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CreativityTranscript
00:00My name is Tanika Griggs. I am the Director of External Affairs for the Michigan Black Business
00:05Alliance. You brought us a guest. Yes, I did. So this is one of our members. This is Sherry. So
00:11she owns the Color and Museum. Hi, Sherry. It's Sherry. Sherry. Hi, Sherry. Hi. You went to what
00:22high school? You're from here? I am from here. So I attended Oak Park High School. Oak Park. Yes.
00:29Oak Park. Class of 2002. Yeah? Were you a free spirit at Oak Park? I was, you know what?
00:39I think I was a little socially awkward. Yeah? Yeah. What do you think? What do you tell
00:44me? I'm sorry. I don't do interviews. I just like to talk. I'm a curious kind of person.
00:51Yes, yes. So I'm an artist. So that shit just speaks for us. You were an artist then in high
00:57school? Oh yeah. I've been drawing since the age of three. Wow. I think my mom told me
01:02too, but I remember three. In the words of Wesley Snipes in the movie New Jack City, get the
01:11out of here. Wow. No kidding. Yes. You've always had that feel, huh? Yes. Are you right-handed
01:20left-handed? I'm left. And then she's left-handed. Yes. I am left-handed. I got it honest. See
01:29you got it honest? Who has it? I got it honest. Both parents. You've got to be kidding. Yeah.
01:33Both of my parents are very creative. And you want a date? Yeah. You left-handed? Yeah. Yes.
01:38All right there. Let's do it. Wow. Do either one of your parents draw? Yes. So my mom claims
01:48that she doesn't draw, but I remember her doodling. Yeah. She can doodle. Yeah. So, um, and my father,
01:55he's a carpenter. Ooh. So, uh, yeah, he's a carpenter and also a bass guitar player. Yeah. No kidding.
02:02Yeah. That's fascinating. So you get to Oak Park High. You, you, you enter your thing then. What
02:10are you doing at Oak Park, uh, with, with your craft? Yep. So I'm, I'm drawing, illustrating
02:15for the most part. Yeah. Yeah. You making up stuff and. Yeah. So, uh, more realistic. Um, my,
02:22my media was, uh, more so, uh, pencil. Oh, wow. And colored pencils. So. Ooh. Colored
02:32pencil too on top of that. You do any chalk work? Yes. Yep. Chalk as well. Yeah. No kidding.
02:39You, you, you. Mostly a black and white artist. Yeah. Yeah. That is, um. And my business
02:45is in color. So. Your business is in color. Okay. So now we got a feel for, for how this
02:52all came about. What do you do? Yep. So, um, transitioning from, you know, high school into college.
03:01Where'd you go? Yep. College for Crave Studies. Have a. Where the hell is that at? You don't
03:07know where CCS is. It's right behind the DIA. Oh, oh, oh, oh, that's what that is. Yeah.
03:13I thought that was like a high school. No, no. That's. That's. That's. That's one of the
03:17most prestigious art colleges in the country. That's where. No kidding. Yeah. That's where
03:21a lot of the, um, the big three recruit their, uh, car designers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going
03:29back to Wesley Snipes in the Jeep. Wow. Yep. Yep. So, so when you went into that, that college,
03:37I told you, I can't do the interview. You go into that college. How's the curriculum set up for you?
03:43Uh, so, I mean, at the end of the day, um, it's, it just depends on, uh, what field you
03:52are pursuing. So. Oh yeah. They just start to craft it out right away. Yeah. Yeah. No.
03:57I mean, it's just like any other college except it just focuses on the art. So you have your
04:01industrial designers, you have your fine arts, illustration, animation majors, advertising.
04:07Um, so I focus. I'm going to go hang out a day. Yeah, definitely. You should. Sheree,
04:13what you, so, so your focus, your major was? Illustration. Illustration. With a minor
04:19in 3D animation. With a minor in 3D. Yeah. So you're an illustrator. Yes. You create your
04:25own business. What does your business do? Yep. So I am the owner and illustrator of the
04:31Coloring Museum. We are using the. It's called the Coloring. The Coloring Museum. Museum. Yes.
