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

Hi Christian, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

When I started Christian’s Custom Figures, most of my business was through craft shows or consignment at shops. Once COVID hit, I had to learn how to operate my business online. I started selling on Etsy and for a while that worked pretty well. Eventually, I ran into problems with Etsy’s poorly handled copyright & trademark system. I had to start from the bottom up with Shopify and completely relearn how to run my online business without the luxury of SEO being handled by a separate party. Since I started selling on Shopify last year, things have been good and are steadily rising!

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 started Christian’s Custom Figures when I was 13. I had broken my hip and was wheelchair bound for almost nine months. During those nine months, I started to hand paint LEGO minifigures. I had made so many of these that I had the idea to start selling them. I asked my mom, who owns her own business, how I could turn this into a profit. She gave me a loan of $300. I took that and paid for a spot at a craft show. I made enough to pay her back, took the rest, and put it back into my business. Since then, I’ve slowly grown my business into more than just minifgures. I have expanded my taIents into creating action figures, resin molds, and more! I even started a second business called Creative Corner Productions. With my new business, I can focus on producing and creating music as well as my own more traditional art. I believe most of my art resonates with others because you can see the time it takes to produce something of that magnitude.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I have always hated working for someone else. I strive on my own time and being able to manage my own things. I have always done better as an individual when working, which is what has driven me to keep my own business up and running. I want to be able to live a comfortable life by doing what I love. On top of that, I love the idea of my art being treasured by someone. The idea that a piece I make is the stand out thing in a persons collection always gives me drive to keep going in my work.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

After high school I decided to try and pursue something in college. I wasn’t sure if college was the path for me but I wanted to give it a try. I had a math class that was one of the requirements to get a degree. I chose to take the business oriented class as I had owned my business for almost five years. During that class, we had a project that spanned the entire semester and would be the big final to turn in. The project would walk through different things related to owning a business. You had to make up a realistic business that would eventually end up being tested at the end of the semester to determine if you would be successful in making a profit or not. I decided to use my real business as a basis for my project. I had presented my first assignment to my teacher with my realistic numbers that correlated to my real business. At the time, I was in the works of launching my first ever fully customized action figure, which ran for $250 in my shop. In my assignment the figure was set at $200. I received a C for my first assignment with a note saying, “That is not a realistic number, who would buy a toy for $200”. I was then told I can continue on with those numbers in the project. After all the assignments at the end of the semester I added my totals from each project and ended up having around $100,000 in profit. I submitted this to my teacher who came back to tell me that my production of figures was unrealistic, and that I needed to change the numbers. My final total was $12,000 after my teacher intervened in my hypothetical business project. I ended up getting a C- on the overall project, with the main reason being “unrealistic expectations.” This really upset me as I had followed the rules of the project, but someone else’s expectations are dragging down my ambitions. After this project I felt discouraged in releasing my new figures. I decided to release them anyways, and after a couple of limited releases and exposure through social media, I had sold over 50 of these exact action figures for $250 each. While it’s not a $100,000 profit, it is still proof that my resilience to someone else’s “realistic” expectations provided an outcome which really boosted my confidence in my work. Why should I let someone else’s lack of possibility hinder my outcome with my work?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://christians-custom-figures.myshopify.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christians_custom_figures/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristiansCustomFigures
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL58W3ieZcAuApEQsk2MIag