Meet the founder of the online mentoring and coaching platform, Ceri Hand

From her experience of running a successful commercial art gallery to becoming Associate Director at Simon Lee Gallery and Director of Programmes at Somerset House Trust, London, Ceri Hand, is championing a more holistic support framework for creative practitioners and professionals to achieve their goals.

Ceri’s 20+ years of experience working in the commercial and public art realms have inspired her to share her arts industry expertise and guidance to artists and creative professionals via her online coaching, mentoring, courses and community platform.

Can you summarise for me what Ceri Hand offers and who your target audience/client is? 

We provide arts industry expertise and guidance to artists and creative professionals through online coaching, mentoring, courses and communities.

We help creatives overcome their fears, take risks, get better results, connect with new people, reach new audiences and earn more money doing what they love.

We are committed to ensuring creatives make significant changes in their creative careers. We ensure they have access to the knowledge, tools and mindset necessary to reach their goals and reap the benefits of their creativity.

You started Artist Mentor in 2014. By 2015 you had worked with over 150 clients as well as well respected arts organisations such as the New Art Gallery and The Photographers Gallery. What would you say makes you, and the service you provide, most appealing to your clients? 

I think the mentoring service I provided, is appealing because it’s about seeing the world through the artist's lens first, then zooming out to see the bigger picture and identify the right roadmap for that artist together. The artist or creative professional is in control, they participate in a deep, rewarding exchange aimed solely at helping them take a giant stride forward in their work and life. They pay for a service from an experienced, knowledgeable, trusted arts insider, who gives them honest feedback on their work and achievements to date, with laser insights into an industry that can be confusing and lacking in transparency.

It’s often the first time the person has had total focused support on their hopes, dreams, fears and anxieties. That decision to be open, intimate, vulnerable in a confidential safe space creates a shift, even before we get under the skin of the professional development goals and plan of action.

I trained as an artist, so I understand the language of art, of creativity, and the challenges they encounter by being brilliant outsiders, and the mindset and resilience that is required to make the work and put it into the world.

I have a sixth sense when it comes to understanding their work and what they are capable of. So it starts with the work, what’s possible, and then we break it down into manageable, bite size chunks that help the individual reach their full potential and goals.

You established your own commercial gallery in 2008. What would you say were the biggest pros and cons of running your own space, and was this the first time you established a business?

The biggest pros were working with the artists, my team, my backers (who remain lifelong friends and mentors to me), and the collectors, curators, writers, press, and gallerist peers who formed part of our gallery network. Being part of an amazing creative community, where you are all trying to introduce new ideas and spearhead change is exciting and rewarding.

Making exhibitions, helping artists produce work for museums, public realm, publishing books, making performances, selling their artwork, is all something I love doing.

The biggest challenge of running a commercial gallery is the vast levels of money it requires to run the space, produce the shows and attend all the art fairs, provide storage, and basic overheads. Commercial galleries are hungry ghosts and the old gallery model is pretty challenging for people who don’t come from wealthy backgrounds. It’s rare for gallerists to earn a decent living for themselves for the first 15 years! It can be pretty lonely.

Prior to setting up my own gallery I had worked in the arts, but running charities and publicly funded galleries but fundraising, marketing, selling the vision of the brand has always been part of my job.

On reflection I have always been creatively entrepreneurial, from a young age I was raising money to Save the Swans, selling homemade perfume to my neighbours, setting up the first school magazine and writing and selling my own short stories and books.

Having worked for over three decades in the art world, you decided to fully commit to running Artist mentor in 2020. Since then, your business has continued to grow rapidly. How have you found navigating the duties that come with running a successful business and being a founder whilst also offering your services?

This is a great question! This year has probably been my most challenging. I am transitioning from providing 1-2-1 services to 1-2-many. Over the last year I have launched two group coaching programmes, personally provided coaching and mentoring services to hundreds of clients, provided a group of Associates with scores of referrals, staged free Subscriber In Conversation events to hundreds of creative clients, done dozens of public lectures and workshops, written a free Newsletter to thousands of subscribers called #Beat the Block and hosted a blog Elevation that shares interviews with Creative Professionals. I have also written a new intensive course which has taken me months and achieved my PCC Coaching accreditation from the International Coaching Federation. I took on a new member of my team, the brilliant Lucy Murphy, as my Development Manager.

So I haven't done much else! I have had to stay focused on my goal of trying to help as many people as possible and knuckle down and do the work before the end of the year.

However, my investment of time and energy has really been focused on making this transition so next year we can help more people, without being so reliant on me!

I love working with kind, helpful people and so I’m excited to build the team this year and have my group of smart, knowledgeable and fun people to work with!

As a result of your high demand, Artist Mentor will be re-launching in Janurary 2023 under your name, Ceri Hand. Can you tell me about the relaunch? 

Yes, I decided to change the name as it’s no longer just artists we work with. We work across a broad spectrum of creatives and creative professionals, all over the world.

We went through a proper branding exercise with the whole team and kept circling back to my name. My surname Hand clearly suggests creativity and communication. I am always encouraging our clients and creative community to be authentic, bold and brave, so I thought it’s about time I put my money where my mouth is! I have a reputation in the business, and our business is all about providing a helping hand. And lastly it feels like an ode to my parents, who are no longer with me.

So under the umbrella Ceri Hand, we will be helping as many creatives as possible through our mentoring and coaching services, provided by myself and a crack team of creative mentors and coaches. We will provide group coaching programmes, an incredible new community for mid-career artists and a range of courses.

The first one we will launch in January is a new intensive online course How to Price and Sell Your Art: 5 Steps to Successful Sales, which is a self-study course for contemporary artists who want to start earning a living from their work.

I’ve put everything I know into this course from working in the contemporary art world for 30 years, and I know that people don’t get taught this stuff at art school or from searching online. And I’m going to be providing. Buyers will get access to the course via computer desktop or the App., so they can access all the course videos, worksheets and the monthly group Q&A sessions with me anytime, anywhere.

We will launch the new community for mid-career artists in February and I will launch a Mastering Mentoring group coaching programme in Spring.

We’ve really just responded to needs over the last two years and I’m amazed at how it’s grown but also delighted, because our core principles of being empowering, playful, compassionate, curious, inspiring and resourceful are all bearing fruit for others.

So I’m delighted that we can add value doing something we love so much!

Supporting other women to succeed in getting where they want to be in their careers is hugely important to you as a result of your own professional journey. What would you say is the most important piece of advice to share with other women who want to ensure they get to where they want to be in their careers?

You add value. You are valuable. You don’t have to figure it out alone. You deserve more. You can get more. You don’t have to fit in to them-shaped box. Difference makes a difference.

Following on from the previous question, can you tell me what keeps you driven and determined to achieve your goals as a professional?

I’m a creative person, I love new territories and I love learning new things. I’m prepared to feel uncomfortable to experience something new and I like helping people. I particularly like helping people who get underestimated or overlooked in society and enabling them to achieve things they initially thought impossible. I get a real buzz out of that. I like being useful.

What would be your main piece of advice for other coaches and mentors who are looking to start a business? 

Get a coach! Seriously, it’s the best investment you can make in yourself. I have my own coach and I have two groups for coaching supervision. It’s hard to establish a new business alone. And every stage of your business development will throw up something new. Another level, another devil as they say! So be prepared to invest in your mindset, as that is what will help you make money at the end of the day, not just your knowledge, skills and tools. The bigger and better you become, the more support you need to help get the best out of your brain and business!

Where do you see the re-launched Ceri Hand online platform and community in 2 years time? 

We will have helped 100,000 creatives to make more money doing what they love and make an impact through their work!