Episode 005 - Risk-Taking
Megan wrestles with a huge business decision and takes a risk, the payoff for which includes some much-need alone time (and plenty of croissants) in Paris.
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Show Notes
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Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang
Homework:
For the artists in the room: make a list of the categories of risk that you face as an artist or creative entrepreneur. If you can identify them, you can manage them.
For the bankers in the room: write down three things you risk by not making time for art/beauty/creativity.
We would love to hear from you! Email us your questions and ideas at podcast at artbymegan dot com
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Arts 005 - Risk Taking
Megan: Let's do this. Episode Five, Risk Taking.
Friend: Welcome to The Arts, a brand new podcast about art and money. I've spent my career managing at some of the world's largest financial institutions. So I can't tell you my name, but trust me, talking about money is my jam.
Megan: And I'm Megan, I'm an artist and a teacher. And now co-host of this amazing podcast. We're having this conversation because we came to a realization. We have no idea how the other person spends her workday.
Friend: Or her money. So let's chat about it.
Megan: Hey friend, how are you? How was your week? And what are you thinking about these days?
Friend: Uh, summer.
Megan: Seriously.
Friend: All right. On today's show, we're super excited to dive into something both glamorous and terrifying for most of us: risk-taking or more specifically, I'm going to ask Megan here all about her recent show in Paris and how she came to the decision to take the plunge on taking such a huge step in her business this is going to be good.
You ready?
Megan: Bring it on.
Friend: All right. Let's get started. The Scene. So what's new with you?
Megan: Oh, well this episode has some juicy bits in it, so I'm not going to talk actually about what's happening, but I'm going to tell you something else. Okay. Read a book. This is like the new thing. Megan, read a book. I'm on a book
Friend: I'm going to send you on assignment to see a gallery so we can get like - people are not going to have time in between episodes to read all your books. How do you even have time?
Megan: I don't know how I read these books. I think I'm just ignoring everyone, but it's fine. There'll be okay. okay. You have to read this book. It's called Beautiful Country. The author is Qian Julie Wang. It's a memoir of her childhood, moved from China to Brooklyn, New York. And oh my God. First of all, I think we're Instagram friends. I don't want to brag, because I'm obsessed with her. And I told her on Instagram and she's coming on our show. No, but I'm obsessed with it. She is beautiful, beautiful way of writing. I've written, I've written, I've written zero memoirs, but I have read a lot of memoirs and this one really, like, I can't stop thinking about it.
I liked her way of time travel. She encapsulated memory in a such an interesting way. And it does tie into art for me because I have nothing in common with her, but the ability to be transported into her world is literal hashtag goals. Right? Like I want people to feel that way when they look at my art.
So I was like the whole time, wondering how do you do this? But without words, like my world is not with words, but hers is, and I was like, this is captivating.
Friend: Yeah. she must have a command in order to transport you that way. That sounds awesome.
Megan: Yeah. Mailing you a bunch of books or probably just delivering them to you in person.
Friend: Um, please the latter. I love books, but I love it when you come more.
Megan: I'll mail myself.
Friend: Yeah, please. I mean, it wouldn't cost that much.
Megan: No...
I'm over the limit. Actually. Trust me, I'll just buy a train jacket, like a normal person. What's new. Tell me things.
Friend: Alright. Well, I did a little research of my own inspired by your recent trip. So I was, I got to thinking about the logistics and the cost, from an economic perspective, financial perspective of these art shows, you know, you have collectors and curators and artists flying around to all these shows. And I wanted to see what was happening. Like is there an alternative to that coming in the virtual world or in the digital world?
And, what's the future state? If any that we are aware of yet of these art shows, you know, how, how might they be digitized? And it was interesting there certainly the pandemic probably escalated that. It will be interesting to see over the next couple of years, if we just go back to a normal or if we actually go, no, you know what, I really want something digital. I want something that I, I don't have to physically see, that can move with me. I'm not sure. I don't know if that's scary as an artist to think about us moving away from the physical, but
Megan: I mean, it's worth thinking about.
