Permission to Kick Ass

Turning passion (and play) into profit with Sonya Paz

• Angie Colee • Episode 194

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Today, I had a blast from the past on the show – my friend and long-time karaoke bud, Sonya Paz. This woman is a freakin’ powerhouse, juggling more businesses than I can count on one hand. She's a professional artist, gallery owner, podcaster, and even has a candied jalapeño business. I swear, if there's a way to turn creativity into cash, Sonya's found it. All my multi-talented, multi-passionate creative folks... this one's for you.

Can't-Miss Moments:

  • Mic drop: what do you say when someone has the audacity to crap all over your dreams? Sonya's got a few ideas (use thiswith the naysayers in your life)... 

  • Surprise podcast benefits: Sonya and I break down the unexpected side of starting your own show (this is why I say sharing stories is more than just a business bandwagon move)...

  • Detour down memory lane: I share one of my favorite karaoke moments from back in the day. You'll never guess which song she's a total PRO at singing... 

  • The mind-blowing story behind Sonya's latest podcast, "Investigated," and why it's more than "just another true crime series"...

  • Why you shouldn't be afraid to reach out to people you admire – Sonya and I both have some strong feelings on this one!

Sonya's bio:

Artist Sonya Paz has created wild new direction in the Pop Art… movement through her exuberant use of color and playful forms. Sonya’s paintings and vivid images are a reflection of her true native California roots and her passion and love for life.

Her art has been exhibited at a number of venues; these include wine labels for elSol Vineyards, Effusion Gallery, PoP Gallery at the Walt Disney Resort, Pop Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, HoyPoloi Gallery in Chicago, HayStack Gallery in Cannon Beach, as well as the Chicago O'Hare and San Jose International Airports. You may also see her work amongst several restaurants, wineries, museum shops and wineries around the country.

In 2015 Sonya started VinoPaint.com, a social painting company where she teaches people in large groups to paint and create.

Sonya has established a solid private and corporate clientele. Her works of art have been acquired by many collectors throughout the United States and can be found in collections worldwide. She owns her own art studio which is accessible by appointment in California.

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Angie Colee:

Welcome to Permission to Kick Ass, the show that gives you a virtual seat at the bar for the real conversations that happen between entrepreneurs. I'm interviewing all kinds of business owners, from those just a few years into freelancing to CEOs helming nine figure companies. If you've ever worried that everyone else just seems to get it and you're missing something or messing things up, this show is for you. I'm your host, angie Coley, and let's get to it and welcome back to Permission to Kick Ass Today. I am very excited. It's a special treat for me. I would love to introduce everybody to my friend, sonia Paz Say hi, hey everybody.

Sonya Paz:

How are you? Angie, thank you so much for having me.

Angie Colee:

So exciting, Great to see you again. Truly my pleasure. So the reason that I was saying this is a special treat is Sonia has one of my all-time favorite happy memories in my head. We go way back to my early entrepreneurship days in Silicon Valley, back when I was first finding my footing as a copywriter. I got involved in some local business networking groups, Unsurprising to anybody. One of them was called Sassy Networking and we discovered a lovely local karaoke night where Sonia and I became fast friends and she totally won me over with her and her grown son's rendition of Lose it by Eminem. Oh yeah.

Sonya Paz:

My boyfriend.

Angie Colee:

My boyfriend Eminem son's rendition of Lose it by Eminem. Oh yeah, my boyfriend, my boyfriend Eminem. Yeah, oh my gosh, so much fun in those days. So anyway, like that's, that's my big overarching rant for this. I was so pleased when you reached out and said that you wanted to be on the show. So, yeah, take it away. Tell us what you do.

Sonya Paz:

Oh my God, what don't I do? Yeah, well, thanks again. Yeah, no karaoke, good times, miss you. I haven't been there in a while and so, yeah, we should meet up just for that.

Sonya Paz:

So so I I'm a professional artist. I always say I sling paint for a living. I paint paintings. I used to have a gallery in downtown Campbell and Santana row and around the San Jose Bay area. I created my own product line.

Sonya Paz:

I have another podcast called Rockstore Mentor, where I have helped artists be fearless in getting their art out there. I oh my God, I have a jalapeno business. I have a art teaching business called Vino Paint, where I teach people how to paint in groups of you know wineries and restaurants. And I also have recently launched another podcast called Investigated, where I have told the story of my childhood friend, her mother and her sister, who were murdered at the hands of the father.

