Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. I'm excited to continue our conversation and share these interviews that I'm doing on the podcast. Today I'm interviewing Hannah, and Hannah joined the Lighthouse Mentorship at the beginning of the year, and actually this is a funny story. So Hannah is not a coach, she is not a typical content creator, she doesn't sell courses, she sells art.
And actually if you've ever been on a Zoom room, and call with me, like you've seen me in Zoom, in my background I have a really big painting of a lighthouse, and Hannah painted that for me. So I'm really excited to share more of her story, her perspective, her experience, the things that she's overcome to open a studio, to make a living as an artist. I think she's amazing.
I think she has such a cool perspective on building a business in the wisdom economy. In fact, when I was launching Lighthouse, I had a call with Hannah because she wasn't sure if she'd be a good fit, because she resonates with Lighthouse marketing, and that kind of idea of attraction, bringing people into your world, into your business, and she wondered if she could do it for her art. And it's been so fun to see her implement it, and sell commissioned art, and do community events, and all these amazing things.
She really is a thought leader for artists, and I think some of the things that she stands for, like abundance, and using your gift to make a living, and learn how to have an abundance mindset when you're selling, even art. And I think you're going to pick out some of her beliefs, some of the things that she's transformed for herself, and I think you're going to get a lot out of our conversation. So without further ado, let's jump into our conversation.
Amber: Okay, welcome to the podcast, Hannah. I'm glad you're here.
Hannah: Thank you.
Amber: I'm really excited that you're here. I think we're going to have a fun conversation about creation, and art, and one of my favorite terms, “Delulu is the Solulu.”
Hannah: That's so true.
Amber: Maybe that's what I'm going to call this episode, we'll see. We'll get to that, but I wanted to start just like, one, I think your journey as an artist, and a business owner, I kind of want to just hear a little bit in your own words, where you started, and how you got to where you are today.
Hannah: Yeah, I did a lot of art as a kid. And then I had this message from, you know, multiple voices around me, don't be an artist, get a real job. And that combined with some other things becoming an adult, I really stopped creating art for about 15 years or a little bit more.
And then I started painting, I really didn't paint a lot as a kid either. I started painting about seven or eight years ago. And at first, it was very much on the sidelines. It was very much after I finished my chores, I can go play. To be fair, I did have four little kids at that time.
Amber: Very different.
Hannah: Yeah, so it was not front and center for sure. And after about maybe one or two years into starting to paint, I had requests for commissions, or people wanted prints of things I had painted. I didn't do any prints at that time, I started to do a few commissions. I started to do some bigger abstracts, which were really fun. And looking back now, I see some of what I was doing, like I didn't know the term abstract expressionism. At the time, I don't really have any art training, I didn't go to art school or anything.
Amber: I love it.
Hannah: But as I look back, I can see that what I was doing was expressing these things inside me that felt scary, and maybe putting them into words would be too much. And so putting them into shapes and colors felt really amazing and satisfying. So I kept doing it, I didn't worry about it.
Fast forward to post-divorce, so looking at late 2021, I was looking at my life, sitting on the floor of my mom's living room where I was staying, wondering where we're going to live, what we're going to do, how am I going to make a living. I did not have much of a resume, I was a stay-at-home mom for all of that time. And I had sold some art. I'd gotten my work in a couple shops, had done a few more commissions.
Amber: Do you remember the first piece of art you sold? The very first time someone gave you money?
Hannah: One that really stands out was, well, okay, the first. Rocks I painted with my sister's nail polish when I was five years old.
Amber: Okay, yeah.
Hannah: I asked my mom if I could have an art stand on the highway instead of a lemonade stand.
Amber: I love it.
Hannah: My mom was amazing.
Amber: The signs were always there.
Hannah: Yeah, she sat there in the car waiting. And a trucker came by and bought the whole box for five dollars, and I was just, I was on cloud nine.
Amber: That's amazing. Yeah.
Hannah: But as an adult, the one that really stands out to me was this big abstract piece that I had put in an auction and a friend of ours was raising money for work he was doing with kids in Latvia. And so I think I put it in the auction as like 50% goes to the cause, 50% to me. And somebody paid a thousand dollars for it. That was insane to me that somebody loved it that much. That was a pivotal moment, for sure. Oh, maybe this is valuable.
Amber: Yeah.
Hannah: Yeah. So that would have been 2018 or 19, I think. So back to sitting on my mom's living room floor, trying to figure out what I was going to do. And at that point, I was doing some photography. So I'm getting a little money from that. I was gigging, this was post COVID. So venues were opening back up to live music.
And so I was doing a little bit of that, go play for a couple hours, make 150 bucks. So I was like, okay, what if I just combined these three things, my art, music, and photography, and made my living like this. And it was crazy.
Amber: Really crazy.
Hannah: And so for a while, the following year, year and a half, I also did a lot of side jobs. I did yard work for people. I lined on roofs to clean out gutters.
