For the Love of Creatives
Unlocking the Power of Community:
Imagine a space where your creative spark is truly seen—a community where people get you. That’s what Maddox and Dwight bring each week on For the Love of Creatives Podcast. As your hosts and “connections and community guys,” they bridge the gap between solo journeys and powerful collaborations, transforming “me” into “we.” This podcast is where heart-centered creatives come to unlock the power of community and thrive.
In each episode, Maddox and Dwight share insightful dialogues and host engaging interviews with fellow artists, innovators, and everyday creatives who’ve faced challenges, found inspiration, and reached new heights. Whether through storytelling, LIVE coaching, or exploring what it means to create, collaborate, and co-elevate, you’ll discover how to fuel your own creative journey and find the support to bring your best ideas to life.
Expect practical insights, fresh inspiration, and real stories from the world of art, design, dance, culinary arts, and beyond. If you’re a creative looking for support, clarity, and a sense of belonging, this podcast is your place to connect, grow, and be celebrated.
Join us each week as we celebrate the magic of community-driven creativity, and don’t miss out on the chance to join our For the Love of Creatives Community! Tune in, subscribe, and start your journey from “me” to “we” today!
For the Love of Creatives
#026: Passion Over Stability: Sara Baumann's Journey to Creative Entrepreneurship
Sara Sparky Baumann's creative journey demolishes the myth that artists must struggle financially. Born into a family of artists but pushed toward traditional careers by her Iranian mother, Sara pursued occupational therapy while nurturing her art on the side. The pandemic became a turning point—witnessing life’s fragility in healthcare settings sparked her resolve to follow what truly fulfilled her.
What sets Sara apart isn’t just talent—it’s her entrepreneurial mindset. She’s built a thriving career by mastering business fundamentals. From founding the Women and Weapons community that raised over $170K for the Malala Fund to diversifying her income through painting, murals, and commercial work, she proves artists can adapt to economic shifts without sacrificing integrity.
"You can't rely on anybody else to come save you," Sara says. This philosophy fuels her drive to build multiple income streams, use platforms like LinkedIn for growth, and embrace tech other artists resist. Her art, depicting powerful women, boldly challenges outdated narratives.
Sara also values true community over superficial networking, preferring “kooky, weird misfits” to socialites. This authenticity has helped her build global relationships with artists and collectors while staying rooted in her vision.
For creatives torn between passion and practicality, Sara offers this: there’s no one right path. Whether keeping a stable job or going all in, the key is to choose intentionally and adapt. With business savvy, community, and heart, your creativity can be your livelihood.
Sara's Profile
Sara Baumann Art
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For the Love of Creatives Community
You can't rely on anybody else to come save you. You can't rely on anybody else to open up the door and give you an opportunity. You oftentimes have to ask for those opportunities, which, I'll be honest, is one of the things that I struggle with, because I always hear my mom's voice in my ear saying Sarah, that is inappropriate. It is disrespectful. You should not do that.
Speaker 1:Whereas, in reality, there's oftentimes a way to broach things respectfully whilst still putting yourself out there, and so you know you have to make your own opportunities, you have to go out and network.
Speaker 3:Hello and welcome to another edition of For the Love of Creatives podcast. I am your host, dwight, joined by the other Connections and Community, guy Maddox, and today our featured guest is Sarah Sparky Bauman. Welcome, sarah.
Speaker 1:Hello guys, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 4:It's so great to have you here. I've been looking forward to this.
Speaker 1:Me too, especially after I got to see you guys. Uh, you know a little bit. It was nice to finally get this going.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I was really delighted that we just met you guys at Matthew's Halloween party. That was a lot of fun. I got to have a little more conversation with him than I did you. A lot of going on and a lot of noise, but it was still a lovely meeting.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely. Well, you've seen me at a few events now and how ADD I get, so the struggle is real. But now I'm seated, there's one line of focus. You've got my full attention. I will be entirely present.
Speaker 4:You know, if you have a squirrel moment, we can reel you back in.
Speaker 1:I am the queen of squirrel moments. I will tell you that much.
Speaker 3:Well, let's direct our focus to making sure that we give you a proper introduction to our listeners. And you have an incredible story, but what is the way that you would encapsulate it?
Speaker 1:My story or a little bit about me.
Speaker 3:Just a little bit about you, to start.
Speaker 1:So my name is Sarah Bauman. As you guys mentioned, I've been an artist at heart my entire life. My DNA is all artists, from my mom's side, from my dad's side. It's just kind of naturally ingrained within me. I instead got a degree in occupational therapy, which is healthcare, and as of about 2021, 2022, I transitioned entirely out of healthcare and entirely into art, whereas prior to I was doing both part-time, I'm sorry, one full-time, one part-time and this has become my entire passion, you know, not just being an artist, but also being an artist who tries to champion good and does well for the community, but also, hopefully, inspires others to try and figure out ways to turn their passions into their daily lives as well. So that's a little bit about me in a nutshell.
