Today we are back with another great interview! We are talking with Betsy Sampson! We had the peasure of meeting her a MDMC a few weeks ago and we are happy ot have her on!
About Betsy: Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Sampson began her marbling journey after winning the Chancellor’s Award for Staff Excellence at UMSL, which came with a stipend. She used her winnings to take art classes and one of the media she chose to learn was paper marbling. What began as a fascination of marbled paper first seen in library books brought home as a child grew into a passion for art marbling. She opened MarbLou Art in 2023, a home-based studio where she creates original marbled papers and applies marbling techniques to a variety of objects.
Betsy’s plugs: https://www.centralprint.org/introduction-to-paper-marbling
Contact Betsy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-sampson-97808a6/
Twitter/X: EASampson
Instagram: EA_Sampson
The Marketing Gateway is a weekly podcast hosted by Sean in St. Louis (Sean J. Jordan, President of https://www.researchplan.com/) and featuring guests from the St. Louis area and beyond.
Every week, Sean shares insights about the world of marketing and speaks to people who are working in various marketing roles – creative agencies, brand managers, MarCom professionals, PR pros, business owners, academics, entrepreneurs, researchers and more!
The goal of The Marketing Gateway is simple – we want to build a connection between all of our marketing mentors in the Midwest and learn from one another! And the best way to learn is to listen.
And the next best way is to share!
For more episodes: https://www.themarketinggateway.com
Copyright 2025, The Research & Planning Group, Inc.
Transcript:
Sean Jordan (00:07)
Hey everyone, it’s Sean in St. Louis. Welcome to the Marketing Gateway. And boy, do I have a fun interview for you today? Because I got a chance to talk with E. A. Sampson, also known as Betsy Sampson, who is someone that I met at the Midwest Digital Marketing Conference a few weeks ago. And I was in the exhibitors area representing Marketing Gateway, and she was there too. And
She was doing something different from everybody else. She had art for sale. And I wandered over after a while and took a look because I I love to look at art. And I was really impressed by what she had because she has this wonderful technique that she uses that’s called marbling. And if you’re watching the video version of this podcast, you can see it because she’s gonna have it in the background. And if you are are listening, you can check out the show notes for a link to her Instagram and you can see her work. But it is really cool.
And I was impressed that she was at a marketing conference running an art booth because I’ve never seen that before. And so we struck up a conversation. I eventually said, you know what, with everything you’re doing here to represent yourself, to to build up your brand, ⁓ which is called Marblue Art, ⁓ you you’ve got to come and talk about what you’re doing on the podcast because I would so love to have you. So we have an awesome interview for you. She is so knowledgeable and so polished that you’re gonna really enjoy hearing what she has to say. So
Here we go. Here is Betsy Sampson.
Sean Jordan (01:32)
Well hey everyone, welcome to the marketing gateway. I’m Sean in St. Louis and with me today is Betsy Sampson from Marblu ⁓ Art, which is that is that that the correct way to say it, Betsy, Mar Marblue art. Okay. And I think you told me Marblu is a combination of the technique that you use and St. Louis, right?
Betsy Sampson (01:41)
More blue work, yes. Yes.
Right, so it’s a marbling studio in Saint Louis, yes.
Sean Jordan (01:53)
That’s awesome. And ⁓ we’ll talk a little bit about how Betsy and I met just a moment. But Betsy, I ask everybody when they come on the show to tell me something surprising that I don’t know is our first question. So anything you’d like to share at all, tell me something surprising.
Betsy Sampson (02:07)
Yeah, so I thought about this one was if you were wanted like more like the human head weighs nine pounds, that’s a quote from Jerry McGuire or something personal to me. And I thought it would be probably more fun to talk about my favorite author, and that is Jacques Papon, ⁓ which is not exactly he does some art, art of the chicken. It is one of his books. ⁓ so for those of you who aren’t familiar with him, he’s actually a cookbook author. And I have his autograph on two books.
And I love his work. He’s ninety years old and he has a very active Facebook and Instagram, which is kinda neat.
Sean Jordan (02:41)
Wow, that’s that’s pretty cool. So Art of the Chicken is one of his books.
Betsy Sampson (02:44)
Yeah.
Art of the Chicken is one of his books because he does paintings of chicken. He is he you know he’s just an amazing cook and chef, I should say chef, not cook. You know, he he’s a contemporary in some ways of Julia Child. He was has worked in many, many places. One of that he’s very proud of is that he was the executive chef ⁓ for Howard Johnson’s, which was an old ⁓ hotel and restaurant chain that was common ⁓
In the early days of motor travel here in the US. And so he does a lot of education, but he also did some art called The Art of the Chicken. It’s probably one of my favorite ones. It’s just chicken recipes, and it’s just great art to look at.
