Aradhana Bejarano Interview
In this conversation, Mack Garrison interviews Aradhana Baharano, co-founder of Little Labs, an animation studio based in California. They discuss Aradhana's journey into animation, her education at SCAD, the transition from a creative role to a business owner, and the challenges of starting a studio. Aradhana shares insights on networking, mentorship, and navigating client relationships, as well as her excitement for the upcoming Dash Bash conference where she will be speaking about her experiences and the rebellious spirit of artists.
Takeaways
Aradhana's early inspiration came from a book on animation she found in middle school.
Her education at SCAD exceeded her expectations and helped her grow as an artist.
Transitioning from a creative role to a business owner requires delegation and embracing new responsibilities.
Starting Little Labs was a leap of faith, but they managed to keep Disney as a client.
Networking and mentorship are crucial for success in the creative industry.
Contracts are essential to protect against misunderstandings with clients.
Approaching client relationships as collaborations can ease tensions and misunderstandings.
Aradhana finds inspiration in various artists and believes in the power of community.
The Dash Bash conference is an opportunity for networking and inspiration.
Aradhana's talk at the Dash Bash will focus on her journey and the rebellious nature of artists.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Aradhana Baharano and Little Labs
03:00 Early Inspirations and Journey into Animation
06:00 Education at SCAD and Its Impact
09:00 Transitioning from Creative to Business Owner
12:05 Starting Little Labs: The Leap of Faith
15:01 Networking and Finding Mentorship
18:02 Navigating Client Relationships and Challenges
20:59 Preparing for the Dash Bash Conference
Transcript:
Mack Garrison (00:00)
All right, what's up all you Dash Bashers? Thanks for tuning into another episode of our speaker series where we're getting to know the speakers that are coming to the Dash Bash. And I'm so excited to have one of those speakers with us today. Aradhana Bejarano with Little Labs, the amazing animation studio based out of California. They got over a decade of experience working on animated content and interactive experiences. She's collaborated with brands such as Disney, Netflix, Google, Snapchat.
Meta and Khan Academy for Kids. mean, these are all just amazing brands to work with. Aradhana thanks so much for hanging out with me and chatting with me today.
Aradhana Bejarano (00:34)
I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
Mack Garrison (00:36)
You know, I
think one good place to start is always kind of at the beginning because it's fascinating to me how everyone kind of gets into motion design. It's such an amalgamation of different backgrounds and experiences. Maybe you take me back to some of those like early animation memories you had where you were like, this is interesting. Maybe, maybe this is a career I might want to pursue.
Aradhana Bejarano (00:53)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so I grew up in India and...
my introduction to animation was sort of in middle school. I was very, I love cartoons, I love watching animated films, I was really a nerd and geek about it, but it was one day in my high school, my middle school, in the school library, I came across this book, animation book, and it was like the only animation book in the library, and it was like the one, it was just the one, yeah, it was just the one I stumbled on.
Mack Garrison (01:22)
It was just the one, you just read it over and over again.
Aradhana Bejarano (01:27)
the one I would read every day from that fourth on, it was perfectly placed for me. And I read it and I was like, like a light bulb went off in my head. was like, I can actually do this. I love drawing. And it was like the aha moment. And I wasn't necessarily surrounded by people who knew about this. And that book sort of sparked my imagination. And so then I started looking for more information and going to bookstores. And I found the Animation Survival Kit by Richard Williams.
Mack Garrison (01:52)
yeah, that's a classic.
got a copy in here with the office with me.
Aradhana Bejarano (01:53)
That's a classic idea. Yeah,
exactly. And it was overpriced in India, so I couldn't afford it at the time with my pocket money. And I didn't want to share it. I wasn't ready to share it with my family because they, again, so I would just visit the store every week and like read politely as much as I could without purchasing it. I own it now. I have a copy and everything. so that was just my earliest memory of like, this is something I can do.
Mack Garrison (02:00)
no.
Nice, nice.
Aradhana Bejarano (02:20)
It like, it's like almost perfectly like it was meant to happen. I had to stumble upon that book to like learn about it and like, yeah, and get into it.
Mack Garrison (02:25)
How fun.
Absolutely, serendipitous
that you found at the moment that you did. So it sounds like, know, there's not a, at least at the time, wasn't a ton of folks around you in your space and your network knew much about animation. So you're growing up, you're learning about this stuff. You have this passion for it. And I believe you went to SCAD, if I'm not mistaken, right? So was that a big reason that you were like, I need to go check out the US to kind of try to find a path into animation. That's what led you to SCAD?
