#088: Guillermo Rios Paints the Memories That Made Him

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Dwight: Welcome to another edition of the Community and Becoming for the Love of Creatives podcast. You've got your Connections and Community Guy hosts, Dwight and Maddox, and today our featured guest is Guillermo Rios. Welcome to the podcast, Guillermo!

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Guillermo Rios: Thank you so much, thank you for the invitation.

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Dwight: We are so thrilled that you could join us. I know that we've experienced some of your work in different places, seen you featured at North Park, and seen you in just a lot of surprising places in the art circles in town.

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Dwight: But I know that there's a lot more to you. Could you briefly share with our community

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Dwight: who the real Guillermo is, and what you're all about.

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Guillermo Rios: Well, thank you for the invitation again, and yeah, my name is Guillermo Rios, and I'm the creator and artist

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Guillermo Rios: and designer behind Studio Guillermo Rios. In my studio, I transform denim and other fabrics into wearable pieces of art.

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Guillermo Rios: I, paint directly. I use…

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Guillermo Rios: Denim and fabric as a canvas to tell my story.

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Guillermo Rios: to tell my memories, when I was growing up between Mexico and United States. So, a lot of what I do, and a lot of,

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Guillermo Rios: a lot of my art has that essence of memory, and whatever comes to my mind, that's what I paint, and it has now become, like, a very cool mixture of art meets fashion, fashion meets art, and I'm…

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Guillermo Rios: so happy that different circles, like you said, the art world and also the fashion world is… is welcoming, and is intrigued, and they want to know more about it, and I'm… and I'm so happy, so…

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah, I've been… I've met you guys at a Frisco art exhibit, I remember, but I've seen you in other… in other places.

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Maddox: That was the first day we actually got to see your art, and it's very, very striking. I mean, it drew me into your booth instantly. I mean, because I'm a little bit of a fashion person. I love clothing, and…

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Maddox: I think the cool thing is there's just no two pieces that are alike. They're all statement pieces, and they're all one-of-a-kind. There's…

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Guillermo Rios: Exactly. There's one-of-a-kind. They're all one-of-a-kind. I've tried to replicate sometimes, but it's so… it's almost impossible, because…

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Guillermo Rios: I received the peas, for example, the jacket, and… and I just… everything goes through memory. I just tried to remember growing up in Jalisco, and the fields of Jalisco, and what I used to saw, the sugar cane, the cornfields, all of that.

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Guillermo Rios: And then that's where all my abstract lines come from, so…

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Guillermo Rios: some… some jackets may have the abstract lines, and some may not, so it's… it's hard for me to replicate, so you are… yeah, you're right, they're all…

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Guillermo Rios: One-of-a-kind pieces, and… and yeah.

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Maddox: Well, and very tedious to create, you know, it's…

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Maddox: It's a… it's a process, isn't it?

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah, the… the thing that I really like is for people to believe… I mean, to think, and to feel that…

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Guillermo Rios: the art is… it's real, it's like paint, so you could actually feel the texture, and I really like feeling the texture in the garments.

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Guillermo Rios: Some of the presentations that I've had, people ask me, oh, where do you print? And I'm like.

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Guillermo Rios: I don't print. I spend, like, nothing is printed. I spend hours, sometimes days creating one piece, or even months. I have a jacket, I paint on it, and then it keeps talking to me, and it says.

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Guillermo Rios: now I need more, and then I have to go back, and it is tedious, and a lot of the work that I do, a lot of little circles, a lot of dots, a lot of lines, eyes…

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah, it takes… it takes a long time, and it's very tedious, but it's…

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Guillermo Rios: it's become an outlook for me. I don't even…

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Guillermo Rios: I start working with my stuff, and I can start at 9am, and it's, like, 5 or 6 PM, and I'm still painting, and I don't feel like I'm really working. It feels very natural.

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Guillermo Rios: It feels very, very me, and I enjoy it a lot.

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Maddox: Do you do custom pieces? Does somebody bring you a jacket that they already possess, maybe, and say.

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Maddox: Do something for me?

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Guillermo Rios: Yes, I've done a lot of those custom pieces, but…

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Guillermo Rios: I find it hard to… like, for example, at the beginning, when people

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Guillermo Rios: knew who I was, they would say, oh, can you draw…

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Guillermo Rios: Maybe, can you draw my dog, or a cat, or something? And I love that. I think I can do it, I've done it, but I don't think now that I have my brand, I like to stick to…

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Guillermo Rios: to just whatever's gonna come to my mind, and I've gained the trust of…

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Guillermo Rios: of clients and friends, and they're like, here's my jacket. Paint whatever you want with it. And those jackets are, like, my favorites.

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Guillermo Rios: They've become… yeah.

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Dwight: Yeah, it sounds incredible. You know, as I hear you share your story, I can't help but, in my mind, start tracing how you've been on a journey your whole life.

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Dwight: And you're kind of at a place where you are very firm in what it is that you're doing. You act with a certain level of confidence.

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Dwight: And, it, it sounds like you, you're trusted as a source. So, do you do any, any kind of, teaching for, what it is that you're doing?

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Guillermo Rios: I've… I've done a couple classes and teaching, like, art and stuff.

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Guillermo Rios: But it hasn't been, like, not teaching pain or R as a grand scale, no, not yet. But…

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Guillermo Rios: I mean, I'm open to it, for sure.

