Delores Naskrent: [00:00:00] Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Creative Juggle Joy. Today's conversation actually started with an email that landed in my inbox with a subject that I just could not ignore. It said, "I designed 19 cards in two days." And I thought, "Okay, I need to hear more about this," especially because I'm getting ready for my five cards in five days challenge in September.
I'm asking people to create five cards, and meanwhile, my guest today somehow managed to create 19 cards in less than 48 hours. But what interested me the most about the number, it was how she approached the situation. She explained the whole thing in her email. It was awesome. She made deliberate choices about her tools, her style, her time, her energy, and even what finished needed to look like.
My guest is Claudia [00:01:00] Orengo, a graphic designer, watercolor artist, educator, and online entrepreneur who has been building her creative business for around 10 years. Claudia sells digital products. She creates work for platforms like Minted and Spoonflower and Pattern Bank. She teaches other creatives how to build passive income streams and runs the Passive Income Growth Academy, or PIGA.
She also created the Creativity That Pays summit, which I was so delighted to participate in. It was super fun. And Claudia was a guest in my summit, the Profitable Artist Summit, too. So it feels especially nice to finally sit down and have a relaxed conversation together. Welcome, Claudia.
Claudia Orengo: Thank you.
I'm so happy to be here
Delores Naskrent: let's start with the obvious question. 19 cards, two days. What happened?
Claudia Orengo: basically what happens to me quite often, [00:02:00] I try to tackle too many projects at the same time, and then I run out of time. I was working on the summit, I was revamping my membership, doing, a new roadmap, lots of behind the scene, behind the scene things, on top of my regular work, like weekly YouTube tutorials, running the membership calls, admin work, preparing files for Minted, winning designs, other Minted challenges.
And then suddenly it was Monday- Ouch. ... and the deadline was Tuesday.
Delores Naskrent: Gosh. Oh, my goodness.
Claudia Orengo: Yeah. And at that point I could have decided to skip it because there was no time or, any excuse that we put in our minds, but to me that wasn't really an option. Instead, what I did, I went into strategy mode and I started asking myself very practical questions like, "Okay, what can I do faster?
What tools can help me? What style can I work in [00:03:00] efficiently? What can I batch? What can I reuse?" And I wanna start by saying I would definitely not recommend 19 cards in two days as a regular plan, but I was really proud I did, and I'm happy to share what I did.
Delores Naskrent: I think so many creatives can totally relate to that.
I... Just as you were describing it, I could just imagine it because the same as you working on, let's say something like the summit could be enough. absolutely there's so much work there. But then meanwhile you still have all of that other stuff going on behind the scenes, and we're always imagining that we're gonna get this beautiful chunk of uninterrupted creative time, and most of the time it just literally doesn't exist.
One of the first decisions that you made was choosing between Procreate and watercolor. Do you wanna explain that a little bit?
Claudia Orengo: Yeah. So I wanna say I actually tried watercolor on the second day, on Tuesday morning, [00:04:00] 'cause I know Minted loves it, and it's what I'm most comfortable with. But I quickly saw it was taking me way longer, and the result wasn't really standing out or proportionally better for what I needed.
So I quickly decided to go back to Procreate. 'Cause with Procreate, I can sketch quickly, move things around, double-click and go backwards, right? Yeah. it's not the same with watercolors. And it wasn't... The way I see it wasn't really a question of which medium I love more, but instead it was more about which tool gives me the result I need with the time I have.
And I think that's something that becomes very important when you're working professionally. I have this saying that I always say, it's like thinking as a designer instead of thinking like an artist, so picking the strategic part instead of what you just love.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah. Yeah. [00:05:00] So that totally encompasses the description of a commercial artist.
Commercial artists have to think differently. There's a reason why, and that's we just have to deal with whatever circumstances come up. I 100% endorse your choice. And you were also talking about, in that email, about using drawing assist and symmetry and grids quite a bit
Claudia Orengo: Yeah, absolutely. I use symmetry for anything that needs to be symmetric.
