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

Alright, Cat thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

It crossed my mind once. Halfway through the sentence about wishing I had started film work earlier, I caught myself. As I traced my steps back, I realised that I actually had started the journey towards filmmaking a long time ago; long before ever starting film school. I had worked as a freelance graphic designer for years during and after university. Because of that, I knew my way around marketing and navigating clients. I hit the ground running as a tattooer in 2018 due to the skillset acquired from design work. For those first few years I continued traveling the world and going out of my comfort zone, accumulating wild stories along the way. With my sights set on Australia, but a pandemic in my way, I dug my heels into Colorado, staying somewhere long enough to experience a machine tattoo apprenticeship. There I cultivated a massive network of supportive clients and friends. Those years taught me people skills like no other job could have come close to teaching me. A ferocious work ethic, lack of personal boundaries and not enough rest was socially accepted and even praised in America. The hustle, we call it. My career took off like wildfire, but it burned me to ashes. Aside from the few short work trips that next year, I spent the majority of 2023 in solitude, recovering my nervous system in a small Mexican beach town.

I finally moved to Australia the following year. I only just recently set down my tattoo machines officially in July 2025. I decided to pursue something less dependent on maintaining social relevance and social media. I returned to school at 31 years of age to refine my storytelling in the form of screenwriting (and am also working towards my helicopter pilot’s license, but that’s a whole other story). I’m easily one of the oldest in the classroom, which was the catalyst for the sentiment of wishing I started earlier.

At first glance it may seem like a completely new life direction, but it’s unbelievable how many skills and experiences gained by these seemingly unrelated careers have proven themselves to be priceless in the world of filmmaking. In an alarmingly small amount of time I have been able to excel in roles I never would have been ready for that without having led the life I did before this. It was like everything I had ever done prepared me perfectly for what opportunities are open to me now. I recently had the time of my life as the 1st AD with a 50-person crew on a feature film set in Melbourne with 300 extras. I am now grateful for the opportunity to step up as an executive producer for that same film. At the end of the day that’s what it comes down to; gratitude. I feel so fortunate to have crossed paths with the people and chances that I did in the moments that I did. I don’t know where it all leads, but I’m happy to be in this moment with a good sense of work/life balance. Even if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Cat, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I established myself and my work by developing ‘Old Sol New Tricks’. My intention was always to have this brand be the umbrella over different creative pursuits. The original concept of the brand was to embrace the sentiments of being an ‘old soul’ (appreciating history, quality, genuine connection and tradition), while also embracing ‘new tricks’ (and the shiny facets of modern life). The spelling of ‘sol’ is a play on the word ‘sun’ in Spanish; an homage to the countless experiences I had living in Mexico throughout my formative 20s. In this moment I’m leaning into the old sol side, having taken a massive step back from social media to reassess its role in my life. I want to figure out how to use it to add value to my life without letting it use me.

Having said that, I sense an Old Sol New Tricks revival coming soon, exploring filmmaking as my ‘new trick’. If you follow along you’ll see that the first pursuit was tattooing, which I have since stepped away from. Moving forward, whether it’s branding, producing or marketing films (all of which I’m currently doing), writing episodic tv shows, managing talent or whatever else life lets me try next, my approach to any creative pursuit will undoubtedly follow the same themes I did as a tattooer. The idea that ‘discomfort is cool’, an OSNT brand tagline encouraging us all to go out of our comfort zones, will continue to ring true. In my work that translates to breaking conventions and thinking outside of the box, despite others saying my idea is not possible or likely to succeed. Maybe it has to do with being from California, but I’m a big dreamer and feel that nothing is impossible so long as you’re willing to do what it takes. If the director of an Indie film shot in Melbourne wants his film to be internationally known, I’ll pull every trick I have out of my sleeve to make it happen. I wanted to be a tattoo artist for a very long time before I made that happen. I also dreamed of living in Australia for a long time before that came to fruition. I wanted to fly helicopters, which I do on a weekly basis now. I want to write and direct films based on the life experiences I’ve had, which I’m well on my way to. More than anything I want to stay grounded in wholesome values while learning and pushing the boundaries of what I’m capable of as an artist and a person.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

