Show notes as a general guide below. Somewhat in order and not written in perfect grammar because we want you to actually listen to the show!

Topics Discussed:

• The Finance Exit
• The 2008 Subprime Meltdown
• Redefining the American Dream
• Killing the “Starving Artist” Myth
• Abundance vs. Scarcity
• Scaling Creativity
• Global Brand Collaborations
• Healing through Art
• The Mission for Impact
• Love as a Discipline
• The Trapped Artist

Connect with Ruben on Instagram or rubenrojas.com

Connect with Live Through Love on Instagram

Connect with Sebastian on Instagram

SebastianNaum.com

Below is a transcript of the video podcast created by Seb’s Robot buddy, Zekton. He tends to make mistakes so please forgive him if you find errors or some funky sounding sentences. For the real deal, watch the video or click on your favorite audio Podcast platform above! Enjoy!

00:00:00 Sebastian

I’d love to welcome to the stage a world renowned artist, LA muralist and the founder of the Live Through Love movement, Ruben Rojas. Please give him a hand.

00:00:20 Ruben

Guessing I’m on this side?

00:00:21 Sebastian

Yes, sir.

00:00:29 Ruben

Good morning.

00:00:29 Sebastian

Welcome, everyone. So this is actually a live recording of my podcast which is called Aware with Seb Podcast. If you’ve never heard of it, would love for you to. To give it a. Yeah, give it a listen, give it a watch. And it’s actually pretty cool because Reuben was on the podcast about six years ago. It was like 20, 20, 2021 when I was just launching it. And I remember you were just having your baby at the time and you just celebrated his fifth birthday in Disney World. How was that?

00:01:06 Ruben

It was amazing. It’s a child is a time capsule right up until I had my first child. A year is a year and it goes by. You look at yourself in the mirror, you don’t age too drastically. But now I’m like, holy cow, I got a five year old running around in my life. Where did those five years go? So that’s really what it comes down to. It is the hardest, most amazing, best thing I’ve ever created and do.

00:01:32 Sebastian

Love that. Love that. Ruben, what makes someone an artist? What is your definition of an artist?

00:01:37 Ruben

You know, it’s funny because most people are like, oh, I can’t do what you do. I’m not an artist. I’m not creative. I can’t draw a stick figure. Look how you get dressed is creativity how you make your breakfast. Maybe you do a killer omelette. The way you put things together in your life is how you express your creativity. So we are all artists. Whether you want to say it’s like me and paint murals or a musician or a writer, I think at the end of the day, just remember you’re creating the life of your dreams and that’s your art.

00:02:09 Sebastian

Love that, Ruben.

00:02:10 Audience Member

Appreciate it.

00:02:11 Sebastian

By the way, team, we’ve got the lights up here up top that are changing colors every two seconds. So just giving you a quick heads up, if we can keep it on on one of them, that would be awesome. Just for the video, you know what I mean? It’ll look real weird later on. So without going super far back, Ruben, and giving all the details, but I’d love for you to tell your story a little bit to anyone that may not know that because you were essentially behind a desk in finance, was there a feeling of a trapped artist and was there something that made you take that leap.

00:02:43 Ruben

Ooh, there’s a long story and there’s a short story. Let’s see. So I went to school to become what I thought was going to be the orthopedic surgeon Ruben Rojas. That got detoured a lot, right? I ended up, right before going to apply to med school and go down that path, a buddy of mine said, hey, come try out real estate. So I was like, it was a summer in between going to that next level of school. I was personal training at the time, finishing up my regular degree. And I said, okay, why not, man? I made $18,000 my first month in real estate. You could probably realize why I chose not to go to med school. Then the next month I made more, and the next month I made more. So instead of foreseeing my 10 more years of schooling, debt, stress, who knows how it would have aged me, I went down the path of making a lot of money. And that was a nice bubble.

00:03:41 Ruben

In the early 2000s and I was 20, nothing, driving on 26 inch rims and having diamond watches and houses and boats and motorcycles. And the American dream, I thought was how much money I can make. And I thought, this is what women want. They want a successful guy with money that shows up to the club, has the tables. Just to think about it, in 2008, hits subprime meltdown, go bankrupt, lose everything. Houses gone, boats gone, everything gone.

00:04:13 Sebastian

Oh, yeah, by the way, that’s when I got into real estate. That was a real bad move on my end.

00:04:17 Ruben

Yeah, it was tough.

00:04:20 Sebastian

You did a lot better than I did.

00:04:21 Ruben

It was tough. So then I found myself, still me, fit, broke. And I’m like, wait a minute. I was measuring my self worth and my success by my materials, by what I can show off saying, this is success. And that started having me question my life. Like, wait a minute, there’s more to me than money or this or that. And I’m Colombian, so we’re already ostentatious. We grew up with nice cars, so I get it. Nice things are nice to have, but they shouldn’t define who you are. That led me down the path of financial planning. I was in a suit and tie, and one year from there, and every day I’d be in the office putting it all on. Five years into that rookie of the year leaders conference, making money built myself right back up. The difference this time was like, oh, I’m being measured by my money again. That’s where my self worth is coming from. That is where my value’s coming From I have to be number one. How much did I sell? What is my commission? This time I didn’t fall for the trap or play that game. I was like, no. And I’m starting to get depressed. I’m starting to question my life.

00:05:26 Ruben

I’m like, I can’t buy enough things to make me feel happy. I also start seeing how my clients are making great money, but their home life is miserable. Their kids don’t like them because they’re at work trading their life for money, but they’re miserable and unhappy, which leads to resentment and contempt and all these things that we start questioning. And I’m like, I can’t be the rest of my life. What am I going to do with myself? So five years into that, I wake up and I am depressed. This is pre emotional intelligence. This is 2013. No one asked questions. Obviously that stuff existed, but it wasn’t like we see it now.

