The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - How To Make It As An Artist In A Digital World With William Tyler Story

Episode Date: September 6, 2019

#213: On this episode we sit down with artist, William Tyler Story to discuss all things art and creativity. We dive into what it takes to stand out as an artist in a digital world and new tactics that you can take as a creative person to promote your own creativity. For any artists out there looking to make their mark and create a profession utilizing your passion, this is the episode for you! To connect with William Tyler Story click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by FOUR SIGMATIC We have been drinking this company's mushroom-infused elixirs and coffees for over a year now. When we need a break from coffee but still need that extra morning jolt and focus the Mushroom Coffee with Lion's Mane and Chaga is the way to go. Lauryn also drinks the Mushroom Matcha which is a green tea designed as a coffee alternative for those of you who want to cut back on caffeine without losing focus and cognitive boosts. This stuff doesn't actually taste like mushrooms, it's delicious. All of these blends have a ton of nutrients and amino acids to give you balanced energy without the jitters. To try FOUR SIGMATIC products go to foursigmatic.com/skinny and use promo code SKINNY for 15% off all products. Produced by Dear Media  

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. caffeine intake. Four Sigmatic has the blends for you. They're all delicious. Just open a pack and add to hot water. They don't taste like mushrooms. And like always, we have a special offer just for the him and her listeners. Go to foursigmatic.com forward slash skinny and enter promo code skinny at checkout for 15% off your entire order. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her. Aha! In their own way, we're all born with some type of creativity.

I can't believe otherwise, you know? I just think some people choose to pursue whatever their creative route is and then others decide that's not for them. This is the Skinny Confidential, him and her show. My name is Michael Boswick, everybody. I was trying to do a radio voice there. That clip is from our guest of the show today,

William Tyler Story. Lauren almost just had an aneurysm when I did that voice. You love to play with different voices. I mean, now he's listening to Marty Robbins on repeat every morning when he has his coffee. What do you mean now? I've been doing that for about 20 years.

Yeah, but now it's like for some reason it's going crazy lately. And so he's experimenting with like a Texas accent all the time. So I have to hear all these different people come out of your mouth. Might have to adjust your old earbuds there, buddy. That's not a Texas accent. What is it? I'm not talking in a Texas

Texas accent. Fuck off, whatever. Fuck off, everybody. Here we go back to the show. Yeah. Do you know what? I'm getting this weird thing now where our friends' parents are starting to listen to this show. It's putting me very, very on edge because the first thing I think is, oh my God, what the hell did they hear?

Really? I don't care. I would let anyone listen. Yeah. But you know what the problem is? What? Parents, if you're out there, parents adults you know if you're there the problem is they enter in these conversations with me where they talk to me for 20 30 minutes and

then 20 30 minutes and they go by the way i heard this episode and i'm like just tell me from the beginning because it's it makes it very awkward after because i'm like what the fuck did they hear i feel like you're you're talking about someone in particular no no i'm talking about a few people it's happened a few times now. Oh, wow. We've said some wild shit. Are you giving autographs and taking selfies? No, I mean, it's just, listen, you know, you got Cousin Sue comes in out of nowhere and they're saying like, hey, I heard when you were talking about cunnilingus on the show with Sex with Emily and it's a little bit awkward. Yeah, I don't know. It's never been awkward for me. I feel like I've always had a bad mouth ever since I was little. My dad's just used to it at this point. Since this

episode... Look at this point. Since this episode... Look at this Gen Zer here. What's going on here with you? We got Mimi in the studio. She's taking about 85 selfies. What's wrong with you? I'm just trying to get one good one. The light's not that great. My hair is looking weird. You do look pretty cute. Listen, if you didn't get it on the first 25, you didn't get it. I have hope. Mimi came in in her hoodie with her hat. She's taking her selfies. Okay. So since this episode is having to do with art, I thought we would talk a little bit about how we're styling our home. That's been kind of a hot topic on Instagram, Instagram DMs. A lot of you guys have been asking about the art that we have in our house. And I thought this was the perfect

episode to open the discussion. So what we decided to do for this house was mix masculinity with femininity. So our other house is super masculine. Like the condo is like really masculine. And so this house has a little bit of femininity, but not too much skinny confidential, if that makes sense. No, I mean, one man can only take so much pink. What? Babe, come on. So so much pink. What, babe? Come on. So much hot pink. It's a lot to deal with. Yeah, you got a lot of pink going on,

don't you? Anyways, so how we styled our house was we decided, like I said, to do heavy on the masculine, a little bit of feminine. And we got a lot of our stuff through our friend Cortland. He sources stuff out of Palm Springs. Now, if you're ever in Palm Springs, you got to go to the antique stores. They have a mid-century modern design and they have the most incredible pieces. So a lot of the pieces in our home, you guys have asked me to link. I can't link because it's stuff from antique stores. And then we really, really focused on using wallpaper. Wallpaper is such a good hack. Well, you can do some really, you can turn like a very basic room into something really cool. One thing I think is

