🌾 Grow Through Generosity & Collaboration — with Chelsie Tamms of Lettering Works

Amelia Hruby [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Off the Grid, a podcast for small business owners who want to leave social media without losing all their clients. Hello, and welcome to Off the Grid, a podcast about running a thriving creative business with no or minimal social media presence. I'm your host, Amelia Hruby. I am the founder of Softer Sounds Podcast Studio, the co-founder of the Lifestyle Business League. And here on this show, I am your fellow journeyer and guide on our path of doing business with radical generosity and energetic sovereignty. Today's episode is gonna be all about radical generosity and I'm super excited for the guest we have joining us.

Amelia Hruby [00:01:02]:
But before we dive into that, I do want to remind you that this show is paired with an amazing free resource. It's called the Leaving Social Media Toolkit, and it includes three tools, a five step plan for leaving any social platform, a list of 100 ways to share your work off social media, and a creative marketing ideas database to help you plan quarterly marketing experiments to grow your business without social media. You can get that toolkit for free at offthegrid.fun/toolkit or just head to the link in the show notes to grab yours today.

Amelia Hruby [00:01:40]:
Okay. Now that you've got the goods, I wanna introduce you to today's guest. Chelsie Tamms is an artist, educator, and entrepreneur. She founded Lettering Works in 2016, combining her love of hand lettering with her expertise in marketing. Since then, she's grown her business to offer custom branding packages, courses for artists, and wholesale products and merchandise, all with the mission to bring more creativity into her community and beyond. She is especially drawn to cause driven projects surrounding mental health, chronic illness, and underrepresented communities. Chelsie is a Lifestyle Business League member, an Interweb member, and just a friend of mine who I've had the pleasure of collaborating with multiple times now. So hi, Chelsie. Welcome to Off the Grid. I'm so happy you're here.

Chelsie Tamms [00:02:30]:
I'm so happy to be here. Very excited to have this conversation with you, Amelia.

Amelia Hruby [00:02:35]:
Me too. So knowing you a bit, I think you have a pretty, I'm gonna be real, envy-inducing design business and freelance career. I mean, it's envy-inducing in me even though I'm not a designer. So I wanted to kind of open our conversation by inviting you to tell us a bit about your journey into business. So how did you get here? And then what makes up your business ecosystem right now? What have you been doing and selling lately?

Chelsie Tamms [00:03:09]:
Happy to share. So my entrepreneurial journey dates back to when I was a senior in college, and I actually won $10,000 in start up funding from my university. That was back in April of 2016, so just eight years ago. It's been kind of a wild journey since then. But that's all to say that I jumped straight into entrepreneurship right out of college, so I never had the corporate 9-to-5 job, kind of bypassed all of that, and have really only known working for myself. My background before that was in advertising, and I had a series of different internships. So I had some work experience, but really just jumped into owning my own business right out of college.

Chelsie Tamms [00:03:48]:
Through that time, there's been a lot of similarities since when I started and where I'm at now, but really my philosophy and approach to business this past handful of years has been this idea of fewer, better things. So I've really refined what I've offered over the years. So I try to only say yes to the things that are really exciting to me and are really exciting and big opportunities as much as possible, but there's also a really real piece of this that's, like, you can't just go for the big things. So some of the things that I do are wholesale products, and I sell to the Field Museum, Chicago History Museum, and Garfield Art Conservatory, which is really exciting, and I absolutely love working with all of them but those are some of the bigger things that are fewer and farther between.

Chelsie Tamms [00:04:30]:
So over the time of havig my business, I pursued some of these larger goals, but also made time for smaller projects, I pursued some of these larger goals, but also made time for smaller projects, personal projects, and kind of refining what I love doing to keep that the focus over these past eight years. And that's really my goal in the future too is just honing in on this fewer, better things idea and just doing the things that really excite me. And that's where bringing in passion projects and personal things can help that path kinda accelerate it.

Amelia Hruby [00:04:59]:
So many aspects of that that really resonate with my path into business as well. I too have never had a full time corporate job, although I took a seven year detour through a PhD program before I started my own business. And I'll just say at the outset that I have always admired the way that you build passion projects and personal projects into your work. One, because it's cool. But two, because I've also been able to witness the way that it actually turns into real profitability in your business, like, financial profitability. So we have the sort of energetic profitability of doing a passion project of, like, I love this, and it brings me creative energy and motivation. That's one side of it.

Amelia Hruby [00:05:43]:
But many of your passion projects seem to have turned into paid work, and whether that be from that project directly or people who saw it and then hired you to do other things. Could you tell us a little bit about some of the passion projects that you've done and how you have profited from them? That's a kind of business-y way to put it. But what have they yielded over the course of your eight years being self employed?

