GabbieA.com || Creative design for creatives and makers

Why I stop giving a F about how much others are making

2019

I stop giving a rat ass when someone VERY close to me started booking clients left and right. I was happy for them they were WAY over there heads. I mean tons and I kept doing my own thing and still am. But I really sat down and thought about the things they said they were doing to me that seemed WAY to work for something that wasn’t something I wanted to do. SO in other words.. there was no need to copy their business plan.

I know its hard because we see people post all these amazing vacation pictures and houses and cars and designer clothing and etc. BUT You can get that stuff on your own. I mean you can. I’ve stayed at a $358 dollar a night hotel at one of San Francisco’s coolest hotels and took the photo of my room and posted it on FaceBook and really didn’t even care if I got comments. I went on with my day. I went and did some shopping and ordered Japenese food and went back to my hotel and enjoyed the rest of my night before I flew out to Canada and spent a month in the beautiful Alberta.

You could be using this energy to work on a course or even trying to update your copy maybe hiring a designer to fix your site or even a mentor so you can reach your goals. The REASON for this post is I WANT PEOPLE especially brand new and season business owners to look past the money others are making and reach your goals.

What information should my business card have?

2019

Your business card should have 3 main things:

Your branding in this case ( In the example Missevilkitty’s logo ) and the link to your site and how people can get a hold of you in this case an email address. I don’t always recommend adding your phone number because if you make say jewelry and you make custom items theres a good chance people will call you for a few things:

#1 To complain your not answering your DM, convos ( if your on etsy) or your messages on your FB page.

#2 to ask questions how you make the thing you sell.

#3 Call at random times. Do you want calls at 3am?

Social Media is a double edge sword

2019

I think as women AND some dudes out there we tend to go on social media and we see other women/men looking “hot” with the perfect family and etc and sometimes we get so hung up on the idea that we need to do that. There’s this thing called ” Stock photos” meaning someone put all these cute things together and took a picture of it and is actually selling the said photo. Be the rebel you are, if you want to get professional photos taken and you want to wear that black tutu with converses Or wear your tee that looks like a tux go for it. .. girl/dude you rock the shit out of it and if you happen to have purple hair EVEN better. The crappy about is things like apps and photoshop make all this look better. Not everything online is worth copying.

So there’s a thing called lies and as I mentioned above some not ALL tend to fall for this. It’s mostly people who have low self-esteem and guys that come down to a lot of things. I’ve seen and read things online about how people have these huge following on IG and FB and all for them to stress out about looking perfect and etc. There’s NO need to stress. Your mental health is far more important than worrying over some photo and likes. In a few years, this shit won’t matter. You will look back and laugh at how much of a ” dumb-ass” you were for actually giving a shit about something so small. Many people would argue that it’s a sponsored post and you were getting paid tons of money. Will, is this your own form of you paying your bills? Because if it is you need to rethink your life. If this is a side gig OK cool but remembers looks fade just like trends.

Lies EVERYONE knows but tends to look the other way. Wishing they lived this perfect life.

Always looking flawless. GIRL/dude apps do this.
Making it seem you’re always at the gym.
Always looking cute/hot. /Rolls eyes
Making it seem you’re always at some important event.
Oversharing EVERYTHING.
Only showing the positive part of being a business owner. WHY DO THIS?

AND THE BIG ONE: Telling people you’re making a certain out of money when in reality you’re not even breaking even. This is the sad reality about people online. Its all about making yourself look good and etc BUT whatever happened to just being you?

I know what your thinking… Gabbie aren’t you being a little harsh and a hater. FUCK yeah. I’m almost 36 and I’m over this shit. Like pods from the 90s. ( SHOUT OUT TO MY FELLOW 90S kids) . But in all seriousness be yourself .. be the real you and own it .. I mean REALLY own it.

Remember its not high school anymore you don’t need to fit in.

PS. I was sitting here going ” I need to start a podcast one day “:D What do you think should I ? or maybe have someone interview me on their podcast?

Why self-care is important for business owners.

2019

Self-care and being a business owner should be a combination all business owners should keep near to their hearts. NOT many people do it because .. to some it wastes time and you know what that’s bull shit. Let’s be blunt here. NO one takes the time to do it. So many of us sit here in front of our phones or computers and maybe drink that Starbucks latte because it’s the thing to do. BUT how many people raise your hand if you take the time to go for a walk or read a book that’s HAS NOTHING to do with business or go cook you’re breakfast or lunch or even you’re dinner? How many of us actually sit down and meditate before we start our day. ( Raises hand) How many of us actually sit down and journal about our week or our goals or better yet, how we are feeling? ( Raises hand) Running a business takes a total on the body and at times our mental health. So many brush this off because “ We need to look cool Instagram and we need to show off that new designer handbag or take a picture of us being in Bali because again we need to look cool online. To show that we have made it. That we are making over a 1 million a year. The sad thing is a whole generation is stereotyped because.. will we do this. NOW I barely post I’m at Starbucks on my profile on Instagram or Twitter. If I do it’s on my personal account to post a mini-review of a new drink and about 100% of the time my BFF asks how it is. BUT other than that I can’t and many others are defined by this stereotype.

You’re an adult. No one’s going to give a rats ass you had 100K+ Instagram fans back when you were 22 when you’re in a retirement home .

Are people going to care? HELL NO.

I’m being brutal I know but let’s be 100% honest here. You are on this planet for a short time. Take time to travel, to learn from your experiences and take time to heal any Bull shit from you’re past. Your business is another chapter of your life. Give it a few hours each day and take care of yourself first.

Living with a Chronic Illness and running a business.