Speaker 3:And there's so many different directions that can go, and that's fabulous, it's beautiful. First of all, I want to acknowledge that, for anyone listening, you have shown that it is possible. You, you can. You can do that thing. That is what it is that drives you and have it be your, your primary driver, the primary thing that gets you out of bed in the morning and that sustains you and feeds your family and allows you to give back.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I will say too, you know, there is no shame, no qualms at all with, you know, maintaining your passion, whatever it is. You know, say you're an artist or whatever, and also maintaining something that that gives you like fiscal security on the side as well. There is absolutely no qualms with that. I just saw a friend of ours, minji, speak at the Aloft Hotel about a week ago, and one of the things that she was actually kind of telling people is don't quit your full-time job when you are wanting to transition to being an artist. And I don't disagree with that at all. I actually completely agree with it, because sometimes that fiscal pressure of having to bring in that income is very, very overwhelming and can oftentimes become so burdensome that you burn out. So, yes, you can absolutely bring your passion into your full-time career. That's totally doable with enough knowledge and work and so on, but there's also nothing wrong with maintaining a career. That's a little bit more. You know, expected what, what's to be coming.
Speaker 4:You know, I think we have a tendency, as human beings to think in terms of either or, and it really can be an. And, you know, we recently interviewed a gentleman who shared with us that he he had determined he wanted two passions, two purposes, that he didn't want to just pick one. And he has a full-time job with a corporation that he absolutely loves, and then he is an actor and not, you know, like the actor that you know waits tables. He really has jobs, he's actively acting and passionate about that and doesn't sound like he would want to give either one of them up. And I thought that was really cool, because we don't think in terms of and.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, no 100%, and I do think you see that more often than not, especially nowadays, I think people that are like millennial and lower have a tendency to operate multiple careers at one time, as opposed to the generations above us, which had a tendency to kind of silo into one career. I think now it's very natural to have like two, three jobs at one point in time. And don't get me wrong, I love science, I love health care, I love helping people, I love healthcare, I love helping people. I was just incredibly upset by and no longer believing had everything to do with the fact that I felt like a lot of the health care systems were not appropriately managing the way that patients should be cared for and or health care health care practitioners. So I have a love and passion for both things, both art and science, and I would probably still be pursuing both, you know, had it not been the health care system that we're currently, you know, within.
Speaker 4:You did what you had to do to take care of yourself. I applaud that. I want to comment on something you said a minute ago. You know the previous generations having you know one thing that they did I'm a boomer. You know One thing that they did I'm a boomer, you know, and I had a 40-year career as a hairdresser and makeup artist, but throughout most of that career I had a variety of different side hustles that I did. There was always a side hustle because I just wanted that extra challenge and stimulation and variety.
Speaker 4:You know, I wanted something that broke up the monotony of doing the same thing all day, every day.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 4:I think I was maybe an exception, because I don't think a lot of boomers are like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, I think that's very true.
Speaker 1:I think that there's always going to be exceptions, Right?
Speaker 1:I think that you're also going to find that there's a lot of people that are within my age group and younger who prefer to just have one career, just have one stable career and not have any side hustles or anything, an or or.
Speaker 1:It can be an and and sort of situation. But I think nowadays, you know, for at least us younger populations, I think industry has significantly changed, whereas once you know, many moons ago, a lot of companies, they wanted to hold on to their employees, right, they wanted to have loyal employees and maintain them for as long as possible. They wanted to have loyal employees and maintain them for as long as possible. And I think that that has significantly evolved over the last probably two decades or so, where you're seeing more and more layoffs and more and more turn and burn of employees because a lot of industries are recognizing that they can get rid of a sect of employees and hire in a new sect of employees for even less pay than what they were paying the previous cohort, and I think that's been a massive catalyst, not only for so many of us younger people wanting to now have multiple side hustles, but also for fewer and fewer people really having trust in corporations and industries, in particular, working for them.
Speaker 4:It's kind of sad. People have become disposable.
Speaker 1:People have become disposable, those decisions right, which is interesting, especially in the age of AI, because we're going to be seeing more and more focus in a lot of these corporations and industries on efficiency and less on human care, which is something that I think will be intriguing to watch play out over the next several years. But my assumption is that probably more and more people my age and younger are going to be seeking out entrepreneurial roles as opposed to roles within corporations. As a result of that.
Speaker 4:I concur.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think there's definitely going to be a flavor of there being the AI only version of things that are cheap and fast and readily available, and there's also going to be that branch of any services that's going to come from allowing AI and a human to collaborate to elevate things.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I think it's funny that you say that, because you know now, a lot of times, whenever you get onto a website and you need assistance, there's an AI chatbot right, and a lot of times you'll utilize that AI chatbot and you are thinking to yourself and I will say this kind of on my husband's behalf who's might I say, like the biggest proponent of AI?
Speaker 1:He's an AI guru, but even he is like this is garbage by comparison to an actual human being. And I think that one of the things that we the pendulum has a tendency to swing very far to the right and then, opposingly, very far to the left, whereas oftentimes what we find is that the best outcomes happen in the middle. And whenever I say that, what I mean is right now, we have a lot of brand new AI rollout and I think that the pendulum is swinging hard to the right, where we're trying to replace a lot of human jobs with AI, when in reality, I think probably the middle of utilizing humans with the efficiency of AI is going to be where we find our sweet spot, and it's going to take a little while for, I think, both humans, corporations, people from all walks of life to kind of figure that out and recognize that that's going to be where our sweet spot is.
Speaker 3:Definitely.
Speaker 4:Go ahead Dwight.
