Episode 323: Navigating Art, Identity & Mental Health | Ragni Agarwal | Artist, Writer & Mental Health Advocate
In this episode, artist and designer Ragni Agarwal shares how she found freedom and healing through bold, vibrant art. Ragni is an Indian American fine artist and graphic designer based in Los Angeles, who shares her journey from tech to a professional art career, the mental health benefits of creating art, and the challenges of being a female artist of color in today's climate. Hear about her vibrant art style, collaborations with notable brands like Hulu and Bombay Sapphire, and her dedication to making her art a safe space for all women. Discover how Ragni balances creativity with survival and her thoughts on the current political landscape and its impact on the creative community.
“I wanted my art to feel like a safe space, where people feel seen and find joy in themselves, like a mirror reflecting them.”
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Follow along using the Transcript
00:00 Introduction to Ragni Agarwal
00:21 Challenges of Being an Artist Today
01:01 Ragni's Artistic Journey
01:31 Connecting Through Art
01:56 Starting the Conversation
04:03 The Role of Mental Health in Art
06:42 Balancing Art and Survival
09:51 The Influence of Politics on Art
13:02 The Power of Color
16:15 Cultural Influences and Inspirations
19:39 Safety and Expression in Art
23:37 Addressing Social Issues and Frustrations
24:46 Defining Powerful Ladies
25:34 Finding Inspiration and Building Community
27:40 Embracing Vulnerability in Art
29:18 Advice for Aspiring Artists
30:53 Navigating the Challenges of Being an Artist
39:41 The Importance of Storytelling in Art
45:14 Manifesting Future Goals
45:54 Conclusion and Farewell
The reason I paint so many beautiful women in all of their forms is because I wanted people to feel like my art is a safe space for them, and that they feel seen and feel joy in themselves, and it's like a mirror reflecting them.
That's Ragni Agaral. I'm Kara Duffy, and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
There's so much going on in the world, and I don't know if we as a collective, truly realize how hard it is to be an artist in today's climate, especially when you are female, when you're a person of color, when you're perceived as an immigrant, even when you're not. And when you're out there being vulnerable and expressing yourself and ideas that others will always have opinions about and they don't hesitate to share them, then layer on mental health and maybe neurodivergence and just trying to survive.
All of that is just a part of what makes today's guest Ragni Agarwal such a badass. She's an Indian American fine artist and graphic designer based in Los Angeles. Her work is vibrant, think hot pinks, purples, orange and large. They're emotional and powerful. She's worked with notable brands such as Hulu and Bombay Sapphire, and her work has shown in multiple groups and solo exhibitions.
She's fabulous as I guess she would be as she was referred to us by one of my favorite incredible humans, Shaheen Sheik Sadhal. We talk about thriving and surviving as a working artist. The layers of nonsense we're facing today regarding immigration and people of color in America, NYR, is so needed to tell the stories that must be told and are often being silenced, as well as simply for pure joy.
Wishing you joy. From this episode,
welcome to the Powerful Ladies podcast. Thanks for having me. Happy to be here. I am, first of all, very excited that you are glasses match my jacket today. That's always a great sign. Yeah. Animal print for the win every day. Always. And then I'm also really excited 'cause we got connected by the amazing Shaheen. Yes. How do you know Shaheen?
I've known Shaheen for almost 20 years now and we met through my best friend Samantha. Who I believe back then was helping her with music, or might have been her manager. Don't quote me on the exactness of that, but through her, through Samatha.
Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. Shaheen and I got connected through women in a networking group that we're a part of, and we hadn't been at the same group.
And these, this one woman was like, you guys need to know each other. And since we got connected, it was like, of course. Of course. I need this amazing powerhouse in my life who's changing the world. And it's been such a pleasure to have her in my circle and yeah, she's amazing. She's incredible. And her and anyone who's listening, you can go and find her podcast episode as well.
We'll link it in the show notes but I'm gonna come back to you. So let's tell everyone your name, where you are in the world, and what you're up to.