Sean Jordan (03:29)
I’m gonna have check that out. That sounds really cool. All right. Well, you know, on this series of the marketing gateway, we’re really focused on the St. Louis area. So tell me a little bit about how you came to live and work in the St. Louis area.
Betsy Sampson (03:41)
So I am originally from St. Louis and I did move away for a little while for family reasons. I moved back to St. Louis. I had already established a career in higher education in another city. And it was just a natural fit to come back here. We have plenty of colleges and universities. My I have what I call the ⁓ the sponsorship job to the to Marvel or Art, right? It gets lots of grants from my ⁓ day job at the University of Missouri St. Louis to help.
actually get it started. Now it it actually it funds itself, which is great. But to get started in my original career. So there are plenty of places here that I could find employment. And it was just a good idea for me to move back to St. Louis to be closer to my family.
Sean Jordan (04:28)
Fantastic. Well, what’s something about the Saint Louis area you wish other people knew?
Betsy Sampson (04:32)
Right. So there are lots of things, right? So I mean I love the museum district. I think that that is a great use of taxpayer dollars, our museum district, where we can make our art museum, our history museum, our zoo, our botanical garden, you know, on certain days and times free to everybody in our community. So that there are some people where when they are looking to they don’t maybe have as much money, you know, we can still all get them into
Some of these great places, you know, where we have learning experiences and culture that they can also appreciate. My second favorite one, and I would looked it up again today to make sure that we are still there. Yes, we are. I don’t ⁓ I is when I was started my journey, did a lot of pencil drawing. And one of my favorite things to draw is architecture. And in St. Louis, we have one of the largest concentrations of something called a flounder house. ⁓
And flounder houses were built in urban areas to maximize the space of the lot by putting the wall up the side of one of the edge of the lot and then the roof, it looks like almost like a half gable, like a half triangle. So almost looks like a house has been cut in half. these are called flounder houses. We have many examples of these in Old North St. Louis down near Seulard. If I see one, I have to stop and look. ⁓
But they’re really neat, and the St. Louis City did a really great survey of these about 10 years ago. So we were able to catalog where they are. And it’s just a great piece of architecture. If you think we think of mid-century modern as those houses that are those ranch houses with slightly open floor plans and sunken living rooms, but a flounder house, right, may have been mid-century modern a hundred years ago, because those were commonly built in the 19th century.
Sean Jordan (06:31)
Wow, I I’ve seen the houses you’re describing. I never knew the name of them and now I’m not gonna ever be able to go past one without thinking about that.
Betsy Sampson (06:33)
Yes. They’re called ⁓ Flounder
House. I know. They’ve got a really, a really interesting name because it it kind of mirrors a flounder fish.
Sean Jordan (06:47)
Yeah, that’s that’s fascinating. Well, hey, something else surprising. I did not know we had flounder houses in St. Louis. So there we go. Well, Betsy, we first met ⁓ a few weeks ago at the Midwest Digital Marketing Conference, and ⁓ I was there representing Marketing Gateway, and you were there representing ⁓ Marblu Art, which was unusual because almost everybody else that had a booth was there repping like, you know, institution or a vendor or something like that, but you were actually
Betsy Sampson (06:52)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Sean Jordan (07:16)
You had your art on sale. You were you were actually running a booth, which you don’t normally see that at marketing conferences. So
Betsy Sampson (07:19)
Well good. Exactly. Well, no,
but but we have a wonderful director of Midwest Digital Marketing, Perry Drake. ⁓ so again, I am a work colleague of Perry. He was aware of my art and he had for a couple of years before I actually came to the conference. This was my second time participating at the conference, and said, You know, I like to support local artists. I want to have things other than people that are just
Talking about their marketing and their marketing tools. So would you come and have a table? And it it is, depending on the timing, it is a little difficult for me ⁓ to get there sometimes. ⁓ Previously I now have had a little evolution in my business thought. I and finally last year I went ahead and did my table. And then this year I did it again. And it is.
little bit refreshing to have something that’s completely different. And I do get to meet people and sometimes you know get some great questions about what I’m doing to market myself that makes me think through, okay, am I doing things that are appropriate for me or is this a per a good way for me to branch out? Right. So for example, I might quick questions about do you have a newsletter? Where’s your website? I don’t have a formal website right now. I have to think through
my time bal my work time balance, time work balance, right? As to where can I put that energy right now that’s going to give me probably the best foot forward right now with my art.
