95 – Selling on Digital Marketplaces with Isabelle Wood

 Laura

00:06
Hi, this is Laura Lee Griffin.

Nikki

00:08
And this is Nikki May with Startist Society, inspiring you to stop getting in your own way and start building an art biz and life that you love.

Laura

00:17
We are artists who believe strongly in the power of community, accountability, following your intuition, taking small actionable steps and breaking down the barriers of fear and procrastination that keep you stuck.

Nikki

00:30
Follow along with us on our creative business journey as we encourage you on yours. We’ve told you all many times that Laura< and I met in a peer accountability group for Bonnie Christine’s surface design Immersion course. Today, and in a few upcoming episodes, we want to introduce you to the other women in our group and tell their inspiring Startist stories. Each of us pretty much had one or two main goals that we hope to accomplish with our creative careers, and we wanted to share what we’ve all been doing to reach those goals.

Laura

01:04
Well, we’ve done a lot of interviews with very experienced artists who have tons of products and licensing deals and courses, and they have a lot to share with us for sure. People like Lisa Glanz, who is a master at selling her digital designs and brushes and tools on digital marketplaces like Design Cuts. But we often feel that they’re so far ahead of most of us that will just never catch up.

Nikki

01:27
Yeah, so we wanted to share stories from some artists who are not quite as far down that path. They may be more relatable to those of us that are at the Startist stage. So today we’re going to begin our accountability group series with Isabelle Wood, graphic designer, digital creator, online educator and self-proclaimed forever-student from Montreal, who is just getting started in putting her work out there to meet her goal. But we’ll let her tell you about that. Isabelle, welcome to the Startist Society. We’re so excited to have you here.

Isabelle

01:55
Thank you so much. I’m really excited and nervous to be here. And I apologize if my voice squeaks. I was really, really sick last month and I lost my voice completely. And sometimes it’s still squeaks a little, so hopefully it won’t be too bad.

Nikki

02:12
I want to hear the squeaky voice!

Laura

02:18
Well, Isabelle, we think that you are a great example of a Startist and we’d love for you to share your Startist story with us.

Isabelle

02:26
Well, I’m a forever Startist. Seriously, I think this is one of my, I’ve just learned to accept this about myself, is that I suffer from the shiny new object syndrome. And I like to try new things I hear, a new technique or a new medium and I’m like, ooh, I want to try that! So I’ve tried a lot of things and I change all the time. It has good points and bad points where sometimes I never get as far as I could in one subject or in one matter.

Nikki

02:59
But you’ve been a graphic designer for quite a while, right?

Isabelle

03:03
Four years? No, since 2016. Four?

Nikki

03:08
We don’t need to do math, but that’s actually more like seven years.

Isabelle

03:23
Wow, that’s really bad.

Nikki

03:25
So what made you decide to take Bonnie’s Immersion course where we met you?

Isabelle

03:30
Well, I’m gonna go back a bit.

Nikki

03:32
Please.

Isabelle

03:32
At the time that I was in high school, you basically had to decide what you were going to do for the rest of your life so that you go University after, and I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. Like up until my 40s I still didn’t know what I really wanted to do. But everything that I did after high school was always something in the creative field. I got a degree in floristry, flower arrangements.

Laura

03:58
Cool.

Isabelle

03:59
I did a degree in artistic makeup. I didn’t work in that, but I did the course.

Laura

04:05
That’s cool. You could go to those. Oh, gosh, what do they call those conventions? The comic cons and stuff.

Isabelle

04:11
Yeah, face makeup, yeah. But I what I really would have loved to do because I love movies; I would have loved to work in movies, because here in Montreal, we have a lot of movie studios. But the problem with that was, it was kind of like a catch 22, because in order to get hired on a movie, you had the head makeup artists had to kind of know you. And in order to know you, you had to go do some volunteer work with them. Well, I had a car, an apartment, and I was living alone. I couldn’t just like take three, four days to go do some volunteer makeup and not have any revenue come in. So…

Laura

04:50
Well, that was one path that was possible and you’ve chosen others. So…

Isabelle

04:57
I then ended up going to work in a warehouse for a medical device company.

Nikki

05:03
Very creative.

Isabelle

05:04
Very creative. And then I moved up to customer service. But I mean, there was one good thing is that’s where I met my husband, so…

Laura

05:11
Oh nice.

Isabelle

05:11
So it wasn’t all bad. I ended up getting married. I had kids.

Nikki

05:17
You have two teenage boys, correct?

Isabelle

05:19
Yeah, they’re now teenagers. 16 and 19.

Laura

05:21
Wow.

Isabelle

05:22
I know, right? I feel so old. And but in the evenings, I took some night classes in photography, I took some cake decorating classes. Obviously in the 2000s scrapbooking was really, really big. So when the kids were born, I fell into scrapbooking and cardmaking and stamping I even got certified as a Copic Instructor like Laura. And then I ended up teaching myself Illustrator through the beginning of online videos and tutorials. I think I had taken one. Rhonda Ferrer, I think, I’m not 100% sure, but she’s a scrapbooking paper maker.

Laura

06:09
So you have a bit of a crafty background like I do.

Isabelle

06:11
Yeah, yeah. So I taught myself Illustrator to create some party designs and party decorations for the kids. And then I ended up making my mom second wedding invitation and my sister’s wedding invitation. And I realized that I really enjoyed working in Illustrator. And at 40, I decided to go back to school to become a graphic designer. So I did that. And then I fell in love with creating fonts. And it’s just, I’m really bad at hand lettering, but I just really love the idea of making fonts. And I buy all the fonts and I have way too many fonts. I’m sure both of you also do

Nikki

06:53
There are no designers that don’t have too many fonts. And I bet you’re probably like me, and you still use the same four or five every time.

