06 - Meet Your Host, Kaylin Ingram

In this episode, Kaylin Ingram deep dives the long and winding road that led her to where she is now, how she feels BEING who she is now, and some of the life lessons she has learned along the way. With ALL LOVE to every past version of herself, Kaylin shares how it's never too late to follow your intuition and BE the person you were meant to be.. this best, CURRENT, version of YOU!

Kaylin Ingram is a brand strategist, children's book author, speaker, and PODCAST HOST! She loves connecting with likeminded business owners, brands an BEINGS!!!! 

Being Brandworthy is a podcast built for EPIC brands, business and HUMAN BEINGS who are looking to uplevel and expand their lives. If you are looking to uplevel in your personal life, or in your own business, reach out to Kaylin today. Follow her on instagram @kay_coastal and @brandworthypodcast. Go to her website: www.kaycoastal.com. And be on the lookout for her SHINE & ALIGN Mastermind and Brand Workshops. 

Share this podcast with everyone you know who is building something BIG. 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:06

What's up guys? My name is Kaylin Ingram, and I am so so excited for this episode of Being Brandworthy, BB. Let's go. I'm excited for this episode because I am actually sharing my story. So, um, how I got to where I am, how it feels to be right now who I am and where I want to go. So I'm really excited to kind of walk you all through the journey through graphic design days and like just I don't know, all like through school and my branding program and just like everything that led to where I am today. So I'm super excited to dive in. Um let's start from the top. Um November 3rd, 1995. I was a beautiful Scorpio babe born into this world. Um, we're not gonna go deep in you know every arena, but I will say, um yeah, I am 30 years old. I was born 30 years 30 plus years ago in um Melbourne, Florida. Um I grew up my whole life in Clearwater, Florida, where I went to Palm Harbor University High School, Palm Harbor U, baby. I played basketball growing up, I tap danced growing up. I I did design a little bit growing up, but I wasn't um I wasn't like trained in any way. I was always like a doodler or a creative, or I just like I created things, but I didn't necessarily technically know anything about art. Um my mom always tells this one story that me and my brother, she would like put easels in front of us and say, like, paint, go, do your thing. And my brother would take up the whole painting and draw these like like you know, full-out scenes with like stick figures and like put all this detail into the background, and then she turned to me and I had like a little doodle in the corner of this giant like piece of like rip-off paper that you put on a kid's easel, and she's like, Caitlin, like go over here, take up more space, do all this, and I was like, It's done, and and I would just be like, thine, it's done. Um so my mom, um, it's so funny because I was talking about this actually, like in therapy, but I was talking about this because it's so funny and cute to me that like when I was little I drew this tiny, tiny little thing, and for most of my career I created um and still create logo design, which is it's a big thing, it's a big piece of your business, but it's this tiny little thing that goes on the corner of a shirt that sometimes simpler is better, and like sleeker is better, and the ones that are like double entendres, more brilliant, like less is more sometimes with a logo design. So it's funny that that kind of translated into these, um into the work I do now, but also I think it's funny because I was like, it's done, it's finished. I don't want to take like I think in my life I've gone through this uh metamorphosis of taking up space, like being okay with taking up space and being more and being too much and and talking and starting a podcast and being like where a past version of myself would have, you know, been totally, totally fine with just you know, sitting in the back of the room and you know, clapping for you know the program and not like not participating. And so I think a big part of my current journey has been like, oh, I'm gonna participate, I'm gonna live in the this life I'm given type thing. So I also think it's funny that um growing up I drew that like little thing in the corner of the painting, but then a big piece of the work I started doing was murals, mural art, and so I'm like the totally opposite of the corner in the the bottom of the picture is painting a massive wall and being really getting pretty comfortable with this like large-scale art form. I haven't done any murals too too recently, but I am always game for more. Um, it's it's a fun way of seeing something you create on a large platform, and I think especially because most of the murals I have ever done, I've created digitally first. So I'll create it digitally, mock it up for the client, and then put it on this giant wall. And um, it's just so fun. It will never ever ever get old seeing something I create off of a computer screen and on a t-shirt or a hat or a swag bag or um on a giant wall. Like I just love that feeling. That's another thing I've actually um brought up in therapy is like I love the end product, I love the finale, I love seeing a client's face like light up when I show them like the logo or the thing I made or what whatever it is I created. I love seeing them just be like, oh my god, I love it, let's go, and they're just smiling so big. Um, and a thing I've been working on a lot is loving the journey and loving the process and loving the getting there. Um, there is this point in every single logo project, every single brand project. I don't care how amazing it turns out or how like quote unquote easy or hard the project seems to me from the start. There is always, always, always a point in the project where I am like, it is not working. And it's like and there's always this point where I'm like, because okay, I mentioned it a little bit earlier, but in my branding projects, I love, oh my god, I love like double meanings, double entendres, like if the letter of the name can also be the like the thing they do, or if I can incorporate like sometimes one time um one of my clients had um two kids and she lived on this specific street that was a flower name, and so I like growing up, she lived on that street, so the her logo was a flower, and it was the specific flower, and it had two leaves representing her two kids, and I I just love when there's like a hidden meeting. Um one time there was this like baseball company for this like youth um baseball camp that I was doing. Uh it's it was like a youth baseball training um camp, and the owner is so cool. Um, but the stitching in the baseball, like her son was always number 11, so I included 11 stitches. Even for the Galveston appraisal district of Texas, I actually did their logo, believe