Sean Jordan (08:57)
And you know, before we go any further, I think it would actually be helpful if you explained to our audience, as you did to me at the MDNC, what this technique is that you’re practicing with marbling and the kind of art it creates. And I I can see it behind you. You’ve got it ⁓ behind you there, but it’s really quite special and I I have not seen this technique very often. So ⁓ tell us a little bit about Marvel.
Betsy Sampson (09:03)
Yeah.
Right. Yeah.
So paper marbling or an abru art is another term that is used. This is actually a centuries-old art. ⁓ It can be traced back some of it to the eighth century in China. Then there is Suminagashi, which is a Japanese version. But what we do is we take a paint that we have thinned out and we float it on thickened water in trays that look kind of like cake pans or a
slightly higher jelly roll pan. It doesn’t have to be a very deep pan. If somebody and people may have seen this on social media where somebody’s dipping their arm or a shoe and it looks like a bucket, you can use those. But for the traditionally it’s a very looks more like a a cake pan or a jelly roll pan. Where we thicken some water, flip paint on top. We have sets of tools then that we can drag through the paint to create different designs. So the one behind me used two different tools.
to create this ⁓ pattern. And then we transferred the pattern. It can be to anything porse. Traditionally, it is paper. ⁓ it can be transferred to cork, to wood, to canvas, to fabrics like silks and cottons and polyesters. And I just had a workshop and I can’t think of the name of the fabric, but another quilting artist brought in some very specialized fabric and we tested it out and we had some fun in the workshop with just something new.
To be able to put the patterns onto. ⁓ So it started, you know, the Japanese version, it was background to poetry. So it was really to enhance poetry in calligraphy. It’s been used in legal documents. So there are versions of our money that had marbling in the background to keep it from being counterfeited. It’s been used on the ends of books.
It’s really kind of fun if you are a fan. I haven’t looked at Sherlock Holmes, but I bet you’ll see them there. But if you’re a fan of Bridgerton or if you’re a fan of the new other Bennett sister, a lot of Mary Bennett’s books, if you look at them, they have marbling on top because as it’s moved into Europe, it became a gilded craft. And then in this craft, ⁓ they started using the papers to cover books and to cover
kind of book binding and to help in the repair of books. And then eventually they became into papers and books. And it is still widely used in book binding and in book arts in Europe and in the US. Mostly what I do here, although I do cover books with it, I’ve covered boxes with it. If you see my table, you will see those. But I do marble other things like coasters. So we take the paper and put it on pens or pencils.
Other and we have other uses for it. Scarves are very
Sean Jordan (12:11)
Yeah. And I I bought a pack of the pencils from you and there’s instructions in there even on how to properly sharpen them because the paper is delicate and can be I I guess kind of torn off of the pencils if you use a a a a hand sharpener. So ⁓ i I mean it’s it’s it’s really neat. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Betsy Sampson (12:25)
Right. Well, no, you can use the hand sharpener. It’s just that a children,
it’s not actually the paper is very sturdy. The paper I use on there is very sturdy. But what happens is it’s like if you’ve got a child that’s trying to use it, it can be very difficult for them. And so it’s more to make sure you can use either electric or if they’re going to be using a hand, it is going to be difficult for a smaller child because that paper is a little strong. It yeah, it’s it’s actually a little bit of the opposite. So I may, if I’m getting feedback that that’s not clear.
Sean Jordan (12:32)
Okay.
okay.
Yeah.
Betsy Sampson (12:55)
I may have to rewrite my instructions and that’s okay.
Sean Jordan (12:57)
No, I
just I I read it and I thought I’m not taking these out of the package until I make sure that I’m following the directions correctly because they’re they’re really beautiful. And ⁓ you know, I I was ⁓ very interested as well because a lot of times when you see people that are showing off art, it’s art that’s you know, ⁓ subject art or portrait art or things like that. And and yours is kind of by nature, you know, it’s a little bit more in the abstract quality, but it’s
Betsy Sampson (13:01)
Well
Sean Jordan (13:23)
It’s really nice and it’s really it it looks very real and it’s not something that looks like a computer could generate it. I mean, it looks very much like a human being did it.
Betsy Sampson (13:32)
Yeah, no, in fact, when I I pre I actually have a ⁓ talk, it’s about 45 minutes called The Art, Some of the Science and the History of Paper Marbling. And I put into Microsoft Copilot some instructions to recreate the Chinese version because there it’s so rare to have a piece of that. You know, it’s not available on the internet. There isn’t a way, but I’ve got some descriptions, you know, and it splits something out. I was like,
We’re just gonna go with the spirit that everything in the presentation is original work to my studio and not try and recreate something. So, yes, it can ⁓ there are some people that have tried digital versions of it, but really the human hand is is essential for this to be a good work. And that’s important. And it’s important in places such as Turkey, where this is actually folded in with the Islamic religion.