Friend: I'm thinking about. it, but I'm not sure I like it. Also I'm still looking at kind of related to this is cryptocurrency plus NFTs, non fungible tokens. And, you know, this is an interesting intersection of art and finance. So, that, that one it needs more expertise.
Megan: Yes. I was explaining to my daughter what an NFT is and I was like, you know, fungible. And she was like, please stop talking. And like her direct pre-teen vibes on it. I was like, yeah, I know. I agree. All right, we're done. So, yeah, I mean, I love your brain. That's like my ultimate compliment. Let's just, just keep churning out some ideas.
That's great.
Friend: I would rather a compliment on my brain than pretty much anything else. It's the one part of me that I think, has gotten better with age.
Megan: I mean,
Friend: All right. There's no, um, there's no good segue.
Megan: No.
Friend: We should just get going. Alright.
the Main Exhibit. So risk-taking, let's tackle it. You recently took a risk and you went to Paris, like a baller to show your work at an art show. What!?
Megan: Yeah. I mean, when you say that I'm literally, my hands started sweating. I was like, no, I did it. It wasn't like a week passed, has passed. I'm like, Megan, this isn't fictional. You know, it was wild. It was well, we'll get into it, but I'm not a risk taker.
Friend: All right. Let's get into it. Let's start with the basics. Uh, You know, I love doing that. You ready?
Megan: Yes.
Friend: Okay.
Two easy questions just because I wasn't really certain and I didn't know how to ask. So what kind of show was it and how does one end up at a show? Like this?
Megan: Okay. This is a very good question because the art world is full of confusing gatekeepers. We've mentioned gatekeepers in the past. There are many ways to sell art. You can work with a gallery exclusively. You can be represented by people as I do non exclusively. So I just pop in and out, but I don't sign with a gallery at this point because traditionally a gallery takes a percentage of your sales.
And what I prefer to do is to work with people short-term and then sell my art mostly the majority of my work is sold directly through me so that I keep the commission 100%. That being said, I don't get the exposure that I want always from my own marketing efforts or from my own network or my own reach.
Right. So when I sit down and think of this as a business person, there are reasons to work with people who take a commission, or there are reasons to work with people who maybe my profit won't be super high, but, when am I ever going to bring all my art to Paris? Like this one was a no brainer. So for this show specifically, it's called an art fair. Art fairs work many different ways.
I've dealt with a couple of different ones now, but for this one, specifically, a gallery approached me. I paid a fee to work with them.
Friend: Like a flat fee?
Megan: Yes. It was like a, basically an upfront commission. And then they agreed to try and sell the work and there's like a contract that goes with it and how long they'll keep the work.
And they're based out of Madrid, but they were at a show in Paris. And for me personally, just based on my own preferences and my own life trajectory, I want to have a presence in both Madrid and Paris. For like life, but also for fun, like that's where I want to go. So it was a payoff in both ways.
Friend: Right. Okay, cool.
Megan: Pretty crazy.
Friend: Yeah, no, that's cool. I wanted to make sure that we weren't talking about a craft show.
Megan: Well, I think the structure is similar. I honestly do, because I think people buy a booth. Yeah. There's like big craft fairs in New York. Like the Javits center has like all these people that come in and show their work, but I don't know if you buy direct to consumer at those things, right? So someone could walk up to these galleries.
There were 30 galleries, but 60 total booths at this art fair. Some were artists just representing themselves. And some were galleries representing many artists. At the fair, a client can come up to the artist or to the gallery and say, I'd like to buy that painting.
Friend: Okay. All right. That reminds me, so you sort of had this coming for you, but when exhibiting at an art show, what do you do all day!?
Megan: Okay. The best part about arranging it this way for myself this time is that I don't have to run the booth.
Friend: That's what I was wondering. Like, are you standing there, like, "hi, I'm Megan."
Megan: I do not love the hi. I'm Meghan. Look at my art vibe. It's just not something that I thrive with, honestly.
Friend: To me. It feels like desperation. I've stood at some of these for my own ideas. yes. And it's like, you're just like waiting for somebody to ask you to dance. It's terrible.