Isabelle

07:02
Yeah. So at the end of the graphic designer course, I decided that I wanted to create fonts and graphics and assets to sell. I was a huge customer of Creative Market at the time. And so the way that their application worked at the time, and this was back in 2017, is you sent them a link to your portfolio or your social media, and so all I really had at the time was my Instagram. And I mean, it was okay, I mean, it really wasn’t that great. So I got turned down. And I started working as a graphic designer full time for a company. And that whole idea of creating fonts and graphics and assets just kind of fell to the wayside. And I kind of just left it there. And then I was working as a graphic designer for a few years. And 2019, I decided to go freelance because I realized I did not like having a boss breathing down my neck.

Nikki

08:10
Amen, sister.

Isabelle

08:13
So I decided to go freelance and I wasn’t actively out there looking for clients. Because I mean, I know a lot of people need the money, but my husband has a really good job. So I was a stay at home mom before. So that income was just like a little bonus, a little extra for myself. And so I wasn’t actively looking for clients, I just had a few people, word of mouth come to me, and so I took those clients. And I had some time left over. And I realized that through working for the graphic design company, the agencies and stuff, I realized that I like creating repeat patterns. And I had taught myself how to create repeat patterns.

So I decided in 2020 to take Bonnie Christine’s course. And that’s where I met you guys. And for me that was actually the best part of the course. And I know that’s not the same for everybody, some people get a lot out of it. But because I knew Illustrator so well, for me, I felt like I wanted more of the business aspect of the surface pattern design industry and I didn’t get that. But for somebody that doesn’t know Illustrator she really like goes in from the beginning. It’s a really good course to learn Illustrator and how to create pattern.

Nikki

09:23
Yeah, I felt the same way since I’ve been working in Illustrator forever. And I had taken a few classes about learning how to do repeat patterns. I did learn quite a few little extra tips and details, you know, but really, truly the best part for me too was this group that we all met in.

Laura

09:44
And I was different than you guys because I didn’t know Illustrator when I came in. I knew a little bit on Photoshop, but not Illustrator. So I learned quite a bit from that process. But again, the very best part of it was the accountability group and I will say I’ve been in so many accountability groups in other courses, where it just it didn’t necessarily gel.

Nikki

10:05
Yeah, they fall apart so quickly, usually.

Laura

10:07
I mean, it’s been now two years, and there was something about the magic that came together with this group. So I just want to reiterate to our listeners, how don’t give up.

Nikki

10:15
It’s been longer than two years, hasn’t it?

Laura

10:18
Oh yeah, 2023, now, yeah,

Isabelle

10:21
It was in May 2020, wasn’t, it that we took it?

Laura

10:24
I can’t remember.

Nikki

10:25
Two and a half years. Close enough. So Isabel, we wanted to focus on some of the goals that we had, both in the course, and just what we’ve talked about in our accountability group. So I know that you had at least one or two big goals that you’ve been working on. Do you want to tell us about some of that?

Isabelle

10:45
Yeah. So I, I like sharing my knowledge, when I know how to do something, I like, when somebody doesn’t know how to do it, I really enjoy teaching that person how to do things. So I figured that a good way to get passive income would be to create some online classes. So I had a goal to create some Skillshare classes. And in 2021, I put out two classes.

Nikki

11:10
Amazing. Because weren’t you, you know, pretty intimidated by that at first.

Isabelle

11:16
Oh, my God, yes.

Nikki

11:17
Maybe a little paralyzed?

Isabelle

11:18
The first one took me a really long time to create, it took me more than the period that… Skillshare has a challenge period, where are they, it’s like three months to create a class and you get help from people. And I didn’t manage to finish it in that time. So it actually took me like, seven, eight months to actually finish my first class.

Nikki

11:43
But you did it.

ISABELLE

I did. But yeah, I had some some personal issues at home where I kind of needed more of my attention. So that kind of like, had to be put on the side for a bit. My first class is doing really well. The second class is not doing as well as I was hoping. But it doesn’t mean that it’s not good. It’s like little by little, it’s still there. And it’s still increasing the number of students a little bit little bit a little bit. So it’s not a complete flop. So I’m okay with that.

Laura

12:11
Well, let’s talk a little bit about this process. So you had a goal that said, Man, I love Skillshare, I would love to be on Skillshare. But I don’t even know how to video things, I don’t know how to do all this stuff. You had a goal and you said, it may have taken seven or eight months to get that first class done, but you actually got it done.

Isabelle

12:30
I got it done. And I learned Premiere Pro, because I knew nothing about Premiere Pro when I started. So I learned Premiere Pro, I learned how to edit videos, I learned how to create the class outline. I learned a lot creating that. So yeah, that’s good.

Laura

12:47
Now I think you were part of a program that you had some coaching, is that correct? That Skillshare offers?

Isabelle

12:55
I did. I was lucky enough, they reached out to me because I’ve been on Skillshare as a client, I think since before the format where it’s like you pay once and you have access to everything, you had to buy the classes individually. So I’ve been a customer for a really long, long time. And I don’t think that had anything to do with it, but once in a while, I got emails saying would you like to teach a class? And I finally responded, yes, I would to one of these. And it was during the Teach Challenge. And I think you had to apply?

