Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kelly Bragg. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kelly, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

Let me start by saying… being a business owner is not for the faint of heart. It’s an intimidating endeavor to take on and a motivating factor to keep going. Having an idea is one part. Having the urge is another. Wanting to acquire the knowledge is the next. Deciding to physically put effort in follows, and being willing to learn, adjust, reject, be rejected, risk take, invent and compete remain expected. These are all part of the job, at any point in time. The good part is… you’re your own boss and it’s something you like doing.

Nothing feels better than finally falling into the natural pattern of finding success and continuing to produce it. There is a flow that people speak of, and it’s real; there IS a formula, but it’s invisible and different for every field. But, what happens when you fall out of that flow? What if the market changes, but your competitors’ business is business as usual? Is it even really the market, then? Have you lost it all? Do you throw in the towel? That’s the ultimate struggle to be faced with, and it can creep up or actually happen at any point in time.

There is a reason why they teach the need for a sought-after skill set in economics. It’s a large part of the gig. Another hard truth I’ll break to you off the bat is one similar to that in the veterinary field; you can be a perfectly qualified individual and still be denied over another in your exact same shoes, only differing by something extra-curricular-related previously, a personal connection, or even something physiological that is intangible and seemingly unimportant, etc,.
(You find that psychology plays a larger role in business, work, and life than most would like to acknowledge).

See, if everyone has A’s, there has to be another deciding factor. This applies in my field, too. I’m a mix-media artist and have been since 2018. I make and sell a variety of wall art and designed decor. Every time someone asks if I do this for a living, I say “I am blessed to have been able to do this for X years now” with a shrug and a look of “I know right?”

That comes from a place of having felt the “ebb and flow.” It sounds pessimistic, but it isn’t supposed to be!

To make a long story short, I couldn’t imagine my life without my business, and even when I think about having a regular job, it still seems like such a “plan Z” for me. It’s really hard to think of your “baby” in the long term and think of what might benefit you later, even if that feels restrictive in the now. Self disciple is imperative when running a business and so is perspective. You need others. It takes a village!

Regardless of the lows… when you make a sale, and it’s one that can carry you, it quickly runs through your head, “I would have had to work X amount of hours to earn this if I was working anywhere else.”

If you can believe it, that single dopamine hit will carry you farther than that sale could. The trade off is a win-win, because you got paid for your work/materials/time, but you also got paid internally with one of the most valuable currencies on the planet: determination.

I have seen first hand through people like my mother, that a person can truly do something- anything -if they really want to. I liken it to how people in fight/flight/freeze become stronger and not as receptive to pain right away in order to preform better during the threatening situation. I think when we want something bad enough, we can almost “will” it into existence by using our human ability to create, combine, innovate and evolve. I’ve learned so much about life and humanity as a business owner. I’d even call it being an “active observer” in society.
You make a move, see how people respond, think, react, make a choice, make another move, observe, repeat. That’s a business owner/creator/problem solving mindset.

So naturally, when things come to a halt,
that same analytical mindset will take over and visit every area on the map, good and bad. It doesn’t reflect your actual stance, though. And if it does, you will feel the anxiety in your throat and will open your laptop after this to make any change you can to make you feel productive, whether that’s changing the red and yellow website colors you use because green and blue are more calming to a viewer, or even the entire branding you currently have. You don’t question investing in yourself. And when worst comes to worst, you find ways to make money for your business, which will make money for you.

Even the most successful comedians were waitressing/bussing during the few hours a day they were writing, because they had a goal. Don’t let your ego keep you from surviving because someone else’s story went one way and yours is going another. Inspiration seeks to create its own new; not recreate what already exists. Comparison is a road block but acting on the comparison is self sabotage.

We, as business owners, only got here by being hard on ourselves and, essentially, ignoring the progress we made because we were too busy wanting to make more. That’s likely going on now. As long as you’re giving it your actual all, then you are moving forward. It may not be at the pace you want, but will it ever? I’ve learned we always want what we don’t have. It can be debilitating or It can be what pushes you forward, and forward, and forward.

I think if you have a passion, it’s all you see, it’s all you want, and it’s all your energy is driven towards, and you can’t imagine life without that whether it’s an art or the freedom of being your own boss alone – that incredible things happen.

There will be times when it feels like it’s ending, but as long as you identify as a strong, independent, capable individual and not AS your business, you can always take it and evolve. It’s what we’re made to do.

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 am more so known for my variety and range of mediums than I am for one particular style or thing. As much as I try to stick to one, I simply can’t. I use to worry about that, and wonder if I am recognizable as a brand. But then I realized I am in a rare part of the business industry that requires as much business as any, but with a person whose passion is anything but numbers, sitting still, being organized by other people’s standards, and standards of any kind actually. I don’t think outside of the box, I drew the box.

