As the saying goes, constraints truly do breed creativity.
In this episode, Marla chats with Rachel Bradley, Marketing and Content Manager for Strategic Factory. A few years ago, Marla met Rachel while she was working at DuClaw Brewing Company, leading marketing efforts and snapping the most iconic photos. In this fun conversation, Rachel reflects on how she blends her artistic background into her career and shares insightful tips for product photoshoots.
To all the scrappy creatives out there, this one is for you.
As mentioned in the interview, you can view the legendary Sour Me Unicorn Farts Photoshoot photo here. And if you developed a craving for doughnuts (sorry not sorry) head to Diablo Doughnuts.
Connect with Rachel:
LinkedIn
Instagram: @leftovers_for_breakfast
That's all for now!
Follow Us:
LinkedIn: 212 Communications
Instagram: @notyourparentspr, @MarlaRose__ @MadsCaldwell
As the saying goes, constraints truly do breed creativity.
In this episode, Marla chats with Rachel Bradley, Marketing and Content Manager for Strategic Factory. A few years ago, Marla met Rachel while she was working at DuClaw Brewing Company, leading marketing efforts and snapping the most iconic photos. In this fun conversation, Rachel reflects on how she blends her artistic background into her career and shares insightful tips for product photoshoots.
To all the scrappy creatives out there, this one is for you.
As mentioned in the interview, you can view the legendary Sour Me Unicorn Farts Photoshoot photo here. And if you developed a craving for doughnuts (sorry not sorry) head to Diablo Doughnuts.
Connect with Rachel:
LinkedIn
Instagram: @leftovers_for_breakfast
That's all for now!
Follow Us:
LinkedIn: 212 Communications
Instagram: @notyourparentspr, @MarlaRose__ @MadsCaldwell
Welcome back to Not your Parents PR. I'm your host, marla. Today I'm joined by an amazing guest, rachel Bradley, who I used to work with, so, without further ado, we're going to jump into the episode, rachel welcome.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me, Marla. I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Yes, we are so excited to have you. We are going to cover all things in the creative industry and talk a little bit about how we used to work together, and Rachel is going to give us some really cool tips for people right out of school and those who are advancing in their careers. So I'm going to go ahead and jump into the questions. So, rachel, you started your creative career at the Savannah College of Art and Design. What factors inspired you to enter this industry in the first place? I don't know too much about your background, so I want to hear all about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, so SCAD is a great college if you're looking to go into the creative careers. Their tagline is the college for creative careers funny enough.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I don't think that there was something that specifically led me from being an artist to now working in marketing. There was no forward intention behind that. It kind of was just a pathway, like the water flows down a river. It just flowed for me into this corporate life. I never thought I would go corporate. So very interesting path for me and one that in hindsight makes a lot of sense, because if you think about marketing, it is essentially boils down to brand identity. And who knows brand identity more than an artist? Because they're marketing themselves and they have to be very unique and have a good story. And marketing to me a lot is about storytelling. So in hindsight it all made sense my path from SCAD to being a photographer, to then going into marketing at an entry level, where I was starting the social media up, where I was photographing content, to then building into that digital side of marketing email marketing, website, seo, brand identity, brand direction, stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I love that answer and I actually don't know much about your background before you even entered college. So, growing up, what mediums were you exploring as an artist? Were you really into painting? What was your thing that you knew from an early age?
Speaker 2:So I was kind of all over the place. But it wasn't necessarily about the medium, but more so how my brain worked. When I was younger I really struggled a lot with reading, reading, comprehension and expressing what was in my head and trying to get that out verbally. So I had this crazy imagination and I would see things play and I would come up with all these ideas. But when I would try to tell my parents what I was thinking, it just couldn't come out in words. That connection was lost. So what I would do is I would always have a pad and a pen and I would draw out what I was trying to convey verbally. So at our family dinners every night there was a kitchen junk drawer with a pad of paper and a pen in it and almost every night when we were talking as a family, I would have to get out the pad and pen and draw something.
