Making “Ugly” Things Beautiful & Scaling Creativity w/ Beautify Earth Founders Evan & Ruben

Today I’ve got the authors of a worldwide artistic movement. Evan Meyer and Ruben Rojas. Evan, the founder of a highly successful SAS company, and Ruben with a finance background.  Both artists, who were able to use their business knowledge and scaling abilities to turn this hobby of making “ugly” walls beautiful and run a successful nonprofit and for-profit called Beautify Earth...which is responsible for painting murals for over 60 brands, in over 80 cities worldwide, over a hundred local NGO’s with over 10,000 murals! Ruben’s last oh shit moment. Evan’s oh shit and hell yea moment. We’re gonna talk about making ugly things beautiful, about art, we’re gonna talk about making money with art, bureaucracies, and loops, but first Sebastian wants to know how Evan and Ruben met. Evan and Ruben share a bed together. Comfortable of masculine men to share close spaces. Importance of sharing vulnerability amongst business partners. A moment in Evan and Ruben’s initial friendship when they realized they could potentially be business partners. Beautify Lincoln in Venice, CA. The very first Beautify Earth project. Why should we beautify cities and boring or ugly walls? Besides the obvious visual aspect. Started mini projects like Beautify Williamsburg and other cities. Seb asks, “How can you just reach out to cities? It sounds very bureaucratic to get permits and things like that can you give any advice to anyone trying to get through to a city for a specific project?” Ruben was in finance and at one point realizes, “Hey I can be an artist full time and make a living out of this.” Seb asks, “How does it feel when you realize you can make money doing something that drives you like art? Especially with art… seems very fairy tale.” Evan’s successful SAS company Ride Amigos and handling a side hustle and passion. Where is Beautify Earth at today? Beautify Earth’s for-profit sector. Importance of implementing a for-profit aspect in order to scale.  Importance of implementing operations into such a large scale art project and bring in skills from “traditional” business into scaling art and creativity.  Showing companies what badass wall art can do for them. Ruben’s favorite art installation. How artists can get in touch with Beautify to become a part of the team in their own city. Evan and Ruben give their 2 most important traits for a conscious leader to embody. Visit Beautify Earth and find Beautify on Instagram.  Connect with Sebastian on Instagram SebastianNaum.com