Ep. 08: Scaling Up: From 30 Shops to 170 - With Rebecca Woolbright

Summary

Podcast Summary: Art + Audience - Ep. 08: Scaling Up: From 30 Shops to 170 - With Rebecca Woolbright

Introduction

In Episode 08 of Art + Audience, host Stacie Bloomfield welcomes Rebecca Woolbright, a remarkable artist whose business has soared from supplying 30 shops to an impressive 170. This episode delves into Rebecca’s entrepreneurial journey, the strategies she employed to scale her art business, and the pivotal decisions that transformed her approach to art licensing and sales.

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Rebecca’s Journey: From Humble Beginnings to a Thriving Art Business

Rebecca Woolbright shares her initial foray into the art business during the challenging times of 2020. Balancing her role as a snorkel shop owner on Maui with her passion for art, Rebecca found solace in creating washi tape inspired by her honeymoon in Japan. Struggling with creating patterns and building a portfolio, she ventured into sending personalized emails to stores, hoping to break into the wholesale market.

“I knew I wasn’t ready for licensing yet, so I built a product-based business to gain confidence and build my portfolio.”
— Rebecca Woolbright [05:56]

The Challenge of Scaling as a Solopreneur

As a solo entrepreneur and a new mother, Rebecca faced the daunting task of managing every aspect of her business alone. The manual process of researching buyers, crafting individualized emails, and following up was time-consuming and overwhelming, especially while balancing family life.

“I was spending so much time writing perfectly crafted emails and following up that I felt like I couldn’t keep up, especially while nursing a baby.”
— Rebecca Woolbright [00:49]

Stacie highlights the common struggle among artists of wearing multiple hats, especially the intimidating aspect of sales and outreach.

“Everyone is terrified of the sales part. It’s vulnerable to send pitch emails and face potential rejection.”
— Stacie Bloomfield [07:36]

The Power of Automation: Transforming Rebecca’s Business

Rebecca discovered automation as a game-changer. Introducing Google Streak, a free Gmail plugin, she was able to create templated emails and schedule follow-ups effortlessly. This shift from manual emailing to automated systems allowed her to save precious time and focus on expanding her reach.

“Automation is a magical word where you can do something once and then put it on repeat, doing it again and again.”
— Stacie Bloomfield [07:37]

Implementing automation not only streamlined her pitching process but also significantly increased her outreach capacity.

“After setting up automation, my time freed up, allowing me to research more stores and grow my list to 170 shops.”
— Rebecca Woolbright [10:33]

Lessons Learned: Scaling Up and Effective Pitching

Rebecca emphasizes the importance of viewing pitching as a numbers game. Consistent and systematic follow-ups increase the chances of securing contracts. Her initial strategy of pitching five stores a week grew to 25, demonstrating the exponential benefits of automation.

“If you can imagine sending one templated email to three shops and scheduling follow-ups, it opens up so much time and potential.”
— Rebecca Woolbright [23:40]

Stacie adds that automation should be the first step before considering more expensive methods like trade shows, highlighting its cost-effectiveness and efficiency.

“Automation is the least expensive option because you are leveraging the tools you already have to maximize your outreach.”
— Stacie Bloomfield [17:50]

Mindset Shifts and Setting Boundaries

A significant part of Rebecca’s success stems from her mindset adjustments. Overcoming the fear of rejection and setting personal boundaries to manage thoughts and prevent overthinking were crucial. By detaching emotionally from each pitch and trusting the process, she maintained focus and resilience.

“I would just say to stop thinking about it. You have to try it. The only way to know is to take action.”
— Rebecca Woolbright [24:46]

Rebecca also shares her experience of setting boundaries to avoid distractions, such as not checking emails during personal time, which further enhanced her productivity and mental well-being.

“I set a boundary to not check my emails on weekends, which helped me stay focused and reduce stress.”
— Rebecca Woolbright [29:11]

Conclusion and Advice for Artists

Stacie and Rebecca conclude with valuable advice for artists looking to scale their businesses. Rebecca encourages artists to embrace automation tools and persist through fear and rejection, emphasizing that consistent effort leads to growth.

