Marketing Without Overwhelm: Amberleigh Adoff’s Approach for Creatives

Lyric Kinard (00:01.976) Hello friends, I would like to introduce you to Amberleigh Adoff from B Suite Studio. She is a surface pattern designer and she has a business helping people manage their social media, mostly solopreneurs, but also the Craft Industry Alliance, which is one of our favorite organizations and companies. It's the trade. organization for the craft industry. And I think that's where I met you at a craft industry alliance booth or event. And we were told to send photos to Amberley. So was really fun when I got to see your face and watch what you do. So why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are, why you're in this creative business, and what your businesses look like. Amberleigh Adoff (00:54.929) Absolutely. So I am actually a former educator. And so I left teaching to pursue a creative career in surface pattern design. And while I was building my surface pattern design business, I realized that I really enjoy the business side and the marketing side of business. So I started to freelance as a social media marketer and virtual assistant for other creatives through Craft Industry Alliance actually is where I connected with a lot of my clients. So a lot of my clients are in the craft industry. Lyric Kinard (01:28.974) That's awesome. Tell us a little bit about the surface pattern design. How does one actually make an income designing pretty patterns on things? Amberleigh Adoff (01:36.464) Mm-hmm. That's a great question. There's a lot of ways to build income and you kind of have to have multiple ones when you're pursuing it. So I mainly focus on licensing, which is basically other companies renting my artwork for their products. And then I make royalties off of that. So I do that as well as I use my designs on my own products that I sell or on print to my print on demand sites where I can upload my artwork and other people can buy products with it on there. And then I make, you know, a commission or royalties. of that as well. Lyric Kinard (02:10.838) And I see that you have an Etsy shop where you make beautiful things. I mean, you're still a hands-on maker. Amberleigh Adoff (02:15.537) Yes, yes, I love working with my hands and so that's a favorite part or aspect of my business. Not everybody does that, but I do like to make my own products and hold them and sell them and kind of that tactile of seeing like your artwork on an actual product is really exciting for me. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (02:34.538) It is really fun, isn't it? Why did you get into the business support side of things as a social media manager? Amberleigh Adoff (02:42.735) Yeah, I think when you're building a surface pattern design business with licensing, takes time. It takes time to find clients and to build up those royalties. So I needed something in the short time to also supplement my income. And as an educator, there's a lot of skills I have with management and just behind the scenes, like organization. And so I figured those skills would be applicable to helping other businesses in the behind the scenes. I like creating systems and organization and all that. a lot of creative business owners need support in that area. You they want to focus on the creative part and I'm really good at the logistics and the detail oriented aspect of things. So it was kind of fun to use those skills in a different way and to help and support other creatives in the same way that I liked helping students. So it kind of met both those needs of wanting to support and help other people and then also using my skills with organization and creating systems. Lyric Kinard (03:39.296) In a practical way, what does that look like when you are supporting somebody's business? What are the things you actually teach another business person to do and what do you do for them? Amberleigh Adoff (03:49.083) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (03:52.72) Yeah, I mean, I think it's a lot of problem solving. So every creative has like a problem they're trying to solve, whether it's they don't have enough time for something or they don't know how to organize something. And so I think my skill set is taking those challenges and trying to figure out systems that solve that, whether it's just creating a way to organize content for social media or whether it's a way to, you know, organize clients or emails, just cleaning up emails, you know, so you're not overwhelmed. It's really identifiable. It's very personalized to each creative and trying to offload the things that creatives don't enjoy doing that I most likely do enjoy doing and taking that off their plate. So it could be creating systems that work for them, but it also could just be managing and taking something off that they just don't want to deal with and want to focus on other aspects of their business. Lyric Kinard (04:43.286) What do you do for the Craft Industry Alliance? Amberleigh Adoff (04:46.789) I manage their Instagram account. you know, yeah. Lyric Kinard (04:49.224) What does that mean? Do you create the content? Do you interact with people? Do you schedule it? Amberleigh Adoff (04:56.141) Mm-hmm. So, I mean, they have a lot of really amazing content. it's pretty easy for me to pull existing content, new content that's coming out. So I mainly plan which content I'm gonna share and then I either create graphics or use their existing graphics and then I use a scheduler to schedule it out. So it's more of me compiling the information and I have some systems that make it kind of more efficient and I have kind of a routine. So