

Charuka (35:37.316)
and then we confuse the people who are interested. And it never leads to the outcome because we are always over thinking the process so much that we actually miss out on what they want rather than what we are feeling. And that also becomes a big barrier.

Maria Brophy (35:52.443)
Yeah.

Maria Brophy (35:58.702)
Yeah. Yeah. But you just, you know, just breaking through that. And the only way to break through is to do something that feels uncomfortable. And that’s it. That’s all you can do. And that is how you get confidence and self-esteem and start to see your own value. That’s it. That’s the magic pill.

Charuka (36:00.795)
is effective.

Charuka (36:15.493)
Yeah.

Charuka (36:20.377)
Okay, tell me something. Tell me something. Can you, we’re also reaching the close of the episode, but I want to make it more, truthful for everybody. What are the five ways, if you were to, let’s say I’m, I’m the artist and everybody who’s listening, what are the, as Maria, what are the five challenges you would give me? Let’s say something that can help me fast and quick, something that, you know, can help me.

Maria Brophy (36:32.496)
Okay.

Charuka (36:49.023)
make some kind of movement. Let’s say if it’s a commission somebody’s asking how do I close it, if it’s a sale I want to make, if it’s a print I want to sell. Just five things that can help anybody get out of the comfort zone and make some kind of progress.

Maria Brophy (37:07.416)
Okay, so five things. All right. And you want me to make this up on the spot? my gosh. Okay. All right. Let’s see. All right. Number one, I’m to go back to the vision, right? Because your vision of what you want and it, and let me be more specific. Where do you want to be in three years? Three years is a good number. So think of your big vision. Like for me, I want to be an international bestselling author.

Charuka (37:08.558)
Give us some talent.

Ha!

Charuka (37:17.465)
Okay.

Charuka (37:27.182)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (37:36.912)
that’s traveling the world, speaking about my books, and I want my books to impact people in a very positive way that makes their lives better in some way. Okay, so that’s my vision in a nutshell. So what is your vision for yourself, for your art, and how it impacts other people? And get clear on that, that’s number one. Number two.

Charuka (37:39.45)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (38:03.268)
take a step towards that vision. Now think about what is one thing I can do in the next 30 days that leads to that vision. So let’s say your vision is to be an international best-selling artist, right? And you want your art to make

Charuka (38:09.914)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (38:23.394)
change for environmental issues, let’s say. Let’s just say that’s your passion, right? You care about the earth and it’s environmental issues. All right, so that’s your big vision that your art is going to expose some things that we are harming the earth with, right? So that’s your big three-year vision. What can you do in the next 90 days? You could create a piece of art that exposes something that’s

Charuka (38:28.924)
Okay. Yeah.

Charuka (38:46.394)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (38:53.5)
you know, let’s say we’re harming the oceans. I’m just making this up as I go. How do you do that? You create a piece of art that exposes this, right? So you’re going to start this painting and maybe you’re going to do a whole series of art and you’re going to have an exhibit and at the exhibit you’re going to give a talk and maybe you’re going to, you know, you’re so, so that is how you take this giant vision and you whittle it down to something you’re going to achieve in the next 90, 90 days or so.

Charuka (39:20.25)
Immediately, yeah.

Maria Brophy (39:23.86)
now you have to work on your mind. So this is number three. You have to be dedicated to expanding your, trust, your belief in your ability to break through your limits that tell you you’re not good enough. You have to chip away at that.

Number four that ties into deciding to chip away at your limitations. You have to spend time every day getting quiet.

Charuka (39:56.75)
Number four.

Charuka (40:10.64)
I love that one. My favorite part.

Maria Brophy (40:12.964)
Now you can do this, you can do this in multiple ways. You can do it by meditating, but not everybody likes to meditate. So if you don’t like to meditate, you can do it by taking a quiet walk and leave your phone behind. Do not take your phone with you. I leave my phone behind almost every time I take a walk.

Charuka (40:17.185)
Okay. Yeah.

Charuka (40:29.587)
Yeah.

Maria Brophy (40:39.174)
Sit in nature. Put your feet in the grass or in the dirt or in the sand. Sit under a tree. If you’re crazy like me, hug that tree. I hug trees all the time because I love to feel it. love to, yeah, and feeling my feet on rocks, taking my shoes off. Even if all you do is five or 10 minutes, but you have to get quiet.

Charuka (40:40.991)
Absolutely.

Charuka (40:58.475)
Yeah.

Maria Brophy (41:09.508)
and allow your mind to do the crazy thing it does, but just sit there. Because in the getting quiet, when we start to move from the beta brain waves to alpha brain waves, when we…

Charuka (41:31.256)
Hmm.

Maria Brophy (41:33.244)
Getting quiet takes us into alpha brainwaves and that’s where we can rewire our brains to start having more trust and in our vision and belief in ourselves. And there’s a lot of data and scientific evidence of this. So that’s number four. me think. five, number five is

Allow yourself to become that person you envision yourself being three years from now. So start stepping into becoming another version of yourself, a greater version of yourself.

Charuka (42:14.689)
Thank you.

