Meet Zach Ray

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

Zach , 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?

What is optimism? hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something.

I have always been a very optimistic person! I find that being an artist forces you to become optimistic about all things in life! Truly, they go hand in hand with one another. You cannot be hopeful and confident about the future if you don’t have the passion or the push driving you to try! This life is limitless and it is up to us to show up for ourselves and do the work! The work never comes without passion driving you to bring that outcome to life. Once you have a passion under your belt the work won’t feel like work and the want to bring new things to life will become easier and you will soon be tapped into the moment of what it is you have in mind. Optimism can be applied to many avenues, I have found that staying optimistic leaves room for what’s meant to happen to happen, its a belief. You have to believe it is going to work or chances are your mindset may be the one thing unaligned and there for it is less likely to come to fruition. When you believe deeply in something and can almost see it right in front you is when optimism really starts to take place. It starts with a thought, then you must fully engulf yourself in that thought in order to shape it into steps and that is when the work part comes into play when you have to act on the steps to bring whatever you have in mind to life. Optimism is the second step after the thought. it is the invisible action, that is more or less an internal action, you are putting all your heart and energy into believing it will come to life the way you envisioned it! This is how you too can become optimistic with all things in your life! It all starts with believing and before you know it… the believing will turn into a reality as long as you are staying optimistic and doing the work to give life to your vision. Anything you put your mind to, you can do!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

My name is Zach Ray. Born and raised in Colorado, nature has always spoken to me in ways that words could never capture. From a young age, I discovered that when I put pen to paper, I could finally express the unique visions my mind created from the world around me. Just like how a child sees faces in the clouds, I see faces in everything—each object revealing multiple expressions depending on the light and shadows.
Art has always been my guiding force, a voice within me that steers me toward creativity. The process of imagining something and then bringing it to life is a passion I’ve nurtured since childhood. Internal Bakery is the manifestation of this lifelong dream—a space where I can share my art and imagination, inspiring others to explore and connect with the creative power within themselves.

As I have gone out into the world to share about my voice and my Internal Bakery, I am learning we all have this tool, this fun place inside of us. We just have to understand ourselves so we can connect to these parts of ourselves that allow for dreaming, play, laughter and creativity. We must listen to our hearts and connect to the voice within. We have all we need within ourselves, it is up to us to discover what that thing is that makes us feel most alive. For me it is art and connection. I have discovered this and now my life mission has been bringing an image to life from within and getting to wear and share that work so I can inspire others to see the world differently. To know there is a place within us all that we can connect to and begin to bring our dreams and desires to life is the first steps to knowing you too have a gift within to share with the world.

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?

3 Qualities, Skills, or areas of Knowledge that were most impactful in my journey are:

1) Staying the course- We are all made differently, we all see differently, think differently, feel, and so on so forth, This is the beauty of life if you can just tap in for a second! We all come from different places, different backgrounds, we all have different visions of what a successful life looks like. We all have different struggles and different experiences. These factors of life can be a driver of new ideas, new inventions, new visions, new ways to look at things. Stay the course by knowing that what you are experiencing is for the greater good! You are having these experiences so you can tap into your gift within and bring to life something the world needs. It would have never come to fruition if you didn’t stay true to yourself and stay the course to what feels best for you. Tell yourself you are uniquely you for a reason, you may not know why you are going through what you are going through until you go through it! There is usually a lesson in all things life if we stay open to it! Sometimes its those lessons that put us onto the right track, sometimes its the storm you are going through, the chapter you are are pushing through that is going to make you a stronger person and launch you one step closer to that thing!