Megan: You're right. Oh, that just like totally tapped into like grade Megan. Like this height just being like, is anyone tall enough? But also in my opinion, if I, the artists have paid a gallery to help represent me, then it's their job to represent me. Right. So the beauty of this situation was that the gallerists, there were a bunch of employees of the gallery they're
Friend: Wait, is that a word? Ga- gallerist? Is that someone who works for a gallery?
Megan: Yeah.
Friend: Oh, okay.
Megan: Yeah. Or a person who, just like sits in the gallery and is the attendant. But it can be also the person that like procures the art. Anyways, we can go deep into terminology sometime. My point is I did not have to stand there the whole time, so I treated this as a true vacation.
Like I was able to really enjoy Paris, which again is not something that traditionally would come out of my mouth. I love working hard, but I needed to do both. Like I needed this.
Friend: That's amazing. So your days were not standing, waiting to be asked to dance. It was like, could you show up and be like, meet the artist and be the event and then step out?
Megan: I showed up one evening. They had like a meet and greet for artists and we all met each other and it was lovely. There were artists from all over the world. I now know like artists in Denmark, Iceland, Belgium, Italy, it was like the UN of artists It was wildly impactful.
It's just, I'm just like sitting here wallowing in it, but we sat there and like drank champagne together and then put our masks back on and took pictures and then giggled. And then I walked home and I mean, it was a true dreamy moment for me, because I don't often get to celebrate in that way.
As the artist there's so much ugly behind the scenes stuff that happens usually. So I'm like, I'm the one mopping at the end of the night at the show, I'm the one locking up. I'm the one in charge. So it was nice to just like topically pop in, be like, I am, I'm a celebrity.
Look at me. You know, it felt good.
Friend: I'm so pleased to hear that I was imagining it was a little different. All right. Well, we are here to talk about risk and not just Paris. Even though I could do that all day. So the question I have for you is just sort of personally, before we get into any like in-depth risk topics, would you describe yourself as a risk taker?
Megan: No, not really. I mean, It depends who you ask. I guess that's like our bandwidth for risk, right? Like our little graphics that we have on our site too where maybe I'm a four, maybe I'm a six. Right. But I was raised by very practical, cautious, responsible people. My parents are extremely practical and I'm sort of like the black sheep in our family, not because people don't like me, but because I'm sort of wild in comparison.
And I'm an artist, so I'm just more fluid with my concept, right? Like I'm usually running a little bit late to their standards or other people's, I I'm just like a little bit looser with structure. I'm less formal to the point of like, I don't think I embarrass my family members by any stretch, but I do think that people are like, oh, here she goes again.
You know, I'm just like a little bit outside of the box of like practical and cautious, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. I didn't as a child take any risks. I don't think if anyone knew me as a child, who's listening. Hi. But also, I don't think I was known for being like very wild or daring, but I was always willing to try and adventure if I had thought through it first. So I'm like a practical risk taker. Let's not omit the fact that I'm often quite terrified while doing something new. So there's like this constant tug right. Where you're like, I'm going to try this, but will also sweat through my outfit.
Friend: Yeah.
Megan: You know?
Friend: Yeah, I think that's good. I think that means you're you're at the edge of yourself when you have that tension.
Megan: It's hard, but I don't feel for me personally, that there's a different way to do it because I know that I always learn the most when I try something that's out of my comfort zone. So yeah, that's the longest answer ever, but that's to, to summarize, we will use the words of Georgia O'Keefe and she has a famous quote that says "I've always been absolutely terrified every moment of my life. And I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do."
And I just feel like that's such a beautiful way to stay to.
Friend: Yeah. I like that. I that resonates with me. Just do it scared.
Megan: Yeah. I mean, you only get one chance.
Friend: Yeah, exactly. I love that. So she was going to come to our dinner party. Right?
Megan: Yeah. She's there.
Friend: That makes, me think that even if she was terrified by the invitation, she would probably still accept for the dinner party and Madrid.
Megan: I can't wait Georgia. Okay. Now hit me with the hard questions.
Friend: All right. Let's get going. Okay. So when you talk about risk or taking a risk, what do you mean?
Megan: Well, I just want to talk about Paris.
