Regina Brejda, Entrepreneur, Artist, Photographer

00:00
We're potheads over here on the podcast.

00:12
Welcome to another episode of Chewing the Fat. I am your host, Big Robb. Thank you so much for tuning in. I certainly do appreciate it. Thank you to the folks that bought me a coffee at ChewingtheFatBR.com. I always appreciate a little financial support. And the folks that have reached out and followed me on Instagram as well. Thank you so much. Welcome to the fold. Welcome to the, to the, the chewing crew, I suppose.

00:37
I've got a guest in the studio with me today that I met because I was at a point during the pandemic where I was like, okay, I gotta do something. And everybody was making sourdough bread and was like living their best life, it seemed like. And I was still having to work remotely and try and figure out how to ease some anxiety that I was having. As I've said many times, I deal with depression and anxiety.

01:06
And this was one of the things that I saw. I was like, hmm, this is, let's see how this goes, because it's always something I wanted to do. So we'll dive into that a little bit. Please welcome my guest, Regina Brejda. Gina. Hi, how's it going? Good, how are you doing? I'm doing fantastic. Thank you so much for being here. I don't know if you realized that part of my story. I know, I think Harrison, sorry, let me back up a little bit.

01:34
Regina is the owner of 4P Studios. Yes, sir. In Martinez, Georgia, Martinez, for you folks that are from around here. And you guys, the P's are pottery, photography, painting, and printmaking. Printmaking. I was gonna say poetry, but okay. I mean, we got more P's in there. There are more P's than the four that are counted for. And I saw on Facebook that

02:03
you guys were offering a pottery class. I had in the time of COVID found the great pottery throwdown from the UK and I just fell in love with the show and with Keith Breimer Jones and his passion for art and the work that he does. But I've always been jealous of folks that can make things with their hands.

02:33
I sing, I perform on stage, I can read, I can do voices, but it's all intangible stuff for the most part. So artists that can paint and carpenters that can build things. And I was like, that's just amazing. And so I saw the pottery class and I was like, all right, I'm going to give it a shot. I'm going to see what this is all about. And it was a wheel pottery class with Harrison. It was the instructor.

03:02
And I remember the first night in there, he was like, how'd it go, man? I was like, this sucked, this was horrible. He's like, what? I said, no, no, I'll be back next week. I was like, because I knew, because I was big in science in school, so like I knew exactly what needed to happen scientifically and working with the forces and the clay and everything like that, but I could not.

03:28
get my brain to translate that into an actual motor skill that my hands could do. It's a practice. That's another one of the P's. Yeah, practice, practice. It needs to be like three of the P's. But I really fell in love with it. And there was just a calm about centering. It's one of the first things you center the clay on the wheel. And it worked for what I needed to do personally. I became kind of meditative.

03:56
And some of the stuff I turned out is crap, and I've still got the first thing that I made, and it was not great, but I kept it as a reminder of where I started. And then some of the other stuff I have, like I said, I made a little set of plate and bowl and stuff for Maggie that I was pretty proud of. But it was just a really cool experience. And to have something like that here in town, I thought was just amazing. So first of all, thank you for being who you are

04:27
the doors of your studio and having instructors and doing this type of stuff and having a heart for the arts, whether you realize it was gonna be therapeutic or not. I think that there's a lot of what you said just a minute ago with being on stage and performing and all that kind of stuff. Some of the luxury that we have with the tangible side of art is that you do get that process of keeping your beginning pieces and seeing how you've grown.

04:54
Unless somebody's recording every single performance and every single practice you've gone to when you're doing the performing stuff, like you don't realize how much you've improved. Yeah. You know, and it's the same thing. Like I tell all of my students, when you sit down to be, if you wanted to learn piano and you sit down and you look at a piece of music, you're not gonna be able to read it the first time. Right. And you're not gonna be able to play it perfectly the first time. It takes practice, practice, practice, you know, so.

05:16
That is the luxury of the tangible side of the two dimensional art and the three dimensional arts is that you have a track record to see how the growth happens. Um, little metrics you can check in along the way. That's really, really cool. And I never even thought about it that way to kind of see where you were and where you are. Um, but, and I apologize, this is, this is, you're my guest here and I just like, no, I love it. I love it. You know, my first experience with you.

05:44
Let's find out more about you, Regina. Are you from the Augusta area? I am a transplant. I'm an army brat. So I've been here long enough to call it home though. So probably, how old am I now? I just turned 40 last week. So going on 35 years that I've been here, yeah, we just ended up kind of settling in Augusta and mom and dad decided they wanted to make this place home. And I'm very fortunate that I'm involved in the community in the way that I am and have been,

06:13
given the gift of interacting with so many different facets of Augusta and Martinez, Columbia County, all of that. So, yeah. So, I mean, so if you you moved here when you were still, you weren't even in kindergarten at the time or whatever. So all your schoolings happened here in the Columbia County area. Yeah. I was a Martinez Elementary, Lakeside Middle, Evans High. So yeah, all right here in the community and college was at Augusta State. So I was a business major for

06:42
Three and a half years was probably about 13 credits short of graduating with that. And then I was like, nope, this isn't it. So took a four year break, decided to go back right after when the economy tanked in 2008. I could have gone to the bars and drank my sorrows away with my friends, but I decided to go back to school and do night classes to try and finish my business degree. And then it just really wasn't my calling. Like I was always drawn to art.

