Courses on courses, of course!

​It’s the season for courses. Every year about this time my Instagram feed is filled with affiliate links for pattern design courses and masterclasses. More than that, it seems like everybody is selling a course, their own or someone else's. I've taken quite a few courses myself, both online and in person. Ceramic, watercolor, finding your style, illustrating for children’s books. They can be great for moving your business forward or just expanding your skill set.

But I've been noticing that some of these courses, groups, or masterclasses market themselves with big claims and promises about income potential; and these big promises come with big price tags. I’m concerned about the art world turning into a closed-loop market where we’re only making money off each other and someone at the bottom is always losing. And I'm especially concerned that new artists feel pressured to spend a huge amount of money to get started, as though there's only one way to be a pattern designer.

So how do you choose between a course that will move your business and art skills forward vs. one that won't deliver on its big promises?

When looking at courses, I have a few red- or yellow-flag phrases that I tend to look out for. One alone might not be a dealbreaker, but if you start seeing a lot of these in course advertisements, it might be worth taking a step back.

(Disclaimer: these are my observations, thoughts, and opinions, I’m not an expert.)

“It’s free!"

Free courses are generally a sales funnel for the paid course (assuming that the coach offers a paid course). Simple as that. People rarely offer free courses for fun, they take time and money to make so there needs to be a return on investment. That doesn’t mean the free course isn’t worth taking, maybe it is. Maybe you’ll get some good information. Just know, going in, that at some point there will be a sales pitch. Ideally, you’ll have decided ahead of time whether you want to do the next thing. You’ll have looked at your budget, weighed the pros and cons, and won’t be swayed by the FOMO generated in the free course.

“You’ll make back the money you spend” 

If you spend $168 on a yearly Skillshare subscription, you might make that back in a few months. But if you spend thousands on a single course, it might be a different story. Consider how many sales you'll need to make at a market, or how many yards of fabric you'll need to sell on Spoonflower. Consider that it may take time for people to make a decision to purchase. (In my experience, it takes between 1 and 2 years for one of my designs to begin to sell well on Spoonflower, for example). Whatever marketing or design tricks you may learn in the course, getting your work polished, out there, and sold is not necessarily a quick process.

"You can make a 7-figure income"

Income claims are always iffy, because everybody's experience is different. But this is especially true in the art world.

I’ve seen situations where people get into pattern design because they have been told there’s so much money to be made. They paid for a course, now there’s a sunk cost fallacy, they take another course to pump themselves up…but then, they never really do anything with it. They don’t actually draw. Maybe they don't really even like drawing that much. But they were drawn to the income- or work-from-home promises.

And I’ve seen other exceptionally talented people really throw themselves into their art, sometimes with courses, sometimes not, and the breakthrough just doesn't happen right away (if at all) for whatever reason. It’s not lack of talent or interest, but the timing is just wrong and they struggle to find their audience. For me it was a 2-3 year period of hustling before I made any real money. For some it's longer. For some, it happens immediately.

I'm proud of the business I built and the hard work I put in, but I can also point to specific “luck” moments that allowed my business to grow. Ask any artist. Certain designs get a bump in interest because they coincide with a global event. Some people can afford to quit and pursue art full time because of a well-paid spouse. Sometimes certain designs just take off for no apparent reason. Certain personal connections give us unexpected opportunities. I could never sell a "secret sauce" to anyone else because everyone's situation is so different.

Pattern design is like any other form of art. It has a lot of rewards but there are easier ways to make money. There is no fool-proof secret, no guaranteed income; and I would be cautious of anybody who tells you that there is.

“It’s a mindset"

Warning, I may get a little snarky about this one. I've heard it so many times. “I didn’t make money at first because I wasn’t in the right head space.” “The reason you’re not successful is because you’re just not ready for success.”

But when I took a pottery class, nobody told me “It’s a mindset,” because it’s not. It’s a specific set of skills that you need to be successful. Pattern design or any form of art is the same. If you want to improve your pattern design, you need to draw. Enter competitions and post on Instagram to get feedback and grow your following. Watch Youtube tutorials. Mostly just draw. I draw while I'm watching tv, sitting at a cafe, or listening to podcasts. I draw literally all day long. You won’t get better at it by changing your mindset. You will get better at it by simply doing it.

No snark here: if you're struggling to feel motivated, or you're dealing with a lot of fear and self-doubt, talking it over with a licensed therapist might be really helpful.

An unlicensed art or business coach or course leader is more likely to give you motivational truisms that, rather than helping, simply keep you blaming yourself when you don’t achieve that 7-figure income that was promised above.

“Limited Time,” “Limited space,” “There’s room for everybody.”

These seemingly contradictory terms can actually all function as thought-terminating cliches, stopping legitimate questions in their tracks. "Limited time and space" rushes you to make a decision before all your questions have been answered. "There's room for everyone" keeps you from asking about market saturation and whether your art is bringing anything new or unique to the field. 

I remember a long time ago when I was given an MLM-sales pitch, the person kept pushing me to make a quick decision. "You don't need to talk to your husband about this." "Isn't that just putting off a decision until later when you could get started now?" "What would change between now and tomorrow except delaying saying yes?"

But any business decision requires asking questions and weighing pro's and cons. Writing up a business plan (even if you're not seeking a bank loan) can be very helpful for clarifying where your art fits into the market. For example, do you hope to work with business clients by licensing your work, or want to put your work on print-on-demand sites and see what sells? Are you ready to start pitching or still needing to learn the basics of drawing? How long will it take to make any investment money back?

Anyone that tries to rush you into a spending decision without offering you all the information doesn’t have your best interest in mind.

