We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ryan Leal. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ryan below.
Ryan, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?
I’m happy with the path I chose as an artist. I don’t really spend a lot of time pondering what my alternate realities are because, I’m fully present and grateful with this life I chose. I have the ability to create something from scratch, share it around the world through a device in my pocket, and market it to the point where I can get paid for it. I saw other people do it, and knew it was possible. It was a decision, and I’m happy living in that decision 4 years later.
But yes, the thought has crossed my mind. I’ve wondered what life would look like if I would’ve took the mechanical engineer route. You know the “if you had to choose a career from going to college” route.
After my last relationship fell apart, I’ve wondered whether the 50 hours a week of being on the clock would’ve provided me with a stable life, family, and a big home.
Maybe it does, but I knew what came with that life. My Dad worked so much I remember waking up in his 18-wheeler many times while he was at work. The money was there, but the time wasn’t.
So I wanted to go the other route, and being an artist seemed like the most enjoyable way for me. Even though I had to sacrifice being broke for a while, working part-time serving/bartending jobs while I figured it out. Even when I tried to have healthy relationships while money was tight, and I had to grind it out everyday just to pay rent.
It comes down to this, your gifts will open doors for you. I have the perfect example.
I play basketball a lot, like maybe 3-4 times a week. It’s something I love to do, for fun and competitively. Sometimes I’m about to do something that’s gonna make me money, and I’ll get a text from one of my boys telling me they’re playing ball today. Many times, I’m choosing basketball over work, and there have been a couple of times where I wonder if I’m just wasting my time.
Recently, I had a friend open up a basketball facility and invited me to come check it out. I met him through playing basketball. He found out I was an artist and wants me to paint a mural in his new basketball facility.
That’s when I learned, your gifts will open doors for you, and if you’re persistent enough, your different passions will even collide and meet you at the door. So whether I was an engineer or an artist, both of them would’ve been fruitful because I would’ve appreciated that life as much as I do this one. But I chose the one that would let me spend more time with my family.
Ryan, 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?
My name is Ryan Leal, born and raised in Houston Texas. When people ask me which part of houston I’m from, I never know how to answer because I went to 12 different schools growing up around the city. I think it helped me relate to all kinds of people. I have a ton of family that I would die for, an eye for making vibrant pop art portraits, and an ear for music which I express through poetry, or “rap.”
I’m also a painter, and I write music and put them on my favorite beats for Instagram/TikTok to hear.
Before we get to the visual art, I’ve been writing songs since I was about 14. I grew around ALL kinds of music, but the art of Hip Hop always amazed me. Eminem was the 1st one who really made me appreciate the craft. Z-Ro, UGK,and the whole S.U.C showed me the Houston Culture, And then J. Cole was the one who showed me how to put real life stories in a song. I started taking beats from Youtube and writing songs to them. I thought it was like making puzzles with words, with music. So I never really was concerned about what other might think of it cause I felt everything I wrote was like a letter for me. What began to happen was, as I started posting my videos to social media, people really loved what I was writing. They appreciated the rhythm of the flows I was creating, and I was told all the time to keep doing it.
I’m 27 now, and I still post my songs to Instagram/Facebook/TikTok. I’ve performed many of my raps on open mic stages around the city. (Shout out to Writer’s Block.) I do still get lots of attention around the music, I just have been SO busy with the Art business, so I haven’t been as consistent as I’d like to be with the music. Finding a balance with multiple crafts is a challenge, but I feel like at some point soon, you’ll hear my music playing. And it’ll make you feel something.
Stay tuned for that. For now you can hear my published songs on AppleMusic/Spotify in the link in my Instagram bio, as well as more verses throughout my instagram. Now, let’s get to the Art business.
I’m the CEO of Deeply Inspired Designs and Houston Paint Sesh. Deeply Inspired Designs is the name of my personal art brand, in which I specialize high quality art designs, paintings, and murals. It is ran and operated by myself. I began pursuing a professional art career in 2018, 4 years from when I wrote this. I still remember how it really came to be.
2 people in my family had just passed away in the same week, different sides of the family. The funerals were on the same day and let’s just say it was a very long day. Something about death makes you appreciate your own life a lot more.
What is interesting is, i knew that would be an important time in my life. It took some time to figure it out, but after some attempts at meditation on a consistent basis, I was able to find answers within.
Being a creative is all about expression, and it can be very therapeutic. So not only did depressing times allow me to dive into a HEAVY wave of playing with pencils and a sketchbook, drawing my favorite artists and pro athletes, but it was the first time I felt empowered to share something I’ve created.