Amber: What?
Hannah: There was a lot, I traded a lot of work with my then boyfriend. So I got into a 1970s house that he did remodel. It was like, really, you know, gross carpet. And so started doing that. And then would trade work, he would help me and then I would go do fencing with him.
So traded work, that. So really, that 2022, early 23, a lot still just piecing together every scrappy little thing I could possibly do. So yeah, then in about, let's see, summer of 2022. I was on Facebook, I saw that my cousin's husband's art was in this show in the Hamptons. And I was like, Oh, how do you do that?
Amber: Yeah.
Hannah: And I looked up the name of the person that was showing his art. And I looked up her website. And I saw that she had another event coming up. And I'd had a glass of wine. And I was like, I was like, Oh, yeah. Great idea. Had I ever shown my work in a show? No.
Amber: Okay, that feels really significant.
Hannah: Yeah.
Amber: You've probably heard me share this metaphor before. But I think in business going from zero to one is the hardest part of any business or any creative endeavor, right? Where you go from nothing to something. So you went from never having shown your work like this to pitching this woman.
Hannah: Yeah. At a show in the Hamptons.
Amber: At a show in the Hamptons. Yeah.
Hannah: Where you bring your own booths and your own setup. And so yeah, it was completely delusional. As I got on YouTube, searching, you know, set up for our show.
Amber: That's how I do this. Yeah.
Hannah: And every single one was like, start with something small and local. Maybe your local farmers in our theater can ask. I was like, well.
Amber: That's amazing.
Hannah: Yeah, she emailed the next day. And oh, the other delusional thing was the deadline had closed for the show. And I emailed her anyway and said, hey, do you have any spots open now?
Amber: Oh, I love this story so much because it was delusional.
Hannah: Absolutely.
Amber: But most people never actually do what you just described. Like, shoot the shot. Like, ask in a really bold way. And then you don't even know how. That's another thing that I think we could talk about, too, is like a lot of people want to know how before they get started.
Hannah: Yeah.
And a lot of times that's not revealed until you like actually get started.
Hannah: A hundred percent. Yeah.
Amber: So I figured it out. And then you went to the Hamptons.
Hannah: I went to the Hamptons. I had a little car that couldn't even fit my art in it. So I sold it and was back in minivan.
Amber: You sold your car?
Hannah: Yeah, I had to buy a minivan to fit my art in it.
Amber: Wow!
Hannah: To drive it across the country.
Amber: This is like history in the making. I sold my car so I could go to the show. Like, that's quite the commitment.
Hannah: Yes. Because at that point, I was thinking, okay if I'm going to be a full time artist, I have to be in the art world. And the art world is New York, Europe. It's these big shows, galleries. So in my mind, all right, I'm going to get there. Let's do it. So I got there and the only two pieces I sold were to my brother and my boyfriend. So, you know, that's one of the stories like I've written lists sometimes of my quote failures.
Amber: Yeah.
Hannah: To get to where I am. And that is one that's in the failure category. And yet with each one of those, I sort of like draw these lines coming off of each failure to see, oh, actually, this came out of it. That came out of it. It opened this door. It did this next thing. So, yeah, it's a failure. I went there, spent a ton of money to get there, to be there. Felt like I sold nothing.
But then that opened doors to the next thing.
Amber: That's amazing. So then after the art show, when did you open the gallery?
Hannah: I opened the gallery about nine months later. So in between that show and opening the gallery, I would just get on the Internet. I would look at places I wanted to go and look up galleries. I would look through their artists. I would find ones that I thought my art would fit with. And I contacted them. Are you accepting submissions? And so I did that sort of a global view.
But then I also, every single place I would go in every restaurant, brewery, coffee shop, I would ask, do you rotate your artwork? Can I show you my work? Here's my website. So in that time, I had quite a few places where I was showing my work regionally. And then got in, let's see, a Toronto gallery, said they wanted to work with me. That would have been late, like winter of 22.
And they invited me to their three upcoming shows, which were Paris, Barcelona, and New York City. And so I did that. That was another big expense, shipping my art to Paris. And actually that ended up being another failure in one way, because one of my pieces came back damaged. They just had sliced it through, you know, didn't reimburse me for it or anything. That was a terrible experience.
Amber: Yeah.
Hannah: And so I was currently working with that Toronto gallery. When I saw this release in tiny town where I live, I was not planning to open a gallery here. So I live in a town of less than 3,000 people. It was never a plan to have a gallery here.
Amber: Yeah. You were like, anywhere else. I got to go out and find a different place to sell my art. And then you get a gallery in your little town.
Hannah: Yeah. So I see the space release, and I see the signs in the window, and I was not drinking wine this time. I immediately, it's just like, I got to call the guy. And I think I met with him that day or the next day, had the keys and was moving in less than a week later.
Amber: Slow down, almost like a movie frame, like when you walked by it, how you knew to take that step. Because I think this is important for people to hear, because that moment where you're like, I'm going to do this, like, how did it feel in your body? How did you know?
