We recently connected with Rebecca Carlyle Allen and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rebecca thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you walk us through some of the key steps that allowed you move beyond an idea and actually launch?

It took me a while to understand my creative process. I’ve always been a perfectionist which used to hold me back from being vulnerable with my art and it stopped me from trying anything new, which I later learned is a big part of the creative process. I used to look longingly at friends or people in my art classes who in my mind had these perfect looking sketchbooks and wondered how I could achieve that too. As the saying goes, I had to learn that comparison is the thief of joy and that every artist has their own process and way of doing things.

But my process is a messy one, at least at the start. Once I finally owned that about myself and once, I gave myself permission to just have fun and be ok with mess and to try things my art became infinitely better. I was able to find that state of flow and just trust the process. I take a lot of inspiration from Magic School Bus Character Miss. Frizzle whose saying is “Take Chances, Make Mistakes and Get Messy”, which I think is a perfect way to think about the creative process.

I learned that my idea process involves finding a lot of reference and making mood boards at the start. Then I start sketching and it always starts all over the place. My sketchbooks look like they’ve been through the ringer. Banged up, and scribbles everywhere. I don’t have pretty sketchbooks but I’m finally ok with that because how I work is unique to me and that’s ok. But finally, after trusting the process and trusting the mess, I can start the refinement step, and a vision slowly starts to emerge. From there, I can continue refining until finally it feels complete.

I’ve learned how to incorporate this idea into my overall business planning too. The first idea we have for things is usually the most obvious. The brain likes to take the path of least resistance. Creativity is pushing through that to some of the less obvious ideas and seeing how we can apply them in new ways.

When I started my business I had backup plans for my backup plans and I was constantly aware of needing to be flexible yet resilient to be successful. Success like creativity can be messy and its not always a straight line. Its good to keep an open mind to all the opportunities available to you as a creative entrepreneur.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve been working as an Illustrator, and Graphic Designer for 15 years. In 2018, I started my own freelance business called Tigerlily Graphics and which allows me to specialize in branding, print design, infographics, and illustration, I’ve been lucky to consult on design work for several companies across Canada including the University of Toronto, Ontario Health, and The Ending Violence Association of Canada.

I’ve always been that kid that wanted to be different and never wanted to follow anyone else – a rebel if you will. We used to have a field of tiger lilies that grew wild, they were bright orange and I used to love seeing them and picking them. I decided when I was young that this is going to be my favourite flower, something no one else would pick. Over the years, this wonderful analogy and metaphor for my life kind of emerged from those flowers. Tigerlilies are a bit of an oxymoron. Tigers are fierce but lilies are sweet. I love the juxtaposition of those opposing energies but somehow together they work. That’s become a metaphor for my business and for myself.

My love of art and all things creative started at a very young age,but evolved over the years. My mom is a big animation and illustration geek and I course become one as well. She watched a lot of Disney with us as kids. I have very fond memories of dancing around the house with my mom and my sister and singing along to all the Disney songs and afterwards, we’d try and draw the characters together. My mom always wanted to be an artist and my grandpa (her dad) thought it wasn’t practical and discouraged her from pursuing it. My mom instilled that love of art in me. Being an artist has been my dream since I was a kid, but I’m glad my mom can live through me a bit as well too. I’m lucky that she understood firsthand how important it was to have someone believe in you and believe in your art. I feel so lucky now to be able to do it for a living and I try to never take it for granted.

I have a passion for telling stories through my art. It’s that storytelling piece that links all of this together. I’ve started to realize storytelling is what I love the most, and that my art can really help tell that story. I’m trying to own the storytelling part a bit more and lean into that, since that is ultimately what I think resonates with people.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

I love working with people who want to work with me and who want to have fun. I used to be very shy, and I used to be scared to show people my real personality in business. I was scared it wasn’t professional to be loud or funny. But it wasn’t very fun living like that. And when you consider how much we work in our lifetimes, having fun while you do it seems like a small way to make life and work more enjoyable for all of us. So when I started my business I promised myself I’d always be myself. I’m a bubbly, quirky nerd at heart. A positive person bursting with ideas and energy and I’m that way with my clients too.

I started to be more comfortable showing my authentic self and what i found was I finally attracted the clients who liked not only my artwork but me as a person. From there keeping in touch and fostering those client relationships has been easier since we’re having fun and telling stories together.

I also do my best to communicate about everything. I learned early on that artists have a bad reputation for being flakey or late on things. And that most clients are pretty understanding if you communicate early and often and keep expectations in check. Using this to my advantage I always try to make sure I deliver when I say I’m going to and once I realize I can’t – communicating that as early as possible. This has created a sense of trust and reliability with my clients that I think they really appreciate.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I worked in the industry for about 10 years before I finally started my own business sand it was something I got kind of pushed into which I’m not grateful for. What pushed me to start my business is a tale as old as time. On the week of my 30th birthday, I quit my toxic corporate job where I knew I wasn’t reaching my full potential. After 7 years of not being believed in, or respected for my ideas, I’d reached this breaking point and realized I just wasn’t very happy with what I was doing and where I was going. I had been wanting to do illustration for a long time and I had a fear – this is going to sound very morbid, but I could picture myself on my deathbed, having so many regrets that I never tried.

Even if it meant working at a coffee shop or some part time jobs that were less fulfilling, I was committed to taking the leap of faith. I definitely took some odd jobs in the beginning because I was scared, and I wanted income coming in. But ultimately, I began to realize that the thought of not trying at all was way scarier to me than the idea of trying and failing.

I see this so often and I’m so guilty of it too, is as artists, creatives, or entrepreneurs we reject ourselves before we put ourselves out there. We don’t even give other people the chance to reject us. I talked to myself, like I would talk to a friend. I started to tell myself that maybe success can take many forms and, in this case, maybe success was just showing up and trying. While I do believe in the concept of luck, I think a lot of times we can make our own luck. It took me a very long time to realize that because I think sometimes it’s easier to just let things happen to us than to realize that we can make stuff happen. It can be really discouraging, the mistakes, the failures, the rejections. I encourage people to take breaks along the way when you need to take a deep breath, do that self care and then get back to it because it is so satisfying and worth it when you finally get there after all that hard work.

I’m stubborn and I don’t know how to give up. When someone tells me that I can’t succeed, I feel like you can respond in a couple of ways. For me, I have a rebellious part inside me that says I’m going to prove you wrong. I’m competitive which is both a blessing and a curse. I’ve had my moments of feeling defeated, but I try to lean into the inner fire and use it as motivation. I call it relentless optimism.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tigerlilygraphics.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tigerlilygraphics
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TigerlilyGraphics
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/becky-allen-88653034/

Image Credits
On the Busy Ranch – Written by Katelyn Toney, Illustrated by Rebecca Allen Both Portraits – photography by Rebecca Nash Report Mockup Provided for the University of Toronto: Services & Facilities Department Port Hardy magazine ad created for the Town of Port Hardy, BC All other artwork are original creations by Rebecca Allen