Interesting and impressive. It is also wonderful to see how the life unfolds. You (Marcy) knew what you wanted and your achievements have followed the exact pattern of your desire.

I have been a freelance writer for like 4 years now. I was just out of high school when I thought of earning money. The only skill I had was fiction writing. ( My cupboard was full of small novels and stories.) The problem was that nobody will pay especially if I wrote in my local language. That was in the beginning of 2012.

I researched the market and realized that English fiction writing pays well, but I had no idea how to pitch editors when my English was not good enough. I decided to change that and took 2 English learning and writing courses to equip myself with the necessary skills. Then I went to story sharing sites such has hubspot. Wikinut and medium. Sadly, no money came because I was writing fiction and these websites share a percentage of AdSense revenue. End of 2012.

Then I thought to start an online business and launched two health related websites. I did a few affiliate marketing courses and thought of it as a good way to get started. Again, I never earned anything beyond the $5 AdSense earnings in the first month. I was disappointed, traffic was not there and I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't have any money to try Facebook ads or another marketing course.

After struggling for another 3 months, I went to freelancer.com and applied to my first nonfiction writing job ever. I was paid $1 for the first article. I worked with a bunch of people who paid me $2-$3 per blog and I was making around $300 each month.

I knew I was working a lot. Anyone who is a writer, knows how difficult it can be to create 2000 words each day. After 1.5 months, I was tired. I was in school and I could hardly sleep for more than 4 hours each night. I thought it was time to quit, but on the same day, I was contacted by a company to write product descriptions. They were a domain registration company and they were paying me $330 for a job that will only take 1 day.

First, I thought it was scam. Then I told the recruiter, "I am not a copywriter". They told me that it is an easy job, but I can say no if I want. That was the response I was dreaming to get for years. I took the plunge and that was my official entry into the freelance writing world. Fast forward to now, I earn close to $1k each month. I have private writing clients and I am active on forums and freelance websites. I know the earnings are not much compared to what copywriters charge regularly. However, considering the fact, I am still not a trained copywriter, I believe I am doing good.

Marcy, your story is truly interested in a way that you turned a not so marketable skill into a revenue stream. Thanks for sharing.

The key takeaway here seems to be: 'follow your passion'.

Nobody could easily copy what Marcy is doing because they would most likely lack the passion she clearly has for horses. The business side is one thing, you can learn it. The painting itself - well some can learn it, others probably couldn't. But having a passion for something is key, be it copywriting, horses and horse art, software, a service business, it doesn't matter.

This story is a great example of having a dream and pursuing it relentlessly. Marcy, you deserve every success that comes your way.

When I was younger I was painting a lot of graffiti pieces and I still remember the first time someone asked to pay me to do a wall for them. Wait a minute: pay me? To do something I'd be doing anyway? Something I enjoy?

That's when the penny dropped. I realised that (given the chance) I would never ever do another job that I did not 100% love. Many more graffiti jobs followed from that.

I did not become a professional graffiti artist in the end but discovered a passion for building software, or should I say for making something that lots of people see and use, get value from.

The job satisfaction comes from creating something out of nothing - I bet both Marcy and Neville both know that feeling when they start with a blank sheet or canvas and walk away with something that people pay money for. The creative process combined with delighting people with your work is hard to beat.

She made a SPUR of the moment decision to blaze a new trail. No HORSING around from her, made sure to stay focused. Now she is CHARGING 1,200 dollars and people are willing to PONY UP the cash! Chasing her dreams have led her to be more STABLE....

In all reality, the biggest obstacle is fear, people willing to work hard and overcome the fear of failure can accomplish anything. Great story and thanks for sharing!

Great story! Here's mine...

I make calligraphy art based on a nearly extinct writing system from the Philippines. I’ve known how to write it since I was in college in the Philippines but it was more of a novelty. I used to practice write girls names on napkins at bars. It wasn’t until I moved back to the US, I realized the value of it. At the time, I was living in Tracy (cow city) California with a shit job at a call-center getting yelled at for 9 hours a day by rich people because their thousand dollar ottoman was 30 mins late. Missing the Philippines, I got a tattoo of my last name in the ancient script. The tattoo artist encouraged me to do my art again and promote it. So I took a picture of my arm and posted it on Friendster hoping to spark conversations about it. I also tried MySpace but there wasn’t much engagement either so I started my own website about Filipino Tattoos just to post my pict. I started to get comments and emails about it and people asking me to translate their names. I would write it on paper with a marker, take a pict and email it. Pretty soon, I would get 3-5 requests a week and it was started to be too much. As an experiment, I put up a PayPal link for $5 and holy shit, it worked! There’s actual economic value in this thing! I raised my prices slowly and experimented with different packages along with some shirts on CafePress. While I liked that people were interested in the writing as tattoo art, I wanted a deeper conversation about it around the culture and its value in the modern context. I started a separate site specifically around the cultural, academic and social impacts.

