Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Trinity Poplar. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Trinity, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
There is no dream too big, and if I could tell my younger self to just start without worrying about what other people thought of my ideas, I would. Great advisors, ideas; and taking the action to implement those ideas, is what makes success possible. I’ve developed this viewpoint from both my experience and from a scripture in Proverbs that states, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors, they succeed (15:22).”
I waited so long for others to give me the permission to try things; asking around to figure out if what I was doing mattered, and if it would make a difference. Then, sparks of innovation and creativity would ignite throughout the conversations I’d have with other people. One significant one in particular, being with my Mom. When I was 18, I shared a poem with her. I was illustrating for children’s book authors at the time, but I hadn’t designed any of my own books or illustrated book pages for myself before. She suggested that I try illustrating my own and sharing my poetry with younger audiences through children’s books.
Once I took action; drawing the pages and writing a story to go with the poem, it all came to life! However, had I not taken any action on that idea, I would have never became an author. In fact, if it weren’t for her perspective and amazing support, I would’ve felt so much imposter syndrome and fear regarding the very possibility of sharing my writing with the world.
Perhaps to some people, success is relative: one person might call something success that another person might not. To me, success is not as important as who you surround yourself with or who you become in the process to get there. And I am certain that advisors, are relative: People who know that you have a great idea, and are encouraging enough to support you taking action.
Throughout university my advisor was one of the only professors that regarded my children’s book as Entrepreneurship. She believed in me more than a lot of professors did. She also helped me to avoid any perfectionism: feeling like my drawings weren’t detailed enough. She told me one morning, “Ms.Poplar, done is better than perfect.” And before her, it was my creative writing teacher in High School. He looked at me one morning and said, “She’s definitely going to write books.”
Before him, it was encouragement from my high school debate teacher. She told me, “I think you should try taking creative writing. It suits your style and the way that you write tells a story.”
Before her, it was many other people: Loving family, supporting friends, and a plethora of dreamers, motivators, and believers; inspiring me to start, to keep going, and to finish well.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
trinsartjourney (Trin’s Art Journey) is my Freelance and Graphic Design Service Brand, my first Instagram Account, and my first YouTube Channel brand name. I developed it after illustrating my first public graphic recording of panelists for a conference and starting up social media platforms for networking, inspirational content, and portfolio design for the first time in my life.
I am most proud of my three children’s books that I illustrated completely, wrote, and added poems to, titled, “Comparison,” “Trepidation,” and “Aggravation.”
What sets me apart from others is that I am a self taught artist, an editor and a writer, a poet and a speaker. My poetry often rhymes or paints a picture for audiences to hear and imagine what is taking place before I add any drawings to the mix. The discipline I now have to draw for hours developed from my preference for creativity over boredom prior to falling into a state of flow. Growing up I wasn’t always so disciplined, but I can say that I was never bored.
Creativity is endless! It is easier to have incredible focus when you are doing something you love. And even if you don’t feel like doing it, discipline is like muscle memory. It becomes the usual as long as you are consistent enough to keep showing up. Being in band all throughout middle school highschool and halfway through university showed me that discipline isn’t the hard part. Motivation is. Showing up is easy, but actually doing what needs to be done can feel like a chore or a hobby.
The thing with drawing, is that I became so comfortable doing the hobby that the hardest part of the job became avoiding burn out and struggling to keep a work-life or as I could say, an artist-life balance. I started drawing so many illustrations that I stopped drawing art as a hobby or just to draw it. I was excited, but didn’t realize how quickly I could be overwhelming myself. I gained many art commissions just by enjoying my hobbies and posting them on Instagram, then receiving DMs of people that loved my art style and were asking for my art prices. What I didn’t gain, was the wisdom to know that in hindsight, I only had a limited amount of energy outside of school and band.
My friends would often tell me to make sure I was taking breaks, or taking the time to celebrate the progress I was making in my career. I thought I was listening to them, but only now can I say that I was extremely hard on myself and there were a lot of breaks I didn’t take. Pulling all-nighters to draw so that I could have time to study and travel and march was not okay. I didn’t want to fall behind on any of my commissions or reschedule their final dates of completion though, so I kept sticking to harsh deadlines that I would never set now. I also had art prices far below what I charge now because I did not see my worth.
When I started designing logos for people and their businesses, I realized that I was doing myself a disservice by accepting additional opportunities to illustrate for others and bring more peoples’ ideas to life at the expense of my time and energy not being accurately compensated for. Now, I am more than happy to expand my entrepreneurial endeavors by networking, marketing, and knowing that my art journey is benefiting many people and supporting so many authors in such beautiful ways that I could have never imagined.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Absolutely! Social media is not a complete reflection of your business, so do not put all of your eggs in that basket. Especially, if you are a creative.
Remember that the time you take to draw or dance or sing or write is more valuable than the time that you spend promoting your craft. Yes, you want to be found and seen and heard. But no, you don’t want to end up burnt out, exhausted, and too stressed to keep putting out content. It’s okay to take breaks and to take the time to plan. Don’t worry about the numbers.
Instead, celebrate your milestones of progress concerning the things that you can control and accomplish: Posting a certain (and realistic) number of posts per month, or starting your website, networking, etc. Your time is very valuable, and social media is very addictive and distracting from that principle.
Use your time wisely, but plan for rest days. Don’t forget to do the things that you enjoy every once in a while. And only compete with yourself, don’t compare. Because no one can honestly compare to what you specifically have been appointed and anointed to do. In other words, there’s no one like you. So embrace YOU, and do your best!
Never give up, either. Growth takes time. Resilience, too.
You’ve got this!
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
There are a few things that have helped me to build my reputation within my market. Many of the authors I have illustrated for, also knew authors that needed illustrators. Many of the places I have gone to speak at, were full of adults with children who were avidly searching for children’s books to buy for their kids that had representation in them and a deep meaning that would impact their children in a positive way.
Having multiple target markets has also helped the word-of-mouth to grow at a rapid pace considering my products. From market groups such as vending at fairs, visiting libraries, churches, speaking events, author events, writing events, art expos, etc., to more specific target markets from grandparents with new grandchildren, to children that wanted their parents to read through my books, to see the illustrations, and parents on a search for books that would benefit their entire family.
I started out not knowing that my market could be so large, and I found out very quickly that children were not my only target market. In fact, a lot of teenagers have reached out to me after their family gathering to read my books, sharing who their favorite characters are and how the way I’ve written them had helped them to be more aware of how they are processing their emotions. This has also taught me that children’s books are a great way to simplify topics that could be more in depth, but someone may not have the time for. Hence, broadening my market to both readers who enjoy long reads and shorter reads alike characters were, and how the writing helped them to become more aware of how they were processing different emotions.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://trinitypoplar.wixsite.com/trinitypoplar
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trinitypoplarauthor
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trinity-poplar-7a1384241?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@trinsartjourney?feature=shared
- Other: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B4KN7GY9?binding=hardcover&ref=dbs_m_mng_wim_sft_thcv_tpbk
Image Credits
Toya Poplar and Anne Revolte