Early on in my career, I got some business advice from a longtime salesman at the television store where I was showing my series of local TV personalities.  He told me that the biggest mistake I could make was to pitch my paintings to someone and then forget to ask for the sale.  At the time, I was dubious of the advice.  Asking for the sale seemed awkward at best and pushy at worst. 

A few years later, I discovered Jeffrey Gitomer’s work, and I figured out why the salesman’s advice was silly.  One of the main tenants of Gitomer’s philosphy is that people always buy from their friends.  Whether they’re buying televisions or portraits, they’d rather fork over their cash to someone they like than someone they don’t.  To me that means that as long I’m friendly and I make sure that the people around me know what I’m up to, they’ll come to me when they’re ready to buy my work.  And that’s a marketing plan I can get behind!

Last year I made a study for this painting.  To learn more about the making of this portrait, please visit this article on my blog.