We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kelsee Thomas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kelsee below.

Hi Kelsee, thanks for joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Finally, after years of trying to find a way, I can say that I earn a living from my creative work! This has definitely been a journey, but honestly, I don’t think I could’ve done anything differently to speed up the process of making it where I am today. I needed a lot of that strife to learn from my mistakes and actually test if it was something I really wanted.

While I knew I always wanted to work in a creative field, what that field was constantly changed. When I was first accepted into art school, I believed I wanted to be a character designer at a place like Pixar. Then two years passed, and after plenty of time with other artists I realized, I just wasn’t good at building characters! However, I still had plenty of creative ideas, specifically when it came to music, so I thought, “Okay, I’ll go into music marketing! That’s still creative!” I spent the end of my college career and the next 2 years after that working my tail off, until I finally made it onto the Urban Marketing team at Interscope Records. It was my dream! Except, the industry had changed a ton. Working non stop was expected, there were barely any perks, artists didn’t trust the label anymore to collaborate, and worst of all, Marketing Managers had turned into Project Managers. There were barely any big creative ideas left after making sure the project was actually running smoothly. I started to resent the position that was supposed to be my dream.

So I started to freelance during the pandemic to fill the creative void! I also rediscovered my love for reading again! I was starting to get commissions from some big companies, I’d opened an online shop, and I decided to start a Booktube Channel and Bookstagram Page focused on my love for books and being creative. It was extremely validating, but it also started to make me feel like work was keeping me from what I actually enjoyed and the work wasn’t getting any better. Finally, after 6 years in the music industry, I decided it was no longer my dream and quit! Right after, I started an internship with Penguin Random House Publishing.

For a few months, I helped design book jackets and was approached by another book influencer to start a zine focused on the diversity within the horror community where I’d be the Creative Director. It was amazing! I was making work and I was not only getting noticed for it, but also being paid for it. But then the internship ended and for one reason or another, I didn’t get the job. I figured, “It’s okay, maybe this is my sign to go full-time freelance.” Nope. Way harder than I expected and to be honest, far more non-creative work had to be done to keep a business like that afloat. Some people are made to be their own boss, maybe one day I will be, but I realized it wasn’t now.

Six long months went by, until finally I’d gotten an interview with Simon and Schuster using connections from some friends I’d made while at PRH. It was for a Jr. Designer role on two of their book imprints, and I landed the job! Now, I design covers and jackets as my 9 to 5, and still get to freelance on projects, design my own publication, and create content when I’m not at work. I get to make creative work all day, and its the most fulfilled I’ve ever felt, but I’m not sure if I’d realize that had I’d not gone through every step of the journey I’d had.

Kelsee, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hi! My name’s Kelsee also known as Kelssweetie across a lot of my platforms. I’m a creative and book influencer based in Los Angeles, originally from Dayton, Ohio. My work focuses on color and illustration, while my book content makes a point of uplifting diverse voices in horror, thriller, and “weird” literary fiction spaces!
How my work looks may seem at odds with the community celebrates at first, but it speaks to the conversation that those who take part in a “darker” community, don’t have a stereotypical look. I “look” nothing like the content I speak on, but horror, thriller, and “weird” lit are genres that are as radical and diverse as possible. You don’t have to be brooding to be able or wanting to learn and reflect!
While I now work as a freelance artist and a book designer at Simon and Schuster, I actually spent the last 6 years in marketing in music so my story is a pretty non-traditional one. Many different turns in the last couple of years with my work and interests have brought me to where I am now, and its just proof that you can make anything a possibility!

How did you build your audience on social media?

BE SOCIAL. It’s literally in the name. So many people spend so much time on quality of the content, which is important of course, but it shouldn’t be the only thing you focus on. People want to feel included, like there’s someone on the other side of the screen. I don’t care how great your work is, you can build an audience and a following that will actually stick around if they know you’re a human.

For instance, you see so many celebrities with millions of followers, but some of them never talk to them. If you notice, the actual numbers show in their engagement that their followers aren’t concerned with their posts regularly. I rather have 1k followers and 250 of them engage with my content regularly (25%) than have 3m followers and only 50,000 of them engage with my content regularly (5%). The numbers under the post may look large, but overall your following will be weak and you’ll constantly be in an influx of losing followers because they’re not invested. I’ve kept my social presence on social media consistently growing with an audience that will actually check out my store, share my content, and become patrons or subscribers on YouTube by building actual relationships with them.

If someone comments, I always comment back with a legitimate response! If someone shares my post, I always DM/comment with a thank you! I also follow other creators I’m impressed by who are in my same community and comment/share their work, which is extremely important. It’s so much harder to grow doing it on your own, its that much easier when you combine forces with others and create actual relationships.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

To be honest, I don’t have a specific book or essay that changed my life, but I do have a philosophy that was taught to me by my aunt as a teenager that has been the reason I’ve succeeded the way I have. She’d say, “People are like plants. They need some water, some sunlight, a little interaction, and they’ll grow, but if you don’t repot them after their growth, they’ll become root bound and start to die or just stop growing. People are a lot like plants in that way. We go through life growing and suddenly things get hard, we get uncomfortable, the life we’re living just isn’t enough anymore. That’s your sign that you’ve outgrown your “pot” or rather your situation in life, and you’re ready for a new one. The problem is, that a lot of people hit that rough spot where their “roots are uncomfortable” and don’t realize that it’s because they’ve grown. They end up staying at that same job, staying in that same city, being around those same people who are also “root bound.” Years go by, and they don’t feel any better, life just seems harder and they don’t know why. But there are others who realize this is their sign to “level up” and they figure out what that new level is and they begin to thrive!”

All this to say, struggle is a part of growth. All change is hard to move through, and we need those signs to tell us a change has to happen. I felt ready for my “new pot” when I moved from Ohio to LA, and on the other side of that I found a community. I felt it again as I struggled to figure out how to make a living in LA, and on the other side of that I broke into the music industry. And felt it again when that industry no longer served me, and finally made the jump into a creative field that was completely different. Every time I’ve reached a new height in my life, it was on the other side of a struggle. I was “repotting.” So everyone is capable of success and growth, but only a few people understand that struggle and being uncomfortable is a part of that journey in order for it to actually be worth it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kelssweetie.com
• Instagram: @kelssweetie
• Youtube: @kelssweetie
• Other: STORE – kelssweetie.etsy.com
  ZINE – nightterrormagazine.com