Friend: Not getting out of it. We'll talk about Paris, but first I want to talk about risk.
Megan: All right. Well, risk to me almost always, when I think of the word risk, my gut reaction is financial. Not because this is a podcast about finances, but because I don't really do physically risky things, right. It's not like I'm like, Ooh, skydiving, but like to risk as a woman and a small business owner and a mom and wife to me, I think the risk is usually doing something where you don't prioritize others. You prioritize yourself and there may or may not be a financial payoff.
Friend: Right. Okay. That's interesting. And I, I wanted to talk about this, dive into this a little bit, because I think it's too simplistic when you're talking about making a decision like this, like a business decision, it's not just a go or no go decision. Risk is nuanced. There's lots of different types of risk. And if it's okay, what I would like to do is spend like one hot, second talking about risk from a banker's perspective and then relate it back to the different types of risks that you could take as a business.
All right. So financial institutions basically live or die based on their ability to manage risk. And because of that, I think they have subdivided it into these super subspecialties so that when we talk about risk, we know what we're like, which risk. And, and then when, once you can identify a risk, you can work to manage.
And we call that mitigation. Right? So it's like, it's kind of like naming your fears, like, or naming your emotions. Like once you can put your finger on it, then you have a better chance of handling it.
Megan: Gosh, that's just like a wave of relief.
Friend: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's why I think a lot of this is like, you have to go through it. You can't go around it. And so what I'd love to do is give us a way to go through it. For us in, in banking when we categorize it and then deal with it on its own, it breaks it down into manageable pieces. It's just too big and scary if you're just Like we're just going to lend out this money and who knows if it's going to come back or we're going to take on these clients and, you know, the unformed, I think in our minds, it is scary. If banks didn't take risks, the world would stop turning. We need banks to give us credit cards and to give us mortgages, right. And to help us buy cars. We need that. People are not sitting on enough piles of cash that they can buy everything that they want right now.
So the banks have had to find a way to make calculated risks. And, what we do then is I'll just give you like a quick sense for how we categorize risks. Like just a few types that we use in the financial world. So we have market risk where, the market can move against you. You've taken a position, things are unpredictable. It moves against you. So how do you manage the movement of the markets?
We have reputational risk, which is probably not, like you said, you think about it as relating to finance, but there's also the concept of negative public opinion. So you could take on a deal, take on a client, go into a sector, and then public opinion comes against you.
And now you have a problem with your reputation. So how do you manage that? And it's like how do you manage the risk of that in advance? It's not, how do you respond once it's happened? I mean, it is a little bit..
Megan: But that's like PR at that point, like you need to know in advance.
Friend: Exactly. This is like getting ahead of it. A good example. Is are we going to fund companies that sell guns or weapons or, right. Cause that is something that would impact our reputation. But credit risk is, in my mind, the pure, loss of money risk. When a lot of us think about risk, it's like, will I lose money?
Megan: Short-term or long-term?
Friend: Do you mean for a bank or an individual?
Megan: I don't know if it matters. So my question, I guess, is is a temporary, what is appearing as an extravagant spend, but will pay off over years? How do you quantify that? Because yes, you will lose money in the moment on this move, but you get clients over the long-term. So it's an investment.
Friend: I don't know how to answer that. For a financial institution. I think it goes back to their own guidelines and their risk appetite. They will have modeled it out. And have certain points at which they call it and say, that's enough loss. We have to end it here. And for an individual. I think it depends on how long you can personally afford be in the red, if you started off that way.
Megan: And that's like a, that's my constant struggle with spending money on my business.
We have to do a whole episode on investment.
Friend: yeah, So what the banks do is they model it out. So they say in this scenario, if we lost, if the client defaulted at this point, would we be able to recover? Any of what we, you know, so you're modeling it. You're saying if this happened, what would the effect be if this happened?
What would be the effect? You know, if rates change this way, if the price of that equity change this way. So they're running all these scenarios. And I think that's something that is like, you never know the answer, but you can run through scenarios. So if I make this decision and it sells for this much, then I'm good.
If it only sells for this, if it never sells. So you kind of look at your options. And then one more, operational risk. So that's like human error, you know, a human made a mistake. So when we talk about risks I wanted to talk to you about a non-bank perspective on this.
