Making Big Money in Art with Bridgette Mayer Johnson

Art dealer, curator, art advisor, author and entrepreneur – Bridgette Mayer Johnson

Here’s what you’ll learn from Bridgette about Making Big Money in Art!

– How does one go from making $12 an hour with no business experience to opening a widely successful art gallery?
– What is the one marketing technique Bridgette used to get ahead of ALL her competition in Philly?
– How do you END the struggle to convert your marketing investment into actual sales? (it’s the “secret sauce” that makes people buy art online!
-Why Bridgette uses this “one simple trick” to successful sell on instragram and other social media.

Tune in and listen: Making Big Money in Art With Bridgette Mayer Johnson.

Bridgette’s Website:

BridgetteMayer.com – Overcoming Abuse, Finding Passion Through Art & Coming Full Circle to Inspire
BridgetteMayerGallery.com – Exhibits contemporary painting, sculpture and photography, presenting ten exhibitions a year in its 3,000 square foot space in Philadelphia, PA.

Transcript: Download

Video Transcription provided by GMR Transcription Services.

Jamie Masters:	Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I'm Jaime Masters, and today on the show I'm very excited to have Bridgette Mayer Johnson. She runs an art gallery. So, thankful that we have a woman on the show and runs an art gallery. You can check her out at bridgettemayer.com or bridgettemayergallery.com. She also wrote an awesome book called The Art Cure. Thanks so much for coming on the show today Bridgette. I know it's beautiful, it has to be -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Tada -

Jamie Masters:	- your gallery - 

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Thank you, thank you for having me -

Jamie Masters:	Thank you so much for coming on. Now, most people - I interview a lot of authors, but most don't have the crazy amazing story that you have, especially when it comes to creating the galleries. I don't think I've ever interviewed a millionaire that was from an art gallery, so please tell us your story of how you even got into that. 

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	That's great, and it's kind of a long story, I'll give you the cliff note version, and I actually do talk about it in my book, The Art Cure, and basically, I'm going to flash forward to I always had an interest in making art and was a very creative child. I had a difficult childhood, and I ended up being adopted when I was 9 years old by a great family in New Jersey, and started learning how to read and started school at that point in my life. I got a little bit of a late start, but I didn't let that stop me, and then I decided when I went to Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania that I wanted to be a dual major in art and art history, and I was really set on being in the creative industry of the art world.

	So, I did a lot in college, I had a gallery job for three years. I worked and did publicity for the theater department at Bucknell, and just really loved that work, and then every summer I was in New York City interning and trying out various aspects in the industry. So, when I graduated, my resume actually was pretty great. I had about a dozen recommendations from great people from New York and college, and so I really hit the ground running, and got my first gallery job working in Soho in 1996, and really fell in love with the industry, and the story continues from there, and I talk about it in my book.

	In going from no money and debt and really struggling in the industry and people telling me that I was going to be a starving artist, and I wanted to prove people wrong because I really did want to make a great living being in the art world. So, I definitely went through a process and I had some pretty low moments, but I kept working really hard.

Jamie Masters:	So, I want to know more about that, especially since we were talking right before at the beginning how I started in art, and thought that there wasn't enough money in it because I was told the exact same thing, you're going to be a starving artist forever, and because I didn't want to just worry about the next paycheck, right, I ended up switching. What made you continue, and level it up after people had told you over and over again that it wasn't going to work.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah, I mean, I tried some other things. I was a teacher for about a year, and I just wasn't responding to it. I realized it really wasn't my calling, although now I really love teaching people what I know about growing a business, but at that time I wasn't ready to be a teacher. I thought about going into science and biology, and again, I just didn't feel like it was where I was supposed to be, and I kept coming back to my love of being in the arts, and just the jobs that I was doing.

	I just really loved the work and felt committed to it, and I just knew that if I went into any other industry, I wasn't going to be happy and it wasn't going to be authentic for me, and I have a thing with authenticity for myself, and wanting to be authentic to the life that I want to live and the jobs I want to work, and even now, the clients I want to work with and the artists I want to represent. So, I just knew that art was my calling and I knew it a very young age, actually.

