Brush & Banter | A Zibra Podcast
Welcome to Brush & Banter—the podcast where creativity meets real-life hustle. Brought to you by Zibra, we go beyond perfect brushstrokes to explore the messy, magical, and meaningful side of being an artist. We’re here to bring you conversations with working artists, practical tips to grow your creative business, and a built-in painting companion for your next project.
Brush & Banter is co-hosted by Brie Hansen, President of Zibra; Annie Bolding, Founder of It’s a Disco Day Designs; and Lauren Cooper, Founder of Rosemont Lane Design Studio.
Brush & Banter | A Zibra Podcast
What Lacey Hennessy Does to Build a Flexible and Profitable Creative Business
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Lacey Hennessy’s art career started with painted fraternity coolers at Clemson and a Facebook business page she named during accounting class. Years later, one Instagram post about wanting to paint a mural led to a taco restaurant project that paid the equivalent of one month of her corporate salary in three days. In this episode, Lacey explains how she grew that experiment into Lacey Does, a commission-driven business with more than 300 murals and a client process built around clear expectations. She breaks down her “box method” for matching a mural’s scope to the client’s budget, why she collects 50% before beginning the design, and how detailed contracts helped other muralists take over her scheduled projects after a colorectal cancer diagnosis. Lacey also shares the hands-on Instagram strategy that grew her audience, her plans to build income beyond murals, and how she protects roughly 10 weeks each year for travel. Plus, why it would take a truly unreasonable amount of money to get her painting fraternity coolers again.
Lacey Hennessy is the Greenville, South Carolina-based artist, muralist, and entrepreneur behind Lacey Does. Her bold, playful work spans murals, custom commissions, originals, prints, textiles, licensing projects, and coaching for other artists.
Connect with Lacey:
Creative finds:
In this episode, we discuss:
- How one Instagram goal led to Lacey’s first mural… and $6,500 in three days
- Why she replaced Hennessy in the Home with a personal brand that leaves room for murals, textiles, licensing, and future partnerships
- How the “box method” gives clients clear choices based on their wall, priorities, and budget
- Why painting is step seven in Lacey’s 10-step mural process
- How collecting 50% upfront protects the value of the concept and design work
- Why detailed contracts and a trusted muralist network kept her projects moving during cancer treatment
- How targeted engagement, batch content, and shameless self-promotion helped grow her audience without turning every post into a sales pitch
Welcome to Brush & Banter—the podcast where creativity meets real-life hustle. Brought to you by Zibra, we go beyond perfect brushstrokes to explore the messy, magical, and meaningful side of being an artist. We’re here to bring you conversations with working artists, practical tips to grow your creative business, and a built-in painting companion for your next project.
Brush & Banter is co-hosted by Brie Hansen, President of Zibra; Annie Bolding, Founder of It’s a Disco Day Designs; and Lauren Cooper, Founder of Rosemont Lane Design Studio.
Connect with Zibra:
I made like one month of my corporate salary in three days. So I was like, okay, I'm on to something. It could be an uncomfortable topic to some people. So sorry if I ruffle with each others, but it would take a lot of money for me to do a cooler again. Back in the day, when they got scratched, nobody cares. We'd have some quality control issues on our hands these days, no doubt. And I did a 50-day trip to Europe and I went to 10 countries. The amount of people that messaged me about their poop is crazy. You can't bring your laptop. I mean, working is so hard. It was like the first time in my life that I've really just been like cut off.
SPEAKER_03Welcome to Brush and Banter, podcast where creativity meets real life hustle.
SPEAKER_04Brought to you by Zebra. We go beyond perfect brush strokes to explore the messy, magical, and meaningful side of being an artist.
SPEAKER_02I'm Brie Hansen, crafter at heart, creative cheerleader, and president of Zebra.
SPEAKER_03I'm Annie Bolding, muralist, designer, lover of all things that sparkle, founder of It's a Disco Day Designs.
SPEAKER_04And I'm Lauren Cooper, muralist, designer, creative mama, and founder of Rosemont Lane Design Studio. We're here to bring you conversations with working artists, practical tips to grow your creative business, and a built-in painting companion for your next project. So grab your favorite zebra brush, pop in your headphones, and let the banter begin.
SPEAKER_02Hey friends, and welcome back to Brush and Banter. I'm Brie and I'm here today with Lauren.
SPEAKER_04Hi everyone. Today's episode is for the artists who don't fit neatly into one box the muralist designers, commission artists, travelers, business owners, and creative people who keep getting asked, wait, do you do that too?
SPEAKER_02We're joined by Lacey Hennessy, the artist, muralist, and entrepreneur behind Lacey Does, who is based in Greenville, South Carolina, and her work is super colorful, bold, playful, and full of personality.
