TRP 315: Business Development Secrets from My Art Business with Scott Love

[00:00:10] You're listening to The Rainmaking Podcast, hosted by high-stakes headhunter, author, and professional speaker, Scott Love. Hey, this is Scott Love with The Rainmaking Podcast. And today I'm going to be talking, just myself without a guest, about seven business development tips that I've learned, business development secrets, from my art business. I'm going to talk about that.

[00:00:36] Thank you for joining me today. Now, if you haven't listened to this show before, this is probably one of the largest collections of free business development material for those in professional services. The show is technically industry agnostic, although it leans towards legal because I have a lot of people on the show who work in the legal industry. But every Thursday our topics are related to anybody in professional services that's responsible for getting work.

[00:01:03] Sometimes, Tuesdays, we have legal specific shows. But this is going to be something that works for anybody in professional services or B2B sales. Today we're going to talk about things I've learned from my art business and I'll tell you more about that in just a second. If you want to check out my art directly, go to Instagram and look for my Instagram handle. It's all one word, Scott Love Fine Art. And these definitely do apply to your world of professional services business development.

[00:01:28] A few announcements here. On May 14th and 15th, SurePoint is hosting the Law Firm Leadership Lab in New York City. It's a collaborative two-day in-person workshop designed exclusively for those in a leadership role in law firms. Check out the show notes and you'll be able to register directly. Also on June 3rd and 4th, I'll be facilitating sessions at Rain Dance put on by the Legal Sales and Service Organization, June 3rd and 4th in Chicago. So check that out. That's on the show notes as well.

[00:01:58] Now let me go into this topic today about what do I mean by how can you learn from my art business? So some history. I've been painting for well over 25 years. I'm a watercolor artist. That's how I started. I got into art when I was a midshipman at the Naval Academy because back then in the 1980s, there was no such thing as mental health. And so I learned that if I sketch, if I'm able to get away from the yard on the weekends and go to fine art galleries,

[00:02:25] I'm able to take a vacation away from that military environment in my brain for a few hours. And that was enough for me to stay sane. I didn't know it at the time, but that's the same playbook that Winston Churchill followed to maintain his sanity when he was fighting the Nazis. He even wrote a book on it earlier called Painting as a Past Time. I'd highly recommend that.

[00:02:46] So I got into art. And then about 25 years ago, I started taking lessons from a professional watercolor artist and instructor and really dug deep into art. And about three or four years ago, I knew that it's something I wanted to pursue a little bit more professionally. People would buy my work. I did a lot of paintings, a lot of aviary paintings of birds. But then I realized that I want to take this to a whole new level.

[00:03:11] And I got serious about finding ways to really take my platform as an artist to a whole new level. Now, I think I have an advantage in the art world, not because I'm better at art than most artists out there, but I understand business development. And I think that's going to give me an edge. So let me tell you about what I've done. And then I'm going to connect the dots here for you and tell you how this impacts your work. Whether you're an investment banker doing multimillion dollar deals.

[00:03:37] If you're an M&A attorney, a deal attorney, an investment management partner in a firm or a finance partner, or you're a management consultant, or a high stakes headhunter. All of these concepts apply to what I'm going to share for you today. So the first concept is developing a niche and going deep in a niche. So about three years ago, I started taking oil lessons. So I do two different media. I do oils and then I also do watercolors. But as I'd started studying art and art marketing,

[00:04:07] and in fact, the art marketing podcast is a fantastic podcast. And I'm hearing these ideas and themes that really directly apply to my work as a legal recruiter and could apply to what you do in your professional services world. And one of the things I mentioned is that you want to be known for something. You want to be niched in a certain genre of art. I'd taken lessons from Justin Worrell, who is a lobbyist in Washington, but also is known for tonalist paintings.

[00:04:35] And I've taken several of his online classes. And I was looking at a video that he did, and he's known for tonalist, meaning kind of dark landscapes, tonalist paintings in oil. And in the class, he held up a sketch, a portrait that he did with graphite, with pencil, and it was fantastic. I'm like, oh, I had no idea you did that. He could do anything, but he chose a certain niche where he's known for tonalist landscape paintings.