it or not. And in the bridge, I put like I forget the number, but it was exactly as many notches as counties in um or like cities or towns or whatever in the Galveston appraisal district that it was. So I just I love a hidden meaning. Love, love, love. Because if you're a realtor and if you want a house logo, you can just go online and download a free commercially licensed usable house. And and I won't deter you from that. A lot of times, um, clients who don't have the budget or don't have the time or whatever the case may be, um, and they need something quick and they need it done, it's like, okay, go download a house from a free commercially licensed plate. Like, I will not knock that. Um, that said, I think there is a power in having something unique because it says that you do something unique. If you're like every other realtor, go get a the same logo as every other realtor. I think that that's what that says to me, and I think that's what that's what that says to the consumer. However, I also toe like in the same like toe-to-toe, you have to like also start wherever you are. So it my my goal is always to make something unique, it's always to make a double meaning or a double entangre or something that could only be yours. Um, I love stuff like that. Um, and simple. It can't be too detail, it can't be too much. It's a logo, it's a logo design, it's a brand. It's something you gotta be able to blow up big and shrink down onto a hat and all this. So, this is a whole podcast in and of itself about branded but we gotta get back to me here. I'm sorry. We gotta get back to the juice here. I this is my podcast, okay. This is my podcast about me today. But anyway, branding is fabulous and I love it, and it's a big, big, big, big, big piece of what I do. Anyway, so back to my youth. I'm drawing and I paint this thing and whatever. So I grew up, I didn't really know anything technical about art. I never really did art in I I didn't take any technical art classes in like middle school or high school or anything like that. However, whenever we needed like a t-shirt design for I played basketball, like I said, I was balling at a very young age. Um, me and all my siblings played and we uh were pretty good. No, we had um we actually had a newspaper article written about us, me and my sisters, because we all started on the same, like my youngest sister is a was a high school freshman when I was a senior, and my other sister was in between us, and we were all on the varsity starting five, and it was like kind of a cool, a cool thing. Um, they are rock stars and I love them so much. I will do a whole podcast episode about that, but again, we gotta get back to me. Okay, so basically, all this to say, um, I played basketball and I would always do like the t-shirt designs for the basketball team or for the guys' basketball team or posters for like a club I created um called Young Educated Athletes, the Yeah Club. Yeah, so I was always making stuff, but I was doing it in um I was doing it in like Microsoft Word and I downloaded. I I think so okay, fast forward. I started working outside of school. I went to like I went to UF and I was on the rowing team. So then I went to the University of Florida and I joined the rowing team and and so then there I was making the designs for the rowing team and making postcards and this and that. I went home for college one year and was I always always always interned at my family's company, Ingram Injury Law, which like, follow, comment, share, subscribe. I currently run their Instagram, and if you follow them, I will also love you forever. But anyway, okay, so Ingram Injury Law, personal injury law. We'll do a whole episode about that as well because it's very important that everybody gets UM coverage on their auto policy if they live in Florida. We could talk about that for another hour. Whoo! So many sidebars today. Okay, so I went home, I'm working at Ingram Injury Law, and I have to make a postcard for my dad's business because he had like a new location, and I was like, Dad, you should send out a postcard, tell everybody where you are. And um he was like, Oh yeah, that's true, but I don't know how to make a postcard, and I don't know. And this was at a time where like a business could get away without having a postcard, um, or without having an online presence, or without like he a lot of the business was word of mouth. So I go and we have this email or we have this mailing list of all of our clients, and I go make this postcard, and I think I downloaded like the Photoshop trial version of Photoshop for 14 days just so I could cut cut out my dad's head and put it on this postcard. And this was before Canva background remover for anybody who is versatile in Canva. This was pre-Canva, this was pre like all this, like I and I know there's a generation that's gonna be like we had to cut it out with scissors and scan it back in, and it's or not even scan it, I guess glue it back on the final design. I get it. This was pre-Canva post-scissors, and so I'm in Photoshop trial. I'm making my data cut out his face and it's great. Then um I go back to school that next, like for the next semester in at University of Florida for my sophomore year, and I'm like, I think I Googled like what is the major where you make cool shit. Like, I did not know it was in the art program, I didn't know what it entailed. I was just like, I know I like making t-shirts for the basketball team, and I know I like making postcards for my dad. So what is what is that? What is that? And I didn't know what that was because I didn't I thought, I don't know. I I didn't know that was a career you could do. Um, and so I find out it's graphic design, and the dean was like, Yep, it's a four-year major, you gotta do two years and apply to the graphic design program. And so I did, um, I was like, Well, can I do it in three? Because I don't want to be, you know, a super senior victory lap girly. Um, and she was like, Nope, you gotta do it in four. And I was like, Okay, so I did the first two years. Little did I know it would be like the classes I would have to take in these first two years of art school to even get to the graphic design program, were like sculpture and uh drawing and painting and photography, like all this. I was like, how does this have anything to do with the computer? I would I thought it was like computer sciences or something. I didn't know it was art. And so I'm like, so I had to do all this crazy shit. I I did all these like art experiments and I had to make oh my god, I it was it was wild. I made a lot of really fun, cool stuff. I made this like why we in sculpture we had to make like wire busts of ourselves, and so I made this girl, and then my teacher was like who looks like me, you know. I I the i I thought it was pretty okay, and then for made of wire, I was like, this is so difficult. And so I made me, and then she's like, I