Episode 056: Stumbling Into Success with Artist Uprising

Show Notes

My next guest is entrepreneur and creative, Merrick Porchéddu. In 2016, she started Artist Uprising - a concept to bridge the gap between creatives and commerce. She felt that when paired together, these partnerships can change an artist’s career and introduce brands to new audiences.

Merrick also co-founded Belmont Creative, a creative agency in Dallas, and is the founder and CEO of Artist Uprising Studios, a premier rentable studio for photography, film, and commercial webinar needs located in Richardson, Texas.

In this episode, we have a fun chat about curating the perfect art, entertainment, and branding for a wide range of clients and her team’s goal of using local artists and creatives for each project.

Learn more about Artist Uprising, Artist Uprising Studios, and Belmont Creative by visiting their websites and following them on Instagram @artistuprising, @artistuprising.studios, and @belmont.creative.

About Michelle

Michelle Lynne began her interior design career after spending more than two decades working in Corporate America. She began in the home staging arena and has since built a successful, award-winning, full-service interior design firm, employing talented designers and serving clients across the country.

In the summer of 2018, Michelle began focusing on a big gap she saw missing in the interior design industry: teaching interior designers how to run the business of an interior design business. She now engages in private coaching and leads an in-depth, 12-month group coaching program, both options focus on teaching designers profitable processes, systems, strategies and mindset needed to run a streamlined, profitable interior design firm.

Her motto is simple: we rise by lifting others.

Connect with Michelle

You can follow Michelle on Instagram or join her Free Facebook Community! You can learn more about Michelle's program, Designed for the Creative Mind right here. You can also learn more about Michelle's Interior Design Firm here.

Thank you to our sponsors for their support!

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Transcript

Michelle Lynne: All right. Hello. Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. This is Michelle Lynne, and I'm happy you're here today, because today I have Merrick Porcheddu. She is the founder and CEO of Artists Uprising. Artist Uprising Studios and Belmont Creative. So I'm guessing that you're wondering, well, what in the hell is Artist Uprising? So, welcome, Merrick and please tell us a little bit about your businesses.

Merrick Porcheddu: Hi. Yeah. Well, thank you for having me on the show. This is exciting.

Michelle Lynne: I'm looking forward to learning so much more.

Merrick Porcheddu: Yeah, so at a high level view, we'll start with Artists Uprising, which is kind of the mothership of it all. At Artist Uprising, what we do is we kind of harness local artists, designers and musicians for brands, companies, cities, local merchants, and even just people in general.

So a lot of the times for us on the Artists Uprising side, we are kind of curating muralists for exterior buildings, or we're curating local artists for interior buildings, or textile artists, for designers, or whatever it is.

I started that eight or nine years ago. Going through a pandemic was really interesting, too, because we started heavily on the music front, my background is actually in music business. But I started heavily on the music front, where we were booking local talent for like large major brands. So when they would come to town, we would do like big shows, lots of entertainment, where we could really show the flavor of our city.

And then going into 2020, when music kind of stopped, art exploded. So we had loads of murals that went out and started working with lots of different commercial developers on these work-live-play things. And now what's really cool in 2022, is the work-live-play environments are now really caught up to where you need art and music to be there. So that is kind of high level on the Artists Uprising side.

And then also in 2020, which would be a crazy time to launch a new business, I launched two. So we opened Artists Uprising Studios, which is a rental photography and film studio. It's in Richardson right down the street from our headquarters. And then we also opened up Belmont Creative, which is an in house creative agency. So those both kind of naturally happened.

With the studio, my husband is a photographer. He does it totally as a hobby and he just loves it. He was tired of having to drive pretty far to rent studio space. We had another friend of ours who found this really cool and old auto shop and it had been vacant for about 19 years, and it was just an eyesore. So we ended up taking it over, totally gutted it, renovated it where it looks like a mid-century, California, ranch-style home. But it is a business and it's on the corner and it's got like a lot of green space in the back. So we'll activate that green space with live music and food trucks and things like that.

Michelle Lynne: Oh my gosh, how fun is that?