Laura

13:28
Yeah, I think you did for the coaching, because I did the same thing. And I think I may have done it one season in front of you. But yeah, you would get a coach assigned to you, right?

Isabelle

13:40
Yeah, I got a coach. And she was really nice and really helpful. And she went over everything. She listened to the videos. And you know, gave me tips of like some things I needed to refilm. So it was long because I had to redo some of the things and then my husband, when I told him I was creating a second class, he’s like, are you serious? Are you serious, you want to make a second one?

Nikki

14:08
Okay, but it took you maybe seven months to do the first one. How long did it take you to do the second one?

Isabelle

14:14
Oh my god. The second one I had in my mind. It was a Christmas theme class. So I had to get it out by November 1. And you started when I decided this in end of August, early September. So I got it done in like a couple months.

Nikki

14:32
See?

Isabelle

14:33
Yeah. I don’t know if it’s not doing as well because it’s a little bit rushed or if it’s because it is Christmas themed and…

Nikki

14:40
People aren’t thinking about Christmas the whole year.

Isabelle

14:43
Yeah, but the subject of the class you can apply it to other seasons. It was just happened to be at Christmas, and so I filmed it with my Christmas tree in the back, you know…

Laura

14:53
So we’re talking about these classes you created, but we haven’t actually said what they are. So tell us a little bit about them.

Isabelle

14:59
The first classes how to use Procreate to create stickers.

Laura

15:03
Awesome.

Isabelle

15:04
And I show two ways to then make your stickers either at home using scissors or a cutting machine with like sticker paper that you buy at the store online, or getting it outsourced to print on demand companies that will do stickers.

Nikki

15:21
Nice.

Isabelle

15:21
So I talked about both in that class. And then the second class was…

Laura

15:27
Wait, can I just interrupt and say that I took your first class and it was super fun because you have these little summer treats that you make like little popsicles and ice cream and like stuff like that.

Nikki

15:39
And now I want ice cream with bourbon, naturally.

Laura

15:43
Of course you do, Nikki. I thought it was really fun. And I enjoyed taking it. So Cool.

Isabelle

15:49
Thank you, I took your first Copic class with the flowers. Yeah, that was great, because I hadn’t colored with my Copic markers and so long, and it was really great to take them out and actually use them and do something with it. It was it was a good class, and I learned stuff. You I think you were more advanced and Copic than I was because you did some techniques that I didn’t know. So that was really, really great. So the second class was how to create gift tags on Procreate. And I was giving away some Procreate brushes that I actually created. So I learned how to make Procreate brushes for that class. They’re just like stamp brushes, but it’s stamped images of the tag shape. And there were three different shapes or two different shapes. And so it’s like gift tags, you can make them for Christmas, you can make them for birthdays, hostess gift, whatever. But because it’s Christmas themed in the tags and the background and what I’m filming, I think maybe people are just a little thrown off by it. Or then again, I’m really bad at social media marketing. I could also be a huge problem, because why it’s not working that well, you know

Laura

16:52
Well, I think we all have challenges in that area for sure.

Nikki

16:56
Uh, yes.

Laura

16:57
But I think yeah, I think having something that’s Christmas themed can be perfect for that season, or even maybe in July, you could push it for the whole Christmas in July thing.

Isabelle

17:05
Oh, yeah.

Laura

17:06
So there could be different some different opportunities. But I think in essence, it’s all learning experience. So here you had this goal, and you had a lot of things thrown at you. You mentioned personally, there were some challenges that you were having when you were trying to do that first class. And you still said, You know what, I’m going to get this thing done, you know, and you were able to get past those challenges and make it happen. And so I think that’s awesome.

Nikki

17:31
And aside from accomplishing the goal of doing the courses, you learned a whole bunch of new skills, right?

Isabelle

17:38
Yeah. Yeah. Which is, I’m a, what did I say? I was a perpetual forever student, which is true, I’m always looking to learn new things, looking at tutorials on anything, you know, like cookie decorating and cake decorating.

Nikki

17:52
So, I know, I know that you had another specific goal that you were working on. And what was that one?

Isabelle

18:01
The the fonts and assets?

Nikki

18:03
Yeah, you had the goal of creating digital products to sell on marketplaces like Design Cuts.

Isabelle

18:12
Yep, Design Cuts. I kind of let go of the Creative Market for two reasons. They changed your platform, or it’s like a membership, and you have access to everything you could still buy individually. But I kind of didn’t like that. And you know, they shunned me once.

Nikki

18:25
So screw you Creative Market. No, not really. I don’t mean that, we love you Creative Market.

Isabelle

18:33
I still love Creative Market. But..

Nikki

18:35
They’ve gotten plenty of my money.