it's a nice pulling information, sharing it, scheduling it so I don't have to about it and I definitely batch the material so it's quicker. Lyric Kinard (05:35.469) I love what you said about using existing materials. Some people don't even think about looking at their data on their website, on their blog that's been around and finding a post that's most popular, right? And then repurposing that for social media content. Do you do the actual, if you're doing a real, do you do the actual video editing? Amberleigh Adoff (05:40.753) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (05:49.763) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (06:01.233) Not particularly for them. I have done it for other people. For them sometimes they'll have somebody create a reel. Unless it's like an event, know, like H &H America, I might collect some video and cut it together myself. But for them sometimes they have people that will create videos like influencer type stuff and I will repost that for them. Lyric Kinard (06:10.275) Right. Lyric Kinard (06:22.638) cool. let's talk a little bit because we all know as educators what we want to teach, right? We're good at the thing, we've worked at the thing, we want to share the thing, but if we don't know how to get it out in front of people so they know that we have this gift to offer, then nothing really works, right? So that... Amberleigh Adoff (06:35.749) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (06:45.903) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (06:50.574) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (06:52.468) marketing aspect is the thing that makes the vast majority of creatives just shudder in horror. Like, what do do? So let's kind of start at imagine that you are working with an educator who's building a new online class and they don't have an established audience. What are some things that they can do? Amberleigh Adoff (06:59.245) Yes, I know. Lyric Kinard (07:20.788) actually, how do you even start? Where do you even start with this? Amberleigh Adoff (07:21.05) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (07:24.369) Yeah, I mean, I think I like to work. backwards for my goal. like let's say you're gonna launch something some kind of online course or program. I like to work back. you know kind of okay the week before I need to make sure that I'm really kind of creating some content that creates urgency, creates interest. Like I want people to sign up and get excited about it and then okay the week before I want to give hints to some fun things that people are gonna get out of the program and then before I give like kind of teasers or little Lyric Kinard (07:35.48) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (07:58.948) pieces of the content that people can know, can get value from and know that I can provide value. So it kind of worked backwards from when I want to launch to help build excitement. And like you said, like you mentioned repurposing content. think people think that once you put it out there, everybody's going to see it. And the truth is like in social media and stuff, you may see it, you may not. So you kind of have to repurpose and in post multiple times so that way if people don't see it the first time they can see it the second time so Lyric Kinard (08:31.936) You post the same thing multiple times? Amberleigh Adoff (08:34.513) What I would say is like taking similar information and just repurposing it in different way. maybe early on I do a post that's like a carousel that just kind of shows some key points that people are going to get out of my course. And then the next week, maybe I create a video where I'm talking about some of those key points. And so it's kind of taking the value and the information that you have and breaking it up and using different approaches to it and then kind of trickling it backwards from when you're going to launch. That way you have plenty of opportunity for people to get invested, to get excited and to know what more about what it is you're offering. So I think it's good to plan. Planning ahead is really helpful when you know that you're going to do that so that you can prepare for that. Yeah, so I would, I would. Lyric Kinard (09:12.462) Right. So it's the purposes I heard were first teasers of giving people a clue, a hint of what's coming up, then trust builders, valuable content, right? Here's a little bit of what you can expect. And then the urgency of it's now sign up now. And when you say content, are you talking about Amberleigh Adoff (09:20.165) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (09:27.247) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (09:34.862) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (09:41.55) videos, photos, captions, what does content mean? If somebody is not on social media, what does that mean? Amberleigh Adoff (09:45.367) Mm-hmm. Good question. huh. Yeah, I mean, when I think of content for something for marketing purposes, I'm thinking about social media posts and videos, you know, along with the captions. I'm also considering like email, you know, email marketing is really great for promoting. So if you already have an email list or you'd like to get people on the email list so that you can sell them your course. So I think a combination of both social media marketing, email marketing, and even if you have a website, maybe doing some blog posts, you know, I think, Lyric Kinard (10:05.091) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (10:22.341) That's where you can repurpose the content as well. Let's say you have a blog post introducing what you're gonna