SPEAKER_04She refers to herself as a chameleon of the arts, and that makes a lot of sense when you look at her business. She creates murals, originals, prints, custom commissions, digital design, textile work, licensing projects, and more.
SPEAKER_02Lacey has created commissions for clients in over 40 states and recently hit the 300 mural mark with murals painted across twelve states and counting. But what's really interesting is how her business has grown from being open to opportunities, building strong relationships, and becoming the person people recommend by saying, see if Lacey does it.
SPEAKER_04So today we're talking about building a creative business without getting boxed in, staying true to your brand, when your work takes a lot of different forms, and how travel, hobbies, downtime, and saying yes have shaped Lacey's path.
SPEAKER_02So welcome to the podcast, Lacey. Thank you so much for being here.
SPEAKER_01Quite an intro. I like it.
SPEAKER_02So let's just jump right in and start with your story. You've obviously had a super interesting path and you've been doing this for a long time. So walk us through how you got to where you are today.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I always like to say that my career was accidental. It was um a business before I even knew it was a business. I went to um a un Clemson University in the South, and a tradition there is to paint coolers uh for your fraternity weekends. And so I started doing that and got girls who weren't good at it to pay me to do theirs, and I would let them take credit. And that was a little return business, and then it turned into apartment art, and then people would have babies, so I did baby gifts, and then they get married, and there's wedding gifts and all these things, and it was really an art career based off of me being broke and making things for people, and then people would say, Oh, do you sell these and a fake it till you make it mentality? I'd say, I sure do. And then really having a Facebook and Instagram page kind of acted as a portfolio, and so my online presence really grew from just showing people what I had been making. So it was very natural and gradual, but murals really took off for me when um I travel a lot personally, and I posted a picture in front of a mural on a girls' trip and said, I want to do one of these next year. And a follower reached out. Yeah, her husband um was opening a taco place and said, We heard you have a goal to do a mural. I pitched on it, instantly Googled how to price a mural, how to buy paint, what the I knew I knew nothing. It was my first official invoice I sent. And then I realized very quickly I made um like one month of my corporate salary in three days. So I was like, okay, I'm on to something. So I made a goal. I was like, I'm gonna do five this year. I ended up doing eight, and the next year I said I'll do 10, and then I did over 20. So it really just was like this natural evolution of um luck and accident.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome. So when did you decide you were gonna quit your full-time job?
SPEAKER_01I left in 2018. I gave like a six-month notice. My I did corporate event planning and um loved, loved the people I worked with, and I was the only one at the office who was doing my role. So I just wanted to make sure they were in good hands before I left. But um, it was kind of one of those things where we had a consultant there who said, you know, we in a private conversation, Lacey, if you could do anything here, like what would you want to do? We want to make sure everyone's like in the right seat on the bus. And she caught me on a bad day, and I was like, I would paint. And she's like, Well, you can't really do that here. So she's like, maybe look into that a little more. And so I was doing, had that side hustle like on the side. So I'd come home from my corporate job every day and paint, fulfilling orders. I started doing a lot of house drawings for realtors, so that was really like return business and keeping me busy. And um, I guess it was like a year into that I was keeping really good records just for my own uh to see growth, but like how much money I was bringing in. And my corporate job really wasn't making me that much. So eventually it started getting kind of almost like three-fourths of that. Like, so I was like, if I had spent more quality time on this, I could have probably done better than my corporate salary. Right, right. So I just was like, yeah, no time like the present, and just kind of jumped in the pool, if you will. Yeah, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_04I love that. Yeah, it's important to know that there's many different ways that you can get to going full-time in your career. Sometimes it's ripping the band-aid off and diving right in, but I appreciate the hustle. Like, obviously, you were really good at that side of building the business and then having that platform, like or the foundation rather be a little bit more stable before the reach and kind of like listening to all the people who were wanting from you. And when you first started, um, you started as Hennessy in the home, and then eventually it changed to Lacey Does. So, what led to that rebrand and what did the new name allow your business to become?
