Everything I Know About Being Small Business Owner, Artist, and Content Creator 💌 Q&A

my small business was my way to break that toxic cycle I searched the hashtag Palmer Clay # clayart and I looked for all of the accounts that had a similar following to me what do you want people to feel that is what's going to leave a lasting impression on them not necessarily the art I didn't show my face until a year into my career learning how to tolerate your face learning how to accept and love yourself is a skill that you can practice practice having these basic financial literacy skills is super important for any creative

for any artist for any person hi my name is Tammy I'm a self-made artist and small business owner and welcome to office hours I asked you guys to ask me questions on Instagram and YouTube and I received so many responses so I thought it'd be fun if I did a little late night Q&A The Vibes are that I'm a little Mentor just teaching you everything that I know about how to be a business owner artist and content creator so grab some tea grab your notebook and let's start office hours first of all if you don't

know me my name is Tammy but I go by uncomfy because your girl's a little anxious I started my business in 2020 selling my handmade art 2 years later I graduated college and uncomfy Co immediately became my full-time job I'm now in the process of expanding my product line from handmade items to manufactured products this was my first plushy Maxine the Goldfish at the same time I'm growing a community and I'm super passionate about sharing my knowledge with others we'll start off with more small business questions moving on to content creation and then personal stuff

I'll have all the questions listed in the chapters below so feel free to skip around to whatever is most pertinent to you question number one how has running a small business at a larger scale changed you as a person talked about this in one of my other videos I'll link it here but starting my small business has changed my entire life trajectory not only has it impacted my confidence you know I think people gain confidence when you say something and then you actually do it so I said I would sell my art and I actually

did so that has hugely increased my sense of confidence but I also think I trust myself way more you know I've done something that I never thought was possible which was mass manufacture all these plushies and because of that I have so much more trust in myself you know I no longer at the whims of a company or someone else because I've made so many different streams of income for myself you know selling my art making YouTube videos doing brand collaborations everything is something that I've built I have thicker skin now I know how to

do customer service now I'm bringing comfort and joy and I'm helping people and now I have a purpose in my life the financial stability is also something that has changed my life not only for me but for my family family as well because of my small business I've been able to provide my parents with dental care with vacations I'm hoping to one day retire them soon and I think regarding you know generational trauma I'm a child of immigrants right my small business was my way to sort of break that toxic cycle so even though being

self-employed comes with many downfalls I hope the rest of this video can show you how I managed to do it and if it's the right choice for you so naturally the next question question is how did I promote my small business when I first started this is such a good question because I think a lot of people fall into the habit of starting a new Instagram account and they think that's enough you know it's the tragic meme of me promoting to zero followers like you have to have an audience first right but your audience is

actually not going to be the average customer for me I knew very early on that my initial audience would be other artists just like me so when I started my Instagram account I started with Palmer Clay so I searched the hashtag Palmer Clay # clayart and I looked for all of the accounts that had a similar following to me like literally people with 500 followers or less less was ideal because then I knew these people were in the same stage of their art Journey as me and they were more likely to want to be friends

friendship and Community is key for this I'm still friends with some of the people that I followed very early early on in my career shout out to puffy shout out to ammy Pon these are all the clay artists that I followed early on and we're all still good friends and we all grew together and it's so wholesome you need to find people who are in the same stage as you so in summary to grow my small business I searched up people who were doing the same thing as me I followed them they followed me back

I started commenting I started sharing them on my story they started sharing me on their story and then we all mutually benefit but this only works if it's genuine like please do not message a random person who has like 10 times more followers than you they will not respond this does sound very transactional but it's just also how social media works like you need to have some merits you need to gain trust with other people but I do find that most people on the internet are very very sweet especially in this little niche community that