Hannah: I saw the windows. I have a thing for south-facing windows with lots of light. I saw the windows.
The building itself is cute and aesthetic. My art longs in there. It felt like when you meet somebody that feels like home. It's just like you settle in.
Amber: Yeah. Because I think what you're describing, I talk about the first voice and the second voice. That was the first voice.
It was like, do this. And then like a second voice of doubt or like, you're crazy. What if you can't pay rent?
Hannah: That absolutely came in.
Amber: It came in. But right now we're talking about that first voice that was like, my art belongs in there.
Hannah: Yes.
Amber: Okay. Then the second voice hit.
Hannah: The second voice is like, are you crazy? You live in Farnsbury, Idaho. You can't have a successful art gallery here. Are you out of your mind? And I said, yes, I am. Thank you very much.
Amber: Yes, indeed. I am out of my mind.
Hannah: And I kind of calculated, okay, for what I spent to go to the show in the Hamptons, for example, I could rent this place for, it was almost like a six months rent here. And so I was like, okay, what if I give it six months, put my art here. And at that time I was still thinking, you know, I'll keep doing all the other stuff. I'll keep getting into these other shows and sending my art, their places, where it comes up. But it's like, okay, let's just do it. Give it a shot.
Amber: How many years ago was that? It was in 2023, you said?
Hannah: Yeah. Almost two and a half years ago. April of 23. And yes, my grand opening was, I was blown out of the water by the number of people that came. There were people here like all day that summer. When I first opened, I love painting big. I think my smallest thing would be like 24 by 24 inches. I'm on a road where I get lots of foot traffic right downtown and lots of people find me just by walking by. I was sort of surprised by the number of people that started coming in and connecting with my work and wanting a piece of it. And I got a lot of requests like, don't you have anything smaller? I don't, you know, I live in a tiny home or.
Amber: Or traveling.
Hannah: Yes. Yeah.
Amber: Do you remember what your pricing was like? I'm just like really curious because where I want to go is like abundance and raising your prices and trusting process and stuff. So like, do you remember like what you were selling your art for?
Hannah: Let's see the beginning of 2022. I sold five large pieces to an art broker for $5,000. I believe my pricing at that point was around 75 cents a square inch. My pricing now is $3 a square inch.
Amber: Dang. Yeah.
Hannah: So more than triple. When I went to the New York show, I had a lot of people, a lot of voices, a lot of advice. Some of it from artists, but most from non-artists saying, oh, you need to price it way high for New York so that people will value it.
It really was not the right show to do that.
Amber: That makes sense.
Hannah: But I think my pricing from when I opened my gallery to now is around double. I think I was like $1.50 to $2 a square inch when I opened the gallery.
Amber: Okay. So you open the gallery, you start realizing people are coming in from your town, from travel. What happens next?
Hannah: I realized I have no idea how to run a business.
Amber: Then business and entrepreneurship.
Hannah: I did at this point have a state business license. Here's an example. I had no idea I needed a city business license and needed to be paying the 1% city tax. So somebody from the city came in after I'd been here a couple months like, hey, so we noticed you're running a business over there.
Amber: We think that this is a business. Oh, it is! Yeah. All the little lessons. I haven't talked about this very much, but I missed taxes or something when I was new. It was when I started making money. I mispaid. I bought surf papers. I had someone come to my door and be like, you need to sign this, that I gave it to you. I was like, what? It was very unofficial and I got scared. Oh, yeah. I have to pay state taxes.
Hannah: They're going to come for me.
Amber: : I registered my business in Nevada and I was living in Utah. So I didn't realize the fact that I lived in Utah. Anyway, little things like that. You learn. So the city comes in. You have some money if you're going to run a business.
Hannah: And I think actually before I opened the gallery, before that was on my radar, I started working with an acquaintance friend who asked if I wanted her to be my business coach. And I was like, oh, okay, good. I probably need to learn about taxes and the nitty gritty stuff. How to run a business. I had no concept of the life coaching industry or business coach that it actually was dealing with mindset. That was my introduction really to any kind of that work.
Amber: Yeah. Interesting. You haven't been doing that for very long.
Hannah: No.
Amber: They find mindset stuff early on, but kind of interesting. Okay. So then let's go into 2024 and then to present. What's happening? You get this business coach. You have this gallery that's open. Is this when you start social media? When do those things click into place?
Hannah: I was doing a lot of social media. I realized that was reaching people way better than my website and started realizing somebody would come in the gallery, but of course, they're not going to walk in the gallery every day. And so being on social media allowed them to see what new thing I'm every day.
And so that was helping with sales a lot. And then the other thing I was doing was helping just people be aware of my presence in the community and start to see that, oh, she's still here. So many people thought, and they've said this to me, like, I thought you wouldn't last six months.