Chelsie Tamms [00:06:09]:
So my favorite passion project, it's hard to pick a favorite actually, but my favorite that I'll use in this example because it was the most profitable was a passion project that I started in March of 2020, which is not the best time to launch a passion project, especially in the health space. But I launched a project called Cool Beans, which was really my response to being officially diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease, which I knew I had a long family history of and was predisposed to having it. But that kind of official diagnosis paired with this frustration of what should I eat now that I know this, now that I need to be doing more with this chronic health issue, really kinda blossomed into, I also would love to do more restaurant branding.

Chelsie Tamms [00:06:51]:
So I paired those two ideas together as kind of a way to motivate myself to do the research. So I realized I research all the time for design projects, and that's part of that process, and I am not frustrated with it. But when it came to researching diet around kidney disease, I was, like, I don't wanna do this. And so I paired it with this idea of creating this fictitious brand called Cool Beans, which was this restaurant concept around a renal diet. And so that project, I put a lot into it. I probably did about $10,000 worth of work, and I'm sharing that just to be transparent of how much goes into passion projects. It's not just a little weekend thing.

Chelsie Tamms [00:07:28]:
I spent a whole month developing it. I actually hired a dietitian to write the menu because even after all of that research, I realized that I'm not actually that good at researching this. There's a lot more nuance and complexity to it so I hired her to write this menu, which is still a free download on my website but where that led kinda led into profitability in my business is I was able to show and pitch that project to different kidney organizations that are essentially dream clients of mine. And I landed a few of them. So I think I just did the math maybe a month or two ago, and I think I've generated over $56,000 in revenue from that project that directly links back to that passion project. And that's a combination of branding work I've done, some just traditional graphic design work, as well as some wholesale products. So I've sold some stickers and different merchandise. And, honestly, I don't even think that includes the direct products that I created as part of Cool Beans because I didn't dive into tracking all of those numbers.

Chelsie Tamms [00:08:27]:
But I think that just goes to show that it can really build your brand as well. And I'm a brand designer, so, of course, I'm conscious of that with the passion projects that I do. I wanna create projects that help build my brand and help build my identity, both personally and professionally. So that's why that project really sticks out to me as a favorite because it did exactly what it was supposed to do. And with that, and I know from our past collaboration, growing slowly is something we both care about, and this is an example of that. I did not see that return on investment for at least one full calendar year later because of the pandemic. So it took about a year or so before that initial organization I reached out to, which was the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois, reached out to them and their world and all of our worlds were on fire.

Chelsie Tamms [00:09:15]:
So it took about a year before things fell into place to do my first project with them, and they referred me to The Gift of Hope as well. So I've gotten a lot from that, and then there were some other organizations I got to work with as well. So I think that really, just having passion projects that you care about and putting so much of yourself into them, people look at them and they're like, "I wanna hire you for this because you clearly care about it." So instead of positioning myself as a graphic designer who would like to work on this, I'm positioning myself as a patient, as somebody who cares about this, who has personal ties, who just made this because I care that much about it.

Chelsie Tamms [00:09:50]:
And the most beautiful thing I think that came out of that project was how easily and quickly a client project like, how smooth it was. So I showed them all of this. They loved it. They said, "This is better than what we have. We'd love for you to rebrand this specific project or this specific programming." And there were essentially no edits on the designs because they really signed off on the passion project for the direction. So they were really viewing me more as an artist than viewing me as just a designer they could direct. And I love building those relationships with clients where they're coming to me for me and what I love doing and see me more as an artist than a designer who they can kind of direct.

Chelsie Tamms [00:10:34]:
And there's nothing wrong with getting client feedback, and I love that part of the process too. But there's something amazing about being able to kinda get the sign off on your original creative ideas and then translate that to the design problem that you're solving. So that's why I'm a huge advocate for passion projects. There's other ones that I could go into as well that have yielded a lot of things.

Chelsie Tamms [00:10:54]:
I also wanna be transparent about how that came to be. So winning $10,000 in start up funding put me in a unique position where day one, I wasn't thinking, how am I gonna pay the bills? It was more of, how am I gonna land my dream client? And that's a really privileged position to be in, but also one that let me say, okay, if I could do anything, what am I gonna do? So I started some of my very first projects in business were really born out of this, "You can do whatever you want. You're your own boss. What are you gonna make?" And I created some Peoria postcards and Peoria merchandise, and that set the stage for the Chicago work and everything else I've done since.

Amelia Hruby [00:11:33]:
I have so many follow-up questions, but I think the one I'm gonna pick first is I'm so curious how you go about pitching work. Because for me and the listeners I know and speak to, I know we can imagine this, like, "Okay. Great. I'm passionate about this, and I'm doing this project." And then maybe we can get as far as putting it on our website. But you take this extra step, which is using it as collateral to pitch your dream clients. And so, I'm curious, could you talk to me a little bit about how that works for you? And either in in this project or more generally, how do you take that step from I've done the passion project, I've put the assets online. How do you take the next step to actually turn this into client work?