think you should add ribbon on here, and I was like, Yes, that would look so cool, and so then I put ribbon all over her, I put like skin tone ribbon for my skin, and then I put like hair, like I did like brunette like blonde hair on this doll. And I'm like, oh my god. Now looking at it after the fact, I was like, this is so horrifyingly scary, and in class for the um presentation, so in art class, we don't have like final pro like final tests, we have um critiques, so we have like our final project presentation critique, and so I brought her, and by this time, like me and all my friends on the rowing team, we were calling her Molly because she was horrific. We took her to the bars, like we she was like our friend, this doll I create, this like bust of myself that didn't look anything like me at this point because she was hideous and I'm stunning. Just kidding, but I'm not kidding, okay. So, anyway, all this to say, in the final critique, everyone's laughing, like all the other students are laughing. The teacher starts laughing, I start laughing like it was just hysterical, and I think I got like a decent grade for effort, like I think it was uh yeah, you're good type thing, but it was comical, and it was also I think looking back at the times when I'm like that was humiliating, that was so humiliating, but I learned to laugh at myself, literally at myself, at a bust of myself that was horrible, and I think it's like learning to laugh at yourself. I think this is also a good lesson for like art in general, because a lot of us don't a lot of us think we're not creative, or we think, oh, I don't have that bone in my body, or I wasn't like gifted that as a kid, and so I think a lot of us think I'm not a creative person, but I think a lot of times what that comes from is just a time when we made something it looked like shit, and then we decided then and there that like oh I will not do that again. When in fact, every piece of art I do looks like shit, like I just said, there there is a point in every project where it does not look finished or it doesn't look great or it's not coming together, and with the logo designs I was telling you about, like in every single project I do, no matter how easy or how hard or how simple or how difficult, whatever it is, it there's always a point where I'm like, this is not working. I can't fit the double entendre in, I can't get the second leaf in there, or I can't, you know, convert this, or there's not a way to make the B turn into a key, or like I there's always a way a point where the puzzle isn't puzzling or the logo isn't meshing the way I want it to. And Eric said to me one time, I was in my like, ah, this isn't working phase, and Eric was like, Give it 30 minutes, and I was like, What do you mean? And he was like, You always say it's not working, and then 30 minutes later, you're like, Eureka, I got it, let's go! And you're like, Eric, look at this thing I just made. And he's like, just give it 30 minutes. He's like, keep tinkering with it, it's gonna come. It's always, it always, always, always works out, but there's always that phase, even now, as a designer, I'm like 10 years out of college, I've been making art my whole life. Like, there is always a phase where it is just complete and utter shit. And I think if you as a creative, whatever you're creating, and I'm talking about more than just like if you're a painter or a drawer or what's like with all these technical arts, more than that, if you're creating a business, if you're creating a business card, if you're creating like whatever you're making, there is a point where it's gonna look like shit. And I just urge you not to give up on the thing when there's a phase when the business isn't working, or the puzzle isn't puzzling, or like the podcast won't upload, or like there's always gonna be a moment, and you just it's not a hard thing, it's just a hurdle, and just see it as like oop, yay, another speed bump, or another time where the project I'm working on doesn't look great, and I gotta keep going. Like, just keep going, push through that phase where it's it's not great, and I promise it'll turn out to be something cool. Um, most of the time. For me, all the time, it always turns out cool, but I every single time I doubt it. Every single time I'm like, uh, it's not working for this one, and I just and it always comes around. It always always comes around. So have faith, have faith in the process, etc. But anyway, so I go to the graphic design program. I am like not good. I'm not good at it. And this is again like this is 10 years ago. I started doing graphic design. I am like the programs Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, which are actually the programs I went on to then teach at the University of Tampa, these programs, the Adobe Suites, isn't very I don't think it's very intuitive for the like I think there's like swooshy artists, and I think there's uh regimented artist, and if that makes sense to you, like a left brain artist and a right brain artist. And I think for like the ones who like designing and um designing organized or grids or um doing things like the correct way or whatever, I think these programs are intuitive for them for the artists who like me. I love painting and swooshing and breaking the box and pulling things out and da-da-da. I think sometimes these programs can be once you learn them, you're golden, but before you learn them, there is a huge, huge, huge learning curve, and I think that that can be a barrier to the swooshy artist who needs to learn the program. I think Canva for me has been it for any like beginners out there who are on the verge of giving up on their design dream because a Adobe is so complicated. I think Canva is built more with that uh swooshy artist in mind, something to consider, something to consider. Um, however, for branding logo design, I always always create an Adobe because you can own your artwork, you can create vectors out of nothing, you can make shapes you can't make anywhere else. Like there's it's there you can do things you can't do in Canva on Illustrator. I love Illustrator, but anyway, back in college, I didn't know these programs at all, and I felt like I was learning a foreign language. I was not creating what I wanted to create because I would see an example of something I loved on like Pinterest or somebody's like out in the wild, or I'd see a poster and I'd be like, I want to create something like this, and I would sit down and gear up and like get ready to go, and I could never ever ever make the thing I wanted to make. And I think this is another note I want to make. I think when you're trying to create something like something else, like I was trying to create these things like things I saw, instead of just being, I'm gonna create this random vision I have, or even crazier than that, just letting the creating do the creating, like letting the project come