We were lucky to catch up with Jaida James recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jaida thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

For the most part I would say that I am happy as a creative. It gives me the chance to express myself and whenever I’m frustrated or upset it’s a good way to calm myself down, it’s almost like a therapy for me. Being a creative definitely has its ups and downs, though. As time went on I started to get burnt out from all the painting. I’m very hard on myself when it comes to my art and when I started to become tired and burnt out I could feel the quality in my paintings drop. I was very frustrated in that time and I would wonder what was going on. I started to no longer enjoy painting and was overall very unhappy. I stopped painting because I felt like I just needed to have a moment for myself. Painting was something that I’ve always enjoyed but I knew that turning it into a business would cause me to get burnt out eventually. I still have a lot of moments like that today so I felt like I should pull back from trying to run my business slightly to give myself that time to think over some things. I did get a regular job and I’m happy I did that because it’s helping me learn new skills that I can apply to my business. I do still paint but I wanted some time to just find myself again with my art so I can go back to being the artist that I know I am. This break was definitely needed because I know soon I’ll be ready to go back and run my business with the full amount of energy it deserves.

Jaida, 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’m a 16 year old artist who started my business in 2020 when I was 12. Starting my business was very unplanned. It started when my mom just randomly posted a picture of some small paintings I did for fun and to our surprise people actually wanted to buy some. My mom encouraged the idea that this was something that could be turned into something good for me if I keep making and selling paintings. I kept my business name ‘Jewelz By JJ’ from when I used to sell beaded jewelry because the name was still very close to me. I decided to give myself a goal with my art and that was to represent black women through my craft. From when I was very young I rarely ever saw black art being shown in big, and even local, art spaces and that was something I hoped to change. Through the encouragement of my family and friends I was able to turn that idea into an actual business. Im proud of being able to get into the spaces I’ve been in so far and I’m happy that I’ve been able to inspire others through my art.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative would probably be the sense of accomplishment that I get. I mostly feel accomplished when I see that my art is inspiring others and when I see my art slowly getting into bigger and better spaces.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Going on sites like youtube was very helpful in learning the basics of entrepreneurship. Most of what I know now did come from word of mouth rather than books or the internet. Going to networking events and participating in local conferences really helped me learn more than what you may find in a book. The people I met taught me how to change my thinking on what it takes to run a business and I also learned some behind the scenes info. I do also recommend taking entrepreneur or finance courses when you can for that extra info.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jewelzby_jj?igsh=eGZnbGdyZG1ybnMx
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jewelzbyjj?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Image Credits

N/A