grabbing success Archives - Liron Yanconsky

Today I want to share with you how I became an artist, as well as my history in the art world from childhood, and finally – what works financially for my art business.

Let’s get to it!

My Childhood & Art

I’ve been drawing and sketching ever since I can remember myself. My very first memory is of sitting at my grandparents’ porch and copying an illustration from a Dr. Seuss book.

I’ve been doodling on the side all through elementary, middle and high-school, and have once sold a sketch of a pokemon 😂 (for 5 shekels, the equivalent of about 1.2 USD back then.

I do want to mention that painting and working in color is something I got to much later in life.

Young Adulthood & Art

During my military service I quit art almost completely. I spent so much time working and barely had any life.

However, in my 6 months of service I started figuring out what I want to try to do in life. And that’s when I got back to art.

I started a blog with drawing lessons, and later published my books, started my YouTube channel, Instagram, courses and so on.

From Existing Platforms to MY OWN Platforms

I got started selling stuff mostly on Amazon and Udemy.

Amazon is where I independently published and sold my books, and Udemy was where I created my courses.

But where I really started seeing some success was when building my own platform.

This is when I started to build my own website, marketing and sales funnel and courses.

This meant no one was taking a serious cut from my earnings, and I have to do the marketing.

Art Business Revenue Streams & What Works Today

With time, additional avenues started popping up.

Among them is selling my paintings (through the local art fair, galleries and directly). Another one is selling the foreign language rights of my books to various publishing houses. And others are Patreon / donations, YouTube ads revenue and more.

Here’s what works for me today…

The numbers are fairly inaccurate, but do give some kind of a picture as to what the main income sources of my art business are.

About a third-half of my income comes from my various how-to-draw books.
Another third comes from the courses
The rest is divides fairly equally between the other sources I described.

Conclusion

So this is where I’m at right now.

I have a long way to go still, when it comes to pretty much everything – Improving my artistic skills, business development, personal growth.

Perhaps in another decade I’ll create a similar post and we’ll see where I’m at 😉

And if you want to reach out, you know where to find me…!

TikTok – @Liron.Yan

YouTube – Liron Yanconsky Art

LinkedIn – Liron Yanconsky

Pinterest – Liron Yanconsky

Instagram – @LironYanIL

Twitter – @LironYan

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

In this episode we talk about how to get things going and be more proactive, and how you only need ONE yes to succeed.

* I mistakingly say it’s episode 87, ignore (:

Grabbing Success Proactively

One common theme in this episode is GRABBING opportunities as opposed to waiting for things to happen, or to “be discovered”.

I believe that if you want to achieve something, you have to sometimes go for it and reach out. You have to ASK.

How I Sold My Book’s Foreign Language Rights

This is a story I went through several times.

In this instance, I decided I want to publish one of my books in a language different than English.

This is called selling a book’s foreign rights.

The advantage for the book author is that they don’t have to do anything. The publisher who purchases the rights does the translation, design and distribution.

And the author basically gets a percentage, like most book deals.

So how did I do it?

I REACHED OUT to over 200 different publishers, in several languages (mostly Spanish).

I got 196 NOs, 3 maybes and, at last… 1 yes.

And it was by a pretty serious publisher.

And that’s ALL I needed.

You Are the Driver of Your Career

If you want to go to places, you HAVE TO do things proactively. You are the one who wants to GET, so you have to ASK, and make the deal worthwhile. Always.

My book in question was a consistent bestseller on Amazon for the past 5 years, and so I actually offered real value to the publisher.

And someone eventually said yes.

Galleries & Magazines

I had two more recent similar experiences.

Galleries – I recently put some of my paintings in a gallery for the first time. This came after the same thing – a lot of reaching out.

Art Magazine article – I’m having an article published in a magazine in October (shhh, it’s a surprise so don’t tell anyone (; ). Same thing – reaching out.

I hope this episode encourages you to chase what you want and try getting it – for real.

Remember you always have to offer real value to the other side you’re asking from.

And this is it for today!

Reach Out to Me