The Code To Winning - FROM SAVING LIVES TO CREATING ART: INSPIRING JOURNEY OF GOING ALL IN || ELENA JOHNSON || EPISODE 015

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

From Saving Lives to Creating Art –  Episode 015   In today’s episode of The Code to Winning, we sit down with Elena Johnson, whose journey is nothing short of remarkable. At just 14 years old, she and her family immigrated to America, and by 1999, she had embarked on a career in medicine.   For 17 years, Elena served as an EMT, first responder, and nurse—dedicating her life to helping others. But in 2017, she discovered an unexpected passion: art. Despite having no formal training and even being told in high school that she lacked artistic talent, Elena found solace in drawing after a particularly tough shift.   What started as a way to decompress soon became an obsession, leading her to develop her own unique artistic style. Then, in March 2024, she made the boldest move of her life—walking away from a stable nursing career to bet on herself as a professional artist. With no backup plan but an unshakable vision, she’s now turning her dream into reality. Join us as Elena shares her incredible transformation, the challenges of pivoting careers, and what it takes to step into the unknown with confidence.   If you’ve ever felt stuck in the wrong arena, this episode is for you!

We came here with two pieces of luggage and 300 bucks in our pocket, and that was it. So I didn't speak a lick of English. The funny thing is my brother took English as a second language. He's three years older. And by the time it was time for me to take it, my mom was like, oh, you're never going to need to know English. We're not going to pay for that class. So, surprise. So I came to the country, I knew two things.

I don't understand. I'm sorry, I guess three. Don't understand, speak slower, and where's the bathroom? When I was in high school, I took my one and only art class. And my art teacher told me I didn't have an artistic bone in my body. Being able to survive in any environment was just crucial. I mean, I've been very well off, and I've been dirt poor looking for change on my floor in college to go to the McDonald's and buy something for a dollar.

So I know that I can survive in any environment. And so when it came transitioning from working a pretty stable job in medicine to being up on my own, I knew that no matter what I could make it work. You die tomorrow. Your employer will probably relist you, within 24 hours. But your son or your family is going to notice. And so where do you want to be? Right. And this gave me an opportunity to, one, really figure out if I'm made differently, to be able to spend time with my family and place my emphasis on where I want to be and the people

I want to be with. A gentleman who ordered a portrait of his wife's grandmother was very close with them. But unfortunately, she passed away before meeting her grandchild. So a picture of the grandma holding the grandchild does not exist until we drew it so we took a picture of the grandma we took a picture of the child we put the two together and the husband ordered it for his wife for as a gift and the video so the video that she opens it up and looks at it and just instant reaction i mean i'm telling you this is what i live for the code two winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow today we have a very very special guest i want to to give you a brief introduction of who we have today in the studio. We have Elina Johnson,

most amazing story I've had on the podcast so far, a lady who came from Russia at the age of 14 with her brother and her family as well and pursuing the American dream. Throughout her journey, she started off EMT, first responder and nursing, emergency nursing for about 17 years before pursuing entrepreneurial dream of being a professional painter. I recently met her at an amazing event as they were auctioning out one of her paintings here in Idaho Falls. So ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, our very special guest, Alina Johnson. Well, what an introduction. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm really looking forward to this. Like I said, I knew you before I met you because I did my thorough research,

and I was absolutely excited when I, I spoke to Travis, and he's like, do trust me. You want to get her on the thing. Can you give us a brief introduction of who Alina Johnson is? Sure. So as you said, I was born and raised in Russia, and I moved here in 99. And my family immigrated here because of my dad's job. He was working for a company there that was associated with company here. And he one day just came to us and said, hey, you want to go to America? And, you know, back then, I mean, I kind of knew what America was, but didn't know what this was going to be like. And ultimately we came here with two pieces of luggage and $300 bucks in our pocket, and that was it.

So I didn't speak a lick of English. The funny thing is my brother took English as a second language. He's three years older. And by the time it was time for me to take it, my mom was like, oh, you're never going to need to know English. We're not going to pay for that class. So surprise. So I came to the country, I knew two things. I don't understand.

I'm sorry, I guess three. Don't understand, speak slower, and where's the bathroom? So, entered in, like, last week of fifth grades, I was actually about 12. Met this amazing girl, Lindsay Fisher, and she's single-handedly responsible for teaching me all the good and the bad thing. All the good things. She spent an entire summer just talking with me. And so I was kind of forced to learn the language, which I'm a firm believer in. So nobody catered to me.

Nobody knew Russian when I came here. Nobody, it wasn't an expectation of mine that people were going to speak Russian to me. And so I just dove right in and I had to learn it. It was a sink or swim situation. So went on to basically realize there's so much opportunity here. Like I was talking to you earlier about just seeing when my dad would come back to Russia, he would bring back magazines. And I would just look through the magazines and go, I can't believe they have these kind of toys. Like, kids can actually get their hands on this and this exists.

And, you know, Russia wasn't communist when I moved here, but it was very scarce. We had very little, there's no opportunities, really, but very structured, very controlled by the government. And so the freedoms of this country all of a sudden hit me. And it was like, all right, game on. Like, I have the opportunities to do things I've always dreamed of. the things that I looked up in books and movies and magazines, and now I'm actually here, and I can get my hands on things. So I went through school, went to college.

