Academy spotlight: Sharing joy through art and the power of journaling with Amy from Amy Lou Creates

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Today’s talking point:

In this episode, I am joined by Amy Rodger from Amy Lou Creates. Amy shares her work as an artist and explains how she turned a hard time during the first lockdown into a business that's about to turn two. We also discuss the power of journaling and why it's a practice that's helped her in business and life.

I’m so excited to bring you this conversation with Amy from Amy Lou Creates. I think her story is really going to be inspirational, especially if you feel pulled within your business by multiple passions. Amy is an artist and she has created multiple strand within her business and grown so much since joining The Busy to Boss Academy. Enjoy!

What we talked about:

Every Busy to Boss interview starts by talking about why we do what we do. Amy says her answer is simple: “It's just to bring joy to people. If I can make someone smile, if I can make someone's day better through artwork or scenery or illustrations, then that's my job done. Like, just to bring joy, spread some positivity and just make everyone’s day a little bit better”.

Amy works as a freelance scenic artist for film and theatre events. She also creates and sells original artwork and beautiful glassware. However, she explains that selling her own work was not the original plan.

Amy graduated from university in 2020 and was faced with an industry shut-down due to Covid.

“Sometimes in my head, they can be quite separate. But they're all kind of working together and allowing me to work on a massive scale and a small scale and just kind of allowing me the variety that I've always craved.”

Joining the Busy to Boss Academy

Amy says went into business with very little strategy and before too long, this became a sticking point.

“I really did not know what I was doing at all. I remember doing my first little glassware thing. I put them on Instagram and was like, ‘does anyone want to buy them?’

“That was literally my strategy. I did sell one. And then realise that I didn't have a box to put it in. I didn't have any packaging. I had no idea what I was doing. I was just a bit like, ‘I just need some people that run businesses that know what they're doing, to kind of give me some support’ and just surround myself in that community.”

One of the biggest challenges Amy has faced is blending the different strands of her business together. However, she says the pay off has been creating a rewarding and multi-passionate business.

“I think it's almost been coming to terms with the fact that because I went from like 100%, working on the shop, to having no time for the shop and 100% working on the scenic work and then that would die down and then I'd work on the shop again.

“I was like ‘this just isn't sustainable, they need to work in tandem’. They need to have some form of balance. And I think actually creating the website has been the thing that's allowed me to see them all together and go actually, they can all work together and having the systems in place.”

Amy says she has also become more open abut sharing all strands of her work – and is growing a following of people who want to see everything.

“I essentially have three jobs. We've always been told that we have to niche down. We've always been told you need a specialism, you need like to be known for the one thing, and you really don't. You can balance it.”

The power of journaling

Like me, Amy is a BIG fan of journaling and has experienced a huge change in her mindset because of it.

“Journaling allows me to check in with myself. It allows me to quiet my mind calm myself down, work through the problems and the issues and actually sort of take the emotion out of some of it as well.”

“If you've got something that you're like, ‘I need to work through this’, sometimes it's really useful to pose yourself a question and then journal on it.”