If, I am drawing a glass and I know the two sides are gonna be the same, I just go into symmetry mode. And I, in this challenge, I actually used even more of these drawing assists, like the grid one, it helped me a lot. I feel like I know the idea, so this is, a very straightforward line to, okay, let's do it quickly, then if I need to tweak some lines, I will do it after.
[00:06:00] But it's one of those decisions that you make beforehand, and they really help you execute faster.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah, when you're creating that many pieces, everything, even, five minutes, if you can save yourself five minutes, I think that's excellent information to put out there. You also leaned into what you call, I loved this, your quirky hand-drawn aesthetic.
And I literally laughed when you said it in your email. You said in your email, "Don't Google it, 'cause it might not appear." Tell us what you mean by that.
Claudia Orengo: Yeah. I remember writing that. I named that for a class, a type of class that I do inside my membership figure that I call Aesthetic Exploration. So it's not, an official industry term.
It's what we are seeing now, this, very loose, imperfect, almost, a doodle aesthetic. Yeah. And it's becoming very popular, [00:07:00] so I broke it down for my members to understand how to design it, and I had to name it somehow. So I decided quirky hand-drawn aesthetic. And I have personally been enjoying it a lot, and I know Minted likes it as well, so because of all of that and knowing it's super trending, I leaned into that And it helped me a lot to not care about drawing perfect shapes, perfect lines.
And in fact, I feel like it helped me a lot avoid this wasting time with details and perfectionism that all of us can relate to.
Delores Naskrent: I totally agree with that, and I love that because you just putting it out there, I think newer artists will be, will benefit from hearing this because I think at times newer artists think that every piece has to show the absolute maximum of what they're capable of.
So they really fuss with things. they [00:08:00] second-guess themselves. But I think especially with greeting cards, a simple idea can be incredibly effective. If you go into a store and you start looking at the greeting cards there, sometimes, they're so simple, and what's important is the message and then the emotional connection that matters more than how many hours you spent drawing it
Claudia Orengo: Exactly.
We sometimes confuse the amount of time that something takes with its value, and honestly, a design can take, 20 minutes and be very strong, and something can take you 10 hours and feel like there's still something missing. So that's why I decided to brainstorm a lot before starting designing so that I knew what I was doing basically.
Delores Naskrent: I wanted to ask you about that because it sounds almost backwards when you're really heading into a deadline. I can see people looking at this and thinking, "Oh, I don't wanna waste any [00:09:00] time with the planning. I just gotta get in there and start painting." But when you only have two days, you're taking some of that time to brainstorm first because it helps you, right?
That's why you're doing it.
Claudia Orengo: Yeah, 100%. I do it basically to avoid the blank canvas block. So if I open Procreate with no idea what I'm doing and I start, testing brushes and doing some lines and then rethinking all my ideas, I can spend ages moving things around and not really doing anything. So instead if I brainstorm first, even if it's just writing down things. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, I take a notebook that I have behind besides my bed, and I just roughly sketch something without even opening the light, just for the next day to remember what I just dreamt. So all these little directions help me because then when I open or when it's, time to design, I can open my [00:10:00] notebook and say, "Okay, I'm gonna do this."
And I did not do it for all of my cards, so not all those 19 were sketched or brainstorm beforehand. But it really helps me get started because then when I start- Yeah ... with one, new ideas pop up, and instead of trying to put all the ideas into one card, which is what you were saying before. A greeting card, it's stronger if it has only one idea, right?
So I then keep this next idea, and it's the next design I do. So by starting with something that I brainstormed, it helped me became, yeah, super productive.
Delores Naskrent: That's amazing. The whole thing is just a lot less intimidating when you do it that way, and I love how you talked about working in topic batches, which is something that- Some listeners would listen to this and not quite know what that means.
Could you explain that a little bit?