Isabelle

18:36
Oh me too, me too. So last year talking with you guys, I realized that I had that goal of creating fonts and digital assets and I was turned down and I put it to the side and I never went back to that. So I told myself, you know what, in 2022, that’s going to be one of my goals. I want to create fonts and some digital assets. So that’s what I really work towards in 2022. In 2021 was a Skillshare Class. 2022 was the digital assets and fonts. And I decided to go with, I don’t have a shop on my website, because it’s long to create and I haven’t done it yet. But I really love the Design Cuts platform because they really do have, they have they built a community that really acts towards helping their clients. They give free trainings, free learning, and it’s you know, weekly tutorials and they’re like, just really great. So I’m like, you know, I really liked them, this is the platform I want to be on. So they have something that’s really great. If you go in the Learn section of their website, they have the Digital Product Academy, which is good for anybody. You don’t have to sell on their platform to take it so it’s basically nine lessons on how to create digital assets from start to finish so that they are cohesive and branded nicely and they look nice. And so you have a better chance of getting accepted. So I did all that I joined the community. And Matt, who’s the, oh, I want to say, Creative Director, but I’m not 100% Sure. He’s on there. And I had some questions that I’m like, Oh, he’s gonna be too busy to answer me. But I still tagged them and asked the question at large and I tagged them question mark, you know? And he answered, and he, he even told me, and he goes, Do you want to send me…because I had a question about like, the images for the display images, like, what do I send to get accepted, because they are a curated platform, they do approve the sellers. It’s not just like, anybody can open an account to sell. So you do need to be approved by them, and you need to apply. So I was wondering, like, what do I send? And he’s like, Well, why don’t you send me a PDF with your images and I’ll tell you if, if it’s okay or not, and I’m like, Oh, my God, you do?

Nikki

20:59
That’s amazing.

Isabelle

21:00
That is amazing. Right? And so, and he had some great feedback, and I took it all, and I changed what needed to be changed. And then I applied, and then he, like, I got approved right away, which was fantastic.

Nikki

21:15
So let’s go back and start after you did the, what is it called, Digital Asset Academy?

Isabelle

21:22
Yeah, they’re they’re like, step by step guide to…

Nikki

21:25
Yeah. We’ll link to that in the show notes. But let’s talk about how you started the process. How did you decide what products to create? And like, where did you even start?

Isabelle

21:36
Well, I always struggle with making these kinds of decision. I had taken one of Lisa Glanz’s, Skillshare classes about creating digital drawings with texture. And I had drawn these planets and spaceship. And I’m like, these would be like, really cute graphics, you know? So I decided, I’m gonna reuse old stuff that I’ve already started and reuse them to make something now. So I had done those illustrations, like, I don’t know. 2019 Yeah, 2018, I think.

Nikki

22:13
But it was a good starting point for this.

Isabelle

22:15
It was a good starting point, I ended up redrawing them, like, multiple times. But I had a starting point. And I added more illustrations to really make it, I wanted to offer a lot of value. Because if you go on Design Cuts, you’ll notice that a lot of people like the graphics kit, they have a lot in them, like they offer a lot. And that’s one of the Design Cuts values is that you need to give value to your customer. So the more is better, right?

Nikki

22:44
And did you use what you learned in Lisa’s class and add some texture to them?

Isabelle

22:48
I actually did not add texture. I did it. I did it in Procreate, but I did it like clean lines and everything. I don’t know why I decided to do that I just vectorizing the texture is long, a hassle and it’s long and it takes up like my computer was so slow. It was just crazy. So I think I went like the easy route for that. Just to make sure that everything was going to be working properly on my computer side and everything.

Laura

23:17
So you had sort of this space themed group of images that you had drawn and created. And then you wanted to turn those into a digital product. So how do you decide and maybe this Digital Academy helps to decide but how do you know what format you want to sell them in? And so you mentioned vector you vectorize them? Do you have them in PNG format? Do you have them as a JPEG? Like how do you offer them?

Nikki

23:41
Yeah, what’s all included in these packs?

Isabelle

23:43
God i i struggled so much. That was one of the things where I really struggled because I want to cater to everybody. I want everybody to be happy.

Nikki

23:54
Do they not make recommendations?

Isabelle

23:56
No, on that. I don’t think that was part of… I don’t remember, I don’t think it was but and I went in the community and I did ask questions like when you guys buy digital assets. What do you prefer? Do you prefer AI files, PNGs, Photoshop, like what do you prefer working with? And I think it all boils down to who buys your product. If it’s just like an at home mom who wants to put something together and who’s not proficient on Illustrator or Photoshop, and she just wants tho PNGs with no background, right, with transparent background. So I ended up offering vector format, JPEG, PNGs and I believe EPS which is also vector format, but I didn’t do Photoshop format because I was like, that’s a whole other thing. Although exporting it from Procreate, I could have just exported it as a Photoshop. I mean, that wouldn’t that would have been easy to do too. But I just decided to create a font to add value. So having a font with the set. And I call that font a Space Cadet, because I want it to be themed.

Nikki

25:08
That’s cute.

Laura

25:09
Super cute.

Isabelle

25:10
It was cute. And it’s like a very simple, hand drawn font. Not childlike, but almost. Originally, I had called it elementary, for like elementary school, because I had been working on it for a bit before. I have a bunch of fonts that are started from many years and I just, they’re just sitting in a sketchbook or in my Procreate files.

Laura

25:34
So let me ask you about that, about font creation. So people who want to get started in font creation, is there a specific kind of software or app you can use that helps you along the way to make it easy?

Isabelle

25:47
So I use the program Fontself, which is an extension for Illustrator. Okay, yeah, it helps create the font. They actually just came out with a version for your iPad, which is very simplified. But the illustrator version, you can do a lot more and a lot more tweaking to each glyph. And so I took Tila Cunningham’s how to make a font course.

Nikki

26:14
On Skillshare?

Isabelle

26:15
No, no, no, this one is a paid course on her platform. She does have see what Tila does is really, really, really smart. She puts like a little piece of her big course, on Skillshare. And then if you want to have more, because she really works the way her courses are made they’re work by project. And she’ll usually have four or more projects in the course. So she’ll put one project as a course on Skillshare. And then she’ll promote the course.

