Should I share my story even if it is boring?
This is a great question and something I see popping up a lot once artists start to discover the concept of storytelling.
And the short resounding answer to this question is YES.
So let’s jump into why.
Let’s be real here. Not everyone has this crazy hero-style life full of twists and turns, full of crazy adventures and travel.
That’s just not super achievable for a lot of people.
You might have had a very normal childhood that lead into a very normal adulthood. And that might still be where you are sitting.
And you know what? That is beautiful.
It’s just as beautiful as the people who have had a crazy life.
And this does not mean that your story is not worth sharing, absolutely not.
So let’s cover a few things that might change your mind and will encourage you to share your story even if you think its a little boring.
1) Dramatic histories might seem cool, but they aren’t relatable
A crazy backstory and history might sound cool, but it’s not really relatable for most people.
One of the biggest mindset shifts people in business tend to go through (and yes, your art is a biz) is that you need to connect with your audience.
When your audience connects and resonates with you, that is when the magic happens. They are going to know, like and trust you, and at that point things get really beautiful.
You’re going to start to notice more sales, and more beautiful relationships that you are building with these potential customers and customers. And the more tight that relationship becomes, the better things will be.
Not only will these people support you, and continue to support you through sales and collections, they’re going to be some of your best sources of social proof. They’re going to share your art and that experience with their friends and family, and because your relationship is nice and tight, they’re inevitably going to say some wonderfully positive things about you. Which is going to do wonders to bring in more customers & people to build relationships with.
So yes, a crazy story might sound cool but a very small percentage of people might find that relatable. They might like hearing about it initially, but you likely aren’t going to truly capture their heart.
Consider that when you are starting to flesh out your story.
Everything you do should be done in a targeted way so that you are resonating with your ideal audience. Everyone has an ideal audience – these are people that are already primed to love your artwork.
It’s a scary lesson at first that you need to learn how to close your metaphorical doors to people who are not part of your ideal audience.
Because if you focus on making content that everyone likes, then you’re creating work that nobody loves.
2) You might inspire “normal” people to have the courage to chase their dreams
A couple years ago I used to fear that I couldn’t be a successful artist because I didn’t have this endless pit of pain that society thinks is appropriate to project on artists.
Society has some goofy qualities to it, and unfortunately they don’t always view artists and creatives in the best light. We’ve probably all heard the “starving artist” stereotype at least once in your life.
And the fact that they seem to think that you can’t be a successful artist unless you have pain and tragedy inside your soul that fuels your artwork.
Obviously this is just ridiculous and extremely incorrect, but it can still have an effect on people.
It did to me – it made me think that I would never be a successful artist because I had a very normal life. At that point I had never experienced a lot of pain – emotional pain, spiritual pain. My relationships were incredible, and had things pretty figured out.
But part of me feared that I would never be a successful artist because I didn’t have that pain that society claims is necessary for good art.
And then my family and I went through the most horrible thing we have experienced, and now we live in the aftermath. We have immense amounts of pain, but now with some time under our belts we have begun to see the beauty in the world again.
While I do have pain now, I realize that my true story at its core was always there, even before the trauma and the grief. Even when I was living a very normal, idyllic life.
It made me realize that I had it in me all along, and the pain didn’t change that.
It didn’t cause me to suddenly be a good artist just because there was pain and emotion poured into it. It wasn’t like that.
So you can take comfort in the fact that you don’t have to have a traumatic past or a crazy history to be a successful artist.
You can be a completely normal person that has had completely normal experiences, that is living a completely beautiful and normal life. And still have a rich story to tell.
And what’s great is that by you taking pride in your unique story, it can actually inspire other normal people at find the courage to actually chase their dreams.
When we step into our truest selves, we can achieve some wonderful things. It’ll give us the courage and confidence to be who we are and really capture hearts.
Especially if you infuse who you are into your artwork. You can then inspire other people to embrace their own stories, to stop hiding from the things that they think society won’t accept. Or the things that they think are weird and that they shouldn’t be proud of.
Which is ridiculous.
You are a beautiful soul. We all have our flaws and little dark corners but at your core, you have something truly wonderful.
And the sooner you step up and own that story, regardless of what it is, the better.
Because that is going to translate into something that is captivating for your audience.
And will allow you to connect with so many other people around the world, many of which will become dear customers of yours.
Want to take an even bigger flying leap towards your (inevitable) success as an artist?
Watch my FREE masterclass training, Scale Your Art Sales.
It’s the online class for beginner artists that are filled with a fiery creative passion, and want to grow an audience online that actually want to BUY their artwork