04:37Hey, I'm passing. Uh, it was inspired by my, um, my coloring book. It was, it just started
04:43off as a process, uh, passion project. So I went natural in 2013 with my hair and I wanted
04:53to, uh, illustrate my, my hair journey. So, uh, at the time that I decided that, uh, adult
05:00coloring books were very popular. So I said, okay, you know, let me go ahead and create a coloring
05:06book from it. And I did pop-up coloring events. Again, this was just supposed to be something
05:11fun to do, engage with the community. Um, nothing was supposed to come out of this except just
05:17having this project. And, uh, it became a thing, you know, uh, my first.
05:22How many people, Sheree, show up at the first one?
05:24So the very first one was at Good Cakes and Bakes. We had over 230 people.
05:28No way. No way. And they came up to, to do what?
05:32To just color. Yeah. To color. The color. One, to color, uh, to relax. And then also color,
05:40uh, illustrations that look like them. So, you know, black girls with big hair.
05:46Okay, Sheree. Now we've got a theme going. Yeah. Mm-hmm. You do this pop-up. The theme
05:55is based off your hair using your art. How does this become a business?
06:03So I was, I was participating in another market pop-up. Um, Sarah Donnelly at the time, she
06:10was, uh, director at Tectown. Okay. And she saw me and she said, Hey, you know, you should
06:16participate in, uh, Tectown retail bootcamp. Like the retail bootcamp. I'm not trying to
06:22do that. Right. I was like, just, no, just come to, come to the, to the orientation and
06:27learn more about it. And so I sat through the orientation. I said, Yup. No, I still don't.
06:33I'm not, I'm not feeling this. And she said, just, just participate. Just, just come and
06:38participate. I said, okay, fine. So I did Tectown retail bootcamp back in 2017. Um, that's
06:46when I came up with the coloring museum. She sent me an article about some other pop-ups
06:53and I became inspired from that. And I said, okay, you know, let's, let's make this a thing.
06:59So when I was trying to avoid the thing, I made it a thing. And, um, I came up with
07:05the
07:05idea of having people to actually color on the walls. Cause that's what I used to do
07:09when I was younger. Color on the wall. Yes. Wait, wait, listen, listen. So attorney
07:14Griggs, this is, this is so parents would kill you and they kill you so much. By the time
07:23you become a young adult, you don't want to have, it ain't even a thought anymore. You
07:31you had people color on the wall. Yep. So many people came, Cherie. So when I did my
07:38first brick and mortar pop-up in 2023 at Grand River workplace, we had over a hundred people.
07:46Jeez. Yeah. So your business does what for people now? Yep. So right now we are offering
07:55color, uh, custom coloring products and services. What does that mean? So that means, so as you
08:01already know, I'm an illustrator. So, uh, what my clients will do, they'll commission me to
08:06do a custom illustration for their events. And then we all have different type of services. So
08:12for example, one of our most popular services is the coloring wall. Um, just depending on if it's
08:18indoor or outdoor, it could be as large as, um, a 10 by eight foot coloring mural for people to
08:27come
08:27in and collaborate and color and they'll finish that mural. And, um, our clients either keep the
08:35mural or I'll take it back. And yeah, so, um, we had that mural, uh, at the NFL draft. Uh,
08:44yeah. So,
08:45uh, that's one thing that MBBA helped me out with, got me connected with the NFL. So we were part
08:51of
08:51that. How'd you find them Sheree? God, I, you know what? I can't remember exactly when I became a
09:01member, but I know my mentor at tech town mentioned MBBA to me. No kidding. Yeah. Woo. All right.
09:11attorney. You, you worked with her. Um, how we, how was the Black Business Alliance able to help
09:19give her more guidance in what she was doing? Yeah. I think, um, Sheree has been in a couple
09:24of our programs. I think she did BizWiz, Capital Connect. What's BizWiz? So I'll let her speak
09:30to the program. What's BizWiz? So BizWiz, uh, is, is a great program. So it's technical assistance
09:37for small businesses. Okay. Um, so if I'm not mistaken, they, they can help you with
09:42your business plan. Um, some graphic design, marketing, things of that nature. Um, I know
09:48that they, uh, started me off with the business plan, which has been revised multiple times
09:54over the years as my business evolved. And how long have you been in business? I, so loaded
10:00questions. So again, like I said, I, I illustrated that color book back in 2016 and started off as
10:06nationally illustrated and the coloring museum became a subsidiary of nationally illustrated.
