Studio Visit with Juliet Meeks
So many days I wish I had a time-traveling Delorean a la Back to the Future. I have a running mental list of uses for it. One of the more selfish ones would be to bring information from the present to me when I was operating my art print business on Etsy 11 years ago.
For example, I’d be less shy about reaching out to businesses for partnerships or work...
…I’d take LaurieAnne Gonzalez’ Art to Print course to struggle less with the creation of my prints, and…
…I’d definitely bring the art licensing insights gained by learning from Juliet Meeks.
Juliet Meeks is a fine artist and online educator making waves in teaching artists how to build diversify their income with art licensing.
I had the pleasure of chatting with Juliet about her art business journey, what art licensing is, an honest look into setting up an art licensing income stream, and how she leverages her licensing relationships.
Juliet just launched her signature course, Licensing for Artists, where you can learn her roadmap for getting art licensing deals.
She’s walking you through every stage of the process: She talks about preparing your portfolio, finding your ideal clients, giving you templates to reach out, insights on how to navigate pricing and contracts, and so much more!
By the way, I’m always on the lookout to hook you up with the best resources I can find for you to grow a sustainable business. An intentional business doesn’t happen overnight, but rather, it’s built bit by bit by making strategic choices that will pay off later. That’s why, I accepted the opportunity to be an affiliate for Juliet for her course. This means that at no extra cost to you, by clicking the links found on this page, I’ll get a small kickback if you decide to sign up. It’s a win-win-win situation and my art-supply fund thanks you!
Ok. Ready for the studio visit?
Click the video or audio links below to listen to our chat from January 2022, or you can read the (poorly edited) transcript below.
WATCH THE VIDEO
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO
(POORLY EDITED) TRANSCRIPT
Mariana:
All right. Hi Juliet. Thank you so much for letting me come to your studio for a little bit for a chat.
Juliet is a magnificent artist who attracted me with her bold use of color and her magnificent florals that just captured my attention. I also took, I think a class from you ages ago on Skillshare. And so I got to really understand how you were as an educator. I just became fascinated, and I'm so excited to welcome you into my little blog space as well, and get to get to know you a little bit better.
Julia is an artist, an online educator, and also has an online shop. And so we're going to go on a discovery of her artistic and what she's got going on now.
Juliet:
Thank you so, so much. I loved that. <Laugh> I really appreciate it. And I didn't know that you took one of my Skillshare classes back in the day, so that's awesome.
Mariana:
Yeah, I can even remember which one I took because I was like heavily to skills share and I <laugh>, I was like trying to find all the different skills share classes that I could, and then I got burned out and I am like never again. Yeah. But I'll circle back
Juliet:
Around to it. Yeah. It's kinda like that with me. I love Skillshare. It's, it's so great. It's such a great resource and that's how I started teach. So in 2016, I believe it was so,
Mariana:
Oh, wow. Okay. So let's kind of go like rewind the tape a little bit and tell me, how did you get started? From the moment that you realized you wanted to create art to when you realize that you could actually sell it and then what came next?
Juliet:
Okay. So I will go a little bit, way back. I won't make this too long <laugh> but okay. I was pretty entrepreneurial at a young age. I remember my cousin and me, one year we had all these toys, these other kids wanted to play with. And so we rented them to these kids in the neighborhood and then our parents first found out and they were like, you have to like give their money back. It's fine. It was like a quarter, it like
Mariana:
It, a legitimate business. OK.
Juliet:
Yeah. We had a future ahead of us was <laugh>. But anyway, so I just, and I was, I was kind of always creative, but I didn't really think of it very strategically, you know, as a young age, as a career. So I was always kind of good at writing and English was my best class. So when I went to college, I actually, I, I wanted to do some art, but I went to college and I started out as an, like a traditional art studio major. And I was like, I got super intimidated by it. And I quickly switched back to English. So, I remained an English major and that's what I graduated with, but they started a new program in college for like a combined English with digital media. And so it was a really perfect major for me.