Jamie Masters:	It's really awesome to hear the progress though, like you did try something else for a little while, and then you're like, no, no, no, that's still not it. This is for me.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah.

Jamie Masters:	So, how did you end up going, but I'm going to open my own gallery, and how did that go because I'm sure that's an undertaking in itself?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah, I didn't set out to open my own gallery. I was working for other people, and again, I was always really - I was a good worker, I was always working hard, doing as much as I could for the organization, networking, finding things to bring back into the business, and when I was working in Philadelphia I felt that I was doing some really good and positive things for the business I was working in, but I wasn't being compensated, and I started doing some side curating and that became an issue for my boss. 

	So, I had a decision to make, would I do the curation under their business name, which I didn't want to do because my vision was totally different, so I knew it would be a mismatch to the public. So, I could do that or I could strike out on my own, and I think I was kind of pushed into it, however, it was a perfect storm because I was very frustrated financially. I was working hard and really after taxes really only making 10 to 12 bucks an hour and that was really hard for me. I went to a great college, I had student loans I was paying off and I - at the same time I stumbled into a Barnes & Noble and picked up a book. 

	I wanted to read a business book and I don't know where the idea came from, I just said, you know, start learning more about business, and so, I went into a Barnes & Noble, and my criteria for picking a book was a great looking cover, not too long and an interesting title. So, I ended up finding a book by Michael Gerber called The E Myth, the entrepreneurial myth.

Jamie Masters:	Oh, yeah, I just had Michael on the show.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Well, flash forward, Michael wrote the intro to my book, so -

Jamie Masters:	How amazing is that, right?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	I never guessed, you know, flash forward 20 years later that I would be talking with him, and he was one of my early business mentors, and I just really loved that book, and I could just clearly set that the choice was ahead of me. I could continue to be a worker and work for other people or I could be my own boss and the lead entrepreneur and start my own business.

Jamie Masters:	Such a perfect book for exactly where you were at that moment to -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Oh, exactly -

Jamie Masters:	- to be no, we're not just a single person; we need to create something more than just our self. So, take us through the process of how you grew the gallery, especially with not a lot of business experience to begin with, take us through that process.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah, it's funny you say that because I felt when I started, I had a lot of experience working for other gallery owners, and I had a really good eye for picking great artists and I had a really great eye and mind for marketing. However, there was a lot that I didn't know that I didn't know, such as accounting and bookkeeping, and also hiring -

Jamie Masters:	All the crappy non-creative kind of stuff, right?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah, hiring staff and budgeting and allocating money, so I had a lot to learn. So, I built it slowly. I started my gallery in the spring of 2001, and it was an interesting time to start a business, which I didn't know yet because in Philadelphia where I opened the gallery, people start going to the beach starting early June. So, I had my first opening, a soft opening mid-May, I had my main opening a few weeks later, the first week of June in 2001, and then things got really quiet and I didn't? know, and people were basically working Monday through Thursday and then heading to the beach for the weekend, and I had a totally different idea of how it would go when I opened it. 

	I had grand visions of shows selling out and lines out the door, and I realized pretty quickly that it wasn't going to happen just like that, and that I actually had to build my name, build my brand and then I also was working with artists who were coming right out of graduate school with their MFAs, so they were totally unknown. So, not only was I unknown, they were unknown, so it was a double, who are you, who is this artist, so I had a lot to overcome, and then that fall, 9/11 hit and it's like everything shut down. The economy shut down, and I was rapidly going through my savings. 

