173: Fall Q&A: Your Burning Questions Part 1

Hi there. Welcome back to another episode of the Professional Creative Podcast. We recently took a dive into the questions that you have submitted that you would love to hear answered on this very podcast and I'm really excited to dive into them today. Your questions were incredible. They're thoughtful and insightful. They ask about strategy. Some of them are light hearted and more personal. And so we're going to have an array of topics that we cover in between this week and next week we're going to do a two part series all about listener Q and A. Now if you didn't know that you can submit questions for the podcast, you can if you just go over to bonniechristine.com links. That's where you'll find the submission form to just let me know what you want to hear about. Also, if you're on Instagram, you can find that link over in my bio. I'm just Bonnie Christine on Instagram, so whichever way is easier for you, BonnieChristine.com links will get you there and I would love, love, love to consider your question for an upcoming episode as well. So are you ready to dive in?

I'm Bonnie Christine and this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life.

But when I first set out to

become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer.

Fast forward to today.

I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast.

The first one is from Sariv. What is the one thing you still feel like you aren't there yet? All of your talents. Where do you feel that you need to grow the most? So really love this question. It's a bit of a deep thinker, right? There are many, many, many places that I don't think I have fully arrived yet. I hope that I never feel like I fully arrived. I think that's maybe part of the trick is that you are sure to never feel like you've arrived, meaning I am always really careful to be in the position in the posture of a student. Of learning and of just being really humble by the incredibly smart people in the world. So the areas that I am currently working on, I would say leadership forever. I have shared before that I never really thought of myself as being a leader, especially a leader of a team and of an entire company. I was a solopreneur for a decade, and so it has been a bit of a quick learning curve and also something that I'm really passionate about. Just, just really trying to be intentional about my leadership and what that looks like in all kinds of different areas in the industry, in my. In our, you know, services and offers that we have. What does it look like to be a really good leader that has integrity and, you know, a soft heart but a strong back and, you know, all of those things as well? It is difficult and also probably some of the most meaningful and impactful work that I get to do today. So that for sure, I have so many goals that I have not been met yet. And so I have writing goals and publication goals and artwork goals. I want some of my art onto some particular products and companies. So lots and lots on the horizon that we're really excited about. I would love a TV show. Not like a long term forever TV show, but I would love, love, love to do like a season of episodes about the process of surface pattern design. I think it would be incredible. I think it would be beautiful and insightful and I would love to do it. So I'll put that out there as well. Thank you for your question. Jennifer asks what was a very low moment in your professional journey and how have you persevered and overcome it, and how did that experience impact your career, for better or for worse? I think when I think about one of the lowest moments, there are many low moments. Just welcome to business entrepreneurship, right? But one of the most low moments is when I was really young, I was probably 22 or 23 years old, and I was in talks with a fabric company that this was before I was licensed. And I was in talks with a fabric company that I really admired. I thought that they had the most desirable collections and designers on the market, and I really wanted to work with them. And so I started there. I started by showing them my portfolio. And in hindsight, what happened is that the art director had an assistant and the assistant really loved my work. And so she kind of gave me a lot of hope. She was rooting for me, she was recommending me, and I was really excited about it. But it turns out that the art director was so very not interested in My work. But I saw her in person at Quilt Market one time, and she just kind of whispered to me that my work looks like everyone else's, that I have nothing unique or special. And it crushed me. It crushed my soul like it would any artist or designer. It's probably the number one thing you don't want to hear. And so this particular person, it all worked out right, because this particular company ended up going under, meaning they went out of business, which I thought would have been impossible. And this particular person, the art director, I soon learned, had really been hurtful and really just mean to many, many designers. And so in hindsight, right, it was the best thing. Like, it was the best thing that I didn't move forward with them. But at the moment, it really destroyed me. And so I feel like I know what it feels like to just have someone say something about your work or your creativity or your ability, especially someone in a position of power, and especially when you feel vulnerable. For me, I was vulnerable from, like an age perspective. I didn't have much experience under my belt. I didn't have a lot of confidence because I hadn't licensed my work yet. And it was some of the very first times that I even had shown my work. So for it not to be handled with care and compassion was just really difficult. In turn, though, it makes me so much more empathetic to other people who have had things said to them, whether it was a teacher in school or a parent that didn't believe in them, or a spouse that doesn't believe in them, or an art director or whatever. Side note, I should say that every other art director