Speaker 3:Go ahead, dwight. We had a real-world experience of getting to see the worst way that AI and automation could impact just a normal everyday experience. We ordered something from Amazon and it was like a dental device or something and the way that it worked out. You know, I'm filling in the blanks with what I think happened at the warehouse, but a machine thought that it packed the ordered item into the package and it got loaded into a truck and it was delivered at Amazon speed to the front door. Well, the thing is, something happened to where that handoff of the machine putting the item in the package didn't actually happen. So we got an empty package that was placed on our doorstep. That was placed on our doorstep and then we had to engage with the AI help to go through. You know you only have the option that they expect. Oh, so you want to return this? Item.
Speaker 3:It's like, well, no, it was delivered, but it didn't actually happen. So after several rounds of going with the bot, I finally was able to chat with a human and explain like none of the all the options you have are not exactly what's happening. We just want what we ordered. We don't want to return the empty envelope. We just want you to send what we actually paid for in the first place.
Speaker 1:It's so funny. That's literally exact same thing has happened to me too, so I completely understand what you guys experienced.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I love AI, but I think I'm using it a lot. But I think that you have to use it very intentionally. It can't replace us. It can't do all the things I don't want it to do. I don't want it to replace me. I don't want it to write all my stuff. Right.
Speaker 4:But I do think it's great, for I write my stuff and then I run it by you know, my little partner AI and say you know, what am I missing here? What could be a little better? Right, right, and it's little tweaks that really do improve my writing, but it's still like my writing.
Speaker 1:Right, right, and I will counter that by saying I think that it absolutely could replace us. The only thing is is going to be the expectation of quality, right? So I think that you know, similarly to the way that healthcare has degraded over the last two decades because we've just started kind of accepting this poorer and poorer quality, we could see the same thing as a result of, you know, just AI. And I will also say, like it's getting very good, like you can, actually your voice, your human voice, within chat GPT, so that it writes like you and it talks like you.
Speaker 1:But I think that there's got to be that kind of like ethical question as an individual of like is that what you necessarily want to put out? Do you want to find yourself in a place where you feel like? You know you can't necessarily write a paragraph comfortably without having, like your checks and balances of chat GPT, but I do think that you know it has a high probability to replace us. Even myself, as a former occupational therapist doing a lot of manual labor, I think eventually we'll probably see replacements in that regard too. But the question is going to be quality, empathy, you know, so on and so forth. Where is that going to be there as well or not? I don't know.
Speaker 4:I think the saving grace is, you know, for me, I like to tell stories, I love to tell stories, and everything I write I include some type of a personal story in, and GPT can't do that. Yes, yeah it can't tell my stories.
Speaker 1:Exactly. It can't access your memories right. It can't access the way that you're contemplating empathy or expressing emotion and so on and so forth. That's not necessarily a capability just yet, but who knows, seeing like these shows, like Black Mirror and Severance and things like that, that really kind of make you like okay, like I feel like there's a high probability that one of these days we get chips implanted in our brains and next thing, you know, like all of our memories are accessible via chat, gpt and like it's. You know, who knows? I don't know where things are going, but the here and now is, yes, I agree with you, it can't necessarily replicate that human aesthetic.
Speaker 3:No, I think it's interesting you bring up Black Mirror because I think in a lot of ways you're something of an architect of the future with your community. The women in weapons, I mean it's huge. What is the drive for that and what's your vision for that community?
Speaker 1:yeah, I mean. So. Women and weapons originally started as predominantly a quote-unquote NFT project, right, but really one of the biggest focuses was community. At the time that women and weapons launch was right, kind of towards the end of the COVID bubble, right, like everybody was stuck within their homes, the predominant way of you conversing with one another and socializing was via the internet, and one of the things we found was that we were able to really build community kind of around this artwork and around this rhetoric of what Women and Weapons is, which Women and Weapons for those who don't know was a set of artworks that I created that was set in the mid-century era, that was meant to portray women as strong and powerful and kind of flip the rhetoric that we're used to seeing in the mid-century of women, you know, kind of being subpar and lesser than on its head.
Speaker 1:And so we were able to build a really wonderful community of individuals from all around the globe that you know. A lot of them became, you know, such good friends. They were attending each other's weddings from like opposite sides of the earth. Some of my best friends have now come from that community, people that you know. I don't know that I ever would have run across prior to all of this have come from that community, and it's one of the ways that we're able to keep in touch. But we also have a similar, I guess, set of interests.
Speaker 1:Right, because what Women in Weapons stands for is something that is similar to what we all stand for, and you know, it's not just about staying in contact and also, you know, keeping up with my artwork and what I do day to day, but it's also about giving back to the world. So one of the things that we were able to do with Women in Weapons was donate over $170,000 to the Malala Fund, which, if anybody's unfamiliar with the Malala Fund, it's created by Malala herself and if you don't know her story, I recommend looking it up. But basically, what they do is they go to underserved areas and, from a grassroots level, they work on changing the system for women and girls to gain opportunities to education, because a lot of statistics have shown that the more education a girl gets in underserved areas, the less likely they are to become child brides, to become abused, and the more opportunities they have for freedoms and independence. So it's become a community for good, a community for friendship, a community for keeping up with my artwork.
Speaker 1:You know myself as an artist, um, and so much more. So it's been, it's been really great. But, like you said, it utilizes technologies that were kind of on the brink, because I'm a big believer of early adoption. But ethical early adoption, um, I think that there's always asymmetrical upside in that regard.