be teaching and then pulling elements out of that and putting it in your email and then pulling elements out of that to put into your social media. think starting with a body of content like that, like a blog, would be easy to pull pieces from and repurpose into those other marketing aspects, email and social media. Lyric Kinard (10:44.609) I'm a huge fan of the efficiency of using one video or one piece of writing and breaking it up and using it in all the places. So you don't have to come up with new things all the time. When you're filming a tutorial, when you're filming a course, keep that raw video. And when you're filming, do your still shots, do your head shots, do your B-roll. Amberleigh Adoff (10:48.209) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (10:53.008) Yes. Amberleigh Adoff (10:59.086) Absolutely. Amberleigh Adoff (11:09.637) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (11:12.675) Do all the things so that you have this library of content all at once. Right. Amberleigh Adoff (11:12.813) Yes. Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. I keep like a folder on my phone where I just will dump all the B-roll, all the photo clips that I have a place to go and just pull to create those clips and content information. Lyric Kinard (11:28.385) Right, so that's a first level of organization and efficiency. What different online schedulers do you use? And for somebody who, again, let's just talk to people who have not been on social media as a business trying to market, and they feel completely overwhelmed, like, have to do all these things every day and I don't have time to make my things. Amberleigh Adoff (11:31.47) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (11:40.859) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (11:48.592) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (11:55.697) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (11:57.655) What does it look like to actually implement getting this content out to people in a way that makes any difference at all? Often we feel like we're just spilling all this time into a void. Amberleigh Adoff (12:11.489) Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm always surprised when I'm getting new clients at how many people don't use a scheduler and a scheduler is Amazing, know being able to put your content or schedule your content out for several weeks and not have to worry about it is way easier than trying every day to think like What should I be posting? What should I be doing? So I I like to use later is a really good scheduler Along with planally planally has kind of a more visual aspect to it. So I like that but later is a really great scheduler that that can connect to multiple different accounts, whether using Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn. If you're looking for a free scheduler for Instagram and Facebook, you could use Meta Business Suite, which is, it's so complicated, I agree. I use it with some clients, but it really is clunky. So it's not my favorite, but it's free. But I would say later is probably one of my favorites to use for scheduling. Lyric Kinard (12:53.984) It's so complicated. Lyric Kinard (13:00.471) It's a pain. Lyric Kinard (13:08.748) Right, so what schedulers look like, it's a subscription platform most of the time and you connect it to all of your different accounts and you can put a piece of content up one time and it will send them to all the places. So you are not manually doing all of these things. Amberleigh Adoff (13:26.437) Yes, so much easier. Lyric Kinard (13:28.984) Good to know. What happens then? what, just putting this content out, how do you make it effectively bring people to customers, to real relationships with you, to the people who will actually, you know, buy your stuff? Amberleigh Adoff (13:39.662) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (13:45.906) Right? Yeah, I think I'm a big data person. So I do like to collect data on how my like social posts are doing so that I can make a little bit more informed decisions. think people get overwhelmed and they're like, I don't know what I should be putting out there. And I think once you start putting things out there, keeping an eye on things and being like, what is doing well? What are people resonating with? Making sure if people are commenting, you're responding and engaging with people. I think also thinking about how you interact with content. What is the type of content that you like in your drawn to and reflecting on that. think people think that they have to do like these very polished perfect videos that they put out and like really when you're looking at content nobody's really analyzing that or judging you know what I mean like we like stories we like connecting with people we like seeing behind the scenes so I think paying attention to the content that you enjoy and implementing that in your own stuff and then keeping your tabs on and and collecting data on what is doing well and what's not so that way you can make adjustments that are educated. Lyric Kinard (14:51.289) do more of what works well in end later in platforms like that. Can you see the data from all the different platforms or do you have to log into each of the different platforms? Amberleigh Adoff (14:52.849) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (15:02.481) Some platforms do have some analytics tied into it. And then you can of course go in through. So I know like later you can see some of the analytics. Like with, if you use your link in bio, it'll collect analytics and Instagram and things like that. But I, lot of times will go into the individual accounts because they do kind of get different information. