From Struggling Artist To Digital Marketer In 4 Months

What's happening, guys? It's Shane here, and in today's video, I'm going to be talking to Ashley. Ashley is somebody who became a digital marketer, and she is also an artist. So, Ashley's story is really awesome, and one of the reasons why I wanted to get her on the channel is because of the fact that I have so many people asking me, Shane, I'm an artist, but you know, you don't really recommend college degrees for artists. What should I do instead? Now, there are several careers that I typically recommend for artists, depending on their situation and what they want to do, and digital marketing is one of them, and I think Ashley has some great insights and some great advice for anybody who is an artist, and they want to get paid to do art. So, I'm super excited about this one. I think it's going to be super, super helpful for you guys. Definitely check it out. Also, gently tap that like button, hit the subscribe button, and ring the notification bell, and let's jump into it right now. Today, we have a very special guest on the channel, Ashley. She is a digital marketer. She's also an artist, and I'm super excited to interview her because I already saw part of her story, and I think it's going to help a ton of people out on the channel, and you'll see what I mean here in a minute, but thank you so much for coming on, Ashley. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. Awesome. So, let's go ahead and start at the before you even discovered digital marketing. What was your first exposure to the career of digital marketing that you can remember? So, digital marketing was something that I actually got into by accident. It wasn't until literally years later that I realized I could be doing what I was already doing for fun and get paid to do it, and what I mean by that was, if you're an artist, you do need to have a good internet, social media presence. So, I already had a WordPress site where I was posting my art and thoughts about the state of the art world and, you know, things like that, and I was already doing, like, keyword research and all that kind of thing, trying to do experiments, trying to figure out how to get more people on. I was very fortunate to be raised by a... I had a web developer mother, so she actually taught me some cool stuff, like, when I was eight years old, basically. I'm not a web developer myself. I'm not a coder, but that was, I guess you could say, technically my start into that world. And then I got into... I was posting my art on Instagram, and I really loved, like, the analytical side of it. I loved, like, watching videos and learning, like, what I can do to put my art in the best light, how to get more followers, and it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. So, by the time I discovered Seth's course, he was already, like, listing all of these things, keyword research, WordPress, blogging, guest posting, social media management, things that I was already doing for fun, that it doesn't matter what field you're in, somebody needs a marketer, somebody needs to find your product. So, that really appealed to me. Actually, if you don't mind me asking, I didn't plan on asking this, but what are some other recommendations that you have for aspiring artists besides going to college? So, if somebody wants to make a living from art, if they want to work as an artist, either in a job or doing their own thing as a freelancer or starting a business, what are some alternatives or recommendations that you have? Okay. I'm going to be honest. It's really hard to make money as an artist. This, like, the success that I have now as an artist, it did not happen overnight. It took a lot of hard work. It took a lot of, like, stubbornness and persistence. I would say there is nothing wrong with having a job, like, doing a, like, you guys are in a very fortunate situation now where you don't have to go into debt to get good job skills. You can, you know, you can just, like, spend, like, $400 on a course versus, like, thousands of dollars on a degree. So, there's nothing wrong with doing, like, digital marketing full-time and making a lot of money and then, like, working on your art on the side and, you know, you're taking all these skills that you're learning from digital marketing and you're reaching an audience. And, yeah, while you're in digital marketing, that's also, like, a really good way to get into, like, graphic design, for example. But, yeah, I would say definitely work on getting that first job and then you can use that job, because that's what I'm doing now, using that job to fund whatever you need for your art. And then, in my case, I just kept up with, like, my Instagram and then I actually have, there's a company named Levana and they saw, like, my fantasy art and my dragons, for example, and now it's, like, I'm working full-time as a Google ad specialist and part-time as an artist with them. So, it was one of those things where I just kind of struck gold, but it's, like, if I didn't keep going that and just keep, like, trying to get my art out there, that wouldn't have happened. I would say one thing I, typically, the advice that I give, and this is kind of, I think it's kind of what you were getting at a little bit, is have you ever read the book Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon? Yes. Yeah, okay. So, I think that that book, for one, it has a name, like, a clickbait name. So, guys, don't be scared by the name. It has a very clickbait name. It's actually a phenomenal book about just being successful as an artist in general, and one piece of advice that he gave in there, which was just so refreshing to me with all the bad advice that I hear, is just learn a skill right off the bat. Learn some sort of valuable skill and then do your art on the side because, typically, it's gonna