important to mention about art, everyone's like, okay, where do you get that? Everyone wants to collect it all at once when they move into a new place. I think the best thing about art is taking your time collecting it over years, years and years. Like there's stuff that we've had now for 10, stuff I've had for 10, 15 years. Yeah, we like to build slowly. That tip came from my stepmom. She does homes in San Diego, Burlap and Crystal, and she told us to go really slow. So we decided not to be the kind of people that go into Z Gallery and just say, give me this room.

You know who you are if you're a Z Gallery and just go into that room and you pick a room. Yeah, no, no, no. I wanted to go really slow and I wanted to bring pieces from all different places in. But if you're on a budget, I would highly recommend wallpaper. We did Michael's bathroom with this Kate Moss wallpaper and the whole entire bathroom was wallpapered with Kate Moss's naked body.

Hopefully you didn't masturbate in that bathroom. You probably did, huh? Which one? Anyway, so that was really fun. And then you can also use wallpaper-like design. So we'll do like one wall that's completely patterned out and then the other walls are painted. So use wallpaper. That's my tip.

I don't have a lot of places to tag or shout out because like I said, a lot of it's from antique stores. And our couch, a lot of people ask about our couch. Well, the couch is from Restoration Hardware. Yes. The cloud collection. Do you like the couch? I do like it, but we got it in black, right?

And so the dog is always on there making a mess. And so it's kind of, it's a whole thing. Tell them about Boone's weird tick. Yeah, we got a dog here that just, for whatever reason, just likes to throw up on the couch. No, like you have to give more context than that. I don't know. He just likes to throw up on the couch no like you have to give more context than that i don't know he just likes to puke on the fucking couch he won't puke anywhere else in the house but on the restoration cloud couch like he has this weird tick we gotta wipe it out we gotta get a couch cleaner it's ridiculous it's a whole thing and when he pukes does he have a raging heart on what no that's a little strange well i don't know i'm just saying that maybe that's his

kink you know maybe he likes it i didn't even know your mic was you relating to the dog here what's going on i don't know if anybody's doing that but um if there's something you gotta tell us this is why i worry about people listening to the show because we're here we're talking about wallpaper next thing you know about dog hard on i'm trying to talk to the audience about our couch like geez okay well uh one time your fucking mic's on that's how you come in yeah your mic's never been on in the whole history of the universe so a couple of tips around the house are make sure you find things from different places use wallpaper and then details count oil diffusers we have incense from our favorite spot in Cabo. One and only

palmia. It just makes the house smell so delicious. Candles. Little tiny things make all the difference. We've even been using an ice bucket from our favorite place to go in the world as a flower vase. So just having those little details around the house makes all the difference and it makes it feel like home. I thought we got to get that last detail out there real quick. It's fine. Liked it. Yeah, collect some shit, guys. Don't just do it all. Don't be a Z Gallery room collector.

All right, guys, let's get in the episode. So we brought in William Tyler Story into the Dear Media studios. Every girl in the office basically had a heart attack. Came in looking like a long haired, tall, beautiful Jesus. Great bone structure. Really kind of threw me off my game. Didn't know what to do. I got lost in his eyes at one point. And it was hard. It was honestly hard during the episode. We had to get into art and had to get into all these things. And I was just like, God damn, this is a good looking man. But anyways, we got it together. I got it together.

Conducted a very professional interview, all about art. Enjoy this beautiful man from East Texas, William Tyler Story. Welcome to the show. You know what I can't get enough of? Just can't get enough of them. I love me some mushrooms. They get me going, put me in a different headspace. Guys, I'm talking about Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee. Lauren, it is simply the best. You do love mushrooms, don't you, Michael? I do love some mushrooms, everybody. And specifically, Four Sigmatic's mushroom coffee mix. It gets me wired up. Guys, we've been talking about these guys for a long time.