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (15:25.881) Right, and are you looking at views or engagements or comments? What's important? Amberleigh Adoff (15:30.43) yeah, it kind of depends on your goals. I think I think engagement is really important. I think people will come and they'll look at your stuff and that's great. if they're not engaging with it, they might just be passing through. I think for me, I like to focus on engagement. think I like to focus on moving my potential people from social media to my email list, seeing those actionable steps. think looking at email subscribers from social media, having ways to encourage Lyric Kinard (15:57.273) How? Amberleigh Adoff (16:05.811) them. your viewers to get to your email by maybe offering leads, whether it's more information about your course or like a little snippet of your course, something to get them to your email list. think social media is great for advertising and things like that, but it isn't an audience that you own, whereas in your email it is. So it is helpful to get those people. think I've heard like a good analogy of like the people who are stopping by your social media. They're like they're in your town. They're visiting. They're maybe coming into your storefront, but you really want them to become your friend, become regulars, and really interact with you. So you need to get them to your email list because that is like your inner circle. Those are the people who are already invested, want to be there, they're more likely to buy from you than people who are just passing through your social media. So I think in the end, I think that is the goal is to have them engage enough to want to be in that inner circle in your email. So finding ways to do that, whether it's offering that lead to incentivize them to join your email or just giving them reasons to follow you more closely. I think it's important. Lyric Kinard (17:10.735) Do you actually say in your videos, hey come sign up on my email list or here's a freebie I have to, I mean do you pitch those things or? Amberleigh Adoff (17:19.545) Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, if people don't know that's there, they're not going to know how to join. yeah, absolutely. think explaining, showing what you're offering and then giving them an opportunity. You know, if they're, or even if they're messaging you on your posts and saying, Hey, I have more information. Like if you want to dive deeper, here's a link, join my email or download this lead. Yeah. I think, I think you have to let people know what's available and what you're offering for them to, to engage in it. Lyric Kinard (17:50.16) Right. And the offer, whether it's the course sometimes to get people on, well, lead magnets are fantastic. It's a gift that you give in return for the gift of their email back. What are, have you seen some lead magnets that have done really well or give us a general idea? You know, a lot of my students at the Academy for Virtual Teaching will. Amberleigh Adoff (17:58.61) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (18:02.48) Yep. Lyric Kinard (18:15.341) come up with basically a whole course or a whole book as a lead magnet. And it doesn't need to be that. Tell us about some of the lead magnets that you've seen. Amberleigh Adoff (18:17.549) Yeah. Yeah. No, I think. Yeah, I mean, I think like if you have a really intense course with all this information, sometimes just pulling out the key points from that to give people kind of like a heads up. The thing is people will get those key points, but they'll want to know more. And so obviously the course is more in depth. So it gives them a kind of an overview and builds confidence in what they're going to get more information about by giving them kind of a simplified form. Or even if it's like a resource to help them, whether it's like a planner or kind of a roadmap or something like that, To make them feel like it's more approachable or that they can work on that content I think is helpful. Or even like a mini guide that just takes one section out of your course that gives them kind of a little bit. Yeah, I think taking smaller bites so it's more approachable to people and then they build that trust and that connection and be like, I do want to know more about this. I will sign up for the course. know? Mm-hmm. Yes. Lyric Kinard (19:16.589) Yeah, just a simple PDF with top tips for this thing or my favorite suppliers for this tool or my favorite tools, you know, whatever, whatever ties in. I like that you said that it leads in to whatever product you're offering, whatever course it is. If you give them a hint and some really useful information that then they want more. Right. Amberleigh Adoff (19:23.779) Yes. Yes. Amberleigh Adoff (19:32.08) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (19:42.96) Yeah, I think like if you're thinking about what questions are these people going to have about what I'm offering, can I answer those questions? Like if they're like, I don't know if I can get the supplies, you know, maybe there's a lot of supplies and you offer them a supply list and where to get them. You know, you're answering those concerns and questions that they might have before, you know, getting your course. Like, I don't know if I'm going to get something out of this. Well, here's a little tidbit of what you'd get out of this or I don't know, you know, am I going to have time to do this course? So answering those questions and concerns with the content you're putting out can help alleviate some of that