00:06:07 Sebastian

Yeah.

00:06:08 Ruben

And what I was doing was shaming myself for being like, who am I for to be depressed? Like, you rebuilt yourself. You’re successful again, you’re fit, you’re healthy, no baggage, no kids, no nothing. Right. What is wrong with me? Went and did some work that led me to paint the first mural. That mural asked the question, who will you be? So instead of me shaming myself for being depressed and not feeling worthy and all that, I’m like, wait a minute. I’m not asking the right questions. So who can I be? Who will I be? And I painted words on this wall that said, leader, responsible, worthy, love, joy, humble. And instead of thinking I’m unworthy, I’m a victim, I’m unsuccessful, I’m not good enough or I’m angry or whatever. I’m like, what if I flip that and look at it the other way? And that’s when I said, what if we start looking at the world through the lens of love? Because that was fear. And I was looking at it through fear. I’m like, okay, I’m unworthy. No, I am worthy of success and love and the life I want to lead. What are the choices I need to make?

00:07:14 Ruben

Wait, I could be the leader of my life and start moving myself forward. So that led to the first mural. I still stayed in finance for a few more years.

00:07:22 Sebastian

Was all this self inspired, Reuben? Yeah. It was just kind of coming through for you. Were you doing something like, were you journaling where you were just introspecting? Were you reading? Was there something that comes caused all of this?

00:07:33 Ruben

Well, when I said I went and did some work, I Went to Mitt. Some people know about it, some people don’t. That allowed me to start asking other questions. That was. And then I realized while I was doing that, there was a time in my life where I would write blogs and I was competing in CrossFit and different athletics. I would put my food on there, my workouts on there, and then my self journal of the day. But then somehow that disappears because life gets in the way. So it tapped me back into something I had inside of me. And we all have these things inside of us and we just get distracted by the world. Right. And I do it all the time on social media. Just next, next, next, we’re just getting distracted. So that’s where that came from. And for the next four years, I kept painting murals and I kept doing finance. And I was like, okay, I gotta sabotage one because if I keep making money, I’m not gonna leave.

00:08:25 Ruben

And this one’s like, well, how am I going to make money as an artist? Like, what does that even look like? Then I started asking the question. I’ve been self employed my entire life. Like you can figure this out. You’ve never had an issue figuring it out. And in 2018, I quit all finance, gave my entire book of business away and became a full time artist.

00:08:46 Sebastian

Yeah, let’s give him a hand for that. That takes a lot of courage. Takes a lot of courage. And when you made that jump, Ruben, where were you sure that it was going to work out? Was it sort of like just jumping into the void abyss?

00:08:58 Ruben

I wasn’t sure of anything. I was sure in myself and my ability because I asked that question, what have I done in the past? And a lot of people ask this, so I’ll say it up front. No, I did not have stacks of cash saved up.

00:09:09 Sebastian

You did not have any saved?

00:09:10 Ruben

No, I just went for it. You have to go for whatever you’re going to because it’s never the right time until you make it the right time. That was the same year I got married. That was the same year. You know, I committed to that for the rest of my life. So that was part of it.

00:09:25 Sebastian

Yeah. What has your message that you’ve chosen to go with? What has it done for you personally?

00:09:35 Ruben

So when we do the work and when we have all this past in our lives building us. Just because you heal or got tools now doesn’t mean it doesn’t bubble up again. It does bubble up. It’s always there. We just have ways to get out of it quicker. My funk of three years is Now a week is now two days. Maybe it’s half a day. Maybe I wake up and I just feel terrible and I’m like, oh, it’s two o’. Clock, It’s a new day. Let’s start over. What am I dealing with? But not shaming yourself for feeling that way.

00:10:06 Sebastian

Yeah, I like that. The whole what you just said about maybe the funk was this long then and now it’s this long. And it’s like the funk is still there, it still happens, but it lasts. You know, it’s a shorter funk. And I think that that’s a big win, by the way.

00:10:22 Ruben

Oh, yeah.

00:10:22 Sebastian

Because long funks turn into a. They can turn into a personality trait, they can turn into a whole vibration that’s ongoing all the time. But now if you got a little short, little funk, no big deal. That’s just gone now. So love over fear is beautiful. And it is way easier said than done.

00:10:40 Ruben

Oh, yeah.

00:10:41 Sebastian

Not long ago, you had a big archive of artwork stolen from you. So you lost a bunch of art. You had your meta ads account hacked. So, you know, be honest with us. You probably had a real low, some real low moments in that. And how were you able to choose love over fear in those moments yet?

00:11:00 Ruben

So one thing you start realizing on social media, we post a lot of our wins and what looks good. So when my computer got stolen that day, I recorded a video. I don’t do a lot of, like, let me just talk to the camera and post it. And you get a lot of support. And I just had to get it out there, like, oh, you should have backed it up. I know all the shoulda, woulda, coulda’s, but sharing it was part of how you choose love over fear. Just getting it off your chest and getting it out there and just realizing that those are all tests and moments. And like last year, even this year, there’s just been a whole stack of tests. It just keeps coming. I got a malicious lawsuit from some fake plaintiff from an attorney that I can’t talk about. But this is what they do. They go after websites, they go after ADA compliance stuff. They go after everything. And they said that I have never ran a TikTok ad. Nothing against it, I don’t have anything to do with TikTok. But they said that I sold her secrets to the Chinese and Russian government via my TikTok pixel. And I still had to pay out $20,000. That.

