We were lucky to catch up with Britny Arnett recently and have shared our conversation below.

Britny, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I just ran a successful Kickstarter project in November 2023 – the Hippocampus Alphabet Book. The project didn’t start out as a children’s book – it started as a way to bond with my daughter while she was learning her letters. Then, when we finished the alphabet together, I realized it would not take much to turn these drawings I did for her into a book to share with others. So that’s what I did. I didn’t plan for this project to be as meaningful as it is – sometimes a project’s purpose and impact hits you like a ton of bricks without warning. I did not anticipate how I would feel when a child sent me fanart of the ‘hippokampuses’ or when my daughter would say ‘wow’ under her breath while I finished up a drawing or how when she said ‘again! again!’ after reading her versions and prototypes of the book. She always wants to help and has her own version on the ipad (one she colored).
The Hippocampus Alphabet helped me think about how indie books and artists shape their own little corners of the world, one meaningful project at a time.

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’m an artist, writer, and graphic designer living is Southwest Kansas. I take contract design work for a global irrigation company and write/illustrate novels and graphic novels. Occasionally I take commissions for book covers.

One of the main things I do is draw horses and unicorns. I cater my art and stories to the horse-girls-at-heart community and I’m getting ready to release a comic called “The Unicorns of Zaharria: A Healer’s Tale”. It’s a story about an enthusiastic young herbmistress unicorn who, when her brother falls ill with a mysterious and deadly illness, must brave the ruined land of Zaharria to find a cure before the disease takes a permanent toll.

In addition to writing press releases/social media posts for clients, I write adventure novels with a dash of romance. I love books that I can read in an afternoon that leave me feeling excited about life, so that’s the kind of novels I like to write and publish.

Other recent projects I’ve worked on include: Miss Ewe and the Stolen Garden (writer), The Godpony (author/illustrator/designer), Arthur’s Sword: The Adventures of Philip and Richard (book cover artist), The Hippocampus Alphabet Book (author/illustrator/designer)

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

I started college in BioChemistry. I love genetics and the periodic table of elements. Molecular enzymes are still fun for me to think about. But, as the classes became more and more challenging and I ended up failing one of the courses, I realized I could not see myself in a lab coat or in a lab all day. I just couldn’t see it. So I pivoted to Kinesiology (because I like to run and the science of movement was interesting to me). I actually really liked Kinesiology, but because I had failed one of the biochemistry courses, my GPA was too low to progress into the higher levels of the Kines courses.

I was, mentally, a mess by this point. In elementary school and high school, I never failed. To be honest, I didn’t know how to handle it and for some reason, I didn’t realize I could retry. I was just that. A failure. (please forgive my depressed 20-something self, she was literally this dramatic)

I must insert here… my young self also did not have much forethought into what kind of jobs were available to the various majors – I wish I had, but, hindsight is 20/20. If you’re reading this and you’re in high school – do not just ‘go to college’ because that’s what is expected of you. My advice is to find out what you DON’T want to do as fast as possible. If you think you might want to be a hospital lab technician (for example) – shadow that person for no less than a month and see how you feel about it afterwards. Then make decisions.

Back to my overly dramatic failing self. While I was trying to figure out what to do with my life, I was drawing all the time. I drew horses mostly and I was learning how to make art digitally.

At some point, my mother gently suggested I try graphic design and a light bulb went on.

Then I saw a very early Schoolism interview between Bobby Chiu and Alessandro Carloni. Carloni had just finished working on How to Train Your Dragon and they talked about the story process. Another light bulb went on.

These creative people had jobs. They had careers in art. There was something called a ‘visual development artist’ and they got paid.

I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do, but I hoped it included me drawing horses. So I finally pivoted from the sciences to the arts and it’s really funny how much those two coalesce in the world outside of academia. The rest is history – and yes, I do draw horses almost daily now.

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

I would be remiss if I did not mention Chris Oatley and Magic Box Academy. I met Chris through his podcast (called the Artcast) and took his online art courses, Magic Box and Painting Drama 1 & 2 after college. Then there was this course called OAlive! It’s hard to explain, but the gist was to take a few creative teams and follow their progress on a creative project (like a comic or a short film). I was on one of those creative teams. This experience started to open my eyes to how creative media businesses work.

My eyes opened further when I took his class called “The Clockwork Heart”, which is designed to help artists understand business management and branding. I learned so much from this class.

Influential Business Books I’ve read recently: Atomic Habits by James Clear, You are a Badass (and her other book called You are a Badass at Making Money) by Jen Sincero, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Individuals by Stephen Covey, and Profit First by Mike Michalowicz

There was also one video that I make sure to watch at least once a year: Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture on Achieving your Childhood Dreams (you can find it on YouTube) It’s an inspiration and always manages to hone my focus.

I feel all these things have significantly impacted how I think about being a creative entrepreneur.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.britnyarnett.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/britnyarnett/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/britnyarnett