Aradhana Bejarano (02:36)
Mm-hmm. Mm-mm.
No.
Yes, I might just get...
it
Exactly, yeah, there wasn't a ton of schools or colleges around me. There was sort of like media studies, but not really animation specifically. There was a lot of schools to teach you software. So I did all of that while I was in high school. I also learned Photoshop and all the tools, but not necessarily the foundation to anime. And then it sort of became my goal. I started looking at the US and other colleges just outside of India in general.
Mack Garrison (02:59)
Mmm.
Mmm.
Aradhana Bejarano (03:23)
and SCAD ended up being the one I was the most, like it felt like the right place for me and also needed to be able to afford it and they offered scholarships so yeah, yeah, yeah and they do. it's gorgeous, the campus is amazing, I love that.
Mack Garrison (03:31)
Sure. Hey, there you go. Good scholarship is also really helpful. I love scat. It's so pretty down there. mean, I've gone down a few times for commotion. I think they do a great event. Yeah. Have you have you been to Savannah
before before learning of scat? Did you have any idea about Savannah?
Aradhana Bejarano (03:47)
I've never been to the US before
I came here so yeah it was it was I was just all in mm-hmm yeah I just I remember I painted on my wall I'm gonna get scared that's how I told my parents like this is how I'm gonna get scared you know of course I mean it was it was hard like having your child move across like thousands of miles and they had never been to the US before and
Mack Garrison (03:51)
So you were all in, you were like, I'm going to school here, I'm immersing myself, amazing, amazing.
that's so fun.
Aradhana Bejarano (04:11)
all of that. It took a little bit of convincing, but they eventually agreed to me. And I got a scholarship as well, partial, not full, but that helped as well. yeah, just like, I'm going to do this. This is my dream. I'm going to work.
Mack Garrison (04:15)
I love it.
I love it. Do you feel like
did SCAD sort of live up to those expectations? did what you were expecting in school for animation, was that what you got? Did you get more than you expected? What was that college experience like, especially being sort of an international student coming to the US?
Aradhana Bejarano (04:34)
Mm-hmm.
For me, mean, anything was more than I expected, I mean, you know, it's almost, I mean, coming from a different country, like I didn't have those opportunities. So me coming in on my mindset was, this is amazing. I'm getting to learn what I need to learn. And I had the best experience there. really, it really did help me spread my wings and learn about myself as an artist, but also as a human being and being just such an international college. You know, you meet people from all over the world. It just, it just expands your horizons in all different ways.
Mack Garrison (04:46)
Hahaha.
Aradhana Bejarano (05:12)
So that was great and all the professors were like well most of them I wouldn't say all but like I think there were really amazing professors that helped guide me through the process and honestly college really is like what you make up in I feel like Everyone has the experience that they make of it and so it gave Scott really gave you the tools to explore and then you do what you do with that and Take it out in the world
Mack Garrison (05:13)
I love that.
I love that.
Aradhana Bejarano (05:38)
And so.
Mack Garrison (05:38)
You're a great case study for the university. They're gonna see this video and want a copy of it, because all these are amazing things. But you're right though, I think when you find good mentors that can help support you and guide you, I look back at my time at NC State University, and it sounds very similar to how you look back at SCAD. It's like you get out of it what you put in. So if there's any students listening to this interview we're talking about.
Aradhana Bejarano (05:42)
You
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (06:02)
You know, it's lean in, talk to your professors, get to know them, ask people around you for that assistance and support because it seems like that sets you up on a great trajectory and of course, eventually in starting your own company with little labs.
Aradhana Bejarano (06:10)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, well, thank you. Yeah, and also, SCAD
so than a lot of the other colleges that I have noticed and interacting with other folks not having worked in the industry. Just like having those conversations like we do have like did have like classes where you're like working on your portfolio, working on your video, you have those conversations pretty early on. So you can you know you're learning all the foundations and basics. I did my undergrad not my post grad at SCAD and so a lot of it is just foundations but you know at some point teachers like and the professors do start talking to you but but how do
want to apply this in the professional world and those conversations really helped me figure out where I need to be. yeah. Yeah, no worry. Yeah, okay.
Mack Garrison (06:52)
I love it. That's fantastic. Well, I don't want to spoil too much from the actual presentation at the Dash Bash this summer. So I'm going to fast forward a little bit. Little Labs exists. You guys are crushing
it. You make some amazing work. In my opinion, it's some of the best that is out there in our space. What I'm really curious about is something that I've personally struggled with and I want to know if you've navigated that and it's being the business owner and less of the creative. How have you navigated this shift?