Merrick Porcheddu: It's super fun. And that one, we just have lots of different photographers and film crews that will come and shoot in our space. I believe it's the only private freestanding studio in town. I could be wrong by now, but it's very private. You get a lot of space for what you pay for, you know, in relationship to maybe some of the other studios in town.

So we opened that in 2020 and then on the Belmont Creative side of things, that is actually run by my other business partner Magdiel Lopez. And Magdiel Lopez is an internationally acclaimed Cuban artist, but he lives here in Dallas. And I met Magdiel several years ago. We started representing him as an artist and doing brand deals for him several years ago.

The more we worked together, the more we were like this is really, really working. And he said he would really like to harness the graphic designer world of kind of what he does and what our company does. So we started Belmont Creative Studio where we can start doing branding and web design and things like that for corporations. So that's us in a nutshell.

Michelle Lynne: I think when you and I were just first started talking today, before we went live, you said you've got kids?

Merrick Porcheddu: I do. I have two little boys. One of them's sick today, so I'm sure he'll pop in on the screen here in a second. They're six and seven years old. And

Michelle Lynne: Girl, I'm exhausted. Three businesses. Two kids. Husband.

Merrick Porcheddu: Yeah, it's a lot.

Michelle Lynne: Now, how did you like how did you get started in the business?

Merrick Porcheddu: Well, let's see. I think I was kind of joking before, but I feel like I stumbled into it a little bit. I went to school at Belmont University and I majored in entertainment studies. So I have a business BA, and then an emphasis in entertainment. And I got into the entertainment industry and quickly decided that I did not like it and wanted to get out of it.

I think it was very flashy from the outside, and then you get in on the inside, and it's just really not what I had hoped for. This was several years ago. The industry also was going through a massive change. So this was in 2008. I feel like the music industry had a little bit of kind of economic dip, and then 2009 hit, which was another big dip just across the board.

I kind of found myself touring, but kind of picking up oddball jobs from time to time. I was helping a nonprofit tour out in Idaho. I was doing Idaho, Montana, Utah, kind of just that whole little region. While I was out there, I was like, man, artists need to connect. And this is before Instagram. Or maybe Instagram was just a small thing.

Michelle Lynne: I think you're right, because I started Facebook in around 2008 or 2009, because that's when I started my business. So I think Instagram did come a few years after that.

Merrick Porcheddu: Yes. So at that point, I was like, I feel like I'm a natural connector. I tell people, I see the world in a matrix where I'm like, oh, this person needs to know this, and this company should work with this artist, or this builder needs to know this designer, and it's all based on style. That's how my brain works is like in a constant like style mood board where I'm like, this person doesn't need to be working with this person, this person doesn't need to be working with this person.

So I started just kind of connecting people. And I was like, well, there needs to be a way for artists and designers and entertainers to collaborate together. In the music business, you've got, you know, not just your musicians and your bands, but then you need graphic designers to do the artwork, and you need filmmakers to do the music videos and you need production stylists and all that stuff.

So I thought that there needs to be kind of like a LinkedIn for artists, right? To connect. So I started working on a technology and came out with that technology several years ago, it was under a different name, and we launched it and kind of beta tested it in four different cities. Dallas, Nashville, Detroit, and Austin. It did really, really well for a little beta launch. I went on a little shark tank situation, not the actual show, but I went on a shark tank and won it. And I was very pregnant. Very, very pregnant with my second one.

Michelle Lynne: Oh, and your first one was so young to begin with!

Merrick Porcheddu: Yes. They are 15 months apart. So already, it was too much. And so anyway, I kind of launched that company, and that was really, really interesting because we got about 3000 users on it. It was definitely in its grit form, but it was going quickly. And we won like an Apple Design Award. But it was a lot. Technology is a lot to handle. It takes a lot of money, and it is constantly growing. And I think overall, the big aha moment for me was that people still kept reaching out to me or to people through the app saying, I'm on this, I see this, but who do you say I should pick and work with? Who do you say?

Michelle Lynne: You're matchmaking.

