Meet John Taylor | Entrepreneur & Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with John Taylor and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi John, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Ever since I was young, I’ve always seen myself as being creative. Whether it was with art like drawing & coloring when I was in elementary, to creating music in middle school. In middle school, I was on the marching band and played the bass drum. After learning how to read music and listening to the band as a whole, I started to mentally create my own songs. It was such an amazing feeling to know that I had learned the music well enough to want to create my own. Then with the advancement of technology, I was always around a computer. In high school, I was able to learn programs like AutoCAD & Photoshop. During those classes, we had the ability to be very creative with our projects. That was essential for me because it helped me figure out how to tune my creativity in a way that was different from everyone else. While growing up, I was able to notice patterns in people and used that to my advantage when it was time to stand out.

During high school is also when Myspace came out. It was the first social platform I had used outside of AOL. During that time, customizing a profile was a priority to showcase your personality. I had a fun time learning how to add music to my page and insert different graphics. It was another outlet for me to be creative and show people how creative I was. After some time, I had started to edit the photos of myself in different online websites. I would change the background color, add some pixel effects, add text, etc. I always connected being creative to having fun. Also, while in high school, during homecoming week, I was able to be creative with the different themed days we had. I remember one time; I had bought some paint from Walmart that matched the school colors (purple). I had a pair of all white shoes that I painted on to go with an outfit I put together. So, when I went to school the next day, the shoes caught the attention of a lot of people, and I got plenty of compliments. I didn’t paint a specific design though; I had painted along the stitch lines across the shoes all the way around. Then for Valentine’s Day, I had taken a Sharpee to a white t-shirt with some letter stencils and put “Will you be my Valentine?” on the shirt. Once again, another fun way to express my creativity.

After I had graduated from college and social media was becoming bigger by the day, meme culture became a thing. Once I understood it more, I started to create my own. None of mine went viral but a couple did become popular in my social circles. And after that, I knew I always needed some kind of outlet to showcase my creativity. It was too natural to me for me to not embrace it. And I’ve always kept that on mind throughout the years. It’s something I hold close and I’m always proud to showcase.

Even now, with the advancements in AI, being able to create the ideas I have, brings me joy. It’s cool to visualize it in my mind, but it’s so much better being able to show it to someone. As I was growing up, I noticed that a majority of people love visuals. Even during text conversations. Writing is and will forever be important, but having the ability to show someone else what is on mind, is a totally different experience. It wasn’t until last year, that I learned that some people do not have the ability to visualize things with their mind. I was blown away by that because I couldn’t imagine reading a book with great descriptions about a scene then not being able to mentally create an image for that.

All of this lead up to me pursuing an artistic career because it’s something I cherish, and it never gets old. At times, it does feel like work, and that’s when I know I need to take a small break then come back when I am inspired, or something sparks an idea in my mind.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I would say my work ethic is above average. 98% of the time, I’ve been on time and rarely ever called out unless it was an emergency. I started working a job at 17 at a movie theater. I had to ride my bike to work most of the time since my parents were also working. I was always a quick learner, so I was able to be cross trained into the various roles. Started as a cleaner, then went to cashier and food prep. I worked there for 4 months, then started working at Papa John’s. It was closer my house at the time, and they were reasonable with my school schedule. During these jobs, I would say I learned more about working as a team and being efficient with getting tasks done. I became a manager while working at Papa John’s which gave me experience in delegation and cost analysis (when ordering the ingredients for the store). I never had a “dream job” because I always wanted to pursue entrepreneurship and eventually not have to work at all.

After being with Papa John’s for about 4 years, I had started working at a call center for Verizon Fios. I enjoyed that job because it was dealing with technology, and I was very tech savvy. I had hit my bonus a few times and really understood the workflow of things. Only downside to that was that it was almost an hour away from where I lived. I wasn’t there long because of the long commute.

