Musician Grace Ives has a lot of helpful (to me) things to say about knowing the work you’re doing is good and keeping that separate from the business decisions you have to make. For instance, she shares that she made some shitty merch that didn’t sell, but that has nothing to do with the music that she’s putting out.
Being a smaller artist, it’s fucking hard out here, but it doesn’t have anything to do with my music being good or bad. I can rest assured that the art is good. And then if I just keep that separate from the machine of it, then I can make the machine better, and not be so emotional about business decisions.
https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/musician-grace-ives-on-the-business-of-being-an-artist