My name is Ragni Agarwal. I am based in Los Angeles, and I am an multidisciplinary artist and designer. My background is in graphic design. I've been a graphic designer for many years, and I still do that.
And I've also, I've always created and done art, and then about I. I would say now, like five to six years ago, I also transitioned into doing that professionally as well.
On your Instagram account, you have this great post that's a picture of you next to graffiti that says, buy art and save a crazy person. Yeah. Let's talk about that. What does that mean to you? Why did you love that enough to make it one of your pinned posts?
Truthfully told, I actually came back to art because of my mental health. I had been working in tech for years and it did a lot for me, but it also, like I lost myself a lot during that time and I honestly started illustrating again just to deal with my own mental health and as a form of therapy. I really didn't think it would become a career, and I do think that. In this current climate we're in, like politically, also in LA with the, just the economics of it all. You have to be a little crazy to be a creative because it's hard.
It's a really hard field to be in, and you also are putting yourself out there constantly, so you have to have a really thick skin as well. And so when I saw that, I immediately was like, yeah, this is it. This is the whole thing.
And last night I was at my my friend was part of a group showing at Lucky Cat Gallery on Main Street in downtown la and it was a really big crowd of artists that were all contributing to the show and seeing the variety of.
How the different artists were dressed and their demographics and like who they were bringing in as like friends to see the art and come through everything. It was such an eclectic mix of ages and ethnicities and genders and art styles, and I do think that there is a really interesting space right now for creatives in la.
Not that it's easy, right? I'm fully on board with you that it's. A bit cuckoo to, or just there's a level of ha of to be an entrepreneur of any kind, creative or not, there's a level of d Lulu that has to exist. It's true. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that there's, it's even harder to choose to go out on your own in Southern California because.
The basic cost foundations are just so astronomical to other places in the world. I heard a stat the other day that $120,000 a year puts you in the top 10% of global wealth. And in Orange County, the new low income line is a hundred thousand dollars. And you're like, why? It's actually insane. 'Cause I think it's similar in la and I'm like. That's insane because that no one, that's so few people.
Yeah. So how do you balance creating art? Because you want to have to, and then balancing the fact that you need to eat.
I don't know if we're doing it well, but it's I'm not gonna lie, this year has been a particular struggle since the buyers and just, I think the entertainment industry guides the creative. Like ethos of LA and it's a changing field right now. So it, it has been a struggle.
Like I had some big projects lined up in January that got canceled. I've been just scrambling trying to find more design work. But for me it's interesting because. My two careers, which are design and art are kind, AI is coming for both of them. So I'm like I have no other skills, so this is what I have to bring to the table.
But I do think that it is also an opportunity, there is somewhat of an opportunity to if you don't think like everyone else and you have like new. Ideas of how things can be done, then you do have, there is a space for that. It'll obviously take a second for that to find its footing. But yeah, there's a reason I tattooed resilience on my arm, so I never forget that.
And it's, and I think there's a, an illusion sometimes that if you're an employee, it's safer. Freedom is such a value of mine that when I think of employment and working for somebody else, I just think of all the restrictions and not like the stability isn't, it's a, it's an illusion in an employment environment where I feel like when you're in control of your destiny and you're in control of, finding projects and you can be proactive, like when you have authority over it, even though there's lots of resiliency needed and lots of ups and downs, there's a different level of.
I don't know, like maybe assurance of yeah, like I am, I'm in charge. And sometimes that's good and sometimes that's bad, but we're gonna make it happen because that's what we know how to do. You've had, oh, go ahead. Sorry.
No, I was, I agree with you. Absolutely agree with you.
And you've had some incredible brands that you've done projects and collaborations with, that must have been very rewarding when you got to put some of those names on your CV and portfolio.
Yeah, it's really cool when a brand reaches out and especially brand that you already have products from or you're you like a lot. So it's really exciting and. You know that for better or worse, that's how our world is. Like you can create all the art, but if someone sees that, oh, you did this or you did that, they are more likely to engage with your work and buy from you. So I do appreciate that.
