June 9, 2025 • 57 mins
Sara Sparky Baumann's creative journey demolishes the myth that artists must struggle financially. Born into a family of artists but pushed toward traditional careers by her Iranian mother, Sara pursued occupational therapy while nurturing her art on the side. The pandemic became a turning point—witnessing life’s fragility in healthcare settings sparked her resolve to follow what truly fulfilled her.
What sets Sara apart isn’t just talent—it’s her entrepreneurial mindset. She’s built a thriving career by mastering business fundamentals. From founding the Women and Weapons community that raised over $170K for the Malala Fund to diversifying her income through painting, murals, and commercial work, she proves artists can adapt to economic shifts without sacrificing integrity.
"You can't rely on anybody else to come save you," Sara says. This philosophy fuels her drive to build multiple income streams, use platforms like LinkedIn for growth, and embrace tech other artists resist. Her art, depicting powerful women, boldly challenges outdated narratives.
Sara also values true community over superficial networking, preferring “kooky, weird misfits” to socialites. This authenticity has helped her build global relationships with artists and collectors while staying rooted in her vision.
For creatives torn between passion and practicality, Sara offers this: there’s no one right path. Whether keeping a stable job or going all in, the key is to choose intentionally and adapt. With business savvy, community, and heart, your creativity can be your livelihood.
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Sara Baumann Art
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
You can't rely on anybody else to come save you.
You can't rely on anybody elseto open up the door and give you
an opportunity.
You oftentimes have to ask forthose opportunities, which, I'll
be honest, is one of the thingsthat I struggle with, because I
always hear my mom's voice inmy ear saying Sarah, that is
inappropriate.
It is disrespectful.
You should not do that.
Whereas, in reality, there'softentimes a way to broach
(00:33):
things respectfully whilst stillputting yourself out there, and
so you know you have to makeyour own opportunities, you have
to go out and network.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Hello and welcome to another edition of For the Love
of Creatives podcast.
I am your host, dwight, joinedby the other Connections and
Community, guy Maddox, and todayour featured guest is Sarah
Sparky Bauman.
Welcome, sarah.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Hello guys, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
It's so great to have you here.
I've been looking forward tothis.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Me too, especially after I got to see you guys.
Uh, you know a little bit.
It was nice to finally get thisgoing.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Yeah, I was really delighted that we just met you
guys at Matthew's Halloweenparty.
That was a lot of fun.
I got to have a little moreconversation with him than I did
you.
A lot of going on and a lot ofnoise, but it was still a lovely
meeting.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yes, definitely.
Well, you've seen me at a fewevents now and how ADD I get, so
the struggle is real.
But now I'm seated, there's oneline of focus.
You've got my full attention.
I will be entirely present.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
You know, if you have a squirrel moment, we can reel
you back in.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I am the queen of squirrel moments.
I will tell you that much.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Well, let's direct our focus to making sure that we
give you a proper introductionto our listeners.
And you have an incrediblestory, but what is the way that
you would encapsulate it?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
My story or a little bit about me.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Just a little bit about you, to start.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So my name is Sarah Bauman.
As you guys mentioned, I'vebeen an artist at heart my
entire life.
My DNA is all artists, from mymom's side, from my dad's side.
It's just kind of naturallyingrained within me.
I instead got a degree inoccupational therapy, which is
healthcare, and as of about 2021, 2022, I transitioned entirely
(02:48):
out of healthcare and entirelyinto art, whereas prior to I was
doing both part-time, I'm sorry, one full-time, one part-time
and this has become my entirepassion, you know, not just
being an artist, but also beingan artist who tries to champion
good and does well for thecommunity, but also, hopefully,
inspires others to try andfigure out ways to turn their
(03:12):
passions into their daily livesas well.
So that's a little bit about mein a nutshell.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
And there's so many different directions that can go
, and that's fabulous, it'sbeautiful.
First of all, I want toacknowledge that, for anyone
listening, you have shown thatit is possible.
You, you can.
You can do that thing.
That is what it is that drivesyou and have it be your, your
(03:38):
primary driver, the primarything that gets you out of bed
in the morning and that sustainsyou and feeds your family and
allows you to give back.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yes, and I will say too, you know, there is no shame
, no qualms at all with, youknow, maintaining your passion,
whatever it is.
You know, say you're an artistor whatever, and also
maintaining something that thatgives you like fiscal security
on the side as well.
There is absolutely no qualmswith that.
I just saw a friend of ours,minji, speak at the Aloft Hotel
(04:09):
about a week ago, and one of thethings that she was actually
kind of telling people is don'tquit your full-time job when you
are wanting to transition tobeing an artist.
And I don't disagree with thatat all.
I actually completely agreewith it, because sometimes that
fiscal pressure of having tobring in that income is very,
very overwhelming and canoftentimes become so burdensome
(04:30):
that you burn out.
So, yes, you can absolutelybring your passion into your
full-time career.
That's totally doable withenough knowledge and work and so
on, but there's also nothingwrong with maintaining a career.
That's a little bit more.
You know, expected what, what'sto be coming.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
You know, I think we have a tendency, as human beings
to think in terms of either or,and it really can be an.
And, you know, we recentlyinterviewed a gentleman who
shared with us that he he haddetermined he wanted two
passions, two purposes, that hedidn't want to just pick one.
And he has a full-time job witha corporation that he
(05:11):
absolutely loves, and then he isan actor and not, you know,
like the actor that you knowwaits tables.
He really has jobs, he'sactively acting and passionate
about that and doesn't soundlike he would want to give
either one of them up.
And I thought that was reallycool, because we don't think in
(05:31):
terms of and.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yes, yeah, no 100%, and I do think you see that more
often than not, especiallynowadays, I think people that
are like millennial and lowerhave a tendency to operate
multiple careers at one time, asopposed to the generations
above us, which had a tendencyto kind of silo into one career.
I think now it's very naturalto have like two, three jobs at
(05:56):
one point in time.
And don't get me wrong, I lovescience, I love health care, I
(06:18):
love helping people, I lovehealthcare, I love helping
people.
I was just incredibly upset byand no longer believing had
everything to do with the factthat I felt like a lot of the
health care systems were notappropriately managing the way
that patients should be caredfor and or health care health
care practitioners.
So I have a love and passionfor both things, both art and
(06:42):
science, and I would probablystill be pursuing both, you know
, had it not been the healthcare system that we're currently
, you know, within.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
You did what you had to do to take care of yourself.
I applaud that.
I want to comment on somethingyou said a minute ago.
You know the previousgenerations having you know one
thing that they did I'm a boomer.
You know One thing that theydid I'm a boomer, you know, and
I had a 40-year career as ahairdresser and makeup artist,
(07:10):
but throughout most of thatcareer I had a variety of
different side hustles that Idid.
There was always a side hustlebecause I just wanted that extra
challenge and stimulation andvariety.
You know, I wanted somethingthat broke up the monotony of
(07:32):
doing the same thing all day,every day.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Right yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
I think I was maybe an exception, because I don't
think a lot of boomers are likethat.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, yeah, well, I think that's very true.
I think that there's alwaysgoing to be exceptions, Right?
I think that you're also goingto find that there's a lot of
people that are within my agegroup and younger who prefer to
just have one career, just haveone stable career and not have
any side hustles or anything, anor or.
It can be an and and sort ofsituation.
But I think nowadays, you know,for at least us younger
(08:13):
populations, I think industryhas significantly changed,
whereas once you know, manymoons ago, a lot of companies,
they wanted to hold on to theiremployees, right, they wanted to
have loyal employees andmaintain them for as long as
possible.
They wanted to have loyalemployees and maintain them for
as long as possible.
And I think that that hassignificantly evolved over the
last probably two decades or so,where you're seeing more and
more layoffs and more and moreturn and burn of employees
(08:34):
because a lot of industries arerecognizing that they can get
rid of a sect of employees andhire in a new sect of employees
for even less pay than what theywere paying the previous cohort
, and I think that's been amassive catalyst, not only for
so many of us younger peoplewanting to now have multiple
side hustles, but also for fewerand fewer people really having
(08:56):
trust in corporations andindustries, in particular,
working for them.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
It's kind of sad.
People have become disposable.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
People have become disposable, those decisions
right, which is interesting,especially in the age of AI,
because we're going to be seeingmore and more focus in a lot of
these corporations andindustries on efficiency and
less on human care, which issomething that I think will be
intriguing to watch play outover the next several years.
(09:40):
But my assumption is thatprobably more and more people my
age and younger are going to beseeking out entrepreneurial
roles as opposed to roles withincorporations.
As a result of that.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
I concur.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yeah, I think there's definitely going to be a flavor
of there being the AI onlyversion of things that are cheap
and fast and readily available,and there's also going to be
that branch of any servicesthat's going to come from
(10:19):
allowing AI and a human tocollaborate to elevate things.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Absolutely, and I think it's funny that you say
that, because you know now, alot of times, whenever you get
onto a website and you needassistance, there's an AI
chatbot right, and a lot oftimes you'll utilize that AI
chatbot and you are thinking toyourself and I will say this
kind of on my husband's behalfwho's might I say, like the
biggest proponent of AI?
He's an AI guru, but even he islike this is garbage by
(10:50):
comparison to an actual humanbeing.
And I think that one of thethings that we the pendulum has
a tendency to swing very far tothe right and then, opposingly,
very far to the left, whereasoftentimes what we find is that
the best outcomes happen in themiddle.
And whenever I say that, what Imean is right now, we have a
lot of brand new AI rollout andI think that the pendulum is
(11:13):
swinging hard to the right,where we're trying to replace a
lot of human jobs with AI, whenin reality, I think probably the
middle of utilizing humans withthe efficiency of AI is going
to be where we find our sweetspot, and it's going to take a
little while for, I think, bothhumans, corporations, people
from all walks of life to kindof figure that out and recognize
(11:35):
that that's going to be whereour sweet spot is.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Definitely.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Go ahead Dwight.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Go ahead, dwight.
We had a real-world experienceof getting to see the worst way
that AI and automation couldimpact just a normal everyday
experience.
We ordered something fromAmazon and it was like a dental
(12:06):
device or something and the waythat it worked out.
You know, I'm filling in theblanks with what I think
happened at the warehouse, but amachine thought that it packed
the ordered item into thepackage and it got loaded into a
truck and it was delivered atAmazon speed to the front door.
(12:28):
Well, the thing is, somethinghappened to where that handoff
of the machine putting the itemin the package didn't actually
happen.
So we got an empty package thatwas placed on our doorstep.
That was placed on our doorstepand then we had to engage with
the AI help to go through.
You know you only have theoption that they expect.
(12:50):
Oh, so you want to return this?
Item.
It's like, well, no, it wasdelivered, but it didn't
actually happen.
So after several rounds ofgoing with the bot, I finally
was able to chat with a humanand explain like none of the all
the options you have are notexactly what's happening.
(13:12):
We just want what we ordered.
We don't want to return theempty envelope.
We just want you to send whatwe actually paid for in the
first place.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
It's so funny.
That's literally exact samething has happened to me too, so
I completely understand whatyou guys experienced.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Yeah, I love AI, but I think I'm using it a lot.
But I think that you have touse it very intentionally.
It can't replace us.
It can't do all the things Idon't want it to do.
I don't want it to replace me.
