Wearing Pants Again
“Wearing Pants Again” is a podcast that explores the journeys of artists and storytellers, uncovering the lessons, challenges, and experiences behind their craft. Through honest conversations and personal reflection, host Lauren Siegal examines what it really takes to create, grow, and keep showing up.
Wearing Pants Again
Finding Calm Through Creativity with Katie White
Katie White, a Tampa-based watercolor artist, shares her journey from elementary art teacher to artist-entrepreneur whose work combines painting with meditation and mindfulness. Her mission centers on bringing calm amidst chaos through watercolor art that helps people slow down and reconnect with beauty in quiet moments.
In this conversation, we talk about:
- Katie’s path to becoming a full-time professional artist
- How she rediscovered her passion for creativity by watching children create without fear or inhibition
- Using watercolor and guided meditation to reduce stress and find healing
- Approaches to authentic social media growth and connecting with an audience
- How nature, travel, and play inspire her artistic process
- Advice for emerging artists
- Her upcoming “Meditate with Watercolors” course and free “Breath to Brush” challenge
Check out Katie's website
Follow Katie on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube
For more information, click here for the podcast episode webpage.
Hello and welcome to Wearing Pants Again, where we explore the journeys of artists and storytellers, uncovering the lessons, challenges and experiences behind their craft. My guest today is Katie White, a Tampa-based watercolor artist, educator and founder of an intention-led creative business that blends art with mindful living. For over eight years, she has built a career weaving together painting, storytelling and soulful connection through retreats, online classes and meditative practices that help people slow down, breathe deeply and find beauty in the quiet moments. Katie has such a calming energy and I really loved our conversation. There's so much in it that I think anyone can take away and apply to their own life. So here's my conversation with Katie. Hi, Katie, thank you so much for joining me today.
Lauren:Absolutely thank you for inviting me. I'm a really big fan of your artwork and just looking at your Instagram and seeing your watercolor just makes me feel more calm instantly. That is the goal. That is always the goal. So how long now have you been doing art full time and what was your journey like of getting to do this full time?
Katie:That's a great question. So I'm going into my eighth year and I stick. I kind of think of it as when I left teaching because I taught elementary art. So, as we started a new school year, this is my eighth year of being a professional artist and running my own entrepreneurial creative business, and the journey leading up to it is, I mean, kind of began when I was a child, really kind of always loving the arts, feeling really confident in the art room versus the classroom. So I pursued art as my major in college. I was an illustration major at Washington University and when I was in the university setting I kind of lost all my confidence and stopped creating.
Katie:After I left school I just didn't know where to begin with, finding a job as an artist, and I feel like in the mid nineties when I graduated, it was.
Katie:It was kind of a stigma to artists the starving artist and you're never going to make it, and so I believed that, which is a terrible lie, quite honestly.
Katie:So I put art on the back burner, dabbled a little bit in doing some creative work with some commission pieces, painting people's pets and their houses and stuff like that all through kind of my 20s and 30s, and then at the end of my 30s, when I was 39, I was asked to be the elementary art teacher at my kid's school and was there that I fell back in love with the arts and realized there's so much great in creativity and watching children explore and play that I began to start doing it at home.
Katie:Being in the classroom was chaotic, obviously, just kind of having a schedule of teaching 750 children, so all that really peaceful art that you kind of see behind me and my work started developing from the chaos in the classroom. I would bring home and try to calm myself down and make things really nice and peaceful, and so that's kind of where my art developed. And then I taught for five years and through that time developed. And then I taught for five years and through that time I always think running a classroom teaches you how to just run any kind of business. So I learned how to manage people, I learned how to manage my time and anyway I decided after five years of teaching that I would become a professional artist and I took a leap of faith and have never looked back. It's been amazing.
Lauren:What was it like for you stepping into the role of being a teacher, having not had any teaching experience?
Katie:before that, any decision that I've made with my career has always been scary. That's from anything that I've done, from youth ministry to working in communications for Meals on Wheels, which I used to do back in my 30s Everything that I've done has been scary. And I remember sitting in the principal's office when she interviewed me. I was like you know, I don't know how to teach right and I'm not even sure I can connect with kids. She was like okay, first of all, you're going to be great with kids because you have children that age. So my kids at that time were. When I interviewed they were in kindergarten and third grade. So she was like you have children, so you kind of understand that, but I'm going to teach you how to teach if you just bring the art.
Katie:And so I remember sitting down and there was this long list of standards that you had to teach the kids and I was like do these kids need to know all the elements and principles of design? Like that is a lot of like, there's a lot of language. And they had to know how to interpret a painting and describe a painting. And I so I, as I was looking at standards, I was reteaching myself because I hadn't thought of that stuff, gosh, since college. So it was. It was an education for me all across the board how to teach kids, how to teach them art, how to bring the love of art into a child's life that was really my main goal. So, yeah, it was scary but I did it and it was probably the best stepping stone in my career. It really helped me fall back in love with with art.