Chelsie Tamms [00:12:19]:
I think that's a great question, and that's where my kinda disdain for social media comes in a little bit too. Because I guess how I phrase it in my mind is thinking, if you know exactly who you want to see this, why are we putting it on social media and hoping that person happens to see it? That thought process right there is what motivates me to say, if I know who I want to see this, can I find their direct information and share this with them directly? Instead of posting something on social media and thinking I really hope these different kidney organizations find this. Maybe they will, but I think relying on social media in that way isn't very helpful for our businesses.

Chelsie Tamms [00:12:59]:
So I've really taken the approach of if I know and in in all projects, I don't always know who exactly I want to see it. But for the Cool Beans project, I had specific organizations that I was like, these would be my dream clients. So instead of putting it out into the world and hoping they stumble upon it, I took it upon myself to find their contact information and directly share my project with them. And the way I kind of pitch it is just sharing, "I did this project that I think you should see and you would enjoy. And, also, you can hire me for any of this."

Chelsie Tamms [00:13:32]:
One of the other things that I do with passion projects is try to think of different levels of engagement people can have so they can license work from it. They can commission me to do something custom. There's semi-custom options where we can change the colors to match their branding. But I'm not usually going as far as making it very specific for their business or their organization. I'm making it for myself, and then I'm sharing it with them. And that's how I've gotten to that really beautiful place of getting less pushback or less edits from them because they see my vision and this pure vision. That's what I think is beautiful about passion projects is every designer can relate. How many times are we creating something, and then the client ultimately wants it a different color. And there's different reasons we could argue that that's not the right color, but sometimes it comes down to it is what the client wants. And that's totally okay, but we lose a little bit of our passion and our vision.

Chelsie Tamms [00:14:24]:
And that's where I think passion projects can come in and really showcase our pure creative selves and then pitching that and showing that to people. If they can get on board with that, we've already gotten through half the battle. But the dark side of being a designer is round 12 of edits, and I've really eliminated a lot of that because I've gone through with this passion project forward approach that gets the sign off a little bit earlier and gets people on board with me as a person as well. And that just creates, I think, much more beautiful relationships that feel supportive and feel very connective because it's not just, "Your a graphic designer, get this done for me." It's, "I value what you've created, and I want you to create that for me."

Amelia Hruby [00:15:06]:
Two things are coming up for me. One is I I feel like you inverted or come up with your own twist on spec work. So you're not saying, like, "Hello, company. I am available for design work. Would you like to have me do anything for free that is something you need?" Which is how spec work might work. And then they're, like, "Yeah, I'll make these postcards for this event, and if we like them, we'll buy them." And you make them, and then they're, like, "Well, we'll buy them if you make these 25 changes." And then you get down the cycle of working for free and all of this is really challenging in that formula of it.

Amelia Hruby [00:15:41]:
But what you've done is really ground it in your own artistic practice, and then from making these designs that you were motivated and thrilled to make, sharing that with them at that point. And I think that that's a really nice way to be connecting with potential clients. You're not doing spec work, but I can see the relationship between those things and how you're just doing it in a way that's really serving yourself as an artist.

Chelsie Tamms [00:16:08]:
First and foremost, I wanna be clear that I don't encourage working for free, and I think you tapped on some things there in the best way. So many years ago, I learned to make the distinction between really investing in myself and my own creative practice and ideas versus working for free for someone else. So I think you summarized that beautifully. That is my exact goal. I wanna create what I wanna create, and then I wanna find the right people for it. So that is a much different practice and approach than, "Hey, I really wanna work with you. What can I do for you?" Instead, I'm creating what I think they need or what I would love for them to need, and I'm sharing it in a way that I hope they can get on board with my vision for it, which I think, really, speaking of self care, puts ourselves at the center of, like, what do I wanna be doing? How do I keep on that path that is right for me?

Chelsie Tamms [00:16:56]:
So I think that's a really beautiful thing that I'm glad that I learned because giving work away for free or working for free, there's so much nuance and context to it. So I have a really specific approach, and I think sometimes people can look at it and just be like, "Oh, of course, you're getting that opportunity. You did this for free." But I'm really against spec work. I'm really against design competitions and those things because they're making designers work for exposure, and we don't want that, and that does not support our businesses. But when we are proactive and take it upon ourselves to create those opportunities, I think it really changes the dynamic.

Amelia Hruby [00:17:31]:
I'm realizing this is something I've really noticed about your work but hadn't seen it through this lens, which is you have a very specific and unique style that does carry through your projects. And I think some designers show up to be like, "I can do anything and everything, it'll look like exactly what you have in mind." And I think what you're doing is you're not showing up as that worker designer necessarily. You're showing up as an artist and bringing your style to it. And, yes, maybe you'll change the color for a client or maybe you'll make a font size different or letter something slightly differently because they ask for it. But you're not coming out of your Hand Lettering style. You're not totally producing something that doesn't at all relate to your aesthetic. And I think that it's just so interesting to reflect on that, and I'm curious how you think about that in the world of design and branding.