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Again, it's all natural. Don't have to worry about getting the jitters. Don't have a weird come down. Just complete focus. And as always, we have a special offer just for our listeners. Go to foursigmatic.com slash skinny and enter promo code skinny for 15% off your entire order. Again, that's foursigmatic.com slash skinny and promo code skinny for 15% off your entire order. For those of you, they're too lazy to type that it's always in the show notes, always in the email newsletter, follow up, and also listed as a show partner on our site. So check it out foursigmatic.com slash skinny. Cheers. This is the skinny confidential him and her. So William, you flew in from Dallas. I did you're with your girlfriend you guys came in you're

gonna have the best time in la we actually just drove in a little over three hours from joshua tree so there's a there's cool rvs where you can kind of glamp out in the desert so we haven't done that it's it's a blast we we did it because usually before some big event or anything that i'm attending i'm not good at really just sitting still so that was something like we went out we hiked we uh got to relax in this perfect little you know i had like a porch and hammocks and got a bottle of wine and you know stuff like that do you feel inspired when you do stuff like that like i'm the type of person where i have to step outside of, I guess, my art, my content to really wrap my head around it to be creative. I do. And the thing is, I'm so in love with the

city and so is she, but we're both in creative fields. And the only time we ever really feel like we're truly relaxed is when we take that extra step to go three hours outside of la or three hours south of dallas or something like that you know but every it's so important to like get out and be in nature because you're so i mean there's never been a time that we've been disconnected to technology you could be in nature more though no but i was thinking i was i was in large amount today i had to go to this shop and i put my phone down for a minute and left it. And I went into like a panic mode.

I was like, oh my God, I left the phone. Where's the phone? And then I took a seat. I was like, what the fuck am I freaking out about? Yeah, like who cares? Who cares? Right. But it's weird.

You know, there's never been a time like this before. So can you introduce yourself to your audience? Let's go back to your childhood. You're so artistic, but I want to go back to like, was it something that you always knew? Were you always drawn to art? I was. As a kid, I just, little pencil sketches, nothing crazy, but I knew I was drawn to it. I was drawn to music. I took guitar lessons and tried that path, but it never really took off. But going through school in Texas, I don't think they promote art as a career as much. And I've actually found that out lately. One of the brands that I'm working with soon on a campaign in July, it's to help build funding for art education in Texas. So when I was growing up,

it wasn't really stressed like he has a talent, let's direct him here. It ended up being like, what's the safe route? Ended up being, I studied fitness and wellness and went through kinesiology and got all the way up to my senior year in college before I realized like this, that wasn't really the path I wanted to take. And then I fortunately like social media, different things like that became actual career opportunities. There were different ways to build and grow from that.

So it was, let's see, 2013 was my last year at the University of Texas in Arlington. And that was where I was preparing myself for grad school to go into physical therapy, stuff that I still would enjoy enjoy but not anywhere near as much as i do the art world so just like the world of social and you know like the vanity likes and those things does that i don't want to say get in the way but does that irritate you with like you know because you're a creator obviously so is lauren and you guys are creating art and but then there's a there's an element to it where obviously you have to get that out there you have to share does it do you like the way that that's being shared now do you like the way you're expressing your art or like getting it out there

to the world or does it is it irritating or is it kind of like a flip flip back and forth I like it because I haven't had to go step into the gallery world and and meet people I've created my own online gallery I don't have near the amount of work put out there that some of the artists that I find inspiration from, they don't even get the recognition that they deserve. Some of the best artists out there are kind of like what you said. I mean, there's a starving artist aspect to it, but that's where it comes back around to like, how are you marketing it? Are you more of a a gallery artist are you going to build an online gallery for yourself like what's the traditional path say that i'm an artist i don't know anything

about mark and i just know how to create art like what is the typical path that says because i'm sure there's a lot of people that are listening that are artists that are like they have no idea how to get their art out there because everybody's probably going to tell you a different thing but my take on it is getting into galleries. So you go to an event, you go to a gallery, the owner, you showcase your work. If they like it, they'll represent you, put you in the gallery. But then typically you're getting like a 50-50 split when someone purchases your work. Oh, that's pretty shit. But where they try to write that off is you're getting the exposure. So where I saw, you know, my opening was I had exposure online. So I was like, if I'm selling

a painting and connecting with people there, I don't, I didn't really see the need yet to go into a gallery. I was hoping to just continue. And I still I guess But I like 100 commission for sure. Yeah I mean, that's amazing. I think that's genius what you said. It's an online gallery I have a lot of friends that are in the business world, but they're artists at heart and As I get older i'm starting to see some of those friends be miserable because they're working nine to five and they're doing the corporate thing, but their passion is art. What advice would you give to someone like that? Would you say work on it on the side? Would you say quit your job? Would you say start putting yourself

out there online? Like, is there a certain path that you would go to? I've definitely experienced that. So, but I mean, I liked my job. So job so prior to this i what were you doing i area management for fitness clubs i was a personal trainer on the side all of that stuff but on the weekends i would paint a little bit and i was like man i wish i could do something more with this there was a coffee shop on the corner that i go to every morning and the owner was like, you want to put some up on the wall and try to sell them? And I was like, sure. And I put them up, I think the first week, the buyer actually listens to this podcast. I'm pretty sure. Hi buyer. Her name's Amanda. Yeah. So in the circle of Dallas, I haven't personally

met her besides through selling that piece. But what she doesn't know is that kind of was one of the moments that I decided, OK, I wonder if I can sell another one and then I would paint again. But I waited to see if I was going to have people interested before considering leaving my job. You were just testing. So I wouldn't I wouldn't suggest that person working the nine to five to just quit immediately unless, you know, they want to take that risk and just dive into the deep end and see if they can swim, which I did kind of do that.

