We recently connected with Jae Manifest and have shared our conversation below.

Jae , appreciate you 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?

On my journey I have learned that life is about taking risks to get where you want to be. When you take risks a lot of the time it’s uncomfortable and many people don’t like being uncomfortable so they don’t take certain risks. I believe learning and success cannot happen without taking risks and being uncomfortable. When you are uncomfortable you learn some of the most impactful lessons and have the best opportunities to learn. Some risks are bigger than others, some provide more rewards than others, and some take longer to understand the results of your risk. It really depends on the situation and how you look at it. Taking risks & being uncomfortable have direct correlations and are almost inseparable. Since I believe these are the conditions that provide the most room for growth, I have learned to “seek discomfort.”

To get started on my creative career I had to take some big risks. It started when I decided to take this path and pursue my passion for creativity rather than using my degree like everyone constantly insists. I didn’t want to be locked into a long term job using my degree for so many different reasons so I decided to work various different jobs to try to fuel my passion for creativity, education, and travel.

In the last year a big shift came in my plans, I was put in a situation where I lost my sense of financial security. The whole situation wasn’t planned and I feel like the timing was chosen for me. I was working multiple jobs and slowly I was having more and more issues at each job. I had planned to stick it out until I could transfer to a better situation but before I was personally ready I was put in a situation where I had to leave my main source of income. Then, months later my next biggest source of income went away. I was at a stand still and felt kinda hopeless but I decided to focus more on creativity and work harder. This is the moment when I decided to pursue art full time because I had all the time in the world. Leaving the stability of my old situation was scary and felt like it was the biggest risk I’ve ever taken.

This dramatic change in my life was only months ago and I am still trying to claw back into a more comfortable situation. I took these risks because I really want to live the life I want and everything that was happening was telling me to change my situation. As soon as I allowed those doors to close so many doors immediately opened and showed me that these changes were all intentional. With the end came new beginnings, I have been at an all time creative high and I am learning to harness it to create the full time creative career I want. I am still learning from my risks and waiting to see more results. Currently doing what I want hasn’t been easier or more comfortable but it has meant being happier.

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

For those of you who don’t know me yet my name is Jae I go by Jae Manifest. I am an artist & creative, educator, model, and entrepreneur. I started my creative career by first pursuing photography. Then, I realized how many things I can do creatively and decided to mix all of my passion into making Ryyse Creations. I love creating, traveling, learning, being outside, and helping people so I put all those together to create this vision. Ryyse Creations is a visual artwork and lifestyle brand I started to inspire people to create and pursue the best quality of life by encouraging them to reconnect with nature, themselves, and each other. Through Ryyse Creations I provide visual art, education, and outreach services like drawing, painting, photography, graphic design, clothing, writing, podcasts and more. I really want Ryyse Creations to inspire people, bring people together, and get people outside loving nature & life. That’s what makes Ryyse amazing and different, it’s bigger than me. Separate from Ryyse Creations I also model and write poetry/ music. I really just love creating in any way I can.

I think what sets me apart from other creatives or businesses is how many creative avenues I find peace in and execute at a high level. I have learned that it is very beneficial to blend into many creative avenues because they really build off of one another and one can give you a better understanding of the other. People have always tried to limit the amount of things I do but I feel like being well versed is beneficial and elevates a lot of what I can do creatively. Someone can book a shoot with me and have me model in the same motion. Or hire me to do a design and at the same time get high quality photos of the final product. I can solve many problems for my clients at one time because I have an extensive creative lens. I am passionate about everything I do and bring a different type of energy to my creative expression. For example, photoshoots specifically are super fun, interactive, and can be very abstract. I focus on trying to cultivate a strong positive creative environment. When It comes to modeling, what separates me is my ability to harness any emotion and bring it into the photo which is very powerful during photoshoots and can extremely elevate a photo.