00:12:10 Ruben

That hurt that you don’t just have 20k to pay out. So there was that. Then the things get stolen and whatever else was in my bag. Then I start real. Oh, my headphones, my metaglasses, my this, my that. Then I shatter my toes. Leading up to the marathon that I’m going to run. I’m running again. It was eight weeks of I’m going to not be able to work out. And I’m freaking out because that’s a whole other thing for me. Right. Then the Medicare got hacked this year. So it’s like, what are these tests? And it makes me question, should I just start painting fear and hate in the world? Because I keep doing this and we know what’s trending. Yeah. And hate is cheap and it’s everywhere and it’s free. And I am on an uphill battle. But that’s just another test. And that’s why I gotta keep doing it.

00:12:57 Sebastian

So is that the answer? It’s keep doing it. Is it the resilience to keep choosing and keep choosing amongst all those tests and tests? Sometimes the tests keep on coming, man, and just like they do.

00:13:07 Ruben

So sometimes you’re like, do you journal a lot? No, I go on rants and I’ll write and I’ll post things, but every time I paint love or every time I put it on a new hat or a T shirt or whatever, I’m doing kombucha, I’m reminding myself to keep choosing love over fear. So that’s like my journaling is what I put out in the world. And if we’re all mirrors of each other, it doesn’t resonate with everyone, but it’ll resonate with someone. And at least it’s like, oh, that happened. He’s still choosing love. And at this point, I have to walk the walk. I got kids, I’ve got wife, I got people, I got people that support me. There is no only on stage. It’s fluffy in love, and behind stage, I’m something else. It’s not. You have to embody this. And if you don’t embody it, it’s fake.

00:13:49 Audience Member

Yeah.

00:13:50 Sebastian

I love that, Ruben. And I like what you said about even if your message helped out one person at a certain point, that then. Then it’s worth it. I have to think about that myself all the time as someone creating. It’s like sometimes I’m like, okay, who is this reaching? Like, you know, and you want to reach, you know, 10 million people or at least 10,000. It’s like, you know what? Maybe this one reached one person and it made a huge impact and that was worth it. That’s a good. It’s A good reminder, as anyone who’s out here creating, if, if your creative work is reaching one person and impacting them and making a difference, it’s definitely a. It’s, it’s a big deal, actually. It’s a big deal. And it has those ripples or they turn into waves. Ruben, I hate the narrative of the starving artist. And that’s been around forever. And some people feel that it’s like this romanticism of, you know, if you’re a real artist, you know, you got to be struggling financially.

00:14:39 Sebastian

So was this something that you ever had or did you always have the entrepreneurial in you, or was there something that you had to shift internally out of the starving artist into becoming an entrepreneur artist?

00:14:50 Ruben

I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole life. I, my first business was like in seventh grade. All my first businesses were illegal. Just got to get that off the table. But they all taught me things that I use now, right? And it’s about self reliance and problem solving. I mean, I’ll tell you one of my businesses. I went to private school and I have no shame in this. I was arrested on my mom’s birthday for this story. So fun fact, I started a shoplifting ring and I would sell it all for 50% off back to all the rich kids at my school. So I saw a need. They were buying it. And then my mom, this not for a lack of anything. I didn’t, we didn’t lack as kids. It wasn’t that. It was more. My mom was like, well, if you want more, you got to figure out how to make money. I’m like, okay. She did say, go get a job. I figured out how to, oh, I need more money. There’s a problem for me, so let me go. And I only share that because we all have these stories that lead us to some point, and they’re all lessons. You hear it all the time.

00:15:56 Ruben

And we can’t be ashamed of anything that we’ve ever done because it’s all led to this right now. People sometimes ask, what would you tell your younger self? I’m like, nothing. Because then I wouldn’t be who I am sitting here. So we can’t look back at it and say, oh, I shouldn’t have dated that person, or I shouldn’t have done that thing, or every failure is a success as long as you learn from it. So starving artists, from day one, I, I’ve hated that term. I don’t think it’s, it’s. That’s a scarcity mentality. That is not thinking of Abundance and realizing that we are all salespeople. A lot of people think, oh, I hate sales. I’m like, we’re selling ourselves to our parents, to our teachers, to our like. Think of all the times that you’re trying to have people fall in love with you, provide value, go back and forth. It is sales, and that’s what it comes down to. And another thing is a lot of people think you’re.

00:16:50 Ruben

The artist needs to be this really dark person in the corner, cutting themselves on drugs and half suicidal. And I’m like, that’s not fair either. You know, I started painting murals and I called them paintspirations. I’m putting gratitude on a wall, and I’m putting, do what you love, and anything can happen. You are beautiful. And you see, a lot of art is about protests or anti. Anything going on. But I also believe if you continue to push forward the anti thing, it’s really going to be what’s front and center. If you see no hate, all you really see is hate. Hate, end hate, all you see is hate. Choose. Love, you see, Choose. Oh, I could choose something. So now putting that forward and making sure that we’re using the right language. So if you think you’re starving, you’re going to be starving. Yeah, that’s what it comes down to.

00:17:38 Sebastian

By the way, I’ve never heard anyone say that. They wouldn’t tell their younger self anything because otherwise you wouldn’t be where they are. I like that. That’s a really. I like that point of view. So you chose a style and a message, and you stuck to it, and you made it a part of your brand, and that’s the brand that you’ve scaled from a standpoint. What we’re talking about right now, in terms of, like, business and entrepreneurial and the entrepreneurial artist, how important do you think it is to have consistency in a style or a message so that it’s recognizable and it’s repeatable and more importantly, recognizable?