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Maddox: Guillermo, how did you arrive here? Because I'm thinking you probably didn't just say, oh, I think I'll do art, and I'm gonna paint on denim, and denim. There must have been, like, a series of experiences in different

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Maddox: forays into the art world before you actually got where you are. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

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Guillermo Rios: Yes, so I've always had a passion for both things, fashion and art. And I've… when I was in college, I would, like, paint and…

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Guillermo Rios: and do canvases. I have canvases of my own that I paint. Very abstract, very out of the norm. I would use different… I love the texture of abstract art and all that, so that's what I was doing. And one day.

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Guillermo Rios: like, maybe, like, 4 years ago, I said, oh, some of my friends came over to my place, and they said, oh, that's so cool! And everybody kept saying about that one piece that was so cool and had a lot of, a lot of,

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Guillermo Rios: texture. So one day, I said, what if I am able to take that cool piece that my friends talk about and just wear it? Why not?

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Guillermo Rios: So, I gathered paint, and I got… and I mixed it, and I started playing with it. I did the jack… I did want my very first jacket, and I wore it out in a dinner, and everybody… everybody was asking me for it.

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Guillermo Rios: And it was in that moment that, oh, somebody asked me, they're like, oh my gosh, who's the designer? And it was just an old jacket that I had, it was white denim, and I painted it black.

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Guillermo Rios: And in that moment, When they asked me, who's a designer?

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Guillermo Rios: I don't know, I felt like…

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Guillermo Rios: something fell over me, and I said, wait.

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Guillermo Rios: I am the designer. Like, I thought about that. I thought about it, and it was so…

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Guillermo Rios: It was that specific moment.

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Guillermo Rios: The next day, I knew ex… that dinner, that night, I knew exactly where I was going with this. I knew… I had so many ideas. I'm like, I need business cards, I need this, I need that. I had, like, 5 people, stranger people in the restaurant ask me.

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Guillermo Rios: About the jacket.

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Guillermo Rios: So I said.

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Guillermo Rios: this is what I have to do. And I tried to tide, and I tried to gather everything into that moment, and I said, I… what was I painting? I was… I was thinking about my hometown, I was thinking about Jalisco, Mexico, I was thinking about Denham of Texas, I was… that's me. That's what I need to do.

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Guillermo Rios: And it was in that moment that…

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Guillermo Rios: I don't know, everything fell into place, and…

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Guillermo Rios: And yeah, that's… that's… I can… I can go to that specific moment where I said, okay, the next day.

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Guillermo Rios: I'm gonna get more jackets. I went to, like, a thrift store, and I bought jackets, and I made a couple jackets, and…

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Guillermo Rios: And my friends were like, oh my gosh, they're so cool, keep doing it, keep doing it. So I just kept going and going, and now…

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Guillermo Rios: now I have collections, and I'm, I mean, I'm so happy, yeah.

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Guillermo Rios: But it was that moment.

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Dwight: That's amazing. That's a beautiful origin story.

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Maddox: So, when we saw your work at the booth that day, and looking behind you right now in the scene right behind you, I see…

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Maddox: black paint on white fabric, I see white paint on denim, I see white paint on black fabric. Do you… I haven't… I haven't seen colorful stuff yet. Do you do that as well?

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Guillermo Rios: No, that's a great question, and it's a question that everybody asks me because I do not paint in color.

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Guillermo Rios: Not for my brand, at least not for… at least not for Studio Guillermo Rios and what I show, and people often ask me that, and I… I… there is a reason why I…

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Guillermo Rios: don't use color yet. I know how to use it, I know color theory, all of that, but I want to…

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Guillermo Rios: I'm at the stage where… I draw all of everything through my memory.

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Guillermo Rios: And I think of black and white kind of like if you're seeing a photograph, a picture, and you see a black and white picture, and it's a core memory of something, so that memory is what I try to translate into the fabric.

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Guillermo Rios: And it's in black and white.

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Guillermo Rios: And I also use… I use the word a lot of… I use the word duality a lot in my work.

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Guillermo Rios: So, duality, for example, Mexico, United States, Spanish, English,

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Guillermo Rios: Hamburgers, tacos, like, all of that, that word is very predominant in my work.

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Guillermo Rios: Black and white.

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Dwight: Yeah.

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Guillermo Rios: So… so that alone is already… is already, like, the core of… of my work, the duality core of my work. And…

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Guillermo Rios: I feel it makes the collection more cohesive. I only do denim and a couple other fabrics, and it's all black and white. It's either…

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Guillermo Rios: Blue denim with white, or, lighter denim with black.

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Guillermo Rios: But it's… it's just… it's just that, and I… And I like

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Guillermo Rios: yeah, like I said, I let the memory…

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Guillermo Rios: speaks louder than the color. I don't want my memory fighting with… in my mind, I feel like it will fight with

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Guillermo Rios: with orange, or with red, or with colorful patterns, that I do… I mean, I have… I have what I call botanical memory gardens that I remember, like, going to my grandmother's house, and she was always…

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Guillermo Rios: In her garden, and I remember… I remember her giving me, like, little pieces of a plant to take to my mom, and my mom will plant it, and then the neighbors will come, and my mom will give… it was, like, this connection, this… of… of plants and gardens, and I remember that.

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Guillermo Rios: And I have…

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Guillermo Rios: images, and I have paint… I have pieces where I have, like, flowers, very cool flowers, but they're black.

