Passion Design Project

Anyone else overwhelmed with how many tech products there are out there to run your business? Today I'm breaking down everything I currently use to run my biz and giving you insight on how it all helps me work! I'll start with the highest priced products down to the free stuff. I've included a few links so feel free to check them out further! Tech Monthly Fees: Teachable: $99 Adobe Suite: $52.99 Shopify: $29 ConvertKit CRM: $29 Website Hosting + domains: $150/yr Quickbooks: $10.71 Dropbox: $9.99 Hostgator Email: $5 PayPal Fees :$depends on sales Etsy: $5 Calendly: $0 Canva: $0 Google Analytics: $0 Google Cal: $0 Social Media: $0 Venmo: $0 Society6: $0 Asana: $0 VSCO: $0 Things I"m looking into: Podcast VA: $5-10/hr Pinterest Automater: Tailwind: $9.99/mo Others: Office rent Utilities Health insurance Internet Phone Roth IRA Savings       And as always, have the best day ever!!! Thanks so much for listening!! I would love if you'd leave a revie

I came across Eric's work while on an Instagram scroll. Oddly enough, I'd just gotten a message from a girl wondering how to get into the surf/skate industry of design (something I'd worked on doing about 10 years back), and on this Instagram post, it was announced that Eric would be giving a graphic design on skateboards class. After sending her the link, I thought - I bet she and I aren't the only ones who are mesmerized by this industry and knew I had to chat with Eric more in-depth. Eric has tons of knowledge from working on different continents and doing everything from drawing on skateboards to completing huge murals, by himself and with a team. Find EfDot here and find out more about his skateboard art workshop in NYC on July 14, 2018 here! Here's what we talk about today: Collaboration within the art industry Freelance vs working with a company Favorite tools when creating His Mural process from A-Z Dream Project - ya gotta think BIG! How to stay optimistic as an artist How to get

Back in the day, selling your art meant getting into galleries and doing all the same things as everyone else. Luckily today, you can get wayyy more creative - which is good, since that's probably your specialty as an artist! What might not be your specialty? The business part. Totally understandable and I definitely get it! I would much rather be painting than trying to market myself and send invoices, but let's be honest - no biz runs if you aren't taking care of the business-y stuff, too! Maria jumps in exactly with the information we need to know to creatively and simply sell more art - using FUN methods! A few favorite quotes from the episode: "When you are making a living as an artist, face it, you work your BUTT off. It's hard work, I'm not gonna sugar-coat it! You don't do it because it's easy, you do it because you love it. But you do have to take breaks! You have to enjoy time away from work." "If you wanna do something, you can figure out how to do it. You just have to get creative" And that's

In 2013, I had found the podcast, The Lifestyle Entrepreneur by Kris Gilbertson, and became obsessed with listening every chance I had. I was kind of early for podcasting and hearing about lifestyle entrepreneurs and it was basically the only place I could get my fill! (I had to look that up to remember the name!) On my list of 2014 Goals, #8 was start a Podcast, and by Summer 2014, my furthered goal was "Podcast Equipment." In 2015 I had written down my Podcast plan and potential website names. In 2016 the goal evolved to recording 50 episodes. So, I started recording in June of 2016 and launched in August of 2016 with a once a week podcast. Now we're here, exactly two years from when I recorded my first episode with some local business people in Jackson Hole, recording my own 100th episode. Before now, looking back I always thought I should have done the process a lot faster, but with a little more grace towards myself, I'm revising that thinking. To be fair, I was alone in a new state, with a fresh degree

I met today's guest last year at ConvertKit Conference, which could be the nerdiest beginnings ever - a conference for people that use the same e-mail service HA! Becca is super fun and outgoing so it was cool to hear her talk about how she'd quickly built her, at that time, new calligraphy business. One of the biggest mental hurdles to get over as an entrepreneur is often feeling like a fraud or not practiced enough to call yourself a professional and start selling your creative work. Becca is a perfect example that you can make money fairly quickly in the arts if you aren't afraid to put your work out there (even if it's still a work in progress) and put programs out there too! Today I talk to Becca about how to monetize something as niche as calligraphy (even if lots more people are out there doing it). We talk about: Travel and her round-the-world trip How she made her first buck as a calligrapher What type of systems do you use within your business - have they expanded as she's grown? What's

