knowing myself is being the kind of
person that tends to go off track when
sharing his ideas I've taken the liberty
to write them down just to make sure
that these ideas in which I believe are
gonna be shared with you today
so first of all I'm a sneaker artist and
now what does a sneaker artist actually
mean what am i doing
I paint sneakers for a living and I
combine this with social media itself so
starting out let's let's make like a
rundown of how I started fifth grade I
would write poetry but also use the
10-minute recess to run to the bakery
and get donuts which I would then sell
for double the cost so this allowed me
to go and buy more snacks so after that
as a kid from the countryside because
I'm not from Bucharest I went to a high
school in Bucharest and this was the
first taste that I got at diversity so
by that time I had taken on professional
volleyball professional gaming so PC
gaming and I slowly but surely started
to realize the value and importance of
money so these passions had a cost to
them which and the passions themselves
were not always given back in terms of
monetary value so there was always like
the option of going to my parents you
know asking them for money but every
time I would do that I would feel like
I'm not doing enough and a bit later
they told me something that I still
stand by they said if you want something
more expensive if you want something
better better so regardless of what it
is you have to work for it yourself
we're gonna help you with the basic and
if you want the extra package you gotta
work for it so I tend to go by that buy
those values at the same time now sorry
with time going to high school I became
strategic remember how I used to sell
Donuts well now I used to make a list
the day before and then cook
my colleagues this would get me a bit of
money which I would then put into I
don't know gaming and volleyball
themselves and the there was this thing
that I would do to invest in myself as a
gamer I would go spend the night at the
internet cafes with teams just to
practice afterwards I went to college
and I realized that I had to give up
something so I gave up on volleyball and
gaming to pursue a career in marketing I
I thought that was the best choice for
me
turns out it wasn't so after the first
year I did I never graduated the college
after the first year I realized that
most of the stuff that was being taught
to me was not helpful I know this
doesn't apply to everyone but to me it
was a waste of time so basically what
happened was the degree itself wasn't
give me wasn't giving me job certaintly
but having skills did so from then on I
realized I had to invest more oh I
forgot a part during high school the
last year I saw a pair of sneakers that
was customized I guess this was the most
important part actually well here I am
so I saw a pair of vans custom sneakers
on the internet which are customized
these were based in the US I didn't have
the funds to get them to Romania I
didn't even have the funds to buy them
so what I did I found is I found some
acrylic paints and I tried making my own
pair there are people people that
laughed but the ones that didn't help me
gain some confidence in myself so this
whole process of me painting sneakers on
and off went on for like three years
time which I didn't get any money enough
you could realize you don't have that
many sneakers laying around in your
house so I had to work for free for my
friends and for random people of your
change that is actually like the first
pair that I ever did the ones from which
I was inspired wear orange and looked
much much better
so with the money mind being in college
still I was thinking about ways to get
more money by that time social media
Facebook and Instagram were getting
really big at for the audience so what I
did is I noticed this trend which has
always been around I guess of people
wanting to be different so I analyzed
the market and I came up with a
conclusion people are sick and tired of
buying clothes from the mall so I
started hitting up thrift stores three
or four times a week I would go there
buy as much as I could easy to sell
items that I would then flip on Facebook
so that's why I made money to invest in
the side hustle that I got going on with
the sneakers with the paints and all
that so the turning point came after I
realized that I can promote my work
which at that time wasn't into like the
business level that I can promote it on
social media so keeping Facebook and
Instagram in mind I started posting as
much as I could till one day when there
was a sudden turn in the events that
were happening to me a girl wrote to me
and she was like hey I really enjoyed
your artworks would you be willing to
make one for me let me know when I can
send the sneakers in and how much it
would cost me so I saw the message and
I'm not gonna lie here I wear it for two
days before getting back to her and then
I was like okay sure thing I can do it
just send me the sneakers and I'm gonna
get I'm gonna get to painting them it
will cost you $15 I was stoked that I
could make money from it that was my
first interaction with money from the
passion that I really had so from then
from then on I realized that the more I
the more I posted the more people would
come with get in contact with me and ask
for custom artwork so there was now
business opportunity in what I loved
doing I didn't have to do a side hustle
anymore I didn't have to invest in
something else and that was the only
thing that I could do from then on to
