The Local Artist's Blueprint: Turning Creative Dreams into Business Reality

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you trusted your wildest creative ideas and actually built a business around them? 

On this special anniversary episode, I'm celebrating one year since the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Brewtifully and reflecting on the incredible journey of transforming an unconventional vision into a thriving creative space. When people ask how I developed this business model, they're often surprised to learn I literally made it up from scratch – no franchise, no template, just a clear vision of what I wanted to create for my community.

The path hasn't been without challenges. Transitioning from full-time employment to entrepreneurship brought sleepless nights wondering if bills would get paid or if my ideas would resonate. Yet the fulfillment of building something authentically mine has been worth every moment of uncertainty. What began as a desire to support local artists and provide a creative haven has exceeded expectations – we're now booked with artists through 2026 and halfway through 2027, attracting creators from across the region.

I share the pivotal role mentors played in refining my vision without dampening it, particularly through our local SCORE chapter. Their expertise helped transform my ideas into a viable business plan while encouraging me to maintain the uniqueness that makes Brutally Made special. This episode offers honest insights about embracing imperfection, taking daily steps toward your dreams, and the power of authenticity over perfection.

Whether you're harboring creative aspirations or simply need inspiration to trust your instincts, this anniversary reflection might be the gentle push you need. Your dreams don't require perfection – they just require you to begin. What creative vision are you ready to bring into the world?

Chapters

• 0:00 Celebrating One Year Anniversary
• 1:45 Trusting Instincts Despite Challenges
• 3:40 Creating a Unique Business Model
• 6:25 Finding Mentors and Support
• 8:30 Encouraging Creative Pursuits
• 11:30 Being Authentic in Your Journey
• 12:30 Celebrating Community Connections

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

Hello everyone. Welcome back to Brutally Made Tracy here. I am very excited to be back with you. Thanks for all the love on the last episode with my husband. It turned out to be a wonderful show. It was our largest group that we had ever attend an artist reception and he was thrilled and it was really cool to get to talk to him on the podcast and share that with you. So thank you for tuning in and thank you for watching and sharing and listening. So that was really cool. Today is officially one year that we had our ribbon cutting ceremony, so September 12th is the one year ribbon cutting ceremony. I cannot believe it has been a year already. It has flown by.

Speaker 1: 1:05

You know, the best laid plans. You just, you know, dive in and literally that's what I did starting this business. I wanted to do this full time, so I was working full time in. That transition was a lot, a lot of work and you know, in June of this year got to retire from that job and just dive in headfirst and make this happen, and that's what I'm continuing to do and it is just really a dream come true. I had to trust myself and trust my instincts and some things work, some things don't, instincts, and you know some things work, some things don't. You know, health things come up and you, you know, try to plan for everything and the things that you don't plan for you, you know, take those challenges on head on and just building this business and making it exactly. What I want is I can't even explain how fulfilling it is and I absolutely love just trying something new in the shop and seeing how people respond and just having the ability to create it all on my own, out of my head, is something beyond I ever imagined, making me so happy. And I really, really, really hope that that gives you a little bit of gumption to try making your own dreams come true. And you know I'm not sitting here telling you it's easy, because it is not. It is a, you know, daily struggle and worry, a weekly, a monthly. I'm always, you know, concerned. You know, am I going to be able to pay my bills? Am I going to be able to survive off this? Am I making people happy or am I going to get, you know, someone upset because maybe something that they made they didn't like? And I just take it one day at a time and you have to do that and I don't regret it. I just cannot believe it's been a year already and the reception that I continue to receive from the people in the community is still so positive. I feel like I'm doing something really good to give people space to, you know, explore and find their creative voice and a place to, you know, hang out and a place to shop and a place to support other artists and just all the things that I ever was looking for for myself.

Speaker 1: 3:41

I wanted to make it happen here, and I get questioned a lot how did I come up with this business model? How did I come up with the concept for this? I literally made it up. I really just wanted to do something artistically and I originally thought I was going to need to do something that was going to be more, I guess, national, like a national license or national, you know, contract, I don't know. I thought that that was going to be the key for me to be able to be creative on a full-time basis, and I will always credit my wonderful friend Margot Tantel with Tantel Studios for coming up with the mastermind that she did, being part of that and then telling me to lean into local. And I got Just attached to that thought, thinking, well, there's a lot of really cool local things here and I've been trying to be recognized locally as an artist and participate in things, so why don't I just create my own space? And that's what I did and I really, really feel like it was a push in the right direction. It was a push in the right direction and it gave me the confidence to believe in the ideas that I had, even though they weren't proven.

Speaker 1: 5:11

I mean, this isn't something that you find like off the shelf or franchise or anything like that. It is literally made up in my head by I like shopping local, I want to support local artists, I want to have a wall where they can change it out every month. I want to be able to celebrate people, I want a space for kids, I want a space for adults. I want to have it in a location that has easy parking, that has accessibility. I mean I can just give you the laundry list of the outline that when I was creating a business plan with our local score chapter to get their kind of feedback from some of the wonderful, like Mike Johnson. He is a phenomenal mentor and he has been through multiple corporations in higher positions from VPs and such, and met with him many times talking about my idea, and never once did he balk at what I was doing, not once did he say this would never work. He was thoroughly just blown away by as much detail as I could provide and was just so supportive.

