212: From Beginner to Pro: The Roadmap No One Talks About

I want to take you back to the very first months of me trying to learn surface pattern design. I had this vision. I wanted to see my art specifically on fabric. I wanted products in stores, maybe even in someone's home. I wanted to have people sewing and creating things with the fabric that I designed. But the moment that this kind of dream settled into me, I was hit with a tidal wave of overwhelm.

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 spread. 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.

I wasted six months just spinning my wheels like that. I didn't know what tools to start with. I didn't know what software to learn. Every time I tried to find answers, I fell down a rabbit hole of, you know, misinformation or not knowing whether it was the right thing or the wrong thing. One tutorial would teach me how to draw a leaf, another one taught me how to draw tessellating lizards. Everything was interesting, but together they felt like puzzle pieces from completely different boxes. And so it took me 18 months to kind of figure it all out. I worked so hard, but I didn't have any clear direction. I almost quit so many times because I wasn't sure where I was going, what it looked like, what I was going to do next. I was overwhelmed, but I was also really determined. So I'm not sure if you've ever felt this way. Working hard but not sure if you're working on the right things or moving in the right direction. If you have though, this episode is for you. What I want to share with you is the thing that I wish I'd had from day number one, which is a, I think the biggest gift anyone could have when they begin on a new journey, which is a clear step by step path from where you're founded. You know, a total beginner To a thriving professional, a road map that shows you exactly where you are now, where you're headed, what the next step is going to be, what step 322 is going to be. That way we can make informed decisions. Is this even what I want to do? Are all of these steps exciting? Are there going to be places that I struggle, that I don't like, that I love all of those things? When you know the very next step, I think the overwhelm kind of evaporates. I would struggle anytime I kind of looked too far out in front of me. That not knowing, like, I literally had no idea, like, not knowing what I was going to have to be doing in three months, four months, five months to make this thing a reality. And so when you do know kind of that next step step, it allows you to approach it with clarity. You kind of erase that overwhelm. I can. When I think about it, I literally feel like this fog lifted. And so instead of wondering, like, what am I going to do today? We call that the daily scramble. What am I going to do today? You can say, ah, I'm right here on the map. I'm in stage two, task number eight. My action today is to learn how to do a half drop repeating pattern. There is so much power and clarity in the precision of something like that. That is the magic of having what I would consider a roadmap or a clear path. It replaces that kind of uncertainty with just so much clarity. And it's the clarity that really provides momentum. So today I want to walk you through what we call the pattern path. This is six stages that go from curious beginner to iconic designer. So. So that you can see what progress looks like at each stage and also maybe pinpoint where you are right now. So last week, I started at the top. I told you, the first two, they are curious and emerging. The next are confident, profitable, insider and icon. Each level has its own enormous list of milestones and tangible things that you can check off and quick wins that make the journey just so incredibly exciting. But more than anything, clear. So we're going to go level by level. Level one again is called curious. You've maybe just discovered what surface pattern design is, or you've maybe been circling it for a while, wondering about it. If it's for you, what it would look like, how would you integrate it? Do you want to do it on the side or as a hobby or as a career? Your main focus in this level, the stage, is to just kind of learn the basics. You understand what it is you might be understanding what tools you'll need to learn something like Adobe Illustrator, and you might start playing with repeating patterns. Your quick win at this stage is really just kind of understanding the whole picture, creating something, getting started. And it is going to be the first time that you see kind of the beginning fruit of your effort. Now, level two is called emerging. So once you've got that first kind of curiosity taken care of, you're more committed. And this is where you start actually building momentum. So you have begun learning programs. You're creating actual artwork. You have some repeating patterns under your belt. You've probably started to fall into a creative routine. You're taking your creativity more seriously, and maybe you're starting to think about putting together a collection of patterns or work to show. Seeing your style start to emerge in this early stage, it's so incredibly exciting. You're beginning to, like, get the knack of the tools that you're using. So maybe you're working in Illustrator much faster. Maybe you're feeling more confident when you sit down to create. Level three is what we call confidential. Here you have collections of work you are officially creating professionally. You're probably showing a portfolio or you're building a portfolio, super proud of the work that you've done. You are preparing to begin showing to potential clients or licensing partners. This stage is so exciting because you're finally feeling confident. You can see yourself stepping into the role of a true professional. Level four is profitable. This is where you really start earning revenue with your art. You're exploring different monetization lanes like licensing or selling your work outright or print on demand, or creating your own products. You are actively pitching your work. You're understanding how to read contracts, how to negotiate contracts. Your quick win here is that your art is paying you. I don't really care how much it is. It changes the way that you work. It changes the way that you see yourself. When you start becoming profitable from the artwork, the creativity that you have been working so hard on, everything changes now. Oftentimes we hang out in Level 4 for a long time. Sometimes that's where we kind of end the road, because that's all we wanted. So you can go as far on this path as you want. A lot of times, level four is kind of all people want, but there are two extra levels that are reserved for people who really want to go all in. Level five is what we call insider. This is when you become recognized in the industry. You're probably attending trade shows, you're partnering with bigger names. You have your own brand, you're collaborating with other people in the industry. This one is deepening relationships, extending and expanding your reach, and saying yes to opportunities that you are so insanely excited about. Then finally, there's icon level