I had allocated about six months worth of savings that would cover my overhead, which I was quickly running through, and then it became kind of month to month, and my goal was to get through the first year, so that I didn't default on my lease and be penalized for that. So -

Jamie Masters:	How did you not go under with all that that just happened how do you keep going?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	It was sheer will, and there were - September, October, November that first year was so quiet, and then I remember I had a show and a really great figurative artist and it was a beautiful body of work and she was a Philadelphia artist and people started coming in and buying art, and so I had some relief, and it just kept building like that for me month to month, and I didn't leave the gallery. I worked nonstop, and I talk about this in my book. Once I did have a little bit of money, I just kept reinvesting it back into my business, and the first thing that I realized was that because my name wasn't known in the art world nor the artists I was working with, I needed to start investing in marketing and advertising which gets expensive. 

	And so, I made a decision to give up my apartment and move into the basement of the gallery, so I could take that money and pump it into monthly ads to start building up my name. So, that was part of my strategy, the sacrifice of my living conditions and do that, and I started selling art from my ads, and that started going really well, so it became worthwhile, and then -

Jamie Masters:	How did you make that decision though because A). You don't know if it's going to be worthwhile, right, and that's a crazy decision to be like, oh, I'm just going to - I'm going to spend all of it also, and live in the basement.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah, I had a strong belief in my eye for picking good artists through years of being around top contemporary artists in New York City and studying artists, and I was studying the industry and I realized that one of the things that I wasn't doing that top galleries were doing was advertising, and so to invest in a 3 or $7,000.00 ad to me was, at the time, was a lot of money, and so I just kept doing that slowly, and putting the money back into the business and keeping it pretty lean for myself. So, I think that was the first part, and then the second part was finally, a couple of years in, feeling comfortable enough to hire a part-time assistant that then became a full-time assistant. So, I didn't have staff for a few years -

Jamie Masters:	Years, years -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	- so I was literally updating my website, answering all the phone calls coming in, greeting every visitor to the gallery. I was driving around picking up art at night in this Caravan, hanging my shows, doing all the lighting. I was painting walls in between the shows. It was literally it was just like I can't afford to pay anyone to do this, I'm putting the money back into the business, and I did this for many years, and I look back and I thought I was crazy the way I was working, and looking back the one thing I would have done is taken out a small business loan, and I would have invested, if I could go back, in a part-time staff person because my time spent doing some of the stuff I was doing outside of client and sales work and marketing and advertising, wasn't bringing me new clients.

	So, I wasn't allocating my time most effectively back in those days, I was doing everything.

Jamie Masters:	So, important for people to hear this because -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah, I was doing everything myself, and it's a trap and I still have to catch myself because I know the quality of the work I'm able to put out, and I trust myself and I know my vision and part of my learning has been to hire good people and let them do the work for me, and let go a little bit and so that's been a learning process for me.

Jamie Masters:	Easier said than done. Any tips for anybody that needs to let go because I work for the entrepreneurs too and it's a tough thing for us to let go?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Part of it is being realistic. For me if I'm trying to spend a majority of my work week meeting with clients and working with artists, then I don't have time to do shipping and to drop art off and to do a mailing that might take eight hours. So, for me it's just allocating my time and staying focused on the goal of client work and artist and marketing.

Jamie Masters:	So, it's funny to talk about marketing because from 2001 to now, that's a big difference, right -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Oh, yeah -

Jamie Masters:	- online and everything, so how did the landscape change and how did you stay up to date because I bet a lot of the other people in galleries didn't stay up to date as far as marketing -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	No, they didn't. Yeah, I - galleries in Philadelphia weren't doing advertising and I could see that from being in Philly so that was one thing I did to be distinct. I invested in print ads, which at the time, that's how a lot of people were getting their information. I was also doing card mailings which are really expensive each month, color postcards, and I was doing an oversized postcard which was even more expensive, really to grab people's attention, and then the other thing I did pretty quickly was I could see that more and more people were getting their information from the internet and websites.

	And I made a commitment to invest early money in a really good website because I knew that, again, this was part of marketing, branding, my image, the image of the artists I was carrying that there could be people sitting in their homes looking on my website trying to decide if they were going to come in and shop from my gallery, and so I wanted the appearance to be highly professional, and so I did a lot of research in websites, and designed my first website and worked with someone who programmed it, and then I made sure that I was updating the content weekly, and I think a lot of galleries either had no websites at the time or they had really junky looking websites that didn't really show the work so well. 