2019

Living with a Chronic Illness and running a business isn’t for the faint of heart. It gets ugly because sometimes your body says ” Stay in bed its warm here” Yet your mind and your heart say ” Hey get up we have calls today and client proposals to send out” Living with an Autoimmune Disease or Chronic Illness isn’t fun. Here is my story and thank you for reading it.

March 2004–

I was waking up really early at about 3 am in the morning with my knee hurting. It got to the point where my mom was noticing that I was getting up and I told her one morning” My knee hurts mom”. I think she made a doctor’s appointment for me and I had blood work done and only to find out that my ANA ( test is used as a primary test to help evaluate a person for autoimmune disorders) was really high and that I was borderline with it being LUPUS or systemic lupus erythematosus. (SLE is your immune system attacks healthy tissue in your body or the major organs… It attacked my kidneys). I went home and pretty much didn’t do much about. I was sick at the time with a cough and looking back that might have been the breaking point.

April 2004–

I started to gain weight, I had my mom take me to the hospital they didn’t find anything.. they pretty much said: ” I was probably going to start my period reason for the bloating”. Yeah not cool huh. A few weeks later I was at work and out of nowhere I ended up throwing up and one of the girls at work said ” Gabbie you should go home” I called my mom and said I don’t feel good. I told her pretty much crying and frustrated that something wasn’t right. She said Yeah your right. We head to the hospital and I remember waiting in the waiting room. At this point, my sides were hurting and I had problems walking. Once I was called they ran tests and a while later the doctor came in and said ” You should be here because of your insurance” YAY for living in the UNITED STATES .not to get political in any way but the insurance I had at the time was new in the area and you had to go to certain hospitals if you had that insurance.BUT they still treated me and I was sent to a specialist a nephrologist. ( nephrologist is a doctor that works with patients with kidney issues).

May 2004–

Early May 2004 went by fast tons of blood and urine tests. At this point, I just wanted to feel better. I got diagnosed with Lupus Nephritis. I also had to get a kidney biopsy and that wasn’t fun.I was put on oral chemo to stop my body from doing more damage to my kidneys and I hoped for the best. I had a denial stage, it lasted for a week and I remember hating the pity party that followed. I HATED it. All I wanted was to get better and really just sleep. The crazy thing is May is Lupus awareness month. It still boggles my mind that I got diagnosed officially in May.

2019 30 something-year-old Gabbie–

I treat each day as a new chapter in my life. I take each day at a time and while my body might be having a war on its own. I can’t let it stop me from living a somewhat normal life right? Some days during early fall I start feeling pain due to the weather changing. My knees start hurting and so do my bones. It’s part of my life and yeah it might “suck” but I’m very fortunate that I’m able to walk and get up every day and still manage to see life in a very optimistic way. I wouldn’t call myself wonder women because I’ve been to hell and back as the saying goes. I got battle scars and this is my story. I hope others find a balance with their Chronic Illness and make their dreams a reality.

4 of my biggest struggles running a 10+ year old business

2019

Every online business owner is different we ALL have struggles and like also in the real world sometimes things don’t go to plan. We tend to overthink everything here are a few examples:

Knowing when to say NO to clients who expect me to DO EVERYTHING. When you decide to hire me, I hope you read the service page and read what the service you want includes. If there’s an option of adding on make sure its the RIGHT thing to add to your site. I WANT my clients to be 100% honest with me from the get-go. We both need to be on the same page and you need to trust me that I know how to do my job. NO need to micromanage me or any other designer.

NOT being on the same page as my client. Again same thing I mentioned on #1. As a designer, I want you, my client, to be happy BUT you also need to make sure that we both know what you need. Last minute add ons take time and not everything can be done in an hour.

Showing up even if I’m sick, or in my case, my Lupus flares up: This is something that I DEAL with every single day of my life since I was twenty years old. I can’t turn it off and put on a happy smile when my body is literally having world world two. While I want to stay in bed and bundle up with my throw blanket and stay to keep positive.

Trying to be the problem SOLVER for everything that the client wants. Some things I can’t do, and going back to #1 my services are there to get you started with your website. I want you to get your foot out the door or in some cases I want you to look professional and also not waste both our times. A small number of my clients have tried to make me add their PayPal account information and even set up their mail chimp. Also if that’s something you need, tell me beforehand so I can add that to the quote.

These might be very minor to a lot of people and they are. I think one of my biggest rewards is seeing the final product and the client saying ” Gabbie it looks awesome”,

Making Passive Income Blogging course review

2019

This post has an Affiliate link.

A few years ago I was blogging and reviewing food and even chocolate and I decided I need to up my game. I got the Blogging Course – Making Passive Income Blogging

I haven’t been much of a blogger but like I said I decided I needed to up my game.

The Run Down=

The course will take about an hour or so It doesn’t use too many techy words. It starts with an intro about the course creator Layne Design Studio so you can meet her and get to know how she got into blogging and how she made it her side gig.

” I still love blogging and I started a blog called Las Vegas Fit Mom, that follows my fitness journey. My blog has became my creative outlet. This is where I share healthy recipes, help promote my direct sales company, give fitness tips, and show my love for living in the desert. “

What you will learn=

How to create a blog of your own (if you don’t have one already)
What to name your blog to help you be most successful
How to make passive income from your blog.
How to create content to attract your ideal customer and reader
How to keep using that content to recycle it for social media
How to use social media to bring in new readers
How to use search engines to drive traffic to your blog
Using Pinterest to drive traffic to your site and bring in sales
How to promote your services/products through your blog
How to give more value on social media and your blog

I think this is a good amount of things you need to get your feet wet or to inspire you to start blogging more.

The added bonus there’s a FB group. It’s worth the investment. Overall I give it a 10/10. It’s a good way to get your feet went and do as a side gig.

You can fin the course here Blogging Course – Making Passive Income Blogging