The Power of Pink and Metalsmithing with Tracey Carswell

Tracey Carswell is not just any artist – they're a non-binary powerhouse, redefining the nexus of personal struggle, artistic expression, and entrepreneurial spirit. Join me, Veronica Edwards, as I sit down with Tracey, whose ventures, Powerful and Pink and Queer Metalsmith, are more than just businesses – they're movements. Tracey opens up about their life's voyage, sharing how affection for pink became a catalyst for discussions that challenge societal norms and foster inclusivity. Our conversation weaves through the profound services Tracey's initiatives offer and underscores the tremendous value of representation in today's world of enterprise. Their journey is a testament to the powerful blend of identity and craftsmanship, a narrative that will resonate deeply with anyone who's ever dared to merge their truth with their professional aspirations.

The sense of community Tracey has cultivated through Queer Metalsmiths stands as a sanctuary for SLGBTQIA+ individuals in the world of metalwork, demonstrating resilience against the odds – including a recent break-in at a queer organization. The dialogue in this episode also offers a window into my own story, revealing the life-altering impact of kindness, self-care, and gratitude. Listeners, your unwavering support is the very reason we can share these stories; Tracey's insights and the unity we've found in diversity are just the beginning. So tune in, feel the embrace of a community that values every voice, and let's continue to celebrate the shared strength that makes us all shine brighter together.

Website: https://powerfulin.pink
Facebook: Tracey Carswell, Powerful in Pink by TLC
Instagram: powerfulinpinkbytlc, queermetalsmiths

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Transcript

Veronica: 0:42

Welcome to the Veronica Edwards show where we have fun financial conversations that everyone listening can apply to their personal and professional life. I'm your host, veronica Edwards, and so excited to be back here. 2024 for season three feels like we've been in season three for a while, but it's been a great season so far here on biz radio dot us. As always, I'm going to thank the V team for supporting and listening. This year we're definitely going to be stepping it up with some more social media and marketing. We're going to be doing little snippets and excited for what's to come, and I'm super excited today to have my new BFF on the show.

Veronica: 1:28

And, of course, I met this person on mountain. Say, on mountain, biz works about this class that I was teaching back at the end of 2023. So this guest immediately became one of my favorite students because this guest is as silly as I am and just has an amazing personality. The guest is a queer, non binary coach, curator, artists and educator dedicated to building inclusive communities. They are the founder of powerful and pink that offers coaching, small business support, curation services. I got questions on them, curation services. But additionally, this guest has co founded queer metal Smith, a community space that honors centers and lists to SL GP, tqia, plus some twisters and metal smooths. So, without further ado, I would like to introduce the amazing, the incredible my new best friend, tracy cars. Well, hello, tracy how are?

Tracey : 2:36

you Hello hello, so great to be here. Thank you for having me on here.

Veronica: 2:43

Thank you for being on. And I was telling Tracy I'm nervous because Tracy is my first non binary person. So I'm like, okay, what do I say? I don't want to goof up, I don't want to say this wrong, I don't want to offend anybody. Tracy is just like. I'll just let you know if you say it wrong. We'll just keep it moving. So, thank you, tracy.

Tracey : 2:59

Thank you so much for having me and I appreciate you giving me a space and opportunity and also doing the research to to make the effort, and that, I think, is the biggest thing that anyone can do, because I mess up Sometimes. You know what I'm talking about myself.

Veronica: 3:20

And I appreciate that you're allowing me to ask questions, because I feel like I'm always that for my friends, like I'm, always like I'm the representative for all black people.

Tracey : 3:29

If you have any questions.

Veronica: 3:30

You can touch my hair, you can ask. I don't get offended, so thank you for not be, yes, you can do those things with me. So we always start the show off asking the guests to tell us about you, where you're from your story, what led you to entrepreneurship, doing all these great things for you know, the community.

Tracey : 3:55

I mean, we've only got 20 minutes. So I grew up. I grew up in Pennsylvania and I always loved art. I ended up going to art school and then I dropped out of art school and I became a professional drunk for several years and it took having liver and kidney failure for me to stop drinking, which actually saved my life.

Veronica: 4:21

Wow.