Juliet:
And I was like, it was just great, cuz I had dabbled in graphic design in high school and designing posters for events, like just as part of a class. And so, so yeah, so in college I really started to realize like my senior year doing these graphic design classes, I was like, okay, so this graphic design is a cool way to kind of like marriage sort of like thinking and writing and then design and art you and it could actually be a job. So that's kind of like what I went all-in with was all right, I'm gonna be a graphic designer now. And that's what I did. I was, I worked at a branding agency for an internship, a two branding agencies. And then I finally landed a job as a does at a local newspaper. Ooh. So yeah. So, but when I was at the newspaper I always had in the back of my mind that I really wanted to create more art and I wanted to create more patterns specifically.
Juliet:
I was really drawn to patterns. But at that point, I'd only made like a handful of patterns. So we had done a project in college where I just didn't know what to create for the project. So I created a pattern and I created it in Adobe, in design <laugh>, which is like, oh, not where you make patterns <laugh> no, not at all. I don't even know how I did it. I really don't. That could be a niche that could be its own class. Not, I don't recommend it, but it was like this geometric colorful pattern in, in design. And I like actually ordered a swatch from Spoonflower. That was the first, so that was in 2011 or 2012 was my senior year of college. So anyway, that was my first dabbling in patterns. So when I'm at the newspaper, I'm like, okay, I, I wanna, I just wanna be my own boss.
Juliet:
I was just really feeling that need to create more, to do my graphic design as a freelancer. I was doing a lot of branding and logo design and combining illustrations whenever I could. And so after two years at the newspaper, I quit, it wasn't just a sudden decision. It was about a year-long planning decision of saving up. And I took a business plan class. I was blogging a little bit on the side. I was starting my Instagram profile. So, you know, it wasn't just like I'm gonna quit. I, I really wanted to make it to that two year mark at that job. So that's kinda like how I initially got started in the graphic design world, which eventually led to the artist illustrator surface design world.
Mariana:
I could totally tell that it was important for you to leverage what you had already done so that you weren't starting from scratch when you quit your job at the newspaper and venture it out on your own entrepreneurial journey. And I that's one of my like favorite things in the world about being an entrepreneur is leveraging whatever we can, whatever skills we have, even if it seems unrelated, we've learned and we've evolved as human beings as artists, designers, et cetera. And we don't have to leave that behind whenever we have a brand new business idea, we can always bring that with us.
Juliet:
Yeah, it's totally you know, not every artist or surface designer has to start out as a graphic designer. You know, to have that career. But I will say that I felt like it was helpful for that transition for me just with using the design program and stuff. So I like to say that because I don't want people to think, I just magically knew, you know, how to do all this. You know, I had been doing it for, you know, been using illustrator and Photoshop and in design for a few years and it's totally doable. Like you don't have to know every tool, every function. I definitely don't <laugh> but so if you're brand new to it, I don't want you to feel, you know, intimidated by it. Cuz there are like simple ways to start to start kind of digitizing your work.
Mariana:
I'm a serial entrepreneur and Desk & Design is my fourth business. Luckily they haven't been open all at the same time because I don't think I could manage that. But one of them was being a graphic artist. So I was designing prints digitally on Illustrator and then printing them on my own professional printer. And I didn't know anything. I had a major in ceramics from an art school, but I didn't learn anything about digital design. It was such a struggle, but as you said, it's doable, but it's not easy. Doesn't happen in a snap of a second. You have to have good mentors and good sources that are reliable, that teach you these things so that you don't have to go through what I went through, which were absolutely awful fights with my printer and my Illustrator settings, etcetera.
Juliet:
I feel like also there was something about, you know, I'm not in my twenties anymore and when I was in my twenties, I felt like there, you know, you're still a little scared. It's not gonna work, but you kind of just jump in and there's not so much as like fear as how it's gonna turn out. And then as you start to get a little, little bit older, you start to think more about the risks and you know how you're gonna, you know, do this. So I think that's, what's something that's unique about kind of that younger mindset is just kind of jumping in. And, and one thing I totally like left out of my journey is, and I kind of like always forget about it and I don't know why, but I was making things and selling them at art markets since I was 17 years old.