[00:05:04] And so I decided to take it to a whole other level. That's what I want to be known for, even though I'd rather paint pretty pictures of birds all day in watercolors. I'm looking at what can help me in terms of an artist become known for something. And this is point number two, distinction. It's good to be different than everybody else, but you want to take it to a whole new level and be distinct. In fact, anytime I meet with a new law firm client that asks me to recruit for them,

[00:05:34] I always ask them this, how are you different from other firms? And usually I'll hear things like, we have great culture or things like that. But I try to get even more narrow. What can you say about yourself that other law firms can't say about themselves? And it might take us a while, but I usually can get one or two key points of distinction. Now, that is an anchor for a story.

[00:06:01] When I'm talking to a partner candidate, a prospective candidate about making a move, let me tell you about my client. What they're known for is this. Not just that, but this is one thing that is truly distinct about them. That's an interesting story. And that's the way you need to think about your professional services practice also. What's your niche, but then go deeper. What is distinct about you? What can you say about yourself that nobody else can say about themselves

[00:06:28] in your work as a patent litigator or an M&A corporate deal partner? What can you say about yourself? I'm the only M&A deal partner that does sell side work 100% with privately owned healthcare clients in the Midwest. Owned by company owners who are left handed. I mean, you can go pretty narrow and deep, but you want to get to that point where now you're not just known for something. You're not just niching, but now you are distinct. So how did I do this with my art business?

[00:06:56] Well, there's thousands of landscape painters out there. There's hundreds of tonalist landscape painters out there. Well, last fall I was at the Met. I'm a member of the Met in New York because I'm in New York every month. And sometimes Friday afternoon, it stays open late. I'm going to go look at some art. And last fall they had an exhibit in the Japanese section called the Three Perfections. And I was drawn to that. And the Three Perfections was a genre of art. It's 1,200 years old, originally developed in China.

[00:07:25] 600 years ago, the Japanese took that concept. Same thing they did with the language and the scripting. They took that same concept into art. And that means three things. Painting, poetry, and calligraphy. So I got to walk through the Met and I saw this fantastic exhibit of Japanese art where there is calligraphy written in poems about the art on the painting or next to the painting. And I saw that and I said, that's what I'm going to do.

[00:07:56] I'm going to do the Three Perfections. So I studied it. And any time I paint a tonalist landscape painting, I will write a simple haiku inspired by the piece in my own calligraphy as a separate gift suitable for framing to the, not the purchaser of the art, but the collector. I want to create art that is so distinct that people want to collect them just like baseball cards, right?

[00:08:22] So that is how you can go from a nobody. And really, I'm a nobody in the art world. I seriously am to somebody that has distinction and notoriety. How can you take that page off of that playbook and find concepts that have been around for a long time and dig deep? And now it's a malleable concept that gives you distinction. In fact, I even reserved the domain name, the3perfections.com. I've read books on this now.

[00:08:50] Now I'm just really nerding out, reading books about Japanese and Chinese calligraphy, really understanding how that works. I've been taking calligraphy lessons also. I know I'm nerding out on this, but this is how I'm trying to get distinction in my art world. Point number three, strategic alliances. What you need to do is find not just referral partners, those people that can share opportunities with you. This is why I go to places like DealMax, and I'm a member of the Association for Corporate Growth.

[00:09:19] Personally, within my business, I'm expanding my network. And there are certain people, a lot of times management consultants, business development coaches for lawyers, even legal tech vendors, where we share the same client base. We're not competing with each other, and we might do strategic alliances. What I mean by that is, let's do a series of webinars together, or let's do a panel presentation, or with SharePoint, sponsor of the Rainmaking Podcast. Why don't I speak at their managing partner roundtable at their leadership lab? That's what I mean.

[00:09:49] Look for opportunities where there's mutual benefit. And when you approach people in strategic alliances, it's never about your own benefit first. It's about how can you work together and collaborate, and really, how can you tilt it a little bit more towards them within the art world? I've been thinking about strategic alliances also. One thing I did, when I started painting about three or four years ago, I would sell my art casually. I'd have art shows in my home, and I didn't really make a lot of money. And then I thought, you know, I want to donate the art.

[00:10:19] So in 2023 and 2024, 100% of my proceeds were donated to a local charity called Shalom Farms. That's a local charity that gives food. It grows food in its farms here in the Richmond area where I live, and it gives it to food-starved areas. It's a very popular charity. So they would actually have me do paintings that they would give to their high-net-worth donors. They would have some of my art incorporated into their events.