I had only sold a few pieces and I was making good money. I just wasn't completely fulfilled with that position at the time. So I actually scheduled a trip to Costa Rica to kind of do the, I wanted to get into solitude and just kind of reflect after I had resigned from that position. And I just so happened before that I booked a campaign that flew me to Switzerland, got to experience that. Is this all through social? How does this start? Like coffee shop and then you start sharing on social and then you start getting inbound?

Yeah, that was it. So when I sold those pieces, I didn't really promote artwork on my Instagram. Right around that time, agencies were taking interest in me for modeling. As soon as I signed with a few people, I started booking jobs pretty quickly and good ones. So that's what I got to remember too. That was a big thing that was supporting me and giving me peace of mind to be able to leave my main job

to take on the art full time. It sounds like you're saying like, do your side hustle. And as your side hustle gains momentum, like then put more eggs. Yeah. I mean, I knew these are things I forget. I'm glad we're talking about it because I did have the moment where I wrote down every single thing on a daily basis that cost me money, you know, to live the way that I like to live so once i knew what that number was what do you mean like so you got okay this is my rent these are like the yeah any any expense that allowed me because i live i don't live beyond my me yeah yeah anything i don't live beyond my means but i also i'm not cheap either like you want to live i'm i'm definitely gonna eat the good food stay in the better room.

I mean, you know what I mean? And if that means I got to put in the work. Yeah. So that's kind of what I decided to do. I ran those numbers. I figured out what my expenses were and then, you know, put a little bit on top of that just for extra cushion. And well, there's a lot of people that get in trouble because they don't do like you knew in essence, you knew like what your nut was.

You knew you like it. Yeah. If I don't make this, then I'm going to start sinking. And there were actually months that I wasn't, you know, I came out strong. I was balancing the income. And then, you know, you have those periods that are, there's a little bit of a lull and every single time I've had one of those moments, it's that cliche story that you probably often hear where you feel like you're being tested. Like, are you ready for these bigger things that are coming up? And can you make it through that? You know, it might be one month, it might be six months, you know, whatever that period is. And what can you do to maintain and grow to get over that hump? And then as soon as I do, all of a sudden it's like, you know, when it rains, it pours. Like June has been like this month is awesome.

Like I've lined up so much work that probably the most work I've ever done. It's growing pains. Yeah, I feel like it's exactly what it is. You have to go through that. You know what I mean? So if you were to describe your art to our audience, you could just say it because this is obviously audio. Everyone will go look at your Instagram.

How would you is it a theme? There is a theme because you'll notice that I like to use bright colors. I've steadily been building a private page. If you if you pull it up, it's William Tyler Story. So that's full name right there. I actually go by William Tyler because when I first started in the modeling industry, I was very low key. I didn't have Facebook. I didn't have anything like that. I see this on your Instagram, but it's cool to see on your website too. Yeah. It's very bright. It's very, I feel like it's in your face in a sort of flamboyant way. Yeah. So you see the bottom left right there where it says respite. So this is actually a good, if you could imagine, it's probably two and a half feet or three feet, two and a half feet by four feet. So it's a pretty

good size. Everything was done, you know, with no black lines, brush, spray paint, you know, very abstract expressionism. But I like to use a lot of colors and I've always joked with my girlfriend about how most of my paintings aren't really paintings I would actually have in my own home I actually like the rough kind of unfinished stuff which I have some of that too I haven't shared it yet but it's all I'm easing things out there as soon as I'm ready so wait can you talk about that a little bit that's I don't I don't I've never we never had an artist before you wouldn't have your own art you know so you're like creating things well no i i would have certain pieces in my house but i do i i love dark and muted colors and unfinished kind of grungy

style drawings uh or pieces of art but when i painting, it's only enjoyable to me when I'm packing in all that color. There's actually a really amazing documentary or a mini documentary. I don't know if you've ever seen it with Jim Carrey. And it's called I Needed Color. I need to watch that. It's worth seeing. It's like six minutes. It's on YouTube. It's called I Needed Color. And he's in New York. He had just gone through a breakup, broken heart, a very dull winter, and he was kind of depressed. And he just, he needed to paint color and color. He's like full bore into painting.