Sonya Paz:

The story had always been pieced together in my mind a certain way, and I realized last year after doing a TikTok for eight minutes, that I ended up with over 55,000 views on that. People want to hear the story. So in talking to my niece she said Sonia, don't be an episode, don't tell the story. An episode in somebody else's podcast, do your own. And I went in, peddled to the metal, got my investigator co-host friend Marekk, and we told the story in first season 14 episodes on the Pearson family murders and it felt cathartic and it just has lifted off a lot of grief and a lot of it's added to a lot of healing and it spoke to a lot of people.

Angie Colee:

So that's, I think, one of the most surprising benefits and takeaways that I've had from podcasting like and especially this kind of discussion format where anything is really on the table. It's like we have a lot of room to just like plop stuff out there, expose it to the light of day and fresh air and then just let that shit heal, and hopefully that's helping other people just as much as it's helping me to be able to talk about this stuff with all my business buddies Right, the people that are listening hopefully get that healing time into. That was. That was not what I set out to do with the podcast was heal a bunch of shit, but there we go.

Sonya Paz:

It's yeah, you know, and with the podcasting, you know just the spoken voice when people start just kind of talking about that podcasting. You know just the spoken voice when people start just kind of talking about that. And it does wrap around into the whole business realm because I think a lot of these experiences and journeys and adventures are, you know, I always say life is business as usual, because everything I do and much like yourself, you know, everything you do is kind of it's business related and so you know, if it's storytelling or teaching somebody who's never painted how to paint before, can really help bring out inner things. And I'm, I learned a lot of these stories after people have told me. You know, I one woman who started attending my vino paint event said I.

Sonya Paz:

One woman who started attending my venopain event said I was in a bad accident three years ago and I lost a lot of use of my left hand and coming here has forced me and has really helped me therapeutically and I'm not an art therapist but you know has helped her to really feel good about creating, because a lot of folks find it daunting and scary. Really feel good about creating, because a lot of folks find it daunting and scary and I break it down to where it's fun and energetic. And you know, just to get you know, and I did it just for fun, I didn't realize it was going to actually speak to people. So that's the winning part of this whole thing too.

Angie Colee:

Oh yeah, and I find that funny too because, like you brought up kind of one side of the dichotomy of artists and business, one being that a lot of people who aren't or don't think of themselves as creative, right, they're probably creative, but they just they've got a mental dividing line between what creativity is and how they are creative. They think of it as scary and I can't do that and people are going to judge me. And then the flip side of that coin to me is also interesting, because there's so much of out there, the noise around, you can't really make a business out of art, you can't be a creative in business, and I know that people aren't out there like shouting that from the rooftops, but it's definitely a very palpable undercurrent when you are a creative business person and you make stuff out of your head and your imagination.

Sonya Paz:

Well, that's why I love the name of your podcast Permission to Kick Ass. Because when people say to me well, well, for instance, you know, when I was working at Adobe, I was. I started there in 96. I was a QA engineer on Photoshop 4 back in the day, and then then I ended up with just a few different positions over there and then they had disbanded my group because we were in IS in 2002. And they had come around, you know, telling everyone, you know the group is disbanding and they were offering layoffs or whatever.

Sonya Paz:

And there was this one woman that came. I still see her face. She had, she worked just in the other building at a different group. But she came by and said oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry, this is terrible. And I was painting part-time, selling art on eBay successfully from 90, roughly like nine, mid 99 through, well, probably till 2005. But this time, in 2002, she said my gosh, what are you going to do? And I said well, I've been painting part-time, I'm just going to go and do art. And she looked at me, angie, and she said oh, that's such a lovely dream, dear, but really, what are you going to do? And I thought for a second yeah, well, that's what I'm going to do. You got to jump in feet first.

Sonya Paz:

I do not ask permission to do things. I did that when I was younger. I would get the oh, that's so cute. This is such a you know what a beautiful dream or what a cute little vision you have. But my thought is no, I'm going to kick ass, I'm going to do it and I'm doing it on my terms. I don't ask permission to do anything in my business. In fact, people have told me over and over well, you might want to. You know, do a dry run or do a study group. Do a dry run or do a study group. There's I don't do. I don't do focus groups for people that don't know me or don't know my product well enough to tell me if I should or should not do something. I figure they're my lessons to learn. I'm going to go do it and I'm going to kick ass in the process.

