We were lucky to catch up with Theo Greenbaum recently and have shared our conversation below.
Theo, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
Resilience has been on my mind a lot lately. It’s literally impossible to be an artist without a robust sense of resilience. I guess objectively, every single path in life requires some level of resilience. But there’s something personal about resilience in the art field. Every piece of art is on some level a manifestation of the self, somehow a representation of what beats at the core of the artist. For me personally, my resilience comes out of a form of self-care. I’m advocating for myself. I’m putting my trust and confidence in my pieces that they will cross the bridge between me, the artist, and the hearts of my patrons. I have to believe in what I do, and I have to keep believing in that my work will find its way to the hands of those that appreciate it. At my core, I’m an artist, and I have to do everything I can in my life to honor that reality. Plus, resilience is pretty fierce, isn’t it? Doesn’t it feel so good to persist in the face of opposition, whether the opposition is imposed by one’s own insecurities or from external sources? Life is tough and incredibly chaotic. That’s just an irrefutable fact. The best thing you can do for yourself is be resilient and help yourself back up when you fall. I also have to thank my mom for being the absolute best role model for resiliency. I’m pretty sure the dictionary has a photo of her next to the definition for resilience. Whenever she’s gone through something tough, she says “this isn’t going to be the thing that brings me down,” and I think that’s really powerful. Not allowing a tough situation to be the thing that makes you give up and give in means taking back your own power from that situation. It’s not always easy, but it’s something I really take to heart and try and hold as my words to live by. Thanks, mom!
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
What I do is art! I’ve created an art brand for myself as a platform to draw what I love and bring my art to patrons that share my interests. I came up with the name “Honeypill” because I want all of my art to be sweet like honey. A lot of my art definitely falls under the “kawaii” category – I just love all things cute! I also tend to do a lot of fan art, often for niche and obscure series, because seeing people light up when they see art of their favorite underrepresented fandom is so wholesome.
Right now more than anything, I’m focused on taking my art and business to the next level. I’m brushing up on SEO, I’m pumping out as much art as I can, and I’m trying to travel to as many expos and conventions as I get into! I’m traveling to Matsuricon in Ohio and Animate in Des Moines, Iowa later this year, and I’m hoping I can get even more national events lined up (as well as local events). I’ve finally accepted that yes, I am an artist, and I want to do everything I can in my life to honor that reality.
What I would want folks to know about my brand is that it really is just a solo project, and so everything from my brand aesthetics to my designs to my social networking is really a manifestation of myself. I’m the only employee here. Of course I have some amazing people in my life that help with moral support, conventions, and brainstorming, but at the end of the day, it’s just me. I do all of the designing, drawing, merchandise ordering, handcrafting, budgeting, social networking, online sales – all of it. I think it sometimes surprises people because I have so many designs in different styles and I have so many different mediums, but I guarantee everything is a Theo Original.
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. This skill might be relevant only to other artists that sell their art in person, but feeling confident in my presentation and customer interaction is something I really feel has been impactful. I sell mostly at markets and conventions, and you have to talk a LOT at these types of places. I am naturally a very talkative and extroverted person (which is diametrically opposed from the shy wallflower I was as a kid), and the kind of bombastic friendly energy that naturally springs forth is really great for not only drawing people to my booth, but getting them to stick around. That said, when I talk to someone, making a sale is not the first thing on my mind, but rather just wanting to talk. Tell me about how your day has been! Tell me about your favorite show! Tell me a fun fact you learned! Let’s just chat, and if it leads to a sale, great, and if not, I’m grateful we had a nice chat. I know my methods don’t work for everyone, and I’ve even been told I need to be more aggressive, but that’s not for me. I know what works for me. You need to know what works for you and not be told that you need to change your methods to fit someone else’s idea of how to run your operation. Be flexible, of course. If you realize something isn’t working, change it! Don’t be static and immovable! But be sure that your changes are organic and based on your own evidence and not someone else’s.
2. Create what you want to create. This doesn’t mean completely ignoring trends and popularity…you just have to find a way to mesh it into your own style. Any theme can go with any art style. You don’t have to draw a certain motif or in a certain style if it’s not something you enjoy. Find a way to make it in your own style. For example, I’m not super into a lot of action anime that’s really popular lately, but I also don’t want to completely ignore trends. So, I just found a way to incorporate the characters and themes into my own art style! If you’re an artist, you’ve gotta honor yourself by finding your own style. Inspiration is great, and mimicking other styles is a fantastic way to start – I remember being in high school and trying to accurately redraw panels from my favorite comics. It’s a wonderful way to start building muscle memory. But please, find what style comes to you. The world wants to see what YOU can do, not how well you can mimic something else. You’ll be happier in the long run too!
3. Decision-making is so important for a self-run business without any real deadlines. There’s an old parable about a donkey who is both hungry and thirsty. There’s ample food and water, but the donkey can’t decide what to do first so he ends up dying from hunger and thirst, even though the solutions to both afflictions were right there. If the donkey had just made a choice and gone with it, he would have been fine. How this translates to what I do is, deciding what to work on. I sometimes catch myself trying to write the perfect schedule; trying to figure out what is the actual perfect next step. I end up just thinking in circles, getting overwhelmed, and not getting anything done! Don’t be like the donkey! Just pick an activity and start it. Starting something and getting it done is so much better than wandering around in circles trying to be too perfect.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
I get overwhelmed a lot. Shocking, I’m sure, but the life of an independent artist (not to mention one with a day job) gets to be pretty overwhelming. The strategy that’s been working for me lately might be a bit idiosyncratic…I think about how small a human life is in the grand scheme of the universe. That sounds really negative but hold on! It’s a good thing! My life span is just the tiniest drop in the timeline of the earth, and an even tinier iota in the timeline of the universe. Thinking about the sheer vastness of the universe I live in makes my own issues in life feel so much smaller and manageable. Maybe it’s a bit esoteric, but it somehow always brings me back down to earth and ready to tackle whatever comes next. I also am a big fan of environmental changes when I get too overwhelmed. I like working on projects in different locales just to get fresh perspectives and fresh surroundings. Looking at something that was frustrating me at home in a new environment can make it feel like a new project altogether! My last little tip for feeling overwhelmed is, write everything down. A list of tasks feels so much more overwhelming when it exists only in your mind. Just go write it down and you can stop thinking about trying to remember everything!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://honeypill.square.site
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/honeypill.art
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/honeypill.art
- Other: https://honeypill.wixsite.com/honeypill
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