Lauren:Do you remember that specific moment as a teacher, when you started teaching, where you kind of that, that love of art just kind of reignited Absolutely?
Katie:It was when the kids would look at me. They would come. I would always model something. By the way, 30 minutes, 10 classes a day. So they were. It's. All these kids had was 30 minutes.
Katie:So to squeeze in, like teaching what the lesson was and trying to tie it into a famous artist and trying to get all the little standards in the moment, I would always, and I, I create. I paint really fast. So if you end up seeing me on Instagram, you can see I don't speed it up, but those are just little paintings that happen and I mean like three minutes. It's because I had to do it in the classroom and I would create really fast Cause I didn't want to waste time on it. And the kids would look up at me and they'd be like Miss White, when are you going to be?
Katie:You know, like Picasso, I'm like never, but I always thought it was so sweet that they thought that the possibility was even there and in that moment I was like man, I could do so much with this. I mean it's amazing that I get to reach, you know, 750 little minds, but this could be bigger and I could reach a lot more people and bring peace and enjoyment, and that's kind of my goal behind my art right now is bringing the calm in the midst of chaos, and so it was probably within my first year of teaching that I discovered that.
Lauren:I love that mission and I think it's so important and it's so interesting to think about how, when we're children, they create so freely and then as we get older, we kind of some of us lose that. Why do you think that is?
Katie:adult students or people on Instagram or people that I connect with in workshops, they'll say I can't get past perfectionism. I want it to look perfect. I want it to look a certain way. We lose and I don't know the study that this was done, but I do recall when I was teaching. You lose your confidence when you're in third to fourth grade, like all of a sudden, you start to worry about what are other people thinking about me? But those first graders and second graders are just so not worried about it. They're not mature enough to even understand what that is, and so watching them create without any inhibitions or any restrictions and just play was so inspiring to me and I thought, oh my goodness, you've got to create this way, because if you see my work as an illustration, major it's very different than how it looks. As a 52 year old it's.
Katie:I don't worry so much about the outcome. I don't worry so much about the outcome. I am so much more focused on the process, and I learned that from a first and second grader. We, as adults, are so we can get so wrapped up and worried about what someone else might think, and I often tell people in my classes I'm like, don't look to the left, don't look to the right, just focus right here. It's about you and your process. Whatever you create and whatever is inside of you is going to come out. It may not look like my work, probably shouldn't look like my work. You're welcome to mimic my work, but allow it to be you and play Scribble. Take your paintbrush and, you know, turn it upside down and try something different. If you can convince yourself and give yourself permission to do that, it's such a more enjoyable experience, I believe. At least that's what I think.
Lauren:When, when you just made the choice that you were going to pursue art full time I know you said that that was kind of scary. But leading up to it, did you have any sort of plan, or did you just kind of say I'm just going to make the leap and see what happens?
Katie:So a couple of things. Um, Hillsborough County schools, uh, where I was teaching and gives you one year to take a leave of absence and you can come back and get your job. So I had that security blanket. I thought, well, if it doesn't work, I have until March to make a decision whether I'm going to come back to my position. So I had that. I also am married and my husband had a secure job. So I was lucky enough that he was like just do it, Just try it. I was lucky enough that he was like just do it, Just try it.
Katie:I didn't make a ton of money as a teacher so I was like all I have to do is make this amount in two weeks, and if it equals what I made as a teacher, then let's just see what happens. So I knew I had a little bit of a safety net. I didn't know if it would be successful, but I had a little plan in place, One I'm super connected in my community. I had a lot of people that knew me. I obviously was the art teacher at a public school, so those families all knew me and they were all cheering me on. I didn't know what I didn't know, so I just put myself out there.
Katie:I was like we're just gonna if I want to have a show, I'm gonna have a show. If people want to come, they want to come. The biggest thing I had to convince myself of going to become a professional artist is you're not. Your art is not going to speak to everybody, and so don't be offended if someone doesn't want to come and see it. Don't be offended if someone doesn't want to buy it. It's going to speak to someone somewhere, not everyone. And I think once you kind of can shift that mindset, then you'd be like all right, well, I mean, you like it or you don't like it. That was my plan. My plan was just was my plan? My plan was just let's just see what happens.
Katie:I had a lot of great friends that I would. This was the year before I left. So while I was teaching, in my fifth year teaching, I had a handful of friends and I was like hey, listen you guys, if you buy the canvas, I'm going to paint on it, if you, if you, and then let's hang it in your house and let's take a picture of it. So I did. I would. I had probably eight or nine friends and I was like all right, what do you want? I'll create whatever. And then I would do mainly back then like acrylic paintings, um, and some watercolors, but I just I just started making art and hanging it on friends' walls, taking pictures. I mean they're still hanging in some of my friends' houses. I'm like, can I take that down? And it's fun to see how much my style has evolved from then to now and my whole business has evolved.