I don't want it to write all mystuff.
Right.
But I do think it's great, for Iwrite my stuff and then I run
(13:52):
it by you know, my littlepartner AI and say you know,
what am I missing here?
What could be a little better?
Right, right, and it's littletweaks that really do improve my
writing, but it's still like mywriting.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Right, right, and I will counter that by saying I
think that it absolutely couldreplace us.
The only thing is is going tobe the expectation of quality,
right?
So I think that you know,similarly to the way that
healthcare has degraded over thelast two decades because we've
just started kind of acceptingthis poorer and poorer quality,
(14:30):
we could see the same thing as aresult of, you know, just AI.
And I will also say, like it'sgetting very good, like you can,
actually your voice, your humanvoice, within chat GPT, so that
it writes like you and it talkslike you.
But I think that there's got tobe that kind of like ethical
question as an individual oflike is that what you
(14:53):
necessarily want to put out?
Do you want to find yourself ina place where you feel like?
You know you can't necessarilywrite a paragraph comfortably
without having, like your checksand balances of chat GPT, but I
do think that you know it has ahigh probability to replace us.
Even myself, as a formeroccupational therapist doing a
lot of manual labor, I thinkeventually we'll probably see
(15:15):
replacements in that regard too.
But the question is going to bequality, empathy, you know, so
on and so forth.
Where is that going to be thereas well or not?
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
I think the saving grace is, you know, for me, I
like to tell stories, I love totell stories, and everything I
write I include some type of apersonal story in, and GPT can't
do that.
Yes, yeah it can't tell mystories.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Exactly.
It can't access your memoriesright.
It can't access the way thatyou're contemplating empathy or
expressing emotion and so on andso forth.
That's not necessarily acapability just yet, but who
(16:10):
knows, seeing like these shows,like Black Mirror and Severance
and things like that, thatreally kind of make you like
okay, like I feel like there's ahigh probability that one of
these days we get chipsimplanted in our brains and next
thing, you know, like all ofour memories are accessible via
chat, gpt and like it's.
You know, who knows?
I don't know where things aregoing, but the here and now is,
yes, I agree with you, it can'tnecessarily replicate that human
aesthetic.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
No, I think it's interesting you bring up Black
Mirror because I think in a lotof ways you're something of an
architect of the future withyour community.
The women in weapons, I meanit's huge.
What is the drive for that andwhat's your vision for that
community?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
yeah, I mean.
So.
Women and weapons originallystarted as predominantly a
quote-unquote NFT project, right, but really one of the biggest
focuses was community.
At the time that women andweapons launch was right, kind
of towards the end of the COVIDbubble, right, like everybody
was stuck within their homes,the predominant way of you
conversing with one another andsocializing was via the internet
(17:07):
, and one of the things we foundwas that we were able to really
build community kind of aroundthis artwork and around this
rhetoric of what Women andWeapons is, which Women and
Weapons for those who don't knowwas a set of artworks that I
created that was set in themid-century era, that was meant
to portray women as strong andpowerful and kind of flip the
rhetoric that we're used toseeing in the mid-century of
(17:30):
women, you know, kind of beingsubpar and lesser than on its
head.
And so we were able to build areally wonderful community of
individuals from all around theglobe that you know.
A lot of them became, you know,such good friends.
They were attending eachother's weddings from like
opposite sides of the earth.
Some of my best friends havenow come from that community,
people that you know.
(17:51):
I don't know that I ever wouldhave run across prior to all of
this have come from thatcommunity, and it's one of the
ways that we're able to keep intouch.
But we also have a similar, Iguess, set of interests.
Right, because what Women inWeapons stands for is something
that is similar to what we allstand for, and you know, it's
not just about staying incontact and also, you know,
(18:12):
keeping up with my artwork andwhat I do day to day, but it's
also about giving back to theworld.
So one of the things that wewere able to do with Women in
Weapons was donate over $170,000to the Malala Fund, which, if
anybody's unfamiliar with theMalala Fund, it's created by
Malala herself and if you don'tknow her story, I recommend
(18:36):
looking it up.
But basically, what they do isthey go to underserved areas and
, from a grassroots level, theywork on changing the system for
women and girls to gainopportunities to education,
because a lot of statistics haveshown that the more education a
girl gets in underserved areas,the less likely they are to
become child brides, to becomeabused, and the more
(18:57):
opportunities they have forfreedoms and independence.
So it's become a community forgood, a community for friendship
, a community for keeping upwith my artwork.
You know myself as an artist, um, and so much more.
So it's been, it's been reallygreat.
But, like you said, it utilizestechnologies that were kind of
on the brink, because I'm a bigbeliever of early adoption.
(19:19):
But ethical early adoption, um,I think that there's always
asymmetrical upside in thatregard.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
How long have you had that community, Sarah?
Early adoption I think thatthere's always asymmetrical
upside in that regard.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
How long have you had that community, Sarah?
Since October of 2021.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
And how big is it now ?
Speaker 1 (19:39):
It depends on, I guess, what number you're
looking at.
Technically it's about acommunity of 10,000 people, but
if you look at the numbers, likeon social media, we have about
over one hundred fifty thousandindividuals that are following
all of our social accounts.
So it just kind of depends onwhich numbers you're looking at.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Wow, that sounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, yeah, it's been .
It's been really reallywonderful and you founded that.
You founded that yes, myself andmy husband, uh, my husband jake
uh, we both founded women andweapons.
Um, it was just something that Ifelt like I don't know.
I guess the story that I wantedto tell a little bit about you
know the way women were onceperceived and still, in a lot of
(20:22):
instances, are perceived.
I just I wanted to createrhetoric around you know the
opposing viewpoint of that andthat's become a really amazing
community of a lot of dads whohave daughters, who really want
to see their daughters becomestrong, independent women and
they want them to kind of seethis sort of a community, this
(20:44):
sort of artwork and so on and soforth, and feel empowered.
It's a big community of womenwho want to be empowered.
It's a big community of peoplefrom all walks of life who just
want to do good around the world.
So that has been, you know,some of our primary focuses.
But, yeah, we've championed theMalala Fund, we've championed
up and coming artists, we'vechampioned the 1000 Dreams Fund,
(21:07):
breast Cancer ResearchFoundation and so many other
organizations, not just, youknow, through philanthropy, but
also through awareness and so on.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Wow, that is totally impressive.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
I'm kind of like, wow , I mean, you know, because
we're working to build communityand you're there, you know
you've got something that reallyis having a positive impact in
the world, which is our dream.
It's what we spend all day,every day, working on, and so
it's such an inspiration to hearyour story and, I don't know, I
(21:48):
might need to pick your brains.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah, no, you know what I will tell you right now?
That building community isdifficult.
It's not an easy thing to do,especially now that, I will say,
the COVID bubble wassignificantly different in
regards to community building,because so many people were
seeking out community via thisone vector that was the internet
.
Right Now that our COVID erahas kind of ended, people are a
(22:14):
little bit more scattered thanthey once were, and so building
community is a little bit moredifficult now.
But I've come to find that oneof the things that people really
value is authenticity, likewhat's behind your head, and
transparency and just like ageneral good human type of
connection.
And so even here and aroundDallas I'm sure both of you have
seen that there's a lot ofdifferent, like dinner clubs and
(22:38):
like art clubs and so on and soforth, because people naturally
do want to participate incommunity.
But it is something that's hardto build.
It's something that's hard tolike, maintain kind of like a
loyal base, of which I don'tnecessarily think that you
should expect a loyal base,because I think people should be
able to ebb and flow and flexas they please.
But yeah, it's hard, it's notan easy thing to do, for sure.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
I think that you called out something and you're
right.
In the Dallas area there is alot available socially, but I've
lived here for 35 years andI've been in and out of a lot of
that and there is a significantamount of it that is very
(23:21):
superficial.
Yeah.
I don't experience theauthenticity.
I don't experience the realness.
It's very, very plastic andvery put on and as much as
authenticity is a draw and aturn on, that part of it is a
massive turnoff for me.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Well, I feel honestly the exact same way.
I will take the group of kooky,weird misfits over the group of
like hot socialites any day, anyday, and that's kind of the
group that I've found myself inhere in Dallas is I tend to hang
out with, like the kind ofquirky, weird artist group of
(24:04):
humans, as opposed to, you know,the opposite group, and it's
because I don't.
I don't care about what theperception is, I care about like
having an authentic, likeemotional connection with
individuals and we're in some ofthe loneliest times I think
we've ever been in, right,because everybody's into their
(24:25):
phones, so sucked into theircomputer or their iPad, whatever
, whatever it might be.
We're so separate.
Now.
Everybody's working 24 seven.
So a lot of people are seekingout that community and I think
it.
It is going to take for a lotof people a lot of bopping
around to figure out where youfit right, like where your,
where your comfort level is.
But once you start findingwhere that community is and you
(24:46):
start drawing in more and morepeople that are alike you, it
grows and grows and grows andgets bigger and better.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Well, I think in the oh, go ahead, dwight.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
I was just going to say that you you hit on
something that is a recurringtheme that we see, and that's
many creative people feelisolated in their journey yeah
what structures?
Weird well, yeah, yeah, well,and nothing's more.
Nothing makes you feel weirderthan how you kind of mentally
put a spotlight on yourself yes,yes, 100, yeah I think that's
(25:20):
what draws us to the creativecommunity.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
In the last couple of years, our not just anything
that might be about business,but our personal lives have
become so engaged and entwinedin the creative community.
Here that I mean, likeeverybody, pretty much that we
socialize with is some form ofcreativity, and when we're
(25:43):
together socially, a huge partof the conversation centers
around our creative experienceand how it has impacted our own
lives.
And we certainly embrace theweirdness, you know, the
individuality, the quirkiness.
Yes.
(26:04):
Yes, it's what makes it sointeresting.
I don't you know so much moreinteresting than a room full of
people wearing the designerlabels.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Well, not only that, but like also being in a room
full of people who want to learnmore about you as opposed to
telling you about themselves.
Right, and I think that's wherea lot of that loss of like true
heart to heart connectionhappens is that there's a lot of
and let me tell y'all, I haveI've been within like kind of
(26:37):
the entertainment space andeverything, and it's tough
because a lot of people theywant to talk about themselves,
they want to climb the ladder,and I just feel like it's very
difficult to make any sort oflike heart to heart connection
whenever you're doing that.
It's better, from my viewpoint,to be friends with people who
are the type of humans that wantto learn more about you and
(26:58):
also want to speak about you ina room full of opportunities
when you're not there.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
I mean, you're describing the purpose behind
this podcast.
We do this because it gives usan opportunity to get to know
somebody, so many people's realstory Oftentimes.
Oftentimes, it's the untoldstory.
I'm amazed at how many guestshave said you know, wow, I've
(27:27):
never really said my story outloud like this.
And how many of them havedescribed, you know, the
connecting of the dots or theshift that occurred within them
because of the opportunity toshare their story openly and
authentically.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah Well, you guys are also very easy to talk to
and you come across as verynonjudgmental individuals, and I
think that naturally allowspeople to kind of divulge more
than what they would usuallydivulge to others.
So that's something that Ithink you should give kudos to
yourselves about is that you dohave this natural presence of
like comfort and trust andnon-judgmental air about you.