Today's guest is truly incredible. It's one thing to travel, but another to travel and be so touched that you take your whole life in a new direction. Amber did just that after she visited Ethiopia and saw how much change was needed. On this episode, I'm talking with Amber about her company, Eleventh Candle. Eleventh Candle Co. is a social enterprise in Columbus, Ohio partnering with Legacy to redeem, restore, empower and equip those vulnerable to human trafficking, abuse, exploitation, and addiction. A once trafficked woman in Columbus, Ohio is employed while a village in Ethiopia is supported and orphaned children there are welcomed into homes when products are purchased. Some questions I ask Amber & other things we talk about: Have you always had a trajectory of working in the mission field & why? Tell us about your first trip abroad and how or why it inspired you to do more. Tackling a daunting task: What were the first few steps to getting started creating a company that helps overseas. Traffic

My 31st birthday was over the weekend (yippee!) and I thought that called for a solo show of one of the topics I talk about that gets the most response: Shiny Object Syndrome. If you don't know what it is, consider yourself lucky! Or maybe you didn't know it was referred to as this! Well, if you're an entrepreneur and ever find yourself jumping from one idea to the next, never really accomplishing the thing you want to accomplish, you just may be a prime culprit. Not to fear though, there are a few things we can do to fight this and develop better habits!! Use a notebook to write down new ideas Schedule time for working on the new ideas that you decide are worthy of working on Then, work on these 3 things are all things that we need to work on as we begin to move away from shiny object syndrome. No's, Yes's, & Martyr Syndrome Say no to: crappy emails, hanging out with people who aren't a positive influence, social media distractions, being a martyr Say yes to: spending time on things that matter,

You all are in for a treat today! I've got Gemma O'Brien on the podcast today, an artist who's wowed me for a while on Instagram and in a fun turn of events, I flew across the country last week to help her paint her latest mural at Google Headquarters in Silicon Valley. It's a funny thing meeting people you've only seen on your Instagram feed - maybe this is what it feels like to online date someone. You never truly know who they are behind the 'gram! Because personally, I think I was funniest back in my Yahoo! Messenger days...the instant messenger response delay really helped me be extremely witty. But my Yahoo glory days are beside the point and Gemma was super fun. So back to her. If you've never seen her art, you NEED to. It truly is just plain awesome. Stuff you look at and can't really wrap your mind around how it got from A (blank wall) to B (wowza). Funny enough, in my excitement of all the free food Google offers, I didn't press record correctly and thus missed half of the interview (lesson learne

Okay Passion Designers, I see you out there, shrinking back & becoming clammy every time someone asks you what the price of something is. It seems that we all feel like we are each the worst at selling our stuff. Can't we just do it for free and have a magical life where everything works out? Yep, I hear you! Pricing, negotiating, getting rejected, getting ghosted after giving prices...it's all pretty yuck. I'm super empathetic for every artist trying to price; through the years, I've become defensive about prices and irritated when people don't see something's worth/the work that was put into it as I notice how often creatives are taken advantage of. Sure, there is a time and place for doing cheap work at the beginning, but if you constantly get bombarded with family and friends who want a favor or "quick sketch" it's time to show the world your actual worth. There are so many variables involved when selling creative items, yet there's definitely a strong foundation that's most important and that's where w

I've been thinking a lot about Niche-ing down lately. For the longest time, I worked hard to stay as open as possible so that I could get as many potential clients as possible. The weird thing about my method is that it almost ALWAYS backfires. Logical thinking would say that if you open up a pool to anyone, you will give yourself tons more options for people to find you. But the thing is, most of those people won't be right for you and you end up using tons of your time trying to please everyone, when really all you have to do is please the select group that really, really, really wants what you have to give and offer to them. I'm trying to make it sound simple, but let me tell you, I haven't found it simple at all. To be honest, most days I wish I was interested in less things and only passionate about one thing because then I wouldn't care about leaving my mini-passions behind and it would make the whole niching-down thing easier. But if you are a creative like me, most likely you are multi-passionate too

