We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michael Schultz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michael below.

Michael, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Walking past the door to my home office every morning and getting ready for the commute to my employer’s office, always gave me a strange feeling. I wished I could just open the door to my home office every morning and do my thing. Since going to school for design I always felt being self employed was the ultimate dream. I didn’t know if that would ever happen for me, but that was what I really longed for.

Various advertising agencies kept me employed for the first decade or so of my career, besides a brief stint at Hallmark before going out on my own. It’s of course very common to experience layoffs at these types of places. Every time a big client comes to the end of their contract – you can expect some layoffs. After going through that experience of getting laid off a couple of times – I thought to myself, “Do I really want to keep doing this? Go to another place, learn all their different systems, get some new clients that could go at any minute, and then do this all over again … again?”

So I listened to my gut instinct at that moment. Just start working – not for an agency, but for whoever I could find that needed some design help. Also, I just started making stuff. I’ve always had an instinct that I can’t control – just to make cool stuff. This took the form of graphic art posters and shirts screen printed by me, as well as keychains, stickers, patches and really what ever else I feel like making. So far, I’m selling these items on Etsy, pop-ups/vending opportunities, and via consignment at one retail store – Black Rose here in Kansas City. This gives me a business strategy that provides two means of income: Design/Creative work for clients, and sales from my own art/products that I create.

I will never forget the evening I decided to start my own business. After getting the news of the layoff and deciding I wanted to break this circle I was in, of going place to place – I didn’t go to bed that night. I just sat on the couch all night. Thoughts were running through my mind. “What if I don’t find any clients, what if I can’t pay my bills, what if I fail … etc.” It was strange tho. After that evening all of those thoughts went away. It was like I just needed to sit and get them out of my system until I was tired of thinking about them. From then, it has felt like the universe has taken care of me. It was not hard to find clients. Not at all. It is hard to manage all of the client work I decide to take on. My main goal for 2023 is to get better at managing everything and being as efficient as possible. Juggling client work with my own art work can also be a challenge. But so often it ends up really helping on months where there aren’t many client invoices going out. I’m very thankful that there are so many vending and pop-up opportunities here in Kansas City. I feel lucky to be here. To me, the pop-ups and vending opportunities might be the most enjoyable way to gain some income. Going out, meeting people, presenting your art to folks, having conversations. It gives the most satisfying feeling to find like minded people who may become fans of your work.

It’s not perfect tho. Every day it seems like there are new challenges. I consider those challenges learning opportunities.

I hope anybody out there that’s nervous to take a leap of faith like going out on your own, makes it through the early onslaught of anxiety. It’s ok to feel those feelings. It’s actually important to recognize them, and process them. I would encourage you to give yourself the opportunity to succeed. You may be surprised at what the universe has in store for you when you listen to your instincts and do your own unique and incredibly valuable thing.

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 a designer and illustrator in Kansas City. I like to celebrate the weird. The things that make us weird are our unique advantage. For my clients, I love to find that weird unique thing and figure out how to represent that visually in their branding. I specialize in logo and branding design work.

In addition to client work, I also sell my own artwork and products. I just wrapped up a series of 10 hand screen printed (by me) posters featuring illustrations of cryptid creatures. I’m obsessed with cryptids. I also design and hand screen print shirts. In addition to prints and shirts, I have a whole bunch of stickers, patches and keychains which are some of my best sellers. I sell my art and products online, via consignment, as well as at a number of pop-up/vending opportunities around Kansas City and surrounding areas.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Nights and weekends. Getting started in my career at a couple advertising agencies in town, it is just in the culture to be too busy. Everybody is staying up all night working – all the time, and everybody is working all weekend – all the time. It is sad, but there is some sort of pride taken in it as well. It’s easy to throw blame around on why that is and how it could, and most definitely should be avoided. But I honestly don’t know how to avoid that sort of learned behavior in the ad agency/creative field culture.

When going out on my own there were a lot of elements of ad agency culture I was glad to leave behind. I have to say that the workaholic behavior got ingrained in me deep. For myself, I didn’t really see it as a problem. Working long into the night and working on weekends was just what I needed to do to get projects wrapped up, so I could get the invoice sent out, or to hit a deadline for a client or something of that nature.

But my wife Kristin and I had a baby.

At this moment he is almost 2. He has changed my world for sure. Now during the nights and weekends it is all hands on deck, trying to keep this human alive. Keeping him fed, clean, and trying to keep him from jumping off the back of the couch and cracking his head open.

Have you ever tried to start a business without working nights and weekends? It is hard. It is really hard. And honestly I still work some weekends particularly if there is an event I’m selling art work at.

I am beyond surprised so far, at how much work I am still getting done without working nights and (most) weekends. I think it starts with communication. I remember having a conversation with my main client and telling them that I just can’t work those hours any more. I was very surprised at how much they understood. We got additional help so the workload wasn’t all on me, and so far it has been working out really great.

I’ve also learned the hard way that I need to be aware of when I am asking too much of my wife Kristin to watch the kiddo alone while I go sell my art. It’s easy to be an opportunist and jump on as many pop-ups as you can to try and gain more income. But that can come at a cost with the psychological effect it has on the family. Spread it out! I’ve been learning more and more to just be hyper-aware of the calendar and not to overload one month or another with too many pop-ups or events of that kind.

I’ve been complaining a lot to those around me. It literally hurts my brain not to work nights and most weekends. Like physically hurts! But I know deep down that it is absolutely the right thing to do – to unlearn this behavior. And honestly, it is getting easier. As I get used to communicating, planning and working with what time I have available. It is getting easier. Now only if our kiddo would stop trying to jump down the stairs and other dangerous activities.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

So, I’m kind of a weird guy. I’ve always kind of been into some weird music, and scary movies, and podcasts podcasts podcasts about anything strange like Sasquatch encounters or aliens – the weirder the better really. As a designer trying to build more illustration skills I’ve always just came up with some sort of series to create. Weather it’s just illustrations to post online/social media, or a poster series or whatever. The subject matter of these series usually reflect my weird interests.

While working full time at an agency, I did my fist series I called 52 Skulls – I designed/illustrated a skull every week for a year. The agency I worked at let me enter the series into the Addys and I ended up winning a Gold award for Elements of Advertising – Illustration series. That series which I just did for fun ended up really helping me in my career. It gave me something to talk about with colleagues, it created some buzz and just good things seemed to happen from there.

While still working full time at an agency I started my next series and I called it Cryptid Addiction – I designed/illustrated 10 cryptid creatures including Sasquatch, Loch Ness Monster, Mothman, etc. And took this series as an opportunity to really try to get the hang of screen printing posters. At this time I began to think – “I should sell these.” I honestly wasn’t even thinking of selling them when I started the series. I just wanted to get better at screen printing. I was surprised some of them really sold pretty well. From there I started thinking “I should try to make some things for the purpose of selling”. So not just stuff I wanted to do for the sake of it, but really start thinking about what sells, why it sells, and try to create things based on the experience I was starting to gain.

Towards the end of my last job I had working for a company, I had my online store up and running and was starting to do some pop-up events as well.

As soon as I went on my own I think I had a built in demographic based on these projects and the art I was making and selling. So right out of the gate I was doing design work for horror movie festivals, goth jewelry brands, heavy metal bands and so on. As long as I balance these projects with some regular clients, I love the fact that I have found myself in a sort of weird community of people who just really dig out of the ordinary things.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.michaelschultzcreative.com/
• Instagram: michaelschultzcreative
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelSchultzCreative
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelschultz1/
• Other: Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MichaelSchultzDesign