to life or let the thing come to life. Um so yeah, I I think those projects can sometimes turn out better, but when I was trying to mimic or mirror something I saw, they never turned out as good, obviously, because they're it it it it wasn't of my it it wasn't I was making something that wasn't uh you know. My creation, if that makes sense. So, anyway, but it can be good as a beginning designer to like, hey, I want to try to make this, let me try to make this. I want to try to make that, let me try to make that. Um, fast forward, I finally master the program. We'll have a whole other podcast about the hurdles of self-worth and all that. That you know, with be am I even a good designer? Did I pick the right field? Da da da da. But I passed. I passed the graphic design program and became a pretty good one. I like to think. Became a pretty good designer, um, in spite of all those stories. And I think um then at though at this point, I felt like I was just a little burnt out with graphic design. I had been working at an agency and I felt like I was just kind of like um not putting lipstick on pigs because but I I was putting lipstick on things I didn't know. I didn't know the people who owned this brand, I didn't know the person who owned the pizza shop or the company that sold the what uh t-shirt. Like I didn't know the people, I didn't know the stories, I didn't know why it was important, and I was just creating for people I had never seen before at the agency. And so I was like, ugh, I'm over this. I want to go home. I'm with like so I go home, I'm working for Ingram and Drilaw, and also my parents were like, hey, we could really use the help with like our marketing side. Um, and I was like, Cool, I will totally tackle the marketing side, which was something I hadn't really done before outside of that one postcard. So I come home and I brand Ingram and Drilaw and I give it a logo and the double entendra, go check it out. It is a letter I for Ingram, which is of perfectly weighted scales of justice. Um, I love her. Uh, but I remember like sketching that out and doing like it was fun, it was fun, and it's the double meaning, and it it is cool, and I I wanted the colors to be navy and gold because it was like strong and powerful, and they fight for their clients, and it was like all this stuff. But it was the first time I was designing a brand where I knew I knew the person and I knew the people and I knew how good the company was. And meanwhile, I also see a lot of companies who might not all be that great, but they have great branding, and they're all over billboards and the road and this and that, and I just like you you drive by them all the time. And I was like, if these companies have great branding, and I know my family's company, like I've seen how they treat their clients, I've seen how they've treated. I was in an accident, and I thought, like, oh, they're doing all these extra steps and da-da-da-da-da, because I'm their daughter, and then I work when working there, I see them treat every single client with this like same meticulous detail and go to bat for their clients and really, really fight for them to be heard and tell their story, and and um, it's really cool. They're a great company again. Go follow incrementory law, but all this to say, I knew the branding had to be good because I knew the company was good, and that wasn't putting lipstick on a pygmy, that was designing how does make creating a design to showcase how great the company actually was, and I always say this like people say don't judge a book by its cover, but if you it so don't judge a business by the logo or don't judge the restaurant by the menu or whatever, but people do people do judge a book by its cover, and so what I say to that is if you have a good book, if you wrote a freaking amazing book, if you have an amazing business, get a good cover, like get a good cover, don't let somebody else with like a shit book or a worse company like get the client or help the person because your brand or your business or your book didn't have a good cover. Um, so invest in the good logo, invest in the good brand, invest in the visual imagery, and I I think that is what marketing is all about. And I think it just gets washed out and like gotta hit the target audience and gotta make sales and gotta get ROI and da-da-da. Well, what a target audience is for anybody who's listening to this who's like, we've all had those conversations before. We all try to hit our target audience. What a target audience is, is a person you can help. That is what I believe in my heart of hearts. A target audience is a person that you are meant to help. And if you do not reach them, you cannot help them. And that is what marketing is to me. Um, so anyway, I did my family's branding for Ingram and Dre Law, and then word got out that I knew how to work these programs now, and everybody told, everybody, told everybody, and I was doing my friends' moms, brothers, uncles, logos for every business in town, and it just was so fun, and it started snowballing, and I was like, you know what, I gotta get paid for this, I gotta make a business account. So my mom went with me, and we opened a business account for K Coastal Designs, comma LLC. It was so fun, and I just my mom was a big through line through me start for me starting this company because she was like, Y'all come with you, y'all go, yeah, you should do this, da-da-da. But the really the main reason I started this company was because I was um doing for Ingram Venture Law, I was doing the social media, and I saw this is so crazy that this is part of the origin story, but it is. So I saw this. Um, I we had a social media calendar, obviously, of the days of old where it's like national cookie day, national give a friend a hug day, like all these months. That that used to be like what social media was about. Um, obviously it's changed a lot, and we'll have a whole episode about that. But at the time it was like that. So I'm looking through this calendar and I'm like, okay, what's happening this week? And I see it's International Women's Day, March 8th, and I'm like, oh my god. And I want to preface this with like now, or at least now in the communities I'm in now. International Women's Day is a freaking Super Bowl. It's amazing, it's awesome, it's epic. But I want to preface this with I didn't know that March 8th was International Women's Day all these like five or six, uh, it might be five years ago. I didn't I didn't know it was a thing, and I never in elementary school we never celebrated International Women's Day. In college, I didn't know it was International Women's Day. We I wasn't I I didn't know this was part of the culture, and um I think that is in other cultures in European cultures, International Women's Day is something that everybody grew up with, and it was like it's been it's globally recognized, and it was a day you brought the