We were lucky to catch up with Chris Wright recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chris, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

People look at where you are now and assume there was a “big break” moment in your life. It’s a more interesting story when it happens, and perhaps that’s why people gravitate to that narrative. It’s true for some, but not for most. For the majority of artists, it’s just a grind. You practice sketching, you get better, and life hands you incremental opportunities. You can either take advantage of those opportunities, or blow them. Those are your options. If you want scale up your business, you have to scale up your credibility. Art isn’t as “necessary” as some trades. Because of that, people have to want to spend their money on you. That means you have to be likable, talented, and interesting. Interesting, meaning that you have some “X” factor that would make a company want to use you.

Yes, there is a practical side of art and murals. Most of what I do is large scale murals for businesses. Companies can use art as a focal point in a room, or for branding and signage. In today’s social media world, though, companies don’t just want the product. They want you, the artist, to enhance their brand. If you look a certain way, if you represent certain ideals, companies see that as a marketing tool. Inevitably they will post your work on social media. Your work and you. The “you” part of it, is not my favorite aspect of being an artist, but it is important. Many of the most famous artists you know include themselves in their social media.

None of this happened overnight for me, but I’m glad it didn’t. I’m more resilient because of it. If I was did get some undeserved big gig, I might have gotten lucky and crushed it, but what about the next one? Maybe I’d be exposed. It wasn’t always fun, but I’m glad I had the opportunity to expand my business slowly.

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

I’m an artist and muralist. I paint big shit. Sometimes it’s my style and sometimes it’s catered to a client’s taste. My personal style is cartoony. It didn’t come from any miraculous place, just TV. OG Nickelodeon and stuff like that. My work won’t appeal to everyone, but it’s what I like. And, I reserve the right to create art that’s incredibly stupid. I don’t need to attach some noble ideal to some crap I painted, just so that some corporation can hijack my message for social credit. On the other hand, if I’m compensated handsomely, scratch those last sentences. Happy to dance for nickels too.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

If you don’t have a role model to emulate, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage. Borrow someone else’s road map. After college, I worked in art exclusively. However, some jobs were just dead ends. I’d get gaslit by bosses trying to trap you in some hourly wage scenario. That hourly wage had a price cap. Then you’d go back and forth with them while you debated moving on. Manipulative bosses will one day tell you have valuable you are, and then the next day complain about your shortcomings. GET OUT OF THAT CYCLE. You don’t have to tolerate those situations. To run your own business, you are going to have to work your butt off, but you will outgrow people and jobs. Find people who make the money you want to make, who have the life you’d like to achieve. Be those people.

We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.

I used to sell weed.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chrismakesart.com
• Instagram: @chris_makes_art
• Facebook: Facebook.com/chrismakesart
• Linkedin: I’m not a boomer
• Twitter: Neural Link has a bad WIFI connection
• Youtube: XHamster
• Yelp: The crab rangoon was soggy
• Other: Catch me in these streets

Image Credits
These are my own images