Angie Colee:

So Right, it's like they don't even know you. All right. So like to add further clarity to the karaoke thing that I mentioned. At the beginning I said that Sonia and her son did lose it by Eminem, and what I meant by that is Sonia did all of the rapping. Sonia was Eminem and her son literally came on stage and went ah, that's it, that's it.

Angie Colee:

So, like anybody that has ever seen Sonia own Eminem on stage, who thinks that you need to do a focus group to figure out what you want to do next? Oh my gosh, I know, so funny. That's the impetus behind the show, too, because, like I'm, I've been working on unpacking this for probably the last 10 years, this cultural pressure of needing permission, and I still find myself doing this. I was at a mastermind in February, a few months ago, and was talking about some sort of strategy or another I can't even remember, and I was like I uttered the words can I even do that? And people said, uh, hello, permission, lady. Can you even do that? So like, like, it's so pervasive and it keeps us playing so small and I freaking hate it. You don't need permission. There's nobody out there holding a black mark over your record telling you who can and can't be in business.

Sonya Paz:

Just do shit, see how it works right, right, I mean, and that goes for many aspects of not only business. But you know, just in life and you know, I surround myself around now. Surround myself around positive, energized, encouraging people Can't hate sorry naysayers and Debbie Downers. You know. Good luck to you. I wish you the best, but I'm not going to be. I'm not. That's not. That's not the avenue I tend. I want to drive down or so.

Angie Colee:

I agree. Well, and you create your reality, and I don't think that we talk about that enough, right? I've I've tried to show it to other people and I can tell that it's just, it's it's a mindset issue, it's an information processing issue. The people that get it are going to get it right, but there's no one truth, there's no one reality, and to me that's such an empowering thought because then that means I have power over what this reality looks like. Can I control reality for 8 billion people? No, but like I can control reality for Angie, and Angie's reality doesn't look like desperation and everything is falling apart and it's like it's all crumbling down around us. That's not what my reality looks like. My reality looks like fun and rock and roll and karaoke nights and good time with friends and traveling food. That's the reality I've created for myself, and I drastically prefer that to doom and gloom.

Sonya Paz:

Oh, yeah, yeah and yeah, and I always, whenever I meet someone like that, my, my brain, I think, works a little bit different than most people. It works in. I have visual slideshows in my mind. So if I talk to somebody and I see that they're just like I go to that SNL episode that you know, rachel, rachel Dredge, that she's, she, you know, it's like that is what the slide is going on in my head and I almost can't even focus because of all of the, all of the things flying around in my brain and then I just think, yeah, and I, you know, and I just will wish them well and you know, just keep moving.

Sonya Paz:

But but the lady, the lady that came to my office so fast forward to like a year later, cause that was in April 2002, my office so fast forward to like a year later, because that was in April 2002, I hit the roads heavy. I started doing all of the art and wine festivals and hustling my art and excuse me and getting it out there. So the following year there was a event called Tapestry and Talent that was in downtown San Jose. It's no longer they're no longer doing that now, but but at the time it was like one of the largest art and wine. And I'm not just talking like crafty shows, we're talking like curated artwork. You know, it's not like here's a booth of fine art and then the person next to me is making finger puppets from, you know, recycled paper bags or anything. Not that that's bad, you know, but we're. It's a. It was a curated art show that was. You know, spoke volumes and people would drive from all over, not only to be a participant but to to attend.

Sonya Paz:

So she had come into the booth and she's like, oh, she looks up. She's like, oh Sonia, oh my God, oh my, here you are. I said, oh hi. She's like, oh Sunny, oh my God, oh my, here you are. I said, oh hi, how are you? And she's like well, what? She looks at me and she goes what are you doing now? And I'm very sarcastic and I had to reel it in. I just said, well, you're standing right in it. And I had my 10 by 10 booth with all lots of art, you know, print bins, prints, you know, and this was before we started doing a lot of the products, like the watches and the pillows and all that stuff. But she was sort of like you could see the wheels moving behind her eyes like, wow, well, wait a minute, oh, this is oh.