I found a closer job at Walmart. My sister was working there at the time and told me about them looking for people to hire and luckily, I was able to get hired. I was working during the third shift as a stocker. It was a more physical job that helped me stay fit. I was working in the produce section for a while and that was pretty strenuous at times. It was a great experience for me because I was able to learn time management better. Having to sleep during the day in order to work well through the night was difficult at first but I was able to get used to it after the first month. It wasn’t until after I had left Walmart that I really wanted to challenge myself to see what all I could do. I was applying to different jobs on Craigslist and a trucking company had reached out to me to see if I would be interested in becoming a driver.

At that time, I knew I didn’t want to be in a regular 9 to 5 job because I was starting to see that those were dead-end jobs, and it would take forever for me to move up within the companies. So, after a couple days of consideration, I made the decision to become a truck driver. At the time I was living with my girlfriend, and it wasn’t always the best of time, so I figured it would be easier on both of us if we did have some time apart while I was driving. I wasn’t too nervous or scared at first, but during the over the road training with my trainer is where I was able to get a real experience of how things would be for me once I started driving.

I was able to get through the training and then get into my own truck shortly after. During the first year of being over the road, I had learned so much about logistics and how the country was being ran. It was such a crazy experience for me to be able to see parts of the country I would’ve never see otherwise. Going through towns with less than ten thousand people and seeing how far away they were from the major cities gave me a new perspective on how I viewed society. Also, during this time, I was not being micromanaged. This is when I had to use my time management skills the most. I was able to somewhat set my own schedule and it forced me to take my health more serious as well. As time went on, I did become proud of being a driver because it’s such a major industry in the country. At the same time, it was challenging because I had to drive through rough weather conditions and always be cautious around other drivers. Thankfully I have not had any major accidents. I’ve also learned about each step of the food process from the farm to the supermarket.

During this time as a driver, I would say I’ve hit a mastery level because I am able to put more of my focus towards becoming an entrepreneur. I’m able to listen to audiobooks and podcasts while driving then when I’m done driving for the day, I’m able to apply the knowledge I have towards my goals. I don’t do that every day because some days are more stressful than others. But I have come to the realization that I cannot and do not want to drive for another 10 to 15 years. I would much rather dedicate this time into building my business up and seeing how far I can take it.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Houston is a great city all around. I would call it the New York of the south. There are always things to do.

A good breakfast restaurant or late-night restaurant I enjoy is called House of Pies. It’s on the southeast side of the city. Close to the intersection of interstate 45 and beltway 8. They are open 24/7 and have a great menu. Then we could go to the Houston Fine Arts Museum and walk around. Or if we wanted to be outside, Buffalo Bayou Park is a great place to go, has a great view of downtown and goes along the bayou. Art Alley is another cool place with plenty of amazing murals to look at. Then depending on what’s happening, there may be an event at Discovery Green. Which is an open park in downtown. They have live music from time to time, a small pond for kayaking, and people offer exercise classes there as well. Also, while being downtown, there are bikes to rent for people who want to ride around the downtown area.

For shopping, The Galleria is the best mall to go to. First Colony Mall in Sugar Land is another great one as well. For drinks and an intimate setting, my go to spot is Nobie’s. It’s small but the quality of food & drinks is top tier. A good game themed bar is Neil’s Bar. They have some arcade machines, a ping pong table, comic books, and some board games as well. It’s a cool spot to chill at. A Houston staple is 8th Wonder Brewery, they have a wide variety of beers and memorabilia from the Houston Astros baseball team. And so much more. The possibilities are truly endless in Houston.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would shoutout everyone who encouraged me to continue being creative. People like my fifth grade teacher, to past friends of mine. Even my mom who always showed support because she was able to see that I had a knack for being creative over the years. It’s always been a benefit to me to get feedback from anyone willing to give it. It really helped me refine my perspective and really step back to see if I can challenge myself more. I remember my middle school art teacher saying, “While there may not be many people in the class who like what you made, you can’t forget about the millions of other people in the world.” That stuck with me because it let me know that there will always be a couple people who enjoy what I make.

Website: www.ohwowjt.com

Instagram: instagram.com/1n0nlyjt

Twitter: twitter.com/1n0nlyjt

Other: Digital art for sale – ohwowjt.eth.co

Image Credits
John Taylor