07:12
Had taken classes at the Gertrude Herbert and the Morris Museum as a kid. Mom would sign us up for extracurricular things and always had that like pull on the heartstrings for the art, but it wasn't until my senior year of high school that I really fell in love with photography. And Mr. Crow at Evans High, he was like, you kind of might have something here. You should kind of dig into this a little bit more.

07:41
I know I'm kind of going out of order for the timeline, but so I applied to SCAD. I got in, but I was paying for college out of my own pocket. And I was like, I can't $17,000 a semester. That's expensive school. Yeah. I was like, I just can't do that. So, you know, I took that away for a little while and decided that, you know what?

08:05
I'm just gonna go major in business. It's the most universal degree. I wasn't really sure how art was gonna fit into my life other than just maybe practicing it on the side. And then, like I said, in 2008, the economy tanked. I wasn't really, my hours were cut at work. I had a little bit more free time. I was like doing business in the night school.

08:28
At that point in my life, I was kind of like, you know what, if it doesn't matter what the piece of paper says and the goal is to get the degree, then I'm going to go to school for what it is that I like to do. And that was art. I met a really awesome group of people that I was when I was in the art program that are still my friends to this day. And we, you know, check in with each other periodically and send each other work to critique and kind of flesh out ideas and whatnot. But.

08:54
Declan Kineski is the reason why 4P Studios exists. I don't know if you've heard this story, but I'll tell you. I had had the idea for 4P while I was in college, and eventually what I would like for it to grow to be is... Our slogan is, exercise your creative muscle.

09:14
Because I do think that it is something that you can practice to get better at doing. Like, I love it when people say I can't draw a stick figure to save my life. I'm like, which that is, I'm like, I'm going to teach you to just draw the best stick figure you possibly can, and you're going to have the confidence behind it to really own that and say, you know what, this is this is Rob Smith's stick figure. And you're going to love it. But so I had I wanted to create this facility that people could join like a gym.

09:39
and have access to the larger equipment that they couldn't afford or didn't have room for in their homes. And that's the long goal. That's the long game for 4P. But I kind of told Declan about this while I was in school and he loved the idea. And he was like, I think you should do it. Let's do it together. And I was in the process of writing my business plan and I would probably still be writing my business plan to this day if it wasn't for him because I was visiting my family for Thanksgiving in Maryland.

10:09
And he sends me a text message and he's like, I found our first spot, I signed our lease, we open in February. And I was like, what? No! Why are you talking about? How are we going to pay for this? We don't have any money? Like, we're both just graduating from college. And he was like, don't worry, don't worry. Like, we can still keep our day jobs and cover the bills and we'll just use it as a gallery space and teach classes and just start off there. And he really pushed me off the high dive into the deep end and was like, we're going to figure it out and swim together.

10:38
And then the goal changed for him. He realized that graduate school was more in line with where he saw his life going. And we're still cordial, we're still friends today. But he, I was like, I'm never going to hold you back from achieving something that you believe is a dream of yours. Because, you know, if you're here and you hate it, then, you know, that's just going to hurt us both in the long run. So he ended up leaving about two and a half years in. And the studio has pretty much been my baby since.

11:06
I love them all the more for that push off the high dive. 30 feet in the air, I feel like it was crazy. So, and I mean, you know, I saved every single penny that we made in our first five years and was able to buy a piece of commercial property in 2019. Obviously not knowing that COVID was right around the corner. Yeah. But luckily for us,

11:31
we took that time to build out the pottery studio. Not realizing that everybody was watching the Great British Pottery Throwdown over COVID and was gonna just have this massive interest, Rob, diving right in. And then Harrison Hickman joining the team, Casey Reed joining the team, all of the instructors that we have, Amanda Flack is our studio manager now, Arianna Williams, local singer, but also Potter.

11:59
you know, we've just, and May Tushen teaches some of our kids' classes. So we've just really got this awesome group of people that, like you said, passionate about sharing the craft and the practice of people that I think are what keep bringing them back. And we do workshops on printmaking, we do watercolors, stained glass, a little bit of woodworking. So we're kind of all over the place. But I feel like, you know, you got to you got to touch different things and kind of figure out.

12:27
what the community needs and if it's not offered, then reach out to us and we'll find an instructor for you. We've got some calligraphy stuff coming up because people are like, we have interest in this, there's no place that's teaching it. I'm like, okay, well, we'll reach out to our network and find somebody. Lots of untapped talent in this town. Like I said, eventually I would like to have the spot for people to be able to come and create and have whatever it is they need at their fingertips to dabble in different areas

12:57
you know, that was the number one complaint I heard when I was in college is like, I'm not going to have access to this type of facility anymore after I graduate. Where am I going to set up shop? And it's expensive to get into a lot of these mediums too. So if we can make it reasonable and fun, then I mean, why wouldn't you want to come back? Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's, like I said, that's, that's one of the things that drew me to the, the client, like I said, I, I'm not going to go buy a wheel and shh.

13:27
I'm not going to go buy a... Yeah, you say that now. I'm not going to... I would buy a wheel before I buy a kiln though. That was what I was going to say. I'm not going to buy a kiln. It's like I'm going to have a bunch of soft clay just laying around. You know what I mean? But the kiln is the part that's scary. But to have access to that type of equipment and to have access to educators or passionate artists who don't mind sharing knowledge. I don't even know if I call them educators. I mean, you're all passionate artists.

13:56
about what you do and your passion about sharing that knowledge, none of the knowledge is precious to you. You're like, I can't show you this one technique on how Harrison made these like pineapple vase things or whatever. You're like, no, this is how you do it. You know, I mean, in theory, you know, someplace could say, oh, well, that's like my intellectual property and I don't want any other people making pineapple vases because then I can't make money on it. It's like, no, this is how you do it. This is a technique or whatever.

