Latest / The Creative Jugglejoy Podcast / E12: How I Started Selling My Creations - Later in Life digitally

Transcript

E12: How I Started Selling My Creations - Later in Life digitally · The Creative Jugglejoy Podcast

• 0:04
  Delores Naskrent: Hey everyone, it's Dlores and welcome back to the Creative Juggle Joy podcast.
• 0:09
  Delores Naskrent: I'm really excited to dive into today's episode because we're going to talk about a number of different things.
• 0:16
  Delores Naskrent: They don't seem like they maybe go together, but I think all of these come up in the episode.
• 0:22
  Delores Naskrent: I want to talk about connection and I want to talk about encouragement, and I also really want to touch on embracing change, especially later on in life.
• 0:32
  Delores Naskrent: We'll start by exploring my journey as a lifelong artist.
• 0:40
  Delores Naskrent: So some of you might know me a bit, maybe because you were my students on Skillshare or you've taken courses on other platforms, but I always believe it's worthwhile to hear how someone like me has built a business around art and as.
• 0:58
  Delores Naskrent: s artists, we live in one of the most amazing time for creatives.
• 1:03
  Delores Naskrent: We didn't have these opportunities available when I was starting out.
• 1:07
  Delores Naskrent: Many seasoned artists have proven that it's possible to thrive
• 1:12
  Delores Naskrent: in this field after 30 or 40 or even more years of dedication.
• 1:18
  Delores Naskrent: I can't believe how much easier it is for artists of all ages to make a living from their work now.
• 1:25
  Delores Naskrent: Sometimes I honestly lie awake at night thinking about all the
• 1:30
  Delores Naskrent: different things I still want to pursue, even though
• 1:33
  Delores Naskrent: I'm past middle age.
• 1:34
  Delores Naskrent: I mean, what really defines middle age anymore?
• 1:37
  Delores Naskrent: Anyways, if it's 30 to 60, well then I'm actually past it.
• 1:42
  Delores Naskrent: I'm 64 years old and I'm feeling like I am just getting started.
• 1:48
  Delores Naskrent: For you as learners or
• 1:51
  Delores Naskrent: students
• 1:51
  Delores Naskrent: , hearing from someone with extensive experience, I think, can be really helpful.
• 1:57
  Delores Naskrent: I know I've mentioned before how my high school mentor, mr Sandeman, inspired me to teach, which was a path I had never envisioned for myself.
• 2:07
  Delores Naskrent: I also discussed how I became a single mom of three very active daughters, which compelled me to find multiple sources of income.
• 2:17
  Delores Naskrent: One income, the .
• 2:19
  Delores Naskrent: teaching income, was simply just not enough to maintain my family's lifestyle and needs, really because my kids were so active.
• 2:28
  Delores Naskrent: And, yes, I could have sold my house, maybe I could have gone to a smaller house, moved right into the city, but I just didn't want to uproot my kids.
• 2:40
  Delores Naskrent: We've all lived in this community for and I just did the math for 48 years, if you can believe it, 48 years if you count my mom and that she and my dad built the house that I used to live in, which is across the street, and now my daughter lives there.
• 3:02
  Delores Naskrent: The long and the short of it is didn't want to leave, so I had to figure out additional ways to make money with my art.
• 3:09
  Delores Naskrent: I mean, my art was the one thing.
• 3:12
  Delores Naskrent: I thought well, that has some potential, maybe I could make money doing something extra on the side.
• 3:20
  Delores Naskrent: So this meant for me trying a number of new methods to leverage my art skills for additional income.
• 3:28
  Delores Naskrent: And now that term leverage your art has become a catchphrase in the industry.
• 3:35
  Delores Naskrent: The program by Stacey Bloomfield Leverage your Art definitely caught my attention because I had been leveraging my art for years to make ends meet and I had never heard it presented in that way and I was really curious.
• 3:50
  Delores Naskrent: I loved her story and I ended up really loving her program and I think it has really helped me continue to develop a business model that is not just about the teaching.
• 4:04
  Delores Naskrent: I can do all the other things, like all the things, if I really set my mind to it.