Yeah. You mentioned before the. Political climate that we're in and what's happening, and I would say at a global level, just not even a national level. How does that inform your art and your approach to what you're creating?
I think it's really hard as an artist to ever separate yourself from that climate because. I, it affects my own personal mental health all the time just to see everything. And then BA lot of my art was created. The reason I paint so many beautiful women in all of their forms is because I wanted, I. People to feel like my art is a safe space for them and that they feel seen and feel joy in themselves and it's like a mirror reflecting them. And I will continue to do that as long as people are feeling oppressed and like they're being erased from the world, then I wanna I, my art's, gonna remind them that we need them here and that they should take up space.
Has, when did you realize that you had a talent and or a passion for creating?
I always have done some sort of creative thing since I was a kid. Like my parents, my dad is a very creative person. My, both of my sisters are really creative. I think my dad. He's a doctor, but he has like a poet soul. He's just so I grew up in that, but then I think everyone has talent. I think that anyone can truly be an artist.
I truly believe that. I think that we're just scared to try or nurture it, and it's a practice like I got better at paying D because. During the pandemic, I hadn't painted in almost 15 years till I got to, I was only doing like digital art, and then when I got to the pandemic, I literally made myself paint for at least 10 minutes a day for almost two years straight.
So it was a practice, and I got better because I did it every day.
My client, Andrew Patterson, who's been on this podcast too, is one of our powerful gentlemen. It enrages him. When people talk about like God-given talent, he's I work my ass off to draw and paint.
Yeah. And it's not like anyone can have talent.
I feel it's really about what you want to do and like how much time you give to it.
Yeah. I love how colorful and bold your art is, like looking at your art. It just, so much of it just makes me happy, i, the color palette that you go back to is my favorite color palette.
Like when people ask me, what's your favorite color? I'm like, can I give you a whole palette? 'cause they have to work together because like orange or yellow are colors that I don't like on their own. But if they're next to pink or a red or something else, I'm like, oh, now I like them, like they belonged.
Yeah. What is your relationship to colors that you love coming back to, or the palette that you choose for yourself?
I love color. I think that's really evident. I try so many different palettes for me, I again. When I started going back to art about five, six years ago, I was in a really dark place and I was very depressed.
So I truly used color as therapy. So when I was feeling really dark, it just helped me to play with color, to really trick my brain into not feeling so dark and. I don't know, since I was a kid, I've been saying my favorite color pink. So I just, it makes me very happy, just purely aesthetically.
So I like, I just love it. Like even right behind my computers, like where I put all of just like things that inspire me and I use pink tape for everything. It just brings me a lot of joy. But I think also for a while, i'm an elder millennial. I think that design or everything was getting very gray and neutral, and I just.
Didn't feel happy in that. So I was also trying to bring color back too. And say that I think there's a lot of rules placed on whether things are like mature or like posh or any stuff like that based on color, which I think is so weird and arbitrary.
Yeah. I'll give you a little preview. I dunno if you can. Unfortunately, the listeners can't see this, but there's so much pink on my wall. I love that. I love that. And even if it's not in the big pieces, it's like details in all the small pieces. And growing up I was a girl who was like so anti, I've always been anti like whatever box people wanted to put me in, I didn't like.
N not that I would ever call myself rebellious, but like resistant. And so when I was a kid I was like, pink is so gross and horses are so stupid. And like ballerinas, vomits. I was just so anti the traditional things that girls were told to like and do. And in my maturing process. It's been a whole new rebuilding with the color pink, which sounds so bizarre to say out loud, but it's been like, I think it's, when we were, I was little, I was always like this, these light pinks, these like soft pinks.
But for me, like it's the hot pink, like gimme the hot pink, the neon coral. I want things that feel energizing. Like I, it's. I like rooms that are white and calm and peaceful too at some point. But then I'm like, cool, can we just put one hot pink thing over here and then the room feels like it's okay.
Yeah. And this is no shade to neutral stuff. I also sometimes like I have a calm room too. I like that. It was just that everything was becoming so homogenous that it is like, need to bring back personality. Like we can make our own choices of what we like. Yeah. And I actually the pink thing I think is like really common because it was really shoved down our throats in a very gendered way.