SPEAKER_01Well, truthfully, Hennessy in the Home was created in my accounting class in college. I needed Facebook, um, not to date myself, but Facebook came out when I was a freshman, and then business pages came out as a sophomore, and I was sitting there in class with this kid who bless him, I don't even remember his name. And I was like, Oh, I need to name my Facebook business page something for all the pictures of all those coolers I had been doing. And he was like, Do you like alliteration? I said, Yeah, he said Hennessy in the home. I said, Great, I'll change it later. Well, then once Instagram came out, I was just like, okay, I'll just keep using the same name so everything's consistent. But Hennessy is very hard to spell, everybody butchers it. And then it was one day I got um featured in a magazine and they had it printed as Hennessy, like missing like four letters in the house. And I was like, this is not working, this is literally not working. My name is on the wall right next to the desk. And so Lacey does really um is more about like a personal brand than just my murals. Like I didn't want to stick to one thing anymore because my business grew from doing so many different things. And I just found that so many people kept saying, Well, see if Lacey does it, because I'm a yes person. And just like murals, I had never done one, but then tried it and it stuck. Same with like textiles, like everything has really just grown from me, like seeing if I could do it, and then I do and figure it out. So I felt like it was good in that sense, but also from a branding standpoint, like Lacey does collegiate, Lacey does coastal and or Lacey does zebra. Like I want to be able to partner with brands in a more personal way.
SPEAKER_04It's so smart. I'm obsessed with it.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. Thank you. I know it's so catchy. It's definitely has like a marketing brain behind it. So that's cool. So talking about being a yes person, um, you've said that because you're a yes person, your business grew because people said, let's see if Lacey does it, and you did it. So talk about how that mindset has helped you grow. Um and have you ever felt like it stretched you too thin or pushed you in a direction you didn't want to go?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'd say the more projects I have under my belt, the more I'm willing to also say no. But my brand is completely built on transparency, whether that's telling like a story about myself or being honest with a client. So if somebody comes to me, for example, I'm not really great at portraits or landscapes, but my style now has really more adapt to like a more whimsical approach. So if somebody wants something that's more realism, I have a great network of artists that I'm willing to pass off work to. So I'm open and honest about like what I can take on. And by being upfront, it almost either allows that person to say, like, no, we really want you, but let's figure out a way to do it in your style, which gives me even more confidence when I am working. Um, and on the flip side, that allows me to also collaborate with other artists. Um, so a lot of different ways from that. But I'd say being able to say yes and try new things has just led to so much more income that I'm not like pigeonholing myself into one specific um even style. Like you can look at my work and start to tell that it's mine, but my business, which is really different from a lot of artists, is built completely on commission. So I've never built a body of work and been really sad that it didn't sell or that I poured my heart and soul into something and was like disappointed because every single thing from the beginning has been sold before I even made it, which is very unique and I'm very lucky in that aspect. But because I'm so open to trying new things, if someone comes to me with a specific style or look that they're going for, like I'm more adaptable to that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's great. What about being painted over? Have you been upset that any of your murals have been painted over?
SPEAKER_01As far as I'm aware, like I never really think about being painted over. Like I've been, um, I've worked with a couple businesses that have closed, you know, and it goes away. I think that's kind of part of the process. And again, maybe I'm different from other artists, but what's exciting for me is that maybe I'll just get to paint another one in the same location. Yeah. So we have a wall here in Greenville, South Carolina that's temporary, it's vinyl, and they rotate the artist every three months. And I've been hired to do that wall four times. So it's not really um, I guess some deep in their soul artist who's like telling this amazing story and they need it there forever, I totally understand that. And we have actually have some policies in Greenville that um protect art like that publicly. Um, but for me, I just see it as an additional opportunity if I'm being honest. I love that.
SPEAKER_04That's great. Yeah. Speaking of your work being adaptable, when you're focusing on your style, but then also your client's needs, like what is it specifically that you bring to each mural? Like even if it's not like a specific style or stroke or color, like what is it that you do that makes it so special with the secret sauce for Lacey?
SPEAKER_01Well, I think my business as a whole, I'm different from other artists that because I came from that corporate background, um, I kind of approach my work from more of like an administrative administrative lens, if you will. So like I teach other artists like my process and it's 10 steps, and painting is step number seven. Like, there's so much before that um process that just being professional really helps me in this space and just being um more organized and having good presentations, and my renderings are exactly the way my art is gonna look at the finished product. So people know exactly what they're getting from me. So I think I set myself apart in that aspect of just being um adding that corporate touch to an artistic and creative industry. Um, but working with me, I always say, and the reason I am so transparent with other artists is we could all run our businesses exactly the same and charge exactly the same. But what sets everyone apart is their unique design ideas. So when I do a mural, for example, I charge 50% up front before I even do the design because that is so much more um labor-intensive coming up with that unique concept than just painting. Like there are sign painters out there who paint other people's work all the time. So everyone can kind of paint, but it's that concept that really adds the value. And so I think I've done a good job of really finding my niche of like my style. I use black outlines a lot, as you can kind of see in the background, a lot of kind of pop art, you know, it's more colorful, there's a vibe to it. So my secret sauce is people coming to me with their vision and like I said, being able to be adaptable and having them say, we need all these puzzle pieces, and then it's my job to kind of figure out how they all place together and make sense.