Tracey : 4:21

Yeah, then I moved back in with my parents. I went back to school. I got a degree in fashion accessory design, and that's when things started changing. I started working more in my industry and got myself into the Bay of Seen.

Veronica: 4:43

Yes, so you know, Tracy, I hear all the time metal Smith. I'm at the point where I want to be a metal Smith it just sounds cool, it is when you were in the Mountain Visworks class there was another metal Smith. It seems like every class I teach is a thing. I want to talk a little bit about that. Like, what is a metal Smith?

Tracey : 5:04

So it's just like it sounds. If someone who works with metals, sometimes you'll hear someone say they're a gold Smith or a silver Smith and that just means they specifically work in that metal, or a black Smith, that's someone who usually works in steel or one of the harder metals. So metal Smith usually is people who are working in silver, copper, brass, making jewelry. They may also make functional items, but it's pretty much what it sounds like. You know it's, you're working, you're a metal bender, which is pretty incredible.

Veronica: 5:42

It's really cool and it seems like there's a huge market for it and even though it sounds a little saturated, it's so unique. I feel like there's space for everybody in that world.

Tracey : 5:52

Yeah, yeah, because there's so many different ways for people to show their uniqueness and their craft and people like different kinds of things. That's the great thing there's always going to be an audience, absolutely.

Veronica: 6:07

So we're going to talk about queer metal Smith a little later, but first I want to jump into powerful and pink. I love that business name, so please tell the listeners how long you've been in business, what type of services you provide. I heard that curation service.

Tracey : 6:24

I want to add that to my services.

Veronica: 6:26

That sounds very fancy. And of course, if you're taking new clients, are you remote? That a bing, that a boom? Just tell us all the ways we can support powerful and pink, and how you even came up with the name Sure.

Tracey : 6:39

So it's interesting, I started wearing when I was growing up as a kid. I wore pink and then in my teenage years you couldn't catch me in any color and then, when I was about 2021, I started wearing pink again and next thing, I know I'm starting to wear pink, buy pink. People are starting to see me wearing pink and starting to think of me as pink. And as I'm wearing pink, I'm having these interesting conversations about, you know, like men who say, oh, I would never wear pink. You know, and women who say, oh, I never wear pink either, like it's too girly. And I was like I'm not girly and just like the color. But it was opening up some really interesting conversations about this color and about the, you know, the way we think about it and it's all about the context we have around it. So, you know, I mean maybe not depends on who's listening, but there was a movie kids back in the day called Pretty in Pink.

Tracey : 7:47

Yes, Uh-huh, and we've all heard that phrase, Pretty in Pink. And for me it wasn't about being pretty in pink, it was about being powerful in pink and kind of breaking up some of those ideas that we have about pink, about gender, about what we see and think. So that's where the name came from. I've been wearing the color pink every day since 2008. And it makes gift giving really easy.

Tracey : 8:19

For people who know me, just say it okay, You'll get my information at the end of this show and feel free by birthdays in August. Thanks, yes, so my I've started my business a couple of times, but the most recent time was when, in 2018, I founded Powerful in Pink, and that is who I love to work with and who I love taking care of and partnering with is small business owners. I love going in and working with entrepreneurs, creatives, artists. I'm an artist too, so I know that there's different parts of your brain that you work with. There's the art part and then there's the business part, and a lot of artists don't have as strong of an overlap with those two, and so that's something that I'm able to provide, because I love spreadsheets, I love organizing things and I love you know that's. I mean, that's why we bonded. We were like right, so a little bit about curation. So I've been a collector my whole life, not a hoarder, okay.

Veronica: 9:46

I mean.

Tracey : 9:46

my partner may say differently, but I'm going to say collecting, because that's the fancy thing. And one of the things I found as I've developed my business myself and my relationships is that I love gathering people and resources and opportunities and things like that, and then I love matching folks up you know like oh, you're part of the queer artist community. I got you. You know that kind of thing.

Veronica: 10:25

Like that. We also call that you're, you're the plug, you're the plug, you're the connector to these different things. I absolutely love that, and I didn't realize that you started wearing pink every day back in 2008. I thought it was after you were diagnosed with cancer.

Tracey : 10:41

No, it was actually a little one coming to say hi, nice, that's Cora.

Veronica: 10:48

Alright, we're back Tracy. I forgot to add you're a fur parent also.

