Hello my friends,
I don’t know about you but I feel exhausted these days. It may the end of winter, the sun is back and my old body feel tired of that long and grey winter. Or it could be just me spending too much time online trying to sell my stuff…
We will talk about these 2 things today: my old body and selling my stuff haha :D
In march I turned 50. Yes 50. Half a century. Said this way this is scary to me. But the reality is a bit different. In some way I feel free. Free from injunctions, social pressure, family pressure, or all these things we have to do to have a successful life.
Did I have a successful life until now? I think so. I don’t make a lot of money but that is not using that adjective that I would define success.
I am happy. Tired but happy. I have worked a lot to be where I am now. And I think I am where I always wanted to be. I could have had an easier life, I could have been an IT consultant or an Art Director in a big agency, maybe, but I chose another direction, for many reasons, bad or good. But I always did my best to be happy.
I love my wife, my kids, my dog. I love spending time with them. I love spending time with my friends too. And when I spend too much time online like these days, I wonder if I spend my time well. That is a kind of balance I try to find lately. Last year, I decided to sell my products and I found out quickly that selling them took more time than creating them. And yes, I am tired today because it is exhausting.
I am 50 and I wonder if all of this is worth it at the end. People complain nobody see their posts. That is not my case. A lot of people do see my work online, but social medias are so bad on reach and engagement. So even if people see your work, very few will go on your website checking out your products and even fewer will purchase something. So yes, do I spend my energy where I should?
Fortunately I have this newsletter. Is it a newsletter or a blog or a publication? I might never know. But I love writing and thank you for following my journey. Even if I am an old dude now and you never knew I was so old hahaha :D
But many of you read these posts, many of you reply or send me messages after reading, many of you buy my stuff (except maybe one I will talk about later…) and that makes me feel good. This morning I am exhausted but happy to write that newsletter.
I am 50 and I want to have fun. And if I like sharing my stuff on social medias, these are globally not fun. But on the other side, like many people, there is a kind of addiction, I can’t let it go. But I can slow down. I can put less energy there.
This is one of my goals for the next months or so, spending more time with people, IRL or through writings like here sharing my thoughts and less promoting, marketing. I talked already a lot about it but I need to remind me of it regularly. And maybe these reminders help you too.
You are probably not 50 yet, but don’t be afraid aging. Yes it is scary but your experience is there to help you. You know yourself better, you know what is good for you, you make better choices. This is how I feel today and I am really looking forward the near future to enjoy life, even if health issues might come out at some point. We always want to stay young but the young has so much pressure on his shoulders. Think about that one minute. I would not come back to my 20s or 30s for sure. Too much uncertainty.
Ok, now let’s go back to something less spiritual or insightful and let’s talk about my workshop that does not sell!
Yes, my workshop does not sell!
This is a surprise for me because I always sold out my workshops. Online or IRL. But this time, it does not sell. I sold 2 tickets up to now. This is not a devastating news, even if a bit sad, but as I don’t want to put my energy where it is not useful, I wonder why it does not sell.
It is too expensive? (it is 120€ now and you can have a 10% discount by subscribing or being a subscriber to this newsletter). Description not clear enough? Not worth the price (like paying 120€ for an online workshop)? Not interesting knowing I have a Domestika course, even if it is different? Are people not interested in investing in lettering anymore?
Yes, I ask myself that kind of questions these days. And I would like to know what I could do to make it work, if I can make it work. Again, no problem if it does not, but then I put my energy elsewhere and don’t wait until a week before the workshop, investing my time in promotion or ads online, to cancel it. I am totally transparent here :)
So I ask for your help to see things a bit more clearly. What do you think could be the or one reason why my workshop is not successful?
Many people did visit the website page lately, around 3/400 people this week, so I think there is an interest, but no one goes further.
Thanks in advance for your help. I am sure not many people ask feedback when something does not work well but it is important for me to offer the possibility to learn lettering to a max of people. So if for example the price is too high and that at 90€ many more people would be more interested to participate, let’s do it! But I need to know :)
Thanks again :*
Inspiration of the week: Zrinka Buljubašić
Zrinka is a type designer, organiser of Letrastica Fest and do great lettering stuff!! So today and to finish on a positive note, I wanted to share with you some of her lettering work, sometimes with a feeling of papercut and playing with positive and negative shapes. This is really inspiring. Here is her Instagram account.
This is it for today! Thanks for reading! Don’t hesitate to reply to this email if you want to discuss further or leave a comment on Substack:
Have a nice weekend and as usual go for a walk and listen to the birds to disconnect :)
Take care,
Francis
Hi Francis and happy 50!😊
Regarding Workshop: The artist in me thinks it sucks that artists have to think more about marketing than about making their art. On the other hand, as someone with quite some marketing knowledge, I can't unsee the unused potential in your offer. You have a huge following compared to a lot of your colleagues, your work is GREAT, and you DO have a lot of value to offer, and... I think you're not addressing it right, actually to me it looks like you're not addressing it at all.
As an (aware) consumer who also knows how these things work, the real reason I didn’t pick your workshop, because it didn’t speak to me among all the other offerings – What is it exactly? What problem will it solve for me? What will it give me that I need and want? Is it for me at all? For WHO is it and what exactly?
And this, having in mind that I am both: 1. Someone that spends more on online courses than I like to admit🙈 and 2. BIG fan of your work… – theoretically I would be exactly your ideal customer. Among almost 50 thousand other people, big chance I’m not alone! 😜 I think I have some ideas worth brainstorming/trying about how to try to communicate your teaching to the different people so they hear you, but I really don't want to write 2 hours if you're not interested, so let me know if I should at all. Just fyi I would be glad to :)
Happy birthday! I have been reading for quite some time, and from your writing style I thought you were like maybe five years older than me, so around 38! Not that 50 is old of course, but the way you write feels young and relaxed!
Regarding the course that’s not selling, being on the other end of this thing, so a potential student, being a graphic designer and letterer, I feel like the market is so saturated right now and I am being bombarded daily by so many courses/webinars/workshops, that I am almost sick of it. Firstly, I have paid my fair share of workshops, so now I feel like another course will not make a huge difference, unless I sit down and practice daily. Paying each time a 100+ € course just doesn’t cut it for me. I feel like I have paid around 2.500 that past three years for online courses.
I don’t know if that’s the case with every possible student, but 4-5 years ago there weren’t as many courses, and now there are some designers who’ve made a whole side business out of teaching, which is cool for them, but how many courses can a person pay online? I am not saying I might not buy another course at some point in the future, but right now I’m taking a pause, because on some level I feel a bit exploited and not receiving so much from yet another course. (Even on domestika not all courses are worth their money, but there with all the discounts you’ll have paid 6-7€, so it’s fine.) Of course I am not saying that your workshop wouldn’t be worth it, don’t take me wrong! I’m just offering another perspective here :) Hope it does sell eventually, because I like seeing your work!