It's such a good. He's like a whole studio and everything. Yeah, I related to him on needing the color. I'm not unhappy by any means. I'd say I'm, you know, blessed in like every area of my life at the moment. So I just really liked he had this studio in New York that's just wall to wall. They show a scene of him on a ladder that's propped up because the painting is so big on the floor, he has to crawl across the ladder and he's spilling colorful paint on it.

Anyways, he's dealt with mental illness. So that makes total sense. He's I think he's a very he's spoken out. He's a very depressed person. Yeah. And I mean, I like anyone, we all have some kind of inner turmoil. And I feel like my way of producing art, using all the bright colors and different things like that it it therapeutic it calms all that stuff down it's my yoga it's my how long does something like that take and when you say something like that we're looking at the organized case is this no that's now this this is lucid it's uh this was commissioned you guys it's like a skull with roses and a crown the and the thing, if you can see these paintings, the size that they are in person,

so if you go back to that, you can actually see, so the size in person, it has such a different effect. Were you asking me a question? No, I want to know. How long did it take? I just want to know the process and time behind something like that. What's the commitment there?

It depends because some stuff will happen so quickly and you're so into it that you just like within a couple of days it's done. Okay. But when I create content, if I have to write 20 pages, if I have to write that, I will put it to the last fucking second. Like if it's due at 11, I'm starting at like 10. Yeah. I've tortured myself until 10. Like just the worst. It's like Chinese torture. Is that how you are? Do you wake up and just feel the emotion like, or do you just procrastinate? Before we get into that, let's talk about Grove Collaborative. So if you're like me, you like everything delivered straight to your door. And what you like even more is all natural home products delivered to your door. Okay. So I would highly recommend looking into Grove Collaborative. They have detergent, dish soap, soaps, recycled plastic trash bags, even tree

free paper towels. It is so amazing to literally open the door and have a box full of everything I need to clean my house. We've been talking a lot about art on this show this week, and there's an art to cleaning your house. And that starts with clean ingredients. You don't want those nasty chemicals all over the house. Grove Collaborative has nothing but the cleanest ingredients for cleaning supplies for your house. Anyway, as you can see, Grove takes the guesswork out of going green. Every Grove.co product is guaranteed to be good for you, your family, your home, your kids, and the planet so you can save time reading confusing labels.

Kind of takes the middleman out of it. And what I like about Grove is you don't have to go to multiple stores or run around and go to all the different grocery stores and park. It just shows up, like I said, right at your door once you order online. So join over half a million families who trust Grove Collaborative to make their homes happier and healthier and all natural, guys. Plus, the shipping is fast and free on your first order, which we love. And if you're looking for specifics, which I know you guys are, Lauren and I love the

seventh generation products. So for a limited time, when our listeners go to grove.co, that's grove.co slash skinny and place an order of $20 or more, you will get a free five-piece cleaning set for Mrs. Meyer and Grove, a $30 value. Go to grove.co slash skinny to get this exclusive offer. Again, that's grove.co slash skinny, grove.co slash skinny. I'm very much like you. I do procrastinate. She's very organized. And like I said, when, when we, when I got the email about coming on the podcast, she was already on her computer booking flights. And I was like, wait, wait, wait. I don't even know if I have it confirmed yet. We're like right brain, left brain. Yeah. And then when we're

booking the hotel, I didn't realize there's a big convention that's in LA right now. Which one? I don't even know. It's E3. It's like an electronic. Yeah. Huge.

And so every hotel that we wanted to go to was sold out. But eventually it worked out to my advantage. That's the thing. Like I procrastinate, but something I still deliver. Yeah. I will deliver every time. That's how I am. Everything just falls into place, Michael. Like you're freaking out like a psycho Tasmanian devil and I'm just laid back and everything figures itself out. You two are able to detach from the process that goes into it. So for me, like I can't just leave it to like chance. I'm sure like probably all of us in this room are performers and we can make it count when in the end, but I don't want to go through the suffering of wondering if I'm going to make it happen.

And see your, your suffering of waiting, I guess mine is a planning so early. Like I do want to do it when it's time to do it i mean some things if i do have a hard deadline like if someone's commissioned me a painting no i'm not going to procrastinate like that's that's priority yeah because i mean they've they've put some money towards it that's happening but if it's booking a flight or booking a hotel i am that one that's like the night before like i love hotels tonight and like just something, but we both like to get out in the nature. So it worked out.