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Guillermo Rios: And I feel like it makes a contrast, or they're white, and they make that contrast of memory and keeping that core memory alive.

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Dwight: And it's also a great signature. I mean, it's definitely a way that makes your brand stand apart, because you're working within that constraint.

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Maddox: Yes, I think that's one of the things that we struggle with as artists sometimes, and that is to…

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Maddox: Find our style.

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Maddox: And I think that you're smart in some regards here, because even though people may be saying, I want color.

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Maddox: You're really establishing the brand and getting it really situated firmly as his… this is…

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Maddox: what the brand is, and once it's fully, fully established, and people know you for that look, people will be able to say, oh, that's a Guillermo Rios.

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Maddox: Then you can do anything you want to do.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah, exactly, and… I feel like it's…

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Guillermo Rios: It's stronger in a way, it's bold.

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Guillermo Rios: And it keeps… it keeps this… this… also this elegance. I feel like black and white is so elegant together, and… and I feel very comfortable wearing black, and I feel very comfortable wearing white, and I…

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Guillermo Rios: I like to keep it like that. And funny, my favorite color is orange.

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Guillermo Rios: My favorite color is orange.

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Guillermo Rios: But I don't paint, and I don't own anything orange. I just love looking at the color. I have a great canvas, like, it's right here in front of me, and I'm like, I love this painting, and it's just orange, like, different types of orange, an abstract orange painting, and I love it.

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Guillermo Rios: But… I love… just… looking at it. I don't want to wear it or anything.

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Maddox: If someone came to you with a denim jacket and said.

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Maddox: I'll pay you whatever you want, but I want color. Would you do it?

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Guillermo Rios: I… I think I will make us, I mean…

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Maddox: A custom piece?

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Guillermo Rios: custom piece, I'll make a custom piece, and I would have to find a way to say…

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Guillermo Rios: Yes, I'll do it, but let me paint whatever I want.

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Guillermo Rios: And maybe I can paint an orange…

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Guillermo Rios: of the symbols I make. Maybe I could.

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Guillermo Rios: But…

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Guillermo Rios: I've tried it. I've tried, I've tried painting in color. I've done my symbols, my lines, my dots, my eyes, my faces, the faces that I draw.

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Guillermo Rios: I've done them in white shirt, and then I add color, and some of them, I'm able to say yes. Some of them I still have, that I'm like, no, I don't.

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Guillermo Rios: doesn't resonate. I don't know. I just let… I just let my feelings…

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Maddox: You're working intuitively.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah, I let my feelings tell me.

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Guillermo Rios: Same thing when I get… when I get the garments, I put them on the table, and I let the garment tells me where the placement of the painting goes.

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Guillermo Rios: I don't know where it goes. I don't know where I'm gonna paint. If it's gonna be in the shoulder, or… I have an idea, oh, maybe I like a shoulder drawing or something, or a side.

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Guillermo Rios: But I never know. It's all very sporadic, and it's all very, like…

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Guillermo Rios: Let me see how I feel that morning, and let me see what memory comes to mind.

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Guillermo Rios: So… So, I think I will do it. I would say, yes, I'll paint you an orange jacket.

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Guillermo Rios: But I would have to… I would have to think about it a lot.

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Maddox: Yeah, makes sense.

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Dwight: I love the way… I love the way that you're sharing that your process is very much about being in the moment. There's not a… a big push for production, it's… it's really just where the art takes you, and that's a beautiful thing.

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Guillermo Rios: And I also use it as an outlook of.

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Guillermo Rios: of expressing who I am, and letting the jacket be the conversation piece, letting the jacket as fashion, but also letting the art being the…

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Guillermo Rios: the conversation. So…

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Guillermo Rios: So, yeah, I mean, I've had multiple people tell me, oh, can you draw this, or can you draw that? I'm like, I can draw it, but if…

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Guillermo Rios: like, for example, if you give me the, I don't know, you want a specific flower, I'm like, I can draw it.

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Guillermo Rios: But it wouldn't… it wouldn't…

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Guillermo Rios: it wouldn't give… give me, like, the satisfaction of drawing the flower. Let me draw you the flower that I think this jacket needs. That gives me the satisfaction.

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Dwight: You know, I think that it's because you listen to where the art takes you, and you've leaned into being fully who you are, that it's opened some doors for you.

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Dwight: When we met you in that space in Frisco.

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Dwight: I don't know how much you had to deal with there being a little bit of resistance, but I learned that

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Dwight: your… putting your pieces there was a bit of a discussion, because there was this tension. It was all about visual arts, and is it visual art if it's wearable, and oh my goodness.

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Dwight: But there you were, and you… you shined, you rocked that while you were there.

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Guillermo Rios: I'm… I'm… I'm glad you… I'm glad you're telling me that, because I've…

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Guillermo Rios: I've been in other spaces where… and that's probably been, like, a little bit of my struggle going into this.

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Guillermo Rios: because… In some spaces in the art world, they kind of see it as craft.

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Dwight: Yes…

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Guillermo Rios: And I'm like, it's not craft if it has a story, and yet…

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Guillermo Rios: is not craft because it's canvas. It doesn't matter what the canvas is. Like, an artist that's gonna paint on a frame, on a canvas, that's cloth. That's like denim.

