As Ryan Smith flicked through social media on his phone this week, a notification that showed Conor McGregor sharing a photo of his artwork was not what he expected to see on his feed.
The 27-year-old, from Co Antrim, has spoken of his pride that a painting that he worked on, now resides in the UFC star's popular bar and restaurant in Dublin.
Ryan says he has always had a passion for art, but after some obstacles, he is now completely focused on pursuing his business, Reliq Designs.
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And approval from someone as high profile as Conor McGregor has ignited that passion tenfold.
"Art was always my favourite subject when I was in primary school," he told Belfast Live.
"It was always something that I excelled in. As soon as it came around that you could pick GCSEs, art was my first choice, straight away. I had a lot of teachers telling me throughout high school that maybe art wasn't best for me because I was a bit of a class joker.
"Once I finished, I went on to study Fine Art in tech for five years then studied fashion in university for three years and was actually kicked out of university. I was failing everything, the subject wasn't for me. I was more of a pencil person, as opposed to sitting behind a sewing machine.
"During tech, I set up a design page called Reliq Design. Through that, I'd fire up wee drawings I had done and tried to get some likes here and there. Dutch dancing was always a big thing for me, so I started to draw the DJs and posting it to social media and tagging the DJs.
"A lot of them actually featured my work on their pages, which put my work in front of thousands. At the start of this year, I thought 'this is my time now, let's make something of my work'.
"It's something I know I am good at, so why not try to monetise it a bit?"
Ryan now spends his spare time on his art designs, drawing work, painting, and contacting people to see if they would like a portraiture completed, or even tattoos drawn.
He said one evening he was on Pinterest when he came across a photo of Conor McGregor, which put the fire in his belly to try and draw the UFC star.
"I had a blank canvas in front of me, so I knew that that's what was going onto the canvas," Ryan added.
"After I mapped it out, and got it painted, I thought to myself, McGregor's bar isn't that far away, in Dublin. I reached out too The Black Forge's manager on Instagram, and sent him a message.
"He told me when he would be working and to come down. So we booked a table on the Sunday morning, for that evening - it was pure coincidence that we got down the same day.
"As soon as I walked in, the waitress lifted the framed painting, and she was blown away by it. Now it resides there, which I am so taken back by.
"On Monday evening, I was watching TV and went onto Instagram and someone had sent me a screenshot of McGregor's Instagram, where he shared a photo of my artwork. I couldn't believe it. My heart was racing.
"I want to send a message out to people with a dream, to keep chasing it. In recent days I have been thinking about how I acted during school, but my message now to kids and adults, is that whatever anyone says to yo, that is just words.
"You have to believe in yourself. Only you can make it real. If you want to make it happen, only you can do that."
You can follow Ryan's art through Instagram here or Etsy here
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