Speaker 2:So I think in a way my brain was always creative and at first that outlet was visual because I had that verbal lack. It's funny in hindsight because now I work more in copywriting than visual things, thanks to the help of tutoring for many years from about I think I entered in third grade through middle school and at some point something just clicked and suddenly that disconnect between what was going on in my brain and being able to express it verbally, as well as reading it and visualizing it from the paper to my brain, that disconnect was then connected and I felt kind of like a superpower. I suddenly excelled in English class, excelled in art, was really good at creating that full picture between the words and the visual. So, funny enough, when I wanted to start at SCAD, I actually was interested in becoming an art teacher.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they had a program where instead of doing the four years undergrad and then the two years graduate to get your certificate and everything, they had it so that it kind of interweaved into your undergrad classes. So basically it was one less year of college, one less year of paying for college. So that was a big draw for me and I think it was after my freshman year they actually canceled the program. So I kind of was in that moment of do I stay here or do I pivot? And at that time the quickest portfolio. I fell in love with it and I don't really think that I realized how much of a passion I had for it. But all these memories popped up in my head of when I was younger and I would pick up my parents old film camera and pretend to take pictures, but they would never let me use the film because film's expensive to take pictures. But they would never let me use the film because film's expensive.
Speaker 1:But I do remember all these little moments, that kind of like hmm, this was kind of it all along. Oh my gosh, I love that you brought up those like childhood memories because I think they're so important in defining who we are today, because you could look at a little kid and be like, oh, an imagination is just a kid. They have a creative imagination. But then paying close attention to that is important because it can always like, reveal, like what's always been building inside of you. And before I jump to the next question, I just also want to call out the fact that I don't know why every family in America had a junk drawer growing up, but it's so funny to me and to this day when I go back and visit my parents in Queens, I'm like where's the junk drawer? I need the tape, I need all the things. So funny.
Speaker 2:You should do a series on what's in your junk drawer.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, that'd be hilarious. Okay, I need to get that on YouTube. I need to go home and vlog, okay. So I'm glad you brought up photography, because I'm going to transition a little bit into your two roles I want to talk about today. So we worked together when you were at Ducla Brewing Company and I joined as your PR agency, and so I got to see your amazing photography in action, which was always so incredible to see. And then you recently transitioned to a new role at the Strategic Factory. So can you talk to me a little bit about your roles at both organization and how you navigated the transition?
Speaker 2:Yeah, two very different companies other than the obvious B2C versus B2B. When I was at Duclos, it really kicked off my marketing career.
Speaker 2:That was the main transition I had from photography into marketing, so the title of the role was called Photographer and Social Media Manager that I started with in 2016 with Duke Colburn and company, so my duties were creating all of the content, from photography to videography and everything in between, some graphic design. We did have an in-house graphic designer that handled all of the high level stuff, but I would occasionally dabble in that to create content. And then I would run all of the social media accounts, with full reign over what we posted, when and what we said and how we put our brand out there to the public on not just social media but a lot of our own digital spaces, so email website as well any ads that we were able to do any events that we were a part of.
Speaker 2:I would have a hand in kind of kicking those off. At Duclaw it was definitely a smaller team a little bit more scrappy, as we always called ourselves.
Speaker 2:Elizabeth, our VP kind of coined that term, scrappy and it just totally fits Small team, lots of hats and exponential amount of room to kind of do whatever we wanted. There was really nothing off limits creatively. I could kind of say, hey, I want to do this project, what do you guys think? And nine out of 10 times they would be like love it, go for it, or let's try it, let's see how it works. So very open-ended, lacking a lot of structure. So I guess, depending upon who you are, that either works for you or it doesn't. As an artist, I felt like that did work for me, because then I could creatively pursue any idea that I wanted. And yeah, duclos was a lot of fun. Again, it was B2C, so we had a very specific target audience, whereas now, when I work at Strategic Factory, we are a B2B company and the services we provide aren't beer but they are needed by all businesses.