“The reviews are all positive"

Out of curiosity, I've googled the reviews of some of these big courses, and I can never find anything negative online about any of them. There will be a few long-form blogs that end up being largely puff pieces with an affiliate link at the end. But this doesn't ring true for me. People have opinions about things, and love to share them. Look up your favorite restaurant, your doctor, or your local wildlife preserve, and there’s going to be someone absolutely obliterating them in the reviews.

I think a lack of negative reviews is actually a yellow or red flag for a course. Here are three reasons there might be no bad reviews:

1. Affiliates won’t write bad reviews about a course they’re trying to sell. Maybe they loved it, maybe they made their money back, maybe they made lifelong friends. But as long as they’re selling the course, their review will have a conflict of interest. Maybe they’re trying to recoup their losses by being an affiliate. Maybe they have made a lot of money as a course affiliate but haven’t seen real improvement in their income from design work.
2. People feel shame that it didn’t work out for them, and because they were told it was all about “mindset” rather than that the market’s saturated and tough to break into, they feel like they’re to blame for their lack of success. So they blame themselves rather than the course.
3. Those who take the courses often think that the coaches or course-leaders are more important in the industry than they are. Because course leaders are selling you on their own success, they may exaggerate their success somewhat, so that many people believe they're the gatekeepers for the industry and don't want to piss them off by being too honest online. 

“The coach is really successful”​

But to tie in to the previous point, is the teacher actually successful at their art? (I’m not talking about art teachers here, I’m talking about people who are selling themselves to you as being successful “in the industry”—meaning the pattern design industry). Or are they just good at selling success? Does this course instructor have real contracts with recognizable big brands? Have you seen their work in stores?

If the teacher is selling success, then they should have no problem showing receipts. What percentage of their income was made by selling courses and what percentage was made from their licensing or other art sales?

Again, big disclaimer. There’s nothing wrong with being an art teacher making the majority of your income on teaching. As an art teacher, you’re working with students to teach specific skills. I know people who do this online, through Youtube and Skillshare, and others who do it in person. It’s a wonderful career filled with passionate talented people. But the key is that as an art teacher, you’re not selling your own success. Your “success” as an artist doesn’t really matter because you have a specific knowledge set that you’re passing on to others.
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But many of these courses are based not on specific knowledge sets but on the promise of success, and specifically the promise that you too can achieve the success of the artist/coach/leader. You can learn their secrets, gain their wisdom. They might even do everyone the honor of jumping in on a group call. You might get the privilege of buying additional time with them. But if someone is telling you that they've “cracked the secret to pattern design,” then they’d better be able to back those claims up with measurable industry success.

“It’s about the community!"

This one actually makes me quite sad. As I was writing this blog post I stumbled onto yet another new course by an artist that I had respected. And buried in the pages and pages of the course description was the nugget that, in spite of paying hundreds of dollars a month, you wouldn't actually get much direct contact with the artist/coach, but you were encouraged to lean on others in your cohort for advice and encouragement. Never mind that the other artists in the cohort are in the same position as you, they're all looking for the same secret to business success, and none of them have found it yet or they wouldn't be taking the course. What you're essentially paying for is friendship.

But there are so many ways of building community that are free or very cheap. I've made wonderful friends on Instagram, some of whom I've met in person. Maybe there are local meetup groups in your area, or maybe you could take a class at a community college, or volunteer with an arts-based organization. You shouldn't have to pay for a course just to develop friendships and contacts in the art world.

"You need this for your business to grow."

Here are some of my own monthly costs:

• about $180 for my accountant
• $25 for an Adobe Acrobat subscription
• $12 for web hosting​

The word I look at when spending money on my business is "measurable." Does the value offset the cost? For example, paying my accountant ensures that I don't miss important tax filings (among other things). My Adobe Acrobat subscription ensures that my contracts are all in the same place. Web hosting allows me to send out monthly emails and have a website so I'm not as dependent on social media.

Is the course or coaching service you're interested in giving a similar measurable value? Is the outcome clearly defined? Are there definite steps for how the course will get you there? Is it worth money that could otherwise be spent on web-services, fabric swatches, a marketing consultant, a booth at a trade show, an accountant, or an assistant?

Final Thoughts

This article is only meant to share some of the common marketing phrases I've seen and break them down. It's not meant to shame anybody who has taken a course, whether you regret it or found it helpful. I know there can be a lot of shame in perceived "failure" as an artist because for many of us art is a reflection of ourselves. Sometimes courses can market to that shame in ways that reinforce it. But I would also never want to contribute to that shame by implying that anyone who spends money on a course is somehow at fault if the course doesn't live up to its promises.

If you've found a course to be helpful, that's wonderful! If you spent a lot of money you haven't yet recouped, that's not something to feel ashamed of.

Please know that you are not a failure if you don't see immediate sales or growth in your art business. Art requires playing the long game. It's incredibly finicky and unpredictable as a career. There's no shortcut, but there also shouldn't be any shame. 

Have you had success with a course? If so, what made it positive for you?

I'd love to put together a list of courses that were helpful to people (including myself) to offset some of the red flags in this post and start waving some green flags. That will be a future post.

Next time: is it possible to get started for free? The hard sell for a lot of these courses is that you NEED them, especially as your business is getting started. But I don't think that's the case. I'll share a few of the programs and websites I used to get started for free.

More information:

• I stumbled onto this article while writing the above and I found it very informative: https://messyeverafter.com/self-employed-journey/avoid-creative-masterclass-cons-and-scams/ 
• If you're looking to see some of the similarities between courses and MLM's, you can familiarize yourself with MLM talking points on https://www.reddit.com/r/antiMLM/
• The podcast "The Dream" goes over both MLMs and life-coaching:  https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/the-dream