Chelsie Tamms [00:18:30]:
So I have some mixed thoughts on it because this dates all the way back to high school. That's when I first started lettering. And I really started lettering because I didn't know how to use the creative design programs in my very first graphic design class, but I had a vision. I know what I want the poster to look like. I know what I want this to look like. I do not know how to use this program to make that vision happen, so I'm gonna hand draw it. I'm gonna scan it, put it on the computer, and manipulate it from there. So that was about sophomore year of high school.

Chelsie Tamms [00:18:58]:
Fast forward to senior year, I finally figured out the programs. I started being like, "Oh, I can just be a normal designer now." And my high school art teacher was very much, like, "Lettering's your thing. This is your style. Don't stop doing it. This is this is your style." And I love that because it was my style, and I was just moving away from it because I thought I figured out how to be like everyone else. But aren't we all just trying to figure out how to just be ourselves? So I had this really cool experience of learning that and figuring that out in high school, which is way earlier than most people figure out what they wanna do for their career, and I feel very grateful for that.

Chelsie Tamms [00:19:36]:
But at the same time, fast forward to college, and I had a professor say, "You need to diversify your portfolio. You're not going to get a job with just lettering. You need to stop doing lettering, essentially." And that really bothered me because I really liked the advice I got in high school and was like, "This is my thing. I'm getting lots of opportunities. I'm loving this." Also in the mix there, I had an internship where I got paid to just do lettering for an entire summer, which I didn't even know that was a job. I didn't even know I signed up for that internship.

Chelsie Tamms [00:20:05]:
Essentially, I worked with an advertising agency, and they had a sister company that they referred me over to. And I showed up the first day not really knowing what I would work on, and the creative director put down a copy of a typography 205 exercise I did, not even official project, and was, like, "Can you just do this this summer?" And I was, like, this is my dream. How is this happening? And I was like, I can get paid just to do lettering as a full time internship. Why can't I do this as a full time job? And so I had some disagreements in college of just, like, "No. I just wanna do lettering. I figured it out. Why do I have to diversify my portfolio?" And it turned out that I could create my own career in it. I didn't need to wait for someone to hire me because I figured that out for myself.

Chelsie Tamms [00:20:53]:
So there's lots of mixed feelings in there. I also had a time where someone told me in Peoria, like, "What's gonna happen when everyone gets sick of your style here?" And I think that that comes from such a scarcity mindset. And, like, I didn't even know those words fully in that at the time, but I was just like, I don't know. And that really motivated me to be like, Peoria's a little bit too small. There are people saying, like, "Oh, what happens when people get sick of this?" And I've moved to such an abundance mindset of it's fine that I have my own style. There are plenty of clients out there. No. Every client is not for me, and that's totally okay.

Chelsie Tamms [00:21:31]:
And I don't need to focus on being for everyone. I can just be for the people that I wanna be for and the people that appreciate me. And that's also why I love doing collaborations that are very intentional because there are partnerships and opportunities that feel very right for me. So why not embrace those? Why not put more effort into making those happen versus kinda having that tension with somebody who's, like, "Everything you make is the same. There's no difference here. What happens next?"

Chelsie Tamms [00:22:01]:
And from that point, my business has grown a lot. So I think that was frustrating and one of my low points in business, being told by a judge after a competition that I won a place in, "Your work's all the same. What's next?" And I was just like, "I don't know. I'm just trying to do good." So there's just mixed feelings over the style, but I've learned to just embrace it and enjoy doing what I love doing.

Amelia Hruby [00:22:28]:
I can really relate to this even as a podcast editor because people ask me what I'm gonna do when people don't care about podcasts anymore, and I'm just not really worried about that. I think podcasts are around for the long term, and also if they're not, I'll do something else. And that's not quite the same as developing an artistic style, but I share it just to say that I feel like in every aspect of running a business or being self employed, anyone could point to what you do and be like, "Are people gonna care about that in six months or six years or whatever? And I think you're right that it really speaks to a scarcity mindset, and it really just speaks to what that person believes is possible for themselves so often.

Amelia Hruby [00:23:20]:
And I think that something I keep coming back to on this podcast is that I'm not building a business based on relevance. I'm building a business based on relationships. And because of that, I believe that my business can continue to be successful over time. So I'm trusting in myself, but I'm also trusting in my community and in the people that I invest my time in and share with and who invest their time in me and share with me, even in this conversation right here. Right? I trust that over time, we will continue to evolve our relationship, the many relationships that we share.

Amelia Hruby [00:24:00]:
We have so many mutual friends. Also relationships with the listeners of this show who will reach out to me or to you because something we said resonated. I really trust that web of relationships to, to some extent, hold and support me. I sometimes literally think of it as a giant spider's web. And at a certain point, this web is strong enough that I can trust fall back into it, and it will hold me. And that may be a silly metaphor. People may be like, "Ew, I don't like spiders, which I don't really like spiders either." But I think that that's really what it's about for me and the business owners that I'm closest with. That's, like, what we all have in common even though we do very different work, even like you and I, like visual or audio work or whatever it may be.