matriarch and your sisters and your mother, you would bring flowers, and I'd like I've talked to people who grew up in other countries, and International Women's Day seems to have been more of a thing in other countries. So for me to not know about International Women's Day is crazy because I was like, again, I was the one who was like rah-rah girls' groups in high school and college, and I did this whole photography project in art school about what it means to be a feminist. And I like I the fact that I did not know five years ago that International Women's Day was a thing is insane. So I go and I'm like, hey, this is no national cookie day, this is International Women's Day. I was like, guys, we should have an event for Ingramandry Law. And my mom is like, wait, you should have an event and for K Coastal, and we will be like a sponsor for the event. And I was like, wait, that's so cool. And I was like, but how do I invite people to the event? Like, like, this is where we are at. Like, just to give this, like now I have this podcast, I I'm like shameless now. But at the time I I hadn't had, I didn't have an Instagram or a Facebook to promote my company because I it was just this like underground network of people referring me to their aunts and uncles. Like, I didn't know it was just insane. You don't know what you don't know. So, like, if you're starting a business now and you're like, where do I freaking begin? Like, let it unfold and let yourself figure it out because you'll look back at that innocent time when you didn't know you needed an Instagram and a Facebook for your business, and you'll be like, Wow, that's so crazy. Because now I feel like I live on those platforms. But anyway, so so we do this. That is the reason why I started K Coastal Design, so that I could create an event on Facebook and so I could promote it on Instagram, and and then I just started sharing the things I was making, and again it snowballed even further, and then um COVID hit, and the next year for International Women's Day, I didn't want to do like a full in-person event because or at least one as big as the one before, because I was like, I don't, it's like we can't do a super spreader event, like I don't want people to I want people to be safe, and so instead I reached out to like um I reached out to a local brewery and I asked if I could paint a mural on their garage. And now I had done one mural and it was in my townhouse because I saw a friend, also named Kaylin, who and I know you're listening, girl, uh, but I um saw a friend had a mural painted in her house, and I was like, Whoa, this is so cool! And she was like renting, and I was like, You can paint on your wall, like you can just do that, and she was like, Yeah, and so then I went home and immediately did it on mine, and I was like, ah, and I was like, Oh my god, appreciation on the townhouse, let's go! And so, so I painted this mural. Then so I confidently go up to this business that I'm like, hey, I want to paint this mural for the month of March. You can take it down after March, but I want to paint a mural that says she believed she could, so she did. And the company was like, Yeah, go for it, heck yeah. And so we I painted it on the garage and it backs up right in Danita and it goes right up to the Pinellas Trail. And so I still get tagged in it sometimes. People will be like running or jogging on the Pinellas Trail, and they'll see it. And it's such like a rally cry for I think women who are like doing the damn thing, and so that was so awesome. They loved it so much, people loved it so much, they were like, hey, can we leave it up? Because I was gonna come back and paint over it like in white or something. I can't believe that. And I was like, Yeah, you can keep it up. I had to do like another coat so that because I had painted it to be like a temporary installation, and I was like, let me just seal it a couple more times, but then yeah, for sure, you can keep it up. So I um so I uh painted this mural that says she believed she could, so she did, and then everybody was like, paint mine, paint mine, paint my business, paint my nursery, paint my and it just became this like other fun snowball thing. And so, so I'm painting, I'm doing branding, I'm logo design, all this stuff. I'm like just just putting art out into the world, and it feels so fun and cool. And these mural projects, though, like I was doing all the branding and logo design at night and on weekends while I worked at Ingram Injury Law, but I couldn't like these murals I had to paint in the daytime, and I had to like make sure there was light, and the weekends everybody was you know, not at their office, or it was busy public locations, so I was like, Okay, and so I went to my mom and I was like, Hey, I think I need to work part-time, and she was like, I think you should actually take the leap and go full-time, and that was the biggest, like having my mom's encouragement on that was like the most beautiful thing because it was like she believed in me so much that she was like, go and fly. So that was really cool. And we're we're like we were like work besties, like we did our coffee every morning and all this. So for her to just say go full send it, girl, that meant the world to me. Um, now I do I also work part-time at Ingram and Dr Law now, so we've come full circle, and it's it's it's fun to be back in uh in um like my sister's there, my brothers that like we it's it's a big family thing, so it's fun to be back and doing it um in a way that's really really cool. But at that time, I just I can't leave this part of the conversation without saying that that meant so much to me. So I go off on my own, I'm doing my own thing for a while, and then I meet um my business partner um at the time. So her name is Alicia Silcox, and we started um referring a lot to each other. She's a web designer, I'm a brand designer, and so if after someone would work with me, I'd send them to get a website with Alicia, and if they went to her for a website and needed a brand, she would send them my way. So after a while, clients were like, girls, just start your own thing together, and we did. So we formed Hang 10 Creative Agency, which is still around. Alicia is running the company now, solo. I'm so proud of her, and um, she is rocking it. And I just recently we had been in business for three almost three and a half years, because we started, I believe, in October of 2022, and we got to create. We have created, and Hing Ten is still creating some amazing stuff for some amazing people. And I met some of some of my best friends now, our clients. Uh like I honestly, that's not that's not new. I've I if you're a client, you're a friend. If you're a friend, you're a client. If you're friend, you're family, family, client, all this it everything is the same, everything is the same, and we can it you I this is another thing. I wouldn't keep things in boxes if