“If you have products that aren’t selling, try sending templated emails to a few shops and automate the follow-ups. It’s a simple yet effective way to scale.”
— Stacie Bloomfield [24:13]

Rebecca invites listeners to explore her class on automation and scaling available at manufactureawesome.com, providing a resource for artists to implement similar strategies in their businesses.

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Key Takeaways:

• Embrace Automation: Tools like Google Streak can drastically reduce time spent on manual tasks, allowing for greater outreach and business growth.
• Consistent Pitching: Treat pitching as a numbers game. Regular and systematic follow-ups increase the likelihood of securing contracts.
• Mindset Matters: Overcome the fear of rejection by detaching emotionally from each pitch and maintaining a resilient mindset.
• Set Boundaries: Protect personal time by setting boundaries around work tasks, such as limiting email checks to specific times.
• Leverage Resources: Utilize available resources and classes to learn and implement effective business strategies.

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Notable Quotes:

• “Automation is a magical word where we can just make something once and then put it on repeat and do it again and again.”
  — Stacie Bloomfield [07:37]

• “I thought automation was something only big corporations could afford, but it turned out to be the perfect solution for my small business.”
  — Rebecca Woolbright [15:41]

• “If you don’t put yourself out there, nobody knows your existence. Consistent effort is key.”
  — Rebecca Woolbright [18:51]

• “Stop thinking about it. You have to try it. The only way to know is if you try it.”
  — Rebecca Woolbright [24:46]

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Resources Mentioned:

• Rebecca Woolbright’s Class on Automation: Available at manufactureawesome.com, the class titled "Automate and Scale" offers comprehensive guidance on implementing automation in art businesses.
• Stacey Bloomfield’s Membership Programs: Including Leverage Your Art and Creative Powerhouse Society, designed to help artists build and scale their businesses.

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This episode of Art + Audience provides insightful strategies for artists aiming to scale their businesses efficiently. Rebecca Woolbright’s journey underscores the transformative power of automation, disciplined pitching, and a resilient mindset in achieving substantial growth.

Transcript

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Hey, friend.

[Rebecca Woolbright]

Are you ready to pitch your artwork for art licensing? Then I have the thing for you. Presenting my brand new art licensing pitch Playbook. This free email course gives you everything you need to start pitching your artwork for licensing while leveraging your already awesome work into the next level of profitability and possibility. I'm going to teach you the five biggest mistakes that keep artists from crafting irresistible pitch emails. Reaching out to their dream partners, pitching their work with confidence, gaining experience with collaborations, and building an art business that they love to run. So if you're ready to kickstart your art licensing business, visit artlicensingplaybook.com and I will send you my free 5 day email mini course. I can't wait for you to try it out.

[Unknown]

Bye. That was the mistake is that I was spending so much time being like, okay, I'm going to research who the buyer is and then I'm going to write my perfectly crafted first email and then you have to write a second one to follow up and then a third one and then check back in months from there. And that was so much time and like, having that to go back to on a spreadsheet in between nursing a baby. I was like, forget it, I'm not going to pitch today. And then you feel like crap because you're like, I'm not following through and I'm not growing my business, but I'm growing a human, which is more important. But there was a way to do both. And so that was really exciting is that I saw the way through and I could be like, I can do these things together.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Wouldn't it be nice if your art.

[Rebecca Woolbright]

Business loved you back? Hi, I'm Stacy Bloomfield. After years of trial and error and late night doodling, I went from being a coffee shop manager to running a vibrant seven figure art business that I love. And now I'm on a mission to help more artists create an art business that they love too. So I invite you to find a cozy spot, pull out your favorite sketchbook, and listen in. It's never too late to chase your creative dreams. Welcome to the Art plus Audience podcast.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Hello. Hello. Welcome back to another episode of Art plus Audience, the podcast where I want to help your art business. Love you back. I'm so excited because I'm here with a dear friend of mine and actually I think I met her through Leverage youe Art, which is one of the programs that I run. I think she was in year one of that course. My friend and peer, Rebecca Woolbright. Hi, Rebecca.

