Jim Connolly Marketing

The Andy Warhol guide to business success

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andy warhol, campbells soup, marketing, small business

Photos by Jon Tyson & Girl with red hat

Today, I’d like to share one of the most valuable lessons in growing a super-successful businesses with you. It comes from an unusual source: Andy Warhol. And it starts with a quick look at the story behind his masterpiece, Campbell’s Soup Cans!

Here’s the story along with a proven way for you and your business to succeed.

When Warhol’s collection was first exhibited in 1962, very few people attended. The exhibit was arranged by West Coast art dealer, Irving Blum. It was Warhol’s first solo exhibition.

Those who attended the exhibition at the Ferus Gallery either made fun of the art, dismissed it or ignored it. Very little art was sold. It was a huge failure. And to make matters worse, Warhol saw and heard their reaction.

Blum decided to buy the Campbell’s Soup Cans canvasses. He paid Warhol $100 a month for 10 months. Just $1000. Though many believed it was $1000 far more than they were worth.

Of course, despite his disastrous, first solo exhibition, Warhol refused to quit. He kept on creating his art. He also kept on promoting it; getting his work in front of prospective buyers, believing that if the right people saw it, they’d see it for what it was. Art that would change the landscape for ever.

Here’s how Warhol turned things around.

Warhol did the work required

Instead of working from a studio like every other artist, he worked from what he called The Factory. This was a very deliberate strategy. He created as much art as he could and took every opportunity to showcase his work.

Andy Warhol, campbells soup, marketing

As you know, his belief and work finally paid off. Warhol became one of the most important names in art of the 20th century and his work is even more valued today.

Irving Blum’s $1000 investment in the Campbell’s Soup Cans, which people laughed at, was sold to New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1996 for $15MILLION.

This was seen partly as a gift from Irving Blum, as the art was valued at well over $100MILLION.

Without persistence and passionately promoting his art, there would have been no Andy Warhol. Certainly not the internationally respected artistic genius we know today.

  • Had Warhol decided to quit after his initial, disastrous exhibitions, a genius would never have flourished. At that time, he was being rejected by his peers and his work was being insulted.
  • Had Warhol created the same great art, worked just as hard, but refused to become exceptional at promoting himself and his work, both he and his art would have remained undiscovered.

Instead, Warhol did the right things, correctly. Creating and promoting great art.

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Business without the promotion required

How many small business owners have worked hard without the success they could have enjoyed, because they failed to market their work correctly?

How many small business owners reading this post, are struggling because too few people know how amazing their products or services are?

How many small business owners are not putting their ideas into action, because they allow fear of failure to stop them?

I honestly don’t know.

What I do know is that some amazing people, providing great products and services, fail to get the rewards they deserve.

Why?

Because unlike Warhol, instead of doing 100% of what is required, they do 100% of the things they’re comfortable with.

So, in 2026, during one of the fastest-changing economies in living memory, they dabble. They refuse to do what’s required; opting instead to drift along doing what’s familiar, even though it’s failing them. I find that fascinating.

There’s a proven, better way

The alternative is simple. By simple, I mean everyone reading this can do it. Everyone reading this can turn an average business into a successful business or turn a successful business into an even more successful one.

So long as we embrace all the tasks required in order to succeed.

This means changing things, because you can’t improve and stay the same. So, you have to choose.

  • The choice to stay the same is made by default. It’s what happens when you allow yourself to drift without an aim.
  • The choice to improve is a deliberate, intentional decision. When backed up with a commitment to do the right things, correctly, you become an unstoppable force.

You can do it, my friend. But only if you choose to.

Stop selling. Start inviting!

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sales, marketing, invite people, small business

Photo by Aaron Burden

When we stop thinking of sales as a transaction and start thinking of it as an invitation, everything improves.

The pressure evaporates. The awkwardness fades. The conversation becomes more human, more helpful. And most importantly, it becomes more successful, too.

This isn’t just about semantics.

Unlike me, most small business owners didn’t start their business because they wanted to be a salesperson or a marketing person. You probably started your business because you have something useful, meaningful and valuable to offer. 

At some point early in the life of your business, you will have been told that you’ll need to learn how to sell your services or products. And it never quite sat right, did it? In many cases, the whole selling thing feels, at best, awkward. 