I unless you want to, but for me, I can't separate family, life, business, duh, it's all the same, it's all me. I talk to my clients the way I talk to my best friends. Like, it's just uh it's more fun that way for me, but do do you? But anyway, so Alicia and I form Hang 10 Creative Agency. It pops off. We win like launch business of the year. We like won best of the bay several years, like we were nominated several years running, and then we ended up winning best branding agency in Tampa Bay for 2025. Hang 10 is actually nominated again this year, so go and vote for them. But um, yeah, it was and is will always be the one of the funnest periods of creation in my life. Um, now I have recently exited the company as of June 2026 to pursue all the desires and itches and dreams and inklings and things I want to do. And Alicia is so supportive. She is such a hype girl, she is a cheerleader through and through, and we just ended our business partnership on a note of pure love for what we're both creating, the lives we were both creating. I'm so proud of her, I'm so proud of what she's creating, and we just want to always be each other's cheerleaders. And um, I am starting this chapter of my life. So I am currently in this chapter. So if you're catching me now, this is where I'm at right now, where I want to lean into speaking, I want to lean into this podcast, I want to lean into my brand strategy clients and my brand design clients and my the author side and all the like there's so many other pieces I want to lean into, and I just need time to lean in. And I think if you are an entrepreneur in any capacity, a business owner, a dreamer, if you like have these desires and itches and inklings to do more, um, and to if you have an idea you want to create or a business you want to create or something, like I call it because it happens to me every other day. I'll it happens, it happens to me a lot. And I think if you have these dreams and desires, I call it when you getting itchy, like getting itchy. And um I talked about it to Alicia one time, and I was talking about it in a way of like, uh, I don't know why, like, I just can't help but get itchy, and I want to do something something bigger or more, or this or that. And I was like kind of getting frustrated with it, and she was like, Caelan, don't ever, ever, ever apologize for getting itchy or getting these ideas because she's like, that's what created Hang 10, and that's what that's how you create everything you put into the world and into your life. And I was like, I needed to hear that, that was really cool, so thank you for saying that. But it just felt very much like I love that. Don't get angry at the part of you that creates. So I am now creating, I'm creating this podcast, I'm creating speaking opportunities and engagements and a coaching program and like all these brand workshops and stuff I want to do, and I'm just allowing myself to dream unlimited, dream, dream un un untapped and uncapped, like just just go because again, like I said on the podcast before, I just recently spoke about my grandpa passed away, and I think I think you have to live while you're here, and so I'm so excited for this next chapter and what I am building. I want to talk about two other things real quick, which um happened all in the fold of this, but I have a beautiful loving children's book called When Being Blew Through. This is a big piece of the work I do now, and a big reason I am doing what I do now is because I had this whole self-worth journey. So I really had to do a lot of work around um around stepping into the person I am now and the person the where I want to go. And I think with art and with artists, you can sometimes tie your worth to the thing you're creating, you can tie your worth to the grade you got on the report card or the painting that's on the fridge or what whatever accomplishment you you have recently done. And it if you go back to my last episode, Ambi and I actually talk about that at length. But but I think this I there was a point in my life, about like three years ago, where I, you know, left the relationship I was in, and I made some moves in my life and I made some changes, and I just was like, I am going to live for me, I'm going to live for me. This is my life, this is my life, and I'm going to choose to live it for me. And it's I it sounds selfish, but it is the most selfless thing you can do because if you are showing up trying to perform for other people or trying to be better or do better or whatever for other people, you it that is an that is inauthentic, and and it also drains you. You end up dreading it, you end up hating them, and then it's just like you it doesn't do anybody any good if you don't live for you. So it can be the most selfless act to live for you, and I think that can be confusing a lot of times. It's like, oh well, living for me would be selfish. It's like, no, no, no, this is the most selfless act you can make. Um, so I had to really, I didn't just like decide that overnight. I had to do a lot of work around that, and I'm still doing a lot of work around that, and there will be times when I figure it out and I'm like, I'm good, I got this, I got it for life. There is never ever ever a point where you got it for life. Like you, and there shouldn't be, there shouldn't be because hopefully you evolve just like your brand, just like your business, just like everything else in your life. Hopefully, you evolve again and again and again and again. And hopefully you want to just become different and better and change and grow your whole entire life. I even uh we just got our house to a place where I like really, really, really love it. Like I love the house we live in, and I just got rid of all my old, like dark, like heavy furniture that made the place look like antique a little bit, and we changed it to this like light, bright, like uh wood and um paint and all this stuff that's like lighter and airier, and I just like I love it so much, but I know I'm gonna want to switch things around, Eric. Eric, if you're listening to this, get ready, baby. We're gonna but growing up, even I remember growing up, I would always um my mom would come into the room and I'd be like pushing my bed across the room because I just I needed like a change or a switch up or a mix up. So I think like you even when you have things where you really want them, you can still want them to grow and get better and evolve and expand. And I think that that's the cool part about the journey. Wow, I just solved my question from earlier about finding joy in the journey. Like, this is all part of the journey, this is all part of the process. Wow, I can now I can retire because I got it all figured out. No, I could never, I can never, I can never figure it all out. And one thing uh Abraham Hick. Always says she is a podcast and um not a uh she's a uh metaphysical, cool spiritual speaker, and I don't