(28:09):
So, that's your flowers.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Oh that means a lot and you really hit on something.
One of the things that westrive to get groups that we
bring together whenever we'rehaving one of our in real life
events, we hit really hard ongetting people to leave outside
(28:35):
a lot of the things that haveprotected them, a lot of the
scripts that they carry for howit is that they must present
themselves.
You know, men are taught thatthey carry for how it is that
they must present themselves.
Men are taught that they haveto be bold, they have to do
things to make themselves lookreally cool.
Right.
And when women have beenconditioned to try to make
people feel better and makethemselves small, and so we try
(28:57):
to create a space where we tellpeople to imagine that they're
back on the playground, they'rein the sandbox and they don't
have all the trappings of whatthey, what it is that makes it
so that they have their story,that they tell the world.
Right.
And they just want to go and begood people.
And we want to leave out anyjudgment.
(29:19):
We want to leave out any of thethings that make it so that
we're measuring other people andwe want to try to amplify our
curiosity.
We want to go in with extremeopenness and be ready for the
magic that happens, because it'sthat vulnerability that invites
(29:43):
people to connect in the waysthat are well, the ways that we
need.
You know, it allows people tobe truly seen.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Well, it's interesting that you say that,
because if there's one thingthat I feel like has been a
massive positive from hospital,sarah, is that you know I used I
would obviously go into patientrooms.
That was that was part of mycareer.
Um, constantly, constantly inpatient rooms, right, and
patients are oftentimes havingthe worst day of their life.
(30:14):
They haven't had an update fromtheir doctor, they probably
have to pee and nobody's lettingthem out of bed, right?
So a lot of them are pissed offand you'll come to find that
there's oftentimes a lot ofhealth care practitioners that
are just burnt out.
They're tired.
They're tired of patients beingmean to them.
One of the things that I foundis that whenever I walked into a
room and kind of let them ventfor a minute and then asked them
(30:37):
and focused a little bit moreon them and like why are you
uncomfortable?
What is upsetting you?
Now, let me address this in avery transparent way.
People oftentimes kind of likecooled off and they backed down
and they totally opened up to me, and that's something that I've
carried forward with myself inbusiness, in art, in engaging
with people, because it's quiteliterally it's what people seek
(31:00):
out.
They seek out somebody thatwill listen to them, somebody
that will understand them,somebody that will not be
judgmental in regards to what itis that they're feeling and
what they're upset about.
But also that transparency,because I will tell you right
now, the hospital regularly toldme do not tell this patient
that their nurse is in anotherpatient room and they will get
(31:21):
to them.
When they get to them, just sayI'm sorry that that's happening
.
It'll just be patient.
No, it's actually way moresupportive to the patient to let
them know.
I'm so sorry.
Your nurse has five patientstoday.
She's super overwhelmed too.
I promise you she's veryconcerned about what's going on.
(31:42):
She wants to make sure that youget everything that you need.
Just give her a little bit oftime as well, because she's also
got a lot on her plate.
And they were like oh, I didn'teven consider that.
You know, I thought I was mynurse's only patient and it's
like no, but just that level oftransparency made a world of
difference in taking care of apatient than just leaving them
(32:03):
in the dark and not giving themany sort of like transparent
updates about what's actuallyhappening.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
You know, I knew I liked you, but as you talk, more
and more I love who you are andhow you show up.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Well, thanks you guys , I really appreciate that I
love who y'all are.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
I have a twofold question.
Let's go back to your creativejourney.
Okay, you said you know youalways, always have been
creative, but there was thismoment when you, you know,
really launched something, whenyou started moving towards
something and you had a visionof what you wanted that to look
like.
So question two part.
(32:42):
Question part one is what wasthe vision when you set out
about how old were you and whatdid you want it to look like?
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Well, I knew from a really young age that my passion
was always art.
I knew that that was alwayssomething that I wanted to do,
but I also knew that one of thebiggest things that I wanted to
focus on for my life goals wasto leave the world a better
place than I found it.
I will also say that I wasraised by a Middle Eastern
(33:14):
mother my mom's from Iran, andso I had also a lot of that
pressure, because it's primarilyjust her and myself that are
here.
The rest of our family is inIran, so I got a lot of Sarah,
you are going to be a doctor, alawyer or engineer.
Those are your only threeoption in life, right.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
So, your impersonation is impeccable.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
You should totally meet my mother.
She's a hoot.
But I knew that probably thedirection that my life was going
to go in was not necessarilythe one that I had envisioned
for myself.
I was OK with that because Iwas always painting on the side,
taking commissions on the side,selling on the side, so on and
so forth.
It wasn't really until,probably like COVID, that I was
(34:06):
like I don't, I don't want to bea healthcare practitioner
full-time for the rest of mylife.
This isn't where my passion isin COVID.
If there's one thing that's true, it's that when you're in a
hospital and you are watchingpeople die left and right at
young ages, people who have, youknow, fought for a long time to
be healthy and they die anyway.
You know, fought for a long timeto be healthy and they die
(34:26):
anyway.
It's a big wake up call thatlife is short and it's more
important for me to do somethingthat I love and not make a
boatload of money than to dosomething that does not fulfill
me and be very fiscallycomfortable, and that's not
necessarily again, that's anorally comfortable and that's
not necessarily again, that's anor-or situation.
But that's not necessarily tosay that.
You know, comfort like fiscalcomfort is not also something
(34:50):
that makes your life veryenjoyable?
Because it I mean, it makeslife a lot easier when you're
not stressing about bills, right, but there's oftentimes a happy
medium that can be found.
It's just a matter ofcontemplating it long enough.
So I think it was probablyaround that COVID era that I
realized, you know, I need tohave a long-term vision on how I
(35:10):
can make adjustments to thisand, I will be honest, it
requires a lot of learning.
It requires a lot of failuresand a lot of hearing the word no
to be able to broach on thatjourney hearing the word no to
be able to broach on thatjourney.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
Well, and I'm wanting to hear you know, because mom
gave you three options and youdidn't choose any of the three
of them in the end.
How did that unfold?
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Yeah, well, I basically told my mom I'm going
into occupational therapybecause I can't do organic
chemistry and insulin terrifiesme, so I don't even want to play
around with that Um, and Ican't argue for life of me, so I
can't be a lawyer, um.
But whenever I did transitioninto full-time art, I was
telling my mom mom, I'm goingdown to PRN at the hospital,
(35:56):
which PRN basically means likeas needed, um.
So I was working like I don'tknow, maybe like a weekend and
like one weekday in the hospitala month just to keep my foot in
the door, just in case, and shewas like Sarah.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I don't think this is a good idea.
Do you know that you are notgoing to have any security?
You know, art is here.
It is there, it's up, it's down.
You don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
I don't know if this is a good idea.
And then, maybe, like threemonths from then, when she
realized that I could actuallymake a living and you know some
years make a significantlybetter living than what I was
making as an occupationaltherapist, she was like, oh okay
.
Maybe you are right.
Maybe this is not so bad.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
So, cracking me up.
I'm telling you you have tomeet her.
Maybe this is not so bad.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Um, so, cracking me up, I'm telling you you have to
meet her.
She's the hoot.
Um, but yeah, that was.
It was hard.
I mean, it was hard talking herinto believing that I could
make a living as an artist.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
You're not the first person that has told this story.
We've had other people that andsome from cultures where that,
like yours, that's very steepedin that.
You got three choices.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yes, yes, very, very intensively.
But you know, I think the moralof the story is like creative
thought, being hyper aware ofwhat's kind of on trend, what's
in demand, so on and so forth.
And not necessarily when I sayon trend, what's in demand, so
on and so forth, and notnecessarily when I say on-trend
(37:29):
do I mean, like, creatingartworks that are on-trend.
Right, I mean, I ebb and flowas an artist.
I don't just paint, I also domural work, I do commercial work
, I do consulting work.
There's a bunch of differentthings that I do as an artist,
so it's not just one means ofincome.
It's that, as the economy andthe ecosystem ebbs and flows, so
does my career, so that I'mable to maintain stability, and
(37:52):
that, I think, is somethingthat's really important for
artists to be willing to beopen-minded about.
And also, I think it's reallyimportant for artists to kind of
have as much autonomy aspossible, and in that regard I
mean understanding business,understanding finances,
understanding marketing,understanding the utilization of
(38:12):
social media.
As much as I don't love socialmedia, it's, it's a necessity
nowadays.
And so I think if you want tobecome a full-time artist, you
also need to be aware of thefact that you're going to need
to be a.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Well said.
Please say that again.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
We'll replay it.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Yeah Well, and I would say, when you say artist,
I think that you might as welljust say human, like any.
We have to be clear aboutmaking sure that we operate as a
business of you know our brandwho we are, of you know our
(38:55):
brand who we are.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
We have to be ready to make it so that we're able to
go and do what we need to tosupport our family and be able
to comfortably look at ourselvesin the mirror 100% and like,
don't get me wrong, you know, iftimes got rough enough that I
wasn't able to, you know, makeends meet with my artwork,
whether it be mural work orcommercial work, or paintings or
whatever it may be I haveabsolutely no qualms with going
(39:19):
and getting a job elsewhere.
There is nothing wrong withthat, you know.
I think that oftentimes peopleshould be more open-minded to
that, because there's no shamein that game at all.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
We never know.
Yeah, you never know.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
You never know Exactly.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
So let's, I'm going to circle back for a minute
because you know, okay,pandemics kind of wound down.
You've had clarity, you've toldmom leaving healthcare.
Now what was the vision?
Moving forward.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
The mission, the vision moving forward initially
was obviously starting Women inWeapons, beginning this
community doing philanthropicgood, and then also launching my
art career in a way that wouldbegin the ball rolling of
stability Right and so status,post Women in Weapons came a lot
of commercial work and a lot oftraveling, a lot of public
(40:12):
speaking, and so that's kind ofwhat got my art career started.
And then I recognize thatvision wise, like ongoing for
stability sake.
I'm going to have to be verysavvy as a business person and
an artist, have to be very savvyas a business person and an
(40:33):
artist, and so I guess that's Ihope I'm answering the question
correctly but that's, I guess,where a lot of the vision came
from as to like projecting howto continue in like a linear way
in this new career that I'mreally passionate about.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
Well, and the second part of the question and you may
have already answered it wasnow speak to the actual reality.
You had this vision of what youwanted to accomplish, what you
wanted to look like, and ofcourse you know the fat lady
hasn't sang yet, so there'sstill lots of time to realize
that vision.
But what's the reality now?
(41:08):
Is it very, very close to thevision?
And if it's not, how is itdifferent than the vision?
Speaker 1 (41:15):
I would say it's very close to the vision I mean.
I'm still doing commercial work, I'm still doing fine artwork,
right?
I think the only way that thevision has evolved a little bit
is that I was so focused onbeing an artist internationally
that the majority of mycommunity, the majority of, like
(41:36):
my collectors and so on, wereinternationally based.
A lot of the commercial workthat I did was internationally
based.
And now I've come to find thatlike I want to be a little bit
more ingrained in the localsphere of Dallas and Texas and
so on.
And so I've pivoted a littlebit and I don't mean like a lot,
but just a little bit intogetting to know more and more of
(41:58):
the artist community here inDFW, the collector community
here in DFW, kind of what theaccess to like art support and
so on and so forth is here inDFW.