[00:10:46] And it was kind of a small strategic alliance. Well, now that I've got my art in a popular gallery in downtown Richmond, I reconnected with their executive director about, I wouldn't say getting something formally structured, but maybe going deeper in some sort of a strategic alliance. So now, for 2026 and 2027, more than half my proceeds will be donated to that strategic alliance, a partner, Shalom Farms. That brings me to number four, charitable opportunities.

[00:11:15] Find charities that you can get involved in, where you can contribute, not just financially, but you can roll up your sleeves and meet other similar people that are moving and shaking in their world, because busy people get things done. You want to surround yourself with those people that have influence. And they're not selfish. They're well-off. Usually, they've done very well, but they're giving. And they understand the joy that comes from giving not just your money,

[00:11:45] but your time and your energies and your talent. Look for opportunities to bring that in your business development strategy. And it doesn't have to be obvious. People know you don't join a charity foundation or board to network. You join to make a contribution, but opportunities do stumble out of that. Number five, learning how to tell a good story. That's one of the things I did with my art business was, here's an interesting different story with the three perfections.

[00:12:13] How can you find opportunities where something different about what you do can bring value to your client prospects? I think learning how to understand what the arc is. This is the problem that my client had. This was my service that I did, and this was the solution, the hero's journey. I think all of those components can fit within your business of professional services. One of the things I've done within my art business and telling a good story is showing people, telling them, this is how I create my art.

[00:12:43] This is what I do, having a video of me actually writing a poem and doing the calligraphy and now posting that on social media. Part of that is the story. Even the story behind my art of mental health. When I say that's the through line, for me, it was art. And one of the things I'm going to start doing here locally in my area is speak at various rotary and service clubs on the three perfections, educating people what that was,

[00:13:09] also promoting donations to Shalom Farms, supporting them, but then even bringing the mental health through line to the audience. What if you, you say you can't do art, what if you pursued art as a hobby in some way, shape, or form? Well, I can't draw anything. I can just do stick figures. You know what that means? If you can't draw, that means you're an abstract artist. Get your kids or grandkids and go down to the Michaels and get some paint and pour paint

[00:13:37] and get an old bench from a thrift store, sand it down and pour paint on that and enjoy it. Art and chocolate are very similar in that there's no point except for enjoyment. And so the story of mental health, the through line, that's why I paint to this day. I don't paint to sell art. I paint because I like to paint. That's one thing I can obsess over in a very healthy way, and there's no downside to it. So that's point number five. Learn how to tell a good story.

[00:14:06] Number six, don't pitch all the time. Engage. So on the Art Marketing Podcast, the host of that show, I don't know his name, he's just fantastic. He said, how would you like it if you had a friend who is an artist that anytime they saw you, they said, hey, you want to buy a painting? Every day they reach out to you. They say, hey, do you want to buy a painting? You want to buy a painting? You want to buy a painting? You would just be annoyed. And he said, that isn't how your marketing strategy should be. It shouldn't always be about closing.

[00:14:35] And in the art world, they call that romancing your prospects, meaning they want to see videos of you painting, telling your story of watching you in action, video of your messy studio. And telling the story of what motivates you as an artist. And when you learn how to do that, what I mean by this is, it's just about keeping in touch with people. Is there anything I can do for you? The people I usually respond to are those that refer opportunities to me.

[00:15:02] Even if it's just today, somebody that was on my podcast before, she's going to be on my podcast again. She sent me, here's a link to another Association for Corporate Growth conference you might want to look at in September in the Northeast. I'm like, wow, I think I'm going to go to that. That's the kind of person I want to give business to now because she reached out and she gave me something of value. You want to be that person also. You don't want to pitch all the time. You want people to see you in action through speaking at conferences, sitting on panels,

[00:15:31] attending and being that person in the room and being a helpful person there, getting there early, staying late. Can I do anything to help out? Can I make the conference flow a lot easier? Do you need anybody to demand this table? Things like that. Those are the people that get invited into leadership roles, which means that now you're visible, which means you open up the door for more opportunities. And the final thing I learned in my art business is always be learning. The way I look about art is that there's more that I don't know than what I do know.