14:25
I just think that's amazing to have a place where people can come and learn from people that want to share that knowledge. A lot of that stuff gets lost generationally when we're in an age of technology where, sure, I can watch a YouTube video about this, but that's not going to put into practice what my hands need to do. I think it's accountability too, though. Yeah.

14:55
I feel like everyone that we bring in as an instructor in 4P is practicing in their medium. I'm not just saying, hey, we need a calligraphy instructor, like figure it out and let's fake it till we make it. Like I'm trying to find people that are practicing these mediums and these crafts on a day to day basis. And it's a passion for them so that other people can feel the infectious passionate drive that

15:18
will hopefully help them want to learn more and dig in more and find more videos and reach out to different instructors and all that kind of stuff. So I think that that's part of the allure of what we are building and what we've been able to create in the 4P community is that like I said, people are in the industry and they're practicing these and they are passionate about it. And I think also speaking of you personally, when I was taking that first class

15:48
Harrison you were like, yeah, I don't know how to do all this stuff And you were sitting in on some of the classes as well. And so you were learning it's like well, this is your place This is your you know, I mean you didn't have to do that. You could be The figurehead you could be the photography instructor or whatever, you know what I mean and not have to worry about these other disciplines But you're like no, this is this is cool. I want to learn how to do this too. I mean, yes that makes you a better business owner, I suppose because you know all aspects of what everybody's doing in there, but

16:17
But it wasn't about holding your instructors accountable. It was like, I want to expand my own horizons in this other art form. And I just think that's amazing that you open yourself up to that. Yeah, well, when I was in college and I was taking our Ceramics classes at Augusta State back then, now it's Augusta University, but no matter how many name changes it's had, I did a focus so much on hand building that I was like, I was so intimidated by the wheel.

16:47
Like it's a piece of machinery, you know, it moves and it goes fast and the clay can fly off and all these crazy things. And a lot of what I already knew about throwing on the wheel was self-taught, so to speak, or by trying to mimic people that I was in class with. And I think there is a lot of mimicry in art. And like you were talking about Harrison sharing the particular pineapple pattern and everything like that. That's the community of art. That's the knowledge that gets passed down, like you said, from generation to generation that

17:17
you know, a lot of it is a shared creative community and like problem solving together. There's a lot of it that's, you know, internal problem solving and you're working on that brain space and that meditation space, like you said, and the mental health aspect of like connecting with parts of yourself that you're placing in view for other people to see and critique. And it's, it can be intimidating. But I think having encouraging people around you that are

17:44
Like I said, excited for your growth and ready to be that accountability buddy along the journey. And you know, get excited even after you take a class if you text message them a picture and say, hey, look what I made, you know. I've not met a student yet that has had a bad experience with like after the fact, hey, I want to go buy a wheel. Can you help me or connect me to places where I can get this stuff or, you know, maybe they're not ready for that.

18:09
kiln yet, but we fire outside work all the time. So that's another service that we offer, because it is intimidating and it's scary, but we're willing to hold hands too. So, and if we don't know it, we'll find somebody who does and hopefully we can connect you to that person. Well, I mean, talking about scary and firing things, I mean, you guys do the raccoon firing, which for folks who don't know, that's basically...

18:34
you get the pieces up to around a thousand degrees first. 1800. 1800 degrees first. And then you dump them in like sawdust and newspaper and let them catch on fire and close it off. And that actually causes like these different colors and patterns and stuff to show up based on your combustibles that you put on this flaming hot piece of pottery. And you get these cool textures and finishes from it. And that...

19:04
Like it's amazing to watch again, great battery throw down. It's amazing to watch on there and to know that like, you guys do that and you do it like, I think you've got like every two, three months or so. Every three or four months right now. So we just had one at the end of October and it was nice. I mean, we have pre-bist items there. So.

19:28
Pottery goes through multiple phases and I don't wanna make this super technical podcast about pottery, but I love it so we can talk about it. But you know. It'd become a podcast. A podcast, I love that. I love it. See what I did there? Yeah. So, you know, Rob. So we're potheads over here on the podcast. So, you know, you take the...

19:53
the greenware, the dry, dry clay after it's gone through it's shaping and forming and you fire it once and that gets to about 1800 degrees. That's your bisque fire. And then at that stage, that's where you can glaze the pieces and that's where you take, you know, the different glaze colorings and all that kind of stuff. And you coat the piece in that and then it goes through a bit a glaze fire, which goes to 2800 degrees. And from there, that's where you get the shiny pottery that has all the glassy surface and everything. But what I love about Raku is that

20:22
It is an instantaneous, like you have, we bisque the items to 1800 degrees and then we do have raccoon glazes, but then we're refiring it to 1800 degrees. And like you said, immediately taking it off the heat and oxidizing it in some type of substrate, you know, that's, you know, the paper, the wood pulp or whatever we find that we can oxidize it in. And you get to take it home right then and there. You wash it off and you get to walk away with it. So the raccoons are good. Good.

20:49
good entry level introductory to the clay obsession that is bound to happen. Well, especially if you have already pre-made pieces that are ready for people to kind of... Yeah, they come in and they can glaze them. Glaze and then they... Yeah, we get to fire it right then. It takes about two hours, so it is a hangout time. And we usually have like pizza or barbecue or something and your ticket includes food. So you get to be in community with artists and talk shop, you know? Yeah, absolutely. And I was gonna say is like the last...