Speaker 4:How long have you had that community, Sarah? Early adoption I think that there's always asymmetrical upside in that regard.
Speaker 1:How long have you had that community, Sarah? Since October of 2021.
Speaker 4:And how big is it now?
Speaker 1:It depends on, I guess, what number you're looking at. Technically it's about a community of 10,000 people, but if you look at the numbers, like on social media, we have about over one hundred fifty thousand individuals that are following all of our social accounts. So it just kind of depends on which numbers you're looking at.
Speaker 4:Wow, that sounds amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's been. It's been really really wonderful and you founded that.
Speaker 1:You founded that yes, myself and my husband, uh, my husband jake uh, we both founded women and weapons.
Speaker 1:Um, it was just something that I felt like I don't know. I guess the story that I wanted to tell a little bit about you know the way women were once perceived and still, in a lot of instances, are perceived. I just I wanted to create rhetoric around you know the opposing viewpoint of that and that's become a really amazing community of a lot of dads who have daughters, who really want to see their daughters become strong, independent women and they want them to kind of see this sort of a community, this sort of artwork and so on and so forth, and feel empowered. It's a big community of women who want to be empowered. It's a big community of people from all walks of life who just want to do good around the world. So that has been, you know, some of our primary focuses. But, yeah, we've championed the Malala Fund, we've championed up and coming artists, we've championed the 1000 Dreams Fund, breast Cancer Research Foundation and so many other organizations, not just, you know, through philanthropy, but also through awareness and so on.
Speaker 4:Wow, that is totally impressive.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 4:I'm kind of like, wow, I mean, you know, because we're working to build community and you're there, you know you've got something that really is having a positive impact in the world, which is our dream. It's what we spend all day, every day, working on, and so it's such an inspiration to hear your story and, I don't know, I might need to pick your brains.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, you know what I will tell you right now? That building community is difficult. It's not an easy thing to do, especially now that, I will say, the COVID bubble was significantly different in regards to community building, because so many people were seeking out community via this one vector that was the internet. Right Now that our COVID era has kind of ended, people are a little bit more scattered than they once were, and so building community is a little bit more difficult now.
Speaker 1:But I've come to find that one of the things that people really value is authenticity, like what's behind your head, and transparency and just like a general good human type of connection. And so even here and around Dallas I'm sure both of you have seen that there's a lot of different, like dinner clubs and like art clubs and so on and so forth, because people naturally do want to participate in community. But it is something that's hard to build. It's something that's hard to like, maintain kind of like a loyal base, of which I don't necessarily think that you should expect a loyal base, because I think people should be able to ebb and flow and flex as they please. But yeah, it's hard, it's not an easy thing to do, for sure.
Speaker 4:I think that you called out something and you're right. In the Dallas area there is a lot available socially, but I've lived here for 35 years and I've been in and out of a lot of that and there is a significant amount of it that is very superficial. Yeah. I don't experience the authenticity. I don't experience the realness. It's very, very plastic and very put on and as much as authenticity is a draw and a turn on, that part of it is a massive turnoff for me.
Speaker 1:Well, I feel honestly the exact same way.
Speaker 1:I will take the group of kooky, weird misfits over the group of like hot socialites any day, any day, and that's kind of the group that I've found myself in here in Dallas is I tend to hang out with, like the kind of quirky, weird artist group of humans, as opposed to, you know, the opposite group, and it's because I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't care about what the perception is, I care about like having an authentic, like emotional connection with individuals and we're in some of the loneliest times I think we've ever been in, right, because everybody's into their phones, so sucked into their computer or their iPad, whatever, whatever it might be. We're so separate. Now. Everybody's working 24 seven. So a lot of people are seeking out that community and I think it. It is going to take for a lot of people a lot of bopping around to figure out where you fit right, like where your, where your comfort level is. But once you start finding where that community is and you start drawing in more and more people that are alike you, it grows and grows and grows and gets bigger and better.
Speaker 4:Well, I think in the oh, go ahead, dwight.
Speaker 3:I was just going to say that you you hit on something that is a recurring theme that we see, and that's many creative people feel isolated in their journey yeah what structures? Weird well, yeah, yeah, well, and nothing's more. Nothing makes you feel weirder than how you kind of mentally put a spotlight on yourself yes, yes, 100, yeah I think that's what draws us to the creative community.
Speaker 4:In the last couple of years, our not just anything that might be about business, but our personal lives have become so engaged and entwined in the creative community. Here that I mean, like everybody, pretty much that we socialize with is some form of creativity, and when we're together socially, a huge part of the conversation centers around our creative experience and how it has impacted our own lives. And we certainly embrace the weirdness, you know, the individuality, the quirkiness. Yes.
Speaker 4:Yes, it's what makes it so interesting. I don't you know so much more interesting than a room full of people wearing the designer labels.
Speaker 1:Well, not only that, but like also being in a room full of people who want to learn more about you as opposed to telling you about themselves. Right, and I think that's where a lot of that loss of like true heart to heart connection happens is that there's a lot of and let me tell y'all, I have I've been within like kind of the entertainment space and everything, and it's tough because a lot of people they want to talk about themselves, they want to climb the ladder, and I just feel like it's very difficult to make any sort of like heart to heart connection whenever you're doing that. It's better, from my viewpoint, to be friends with people who are the type of humans that want to learn more about you and also want to speak about you in a room full of opportunities when you're not there.