and get people more interested in signing up. Lyric Kinard (20:22.488) Right. Link in bio, link in the comments, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Don't forget the calls to action. Don't forget actually asking people to do the thing that you want them to do. Because sometimes we don't know. We're like, that's cool. So offering them something a little bit more is lovely and delightful. Tell us a little bit about your business support. Amberleigh Adoff (20:24.912) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (20:51.438) business, the structure. mean, that's what we're all about is building businesses here. And I'm always really curious of like, where do you host your things? How do you structure your offerings? What is the delivery system? How do you make it work for you? Amberleigh Adoff (20:56.433) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (21:08.441) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Like the marketing VA aspect of my business. Yeah. mean, organization is key, right? Because I'm managing my own business and then other people's businesses. Lyric Kinard (21:14.766) Yeah. Amberleigh Adoff (21:23.515) But I think people will reach out looking for specific needs, whether it's, hey, I just need somebody to manage a social media or I need to. And what I do is I basically propose, you know, either a package or my services for specifically what they're looking for. And once we agree on what I'm going to help with, we kind of do an onboarding and that's where I get connected with their accounts and like whatever I need to access to. And then that's when I start to build out kind of the action plan for me. I use the tool Notion, which is really helpful for organization. So sometimes I'll build out a specific Notion page for a client, whether it's for them to use with me or for me just to use to organize them where I'm kind of putting my to-dos, I'm putting my schedule, I'm linking. You can link all kinds of things to it. So it's kind of... Lyric Kinard (22:11.01) It's a task manager. Amberleigh Adoff (22:12.663) Yeah, it is. it's a great way to create like a hub. think we have so much stuff floating around in our Google Drive and like there's websites in our browser. There's all this stuff in it. I really like to have everything in one place. It's really easy for me to go from client to client and be able to access everything. So it's a great tool for you to connect and put all that information in one place so that you don't have to go digging. And so that makes it really efficient. It makes it easier for me to help my clients and to build. You can build it, you know, spread sheets in there and databases and so I can collect my analytics. I can do all of that in one place. So that's really helpful. Lyric Kinard (22:47.278) Nice. So having an organized system. Do people find you mainly via social media? What platform is your website built on? Amberleigh Adoff (22:58.033) My website's on Squarespace and I do get a lot of clients from Squarespace. I get a lot of traffic specifically looking for creative virtual assistants because it is kind of a specific niche. People who are looking for help like it when somebody has experience with their industry and kind of knows what it's about. So I do get some traffic from my website, probably mostly from there. And then, yeah. Lyric Kinard (23:19.802) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (23:23.16) Okay, excellent. So you built a Squarespace platform where it's a payment gateway. It helps you schedule and offer online services or deliver digital goods. And from what I'm hearing, a lot of people are really happy with Squarespace, which is good to know. It's fun. Amberleigh Adoff (23:28.529) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (23:40.165) Mm-hmm. Yep. Amberleigh Adoff (23:47.726) Yeah, it's very user friendly. It's really good for somebody just starting out intuitive. Yeah, I really like the platform and it's becoming a strong platform. It does have integration for doing e-commerce and things like that, which make it a good starting place for sure. Lyric Kinard (24:04.869) Right. Do you have your own newsletter that you put out for your business? What kind of content do you put in your newsletter? Amberleigh Adoff (24:09.625) I do. Yeah, I put a... I do a weekly newsletter. One of the main focuses of my newsletter is I send out positive affirmations for the week or a mantra for the week. But my newsletters, I kind of have like a templated situation where I do, I always share that mantra, but then I also share new products coming out, any new licensing deals where people can see my work, things added to my shop. Sometimes I will also add like productivity VA tips in there or a creative challenge. I kind of have it scheduled out so that like one week I'll share something creative the next week I will share a tip and so I kind of have a system that makes writing my my email content a lot easier Lyric Kinard (24:54.639) So your email newsletter targets both the creatives who buy your things that you've made with your hands and your business clients who are other creatives who you're helping on the business side. Interesting. And that works for, I guess they all do have something in common, even if they're different services that they're getting from you, right? Amberleigh Adoff (25:03.075) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. Amberleigh Adoff (25:18.649) Yeah, I think, I think everybody, even depending on the level, know, everybody has creativity and so and everybody has kind of their own insecurities about it. So even if you are a professional