Merrick Porcheddu: Yes. So we pulled off the technology piece, and I had my second kid and then basically just started manually doing it here in Dallas. That ended up growing into just doing it more, and then I needed to hire people.

Michelle Lynne: You totally just fell into it.

Merrick Porcheddu: I did, I totally fell into it. And what's really, really cool is, I would say, about five or six years ago, I literally was on the front lines of trying to explain to large brands why they should use artists, instead of going with big agencies do their art direction, because you get this authentic message that's coming through the voice of an artist.

We tend to find what I call tippingpoint artists. So we don't necessarily work a lot with underground artists, we work with people who have got a brand, they've got a style that they're going after they've got a following, and they've already been working with some brands before. So they already have this awareness of where they're headed. And we come in at that tipping point, and we match them with some larger names, or we help project manage them through to becoming more well known.

Michelle Lynne: So what sort of brands use your services? And how do you get in front of them?

Merrick Porcheddu: Yeah, so we get in front of them in different ways. I would say, a few years ago, it was we were getting a lot of leads through like Visit Dallas or the Chamber of Commerce or some places like that, that would just feed us some of their corporate companies that were coming to Dallas. So we were kind of the in house entertainment hub for not regular programming, but like really crafting the right type of artists for their shows at hotels. So we did that a lot. And then that opened up to them talking and these companies bringing in more work.

Michelle Lynne: They understood a little bit more what you're capable of. I'm still getting my brain around what you do, because it is so unique.

Merrick Porcheddu: Yes. A lot of the time, these companies, they don't know where to go. Before, you couldn't really Google. I mean, now you can start Googling, like muralists in Chicago and things will come up, and Instagram does help. But over the last several years we have really, really started to fine tune our localized network.

We are based here in Dallas, we also have an office in Nashville, and then some people in Denver. But with that what's really cool is we really curate local. So we look at art, music, and design are our three pillars. And we look for very specific types of muralists. And they don't compete with one another. We look at very specific types of graphic designers. And they're not just people that can do graphic design. We're looking for graphic design artists, you know, people who are known in their artistry for digital media. We look for NFT artists.

Michelle Lynne: What is NFT?

Merrick Porcheddu: NFT is Non Fungible Token artists. They're like the cryptocurrency artists. So that's the whole crypto world right now. And we have just started really fashioning ourselves as curators, and we've done this everywhere and our client span is now in Berlin, and we've got clients in Australia, we're doing some things in Argentina. I mean, it's literally starting to like grow because that network of that curated touch is really important to us.

Michelle Lynne: Well, I think it's also important to people in general, because it's the experience that they're getting, in addition to the end result.

Merrick Porcheddu: Yes.

Michelle Lynne: So that's one of the things that, you know, I teach a lot of my interior design business students is that it's not just a pretty room, it's not just a beautiful mural, at the end of the day, it is the entire process and ensuring that you're, like, I love the idea that you're matchmaking. It's not just the artist and their end result, but it's probably their personality, and their vibe, and just be the energy that goes around them that matches the brand.

Merrick Porcheddu: Absolutely, absolutely. You can tell when something doesn't fit. I mean, in interior design, you kind of just know when you're designing something, you can tell that you're trying to force something in a space versus it just naturally fitting.

And, you know, there's large art agencies out there, right, that do art for hotels, and private rooms and things like that. I tell people we are not that. We specifically try to go after filling these spaces where community is drawn together. So we're really about bringing people together using art, music and design. And where that comes to like a total climax is when there's a brand experience.

So for instance, we're actually talking with Virgin Hotel later this week. But doing something with Virgin where when you walk into this experience, you're experiencing art, music, and design, and it is revolving around some key brand sponsors, but it doesn't feel like overly branded. It just feels really cool art experience that you go to, that you want to go to but it's matching the brand.

Michelle Lynne: I can feel that because it's like when you walk into a really badass coffee shop or a boutique fashion store, and it just feels like oh, I just want to be there. And you can't put words on that. And I think that so many people think that it's easy, and it can just be done by like I'm going to go open up a coffee shop, and it's going to be badass, but you put a lot of thought into it and all the different touch points.

Merrick Porcheddu: Yeah, absolutely.