even know how to describe you have to look her up. She is amazing. But she always says this one thing, she's like, You can't get it wrong, and you can't get it done. And I love that because I think we go through life thinking like we gotta get it done and we gotta get it right. And it's like you can't do either of those things. You're always gonna be evolving and you can't get it wrong. If you're par like, if you're paralyzed by making the wrong decision, and if you're like, oh, what if I do this or what if I do that, then I get it wrong and da-da-da. It's like no matter what you decide, you made the right decision because that is the decision you made, and that's good, that's so good, and then you can just free yourself to live and to go and be and and live in this world without the the hesitation all the time because hesitation can be exhausting. So, all this to say, you can't get it wrong, you can't get it done, and hopefully, you always, always, always evolve. So, um, I have been doing a lot of work around that therapy, a lot of self-help books. I am like a podcast junkie. Like, I love that, like, I don't really watch t too much TV anymore. I'm just always um, I don't really watch a lot of TV. I'm always just listening and walking and do it, like, and if I do watch TV or if I do read books, they kind of gotta be like positive vibes because I think like empathetically you can kind of absorb what's around you. So I try to read and absorb really great things. Um, so anyway, that has been a journey though, but I that started in 2019. Before that, I I didn't care what I absorbed or learned or read or listened to, but I in 2019 I started eating really well, and I started listening to things I wanted to listen to in my life, and I I I just made a very big focus on my my life in 2019, so that kind of started the um unraveling, if you will, uh of the past life and started the building of this new life and this current life, so and not that one or the other is bad. It it's I think I have this like new forgiveness and just love for every version of myself there ever was, and I I look back at these times and I love her, I love every decision she's made. I've but like I I can't knock her for any of it, and it's really a cool spot to be because I would say I haven't always thought that way, so that's been a cool part of this journey and figuring out. Um, but anyway, during this time, my mom and I were talking, and we were learning about all this stuff, and we were listening to Eckhart Tall, the power of now, and and I was listening to some Abraham Hicks back then, and I was like kind of learning about this power of positive thinking and this presence and living in the now. I was learning about all these concepts for the first time. And so me and my mom were doing this journey deep dive together, and we were like, Man, how do you even explain the concept of being, being the word being, the concept of being, your inner being, your inner knowing, your like God presence. Like, how do you explain that to a kid? And I think ironically, we don't have to explain it to kids. I think kids get it, and I think it's us adults who had it and then forgot it and then have to find it back. And so we had talked about flirted with this idea of like writing a children's book, but how do we explain it? And blah blah blah blah blah. Then I it was my mom's like birthday weekend. I was meeting her to go to lunch, and like I was meeting her to go to lunch, and I'll do a whole podcast episode about this too, because it really is really cool and a really long story. But I was uh I was meeting my mom for lunch and I was walking my dog and I had to fill up my sister's car with gas, and I saw on the there's like all these things I had to do that like before I went to lunch, and I was like, I'm not gonna make it in time, or I'm running a little bit behind, or I'm running late. And um, so there's all this stuff I had to do, and I was on my walk and I saw this snail walk like walking. I saw this snail on the sidewalk, just like slurping along. And um I had been on my walk for like 40 minutes or so um with all the other things I had to do. So I've been on my walk for a while, and I was like, man, I've walked probably like at least a mile, and this snail has made it because I circled back on my walk, and I was like, this snail has made it like all but a foot. And it was like so crazy to me because I was like, what if this snail has like stuff she has to do today? Like, what if she's busy and stressed? And what if she has to like I have to fill my car up with gas? What if she has to like get her shell waxed or fill up with slime? And I I started thinking about this, and I I was like cracking myself up, and I was like, wait, this is so good, this is juice, this is so gold. Like, how do what do I do with this? So I went home and again I had all this stuff to do, and I think when you can like put all the things you have to do on like allow yourself time to create because what happened next was my brain just like dumped and I just like poured out this like whole book, and I kid you not, I wrote it in like an hour. Oh my god, and then I I if the book is called When Being Blew Through, and it's about this breeze, like this wind breeze that blows through earth, and her name is being and she helps people and creatures and animal like she helps everybody realize that they are enough exactly as they are, that they are perfect, that their being is enough, that what they are doing is enough. And so I wrote this and I talk about Sister Snail and and breeze, the being, the breeze blows through, and she finds Mr. Wave in the ocean crashing and rushing in and rushing out and crashing and breaking, like all these things that waves do that are honestly sound stressful. So I'm like, what if this wave is like inherently stressed? It's got so much going on, da da da. And then I go Sister Snail, she's got so much to do. Being helps all these creatures realize that they're enough. And then a golden retriever, which Sunny is actually in the car right now. If you hear some panting in the background, she is here with me, so say hey girl. But Sunny made it into the book, but then at the end, like being blew on, and before she blew home, she found a young girl feeling scared and alone, and she sits with this girl on a park bench. And I had a bench at like near the townhouse I used to live, and I would just go and sit there. And so I I didn't realize it, but obviously I was the girl, and so my mom, I got that's as far as I got before lunch, and then me and my mom and my sister, Megan, we like finished writing this book over lunch, and we were like over guac and chips, and we were crying and laughing and doing this whole thing, and we wrote this whole thing, the end of the book, and like being helps this girl, and I think it's very fitting that I needed. I had their help writing the end of this book because it was