Artist Kelly Corbett

Patrick dives into the inspiring journey of Kelly Corbett, a talented painter based in Vancouver Island, Canada. Kelly has successfully transitioned from a professional wedding and portrait photographer to a full-time artist with a defined niche—capturing the natural beauty of her local surroundings. Known for her incredible detail, Kelly has amassed a following of 40,000 on Instagram by grinding through her initial discomfort with social media and becoming an expert. The discussion covers her marketing strategies, the importance of being on camera, leveraging local retail galleries, and future goals. Tune in for a comprehensive look at how dedication and consistency can turn a passion for art into a thriving business.

Podcast Transcribe

Patrick Shanahan: You ever wonder where your art business might be in five years? If you took your marketing seriously, would you be a full-time artist living your dream? I love interviewing artists that have done just that. Today's artist, based in Vancouver Island, Canada, is painter Kelly Corbett. It's a really interesting case study. She has a defined niche, which is the natural beauty of where she lives. That's what she paints. She's great at social media, not because she was born that way or just loved it, but because she grinded at it and got better. She went from hating to be on camera to being super comfortable with it. And you can see she's at 40,000 followers on Instagram. I think in this interview alone, it's worth hearing how she navigated that. The vast majority of us do not like being on video, we're not comfortable with it, we would prefer not to do it at all. Yet, it is one of the most effective communication mediums there is for the modern digital landscape that we live in today. It's so important, and we all have to be aware of that and take it more seriously. I love how she explains that in this interview. In addition to that, I think you'll find it really interesting her retail gallery play that she uses to help drive sales, which is sort of a unique situation to where she is, but I think it also offers opportunities that might exist in your local retail area. So that's it. Hope you enjoy it. Let's hit it.

All right, everybody. Welcome back to another artist interview. I am here with the extremely talented, Vancouver-based artist, Kelly Corbett. Kelly, welcome to the show. Happy to have you.

Kelly Corbett: I'm so excited to be here.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah. Why don't you give us just a brief bio about who you are, what you do, and then I can get into all sorts of penetrating questions.

Kelly Corbett: All right. My name is Kelly Corbett. I live on Vancouver Island in Canada, British Columbia, and I am a realistic landscape painter, and I paint with acrylics.

Patrick Shanahan: You paint with acrylics, which is amazing. One of the things that I thought I would have as a cheeky remark, I was going to be like, are you a photographer or a painter? Because some of the detail on your paintings, when I'm looking at them on Instagram, I cannot honestly tell the difference sometimes. Like a quick take, is that a photo or is that a painting? Your detail skills are insane.

Kelly Corbett: Yeah. Has it always been that way?

Patrick Shanahan: The whole time?

Kelly Corbett: I think it has. My background is I used to be a professional wedding and portrait photographer. So I always loved the aspect of realism in that. And I also find it cool with my paintings because when you see them in person, if you come up super close to them, you can see all the little brush marks and everything. And it looks almost in some cases a little bit more abstract, but if you walk far away from them, the further away you get, the more real they look.

Patrick Shanahan: Okay. Yeah, which is amazing. And you're interesting in a number of different ways. One, I feel like you totally have a niche. Like you have a nailed-down niche. Most artists don't, I would say. So I'm curious to get you to talk about that for a little bit, but I want to start. When did you go, you're a full-time artist now, right? Do you have other jobs?

Kelly Corbett: Yeah. And when did you go full-time?

Patrick Shanahan: When I moved to Vancouver Island. So that was just over six years ago.

Patrick Shanahan: Wow. Wow. Where were you living before? Just out of curiosity.

Kelly Corbett: Before I was based in the Okanagan. So that's more the interior of British Columbia.

Patrick Shanahan: And when you moved to where you moved now, was your subject matter material already nailed down or no?

Kelly Corbett: It was. I have three main categories for my subject material. And with the way it started was just paintings of British Columbia and also birds of British Columbia. But now I've worked my main categories into West Coast paintings, Okanagan-inspired paintings, and of course, birds of British Columbia, but it's all focused around the province.