creative, there's other creative aspects that you might be intimidated about. And I'm really my goal is to make everybody comfortable with creativity and exploring that. So whether it's somebody who's new to it or somebody who's done it for a while, but is looking to explore other aspects of their creativity, I think it's all kind of the same audience. And I think everybody's trying to find ways to be more organized and make things easier for them so that they have more time to create. So I do think it overlaps with my audience. Lyric Kinard (25:57.47) good, and I love having a template, having just this is the thing that I plug into the system that I know that works. It's too hard to come up with inventing the wheel. Amberleigh Adoff (26:00.421) Yes. Amberleigh Adoff (26:04.707) Yeah, yeah, it is. You have to make it easier. You have to find ways to make it simpler. Lyric Kinard (26:13.015) It is. you can, it's again, you can repurpose content, right? So the same stuff that goes into your newsletter can go in five social media posts, right? Amberleigh Adoff (26:17.711) Mm-hmm, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yes, exactly. Lyric Kinard (26:26.171) Beautiful. Excellent. Lyric Kinard (26:37.187) If you have dreams for your business going forward and you have plans, what does your business that is your easy button, done, amazing, perfect, look like? Amberleigh Adoff (26:40.977) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (26:53.073) you mean in the evolution or just like in the productivity of my business? Yeah. you know, I think. Lyric Kinard (26:58.257) Either way, either way you want to answer that. Amberleigh Adoff (27:07.249) Hmm. I think something that I'm exploring more in kind of making my business easier to run and so that I do have more time to do the creative stuff is I am exploring using AI tools. to better support and take off my plate the things that I don't enjoy doing so much. I think there's a lot of room for growth there in finding ways to simplify things, whether it's using AI to help you brainstorm content for your social media, if you already have content but you want to break it up into those different aspects, ways to do that, or even ways to plan and organize your email. think AI is a great tool that I'm definitely exploring that I think is going to make. things a lot easier for me when it comes to the business side of things. Lyric Kinard (27:59.346) Yeah, that can be a great virtual assistant for you, the virtual assistant, right? Amberleigh Adoff (28:02.317) It can, right? Lyric Kinard (28:09.711) Let's go back to your transition from being an educator to a solopreneur working this on your own. Why did you choose to go out on your own? what does that? Amberleigh Adoff (28:11.793) No. Amberleigh Adoff (28:27.291) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (28:37.755) feel like for you? How has the journey been? I know all of us have, we look at people who are successful and think, it was so easy for them, right? What does it, what has it looked like for you? Amberleigh Adoff (28:41.521) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (28:48.497) Yeah, think, you know, as a teacher... During COVID, I was asked to teach both at my school but also at an online academy. And I've been thinking for a while that like I might like working from home or working for myself. I'm very, you driven on my own. And as I was an art teacher, as an art teacher, you're often on your own in your school. So teaching online during COVID actually made me realize that I really enjoyed being in my own space and having control over that. that was kind of one of the key. key things that kind of motivated me. You know, I was a little burned out too and I was looking for something new. I never really planned to teach forever. And so it was. good timing for me to like step away and start to pursue something on my own. And I'd been interested in surface pattern design for a while and kind of was exploring that while I was teaching as kind of a creative outlet. So it was kind of like a perfect storm of like, you know, me realizing that I really do like working on my own, working from my home, and I enjoy teaching online, which I guess, you know, not a lot of teachers do. And I really enjoyed that aspect. So that was kind of a clue into like, I think I'm ready to step away and try something. Lyric Kinard (30:00.795) Right? Amberleigh Adoff (30:07.179) else, which was hard. I taught for 11 years and so leaving, I was really fortunate one of my other really good friends was going to leave the same time as I did so we had some support for each other in both leaving to pursue creative work so that was kind of nice. So it was kind of a perfect storm of different things coming together and having the opportunity to step away and feeling confident that I would enjoy and that I could do that on my own. was really helpful. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (30:38.458) And so you've been doing it for several years. What was that journey like? What were some of the ups and downs? Amberleigh Adoff (30:45.593) of of business. Yes. Lyric Kinard (30:46.97) of building your own solopreneur business. Amberleigh Adoff (30:50.339) I think, yeah, it's very intimidating at first. You know, when I was preparing to leave teaching, I did take some online courses in marketing because I knew that one, would be helpful for my business. And then I thought maybe I'd be interested in helping other people. So that kind of built my confidence. There's a lot of imposter syndrome when you're leaving and trying something completely new. But I think taking small steps, you know, I knew I wanted to get into service pattern design, so I knew I had to build a portfolio. So I really focused on that. you know, taking other people's online courses helped to build some confidence. So I was definitely involved in some coursework there and really tried to focus on building my creative skills. But at the same time, I did understand that building your business skills is also very important when you're a creative entrepreneur, you need to have those business skills as well on top of the creative skills. So I did spend some time trying to learn that, you know, what does marketing look like? How do you manage social media? What are the results? So I spent some time building up those skills and practicing that using myself as a guinea pig to test that out and then helping other people help me learn more, you know for different industries and how to apply the same skills. So it was definitely some time I was trying to be a sponge and learn, you know as a teacher I'm a lifelong learner. So really just trying to learn as much as I can from those around me. I definitely also started to connect with other creatives. I think that's important because because most of my community before were teachers, because that's what I was surrounded with. So I started to connect more with like creative groups in my area and other creatives. And I think that's really valuable because you learn from each other and you have the support from each other, especially when you're doing a new career, you new creative career, you need that support because there is a lot of ups and downs. I think when I first started, I was so focused on, the output, like, am I making money? Am I getting results? And I think if I went back, I would focus more on the input. Like, what am I doing when it, because you don't always have control over, you know, who's going to answer emails or how, you know, you don't have control over that. But what I do have control over is the work that I'm putting into it and what I'm learning. And so I wish my focus was more on that. And I think now it is because if you focus always on the output, you can get discouraged. You know, I was getting discouraged when I wasn't getting the results. Lyric Kinard (33:07.239) Hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (33:14.127) wanted and so I think that was a challenge but once I kind of shifted that and realized I'm doing really great things and I'm really proud of my work it kind of shifted and made it a little bit easier when switching careers for sure. Lyric Kinard (33:29.414) So what I heard was you had a plan and you knew the steps along the plan. So you began with educating yourself, learning the things you needed to learn, not just the surface pattern design, which is your business, but the things around it, the business part that will support it. You found community, which is always super important. So plan, learning, education, community, and... Amberleigh Adoff (33:32.176) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (33:38.245) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (33:44.741) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (33:51.255) Mm-hmm. Yes. Lyric Kinard (33:59.077) implementation, but most importantly, what you said was the way you thought about it. Instead of being so frustrated that everybody hasn't licensed me already. And it can be scary because you watch your bank account diminish, right? And we all have to eat. And it's nice to have a roof over our heads. So it can be really scary to not know if this is going to work or not. Amberleigh Adoff (34:04.913) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (34:12.363) Yes. Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm, exactly. Mm-hmm. Yep. Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (34:28.166) But then you moved into this, the whole thing is a learning process. The whole running the business is let me test and learn and grow from the things I've already done. Amberleigh Adoff (34:33.211) Yes. Amberleigh Adoff (34:39.939) Yep. Yeah, I think I learned that while teaching. like taking risks and trying things. You know, when you're a teacher, you come up with a new lesson plan, you're like, I don't know, kids may respond to it, but you just go for it. Like what's going to go wrong? And so I think that built up my skills in risk taking and experimenting and trying new things. And that really carried over. I knew like, okay, if this is not working, I'm going to try this and see how this goes. it, it helped with not being afraid to take those risks and experiment. And I think that's really valuable because I think sometimes you have to do that. You have to go out of your comfort zone, try something new, experiment, see if it works. If it doesn't, that's okay. Go back and try something else. I think that's an important aspect of when you're getting started. Lyric Kinard (35:22.384) Yeah, when you're getting started, even going along in the businesses, because businesses, too, learn and grow and pivot and things happen. Life happens to a lot of us. If you could give one bit of practical advice to somebody who is just starting out creating an online business, in this case, we might be creating on-demand classes or whatever it is that we're working with. Amberleigh Adoff (35:25.421) Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah. Amberleigh Adoff (35:30.511) Yep. Amberleigh Adoff (35:41.35) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (35:51.997) Could you tell them when they are at that low point, when there's that kind of terror of have I made a mistake of even