• 4:11
  Delores Naskrent: But let's still go back a little bit, because I was balancing that full-time job as a high school teacher with my side endeavors and it was really challenging, and if you've worked as a high school teacher teacher, you've been in the school system a lot.
• 4:26
  Delores Naskrent: Art teachers have a lot of extra stuff going on.
• 4:29
  Delores Naskrent: I was part of the theatrical design department as well, because I taught a course it was called theatrical design, and so that made me responsible for mostly painting sets, creating the sets and then also a lot of the extra little props that were needed to really fill out a theatrical production.
• 4:57
  Delores Naskrent: So if you can imagine having a full-time job and spending hundreds of hours working on something like that as well.
• 5:06
  Delores Naskrent: I had lots of help within the school, but it still was a lot of hours on my part, so I had been away from my artistic community while I was earning my teaching certification.
• 5:20
  Delores Naskrent: It had taken me five years to complete it, but once I had it I felt that I had a little bit of mental bandwidth left.
• 5:26
  Delores Naskrent: Besides doing all the school-related stuff, I also started to brainstorm ways that I could boost my income.
• 5:34
  Delores Naskrent: my
• 5:34
  Delores Naskrent: income
• 5:35
  Delores Naskrent: .
• 5:35
  Delores Naskrent: Now, back during that period of time, I was also dealing with lots of personal challenges in my relationship.
• 5:43
  Delores Naskrent: With lots of personal challenges in my relationship.
• 5:45
  Delores Naskrent: This was really pivotal for me because, as an employee of a government agency, I had access to emotional support through what we call EAP, which is Employee Assistance Program.
• 5:57
  Delores Naskrent: It finally
• 5:58
  Delores Naskrent: hit me that I couldn't stay in my marriage and I needed to plan an exit ne to really care for my family.
• 6:05
  Delores Naskrent: Moving forward, I was really saddened by what my girls were going through and I I needed help.
• 6:15
  Delores Naskrent: I really did, and I am incredibly grateful to the counselor that
• 6:20
  Delores Naskrent: I had for helping me really recognize my self-worth and for encouraging me to envision my life differently than what it was.
• 6:32
  Delores Naskrent: So, envision my life different than what it was.
• 6:36
  Delores Naskrent: That right there, is the most important step a person can make when they have big dreams.
• 6:46
  Delores Naskrent: One of the first things I decided was to figure out how to earn extra income, because I knew I had to be able to ensure that my kids could stay in their home and continue with activities.
• 6:59
  Delores Naskrent: They were getting more and more busy as they got older.
• 7:03
  Delores Naskrent: I had one girl in high school, one girl in junior high and one in grade
• 7:08
  Delores Naskrent: school.
• 7:08
  Delores Naskrent: So I had tried selling my art that I made at local gift shops, and my next step was to sell at local craft sales and events.
• 7:19
  Delores Naskrent: I've shared my experience doing this in previous episodes and in blog posts, so I won't go into it really in great detail.
• 7:27
  Delores Naskrent: But it was for a short period of time around then that I went
• 7:33
  Delores Naskrent: into a partnership with two other artist friends?
• 7:35
  Delores Naskrent: and
• 7:35
  Delores Naskrent: we opened a gift shop, thinking that that would be a great way to get our art out there.
• 7:41
  Delores Naskrent: My craft two
• 7:42
  Delores Naskrent: friends were also graphic designers like me, so our bread and butter income for the business was in doing commercial work.
• 7:49
  Delores Naskrent: Unfortunately, because I was still employed full time as
• 7:53
  Delores Naskrent: a teacher and not in position to quit my day job as they were, it eventually led to too much friction between the partners and we all ended up going our separate ways.
• 8:04
  Delores Naskrent: However, everything is a growing experience, right.
• 8:07
  Delores Naskrent: I think that this approach was invaluable for exposing my artwork to
• 8:13
  Delores Naskrent: direct consumers, and it helped me understand what was marketable.
• 8:19
  Delores Naskrent: Craft shows then became my main avenue for merging my analog and digital art into projects I could create quickly instead of spending countless hours hand painting items, and I've talked about that before in another episode.
