Michelle Bryant Griffin

Audio

Transcript

00:00 Victoria Bartolotto

Hello, everybody. My name is Victoria. And today we are talking with Michelle Bryant Griffin, a professional creative working from and within South Carolina. As we get started, can you tell us your current career and where you’re from?

00:14 Michelle Bryant Griffin

Yes, I am a business branding specialist, business developing specialist, and I am in the Charleston, South Carolina area. I service all over the United States, but I’m based in the Charleston area.

00:33 Victoria Bartolotto

Awesome. Before we go into the details of your profession, we have a brief section of our interview called One Career 60 Seconds, where you describe your job in 60 seconds or less, similar to an elevator pitch? Are you ready?

00:45 Michelle Bryant Griffin

I’m ready.

00:46 Victoria Bartolotto

Alright, you can go ahead.

00:48 Michelle Bryant Griffin 

So, I don’t just build brands.  I teach people how to see their vision, well, not people, dreamers, doers, entrepreneurs, how to see their vision, own it, and bring it to life. I do that through art strategy, speaking, real world guidance, and out of the box ideas. I create momentum that builds confidence and transforms passion into something powerful and profitable.

01:14 Victoria Bartolotto

Awesome. Thank you so much. That was really good. So, in your business, is there anything that South Carolina – you said you were mostly based in Charleston, but you do work worldwide – is there anything about Charleston or South Carolina in particular that brings uniqueness to your work compared to if you could do your job anywhere else?

01:37 Michelle Bryant Griffin

Not necessarily, I could do it anywhere else. I am an ex-military wife, since retired, but it’s something that even if I was still a military wife, I could do anywhere, wherever I lived. I think that gives me the flexibility to work with people, no matter where they are in globally, or in their journey, whether they’re just getting started or they’ve been somewhere. I don’t want to say business, and their brand for ten, fifteen, twenty years, and now maybe they’re stuck, so I get that transition mobility kind of thing.

02:26 Victoria Bartolotto

Is there anything about Charleston in particular that you’ve liked rather than any other place that you’ve lived before?

02:34 Michelle Bryant Griffin

Well, I have either lived in or been to all fifty states, and I love the beach, so I have to be near the beach. I do like that Charleston is a coastal town, and I love that I can be in Memphis in a day, I can be in Virginia in a day, I can be in Florida in a day. I can go anywhere and take a day trip and be in a whole other town or state, and that’s very cool. So, I like that.

03:06 Victoria Bartolotto

So, in helping people discover their creativity, or explore their creativity, or brand it in a way that represents them, was there a defining moment in your life that had an impact on your own personal creative journey?

03:22 Michelle Bryant Griffin

Yes, I grew up in a house full of creative intellects, and so I’ve always been in a creative household. It kind of set me back in that I didn’t think that I was ever as good, or there’s always people out there that are better. So, I just kind of was a wallflower. I just do this for fun, and it wasn’t really until later in life that I realized I did have a gift, I did have a talent, and started just stepping into those gifts and talents, and branching out, and offering that to the world.

04:06 Victoria Bartolotto 

 Was there a particular project or client that you helped develop which showcased your creativity in a way that it never had before?

04:17 Michelle Bryant Griffin

Yes. First of all, I love what I do. I love when somebody comes to me with an idea and we birth it, we bring it to life, because especially when it’s they’re just getting started. So, they basically have ideas on a piece of paper. We come up with color, brand colors, and logo designs and everything, and it just starts to bloom, and I love that. I get so excited, like it’s my baby too.

But I had one client, and she had a chicken salad recipe that was her mother’s, and she was certain it was the best chicken salad you ever ate. And before she even started, she did a blind taste test. She went to the grocery store. She went to farmers’ markets, and she had people test all these different chicken salads, so that she could really claim this was the best chicken salad you ever tasted. And we came up with a logo for her. It’s now been trademarked, and she’s in grocery stores. A logo that I created is now in grocery stores, and it was very, very cool. She has since passed away, but it was a very defining moment for me in my career to watch that dream of carrying on her mother’s legacy into carrying on her legacy and making that dream come true for her, and then it being a trademark, and seeing it. I did this, we did this. It was amazing.

05:55 Victoria Bartolotto

Yeah, especially that it’s something that you can touch too when it’s out on a product, and you’re like, “I helped create that.”

06:01 Michelle Bryant Griffin   

It’s like when you bring a baby, your very first child home from the hospital, and you’re like, “ We made this.” That’s exactly what it was like. It was very cool.