Katie:So I was of the mindset of throwing things at the wall to see what would work. I thought I thought, coming into this, the most important thing was to be in galleries. I'm like I just, if I can make it to a gallery, then I've made it in life. Um, and that happened and I would say that's, that's. That was not the answer. It's been nice, but it wasn't. But it wasn't the end, all be all. It isn't. Until you tap into what truly brings you joy, that it all begins to click. And I realized, once I tied what I currently do, which is the meditative component and painting and the process and sharing it with others and trying to, um, help other people with it, did it all begin to click. And that came with time. I mean I think you know that took probably six or seven years to get there.
Lauren:I mean, I think you know that took probably six or seven years to get there. Okay, because I was going to ask if the meditative aspect has always been a part of your work. No no, I'm a perfectionist. So how? How did you decide to start incorporating that into your paintings?
Katie:Yeah, it was out of necessity. So, um, I am, and I, I'm not as much anymore. So it's really interesting. I, I, I would say if you knew me in my twenties, thirties and forties, early forties, you would say highly anxious. I'm a, I would get anxious over a lot of things and so probably would get a little more worked up about things that I didn't need to. But I had some anxiety Then. So I was. I would say it was four years ago. And then so I was. I would say it was four years ago.
Katie:I dropped my oldest off at college and I was running a very big football program at one of the public high schools. I was volunteer and running my business. So, and it was all during COVID, so COVID had happened, so 2021, and I just burned out. I was exhausted, I didn't know what direction I wanted my business to go in. I was trying to chase these galleries, I was trying to do commissions, I was doing shows, I it just was super busy. And then I'm running this volunteer position and I'm saying goodbye to this. You know this big life transition thing going on. Plus I'm just going to say, cause I'm 52 and there might be middle-aged women out there. I was also going through menopause, so that messed with the whole emotions and stuff in life. So it wasn't feeling great. I went to the doctor. I was like this I just I'm a burn. It was burnout is essentially what it was. And she ran all my blood work and everything was in the red and she's like you gotta lower your stress levels. You really need to eliminate some things from your life. So I released myself from the volunteer position.
Katie:I couldn't change the fact that my kid went to college and I really loved the art, so I thought I need to keep this. But I had to offload some things from my plate. So she told me to go home and meditate. She did not prescribe me any medicine, she just said let's, I want you to go home and meditate, spend some time just moving slower through your day. That was a little hard for me. So I came home, I sat on the couch and I was like, okay, this is how you meditate, right, I mean the traditional way. Um, it did not work for me and and I think when you can give yourself permission to say one thing doesn't work, that we can actually shift and try just a little bit different, right? So sitting on a couch trying to stop things racing through my head just didn't work.
Katie:But I was creating these little paintings all day long, like to start my day. I would just do these really peaceful paintings. And then I realized if I put on calming music, it just slowed me down. And then one day I thought, let me just turn on a guided meditation to see what this is like, because maybe this will calm me down. And so I turned on I have a Peloton app and I turned their meditations on and immediately I mean two and a half hours later I was like click another one, click another one. I was just painting and painting and painting. It felt so good. And I thought, click another one. I was just painting and painting and painting, it felt so good. And, um, I thought this is great, I'm going to do this tomorrow. So I did it again, and then again and again, and then I started sharing it with friends. I was like, guys, this is like, it's like a drug, it's so relaxing. Um, and so what I then?
Katie:I started doing some research and it was what I was doing was an active meditation which is just as powerful as the traditional way. I mean, all meditations are. They can vary, and I realized an active meditation is just simply being mindful and in the moment and being present and listening to the sounds around you and just focusing on whatever it is that you're doing. You could do this gardening, cooking, walking but the painting was so helpful and then I thought I just want to share this with everyone, so I started putting my little reels out on Instagram, sharing it with the world, and so, 18 months after I started that, I went back for blood work and my doctor everything was in the green.
Lauren:She's like what are you?
Katie:doing and I was like, well, I mean, I'm not going to say meditative painting, was it? But it did slow me down and I realized, by taking a few things off my plate, that I could curate the morning that I wanted. I could curate that. I could curate the morning that I wanted I could curate. I could get up at the time that I wanted to. I could take a longer walk. I could eat more colorful foods that felt better for my body. I could read a little longer. Oh, guess what? You're an artist. You get to choose. You could actually take a pause in the middle of the day. I could paint when I wanted to, and so, by making it a lifestyle change, the inside of my body began to change that's awesome.
Lauren:I I've tried meditation and I would say I I feel like I'm kind of prone to anxiety, but sometimes just try even doing a guided meditation through an app can be very challenging, just trying to to quiet your thoughts. So do you feel like the combining that with the activity of painting just makes it easier? Absolutely well.