• 8:34
  Delores Naskrent: What I had been teaching with digital art and
• 8:37
  Delores Naskrent: the several years of experience I had working with software programs couldn't have produced a better opportunity for me to do this.
• 8:45
  Delores Naskrent: Eventually, over time, and with the pursuit of the craft sale business, I discovered that I could dry,.
• 8:54
  Delores Naskrent: wooden pieces.
• 8:54
  Delores Naskrent: Initially, I explored various products, including mounting my printed art and scroll, cutting the wood into functional, maybe sculptures and clocks.
• 9:04
  Delores Naskrent: I had little animals that I cut out.
• 9:07
  Delores Naskrent: I developed many products over the years, experimenting and trying to figure out ways I could scale my operation.
• 9:13
  Delores Naskrent: I knew it was not hat to spend countless hours at my scroll saw in preparation
• 9:20
  Delores Naskrent: for the holiday season.
• 9:21
  Delores Naskrent: My oldest daughter started to really help out in the business and she came along to the sales with the two younger ones in tow.
• 9:28
  Delores Naskrent: And I know I've talked about this and I'm hoping I'm not repeating myself as we
• 9:34
  Delores Naskrent: record more and more episodes.
• 9:35
  Delores Naskrent: But as my daughters got older and they became more involved in sports and other activities, it also became really hard for me to sustain the craft sale model.
• 9:48
  Delores Naskrent: So again, I decided to pivot and explore selling my work online rather than trying to do it on the road.
• 9:57
  Delores Naskrent: This decision brought up two new developments.
• 10:00
  Delores Naskrent: First, my eldest daughter had asked if she could take over the craft sale business, partnering with me by handling production, by traveling and t by selling at the craft sales.
• 10:13
  Delores Naskrent: I would still be the person creating the artwork and printing it off, but she would be
• 10:19
  Delores Naskrent: the one doing all of that work.
• 10:22
  Delores Naskrent: That was just too much for me to cope with.
• 10:25
  Delores Naskrent: So I yeah, I took her up on the offer, for
• 10:29
  Delores Naskrent: sure created Secondly, I opened a Shopify store so that we could focus a little bit more on wholesaling our art and on art licensing, which I had begun exploring in about
• 10:42
  Delores Naskrent: 2006.
• 10:43
  Delores Naskrent: That period of time was like a soup of all the different things I could do to try to make money with my art.
• 10:52
  Delores Naskrent: By this time, I had become an accomplished illustrator, I had created significant illustrative work for
• 10:58
  Delores Naskrent: the local college and sold products at so many craft sales and in so many stores.
• 11:03
  Delores Naskrent: So I really think that those years of working on all of these different
• 11:08
  Delores Naskrent: products helped me to transition to online sales and it felt like a new challenge and it really felt fun.
• 11:16
  Delores Naskrent: t.
• 11:16
  Delores Naskrent: At the time, since I had been teaching digital skills and web design, creating my own website felt like the next logical step.
• 11:23
  Delores Naskrent: The timing was perfect, with my daughter managing the
• 11:26
  Delores Naskrent: craft e business, and together we developed efficient systems for inventory management and with product design and really all our products.
• 11:38
  Delores Naskrent: I doubt that I could have been successful with my Shopify store had I not really done these foundational elements in the first place.
• 11:50
  Delores Naskrent: point, To my surprise, my daughter made the transition to
• 11:54
  Delores Naskrent: online sales feel really seamless, even though we were spread pretty thin at times, especially in the fall season.
• 12:04
  Delores Naskrent: At that point I hadn't even considered platforms like Etsy or print-on-demand sites.
• 12:09
  Delores Naskrent: We were just creating our
• 12:12
  Delores Naskrent: product ready for sale.
• 12:13
  Delores Naskrent: So I really jumped straight into establishing my own retail store.
• 12:20
  Delores Naskrent: So we were the manufacturers of our own product.
• 12:23
  Delores Naskrent: By then we had developed a solid system for creating blanks,
• 12:28
  Delores Naskrent: which were pre-cut wooden pieces for the dry mount process that we had perfected over the years.
