Getting Real About an Easy Button
What I learned from teaching artists about marketing
By Sue Pendleton, Founder
A few minutes into leading a recent marketing workshop for the Durham Art Guild, I had one of those moments of clarity that felt almost physical.
Like the lightbulb over my head didn’t just turn on. It zapped me.
I had come into the room thinking a lot about why marketing feels hard for artists. I still believe that matters. Creative work asks something different of us than marketing does. Making art requires focus, intuition, experimentation, emotional honesty, pattern recognition, and deep attention. Posting, promoting, explaining, selling, and keeping up with social media can feel like being yanked out of that creative state.
That’s all true.
But as the conversation unfolded, I realized something else was happening. These artists weren’t only struggling with feelings and fears around marketing. They were looking for the answer.
The easy button.
The shortcut.
The thing that would finally make marketing make sense.
And honestly? I realized I wanted that too.
Who Doesn’t Want an Easy Button?
Of course, artists want an easy button. Who doesn’t? Especially for something we don’t really enjoy doing, even if we know it matters.
If you would rather be in the studio than online, it makes perfect sense to hope there is a right answer out there somewhere.
The ideal platform.
The most effective posting time.
The fastest growth hashtag strategy.
The perfect kind of content.
The trick to beat the algorithm.
And that was another thing I heard clearly in the workshop: real frustration around the idea that there must be some secret to mastering the algorithm.
But here’s the truth I know from years of working in marketing and media: Even enormous companies, with huge budgets and entire teams of experts, spend endless resources trying to understand, respond to, and “master” the algorithm. And when they do figure something out? The algorithm changes.
So, for individual artists, spending all our energy searching for the holy grail of algorithm mastery is not just exhausting. It can become a distraction from the thing we actually can build. A foundation.
No Magic Wand. No Shame.
This was the thunderbolt for me.
ENSOhello should not be promising artists an easy button. That wouldn’t be honest. Even when the app becomes more fully developed, with more of the features I imagine beyond the MVP, it still will not be a magic wand.
In fact, the app may only be one part of what ENSOhello will provide.
Reminders.
Guidance.
Strategy templates.
Examples.
Encouragement.
Small steps.
A rhythm artists can return to.
A way to know what to do now, or next, when marketing feels too big.
Even then, ENSOhello will not be an easy button. But it can be an easier button. A guided and supportive button. A “let’s make this less overwhelming” button. But it will never remove the need for artists to show up. Marketing still requires steady effort.
A practice.
I Needed to Hear This Too
The workshop did not just clarify what ENSOhello needs to say and do for artists. It clarified what I need to do for my own art.
I have spent my career helping brands, networks, businesses, and now ENSOhello think about marketing strategically. I know how to build systems. I know how to create content rhythms. I know how to think about messaging, audience, consistency, and follow-through.
And yet, like the cobbler’s children having no shoes, I have not always applied that same seriousness to my own art.
So, I started creating small systems to help myself. I schedule emails to nudge me when I need gentle reminders, remind myself of effective prompt ideas, and plan out my posts ahead of time. I use structure to reduce decision fatigue.
But I realized I need to do more than dabble in my own art marketing. I need to get serious about it. Not because I need to become someone I’m not. But because my art matters to me.
And if I want people to find it, understand it, remember it, connect with it, and possibly buy it, I need to build a practice that supports that.
Sustainable Growth vs. Going Viral
One of the biggest expectation shifts is this: Going viral is not a marketing strategy. Building an art business around virality is like building a business plan around winning the lottery. Could it happen? Sure. Should that be the plan? Probably not.
A sustainable marketing practice is much less dramatic. It is slower. Quieter. More repetitive. Sometimes frustratingly invisible.
It looks like sharing consistently enough for people to begin recognizing your work.
It looks like helping people understand your process, your materials, your story, your point of view, and the value behind what you make.
It looks like engaging with other people instead of only posting and hoping.
It looks like making it easier for someone to know how to buy, inquire, follow, sign up, or stay connected.
It looks like returning after you missed a week.
It looks like seven likes and deciding not to quit.
That may not feel exciting at first. But it is how the practice takes root.
We Are Often Comparing the Wrong Things
Social media makes it very easy to compare ourselves to artists who are much further along in their marketing practice. We see the artist who gets hundreds of likes. The artist whose work sells quickly. The artist whose comments section is full of collectors, designers, friends, and fans. And we think: Why isn’t that happening for me?
But often, we are not making an accurate comparison. We may be at the beginning of taking our marketing seriously, while they have been showing up consistently for years. That is not the same stage of practice.
It is a little like comparing a child who is finger painting to a university art student. One is not “better” as a human being. They are simply in different places. The university student has practiced longer. Failed more. Learned more. Returned more. Built more skill, stamina, and confidence over time.
Marketing works the same way. The artists who make it look easy usually did not get there easily. They have been practicing.
The Exercise Class Moment
This realization reminded me of another shift in my own life.
At a certain point, I realized my body was changing. Aging, menopause, energy, strength, mobility — all of it was asking for more attention than I had been giving it. And if I wanted to get serious about my health, I had to get serious. So my husband and I hired a trainer. I started going to an exercise class.
And here’s what I love about it: someone else has made the plan.
The trainer knows what works. The instructor leads the class. They decide the sequence. They encourage me. They correct me. They offer a modification when I’m not ready for the harder version yet. They push me when I can do more than I think.
But I still have to show up. I still have to do the reps. I still have to keep coming back.
The support does not remove the effort. It makes the effort more focused, more effective, and more sustainable.
That is what I want ENSOhello to become for artists.
The Practice We Can Build Together
ENSOhello is not here to shame artists into marketing. It is not here to promise instant growth, viral posts, or effortless sales. It is not here to pretend there is a secret algorithm trick that will solve everything.
ENSOhello is here to help artists build a marketing practice that supports their art practice instead of stealing from it, through the app, yes, but also through reminders, templates, examples, prompts, encouragement, and a rhythm that makes it easier to keep going.
That means guidance. Structure. Prompts. Examples. Encouragement. Small steps. Clearer expectations. Ways to make the work feel less overwhelming and more doable.
I want ENSOhello to be the steady voice saying:
Here is today’s step.
Here is why it matters.
Here is a way to make it easier.
Here is what progress might look like.
Here is a real example.
Keep going.
Not because marketing will suddenly become effortless. But because you do not have to figure it out alone.