2) Keep Learning- The world is constantly spinning, constantly in motion and if you are not keeping your mind sharp and your body in shape and your mind uplifted then most likely you are going to drown in this life. Pushing yourself everyday is necessary to just keep striving to be the best version of yourself. The more you learn the better off you will become when you align with your passion. For me, I bounced around several jobs in my younger years, each job allowed for my creative freedom in a different way. I learned all sorts of modalities like screen printing, embroidery, dye sublimation, wide format printing, bindery, vehicle wraps, how to make stickers, how to digitize artwork, how to render, vector and print and press, the list goes on and on. Its crazy looking back to realize that all these things I’ve learned along the way, through the span of my lifetime are all things that have helped me to get even further with my passion. Having endless knowledge about how to bring art to life has expanded my horizons and my possibilities and approaches of how I bring my art to life today. All of the skillsets have set me up for success in my everyday life! Today I use all of those resources to make my business what it is today. thanks to the knowledge of dye sublimation I am able to bring all my work to life in house as well as print and press a majority of all my products in house. Thanks to learning!

3) Stay true to yourself – Possibly the hardest of them all. I would say if you ask me when I am in the middle of bringing a new idea to life I am dead set on the vision and fully and totally believe that it is possible. However once I lean into the world for approval of my idea or invention is where things get tricky! In this world, it can be extremely difficult to stay true to yourself especially as an artist! Someone who sees the world so differently that we approach life in such a different way than most. Naturally we are feelers, and we often operate differently than the average human. This has been a challenge in my own journey, when you stand out as different, the world can sometimes shine an unwanted spotlight on you. Highlighting you as something you are not, this inevitably happens all the time and it is up to you to hold strength in who you are, because only you know who and what drives you. The world will beat you down if you choose to bounce your ideas off of it, Keep your ideas, inventions sacred to your own heart, work on them and bring them to life with your own drive, love, support. Once the idea begins to take shape it will actually attract the people it is meant for, so don’t push anything. Just believe and keep believing and making realistic goals to take your dream or invention step by step the way you see it in your heart. Sometimes the excitement will get the best of you and you will feel the need to share it with everyone and this is where the challenge comes in. You are so high on this vision and bringing it to life that sometimes when you share to someone who isn’t on that same wavelength or isn’t a dreamer or believer of bringing things to life, your idea will plummet, people will judge you, judge the idea, chew it up and spit it right back at you. Often times you will feel drained, how did I go from so much excitement to rock bottom? It is because your ideas and inventions are sacred, they came to you cuz you are the right person to bring that dream or idea to life based on your experiences. So stay true to yourself and know that what is within can be brought to life if you just believe.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

When I first started my brand, I was only selling to friends and family. after having my business up and running for over 4 years I sell at many outdoor markets, a few local collectives and have a platform online. My brand started with stickers, and then I sold all my stickers and took that profit and got apparel and so on so forth! At this point in time my inventory is the most expansive it has ever been! With that said, currently I sell my brand out of Eclectic Co. – an artists collective in Colorado Springs and Old Colorado City. I have been apart of this store for coming on on 4 years and I have done really well. This store has given my brand the boost it needed to grow and expand to where I am today. Markets come to an end in October for me and my goal for the next season will be to get out and find new shops and businesses that are looking to uplift the local entreprenuer. I am seeking out new stores to host my brand! I would love to start seeing the brand expand its market to new cities in Colorado! I have always wanted to get my brand into some of the mountain towns as I feel my brand would resonate well. Some cities I have been thinking about are, Manitou Springs, Dillon, Aspen, Crested Butte, Telluride, Steamboat Springs, Breckenridge, Salida and so many more! I am hoping to create a catalog and make a road trip to each city to embark on finding new opportunities! If you are a shop owner or know a shop that my Colorado inspired art would be a great fit for feel free to reach me at internalbakery@gmail.com. You can check out the brand and the products at www.internalbakery.com. Thanks so much for looking and I hope to cross paths with you in the near future! As always thanks for reading and I hope I inspired you in some way shape or form! Til next time!

Zach

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.internalbakery.com
• Instagram: @internalbakeryco
• Youtube: @internalbakeryco
• Other: Shop IB locally at:
  Eclectic Co. in Colorado Springs & Old Colorado City

Image Credits

@myname.is.dj