Speaker 1: 6:25

So when you're looking to do something, talking to people that have that expertise is huge. And finding them locally, you know. Start with your chamber of commerce. Look in your area. If you have a score chapter, they're all over the country. Find people that you trust, that you want to talk to about your idea. But be very vigilant about keeping your idea alive. You don't have to have somebody tell you that it's not a good one. Just make it work. Figure out a way. If you've got that intuition that it is something that you love and you really want to make it happen, don't wait, make it happen, do it. I just one year has flown by so fast, I just cannot believe it and we just have so much to look forward to.

Speaker 1: 7:19

I'm completely booked with artists for 2026. I am completely booked with artists for 2026. I am completely booked with artists halfway through 2027 for the gallery. That's phenomenal and I'm just, and they're from all over. I've got people coming from Cleveland area, salem, it's not just Stark County, so it's you know word is getting out and that makes me so happy. Everybody's been so different and everybody's work has been just so unique and it's a spot where people can walk in like I've never seen anything like this before and it's I just love celebrating that. So, you know, diversify those ideas, make that multi-layered, give people different reasons to come in to whatever you're doing, bringing them into what you love.

Speaker 1: 8:13

And don't be afraid. Don't fear that sense of it's not going to work. Trust what you have in your heart and you will find a way to get it out there in the world. And yeah, that is like my biggest takeaway from the last year. I'm telling you it has not been easy, it has been a challenge, and I do have a very supportive husband and I'm very blessed about having him trust everything that I'm trying to do and I'm not doing things perfectly at all I try to just do them correctly or as best as my ability and seek out help when I need it, and that's all you can do. And just one step at a time, one day at a time and one idea at a time, and not all of them are going to click, and that's okay, it's totally okay. But try, you just have to try. And so, as an artist who started a business, a small business, and has, you know, just so many big ideas and so many dreams, I just want to encourage you to go for all of those in any creative pursuit. You know, it could be a coffee shop, it could be a store. Maybe you want to do freelance work. Just explore it. There's so many avenues out there that you can, you know, let people know that that's what you do.

Speaker 1: 9:47

Share what you do. Don't be afraid to share what you do, and making it happen is something that should be like daily. It doesn't have to be perfect. You don't have to have, you know, perfect hair. I mean, look at me. You don't have to be camera ready all the time. Be authentic, be yourself, be who is relatable to other people. That's what's most important, that's what's going to resonate, that's what's going to get you to where you want to be is because somebody wants to feel like they have a connection with you.

Speaker 1: 10:25

And you do not have to do perfect art, you don't have to do perfect coffee. You don't have to create, perfect anything. You know, just be yourself and offer that hand or help or whatever it is in whatever you want to do, and make it authentic, make it yours and share it with the world, because the world needs more of you. We all need one another to be ourselves and we have to start, you know, accepting one another wholeheartedly. And but, yeah, I just, I cannot believe it's been one year and I just wanted to hop on and share that and celebrate that and thank everybody for their support. I can't believe all the listeners that I have all over the world. I hope it encourages you to. You know, ignore any of the negativity that's happening in the world right now, and not to the point where it's. You know, there's a lot of really sad things happening. I'm just saying, don't let it stop you from achieving your dreams, because now's the best time you have to try. There's nothing else stopping you other than yourself, and that's the truth and I just I want to celebrate you for that. But but yeah, just, I can't wait to share more of the things that I'm doing.

Speaker 1: 11:45

Yesterday I got to do the 9-11 Memorial Climb at our McKinley Monument and I just, you know, wasn't like a scheduled thing. I just went there and took my watercolors and paints and I did one round of the steps. It was 108 steps all the way and then if you did 12 of those around the entire path, that would have been the flight of the World Trade Center. And the firemen were there and the police and the community, and it was just beautiful. It was so inspiring. So I did my one round and then went to, were there and the police and the community, and it was just beautiful. It was so inspiring. So I did my one round and then went to the bottom of the monument and then painted live from what was happening. And I was contacted later on that night by someone who wanted to buy the painting which blew me away.

Speaker 1: 12:31

I mean, this is not a perfect painting by any stretch of the imagination. I just was doing it from my heart, in a moment in time, watching everything happen, and it just made me just so humbled and honored that someone you know felt, resonated that feeling that I felt and wanted it and I just yeah, it's just incredible, just sharing your story and sharing what you love and you know, just, it really was just to be part of it in a different way than, and I never got to go. I've always wanted to go and I'd always worked full time. So now it was the day that I got to go and it was a gorgeous day and friends were there and it was just beautiful and I just felt just so humbled to be part of that beautiful and I just felt just so humbled to be part of that and just doing things like that off the cuff in your community just explore, you know, try, try everything, just just try. So well, I am very excited.

Speaker 1: 13:32

I will not have an episode next week unless I get to record it with my grands. So that may happen. It may be a little rough audio, but we did one before, so we'll see. We'll see how it goes for the week, but I am very excited to be here with you today and celebrate one year grand opening and I hope you have a brutal late May day and weekend and do something that you love today. So take care. Bye.