We recently connected with Sylvia Yanez and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sylvia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

The whole mission behind my brand, my company, who I embody is “do not stop educating and do not stop being authentic”. I strive to educate and raise awareness in anyway, every way, even if it uncomfortable. Some of my passions are mental health awareness, specifically TBI and suicide awareness. I also like to educate on identity crisis issues within young athletes and their lack of development in other creative passions due to the stigma of putting your everything into 1 sport only. My mission is to destroy these stigmas and barriers for our youth and give them a much more freeing and accepting lifestyle and community. I want sports kids to belong in a ceramics class if they want too, and I want painters to feel they can walk into a wrestling match and feel accepted. I struggled most of my childhood trying to fit into boxes that were not unique or authentic to me. Once I suffered from a serve soccer injury and lost my college scholarships. I became known as a “liability”. I was once the lead player of the team to a player no coach wanted on their team. I completely spiraled into a depression, facing the reality of feeling empty, discarded, useless. I didn’t want to be here anymore. Art and painting is what literally saved me, but I would face all different kind of challenges I did not even know existed because I was just a “soccer girl” my whole life. I never want others to feel uncomfortable or be forced out of a space because they think they don’t deserve to be there. I create art that connects colors to our emotions, to gain that quick reaction when you stare at my pieces. Your environment will always be uplifting, encouraging, peaceful and raw through my art. I also strive to create unique spaces that allow so many personality and worlds to collaborate and educate each other.

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

I am a natural people person. I love to lift people up and make them feel good about themselves. Making people see the beauty in themselves, means everything to me. My business and brand has blossomed beautifully through the years in the most unique and unorthodox way. I am a painter as well as a business owner to a suicide awareness clothing brand. I use both these worlds and collaborate them into one wholesome world. I use my paintings to create abstract art for my client’s environments and homes. Color is the quickest way to tap into the emotional state and I enjoy creating pieces that give you all the positive feels when you look at my creations. When you’re not at home, I have created my clothing brand to be a daily affirmation that will be with you always. My clothing brand is a hand written message I designed in reverse to be a message for you wearing the item in all your reflections. I want to build up my brand to be bigger than it is. I want it to be a lifestyle and a community for individuals who are passionate about mental health and who are committed to supporting one another in their journeys towards wellness. I believe that by sharing your experiences and knowledge, we can help to empower and heal one another. I want to build a space with no boundaries, no judgment, just being the most raw authentic self and standing firm where you belong.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Building my audience on social media was difficult and still is difficult. It is constantly changing and developing. If you are anything like me, you are an old soul, social media and the internet are not natural to us. I tend to connect better in person, face to face. It is hard to make assumptions of what people want and do not want in the internet world. Something I learned very quickly, is many people are not even the same person behind the computer screen, and for me that is confusing. Some of the best advice I continue to give is to be REAL and BE RAW! So much gets saturated on social media because everyone is trying to be the trend and have “that” look. Just like in real life, fitting in is overrated. Be the page, the persona to stand out. Be different, be weird, be true to yourself and what you want to see online. Because honestly, there are people looking for a page/posts like yours. My advice: be consistently authentically you.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Personally, going out in the world and talking about it. Networking, connecting with people and truly embodying what I represent in each conversation. I have made many connections doing pop ups art events and just putting myself in a room of people that want to be educated and learn about other ideas. I also have tattooed my brand on myself, to create that initial conversation starter in all settings because sometimes I can be shy as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.keepbreathingportfolio.com/
• Instagram: @xosylv | @keep0breathing

Image Credits
Photos by Elevated Focus – Courtney Brown