There’s a reason: most sales advice is rooted in old thinking. It’s transactional. Borderline manipulative. At worst, you’re told to hustle, hustle, hustle. 

That’s not how to make ongoing, high-quality sales from people who like you and recommend you. No. That’s how to be avoided.

But there’s another way.

Think like a host, not a hunter

As is often my way, I’d like you to imagine something.

Imagine you’re throwing a dinner party. You’ve planned the evening, cooked the food and set the table. The doorbell rings. You open the door. One of your guests is standing there. Do you welcome them with, “So, what’s it going to take to get you to wolf-down this lasagne tonight?”

Of course not!

You smile. You welcome them in. You offer them a drink. You say, “Come and join us.”

That’s an invitation.

Why invitations work

Now imagine applying that same invitational approach to your business.

Not pushy.

Not needy.

Just clear, warm, and open.

“Here’s what I do. Here’s how it helps. You’re welcome to join.”

That switch, from selling to inviting, makes a huge difference in how people respond to you. They don’t feel like targets. They feel like people. They feel ownership of the decision. It was their choice. Their timing. Their move.

And that makes them far more likely to hire you, buy from you, engage deeply with you, refer others to you, and stick around with you.

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Effective

You might be wondering: But is this effective? Isn’t selling supposed to be a bit more pushy?

No.

  • Not if you’re playing the longer-term game. And that’s what’s required in order to grow a successful business.
  • Not if you want to attract good-fit clients, earn their loyalty, and build something sustainable.

I haven’t sold my services to anyone in 30-years! I’ve explained what I do, how it will help them and then, they choose to hire me or they don’t. It always feels like two people exploring whether something wonderful could happen between us.

Sometimes the answer is no.

Sometimes it’s not yet.

And sometimes, it’s a resounding “YES!” and the beginning of spectacular results, which they hadn’t even dreamed were possible.

ALL of those outcomes were better than pushing someone into a yes they weren’t ready for. That kind of yes usually leads to headaches later.

What this could look like to you

Well.

  • If you’ve been dreading sales calls.
  • If you feel awkward or cringe when you write your marketing messages.
  • If you’re attracting people who aren’t quite right, and you don’t know why.

Try this.

Stop selling. Start inviting them to join you!

You don’t need to push. You don’t need to close. You don’t need to chase.

You just need to extend a clear, thoughtful, honest invitation to the right people, at the right time.

And let them hire you or buy from you. It works amazingly well in every economy. But especially now, when your prospects are nervous about spending money and run a mile from pushy salespeople!

Can you see the money?

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marketing 2026, small business, jim connolly

Photo by Olena Bohovyk

A former client of mine sold a business back in 2024 for almost $6 million. When she purchased it in January 2020, it was valued at $250k. Here’s how she did it and how you can blow the roof off your financial potential in 2026!

To start, I’d like you to ask yourself the following question. If I work hard and smart for the next 4-years, what’s the maximum I could sell my business for?

Here’s why that question is so valuable

I clearly remember my former client, Jill, calling me. She started by saying she had some good news. The sale of her business had just gone through. We had been waiting for weeks. It was so exciting.

I was working with Jill when she bought the business. It was already in pretty good shape. It didn’t need any meaningful capital investment. What it did need was an owner who could see the financial potential of the business. As she told me when she purchased it; ‘He just couldn’t see the money.’

  • The previous owner saw the potential value of his business as $250k.
  • Jill saw the potential value as $5 million.
  • Interestingly, they were both proven to be right.

What happened over those 4-years to make all that money?

The core difference was that the previous owner made decisions based on a $250k payday. Jill made decisions based on a $5 million payday.

Our beliefs

When we believe that our business has the potential to sell for a certain amount, we act accordingly. It looks like this.

  • Jill believed that the business she bought was potentially worth $5 million, so she bought it.
  • As owner, she made $5 million decisions regarding her business… decisions consistent with her valuation.
  • Her decisions led to $5 million actions, actions consistent with her decisions.
  • And her actions saw her make $5.8 million.

The key here is that we need to be able to see the money. That’s the spark. We need to genuinely believe in the potential value of our business. Only then will our decisions and the actions we take, be consistent with achieving the potential.

Why am I sharing Jill’s story, from 2024, with you today?

It’s 10 times more important in 2026!

