Jonathan Hateley

CASE STUDY
Professional development, mentoring and coaching

Where were you before you started working with Lesley?

Jonathan’s background is theatre, TV, film and special effects.  Since 2003 he has been a full time self employed artist. Before he met Lesley, he regularly exhibited at galleries, exhibitions (including AAFs), stately homes and gardens, etc. He found the period one of steep learning curves, great highs but also long periods with no progress, together with hard work and little reward.
In 2015 he met Lesley and started being mentored by her.  Very soon thereafter, his wife joined the sessions as she took over all the administration of his business.  This has evolved into separate regular sessions for Jonathan on the art side, and his wife on the business side.
Before he met Lesley, Jonathan’s work had taken a new figurative direction, and process, and he’d had a very positive response to his first ‘new' piece in 2014 (All From One, and 365 before). Whilst he was working full time as an artist, he was doing everything himself including mould making and casting, and everything else related to producing his hand painted bronze resins.
It was this that was preventing him from moving forward, and at this stage the admin side of things was also starting to build.

How much do you love working with Lesley?

Lesley is a real pleasure to work with.  She empowers you to make your own decisions, even if some of them are scary!  She won't sugarcoat anything, she is great putting things in context and helping you to problem solve things yourself.  You generally know the right answer but it helps to sanity check things with Lesley. She is great at looking at the big picture and taking the emotion of the situation or problem. She also encourages you on actions you could take in order to progress. Whilst we consider Lesley part of our team now, every final decision and action we take, is ours alone, which is empowering and confidence building. i.e., Lesley doesn’t tell you what you have to do - she works with you collaboratively and offers insights and suggestions and it is very refreshing and grounding.

How transformational has working with Lesley been?

In her first session with Jonathan, Lesley suggested Jonathan not do everything himself. This led to him getting an assistant, which was scary at the time given costs, etc., but he has not looked back since.  She later suggested he put all his prices up which we had doubts about, fearing things would not sell.  Those two bold decisions put him on the path he is on now. Our fears were unrealised and Lesley’s vision was empowering. Since then, Lesley has come up with various ideas or suggestions, and worked with us, supported us and encouraged us along the way.

Did you have any reservations about working with Lesley?

Jonathan was worried that Lesley would suggest major changes to his work style and process, but if anything, she was very supportive.  He had heard that Lesley’s approach might not be for someone who was sensitive about making changes or decisions, but its always up to the artist to make their own decisions.  Lesley advises and is very knowledgeable across many areas. Her marketing and business background, and her network, compliment her knowledge of the arts perfectly.

How much value has Lesley added to your artist based business?

Lesley has given Jonathan the confidence to periodically increase his prices to the point where those earlier figurative pieces have now more than doubled in price and still continue to sell.  She made Jonathan realise his value and to sell his work based on the time it takes, the uniqueness of it and the demand for it. She has also worked with us on branding and running this as a growing business. She even helped with H&S studio changes.

How do you feel now about your career and future potential now?

Despite the pandemic and loss of exhibitions and income sources over nearly 2 years, the business is in great shape. We have one full time and one part time assistant, spreading the workload and managing workflow, although this is work in progress to improve things further. We are being more selective of where we exhibit and not to spread ourselves too thinly. Our prices reflect the work and demand for it. We are working with a new gallery and new opportunities and Jonathan now gets many invitations to exhibit, etc.  We have mostly separated the business side from the art side so that Jonathan can focus on producing new work and not interrupted by day to day admin, etc. We are considering getting a bigger studio set up and growing the business as required over time. We take nothing for granted especially in these uncertain times but knowing we have Lesley to mentor and advise us along the way is very comforting.