Juliet:
So it was, it was like a really, and, and that part also is, was kind of helpful for me or super helpful for me to like, I don't do art markets anymore, but to just like kind of learn about meeting with customers face to face, even though what I was selling is totally different from what I'm selling now, I was, I was selling vintage clothes that I found. And then also I was making jewelry out of vintage postage stamps and like deco onto record vinyl <laugh> so that's what I, that's what I was doing. Yeah. All kinds of different things, but it was totally, I mean, any experience, like don't discount your experiences that you've had, like, like I said, like, I kind of like forget about it and I'm like, wait, no, that was actually legitimate. And really taught me a lot from a young age about business. Even if it wasn't like making me rich, but yeah.
Mariana:
Yeah. It's all a learning opportunity. And one of the things that I've been, you know, reflecting on, you know, now that we're, you know, right now we're starting 20, 22 and I've been reflecting on the previous year and saying, okay, what are, what are my failures? And I'm using air quotes because they're really teachers and they can teach us something about boundaries about what's okay for us to do. What's not okay what feels right for our energy. And so for you, you had that, that business creating things and selling them in art markets. And yeah, it's not what you're doing today, but it doesn't mean it was a major stepping tone stone and helped you get to where you are today.
Juliet:
Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
Mariana:
Okay. So we are at the point where you started to branch out in your own, what happened next? <Laugh>
Juliet:
Okay. So I quit my job. I had you know, not the biggest savings I did have support in where I lived, whereas like I didn't have so much pressure on rent, so that really saved me to be able to, you know, make it for that next year, because the year after I quit weirdly right when I quit, I lost my biggest graphic design freelance client cuz they hired someone in house. So I was like, oh geez. Awesome. And so I spent, I spent the next six to 12 months or I spent the next few months like really trying to get branding clients, you know, but I, I was doing one for a friend free of charge. I was really, I was truly living off of my savings for a good few months there. And so because nothing was, it was feeling so hard.
Juliet:
I mean it was a, it was a strange year, I guess it was in, that was in like early or mid 2015. So I was like, all right, well I'm not really having a lot of other projects going on. So I'm just gonna go all in on a personal project and you know, hope for the best. So that's when I did the, the 100 day project. So I started, I was like, I took a watercolor class online and literally the next day I said, I'm gonna paint a hundred watercolor patterns <laugh> so if you go back, you can see me saying on my Instagram, oh, here's I just took this class. And then the next day I, you know, announced I'm gonna do this challenge. And I did it and I did almost a hundred days in a row. So I was like nervous BEC financially, you know, nervous, financially and anxious about living off of my savings and, you know, had very little like branding and graphic design income coming in, but also having the greatest time, like just focusing on water color and because I had that flexibility of spending less time on client work and more time on my, you know, on my watercolors, I really was able to get up, get traction with that project.
Juliet:
And my patterns started getting shared by other bloggers. So like design spun and a beautiful mess. And like it, that was like, love grace. Just, I mean, I, I sometimes just think about that time and it was just, it was just so wonderful and exciting. Yeah. And basically once I started getting that traction I got brave and I, I reached out to someone on Instagram and asked if I could design like art custom artwork for their business. And they were like, sure. And it, I didn't get paid, actually I got paid in product, which was cases of wine <laugh>. Oh, nice. Yeah. I mean, I was OK with that. <Laugh> that's an acceptable form of payment if you ask me. Yeah, so that was kind of like, you know, I think that doing that project consistently gave me the confidence and getting that feedback, not only from the blogger sharing it, but from, you know, my even, even though small my audience on Instagram, just positive feedback I think is, was really helpful for me to just keep going. And so I just, it really, it just snowballed. It really did.
Mariana:
And how wonderful that you're not necessarily doing the hundred day project to make a profit it's, it's born out of your own desire to explore and embrace your creativity and yourself as an artist. And you're just generously putting it out in the world. But then it's, it's almost like this fuel that, you know, you get feedback, it fuels you, it gives you confidence and you're able to put yourself out there even more. And yeah, reaching out to somebody is like to, to ask her work is nerve wracking. And I know exactly the courage that it, it takes. I've done that before to get desk and design started. And it was like, oh my gosh.
Juliet:
Yes. Super
Mariana:
Wrecking. Yeah. And it was
Juliet:
Weird also cuz I was doing it on Instagram in a comment <laugh> which I don't now, but this was 2015, maybe early 2016. So it was a little, was this world?