That's been one of like kind ofthe interesting pivots, because
I was like I want to know morelocal artists.
Like a lot of the artists thatI've befriended through this
(42:20):
crazy journey live in LA, newYork, spain, london, australia,
you name it.
But I want to also have acommunity closer to home and
closer to my home base.
Speaker 4 (42:34):
You do realize that, if push comes to shove, you
could teach this.
You're very savvy, you couldcoach, you could teach work with
creatives of all kinds, becausea lot of what you're sharing is
universal.
I'd like to ask you to speak alittle bit more, because this is
(42:59):
something that I see sodeficient in the creative
community that we see Now.
Most of our exposure is fairlylocal, although we have had some
people from other parts of theworld Speak a little bit more to
that necessity to be not just acreative, not just an artist or
(43:23):
whatever.
However, it shows up not just adancer, not just a chef, but an
entrepreneur or not just a chefbut an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Yeah, I mean, I think the thing to consider is that
if you want to just be an artist, totally fine, but just
recognize that you're going tothen have to rely on somebody
else to support you in regardsto business and in regards to
marketing, in regards to youraccounting and so on and so
forth.
If you prefer to have moreautonomy and more control, then
you yourself need to startlearning and understanding more
about business, more aboutmarketing, more about managing
(43:59):
your finances.
And it's hard to start fromzero because oftentimes we don't
necessarily know where to look.
But I've had a few friends whoI have also learned from how
they have kind of become theirown business person, their own
marketing person, and one of theways that they've done that is
looking on YouTube, starting tolisten to different podcasts
(44:20):
right here, you know, so on andso forth, where they can get
little tidbits and little seedsof information that then create
this kind of like opening thisdoorway of seeking out more
information.
And you know, a lot of myjourney kind of revolves around
Gary Vaynerchuk, right, he waslike one of my first big
(44:40):
collectors and he's a massivebusiness person and marketing
individual, and so, of course,I've learned a lot of a lot of
like my marketing and mybusiness from him, but I
listened to a lot of businesspodcasts as well.
I'm not just focused in entirelyon the creative, I'm also very
much focused on what are currentevents, what is the economy
looking like?
What are upcoming trends?
(45:01):
And I say trends in that I meannot like social media trends,
but I mean what are economictrends that are coming forward
Now that we have tariffsimplemented, and it's kind of
this crazy ebb and flow likewhat is the secondary market
going to look like?
Okay, well, a lot of thesedifferent art fairs are not
selling the way that they usedto be selling.
Okay, well, we're seeing moreand more of a collector base
(45:24):
that doesn't necessarily want tospend $20,000 on an artwork.
They're wanting to spend like agrand or sub, you know, on an
artwork.
So it's important to observethose trends and make pivots to
your practice as an artist, as abusiness person, so that you
continue to maintain stabilityand maintain like viability
(45:44):
amongst your community and yournetwork.
And so you know, one of thethings that I found is, when
times are really slow, when theeconomy is rough, sometimes
there's got to be a bigger focuson prints.
You know, limited editionprints or artworks that you can
turn around in a faster periodof time.
You can always have your highertier artworks like this one
behind me that took like fourmonths to make right.
(46:06):
It doesn't all have to be justone thing.
You can make adjustments andebbs and flows to your practice
to support what's happeningwithin economic trends and so on
cultural trends.
Speaker 4 (46:20):
I'm amazed at how many artists are completely
resistant to the idea of printsof their work, like, just won't
even consider it.
I want to call out and this isnot a coincidence you are
describing everything that youhave done the entrepreneurial
(46:40):
part of it, the marketing, thetrends, the observation, the
social media, all of the pieces,parts, all of the hats that you
wear, and this issingle-handedly why you are
successful.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Knock on wood, knock on wood.
I mean, you know I, I know alot of people tell I think this
probably is Iranian culture alittle bit that, like you know,
you shouldn't necessarily patyourself on the back or like be
too proud of your accolades andso on.
I do think I feel like a lot ofthings are blessings that have
(47:16):
come my way.
Honestly, a lot of it, I thinkas well, is hard work.
I think another artist actuallythat's here in DFW that's like
phenomenal with marketing andwith networking and so on, is
Tira and Melissa Ellis.
Both of them are absolutelyincredible whenever it comes to
like business and marketing.
And it's just.
(47:37):
You know you have to sometimesmake your own success.
You can't rely on anybody elseto come save you.
You can't rely on anybody elseto open up the door and give you
an opportunity.
You oftentimes have to ask forthose opportunities, which, I'll
be honest, is one of the thingsthat I struggle with, because I
always hear my mom's voice inmy ear saying Sarah, that is
inappropriate, it isdisrespectful.
(47:58):
You should not do that.
Whereas in reality, there'softentimes a way to broach
things respectfully whilst stillputting yourself out there, and
so you know you have to makeyour own opportunities.
You have to go out and network.
You have to connect with peopleon LinkedIn and utilize social
platforms of that sort to createyour success.
Speaker 4 (48:19):
I think that it's important to eat a bite of
humble pie every day.
I think we need to keep as webecome more successful.
Keep our ego in check.
Yes.
But I am a huge advocate ofpatting yourself on the back
when you've done well.
I'm a huge advocate ofcompletely celebrating your wins
.
You know, I did that.
(48:41):
I did that.
That ownership of all of thehard work, all the messiness,
all of the pain, everything,Because people just see the good
part.
My brother is very successfuland he says people think
everything I touch turns to gold.
They just kind of forget thelean years or all the struggle
(49:05):
or the times I failed, thethings that completely went
wrong, 100%.
We do all experience that.
So when we're on the other sideof that, I think it's really
important to own, to celebrate,to pat.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
And just to get the word out.
There's a place for tootingyour own horn, because in a lot
of spaces, the only way thatanyone's going to know to send
more work your way is to knowwhat it is that you can do.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
Yes, 100%.
Speaker 4 (49:43):
And other creatives need to see that success is an
option.
You need to see people that arereally really doing well.
People that didn't have ithandled.
You handed to them on a silverplatter.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Yeah, Well, you know, I think that's oftentimes why,
like, a lot of people seeLinkedIn as like a place where
people are always just liketooting their own horn, but I
don't think what they'rerecognizing is there's a reason
that that's the case, and Ithink one of the things that I
tell a lot of artists is get onLinkedIn, like, get on LinkedIn,
especially if you're wanting todo any semblance of like
commercial work or like connectwith people.
(50:19):
You might try and follow likean organization or whatever on
Instagram, but you're going tobe one out of like a couple
thousand of faces in the crowdtrying to get this group's
attention.
If you go onto LinkedIn and youconnect with a curator, a, you
know, a CMO, whatever it may be,you may be one of five people
(50:44):
in their feed.
Speaker 4 (50:45):
who's trying to get their attention and trying to
gain their awareness.
That is gold right there.
That alone is gold.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
Yeah, I mean people constantly think like, oh,
linkedin's for like, businesspeople and finance people and
blah, blah blah.
No, it's for everybody.
You can go follow any CMO orany VP of marketing on LinkedIn
and start connecting with themmuch easier than you're going to
do that on Instagram orFacebook or Twitter, maybe
Twitter A lot of people don'tuse Twitter anymore but yeah, I
(51:11):
mean, linkedin is kind of likean absolute hidden gem and I
feel like a lot of people justlike breeze right past it, but
no, I mean, it's absolute gold.
Speaker 4 (51:20):
Well, it represents that entrepreneurial business
thing that people are.
So so many creatives are likeno, no, no, no, that's not me.
Speaker 3 (51:28):
Well, and the other thing is it encourages people to
be authentic 100%.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Yeah, yeah, and I mean totally fine.
If you want to be an artistthat's like the artist's artist.
You don't want to, um, you know, delve into social media.
You don't want to sell prints.
There's always going to be amarket for that, Don't get me
wrong.
There will always be a marketfor that.
The market will probably bemuch narrower and if you're
accepting of that, that'stotally fine.
But if you're the type ofartist who's wanting to grow and
(51:55):
wanting to evolve with thechanges of the times, then this
is probably one of the thingsthat I recommend being
open-minded to, and also beingopen-minded to burgeoning
technologies like AI, likeblockchain technology and so on
and so forth.
Speaker 4 (52:08):
You know, a lot of people hate it, absolutely hate
it, but a lot of times there'supside symmetrical you know
opportunity there there's nowrong answer and I'm not saying
there's anything wrong withsomebody that just wants to be
the artiste, but the chances arethey're not going to.
Probably they're going to haveto have a job that sustains them
(52:28):
so they can be the artistewithout being the business
entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
Yes, yes, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (52:36):
And there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (52:38):
There's multiple routes, there's multiple routes
to success, 100%, and not one iscorrect, but this has been the
route for myself, that has beenthe successful one, route for
myself that has been thesuccessful one.
And so you know, to each theirown, for each person, their own
journey.
You just have to be acceptingof what may be on the other side
of that journey, dependent uponthe path you choose to take.
Speaker 3 (53:01):
Well, this has been a fascinating conversation.
We are drawing near the closeof our time and we like to close
out these conversations with aset of rapid fire questions.
Speaker 1 (53:14):
Oh boy, this is where I struggle.
My brain freezes, but let's seewhat happens.
Speaker 4 (53:18):
Oh they're, they're easy, it's okay, we make it fun.
Speaker 3 (53:20):
It's light and fun, you'll do great.
All right, I'm ready.
So knowledge or creativity,which is the more powerful
weapon?
Speaker 4 (53:35):
Oh God that's so hard , creativity that would have
been my vote.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
And it's such a reflection of your story.
Well, and you know whatCreativity is?
What's going to make you standout and make you be unique,
Whereas knowledge most everybodyhas access to knowledge and
oftentimes it's the sameknowledge, but there's something
very special about being theonly person in a crowd who's
able to do something very uniqueand special.
That's where you oftentimes getrecognized.
That's why I say creativity,even though I also love
knowledge.
Speaker 3 (54:07):
I love that.
What's one creative ritual orpractice that most people
wouldn't expect?
Speaker 1 (54:17):
um vegging out and not thinking about art for a
period of time and not workingon art and allowing your brain
to reset.
Speaker 4 (54:26):
Yes, yes, you feel guilty about it but it's
necessary.
Speaker 3 (54:31):
Did you hear that?
Speaker 4 (54:31):
Dwight hey, hey, I've been poking him because he's
just been grinding really hardlately and I've been kind of
poking him that he needs somewhat you just described.
Speaker 1 (54:42):
You just need to reset and like get your canvas
blank all over again, and thenthe creativity comes again.
Speaker 3 (54:49):
Yeah, I love that all over again, and then the
creativity comes again.
Yeah, I love that.
Um, if your art couldphysically speak to its viewers,
what would it say first, Ithink it probably wouldn't say
anything.
Speaker 1 (55:04):
it probably slapped people in the face.
Um, because a lot of the timesI'm like a little bit of a edgy
artist.
You know, the ladies that Ioftentimes paint have a little
bit of attitude to them, andthere's a reason why is because
I love to portray a reallystrong, independent, you know,
like who are type woman, and soI kind of hope that they like
(55:25):
reach through the canvas andlike smack you around a little
bit and just like what's up, youknow, so they probably wouldn't
be particularly verbal in thatregard.