Sonya Paz:

So you actually is this what you do for a living? You're standing in it and you know the art, business, people, and this is way before Instagram and way you know, way before all of us were, you know, on Facebook and doing that whole social media stuff. Social media at the time or it was basically person to person. You know an email. That was kind of all the real tools we had back in 2002, 2003. And it's a hustle. It's a hustle, but I would never, I would not have turned that in, I wouldn't have turned away from that for a heartbeat. It's. It's who I am. I'm ADD, I'm hyper, I'm creative. I managed to work on three hours of sleep.

Angie Colee:

I you know, I turned into a nasty person on three hours of sleep, like you don't happy, go lucky. Angie has plenty of naps and plenty of rest at night. Uh, and this is deliberate. Y'all don't see the no sleep Angie, that Angie cancels podcast recording day and says I'm sorry, I can't bring it today. Yeah Well, you said something interesting about her working, her walking into the booth, and that ties in so perfectly to the created reality thing that we're talking about, because I'm not talking about magic, imagination, shit, I'm talking about real neuroscience, right, and talk about the cognitive dissonance that has to happen when you walk into it and you see it and you still can't believe that that is something that's happening, despite the evidence in front of your face.

Angie Colee:

This is what it means to have like a closed mind and set perspectives on what is and isn't possible. Like it's funny to me because I see that happen all the time. This is such a random example, but it's coming up, so we're going to run with it. When I walk Stella, my black cat, on a leash and we're at like a rest stop or something on our travels, I can't tell you how many people come up and say is that a cat? No, it's a dragon? Do you literally not believe the data in front of you? Do you think we're in the matrix and I'm like pulling a trick on you? This, it's a cat. You can believe your eyes, you can look at the evidence right in front of you and see what's working. That's man, I wish. I just kind of wish I could go back in time to that lady and be like you can believe the evidence right in front of you.

Sonya Paz:

Yeah, yeah, I mean, and you know, I, of course me, I'm, I'm, you know, like, like, like in Glenn Gary, glenn Ross ABC always be closing, I. I spun it and just said well, you know, here we are and you know everything's for sale and you know it's always great to come out to the events and support local art. And she didn't buy anything but.

Sonya Paz:

But you know, I mean but you know what that's, that's, that's how to get people out of the booth, I guess, if you don't want them there, no, that's terrible to say. No, but it's, it's always. You know, I've got 10 foot by 10 foot space of prime real estate for these three days over Labor Day weekend. You're in my you know your, your unbelief, you know thought process you're, you're kind of, you're crowding my space, lose it.

Angie Colee:

Get out of here. Well, it's so funny. I love your artwork. I used to live with a housemate shout out to Betty, if she's listening to this who collected your artwork. It's so bright and colorful and modern and it's fascinating. Did you hear the phone? A little bit, but he can edit that out.

Sonya Paz:

Oh, sorry, I didn't want this one.

Angie Colee:

you should probably clap wait, we can hold on. Well, I'll explain it real quick, and then we can clap back um.

Sonya Paz:

So we're recording. Sorry for that?

Angie Colee:

no, you're fine. We're recording in two tracks, so like if I'm talking and something happens in your back end, he can pull that out without affecting the audio. So there you go. All right, we'll clap back in wait, I didn't, I didn't know.

Sonya Paz:

Zoom did that, sorry. Okay, what was I talking about? About people coming in her coming into the booth.

Angie Colee:

Oh, betty, and the artwork right. So here we go. Hi, james, thank you, appreciate you. Yeah, shout out to Betty if you're listening to the show. So your artwork is so colorful and modern. Listening to the show, so your artwork is so like colorful and modern and it kind of reminds me of like Picasso in a way, because there's like some fun and funky shapes and interpretation. It's unlike anything else that I've seen, and I know that you've probably had some people give like well-meaning feedback on what is or isn't good artwork. Can you speak to that a little bit more?

Sonya Paz:

good artwork. Can you speak to that a little bit more? Oh my God, I should write a whole. We should do a podcast based on things that artists hear in the workplace. So I mean, I okay. So I would love to embrace and hug everybody who has been supportive and has always come in, either to the booth where I was doing that I was with the artist guild of San Francisco. I had my own art gallery selling my own stuff and to the gazillion billion people who would come in and just go. Oh my God, this makes me so happy. You know, that's, that's the takeaway, because my art is bright and colorful and it is very cubist inspired, which is Picasso style. It's.