Aradhana Bejarano (07:06)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm.
Mack Garrison (07:18)
that I'm sure you're navigating from like the person who's making this stuff to doing this stuff to now being the entrepreneur. What's that been like?
Aradhana Bejarano (07:18)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
It's been a journey. think when we started off, was, you know, myself and my partner Camila who started the studio. We were doing everything. And it's been a journey like starting to delegate and hand off those things because those are not sustainable eventually. And I've sort of embraced this role of now my role at the studio is different. I'm the creative director and also the business owner. And I delegate everything else. So I am managing people a lot more than I used to. And actually now
embrace it and love it because that's my genius and that's where I'm at in my career at the moment and my my role is more to guide everybody and help them create the best work and so that's that's that's just what I've embraced and I feel like probably you have as well yeah yeah
Mack Garrison (08:11)
yeah, it's interesting because
like I think at a foundational level, once you are a designer and a creative, you were just naturally built around this idea of problem solving. And all you're doing when you're running a company is essentially trying to solve problems in creative ways. And so it's different problems, right? So you got these teams that need this information and you're trying to get them the right direction, say the right things to get them in the right place. Quick question for you with Camilo, your partner.
Aradhana Bejarano (08:20)
Mm-hmm.
Right, it's different problems. Yeah, right, yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (08:37)
Have you all always
Aradhana Bejarano (08:37)
Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (08:37)
been collaborators? Have you always kind of worked together and this was a natural extension in starting the studio or how that all kind of come to fruition?
Aradhana Bejarano (08:42)
Yeah,
so it's kind of cliche like to meet your life partner at work in this industry because you work so much but that's how we actually met. We met at
Mack Garrison (08:48)
Yeah
Aradhana Bejarano (08:53)
Disney while I was working at Disney. And so we were always sort of working together in a sense. And then what sparked the little labs was you would start collaborating outside of work on things just, you we were having fun with because, you know, at work you do the work that you're told to do. And so you go home and explore. And so that just sparked like our collaboration efforts outside of the Disney work environment. And it just spin and grew into what the little labs is today.
Mack Garrison (09:08)
Sure, right, right.
How fun,
Aradhana Bejarano (09:21)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (09:21)
I love that. Well, it is, the natural progression, right? So you're working together all the time and it's like, well, we might as well just be partners then as well too. That's right. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, is with the labs part, what's interesting to me is like, you know, have your day-to-day job at Disney, you kind of have this labs piece where you all are collaborating on the side. Is their intentionality and calling little labs, I mean, is that an extension from that, you know?
Aradhana Bejarano (09:28)
Yeah, right? Yeah. And not with everybody. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
it is. Yeah. So the part little came from, know, we were working at large companies and corporations before and this was our space to be little and small.
and we love that, like that's us. And then the labs part was us experimenting outside of our day to day. And that just spin ball into the little labs in that we're, and it is in the sense of what we, who we are now as a team, as we've grown as well, we're always experimenting, always pushing our boundaries as a team and being playful. And that's where the roots of the name come in.
Mack Garrison (10:17)
Mmm.
Oh,
I love it. It's so fun. I'm always curious from folks who are, you know, creatives in house that then end up moving into starting their own agency or studio. Was there like a signature event or a project? I'm always curious. Like what, was it like, oh, this is maybe a little bit more than just a side project. Like maybe this is something we want to do full time.
Aradhana Bejarano (10:28)
Mm-hmm.
With us it was sort of like we took the leap honestly. We yeah, it was was sort of like we we just jumped off not knowing if we have a parachute or not and we're like I mean, yeah, we and we did you know thankful that we ended up having a parachute we were able to keep Disney as a client for us when we when we left the company But we honestly were just just ready to go on figure out our new path We it's sort of like I reached our goal
Mack Garrison (10:44)
Yeah, nice.
I love that analogy, that's great.
Aradhana Bejarano (11:09)
know, a dream, like we worked at Disney and it was like, what's next? What is the next challenge? And we were young enough, I guess, and naive enough to like take that, like, we can do it, yeah. That's right, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (11:18)
Yeah, we can do it, right? You know, not thinking about all the other pieces to it. That's so fun.