the advice to the girl, it was the advice to me, and I was like, time-wise, like I just didn't get it done, but I think spiritually it had to be with the help of two of the women I love the most, so it was really a really special thing. Then Kay, and then I gave it to my mom, and she's like, Caitlin, this is like you need to publish this, and I was like, What? And I was like, uh no, no, it's just a fun little thing. And she was like, Kaylin, this is good, this is about you, this is great. And so, again, my mom just has always been the one like encouraging me to step into the person I am, and I love her for it. I love her for it. Thank you, mom, if you're listening. Um but all this to say, I published the book, I wrote another children's book, like I leaned into this, but it's like I've always wanted to write a book, and I've always wanted to write a book about branding, which which I will, baby. But but I've always wanted to write the book that's gonna get me more clients and that's gonna get the and it's like the book that came out of me, the book that truly in my heart of hearts, I believe God wrote, um, the universe wrote, like, I didn't write this book. I in my heart of hearts, it this thing came out. I didn't know how to illustrate, but I really wanted to illustrate it. So I I got I Googled like how to watercolor and I got paints at Walmart. Like, I I literally just like got it done and scanned it in and then made it into a book, and then and you can publish, you can publish on Amazon. I use um a local publishing company, but if you want to publish a book, you can publish a book on Amazon KDP tomorrow. Like, we live in a world right now where there's really no excuse not to create if you have the tools, and I think we have the most tools we've ever had right now. I think that is a fair statement to say. So if you have a dream, an itch, or desire, there is not it's not a tool or technical thing that is holding you back. It is if something is holding you back, I want you to just love looking inward for a second and asking, gently asking yourself like, could this be me? Could this be me holding myself back? Not that it's hard to figure out Amazon KDP, there's a YouTube video for that. Not that it's hard to figure out how to make a podcast. You can look that up on TikTok. Like, not that there's tools, but what is holding me back? Is it me like jacking my feet on it as me? But do look at yourself and look inward, but don't do it in a way that's going to beat you up or put you down because I think, and that's something I still I still uh work with and and you know talk about and piece apart in therapy. I I love therapy because I love figuring out why my brain works the way it does, and I've stopped, I've really tried to stop beating myself up for thinking the way I think, and being like, oh well, I I procrastinate and I don't get stuff done in time. It's like that is also half the magic, baby. I come up with the coolest shit in the 11th hour, and I just I will be so proud of that. Like, that is the way my brain works, and so it's like the figuring out the reason you are the way you are can be fun. Don't beat yourself up about it, don't be mad at yourself for for not having done the thing yet, or for dragging your feet. There is a sure reason why you have been dragging your feet because maybe it wasn't meant to happen back then, but maybe it's meant to happen now. So it can be very cool to look at things through a gentle loving lens like you would look at a child learning to walk. You wouldn't say, get up, bitch. You like you fell again. No, you would say, Oh my gosh, let's try again. I love you. And um, for me, you wouldn't even say let's try again. You would say, I love you, I love you. You could do no wrong, and I love you. And I think if we look at ourselves through that lens, it can be so freeing and liberating and fun. So I hope that whatever you're building, whatever you're doing, whatever you're creating, or if you have a dream or a desire to create or build or do something, that I hope you do it in this new way. And I hope if there's something in your life, this can be for personal or business, but I hope if there's something in your life that you feel is stuck, that you are like, I don't know why, but I can't go live on Instagram, or I don't know why, but I can't make that business post, or I don't know why, but my relationships always turn out like this, or what like whatever it is in personal or business, lovingly look at you, like lovingly look at yourself because that has been something, and I still it's not I I want to use the word struggle, but I it's not a struggle, it's a joy to figure it out, and I still go through that too now, where I'll like beat myself up for not turning something to be positive or optimal or like whatever, and it's sometimes you just have to give yourself a hug, and that's okay too. So, like, look at yourself in a loving way, ask could this be me? Could this be me lovingly, and then move, move, move, move on, move forward, do something, create something, create something and throw it away, create something and put it on your fridge, create like it doesn't, it's not precious, it's fun. Go back to the episode of fun and easy and um give that one a listen. But I just like this life can be fun, this life can be easy, um, this life can be beautiful, and I feel like this past couple years, honestly, these last seven years since 2019, I've been really leaning into that and unpacking that. And I love the girl before who who didn't know what she didn't know, and I love the girl now who I don't know what I don't know, and I'm excited to figure it out and learn and and grow along with her. Um, so thank you for listening. Um, I know this was a longer one, but I got a lot to say, baby. So if you loved this podcast, if you want to share it with a friend, if you want to share it with the world or anybody, like I would love you so much. I love you anyway. I say that every time. If we're even listening, whoever's listening to this one now, you are 57 minutes in. You are like invested in this podcast right now. If you loved it, if you loved it more than you can even describe, please share it with somebody you love. Share it on Instagram, share it with your family, friends, lovers, brothers, sisters, everybody, teachers, coworkers, every, everybody, please put this podcast in the hands of somebody who you think it can help. Um, every story, every life is a winding road. I just took you on my wide long winding road, and it's still going. It's still going, and I'm excited for where it goes next. Thank you for investing your time in this podcast with me. I feel so grateful that you, you, and I'm thinking of all the you's. I'm so grateful that you are on the other end of the phone right now, listening to this podcast driving, walking, biking, running, whatever you're doing. Thank you for listening. I love you, and good night.