And that I don't like pink because I'm a girl. I just like pink because it's a color, I hear that with a lot of my friends too, that they're like reclaiming pink, and I'm like, I love that.
As an elder millennial, what were key shows, books, moments of your childhood that you think had been really influential on you from like pop culture?
I still only watch like nineties television. I love living single, it's my go-to show. It's always on repeat in my house. It just brings me joy. I. And I like friendships, so any show about friends I love. And I, look, this is gonna age me, but I love sitcoms. Why do we have so few sitcoms now?
I like the simplicity of it and I like to laugh and I feel like they don't bring, they don't make comedy anymore. Everything's so dark.
And then I love music. I, I. Music's my first love that not I don't have musical talents in that I nurture, but it inspires all my art and I think I. The first tape my dad ever bought me was Whitney Houston's.
I wanna dance with somebody. And I always tell my friends, I crack up because I didn't have a tape player, but I had a teddy ruxbin. Oh yeah. And I used to play that in my teddy ruxbin. I love Whitney. So the idea of
Teddy ruxbin singing at being the face of Whitney Houston is its own comedy skit. Because his mouth would move when the tapes were playing. I know.
That's so good. I wish my mom would say that, but yeah, that was my, I would just walk around the house with my teddy ruxbin.
That's gonna be a core memory that I'm taking away from today for sure.
You've mentioned coming back to your art we've mentioned how mental health has been such a component. We've mentioned how it's so important to you to represent all the different types of women that you see in your art. We've talked about how politics plays into it, mostly from a reasons to make art in opposition to that madness.
Do you feel like there is a shift happening in the creative community? And I'll frame this up to what maybe I'm hoping for and I'm asking you if you think it's happening. I am amazed being someone who grew up in the eighties and nineties, that there isn't more of like a punk rock grunge alternative approach to what's happening right now.
I'm like. Where this is the time for rage against the machine. Like where are those voices? Like the, like NWA, like where are those voices right now? If every, like I feel like there's a disconnect happening between art and what's happening culturally and politically, and I'm mystified that this should be.
Like the energizing moment for art, music, other things. I'm starting to see it in artists. I'm not seeing it as much, at least what I've been exposed to from a musical side, which is where I think it historically has come from first, maybe in the past couple of decades. But how are you seeing, and are you seeing creatives shifting what they're doing?
To speak out about what they think is wrong or right and how things should be.
I personally am seeing it. I'm just seeing it. In smaller scale and in quieter groups because I think people are also really concerned for their safety in a lot of these groups that I'm seeing it, like I, I just went to the most beautiful trans activists. They were all Muslim performance and they were like, no cameras, nothing. Because everyone's really concerned about their rights being taken away. So I see it happening all over. It's just that it's not really on the internet or social media as much, but it is happening. I think once you start seeking out those groups, you will find it. And I do think like the bigger. Push towards it will come. I think that some of these bigger artists need to make be more political in what they're doing. Yeah.
Safety's been a big thing that's been, had been talked about in the powerful youth community. In my group coaching community, we had pulled a couple of women, Shaheen was one of them to get a pulse on things a couple of months ago.
And we recently were inviting people to come and be on a panel for our powerful conversation series, talking about our civic rights and what we can do. And I've never had people say no to participating other than oh, it doesn't fit my schedule. I'm not available right now. But we had, of all the people reached out to, we got two who were a yes.
Which is shocking, and everyone else said, no, I don't feel like I'm in a position to speak up right now. And these are powerful women, many of whom are lawyers. And when we went back and looked at who we had invited a lot of people who I didn't think about at the time. They're just picking like incredible voices in this space.
And many of them were first generation or naturalized citizens. And they were like, no, I have to protect myself and the people who I represent. So I can't talk about this right now, but here's my 2 cents that I will email or text you privately about. And it was really just heartbreaking to me that's the place we're in right now.
How are you fe are you feeling safe, are you not? What are you doing to be bold and cautious at the same time?