Katie:Well, I do, and I will say you are not alone. The majority of my students come to the table with the same thing you just said, and then at the end I always ask let me get your feedback, did you find that helpful? They're like I was so engaged in watching the paint flow and the you know, just wanting to see what the colors did. Now there are a few people that really can't release and let go, and then I have to remind them it's a practice. You can't just do it once and then, woo, that was great.
Katie:I mean, it is a practice. It's something that I show up to daily, just like if we're doing yoga or if we're, you know, training for something, you have to practice it. But yes, it is. When you can combine an activity, it just, I believe and I'm not a scientist, so I'm probably I'm probably misquoting something and I didn't go to Harvard and I don't know any of that stuff but I would say it distracts your brain, as you're, you know, thinking. I'm trying to quiet my mind. Once you can zero in on that activity, it will draw you in, just draws you in, naturally.
Lauren:So I know you mentioned that you do classes you know from. You went from showing your friends and then it involved to that. So what does that now look like as far as how you're helping other people do this?
Katie:So a couple of it's like I keep this is also. I throw things at the wall and see what's going to stick. So for a long time I was doing Instagram lives and it would be mindful Monday and I would just say, or meditative Monday, and I would hop on for five minutes and just do a meditative painting and, you know, speak the guided meditation while I was doing it. I stopped doing those just because then I started doing Zoom classes and I would just put it out on my website and people would show up and we would just right here, I sit here, and then I would have a camera down and I would lead people through a guided meditation. I was doing that for about a year and a half and those are great and people show up and I love it. Now I'm working on, I recorded it so that now it's a little bit more. It's not I was afraid of recording because I love the interaction with people, but the recording is going to get to more people and that's the goal I want. I want it to be accessible. When I was doing the Zooms I had I had clients from Denmark and Israel and someone from New Zealand and they're like am I? I'm going to have to watch the recording. My timing doesn't work and I felt like a Zoom recording wasn't as strong as, say, me recording it myself and and kind of I don't know. It's a little bit more organized. So right now I'm getting ready to launch this um meditate with painting out to the world in September. I am super excited about it. It's like a baby. I've been dreaming about it for three years and haven't had the courage to do it and I finally was like we're just going to spend the entire summer and we're going to do it, so we'll see how it goes.
Katie:I do lead large group workshops. The largest I've probably led in a guided meditation is 250 people. It's not the same experience as sitting around a table or in your own space, but it still gives somebody a taste of what is possible, and so I always try to show people how you can. It's literally like to sit down with a little thing of paint. You do not need a lot of space and it can be something that you could put into your drawer at work and if you're stressed out, you just pull it out five minutes and turn on a meditation and just paint and put it away and I just think a five minute pause to play reset can be so healthy.
Lauren:Can you tell us a little bit more about your new course that you're going to be launching and what people can expect from that?
Katie:Yeah. So it is like from start to finish, of how well it's called a mini course, but I really feel like it's a master course because I just it's a lot. So it starts with the supplies that I use, cause that's probably one of the biggest questions I get on Instagram is wait, why isn't my paint travel like yours? And so much has to do with the brand of paint. So I walk you through the supplies, I walk you through how to set up your space so you feel successful. The elements that I bring in, such as, you know, opening the senses with oils or candles, tea, nature, lighting, sounds. So I try to talk about the five senses and igniting them. Then, like, I actually teach you how to do the painting. So if somebody doesn't know how to do watercolor painting, I actually show you, start with the brush, and then we connect the breath and then we do a little bit of breath work. So there's a bunch of modules on that. And then I'm.
Katie:The most excited I am is that there's a whole section of guided meditations and they're different time lengths, so a five minute, a 10 minute and then like almost a 20 minute guided meditation with a theme. So it's my voice and music, and then they can just paint along. And I find that people love that. Where they're really listening to the voice At least that's the feedback I get from people is, and especially when you're doing a painting meditation, I'm involving the paint into it. So I'm saying, take your big brush and brush back and forth, and if you want to change your color, so like it it. You could turn on a Peloton meditation, but they're not going to talk about painting. You could turn on a Peloton meditation, but they're not going to talk about painting. So I do like that. I tie the art into it as and then I remind people to breathe.
Katie:The biggest thing I always see in a class is everyone goes like this their little shoulders go out because they're so tense. Is it perfect? Is it there? And I'm always like and I can see it and I'm always like drop your shoulders, you know, just kind of reset, take a breath, get a different color, try something different. So that's going to be in there as well. And then there's a whole module on support, like for the person that maybe isn't feeling the encouragement for the day and they really want it to be perfect. So there'll be a couple audios on that, on how to help people walk through that and encourage them, and that's kind of what the course is gonna be. I don't know.
Lauren:Yeah, that's awesome. That's that sounds amazing. I've never tried meditative watercolor and I now I really want to, but even just hearing your your voice on on Instagram videos is soothing, so I I want to try it Well.