Mariana:
Yeah. Social innocent. It was innocent. It was like, you know, not what it is today. It was
Juliet:
A small, kinda a smaller world too, which I think made it a little bit easier. I still recommend reaching out out to people. But I do prefer in most cases doing that via email.
Mariana:
Yeah, for sure. And you know, you, I think it shows a lot more like the intention, if you reach out via email versus just a DM can feel more like I'm just gonna do it and see what happens. But like if somebody writes you an email, I, I don't know. I think it would come across as more thoughtful. Yeah. And intentional, but yeah, I remember like the, I don't remember what year this was. It might have been like 2005 more or less and design sponge featured. One of my tiles on that's grace was blog and, but it was tiny, like grace was, was blogging in lower case. Like if you don't remember, like this was a very specific time of design spend and it like, it was, I think on the, I don't even know what the platform was, but it was like a blogger or something like that. Yeah. It was tiny. And so those were amazing days and <laugh>, it was,
Juliet:
I know I missed reach out. I miss those days because it felt so simple. And like, I don't remember reading as many blogs in 2005. I think I was more starting to read blogs like a couple or a few years later, but I was very involved with Etsy. And so yeah. You know, I was just wanting to get on the Etsy front page. Like that was my goal <laugh> and I did, I did it. It was so exciting. You did it
Mariana:
High five <laugh> that's so funny. Yeah. And, and now I feel like everything is so like, oh, there's a process for that. There's a course for that there's and which is great. But back then we didn't have online education that we have today. Maybe there was a few classes. I remember taking a class from Lisa Conn and on painting, like I learned to from her and it was like magical, but now that doesn't exist anymore and that communication is kind of more removed. People get more busy and there are now like there's marketing and there's cold emails and it's, it's not as easy and relational as it once, but anyway, we're
Juliet:
<Laugh> but I, but I liked that jump back into nostalgia. I <laugh>, I think it's, there may be people watching this who are way younger than that and don't know what we're talking about, but
Mariana:
It's a history lesson then
Juliet:
Can go on the way back machine and check out what Etsy used to look like or, you know <laugh>.
Mariana:
Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay. So you start, you, you mentioned Etsy. But that was before you launched your own business or did you actually sell things on Etsy or how was, how was your business taking shape early on?
Juliet:
So I, I guess like the, the very first business thing I did business E thing I did was like do that first art market at 17 years old, which I did not sell a thing. I had handmade clothes that I made and I had greeting cards that I made, but I did get my handmade clothes into a local boutique and I sold a few things on consignment and that was like super exciting for me, but that was my teen years. So I think I first registered my current business in 2011 in college. I remember I did it in our college library <laugh> and I it just brings me backs so much. I just, it was, I felt like so official and I really love all the business admins side of things, but anyway, so yeah. What was the question? <Laugh> I said,
Mariana:
Oh, no, like what did the early days of having a real business? Like what happened after you reached out to that wine company to design graphics for them? Like, did you continue getting clients from there? Was it easier or were you selling your own work? What
Juliet:
Happened? Yeah, so like I was reaching out, I reached out to them. I think I got my first greeting card on minted, so that was exciting. And then I also was simultaneously I developing products for my online shop. So I launched my online shop in spring of 2016. And so, you know, most our businesses are made up of all different parts. So mm-hmm <affirmative>, I was still doing a bit of brand design and graphic design, you know, obviously starting to reach out to licensing clients, but that takes more time. It takes mm-hmm <affirmative> you can't rely on it a hundred percent, especially in the beginning because it takes a little bit of time to develop. And so then I also had my online shop, so those three things are still, I don't do the, the brand and the graphic design that has been replaced by online courses, but I still have like the three, you know, major branches of my business.