I actually have four different degrees, including a master's degree. Put myself through college, I was always falling through the cracks as a foreigner. So I was too foreign for one scholarship, not foreign enough for the next scholarship. I was, you know, a female for this, but then I was too white for that, or I had a job, I put myself through school. So I was making enough money that I wasn't poor enough for a scholarship, but I wasn't making enough to be comfortable. And so I always kind of made it somehow a point to fall through all the cracks. So I really had to buckle down and learn work and have a strong work ethic from the very beginning. But went through school, went off to go into medicine.

and that's where I've been since 2007. And then slowly but surely I kind of picked up art, which we can talk about how that all happened. And in May of this year, I just literally got up from sitting down in a meeting in the morning, walked up to my computer, wrote my two-week notice, and never looked back. I love that.

I love that so much. And I mean, I didn't even know you had four degrees. Like, which universities did you go to? I went to Colorado State University. And then I went to a private Roseman University. And then I did a master's degree as well, through Colorado State. What did you study? Is it in the medicine?

Yeah, they're all in medicine. So kinesiology was my first one. Healthcare, business administration was my second one. I have another bachelor's in nursing and then a master's in human resources. Wow. I kind of went like this. Awesome. And then I like that.

And I love the story that you mentioned. when you spoke about, like, you know, sometimes not too far enough or far enough and so forth. Do you feel sometimes as an immigrant, there's an extra chip on your shoulder that you have to constantly prove yourself? I don't know that I have a chip to prove myself, but one thing I truly believe in is not playing victim, not having that as a crutch. And I see that so much with immigrants, and I kind of find it frustrating sometimes. Like, I've had people that I've worked with, and, you know, they'll still. say, oh, English was hard to learn, et cetera, et cetera. But they're using it as a constant crutch.

And when you ask them, well, how long have you been here? And they'll go 35 years. You're like, OK, but you're 45. Like, you know, at a certain point, you've got to make that transition. And so if anything, I think it added experience and added value to what I already have. But one of the things I'm really grateful for is being culturally aware. Having experienced a different country really puts things into perspective. And so when I hear stories of us,

other immigrants or I hear stories of struggles, I can really relate to it and I can really understand and empathize with it. Rather than being kind of a dismissive, ignorant, well, everybody should just do it this way type of mentality. So I think if anything, it just kind of added value and experiences to me. Yeah. I couldn't agree more. Matter of fact, I'm glad you brought it up. I feel like victimhood is depriving people of their full potential because if you constantly keep saying, why don't I have, why don't I have? The reason I bring that up, I feel like I capitalized on the fact that I was an immigrant. I feel like because now you want to try and have maybe diversity, I'm like, you know what, if I see that I want

to capitalize rather than saying, hey, I can't get, I'm like, why can't I get? You know what I'm saying? Yes, what I can offer? Yes, what's different? Here's, I've seen a different perspective in the world in this way. I did two internships in New York. I just graduated financial economics in BYU, but I started this to be a while back, but I did an internship with Bloomberg in New York City twice there. And I actually even met Michael Bloomberg when I was there. But why I'm bringing this up is the fact that I always try to use, like I was going to sit back

and say, because I'm not from the idea, the fact that I'm not from here, I want to try and use that advantage. You know what I'm saying? So I feel like perspective is so important rather than saying I can't have, I can't have, why can't I have? So I like that.

Thank you very much for sharing that. But you also realize what you can do. So you've already moved to a different country. You've already learned a second language. You've already been through all these different things. So you really find the strength in yourself. And if you can capitalize on that and go, well, I've already done all the hard things back there. There's no stopping me now.

This isn't the hardest thing I'm going to do. This isn't, you know, being able to walk into a room where you don't know anybody and you may not know if you can even relate to the people. Well, it sounds like the first day of fifth grade for me, you know. It sounds like I've already done that. So when you do the hard things, I think you can capitalize on the strength you truly didn't know you had. Awesome. I love that so much. I wanted to ask, how did your upbringing influence the transition from, you know, emergency medicine to discovering your artistic, like, talent?

Well, my mom actually does amazingly beautiful oil paintings. So I've been around some sort of creativity art in my entire life, but I never thought I had a creative anything. In fact, when I was in high school, I took my one and only art class. and my art teacher told me I didn't have an artistic bone in my body. So we were throwing pots or, you know, making things, and it just wasn't my forte. I wasn't good at it. And so she took me outside and she goes, you know, you don't have an artistic bone in your body. I don't even know why you're in this class.

You should probably do something different with your life. And that was it. I never, never pursued art, never really did anything with it. I went into emergency medicine because it made sense and it's what I like. and I never really explored that little tidbit. And being foreign, and, you know, I got my work authorization card when I was 17. That was the first time that we all got work authorization. We got our Social Security.

I went out and got a job that I've never been unemployed ever since. So developing that strong work ethic and being able to survive in any environment was just crucial. I mean, I've been very well off, and I've been dirt poor looking for change on my floor in college to go to the McDonald's. and buy something for a dollar. So I know that I can survive in any environment. And so when it came transitioning from working a pretty stable job in medicine to being up on my own, I knew that no matter what I could make it work. And I think that was the biggest thing is even though I didn't pursue it from an early age,

I knew I could do it just based on all the things I've already overcome, all the things I've already done. I love that. I love that so much. And, you know, when you speak about that transition, I want to touch a bit more on the entrepreneurial part of things. One of the things that the opportunity that's been provided as well, that you've seen as an immigrant in America, is far greater than you can ever get in Russia. And the potential that you can reach in certain levels is also far greater. Why I want to focus on this, what made you pursue that entrepreneurial journey?