Katie:I do have an, and you can go out to my YouTube channel and I also will send it to you if you wanted to sign up on my email a 10 minute free meditation with watercolors, and so it gives you a taste of what it kind of looks like, and that's always fun. So it's out there.
Lauren:Cool. So I know you said that you were kind of dealing with some self doubt when it came to launching this course. So what was kind of the turning point for you?
Katie:I feel like I listened. I either listened to a podcast or saw something on Instagram. I and I I'm going to think it's Jeff Bezos that might've said it that he didn't want to wake up at the age of 85. I might be misquoting this, so please just know that I'm probably misquoting it and he didn't want to wake up at 85 and regret not doing something, and so I just really kind of thought on that. I was like you know, I every day regret that I haven't put it out yet.
Katie:I get asked all the time do you have any? Do you have this course? Are you going to do this? And I've allowed my fear of technology, my fear of how do you put all the components together. I can teach it without a problem. It's how do I film it, and then how do I get it onto a website, and then when do you market it and how do you sell it and all that. All that stuff is super new to me, is super new to me. And I finally was like you just got to do it. And so I did.
Katie:I hired a coach in the spring and was like all right, if I invest in this, if I say I just need someone to give me a formula and tell me how to do this, then I think I'm going to hold myself accountable. And so I did. And I think that was a turning point for me was when I realized I put my hard earned money into it. But you know what? You're going to create, something beautiful, you're going to change somebody's life and you just need to stop getting in the way of yourself, and that's what I was doing. I really. I think we can do that all day long. We can make excuses and it's funny, right now in my life I've got some crazy stuff going on and this launches in three weeks. I'm like how am I going to get this done in three weeks? I'm like stay focused. Even with the crazy, you're teaching people to stay focused, so it's almost testing me as a human. Um, you just got to jump in and do it.
Lauren:Um, what do you hope people take away from the experience, aside from the painting aspect?
Katie:I just slowing down. We are in such a fast paced world and we um, we never take a minute. I mean, we kind of talked about this earlier. We never take a minute to play. As adults, we, we don't give ourselves permission to pause to. I know I didn't. And so when you can slow down, you start to take notice of the things that are beautiful around you, and I just besides the painting, just even just taking five minutes, whether the and I always tell people this, it's not about what you're painting. You may never hang this on your wall, you might even throw it away, but if you're taking a moment to just pause, you're going to recognize that good feeling and do it a little bit later in the day, and I think we need more of that. I do personally.
Lauren:Yeah, I think so too.
Katie:I mean we race all day long, right, and I'm not. I mean I have grown children, now grown boys, so I'm not in a carpool line, but I can remember the days where you're literally you would be, I would be, you know, worked all day, and then I would hop in the car, drive my kid to one sporting event, to the next sporting event oh, how are we going to eat? And I got to race home and cook and then kind of get them to bed. That constant is so and it doesn't matter whether that's for a mom or non-mom, a guy like we are racing and it's so not good for our nervous systems and I think that's why I had high levels of cortisol and I was borderline diabetic, like I just wasn't stopping to just pause.
Lauren:Are you familiar with the artist's way by Julia Cameron Love?
Katie:it Just did it last year.
Lauren:Okay, oh, I want to talk about that because I, you know, one of the uh concepts, the activities in that book, is the artist date, which, for people who are listening, it's, it's basically, um, you know, taking yourself once a week on a solo activity, something that just excites your, your inner child. And I, you know, I read, I did the book and then I stopped. I wasn't doing the morning pages consistently that. So then I, I think I tried it again, but for whatever reason, getting myself to do the artist date, I just kept blowing it off, or I would just, I don't know, did you ever find that it's just hard to almost allow yourself to go to go do that, even though it's supposed to be fun? But I just yeah.
Katie:So again, it's giving yourself permission to do something for yourself. So I've done the artist way twice. The first time I did it, I was not ready for it and I would. I didn't do any of. I did a few morning pages and then I read through it and it felt like a lot of work, and then I think that's the stage of my life, though. So, no, I did not do the dates. I did it a year ago or about like a year and a half ago. It was life changing. I'm like, oh, do this at a totally different stage in your life. Um, I had time to go on the dates. I ha, I am obsessed with journaling, so the morning pages were so good for me.
Katie:I don't write three straight pages anymore, um, but I always have my journal next to me when I'm having my quiet time in the morning. It, what the artist's way did for me, was made me look at. My practice is a spiritual practice and it's a gift to share with the world. Um, and that I'm doing it a disservice by not putting it out in the world for others to see and enjoy. Um, and again, whether they want to enjoy it or not, I, there's somebody out there that might enjoy it. I don't mean that in an egotistical way. I think that's.
