Gaining Marketing Skills Quickly by Leading a Creativity Challenge with Kristen O'Neill (#145)

In this episode of The Art Biz, I’m joined by Kristen O’Neill, a team member of mine and an accomplished artist who recently created a 30-day daily art lesson challenge for her online followers. But in the end, it may have been more of a challenge for her than it was for the participants. Kristen and I discuss what she hoped to get from this challenge, how she organized it, how much of it was planned ahead, and what her workflow was like—including all of the platforms she used to share the content—and most importantly, what she would do differently if she were to do it again.

First posted: artbizsuccess.com/challenge-oneill-podcast

Highlights

• Details of Kristen’s 30-Day Art Challenge and what she hoped to get out of it. (1:29)

• How Kristen shared the challenge while honoring her email list expectations. (6:10)

• Creating and organizing a workflow that worked all month long. (10:42)

• The time commitment and unexpected challenges behind the challenge. (16:35)

• Lessons learned from the challenges of this challenge. (22:25)

• Staying motivated and accountable throughout a challenge. (27:52)

• Tracking the participation, success, and results of the challenge. (30:15)

• The value of Pinterest for artists. (38:30)

• What Kristen would do differently next time. (41:07)

This Week’s Action

Your assignment this week is to consider how you are stretching yourself in and out of the studio these days.

Mentioned

• ArtBizConnection.com

• Kristen on Instagram

• Kristen O’Neil Art

Related Episodes

• Art Biz Podcast Episode 78: How to Increase Your Productivity with Art Business Systems

Quotes

• “I’m always looking for different opportunities and ways to reach out to more students and interact with more painters.” — Kristen O’Neill

• “It’s really important to honor what you say you’re going to do with your list.” — Kristen O’Neill

• “I picked up lessons more quickly than had I done the same amount of work spread over a longer period of time.” — Kristen O’Neill

• “If you haven’t figured out your system ahead of time, it’s going to be harder than it needs to be.” — Kristen O’Neill

• “Often we spend so much time guessing what is the right way to do something, and we could put that energy into just doing it.” — Kristen O’Neill

About My Guest

Kristen O’Neill paints the essence of landscapes based on real locations, including those from recent collaborations with long-distance hikers. Her Oregon Coast Trail series was featured in a solo exhibition at the Grants Pass Museum of Art.

Kristen graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and now lives in Southern Oregon where she has become passionate about teaching art. She teaches both online and in-person, leads a field trip program that has taught art history to thousands of 5th graders, and is an Artist Mentor for Alyson Stanfield’s community since 2018.