[Unknown]

Hi, Stacy. Thank you for Having me.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

I'm really excited to have you here because first of all, I think that you're one of the most fun humans that I've ever met. I love your personality, I love your energy. As you would say. I love your guts, which is something that you taught me. But I'm really excited because I've watched your business completely transform and grow since I met you in 2020 as a student of mine and Leverage youe Art. Then you went through my membership Creative Powerhouse Society and then you joined a mastermind that I run. And now I'm watching you here. It's 2024 and you've grown your business in a big way and it's you who have done all this work and watching you just grow your art business from you had a couple of you had a portfolio and some washi tape to now growing it into this vibrant six figure business where you're able to discontinue to have an impact, sell products all over the world and just step into like your freaking power. It's so fun. So, Rebecca, I'm happy to have you here.

[Unknown]

Thank you. What a sweet introduction.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Well, I mean it. Tell everyone about yourself. Rebecca.

[Unknown]

Oh gosh, there's so much to say. So 2020. Yes, I did take leverage youe Art obviously fell in love with the fact that you were teaching me from your bedroom. And I was like, well, if she can teach me anything from her bedroom, I can do anything. And it was just very real. And at that time I had taken immersion with Bonnie Christine, as many of us all do. It was the natural progression. And I had my own business on Maui. I owned a snorkel shop, a snorkel beach rental place. And so the mornings were always super chaos because everyone wants to come in and get all their snorkel gear and then they're gone. And our building had no air conditioning. And so there were some very long sweaty afternoons and I just dove in to immersion. And then I created a bunch of artwork. But I wasn't very comfortable with creating patterns or my portfolio. But starting with Washi tape felt really easy. I had fallen in love with it after our honeymoon in Japan. And so it was a simple repeat because it was only on the left and right side. So I was like, okay. And then I had a product and I was so used to being on the other side of that equation where I was ordering from big wholesalers like Qualcomm or Billabong and like getting their wholesale catalog. So I kind of had an idea, but I didn't have my own wholesale catalog and I was just winging it really. And I thought that by sending a few actual letters to stores with samples of my washi tape in it that I would like break into the whole world. And then I took leverage youe art. And I was like, oh my gosh, I know nothing. And it was so great because I put together a wholesale catalog and I started to think about sending emails and like actually pitching my product. And then I had, by that time I had added art prints that I don't do anymore and greeting cards which I don't do anymore.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Anymore.

[Unknown]

But I still have a bunch of them. And. Yeah. And so it just kind of flowed into this. I just started building a product based business because it felt a lot easier and I felt more confident and so I could still build my portfolio to pitch for licensing. I knew I wasn't ready for that yet.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

So you went from kind of being someone who had a little bit of understanding for how it looks like for a wholesale store, like a brick and mortar store to purchase from you to realizing you needed to systemize your growing art business. Right. Systemize it so that you could actually like recoup the cost not only of your investment for like online education, but build a stable business. Right?

[Unknown]

Correct. Yeah. I was trying to do everything. I mean for a long time I did everything too long. And that's what everybody says. It's like, oh my gosh, I held so close to everything. But I had. Well, I've grown my business the entire time of my son's life. So it's been eight over eight years. And then I had my daughter and so I was just going. It was the nap time routine, you know, just finding the margins and really trying to be the most effective with my time. And then we sat down my first year of the mastermind and you were like, okay, what are you automating? And I was like, I don't even know what you're talking about. And because I was still sending emails like one by one to wholesale clients and I would make it so personalized and be like, this is the dream shop. And then you would hear nothing. And then I'd have to go back and like write the follow up. I had this long list and a spreadsheet of what I was doing and when and it was so overwhelming. So after our call, I was like, I had to Google what an automation was. First of all, like, what, what do I do to automate emails? Because I had no idea. And I was like, this sounds amazing.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Let's Stop there for a second because.