There would have been a variety of risks that you had to consider when going, making this decision and not just financial. So some that I was thinking about was you would probably also have a reputational risk, right? Like if there's people that are like, I can't believe Megan traveled!
Megan: Yeah.
Friend: It's still COVID you know, something like that.
Megan: No, I mean, I've really thought through that because I was like, I don't want to look careless and I don't want to look privileged because this is still so risky pandemic itself is a huge risk.
Friend: Yeah. So I'm interested to hear from you, can you identify any other nonfinancial? Like we'll get to the financial, but non-financial were there other considerations there, like human risks that you had to think of?
Megan: I mean, the reputation was a big one. What I know from my own little bubble is that people tend to support my choices. I think people understand that I'm a person who thinks through things I'm not like a rash person, even though I might seem carefree. There's a big difference. I think that people who buy my work appreciate the fact that I'm like a decent human.
So I don't think that the question of me traveling during the pandemic was anything that would have gone viral, right? Like I didn't look careless about it. I also feel like people are traveling now. I really took a lot of consideration on making this choice, but then I was thinking other businesses are requiring their people to travel
so this business. Is now requiring me to travel, right? Like it's like, I have to sort of remove the emotion from that. Of course I took every precaution under the sun to make sure I could go and keep my family safe and all that too. But it was a little bit terrifying if we're being honest, the family, how to run a family remotely is I don't travel much.
Right. So I, it was a big undertaking. My husband travels for work and he was laughing because he was like, I don't have to do any of the things you're doing right now when I travel, because he just goes. I was like pre packing lunches and being a psychopath and labeling everything. And not to be like, you know, super type a about it, but like, I know I'm in charge here and everyone needs to remember that. And it was a good reminder.
Friend: Like if mama leaves. Y'all are going to be hungry.
Megan: Literally, it was four days and I was like, is everyone going to be okay? Like don't over water or underwater, these little house plants, you know, like just keeping one alive, but it worked out fine. Everyone was happy and well fed and Grandma swooped in and it was just like, it required a whole village of backup, which is a commentary on motherhood.
Friend: The keeping, of people alive is something you had to factor in when you were making the decision.
Megan: Major factors. The other thing that I was worried about is the unpredictability right now. I mean, COVID is one factor, but traveling is unpredictable right now. The world is unpredictable right now. So there's only so much when you're doing these risk analyses. You can't like account for everything, right?
Like I can't have a backup plan always, but I can have a decent enough plan, you know? So I was like, I'm going to Paris it's I looked up with all the diplomatic websites and just made sure there's nothing horrific happening at the moment. And yeah. Can you prevent horrible things from happening?
Definitely not. Do you hope for the best? Yes. So I I'm at a point in my life where I think I just need to keep living cautiously and this was a good exercise for me in that, but it was risky and, um, stressful.
Friend: Yeah, yeah.
No, that's good. I think it's good to have this conversation around risks that are not just losing money. The one that I was thinking about for you when we were preparing for this was, I mean, I don't know if this really exists. We don't have these nice and tidy risk categories that I'm aware of outside of finance.
But I was thinking of like creativity, risk or productivity risk, like those four days of productivity for you. You didn't bring your paint brushes. It's not like you were painting, right?
Megan: No, but, you know what, it was like exactly what my brain needed.
Friend: Right.
Megan: So I know there's a recipe in my mind for how to get the paintings to come out like that. I have figured out over time and it is travel plus alone time equals huge burst of creativity.
And I know that if I don't travel, I'll be a cranky person. It's like people that need to work out, like I need to walk alone. You know, the movie midnight in Paris where he's like, I just want to walk alone in the rain at night and in Paris but I know that those are my factors. So this was like, it was checking a lot of boxes, honestly, if I were to make a little spreadsheet and say like, these needs be met?
Creativity was checked for sure.
Friend: That's awesome. So that one worked the other way. Cause I was thinking only about the finite, like the number of days of lost productivity. But in fact, what it may have given you was weeks or months worth of inspiration for future productivity.
