E94: Profitable Artist Summit: Why We Built It

Delores shares the heart behind the Profitable Artist Summit, a collaboration with Vanessa Stoilova (Art Business with Ness). 

In a heartfelt solo episode, she reflects on how limited resources were when she began her career and why accessible education for artists is so important. 

Delores talks about growing up in a rural community, learning design the hard way, and how the internet has transformed opportunities for artists everywhere. 

She explains why the summit’s theme, “Skills That Sell,” matters and how it offers practical, down‑to‑earth guidance without hype. 

Delores invites listeners to explore different creative paths, believe in the value of their art, and join a community where business and creativity can thrive together.

 If today’s conversation resonates with you, share this episode with a creative friend who needs encouragement. 

Learn more about the Profitable Artist Summit at profitableartistsummit.com.

 Thank you for listening and supporting the show—your creativity matters!

Transcript

Delores Naskrent: [00:00:00] friends, it's Delores here, and welcome back to another episode of the Creative Juggle Joy, where we talk about creativity, business, and everything in between. Today's episode is gonna be a little bit more personal, and I'm gonna reflect a little bit more than usual, 'cause I wanna share the heart behind something that has become incredibly meaningful to me, the Profitable Artist Summit, which I'm co-hosting with Vanessa Stoilova from Art Business with Ness.

The summit was really Vanessa's original idea, and from the moment we started talking about it, I connected so deeply with the mission behind it, which was in creating practical and accessible education for artists who want to build sustainable creative lives. So today, I want to talk a little bit about why this matters so much to me personally, and honestly, why creating this summit feels [00:01:00] emotional in ways I didn't fully expect.

So grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and settle in. Let's have a chat. One of the reasons this summit matters so much to me is because when I was starting out as an artist, oh, let's just round it off to 30 or 40 years ago, there was almost nothing available to help artists learn how to actually make a living from their work.

I had taken a full four years of design school within my high school, and that was really it around here. If you live in a rural area like I do, you know what I'm talking about. And I think sometimes people forget just how different things used to be. There were no online courses. There were no YouTube tutorials, no artist communities online.

There was no one sharing step-by-step workflows or talking openly about [00:02:00] how to build a creative business. If you wanted to learn something, you mostly figured it out alone. And honestly, that could feel incredibly isolating, especially as a woman trying to build something creative and sustainable.

I grew up and still live in a fairly rural part of the community, and while we do have a wonderful local gallery, and there absolutely are talented artists here, there were never a lot of opportunities to build a career as an artist unless you did fit specifically into their fine art world. And Honestly, I never really felt like I fit there.

I had trained as a commercial artist. That's what I wanted to do. I loved design. I loved graphic design. I loved illustration. I loved visual storytelling, and I loved creating things that connected with people. [00:03:00] And here, becoming a production artist was really the only way I could make money. And if you don't know what a production artist is, you're really a part of the print industry.

So you're working for a printer, and you're setting up things like catalogs and business cards and brochures and really not selling art per se. So I needed to get out of this town in order to find a really good job. So I moved to the big city of Winnipeg, and I knew... I really knew deep in my heart I wanted to support myself just doing art.

I never made any bones about the fact that my art was commercial, and yes, I absolutely intended to sell it. So I continued to work in the industry, and for a long time, that made me feel a little like I existed [00:04:00] outside the traditional art community around me. There was sometimes this unspoken feeling that real artists shouldn't care too much about money or marketing or business.

But I personally remember thinking, "But why not?" I can illustrate. I can make pretty things. Why shouldn't artists be allowed to build sustainable lives doing meaningful creative work? Why shouldn't women especially have opportunities to support themselves creatively? Why should practical business education be separated from creativity?

And honestly, I think that tension shaped a lot of who I became as both an artist and a teacher because over time, I realized that so many students were struggling unnecessarily. Artists, specifically artists, were struggling. And I was given the opportunity [00:05:00] to come back here to my home community to take over the teaching position at the high school that taught the trade of commercial art.

And believe you me, I have seen many talented artists come out of those programs. They didn't lack any talent. What they lacked was access. They lacked access to information. They lacked access to mentorships. They- also lacked access to practical education, and they did not have any access to a community of like-minded artists other than those they were in class with.

Now, of course, you know that when I started teaching was when the internet first started, and honestly, that's the first time also that artists were beginning to [00:06:00] use computers and learning programs like Adobe Illustrator, and there started to become more and more opportunity for artists, and over time everything did change.

Suddenly, artists in tiny rural towns like me could learn from people all over the world. Believe me, it took a while before the education caught up. The best we could hope for was the Classroom in a Book series that Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop had, and I think there was another one, but I can't remember which one it was.