Because it's a risky journey. And it has ups and down. You're not so stable, but what made you? want to pursue and just so you know what, I have what it takes. Yeah, when you say it's risky, I mean, there's more nights I think you lay in bed awake, staring at the ceiling going, what did I just do? You know, medicine has been rewarding. However, one of the things about emergency medicine is you see people at the worst days.

So you see them hurt, you see them injured, you see them sick, and it just takes a toll on you. You also see the evil in the world. You become a little more jaded. you start looking at things as a worst-case scenario. I didn't like the mentality that it was taking me to, and having done this for so long, I mean, I worked through the shooting in Vegas. I worked through COVID, you know, I worked through a lot of things that most people won't see in their lifetime, and you see it in a short period of time.

So I didn't like the way that I was feeling, but the other part of it was I noticed that if I perform well in health care, I don't really see anything from that. Nothing changes about my life. And if I do the bare minimum, nothing changes from that either. So my manager might, you know, do better or the hospital gets another award or another accreditation, but the people that are boots on the ground don't really see one way or the other. Whereas you go off on your own, your successes are yours to celebrate, but your failures are yours to own. And so there's a sense of accomplishment in that to know that I have, for the most part,

control over which way I go and how far I take this. And once you kind of sees that there is no ending to how far you can take it, especially nowadays with the technologies. Like you can do YouTube, you can do this, you can do live things, you can do all these different things. There is no ending to it. You can grow as big as you want to grow. And I know that, you know, if I stick with it, I know that I won't stop at a certain point,

but also I didn't want to, you know, I have a son. I have a four-year-old son, and I didn't want to miss out on his childhood either. I didn't want to continue working for the man and miss out on my son's life. And, you know, they say, you die tomorrow. Your employer will probably relist your job within 24 hours. But your son or your family is going to notice. And so where do you want to be? Right.

And this gave me an opportunity to, one, really figure out if I'm made differently. to be able to spend time with my family and place my emphasis on where I want to be and the people that I want to be with. And then three, like I said, I mean, all the successes are yours to own and there's so much freedom in that to know that I did something great, you know,

versus, oh, well, I had a great day, but I'll never see anything from it. I love that so much. If somebody out there is watching, perhaps by any chance and is on the fence and really wants to pursue this entrepreneurial journey. What's the advice that you would give them? Oh, there's so much.

One, you're never going to be prepared for it. So people say, oh, well, wait until I have all my ducks in a row. You're never going to get there. Just thinking about an idea isn't doing it. Just having a thought isn't doing it. Trying to do something isn't doing it. You have to actually do it. And you have to sometimes just stand on that cliff and take that leap

and you don't have to have it all figured out. So I think people might think, well, you have to have all the steps figured out. You have to have this whole big plan. You don't. And sometimes it's just going to be like one step forward and I'll figure out the rest as it comes. Because odds are plans are going to change. Things are going to change. And maybe you'll find something that you didn't even realize you were going to go in that direction of.

And so I was fortunate in that financially I was okay. and, you know, I would never tell somebody, hey, if you're struggling living paycheck to paycheck, you should just quit and start a new business in this economy. But if you have the ability to, the way to kind of look at it is if you were to take the money side out. So if you didn't have to worry about paying bills, you didn't have to worry about any of that, what would you do? Because I think a lot of people struggle with, I don't know what that, you know, business idea would be. So figure out what you want to do if you weren't getting paid for it. If nobody was watching and you were to wake up and you're like, you have an entire day to do whatever you want to do, all resources available, don't have to worry about anything. What would that be?

And then do that. And when you do that, what you start off is doing something that you truly enjoy, you truly love. When that happens, what do people naturally do when they enjoy something? They read about it. They study it. They practice it, right? You can't wait to get to that drawing board. You can't wait to start that new whatever project you're working on.

And so naturally, you practice and practice and practice, and you get better and better and better. And as you get better, one day you wake up, you're like, I'm actually really good at this. And then people start to notice. And then you can capitalize on it. And you can turn it into something that maybe you can make money off of. And then before you know it, you become so good that all these opportunities start popping up

and you can't deny them. But you're pursuing something that you truly love, that you enjoy. And if you pursue that rather than what's going to make me the most money and the shortest amount of time, you'll never fail. Because your entire, like you become obsessed with it almost, you know, your entire soul, your entire being is into something, into this idea that you wake up and can't wait to get to every morning, it's going to show. And I think everything else will just follow. That's so powerful. That's so powerful. When was that moment when you realize oh damn I'm actually good at art

because sometimes it's a lot I love sales so much but it's only until you get that very hard saying you're like I'm not so bad at this job but like you are absolutely an amazing artist so when was that moment when you realized wow I actually have the gift of hands I'll tell you the funny story first

the reason that I started drawing is I was working in Las Vegas and I had a particularly hard shift on an ambulance and I came back home and I was like I just need an outlet I need a creative outlet. I just want to do something that's kind of, I don't know, relaxing. And so I sat down and I sketched my dog. And looking back at it now, I'm petrified that I thought that was decent. But I was like, that's not half bad. And I went to a local craft store and I bought a book on realistic drawing. That was the one and only book that I've ever bought. Started reading through it,

and a lot of it is just materials. I have no formal training. I didn't know what I was doing. And then I did a portrait. And then I did a portrait of my friends for their anniversary. And I sent it over to them. They go, oh, I love this. Can you do another portrait for our other friends? We'll pay you. And this is how good I was at business when I started off. It cost me, they paid me $20 for the first portrait, and it cost me $30 to ship it. So, you know, I've gotten sense better at figuring out the business side of things. But they ordered it, and then they told their friends, and then before you know it, I just kind of started building these little orders, and then discovered social media, And then just, like I said, I just became obsessed with it.

