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

Brendan, appreciate you joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

To prepare a painting, I roll my gesso layers instead of brushing them on and I paint on Maple panel boxes that my Carpenter custom builds. Gesso is thicker than paint and it grabs and pulls a little when it’s rolled on, leaving a beautifully consistent texture across the surface. I usually don’t even sand it down before underpainting and painting. This greatly increases the amount of small surfaces light will bounce off when viewing. It also reduces the overall flatness of the painting and it plays well when I’m glazing for visual refraction.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have always been an artist. However, only in the last several years have I made money from oil painting. I own an independent distributorship which is my main source of income. I enjoy not having my income directly tied to my art. This frees me up to paint what I want. I have painted the fourteen Stations of the Cross as well as an entire side chapel for Richmond churches. I enjoy painting the human figure but lately I have been branching out to try and find the intersection of painting what I want and what might appeal enough to a broader audience to sell more consistently. Urbanscapes is where I landed. I walk the city looking for very human places. A lot of the time it is living quarters, alleys, balconies, fire escapes, etc. It just has to strike me as beautiful but in a way we tend to forget.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had a corporate career for several years before going independent. I left all the “benefits” behind to have my sanity and some peace. I enjoy getting paid with both money and time. When I was a middle manager it was always more work same pay. Fortunately, I am a disabled veteran so I have health coverage. Other than that I have zero benefits but bring in twenty percent of all the territory’s sales deposited weekly. I have more time to paint now. I have more time to enjoy life.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.

I bought a Campbell’s Snacks Distibutorship otherwise known as a cookie route. Originally the price was $250,000 and I had to put downa $30,000 deposit which drained my 401k. I bought a second territory a few years in. I have bought and sold stores over the years as my original territory was huge. I now have a sweet old man route totally paid off with two Krogers and two Publix.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.yanufineart.squarespace.com
• Instagram: brendan_yanu_rigdon

Image Credits

Brendan Yanu Rigdon