Patrick Shanahan: Which is amazing. Nailed down local-dominated niche. And a lot of people would say, is that a big enough niche, right? Are there enough art sales to be made there? And how do you answer that? Is it a big enough niche, right? Just local Vancouver Island. And how do you approach that?

Kelly Corbett: I would say, yes, it is a big enough niche because Vancouver Island on the west coast of Canada is definitely a really large tourist destination all across the world, really. So it's a super popular place for people to come and visit, which I think makes my niche worldwide, really.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah. What percentage of your sales, rough back of the napkin, would you say are from people that have come there and visited there and said, "Oh my gosh, this is so beautiful. I want to own a piece of it," versus locals who live there all the time?

Kelly Corbett: I would still say the majority of my sales are from locals in this area.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, it's interesting because having been there, I've been to Vancouver and I've been to Victoria. So I've at least been on the island. The spectacular beauty there is just absolutely staggering. So despite the fact it's not the white sand, blue water, umbrella drink spot, right? It is stunningly beautiful and a place that people absolutely want to connect with. In the town you're in, because you're right across the harbor from Vancouver proper, right? The city is that is there regular tourist traffic all the time coming through there?

Kelly Corbett: Absolutely, there is. I'm in the middle of Vancouver Island, so central Vancouver Island area. I love this area, more so than the south. Our capital city is down in the south end of Vancouver Island, so that is also way more city-like and busier with people. However, I like being in central Vancouver Island because it makes it easy for me to go in any direction and I don't have to travel so much. Super long time to get anywhere. Also, we're right on the route of people heading over to Tofino and Ucluelet, which are some of the largest tourism areas on the coast of Vancouver Island.

Patrick Shanahan: Amazing. And I've got some reasons for asking those questions. I want to pivot into how you approach branding and how you think about branding. And I'll have a loaded question there for you because I think you do just a phenomenal job of it, but to start the beginning, how did you find Art Storefronts? What made you come to us just out of curiosity?

Kelly Corbett: That's a fun story. So I became aware of Art Storefronts from your podcast. I had started listening to podcasts, and I really liked a lot of the stuff you had to say. I agreed with a lot of the things you had to say, and I found it quite interesting. And so at first, I was listening to your podcast, just thinking, "Oh, this is cool information." And then you always did your little sales pitch at the end of your talks. And I thought, "Oh, that percolated in the back of my head for a while." And then the pandemic came along, and I was getting to a stage in my life where I did have a website, and you could buy things directly from my website, but it wasn't a super safe way to do it. It was clunky. My clients just didn't have the confidence to buy things directly from my website a ton. And I knew that I needed to upgrade my website at that point. And so I was shopping around for different options. And then, yeah, the whole percolating in the back of my head with Art Storefronts came to mind. And so I looked into that a little bit more. And of course, being a Canadian versus your company being American, it's so much more expensive for us to invest in your company. So that was a little bit daunting for me at first. But because of the pandemic was happening, there were lots of programs in our area that wanted to help financially support businesses during this time. And the drive really was to get more digital, get all these businesses online so they can survive the pandemic. So I found this business that was offering grants for this as well. And so I applied through them, and they were really cool in the way that they really tried to explore my business and just made me think outside of the box in what kind of ways can I grow my business digitally, and I really thought in the end, Art Storefronts was the way to go. The augmented reality aspect on the website and everything really enticed me to you. And then also the fact that you give all of this great marketing advice too. And so I told the company that was giving the grants, this is the route that I want to go. And yeah, I got a small grant in order to help pay to sign up. And I started with a five-year goal package, and I've been super happy with it.

Patrick Shanahan: Amazing. Amazing. So many people talk about grants. I think you're like the first one I've actually heard that's gotten one. Yeah, that's incredible. I want to get into merchandising, but there is one question from Facebook. I would be curious how you answer this. I know how I would answer this, but when no one knew you, the top marketing technique that got you known, I will.