Amelia Hruby [00:24:49]:
We're all really building it all on relationships, and we are finding ways to let that growth happen more slowly over time, whether that be supporting your business with a university grant or for me, it's been a lot of Softer Sounds podcast work supporting the slow growth of Off the Grid podcast and the ways that we do that are all going to be different. For other people it will be having a part time job that allows you to slowly grow your business. But I'm just really struck by at the end of the day, it's like, trust in ourselves and trust in our community that are really allowing our creative businesses to sustain and even thrive.

Chelsie Tamms [00:25:29]:
Yeah, I feel that so much, and the community makes us feel better. I think that's what you highlighted too. I think it's a cool metaphor of a spider web, but how do you feel supported? How do you feel connected? How do you feel fulfilled? And the relationships you build, especially if you're very intentional about them, will make your life better.

Amelia Hruby [00:25:49]:
And they will make your business better. It's a both/and.

Amelia Hruby [00:25:56]:
Hi, friends. Amelia here, pausing my chat with Chelsie because I want to make sure that you know how you can work with her at Lettering Works. Lettering Works is Chelsie's design studio that provides tailor made branding solutions to support your success. When you create a brand with Lettering Works, Chelsie will take the stress of design work off your hands so you can stay focused on your own craft. She'll meet you where you're at to develop the best solutions for your unique needs and create a strong brand that will attract your ideal clients for years years to come. I've worked with Chelsie on quite a few projects over the years, and I'm always so impressed by her polished services, her creative collaborations, and just what a joy she is to work with.

Amelia Hruby [00:26:46]:
Head to letteringworks.com/branding or the link in the show notes to learn more. And if you're not sure if you need a new brand suite right now, Chelsie's also got a free five day branding challenge that is fantastic and will support you in uncovering what's next for you and your brand. That is also linked in the show notes, so head there to get the goods. And now let's dive back into my conversation with Chelsie.

Amelia Hruby [00:27:20]:
We've been talking about community and we've been talking about generosity and doing work in collaboration and even, doing work as a specific kind of gift or offering or trade. And this is something that you practice all of the time in a very clear and structured way through your artist trade program. And I think a lot of artist trade work, I think this is very common practice, but you have really systematized and structured this in a way that, for me, it makes it feel so clean and clear because so many of us have done trades that didn't feel equal in the end or where we feel like we gave more than the other person or we gave way less than the other person or it resulted in messy feelings. And your artist trade program just cleans all of that up so it can be clear and reciprocal and joyful, and I love that.

Amelia Hruby [00:28:22]:
So can you talk about your artist trade program? How did you start it? What are some of the projects that you've done with it? And where do you see it going?

Chelsie Tamms [00:28:33]:
So it's one of my favorite things, and, essentially, the artist trade program is my way of creatively working with more artists. I had this moment where I realized if I made way more money this year, how would I spend that money personally? And I would probably buy more art or support more local businesses and artists and creatives. So I wanted to just kinda streamline that process and take out that piece where I need to make more revenue. And when that happens, then I'll support artists. Just say, well, they probably need branding. They probably need help building their businesses and systems and all these things. What if we just kinda pull that piece out and directly connect? They need support. I would love to have more art in my life.

Chelsie Tamms [00:29:12]:
So connecting those two things was really the motivation there, figuring out, okay, how do we just expedite this process and get more art into my life, work with cool people, and just have fun? And with that, I took my process for designing with clients and applied it to this trade model where it's essentially all the same as my regular services. There's a proposal, and then there's a contract, and then there's this discussion and really outlining what are you gonna do? What am I gonna do? How does this make sense? And if we don't get past that part, we don't do the trade, and I think that's totally fine.

Chelsie Tamms [00:29:47]:
One of the biggest pieces of advice that I have around trading is that a trade must be mutually beneficial. Both parties need to be motivated to do their fair share, and if you wanna do a trade and you're pitching someone else, you need to make it make sense for the other party as well. Otherwise, you're not gonna get their full buy in and their best work, and it's not gonna feel good, and you're not gonna wanna talk about it together on a podcast because you'll be, like, "I'm never gonna talk about that in real life ever again." So that's kind of how it came to be. And I also just realized that, as I said before, there's big opportunities that you're pursuing. There's smaller opportunities that you're pursuing in the meantime.

Chelsie Tamms [00:30:26]:
There's all different levels of things, and sometimes it just doesn't make sense to work with your dream clients. The budget's not there. The opportunity is not there. So this is my creative way of making some of those opportunities happen a little bit quicker. And, essentially, how the artist trade program works is that artists apply for a trade and let me know which of my services they might be interested in, whether that's a course or consulting or brand design, and then they tell me what they'd like to offer in return. And I accept these on a rolling basis. I also pursue specific trades and reach out to people if there's something that I need in my business or personal life, and I think they could benefit from what I have to offer.