Tracey : 10:56

Now, we all know, don't we?

Veronica: 10:59

And that's no problem. We always hear at bizradious support the fur babies, so yeah. So let's talk a little bit more about the type of clients that you accept for powerful and paint. If it's virtual, if it's here in West Asheville and our hood in West Asheville, what's that? And are you taking new clients right now?

Tracey : 11:19

Yes, I am taking new clients. As we mentioned, I did go through breast cancer treatment 2021 to 2022. So I have been focusing on recovery. This year, I am really ready to kick it up a notch, expand my clientele. So I love working virtually. I even love setting up people I work with in person so that they're able to work virtually, so I can go either way. Honey, I like that. Yeah, and since the pandemic.

Veronica: 12:02

I totally agree. You know, like, why we were able to actually meet, which was nice, but it wasn't anything that's stopping us from our coaching that we're doing through Mountain Biz where it's a new getting everything set up. But I like that, since the pandemic people are realizing, okay, I don't have to touch and feel you and oh, by the way, everyone is getting sick. So I'm cool with us, just touching and failing through them.

Veronica: 12:26

Exactly Click click and done, so let's talk about Quare Metalsmith. I know this is a new venture. One of the areas that I'm helping you is just kind of holding you accountable, because Tracy is amazing when it comes to businesses and she's a coach and all that. But as we all know myself included when it's your own business, it tends to be the lowest priority. So I just appreciate that you allow me to be that accountability coach for you and I would love for you to tell the listeners more about Quare Metalsmiths.

Tracey : 12:59

Sure, my pleasure, thank you. So Quare Metalsmiths actually came about in 2020. I was working with another Metalsmith who created Metalsmiths for Change. Her name is Kendria Smith. She is an extraordinary human being, and so she was creating auctions, raising money for books in the black community, and one of the auctions that I was helping her out with was for the black and trans community, and I had this experience of support and community and love and I wonder where's my queer community as a Metalsmith, as a jeweler?

Tracey : 13:41

And so I started looking and I couldn't find anything, and so I came up with Quare Metalsmiths. So I bought the domain, I grabbed the Instagram handle and then I sat on it for a while because I knew it was something I wanted to build with others and didn't want this to be Quare Metalsmith, yes. And so, amazingly, over the years, folks have shown up and have been like the next peace in the puzzle, and so we've really been rocking and rolling since I would say more, more 2021. That's when we kind of kicked off, and since then we've done two virtual exhibitions with New York City Jewelry Week. We are in the process of hosting another exhibition that is going to be in person at a gallery in Tennessee, the Silver Fern, and then we've got another virtual exhibition that we're doing later this year.

Veronica: 14:54

So our commitment is to honor, center and uplift to SLGBTQIA plus metal smith, jewelers and makers I know I have to slow myself down Really pay attention to each level, yes, but I do want to give that blurb that that represents two SLGBTQIA plus, or two QQIA plus represents those that are two spirit lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer questioning. So the two Q's intersex, asexual and all other sexual orientations and genders. We know that the language is fluid and continuously redefined. I had my little definition.

Tracey : 15:39

I pulled up, but you know.

Veronica: 15:41

I love this because we need to know these things.

Tracey : 15:44

And when.

Veronica: 15:45

Tracy and I just met recently. I know a lot of people think it's controversial to say, but I do feel like a lot of the things as a African American woman that I've gone through and how it's so important for me to be present in the black and brown community so they're seeing someone that looks like them. That's helping them with business.

Veronica: 16:02

That's why I totally support what you're doing with queer metal smith, because it's important and we just saw on the news locally how a queer organization they were broken into and money was stolen and things of that sort. So we still know that we need to protect each other and it's good to know that you're building communities like this Tracy where people can feel safe.

Tracey : 16:25

Thank you, it's my, it's my absolute pleasure.

Veronica: 16:29

Man. So before we go, we always ask the guests to provide some tips to the listeners. And because you are this amazing, powerful cancer survivor, we would you know what would you say to those that are personally dealing with cancer right now or they have a family member that's dealing with cancer? What advice would you tell folks now that you are a year post treatment?