Right. So it’s it’s part of their religious practice. And so in that case you we really don’t wanna be putting in a lot of digital work or AI or anything else.
Sean Jordan (14:35)
And you know, A AI was such a big topic at the conference that ⁓ you know, you were kind of I won’t I don’t want to say in opposition to that because you weren’t, you know, sitting in a soapbox saying, I don’t like AI, but I mean you were there representing this very human form of art that was quite different from, you know, the AI applications that were being talked about for marketing. And so I thought that was one of the really neat things about and and you know, a lot of respect to Perry Drake for inviting me to be there, of course, because he he did a great job running that conference. He’s been a guest on the show too, but
Betsy Sampson (14:42)
Yeah.
Sean Jordan (15:04)
⁓ just the way you were able to represent the humanity of what we all do as well, I think was just an awesome ⁓ presence that you were able to have at that convention.
Betsy Sampson (15:14)
Well great. Yeah, I have to say though as a side note, I I appreciate AI. And there are some things that again, you know, running through a statement that I have what looks like a cake pan, ⁓ what I call the cake pan statement, or other things that I might say, or you know, having that biography that you want to run through isn’t making sense. AI is fantastic, right? There are some things that you know, hey, can you go out and search here for these five things that will
Sean Jordan (15:18)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Betsy Sampson (15:42)
kind of cut down that time of me, you know, getting stuck and going down the rabbit holes, right? Yeah. So there are great pieces to AI that can even help me as an artist. However, you know, my art itself is all hand done. That’s true.
Sean Jordan (15:58)
Yeah. Well, so one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the show was to talk a little bit about what it’s like to go out there and represent yourself and kind of in that entrepreneurial spirit, the show off the art that you’ve produced and to market that. And you’re kind of having to do it in a B2C sort of sense where you’re talking directly to the people that are buying. I mean, you’re not showing these in a gallery when you’re at a conference like this anyway. ⁓ you’re you’re talking directly to the people that are buying. So what are some resources that helped you learn how to market your craft?
Betsy Sampson (16:26)
Yeah, so this is really interesting, is that St. Louis County Library has a wonderful small business ⁓ section, right? And so the librarian there, shout out Regina, Regina Crandall. ⁓ she is the ⁓ small business librarian at the Clark Family Branch on Limburg. She put together a course and it’s called I can’t remember it’s but it is about marketing your craft and it is for people that are trying to have booze at.
Craft fairs or think through, you know, I have marbled art. There are people that crochet, there are people that make woodworking and ceramics. How is it that we can get out in the community? So part of it is finding those. So, for example, lots of high schools have boutiques and flea markets and things where you can come and have a booth. That’s great, right? So finding them sometimes is you can eventually find one. They’re not that hard.
⁓ with a quick Google search and try and get on mailing lists to sign up. But then once you’ve got that space, what do you do with it? Okay. So we have to think just like any other business, we need logos. Do you have a color? Do you have what is that design on your business card? ⁓ and how do you go about doing that? Because a lot of times you know somebody like me, ⁓ I have you know entertainment budget is now gone to
my artwork, right? So we have very small budgets. We don’t have limit, you know, unlimited budgets. Are there tools out there like something like a Canva? You know, what are what are my options with something like Canva? Do I go ahead and pay? Is there a free one? Is there a subscription that I have with my library card? Are there things like that that I can do then to help me build a fairly simple logo? Right. I’m not gonna at this point
don’t have the funds to go pay someone to make one for me or hire somebody that I am paying a salary to to just do all of my marketing, right? That that doesn’t quite work that way. So again, finding that logo, finding, you know, if you look at a lot of my stuff, the pattern on there is called Chevron and it’s done in pink and black, right? So I decided that’s going to be my theme pattern for now. So that is on my business card. That is on my banner. So again, build
How do you build a banner to you if you notice at the front I have a giant banner that says Marble Art, fine marble paper marbled art by EA Sampson? Okay. So again, putting all of those pieces together thoughtfully. You know, how you know what am I putting on top of that table to make sure that you understand my pencils, you know, were ten dollars for six, right? How do I have that labeled? If you notice it’s all pink and black chevron, you know.