06:11 Victoria Bartolotto 

It’s a surreal feeling.

06:13 Michelle Bryant Griffin   

It really is. And even though it wasn’t my product, it wasn’t my business. I get so involved in what I do that it’s a part of me and so I was just as thrilled as she was.

06:28 Victoria Bartolotto

Yeah. Before entering graphic design or development, did you have any fears about becoming a creative professional, about having your income depend on creativity, and if there was that some kind of fear, what inspired you to continue beyond it?

06:47 Michelle Bryant Griffin 

Well, actually, yes. When I was in high school, I got three scholarships in high school. One was for journalism, because I’d already been published in writing, and I had won two art awards, and so I had all this talent.

I didn’t know what to do when I’m eighteen years old, and it’s like, “what am I going to be for the rest of my life?” It was so overwhelming, and I went to art school for a while, and I lost my scholarship, and because it was very, very difficult, and I ended up pretty much doing nothing. Like I said earlier, art was just something I just kind of did for me. It was just a fun kind of fun. I’m not really that great.

Then I started dabbling a little bit, doing logos and business cards and flyers in the eighties, when it was called desktop publishing, and I didn’t really make a living at it. I was just like, “Yeah, I can do that for you.” I worked for some print shops and some newspapers, and it wasn’t really until I moved to Charleston.

I got divorced in my fifties, and was kind of like, “Okay, what am I going to do?” I don’t really have anything more than some college. I have a high school education and some college, but I have all this talent, and I became a CNA. I was working, doing elderly care, in-home care, and when I moved to Charleston, they wouldn’t trade my license over. I would have to go back through the whole nursing training again, and my ex-husband was like, “You’re an award-winning photographer. You’re in a beautiful place, do something with it.” So, I entered a couple photography contests and won, and so I started doing something with that.

I had to find a niche, so I started doing boudoir photography for women over forty who kind of felt like they didn’t have it, and that led to a magazine called Focus on Fabulous. Before I started that, I looked and there was nothing like it. I spent hours at Barnes and Noble, and in the supermarket, and there was nothing. I mean, I had piles and piles of magazines, and these were real women, everyday women, and their stories of struggles and survival and successes, and I was tooting their horns, because as women we don’t do that enough, and that’s what this magazine was. For ten years, we found these stories, and we showcased these women, and I look back over these issues of thirty something issues, and some of these women are no longer on this planet and their stories are now told and shared with the world, and that I think is one of my greatest accomplishments.

During the pandemic, of course we couldn’t go anywhere or do anything, so I was going through my websites. I was sitting at home with nothing to do, and I found some links that were broken, and a couple of things that didn’t work right, and I was like, “Gosh, I wonder if anybody else is so busy running their business that their online presence is falling apart?” And so, I just sent a message out to social media, “Is anybody else having this issue, I can fix it for you.” That’s when Fabulous Business Solutions started, and I started just reaching out and helping people with their online presence. It just grew from there to, “Hey, I’m stuck in this, or I’m having this event, and I need this.” It’s just one thing kind of morphs into something else, and that creativity is just kind of grown into this purpose that I think I was destined for all along, and didn’t even realize.

10:33 Victoria Bartolotto

It is kind of like that snowball [effect] where it keeps rolling and rolling until you got this huge amalgamation of networks and projects, and that must be such a fun feeling.

10:43 Michelle Bryant Griffin   

When you’re young and you’re looking, and you’re like, “I’m so overwhelmed, I don’t know.” You get older and you’re just like, “Uh, whatever. I’m just going to go with the wind. I don’t care, what the heck, what have I got to lose?”

Yesterday, I went with some friends to Beaufort. We went to the kazoo factory, where kazoos are made. One of the kazoos on it, if you’ve ever blown a kazoo, they’re very loud, and it says ‘live out loud’ on it. I thought, “That’s me. I’m going to live out loud.” I think that’s something that comes when you get a little older, with little more years under your belt. You’re just like, “Yeah, what the heck, I’m just going to throw caution to the wind and go for it.” So, I don’t know if that answered your question. I knew that was a lot in there.

11:32 Victoria Bartolotto

No, no, that was great, because I know it’s hard to get yourself into it, and to just start it because, there’s the whole thing of, “Oh, what if it doesn’t work, what if I don’t make it?” But it always kind of works itself out, and I feel like that is what happened to you as well, is that it kind of just–you found where you needed to be.