10:11But now the coloring museum is its own LLC, um, that was established in 2024, but we opened
10:19up the brick and mortar pop-up in 2023. Nice. That's crazy what you're doing. If you told
10:27somebody, they'd tell you to go to hell and nobody's coming. Yeah. Yeah. Who did someone
10:35almost disencourage you to, I mean, that's, uh, so this is the thing, um, you know, and this
10:43is why people say, you know, don't, don't start your business off from a trend. Right. Um, and
10:49again, when I illustrated my coloring book, it was not meant to be a business. It was just
10:56a project. Um, when I attended, um, an illustration conference, uh, God, that was what 2019 maybe.
11:05Okay. Um, you know, I, I showed them my coloring book and you know, I said, Hey, this is what
11:11I have. And you know, one of the, um, it was, uh, I can't remember who she was. I don't
11:18know
11:18if she was from Hallmark. Um, but they, they said something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Something
11:24like that. They said, um, yeah. Color books, adult coloring books are no longer a thing. I'm
11:32like, I agree with you, but you know that I'm trying to make it bigger than that. And
11:38so, um, so that was the only time that I tried to run you in the corner and make you
11:44cry and
11:44quit. Yeah, no, I didn't. But you know, that's the one thing about, you know, being an entrepreneur,
11:50you know, I think a lot of entrepreneurs are very creative in their own way. You have to
11:55be. Um, so, you know, you have to think beyond a trend. You have to think about, uh, sustainability
12:01was, was being called into the industry at that moment. Um, you know, constantly thinking
12:07about, okay, how can you scale and grow a business? So I've always was thinking 10 steps
12:14ahead. Okay. Um, and I, I have so many ideas right now. I'm not going to share them yet,
12:21but yeah, but you know, one of the things that, um, I came up with is the coloring truck.
12:27Uh, that is a 26 foot trailer that you'll be able to color directly on the trailer, both
12:33the interior and exterior. Um, that is fascinating. Yeah. Yeah. So,
12:44you've already started practicing and all of that. So the, uh, the coloring truck is launching
12:50November 8th. We're having our ribbon cutting at all things. It's done. It's done. It's done.
12:58It's been. Son of a sea biscuit. That is. Thank you for coming and sharing. Yes. That's a fascinating
13:07business story. Jeez. Wow. We definitely a journey. Yeah. You can do anything from the
13:16size of your hand to the size of a building, huh? That's crazy. That's great. Wow. Thank
13:24you for coming in. Thank you for having me. Yep. I know we were supposed to do an interview.
13:29I can't do that. They fire me every day. So you know how to do an interview? No, forget
13:34that. I just want to talk. I'm fascinated. That is cool. Where are you located? So we're
13:40not located anywhere just yet. How do they find you? So they can find me on social media,
13:46the coloring museum, one word on Instagram, Tik TOK and Facebook. And then also the coloring
13:53museum.com. Beautiful. Jeez. That's great. That's great. One day I'm going to interview
14:00you. That was great. That's a hell of a story, man. Attorney Grace, tell people how to reach
14:07you. Yep. So you can follow us on social media, Black Biz Alliance. You can also visit our website,
14:13blackbizalliance.com to learn more about what we do. I do want to highlight that we do have
14:17our annual fundraising event that is December 16th. Um, the theme is super fly. So make
14:23sure you get your outfits and everything together. Tickets will be released, um, the second week
14:27of October. Um, so we'll be back to kind of talk more about that, but I do want to thank
14:32Cherie today for her creative skills. We utilize her for a lot of our events. Today is national
14:38coffee day. Today is national coffee day. Oh yes. Make sure you stop by Rosa. Wednesday
14:43campus cafe. National coloring day. And then just to let you guys know too, after you visit
14:48charities, uh, Rosa, stop by Dearborn because I actually illustrated a pocket coloring guide
14:56for the city of Dearborn. So you can see something, figure out what they need, or they can give
15:01you an idea and then you can exploit it. Yeah, definitely. So a lot of times the clients reach
15:06out to me, they have an event and they want me to illustrate something that their community
15:13can color, take home. Um, yeah. Angie gonna bug the hell out of you. Thank you very much
15:22again. And attorney, thanks. Thank you for having me.
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