Nikki

26:45
That’s clever. That’s actually a really good use of Skillshare.

Isabelle

26:48
It is very clever. So I actually took the full course. And I think this was back in 2018, 2017. When she first put it out I was in the first cohort. And is that a word? Cohort?

Nikki

27:03
It is. And you used it correctly.

Isabelle

27:06
Thank you. I wasn’t sure if it was French, English, you know? Okay, so I was actually I believe I was in the first cohort of her course. And, of course, I took the course, I watched it. And I never put out a font. And I never, you know, I don’t know if it was fear. Or if it was just I’ll do it later. I don’t remember why

Nikki

27:29
Fear and procrastination.

Isabelle

27:33
That’s right.

Nikki

27:34
I hate those guys.

Isabelle

27:35
I know, they like sit on your shoulder. But her course was really, really great, like from start to finish on on letter form and how to how to create a font. So I had that knowledge.

Nikki

27:49
Yeah, you may not have released a font, but that knowledge did not go to waste.

Isabelle

27:54
It did not. And I ended up using it many years down the line. And so when I actually released that product, the space adventure graphics kit that had the Space Cadet font, I released the Space Cadet font separately, and I’m like, maybe not everybody wants to buy the graphics, and they just want the font, right? Well, turns out, I sold zero of the big kit. And I’ve sold like four or five fonts.

Nikki

28:21
Well, then that was a very clever thing to do, huh?

Isabelle

28:24
Right.

Nikki

28:26
Well, let me ask you, let me ask you about putting together the the kit to sell. We know what file formats, but don’t you also include like some example projects of how you use it and some instructions for things? Tell us a little bit about that. Like, what do you actually show for that? Is it just screenshots? Or?

Isabelle

28:49
Well, you always have to create some really pretty ways to sell the graphics. So like how you’re going to use it. So I’ve created all these things for the presentation images for the product display, like when you go on the product? What is that called?

Nikki

29:05
Page?

Isabelle

29:06
Page. Thank you. Oh my God.

Nikki

29:08
That’s okay, you’re old. I can say that because I’m older than you.

Isabelle

29:18
So if you go on the product page, and you click on out, you have all the images that I’ve created. So I created, I think that was also a very time-consuming because you don’t want to just have one or two images, you really want to show you know multiple possibilities of how to use your products in order to be able to reach the most different types of people right and users that you can right right. Yeah, so you know, I created mockups, I created like party invitations.

Nikki

29:48
It’s super cute.

Laura

29:50
It is, it is.

Isabelle

29:50
Thank you, I don’t know why nobody wants to buy it.

Nikki

29:55
Um, well, let me let me ask you Does this design What’s in any of their, their academy or their community? Do they talk about how to help you get found on their platform? Because I know, I don’t know a lot. I don’t know much about Design Cuts. But for example, with Etsy, there’s so much to know about Etsy SEO. So I imagine it’s the same with Design Cuts, like how, you know, maybe it’s descriptions and keywords that you could change to help you get found.

Isabelle

30:29
No, they did. I don’t think they really

Laura

30:31
Well, if anybody has that information, and they design for Design Cuts, please let us know. No, I think that that is a good point, Nikki, that sometimes there are other things that we have to learn and especially around the marketing because, you know, marketing is icky to a lot of us

Nikki

30:48
Marketing, Isabelle.

Isabelle

30:49
What’s that?

Laura

30:50
It’s so hard. It’s so hard. But I think the other thing is maybe leveraging groups you’re in leveraging, of course, social media. And one of the things I think that was cool when you talk about creating these product pages with all of all of the samples and things I know you had reached out to me on a new product that you were working on, which I don’t think has been released yet.

Isabelle

31:11
No, it no it hasn’t because the suggestions that you made were fantastic. So what I did was I went on the community and I asked if anybody would like to be testing new Procreate brushes that I was creating that I wanted to sell.

Nikki

31:28
Oh, cool.

Isabelle

31:28
Yeah. So you know, that’s another way to use the community. So I had like three people reach out and then I reached out to Laura also because I know that you know, she’s a huge Procreate brush buyer.

Nikki

31:39
Brush hoarder…

Laura

31:40
Right? Are you talking about me?

Isabelle

31:45
You could be talking about me.

Nikki

31:46
I almost said brush whore, but…

Isabelle

31:51
Of course you did.

Laura

31:53
I do love me some Procreate brushes.

Isabelle

31:55
Yes, I do too. And I don’t always use them. But I buy every single one of Lisa Glanz’s brushes.

Laura

32:02
So do I.

Isabelle

32:03
But I don’t always end up using them, but I just, I just idolize her. She’s, she’s, I love her.

Laura

32:10
You showed me one last week. It was like the cute animal creator one and that was like one I hadn’t bought yet. And I went out there and looked at it and I went up. Yep. Purchase. I put it right in the cart. Bought that sucker.

Isabelle

32:21
Yeah, it’s so fun to use. And it’s great.

Nikki

32:23
Okay. Stop fangirling over Lisa Glanz. I mean, she’s amazing. We had so much fun interviewing her.

Isabelle

32:29
I’m so jealous.

Nikki

32:31
But let’s get back to you ask people in the community to try your brushes. How did that go?

Isabelle

32:36
Do you want the honest truth?

Nikki

32:38
No, we’re all about lies here.