21:19
like full, see the last full class that I did with Casey, you know, it was every every class I've done I've been the only guy there and that's okay. So guys, yeah, if you if you want to meet some girls, not that I was there to meet girls, but every class I went to I was the only guy there, which was...

21:46
But it was so cool to meet these people with these different backgrounds, people that weren't nurses and people that were teachers and they were a manager at a whatever legal firm or what. It was like, wow, but everybody kinda has, when that clay is spinning on that wheel, you're all kinda at the same spot. You're all fighting the same forces. Well, art doesn't judge. Yeah, you're all fighting the same forces trying to make something, whatever it is, or learn a process.

22:17
And again, just the process itself is so meditative, at least it was for me. Oh, it can be extremely frustrating too. Yeah, well, like I said, that first class was so frustrating. But just, you know, getting that muscle memory, how am I gonna pull this? How can I make sure that these sausage hands don't poke through the, that I get wobbly pots or, you know. We just needed to give you.

22:44
bigger amounts of clay. I think that's what we determined. Yes. I needed about half more than everybody else because of these sausage fingers. But like I said, everybody's on a level playing field when it comes there. And that's okay. And if you've done it before, done it a million times, you're still kind of in that same place. The instructor may be like, oh, well you've...

23:10
taking the class a few times, okay, here's my... Today we're gonna just do cylinders for the entire class. I want all your cylinders to be the same size. Exactly. Or come up with something else or, that was something too, it's like, hey, I wanna try this technique. I saw this technique, can I try this? Sure, sure, you're here if that's what, if you're gonna do that, we're doing this. But if you're gonna work on that, that's fine. And it was, I can't, I can't.

23:37
praise you guys enough for how much I enjoy the process. I'm sure I'll be back again. But yeah, it was just, I encourage anyone that if you've ever had an inkling for any of these P's to really seek out Regina and the folks at 4P. I was gonna say, you probably can change your name to like 1P and the P be passioned. Because I mean, really it's those passions and.

24:04
those art passions are really what you are feeding in this community and I just think it's amazing. Thank you. We like it. Yeah, no, it's great. And it's right there on what, Robert's Road there. Just off Columbia and Washington Road intersection. And Martinez, so definitely. And I'll put links in the show notes and stuff like that for you be able to find them. And so how long...

24:32
has four people in there, so about five. We moved to that property in 2019, but we'll be nine years old next February. OK. February 2nd, Groundhog Day. What a great anniversary, right? It's awesome. It's awesome. It's like you relive the day. Yeah. Maybe that you can do hand-built groundhogs. It's like an anniversary present. Yeah. Where were you guys at originally? We were in La Pavilion.

24:57
We had a thousand square feet shop, like little spot in the strip mall. You know where stakeout's located? We were right, stakeout was my lunch every single day. It was dangerous. But yeah, so we were in La Pavilion to start with and, you know, all of our pottery equipment was in a storage unit because we didn't have space for it there. And our lease also wouldn't allow us to have the kiln on site. So we have custom framing too though.

25:23
I think that's another, there's art in everything. And I think that's the thing that people don't think about. There's art and baking and art and performing obviously, and doing hair and, you know, just the art of, you know, the sale and, you know, if you're a car salesman or if you're in the legal industry, there's art in all of it. There's creative problem solving in every single day. So I definitely think that like, pursuing artistic endeavors only helps strengthen skills in other areas of your lives. Like,

25:53
I used to get invited back to talk to the freshman class at AU and I had this PowerPoint. And I don't remember all the items that I had on there, but it was like the top 10 reasons why your art degree is just as marketable as anything else. And it was like, you're learning real time, you know, time management, real time working in a space, co-working in a space, you know, real time, you know, problem solving and all of this. So, you know, people look down on the liberal arts degrees and they're like, what are you going to do with your writing?

26:22
you know, degree or whatever, but I mean, there's, there's art and in all of it in everyday life. And I think we just, we don't think, we think about when we go to work, we think about that as like, oh, that's our job. And I just have to do X, Y, and Z and be done with the day. But I think you can find art and fun and, and anything. And I think that's to your point. I think a lot of times with people who do pursue art for a living, you know, they almost get looked at.

26:51
down upon some because people are like, well, what's your backup plan? Oh, you're going to be an actor? What's your backup plan? Oh, is that kind of like your little hobby? They literally say, well, little hobby or is that your little side hustle? Those are your little paintings and you got your little...

27:13
little photography business, you take wedding photos on the weekend or whatever. It's a hustle. What do you do for work though? You know what I mean? It's like you wouldn't do that with a doctor. You wouldn't be like, oh, well, what's your backup plan, Dr. Stevens, you know, or whatever. I think one of my favorite quotes that I've heard, and I'm probably going to get this a little bit wrong, but I was listening to another podcast. Rich Roll had this ultra marathon runner named Samantha Gash on there. And she said that...

27:43
the Latin root for the word passion is to suffer. And I think that if you are truly passionate about anything, there is an amount of suffering that's involved in that, but that doesn't mean that you aren't hustling to put a roof over your head and food in your mouth or clothing on your back and stuff like that. You can find other creative ways to take care of the basic needs of your day-to-day existence, but you're still gonna be passionate and drawn toward whatever it is that you're called to do. And...

28:12
And if it's a creative pursuit, then that doesn't mean that it's not okay to work, you know, at a bar a couple nights a week so that you can pay your rent, but also find those, those avenues to be able to take your work on the road and, or sign up for festivals and do shows and meet other creative people, you know, and just network. That's all, all business really is and that's all the art side of it is, is just, it really is who you know, but you...