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Maddox: You know, we're always going to have this. You know, in the photography world, when digital came on board, all the film photographers go, that's not photography.

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Maddox: You know, well…

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Maddox: A few years later, and film has just all but died. You know, everything's digital now. And then there were those that, okay, okay, if you take it with a digital camera, it's still photography, but if you manipulate it on Photoshop in the computer, it's not photography anymore.

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Guillermo Rios: -Oh.

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Maddox: So we're always gonna struggle with People that don't like change.

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Maddox: You know, and the world progresses and moves on without those people. That's right. In my opinion.

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Guillermo Rios: God.

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Maddox: I know that there's… this is a little shift in conversation, but I think our audience is always interested in this aspect of an artist's life and an artist's career, or a creative's

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Maddox: our, life, is…

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Maddox: The painting… is your brand, is it your full-time gig, or is this a side hustle, and you work a job of some sort in conjunction?

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Guillermo Rios: Yes, I have a job. I have a job, too. This has been…

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Guillermo Rios: the… the… it started as a hobby. SGR, Studio Guillermo Rios, started as a hobby, and now it's… it's taking a lot, it's taking a big jump.

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Guillermo Rios: But, yeah, I'm actually… I'm actually a professor. I teach Spanish literature and Spanish linguistics. So, I teach at Dallas… Dallas colleges, and I've been teaching in different high schools around, DFW,

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Guillermo Rios: In… there's…

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Guillermo Rios: I decided to have that career because I felt that I had to teach exactly where I felt comfortable, and I feel very comfortable being Mexicano, and I feel very comfortable speaking Spanish, and I wanted to

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Guillermo Rios: show that to… to… to the community.

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Guillermo Rios: So, yeah, I'm a Spanish teacher, I studied literature, I studied linguistics, and…

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Guillermo Rios: And that's another way to incorporate

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Guillermo Rios: my art into what… into the stories, I don't know, of Don Quixote, or stories that I know of literature. So yeah, that's… that's my other passion, and it's also a passion, and it's also something that I really, really…

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Guillermo Rios: love doing, going to work and teaching Spanish.

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Maddox: You know, there's nothing… Nothing better than having Two passions.

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Dwight: Yeah.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah.

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Maddox: you know, we don't see very much of that. We had another guest at one point who was in a corporate environment, and he absolutely loved his day job.

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Maddox: But he was an actor when he wasn't doing corporate, and he said, I don't ever intend to give up my corporate job to do acting. I love them both equally.

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Maddox: And they both…

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Maddox: feed my life in ways that I just wouldn't give them up, and it sounds like you're in a similar situation, and that's kind of rare, you know?

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah.

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Maddox: Most people are…

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Maddox: In a day job that puts food on the table and pays bills that they don't love in order to have the time and the money to do their creating and their art.

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Maddox: So, I think you're in a very special place there, and I love this conversation because it lets people know that are listening to this right now that that is a thing!

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah.

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Maddox: You can have it all! You know, people laugh when somebody says you can have it all, but you can have it all.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah, I'm so, I'm so, like, grateful and thankful and…

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Guillermo Rios: grateful for the opportunities that… this is… this is why I gravitate towards painting in black and white, because it's a memory, and I feel like I'm also doing an homage to… to my ancestors, to…

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Guillermo Rios: I don't know, to my parents that pushed for me to study in the United States, to my grandmother that said, yeah, yeah, yeah, come to the United States, study over here, and don't leave your roots, and stay together, speak Spanish all the time, and learn… don't… don't let go of Spanish if you study in the United States. You know, like…

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Guillermo Rios: So, it's all like a circle, and it all resonates with what I do, and I feel…

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Guillermo Rios: that I'm doing the right thing, because it doesn't feel for me like I'm working, or it doesn't feel like… it doesn't feel like pressure. I'm doing it, and I'm enjoying it, and…

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Guillermo Rios: And I'm keeping with my story, and I'm thankful, and I'm grateful, and my intention is to…

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Guillermo Rios: to show the world, the community, a little bit about my story that a lot of us have. A lot of…

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Guillermo Rios: Latinos or a lot of Mexicans in the space have, and I've met great artists who have the same story.

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Guillermo Rios: We do different mediums, but, I mean, I'm happy.

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Maddox: You know, I think being an artist as you are, the type of artist that you are, and teaching the way you do in local educational establishments, I don't know, maybe you've already figured this out, but I think that uniquely positions you to be in front of

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Maddox: Pretty significant percentage of people that are probably your customers.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah.

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Maddox: I would… I would venture to say that there… you know, showing off your work when you're in your educational job, would probably

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Maddox: Give you access to a lot of people that want what you provide.

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Guillermo Rios: And I'm also grateful that my job Had in… had a… like a contest.

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Guillermo Rios: Through the… our… Our business console.

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Guillermo Rios: called, on my own time. Like, what did these customers, or what did these employees do on their own time?

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Dwight: Yes.

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Guillermo Rios: So, I submitted.

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Maddox: Business Council for the Arts?

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Guillermo Rios: This is also for the Arts.

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Guillermo Rios: Yes, and I submitted my first ever jacket. That jacket that I told you about at the beginning. I submitted it, and it won an award. And that's…

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Guillermo Rios: I said, you know what? And it was Nancy Nasher who gave me the award, and I'm like, you know what? Then Nancy Nasher talked to me. She's like, I need to talk to you. And…

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Guillermo Rios: she pulled me aside, and she said, I… I haven't seen nothing like this. Keep doing it. And I said, you know what?