I feel like, especially in the Hispanic community, we grow up not speaking up for ourselves as much. Lots of times it’s due to parents being overly critical and judge-mental over life decisions. I just wanted to keep this small art momentum I had going and hopefully inspire others deeply enough to go create. Go take risks. Go start a business. Go do shit you actually love instead of what you think your parents or society wants you to do. You get to choose. So I wanted to make sure I tried everything I wanted to try before it was my turn to leave this earth. So for me, in this stage of life, I’m trying out being an artist.
I’ve done many family portraits, Pop art portraits, and have a few professional murals in my portfolio. When Vanessa Guillen went missing, that’s when i realized art carried more power than I thought, as we were able to bring awareness through a few murals created of her in Houston. I feel like I’m still young in this industry, but it has treated me pretty well so far.
Let’s talk about Houston Paint Sesh.
In 2021, I started doing paint parties with another artist. We were able to learn a lot from each other before she moved away, closer to her family. Year 1 was a lot of trial and error. Learning how to market and run events where people are buying tickets is a job within itself. At times, it could be so frustrating and time-consuming, you question if this is something you wanna do regularly.
Once my partner moved away and I was doing it alone, I knew it would be even more difficult to manage on my own. But people kept asking me when the next event was, and I just felt the urge to make it happen. I just had to get organized.
On January 1st 2022, I created Houston Paint Sesh on Instagram/Facebook to keep everyone who was interested in the events in one place. Houston Paint Sesh is a Hemp-Friendly Creative Experience Service.
We host monthly Puff, Sip, and Paint events at amazing locations, typically at popular bars/pubs so people can grab drinks and food. It’s a great event for a date night, group outings with friends, and family activity. The canvases are Pre-Sketched a design of their choice, so the painting is kept simple and easy to take home an awesome painting that you really like. People love that they can grab a drink, and/or light up a joint while painting one of their favorite music artist or nostalgic cartoon characters with their friends.
Due to word of mouth, and an incredible marketing effort, I’ve been able to grow the Facebook and Instagram pages to over 5,000 followers in 5 months. We just earned a new partnership in a new beautiful location at a bar called East End Backyard, as we’ll be hosting sessions there every other Wednesday.
Houston Paint Sesh is operated and ran completely by myself, with the help of friends/family that I hire for tasks on event days. I handle all the art preparation, Social media, marketing, photography/videography, and more that I can’t even categorize. Of course, I couldn’t have put this together without the support and help of other business owners I’ve partnered up with, as well as the all the guests who book tickets to these events. I am extremely grateful for what we’ve built here.
The sacrifices it took to build this platform, I’m not sure how I even did it in the beginning. I trusted the wrong people to be there for me. I burnt myself out trying to go to work full-time, be on time, and get event materials prepared. I said no to lots of friends wanting to go out. I ignored every distraction that could take me away from building the best product/experience for the guests, and that’s exactly what is being done.
Houston Paint Sesh is still relatively new, but we’ve had over 800+ guests collectively attend our events in the year 2022. It feels good to know people are loving the brand and experience you’re providing. Can’t wait to see what this becomes down the road!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect is the people you get to impact with your art.
It’s the moments when you give someone a piece of art and their eyes light up, they go crazy, or start crying.
It’s the random text messages you get from someone who just listened to one of your songs, telling you that it made their day.
It’s the comment section on your Instagram posts.
It’s being the inspiration for someone that you needed when you were growing up.
That’s it for me.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I would just be myself. My high school girlfriend made me an Instagram back in 2011, before I knew what it was. I’m thankful for that because it became a personal page that I stuck with and is now a mix of personal brand and business. I don’t really have a story, but rather habits that I’ve stuck with to make sure I’m using social media as the tool that it is.
1. Be yourself – People don’t always wanna be sold to. They just wanna feel understood. If people can see that you’re also just a regular person dealing with regular problems like we all do, it lessens the distance between you and your followers. they’re more likely to trust you.
2. Be consistent – If people don’t see you constantly showing up, they won’t take you serious from a business standpoint. People wanna see that you’ve put in the work, before they see you as a professional.
3. Learn the platforms – Treat these apps like you would treat your phone. Meaning, learn the ins and outs, features, hacks, of your platform. Learn how to navigate it well enough to where it becomes really easy to manage. This naturally happens with using them frequently, and testing out new features.
4. Be Social – Engage with your community in the digital world. If you’re only posting products and never interacting, people are gonna feel like they’re just a dollar to you. Don’t fake being friendly, but rather comment on things that are actually interesting to you. Give people credit. People like to be reminded there’s a person that exists behind that phone screen.
Contact Info:
- Website: DeeplyInspiredDesigns.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/ryanlhtx?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=