We recently connected with Liz Brindley and have shared our conversation below.
Liz, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?
I still remember the first sale I had in my creative business. I was sitting at home drinking my coffee when I received an Etsy order for a pack of hand-printed, grapefruit-inspired greeting cards I’d listed. The buyer messaged me to let me know that her sister *loved* grapefruit so they were a gift for her. I was *stoked* – not only that I’d made my first sale, but that these cards had made a heartfelt connection with another person! That moment was the beginning of a very long and winding journey of creative entrepreneurship!
Liz, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Hello all! Nice to meet you here. I’m Liz. I’m a Creative Business Coach and Illustrator based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I work with creative women who are ready to overcome the overwhelm to start and grow their creative businesses. I work with my lovely coaching clients in a 1:1 capacity online from anywhere in the world! I’ve had clients in the United States, Switzerland, and India.
I know that the “business” side of creative business can often feel intimidating, overwhelming, and totally boring for creatives. But it doesn’t have to be! Business *is* a creative practice, and it can actually be super fun with the right tools, mindset, and approach.
My unique approach to Creative Business Coaching is not from old, rigid methods of doing business (what I call “the pantsuit”). Instead, I take an approach inspired by nature that helps you see your creative business as a thriving ecosystem that nourishes the lifestyle you desire while also creating a positive impact in the lives of your customers. When we work together we combine all of the fun business strategies *with* your intuition so you can lead a creative business that feels aligned to you and makes a positive impact on the world.
See, after personally experiencing tons of “failure,” trial and error, and “mistakes” when I started my own creative business in 2017, it is now my mission to help fellow creative women feel empowered, confident, and totally stoked to start and grow their creative business. I want to save you the time, energy, and confusion I experienced when I started out so you can move forward with your creative business with more ease, confidence, and clarity.
I know that many of you reading this have a big idea for your creative biz, and I’m here to tell you it matters. It’s time to bring it to life.
In addition to 1:1 Creative Business Coaching, I also teach online courses for creatives to gain skills in entrepreneurship, mindset, illustration, and printmaking. I am a Top Teacher on Skillshare, have reached over 13,000 students worldwide (which continues to grow each day!), and spent 5 years teaching art classes with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.
To top it all off, I’m an illustrator and have collaborated with many businesses and brands to create custom illustrations including a mural for an International Social Media Company, products for the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Gift Shop, and logos for multiple small businesses.
On the personal side, I love a cup of coffee every morning, Posca markers, running, dancing to funk music, and taking an eternity to cook because I stop to take photos of food’s beautiful colors and patterns every two seconds.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Creative business – and the creative path as a whole – is a continuous act of resilience. Continuing to show up to create your artwork and grow your creative business each day in the face of success, doubt, belief, and challenge is an act of resilience and radical hope for a better future. When I look back on my own journey of creative entrepreneurship, I can see the resilience it has taken to continue to choose to show up to this business day after day.
When I started my business in 2017, it began with a completely different idea than what I am doing in my business now. Back then, my dream for my business was to create a mobile arts and ecology center that traveled around New Mexico to teach kids about local food systems through art. Super cool idea! But when I started to take action on it, I quickly learned that I personally prefer teaching and coaching adults.
I have pivoted my business many, many times since its official inception in 2017, and I believe the fact that I’ve pivoted, shifted, and adapted rather than quitting is one of the most resilient choices I’ve continued to make day after day.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative?
Creatives and artists can truly change the world. Maybe that sounds like a lofty statement, but I have deep faith in its truth. Creatives and artists have incredibly unique ways of seeing the world that go beyond the canvas. Creatives and artists are able to clearly see new possibilities for the world, new solutions, and aren’t afraid to look beyond the “norm” to ask, “What If?”
This inherent imagination, sense of possibility, and belief in a better, more beautiful world is one of the most rewarding aspects of being an artist and creative. Even though the path can be challenging at times (what I refer to as the Creative Wilderness Journey), I personally can’t imagine anything more fulfilling.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.printsandplants.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/prints_and_
plants ; www.instagram.com/lizbrindley_ artwork - Facebook: www.facebook.com/printsandplantspress
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-brindley-2b699582/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtE1MTCTWYKZlzax2vMqjWg
- Other: My Skillshare Classes (including the Creative Wilderness Series): https://www.skillshare.com/r/profile/Liz-Brindley/6407216?gr_tch_ref=on&gr_trp=on
Image Credits
The photos of me with the yellow mug and in the apron with printmaking supplies are taken by Chelsea Call. Everything else are photos I took.