Everything being sold out in LA pushed us into Joshua tree and it was beautiful out there. There's like a tiny pool. It's like two feet deep. It's freezing cold, but you're, you're soaking in the middle of the desert and it's like 103 outside. So you're taking me to Joshua tree. Let's get going. Taylor, pack our shit up. We're getting out of here. I want to know when you said,

holy fuck, I have this amazing art and there's this platform called Instagram where I can utilize this to distribute the content and not only distribute the content, but create a community online. And when you had that aha moment, what was the strategy behind it? Because you have a huge Instagram following. I mean, not only that, you have like hundreds of comments each post. People are very engaged with what you're doing. Like I'm beyond thankful for that. People who have supported me from when I had just started modeling are still there showing the love now, which is amazing. Cause I think that was, you know, now we're four years ago from that. Do you do that at all anymore? Yeah. Here and there. Um, I'm more focused on like, I do campaigns for brands on Instagram.

If it's a brand that I enjoy, like if there is a nice watch or it's, uh, an apparel company that I enjoy. Like if there is a nice watch or it's an apparel company that I, you know, really would recommend to someone, I'm always down to collaborate and come up with some content because I have a little side passion for photography too. I'm not a photographer by any means, but a long time ago when I was first getting started, most of my shots were captured by me just because I wanted to play around with edits. I wanted to get Lightroom and Photoshop and things like that. And I just liked messing with lighting. And to answer your question about when did I figure out when I was going to transition to art? Because I mean, I, you can take picture after picture, this angle, that angle, this angle, that angle. And like, eventually it's like, is there what, like, what's the meaning behind it? That's how I felt as a blogger. It's like,

how many fucking pictures can I look at of myself? I want to blow my head off. And by the way, when I'm 50 and I want to be like fabulous with my breakfast tray and my newspaper and my egg coddler, like Patricia, I don't want to be taking pictures of myself all the time. So how do you transition that? That's what's what, yeah. What's, what's the, the end game in that? I don't like, and I know some people probably do it to build up, I guess, an audience for like a bigger opportunity down the road. But I mean, I I'm still, I'm looking at it that way. Like I want to be, a lot to be people don't a lot of people just think it's going to last forever. Yeah. And it's not. I mean, that's not realistic at all. I mean, Facebook used to be, you know, the hottest thing.

And then it kind of slowed down and Instagram took over. I feel like at least as far as, yeah, you know, being the more popular. Well, I think that's what people are going to get in trouble is when they're dependent on a platform. On one platform, yeah. Doesn't it feel good to you to be multifaceted and complex as a person? I mean, you're obviously a very good looking guy. I'm sure when people meet you, they immediately want to put you in the box of you're a model.

And to know that you have so much more to offer, you're such a talented artist, you're a photographer, you have all these different interests and to put it out there online and to be able to be multifaceted, like I think that's what's cool about social media. They can't just put you in the box. I think that's having those thoughts. That's where I started to transition the page. That was probably a year and a half ago when I was leaving my main job I was taking on. I wanted to pursue the art world full force, but I knew I had to do other things to support it when I am an old man or say something happened where you don't have your looks. I mean, I could have a terminal illness tomorrow. What am I going to have in this world that has longevity? I don't want to just be the face.

You'll even actually see it in my thread where every year it's like the shirtless pictures started decreasing and decreasing because i could cut off your ear like van gogh you never know yeah yeah get frustrated yeah so i mean that's what i'm saying you listen you want to go viral you call me up i'll cut that ear uh-huh film it we'll get we'll blow the fuck up new age that's it yeah where do you think creativity comes from because clearly you're obviously you're a very creative person lauren's a creative person i don't necessarily can put myself in the box you're creative at finding angles in business but i think that there's i'm wondering if it's something you have to be born with or something you could tap into i think i think everybody is a creative person like in their own way they have some we're all

born with some type of creativity i i can't believe otherwise you know i just think some people choose to pursue whatever their creative route is and then others decide that's not for them you know like there's nothing wrong with deciding to do the nine to five you know corporate job well there is if you if you're miserable well if you're miserable yeah good point but if that if that's a lot of people say like maybe i'm crazy this is like i think what i want to get in essence with you is there's a lot of creative people but they think okay that's not i can't do anything with that i can't make money and so maybe i maybe i can only make like forty thousand dollars a year being creative but i can go make

90 over here and it's like is it better to to make me extremely happy or make 90 and be miserable? I'm going to vote 40. Right. Yeah. And then people don't talk. They're creating their own obstacles for sure. Because yes, that definitely way I'd much rather make less and be happy than make more and be unhappy. You know why? Because people think that they're going to make X amount. And when they make x amount at some point they're gonna be able to stop they're gonna not have to be productive anymore and they're gonna buy the stuff and have the things and then then they're gonna be happy it's like a delayed gratification yeah but i think that's like a never-ending process like you could have i think about when i was younger it's like i was in you know like an apartment with like three roommates three buddies and it was like a couple hundred

bucks a month cheap and it was you know just like it was really like we it was a shithole but at the time like man this is fucking nice you know and now i think like okay what if i was back in that situation could i still be that happy and i think that's what people should question is like the happiest moments in your life as you progress and get nicer and better things in terms of material could you go back and still be as happy and i think that's where the mind fuck starts to take place because something that used to make you extremely happy could actually end up making you upset now right so are you saying it would it would it not make you happy so you're saying if you went back to that i got i'm trying to get back to a place

where that would right so he's working on himself i think a lot of people get in trouble because they say okay well i'm gonna go to I'm going to go to high school. I'm going to go to college. I'm going to get this job and then we get a better job and then we get this career. And then one day I'm going to make this amount of money and then I'm going to get these things.