It’s more of a dream than a goal or mission. I say that because it has transformed a lot over the years, but has its roots in a childhood memory. When I was about 12 years old, I found out that my father, born in Italy, had been married before marrying my American mother. That knowledge unlocked the realisation that my parents were people and had lives before being parents, which led to endless questions. The answers became more vivid as I grew up. I was always fascinated by the story of how they met on an international cruise ship and how my father came looking for her four years later. It was a real life romantic comedy. I could envision the scenes vividly as if I had been there. I filled in the gaps with my imagination and dreamt about the story constantly. For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to make their story into a film. I used to think I would just write the book and find someone to make the movie for me. As I grew older and more of the story was revealed to me, I began to see parallels between my life and the ones my parents led. Experiencing a love that felt surreal, leaving home to far away places, being handed golden opportunities, making hard choices and sacrifices, experiencing the crush of compromise, and battling regret. Their origin story began bleeding into mine and the story I wanted to tell evolved. When I was 19, my father spiralled into a deep and sudden depression that resulted in him choosing to leave this life on earth. It felt more important to tell the story and simultaneously more difficult than ever. In many ways, over the last decade, I’ve lived a life akin to what I think my father would have liked to live himself if given a second chance. In this time, through my art and travels, I’ve cultivated the strength, ability and confidence to tell our story. I hope to gather the final courage, skills and connections I need to make it a film myself; to bring the story back to life.

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

I did not have to pivot, but I chose to. Two things are worth mentioning before I tell this story. 1: Taking full responsibility for my life is a trick I’m glad to have learned early (I try to reframe things as if I chose them, even if at first it feels that it was out of my control). And 2: I have adopted a belief that if the idea of pursuing something makes you uncomfortable or scared, it’s very likely that trying that thing is exactly what you should do (assuming that you value growth and learning. Maybe complacency is fine with you. Personally, it makes my skin crawl).

The original plan was to go back to school part time and start learning the art of film, while working as a tattooer on the side. Only problem was that living in Melbourne would either require me to essentially start my tattoo career over from zero or travel back and forth between here and Denver, Colorado multiple times a year. If you’ve read this far, you know how burnt I was feeling about social media. Instagram is like oxygen to a tattooing career, especially for building clientele. With an already established clientele in Denver, I could survive on very little social media usage if I tattooed there. So I gave the back and forth life a try for a whole year. Boy, was it gnarly.

The whole reason I was pursuing film school was to prioritise my writing and I never had any time for it. How was I ever going to make a film about a story that I never gave myself the time to write? Not to mention, my social life here was nonexistent. I knew that if I wanted my life in Melbourne to actually begin, I needed to be here. I was playing a sick game of twister. One foot in the classroom, on a dot in Melbourne. One hand tattooing in a shop, on a dot in America. Meanwhile, the other hand was flipping the windshield wiper every time I tried using my turn signal because my brain couldn’t keep it together, driving on the other side every few months. I had to let go of my tattooing career in Denver. But for years, that had been such a big part of my identity. Who was I if I wasn’t a tattooer? I was terrified… And that is how I knew it was the right thing to do.

There was an initial flush of relief when I announced my early retirement, but it was quickly followed by wildly uncomfortable worrying that I had made a major mistake. I’d be lying if I said I never looked back. There were a handful of times I soberly questioned my sanity. Had I seriously traded in a very successful tattooing career to reinvent myself as a foreign student filmmaker far as heck away from my closest family and friends? It’s all in the way you tell the story, isn’t it? After just a few months of not tattooing I started getting invited to work small film set jobs; things I could say yes to that I wouldn’t have been able to if I was tattooing. Those opportunities are what led to the work I have now. What has played out is way better than anything I could have planned. That’s the beauty of being willing to pivot and a brilliant reminder of what it means to be an old sol, learning new tricks.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @oldsolnewtricks

Image Credits

Karime M. Valencia @muva.est