Michelle Lynne: That's really cool. I love learning about this. Now what size companies or brands do you generally look for, or who do you work with?

Merrick Porcheddu: So we do work with an array of different people. So from kind of small, medium, and large, I'll take it from large down. But from the large side of things, those are the big corporations. That's the IBM or Coca Cola, or Facebook or whatever, where they've got a new space that they need art for.

We actually did a really cool thing with Canon USA. That was the premiere of one of their new digital print on demand printers, for graphic designers. So they paired with Magdiel Lopez, our creative director, but they paired with him and several other artists where they would literally send printers and you would watch the whole experience.

So that's on the large scale, we're promoting their product, or we're promoting their space, or we're promoting their brand, or we're just giving them art or some experience. Sometimes they'll do like their big corporate events, which is so much fun because that's the branded experience but that's the large side.

So now the medium side, which I personally really love. I know that our team members love all of our projects, but this medium size for us is working with cities. I personally am really like drawn to wanting to see cities flourish at their fullest. For me, it's like instead of designing a space, this is designing a community.

So public sculptures and murals and the wayfinding and the flagpole designs and the brand and the website, social media, all of that we do kind of a comprehensive curation. We're doing it for the city of Richardson right now in Dallas and it is truly my favorite thing I've ever worked on.

Michelle Lynne: I love to hear that but it's also giving the city an identity.

Merrick Porcheddu: Yes, it's really important for these cities. This goes back to the whole reason why I started the company in the first place. But there is an identity on every person, and there's an identity on every city, and there's an identity on every nation, and so on so forth.

We, the people are what give it meaning, right? We are all creators, so it doesn't matter if you're not a creative person you are creating in your lane. As creativity is spurred on, and if it's not squashed, but it's actually enhanced, then it gives people this motivation, this inherent God-shaped hole that all of a sudden starts to activate and cities begin to really explode.

And I think every city is so different and so unique. So like, for Richardson, we're doing something that's very playful, family friendly, and we do kind of project management curation of, you know, 5000 people, all of a sudden, that will come out on a weekend and we've got live music and live art.

Michelle Lynne: And it feels like Richardson, it doesn't feel like Fort Worth on the other side of town.

Merrick Porcheddu: Correct. And then we have such a value for Fort Worth, you know, so like, we're not we're not contracted with Fort Worth, but I absolutely love what Fort Worth is putting out because it feels like them. And then Las Colinas is another one that I think has such a unique story that hasn't been fully brought to some visual realization. But there's so much history there.

Michelle Lynne: Interesting. Yeah. I've been in Dallas for 20 something years, and I don't know the identity of Las Colinas other than driving through it. But I love that. and I love the fact that you're starting with the individuals, because we do all bring something. And we all gravitate towards a vibe for lack of a better term, a brand and identity. That really does position the city competitively.

And now and then going a little bit smaller. Like how would somebody like myself, or you know, a design firm and a solopreneur, how could we benefit from what you provide to even the larger brands?

Merrick Porcheddu: Yeah, so on the small scale, we'll work with small merchants, startup companies, and even just the sole proprietor doing their thing. It's really fun to just be kind of on call for those people to say, like, hey, I just got a new building, I need a mural. When interior designers reach out, they'll send us over their mood board of the space that they're creating, and they basically will just leave all of the art to us to curate local for them.

And that has been super fun as well, because here's what I'm trying to achieve, here's my budget for art, here's my timeline, and we're like, okay, great, and we just make that happen. But we curate it and craft it with the designer, instead of just coming in with something random. We're really working in tandem with that designer.

Michelle Lynne: We're kind of bossy that way.

Merrick Porcheddu: I think that that's really great. Because to me, even working with interior designers that do commercial spaces, not residential, I love that.

Michelle Lynne: Oh, I can imagine with the boom of multifamily as well. There's got to be a ton of potential there.

Merrick Porcheddu: Yeah. We do a lot of the multifamily projects. I find it really funny because with new developments of luxury apartments or things like that, we've have had in the past where we get hit up by two fronts. The commercial developer will actually reach out and say, hey, can Belmont Creative run with the branding. And so we'll start on the branding side of things and then the interior designer will reach out and say, hey, we love the branding, can you guys help us facilitate the art that feels like it?

