Graham Brown shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Graham, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
I do the same thing almost every morning Monday-Sunday. I like to wake up before the sun, lately its been 5:30am because my dogs have important business to attend to I guess but ideally it’s around 6am. I than have some coffee and during the week I will usually turn on the local news and simultaneously read the national news online because I like a little chaos. But on the weekends I typically enjoy a little more relaxation and I put on a record and sip my coffee. After the caffeine kicks in I am ready to take on the world and I will hop on my bike and go for a ride. I’ll go for about 5 miles, cruising along the bay in St. Pete through the Vinoy and the Pier and end up at my gym and workout for about 30 minutes. Once I have finished my work out I like to do a pit stop at one of our lovely local coffee shops for a second cup of coffee. After I grip a drip and head home it’s about time to start my work day.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Sure! My name is Graham and I’m an artist with a primary focus on graphic design and illustration. Right now I have a full time job in the gaming industry but I like to stay busy so I take on a bit of freelance outside of that. I recently rebranded my personal freelance to HEBEGEBE which is a play on words but means, He Be GB (Graham Brown) if that wasn’t obvious haha.
I have worked with a lot of businesses in the Tampa Bay area designing social media ads, apparel, websites, and tons of other stuff. All that is fun and rewarding in its own way but I have recently taken a little step away from the freelance to pursue more of a passion project I guess.
Right now I am having fun building a brand I call BiteBack! It’s just me combining my two passions, art and dogs. I’m just making dog inspired art and selling it and than donating portions of all the sales to rescues and shelters to try and help out and fight against animal cruelty. That’s actually where the name BiteBack came from because it sounds like “Fight Back”. BiteBack/FightBack you get it? I have always been triggered by stories of animal abuse and I wanted to finally try and do something about it so right now this is just the beginning step until I figure out more ways to help and get involved.
All that being said I’m really enjoying this because I get to create art I want to on my own time without any restrictions. The brand voice is basically just my own personal voice with my own humor added. I get to experiment with more edgy ideas and different types of marketing campaigns that most clients would likely avoid. I get bored pretty easily with every business wanting the same thing as the other all the time so I am constantly trying to figure out ways I can be different and break through all the noise.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
In my teens and early twenties I used to be insecure with very low self-esteem. I was always wondering where I fit in the world and who I was. I was a people pleaser who wanted to be liked by everyone! I feared being talked about or made fun of behind my back or in front of my face. Oh, and I started balding at 16 which made me feel like I selected to play life on ‘Extra Hard’ haha. This lead me to wearing a hat all the time trying to hide it but in school you couldn’t wear hats so I don’t know who I thought I was fooling after class.
All that affected my self-esteem and made me a very anxious paranoid person. This lead me to quick mood swings anytime I got paranoid someone was making fun of me or worried they didn’t like me. That became a Catch22 because no one wanted to be my friend cause I acted crazy and I acted crazy cause no one wanted to be my friend. Yea, I had some work to do haha.
Over the years I got older I began to value the people who were already in my life and the strong connections I have with all of them. This began a shift in me and the way I viewed the world and everyone in it. It gave me a new sense of confidence because I learned that the only opinions that matter in life come from the people who matter to me. That’s when the world told me who I was and where I belong in it. I no longer worried about what others thought of me or if they even liked me. It gave me freedom to enjoy life without wasting energy on trying to be liked by everyone. I credit that to the group of friends I have that I have known since the 6th grade. I am completely fulfilled in the friend department. While I do enjoy making new friends I would be content if I never made any new friends as long as I have them. And I still wear a hat but now it’s to keep my scalp from burning in the Florida sun.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Over the years I have learned to enjoy what you have and appreciate the small moments in life. I think it is important to have goals and strive for something but I think it’s important to separate your wants from your goals.
I’ve had small bouts of depression throughout my life and been in and out of therapy since high school. Periodically going back for tune ups every few years. During my most recent depressive spell I truly realized what was important to me was to just be happy. And I started to think about everything going on in my life. I have a nice house, a nice yard, a good stable paying job, other various luxurious I had talked about wanting for years but I was still depressed. I realized that it didn’t matter how many things I wanted and got, I was gonna still be depressed. So I had to change my mindset to want to achieve my goals for myself and not to gain more things I wanted. I don’t think this is ever something you would stop to think about unless you were suffering and looking for answers.
I am happy with where things are at in life now. I love spending time with my girl friend and our dogs. I don’t look for more things to try and bring me joy temporarily but look in the moment I am in now and appreciate it. I like to sit and enjoy smaller moments because I know I will be able to look back on them and either be sad I took them for granted or happy I fully immersed myself in them.
One thing I always believed is that memories are the one thing no one can ever take away from you. Unless of course you suffer serious head trauma but we don’t think about that haha.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Is the public version of you the real you?
I would say for the most part, yes haha. I try to be authentically me all the time but I have social anxiety which gets in the way sometimes. I can be a very talkative person to the point where you will ask to get a breather for a moment. But I am also a very introverted person and enjoy time alone (with my dogs). I find solitude and relaxation in being alone with my thoughts. It helps me to recharge my social battery after a weekend out with a group of friends or events with large crowds. All that being said, I’m still the same person in public as I am in private but I just may be a bit quieter at times haha.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. When do you feel most at peace?
As I mentioned earlier large crowds make me anxious and I find solitude in my alone time. So for me I am most at peace when I am alone (with my dogs) focused in on creating with my headphones on. I have found that when I am creating less I begin to feel sad, stressed, and more anxious. This has made it much more difficult to be able to find peace often. I begin to worry and stress about creating and being creative and begin a vicious circle of avoiding creating because I’m stressed and I’m stressed because I’m not creating.
So I have had to start to force myself to sit down and create more through whatever medias I am feeling. I might write, draw, paint, sculpt, or even make music. Once I finally sit down to start to exercise my creativity the stress and anxiety starts to float away. When I am creating I typically hit a flow state where time no longer exists and I begin to subconsciously create and thats when I fully feel at peace.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hebegebe.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/instantgraham
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-brown-b20562a2/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@grahambrown3502
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/justgraham
- Other: www.instagram.com/BiteBackDesignCo
www.etsy.com/shop/bitebackstore
www.tiktok.com/@barnabyandwatson