28:38
you've got to have the hours, the man hours to back up what it is that you're promoting. And you're promoting a piece of yourself. And I think that's the intimidating part about art too, is that you're taking a piece of your heart, a piece of your soul, and you're laying it out on the open for people to see, and it's just on display. And you're going to either get good feedback or bad feedback, but you've got to learn to get rid of the negative naysayers and just keep driving. Yeah.

29:06
Because you talked about that art doesn't judge, but people judge art. Oh, yeah. People judge art. People judge art, but art itself does not judge. I think that there's a delicate line between creating what you think will sell and what you feel like you're called to create. And like, yes, I don't think that there's any such thing as a sellout, but you've got to do what you've got to do in order to take care of you. But I think that what...

29:31
the right art in front of the right audience is gonna connect with the right people. So it's never stopping trying to put your work in front of other people. I may not like it, but that doesn't mean that somebody else two seats down from me isn't gonna fall in love with it. And you've got a supporter, but if they don't ever see your work, then how are they ever gonna know that you're out there doing it? And I think social media is an advantageous...

29:59
avenue to get out there, but I think the in-person connection, that's especially what we've noticed is in the Augusta area, the in-person connection is what's going to drive people to connect with you and your work. We have a little bit of a, I say, a disadvantage here. Like when I went to go open my gallery, a lot of people were like, you'll never succeed in Augusta. Why not Charleston? Why not Savannah? Why not Atlanta? And I was like, why not Augusta? Like, why can't it happen here? And my personal brain goes to.

30:26
We're a vacation destination one time a year and that's for golf and golfers aren't generally in town to buy artwork. And that's completely fine. Um, when you go on vacation to New York or I don't know, Scotland or somewhere in Seattle, uh, France, I don't know. It's nothing to drop $300 or more or less on a piece of art that you see somebody creating on a piece on the street or whatever you're, you're commemorating an experience. So a lot of what 4P has, has focused on doing is.

30:55
the experiences that we're creating are the relationships with the artists in the community. And that's why, you know, another facet of what we do are the art shows and the pop-ups and pop-up events and everything. So you can come out and you can meet the people that are behind, you know, the local work that's happening in our scene and community. So we're cultivating those relationships and that's gonna be the experience that you get to.

31:17
oh, I bought that from so-and-so and I was here and this is really awesome and you should check out their website and don't drive to Atlanta to go get your artwork, buy it right here, local, support local. And that is the advantage of social media is you can create a shop and you can put your artwork out there for people to see or hear or whatever.

31:40
But there is something about being able to shake that person's hand, being able to talk to them about their process, kind of like we're talking right now about the process and what were you going through when you were making that particular piece? Or that is such a cool texture that you got on it. How did you do that? There's something about that relationship, that ebb and flow of conversation that just makes it so much easier.

32:04
that piece so much more memorable, you know, when you know where it comes from or who it comes from and what the process was and when it was being created. That makes it, you know, like I said, just so much more meaningful. But you are right about like, don't be afraid to put your stuff out there. Make the art, don't put it all in your garage. Yep.

32:33
Go ahead and say, I'm going to buy the booth. Put your stuff out there. Hide behind the back curtain of your booth if you need to. Put it out, just put a QR code and have people just scan in to pay for it. Bring your best friend along and have them be your... Yes, your hype man. Yeah, your hype man. You can be the reclusive artist and have your extroverted friend be your hype man and like, oh my God, this piece of circle. But yeah, because you never know who you're...

33:02
I've said this before about the podcast, my friend Travis Brown said, he's like, your biggest fans have not discovered you yet. You know, the people who are gonna love what you do haven't totally discovered you yet. So you have to keep making, you have to keep putting out. I had created a bunch of music like six years ago, and it was sitting on a hard drive, and it was just sitting there, and it did nothing with it, you know, and it was like, I liked the pieces, it was...

33:32
And at one point over the summer, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna just put it out there. I'm gonna put it out in the world. I figured out how to put it up on Apple Music and Spotify and all like that. Like, all right, here it goes. If it was a, I invested in myself, it costs some money to put it out there, but it's out there now. Like anybody can find my songs out on Apple Music or Spotify or whatever. Heck, apparently you can't even find them on like,

34:00
Instagram to use as like music backgrounds and stuff like that, you know And and because I've done that I get like, you know, you get stats and things and I was surprised like last week That's again last week this I put the stuff out like June Last week. I got this thing. It's like yeah, you're a huge in Chicago last week. I was like what? It was like I'm like who I don't know anyone in Chicago

34:24
But like somebody found the music and was like listening or had shazamed. So I was like, well, if you shazamed it, that means something else was playing. I don't understand how that happened. But I was like, that's, and if I just let it sit on the hard drive, no one would ever hurt it and then making a million dollars from it. Absolutely not. I'm making millions. There are people making worse work than you have that have the confidence out there. Yes, that is. Yeah.

34:54
And that's a lot of what the, I think, I don't know. I mean, there is a level, and I don't think it's imposter syndrome. I don't think that there's a false sense of confidence that happens in that, but you have to be about yourself enough to just have the confidence to go, you know what, even if it's a flop, I try. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Because if you never try, you'll never know. Yeah. If you never put it out there.

35:22
You'll always have, quote unquote, failed because you didn't do anything. You didn't take the chance. Take the chance. Take the chance on yourself. Believe in yourself enough to take the chance on you to bet on you. Believe in yourself enough to be bad at something. I think that's the...