Kelly Corbett: That's a tough question. The top marketing technique that got me known would be a whole lot of showing up on Instagram has probably been my most successful thing. But the other thing that I do quite a bit as well is I paint out in the public in person. So I'm in my studio twice a week. And then I also have another art residency in one of our local art galleries, public art galleries as well. So I'm out painting in public three days a week, and so I am reaching tons of people that I would normally never have access to. So both being in person and also doing the Instagram and Facebook stuff all the time would probably be the best two ways that I've gotten more known.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah. And having had a chance to watch you from afar, I would say one word. It's consistency. You have been crazy consistent the entire time. And I look at your Instagram profile now, and you're at 40,000, which is pretty staggering. It goes to show what the consistency and doing it for years and years is. And you've got a great profile. It's constantly you in it. You're constantly doing the reveals. It's constantly you painting in person. It's always your smiling face. Like you do a great job at social media, and not just doing a great job, it actually looks like you really enjoy it too, which I think is pretty awesome.

Kelly Corbett: Yeah, I absolutely love it. And I will have to say when I first started, I hated seeing myself on video, hearing my own voice. It was super challenging for me to break into that aspect, but I found from just practicing and being really diligent with it made it so much easier in the future. And now I don't hesitate to be on screen at all anymore. I've also challenged myself to post every single day on Instagram and Facebook as well. So I've been doing that challenge for two years now.

Patrick Shanahan: Amazing. Amazing. And I think how many of us are in that exact same position? Hate being on camera. I hate the sound of our own voice, terrified about it. But at a point, you're just like, you have this like contrarian come to Jesus or at least I did. It's just modern communication in the modern age. And Instagram represents just like a little television station, and anyone can tune in. And once you get over it and you get past it, everyone, no one has hair. No one has makeup. Okay, none of us are celebrities. It doesn't matter. You can screw things up. Just start posting and going consistent. It's an amazing thing.

Kelly Corbett: Actually, my first Instagram post that went super viral was one where I was wearing my hiking outfit, so I didn't look super fashionable. I had my Crocs on, my hair was a little bit fuzzy, and I did a painting reveal. And even before I posted it, I was thinking, "Oh, this isn't the best video, and I don't know if I should post it," but I went ahead and posted it anyways. And that was my first super viral post. So you never know, something you think might not be fabulous, other people do.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah. In my experience, it's always, it's never the ones that you think. It's always like some other random one that just goes big and does a great deal. Now I asked you before we were coming on, whether or not you have your own gallery. I thought you had your own gallery the entire time. But it turns out you're co-op into a gallery, right? Where you have your own standing space in there all the time.

Kelly Corbett: Right. Yeah. So I have one wall that has all of my work on it. And I share my studio with two others.

Patrick Shanahan: Wanting to get an Instagram post showing it off.

Kelly Corbett: Yeah. So I share this space. And so that means I'm not in this studio all the time. I just paint there two days a week usually.

Patrick Shanahan: Got it. And do you find having this? So I've been showing this off. I've been showing off images of this for quite some time. And I just having a setup like this forces for me, like having a setup like this forces the artist to contemplate how important merchandising is like the forcing feature of actually having to have it all together in a retail area. You've got note cards, you've got the tote bags, you've got clothes. Now you've got the paintings, the originals, you've got the prints. It's like it forces you to create what your website should look like in my opinion and like really to think through all of those items and everything else. And I'd be curious how you use this as a sales technique, this space that you have locally, number one, and how you think it's improved your online marketing efforts.

Kelly Corbett: I would have to say in my studio is interesting because it's almost a day when I would sell an original painting, but I sell tons and tons of merchandise, art cards, paper prints, all that kind of stuff. And that pays for my studio rental, it pays for the cost of me driving into the studio twice a week. The merchandise is just, it's fantastic and it sells super well in that space.

