Meet Anne Pierce

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anne Pierce a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Anne, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re very focused on here – improving our ability to make decisions. Everyday, we’re faced with decisions that can impact the future of our careers, businesses, relationships and more and so one of the most impactful areas for personal development, in our view, is decision-making. Can you talk to us about how you developed or improved your decision-making skills?

Learning to make and stick by a decision began as a child when my dad asked my brother and I to choose between an orange or the coin it cost to buy it, I chose the coin and saved it in my penny jar, and I didn’t develop scurvy. Decisions are choices and when organized they help me chart my path and the artistic path our company pursues. As we are a husband-and-wife team my husband’s creative works are fundamental to this process.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

My work is an eclectic mix of creative and technical writing with a generous helping of digital editing, problem solving and bookkeeping. No surprise that I enjoy and have fun writing creatively and developing storylines. I am currently focusing on a fictional realm that my husband Martin and I have named Katydom. While Katydom is fictional the larger-than-life insects and diminutive humans residents are very real bronze sculptures and are now available as limited edition art works. When Martin sculpts a new piece my creative writing kicks in and I start to imagine and write about what defines the piece. Recently we began working with Maria Ramirez-Adams, a talented Los Angeles filmmaker who enjoys making short documentaries and who has just completed a short film about Katydom and its inhabitants.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Learning that art for art’s sake is not a good strategy unless you plan on having a day job to support your art. I am creative but recognize that my time is equally well spent focusing on the business. So, while finding suppliers, costing and pricing our work, developing sales markets are neither glamorous or creative tasks they make our artistic work possible.

Choosing which new skills to develop. As a young couple arriving in Los Angeles from England we both felt invigorated and able to do anything we put our minds to.
We started out as furniture makers and began to understand how to upholster, how to take photographs and how to find clients but we were just 2 people. So, we decided to find a good upholster, a good photographer and stick to making furniture and finding clients to sell it to.

Being flexible when adjusting to life challenges. A draining illness meant Martin could no longer handle the weight of the custom furniture we made. We were already casting small cabinet pulls at a local foundry and were learning how to make the patterns, waxes and molds for the foundry. The illness was the catalyst for a new venture into door hardware and more recently sculpture and Martin meanwhile completely recovered from his illness.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

My English teacher from years 11 to 16 whose passion for literature instilled in me a desire to write. Each week we were asked to write an essay based on a theme she chose and the following week she would read out the best essay. One week my essay was chosen, and this motivated me to improve my writing skills.

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