Speaker 4 (55:34):
I love that See you answered them so.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
I know I'm surprised I actually was able to come up
with answers that quickly.
Usually I'm like, oh, let mecontemplate, but no, that was,
that was good.
Speaker 4 (55:46):
No, you knocked it out of the ballpark.
This has been amazing, Sarah.
Thank you so much for sharingyour story with us and being so
real and open and honest.
What a honor and a privilege.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
Absolutely you guys.
I just love I mean we couldhave talked for four and a half
hours, but I love getting tochat with y'all and I'm sure
we'll hang out soon.
Speaker 3 (56:07):
We'll make it happen.
You can't rely on anybody else to come save you.
You can't rely on anybody elseto open up the door and give you
an opportunity.
You oftentimes have to ask forthose opportunities, which, I'll
be honest, is one of the thingsthat I struggle with, because I
always hear my mom's voice inmy ear saying Sarah, that is
inappropriate.
It is disrespectful.
You should not do that.
Whereas, in reality, there'softentimes a way to broach
(00:33):
things respectfully whilst stillputting yourself out there, and
so you know you have to makeyour own opportunities, you have
to go out and network.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Hello and welcome to another edition of For the Love
of Creatives podcast.
I am your host, dwight, joinedby the other Connections and
Community, guy Maddox, and todayour featured guest is Sarah
Sparky Bauman.
Welcome, sarah.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Hello guys, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
It's so great to have you here.
I've been looking forward tothis.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Me too, especially after I got to see you guys.
Uh, you know a little bit.
It was nice to finally get thisgoing.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Yeah, I was really delighted that we just met you
guys at Matthew's Halloweenparty.
That was a lot of fun.
I got to have a little moreconversation with him than I did
you.
A lot of going on and a lot ofnoise, but it was still a lovely
meeting.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yes, definitely.
Well, you've seen me at a fewevents now and how ADD I get, so
the struggle is real.
But now I'm seated, there's oneline of focus.
You've got my full attention.
I will be entirely present.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
You know, if you have a squirrel moment, we can reel
you back in.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I am the queen of squirrel moments.
I will tell you that much.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Well, let's direct our focus to making sure that we
give you a proper introductionto our listeners.
And you have an incrediblestory, but what is the way that
you would encapsulate it?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
My story or a little bit about me.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Just a little bit about you, to start.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So my name is Sarah Bauman.
As you guys mentioned, I'vebeen an artist at heart my
entire life.
My DNA is all artists, from mymom's side, from my dad's side.
It's just kind of naturallyingrained within me.
I instead got a degree inoccupational therapy, which is
healthcare, and as of about 2021, 2022, I transitioned entirely
(02:48):
out of healthcare and entirelyinto art, whereas prior to I was
doing both part-time, I'm sorry, one full-time, one part-time
and this has become my entirepassion, you know, not just
being an artist, but also beingan artist who tries to champion
good and does well for thecommunity, but also, hopefully,
inspires others to try andfigure out ways to turn their
(03:12):
passions into their daily livesas well.
So that's a little bit about mein a nutshell.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
And there's so many different directions that can go
, and that's fabulous, it'sbeautiful.
First of all, I want toacknowledge that, for anyone
listening, you have shown thatit is possible.
You, you can.
You can do that thing.
That is what it is that drivesyou and have it be your, your
(03:38):
primary driver, the primarything that gets you out of bed
in the morning and that sustainsyou and feeds your family and
allows you to give back.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yes, and I will say too, you know, there is no shame
, no qualms at all with, youknow, maintaining your passion,
whatever it is.
You know, say you're an artistor whatever, and also
maintaining something that thatgives you like fiscal security
on the side as well.
There is absolutely no qualmswith that.
I just saw a friend of ours,minji, speak at the Aloft Hotel
(04:09):
about a week ago, and one of thethings that she was actually
kind of telling people is don'tquit your full-time job when you
are wanting to transition tobeing an artist.
And I don't disagree with thatat all.
I actually completely agreewith it, because sometimes that
fiscal pressure of having tobring in that income is very,
very overwhelming and canoftentimes become so burdensome
(04:30):
that you burn out.
So, yes, you can absolutelybring your passion into your
full-time career.
That's totally doable withenough knowledge and work and so
on, but there's also nothingwrong with maintaining a career.
That's a little bit more.
You know, expected what, what'sto be coming.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
You know, I think we have a tendency, as human beings
to think in terms of either or,and it really can be an.
And, you know, we recentlyinterviewed a gentleman who
shared with us that he he haddetermined he wanted two
passions, two purposes, that hedidn't want to just pick one.
And he has a full-time job witha corporation that he
(05:11):
absolutely loves, and then he isan actor and not, you know,
like the actor that you knowwaits tables.
He really has jobs, he'sactively acting and passionate
about that and doesn't soundlike he would want to give
either one of them up.
And I thought that was reallycool, because we don't think in
(05:31):
terms of and.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yes, yeah, no 100%, and I do think you see that more
often than not, especiallynowadays, I think people that
are like millennial and lowerhave a tendency to operate
multiple careers at one time, asopposed to the generations
above us, which had a tendencyto kind of silo into one career.
I think now it's very naturalto have like two, three jobs at
(05:56):
one point in time.
And don't get me wrong, I lovescience, I love health care, I
(06:18):
love helping people, I lovehealthcare, I love helping
people.
I was just incredibly upset byand no longer believing had
everything to do with the factthat I felt like a lot of the
health care systems were notappropriately managing the way
that patients should be caredfor and or health care health
care practitioners.
So I have a love and passionfor both things, both art and
(06:42):
science, and I would probablystill be pursuing both, you know
, had it not been the healthcare system that we're currently
, you know, within.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
You did what you had to do to take care of yourself.
I applaud that.
I want to comment on somethingyou said a minute ago.
You know the previousgenerations having you know one
thing that they did I'm a boomer.
You know One thing that theydid I'm a boomer, you know, and
I had a 40-year career as ahairdresser and makeup artist,
(07:10):
but throughout most of thatcareer I had a variety of
different side hustles that Idid.
There was always a side hustlebecause I just wanted that extra
challenge and stimulation andvariety.
You know, I wanted somethingthat broke up the monotony of
(07:32):
doing the same thing all day,every day.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Right yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
I think I was maybe an exception, because I don't
think a lot of boomers are likethat.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, yeah, well, I think that's very true.
I think that there's alwaysgoing to be exceptions, Right?
I think that you're also goingto find that there's a lot of
people that are within my agegroup and younger who prefer to
just have one career, just haveone stable career and not have
any side hustles or anything, anor or.
It can be an and and sort ofsituation.
But I think nowadays, you know,for at least us younger
(08:13):
populations, I think industryhas significantly changed,
whereas once you know, manymoons ago, a lot of companies,
they wanted to hold on to theiremployees, right, they wanted to
have loyal employees andmaintain them for as long as
possible.
They wanted to have loyalemployees and maintain them for
as long as possible.
And I think that that hassignificantly evolved over the
last probably two decades or so,where you're seeing more and
more layoffs and more and moreturn and burn of employees
(08:34):
because a lot of industries arerecognizing that they can get
rid of a sect of employees andhire in a new sect of employees
for even less pay than what theywere paying the previous cohort
, and I think that's been amassive catalyst, not only for
so many of us younger peoplewanting to now have multiple
side hustles, but also for fewerand fewer people really having
(08:56):
trust in corporations andindustries, in particular,
working for them.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
It's kind of sad.
People have become disposable.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
People have become disposable, those decisions
right, which is interesting,especially in the age of AI,
because we're going to be seeingmore and more focus in a lot of
these corporations andindustries on efficiency and
less on human care, which issomething that I think will be
intriguing to watch play outover the next several years.
(09:40):
But my assumption is thatprobably more and more people my
age and younger are going to beseeking out entrepreneurial
roles as opposed to roles withincorporations.
As a result of that.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
I concur.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yeah, I think there's definitely going to be a flavor
of there being the AI onlyversion of things that are cheap
and fast and readily available,and there's also going to be
that branch of any servicesthat's going to come from
(10:19):
allowing AI and a human tocollaborate to elevate things.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Absolutely, and I think it's funny that you say
that, because you know now, alot of times, whenever you get
onto a website and you needassistance, there's an AI
chatbot right, and a lot oftimes you'll utilize that AI
chatbot and you are thinking toyourself and I will say this
kind of on my husband's behalfwho's might I say, like the
biggest proponent of AI?
He's an AI guru, but even he islike this is garbage by
(10:50):
comparison to an actual humanbeing.
And I think that one of thethings that we the pendulum has
a tendency to swing very far tothe right and then, opposingly,
very far to the left, whereasoftentimes what we find is that
the best outcomes happen in themiddle.
And whenever I say that, what Imean is right now, we have a
lot of brand new AI rollout andI think that the pendulum is
(11:13):
swinging hard to the right,where we're trying to replace a
lot of human jobs with AI, whenin reality, I think probably the
middle of utilizing humans withthe efficiency of AI is going
to be where we find our sweetspot, and it's going to take a
little while for, I think, bothhumans, corporations, people
from all walks of life to kindof figure that out and recognize
(11:35):
that that's going to be whereour sweet spot is.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Definitely.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Go ahead Dwight.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Go ahead, dwight.
We had a real-world experienceof getting to see the worst way
that AI and automation couldimpact just a normal everyday
experience.
We ordered something fromAmazon and it was like a dental
(12:06):
device or something and the waythat it worked out.
You know, I'm filling in theblanks with what I think
happened at the warehouse, but amachine thought that it packed
the ordered item into thepackage and it got loaded into a
truck and it was delivered atAmazon speed to the front door.
(12:28):
Well, the thing is, somethinghappened to where that handoff
of the machine putting the itemin the package didn't actually
happen.
So we got an empty package thatwas placed on our doorstep.
That was placed on our doorstepand then we had to engage with
the AI help to go through.
You know you only have theoption that they expect.
(12:50):
Oh, so you want to return this?
Item.
It's like, well, no, it wasdelivered, but it didn't
actually happen.
So after several rounds ofgoing with the bot, I finally
was able to chat with a humanand explain like none of the all
the options you have are notexactly what's happening.
(13:12):
We just want what we ordered.
We don't want to return theempty envelope.
We just want you to send whatwe actually paid for in the
first place.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
It's so funny.
That's literally exact samething has happened to me too, so
I completely understand whatyou guys experienced.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Yeah, I love AI, but I think I'm using it a lot.
But I think that you have touse it very intentionally.
It can't replace us.
It can't do all the things Idon't want it to do.
I don't want it to replace me.
I don't want it to write all mystuff.
Right.
But I do think it's great, for Iwrite my stuff and then I run
(13:52):
it by you know, my littlepartner AI and say you know,
what am I missing here?
What could be a little better?
Right, right, and it's littletweaks that really do improve my
writing, but it's still like mywriting.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Right, right, and I will counter that by saying I
think that it absolutely couldreplace us.
The only thing is is going tobe the expectation of quality,
right?
So I think that you know,similarly to the way that
healthcare has degraded over thelast two decades because we've
just started kind of acceptingthis poorer and poorer quality,
(14:30):
we could see the same thing as aresult of, you know, just AI.