I started in which was Palmer clay and while I was doing that I was posting ing my own original characters like Photo carousels reals shorts Tik toks everything back when I started in 2020 Tik TOs and short form videos were just starting to become really popular but nowadays if I were to start over again I would definitely prioritize short form videos and photo carousels over just a single static photo and most importantly more important than following other people you also have to have some quality to your content it's not not just quantity over quality you

need to have substance to your art you need to share a story so for example when I started my clay characters they each had their own story they were little radish Spirits they all had toppings or Hobbies or things that made them feel comfy and good and that was what stuck to people like honestly looking back at my post back then the radishes I don't particularly find them amazing or cute I really do think it was the interesting story and just interesting shape and form of them that really spoke to people I think especially as

artists and perfectionists we care so much about how something looks when really it should be about how it makes other people feel what do you want people to feel that is what's going to leave a lasting impression on them not necessarily the art but the story and the meaning because oh my gosh my polymer clay skills back then were not a to scuff I had just started sculpting again after like a 10year Hiatus everything was very ugly not refined but people still connected to it I didn't show my face by the way for the first

year it was just my art and it still worked for me and this goes nicely into the next question which is what is your best advice to start a small business Instagram account without showing your face so same thing as above support other people and they'll support you but also without a face to connect to the art you will have to rely on something else and that is your voice especially with videos if you're not showing your face you should be doing a voice over at the very least a combo of the two you know

showing your face and your voice is like the best way to grow the fastest but there are plenty of faceless creators who just make solid cute amazing beautiful art that Propel really fast too and that's because they provide value some of my most popular Instagram reals actually don't show my face but instead it's just me showing the process of how I make some of my clay pieces like this recent one I did with the cake or an older one with the bunny pancakes those are some of my best performing videos and I think it's because

it teaches people how Palmer Clay works and it introduces them to a new craft that is giving someone another reason to support you not only for your art but for the idea that you Encompass the idea of art making but real talk since this is office hours and I am sincerely trying to advise you you have to think about the reason why people want to support small artists and small businesses in the first place it's because they're people we are the antithesis of a large corporation we don't cut cost on things we don't save time

we write handwritten notes we work with local Artisans the humanity in a small business is what makes people want to support you and what is the essence of humanity it's the face it's the person it's the voice so I understand if you're really shy like I I said I didn't show my face until a year into my career learning how to tolerate your face learning how to accept and love yourself is a skill that you can practice if you don't show your face or your voice you can still succeed Martina calie is one of my

favorite artist who simply just provides immense value cuz she's teaching people how to make their own art inspiring people she's not shoving her product in someone's face I think that's a really important thing to avoid doing if you're making a video without your face or your voice make it so that the art process speaks for itself make it so beautiful so eye-catching that people can't scroll away in summary find your community provide value to your community they will like share comment you'll do the same and eventually all of this will come back to you in

the form of you know your shop getting out there and that is still essentially how I promote my shop to this day value can be anything from you know things that you've learned Studio Vlogs showing your process things you wish you knew before there are so many content ideas that small businesses can do over and over and over again because everyone's experience is different the lessons that I've learned may be different from the lessons that you've learned especially if you're a person of color or a marginalized group your hardships are different from other people's and

that is what people will connect to the most when you're sharing your small business story this next question is very valid how to live life while balancing a business looking back on when I first started my small business I did not live life of balance at all I was staying up almost every night I was neglecting my family I was neglecting friendships I was neglecting my own health I've realize that if I want my self-employed life to be sustainable so I can do this forever basically I need to take care of myself and one of

my good friends Nora she owns this small business and it's so cute she's released a ton of products she's making sales every day she's profiting every month she is such a good model of work life balance and recently she told me something pretty profound to me at least instead of me being the business I am simply part of the business I'm a fundamental part but I'm not the business and I don't know if that makes sense but you know it's like I would never Force any of my employees to answer emails and till midnight so

having boundaries is really key especially if you feel like you're on the brink of burnout it's like treating yourself with the kindness that you would treat others being a good boss to yourself in the way that you want to be a good boss to others that is how to achieve balance giving yourself days off they don't have to be the normal Saturday Sunday like just whatever works for your schedule treat yourself with kindness but also build discipline work when you need to but also rest when you need to I also try to tell myself that

the best pieces of Art and the best businesses are not made in a single day good things take time and if something is delayed by a day or two or you just need a little break that's okay as long as you still do it in the end speaking of starting a business or content creating one of the most integral things that I was so lucky to have was an iPad specifically an iPad with an apple pencil and I hope you know where this is going in the spirit of the holiday season and the new year