Patrick Shanahan: Amazing. And in you're in there selling when you're in there selling, but you have someone selling on your behalf all the rest of the time.

Kelly Corbett: Yes. Cause there's always somebody in that studio space when the building is open. And so they can take all my sales as well too. And I can take their sales too. So we're all helping each other out.

Patrick Shanahan: That's amazing. Is the relationship such that who's purchasing your stuff every single solitary time you're getting the information on all of them?

Kelly Corbett: No, I do not have that information. So that's the one thing that kills me. I, cause I, anyone that follows her and you guys should definitely follow her. You can see her Instagram handle underneath. There's a ton of content from her in here and the whole, there's just something profound about seeing it all buttoned up and all together and knowing the Pacific Northwest and loving the Pacific Northwest. It makes an impression on me every time I see it. And I really think maybe you're gonna like this. Maybe you're not, I really think you need to open your own shop.

Kelly Corbett: Wow. That would be a big time commitment and a huge cost as well, too. I just, I'm loving the stage where my career is in right now. It's very flexible. I have extra days that I can do whatever the heck I want to. So the commitment of having an actual brick and mortar storefront is daunting at this stage.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know, but you already have it. And my big push is I'm not anti-gallery. I never have been. I'm anti all of these people purchasing your work and you not knowing who they are because then you don't have the ability to build a collector. They're not on your email list. You can't keep marketing to them in perpetuity. And it's, I feel like your proof of concept is already done in my estimation. Like you've done it, you've proved it. This lineup looks beautiful. You're selling a ton of stuff out of there. And I'm just really hot on this notion of like artist-owned galleries. I think it represents the future. It obliterates the paradigm. It takes everything that's great about the gallery and everything that's bad about it, I should say, and eliminates it. I, you keep a hundred percent of the revenue who's purchasing the work, but yeah, the rub is the risk and the rub is staffing it, but we have a number of Art Storefronts customers that own galleries now and are doing incredibly well with them. And I feel like because you have your niche so nailed down, you have this really pinned down. You, you are Vancouver Island, British Columbia, right? This is like the preeminent artist. If you could make, if you could make even one gallery work, I could see you having one in Victoria. I could see you having one here, right? With all the same material. And now I know investment terrifying, staffing terrifying, but we're also in this weird time in history where retail has been getting obliterated. It started with COVID and it continued on from there. And I don't know how depressed things are where you are, but down where I am in Southern California, like the sheer number of storefronts and shop fronts that are open is pretty staggering, like a lot of things have gone out of business. Do you feel like that's been the vibe where you are or not so much?

Kelly Corbett: A little bit probably, especially during the whole pandemic. I actually had a few of my commercial art galleries did close down during that time.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, yeah. So you're in multiple galleries too then?

Kelly Corbett: Yes, I have six commercial galleries across Canada.

Patrick Shanahan: Wow. Wow. How do they feel about your online efforts and everything that you're doing and then selling direct on your website? Is that a rub? Is that a point of friction for them? Or are they okay with it?

Kelly Corbett: I'm guessing that they're okay with it. It's not something we totally discuss. I think near the beginning, one of my galleries did express a little bit of concern about that. They didn't love that maybe people were coming to me directly instead of going through the gallery. Usually if somebody contacts me, especially for a commission, often one of my first questions is how did you discover me? And then if they discovered me through one of my galleries, then I try and put that sale through the gallery. So I still want to remain loyal to my galleries.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah. But now it's gotten to the point where I'm so active on social media and promoting myself that I'm actually finding the majority of my clients I am sending to my galleries. So I think galleries actually really love that they don't have to do some work and I'm doing all the work for them.

Patrick Shanahan: Yes. They a hundred percent love it. And it's funny. It's like, how do you get into galleries? How do you get into galleries? And you can go knock on doors and send emails and make phone calls and everything else. But a lot of times the galleries like it way better when they can discover you, i.e., you've made enough noise, you're doing enough marketing and all the rest. So just to continue on that thread. So what percentage of your sales are you handling directly, whether it's through the website or in person versus the percentage that are going to the galleries?