I feel like, you know, I would echo that same sentiment. You know, when we started Dash, we were both young and in our 20s and probably we're not thinking about all the other pieces that come with it. But let's say for someone who is, let's say there's a listener out there who has been working somewhere, they've been freelancing, and the idea of a studio or starting this collective sounds really, really good to them.
Aradhana Bejarano (11:34)
Right. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (11:46)
What's
a piece of advice that you might give them, either based on something you've learned now, you wish you could have done, or something you're really proud of? What would you share for someone thinking about starting their own shop?
Aradhana Bejarano (11:50)
Yeah.
I think making sure that you have the resources to delegate, I think that was like a biggest learning for us on our site that we started to burn out pretty quickly trying to tackle everything ourselves. So whether it's financial resources or just people you can lean into and ask questions, we didn't think that through when we started off. ended up, it was almost like we have a fire. We need to find somebody to talk to you about this. And so perhaps if you have like a network of people
Mack Garrison (12:21)
You
Aradhana Bejarano (12:25)
you can lean into to kind of help you troubleshoot, or whether it's consultants or things like that. And then of course like a client base, like knowing that you you have some sort of confidence in a client base, like you have maybe had conversations with before you jumped in, that could that could be helpful as well.
Mack Garrison (12:40)
Mm.
Yeah, I think you're
right. I mean, I look back and you know, there was definitely the jump in and commitment similar to you all and how we started, but we did have some work that we brought into it. Like we were kind of moonlighting on the side. We had something similar to like the little labs where we were doing some stuff from the work on the side. So it wasn't jumping into nothing. So I think that's important. You also hit on something else that I just, you know, profoundly believe in is mentorship. It's close friends in the space who have navigated it.
Aradhana Bejarano (12:54)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (13:11)
think there's always a bit of a question mark on, you how do I find a mentor? How do I meet some of these other people? Did you go to a bunch of events? Like, how did you start to network and get to know folks who you had some of these tougher questions to ask?
Aradhana Bejarano (13:11)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
I wish I had a good answer. would have gone to that. I wish Dash Bash was there and I could have gone to that, right? Yeah, yeah. For us, it was slightly different because we were actually leaving a different industry and coming into motion design with this sort of like move. We were in the animation and interactive space. And so we really did just jump off the cliff hoping we'll land into a parachute. We were like sort of freelancing a little bit with studios in the LA area. So we had some of a network and that sort of
Mack Garrison (13:42)
Ha ha.
Cool, okay.
Aradhana Bejarano (13:50)
were able to build off of that but definitely I would recommend like networking and events and going to some of those either in your local community or area or conferences like Dash attending those.
Mack Garrison (14:02)
I think, you know, it's interesting
because I remember when I was getting out of school and I would imagine maybe, you you felt the same way. We were kind of intimidated. It's a big industry. Like, where do I even begin with this? And what I have learned in talking to folks like you and other creatives is just how welcoming everyone really is. And I think a lot of artists just don't recognize right away, just if you reach out, you know, there's a good chance that someone could respond to you.
Aradhana Bejarano (14:10)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, 100%. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (14:28)
So in that lens, know, I'm always curious just, you know, who are some of the various artists that inspire you? Who has inspired Little Labs over the years? Who are folks that you still are enamored by their work on day in, day out?
Aradhana Bejarano (14:36)
Mm-hmm.
Oh, such a hard question because I feel like, you know, we're all inspiring each other all the time. so there were definitely Ye House was a studio back, you know, I mean, Michigan. Yeah. And they were also husband and wife too. And so they always inspired us to take the leap. And we actually reached out to them and Camila was more connected to Michelle at the time as well. And we kind of were able to ask them questions and help out.
Mack Garrison (14:46)
Mm, sure.
yeah, up in Michigan, right? Yeah, yeah.
Aradhana Bejarano (15:11)
help us out and they were super inspiring to us over time. I mean, almost like everybody in the, even the work I see now, you know, inspires me a lot. On just an all time base, like any artist, like, you know, who's like following their path, being truthful to who they are always inspires me. looking back historically, like Frida Kahlo, Mary Blair, like those, those artists are always very empowering and inspiring for me. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (15:18)
yeah.
Mmm.
You know what's funny is I think
I actually reached out to Michelle at yet house at 1.2 I was randomly up in Romeo just which is a small town just north of Detroit and they're they're close by to it I forget the exact name of where they are, but they're up near there and I was like hey Michelle I'm in town I'd love to come see your studio and I don't know if they've ever had someone like properly come visit their studio So we tried to make it happen Didn't quite work out but they make some amazing work and enter just the nicest people in the world, too
Aradhana Bejarano (15:40)
Mm-hmm.
yeah.