00:18:12 Ruben

I would say, yeah, what is there 8 billion people in the world? I know people know my work, don’t know who the heck I am or the guy behind it or the artist. Right. And to think I’m also always thinking, oh, what’s the next evolution? What’s the next thing? Where can I go next? And I’ll just tell the story of this. So when Dave said, hey, let’s think of something for a new bottle, I came up with nine different concepts, Something completely new. And at the end of the day, after all that, he’s like, I Just want you to do you and do your thing so that everyone that picks this up knows it’s you. I’m like, oh, why didn’t you say that in the first place? And I didn’t have to spend hours doing all this other. So that’s kind of how we ended up here. And love is the standard. So you can. There’s a few back there, but you can go to Whole Foods or anywhere that sells it. It’s really good. No plug on that. I don’t get anything from sales. It’s

just good.

00:19:05 Sebastian

You don’t get anything from salesman.

00:19:06 Ruben

No, I asked.

00:19:07 Sebastian

I was going to say, okay, entrepreneurial

00:19:09 Ruben

move is that I asked for royalties. I’m like, can I get 20 cents a bottle? Yeah. But anyway, the thing with repetition and the thing with doing something over and over and over and over is about quality and execution. If you look at my 2014 painting. Yeah. Of the love and the painting today, they are drastically different.

00:19:31 Sebastian

That are rooster fish. Is that a 2014 ISH?

00:19:34 Ruben

No, that’s a couple of years. That cover back one back there behind me is different. Okay. Yeah, probably, yeah. 20. I don’t know what that is, but the one behind me in that photo is years ago.

00:19:45 Sebastian

Okay.

00:19:46 Ruben

And we should show one now. But anyway, you get better and better and better. And I was talking to this other artist, poet friend of mine, and one of the things he was observing is what he said is, it’s amazing to see your journey and to be able to distill everything you’ve ever done to one single word. And the one way you execute it. And that right there is the art of it. Because sometimes people say, oh, that’s the only thing. I’m like, no, you got to unpack the meaning. What is behind it? What is. Why do we do the colors? Why do we layer it? Why is red always last and go from there? And then obviously we got lover, we got mass amor, we got different ways of expanding it from there, but it all comes from that same constraint. And this didn’t even go into murals for a really long time.

00:20:32 Ruben

Because I looked at walls, I’m like, I’m not gonna be on that wall writing this a million times. It’s gonna take forever. So I was like, my murals look this way, my paintings look this way, this looks that way. And then I started sprinkling that into the murals. And then I figured out, well, how do I. Oh, let’s make them bigger and let’s expand them. So it’s just constantly looking at the problem solve of how do I apply this to more and more things differently and keep it interesting?

00:20:58 Sebastian

Yeah. And that has expanded into intentional wearable messages like Massamor or Masomore. But how do you see your merch as wearable messages versus just, like, a cool product or something that looks dope.

00:21:18 Ruben

So the first few years I was painting murals, I was doing, like, 35, 40 murals a year. It started adding up quick. Didn’t have kids at the time. Like, fly me there. I’ll paint the wall. Like, we gotta get this as far as wide as possible. And that’s part of doing in the work. Right. I’m not gonna get paid $20,000amural. first, some of them were free. Cover my costs, get me out there. But I also wanted to put the message out there. That was my billboard. That is my investment in myself and my opportunity. So that’s how it started. And then I’m sitting on a wall 12 hours later, I’m like, what happens when I’m 50, 60, and I’m fit? But it hurts. My feet hurt, my back hurts. You’re standing. I’ve done 20,000 steps on a wall that big. Just going up and down, up and down, left and right.

00:22:00 Sebastian

No way.

00:22:01 Ruben

Oh, yeah.

00:22:02 Sebastian

A lot of steps.

00:22:03 Ruben

That tells me. Yeah. So then I’m like, okay, well, how do we start expanding this into something else? Oh, yeah. We could do canvases. So we have canvases. Then someone told me about prints. Remember, I learned the art business while I was in the art business. And then I kind of did it my way because there’s a lot of other ways of doing it. Then I did prints. I’m like, oh, I could sell prints of my work. I didn’t know that. Oh, and less. Okay. So that makes it more accessible to people. Not everyone could commission a mural. Not everyone could buy an original painting. Not everyone could buy print. Then I’m like, oh, the human body. That’s the ultimate canvas. Let’s put this on a T shirt.

00:22:43 Sebastian

I thought you were gonna say tattoos.

00:22:45 Ruben

There’s that too. We have a lot of those, which is. That’s awesome. People are like, can I put it on as a tattoo? I’m like, yes. That’s amazing.

00:22:53 Sebastian

No royalties on that one.

00:22:55 Ruben

No, but that’s awesome. That’s awesome. And I only know the ones that ask are the ones that send me photos. I’m sure there’s more out there. That’s someone that put, like, this on their whole arm. I’m like, whoa, it’s more committed than you. Well, yeah. But that’s also not. That’s not about me. That’s about the best. That’s about what that does for them. So then clothing and keep expanding. I’m like, okay, so if not everyone could see a mural in person or afford a mural or an original or a print, everyone could get a T shirt. Everyone can get a hat. So my first venture into clothing. I don’t know anything about clothing. Again, nothing. I’m like, hey, dude, can you put this design on this shirt? They’re like, send me a tech pack. I’m like, what the hell is a tech pack? Can’t you just do this? So a tech pack is basically the blueprints of how big you want the print on the shirt, where you want it located, what colors do you want? Like, it’s pretty specific. And to this day, I don’t like doing any of that. So I just, like, I still want to send the design. Just make that work.

00:24:00 Sebastian

Yeah.

00:24:01 Ruben

And I found partners that’ll help me with the tech pack on their end because they want the business. And that started off on blanks. And then I quickly evolved to cut and sew because these patterns, that’s like 10 screens. People are like, I don’t want to do 10 screens. And then you got to start doing every other thing. And to me, it’s always about value. How do I make it better? How do I make it better? How do I get better cotton? How do I get better fit? How do I get everything better? So the first hats were blank, off a shelf and embroidery. Now my hats, this is puff print. We got embroidery, we got embroidery, we got inner taping. We have other new ones that are going to have even more. So I keep adding layers and layers and layers. Because when you get one of my products and if you got it early and you get it now, you’re like, wow, he’s. He stepped it up. And that’s what I want to come across. Then I had to learn that business with. Now it’s French terry on. On the higher end hoodies. Now it’s custom dyes and cus.

