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

Shawn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

This thought pops into my mind on occasion. I always knew that I had artistic skill from an early age but never really pursued art as a business or even steady hobby. I would just draw when I was bored. I only took one “art class” in high school, technical drawing, which I think I chose last minute just to fill an elective then failed the class because i didn’t feel like drawing nuts and bolts all day and instead would sketch up my dream home or cartoon characters instead. I dropped out my senior year, got my ged, and started working with a friend full-time as a land surveyor at 18 years old. I went on to work this job for nearly the next 20 years. I remember once, when I was around 25 years old, my wife got me involved in a painting project for a friend at work. I had never painted anything before but it sounded like fun so I accepted. It was just a simple job for their kids birthday party, paint ‘Lilo & Stitch’ on a panel of plywood and then they would cut out the face areas so they could take photos with it. When I was finished and they came to pick it up all I remember is them being amazed at how it turned out and actually paid me which I never expected or asked for. I look back on that particular moment and wonder “why”, why didn’t I see the potential then? Why did I just toss it aside as just a fun lil gig and move on with life as usual? The beginning was there and I was blind to it. So, sure…I own a successful business now at 44 years of age which I started at 39, and the last 5 years have been amazing and I’m still growing and learning everyday, but I do wonder how things might be now if I wasn’t so hardheaded at 25.

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.

In 2016 I quit my full-time, secure job of about 20 years in the civil engineering industry, my wife was pregnant with our third son. I was feeling completely burned out with no clear career direction and wanted to pave my own path. I had a small start up business I had been building up called “Spokesman Cycle Ads”, where I constructed with my father, an A-frame advertising trailer to pull behind my bicycle all over town, a moving billboard in other words. I didn’t know squat about advertising but I knew I loved to ride my bike and wanted to find a way that I could just get paid to ride my bike all day! It worked at first. I built up a decent client base with some big names around town and like mentioned before, I left my job after about 6-months to pursue this new endeavor full-time. My wife believed in and supported me all the way. Things were looking up that first 8-9 months, now a full-time, big shot entrepreneur so I thought. After the new wore off, things began slowing down a bit, advertising in this unique way was fun and all but not necessarily an easy sell or even re-sell and I was a terrible salesman if I’m being honest. I didn’t really know how to scale the business and sort of grew tired of it all. Business waned and so did those paychecks, I started thinking “well I guess it’s back to the old day job soon” but kept fighting it. I picked up doing some ride share with Uber and even tried some acting (yes like “actor”) with some of the film industry that came through town. I had hit a low spot and knew I was letting my family down and just needed to get a real job again. Before I did that though, this happened. I had always had artistic drawing skill from a young age but never focused on it or even gave it a passing thought that I wanted to pursue art, like ever, I actually didn’t think I was any good and people just said nice things to make me feel good about it. Anyways, I was watching some youtube videos of some artist painting this thing called a “mural” on their background wall for their youtube channel and thought “well that looks fun”…it inspired me to begin doodling around a little bit again and eventually I thought hey I should try a mural of my own and I can start on my kids bedroom walls! About halfway through that mural I was enjoying it so much that I had a spark of an idea. I could offer to paint kids bedroom walls as sort of a side hustle while I get back on my feet with another 9-5. I posted some progress videos on Facebook just to promote this new idea a little and next thing you know I’m walking around the grocery store and a new, local business owner spots me in line and says “hey I saw your video, I’m opening a new restaurant soon and would like you to paint my signage for it” I accepted and August 2018, Fitz Signs & Murals was born. From that sign birthed another sign and another and so on. I never went back to that day job and instead pushed full steam ahead with this new thing. I read books, watched videos and absorbed as much information as humanly possible for the next year and a half. It took a lot of knocking on doors at first and a lot more no’s than yes’s but I persisted and believed in it and became obsessed to make it work. So today only five years in (started 2018 at 39 years old) I’ve painted hundreds of signs and murals all over the southeast and beyond. I’m most proud of sticking with it and building this business from the ground up. I offer painted signs, logos, large scale murals and have painted on just about every surface imaginable since I started. I also love traveling for work, seeing new places and meeting new folks.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

A lot of word of mouth and just talking with and meeting new folks in the areas I’m painting which sometimes would lead to “I have a building I need painted” or “I have a good friend that owns a business and needs something” And then also posting everything I do on social media.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Nothing in particular really. I think once you find something that you’re truly fascinated, curious and become passionate about, those feelings of excitement of what it could be feed into building your persistence, drive and focus. And that can be many things and reasons. For me it was all of those things. I get obsessive with seeing how far I can go before I hit a wall, with painting I don’t have a clear vision of how I would ever hit that wall. There are so many directions that you can pivot with art that it’s really limitless but I still love to push myself to some sort of boundary. And quite honestly, this endeavor pulled me and my family out of a hole that I was helping dig, so I don’t mind saying also that making a living and being compensated well for my services is also a driving force.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fitzsigns.com
• Instagram: @fitzsignsmurals
• Facebook: Fitz Signs & Murals
• Linkedin: Shawn Fitzwater
• Other: I mostly stay active on Instagram and LinkedIn

Image Credits
Dearborn Drone Co Nathan Watson Shannon Fitzwater