We were lucky to catch up with Jennifer Bloomfield recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jennifer, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
The people who have pushed me to improve, send the message that I am capable of more. That single experience of being encouraged to reach an even greater goal is truly the most empowering message I could ask for. I grew up with parents, bosses & coaches all believing in me enough that they sent me that same message in every aspect. “Push harder.” “Smile more.” “Go faster” “You can do better” “Dig deeper” “That wasn’t good enough.” Maybe the delivery hurt to hear at times, but it always meant that they believed in me more. It wasn’t until recently that I experienced what it feels like to have work out coaches appease me & set the bar below my own expectations. That was the first I felt the sting of what it’s like to feel valueless. Though it was a painful experience, these whispers of worthlessness were drowned out by my lifetime of screaming support & empowerment. I am so thankful for even the angriest yells when I had fallen short, as they are now heard as someone caring and believing in me. I do believe that all those people who pushed me and mentored me, were the reason I have the resilience that I do. They taught me that I can believe in myself & to never give up.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself, your business and how it came about?
The path of my Art by Bloomy business has been a creative exploration in itself. You will see in this quick summary of its history, that each step seemed to take me through a new doorway. I should also mention art was not what I had intended as my career choice. I had been a very passionate middle school math teacher and swim coach. With a degree in psychology and Master’s in education, I was planning to use these subjects as tools to guide my students to feeling more personally empowered. That plan took a turn 15 years in, when I had to take a medical leave due to health issues. Suddenly, I was home without a purpose, way too much free time & mental energy. To address these feelings, I started painting again. I was pleasantly surprised by the supportive feedback I received regarding my paintings. With each new piece, the encouragement spoke louder & soon I found myself re-considering an old forgotten dream of becoming an artist. As much as I enjoyed it, there was a lack of a greater purpose, so I wasn’t fully committed to going that direction. When covid hit, I was able to find meaningful purpose in the mundane task of sewing hundreds of masks to donate to healthcare workers. As I slowly burned out from the repetitive task, I finally took a friend’s advice and printed my paintings on the fabric used to sew the masks & started selling them in an Art by Bloomy Etsy shop & a couple surf shops. Someone who bought a mask asked if I also printed my art on trucker hats. That amazing suggestion was the beginning of a whole new chapter in the Art by Bloomy business. Shortly after the Art by Bloomy Etsy shop was stocked with tote bags, beach towels, table coasters, neck ties as well as other beach accessories & home decor items. I was having a blast designing the layouts for the templates and creating ads for Art by Bloomy Instagram. Around the same time, another friend motivated me to look into the Art by Bloomy as a domain name just in case I ever started an official business. Soon after, I made a website. Each new suggestion took me further down a path I hadn’t really envisioned but the excitement of trying something new and the joy of creating kept walking me further down it. All along I thought I would go back to teaching, until the day came that the school district asked me to decide if I would return. I found myself struggling. While I missed feeling purpose when working with students, the stress of the job was still a concern. Though it felt absurd to leave a career that I had worked so hard to get, I realized I was almost reborn with my current tasks and challenges, so I took the final leap and announced on my Instagram my decision to leave teaching & commit to becoming a full-time artist & businesswoman. THAT DAY, the community showed support in the most unexpected ways as I was offered the opportunity to paint a mural, design a couple logos and a t-shirt design. What an overwhelmingly euphoric and scary (I had never painted a mural before) time! And I said “yes” to everything. I researched, tried, screwed up and eventually succeeded at completing all the projects offered. I am finding the challenge in that cycle of discovering solutions to be an exciting element in my business. Work is rarely mundane & I feel so lucky for this path I am on, as I continue to discover the direction of the Bloomy business.
Great! Thank you. What would you say helped the success of your business?
Some things that I have realized benefited the Bloomy business relate to marketing, taking chances, organizational skills and customer service. I noticed finding fun ways to market my business was initially a greater focus than making money. (Possibly I was okay with this because I had heard it is rare to make money the first couple years of a new business.) I still don’t make much money on my products, but they are a great way to get my art ‘out there’. The murals are great advertisements as well. I find it is important to feel okay with getting a little uncomfortable and eventually I found excitement in pushing my comfort zone, although when Balboa Realty asked me to paint a 1900 square ft mural, I recall feeling a bit unworthy. That being said, I pushed through. And each time after that I danced the edge of my comfort zone, my confidence grew, and the business bloomed a bit more. (Pun intended) I was fortunate for the organizational tools and the customer service skills I learned from my years of lifeguarding and teaching. They helped prepare me to evolve the business. Learning from my mistakes, journaling how to improve from them and always hearing a complaint as a suggestion on how I can do better, were some of the core tools I am grateful I learned from my previous jobs. I sometimes wonder if this path I am on may have started before I ever knew I was on it.
Is there anything you feel is missing or that you would like to do, to further develop your business?
Finding meaningful purpose was the one ingredient still missing from the Bloomy biz, so the day I found myself sitting as a volunteer at a table with Principal Heckert and my friend Dana, planning a mural project, was an incredible time. I remember fighting back tears of joy as we discussed the design for a mural, the community would paint. I felt so honored to be a part of something that was meant to brighten up the campus for the students at Wilson elementary. I was overwhelmed with gratitude that I was asked to be the artist sitting at that table and that I had a chance again to touch children’s lives. It felt like my art path had gone full circle and brought me back to the one missing piece: community. My heart felt full.
Is there anything you would like to share with the readers? Anything they can look forward to happening with your business?
Two years into the Art by Bloomy business and I am delighted to juggle the business, finance, marketing, creating, designing, painting, and continually looking to find special opportunities for different ways I can help in the community. Some of the fun projects that fulfill this desire that are coming up are: volunteering to work on a float for the Huntington Beach 4th of July parade and working with a woman, teaching her art, in hopes she can find purpose in it. (She has a story that broke my heart.) I will meet her this week for the first time. I will hopefully get a chance to share the outcome of these opportunities on my @artbybloomy Instagram page, for anyone interested in knowing more.
And as for the path of the Art by Bloomy business, I can gratefully say, “I am still figuring it out”, one step at a time.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The 3 most impactful qualities that have helped me on my journey are: patience, creativity, and tenacity. Between being an athlete, lifeguarding and being a middle school teacher, I have really had to develop in these areas as success usually had a delayed response. As an artist trying to please my customers, I have to throw the “ego” out the door and focus on a delayed success of ensuring they love whatever it is I do for them. I honestly take pride in that process. I’d say that I am constantly trying to improve my efficiency & efficacy in achieving the vision of my customers. Taking notes on what worked and how I can be clearer the “next time around” facilitates that process. I would recommend this to any business that isn’t already making a point to learn from their experience and document their new and improved goals.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
Anytime I am feeling overwhelmed, I write and then I communicate. Whether it is a time management issue, a feeling of inadequacy, feelings of potential conflict, or simple exhaustion, those two practices allow me clarity and the ability to find a path forward. Often after I have resolved whatever the issue was, I take time to reflect and write what I learned and make a plan to avoid the situation in the future or how to handle it better.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.artbybloomy.com
- Instagram: @artbybloomy
- Facebook: artbybloomy
- Other: email: artbybloomy@gmail.com
Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/ArtByBloomyStore
Image Credits
Mark Rightmire took the photo of the Wedge mural. Electric Bike Co mural has the photographer credits painted on the mural. I painted the mural based on their photo