And so I started to get better and better and better and better. And it's my favorite thing is to go back now and look at the work that I've done even six months ago, a year ago. And I'm always in competition with myself. And just seeing those two side by side, you know, I'll create a bear. And then I'll look back. And six months ago I did kind of a similar bear. And I'll compare the two and go, holy cow. Like, I thought that was good.

This is better. And I can't wait to see what it's going to look like. in a year. And so just kind of comparing yourself to where you were before really puts things in perspective. But I think once I started getting the videos and I live for these, when I send a project to a lot of the times it's a husband or wife or grandchild ordering something for their family members. And this is one of the most rewarding parts of my job now. I live for the reveal videos. So one particular project that, you know, is near dear to my heart was a gentleman who ordered a portrait of,

so his wife's grandmother was very close with them, but unfortunately she passed away before meeting her grandchild. So a picture of the grandma holding the grandchild does not exist until we drew it. So we took a picture of the grandma, we took a picture of the child, and we put the two together, and the husband ordered it for his wife as a gift. And the video... The wife's mother, right?

So the video that she opens it up and looks at it and just instant reaction, I mean, I'm telling you, this is what I live for. And I think once I started seeing projects like that and the reactions I was getting out of people, the fact that I can do something that evokes emotion like that in people, that they're going to hang up hopefully for a long time and look at every day, that's when I knew I had to keep going with this particular part. This is something that is so much more rewarding than anything I've done in medicine. And ever since then, I've had quite a few projects and quite a few, excuse me, auctions and things like that pop up that. I'm like, I can't believe that people are willing to give me the opportunity to work on these huge projects and these just one-of-a-kind once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. So it's waking up and being thankful for those opportunities that I think was the moments where I was like, I think I can do this for the rest of my life and be so happy. I love that so much.

Your art usually focuses on very meaningful tributes. I've seen a lot of the 9-11s, the first responders. I'm given the history that you've been in the medicine and the medical field EMT and so for that period of year. Is that the reason why you decided to focus on that specific route with your art in terms of like, because you have a theme and what you do is what made you focus on that specific route? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's kind of home for me, so I can relate to that. And I think those careers are very underappreciated. The things that, you know, the men and women and first responders, military, et cetera, see, and the sacrifices that the families have to make.

I mean, knowing from my own experience, somebody working in. as a first responder, even the military, the family's also serving when they're doing that, right? So all the times you miss out on the birthdays and the anniversaries and all the things that you have to skip and miss your significant other for 12 to 24 hours at a time and then they come home and they're tired or they've seen something, the families a lot of times serve with the people. And so I think it's so underappreciated. And so anything that I can do to kind of contribute or try to raise money, for local first responders or to raise awareness about something or just even bringing, you know,

the other project I talked about the grandma and the kiddo. We had a military gentleman who got deployed before the birth of his first child. And so he was deployed for the first six months. So imagine missing six months of your kid's life, the first six months of the kid's life. And so there was no picture of him holding the baby. And so we actually caught somebody that he was serving with to have him hold a pillow so that we had him. holding a pillow and then we had somebody hold the baby. And we ended up shipping it overseas.

And just giving that ability to a father to have while he's serving, it's incredible. Like to know that you have the ability to do that. I think I want to create art that is meaningful rather than, oh, here's a pretty piece of artwork that you can buy anywhere and hang on your wall. I mean, that's always fun too sometimes. No, that's a point. No, that's the reason I like that so much. much. I've noticed this with successful entrepreneurs like yourself, one of the key

characteristic you guys have is passion, you know, and I feel like passion kind of like coordinates with obviously the skill, the gift you have, but if you're not really as passionate in what you do, then you're not going to really have the same reward. Would you agree? I think it shows through your work. Okay. I think you can definitely pick out a difference between people that are chasing either just the money or they're chasing fame or they're chasing something, but they're not really passionate about what they're doing versus the people are doing it for a reason, the why. So Simon Sinek is somebody that I really respect and follow, and he talks heavily about the why. And if you find your why and you go that direction, you'll never, everything else will kind of fall into

place. And so what I see a lot of times is, and you see it every day, just sit outside of a hospital at any given afternoon and you see people going in and out of the building in scrubs and they just look miserable they just look like I have to go back to work and how many people do you know that go to that nine to five and they dread it and they're not passionate about it and I think one of the things that people have to ask themselves is is the reason I'm not living in my full potential my current job because I'm not that smart I'm not that good or are you just in the wrong arena that's like asking why can't a chess player play in the NFL

you're playing the wrong sport. You're not focusing in on what you want to do, what your passion is, what you want to chase, versus somebody who's really passionate and obsessive about it. That's your Tom Brady's of the world. That's your people that are just every day they live, eat, sleep, and breathe what they love. And I think it shows through your work. You become better and you wake up in the morning and you're excited to do what you're doing. and I think that's part of to circle back to what you were talking about.

People that are kind of on the verge of do I go or do I stay, just ask yourself, are you asked to shrink down and kind of fall into this box and stay in your lane and just sit down, shut up and be comfortable? Or are you constantly itching to get out of that and going, something's off. I don't know what it is, but I'm not happy here. I'm dread going to work. I'm not passionate about it. I really want to do this.

And if that's how you feel, you almost kind of owe it to yourself to try and go in that direction and see where it leads you. I love that. I love that so much. Now, the next question I wanted to ask, how do you balance the creative side of being an artist,

the artist artistic side of being creative and also the business side of being an entrepreneur? It's really hard. I'm going to be honest with you, being a one-man show is very difficult because I'm the person, there's so many days where I was like, I just want to be talent.