[Unknown]

Okay.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Something I notice about most artists is they have this dream. They want to make money from their art, but they also are solopreneurs. They're doing it all by themselves. And running a business means you're wearing a lot of hats, you're making the art, you're designing the product, you're creating the portfolio, you're doing all this work. But then when it comes to actually how you get the money in your hands, you have to do sales and outreach. And everyone's terrified of that part. First of all, because it's scary and vulnerable to have to send the pitch email. And so sometimes people. I like to tell people to, like, create art that's about, like, personal to them. It's a story, things they connect with. But sometimes people get real personal. So when they write their pitch emails, they're like, here's my life story in an email. I hope it connects with you. Buy my stuff. Not. That's not what you did, Rebecca. You never were that way. But, you know, a lot of never over there ever. So a lot of times people will get to the actual sales part and they don't want to think of it as sales. You know, it's scary. And so let's say you even can prod someone to send the email. Send their first email. Like they Google, they find a source. Maybe it's a. An art director at a company they want to license with, or maybe it's the buyer or paper source, I don't know. Or maybe a smaller brick and mortar. And they will wait to send any emails because they're afraid of rejection. And what if. So then you get them to send the first email, and then when there isn't a response right away and they pour their heart and soul into it, a lot of people want to just like, I give up. This is it for me. I didn't get a yes right away. It obviously is a sign from the universe that I am on the wrong path. But in reality, when you realize, and you realize this pretty quickly, it is a numbers game in order to get your foot in the door with retailers and brick and mortar stores. And so that's why I remember when we sat down and we did our first, like, audit of your business in the Mastermind. And you were telling me that you were doing it all by yourself and you were sending each email by yourself and you were using spreadsheets. I was like, automation. And automation is a magical word where we can just make. Do something once and then put it on repeat and do it again and again. And I saw the light come in your eyes and you were like. Like a week later, a week or two later, you came back to me and you were like, automation.

[Unknown]

Well, and I, to be honest, I thought I was doing well in wholesale. And then, you know, once you. I hate to be all cliche, but it's just like you. You walked into the room, I walked into the room thinking I was doing it. And then I put myself in there with all these other people who were really doing it, and I was like, wait, what are you doing? Like, their order sizes were just beyond my belief and, like, the number of stores they were in and all of these things that I was like, why did I think that one order, like, did it? But I was so thrilled with, like, the few shops that I did have. And so it was just learning how to scale, and I had no idea how to do that.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Well, I also don't want to diminish the fact that, like, you were getting orders with your products. And so clearly you have. First of all, you had a product that some stores wanted, which that's probably like, the hardest thing, first and foremost is to create the product and to display it in a way people want to buy it, even if it's just a handful of stores. So I don't want to diminish, like, the small beginnings. But, you know, how we grow is we have to surround ourselves with people who are further along than us. Like, right now, I'm in a business group where I am the smallest fish in this big pond, and I am just like, oh, my gosh, there's so much I don't know. And I kind of love that feeling because that means you're about to have a growth spurt if you actually listen and pay attention and challenge yourself to do something differently. A lot of people are married to their processes and they don't want to change them because it took so long to set them up in the first place. And it's scary. So, you know, you talk about scaling. Then what happened for you?

[Unknown]

Well, so, yeah, so I hit Google and found there were a lot of things that you could use at the time that were paid automated programs to send your emails. And then at the time, Google Streak had a free offer that you could use. It's a plugin. And so I plugged in Streak into my Gmail account, and you can create templated emails and schedule them a certain length of time apart from each other. And so all I would have to do is plug in this template and it would autofill the buyer's name, whatever personal note I wanted to add. And then it was, everything was there and so. And you could preview them. So you knew they were going, right? They weren't going to come. Like you weren't sending Stacy an email with Bill's name in it, which I have done. And so I started to be able to schedule all the follow ups. So then my time went from writing all of these emails and follow up emails to being able to do more research for stores and like start to begin to grow my list of all my dream stores.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