One day, this dude hits me up that makes pendants using the script and invites me to do an event with him. 10 years later, we still do events together and he’s one of my closest friends. Through meeting people and saying yes, I’ve become a subject matter expert on the prePhilippine writing systems. This lead to art shows, lectures at universities and museums all over the world. I’ve self-published 3 books and currently working on building an online school and filming a documentary.

What worked:


- Autoresponder emails. When I do a product launch, I use autoresponders to have the conversation with my customer leading to the launch date. I still have people responding to old autoresponders :)


- A/B testing designs with triple conversions before going to print - I created different versions of products and posted them on social media and on my mailing list. The links (conversion 1) lead to a page (unBounce) where if they went to click the buy button (conversion 2), it leads to a sorry sold out page that had a form where they could enter their email when the product was available to purchase (conversion 3). I measured the clicks on the link, the buy button and email opt-in. If they did all 3, they were more likely to buy.


- Actually talking to people face-to-face and asking for referrals.


- Kickstarter was a game changer. I found that about 25-40% of all my pledges were outside my network. Since launching 6 campaigns resulting in over 8K, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. 


- Writing a book. No matter how crappy give you credit more than anything


- The AIDA formula that I 1st heard from Nev! I got featured in magazines, product collaborations, TV, etc

.

What didn’t work: 


- Asking my friends if they would buy a shirt design - They all said yes but when it was time to buy, most didn’t.


- I thought diversifying my products to trends would sell - they didn’t because it wasn’t unique.


- Creating an app but not having a dedicated team to work on updates when Apple and Android update.


- Fancy pinky up art shows. Just a bunch of posers trying to impress their friends. Even if they buy your art, it will just be hung on a wall in their mansion with no context. I’d rather sell it cheap or give it away to folks that understand it and will use it to start a conversation



Links: Kabuay.com & Baybayin.com


Salamat (Thank you)

First of all, Marcy, I love your paintings. They're amazing!

The way you focus on the horses' face and eyes must really capture the spirit of these mighty animals for the owner. (Any chance you'd paint German Shepherds? We just had to put our best friend down, and we're trying to find a way to capture his spirit. I know I wouldn't do him justice with my limited painting skills... )

Anyway, I really appreciate you sharing your successful approach to art sales. A year or two ago, I started looking into selling prints of my own pen-and-ink drawings online. I found several resources at the time that gave a lot of good advice, but your breakdown (especially the screenshots of your customer conversations) is incredibly helpful and encouraging.

I'd set aside my own ideas of selling art to focus on my freelance copywriting business. But now, thanks to your inspiring story, I've got the bug again and think I might start back up on my own trek.

What held me back was that I only had one really nice composition of Notre Dame in Paris to start with. I had some ideas of starting a series of other iconic churches but never got it rolling. And different pricing structures for one-off custom pieces versus creating a series of prints.

Your story has given me some more ideas on how to get that moving forward again.

So, thanks again for sharing your story.

Please read the book "So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport.

The take away here is not "follow your passion".

Marcy was successful because she developed a skill and a profitable product and used relationship based selling to great affect.

There are a hundred unskilled artists who have an unremarkable product using a poor sales technique for every Marcy.

Joe Mama told you so!

As I read, 3 things jumped out to me.

1 - Consistent, hard work (grit) is where it all starts

2 - Reaching out one-on-one was key. Just setting up a website or even paying for advertising wouldn't have resulted in the sales and feedback.

3 - The market has money. People who have horses almost always have disposable income, otherwise they wouldn't have horses. Point being, if a white mouse enthusiast painted mice, I'm not sure other mice lovers would necessarily have hundreds of dollars available to buy the art work (even if they loved the painting).

Love it :-)

Thank you, Marcy for that great article.

Your brand is very powerful - a wonderful mix of talent and personality.

