We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brittany Branson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brittany , 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?

I entered the wedding and events industry at a particular time/during a particular year that heavily encouraged creatives to quit their jobs and pursue their wedding businesses full time. Looking back, that was such toxic advice. It was a fad in the wedding education space purely driven by ego. Unfortunately, I followed it. If I could go back in time, I would absolutely tell myself that there is no shame in keeping a full-time or part-time job while building up my creative business. In fact, it probably would have alleviated a few years of stress. The truth is: when you’re first starting out, you’re truly figuring things out. You’re figuring yourself out. There’s not much of a reason (or a good reason) to quit your stable job and pursue your business full-time unless you have concrete evidence that you’re losing business because of that more stable job. Until that point, take great comfort in the stability. Also consider putting in a few extra hours (if possible) to earn cash and afford investing in one-on-one mentorship with business owners you truly admire (as opposed to throwing money at any and every course). Oh yes, I learned that the hard way!

I’ll also admit I absolutely took a part-time job a few years into being full-time in my business! My husband and I were going through a big life change (buying our first home), and I thought it would be beneficial to earn a little extra as we navigated that process. It was actually great! Having to go into an office actually helped me to maintain a better and more healthy routine. Also, I really appreciated the social aspect of having co-workers to be around a few hours a week. Running your own business or creative venture can be incredibly lonely. It was actually quite lovely to work with a team and tackle non-my-business issues with peers. Extroverted people pursuing their own business or creative venture should remember that! Perhaps you may not be in need of extra cash, but even a part-time gig can possibly help your mental health. That may be worth the few hours spent away from your business each week.

Now, I am full-time in my live wedding painting and coaching business. However, I didn’t monetarily feel this until only 3 or 4 years ago. I set all of my clients and couples up on multi-installment payment plans. So, smaller chunks of cash come in at a time/each month. It took a few years of consistently booking clients with smaller installments of cash to feel as if I were earning a full-time income.

One thing I would have done differently at the very beginning of starting my business was heavily concentrating on building my portfolio, as opposed to immediately focusing on earning cash. I think this definitely comes back to the toxic advice I was given when entering the industry, but my ego encouraged me to never charge less than “x” per wedding (even when I didn’t have much (or any) work to convey my value). Attracting couples and clients was very slow…a bit too slow. Instead, I should have approached planners and other wedding professionals whose work I admired and offered to paint for their couples for free/cost of materials so long as I maintained creative control of the painting (deciding which moment to paint, how complex the composition would be, etc.). That would have helped me to build a specific portfolio of scenes I knew inquiring couples and clients were asking to see more of (and not to mention the social media photos and footage)!

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’m originally a Jersey girl now rocking life with my pilot husband (Tim) and rescue pooch (Bolt) in the greater Washington, DC area. I now have the pleasure of serving couples and clients all over the country and world turning their most precious memories into masterpieces.

Before becoming a live wedding painter and business coach, I was in arts administration and legislation. I was the first person to intern for both the National Endowments for the Humanities and Arts at the same time, and was serving as a Legislative and Community Affairs Assistant for the DC government’s arts grants branch before deciding to pursue wedding art. We had a wonderful live wedding painter at our own wedding in 2015, and it was the thing I looked forward to most about the big day. But, once Tim and I married, I realized there was no guarantee we would ever see each other if I kept my 9-5 job. As a pilot, his schedule can change month-to-month (and we only learn about it 15 days out). There’s never a guarantee he’ll have off on weekends. And so, I knew it was time to pursue a business that was both creative and more flexible. Our live painting was (and still is) one of the most precious heirlooms we had/have, and I knew it would be a joy to offer to my own couples and clients.

However, I was incredibly nervous to actually offer live painting! I was a great artist as a kid (charcoal, colored pencil, etc.), but I actually hated painting. To me, if my painting wasn’t as realistic as a photograph it was a failure. I’m definitely a child of the early computer graphics generation! Now, I’m so glad I’ve come to love my whimsicality and impressionism. My couples and clients hire photography and videography teams to document their reality. I love that my style captures their feelings and imagination!

Speaking of imagination, I think that’s one of the things that helped me stand out as a live wedding painter. I’m not a natural realist, and so I thrive on creative challenges and imagination. For example, many of my couples come to me asking if it’s possible to paint them during their first dance…but then they admit they love the ambience and decor of their ceremony spaces more. I can creatively (and cohesively) create a composition that blends both and/or their favorite elements. And since pets are super important to both me and my couples, adding their portraits is always complimentary, even if they can’t physically be present at the wedding. I donate a portion of the proceeds from every live wedding painting to a local animal rescue. My couples and clients really appreciate knowing their investment is helping to do good!

One thing that I’m particularly proud of as a live painter and business coach is how I treat my business as a business. I consider myself a creative entrepreneur first, painter second. Whereas, I feel a lot of artists would consider themselves the opposite. Their craft comes first, and, hopefully, the clients will come along and want it. I’m constantly investing in education, mentorship, sales training, conferences, etc. I don’t (and probably will never have) the largest following or the biggest audience on social media…but I make a great living serving great people in amazing places, I hope I’m helping to elevate our little (but growing) industry.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Even though I’m no longer working in arts administration and legislation, that fight to make society respect artists is still in me.

When I was interning for the NEH in its White House and Congressional Affairs division, I’ll never forget the morning we woke up to the news that a certain Senator had decided to release their list of the most “wasteful” examples of government spending…and numerous NEH/NEA projects and initiatives had made the list. It was a great morning for my boss (I say with sarcasm).

Unfortunately, that’s what many in our society view the arts and humanities as: wasteful, frivolous, secondary, impractical.

And that’s what fuels my desire to be a business owner first, artist second. Until we live in a more compassionate and empathetic world, statistics and quantitative data is what most will understand. I want to prove that the arts and humanities are essential to our creative economy. I want to be able to tell parents not to worry if their child expresses interest in pursuing a creative career, because it can support them and lead them to do wonderful things. I want the world to know that we’re a force to be reckoned with.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I had invested in one-on-one mentorship much earlier in my journey. Just like any of us, I was strapped for cash in the beginning, but hungry for knowledge. I listened to every podcast. I purchased every $15 – $27 course I could find. I bought all of the books and invested in all of the goal setting planners. In the end, I wasted so much time parsing through mediocre education hoping to find little nuggets of truth that applied to me and my unique business. Most of the time, I didn’t find any.

Instead, I wish I had the courage to approach successful business owners I was admiring at the time and offer to compensate them for sharing their knowledge with me directly. And that’s the important takeaway – compensation.

Now that I’m in a position where new and upcoming creatives message me asking to “pick my brain,” I realize just how much knowledge and expertise I have gained after YEARS of failing and figuring it out. This is certainly not an encouragement to gate keep industry knowledge. I love offering advice when I can. But, as per my mission to elevate the arts and humanities, we all deserve to be properly compensated for our experience. If we don’t demand it for ourselves, no one will feel obligated to demand it for us!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bybrittanybranson.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/bybrittanybranson
• Other: TikTok: @live_painter_brittany

Image Credits
Headshot by Emily Alyssa Photography Keswick Vineyards photo by Meghan Elizabeth Photography Sikh wedding photo by Catch Motion Studios Jekyll Island photo by Love and Covenant Anderson House DC photo by Rodney Bailey Photography Engineers Club Baltimore photo by Heather Ryan Photography