I've ever met has been the most lovely, beautiful humans in the world. So truly was just an anomaly. Don't be afraid of art directors. But it gave me a lot of empathy. It also did make me make sure to focus on developing more of a signature style. And so it was all good, but it was a very low point in my. My career. Okay, so many, many, many of you are asking, what is my stance on AI as a designer? So let's talk about it. I think we are living in such an interesting time, truly. Like, what an interesting time that we're currently living in with the development of artificial intelligence. So I'm not sure if you know this, but in the design world, we really have two different sides. Adobe has fully embraced AI. They're working it into Adobe programs. You can do text to artwork, text to repeating pattern, all kinds of, like, text to different color ways, all kinds of things with Artificial intelligence. Now, on the flip side to that, we have like Procreate, which is another beloved program of artists and designers. And they have officially come out and said that they will never integrate AI into their platform in any capacity. Now I think that's an interesting position just given where we are right now. But okay, so where do we land? I think there's a place where I personally land and then there's a place where I land from an education and community perspective, because AI is here, it's not going away. And so we have to remember that things like this are going to cause a ripple, are going to cause like a ripple of fear that goes through everyone. The same thing happened when the Internet came out, the same thing happened when CAD programs came out. That at the end of the day, like humans are driven by creativity and putting their hand to work and being creative themselves. So a text to artwork is never going to fulfill the same thing as a hand to artwork experience, which means that it's not going away. Meaning hand, human, created art. It's not going away. In fact, I think that it could be more and more and more valuable because it truly is this. You know, people are not just interested in the final works, they're interested in the human experience of creating that work. Who you are, what inspired you, how did you gather inspiration? Was there any turmoil, you know, involved? Creativity is such a human and emotional experience that it's always going to be there. But AI is here, and we've embraced AI in certain areas in the business. It really does quicken work incredibly. So. Like for instance, one of my favorite ways to use AI, specifically something like ChatGPT, is when I have to present something that I've already presented in the past and in years past. I would go rewatch, let's say it's an hour long presentation that I did. I would go re watch it and take notes. And now I can download the transcript of what I did a year ago and have AI give me an outline of what I said in like 20 seconds or less. Right. And so it's a timesaver and one that I think we should be willing to embrace as a helper, but not as a replacement. So I suspect that as we move forward, we're going to have really three types of artists and designers. One is going to be the person who does not use AI in their artwork at all. This is currently where I sit. I'm not using AI in my artwork, in my process to develop art or to play with colors, any of it at any capacity. I Don't really want to. I love the process so much. So AI has not even begun to touch my personal process. I'll let you know if it ever does. So that's the first type of. Then on the way, other side of the spectrum, I think that we will have some people who I'm going to call like artwork architects, people who really cannot create artwork on their own, but they are creative in the capacity of using AI to create beautiful things. It is a bit of an art form in and of itself. Meaning you have to be talented and very creative to use AI to get beautiful outputs. And I'm going to say that that's a new type of designer that's coming. We're going to call them artwork architects that use AI. I don't think that there's any shame involved in that. I think that it's actually pretty incredible. I'll come back to that in a second. And then I think that there's this middle person that is a bit overlapped. Someone who is a traditional artist who's also open to letting AI come in and inform their process or help their process not replace it, which is where I think many, many people will land. We're embracing all of it, especially inside of our communities. No shame thrown on any. Any particular path. What I am passionate about is being transparent about it. And so if you've used AI to create artwork, we're working on a way for our students to be able to just share that information, to potentially label it as such, disclose it in their maybe community sharing. But not. Not in a negative way, just as an information way. Because I don't think that a handmade piece of art and an AI piece of art should be compared side by side. Meaning we really do need to understand how it was created, I think, think. And so I'm just being really transparent with you about where we are right now. That's where we are right now. That's where we think things are happening. That's what we think we're going to be rolling out inside of our communities. It's not all ironed out perfectly. We'll probably kind of learn and evolve it as we go. But I'll for sure keep you posted. I think it's an important conversation to have. I think it's really important to not replace what we're doing with AI, but let it kind of inform how we're approaching work or be open to that. And also maybe, you know, not have such a negative or kind of shame approach to someone who is using AI because it is interesting and it does require talent and creativity. Like I said, I think it would just be nice to know if AI was created using. I'm sorry, if artwork was created using AI. So that's where we are. Stay tuned. I think it's a great, great topic that is going to evolve and change quickly and we're dedicated to being at the front end of that kind of growth.