SPEAKER_04That absolutely resonates with me personally. Very similarly, I like kind of describe myself as a businesswoman first and an artist second. Quick follow-up that I just want to be a little nosy about. That means that it seems like you're intuitive, but also doing the work before the design. So are you offering them multiple concepts or are you like by the time you're sending over your design, like this is it, and then you can give notes on this one design?
SPEAKER_01So I always say I'm not saving my second my first best idea second, you know, like what I bring to the table is my best idea. If there's if I'm while I'm working on Procreate, like if there's different variations, like then I'll show someone two concepts. If I personally can't decide how I like something, normally they're just small tweaks. Um, but I build everything in layers, so it's very easy, easily to edit. Um, but once for me, I try to marry their design goals with their budget goals, right? So like I always say it's kind of like shopping. We could all go together, and what you think is a cheap t-shirt might be different than my price point. So like you never really know with a client like what they're working with. So from the beginning, I have something called the box method. I try to, if we have like a 10 by 10 wall, I show you the yellow box will be this price range, low to high, orange would be this, and I say, where do you feel comfortable landing? And then we drill down on a price point before we kind of discuss like where I'm going with it. So there's kind of like this list of their design goals. And I always say, give me your dream list, everything you'd want to see, or like why did you want a mural in the first place? And then do you have a budget? Most of the time, they don't want to tell you a number. So that's when I go into my box method. And then say, Great, well, you just gave me a list of 40 things. If you want the whole wall, like it would be this price. But if you want 25 of those things for the whole, and you know, so I'm giving them kind of like this like pick and choose method, if you will. And more time more times than not, they always land higher than they said they did wanted in the first place. And it's more of like a choose your own adventure, you know, like I can do a wall for everybody, but one person might have a quote, the other person's budget might be a whole like collage of things. So that's how I have a lot of business and don't lose much because I'm so again adaptable to like their financial investment, uh, more so than just what they're trying to accomplish. Because I'll again request that deposit, and then I do the design work based off of everything we've outlined. And that's all in a letter of agreement. And then when I do the presentation back to them or send them the rendering, I take that same group listing that we agreed to in the contract and put it next to the artwork outlining how I met all of those bullet points. So it's very limited editing in most cases because I'm showing that I like followed everything that we discussed. So it's kind of a very detailed process.
SPEAKER_04Genius though. And it's so good because I think that that's like one of the biggest things, which is I'm so grateful that you explained that for our listeners. Because it's really difficult as an artist to like say, I want to, you know, give something for you to visualize, but then your client is usually wanting to work in words. So you overexplaining, over-communicating, listing everything out like speaks their language without you having to go over and beyond necessarily.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and with those price ranges, sometimes I'll I'll show them. And if you don't have a body of work, you can show other people's examples and say, these are not my photos and give credit to those artists. But like you using my body of work, I'll say, you know, the lower end of the spectrum, this is an example of what simplistic looks like, and this would be an example of a mural on the higher end. So they do have an idea of what direction I'm gonna go. So everything's just very upfront and transparent, and there's really no guessing games, and that helps me as much as it helps them.
SPEAKER_02People like to also have options and feel like they're in control too, especially when they're spending money. So I think that that's important because then they can kind of be like, oh, well, I do kind of like that. Okay, I will pay more for that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it also helps you once you're on site. Like I don't run into it very often, but you know, if a client wants a change, actually that first mural I ever did, they told me it was 10 feet by 10 feet, and I was very upfront. I actually charge more square footage than I do sometimes now, but I got $50 a square foot on my first project. And um, I had put that in the proposal. So when I got to the job site, the wall was actually 10 feet by 13 feet. Well, not only did it I had to adapt the artwork, but I was I was like, uh, that's an extra $1,500. If or we can keep the like, what would you like? And because I was so upfront about how that pricing came to be, they were like, sure, we'll do the we'll do the extra. So I made that money pretty instantly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it just helps everybody.
SPEAKER_00Okay, guys, it's here. The one-inch angled brush is now available at enjoyzebra.com, one of our most requested brushes of all time, originally from our Marlena Walware Ink Murals Collab kit, is now a permanent part of the zebra family. Don't sleep on this one. Head to enjoyzebra.com and grab yours today.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so let's talk about all the different aspects of your business because you don't just do murals, you do custom commissions, you do the paintings we see behind you right now. I think you just told us that one just sold, which is awesome. Um, so so how do those all fit um under the Lacey Does brand? And how do you decide what you have room for?