I just want to be the drawer. I don't want to do any of the social media, the selling, the packaging, the talking, all of it. And discipline is really how you have to kind of figure things out. So I never wanted this to become such a job where I stop enjoying it. So I didn't want to expand to be too big, too fast, and not able to have personal relationships with my clients and have the ability to really focus in on what I'm doing and still enjoy it and have time with family and friends. but I also have to have the discipline of I'm no longer clocking in and clocking out. I don't have that paycheck coming in every two weeks.

I don't have the stability and the cushiness of you're going to show up, you're going to clock in, you're going to do your job, you're going to clock out, you're going to have a paycheck. Now it's like, well, guess what? If you're sick for a couple of days, you don't get sick pay. And, you know, if you decide you want to go to this party instead of working, well, there may not be a paycheck at the end of the two weeks. and sometimes projects fall through or you don't know when your next commission is coming and you have these moments of panic of going,

what did I just do? Like, how am I going to pay my bills? And, you know, unfortunately, you just kind of have to, well, unfortunately, unfortunately, you just have to have the discipline to still say no to certain things and make the sacrifices and going, look, I have this deadline. I do have to meet it and I do have to work.

So unfortunately, I can't go out. But you do have to enjoy the little bit of flexibility that you do get with being your own boss. And that comes with, hey, some days, I'm just going to go outside and work. Because even though I can't go for a hike today because I have to work, doesn't mean I have to be locked up in my studio and not see the light of day. So I'll just take my work outside. And so you kind of tend to balance things out, but you do have to have that discipline because there is no boss. I love that.

You can't do something. I love that. And now speaking about being a one-man show, do you end up planning on trying to like outsource a team or, I mean, right now it's working fine. And it's going to, the trajectory is heading that direction as well. But in order to ease in the loading yourself with all that you've been doing, like, do you plan on like trying to expand and like try to recruit people to handle the business side while you just draw? What's your, what's your trajectory? I keep threatening to hire a teenager to do my social media because quite honestly it's not in my repertoire. I despise having to take the hundreds of pictures and pick one and posted the right time and do the

hashtags and answer to everybody and do the things. But it's part of the business. It's part of the things that make you grow and get your work out there. So hopefully in the future I do want to outsource a little bit of that work and maybe just have somebody that does kind of my PR or that kind of thing. But I still really enjoy communicating with my clients. So I don't know that I ever want to have somebody be the middleman. I want people to be able to reach me at any time, whether it's a question or they have a project in mind. Or, you know, I get a lot of requests from, and I love this,

I get a lot of requests from people either asking questions about materials and how to do something, or I have the, my daughter loves to watch you and she loves to draw, and she just wants to keep going. Do you have any advice for her? My favorite thing to do is go have her message me. I want to see her work. I want to talk to her. I want to encourage her because I didn't have that.

I didn't have that art teacher that I had the opposite. But I love just people asking questions and really actively participating in this journey that's supposed to be mine. And I don't ever want that to go away. So I would just have to be careful with having that middleman. I still want to be very reachable, very approachable. I like that so much. And I want to just kind of touch back and go back. I can't believe a teacher said that to you.

You know, autistic bone. The problem why I want to kind of stress on that is that many people often get told by many people that look up to that they are limited and that often prevents them from pursuing their dream because they end up creating something within their head which prevents them. Because I often feel one of the most dangerous form of slavery

is what we see in the corporate world today. People are just working nonstop. They die tomorrow. another replacement comes through. You're just a number in the workforce. Why I want to stress on this, how important is it to try and overcome those negative influence in your life? Like, how important is that? It's incredibly important.

But you also have to understand that everybody's going to have an opinion regardless of what you do. You can do everything right. Somebody somewhere out there is going to have an opinion about something, whether it's the shoes you're wearing or how you speak or whether you know you draw black and white. they want color or subjects. I've had people unfollow my social media because I've drawn somebody that was sitting with their dead elk. You know, it's a hunter with their elk that they just killed. I think, oh, I didn't realize you were cruel to animals.

It's like, well, I didn't kill the thing. I wish I, no. I wish that was my buck, but, you know, it's, they'll unfollow me for that. Or I've had when Black Lives Matter was hot and heavy, and I drew a canine. and I've had so much hate going, Black Lives Matter, I'm like, I don't understand the relationship here. This is a canine that unfortunately passed away in the line of duty, but we're, you know, this isn't a political, this isn't a hateful platform. This is me supporting, you know, or police officers or supporting the canine units or whatever it is, but it's a tribute as well.

And so you do get a lot of opinions, and I think you just have to filter it. And you have to realize at the end of the day, this is your journey, and you get to be the boss of it, and you get to hire and fire and promote accordingly. So I love surrounding myself with people with like minds and people that uplift and celebrate your successes and also tell you when you're making really bad decisions and being honest with you and call you out on your stuff and go. Really? You can do better. I love that. I love that so much.

So I first met you, like I said, we told the audience at the auction. And you know, you were auctioning out like an amazing painting. And I first found out about you from Travis when he, you know, he bought one of your paintings as well. He did. He did. He was talking about it. I got to see it in person. The reason I'm talking about this, I know that's one way you often expose your business. It's one of the events that you do is auctioning.