Megan: And so to circle back. That's the financial risk element for me too, because I don't ever know in a moment I don't have a pattern yet because I'm still a young, new business. Who's had to pivot through a lot of weird stuff. Children moving states, starting over, pandemics.
Like there's been a lot of change in the last couple of years here, so I don't have a pattern. Can always compute. For example, like rent this space, it will equal this much output or take this international trip. It will equal X amount of sales. That's just not, it's not a way. I don't know if, I don't know if art works that way.
I would love to speak to an artist who's wildly successful, always because I want to know the formula. So we have to find someone who can share that knowledge. But at this point in my world, I can't calculate that.
Friend: I'm not sure if anybody could. When you're making decisions like this and considering your risks and options, were there other voices in your head and if so, what were they saying?
Megan: The voices in my head were telling me what we will cover in a future episode about a letter to our former selves, which is you probably shouldn't do this. Like, what if it's bad? You know, like that scarcity mindset that I'm personally trying to grow out of. But there's no benefit to listen to that voice anymore.
So I have to kind of shut her out.
Friend: I keep moving.
What about, I know that you said like there's no formula, you couldn't piece it all together, but were there other pieces of information, like nonfinancial aspects of this that helped with your decision making? So in another way, what were some of the things that gave you comfort or discomfort when making the decision?
Megan: Oh, for sure. So I knew that I had met the people at this gallery. I know that they're reputable. I know that they're lovely. I know that they are in Madrid, which is great for me personally, because I love going there. They sell a lot of work. They represent their artists well, they have good buyers.
They have international shows that they participate in. So it's not just Paris. This is like a, a revolving thing there they're in Milan and Luxembourg and like many different destinations doing fairs. So I took into consideration a lot of the factors from the business standpoint, for sure. And then I also thought, as far as networking, just networking alone. So I wrote down if I make $0, is this still worth it? And the resounding answer was yes, because removing all the, " Meghan wants to go to Paris on her own for romping around in the croissants vibes," which was like a heavy part of the Venn diagram.
It still was worth it. It was still worth trying something like this so eventually I'll try an art fair in New York City. I haven't tried one yet, and it's worth it's worth trying. Right. So I just had to keep thinking to myself, there weren't many things besides the obvious elephant in the room, which is like of us being terrified about COVID that were telling me don't do this.
Friend: So even before we've gotten to the finances, you're in, you're in for it.
Megan: It's deeply in there, you know?
Friend: What about logistics? Did that become something that you were like. I just can't get my mind around. I was thinking about how do you get your
Megan: That's such a good question. Okay. So as you know, I paint in varieties of sizes, but for this show, there was a size requirement because of that factor. And since I was shipping work from basically the furthest away, there were mostly European artists and one woman from Brazil, but she brought small pieces, I had to be, told basically like, don't ship anything huge, but also even that was too expensive, so I unrolled the canvas. I took it off the stretcher bars, which was the rectangle, and rolled it and shipped it rolled to be restretched by the gallery upon arrival, which saves a ton of money. And then I had to research how to send it. So I use DHL, which is like the international shipping service, which was surprisingly fast, super reliable, great for tracking but expensive.
So the expenses were high as far as all that, but I think I chose the most affordable way to do it within the parameters. You know, like international shipping is never easy.
Friend: But you have to have, I mean, it's a physical product, so you have to get it there.
Megan: Yeah, and then, you know, ideally it sells and or someone sees it and knows about me. And then that's the hugest marketing tool. So the marketing budget for my business is pretty big when I look at my end of year spend, but I also use Instagram and that's a free tool. Right. So I need to remember that like many businesses spend a ton of money on marketing and it's usually worth it.
Friend: Interesting. I was just imagining you wrestling canvases into your luggage.
Megan: No.
Friend: They preceeded you. Alright. So, let's talk finances for a brief second. Did you, um, so I know what I would do. I would go like am I going to lose money? Am I going to break even are going to make money? And am I Okay with all three of those, but I don't know, maybe you did it differently. So did it have to be a financial gain? I think from what you've said already, probably no but how, did you weigh the financial result when you were looking at the decision?