In addition to expression through visual art Ryyse Creations also provides you a place to learn new skills and experience new things through education and outreach. Along with blogs, articles, and my podcast “Manifest’s Digest” Ryyse Creations offers opportunities to learn throughout the website and other social platforms. Both the education and outreach areas are the newest developments of Ryyse Creations and allow me to offer “more than art” to my customers. Ryyse Creations is more than art, more  than a brand it’s a mind state, a lifestyle, and a community. Our community is called the Ryyse Family. Creating the “Ryyse Family” is my way of creating a community that actively combats or displays value in environment, mental health, and youth based issues so that people can be involved in Ryyse mission.

Ryyse Creations has a lot of depth to it and I am proud of my journey because of the amount of risks I am taking no matter how hard it is I’m doing what I love. I love that I have created something that allows me to express myself but is also bigger than myself. I created something that is meant to bring living beings together and create positive change that will exist past my lifetime. I want my potential clients and followers to know that everything I do is meant to be bigger than me. The success of Ryyse Creations will equate to a stronger community, happier people, and a healthier world. Please follow the Ryyse Creations journey because I believe I offer something beneficial for many different types of people.

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

I decided to evolve Ryyse Creations to what it is today to create something that allows me to do everything I’m passionate about. We have been conditioned to work and work and work but many people are never really happy with their lives. People are alive but not really living. I decided I want to break that in some way by doing what I love so it doesn’t feel like work.

I have always loved creating, traveling, being outside, learning and helping people so it’s the foundation and purpose for Ryyse Creations. I want to reconnect people to nature because nature has taught me a lot about myself, allowed me to reflect, and showed me amazing things that demonstrate how we are all connected. I think reconnecting with nature is the foundation to understanding and finding solutions to many problems we have in the world. I have learned that you have to start within before you create change, so if we can address some of the personal issues we all have we can slowly start to create overall positive changes.

For Ryyse Creations, the main focuses for change are environment, mental health, and youth based issues. It starts with us, a lot of the issues we face are due to our own self destruction. Humans see themselves as separate from nature and other humans but in reality we are all one. I believe reconnecting with nature can help us fix many issues in our environment, which can help solve many mental health issues, and later provide a better future for our youth. We must realize we are always and forever connected. I want to motivate people to find their story and understand it. Reconnecting with your roots helps you have respect for your journey and the land you were born from (nature). To me nature is everything and it’s the perfect foundation for creating positive change. I create because it makes me happy and I want to inspire and to help others.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lot of where I’m at today mentally is due to unlearning and relearning what I have been taught or told. For the most part I feel like the society we listen to is pretty misguided, out of touch of what really matters, and try to limit what is possible. I have been told my whole life, art doesn’t make money, or you have to work your whole life, or money and “progress” is what matters. I had to unlearn these things.

Art does make money, artists and creatives are some of the most valuable people on the planet. We have helped create our reality and have helped shape the things we think are possible. Every invention was created by a creative, all the books, building, tools, and things you wear are made by creatives. Money doesn’t matter and a lot of the things society has told you to value doesn’t matter and only has as much value as we give it. You don’t need to work your life anyway there are more important things like family, feeding yourself, and actually living. Some of the happiest people are not financially wealthy. Skills are more important than money and you should spend life living it and not wasting it away working to make someone else money which only continues to give someone power over you. It seems like we are stuck in a never ending trap.

Knowledge and love are the real important currency, the more you know the more money doesn’t matter, the more you love the more we have each other’s back and best interest the easier life really is. We have been taught to consume ourselves and consume each other. Once we unlearn some of the things society tells us and allow ourselves to understand what actually matters we can find true happiness. We have a lot of unlearning and relearning to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: Ryysecreations.com
• Instagram: @ryyse_creations
• Facebook: Ryyse Creations
• Youtube: Ryyse Creations & Manifest’s Digest
• Other: Email [email protected]

Image Credits
The main photo is by @_devantethomas. The first supporting photo is by Peace Five and the third supporting photo is by @adventuregreen_photography. All the rest of the photos are by @ryyse_creations