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

Sederrick, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

To make a full-time living from your creative work can be formulated into a simple equation: Passion + Discipline x Faith = Success. This is a delicate formula that if you don’t add just enough of each individual ingredient, you will never experience that euphoric sense of “wholeness” that creative people live for. I’ve had to learn that the hard way but I’m happy to say that formula has produced me success as I enter my 28th year of business.

My story began when I was first introduced to comic books. Yes, comic books! The beautiful marriage of words and visuals quietly pulled me out of a boring pre-teen existence in a blue-collar neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana. I was introduced to superheroes, arch enemies, big cities, and most importantly a creativity that offered me endless possibilities.

Let’s examine the first ingredient… Passion. The cliche question, “If making money was not a variable in the equation, what would you spend your life doing?”, was a simple question to answer. My passion can be summed up by saying that I absolutely love the “Art of bringing words and ideas to life”.

That’s exactly what creative people do! Well, at least how I describe it.

In my current role as Creative Director for my own business, I get to take other people’s hopes, dreams, and ideas and shape them into tangible, living art pieces like logos, photos, marketing collateral, and ad campaigns.

How can you not be in love with the notion of taking a blank slate every morning and painting it beautiful by the end of the day? Then you get to repeat it day after day!!! I’m falling deeper in love with being a Creative all over again.

Let me try to paint a better picture for you. Imagine meeting with the Marketing Director for Motions® Hair Care pon Monday to discuss a new logo and packaging design for their latest product. On Tuesday morning you are sitting next to Erykah Badu designing her “Southern Girl” album cover, only for you to wake up Wednesday to create a new brochure for Microsoft. That rollercoaster ride is my life as a Creative.

On to the next key ingredient… Discipline. Without Discipline family, the Creative person is like a painter without a canvas. You will never be able to be successful. Your Passion gets you through the door, your Discipline keeps you in the room.

A business-minded Discipline has to be displayed in meeting your deadlines, in your thorough communication with clients, and in your invoicing to keep the business profitable. The proper use of Discipline will subtract the word “starving” from the well-known adage that most artists end up falling victim to.

Now to my last variable in the equation that leads Creative people to Success, that is Faith. Faith is defined as complete trust or confidence in someone or something. For me, that is a belief in the Creator. Before you get uncomfortable and start thinking I’m about to go super spiritual on you, hear me out.

Success for me is not defined by finances. Yes, I want to make money and I have but success is also following in my purpose. By faith, I firmly believe that I was created to be a Creative and pursuing this journey has provided me with a sense of purpose. Living in purpose produces a by-product called connectivity. What do I mean by Connectivity??? By faith, I believe that I’m connected to the dopest artist in the universe. Creativity flows through me as I connect to the Creator – similar to a light bulb connected to electricity. Hopefully, you grasp what I mean by the faith variable. Faith literally multiplies the Passion and Discipline, creating a momentum that catapults me to success.

Lastly, let me answer the question of what do I think I could have done to speed up the process knowing what I know now. Simply stated, nothing. The process is the process and my failures were part of the process. The Elders would tell us that “It all works out for our good” and no truer words have be spoken.

Sederrick, 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?

My degree is in Visual Communications. I am a designer, photographer, web developer, creator and problem solver.

To capture the impact of this field, imagine expressing yourself without an audible voice. How would you ask some one to buy your product? How do you present a consistent message? or showcase your difference or superiority in a heavily saturated market? These are the problems I solve for my client.

There are 2 major attributes that I believe sets me apart from others which just so happens to be the things I’m most proud of:
1) My ability to relate to the target audience. I try my best to be the demographic, meaning if the client is trying to market to latino woman from 18yrs old to 36yrs old. I embody being a latino woman. Sounds weird but it empowers me with the secret ingredients of “pride and empathy”.
2) Honesty. I’m tasked to speak a truth about my client’s service or product. My edge is in the way I deliver that message “honestly”. Everyone has a heightened sense of marketing – literally, game recognizes game, so I like being honest.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn “Client Pleasing”.

I had 5 employees and I have to keep them paid. With that financial demand, I had gotten to a place where I didn’t turn down any project that came through the door.

A client came by with a late request with a quick turn around. As I walked them to the elevator, they asked if I would have the project done in the requested time, I replied “I’ll try”.

The client literally stop in his tracks, turned toward me and said, “Sederrick, I don’t run my business on try. Either you will or you won’t have it done. So, which will it be?”

In my reality, I’m already over loaded and his project would just be more stress but I didn’t want to let him down or miss the money.

That confrontation changed my “turn nothing down” ideology. I can not be everything to everybody and if I can’t deliver on time, it will do my business and employees an injustice.

The reputation of my business suffered because of my over-committing and ultimately being consistently inconsistent

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

AI, I’ve recently embraced using AI to enhance our design process. Thankfully I have not made myself nonrelevant

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sraphiel.com
• Instagram: #sederrickraphiel

Image Credits
Ari Raphiel