So you essentially gained back a bunch of time by implementing automation. You didn't have to hire someone yet. I mean, now I know you have an assistant who helps you with a lot of things, but like whenever you are a solopreneur and your time is so limited and you're already working in the margins of life, it's really scary to think, well, the only way to grow next is to hire someone. So you did the next best thing and you used what was right in front of you, which was a free Google Streak. Like I talked about Google Streak, but I didn't even know it could do that. Like, I was like, you can use Google Streak to see if people open your pitch emails. And that's the most I was using it. And so you came to me and you were like, look at all the other things that Google Streak can do. And it became like your own pitching assistant, right?

[Unknown]

Yeah, I mean I. It's changed a little bit. So they're getting rid of the free program, but there are still many ways to use it for free. And it just changed everything. Because not having to write those emails, I mean, it was such. That was the mistake is that I was spending so much time being like, okay, I'm gonna research who the buyer is at anthropology and then I'm gonna write my perfectly crafted first email and then you have to write a second one to follow up and then a third one and then check back in months from there. And that was so much time and like having that to go back to on a spreadsheet in between nursing a baby. I was like, forget it, I'm not going to pitch today. And then you feel like crap because you're like, I'm not following through and I'm not growing my business, but I'm growing a human, which is more important. But there was a way to do both. And so that was really exciting is that I saw the way through and I could be like, I can do these things together.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Well, what is really neat about what you did is you not only solved your own problem, like a lot of people get where you're at and they're ready to grow and they're terrified to implement something like automation because it's scary. You don't have control as much the what if a mistake happens? What if I do send it to Bill instead of someone else? Like, there's a lot of what ifs that keep people from jumping into automation. In fact, a year ago, I ran an online conference called Illuminate where we taught all about automation. And I was like, trying to get people to realize that automation is sexy, automation is good. And still people are terrified of the idea of like, I'm a small business, either one. Like, I'm not ready to automate, I'm not ready for tools like this because I'm small. Or they're afraid that they won't be able to understand it and maintain it. And so what you did is you solved your own problem. You shared it with the whole mastermind. But then you're like, I'm going to help some other people with this too. Right, Right.

[Unknown]

So in the nature of Stacy Bloomfield, I made a course. It's actually, it's not a course, it's a class. And it's just walking you through my process of how to use Google Streak. And then when they decided to do away with their free program, I went back and re recorded a bunch of lessons so that people could still know how to use it for free. Because all of the scheduling and all of the saved templates and all of the really cool features are still free. And so unless you're just like a massive corporation that's doing a lot of outreach, then you would get a paid program or if you have a certain number of contacts.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

So, so you made a program, a course, a class, if you will. You made a class because there's differences. There's total difference. Because sometimes we solve a problem and we realize we can help other people solve a problem too, because we remember what it was like to be at that crossroads of being like, I want to do this better and smarter and buy back my time, but I don't know where to start. And so you walked people through it.

[Unknown]

Well. And I think what's really awesome about, well, about the class and about Streakk is that I was able and anybody is able to do this. Like you can use it for wholesale, you could use it for licensing. And so that's opening up. Like we all know that you have to follow up. And if you're not following up, then you're not getting the contract. Like so many of my contracts or wholesale pitches happen on the second or third email and the first one is just like, you see them open it because that's a feature in streak. But then you're like, whoa, where are you? And so then you like have the scheduled follow ups and then you're like, oh, they're still opening. That's good.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

It's totally good. In fact, I should have our mutual friend Allie come on at some point. She was in my mastermind for one year and I'll never forget the amount of pitching and follow up that she did to land. Like, she's probably the person that I've seen get the most licensing contracts in one year is her. That year, maybe it was 2021 or 2022. And it all came down to the fact that she was systematically following up with people. She was pitching that portfolio. A lot of people give up after one or two times, but she was like following the path and it paid off. And so I think that this is just a way to remind people that like, if you actually want to be successful in any type of product sales or course sales, like if you're not talking to people about what you have to offer repeatedly, then you're not going to get anywhere. And I got to tell you, this is the least expensive option because like, let's say wholesale. Rebecca, like you're doing, what's the next option to get in front of buyers, Go in person to their stores, go to trade shows, which is fun but tremendously expensive. So if you're not fully, I feel like maxing out the automation tools first. Like you are leaving money on the table potentially, right?