Sonya Paz:

Uh, people ask me, what style is this? I created my own style as far as I am concerned. I had people say, wow, you know, like educators, like in high school or whatever, if the masters did this, the masters did that. You can't do this, can't do that. And I was that annoying kid. You know the back ways of my hand? Well, how can't do this, can't do that. And I was that annoying kid. You know the back raising my hand? Well, how do you know? The masters didn't do that. I mean, does anyone write about that? Is there anything documented? There's always the be quiet, sonia, nobody's listening to you, no one cares. Yeah, so I would always say it's a.

Sonya Paz:

My style is a mix of cubism and American pop art and I fuse them together. So I call it cubistic infused pop. And you know, I did everything those art teachers told me never to do. Go figure, maybe it's my age, maybe it was the schools I went to, I don't know. But I mean, that's what? When I started teaching art, I wanted to teach it in a really encouraging way, because not everybody sees everything the same way. And just because I'm teaching you how to paint a flower this way doesn't mean if you, if you beat your own drummer or you want to go rogue, oh my god, as long as you're here and you got the paintbrush in your hand, have fun. But the, the, there are the. You know the people that have no filters who will walk in and will look around.

Sonya Paz:

And my gallery was 2,300 square foot. This was in downtown Campbell. It was a huge space with 20 high foot ceilings. I mean, it was big and I'll give you a link at the end. Anyone that goes on onto my Facebook page can see the whole. Back then, that was 12 years ago, but people would walk in and look around and at this big space and say, okay, what so? What's this? I have a thicker skin. I people, because I'm five foot, you know I'm not a big person, you know, not people always automatically think that I'm really, really frail and I'm.

Sonya Paz:

My thing is, bring it on, boyfriend, come on, let's have a chit chat and I'll, I'm the first one to come up and go. Oh hi, welcome to gallery. If you have any questions, feel questions, feel free to ask. You know, and I wouldn't say my name at first, but and my name was like all over the place, because we had branded products and packaging and everything. So they said, well, I don't get it.

Sonya Paz:

Is this some sort of a gimmick? Like, well, I don't know what that mean, what do you mean? And I'd still be smiling, and not not in a condescending way, just out of curiosity, because, like, well, I want to know what do you mean. What is that? What do you mean? A gimmick? Well, like, is this some pop-up store or is this? I mean, what is this? Are these? Is this art? Like, yeah, this art Do you like? What kind of art do you like? What kind of artwork do you gravitate toward?

Sonya Paz:

And I would just start doing these little qualifying questions just to see what it is, and then I would do the ultimate little subtle um, I don't want to say kind of gotcha, but I would just do the subtle. Well, I'm Sonia, I'm the artist. If you have any look around, if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer. Or the most more subtle one was well, when I create the paintings, this is what inspired me here and this is what inspired me there. And then it would be like dead in a track oh, you're the artist. I'm like, yeah, I'm Sonia, you know, welcome to the gallery. And have a look around. And I mean, I don't have time to be.

Sonya Paz:

I I know artists that would just literally would bury their face in hands and run off crying and or would get very defensive about well, yeah, how dare you talk that way about my creations? My thing is, you're in here and you're asking questions, so I'm happy to answer the questions. I'm not going to be dissing all over you. Be dissing all over you. I mean, if you, you know, and I've never had anyone basically come in and say something awful, like holy shit, what the F is this crap? I mean, I mean, it's just been more curious type of things. No one, you know, knock on wood, knock on wood. No one has ever been that awful. But you know, I just would answer it with grace and and I don't want people, I want people to feel like that was cool. That was really cool.

Sonya Paz:

I went in and kind of dissed all over this person's art and they were nice to me. Well, shit, you know, and I've had people buy from me after that, maybe not a you know $2,000 painting, but you know, this one guy I'm thinking in particular was sort of like oh, we got to chit chat and 15, 20 minutes later he goes oh my God, I have to buy something from you. And he bought like $12 worth of magnets or whatever. But the fact was that if you approach it in that same negative space, it's not going to end pretty. You're going to, you're not going to feel good about yourself. They might talk some smack about you or whatever. I, my thing is, you know, educate people and and, yeah, you know, turn into a customer. It was $12 or no, it was, yeah, $12 that I I didn't have. So you know, but but, people like to meet in.