Hi everyone, it's Bonnie Christine and I've got some really exciting news to share. Team Bonnie Christine is growing and we're currently on the lookout for some amazing new talent to join us. So if you've ever wanted to be a part of a team that's passionate about creativity, education and really making a tangible, real difference, I would love to have you consider joining us. We're hiring for a few key roles, including a full time content writer, a full time digital marketing specialist, as well as a freelance video editor. These positions are all fully remote. We offer competitive pay, flexible hours and a ton of great perks alongside being able to just work with an incredible team. So we're looking for people who are really eager to help shape our mission of supporting creatives really worldwide. If that sounds like you or maybe someone you know, go ahead and head over to bonniecristine.comcareers to learn more and apply. And hey, if you know someone who would be a great candidate, you please, please send this page to them as well. Applications close October 21st, so don't wait too long. We can't wait to welcome some new faces to the team and really get to know you again. That's bonniechristine.com careers I can't wait to get to know you.

Okay, our next question is from Tessie. How are your struggles today different than they were when you first begin? I wonder what your current struggles are after hitting financial goals and growing. What a great question. You know that saying, new level, new devil, right? Like nothing ever gets easy. There are always challenges, always struggles at every single level. They just change. And so to Tessie's point, like early on, struggles were wanting to gain momentum, wanting to grow an audience, wanting to just get my artwork and my business kind of out in the world. And then the struggle kind of, I'm. I'm summarizing majorly, but then the struggle kind of went towards bandwidth and literally just not being able to do everything I needed to do and also not being able to step away from the business. It, yeah, it was, it ended up getting to be so much that I had no choice but to hire. You know, I Always say, I wish I would have hired sooner than I did. I waited way too long. So then came team. And the challenge was like, how do I delegate? How do I let go of this? How do I not micromanage? How do I transfer ownership to people on my team? How do I make sure I attract the right fit for the team? How do I make sure everyone is sitting in the right seat on the team? You know, we've, we're pretty good at all of that now. And I would say our bigger current struggles are really focusing, really making sure that what we're doing is what we should be doing. Which is interesting because as your business grows, you will continue to have more and more opportunities at your fingertips that you could say yes to. And so my position is now, like, with so many different things that we could do, what really do we reserve our very best yeses for? How do we really take care of our team and make sure that they have bandwidth, that they never feel close to burnout? How do we manage our money? I think that's an interesting thing to consider as well. Like, with increased revenue comes a lot of increased responsibility. Like with a lower revenue, even say a lot of revenue, like 100k to 500k, you typically figure out where it goes pretty quickly. Like by the time you have given or tithed or given, I always give 10%. By the time you pay all your bills, by the time you pay all of your expenses, somehow it gets allotted pretty quickly. And as you grow and grow and grow, it doesn't get allotted so easily or quickly. Meaning, again, options grow, what you could do with your money. There's an endless amount of different avenues where you could spend it, right? Or give it away or invest it. And so with that is a lot of responsibility to be wise, to be a good steward of your revenue. Not only our personal revenue, but the business's revenue and profit margins. When is it the right time to grow the team? When is the right time to just stay small but mighty? So I think that there's a lot of pressure. And you've met David, my husband, he really takes on a lot of that, a lot of the decision making and stewarding of revenue and how to do it well, how to invest well, how to give well, how to save well, how to spend well. But yeah, it's an interesting. It's not a complaint, right? It just is a different challenge that you might not see coming until it's here. Okay, next question is from Liesl. What are three common traits in people who succeed in Surface pattern design or in creative entrepreneurship. Hmm. Okay, so love, love, love this question. What are three common traits? The first one that I always talk about is consistency. I have seen so many people start out and they're super consistent and within three, four, five, six months, they haven't seen the results that they wanted. And so they back away slowly, they lose interest, they stop being as consistent and they just kind of disappear from being on the scene, if you will, or being known. And so it truly is the people who just show up day after day after day after week after month after year after year after year that find incredible success. I would say you have to show up in your business for yourself, on social, in email, in growing your business in all the ways, right? Like just really intentionally showing up consistently for years before you could potentially see the payoff that you really want. And so that's maybe, maybe that sounds like too much, but it's not boring. It's really exciting. It is, it means that you truly love what you do. Because I would do what I do even if it wasn't for the revenue, right? So like figuring out what you would do even if you did it for free, because you love it so much, that's what will drive you to showing up day after day, month after month, year after year. And so you gotta find that and then show up consistently in order to see long term results. Okay. The second one is, I'm gonna call it confidence. It's confidence. You don't, you don't have to come out of the gate with all the confidence, but it is something that you have to intentionally grow. You have to be willing to show up, show your work, and confidently know that you can, you have to confidently move through challenges and navigate, you know, different things that come your way. And at some point you have to have confidence in not only yourself, but in your business as well. So confidence in your ability to pivot, to have new ideas, to generate beautiful things to run a business. And then you have to be confident that your business is, is working, that it's good, that it can pivot, that it can grow, that it can change over the years as well. I think that's super interesting, but I would say consistency and confidence for sure. And then the last one would be community. I think truly we go, or we can only go so far by ourselves, and it's when we're in community that we can go so much further. So that's three Cs. Connect, consistency, confidence and community. Whatever kind of community that means to you. But it should be an incredibly supportive group that understand what you are working towards, that can support you and that can also really stretch your mind as to what's possible. This could be a community. For instance, we have a membership called Flourish that many people use as their community. We also, I also have a mastermind. So a mastermind. Mastermind is an amazing way to do this as well. And so whatever it is for you, find community so that you can go far. Okay, two more questions. These are a little bit more light hearted, but really good still. So Stacy says, are you naturally organized and a good time manager or do you use some great tools to help? I would say that I'm not naturally organized or good at managing my time. But. But I think that it is a learned trait or it is a learnable trait. Meaning I also don't have a green thumb. I have a very murky brown thumb. But having a green thumb is a learnable trait.

