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

Hi Waladi, thanks for joining us today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?

Honestly the most innovative thing I’ve done so far in my career has been taking a more intentional approach to my social media audience. And by that, I mean creating more content around my artwork. For example, something I’ve begun in September of 2022 and still do to this day for new art pieces, is create and present an artist talk video. It consists of the timelapse of the art piece and me speaking over it (with captions) about what the piece represents to me, and the story behind it. It’s an in-depth look for my audience to see what I’ve created and for us to create a connection with each other. And they take time to make! Thus far in my artistic and content creation practice, I’ve joked with others that I’ve also become a video editor. But it’s all so exciting to create and I look forward to more skillsets to gain and ways to interact with my supporters!

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 visual artist and graphic designer from Denver, Colorado. I’ve been creating artwork since the age of 3, and it served as my main mode of self-expression when words couldn’t do my emotions justice. I got into selling art when I was around the age of 8 and my older cousin Jerard, gave me the opportunity to participate in his art shows. Thankfully parents were very helpful and supportive in making sure everything on my end was done right as well, so it was never just on me. My professional practice now, has certainly flowed from there into middle school, high school, and then college. I’d always be the one people would come to for art requests (portraits, logos, covers, etc.) and I’m forever grateful for those starting supporters. And when the job was complete, seeing the overjoyed faces of my peers and clients gawking at their newly created art, further inspired me to ask, “how can I continue to impact the lives of others positively”.

In my newborn business “WBA Art LLC” the main slogan is “Yea, I got something to say”. I chose this because it’s how I’ve always felt when creating my art, and it’s how I want any of my clients or supporters to feel when they work with us or see our art. Therefore, it’s a primary focus in finding creative and meaningful ways to empower others through our art. Because we all have something to say, but sometimes it can take someone else to say it first for us to live comfortably in our truth. Not everybody may have the facilities or outlets to express hidden facets of themselves, either by lack of a platform or a tepid nature. I understand that, and how difficult it can be, but that’s what we do here effortlessly with our art. Give people a catalyst to step up to the world and agree, that “Yea, I got something to say”.

The main ways we do so as of now, are through custom art commissions (portraits/logos/books etc.), the selling of original art, and creating comic books/webcomics. And these all-share similarities with our main goal at WBA Art, addressing a thought or feeling, and either bringing it to life, or making an art piece accessible for someone who feels the same. And I feel that’s what sets us apart from other art businesses. Most if not, all provide a service that simply looks stunning, that looks incredible, but may not mean much to the average viewer. Or even on the commission side, we’ve created something for you in our vision, here you go, goodbye. Us on the other hand, strive to make pieces for people to think about, to digest and look within themselves for a resolution in understanding. And our commission process is entirely personable, making sure that our clients have a hand in every step of the process, up until completion.

Honestly, I couldn’t be prouder of what I’ve created, and how many people in my past, present, and future have supported my growth. I’m doing something that I truly love and have fun with daily. Hard times included, I look towards the future with a smile of what we’ll create next, and how many people will impact for the better. To the person reading this from whichever source, I hope you know that this all started as a dream of mine, and I’m doing what I love. But a fully functional business couldn’t thrive without you taking the time to love our art, follow our content, support us financially or with prayers. The art is truly helpful for me, and we want to provide the same level of joy for you. Because it’s a high level of joy, trust.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My social media presence on both my Instagram and Tik Tok started as a joke. As in, I had both accounts initially because everyone else had them, and it took over a month or two for me to realize “I could probably post art up here”. Originally, (especially in college) I purchased a large set of business cards, so when I would vend art, I would pass those out and recommend people to my Instagram to keep up with my artwork. And it got me rather far! I joke allot with my friends that it seems 80% of my clientele I’ve never met in real life because they heard about me from word of mouth. But it wasn’t until I started taking Tik Tok seriously that I saw substantial growth. I made it a goal to post twice a day for a month in order to get to 1k followers, and I made art related videos using popular sounds and what not. That netted me from 200-500 which was nice! But then I put on my video editor hat and started creating digital Artist Talk videos and short animations for my art. And thankfully since I was relatively new to Tik Tok, I had a surplus of artwork that audience hasn’t seen yet that I could upload in a backlog sort of way, along with any new art I created. Doing that for less than 30 days moved my count from 600-1000+! Morale of the story, finding a way to turn one art piece (if you’re an artist) into 5 different pieces valuable and informational content, then posting them 2 times a day for a few weeks, will do wonders for your following count, but audience as well. A quick thank you to everyone that encouraged and supported me to do download these apps and work on my content as well, couldn’t have done it without y’all!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Providing honest and valuable work. All of my brothers are always in my ear about making sure to make the experience is priceless, despite what the person is paying. We pride ourselves in being personable and professional. I’ve always loved it when clients come back to me after we do work and mention how thankful they are for the experience, the timeliness of communication, and specifically how they didn’t feel like they were being conned out of their money. That’s how we started off though, as someone who just wanted to help. And the people around me by the grace of God, have received that message wholly in their hearts. I’ll be forever grateful and will continue to raise the bar on providing a human-to-human service to those that work with and buy from us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wbaart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ida_law/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waladi-ali-15289419a/
• Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ida_law

Image Credits
Instagram: @kevez_the_artist