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Build Your Own Art Reset This Fall (Nobody Else Will)

Every January, artists everywhere make the same promise to themselves: this is the year I finally show up in the studio consistently. By February, the sketchbook is still mostly blank, and it feels like one more thing we let ourselves down on.

Jodie has a different theory, and it turns out the internet has been catching up to it. It’s sometimes called “October theory,” the idea that fall, not January 1st, is actually the more natural reset point for our goals. The reason is simple: January asks us to rely on raw willpower. Fall doesn’t ask that of us at all.

In this episode, Jodie breaks down why the September feeling, the new notebook, the who do I want to be this year instinct, never actually goes away. We just stop having it handed to us the way a new school year used to hand it to us. Now we have to build it ourselves.

Nobody Hands You The Reset Anymore

Jodie walks through her own memory of the start of a school year: the anticipation, the identity questions, the fact that the year started whether you felt ready or not. As adults, nobody schedules that reset for us. We have to draw the line in the sand ourselves, which is exactly what this episode is designed to help you do. This same idea of building your own structure instead of waiting for permission shows up in Episode 48: Don’t Wait, Create Your Own Opportunities.

Why Fall Is Also a Better Time to Sell Art

It isn’t just personal. Jodie shares that gallery director friends consistently describe a summer slump in art sales, since so many collectors are traveling and shows get held back for fall. Once people settle back into routine, they start buying again, which makes fall a genuinely strategic time to be visible with your work, not just a sentimental one. If you’re thinking about a holiday collection, this is also the moment to revisit Episode 30: How to Sell Art for the Holidays. Hint: Start Now!

Three Questions to Ask Yourself This Fall

Jodie offers three prompts to actually use this reset instead of just feeling nostalgic about it:

• Who do you want to be as an artist? What do you want to do more of in your work this season? This is the same identity work she dug into in Episode 60: How to Become Your Future Self.
• What do you want to learn? Mixed media, framing, sculpture, whatever stretches you slightly outside your current practice.
• What scares you most? Showing your art to someone. Getting on social media. Applying to a gallery. Whatever it is, Jodie’s advice is blunt: go do that thing. Courage begets courage, and the more you use it, the more available it becomes. She unpacks this same fear-versus-avoidance pattern in Episode 57: Do You Fear Failing With Your Art? Or Do You Fear Success?

Delulu Wednesdays

Jodie’s fall challenge: pick Wednesdays as your “de Lulu” day, a day to be a little delusional about what’s possible for you. DM the collaborator you’ve been too scared to reach out to. Email the designer whose work you admire. Apply to the gallery that feels like a long shot. Her reasoning is simple and very on-brand for the show: what feels delusional to you is often just somebody else’s baseline. It’s the same audacity she calls out in Episode 95: Unleashing Your Inner Rebel: 10 Tips to Owning Your Voice.

How to Back Into a Holiday Collection Release

September is also the practical window to plan a holiday collection, and Jodie shares her own back-dating method. If your target release date is December 1st, everything, photographing the work, loading it onto your website or a platform like Artwork Archive, testing every link and payment tool, needs to be done well before that. Factor in that the week of Thanksgiving is essentially unusable for business tasks, and her real recommendation is to have the entire collection finished by November 20th. That gives you roughly eight weeks from this episode’s release to build an entire body of work with a deadline attached, which, if you’re someone who needs deadlines to get to the easel, might be exactly the push you need.

A Season 7 Wrap and What’s Coming

Jodie also shares something personal: she’s been going through her own transformation this year, wrestling with the same business skill that trips up so many artists inside Studio Elite, the skill piece of the Rebel Trifecta. The result is ArtBiz for Rebels 2.0, launching in October, built to give artists back their time using AI so they can spend more of it with a paintbrush in hand instead of buried in admin work. [Flag for Amy/Yasmine: ArtBiz for Rebels 2.0 launch date, pricing, and landing page are not yet confirmed. Current Resources Mentioned link below points to the existing ArtBiz for Rebels page until relaunch details are locked.] She closes the episode by confirming this is the final episode of Season 7, with the show returning in November for a more personal Season 8.

And if you’re weighing whether to apply this cycle, Studio Elite applications close September 18th. Jodie mentions this early in the episode, and it’s worth acting on if you’ve been on the fence.

Resources Mentioned

• Studio Elite Mastermind, fall cohort begins September 21st: https://www.jodiekingart.com/studioelite
• Artwork Archive Discount Code: www.artworkarchive.com/jk  
• Episode 30: How to Sell Art for the Holidays. Hint: Start Now!: https://jodieking.com/episode-30-how-to-sell-art-for-the-holidays-hint-start-now/
• Episode 48: Don’t Wait, Create Your Own Opportunities: https://jodieking.com/episode-48-dont-wait-create-your-own-opportunities/
• Have a question for Jodie? Ask it here: https://forms.gle/hxrVu4oL4PVCKwZm6
• How are you liking the Honest Art® Podcast? Leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform and let us know!
• Watch this full episode on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMquJfuMsSg0fr46BRdia1cWd-81GThzF
• For a full list of show notes and links, check out my blog: www.jodieking.com/podcast

Watch on YouTube

🎬 New to Honest Art®? Start Here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDRbtjrfQyOs

🎨 Painting Techniques: Best Of: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9oZj4G3KkA

Want More from Jodie?

Learn from Jodie:

🎨 Studio Elite Mastermind: https://www.jodiekingart.com/studioelite

🎨 ArtBiz for Rebels: https://www.jodiekingart.com/artbizforrebels

🎨 Color Course for Rebels: https://www.jodiekingart.com/ccfr

🎨 Honest Art® Society: https://www.jodiekingart.com/has

Jodie’s favorite resources:

✍️ Free Guide: 5 Things They Don’t Teach You in Art School: https://jodieking.com/work-with-me#free-rescources.0

✍️ Top 10 Studio Tools: https://www.jodiekingart.com/10-studio-tools-opt-in

✍️ How to Hang a Painting: https://www.jodiekingart.com/how-to-hang-a-painting

🧘 Guided Meditation: https://www.jodiekingart.com/guided-meditation

This post may contain affiliate links. Jodie King Media may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

This episode is for educational purposes and reflects Jodie King’s personal experience building her own art career. Results vary by artist.