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Have you ever experienced success in any area and then realized it wasn’t exactly what you wanted after all? My guest today experienced unexpected and surprising growth as her Instagram following quickly grew from 10,000 followers to over 70,000 followers in just a few years. In this episode of The Art Biz, I’m talking to Sara Schroeder. We talk about the creative way that she overcame her fear of selling and what she wishes she had known to do differently while in the throes of that success.

For more than a year, Sara has been using tools like journaling and the Enneagram to discover more about herself and explore where she wants her work to go, and now she's looking for more. She knows there's a deeper level of fulfillment beyond posting and looking for sales online, so she has stepped back and reassessed. You'll hear Sara mention her upcoming solo show, which is part of a challenge that I issue to students in my seasonal programs. We also discuss why her Instagram strategy has changed and what her new approaches for Instagram and marketing in general.

Highlights

• “I fell in love with making art all over again.” (2:00)

• The value of finding a dedicated space for your art. (7:11)

• The difference between Sara’s maximum and minimal art. (10:18)

• Sara’s success on Instagram took off and quickly became overwhelming. (12:20)

• When app demands take over making artwork. (18:55)

• The evolution of Sara’s work since pulling back from Instagram. (24:07)

• The process of self discovery through journaling, meditating, and the Enneagram. (28:01)

• Details of Sara’s latest 100-piece collection. (32:00)

• How Sara would have handled her initial success and systems differently. (34:49)

• Sara’s modified Instagram presence and increased in-person collaborations. (39:47)

• Sara’s typical work week and why she starts work at 11 AM. (46:32)

Mentioned

• Lisa Congdon’s illustration classes

• Andy J. Pizza

• Art:21

• Enneagram

• Natalie Goldberg’s Freewriting

• Artist Planning Sessions

Resources

• Show notes, images, and listener comments

• How to Price Your Art free report

• Art Biz Connection artist membership

First posted: artbizsuccess.com/growing-schroeder-podcast

Guest Bio

Sara Schroeder is an abstract painter using gestural movement, intuitive marks, and saturated colors to convey energy and emotion. Works on canvas and paper feature drips, swipes, scratching, and subtraction methods, which build upon one another to form abstractions of nature. She finds inspiration in the potent hues of tropical plant life and the subdued pastel motifs of the Art Deco period preserved in Miami. Identifying with Kandinsky’s belief that color influences the soul, Sara's process incorporates the psychology of color, intuition, and chance.

Integrating into her work what psychotherapist Carl Rogers called “unconditional positive regard”, she aims to inspire rich revelations and encounters of the human spirit. Her works are held nationally and around the world in hundreds of private collections.