What Six Months of Art Business Mentorship Taught Me (That Had Nothing to Do With Art)

I left 2025 with a giant problem.

One that had been accruing interest since 2021, when I crashed and burned at what was supposed to be a dream job and walked away from a career I’d spent years building.

The problem was that I had no idea what to do with myself. I had skills, experience, and absolutely no road map for what came next after my body and brain spent four years telling me the old way wasn’t working.

I’m a support engineer by recent history, a graphic designer by education, and a healthcare technology person by a decade of misplaced effort.

I have an MBA, a background in UX and front-end development, and lots o’ experience building things on the internet, so I can usually figure out whatever I don’t know.

But none of that was helping me.

By 2025, I’d survived a ruptured appendix, a breast cancer scare, an AuDHD diagnosis, and a hypothyroidism diagnosis, and I had spent four years outside the workforce.

And that’s the too-big-for-carry-on amount of baggage I brought with me into the Women of Illustration Artist Reset Mentorship Program.

How I Ended Up in an Art Business Mentorship Program

How did I end up in an art business mentorship program? Well, because I’d done everything to put Nickity Dumpty back together again, and I’d gotten nowhere.

I tried to return to traditional employment, and no one was interested in hiring someone with a four-year career gap.

I tried career coaching, but visualizations and “meeting my inner guide” weren’t helping.

Honestly, I think it was the AuDHD diagnosis that was my real inner guide. Because it forced me to face Nicole for the first time.

Not the palatable version of me I’d been squeezed into since childhood, the one who was born an artist but was never encouraged to make art.

So when I found Women of Illustration on Substack, it felt like the universe was leaving me a trail of breadcrumbs.

“Learn how to make money from your art without burnout. I’m Dean, and I will never stop screaming that artists should make a livable wage. Neurospicy-friendly coaching that gives you clarity, confidence, and a custom action plan.“

I already had a couple of signals that my art was worth selling. Several people had offered to pay me to create pet portraits for them, and I’d had mild success selling designs on Redbubble.

After all I’d been through, why not give my art a chance for the first time in my life?

So I signed myself up for the Women of Illustration Artist Reset Mentorship Program. One video call per month, email support between sessions, and structured homework with my name on it.

The deliverables? An SEO-optimized website, a social media strategy, an email-powered sales funnel, and dialed-in income streams.

What I Got Out of the Women of Illustration Artist Reset

$79 a week for 24 weeks isn’t a small commitment when you haven’t had an income for years.

And none of the technical stuff was beyond me. I already had a website. I knew I could figure out WooCommerce. I’d been messing with email marketing systems for years.

Information was never my problem. I was drowning in browser tabs and screenshots. What I needed was accountability and encouragement.

I can execute with remarkable focus when someone else is expecting me to do things. Deadlines other people set are real. But deadlines I set for myself are more of a general suggestion with flexible terms.

What I needed was the low-grade dread of showing up to a call with unfinished homework.

If I had a question, Dean would email back within two business days. Their session recaps had checklists that my brain treated with a level of seriousness it has never once extended to a list I made for myself.

Three months in, I had a live shop on my website with over 20 products, email automations in place, and a fledgling social media presence.

In my March session, I told Dean I’d gone too hard on video content and could feel the burnout starting. Instead of telling me to push through because a social media presence was non-negotiable, they suggested I switch formats.

Something I’d enjoy more. Something sustainable. All I had to do was be honest about my struggles, and the plan changed to fit me. Without guilt, shame, or my usual self-talk about how I fail at everything I attempt to do.

That’s the thing the Women of Illustration Artist Reset did that no amount of information could have: it gave me permission to adjust without treating the adjustment as proof I couldn’t pull this off.

Is the Women of Illustration Artist Reset Program Worth It?

So here’s what four years of unemployment, a nervous system in revolt, and one mentorship program taught me about my brain.

The gap between knowing what to do and doing it isn’t a motivation problem. It’s also not a discipline problem. For many of us, it’s a wiring problem, and no amount of information will resolve it.

What closed it for me was someone on the other end of a Calendly link who’d know if I didn’t show up for myself.

So if you’re wondering whether the Women of Illustration Artist Reset is worth it, my answer is yes, without hesitation (and I say that as someone who spent four years being too burned out to invest in anything).

I went into the Women of Illustration Artist Reset thinking I was paying for expertise. And I definitely got that. But I also got a witness. Someone who saw me as the artist I’ve always been.

If you’ve spent years knowing you’re competent but never being able to make yourself do the work, the missing piece probably isn’t another course, tool, or productivity system.

It’s someone who sees you before you believe in yourself.