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Guillermo Rios: I'm doing it. I'm just gonna do it because…

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Guillermo Rios: For her, that she's owing to the art world.

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Guillermo Rios: You know?

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Guillermo Rios: I said, if people… people can recognize it, and if they gave me that award, that… that's a sign that I need to continue, and that I have to… it's a passion, and people saw it and gravitate, so… so yeah, I'm also grateful that I had that.

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Guillermo Rios: That award on my own time, and…

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Guillermo Rios: And that also helped me push more.

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Maddox: So, Guillermo, what's the goal? What would you… where would you like to see this go? Like, is there… like, I'm thinking, you've made a connection with Nancy Nasher. We've met her. Dwight… Dwight went through the…

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Maddox: Can't think of what it's called now, Dwight say it? Leap…

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Dwight: Yes, I went through a BCA program that brings businesses and people in the arts organizations together.

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Guillermo Rios: Okay.

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Dwight: Yeah, no one.

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Maddox: I'm, I'm thinking, Nancy…

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Maddox: knows a lot of people in the fashion industry. Owning a mall, where some of the most expensive brands and boutiques in the globe are in that mall.

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Maddox: And I don't know whether those brands ever take on anything, but, you know, you see, like, what they call a collaboration. I mean, even…

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Maddox: Even Gap, you see them collaborating all the time with designers to bring pieces in that are a limited edition. Of course, they're not one of a kind, and that's… that's where it might get a little bit tricky. Since you paint every piece individually.

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Maddox: Hard to say how that would work, but my god, it would certainly be worth… Exploring.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah. And that's truly the goal. That's my goal, and my goal is to be in both gallery spaces and fashion houses. Yes.

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Guillermo Rios: I mean, why not? If I started.

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Guillermo Rios: Why not? And I'm so… I'm not…

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Guillermo Rios: I know everything takes steps, and it takes… it's a process, and I'm learning, like, even with… even with this podcast, like, it's the first podcast that I do, and I… and I… and it's a process that I have to take.

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Guillermo Rios: But I'm open, I'm open, I see myself in Paris, I see myself in Italy, I see myself in Rome and Milan, and…

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Guillermo Rios: New York? Yes, I do.

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Dwight: Well, we're honored to be a part of that journey, and when you come into these spaces, when you get on a mic on something that can be heard for years after you lay it down, you never know who's gonna hear it.

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Guillermo Rios: Yes, yes.

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Maddox: You know, you spoke a minute ago about all the dreams, all the things that you want to do with this brand, and…

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Maddox: You know, what we know and what we talk about a lot on this podcast is that

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Maddox: You can have those goals and those dreams and know what you want it to look like, but the piece that so many people miss out on is

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Maddox: To get there, Is where community comes in.

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Maddox: And the art world tends to not operate that way. We… we operate in… in… seclusion, isolation, and…

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Maddox: you know, when you said, wow, you know, I got Nancy Nasher's attention. Now, granted, she's a local person, so she's not a celebrity globally.

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Maddox: Yeah. Who knows how many people she knows, but… but that's… that's community right there. Even if it's just one person, that's community, and…

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Maddox: Navigating that relationship, building that relationship… is…

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Maddox: How you get where you want to go.

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Maddox: You know, it's not… we always say it's not…

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Maddox: What you know is who you know.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah, I believe.

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Maddox: Now, granted, you know, once you get there, because of the who you know, then you gotta show up with the what you know. You have to have both.

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Guillermo Rios: Yes.

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Maddox: But the what you know rarely ever gets you there. It's the who you know that gets you there, and to have her…

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Maddox: Perhaps in your back pocket. How long ago did this take place?

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Guillermo Rios: It was a… this was a year ago, a year ago's award, yeah.

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Maddox: And have you had any contact with her since then?

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Guillermo Rios: I've had contact with a couple of…

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Guillermo Rios: her people, that they… they offered me to, oh, go to Dallas Fashion Week, or maybe you'll be good at Austin Fashion Week, and I've been… I presented at Austin Fashion Week, and it was like.

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Guillermo Rios: for me, and from a designer perspective and artist, it was a success. Like, I've met so many people. Now I have, like.

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Guillermo Rios: multiple things coming up, and multiple, shows that… that have opened because of that connection. So I'm… I'm very grateful, and…

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Guillermo Rios: And yeah, I can just imagine where I can…

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Guillermo Rios: where I can land, if… if…

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Guillermo Rios: I am… I am a… I'm a believer in that. I need… you need the community, you need the people.

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Guillermo Rios: You need… you need… you need to have your… your… your art, or whatever you do, but you also need the people to support, and…

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Guillermo Rios: the spaces that I've been is because

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Guillermo Rios: I know somebody who knows somebody, who pushed me, who helped me. That's the way I've done it, too.

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Maddox: Dwight and I have a connection that I think would be really great to introduce you to. He is a gentleman that has been on my previous podcast, which was called The Authentic Gay Man.

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Maddox: And he's been a guest on this podcast. Now, he is currently living in Spain.

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Maddox: Is that right? No, Germany. He's living in Germany.

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Maddox: But he lived for a period of time in New York City, and has been involved in Fashion Week in New York City, and

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Maddox: knows some people, I'm sure.

