Turning Artistic Passion into Profit with Jonah Allen

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation! JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire! Brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like The Product Boss. Today, we'll be breaking down how to turn artistic passion into profit. To drop these value bombs, I brought Jonah Allen into EO Fire Studios. Jonah is a renowned photographic artist, captures the ocean's transient beauty, merging his passions for surfing and entrepreneurship. His work, celebrated globally, fosters a profound connection to nature and well-being. In today's foundation, we'll talk about that, how people can discover their passion and turn it into a meaningful business, discovering the true meaning of investing in yourself, and so much more.

0:45And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Jonah and our sponsors. Hustle and Flowchart, hosted by Joe Feer, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Join Joe as he discusses systems, mindset tweaks, reframes, and strategies to help you build a business that gives you freedom and fuel for your life. A recent episode on using AI for effortless content creation is a must listen. Listen to Hustle and Flowchart wherever you get your podcasts. Jonah, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:21Hey, Fire Nation. I am so stoked to be here. I have a belief that being successful is actually pretty simple and that all you have to do is perform the right actions consistently over a long enough time horizon. And while that's simple to do, it's not necessarily easy. And it's also very simple to not do it. And that is the reason why most people are not successful. No, I love that. One of my favorite quotes is what's simple to do is also simple not to do. So unfortunately, people kind of lean towards that not doing it because it's simple not to do it. And Fire Nation, as I mentioned in the intro, we're having a great conversation about turning artistic passion into profits.

2:05And passion is something, Jonah, that people can actually go their whole lives without discovering, which is really sad. So let's talk about how you discovered your passion. Yeah, so I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, completely away from the ocean. As you'll find out, I basically live my life and base my life around the ocean. But when I was about 12 years old, I was on vacation with my family in the Gulf of Mexico. And for some reason, they bought me a surf lesson. Nobody in my family had ever surfed before. But the instructor pushed me into a wave. I caught my first wave. And that was the moment where the entire trajectory of my life completely changed.

2:44I got absolutely hooked on surfing and being in the ocean. And then about a year after that, a friend of mine was given an underwater camera, but he didn't really take any interest to it. I kind of took it with his permission, and I started making photographs of the ocean. And I have not put a camera down, and it has been 18 years of kind of dedicating my life to trying to master the art of capturing water and light. And that's how I discovered my passion. I was very, very lucky that I got exposed to it at a very, very early age. Fire Nation, I've craved that type of feeling that Jonah experienced for 44 years now.

3:29So listen, if you're one of those people that is listening, you're like, man, I'm jealous. Well, hey, listen, jump in line because a lot of us have not experienced that level of passion. And it's still ahead of us. Just keep on trying for sure. And the reality is, hey, I've done all these things too. I've surfed, I've jumped out of planes, I've skied, I've done all the things and it's coming. I've had glimpses of it, but it's never kind of been that lifelong thing. So stick with me, Fire Nation, we'll get there together. And the reality is this, we can all have hobbies, but few hobbies actually pay the bills.

4:06So what were the biggest challenges that you faced turning your passion into a sustainable business? There are so many things along the road to building a business that are really difficult. So much rejection, so much failure. But I think the biggest challenge for me was when I was beginning my journey or just kind of starting, and I was living in what I call the gap. And it was the gap between the person I wanted to be and the gap between the person who I was. I knew that like there was more to me than working at a coffee shop part-time I knew that I could build a business I had this belief but I wasn't doing it and that discomfort of not taking action and not being the person I wanted to be that was so uncomfortable and so so challenging for me but really you know what I wanted to share with Fire Nation Day is like when I reflect about how I got to where I am today I realized that there's a few core principles that really kind of transformed my life my business and I would love to share those with you today Fire Nation and so the first kind of principle that kind of helped me turn my passion into my business was really getting really clear seeking clarity beginning with the end in mind if you don't begin with the end in mind if you don't define the vision for your life or it's kind of the lifestyle you want to have with their kind of all aspects of your life right your health your career your finances, your hobbies, if you don't define that, create that vision for your life, then it's going to be really hard to get there because you don't even know where you're going and therefore you don't even know how to create a path.