Speaker 2:It's commercial printing, signage, direct mail, promotional products, branded apparel. We do online stores for people. They're called company stores. Basically, if you're a franchise, you can kind of create your own internal inventory and have all of your branches be able to order all of their supplies with consistent brand identity. We have a creative team of graphic designers, copywriters, we produce videography and photography. We have a digital marketing team. The list goes on and it's basically all of your business needs that you would need for branding. So now, instead of marketing to a very specific audience, I'm now marketing to every business in the world. So the big question is how do you make that transition and how do you make your content relevant in a larger pool? So that's what I'm tackling right now and it's very exciting that's awesome.
Speaker 1:I'm so happy you've had these dual experiences because there's so much to learn from both um and I often will go back and speak to um students from my alma mater, loyola, and they often ask me, like, do you want to be in-house at, you know, in a brand that you love or outside an agency?
Speaker 1:And I'm like there are perks to both and you should learn both. And I think also being on different size teams is really important because you can learn so much from being on a small team, especially younger in your career. But then as you advance it's good to get some you know new skills into the mix as someone to help you out with something so you can specialize in one area. So when we did work together at DoClaw and you mentioned it before you hit on one of my favorite words scrappy Can you share a little bit about your scrappy tips? When you would style a photo shoot and I will link this in the show notes listeners but Duclos has some of the most creative photography in terms of their like decadent photo shoots. I would call them where.
Speaker 1:Rachel would grab. You know, if we had a watermelon flavored beer, she would grab a bunch of watermelons, make it look like a picnic, and I'm sure if you zoomed out at the studio you'd be like I cannot believe that this up. So can you just like walk through a little bit about your process? Any, yeah, any scrappy tips to share with photographers who are trying to get started. Maybe they want to build their portfolio started. Maybe they want to build their portfolio anything on lighting props, all that good stuff.
Speaker 2:Take it away. Yeah, sure, so I was lucky enough to have a nice camera coming as my background, being a photographer, but all of these can definitely be applied to cell phones. These days, cell phones are amazing. Sometimes they can be just as good as a nice camera in pixel quality and stuff like that. So what I'm about to say definitely don't feel disheartened if you don't have a fancy mirrorless or DSLR camera. There are some concrete items I would definitely stock in your arsenal. And then there are also some things to think about when you brainstorm how you're going to tackle the photo shoot. So I'll start with the latter.
Speaker 2:And when you're setting up a photo shoot other than all the things that you can generally find online about leading lines and lighting and color, to me, depending upon how much space you're working with I typically worked with a space that was two feet by two feet, kind of something tabletop size you want to think about layering heights of objects and filling the space of the image as if it's a frame, and stacking those heights at different how differently close they are to the camera as well. So just setting one object in the frame might be a little boring, but if you have a small box that you can sit here, stack one up, stack one down, stack one forward, stack one back. Creating that in the round look really helps visually express and kind of give it a visual appeal. So think about layering your items in order of height and distance to the camera.
Speaker 1:Awesome? Oh, quick question Is this an aerial view we're talking about Awesome? Oh, quick question Is this an aerial view? We're talking about it could be anything.
Speaker 2:You could be coming straight on 90 degree or top down like an aerial view. For aerial views you don't have to get that contrast of distance or height as much. You can stack things a couple of inches and it'll make a difference. Whereas if you're going at a 90 degree angle, I think the distance to the camera makes the biggest difference and if you're shooting straight on, I think stacking in different heights makes the biggest difference. To fill up that space Got it Without being too crowded. You do want to think about negative space and often what I found that helped a lot is if I didn't have a lot to work with finding a reflective surface to be able to mirror your central item. To fill up that negative space really helped fill it up without distracting the eye from the one object that you really want to focus on, got it.
Speaker 1:And when you say reflective surface, do you mean like the backdrop?