Isabelle

32:42
So I had asked people I said, I will give you the brush set. I would like you to try them and give me your honest feedback. And to create products and to give me the right that if you create something that I liked that I could use it in the examples, but I would credit the person no problem.

Nikki

32:59
Seems reasonable.

Isabelle

33:01
Seems reasonable. Okay. So I ended up sending three people the brushes, apart from Laura. And only one person gave me feedback. The other two never even replied to my email, which…

Laura

33:15
Yeah, that’s that’s disappointing.

Isabelle

33:17
They got a free brush set out of it. You know,

Nikki

33:19
I hate to say it, but I think that’s pretty typical.

Isabelle

33:22
Yeah, yeah, probably. So then I needed more feedback. So I reached out to Laura, would you just I think you were in the middle of moving. Or I don’t know, you were super busy. But you took an evening. And I mean, you’re the you gave me so much feedback, it was absolutely amazing. But that brush set was creating gift tags. It was a gift tag brush set. But with all the illustrations that you could put on the gift tags, and some some sayings like Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, whatever.

Nikki

33:56
Yeah. So it’s all the bits and pieces you would need, but as a brush rather than as a graphic. Interesting.

Isabelle

34:02
Yeah. And it’s just basically stamping stamping the images and then you can color it in. And

Laura

34:08
Yeah, and I actually used it in a different way because I’m, I’m a card maker, which is my thing. So I was able to take some of those images and blow them up and I can’t wait to show people, whenever this comes out. We’re throwing that out there Isabel into the world.

Nikki

34:26
There was that squeak we heard about.

Laura

34:30
So I’m really excited for that to come out. But it was really fun to play with. And so just this whole concept and this idea and the accessibility now that you can take things on your iPad that you create while sitting in front of the TV and turn these into products that you can sell. And the fact that you can get them sold on a platform like Design Cuts, which in my opinion is the best platform out there. Like, I love Design Cuts. So kudos to you for going through the process and figuring it all out and actually getting approved. And so I guess my question is, what are the next product? I know that product, but what other things do you want to be working on or do you want to release?

Isabelle

35:12
Well, following your advice, I ended up redrawing everything in a bigger format so that people could use it on a card because I’m also a card maker and I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. Because it wasn’t, it’s not as confining as well, you gotta use it small, right. Give more options. So I ended up redrawing, and then I decided, maybe I’m gonna make it like a set of like, all the holidays, like Valentine’s, Halloween. So I need to get around to doing all of the other things other than Christmas.

Nikki

35:47
Well, actually, that sounds like a good idea. Because then you could either sell the pack of all holidays, and you could sell the individual ones.

Isabelle

35:55
What that was, originally I wanted to break it down and sell it like seasonal packs. But you’re saying I should sell it like a big bundle. And then all individual.

Nikki

36:05
No, you could do both. So the same way you did your space one with the font and then you did the font separately. Do one pack of all the holidays. That’s a higher price point. And the individual ones at a lower price point.

Isabelle

36:19
You’re so smart Nikki.

Nikki

36:22
That’s why they pay me the…

Isabelle

36:24
zero bucks? So I have this is the that Procreate brush that is actually going to take a while to get out there. But I have a font that’s ready to go. I actually made a plan for 2023.

Nikki

36:39
Ooh, a plan.

Isabelle

36:41
I always plan at the beginning of January. And then come February, I don’t remember what I planned on.

Nikki

36:47
Making plans is a lot easier than sticking to them is about

Laura

36:51
you’re better than I am. Because if you plan on January one, I pretty much forgot it by January 3.

Nikki

36:57
I’ve decided this year the new year starts on the first day of spring.

Laura

37:03
What is that?

Nikki

37:04
March 20. That’s my new year.

Isabelle

37:08
You know, it’s still winter up here in March. Well, we still have snow, it’s horrible. It gets cold up here. Do you wanna know my plan for 2023?

Nikki

37:20
Yeah. Yeah.

Isabelle

37:22
I found a new hobby in September.

Nikki

37:25
Of course you did. And you took some classes for it?

Isabelle

37:29
Um,

Nikki

37:30
No?

Isabelle

37:32
No, I just watched a lot of tutorials online, Instagram reels and YouTube stories. I found modern hand embroidery. And I completely fell in love with it. I was on Instagram and this feed popped up. And she had these little stickers that she stuck on a sweatshirt. And she embroidered this little bear. It was like the cutest thing. And then she wet it. And that sticker just disappeared. And I was like, Oh, my God…

Nikki

38:03
I have to do that now.

Isabelle

38:05
I need me some of that. Where can I get that. And so I google and like, within two weeks, I had over 100 colors of floss.

Nikki

38:16
Of course you did.

Isabelle

38:19
Of course I did. But I I think what I miss is, as much as I love drawing on Procreate, I think what I missed was holding something tangible.

Nikki

38:31
Yeah.

Isabelle

38:32
And doing something with my hands. I hadn’t done that in years. And it felt so good. And I just really love that I can use my illustrations that have just been piling up in my iPad. And I can put them on a piece of fabric and embroider them like it’s great

Nikki

38:48
So do you buy that sticker paper and print your images on it?

Isabelle

38:53
Well, I yes, I bought some of that sticker paper and I also tried the traditional way, which is to trace your image with a pen washes that or actually now they have some that if you use the friction pen, you know it’s like the with the little eraser.

Laura

39:08
Yep, it’s heat activated.

Isabelle

39:11
So you take your hair dryer and you just go over it and it disappears. It’s like magic.

Laura

39:16
It’s great for embroidery and it’s really bad if you like leave your journal or something in a hot car.