Katie:We are all creative beings. I feel like it came from the artist's way that she might've said this. We're all creative beings, we are created to create, and often we don't think we can create because someone along the line said we weren't good enough. And so I just think that's a huge part of my mission of telling people you are good enough, you should show up, you should do it because it feels good when you are creating and putting something out there. It doesn't have to be watercolors, any kind of creation you know creating a business, creating a workshop, creating a podcast, creating, um, a dance, a song, oh, I just. Yeah, the artist's way is so good, I, I'm sorry. I give yourself a chance to do it, just keep at it.
Lauren:I mean, when I do the journaling I mean I filled up a bunch of notebooks it does feel so good to just get all of your thoughts out and then also to be able to look back and see you notice certain things that you keep writing. And then it then also to be able to look back and see you notice certain things that you keep writing, and and then it starts to click and you're like maybe I should do that thing that I've been saying I want to do right.
Katie:I do think the artist way helped me prepare for getting this course out for sure, for sure. I subconsciously, I'm sure it did.
Lauren:I feel like there's so much noise in our lives these days, and I feel like a lot of it comes from social media, but I know as a business owner that that's also an important part of you know what you do. How do you balance that?
Katie:So it's just such a great question. People ask me this all the time. Um, I enjoy putting content out on social media. I do not find it to be, uh, a burden. I don't know if it's because I like being creative, um, or if I like being creative or if I like connection. I set out with an Instagram with, you know, 200 people on it eight years ago, and I do feel like a lot of my clients, my buyers, my collectors have come from Instagram. I also think a lot of my relationships have come from Instagram, so I actually am not one that gets frustrated by it. I've never allowed the algorithm to drive me crazy, and I also heard this from someone on a podcast and I really appreciated hearing it.
Katie:They said your Instagram account as a small business owner is not for your friends. So often we can get. Should I post again? Should I not post? What are they going to think? I don't actually care what anybody thinks, because you get literally I think it's not even a second in front of somebody and they get to decide whether they want to be a part of it or or unfollow you. I've never let it bother me.
Katie:Um, my Instagram has grown. It's been really interesting to watch. Uh, I nurture Instagram more than I nurture TikTok or YouTube, which I probably should get over to YouTube. It's just. It's just another platform to have to sit and think about. But I'm really comfortable on Instagram. I, I don't know, I'm almost a hundred thousand followers and I still can't even understand that I'm like what. But I connect with some amazing people and I think it's kind of cool. Now, instagram could go away tomorrow and it's probably listening to me right now it could go away tomorrow. So, as a small business owner, I really do focus on also building my email list, because I think that's really where, if you really are like a super fan and you want to hear what fun classes I'm doing or what art I'm releasing, then you'll end up on my email list and, um, because Instagram could go away tomorrow. But I, I enjoy the creative content, I enjoy getting on stories and I've always said this because people will say to me oh, I just can't do it.
Katie:I'm like the day it doesn't bring me joy is the day I'm going to stop it. Just, it just naturally brings me joy and I don't let it stress me out, I just don't.
Lauren:That's, that's good. I I'm trying to work on that as well, but do you do you have people that are helping you with the? You know, running your business?
Katie:I need it. No, I hired these coaches to give me some advice on how to put the class out, and so they have been unbelievable and amazing. I found them on Instagram. It's an artist out of Canada, so she's artist out of Canada, so she's already done it before. So it's kind of neat to know that we're both watercolor artists and she kind of gets the the running your own business thing. I don't have any help. Um, I don't have an assistant. I've had in the past some people who have helped, which has been lovely, but you know to like run little errands for me, but I am a little on the controlling side, so I definitely don't want to release my Instagram to anybody. I don't. I just don't. I don't know, I fly by the seat of my pants. The funniest is, there's this whole marketing. I don't know formula for selling this course that I'm doing and I'm like can't I just get out there and just say what I want to say? I mean, can I just be me and I can, nobody's saying I can't.
Katie:But the formula is saying you need to do it this way, I want to do it this way yeah, I don't know what's right.
Lauren:Um, no, I can, I can relate to you, know, just wanting to do it yourself and wanting to have that, that control, um, so that that makes sense. But, um, do you have any advice for somebody who is just afraid of putting their work out there?
Katie:Yeah, the best advice I can give and I've kind of said a little bit of this not everyone's going to love it and you just got to know that, but somebody will and you might brighten somebody's day. So put it out there, kind of get over yourself. I, I, you got to remove the ego from all of it and I think I think doing a, an art show, like putting I did the Gasparilla art show, this for the first time in March and I'm in my community. I volunteered there as a child Like it I that was raw and I was like, okay, people are going to walk by and they're going to go. Oh, I don't like that. Never once in that entire weekend Did I think about that, because I removed the ego. You got to throw the ego out there and and get rid of it and just put yourself out there, be vulnerable.
Katie:I think people like vulnerability. I think people are drawn to real and it's okay to do something and be scared by it. A lot of people will say I don't want to get on film or video and talk. Well, I think I just think if you're real, someone just wants to connect. That's the best way to connect, so just do it Did I answer that Okay?