35:38
I think a lot of times what happens is we compare ourselves to the people that are on social media that have been in their industries for X number of years and they're further along in their journey and we want to be where they are, but we're not giving ourselves that beginning spot to go, I've just got to hit the key on the keyboard and be bad. Or I just have to stick my finger in the clay and, or I just have to, you know, try and bake the cake.

36:06
Or whatever, you know, and just comparing yourself to people that are further along is a terrible, terrible little seed to plant. Because you're comparing your day one to their day, you know, 1001. It's like, find out what their day one looked like. It's probably very similar to your day one. That goes back to the same thing with having the two-dimensional and three-dimensional art processes that you get to see where you started. And that's...

36:35
whether or not you choose to share that with people when you get to day 1,000 or whatever, and say, look, this is where I was, and this is where I am now. And we don't get it, there's a lack of luxury in that inside track of how people develop certain skills. You don't get to sit as a fly on the wall and watch someone play the cello for 17 hours a day for 10 years, you just get to see them on the stage performing for an amazing crowd. Absolutely.

37:05
We forget that there's work that goes into it. Yeah, all that practice. All those hours, all that sweat, all the blood, the tears, the equipment that was bought, the lessons that were paid for, all of the other things. That's another thing when you talk about valuing your work. I found as a photographer trying to value my work, and people asked me to do headshots for them. It's like, hey, could you do headshots? Yeah, this is my rate.

37:35
Oh my gosh, that's so expensive. It's like, well, you know, like, I'm not trying to buy your camera. I was like, of course you're not. You're not paying for the camera. You're paying for the fact that I have the camera and I have 10 years of honing this craft behind it. Yeah. So you don't have to spend an entire day with somebody that may or may not get one shot. You can walk in for 10 minutes and walk out with a satisfied product. Exactly. Exactly.

38:02
We can go down a rabbit hole with that one. Oh yeah. Regina, what is bringing you joy right now?

38:14
Taking an eagle-eye view on where I started and where I've come, I think having this 40th birthday, just this past week, I am so busy all the time and I've realized that there's a laziness to busy, so to speak, like that you do have to slow down and be able to reflect from time to time. I took every year for my birthday, I go to the beach for about four or five days and I try to disconnect as much as I can.

38:43
Just kind of sit there and reflect and be in nature and reconnect with why. What's the why? What are, you know, and my brother Joe is phenomenal. He is asking me all the time, the different workshops, like why, okay, why again, but not the same answer, you know, just digging deeper into like, why are you doing what you do? And I think the joy in my life is being able to...

39:13
to help others succeed and being a part of that and watching their growth. In my 40s, my personal joyful goal is to connect more back to my artistic side. I was told when I opened the studio that I was not going to have time to make art. You know, I had several people warn me the same way, like, you'll never succeed here. Well, you won't be able to make your own art for a long time because you're going to be busy running the day-to-day and...

39:42
There's a lot of systems and processes that are in place now that are hopefully going to afford me the opportunity to get back into connecting with the whole my why and my my drive in the creative pursuit. You know, I've touched it here and there, but it's time to to pick up the paintbrush and make some more pots and take some more photographs. I don't like taking pictures of people, though, so I commend you on that one. I tell you all the time, I don't shoot people.

40:11
I can do, I can shoot like posed photos and stuff for like headshots and stuff. I do not do weddings. I like the stuff that happens in between the camera click. That's the important stuff for me. It's like the candid, you know, but yeah. So that's the joy that I've experienced in the last 10 years of growing 4P has been to watch so many creative journeys, you know, really just kind of explode and people, you know, utilizing us as a resource to help.

40:40
help further their own creative pursuits and us being able to provide that back to the community. That's where I get my joy right now. But I do want to find my joy again in my own creative pursuits. And that's what this next decade's about, I think.

40:59
All right, Jim, this is the second segment of the show. We dive a little bit more into your mental health journey. I am a big proponent of talking about things that bother us and things that are weighing on us. I think one thing like depression tells us is that we're alone. So the more conversations we can have, we realize that we are not actually alone. And that makes it a little bit easier to bear. Doesn't mean that there are no bad days anymore, but it makes it easier to know that you're not alone.

41:29
So for you, how do you keep the darkness at bay? Oh, good question.

41:39
I kind of just tell it to shut up. So I think that there's, and related to art specifically, since that is what we started talking about, there's a lot of room for self-criticism. There's a lot of room for feeling like you're not where you should be. There's a lot of room for feeling like you've got imposter syndrome or...

42:05
Am I making work that is really authentic and connected to who I am as a human being and everything like that? So a lot of what my practice has been through the last several years is just telling the voices to shut up or changing the dialogue that happens in my head. So if a negative thought starts to creep in, I redirect the conversation within my own space and I'm like, nope, these are the things that I'm doing good. These are the things that I feel like I'm...

42:33
I'm successful at and yes, I may need to make a list of little areas that need some focus that I could get better on. But, you know, I try not to have a gratitude journal that I do every morning. I write down three things that I'm grateful for and three things that I can look forward to. You know, I it's on my phone. I don't write it down on a piece of paper. I say journal. It's a little notepad that I write stuff down. But I think that.

43:02
to dive in, I guess I went through a really dark period of time right before I turned 30. I went through a really bad breakup and, you know, personal life stuff aside from the business stuff, aside from the business stuff is that like, I, they say the first three months or the first three months after a breakup are the hardest because you are so tender, right?