Like what we really don't like is "brandy" feeling art, like anything kitschy or like it's been mass produced, you know, we're just not really about that. There's something that's more, I don't know, timeless, when you can bring a local artists to really match the brand that you're creating. Because then it's their message that's in it as well and the meaning of that piece becomes very open and visible to anybody who lives there.

Michelle Lynne: And I think just kind of dovetailing off of that, that is the description of what interior designers do. Like we bring that uniqueness. So you bring it in a completely different way. But that's where our value comes in, and that's what they pay for. We don't do kitschy, because they could go down the street to Hobby Lobby and get stuff.

Same thing with us. It's like they pay us to come up with a unique solution that feels like them. You're just doing it in a completely different manner. Is there anybody else who does what you do that you know, of?

Merrick Porcheddu: Definitely, as far as in the interior design world, I feel like the people that we run into say that they already have a company that does that. It's the big agencies in Atlanta, New York, and others that do interior art.

Michelle Lynne: It's not as personal.

Merrick Porcheddu: It's not as personal. It's funny, because I would say sometimes it's cheaper, but it's not, that's actually very not true, because we're working with American Airlines right now. They have a big hotel, like a training center, I should say, for all of their employees, and it's in Fort Worth, it's beautiful.

We've been brought on just for a couple of the key moments this like, big, big medallion piece. Their original one is going into a museum. So we are designing a modern day replica of this 1960 piece that's just a big deal for them. Then we have this really cool neon sign installation for like when you walk in, and you go into this training corners, it's the whole wall of neon airplanes. And that's been really, really cool.

So they have another agency that does all of the other art. But what's been kind of cool is to hear them kind of keep reaching out to us being like, can you help us with this one because it's more meaningful? And that's not a slight on that company, because what that company is doing is probably 10 times more than what we're doing. But we're trying to really hone in on something that's meaningful to the company.

Michelle Lynne: Do you see the need or a change in the environment, from 10 years ago to now, as to the warmth, and the personal touch, and the the need for connection? How have you seen that evolve?

Merrick Porcheddu: I've seen it evolve quite a bit. I think I was starting to kind of actually reference that about, you know, five or six years ago, I feel like I was on the forefront of really trying to explain to brands why they should use local artistry instead of these agencies because of the authenticity. And then all of a sudden, not only did that get caught up, but the larger agencies like the Richards Groups of the world would white label us.

They would go through us to bring art to their clients. So we would never see the client, we would just specifically work with the Richards Group, which I also loved. That was really great and awesome, too. But I think that even the large agencies knew that there was an authentic piece that needs to be met. And it can really only be met with a local feel.

I say that because you know, back five, six years ago, you say the word local, and people, especially these large brands, would immediately connect it with no-name artists. Well, that's not the case anymore. I mean, you put your finger on any major city, and there is an internationally acclaimed artistry group that is there. So you start identifying who those artists are, and all of a sudden when they get behind it, and they post it on social media and all of that, it's marketing that you cannot pay for. You cannot pay for that.

So PR firms started reaching out to us and they wanted this local, authentic piece, but to answer your question even more directly, I feel like that the millennial and Gen Z generations, they have set now a bar, like a new precedent of if it smells fake, I don't want anything to do with it.

I feel like it needed to take a generation and now you've got two. It needed to take a whole next wave of people to say that we're not doing what has been done in the past. As consumers, I'm not going to buy something that I do not feel like authentically speaks to all of it, you know, you, me, the product.

So as that has happened, and now you've got loads and loads of data that is showing these brands and cities and small businesses, that you've got to be authentic. And the best way of being authentic is again, a lot of the times it's letting art and music and design come out through an expression that we curate, but we coach. We bring it together and we say, hey, this is the vibe that we want to communicate. Now, go. And when they do it, that's when it's for real. You know, when you come in and you start fine tuning and saying, can you move this line over here, or can you sing this note this way?