SPEAKER_01Sure. Um, I would say murals, big bucket, like 90% of my business. Um, commissions as they come in, um, you know, it depends on what they are. What some of them are rather small. I still offer house drawings because I like to offer a variety of price points. So you can get one as uh low as $85 off my website. And then I do um a lot of coaching, which is actually stemmed from my growth on social media. So I have like kind of two audiences, if you will, the people who might buy a mural, and then this other group of people who are mainly artists that are like me starting as a hobby or have a side hustle or have seen my growth over time and are looking to learn. So from that, it actually helps me get the mural business and the commission business because people see me now as an expert. So I'm talking to these two different audiences, but it's only adding credibility to someone who wants to purchase artwork from me. Um, my next step kind of in my business is to do more home goods and lifestyle um goods and prints that you know, kind of where I started with that Hensley in the home, going back to that, because I realized the other day I don't offer that much for people to buy from me. And I kind of lost um sight of that on purpose. Like if you go to my social media, I never ask you to give me money in any aspect from a from a sales point. I'm more trying to either entertain or educate. Um, so that's really been how I get so much word of mouth is just that that social side of it. Um but I do have those different buckets of of income, and I think that's important. I actually um had shoulder surgery a few years ago and couldn't work for like six months. And it made me realize, wow, I really put all my eggs in one basket. So actually, all the artwork you see behind me, that was when I was like, I'll do, I'll do some separate pieces, um, sell the originals, and then do um a grouping of prints. And so that led into like more print work. So it's all again, um, happy accidents to to quote a famous painter we all know and love, and then um steamroll from there.
SPEAKER_02I see painted coolers coming back into your shop.
SPEAKER_01I feel like that could be the other day. It would I used to sell them for $50. It would take a lot of money for me to do a cooler again. And we're living in a different time. Back in the day when they got scratched, nobody cares. We have we have some quality control issues on our hands these days, no doubt. Stay away from that.
SPEAKER_04That's a lot of red flags going off. Brand partnership with a cooler company.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the igloo. Yeah, if they want to print some, that's fine. There you go.
SPEAKER_04Say loud, say proud.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'll do art licensing all day.
SPEAKER_04Speaking of like all of these different buckets that you're pouring into, what What keeps that cohesive for you? Is it the undertone of just like what you're pouring in of yourself? Or is there a through line in the art no matter what bucket it's going into?
SPEAKER_01I think now I look at longevity. Like where, um, you know, I turned 40 this year and we were just talking about being out in the heat and the elements, and really my calendar controls my income with murals, you know. So that's not necessarily a good thing because I also love to travel. I take about 10 weeks of vacation every year. But that being said, I work on weekends as well with my murals. So it all kind of balances out, if you will. But just thinking uh ahead of um where I want to go is how now I choose and pick where I'm trying to put most of my energy. Um, murals being the bigger bucket, just because they are so lucrative. And I also am very fast on a job site and efficient. So I can knock out a ton in a year. I do normally about 30 to 40, which is kind of crazy. Um, but in those other buckets, I'm really just trying to identify places for growth and more like residual income that I don't necessarily need to put a stamp on and take to the post office or you know, like digital resources, you know, when I see that come through and knowing that I don't have to necessarily do anything, like that's that's a win. And I'm so I'm trying to trying to offer more things to more people with less work, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_02Yes, totally.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02And you definitely could do that. I think you already have the platform for it, so it's ready to scale.
SPEAKER_01But the coaching, the coaching part has come naturally. So many people have helped me along the way. Of course, I've gotten a lot of like just ghosts or nobody responding when I have a question about a material or something. But again, I would love for us all to run our businesses exactly the same, and clients are only picking based off of like the visual that they're trying to obtain. So when I hear artists be like, oh, you know, I haven't done a mural, it's my first one, like I'll do it for free. But I look back at my first experience and I made $6,500 in three days and charge more than I did, you know, for the next 20. I'm like, no, you're either talented or you're not talented. You're either gonna know you're gonna do a good job for them or you're not. Are you gonna do a good job? Is it gonna, you know, why did they contact you in the first place? Right. You know, they had confidence in you. You have to like have, even if it's blind confidence, have a rule in yourself to say, I'm gonna do a good job. So I really get the most out of the coaching and helping other artists because it's just not that it's so easy, but like social media is free. You have all these tools at your fingertips, like that you could be taking advantage of. And half the stuff I learned is from YouTube. I always joke that I got a master's in YouTube university because if I didn't know how to do something, I would Google it and then pretend I knew how to do it. So everybody else can do that, you know. And now there's even more than when I started eight years ago. So that's the addicting part to me, is just being like, no, like everybody can quit their jobs and live life that they want to live them. You just have to have, you know, the gumption to put in the effort.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's true. Okay, let's talk about Instagram for a second because you have a great following, and I believe you have multiple pages on Instagram, which makes my head spin because that's way too much content. But um, how what has that journey looked like for you and how have you been so successful? Are there any tips to share on growing on Instagram?