	So, I put a lot of time into that, and I think really just developing relationships with the media, radio, TV, print, art critics, just anyone that was writing about anything art or culturally in Philadelphia and even beyond, I started developing that, and I'd be featured somewhere and then someone else would see it and call me to do an article, and actually I was featured in - I went to Bucknell University, and I was featured in their alumni magazine, and one of the producers really liked the article and she happened to be working for CNN at the time, and Anderson Cooper was doing a program back in 2003 about business owners that were on the rise. 

	So, they called me and asked if I would come on the show and talk about my business, which was very exciting. So, that came out of me really developing press relationships, and putting the work in with doing press releases and getting information out to people.

Jamie Masters:	Did that really affect sales too because sometimes we do a lot of marketing - 

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah - 

Jamie Masters:	- press and stuff and then it doesn't drive anything, but it did for you?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Oh yeah, and the great thing about having a small business, and I was really hands on with my customers coming in, and then clients who were buying art and the artists and I could ask them how they heard about the gallery or what brought them in, and actually know where it was coming from, what ad, or what other client or what information that they saw to bring them in. So, I could really test out literally if something was working, and I would know within the first week, and I loved that market testing and having the ability to try different things and seeing the result.

Jamie Masters:	And nowadays we have the internet with analytics and stuff like that, and we can ask our customers that way -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Oh, yeah -

Jamie Masters:	- so thank goodness too.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Exactly.

Jamie Masters:	Because otherwise if you -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	If you have to go the old fashion way -

Jamie Masters:	Exactly, that's way harder. It'd be like, oh, there was a print ad, okay, every single person that comes in the door and they might not remember where they saw you, right?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah, exactly.

Jamie Masters:	So, fast forward to like now, this year internet is huge. Do you sell a lot on line, do people still really want to see -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	I do.

Jamie Masters:	Okay, so they do? So, won't even see it in person, they just will buy it?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah.

Jamie Masters:	What do they need to know in order to buy it, how do you solve whatever objections they have because I feel like buying art on line I feel like is harder?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	It starts for me with quality artwork and then quality visuals and photography because sometimes you can see something online and it doesn't match the actual quality in person, so I want to try to replicate the experience of someone standing in front of a piece of art. So, it starts with that, and then really just for me it's I like getting to know the client, I like to know what they're looking for, what their needs are, and budget of course, but I can pretty much tell, based on a discovery conversation with a client, if it's going to be a good match for them, and if they have any reservations, I'm going to get them to tell me about them, and I'll know if it's something that they should be concerned about or if it's not a match for them. So, for me it's part matchmaking.

Jamie Masters:	It's a relation, I was just going to say that same thing. It's a relationship game. So, it's not like you're in e-commerce store and people are going, I'm just going to buy this -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	No -

Jamie Masters:	They're spending a ton of money and want to make that they really feel aligned with what it is?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah, and really, I talk with clients around the United States over the phone, we email, sometimes we Skype, and the other side is if I ship a piece of art and someone is not happy with it - this has never happened actually which is really funny. I had one person try to return a piece of art because the husband bought it for his wife for a birthday present, and she just didn't like it.

Jamie Masters:	Oh, that's tough.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	But I've never had someone return art which is fascinating, but I think part of it is the quality control and the conversation and the discovery.

Jamie Masters:	Yeah.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	But if someone didn't like something, I would take it back and we'd talk about what else they might like.

Jamie Masters:	So, how do you find those customers and clients online then, or is it just because you've had such a name, people come to you anyway. Do you do digital marketing or anything like that?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Actually I - we're on social media and I've been contacted through people seeing installation shots of projects. They might get excited about a project that an artist is working on and want to learn more through either my website or something online or articles or reviews. I keep my advertising pretty simply, and a lot of it's word of mouth, and trying to give people a great experience, they're really going to pass on the experience and talk about it. So, a lot of my business really has been very carefully built client by client.