Oh wow. They do. They are
so nice and we've just had a friendship. We've actually never met in person to this day and just we haven't had the opportunity. We either like missed each other or didn't couldn't couldn't make it work but one day. Yeah.
Mack Garrison (16:04)
really? that's so funny.
One day,
I know it's funny for anyone that's like not in our industry when they're like, oh, you're to go hang out with your internet friends. It's like, look, I promise they're really cool. I may not have met them in person, but they're the best. 100%, 100%. You know, I think one thing that you've definitely recognized probably is being a studio owner and I have as well is just our industry is kind of a wild uncertain place. You know, the longer you're in it, the more you can kind of see the volatile swings, the ups and downs.
Aradhana Bejarano (16:20)
They are, and they always are. I mean, it hasn't like disappointed me. So yeah,
Mack Garrison (16:41)
I would imagine that you've got some pretty good stories from over the years. I'm always curious on a good industry story, whether it was like a crazy project you finished, you didn't know you were gonna be able to get done or stuff that went totally off the rails. Do you have a good industry story you could share with folks today?
Aradhana Bejarano (16:45)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, plenty, but I'll stick to this one without naming names. We had this one client several years ago, right, when we were just starting out and they wanted like all this stuff from us. built, you know, they were launching this new brand. So we did a bunch of branding work, character work, even like toy design.
Mack Garrison (16:58)
Okay, six to one. Perfect, that sounds good.
Aradhana Bejarano (17:15)
We were just starting off as a studio and contracts were not, we weren't like masters of contracts, but because a colleague had recommended us, we sort of slipped on kind of getting the contracts really signed off because they were kind of skirting the issue. were like, oh, we'll get it done. they were like, know, business is always done with a handshake, you know, and which it is, but it was one of those moments which looking back, I'm like, why did we go through with this? But because they were highly recommended.
Mack Garrison (17:26)
Mmm.
boy.
Sure.
Aradhana Bejarano (17:45)
by a colleague we trusted we went ahead and did all this work delivered it and when it came time to payment they were like well you didn't really meet our expectations and and and all throughout we got all this good feedback thankfully we had all of the emails and things to kind of prove that there wasn't a miss because there wasn't really a miss or ever communicated to us that
Mack Garrison (17:54)
no.
Aradhana Bejarano (18:06)
that we had not met their expectations. It all ended up sorting out at the end, but it was a huge learning for us to make sure you have your contracts and stuff all in a row. So it was a little bit our fault, but also, you do kind of come into these situations sometimes where clients want to start a project without signing off a contract. And it's like, as a business owner, you have to make those decisions of how do you make that?
Mack Garrison (18:08)
Right, right.
gosh.
Ugh.
Oh, 100%. Like even as you're telling this story right now,
I'm sitting here thinking about one of our early missteps was the same deal. was like, didn't quite have everything outlined in the contract, had a client that really didn't want to pay us at the end. I think the way that we finally got paid, I'm not proud of this, but I basically called this person every day and was leaving messages that I'm going to call you every day until you pay this. And I think we negotiated.
Aradhana Bejarano (18:38)
you
Mm. Mm. Mm.
you
Mack Garrison (18:56)
a 70 % payment or something like that. I was like, look, if you pay 70%, I'll never call you or talk to you ever again. So, you just, yeah. And I think it's also a good reminder though too, is like even in the lens of the story, y'all were doing everything right. You were doing everything by the books for the most part. You glazed over this little piece and there was still kind of a little bit of a friction point. And I think that's a good reminder for creatives out there that if you're ever feeling like, golly, it's what did I do wrong? A lot of times you are doing it right. And sometimes this stuff just bubbles up, right?
Aradhana Bejarano (19:02)
Right, yeah, he's just chasing clients to make payments.
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Right.
100%. And a lot of times you're working with clients who are not maybe in the industry and know how things are done. And a lot of it becomes having the confidence to educate or like standing your ground on what are your boundaries and limitations.
Mack Garrison (19:40)
You know,
this opens the door to a good question, I think, is how do you and Camilo react or how do you handle a situation that maybe feels tense? Like if something comes up and the client's like, I don't know, maybe they're unhappy about something or something was miscommunicated, but you can tell there's those moments every now and then where it's like, ooh, this doesn't quite feel right. Do y'all have like a playbook or something that y'all do when those situations arrive? What's kind of like your go-to solve for kind of easing some of that burden?