I’ve got specific containers that I put those in. So there’s it kind of goes down that granular, right? Then thinking about your website, thinking about how can I hook it up to Google sites? Do I have enough of a brick-to-mortar presence where I can do that? Or should I not do that for now? ⁓ and and that’s just that piece. So that there are lots of other online resources. ⁓ I don’t know if you know Square, you know, was started by an artist for.
Because that artist wanted to be able to process payments, but not at the volume of a regular, you know, larger business. ⁓ so we have things like Etsy. Everybody’s familiar with Etsy. And then there are some other things like Zazzle, ⁓ Fine Art America. And I think graphic design has almost like a LinkedIn one where you can put pieces up and solicit proposals, right? So we’ve got these websites like this that can help us. And then because one of the most common questions I get is do you have an Etsy site?
And I personally don’t right now. And that was a business decision in that if you’re going to be a great seller on Etsy, you’ve got to have the time to respond as quickly as possible, as well as to be able to mail your you’re going to be mailing your art on a regular basis unless you’re doing something digital. So I want to be mailing things that that I’ve made by hand, you know, that I’ve handmade. Well, to do that, I’ve got to be able to then have that account.
With the post office or with UPS or somebody that I am going to on a regular basis. And for right now, because I do have a full-time job, that is not necessarily a great option for me. Now, if I were retired working part-time, if there were other parameters, that definitely would be a great business decision to be aligned with some of those other services that would either take my artwork and put it on a product that then
where I would get a cut or to be able to have a service that shows my work that I can then mail off to someone.
Sean Jordan (21:27)
And it sounds like you’re putting a lot of thought too into the kind of experience you want your customers to have because you don’t wanna be the person that’s unresponsive. You don’t wanna be the person that takes on too many projects that you can’t handle. You you really want them to have a good experience with whatever you’re able to sell them.
Betsy Sampson (21:43)
Right. And and I think that that’s very important because you again, just like any other business, right? Poor customer service, poor response time. You know, this person, okay, they didn’t have they didn’t listen to me, right? So for example, I had somebody that came, I have to work on it, but somebody that came to ⁓ a fair that I was participating in and she saw something out of campus, she said, if I could have that in the large paper, well you bet I’m gonna make that in the large paper.
Probably two or three versions. I have her contact information. Hello, you know, we talked about this. I now have this available for you. So it’s that listening to the customer, right? Just like anybody else. It is that response time. ⁓ that is, even though, you know, again, I have this really cool product that looks pretty, there is a person behind it. And that is critical just like it is in any other ⁓ with any other type of product.
Sean Jordan (22:42)
And and you told me when we talked at the booth that one of your advantages is that you’re really outgoing. So you can be that person who’s able to rep what you’re doing and talk to people.
Betsy Sampson (22:49)
Yeah. Hey. Right.
And so it was interesting is that you know people like look at a lot of artists and they’re like, well, they’re kind of introverts. Well, not not every artist is an introvert, right? Not and we all appreciate that time where we can go get into our heads and work on our stuff, but not every artist is an introvert. I just saw, I seriously doubt that Erin, I can’t remember her last name. ⁓ an artist last week I went to a talk, and you know, if
If she were to tell me that she was a pure introvert, I would be very shocked. I think she’s like me where she’s got these periods where she can go and she can do her art, but at the same time loves to talk about it, ⁓ loves to go out and work with other people ⁓ concerning her art.
Sean Jordan (23:36)
Well, what about when you’re thinking about the products that you want to develop or the pricing? ⁓ what are some of the principles you have in terms of making sure that you’re matching what you’re producing to the people that are gonna buy it?
Betsy Sampson (23:47)
Yeah, so there are a couple of things here. ⁓ one is is that you when I started this is that I wanted to do some make sure that I always had something that was accessible to any price point, price range, right, or budget. So I’m a huge art fan in general. So going to things like St. Louis Art Fair versus maybe Shaw Art Fair versus the Alternative Art Fair in Maplewood, right? And so you’re
Sometimes you see the same person with the same pricing in two of the three spaces. That is not uncommon. but you know, again, people will come away with, and I’m not gonna pick on which ones, but geez, that’s a little pricey. It’s fun to go look, but I am never going to buy something there. Now I will tell you, if you look enough, you will be able to find something in the less than five in the 40 to 60 dollars.
Right. It may not be to your taste, but there are some things out there. Okay. But I do want to make sure that I’ve got something that is an accessible price point. ⁓ the ⁓ other things I look at are what are other people selling nationally? Again, Etsy is a great way to go out. Okay, so for a larger piece of marble paper, what is it selling for on Etsy? Okay, that you’re going to have a slightly different price point than me, but but not by much.