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so in the beginning I was a bit of a maniac. Um, again, I come from the corporate world. So I and prior to doing corporate events, I was in radio and sales, and that was tough. But um, you know, the land of cold calling. So, really, what I would do to get followers, and this is embarrassing, but it worked, is I would go to other artists' pages and not troll their comments, but if I saw that people were commenting on their artwork and I thought we'd have a similar audience, I would just go and follow those people. So, like I had art on my page, you know, it happens all the time now just by bots, that people would like, you know, you might be like, oh my gosh, this brand started following me. They really must love me. Well, no, they're doing it electronically, but I would be like, that girl keeps commenting on this artist that I like. So, and then they would follow you back. Not everybody, but so I was just trying to pluck the people who might like my artwork. And then I never shut up about my own business. I always say, like, no one's gonna come to a party if they're not invited. So, why would someone else talk about my business if I'm not even talking about it? So I have my name pretty much on everything, and you know, it's shameless self-promotion. So I have, yes, I have multiple Instagram accounts because I have my Lacey Does account, which is very obviously business focused. Um, I do have a personal page, which is more about my travels. I felt like I'm one of those people that post a lot when they're on vacation. I didn't want to muddy the waters too much on my business page. So I can keep them separate because I do have so much going on on each of them. Um, but then just from a branding standpoint, I went on and got other page names on Instagram just because I didn't want anybody to take them, much like people do with website names. So my website, laceydoes.com, you can get there by still going to Hennessy in the home. If you typed in laceyhennessey.com, lacyhennessy.art, laceydoes.art, like I own all those. So that's why I did it on Instagram. And when you go to that page, like see what Lacey Does is the handle, for example. That's my tagline. You know, there's just a stagnant photo of me that says, hey, find me over on Lacey Does. So they kind of all direct to the same place. So I'm really just running two. Um, but I again, that Lacey Hennessey personal page is still building the brand off of like what we do. And I collaborate, post a lot to grow both audiences.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome and so smart.
SPEAKER_01You're so smart. I love hearing all of this. But reaching out to other artists or tagging them, like who doesn't love a tag? Everybody wants a tag on social media, whether that person has a hundred thousand followers or 5,000. And sometimes those smaller accounts are the ones that have the more authentic audience anyway. So, like anytime somebody you know shares artwork they saw of mine in the wild, I'll share it, I'll comment. You have to be fully engaged. I'm very lucky in the fact that I love social media. So that might you know be very different from other people in the fact that I do enjoy making content. I've tried hiring people in the past to help me with video stuff, and it's just not the same. You're spending so much time editing or telling them, oh, I kind of wanted it this way, I kind of wanted it that way, that I do batch content, I'll sit. If if I'm feeling funny or like creative more than another day, I'll try to make like seven or eight at a time. So it looks like I'm pumping out content all week, but I had already made them in just one sitting.
SPEAKER_02So smart. It's like you're a social media expert.
SPEAKER_01Well, and going back to the shoulder surgery of it all, I've always said if like murals became like illegal all of a sudden, I have been wearing so many different hats with my business that I am not concerned at all of like being able to find another career if I really had to make a swap for some horrible reason.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's that's really that's important too, to kind of keep those multiple lines open.
SPEAKER_04If people don't follow you on social media, they might not know that you've been through another big health journey recently. First of all, thank you so much for like sharing and being transparent in general. I think that you've like woken up a lot of us about how important it is to take care of your health first. And I've loved seeing all of the aspects, like the hard days and also the cutouts of Lacey does with other artists doing your work. Do you mind sharing with the listeners like what recently has been going on and also like just how it's uh shifted your mindset like moving forward as an artist and a human?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it's um could be an uncomfortable topic to some people, so sorry if I ruffle any others, but I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in March. In December, I noticed like what looked like a tiny little pea-sized blood clot in the bowl and thought that's weird. Of course, do what every person does that's close to their mom. I sent her a photo and I was like, what's this? She's like, keep an eye on it. And so in January, I saw it a couple more times, and then in February, I called my doctor, who is fantastic, and I was like, Why don't you come in? Blood work and CT scans showed no signs of cancers, but she said let's go to colonoscopy. So I'm like kind of really big on early detection now that you kind of just can't. If you think something's weird, it probably is weird. Um, I had a colonoscopy a few days later, and then two days after that, on um St. Patrick's Day, found out that I had um cancer and that there was a chance I was gonna have chemo or we were gonna do surgery. Um, but by Cinco de Mayo, I was cancer free. So I had a colon and rectum resection, and within like a couple days, pathology came back that they got everything. So it's been an interesting journey because when you find out you have cancer, you immediately have a thousand appointments and life kind of stops. But everything for me really was so lucky, happened for a reason. But I was supposed to be on a mural