Michelle Lynne: Yes. I, I say that, because when clients come and say, I want something or I want this particular couch, and you're just like that is not at all what you told me you wanted. It just feels so controlled and contrived, and the authenticity and the vibe, the feel just goes away.

Okay, last question. How in the hell do you balance it all?

Merrick Porcheddu: Well, I have a really awesome husband. I married really, really well. It helps that he's a creative, and I'm kind of more of a creative business person. That's been really awesome to just get to see him thrive as an artist, and he's a musician as well, he does music by trade, and then photography as a kind of side hustle. So that's been really awesome. And his schedule over the last several years, has been very flexible.

And then also just me being an entrepreneur myself. I go with the rhythm of what makes sense for me in the season that I'm in. So I think the biggest advice I could give to any small business owner or person starting out is, it's okay to not grow too fast. You go at the pace that feels right for you.

Looking back, I really feel like with that technology piece that we had going on, if I had stuck with it, and really, really held on, I would have been a really bad mom, I would have probably lost my marriage, it was not the right season for that.

Michelle Lynne: I love hearing that.

Merrick Porcheddu: But it doesn't mean that I won't come back and do that again, when the time is right. You know, I just need my kids to get a little bit older.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, that makes sense. But I love the fact because so many individuals compare themselves to others, or they would sit here and listen to this conversation and just say, man, she's got all of our shit together. But it's also letting go of some things. It doesn't mean that you have to be all things to all people. I do believe you can have it all. You might just not have the entire bite of one piece.

Merrick Porcheddu: Yeah, and what's that saying? I'm going to totally butcher it. But you're saying like, you bite an elephant one bite at a time?

Michelle Lynne: Yes. How do you eat an elephant? You eat an elephant one bite at a time. It's so true.

Merrick Porcheddu: And I have a really great COO right now. I actually just hired her last March as a Director of Operations, just somebody to help me get this thing going. She has not only stepped in and is operating this business, but we've hired lots of people since just in one year. And the two things that she's really brought to the table for me is how to say no to stuff. Before, I was just kind of like, yeah, it's just me and a few people so let's take on everything that we can.

Michelle Lynne: I totally understand that!

Merrick Porcheddu: Yeah, there's a time for that, and then there's a time that you have to let go and see the numbers drop just so that you can reset and get going again,

Michelle Lynne: Right, kind of bringing it back to basics, but leveling it at the same time.

Merrick Porcheddu: And then she also took over my company for three months, this last summer, while my husband actually got really, really sick with COVID. So we were out of commission for three, four months. And she she was like, I don't know if I can grow this company, but I for sure as heck and am not gonna sink it.

Michelle Lynne: So it's so true, though. Hiring, hiring assistance. And I don't mean an assistant, but I mean, having help is huge.

Merrick Porcheddu: Yes, and it's always scary to hire somebody. You may think you can't afford it?

Michelle Lynne: You think you can't afford it or that you can't let go of it or something. But, girl, that's a whole other podcast. Thank you for all of that insight. It's left me with a lot of thoughts, and I love the fact that you took something and made it. You made something out of nothing. It's pretty damn cool.

So Merrick, this next segment is just a quick rapid fire Q&A. It's basically just so that the audience can get to know you a little bit better, andI like to have a little bit of fun. So yeah, love to talk business, but all about fun. How about we'll start off easy. Are you coffee or tea girl?

Merrick Porcheddu: Oh, coffee every day.

Michelle Lynne: And favorite ice cream flavor?

Merrick Porcheddu: I don't really love ice cream. I know that's really weird, but if I had to pick, I'd probably go with like a Dutch chocolate or something like that.

Michelle Lynne: Okay, so if it's not ice cream, then what?

Merrick Porcheddu: Um, let's see, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups is my jam late at night, but other than that, sometimes I'll have a piece of pie. But I've never really had a sweet tooth, and then I got married to somebody who totally has a sweet tooth.

Michelle Lynne: What is your dream travel destination?