• 12:34
  Delores Naskrent: Shopify was relatively new and being an early adopter came with its challenges.
• 12:40
  Delores Naskrent: My email shifted from product production to the .
• 12:43
  Delores Naskrent: technical aspects of creating artwork that catered to various seasons and occasions.
• 12:49
  Delores Naskrent: So we were trying to create a really solid wholesale business at that time and it was really around then that print on demand became a thing and I started to experiment by integrating with sites like Printify and here in Canada we have one called Art of Wear and at that point I opened my first Etsy shop as well.
• 13:15
  Delores Naskrent: As we streamlined our product line to magnets, cards and plaque mounted art, I learned that establishing a portfolio of desirable work and fostering a local customer base was really important for the success in the current marketplace.
• 13:33
  Delores Naskrent: I really started to lean into art licensing even more and then also transitioned that into more education and working with Skillshare.
• 13:46
  Delores Naskrent: When I first went to Skillshare, it was because I needed to learn.
• 13:50
  Delores Naskrent: When I get asked for advice, I really encourage others to start small and test the market with a few products.
• 13:59
  Delores Naskrent: You can definitely find lots and lots of classes on Skillshare and there are lots of free tools and platforms available to help minimize your initial costs.
• 14:10
  Delores Naskrent: You can find a website that has a free plan.
• 14:15
  Delores Naskrent: You can do a mail free plan.
• 14:18
  Delores Naskrent: All of those things are available.
• 14:21
  Delores Naskrent: I personally think that one of the things that helped me the most was joining creative communities, because they really provided me with significant motivation, and I still credit Leverage your Art for really validating my journey and experience.
• 14:40
  Delores Naskrent: I think that anybody considering it will get that big picture thinking that can really help out.
• 14:49
  Delores Naskrent: I'm not here to talk about leverage your art, but I wanted to talk about my classes, and I'm always encouraging anybody, any age at any point in their learning, to continue with education and to try out a lot of different things at first until one floats to the surface and becomes your go-to.
• 15:15
  Delores Naskrent: For those of us on the other side, it's refreshing to connect with younger creatives and I urge you to pursue learning in ways that suit you, whether that's through online courses or local classes you can take, but always keeping your mind open to new possibilities.
• 15:32
  Delores Naskrent: I had never dreamed that I would be involved in so many groups that meet online.
• 15:37
  Delores Naskrent: Now I have several groups that I belong to, and every one of them has deep value, and I find so much support in being in these communities
• 15:50
  Delores Naskrent: .
• 15:51
  Delores Naskrent: I also want to remind you to remember that success does take time.
• 15:56
  Delores Naskrent: Please don't be too harsh on yourself.
• 16:00
  Delores Naskrent: If you're not selling right away, it's still absolutely worth pursuing.
• 16:05
  Delores Naskrent: The selling route continues to bring
• 16:08
  Delores Naskrent: me immense satisfaction, and I think you should allow yourself the grace to learn gradually.
• 16:14
  Delores Naskrent: Many people claim they lack artistic talent, yet create beautiful products even with their perceived limitations.
• 16:24
  Delores Naskrent: Simplicity can turn into beauty and as you become more familiar with software and artistic techniques, you can really learn to elevate your work.
• 16:34
  Delores Naskrent: Honestly, patience is
• 16:36
  Delores Naskrent: key as you explore, keeping in mind that the heart of creativity lies not in just merely imitating trends, but in using them as a foundation to cultivate your unique voice.
• 16:50
  Delores Naskrent: Infuse your personality, your experiences and your vision into your art and let
• 16:59
  Delores Naskrent: and
• 16:59
  Delores Naskrent: your audience, and be kind to yourself.
• 17:02
  Delores Naskrent: It may not be what you envisioned when you first start, but let me know, it can develop.
• 17:13
  Delores Naskrent: Think of a long game.
• 17:14
  Delores Naskrent: I know that selling online can be a really tough path, and I have been working with many, many students as they really just start out on this particular journey.
• 17:29
  Delores Naskrent: You could definitely consider starting
• 17:32
  Delores Naskrent: locally with small craft fairs just to gain exposure.
