The super successful entrepreneur that followed his passions and invented a new market category

From studying economics and marketing to become a successful entrepreneur as a Portrait Artist for Professional Athletes

 

Almost all of the 130+ entrepreneurs I interviewed on my REACH OR MISS podcast did something incredibly different; they either found a new way to do things, created a new niche, or expanded an existing market.

However, very few of them actually invented a totally new market category, influencing and encouraging a new surprising customers’ behavior.

My fantastic interviewee did, and his story is very inspiring. He didn’t come from poverty, managed to change his destiny, and he didn’t fight against all the odds, he fought only against his own perceptions.

And he won — big time.

 

Blake Jamieson is a pop portrait artist in Manhattan, NY. He paints pop art portraits for professional athletes and celebrities, including Howie Mandel, Drew Brees, Joe Montana, Gary Vaynerchuk, and over 250 other professional athletes in the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS, and PLL.

 

 

I started, by asking Blake, what is he most passionate about today?

I’m a portrait artist located in NYC. Blake said. I’ve had an interesting roller-coaster of a journey up until this point, but what I do now is paint portraits of professional athletes.

Primarily, I have worked in the NFL, although I do work with other athletes who play soccer, lacrosse, hockey, and more.

I created this niche for myself where an athlete, or the spouse or girlfriend of an athlete, is looking for a painting that will capture special sports moments for them. I’m often the person they turn to and I’m very fortunate to work with awesome people and get to paint every single day.

When I graduated from college, social marketing was just starting to become an actual, respected career. I was able to get into very grounded levels for some reputable companies and work my way through several different companies. Then I spun off and started working for myself as a freelancer.

Ultimately, on my 30th birthday, I decided that I was tired of working for someone else’s dream. I wanted to follow my own dreams and I realized that maybe my parents had been right all along… 

I’m very grateful. Due to my background in marketing – especially digital marketing – and my experience in marketing a wide range of products, I understand how social selling works and how it is really a relationship-building business. I built up a moderate following of friends, family, colleagues, and people I met along the way.

 

For the sake of all entrepreneurs looking to find their unique voice and not only to buy the freedom that leaving their 9 to 5 job allows them, I asked Blake to tell me the full story of how he became what and who he is today.

I grew up in a very creative household, Blake told me on our interview, I was always encouraged to paint, or draw, or do photography – all the things I do today. However, I convinced myself, from a young age, that art was about being a starving artist and that it was not a career path.

Instead of doing what my parents encouraged me to do, which was to study art in college, I decided to study economics and tech. I thought this was the safe path at the time, and I aimed to have a career in marketing.

When I graduated from college, social marketing was just starting to become an actual, respected career. I was able to get into very grounded levels for some reputable companies and work my way through several different companies. Then I spun off and started working for myself as a freelancer.

Ultimately, on my 30th birthday, I decided that I was tired of working for someone else’s dream. I wanted to follow my own dreams and I realized that maybe my parents had been right all along… 

I’m very grateful. Due to my background in marketing – especially digital marketing – and my experience in marketing a wide range of products, I understand how social selling works and how it is really a relationship-building business. I built up a moderate following of friends, family, colleagues, and people I met along the way.

When I first decided to start painting, I knew that I had to specialize and come out with a specific niche. I decided that I would paint a specific painting for a specific subset of people.

Because of my networking at the time, I decided to paint for offices, especially for tech companies. I met with the people on my contact list and told them that I was an artist and that I painted office art for tech companies.

At first, I painted many paintings of Steve Jobs, Gary Vaynerchuk, and different iconic tech founders. Those tech companies aspired to be like them and wanted to put a picture of Steve Jobs, or motivational quotes, in their offices.

I did that for two years and it was going well. I had my niece called out and I was gaining a reputation as one of the leaders in the space of Portrait Painting for Professional Athletes.

There was a really lucky coincidence that when I delivered art in Las Vegas, I met a guy who played in the NFL and who was now a manager of existing players. He really loved my art and asked me to paint a few of his clients as a gift that they would post about and promote to their followers. It might create new opportunities.

