We were lucky to catch up with John Curtis Ortiz recently and have shared our conversation below.

John Curtis, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

Earning a full time living from creative does not work like a full time job for us. We earn pockets of money from one moment to the next. We may earn mortgage payments for an entire year in one day, then go a month eating beans and rice while we wait for the cycle of cash flow to come back in. We experience many spectrums of existence (rich, poor, everything in between) in our creative work.
.
We started with the idea of creating lots of rings for really affordable prices. But the problem with model for us is that I was spending 10 hours a day in the studio polishing, building designing. Meanwhile my lady was taking care of children. So essentially I was away as much as I would have been in a job.
.
We don’t believe in being away from our children so we had to make an adjustment. We decided on a new model.
.
The new model was simple, more money for less pieces equals more time. It took us a year of losing many clients who could afford the original pricing structure. After a year we started gaining a more upscale clientele who afford the new pieces. Since then, the money has been coming back in, but exponential from where we were a couple years ago.
.
We will work here in this model for awhile. If we ever wish to scale and remain self sufficient, we’ll have to upscale our product and model again someday.

John Curtis, 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 moved to New York City from Alaska fresh off a commercial fishing boat. Originally I was living off savings that I earned fishing for halibut in the gulf of Alaska. After that money depleted I ended up working in a jewelry store called Brooklyn Charm in Williamsburg Brooklyn. .
I was mainly writing songs, playing music and working in the shop to make it by.
.
About 3 years into New York City I ended up with a really great music studio that I could barely afford. I had to give it up. In that time I could not get myself to going back to playing music in my room.
.
So in the off chance by some miracle I found a guy on Instagram making rings. I always loved rings so I started to watch YouTube videos on making them. Already working in the jewelry industry in Brooklyn, I had many people willing to share information. So one day a friend taught me about wax carving. They told me that I could go into the jewelry District by all the wax carving tools and wax that I needed, and start making rings.
.
They also mentioned to me that a casting set up is quite expensive and time consuming to learn, but, you can find casting services in New York City. So that’s what I did. I became immersed in wax carving and started dumping every little penny I could squeeze out to paying for castings of brass rings.
.
At that point I was quite reserved about putting myself on display with music, but with rings, I felt zero fear of displaying my work. As a matter of fact, I could not wait to share every new piece I made.
.
Sharing your work is a learning process. In that process you learn not to take criticisms personally. You learn overtime that a lack in “likes” and sales only mean that the right people are not seeing your vision. It takes good time and tuning to get your work in front of the right eyes.
.
Meanwhile you are working to gain the right clients, you are working on becoming a better craftsman/woman. That includes outsourcing parts of a process to people who are masters at the craft. You can ensure that the quality of your work is at its maximum capacity.
.
Like many businesses, 1% make it big immediately. The rest of us build a business that works for us to provide the ultimate life we can live.
.
It took me 2 years of posting, website building, Etsy stores, shameless self promotion before selling a ring. For most of us, it’s a long haul so don’t be discouraged. Keep moving forward little step by little step while keeping your energy fixed on taking bigger and bigger steps. One day you’ll find yourself with time and money.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I will share a story. .
Many years ago when I was getting started I was at a CASTING house getting a new ring made. I was inspecting the new ring which was in brass, and a man approached me.
.
He asked if the ring was 18 karat gold. I told him it was brass. We talked for a while and he asked me if he could give me some advice. I said absolutely.
.
He told me that I should learn to sell five rings at $100,000 a piece before I learned to sell 1000 rings at $100 a piece.
.
Being someone of little means at the time, I could not wrap my head around that idea. So, I went down my original path of learning to sell lots of rings, for affordable prices.
.
Fast forward and here I am now finally taking his advice. The only thing that is quite difficult is that we earn our entire living off of these rings. Had I taken his advice at the start, I would now be selling hundred thousand dollar rings to the right people. now, I must work my way up to that slowly.
.
It is a regret. Start big and grow even bigger with that ultimate goal of freedom and time always in your mind. Ask yourself “how can I make all the money I need in the most efficient time while enjoying every minute?”.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I often say on my social media. “ to make a fan, offer courage where it’s lacking in the audience and in ourselves.” .
That may be a difficult thing as we ourselves have the same fears. But, when we can put our fears on display. That is courage. That lets everyone know, that we are same. We can move forward together and help each other along the way.
.
To loosely quote Braveheart, “The men do not follow tittle, they follow courage.”
.
To loosely quote a contemporary writer iO. “There is immense power in displaying our vulnerabilities.”

Contact Info:

• Website: brooklynsmithy.com
• Instagram: @sanctuary_city_rings
• Facebook: Brooklyn Smithy
• Other: Forge your own path. Though it may be full of unknown quandaries, it may lead to greener pastures and light up ahead.”

Image Credits
Self inflicted