I think I am a pretty privileged person, and also I am a citizen. I guess I am first generation, but now after many years, my parents are also citizens, so I don't feel that inherent lack of safety, but I. Yes. When I'm out and about, I never used to ever feel not safe. Now I do like I do, I am more cautious and I will look around at who's around me.
I do find myself being a little bit more cautious about what I talk about and how I talk about it, but that. I also think I am like trying to look for more projects and look for more gigs. And it sucks because I also don't wanna censor myself, and I am an artist, so I try to maybe instead of reposting or being so blatant that way, I will put it into my art.
And so you will know exactly where I stand on things, but I may not just write it out word for word, yeah. But overall, yeah. Yeah.
Go. No, go ahead. Overall, what?
No, I was gonna say overall, like I do feel like I do feel safe in the short term, maybe not so much in the long term.
Yeah. I never predicted having the. Thoughts and conversations that have happened in the past six months of, are we safe? Who's safe? What rights do we still have as women? Which ones do we not have? It's so bizarre and it's so frustrating because it's such a waste of a conversation because we shouldn't be going backwards and we have bigger things to fix. There's. So many hungry people and so many unhoused people and so many climate issues. There's just so many other things that need all of our attention and skillsets that it's just enraging that we're having to, jump back decades if not centuries, about what's going on. Yeah.
And I think also, I think people in my age group I think we didn't really, you don't really realize how not long ago that stuff was because if it was so easy for it to just be like. Reverting back to it wasn't that long ago. And also like America's kind of new. So it's, we're still in that I don't know, I just don't think a lot of people's minds shifted that as much as we thought they did.
Yep. When you think about the words powerful and ladies, how do you define them and do their definitions shift when those words are put next to each other?
Not necessarily. When I think powerful ladies, I don't, I think ladies are inherently powerful. I don't think we view power in the way that. Lots. The people view power. I think power comes from really being able to lean into yourself and take up space and be loud about what you wanna be loud about, get angry about what you wanna get, not being afraid of your anger. And really fighting for what you believe in. And also like just mostly taking up space.
When you're not creating arts, how are you spending your time? How are you getting inspired?
I like to go and see art all the time for by other people. That really inspires me. I love music. I love going on walks. I walks. I take my stupid men, my stupid walk for my stupid mental health every, I try to do that while I don't do it daily, but I try to, and I love. I can't walk by a flower without smiling and staring at it. And my people, my, I like to really spend time with my people. They really inspire me. I'm surrounded by a lot of amazing, beautiful women and men, and they're awesome.
Speaking of your people, like how have you built and curated your community and what do you give to it to keep nurturing it?
I. I make friends really easily. So I've been lucky in that I've met a lot of my friends organically out in and about. I have best friends that I've they've been, they've come to my art show as guests and then we ended up becoming best friends. One of my best friends. I honestly lost my friends at a concert and just ended up standing next to this other person.
And then we became best friends. And then I have old friends, like from college and I think it's been, I will say that post pandemic, like it is harder for us to get together and do as much as we used to before, but we still do make an effort to see each other at least like once a month, if not more.
And then, and we have our we have our text groups that we keep in touch with and we're just like, I think like more than like
actually like being there every day. It's like when there are things that really matter, I know that I have a solid foundation of people I can turn to and they know they, they have the same. Yeah.
Your art occurs to me as both like powerful and expressive, but also very vulnerable. How are you, how have you embraced being vulnerable in your life, in your art, and what advice would you give to other people about being vulnerable in whatever it is that they're up to?
I think for a lot of my life, I. Thought it was weak to be vulnerable and that I couldn't really express any of the hard stuff I was going through. And honestly, making my art and putting it out there just forced me to be real with myself and then with others. And then I saw that like other people.
As soon as I started posting about my mental health, other people were like, oh, I feel this too. Oh, I also feel this. And I'm like, why are we all so together and our aloneness? And I think that the biggest thing art has brought me is a freedom to be vulnerable. And it's still hard. There's still stuff that I get scared to share about and.