Maria Brophy (42:22.83)
stepping into that every day, taking action, thinking the thoughts, saying the words and doing the things that that greater version of you three years from now is already doing.

Charuka (42:30.922)
Thanks.

Charuka (42:36.864)
Laying the foundations today so that you will be able to nurture it for the next years to come in and become the person that you visioned right in the first step. I love that. I love that trail. Amazing. Thank you so much, Maria. Any parting ways, thoughts that you want to share with our listeners? How can we also support you, follow you, where they can find you if they want to expand on this?

Maria Brophy (42:48.475)
Yeah.

Maria Brophy (43:06.556)
Yes, so I would love for people to check out my book art money success You can get it on amazon and you can get it on other booksellers In most countries in the world and in the book there are very practical art business ways of doing some of these things that I talked about And chapter two of the book has you doing a written like I in the book I guide you on how to write out

your vision and so there’s a lot of guidance to it. The other way that you could follow me is just follow me on Instagram and it’s just my name Maria Brophy and then go to my website mariabrophy.com and there are a lot of free resources. I have a podcast, I have YouTube videos, I put out a lot of free content.

Charuka (43:37.174)
Be sure.

Charuka (43:54.711)
Okay.

Maria Brophy (44:00.856)
that you can follow, but my book is really the best thing for artists that are wanting to break out of their own limitations to be able to make money with their art.

Charuka (44:10.999)
Perfect. I’m going to make sure that we link all of these things, the book, your website, the podcast. I hope that everyone who’s joined in, you did enjoy as much as I did. And I really appreciate Maria. And I can’t wait to finish my copy so that I can also learn all the wisdom that you have to share with all of us.

Maria Brophy (44:38.726)
Thank you so much. really appreciate this conversation. Thank you for taking me to your audience.

Charuka (44:41.655)
Thank you for sharing your wisdom. Thank you for your time and I hope to see you soon again.

Charuka (44:56.544)
Thank you so much, just a few more minutes for the files to upload in the cloud. But this was fantastic, I really am glad we did this.

.

About the Guest(s):

Maria Brophy has been in the business of art for 25 years. She is an expert in art licensing, marketing and deal-making for artists. She owns the Brophy Art Gallery in San Clemente, California and represents her artist husband, Drew Brophy. Maria is the author of the Amazon best-selling book titled Art, Money, Success.

Episode Summary:

In this engaging podcast episode, Charuka and Maria Brophy explore the intricate relationship between art, money, and personal success. Maria shares her transformative journey from a challenging childhood to becoming a successful author and artist advocate. The conversation delves into the fears artists face, the importance of overcoming self-doubt, and practical strategies for achieving financial success in the art world. Maria emphasises the need for artists to embrace their worth, engage in money conversations, and take actionable steps towards their goals. The episode concludes with valuable resources for artists looking to thrive in their creative endeavours.

Key Takeaways

• Maria Brophy emphasizes the importance of creating a life worth living.
• Overcoming childhood trauma can lead to a transformative life journey.
• Artists often face the dilemma of balancing personal life and career.
• Fear of failure is a common barrier for artists.
• Writing and creativity can be powerful tools for processing trauma.
• Maria’s book provides a roadmap for artists to achieve financial success.
• Challenging conventional wisdom in the art world is crucial for success.
• Money conversations are essential for artists to thrive.
• Shifting mindset and self-talk can change an artist’s reality.
• Taking practical steps towards goals is vital for artistic success.

Notable Quotes:

Artists shouldn’t be paid for their art. Getting paid prevents them from creating excellent stuff.

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love

Your life is happening right now — don’t wait to start living it.

Charuka Arora is the founder of the Arts to Hearts Project and Host of the Arts to Hearts Podcast. She is also an acclaimed Indian artist known for her contemporary embellished paintings. Her unique blend of gouache, collage, embroidery, painting, and drawing explores the intersection of art, culture, heritage, and womanhood. Through her work, she tells stories of female strength and encapsulates them in pieces that can be treasured for generations.

Charuka’s work draws inspiration from Hindu mythology, recognizing women as vessels of Shakti, the cosmic energy. She beautifully portrays powerful goddesses like Durga Maa riding a tiger or lion, symbolizing their unlimited power to protect virtue and combat evil.

Through her art, Charuka invites us into the world of women, showcasing their beauty, strength, and resilience. Her creations not only exhibit exceptional talent but also serve as an inspiration and a symbol of hope for those challenging societal norms.

Arts to Hearts Podcast is a show delving into the lives and passions of renowned artists. From running creative businesses and studio art practices to cultivating a successful mindset, Charuka Arora engages in heartfelt conversations with her guests. Experience your personal happy hour with your favorite artists right in your studio.

Through candid discussions, Charuka and her guests reveal the joys and challenges of a vibrant creative life, both within and beyond our studios. Get ready to be inspired and uplifted as you tune in.

Maria Brophy has been in the business of art for 25 years. She is an expert in art licensing, marketing and deal-making for artists. She owns the Brophy Art Gallery in San Clemente, California and represents her artist husband, Drew Brophy. Maria is the author of the Amazon best-selling book titled Art, Money, Success.