Think of the small business owners you know. They can’t see the money. They are focused on the economy and the uncertainty. Most of them would settle for just getting through the year.

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Now let’s go back to Jill: Do you remember what happened a few months after Jill bought her business? She bought it in January 2020. Just a few months later, the pandemic came. Nothing was certain. Its impact on lives and the economy was unlike anything in living memory.

Regardless of what was happening around her, Jill needed this to work. I reminded her to keep her eyes on the money, so that’s what she focused on. We put some ideas together on how to adapt the business so it could make money during the uncertainty, and those multiple lockdowns. It became evident very quickly that Jill’s business came out of the pandemic in much better shape than her competitors. She then carried that momentum forward.

What is guiding your business decisions today?

I hope it’s the financial potential of your business and the enormous opportunities all around you.

Enormous opportunities?

Yes.

Your competitors are in survival mode, just like Jill’s were in 2020. They’re making decisions based on, at best, treading water. They are leaving the market wide open to you, or any competitor, with the vision to see the money that’s being left on the table, and plan ahead accordingly.

The best time to make your move is when your competition is standing still, frozen with fear. And that is what’s happening around you, right now.

Like every opportunity, this moment will pass. Don’t let it pass you by.

How to predict your future clients and attract the very best

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work begets work

Photo: Shutterstock.

I’d like to share how I helped one of my clients build the business of her dreams, using a creative marketing idea. This can work for you and your business too.

It begins with a simple 3 word phrase.

Work begets work

You may have heard that work begets work before. However, the phrase is usually used with very little mention of its wider meaning. On a surface level, it’s true to say that by working on something, we’re likely to attract more work. For example, I hired a guy to do some work on my house, after seeing him working for one of my friends. His work for my friend led to work from me.

That’s just the surface.

You see, there’s a word missing from that 3 word phrase. And it’s what makes all the difference.

Work not only begets work. No. Work begets similar work. In other words, the work we’re doing today, will have a massive influence on the type of work we’re doing tomorrow: the clients we will attract and the fees we will earn.

In short, if you want to take your business to the next-level (and beyond), you need to start doing next-level work… today.

Think about it. The alternative approach is nuts

The alternative is to wait and hope.

  • Wait for an amazing stranger to see (or hear about) our current-level work.
  • Then hope they decide, with zero evidence, that we’re capable of next-level work.

Sure, we can wait for opportunity to knock.

Like in the movies.

Or we can build a door.

That’s what Sue did.

How this worked for a client of mine

Sue (not her real name) is a graphic designer, with a focus on lettering. I shared my work begets similar work process with her, we put it into play, and she’s never looked back. Previously, Sue struggled. She worked mostly as a freelance designer for agencies and doing sub-contract work.

They would tell Sue what they wanted her to do. She did it. This was soul destroying. And because the money was terrible, she was forced to work crazy hours for the income she needed. She had very few direct clients. And she’d wasted 9 years, going nowhere.

After I shared the work begets similar work idea with her, Sue did a rebrand on her own business. This included lots of examples of the type of next-level work she’s capable of. Sue said she wanted to work with environmental organizations. So, we decided to reach out to 7 organizations she supported, who she believed needed a design refresh.

She met with 2 of them. One of them jumped on board. It changed her life.

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Sue threw 100% of her creativity and passion into the project. The end product was visually stunning. It was very clearly on a totally different level to the soul-destroying work she’d been doing. The charity loved it.

A while after the project, the CMO of a national garden furniture company saw it and contacted Sue. He asked if she’d be interested in working on the graphic design for a new, environmentally friendly line of garden furniture. That project led to another next-level client. And that project led to the next [repeat].

Sue’s next-level work begot similar work. Work she’s passionate about. Work that is massively more emotionally and financially rewarding. She’s now well-established in a niche she loves, working direct with international brands.

Yes, it works in YOUR industry too

What if you provide a service that isn’t as visual as graphic design?

As long as you commit to providing services or products, which are consistent with the increased fees/prices you want to achieve, you can absolutely show it to your next-level prospective. All the tools are out there. Newsletters, podcasts, Youtube and social networks give you all the tools you need, to showcase what you are capable of. The enquiries you attract will be from people, who’ll see that you’re clearly capable of delivering the level of service (or results) they want.