43:24
And I was beating myself up on the inside, like, why didn't this work? Why, what's wrong with me? You know, and I'm like, what do I need to change? And not realizing there's really nothing wrong with me. It just wasn't the right situation for either of us. And affording a little bit of forgiveness to the other person, then also accepting responsibility, because it's not just a one-way street. But I challenged myself to do 365 days of a positive word a day.

43:49
And I didn't repeat a single word and I didn't tell anybody what I was doing. I just I was on social media. I was on Facebook and I just started and I was like, today's word is X. And, you know, I started to look around and I didn't believe it when I first started doing it at all. I was like, this is so dumb. Like, why? Why did I sign myself up to do three hundred and sixty five? Because I don't feel like I'm in a positive space in this. And the whole world stinks and everything. And right.

44:17
I just kept a running list on my phone if I saw a word on a billboard or something, and I thought it could have some type of positive context to somebody, not even just me, but to somebody else. Like, I would just put it in my phone and I would scroll through that list every morning when I was going to post my positive word of the day. And I'd be like, OK, this sounds like a good word for today. And I remember it was like day 279 or something. And I had a I didn't post the word in the morning.

44:44
and I had a message in my inbox, it was like seven o'clock at night from somebody and they were like, what's today's word? And I was like, what? Like, oh crap, I forgot to post today's positive word and somebody, somebody's noticing this, you know. And so I immediately went on through my list, posted the word online. And then at the end of 365 days, I said, OK, I've done 365 days. Positive word a day. I'm done with this challenge. And I explained like this is where it started. This is how I.

45:14
how I decided to do it and everything. And it really was about the three month mark in that I was like, I started to believe the words that I was posting. I started to connect with them a little bit more intimately and like also pay attention to how those words were impacting my day and like how I could utilize that word in my day to reframe the way my brain was just thinking and I wasn't in that.

45:38
that negative headspace all the time. I was looking forward to posting a positive word a day. And that was a really challenging time in my life, but that is what got me through it. And I came up with the plan on my own, and I'm not saying everybody needs to do the self-reflection to do that, but whatever tools you can find or come up with on your own to assist yourself in making it through dark times, I think are...

46:08
There's limitless resources out there, but you've got to be able to talk to people sometimes too. I think leaning on your friends and your network and your core group of people is super important. Sometimes it may be things that you're not ready to talk about either. It's okay to tell people, I'm just in a dark space and I don't know what it is, but I just need you to know that maybe I need an extra hug today or something, or help me find something to be grateful for.

46:37
Or just let me sit in my darkness and be near you. Yeah. And I think that's okay too. I think it's amazing that a lot of those times it is about where our headspace is and what we are focusing on. Because if we don't have a focus like a positive word,

46:58
the oily blackness can just kind of coat everything. And you just kind of get stuck in that funk. You get stuck in the hamster wheel of negativity. Yeah, and when you start saying, whatever the positive word is, it's amazing how you'll start hearing that word in a song that comes on the radio, or in an advertisement, or there's a billboard, or a friend says it in...

47:24
conversation and they've never said it before and then all of a sudden, I think it's kind of like that, you never see any white cars until you decide you want to buy a white car and you see them everywhere because now you're looking for them. Rewiring your brain. You are. You are rewiring your brain. You're now looking for it. You're looking for that word. You're believing in that word and that positive thought and rewiring, reframing how you're approaching it.

47:51
your day. It's not always easy to find a silver lining, but I do believe that most every situation has a silver lining. And I think that, you know, there is toxic positivity also. I get that. Like you're allowed to be sad and that's okay. But like recognizing that, you know, you may not exactly be where you are right now. You may not have ever been in that exact moment before, but you've gotten out of something that could have been darker.

48:20
or not, but you've gotten out of every single day before on the plus side. So there is, I hate to say it, light at the end of the tunnel. There is a space for existence without the heaviness of whatever's affecting you at the moment. But I do think there is a sense of ownership that has to be taken into getting professional help or getting prescribed medication or reading a self-help book that's recommended by a friend

48:50
having the voice to be able to just talk to people about what's going on. And I think sometimes too, like, being selective about your friend group and that there are certain people that are there, reason, season, lifetime. If the friends that you're talking to aren't connecting with your situation or aren't there to help support you, it needs to be a two-way street. You can't just always dump on them every single time. But you know, like...

49:17
Just being able to recognize that there are people in your life who do care and are capable of supporting you, but you also have to be able to tell them what kind of support you need. I've learned in conversation a lot of times to ask people, are we venting right now or are we problem solving? Because there are two different ways. I'm a problem solver. You come to me and you tell me something's wrong. I'm going to try and find a solution to it. But a lot of times what people just need is to...

49:45
to verbalize it and get it outside of themselves so that they can categorically figure out, okay, whew, I got that off my chest, like this is next. Yep, I've had to do that with Val, my wife, several times. Because again, as a husband, I want to be a fixer. I don't want her to hurt or have problems or whatever, so I want to fix it. But sometimes it's not about me fixing it, so I have to ask, it's like, do you want me to fix this or do you want me to feel it?

50:15
Yeah. Yeah. And I'm okay with either one. Yeah. But if you don't tell me, I'm going to... I'm going to defer to my auto. I'm going to fall into fix. Yeah. So if it needs to be a feel, I need you to tell me a feel and I can just sit there and be there, be present and listen so that you have the opportunity to say whatever you need to say. And I've learned too, throughout the years and as the older I've gotten that like me verbalizing...

