Meet Brett Barney

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brett Barney. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brett below.

Brett, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
My optimism comes from going through life experiences that may seem difficult or painful at the time. After finding my way through a challenge, then accepting the change and getting to the other side of the struggle, I have learned that I always seem to “fall forward” into a situation that is better and more amazing than anything I could have foreseen. After enough of these awesome landings, I have come to look forward to the fresh start that results from these speed bumps in life, and focus less on the difficulty.

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?
Twenty years ago, I took the reins to lead American Fine Arts Foundry into the next phase of its growth. This is a second career for me. The first half was nearly 20 years in hi-tech and living smack dab in the middle of Silicon Valley. It was exciting times and I got to travel the world and work with interesting people, but something was always missing. I grew up as a creator and maker, and after twenty years of ignoring my soul, I set the intention to honor my longing for creativity and explore new avenues. It took a few false starts, but I ultimately stumbled into the art foundry and found my next chapter. It’s a difficult, detail-oriented business, that takes incredible coordination with clients and team members. I inherited an extremely talented team in need of leadership and gave them some guiding principles to work with. First and foremost, quality wins out over everything else. Do the best you can and commit to always be improving your talent and skills. Treat customers and co-workers with respect. I believe people working from a higher place of well-being and intention invest more of themselves into the projects and produce more beautiful work. Be responsive to customers and over-communicate up front so everyone is working together and has matching expectations. Operate with integrity and don’t be afraid of difficult conversations.

As a team we strive on overcoming challenges. The very nature of working with cutting edge artists requires us to push ourselves to think and work differently. In the end, these challenges are the best way to strengthen the team and increase our offerings for clients.

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?
My career path has meandered from one industry to another for 35 years. Three things that have helped me along the way are, 1) lean into opportunities to learn a new skill or subject. 2) failure is a mindset and is not real. You will learn more from your mistakes than your successes, so always be willing to take calculated risks. 3) Seek counsel from those that have come before you. Every great athlete has a coach. Find one and listen to them. You will be amazed at just how willing people are to help the next generation if you show up curious, listen, and make the effort to implement.

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
As our business evolves toward larger scale projects, our ideal client is an artist who values collaboration with us as the fabricator. There are many decisions that need to be worked through in large projects and often times we are faced with trade-offs. Our ideal clients understand we need to partner throughout the process and are willing to wrestle with these challenges so we can achieve the desired end result.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Images all taken by me

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