I did some paintings of a few of his NFL players. In the process, I learned that NFL players are very competitive. If one guy has a painting, the other player wants a bigger painting. They also have the income to pay for that, as well as a lot of followers.

I pivoted my business three years ago. Today, I paint more professional athletes than any other painter in my space. 

 

I asked Blake to share his best advice for entrepreneurs, about approaching customers.

I’ll go back to the story about when I thought I was taking the safe path by working in marketing instead of doing something I really cared about. I know that it’s kind of cliché to say “follow your passions,” but I will say that if you do something you really enjoy, it doesn’t feel like work.

As an entrepreneur trying to solve problems, try to scratch your own itch. Try to solve a problem that was your own problem. Don’t try to solve a problem that someone told you offers a lot of money. It should be something that you want to use and that you want to do every single day.

Another piece of advice: I worked for free so many times because I wanted the exposure and I wanted to do what I love to do. So, don’t be afraid to work for free. To this day, I do a third of my work for free as a way to promote myself and my paintings.

 

 

What Blake considers as his biggest success?

“I’ll share two, Blake said to me, they’re both very meaningful turning points in my career. I told you about how supportive and amazing my parents were throughout my journey and my art career. When I started with art as my career, my first studio was in their house (today I have my own studio in NYC) and they were really happy for me. I was painting icons they didn’t recognize for tech companies they had never heard of.

I was painting a comedian named Howie Mandel from “America’s Got Talent,” who has a pretty deep resume. A lot of people know who Harry Mandel is, including my parents. When I told my parents that I was going to paint him, they were excited and texted all their friends: “You know, Blake is going to paint Harry Mandel…” I painted him at his studio in LA and I shared this story about how excited my parents were when they heard I was going to paint him. He recorded a video especially for them, with me, saying how proud he was of me for following my passions and my heart. Being able to send it to my parents was so meaningful for me!

The second one was: I left the studio in California, which was in their house, and moved to a studio in NYC. I was so afraid that I wouldn’t be able to afford it and that I would become the starving artist I was so afraid of. But it worked and I felt that I was no longer the guy who worked from his parents’ house. I actually live in one of the most expensive cities in the country and have not only an apartment but also my own studio. That was huge!

 

But deciding to follow your passions won’t do a successful entrepreneurial business. Besides understanding how to do business, you also need to create awareness and desire and to build the brand.

I asked Blake for his recommendation for a marketing or sales tool?

I have two. Number one is LinkedIn because LinkedIn is geared toward professionals. As a visual artist, I don’t have competition there. Tons of people are on LinkedIn and they expect that I’ll talk as a finance person or a developer or a tech person. So, when I can share my paintings, everyone says, “Wow, that’s different” … and, actually, that’s how we connect.

For me, LinkedIn is so fantastic because the competition isn’t there. Artists don’t go to LinkedIn but most of my clients do. For any other entrepreneur, the answer is not necessarily LinkedIn, but any network where your competition isn’t active but your clients are.

The second one that is often overlooked is Twitter. It’s the only place where you can find real-world conversations in the public space and it still feels organic. You can become part of the conversation without feeling like spam.

 

At the end of the interview I asked Blake my mountain question.

Because we believe that the best way for entrepreneurs to get fast, big, and sustainable success is by leading your (new) market category, and the entire entrepreneurial journey reminds me of mountaineering, or conquering a mountain, I want to ask you: Is there a mountain you dream of climbing or a mountain you have already climbed?

 

Blake’s mountain

I’ll go for the metaphorical mountain because, for me, my highest mountain is: How do I make myself feel? To me, doing things that I enjoy doing, feeling in control of my life at the end of the day, no matter when it comes … I should able to look back and say that it was worth it.

I need to feel comfortable in my own skin and be happy with whatever thing I’m doing. So, this is my never-ending mountain and I hope there is never a top.

 

Listen to the unique interview with Blake Jamieson, who wrote on his Twitter “Listen to my interview with @Hayut on the @REACH_OR_MISS podcast https://bit.ly/2PoNRFE it’s my favorite interview to date!!