11:55 Michelle Bryant Griffin 

Well, and that overwhelming feeling, at least for me, and I’ve noticed for other people too, sometimes that overwhelming feeling makes you end up doing nothing, which is what happened to me when I was eighteen.

So, I’ve actually created a dreamer’s course, I call it the dreamer’s course, because whether you’re an entrepreneur or a business owner or an author or a writer, or a crafter, you’re a dreamer, you’ve got a plan, you’ve got something you’re trying to accomplish, and it can be overwhelming.

Do I need this? Am I an LLC? Am I an S Corp? Do I need contracts? So, I created this course, and it’s not super long. You can do it in an afternoon, and it’s on my website.  I can do it with you. We can do it with a couple of people. I do it in classes with several people. I teach it, or I do one-on-one. That’s what it does is it answers some of those questions, it’s full of resources, and just kind of helps you walk through the process of where you need to go and what you need to do. I wish that I had had something like that when I was younger, just to kind of check some boxes, and okay, did that, got that. I’m kind of a list-maker and a note-taker.

13:13 Victoria Bartolotto

Yeah.

13:14 Michelle Bryant Griffin 

I love it. I think I was like, “Gosh, I think there’s a lot of people that could really use this.” Because they do. You get so wrapped up in your passion, then your purpose, that you forget the principles, the basics, and you’re like, “Oh, I forgot about that, you know?

13:34 Victoria Bartolotto

Speaking of the younger generation, and young adults wanting to get into creative fields, but feeling overwhelmed. Do you have any advice for possible young students or young college kids who have an interest in pursuing a creative path, but not really sure where to go with it? Are there any particular skills or mindset that they should have before entering the industry?

13:57 Michelle Bryant Griffin 

I do, and actually, I’ve written a book. I’ve written eleven books, but I have this one book that I wrote, but it’s called Rise High, Stand Tall.  I just did a book signing, so I don’t have one in front of me, but anyway, it’s on Amazon. It’s on my website. It’s a book basically, for that. It’s just ten little tips for anybody in business, and it’s all the things that I learned the hard way. The two biggest things that I can say, and, like I said, there’s ten basic things in there, but the two biggest ones for me were: don’t be afraid to fail.

Michael Jordan failed a gazillion baskets before he made a lot, but if he’d have not gone into the NBA every time he failed, and he wouldn’t be the star that he is today. There’s a lot of people, Walt Disney and Henry Ford, and dozens of people who failed numerous times before they made it. Learn from your mistakes and your failures. And I failed numerous times. It’s easy to say, “Oh, I suck at this, maybe this isn’t right for me.” Maybe it isn’t, but don’t give up immediately. Kind of just address it, and so don’t be afraid to fail.

And collaboration. Collaboration over competition is huge. Find somebody who does what you do; you can collaborate and not be a competitor. You and I can both do the same thing and still help each other, because we see things differently. We’re different ages. I mean, when I had my magazine, on my board, I had people that were old as my mother and younger than my daughter, because I wanted all of those viewpoints in the core of my magazine. We can learn from each other, and that collaboration is huge. We’re stronger together, and so there’s a lot of tidbits like that in there.

The biggest one for me was delegating. I’m the oldest of eight, and so I was born a leader, and I know I talked to so many people, especially if you’re just starting out, like “This is my baby. Nobody’s going to love it like me. Nobody’s going to take care of it like me. Nobody’s going to be as passionate as I am.” That’s the way I was with most of my businesses. It’s like by the time I tell you what I want you to do, I could just do it myself. But truly, once I delegated, oh my gosh! I had so much less stress, and I had more time to do what I needed to do, where my talents and my gifts were. I could build my magazine. I could do InDesign. I hated it. It was awful. I pushed one wrong key, and then it took me two hours to undo whatever was I did, because it was just that.

But I hired somebody, and I would just throw the words and pictures on a page and say “I want it to look like this.” She had little magic fingers, and she would make it beautiful, and that was wonderful. I had a vision. She stirred in the pot and made it beautiful. Once I delegated it, my vision came to life, and I didn’t have to stress about it, and it didn’t take me one hundred years to do it.

So, don’t be afraid to delegate. That’s huge.  And then you can do what you need to do, without getting burned out. Yeah, those are three big things I would really, really encourage.

17:53 Victoria Bartolotto 

Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today. I sincerely appreciate it. I hope you have a great day.

18:00 Michelle Bryant Griffin 

Thanks, you too.