Jamie Masters:	Yeah, that's awesome and those relationships again.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Oh, yeah, and that's really how I got into corporate advising. I had clients that were buying for their homes that said, gosh, I love coming home. I would love to love coming into my office and have a creative experience here, which is also really important. So, I started doing corporate consulting for a lot of my private clients and that kept expanding, and then went institutional and now public art base, so that's been really fun to develop. So, yeah.

Jamie Masters:	So, if people ask for something, you're like, I could do that, and then it expanded and expanded from there.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Oh, yeah, exactly.

Jamie Masters:	What do you have for advice - and it's funny, I was just co-working at a place and this woman sat next to me and started telling me about what she did, and she was an artist, but she just started into this and she sent me her Instagram and I started asking her a bunch of questions, and I don't understand the progression into becoming an artist that has shows. So, I'm sure there's people that are listening that do art or been trying to do this. What do you give them for advice on trying to have their own show, to actually sell their art for any type of money, even if it's a side hustle or a side gig?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Sure, sometimes I think artists aren't clear on why they're making their art or what their vision is, and it really starts with a really good portfolio, which is in the art world, as an artist, your portfolio is your resume, and if it's not fully developed, then I would say be patient and keep developing it before you start marketing it because you might waste your time, but I think it starts with a really good quality body of work and a clear statement about that work, and then if it's - again, the market's going to give you immediate feedback. 

	I mean, I coach artists and I help them with their gallery letters and their presentation of materials, and if you're sending out 25 packets, whether by mail or email, and you're not getting a response, there are a few things to look at there. Is it the portfolio, is it the gallery that you've researched, maybe it's not a good match, and certainly if you're sending it out to a hundred galleries and not getting a response, then it's really - it's good to get feedback and take a look at why you're not getting the response you might want to get as far getting into shows.

	A lot of artists now can sell their own art online through their own websites, and again, it's selling your art is your personal brand, and what is the quality, how does it look online. I also jury shows and the last show I juried had 400 artists apply.

Jamie Masters:	Wow.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	And there were 50 spots that were open, and I noticed that kind of across the board the same thing, really bad photography, bad - like people sending photographs of in-progress work, which I didn't understand. Not having a professionally formatted resume, having statements that were not articulate and concise and were all over the place, and so these are things that are creating the impression of who you are without you being in the room to talk about what you're doing. So, I pay a lot of attention to those details personally.

Jamie Masters:	This is good advice for any business -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah, right, I know - 

Jamie Masters:	- any type of business in general. The presentation does matter when you're doing that. So, when you look - and it's funny, everything in my house I've painted, so people will come over and be like, oh, can I buy that? In my head, I'm like, ooh, maybe I should ask people if they want the stuff, and then cultivate a style, I've never - I do my own thing.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah, yeah. 

Jamie Masters:	But for the people that are - I don't need to get paid. I can get paid more by coaching than I can from the hours that I spend on the painting, right?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah.

Jamie Masters:	But it's fun, and so when I talk to people that are creative, are artists, I'm like, well, can't we just sell - I'm that person, well, just sell some, and then you'll know if they like it or not, right?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yes.

Jamie Masters:	And it's really hard for them because it's more personal. What do you suggest, even if it's not necessarily online, what do you suggest for somebody trying to sell their first - I mean, any creative art type, how do we do it without necessarily going all in crazy and have a nutso portfolio and doing gallery openings, what's the beginnings?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Sure, yeah, depending on what community you live in as an artist, oftentimes they have craft shows or opportunities for artists to be a part of an event and display their art. That's one way. I do believe that artists can sell their work over Instagram and through social media -

Jamie Masters:	Tell me more about -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	- and also their websites.

Jamie Masters:	Yes, tell me more about Instagram and stuff because I've seen a lot and I'm quite impressed.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	I have a handful of artists that I work with in Philadelphia that are Philadelphia based that have had buyers reach out and also to me on my gallery Instagram and also other art gallerists reach out through seeing an image or a new work. So, there are people out there that are using this as a way to connect and figure out what type of art they want to buy.