00:24:59 Ruben

I could design the whole silhouette. Now I’m a fashion designer. I want it this long and this thing and this tapered and this drape because I want people to look good and feel good. And so that’s the stuff you start thinking about. Because at the end of the day, I have one opportunity to make an impact. And whether it’s on people that I align with or my product or a mural or a piece of art, I’m thinking of it that way. Huh. I’ve done some custom sneakers. Jordan collab is like, one day. We’re close.

00:25:29 Sebastian

All right. Speaking into existence, baby.

00:25:32 Ruben

Yeah. Well, we did that. Yeah, you’re right.

00:25:36 Sebastian

I love it. That’s a fun evolution, too, to be able to evolve into something that’s like, now I’m a fashion designer. Like, let’s go.

00:25:43 Ruben

Which is why I’ve written. So I’ve done a project with the NFL. So we had hats, and I’m like, how do I drop the campaign for hats? So I shot a whole movie. I’m like, how do I remind people? Also, I need to give love to the NFL. I played college football and all my teammates. Once the NFL deal came in, I called them like, yo, I made it to the league, and I don’t have to get hit or run or wear pads. So that was the coolest thing.

00:26:11 Sebastian

No ctc.

00:26:13 Ruben

No ct. Yeah. If you see the choose love on the helmets in the end zone and the pylons, that’s a project with. With me in the NFL that we did.

00:26:20 Sebastian

It’s pretty epic.

00:26:21 Ruben

That.

00:26:22 Sebastian

That is awesome, man. I love it.

00:26:25 Ruben

That’s a dream there. Opening ceremony.

00:26:27 Sebastian

Yeah.

00:26:28 Ruben

Team in red, white, and blue. Yeah.

00:26:30 Sebastian

So epic, all this stuff. I love it.

00:26:32 Ruben

So where I say, don’t think I’m only this kind of artist or that artist. So we ended up writing an original hip hop song. We shot a film. Kids playing flag touch football on the street wearing my hats. And I’m like, how do I tell a story of when I used to play on the streets? The love of the game and football, and then have the hats as a product placement in it. But I just continued looking at everything. So we got to look at the whole story of all that we’re putting out there within that. Because the hat is one thing, and then this says lover, and it’s like, well, what is a lover? I got an email from a teacher once. She’s like, you should be. I’m not even gonna say you should be. This, this, and that. I cannot wear that at school for the kids. Like, what are they gonna think of me? I’m like, where is this coming from? No one else has ever said this. Other teachers are like, I love wearing this stuff at school for the kids. Like, okay. So they didn’t understand what this means. And this is about choosing love. This isn’t, like, romantic. Oh, I’m a lover. I’m a what? What’s the.

00:27:31 Ruben

Like, a Casanova or whatever that. Anyway, I can’t remember the character I’m thinking of, but it has nothing to do with that. Right. It’s like, how do we choose more love and how do we keep putting that message out in the world? Yeah. So I love that.

00:27:44 Sebastian

Yeah, I love that. Ruben. I’ve just got a couple more questions. And please stick around, though. Ruben’s got some cool gifts for you all and some merch. So, Ruben, you mentioned the. The NFL thing. Your worst showed up the New York Fashion Week with. With the synergy Kombucha. When I went. When I saw your 3D artwork at the Rams stadium. I’m a big Rams fan. So when I saw it at SO Pie, I was like, hell, yeah. Ruben’s got it going on. And I was stoked for you. So are these big partnerships a result of being ready when opportunity hits, or is it more of, like, a strategic outreach and relationship building?

00:28:23 Ruben

Great question. So the second part is where I need someone on my team to help me with that, because I don’t hiring. So NFL came in cold turkey. Rooney Anderson, one of the heads, messaged me, sent this whole email. I’m reading it, pacing in my studio, basically peeing my pants, and I’m like, wow. And then it ends with, if this interests you, let us know. I’m like, are you kidding me? Of course this interests me. This is, like, on the wish list of all the things that I want to do. So I did my first prototype sculpture during COVID That sculpture is not the sculpture that you see at Sofi or Harmark Stadium, but it led me to that because that one was foam and fiberglass and done locally. The metal one’s also done locally, but it was done differently. And I’m like, how do I make this better? It was good, but it wasn’t how I envisioned the final product. That would be like, at a museum. So for the next few years, I’ve been trying to figure out who can make me one of these out of steel. Metal. I’m not a welder.

00:29:28 Ruben

Also, this is just a side note I learned way after the fact. Like, you look at a Jeff Koons or any of these other artists, they have teams of artisans that work for them. They employ other artists that are maybe not the brand, but they’re artists that want to work and help other artists put their message out there. I thought I had to make everything. I’m like, oh, if I ever wanna do a sculpture, I have to learn this craft. If I ever wanna do pottery or this. Have to learn this. And no, you don’t. I did touch it and I did weld it and I did do some things on it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use what you created and have someone help you put it out in the world. So when that email came, I was ready only because I had the vision to want to see this in the world. And then they brought the money to make it happen. That’s really what happened.

