Скачать или смотреть Absolute Joy | Making A Living After Art School - Buckle Up: My First Business

After art school, Michael Joy didn’t ease into a creative career—he crash-landed into the messy reality of making a living off his skills. In this raw and revealing story, he shares what it really looked like to bootstrap a mold-making business from the floor of his rented apartment, invent products no one asked for, and try (often blindly) to turn talent into income.

He talks about selling his first hollyhock leaf molds at a culinary convention, learning what “scaling” actually means, and realizing too late that having hundreds of products means nothing if no one knows they exist. Alongside grit came mistakes—too much love for invention, zero skill in marketing, and the emotional cost of building a business with no clear model.

This isn’t a how-to guide. It’s a confession, a critique, and a quiet tribute to the sacred hustle of artists trying to make it work. For anyone who’s ever asked, “Am I doing this right?”—this story says, maybe not… but keep going anyway.

⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 – Intro: Buckling up after art school
01:15 – Early days: custom work, missed deadlines, burnout
03:20 – First manufactured product: Hollyhock leaves
04:40 – Selling out at a culinary convention
06:00 – Scaling through mold manufacturing
07:30 – Buying the building in Oak Park
08:45 – Hiding as an artist, not owning the business role
10:10 – Mistakes: Too many products, no marketing plan
12:20 – Becoming truly professional through craftsmanship
13:30 – Art school’s biggest failure: No business training
15:00 – Counterfeit bus passes & Photoshop 101
16:10 – Advice for artists: Build your own curriculum
18:00 – Portfolio over degree: A new way to do college
19:40 – Loving the work… but not knowing how to monetize it
21:30 – Persistence born of fear, not just passion
23:00 – Wealth, slowness, and the illusion of safety nets
24:30 – Entrepreneurial wisdom: Get a job, sleep less, build on the side
26:00 – The imbalances of financial and emotional instability
27:30 – Final lesson: Enjoy something—and share it with someone

🔗 Connect
Michael Joy Art: https://www.michaeljoyart.com/
Chicago Culinary FX (YouTube):    / @chicagoculinaryfx  
Chicago Culinary FX Website: https://www.chicagoculinaryfx.com/
Meta-Moments with Michael Joy (YouTube):    / @meta-momentswithmichaeljoy  
Meta-Moments Instagram:   / metamoments_sstv  
Creative Guidelines: https://www.CreativeGuidelines.com

🏷️ Tags
• real business stories
• making a living from art
• mold making business
• art school mistakes
• michael joy storytelling
• shape shifters tv
• manufacturing for artists
• Hollyhock leaf mold
• culinary mold making
• artist entrepreneur
• business after art school
• Oak Park studio
• custom mold work
• art school no business skills
• passion vs profit
• sacred struggle
• portfolio over degree

'Artiovascular' is the living pulse of artist, author, entrepreneur, and inventor Michael Joy—a surrealist sculptor with over 30 years of hands-on experience in art, design, and professional production. This channel is a circulatory system for creative flow, where sculpture, steampunk collage, philosophy, and visual storytelling converge.

From intricate photo montage and studio builds to poetic critiques and spontaneous thought experiments, 'Artiovascular' delivers art with depth, texture, and soul. Michael’s lifelong dedication to the handmade and the metaphysical informs every brushstroke, weld line, and whispered idea.

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