Claudia Orengo: Yeah, for [00:11:00] sure. So working in batches basically mean trying to group things. It doesn't need to be, like, a group that anyone understands unless, Except you, basically. Yeah You just need to decide, "Okay, I'm gonna work in..." For me, in this case, it was I'm gonna work on drink ideas, and once I had drinks in my mind, I was drawing all the different drinks and coming up with all those card ideas.
Then I went into anniversaries, which was a topic inside the challenge, and then I went back to birthdays. And one, once your brain is, inside a topic in this case, it's very easy for the ideas to keep appearing. You are on fire, and you cannot stop, basically. But if you keep switching between birthdays to weddings to Christmas and then back again, your brain has to restart every time, and you get tired way faster.
So batching can be used like this, [00:12:00] but you can use it in many other parts of your business. I do it, for example, when I record my YouTube videos. I never record one video only. I know that I'm gonna be recording videos, so I schedule some time, and I try to record up to four in one sitting. That way, they are all in the same...
I have that vibe. I'm already in the mood. That groove. Yeah, you're in the groove. Yeah. Yeah. It... That's the word. Thank you.
Delores Naskrent: You're welcome. Yeah, that's fantastic. I personally do that a lot. I'll batch, The same thing with my YouTube videos. I did 52 that I recorded, so I am in... did the entire year in one sitting.
Just knowing how my life really is, and I'm sure this is exactly for you, the same thing. you just get... You have so much going on that it's just great to have a bunch of stuff that's done in advance. So I love that. I also really enjoyed reading in [00:13:00] the email what you did when your energy dropped because you didn't sit there forcing yourself to invent another completely new idea.
You went into some of your existing work, which I think is super, super cool.
Claudia Orengo: Yeah. it was also, we have to say that it was very hot here. We are having these heat waves that they say, "A new heat wave is coming." And you think, "Oh, is this one ended? Nobody told me." So we... It was hard to be working under that atmosphere without an air conditioner or anything like that.
So where these moments came in which my brain was like, "Nope, I cannot deal anymore with this," instead of sitting at the computer pretending to work, which is what naturally happens to all of us, I started looking through old artwork, and I searched for things I could tweak into cards. Maybe they [00:14:00] were cards I already designed and I needed to revamp, or change the font or the colors, or combine different elements into a new one.
And that requires much less energy than starting from zero. It motivates you, and at the end, it's another entry
Delores Naskrent: That's awesome, really awesome, and I agree completely. This is one of the things I talk about in my card challenge, too, is that once somebody gets on a roll or creates a certain type of artwork, repeat immediately.
it's right as you've just finished an artwork that you like, do it again. Because right then and there, you're so warmed up for that particular thing. We, as artists, create so much work, and sometimes behave as though everything made six months ago somehow has expired or it's not good. My stuff from last year isn't the greatest.
But that's not really the case. we're looking at it, doesn't mean everybody else is looking at it. they don't see it, you can take, one motif, like a flower, and you can make it part of a greeting [00:15:00] card. A greeting, a card illustration could become a pattern. You just don't know. So an older design could become something totally new with different lettering or color.
Claudia Orengo: Yeah, 100% I agree. I do this all the time with my passive income business. I am always trying to think of ways to reuse my creations. I don't know, I would start painting and already painting thinking this is gonna be a clip art kit that then I can turn into a pattern, and then into a collection, but also some of the elements can be part of a stationary card.
And once you start thinking that way, one piece of work can have, many lives.
Delores Naskrent: That's awesome. I love that. One of these... I can imagine you teaching that in PIGA. that's a great skill to learn. just so valuable. I'm gonna ask you another question, 'cause I think that this is one that I know that a lot of my students struggle with.
When you're making [00:16:00] 19 pieces in two days, you obviously can't spend hours perfecting every little detail. So how do you know when something is good enough to submit?
Claudia Orengo: That's a very good question, and let's start saying that those deadlines really help. So starting 48 hours before really helped me know what was important to be spending all these extra minutes on and what was not worth it.