site all that week of all when all those appointments were happening. So I was supposed to be there the Monday. I found out on Tuesday I had cancer. On Monday, get to the job site, and they had no electricity. There was so much uh construction equipment in front of the wall. So I said to my client, like, why did we pick these dates? Was this me? And she was like, Well, we can postpone. So all of a sudden, which is rare for me, I had a whole week open and then I found out about the cancer, and then it just do-do-do, all these different things. So um, that was like my first sign that like I felt like everything was gonna be okay. But um, because I'd built such a nice mural community, I was able to squeeze in a ton of my work. I normally have things on my schedule out a couple months, so condense as much as I could to make as much money in April before my surgical date of May 1st. Um, and then had a great set of muralist friends who took over my work for me, gave me a finder's fee, and then like just basically moved all of my um all of my contracts. And to that point of being so buttoned up and like from the admin side, like it was so easy to transition everything. I had great relationships with my clients and had like made sure I introduced everything, like everybody just was so great. I mean, there was really no hiccup that um that was just a relief for me in so many other ways. Um but I used my social platform because I felt like even though some of my videos were unhinged from the hospital bed, um, but I was like, every other aspect of my life I talk about. So, yes, we're talking about my my lower region, my butt, if you will, but like I lead with humor. I really wanted people to realize like I had no other symptoms, and I was walking around with cancer for how no who knows how long, and that in three months I went from getting a diagnosis to being cancer free, and that's insane. Like, I don't like the phrase that I beat cancer because I don't even feel like I felt it, you know. Um, but again, that's why I wanted to use the platform that I did have to be like, go get a colonoscopy. The amount of people that messaged me about their poop is crazy. And I'm and and I'm I'm here for it, you know, like everybody poops. There's a book, a children's book, called Everybody Poops. Like mine was normal. I didn't have a weird bowel movement or anything. Like it was just this one little sign that I saw, and the people that have come forward to be like, is this weird? Is that what I'm like? I'm not the expert. If you think it's weird, it's weird. It's weird. Oh no, you know. So, and the amount of people that have messaged me saying they went and got a colonoscopy because of it, and that's that's what I'm grateful for. Like, I've had some messages too say, Oh, they found polyps, they're removed. Like, thank you so much. So I'm just gonna keep trucking along. But um, it's certainly I said if you think I traveled before this, you don't realize like what can be like taken away from you. And I don't even mean from like a death aspect, I just mean like you have to stay around because you have an appointment all the time, and like just so many things changed. Um but it was a scary experience. I'm I'm trying to look for more of the lessons because again, it was so so fast, but um I feel great and I'm ready to get back to work.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's so great. I mean, we're so happy that you are healthy now and that you did get through all that because it is something that's just you hear a lot of the bad around, and so it's nice to kind of hear a really happy story where it wasn't too long of a process you were through, and they were able to make it through to the other side. So that was great. Um, but I do want to talk about travel before we end up end our episode here because travel is such a big part of Lacey. So, what kind of created your love of travel? When did that start and how does it manifest in your business?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I also say that my business has grown from a hatred of vacation policies. Because back when I was in the corporate world and I was that sole um event designer at my corporate job, no one, I had no micromanager. Like if something got done, if one thing in an event went wrong, it was all my fault. If everything went according to plan, I did my job. So being so type A and making sure everything was so buttoned up, I was like, if you know I'm gonna get all my work done, what do you care if I'm here, you know, or take off for two weeks or three weeks? But in that corporate environment, people who aren't doing their jobs great and the people who are have to be treated the same way. So that was really frustrating for me. And then the first time I went to Europe, which was in 2017 with some girlfriends, I didn't realize how easy it was to go to London and come back. You know, like in my head before leaving the country, it was this big to-do, this once-in-a-lifetime experience. And then I realized it's almost the same price and distance sometimes as getting to California by the time you puddle jump and everything on airplanes here. So it was this really just the taste of, oh my gosh, I could go do this. And I did it cheaply. And um, you know, when you plan a trip, there's so many options that you can choose from that my list just kept getting longer. Every time I'd planned something, I'm like, oh, I gotta go back because we won't have time to do this or, you know, whatever. So it was more like a bucket list. And I just said, okay, I'm gonna do a couple of these. And then when I decided to leave my job, I said, I'm gonna take a month off. And I did a 50-day, um, so it was a little longer than a month, but a 50-day trip to Europe. And I went to 10 countries and I went by myself. But the first week I was there, I made friends, and then we just kept going to all these places. And again, the lesson that I learned was like, you know, if you go alone, you're not necessarily alone. And so every time I go somewhere, specifically by myself, I come back with like the best friends who are just the same mindset of people that want to keep going to further and further places. Um, so it's really just adapt from being able to do it, one, having the time. And now, like that's really where I put my money, you know, that that I make on the side is to travel just because I've enjoyed it so much. It's given me so much back. That's awesome. That's so awesome.
