Do you email or walk in? I walked in and it actually worked
Genuinely want to settle this one.
I walked into a gallery cold. No appointment, no email, just showed up with a folder of charcoal drawings and asked if anyone had five minutes. Got told no twice, third place the woman actually looked at them and I've been in two shows there since.
I know people who swear that's the worst thing you can do, that you're supposed to email, wait, do the whole polished thing.
So which camp are you in? Email first or show up in person? And if you've done both, which one actually got you the yes? Tell me I'm wrong about walking in, I can take it.
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walking in works but it's less about the walking in than who's behind the desk that day. i've done both. the emails that got answered were the ones where i'd already met the person somewhere, even just for two minutes at an opening. cold email is basically a spam folder with extra steps unless you have a name to put in the first line.
the two no's before your yes are the real story here. most people quit after the first. i don't think walking in is rude, i think it's just a numbers game with a higher variance. email lets you pretend you have control. showing up makes you find out immediately.
what were the drawings of? charcoal on what
ok "spam folder with extra steps" is brutal and also correct, i've sent emails into that void and heard nothing for months.
but the two no's thing, yeah. that's the part nobody wants to hear. i got told no twice and my hands were shaking in the third place, i almost left before i even asked. i think that's the actual skill, not the walking in. just being willing to hear no and stand there anyway.
the "pretend you have control" line got me though. i never thought about it like that. emailing is safer because you can tell yourself you did the work. showing up, you find out in real time that the work wasn't enough or was, and either way you have to sit with it.
so are you saying the meeting first is the whole thing? because then it's not email vs walk in at all, it's just, know people. which is the most annoying answer possible lol