5:46So I think that's really the first kind of principle is just getting really clear on what it is that you exactly want. And then the second principle is developing the belief that you can actually do it, that you can actually make this kind of dream lifestyle happen, that you can actually turn this passion into the business. I was very lucky, again, that I had this deep belief when I was a kid that I knew I was going to live some sort of alternate lifestyle. And that belief was instilled in me by my parents and my childhood. And I also had a belief that I could kind of make whatever I wanted happen.

6:25And that belief was created actually from listening to music. kind of music kind of reprogram my subconscious. But identifying limiting beliefs is not something that is easy. It takes a lot of active work. And so what kind of has helped me is a process of reflection. And the way I like to reflect is doing daily journaling. And when I get quiet with myself and really let thoughts come out, I can kind of observe my thoughts. And therefore, then I can actually identify the kind of beliefs that are holding me back. I actually just like last week did something for the first time that was really profound and helped me identify new limiting beliefs.

7:08I went through Tony Robbins Unleashed Power Within virtual. That was very profound and helped me even identify more limiting beliefs. But we really have to cultivate the beliefs that are going to support our dream lifestyle. and then the third kind of principle that really has completely transformed my life is um actually a piece of wisdom i received from a mentor i used to work at a recording studio when i was in college and the owner of the recording studio his dad was also a musician and his told his dad told him do not have a fallback otherwise you're going to fall back on it and that's basically just another way of saying commit you know when you commit 110 percent into your passion and turning it into a business, you're cutting off all other options.

7:56And until you fully commit, you're going to be wishy-washy. You're not going to fully be able to execute and take action on the most important things. And for me, actually, is it cool if I share a story, John? Please do, brother. So I thought I was committed. And I started my art journey, my entrepreneurial journey about seven years ago. And about two years into it, I thought I was committed. I told myself I was committed. but um i there was one night where a sale did not close it was like maybe like a six thousand dollar sale like at the time it was to me that was a lot of money and it ended up not working out and i felt so much failure so much rejection i was so absolutely devastated that the sale didn't end up closing and i was very impulsive and i was like you know what i'm done i'm gonna burn all my art like i'm i'm just i'm i'm done with just trying i keep failing i'm not not getting anywhere and I got a sign I guess from the universe that night I got a message from an art dealer who this art dealer like represented masters when I say masters I mean like like artists that everybody knows she was selling you know works for 400 500 thousand dollars million dollars and she wanted to represent and sell my art artwork in the gallery next to these masters and when I got the external validation that's when I fully really committed to to my business to to never stopping until I was going to be successful at um at being an artist and then the fourth principle that has really kind of transformed my life is kind of viewing my business like a metaphor as like a train track as a train and there's two sides to the train track on one side you have the process of like my my creative process like i'm an artist but for most people that's their product or service right and then on the other side of the train track is you know marketing sales and fulfillment and you know you have to become the absolute best at what you do is or john you like to say your zone of genius yes i'm like absolutely dedicated to mastering you know your product your service or your art but you can't just be dedicated to mastering your your product your service you have to be also be dedicated to mastering you know marketing and selling for your business and so um that for me i remember like when i first started my art journey i was obviously dedicated to being trying to be a master of photography but um i remember i built a website and uh i was like oh i'm gonna make so many sales and then I got the website running.

10:40I was like, oh, I got to get traffic to the website. Oh, okay. And I got traffic to the website. I was like, oh, I got to get better at sales. And so it's been a journey, but now I'm just as passionate about marketing and selling as I am my own artwork creation because it's just as important as building your product and your service. And Fire Nation, we are going to hit this final and fifth principle, as well as some more really great stuff. And we're talking about a shark attack and other cool things. When we get back from thinking our sponsors. The amount of software required to run a growing business can be daunting.

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13:07Just go to ZipRecruiter.com slash fire to try it for free. Again, that's ZipRecruiter.com slash fire. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Jonah, you've been dropping these great value bombs. You've already gone through four principles that have been fantastic about turning your passion to a sustainable business. What is that fifth principle? So the last and final principle is finding people who are already making income from their passion. And so what that looks like for me has been exposure to coaches, mentors, consultants, and masterminds. And I have this quote that has completely had a profound impact on me.