Speaker 4:I mean, you're describing the purpose behind this podcast. We do this because it gives us an opportunity to get to know somebody, so many people's real story Oftentimes. Oftentimes, it's the untold story. I'm amazed at how many guests have said you know, wow, I've never really said my story out loud like this. And how many of them have described, you know, the connecting of the dots or the shift that occurred within them because of the opportunity to share their story openly and authentically.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, you guys are also very easy to talk to and you come across as very nonjudgmental individuals, and I think that naturally allows people to kind of divulge more than what they would usually divulge to others. So that's something that I think you should give kudos to yourselves about is that you do have this natural presence of like comfort and trust and non-judgmental air about you. So, that's your flowers.
Speaker 3:Oh that means a lot and you really hit on something. One of the things that we strive to get groups that we bring together whenever we're having one of our in real life events, we hit really hard on getting people to leave outside a lot of the things that have protected them, a lot of the scripts that they carry for how it is that they must present themselves. You know, men are taught that they carry for how it is that they must present themselves. Men are taught that they have to be bold, they have to do things to make themselves look really cool. Right.
Speaker 3:And when women have been conditioned to try to make people feel better and make themselves small, and so we try to create a space where we tell people to imagine that they're back on the playground, they're in the sandbox and they don't have all the trappings of what they, what it is that makes it so that they have their story, that they tell the world. Right.
Speaker 3:And they just want to go and be good people. And we want to leave out any judgment. We want to leave out any of the things that make it so that we're measuring other people and we want to try to amplify our curiosity. We want to go in with extreme openness and be ready for the magic that happens, because it's that vulnerability that invites people to connect in the ways that are well, the ways that we need. You know, it allows people to be truly seen.
Speaker 1:Well, it's interesting that you say that, because if there's one thing that I feel like has been a massive positive from hospital, sarah, is that you know I used I would obviously go into patient rooms. That was that was part of my career. Um, constantly, constantly in patient rooms, right, and patients are oftentimes having the worst day of their life. They haven't had an update from their doctor, they probably have to pee and nobody's letting them out of bed, right? So a lot of them are pissed off and you'll come to find that there's oftentimes a lot of health care practitioners that are just burnt out. They're tired. They're tired of patients being mean to them.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I found is that whenever I walked into a room and kind of let them vent for a minute and then asked them and focused a little bit more on them and like why are you uncomfortable? What is upsetting you? Now, let me address this in a very transparent way. People oftentimes kind of like cooled off and they backed down and they totally opened up to me, and that's something that I've carried forward with myself in business, in art, in engaging with people, because it's quite literally it's what people seek out. They seek out somebody that will listen to them, somebody that will understand them, somebody that will not be judgmental in regards to what it is that they're feeling and what they're upset about.
Speaker 1:But also that transparency, because I will tell you right now, the hospital regularly told me do not tell this patient that their nurse is in another patient room and they will get to them. When they get to them, just say I'm sorry that that's happening. It'll just be patient. No, it's actually way more supportive to the patient to let them know. I'm so sorry. Your nurse has five patients today. She's super overwhelmed too. I promise you she's very concerned about what's going on. She wants to make sure that you get everything that you need. Just give her a little bit of time as well, because she's also got a lot on her plate. And they were like oh, I didn't even consider that. You know, I thought I was my nurse's only patient and it's like no, but just that level of transparency made a world of difference in taking care of a patient than just leaving them in the dark and not giving them any sort of like transparent updates about what's actually happening.
Speaker 4:You know, I knew I liked you, but as you talk, more and more I love who you are and how you show up.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks you guys, I really appreciate that I love who y'all are.
Speaker 4:I have a twofold question. Let's go back to your creative journey. Okay, you said you know you always, always have been creative, but there was this moment when you, you know, really launched something, when you started moving towards something and you had a vision of what you wanted that to look like. So question two part. Question part one is what was the vision when you set out about how old were you and what did you want it to look like?
Speaker 1:Well, I knew from a really young age that my passion was always art. I knew that that was always something that I wanted to do, but I also knew that one of the biggest things that I wanted to focus on for my life goals was to leave the world a better place than I found it. I will also say that I was raised by a Middle Eastern mother my mom's from Iran, and so I had also a lot of that pressure, because it's primarily just her and myself that are here. The rest of our family is in Iran, so I got a lot of Sarah, you are going to be a doctor, a lawyer or engineer. Those are your only three option in life, right.
Speaker 4:So, your impersonation is impeccable.
Speaker 1:You should totally meet my mother. She's a hoot. But I knew that probably the direction that my life was going to go in was not necessarily the one that I had envisioned for myself. I was OK with that because I was always painting on the side, taking commissions on the side, selling on the side, so on and so forth. It wasn't really until, probably like COVID, that I was like I don't, I don't want to be a healthcare practitioner full-time for the rest of my life. This isn't where my passion is in COVID.
Speaker 1:If there's one thing that's true, it's that when you're in a hospital and you are watching people die left and right at young ages, people who have, you know, fought for a long time to be healthy and they die anyway.
Speaker 1:You know, fought for a long time to be healthy and they die anyway.