promote myself
so six years later a thousand more than
a thousand customers actually art works
for some of the most influential people
in Romania and abroad
and campaigns with some of the bigger
biggest brands in the world and Here I
am today in front of you now notice how
this has been a roller coaster and I
have yet to discuss social media to its
true extent here's why by show of hands
please how many people in this room ever
decided to post a picture just because
they knew it was gonna be appreciated
instead of posting a random picture okay
so I didn't expect that result to be
honest good well it's not good but
you've just experienced the first
creators dilemma do I create for myself
do I create based on solely my popular
my beliefs or do I create for the
audience this is the question that our
Creator gets in trouble with often so
imagine now after getting the result
after being aware of the fact that
you're self aware of what you're posting
in the online medium imagine putting
that in with all of all of your time
craft energy basically ordered all that
you're doing in order to get success
here's where things tend to get tricky
[Music]
Wow so with social media being the only
the only almost it's free actually so
social media is free the Internet is
free it's the easiest way to promote
yourself as a struggling starting artist
so what do you do what what do you need
first of all and that is the point which
I'm trying to make first of all for you
to succeed in any business line whether
you're an artist you're trying to
promote your own brand or service or a
strategy Aronoff or another brand you
need attention you need people's eyes on
you just like I have your eyes on me
right now okay so attention comes into
play and when attention comes into play
another interesting things think happens
with your creativity itself so you start
to judge your creativity based on what
other others think your own your own
values your own set of values and
creative value gets to a point in which
it's at risk of being changed by by what
others expect from you so you're no
longer creating only for yourself but
for the audience which is the most
important thing because people have a
reason to like something so you have you
have to have the empathy of realizing
that and you have to be aware of the
fact that you can't live in your own
bubble as a creator
you have to take in mind what others
think about you and your work okay so
realizing that from that point and at
that point actually I was still working
with a mindset that would only allow me
to do the customs that I believed were
good so well there's a certain
difference between the view of a creator
and the one from a person who does not
know your niche product you have to
still realize that there is value in
what other people think so what I did is
I was I was working on two plans the one
is the one in which I was only doing for
myself creating for myself and the one
in which I was creating for other people
as well and
has allowed me to get to a point in
which I would get more of the people's
attention now good it's so it's pretty
hard for me because I usually tend to to
keep these things it's freestyle as
possible but there's trust me there's
appointed so oh and this this is
actually the first time in which I've
written anything so now there's an
artistic ego that comes into play when
[Music]
you are dealing with the pressure from
the society each and every idea that you
make is gonna be dictated and changed by
the perception itself
so despite realizing what was this stake
and what I wanted to happen there was
always this question that was bothering
me are you okay with the fact that
you're creating for others instead of
creating for yourself and that still
goes on in my mind
now this can get a creator into a
certain creative rut a creative rut is
actually a path that if you take on
multiple occasions it gets harder and
harder to get out of so what I did this
doesn't apply to anyone to everyone but
it applied to me is I found my
creativity in a different place I took
up photography and videography from
there on each and every time I had a
creative struggle I would take the
camera go wander around the streets or
take content for I don't know behind the
scenes of what I was doing this helped
me get more authentic show more of my
work with we can change this so share
more of my work with my audience so this
is one of the works that I did almost
three years after I started taking
customizing sneakers seriously so that
was my alternative so onto the social
Media itself thank you on to the social
media itself this the key is actually a
simple one you have to post as much as
you can but always keep quality in mind
you have to never be ashamed of sharing
your work with others because you think
that you're gonna be maybe I don't know
you're you're not gonna be appreciated
you're always gonna be comparing your
work with others but you don't know what
they have behind them it may be like 10
or 15 years of work in comparison to
what you have it may be I don't know
limitless money or they may even have a
team behind them so yep
that's all right that's what I've come
to realize that you have to believe in
yourself first of all and this was not
intended to be a motivational talking I
don't even know if it was but the key
for me was to always post as much as I
could keep the people in mind keep their
interests in mind and most of all
realized that there's a reason for which
the term social is in social media thank
you
[Applause]