13:47And so I'm going to read it here for you. The only way that we can live is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way that we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open. Do it. Throw yourself. And this quote completely sums up how important it is to expose yourself to coaches, mentors, consultants, exposure to people who are already doing what you want to do. Fire Nation, that's one that I think a lot of you are like, hmm, how do we accomplish something like that?

14:26And what's pretty cool is we have a story about that coming up. But before we get to it, I do want to talk about that shark attack. How does being attacked by a shark surfing relate to entrepreneurship in your book? So I'll tell a short story. In 2019, I was surfing the Gulf of Mexico very early morning. It was very cold. I woke up about sunrise, about 33 degrees outside. And I was out surfing with another friend. and about 30 minutes into the surf session, all of a sudden something hit me so hard, a force I've never felt before. And a shark had bit my board and I knew it was a shark. And the next thing I know, I was being dragged down.

15:05Now, wait, are you sitting on your board? Are you standing surfing while this is happening? How's that working? I was actually laying on my board. Thankfully, when I felt it hit me, I put my feet up because it bit the bottom of the board kind of towards the tail. And so had I not put my feet up, it would have gotten my feet. and it only held on for like five or seven seconds. It was very, very short. It released me, and then I, of course, sprinted to the beach. I was probably like 100 meters away from shore. I paddled in. I caught waves on the way in, and I made it ashore, and I was just so absolutely terrified.

15:41And I was faced with kind of a pivotal moment in my life. When I reflect on this moment, it was a life-changing moment because I was so full of fear. I mean, my adrenaline was pumping. I was shaking. I was just so petrified of the idea of getting back in the ocean. But I knew in that moment if I didn't get back in the ocean, like I was going to be scarred with fear. And so the thing about it was, though, the shark, I wouldn't say it was an attack because the water was murky. It hit me because it couldn't see me. You know, sharks, they investigate with their mouths. They don't hands. So it was just an investigative bite because it didn't come back and it didn't circle if a shark is attacking It'll it'll like circle you and keep keep biting but only bit once and I was able to leave unscathed and so because of that I decided I Got to get back on the ocean because my livelihood depends on the ocean.

16:37I love being ocean This is my two biggest passions are in the ocean if I don't get out there Then I'm giving up like on like my biggest passion giving up my life and so I walked a quarter mile down the beach and I paddled out and I was surfing and then I drifted into the exact kind of position where the the hedgehog had hit me the reason why I know this is because in surfing you kind of have to triangulate yourself using landmarks and so I went for a wave I ended up falling and then my leash broke the thing that attaches the board to the ankle and my surfboard ended up the one that just saved my life it ended up washing all the way to shore and then I was floating in the ocean in the exact spot where the shark had just hit me 30 minutes prior and that was the scariest moment of my life I can tell you but um thankfully I swam in unscathed I was totally fine literally not a cut my surfboard you know was obviously damaged but um you know how does this relate to entrepreneurship and you know when I think about this like it's the only way that I believe that we will not become successful is if we give up.

17:39As long as we keep showing up and keep iterating and keep putting time and energy to something, it's inevitable over time that we will definitely be successful. And so in that moment, I decided that I'm not going to give up on my passion for surfing and getting in the ocean. That's the principle that we can kind of take away from that. Man, that's powerful. I do have a quick question. Is that surfboard with the shark's teeth marks hanging up somewhere in your house? It is actually in my house. Yes, I kept it. I believe it. And it's in my living room. And it's a reminder of that decision, of that pivotal moment in my life.

18:13Now, were you able to figure out what type of shark it was and the size from the teeth marks or not? No, it really got the fins mostly and took a couple inches off the tail of the surfboard. And so I didn't get a ton of marks to do some deep research. But I mean, if I had to guess, the water was murky, so I didn't see it. I literally didn't even see the fish. I knew it was a big shark because of how far it had dragged me down. If I had to guess, it was either a bull shark, a tiger shark, a mako, or a great white. Well, moving on. You believe that art plays a vital role in enhancing our daily lives and our living spaces, like with a surfboard with some shark bites on it.