I'm learning, like I also don't wanna share everything with everyone. But yeah, I do think that there is power when you're going through hard times. As soon as I start telling my community about it, I do see more abundance coming in. I do see more opportunities coming in because people do wanna be there for each other and they do wanna help each other.
Yeah. Yeah. There's, a lot of people would love to. Be professional artists and professional creatives, and they're really scared because they've been told the trope of the starving artist and there's so much competition and it's really hard. And, I don't, I think that we have to listen to ourselves a bit and jump into what.
We can't not do sometimes. But what advice would you give to other people who want to be a professional, creative and artist?
I think that a, we live in a really different landscape now, so there are more doors that are making it easier to be an artist and then also look. There. Sometimes you might start, but also a lot of fields are hard.
It's not just art. Anything you wanna do well might be hard, really hard at times. So you might as well work really hard and try at something that gives you joy and makes you feel good. And like I said, I think everyone is an artist. I truly believe that if you wanna be an artist, you can be an artist.
It's scary. And I think the hardest part is just like getting started. And if you wanna start while you have a job and you wanna do other things, do that too. You don't need to drop everything and just go for it. You can start being an artist and put just making art while having another job.
Yeah. We ask everybody on the podcast where you put yourself on the powerful Lady scale. If zero is average everyday human and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you put yourself on that scale today and on an average day?
I think I'm like at a six today. On an average day, it's hard. Some days I really feel like one, some days I do feel like 10, so I don't know if there's a real average, so I'm gonna stick with about five or six. I think since being in my forties, I do feel more. Often powerful than not.
I think in my thirties and twenties, that would've been a lot more once and twos, but yeah. Now I think it's mostly above five most of the time.
What's changed for you crossing that decade?
I care a lot less about what other people think. And. It is only since my late thirties and forties that I started really pushing myself in the arts. And making art really freed me from a lot of that. And sharing my own story with people and being a lot more honest about who I am. Yeah. Freedom is so powerful and hard. It's really hard to get there because there are a lot of systems in place that don't want women to speak up and they don't want women to have freedom. So it's hard.
And I think it's I was having this conversation recently with another podcast guest about how when you start living in alignment with. Where you're supposed to be, who you're supposed to be, what you're supposed to be doing, and you're choosing like that extraordinary path for yourself.
The bravery isn't often in choosing that first step. Oh no, I like, I need to be an artist. It comes in the choices that are after that, like what habits don't fit in that new life, what people do or don't, what. You start weeding your life and looking at what really belongs in this new, very cool, very exciting space I'm creating, but like your, the old life doesn't always fit, and it can be really confronting when you have to ask yourself like, oh.
Maybe I don't wanna go to that restaurant anymore or be in that friend group like, or, for some people it's even like drinking alcohol. There's something that you go, oh, I don't know if that's for me anymore. And that's where I think some of the bravery really starts to show up of choosing yourself again and again because it's hard to make those change is hard. And then making choices where you're declaring change. Even harder.
Yeah. It's really hard. Like I think for years I did a lot of things that I just did because I didn't wanna lose the people in my life, and I was very untrue to myself. Yeah. And that has been really hard, but it's also really beautiful. So you just, it doesn't feel as hard as you might think it would. And then I will, the other thing, going back to being an artist is like. Also don't go into being an artist thinking it's going to be the most glamorous thing because it's most most of the time, 90% of the time it is not.
No I worked in footwear apparel, like streetwear, mostly in sport fashion before the things I'm doing now and. Everyone outside was like, oh, it's so glamorous. You're traveling and you're hanging out with these different collaborators and athletes. And I'm like, that is 5%. Like the travel was high, but did I want to go to China four times a year or Vietnam or be on an airplane for a month straight? No. Yeah, no, that was, that would've been my first choice. Yeah, and I think it's so true, like so many of these career paths that we put this glamor element to oh, you might just make art and go to parties all day long, and you're like, no, I still need a spreadsheet.