Amber: Yeah. You got a lot of criticism, which when we get into talking about, like, like I want to kind of hear some of the things that maybe even right now, just like they didn't expect you to last more than six months.
Hannah: No.
Amber: They always ask you, like, do you do lessons or classes?
Hannah: Yes. I get people assuming that in order for me to make it here, I need to teach classes and lessons, maybe sell art supplies. And when I first opened, I thought, yeah, maybe I'll do some classes and lessons. I did a few and it's just not my thing. It's just really not. And so now when people ask that, I mean, I still have people come in that assume I'm failing.
I guess just because I'm an artist and there's so much assumption of like, if you're an artist, you're a starving artist. I literally have people, this is a conversation, do you do classes and lessons? Not at all. Oh, what do you do here? I make art and sell it. They're like, really? Like you sell enough art to pay the rent?
Amber: Yeah.
Hannah: I probably get that at least a few times a month.
Amber: Yeah. And we've talked about this before about like the paradigm that you're creating, not just for art, but in your tone that like you have a very different belief system about being provided for and making money and sales and even selling art specifically.
Hannah: Yes.
Amber: How did you develop that? Like, especially before you even found like mindset work, like how did you just had a vision? What was it?
Hannah: What's interesting is sometimes I'll say like, I'm living my dream life, but I never dreamed big enough to envision having a solo gallery. I dreamed about, you know, maybe I don't know, eight years ago when I started painting, I dreamed about like a co-op space maybe where I could have like a little section of the wall with these other artists, but I really don't know how I started doing it.
Maybe out of necessity, maybe sitting there going, okay, what skills do I have? What can I do to make a living? I do have an English degree and I could have gotten a job in the schools, but where I was with my kids at that time, I didn't have the emotional capacity to go work with kids. I think it was just looking at like, okay, what can I do? Well, people have bought my art before and maybe they buy more of it.
Amber: Like enough to live on.
Hannah: I can't say that I believed that at the time, but I didn't know what else to do.
Amber: Yeah. Interesting. What did like your friends and family say? Were they on board? Did they cheer for you? Were they worried?
Hannah: A couple of comments that I'll never forget. One of my friends, when I told her what I was doing, she said, oh, so just selling your art? I said, yeah. She was like, that should be enough maybe to like cover your gas money, but what else are you going to do? And then another friend, this was when I was already working with the Toronto Gallery and had sold out of New York Gallery. She came over to my house one day and saw what I was working on. And she was like, it's so cute how you make these pretty things for your walls. That's just like,
Amber: Oh my gosh, I'm going to sell this. Thank you.
Hannah: My mom was really supportive. I think also worried for me. My dad had been a photographer. That was his profession. And he was not financially successful. He really didn't start making money until maybe the last like 10 years of his life. So growing up, it was very sparse.
Amber: Do you feel like that bred scarcity in your mind?
Hannah: Yes. I did not have any concept of abundance mindset until I think maybe, so I worked with that first business coach for six months, I believe. And I can't remember those words specifically, but I feel like that was the beginning of me at least knowing to value my art differently. And also, so she would say to me, like, you're a leader. By doing what you're doing, you're going to be a community leader. And I was like, what are you talking about?
Amber: Yeah.
Hannah: Yeah. And now I see like, absolutely, I am.
Amber: But at that point, you're like, what are you talking about?
Hannah: Yeah.
Amber: Right. Interesting. Because now you've done Chalk the Block. You like help other artists. You've been in conversation with other business owners in your town. You're totally leading a new paradigm of sales, of even just making and asking for more money, contributing to the community, asking for sponsorships, like all sorts of stuff that you do now.
Hannah: Yes. One of the things I love is when kids walk in and they've never been in an art gallery. I mean, there are actually some adults too that walk in and they're like, what is this? But especially when kids, they see me creating art, whether it's outside on the sidewalk with or in here. And you can just see this thing in their head. It's like, wait, art can be a job? Like grownups can do this for a job?
Amber: Hannah, I don't know how much we've talked about this, but like, so if you're listening to this podcast, Hannah made me this beautiful lighthouse. If you've been in my Zoom room, you see it in the back, like Hannah painted that for me. When it arrived at my house, my second daughter, so she's seven.
When she realized that this is what you do for work, because she always says, I want to be an artist. I want to be an artist. And I'm like, yeah, like this is my friend and my client, Hannah. She made this for me. This is what she does for her work. Just like I do coaching for my work. And she was like, it like clicked for her. And we don't even live in Bonner's Ferry, Idaho.
Hannah: Yeah.
Amber: Like there's children, my kids, like it makes me a little emotional, like whether she becomes an artist or not, for her to know she could be, is such a powerful, I don't know, belief calibration to see. So yeah, you're making waves. People are like, you can actually do it. You're like, I know imagine that, right?
Hannah: And also creativity in general. So like one of the things I say a lot in my mission statement or vision or whatever, is to change the way people view and value creativity because it applies to everyone. It's not just somebody that is putting paint on canvas and selling it for a living. I mean, I think Forbes magazine, it was last year, the thing that they said the employers value most in their employees is creative thinking.
