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#276 Should You Be Making Pottery That Sells or Make What You Like?
42 Plays2 years ago
On this episode I talk about a question that we all face at one point with our pottery and that is Should You Be Making Pottery That Sells Or Make What You Like? This is a question that I have asked myself a lot and I am giving my two cents about this topic
Resources:
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Transcript
Initial Focus on Market-Driven Pottery
00:00:00
Speaker
I was only focused on trying to sell a lot of mugs because I figured everybody has mugs, everybody likes mugs and I was only focused on trying to make mugs that tried to sell. I wasn't really making for myself because I saw other potters having success selling mugs. Should you make pottery that sells or should you make the pottery that you like?
00:00:22
Speaker
If you love pottery and want to take your skills to the next level, you're in the right place. Find your own pottery style right here on Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. Let's get started. What is up, Shaped
Podcast Mission: Finding Unique Pottery Styles
00:00:35
Speaker
Nation? This is Nick Torres here. And on this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, I'm going to be talking about whether you should be selling your trying to make part of themselves or make part of that you like. Because I don't know me, it's my mission to help you discover your own unique voice with your pottery so you can make pottery that is truly amazing and do that through this podcast.
Balancing Sales with Personal Enjoyment
00:00:52
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So a little while ago, me and my good friend Sarah Connor were having a weekly chat to help us keep each other accountable. And one of the things that she told me was like, because we were discussing on how to really sell our pottery and just discussing tips like that. And one of the things she told me was that it's about finding that balance between making what you like, but also trying to find what sells as well.
00:01:19
Speaker
And when she told me that I kind of kept thinking about it, kept thinking about it, kept thinking about it. So I decided to post a question onto my Instagram. And I guess I'm not the only one that also has these questions, right? Should I make party that sells or should I make the party that I like? What is the difference? Which one should I do? And I guess a lot of other people had this same exact thought as I did.
00:01:44
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because this is a really big thought. Should you make pottery that sells or should you make pottery that you like? And the short answer is both.
00:01:55
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It goes a little bit deeper than that. So these are my two cents first.
Avoiding Burnout Through Joyful Pottery
00:02:00
Speaker
So what I believe everybody should be doing first is to make pottery that they enjoy making. They enjoy doing because if you are only trying to focus on selling your pottery, then what begins to happen is begin to get into that rut. And when things don't go your way, you start
00:02:17
Speaker
feeling bad about yourself, you start putting yourself down, you start disbelieving in yourself or your pottery because it's not selling like how somebody else is selling. Like I went through this myself for a very long time after I got out of high school and I was doing pottery on my own, I was only focused on trying to sell a lot of mugs.
00:02:41
Speaker
because I figured everybody has mugs, everybody likes mugs, and I was only focused on trying to make mugs that tried to sell. I wasn't really making for myself because I saw other potters having success selling mugs, so I thought I could copy that and have the same exact success. But I was completely wrong, and I didn't sell a single mug, and I had a bunch of mugs left over, and I pretty much just gave all those away.
Embracing Personal Style Over Market Trends
00:03:05
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But I later learned that I need to focus on what I like to make first so that later on I can try to find that right audience to sell my pottery to. It's much better to try to make pottery that is that you like first and then try to figure out how to sell it later because the first things first, the reason why we got into pottery is because we thought it would be a fun idea. I bet you, you probably didn't get into pottery to try to sell your pottery at first.
00:03:34
Speaker
gotten a pottery to try to you know maybe clear up your mental health or just try something new try something art and eventful and pottery gave us that at first but it's somewhere along the line we want to try to sell our part because we saw other people having success with selling pottery so we wanted to try to do that as well
00:03:53
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But it's about finding that balance. So this is a quote that my friend Dallen Webber sent me when I posted that question. So it says he said, it sounds nice to say only make what you like. But if you're trying to make a living, you need to make sure that you are taking your audience market value and your skill level into consideration.
Creating for Sales vs. Personal Satisfaction
00:04:15
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The ultimate goal is making something that you can sell and you enjoy making.
00:04:20
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But sometimes that doesn't always work out or it takes longer to find the audience that vibes with your work. It's better to make things that you don't necessarily enjoy making, but that allow you to keep affording to create. Then it is not to be able to keep making because of pride. You see this quote from my friend.
00:04:41
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is really, really great because, you know, at the end of the day, if you are doing this to try to make a living, then you might want to try to sell pottery that is, you know, will sell or that is going to sell so you can keep being able to do this longer and longer.
00:04:58
Speaker
Because that's the ultimate goal, right? Is we want to keep making pottery, keep improving our skills, keep making pottery because that's what we enjoy. And sometimes you might have to sacrifice making what you want to make for something that sells so you can pay the bills, so that you can do things to keep this dream alive. And it's okay if you need to do that.
00:05:21
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And it's okay to also make things that you want to make. It's about finding that balance. If you are trying to do this for a living, maybe you should try to focus on what sells more rather than doing what you like and do that little list. But if you're just doing this for a hobby, make what you want to make and just keep rolling with that. Whatever stage you're at, find out which one is better for you and which one is going to allow you to keep making pottery the way you want to make it.
00:05:50
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I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys in the next one. Thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick
Exploring Personal Pottery Styles
00:05:57
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Torres. If you want to start discovering your own unique voice, you must first start with the right questions. That's why I put together a free 15 question booklet for you to start discovering your own unique pottery voice. All you have to do is go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash questions to get this free booklet.