Juliet:
So yeah, so really, you know, just from that point on, I, I do feel like it did snowball. I felt like because of Instagram, I was able to get clients who reached out to me by finding me on Instagram. And then I would also, if I came across somebody who I wanted to work with, I would also reach out to them. And so I re I've been, I think I've worked with over 50 it's over 50 different licensing clients. Like I have like, wow, they're not all big brands. You know, there's smaller brands, there's local brands, you know, just any kind of collaboration where they're working with me for my art specifically, I kind of just consider it a licensing client. And yeah. So it was, it was pretty cool. I think Instagram really helped me, you know, start my licensing business and I still rec amend it to people who want to get licensed. I think companies are definitely still looking for artists on Instagram, even though there's more of us now on Instagram. Right. I still think it's like, if you're gonna pick a social media place to get your work license, I, I like Instagram for that.
Mariana:
Yeah. And I, I love that idea or not that idea, but what you touched on briefly that you were reaching out to those license for those licensing relationships, but that took a while to nurture. And you had these other branches of your business supporting, you know, operating well while you were also doing this. Cuz I, I wrote a post about art licensing that I released in December. And one of the things that I love about art licensing and I re why I recommended it to a lot of my clients is because it's like a little seed that if you have a, a system, if you have of art that you develop, it can grow into something that allows you to get, to get more white space so that you can work on your art. And I love that. I love anything that like any game plan, like any seed that you plant today that you can harvest tomorrow. I, I am a big fan of, so tell me how art licensing allowed you to do that. Like what impact did it actually have?
Juliet:
Yeah, absolutely. I, I totally agree. I think first I should just briefly explain what art licensing is just in case oh yeah. Someone is, is like, okay, like I know it's my art on a product, but like, what exactly is it? So it's basically where you're working with, you know, another brand, another business, big or small, and they're using your art to be reproduced onto whatever products they're manufacturing, or maybe they're using it for marketing materials. It, if it's, if it's highly associated with their branding, I kind of consider that more of a branding project. But if it's like a specific product that they're selling and maybe it's like an artist collaboration, that's really ideal cuz you get your name associated with it. And that is more are traditional licensing. So they're essentially just kind of renting your artwork, the use of your artwork for their products for a certain number of years.
Juliet:
Or it could just be one year, it could be three years and it's only certain product types. You know, there's a lot of different variables in contracts, which would be a lot to go into, but essentially you just wanna narrow it down as much as you can. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> so that you can then use that same piece of artwork, especially if it's like a really popular, you know, best selling artwork of yours and maybe you can license it to another company for another type of product. So that is like one of the really great beauties of licensing as not only can you license it to other brands simultaneously, but if you set up the contract, right, you can also keep it for yourself and like sell it in your online shop as prints or something like that. Like in my contracts, if it's feeling like it might and you know, be too broad, I make sure and stipulate, you know, I can use my artwork for whatever products I want in my own shop.
Juliet:
Mm-Hmm <affirmative>, it's it just depends on contract. Every, every contract is different. <Laugh> but, but yeah, but so, so essentially, yeah, you're getting more use out of one piece of artwork and if you're more on the fine artist end and you're like, I'm not sure how I feel about my art being mass produced. You can pick and choose the clients that you work with. You can choose not to license your art onto wall art. If you wanna keep that to yourself or keep that for galleries or something like that. You really, yeah. People can create specific artwork to be licensed and absolutely licensing their darlings. Yeah. You can kind of you could even create like two branches of your business where maybe one is the more, you know, illustrative licensing side or, or, or fine art that you're more comfortable with being licensed.
Juliet:
And then one section of art is art that, you know, that you won't license out. Cause some, sometimes, you know, a lot of licensing artists, they're not necessarily also fine artists, but just to bring that up because I have a feeling there are fine artists who are in your community that might be wondering how do I approach that as a fine artist? Yeah. But just remember that you can kind of like have control over that and it doesn't have to just like, you know, be completely out of your hands. You can keep your branding in mind when working with clients, you could work with smaller boutique brands and it's not gonna be usually as much as like you might get with royalties on a larger scale, royalties are meaning like a percentage of whatever sales happen with that product. So yeah. But if you'd rather work with smaller brands, you can totally do that too. Just, just some thoughts about branding related to license.