Yeah. I still have to do all the business things, which I personally don't love but do. And then I'm also like. You're in your studio creating a lot, and that's like a lot of hours alone. Which is not so sometimes really fun and sometimes you're like, I need to see a human now. And yeah. Over it too.
That's why I'm such a big believer that people need coaches and they need communities because it's not common that. You're surrounded by other people who are also entrepreneurs or artists or whatever the thing is. And we're so good at being mean to ourselves and thinking that we're behind or not keeping up or not doing enough, or whatever the thing is. And then when you are in a group where you can talk to other people who are with, even if they're, in phases before or after you, if they can still talk about what's going on, 'cause.
It really doesn't matter how much money you're making, you still have to ask yourself the same questions all the time. And it's so refreshing to hear someone else be like, oh yeah, like whatever. Even dumb things, like why we're irritated about Instagram, changing the algorithm again because no, I don't wanna change my marketing strategy every three months. Thank you. That's exactly, we're not, we're here to be. Doing our thing and being in our zone of genius, which is usually not also Instagram expert. So it's yeah. We need our villages.
We do. And that's something I've been doing a lot more of this year, which is like I, my three of my friends and I formed a little collective that we just, we get together once a week to just talk about, talk ourselves through our own individual.
Like business and art goals. Love that. Just to love that, be cheerleaders and encourage each other. And then also just like it helps when someone else is did you get it through this week? Because there's only so much self accountability you can do before you burn out.
Yeah, and it's a really weird environment too, if you've gone through a traditional education system, whether you went to college or not, like there's, we're constantly in the system of perform and then be graded, perform, and have a test and get evaluated and get feedback, whether it was good or bad feedback, right?
But we were constantly being told, like where we were ranked or tracking or something. And then when you suddenly don't have a boss, you're like, huh, am I. How am I doing? Are we okay? Is this enough? Is this and yeah. And because there's so much noise about what business should be and what should look like and what marketing should be and how we have to sell, like there's so much noise for entrepreneurs right now and self-employed people that it always feels like we're not doing enough when most of that noise is complete nonsense. Oh yeah. And so like that just drives me crazy.
It drives me nuts. Like you open Instagram for one minute and you're literally told 20 ways in which you should be doing everything differently or better. And I'm like, can you stop? It's okay.
Yeah, let me live. Have you gone through the process of a lot of other people I know have been really like clearing out like who they're following and what noise they're letting in.
Like how do you like monitor and assess that every once in a while or like how are you protecting yourself and your business and like the little bubble that we have to create to survive. I mute a lot of stories.
A lot of stories. I, I try not always successfully, it really depends on my mood, but I try really to be more of an like an active user.
So I, if I'm spending more time on Instagram, it's 'cause I'm like creating my own reels or whatever. Less scrolling, now I like when I, even when I turn on Instagram, like I will actually just go look for specific people that I wanna see, rather than just scroll or go through stories. I think that's also made it easier.
What do you think is the best thing that you've done for your business? Whether it was a sales technique or a marketing technique that's really helped you get clients, get business, move things forward.
For better or worse, I have gotten a lot of my work through Instagram. But I will say that like when I tell more of my story and why I make the art, it will always do a lot better than just putting the art up there because I think art.
Yeah, you can see something on Instagram and love it, even if it's a great piece of art, but a lot of times you have to see it in person. You wanna feel it, you wanna see the textures and all of that. So I think what works online is storytelling. And then obviously I think like whenever I do an in-person event, I just end up doing a lot better because art is really tactile.
That's my biggest advice for all of my clients. Like it's, I think, modern business owners, entrepreneurs, there's such a wish that we could hide behind the computer and just send out a newsletter and send out some emails, and it works. But like having a direct selling relationship building component is so important.
Like most of us don't need. Even a hundred clients in a year. And there's so much of the digital marketing that is really built towards low price, high volume type of business. And for most of us are in a higher price, more relational value based business. And to your point, we have to be among our people and talk and.
Feel connected because people wanna buy from people they, they trust and they find interesting. And there's a really, especially there's a theme I think for successful businesses right now where you not only wanna buy from them, you wanna be their champion, you maybe wanna go to dinner with them.