What are the other alternative ways that you expose like your business? So last year, I actually went to the Hunt Expo in Salt Lake City. And I did a live drawing there for Wishes for Warriors Foundation. And so unfortunately, they're dissolving this year, but I ended up getting invited to the Mule Deer Foundation at the Hunt Expo. So I'll be drawing live there again this year just for a different foundation. But also, I had the opportunity to get my own booth at the Hunt Expo. So very excited about that, but I do quite a few art shows, and what I like to do is do a live drawing at the art shows,

because I think it's really important that people see the process, and they have the opportunity to ask questions about it. They kind of get to see it come to life, and then they see what it takes and what goes into it. I have kids that will come up and I'll just have a corner for kids that I know is going to end up being black at the end that I can kind of, you know, color up. But they'll go in there, and they'll get to feel what it's like and what the paintbrush is feeling. and exposing people into it gets the conversation started. And then that usually translates into either social media or websites. But art shows, auctions, live drawings, you know, things like that, just really get me in front of people that I then spark conversations with.

Which one's your favorite? Ooh, that's a hard one. I'd say, you know, okay, so. So two questions. Which is your favorite in terms of like, live auction, whatever, and then what's, I'll ask about your favorite painting later, but like, yeah. My favorite one, and the reasoning is a little different. So I come from kind of a smaller town, Lovell and Colorado.

That's where we moved and we lived at for a while. And Loveon, Colorado has an annual sculpture show every year. And these are like million-dollar sculptures, invitation-only, incredible artists that come into that. And right across the tree from that, in my high school park, there's a park right next to the high school that I went to. where local artists get to be. And so every year my parents would take me to the sculpture show and then we go to the art in the park and I always just wanted to have a booth.

I always was like, I wish I had something in me where I could have a booth at one of these. This would be the coolest thing ever. I was 12 when we started this. And again, this is the high school that the teacher discouraged me from. And so my first year was last year, not this past August, but the August before that.

I applied and I got a spot and I had my own booth at the show that I've been going to since I was 12, dreaming to actually be in the show and have my own booth. So it was one of those like moments where I really, I set up my booth and I had to step back and look at it and go, I made it, you know, as little of a dream as it seems. I mean, this isn't a huge show where you're making millions of dollars, but it's a dream that you've had as a kid that you now got to see through

and you step back and you look at it and go. go, I made it. You know, I've wanted to do this for years, and now I'm actually here. I get emotional talking about it. And so I was really, I think that was my favorite one just because it was finally something that I truly wanted to do and I got to accomplish. And then this last year, I tried something a little different. I actually wrote up a little about me, sign, and I put it outside of my booth and

in there and I included that my art started with an artist or an art teacher telling me I didn't have an artistic bone in my body and I put it outside my booth thinking you know that's my high school maybe my teacher from way back then will just happen to walk by it and read that and I never traced back who the teacher was it would have been kind of funny I was well I was about to ask you that I was like you can contact her have you invited her on Facebook and be like let me sign that for you no I don't know who the teacher is I'm sure if I went back far enough, maybe I could find it, but I just thought that was interesting. And people kept walking by and think, go, what high school did you go to? Where did this happen?

And it just was so funny. And I've had so many people say, I can't believe that happened to you as a kid. And I've had that happen to me. I had one of the bestsellers come up to me. He's like, I was told in English that I don't know how to write. I have sold, you know, however many bestselling books. and he had kind of a similar story, and it's just incredible. And so I would say that was probably one of my favorite ones to do, just because it's something I've wanted to for a long time. That's amazing. I'm glad you kind of stress on the teacher.

I was about to ask, like, is there a way we can try and send her an art piece and just go to sign up and say, it's a gift from me to you. Kind regards, Elina. Right. How is your style like evolve and what have you learned about yourself through your art? Well, I started off with pencil, so just like a regular pencil and I didn't know there was different types of pencil. It took me a very long time and finally a friend who's like, did you know there's different hardness to pencils? So instead of going over the same line several times, there's just this different material.

I'm like, oh, it would have saved me hours of hard work. But slowly learning about the materials, then I transitioned to one day, like I said, I have no formal education in art, so I have no idea about colors, textures, any of it. And somebody was saying like, why don't you do color? I'm like, because I'm terrified of it. I have no idea what to mix with what. Tried color. And then it's just been a learning process. Now I kind of stick to black and white.

It's what I like the most is charcoal black and white. But just learning different techniques. And what I've learned about myself is my motto for 2024 has been, I can do hard things. I've had quite a year. But I can do hard things. And so whenever there's a project that people approach me with and they go, hey, I know it's kind of odd, but I have this house that my grandma really loved. And it recently went up in flames or whatnot. Can we draw a house?

Like, well, I've never done a house before. Let's do it. Right. And so finding new projects that really challenge me, I'm all about it because that's how you learn. That's how you get better. And that's how you step back and go, I had no idea how to do it. But here we are. We figured it out. So I think just taking on things that you're not comfortable with has been interesting. When you said, you said, what's your motto for 2024? Like doing hard things? So you're pretty much the David Goggins of the art world. Well, you know, I do agree with a lot of, obviously, his idea, ideas, and I do think that you need to be uncomfortable. I think the enemy of success isn't failure or not being able to pull something off. It's actually being comfortable because when you're comfortable, you're good. And good kind of sneaks up on you, right?

So you know when you're going through a hard time and you know, okay, I need to fix this, I need to work on it. but you don't know when things are good, but they could be great. Exactly. So good kind of makes you very comfortable, and I think too many people stay in that comfort in the fear of, well, what if it goes wrong? And my challenge is like, but what if it goes right? And then it's not good, it's great, and you've taken it from here to here. And when you're comfortable, you're going to kind of just want to stay in that comfort.