Mariana:
It's really like what you make of it. Like you work one on one with a client to see what they need. You have to remain flexible to tweak the design, I imagine as well. And then you get to decide together what boundaries, what limits and the scope of the contract. And that's really amazing cuz I had previously understood licensing. Like you're, it's kind of like you give it up and you sell it. But when I heard that you can actually use it in, in with different clients. If the contract is set. Yeah. That way in different areas, my mind was blown because it's like multiplying the income that you get from this artwork. And then, you know, you add in, if it's something more illustrative that you can recolor it or, you know, it's infinite possibilities and that seems like you can operate a business from a little bit more of a restful place and correct me if I'm wrong. Is, is it a lot of work to have a licensing branch in a business or is it some work sometimes? And then it's off doing its own thing. How, how is the workload
Juliet:
It's, it's similar in that. It's totally what you make of it. It's, you know, do you want to be reaching out to clients regularly and you know, are you okay with, if they want something custom from you or if they need something tweaked or do you just wanna have, you know, a portfolio that's ready to go and they license it as is, and that's less work for you. You know, it's always good to remain a little bit flexible, but you definitely don't have to change your artwork to, to a degree that you're not comfortable with. You know, you, you can, you can walk away or you can tell them no, you know, you can require approvals of the products, samples of the products. But yeah, as far as workload, it's really just how much you want to put into it. If you just wanna work with one or two really solid licensing clients and you kind of work with them regularly, that's a lesser workload than trying to reach out and work with a whole bunch of different clients throughout, throughout one year.
Juliet:
Like an example of this is a like a couple years into when I first started licensing. I worked a lot with this comp this company who makes baby blankets mm-hmm <affirmative> and a lot of times I was making custom work for them, but they weren't purchasing the artwork. They were, it was a traditional licensing deal, but it was nice because they would come to me whenever they wanted like a new collection and, and it was a good, it was a good steady income stream that sort of felt like when I would design for branding and logos, but it was licensing. So if I ever wanted to use that artwork and those patterns for another client yeah. Or for myself, I could,
Mariana:
I love that. And can you share, do you feel comfortable sharing, like what percentage of your business or your income or revenue comes from licensing?
Juliet:
So if you're so like if you're first starting out, I honestly, the first year, I think it would be hard to expect more than 10 or 15% of your income to come from licensing. It really takes time to build up. And then like a few years in, I was at about 30% and I think 30% is a good kind of solid number for like many artists, especially at the kind of like intermediate stage. And then as you develop your client, it's more, or you've worked with a client long, you know, it can totally grow. And, but I still feel that for the majority of licensing art artists it's most of the time, it's not a hundred percent of their income or if it is a hundred percent of their income it's because maybe they are like doing it part-time and they just treat it as like a part-time and maybe they are at home the rest of the time mm-hmm <affirmative> so I don't, I like to make sure and make it clear that people realize, you know, licensing is not gonna be what I'm going to live O off of maybe 10 years in.
Juliet:
You might. But it, it just also really depends on how quickly your art takes off. You know, if it's super, super licensable or you get like a few really great clients that have a really like large scale like a mass scale of products that they're selling. It's so hard to say about like what each artist can expect. But what I wanna also say about that is what's really cool about licensing is not so much always the income you directly receive from it, but how it can impact other parts of your business. So for me, that means, you know, more exposure of my brand, especially like nationally or even internationally with clients means that they're finding me and then, and coming to my site and my shop. So if they really like fall in love with your work and see it in a store then maybe they will come and check out your shop and then you'll see like an increase in sales that way, or even just like, you know, an increase in your audience. It there's so many like beneficial factors to licensing besides just, you know, income wise. And of course just the joy of seeing your art on products is really exciting.
Mariana:
Oh my gosh, I bet it is. And I, I love that. It, it can be a source of income, but then you can tack it on like a marketing angle to the licensing and that, you know, use it strategically to grow your business and, and saying, okay, I'm gonna focus on licensing, but I also wanna have a small shop that I'm nurturing so that when other people see my patterns, you know, and building a business like that, I think that's so smart. Like my mind is like exploding right now. <Laugh>
Juliet:
Yeah. I mean, if you want to just, you're like, I don't wanna have an online shop. I'm okay. If you know my income, isn't a hundred thousand dollars a year just from licensing, you know, you can approach it that way. Or if you have, have kind of like the three prong approach, like I do, where either you have like, you know, custom work that you do, maybe that's commissions and then maybe you have your online shop and then you have your licensing. I think that's a really nice, well rounded way. And it's like a, I think it's a kind of a healthy way to have your business, the licensing royalties, especially once you've already got the project set up, you've got it all complete and ready to go. I mean, you can still get royalties for years to come. So like, I that's amazing. Yeah. So like I worked with this company, I think I gave them the art almost three years ago now. And it was cus it was a custom project, but they were just licensing it and you know, I'm still getting royalties every quarter. And they told me, you know, you know, we have like best selling artists who we've been paying them royalties for 10 plus years. And so it's, you know, of course dependent on the brand and the know and the product and the project, but when you get those it's really awesome.