Sonya Paz:

The artist thing is people like to meet the artists. I'm a fan of art. I love my husband. I collect a lot of art in our home. It's all over the house of and it's very eclectic. The things I mean from strange, macabre and bizarre to you know big, colorful, bright pieces, you know from all over the world. I mean I'm not a name brand collector. I mean there's a couple of collectors who are really well known, like Mark Ryden and, oh my gosh, sonia Paz.

Sonya Paz:

Oh my gosh, mark Ryden and Ivan Earl, and I mean my mind's going to a blank right now but there's so much artwork that we collect that is just it's eclectic and people who come over are really amazed by it because of the way it's presented and that when we're anywhere in the house we appreciate it, we enjoy it and there's a story, not only to the artwork itself, but there's a story on why we collected it or what you know gravitated toward purchasing a piece. Oh, I love that.

Angie Colee:

When I work with people, there are a lot of people you know, and if this is you listening again, I hold you in my heart with no judgment, because I know deeply how this feels, for now is not forever. If you are making a choice to explore something, if an idea sounds interesting and you want to try it, but you're a little overwhelmed, just try it. There is nothing in there that is obligating you to stay, and this is what I think was really interesting about your decision to walk away from the gallery, too is like you didn't look at other people's expectations like obligations, how you quote unquote should be doing things. You just went all right, that chapter is closed. You know I'm going to process that. I'm not going to pretend like there's no feelings. Walking away from something like that when it's been such a huge part of your life, but getting curious about that. That chapter's over. What can I do next? What else am I going to do? It all ties together so beautifully. You're not obligated to do anything and for now it's not forever, right.

Sonya Paz:

This is my circus. I'm running it how I feel safe.

Angie Colee:

Sonya, the ringmaster, give me the whip.

Sonya Paz:

Yeah, there's, there's. I mean, I and I know a lot of artists and when I moved, when I started my business in expanding the gallery into downtown Campbell, I I mean it was a lot of personalities and there was about nine other artists. So it was really great. We all worked together to come up with these third Friday art walks and these all these different types of fun artful things to do and as people, yeah, I ended up being the last man standing.

Sonya Paz:

I was the last gallery there by 20, uh, 2012, but I was shifting and changing within that too, and some of the other places there were just sort of like, oh well, we, you know, I, I would never do that. Or I, you know, I can't do that my, my collectors, if I was to have a sale like that, my, all my other collectors would be just devastated. I'm like, well, then you're missing out because you never. Your collectors would be grateful, you know. So there's the mindset, and I don't think that's just art related, it's with anything. And and you know well, I can't do that because that's well, because that's you thinking, or maybe overthinking, or maybe it's egos, I don't know, I'm not.

Angie Colee:

I'm not that Ego fear, like I saw, and a shout out to a man named Alan Slotanik, who's very, very smart. He posted this prompt the other day that, like, set me off on a rant. I actually wound up posting the rant, but it was like who would I be if I wasn't? Like, set me off on a rant. I actually wound up posting the rant, but it was like who would I be if I wasn't right and insert, afraid of what people think of me, if I wasn't like whatever that blank is and then actually sit and think about it and I think that was one, because I still struggle with this.

Angie Colee:

Who would I be if I wasn't afraid of what other people thought of me? Who would I be if I wasn't afraid of what other people thought of me? Right, and I wouldn't tie my worth to any one decision and I would give myself freedom to experiment. And I wouldn't tie my worth to people and the people that I help, in particular, to the amount of money that's in the bank or the amount of money that I'm generating, because businesses have up periods and lean periods, like that's just the nature of this. Are you in it for the work that you're trying to do? Are you in it for the dollars in the bank and the reputation. I'm in it for the work that I do and the impact that I hope to make for the longterm.

Sonya Paz:

So Right, and the people that you're helping.