Chelsie Tamms [00:31:05]:
I completed 10 successful trades in 2023, which was very exciting and just a huge boost to what I got out of my business last year. Last year was my largest revenue year in general, but I also had all of these trades on top of it where I just got really cool artwork. So I got all different things, a couple of original paintings, another original digital illustration. I got a hand embroidered piece that's really beautiful and sits in my bedroom, so I get to wake up and look at it every day, which just makes me happy that I got to support an artist in their business and journey, and then I got a really cool thing in return. I've traded for photography, for videography, all different things. I've also gotten gift cards to restaurants before that I love. And there's just been so many fun things that increase my personal happiness that have come as a result of leveraging and valuing my skill set and connecting those dots.

Chelsie Tamms [00:32:00]:
So that's the premise of the program. That's the hope is to just connect with what I need and get it more creatively and quicker than I could if I had to wait till I reached a certain revenue mark to be able to pay myself that personally, to feel comfortable. All of those things get kinda muddy. So just streamline it. Try to connect: I want this art. They want this support. If it makes sense, we do it.

Chelsie Tamms [00:32:23]:
And I also wanna say that it's possible because I pursued some of the bigger things and because I have some of the other wholesale and client work supporting my business and that idea of fewer, better things coming into play where I try to say no to the opportunities that aren't right for me to make space for these dream opportunities that might not financially pay off as well, but emotionally and mentally have lots of benefits and excitement for me.

Amelia Hruby [00:32:48]:
I obviously love this so much, and I wanna talk a little bit about the trade that we did this spring that listeners were kind of a part of, even though they may not have realized it, but here we are telling you all about it. And it actually started with you approaching me about a trade. So could you kinda kick us off in the story of this and tell me how did our trade start for you and what made you decide to reach out? And then tell listeners how you reached out, etcetera.

Chelsie Tamms [00:33:15]:
Happy to share. So like I said with trades, a lot of times people come to me, and they need something specific. And sometimes I don't need what they're offering or vice versa if I'm reaching out to someone. But I reached out to you, Amelia, with the goal of getting some advertising space on this podcast. And a lot of the motivation behind that came from wanting to get more involved in the communities that are feeling most supportive and exciting to me and also wanting to just work with the people that I think are cool, that I'm business friends with, that I enjoy being in community with. How can we be more in community? How can we do more together? Because I'm already happily, naturally sharing your work. So how can we take that to the next level?

Chelsie Tamms [00:33:59]:
So my pitch to you was essentially, can I do some cool custom merchandise design for you in exchange for some advertising space? Because this excites me, and I hope it excites you. And I think that there could be an opportunity here because we're in these other communities, and I know more about your business and what you care about and what you're doing. I saw an opportunity where maybe my services could fit in. I also wanna share with that that I wanna do more custom merchandise and branding work. So looking for who in my community that I already love and wanna shout out what they're doing, can I maybe offer that to you in exchange for something that they have of value? And I really see trades as an opportunity to see value in each other outside of just the traditional capitalistic financial aspect, and I think that that's what's really beautiful about adding this and prioritizing this like any regular project.

Chelsie Tamms [00:34:52]:
So that was my motivation for reaching out. And at the same time, I was working on a collection of this digital wellness therapy inspired sticker collection that was kinda sitting in the back of my mind, and I wasn't actually making a ton of progress on it. And so I was kinda can I get another project to kinda kick start the momentum, work on my personal stuff alongside this? I love lining some of those things up because once I get in that flow, I'm able to work on multiple projects at a time if I have them in the same stage.

Chelsie Tamms [00:35:23]:
So there was, like, totally selfish motivations for reaching out and being, like, this is the right project to do alongside this other personal work that I'm kinda dragging my feet on. So that's a little bit that you may know a little bit about from me reaching out, but is a little bit of the hidden story there of this makes sense to me. And that goes back to, like, why are we doing trades and collaborations? Like, it benefits me.

Chelsie Tamms [00:35:46]:
But, also, I can't just say it would benefit me if I could design this for you. I need to make it make sense for you as well, and that's where it kinda blossomed into a bigger thing than just the two stickers that we created as a collaboration. But I created 18 other designs. And when I say 18 other designs, I usually do batches of 10. So I doubled my output because I had so much motivation and excitement from our collaboration. And that's how it really benefited me in a way that it doesn't matter if this project is as financially beneficial. It led to other things and more creativity, which was a really beautiful thing for me.

Amelia Hruby [00:36:23]:
Oh, I love hearing more of your behind the scenes on this. So from my perspective, I got this email from you that was like, "You're great. Let's do a trade!" That's not exactly what it said, but that's what it said in my brain. And when I got the email, I was like, obviously, I know Chelsie's a fantastic designer. We had collaborated on a sticker in the past, which I loved, and still have some of those stickers and send them to clients when new clients sign at Softer Sounds. And I was like, "Okay. These are some things I could imagine."