six. This is really reserved for just a handful of people. This is legacy level work. It is when an artist is able to build a body of work that they're not only proud of, but they have a team behind them. They are impacting their entire industry. They are impacting future generations. For some people, that might mean education. For others, it might be creating large scale collaborations, dream projects, really being a visible voice in the industry that lasts the test of time, if you will. The biggest thing that I think happens here is that you realize it's not really about the art anymore. It's about the impact. It's about the mark that you're leaving on the creative world as we know it. So before I share a couple of actual stories that relate to this path, I want to give you the operating system, if you will, that runs through all six of these levels. It's something that if you've been here a while, you're very familiar with. I call it one thing a day. Instead of waiting for big chunks of time or doing short bursts of, like, frantic work, or that scrambling feeling, you commit to doing one meaningful thing every day that inches you towards accomplishing that dream. Now, this may seem obvious or easy, but it is incredibly intentional. It is obvious and it is easy, but it does not happen by accident. There are times in my life that I can look back where I was really obsessively implementing this concept. And it is the only way that I made the biggest things in my career come true, including the first one. And so I buckled down and I started doing one thing every day. And that is when I kind of marched through systematically everything that I had to figure out in order to become the fabric designer that I wanted to become. And. And I didn't miss a day. It took over 18 months and I didn't miss a single day. And so anytime that I feel like I've got this big goal or big dream or something overwhelming, I'm like, implementing one thing. I start tracking it. Because eventually if you're tracking it in a. In a visual way, you'll begin to create a chain. And the chain in and of itself is so motivating that you don't want to break it. It is incredibly powerful to hold yourself accountable like that. So the one thing, it's going to be a million different things. I always say 15 minutes counts. Some days it'll be much longer than that. But it could be sketching, it could be gathering inspiration, it could be reading a book, it could be working in Adobe Illustrator, it could be sending pitch emails, it could be developing that new concept of a collection. It can be so many different things, but, but those daily actions add up so incredibly fast. Momentum comes, progress comes, and it is incredible how well this works. I have a tracker that I use for this and if you've never tracked your consistency before, I just highly recommend it. Seeing those little boxes fill up every day is so, so incredibly motivating. So let me tell you about a couple of stories of people that have come in and learned surface pattern design with us. They found themselves on this path and they've moved along it. I want to tell you about Melissa Johnson. Melissa was a self taught watercolor artist. No formal design training, just a deep love for paint and paper. When she joined Immersion, she told me she was equal parts excited and unsure. So we started with the basics. Illustrator repeats building a portfolio. And something clicked. Today, Melissa's art lives on fabric, stationery, home goods. She says that Immersion gave me the skills and the confidence to turn my art into a career. Within months, I signed licensing deals that I never thought were possible. Isn't that incredible? I love Melissa's story. The next one is from Annabel. Annabel Henry had a big book, quiet dream. She wanted to build something really of her own. After Immersion, she launched something called the Granim Press. It's a small publishing house in the Pacific Northwest where she illustrates and publishes children's books. She translated those illustrations into surface patterns for fabric, wallpaper, home goods and toys. Annabelle told me I built the life I dreamed of. Immersion gave me the skills to make my art live in many different places. She left her dream job and stepped into the work that lights her up. Page by page, pattern by pattern. I love Annabelle's story. Now I want to tell you about Patti. Patty Booth was in her 60s when she took Immersion and had suffered multiple strokes and a near fatal car accident. Now Patti was told that she would never recover and she kept asking herself, what if I could? So she signed up for Immersion and took things slowly. She got into a routine and repetition. She retrained her brain, rebuilt her confidence and found her her path. Patti said Immersion helped me believe again. Today she runs this design business. She has her own print on demand shop. She's landed licensing contracts with Walmart, Marketplace and others. When I think of Patty's story, I'm just overwhelmed with the belief of what if I could. All of these women have something in common. They're all at very different places in their life. They are at different ages, they have children at different ages, they have different career paths and goals. They all started at level one and they worked their way through the levels step by step, one thing a day, one thing at a time. So I would love to know, where are you on the pattern path? Are you curious? Are you emerging? Are you becoming confident? Are you later on the path? Pinpointing your level, I think is the first step towards really knowing your very next step. And if you've been circling this, if you've been maybe hopping from tutorial to tutorial or feeling like you're missing the sequencing, I'm teaching the entire full roadmap, every stage, all of the different steps inside, all of the different milestones, every detail in my upcoming workshop. It's called Surface Design Fast Track and we're doing it September 4th through the 8th. You're going to walk away with a pattern and a plan that allows you to keep going. It is perfect if you are brand new or if you're coming back maybe after a pause or like me, you're feeling that kind of September energy and want to finish the year really strong. I'm going to guide you step by step with checklists and bite sized lessons that are really impactful. So if you've been eyeing immersion, this workshop is also going to set you up for success. It's going to allow you to hit the ground, ground running for the first time ever. We are releasing a fast track version of the Surface Design immersion course coming September 9th. And it's also going to be at a discount. It's going to be 500 off the usual price, which we have never done. We're so excited about this. It's all just an invitation. If that is what you want. The workshop is only 19 and you can join us at bonniecristine.com forward slash workshop fall like the season bonniecristine.com workshop fall I would absolutely love to have you there. Bring your questions, bring your notebook and let's map out your journey together, my friends. Create the beauty that you want to see. Come alive in the world. And remember there's room for.