Mariana:
Oh my gosh. I can just imagine. You're like, oh, I worked for years for this money, this check that's coming in. How wonderful is that? <Laugh> okay. So by now probably a lot of people are like, okay, tell me more about how I can and get started with li art licensing. And this is where I'm gonna let you shine and take it away. Tell us about your mini course. Tell us about your signature course. Cause it sounds super exciting.
Juliet:
Okay. Yes. So I, yeah, I started teaching about licensing I guess was almost three years ago now. And because I was getting a lot of questions about it cuz you know, I was sharing about my projects and so artists would ask me, you know, basically how did this happen? How did this come to be? So I've, even though I've been teaching it for a couple years now, I created a new minicourse slash challenge. That is all about getting you ready to license because I realized there are some steps that, and you know, some things that can be clarified before you actually start like jumping in, into license, your work. So I created the get ready to license challenge and that's totally free. And inside that we talk about art licensing 1 0 1, we talk about how to take a look at your portfolio. We talk about the tools and the tech you'll need. So, you know, what do I need to do to do digitize my art? And I give you some supply recommendations and we talk about industry products and niches and then an overview or kind of like a, just helping you overcome mindset blocks that you might have related to licensing or like getting your first or next licensing client. So I think it'll be really fun. That is, it also includes some live Q and A's with me. So where you can ask all your questions.
Mariana:
Oh, okay. That's priceless because I can see, you know, how much value they're gonna get out of something free. <Laugh> like, that's awesome. And then obviously not obvious, but like you also have your signature course, which is different, but also in alignment with the mini challenge mini course. Yes. It's a more robust like here are the tools or here's exactly how I do it and here's how you can do it. Tell me a little bit about that.
Juliet:
Yeah. Yeah, totally. So the, the larger course is eight weeks long, which means that it's six modules of lessons, but it's eight weeks long because this year I'm adding two extra weeks of Q and A's. So we will go through a really deep dive into what licensing is, you know, what it's not and a essentially how to protect your work and then how to kind of like figure out what your career path may be as a licensing artist. I go over a few like different ideas and options. And we talk about branding and online presence. So that's setting up your online portfolio for licensing, talking about Instagram, all of that to kind of just like make your online presence set up for success. Because I think that was really essential in helping me get my first clients mm-hmm <affirmative> and then we talk about pitching your work.
Juliet:
So that's a really fun module because that's when we take every thing that you learned with art licensing 1 0 1 and talking about branding and setting up your website and then also kind of refining your signature style. So maybe you already feel like you have a style to your art. Maybe you don't, or maybe you feel like you wanna create a specific style of art for licensing. We go over, you know, creating collections, classic themes in, in licensing and kind of like finding your niche in the industry. And then once we do all that, we do the pitching part, which is where I teach you how to send those emails out to clients. I have templates, you know, showing you what to say and what exactly you should upload and how to just keep it simple yet inviting for those clients. And then we go really deep into pricing and contracts.
Juliet:
Even though I'm not a lawyer, I I've had a lot of experience with contracts. So I kind of talk about my experience with that and red flags to look out for and what to negotiate and how to know if you're getting a good deal or not. And you know, there's not many pricing standards in licensing, but I try to standardize it as much as I can and help you kind of figure out, you know, okay, is this specific scenario gonna be a good, you know, price? Am I getting a good fee for this or not? Or what should I negotiate? And we have an interview with a lawyer in that one as well, which she's really great. We also have an interview with an art agent, if you're curious about that side of it. I I haven't worked with an agent so far, but I know a lot of artists are interested in it and it's something I'm, I'm actually considering for the future as my life, as personal life is taking on different stages.