Right. And then what are other marblers doing? The marbling community in the US is extremely supportive. ⁓ I messed up my silk a couple of weeks ago. And I went to our Facebook page. Hey, this is what happened. And when I say I got lots of responses, and I get responses from somebody who is considered an expert in the marbling industry, somebody that’s well respected. And then I was able to make some corrections.
And go on and put this on silk. So I do see a lot of technique that other people use. I will be ⁓ going to a marveling meetup in a few weeks. I’m very excited about that in another city where I will meet other marvelers, learn a few things, and we will probably talk about, you know, do you do coasters and what are you charging for coasters and what kinds of fairs or boutique style fundraisers or
farmers markets, are you able to sell at? Right? I mean that that does become part of the discussion in those that are selling things.
Sean Jordan (26:20)
Well, how do you choose where to sell your items? I know you’ve kind of alluded to you have to be selective. So how ⁓ yeah, how do you make that decision?
Betsy Sampson (26:27)
So right. I mean yeah,
right, no you know your idea. So one of the so again, outside you have to have a tent. I am a very small one woman show, right? And so putting up a 10 by 10 foot tent with you know 40 pound weights on it every weekend doesn’t exactly sound great to me, but there are lots of opportunities where I can be inside. So places where I am inside.
Sean Jordan (26:31)
Mm-hmm.
Betsy Sampson (26:53)
generally are my preference. I am going to go for a tent this summer because I’ve got ⁓ a great idea. I’ve put my marveling on fans, right? It’s the 250th anniversary of the US. I’ve got lots of red, white, and blue ones that I’m hoping to take out in the next few weeks. So some of those ⁓ places I might have to have a tent and ask for help from a friend that’s willing that’s been supportive of my business and help helping me put up the tent and make sure.
making sure it’s secure. ⁓ again, places cost money. So there are some places where the price point to get in versus what I’m selling my things and what I can realistically make might not make sense for me. But there are lots of free opportunities. I often joke that one of my best store friends is my car, right? So if I’ve got product in my car for one reason or another and a friend says to me, hey
You know, I think I’m gonna need some note cards and some of my friends do this. If they’re in the trunk of the car, we just can pop it open and they can have a look right there. They’re not always in there, but but that happens. ⁓ the other places that people like Perry, it’s amazing that I have gotten more than one invitation like that. Where and in those cases, if it’s free, I’m going to make it work because I am not putting out that upfront cost. ⁓
I have a friend, her name is Lauren Johnson, she’s a real estate agent, and she sold a commercial property and she did kind of a partnership where she got her clients to come in to this commercial property. It was kind of a med spa ⁓ spa type place where you could get facials, ⁓ etc. And you know, bring us in, and so there’s an extra room. And in this extra room, if you were a friend that had a small business, you can bring your things along.
And set up a little bit of space in there. That taught me a lot to make sure that I’ve actually got almost like a little kit worth of items because I didn’t bring everything that you saw on that table, but I can bring a small selection for an event like that, and then sell a few things right there. At the same time, have good time with some friends, right? that that’s like kind of the best of both worlds. Is that you bring some things, you meet new people, they might want to buy things, but then you see some old.
and you have some visit and then those of my friends that do like things like my note cards or they do like full sheets of paper we can talk about that and if there is something specific that they would want me to make for them.
Sean Jordan (29:32)
You know, ⁓ one of the guests we’ve had on the show recently was Adam Collins, who runs bearded board games and he and his son go out and they do stands. They were actually across the hall at one point from you from at the entrepreneur fair. You might have you might have left at that point, but they were there for a little bit. And Adam said they go out to farmers markets and they sell board games out there. ⁓ which is and and and one of the things we talked about in the episode was he doesn’t have any competition there. So just the novelty of being a board game seller.
Betsy Sampson (29:32)
Yeah.
I know Ellen.
Fine.
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Sean Jordan (29:59)
you know, at a farmer’s market means people are more likely to come over and look and see what he’s got to offer. So have you found that being kind of the only artist in different places can help you to kinda get a little bit more exposure?
Betsy Sampson (30:11)
Yeah, a little bit. ⁓ and then even so, even with that, it it’s it looks different than some of the other pieces that are out there. So again, having I think the most important part for that is to have that opening statement. And so if I catch somebody’s eye, hey, do you know about paper marbling or marbling art? And and then getting somebody to come up and start that conversation. I do that a lot. ⁓ just catching somebody’s eye, getting them over. Sometimes they don’t
Sean Jordan (30:18)
Sure.