[Unknown]

Yeah. And I've done like a hard look at those numbers because we have friends that do trade shows all the time and people are always like, why don't you do trade shows? And I'm like, that's so much money and so much effort. And if, even if I'm paying for Streakk now because of the number of contacts, it's still way less than ever. Showing up at noted in New York and I feel like I might have a little like you might have some good traction there, but I know people that never do and so I might as well sit at home and create some scheduled automated emails. I love it.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

And because you did that, like you have more time on your hands to do other things like create more art for your portfolio. I've seen you Implement this into your own licensing pitching. I've seen you implement automation in so many different parts of your business now. And if you could go Back to like 2019 Rebecca, before she really dove into this world, like what would you say to her was about to happen?

[Unknown]

Just tell her to hold on and just keep going. Because even all the things that like, it all adds up. And so all the little pieces that you can put together and the time you spent building your portfolio or putting together those templated emails or even creating just the artwork, all of that adds up as long. But the only way anything is going to happen is you have to put it out there, like in any way if Instagram is your thing or emails or whatever, otherwise nobody knows it exists. And that's from product all the way to artwork.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

It's true. You build an audience only by like actually getting yourself out there by whatever means are necessary. So for wholesale it's going to look different than licensing, gonna look different than direct customer sales, that's gonna look different than online education. I do all of those things. So I know because I have to build so many different types of audiences. But with wholesale and pitching, this is just like it's a gentle way in, it's a gentle way to grow a business and it's something that you can do in a couple hours a week. How long did it take you to set up your first automations?

[Unknown]

Oh my gosh. It's like after you go through, well, my class is under an hour and then you can be ready to go and start doing it. And it's a game changer because you don't have to schedule all these things.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

So one hour of setting up automations, how much revenue would you reckon or guess? It can be a. It doesn't have to be the exact number do you think has come from that gross revenue?

[Unknown]

Well, I can say that before I was doing any automations I was sitting at about 30, 30 shops. So that was when you started the Mastermind. That was three years ago. So now I am closer to like 170. And the thing I think that scares people too is that if you're going to start pitching, everyone automatically assumes I'm going to get all these orders and I need to have all these product. And it's no like it still is not going to be the fastest way to grow your business. I would never say that wholesale is the way. I don't know what the fastest way is to grow your business, but wholesale I feel like it's like manageable growth like the more that you pitch, you're going to get more of a response. But that means you've needed to do way more research. And so at the time I started by pitching five stores a week and I thought that was a big deal. And now I'm up to 25 a week. And so, you know, you get a percentage back of that.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Yeah. Well, it's interesting because growing a business quickly, I actually don't think there's any way to grow a small business quickly. And I think that maybe this sounds a little self serving because, you know, I'm all about slow growth, is good growth. But I'm also trying to be realistic. Like I've been in business groups now with, gosh, about six years ago I was in a business group locally through my local small business association and I was only art business there. And the problems that we have trying to grow our art business and get people to buy our art and buy our products and license like those problems exist in all small businesses. It's trying to get people to want to buy your service or your product or hire you for a job. It's not exclusive to being here, but here's the difference. Most people and other small businesses are taking out loans to launch their businesses. A lot of times you can't do it online. It has to be like a brick and mortar. So people are having to put way more money up front into trying to get their business off the ground. The risk is infinitely higher, I feel like. And then the return is no guarantee of being there.