Amber: I believe it. Because, so we're in an information age. Information or even like chat GPT or like AI, it just like regurgitates information in step-by-step processes. But like creativity, which I know even before you joined the husbandry group, I remember you and I talking in the DMs about The Creative Act. Do you remember this book?
Hannah: Yes. Yes.
Amber: Because we both love that book. And I read it in the context of like being a business owner. I'm not even like an artist by traditional means, but like the creativity and thinking like an artist, a way of being deeply resonates with me.
Hannah: Yes. And I think this applies to so many areas. I could talk for ages on this, the creativity and the value of it. But think about our lives, how we've become consumers of so much. Like, yes, it's physical material consumers, but then so easy to consume every minute of every day on our phones.
We're consuming and the act of creation, like, I think this concept is from The Artist's Way, where she talks about whatever your concept is, a source or God, the act of creation is our highest self, our highest being. Because you think of like creator of the universe or whatever, that act of creation, when we are creating, we're doing our highest work.
Amber: Yeah. It's like spiritual work. It's like the most spiritual.
Hannah: Yes. Yeah.
Amber: Not reacting, not responding, not consuming, creating.
Hannah: As adults, we fall out of that habit. I think kids are more freely creative, you know, sit down, give on paint or play dough or whatever. They're not so concerned with the end product of having something or a reason to do it. We lose that so much as adults.
Amber: There's a great book, and I think I've mentioned it on the podcast before. I know we've talked about it. It's called The War of Art. And it's about how adults who don't express creatively because of resistance get mentally sick, basically. He doesn't say those words. That's my words. We become depressed. We become limited.
It's almost like all the energy goes back into ourselves instead of through us. And it makes us not well. And so I think creativity and wellness go hand in hand in very big ways. It is our highest self. We are creators. Our highest self, that's how we feel aligned. So I love that you teach kids and you give kids a space to do it with some of your community programs that you run. It's so cool.
Hannah: Yeah. I've got these little artist trading cards. And so you bring three of your cards. It can be any of your art. And then you get to pick a packet and you see the card in the front. And then it's two mystery cards. And I have from five years old to 80-year-olds that do this. It's just an ongoing operating thing. And then you get to see somebody else's art.
Amber: I feel like one of the things that I've loved about your journey, the more I learn, the more I'm just like, this is so cool. It really feels like history in the making. It's because it's not just like, yeah, I'm trying to make art because I'm trying to pay rent. And I'm going to try to figure out how to get people to buy this. I mean, that's part of it is learning how to sell. But there's this whole other aspect of the paradigm that you stand for with art.
Hannah: Yes.
Amber: It feels like an integrity. It's everywhere. Every touch point that you have with people is that paradigm.
Hannah: I hope so. I hope it comes across.
Amber: It does.
Hannah: Yeah.
Amber: Okay. So one thing I want to ask you about, because a few weeks ago, Hannah sent me these stickers that says, Delulu is the Solulu. Like being delusional is the solution. So I don't know. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Hannah: I'm trying to think why I made these stickers in the first place. There was something with my daughter that we were talking about. She's 16. For Christmas, I had made this set of stickers for my son, who's 14. It's like all the Gen Z slang like Sigma and bruh and Rizzler. I can't remember. It was just so funny because something came up on one of our calls. And I don't know in one of the group sessions where I held up the sticker and then it was so fun to me that all these millennial and Gen X business owners were like,
Amber: I want that sticker.
Hannah: We're connecting to it. It's like, I want one. I want one.
Amber: I have it. One to actually put on my iPad and one just to have on my desk.
Hannah: But it's fun to me that in the business sense of how that resonates, just because of looking at the ways that I have gone for these huge possible things and I'm doing it. And so good reminder of the next thing that I think is impossible to have that just like, oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I'm going to sell a million dollars in my art by the time I'm 50. Of course I am.
Amber: Of course you are. And anyone who doesn't believe it, this is why delusion. People ask me, so are you just delusional? I'm like, a little bit because you have a belief that most people don't have, which is the definition of delusional. Now, the problem is, is I think most people when it gets hard or when they don't see results, they quit.
And so they're like, oh, it was never going to work. Part of being delusion being the solution is that they stay in it. So I don't know. You want to speak about that? I'm sure there's been times where you're like, should I even? Maybe not. I don't know. Have you ever been like tempted to quit or like to be like, I don't think this is for me?
Hannah: I've had months where I've sold like $150, $200 since opening the gallery. My rent is $1,500. How am I going to do this? And tempted to quit? I don't think so. Because I think I gave myself, most businesses take three to five years to start. I didn't go to school for business. I didn't go to school for marketing or even art. Art is the easy part though.
So having this sense of I'm in school right now, reminding myself on the months that I don't make money. Well, of course not. I'm in school. I wouldn't expect to be making money if I was going to full-time business school. I would be paying for that knowledge.
