Transcript
Speaker: Hey, real quick before we get started, if you would like to find your own theme for your pottery so your voice really stands out and you're not getting bored with making the same thing over and over again, I put together 53 themes for you guys and it's completely free. All you have to do to get it is just go to shapingyourpottery .com forward slash 53 themes. That's shapingyourpottery .com forward slash 53 themes.
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. You should look for something you love to make in pottery before you start to try to sell it. What is up, Shaping Nation? This is Nick Torres here. For those that don't know me, it is my mission to help as many potters as I can to find their own unique voice that they can communicate with.
Speaker: In this episode, I'm gonna be talking about why you should be trying to find something you like to make in pottery first before you start trying to go out and sell your pottery to the masses. For a really long time, I would say, so I started pottery when I was a junior in high school. And during those two years and then the third year after I got, the year after I got out of high school,
Speaker: One of the things that I really want I focused on was how can I sell my pottery? How can I sell my pottery? I would ask myself that all the time and I figured in my head that a lot of people like mugs. They drink mugs every single day so I can start making mugs and people would buy it. Boy was I wrong. I was way wrong. I was way off about that and
Speaker: I thought that I had to keep making mugs, but the only problem was eventually I kinda got bored of making mugs. I didn't really, I hated making handles. That was a pain in the ass for me and I just didn't enjoy making mugs that much. But in my mind, I still wanted to be able to sell my pottery. And it didn't really occur to me to try to actually find my own unique voice with my pottery first and then try to sell it
Speaker: afterwards because the only thing on my mind was trying to sell my pottery and I'm I don't know about you but I'm sure many of you have probably felt this before as well you start making pottery and you're like this is a really cool idea I want to be able to sell my pottery as well and what begins to happen is it becomes even if you are able to sell your pottery it becomes very very taxing on you mentally even physically a lot too because
Speaker: Now you're making things that people are starting to like, but you aren't necessarily liking it yourself. And on top of that, you are probably also selling your pottery for very, very cheap because it looks like everybody else's pottery. And you don't have, maybe you don't have a big following so you can't raise the prices, but it becomes taxing on you after a while because you are making what everybody else is making. You start feeling like an imposter. You feel like, why do I,
Speaker: have this, why should I be able to sell my pottery if I look like everybody else's? And it becomes taxing after a while. But the moment I stopped trying to necessarily sell my pottery and really focus on trying to make pottery for myself, that's when things started to have a lift off my shoulders. And I can't tell you how many people I've interviewed where they said they tried to figure out what they liked
Speaker: First and they would make for themselves first and then later They would try to figure out how to sell that voice to the people out there because there's a niche for everybody This world is massive. There are 8 million people on this earth There's gonna be some people out there that are gonna like what you are making whatever you are making It can be the most weird random crap, but people are gonna like it Not everybody's gonna like it, but people are gonna like it
Speaker: And that's why I think it's important to first find what you like to make. Find something that you communicate with your own pottery with first. Because what that's going to do is going to make making pottery more enjoyable for you. And when it's more enjoyable for you, you're going to have more fun. You're going to get new creative ideas to improve the pottery. And it's just going to be that much more fun and enjoyable for you.
Speaker: The next thing is you start almost building a brand about your own pottery because you're making the pottery that you like to make and other people are gonna start hopping in if you are actively posting it on Instagram or social media and people are gonna start hopping in like, oh my God, this is amazing. I love this thing. Where can I get more? And people are just gonna start giving you comments like that. I want you to take a second real quick. So I want you to close your eyes
Speaker: And I want you to imagine you are making pottery right now that you think will sell really, really well. And you think you start posting on Instagram and crickets and you have a set price ready. So yeah, I think this will set really, really well and crickets, crickets, crickets, crickets, crickets. You go out again and try to promote it again and crickets, more crickets, more crickets, more crickets. But then now I want you to close your eyes again
Speaker: And I want you to close your eyes and picture this. You are making pottery for yourself and you are just posting on Instagram because this is what you enjoy doing. You enjoy making this pottery and you start posting on Instagram and you start getting people commenting on your post like, oh my God, this is amazing. Where can I get more? Are you selling this right now? Now imagine how you can sell that pottery, how much easier it's going to be able to sell because you are making for yourself
Speaker: people are starting to like what you are making, they're starting to like what your own personality into your pottery. That's going to make things so much easier for yourself. And you can make it more enjoyable for yourself. So before you even start to think about trying to sell your pottery, please, please, please focus on trying to make something that you are truly proud of, make something that you can communicate your own pottery voice with. And then
Speaker: Start trying to find the crowd in to sell that too. Because there will be somebody, I promise. Start trying to find that crowd once you have really narrowed down what you like more. And then start promoting it and start getting that towards other people that like what you like. Remember, you are just one pot away from finding your own unique voice with your pottery.
Speaker: I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys next time.