Jamie Masters:	Is there specific hashtag because that's the - so my former husband, borderline personality disorder, which I think I've said before.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yes.
Jamie Masters:	And he does art, and he has an amazing Instagram, like it's really good, and he posts everywhere and everybody comments, and is like, oh, I want that, I want a tattoo like that, and he's like, how do I get people that actually will either A). Buy it, or B). Have some sort of clout see this, whether it be on Instagram or social?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	I think part of it is following up with the people commenting and being on top of your feed, and then directing them back to another place or directing them back to you in a way that you can actually have a live conversation, and I think most artists stop at putting the work up online and then that's it.

Jamie Masters:	Well, yeah, there's like no marketing behind it -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	They're not even cataloging who's interested and inviting them to be on an email list or get further information from them -

Jamie Masters:	Smart -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	- or to set up a call if they're really interested in discussing the work.

Jamie Masters:	Yeah, okay, so that's -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	So, there's a little bit of a -

Jamie Masters:	- because it's relationships -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	- process there, yeah.

Jamie Masters:	But sometimes we have a hesitancy to be like, well, it's one to one, like I don't know if they'll buy it, right, and then it adds up as you keep going. Is there any social media tactics that you know, whether it be hashtags or anything specific that you could do to grow a following a little bit more online?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	I'm not as much tactical as with how to like the tech side of it, more the content side that people are being drawn to, and are you showing installation shots of your art in the studio or someone ends up buying it, maybe you have a piece in your office, are you putting up a shot of what it looks like? Are you sharing photos of yourself at openings or what you're up to so that people can follow along your profile and see the community stuff you're up to? So -

Jamie Masters:	So, they do want to see the behind the scenes kind of stuff?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah, not really like one of these - I don't hack stuff, I just kind of build it slowly and consistently and create lists that I can then send information out to people per each artist, or updates or newsletters, so really that way.

Jamie Masters:	Do you ask the artists to try and grow their following - because I get that they're your artists too and you help them, but do they try and do it on their own?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Oh, yeah, the gallery artists that I represent, they also all have their own social media pages, and I know they're growing. Their followers are tagging into gallery posts too, so yeah, yeah.

Jamie Masters:	Such a different world than -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	It is - 

Jamie Masters:	- when you started it beforehand, it's so amazing the world we live in now and how big it can be.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Oh, yeah -

Jamie Masters:	People can find you anywhere, especially -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Exactly -

Jamie Masters:	- the type of artists that there are. Okay, so what do you think would be the best tip you would have because you've built an amazing business, let alone you have a book and all sorts of other things that you've got your coaching and expansion, expansion, expansion, what would you suggest for people in focusing because you have so many different pieces and parts, what would be one of your best tips for focusing?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	For focusing, just really deciding at the point where you're at professionally, what is the one action that you could take or the one thing that you should be doing actively to grow what you're trying to grow. For artists starting out, they don't have a lot of artwork, so it's really going to be most likely the portfolio, and maybe even having a studio to make art. So, it really depends, and right now, like for example, a lot of my artists I've been showing and working with over 20 years, so they're beyond emerging. They're really coming into the season of museum exhibitions and being a museum collection, so that's really what I focus on right now. 

I'm working with museums and focusing on museum shows and books and things that are going to support that, and that was different ten years ago when I was focused on more corporate selling and more building up the client base to stay in the art world. So, I think for anyone in the given time, and I feel like you can do this on a daily basis, like what's the one thing that you need to do today that's going to help you the most, and if you do only one thing, if you can do only one thing today for your business, and I'm not talking about cleaning out your inbox or updating your website, what's the one thing you can do that's going to grow or help your business, and for most people it's around client work, sales work or marketing - 

Jamie Masters:	Priorities -

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	- but it's the stuff that we don't want to do.

Jamie Masters:	Really, tell me more about that?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Well, sometimes creative people fear rejection, they don't want to fail, they don't want to be rejected, so there might be that potential pain of rejection so they put it off to the side, and then other things come up that are "important," which are actually not really important that aren't growing your practice. So, I start with the most difficult things I need to do every day first.