Like you want the real, like the relationship and not that we have to go to dinner with all of our clients, but. Like my vet client vetting is would I wanna go on vacation with this person? That's when I'm like, yes, that's that. That they're allowed in and I don't go on vacation with all my clients, but it's the approach of do I know them enough?
Do we share values? Do I actually wanna spend time with them? 'cause mine's a lot, very time heavy type of business. But I think even for artists, like they want. They wanna know who you are. They wanna the stories and the why behind things matter so much. Even vetting people for our podcast, right? Shaheen referred you, which, when you get a magical referral of that capacity it's oh, pass through to go.
But we still had to be like, who is this person? Before we talked to you and because you had done such a great job of, on your website and on your Instagram talking about what you stand for and why these things matter to you, like I could get an essence of you through what you had put online. That made me go oh hell yeah.
I wanna talk to this person. Thank you. And I think that's, you're welcome. I, and you should be proud 'cause I think it's actually really hard for a lot of creatives to do. And usually the ones I'm coaching, I'm like, talk about yourself. You're so cool. And it's we wanna talk about the art. I'm like, people buy the art if they love you first.
Yeah. It took me a while to learn that. 'cause I would just post the art. The art. I'm like, why is this not doing well? It's oh, people want the story. Yeah. You need to tell the story. That's like, why did you make the art?
And not that I want people to be inauthentic, but I'm willing to bet even if you just made up a bunch of bullshit stories about why you made the art, that would still be more effective than just not telling the story at all.
Yeah. 'Cause it's a connection thing, especially. For art. And I dunno if you've been paying attention, I'm sure you have, about how much the art market is like flipping on its head right now. Yeah. It's so much harder to sell a Picasso or a Monet right now than it is to sell things under $20,000.
And again, aligning with my. Maybe more grunge approach to things in punk rock approach. I love that 'cause it tells me that people are looking for things that stories and people they relate to and artists like they wanna support that community. And I love that 'cause they're not just collecting from an asset perspective, it's a much more emotional collection experience.
So I'm happy that's how the art world is pivoting a little bit. But I also know that something crazy, like less than 5% of people in the US have an original piece of art in their home.
Yeah. And I, it makes me really happy that this shift is happening because I always approached art, maybe 'cause I came to it later from a very non-traditional POV anyways.
Like I don't really. Want to necessarily go down the traditional route of a gallery and all of that. Because of the inaccessible, like a lot of my clients and a lot of the people that fuck with my art are like younger and they don't have a lot of money, and I don't want them to not be able to buy my art.
So I'm always gonna make art at a lot of different price points. And if that doesn't make me like bougie to be in a gallery, then so be it because. I just don't, I think art's for everyone. And I don't wanna ever separate myself from that. I will al, I might sell stuff that is quite pricey, but I will always sell like 30 a $40 print too. Yeah.
Art for the people. Yeah. This is a group that loves to support, make crazy things happen, cheer people on. What is something that you want or have on your wishlist to-do? List your manifest list. What do you wanna offer up to this group so we can see if we can help you make it happen?
I would love to do more activations out and about with brands. So if anyone wants to hire me to paint something or create an art. Activation. I am there for it. I also love painting murals, so if anyone wants a mural, please let me know. I'm trying to do, I haven't done one since last year, but I would love to do more of those as well.
Amazing. It has been such an honor to get to hang out with you today and get to meet you and know you more. Yeah, just thank you for the way that you are making art and using art and what you're. Using your whole creative space to be a stand for. I think it's there's so much depth to all of it, and I really appreciate that.
Thank you so much for having me. It was lovely to meet you.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with a friend. Head to the powerful ladies.com where you can find all the links to connect with Ragni and her studio, as well as learn more about powerful ladies, come hang out with us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and you can find me and all my socials@karaduffy.com.
This episode was produced by Amanda Kass, and our audio engineer is Jordan Duffy. I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Instagram: ragni_agarwal_
Website: ragniagarwal.com
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Email: ragni.agarwal@gmail.com
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