Everything in you screams, just sit down, shut up, don't raise any, you know, don't do anything that's outside of your comfort zone. But when you do and you make yourself uncomfortable, you start to grow as cheesy as it sounds. But I did notice that before I'd have these moments where I remember placing my first order of Prince and it was several thousands of dollars. It was my first big order of when I spent that kind of money. And this was after I quit my job.

I'm full-time art. This is it. I just spent thousands of dollars on prints and I had. I have no idea how they're going to turn out. And when I tell you, I paced up and down my hallway for hours going, what did I just do? Never mind. I got to start looking at jobs to get back. I should apply to nursing again.

I need to, you know, sell some stuff. I need to cancel the order. I need to do all these things. And I finally stopped and I go, okay, if I don't think that those prints are good enough to sell, why is anybody else going to? Boom. I have to believe that this is the kind of work that I want to. to put my name on so that other people can see it. If I don't think this is good, why am I even trying? Why am I even putting my name and putting it out there? Nobody else is going to like it.

So you start believing in yourself and you're like, okay. And then all of a sudden you kind of calm down, you put the knife down. You're like, I can do this, you know? And I now really enjoy being uncomfortable because I know I'm on the verge of something great. Whenever I feel that sense of, oh man, I don't know how we're going to do this, I know I'm right there. on the cusp of something great, something big, some sort of a project or something that is going to be amazing. I love that. And so now all of a sudden I like being uncomfortable because it tells me that I'm moving on

to the next step. I'm getting out of my comfort zone and I'm chasing the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. And I think if you can get comfortable with being uncomfortable, as cliches that sounds, that's where it's at because then you wake up and you're like, oh, man, something's happening. I can tell because I'm anxious. Did you read my mind? Because I was about to just concur with that as well. Because I feel like I couldn't agree more.

I feel like sometimes we're in our comfort zone. We're in our bubbles. And I feel like it does deprive us from reaching our full potential. Because if you know very well, I have a guaranteed job. I have mom and dad I can rely on. I have so and so. But if you just know. And I feel like you've created those steps like from the minute you arrived there.

I feel like even before then. I don't know what happened. But I feel like all those stuff created the person you are today. And the harder you remain in the comfort zone, the harder it is to get out the comfort zone. But also an interesting thing about the comfort zone is that once you end up becoming comfortable with what you became uncomfortable, you find something new to become uncomfortable with because growth comes from being out the comfort zone. Yeah, and I think you're staying too stagnant if every so often you're not all of a sudden freaking out. Exactly.

I have lots of friends who are starting their own businesses or thinking about quitting or they're doing something else. and they go, I'm just, I'm uncomfortable, I'm terrified, I can't sleep at night, I'm like, you should be. Those are all good things. You should be worried. You should be scared. Because if you're not, you're not pushing yourself hard enough. You should, no, I'm not saying everybody should be miserable. You shouldn't lose sleep every night and go, I'm losing everything I have and I'm not, you know, doing anything productive. But you should be uncomfortable. That tells you that you care about it and you're on the verge of doing something that makes most people step back and go, oh, never mind, I'm going to go back to my comfortable spot.

And I'll tell you one of the things that happened to me is when I decided to quit my job, I had thought for a moment, because I was working full-time as a nurse. How many hours a week? So this is 36 to 40 hours is considered full-time for nursing. And one I noticed, I was constant, I'm a big personality. My friends will tell you that's what they call me. Firecracker, big personality, whatever you want to call it. But I was constantly felt like I was just told, stay in your lane, be in this bubble,

just stay right here, don't grow, don't speak. In fact, I was flat out told for the first six months of this department, be a wallflower. Don't have an opinion. Don't say anything to anybody. Nobody cares about your experience. You need to just exist. Show up and exist and be a wallflower. And I'm like, no.

I don't want to do that. What kind of a life is that? And I know it's just six months, but that's six months of my life. That I'm a nobody and I'm what? No, I don't want to do that. And that was when I first got the idea of maybe I'm just in the wrong arena. I'm in the wrong environment. I want to be an environment where I'm told, hey, you're coming in completely from a different perspective

or from a different department. Tell us what your experience is. Add value to our department. Add more to our team, not go sit in the corner and don't say anything. I'm like, I'm in the wrong environment here. So when I quit, I was like, well, maybe I'll just get kind of a part-time or a per diem job just as a backup. And so I thought about it. I had an offer for a job that was a nursing job.

And I ended up pulling it back and I said, I really appreciate the time. I really appreciate the offer. I think I'm going to hold off for a minute. Now, granted, I had some family things happening, but it was a moment. where I said, I don't want a backup plan. Because if I have a backup plan, I'm not going to work that hard. So if I'm going to do art full time, I don't want a backup plan. Because if I have a paycheck that I know is coming and it's one of those like, oh, well, if I don't pick up this project, I can pick up a few more shifts at the hospital. I want, I'm laying at night going, okay, I'm going to be short next week,

what's my plan? What am I going to do here? Who am I going to contact? Where am I going to get more jobs, like how am I going to get myself in front of people? I want to completely focus on art and what I'm doing there because like there is no plan B. Plan A or bust? Right. Absolutely. And granted, when you make a decision like that, you do have to think, okay, I'm taking this big, you know, step and just ask, is it reversible, right? So the risk part of it, is it reversible? Yes, of course. I can always go get a job as a nurse. But I'll help you're going to be. Right. Opportunity cost, time with your son, you know. Absolutely.

