Holy cow, can you even believe we made it this far? Its been one of the weirdest years since, well last year haha.
From storming the Capitol, to new virus variants, mask and no mask debates, the supply chain going kerplooey, and everything in between that we all dealt with in our own ways… its a miracle we made it this far.
But I’m a eternal optimist. I love a challenge. I love trying to maintain positivity while the world burns down around me. I love changing my perspective to find a solution. Well, I don’t love changing my perspective all that much haha.
That being said I found a lot of opportunities to stay positive this past year. I discovered some new mentors via Instagram that really had a profound impact on how I lived this year.
I found a fella by the name of Jesse Itzler and whoa. He puts such a great spin on things that I couldnt help but love. I won’t go too much into his story but you can check out his website HERE.
Some things he shared with me was his Big Ass Calendar Club. A huge year at a glance calendar. I love it. Its so obnoxious but that was the appeal. It takes weird things to get me excited to plan, and this did it.
One of the biggest take aways I got from Jesse and his calendar was the amount of time we have left with the people we love the most. If the average life expectancy in the U.S. is 72.6 and my mom is 59, and I visit her for 1 week every 2 years… I get 6.5 weeks left with my mom face to face. NOT 13 YEARS… Is your mind blown, because mine was.
I made it a point to visit not just with my parents but my wifes as well. We get too comfortable sometimes and this math helped me get off my ass and see our family. After I lost my dad in 2018, I can see how much time I wasted. I also want to set a great example to my daughter. Shes a few years away from taking the world head on and its important that my wife and I show her how to care for the people that raised us….No matter how hard it can be lol..
I took this energy and kept it rolling in my personal life too. Making it a point to do more of the things I love with the people I love the most. Its no surprise then, that I spent lots of time with my wife and daughter. Taking my wifes yoga classes twice a week for the last 7-8 months, putting all of my daughters school dates on my big ass calendar before I book any clients, movie dates, basketball games… oooohhh the basketball games. I can’t believe I’m typing this, but I was able to watch my favorite childhood team The Phoenix Suns play in the Playoffs and Game 1 of the Finals in person.
I really did make myself and my family a priority this year despite all the crazy… I think thats whats kept me going actually.
Obviously this sounds like a highlight reel, and its meant to. I hope not too braggadocios though, because I’m really proud that I was able to live my life this year a little more intentionally this year. Perhaps thats what got me through 2021.
I added some physical elements this year by playing a few extra rounds of golf at some of my favorite greens, hiking all over the Catalina mountain range and taking on the 3 day backpacking trip from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon to the North Rim. And if you haven’t attempted any cold plunging yet…. do it. Its my new favorite.
Times were tough don’t get me wrong. Money was tight, relationships felt strained, I had to let go of some people from my shop, we lost some amazing family members along the way, and oh yeah the whole pandemic thing is literally still happening.
I’m fortunate that my wife Johnna and I were able to volunteer very early this year in vaccine distribution to receive our shots and our daughter was able to get hers a few months later. Which was one of the reasons we were able to visit so many of our aging relatives.
The last quarter of the year I took another couple of leaps into the void by taking an opportunity to be mentored by an incredible artist and business man Noah Elias. I spent 8 weeks with him learning about his business in the art world. And this is coming from a guy that is a licensed Disney artist, has painted cars for The Fast and The Furious, a licensed LucasFilm artist just to name a few of his accomplishments. It was like drinking off of a firehose. You cant possibly comprehend everything but the little bits you get are so valuable.
It actually gave me the validation I didn’t know I needed to pursue more of an ownership role at Art and Sol.
I also met some of the most amazing and dedicated clients this year and can’t even begin to express how grateful I am to have their trust. This year I think I made more full sleeves than ever in my career. Ive also switched completely to using Bishop Rotary Wands and Nocturnal Ink. Huge game changers for me. Those brands never compromise quality and I’m happy to use their products with my clients.
So whats next?
For Johnna and I, we’ve got a handful of Suns games left on our mini season ticket package and well, I’ll be honest, you will for sure see me at post season games when the go. And how about a shameless plug? Click here to check out the Suns inspired shirt we made for the shop a few weeks ago to commemorate our killer start to the season.
We are looking to take on the 75 Hard challenge as well, and I’ll be perfectly honest, I’m waiting until my birthday weekend passes… ya know, feast before the famine. Its gonna be fun. I’m excited to see whats on the other side.
For my family, if you know me, you know I’m a Disnerd. So you can expect to see me in Disneyland at least once before the summer and we are already planning a Walt Disney World trip for the fall!
We kinda fell off our rock climbing kick so I’d like to bring that back into the fold for us. And more date nights, movie nights, game nights and just quality time.
But wait theres more haha, what about Art and Sol?
Well, I’m currently looking to add 2-3 new artists to the shop in 2022 as well as a full time studio director. Big picture stuff, I’d love to see us with a graphic artist, social media manager, videographer, copywriter, event planner and marketer. But they will all come in time.
Last year we brewed the Sideshow Sour with our pals Dillinger Brewing and we will be doing another beer and art release as well as a live tattooing event with them again this year! So be on the lookout for that.
And my big event is planned for May 20, 2022. Tucson Day. Think of it as small business Saturday for the Spring and not sponsored by American Express. My goal is to get a few local business together on 5/20 to offer great deals to our city, and with all the local support they receive, we all pour it back into a local childrens charity. There will definitely more about this coming soon.
Ill be doing more blogs, but dang its sooooo hard to be consistent. But thats where that magic is. Consistency.
So without yackin your ear off too much, thats a little summary of my last year and my plans for 2022. I’ve been saying it a bunch the past couple of days, we can’t be successful and just wing it, we have to have a plan.
If you want to work with me or participate in my events shoot me an email to davidmeektattoos@gmail.com and lets connect.
Also if you have any cool life hacks or things I need to try to make my year even better, send it my way!
What are some things you’d like to read from me? Let me know. Til next time.
David