We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laihha Organna a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Laihha, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. So, we’d appreciate if you could open up about your growth story and the nitty, gritty details that went into scaling up.

While I still have a long way to go and more goals to accomplish, I have scaled my creative business drastically in a short period of time and learned so many lessons to share.

I’ve always been an artist. I’ve been drawing since I could hold a pencil and was always the “art kid” in school, sketching funny doodles for everyone in class. It was always a hobby and I never considered it to be a career. I actually went to college for something completely different!

I graduate college in 2020 with a degree in Geography/ Sustainability. It was peak covid and I was working mostly remote doing work in my field. I discovered I could create digital art in my free time, so I got an iPad and started doodling to get me through much of the alone time we were all grappling with.

This snowballed into drawing every single day and improving my skills quickly. I started to post my work online and it was getting a lot of positive feedback. Pretty early into my daily drawing, I decided that this was exactly how I wanted to spend my days and I did a 180 with my career trajectory.

I became fully committed to my creative practice, drawing as much as possible and posting them online daily. Lucky for me, I am not a perfectionist. I think this really worked in my favor for starting my business. Even if a piece wasn’t exactly what I wanted, I still put it out there. I left a trail of all my messy learning out for everyone to see, and it worked! My work was far from perfect, but it was being enjoyed. After about a year of posting my work daily, I started to get traction and had a few drawings go “viral”.

I took this as an opportunity to build a serious online community. I kept creating and interacting with folks online who admired my work. Overtime, it grew into a committed fan/ customer base and I was getting dozens of messages each week from potential clients looking to create t-shirts, logos, packaging and more.

My advice: START BEFORE YOU ARE READY.

I knew I wanted to become a full time artist. So I took on some potentially unearned confidence and began introducing myself as an artist before I was even making any money from art. I was still working a part time job at a local non profit. The transition was very seamless for me, luckily. The non profit I worked for was running out of funding to keep me. I knew I only had so many hours left in my position. I strategically worked less and less at my job to prolong the hours I had left in my contract and dedicated the remainder of all my time to my art business. I worked very hard to come out with new art and create systems for my business. I built a website, got a CRM system, created an email list, made contracts, policies and more. None of it was perfect, in fact, it was all pretty bad looking back now. But, it got me started.

Because I knew I had limited time and every part of me wanted to make art work- I had an extra push. I didn’t have anything to fall back on. I was getting laid off soon and art needed to support me. That kept me going. Of course I think everyone should be smart and not quit their job right away, but you will need something to push you. Give yourself a timeline. Dedicate yourself and act as if there is no plan B.

And do not wait until you are “ready”. You won’t ever be ready. Your art is good enough right now and you will learn exponentially faster by taking action, making mistakes and improving your process. I would never work with clients the way I used to, but I thank my earlier self for trying the best she could and getting us started.

Once I officially left my part time job, I got serious. I knew I was no longer a “wannabe artist”. I was a full time artist. I used every client interaction as a learning opportunity and developed systems that work for me to help attract my ideal clients.

To scale my business, I created a better website that directs clients to work with me. I created inquiry forms that ask the right questions, helping me understand if a client is serious. I developed informational packets for clients about my process, pricing and vision. I paid for professional contracts. I listened to podcasts and books and bought courses and taught myself how to do “business”. I made the part of my career that seemed the most daunting, fun. I had to change my mindset and make business tasks another creative outlet.

In the beginning, I think it is very valuable to say yes. Take on as many jobs as possible. Say yes to concepts that aren’t really your jam. Work on low budget projects. You might be thinking- no! Why would we do that?! Because, this will be your trial phase. Say yes to projects, do your absolute best you can, and use it as a time to learn as much as humanly possible. Make mistakes and start organizing all that you’ve learned. You’ll want to get this messy era out of the way, so that when the perfect opportunities come your way, you feel prepared and confident.

I am so happy that my most exciting opportunities and biggest clients came a year or two into my journey, rather than right away. I wasn’t ready for them yet.

Things scaled and got more serious once I was ready to start saying no.

It didn’t take long for me to learn my value as an artist and when I needed to start declining projects. Whether they weren’t my style, the clients weren’t a good fit or the budget was too low. I came up with a minimum project price. This is a base price you know that you are worth and for the most part, you won’t work for anything less. I say no to more projects than I say yes to. Mostly because their budgets are too small, but I’ve gotten to a point in my business now, where I know what my art is worth, I know how much profit can be generated using my art on products and I only want to do work that helps further attract more ideal clients.

To scale up my business, I got professional. I made my website an easy to use landing page that answers questions. I made my process about the client, not me. While they are coming to me looking for my art style, I never forget that the client is coming to me with a problem they want to solve. They have a need, and I can help them. I emphasize the return on an investment they can make. I built trust. I get testimonials from my clients and share them widely on my website and onboarding documents. I let the client in on my process before they book with me, giving them an idea of how it all works, gaining their trust before we start. It’s a life-long journey with more to learn. But I am proud of taking an idea and turning into my full time career that supports me in just a couple years.

Start small, but start before you’re ready. In order to increase your value and scale up, you must show up organized, professional and showcase your value to the world. People will only take your business as seriously as you do. So get serious, get better at what you do and market yourself to no end.

Laihha, 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 Laihha Organna. I’m 25 and based on the North shore of Maui. I primarily offer digital illustration and design services. My art can be found on t-shirts, branding, packaging, beer cans, skateboards and all kinds of products globally. Using my weird surf inspired art style, I help my clients create best selling products. I infuse a unique, odd twist to my art, making it stand apart from the competition. This gives brands an edge in creating one of a kind products.

I am most proud of my consistency in my craft. I devote myself the same to a project Whether it is a huge corporation or a small mom and pop shop. Every piece of art matters to me and I take every project as an opportunity to do my best work yet.

I operate my business under the name “LOINDAFLOW”. LO- my initials “IN DA FLOW”, represents hawaii, flow state, and the inspiration I pull from surf culture.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I’ve learned through Maria Brophy’s book “Art, Money, Success” and her Art Licensing Course about all the benefits of art licensing. I’ve used these teachings to build out my business model in order to help me retain the right to my art and generate income from them for life, for me and my future children!

I listen to the 6 figure creative podcast to get insights from other entrepreneurs and learn about the business side of my career. This podcast has taught me a lot about funneling leads, marketing myself, building an email list, and improving my systems to conquer tasks more efficiently.

I’ve read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert multiple times. It’s a great book about being fearless as a creative and acting on your ideas. She emphasizes that when ideas come to you, it’s a gift and if you don’t act on them, they will find someone else to bring them to reality. It taught me to give all my crazy ideas a chance, because they could turn out to be really awesome.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist for me, is seeing how happy it can make other people. I know the process of creating art makes me happy, but I never expected to have others rally around me with such awesome support. Whether it’s a kid who just a new fun skateboard deck for Christmas or someone who is cracking a cold one with their friends- these products with my art on them spark conversation and I hope encourage people to not take life too seriously. If I can make someone laugh or smile, I’ve done what I came to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: loindaflow.om
• Instagram: loindaflow
• Linkedin: Laihha Organna

Image Credits
All of the three portraits of me (first head shot image, 2 pictures of me in my art studio bus) are all by lexi harry photography.