Show them what you can do. Not what you currently do.

Earn what you can earn. Not what you currently earn.

And watch it build your business.

How?

Your next-level work for next-level clients, will be seen by next-level prospects, who become your next-level clients [repeat].

Start with the end in mind

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Small business owners come to me regularly, asking for something they really don’t want and they truly don’t need. I’m sharing this with you, because you’re probably making the same expensive mistake.

Here it is. Plus how you can avoid it.

First, here are some examples of dangerously misleading statements. I see these pretty-much every day from small business owners.

  • I need more leads for our sales team.
  • I need more social media followers.
  • I need more enquiries from my website.
  • I need more traffic to my website.

They’re wrong!

One hundred percent, provably wrong.

More sales leads, additional client enquiries, bigger social networks and more website traffic are not their desired outcomes. That’s because they’re not end results. What business owners actually need, is more customers, higher profits, bigger contracts, higher revenues or more sales, etc.

The challenge with searching for the wrong thing, is that it will lead you down the wrong path. You’ll ask the wrong questions, get the wrong answers and end up with the wrong outcomes.

Start with the end in mind

This means you need to decide what your desired outcome is. In other words, determine exactly what you need your business to achieve. Focus on your desired end point. Not on a particular process or marketing strategy.

Here’s an example of exactly what I mean.

I was prompted to write this, after recalling a small business owner I worked with a few years ago. Sarah came to me for some help growing her business. Like almost everyone reading this, she had been focused on lead generation and trying to convert as many as she could. It was frustrating and time consuming. I explained to Sarah that she had zero requirement for leads.

Instead, I said we should focus on her ACTUAL end point: to massively increase the quantity and quality of her sales. I then showed Sarah how to use a joint venture to get direct to her end point.

So, she identified a business owner who offered a complimentary, but non-conflicting service to hers. They agreed to do some joint ventures. Sarah achieved 7-years worth of business growth in just 11-months. Previous to me sharing this idea with her, she’d wasted years focused on lead generation.

Start with the end in mind, dear reader. It will help you get your marketing on the right track and ensure you’re aiming for the correct target.

Spend zero on marketing. And make a fortune

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creative marketing, free marketing, no budget

Image: Martin Martz

Ever wondered why I never write about how or where to spend your marketing money?

Well, today I spill the beans. And it can save you, and make you, a fortune.

There are a lot of ways you can spend money on marketing. Advertising and promotion is available via thousands of providers. It’s so easy.

  • You pay them your money.
  • They say they’ll get your message in front of X number of prospective clients or customers.
  • Hopefully, a percentage of these will contact you.
  • And a percentage of that percentage, could spend money with you.

So far so good, right?

It would be, if your competitors didn’t have the exact same options.

But they do.

Buying attention is overrated

Obviously, your competitors advertise to the same people as you… otherwise they wouldn’t be your competitors.

This means your ads are always competing against their ads.

Whoever spends most money, gets the most attention. This is equally true when you advertise on different platforms to your competitors: because digital advertising reaches the same target groups regardless of where they are.

This makes buying attention extremely precarious! Your ad reach will always depend on the marketing money your competitors choose to spend. It’s out of your control. It’s also impossible to plan the future growth of your business with confidence.

Why?

A well-funded competitor can quickly and easily, wipe your visibility out before you even know what’s happening.

Thankfully there’s an effective alternative.

Marketing creativity over marketing money

Advertising is the price you pay, for lousy marketing. I’ve said this for decades. It’s even more true today.

That’s why I have always chosen to focus 100% on a very different marketing model. It’s a model that is impossible for your competitors to copy, as they can’t see what you’re doing, unlike paid ads.

  • They’ll know that you suddenly get talked about a lot more often.
  • They’ll know there’s a real buzz around your products or services.
  • They’ll certainly notice their existing clients or customers switching to you.

BUT they won’t know why.

That’s because the marketing model I use with my clients businesses, and with my own business, is entirely based around creativity, not money.

And it’s exceptionally effective. In fact, The Wall Street Journal came to me for an example of how I achieve massive marketing success for my small business clients, using creative marketing strategies, and NOT A PENNY spent on advertising or promotion.

In short, I don’t write about how to buy attention because it’s a risky, expensive, unpredictable and exceptionally limited way to grow your business.

So, now you know.