At some point, you either submit or you don't, and I try to ask whether the main idea is working as the basic question to know, is it good enough? Then I ask in particularly in greeting cards, is the message clear? Can you tell what the card is about just by looking at the top third section? is there something wrong that needs fixing?
Like something obvious, like things are not aligned when they should be [00:17:00] aligned or a text that is not readable. As long as those things are good enough, the card is good enough. Exactly. And with something like a Minted challenge, if you don't submit, you will for sure don't get a pick. So better than, than perfect is always my mindset.
Delores Naskrent: Let's talk about Minted. I like that attitude and I think what happens, a lot of people get intimidated about uploading because they see the gorgeous work there. But like you said, done is better than perfect. What do you like about entering Minted challenges specifically?
Claudia Orengo: Whoa. so I always say Minted has changed my life, and I say this honestly.
But besides all the income opportunities and everything that it's brought to me, one thing I really love is that they give you a briefing and a deadline, and that briefing, it's super well explained. [00:18:00] So when I was studying graphic design at university, they always told us, "You have to start with a briefing," right?
And if the customer doesn't give you a briefing, you have to create the briefing for yourself. And then you go into the real world, and unless you work in an agency, most of the time you won't work with briefings. Yeah. So when I found Minted, I was like, "Yes, thank you," 'cause they are giving you direction with that briefing.
You know exactly what you have to be creating, and then you can narrow down and, as we were saying, start brainstorming just in that direction. I also love their community, being part of it. I love that everything they select is super high quality. And I won't lie, it's hard being a Minted artist. Sometimes I think that being a Minted artist is like being an actress-
that goes all the time to auditions every day and is rejected every day. Because on Minted, you get [00:19:00] rejected a lot. Even the top Minted artists, they always get rejected. And by participating often, you train your fear of rejection, and you learn a lot as well from feedback, seeing what wins, what sells.
'Cause most of the time what you think is your best work, it's not what they select, and most of the time what you love the most is not what sells the most. So yeah, I feel I've grown a lot as a graphic designer thanks to participating in their challenges. And even now, I introduce myself sometimes as a graphic designer and an illustrator, which sounds crazy, 'cause a few years ago I used to say, "I don't know how to draw."
And thanks to Minted- ... look at me.
Delores Naskrent: Look at you. Yeah, for sure. And there's so many opportunities now. Minted is just one of them. There's Spoonflower. We hear a lot about Spoonflower. Lots of different print-on-demand sites, like, many of my students will work with Zazzle or with, What's the other one? We do a lot of [00:20:00] Card Isle, so creative work for Card Isle itself.
Greeting Card Universe. There's licensing calls. There's marketplaces. If you were talking to yourself, 10 years ago, how would you decide on which one's really worth your time?
Claudia Orengo: That's like the golden goose question. I get asked this question all the time, and in fact, I created a quiz for it because the answer is not what people want.
The answer, it's it depends, right? And it depends on your skills. It depends on what your goals are, what you are willing to put on it, honestly. It's something we talk a lot inside Piga all the time, and I always say not every opportunity is right for every creative. So what work for me doesn't mean it will work for you, vice versa.
But to get started, think on what are your skills, what do you already enjoy [00:21:00] and are good at doing, and then try to find what fits what you already bring to the table instead of trying to reinvent yourself to fit what somebody else is telling you works for them.
Delores Naskrent: That's really good information.
I think it... The answer is exactly what you said. It's depends, right? It just depends what marketplace or what site works for you. Everybody has success stories. Everybody has, different things that work for them. So I think it's really important to take the time to figure it out. And so a lot of times it's just doing one or two and testing them.
Now, you're, you were talking about your little quiz. Is this a quiz someone can take, anyone can take?
Claudia Orengo: yeah, for sure. It's a free quiz, so I'll give you the link if you
Delores Naskrent: Oh, for sure. I'll put it in the show notes, and then people can try it. I think that would be super fun. okay. All right.