Kelly Corbett: I would say that I'm still doing more sales independently than what my galleries are doing for me at this time.

Patrick Shanahan: Wow. And are all of the galleries that you're on all on a 50-50 split?

Kelly Corbett: Yeah.

Patrick Shanahan: This is case in point. I literally want you to open your own gallery. I think you are so ready. I would even consider investing in this operation. We need to find a storefront and get this going immediately. You need to find one friend that believes in you. That's willing to work that job five or six days a week and see what happens. I a hundred percent think you're ready and you have it. The fact that you could potentially have something and anyone that's seen her social media, her personality shines through. You seem to be happy all the time, which most people where it's cold and rainy a lot are not as happy. She looks happy the whole time. So it's, I imagine everybody that purchases one of your originals would love to meet you in person. And then you get into this position where a lot of times you're showing up to the gallery to get these bigger sales over the line. And I think you could probably raise your prices too. It's a challenge. It's a challenge for you anyway, Kelly. I know you, I know life is good, but there's a whole lot of people that are just trying to get traction and get their art selling. You're way past that barrier. And I look at all these galleries and yes, they're helping you, they're serving you, but the 50 percent and then not knowing who's purchasing your work, long term, that makes a significant financial impact.

Kelly Corbett: I do have a backup plan-ish for my studio. Okay. So anytime I'm out painting in person, I have a draw to win a free print. So enter their email address and then they are entered into my drawing. So that's how I'm building my email marketing stuff. And then I'm also capturing a lot of those people that do come into my studio purchase stuff. I say, "Hey, you should sign up for my free draw while you're here." And so I am still getting quite a lot of contacts, just not all of them necessarily, because not everybody wants to sign up for an email newsletter, but I am getting quite a few through that.

Patrick Shanahan: Which is awesome. Which is amazing. When you're doing the outdoor painting, are you leveraging any sign-up format there, or are you just having conversations with people?

Kelly Corbett: I'm not painting outdoors. I only paint indoors in my art residencies.

Patrick Shanahan: Um, yeah. I mean, you said you were doing live painting or whatever. And so people are popping in there all the time then to see it.

Kelly Corbett: Yeah, often. Actually, I do quite a lot get people coming to those locations specifically to see me and meet me and talk about art stuff, which I absolutely love that. But because both of these locations are public galleries, we just get a lot of tourists coming in and people that just want to see what's happening on the local art scene. So I'm getting access to all of those people as well.

Patrick Shanahan: Which is awesome because so many of them are discovering me that way.

Patrick Shanahan: Amazing and are you going for any email capture in that capacity?

Kelly Corbett: Yes, like I said every time I'm in one of those locations. I have my little free print which I've got right here. So this is an example of the print that I would have in the draw. And then I encourage people to sign up for the draw and collect email addresses that way.

Patrick Shanahan: Amazing. Amazing. I love it. I get one word out of your operation, which is consistency, right? The constant consistent social media marketing, the constant painting in person, which has got to be nerve-wracking because you're trying to get into a groove and get into a zone and then people are stopping and wanting to have a conversation with you. But that's just amazing. I love that aspect of it.

Kelly Corbett: I can easily carry on a conversation and paint at the same time.

Patrick Shanahan: Gosh, that's incredible. Given you are where you are in your career and now, and most would say you're living the dream, you're in multiple galleries, you're paying for your lifestyle completely from your art, you've been a full-time artist for five years. If you went back to the beginning, when you started, what would be the advice you'd have for Kelly, for young Kelly?

Kelly Corbett: Ooh, right from the beginning. I'm not totally sure on that one. Maybe, maybe right from the beginning, I would encourage myself to start networking with more artists. Find more artists that I admire and make more effort to go see their studios, visit them, maybe even take some classes from them as well. Things like that. I do that actively now, but I didn't in the beginning. And I find every time I go and visit another artist's studio, I learn something valuable.