Sonya Paz:

Yes, I mean you're helping so many people I mean with the work that you do and with the podcast is people are listening and they're listening because they want to learn something. They want to meet and understand the people, like Mikey, behind the paintings, or the people behind the logo, or the people behind the writing or whatever talent, and those are actual voices. We're not scripted here. You didn't tell me hey, sonia, say this. This is the message you have to give. These are true messages. You know, raw feedback and it's I don't even say it's feedback, it's experience. And when I make the carnival reference, it's sometimes.

Sonya Paz:

I used to always say, okay, we're on this wild ride, get a seat and get your seatbelt on, because it's wild and that because and I do believe it takes well, I was in retail, so with the gallery, it's retail. That's an animal, that's an animal animal to wrangle. But I've done it all with the whole art business, from being a manufacturer to an artist, to designing the packaging, to taking the. You know, my husband, mark, when we were doing the watches, says, okay, I need the watch face that we're working on is going to be this specific size, so I need you to create a piece that's just for this. And sometimes I would say no, I don't like that, or I don't feel that this is. I need one with your cubic faces, I need one with a mod floral, I need one with a bottle of wine. And then we would have to, I would draw them out and if I just didn't feel that it was the right vibe, I would just say I would say no, that's not going to work. But it was a collaborative effort, but with everything that's just involved in it, so many moving parts. It's, like I said, my carnival, my journey.

Sonya Paz:

And to the lady, to the naysayer unbeliever, unbelieve, unbeliever the person who didn't believe in me or thought that working in corporate was the only thing to do it's you know, you're missing out. You're missing out on so much, you know. And and it's it's you know, like I said, you got to ride the wave and be fearless. You know what I mean. You kind of got to look at what have you got to lose, you know. I mean are you talking billions of dollars? Are you talking millions of dollars? Are you talking $10? You know, a lot of the stuff is just your time, okay. So if you try to create this work plan and it's time that I mean okay, so you're looking for a job? Work on this thing on the side? Update your LinkedIn, create, start following people that you want to be associated with, start listening to podcasts that you want to be inspired by.

Angie Colee:

You know and and reach out and have conversations with those people, like, don't hope, don't sit back in the shadows and hope that they notice you Because, just like you, they're distracted with their own lives and everything that they've got going on Like nobody's going out of their way to go. Like, who can I pay attention to? Right, there are some altruistic people out there, right, but that's the exception, not the rule. Generally speaking, everybody's preoccupied with their own shit. They don't notice you unless you make yourself be noticed. And I've had people reach out and send me such wonderful messages about the show and the guest and I respond to every single one of them and tell them oh my gosh, thank you. Because that just. I'm going to go on a slight rant here too.

Angie Colee:

But, like creativity, it's creativity is so important. It's inspiring. You mentioned it earlier with, like all the artwork in your house that inspires these stories in these conversations. What is that human connection? In a nutshell, we relate through stories, we relate through beautiful things and creating a show like this, creating artwork I don't tell me if you feel the same, but sometimes it feels like shouting into the void, like I'm just creating stuff and throwing it out there and I have no idea how it's resonating with people.

Angie Colee:

So when somebody takes time out of their busy day, that is not lost on me. I see that as like the highest sign of respect. If you took two minutes to write in or to come up to the artist and say, oh my gosh, I really love this painting, would it ask questions and get curious about that? Oh my God, you're making such a difference just by giving a shit and reaching out and telling people that you give a shit. It's so important. Talk to people. It doesn't have to be like we became instant soulmates and we went really deep. Just reach out and tell people that you appreciate what they're doing. It makes a difference.

Sonya Paz:

Oh, right, right, you know, and get conversations started, because I mean people coming into the gallery and walking in and go, how much is a piece like that? Well, I'm not going to go and I mean it's the prices right there. But you know, my thing is oh, this is a great piece, what about? It speaks to you. So that's getting a conversation started. It doesn't take much, it's just you know, and you're getting to know someone.

Sonya Paz:

You know, do you collect a lot of art presently? You're asking questions. They're not threatening questions, they're questions. So you can kind of get to know what is your, you know what's your mind, what their mindset is, and that that goes with anything. If someone says, you know, hey, angie, I need, I need this work done, I need this writing done for this project, blah, blah, blah. You know how much are you going to charge me? Well, of course you're going to ask what's the project, what's the scope? You know all the qualifying questions. But and I think that just goes on in life just, you know, getting to know new people and things like that and and building, relationships.