Speaker 1:It's a big wake up call that life is short and it's more important for me to do something that I love and not make a boatload of money than to do something that does not fulfill me and be very fiscally comfortable, and that's not necessarily again, that's an orally comfortable and that's not necessarily again, that's an or-or situation. But that's not necessarily to say that. You know, comfort like fiscal comfort is not also something that makes your life very enjoyable? Because it I mean, it makes life a lot easier when you're not stressing about bills, right, but there's oftentimes a happy medium that can be found. It's just a matter of contemplating it long enough. So I think it was probably around that COVID era that I realized, you know, I need to have a long-term vision on how I can make adjustments to this and, I will be honest, it requires a lot of learning. It requires a lot of failures and a lot of hearing the word no to be able to broach on that journey hearing the word no to be able to broach on that journey.
Speaker 4:Well, and I'm wanting to hear you know, because mom gave you three options and you didn't choose any of the three of them in the end. How did that unfold?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I basically told my mom I'm going into occupational therapy because I can't do organic chemistry and insulin terrifies me, so I don't even want to play around with that Um, and I can't argue for life of me, so I can't be a lawyer, um. But whenever I did transition into full-time art, I was telling my mom mom, I'm going down to PRN at the hospital, which PRN basically means like as needed, um. So I was working like I don't know, maybe like a weekend and like one weekday in the hospital a month just to keep my foot in the door, just in case, and she was like Sarah.
Speaker 2:I don't think this is a good idea. Do you know that you are not going to have any security? You know, art is here. It is there, it's up, it's down. You don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't know if this is a good idea. And then, maybe, like three months from then, when she realized that I could actually make a living and you know some years make a significantly better living than what I was making as an occupational therapist, she was like, oh okay. Maybe you are right. Maybe this is not so bad.
Speaker 4:So, cracking me up. I'm telling you you have to meet her. Maybe this is not so bad.
Speaker 1:Um, so, cracking me up, I'm telling you you have to meet her. She's the hoot. Um, but yeah, that was. It was hard. I mean, it was hard talking her into believing that I could make a living as an artist.
Speaker 4:You're not the first person that has told this story. We've had other people that and some from cultures where that, like yours, that's very steeped in that. You got three choices.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, very, very intensively. But you know, I think the moral of the story is like creative thought, being hyper aware of what's kind of on trend, what's in demand, so on and so forth. And not necessarily when I say on trend, what's in demand, so on and so forth, and not necessarily when I say on-trend do I mean, like, creating artworks that are on-trend. Right, I mean, I ebb and flow as an artist. I don't just paint, I also do mural work, I do commercial work, I do consulting work.
Speaker 1:There's a bunch of different things that I do as an artist, so it's not just one means of income. It's that, as the economy and the ecosystem ebbs and flows, so does my career, so that I'm able to maintain stability, and that, I think, is something that's really important for artists to be willing to be open-minded about. And also, I think it's really important for artists to kind of have as much autonomy as possible, and in that regard I mean understanding business, understanding finances, understanding marketing, understanding the utilization of social media. As much as I don't love social media, it's, it's a necessity nowadays. And so I think if you want to become a full-time artist, you also need to be aware of the fact that you're going to need to be a.
Speaker 4:Well said. Please say that again.
Speaker 1:We'll replay it.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, and I would say, when you say artist, I think that you might as well just say human, like any. We have to be clear about making sure that we operate as a business of you know our brand who we are, of you know our brand who we are.
Speaker 1:We have to be ready to make it so that we're able to go and do what we need to to support our family and be able to comfortably look at ourselves in the mirror 100% and like, don't get me wrong, you know, if times got rough enough that I wasn't able to, you know, make ends meet with my artwork, whether it be mural work or commercial work, or paintings or whatever it may be I have absolutely no qualms with going and getting a job elsewhere. There is nothing wrong with that, you know. I think that oftentimes people should be more open-minded to that, because there's no shame in that game at all.
Speaker 4:We never know. Yeah, you never know.
Speaker 1:You never know Exactly.
Speaker 4:So let's, I'm going to circle back for a minute because you know, okay, pandemics kind of wound down. You've had clarity, you've told mom leaving healthcare. Now what was the vision? Moving forward.
Speaker 1:The mission, the vision moving forward initially was obviously starting Women in Weapons, beginning this community doing philanthropic good, and then also launching my art career in a way that would begin the ball rolling of stability Right and so status, post Women in Weapons came a lot of commercial work and a lot of traveling, a lot of public speaking, and so that's kind of what got my art career started. And then I recognize that vision wise, like ongoing for stability sake. I'm going to have to be very savvy as a business person and an artist, have to be very savvy as a business person and an artist, and so I guess that's I hope I'm answering the question correctly but that's, I guess, where a lot of the vision came from as to like projecting how to continue in like a linear way in this new career that I'm really passionate about.
Speaker 4:Well, and the second part of the question and you may have already answered it was now speak to the actual reality. You had this vision of what you wanted to accomplish, what you wanted to look like, and of course you know the fat lady hasn't sang yet, so there's still lots of time to realize that vision. But what's the reality now? Is it very, very close to the vision? And if it's not, how is it different than the vision?
Speaker 1:I would say it's very close to the vision I mean. I'm still doing commercial work, I'm still doing fine artwork, right? I think the only way that the vision has evolved a little bit is that I was so focused on being an artist internationally that the majority of my community, the majority of, like my collectors and so on, were internationally based. A lot of the commercial work that I did was internationally based.