Patrick Shanahan: Wow, that's some pretty interesting advice. I've never heard someone respond with that. So you find that even doing that now, less the networking and then knowing them, although opportunities always come from that, just the individual learnings about how they're approaching things or how they're getting in the zone or how they're setting up their studios and all of that.

Kelly Corbett: Yeah, very valuable information for sure.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah. Wow. That's mega interesting. I asked that question, obviously loaded because we have so many people that are just getting started and just trying to get where you are and you're, you've reached professor emeritus status. What is the goal for the business that you have long-term? You're doing great. It's growing year over year. I'm assuming probably pretty consistently, like where are you headed to and what are you looking to achieve with it?

Kelly Corbett: At one point I was maybe a bit on the greedy side where I was thinking, I need to build my empire and I wanted to do all the things that were possible. But then I thought about it a little bit more and I realized I actually love the stage of my career that I'm in right now. And if I can just stay consistent with how this is going, I would be really happy just to stay in this range. I have thought about all the other things I could do to branch out and everything, but that also involves a whole lot more work, which I don't need to do it. I don't need more money is always lovely, but I don't necessarily need it. And part of the whole, what I do and why I do it is because I love going out in nature, I do a ton of backcountry touring and stuff, and that's still a very much a high priority for me. So I want to have the time to just be like, I'm taking the day off and I'm going for a hike. That stuff is still super important and I don't want to ever encounter the whole artist burnout thing. I do try and take lots of breaks and prioritize rest time and everything. And even though I know that I could push myself further, I don't know that I'd want to or need to even.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, that's amazing. You got the mythical work-life balance sorted out relatively early in your career, which is amazing. If we could improve one thing and just one thing only at our storefronts that would make your life easier, that would fix your issues, what would it be? What's the one thing?

Kelly Corbett: I was hoping you would ask this question. I've got two answers. One is the transaction fees. I know you just put out the opportunity if I can get somebody else to sign up for Art Storefronts, I have free transaction fees for life.

Patrick Shanahan: Yes, absolutely. Love that. I really hope somebody does give my name when they sign up so I can get free transaction fees because that's totally what I want. Yes, and the other one which I think is really cool is one aspect of your co-pilot program. I don't do the co-pilot stuff just because I so love doing my own social media. It doesn't really fit well for me. But I do love that you have the MailChimp email version in that program. And I would love to have access to that so I don't have to pay the big bucks for MailChimp. It would be so great if that can just be integrated into the package that I already have.

Patrick Shanahan: Got it. And we already have that capability. So I'll have somebody to reach out to you after this and see what you're doing. And then our long-term vision for it. Have you heard anything teased about hub and what's coming up with that?

Kelly Corbett: Uh, no, I haven't been.

Patrick Shanahan: So it's going to, it's co-pilots going to morph into hub and the idea about it is one central database with all of your stuff and then you're able to schedule all of your posts and all of the places. So you would have all your videos, you would have all your stills up there, you would have all the data, you would have all the copy and then you're able to schedule things out when they get posted all of that. But just having it all tied in there, all simple, all with the emails and everything else. And so rather than having these things that are automatically going now, you would be able to control all of it from soup to nuts, the entire thing and then have all of that data in there as a repository, and then also have all the analytics on what's working, what you should do more of, what you should post again. So we have some big things coming, coming in that's funny because the number one thing, co-pilot, it's all SWR. What you already have an abundance of, consistency, you just, you've got it nailed down, which is incredible. Wow. I so badly want to push you in more and more directions. What do you think? And this is a little bit of a challenge and I was needling on her earlier, but I want to see her start doing live broadcasts on Instagram. You've got 40,000 followers on here. What is a challenge that I could lay down for you to get this going?

Kelly Corbett: Yeah, I have done a couple of lives in the past, but I don't know, I just wasn't super in love with them.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, I think it's a mental block for you because you're so good at all the rest of the posts, you have those down. The live, the only difference with the live is that you're just, you're not having to do any editing or type any captions or just do anything. Right. And you could just talk about it. That actually brings up two questions for me. Like one, are you getting requests to teach people painting?