[00:22:00] This is one of the reasons I love doing the five card challenge. We're making greeting cards, but we're practicing idea generation. We're making decisions and we're finishing our work. So we're not necessarily always knowing exactly how we're gonna use things, but I promise everyone listening that I will not be asking you to make 19 cards in two days.
We have had people who have made more than the five cards in five days. My goal is to just get people started and to have some confidence. So this has been an excellent just talk that we've had because I think it's gonna work so well for people to think this
Claudia Orengo: Yeah. Don't use me as your productivity standard, please.
Five cards in five days sounds much healthier. And as I said, I will not recommend doing 19.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah, I've watched people with these challenges thinking, "I'll just try this." In fact, I've had so many of my own members who've been members for two or three [00:23:00] years who didn't try it. Or for a long time they were in denial, "No, I don't think I'm gonna do that.
I'm not really ready for it." And then they decide they're gonna try it, and then they discover that greeting cards are something they really enjoy doing, and I'm sure you feel the same way, too. it's a nice little piece of artwork. Some start seeing their existing artwork differently, which I think is really important.
I'm so glad you touched on that. going through some of your older stuff, my students start thinking differently about lettering and about occasions and recipients, anywhere that their artwork might live. Like they're in the Five Card Challenge, but we talk about all kinds of other ways that they can sell their art, too.
What would you say to someone thinking, "I'm really not a greeting card designer"?
Claudia Orengo: I would say you don't know yet. Honestly, I don't think nobody gets, one day wakes up and think, I'm a greeting [00:24:00] card designer." You have to try it. You have to test it, and then see if you're... As you were saying, if you start noticing that you're enjoying some parts of it, and how this can even be incorporated into other areas of your business.
Because as you were saying, maybe you learn from greeting cards lettering, and then you incorporate this into another type of creation. So just try making some. Maybe you love it. Maybe you realize it's not what you thought, but at least you tried. At least you started. And at the end, you will have five cards, so that's awesome.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah ...
Claudia Orengo: yeah. One thing I encourage people inside my membership all the time is to experiment, and to when you try something, to commit for enough time. Honestly, I feel that you can test many [00:25:00] things, but if you keep trying and not finishing any project, it won't give you any information. And that doesn't mean you have to marry every idea.
You can date them first. But the important part is that you commit to them for at least a little bit of time. date that idea for enough- ... to tell you if you're a good match or not.
Delores Naskrent: I love that. audition it. Audition it. You don't have to say you're gonna do it forever, but just give it a shot. I love that.
Have business ideas that really change. You can do this kind of thing to just try it out, so I like that you can date it first, and I think that is really the lesson. Because action, any action, gives you the information I wanna take a second here to zoom out, because greeting cards are only one small piece of what you do.
I've seen your work. I love your work. You describe yourself as a multi-passionate entrepreneur, and you've [00:26:00] clearly resisted the idea, and this is something we hear a lot in our industry, that you have to niche down. You have consciously not put yourself into one tiny box. What does that business look like for you now?
Claudia Orengo: Yeah. It's definitely a lot of things. So I'm a graphic designer and a watercolor artist, and how I present myself nowadays, it's I sell digital products. 'Cause before I was offering services, but I no longer do this. I only sell digital products. I create either clipart patterns, these stationary cards that I sell through Minted and Zazzle, all of these products that they are digital.
But besides that, I have my YouTube channel where I post super quick tips every Tuesday to help you become a better and faster graphic designer. I run my membership, PIGA. Then I do the [00:27:00] summits, other collaborations. And as you said, I have tried the niche down advice, and I totally understand why it works for some people, but whenever I tried it for myself, it felt like forcing myself into one tiny box, and I felt miserable.
For me, it's more about phases of your life, like projects or like Taylor Swift would say, eras. Just focusing on a project, prioritizing it, and meanwhile, still doing the rest, but knowing what's your priority
Delores Naskrent: Yeah. That's exactly how I think of creative business, too. It's not necessarily one thing. It becomes an ecosystem.