This made me realize that I needed to embrace the variety and not whittle myself down to one category in the assumption that that’s what people want. In fact, this is one way I naturally being exclusivity to the market; I’m always evolving and combining and creating.

I’m thankful and grateful that the audience I’ve accumulated over the years are people who encourage and inspire and recognize my efforts, which only makes me feel more seen and more valid in my stance.

I’m sure you’ve heard that it’s hard to make a living as an artist.
It’s true! Part of me looks back and thinks, “how DID I do this?” And I know that hard work played a huge role but so did fate, and my family’s support, and my time and place, and my overall luck. I’m a qualified artist but there’s MANY of those. To be wanted at all feels so cool, everyday.

Sadly, it is easy to get desensitized to your own accomplishments. It helps me to think of someone else in my shoes and observe the reaction I have towards them, and then see it that way for myself. Being an Emotional person, which is imperative for my field, doesn’t always go so easily with business! I always try to think about where I am now versus where I was before and I try to really believe it. Imposter syndrome is very very real and it might be a toxic way that I motivate myself, or maybe I just can’t actually believe my job and I am
Still in disbelief that I went from college with a random major to person and artist with a purpose and passion.

For a lot of people, this risk they take is an escape. I have a personality disorder that I was diagnosed with in 2019. I had a “been there, done that” type of attitude in every day life and really had no stimuli that was helping me develop or live. I do feel as though I just existed and I was seemingly fine enough to slip through the cracks.

While I always will have so many questions, and practically live in the existential, I somehow fell into exactly what I didn’t know I needed and it shocks me to this day.

My story isn’t one of magical intervention or what have you, but it’s one of a dull girl with potential that no one sought to foster who overcame the victim mentality, achieved a 6-figure art business 2 years in, began frequenting galleries 4 years in and has art in every state plus 3 countries. I plan to finish school for interior design by 2026.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

During Covid, I had a surge of business. I was like, “okay! This is it. And they said this was hard.”

Then businesses who offered services opened back up, and the market DID suffer, and my competitors were still doing okay (seemingly; there is such a thing in marketing called building demand). I felt really bad about myself. I couldn’t justify the lack of sales in comparison to my last year because nothing changed; I was only improving my products, increasing my production and quality, etc.

It became harder to be realistic, and I realized i was feeling more defeated every week. The thing about a creative block/an intrusive thought/the idea of losing something you love is that it feeds on itself and feels as if it’s bigger than your own ability to control, which puts a person like me in a bad position for creation; I’m thinking of what will sell, what others want to see instead of what I want to make. That already is something that could affect my business.

Whether or not it is, the accumulating thoughts become all-consuming and I started to feel inferior, not talented, unwanted, annoying, like a dead end, you name it, I felt it.

It took me confiding in my mom about finances for me to eventually come to the conclusion that I was hurting myself by being so stagnant. Yes, my business model was changing and my lesser numbers became more realistic after Covid when people weren’t stuck inside and online, and that reality was one I didn’t prepare for or even consider.

As a mix-media artist, I have natural interest in a variety of mediums and that includes interior design. It’s a skill I’ve not been able to hone, with a limited budget and being a renter.

I kept waking up every day to less sales, and feeling less productive and going from working in the studio to sitting in the studio…. a lot. Less ideas were flowing, and less anxiety to fix it…

Oh no. My mind says “this is bad” but my body says, well, nothing. This has never happened before. Usually the debilitating anxiety makes me get up and make something badass. Instead, il just observing, non-actively.

Is it my antidepressants? Is it my environment? Is it the lack of purpose? I can never really know.

Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I would be damned if I let my fear of being perceived as a failure prevent me from living the life I want, and achieving my goals, just because it isn’t the way someone else would go about achieving their goals. To suffer because of what others may think is asinine. A human shouldn’t do it.

I wanted security, like I had. But I’d have to get it another way. Plan “z”. I got a side job. I decided to finish college, and adjust my major to interior design. I realized…. I WANTED to do this. Once I let myself identify as something in ADDITION to an artist, I realized it was what I wanted and it felt so right. I feel productive, I feel purposeful, I have something to look forward to in a field I enjoy, I get to learn and achieve a higher quality of life knowing I am succeeding at meeting my goals.

I realized it takes a lot more passion and character to be willing to adjust than to be willful and stay where I know I’m not succeeding but wish i was.

I have since been flowing with art ideas and have plenty of time to make them, and am suffering less financially

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

Consistency, variety, genuine energy, generosity, personality, and passion.

People want to know that you enjoy yourself, that you aren’t just throwing in the towel, that you are actively evolving and showcasing cool/useful things that you care about.
One thing people do not respond well to is half-assing. If you can tell, so can at least one other person.

You have to really enjoy what you do and be willing to jump through the hurdles to continue to be able to do the fun parts.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.Braggaboutitartistry.com
• Instagram: Braggaboutitartistry
• Facebook: Braggaboutitart
• Twitter: Kelsotheartist