Versus, but what if this completely succeeds and takes off and it just, the risk associated with not taking this step and potentially missing out on that just for the sake of comfort, it's not worth it. Powerful. I wish I had a mic. I'll just drop it right there and then. I want to know how important is connection with your clients when you're trying to create a piece. Very.

And I've learned that, and I've seen this happen to quite a few artists where, like I said before, you know, either they're chasing money or they just kind of want to create something, sell it and get paid. I have clients that have been with me from the very beginning. The clients that paid me $20 for that portrait, they're still my clients. They're still ordering for Christmases, birthdays. I'm their go-to person for gifts. And you don't build that kind of relationships unless you do have the list. personal relationships of building a project with them and I love working with my clients to work on something that they feel like they had a part in as well

not just something I wanted to create I love that so much so you're in art right now and it's been judging from what I've heard about you what I've seen and obviously this interview it's just I could just see the exponential growth and like you know just outward trajectory what's your future plans and goals with art like what's your what's the what's the what's the what's the vision you have for it? So one of the big things that I would like to actually roll out pretty soon. I haven't announced this project yet, but no time like the present is one of the things I'd like to do is actually kind of dive into the hunting community and recreate. I'm going to call it kind of a

recreate your hunt. And basically what it is is say you go out and you get an animal and you just have a picture of either you with the animal or just the animal on the ground. And what we do is you send me that picture and I recreate it as a live animal so that you can actually. kind of see the before and the after or the you're gonna kind of give them an opportunity to work with it's still your animal it's your set of antlers it's still exactly what you had but now it's an image that never existed because you didn't get a chance to hopefully take a picture of it and then shoot it you know so that's one of the projects that I will be closely working with and then

the other one besides the hunt expoise I would like to start offering lessons or or just either consults or, you know, kind of turn more towards YouTube online presence as well of teaching those kids that want to get into it. And just skipping some of the things that I had to learn on my own and really teaching them the materials that I use and my techniques and different things like that. So I think eventually I'd like to go into the tutorials and teaching and coaching or consulting or both. I think a little bit of both. I've had quite a few projects where people have come to me and they go, there's something off about this. I don't know what it is.

I've been drawing it like this. Something's off about it. It's like, well, let me take a look. Well, if it was me, here's what I would do differently. And they do it. And they're like, oh, man, that unlocked it. So I love those moments as well to be able to kind of push the next artist forward as well or bring them up.

You know, everybody's a little different. But if you can share your techniques with other people, I think it's where the community part it is that. Awesome, which leads to my next question, like the last two, what advice would you give to somebody that's trying to explore, like, their creativity for like the first time? I mean, you saw it how it happened with you in your situation, which was, I would say, perfect timing, you know, what advice would you get somebody trying to explore that creativity? I would say just take the pressure off. So again, don't try to just go into the business and go with this expectation, like, I'm going to make all this money in the first year and I'm going to do all these things, and I'm going to have so many

clients figure out what you want to do because that's where you're going to be successful. So some people, like some of the artists I've met, one notably I just met in Montana at an art show. When he was a kid, he was told he had ADHD. And so he started to doodle. And he does these doodles where he actually creates a doodle that turns into an animal, that turns into a map, that turns into something else. And as you step back, it's this whole big thing. But as you start to zoom in, you see all these individual components, and he took something that was supposedly a weakness of his, as everybody identified in him, and he turned it into this incredibly successful business that he really enjoys. But to him doodling, he really enjoyed it.

It put his mind at ease. It helped him focus. And so, you know, who would tell you, oh, just start doodling, and then create it into this and create it into that. You're like, what are you talking about? Or oil painting versus acrylics, or, you know, just. Just figure out what you really enjoy doing and then spend some time with having no pressure and no expectations of selling the pieces Some of my most successful pieces have been me going I'm gonna give myself 30 minutes and I just want to get some emotion onto a canvas Nobody's gonna see this I'm not gonna sell it I'm not gonna do anything with it I just need to

Blah onto a canvas and then I'll just happen to step back and go that's actually pretty decent and I'll throw it on the internet and it's sold within five minutes Wow. So just exploring kind of what makes you tick. What do you like? And then you can start to expand of, okay, where's the market for this? Where can I fulfill a need with my talent or with what I can do? Powerful. Absolutely amazing.

This is a question we ask all the entrepreneurs towards the end of the podcast. Since it's called the Coat Winning Insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow, in your own words, what is the definition of winning? I think winning is having the freedom and the opportunity to wake up every morning and be really excited about your day. Winning in my mind, you know, money comes and goes. Fame comes and goes as we're finding out with all the celebrities that are constantly going up and down and social media presence. All of the things that I think a lot of people are chasing the world nowadays, they come and go. It's being able to wake up in the morning and be really excited about.

the day because you know you have something to do that you're really excited about that's going to somehow influence another person's life, influence your community, influence the way you look at the world, and get to spend time with your family when you want to. And then at the end of the day, be very grateful and very thankful for everything that you've just experienced in that day, in the month, in the week, whatever it is for you. I think that's really the true definition of winning is just being relentless in your pursuit of what sets your soul on fire. Powerful. A second mic drop.

All right. If you could let our viewers know where they could get a hold of you on social media, your website, and just to like interact with you, if you could just like give a brief like outro for yourself as well, please. Sure. You can get a hold of me on my website, which is Elena E-L-E-N-A-Jonsonart.com. I have an Instagram page, which is underscore E-L-E-N-A-U-S-S-S-O-Jolson. And then those are kind of my primary two to go to.

You can email me directly through my website or through Instagram. I'm present on both. Ladies and gentlemen, Elena Johnson, great honor. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.