Amelia Hruby [00:36:52]:
And so we got on a call and we talked about a lot of different options. In addition to Off the Grid merchandising, we kinda talked through all these different things, and we also talked about what would the trade be. Because you don't really wanna start a podcast, so it wasn't gonna be podcast related, but Off the Grid ad space made a lot of sense to bring your branding work as well as your free branding challenge to Off the Grid listeners.

Amelia Hruby [00:37:16]:
And I think what worked really well about that trade is that we were trading things that had monetary value. Each of us could kind of say, this is what it would cost to do this. And I think we both were clear on it doesn't need to be, like, dollar for dollar aligned, but this will get us in the ballpark of equivalent value for what we're exchanging. We're just using those dollar amounts as a proxy for how do we make sure this feels mutually beneficial in that way? Which made it easier for me to be like, "Yeah, cool. This feels easy. Let's do it." Even though, you know, Off the Grid merchandise or stickers was not on my list of things I had in mind to do this spring necessarily or, like, at all.

Chelsie Tamms [00:38:00]:
And I think that's where trades can be really beautiful because I think there's an opportunity there or everyone could use custom merchandise. Is it the right time for everyone? Absolutely not. Could something like this expedite that process and get us working together and collaborating? Yes. And I think it was also really beautiful that we had these clear expectations. I always like to treat trades just as I would any other fully paid project. So being super clear about that is always helpful. And I also say too, if you're not willing to do the paperwork for a trade, you probably shouldn't do the trade. And it's a barrier.

Chelsie Tamms [00:38:35]:
I think it's an intentional barrier because if you're not willing to negotiate and make sure everyone feels good going into it, don't start doing the actual work. Would I rather do a custom design than create a contract for a trade? Absolutely. But I don't wanna get too far ahead of myself and create the work and then realize, "Oh, Amelia wasn't actually into doing this. I already created the design. Now I feel like I wasted my time or vice versa." So that part of the process is so, so necessary to make sure you're on the same page.

Chelsie Tamms [00:39:05]:
And I think going back to that idea of fewer better things, I already knew that there was an opportunity for us to collaborate via this conversation. So I'm like, how do I put more into this? How is this my favorite podcast feature of the year? How do I build out something really beautiful alongside it and really go all in on it versus just showing up for an interview, sharing it with my audience. But I want for this to be a bigger thing, for this to be a key highlight of my year.

Chelsie Tamms [00:39:32]:
And going back to that journaling, I saw that as a pattern of I'm excited for this interview. I'm excited to have this conversation. I'm excited create this merchandise. I'm excited to create this whole collection. And so I was able to build it into a much bigger thing. And for me, it's not about the financial aspect. It's about the opportunity of building this community as we've been talking about and growing with this generosity of what can I give you to connect ourselves better, to be better in community and to kind of also thank you for allowing me to be part of your community and having all these positive experiences? I want that to be a bigger part. I wanna I want to make myself buy into it more so it does become a bigger part of my business by community, and I see results from that.

Chelsie Tamms [00:40:18]:
And I'm also very much a person who fully commits to things. I don't want to put half effort towards something. Like, if I'm doing it, I'm doing it. And this was just a beautiful opportunity for me to really go into that. And I so appreciate that you were so open to it and that you were so willing to reciprocate that generosity and, like you said, just combining our different resources to make something really fun happen that we just both feel good about, I think, from our conversations we've had. This is just a fun highlight, and why not carve out space in your business to have a fun highlight? It doesn't need to be the most financially profitable thing. There's other areas of profitability that you can see great results in.

Amelia Hruby [00:41:02]:
One thing that's important here is that this collaboration and how much you put into it and it being a highlight of your year is built on like four years of knowing each other and having been in community. Right? Because if I didn't know you and you reached out to me and you were like, "I wanna do a trade!" That's actually a big ask of me to make the time to talk to you, make the time to figure it out, trust you to actually do the thing. All of that is a lot of work. But because we knew each other, it didn't feel like a lot at all. I didn't have to do all this energy of building trust. We have built the trust, and that made this something we could both then invest in. Because you've invested a lot, both in the merchandising and preparing for this interview and all the ways I know you're planning to share it and I really appreciate that. It does then also support my experience of doing and sharing this. It supports listeners because they can get these really cool supports listeners because they can get these really cool stickers now.

Amelia Hruby [00:42:09]:
And so I think that it's just this really beautiful flow and I just wanted to point to the fact that it does come out of years of relationship building. And I think that so often in business and frankly just in friendship, people want it to just click and be totally and mutually invested and all in together right away. And I just don't think life tends to work that way. Maybe it's because I'm a Capricorn rising, I'm Saturn ruled, everything moves slowly for me. But I just think that letting this grow over time has been really beautiful to me, and I think just makes it a richer collaboration overall.