take a long time to get any type of art-related business off the ground. Yeah, I remember that, too. He actually mentioned that whatever, like, it actually can help fuel you creatively as well. So, if, like, you work in a copyright office, you do a clerk, yeah, he was just talking about that. So, you'll actually get to learn a lot of cool things and integrate it into your art. Yeah, yeah, and you'll have that stability to, you know, get your career started as a freelancer or, you know, have that time to build up your portfolio so you can apply to a bunch of jobs if you want to do the artist route or if you want to start your own business. You know, that always takes a long time to start up. Even if you have, like, the best business idea in the world, it's typically going to take years to get off the ground for the most part. So, I thought that was just phenomenal advice by him just for the average artist. Of course, there's always going to be exceptions, but for, like, you know, like, most people reading that book, I thought it was really, really good advice. And so, that's kind of typically what I tell people is to learn a skill, something like digital marketing. It's a little bit artistic. I mean, there's definitely some more artistic parts of digital marketing and then there's more, like, analytical parts, but that can help you a little bit. You could, like, get started, like, making, like, an art blog and then you can, like, get guest blog with other artists and you can build skills that way. I mean, there's, there is a whole artosphere when it comes to digital marketing. Even, like, trying to create, like, the best graphics and, but what would you have, yeah, but it's, like, it's also, like, a if that's something that you want to do. Some other are kind of art-related careers that I wanted to mention. Digital marketing, just from my experience, digital marketing seems to be relatively good. Another one that I've noticed a lot of artistic type people excelling at is, actually, tech sales is actually pretty decent for many artistic type people. And then, yeah, believe it or not, yeah, I've seen a lot of artistic type people do really well in tech sales. And then the third one is basically UX UI design. That stands for user experience, user interface, and then you'd want to kind of specialize more on the UI side of the UX UI design because the UX is a little more analytical or a lot more analytical. But, yeah, those are some careers that I've seen artists have a lot of success with. Yeah, so, for, like, you know, the gamers out there, you know, there's people who need to, who even need, like, little, like, spell icons designed and everybody wants to go into, like, character design and not a lot of people go into those. So, that's a, that's a really good way to get in. I think there's going to be a ton of opportunity in gaming, especially considering, like, with all the metaverse stuff that's going on right now. They're kind of making it to where people are actually going to be, it's going to be a platform economy similar to YouTube, Fiverr, Shopify, etc, where people are actually going to be essentially, like, making their own games. And I think that is going to, first of all, make games way better because it's going to decentralize things. And then, second of all, it's going to offer a tremendous amount of opportunity to artists who want to design these games because they're going to have to incentivize it correctly if they want to have the best platform where these games can have a really good chance of, you know, being the next Minecraft or something like that. All right, well, let's go ahead and get to the part where you took the course. So, you discovered SethOnline, you know, you saw that there was another way for you to get into a pretty, really good career without any experience, without a relevant college degree at the entry level, and you could kind of work your way up. So, you decided to take Seth's course. How was the course? Okay, so, one of the things that I really liked about it, so, first of all, it was great. It's already paid for itself literally more times than I can count. One of the things that I really liked about it was he really attacks, like, he really attacks, like, the imposter syndrome, like, the, oh, crap, I can't do this, kind of thing. So, it's just, like, he doesn't go into, like, all this detail about all this theory. He just, like, teaches you enough to, you know, build up a portfolio, and it's really, like, how much work you put into it as well. So, it's, like, this very comprehensive, like, you know, baby step sort of thing. Like, you're learning really simple, easy stuff first, and then it gets more and more complicated. So, it's, like, really, it's really easy to follow, but it's just so easy because you see all of these, like, job postings. They want people with, like, three years of Google Ads experience, and one of the things he tells you, it's, like, no, that's just a filtering tactic. Another thing, too, is I actually learned about, like, internships that I could take. That was how I got introduced to Acadium. So, you're also getting practical experience while you're taking the class. So, you're building up a network and connections, references. Yeah. So, after I finished taking the course, which took me, I'm going to be generous, and I'm going to say three months. I want to say eight months, but I don't think that's right. After I took the course, I got my internships, and then, like, I ended up getting a 19 hour, $19 an hour job in SEO, like, really soon after that. It's really great, and I think it's also really great for people who've never had a job before. Like, he also teaches you, like, how to, like, how to do interviews well, how to set your resume up well, and then even, like, says, like, common sense things. Like, you know, most people, they