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Guillermo Rios: There you go.

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Maddox: So,

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Maddox: You know, and that's what it's all about, so we're all about putting people together when we see a possible

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Maddox: collaboration, you know, an area where two people can benefit each other. He's,

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Maddox: He's in his upper 20s, or maybe around 30.

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Maddox: And he's just a great person, a great human being. But, yeah.

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Maddox: We'll see what we can do to put you together with him.

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Guillermo Rios: Perfect, thank you so much.

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Dwight: And for anyone listening that wants to get to know him better, look in the feed for Douglas Henry Lewis.

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Guillermo Rios: Okay.

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Maddox: Yeah.

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Maddox: Yeah, great, great young man. I've had… I have pretty regular interactions with him. We've had some emails just in the last…

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Maddox: couple of weeks, he's trying to get situated in Germany, and it's been a little bit of a rough ride, but…

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Dwight: culture shock.

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Maddox: Yeah, yeah.

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Guillermo Rios: I bet.

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Guillermo Rios: I bet.

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Dwight: But…

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Maddox: But he's doing it. So, so tell us a little bit more about…

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Maddox: You know, what you're currently doing to build community.

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Guillermo Rios: I've been trying to stay connected and go to different events and…

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Guillermo Rios: just showing up at events. A lot of… a lot of what I'm doing is not necessarily…

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Guillermo Rios: for example, giving me any… you know, I'm not getting paid or anything, but I'm still showing up. I'm still trying to meet people.

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Guillermo Rios: And… and build, so that people know who I am. Basically, like, planting the seed.

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Guillermo Rios: That's what I'm doing.

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Guillermo Rios: planting the seeds here and there, here and there, and going and showing up, and seeing how I can help. I've also donated.

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Guillermo Rios: jackets to Latino Pride.

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Guillermo Rios: And I've donated jackets to DIFA. I was very happy that they said, oh, would you want to donate? Definitely, yes, here's two jackets. And they took pictures of it, so…

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Maddox: That's… that's quite an accomplishment. Not everybody gets, I mean.

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Maddox: to put some of their work in DIFA. DFA is a.

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Guillermo Rios: Yes.

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Guillermo Rios: So the way that that happened, I was… I did Dallas Fashion Week, and the host of Dallas Fashion Week was a direct connection to DIFA. She's… she's a big… she's, like, the DIFA representative.

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Guillermo Rios: And…

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Guillermo Rios: she did it after the runway, they made me, like, they told me, okay, walk on stage so that people know who you are, and then they stopped me, and she did, like, a little interview.

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Guillermo Rios: And she said, wait a minute. There, in front of everybody in the runway, she said, I need you for DIFA. And I said, wait, I've always wanted to be in DIFA. Like, I know the… how big it is. And she said, okay.

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Guillermo Rios: she calls somebody, and she said, get his name, get his information, he's gonna come to DIFA, and… and that's how it… that's exactly how it was.

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Maddox: You know, that's part of showing up, Guillermo. Yeah.

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Guillermo Rios: Partisan?

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Maddox: I'm gonna say this, not necessarily to you, yes to you, but…

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Maddox: for the benefit of our listeners as well, because this is something that Dwight and I have a lot of conversations about, something we've learned in our journey, something that he's probably maybe a little bit better at than I am. You know, I'm… I'm…

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Maddox: I'm retired now, basically, and kind of at a time in my life where I'm kind of wanting to pull back a little bit, but he's… he's going 90 to nothing strong. But one of the things we've learned, and because

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Maddox: I've led networking groups, business networking groups, and different types of things like this. I've created groups and led groups, organized groups, you name it, over the years.

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Maddox: And one of the things we definitely know is, and this is the most forgotten piece, is it's not enough to make the connections, to go to all the events and to make the connections.

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Maddox: If you don't follow up.

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Dwight: Breach.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah.

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Maddox: follow… the follow-up is the most important piece of it. So you met somebody, you gave them a viscous card, you got their business card, and if there's no follow-up, it just disappears into blackness.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah.

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Maddox: And the follow-up is not just a follow-up one time, you have to follow up, and follow up, and follow up, because it's about building a relationship with these people, and that happens over time. In the years when I was really doing a lot of networking, we talked about people want to do business with.

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Maddox: And in this case, collaborate with…

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Maddox: People that they know, like, and trust.

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Maddox: And those 3 things only happen over time.

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Maddox: with ongoing interaction. You don't build, know, like, and trust without ongoing interaction. So the follow-up is…

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Maddox: Well, what's… what's the word? The… the… there's a sentence…

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Dwight: Success is in the following.

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Maddox: Yes, the success is in the follow-up. Thank you. I can always depend on him to pull some obscure title out of the… out of his butt. You know, he just… oop, there it is.

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Dwight: Yeah.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah. I mean, I also take it as a…

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Guillermo Rios: Advice, because it's hard sometimes to…

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Guillermo Rios: to follow up, so thank you for that. Thank you for that reminder.

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Maddox: You know, I would recommend some type of a system. We use an online platform called Trello, and Trello is a…

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Maddox: Project management tool, basically.

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Guillermo Rios: Okay.

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Maddox: But you would, for something like this, you would, you know, create contact, let's say, contacts in a certain particular field. You'd have what they call a list.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah.

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Maddox: You know? And then each person would have a card, and then you'd have checklists and things, and you would track the time, the dates where you have reached out to them, and so you can keep track of all, and you have a reference point where every Monday you go in and say.