Aradhana Bejarano (19:52)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Usually it's like taking a breath and just hopping on a call and just leaning things out, leaning into our producer as well and like helping them come in. So we're really coming in as a team to service the client at the end of the day and provide the best solution. So we always start with that and we lay out that, you know, we're here to do great work. We're here to navigate this together. And we always look at our clients as collaborators.
Mack Garrison (20:21)
Hmm.
Aradhana Bejarano (20:31)
So that's really the mindset we go into with every meeting and so as friction comes up or there's misunderstandings we we always approach the conversation with that mindset and So far clients are usually very receptive to that because you're wanting to work together Honestly, yeah
Mack Garrison (20:46)
Yeah, 100%. I love that so much. I mean, it really is.
There's kind of an age old stereotype, think, you know, in creative versus clients. But really, to your point, if you think about folks as collaborators, as partners, then when there is a misunderstanding, it just becomes easier to have those conversations. So yeah, I love that a lot. Go ahead. Yeah.
Aradhana Bejarano (20:53)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And I will say one thing.
There might be a client that maybe is not responsive to that. And in that case, you do have to set your boundaries. And we're like, this is hard. But we honestly, 99.9 % of the times, we haven't had those kind of situations because we come with that mindset. Mm-hmm.
Mack Garrison (21:20)
Which is good. And I think like there's
also to the latter point you said is like, you you got to put your foot down every now and then it's, you know, you should feel confident in decisions you make. You know, I think we all are sometimes a little bit hard on ourselves, you know, wish we should have handled this differently or we could have, you know, in this instance of that particular example, we should have done the contract this way. You know, one of the nice things about making these mistakes that you and I have made is that we learn from them and you never do them again, right? You know, no one's perfect. You figure it out, you kind of move forward, which is good stuff.
Aradhana Bejarano (21:26)
Mm. Mm.
Right.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Right, yeah exactly.
Mack Garrison (21:48)
So let me ask you this, you're coming to Raleigh later this summer, what do you think are you most excited about for the conference? Is it getting up on stage? Is it meeting other people? I'm curious to know what gets you excited about the bash.
Aradhana Bejarano (21:59)
I'm just, you know, in the past years I've realized the benefits like of being at a networking event such as Dash and just the connections and relationships you make. So I'm really excited to meet people and hear the other speakers. Of course, I will be speaking as well, which I'm excited for. But more than anything, just every conference that I go to, I leave just feeling so inspired and empowered and looking forward to what I can learn from that experience.
Mack Garrison (22:05)
yeah.
Sure, sure.
I love that. And I echo that same sentiment.
know, I think conferences are one of the few opportunities where we mentioned earlier, we get together with all our internet friends to hang out and talk shop with people who know about it, which is really good. Well, let me let me do this. What do you think if you're giving a pitch to someone who has who is unfamiliar with little labs and you and your work, what would the pitch be on why they should come see you at the bash?
Aradhana Bejarano (22:27)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm that too, right? Yeah
Mm-hmm.
Sure, so my journey has been a lot about rebellion in one way or the other based on my cultural upbringing and coming to the United States and being where I'm at today. So part of my talk will be navigating that through my experience and I'm excited to share that. I think as artists, we're all sort of rebellious in one way or the other. And I talk a little bit about how I...
I transfer that into the work I do today. So I'm excited to share that and yeah.
Mack Garrison (23:17)
I love it. Love a good little rebellion in the art world. It's going to be great. We're super excited to have you. Just want to give a quick shout out and thank you to everyone who tuned in today. Aradhana Bejarano, thank you so much for the little labs and join us at the Dash Bash. If you haven't gotten a ticket yet, folks, and you're listening to this, what are you doing? Dash Bash is from June 11th through 13th, 2025. It's going to be right here in my hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. It's big enough where there's always something to...
Aradhana Bejarano (23:20)
Yeah.
Mack Garrison (23:42)
and it's small enough where you run to folks around town and you'll definitely run into a lot of animators and motion designers here that weekend. So if you haven't got a ticket, grab it now. Thanks so much for joining us today, Aradhana, and so excited to have you here shortly with Little Labs. It's gonna be great.
Aradhana Bejarano (23:56)
Looking forward to it. Again, thank you for having me. Can't wait to see you and everybody else.
Mack Garrison (24:01)
Same, sounds good.
Thanks everyone.