Meet Holly Skieth Webb

We were lucky to catch up with Holly Skieth Webb recently and have shared our conversation below.

Holly Skieth, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

My road to having confidence in myself and strong self-esteem started at a young age born from struggles. In preschool, I was diagnosed with a neurological disorder called apraxia of speech. I had to practice basic sounds daily for hours and go to speech classes till I graduated the third grade to be able to communicate with those around me, and even then, I struggled to relate to my peers. But through all these struggles, I never forgot what my father told me when I asked him what apraxia meant on the ride home when I was first diagnosed. My father told me that it was just a word that meant that life was going to be harder for me. I would struggle with things that others would find easy. Then he told me a truth that became one of the cornerstone for how I would live my life. He told me that the world would not care that it was hard for me. The world would not slow down and try to understand me or hold my hand and tell me it’s okay. He told me, if I wanted others to understand me, I had to put in the work. If there was something I wanted to learn or do and be successful, the only one who could make it happen was me. I would have to work harder, longer, and keep going no matter how much I struggled until I achieved my goal.

While some say that this conversation is hard or cruel to tell a child, I think it is one of the best things my father ever did for me. My disorder was never allowed to be a crutch for why I couldn’t do something. The word apraxia became just that to me, nothing more than a word. I didn’t let it hold me back from what I wanted to achieve. As my father said I would, I struggled. It was hard for me growing up and not being understood by my teachers and peers. I struggled with particular subjects while I excelled far beyond my peers by grades in others. I heard other children and teachers talk behind my back and to my face. But I always knew that if I wanted to be understood and control my future, it was within me to do it.

As I grew older, I applied this early foundation my father had given me to other things as well. If I failed, it was a learning lesson and I would come at it from a new angle and try again. If I was scared to try something, I realized it was just because it was new and hard right now, but everything is hard till you put the work in. If I was embarrassed, well, I had already spent my life having to learn not to care what others thought when I spoke with an impediment. Pushing through that, I put in so much work that most people today can’t even tell it was ever something I struggled with. I learned that embarrassment fades in the light of final success. I have already overcome what I thought were mountains before. I know I can do it again.

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?

I always knew that I wanted to be involved in art and telling stories from a young age. Over the years, my route for how I thought I would do that shifted as I tried new things until I found animation and fell in love with it. For me, animation opens up the possibility to tell any story I want. I was extremely lucky to be able to go to Savannah’s College of Art and Design and be able to hone and develop my skills as a 3D animator and storyboard artist. And I was unlucky enough to graduate during the writer’s strike in 2023. Despite this hurdle of trying to break into the industry during a volatile time, I don’t plan to let that hold me back from my passion for telling stories. Instead, I am working on my independent short film that focuses on the concept of the old saying, keeping up with the Joneses.

When I’m not working during the day or on my animation, you can usually find me taking a ‘break’ by doing more art and working on my growing Etsy store, NerdSign. NerdSign’s focus is on all the nerdy things I grew up loving, as well as for people working in technical fields to find humorous merchandise to express the love and frustrations they feel in their careers. This store was originally formed because of my frustration from wanting to find stickers for animators and finding the options shockingly limited. So I decided to make them myself and it evolved from there. Starting with just stickers I make myself, currently I am getting samples and working on adding bookmarks, pins, ID badge reels, and lanyards to my listings. So if you consider yourself part of the nerd culture, feel free to stop by and see if you find something you relate to. NerdSign.etsy.com

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?

1. Accept personal responsibility for your own life. No one owes you anything. If you want something, go out there and work for it till you have reached your success. No one else will care about your success more than you, so you are the one who has to make it happen. If you want to help train your mind for this mindset, I recommend you start by listening to motivational speakers like Les Brown, the recording “The Strangest Secret” by Earl Nightingale, and reading books like “Who Moved My Cheese” by Spencer Johnson.

2. Having a good foundation of being able to draw will help you with most artistic skills. If you are just starting to learn to draw, learn first to draw realistically before you learn stylized. Draw from life and references to learn how to break down shapes even if that’s not the style you want to end up in. Doing this lets you understand things like form and how to set rules for your eventual stylization that stay consistent and believable even when cartoony. When you start by learning to draw stylized, you are kind of playing a game of visual telephone. You will miss learning about important details that are needed for the whole picture of what you want to visually express. When I have taught people to draw, I always start here because it’s so important to have a strong foundation. You don’t need to get to hyperrealism levels, but a good foundation in this has helped me in all my artistic endeavors.

3. Don’t be a dick. I learned this lesson as a child from the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie, and again from one of my college professors. He explained that you never know who you will be working with again in the future. A needlessly bad impression you leave on someone can be the difference of you landing a job somewhere and you will never know it. No one wants to work with someone who is a jerk all of the time or even some of the time. No one wants to work with someone that they feel like they have to walk on eggshells around all day. Whereas most people are willing to put in a good word for you if you are someone honest that’s enjoyable to work with. That said, it is important to know there is a difference between being honest and being a dick. A lot of it has to do with how you say things. My grandfather used to tell me, you can say a woman has a face that stops time, or you can say a woman has a face that would stop a clock, it means the same thing, but one leaves you with a friend and the other an enemy.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

Always. For my short film, it is 3D animation and if someone is looking for a project to jump on to help out with to keep their skills tuned up, I could use all the help I can get with the different steps of the pipeline. Vice versa, if someone else is working on a project and needs a 3D character animator, a storyboard artist, or an illustrator, let me know. I would love to meet more people in the community and help out. You can reach me via email at [email protected]

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