Build a Business
Around Your ART

There probably aren’t too many entrepreneurs gutsy enough to launch a product-based business without a product! But with her design background, founder and CEO of Tragos Games LLC, Carolina Acosta did just that, designing a website for the game that was still largely an idea!

Her shot paid off in a big way as the self-funded venture, which started with 200 pre-orders, grew to $2 million in two years.

“We became a brand that people started talking about. After the pre-orders, I had to come up with the actual game,” Carolina says laughing on a recent episode of the Werk Mija Podcast. 

From Idea to a Business: The Product Idea Behind Tragos

The idea for Tragos came during a heritage trip to Colombia. The U.S.-born Carolina went to explore her roots and met her now-business associate John Lim. The two bonded over their cultures and came up with the idea that led to the launch of an Asian party game, Azn Flush. Carolina, who has a BFA in Communication Design from...

When Autumn Adeigbo was a little girl, she enjoyed wearing the beautiful dresses her mom made her and was even voted best dressed in the fourth grade. However, while she always enjoyed and had an eye for fashion, she didn’t view it as an accessible career path. She graduated from undergrad with a degree in economics, but decided to pivot and pursue her passion. She enrolled in Parsons School of Design where she obtained a degree in fashion design, then she worked her way up from intern to associate working under top A-List fashion stylists in Hollywood. 

“Traditionally, in Nigerian households, you become a lawyer or doctor but luckily my parents aren’t the traditional mold in terms of strongly holding me into what they thought I should do, and were supportive of me pursuing what I wanted to pursue,” says the fashion designer. 

Autumn successfully built a sustainable powerhouse brand that empowers women around the world by making connections that...

Successful NFT artists Sam Madhu and Ola Vola brought the goods and insider tips on how to enter or expand—and succeed—in the NFT market. The artists, who sell their NFTs on Nifty Gateway, shared their struggles and lessons learned so that your entry into the NFT world can be smoother.

They also shared their personal experiences and what may be in store for NFT-curious artists should they decide to take the plunge. 

If you missed it, you can always watch the replay. If you tuned in and you’re still considering your NFT options, you can relive the REPLAY here: 

THE ARTISTS:

Originally from India, Sam Madhu is a Berlin-based mixed media digital artist whose work fuses elements from East and West with a side of cyberpunk thrown in. Her futuristic art of dystopian cities draws from temples, gods and demons from the past and reinterprets them into the future. Her work also features dystopian cityscapes, inspired by her time in New York and India. It also...

Duncan Cock Foster delivers BIG on all things NFT. You may know that NFT stands for non-fungible token but what is an NFT exactly? How does the NFT world work? And what does it mean for you as an artist?

If you missed it, you can always watch the replay. If you tuned in and you’re considering wading into the NFT pool, you may want to put the replay on REPEAT!

Duncan is co-founder, along with his identical twin brother Griffin, of Nifty Gateway, the largest marketplace for NFT digital art. He describes Nifty Gateway as “an all-in-one platform that makes it easy to buy, sell and store digital art and collectibles.”

A year after creating Nifty Gateway, the twins sold it to by Gemini, a cryptocurrency platform founded by another well-known pair of twins, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Nifty Gateway’s mission is to make NFTs easier to access or as Duncan puts it, “our mission is to make Nifty Gateway drops as fun and equitable as possible.” 

When...

When was the last time you actually looked forward to writing a business plan? 

Uh... Probably NEVER!

The truth is a lot of people put off writing a business plan (and some never actually formalize this vital document) because it's just so intimidating. Like for real—we pursued our creative passions so we wouldn't have to write boring reports and documents, right?!

But, the traditional 20-something page biz plan document isn't the only way. In fact, it can actually be beneficial to start with something WAY more compact (we're talking ONE PAGE BABY!)

Why opt for a one-page business plan?

1. It helps you keep your ideas concise. When starting a business, it's easy to have idea-overload. And while a lot of those ideas might be GREAT, they can dilute a business plan or business idea. (Plus partners, investors, and anyone-who's-anyone in the industry loves a solid, concise pitch.)
2.  You quickly realize where your idea need work. When you're putting together a 20-page-doc, it...