Your art becomes a digital product. I create brushes. I do lots of brush sales. I experience selling all kinds of different products because I'll do that finished product, the card, but I also do things that support my students. I do the same thing. I [00:28:00] do little YouTube tutorials. I think the tutorials bring people into my world, and that I'm sure working for you.
Everything feeds each other, doesn't it?
Claudia Orengo: Yeah, 100%. Sometimes the connections happen in ways you could never have planned, like you create a product, somebody asks you how you made it, and that becomes a tutorial, or that tutorial brings somebody to your email list, or then a new person joins your membership, mentions a new platform, and you end up also opening a store there.
So it all connects, and I love how we all help each other.
Delores Naskrent: I agree, and I like that whole idea that you and I, who are known for our education and our summits and, that kind of thing, and I teach on Skillshare still. I love that we also talk about passive income, And passive income, what does it really mean?
So the phrase has [00:29:00] become, or can sometimes sound like you create just one product, you upload it, and then you go sit on the beach while money magically arrives forever. And I'm guessing... I know for sure for myself, but I'm guessing that's not how it works for you either.
Claudia Orengo: Yeah, I wish it was like that, but no.
Unfortunately, no. For me, passive income, it's the concept I started using as the antithesis to services. So if I do custom work for a client, I work those hours once, and I'm paid once, so I'm trading time for money, and it's very hard to scale, and in my own experience, it's very easy to end up feeling undervalued.
Delores Naskrent: Yes.
Claudia Orengo: Instead, if I create a digital product, I might spend many hours creating it initially, but then I can sell that same product many times without having to do any extra work. Yeah. The customer gets access to it immediately, or somebody else prints and ships it for me, and I just [00:30:00] receive the money, sometimes from the beach.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah, sometimes. I wanna talk a little bit more and give you the chance to talk a little bit more about Piga, 'cause I loved reading... You've been sending a lot of emails actually recently, and I've loved reading the community updates because you had people working on Minted submissions and Spoonflower, Pinterest, clip art, greeting cards, invitations.
Everyone was actually doing something a little bit different, right? What did you want Piga to become when you first created it? Is that what you had in mind?
Claudia Orengo: Yes. Thanks for asking. A big part of it was this, to have this community, because I know that as creatives, and especially building a business, you can feel really lonely.
So you can be sitting at home trying to figure out Etsy or Spoonflower or Minted or any kind of digital product, and you don't necessarily have anyone around you who understands what you are [00:31:00] doing. And I wanted Piga to be that place where people could learn, but also ask questions, get feedback, share what they are working on, encourage one another, and all together take action.
So we have trainings, we have resources. I provide everything I think it's very important and foundational. But the transformation really happens through the support and the community. I knew when I build it, I did not want it to become another content-based membership with new trainings happening every month, 'cause I've been a member there, and I have felt overwhelmed, distracted.
So I did not wanted this for my people. I wanted to help them to take action, to create, and that's why I started offering more accountability, fun deadlines, design feedback, personalized strategy on Q&A calls that we Yeah ... and virtual co-working sessions, which I call get it done [00:32:00] sessions.
Delores Naskrent: I relate to that so much.
The teaching really matters, but it's the community that changes the experience. And someone asks a question, I... By the time I see it and I go to it, 10 other people have realized that they either have the same question or they can give the solution. So someone also could share an opportunity, and suddenly other members are trying, too.
I think it gives them the confidence, And sometimes you just need somebody beside you saying, "Open the file. We're doing it now."
Claudia Orengo: Yep. Exactly, and I think that accountability makes a huge difference. There is so much information available online now. The challenge, it's not to find more information.
Oftentimes it's actually doing something with that information Exactly ... sticking to it.
Delores Naskrent: Exactly. There was one little part of your email that I really wanted to mention while I have you here too.
after you submitted the [00:33:00] cards, you posted some of them on Instagram, which I thought was really cool, and you called that section Proud Enough to Share. You've talked a lot about this, we've talked about it this morning, but you've talked openly about visibility being uncomfortable for you at first.