Chelsie Tamms [00:42:39]:
Yeah, absolutely. And I love the idea of doing the right thing, not the urgent thing. So this just really felt like choosing something very intentionally and choosing to make time for it to make it more meaningful versus just taking an interview, doing this, and just letting life happen to you and business happen to you. How do you carve out a piece of your time and your energy to be proactive in building your dream? And that's something that's always been at the forefront of my business and I think contributed to that success and that happy feeling is, it's not all about the money. It's not all about what a lot of other people see in their jobs.

Chelsie Tamms [00:43:17]:
I don't have the same perks as other people, but I need to make some of my own perks. And being able to offer something like the Artist Trade Program, occasionally gift designs to small businesses that I love and support, is one of the perks of my job and my business. And so I think I would be doing a disservice to myself if I didn't continue to make the time for something like that, that makes me so fulfilled and happy.

Amelia Hruby [00:43:41]:
Oh, what a gift. It's also, it's long term thinking. Again, you're investing in relationships and maybe you don't see a financial payoff from that right away, but as we've built our relationship, you've become one of my go to referrals for people who need podcast art, and we had a mutual friend who had their podcast art made by you. Shout out to Mel McSherry. And so it just all builds and we made a contract for this specific trade and what would happen here, but we can't anticipate all the things that will come from it.

Amelia Hruby [00:44:15]:
So for listeners tuning in, Chelsie has created a collection of stickers that you just heard her mention, these like 18 amazing designs all around digital wellness And they're so cool and I really, really love them, like the Grow with Generosity one and the Social Media Free one, of course. And Your Attention is Sacred, which is a subject line on one of my nurture sequence emails. I love it so much. Chelsie has made these designs, and there's a link in the show notes where you can go to purchase any of them as stickers. And we also have a limited quantity of some amazing exclusive Off the Grid branded stickers. So Chelsea did a hand lettered version of the Off the Grid logo slash name and another really fun let's go Off the Grid sticker that kinda brings in some of our theme song lyrics.

Amelia Hruby [00:45:13]:
So if you order from her shop soon, then you will receive those stickers with your order as a additional perk. Again, there's a limited quantity so you gotta get in there now. But if you're one of the first few people to order, we'll add those in so you can have some special Off the Grid stickers along with your amazing beautiful digital wellness stickers. So Chelsie as my part of our trade, we have shared some ads about your services on Off the Grid this season. We did an ad about your custom branding services that folks could hear in the middle of our episode with Jay Acunzo. We also did some dynamic ads advertising your free five day brand challenge, and all of that will be linked in the show notes as well. I'm curious as we wrap up, just what are the places that people can find you, and how can they work with you in this season or year?

Chelsie Tamms [00:46:09]:
Happy to share. So I'm in the process of getting off of social media, meaning I still have a presence there. So I'm on Instagram as Lettering Works and then also pretty active on LinkedIn just under my name, so Chelsie Tamms. And I also do a monthly business journal update that I send out through email so you can get on that. I would recommend signing up for the five day brand challenge. You'll automatically get added to that once a month. Update email after you go through that challenge. I like to share just all my different wins from each month in email and blog form. I find that it's helpful for me to process all of those things and enjoy the process of being a business owner, but also share some insights to my journey. So you can also find that just on my website, which is letteringworks.com.

Amelia Hruby [00:46:58]:
And, what's like a dream project or two you're looking for right now? I wonder if anyone in the community might have some work or a lead for you.

Chelsie Tamms [00:47:08]:
Love that question. I think the biggest thing I'm looking for right now is branding work. I like to say I work almost exclusively with artists and creatives, but my definition of artists and creatives is pretty broad. I think almost all small business owners are artists in their own craft and specific passion. And I really see myself as somebody who translates what you're really good at doing in your space. Let's translate that energy, excitement, and passion to a brand that represents that same quality and level of work. So if you are somebody who is passionate about whatever it is that you do and you take kind of a creative or artistic approach to what it is that you love, I would love to help translate that into visuals that make you really proud to put your business and yourself out into the world.

Amelia Hruby [00:47:52]:
Alright. All of our creatives and artists out there and business owners and everyone listening. Chelsie wants to work with you. We love it. Thank you so much, Chelsie, for joining me for this amazing conversation. Thank you, listeners, for tuning in. It is truly just an honor to grow through generosity and collaboration with you, Chelsie, and with everyone listening. And I'm just really grateful that you're here. So thank you yet again. And until next time, we will see you off the grid and on the Interweb.

Amelia Hruby [00:49:02]:
Thanks for listening to Off the Grid. Don't forget to grab your free Leaving Social Media Toolkit at offthegrid.fun/toolkit. This podcast is a Softer Sounds production. Our music is by Melissa Kaitlyn Carter of Making Audio Magic, and our logo is by n'Atelier Studio. I'm your host, Amelia Hruby, and until next time, I'll see you off the grid and on the Interweb.