Speaker 1:And now I've come to find that like I want to be a little bit more ingrained in the local sphere of Dallas and Texas and so on. And so I've pivoted a little bit and I don't mean like a lot, but just a little bit into getting to know more and more of the artist community here in DFW, the collector community here in DFW, kind of what the access to like art support and so on and so forth is here in DFW. That's been one of like kind of the interesting pivots, because I was like I want to know more local artists. Like a lot of the artists that I've befriended through this crazy journey live in LA, new York, spain, london, australia, you name it. But I want to also have a community closer to home and closer to my home base.
Speaker 4:You do realize that, if push comes to shove, you could teach this. You're very savvy, you could coach, you could teach work with creatives of all kinds, because a lot of what you're sharing is universal. I'd like to ask you to speak a little bit more, because this is something that I see so deficient in the creative community that we see Now. Most of our exposure is fairly local, although we have had some people from other parts of the world Speak a little bit more to that necessity to be not just a creative, not just an artist or whatever. However, it shows up not just a dancer, not just a chef, but an entrepreneur or not just a chef but an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think the thing to consider is that if you want to just be an artist, totally fine, but just recognize that you're going to then have to rely on somebody else to support you in regards to business and in regards to marketing, in regards to your accounting and so on and so forth. If you prefer to have more autonomy and more control, then you yourself need to start learning and understanding more about business, more about marketing, more about managing your finances. And it's hard to start from zero because oftentimes we don't necessarily know where to look. But I've had a few friends who I have also learned from how they have kind of become their own business person, their own marketing person, and one of the ways that they've done that is looking on YouTube, starting to listen to different podcasts right here, you know, so on and so forth, where they can get little tidbits and little seeds of information that then create this kind of like opening this doorway of seeking out more information. And you know, a lot of my journey kind of revolves around Gary Vaynerchuk, right, he was like one of my first big collectors and he's a massive business person and marketing individual, and so, of course, I've learned a lot of a lot of like my marketing and my business from him, but I listened to a lot of business podcasts as well.
Speaker 1:I'm not just focused in entirely on the creative, I'm also very much focused on what are current events, what is the economy looking like? What are upcoming trends? And I say trends in that I mean not like social media trends, but I mean what are economic trends that are coming forward Now that we have tariffs implemented, and it's kind of this crazy ebb and flow like what is the secondary market going to look like? Okay, well, a lot of these different art fairs are not selling the way that they used to be selling. Okay, well, we're seeing more and more of a collector base that doesn't necessarily want to spend $20,000 on an artwork. They're wanting to spend like a grand or sub, you know, on an artwork.
Speaker 1:So it's important to observe those trends and make pivots to your practice as an artist, as a business person, so that you continue to maintain stability and maintain like viability amongst your community and your network. And so you know, one of the things that I found is, when times are really slow, when the economy is rough, sometimes there's got to be a bigger focus on prints. You know, limited edition prints or artworks that you can turn around in a faster period of time. You can always have your higher tier artworks like this one behind me that took like four months to make right. It doesn't all have to be just one thing. You can make adjustments and ebbs and flows to your practice to support what's happening within economic trends and so on cultural trends.
Speaker 4:I'm amazed at how many artists are completely resistant to the idea of prints of their work, like, just won't even consider it. I want to call out and this is not a coincidence you are describing everything that you have done the entrepreneurial part of it, the marketing, the trends, the observation, the social media, all of the pieces, parts, all of the hats that you wear, and this is single-handedly why you are successful.
Speaker 1:Knock on wood, knock on wood. I mean, you know I, I know a lot of people tell I think this probably is Iranian culture a little bit that, like you know, you shouldn't necessarily pat yourself on the back or like be too proud of your accolades and so on. I do think I feel like a lot of things are blessings that have come my way. Honestly, a lot of it, I think as well, is hard work. I think another artist actually that's here in DFW that's like phenomenal with marketing and with networking and so on, is Tira and Melissa Ellis. Both of them are absolutely incredible whenever it comes to like business and marketing.
Speaker 1:And it's just. You know you have to sometimes make your own success. You can't rely on anybody else to come save you. You can't rely on anybody else to open up the door and give you an opportunity. You oftentimes have to ask for those opportunities, which, I'll be honest, is one of the things that I struggle with, because I always hear my mom's voice in my ear saying Sarah, that is inappropriate, it is disrespectful. You should not do that.
Speaker 1:Whereas in reality, there's oftentimes a way to broach things respectfully whilst still putting yourself out there, and so you know you have to make your own opportunities. You have to go out and network. You have to connect with people on LinkedIn and utilize social platforms of that sort to create your success.
Speaker 4:I think that it's important to eat a bite of humble pie every day. I think we need to keep as we become more successful. Keep our ego in check. Yes. But I am a huge advocate of patting yourself on the back when you've done well. I'm a huge advocate of completely celebrating your wins. You know, I did that. I did that.
Speaker 4:That ownership of all of the hard work, all the messiness, all of the pain, everything, Because people just see the good part. My brother is very successful and he says people think everything I touch turns to gold. They just kind of forget the lean years or all the struggle or the times I failed, the things that completely went wrong, 100%. We do all experience that. So when we're on the other side of that, I think it's really important to own, to celebrate, to pat.