SPEAKER_02So I'm sure you can't pick a favorite, but if you could pick your top three favorite places, what would they be?
SPEAKER_01Sure. So they they win for different categories. Okay. My I say my best all-around country is Greece. Like just from the the way that you feel there, the food, the vibes, like so many different spots. I've I've done it by sailboat, I've done the bougie way, I've done the cheap way. So Greece all around, the happiest I've ever been in my whole life, and I can literally say that, was in the French Polynesia, like Bora Bora, Tahiti. Again, went by myself. I got on a sailboat with some strangers, and then I did like a bougie week after that, at like an over-the-water, like hut kind of thing. But it's so far out there that you can't bring your laptop. I mean, working is so hard. It was like the first time in my life that I've really just been like cut off from my normal wife, which was so relaxing. And then the country, for some reason, I have always found my way back to multiple times is Croatia. That's like my dark course. You're inspiring me. My travel bug is coming out.
SPEAKER_02I know. My husband and I, after we got married, he is very into travel and he decided that we were going to quit our jobs and travel for three months. And at the time I thought he was absolutely nuts because I'm also very type A and was like, absolutely not, I'm not doing that. And then obviously it was like the best thing we've ever done. And now that we have kids, it's extremely hard to travel. And so it's I look back on those times and I was like, oh gosh, so happy we did that.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, I don't know where I'm gonna kind of stop because there's just again, like I said, so every time you're like, oh, we'll go here, oh, next time the list keeps getting. I used to have a goal that I wanted to say I could have. I'm visiting as many travel uh places as I am alive. So by 40, I was hoping I could hit 40 countries. So I'm still behind, but I got a late start in life. So I'm gonna catch up eventually.
SPEAKER_02Yes, that's so cool. Okay, well, real quick, we would love to hear your golden moment um from this past week, just a really high moment that sparked joy. Um, something that that you remember from this past week.
SPEAKER_01So I had um some friends come surprise me um in town. My doorbell rang. Well, one I knew was coming, and then my doorbell rang, and I was like, Oh, I'm not answering that. Like it's UPS. Don't worry. She's like, you might want to get it. And there was my friend Paul and my friend Christine were here, and they're from Milwaukee, never had been to Greenville. They're like, Oh, can we see any of your murals? And sometimes I forget how many I've done. So we did like a mini mural tour, and it was just fun to see like people who were like personable to you, like have kind of they've seen my journey and prog progress, and they were taking pictures in front of them, and it was just kind of a pat myself on the back because you're like, Oh, I have one there too. Oh, oh, there's one over here. So it was it was a feel-good moment for myself because I live alone and I work alone, so often there's not much camaraderie around my artwork because it's either like I for schools, for example, I'll paint it and then I leave, and then I'm never gonna see it again. So it was really nice to like enjoy a moment in front of my artwork um, you know, that was more closer to home and a little bit more of respect on my name.
SPEAKER_04Oh, that's such a good one. I love that. Well, Lacey, thank you so much for being here today. I'm so sorry our conversation has to end here. Um, but it was such a good reminder that creative business doesn't have to fit into one narrow category to be strong. Um, sometimes the brand is the thread that ties all different pieces together.
SPEAKER_02I think so many artists are going to walk away feeling so encouraged and inspired by all of the tips um that you shared with us today about growing their business and their personal brand. So thank you for sharing all of that and being so open and honest. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_04Um before we wrap up, can you tell our listeners where they can find you, where they can shop your work and follow along with what you're creating next?
SPEAKER_01Yes, you can find me on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, all the places at Lacey underscore does. So if you just remember see if lacey does it, you'll be able to find me and um lacydoes.com.
SPEAKER_04We'll make sure that everything is linked. And as always, tag us at zebra painting and what you're creating. We love to see what our community is doing next.
SPEAKER_02We'll be back soon with more brush and banter. Until then, keep creating, keep celebrating the messy middle, and don't cry over spilled paint.
SPEAKER_04Thank you, Lacey.
SPEAKER_02Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Thank you for listening to the Brush and Banter Podcast, brought to you by Zebra. We're so grateful you're a part of the creative community. Gearing up for your next project? Head to enjoyZebra.com to grab your new favorite brushes. Designed for comfort, precision, and serious creative flow. Be sure to follow Zebra Painting on Instagram for painting tips, artist features, and more. If you enjoyed our banter, subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to leave a five star rating and review. Now, go make something beautiful. We'll be here when you need a little banter.