I'm going to retire. Yeah. It's like, that doesn't necessarily need to be the path. That's just the way that we're wired. That's the way that school takes it. Yes, yes. Definitely. That's how I was too.

I mean, I always make the comment about the fact that I feel like I'm having to rewire my brain a little bit. And so that comes with a lot of inner struggle and things that my girlfriend deals with. ups and downs through it because you're always questioning. You can't help but to question if it's the right path or not, because you know, the way you were brought up, you wouldn't think that is the way to go. So you have to shut that out. And then remember that you are taking the path that's going to make you the most happy.

I think working towards material things like, you know, guilty of the past is, it's, it's a formula for disaster. People don't, but people, guilt in the past is a formula for disaster. People don't, but people, that's the contracts that we make for us. There's a guy who's really smart named Naval Ravikant. I've listened to a lot of things. He says, basically desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want. And when you think

about it, there's like so many people working towards like one day I'm going to have that house and one day I'm going to have this family and one day I'm going to have this thing. And they're just miserable until they get there, but they don't realize that you may not be happy when you get there. I think that's why we were so interested in what you do. Cause it's like, you really seem like you're living life on your own terms and breaking boundaries with, with society and putting, I like how you said your own online gallery. You didn't take the conventional route. Right. And I'm taking the next step with that too by creating a little private page. So one thing that I've noticed with a lot of artists when they showcase their work, not as many people are going to engage with it because I found myself to do this too.

Like I follow a lot of photographers and different things like that, that things that I find very visually appealing, but it becomes like that scrolling process where we're doing that mindless scroll and you never showed any support, but in your mind, you're like, that was a really good picture, but you went right by it. So I created a separate art page that's just William Tyler story and it's, it's private, but anyone that requests to follow it, I go ahead and accept them. And that's like a little, you know, VIP area for you to be able to see, you know, more actual behind the scenes things. It's still in its very early stages. People are like more engaged in there and they're talking more yeah i think so that's genius to do a vip well and the other thing is the vip

page just it doesn't have any none of the cover photos have me in the way of the artwork so i have so many pictures on my other page where like i am very proud of the work and i want to be in the picture with it you know you want to hold it like a trophy. But I also know that sometimes you need it to sit alone for someone to actually get the real feel of it. So anyways, I'm excited for that because it's given me another project on top of all these others that I'm working on. Is there a strategy to your Instagram? Like when you post an Instagram, do you post a certain days of the week? Is it just how you feel? Is there a strategy with the picture,

the caption? There's not really a strategy. I've done it so long my own way. Like you'll notice through my feed, I don't have a very common filter or anything like that. And I think earlier on an Instagram before the page had grown to where it is today, I liked so many different filters and forms of light that I wanted to be able to post that variety and continue to. So that's what I've done and stuck with. And any caption is just something genuine that came to mind in that time. It's not a lot of planning unless, you know, the unless I'm collaborating with a brand that's requested me to communicate certain bullet points.

So your strategy is just like your life. Do whatever the fuck you want to do. Just to literally be me. Yeah, as much as I can. I love that strategy. Now, it's 110% me. It doesn't have some of my private parts of my life showcased on it. But that's also because this all happened so quickly.

I'm just rocking back and forth a little bit and I'm trying new things. What are those things that are off limits on that page? What do you mean? Michael wants to know, do you put your girlfriend on your Instagram story? Well, that's actually, this was, I wanted this to kind of be that opportunity

to voice that to everyone. Cause like, I'll let all of my followers know, Hey, you need to check this podcast out. I want them to know that I'm happy with my girlfriend. And, but I haven't slide into his DMs.

He has a girl. Listen, I'm looking into this guy's eyes there. What are those? Like bright green, green, something like that. Yeah. Magical like bright green? Green, is that what those are? Something like that, yeah. I don't know, they're magical, whatever they are.

And listen, if I was swinging the other way, I would probably slide in myself. So I can't blame these ladies out there. But your girlfriend's very pretty too. So you guys take it. Yes, she is. Yeah, you guys are good. But cut it out, everybody out there. Don't slide in.