Kelly Corbett: Yes.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, so that is on the roster. I have signed up for a course on that's teaching me how to create the course and the outline for the course and all that kind of stuff. So that is in my future goals. Originally, I was telling people it was I was going to have at least one class available at Christmas this year. However, I find that I am so super busy with just painting and I feel still like the courses are just not that much of a priority for me. It's going to be a huge learning curve for me. Honestly, I'm really procrastinating on it. I know it's going to be fabulous. I know it's going to super grow my business. It could probably even double my income. I'm fully aware of all of that and it will happen one day. It just might take me a little bit longer than I expected. So now I'm telling people, yes, I'll have courses available, but it'll be next year. So it's on the roster. It will happen. I just need to get focused, sit down, learn this stuff and do it.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah. I think you'll end up doing a great job at it. And there's another manifestation of life, right? What stuck out to me earlier on was when you said I was terrified at the sound of my voice, terrified about being on video and all of that. And then what did you do? You set yourself the goal of practicing and saying I'm hell or high water. I'm going to be consistent. I'm going to put this content out and I'm going to do it. And now you look so happy and you look so polished. Right. And where I'm going with that, I believe, and I've been a broken record on encouraging people to do lives for a long time, right? Because I think they're, I think they're so powerful for what they can do, but I'm also cognizant that it's a skillset. And it does like anything else. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. And what you've achieved already with your business, product-market fit, a niche, a loyal following, like the hard things done now, that's the hardest thing to do to, for you to create a product that you know that the market wants, and they not only want it in front, in terms of how this hangs up, give me something to hang on my wall. But can you teach me to do this? To paint like you. So you've got two huge products there. And it's my firm belief that if you took the same dedication towards trying to learn how to do the lives and get a little bit better at the lives and eliminating the dead space and thinking on your feet, that skillset will serve you massively as you continue to grow this and I think even just turning the camera on and live painting for an hour on Instagram and just talking the whole time like you do just like those people are in the studio. That would actually be my challenge. That's me at the door. I'm outside the studio. All I'm gonna do is just take the camera, stick it on a tripod, turn it on, and just talk about your painting for an hour, and you don't even need someone to do it. Just do your painting, talk about it. The guests that come in are there, and then just say, "Hey guys, by the way, I'm contemplating launching some classes on painting, on teaching people how to paint. If you're interested, leave me a comment below." I watch what happens. You're already doing it.

Kelly Corbett: That's cool. I will do that. I like the sound of that.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah. Okay. Okay. And I will share it. And I might also teach you some other tricks, how you can leverage Instagram. In fact, let's talk about that as soon as we end, I don't want to get into the details of it here. I have one other question that's interesting. And I feel like you do a good job on your Instagram of showing a little window into your world. It's not all just art. I know that you're occasionally hiking. I know that you're occasionally paddling kayaks, right? I know that you're constantly walking on beaches. How do you approach that in your mind? The balance between, okay, I'm posting about my art. I'm posting about my art. I'm posting about my art. And sometimes I'm not doing any of that. I'm just in my gear outside in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Is there a ratio in your mind of one to the other? Are you letting it happen organically? I'd be curious how you think about that.

Kelly Corbett: I would say happening just mostly organically. Also on the west coast of British Columbia here, there's definitely a season for outdoor adventures. Yes. The wintertime isn't always prime. And so now we're into June right now. So June, July, August, September are the four months where I am maximizing my outdoor time. So right now, that is my priority. I actually do a thing every year where I have an adventure calendar. So at the beginning of the year, usually like in February, I'll take the calendar and I will block out all of our adventures, exactly what the time frames of these adventures are. And I find that is the perfect way to actually make things happen because life gets in the way. And if you don't schedule all these things, then one minute you'll be like, "Oh, I don't have time to go on this one night overnight trip somewhere." Whereas if you had it already planned in the calendar, then you schedule it, how to plan for it. And it happens.