I want to make it as easy as possible for one of you to start your self-employed journey and that is why I'm giving away an iPad Air I bought this with my own money it's 128 GB 11 in because I think it's so nice when it's portable you can use this for school for work for your small business I also got you the iPad Air folio case of course you're going to be getting an apple pencil Pro this one I had specially engraved it says stay uncomfy because I want you to seek something outside of

comfort this year and there's more to the giveaway you are also going to receive the paperlike screen protector this thing is such a game Cher I bought one for myself a couple months ago and it has completely changed the iPad experience for me they are also the sponsor of this video which is what made this giveaway entirely possible so let me just do my little sponsorship Spiel for a second this is the original paperlike screen protector that started it all paperlike helps you write and draw on an iPad like it's actually paper millions of people

worldwide use this including me and what makes them special from other matte screen protectors is that they use a micro bead technology called Nano dots which is patented to give you the stroke resistance of real paper without sacrificing Clarity I love mine it's matte so it reduces glare but it maintains the clarity of the screen so it doesn't like blur anything but most importantly it just makes using the iPad so amazing so beautiful and I'm so excited to give this away to one of you if you're wondering what's the difference between the paper likees Nano

dots and Apple's new Nano texture I'm going to be reading this because it's a little technical but paper leges proprietary Nano dots are tiny micro beads engineered to add resistance and improve haptic feedback when using the apple pencil on your iPad on the other hand Apple's Nano texture just simply reduces glare it doesn't add anything to the haptic feedback or make it feel like you're writing on paper like the paper like does so once again I am giving away all of this to a very lucky winner all you have to do is comment down below

why you're starting a small business and I'll select a winner by next week and since there will only be one winner make sure to check out paper like down below in my description as well and thank you paper like for sponsoring this video the next question is how do I find inspiration for my characters this may be surprising but I almost never look at Pinterest or Instagram for inspo anymore I think I'm the type of person who is just too easily influenced and it also can be very discouraging to see other people's art and you

feel like you don't measure up to it I see that sentiment written a lot in my comments and I think the best way to get over artist block to get over self-doubt is to stop looking at others for inspiration which is really ironic because I'm making this video that you're obviously watching but let me explain social media is super important for having a small business in my opinion right so when I'm on social media I'm here to promote my business and teach others and also to support others so I scroll on Instagram a lot but

it's to mainly just check in on my online friends see what they're doing comment let them know that they're doing great and just be there to support my other small business friends but I'm not on social media to gain ideas when I'm looking to create something new I seek within I ask myself the most simple questions you know what are my favorite colors right now what animals do I want to create I grew up loving animals so that is my main interest point I'm not interested in humans or Landscapes I'm interested in goldfish in Capi

baras in dragons in cats and dogs like that is what I'm interested in and that is a subject matter that I have always been interested in it's the most basic things that you know within yourself to be true it's your own experiences and your own being that you should be drawing inspiration from after I ask myself those questions I make a rough sketch you know so in the fall I was like what am I into I'm really into Bears Super basic normal thing to be into as bears but I still made it my own and

then from the rough sketch I immediately go into the prototyping medium which for me is Palmer Clay so that is how I make most of my clay prototypes which eventually turn into products the only reason I'm on social media now is to support other small businesses and to promote my own it's not to seek inspiration because I feel like then it becomes too slippery into the issue of unoriginality I understand that it's so easy you can't help it you know you make things out of what you know but I invite you to get to know

yourself a little better make things that feel really really authentic to you quick tea break because Mr uncomfy just brought me a cup of tea so sweet it is 9:23 we've been recording for almost an hour I'm not sure actually actually let me know if you're liking this video so far and let's move on how do you handle your taxes and financial aspects of your business tips on staying organized with that side of things I eventually want to make a whole video on this on financial literacy for artists because I'm super passionate about this I

even made my whole college thesis about this for the sake of this video I'll just cover the very Bare Essentials first of all this is for beginners and novices and people well into their business Journey you'll want to separate your personal finances from your business finances if you're just starting out and you're not too serious about this yet and you're still trying things out this can look as simple as an Excel spreadsheet or a notion template there are so many free templates online that can help you organize your finances use those resources but if you

want to take this more seriously and your are shop or your business could be a very long-term thing I would highly suggest opening a business business checking account almost every Bank offers a business checking account you can apply for it online or you can go straight into a physical branch and they'll help you set up everything but the reason to set up a separate business banking account is to make taxes so much easier has come tax season this is for US taxes by the way but if you already have a job and you're working for

