We were lucky to catch up with Dahlia Raz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dahlia, thanks for joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Who is projecting their insecurities onto you and your dreams? Who is a real professional worth listening too?

The key to being successful is realizing that success is possible to achieve, and that others already have. Figure out who has succeeded in a way that is relevant to you, and find ways to learn from them.
After dropping out of art school when I was 19, I realized that many of my art school professors hadn’t given me actionable advice on pursuing a career. I was told by so many people that it is “just luck” who succeeds and who doesn’t – I was unwilling to believe this. I found successful people to learn from and people not just in my field. I actually attended a Business of Music class at Berklee College of Music in Boston. I realized that I loved the way so many musicians go about building their careers and I wanted to learn from them and implement that as an artist. I learned a lot of useful skills from my time at Berklee and I’m so grateful I trusted my gut to go learn from people I admire.

After that I began reading so many business, marketing and self development books.
There are so many successful people in the world. If the people around you don’t carry the wisdom for success – go find it somewhere else. Someone has likely achieved some version of what you want to achieve, go learn from them. If it’s a celebrity you admire – watch interviews with them. Go watch Khan Academy videos on entrepreneurship. Get a Masterclass subscription. Go to the library and read books. There are so many ways to learn from successful people no matter your budget.

My success is built on the knowledge I have attained from amazing people over the course of almost a decade. And I continue to learn something new every day.

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 Dahlia Raz. I am a New York based artist. I create surreal art inspired by the animals, plants, my life in New York and my Judaism. I call myself an imperfectionist. Through my art and my content on Instagram I aim to inspire others to be a little less perfect too. My art is centered around joy, whimsy and a sense of lightness.

I create paintings on canvases and murals.
And I design and sell merchandise with my art on my website dahliaraz.com
To keep up with my art you can follow me on Instagram: instagram.com/dahlia.raz

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Be human first, this is the simple belief that has helped me build the reputation I have within my market. I have a reputation of being someone who is very supportive of other artists and creatives. I believe you can create community or competition – but you can’t have both.

Being human first means being kind to others. Whether you’re talking to a CEO, or a 12 year old who is telling you about their dreams, I aim to treat everyone with the same respect and dignity along with the same lightness and humor. Treating everyone the same and seeing everyone as humans first is the secret to building a good reputation. Be kind and you will never worry that you wronged someone.

Along with that – be professional. I am an artist and the secret to my success is professionalism. Respond to people promptly. Keep your commitments. Show up to meetings on time.
I’m quirky, colorful and creative, but the reason I continue to get hired is my professionalism and people skills.
I pride myself on being kind to others, being easy to work with, and keeping my commitments.

How did you build your audience on social media?

While my current focus is on Instagram and Threads, my big audience began on TikTok in 2019. I had just read Gary Vaynerchuk’s book “#askgaryvee” and I followed a piece of advice. Research what the up and coming social media sites are and get there early. I Googled and got a list of about 5 sites that seemed promising. I downloaded 5 apps and began to create content for them and one of those apps was TikTok. The other 4 apps I eventually deleted; TikTok was growing just that much. I created time-lapse videos of my art and they started taking off on TikTok. Few people were creating art videos there at the time, it was mostly dance videos and comedy skits. Being on TikTok early as an artist meant I grew a lot and quickly. In 2019 I had amassed about 20k followers.
In 2020 I completely changed my content. Lockdown had started, I was living with my parents, and they kindly let me turn their basement into my art studio. Before the pandemic I just showed impressive videos, time-lapses of oil paintings, realism. I decided for dark times people need to be encouraged to be creative. How do I help people be creative? By telling people to create imperfectly. I began making colorful big surreal paintings using acrylic paint. I poured paint onto canvases, painted chameleons being held by smiley face balloons, created flowers with faces. I created with my audience in mind. I wanted to give people a sense of lightness, and joy. And I wanted to empower people to be creative too.
These videos took off in a wild way – the most famous of those videos being 17 seconds of me saying “sh*t art is better than no art” – while painting birds smoking cigarettes and standing atop each other.
That video really established what I was doing from that point on.

A while later reels came out on instagram and I began posting my videos there too – that’s how I build my instagram audience. I had already been creating videos for so long that it was an easy transition.

I no longer use TikTok because as a Jewish creator I don’t feel safe on the platform. It’s sad but I trust the process in life. And I’m glad I was on the platform for so long. Now I am focusing on Instagram and Threads.
Social media is ever evolving. Focusing on 1-3 platforms at most has helped me stay on track.

If you don’t have an audience yet and you are reading this in 2024 – I say get on Threads. Threads is in it’s early days and has a bit of that early TikTok energy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dahliaraz.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dahlia.raz/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dahliaraz/
• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@dahlia.raz

Image Credits
Photographer: Dan Harris @danfilmstheworld