  A few people have messaged me lately asking how to get started in the art world and what my trajectory has been like. Although I think it's an ever-evolving world as an entrepreneur, with the world moving SO FAST, on this episode I'm talking about things I've done that have worked and haven't worked. As a spoiler, here are the top 2 things I learned most recently: A. Patience is key. I know, we all want things to happen like...yesterday...but the reality is success takes a lot of consistent work and a positive mindset that you can do it. The artist I worked with and admire has been painting murals for 5 years and working on her artistic style for 10...that's almost 5 times as long as me and was a good eye opener for when I'm feeling impatient! B. On the other end, while being patient, you can't just wait for the perfect project to show up at your doorstep before taking action. If you aren't consistently doing the thing you want to be doing (even if it's in your 10 minutes of free time a day), no one is g

Anyone have a case of the "I'm not doing enoughs?" Thought so! Here are 10 things to remember when you find yourself anxious about being behind or that you'll never get to where you want to be. Listen in as I talk in detail about each one and how I'm working on them in my own work and life. You'll never totally "arrive," most likely you'll always want more and thus, more time Taking breaks actually can enhance creativity When we take off the pressure, we are able to be inspired instead of forcing things Never work so hard that you forget why you're working Think about what people say about you - do they say you are a workaholic? Think about eulogies You can do ANYTHING but not EVERYTHING The process is often more exciting than the result, so remember to enjoy that part Stop comparing yourself to others: social media doesn't stop, someone will always be working every second of the day and it's impossible to do that as one person Enjoy right now, because your life is happening right NOW. Not

I met Molly in Fashion school back at the University of Cincinnati. She was always creating extremely innovative designs, pushing design limits way past simply "next season's style." So I was super amped to see that she is in the midst of creating her own line of clothing for teens with Autism. After working at the Mayo Clinic after getting her Fashion Design degree, she noticed a need for the growing number of people with Autism and decided to address it herself, by creating fashion-forward clothing for teens on the Autism spectrum. She recently released an Indigogo Campaign (live in April 2018) and is looking for funding to further the line she's already started, in order to reach more people who could seriously benefit from this type of clothing. Molly and I talk about: When is the right time to start your own business How to mesh different passions into one career Why there is a need for this type of clothing What it takes to launch a crowdfunding campaign Details on the creation of a fashi

On the Passion Design Project website, I not only have the podcast but also keep a Travel Blog on there. I love writing about exploring different places and hope that others can find the blogs handy if they find themselves in the same spots! Pertaining to business, I think there are a lot of different ways to grow, and they don't always have to do with biz productivity like setting up the right systems. Sometimes, life experiences can help you grow in business, and often does. Where I grew up (and I know many other places like this too), a lot of people take the same vacation every year. re-visiting their "favorite" spot. I get that some places are awesome and people don't like to quit a good thing once they're found it, and so I understand why people choose to do this. About 5 years ago, I took a job taking international passengers on road trips across the USA. There were 2 main crazy things that I learned from this. 1. There were way more foreign travelers visiting our National Parks than Natives. 2. The

About 5 years back I started a "company," more like a blog called "Thee Bold." Spoiler alert: it stopped almost as quickly as it started, but the funny part about it is that I took forever to launch it. And by launch it, I mean, simply make the website public. It's like I thought the world would come sprinting towards the site once I made it go live. Nope. And instead of working at it, I decided it had failed. I had spent all this time getting little pieces together of the brand I was trying to create only to lose interest after I launched when no one came running. (I don't blame them.) With projects since then, you'd think I'd totally learn, but I still struggle with planning for too long before releasing things. For example, with this podcast, I thought about creating a podcast for a year and a half and THEN I planned it for another entire year before launching. Though I learned a lot, I 100% could have consolidated that into a month with better planning strategies and in turn, could have had 52 more episo