[00:16:02] And that's a fact. And the reason I love art is that the intellectual joy of learning is just so rich. Every day I learn something. I take that to my recruiting practice also. I've been recruiting for 30 years. I've done hundreds and hundreds of deals. I've met with over 70 law firms. I've seen probably about 50 lateral partner questionnaires from 50 different law firms. And there is still more that I don't know about recruiting than what I do know. And so I'm on a hunger. I'm on a quest to continue learning.

[00:16:30] This is a deficit I see with people in the legal world. I've mentioned this before on the show, that the correct posture that is client-facing for a partner in a law firm is, I have all the answers. I know everything. I can solve your problem. I can help you because I know everything. And that's exactly appropriate for a client-facing persona. You need to have that confidence and gravitas. That's not an appropriate posture for other professional areas of your life.

[00:17:00] It's not. If you don't know something, you need to admit it to yourself. You don't need to tell the world that. But you just need to admit that there is more that I don't know about business development than what I do know. I think ego, pride, and hubris is many of our greatest deficits. That's going to keep people from reaching their full potential and feeling the joy of really killing it and just thriving. And that's what I want for you, is to bring that ego, push it off to the side,

[00:17:28] open yourself up to the fact that maybe if business development is a skill that you need to master, if you can tie that and connect business development skills with thriving and reaching your full potential, if you can connect those dots together, then continue to study business development. That's one of the reasons why I love this show. I love creating content that I get feedback every week from people that is really helpful. And I appreciate that. I had people go out of their way to thank me for the show.

[00:17:56] And I'm just grateful for your support in this podcast also with over 300 episodes. When I started this show after COVID, I'm like, let me put on a show. I don't know what I'm going to do. Well, you know what? What's one thing everybody cares about? They care about getting more business. I think I'll do that. Got the domain name and it's really evolved to a top 2% show globally. And that's why also last year I launched the Rainmaking Magazine. Because many of our guests are authors, they're business writers, they're experts in business development.

[00:18:24] There is no other business development platform out there that had the kind of credibility for those sophisticated people that are listening to the show. So I built it. It's called the Rainmaking Magazine. Every week there's at least 10 different new pieces of content, all written form. And the way you use it, little minutes. We use the Beehive platform, which is fantastic. It's really, really good on the phone. Use your little minutes to reach your goals in business development. What do I mean by that? You're on the subway.

[00:18:54] You've got a 25-minute commute on the subway. Not while you're driving, but while you're on the subway. Look at your phone and read an article about business development. You're standing in line somewhere. Get your phone out. Use those little minutes. If you're on the treadmill, the elliptical, get your phone out and read an article on business development. That solves the problem of business development not being on everybody's mind all the time. And I know it can't be on your mind all the time, but it has to be on your mind more than it is right now.

[00:19:21] If you aren't reaching your goals in terms of business development, then there's probably more that you still need to learn. And I created that magazine for that. I don't charge a lot for it. Less than $200 a year. It's like $199 for an annual subscription. That's what I spent last night when I took my wife to dinner. And so you know how it is. And so check it out, therainmakingmagazine.com. Check it out if you're interested in enterprise-scale subscriptions. If you've got a law firm, send me a note through the podcast.

[00:19:49] I've got some discounted rates for large group sales. Let me know. And I don't want to turn this into a pitch, but I created a resource that I think is going to help you and help you reach your full potential. Thank you for listening, everybody. I really appreciate this. Thank you for your support of the show. Be sure to share this with other people. If you had a minute, go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify, wherever you listen to the show. Give us a nice five-star review. If there is a guest that you've heard on the show who said something that made a difference, please mention that guest by name.

[00:20:19] Also, check out our YouTube channel. We're on Instagram, even TikTok. But like, you know, I'm not going to dance, but it's on TikTok also, because if you keep business development top of mind. And if you don't have the budget, if you're not interested in the magazine, definitely go back through all the past shows in our easy format on the web or on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Take some time. There are some really creative ideas that I brought out through my guests on the show. I'm positive that's going to make a difference for you. Thank you for listening,

[00:20:48] and I appreciate your support of the show. Thank you for listening to The Rainmaking Podcast. For more information about our recruiting services for international law firms, visit our website at attorneysearchgroup.com. To inquire about having Scott speak at your next convention, conference, sales meeting, or executive retreat, visit therainmakingpodcast.com. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.