We were lucky to catch up with Blake Pelton recently and have shared our conversation below.

Blake, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you 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?

Yes – absolutely. It took commitment and trust in myself. When you work a corporate job (which I did for a bit of time in my early 20’s), it can be easy to get ‘stuck’ on the hamster wheel. The notion that we must keep working so that we can continue working, paying bills, etc is a dangerous trap IMO. It can be incredibly difficult and terrifying to take the leap of faith into the uncertain. What will happen if I don’t get this reliable paycheck next month? Will I lose my home? My car? The interesting thing is that no matter what happens, the Earth will continue to rotate. The sun will continue to rise in the East every day. But the difference is that instead of dedicating eight+ hours of every day to making someone else wealthy, I started investing that precious time into myself. Investing in my craft…and I was finally happy. Broke, but HAPPY!! With that level of dedication, I quickly surpassed anyone else that dabbled in these activities on the weekends. I became ultra-proficient at my craft….and it didn’t take long for real financial income to start coming in.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Kites were an instant fascination for me at 3 years old when my parents bought me a plastic Superman kite at K-Mart. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was obsessed. That kite quickly broke so I started thinking of ways to make another. I noticed that more durable kites were made from nylon and required sewing. By age 5, I started sewing. I wasn’t tall enough to reach the foot pedal, so I would sit on my Grandpa’s lap – he would operate the pedal at my direction while I fed cloth through the machine. By 8-9 years old, I was sewing on my own. By 10, I sold my first kite. By the time I reached high school, a few of my designs were being sold in kite stores throughout the country. I had two people working for me to help with manufacturing – they would use my patterns to cut out the kites and prep them for sewing. After school, I would sew the sails together and my helpers would put frames (carbon fiber sticks) into the kites while I was at school the next day.

This led to eventually managing a kite retail store, traveling, competing, etc. My kites continued to get bigger and more elaborate. Eventually, I was contracted to do shows and events with kites. In the late 90’s, kiteboarding started to take off and I climbed on-board with that as well. By 2004, I was an importer/distributor of a couple kiteboarding brands and started traveling for that as well. Meanwhile, paragliding was always in the back of my mind as something I definitely wanted to try.

In 2008, my friend Jeff Howard (owner of Kiteboarding.com) introduced me to paragliding. Just as with kites, I quickly became obsessed. It was like a drug and I couldn’t get enough. In 2012, I moved to Utah to live at world famous Point of the Mountain to pursue paragliding. I became a tandem pilot, then an instructor, then a tandem administrator.

Kites never stopped though. While I cut way back on attending kite ‘festivals’, I further explored how to get paid to fly kites. With the help of some great friends in the industry, I traveled the world flying/repairing the largest kite in the world. I made elaborate snowflake kites for an iconic Starbucks commercial. We created giant 3D dragon kites to fly as promotions for Fox Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon, I did shows with Kiteman Productions, I developed systems to fly fantastic Disney characters behind SeaDoos choreographed to music at Disney’s Animal Kingdom…the list went on and on. #LivingTheDream

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think employing the philosophy of “”No” is never an answer.” became the cornerstone of developing my reputation. When a company like Disney reaches out with a seriously lofty vision, I simply made it a practice of saying “YES, I can make that happen!”…even if it seemed somewhat impossible. Determination, creativity and lots of money can move mountains!

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Yes.

Allan Watts
https://vimeo.com/kitesurfscotland/fulfilment

Contact Info:

• Website: plk.nz , SuperFlyInc.com , Kiteboarding.com , PlayPokerNights.com

Image Credits
Photo credit: Blake Pelton