Angie Colee:

So, because I have had people ask me like how much do you charge for X? And I go, okay, cool, well, I need to get a little bit more information before I can give you something that's accurate, right? Otherwise everything I throw out is going to be just a wild extreme ballpark from one end to the other. That's not going to make any sense or be helpful at all for planning. So I have a few questions and I've had some people like push back and be like ugh, I don't want to answer questions, blah, blah, blah.

Angie Colee:

And I tell them, like, with all the love in my heart, how much is a house? I need some information, right, just a little bit. So, otherwise, a house could be I don't know the $1 that you pay in Italy for the houses that are falling apart, or the one Euro, or it could be 2 million in the Bay for a shack that's falling apart. Right, I need some information. And so, getting curious instead of being like, well, this is a jackass, it just doesn't get it. Of course they don't get it, that's why they're hiring you.

Sonya Paz:

Get curious instead of judgy, right, and it helps you weed out the type it's a tire kickers too. Yeah, that's true.

Angie Colee:

Yeah, because if they don't actually if they don't actually have anything planned and they haven't thought about it yet, then like, okay, well, you're probably not ready for this if you can't answer these basic questions about whatever your project is. But yeah, oh goodness, I want to go on that rant for like two more hours, but instead I'm going to say so, you've been a fantastic guest. Thank you so much for reaching out and asking to come on the show. I'm so happy to reconnect.

Sonya Paz:

Tell us more about your business all of your businesses and where we can find you. Well, and I'll I'll send you. I'll send you all the links in the show notes, but uh in in short is um. So soniapazcom is where y'all can see my artwork. I have a very comprehensive website. It has original work, jewelry and um products, products that we create, and we do a lot of those creations in my uh studio here in the central valley in california.

Sonya Paz:

And then, if you're interested in learning how to paint or create, I have venopaintcom, which is we do virtual events as well as um live in-person events, which I'm doing more virtual events now. I also have Sonya Paz Creative, which is courses that you can do on your own time you don't have to be in the class or whatever and that you supply your own supplies. I have Sonya's Sweet and Spicy, which is my jalapeno business, which I started when I moved to the Central Valley almost eight years, or about eight years ago, and learned how to make, how to do canning and came up with this really fabulous recipe. So that's that. And then Rockstar Mentor is my podcast, which I started in 2016, but I have 130 episodes, but I haven't recorded anything new in a couple of years because we had a lot of family stuff going on.

Sonya Paz:

But last but not least is my podcast called Investigated, about my childhood friend who was killed with her mom and sister, and it is just when you thought the murders were the only thing talk about. Get your seatbelt on. It's a wild ride. I cover everything to do with this case because it's personal to me, because it was my friend that was killed, murdered, and I interview the prosecutor that tried this case back in 1978, the law enforcement on the front end of the case, the back end of the case. I talked with the main witness who helped the guy clean out the house after he killed the family, and I mean it's, it's an incredible story. I'm really, really proud of it and so, yeah, awesome.

Sonya Paz:

So, if anyone likes true crime, it, it's really really awesome. So yeah, yeah, so yeah, just one, just one, just one. I didn't think I had any more time for anything, but this was a labor of love, and it's certainly a story that needed to be told on behalf of the victims, because they never got to have their say.

Angie Colee:

Exactly exactly. It's important work to share these stories and that's human connection right so powerful. I'm going to make sure that there are clickable links in the show notes. Thank you so much again. We're going to have to do this again.

Sonya Paz:

Oh my God, Angie, thank you so much for having me. I'm so glad I reached out. I thought, gosh, am I worthy to be on the podcast?

Angie Colee:

Absolutely.

Sonya Paz:

I went to the manifesto I'm like oh, girlfriend, I can do this, I can. This is great. I really enjoyed it. Of course, always to love to hear you and always lovely to see you, so thanks again.

Angie Colee:

That's all for now. If you want to keep that kick-ass energy high, please take a minute to share this episode with someone that might need a high-octane dose of you can do it. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the Permission to Kick-Ass podcast on Apple Podcasts, spotify and wherever you stream your podcasts. I'm your host, angie Coley, and I'm here rooting for you. Thanks for listening and let's go kick some ass.