someone else you'll get your normal W2 that you file and then you'll file all of your self-employed income with a $109 9 that like Shopify or Etsy will send you or a Schedule C I'm not a tax expert so please do your due diligence when you're filing your taxes if all of your business expenses are already in a separate bank account it'll just make your tax form go so much faster because it's already in one place rather than if it was all in your personal account you'd have to parse through all of your statements and

it's just a lot of work and also down the line if you choose to hire a CPA for someone to like file your taxes for you having a separate business banking account will make things so much easier for them as well whether you already own a small business or not having these basic financial literacy skills is super important for any creative for any artist for any person because having this financial literacy is what's going to enable you to do anything in life to accomplish your dreams to travel to do anything I'm super passionate about this

because even though I didn't grow up with my family talking about money money was always a stressful topic it was always the topic of fighting and resentment money now is something that I truly feel I have agency over that's because every month I know exactly how much I'm spending and how much I'm earning if you are scared of money the only way to get over that fear is more or less exposure therapy really get to know your money situation and if things aren't where you want them to be now you know and then you can

improve the more you handle and study your money the easier and more more natural it'll become next question what is one piece of advice you wish you had when starting your business okay so I actually saw this video the other day from a Tik Tok Creator and for the life of me I cannot find it but basically she works with like this big Tech firm and they advise female business owners and she said the one thing that defines whether or not a business will succeed is not the founders level of intelligence it's not their people

skills it is not not their talent it is their level and speed of execution meaning when these CEOs say they're going to do something they do it and they do it fast essentially they just do the thing and that is what determines their success I sat with this for a while and it just blew my mind because for the longest time I feel like I suffered from major scarcity mindset you know I was too scared to start a YouTube channel so I put it off for two years I was too scared to manufacture my own

plushies I thought it'd be too hard so I put that off for four years and when my old laptop was breaking down it took me months to get a new one even though I knew it was something that I needed to do it took me forever to buy a label printer so for ages I was printing out individual labels taping them on with clear tape on every package that took so much time out of my day when I could have been doing something better eventually I did make those decisions and I did EX Ute them

which I'm you know I'm very proud of I can't help but think you know how far would I be if I had just done it sooner one of my favorite quotes to accompany this is the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago but the second best time to plant a tree is now today start now to cultivate your dreams for the future if you know you need to do something do it and that is just like one of my biggest resolutions for the new year there's so many things that I know know

deep down that everyone else has told me that I should do to grow my business for example pivoting from handmade stuff to more designed manufactured stuff you know building a team and so on those are all things that I'm really excited to do and that I've started doing now so I highly suggest you do the same alongside me some of these things I need to execute are going to be really scary and new and foreign but I have faith that it'll work out and the same thing goes for you this next question is something that

I struggle with myself all too often it's how do you find time for everything this is so hard because time management is something that I always struggle with myself juggling everything from personal life Social Life Health your business art the reality is that if you truly care enough about something you'll make time for it I think a lot of people believe that you need a full day dedicated to Art when in reality art making is done in segments little bits in your day that you find yourself free to create like when I was still in

University I would carry my box of clay to campus with me and I'd have an hour or two in between classes and I would sculpt during those times and then those little breaks 5 days a week added up to 10 hours of sculpting time during my school week which was actually pretty substantial and allowed me to maintain my small business orders while I was in school and same thing went for editing my videos I started YouTube when I was in my senior year of college colge so in between my breaks on campus I would be

editing my YouTube videos on my laptop in those same 10 hours that I would spend sculpting I was making YouTube videos and that ended up in me being able to upload consistently once a week so especially when you're busy if you're a student or you're working fulltime it's all about finding those little free pockets in your day and something that I keep coming back to is this phrase like you can have everything just not all at once so there are some sacrifices that need to be made if you want your business and your social media

to work out you know drinking and clubbing and stuff exhaust me so much to the point where I can't function for the next day or two so I just didn't really do that in college and I don't really regret it I'm an introverted person as it is and I prefer to spend that time creating I think the average American watches like an hour and a half of TV every day instead of opening Netflix or Tik Tok you can be using that time to be a Creator first question is what do I use to edit so