Speaker 2:or so a reflective surface. If we're talking scrappy materials now, we can get into materials if you want. I have taken a piece of glass out of a frame and used that. When glass has light on it it can kind of reflect a little bit, which is nice. You want like a eight and a half by 11 or, even better, 11 by 14 piece of glass I mean, not all the time is it real glass either and that's fine, and I think it having a solid color underneath the glass helps a lot. So if you have a solid white tabletop or a solid black tabletop or if you have a large piece of construction paper in your favorite bold color, just put it under the glass.
Speaker 2:And for me, when I was taking product photography, the product was liquid, it was beer. So you want something that is also splash proof and it won't stain, because you're going to be taking your shots multiple times. You're going to take the shot, make a huge mess, clean it up, repeat a couple of times, probably at least three times, because every photographer knows if you think you have the shot the first time, shoot it one more time and you'd be surprised. You know there could be a better shot out there. I think photographers and people in the film industry are very notorious for being a bit annoying and being like wait, let me get one more shot for safety.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I love that. That was so helpful. I love the way you broke it down. So when you're shooting photos specifically for social media which I imagine I don't know what brand isn't on social media, if they're shooting product photography, what are some best practices to keep in mind of the photo selections or how to?
Speaker 2:layer the text on top, gotcha, so I didn't layer text on top too often, but if you do, definitely plan your photo shoot around that because you don't want the text to compete with the focal point of your image.
Speaker 2:Like you wouldn't want to have your product with the text like kind of overlapping or touching it, clapping or touching it. Typically, if you see a lot of websites, their header image will be a large photo for their product photography but the product will be all the way over here with all of this negative space to one side and they'll write the text over that negative space. That way the focal point of the image and the text are both balanced very well. Neither one's competing and it's just visually pleasing that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and, would you say, for social, knowing there are so many different sizes. You know like Twitter or X is different than Instagram Like do you recommend shooting a few? You know like Twitter or X is different than Instagram Like do you recommend shooting a few? Um, you know vertical, horizontal, wide, all the good stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. Um, one thing that I learned pretty quickly on is is shooting for social media. Photographers typically like to shoot horizontal format. Um, you know, it's not often that we move to vertical, because to us vertical means cell phone, but that is what social media is. A lot of people are using social media via cell phone, so you have to think about those different formats. You know vertical and skinny, horizontal and skinny, for if you're throwing these images up on your website, you know typical sizes for email headers, social media Sometimes, like for Instagram, I found the sweet spot isn't quite vertical or horizontal, it's more like four by five, because your image when you go to someone's page is cropped to a square.
Speaker 2:Your image when you go to someone's page is cropped to a square Right when you're scrolling. 4x5 takes up a lot more space on someone's cell phone screen when they're scrolling, and that's really the key. I don't think when you're scrolling you want less space. You want to be the main thing that they're seeing, because they're more likely to stop and look at your image if it's taking up their whole phone screen versus being a little blip on their radar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've definitely experimented with both before and it always does sometimes bother me in the feed if the square crop is, you know something's cut off of it in the feed. But I also see the point of it doesn't necessarily matter, because when you're scrolling you want it to be big and also if you go to someone's feed, when you pop it open it'll be bigger.
Speaker 2:And that's where the negative space can come in. Very helpful. You know, if you have that reflective surface and it's mirrored, it's okay if that part gets cut off, but when you're scrolling the feed and you see the full look, it fills it up. Yeah, that's a great point.
Speaker 1:All right, everyone take note of that. Okay, Before I move to the next question, any other tips we missed or anything else you wanted to hit on?
Speaker 2:I have a few more as far as things you should have in your arsenal.
Speaker 1:Yes, go for it.