50:39
I don't want other people to fix my problems. I may be a fixer for other people, but a lot of what my communication skills, when I'm voicing something that's happening in my life or that's affecting me deeply, like I said, being able to say it out loud so that I can not have it running an autopilot in my brain and it's now verbal vomit coming out my mouth. And I'm like, okay, now I have to listen to the words that I'm saying.

51:06
And do I want to eat that back up or do I want to just, you know, find a way to get past it on my own? Because you don't, we have control of our narrative to a certain degree. Yes, there are external factors that can either trigger us or glimmer us on a day to day basis. But the words that you say out loud, your brain does here, too. And the words that are running in your head are only stuck there if they're not said out loud. So I think that...

51:35
Everybody's situation is a little bit different, but I don't think there's any harm in expressing feelings and emotions in a healthy way. And allowing people, if you are in a position to need help, allowing people to assist you in finding the right help for you too. Because sometimes you don't know what the answer is. And they don't know what the answer is. Not every friend is a therapist.

52:02
You might need somebody professional to talk to.

52:10
All right, Regina, this is the third segment of the show. It's time now for the Fast Five, the Fast Five. It's time now for the Fast Five. Fast Five, sorry, still working on the theme song. You're fine, I love it. Still working on the theme song there. Gotta upload it on Spotify. Yeah, that's what I need to do. Somebody drop a beat on that. Fast Five is powered by Poddex. It's an app created by my friend Travis Brown. You can find it at any of your app stores. There is creative for podcasters, but the great conversation starters,

52:39
icebreaker questions. So just check that out. As a matter of fact, if you go to chewingfatbr.com slash pod decks, you can use the promo code chew and get 10% off your physical decks, but I'm going to use the app. Again, this is five questions. First thing that comes to the top of your head, there's not a lot of thought that you need is no wrong answers, no pressure. Okay. All right. You ready? I'm in the hot seat. I'm ready. Here you go. Question number one.

53:08
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Ooh. I went to Scotland last year in October and really fell in love. Edinburgh is a beautiful city. I would have to say Scotland. Okay, okay. On the coast probably though. Yeah, coastal Scotland. I mean, that's gorgeous. That's as good a place as any as I can think of for sure.

53:38
Alright, question number two.

53:42
When is the last time you cry?

53:47
Last Wednesday when I turned 40. Oh wow. But they were happy tears. Okay. Yeah. Okay. You didn't say happy or sad. No, no, no. You just cried. Okay. Well good. I'm glad they were happy tears. And again, happy belated birthday to you. Thank you. All right. Question number three.

54:06
What do you love to do for others?

54:12
I...

54:16
I like to do anything that makes them smile. So I think getting to know people and finding out what makes them tick or little notes or just things that'll kind of make people smile. So notes or small little trinkets, something that lets them know that I was thinking of them. Cool, I love that. Question number four.

54:42
If you could meet any entrepreneur, living or dead, who would it be? Tim Ferriss. Yeah, the Tim Ferriss Show. He's a podcaster and venture capitalist. I'm fascinated with the way his brain works. So I would love to be on the Tim Ferriss podcast one day. So yeah, that would be my entrepreneur. Okay, okay, I love that. All right, and I don't know Tim, I don't know that I can necessarily get you on his show or anything like that.

55:10
I can Google, we can figure it out. Have your people contact his people. I am my people. I get that. Me too. Question number five.

55:25
If you could pick only one lesson to tell a new business owner, what would it be?

55:32
take a step back from time to time and realize how far you've come. It's bringing it back to where we started with the tangible and intangible artistic pursuits or business pursuits. Like, you know, as a potter, you have the progression of how your skillset has gotten better. As a business owner, you don't have the luxury of having so much of that tangibleness of how much you've improved and where you've started and now you're here kind of thing.

56:01
So taking an eagle-eyed view from time to time and believing people too when they compliment you on what you're doing. Because it gets really easy to kind of just blow it off and go, no, I'm really not doing enough. And it's, where can I do more? But yeah, seeing from time to time, taking a step back and realizing where you've started and where you are now. And then also checking in with where you want to go. Like...

56:29
Is this still the right path for me? Is this still, am I still finding joy in this pursuit? I think that's super important. I love that. Thank you. What a great answer. Regina, that's our, that's our Fast Five and that is the show. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me. I had an amazing time. This was great. If folks want to keep up with you, what's the best way to do that? Well, my cell phone number is the business line, so you can text me.

56:54
Text me, if you call me, leave me a message because I'm usually teaching. My email address for the studio is info at the number four, the letter P is in Paul, studiosart.com. It does have an S on studios. You can shoot me a message through our website 4pstudiosart.com. I am on Twitter or X or whatever you're supposed to call it now. I don't know. It's at Regina Brejda, Instagram.

57:24
at Regina Brejda, Facebook, all the socials like 4P and more. All right. I'll make sure I put all of those in the show notes and that way you can keep up with the classes they have coming up and all the cool, amazing stuff that they do. Yeah. Join our email list too. We send a reminder a couple of times a month. I'm not the big box stores. I can't sit behind a computer every single day and email you, but I will send a reminder a couple of times a month.

57:49
Yeah, no, that's great. So I'll make sure that I do that so folks can find you and maybe they can find their new passion in pottery or photography or printmaking Whatever it is Again, thank you so much me in here. I love you. I love what you're doing. I love your heart and Just wish you nothing but success. Thank you so much Rob. I really appreciate it Absolutely, and if you would like to help support this podcast I'd appreciate it if you bought me a coffee at chewingthefatbr.com, But until next time I look forward to the chance

58:19
to sit a spell and chew the fat.