We recently connected with Megan Gonyo and have shared our conversation below.

Megan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

When I decided I wanted to start a business as an artist, I actually started small to limit risk. I think this is probably a common fear for most because not knowing where next month’s rent will come from can be pretty scary. I had a full-time job at a software startup company, and I had every intention of keeping that going until I could fully replace my salary with my business profit. Start where you are is the best advice I’ve gotten, and I share it with everyone thinking about starting their own business.

I did spend my own money on things like monthly rent for an artist studio, furniture to make it a welcoming place for clients, and supplies – which as other artists know, are expensive, but that was the extent of the money I’d lose if it didn’t work out. The decision to invest in a space was a game changer because it gave me the ability to scale beyond the extra space in my kitchen. It was still just the weekends that I painted and worked on the marketing strategy, but at least now I had room to grow.

Fast forward to last month, and I am now a full-time artist and creative consultant. That was a much riskier decision, and only happened because I was pushed; I lost my job in software sales. Initially, I panicked and lined up some interviews at other companies. But I quickly realized that I didn’t care about the interviews (which was a first-ever experience for me) and my gut was telling me to say “no.” I had an opportunity in front of me. I wasn’t going to be able to scale my business more than I already did up to this point with another full-time, potentially energy-draining 9-5. And because it was just one month prior to losing my job that I closed the largest deal in company history, I had a wave of peace rush over me with my decision to exit.

So I switched gears, canceled my remaining interviews, and built another website to start a consulting arm of the business. I now offer copywriting services to startups as well as part-time CMO services to companies with innovative contributions to the world that I want to support. This gives me flexibility to explore topics that interest me (tech and psychedelic medicine startups, in particular) while I also work to diversify my income streams. I’m just getting started on this part, and I’m really excited about it.

Megan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

To date, I am known for my large format, abstract paintings. By the end of this year, some of my works will be installed in each of the top six floor lobbies of the Four Seasons Minneapolis Private Residences.

But I have always had a pull towards many other things as well, and my brand as an artist lives in those other areas more than in just the work itself. I’m an explorer and entrepreneur at heart. My curiosity knows no bounds – and at first, this frustrated me. I was really stressed out as a college student, unable to decide on one thing that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. At the time, I had no idea that life’s journey extends beyond a degree. One could say that I don’t have a niche – and maybe that’s true – but I am an artist, a technologist, and a marketer. At the intersection of all of those things is where my truth shines. To this day, I don’t know where my path goes, but that unknown is exactly where I thrive.

I love solving big problems. Most recently, I am diving into the research on psychedelics. As we continue to see strong evidence of efficacy, social acceptance, and policy change, we are at the forefront of the next big thing that has potential to change humankind. That might sound grandiose or opportunistic or even uncomfortably sci-fi for some, but I believe that exploring altered states of consciousness will contribute to an evolution of the human mind towards more empathy, more spiritual connectedness, and greater innovations at a global scale.

As an artist, a writer, and a technologist, I will play a role in the advancement of this new field. For now, I’m starting small just by talking about it more with the intention to de-stigmatize it and bring it into more mainstream conversations on mental health. Since the pandemic, we have seen greater attention to this space which has historically been met with big pharma, daily pill-popping solutions. But as we grow more and more aware of the unmet challenges and gaps of our current care delivery models, there is more acceptance for alternative solutions. I will be working with startups in this space to further advance their missions to increase access to psychedelic therapies while also helping them to navigate controversial topics and develop go-to-market strategies with their products and services.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is that I get to see how my work inspires others. I believe that we all have a creative side to us, even if we don’t know what it is yet. But once you find it, then there are so many other obstacles like fear of judgment, imposter syndrome, and lack of self-confidence that can get in the way of expressing it. Because of this, many people don’t even start. I’m living proof that it’s okay to not know what you’re doing yet and still create. Once you put yourself out there as the most authentic version of yourself, you’ll start noticing that the energy you give comes back to you. You attract what you put out there – good or bad – so make sure that if you want to attract inspiring, intelligent, entrepreneurial people into your life, you must first be those things yourself. I enjoy inspiring others to put themselves out there.

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

You’ll find a lot of people giving a lot of advice for how to build your brand on social media. And a lot of it is bad. If you think you’re going to go from 0 followers to 1M followers overnight, then you’ve been fooled! Starting a business and growing a community is hard work, and it requires consistency and constant reminders to yourself on why you’re doing it because it might feel like it’s not working for a long time before you notice it’s working. I don’t subscribe to the rules like 3 posts per day at a specific time and they must contain [x, y, z] type of content. First, that’s really hard to maintain if you don’t have a whole team of people helping you. Moreover, it’s distracting to your productivity! If you’re sitting at the computer aimlessly for hours a day trying to figure out what to post because you know you need to post something, then you’re necessarily taking time away from creating. You still need to be an artist, after all. But being an artist with no business savvy is also bad. So there’s a balance. You do have to be present on social media, but start where you are. Share what you can, when you can. Eventually, people will start to get to know you and be more engaged in your content. Pay attention to these people, because your loyal followers are the key to success. These are the people who admire you, your work, and who will tell their friends. Overtime, your social media presence will grow and so will your business. As far as what to post? Just be you. And that’s really the easiest thing in the world to do, isn’t it?

Contact Info:

• Website: www.megangonyo.com and www.palaisfashion.com
• Instagram: @megangonyo
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megangonyo
• Twitter: @megangonyo