And I will also say, like it'sgetting very good, like you can,
actually your voice, your humanvoice, within chat GPT, so that
it writes like you and it talkslike you.
But I think that there's got tobe that kind of like ethical
question as an individual oflike is that what you
(14:53):
necessarily want to put out?
Do you want to find yourself ina place where you feel like?
You know you can't necessarilywrite a paragraph comfortably
without having, like your checksand balances of chat GPT, but I
do think that you know it has ahigh probability to replace us.
Even myself, as a formeroccupational therapist doing a
lot of manual labor, I thinkeventually we'll probably see
(15:15):
replacements in that regard too.
But the question is going to bequality, empathy, you know, so
on and so forth.
Where is that going to be thereas well or not?
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
I think the saving grace is, you know, for me, I
like to tell stories, I love totell stories, and everything I
write I include some type of apersonal story in, and GPT can't
do that.
Yes, yeah it can't tell mystories.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Exactly.
It can't access your memoriesright.
It can't access the way thatyou're contemplating empathy or
expressing emotion and so on andso forth.
That's not necessarily acapability just yet, but who
(16:10):
knows, seeing like these shows,like Black Mirror and Severance
and things like that, thatreally kind of make you like
okay, like I feel like there's ahigh probability that one of
these days we get chipsimplanted in our brains and next
thing, you know, like all ofour memories are accessible via
chat, gpt and like it's.
You know, who knows?
I don't know where things aregoing, but the here and now is,
yes, I agree with you, it can'tnecessarily replicate that human
aesthetic.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
No, I think it's interesting you bring up Black
Mirror because I think in a lotof ways you're something of an
architect of the future withyour community.
The women in weapons, I meanit's huge.
What is the drive for that andwhat's your vision for that
community?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
yeah, I mean.
So.
Women and weapons originallystarted as predominantly a
quote-unquote NFT project, right, but really one of the biggest
focuses was community.
At the time that women andweapons launch was right, kind
of towards the end of the COVIDbubble, right, like everybody
was stuck within their homes,the predominant way of you
conversing with one another andsocializing was via the internet
(17:07):
, and one of the things we foundwas that we were able to really
build community kind of aroundthis artwork and around this
rhetoric of what Women andWeapons is, which Women and
Weapons for those who don't knowwas a set of artworks that I
created that was set in themid-century era, that was meant
to portray women as strong andpowerful and kind of flip the
rhetoric that we're used toseeing in the mid-century of
(17:30):
women, you know, kind of beingsubpar and lesser than on its
head.
And so we were able to build areally wonderful community of
individuals from all around theglobe that you know.
A lot of them became, you know,such good friends.
They were attending eachother's weddings from like
opposite sides of the earth.
Some of my best friends havenow come from that community,
people that you know.
(17:51):
I don't know that I ever wouldhave run across prior to all of
this have come from thatcommunity, and it's one of the
ways that we're able to keep intouch.
But we also have a similar, Iguess, set of interests.
Right, because what Women inWeapons stands for is something
that is similar to what we allstand for, and you know, it's
not just about staying incontact and also, you know,
(18:12):
keeping up with my artwork andwhat I do day to day, but it's
also about giving back to theworld.
So one of the things that wewere able to do with Women in
Weapons was donate over $170,000to the Malala Fund, which, if
anybody's unfamiliar with theMalala Fund, it's created by
Malala herself and if you don'tknow her story, I recommend
(18:36):
looking it up.
But basically, what they do isthey go to underserved areas and
, from a grassroots level, theywork on changing the system for
women and girls to gainopportunities to education,
because a lot of statistics haveshown that the more education a
girl gets in underserved areas,the less likely they are to
become child brides, to becomeabused, and the more
(18:57):
opportunities they have forfreedoms and independence.
So it's become a community forgood, a community for friendship
, a community for keeping upwith my artwork.
You know myself as an artist, um, and so much more.
So it's been, it's been reallygreat.
But, like you said, it utilizestechnologies that were kind of
on the brink, because I'm a bigbeliever of early adoption.
(19:19):
But ethical early adoption, um,I think that there's always
asymmetrical upside in thatregard.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
How long have you had that community, Sarah?
Early adoption I think thatthere's always asymmetrical
upside in that regard.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
How long have you had that community, Sarah?
Since October of 2021.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
And how big is it now ?
Speaker 1 (19:39):
It depends on, I guess, what number you're
looking at.
Technically it's about acommunity of 10,000 people, but
if you look at the numbers, likeon social media, we have about
over one hundred fifty thousandindividuals that are following
all of our social accounts.
So it just kind of depends onwhich numbers you're looking at.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Wow, that sounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, yeah, it's been .
It's been really reallywonderful and you founded that.
You founded that yes, myself andmy husband, uh, my husband jake
uh, we both founded women andweapons.
Um, it was just something that Ifelt like I don't know.
I guess the story that I wantedto tell a little bit about you
know the way women were onceperceived and still, in a lot of
(20:22):
instances, are perceived.
I just I wanted to createrhetoric around you know the
opposing viewpoint of that andthat's become a really amazing
community of a lot of dads whohave daughters, who really want
to see their daughters becomestrong, independent women and
they want them to kind of seethis sort of a community, this
(20:44):
sort of artwork and so on and soforth, and feel empowered.
It's a big community of womenwho want to be empowered.
It's a big community of peoplefrom all walks of life who just
want to do good around the world.
So that has been, you know,some of our primary focuses.
But, yeah, we've championed theMalala Fund, we've championed
up and coming artists, we'vechampioned the 1000 Dreams Fund,
(21:07):
breast Cancer ResearchFoundation and so many other
organizations, not just, youknow, through philanthropy, but
also through awareness and so on.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Wow, that is totally impressive.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
I'm kind of like, wow , I mean, you know, because
we're working to build communityand you're there, you know
you've got something that reallyis having a positive impact in
the world, which is our dream.
It's what we spend all day,every day, working on, and so
it's such an inspiration to hearyour story and, I don't know, I
(21:48):
might need to pick your brains.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah, no, you know what I will tell you right now?
That building community isdifficult.
It's not an easy thing to do,especially now that, I will say,
the COVID bubble wassignificantly different in
regards to community building,because so many people were
seeking out community via thisone vector that was the internet
.
Right Now that our COVID erahas kind of ended, people are a
(22:14):
little bit more scattered thanthey once were, and so building
community is a little bit moredifficult now.
But I've come to find that oneof the things that people really
value is authenticity, likewhat's behind your head, and
transparency and just like ageneral good human type of
connection.
And so even here and aroundDallas I'm sure both of you have
seen that there's a lot ofdifferent, like dinner clubs and
(22:38):
like art clubs and so on and soforth, because people naturally
do want to participate incommunity.
But it is something that's hardto build.
It's something that's hard tolike, maintain kind of like a
loyal base, of which I don'tnecessarily think that you
should expect a loyal base,because I think people should be
able to ebb and flow and flexas they please.
But yeah, it's hard, it's notan easy thing to do, for sure.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
I think that you called out something and you're
right.
In the Dallas area there is alot available socially, but I've
lived here for 35 years andI've been in and out of a lot of
that and there is a significantamount of it that is very
(23:21):
superficial.
Yeah.
I don't experience theauthenticity.
I don't experience the realness.
It's very, very plastic andvery put on and as much as
authenticity is a draw and aturn on, that part of it is a
massive turnoff for me.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Well, I feel honestly the exact same way.
I will take the group of kooky,weird misfits over the group of
like hot socialites any day, anyday, and that's kind of the
group that I've found myself inhere in Dallas is I tend to hang
out with, like the kind ofquirky, weird artist group of
(24:04):
humans, as opposed to, you know,the opposite group, and it's
because I don't.
I don't care about what theperception is, I care about like
having an authentic, likeemotional connection with
individuals and we're in some ofthe loneliest times I think
we've ever been in, right,because everybody's into their
(24:25):
phones, so sucked into theircomputer or their iPad, whatever
, whatever it might be.
We're so separate.
Now.
Everybody's working 24 seven.
So a lot of people are seekingout that community and I think
it.
It is going to take for a lotof people a lot of bopping
around to figure out where youfit right, like where your,
where your comfort level is.
But once you start findingwhere that community is and you
(24:46):
start drawing in more and morepeople that are alike you, it
grows and grows and grows andgets bigger and better.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Well, I think in the oh, go ahead, dwight.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
I was just going to say that you you hit on
something that is a recurringtheme that we see, and that's
many creative people feelisolated in their journey yeah
what structures?
Weird well, yeah, yeah, well,and nothing's more.
Nothing makes you feel weirderthan how you kind of mentally
put a spotlight on yourself yes,yes, 100, yeah I think that's
(25:20):
what draws us to the creativecommunity.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
In the last couple of years, our not just anything
that might be about business,but our personal lives have
become so engaged and entwinedin the creative community.
Here that I mean, likeeverybody, pretty much that we
socialize with is some form ofcreativity, and when we're
(25:43):
together socially, a huge partof the conversation centers
around our creative experienceand how it has impacted our own
lives.
And we certainly embrace theweirdness, you know, the
individuality, the quirkiness.
Yes.
(26:04):
Yes, it's what makes it sointeresting.
I don't you know so much moreinteresting than a room full of
people wearing the designerlabels.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Well, not only that, but like also being in a room
full of people who want to learnmore about you as opposed to
telling you about themselves.
Right, and I think that's wherea lot of that loss of like true
heart to heart connectionhappens is that there's a lot of
and let me tell y'all, I haveI've been within like kind of
(26:37):
the entertainment space andeverything, and it's tough
because a lot of people theywant to talk about themselves,
they want to climb the ladder,and I just feel like it's very
difficult to make any sort oflike heart to heart connection
whenever you're doing that.
It's better, from my viewpoint,to be friends with people who
are the type of humans that wantto learn more about you and
(26:58):
also want to speak about you ina room full of opportunities
when you're not there.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
I mean, you're describing the purpose behind
this podcast.
We do this because it gives usan opportunity to get to know
somebody, so many people's realstory Oftentimes.
Oftentimes, it's the untoldstory.
I'm amazed at how many guestshave said you know, wow, I've
(27:27):
never really said my story outloud like this.
And how many of them havedescribed, you know, the
connecting of the dots or theshift that occurred within them
because of the opportunity toshare their story openly and
authentically.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah Well, you guys are also very easy to talk to
and you come across as verynonjudgmental individuals, and I
think that naturally allowspeople to kind of divulge more
than what they would usuallydivulge to others.
So that's something that Ithink you should give kudos to
yourselves about is that you dohave this natural presence of
like comfort and trust andnon-judgmental air about you.
(28:09):
So, that's your flowers.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Oh that means a lot and you really hit on something.
One of the things that westrive to get groups that we
bring together whenever we'rehaving one of our in real life
events, we hit really hard ongetting people to leave outside
(28:35):
a lot of the things that haveprotected them, a lot of the
scripts that they carry for howit is that they must present
themselves.
You know, men are taught thatthey carry for how it is that
they must present themselves.
Men are taught that they haveto be bold, they have to do
things to make themselves lookreally cool.
Right.
And when women have beenconditioned to try to make
people feel better and makethemselves small, and so we try
(28:57):
to create a space where we tellpeople to imagine that they're
back on the playground, they'rein the sandbox and they don't
have all the trappings of whatthey, what it is that makes it
so that they have their story,that they tell the world.