thinking I could do this? Amberleigh Adoff (36:03.953) I mean, as an educator, I know that like what we perceive as failure is actually learning. You know, I think those low part points in your business are the parts where you learn the most. When you're being successful and things are going great, you're not really learning as much. And so I think those are those are positive, important aspects of your journey, because it's where you stop, you reflect. and you learn from. it's actually a normal part, but also a positive part of running your business because it's where you're teaching yourself how to pivot, how to try different things, how to be resilient. So I actually think that building a positive relationship with those low points or what you perceive as failures are a good thing. They are necessary, but also can be positive if you look at them slightly differently. Lyric Kinard (36:58.15) try it and see and then it's a lesson that you needed to learn from and analyze it and figure out what was going on. And if you don't know, ask somebody who does know to help you figure out what was going on, right? Amberleigh Adoff (36:59.398) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (37:03.12) Yeah. Amberleigh Adoff (37:09.851) Totally, exactly. I know, people are afraid to ask for help, but that's why you need your community. You need people on the outside who have a different perspective. Yeah, it's so valuable. Lyric Kinard (37:19.43) It's always lovely and helpful to swim in a whole school of fish, especially when they're all different, coming from different experiences, because they can see things that we don't. We get so close and so invested in the thing that we're doing, right? Amberleigh Adoff (37:25.509) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (37:29.445) Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (37:37.315) Yes, that's the thing. We're so close to our business that sometimes it's hard to see the things just outside. I have like a monthly mastermind of my creative friends who all have very different creative businesses. And I always learn something when I meet with them and they always have some insight because they have some distance from my business that's so valuable. So I do think sharing and connecting with others can help you see maybe opportunities or ways to pivot that you don't see because you're in it, you know. Lyric Kinard (38:06.983) And this is what happens when you come from the idea of community and collaboration instead of scarcity and competition. When we freely share and build each other instead of worrying about that there's not enough, then we learn and we grow so much. even if I'm... Amberleigh Adoff (38:13.243) Mm-hmm. Yes. Amberleigh Adoff (38:23.734) Mm-hmm. Yes, yes. my gosh. Lyric Kinard (38:31.087) Even if you and I are in completely different places, either in the success or level of our business and our knowledge, everybody has something to offer. Amberleigh Adoff (38:41.647) Yes, absolutely, I agree. Lyric Kinard (38:44.861) Beautiful thing. Amberlee, it has been absolutely delightful to chat with you. I would like to throw out a quick question about what is the last thing you made? Amberleigh Adoff (38:59.825) The last thing I made, so I've been a creative hobby I've been exploring is like costume making. Yeah, and so the last thing I made were a costume piece inspired by Dragon Rider. So it's like this, yeah, it's very cool. So yeah, I'm working on a Dragon Rider costume. So I made like these arm gauntlets. I know it's kind of random, but fun. Lyric Kinard (39:06.695) Ooh. Lyric Kinard (39:17.778) haha Lyric Kinard (39:24.803) armor. This so cool. no, like we could geek out about this all day long. This is something I am totally fascinated and in love with as well. So much fun. It's so much fun to see people who are creative and how multi-craftual we all are. Amberleigh Adoff (39:30.147) Yeah. Yeah. Amberleigh Adoff (39:44.325) Yeah, I think it's important. For me, creative play is really important. Having things outside of my business to be creative, I think helps with you kind of learning new things and thinking outside the box too. Sometimes we're so focused on our craft that it helps to give our brains a break and play creatively. Because that's sometimes where I get other ideas that I wouldn't normally think about. So it's definitely. Lyric Kinard (40:05.019) and sometimes something entirely different. was told that I had to stop coming up with new business ideas. I said, get a hobby instead. You can't do all of these things. And so I picked up learning electric bass, which is completely outside of anything with the things I make with my hands, right? But it's so much fun, you know? And it's really... Amberleigh Adoff (40:08.559) Mm-hmm. Yes. Amberleigh Adoff (40:13.998) Yeah. Amberleigh Adoff (40:26.577) Yeah. that's perfect. Yeah, I think it's important to have that. Both for creativity and our brains. Yeah. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (40:33.595) Right? And I don't have to be good at it. And it's amazing the ideas that come to me for my business that I actually need to be focusing on while I'm doing this other thing. You let go of that kind of anxiety about, I going to get this right? Is this thing going to work? What do I have to do next to make this work? Amberleigh Adoff (40:41.273) Yes. Mm-hmm. Amberleigh Adoff (40:49.595) Yep. Amberleigh Adoff (40:54.085) Yes, I totally agree. Lyric Kinard (40:56.399) Amberlee, thank you so much for spending time with us. It's an honor and a pleasure to have you with us. Amberleigh Adoff (41:03.173) Thank you so much for having me.