Patrick Shanahan: Amazing. Yeah. I strongly encourage you to stay on that. I think. Are you aware of Jonah? Who's also on the platform?

Kelly Corbett: Yes.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah. And so I talked to Jonah all the time and mentor him and I've got a good relationship with him. And one of the things that drives me nuts about him is he's like a typical millennial and that he's constantly sharing all the stuff to the stories. Because that's what the whole generation does. And then thinking he's done, "I posted it. I don't need to put it in the feed posts. I don't need to make reels out of it. I did it. Everyone saw it." And I'm like, "No, you are the brand just as much as the art is the brand." And I see so many parallels between you and Jonah because you, he owns that niche down there, the panhandle of Florida and just being the ocean guy there. And I feel like you have it for the Pacific Northwest for your little spot on the globe. And I think the more that you can show a window into those crazy things that you're doing on the kayaks, the huge walks, the hiking, that the backcountry stuff, like, you that ends up being a massively important representation of how you are creating, what you're creating, why you're creating, what you're creating, and it's, here's, do you guys even call it the Pacific Northwest, or is that just, we call it that?

Kelly Corbett: Oh sure, Americans tend to call it that more.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, that's like a, yeah, but in my mind, that's what it is. And it's, I think all of this is to say, I think all of that backcountry stuff that you're doing and outdoorsy stuff that you're doing is just as important as the art posts that you're doing. Because it just cements you as the gal. That's the whole reason why I even paint, is because I'm going out to these crazy amazing places, I'm seeing these awesome things, I know for a lot of people these locations are inaccessible, and I want to share that with the world. And so that's, I see these places, and then I make paintings of them, and that's my way of showing and sharing what I do. And actually just this weekend, I hiked up a mountain and there were crazy bugs out there, which is why my face is a little, I have bug bites all over my face currently.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah. Out there this weekend, but yeah, so that's all part of it. It's all good.

Kelly Corbett: Yeah. And that's the stuff people love. They love to hear about that and to get involved in that. Just out of curiosity, are bears a huge issue where you are too?

Kelly Corbett: There are lots of bears. We have never had a scary encounter at all. I guess one of the closest ones would be, we were on the Juan de Fuca trail, and we're up high on the trail, and we can see down onto the beach, and you could see quite a, like, a bear or two walking along there. And we continued down the trail, I could hear that there were hikers coming towards me, and one of the bears from the beach decided it wanted to be in the forest at that exact moment. So it just busted right across the trail in front of me and all I saw was this blur of black fur and it was very close to where I was and then it just disappeared into the salal and it was super creepy because I barely heard any sound of it crashing away into the forest. It was really quiet.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, I would say that would be my closest bear encounter, but he was just more afraid of us and just wanted to get out of the way.

Kelly Corbett: Yeah, I agree. I do carry just a tiny little air horn in my backpack with me at all times, in case I do have a bear wanting to approach me a little bit more, but so far I have never had any issues.

Patrick Shanahan: Amazing. Amazing. Kelly, I love it. Love the whole story. I still want you to have a gallery. I know you don't want one, but I still want you to have one. Would love to see that get going. Guys, for those that don't follow Kelly, you absolutely should follow Kelly. I know it's going to be more artists and photographers following you, but she just does a great job. I love it. At consistency about constantly showing off her new work about spanning the gamut with the post about putting a window into her world. And so many asks, like, how did you get to full-time? This is it. Look, what a great job that she's done in their marketing. The galleries have these relationships that are so happy with her, look at the great job she's doing on her marketing, highly encourage you guys to follow her. It's Kelly underscore Corbett underscore artist. I will include this in the show notes when this thing ends up on the podcast. And Kelly, thank you so much for your time.

Kelly Corbett: Oh, my pleasure.

Patrick Shanahan: All right. See you guys later.