We’ve all probably heard someone mention the concept of “having a seat at the table” at some point, right? It’s a great idea in theory, but in practice, a lot of people get left out. 

But in 2022, we’re building our own tables and expanding the party! That’s what Polly Irungu did when she founded Black Women Photographers in 2020. 

“I didn’t have a seat at the table,” says the photographer and entrepreneur, “And I wanted to create something for us by us to provide that seat at the table.” 

Black Women Photographers has grown into a non-profit and global community of over 1,000 women and non-binary photographers in a little over a year. So far, Black Women Photographers has partnered with a variety of companies and organizations, including Nikon, Phmuseum, Getty, and IWMF, to bestow grant money on talented members of the collective, as well as help them build stellar portfolios, and get amazing job...

Phaon Spurlock is his name and MARKETING is his GAME! And his game is always on FIRE! 

Oh yeah, he’s worked with some household name brands and successfully built his own brands, including Prototype MKTG, BKLYN LEAGUE, and LuxuriousPROTOTYPE. He’s been featured in (and writes for) Forbes and too many other magazines to mention. He’s even spoken at the White House. 

It was his passion for marketing that led him to start Prototype MKTG, a creative agency that focuses on digital, experiential, and multicultural marketing. So, when Phaon talks marketing, we listen. And we are not alone. When he led the How to Target Your DREAM Audience on a BUDGET webinar a couple of weeks ago, creative entrepreneurs from Ireland, Spain and Switzerland to Peru, Colombia and Mexico and many points in the U.S. tuned in to soak up some marketing knowledge. And WOW, did Phaon DELIVER!

Check out the replay here:

We spoke to him about all things marketing and he gave us some...

Mexican-American CEO Sandra Velasquez is a bona fide, tug-at-your-heart, success story.

She launched her luxe cactus-based botanicals brand during the pandemic (when even her own parents thought she was nuts) and is now slated to bring in a sweet half a million dollars in revenue.

But things weren’t always easy for this single mama and lead singer. Sandra was a longtime musician who was juggling parenting, musical gigs, and her day jobs (PLURAL) when she discovered soapmaking and started dreaming of creating her own bath and body brand. She had her “a-ha” moment back home in San Diego eating her mother’s eggs and nopal (cactus.) Cactus has similar healing properties as aloe vera but was often overlooked—until now. Sandra recognized the power of this native, regenerating, and unsung plant and made it the centerpiece of her bath and body business, Nopalera.

She was ready to launch when the pandemic hit, but she pushed through anyway. And soon, ...

When it comes to growing a business, Brittany Chavez has laser-focused vision. No excuses.

Don’t have a mentor to guide you? Create your own! 

No time or money to do focus groups? No problem! 

Make mistakes along the way? Correct your course.

Don’t know what you’re doing? Ask questions.

Brittany has spent the last five years building Shop Latinx, the first curated e-marketplace for Latinx creative entrepreneurs. Shop Latinx offers offers beauty, skincare, apparel, and lifestyle products to the fastest-growing market in the U.S., Millennial and Gen Z Latinas. She started it as a side-hustle, surveyed potential customers while driving them as a rideshare driver and has since built a team and secured funding. 

She knows what it takes to build a business and the founder and CEO is happy to share her journey so that you can learn from her wins and missteps—and build your own success!

She wants you to know you are not alone. You got this! 

For Julissa Prado, starting a business was a childhood dream - and an act of serving her community. Growing up the Los Angeles native played with natural ingredients, creating concoctions for managing her curly hair and sharing her mixtures with other women in her neighborhood. Years later her company Rizos Curls launched in 2017, urgently addressing the hair care needs of women in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. 

“I love to always say that a business is simply a solution to a problem,” said Julissa during our interview last week. “Rizos Curls was literally my solution to my own personal problem of not knowing what products to use to style my own hair.”

Today Rizos Curls can be found on shelves at Target, Ulta Beauty, and Walmart in 57 countries, generating $1 million within its first year. 

We connected with the entrepreneur and beauty influencer during a live event, where she shared how she built a thriving beauty brand...