Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Empowered Wednesday: Nerdy Post

Welcome back to another Empowered Wednesday everyone! I hope you all are enjoying these weekly features as I am, and if I haven't said it before, if you know anyone who is an Author, Content Creator, Blogger, Bookstagrammer or Influencer, be sure to send them to these features if they are interested in joining this large group I've curated! Now on to today's feature! I've had the pleasure to talk with this shop owner and creator and every single time I received her items, I'm always in awe of what she produces! So with that being said, let's get started!!


Q: Can you tell our readers about yourself and what you do?
A: I'm Alexis. I run a subscription box focused on hand lettered and illustrated artwork centering around a specific fandom theme each month. It's called Nerdy Post. I'm a hand letterer. I do most of the artwork for the box myself, but we do feature other artists and letterers when we can. 

Q: How did you first get into creating designs for your box and when did you decide to take the leap and go for it?
A: I've been lettering all my life, but didn't realize it was its own thing until maybe 7 years ago. Then I started to toy with learning and practicing lettering and actually taking it seriously. I opened an Etsy shop for some of my work maybe five years ago. I can't remember exactly how long ago, as I quickly realized that I wasn't very good at self promoting! So Etsy was really hard for me. It wasn't until after I had my daughter and quit my full time job designing in multimedia for a local resort casino that my husband planted the seed of the subscription box and then as soon as we realized we could afford to do it, I ran with it. My daughter was back in daycare after only three or four months of me quitting to stay home with her haha oops!

Q: What would be your ideal working environment?
A: I love my work environment currently. I work from home, surrounded by artwork, books, and fandom merch. I listen to audiobooks or binge watch TV shows as I design, and I work hours that work and balance best with my ADD and my family. No one holds me accountable but me and because of that I work harder than I ever did in a corporate job with bosses looking over my shoulder. It's an insane amount of work I put in sometimes, but I love it.

Q: Kiss, Kill and Marry: (Uncle Jesse from Full House, Jake Ryan from Sixteen Candles, and Jess Mariano from Gilmore Girls)
A: I only really know of Jess from Gilmore Girls and since he's now on This is Us (and has the same long hairstyle as my husband haha) I say Marry. The other two are interchangeable I guess.  

Q: Who or what inspired you to do what you are doing now?
A: I had always been amazed by the book boxes like Owlcrate, and thought how I would love to do that but keeping up with all the suppliers and constantly thinking months ahead seemed impossible to me. So my goal was to just get my artwork featured in them. But then The Bookish Box wanted a bookmark from me and my husband started doing the math after we found a printer we liked for that box and realized we could afford to do our own boxes and, like I said, we just dove in after that.

Q: How would you describe your style with creating these amazing designs?
A: I consider myself a bit of a chameleon when it comes to style. I do certainly have an affinity for flourishes and piecing together longer quotes in interesting ways, but generally I find a lettering style I love and try to incorporate it when the style matches the theme, and I can pull from a lot of different styles so that on some levels it feels like a lot more artists are involved than there are. At least, I hope that's how it comes off. You can definitely get a vibe for things I do vs others, but I can't actually pinpoint what it is exactly. 

Q: What is one thing you wish you knew starting out with creating your subscription services or something you could have told your past self?
A: I wish I had known how much work I could do with my skill long before I did. My career could be so much bigger at this point had I known. So many more hours of practice I would have under my belt at this point. 

Q: What do you do in your spare time?
A: HAHA spare time. *sobs* I wish I had some. But seriously. The snippets of time I'm not working are either spent sleeping, reading, or hanging with my family.

Q: How much time do you spend creating and curating your boxes and is it a hobby or job?
A: on average... probably 12 hours a day counting both design time and time spent doing the creative stuff for social media. It's a passion. So it's somewhere in between. It never feels like a drag how "work" often feels, but it can definitely drag you down past it being just something for fun. Mainly due to the time spent on it.

Q: How do you motivate yourself to keep the designs and shop going?
A: It's our only source of income at this point, so... if I want to stay in this house and feed my family and keep our house cool enough to survive the Mississippi summers and still have a little bit left over to buy sub boxes or books, then I gotta work and hit my deadlines!

i can't lol GIF by WGN Morning NewsQ: What do you find the most frustrating and/or challenging aspect of designing and curating your boxes?
A: Balancing work and life. The creating part is easy. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so slow a designer because I'd have more time if that was the case but it basically boils down to having enough time for things outside of working. That balance is tough.

Q: Can you name some of your favourite shops and explain why they’re your favourite?
A: oh, man. This is tough because I work with so many great artists and other sub boxes. Also I tend to be pretty neutral since I work with them all and enjoy them all for different reasons, so I'm actually rather hesitant to answer this! If they are featured in my box it's because I love what they do. And if I'm subscribed to their box, it means I love what *they* do! Haha that's about all you're going to be able to get from me. *Sneaky Sneaky!*

Q: What would be your go to meal, outing and Starbucks/Tim Horton’s Drink
A: My go to meal? Probably a Newk's Caesar Salad or Sandwich. I'm slightly obsessed with that place. Outing? Bookstore with the kid. Every time. And the only thing I drink at Starbucks is that hibiscus tea stuff. I don't like coffee so... yes. I know. I'm a monster haha

Q: If you were stuck on an Island what would be the three things you would want with you?
A: my TBR pile. Can that count as one? Let's just pretend it does haha ... a camera. Because I can't see a pretty thing without taking a photo ... and probably chips. Because I live off of chips. Like 90% of my diet is just snacking on chips. I'm exaggerating. But not by much haha

Q: What sort of advice can you give to anyone out there that’s thinking about starting as a designer or shop owner? 
A: Yikes. Ummmm... OH! Build an audience first. I know that sounds weird, but I attribute a good deal of the success of our box at the start to the fact that I had two large followings in place before we ever sent out a box. I established myself on IG and made a lot of great friends who helped us so much by getting the word out. I mean, IG was much better for that before Facebook came in, so I'm sure it's harder now. But I stand by that. You gotta have an audience who likes what you do before you start selling anything to them.


Here's Where You Can Find Alexis!

That's all for this week's Empowered Wednesday's! I hope you enjoyed this new feature! Check back here next week where a brand new creator will be featured on the blog!!

So until the next time, Keep Reading!

Your Graduated Bookworm!! :)

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