Betsy Sampson (30:38)
And and most of the time they’re not gonna purchase. And some people do a circle around and they come back and then they think, you know what, this is very special because it is unique. It is physically, just so you know, it is physically impossible to make two pieces exactly alike. that’s been established because no matter how hard we try with a human hand, we just can’t get it to work that way. so yes, it is yeah, there is not a lot of competition. I can get draw attention to it.
What I loved about when I did the class at the library, I was given this space that backed up to a stage. So I was allowed to use the front of the stage, right? And so I was able to take my larger papers. And so for those of you who don’t know, that’s about 19 by 21 by 25 inches are the larger papers. So they’re pretty substantial. And so I was able to take my drying rack, which is basically a clothes clothes rack, put that up.
on the stage where I could really draw people to my stop, right? ⁓ I hope a lot of times I try and put when I’ve got my smaller rack that sits on my table, papers that I think are going to catch somebody’s eye. I try and put like right up front. I mean, not that they’re not all beautiful, but there are some that are a little bit more striking than others. ⁓ Putting one of those, my most popular one, which is called the party, I always have at least two or three parties on me, right?
Putting that piece it’s called the party up front, because that is a popular piece that people like to buy. ⁓ making sure that I’ve got those pieces there. So yes, and so I have, you know, I’m starting to put in applications and consider farmers markets as well.
Sean Jordan (32:22)
That’s fantastic. Well, you know, one of the things you have to do ⁓ about this particular style of art is educate people a little bit because it is something that you don’t see every day. And so you have to go a little beyond an elevator pitch though. And I know you and I had a discussion. I know ⁓ my assistant Holly, who was there, she came over and talked to you for a little bit. A lot of the other people that were there did as well. And you you were educating all of us about this marbling technique. So how do you make sure that people walk away with a good understanding of what you’re doing beyond just that, you know, quick pitch of, hey, I’m here selling this product.
Betsy Sampson (32:52)
Yeah, so again, yeah, we I’ve got the cake pan speech, but it can go further in there as you I mean, I’ve given you probably facts today you didn’t know. ⁓ on the side, I I do teach marbling workshops as well. So one of the first things, do you teach this? Right? Because I’ve seen this in Italy on a tour. Do you teach it? Right. I I get that all of the time. And so it made sense at one point to find somewhere to partner. ⁓
Sean Jordan (33:00)
Mm-hmm.
Betsy Sampson (33:22)
Yeah, I was not going to be doing this out of my studio. ⁓ but I wanted to find a place that I could teach this. And so I do work with a group called Central Print in North St. Louis. so I have a workshop scheduled actually in August. We might want to plug that at the end. ⁓ so it it’s people have those opportunities. I had an opportunity through a an art gallery slash training shop called Graphika. They are in Webster Groves.
And they do a third Thursday series where they bring in an artist. That’s the artist I was talking about earlier was her third Thursday talk. And I had the opportunity to do that talk. And so through these, I’ve done a lot of research. So I I know a lot about the art, like I said, the art, some of the science and the history of paper marbling. And so depending on the questions that I get asked beyond my initial pitch.
I can then, you know, that really is a conversation starter to move into one of the three areas. If somebody says, I’ve seen this in Italy, you know, we can talk about the history and how things got to Italy. Or if somebody says, So you’re floating paint on water, right? We can start to talk a little bit about the science behind how that works. ⁓ So there it’s really knowing a lot of and learning, and I still continue to learn, right, about the subject.
And so just having a knowledge base where understanding that my opening pitch is really the start of the conversation, not the expectation that that’s going to do the whole all of the work. So I might say, ⁓ you do you teach? Well, yes, yeah, I have a workshop scheduled. If you’d like more information, yeah, please leave your email address and I will let you know about it. And I think through a couple of these, I know ⁓
that I have picked up for the workshop, people that have seen me either at Grafika or that have just signed up at a ⁓ boutique or a fair that I participated in.
Sean Jordan (35:28)
Wow. Well, you know, it’s it’s interesting because so many of the things that we’ve talked about in this discussion have just really been at the heart of what we do in marketing. And that is we understand our product really well. We understand our audience, we understand their sales channels, we understand understand how to match what we are offering to the right kinds of people. You talked about branding, you’ve talked about making sure you have a strong presence, you talked about education and extensions into other things. I mean, you’ve got it all covered in this one interview, and ⁓ you know.
I I I think taking a class with you just to learn about marveling, you’d probably pick up a lot of these things as well. So anyone that’s interested in this, ⁓ you know, now you now you know where to learn.