Right.

And so I have studied time management so much over the years. I specifically started when I started having children because all of the sudden, right, like my time got cut into tiny bits here and there. And so I had to really figure out how to manage my time, how to still be productive on a much smaller amount of time. And so there's lots and lots that I use and love. There's a book by Michael Hayek called Free to Focus that I adore. I'm currently reading Getting Things Done. It's a book, Let me look it up. Getting Things Done. Okay. It's a book by David Allen. It is also so far I'm only two chapters in and I think I've nearly highlighted the entire thing. I've also read a book this year called the Perfect Day Formula. That one is by Craig Ballantyne. And so I'm kind of constantly very focused on this trait. Like how do I manage my time well, how do I improve it? How do I become more effective and productive? How do I stop doing the things that I don't really need to be be doing and only the things that I really should be doing. I also love working in time blocks. I have a time cube that I can set to 15, 30, 45, 60 or I think 90 minutes. And I will use that for my time blocks to do highly focused work. Oh, another book that I love is the One Thing by J. Papasan, also an incredible one. So if you're only going to read one or two, I don't know, you might need to read all four. But I was going to say free to focus and the one thing are really, really impactful. Our last question is from Rach. How does your faith affect your creativity? Does your faith help you to find newness in your creative journey? Absolutely love this question. We don't talk about faith too much here. But you, you might have picked up that I am a Christian. And so I would say that that informs everything that I do from business to leadership to creativity. And so I really feel like we were, we were created to create. Right? Like we are. We were created in the image of God and God was the ultimate creator. Right. So of course we're creative. And so I love to just sit in that. There is a book by Erwin McManus called the Artisan Soul. And the Artisan Soul is, oh my goodness, so incredible. It really is crafting your life into a work of art, but also why, why we are creative beings. And so if you are interested in this topic or interested in kind of leaning into more of how God is really the master artisan of our lives and how that shows up through our creativity, love the book the Artisan Soul. So I just expanded your reading list quite a lot. So sorry. Except I'm not sorry. These books will change your life.

Yeah.

So that's a wrap. My goodness, what great, great questions. We have another set of just as amazing questions to dive into next week, so come back and join me. We're going to be talking about long term goals, what strategies we use in our course to have make sure students finish and have success if I have a morning practice or ritual and what family and work look like together. So lots of, lots of great things coming, my friends. Create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world and remember, there's room for you.