Make money as a creative while staying true to your art

The secret to succeeding without selling out

Photo by Laurenz Krabisch on Unsplash

In the olden days before Substack, the most common way for bloggers to monetize their creativity was through advertising or affiliate links.

The problem was you needed an insane amount of traffic, not to mention the ads rendered your site an unreadable mess.

Anyway, I never saw myself churning out search-engine driven content for clicks.

I always wanted to share my message, my hard-won life’s wisdom, and help others overcome the same struggles I did…

While creating an exciting, unconventional life overflowing with creative self-expression, abundance and freedom.

The only question was — how?

Eventually I stumbled upon the life coach / course creator world.

The financial potential was much better, but I wasn’t a life coach. At the time, I had no interest in being one.

I couldn’t relate to people posting preachy — “here’s how to have a perfect life!!!” content, and definitely didn’t want to create it.

But was it possible to monetize my self-expression without selling out?

Creating a course seemed interesting, but I had no idea what I could teach people, or how to package my knowledge into a program that people would pay actual money for.

And the other problem remained — course creators seemed to churn out content directly related to their course, all the time, and I had no interest in sanding the interesting edges off my magic so it could fit into a box and make money.

Finding the balance between art and business as a writer took a long time.

Women like us typically identify as messengers, meaning we feel called to share a specific message through our words, teachings, and yes — offers.

Through my emotional healing blog, I generated multiple six figures from coaching, courses, guided journals, memberships, masterminds, and everything in between — without sacrificing my art.

(Not teaching business! I built a successful company teaching people to process their emotions, and love helping other creatives and healers monetize their unique gifts.)

I won’t say that I didn’t lose connection to my message at times, but truthfully that’s inevitable as a creative, even if you’re not monetizing your work.

What’s important is that you connect back in.

Here’s the best way I’ve found to monetize your creativity without selling out:

Your message is part of your purpose. So is your business. You don’t have to choose. They must both exist.

The art calls your people in while the business invites them into a transformation.

Selling is a way of messaging, too.

Let the art be the art, and let the selling be the selling.

What this means is — 

I’m connected to my message.

I know what I’m meant to share, who I’m meant to share it with, and how to share it from the depths of my soul…

in a way that resonates with people and connects deep in their hearts.

It’s how I’ve grown a combined audience of 50,000, including many loyal readers I love, who have been around for years.

It’s how I consistently go viral, without trying.

(And if you’re not clear on your message yet, this will give you clarity.)

By the way, I would never change my message to go viral, or post random engagement bait posts. That does nothing to build your brand, and in my opinion dilutes it.

I also don’t write my art specifically to sell.

I share what I feel called to share, and — as my mentor Kat says — let the message be the message.

That’s why you’re alive.

To share your art.

I totally understand what it’s like to ask questions like — what do I need to say to sell?

But the danger here is that you shape your ART to get attention from the algorithm, or make money.

When your art is meant to be your art.

It sells without selling by connecting you to the hearts of those you’re here to serve.

I do have very specific processes that I use to amplify this…

To make sure my message connects.

To make sure it’s found by Google. (I have a genius process for this I’ve never heard anyone else talk about. Beyond basic SEO.)

To make sure the titles capture people’s attention and are things they want to read. (Also have a genius hack for that, as well.)

This is the packaging though, and not the art itself.

When you alter your art so it makes MONEY you not only lose connection to the art…

You also send the universe unintentional smoke signals that your true message isn’t good enough to attract wealth.

This comes from a place of YOU not feeling good enough…

Which is why growing your business is a journey of deep self-love and worth.

Our work together in Bloom focuses a lot on this deeper inner work so you message and sell whole-heartedly, and grow your business into the vehicle for financial freedom it’s meant to be, without tainting your self-expression.

The second part of this is selling with soul — unapologetically.

Whether you’re selling books or courses or memberships or coaching packages, you need to learn how to sell.

All soulful selling is, is loving the things you create with your whole heart and telling the world why they should love it, too.

Why they need it.

Why their lives will be incomplete without it.

And if that makes you feel a certain way, that’s why you’re not making the money you want.

You don’t fully believe in your gifts or the things you create, and understand how those things will change lives.

You don’t fully see how yes, your message was planted in you, but so were the ideas for the things you’re meant to sell.

And sharing from the heart about your offer is another facet of your God-given message. Exactly how to do this, you’ll learn in Bloom.

God gave you these things to sell so you could help and serve others, but others won’t believe in the things you create more than you do.

So YOU are the messenger for your products and services.

And if you want time, creative and financial freedom…

A life where you bake blueberry chocolate bars in the afternoon after a blissful morning of coaching clients (that was my Wednesday)…

you need to learn how to sell, unapologetically.

What I do is this —

I message. I create my art. And then I layer the sales strategy on top.

Sometimes I write things just to write them.

And sometimes I write things just to sell things.

Most of the time, it’s somewhere in between.

Honestly, I’ve been studying this for so long that I do it naturally at this point.

But I teach my exact process in Bloom.

I see the balance between art and business as just that — a balance.

That requires a constant awareness, always asking — what’s the purpose of this piece of content, and based on the purpose, where is it on the spectrum of art vs business?

(Some people say they sell solely from the heart, but those people are also really good marketers, and ‘sales that feel like art,’ is a powerful marketing message.)

Part of me is envious of people who just want to write because for a long time I told myself that’s what I should want.

I told myself that I was being inauthentic by wanting to sell, or create courses.

But truthfully, it’s fun to create courses, to guide people through transformations, to get to know the people my work reaches on a deeper level.

That makes the work deeper, richer, more interesting and transformative.

Likes and comments don’t fulfill me. Working with people does.

One of my main tenets in life is that you build the business you’re meant to by becoming the woman you’re meant to be.

The version of you who makes six or seven figures or is a famous writer, or whatever your goal is, knows how to sell.

She weaves soulful strategy in with her art.

It’s part of who she is.

Her belief in what she has to offer, and the importance of her mission, pulsates through every cell, and that comes out in her writing and speaking.

That’s how she sells soulfully, and creates art that transforms people, both free and paid.

And if you want to learn exactly how to apply these principles to your own art…

so you can make money through your unapologetic self-expression and live a life of freedom…

join the Market Your Magic immersion happening this month in Bloom — the membership for creative women who want to build businesses and lives that are extensions of their souls.

Would love to hear how this lands for you.

All the love,

Suzanne

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