Right.
And they just want to go and begood people.
And we want to leave out anyjudgment.
(29:19):
We want to leave out any of thethings that make it so that
we're measuring other people andwe want to try to amplify our
curiosity.
We want to go in with extremeopenness and be ready for the
magic that happens, because it'sthat vulnerability that invites
(29:43):
people to connect in the waysthat are well, the ways that we
need.
You know, it allows people tobe truly seen.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Well, it's interesting that you say that,
because if there's one thingthat I feel like has been a
massive positive from hospital,sarah, is that you know I used I
would obviously go into patientrooms.
That was that was part of mycareer.
Um, constantly, constantly inpatient rooms, right, and
patients are oftentimes havingthe worst day of their life.
(30:14):
They haven't had an update fromtheir doctor, they probably
have to pee and nobody's lettingthem out of bed, right?
So a lot of them are pissed offand you'll come to find that
there's oftentimes a lot ofhealth care practitioners that
are just burnt out.
They're tired.
They're tired of patients beingmean to them.
One of the things that I foundis that whenever I walked into a
room and kind of let them ventfor a minute and then asked them
(30:37):
and focused a little bit moreon them and like why are you
uncomfortable?
What is upsetting you?
Now, let me address this in avery transparent way.
People oftentimes kind of likecooled off and they backed down
and they totally opened up to me, and that's something that I've
carried forward with myself inbusiness, in art, in engaging
with people, because it's quiteliterally it's what people seek
(31:00):
out.
They seek out somebody thatwill listen to them, somebody
that will understand them,somebody that will not be
judgmental in regards to what itis that they're feeling and
what they're upset about.
But also that transparency,because I will tell you right
now, the hospital regularly toldme do not tell this patient
that their nurse is in anotherpatient room and they will get
(31:21):
to them.
When they get to them, just sayI'm sorry that that's happening
.
It'll just be patient.
No, it's actually way moresupportive to the patient to let
them know.
I'm so sorry.
Your nurse has five patientstoday.
She's super overwhelmed too.
I promise you she's veryconcerned about what's going on.
(31:42):
She wants to make sure that youget everything that you need.
Just give her a little bit oftime as well, because she's also
got a lot on her plate.
And they were like oh, I didn'teven consider that.
You know, I thought I was mynurse's only patient and it's
like no, but just that level oftransparency made a world of
difference in taking care of apatient than just leaving them
(32:03):
in the dark and not giving themany sort of like transparent
updates about what's actuallyhappening.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
You know, I knew I liked you, but as you talk, more
and more I love who you are andhow you show up.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Well, thanks you guys , I really appreciate that I
love who y'all are.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
I have a twofold question.
Let's go back to your creativejourney.
Okay, you said you know youalways, always have been
creative, but there was thismoment when you, you know,
really launched something, whenyou started moving towards
something and you had a visionof what you wanted that to look
like.
So question two part.
(32:42):
Question part one is what wasthe vision when you set out
about how old were you and whatdid you want it to look like?
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Well, I knew from a really young age that my passion
was always art.
I knew that that was alwayssomething that I wanted to do,
but I also knew that one of thebiggest things that I wanted to
focus on for my life goals wasto leave the world a better
place than I found it.
I will also say that I wasraised by a Middle Eastern
(33:14):
mother my mom's from Iran, andso I had also a lot of that
pressure, because it's primarilyjust her and myself that are
here.
The rest of our family is inIran, so I got a lot of Sarah,
you are going to be a doctor, alawyer or engineer.
Those are your only threeoption in life, right.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
So, your impersonation is impeccable.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
You should totally meet my mother.
She's a hoot.
But I knew that probably thedirection that my life was going
to go in was not necessarilythe one that I had envisioned
for myself.
I was OK with that because Iwas always painting on the side,
taking commissions on the side,selling on the side, so on and
so forth.
It wasn't really until,probably like COVID, that I was
(34:06):
like I don't, I don't want to bea healthcare practitioner
full-time for the rest of mylife.
This isn't where my passion isin COVID.
If there's one thing that's true, it's that when you're in a
hospital and you are watchingpeople die left and right at
young ages, people who have, youknow, fought for a long time to
be healthy and they die anyway.
You know, fought for a long timeto be healthy and they die
(34:26):
anyway.
It's a big wake up call thatlife is short and it's more
important for me to do somethingthat I love and not make a
boatload of money than to dosomething that does not fulfill
me and be very fiscallycomfortable, and that's not
necessarily again, that's anorally comfortable and that's
not necessarily again, that's anor-or situation.
But that's not necessarily tosay that.
You know, comfort like fiscalcomfort is not also something
(34:50):
that makes your life veryenjoyable?
Because it I mean, it makeslife a lot easier when you're
not stressing about bills, right, but there's oftentimes a happy
medium that can be found.
It's just a matter ofcontemplating it long enough.
So I think it was probablyaround that COVID era that I
realized, you know, I need tohave a long-term vision on how I
(35:10):
can make adjustments to thisand, I will be honest, it
requires a lot of learning.
It requires a lot of failuresand a lot of hearing the word no
to be able to broach on thatjourney hearing the word no to
be able to broach on thatjourney.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
Well, and I'm wanting to hear you know, because mom
gave you three options and youdidn't choose any of the three
of them in the end.
How did that unfold?
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Yeah, well, I basically told my mom I'm going
into occupational therapybecause I can't do organic
chemistry and insulin terrifiesme, so I don't even want to play
around with that Um, and Ican't argue for life of me, so I
can't be a lawyer, um.
But whenever I did transitioninto full-time art, I was
telling my mom mom, I'm goingdown to PRN at the hospital,
(35:56):
which PRN basically means likeas needed, um.
So I was working like I don'tknow, maybe like a weekend and
like one weekday in the hospitala month just to keep my foot in
the door, just in case, and shewas like Sarah.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I don't think this is a good idea.
Do you know that you are notgoing to have any security?
You know, art is here.
It is there, it's up, it's down.
You don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
I don't know if this is a good idea.
And then, maybe, like threemonths from then, when she
realized that I could actuallymake a living and you know some
years make a significantlybetter living than what I was
making as an occupationaltherapist, she was like, oh okay
.
Maybe you are right.
Maybe this is not so bad.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
So, cracking me up.
I'm telling you you have tomeet her.
Maybe this is not so bad.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Um, so, cracking me up, I'm telling you you have to
meet her.
She's the hoot.
Um, but yeah, that was.
It was hard.
I mean, it was hard talking herinto believing that I could
make a living as an artist.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
You're not the first person that has told this story.
We've had other people that andsome from cultures where that,
like yours, that's very steepedin that.
You got three choices.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yes, yes, very, very intensively.
But you know, I think the moralof the story is like creative
thought, being hyper aware ofwhat's kind of on trend, what's
in demand, so on and so forth.
And not necessarily when I sayon trend, what's in demand, so
on and so forth, and notnecessarily when I say on-trend
(37:29):
do I mean, like, creatingartworks that are on-trend.
Right, I mean, I ebb and flowas an artist.
I don't just paint, I also domural work, I do commercial work
, I do consulting work.
There's a bunch of differentthings that I do as an artist,
so it's not just one means ofincome.
It's that, as the economy andthe ecosystem ebbs and flows, so
does my career, so that I'mable to maintain stability, and
(37:52):
that, I think, is somethingthat's really important for
artists to be willing to beopen-minded about.
And also, I think it's reallyimportant for artists to kind of
have as much autonomy aspossible, and in that regard I
mean understanding business,understanding finances,
understanding marketing,understanding the utilization of
(38:12):
social media.
As much as I don't love socialmedia, it's, it's a necessity
nowadays.
And so I think if you want tobecome a full-time artist, you
also need to be aware of thefact that you're going to need
to be a.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Well said.
Please say that again.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
We'll replay it.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Yeah Well, and I would say, when you say artist,
I think that you might as welljust say human, like any.
We have to be clear aboutmaking sure that we operate as a
business of you know our brandwho we are, of you know our
(38:55):
brand who we are.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
We have to be ready to make it so that we're able to
go and do what we need to tosupport our family and be able
to comfortably look at ourselvesin the mirror 100% and like,
don't get me wrong, you know, iftimes got rough enough that I
wasn't able to, you know, makeends meet with my artwork,
whether it be mural work orcommercial work, or paintings or
whatever it may be I haveabsolutely no qualms with going
(39:19):
and getting a job elsewhere.
There is nothing wrong withthat, you know.
I think that oftentimes peopleshould be more open-minded to
that, because there's no shamein that game at all.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
We never know.
Yeah, you never know.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
You never know Exactly.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
So let's, I'm going to circle back for a minute
because you know, okay,pandemics kind of wound down.
You've had clarity, you've toldmom leaving healthcare.
Now what was the vision?
Moving forward.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
The mission, the vision moving forward initially
was obviously starting Women inWeapons, beginning this
community doing philanthropicgood, and then also launching my
art career in a way that wouldbegin the ball rolling of
stability Right and so status,post Women in Weapons came a lot
of commercial work and a lot oftraveling, a lot of public
(40:12):
speaking, and so that's kind ofwhat got my art career started.
And then I recognize thatvision wise, like ongoing for
stability sake.
I'm going to have to be verysavvy as a business person and
an artist, have to be very savvyas a business person and an
(40:33):
artist, and so I guess that's Ihope I'm answering the question
correctly but that's, I guess,where a lot of the vision came
from as to like projecting howto continue in like a linear way
in this new career that I'mreally passionate about.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
Well, and the second part of the question and you may
have already answered it wasnow speak to the actual reality.
You had this vision of what youwanted to accomplish, what you
wanted to look like, and ofcourse you know the fat lady
hasn't sang yet, so there'sstill lots of time to realize
that vision.
But what's the reality now?
(41:08):
Is it very, very close to thevision?
And if it's not, how is itdifferent than the vision?
Speaker 1 (41:15):
I would say it's very close to the vision I mean.
I'm still doing commercial work, I'm still doing fine artwork,
right?
I think the only way that thevision has evolved a little bit
is that I was so focused onbeing an artist internationally
that the majority of mycommunity, the majority of, like
(41:36):
my collectors and so on, wereinternationally based.
A lot of the commercial workthat I did was internationally
based.
And now I've come to find thatlike I want to be a little bit
more ingrained in the localsphere of Dallas and Texas and
so on.
And so I've pivoted a littlebit and I don't mean like a lot,
but just a little bit intogetting to know more and more of
(41:58):
the artist community here inDFW, the collector community
here in DFW, kind of what theaccess to like art support and
so on and so forth is here inDFW.
That's been one of like kind ofthe interesting pivots, because
I was like I want to know morelocal artists.
Like a lot of the artists thatI've befriended through this
(42:20):
crazy journey live in LA, newYork, spain, london, australia,
you name it.
But I want to also have acommunity closer to home and
closer to my home base.
Speaker 4 (42:34):
You do realize that, if push comes to shove, you
could teach this.
You're very savvy, you couldcoach, you could teach work with
creatives of all kinds, becausea lot of what you're sharing is
universal.
I'd like to ask you to speak alittle bit more, because this is
(42:59):
something that I see sodeficient in the creative
community that we see Now.