Speaker 2:So, besides a reflective surface, good lighting isn't that hard Lighting is. You can get a cheap light, but diffusing the light is the key to making it a good light. So just going to something like Joanne Fabrics and getting a sheer white fabric and you could take a coat hanger that's wire and bend it into a square, put the sheet on it, boom, you have a diffuser that you can use for any light and it will evenly disperse the light. So it's soft and just buttery and beautiful. Another thing that I used a lot was teacher's tack, like the little putty that you use to hang up posters. That was all in the junk drawer. Yeah, exactly, the products I was working with were cans. They're round, they roll, they don't stay put very well. Sometimes the surfaces I'm photographing them on are also round and gravity wouldn't be a nightmare. So that teacher's tack was very good because it was pretty small and invisible. You wouldn't really see it, but you could stick it under that can and wedge it so that it wouldn't roll. It kind of holds things in place, which is very important when you're a photographer of one. You don't have a crew where you can stay behind the camera and be like can you move this slightly to the left and to the right. There have definitely been times where I didn't use enough tack and I get the shot perfectly lined up. I go behind the camera, I'm ready to shoot and everything falls apart. Oh no, you know, working with items like that it's a little difficult.
Speaker 2:And another tip before we move on is you want to invoke as many senses as you can, because photography is 2D. You can't smell it, you can't touch it, you can't taste it, but when you're selling a product that is meant to be touched or tasted or smelled, you want to somehow invoke those senses. So the way I would do that with beer is incorporate action splashes. I had a Mr Bottle where I'd missed everything so that it looked dewy and fresh. Incorporating fresh fruit, like you said earlier with watermelon, sometimes even tips for making fake things look real. You can find a lot of those on YouTube of substitutes. Sometimes, in order to make the textures of things how I wanted them to be, I would add in weird things, like if I wanted to rim a glass with chocolate syrup, it wouldn't be chocolate syrup, it would be chocolate syrup mixed with 20% honey to make it drippier or a different consistency.
Speaker 1:I love that and that's I mean it's so cool now to think back from all those shoots and all the work that went into it. So very cool. And I love the Mr Bottle. That sounds what a good idea. And I think one point I wanted to touch on was the overlap of writing there a little bit, or at least with both creative mediums. Like I, when I take like writing classes, they always talk about evoking the senses too, because, right, you're just looking at a page and it's your job to like build the story. What was one of the most memorable campaigns that you've ever worked on?
Speaker 2:Gotcha. There were definitely a few and you guys were all part of most of them, but I think the first one that really kicked things off for us was this glittery beer called Unicorn Farts and the photo shoot. It's just kind of hilarious. The collaborators were Diablo Donuts Shout out, diablo Donuts. Roz and his team are so good.
Speaker 2:They make delicious, most fun and innovative concoctions of donuts that you've ever had. That was a really exciting project because we took the collaborator Roz, who's, like you know, this really tall, burly guy, fully tatted, has a very street style, and we kind of basically we bought a bathtub. Basically we bought a bathtub, took it to Graffiti Alley For those of you in Baltimore who don't know what that is, it's this alleyway that they give the public free reign to just graffiti. Everywhere the ground, the walls, everywhere you look is just graffiti. And it matched his vibe and our vibe and so we wanted to have it there. But the juxtaposition was that it was a very feminine pose where he kind of caressed his face like this and he was laying in this bathtub filled with fruity pebbles which was in the beer itself. So we were promoting the beer with the Fruity Pebbles and we just had him in the bathtub, kind of in this kind of ridiculous outfit. It was basically a chef's apron and that's it.
Speaker 1:I remember that campaign very distinctly. It was so creative, very distinctly. It was so creative and remind me again, you did mirror the shoot after something Lizzo had done at the time, right, like she did this really creative shoot as well for a magazine cover that was popular and it mimicked that a bit, right. Was that the intention behind it?
Speaker 2:Definitely there was a pop culture moment where Lizzo was in a bathtub filled with something and it was like a very goddess shot of her kind of laying in the bathtub. It was very feminine and sensual and then having that sort of feminine juxtaposition with this gritty, more street style look would be a little bit ironic, and so it played very well. I don't know if you can put up an image in the podcast, but it just, oh goodness, roz is such a great model. He instinctually just kind of did everything that I was prompting him to do. I was up on this really tall ladder shooting straight down with him in the bathtub filled with fruity pebbles, in the middle of Graffiti Alley in Baltimore City, like super early in the morning. It was like 6 am, 7 am, because we wanted to knock it out with that morning light Plus, you know, probably not get disturbed by the city while people were out and about and kind of think it would have gone a little bit differently if people were trying to walk by us while we were doing something so silly.