Amber: Lots of entrepreneurs need to hear that because you could go to business school. My sister's getting her MBA right now, but what she's going to do with it is so different than start her own business. So even if you went to business school, it is not the education of running a business. The only way to get the education of running a business is to start it. It's doing it. Figure it out along the way.
Hannah: Yes. And there have been so many failures. Like I said, I have that long list of failures, things that I've invested money in and tried. I tried setting up a whole Shopify thing to sell products with my art. And I think I made three sales in a whole year of doing this. I've tried a lot of different things. But I think that one thing with the Delulu is the Solulu.
I have a couple of things that I've gotten either from books or different coaching or whatever along the way. I think the first one was from Jen Sincero's book, You're Badass, which I randomly stumbled onto when I was first remodeling my house. I remember I was building a bedroom for my son's basement, listening to this. And she said something in there about there are all these people out there writing and publishing terrible books and they're doing it. So if they can do it, you can do it. Something like that.
And so I do notice other artists and I pay attention. I don't know many artists making a full time living, but then I'll see ridiculous, crazy things like the banana taped to the wall for 6.2 million dollars. And I'm like, okay, that's proof. That's proof that this is going to work for me. Because if somebody is saying that, then people are going to buy my art. And then I think something I've from you is where there's one, there's a hundred.
Looking at what I sold my first year in the gallery going, all I need to do is a little bit more than double this to be profitable. It's like, I can do that. So try not to get too wrapped in the moment of the $200 months, the things that feel like failures, really looking at those as what is this a stepping stone to the things like, so, you know, all the money that I spent on the trip to the Hamptons and working with the Toronto gallery, things like that. That's on my resume.
There are some people where that matters. That's a big deal to them that I've shown work in Europe, that I've sold work out of a New York gallery, these different things. Some people couldn't care less. They see my work and connect with it. But I see how each one of those things, even though it felt like a failure, it really was just stepping this down.
Amber: Yeah. Call it the sequence of unfolding events that has to happen. A lot of times it's something painful and people are like, I don't want to do this again. But if you keep going, it will lead you to exactly where you want to go, right? Because you learn something or pick up like an idea or connect with someone or something clicks into place, actually propels you.
But you have a unique mindset for artists. And maybe you could speak about that too, because I think in some ways that you are a mentor to many artists because you're fearless. You're doing things that very few people actually do. I rented out a gallery. I got physical location.
Hannah: Right.
Amber: And so I don't know, maybe you can speak to that. What are some of your beliefs that you have now about art, about entrepreneurship, about delusion, about abundance?
Hannah: I think one thing about my mindset that is very different from a lot of artists is even though the act of creation is sacred and the energy that I bring to my work is completely unique and creating art, it's not just a series of warm skills.
There's different things going to it. Selling art, I feel like it is the same as anything. I mean, even if you're a lawyer, if nobody knows you exist, yes, you have the potential to make a ton of money, but people have to know that you exist.
Amber: Promotion. Yeah.
Hannah: Yeah. And I find a lot of artists lamenting about, you know, nobody buys art or people don't want to spend a lot of money. And like, do they know you exist? Do they know anything about you? Because that's part of it is connecting with people beyond just here's my picture.
Amber: You have to be multidimensional, multifaceted, let people connect with you. I read this, I actually pulled it up because we were talking about it's from Justin Welch. He says, once you realize the whole world is run by shameless self-promoters, you almost have no choice but to put yourself out there.
Hannah: Yeah.
Amber: It's kind of like what you're talking about with Jen Sincero. There's people who are writing a really crappy book, but you might as well put, and I would say the same thing, like the banana with the duct tape is a great example, like for millions of dollars, could you sell something for $3,000 today? Like, yes, you can.
Hannah: Yeah. And then the self-promotion thing, people ask me a lot, like, how are you doing so much? Because I put out about a hundred pieces on my Instagram and Facebook a month, and then other stuff as well. Lots of community, lots of in-person events. I do maybe eight or 10 in-person events, like gallery things or big community events a year.
But the interesting thing is that a lot of artists and even other business owners are scared to put their face on social media. They're scared to talk or just feel cringey. And it's absolutely cringey. And it's like the only way, like, you just got to get over the cringe mouth. The question, how are you doing so much? It's like, because I have to, to get where I want to go.
Amber: Yeah. Also, I'll just add this. I think it's because on some level you believe in where you're going is a genuine possibility of reality for you.
Hannah: Yes. Now I do. Yeah.
Amber: But if you don't, on some level, believe that you won't do everything that you could do.
Hannah: Right.
Amber: Because like they have the belief, like, well, it won't work out anyway. So they don't do it. So on some level you have to believe that it could happen. Like you, it's like, I have to. Because I believe it could happen. I have to do these things.