send a resume, and it's in crayon, and wear things like that, or they don't send a resume. So, it's one of those things where you feel better about a lot of stuff. So, that was one of those things I really needed, because it was a new thing. It was scary, and it was just really nice to have that assurance that it's, like, okay, I can do this. I can build. I can build a portfolio. I do have what it takes, and so, it's great. So, it's, like, equal parts, like, confidence building and skill building. Got it. So, just to kind of get into the specifics a little bit, from the time that you sort of started Seth's course to the time where you got your first job offer, how long was that approximately? I don't remember. For me, it was about, I want to say it was about four months, and I say that because I took three months to do the internships, and then I took a, and then it took me about, like, a month of applying every day. So, at maximum, I would say, like, five months. Yeah, it did take a couple months to apply for jobs, get interviews, and then finally get, and then finally get a job offer. Well, this is a question that everyone's going to want me to ask. So, if you're comfortable answering it, you can answer it. If not, just kind of give me maybe a ballpark of, like, what people generally would expect, but everyone wants me to ask, how much did that first job pay, and then how much did the second job pay, approximately? Okay, so, my first job was $19 an hour. Actually, this was my first job I negotiated for a raise, too. I made roughly, I think I made roughly about $24 an hour by the time I was out. I was there for about a year, and in my current job, I currently make $50,000 a year, but that being said, I'm also basically working part-time as, I'm also basically working part-time as an artist, so I didn't calculate, like, everything, including everything else, but it's like, I'm also making money doing commissions on the side, which is, my day job allows me the flexibility to do that. Got it, and that's kind of one thing I wanted to ask you about a little bit. It's another thing that I sort of talk about with some people who are kind of on the artistic side is, you sort of, like, a lot of people say they kind of have, like, a certain amount of artistic juice in the day, sort of, like, maybe it's three hours, four hours, five hours, but if you're at a really hectic job that's, like, really stressful, by the time you get off the job, typically, like, you just want to go home and sleep, right? You don't really have any artistic juice at the end of the day. Would you say that's an issue with your digital marketing job, or do you feel like, you know, you enjoyed enough to where you're actually energized after you get off work, and you can, you know, really put your heart and soul into your art? So, I would say that, I would say that was probably a bit true with my first job. There was just, there was, there was a lot to do, and it was, it was, like, constant. It was just constant, fast-paced, and then, yeah, it was very exhaustive by the end of the day, but I don't know. I think it was kind of, like, I kind of use art as a means of kind of relaxing, so to kind of unwind, so I don't know if that really applies here. I will say this, though, that was definitely true with a job that I had prior to when I was in digital marketing, where I actually forced myself to wake up early, hence, like, I was able to get up at four this morning to have this interview. I actually forced myself to get up super early, so that I could have an hour to do art, feel like I accomplished something, and then, you know, go to work and get, get paid to have the boss yell at you for, for eight hours a day, so. Yeah, so Dragon Riders Dance is the, that's the, the photo behind her in the video, by the way, so everyone go and check that out. Do you have, like, a Instagram handle or something that we can follow? Yeah, my Instagram is dragonriders.dance. I also have a Patreon that I need to clean up. It's patreon.com slash dragonridersdance, and everything that I make in the Patreon actually goes back into it, so, like, I, I use it for, I, I have a, I have some, I have an assistant colorist who helps me do all the flats, and, you know, I'll, I, I have a theme song that I hired somebody to make, so I get to do, so that's, that's what I do. All right, last question for you. What would you say about somebody who is thinking about, you know, digital marketing, thinking about possibly investing in Seth's course? They're on the fence about it. What would you say to that person? I would say look at the, I would say look at the cost of the course, and look at that compared to a degree, and I think I'll just leave it at that. That says a lot right there, and it definitely works. It's a lot cheaper than college. It's much faster than college, so, you know, it gets my stamp of approval, which I'm very critical of, uh, all different types of businesses in this, uh, alternative education space, so. I will say one thing is, uh, Seth does have a free master class. I did, I did watch the free master class, um, and it is very useful. It's going to go over different statistics and kind of help you to sort of see exactly what digital marketing is, because I don't really get into the nitty-gritty of that in these videos, because there's kind of different, uh, different forms of digital marketing, and I will go ahead and put that link, you can check it out if you want to, down in the description, as well as the pinned comment below. Uh, well, thanks for coming on, uh, maybe we'll have you back here next year or something like that to do an update video at some point, um, but, uh, I really appreciate it. Everyone go check out, uh, Dragon Riders Dance, uh, and Ashley's Instagram, and, uh, thank you so much again. Have a good one. Thanks, you too. Take care.