Lauren:Yeah, I still struggle with kind of perfectionism and you know there's I have a lot of different creative interests, but then I I'm like I don't want to be bad at something, even something like when it comes to drawing or painting. I wonder and I don't know if anybody else feels this way where it's like is it, is it a skill that I, that I have to learn, like I, to be, to be good at it? Do you, do you feel like like people can learn how to be good at it, or that they should just do it for the you know, the enjoyment of it?
Katie:So the question I want to ask is what's good Like? What is the definition of good? Because I think art is subjective. So if you go back and you look at all the master's work I did an entire year of studying modern art from we hit the masters like modern art masters, so I can't remember Maybe we started out with Paul Klee and Kandinsky and if I said that right, o'keeffe and Picasso, moreau all of those, like some people, didn't even like it. I mean I don't really love a Picasso, but so what's good? I mean? I think that's the question to ask yourself is what does that mean? Now? Taking classes to um? Strengthen technique is great and that gives you confidence.
Katie:But putting your art out and it may not be good in your mind, it's good to somebody else, and so I would encourage people to not wait for the perfect Work on that.
Katie:If that's what your goal is, if your goal is to be a realism painter or realism drawer, then you got to focus on that. But if your goal is just to get your art out there, and maybe your perspective is awful, that's what's coming out of you, and so I wouldn't let it hold you back from starting to show your work, keep working on what your goal is, but still put your work out, because you're never going to put your work out, because you're probably never going to feel like this is exactly where you want it to be. I think this is a journey. The perfect thing is a journey. I hate to I don't know why I just use the word perfect, but the strengthening your technique is a journey. And then just getting your workout like I wish I could show you what my work looked like in the beginning and where it is now. It just has evolved and so if I never put this work out, I don't think I'd ever have gotten here. So it's a process, but if you're looking to there's that word again.
Katie:If you're looking to again strengthen the technique, go for it, but don't let that hold you back, because that's going to take time.
Lauren:Okay, does that help?
Katie:Yeah, and I think that's the case with, like, putting out a podcast or doing a website. I small like when people are just starting out and they're like, but my website's not up, who cares? Throw your stuff out on Instagram or knock on the door of that gallery. Open up your door, show your art. You can be building your website. That thing's going to be changing all the time. You're never going to get it to where you want it to be. It's constantly changing and this is what I've had to teach myself about this course. It's good enough.
Lauren:Is it?
Katie:perfect? Heck? No, I'm sure it's not. And as I'm sitting here building the website literally right before I got on here building the website, I could spend years trying to make it look good, but really it's never going to get out there if I let myself get in the way.
Lauren:What does a typical day look like for you as an artist and a business owner?
Katie:Great question. So I believe in slow mornings I do not set an alarm. I have a crazy cabapoo that wakes me up at 630 or seven and if she didn't I would probably sleep till eight, and I don't like to have any appointments before 10 o'clock. So typically I'll wake up, I come down, I have a cup of coffee it's the first thing that I do and I sit in my front room in front of the window. I have beautiful window boxes of flowers, so I look at those. I always start with a journal writing or a little reading, I drink the coffee and then I go for a long walk and then I am very routine, by the way. So this is literally what I do every day. I come in, I have a smoothie, I do some weights and then I most likely don't take a shower, unless I have to go somewhere or if I get on camera. But I and then I start to work. So from about 10 until 530 every day, I work hard. I, I hit the ground running and I I could be painting a big painting. I sometimes my paintings are five feet and I could be working on a big commission. Uh, this summer has been 100% computer work and ready to get out of the computer work, computer work and ready to get out of the computer work. So yeah, I work, I'm always working.
Katie:I will say my Instagram posts always come from my coffee in the morning. I'm always in that I'm like, okay, well, let's just write about this. I do not plan them out. I was going to ask about that. I do not. I do not have a planner. I do not edit them very well. I'm telling you I'm. I actually was on a call. Meta called me to ask how I do it and I was like um, it's by fly by the seat of my pants, literally. It's like what am I feeling right now and what do I think someone else might want to hear? And so I just write it and throw the video in. I mean the videos the videos.
Katie:I have a big library of the videos, so, but I don't. I don't have a schedule. And then someone would say, well, you should do a what? My coach I love her by her, by the way love her. And she's like so you should do one post on educating, one post on inspiration. Well, I'm like, yeah, I can't even think about that. That's taking the joy out of it so, but do you edit?
Lauren:you edit the videos in advance and then each day, you just decide what you're going to post no, I edit the videos in the editor in Instagram.
Katie:Literally I'm like okay, we're gonna put a little space there. I mean Instagram. When I talked to meta, they're like please use our edits. Whatever, I'm like dude, I don't even know how to open up that app. No, this works great. I'm just doing it right here. I'm picking my music. It's whatever feels really good in the moment.
Lauren:That's very impressive. And you're obviously doing something right Cause, yeah, you're almost at a hundred K, so who knows?