Megan: One thing that I've tried to train myself to do, which is very difficult as a small business owner is to not expect immediate results. Because when I had a show in November, I wanted to sell. X amount of dollars worth of art during my month long show, I sold about 12 times that. So my point is why quantify it?
Because you just don't know what's going to happen, I will tell you that investing in that show in November allowed me to go to Paris. So Paris was paid for, because I had squirreled away the money because I wanted to go so badly. So. I invested in my business. I invested in myself and I, I made sure of it and I prioritized the fact that I really wanted to do this.
Should I jump at every opportunity to go to an art fair? No. Should I do this maybe once a year? Yes. Like the risk taking for me is reeling in my enthusiasm and realizing that I need to be able to prepay in cash. I don't really love racking up credit cards. Right? Like. Or by Megan has one credit card and I keep it very low because it makes me literally lose sleep at night if I don't.
Right. So my own bandwidth for financial risk was of course involved in this decision, but I also don't go on artists' residencies. I don't, spend a lot of money on a lot of other travel related to my business, So the timing was right.
Friend: Yeah. Two of the basic components of looking at profitability or income statements is, what are your overall sales, like what's the top line. And then what did it cost you to make those sales? It's kind of, I mean, that's a rudimentary view of it, but, did you have a sense for what you might sell?
Did the organizer give you any sense for what has happened in the past or is it just like blank? You don't know.
Megan: Well, the problem right now is that there's no way to know who's going to attend in-person events.
Friend: Right.
Megan: The end of Omicron this wave had really impacted the attendance at the event. There were many more people than they expected because they had considered this could be a total bust.
You know, it was, that was the risk. So knowing that I didn't really go in with very high expectations on sales, because they said. You know, listen, this is a completely out of our control, you know? And like, I just appreciated the transparency there.
The fact that they still have my work.
So there's opportunities in the future for them to share it with clients or show it or whatever. So, that is fine with me. You know, I didn't need it to sell in that moment, I guess, is what I'm trying to say to you sometimes. What I used to do pop-ups or small shows when I was a baby little beginner artist, I really would be devastated if something didn't sell in that moment.
But now I have this ability to see it longer term where I know that the sale could happen in September of this year in Madrid. And that would be, that would be awesome. Right? Like I know that there's longevity here. So I think that I have to remind myself that. Exposure equals sales.
It's just not, it's not, immediate satisfaction.
Friend: I love that longer-term perspective. It's helpful, even for me to be reminded that it's not so black and white.
Megan: Well, some things are right. Like you're selling property. You need it to sell and you need it to sell for this amount, for it to be profitable. Right. if it's something like this, it comes in strange waves and it's hard to quantify.
Friend: But on the other side you could do a clear outline of costs.
Megan: Oh, yeah.
Friend: So what were some of the things that you had to pay for?
Megan: Flight, hotel food.
Friend: Yeah.
Megan: I mean, of course my husband was like, make sure you're eating. Don't like, don't scrimp on things just because you're afraid to spend money. And I was like, literally like biting into a chocolate croissant while he's texting me as.
Friend: Did you have any fabulous meals?
Megan: Well. So the funny thing. Again, with the splurging. Yeah. Like I don't really splurge when I'm by myself eating, because I'm not going to eat a big dinner alone and drink a bunch of wine. I feel like food for me is very social. But I splurged on breakfasts. I didn't even splurge. I had like a orange juice and a coffee and a croissant. Like I ate food, I mean the whole thing just felt like a splurge, I guess.
Friend: That was great. I know that we, we didn't get into like specific dollars and cents, but I think that's okay. I think we've got a sense for made the decision. Some of the factors that went into it. And in the end, as we know, you took the risk.
Megan: Yeah, I think there's something to be said about putting it all together. And now I know that I invested X amount in myself and my business and like that kind of felt good.
Friend: Yeah.
Megan: Instead of feeling like I'm spending money. I felt like I was investing money in me and like, it just felt really powerful. I hadn't really done that I don't think ever and I would gladly not buy myself stupid things at Target or,
Friend: Amazon or
Megan: yeah, you don't need to guilty pleasure yourself constantly. If you could save up and really put some money towards something you've dreamed of doing , that's, it just felt so impactful.