• 17:36
  Delores Naskrent: If you do that, definitely engage with the fellow artists that you meet at these events, because they can provide valuable insights, as many of them are willing to share their journeys.
• 17:49
  Delores Naskrent: We a developed experience some great relationships with .
• 17:55
  Delores Naskrent: of the things that I would also recommend is just a connection with a couple of local gift shops to sell your products on consignment.
• 18:04
  Delores Naskrent: If they do that sort of thing, I would take that chance.
• 18:09
  Delores Naskrent: Talk to them, even if you're not sure about your
• 18:13
  Delores Naskrent: product.
• 18:14
  Delores Naskrent: They can be full of great advice for you.
• 18:18
  Delores Naskrent: So I think that would be something that you could do just as a learning experience, as a field trip.
• 18:26
  Delores Naskrent: If you think online sales can be slow, well, selling on consignment can take even longer to build a stable income.
• 18:34
  Delores Naskrent: I've tried that route and I knew right away that it was not going to be enough to give me a really reliable, stable income.
• 18:44
  Delores Naskrent: I could go at
• 18:46
  Delores Naskrent: the end of the month and sometimes get as little as $25.
• 18:49
  Delores Naskrent: I had some good months, definitely the fall season leading towards Christmas.
• 18:56
  Delores Naskrent: I would make some big sales occasionally, but for the most part it took a long time to create a stable income from that.
• 19:06
  Delores Naskrent: But relationships built over time in this area can
• 19:10
  Delores Naskrent: be incredibly valuable.
• 19:11
  Delores Naskrent: So value what you hear from these stores and
• 19:15
  Delores Naskrent: value what you hear from other artists.
• 19:17
  Delores Naskrent: I always talk about one of the best pieces of advice that I ever received and that was from a gift shop owner.
• 19:27
  Delores Naskrent: She was telling me how well my artwork that I had added quotes to was selling.
• 19:33
  Delores Naskrent: So from that moment on I prioritized incorporating quotes into all of my work and that got me noticed by the owners of some Hallmark stores .
• 19:45
  Delores Naskrent: and
• 19:46
  Delores Naskrent: I could say the rest is history, but I think my history is still being written.
• 19:51
  Delores Naskrent: I just want to encourage you to stay committed to your journey.
• 19:55
  Delores Naskrent: oy So to recap, today we discussed the evolution of my business, my art business, specifically the importance of leveraging your skills and also in staying open to new possibilities.
• 20:10
  Delores Naskrent: I encourage all creators, especially those who are
• 20:15
  Delores Naskrent: older, to pursue their dreams without letting age stop.
• 20:19
  Delores Naskrent: them.
• 20:19
  Delores Naskrent: I haven't let it stop me.
• 20:21
  Delores Naskrent: Remember that the joy of creating and selling art can be yours at any stage in life.
• 20:28
  Delores Naskrent: Now, if you found this helpful, I invite you to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review.
• 20:33
  Delores Naskrent: Keep an eye out for upcoming classes and resources I'll be offering related to digital art and online selling, and remember, join my mailing list for updates and helpful tips.
• 20:46
  Delores Naskrent: I'm so glad that you joined me today on the Creative Juggle Joy podcast.
• 20:51
  Delores Naskrent: If you enjoyed this episode, I'd really appreciate it if you could leave a review or if you could share it with a friend who may need a little bit of encouragement on their creative journey.
• 21:02
  Delores Naskrent: Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
• 21:06
  Delores Naskrent: As we wrap up today's episode, I want to remind you that personal stories can truly foster connection, so let your experiences shine through your art, no matter what your age.
• 21:19
  Delores Naskrent: It's never too late to pursue your passions and remember the joy of creating and sharing art can be a beautiful journey at any stage in life.
• 21:28
  Delores Naskrent: Thanks so much for joining me today on the Creative Juggle Joy podcast.
• 21:33
  Delores Naskrent: Until next time, keep creating, keep juggling it all and, most importantly, keep finding joy in the process.
• 21:43
  Delores Naskrent: Remember there's joy in the journey, even on the craziest days.