00:30:15 Ruben

And then I had six weeks to get two 10 foot sculptures done, get one of them all the way to Buffalo, New York, because we made them all here in time for kickoff that year as part of this whole project. And in between, we were filming some stuff. And three of those weeks, I was in Italy for a wedding and traveling. So we were juggling the coolest part. One last moment. Yeah. Yeah. And one of the heads of the NFL is like. Cause every week we had a call. It was me and three 30 NFL employees. I’m like, how does it feel to have the NFL working for you? I’m like, that’s awesome. So it was very humbling and it was amazing. So was I ready? Yes, because I had the vision for it. But at the same time, no, because once it happened, I said yes, yes, yes to everything. I didn’t get paid for months. I used all my cash. It was a lot of cash to make this happen because. Because I believed in it so much. I didn’t even have contracts with them. I was just like, this is a dream come true.

00:31:15 Ruben

You gotta run and you gotta keep running, and you’re gonna deliver and you’re gonna make sure you deliver and you just figure out the other stuff. At the end of the day, I was almost to the point where I had to go get a loan to just pay back my own cash reserves. But, yeah, that’s how that happened.

00:31:32 Sebastian

Wow. There’s a big takeaway from something you said, which is that you don’t have to do it all on your own. So if you’ve got something that you created and then you can use help to help you take that creation and expand it in maybe different forms that you didn’t know how to. How to do before. So I love that you said that because I think, like, probably that initial voice was like, I got to figure out how to weld and how to do this. And I don’t. You don’t have to do it. You don’t have to know it all ahead of time. So I love that there. Reuben, in terms of the whole, like that deal with the NFL, for example, though, was there. Is that something that you would do differently. Like, to what extent do you feel that the whole like, free kind of thing at first, like, hey, like, I don’t care. This is a major partnership, but there’s a big opportunity. Or perhaps people that are starting from scratch, like, to what extent are they giving for free? Until the point where you got to like, be like, okay, this is no longer free because I’ve already gotten the exposure.

00:32:32 Sebastian

You know, I feel like that’s a tough shift sometimes for people.

00:32:35 Ruben

You know, I think we fall for the exposure trap. We all fall for it. I won’t do things for that anymore. People ask me to donate art all the time and no one really realizes. Well, there’s. I could donate the time it took me to paint it, but what about the canvas, the paint, the materials, the shipping, getting it there and then. And that’s still okay. I can, I can deal with that, right? I could donate whatever that cost. Sometimes if I’m not there, if it’s not the right organization, they just stick it in a silent auction. And let’s just say it gets 50 bucks. I’m like, dude, that’s a $5,000 payment. You got 50 bucks for it. Who does that win? That? Doesn’t serve me. Doesn’t serve them. Doesn’t even serve the person that won it for 50 bucks. So it becomes this whole thing. You got to pick and choose and you got to know when to say no. So there’s that.

00:33:24 Sebastian

What about when you’re starting out though, and you’re like, well, I don’t. I can’t sell my artwork.

00:33:28 Ruben

No, no, no. There’s the other thing. So I also think, because I had an organization called Beautifier that worked, put a lot of murals up and we worked with a lot of artists, I believe many artists are very short sighted and I think it comes down to self belief because it’s all about the money. And if it’s all about the money, do you really believe in what you’re doing? Because if I was a billionaire, which I would love to be a billionaire, because then I’d do the same exact thing, except for I’d be like, you get a sculpture and you get a sculpture. I’d be operating this thing and sticking sculptures everywhere because I believe in what I’m building and putting out in the world and how it affects people, and it wouldn’t be about the money. But you know, I have a family, I have kids. I do need to make money and pay my bills just like anybody else. But there’s still opportunities where, you know, that wall’s ugly, it gets a lot of traffic, and I feel like painting a mural. I’m gonna go knock. And if they let me do it, hey, I’m gon just going to do this.

00:34:23 Ruben

Which is then a luxury of having the bandwidth and the value in yourself and what you’re putting out there. So to me, that’s like, I can pay for a billboard or I can just go paint my own billboard. And so it’s smarting too.

00:34:36 Sebastian

Yeah, smarting.

00:34:37 Ruben

There you go.

00:34:39 Sebastian

Smarketing, smarketing. Smart. I like that. Ruben, we’re living in one of the most divisive moments in the history of this country. I feel that choosing love in this case simply means being okay with the other side or listening to that friend or acquaintance that doesn’t think or believe in the things that you believe and simply accepting how important and crucial do you find this moment today to really be spreading and really sharing the message of choosing love?

00:35:10 Ruben

Well, I’ll just take something you just said. The other side. I think if we stop looking at it as the other side, maybe we’ll start looking at people as other humans. We don’t have to agree with everyone, but we do get to accept each other. Whatever it is that they do. If it has nothing to do with your life, then just think, does this really impact me? No. Why am I trying to project my stuff on top of it? And then there’s the other note of like I say, love is a verb. Love is action. Choose love. And on here it says love is the standard. It’s not about spreading love. That is too soft and generic. It’s about choosing love. But also when you look in the mirror and you see your reflection, are you choosing love with yourself? Because in most cases we’re not. And then we walk out with our hurt selves and put that on other people. Also, love is not a feeling. Feelings choose side. Right? Today I’m feeling this way and I’m choosing that side. Love is like, no matter how I feel, let me use love as my standard guiding light and operate that way. Because today I could be having the worst day.

00:36:22 Ruben

But that doesn’t mean I need to make you feel like you’re having your worst day because I’m putting my worst day on top of you. And that’s hard. And in a world where you can be anything, just be love. And it’s not easy. I know it’s not easy, but every label we keep adding, every line we keep drawing, it’s more divisiveness and it takes us away from just being human. And that right there is what it comes down to. We all bleed. Why is red always last? It ties it all together. We all have blood inside of us, and it’s all red. So that’s amen. And I love it. That’s why I say we gotta choose love.