Or which I think might surprise people considering how much you do publicly.
Claudia Orengo: Yeah, I know. It can be confusing. the way I see it, it's I have become super comfortable sharing through email. I feel email, it's my safe space, and I share a lot. Everybody tells me, "Oh my God, how can you share that much?"
And people may think that because I just share that much, or I teach, or I run a summit, or I have the
YouTube channel, that I just don't struggle putting myself out there. But it's not true. A few years ago, [00:34:00] I was, like, sweating in any Zoom call and feeling so nervous, so it's been a process for me. And that visibility block, it's still super present for me on social media. I don't know why, but I feel
Delores Naskrent: social media, it's like putting myself there in the wild and
Claudia Orengo: being- Yeah
found by anyone and being judged by anyone. And I know it's not true, but deep down it's what I feel, so that's why I'm scared to go there and publish. So basically, that section was like, okay, I really enjoyed that much creating those cards that I actually wanted to create that post. And for me, that was another, we can say little or huge, we'll leave it there, personal win, and I was super proud of just sharing [00:35:00] it, creating even the mock-ups to share it.
I just enjoyed it, and as I posted also on Instagram, I think confident comes from doing those small uncomfortable things repeatedly.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah. That's so sweet to hear that from you, Claudia. Really, it is. I think that will really resonate with a lot of people in, who, our listeners. A lot of them are member- members of my community, There's hundreds more,
and I think a lot of people are really shy and feel judged, and it's so lovely that you said that because I think that will normalize it. It's normal. It's normal to feel that way. But I loved that it was a personal win for you. Good for you.
Claudia Orengo: Thank you.
Delores Naskrent: there probably isn't really a magical point when you suddenly become ready, right?
There's some people who are really comfortable, but I think sometimes it just gets better as you repeat it and you start getting even [00:36:00] just a little bit more comfortable.
Claudia Orengo: Yep.
Delores Naskrent: Listening who has a folder full of patterns or paintings or illustrations or lettering and keeps thinking,
someday I'd love to actually make some money from this," what would you tell them first? I always say start with the easiest. Don't try to build the entire business at once. Choose something that you're good at and explore turning it into a product.
Claudia Orengo: Create your first or next digital product, then decide if you wanna continue in that route or if it wasn't for you. When you decide one direction, I recommend you to stick at least three months into that direction to consistently grow your store, and after that, reflect again and assess. I think people get stuck because they feel they need to know everything, exactly how their business will look.
I don't know, do you know these, manifestation exercises when it's like, how does it look in five [00:37:00] years from now? And if they don't know, they feel they are not ready, and that's not true. You just need the next step.
Delores Naskrent: That's great information. Really good advice. I completely agree, and that might be the best place for us to end this conversation.
Claudia, you've given me 40 minutes of your time. That's amazing. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining me. I love that whole 19 cards turned into a much bigger conversation about creativity, productivity, passive income, experimentation, building confidence, right? Building a business that doesn't have to fit into one tiny box.
I'm gonna put all the information about Claudia and Heart Made and the Passive Income Growth Academy into the show notes. Don't forget, she's got that quiz. Go in and take her quiz. And if this conversation has you thinking, "Maybe I could try greeting card design," my 5 Cards in [00:38:00] 5 Days Challenge is coming up September 21st through to the 26th, and yes, you definitely do not have to make 19 cards.
We're gonna make five cards together, and really, the goal isn't to decide in five days that you're now a professional greeting card designer. It's to experiment, finish some work, learn something about yourself, and discover another place that your artwork could go because sometimes it's just one small experiment that opens the door you weren't even looking for.
Claudia, thank you again.
Claudia Orengo: Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed talking with you.
Delores Naskrent: This was so fun, and I thank you, and I think everyone listening will thank you. So keep making, keep experimenting, and I'll be glad to talk to you again someday on the Creative Juggle Joy.
