We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Khris Keller. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Khris below.
Khris, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
Being raised by an underage, single mother in the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum most assuredly comes along with a fair number of challenges, but each imposition that my mother overcame was a lesson in what it takes to survive. Every difficult moment, hard decision, and sacrifice we went through in my early life was a primer on how to navigate the mercurial humors of fate and, hopefully, come out the other end alive and with some new knowledge or skillset that made the next unadvantageous encounter a little more bearable. Thankfully, my mother was a compassionate and deft mentor that was determined to teach me how I could and should do better. She was insistent on improvement and taught me that the only thing that can actualize a positive shift in one’s living conditions is one’s self. Outside influences and benefits were likely temporary, and the only sure reliance was self-reliance. The best onroad to competent self-reliance was hard work, continual improvement, and an honest desire to resist stagnation and strive for a better life. She taught me that there are few things, outside the law and old money, that can keep you down if you’re determined, creative, and unrelenting. Ultimately, if you want better for yourself then you need to be better.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Growing up poor doesn’t leave you with a lot of hope that you’ll be able to enjoy a good portion of the more trivial, yet more enjoyable and soul-satisfying aspects of life, so I am proud to say that I believe I may have accidentally become an artist — despite my best efforts. Coming from an early mindset focused on survival, I was always concerned with frugality, opportunity, and interpersonal obligations. I assumed that to keep myself satiated, safe, and from being an accomplice to something unscrupulous, it would be best to find an occupation that was likely unsatisfying, but just as likely to be financially rewarding. I went to school for “Business Administration.”
Nothing seemed more dry, but also, nothing seemed more likely to provide the security that I desired in my youth. After a number of years pursuing “business” at my local university, I couldn’t help but partake in a dalliance with the university’s graphic design program. I argued that learning the lingo of these artist types would help me better communicate my marketing direction in whatever foreign dialect it was that they spoke. After immediately succumbing to a love and appreciation for the discipline I graduated with my Bachelor’s in Business Administration, and a graphic design minor.
Immediately after graduating with my business degree, I found a job as a graphic designer. After a few years playing around in a career that I never should have had, learning a lot from people better than me, and allowing myself to legitimize art and design as more than a hobby, I’ve officially become an artist. I’ve been selected for a number of art competitions, started my own brand and print shop (reverendseven.com), and have recently become a part of a local art collective and gallery (Uncanny Valley in Grand Junction, Colorado). Somehow, despite having no initial intention and no belief in the possibility, I am making a full-time living as an artist and designer. Still paying off that business degree, however.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three most important qualities I believe one should have to successfully pursue any endeavors are honest self-reflection, personal accountability, and emotional authenticity. Self-reflection is the cornerstone to improvement and to building up the skillsets and abilities you need to genuinely improve your competency in any field you desire to participate it. By being able to set aside ego, and truly examine your deficiences and strengths, you educate yourself in the blueprints needed to not only be competent, but to be good. Once you have the scaffolding for this improvement set, you utilize personal accountability to begin building, and to keep building, on your actualized self. If you can do that and maintain an emotional authenticity with the outside world, you can learn from, benefit from, and even recruit those around you that you appreciate. These bare, honest relationships can help you incorporate foreign concepts, new perspectives, and novel strategies that can add refinement that otherwise would be unavailable to you.
The best way to improve in these areas, or in any area really, is to set about with a mindful intention to do so. Acknowledge your mistakes and your successes and use those to transcend who you were yesterday.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
One of the most personally impactful books that I’ve ever read was a book called Hagakure. In it’s most basic form it’s a collection of comments from an aging, former samurai that examines what life was like as a warrior in a time with no war. While this description is extremely maudlin, the book, thankfully, is much less so. With passages ranging from advice on how to physically keep from yawning in front of others to taking personal ownership over one’s mistakes in order to mitigate them, this book has a lot to contemplate. The part that most affected me however, is the overall underlying message of (and multiple direct quotes on) personal determination. Your will is what you are. Yamamato Tsunetomo, a warrior with no war experience, was a samurai because he willed himself to be one.
“Although this may be a most difficult thing, if one will do it, it can be done. There is nothing that one should suppose cannot be done.” ~ Yamamato Tsunetomo…
but also, for extra credit…
“Yawning in the presence of others is impolite. If the urge to yawn suddenly arises, rub your forehead in an upward stroke to suppress it. If this is not enough to restrain the yawn, use the tip of your tongue to lock your lips shut, and cover your gaping mouth with your hand or sleeve to conceal it from others. Sneezes should also be stifled. Sneezes and yawns make you look very silly.” ~Yamamato Tsunetomo.
Contact Info:
- Website: ReverendSeven.com
- Instagram: @ReverendSeven