Hannah: Yeah. And I think how to say this, like, I don't want to sound like if you're married and your spouse makes a living, then you're just never going to do it because you don't have to make your own living. But in some sense, my position, I don't have a spouse. I'm pulling from savings right now on the months where I'm not selling, but I don't have a position where I can sit back and just be like, oh, I'm too scared. I'm not going to do anything. And so I can’t buy my groceries.
Amber: Yes. Well, and I think, you know, even though we talked about the starving artist, you're not going to tell someone like, yeah, quit your job. Don't worry about cash. Just like bet on yourself. It's like, okay, there's still some like practical things that we can talk about, too. I share that with business. I don't like burn the boats.
I don't like being a mother, not feeding your children like or not create some cash, whether that's through savings or another job like you had mentioned, like other things that you did in the beginning. Like that's many people's stories, you know, right. You get to where you want to go.
Hannah: And even just asking like there was a restaurant or brewery south of here and I loved their building. They were super cool, like they had little trees on all of their taps. I was like, oh, this would be a great place for all my tree paintings. So I went in and asked, you know, they gave me the owner's email address and I emailed her and I was like, I love your stuff.
I love your beer. I love your building. I think my art would look amazing in here. Would you guys like to see it? And so all of the art in there for a year was mine. It was just everything on their walls was my trees. That didn't cost me any. So I feel like that's something I want to tell artists, but other entrepreneurs as well. Asking if there's a lot you can do without this huge monetary investment.
Amber: So good. We haven't talked about this word, but I think you're very scrappy. I was and am too. And it's like a skill that's hard to teach because it's not about having resources. It really is about being resourceful. And that's a mentality. That's not something that you get circumstantially. That's something that you cultivate on the inside.
Hannah: And even going to the thrift store and buying a big, ugly painting and painting over it because that big, ugly painting is 20 bucks and a canvas that size is one hundred and fifty bucks.
Amber: So I didn’t know you did that. Yeah, but like those are the kinds of stories that people love to hear because it's like, yeah, like you're doing it until it works.
Hannah: Yes. Now I have a different view of the value of my work. So, you know, whereas I think if I had sold my highest priced piece in New York for twenty five thousand dollars or whatever I priced it out, I would have felt like a poser and a fraud. And now so like those are my New York prices.
That piece here, I had it at sixty five hundred dollars. And the collector who bought it, I fully believe and know that the value of that painting in his home is way beyond that. He has this piece of my energy. He saw what, you know, went into creating it. He knows where it traveled and what it's…
Amber: What it represents…
Hannah: The life of it.
Amber: Yeah.
Hannah: Yeah.
Amber: Well, I think about my lighthouse that's in my zoo room for everyone to see and what it represents, even just the visual and the impact. I know sometimes you sell things that aren't like a symbol, but it elevates the space and it's different because of like your energy that's being put into it. It really is.
Hannah: Yeah.
Amber: Okay, before we wrap up, I also want to just hear some of your beliefs about money abundance that you think are different. You don't like put it in succinct sentences, but like, how do you see money? How do you see sales even? Because like a lot of people are they're afraid of selling.
Hannah: Yes. So I think at the beginning of this year was when I started Lighthouse with you. And I remember writing in my book something about the value I create. Like if I want to be selling more, like making more money, basically, I need to create more value for people. How do I create more value for people? And realizing that when I create something of value, they love to pay me for it. And it's an honor to have this thing.
Amber: Yeah. They're excited about it.
Hannah: They're excited about it. And I think most of my money mindset work has been through stuff with you, like the money mind. And I like reminding myself that all the money that aid is in somebody else's bank account right now, it already exists. It's there.
And that feels very different than what am I going to do? I need money. I don't know how to get it. It's like, okay, it already exists in somebody else's bank account. And how do I make available to them what they could do with that money? I've got to show them. I got to put it out there.
Amber: Yeah. And being willing to ask. I think one of the things that I admire about you is like you ask. And you have some fear because everyone does. But like you're willing to overcome whatever fear or reservation that you have to ask, like to make an ask of people. Whereas like I think the starving artists, it's one of the reasons they stay starving is because they don't ask.
Hannah: Yeah, that's very true. I've asked for sponsorships for my community events. And the first year, actually, I don't think I asked for sponsorships the first year of Chalk the Block. But this year, when I went to ask for sponsorships, this was my third year. Downtown business owners are like, absolutely. We love this thing. It's bringing people to their door.
Amber: Exactly.
Hannah: To their door. Of course, they're going to go get Froyo after they're out drawing, you know, in the hot sun for an hour. And so that's another thing. Seeing the value of what I'm doing in the community then makes it feel aligned to ask for sponsorships. Because I do believe what I'm doing is bringing value to their businesses, bringing them customers.
It's elevating the community in general. There are a lot of people that come in and just they don't buy anything, but they absolutely love and go on and on about love seeing the art that I'm bringing here. Love seeing the kids doing something that, you know, off their screen that I'm providing this year. Let's go draw a chalk.