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Maddox: Who do I need to follow up with this week?

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Maddox: And it's all there in a system to keep you on board. Trello has a free version.

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Guillermo Rios: I wanted to write it down.

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Maddox: Excuse me?

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Guillermo Rios: I want to write it down as you're talking.

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Maddox: G-R-E-L-L-O.

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Maddox: They have a free version, but even the paid version is really cheap, and there's a little bit of a learning curve.

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Maddox: They've got tutorials and all kinds of stuff, and there's a gazillion YouTube videos that can show you a walkthrough. They even have an area where you can go in and look for templates of already built-out Trello boards they call them boards.

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Dwight: Well, I didn't.

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Maddox: And you could say, you know, searching for a board for…

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Maddox: fashion, I don't know, you know, something, and just see what you… what you come up with. But it's not hard to create a board from scratch once you've watched some tutorials and

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Maddox: I figured it out. If I can figure it out, anybody can figure it out. But it's a… but it's a great, great tool.

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Dwight: You also need to lean on people as a resource as well, and someone that I can recommend that we've had on the show, episode number 73, features Eli Delaney, and he actually wrote a book called The Follow-Up Code.

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Dwight: That walks you through

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Dwight: a way that you can make sure that you… you keep in contact, and… and… Yeah.

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Maddox: He teaches a complete system on how to follow up and build your your network.

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Maddox: I don't really like that.

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Guillermo Rios: Impressive, yeah. Yeah.

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Guillermo Rios: I… I feel like I've been, like, planting the seed everywhere.

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Guillermo Rios: And now I have to star.

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Guillermo Rios: gathering, like you said, gathering, I know people, I know photographers, I know makeup artists, I know models, I know art people, I know directors of galleries, so now I do… I know that they're… I know they're there, I need to follow up, and I need to gather everything.

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Maddox: The garden analogy is absolutely perfect.

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Maddox: You know, you till the soil, you plant the seeds.

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Maddox: Then you've got to be sure and weed the garden. You've got to be sure to keep the pests out. You have got to water the plants, and all… do all of the above. And then at the end, you get a harvest.

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Dwight: I'm back.

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Maddox: It starts all over again, you know? We're running short on time, and I want to cover one more base before we wrap it up, because we have yet to talk about our third component. We've covered creativity, and we've covered community. Let's talk a little bit about becoming.

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Maddox: Because… We… and this is a kind of a universal thing.

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Maddox: You can spend the time, probably, looking back on the last few years since you'd started, 3 or 4 years, what you said, since you started painting on denim.

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Maddox: And see how far you've come, and you can see who you had to… you can literally, if you spend some time reflecting, see who you had to become in order to get where you are right now.

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Maddox: And if you… if you do a flash… flashback.

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Maddox: In just a sentence or two, can you tell us

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Maddox: who you're aware that you had to… had to… and it's an inner thing, it's not… not… not out… something out here. It's a… something inside here you had to become to get where you are right now. Can you put a couple of, labels on that?

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Maddox: A description, maybe?

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah, I think I had to become… Maybe secure on myself.

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Guillermo Rios: And I had to become…

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Guillermo Rios: I had to trust myself, too.

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Guillermo Rios: to do it. And…

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Guillermo Rios: I had to find my identity and be comfortable and be happy with exactly who I am.

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Guillermo Rios: And I feel like it's a process, it's a process, but… Around, around, everything.

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Guillermo Rios: Around everything that is happening, having… having a voice, and having…

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Guillermo Rios: a voice, not only for me, but for my culture, for who I am, for my… for the people that I know.

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Guillermo Rios: I think that that's what pushed me to continue, and to become who I am as an artist, as a creative.

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Guillermo Rios: For sure.

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Maddox: Okay.

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Maddox: you get an award for delivering that so eloquently and so concisely. That was amazing, and I just want the people out in podcast land listening to this to know that he did not know I was going to ask that question.

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Guillermo Rios: That was…

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Maddox: not rehearsed or scripted. That was straight off the top of his head, and I am blown away.

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Guillermo Rios: Thank you so much. I don't know if I can deliver it again. It came… it came out of… it truly came out of.

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Maddox: It was so articulate. I encourage you, when you get off the phone, to write that down. When you get off the call, to write as best you can your memory, write that down. That is powerful. Now.

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Guillermo Rios: Thank you.

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Maddox: Next question.

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Maddox: We pretty much know that what gets us here won't get us there.

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Maddox: You've got a next stage now. You've gotten to this plateau. You've received or achieved a certain level of what you set out to achieve. Now you've set bigger goals farther out there. You named those a little bit earlier.

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Maddox: Off the top of your head.

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Maddox: Who does Guillermo need to become now?

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Maddox: That inner thing, in order to get to the next stage.

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Maddox: Something more than what you just described.

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Guillermo Rios: You know, that's powerful I probably have to become a… I would have to become…

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Guillermo Rios: A receptor of many information, and also a…

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Guillermo Rios: I feel like I have to be, like, a pioneer. I feel like it's not necessarily…

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Guillermo Rios: reinventing the wheel, but maybe adding to the wheel. That's the way I want to describe it.

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Guillermo Rios: When I say receptor, I mean…

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Guillermo Rios: like, for example, taking advice from experts, or taking advice from other people. I did not know what you just shared about having a database of all these people and follow up.