18:52So tell us more about this belief. When you change your environment, like you change your life, obviously, I'm sure this has been said many times in this podcast, that you're the average of the five people you surround yourself with. Actually, every podcast because that's how I end the episode. Oh, my gosh. Well, you know, the same kind of goes for your environment, like your home space. When you enter your home space, it has an effect on you. Your environment has a profound impact on your state. And so art really has the power to change your mood. It has the power to change your emotional state.

19:33And like Tony Robbins talks about what determines the quality of our life. It's really the quality of our emotions. And art is such an incredible tool that has the ability to change your emotional state, whether it's through like – another thing too about art is like it doesn't just have to be something that changes your emotional state. It can be something that can be a conversational centerpiece. By being a focal point on any room, it can spark conversations and bring people together. when you enter your house and you have artwork that kind of creates this personal sanctuary within your home.

20:06And so I really believe that, you know, again, the power of art is that it can completely change your emotional state when you enter your home environment and your sanctuary. We're going to end with a bang because I want to talk about the process and the significance behind creating custom art pieces that are both tailored to an individual narrative and the space itself. And we kind of have a personal story to add in here. So start with the top, we'll end with a bang. Over time, I've got a lot of collectors and clients. They've consistently asked me to kind of start creating commissions, like custom pieces.

20:42And for the longest time, I didn't do it because I didn't really have the bandwidth and I didn't really enjoy the process. But then somebody sparked an incredible idea. That somebody being you, John. And instead of creating artwork around a narrative that I'm creating, what if I created artwork around the narrative of my clients? What if I made it about them and their story? and that question kind of created this thing where now I take clients on a journey, on an experience over the course of multiple days and I create a piece with them and that piece has their story and they get to be a part of the process.

21:28And let me just actually jump in here real quick before we keep going down this path because there's a lot of cool stuff and I want to really make sure Fire Nation understands like how this process came about because we were at an event in Nashville and I got to meet Jonah. He was attending the events. He was one of the VIP members. So he got like a special, like, like actual hot seat with me and we were talking about his business and we, I really got to know what he was doing. And, you know, so then I applied it to myself and I said, well, like, what do I really feel like is missing in that world, the art world, um, in my life?

22:02And, you I bought my house in Puerto Rico like eight years ago. And I love the fact that it was turnkey and that it was completely, you know, furniture and art was all included with it. Like it was great for that reason. But then at the same time, like I would, you know, people come to my house like, oh, can I, can I have a little, a little walk around a little tour? And I would do that. And they'd be like, oh, that's a beautiful piece of art. Can you tell me about it? I'd be like, um, no, not really. Actually, it was here when I moved in or like, oh, that's awesome. Where'd come from? I'm like, I don't know actually.

22:32But then we had this like one piece of art in my, in my living room that I did know the full story behind it, which was, it was this beautiful door from India. It was like this Indian Raj's door for 400 years. Like it was a 400 plus year old door had been carbon dated and it was inlaid in this beautiful table, the coffee table, centerpiece with glass and the thing weighs, you know, probably literally a ton. And whenever people remark on it, I could tell them that story and I could just see how interesting and intrigued they were by it, as was I, when I was like looking at like the leather straps on it.

23:12And, you know, you could just see and almost smell, you know, this, this door, like being opened and closed a million times and all this, you know, awesome stuff. And so I was thinking when I was, you know, chatting with Jonah about what he was experiencing and challenges he was facing. Like, how could Jonah gift a story to the art that he was also creating and gifting? Because that's truly what we enjoy when it comes to art is sharing with other people, telling the story behind it. And so this was this idea of, man, what if when I'm taking people on a tour of my house and now they ask about a certain piece of art, I'm like, wow.

23:53I'm glad you chose that one because let me tell you this story. And Jonah, from this point, take it away. Well, John, actually, I'd love to ask you, can you tell the listeners about the experience we went on together and what happened from there? Yeah, so when I was sharing what I was sharing with Jonah, Fire Nation, I could see this light bulb go off in his eyes. He got it immediately because he's a brilliant entrepreneur and businessman. And he actually was like, well, dang, I love that. can I gift you the first experience? And we talked about like what that would look like. And sure enough, you know, fast forward, Jonah flies out to Puerto Rico to my house.