Amber: Yeah, I love the multilayer value that you're adding and how like by law that will come back to you. Helping other businesses get business. Very conscious thing to do. Helping kids have an enjoyable time. And then also they go to the business to buy Froyo after.
Multilayers of value. Every time you sell art, it's multilayers of value. So the money is going to flow and is flowing to you because it's long. The way that you show up in the world, the way that you're being, the way that you ask, very wealth conscious.
Hannah: Yeah, I have this list that I wrote just a couple of months ago coming back to that creating value. And so, “The value I create comes from power flowing through me. It multiplies as it impacts others. It's changing my community. It's a message from the universe that I've been chosen to steward. It reaches people. It causes you to feel seen and me to feel heard.
“It empowers transformation. It inspires others to create or just try something or be delusional. It grows me mentally. It sustains me financially. It will expand exponentially. It brings healing to myself and others. It allows me to experience abundance and it is helping make the world a more beautiful place.”
Amber: Beautiful share.
Hannah: That's in the front of my book that I write everything and all my list, all my notes from coaching, like everything goes in there.
Amber: Is there anything that you wish we could have talked about that didn't come out?
Hannah: Don't think I said anything about my kids specifically and how that drives me too.
Amber: Tell me more.
Hannah: Is just in thinking about how I want to be present with my kids, how I want to provide for my kids. I think that's something also that drives me to make this successful because there is that thought in my head. Like if this doesn't work, I got to go get a regular job, which can't schedule an assistant in the gallery and then go be at their games.
Amber: Yeah.
Hannah: Be at their sports or go visit my son stationed in Anchorage when he says, Mom, I've got leave. Come see me. You know?
Amber: Yeah.
Hannah: In thinking about goals for my business and growing and making more money is to be there with my kids, do stuff and my kids take my youngest. We have curds and beer dates. He gets cheese curds and root beer and I get a beer beer. And, you know, like doing all of that.
And I think some people feel like talking about money is really cringe. And when I realized I'd sold a hundred thousand dollars in my art, I was talking about it and so excited. It feels like, I don't know, like really huge. And I so feel like I want to talk about that with my kids so that they can know that it's okay to want abundance and believe in abundance.
Amber: And it's like you're like, yeah, I want to make a lot of money so I can like have a swimming pool of golden coins that I go swim in. You know, it's like, yeah, like I want to visit my kid in Anchorage. I want to take my youngest on dates like solo. I want to be able to provide experiences. It's like so beautiful. It's not like this self. Like I think a lot of people are like, oh, if I want more money, like it means I'm selfish. That's not the case for most people.
Hannah: Yeah. Any business goals or money goals… like, let's see the beginning of twenty five. It's like, okay, by next year, so my daughter's senior year, I want to be working half as much and making twice as much. Why? So that I can go to every single one. You know, even her away games during her senior year so that when she goes to state again, she always does. That's for her sports. I can stay in a nice hotel and not a grimy one where the door doesn't lock. Right?
Amber: Yeah. Like all great reasons. So cool. Do you have anything that like if there's someone who either is an artist, knows an artist, loves it, just wants to be an artist or even just like identifies that creative, I think that way of being in the world, what would be your party words for them? And putting it on the spot, because we didn't talk about this.
Hannah: Yeah. The world needs your art. The world means your voice. I think that it's very easy to not value what we create, partially because some of it comes easy to us. It feels like, well, anybody could do this. You know, some of those things that come naturally.
But then also the world doesn't really teach us that our art matters or that we need art. It's not valued in school. Most parents aren’t teaching their kids to pursue it. But I mean, if you think of the world without art, it's all of our entertainment, our music, our movies, everything visual, like, oh, it would just be such a terrible place.
Amber: It would be animalistic because it's like the spiritual aspect of what makes us human, not like an animal. Right. Like eating, drinking, surviving is very like basic needs. But art transcends that.
Hannah: And it's something that is so unique to the creator. For example, like if you're an accountant, well, like you could line up a hundred accountants and there's a way to do it and it would all look the same, you know, or maybe slightly different. But you're going to come to the same end result. And art is one of the only things that's absolutely not like that. You're never going to have the same end result from person to person and artist to artist. The world needs your art.
Amber: How can people connect with you? How can people buy your art? Or just look at what you're up to. Can you share how to connect with you?
Hannah: Yeah, my Instagram and Facebook, I'm on the most. And it's @teascarlet_creates. And then also my website, teascarlet.com.
Amber: I'll make sure that that's in the show notes as well.
Hannah: Awesome.
Amber: Amazing. Thank you so much. I'll just speak this for everyone. Like I've watched your growth a lot, not just like as a business owner, but just like in how you value what you value. And I think that ripple effect in your town and your family can be understated. I think it's really cool what you do. So thank you for coming and talking about your story and your perspective and your philosophy about art and creativity on the podcast.
Hannah: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
Amber: Thank you for being here.