Most of our exposure is fairlylocal, although we have had some
people from other parts of theworld Speak a little bit more to
that necessity to be not just acreative, not just an artist or
(43:23):
whatever.
However, it shows up not just adancer, not just a chef, but an
entrepreneur or not just a chefbut an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Yeah, I mean, I think the thing to consider is that
if you want to just be an artist, totally fine, but just
recognize that you're going tothen have to rely on somebody
else to support you in regardsto business and in regards to
marketing, in regards to youraccounting and so on and so
forth.
If you prefer to have moreautonomy and more control, then
you yourself need to startlearning and understanding more
about business, more aboutmarketing, more about managing
(43:59):
your finances.
And it's hard to start fromzero because oftentimes we don't
necessarily know where to look.
But I've had a few friends whoI have also learned from how
they have kind of become theirown business person, their own
marketing person, and one of theways that they've done that is
looking on YouTube, starting tolisten to different podcasts
(44:20):
right here, you know, so on andso forth, where they can get
little tidbits and little seedsof information that then create
this kind of like opening thisdoorway of seeking out more
information.
And you know, a lot of myjourney kind of revolves around
Gary Vaynerchuk, right, he waslike one of my first big
(44:40):
collectors and he's a massivebusiness person and marketing
individual, and so, of course,I've learned a lot of a lot of
like my marketing and mybusiness from him, but I
listened to a lot of businesspodcasts as well.
I'm not just focused in entirelyon the creative, I'm also very
much focused on what are currentevents, what is the economy
looking like?
What are upcoming trends?
(45:01):
And I say trends in that I meannot like social media trends,
but I mean what are economictrends that are coming forward
Now that we have tariffsimplemented, and it's kind of
this crazy ebb and flow likewhat is the secondary market
going to look like?
Okay, well, a lot of thesedifferent art fairs are not
selling the way that they usedto be selling.
Okay, well, we're seeing moreand more of a collector base
(45:24):
that doesn't necessarily want tospend $20,000 on an artwork.
They're wanting to spend like agrand or sub, you know, on an
artwork.
So it's important to observethose trends and make pivots to
your practice as an artist, as abusiness person, so that you
continue to maintain stabilityand maintain like viability
(45:44):
amongst your community and yournetwork.
And so you know, one of thethings that I found is, when
times are really slow, when theeconomy is rough, sometimes
there's got to be a bigger focuson prints.
You know, limited editionprints or artworks that you can
turn around in a faster periodof time.
You can always have your highertier artworks like this one
behind me that took like fourmonths to make right.
(46:06):
It doesn't all have to be justone thing.
You can make adjustments andebbs and flows to your practice
to support what's happeningwithin economic trends and so on
cultural trends.
Speaker 4 (46:20):
I'm amazed at how many artists are completely
resistant to the idea of printsof their work, like, just won't
even consider it.
I want to call out and this isnot a coincidence you are
describing everything that youhave done the entrepreneurial
(46:40):
part of it, the marketing, thetrends, the observation, the
social media, all of the pieces,parts, all of the hats that you
wear, and this issingle-handedly why you are
successful.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Knock on wood, knock on wood.
I mean, you know I, I know alot of people tell I think this
probably is Iranian culture alittle bit that, like you know,
you shouldn't necessarily patyourself on the back or like be
too proud of your accolades andso on.
I do think I feel like a lot ofthings are blessings that have
(47:16):
come my way.
Honestly, a lot of it, I thinkas well, is hard work.
I think another artist actuallythat's here in DFW that's like
phenomenal with marketing andwith networking and so on, is
Tira and Melissa Ellis.
Both of them are absolutelyincredible whenever it comes to
like business and marketing.
And it's just.
(47:37):
You know you have to sometimesmake your own success.
You can't rely on anybody elseto come save you.
You can't rely on anybody elseto open up the door and give you
an opportunity.
You oftentimes have to ask forthose opportunities, which, I'll
be honest, is one of the thingsthat I struggle with, because I
always hear my mom's voice inmy ear saying Sarah, that is
inappropriate, it isdisrespectful.
(47:58):
You should not do that.
Whereas in reality, there'softentimes a way to broach
things respectfully whilst stillputting yourself out there, and
so you know you have to makeyour own opportunities.
You have to go out and network.
You have to connect with peopleon LinkedIn and utilize social
platforms of that sort to createyour success.
Speaker 4 (48:19):
I think that it's important to eat a bite of
humble pie every day.
I think we need to keep as webecome more successful.
Keep our ego in check.
Yes.
But I am a huge advocate ofpatting yourself on the back
when you've done well.
I'm a huge advocate ofcompletely celebrating your wins
.
You know, I did that.
(48:41):
I did that.
That ownership of all of thehard work, all the messiness,
all of the pain, everything,Because people just see the good
part.
My brother is very successfuland he says people think
everything I touch turns to gold.
They just kind of forget thelean years or all the struggle
(49:05):
or the times I failed, thethings that completely went
wrong, 100%.
We do all experience that.
So when we're on the other sideof that, I think it's really
important to own, to celebrate,to pat.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
And just to get the word out.
There's a place for tootingyour own horn, because in a lot
of spaces, the only way thatanyone's going to know to send
more work your way is to knowwhat it is that you can do.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
Yes, 100%.
Speaker 4 (49:43):
And other creatives need to see that success is an
option.
You need to see people that arereally really doing well.
People that didn't have ithandled.
You handed to them on a silverplatter.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Yeah, Well, you know, I think that's oftentimes why,
like, a lot of people seeLinkedIn as like a place where
people are always just liketooting their own horn, but I
don't think what they'rerecognizing is there's a reason
that that's the case, and Ithink one of the things that I
tell a lot of artists is get onLinkedIn, like, get on LinkedIn,
especially if you're wanting todo any semblance of like
commercial work or like connectwith people.
(50:19):
You might try and follow likean organization or whatever on
Instagram, but you're going tobe one out of like a couple
thousand of faces in the crowdtrying to get this group's
attention.
If you go onto LinkedIn and youconnect with a curator, a, you
know, a CMO, whatever it may be,you may be one of five people
(50:44):
in their feed.
Speaker 4 (50:45):
who's trying to get their attention and trying to
gain their awareness.
That is gold right there.
That alone is gold.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
Yeah, I mean people constantly think like, oh,
linkedin's for like, businesspeople and finance people and
blah, blah blah.
No, it's for everybody.
You can go follow any CMO orany VP of marketing on LinkedIn
and start connecting with themmuch easier than you're going to
do that on Instagram orFacebook or Twitter, maybe
Twitter A lot of people don'tuse Twitter anymore but yeah, I
(51:11):
mean, linkedin is kind of likean absolute hidden gem and I
feel like a lot of people justlike breeze right past it, but
no, I mean, it's absolute gold.
Speaker 4 (51:20):
Well, it represents that entrepreneurial business
thing that people are.
So so many creatives are likeno, no, no, no, that's not me.
Speaker 3 (51:28):
Well, and the other thing is it encourages people to
be authentic 100%.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Yeah, yeah, and I mean totally fine.
If you want to be an artistthat's like the artist's artist.
You don't want to, um, you know, delve into social media.
You don't want to sell prints.
There's always going to be amarket for that, Don't get me
wrong.
There will always be a marketfor that.
The market will probably bemuch narrower and if you're
accepting of that, that'stotally fine.
But if you're the type ofartist who's wanting to grow and
(51:55):
wanting to evolve with thechanges of the times, then this
is probably one of the thingsthat I recommend being
open-minded to, and also beingopen-minded to burgeoning
technologies like AI, likeblockchain technology and so on
and so forth.
Speaker 4 (52:08):
You know, a lot of people hate it, absolutely hate
it, but a lot of times there'supside symmetrical you know
opportunity there there's nowrong answer and I'm not saying
there's anything wrong withsomebody that just wants to be
the artiste, but the chances arethey're not going to.
Probably they're going to haveto have a job that sustains them
(52:28):
so they can be the artistewithout being the business
entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
Yes, yes, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (52:36):
And there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (52:38):
There's multiple routes, there's multiple routes
to success, 100%, and not one iscorrect, but this has been the
route for myself, that has beenthe successful one, route for
myself that has been thesuccessful one.
And so you know, to each theirown, for each person, their own
journey.
You just have to be acceptingof what may be on the other side
of that journey, dependent uponthe path you choose to take.
Speaker 3 (53:01):
Well, this has been a fascinating conversation.
We are drawing near the closeof our time and we like to close
out these conversations with aset of rapid fire questions.
Speaker 1 (53:14):
Oh boy, this is where I struggle.
My brain freezes, but let's seewhat happens.
Speaker 4 (53:18):
Oh they're, they're easy, it's okay, we make it fun.
Speaker 3 (53:20):
It's light and fun, you'll do great.
All right, I'm ready.
So knowledge or creativity,which is the more powerful
weapon?
Speaker 4 (53:35):
Oh God that's so hard , creativity that would have
been my vote.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
And it's such a reflection of your story.
Well, and you know whatCreativity is?
What's going to make you standout and make you be unique,
Whereas knowledge most everybodyhas access to knowledge and
oftentimes it's the sameknowledge, but there's something
very special about being theonly person in a crowd who's
able to do something very uniqueand special.
That's where you oftentimes getrecognized.
That's why I say creativity,even though I also love
knowledge.
Speaker 3 (54:07):
I love that.
What's one creative ritual orpractice that most people
wouldn't expect?
Speaker 1 (54:17):
um vegging out and not thinking about art for a
period of time and not workingon art and allowing your brain
to reset.
Speaker 4 (54:26):
Yes, yes, you feel guilty about it but it's
necessary.
Speaker 3 (54:31):
Did you hear that?
Speaker 4 (54:31):
Dwight hey, hey, I've been poking him because he's
just been grinding really hardlately and I've been kind of
poking him that he needs somewhat you just described.
Speaker 1 (54:42):
You just need to reset and like get your canvas
blank all over again, and thenthe creativity comes again.
Speaker 3 (54:49):
Yeah, I love that all over again, and then the
creativity comes again.
Yeah, I love that.
Um, if your art couldphysically speak to its viewers,
what would it say first, Ithink it probably wouldn't say
anything.
Speaker 1 (55:04):
it probably slapped people in the face.
Um, because a lot of the timesI'm like a little bit of a edgy
artist.
You know, the ladies that Ioftentimes paint have a little
bit of attitude to them, andthere's a reason why is because
I love to portray a reallystrong, independent, you know,
like who are type woman, and soI kind of hope that they like
(55:25):
reach through the canvas andlike smack you around a little
bit and just like what's up, youknow, so they probably wouldn't
be particularly verbal in thatregard.
Speaker 4 (55:34):
I love that See you answered them so.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
I know I'm surprised I actually was able to come up
with answers that quickly.
Usually I'm like, oh, let mecontemplate, but no, that was,
that was good.
Speaker 4 (55:46):
No, you knocked it out of the ballpark.
This has been amazing, Sarah.
Thank you so much for sharingyour story with us and being so
real and open and honest.
What a honor and a privilege.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
Absolutely you guys.
I just love I mean we couldhave talked for four and a half
hours, but I love getting tochat with y'all and I'm sure
we'll hang out soon.
Speaker 3 (56:07):
We'll make it happen.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.