We recently connected with Alyssa Ahrens and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Alyssa, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
Developing my confidence and self-esteem in my business took a long time. I started learning calligraphy back in 2017. I taught myself by watching beginner calligraphy tutorials on YouTube. I would practice non-stop and soon after, posted my work on social media. Once the word was out that I ventured into the calligraphy world, I took on a couple of projects, like place cards and table numbers for friends’ events and some event signage for family events. After all of the positive feedback, I decided this was something I wanted to take more seriously and turned this hobby into a business.
In 2019, I took my business in a new direction and started teaching Calligraphy Workshops, partnering with local businesses, restaurants and venues on Long Island. I quickly learned that my passion for calligraphy was teaching it to others! I loved connecting with like-minded creatives and seeing them accomplish every new small goal they had during the class. From holding the calligraphy pen correctly to mastering a basic stroke, it truly gave me so much joy! I taught calligraphy part-time for the next year until Covid shut everything down and unfortunately, had to bring that part of my business to a halt.
During the two-year break from Covid, I wanted to further my knowledge within the business, so I took a course for on-site painting as well as, learned how to engrave. At this point, I was extremely confident in my skills that I was taking the time to practice and perfect. It gave my self-esteem a huge boost. Through the courses and the opening of doors to new calligraphy friends and creatives in the industry, I met my business coach, Rosie Chhun of The Craft Academy. I decided to hire Rosie as my business coach to invest in myself and my business and it was the best decision I have ever made. Investing in The Craft Academy completely transformed and elevated my business.
While I was still teaching calligraphy workshops, I found that my new passion and niche was to become a live event calligrapher and artist. Connecting with people while sharing my art was very important in feeling fulfilled in my business. Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with many major luxury brands, such as, Jo Malone, Beam Suntory, Via Carota and Lululemon for activations. I also love working as a live event artist at weddings and events of all kinds. It is an amazing experience to be the expert in the room! Working in these fast paced and sometimes high stress events, all while performing in front of guests, you need to be able to troubleshoot and problem solve anything that gets thrown your way.
This journey of finding my confidence and self esteem wasn’t an easy road. I think, for me, having the right tools to help guide you and the right practices in place, as well as being out in the field and experiencing all that the job has to offer, helps to put you in the position you need to be at to be your most confident self.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My name is Alyssa Ahrens. I am a wife, a mom of two, and an artist with a focus in Calligraphy, Engraving and Painting.
Naturally, being a creative person, I was always looking for a creative outlet but, as a stay-at-home mom, I needed to find a new hobby that I can easily do at home. At the time, I was seeing so many videos of people writing with beautiful nib pens and ink and became obsessed with the art of calligraphy. It was so satisfying to watch so I decided to pick up some supplies and get to work!
My first challenge with calligraphy was being left-handed. At the time, I couldn’t find many left-handed calligraphers to refer to. After so many years in this calligraphy business, I’ve learned that right-handed calligraphers and left-handed calligraphers have very different ways of doing this work. As a lefty, I quickly found what worked for me and from then on, I practiced nonstop! I loved calligraphy so much that I made it my mission to teach everyone the way I learned, which gave me – sort of a leg up being left-handed! I was able to provide that direct support to lefties who thought they wouldn’t be able to do the craft as easily as right-handed artists.
After years of teaching, I wanted to expand my business into the live event artist market. This is a very niche market in the art world. It requires you to have a higher level of expertise in your craft. In this field, your work must always reflect and align with the high standards of the clientele and brands you’re working with.
Being an on-site event artist is my favorite part of this business. I get to work alongside many luxury brands for brand activations as well as weddings and events to provide an amazing and fun interactive guest experience they will never forget! This line of work can be very intimidating for some due to its fast-paced nature, full performance mode for the duration of the event as well as working with very expensive products, so when you work in this field, you have to not only be experienced but you have to be able to problem solve and work quickly all while maintaining the highest quality of work. Working live in front of guests may not be for everyone but that’s an arena where I thrive and have found success. I’ve met wonderful people through these experiences from all over the world, as well as, made many amazing contacts and partnerships in the industry.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think first and foremost, narrowing down and finding your niche in the art industry helped me immensely. Sometimes as artists, which also falls true to being a stay-at-home mom – we wear many hats. I think, sometimes, we think we can do it all, but we quickly learn that when we say yes to everything and do it all, we burn ourselves out. In the beginning of my calligraphy business journey, I was saying yes to all types of jobs such as signage and day of wedding calligraphy. I was personalizing denim jackets and many other items. I was overbooking myself because I didn’t set boundaries by saying no. I was learning that it wasn’t always fulfilling my needs as an artist and wasn’t sustainable to my business. Once I found my niche to just stick with teaching calligraphy workshops and working as a live event artist, my business flourished and it gave my art an opportunity to shine without the burn out.
The second thing that helped in my journey was to not give up on myself. Being a left-handed calligrapher presented many challenges for me in the beginning. It was a lot of trial and error to find what worked for me. Learning how to hold the pen correctly to get the ink to flow from the nib down to the paper, to holding the paper almost upside down so that I wouldn’t smudge the ink while writing from left to right took a long time to perfect. (People are always amazed to watch and ask me many questions. It’s always a fun talking point during my on-site events!)
The last thing that helped me in my journey was to find a community of like-minded creatives in my field to connect with and share in this same journey. After I joined The Craft Academy, I was directly connected with an entire network of calligraphers locally, as well as around the country. It has been a blessing to work alongside some of these amazing creatives. We talk daily. We’re able to hold each other accountable. We can ask any questions. We sometimes get to work together at the same events, which is always so much fun! We give honest feedback to each other and are always there to lift each other up! It truly is community over competition, and I am so grateful to have them all in my corner!
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
Growing up I have watched how hard my mom worked to raise my brother and I. She was a single mom, who worked a full-time job while also attending college to complete her bachelor’s and master’s Degrees. She did this all to better our lives and I have always admired her for her perseverance and selflessness. She taught me that you can be a great mom and still go after your dreams and passions.
I am also extremely grateful for my step dad who has given me some of the best business advice over the years. He’s been in the food and beverage industry for over thirty years and owns a consulting business. I’ve seen how hard he works and how he always puts his heart and soul into his work. It shines through in his work and that encourages me to do the same. I’ve learned so much from him over the years and he’s really instilled in me how to value my work as an artist and that sometimes it’s okay to turn down jobs that aren’t my ideal clientele.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/alyssamahrens
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alyssamahrens/
Image Credits
Eric Vitale with Eric Vitale Photography
Siobhan Becker with Photos by Siobhan
Brittany Robey with Britt Robey Photography
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