24:34You know, we end up spending the entire weekend together. We're in a helicopter flying over Puerto Rico, flying to the islands, Vieques, Culebra, Culebrita, the whole time, like he's taking these amazing pictures with his camera and doing other things video wise. And then we're going to the west close to Puerto Rico and we're surfing and we're doing other things in the ocean and we're just having so much fun, just like experiencing the ocean and the waves and the sun and Puerto Rico in general. And then just having an amazing experience, having an amazing story that we can tell. And then afterwards, you know, Joe and I are sitting down, we're going over all these pictures that he's taken and videos, et cetera.

25:16And essentially, you know, I wanted him to be at the forefront of this because, you know, he's the artistic and creative genius. So he was, you know, I said, basically, Hey, like, what do you think the top 20 are? And then maybe you and I can go through those and kind of select maybe the top three that will turn into epic pieces of art that will then forever hang in my house. And that was a process. And we did that. And so I ended up choosing with, of course, Jonah's direct guidance, these three amazing pieces of art that were from our time in a helicopter overlooking the island of Culebrita, Puerto Rico, just this amazing coral experience.

25:58And there's even like a little bird flying in one, super low, like you gotta look close to see it. And, you know, he also took into account like the, my room and where we were going to put it and the size and how it would light the room up. And In fact, the room was frankly just not a great color. And so on his guidance, we completely repainted the entire room, this like really cool steel gray that just made the photos pop even more. And now it's just like this room you walk in, you're like, wow, I know I'm in the Caribbean because I'm in John's house, which has an unbelievable 180 degree panoramic view of the Caribbean ocean.

26:35But now when I step inside of this room, I keep that feeling. It stays with me. And I just actually had my sister's family, my wife's family was in town. So my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and their kids. And my brother-in-law was just like remarking on it. And I told him the whole story. And then I showed him the video that Jonah had created about that. It was like coming to life. And this was literally 48 hours ago. So it's completely random timing that we're talking about this. But of course, that's happened multiple times, you know, over the past year that I've had these pieces of art hanging in my house.

27:12So just a fantastic experience. Jonah, back to you. Yeah, I love that. Thanks for sharing that, John. If you don't mind, I'd love to ask you another question, which is like, because remember, you had different art beforehand. Now that you've lived with this art that I created for you for about close to a year, has it changed anything in your home or the way you feel about entering your space? It's really changed the way that I feel when I enter the space. And that's one of the things that I love about having this experience is that every time I see this artwork, when I walk in there, I'm brought back to that amazing time being in the helicopter, overlooking the Caribbean, which I love.

27:49And then also I remember what I used to have there, which was just a very unintentional, non-creative choice. It was just like, oh, that's big and that looks pretty, let's fit it. Like it was pictures of the desert of Utah, like Bryce National Park, which were beautiful photos, but what are they doing in a house next to the Caribbean? It felt off. It was like the wrong coloring. It was the wrong everything, the wrong vibe. And so it completely took that not great vibe and turned it into the right vibe, the Caribbean vibe. So it's been great. I love that. Well, there's something I'd love to do for Fire Nation.

28:22And what I would love to do is actually give away one of these pieces of art that I shot from helicopter with John when I was in Puerto Rico with him. And so if you want to enter the giveaway, here's how it's going to work. You can go to bookjonaallen.com slash eofire and just enter some information there and you'll be entered to win one of these pieces of art that I created with John from Helicopter in Puerto Rico. Wow. I mean, I will tell you, Fire Nation, when Jonah told me he was going to do this, I was like, that is one of the top giveaways that I've ever had in 12 years of Entrepreneurs on Fire.

29:00So I really, really hope, Fire Nation, you take advantage of this. I'll put some pictures in the show notes page of my actual artwork in my living room. So you can kind of get a glimpse of like what the art looks like. It's amazing. And Jonah does such a fantastic job with it. And this is a guy that does not skimp. He knows if he's going to do it, he's going to do it right. He invests in himself and his business. And then, of course, we'll share, you know, all the details about, you know, who won and hopefully get a picture of that person putting that piece of art in their room in the right place, you know, somewhere in their home.