Isabelle

39:23
Oh my god. So I’ve been really struggling usually when I find something new I’m like, oh, I want to sell this, like right away. I want to jump on it and then it just fizzles out right. So I told myself No. Wait till the new year and then see if you still love it and if you want to, you know, so I want to take some of my designs. I have got two plans like parallel plans for the year. I’m gonna take some of my designs, create Stick and Stitch (that’s what they’re called) designs and sell them by packs of 10 to 12. That’s the standard out there, I’ve done some research on Etsy. And so I want to start with that, and maybe down the line, I would love to create embroidery kits. But then the shipping from Canada with Canada Post is so expensive. So I was thinking maybe wholesale. But I don’t know, because that just requires a lot of brain function and a lot of work. And I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that. But I definitely, I’m planning for the end of the second quarter, so like early summer, uploading in my Etsy shop, revamping my Etsy shop, and then uploading stick and stitch packs., I’m going to start with that, and I’m going to try to do it slowly. And then the first two quarters of the year are going to be for Design Cuts, and I have a font that’s ready to go, I just need to finish just tweaking one little thing and then I can upload it to the platform to get approved because they actually also, you can’t just like upload it and it’s live in your shop right away on Design Cuts, you upload it, they review the product, make sure that everything works, and everything is up to snuff, or up to par. And then it’s released. And then the first two weeks that a product is released on Design Cuts, it’s automatically on sale, which is the best time to buy it, when you’re the buyer.

Laura

41:31
Yeah, and I know there’s also like a discount, so when people, on Design Cuts if you want to buy a product, and that’s how I get sucked in personally. Like if you go in and buy one product, you pay like full price, if you add a second product, you get like 10 or 15% off. And then if you if you add like five or six products, you get like up to 50% off or something ridiculous.

Isabelle

41:52
They change it and it’s no longer up to five products up to three products. Okay, yeah, but still, it’s really good. I think it’s like 30% off with three products or something like that, or

Laura

42:02
Yeah, so that’s still like a really great deal. But then I guess you would sell more and maybe even SEO, you’re like higher up, like a new product might be higher up to be found. And then you get some percentage of the total, I’m assuming with Design Cuts.

Isabelle

42:17
Yeah, if I remember correctly, I haven’t looked at my contract in a bit. But I believe it’s 50% of the sale price goes to the artists, which is actually really good.

Laura

42:26
Yeah, that’s pretty generous. That is very, very good. Because if you think about royalties and things like that getting a 50% royalty would be amazing. Because they’re bringing people in a marketplace, they’re bringing a lot of those people to you. That’s one of the things I like about Skillshare, I will say is that, you know, people find your class, whereas, you still should market it yourself, but the fact that people can find you on a marketplace, I think is really great for when you’re just getting started. So you don’t have to have all that figured out yourself.

Isabelle

42:55
Yeah. So those are my plans right now is possibly embroidery stick and stitch. End of, the second half of 2023. But the first half, I want to focus on fonts, I’ve got a font ready to go, I have another one that’s halfway done. And then I’ve got that Procreate brush set that I need to get on it and finish.

Nikki

43:15
And really, you could use a lot of the same images, right?

Isabelle

43:18
Yeah, and you know what I did for the this font that’s going to be released. It’s called Skinny Jeans. And it’s actually like, I’ve modified it just like really cute and fun. I use Canva. And it took me one evening and I had like, eight images done. And it was fantastic.

Laura

43:35
Yeah, that’s awesome.

Isabelle

43:36
Because they have like mini mockups now to on Canvas. So like, just to put like, you know, like a baby tshirt. And I just put like, you know, found a little graphics in there things and then like a little chips wheel and I put, you know, a whole a meaty, you know, like really cute, cute it took me it took me five minutes. Yeah. Which if I had to search for a mock up, buy the mock up, import in Photoshop, and then like, work it and work it and that was like it would have taken me much longer. So I actually ended up using I do have a paid membership to Canva, but they have a lot of free assets, who I only got the paid one because I had to do something for a client, which I needed some extra stuff.

Laura

44:18
Well, I use the paid version, because they had some really cool like ebook formats and things that I could use for my Skillshare class. So when you need to have little spacers in between the videos, you know where you pop stuff up on the screen, I found that Canva worked really well for that. And they already have, you know, you just change the colors and stuff, but they have some of the design already put together.

Nikki

44:36
And this episode is not sponsored by Canva. But Canva if you would like to contact us…

Isabelle

44:45
I did the same thing for my Skillshare class. I used Canva to create all the bookends of the videos, like does that static image and it’s just it was just Canva.

Laura

44:56
Yeah, it works great for that. I love it for that.

Nikki

44:59
Do we have an affiliate link for Canva?

Laura

44:59
I don’t know, but we should get one.

Nikki

44:59
Okay. I’ll look into that.

Isabelle

44:59
Do they even have that?

Nikki

45:01
I don’t know. But I’m going to look into that. So. So Isabel, you’re a graphic designer, you work with clients, you’re a mom to two teenage boys, and you’re doing embroidery, digital products, fonts, 87 other things… That has to keep you crazy busy, how do you juggle it all and still managed to feed those hungry boys.

Isabelle

45:32
And see, I find myself very lazy, because I know there are people out there that do so much more. But I don’t have the mental capacity for that. Because I just get exhausted.

Nikki

45:46
But you are still doing a lot of things. At least it looks like it from our point of view.