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Guillermo Rios: having all of that, and taking it into consideration, and being aware that the help exists, I think that's who I have to become, in order to get there.

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Maddox: In a nutshell, what I'm really hearing you say, that you're not saying, is you need to just become really open.

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Guillermo Rios: Open, yeah.

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Maddox: open and receptive. You said receptive.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah, yeah. Open and receptive.

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Maddox: on. Yes. Spot on.

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Guillermo Rios: Because I could be, like, I could be like, oh no, I already know how to do this, and I'm like, no, like, I need…

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Guillermo Rios: I need this app, I need to follow up, I need… that's what I said earlier, I'm like, thank you for reminding me that, yes, I'm planting the seed, but I also have to follow up. I have a great connection there, I have a great connection here, and often I just…

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Guillermo Rios: I just… You know?

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Maddox: Seeds with no water and fertilizer don't ever grow.

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Dwight: Right.

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Guillermo Rios: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

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Maddox: Anything else you can think of that you would need that inner, inner thing?

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Maddox: I mean, I'm kind of also hearing, as you talk about it, you didn't say this, but I'm hearing that you're gonna have to step way out of your comfort zone. Is that accurate?

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Guillermo Rios: Yes, definitely. I… and I also have to let go of certain things, for sure, and…

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Maddox: Can you name one or two things that you need to let go of? That's brilliant! Because it's always… becoming isn't always about just embracing new things, it's about letting go of the shit that's no longer working.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah, well, some of the… some of the… I… I can just think of, like, there's these ideas of, like, cookie-cutter ideas that you have to… that you have to fulfill.

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Guillermo Rios: So I feel like breaking those, those ideas…

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Guillermo Rios: Would propel me and will help me launch.

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Guillermo Rios: for example… Thinking that I have to be in certain spaces, In order to make it.

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Guillermo Rios: I feel like… I feel like… there's other…

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Guillermo Rios: places for me to go, and I have to… Maybe let go of, of.

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Guillermo Rios: people, maybe people, maybe… maybe spaces that are not helping me, you know? And recognizing that… recognizing that in the world, I mean, I don't wanna… I don't…

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Guillermo Rios: would like to say it, but, like, in the world, sometimes in fashion and in art, there's a little bit of, like.

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Guillermo Rios: people pulling back, and people, you know, like, I… sometimes it happens like that, so I have to be open and receptive to, if somebody else is giving me a hand, maybe go that way, or go this other way, and be open.

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Maddox: I think you're right. I think when we tie it to specific, I gotta get this person on my side, and I've gotta be in this space, and what we're doing is we're cutting off the generosity of the universe. We're saying, I'll only accept it if it comes looking like this, and this.

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Guillermo Rios: Yes.

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Maddox: Dwight.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm referring to, yeah.

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Guillermo Rios: If… just… just thinking that… That one route is the route, or thinking that road is the road.

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Maddox: I also want to recommend that everything you've stated now that you write down as well, this is really powerful stuff. And I'm going to turn it over to Dwight, because we've got about 2 minutes left, and we're going to wrap up, but wow.

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Maddox: Wow.

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Dwight: I just want to say that another thing that comes to mind as you describe that is how there are a lot of ways that we can only think that there's the way to get in through the front door.

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Dwight: But anyone who's ever wanted to get into an exclusive club has…

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Dwight: Always known that the shortcut is being able to find a path to the side door.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah.

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Maddox: Or the backdoor, for that matter. Sure.

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Guillermo Rios: From the window.

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Dwight: Yeah.

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Guillermo Rios: Most definitely, that's exactly what I was trying to say, like, just letting go of certain paths that maybe wasn't the right path, maybe I needed to do this other path. So, just recognizing that, I think that's the thing that I have to let go of, and…

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Guillermo Rios: And just move on.

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Dwight: I… I want to, first of all.

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Dwight: give you props for being a man of arts and letters. Representation matters, and it's important that people can see you in the classroom.

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Dwight: And I hope that you do everything that you can to show all of you, because what you have in the world of fashion and art

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Dwight: Is an amazing gift.

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Dwight: And I… I know that you're planting seeds in the classroom as well, because…

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Dwight: Let's face it, there are a lot of people that may have had some really horrible experiences with people who didn't care about what it was to… to have,

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Dwight: Well, to have an appreciation for the deeper culture, the giants whose shoulders we're standing on.

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Dwight: And it's… it means so much to… to have someone that's able to tell your story in your way.

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Guillermo Rios: Yeah. Yeah.

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Maddox: Guillermo, I want to acknowledge you for really showing up. I mean, I felt like this was very, very down-to-earth, very real, very authentic.

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Maddox: And there was no pretense for putting on any airs, and…

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Maddox: You know, what a gift you have given not only Dwight and I, but our entire audience.

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Dwight: Yeah.

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Guillermo Rios: Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much, and thank you for making it.

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Guillermo Rios: a safe space for me to just say what I need to say, so… and it was… thank you, thank you again, thank you for the platform, thank you for the opportunity, and great questions, and it just…

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Guillermo Rios: it just helped me just talk about what I really felt, so… Thank you.

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Maddox: It's been an honor and a pleasure.

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Guillermo Rios: Likewise…

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Maddox: And now I can't figure out how to turn the recording off.

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Maddox: There we go, they changed it.