So I was like, think I, I think I need this.
Friend: Yeah. Hopefully you can make it part of an annual or some regular routine would be good for you. That's awesome.
Megan: Yeah.
Friend: Was it worth it?
Megan: It was worth it. I met other galleries while I was there. And the funny thing about my world is that in college, I was a Fine Arts and Spanish language and literature double major. I had two separate degrees because I'm an overachiever. And, I just wanted to study everything forever.
But when I told people what I was studying, people would laugh and be like, well, how are you going to make any money? And I remember thinking about that constantly because I was like, I don't know that wasn't part of the decision. I chose two things I love and that's what I'm doing. And that's all I have to say, but I had a little chuckle to myself as I was standing at an art fair being represented by a Spanish gallery, speaking Spanish and networking with Spaniards. And I met another gallery in Madrid who was interested in my work. And I was like, you know what? I have my answer now.
Friend: Yeah, exactly.
Megan: Like the 18 year old me was like, oh, finally, like literally 20 years later here we are with the answer.
Friend: Oh, my gosh. That's so, so good. I love time. Doesn't time just make everything make sense!?
Megan: It does, because at the time you feel really stupid. I felt stupid having, um, know, not a money plan, but here it's coming to fruition.
Friend: It is. As we speak. All right, last question. Next time. Can I come?
Megan: Yeah. I guess that was the only thing that was weird. I mean, I needed alone time, but I was like, I like to like decompress my thoughts with friends and family.
Travel.
Friend: Yeah, I could see both ways would be great. Going alone. Amazing. Going with someone.
Megan: Yes, next time. Yes.
Friend: Yeah. Cool. All right.
Megan: All right. I liked that conversation. It gave me a new perspective on talking about risk, honestly.
Friend: Oh, good. Cool. All right. You've taught me also and I like that perspective of like, It's okay if it sells in six months or eight months, you know, I thought that was really cool.
One thing I haven't said to you yet, I was thinking about this this morning. I am so proud of you. Like, not that it matters you're you should be proud of yourself and you have all the other voices in your life, but that was a really big decision. And I think a lot of people in the same or similar circumstances would have had all the reasons to stay home and then talked about that time that they almost went to Paris.
Aww Megan, thank you. That was awesome. Um, I really appreciate you being transparent about your decision on that one.
Megan: Of course. And also we should talk about our homework assignments.
Friend: Oh, yes, we almost forgot.
Megan: All right. So you go first.
Friend: So for the artists in the room, I, think it would be a great exercise to make a list of the categories of risks that you face, as an artist or as a creative entrepreneur. They're going to be customized just for you. Just think through how would you put them into little buckets.
And then once you've done that, once you can identify them, you can manage them.
Megan: I like that idea a lot, because I think, the risk averse people need a task to make them less risk-averse if that makes sense, you know, I'm not going to just casually think about risk unless told to, so that's nice. It's nice to prompt.
Friend: By your friendly neighborhood banker.
Megan: Yeah, I need to like, just, you know, do it, and then for the bankers in the room or in the world, write down what you risk by not making time for creativity or enjoying the arts, because I know you've already covered all your risks.
Friend: Ooh.
Megan: There is something to be said for carving out that time, too.
Friend: Oh, I think that's a good one.
Megan: For sure.
Friend: Cool.
Megan: We can't be good at everything.
Friend: Well, I am, I don't know.
Megan: Just saying, be gentle with ourselves. All right. Well, thank you again.
Friend: All right. That brings us to the end of this episode, a conversation on risk-taking. We hope you enjoyed going with us on a little adventure today.
Megan: Join us again next week for our discussion with another fabulous New York City boss lady.
Friend: Yeah. We're going to talk events and spending other people's money.
Megan: The good thing about talking to Justina is that she's really organized. So she'll keep us organized and teach us things. So I just can't wait. Until then. This is Megan of Art by Megan.
Friend: And her friend, your patron of the arts,
Megan: wishing you more art.
Friend: and maybe, a better understanding of your money.
Megan: Well, my French: " Au Revoir"