Juliet:
So we'll talk about that. We have artists interviews and everyone we have, and then finally the last one is about client process and communication. So I think I really, I really felt like I needed to have that in there, so you're not like, okay, well I have the client, what do I do now? And so, yeah. <Laugh> yeah, so I've kind of like adapted like what I did with my branding clients and just my process over the years with working with licensing clients and how we can get that simplified. So you're not wasting your time and they're not wasting your time and you just get it done, you get those files delivered and make it as simple as possible.
Mariana:
Oh my gosh. Like what a gem, this course that you've developed is because like, if I put myself I in my own shoes, when I was <laugh> designing print digitally, and if I wanted to license that and to figure out how to do it, would've taken me a really long time. And I would've made all sorts of mistakes, which again, learning opportunities and that's great. But if I had had the opportunity to have somebody guide me through the process like handholding to the process and tell me, this is a way through than the mistakes that I made is, are less, I show up in a way more professional way, because maybe there's that dream client that you, you know, if you ruin the pitch, then you know, like when are you gonna be able to pitch again and you know, having this course and people's hands is a must have, I'm really excited about it. And I'm very excited to also be an affiliate for you. And so you'll find the links below in this blog post. So you can sign up, it's a small way at no extra cost to you watching this or hearing this, you'll be able to support my little business and Juliet's as well. And, you know, make 20, 22 the year that you get licensed. Like why not? <Laugh>
Juliet:
Yeah. I, I would love to see you in class. I think one other thing that's really major and helpful about class this class, and really any class where you really are investing your time and energy into is just having that accountability of, okay, this is the step that I take next. These are the other people who are doing this along with me. And then also being able to ask your questions live you know, and then of course, as you grow and develop your art licensing business, you have access to the content. It doesn't expire. And in my courses I automatically include any updated content 10. So you don't have to, you know, pay to get any new versions of the course. I just like to make sure that everybody has the most updated current version with any new artist interviews that we add, we're interviewing with Elizabeth OWIN next month. So that'll be added love. Yeah. I love her so much. I actually first learned to make patterns from her. So I am like, and I've told her this, that I've totally like fangirled her. <Laugh> I'm excited. She's she's gonna be interviewed in February, 2022. So yeah. And then we already have like seven other amazing artist interviews in there too.
Mariana:
That sounds so delightful. Juliet. so Juliet Meeks on Instagram, Juliet meeks.com, the links are below all the links that you would ever need to <laugh> get in Juliet's world because it's delightful. It's gonna brighten up your feed and if you take the course, your business is gonna feel a beautiful nourishing impact that is gonna allow you to dream bigger and make more of that art of yours and put it out there. And maybe one day you'll feel that hang of ex of excitement seeing your product or your print on a product in a sport. And how ex exciting is that?
Juliet:
Yes. Well, thank you so much. I've really loved talking with you about this. I always love nerding out about licensing, but it's been really great to kinda reflect a little bit too. And talk about the journey to getting here. <Laugh>
Mariana:
<Laugh> I have one question for you. Okay. One final question and just answer the first thing that comes to mind. <Laugh> I'm gonna put you on the spot. I didn't give you a warning. <Laugh> <laugh> but let me see which one is, am I gonna ask you? Okay. What is the one thing that you want your students to take away from your courses?
Juliet:
I would say the one thing is that, that, that you totally have the power within you to do this yourself based on your own unique perspective and nobody else's, and, and that you don't have to do everything that I say, or, or your peers are doing, or any of anybody else tells you to do. I'm really just here to like help guide you kind of like build that business that is unique to you. So that's kind of like one of my philosophies is I wanna be there to motivate and inspire you. But when at the end of the day, I want you to have a business that feels like you.
Mariana:
Oh my gosh. Or that's left over here. That's what, I'm all about. No cookie cutter solutions here. We all have to run everything through our filter. So thank you so much for your time Juliet. I really appreciate you. You're so delightful to talk to. And I hope we get to do this again at some point. Thank
Juliet:
You.
Mariana:
All right.