Speaker 1:I know I loved that shoot and I can see if I can pull it up in this. I think that'd be really fun to show. I think that just goes back to the importance of lighting too, or planning the photo shoot. I think people often might not know all the work that goes behind it, where you have to think of all of these factors like what props do we need? What is the light going to look like at this time of day? Um, and yeah, and your actor, I guess you should say too that you want to pick, like are they going to commit to the bit?
Speaker 2:and he did so yeah, yeah, and I can certainly say that I have never bought a bathtub for a photo shoot before. That was pretty yeah. That's the great part about marrying being an artist with being in marketing. You get to tell all these stories that aren't just normal stories, they're creative, they're kooky. You kind of had to get people willing to be on board with them, to pull it off and see that vision to the end, for that fun result and see that vision to the end, for that fun result.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's such an important point of having a team around you that's willing to try new things, because and I know I love that you know the team at Ducla, particularly like they. You know you raise your hand, I want to do something creative and they let you do it. And I think creativity is about experimentation and also like believing in the idea and being to articulate it and how it's going to resonate with each audience. So, you know, going back to the glittery unicorn farts campaign, like Duclos, audience is quirky and they want fun, interesting beers and they want a good laugh, you know. So I think that it it really all worked so well together.
Speaker 2:I will say it was a little bit of a gamble, because Duclos is an OG Maryland brewery, or was sorry they moved to New Jersey. They were at the time an original Maryland brewery with a long standing history and so a lot of their clientele was older, not as into these fun quirky things. So I think that was a very pivotal moment in Ducal's history, changing their marketing from being pretty average to something that would appeal to younger generations and something that was just goofy that I think, no matter what generation you're in, you would think it was funny and kind of made you pause and think, hmm, do I want to try that?
Speaker 2:You know, like you got to at least try it once. Some people definitely thought it was kitschy and I think that's the point that people were missing. It was meant to be kitschy. It was meant to be silly. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously. It's meant to be goofy and kind of more for the story.
Speaker 1:And I think you touched on a good point of creativity. Like the best creativity, I feel, takes a bit of risk. You need to be willing to take a risk and if you get people on board and there's no, you know, like red flags or anything, you should go for it, because that's what's going to make a statement. So last question for you is for those entering the creative field or in it now, any words of wisdom you want to impart like something you've learned over the years that has stuck with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely there's going to be. Specifically, if you go to art school, there's going to be a lot of moments of what did I just do? I remember having that conversation with my parents the first time. It was 2009 and the stigma was still pretty prevalent of art school is a waste of money. Art school is for people who want to be starving artists and you're just going to be poor for the rest of your life.
Speaker 2:But I think when my parents went with me to go visit SCAD and they saw the introduction of not, it's not an average art school even to today, but back then especially, they were pretty avant-garde with introducing new, fresh majors that were incorporated into real world and good jobs where they were showing how their graduates were working with Disney or New York Fashion Week or all these top name house brands. Because I think, especially in that digital age that swept in with the 2000s is everyone's online, Everyone's consuming content at a crazy fast speed. Everyone needs that artistic and creative edge to set their brand apart. So no longer are artists starving, but they are the edge that companies need to be able to think creatively, market themselves differently, have a very strong and apparent brand identity, because all the best brands know exactly who they are, what they're selling, why they're doing it, and they can say it in a concise sentence and one concise visual.
Speaker 1:So well said. I often, sometimes as someone also in the creative field sometimes I forget that creativity is such a skill which is not innate to some people, and I feel like, again, you need both sides of the coin to have a successful business and I do believe a lot of companies are recognizing that, especially with like presence on social media and the importance of visuals, that you know that. So I think that makes perfect sense and it's about what you do with your skill too.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I, I really I mean I, this is a little woo, but I do do believe if you do what you love, the success follows and I think, if your talents lie in the creative world or they lie in the financial world, like the success will come to you because you'll be known for what you do.