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Starting and running your own business can and usually is a daunting task. People on Instagram love to show the beautiful, exotic, freeing part of working for yourself, but what's usually lost in that are the grueling hours of nothing happening or the numerous rejections that occur when starting out. It's super easy to feel like you're taking one step forward and then getting pushed 10 back from all directions. If you've started your own biz, I'm sure you are well aware that it's not all fun and games. Since going off on my own, I've had the best times and also the lowest lows I've ever felt too. Times when it feels like nothing (at all!) is working out or ever will. It can be a little bit soul-crushing and cause weeks of lost motivation. For me, it became an endless cycle of 'how will I make money this month?' A revolving conversation in my head wondering if I could even make it on the path I was on and what I would do in worst case scenario. It may seem pretty s

Recently I met Christian at a Silicon Couliour meeting in Jackson Hole. As someone who left a secure (yet intense) life in the tech start-up world in San Francisco, I was anxious to hear how this change to a totally different lifestyle (snowboarding, travel, love, entrepreneurship, coaching) came about! On this Episode, Christian describes in depth how he left a life of burnout and stress in the tech world to leading a life he loves and looks forward to every day. Expect to hear: How to begin to totally make a 180 shift in life Why it's important to figure out the one meaningful question you ask yourself, and how to How you can begin to use meditation during good times so you're ready for bad times. The power of gratefulness How it's sometimes more important to get rid of things in life than add things A method to prioritizing what's most important Lots of Tony Robbins references Enjoy!! And as always, have the best day ever!!! Thanks so much for listening!! I would love if you'd leave a re

If you're an entrepreneur or have a business or want to have a biz, what do you think about the most? I'm guessing you probably think about money quite a bit and how you're going to make it. I'm real guilty of putting my sole focus on how I can make a buck. I like to shuffle around the online space to see what's making money and then see how I can work those same methods. My biggest mistake came last year when I thought that a coaching course could bring me straight to financial freedom. I figured that I would follow a method that worked for one person and then boom, all would be good. It seems to be a pattern in entrepreneurship of looking for whatever is working at the moment. We see someone having success and think we can replicate it immediately, except usually, anything that appears to happen fast hasn't actually happened fast. So when we see someone succeeding, we think we should be there too, but most likely they've taken quite a path to get there as well. So if we know there's no cheat strategy, wh

When was the last time you were rejected? Maybe it was today or yesterday, or maybe a year ago and you're still upset and mad about it. Whenever it was, I surely can relate and am guessing most listeners can. I hate rejection. I really do. It's annoying, hurtful, makes me feel like I wasted time, is depressing, can crush a good day, must I go on.... Sometimes I look at people online and think, "Wow, must be nice to get everything so easily!" But is that really the truth? I've experienced an extra lot of rejection lately. Mainly because I'm reaching out to a lot of people from scratch about creating murals, not knowing if they need or want one or not. At first, I thought this process was really fun. The possibility of hitting a client who wanted my services was an exciting thought and I decided people would easily say yes. Much to my dismay, getting a yes from people isn't as simple as I thought and as the no's began coming in, it really sucked. To think logically about this, which is what I usually do, it m

Today I go over all of the details on how I started a Podcast. Kara wrote in with the following questions and I answer every single one in great detail. Enjoy and let me know if you start a Podcast!! What equipment did you start with? Where did you buy it? How did you prepare? How did you set up interviews and prepare for those interviews Editing, do you outsource a company that helps with editing? Did you have them all recorded before you started posting? How did you promote it? How to come up with refreshing content? Did you take suggestions from listeners How do you get people interested in being interviewed? Do you feel it has helped with your mission? Roughly what did it cost to get started? do you have sponsored ads or anyone wanting to sponsor you? do you make money at it? And as always, have the best day ever!!! Thanks so much for listening!! I would love if you'd leave a review & subscribe on iTunes...HOW TO LEAVE A REVIEW FROM YOUR IPHONE: 1. Open podcast app   2. Search fo