Jamie Masters:	Yeah, eat that frog like Brian Tracy.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah, exactly.

Jamie Masters:	It's hard to do.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Eat the frog, that's it.

Jamie Masters:	The ugliest one that they have. If you guys haven't read that book yet, definitely get that book because it is, and priorities evolve is what it sounds like. What I love hearing is that you've been in this game for so long, right, 20-year overnight success, and priorities and what you're focusing on specifically is an evolutionary process of now, this is the most important thing, now this is the most important thing, and you won't necessarily know what that is ten years in advance, and that's the thing.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	No, you won't, and one thing that I started doing maybe five years ago was in the morning after I drink some coffee and maybe work out, I like to close my eyes and sit there and ask myself, what do I need to do today to take my career to the next level, and the answer always comes, and for artists I say, try it, it definitely works and someone's name might pop into your head that you haven't been calling, something's going to come up for you. So, that's one way of tapping into that.

Jamie Masters:	I don't feel like business owners do that enough, especially the ones that I'm working with, and it's funny, my latest painting is about inner guidance and it actually says that.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yeah.

Jamie Masters:	Because entrepreneurs very data focused, very like this, don't actually go and quiet their mind and actually ask, and you have this inspired action pop up that could change the future for what you're doing, and we don't do that enough, so I really appreciate you saying that. I know we have to start wrapping up soon.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Okay.

Jamie Masters:	I love this, I'm so happy that you came on the show.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Yes.

Jamie Masters:	Somebody introduced us and said, she would be amazing to have on the show, so we made it happen. So, what's one thing listeners can do this week to help move them forward towards their goal of a million?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	I love that question. One thing I believe that everyone should do is to - I'll try to give a short answer, but I work with a lot of creative people around this. A lot of times people don't know what they're making and they don't know what they're spending, and so if you don't know where you are right now, you can't really know where you're going, and sometimes a picture of where you're at right now is better or worse than it might be in your mind. 

So, I like to start with, what are you actually making, and you'd be surprised how many people don't really know the answer to that question, including artists, and what are you really spending, and really getting in control around your budget because then once you have that, then you can look at a lot of data and decide how you're going to start working with that to shift into making more money, saving more money, allocating more money to get to a million dollars, and that was the big shift that I made with being very clear where I was standing in that moment, and then moving into clearing debt and then moving into having plans with new money coming in, and then it starts snowballing from there. So, that would be my advice.

Jamie Masters:	We love hearing that, especially coming from somebody who went through the crappiness of not having a ton of cash.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Oh, yeah.

Jamie Masters:	And the hard way, so it's not just you telling us, oh, it's important. It's so important, it's so important. So, I know everybody's going to avoid it, so if you're listening right now, write it on your calendar, you're probably driving or something, but please, please, please take a look at your numbers so that way you do have an actual reality picture of what it is instead of - it could even be a lot better than you think it is because our brains are kind of crazy. Thank you so much, Bridgette

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	You are so welcome.

Jamie Masters:	I really appreciate it. Where can we find out more about you, where can we get your book, all of that?

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Actually, I have a website, bridgettemayer.com with my coaching and art related stuff, and then my gallery program is bridgettemayergallery.com. So, you can find me at those two places.

Jamie Masters:	Yeah, and go check them out because those really ? she talks about image and the first time I went to your website, I was like, oh, she does it right, and I love that that was sort of a theme through this whole thing. Thanks so much for coming on the show today, I really appreciate it.

Bridgette Mayer Johnson:	Thanks for having me.

Tags: Abstract, Artist, Bridgette Mayer Johnson, Entrepreneur, entrepreneur podcast, gallery, jaime masters, Making big money, Making money through Art, Marketing investment, Online Sales, sales and marketing, Secret Sauce, top entrepreneurs

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Hi I’m Jaime. Each and every week I bring you the top business advice from the people who know best.

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