But we could learn through a series of books that Adobe had that created projects for us to learn the software more readily. But as time progressed, as I started to do my own [00:07:00] artwork on the side, and eventually got to the point where I could build a creative business online. And now, mothers raising children at home can build creative businesses online.

There really is no barrier at this point. Artists who never felt like they fit the traditional gallery world suddenly have options. People can learn digital tools. They can learn licensing. They can learn illustration, surface pattern design all of the marketing and online selling, and all of that can happen from home.

And honestly, I think we're only beginning to understand how important that shift really is because creativity can change people's lives financially and emotionally and personally. I am here to tell you this because that's exactly what has happened for me. Can you believe it?

If I tell you this figure right [00:08:00] now, can you believe that I've now taught more than 90,000 students over the years? 85,000 of those or so are from Skillshare, and the others are through my own school and people I've taught in school. But you know what, for me, has been one of the most meaningful things?

It has been watching people realize that they're actually capable of building something with their creativity. Not necessarily becoming famous. Not becoming overnight success stories by any means, but they're building something sustainable, and something meaningful, and something that gives them confidence, and independence, and possibility.

And I think artists need more spaces where practical education is taken seriously. Not just - inspiration, not just motivation, but actual [00:09:00] actionable education. Skills that artists can really use. And honestly, that's where the Profitable Artist Summit is coming from. Both Vanessa and I care deeply about helping artists build real skills that support real creative lives, and I am incredibly grateful she invited me to be a part of bringing this vision to life.

Our last summit went so well, and we just decided we needed to keep this going. And that's why this year we've actually given our summit a theme, and the theme is Skills That Sell. Because artists deserve education that helps them move forward in a practical sense, not just creatively. I've seen many creative people that have a hard time with [00:10:00] how to move forward practically.

So we wanted to create something that felt really accessible, really encouraging, super generous, and genuinely useful. We're trying to not have it be overwhelming. We are definitely not being all hypey. Not filled with unrealistic promises. That's definitely becoming a sore point for a lot of artists right now.

I just want you to get an honest education from artists who, just like me, have had real-world experience. And honestly, one of the things I'm most proud of is how many different creative paths are being represented. It's really quite amazing. We've got speakers who focus on illustration. I have several on surface pattern design.

We've got a [00:11:00] couple on licensing. Definitely productivity, 'cause productivity is important as well. And we've got some teachers that are focusing on specifically the tools, and some business systems and marketing is included as well. I think these are so important, and there is no single correct way to build a creative career anymore.

I have seen it. Looking at our roster of artists who are going to be presenting here, every single one of them has taken a very different path. It's actually amazing. We've got younger people teaching. We've got people my age teaching. We've got a range of everything in between. We've got moms.

We've got people who have been professionals in some other way [00:12:00] and are now just wanting to really dive into becoming

illustrators or designers. There's just really no single way to build a career in the creative business anymore, and I think that's super hopeful, especially for younger artists or artists living in small communities or artists who have felt overlooked, artists who don't quite feel like they belong in traditional art spaces.

And it's tough. That's a tough business as well, trying to get into galleries, finding places to sell your paintings if you're a fine artist, and I understand that feeling more than people probably realize. But I also believe deeply that creativity and business do not have to be enemies. You can love art deeply and still want your work to support your life.

You can care about beauty and meaning and [00:13:00] expression while also learning about marketing system and pricing and strategy. I've had to, and it hasn't killed me. These things can coexist, and honestly, I think more artists are finally giving themselves permission to believe that. That's why this summit matters to me so much.

It's not about tutorials. It's not about specific software. It's about helping artists realize that their creativity has value and that practical education can open doors that once felt completely impossible, especially for people who may never have had access otherwise.

So we've put this all together for you. If you've ever felt behind or isolated or Unsure of how to turn your creative [00:14:00] skills into something sustainable, I really hope this summit encourages you. Not because it promises overnight success. We're definitely not saying that, but because I and Vanessa, the both of us genuinely believe artists deserve support and education and opportunities that help them build lives they're proud of.

Yes, it's a process. Yes, there are a lot of steps. And no, you will not make a million dollars in the first year. Trust me. Thank you so much today for spending time with me talking about this and for letting me share a little more about the heart behind the summit and the work that I do and the work that Vanessa does.

If this episode resonated with you, I would [00:15:00] absolutely love if you shared it with another creative friend who might need a little bit of encouragement right now. If you'd like to learn more about the Profitable Artist Summit, you can find all the details at profitableartistsummit.com and no spaces or dashes or period.

It's just profitableartistsummit.com. Thank you so much for being here with me today, truly, and every time you listen to one of our podcasts, I just want to say how much I appreciate it. It's part of the creative business that we are building, Kaylie and I, and as always, we'd love you to keep creating, keep juggling, and most importantly, keep finding joy in the process.