Katie:I mean, again you take the ego out. I mean, it's pretty raw what?
Lauren:uh, what is one challenge about running a creative business that people might not expect?
Katie:Gosh, great question. It's just a lot of work, A lot of it. I would never trade it, but it's it's me, it falls on me, it's it's me, it falls on me, it's um, I would.
Katie:I would just say I wasn't prepared for how much work goes into it you know, and all the way down to QuickBooks, I mean I'm, I got, I got to do my taxes, I got you know, from that to, oh, I got to market it. Oh, I got to sell it. Oh, I got to actually paint it. Oh, do I want to do this and should I do this show? Like, and the beautiful thing is you get to create it and curate it the way you want to. But I really miss having a sounding board. There's so many times I'm like I just want a board of people that can like sit here and tell me should I, should I not? Just the collaboration piece of it is, um is missing and I I thankfully so thankful. I have three dear, dear friends who we all so together. Four of us run our own small businesses and we talk daily and I'm'm always like okay, guys, what do you think? Should I do this? Should I not? So it can get lonely.
Lauren:That's all. It's good to have that support. When you're not painting, how do you stay inspired?
Katie:Nature, nature and travel. Um, I am fully I I feel my best when I'm in somewhere where nature is surrounding me. I truly honestly feel grounded, I feel spiritually connected. Um, it is, it is what I love. That is where I gain all my inspiration. I take tons and tons of photos. Sometimes I refer to them, sometimes I don't. Um, they stay in my mind, but most of my work reflects nature, so that's where I really gain a lot of my inspiration.
Lauren:And if you could go back and look at your you know your previous self, as you were just starting on this journey of doing art full time. What advice would you give to yourself?
Katie:Trust your instincts and surround yourself with really good people who will cheer you on, and don't allow the chatter to derail you. Because I would say, in the beginning, when you're a baby entrepreneur artist and you're trying to figure yourself out, you know kind of a what are they called? Emerging artist In that, in that stage, you are trying to figure out what is going to connect with people, and so you might, you might slip into the world of mimicking what others are doing, which is fine.
Katie:I mean, that's what the masters did and it's not offensive to me but find your style, find your. What is it that really wants to come out of you? Because we all have something unique that wants to come out of us. Trust it. Once you connect with that and you pour it out, everything else falls into place.
Katie:One quick thing I can remember a professor of mine in school. He was like you need to find your style. I'm like what does that freaking mean? And he's like you don't have a style, you have no style. And I was like I mean, I get it now. Now you can look at a body of my work and you can say, oh, that looks like Katie White's work. I now understand what that is. That took me till I was 45 to get there, and now, at the age of 21, 22, I don't think I was mature enough to even understand what that meant. Well, I wasn't, because I clearly didn't. And when you're constantly trying to discover that as that baby emerging artist, it can be frustrating. And so I think if you can tap into what you truly want to, do not worry about what others are thinking. It'll start to spill out of you, and when it does, it's magic, it's absolutely magical. That's what I think.
Lauren:I love that. I um, sometimes I it's that idea of like feeling like I need to know what my you know have a certain style, or you feel like you need to choose a niche and stick with that. Um, do you have any any advice for people that are maybe dealing with those thoughts?
Katie:um, so I think that come. I think play comes into that. So, um, I have a friend who's an artist. She's like I just want to try so many different things. I'm like I love that you are playing and then to find which one of those things brings you joy and continue to do it and then watch time and life is going to evolve and it's going to shift. So allow it to shift and allow it to go, and then maybe you dabble back into what you were doing. So I think I think that's a pretty normal, a normal feeling that someone may have as they're exploring, and there's nothing wrong with that play and finally, where can people connect with you and learn more about your work and your upcoming course?
Katie:you can find me on instagram, katie white artist, and then, um, facebook, katie white artist. I'm actually getting ready. There's going to be a facebook group out there that's connected to a challenge that I'm launching right before. I'm launching a challenge right before the course comes out September 9th. It's called Breath to Brush and it gives you a little taste. It's free, and then there'll be a Facebook group there, like a private Facebook group that you could connect and community, but on Facebook right now.
Lauren:I'm.
Katie:Katie White Artist YouTube. I think it's Katie White Artist and I think TikTok is Katie White Artist. I always forget to go out there because I just do Might be there on Pinterest. I can't remember. I don't really do much out there. And is twitter still around, or is it x?
Lauren:I don't even know clearly you can't find me well. Um. Thank you so much, katie. I I'm a fan and I'm so inspired by your journey and you know everything that you had to share today and i'm'm excited to to see the launch of this, this course, and thank you so much for for joining me today.
Katie:Thank you for having me, I love it and uh, I uh love to see what you're doing out here, so keep doing it.
Lauren:Thank you so much for listening. You can find all of Katie's links in the show notes, so be sure to check them out, and if you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts so you don't miss the next one.
