Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Addie Rawr. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Addie, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

The biggest risk I’ve ever taken and still can’t believe I did it was quitting my job in 2018. I knew when I entered the “adult” workforce after college that I didn’t want to work a normal job forever. I wasn’t against working in general, I just knew a standard, in office job wasn’t for me. I worked as a senior technician for a popular cellular company for 5 years until I resigned in 2018. My business was doing well enough that I felt that I could do it and that I was ready to take this huge risk of leaving for sure money, that was very good paying for living in questionable state of when I’d be paid. Being an entrepreneur is so scary because you honestly have no idea when you’ll get paid. Some weeks it’s great and profit is outstanding and then things can go cold for weeks and even months. The craziest part is a month before I already decided I was going to quit, I got accepted as a vendor for one of the largest Black culture festivals, Essence Festival in New Orleans. One part of me thought I should take back my resignation, stay for a couple more months so that I can really have a huge savings. The price tag of being a vendor at Essence Festival was huge, like 5 figures but I took the leap. The festival was only a couple months after my last day of work and I’m so happy I allowed myself to do it. Since then, my business hasn’t stopped growing so the risk was worth it.

Addie, 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?

I started Art & Ambition Studios in 2012 while still in college. Honestly I had no idea what I was doing but I knew I wanted to have a creative business. Once I started to put my artwork out to the world when Instagram first got hot in 2014 ish, I developed Addie Rawr the brand. I am the artist, painter, illustrator, designer and creative director of all things within Addie Rawr, which is now a fully functioning art and gift shop. All of our products are unique illustrations of Black Women, representing our fashion style, hairstyles and just how we live in everyday life. The most unique part of Addie Rawr is that it’s not reflective of celebrities or influencers, which is typical for most businesses right now. Everything comes from inspiration of everyday Black Women, so none of the illustrated “dolls” have faces. I wanted to make sure that Black Women from anywhere in the world could envision themselves in the illustrations. Over the years, I’ve been able to put Addie Rawr into the spotlight and had a chance to be part of a lot of cool projects, including Google’s Black Owned Friday, which was a shoppable YouTube video. This year, we’re excited to announce that Addie Rawr officially has 9 journals available with Target, yup, thee Target. We accepted our partnership deal at the end of 2021 and can’t want to see more of our products available with Target.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I really wish that I knew about and had access to capital in the early part of my creative journey. Like most creatives, I bootstrapped when it came to funding the business. Every single dollar that went into the business the first 5 years came from money I put aside from my job. There just wasn’t and still isn’t enough public and accessible information on how to fund your business properly. Hopefully the world will open their doors more for creatives so that we can fund our businesses from the beginning just like other industries.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being a Black creative, specifically, is the endless amount of creativity I can put into my work. Working with the subject matter of Black Women and sometimes Black Men and children, gives me so much to work with. I love that I am able to creative something out of just pure inspiration of our culture and how we all collectively live our life, even from being strangers. It’s always a great feeling when someone tells me how much my work has inspired them put them into a good mood.

Contact Info:

• Website: AddieRawr.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/addierawr/
• Facebook: Facebook.com/addierawrrr
• Other: Pinterest.com/addierawrrr