Speaker 2:There will certainly also be times where you have that mantra and it might not be happening yet and you feel really lost, like I remember feeling so lost most of college and my early career.
Speaker 2:But because I am so strongly who I am, the pieces did eventually fall together and I saw the path that I was on and how that was playing out. And you can't really predict that in advance, just like I couldn't predict that I would have fallen in love with photography at college. It's all. The signs are there leading up to it, yeah, but you don't, you're not always aware of those signs, you know. So, just like with your career early on, you feel lost, you feel scared, you aren't sure where you're going. The signs are there, you just might not see them yet, and so my biggest advice would be to pay attention to that and stay true to you. There was definitely that turning point in high school, before I was entering college, where, you know, I went to a very rigorous private high school where a lot of people were pursuing STEM and I was over here being like I want to do art, you know. So I could have forsaken that and I could have taken not necessarily what you would call an easy path, but a very logical one where it's like pursue this, because jobs are, you know, really looking for that. There's a lot of jobs out there in X type of industry, pursue that, study it, get your degree, get a certificate, whatever it is and enter that field. Art is definitely all over the place. It's a winding path that you can just get spit out on the other end at any location and I feel like it will be totally natural to feel incredibly lost along the way. And I think that it's really important to know the difference when you're ready to pursue it lifelong or if you need to exit, like that was a big point for me where I had to really sit down and do some inner searching and think when that program got canceled, is this something for me for forever or do I give this up, keep it as a hobby and pursue something maybe a little more stable? And I think at the time a lot of things were shifting in my favor in the world where art was becoming stable as far as working in marketing, working in branding, working in production and everything that takes to produce all the consumer media.
Speaker 2:And I think there's also something to be said about making it your full-time job and still wanting to do it on the side as a passion. I noticed definitely that as soon as I started doing it as a full-time job, I did it less outside of work. So, knowing yourself, you need to ask yourself am I okay with losing a little bit of that personal time with it? Because maybe you get burnt out doing it eight hours a day, 40 hours a week? You know it's very their soul a little if they only did it for someone else and not necessarily as well on the personal side outside of work. So, knowing that difference and where to draw that line, whereas some people you know, if they are feeling that way, what they'll do is they'll have, they'll go into entrepreneurship and they'll do it. You know 50% of their art and then 50% of their business, you know so there's so many different ways where you could pursue it and incorporate it into your career if you're not ready to go the a hundred percent in Totally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's. You have to manage your creative energy too, which I struggle with on a daily basis, where I love to do things on the side, but I find myself getting burnt out sometimes. It depends, you know how heavy the writing flow is for the week, and then you know you want to write, you know something on the side for just you, and then you could feel like I'd rather sit and watch TV, because I need that like restorative time. But it's always important, even if it's like you know, journaling for five minutes. Or you know, on your walk to the coffee shop taking a cool photo of something like you should try to re-engage with it as much as possible because, like you know, you got to control the controllables like control your creativity too. So I love all of that advice and I know we're coming up on time and we are out of questions and thank you for staying longer than anticipated. But if folks want to connect with you, where can they find you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, I'm on LinkedIn as Rachel Bradley. I'm on Instagram as leftovers for breakfast, with underscores in between the words. You can contact me there on either way. If you need help in a business sense, if you're looking for anything like what Strategic Factory offers, you can email me at rbradley at strategicfactorycom or give us a call.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for being here. This was really fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really enjoyed this. It's been really fun talking to you and it kind of was a fun morning being able to re-account my pathway into art.
Speaker 1:I know it's important to look back on how far you've come too, and you know, put all the pieces together, so I loved this and I think that is it everyone. So come back next time on Not your Parents PR, and we will see you soon, okay, bye.