00:36:59 Sebastian

I love it. I love it, Reuben. Well, I’ll leave you on this last question, and I’ll open it up for a couple of questions. So this is the Aware with Seb podcast. So I was asked at the end, what is something that you want people to be more aware of? I think we can probably guess what that is. So instead, since this is art week, I’d love to ask you is if there’s someone out here, there’s probably many that are looking to make a living out of their creative work. What is the one thing that they should be the most aware of so they can take that with them and take a leap into making a living with their creative work?

00:37:38 Ruben

I do talk about this in many cases and frame it. Let me frame it this way. If you have your day job and it’s making money, then you hate it, and then you have a side hustle, but it’s not making money and you love it. First step is, can I make a dollar with my side hustle? Okay, I made a dollar with my side hustle. Cool. Do I still love it enough to continue down that path, to continue showing proof and success? Now, don’t think of it as a complete replacement to your current job. That’ll be down the road. But is it enough to keep you happy and motivated and going forward? Because in many cases, I think we like the idea of being creatives and artists and all these things, but we either don’t have the discipline or it’s more just you’re enamored with it. So fall in love with whatever that is. Try to make some money in either green or value or barter exchange, right? Oh, hey, I’ll do this if you do the marketing for me. Whatever it is, there’s a way to. To do value in it.

00:38:41 Ruben

And then ask yourself, am I willing to do this for the rest of my life with the ups and downs that come with it, just for the love of it that from there keeps going forward. You have a podcast? I had a podcast for two years. I put a load of money into this thing once I had my second daughter. I sunsetted it because it was just time. But you have to commit to something for multiple years before it really reaches success. Yeah.

00:39:08 Sebastian

Commit, baby. I love it.

00:39:11 Ruben

Well, yeah,

00:39:15 Sebastian

I’ll open it up to just two questions in the audience. I’ll grab a mic, and I’ll bring it to you. And then do stick around. Like I said, Reuben’s got some gifts for everyone, so.

00:39:26 Ruben

Okay, two questions. Two.

00:39:43 Audience Member

Okay.

00:39:44 Sebastian

And I’m on the mic.

00:39:46 Audience Member

Hi. Thank you so much for sharing. This is the second time I came to your talk, so I love your work. My question is I’m an entrepreneur. I have two businesses. I have a yoga business. I’m a yoga teacher, and I also have a food brand. I’m actually at the cafe. Yeah. So my mission is to make healthy treats that are very simple, especially for busy people. We’re all busy. And I also have an entrepreneur. It’s in my soul. And I grew up, like, in a family that everyone. We had a business, you know, so I learned from my family. But I been. I always find myself having to do other jobs to support my businesses. And now I hit a point that I’m like, I don’t want to work, you know, for other people because, you know, I’m like, I’m in a good place. But also there’s a fear of, like, what’s gonna happen because I’m the only one supporting myself and my business. They’re like my babies. So what’s your advice for, like, someone in that stage, like, kind of trying to make it work?

00:41:00 Ruben

Well, don’t be ashamed of having those other jobs to keep you fueling your passion, because that’s part of the game early on sometimes. But. So I’ll take an example. You said yoga teacher and healthy quick food. So that kind of aligns. Right. You do something that supports what you’re trying to do with the other business. In that case, why not work for someone to give you guaranteed yoga hours that you can control your schedule to allow you to focus on the snacks and everything that you’re building, Put those snacks in those studios that you work for. And now you’re kind of doing both together. So don’t look at the side job as something that takes away. You should look at it as what is something I can do that amplifies what I’m trying to build in the world via time schedule, money trade off.

00:41:48 Ruben

So if you, like, if I make good money for the time, then you have more time to put into the business. Does it align with what I’m building? And in those same areas, then you could go down that path. And obviously the networking between the students that you’re Teaching in the yoga class, the students of the yoga studio and people here, and putting those snacks in the two things. So I think you’re pretty well aligned there. Just frame it. Great advice. Yeah.

00:42:15 Sebastian

And island also. I see you show up. First of all, I run into you everywhere, which kind of weird, but I see you show up so consistently and relentlessly. I have no doubt that you’re going to have success no matter what you do, because I see you showing up everywhere. So just keep doing that.

00:42:36 Ruben

And that’s key. Consistency. So, again, even if you’re doing something else, is it consistently helping you do the thing that you’re trying to build? And in many cases, what I see, or when people ask me similar questions or other artists, is they’re doing everything under the sun or they’re doing art, but it’s not their art, and they’re miserable and not happy. And then by the time they go to do their art, there’s no bandwidth or no time. So then you can’t invest in that. So it’s. To me, it sounds like yoga definitely fuels this part of it. And how do you build it together?

00:43:08 Sebastian

Love it. All right, one more question. Oh, she’s ready. Hi.

00:43:12 Ruben

How are you? Thank you so much. I really resonated and I want to channel love as well with what’s happening

00:43:20 Audience Member

in this crazy world.

00:43:22 Ruben

Who is your inspiration and why? Who’s my inspiration and why? I’m not so much inspired by one single person. I look at the whole of. What are people doing and how are they showing up, even if it’s, like, tiny or massive. So I just look at moments, and then now it’s like, my kids. I see. Once I had my son, like, oh, I lost my curiosity. He’s looking at trash when he’s seven months old. This is the most amazing thing ever. So that’s inspiring me or inspiring me to stay motivated in what I’m doing in the world, because I’m leaving now the world behind to something that I created, and it needs to be a better place. But I just look at. I look at small moments of people and I look at how they’ve grown. So a long time ago, people were like, this guy tweeted this on Twitter 10 years ago. But now this person is completely different. I’m like, why don’t we ever celebrate the growth from 10 years ago? They made something that would be canceled now, but now they’re not that person.

