You may not realize it, or may not
want to admit it, but as an artist, salesmanship plays a big part in your
success. Artists who are selling their work directly to collectors at shows and
art festivals are the most directly involved in the sales process. Even artists
who are working with galleries, however, have to sell themselves and their work
to potential galleries, and to collectors at openings and other events.
I’ve written books for both types of
artists – those who are looking to build or strengthen relationships with
galleries (“Starving”
to Successful) and those who are selling directly (How to Sell Art). In these
books I talk about a number of different factors that play into becoming a more
successful salesperson and artist. I share the importance of
projecting confidence in yourself through both verbal and nonverbal language in
both books.
Recently, I listened to a talk by
Amy Cuddy that provided great insight and reinforcement into the importance of
body language in social interactions. Cuddy, a social psychologist,
researcher and professor at Harvard Business School, gave the talk at the TED
conference this summer, and her findings related to body language are
fascinating. I encourage you to watch the short video of the talk which I
have included below.
Though there’s a lot more to it,
Cuddy postulates that successful, powerful people have relatively high levels
of testosterone and low levels of cortisol. Testosterone is a power hormone,
and cortisol is produced when we are experiencing stress. Cuddy says that
researchers have shown that this correlation between control and lower stress
levels are key indicators of how successful a leader will be (you can also
listen to this NPR story for more on executives and stress: http://www.npr.org/2012/09/26/161836823/ceos-may-find-it-lonely-at-the-top-but-not-stressful).
Cuddy has also done research
demonstrating how dominant figures, both in the animal and human world project
their dominance (and confidence) through what she calls “power poses,” stances
where the body opens up and fills more space (watch the video below for
examples).
Taken together, one would expect
that a confident, successful woman or man would have higher levels of
testosterone and lower levels of cortisol and would communicate this to their
social peers through their power body language. All of this happens at a
subconscious level, so a successful person will likely not be aware of their
behavior, and certainly not their hormone levels.
None of this is particularly
earth-shattering, but the fascinating findings came when Cuddy basically
reversed the process and asked what would happen to a person’s testosterone and
cortisol levels if they were directed to take a power stance.
In lab experiments, Cuddy asked
subjects to strike either high-power or low-power poses for two minutes and
then ran a series of experiments to measure confidence and risk-taking, as well
as hormone levels. She found that there was a dramatic and direct correlation
between posing and hormone levels. In essence, the subjects who physically
pretended to be confident and successful had a physiological and mental reaction
that made them more confident and successful!
Her conclusion? When it comes to
body language, we should not only “fake it till we make it”, we should “fake it
until we become it.”
Cuddy used the example of people
being more successful when subjected to a stressful job interview after
spending two minutes doing a power pose, but I would suggest that this would be
effective for an artist or art salesperson going into a sales opportunity, when
approaching galleries looking for representation or any other time a boost of
confidence is needed.
Adam Brown
Osio-Brown Editions Website
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