for YouTube videos and even some of my more professional Instagram reals I use Adobe Premiere Pro this is a program that you have to pay for and I use it simply because that's what they taught me in graphic design school I'd say about 50% of YouTubers use Premiere and the other half uses Final Cut Pro these are both pretty expensive pretty heavy software but you know treat it like an investment for my more low-key short form videos like super simple easy stuff I'll just edit it straight on my phone using cap cut but more than

the editing software or the camera that you use I find that lighting is the most important even for nighttime I still tried to make the lighting ambient and even and as pleasing as possible this is my desk right now I'm using a desk lamp and then this is like a magnifying glass lamp it's not an actual ring light but it works perfectly well and then all of these lamps are just lamps from Ikea the sunset lamp was like $5 on Amazon and I film most of my videos during the day so when I do that

I prioritize natural sunlight that warm light is so pleasant to look at it makes any art look amazing and if you don't have access to that try going outside there's so many creators that film outside all of the time and once you have good lighting all you really need is your phone a lot of my YouTube video clips are filmed with just my phone how do you come up with content ideas and not get drained from making them often times this can be the hardest part about content creation because you're expected to just keep making

new things and it can easily lead to burnout I like to keep a running list of ideas that's easy to access so that when inspiration strikes me I can just write it down and save it for later so when it's time to make a new video I can look at my list and have a hundred ideas I can pull from and make something out of it for some people this may look like a little notebook that they carry around my notes app is the thing that is the easiest and fastest for me to write my

idea down I don't like using any other apps because they take so long to open and sync for some reason but the notes app on my iPhone is so clutch I have all my ideas pinned at the top so I don't have to search for it and it's so easy to add ideas inspiration often strikes when you're least expecting it when you're showering or washing the dishes or walking your dog and you need something so a lot of artists I know carry a tiny little notebook and for me it's on my phone whatever option you

choose the key is to make it as easy as possible for you to write down your ideas so that you can come back to it later and that way you're not squeezing ideas out of yourself when it's time to create you just have a list that you have compiled over the last couple days couple weeks even the last year the next questions regard sponsorships and brand deals how did you start getting sponsorships did reaching a certain follower account help yes and yes it was a slow start I didn't start getting paid Partnerships until I reached

like I want to say 10,000 or 30,000 subscribers I honestly can't remember but it took a while sort of the hard truth of what I will say is that for a while you just need to grind and be unpaid before you can even be monetized and before you can even get brand deals you just have to focus on making a ton of good high quality content because once you make good quality content the brand do deals will just start coming to you I don't really ever seek out brand deals myself I would say about 90%

of my brand deals are inbound emails other brands have people literally looking on Instagram looking at hashtags vetting creators and eventually putting you on their campaign list I work with a management agency that assigned me a talent manager and they handle all of the inbound brand emails they handle the contracts they help negotiate for higher rates if you are someone who is not interested in negotiating who is not interested in the contracts of it all and you're willing to pay someone 20% of the cut I highly suggest doing it it's the best thing that I've

ever done for myself I do know other artists like my good friend Agogo she is a med student and she is a girl boss she handles all of her brand deals herself because she feels like she can handle it and she doesn't want to part with the 20% it's a significant cut of the deal to me 20% is a cut the deal that I'm willing to give up to save time because I want to make art so that's basically the gist of how I manage brand deals going back to my initial answer focus on making

high quality content make sure that you know whatever brand deals that you want to attract is what you are creating one of my dream sponsorships was Cricut because at the time I loved making stickers I loved crafting and Cricut was like the ultimate brand that I wanted to work with so I made Studio Vlogs and Studio Vlogs are something that Cricut could easily see themselves inserting their brand into if you're into fashion and you want to receive PR and free clothes and free makeup make fashion content I don't really produce that kind of content so