Merrick Porcheddu: Oh, goodness. There's a lot of places. So one of them was San Miguel, which I just went to recently. It was an artist's dream. Like, if you're a creative or an interior designer or whatever, you need to go to San Miguel. But I still really want to do like Bali.

Michelle Lynne: Have you traveled with the kids?

Merrick Porcheddu: Not really. Yes, but I feel like that they don't count.

Michelle Lynne: You know, I totally get it. It's not vacation, it's a trip. I've learned that recently.

Who's your favorite superhero?

Merrick Porcheddu: Oh, that's so good. I would say Wonder Woman just because that's who my kids make me be every time that they want to play Justice League. I'm always Wonder Woman.

Michelle Lynne: Oh, that's awesome. It's better than the Hulk. Although I don't know if Hulk is part of Justice League, but I'm just picturing if they had to choose two.

What was the last movie you watched?

Merrick Porcheddu: Sing 2.

Michelle Lynne: Oh, there you go. Um, what did you want to be when you were growing up?

Merrick Porcheddu: I wanted to be a marine biologist.

Michelle Lynne: Oh, girl, you are way a different corner.

Merrick Porcheddu: I laugh at that because that is all I wanted to do. I just wanted to be underwater. I wanted to like, do stuff with submarines. I'm very claustrophobic. So I'm sure that that would have never worked out.

Michelle Lynne: That's hilarious. When was the last time you took a nap?

Merrick Porcheddu: A week ago.

Michelle Lynne: Are you in that person?

Merrick Porcheddu: I kind of am. I don't do it that often, but I have no problem peacing out for a second.

Michelle Lynne: I'm right there with you. We used to have a brick and mortar studio for ML Interiors Group, and there was a couch in there. and I would literally tell my team, I'll be back in 10 minutes. And granted, this was all one room. Okay, I'll be back in 10 minutes, put a blanket over my head and just a quick power nap would just save the day.

Okay, if you could have dinner with anybody in the world, dead or alive, past or present, who would be one person that you would invite?

Merrick Porcheddu: Gosh, it's a great question. I mean, I will say this, and I know it's incredibly cliche, but I would love to be able to go back to Biblical times and talk to Mary or Jesus would be awesome, or any of the disciples. I don't know that would be really cool. But I would say also, I could get down with a really crazy celebrity right now like it would be really fun for me to talk to Lady Gaga.

Michelle Lynne: From Jesus to Lady Gaga. You know what, let's just have a dinner party and invite both.

Merrick Porcheddu: Yeah, exactly. I would love to be able to have at a table all of these crazy creatives over the century. Like, that is what I hope for someday in heaven.

Michelle Lynne: I love that. Well, we will leave it on that note, because I just don't think we can top that. So Merrick, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. It's so much fun getting to know you. And I know that our audiences loved everything you shared. So how can our audience connect with you?

Merrick Porcheddu: Yeah, they can just follow us @ArtistUprising. That's our handle on everything basically. Or you can go to artistuprising.com

Michelle Lynne: Do you have links to like your Artist Uprising Studio and Belmont Creative and everything if they go to artistuprising.com?

Merrick Porcheddu: Yes, you can find us from there. Or you can just search Artist Uprising Studios will pop up on Instagram and Belmont creative will pop up.

Michelle Lynne: Love that. Because I know we have a very saturated local market, local audience. So they need to go check out your photography space.

Merrick Porcheddu: That would be awesome. And that's artisturprisingstudios.com. It's a beautiful, beautiful space. I've been blown away by what people go in and they'll capture, you know, photographically. Like I did not even see the space that way. It's really cool the way people are using the space.

Michelle Lynne: I can't wait to see it, because we will be booking at another branding session coming up soon. So maybe we'll be able to collaborate. Thank you so much.

And for those of you who can benefit from even more resources surrounding the business of running your interior design business or any creative business, join the growing community on my Facebook's private group. And yeah, I say this every time I know it's Facebook.

If you don't like Facebook, just hop in there and join the Interior Design Business Launchpad. You don't have to socialize with the crazy aunt or somebody who's trying to debate politics with you on Facebook. So join us and also don't forget to leave a review anywhere you are listening to this podcast. So until next time, see you soon.