00:44:36 Ruben

Like, let’s celebrate where they came from and who they are and how they’re showing up. Not Try to go surface up a mistake and bring that forward to try to tear them down. So I look at those moments and things like, oh, that person has changed. That person has improved. Look how they’re showing up now. And go from there. Right. Elon Musk. People are like, well, he’s a terrible father. I’m like, look, whatever anyone’s opinion is of him, what he’s done for humanity as a whole, like, whether you believe in electric cars or not, like, he made it. So everyone’s making electric cars now. Now it’s an option for all. So I think if we stop focusing on everything and look at those moments. All right, he answered. He.

00:45:15 Sebastian

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:45:16 Ruben

Let’s have a third question.

00:45:17 Sebastian

Yeah, we’ll allow a third question. We’ll allow a third question. It’s going to be a good one,

too.

00:45:21 Ruben

Oh, I can’t see over there. I just remember you guys.

00:45:26 Audience Member

Okay, so I’ve actually made a career out of breaking artists in different ways. And what I’ve been noticing recently, particularly, and I found like, like, you know, a pretty good eye for young artists of your type that break out. But a lot of it becomes temporal. Very few become Koons. Very few. Right. And I, as I look around Venice, which, you know, I’m very involved in Venice and lots of ways in art scene, I’m starting to notice a lot of the older artists have. Some of them have pushed their art over. Like, they. They push their own ego over. Over what art is. Your art evolves. And I’m wondering what you see as opposed to how you got to where you’ve gotten to where you, eight years ago, 12 years ago, as you looked around. Personally, I’m seeing, like, art that’s sunsetted. And how do you feel about yours? And how do you feel about some of the stuff you come across?

00:46:13 Ruben

It’s a good question. Great question. So when it. When I started early on, again, I like collaborating. It has to make sense. But I’m like, hey, do you want to do a collab? You want to do a collab? Many artists are like, well, who are you? And their ego gets in the way. I’m not going to collab with you. You’re a nobody. I’m like, okay. And some artists were like, yeah, cool, let’s do something like, let me help you out, whatever. Assuming that that was the help out. But ego is the thing that I believe gets in the way of everything. Whether it’s my stuff is so good, and this is why I’m putting it out there versus I won’t work with anyone else or I won’t work with this gallery. I won’t do that collab. At the end of the day, what I’ve realized with having those conversations is, is there a meaningful mission behind your work? I have a mission behind the work. The work keeps changing and moving forward. Where will this be in a few years? I don’t know.

00:47:08 Ruben

I’d love to be in museums and I’d love to be in everything else, but sometimes I come across, I’m doing a show and the PR is like, we won’t represent him, he’s too commercial. I’m like, what does that mean? Wouldn’t that make it easier to get more PR and put it out there? Or the fact that I’ve been able to have my art reach more masses? So my mission is to impact at least a billion people. How can I do that? I can’t just do it by selling hundred thousand dollar paintings or shoving whatever my ideology is down your throat. To me, the meaningful mission is how do I invite the world to see it through the lens of love and keep moving that forward and expand it to kombucha bottles, tequila bottles, BMWs, everything. I’ve been able to put my art on and not have this. Sometimes I think it’s very pretentious in the art world. And that’s where I say I go a little bit different because there’s some politics, there’s stuff like that, and then it’s very fleeting. I’m trying to create, not hype. Sometimes an artist pops off real quick.

00:48:08 Ruben

There’s this guy popping off right now because someone decided that we can make a lot of money off this person and he’ll make a lot of money. And then all of a sudden, in two years, they’re nowhere to be found. It’s gone. Look at NFTs, stuff that, I mean, that’s happening to some of these artists. We’re having less blue chip level artists. And then sometimes like, what defines a blue chip artist? I’m with one gallery and me and another guy’s sell a good amount with them. But sometimes I feel like they hold me and my other buddy at a different level. They’re just street artists, they’re not this artist. I’m like, what does that mean? Because you don’t have an MFA or you didn’t go to school for it. But I think if you believe in your work and you want to keep putting it out there and it’s to be in service to people. Because I think art as artists we share our emotions and our vulnerabilities more than others. With art, with music, with poetry, with reading and writing, whatever it is, that that’s what people align with. They’re like, well, that’s why I want that, or that’s why I want it on the wall.

00:49:07 Ruben

And ultimately, people wake up, see my art, tell me, go out in the world, get beat up by the world, tell me, and then come home, see my art again. They say, look, I wake up and I go to sleep, and it resets my day, no matter what happens in the world. And that, to me, is a win for what I’m doing. That was great. Thank you.

00:49:28 Sebastian

Lovely. Yeah, stick around, guys. We’ll got some. We’ll do a. We’re gonna also do. When Ruben gives some gifts, we’re all gonna do a group picture. I’ll come to the front, have some cool love gear. We’ll do a big picture from the back. But one more quick one.

00:49:48 Ruben

One more quick question.

00:49:49 Audience Member

So my. One of my mentors last night told me how to take your pain and turn it into art. And it’s. She quote, I forgot who said that. But I was curious if that resonates with you within your art, if you experience pain, whether it be growing up and turned it into this beautiful art. But it’s gorgeous. So that was my question.

00:50:15 Ruben

So, yes, obviously a lot of what we do in our life is our. Our pain. And whether we’re coping it and hiding it with something else or putting out in the world through inspiration, positivity, or through darkness. Yeah. But to me, again, it’s the answer of what is the opposite of my pain? What is the opposite of what I’m feeling? What is the opposite of my trauma or whatever we want to frame it as. And that is always going to be choosing love. So every time I do it, I’m just reminding myself to choose the opposite. Instead of showing you my pain, I’m showing you how I heal my pain.

00:50:53 Sebastian

Love that.

00:50:54 Audience Member

Thank you, I appreciate you

00:51:01 Sebastian

Yeah, thank you. All right. All right. Who wants a hat?