[Unknown]

Yeah. So yeah, I mean I came from, I was like, well this, our business idea feels a lot easier. Instead of slinging snorkels on the beach, where we had a 3,000 square foot shop and we had all of this inventory and you know if you have a week of rain, you're not making any money. But with, if it's a week of rain, I've made a ton of artwork at this point. So that's a good thing.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

It is a good thing. And so I always want to reframe it for people who are like in that part of the journey, like let's say where you were at in 2020 kind of at the beginning. Like I'm getting a little traction maybe, but you know, it feels hard and I don't know like how to keep growing an audience. Like the risk is there. No matter what kind of business you're in. It's a matter of making sure that where you're at, you look at like what's the simplest Path forward for you. And like, in our case as artists, like pitching our work, pitching our products, like we can do that and actually get somewhere. A lot of industries struggle to do that. Like, you know, so I actually think that for artists to know that it's just your time really that you have to put into it in the beginning to be able to gain traction. Of course we want to get better at our art and our skills. Like, time is something that most of us can carve out to do this in the beginning and then use tools.

[Unknown]

Like streak well, and I mean, it doesn't have to be massive, but if you can imagine if you're sitting here and you're listening and you're like, man, I have these products and they're not selling. What would happen if I did this one templated email and I sent it to three shops? I mean, I started with five. That's not that many. And then you schedule the follow up emails behind so you never have to think of it again. You just send that one email and it's done and you have three emails sent instead of that one. And that's already opening up so much time.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

And then there's possibility of actually making money from those products that you've created, as opposed to just waiting for the next craft show where you can go set up in person or, you know, thinking, the only way I'm going to make it is if I can save up $15,000 and get to New York now. You know, this is just such a better way forward, especially for people who are beginning to grow their business. So, Rebecca, thank you for sharing this. If you could give one piece of advice to anyone listening here right now. If they're like sitting here and thinking, like, I'm afraid, what if I try this and it still doesn't work. What advice would you give to someone who's kind of feeling that fear right now?

[Unknown]

I would just say to stop thinking about it. Like, I think you, you have to just go, you have to just try it. And the only way you're going to know is if you try it. And otherwise you will always sit and wonder. And I don't like sitting in that place. I'd rather know and fail.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

You heard it from Rebecca. She thinks thinking is overrated. That's a total misquote. No, I think that we can be chronic overthinkers in what ifs. You know what's interesting, I was listening to. Gosh, I think I was listening to a podcast yesterday, but I don't know the name. I'll put it in the show notes, but I was talking about what boundaries truly are. This ties in, I promise. So a lot of times for people, we feel like boundaries are things that we create towards other people or other things. Like, I'm not going to allow like someone to talk to me this way or I'm not going to allow this. Boundaries are very like exterior, but real boundary setting actually has to do with your mind and putting boundaries on your mind and where you will let your thoughts go in being in control of things like choosing to the next time your brain starts to wander through the what ifs and, you know, the imposter syndrome and the fear, choosing to remember, like, no, I'm putting a boundary on my thoughts right now that I'm not going to let myself go into squirrely brain mode over here and sabotage myself. Like true boundaries start with personal boundaries. And it's not just like with actions we take, it's with our thoughts and how we master them. And that's really how you have breakthroughs is through your own personal boundaries that you set. And you know, it doesn't have to be this whole thing where you're like, in order to succeed, I'm going to set all these personal goals and if I don't do them all perfectly, then I'm not going to get anywhere. It can actually just start with your thoughts and not letting your thoughts go.

