Practicing Empathy
Joy of Living Creatively
Dr. Eric Maisel
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Episode 38 - Practicing Empathy

Today’s episode is part of a series called “Nine Relationship Skills for Artists.” In the series we look at relationships skills that artists can nurture so as to become more effective advocates for their creative work and more comfortable players in the art marketplace. The series focuses on the relationship issues of visual artists but the lessons are directly translatable for creative and performing artists in every discipline and for creators in any walk of life. Today’s show, the second in the series, is called “Practicing Empathy.”

The episode begins this way:

“There are two completely different ways to conceptualize how you might relate to your potential collectors. One way is to picture buyers as people who deserve to be manipulated and who must be reached by virtue of sales tactics that play on human weaknesses like greed and envy. A second way is to picture buyers as your fellow human beings who can be met without manipulation and without trickery. If the question is, which way garners the better results, sadly enough the answer is probably the first. If the question is, how do you want to live your live, the answer surely is by practicing the second in large measure—by practicing empathy and by championing the principle that people do not exist only to be manipulated.”

Tune in to hear more!