Speaker 3:And just to get the word out. There's a place for tooting your own horn, because in a lot of spaces, the only way that anyone's going to know to send more work your way is to know what it is that you can do.
Speaker 1:Yes, 100%.
Speaker 4:And other creatives need to see that success is an option. You need to see people that are really really doing well. People that didn't have it handled. You handed to them on a silver platter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, you know, I think that's oftentimes why, like, a lot of people see LinkedIn as like a place where people are always just like tooting their own horn, but I don't think what they're recognizing is there's a reason that that's the case, and I think one of the things that I tell a lot of artists is get on LinkedIn, like, get on LinkedIn, especially if you're wanting to do any semblance of like commercial work or like connect with people. You might try and follow like an organization or whatever on Instagram, but you're going to be one out of like a couple thousand of faces in the crowd trying to get this group's attention. If you go onto LinkedIn and you connect with a curator, a, you know, a CMO, whatever it may be, you may be one of five people in their feed.
Speaker 4:who's trying to get their attention and trying to gain their awareness. That is gold right there. That alone is gold.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean people constantly think like, oh, linkedin's for like, business people and finance people and blah, blah blah. No, it's for everybody. You can go follow any CMO or any VP of marketing on LinkedIn and start connecting with them much easier than you're going to do that on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter, maybe Twitter A lot of people don't use Twitter anymore but yeah, I mean, linkedin is kind of like an absolute hidden gem and I feel like a lot of people just like breeze right past it, but no, I mean, it's absolute gold.
Speaker 4:Well, it represents that entrepreneurial business thing that people are. So so many creatives are like no, no, no, no, that's not me.
Speaker 3:Well, and the other thing is it encourages people to be authentic 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I mean totally fine. If you want to be an artist that's like the artist's artist. You don't want to, um, you know, delve into social media. You don't want to sell prints. There's always going to be a market for that, Don't get me wrong. There will always be a market for that. The market will probably be much narrower and if you're accepting of that, that's totally fine. But if you're the type of artist who's wanting to grow and wanting to evolve with the changes of the times, then this is probably one of the things that I recommend being open-minded to, and also being open-minded to burgeoning technologies like AI, like blockchain technology and so on and so forth.
Speaker 4:You know, a lot of people hate it, absolutely hate it, but a lot of times there's upside symmetrical you know opportunity there there's no wrong answer and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with somebody that just wants to be the artiste, but the chances are they're not going to. Probably they're going to have to have a job that sustains them so they can be the artiste without being the business entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 4:And there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1:There's multiple routes, there's multiple routes to success, 100%, and not one is correct, but this has been the route for myself, that has been the successful one, route for myself that has been the successful one. And so you know, to each their own, for each person, their own journey. You just have to be accepting of what may be on the other side of that journey, dependent upon the path you choose to take.
Speaker 3:Well, this has been a fascinating conversation. We are drawing near the close of our time and we like to close out these conversations with a set of rapid fire questions.
Speaker 1:Oh boy, this is where I struggle. My brain freezes, but let's see what happens.
Speaker 4:Oh they're, they're easy, it's okay, we make it fun.
Speaker 3:It's light and fun, you'll do great. All right, I'm ready. So knowledge or creativity, which is the more powerful weapon?
Speaker 4:Oh God that's so hard, creativity that would have been my vote.
Speaker 1:And it's such a reflection of your story. Well, and you know what Creativity is? What's going to make you stand out and make you be unique, Whereas knowledge most everybody has access to knowledge and oftentimes it's the same knowledge, but there's something very special about being the only person in a crowd who's able to do something very unique and special. That's where you oftentimes get recognized. That's why I say creativity, even though I also love knowledge.
Speaker 3:I love that. What's one creative ritual or practice that most people wouldn't expect?
Speaker 1:um vegging out and not thinking about art for a period of time and not working on art and allowing your brain to reset.
Speaker 4:Yes, yes, you feel guilty about it but it's necessary.
Speaker 3:Did you hear that?
Speaker 4:Dwight hey, hey, I've been poking him because he's just been grinding really hard lately and I've been kind of poking him that he needs some what you just described.
Speaker 1:You just need to reset and like get your canvas blank all over again, and then the creativity comes again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love that all over again, and then the creativity comes again. Yeah, I love that. Um, if your art could physically speak to its viewers, what would it say first, I think it probably wouldn't say anything.
Speaker 1:it probably slapped people in the face. Um, because a lot of the times I'm like a little bit of a edgy artist. You know, the ladies that I oftentimes paint have a little bit of attitude to them, and there's a reason why is because I love to portray a really strong, independent, you know, like who are type woman, and so I kind of hope that they like reach through the canvas and like smack you around a little bit and just like what's up, you know, so they probably wouldn't be particularly verbal in that regard.
Speaker 4:I love that See you answered them so.
Speaker 1:I know I'm surprised I actually was able to come up with answers that quickly. Usually I'm like, oh, let me contemplate, but no, that was, that was good.
Speaker 4:No, you knocked it out of the ballpark. This has been amazing, Sarah. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us and being so real and open and honest. What a honor and a privilege.
Speaker 1:Absolutely you guys. I just love I mean we could have talked for four and a half hours, but I love getting to chat with y'all and I'm sure we'll hang out soon.
Speaker 3:We'll make it happen.