The core talent I am referring to is your ability to brutally evaluate what is and is not working for you. It is very easy to continue doing something because you think it is working but Marcy you have provided a great example of challenging facts with reality. For example, she thought she should do art shows because that's what other artists were doing, however when the results did not come, she did not continue to flog a dead horse. The takeaway from this is to pivot and focus on the things that are working.

When it comes to your personality, I can see why clients would open up their wallets. You are very passionate about what you do and that shines through. The way you connect with your clients and their horses is nothing less than spiritual. I applaud your efforts and I have no doubt your future projects will be equally amazing.

Thank you for sharing!!!

Inder Tofu, with love.

Hey Tanzeel,

Right on! You tried different things and kept going. Congrats on the $1k a month. Making the first $1k is the hardest in my book. You don't have to be a trained copywriter to earn more. Keep learning and improving. That alone will help you market yourself and raise your rates.

Boom Stefan! What a perfect life lesson! Just knowing from a young age that YES! you can get paid for doing what you love builds courage in NOT developing a high pain tolerance for doing what you hate.

For years, I had a high paying job that I was good at but hated. It was no way to live. Now, my compass is like yours. I love delighting people with things that I create. I feel like my purpose is to encourage more people to move from being consumers to a producers.

It's kinda like...paint, build software, write, sing, make knives, shape a bonsai, sew your own clothes...just do something and share it with the world. Do it enough and money can follow.

I love this Kristian! I also found that friends/family will always tell you that they will buy. It's kinda like nobody wants to tell you your baby is ugly kinda of thing. They want to appear supportive. I figure until I see $$, it's not real.

I think Kickstarter is a game changer for testing things out and making money with limited risk. 8k is awesome! Congrats.

Hey Neil! My heart goes out to you. It's never easy to lose a best friend. I have done dog portraits before. Email me and we can talk. marcy@horsesofus.com

I really hope that you will go back to pen and ink drawings. Here's an idea that I have seen work: Find a church, historic site, park etc where there are lots of weddings. Do a drawing of that place and approach a local wedding photographer. See if you can offer high end prints or maybe the photographer can even do a composite with it in Photoshop. Lots of ways to do this. They can easily with include you drawing in their package or offer it with a cut to you.

Joe Mama! Thanks for the comment. I saw Cal Newport's TED talk on not following your passion. Like anything it's about working your ass off to get good. I'm going to look for his book.

One of the issues I had in my head was that some of the FB groups I joined only had 250 people. I got conditioned to think I needed thousands of people since only a small percentage might buy BUT that was really wrong.

The small niche groups with die hards were the ones that all knew each other and referred even more people. In the end it's all about being giver and actually caring about the people that you are making things for.

That #1 is the part that isn't sexy but holy cow it's the only thing that will take you forward. To be honest Nathan, I was kinda not loving #2 that you mentioned. I wanted to believe that I could just bang out a website and throw up some ads and voila the sales would roll in.

At first, I hated reaching out to people. I had to put post-its on my computer with Contact 7 people today in big old magic marker. Most of them would message me back which was surprising!

Oh yeah... horse people do have disposable incomes. Once I did a payment plan with a horse owner that had just paid $7k for a saddle but still wanted the the painting. I love the mouse enthusiast! LOL!

Thank you Neville & Marcy for an educational and inspiring story.

Marcy, your passion shines through and your journey has been amazing. I have limited painting skills yet I enjoy what I do (when I can find time - love the egg timer idea..!), However, I can teach. So I decided to combine my love of art with my teaching. I run painting classes from a home studio catering to people who think they can’t paint, but would just like to give it a go. They choose an image from my catalogue and in just one 3 hour session, I help them to create their own masterpiece. The results are awesome and the positive vibe that permeates the room is infectious. So rather than sell my paintings, I sell my time... and it works. Thank you for sharing your story. I’m inspired and promise that I’ll be picking up my brushes today. www.paintandsip.com.au

This is great and inspiring. I recently started selling custom designed table lamps on Etsy. Up until now, it's a bit the story of the art expo: A lot of "that's nice" but no buyers.

Some things that I will remember from your story:

1) using a timer to make sure you're working on it every day (I should to that and add more options to the shop)

2) making it personal and featuring all of your customers on the site

3) using Facebook (seems a no-brainer in hindside, but I haven't tried it yet)