He's taken. But yeah, so the only... Unfortunately for all of us the i haven't kept that off limits but i just haven't really changed what i promote and post on there so until i had i'm very slow to introduce something new to a process that i've been doing for a while you're artistic about it i feel like it's to either be like a slow build or you could just do what Lauren does and just like throw it all out there.

And, you know, I've had no say in the process. Yeah, and it varies with people, but I do, I love the way that I do it because I mean, it's just. You gotta do you. Yeah, I have to do it that way. But, you know, again, this is always, this was probably to me the coolest way to be able

to announce it versus just like, you know, here we are because we have, we have so many good pictures and stuff that we've done what we've done in a, in less than a year. Some people doing five or more, you know, like. This is what you should do. You should paint a photo of her or like paint her skull because it looks like you have a lot of like paint her no because like okay name a painting after her uh-huh and and that's how you should announce i like that you should yeah yeah she's gonna ruin the surprise like a skull with hearts and save save some of those and tell me i am going to paint your skull yeah no he

paints a lot of really cool schools i think if he painted i don't know how you would do it just be like a big stick figure with instead of roses oh my god maybe you do like hearts or something that represents romance to you for sure i think that's cool that you're announcing it. What is a book, a podcast, or a resource that you listen to? It could be a television show, just something that inspires you that you could recommend to our audience. Something that inspires me. I do like to sort through if we're talking about podcasts. There are quite a few of your episodes that have resonated with me. Gary Vee, he puts out so much content, but that's the beauty of it. You can basically, yeah, you can, you can Google whatever's on your mind on his podcast and

find a little segment where he can, you know, give you a little insight on it. He's been crushing for a long time. Yes. I love all the Joe Rogan podcasts for the most part, because they do give you insights on people that are really doing well in their industries. And everything kind of overlaps with each other, like whether it's a music artist or a famous author or podcaster. I mean, everybody that's working hard on their passion, you can find something relatable in the conversation. So I usually I dig through Joe Rogan's, Gary V's, Skinny Confidential. Like I love a lot of the comedian podcasts, too. Like I'm a big Chris D'Elia fan. I love listening to Congratulations.

A little bit of Theo Vaughn, for sure. Some Whiskey Ginger every now and then. But this is the last and final question. And this one's going to be, I think, my favorite question. Who is your favorite artist? It could be anyone that's not with us anymore. It could be someone you follow on Instagram. Whose art do you like? Whose art do you want in your house? Zio Ziegler. And you know what? I may be saying, I think I've mispronounced his last name. I mispronounce everything. It's okay.

It's Zio, Z-I-O, Ziegler, Z-I-E-G-L-E-R. It sounds right. Or Ziegler, Ziegler. but his work to me is, he's another one of those artists that, but he doesn't really need the platform. I think he's done so well on his own and through galleries and things like that, that, you know, that's his path, but I've admired his work from day one. The one thing I forgot to ask you this, when you were talking about the galleries, just triggered my mind is what I think is tough there is you're saying like the person who's running that gallery is making the decision, but art's so personal. So it's so it's hard right i mean i guess you have to have some type of filter because then everybody could get in the gallery but yeah well the the gallery's gonna represent someone

just like uh an agency's gonna represent a model or a talent in any area so with a bigger there is a yeah well yeah they take the that 50-50 split was a little much. Yeah. Really quick, the artist that you just mentioned, how would you describe his art? Is it black and white? Is it colorful? It's a lot of color, but you know what? I mean, he has a big variety, but very colorful, very abstract, but it's, it's coordinated abstract. Like you can find, you know, there's a flow through it. It's, it's not like a splatter paint, like a Pollock or, or anything like that. You can actually see figure like a subconscious type painting. And that's actually the, the latest painting that I'm working on. I haven't shared it with anyone

yet. It's based off of the way that he has his painting style, which is like painting from the subconscious. Whatever comes to mind at the time, like it's not so strategic. Where I do have paintings that are more strategic, where I've sketched them anyways, but he's, yeah. How about William sketches a tattoo of me for your ass michael well listen i want him to get my name on his butt yeah pimp yourself out where can everyone find you give

us your website and both your instagrams website williamtylerstory.com instagram is p suit p e a c e o o t and then i have a private VIP gallery page, William Tyler Story on Instagram. Don't be sliding into his DMZ as a girlfriend, you guys. And Taylor, you too. Don't get creepy. Thank you for coming on. Yeah. Thank you so much. Had a blast. Happy Friday, guys. Thank you so much for listening to The Skinny Confidential, him and her podcast. Make sure you've rated the show and subscribed on iTunes. As always, tell us your favorite part of this episode on my latest Instagram, at The Skinny Confidential, and one of us will slide into your inbox and send you some TSC swag.

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