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

Belicia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

I always admired mission 22 when I first joined the military in 09. The 22 is impactful meaning that is the average rate for suicide amongst veterans. Though this number is actually higher to this date ranging up to 26, the impact of 22 and movement behind still stands. Being able to relate, I adapted the emotion that the number 22 gives. I gravitated towards the camaraderie they built. Then I started researching. There are other organizations such as this and they all cater to physical demands. Since I loved art and art can be enjoyed with disability restrictions, it hit me! We can include a group of veterans who are usually left out.

Paint! Everyone is a creator. We just have to tap in! I wanted to bring the joy of arts to others.

Paint 22

Our slogan was at first “Creating Camaraderie One Paint Brush at a Time” but we found ourselves doing artistic things outside of painting. So we updated it since then and continue to make tweaks and changes to be better and grow with the community. Now our slogan is Building Camaraderie One Creation At A Time!

Belicia, 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?

Paint 22 is an art focused 501c3 establish out of the University of Tampa Entrepreneurship program in 2018 which caters to our nations heroes. Our Motto/ Slogan is ” Building Camaraderie One Creation at a Time”

I got a response one time asking, “How do you do that though?” The follow up is always the same. Uniting veterans together through art!

Our mission is to provide free art activities for military families to provide a life skill and tool for mental health. Raising awareness and prevention of suicide to those still serving and after.

The problem is the suicide rate and how there’s not many visual art, or artist opportunities for veterans. Paint 22 provides veteran artists a platform to showcase and more. Are programs include but not limited to art shows, mobile shows, visual art classes like painting with a twist style, to paint by numbers, photography and more. We provide these services for both the veteran and their families while selling local veteran artwork to continue providing these events. Those who are not artists still participate and support ! You never know, a paint brush might just save your life.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I started by bootstrapping. My employer also uses a donation platform called Cause Benevity where other companies can donate to your cause, so I registered Paint22 with the platform and use those funds each year for programing cost. That keeps us operational to at least do 1 activity per quarter for veteran families. We are grateful to be able to do more with outside donations and sponsors. With the help of my employer and personal funds I was able to go back to school and get my master’s degree in Entrepreneurship to learn more about business. I already went to school knowing what I wanted to do as far as being a profitable artist. With some creativity a team brainstormed and built a mobile art company called Art Expressway who serviced long term care communities. Paint 22 served as a social enterprise for Art Expressway. Paint 22 took off and turned into the main focus prior to graduating in 2018. Since covid, I changed Art Expressway into my personal art platform to sell my artwork ilE Artistry. I now donate a percentage of my sales to Paint22.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media was one of the tools I didn’t use as much, prior to having a business. I relied on social media for contact and exposure in the very beginning of growing my business. I had to get boots on the ground and network our first year of course. We set up tables, booths, researched and learn other organizations our first year. RESEARCH! Through it all, we were on Facebook.

We built our audience by involving others in the process. From designing the logo, establishing the 501c3, all posts prior to being an actual nonprofit. Taking people alongside my school journey and learning kept that personal connection going. Posting consistently to break the algorithm to be sure you show up in feeds. All self-taught and with my prior graphic design and website development education but this is information that can be reached with RESEARCH.

Paint 22 didn’t get an Instagram till 2 years after Facebook and had different followers on each platform! Not everyone uses the same platform so as a business for exposure it is best to get on as many platforms as you can handle. We even had hashtags and donations come in through Instagram. I knew at that point to stand by the power of social media. Through Facebook generated exposure and donations as well, instagram generated energy from people I never met before.

So that leads to my advice for those just starting to build the social media presence. RESEARCH! Just don’t add anyone, tag your business name in all your posts, share original visuals ( NO STOCK PHOTOS ) , know your audience and have fun with it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.Paint22.com
• Instagram: Pain22
• Facebook: Paint22 inc

Image Credits
Eric Rivera, Belicia Adams, Volunteers