The 30 Year Brew
Some personal reflections at the start of the journey….
Building a business from scratch is hard. It’s scary, it wanders WAY into the unknown with the comfort zone completely out-of-sight much like the iceberg analogy - no idea what’s under the surface. I can’t decide if adding the element of a personal, life-long passion makes it harder, or easier, so I’ll just say it makes it more intense. My ‘want’ for success has more depth.
I’ve worked in startups now for the last 5+ years and was gifted a total mindshift change to what is possible that I will forever be grateful for. The energy, talent and tenacity were nothing like I had ever seen before. I wasn’t raised with the kinds of entrepreneurial self-belief many of those around me had as their starting point, I didn’t have the intrinsic confidence I saw and was often stunned at what looked like no fear. I had loads of doubt and fear to unpack if I was ever going to make my young person’s dream finally happen.
I graduated with my Fine Arts and Architecture degree a very long time ago and wanted to go into a creative career, either design, art therapy, historic preservation or having my own studio. None of those things happened, I needed to support my young family so made a shift into a long tenure of corporate life that instead gave me the operations, leadership and business acumen I’m very grateful for and will now need. However, the young woman’s desire for creativity always hummed under the surface.
Then this decade brought a combination of big moments, including:
Witnessing the devastation to our arts communities during a pandemic that was not set to support them financially and wondering how much music/theatre/film/art we were missing out on because they had to make other decisions to earn a living like I did 30 years ago;
Watching the rise of AI tools that were being used to replace human creativity in writing, music, television/movies, photography and more - what would this do to our consumer base of supporting artists, would it be a new tool, or a replacement of the human element of the arts?;
Getting the shock of a lifetime at making the final round for Wildlife Photographer of the Year for the London Natural History Museum on my very first submission on some spurring on by my friends and photography mentors, giving me the confidence to realise that it is true, nothing happens if you don’t try, but if you do try…. In other words, don’t self demote. The world does enough of that, I don’t need to add to it.
Ending a streak of pouring all of my soul and energy into other people’s ideas/dreams in my career, feeling I had minimal control or input to steer, which frustrated me and left me feeling I was missing the gift of what I was seeing in the entrepreneurs around me in controlling my own destiny;
Realising when I couldn’t finish a cover letter for an exec role after 3 days, but could write an entire business plan for the idea I had been brewing in 1 day, it was clear where my focus needed to be. I have always believed we do our best work when we are doing what we believe in, and this made it really clear to me on where my focus should be. It was time.
2023 became a gift of self reflection and testing where to spend the next leg of my career and my life. I had some headspace to explore and challenge my own definition of self, thanks to mentors, friends and a new brilliant core of women leaders that all had my back and gently pushed me to go after my own passion now, those long buried creative arts. I had the absolute support and encouragement of my grown children and my husband who not only liked the ideas I had, but added to them and wanted a part in the journey. I’m not sure who is more excited about this next chapter, him or me…. So here we go! I kept taking small steps, and the foundations grew. Every time I thought, “I don’t know how to do this”, I researched, asked questions, and just tried. And it kept building. I hired key partnering roles in accounting, marketing, legal to advise me. I chose those that I felt were scrappy like me and would grow with me.
FINALLY, unbelievably (to me), I’m ready to launch. In 6+ months from scratch to go. It felt like it took forever, but maybe that is because mentally I was including the last 30 years of planning. In reality, I think that is super fast. I’m starting with the MVP (minimal viable product), and will iterate from here with the thousands of ideas I have. This is only step one, the future dream is huge, but I’m well on the drive now. I want to provide an environment that nurtures the arts - celebrates them, helps people find their inner artist, financially supports and educates artists, and exposes us all to what I think is the basis of language and love, self expression through art. All kinds of art.
So, if you are still reading this, you are either one of the members of that network above, or maybe you agree in building a dream or the arts. Thank you. Follow along if you’d like to see where it goes. I welcome all ideas and voices of support. In those dark days of doubt, I always go back to the words and love of my network. I still have the journal my Cognizant teams wrote in when I left, the notes I got from the brilliant Babylonians and Kry/Livi peers and I do read them all when I need a boost. You have made this happen, and for that, I am eternally grateful.
Oh, and to my yet to be hired future team, I’m so excited to find you, bring the dream together with you, and do something really special. After this 30 year brew, I’m ready…. Let’s Grind.
Trish
Founder/Owner/Director
Art & Grind LTD