[Unknown]

Rebecca, I think even I'm going to start with, I think even though I don't think you should think two things, I noticed that at the end of the day, if I'm starting to think on these kinds of things and ruminate on them, I always just shut it down because the end of the day self is always just kind of like it's never going to work because you've stacked so many things in our days. So it's like, if these new ideas are coming at the end of the day, I table it and go in the morning. And the other really great thing about automations and just like putting your work out there is that first email. If you're doing them one by one, it's so loaded and you have put so much into that one special email that you're like, this is it, I'm going to get into anthropology, it's this one. But if you've set up an automation, you're suddenly unattached because you've just select. You just go down your spreadsheet and you select 10 contacts and you throw them in the spreadsheet and you contact them all at the same time, you don't even know who you're pitching anymore because you're just like, I'm putting it out there. I did my 10. And so you get a little bit less attached to the outcome, which I think can be really healthy, because then you're not so, like, driven and, like, so hard focused on making every single email work.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Well, I agree. One of my personal challenges right now is to depersonalize a lot of things, because when you love your business, like, I've grown my business from those baby beginnings to where I was like, I don't know how I'm going to make money to now I have this, you know, it's a thriving business. I'm really proud of it. But even then, I'm so close to my business that when things don't go well or I have a bad situation, it's really easy to ruminate and personalize it and make it all about, like, a mistake that I've made or choice I should have done differently. But that's that unhealthy rumination that is in no way going to help you grow. It's going to help you solve problems. And if you ruminate and stay there, you're going to be stuck in your problems. And like, that's like the enemy of growth is to think that. Ruminating and thinking it through. No, I'm problem solving. No, no, no. You're staying stuck in a wounded place. And so I think it's all married. It's like there's systems, like, with automation, so we don't have to think about it, which is incredibly important, so we can't personalize it. But then there's also, like, we can't be defeatist going into it. You know, we have to keep our mindset correct, put boundaries up. And like Rebecca said, she says if at the end of the day she's already feeling that kind of. Come on, you stop. Right?

[Unknown]

Oh, yeah, it's done.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

It's crazy to think that we can have a choice over where we let our thoughts go, which has been a new concept for me, is to think I actually have autonomy here and it's actually going to help me be a better business owner in the end.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I actually had to set up a new boundary for myself because I realized how much out of habit it is to pick up my phone and look at my email without even thinking about it. And I had a paddling race like, two weekends ago, and it just was. I was sitting in the car, driving back to the after party, and I Picked up my phone. I mean, I was doing. I was on the water. It. Nothing was going to get done. And for some reason, I checked my email and there was an email from someone that, like, needed something, and automatically I thought, I should go do that right now. I could do that at the restaurant. I could do that. And then I was like, wait a second. This would have never happened had I just not even opened up the email and set a boundary for myself. That's like, this doesn't happen on the weekend. So actually, over Memorial Day weekend, I made it happen and I didn't do it for three days. And it was so magical. And it was even better because on Monday, I could just select so many emails and chunk them into the trash.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Yes.

[Unknown]

So boundaries are good things.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Well, boundaries help us grow. Boundaries help us make better decisions, not emotionally driven decisions. And automations, furthermore, make our time go further and take the emotion out of what could be a very vulnerable and scary thing, which is pitching your portfolio or your product catalog. Rebecca, can you tell everyone if they're interested in automation? Like, where can you point them so that you can, like, help them?

[Unknown]

Yep. Everything that I offer for education is on manufactureawesome.com and there's a link there. The class is called Automate and Scale. And it's. It's awesome. You guys should go do it.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Is it manufacture? Awesome. Sorry.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

Well, Rebecca, thank you so much for joining and just sharing, like, this wisdom with me. I think it's going to help a lot of artists who are listening think of a new way forward. Because, like, running a business, it's hard, but we can make it simpler for ourselves and we can succeed and get where we want to go faster. So thanks, Rebecca, for being here.

[Unknown]

Yeah, thank you for having me.

[Stacy Bloomfield]

And thanks, everyone for listening in. And I will see you next time on the next episode of Art plus Audience. Bye.

[Unknown]

Bye, everybody.

[Rebecca Woolbright]

Thanks so much for tuning in. Hey, could you do me a favor? Could you subscribe to this podcast and then share it with one of your best art friends? I'd really appreciate it. And then head on over to Instagram and follow me heleveregerart account and you can keep up with all of our future episodes. Thank you so much for your support. It means everything to have you here, listening and learning.

[Unknown]

Bye.