Isabelle

45:53
Well, I guess so. But I also have many days where I feel like I look busy. But I feel like I got nothing done.

Nikki

46:03
Well, that’s a whole entire episode on its own.

Isabelle

46:08
Right. But thank you, I’m glad people think I get a lot done.

Nikki

46:17
Nice, nice.

Isabelle

46:18
I know, I know, my, my, my 18 year old the other day said, Well, you know, you just sit at your desk and do your little drawings. And I’m like, I don’t just do a little drawing, that’s not what I do.

Nikki

46:30
I do big drawings too.

Isabelle

46:34
I actually work for customers that pay money.

Nikki

46:39
People don’t understand those of us who work at home in a room by ourselves.

Isabelle

46:43
Yeah.

Nikki

46:44
Or in a bus by themselves.

Isabelle

46:47
Well, it’s like this morning. I don’t know if I should tell you guys this.

Nikki

46:50
You should. Absolutely.

Isabelle

46:53
So I did some market research and I bought an embroidery kit during Christmas, but there was some duty fees that I had to pay. So this morning, I’m working and I’m co- working with Jennifer which you guys will interview her at some point. And so the doorbell rang. So I’m like, Just a second. So I run downstairs but I’m in my one piece pajamas. So I answer theh door and it’s the mail person. And I’m like, Oh, I’m so sorry, I’m still in my pajamas. She’s like, Oh, it must be nice. So I said I’m working from home, but I’m just like, Yeah, I just Oh, that must be so nice to be able to work in your pajamas.

Nikki

47:35
I mean, it it really is.

Isabelle

47:37
It is, you know, it’s nice. I only get dressed when I have to or when I do get dressed, it’s like you know, leggings and a t-shirt. It seems like pajamas, basically, you know.

Laura

47:47
Well, I work from home. But I’m in meetings pretty much all day from like eight o’clock in the morning till sometimes six or seven o’clock at night, sometimes even later. And I mean, if I took a shower that day, that’s a good day. The other day, somebody said, Oh, your hair looks so nice. And I was like yeah, because I took a shower today and washed it.

Nikki

48:08
I get that too. What did you do to your hair looks so good. What did you do? I washed it.

Isabelle

48:16
It was my weekly shower.

Nikki

48:19
I bet I bet you at least put real clothes on the top half.

Isabelle

48:24
At the top half. Yeah, business up top and pajamas on the bottom.

Laura

48:27
I do but then you have to remember if you did leave your pajama bottoms on. You can’t stand up because as soon as you stand up, it’s like very obvious. Yeah, you just have those moments where you’re like, oh, man, and I’ve done it before where I’ve worn a night gown and then I put like a jacket over it.

Nikki

48:43
Oh my gosh, that’s hilarious.

Laura

48:47
And people don’t know. It’s like my nightgown. I mean, honestly, if you have to get on a 7am call, I am not a morning person, so it’s just not gonna happen. Okay, we digress.

Nikki

48:59
All right, ladies, let’s get back on track here. What were we talking about? Design, drawing, selling things.

Isabelle

49:07
My plan for 2023.

Nikki

49:08
Your plan for 2023? I think it sounds good.

Isabelle

49:12
And I think that’s all I got for you guys. I don’t know…

Laura

49:17
Well, here’s what I would like to ask you is, for somebody who’s just getting started, and they want to create a digital product for Design Cuts, for example, what would be the one piece of advice that you would give them

Isabelle

49:33
Do that Product Academy? First and foremost, go check out the Product Academy. Even if you’re planning on selling on another platform, just you know, create an account, go in the learning section and really do that Product Academy because they they give so much information and it’s like really interesting. And you can apply it to to any kind of digital asset that you want to sell, or actually any other thing too, you want to sell like, for for parts of it, like the branding and like other other parts of it also like how to market it and stuff. They do cover that a little bit, but

Laura

50:09
I want to take that class now.

Nikki

50:11
I want to take it too.

Isabelle

50:12
I’m surprised you haven’t.

Nikki

50:14
Well, we only haven’t taken it because we didn’t know it exists. Exactly. We would have.

Isabelle

50:21
Yeah, so I think that that would be the first thing like…

Laura

50:24
No, I think it’s great advice.

Nikki

50:25
Awesome. All right, Isabelle, tell our listeners, where are all the places they can connect with you, buy from you, learn from you…

Isabelle

50:36
Okay, Skillshare you can find me under Isabelle Wood Art, or just type in Isabelle Wood. Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, which I do have a YouTube. Eventually I’m planning on putting some little like tutorials and stuff, but I just have to set myself up and that’s just it takes a while.

Laura

50:55
That’s a 2024 goal.

Isabelle

50:59
That’s a good idea. 2024, YouTube videos, there you go. All my social, my social handles are all the same. It’s Isabellewood.art. And my website is Isabellewood.com or .ca., I have both. And the Etsy shop is, is Isabelle Wood Art, but right now it’s on vacation until I decide what to do with it. It’s on hold.

Laura

51:20
Well, Isabelle, we have had so much fun talking with you, as always. And we thank you for coming on the show.

Isabelle

51:28
Well, thank you for having me.

Nikki

51:29
Thanks for being here.

Laura

51:31
To learn more about Isabelle and read today’s Startist Society show notes go to startistsociety.com/isabellewood.

Nikki

51:39
If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, we’d love for you to share it with a friend. Sharing helps us reach more Startists like you and keeps us inspired to create new episodes.

Laura

51:48
Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time.