Betsy Sampson (36:05)
Right. Yeah, you know. So
because Yeah, so yeah. My workshop the workshop that I do is is about two and a half hours. And in there, we squeeze in, you know, if I if you were to go to a serious professional workshop, we squeeze in in in two and a half hours what they’re gonna teach you in about three days, right? So yeah, it is it’s more of the in what I like to c you know, I think Eckertz calls it infotainment or edutainment, right?
Sean Jordan (36:32)
Yeah.
Betsy Sampson (36:34)
Where you you you you’re going out to pick an apple, right? It’s very entertaining, it’s a whole lot of fun, you without having to necessarily understand how to get that tree to adulthood. I mean you’re gonna learn a little bit about it, but you’re not gonna be the person out there in October that’s trimming it, you know, whatever they have to do in October and what they’re doing in December and what they’re doing in March to make sure that when you go out on the 25th of September, you’re going to get absolutely beautiful apples.
Right. It’s kind of the same concept. You’re gonna come in, you’re gonna make a couple of you know very pretty pieces of work, but not some of the background it takes to get there. Yeah. And then I do all the planet for you too. Yeah.
Sean Jordan (37:15)
That’s good. Yeah, and that’s a fantastic analogy. Well, Betsy,
it’s been great talking with you. And we’re we’ll of course put up any ⁓ anything that you’d like us to put up in the show notes for how people can find you and where they can meet you too, if you’re gonna be at any shows coming up. But I wanna ask I always ask every guest at the end of our interview, if you have anything you’d like to plug, here’s your chance. So what would you like to plug today?
Betsy Sampson (37:22)
Absolutely.
So yeah, so I do have an upcoming workshop. It is August 29th from 1 to 3 30 at Central Print. that is definitely confirmed. I’m working on a couple of appearances, places to go this summer that are still not completely 100% confirmed yet. but this one is confirmed 1 to 3 30 at Central Print at centralprint.org. And it’s called introduction to paper marbling. And we go through what are known as the foundation patterns. So some patterns that
most of the work that you see if you’re looking at marbling ⁓ on social media or anywhere else, that they start with one of these patterns and that’s where we start in the Intreta Paper Marbling class.
Sean Jordan (38:22)
Fantastic. And if they want to find any of your work for Marblu art, where can they find that?
Betsy Sampson (38:29)
It’s at EA underscore Samson on Instagram. So right now I don’t have a fully working website. It’s baby steps, right? ⁓ baby steps. And right now I think I chose you at one point I I looked at you know doing web web design work and those kinds of things. And right now I prefer to really be perfecting my craft, making sure that I have enough inventory and to go out to places and to meet people and talk about my art.
Sean Jordan (38:32)
All right.
Betsy Sampson (38:58)
rather than sit behind a screen you know that people can purchase from.
Sean Jordan (39:04)
Well, Betsy, thanks so much for being on the marketing gateway. It’s been a pleasure. I feel like I’ve learned a ton just in this half hour.
Betsy Sampson (39:07)
Absolutely. Good.
Great.
Sean Jordan (39:13)
What a pleasure that interview was. And Betsy, thank you so much for being on the show. I mean, I just I really appreciate ⁓ how Betsy’s able to go out there and, you know, represent not just herself and her art, but this whole idea of marbling is so cool. And I I I love when she’s talking about how people maybe they’ve seen this somewhere else in the world when they were on vacation or when they were traveling, and they connect to it in a in a real way because this is art.
When you first see it, you kind of look at it and go, that’s interesting. And when you walk up and really get a better look at it, you see how detailed it is and how unusual and different and handmade it is from any other kind of art that you’re used to seeing. It really kind of grabs you. And it stands out in a way that ⁓ she is very happy to explain in a really non-confrontational, educational way that makes you feel like, you know, hey, there’s this whole part of art that I maybe didn’t even know existed that.
is really cool and really neat and again, which is is made with human hands. I I love it. And Betsy, one of the things that ⁓ we appreciate so much about you coming on is that you were able to educate us about the whole of marketing. So thanks again for that. And ⁓ any other entrepreneurs or people that are involved and repping themselves, we’d love to have you on or anyone else. And ⁓ you can go to the marketing gateway dot com, click sign up to be a guest and we’d love to have you on the show. But I also want to encourage you as well
Check out Betsy’s work. Marblue Art is the name of her studio. ⁓ you can find her at EA underscore Samson on Instagram. You can also check out the link that she provided in the interview for the workshop that she has coming up, and we’ll we’ll of course have that in the show notes as well. So it’s been a pleasure. Thanks so much, and we’re gonna have even more great interviews coming up with.
All kinds of great marketing mentors from the St. Louis area. So I’m Sean in St. Louis. This has been the Marketing Gateway, and we will see you next time.
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