I never receive free clothes and I'm okay with that you attract certain brands based on what you create you'll also be surprised by how many Brands want to work with smaller Niche creators like people who work with polymer clay I've worked with Crocs with Amazon with furniture brands with skincare Brands and it's all because I personally think I package everything in a very nice digestible way my videos are well lit they're naturally lit I am familyfriendly that's a huge thing I don't really curse that much in my videos and I make it easy for Brands

to want to work with me so those are all just things to think about advice on growing your social media audience and engagement rate I've recently been doing a mixture of talking head videos like is what it sounds like it's me in front of the camera talking and speaking my truth and Vlogs and I think it's a good mixture of informational educational videos and entertaining sort of Storytelling videos It's All About That mixture to pull new viewers in and keep old viewers watching and getting to know you so for one doing a variety of content

so that you can keep providing value in different ways and so you don't get bored and also staying present in your community I always try to respond to people's messages and comments as much as I can to show that I really do care and to show up for my community I'm always making different tutorials trying to share my advice everything I do I'm never gatekeeping because that is the core of this whole artist Community online it's other people trying to uplift other people's art one of my first YouTube Studio Vlogs to blow up was because

I shared my favorite polymer clay materials I shared my techniques I shared which manufacturers I was using and if you look back at that video actually you can see that those key moments is where viewership and engagement spiked because they were places where people could look back on to learn it brought people back to my video time and time again and it helped them remember my name uncomfy because remember what I said before your initial audience is going to be other artists and other small business owners we all just floating around trying to figure out

life together So eventually all that knowledge and experience that you impart on the community comes back to you in the form of sales there have been times when I've really felt down on myself and I felt like I had nothing to offer and it's in those moments where you really have to push through I guarantee you have something to offer it's just such a special feeling when you realize like yeah I can help other people I can help I can give back to this community of other artists and make it a better place than when

I entered it the next few questions are going to be a little more fun and personal I got a lot of questions on why I live in Denver and if I like it so first of all I was born and raised in Colorado so this is just basically my home my parents actually don't live here anymore they moved to Texas a couple years ago but I decided to stay around because when I was finishing College here I had financial aid here so that's when I moved to our first shared apartment in Denver it was a

two-bedroom that me and my boyfriend shared with another couple on one hand I love it here I love how close we are to Nature I love the people everyone's so nice here I love the coffee shops in Denver I feel so Lively and it's it's just feels like home but I do fantasize quite often about moving to larger cities like New York or Chicago I just think it'd be so cool to be in closer proximity to other creators in Denver there's not many art content creators like me here and it would also be nice to

live in a city where I don't have to drive everywhere but for the most part I do love Denver advice for maintaining Independence while in a relationship so yeah I got a ton of questions about my relationship with Mr uncomfy which is funny because I almost never show him directly in my videos but some of you guys have pieced together our story which is so cute but yeah Independence is like a very real thing that I've been trying to cultivate for myself and I'm very mindful of that because we started dating in 2018 so I

was 17 years old and now I'm turning 24 next month so it's been almost 7 years together you know I moved from living with my parents to living with him so I've never lived by myself but I think it helps that you know we both do very different things for work I'm self-employed I do art and he's a chemist and his schedule is so different I love spending time with friends I really prioritize having my own friendships having my own passions and he just makes it really easy easy for me too he's never overbearing so

how do we go about you know gaining independence while staying together I think it helps that I am a very ambitious person even when I'm in a relationship I try to maintain my other friendships and cultivate new ones I'm always working on my passion projects I make sure that my business and my creative goals remain a priority for me it's when I'm creating things and helping others and trying new things and taking risks like that balance is what makes me feel whole and I'm so lucky to have a partner who is so easygoing and who

helps me cultivate that balance last question of the night what is your mbti last time I checked I am an I nfj advocate so that means I think really deeply I feel really deeply and that is what helps me connect with others but sometimes it can be very overbearing because I feel the emotions of others very deeply to the point that it's almost a burden you could say that I'm an empath I recognize now that this really impacted Me growing up cuz whenever my parents were having issues or fighting like even if I wasn't even

in the room I could hear it and it was still impacting me emotionally and now when people raise their voices I get like very very upset but it's something I'm working on even when I get negative comments it still really affects me but I'm learning to have thicker skin while still connecting with you guys that's something that I never want to go away so yeah wow is now 10:37 I have been recording for 2 hours straight let me know what you think down in the comments remember to check out paperlike and enter my giveaway and

maybe I'll see you guys on another episode of office hours submit any more questions down below and I'll see you very soon bye the Bright Morning Dew we brush and we braided Dandy lions and was a mutual arrangement