Tracey : 16:55

So I think the biggest thing is to be kind to yourself. I think that's number one, because it's really challenging when you're dealing with your body being an alien and doing its own thing, that you just I learned to love myself and be kind to myself in a way that I never was before I had cancer, because I was sourcing my healing. So the I would say for anyone dealing with it having someone else dealing with it post, you know, or even healthy is the number one most important thing that you can do is to take care of your health, and that's your physical health, your mental and emotional health and your spiritual health, because when you have those pieces in, everything else is manageable. Yes, yeah.

Veronica: 17:52

We've talked to Tracy, where I'm a Christian, I believe in God. Everyone has, regardless of what you have, I feel like you need to have a foundation. There needs to be some type of higher being and something that you're putting your stock into. And the biggest thing that I took away from our conversation when we met last week was this gratitude gratefulness. If you can just share that, like since your diagnosis that you didn't have this, I guess I'll let you say it well, how you feel when it comes to having gratitude.

Tracey : 18:20

Sure, that's wonderful. I actually wanted to share a little bit about gratitude, so I had a gratitude, a daily gratitude practice in place, where I texted a friend what I'm grateful for every day.

Tracey : 18:31

So, before I got diagnosed, I'd already been practicing the muscle of gratitude, and part of the source of gratitude for me is inside of my spiritual practice, which is suki omahikari.

Tracey : 18:43

It's a Japanese practice, it's giving, receiving light, it's teachings. But one of the contexts that we have around getting sick is that it's actually a spiritual cleansing and for us to be able to practice gratitude because we're actually getting to kind of clean house for our ancestors or anything that's kind of come down the family line and that's what we get to do. So when we're experiencing illness, especially something major like cancer, is like I practiced being grateful, because it meant that I was getting to be of service to my family, right To my ancestors, and it also for me I have it that it meant that other members of my family I've helped clean house for our family, so the ones who are here and living, that maybe they won't have to go through what I went through, right or, if they do, you can help them along the way, and what's interesting is right, as I was finishing treatment, my dad got diagnosed with prostate cancer and we just kept creating the best possible outcome.

Tracey : 20:03

That's what we spoke into the world, into the universe was best possible outcome and he was able to do radiation treatment. He kept doing his thing. He's in his seventies, he, you know, he did his job, he does his little, working out all those things and he never stopped. So I have it that I got to help clean house a little bit so that now my dad got to go through that and not experience the massive challenge that I went through. You know he went through his own journey, but so for me, even if you're not sick or dealing with something major like that, wherever you can, practice gratitude you know it's a muscle, the more you do it.

Tracey : 20:49

and I will say, having someone who's your accountability for being grateful or someone who's your witness for being grateful makes a big difference. I think you know, whether that's a text, a phone call, an email, a message on social media, there is something really powerful about speaking it out there for other people to get it.

Veronica: 21:16

I love that. Tracy we can talk more on it up until the end of the show. But I love that. I want everyone walking away from this practice gratitude. So, tracy, quickly, can you tell folks how they can find out more about Powerful in Pink? Query Metalsmith, all your IG, social media, all that fun stuff.

Tracey : 21:36

Sure Instagram. My personal business is Powerful in Pink by TLC, my initial Tracy Lee Carswell and then queermetalsmiths within us on Instagram. I'm also the founder of WJA Miami, which is the Women's Jewelry Association, and my website right now is Powerfulin Pink, but I will be launching TracyCarswellcom T-R-A-C-E-Y-C-A-R-S-W-E-L-L dot com. All right, I was born for this girl.

Veronica: 22:22

Yes, you were.

Tracey : 22:24

Yeah, and those are the best ways to reach me right now is through my website or through my social media, and you can get links to message me, email me, text me. All that good stuff there.

Veronica: 22:37

Wonderful Well, Tracy, such an honor to have you on the show. I want to thank you so much. I want to thank all the listeners for tuning into bizradious for the Veronica Edward Show. That's on all platforms on Wednesdays and if you missed the live airing of the show, you can listen to all prior shows at VeronicaEdwardsBuzzBroutcom. And, Tracy, this will not be your last time on the show. You are a pro friend and I'm very grateful for you.

Tracey : 23:02

Thank you, it's my pleasure, my honor. I'm so grateful to be here and sharing space with you today. Thank you.